#or does it change it at all? does it have any impact at all on how jonas sees him?

[dcafanzine]

May Update

Helllllooooo everyone!  Sun and Moon and the Fanzine crew have been quietly working away here at Glitches and Glitterglue HQ but it’s about time you lovely people had an update! I think Moon is ready for a break after being worked so hard, but Sun will not accept anything less than perfect for you all!

Well, we are well on our way! We’ve now ironed out the last wrinkles with all our production companies and we’re super excited to share the results of our labour! We are just awaiting final proofs for the last changes on a couple of items and to give the green light to produce the goods.

Our next steps will be receiving the goods, boxing up and dispatching in waves! We cannot express how excited are to be so close to the finish line and have these bundles in your hands.

A few of you have been asking about tariffs and what these will be impacting. The tariffs (from our understanding and research) would mostly affect items being imported to the US, the zines and merch coming directly to our shipping team from manufacturers from overseas. We are planning on our US items being shipped to backers from within the US and many of our international items being shipped from the UK, with a few exceptions. This was always our plan to both help split the load for our team and this should also help with tariff issues should there be further problems and fees trickling through the shipping systems.

The honest answer is we’re charting uncertain waters with this but to our current understanding, this shouldn’t impact you but may slightly increase the waiting times for things to arrive with us. Should there be any need for further guidance, we will let you all know via update.

Sneak Peeks! Aren't they amazing?  Some snippets of works you have to look forward to from the talented RAVLIKSBLOG, LYCANKEYY and ELDRITCH-BEETLE!

Annnnd here’s an updated timeline! 

Updated Fazwatch Timeline

What's happening next?  Here's the up to date estimated outline as of May 2025!

There were some small issues that have been resolved with our manufacturers, but after reviewing and finalizing proofs, items are in production!

We expect to begin receiving some items in the next few weeks and into June.  Here is the updated timeline reflecting the delay.

February-March 2025: Funds Received & Items Ordered! We have received the funds from Kickstarter and are in the process of finalizing our order details and sending all of the amazing art to our manufacturers. Proof and Production times can vary, but we will send updates to backers as details are finalized and items go into production.

April-May 2025: Proofs Reviewed, Revised, & Approved. Printing and Manufacturing is underway! Proofs received from manufacturers and our team has reviewed everything for quality and accuracy. This process can go back and forth multiple times. With the final approval of the art, the manufacturers will begin production!

June 2025: We will send out Backer Surveys to confirm everyone's shipping details. We are planning on surveys being sent out in June, but will send an update prior to sending and to remind backers to look for them once they are sent. 

Mid June-July 2025 (estimated): Items arrive and fulfilment begins!  

July-Sept of 2025 (estimated): Packages are Shipped & Digital Rewards are Sent! Once we have confirmed where everything needs to be shipped, we will begin to send out packages in waves. This does mean that everyone's packages will not arrive around the same time, but this in unavoidable with how many of you there are!  It will be during this time we plan to send out the digital rewards.

More detailed information on digital reward fulfilment will be coming in a future update.

These are estimated dates that we’ll be able to further refine as we get farther along in the process. These may change depending on manufacturing, and other factors we have done our best to plan for.

Thank you all for your patience and I’m sure you’ll hear more good news from us soon!

[kannouo]

Feeling Faint

fandom: obey me pairing: demon brothers x gn!reader warnings: drug mention in satan's part, emetophobia in asmo's part summary: the brothers reacting to an mc with low blood pressure and hypermobility. prompt by anon: hihi! would you write obey me brothers headcannons where the mc has medical issues-but in the sense where they'll be like "oh yeah im gonna pass out rq give me a minute" after standing up, and like hypermobility so they just over extend their joints unknowingly and its more likely to break? just a stupid idea i thought of bcuz clearly if it concerns some humans it would freak out demons A/N: ofc I can do that — to add to the hcs, i went with the idea that the medical issues are caused by low blood pressure and added some other symptoms. i kept the hypermobility and did a bit of research but i didnt go too in-depth in these hcs for fear of getting anything wrong. i dont struggle with either of these things personally and am in no way an expert, if i did anything seriously wrong please let me know!!

LUCIFER

• ...Concerned.

• So, Demons are by no means impervious to illness. But the types of conditions that plague demonkind are much different to what humans experience. A human cold would have no effect on a demon, but a demon cold could outright kill a human — to impact their immune systems, the illness has to be a particularly strong one, you see. Due to this, I imagine none of the brothers have much experience with how truly fragile human bodies can be.

• In preparation for the exchange program, Lucifer had, of course, changed a lot of things around the House of Lamentation to be more human-friendly. He did his research, too. Plants that are harmless to demons but extremely toxic to humans were removed. The literally boiling temperatures that the water in the house could get to was taken care of. He made sure that all food stocked in the fridge and cabinets was safe for human consumption. The entire place was essentially baby-proofed to guarantee as little injury as possible.

• What he didn't predict or account for was that your own body could be working against you.

• The first time you stand up too fast and nearly collapse, he assumes you've fallen ill and asks you repeatedly to give him a rundown of everything you've eaten and everywhere you've been just to make sure he didn't accidentally leave some kind of cursed item out. Is so confused when you explain to him that this isn't a temporary affliction, and it's just something you deal with all the time.

• Not sure if he initially believes you when you tell him it isn't a big deal.

• He obviously does his research and calms himself down. Learns it isn't life-threatening and takes care to note down any treatment options you might need.

• That, and he's surprisingly calm about your hypermobility. If he sees you over-extending your joints without even realising, he points it out quickly and tells you to stop. "I know it feels normal, but it isn't."

• Predictably a stickler about if you're doing strengthening exercises or taking medication if you need any. Every morning, whether you took your medicine or did the necessary exercises is the first thing he asks you, and he cannot be lied to. If you don't set an alarm, he'll be your alarm.

"Good morning, MC." You nearly jump right out of your skin hearing Lucifer's voice as soon as you turned to close your bedroom door. You spin around, but before you can ask how he just appeared without making a sound, he continues, "did you finish your stretches?" You look at him. He looks right back at you. After a beat too long of silence, he sighs and gestures to your bedroom. "Back inside. Do it properly." "Yes, sir."

MAMMON

• Another concerned guy, but... less knowledgeable. The first time you nearly stumbled to the ground out of nowhere he, for just the slightest of moments, thought you'd dropped dead for literally no reason. Scariest fucking millisecond of his life.

• Especially with your hypermobility, Mammon would somewhat struggle to wrap his head around the concept of something that can't just be cured. It can be treated, sure, but you can't get rid of it? Like at all?? I thought you guys had doctors in the human world???

"So you just... deal with this for the rest of your life?" "Mammon, it really isn't that big of a deal." You say, trying in vain to reassure him. He's been staring straight ahead with his elbows on his knees and hands clasped in front of his face for a few minutes now, and you're worried he's having some sort of crisis. "It doesn't even affect me that much in my day-to-day life. It's treatable." "But, like..." He sighs exasperatedly and places his head in his hands. "For the rest of your life, though?"

• Initial confusion aside, he never quite gets over the initial panic he feels whenever you become faint, dizzy or nauseous. No matter how chill you are about it, he makes sure to balance you out with pure blind panic.

• Not that he's any better with your habit of over-extending. Unlike Lucifer, who calmly and politely reminds you to relax your joints, Mammon will freak out at you and ask you how in the fuck that doesn't hurt and even be convinced you've broken something if you're extending far enough.

• On that note, if you do actually break something, he's probably the first one to know because of how he hovers around you 24/7. Expect to never be left alone ever again.

• He tries to remind you to do stretches or take your medicine, but the problem is that he forgets that stuff too. He'll bring it up on the rare occasion that he does remember and then pester you into doing it, raving on and on the whole time about how you're hopeless without him here to tell you what to do.

LEVIATHAN

• Like I said, demons don't really get conditions like this. Their bodies and immune systems don't function the way humans do. And that's lucky for him too because, if they did, this guy would be deficient in things we don't even have names for yet.

• But, he's a demon and therefore immune to these human ailments. LMAO sucks to be you.

• Levi is another one who has a panic response. The difference between him and Mammon is that he can logically understand that your conditions aren't life-changing and that they're easily treatable and that he doesn't have to worry, but the illogical part of his mind takes charge in situations where he experiences you feeling the effects of your medical issues.

• You can absolutely talk to him about your treatment plan and the way your low blood pressure and hypermobility impacts you without him freaking out about it. He listens and understands just fine. But then he actually sees you dealing with fatigue and headaches or with your elbow in a weird position and all logic goes flying out the window.

"Your arm's broken." You turn your head at the sound of Levi's voice. His eyes are wide, his entire body stiff in shock, but the way he said it was so matter-of-fact that for a moment you believed he must be right. You look down at your arm, elbow stretched a little too far forward to be normal. "Your arm's broken!" You fix your arm's position, but before you can inform Levi of the misunderstanding, he's already pacing around his room. "W—what do I do?! How'd you break your arm by sitting?! M—my medical dramas didn't prepare me for this...! Oh no, oh no, oh no, Lucifer's gonna kill me... W—wait, that's it! Karon, call Lucifer—!" "Levi stop, don't—"

• While you weren't hurt that day after all, you're about 70% sure that Levi's frantic phone call to Lucifer claiming that you'd broken a bone nearly gave him whatever the demon version of a heart attack is.

• Would really like to imagine himself as the sweet, romantic type who could catch you when you're about to collapse and carry you off to bed. The problem is, though he probably can catch you before you fall, he'll then realise with horror your close proximity and ends up dropping you to the ground in a fluster anyway. He's not built for the anime romance life.

SATAN

• I was going to reference the "chill guy" meme here but realised that Satan is the complete opposite of a Chill Guy.

• Still though, he is overall the most reasonable about this when he first learns about it.

• Also, unlike Levi, he is literally the protagonist of a romance manga. He will catch you in his arms before you fall, lovingly brush your hair out of your face and ask if you're hurt. He's just built different. And he practices this kind of shit in the mirror.

• He'll probably ask you about the specific kind of symptoms you experience. It's likely he's read some obscure book on human illnesses, so he has nothing but good intentions; he's asking to see if he can recall or look for anything written in those books that can serve as remedies. The only problem is that they aren't written by humans.

"I recall reading that fairy dust can be used to ease pain in human bodies, and even as a source of medication in the past." You give Satan a puzzled look. 'Fairy dust'? Used to ease pain, a source of medication?... There's no way he's referring to what you think he's referring to, right? You stare at him for a moment longer. He stares right back, returning your quizzical expression with his own, as if he didn't just say the most disorienting thing you've ever heard. "Like..." You start, tentatively lowering your voice. "...Drugs?" "What? No. Actual fairy dust. Are you insane?" You feel like that raises way more questions than drugs.

• That's not to say he's unwilling to learn. If you tell him his information is outdated or straight up inaccessible to humanity, he'll listen to your explanation of your treatment process and do more research in his own time.

• He will also frequently remind you to do your stretches and exercises and take any necessary medicine. If you have a routine for your exercises, he'll probably actually join you in them. He sits around reading all day, he probably needs it, his fucking back man.

• Like Lucifer, he will calmly but pointedly tell you to stop over-extending your joints when he catches you doing it.

ASMODEUS

• Also relatively normal about it because, out of all the brothers, he's had the most experience with humanity outside of sorcerers and witches. I don't think he's particularly knowledgeable about this sort of thing, but he is at least aware that it exists, and of the simple fact that the human body can be afflicted by many different things.

• You mention the hypermobility to him and he doesn't really... get it at first. "Oh, I'm flexible too! ♡" he says, then you nearly dislocate your shoulder in front of him and it finally clicks that this isn't cool or sexy. He understands eventually, don't worry.

• Maybe a hot take here but I honestly can't imagine Asmo as squeamish. So if your low blood pressure gives you an upset stomach, he has no problem holding your hair back as you throw up in the bathroom. He gets shitfaced drunk with his club friends every other night. It's probably nothing new to him.

• Asmo is a naturally very comforting presence when he wants to be. He has plenty of remedies for lightheaded-ness and pain relief that he's more than willing to share with you. That, and he's one for words of affirmation, so he turns to praising and reassuring you through the whole process.

"You poor thing. Humans really are fragile." Asmo coos, affectionately threading his fingers through your hair as you slowly sip the peppermint tea he prepared for you. "Hopefully you'll feel better by tonight. I would hate for you to lose out on your beauty sleep." "Sorry," you hoarse out, throat scratchy and raw. You feel disgusting, your stomach still spinning in circles and your body covered in a thin layer of sweat. He frowns at you. "Don't be silly. You didn't choose for this to happen, did you?" He kisses the top of your head and smiles. "Don't worry! Asmo's here to make you feel allll better."

• Joins you in doing your stretches/exercises too, but his motivations are a little different from Satan's.

• Like Mammon, if you do actually injure yourself, Asmo is unlikely to leave you on your own for a long time afterwards. Throughout your recovery, he'll insist on being your personal nurse, and even after that, he'll continue to hover around you as you go about your daily business. This causes him to butt heads with Mammon who does the exact same thing. Whether this is annoying or entertaining is up to you.

BEELZEBUB

• "It's because you aren't eating the right things."

• I don't necessarily think Beel would be dismissive or wilfully ignorant, but there is literally a part in the OG game where he claims that the reason humans are so physically weak compared to demons is because they don't eat enough, and don't eat the right things. At first, this is absolutely what he'd think is causing your issues.

• The reason you randomly feel light-headed or like you're going to faint must be because of how starved you are. Here, he got you an entire pizza.

• Obviously, he will learn with time. But his fixation on this being hunger-related can actually come in handy for your low blood pressure if eating salty snacks can help make you feel better. He's always got something on hand.

• When it comes to your exercises, he also won't realise initially that it's exercises and stretches specifically designed to help with your condition and not just a general workout similar to what he does. He'll try to give you tips, but it's some Saitama-level training bullshit. He's not super familiar with just how much weaker human bodies are compared to his own.

"MC?" You lift your head at the sound of your name being called, your eyes landing on Beel in a black tank-top. By the way his hoodie is nowhere to be seen, you assume he's dressed for a workout. "I'm going for a run. Do you want to come? It might be good for you." "A run?" The idea of a quiet jog all alone with Beel crosses your mind. You're sure he only intends to help you strengthen yourself, but there's nothing wrong with turning it into a little romantic outing, you think. "How far?" "An easy 700 miles should be fine for a warm-up—" "Never-mind."

• Until you tell him to stop, he has a habit of not telling you when your hypermobility is making your joints stretch in unnatural positions, but instead just silently fixing it himself. He'll take your arm and re-position it to rest normally.

• Also, no need to worry about injuries with this guy around. It won't happen. He reacts faster than you can even process. You suddenly feel dizzy one day and nearly fall right down the stairs, only for him to grab you by the back of your shirt and very unceremoniously hold you in the air like that.

• You appreciate it, but you'd appreciate it even more if he could pick you up with any amount of dignity.

BELPHEGOR

• Similar to his twin, he has his own initial assumptions as to what's causing this.

• "You should just sleep more." And to be fair, sometimes sleeping it off does help with the more nauseating symptoms, but it really isn't useful advice for when you need to start on your stretches in the morning. Sleeping won't magically make your bones stronger.

• He's the least likely to be around enough to prevent any injuries if you get any, but he is pretty good for the recovery period. He's just about as much of a stickler for you getting the proper amount of rest as Lucifer is about you doing your exercises. Plus, given his powers of sloth, he can send you to sleep with a single touch and give you pleasant dreams to help you through any pain or nausea you may be experiencing.

• Not gonna lie, I feel like Belphie is a little freaked out whenever he sees you over-extending your joints. He won't voice it or anything, but he does find it creepy. Asmo's hyper-flexibility is already unnerving to him, so seeing you bend your joints in ways that cannot be normal is something he can't look at for too long.

• Don't crack your knuckles in front of him, he will think you just broke both of your hands and is horrified.

• He won't join you in your stretches but he will watch you do them and critique from the side-lines like an asshole. I love him I swear.

"Your back's not straight enough." You look over your shoulder at the sound of Belphie's voice. He's looking at you, exercise reference sheet in hand, the rest of his body still firmly tucked into bed. You swear you feel your eye twitch. "How about you fucking do it?" Admittedly, the balancing exercises had already taken a bit out of you, so your patience was thinner than normal. He didn't seem offended, given that his response was to yawn dramatically and turn over. "Too tired."

• Lowkey, and this is a little mean so only if you're up for it... use your condition as a ploy to get out of things. Pretend to faint in the middle of gym class and he'll so kindly volunteer to take you to the nurse's office himself. Act like your joints are in a lot of pain on a day where you have to take a test and ask Belphie to stay home with you because he's the best for your recovery.

• It's not like Lucifer can accuse you of pretending, you literally have diagnoses, asshole.

[dear-ao3]

could you tell me what the deal is with indycar?? i want to get into it so bad but need to be spoon fed info like a baby

alright well im not an expert. not by far. not even remotely. but enough people have asked so ill try to give you something. but please take this with a grain of salt. or perhaps even the whole shaker. i admit that this is likely not entirely correct.

first: what the fuck is indycar

another open wheel racing series, like f1 kinda, but based in the us and sometimes canada. and its definitely more off the walls than f1.

but first the differences. these are not all the differences. but they are some of the differences:

fueling: theyre allowed to refuel mid race, which f1 does not do anymore. this makes things kinda spicy.

tires: they only have two kinds of tires. primary and alternate. (or i think theyre also called black and red) and theyre made by Firestone. if you watch indycar you will hear this commercial about 5 million times over the course of the race. there is also the firestone hawk mascot.

the cars themselves: they go a lot faster than f1 cars. and theyre aparently a lot harder to drive according to a lot of the drivers, making it more physical for them than driving an f1 car. and they are also designed differently. f1 cars are designed to break upon impact to distribute the impact away from the driver. indycar cars are designed to...not do that. they largely stay together upon impact, which transfers the impact to the drivers and if a car does come apart its probably a really bad crash. most cars are pretty salvageable post crashes. (and they have far better safety protocols than f1 does, usually medical is at the scene literal seconds post crash in indycar)

the points: if you finish the race, you get points no matter what position youre in. but only if you finish.

the start: in f1 the cars line up on the grid and its a whole big ordeal of lights out and away we go. indycar is gentleman start your engines! and they start them down in the pitlane and then do like a lap and have a rolling start.

the teams and the drivers: each team can have 1-3 drivers. the drivers do not have specific numbers, rather its the cars themselves. so you wouldn't have a driver say that they are number 000, rather, they drive the number 000 car. so the teams maintain the same number cars year to year, not necessarily the same drivers. for this reason, qualifying is also a little different. in f1 if someone qualifies but then cant race for whatever reason, then no one else can race their car. in indycar, as long as the same car is doing qualifying and the race, a different driver could drive it in qualifying and the race it it was necessary. and the sponsorships differ depending on the car and the driver. so no two cars look the same, no matter whether or not they are on the same team and they often look different race to race because the sponsorships change all the time. its confusing.

the tracks: we have road courses (like your f1 looking tracks) and oval tracks (in the shape of ovals)

qualifying: now heres. this is the goofy part. so because theres 27-30 (?) cars at any given race they first divide the grid in half based on practice times. so theres group one and group two. and they both go and try to set the fastest lap time they can (a la f1). and then the top 6 people from group one and then the top 6 people from group 2 go again for the Fast Twelve (yes thats the real name). (everyone from 13 down is done with qualifying and theyre put in order based on their fastest lap time). then from the Fast Twelve the top 6 fastest go again for the Firestone Fast Six (again, real name) which battles it out for pole position.

but now for the fun stuff that you all want to get to.

because indycar, much like f1, has its very own cast of characters. and theyre somehow even slightly more bonkers than f1.

i dont know everyone, and i definitely dont know all the tea, but ive got Some, so if people really want to hear, ill try to explain a bit of this years indy 500

[beifong-brainrot]

Been an Asami apologist since day 1. And I quite enjoy the recent Asami resurgence around here. I remember when Asami was damn near considered Public Enemy #1 in the fandom because she was seen as getting in the way of the Makorra ship.

I think it's because her suffering is rather silent compared to everyone else around her. But she also falls under that "chose to be good despite having valid reasons to crash out" bracket like Bolin and Mako does.

Her life is just as chaotic as all the others, but she handles it quietly and gracefully. And she's never really seen as being messy (like Korra), which is I think a lot of people are torn between liking and having her. Because yes, she handles things well, but it can come off feeling........I guess, patronizing to some. Like "oh,look how well she's handling her trauma compared to her friends".

I understand the "but she's rich" criticism from some, but........does that mean she suffered less? Trauma is trauma, regardless of background. Losing her mom, then having to clean up her father's mess at barely 18, rehabilitating her family's legacy, losing said father, dealing with the chaos of her boyfriend essentially cheating on her with the most powerful person in the world.............all while under media and public scrutiny? And somehow not losing her mind? Truly stronger than any Marine.

Ok, anon, I see your point. And look, I don't begrudge you liking Asami and finding her interesting. Hell, I quite like Asami. She's a decently fun character, she's fun in fight scenes, smart, capable, and she's got some surprisingly good comedic scenes too.

Also, eh, not aure about that silent suffering thing? Like yeah, Asami is good at compartmentalising her trauma, but she gets a lot of solid scenes with Hiroshi, both when they're enemies and when they're mending their relationship. Her entire subplot in B2 is her trying to keep her company afloat. And the show never shies away from showing her distress and sorrow. Compare this to how the bending bros barely get any scenes in which they talk about their homelessness or the death of their parents that isn't made into a joke.

Also its so funny how ship wars just ruin everything for a character because I see a lot of Mako hate now because of Korrasami.

And yeah, Asami being wealthy doesn't take away from her suffering. I don't think I ever implied that in my tags on that post.

I wasn't trying to play the trauma olimpics here, I was talking about how Asami is an uninteresting character from my perspective. And the fandom routinely disregards how complex and interesting Mako and Bolin are. Like Bolin at least just gets to be the comic relief himbo but Mako has kinda been getting dragged through the mud in recent years.

Personally, to me, the reason Asami just didn't connect with me is that she kinda just... is there? She's kinda the most static character in the show. Other than her dad getting arrested, there are no changes to her lifestyle and approach to life. She's still rich, she's still nice, she's still cool af 👍

It also doesn't help that she just seemingly just. Doesn't have any flaws or has done anything wrong in her life. And I know it sounds like I'm going "ugh she's so perfect and i hate that 😡".

But like, characters having flaws, or at least having some complexity to them is what makes us find them compelling. Asami feels like a character with little weight to her actions. She is not displayed with any guilt over betraying her father, she's never shown to have any second thoughts about supplying weapons to a party in a civil war (and even Varrick had a "hey maybe war profiteering isn't cool" arc). Things just kinda work out for her ig? Her actions feel like they stop having an impact the moment it stops being convenient for them to have one.

Like idk. If you like her, like her. There's plenty to like. She's just the least interesting Krew member to me.

[antianakin]

So when I initially was writing this post, I think I was intrigued by the idea of Perrin as the hidden rebel that literally nobody knew existed, the truest unsung hero of the entire thing because he'd kept his actions and choices and sacrifices ENTIRELY to himself because his own glory or recognition didn't really matter as much as Mon getting to do whatever she needs to do to help the cause.

But as I got further through it, I was more invested in the idea of Perrin as someone who's more of an accidental or incidental hero, someone who's barely a hero at all and made his choices for arguably somewhat selfish reasons and they just HAPPEN to help the greater cause.

In Perrin's case, he doesn't cover for Mon's rebel activities literally every week for years because he believes in the cause. He actually doesn't care about taking down the Empire at all because what it's doing doesn't really impact him. But he has a DAUGHTER, a daughter he cares about, and Mon's choices to rebel against the Empire mean that at best their daughter would end up an orphan if the Empire knew the truth, and at worst their daughter could be killed alongside them as an example. And Perrin loves his daughter, more than he hates his wife's choices. He knows Mon enough to know he won't be able to convince her out of doing this, he knows that she's smart enough to realize what the possible consequences are and has decided that fighting the Empire is worth those consequences, so pointing out that Leida could be harmed if Mon is discovered won't change her mind.

And Perrin loves his daughter. Mon is always working, she's constantly leaving early and out late with her aides or other senators trying to get bills through or gain votes or fundraise money or something like that. Which means that it's Perrin who is primarily left to have meals with Leida, make sure Leida takes her baths, read Leida bedtime stories, help Leida with her homework, go with Leida to any extracurricular activities she needs, set up Leida's birthday parties, take Leida to visit her friends, so on and so forth. It's always Perrin because Mon just ISN'T THERE. And it's not that Mon doesn't love Leida, Perrin knows she does, he knows that Mon would argue that everything she does is done FOR Leida, and maybe it's even true, but all Leida cares about is that her mom isn't there and Perrin wants to make sure that Leida has at least ONE parent whose priority is her.

So when the Empire comes calling, once a week every week, Perrin lies. Because his priority is his daughter. Nothing matters more than Leida's safety and happiness. Nothing matters more than making sure she isn't left alone or killed for a choice that her mother made for her. He doesn't want to bring down the Empire, he doesn't want Palpatine dead, he doesn't care about bringing back the Republic, but he'll do whatever it takes to make sure that Mon is successful because their daughter will pay the price if she isn't, and that's not an outcome he can accept.

He's not a hero, he's just a father who loves his daughter enough to lie for her.

I'm kind-of genuinely devastated that they decided to cut out the reveal of Perrin having known all along about Mon Mothma's rebel activities and was getting interrogated WEEKLY by the Empire and never cracked even once.

This would've helped answer SO MANY QUESTIONS about Mon and Perrin, and it could've easily helped answer the question of why Mon felt like she could just walk away from her family after making herself public enemy number one.

She goes to finally explain it all to Perrin right before she makes the speech because dammit she might not have trust him or even like him all that much but she doesn't want him DEAD and he deserves the chance to find this out from her and get himself to safety before she turns his life upside down, and he tells her he's known all along and covered for her this whole time and never once cracked or been discovered, even when she framed him for gambling and sold off their daughter to a gangster's son. He lets her know that he doesn't need to go to safety, he's not just going to run now because that'll just make him look like he was involved in it. He can continue to cover for himself when the Empire comes to interrogate him again, and he can do it well enough to ensure Leida doesn't get implicated, either. Mon's priority is the rebellion, her priority is her work and it always has been, even to the detriment of her relationship with her family, and Perrin understood that but it meant that HIS priority had to be protecting and taking care of Leida in the absence of her mother. So Mon has to go, but Perrin has to stay because their daughter needs him now more than ever.

And it just makes the choice that Mon has made so clear, the sacrifice she chose to make for the sake of the rebellion, and she can't back out now, she can't make a different choice because she tells herself she's doing this FOR Leida, to try to make a better world for her daughter to live in, but in order to give Leida that world, she has to leave Leida behind.

But she realizes now that she CAN trust Perrin, she could've trusted him all along, so she chooses to trust him now. She trusts him with their daughter, she trusts that he can take care of himself and Leida in her absence once more.

This helps Mon's arc SO MUCH, and I honestly love it, and as Bissell says it's technically a non-canon thing now because it clearly never even made it into the script really let alone got filmed, but it's pretty easy to slot it into what we DID get to see, so as far as I'm concerned, this is my canon. This fixes so many of the problems I had with the end of this arc for Mon and makes it so much more emotional and almost tragic. Mon made her choices and you can argue that some of them were mistakes if you want, you can argue that it made her a bad mother if you wanted to, but it's so much more complicated and nuanced than that, and I love that this finally makes that so clear. Mon made her choice and her family paid the price a long time ago, long before Mon was willing to acknowledge that she'd made that choice.

[jesslovesboats]

I’m so fascinated by how different polar historians engage with sources. The difference between books like Lansing’s Endurance (which imo drew pretty uncritically from the crew’s narrative, and didn’t distinguish between contemporaneous diaries and later interviews) and Sancton’s Madhouse, which often makes a point of pointing out contradictions and unlikelihoods (although comparing Amundsen with our favorite little miss unreliable narrator does a lot of the work for him), is so intriguing. They’re obviously different projects with different purposes - Endurance is, literally, a Branagh movie, while Madhouse is closer to Iannucci (said lovingly) - but I imagine these differences contribute a lot to the historiography of polar exploration in general. Not to mention which men did and didn’t write diaries, and who did and didn’t survive.

I’m also listening to these on audiobook, and Madhouse was great in that they included some footnotes while other narrators don’t, so sourcing might exist that I don’t know about . But I’m curious for your thoughts on these dynamics, and what accounts you think are the most critical and balanced.

Hello! This is an absolutely fascinating question and one I have so much to say about that I'm not quite sure where to begin, if that makes sense? But, I will try my best to gather a bunch of disjointed thoughts into a coherent response. Full disclaimer, I do have a BA in history but I'm not a practicing historian by any means, and I haven't "done history" in the academic sense since I was an undergrad many years ago. All of my post-grad work has been in library science, so I'm much more familiar with that as an academic framework.

I think that the vast differences you see in how polar historians engage with the source material *usually* come down to 2 factors: what is their purpose, and when are they writing?

There are as many different reasons to write as there are people writing. Most of us are probably familiar with the difference between academic history (which is published by professional historians, usually affiliated with a university and usually as a requirement of their position, with an audience of students and other professional historians) and popular history (which is written by people who are most likely skilled researchers but may or may not have academic credentials, with an audience of the general public), but even within those categories there are huge divisions that have to do with the author's motives and what they hope to accomplish with their work. Is the author telling this story because they want to convey specific new information? Are they hoping to share a compelling story with a wider audience? Do they want to correct the record about misinformation they've seen shared by others? Do they want to rehabilitate the reputation of a person/group/institution? Do they want to write a hit piece about a person/group/institution? Did a story change their life in a meaningful way and they need to express that somehow? I've read polar books that, if I had to guess, were written for all these reasons and more.

There are also trends in historiography, and the time in which someone is writing can have a significant impact on how they tell their story. This is obviously a huge generalization, but the more recently something has been written, the more likely it is that the author engaged critically with the source material. That's not to say that more recent history is better than history written decades ago, just that researchers today are probably approaching it more holistically than they did 100, 50, or even 10 years ago, and their research is more likely to be informed by perspectives other than just the straight white cis wealthy male ones. Another factor to consider when looking specifically at late 19th and early 20th century stories is access to survivors. This is a double-edged sword because on one hand, survivors and their immediate families were incredible sources of information. On the other hand, they were usually very protective of their legacies and those of their comrades, so it could be difficult to write critically about them knowing that they would likely read it. Some also refused to share their diaries and papers with authors, or would only share with certain authors, which further muddied the waters. Most Heroic Age figures had passed on by the 1970s, and I don't think it's a coincidence that you start to get more honest assessments of these stories around this time. That's not the only reason, of course, but I think it's an important factor to consider.

No one can ever truly know someone else's motives, but some authors leave significant trails of breadcrumbs. In the case of Endurance, Lansing was a journalist who came across the story of the ITAE, found it compelling, and was pretty clearly inspired by the figure of Shackleton. It's hard to imagine now, but when Lansing was writing in the 50s, Shackleton wasn't a household name, and the story of the Endurance wasn't especially well known in the US. He found a great story that most people hadn't already heard about a man he admired, and he had access to diaries and survivors, especially Macklin, to help craft his story. Endurance is one of the most engaging polar books I've ever read, but I also think it's a product of its time. Lansing was writing in the 1950s, and several Endurance survivors were still around, not to mention Shackleton's adult children. I can't say if he intentionally excluded more critical information because of the survivors, or because he wanted to lionize Shackleton, or if he left all that out so he could tell a faster paced story. The end result is a book that's compulsively readable and that I recommend as a great introduction to all things Endurance, but it definitely does not tell the whole story- and that's OK! Lansing told the story he wanted to tell, and there are many other books about Endurance and about Shackleton that are better researched and more objective. I'm speaking as a librarian and not a historian here, but I personally don't think it's fair to expect a short work of popular history that's over 60 years old to give a complete unbiased account of the Endurance and all of Shackleton's failings- although I do wish the book mentioned the Ross Sea Party (I will bang this drum until the day I die).

Madhouse is a very different kind of book, as you pointed out in your question! Sancton is also a journalist, and I listened to a podcast where he talked about what inspired him to write Madhouse. If I remember correctly, he came across the story while researching a different topic and discovered that there wasn't much of anything about the Belgica out there, at least not in English. So, this was an opportunity to tell a fascinating story about an expedition that virtually no one had heard of outside of polar circles. I think his main goal was to tell a great story, not necessarily to inspire the reader or boost anyone's reputation posthumously. Sancton also published this book in 2021, so the historical environment was very different. He engaged critically with the source material, pointed out several things in primary sources that seemed off, and offered a variety of possible motives for things that happen in the story. He also looked at the story from more of a social history perspective and talked about what was happening in Belgium at the time and how nationalism played a significant role in the expedition. Overall, I think it's a much stronger book than Endurance, and almost as compulsively readable.

So what to make of all this? I think that, just like it matters when the author was writing and why, it matters when you are reading and why. I have more to say about this (shocking, I know), but there is no perfect polar book- there are lots of excellent polar books appropriate for a variety of different situations. Looking for a great story and don't want to think too much about what's being left out? Endurance. Want something that was meticulously researched and has every detail imaginable? You definitely want journal articles or something written by an academic. Something in the middle? Madhouse. Up to the challenge of reading historic documents with fresh, modern eyes? Look for published diaries and journals (or hit up the archives)! Hagiography? Edward Wilson of the Antarctic by George Seaver. Hit piece? Scott and Amundsen by Roland Huntford. Passion project? The Worst Journey graphic novel by Sarah Airriess or The Expedition by Bea Uusma.

I have been yakking for entirely too long and have no idea if I actually answered your question, but I hope I did on some level, at least! Bottom line, I think your most well rounded source for information about an expedition is usually going to be a book written in the last 10ish years by an author, academic or popular, who is writing to inform as opposed to trying to prove something. I also think that, generally speaking, secondary sources that give an overview of an entire expedition are better entry points than primary sources.

Thank you for another great ask, and I'm sorry it took so long to respond, but as you can see from gestures wildly, I am not well 😅

[coffee-in-rain]

the way i never knew about Hannibal Rising or Hannibal's past until i came across a twitter post about Hannibal's soup trauma (my eyes were truly bugging out of my skull bc i had no idea yall) and after i read he was fed Mischa's remains in a soup when he was a little boy—that's when vulnerable Hannibal clicked in my brain.

that's the moment i became a Hannibal apologist (haven't taken a psychology class in a few years so i may be remembering wrong) because when you go through something deeply traumatic as a child it changes you whether you allow it to or not—whether you live in denial for however many years until it finally wears you down to your very bones—you eventually have to acknowledge it and doing that as a child (acknowledging a traumatic experience) is bound to have an impact on your life long afterwards, too.

Hannibal is (not solely, but maybe just a teensy bit) using what was done to him as a child to normalize it; if it's a normal occurrence, what was done to him won't seem so awful; watching people eat other people who are not in distress about it (they're simply enjoying a meal and having peaceful conversation) compared to Hannibal's experience of eating the soup in the cabin (eating it without any utensils and finishing it quickly because he was so starving) chases away that memory and replaces it with recent memories.

sharing meals with Will throughout the honey trap era brings Hannibal joy because he probably never imagined sharing a meal with someone who knows what the meat truly is, but now he's found this person who does not view cannibalism as something awful. Will is accepting of cannibalism (and the other parts Hannibal's kept hidden for so long out of necessity). that's why i'm a Hannibal apologist in Mizumono. because babygirl truly thought Will wanted to run away with him (and he probably imagined spilling his heart out to Will once they were in Florence; because Will would ultimately ask and this time, Hannibal wouldn't feel the need to keep it buried; it could come out and land in the hands and heart of someone safe).

Hannibal probably never shared Mischa's name (or even the fact he had a sister) with anyone as an adult until Will (besides Bedelia). imagine if sharing that fact with Will led to Hannibal having a nightmare after the fact; and Hannibal felt it worth it because Will was worth everything to him now.

i've said this in a previous post, but imagine during their last shared meal: Hannibal feeling like the lonely and unwanted orphan he used to be back in Lithuania. feeling so small and similar to how other kids and adults at the orphanage would treat him; some kids only acting like a friend to get something (like food, etc); some adults treating him the way Will was now (coaxing him into something that would lead to consequences) like punishment or time out or even physical harm like beatings, etc; because they viewed him as something other, meant to keep out of the social circle.

imagine if after Will left—Hannibal regressed all alone and the sole thing he wanted was to have Will care for him and let him be vulnerable in a way he hadn't been in decades. imagine little Hannibal curling up in bed all alone and feeling like he was losing someone precious again; and this time it hurt even more.

[withthewindinherfootsteps]

Wei Wuxian and Narrative Agency – Part Three

For Xiantober Day Five: Past and Present, in which the author gets very unhinged about what parts of the past are shown and how that’s affected by the present!

(Part One | Part Two | Full version on AO3)

The Power of Agency: Shaping the Narrative

When I've discussed Wei Wuxian's agency previously, I’ve talked about how what’s shown and omitted tells us about a character, and we’ve talked about the character himself. Though this is a niche topic, it’s not necessarily something out of the ordinary to analyse, and we can assume everything up to here has been in some way intentional.

This? Linking structure to a character’s in-universe preferences?

This is where we get unhinged.

Before I start, let’s quickly establish something which will be important later: although Wei Wuxian is the central character, MDZS isn’t strictly from his POV. While omitting events a character doesn’t like to dwell on and concealing things the character wishes to hide is common in books with only one narrator, MDZS has multiple narrators which it switches between relatively quickly. This includes Wei Wuxian, but it also includes nearly every major character that appears in the story, and omniscient narrator as well. As a default, this format doesn’t lead to this deliberate shaping and omission because of one character’s preferences, since we have many other sources of information and events – which is what makes Wei Wuxian’s influence over the narrative and structure so interesting. We could have access to a lot more information, and access to it at different times, than we do (and that’s not an insult, quite the opposite!).

To begin: we’ve established that times such as Wei Wuxian’s time on the streets, his three months in the Burial Mounds and his loss in the Siege aren’t shown because Wei Wuxian has little agency there. But that’s not the only special thing about them. They’re also the three most traumatic times in his life, and so moments Wei Wuxian himself either can’t remember, or doesn’t like to dwell on.

This is why discussing Wei Wuxian’s treatment of tragedy in his life was important. Firstly, it shows he doesn’t focus on the tragedy in his life, so the idea that the narrative not focusing on this tragedy relates to his character has merit; secondly, it affirms that this is not a passive trait, but a choice. Therefore, when the narrative omits events due to this aspect of Wei Wuxian, it’s respecting not only a character detail – which would be cool by itself – but also an active decision. One that shapes the story it’s made in.

In other words, its very structure is respecting Wei Wuxian’s agency!

Now, of course there are flashbacks to other moments of his past he probably wouldn’t like to dwell on, too. But within the structure, they’re only shown when Wei Wuxian is thinking about them (or when he has reason to)!

Wei WuXian hadn’t woken up yet. His eyes were still tightly shut, yet his hand didn’t let go either. He seemed to be dreaming, muttering, “… Don’t… Don’t be angry…” Lan WangJi seemed somewhat surprised. His voice was gentle, “I am not angry.” Wei WuXian, “… Oh.” Hearing this, as though he finally felt assured, his fingers loosened. Lan WangJi sat beside Wei WuXian for a while. Seeing that he was motionless again, he was about to stand up when Wei WuXian grabbed him with his other hand, hugging his arm and refusing to let go. He shouted, “I’ll go with you, quick, take me back to your sect!” Chapter 63, EXR translation

Which, of course, is him dwelling on…

Lan WangJi spoke one word at a time, “Go back to Gusu with me.” Hearing this, both Wei WuXian and Jiang Cheng were surprised. Quickly afterward, Wei WuXian laughed, “Go back to Gusu with you? To the Cloud Recesses? Why go there?” He immediately seemed to realize, “Oh. I forgot. Your uncle Lan QiRen hates crooked people like me. You’re his proudest disciple, so of course you’re the same as him, haha. I refuse.” Chapter 62, EXR translation

…the painful flashback immediately preceding this. The third set of flashbacks (which are also painful) are a similar case. Look at the contex:

He lifted the bottom of his robe, revealing a prosthetic leg made of wood, “This leg of mine was destroyed by you, that night in the Nightless City (…)” (…) “Wei WuXian, I won’t ask you if you remember or not. Both of my parents died by your hands. You owe too many people. You definitely won’t remember them either. But, I, Fang MengChen, will never forget! And never forgive you!” (…) “In the fight at Qiongqi Path, my son was strangled to death by your dog Wen Ning!” “My shixiong died by poison, his entire body festering due to your cruel curse!” Chapter 68 (immediately preceding the flashbacks), EXR translation

And Wei Wuxian’s own thoughts and words:

Wei WuXian looked at the cultivators before the Demon-Slaughtering Cave. Their expressions were the absolute same as those of the cultivators from the night of the pledge conference, pouring their wine on the ground as they took the pledge to scatter the ashes of the Wen Sect’s remnants and him.  (…) Wei WuXian, “Now it’s time to ask just whom it is that treasures it so much. It’s like Wen Ning. Back then, some certain sects or so were scared to death of the Ghost General. They said they’d kill him on the surface, but behind their backs they hid him for over ten years. How strange. Who was the one that said his ashes had been scattered back then?” Chapter 79 (immediately succeeding the flashbacks), EXR translation 

Once again, Wei Wuxian’s own thoughts relate to the flashbacks we’ve just been shown. And, as I previously mentioned, though all the events which are shown are tragic, they’re also events which Wei Wuxian’s own choices and actions shaped – which he has this to say about:

“The things I did, not only do you remember them, I remember them too. You won’t forget them, and they’ll stay even longer in my mind!” Chapter 82, EXR

Admittedly, this applies more to the third set of flashbacks than the second (which is still fitting as the third set was the most recent), as in the second, although he still had agency within and influence over his circumstances, the majority of the pain was caused by others’ actions (excluding, of course, the Golden Core transfer… which is something we know stays for a long time in his mind, albeit with a caveat we’ll soon discuss). But it’s still important to note – especially considering that otherwise, focusing on this very painful time in his life wouldn’t seem like something very in-character for Wei Wuxian to do.

Of course, this can all just be explained by good writing. It is best to insert flashbacks when they’re relevant to the characters and events in the present day! But it is interesting to compare these to the start of the (not painful) Gusu flashbacks, which open this way:

At a later time, Wei WuXian pondered upon the reason why his relationship with Lan WangJi wasn’t good. Getting to the root of the matter, everything started when he was fifteen, coming to the GusuLan Sect with Jiang Cheng to study for three months. Chapter 13, EXR

Again, considering the circumstances around which these flashbacks take place – returning to the Cloud Recesses for the first time since the lectures, and meeting Lan Wangji once more – it makes complete sense for Wei Wuxian to be thinking about these events*. So it does fit the pattern of Wei Wuxian dwelling on something, thus leading to the narrative dwelling on it, too (and being shaped by his thoughts)… but there’s another layer to this. Importantly, it is the only flashback where Wei Wuxian’s present thoughts don’t lead to this happening, with his thoughts at an unspecified future time leading to it, instead. I like to interpret this as the text saying that, since these events aren’t something Wei Wuxian wouldn’t focus on in normal circumstances, he can dwell on them at any time. Therefore, they’re free to come up in the narrative at any time as well, even if he’s not dwelling on them in the present moment!

So, to summarise: Wei Wuxian’s decision not to focus on the painful times in his life directly influences the narrative to not focus on these times. When painful times are brought up and shown to us, it’s in the context of him thinking about them in the present day, and even then, his most painful moments still aren’t shown to us. His agency in this regard is still respected by the narrative structure.

This is the main way his agency influences the structure of the narrative, but I’d like to talk about the revealing and concealing of information, too. For example, I said I’d talk about the Golden Core transfer – though Wei Wuxian does think about this many times, as evidenced by his internal narration in Chapter 103. But unlike everything we’re shown through the flashbacks, this is something Wei Wuxian is actively trying to hide from others. And the narrative respects this choice (Wei Wuxian’s agency, again), never reveals it even when it would be relevant in the flashbacks, and we find out not through narration, but through a character’s dialogue!

And to clarify – I know these aspects may not be in the book for this exact reason. Showing flashbacks in relevant moments is good writing, concealing an important plot point you want to do a reveal for is necessary writing, and MXTX has said she didn’t want to write about Wei Wuxian’s time in the Burial Mounds, due to not liking to write transformation sequences (and also because it would not be pleasant at all, which likely also applies to Wei Wuxian’s death). That doesn’t prevent it from also being intentional – MXTX’s intelligence is shown in many aspects of this book, and there’s nothing disproving it – but there’s no proof for either option, so I won’t pretend there is. I bring this up because I know this feels like I’m overanalysing, as I feel that way as well.

But, whether it’s intentional or not, it exists in the text, and I adore it – so, regardless, it’s something I’ll explore. Because taking this into account… We aren't just told about Wei Wuxian having agency, we aren’t just shown it in the text, we aren’t even just shown it through which parts of his past are shown and hidden in the structure of the text (as I talked about in Part One). The parts of the past that are shown and hidden also have an in-universe reason for being shown and hidden, this reason being the choices he makes! Agency is the ability of a character to influence the story they’re in, but Wei Wuxian’s agency, as a property of a character who only exists in-universe, shapes the out-of-universe structure as well! That’s how we’re shown its importance! How cool is that?

At The End Of The Road: Summary and Final Thoughts

In this essay, we’ve covered how important Wei Wuxian’s agency is not only to the events of the plot, but to the structure of the narrative as well. The narrative omits periods in which Wei Wuxian has little or no agency, in favour of showing us periods in which he does, even when important events happened in the former. This indicates that who Wei Wuxian is without agency isn’t important enough to be shown to the audience, and therefore that his agency is an integral aspect of his character in MDZS. We’ve discussed how both in-universe and out-of-universe, tragedy does not define him – out-of-universe, the tragic events in Wei Wuxian’s life are used not to build sympathy but rather to show his strength of character and who he still is despite going through them; and in-universe, he chooses not to focus on the negativity and resentment caused by his circumstances or others’ actions, instead staying true to his moral compass and enjoying his life in the present day. Finally, we’ve also explored how this choice is another reason for the omission of certain events from the narrative, resulting in his agency shaping the story in a very literal way – it affects the out-of-universe structure, as well.

It’s quite fitting, for a story whose essence is about defying a conventional narrative – that of righteous clans rising up and defeating a great evil – and about a character who defies many conventional narratives on his own – that of status defining how skilled you could be, that for a golden core being necessary for cultivation and other paths being unavailable, that of a tragic but complete story of someone killed for staying true to their moral code (instead, that character returns to life and has a happy ending) – to have its own narrative play a role in such an important and interesting way.

(Or, if an image would be preferable:)

Thank you for reading!

(Part One | Part Two | Full version on AO3)

--

*This strong relation to the present day circumstances is another reason I love the flashback placement so much (and why I think it’s such a loss both screen adaptions altered it so strongly)! 

[markantonys]

the music in WOT is never random. even if it's just very soft background music, it's relevant to the scene. practically every time there's music playing while egwene is onscreen during s2, the tune is egwene's theme, rearranged and reinstrumentated in dozens of different ways to match the tone of the particular scene. mat has quick little snippets of his theme tune play during various scenes of his, often mixed with the old blood theme from s1, and it finally blares out in full glory for the first time during the horn of valere scene, to parallel how mat is truly finding himself for the first time. even secondary characters like liandrin, siuan, and aviendha have their own dedicated theme tunes that play during their scenes and are never repurposed as background music in other characters' scenes. and all the themes have lyrics in the old tongue that suit the character or concept the theme is about! in conclusion, lorne balfe is truly doing the Most, and i'm so grateful he's the composer for WOT and i hope he'll return for every season the show goes for.

[freakinator]

vagueing but i think certain ppl need to realize that you can be both manipulative And traumatized 😭

[hauntingblue]

Jayce telling vi she won't make it on her own.... okay mr. projector...

[etapereine]

.

[acaciapines]

guys what if i told you ive been thinking about dess and actually i think dess/chara might be able to work out in the drkau...like ive been doing some thinking into dess and her reasons and why she does what she does and how she cares about people and im starting to nail down the role i want asriel to play, and. and.

guys i think dess is actually going to be able to change. i think dess figures out how to change but asriel never does....

[cryptvokeeper]

Actually I finally figured out what all the hubbub over crab day really reminds me of.

Remember back in the pre-dashcon, superwholock days, when people on tumblr would make posts that were like:

“Guys, we HAVE to watch this mediocre show!! If the creators see how big of a gay audience there is, then they’ll HAVE to write real gay characters instead of constantly queerbaiting us! And if it doesn’t get good ratings it might get cancelled, and we’ll lose our chance at REAL representation and it’ll be all your fault!”

and this was considered legitimate praxis.

and like, back then we were all 13 and didn’t know how tv executives and real life works, so we actually did it. But a lot of y’all are in your twenties AT LEAST and are still thinking that’s how a multimillion dollar business is gonna operate

[ragnars-tooth]

i completely and absolutely hallucinated the last time i read firestar apparently bc i was ten thousand percent sure russ shot beargstrom at the end. i thought that man was so dead. so imagine my surprise rereading tfe properly rn.

(i was already too confused by whos who irt the bears last time anyway so if anything its making me feel LESS stupid that i just misread a paragraph and fucked up the entire plotline for myself <- it will happen again)

consider this a public acknowledgment that it turns out idk what the hell is happening in these books, soz <3 i will continue to lie by accident and make shit up 🥰

[mx-paint]

Some of y'all need to learn what the fuck boundaries are because it is *no way* good for you to be genuinely frothing at the mouth that a teenager in your latest fandom doesn't ship your ship and simply blocking you over it