#or the fact that there are ppl who just want to be unattached in that way but deeply enjoy familial and strictly platonic relationships

[variousxcruelties]

Have you considered that some asexual people take comfort in the thought that even someone who is asexual can still be in a happy relationship? Even if you're aroace, that shouldn't mean you're doomed to be alone. QP relationships exist. It's not harming anyone, so why shame people for it?

Wasn't even going to dignify this with a response but the last line really got me heated so here we go.

I'm tired of pretending that rabid shippers and entitled fandom culture, especially here on tumblr, aren't harmful. It's all extraordinarily harmful. It’s lowkey disrespectful to Brennan and the players, specifically Murph and Lou re: FabRiz, who spend countless hours on whack schedules not only filming in order to give us this fucking awesome story but also spend countless hours off camera planning and working with sensitivity consultants to ensure that they are engaging with a great deal of topics in the most ethical way and offering true-to-form representation and respect for their audience but that’s not even all of it.

Have you considered that Riz is a literal teen character that has an entire hypothetical lifetime to figure that out, but is extraordinarily canonically happy with the *platonic* relationships that he has right now and has expressed zero interest in any of the bad kids or NPCs beyond that *platonic* relationship?? To imply that if he doesn't have a defined QP relationship at the least in order to not be "doomed to be alone" is honestly kind of disgusting and reductive?? Like, what a complete devaluation of family, found family, and straight-up platonic relationships?? How do you view QP relationships if you need to use them as a scapegoat for your shipping of a queer character that has expressly stated that they have no interest in romance, sexuality, or relationships beyond the friendships that they currently have? Is QP just the fancy word you use for your need to simulate a dichotomy of a monogamous romantic relationship because purely platonic relationships simply cannot ever suffice in your opinion? Because, I'll tell you, for all of the hypothetically "QP" FabRiz content I've seen, not a single one acknowledges the poly aspect that would be involved given that Fabian is explicitly not aroace and is currently canonically engaged in some kind of romantic/sexual relationship with Aelwyn. So do y'all actually want a complex QP relationship dynamic that benefits both of them or do you just want simulated monogamy in an MLM relationship that you pretend is QP but secretly hope is romantic and/or sexual in nature because you feel that Riz not having that means that he is inherently lonely and sad?

Have you considered that there are also aroace people that take comfort in characters that don't have a want or need for anything beyond their family and close friends, which at this point could also basically be defined as an extensive found family? Have you considered that you don't respect or find value in that so you project onto Riz and/or FabRiz in order to make their relationship more palatable to you?

Maybe it's time to look inward instead of sending anon messages to people that say it is harmful to take aroace identified characters and shove them into ships for your pleasure. Maybe your ships don't exist in a vacuum and you need to figure out why the hell you're pushing this weird rhetoric that aroace people are "doomed to be alone" if they aren't in a defined relationship beyond general familial or platonic engagement <3

Because I absolutely will continue to shame you for it.

[paris-geller-was-straightwashed]

everyone shh be quiet I’m thinking about the scale between henry/001, kali and el and the differences in how they all, as isolated and deeply hurt children, view others and the world around them.

Henry/001

on the far side, we start with henry, who will in time become the murderous vecna. once we finally have the curtain revealed in ep7 through his monologue, it’s clear, that from the beginning his character was set up to be a villain.

in his isolation at feeling ‘different’ and anger towards his family & a world he didn’t understand, he processes this all into a gradual tirade of hurt and violence - beginning by harming woodland creatures and creating horrifying illusions, to in the end, murdering all his family save for his father. he says, how he would end up hating both his mother and father bc after peeking into their minds, he saw what he believed to be things so terrible they were inexcusable (though I still don’t totally understand why; I’m assuming he thought that about his father bc victor killed ppl in the war, but it’s not really clear what he says his mother did, but I’m assuming it’s for fearing what he was capable of and wanting to send him away? not sure). and then finally in the lab, it’s revealed that he was the one who murdered all the other experiments. in his own eyes, henry can justify this, either by claiming it was deserved or how regardless, everyone is just waiting to escape this cruel world around them anyways. becoming so warped from his own feelings of being an outsider and no doubt trauma wrought from brenner, he has turned to harm as a comfort, as a way of control, and something, to put it plainly, he has no issues handing down.

either way he tries to justify it though, it’s clear from the scene, that he is dangerous and craving both destruction and violence - aka, a villain, plain and simple. it starts, with a quiet, sensitive boy, who feels so unattached from the world and people around him, that he found comfort from his isolation in hurting and overtime, it grew completely into evil villainy.

Kali

my love, my life. kali stands as an interesting tie, between both henry and el. kali is no villain, but she too, has found comfort in taking the lives of others - but only the lives of people who’ve actively done harm, namely people involved in the traumatic abuse she had to undergo.

unlike henry, kali has still retained some of her humanity. she’s is kind and gentle towards el, saying how upon finding her she felt she’d become whole again. and before even knowing who el was, stopped axel from possibly harming her, not wanting him to hurt some innocent kid. she’s helped those in her crew, ‘saving them’ according to sunshine. she very much wants to help el, wants her to become stronger, to help save herself from the lingering affects of her trauma (their shared trauma).

but at the same time, she can also be cruel. while I would argue that kali taking the lives of child abusers isn’t exactly the same as henry slaughtering whoever he saw fit (including literal children), the fact still remains, that they both have decided on their own terms who deserved that cruelty. on their own terms, they’ve taken it upon themselves to decide who will live, and who won’t. both see the world as cruel and unjust for their own reasons, and so, hurt from what they’ve experienced, find a new purpose & go about their own ways of ‘fixing’ things. henry wanted to ‘restore order’ to a world he didn’t understand, and kali is also wanting to be restorative in her actions, by getting rid of the people who hurt her & others and therefore make things better.

both of them have felt isolated from their past in the lab; henry tells el that brenner sees her as nothing more ‘than an animal, a monster’, and kali too, in trying to get el to reconcile with her past, says that ‘we will never be anything more then monsters to them (brenner & the lab).’. they also both, use anger as a motive. both of them tell el to call upon a memory that makes her upset, and use it as a way to fuel her power. again, both of them, for perhaps slightly different reasons morally, have taken to anger and vengeance as a way of motivating them.

it’s wild actually, as I go back and look at ep7, how close their ideas and motives are - but still, when it comes down to the actual killing, there is a difference. kali, specifically, hurts those who hurt others - she’s after the lab and the lab alone. she never kills unless for a very specific reason, and where henry thought killing the other experiments was ‘saving’ them, kali would never hurt anyone, let alone kids, who’ve done no harm. it’s clear to me that kali only chooses harm when someone else is being hurt (a lot like how el does, in some ways); an innocent such as she & el were in the lab, being harmed by another. to henry though, he’s dwelled enough in his hurt that everyone he comes across, is already guilty and worthy of punishment.

kali still has a heart. unlike henry who felt his differences and powers made him alone, kali is able to bond her story of struggle with those of her friends, and even when they’re at the gas station, kali tried to deescalate rather then attack the upset owner, saying how ‘they’re on the same side’ - she is able to empathize (like el, though with not as strong of a bleeding heart as el has), where henry cannot. but she too, has started to warp in her bloody crusade for justice. and just as henry made his parents (and later max & ppl in hawkins) see their worst fears, kali makes el see brenner, a person she is still deeply afraid of and cries upon seeing him. again, motives are different (henry to scare and horrify the victim, whereas kali was trying in all the wrong ways to make el confront her past), but still, the actions are the same. she’s definitely not villainous, but her actions can’t be called morally pure either.

(also, tangent - what is up with the different powers? all three of them are different. henry shows he’s capable of both visions and telekinesis, which is interesting that he has both abilities. kali, as far as we’ve been shown, is only capable of visions, and el has only used telekinesis. does this mean they both developed one each, from the DNA brenner extracted from henry? but then I wonder, why is it that all the other experiments showed in el’s flashback only use telekinesis? why is it only kali has the ability for visions, if we’re going by the DNA theory. OR, was kali sought out kind of like how henry was - she held a sensitivity to the supernatural, and then was found and taken by brenner who wanted to use her for them. so many questions, but back to the main topic).

I feel like the difference is, is that kali has a very specific purpose, and a deep sense of justice (hence why the writers named her as they did), and I think that flame she holds to help people cast down and make things right, is what saves her from falling into her cruelty. at the same time, holding onto that anger could prove to be a great downfall for her, if taken too far.

El

that leaves el, at the opposite end of the scale. el has proven herself, time and time again, to be different then her siblings - in that she is very gentle in nature, and takes on a great deal of empathy for the hurt she encounters, whether caused by her or not.

she defies both her siblings when they ask her to hurt someone else. henry uses it as an out for her, to join his mission and escape the lab and brenner, and kali tells her that killing the lab worker who once tortured them was a way to both heal her trauma and restore justice. but in those moments, el sees only one thing. she sees the brutally murdered kids taken by henry’s hand, and she sees that killing this man will only end in a dead body and two little girls without a father. and in both moments, el says no - and chooses mercy instead. she refuses to be the one to take a parent away from a child, and she, seeing who henry really is, refuses to let him get away with any more killings.

almost every time el has ever used her powers, hurt someone on purpose, was either bc she (& her friends) was/were in danger, or bc she felt like she was being threatened. the only outlier was when she knocked max off her skateboard - and then outside of that, were just accidental outbursts, like tossing lucas (or just for cheeky, harmless fun, like spying on the boys and such). and EVEN in times when she’s done a cruel act, like hitting angela harder then she meant to, she’s shown to be deeply upset by it despite how angela treated her. all through s4, el is wracked with misplaced memories of the lab massacre, deeply upset and haunted by the notion that she might’ve been responsible.

when it comes to hurt, when it comes to cruelty, there are no excuses for el, unlike her two siblings who’ve created their own ways to justify it. el sees someone in pain, or is instructed to inflict pain (such as the cat in the lab), and there’s nothing to her that makes it okay. she stands up to a powerful foe like henry to stop him, or she risks the traumatic punishment of the dark room for refusing to kill the cat, bc with such a sensitive heart, she can’t stand to see any more pain.

el has undergone just as much trauma as both henry and kali experienced while in the lab. she too, has felt isolated and different, has felt like she had no place in the world. she’s been deeply hurt by the world and people around her over and over again, being handed more cruelty then she would ever give. for her siblings, they have used this in their own ways, to become destructive.

but el has refused. every opportunity she’d had to hurt, she’s chosen love. it’s love, after all, that allows her to defeat henry; love of her friends and family, that helps carry her through all her battles. she’s had such a cruel start, and yet she, is so soft.

Overall,

I think both the similarities and differences between all three of them and how they’ve each come to see the world, are really fascinating. they’re all interesting character studies, all different outcomes for how they each moulded themselves after experiencing very similar, if not the same, trauma. henry took his pain and isolation, his hurt at feeling like an outsider and anger towards others, and used it to hurt people under a guise that he was ridding the world of wrongs. kali took hers and tried to make it righteous, tried to make sense of her trauma by making those guilty pay for it, and while uses it to help save others from possible pain, is still leading a murky path. and el instead, holds onto her pain, and refuses to weaponize it, or let anyone else get hurt.

but with each character’s outcomes, I feel like there is a tying piece that connects to one of the biggest threads in the show - and that’s about the love for each other. it’s the love of el’s mom that helps her stop henry, it’s the love of her friends that she uses to guide her. it’s the love from her friends that saves max from vecna, the love from joyce (and jonathan) that saves will from both monsters that try to take him. el chooses love at every critical turn, never harm. kali has taken a dubious path, but it’s clear that she loves her sister, and that she cares about her and her friends - a driving force, even in her angry vengeance, that wills her to stop anyone from hurting them or others again. but with henry, that’s not a factor. his motives aren’t powered by care for others, despite trying to say that he was doing a righteous service - rather, he has rendered everyone at fault, calling humanity a ‘disease’ of which he wants to extinguish bc they did not understand him and he didn’t understand any of them. different from kali’s and not at all like el’s, he carries no compassion in his drive. he’s consumed entirely by vengeance and violence, and, in the end, it’s what costs him his (mortal) death.

there’s always more to dissect, but this has gone way past lengthy. I just wanted to touch on the fascinating dichotomy, of giving three characters very similar history but having it play out in various different directions, based on who those characters are at their core. anyone else is welcome to add-on and discuss!

[chuck-diaz]

the maldonado-diaz family !

CHUCK DIAZ

writer / burlesque club owner / trophy husband of oscar award winning actor kerry maldonado. chuck publishes his writing, mainly poetry, sometimes poetrusic, under the name of his alter ego nuwanda so most people outside of his inner circle don’t know it’s his. for someone who’d always sought so much attention it’s an odd choice but he likes the freedom it allows him in his work. his burlesque club hedonica was honestly just a purchase made on a whim when he was in one of his boredom spirals, but it’s doing rather well under blake’s management.

BLAKE DIAZ

super introvert, serially unattached. taken in by chuck as a wayward teenager many moons ago, recently legally adopted. that security, knowing he’s really truly part of the family now is slowly bringing him out of his shell and he doesn’t butt heads with the other dps kids so much anymore. hell, he might even go so far as to call them his friends. chuck gave him a job managing at hedonica and he’s never had that much responsibility before but it turns out he’s thriving.

wanted connections: burlesque performers / bartenders etc from the clerb, his favourite uber driver, someone who can get him to lighten the fuck uppppp idk idk

VAUGHN DIAZ

ravenwood lacrosse player / certified himbo. vaughn is an airhead but he’s never felt insecure about that fact because chuck has always taught him that intelligence isn’t a measure of a man, kindness is. so yeah he might not be book smart but he’s heart smart ok!!! he’s supportive and loving and bubbly and fun and all of that makes up for his habit of walking into glass doors.

wanted connections: ppl who appreciate that he is fat of ass and of heart and take one for the team by walking through glass doors first 🙏😌

SOLEIL DIAZ

a princess!!! journalism student. runs a popular rosewood street style instagram so you know your fit is hitting the spot if she stops you and asks for a pic. fully a daddy’s girl, always hanging out with chuck when she can. has been keeping secret journals of poetry since she was a kid, but certainly doesn’t consider it anything worth pursuing like her father. 

wanted connections: ride or die bff who sometimes gets a lil drunken kiss in the dark when they get home from the club 👀 

[somepeoplethinkimadyke]

To conclude 6 Underground was a dodgy movies with some good moments (one of those being Ben Hardy) and a humanitarian theme although it was extremely violent and action packed. The acting was pretty good even if the script writing and plot

However One (ryan Reynolds) is a fucking asshole of a billionaire who could have done so much more than ‘die’ and pretend to do something hands on. He abandoned his son for heavens sake and we’re not even given a reason, just that he’s super smart and thought he couldn’t actually make a difference with his money and that oooh maybe he’s an orphan when in actual fact he’s just an unattached asshole. He could have done so much more with his billions (ending a lot of poverty, climate change, healing the horrors in the US - I could go on) but no instead he went to a made up country in the middle east area and blew some stuff whilst saying lines from movies and thinking he’s funny with a group of ppl he doesn’t want to form attachments to bc he’s an asshole. The other members are lesser assholes bc he finds them and tells them some dodgy shit as if they’re going to be avenging antiheros changing the world and they have not much else to do - he legit kidnaps 4 (ben hardy), he guilt trips 3 into thinking he can be better, 2,5 and 6 were rather unspecific but lets be real it was probably something similar. 

[chelfierambles]

About my personal relationship with attachments

Some reflection and venting of long-held feelings I’m finally getting off my chest.  Disclaimer, this isn’t about starting discussion or discourse. And though some things I’m gonna say have unfortunately involved real ppl in my life, this isn’t about others as it is about myself and my own relationship to this topic.  So yeah, pls don’t comment. And frankly, I don’t even really care if anyone reads this, I just need to write this for myself and say it in defiance to myself for staying silent for so long.

So yeah getting right to it then . . . . .

 This is a topic I’ve been, for a very long time, too fearful to talk about publicly.  In a strange way it feels like a coming-out post... like at this point I’d be more comfortable telling someone I’m trans then talking about how...

I’m a very unattached person.  

And it’s a weird, seemingly ridiculous thing to be ashamed about! And yet it is something I’ve held a deep silent shame over despite it being a very integral part of who I am that I took for granted.  I’ve vented about this occasionally behind closed doors to just my sibling from time to time, thinking it was just something I was uncomfortable with, but UUUUuuuuuuuuh after getting a universal butt-kicking, I now realize those little vents and rants weren’t little.  It was a serious sign that subconsciously, I was unhappy with something going on that I was unable to see at the time.

But what do I mean by unattached?     

By that I mean how much do you want to hold on to something? People, things, ideas and ideals.  Generally, I’m very stubborn with doing things a certain way, but when it no longer suits me, I have little trouble to make a complete 180 overnight.  Like as a kid I’d wear my hair a certain way for years, then one day, I just felt like cutting it and cut it off one day and just showed up with all of it chopped off. Cuz I felt like it.  That kind of attitude. I roll with things.  

And yeah that sounds fine and all, but then it gets sticky when people are involved. Both others, myself, things I’ve perceived about myself, how things are supposed or “should” be, think or feel. What’s the right or wrong way of doing things? I think there’s a tangled mess I got caught up with that made me ignore the kind of person I really am.   I had to end a close friendship I really cared about recently. Things happened. Things I felt wronged by. Things I fucked up (big time). And I look at it now and realize that so much of the issues wasn’t even about what happened but what has been underlying for a long time that I just couldn’t see until the whole mess unearthed everything about myself I never wanted to admit.  

Now I look back at it and I feel like a lot of my frustrations were born from me at a subconscious level already trying to leave a dynamic I wasn’t happy with and felt trapped by.  And it’s that dynamic of attachment that comes in different forms and different names.  

There’s several factors I think were at play.  My own standards I upheld myself to, my subconcious methods of interaction, and messages I internalized from outside and media representation.  For my own standards, I had my own rules to uphold for “How to be a good friend” that I followed by.  Always do your best, communicate, listen to what troubles the other person and when helping, try helping at the source as opposed to surface level comfort etc. Nothing wrong with this, but ultimately I wasn’t really good at figuring out when my own boundaries were being crossed by giving too much of myself (gotten better but still got a ways to go) or compromising on things I thought were compromiseable but now I realize actually... weren’t.   For interacting with others, I’ve always had a tendency to mirror. What you give me is what I give back.  Also sounds harmless. But once again, I realize by mirroring... I’m not actually behaving as I naturally would. I’m giving what I perceive is wanted on the other end. For someone who has a history of identity issues, this... is not ok to do to myself.   And then lastly, media representation. oh I have a bone to pick with this. I read so much bl so this trope is rampant, but I suppose this occurs in a lot of romance tropes in general. But... SO OFTEN is it portrayed that clingy jealous behavior is perceived as cute, a sign that someone really cares.  And whenever I read that I think about if it were to happen to me, I would nope so fast out of there. I don’t want to be clung on to by anybody.  If someone were to be jealous and possessive over me, I would feel trapped and chained up.  But it’s just happening so often in those narratives that all I see over and over again is someone being clingy and possessive is romantic. HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn no. no it isn’t for me.   [Short side tangent here, this is not at all dissing these traits.  I’m not criticizing people who have these traits. I’m just saying how it’s not me, and not for me. ]

But ppl have different ways of showing affection. So what happens now when, I got my view of sticking by loyally and being good friend, while mirroring *someone else’s* means of affection, while getting messages over and over again that TO SHOW SOMEONE YOU CARE YOU HAVE TO SHOW HOW ATTACHED YOU ARE.   And being a good friend, having so early on hearing the other person’s fears of abandonment as: listen to friend’s woes, attack at source --> fear of abandonment means don’t do anything that can be perceived as abandonment --> WELP. CUE SWEATING NERVOUSLY AND SHOVE AWAY THAT DETAIL DEEP DOWN I’M NOT VERY ATTACHED TO THINGS IN GENERAL. And yes. People too. The closest people in my life, if life were to separate us, sure I can get lonely and miss people, (and I am very passionate with my feelings) But I go with the situation that’s in front of me. And so long as I know the other party is doing alright, I’m ok going on my merry way. I just want the best for the people around me, even if I’m not involved in it.  Best example of this, in grade school I had my close knit group of 3 other friends.  Like this was my besties group.  Come time for the first big decision of choosing a high school, *I CHOSE* to go to a different school than my other three friends who wanted to stick together.  I went with the school that seemed right for me. Like... that’s me.  I don’t have problems separating even from my closest family and friends.  

But now I just see... because I REALLY did care how the other person felt. because I REALLY did want to be the best person and friend I could possibly be. I wanted to make this person as happy as I could and ultimately that meant... not being true to myself. Because I was so so ashamed to admit that I just... didn’t care about things in the same way.  I was ashamed to not be the same. And during a really bad time, I’ve developed a feeling of responsibility over negative consequences that could happen if I slipped up.  I think that additional fear of what could happen and possibly physical harm or loss happening really solidified the need to hide these aspects of myself and this was the hardest to let go.   But as I’ve been working on myself for a while now, trying to becoming more true to myself,  and the more I do, the less I have been able to handle and go about things the way I used to.  Because thinking about it... it’s just such a fucked up thing TO DO TO MYSELF.  And I’m tired of living that way.  I’m tired of my own shit. Tired of thinking there’s something wrong with me because I don’t feel very attached even to the closest of people. And, true to my non-attached fashion, even my own ideals, I will throw them out overnight if they no longer work for me.  So that’s why, I’m spiting myself. The self that was too scared to say any of this. I’m going to just say it unapologetically. Get it out so I can finally move on.  I might have to relearn a lot of how I go about doing things now but I’m rather hopeful.  Once again proven that the more I do for myself the better it will be for the people around me anyway so I can avoid making the same mistakes again and communicate better (and faster if I actually.. ya know.. know what I want and don’t want).  I don’t want to live for anyone else anymore, I just want to live for myself, and live honestly. Own the fact I’m an un-attached person. Own the fact I roll and flow with whatever life brings. Never compromise on how important my space is to me.  Never compromise my own freedom.  Go back to being who I truly am.   AND HEY ZODIAC PEEPS SHOUTOUT TO FELLOW VENUS IN AQUARIUS! (<-- and that my friends, is the punchline to all this WHY THIS IS KINDA HILARIOUS) So yeah, that’s my spiel.  Get it out so I can let all this go and go back to just having fun again.  

[jongace]

some ppl say that idolisation is dehumanisation and i mean, it can be if you idealise someone to be like, an otherworldly, perfect being, but.. (now onto my main (not unrelated but still a bit different) point) the thing about jd is that he really genuinely feels like a normal guy who happens to like singing and suddenly got wrapped up in being in a bestselling, record-breaking pop group lol. i know it’s probably partly because when you follow a group and their activities for so long you see sides of their more ordinary life, but somehow jd is even more so (to me) than the other members. like he’s just a guy who is passionate about music and wants to sing as a profession, but is like... idk unattached to the ~idol~ side of things; he doesn’t seem to view himself as a celebrity to the same degree as his peers. and like, in his free time he mostly just stays at home and does normal ppl things, he doesn’t engage in celebrity lifestyle or even promote himself (he doesnt even have social media accs lol). (i guess this is one of the things that makes his solo, albeit eagerly awaited, somewhat strange to think about)

this is not a complaint in any way - i like how grounded he is, it somehow makes him seem so, idk, reachable? but ofc he isn’t, which is a lil depressing lol. and i know he really worked hard to become a member and debut (like i’m not trying to make it seem like he just randomly happened to become part of it), but it kinda feels like he just did it to sing and is not that interested in the ‘being famous’ side to it? i’m not saying that any of the others are shallow or anything like that, in fact they are commendable in the way that they are probably more dedicated to being idols than he lmao. the only one similar to him is ks (and possibly ms) but he’s got such a skyrocketing actor career (where he hangs with the big shots) that makes it hard to see him as this totally normal dude imo. anyway i don’t know where i’m going with this but it is one of the reasons to why i like him (and also why it can sometimes hurt lmao)