#people will say 'you can't prove that's real' but will believe in a higher being that they can't prove is real beyond personal faith

[toytowns]

IDK how to explain to people that loudly proclaim 'astrology is fake and has no value' that there's like... several different and culturally significant traditions and that it's a very important subject just like alchemy because it birthed the study of the stars, mathematics, meteorology and timekeeping etc

[swe3tcoffe3]

Theatre Theory: Why Frisk Can't Be A Vessel Controlled By A Player (And How The Player Can Still Be Canon)

I often see people talk about the existence of a Player in Undertale. Specifically, people insisting that the REAL protagonist of Undertale is The Player, that Frisk is a non-character, a blank-slate vessel controlled by us who follows our whims; in short, a more compliant Kris. In this post I will set out to, as succinctly as possible, explain why this interpretation is just wrong, and that Frisk cannot be possessed by a Player at any point during Undertale (but that doesn't mean The Player isn't canon).

First of all, let us define how 'possession' works within the context of UTDR lore, and specifically what it means. 'Possession' refers to a state in which the person in question is unable to make decisions for themselves and is instead puppetted by a higher power who has taken over their Soul (specifically The Player, according to our current knowledge that is. It is unknown if other people are capable of this as of now). Our main example of this is Kris who rebels against our control several times throughout Deltarune.

However, The Player can't just possess anyone they feel like; this isn't a power that they possess. A connection must be established between host and Player (hence why it is also referred to as a 'connection' sometimes), one that is facilitated by a third party, someone who also is responsible for our save files. Without the help of this third party a Player cannot possess a person.

Using this knowledge and definition and taking a look at Frisk reveals that they don't match this criteria. There is nothing in Undertale that suggests the existence of any third party helping us establish a connection to the game's world, and we are explicitly told several times throughout the game that the save file belongs to Frisk, not The Player nor a third party managing things for us.

(Keep in mind that 'you' usually refers to Frisk within the context of UT)

This therefore leaves two possibilities:

1. Frisk is possessed, possession just works differently in UT than in DR

2. The Player is not possessing Frisk

In order for option 1 to be true sufficient proof must be put forward to show that Frisk is possessed in the first place via a different method, either by instances of them showing resistance or through dialogue about them being strange or off.

This scene is the only proof of something like this occurring, as Frisk ignores an inputted command. However, this isn't enough to prove that Frisk is possessed, as there are several possible alternative interpretations for what this could mean. It could be proof of Frisk being possessed and that this might be them rebelling against our control in this moment. It could also be Frisk choosing to ignore an inputted command if you believe that The Player is merely a spiritual guide and not directly possessing Frisk, and so subtly different to Kris' acts of rebellion. It could also be neither, with this dialogue only serving to set an eerie tone. It is an inherently ambiguous line open to several interpretations, leaving us back in the same situation with two possibilities once more: either Frisk is possessed in a way unique to Undertale, or they aren't.

And this leads me on to my final point on this matter, and the main reason why I personally believe interpreting Frisk as a vessel is wrong, and that is the narrative for both games.

Firstly, Undertale's diagetic Player possession, assuming that it is true, would be entirely redundant, simply because Frisk with their "because they can, they have to" attitude, would be fine with any route being done, so no additional drama or turmoil can be added by forcing them to do things they don't want to, simply because they'd still want to do whatever; they simply don't care. Frisk being possessed adds nothing to the narrative.

And while it can be argued that Sans' dialogue refers to The Player here, I'd say that by proxy it MUST also apply to Frisk too, given that they show no resistance to any of this (and even seem to revel in it, given the fact they willingly eat the Snowman alive of their own volition, and this is pretty early on into the Geno Route):

Contrast this with Kris, who has a strong moral compass and expresses clear distress about their predicament, and so their possession is able to create a more interesting plot and dynamic between Vessel and Player.

The Player existing in Undertale also contradicts Deltarune's metanarrative, and to proper illustrate how, I must first present to you an alternative to the 'possessed Frisk' proposal so that everything that comes after that makes more sense.

Imagine an interactive theatre play. The characters can interact with the audience and the audience can call out to them, yes, but the two are ultimately separate from one another, even if some characters may break the fourth wall on occasion. These characters may give long soliloquies to the audience, heartfelt pleas and speeches, but ultimately, the audience will never get to be a part of their world, regardless of how much they may love the play. This theatre play is Undertale. The audience is The Player.

Our instructions to Frisk are nothing more than us calling out to Frisk in the play; they then respond however they wish to. Flowey's and Chara's speeches happen within universe yes, but are also simultaneously fourth wall breaks where they speak to 'the audience'.

But the audience wants more. They want nothing more than to be a part of the play. They want to be part of the play's world, a character in the story.

This is when the devil appears, offering a  'survey program'. The audience may not be able to be part of this play, but they can be part of another one. They can be a character. The main character. They can have all the adventures they want, all the fun they want. They need only accept everything that happens from that point on.

The Player is diagetic to Deltarune because they wanted to be part of Undertale's world, but couldn't, so they became part of the next best thing. That's why they accept Gaster's offer in the first place, because they WANT to live in that world. It's their own form of escapism. In many ways, they parallel the Lightners in their love for fantasy and indulgence in it, who also want to share a world with their Darkner friends.

This is the heart of the conflict in Deltarune as a whole, especially our conflict with Kris, who wants to be free from our control but we The Player want to stay in their world to continue in our escapism. In a way, this is Deltarune's purpose: it's the next step for an unsatisfied player who wanted to join their beloved characters, a 'sequel' that isn't quite a sequel, if that makes sense. A way for their fantasies about joining their beloved world's realm to be real, and (most likely) one we must come to accept is impossible. Fiction cannot replace reality after all.

If the Player was controlling Frisk in Undertale, then all of this meta is ultimately pointless. There would be no need for Gaster to offer us his program if everything we already wanted (that is, to be diagetic and part of our favourite world) was already achievable in base Undertale.

In fact, The Player would actually be discouraged from accepting the survey program because Undertale would also grant The Player far fewer restrictions in what they can do and achieve within the game; they aren't necessarily discouraged from playing like they are in DR.

And this is the main reason why I believe Frisk cannot be a vessel, because Frisk being a vessel defeats the entire purpose of the message Deltarune is trying to say.

(Adding this last paragraph in at the end because I picked up Homestuck midway through creating this post and I feel like it's important to mention this, but a better analogy would probably just be Homestuck. There are these characters called "exiles" who can communicate with the players of "the game" known by the humans as Sburb. They can input commands to them that the players can either follow or ignore, and can also watch over this player, but are "exiled" or separated from this world. This is almost identical to what is happening with Frisk, according to this theory)

[autisticaradiamegido]

day 86

do any of yall ever have like. an Evil infodump? where instead of endlessly word vomiting about a thing you love and are very informed about, there is a thing you are equally well-informed about but hate with a passion that you cannot hold back in conversation?

i do :')

(I'll put it under the cut for the curious because I think it's important and i cannot be stopped but also i'm not kidding the facts are infuriating)

SO. "Homeopathic" is often interpreted as sort of a vague synonym for "natural," or "organic," but it's actually related to a system of alternative medicine that means something Very Specific.

There are two main principles behind the practice of Homeopathy.

"Like cures like." This is the idea that, for example, if you have a headache, taking a veeeery small amount of a substance that is known to CAUSE headaches will cure that symptom. I understand where people fall into this flawed idea, as it sounds very similar to the principles behind, say, vaccines, or antivenom. But it isn't universally applicable in this way. An herb isn't a virus. But even if it was, a Homeopathic preparation of that herb would not have any effect on the body because of the second principle.

"Water has memory." This is the idea that water is able to "remember" any substance that it has had contact with. This is also not true. Molecules don't really have any way to store information like that, and even if they did, well... What would that information do inside our bodies? Would our cells have any way to interpret and process that information? What would they do with it? It's all rather nebulous and it seems like more of a spiritual claim than a scientific one. Which is fine, but is not medicine.

So, with these principles in mind, the process of creating a "Homeopathic Preparation of [insert substance here]" goes a little something like this: You take a dropper and put one drop of your active substance in a container with a hundred drops of water. You then take a drop of that mixture, and put it in another container with another hundred drops of water. You continue this dilution process until there is, quite literally, a near-zero percent chance that your mixture contains even a single molecule of your original active substance (depending on the level of dilution believed to be best for the substance in question. Typically, a higher dilution is considered more potent.) So it is, by this point, literally just a vial of water.

This vial of water is what is then sold as a "Homeopathic preparation of [substance]." OR that water is used to compound a batch of sugar pills, or gel capsules, or tablets, whatever format is being offered. Regardless, the composition of the tincture is literally just water and ~*vibes*~.

And they sell these vials of expensive vibe water! At!!!

THE PHARMACY!!! WITH LIKE THE IBUPROFEN AND ALL THE OTHER REAL MEDICINES!!! AND NO BIG WARNING LABELS THAT SAY, "THIS CONTAINS NO ACTIVE INGREDIENTS AND IS BASED ON VIBES ALONE," OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT!!

In fact! In the US they are able to advertise that they have been FDA approved! (FDA approval of dietary supplements is not the same as FDA approval of actual medications. In the context of supplements, approval just means they've proved it won't just kill you straight up, and thus you're allowed to sell it.) And, well. It certainly won't kill you! In fact they often also advertise things like, "It's natural!" and "No harmful side effects!" and "No risk of overdose!" and it's all technically true! BECAUSE IT'S JUST WATER! LIKE I CAN'T STRESS ENOUGH HOW IT'S LITERALLY JUST WATER!!!

Anyway. Please keep this in mind the next time you are offered a homeopathic remedy, or see one advertised in the store, or hear your antivaxxer auntie bragging about the fact that her kids all got a "homeopathic" alternative to their MMR shots.

IT'S! JUST! VIBE WATER!!!!

[drbased]

Does it ever make you ever feel depressed that men have more variation in IQ? That means even though there will always be more male idiots, there will also be more male geniuses. So women can excel in any field, but a man will almost always be the "best" in it. It just makes me feel inferior every time I think about it, way more than strength difference does. Not only that, but they also have higher variation in all types of brain structure. That would mean men are naturally more diverse, personality-wise.

Sometimes I get into these negative thought processes about stupid shit and it totally consumes me. This is my latest one... Please help

Hmm.

Well firstly, IQ is a completely fake concept designed specifically for eugenicist purposes. You can train for an IQ test, your score can change depending on the day, and your score doesn’t mean anything apart from how good you are at IQ tests. It’s not a measure of intelligence, and ‘intelligence’ isn’t real anyway - as in, there is no such quality of uniform intelligence. I think it stands to reason that the highest IQ scores will be from men, because the tests are constructed around a fundamentally male world-view and value system as well as a white one. And that is what depresses me more - that ‘intelligence’ is viewed as some innate quality that only oppressors can possess so they can prove that they deserve their place in a meritocracy. It’s like that controversy about men winning more at Jeopardy than women - the world is structured around male interests and values, so men achieve in mainstream contests and use that to retroactively justify the legitimacy of those values and interests in the culture.

I’m less interested in the concept of a man beating a woman at certain activities because of him being smarter than her, than I am about him beating her because he's socialised from a young age into enjoying and valuing those activities - but also often regardless of his actual performance, he's also by default assumed to be better and more competent than her purely because he's a man. Take for example that study where when they did blind auditions for orchestras, men still got in more than women, but when they put carpeting down so women's heels couldn't be heard, there was finally a more equal ratio of women getting in. Or those studies where identical CVs given out and names that are typical of women, black people etc. get seen as less competent than those with male and white names.

We don't live in a world where we can objectively measure men's 'natural' abilities at anything psychological. But we do live in a world where we know that women's skills are massively undervalued - women have all sorts of intelligences that make the world run round; we're excellent negotiators, we're less violent, we're great at remembering, we have greater compassion, we make good leaders, we are more responsible, we have greater tact, we are safer in the workplace, we're more conscious of social issues and the environment, etc. etc. And none of what we have is seen as 'intelligence'; in fact, quite the opposite - many of our intelligences are dismissed outright as sentimentality and pearl-clutching.

Once again, though, I don't believe these traits are uniform across all women, or that they're 'natural' to us, just as men's traits aren't 'natural' to them. In the nature-nurture debate, there are too many factors in nurture that can't be realistically measured - and I have a suspicion that for many, feminists included, simply saying that men and women naturally possess certain traits is an easier narrative to swallow, because for many women the fear exists that if men can be socialised to be better, then dismissing them as evil would be morally wrong. But I don't think people need to be intrinsically, ontologically evil for us to dismiss them as oppressors - I simply judge by behaviour, which is more measurable.

Going back to intelligence, I think it's also worth saying here that women are socialised into not recognised or appreciating our skills, and to partake in behaviours that psychologically hobble us. Take for example in that orchestra study - under a feminist lens, wearing heels is a form of hobbling that's both literal and psychological. The woman is performing a feminine ritual, wearing a physically debilitating item that submissively marks her as a woman. Not to say that she would be respected more if she was gnc, but I find it interesting how women accidentally lost their spot on the orchestra in the study because their performative clothing made them noisier and easier to recognise as women. And on top of that, we have stereotype threat - there was a study done where men and women were performing some sort of test, and in one half they were in normal clothes, and the second they were in swimwear. In the second one, women performed more poorly than they did in the first, and men saw no change. Once again, we have two inexorably interlinked factors at play, here - women's swimwear is not built for utility but rather to be sexy, and women's bodies are considered inherently sexual; that's not to say that if women were wearing men's swimwear they'd do better at the test, but rather women are socialised to be self-conscious of themselves but also expected to show more skin - we're expected to dumb ourselves down in the name of being sexy.

The upside in all of this is that the moment you recognise that these things aren't set in stone, and rather that these are all skills you can develop if you gain confidence in yourself, you develop a robust sense of self that you can be comfortable and happy with regardless of external measure of male-approved success. I, for example, found confidence in myself and my writing, and now I'm finding success and getting praise online by women on tumblr. It seems you're best finding yourself environments surrounded by other women, especially feminist-minded women who are consciously choosing to fight against established biases by valuing the skills of women that are undervalued by society. Devaluing male interests and achievements in your own head is something you can also do, and I once again recommend feminist spaces as an excellent opportunity to de-program (obligatory plug for my side blog @learningwomanhood where I do exactly that).

For me, the biggest wisdom to be gained from feminism is the psychological distancing yourself from male thought - the more things you reject that you once unthinkingly believed to be normal, the more you feel that you can truly be human, vibrant, unconstrained; and the more silly the whole enterprise of patriarchy looks. It's not nice that rejecting patriarchy means rejecting mainstream society, but the older you get the more you realise that you simply can't dwell on these things and instead have to do what benefits you within it; nobody is owed a perfect existence, and once you realise that you have to choose a life for yourself and choose to be happy with that, your life will be much more comfortable. In the end, life is all about the gestures of love you make to yourself and others. When you realise that it's your job to be your own best friend, you can carry that energy with you your whole life; you will be inpenetrable because all that matters to you, no matter what situation you're going through or what hell you're in, is that you made decisions that showed love to yourself. That could be considered a form of intelligence - perhaps wisdom itself is a form of intelligence that is devalued specifically because it's female-coded. But wisdom sounds like nothing until you internalise it - all the language in the world can't seem to really get to its essence until something inside you clicks and you understand it.

One thing I would like to say is that those negative thought processes you have are not stupid: they are a valuable part of your processing of the world and are worth attention. We have this cultural idea that with regards to mental health, the parts of us that are 'real' and 'valid' and 'truly us' are all the good parts, and the negative thought processes and patterns of behaviour are like cancerous tumours that need to be artifically removed. One of the best things I ever did for myself is to take myself seriously - because that's my prerogative, as myself and my own best friend. The only thing 'bad' thing about those thought processes is that they cause you distress; that's it. So, then, it's up to you to decide how much you want to indulge in them. I find the best way to really tackle unpleasant behavioural patterns is to simply do them shamelessly, because clearly a part of you wants to do them anyway; one of the first ways I got out of my depressive spirals was to decide that I was going to do all the depressive actions (stay in bed, eat junk food etc.) but simply embrace that those are things I want to do and not feel guilty or sad about it. That way, the depression hasn't consumed me and instead I have made a choice - I have reformed my relationship with myself as an active agent and a made a choice to show love for myself through the gesture of taking my desires seriously, not dismissing them as 'mentally ill'. I could go on but the point is that all of your head is necessarily you - as in, it doesn't come from anywhere else but you, and therefore all of it should be respected and valued. Mainstream society won't tell you that - there's always supposed to be a limit, there's always something that's 'unhealthy' in some sort of metaphysical sense, there's always a part of you that's supposed to be beholden to some external standard, that keeps you feeling insecure and needing validation. But there is no true objective measure of a healthy mind; the only thing that matters is if you're comfortable with yourself, and you can always make gestures of love to yourself regardless of your situation.

[ryuusei-ryka]

I emerge from my grave to post a theory about MILGRAM

Hello hello everyone! I don't know how many of you will see this post due to my avoidance of social media these past years and thus my absolute ignorance about every possible change in this site.

ANYHOW let's get down to business.

I am going to write this post because I made my boyfriend (who does not use tumblr) catch up to MILGRAM's second trial and while I was teaching him about some fan theories he said something that I'm not sure I'll believe, but BOY isn't that interesting. So I thought it would be cool to share with other people and hear their thoughts.

Now, as the cool kids say, theory under the cut (?).

A necessary premise to do is that this theory is built on another one (that I can't find so please if you happen to have the link to the post, give it to me so that I can put it here!) that says Kotoko's murder is actually an indirect one.

If I recall correctly without missing anything important, this thesis exists due to Deep Cover being so vague about the murder and on a specific official picture, this one:

We can clearly see Haruka, Muu, Shido, Amane and Mikoto on one side and Yuno, Fuuta, Mahiru, Kazui and Kotoko on the other. Being that the first column murders are all direct (choking, cutterknife in the gut, dissection, crashing head with a mace/bat) and the second one's are all indirect (abortion, cyberbullying, toxic love, miscommunication), Kotoko being there could imply that hers too is an indirect murder.

I'm not fond on this theory tbh (just based on my guts and my perception of the girl), especially because here they're all just arranged to make a "snake" following their numbers (Haruka on the bottom left -> Yuno on the bottom right -> Fuuta besides her higher on the right -> back on the left side with Muu -> up left with Shidou... and so on, I hope the gist's clear skfvnfk). Surely there is a reason behind the "snake" arrangement given how MILGRAM is so keen on hidden details, but the direct/indirect murder thing? Not my two cents (but it'd be super cool to be proven wrong of course).

Another thing worth mentioning for the sake of this post is the very first (?) theory about MILGRAM, aka Es as the 11th prisoner. I don't want to be negative, but I'm not fond on this one either- that's just because it would be so predictable that, eh, it'd make me a bit sad.

SO, all this premise is to get to THIS POST's theory.

What if the real prison pairs are 0102, 0304, 0506, 0708, 0909 and 1011? Let me elaborate a bit.

Every couple from 0102 to 0708 has allegedly (MILGRAM may prove everything wrong of course) one indirect and one direct murder, fact. At the same time we all know that prisoner 09 is a system, so there are at least two people in there, one being "clueless" Mikoto, one being "violent" John (I'm putting it simply, I'm not symplifying everything due to disrespect, I swear).

So, theory is: what if Mikoto's system represents both direct and indirect murder, while Kotoko represents direct murder because Es (aka we) represesents the indirect one?

I've seen a theory stating that the real prisoner in Milgram is not Mikoto, not John (as we have seen in their first VD), but it's actually Midokoto (not elaborating because I'm pretty sure you're all aware of the threekoto theory). That'd be because even if John may be the one doing the killing (not considering it may very well be Mikoto himself tbf), Midokoto most likely is the gatekeeper of the system. That means HE is the one in charge of deciding the alter that fronts, thus letting John/Mikoto swap and, well, crash someone's head with a bat. Knowing Milgram as far as we've seen it, it's not absurd that it would consider Midokoto the "mastermind" of the action, having then the "culprit" of indirect murder and the one that phisically did it both in one body.

So then, Kotoko is very likely (at least in my opinion) to have killed in a very phisical way as well. We still don't really know her story nor her victim but, assuming it's not the CEO son she reads about nor the guy we see on the floor both in HARROW and Deep Cover, vigilantes usually take very direct actions as far as I know. It's easy for someone so blinded by their belief to take a step further and, well, overstep.

Es, on the other hand, is the guard of Milgram, but it's pristine they know... as much as the prisoners, basically? They hear Jackalope and all, yeah, but... they're still part of the experiment/whatever it is (so maybe this theory may work even if Es is not the 11th prisoner, as long as they're part of the experiment). The first trial ended substantially well if we think that everyone survived, but we know nothing about what will happen now that the second one has ended. Probably (hopefully) Kotoko won't be able to lash on the unforgiven prisoners, but what if Haruka manages to k*ll himself? That'd be a death "caused" by Es judgement... fulfilling the indirect murder requirement [and making everyone who ever voted a ~ murderer ~ (to Milgram's eyes, ofc)].

I don't know if any of this is plausible nor anything about Kotoko's murder, so it may very well be just something silly... but I thought it was super interesting, so I wanted to share it!

Feel free to reply/write to me to share your opinion!

[fareehaandspaniards]

All 20 unhinged prompts for Maria Ushiromiya + A wildcard: Would this kid be an iPad baby if she were born in our time?

( @izunias-meme-hole )

Unhinged prompts

Maria Ushiromiya????!! Okay! I'll do my best to answer

1. How do you think this character would fare in a zombie apocalypse?

Die third probably (After some relatives). I think her out-of-the-box thinking will get her through the first day or two. But... too young, too naive and spends too much time in her own imagination :Р

2. Favorite hc for this character?

If Maria had grown up, it would have been a truly femme fatale around the age of 25! She would have been independent of people (because she is already used to being alone and with her magical friends), complex, intelligent, and probably wouldn't see men as anything more than entertainment because of her father who abandoned her and Rosa. She would be the opposite of Rosa :P

3. Make me a hc about [insert topic]

Hmmm... I have not so many headcanons about her and since you didn't choose the topic...

Food! Maria isn't picky with food, and also, despite living with her mother, is quite capable of cooking something for herself, and in general can live independently at the age of nine. But only if she has to. If someone else is around, she will dump the responsibility for herself on someone else xd

4. What snacks is this character getting at the movie theater? Where are they sitting? Do they turn off their phone or are they a criminal?

I don't think Maria needs snacks while watching, much less a phone! :D I think she is able to immerse herself in the movie to the point where she can see it as reality. Hence, food or extraneous noises will distract her

5. How would this character act on social media?

Maria is an adept of holywars in commenting on everything….. She has her irrefutable opinion, and she will prove it to you for five hours, even if she is wrong…. And her blog would be cottagecore style and overall very cute <3 The main thing is to remember to agree with her

6. How would this character answer the trolley problem? Then how would they actually act if faced with it?

MARIA CAN'T BE ASKED TO SOLVE THESE PROBLEMS, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND. She will probably create such an unbelievable scenario that from the trolley problem you will come to a situation of her demon army taking over the world.

If she were faced with such a problem, I think…. She would panic, but she would save one person, her loved one, instead of several others…. and she wouldn't regret it!

7. What’s your favorite thing about this character?

Well… I can't say we're alike, but I too was a kid who spent all my time in my imagination. I was so caught up in the game that I didn't notice my parents around while my dolls ran back and forth and tackled scary obstacles. So I can imagine how important her imaginary world of witches is to her, and why she treasures it so much. Even if she becomes convinced it's all Beatrice's fiction, she'll still hold a little piece of faith deep in her heart that it was all real

I love how Maria is shown from completely different angles. I love exploring child characters, and I didn't expect Maria to be so unusual and fascinating in the manga

8. What would this character’s favorite kind of weather be?

Absolutely definitely a thunderstorm with heavy rain! So everyone is sitting at home and Maria is enjoying the company and family coziness :3

9. How far would this character get attempting to climb Mount Everest?

THIS GIRL is gonna climb Everest!!! She will just deal with all the difficulties with her imagination, and in the end she won't even notice them. As long as her head believes that Sakutaro is helping her climb higher, she'll be able to handle anything

10. How would this character feel about [insert topic]?

Boom, randomizer said: topic is internet!

Maria would probably like to have some influence on the internet. You know, have her own channel, blog, community, uh, something else, and be in charge of it. You know, if she and Ange started some project together, they wouldn't be able to finish it as they would fight forever for leadership haha, just like with magic. I think Maria is the kind of person who would try to gather like-minded people around her, but would be interested in too narrow of topics to really have fans and followers

11. Forget the sex or die trope. This character must attempt to rob a bank or they will die. Do they succeed/how much do they get? (If you have extra time, what’s their plan? Who is their crew?)

Of course she will rob a bank XD And she will do it in a very lavish, bright and pompous way!!!! There will be fireworks, people in different costumes, shooting and many other things. Her gang will consist of an army of beasties, Sakutaro and Beatrice

12. This character suddenly finds themself on the titanic. Do they survive?

Yea. She was among the first on the lifeboat and didn't even realize how it happened herself

13. Shopping timeeee what outfit/style of outfit does this character put together?

But that's probably for an adult Maria….. She wouldn't be afraid to look “weird” in public, so she'd probably be dressed either like this ^ or something very colorful

14. This character comes suddenly face to face with a dragon. Befriend or slay?

Befriend! :D

15. This character is sent a scam email by the fae requesting they type in their name for a free prize. Do they fall for it?

She does, she does!!! Well, the first time XD And then she'll probably read a spell to give the offender diarrhea for two weeks.

16. What hurts this character the most emotionally?

Trying to smash and destroy her little miracle of magic! You know, there are those people who will prove to you that what you thought was luck or blessing (or magic) can actually be easily explained by science and math and shit. And they don't care if your little miracle makes you happy. Oh, it's people like that who can break her sensitive heart. Aaaaand Rosa

17. What gives this character the most comfort?

Support. Also when everyone around is in a good mood. She doesn't have to be afraid or worry about others, she can live a little in her world and try to find happiness with the help of magic once again

18. If this character is from a more modern setting, how do they fare when dropped unceremoniously with no warning into the middle ages? Or if they’re from a more fantasy/old timey setting, the other way around? You get the idea

I can't make up my mind XD on one hand, Maria is quite capable of taking over the kingdom by becoming a court wizard or something. I think she would be VERY convincing regarding her magic. And on the other hand - you know, little girls better not go alone in medieval times :0 She'll either become a saint, or a head warlock, or die very quickly

19. This character received a mysterious package in the mail containing a genie lamp. 3 wishes, the usual rules, go!

Oh okay. The first is to make sure mom never gets taken over by an evil witch again! Two, that everyone believes in magic with Maria. And three, I don't even know. Either daddy's return or something tangible like toys or candy. And MAYBE a magic wand that would allow Maria to control everyone around her!

20. This character is being marooned by pirates on a deserted island and the pirates say they’re allowed to bring three things to the island. What do they bring?

Sakutaro, dark magic grimoire and mom...? Mom can be a thing for her in some sense, I think. Well...

21. A wildcard: Would this kid be an iPad baby if she were born in our time?

Unlikely… Gadgets can replace the play of imagination, and Rosa would likely have been desperate to soothe Maria precisely with an iPad like so many irresponsible parents do. But Maria is too intelligent and independent to lose her mind in silly toys and cartoons. If she had used a cell phone or an iPad, it would have made her imagination even stronger! But it wouldn't have made her forget about regular games and entertainment! I think Maria would be great in Minecraft

[raymurata]

So who's your most problematic one?

Okay. So I've done Alec, Kelp, and Oak, so really the only one left is Tarlyn, who I honestly think is indeed my most problematic guy (gender neutral)

First of all, he's dead. Best get this out of the way. He is doomed by the narrative and bitches would die mad about it.

Then, let's talk about "guy (gender neutral)". He's an nb amab character who never questioned his gender and therefore used he/him all his life, so basically we're all misgendering him somehow so this is problematic.

His whole story is dark and edgy and awfully problematic. This sad wet rag of a boy covered in glitter never had a break; he was tormented by his mother his whole life and he never stopped loving her.

And that's not even touching on his actions yet. This anxious pixie nightmare boy is a spoiled LIL BITCH who thinks (or at least acts) like he's larger than life and better than everyone because that's the only way he can cope with his loneliness, looking at everyone as if they are beneath him. He is an arrogant bastard who genuinely thinks his nobility means he is entitled to his luxury, and that his intelligence makes him superior, and that his command of magic makes him deserving of accolades and applause and praise. But that's just to cover up his abysmal lack of self esteem, his vulnerability and his need for connection.

He is never nice to other people unless they're of higher status than him, or important in some way, otherwise he is either catty and rude or just uninterested and aloof. He unknowingly yearns for someone to love him (granted, abuse has made him incapable of identifying, let alone giving love), but whenever someone is nice in any way, he can't believe it is real and reads it as interest, as them wanting something in return. He reduces everyone into shrewd social-climbers in his eyes (thus insulting them) bc that's what his family is.

He insults his servants, he wears blood jewelry (and a bunch of it), he is vain and petty and snobbish and finicky, he uses magic to spy on people, he never prepared a single meal in his entire 150 years of life, he was over 100 years old when he started questioning whether it was really true that short-lived races are inferior to elves. He is a poor little meow meow born and raised and abused by multimillionaire right wing conservatives. My boy Tarlyn would vocally defend Trump in a modern au, what more do you need me to say? He is Problematic.

He spends a lot of time overthinking and questioning his family in his mind, but he never actually does anything to change shit.

Negative intervention wizard all the way. He doesn't start bullying anyone, but his friends do and they count on his magic to execute it, and he delivers. He was witness to {redacted}, designed a destructive magical item to be used by foot soldiers in an attack against the neighbouring nation, witnessed workers being gravely injured in his family's mines, and possibly even more! What other shit will we discover Tarlyn did?? The horrors are not over yet weeee!

And then, to escape all this shit, this extremely romantic asexual bitch (who needs to like someone to enjoy sex with them) seeks out sex with randos!! Because he is so lonely and he copies his jackass friends and his jackass brother and he is a people pleaser and he doesn't know how to set boundaries.... But he is so intelligent he convinces himself love is not real (he's never fucking seen it! Only in fiction! So it must!!! Be!!! Fake!!!!) and that he does want sex, when in reality he wants kisses and cuddles.... And he keeps getting in (or remaining in) these situations where he just proves it to himself that people only want to use him/his body/his magic/his position (whether that's true or not, he always manages to see it that way), thus confirming his cynical expectations and keeping himself miserable.

And that's not mentioning {redacted}.

Tarlyn wins my Problematic OC of the Decade Award!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉

[kitkatopinions]

Thought I was done, but I have more to say: This isn't directed at anyone in particular, please don't use this as an excuse to send anons or blame people or anything

I think a problem in the discussion about Blake's bisexuality is that some people are viewing her like she is a real person who stands on her own, and other people (like me) are viewing her as a fictional character and seeing the writing surrounding her as part of a bigger whole for queer rep in media.

I (as a real person) am a bisexual woman who doesn't have to prove that I (as a real person) am bisexual, and anyone asking for receipts on my (a real person's) bisexuality or telling me (a real person) that if I'm not out to everyone then I am not bisexual is being biphobic because my sexuality should be believed and no one gets to grill me for details or proof. This is because I am real, no one is writing dialogue for me, and if I felt like I didn't want to be open about my sexuality irl, it's because of the wide history of bigotry that directly affects me as a bi woman. Someone pointing to a straight couple holding hands and saying "they've been openly straight for ages, what's taking you so long" would be fucking messed up. Because I am a real person.

But Blake is not a real person, she is a collection of pixels, she's a puppet that gets moved without her consent (because she isn't real,) and the words she speaks and the things she does are not because she wants to do or say things but because she's being controlled by the people that made her (because she isn't real.) She as a person does not ~~choose~~ to do things or say things or be things any more than my bratz dolls ~~chose~~ to be secret agents or ~~chose~~ to get a haircut when I wanted to cut off their hair. I love fictional characters, I make headcanons about them, I even care about them, but they don't have feelings. They don't get a say. They aren't queer or cishet because they are, and because they were born like that the way that I am, characters are only queer or cishet when the writers that control the show decide they are. They're tools used to tell stories that are sold to people, and they can't wholly be separated from the history of queer representation (or the lack thereof) in media, they can't be separated from the beliefs and histories of their writers (I.E. when a main creator and writer like Miles Luna has a history of biphobia and misogyny he has never apologized for and was a RT higher up for years and years when RT is a horrifically bigoted company, that affects what he writers and how people will perceive his actions.) Because the characters aren't real people. And they can't be given labels like ~~canon confirmed queer~~ just because the writers tweeted it or because they've shown interest without confirmation. Queer coding and queer baiting are terms used by queer people NOT BECAUSE we wouldn't believe someone in real life isn't queer just because they (as real people) only hold hands instead of kiss but because we know that characters being openly explicitly queer was and still is something that's considered taboo and 'too far' and 'not family friendly' and 'shoving queerness down people's throats,' and so oftentimes queer characters are left to be coded and not made explicit because of that and only in recent years are queer people sometimes but not often seen and represented as clearly explicitly openly queer. Blake is a fictional character who fits into a category made by real queer people to discuss fictional characters that are written to do things that come across as queer and feel queer but are not explicitly openly queer. The RW/BY writers have yet to make her queer feelings (that they write to have) and actions (that they write her to take) explicit or overt, therefore she is queer coded. And before anyone says 'the writers/VAs say she's queer outside of the main show, that makes her just about as canon confirmed as Dumbledore was a decade ago and I don't consider that canon confirmed at all, I consider that weak. This doesn't mean that I (a real person) don't see Blake (a fictional character) as queer personally, it just means that her queerness is coded rather than confirmed. She isn't a real person who just isn't out, she's a fictional character who hasn't been confirmed.

Like, let's use writing for women as a quick but not perfect comparison. Let's say there's a show with around ten main characters and most of them are men and two of them are women, and the women characters (who are incredibly outnumbered by the large amount of male characters anyway) aren't ever written to stand up for themselves or achieve anything cool while meanwhile the male characters often are at least trying and standing up for themselves. And imagine women made posts about that saying 'it really bothers me that these women characters are being written this way' and then another woman got angry at them for 'trying to make women do things they didn't want to do,' or 'wanting women to do everything' or said 'in real life if a woman doesn't stand up for herself or make any grand achievements that doesn't mean she isn't still a good woman." It's like... No, these characters are fictional and there are standards for 'good representation' that some women have where the bar is above what those writers chose to produce due to the bigoted ways women characters have been neglected at best for ages.

Terms like 'queer coding' and 'queer confirmation' are specific for a reason, they're tools, they're used by queer people to talk about the level of representation we're allowed to have or that we're given because of how we've been under-represented in media or given scraps and told to be happy with it while we can't watch ANYTHING without having opposite-sex relationships that are open and explicit. It's straight up upsetting to hear people say that bi women are biphobic for even pointing out when the media we're given doesn't contain explicit representation.

Blake is not a real person. She is a tool used to tell a story. And so far the story that she's been used to tell has not included overt, open, explicit queerness, it has only been used to be coded. If people are happy with that, great. If other people feel represented by that, great. If other people see her as queer even though it hasn't been made explicit, great and same. But it is not harmful for queer people and specifically bi women to say we want more and to say that we're tired of seeing the writers specifically go ten years without ever giving canon confirmed representation when I've dealt with that for ages over and over while we've had to see endless opposite-sex characters get treated with much more clarity - and we especially don't have to give the benefit of the doubt to Miles fucking Luna and Rooster Teeth and say 'the writers are probably just writing a slow-burn, they definitely aren't purposefully giving themselves plausible deniability.'

[quiveringdeer]

Okay, but hear me out. You're trying to compliment Reiner seriously, but he ends up saying, "Flattery will get you nowhere." in a scolding tone, thinking you're just saying things and being insincere in order to get on his good side. So you furrow your brows and begin to literally lecture him about what a great guy he is despite what he believes. And him not being able to take all those compliments, because no one has ever really been so observant or attentive to him in that way; so he does whatever he can, uses whatever means to shut you up because he can't take it. Feels like his chest would explode, thinking what he did to deserve this; deserve you.

I'm taking this as a personal fuckin attack Nonnie 😤 How dare you get me tearing up this damn early over by babiest of baby boys! 🥺

My determination and devotion to a cause has never been higher than my desire for the opportunity to help Reiner see how truly amazing and wonderful he is.

As much as I love Porco, I hate his comment about how all of the way Reiner acted on Paradis was him copying and manifesting Marcel. Like, he was inspired by Marcel yes, and maybe it started out with even Reiner just acting, but even outside of the implications of him developing DID it was Reiner reacting to people he came to care for. I think the being an extroverted leader is the big thing he took from Marcel. But all the things that made him a good leader, trusted companion and reliable friend were traits that Reiner already had.

Ugh, I just want to wrap him up in a bubble and tell the world to fuckoff and leave my mans alone! Hasn't he given enough! Let him have some vestiges of self esteem and self love damn it! 😭

But for real though, being Reiner's partner would involve patience and lots of energy and care to reassure him often of your --not just love, but even just liking him as a person.

And depending on the point in his life where you two become partners -canonverse or modern au- I think Reiner can objectively see and acknowledge that he's attractive by general societal standards, but his whole self-loathing and lack of self-esteem comes from him thinking he's a shitty person on the inside. Hella imposter syndrome (same baby boy). Probably thinks that he's some how manipulated you into thinking he's a decent person or something. Because how could he be when his dad wants nothing to do with him/reiner thinks himself being born is why his dad left his mom but really his dad is a deadbeat asshole 😒/ and also he thinks that his mom is never really proud of him cause she's never said as much, and has been a single mom dealing with her own heartache and self issues. Not an excuse but it is what it is. And he's constantly trying to "win/earn" her affection--of which he desires words and actions that prove that. But barely gets the later. And yes he has his friends. Mainly Bertholdt and Pieck--I'd say poooossibly Marcel but maybe moreso acquaintances? Like Marcel is valedictorian and captain of all the sports teams they both play on, and Reiner is always falling short behind him? Maybe even a few places behind? I dunno.

But anywho, obviously he's somehow manipulated you into thinking he's worth your time. And he's definitely a self sabotager in that regard. :/ Now I'm really curious about exploring how you'd actually finally get to be dating my interpretation of Reiner. I think it'd definitely have to be a good friends first situation. And you asking him out. So if you want this sad lovable Teddy Graham you're gonna have to make the moves first.

I think maybe he might end up in some random hookup situations outside this relationship. So maybe it's a repeat booty call catching feelings type deal? Like if he's at a party and someone comes onto him and they're flirting and they wanna hook up, he's not gonna turn it down. Especially with how much this man craves physical connection. Like the sex is great for sure, but he really is just wanting someone to hold on to and they hold him back. If that's while he's pounding them into the mattress or wall, then woop!

Wow this got rambly. I have so many feelings about this man 😩😩😩

[primnroses]

The poll is void and it makes no sense because people aren't following the rules they just want sakura out of it and tell us we're cheating when everybody is cheating equally.

The poll is only being followed suit in Japan. Look at the Top 10 results:

Check the list yourself at the bottom of the page in the official poll website.

And now look at the third databook's poll collecting all the previous manga votes in one single result:

This is the real page of the poll to demonstrate I'm not making this up:

The Top 6 is very similar except that instead of Kakashi, the top character is now Itachi; Iruka has left the Top 10 and he's currently 17th, also he switched with Minato; and Sasuke is below Sakura right now.

Also, Kakashi is still the most voted character in Japan just as usual.

I find it normal that neither Rock Lee, Neji Hyūga and Iruka Umino are in the Top 10 anymore because they have gradually lost popularity from being dead or absent in the current line, but they're all in the Top 20 and overall popular.

Other than that, the pattern is the same. Japan has demonstrated to be the only country that is voting for their favorite characters and not for a character to win a spin-off.

Also, I've repeated this so many times but I'll do it again: A spin-off from Kishimoto is only to motivate fans to participate in the poll. It's a reward for the fans of the most voted character, just like the 20 illustrations will be a reward for the 20 most voted characters.

About the alleged cheating, I think everybody is using bots and they're using them for nothing. The official site posted the rules when the poll started.

*Votes are limited to one per person per day. Using multiple devices to vote more than once is prohibited.

*Any votes that are a result of fraudulent practices or that are deemed erroneous will become void.

*The user will be responsible for any data fees incurred.

And THEN after the first Midterm, they posted this again to clear any doubts:

The original tweet.

The Japanese profile also tweeted the same thing.

The original tweet.

So YES they are fully aware of the bots and fraudulent votes, that's why they created a system to fight them.

I may also add that the poll is tracking your IP and your cookies at all times. It tracks the IP of the device you use to vote and the IP of your internet connection which you can't hide.

They're aware of everything. A while ago some users, including me, couldn't share their votes on Twitter and the official page tweeted about it telling us to deactivate ad-blockers and that they'd fix the issue. This is the tweet.

Believe me, a bunch of anime fans won't troll a system with professionals checking every single vote.

Why is Sakura more popular than Sasuke? In Japan she's one place higher and tat surprised me. I might be wrong, but on Twitter, I always find that Sakura merch is always sold out the first so it might have something to do with that. In the West, they're not voting enough or they're switching their votes to other characters.

Sakura's fandom has many collaborations with artists and kpop fans, on top of being one of the most organized and devoted anime fandoms. We're voting every day and encouraging the fandom to vote every day if they forget. Sakura Haruno has always been popular.

The anime community will always fight Sakura Haruno like she's some kind of obscure and malign force that needs to be eradicated for the sake of mankind, or that she doesn't have any fans that could rise her position in the poll. It won't matter how many times the official page has to say that they filter all the bots, the anime community is illiterate and will continue saying we're cheating because they're trying to convince themselves and trying desperately to prove their own point.

If the west wants to stop voting for their real favorite character to vote for those character that will inevitably ensure Sakura Haruno doesn't peak, be my guest. That's the real cheating for me.

Just as always it's Anime Community vs Sakura Haruno.

I'm happy with Minato winning although he has never been a fan favorite in Japan (and I'm not sure how popular he was in the West before), it's the result of people thinking there will be a backstory for him despite never been said.

I'm happy with Kakashi because he is, and will always be, a fan favorite. He's been popular since day 1 and even if he got a complete story of his life and 2 novels, the poll says "vote for your favorite" and Kakashi is a favorite. Same with Itachi or Naruto.

People don't want to vote for Naruto because "you know the story is called Naruto right we're tired of him" and that's not the point AGAIN vote for the one you like the most. I find all that a bigger cheating problem because it's straight up ignoring the point of the poll and I'm sure they won't do it anymore. Vote for your favorite character ALWAYS.

To sum up: Bots are void. Every fandom is cheating and for nothing because those practices are nullified. Support your favorite character.

[crazykuroneko]

When he lost control of his new human body Lestat felt awful about what he did and he tried to make amends for it. The writers made up a violent scene that never happened in the books and that was completely glossed over in the next episode, so much so that it wasn't even the catalyst for the murder attempt. Louis took him back and Lestat became even more abusive than before, so what's the point? And it makes even less sense if in s2 it will be revelead that's not what happened, cause it's even more obvious that they just wanted a shortcut to what they believe makes for a compelling TV show.

This will be the last ask I will answer on this because this has been going on for months, and if you still don't see what I'm trying to say after you read this then you won't ever see it.

Yes, it has never happened in the book because in IWTV book, Louis has never ignored Lestat for years and again IWTVbook!Lestat has never felt nor he needed to fear Louis would ever leave him. The show decided they would go with higher stakes the moment they made Loustat practically married. In the book, Louis' turning is an attack. Lestat attacked him, let him dying, showed him how awful a vampire could be, but despite Louis said he still wanted to die, Lestat turned him. There's no level of consent whatsoever there. Louis was too weak (physically and mentally) so he let Lestat did what he did. In the show, you have them go through a courting phase for months. They fell in love with each other since the beginning. Yes, Louis was half intoxicated and suicidal when Lestat offered to turn him, but he's still the one who reached out to Lestat. He did feel Lestat saw the real him. The consent is shaky, but compared to the book, Louis knew he committed into something with Lestat there. Ep 6 just proves he did see this as a marriage. So, no, they didn't "make it up", it doesn't come out of nowhere show-wise, and that violent tendency has been there in the book. Just because Lestat has never been in that situation in the book, it doesn't mean he isn't capable of doing that. (I could even argue book!Lestat could make worse damage if he's in the same situation with the same power as show!Lestat) It's basically like a math, really. They amped up the positives (making Loustat has even deeper relationship), so they needed to amp up the negatives. Otherwise we wouldn't get IWTV, but Twilight. And, this is what some people tend to forget; yes, the show is doing the books. yes, they use the books as the base of where the show would go. but the show is ALSO its own thing. Because that's the nature of visual media, it demands the story to be more visual, to be clearer, to be more intense. It's not just for Lestat as well, show!Louis is more abusive towards Claudia (the way he tried to invalidate her anger for Lestat in Ep 6, the fact he touched her in Ep 7. I bet it will only get worse from that despite Dubai Louis trying to hide it)

The show doesn't "gloss over" the abuse. It's Louis in Dubai trying to gloss over it because he doesn't like being called a victim. (And victims of abuse don't like to be called a victim is a thing. VC vampires don't like to call themselves a victim either) The show though? Oh, they don't let us to forget it for a minute. Heck, they literally put all injuries Louis had suffered right in front of our eyes. They have Claudia reminding us "three years ago". They has Claudia again said "when he hurts you again, and he will". Yes, this is Louis' narrative, but the show also tries to show you some things through that narrative so you can't take it on face value.

"It wasn't the catalyst of the murder attempt". Perhaps, but it doesn't mean it didn't lead to Louis okayed the murder. Louis was literally there in cuts and bruises, reading a book about marriage because he started to lose the meaning of what he has with Lestat after that; he sat there with Claudia in the park, watching Lestat going back to his mistress despite his effort to patch things up, saying, "I could see us become like him in a century or two" (I can't recall the quote completely, but you get the gist). What do you mean he meant by "like him"? Definitely not about becoming a cheater, it's about becoming a monster who is capable to hurt (mentally and physically) the people they claimed to love. And Louis wouldn't have come to that if that abuse didn't happen. Lestat's action made Louis lost any hope to go on living as a vampire, and by dragging Claudia back, Lestat unknowingly gave Louis a purpose to live longer: to see Claudia free even though it means he had to kill his own husband (or at least put him in the dump for some time). It's a whole chain of reactions.

I don't see they will say it didn't happen in S2. they only said they will "revisit" it. They'll probably do it by introducing another perspective. Or perhaps they will do say the dragging and flying part didn't happen. (That's the only part that I found meh because they went too soft on Lestat's murder compared to that. Idk, perhaps they assumed the gore from the murder party before it balanced it out 🤔, but my man deserves more, really. I hope they go physically harder on him in S2) But no matter what it will be, Lestat still threw him across the room and beat him to a pulp. No matter what, it's still abuse.

Lastly, I want to go back with "BUT he felt awful and tried to make amends" Yeah, i know right, by giving her an expensive rosary, as if money could solve everything (he's so stupid *affectionately*). And now in his own body, he found her beautiful again and had the urge to kiss her, even though he just raped her. Sure. That whole thing doesn't mean he's not a monster or abuser though. Or proves he's not capable to do it again (he did capable though. see: David's turning). I mean, I love Lestat. I imprinted on him. I relate to him on a lot of things, especially show!Lestat, and I will always have a bias for him. I'll always sit here, seeing parts of the show and scream, "Look at him, he is hurting. And he did try in the beginning 😭" But loving him doesn't mean denying his atrocities. Instead, we should embrace that. Every time someone going "but he is an abuser", we should go "and what about it?". To me, every one has the rights to like/love/dislike/hate any fictional characters, as long as they don't make it into anyone's problem 🤷‍♀️ (and hating a writer for doing her job is making it into someone's problem)

[kidmachinate]

Expectations

At work one week, a co-worker said upon me replying to my boss the following:

"You know one of these days he's gonna sound less forgiving or nice"

"I'm waiting for it"

I didn't take anything from this and it was all in good fun, because my latest line of work tends to ask a lot of us on any given day...but still I press on. No one wants to get fired, right? To be clear, I mostly like my current line of work but here's the issue. The joke (or maybe they do want to see me break one day) is the other side of the coin. What it looks like when you do lose your patience. When you don't is the expectation. In the middle is a potential realization. Am I just being taken for granted?

Unfortunately, I don't always succeed at this expectation. I've unleashed hell in the way my Dad would at times. It feels bad to say this knowing over time, Dad and I grew to understand one another, but fresh in my mind are times that weren't so great. Times where simply voicing logic and reason went out the window. Where proving what the energy efficient temperature for the A/C is with hard evidence, and still being told nope, you're wrong. Maybe I presented "my facts" or "fake news" so therefore I wasn't considered. Really thought real evidence would solve the problem. Proof. Something you also need in a principals office to get out of trouble, but you can't prove things done or said to you without video evidence or a recording. They were never gonna believe you because the other person is much better at explaining themselves. They lie for a living. Principal's office is home. It's a place or panic for you. If after days, weeks, or months you then react, you're still at fault? Well...yes...and I struggle with that. I don't want revenge at the core but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to dish it back when someone want to talk smack on a small level or yell at a higher one.

Trying to develop boundaries later in life is hard. You don't want to disappoint because you don't want the problems. The having to constantly defend your yourself. Just make everyone happy. If we take trauma out of it, what's simply wrong with making people happy other than to a jealous person? Putting a smile on ones face is always worth it. The problem with these expectations are they aren't realistic and they are all over our lives. You need a degree to do an entry level job. You need to be better than your parents because they realize they messed up somewhere, and you need to correct that. You need to suppress your feelings so you can dedicate yourself entirely to emotional leeches. You need to not let money control your life when literally everything revolves around it...and we as a country are closing off freedom ramps for digital currencies as we speak, while continuing to buy it up behind the scenes, to control it. How can any one person possibly meets the expectations of the world, let alone a single individual. It's impossible. So where do you go from here? There's always burn the bridge or let them down gently.

The above are certainly options. What if you care? Is there another way? Things aren't always black and white. We can't assume everyone functions on the same level. I'm blessed by a family that mostly loves me, although we rarely talk, and enough learned to keep life in order to not be homeless. My traumas on a scale, aren't much. I've suffered more trauma through failed friendships/relationships than my childhood. My lesser than traumas doesn't make them invisible. I just don't want to let them bleed into daily life. Comparing life situations sometimes misses the mark, especially if whoever you are speaking with has their own set of traumas, mental issues, or even just life kicking you in the pants. You can kiss and make up and try again and that's all dandy but patterns are what last. If it isn't the norm for someone to just attack you, maybe it is worth a second look. I've been on both sides of the fence here, but repeated attempts at apologies to repeat the same thing? That's not the ideal scenario. A scenario is which at worst you can agree to disagree, a safe space to express, and healthy measures of filling missing voids or releasing anger (probably not at whoever you are talking to) in a way that makes you productive and helps yourself. Pulls you back. Stop the top from spinning, it's okay.

Nobody likes forced plans, playing by the rules to get screwed over, being yelled at, or even just minor inconveniences. It's a huge weight to carry when expected to just push through all of it. That the expectation. You're not gonna bat 100% at this. No one will. The issue is trying to create the environment to thrive as often as possible. Finding someone to vent to if needed. Being in a growth mindset. In a world asking for so much how do you make time for you...and not just to do whatever is distracting you from life. To just sit and think and process. We all, myself included, from time to time, need to slow down. If anything should be the expectation in life, it should be that. Not the hidden ones laid down by people confronted on a daily basis for life obligations. Stability. Consistency. Can't always rush life in the face and see what happens...and I finally thing to say this at the end of the post, where the rest can seem like a dark but truthful tale.

When making these, I attempt to accomplish a few things. Letting it out is the biggest thing. Someone seeing the vulnerabilities in a post and/or inspiration to take action. A reminder that yes you can, even with the odds stacked against you. Speaking of which, whoever you are, the world isn't against you and if you think that, pretend it is against us all. What are you doing to fight against it? Need help? Gather a party who will bring you up.

The only one who should be making expectations that I hope you meet is you. In us wanting life to be as easy as possible and stress free, we can lose the plot of our own stories or place that burden on others. I suck at reaching out but I know I can and have done this to others before. I'm sorry. I've been rediscovering myself for a longer time than I'd like and need to process how to best that best version and less of a mess. Point stands however, set your own goals/expectations.

[what-if-nct]

HI TODAY'S REMINDER IS PHANTOM!!!!! ok strap in this is gonna go on for a bit

1. the OPULENCE. the DIAMONDS, the chandeliers, the beating heart tied up in golden chains god it was a visual feast and that's before I've even gotten to the members, which

2. THEY LOOK SO FUCKING GOOD. Hendery??? Xiaojun????? Kun with those fucking red contacts staring straight into my soul???????? there's so many to pick from but the black outfits? yummy. all of them all at once please

3. the SONG omg i missed wayv title tracks so muchhhhhhhhhhh ughhh i love how grandiose it sounds while still being so current which tbh is a line wayv title tracks always ride perfectly (people say kickback wasn't all that and yeah it's not my favourite but it's still really fucking good). also WHEN did Winwin's voice get that deep??? and Hendery, sir? Yangyang at least warned us in rain day, but the other two… once again: yummy

4. I'm sure someone smarter than me will analyse the music video properly and tell me what's actually going on but the one thing i did notice was the set with the black outfits changing in the second half with the chandelier falling and the statues broken and the ground falling in and I'm sure that means something but my brain could only focus on how fucking hot i find them dancing among ruin

5. they're… they're actually back. like for real for real. like there's a song and an album (which i will listen to tomorrow but I'm v much looking forward to). there was a stage? which by the way. also extremely hot. i love how much puppet imagery there is in the choreo, it ties in very well with what little i understood of the lyrics. which, don't get me wrong, i love their music, but their lyrics do read a lot like a theology comprehension text and I'm not always up to the task.

i just. fucking love them so much. and this song. I've been falling off nct slowly these past few months but… they really just proved why they were the unit that got me hooked in the first place. can you believe we survived the drought? we really made it all the way through. good job us

Hiii, I've said this before and I'll say this again out of all of the NCT universes Wayv gets the absolute best styling,concepts, and songs. Nothing against dream or 127 I love them all equally but Wayv has had way less misses with title tracks then 127. I just cant accept 2baddies. I can't. It has not grown on me.

But seriously they look amazing it's still giving Vampire princes and I love it. And the song like it sounds like a Wayv song but kind of matured and refined in a way. Yangyang's voice surprised me but luckily we found out he has the range and I love when he switches it back to his natural voice. And Hendery and Winwin normally have deep voices but like it sounded so much deeper I could feel it in the depths of my uterus. And only Felix's rap in victory song has ever done that. Like it just was so good then Xiaojun and Ten off setting the depth with their higher voices and Xiaojun's high notes will always hit the spot every single time and Kun's mid tempo voice kind of melds it all together. Like they finally returned to us after years they've done it.

No I feel you with Stray Kids pulling me by my ankles I also felt myself slipping from NCT but Wayv really just came in and was like not on our watch. And I can't wait to see them promote fully after two years. They deserve all of our love and support. Now to listen to the album while shopping for lingerie because what else are you supposed to do while listening to a Wayv album

[catsconflictscopicsandchamomile]

ok. sure.

actually, I (or, FAR more accurately, the activist spaces I work in) DO have a pre-determined, set and written-down plan to utilize voting & legislative power to help Palestine in a tangible way

its late asf, and I know I'm kicking a hornet's nest here, but this post is pissing me the FUCK off, and from Neil Gaiman no less, so here we go, I'll try to keep it brief and may come back with actual sources and organizing materials at a less 4 a.m. time

tldr, here's the current plan

keep calling out Biden at every turn, as president, DESPITE any veto risks, he does have the CLEAR MORAL OBLIGATION to both ATTEMPT further and more drastic action, and, in the event that he is vetoed, SPEAK on it. However, general callouts and rally chants aside, Biden is not the target here

the senators & reps ARE.

by picketing and protesting the offices & public events of senators and reps who support Israel or abstain from the issue, we are making sure that both the senators and their constituents CANNOT IGNORE their actions

"We won't vote democrat" isn't idealism or being somehow divorced from reality- it is a threat (loss of constituent/voter base, loss of political power) that politicians, regardless of whatever other beliefs they hold, will at least notice, and hopefully listen to. "We will not be voting for you, because you (supported/remained neutral on) a genocide" shows Senators & Representatives that 1) they are at risk of losing many voters/supporters, and 2) it is directly because of their actions/stances re: Palestine. This is why we want so many people to take this stance. The bigger the potential loss, the higher pressure to allow/create measures that will cause actual change (even if that change is only at the policy level)

Especially on local/state levels, third-party candidates are being more heavily endorsed than ever- and while the risk/progress balance on this will vary greatly based on an individual's state/district/city/etc, local-level changes like this are especially worth looking at imho.

While I PERSONALLY don't know what I will do ON voting day at a national level (the status of voting dem/republican(FUCK NO)/third party is a touchy and complex issue here, and many things may change before November) I know that I fully agree with and support the full-throated leverage of vote refusal as a pressure tactic on our senators and representatives, as well as president Biden.

Lastly, I understand that there will likely be some responses here calling me "privileged" or saying that as a white cis(?) woman, I won't be harmed by the consequences of my/our actions. I don't have an argument here except to say that not only do I fully see your point of view, but I'm actively concerned about it and constantly weighting this issue re: what decisions and beliefs I gravitate towards. I'm doing my best to think clearly and listen to diverse voices on the subject.

I can TELL you that these aren't ideas I had on my own, that they came from a larger community of activists in my city. I can TELL you I was at a march on Saturday, where the loudest voices for everything I described above came from BIPOC activists, and I can TELL you that a largely-nonwhite, fairly queer, and majority-female crowd cheered for them-- but I can't PROVE that to you, and I won't claim that I can, or that you're wrong or bad for not believing something a stranger online said in a pissed-off, totally unsourced reblog rant. However, IF you're going to make that specific argument, consider saving your time and energy, because I'm well aware and wrestling with it myself. These things aren't easy, if they were all easy decisions and cut-and-dry choices, it wouldn't be real work, and it wouldn't be real change.

gnight

I'm just going to leave this here, because this woman said what I've been trying to articulate for ages much more effectively and succinctly than I've been able to

[antialiasis]

I don't use Instagram, but I happened upon some news coverage of user uproar over Instagram moving toward a TikTok-like video focus, and Mosseri's efforts to respond to it, and I just find it kind of fascinating to see him talk about this dilemma.

A lot of people are responding to him by saying what, what survey questions are you using where people say they prefer the algorithmic feed. And that's the thing: he's not saying on surveys people actually say that. He's saying when they survey people on how much they like Instagram and measure how much they use it, there's more satisfaction and usage among the group that have the algorithmic timeline.

And I can believe him! I'm sure people do on average enjoy and use Instagram more when they have an algorithmic timeline! They'll see more viral content that's viral for a reason (because it makes people laugh, etc.), so it doesn't seem farfetched they'd experience more entertainment within the app overall, and there are a lot more posts to see than when they just see posts from people they follow, so the natural stopping point of being "caught up" doesn't happen, and people get stuck in the instant gratification loop.

But that's not the same as them wanting the algorithmic timeline. People don't want each app they use to entertain them maximally and be compelled to spend the maximal amount of time on them. They want a way to see their friends' photos, and now that's increasingly hard to do, because Instagram is following the user statistics toward becoming an optimal algorithmic slurry of mindless dopamine, just like the other social media giants. Any application blindly following engagement metrics is going to end up becoming algorithmic dopamine slurry. And yet no one actually wants this to happen if you ask them! People don't want the algorithmic dopamine slurry! They have other things to do with their day!

But the dopamine slurry increases the metrics, and thus increases ad exposure and thus revenue, and the executives will swear on their last breath that they're just following users' real preferences while everything increasingly sucks and it becomes increasingly hard to do what we actually want.

One of the most fascinating things he says in the video explaining the changes a couple tweets above this is that if you just want to see posts from people you follow, you can snooze recommendations for a month. You can't just turn them off permanently, of course! Because if you could do that, you'd probably never go back to the higher-engagement higher-satisfaction higher-revenue feed. But this in itself proves that's not actually what those users prefer, is it. If they really, truly wanted recommendations in their feed, they would voluntarily turn them on. But nobody does, just like how GDPR popups always make the option of enabling tracking just a little easier and more accessible because if you actually just ask people if they'd like their data to be tracked so they can see more relevant ads, they will say no.

Mosseri is right that there's a conflict between what people say they want and what tops the engagement surveys. And because of revenue and demands for growth, social media companies will go for the engagement surveys over users' actual expressed preferences, and then argue until they're blue in the face with users that this is what the people really want. But preferences aren't actually whatever maximizes dopamine in people's brains, and instead of useful ways of keeping up with people we know the social media giants just move inexorably towards whatever's sufficiently addicting to keep people scrolling, no matter how frustrating and unhelpful.

[aliceundrground]

Took me a couple reads to parse so to put in other words;

If, for example, you say that "different regions evolved to have different brain structures, that's why Asians are so smart" -> the thing you said is technically a compliment but all you're doing is reinforcing eugenic ideas (and racist stereotypes). Not only does this hurt minorities who are set as contradictions to this compliment ("Black people are just naturally lower IQ" which hey look! Literal nazi shit! Woah! /sarcastic), it also hurts the group being 'complimented' as well ("Model Minority" myths, etc) AND attempts to sow division between those groups.

Whenever you see talk like "[group] is just naturally better at [thing]!", think about what the implications are there; who's on the other side of this? What is this saying about them? How can this be twisted? What does believing in this achieve?

This isn't just for racial minorities either, I've often seen this kind of thing crop up with the "trans women have female brains (and trans men have male brains)" talking point. As far as Im aware, 99% of functional mri studies are basically just astrology for academics (fun fact- nazis fucking loved astrology), so there isn't actually a solid basis for that claim. Even if there was- basing our validity as trans folks on it does much more harm than good (pathologizing transness and queerness, requiring medical intervention/authorities to prove we're "valid" or "trans enough" to access rights, excluding anyone who doesn't fit neatly into a gender or sex binary). We can easily see where "women are just naturally more empathetic and men are better at problem solving" makes a beeline straight to rad fems and terfs (as well as the broader patriarchal/misogynistic societal ideas of gender/sex) and that is just as couched in the "brain differences" mindset.

Buying into bioessentialism is never the way forward, even when you or people you like are the ones being complimented (or the people you don't like are the ones being put down).

Ex, "Men are inherently more violent" -> something I've seen in progressive and queer spaces even when terfs say this to frame trans women (/fems) as dangerous predators all the time

"But trans women suppress their testosterone, its the testosterone that makes men violent" -> what about trans fems who don't want or can't get hrt? What about trans men (/mascs) on hrt? What about cis black women who (on average) have higher testosterone than cis white women? What about intersex folks? "Well, trans women have female brains, so even with testosterone, they're biologically different, they don't have male brains"-> back on trans men and intersex folks, what about them? What about black men (and boys) who are constantly framed as Extra Dangerous and regularly murdered because of it? What about men who are abused and their cases dismissed or even ridiculed ("men are more aggressive, men are stonger than women, how could a man ever be a victim?").

While OPs point was focused on biological essentialism, the problems exist for non biological/pseudo spiritual essentialism too (see ideas like the "divine feminine"). Mirroring the previous biological example, terfs will say anyone amab has an inherent Evil or Malice (the real belief behind terf "male socialization" arguments) and some trans-inclusive rad fems will still parrot this same belief, just with the caveat that trans fems are actually exempt though because they have a female soul and/or they 'gave up being men' and are thus True and Good for willingly giving up their Power and Repenting (and some will openly express the end of that logic too- that trans mascs are Doubly Evil for 'choosing to become an oppressor' even after seeing the Evils men commit).

Buying into framing that takes a part of someone's identity or body and assigns inherent moral judgments, projected personal beliefs, or personality traits to it (good or bad) is buying into fascist ideals.

reifying bioessentialist claims about brain differences is going to bite marginalised people in the ass even if you're opening with something 'positive' or complimentary to them. all you've done is accept the same eugenic premises and temporarily reverse the valence signs; it's still strengthening, not subverting, the knowledge system that produces the oppression you want to eradicate