#racism is lame & weird

[23sanguinity]

I was going to post about how natlans like the Olympics but if they only invited white people and then I remembered the long and very present history of racism in the Olympics and realized natlan is just the Olympics

[olehoncho]

How I would fix Dr Who (revisited)

While I am sure there are folks that love the Doctor Who show and the direction it has taken under Chibnal, I know there are others who are not satisfied with certain developments. Ever since the end of Matt Smith's run there have been issues with the continuity of the series: - The expansion of The Doctor's regenerations was first explained via a "time lord energy infusion" in Town of Christmas, but was later revealed to be an aspect of the Timeless Child. - The swapping of sex/gender was first done with the Master and later explored with the Doctor. - Letting go of a Time Lord's power was explored in Human Nature and later in Uptopia, but revisited as being a "female presenting" quality later. - The Bi-Generation creating two time lords.

A lot of this new canon has been... not easy to absorb. And I'm not going to say there's any connection to ratings or audience scores, but as someone who is more interested in the science fiction aspect of the show, I think there is enough of the new canon to play with to fit in with the long-running series canon.

Make The Doctor a distinct being separate from The Timeless Child. - This is the main one, and could be done a couple of different ways. My previous theory was to make The Timeless Child the Time Vortex at the heart of the TARDIS (which explains why it is different from other TARDIS). This would explain the leeching of memories and power to other individuals as well. - Another way to do this would be to have The Doctor either be a bi-generation from The Timeless Child, or perhaps be the son of The Timeless Child who inherited some memories. There are options.

Restore the Regeneration Limit and explain how it was bypassed. - The previous explanation is that The Doctor is the first Time Lord and therefore has endless regenerations. This never felt right. The Doctor being a Time Lord whose uniqueness comes from their decisions, the promise to be "The Doctor" rather than their particular history is the key to the character. - You could do another bi-generation backstory into The Doctor's past, and that part of The Doctor has been dormant, sleeping aboard the TARDIS for near a thousand years (my personal choice would be the regeneration from 2nd to 3rd Doctor). - Then you would have to explain that The Doctor who has been adventuring has been part of The Doctor, but a being who got mixed up with The Timeless Child and is therefore confused. Then explain that the reason for the regeneration limit being bypassed is because of the TARDIS - so many Doctors regenerate in the TARDIS and this is shown to have led to many explosions of energy which were not present in earlier regenerations because this version of The Doctor is growing unstable. - Time Lords are not meant to live more than 12 regenerations, because the energy in their bodies becomes more than they can handle, like a dying star they either go supernova or become dwarf stars.

Kill off the current version of The Doctor and bring in "The Original" - This could be a series-long arc involving The Valeyard - with the "current Doctor" being the Valeyard and "The Original" questing to stop them, but would end up with The Doctor dying and creating their grave on Trenzalore that is eventually visited by 11 and Clara. - The "original" Doctor would then continue the adventures, absorbing all the memories of their alternate selves - and resume the regeneration limit from 3 (a new 3, not Pertwee) and then regenerating into 4.

Anyways, that's how I'd rework Doctor Who if it was up to me. But it's not, so whatever.

[nthflower]

I think sooraya needs upgrade to her powers. I have ideas but right now so tired to write it. I will think about it later

[wildfairies]

things that are bothering me the most:

antaam stuff makes no sense, full stop. it's also explained poorly/insufficiently.

most of what we see of rivain is completely uninhabited. i also don't care about more warden shit there, i was looking forward to more lore on rivaini people and culture, especially the seers obviously, we've been dying to know more about them for three games.

every elf we've met is ok with the huge revelations that their gods aren't what they seemed and this process happened offscreen. i would think there would be many different reactions to the spread of info about the evanuris, and i would think it would be extremely important to make it clear that info had spread pre-game.

the venatori are the same nonsensical vague useless boring cult with the most nothing goals. as incredibly lame as they are, it's even stretching my suspension of disbelief that they'd serve elven gods for vague promises of 'power' given tevinter's extreme history with the elves. i would think this would come up at least one single time.

the past two points are part of an overarching issue. the contentious and complex political landscape of thedas that makes the setting interesting feels flat. i'm supposed to believe NO ONE in super-elf-racist tevinter would blame the elves for their gods terrorizing thedas? even inquisition acknowledged this, w solas/inky showing concern that revealing the orb was elven would lead to elf racism.

i'm supposed to believe NO elves who've been oppressed by humans for centuries would think 'fuck them' and join up? what happened to the elves who joined solas at the end of trespasser when they heard he was trying to bring back their empire? at least inquisition had wacky cults for every side.

walking down the street in minrathous as an elf or qunari with no difference is simply absurd, i would literally rather never visit tevinter if they were going to implement it so toothlessly. where is the immediate opinion hit for being a mage/elf the inky takes in orlais???

yes the tone is off and a little shallow. yes the companions communicate too healthily for my tastes. yes i was dreading 'evanuris are behind everything' lore reveals and that's what we got. but i honestly think i could overlook those things if the above problems were solved and it felt like the same immersive, problematic thedas.

i'm so completely infuriated by the worldstate choices i'm going to make a separate post about it. but yeah i was concerned but made no noise, i was willing to wait it out and see how the three choices played out in game. and it's absolutely ridiculous that so far two out of fucking three have basically no impact, and the last one idgaf about unless inky romanced solas. i'm so so so so mad and disappointed about this, especially after staying open-minded when it was initially revealed.

everyone loves companion quests, so i don't know why the game feels like it needs to sell you on their significance. why did we get two different scenes of varric spelling it out to rook: do the companion side quests, or else they won't be able to focus! it's such a weird and superfluous tie-in. i don't get why they went so out of their way to clarify this when it didn't need to be clarified, companion side quests are expected in rpgs and their relevance to the plot is very easily accepted/overlooked.

[fidenciocryptidcreechur]

sebek Zigvolt deserves more appreciation

him & rook hunt

They're just

I just

I just like them as so much as characters.

rook is unapologetically himself. He stays true to himself and his ideals no matter what anyone says. Even though literally everyone, including his closest friend Vil, thinks he's weird and even off-putting. Don't get me wrong about Vil. He and Rook are amazingly close but there are multiple instances where Vil finds Rook irritating. He is often told in some manner to curb himself, to tone down his passion for finding the beauty & positivity in all things. All he does is be unabashedly genuine & passionate & artistic & honest. He's also one of the few characters who is relatively kind to Game Canon You from beginning to end in game Canon. In multiple instances in his dialogue he invites others to join him in his hobbies and activities and despite being faced w/ hostility. Even on his birthday, Malleus did not want to go despite sending an invite-which yes Mal can have preferences - but still the fact that the King of lonely rejects an invite shows how fairly isolated Rook is. Yet despite criticism from all around, he maintains this unending positivity & drive to improve. I love Rook hunt

Sebek too. He is a very driven & honest Character. In multiple vignettes he is shown to be helpful, to Show care, to Show admiration for skill in his peers. Yes, he is standoffish. However, he is not deceitful nor manipulative nor does he seem to intend harm unlike a great deal of many especially early on. A lot of comments about humans seem to stem from internalized racism. There is a lot of canonical instances discrimination against fae, especially those who are notably different dwarves & the pixies. So it would be unsurprising if Sebek also grew up under discrimination AND scrutiny both from human community & the fae Community. We know that his grandfather Baul is very vocal about his disapproval of his fae daughter's marriage w/ a human. Yet despite this, he still does his best & still clearly cares. He grew up w/ parents who went against a lot of opposition to be together and are very loving and likely took some of that determination & attitude w/ him in life. He will give praise for skill and will help those he can. His circumstances & upbringing (Scrutiny & discrimination from both fae & humans, even his own grandfather though he mentions that progress has been made there). Despite all of this, he is doing his best and is a wonderfully genuine and honest and expressive and determined guy

So yeah

I love Sebek and Rook. They're great characters and I think they need more appreciation.

also these 2 put the Sebek appreciation way more eloquently than I

[luna-rainbow]

Thanks for your answer for the last ask.

What is wrong with the writers of the new MCU material? Do they just hate Bucky, especially the writer of the Falcon and the Winter Soldier (he's NOT the Winter Soldier anymore!)? Did Bucky kick their cat or something? This hatred and victim blaming is not justified! "Oh Bucky's just a cray-cray psycho killing machine with cool metal arm but probably belongs in a padded cell. Lol he says he had no choice such a lame excuse..."

Soo…I don’t know if people still remember the rumours from back in 2021 and I don’t know how much of it is true, but my guess at it is this: there were supposed to be two main writers on the series. Spellman was supposed to take Sam’s story, while the other guy wrote Bucky’s story. For whatever reason, the other guy quit before he finished, and didn’t give the writing team enough time to put things together.

From a story craft point of view, Bucky’s story in TFATWS reeks of first-draft-ism. It’s a scattered plot of events that don’t quite string together, and a self-contradictory characterisation that hasn’t yet been smoothed over (but was made a little more believable by Sebastian’s efforts). You can tell some central character themes had been planted in the first draft — the PTSD, the guilt, the messy way he’s trying to relearn how to interact with people (Yori, Sam and later the Wakandans), the struggle with breaking free of his past. These were all strong, interesting character beats for Bucky to work through, and it honestly could have been a good story. And I think that’s when the original writer bailed.

When Spellman picked up this draft, he was pressed for time, he hadn’t watched CATWS and he never thought he’d needed to know about Bucky’s story, so he reads TheMovieSpoiler summary of the movie and tries to piece the rest of the story together. But Bucky’s not his priority nor his interest. There’s already beats of the story that were planned and have to be there for IP reasons. So beyond what was already in the first draft as mentioned above, Bucky is made to be the fall guy to make the rest of the plot happen. Zemo’s release — well we can’t make Sam help break out the criminal that killed an African king so we’ll make Bucky do it, who cares if it makes no sense for his character. The counselling session — the show’s few moments of levity, doesn’t matter that it makes no sense but hey, forced homoeroticism is hilarious, isn’t it? The Wakandan three-way fight — I may be remembering this wrong but I think Skogland said it was one of the first scenes that she had planned for. That fight had to happen, and again Bucky was made to provoke the Wakandans to the point Seb had to step in and say, almost literally, “he would not fucking say that” to make them wind back the animosity between Bucky and Ayo. Sam’s suit — oh no we can’t have Sam asking for it himself that would be too egocentric, we also can’t have Wakandans offering because well, not like the plot actually made Sam a strong ally for Wakanda, so we get Bucky asking for Sam’s suit to be made minutes after he fixes his mistake of releasing Zemo. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make sense if it’s Bucky doing it, cos I really think by this stage Spellman didn’t give a shit about a character that wasn’t supposed to be his responsibility in the first place. It’s like when you’re doing group project and your teammate bails on you, you’re gonna do just enough to get that pass but you ain’t putting in the effort for a distinction cos just looking at the unfinished work is pissing you off. So then Bucky also becomes the token white male who pushes all the wrong buttons during the few token racism scenes cos we gotta make Walker have some redeemable qualities and he’s already a dick so we can’t make him racist too.

So instead of having a thoughtful story about a veteran trying to grapple with his guilt and PTSD and lack of agency and making some mistakes along the way, you get a weird disjointed plot of some guy…with some bad dreams…who randomly does things for no good personal reason…who gets made the butt of the joke for the stuff he’s experienced cos he’s got a metal arm and super soldier serum how hard could it have been he just needs to go and apologise for killing people while simultaneously having multiple poignant scenes portraying his lack of agency.

Every writer who tells you “a hero is only as interesting as the villain” just secretly wants to write a simpable villain. And when that writer isn’t very skilled, you get the disaster of TFATWS where a lot of effort is spent on making Zemo funny and personable, and Walker nuanced and sympathetic, instead of making either of the titular heroes funny or personable or nuanced or sympathetic. And yeah, I really don’t think Spellman ever cared enough about Bucky to want to make him sympathetic…or a hero. Remember when he said Bucky pulling open the van door was the first time Bucky has ever been a hero? Fuck right off with that.

[devilheartsblog]

Hot Take: Season 1 is better than Season 3 overall

I have to emphasize the overall because season 3 has a better main villain, better world building, and better transformations. However in terms of pacing and overarching story Season 1 is better and thus I found myself enjoying it much more.

Like, season 3 is great. However, when you think about it, Valtor’s only actively seeking out power from other villains when he gets involved with Diaspro and Cassandra. Otherwise he doesn’t do much, well, other than terrorized the Council of Light and turning Faragonda into a tree but not much of a power seeking quest you know, especially since he’s built up as a big threat. Also, the fact Radius was left hypnotized for so long urks me because they show Stella could defeat Cassandra and Chimera at any point but nah, we have other things to focus on. And the fact Valtor puts all of his stolen magic in a box instead of absorbing it is…ugh, so lame! There’s also Musa being toxic but the narrative portraying it as Riven being a problem. They did give us Nabu but he started off by stalking the Winx so uhhh, yeah, Timmy is still best boy!

Meanwhile, season 1 had like an escalation of the threat. The Trix went from mean girls to war criminals and it felt well paced with their goal to get the Dragon Flame. And the filler was fine because it helped us know the characters, while in season 3 it felt like the plot was getting dragged (WE DID NOT NEED THAT DIGIT EPISODE!!) Character arcs like for Bloom and Riven was also so much better in season 1. Bloom mostly learns about magic and having friends instead of being the weird girl with a power fantasy, and her discovering her origins before putting an end to the Ancestral Witches’ descendants. And Riven learns to be an anti-hero instead of a jerk after learning Darcy was using him. He was fun as a villain’s spy and a hero. Also the fights were epic for the fairies, especially the finale, that was really fun. I personally loved it more, my own gripe is the Miss Magix episode but honestly they could cut the racism with the afro hair and I’d be fine with it existing since again, season 1, we get to get used to those characters.

In conclusion I think season 1 is better because of the character arcs for Bloom and Riven, the story escalation and the fight scenes, as well as not having as many inconsistencies or annoying parts as season 3, not to mention the Trix utilizing the Dragon Flame’s power while Valtor puts the second sun of Solaria in a jewelry box.

[biracy]

I think it's deeply unfortunate that conversations about "representation" have become dominated by the issue of gay representation and That's It. I'm someone who thinks mainstream gay representation matters, but I also understand why it's easy for so many people to go "well I don't NEED boring lame high school romcoms for LOSERS. The only 'representation' I need is like, idk, weird furry comics made by the fagdykes online! Become unmarketable!" when the only issue on the table for them is sexuality. But I think it's not useful to take that mindset and apply it to "representation" as a broader concept, because in my experience at least it becomes quite different when the issue is less "the only mainstream representation for me is something I find kind of boring" and more "I don't think I have ever seen a person who Looks like me be presented in mainstream media in a positive or desirable light" (which applies to all sorts of stuff including trans stuff, body stuff, disability stuff, race/ethnicity stuff, etc.) Obviously I love subcultures and I love niches and I love Finding Community With Other Freaks or whatever, obviously I love that! But I also, as someone who is of Many Overlapping Marginalized Identities, Kind of want to see people who look and act and live like me be presented as People. Visibly trans characters who have things going on besides just experiencing transphobia or gender dysphoria, openly Latino characters who have things going on besides just experiencing racism or xenophobia, neurodivergent or mentally ill or socially disabled or whatever characters who have things going on besides being Weird or Creepy for the sake of a joke, chubby or fat characters who have things going on besides being demonized or mocked or A Message About Body Positivity. Characters who are People, the way like. normie white guy characters get to be lmao, and not just tools to teach some kind of lesson. "You shouldn't look for that in mainstream media/pop culture" well why not? Why shouldn't a culture's popular media represent the people that make up that culture? Not everyone is an online 20something attuned to the best queer indie art of the decade, yknow, and people who exist outside of our subcultures deserve "representation" too. Ever since I was a little kid I had an affinity for openly Latino characters on TV or in books, and that hasn't gone away. Different kinds of people Exist and deserve to be seen in art that isn't relegated to being "alternative" or "niche." Because while I am alternative, it's not my body or my upbringing or my social problems that make me that way. No human being should be considered a "deviation from the norm." Don't let art and culture forever belong to those who have deemed themselves "the norm" through continued subjugation

[historia-vitae-magistras]

This is a little different from your usual content. But you have so much niche information that just I love to hear about. Do you have any podcast recommendations?

WHOO okay so I'm doing my nonfiction podcast recs and leaving out my horror or audio dramas but without further ado:

It's been out of production for years, but Caustic Soda is probably my favourite of all time. It's a small Canadian production of tons and tons of episodes on everything from shark attacks to murder to warfare to bugs and anthropology. It's so fucking funny and pretty well-researched as time goes on. Honestly, I was so young listening to this that it formed part of the lens through which I view the world.

Stuff You Missed in History Class: Often corny, wee bit lame, occasionally hilarious, always solid; this one is probably the one that has taught me the most. It's been on the air forever now, and it's really fucking great. They have also used sources that I actually dug out and made public for the first time and I'm quite proud of that. Its the favourite sweater of podcasts.

Time to Eat the Dogs is about the history of science and exploration. I highly recommend it if you like any of those things. I really like the host's interview style; all the guests are academics and authors. It's very conversational and feels like having a lovely sit-down with good friends, but those friends have Ph. Ds.

Casting Lots: Two really, really funny Brits discuss survival cannibalism across time and space. This podcast informed me that a story i heard as a fireside tale was based on true events. It somehow manages to mention Canada in every other episode and then some. I love the first three seasons in particular. They have truly done some incredible work in the course of their series and pulled from some primary sources that surprised even me, an actual archivist. They're shockingly respectful for how funny they are and how disturbing the content is and really take into consideration things like culture, empire, sex and racism as they discuss cannibalism, and it's just. I love it so much, truly.

Big Old Boats: It's not technically a podcast, but I've never once in my life actually watched the video as he discusses various maritime disasters, and I don't think I've ever missed anything by doing so. This is an absolute must-listen if you enjoy maritime history, missing ships, ghost ships, or just anything weird related to a boat. Archival work I did is actually mentioned in a couple of episodes!

Not What You Thought You Knew: Another podcast I really love that was, unfortunately, a very short run but academics and actual historians debunking popular historical myths. I am very, very fond of the episodes on The Night Witches in particular.

The Midnight Library: Last but not least my favourite fucking podcast currently running. It's a nonfiction podcast framed as a fictional witch/librarian in her cursed library telling (mostly) true stories around a particular theme, human vice, or any number of stories. And the way it's framed is so fucking great. Like they're talking about real history, witchcraft and folklore in so many of these, but you get little glimpses of world-building that have honestly started to bleed into the way I write. Even the ads are for fake magical businesses like 'the League of Lady Grave Diggers, the Broom and Fang pub. The library assistant/bouncer is a werewolf. The Witch's on-again and off-again boyfriend is a spring-heel jack. It's just so fucking clever a way to frame a nonfiction podcast in a spooky atmosphere while being historical, terrifying and funny in turns.

Anywho, if you listen to any of them let me know! And sorry if that went overboard!

[eliotquillon]

just finished the rwrb movie and although i really enjoyed it (and was kicking my feet giggling the whole time) i do have a couple of major criticisms, some of which i think aren’t really the movie’s fault because they had to fit a whole book into 2 hours, but some of which left me kind of disappointed:

-i feel slightly icky that bea and nora got their screentime SIGNIFICANTLY reduced even after june got cut entirely (which i was upset about, but did understand). i loved zahra and adored her on screen but i do think it’s very odd that she is pretty much the only major female character in this movie since bea was nonexistent and nora got permanently spirited away to pez’s bed or something sometime during the second act

-it felt like a lot of the internal conflict in alex and henry’s relationship was very unbalanced and henry heavy - alex’s neurodivergence was erased, his bi epiphany was barely even an epiphany, and him not being explicitly kicked off the campaign after ellen finds out about him and henry essentially killed his whole subplot about realising he doesn’t need to have everything achieved at thirty and deciding he wants to apply to law school instead. which wouldn’t have been terrible but on the flipside it felt weird that we didn’t see very much of henry’s family considering how much they affect and shape his fear of being outed and his feeling of being in a glass cage - e.g bea’s treatment by the media during her active addiction (which was entirely erased), the extent of the tension between him and philip. felt like henry’s pov scenes were a super wasted opportunity for that and we were mostly just being Told about all of these things

-i am not actually that mad about oscar and ellen still being together lol but i felt like in the scene with oscar smoking the cigar on the balcony they were kinda building up to there being significant strain in his and ellen’s relationship that just wasn’t explored. especially since it’s clear oscar would never be able to be president because he’s not a natural born citizen + the sacrifice of his career for ellen’s is so much bigger now that he’s first gentleman in this version

-pacing in general was a bit off but the worst offender was the fact that there was a complete time skip between the alex henry confrontation/reconciliation and the outing. so much of the tension and desperation from that outing scene comes from the fact that the risk of it happening was slowly increasing throughout the book and it felt almost inevitable (the elevator cctv being leaked, henry having to fake date june) and honestly making it so abrupt weirdly reduced a lot of its impact for me

-similarly i actually completely understand why the richards plot / rafael luna plot was cut (i suspect republican election interference hits a bit too close to home after 2020) but my god was miguel a lame fucking villain and him being queer and hispanic erased a lot of the original commentary about racism and homophobia that the richards plot lent itself to. like in general this movie was a lot lighter than the book which is fine! but for a movie where the main subplot is a presidential election So Much of the political themes were heavily neutered or cut to the point that it seemed like the pressure on henry and alex’s relationship was disproportionately coming from henry’s side when in the book it was more balanced

again on the whole i really really loved this movie and i knew going in that certain changed were going to be made. and i hope more movies get made like it! these r just my Thots and i may change my mind when i rewatch it with my friend tomorrow

[v-arbellanaris]

im back-ish, i think im not gonna be super engaging w da4 stuff and with lower activity bc im still kind of aggravated by a lot of the disk horse. im also seeing a lot of fan attitudes which used to annoy me when i first joined the fandom - this kind of deprecating/derogatory/ironic "enjoyment" of characters and the media, where you constantly just put the thing down and insult it - that is indistinguishable from chara/media hate to me. like enough with the "he's so pathetic" "i wish this was good" etc posts like are you even having a good time, cringing away from things that bring you joy. how are you not exhausted from your vitriol when it exhausts me to read it. like. wow what a funny post abt how lame your favourite character is, now try be genuine abt what you enjoy. some of you guys are tooooo comfortable fr with making your personal problems with feeling cringe everyone else's problem to deal with

im also not gonna be planning a rook. there's a lot of weird & sudden pressure to have ur worldstates sorted out & ur rook planned out which is frankly nuts to me because we don't really know anything & we won't until we get to the game & i rly have no interest in feeling pressured or being pressured to have it all figured out.

as an aside, for new and old followers, please behave. if i see you shitting on characters or the games on my non-critical posts, you're getting blocked bc im not here for that energy. like fr stop telling me how much you want solas/cullen/anders/whoever dead, idk why you think i wanna hear that.

i also don't care what your fictional character choices were, i don't think you're evil either way, but i DO have a problem if you're overly sensitive about anyone even SAYING there's a moral/immoral fictional choice in your video games. if you can't acknowledge fictional portrayals of racism, homophobia, abuse, colonialism as what they are, i have no interest in talking to you & you're not someone i want interacting with my posts.

[andreabandrea]

To be honest I think some people on this site are having too much fun with slurs. Don't call random people fag/dyke. Know which slurs are off limits for you and why. Slurs are hurtful to a lot of people and have a long history and aren't just secret cool words that only some people can say. Being a genderfreak fagdyke doesn't exempt you from transmisogyny and racism, and everyone can benefit from learning about social justice and intersectionality.

So long as I'm talking I want to say that I think its lame that in an attempt to combat strict policing of lgbt identities, some of you have become the cops. Sure, some lgbt people have undefinable genders and constantly shifting experiences with attraction. Some lgbt people also do have a very rigid "I felt like a woman trapped in a man's body and I transitioned and now I see myself as a binary woman" or "I am a woman and I am only attracted to women" type experience. You're not better for having one or the other, and it is weird to constantly ask this "are you sure? what if you're wrong? what if [insane fictional scenario]" type of questioning that so many of us have heard so many times already from cishet people. And on that note if I see one more person say that a cis male twink is fundamentally 'the same' as a trans woman I'm going to start killing people on the street.

This policing always seems to come down the hardest on trans women and lesbians and I want you all to think really hard about why this is. Have some respect for and decency toward your siblings and remember that your words and actions affect other people.

[stewykablooey]

i'd like to hear your thoughts on shiv's homophobia if you have any? 👀 ngl i did a double take when you called her homophobic—clearly she can conveniently use homophobia to emasculate her interlocutor, but i don't think she has any deep-seated beliefs of the sort, unlike kendall and his misogyny and the fact that he doesn't want to involve her in the business partly because of that

which brings us to

she'd probably replicate the sympathy/solidarity thing with stewy too, in this case because she's a woman and he's a brown man, paired with the fact that the two of them, unlike kendall, 1) can't simply conceal who they are, 2) are not allowed to assert masculinity in an aggressive way. quite obviously shiv's relationship to stewy is largely mediated by their respective relationships with kendall but i won't say more

hi <3

you’re right in that shiv is not homophobic in the sense of having deep-seated beliefs on the matter at all, shiv’s issue with gayness has less to do with the physicality of it but more of the gender implications which is to say that shiv’s homophobia is really just an extension of her internalized misogyny. it’s again related with the masculinity aspect, it’s not about how gay you are but how much you will deviate from your gender and most importantly how much of that is a threat to her? in terms of gay men, shiv sees it as just an extended boys club that she cant access even if it’s just through sex and attraction, the one card she can play as a woman (this was first mentioned by @/shesnake and @/akajustmerry in their succession gaytv podcast episode which i highly recommend) but also it’s how much can their masculinity trump their gayness. out of all the siblings shiv is probably the one that shares logan’s ideas of masculinity the most. she thinks ken is too soft and she thinks roman is weird and she thinks connors lame and its because they just dont align to that idea of logan-masculinity (without getting too daddy issues about it lol) which is also why she’s with tom, because he’s just masculine enough but also decidedly not masculine enough to be a real threat to overshadow her.

which all applies to shiv’s relationship to stewy because stewy is the ultimate threat because he plays at both masculinity and femininity like stewy will never be a logan-type masculine and he knows that which is why he plays to his other strengths which is charm and it’s so carefully cultivated on stewys end Because he knows he can never pass as a logan-type masculine so he Has to play up the handsome charm and confidence but also stewy Is inherently masculine in that he definitely fits in as a man even if it’s the asshole insane amounts of money SUCCESS cocaine party animal kind of man, which may not be man enough in logans book but it’s definitely man enough for the world stewy is operating in which is why he can operate in it so successfully and the success is key. stewy’s riches are self made for the most part which gives him power and status in being an earner and a moneymaker but also stewy’s not in a position of leading stewys not vying for ceo he’s not vying to be top dog which is why he doesn’t Need a logan-type masculinity But he still needs some kind of masculinity to stay afloat which goes back to his crucially self-managed image. in terms of shiv, stewy confuses her in that he isnt a logan-type masculine but a) it doesnt bother him/he doesnt want to be and b) he’s still a winner anyway. but also there’s that edge of homophobia in that she’s confused and annoyed about it because she really thinks ‘youre not a real man. why are you thriving here?’ but also with a little bit ‘you’re a little bit feminine you’re a little bit masculine how does that work/im pissed off that that won’t work for me’ but also again going back to ‘being charming is the card i get to play, but now you get to play it too but also again it works for you but not for me’

there is Also of course. racism. shiv would never feel a solidarity with stewy over him being brown and her being a woman because she’s racist. kendall being gay and her being woman has a common denominator of being white before it has a common denominator of being oppressed. the racism also feeds into shiv’s opposition to stewy’s masculinity. ‘you’re not a man’ is as much because he doesn’t fit an idea of masculinity that she understands as much as it is just her not seeing him as as much of a man because he’s not white.

[mythos321]

Chapters 6 and 7 of me reading Moon Rising! and my random scattered thoughts

first up is of course Chapter 6,

which I had a lot of for lmao

•Kinkajou wakes up like that “Gooooood morningg(insane high note)” meme(I hope someone knows what that is

•“I was a little worried about it at first because I was, like, ACK, that means I’ll have to make friends with a NIGHTWING.” Kinkajou somethings are better left unsaid. Trust me, I get it, but you don’t have to outright say it-

•“I can’t wait to meet our Seawing, they sound so weird.” When did Kinkajou enter the racism olympics-

•completely valid to be nervous of Tsunami tbh

•Starflight managing to memorize 35 new names is legitimately super impressive imo

•“tail kisser” that joke still makes me laugh a little even when reading it here

•Umber being so small is frustrating to me he is the same size as Clay

•“We decided to switch a couple of dragons around, since you guys seemed like a good match.” Tsunami Winter threatened to violently murder her-

•What were Sunny and Clay thinking with that, since it was likely them who thought of it since they were the ones present

•Can someone make Qiblis brain shut the fuck up-

•I love Kinkajous crush on Winter admittedly, I know Winterjou isn’t popular but I feel there’s potential

•I’d also like Umbers to an extent but it feels off due to him being the same age as the DoD? I know the age gap is only 2 years but the DoD feel much older in comparison, I just chalk this to being a Tui flub though since Umber acts the same age as the others

•also I love Carnelian hating everyone there lmao

•I kind of like Moon feeling safer around Turtle, I know it’s cause she can’t hear his thoughts, but I still find it cute

•Tsunami introductinh herself just to spite Sunny because she said she wouldn’t is hilarious to me lmao

•the fact Tsunami never actually does anything a head of a school would do is so funny they 100% gave her that title to stop her whining-

•“When do we eat? Just kidding. Pretending to be Clay.” Fuck you Umber, I hope you get eaten by animals actually

•“did I sound like an idiot?”

YEAH YOU DID FUCK YOU-

•Note, the two above notes are to be played for laughs…however I am legitimately not appreciative of that joke-

•“It was impossible to ignore how handsome Winter was, especially with Kinkajou thinking about it all the time” just gonna leave that there-

Tsunami:I brought fish!

Turtle:Yooooo

Kinkajou:FUCK-

•Oh Carnelian you won’t ever get that promotion for a very different reason

•also imo all of the stuff Qibli pointed out felt kinda obvious? I got that read off of Carnelian as well before Qibli mentally pointed it out so we can know how totally smart he is

Carnelian, the red skywing:my favorite color is red

Kinkajou, the yellow rainwing: My favorite color is yellow!

Carnelian:Basic bitch-

•honestly Qibli just feels like a mean bitch to Winters MOODY mean bitch-

•““And I’m Umber,” Said Clay’s brother”

that is one of his two claims to fame in this series lmao

•“See, I’m your destiny”

“Wish he were my destiny”

lmao

•Qibli I’ll tell you right now Moon is not laughing at your lame joke, only Kinkajou and Umbers punchline-

•“Winters such a moonlicking crocodile” of all the expressions to use-

•Why did no Nightwing ever write down how their powers work when they got to the island, or keep those in tact, there’s no way they’d be THAT stupid- oh my god they would-

•I love Kinkajou stepping in for her friend, I appreciate her way more in this than the Graphic Novel(like her a little more and like Qibli and Winter less)

•Qibli thinking to himself of how he’d beat Winter is so funny with hindsight with Icicle absolutely whoops him lol

•I don’t even blame him for thinking about that btw Winter is legitimately being out of line here

Kinkajou:Idc if you’re hotter than the rainforest during a humid day in summer you and your perfect face can’t be mean to my friend-

•I legitimately love how infectious Kinkajou is as a person, she even got Winter to tell his first joke

•Also, more like Winter Turning into a tsundere am I right(🦗🦗🦗)….anyways!

•Hold on was Kinkajou on drugs once-

•Darkstalker get your mansplain manipulate malicious ass AWAY

•“Dragons who like you now are most likely to betray you. Believe me, I know”

Darkstalker, I could give a million and one reasons why you lost your friends, and believe me, you are the root problem in all of them-

Now for chapter 7!

•Qiblis such a loser bruh, Moon can tell you’re watching her you creep-

•I love Moon getting gleeful when she realizes she can have a goat to herself(also her sharing with her friends!)

•don’t worry Qibli we all know you’re a bum you don’t need excuses for why you can’t hunt for shit-

•Moon you’re the size of a car how is a goat heavy-

“You don’t need to be popular if you’re powerful”

-Guy who 100% got shoved in a locker once

•“Moon wanted to ask what he meant by calling Qibli desperate” Girl you’ve seen his thoughts this guys more desperate than a dog being taunted with a bone-

•God I love Kinkajou

•Okay over the top Qibli hating aside genuinely fuck Cobra, I genuinely want to cave her face in for how she treated Qibli

•“Who was “she” Qibli had been asking about? His mother? Thorn?”

I know it was intended as separate things, but I first read that as Moon calling Thorn his mother(in the adoptive sense) and my heart melted for a sec, so ima read it as that instead

•time for Moon to lock in and try and stop a murder, here’s to her succeeding and nothing bad ever happe- okay I can’t even finish that joke lmao you don’t even need to read the book to guess what’s gonna happen-

[gamzselfship]

i really wish there was more g.amtav stuff that didnt suck ass because like thats me and my girlfriend but then i go into the tag and NO IT ISNT !! start making us girls and lesbians and stuff . theres also generally really bad mischaracterisation where i am some lame sadboy and shes a fucking wimp all the time and needs me to save her . not to mention the misogyny directed at vriska an unusual amount of the time like this isnt even abt her ... Yeuch this is why i come to the selfship community so often . my g.amtav posts get more reach but i cant stand weird + misogynistic + racist + ableist posts abt us all the time because it is these things . misogyny towards vriska and any other girl character the artist hates , racism abt gamzee* as a character , and if i have to see one more drawing of me sitting in her chair while she looks uncomfortable or me carrying her around like its #romantic i am going to throw up [exaggeration]

*making an important distinction here i dont want to like . use first person there ...

[maxellminidisc]

LBR here 9/10 white people on the internet are posers in the supposedly majority white spaces of the subcultures they pedestal to be racist about rap and hip hop. If they weren't they would have to actively be IN scenes like emo, hardcore, punk, goth, etc and actually experience the misogyny, homophobia/transphobia, the whispered warnings from mostly women about certain musicians cause got forbid the entire local scene turn on you for calling their fave a predator, etc. And no these scenes aren't dead dead, they absolutely still exist, you people just love digesting things so shallowly and comfortably you wouldnt dare actually be in the scene to get called a poser to your face lol

Not to mention white people that are IN these scenes themselves are absolutely shit at acknowledging racism so I expect no less from them outside of it. White people act like any poc in these scenes are either some weird ass anomaly to gawk at, they treat you differently acting like they gotta walk on eggshells around you cause you're mean and scary, if you're a woman they fetishize you for being this "exotic" thing in this space, someone will inevitably utter the horrific words of: "You cant be goth/punk/emo, you're Black" towards Black people in the scene, or worse, you will absolutely hear racial, homophobic/transphobic, ableist, or misogynistic slurs. And that's not to mention how either in or out, white people love tokenizing musicians of color IN this scene or ignoring them all together with every lame excuse for it under the sun.

Scenes like to act like they're amazing at checking themselves, especially now that theres an emphasis on creating inclusivity, safe, and progressive a space, but guarentee you most of these scenes just slap on a veneer and not much has changed beneath it. Cause any scene who's main organizers, movers and shakers, popular bands, etc are mostly cis het white men is unfortunately going to have shit like all of what I mentioned slip through. And yes there are scenes run by LGBT organizers but even then they too in my experience tend to be white and you STILL have these issues because white people as a whole are terrible at holding themselves and other white people accountable.