#really debated posting this it’s kind of lame

[skepsiss]

I’ve been thinking a lot about Eddie seeing the patches from his old vest onto a new less ruined one after I made that post about his PT—so my prompt for you is Steve helping Eddie resew his new vest (but he’s not really helping he’s just kind of there for kisses and emotional support hehe)

I took a little more into the "actually helping" realm, but it's still fluffy sweet. Other people can send me prrrommmppptts too! --

Eddie had never done something like this with someone else before. Sewing his ripped jeans, bags, and battle-vest had been a solo venture thus far, but it felt strangely intimate to be getting help with his new vest. The old one wasn't salvageable, but Eddie had managed to save some of the patches and pins to start again. This wasn't his first battle vest, and it probably wouldn't be the last, but he had hoped to hang onto his old denim. It wasn't to be though, so Eddie had thrifted a second (or third) hand denim jacket and ripped the sleeves off to start all over again.

"What's this one?" Steve asked, handing over a pin Eddie had gotten from hanging outside a metal show he couldn't get tickets for.

"Bad Brains," Eddie explained, taking the yellow button and running a thumb over the red lightning bolt that streaked across the front. "From New York, I think. I traded for it; no one really plays their stuff on the radio."

Steve nodded like he was going to retain any of that as Eddie debated over where to stick the pin. He settled on the front right pocket and then turned the vest over.

"You want to help sew the back patch?" Eddie asked, grabbing the swath of fabric he had cut from an old band-T. He hadn't been able to get the blood out of his old DIO patch, and while 'the bloody look' was cool, something about it made Eddie squirm. He didn't like that it was Steve's blood, or that the stain had made part of the album art unreadable.

So, DIO was retired, and Eddie instead centred his new Megadeth patch on the back of his vest.

Eddie handed over a needle and thread to Steve and then cut himself his own length. He strung the needle easily and tied it off before setting to work. Steve seemed to be taking his sweet time, and Eddie eventually glanced at him to see what the hold up was.

Steve was still gingerly trying to thread the needle, his brows pinched with frustration.

Eddie snorted lightly before turning the vest around so it was facing Steve.

"Here, you continue my line, and I'll finish this," Eddie teased gently, finding Steve's inability to thread a needle charming.

"Is it too late to say I've never done this before?" Steve asked, picking up the needle and thread Eddie had left behind and stabbing into the fabric.

"I can tell," Eddie chuckled, easily starting to work again. "You don't have to, you know. I don't mind just having some company."

"No, it's alright," Steve said slowly, obviously concentrating as he tried to stick the needle up through the patch. "What're boyfriend for?"

Eddie felt a syrupy smile spread across his face at Steve's words, his stomach tumbling around inside of him. He was still getting used to Steve calling them 'boyfriends' and Eddie couldn't help how giddy it made him each time. Sure, it had been nearly a month, but it still made Eddie feel like he was a blushing fifteen-year-old.

"If you insist… love," Eddie said, keeping his gaze down. He was trying out a new pet-name and he wasn't really sure if it was pushing things a bit too far. Love or My Love was such an intimate title, but Eddie had been thinking of it for a while now. He saw Steve pause at the use of the new nickname though, and waited for him to say something.

"Ow---Jesus," Steve said instead, and Eddie looked up to see him holding his hand up, a ruby-red bead of blood forming on his finger.

"Ah…" Eddie said lamely, smiling still as he reached over for Steve's hand. "Sticking yourself hurts."

"Yeah, thanks for stating the obvious," Steve bitched, letting Eddie take his hand.

"I thought you'd be a bit more durable… you know, with the whole… missing a chunk of your stomach, thing," Eddie teased gently, putting his lips to the wound on Steve's finger much the same way his mother would have when he was a child.

Steve didn't reply to Eddie's comment, instead sitting there quietly and letting Eddie suck on the tip of his finger.

"You want a band-aid?" Eddie asked, pulling back just a bit and then cheekily pressing his tongue against Steve's finger, holding it there with his mouth open.

"Yeah, a band-aid----what are you doing? Don't be weird," Steve chuckled, still not resisting Eddie's grip.

Eddie quirked a brow at him and pulled back, before huffing a laugh.

"Look who you're talking to. Weird is practically stamped on my forehead," he scolded, before licking Steve's finger again for good measure.

"Alright, alright, fair. We get it, Count Dracula, can we grab that band-aid?"

Eddie chuckled again and then scrambled to his feet, trotting off toward the bathroom, but not before turning around and sticking his fingers in front of his lips to replicate fangs.

"I vant---to suck yer ddiiiiccck," he teased, smiling wide when he got an honest belly laugh from Steve.

[tresdem]

So to caveat this, picking out characterization from canon is YMMV, everyone their own interpretation and it's fine. Talking about Izzy on the internet is a dangerous sport. All that being said! I think sometimes there is too much credit given to Izzy as the one controlling Ed and Ed's image and to little credit given to Ed himself. Is it there? Yes. Is it problematic? Yes. Both Izzy and Ed do some things in S2 that cross so many lines with each other and this is not a post to debate who did it worse or who suffered more for it. (because the conversation is more nuanced than I want to get into on tumblr)

What I do want to talk about though is that, for me, Edward enjoys being Blackbeard, or enjoyed once upon a time. He likes the mystique. He likes the drama. The chaos. The life. He likes to enchant people in his own spooky bwahahaha (ala ye olde smoke machines) just as much as Stede likes to swan in to swash some buckles. And his quarters on the Queen Anne's Revenge is a reflection of his personality. He's a packrat as much as Stede is. He likes cool stuff. He likes spikes.

While I do think that Izzy controls the Blackbeard image to an extent, I feel like it's rarely when Ed is around. We never see Izzy tell Ed: this is not something Blackbeard would do, in front of others. Yes we do have the scene at the end of S1 where he essentially threatens Ed to shape up or else, but other than that he doesn't directly confront him (other than being pissed about Ed risking their lives to get trounced by the Spanish and then I think it was mostly because he just hates Stede)

So, for me, again, Blackbeard is Ed, but a facet of him and a facet that he's grown out of, even if there's parts of it he still enjoys. I feel like he likes the fuckery of it, the drama of it, the absolute mad chaos-- but not if he can't participate. Like what's the point of everyone freaking out if he can't even come onto the boat and terrify them face to face? Lame.

And as for Izzy, because I don't want to get too deep into that, but Izzy-- like everyone on this show-- is a healthy mix of badass and idiot. And I think he can be personable if he wants something, he can play well with others if he doesn't feel like they are beneath him or their not an enemy (which Stede is on both counts). And I think that Izzy truly cares for people esp given what we see in s.2, but he has a lot of his own personal bullshit to shovel through and a lot to unpack. And yes, he is manipulative and he did things he really should not have and etc. But for me he's not the sole cause of anything and not the sole blame for anything. (and I have my thoughts on that situation but...again...don't wanna get into those weeds)

Ultimately for me it's super important that Ed is the main driving force behind his own legacy, his own persona, his own look. Yes it got out of hand, but divorcing all the Blackbeard aspects from Ed I feel takes away from Ed's personality. Does he get trapped in it? Yes. But it's still him. He is a man who likes to put on a show.

Anyway! If you disagree that's fine and I don't hold anything against you. :) There's plenty of room for all kinds of interpretation in this fandom.

[fuzzysocksstuff]

Leo has been the leader since day one

Alright, I haven't seen this conversation yet, but I can't be the only one who's noticed this. This isn't my usual post- not that I post often- but art is WIP.

~aannnnyyway~

Leo has been the (back seat) leader of the Mad Dogs since day one.

Mobile users, RIP no seriously, you are digging your own grave

In the first two episodes he shows his potential, he thinks ahead, guides the team, makes astute observations, shows his knowledge of his team (including himself), and makes his own plans (even if Raph has made a plan, he almost always has his own).

I'll go through the first two episodes chronologically.

First is Mystic Mayhem.

-This is a good example of understanding himself-

Leo: So . . . You guys from Jersey?

Mikey: Really Leo?

Leo: What? I can't make a joke in the middle of the craziest thing ever? That's how I cope.

-Leo stops his brothers and forces them to think ahead-

Mikey: Should we just ask him for it?

Leo: And what do we say when he asks us why we want it? That we need to go after our best friend, who disappeared into a wall after our priceless weapons were destroyed by mystical jogger guys?

-Not only is Leo showing how well he knows his dad, he executes his own plan when Raph's first plan fails, without asking his brothers first-

Raph: How'd you get that?

Leo: You know he always passes out after milk and cake.

-Now, this example is a debatable one, yes it shows his understanding of Raph, but it may also just be to shown to establish relationships in general since this was the first episode-

Donnie: A few hours ago I would have called this foolish and impossible. Now I just call it foolish.

Mikey: Say what you want Donnie. Raph'll pull is off 'cause if he doesn't, we'll loose our best friend forever.

Leo: Mikey, don't say that. You know he chokes under pressure.

Donnie: Leo, he's even more self-conscious when you talk about it.

-Here, while happy to see April again, he keeps the team on the task that got them in the hidden city in the first place. It can be argued if this was on purpose or not; but it still showcases his natural ability to lead-

Donnie: According to my calculations, we are in a tertiary-metaverse.

April: Actually, I've been doing some exploring, and we're in a hidden city deep under New York!

Leo: So where's the dog thingy?

-There are even subtle moments where Leo takes the lead; after Donnie takes out Draxum's robot with his tech, Leo is the only one talking to Draxum directly for the team. This is another debatable example, you could say Leo is just being the face man here, but I'd like to include it-

Draxum: Accidently impressive. With a little bit of training you can be formidable as I hoped.

Leo: Okay, well, great, and since you're surrendering. . .

Draxum: Baron Draxum does not surrender.

Leo: Okay, well, when he gets here we'll deal with him. . . oh, ho, ho, I see. You're doing that whole "sinister talking in the third person" thing.

-Here, he is the only one to once again question Raph's decision, and present his own idea instead-

Raph: We just defeated a boss villain. We're heroes. We deserve a name like Mad Dogs.

Leo: Mad dogs? You don't think something like Mutant Ninja Turtle Teens or. . .I don't know. Maybe - we'll keep brain storming.

The very next episode has soooo many parallels to the movie.

Origami Tsunami.

The dialog is long on this one and, despite the humor, throughout this scene Leo guides his brothers to the best mission for their skill level.

Mikey: Yo, Leo, we're gonna be heroes!

Leo: Okay, what's the plan? Solve the city's rat problem?

Splinter: Hey now. I am standing right here.

Raph: Pfft, no way. We're crime fighters!

Donnie: Okay, check this out. The Spine Breaking Bandit!

Raph: Yeah. Go big or go home!

Leo: Yeah, go home in a stretcher. What else you got?

Donnie: Hmm, well this one's kind of lame. Someone stole paper from a delivery truck.

Leo: Not on my watch! This is exactly the kind of junior level mischief we can put an end to.

-Leo then hypes his brothers up for this mission-

Raph: Really? That'll make us heroes? But it's only paper.

Leo: It's only paper. I'm so sorry. Donnie, what did he say? Did he say it's only paper?

Donnie: Yup.

Leo: Did he say it's only paper?

Donnie: Yes, he did.

Leo: Okay! That's what they all say. You think the road to hero town is paved in real crime? No! It's paved with the tears of the poor paper man. And who helps that guy? I'll tell you who; we are who!

Raph, Mikey, and Donnie: Yes!

-When Raph's first plan fails, and he sees how discouraged his brothers get...-

Donnie: Uh, quick question. Did we seriously get schooled by paper thieves?

Raph: I didn't swoop like a boss. I swoop like a noob.

Mikey: Man, this seemed like a really cool idea until we didn't succeed at it.

-...so, Leo gives a "hero" speech, like he does in the movie. Although this motiving speech needs some help, he still tries-

Leo: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Where'd my brothers go? Mikey, where's your. . .legendary optimism? Raph, where's your, ya know, your go-getter attitude? And Donnie, where's your. . . your thing, your - emotionless passion?

Donnie: Here.

Leo: We can still catch these lame old paper crooks and be heroes!

-In continuing this scene, we see the Leo make and execute his own plan, now that Raph's impulsive plan has failed-

Donnie: Yeah, that's gonna be hard. This was the last paper store in town.

Leo: Hmm. . . or was it?

Donnie: Yeah, I. . .I literally just said that.

-Again he takes the lead talking to the foot clan first (could just be that he's a face man here, but nonetheless)-

Leo: Okay twerp. . . and surprisingly big man. It's four against two. So what you say we just call it a day, right?

-Leo uses his observations to guide the team, here when the foot are making their origami soldiers, Leo realizes taking out the paper ninjas isn't a solution-

Leo: We're getting no where fighting these guys. We gotta take out the source.

-After Raph ~properly~ uses his ninpo for the first time, Leo again uses his surroundings to find a solution, in doing so he shows both guiding his team, and astute observations-

Leo: Hm. Mikey, the sprinklers!

-Even at the end of the second episode, they look to Leo for reassurance and support-

Mikey: So. . .does this count as a win?

Leo: Well, I don't know. Let's think about it. Did the bad guys get their big supply of paper? Uh, no. Did they build their army of soilders? No. No they didn't. Are they otherwise Thwarted, and we unscathed?

Raph, Donnie, and Mikey: Yes!

Leo: Hero mission accomplished, my friends!

Alright.

First off, if you've made it this far, thanks for attending my not even close to life changing ted talk. I hope you have enjoyed my rant.

In conclusion,

Leo has the potential to lead, just prefers to do as little work as possible. He almost always passes resonsibility onto someone else, however when he has no other choice but to lead he does it well without realizing it. There are many other subtle examples sprinkled throughout season 1 and 2.

I have more thoughts on this, but this post is already the height of the empire state building.

Class Dismissed.

[inkyycapp]

Collage-Matsu!AU

All probably belong to a lame frat house or smth because...I mean...just look at them...

Lazy post

Idk random au hcs

cw: ocs

Osomatsu

Engineering Student (?)

Pretty lax with his work, has a some late assignments but usually hands them in on time.

Engineer work always manages to impress.

Actually fairly decent with what he does!

Natural charismatic and chill nature makes him an ideal student and well liked by his classmates!

Often goes to parties and, out of the brothers, most lively and seen out more with his brothers.

Still a pervert, but we love him.

Karamatsu

Law Student !!

Passing with flying colors.

Over the top ALWAYS.

Hands in assignments on time--no, EARLY actually. Cannot handle one tardy or late being a drag on his grade.

VERY passionate about what he does. VERY.

More assertive and combative with teachers and fellow students when it comes to debates or group projects.

Well respected by his peers, and often invited out, though doesn't often go to parties despite the pushing from Osomatsu.

Though, he does eventually cave now and again.

Choromatsu (i dislike him idk why)

Economic Student

Doing fairly well, passing but nothing over the top or crazy.

Never hands in a late assignment or late work.

Doesn't work amazing with group projects but doesnt work terribly either.

Architecture Student

Surprisingly passing fairly well!

Often doodles idols (Nyaa-Chan) in class, but always hands in work on time or even early with complex work and details.

Probably, a little bit of a teachers pet.

Ichimatsu

Law Student

Passing, but not doing the best he could do.

Often gets Karamatsu nagging him to interact more, to put in more effort, he is a law student after all.

Doesn't really care too much, and has few late assignments, but doing pretty okay.

Everyone always pauses to hear what he has to say, oddly his peers HEAVILY value his opinion.

Vet Student

PASSING WITH FLYING COLORS IT'S INSANE..

Does plenty of volunteer work, and actually strives in this line of work. And, while he still does law, he doesn't want to do that as his profession.

Animals love him and have a clear bias of him over his fellow students.

Actively trying to get over his fear of needles to work as a vet.

His peers again value his opinion, though here they're more intimidated by him more than his law student peers.

Jyushimatsu

Sports Tuition - Baseball !!

NEVER LATE.

NEVER HANDS IN STUFF LATE.

NEVER MISSES AN ASSIGNMENT.

PASSING WITH FLYING COLORS.

THE BEST AT WHAT HE DOES.

Always enthusiastic at baseball and has grown to befriend most to all of everyone on his team.

Plans to go big leagues and already has plenty of offers.

Todomatsu

Interior Design Student

Pretty well liked by his peers, often conversing and making friends easily. While Todomatsu doesn't go to many parties like Osomatsu, Todomatsu prefers lowkey parties, group study sessions, etc..

Overall passing fairly well!

Amazing at group projects, often excelling at communication, and makes sure everyone does their equal parts.

Political Science/Politic Student

Similar to before! Pretty well off, and liked by his peers.

Often takes part in debates and events, normally taking part in setting up as well!!

Avoids his brothers, though his brothers do somehow manages to embarrass him regardless. All the avoiding was useless in the end.

Totoko

(Sorority Girl)

Different Sorority house as Nyaa but later tranfers half-way through the year.

Economics !!

PASSING WITH FLYING COLORS..

She needs the cash, and needs it now.

Has a few late assignments, but she's one of kind student.

Very cute, and well like by most if not all her peers!

Business !!

Similar to before, passing with flying colors!

Few late assignments, but there are a sparse few.

Nyaa-Chan

(Sorority Girl)

Music Tuition !!

Literally poster-girl of the school.

Amazing at what she does, even if she does it differently than what was stated on the assignments.

Not one late assignment and ALWAYS does it with class!

Social Science !!

Same as before!

The BEST at what she does, it doesn't matter.

Her gaggle of fanboys always trailing her, though despite the fame is sweet once getting to know her.

Keeps her daughter a secret, so being an idol, a student, and a mother sometimes her close friends (matsu brothers, totoko[, &rei]) help her take care of her daughter when she gets overwhelmed.

+Oc content, don't mind this.

Reina

Does marital arts on the side, though prefers to keep it in the dojo only.

Prodigy, and definitely the dojo master's favorite, though tends to deal with some ridicule and jealousy from her male peers.

Her older brother (Hakuno) is a almost graduate law student. Both don't talk much despite how close they were growing up.

Art / Fine Arts Student

Prefers turning in assignments at the end of class away from prying eyes.

A few late assignments, though normally turns them in eventually.

Doesn't do too well in group projects, and ends up doing most of it, though she normally doesn't complain.

Passing pretty well!

Normally tried to avoid group projects, but gets dragged into them anyways.

Often called "Hakuno's little sister" despite her clear dislike of it.

Hakuno

Often seen with his girlfriend, Cheriko, or Cherry.

Normally avoids topics like his younger sister, and has since stopped attending her minor to large scale tournaments.

Often brash and to the point. Often sees Karamatsu as an obstacle or competition as he was once top of the class and had since been booted to second place.

Law Student

Try hard. HEAVY TRY HARD.

Always there to hand in assignments on time, and VERY competitive in debates.

However, he has a hard time listening to others and prefers only to work alone and refuses to hear others opinion which in the end only harms his grades. Though, not by too much.

Has grown more competitive during class debates.

[cringelordofchaos]

Tolkien Black headcanons !!!!!!

Tw for multiple mentions of getting shot

Non-binary + romantically attracted to girls (based on Tupperware character description), pronouns - he/they

A bit of a Math+physics nerd + one of the best students in class (Cartman canonically cheats off of them on tests sometimes)

Has a really healthy and wholesome relationship with their parents + they sometimes either intentionally or unintentionally embarrass him in front of his friends but all in good fun (think of Ninjago Jay's relationship with Ed and Edna for reference)

Bit of a complicated relationship with Nichole (canon but i forgot in which episode it was said, but Nichole told Cartman that she and Tolkien are having some issues in their relationship? But it's not any of Cartmans business) (though he loves her and they even canonically have a picture of them together in his room)

Best friends with Craig, Clyde's a close second

Already mentioned it in my Craig headcanons posts but before Craig got with Tweek he would joke about proposing to Tolkien in the future so he could live off of their and their parents wealth lmao

Most serious/realistic??? out of Craig's gang

Has a bit more goofy / derpy side but is mostly embarrassed by it

Voice cracks in the future come to be the death of him

TW TRAUMA + POLICE BRUTALITY - is still quite distraught from being shot in the arm by a cop (in South ParQ Vaccination Special? Or was it on The Pandemic Special?) and is still distraught from that time his parents were arrested for no reason (in TFBW, where they also constantly targeted him and treated him (a ten year old child) like a threat), especially since most their childhood, like all the other kids, they were told that cops are their friends they can trust! But now he knows he can't trust them and avoids them whenever possible

Friendly

Canonically likes basketball (I like to imagine they sometimes play with Kyle!)

Favorite colour is purple (NO WAYYYY WHO WOULD'VE THOUGHTTTTTT /s)

Canonically feels out of place sometimes because of their family being rich

Sometimes takes the role of "the mom friend" (idk why. based on vibes. screw me)

Cringe TikTok user (canon 😞)

Not too much of a nerd like his dad

Since they actually hate that their name is Tolkien (cuz they don't like JRR Tolkien's books) maybe they change it in the future? I don't know what to though (but sometimes likes Token better)

Kind of understandably tired of everyone's shit

Wendy once said "I've dated him before, he's really nice!" or something like that sooo I take it as canon

Hates Cartman and has every single right to do so (he threw a rock at their head, shot them, and is just a racist asshole all the fucking time to them 😭😭)

But wait - what I don't understand is that they said "all that dungeons and dragons shit is lame" but in the stick of truth (haven't played it, only saw like 2 scenes in it) they were fully on board with playing fantasy? Like -

"THANK YOU FOR THY MESSAGE, TRAVELER! I SHALL MAKE HASTE TO KUPA KEEP!" - that sounds pretty nerdy to me Tolkien. Maybe they DO like nerdy shit but are just embarrassed to be associated with it???????? Idk I'm starting to get confused. Tolkien hyper fans / analysts if you're out there please help me

Canonically plays bass and still has his bass guitar in his room as shown in TFBW

Good person that usually puts others before themselves (like when Cartman told him to "be the bigger person" and tricked him into going over to him and getting shot by him)(still stands his ground and doesn't let people walk over him)

On southparkstudios.com it was said they're good friends with kenny and share struggles related to income (opposite sides of the same coin) so maybe they hang out sometimes. that'd be kinda cool.

Cat person I've decided though I don't think he cares too much abt the dogs vs cats debate

Gifted + talented kid but sometimes might be a perfectionist with overtly high expectations for themselves???????? Idfk what I'm on dude

Good memory

Likes to roleplay

Can't tell if he prefers fiction or nonfiction cuz of stick of truth but also because of the whole hating his name thing Eufhfhfuufnceucb

Ermmmm i think that's it for now Byeeeee god im so cringe

[opalspring]

Some observations about the gay Kazui theory

A lot of people have been discussing this and it’s super interesting so I wanted to share some stuff I noticed too! Posting this before cat since it’s possible this theory will get either debunked or confirmed by then.

Lyrics from Cat

First, let’s talk about the preview of cat from the 2nd trial song previews. One thing I personally dislike from the staff’s English translation is this part:

“Devotion-love, lame, cheating”

While the first two tl choices are good imo, the third part could have been chosen better. The reason for this being, while it’s not a wrong tl per say, 化かす (bakasu) means “to confuse”, “to delude” according to my dictionary. There’s also the expression 狐と狸の化かし合い (kitsune to tanuki no bakashiai), which refers to two people outfoxing each other. 

While I get this might be for localization purposes, I feel like the word “cheating” has connotations in English that are way too different from the original in this case. What I’m trying to say is that we should probably wait for the mv itself to draw our conclusions regarding this (though it’s also possible this really is just about cheating).

These lines caught my attention too, but for another reason:

“Love + Fate = Crap”

“Disgusting playing-house + Disguise + Fake”

While at first glance, these lyrics make it look like Kazui might be a cheater (and not shy about it), I feel like this could be a case of Kazui lashing out after he spent so much time in a relationship with a woman when he’s not attracted to them in the first place. It’s possible Kazui actually saw his wife in a best friend kind of way, and that they only got married because of their families’ and society’s pressure, compulsory heterosexuality, you know. There Are a lot of suspicious things about Kazui that he needs to explain, but maybe cheating isn’t actually one of them. We’ll see, though.

Next, let’s discuss some things from the half mv. 

How Shidou and Kazui respectively visualize their partner

This next section will reference Triage, where we have a look at Shidou’s family for the first time. As a quick note, there has been some debate over the woman in the mv potentially being Shidou's sister or other family relative but I personally believe she's his lover because of this part:

Shidou (we recognize him as he has the same outfit as in the rest of the mv) has his arm around her waist so I assumed they’re romantically involved because of it.

But how does this all connect to Kazui? You guessed it, the way Shidou and Kazui visualize their partner in their respective mvs vastly differs. Let’s have a look. 

Shidou’s visual representation of his lover.

And here’s Kazui’s.

Notice anything? In my opinion, these choices were very deliberate. As various people in the fandom have pointed out, characters in mil mvs who have faces are very important to whichever story is being told (Rei in Muu’s mvs, Shidou’s lover mentioned earlier etc). So it can make one wonder, why does Kazui’s wife, who he obviously cares deeply for, not have a detailed face when we see her? 

To continue this particular point, I want you to look at these consecutive shots from half:

It’s unclear who the blonde woman on the top is, she could be someone Kazui met at the bar, or a coworker etc. It’s not really important who she is for our theory, what’s to note is that these two shots come one after the other, and that the composition in both is extremely similar. My interpretation for this is that, between a woman who is in the grand scheme of things a stranger to him, and the woman he married, Kazui makes almost no difference in the way he visualizes them (as in facial detail).  Because ultimately, if he’s gay, no matter how hard he tries, no matter the woman, he won’t be able to love them romantically. This could be what the staff was going for here.

The green apple and the pixelated person

There’s a cool detail about the two shots above. To start off, the first one’s composition is a little curious. It follows the rule of 1/3; 2/3 with Kazui in the third third of the screen, but the remaining part of the image feels strangely empty, save for the green light at the top. 

It could represent Kazui’s solitude in the theater, but a few scenes later we get the second shot, where we see the green apple on one of the seats.

A fun fact is that, if you count the seats between Kazui and the apple, you notice that 4 seats on Kazui’s right seats the apple… Which corresponds to the second leftmost seat in the first screenshot. The apple was with him the whole time, and the green light stands right in the middle of the two. Hmm. But what does this mean? Honestly I’m not sure. If anything it means the apple is so important to Kazui it was given this special place. 

But then there’s also the pixelated person in the back of the second screenshot. Who are they? They’re probably very important to the story, especially when the apple stands right between them and Kazui.

Since the mystery person isn’t in the first shot where we’re introduced to Kazui, it could mean that whoever they are/represent, Kazui would rather not acknowledge them. At least not until he has to.

Look at the lyrics that play when this scene is on screen. 

“Where did I go wrong, probably from the beginning”

And then, during the same sentence, we get this Kazui who looks like he just had a revelation.

This sentence probably refers to the fact Kazui’s relationship with his wife was bound to fail, because of his sexual orientation. And the mystery person might be a representation of men in general, who Kazui could be attracted to.

The chair and what it could represent

At certain parts during half, it seems as if Kazui is talking to this chair. Some examples:

It should be noted that both times Kazui does this, the lyrics he sings are the same. This part in particular caught my eye:

“Please tell me what I should do”

Who exactly is Kazui talking to here? He could simply be thinking of his wife here, but since there’s so much emphasis on the chair, I thought they could be symbolic for an entity or a group of people Kazui knows. I have two guesses: it might represent either his family, or maybe society in general. 

I don’t think it’s the former because Kazui seems at odds with them and possibly got disowned, so I feel like he wouldn’t value their opinion too much. As for the second option, it could be Kazui asking us what he should have done/ how he should have handled the situation (with him being gay and unable to love his wife romantically, but not wanting to hurt her feelings). It’s hard to know because we don’t have a lot of context for this part so it could be anything really.

Some parts of the lyrics that could specifically refer to homosexuality

These don’t really fit in any of the other points I talked about but if we look at them in the context of this theory they can be pretty telling:

“So many things I wish I hadn’t known, I’m just a coward”

“What I gave up a long time ago, why is it questioning me now?”

“So many things I should have known, I’m just a coward”

Kazui’s possible coming out to his wife

In my opinion, this part could be the aftermath of Kazui coming out to his wife. Let me explain. Here we have the apple (temptation/the forbidden fruit = the idea of homosexuality here?) in the background, so that’s one thing. Add to that the lyrics playing:

“All this time till now has hurt me, The scales of my heart have decided to sway”

This line could refer to the moment Kazui felt like he had to be honest with his wife, because as much as he loved her, pretending to basically be someone he wasn’t was hurting him. Hence “the scales of his heart swaying”. This scene then led to Hinako jumping from the balcony at some point, but at the moment we don’t know the details.

Hope you enjoyed!

[lakesbian]

i havent read worm so i might be missing something but how does arguing for a characters textual traits have anything to do with aura theory?? are they implying youre forgiving her problematic aspects because you like her vibes? or are they just saying anything

AHFSDKLHSDFH i love that we somehow have a non worm reader here witnessing this. okay so basically "aura theory" is like. this really old worm discourse from way back before i was in the fandom theorizing that canonically speaking amy fell in love w/ her sister because of her sister's superpowered aura which can have some impacts on the emotions of those around her. it's provably untrue, and i certainly in no way implied that i believe it by discussing amy's textual traits, so i have no idea whymst that guy thinks he saw it in my post. but i digress. that's what aura theory is. also for context regarding the whole amy situation. her narrative is extremely homophobic, worst predatory lesbian trope on the planet, but it also unfortunately contains genuinely interesting crit of the nuclear family + cops. and she is a genuinely interesting character bc despite the homophobia inherent to her characterization she's given a lot of depth rather than just being a one-dimensional cartoon villain. so there's a lot to pick apart & analyze there and subsequently people get into debates and or arguments about her a lot. although this one is less of a debate and more some random guy doing kind of a lame job at insulting me because he's incensed i was doing aforementioned arguing for a character's textual traits

[gretagerwigsmuse]

Girlie I'm not trying to pressurise you or demand anything but could you please provide an update to Rocketman 👉👈

hahaha nah it’s fine, in fact a little pressure might be good 😉 i have all the big scenes down, i just have to connect some parts and one in particular has me stuck :/

i’m glad you’re still excited about them though! i know with my posting schedule being so…prolonged it’s a risk people still won’t be as interested, so this made me really happy and excited! here’s a cute/silly little scene below!

—————

“What’re you ladies gossiping about?” Amelia breezed onto the patio and messed up Bradley’s hair before she plopped down on the sofa beside him. Naturally, he in turn had to elbow her in the side. Not hard, mind you, but hard enough for her to kick him back.

“We were actually just talking about the dance coming up Friday,” Maverick replied smoothly and Bradley stifled a snort. Since when had Maverick become such a good liar? Regardless, Amelia preened. “I was just about to tell Bradley about your date…”

“What?!” Bradley exclaimed.

Amelia pouted, clearly put off that it had been brought up in front of him. He liked Amelia, he was protective of her, fucking shoot him. “Mav likes him!”

Maverick slightly cowed under Bradley and Amelia’s stares. “He’s nice, they’re on the debate team together.”

“Debate team?!” Alright, now he was putting it on a little bit, but as someone who had also been on the debate team in high school, Bradley knew that those guys were also smart, which generally meant they were way more trouble than the typical jocks.

Clearly misconstruing his comment, Amelia frowned. “Sorry, I know you were rocking the middle part and puka shell necklace when you were on the debate team, but it’s cool now…”

“Puka shell necklace?” your voice chimed in from the doorway. “Pete never mentioned that when he was telling me of your high school heroics.”

Bradley’s cheeks colored. “Yeah, well, it was the late 90s and I thought Pacey Witter was cool.”

“The 1990s!” Amelia feigned hysterics and got a chuckle out of you and Maverick. “Next you’re going to be talking about where you were on 9/11 -”

“I was in kindergarten, we couldn’t go outside for recess,” you teased.

You sat yourself between him and Amelia on the sofa and Bradley threw his arm over your shoulders, pulling you closer. He knew you’d get cold soon, but didn’t want you to run inside to get a sweatshirt just yet - least it would be Maverick's.

Amelia groaned, but still turned her attention back on you. “You were definitely a Joey Potter, breaking hearts left and right. No debate captains for you.” She stuck her tongue out at Bradley for good measure.

“Ha, I wish. No, I was actually kind of lame in high school, very angsty.” Bradley knew why, but Mav and the Benjamins were still in the dark.

🤭👀

[lediz-watches]

Podcast: Weird Medieval Guys

Another podcast, because it's consumed my brain over the last week.

Weird Medieval Guys started as a Twitter account (go off, Musk), but is now also a bi-weekly podcast starring Olivia (the Twitter creator) and Aran (the historian she bribed with a platform to rant about Constantinople). Every couple of weeks, they gather together on Olivia's living room floor to academically gossip about medieval life, loves, and nonsense.

Because people have always been nonsensical, and that's amazing.

I found it through another podcast that I will one day do a post about (I need to... come to terms with why I love it) called We Can Be Weirdos, in which Olivia came on and caught my attention with her passion for the legal debates people got into about heraldry, and her willingness to admit that medieval people were just as petty and ridiculous as we are now.

Because that's the thing, and which I think this podcast shows so well: people have always just been people.

The world we exist in has evolved. Technology has marched on, our ways of interacting with each other have changed, and we have different values, different things we consider important, but we're still the same, really. We think of the past as this noble and dirty and incorruptible space, but people were making sex jokes and lame puns for a hundred thousand years. We aren't special just because we can blast our lame humour to seven billion people at a time.

But anyway.

Each episode of the podcast takes the form of a loose essay, Aran lecturing Olivia (or occasionally vice versa) on some topic about the medieval period, and don't get me wrong - they are lectures. There are stupid jokes, Aran loves to play different characters, Olivia giggles constantly, and the point of each one is that medieval people were Just Like Us, but Aran is an academic talking about research. Yes, his area of expertise is a later period, but the skills remain.

And to be clear, I am a recovering cultural studies student who until recently has been out of academic life and away from other academics for over a decade. But I suspect this is not a podcast you can walk into without some academic-adjacent background. They discuss articles and a lot of their humour is based in inference and the kind of irony you see in people who debate reality for a living.

But they are also redditors, and Twitter natives, and talk about their subjects as 'based'. Aran loves to call people King and Queen. They bring their subject matter to the now.

The most recent podcast was about medieval Welsh bards, and they read out a rap (flyte) battle between two of them (Olivia's bard totally won, I don't care what you say), and finished on the DIRTIEST poem I have ever heard (seriously, ugh), and it taught me a lot about Wales' history, which I've never really known much about, so thank you for that. But it was great to hear all this poetry and these poets and put them in a context where you can strip back the language and see them for the frustrated, young, often horny, very human people they were. Also I loved the owl poem and must search it out because I grew up next to koala tress and boy, I feel you.

The episode before that was about medieval animals, and while it was fun to hear about hedgehogs and the bestiary, it also contained a beautiful insight into why we use animals as narrative devices. The only downside is that I'm still on the edges of the Hellverse fandom and started analysing furry culture and honestly, no one needs that in their life...

But my FAVOURITE episode so far is part two of their Constantinople episode, where they described the Ottoman leader Mehmed as so... painfully human. Even as his soldiers ransacked a once-glorious city and he chased a mad dream, he was just so lost and passionate and terrible and... Aran described him so beautifully, I was just swept up in the story.

So yes. Although there are a few hiccups along the way (please please please go back and fix the episodes with the overlapping voice tracks it hurt my ears so bad), if you have even a passing interest in history or culture or what makes humans human, check out this podcast.

Because we're just people. We've always just been people. And that's amazing.

[lappeldudive]

(Note: Because something stops me from sending my 2599 word worth rant in this site I need to do it in parts. This is the part where I will be talking about Jade and Stalker/Sorren)

I really cannot belive that this is my first post on this blog. Like, sure I was thinking about starting a blog where I talked about my interests and made some lame jokes but. Oh god and above... This will be very long.

First things first, this is not an second account. This is my first and probably will be only account. I really didn't think that I would start using tumblr like that but this whole debate about Jade Shadows update was starting to get tiring for me. I had a lot of opinions I wished to voice and hogling peoples comments is and was not a great way to do this. This is not me explaning things about Jade shadow or blaming people this is rather than a rant about how people approach this quest and also some things I think needs to be mentioned. If my words "sounds" upsetting or annoyed to the people who might seems like I set my target on their face no. This is NOT that kind of rant. I will only use sentences that I see online people arguing about all of this. HERE, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL ANY PEOPLE BE TARGETEN BECAUSE OF WHAT THEY DEFEND.

TW: Mentions of pregnancy, difficulties about pregnancy, some personal stuff that could be triggering for people, some upsetting view about Jade shadow for some people,mentions of trauma related topics about pregnancy and birth.

!!!!! Beware !!!!!

So here we go.

[JADE SHADOW SPOİLERS]

Welp. As for most of the community this was some unexpected event to play in my eyes. A Pregnant Warframe, Operator literally helping giving birth and such. Lots of people made lots of points about the whole quest. And I think most of them were right. Especially the ones about quest being too short so I won't get into these in here. But if you guys wanna know more about I will tell my opinions only about the Jade Shadows quest later. If we get something maybe like The Silver Groove most of the community would be much happy with the results.

But people, let me tell you something. In my and I know for a fact that in everyones eye most of the quest that only focuses of warframes are kind of... Weird? Not enough? Yeah we have some examples like Silver Groove or Octavia's anthem or Sand of Inaros Deadlock Protocol and others. But those quest wasn't only about warframes. They had stories that include a very specific Warframe that had somewhat important role in storyline. I'm talking about the quests like Hidden Message or Limbo's Theorem. This two is somewhat more closer Jade Shadow then the other examples and I think people who read this knows what to say about this. When something that Involves only Warframe and Warframe themselves mostly do not reach the expectation. And I think DE needs to take this as a lesson and try to get better about quest like these. Maybe after that things wouldn't be this chaotic after every warframe related quests. Also squeezing two warframes in a one little quest did make everything much weirder. Because while people trying to understand what Jade was we suddenly had Stalker/Sorren in our hands with a very complicated motives. Also because of how things changed in some newer quest I think people forget how Warframe explain it lore to us. Warframe as a game does not say things in straight forward you need to fetch information about lore from various places. In early game people learn about Valkry this way and until The New War there was a lot of mechanics that you need to use in order to get some info about characters (Like Cephalon Segments or Kuria). And some new added things also follows this thing (Like Citrine and Dante missions.). But there was a lot of change in quest wise. So seeing that kind of explation might cause some huge misundertanding. And even if it was the people who made these changes, it can be thought that the majority owes an apology on this issue. Since they played with their own fanbase.

Before going any deeper lets start to discuss my main problems with this quest. First thing first. Jade

For me Jade was a different aprroach to things. We see a mother who is down to do everything even though she does not have a blood related bond with her many child. Lotus has her flaws but as an caring mother figure she is very good. If this quest was a bit longer it would be very interesting to see Hunhow and Lotus guiding us would be amazing. But again, as for Jade. People tend to say her characterization is only about being a caring mother. Which I don't really agree on but because how quest portrayed her it is very easy to fall in that assumption. They did not do justice to her. She was lacking personality and screentime (a screentime not laying like a lifeless puppet but being in action) but was this sexist or a move just to make all of the Stalker's "redemption arc" better? No. Jade was suppose to be her own person. You can see this in flashbacks but somehow they decided to hide her reasonings behind giving birth to their kid. What important role did she played? That part was just a mess. But there's still a hope if DE notices this big loophole and decides making a actual quest about Jade herself. I think she is an interesting character. A mother, a person who creates life while being the embodiment of death. They could play with her personality and her own motives to create justified version of this quest. For her I don't have anything that I remember that I wished to say right now. If you have any questions or thought that I did not said about Jade you could write them in comments. I will try to say my opinion as good as possible about that.

And now as for Sorren/Stalker. I really don't have to say a lot about. Even though we got more information about him than Jade, he is still a character that will continue to be a mystery. It seemed a bit ridiculous to me that the newly added information added more questions to our previous ones instead of enlightening us, and that Stalker was more expressionless than in Second Dream, despite the "sad spouse trope" that was constantly tried to be introduced throughout the quest. Also why him and Hunhow somewhat seemed distant in this quest? It's not like they were all hughy wuggy before but they way Hunhow talked with him and how less we Heard from Hunhow who did all the speaking for Stalker in other quests seemed... kind of weird. Also I've noticed some people saying "Stalker Betrayed his Lords". Orokin is just a messed up empire of bastards. You've seen how Ballas not only played with us but also Erra and Natah. Or predicted but not fully canon Alad V who literally notorious for constantly changing sides. Orokin would do aynthing to gain their profit. Even though Stalker is a low class Orokin soldier it could be expected that he only wanted help from us. Quest may make it seem like he's given up on attacking us or something like that, but Stalker is still the same Stalker. But even though I've said that I do not get any parental vibe from Stalker. Just like Jade, I'm not sure if we can get any other information unless there is another quest or maybe a mission.

[runthepockets]

Saw a post on here a while ago that was asking why trans women tend to headcanon fictional men as trans women but trans dudes hardly headcanon fictional women as trans men. And tbh I think it's a bit of a mixed bag.

I think a decent amount of trans guys are still under this weird delusion that being a woman is inherently more interesting than being a man, because you "deal with more scrutiny all the time". It's a mentality I see echoed pretty casually in "passing discourse" and posts along the lines of "pre transition I was a cool and edgy gamer girl, now I'm a LAME DUMB BOY!!!!!" I think a lot of trans men just have a lot of self hatred that trans women kind of don't (not saying trans women don't deal with self esteem issues, but reckoning with your status as "an oppressor" is a very different experience from reckoning with your status as "on the receiving end of the bulk of gendered oppression").

At the same time, though, I feel like GNC men and GNC women are treated very differently. GNC women still get bullied and hazed by their peers, yeah, but we are also far enough in the gender sphere that "tomboys" are very much a thing and always have been. It's very normal to see women casually wearing pants, dawning short hair, skateboarding, playing video games, and all sorts of other "traditionally male" hobbies and presentation, sometime even after teenhood. They fought and advocated for themselves long enough that it's just, like, a thing girls do sometimes. Me personally, my mom played basketball and had an older brother, so I was pretty used to "masc women" growing up. When I see a girl at a Metal show wearing Pig Destroyer sweatpants and a tanktop, I don't think "transmasc egg" I think "oh wow cool, a girl who likes heavy music." I think most people feel it's very normal and possible for a woman or girl to not identify with her gender role, but still feel like a woman.

GNC men, comperatively, aren't really seen that way. A guy wearing a skirt out in public is still seen as "too far" for some people, we still have to debate over whether or not it's appropriate for little boys to play dolls. For all the dunking people do on "men with painted nails" and "real men wear pink", those decisions were kind of a big step for men to take. I mean, 20 years ago men were seen as gay or girly for simply wearing jeans that fit properly. Even amongst trans people, it's still pretty common to see GNC women as "some girl that likes wearing pants" and GNC men as "that weird faggot who's failing miserably at manhood". Again, it's not that GNC women have it any easier, but they do have more language and unity to combat the scurtiny, whereas GNC men don't because men just. Don't give a fuck about advocating for themselves and each other a lot of the time. Idk just shit to consider.

[inkdragonworks]

After waiting a few days, I wanted to announce I’ve deleted Twitter off my phone.

Which is still a lame announcement. I was debating deleting my account entirely but there’s enough people I mentioned it to that would be upset about it being gone, that I’d feel like it’d be better to keep it around. I doubt Twitter will ever switch hands, or the person forced to run it will care about the user experience over their own, so I guess I’ll only ever go on to dump links that go back to here.

It’s not entirely related to the current owner though. I’ve had problems with twitter for a long time, but accepted being on there due to needing something to distract myself, and that it had the largest audience.

lately, as in within the past few years, I’ve cared less and less about audiences, and accepting that me and the stuff I care about are probably going to stay relatively obscure. My output is too slow; even if I managed to make something that had a freak accident amount of recognition, I couldn’t capitalize on that momentum. It’s just not who I am or what I want to make.

Maybe if I win the lottery and could pay people to help, then sure. Crowdfunding isn’t a realistic avenue (too much time to create, not enough interest to justify it, amount of money required for it to be a livable wage is too expensive, burden of deadline, risk of life circumstances getting in the way, etc). The money I’m making and saving now, it’s for my family and livelihood, it’s not gonna be for a passion project.

I’ve thought about all that for years. I’m fine taking a year to make a chapter at this point. I’m fine with the idea of dying before completing it. I’m fine with it getting a modest release and being moved on from after a week, like the majority of things released. I’m happy working on it for its own sake.

the kind of person I’d have to be to change that isn’t something I’d like. I don’t care about being a brand, or supporting a brand, or someone’s shitty brand image. That’s the other aspect of twitter that I’m just not into and the whole trap of chasing an audience. “Outreach” “market viability” “viewer retention” “content output” “engagement” “hype culture”. It’s concepts that turn things from works of art into products, and even if that isn’t someone’s goal, platforms like twitter perpetuate that perspective. It’s not real, but it’s a pretty addictive mindset cause it keeps giving you feedback to encourage it. Likes, retweets, follows, views, comments. You look at one post you made before to now and feel a sense of progress. You look at the post you made and one someone else did, and you think that’s a goal. But its not a goal towards cultivating self expression and fulfillment. It’s a goal towards chasing a high.

Usually reality is pretty boring, and I’m good at being boring, so that’s where I’d like to be now. I’m sorry that I have this tendency to ramble about these things, but that’s where my care lies. I think about existential stuff a lot. As for tumblr it’s pretty dead and I don’t really browse it much. I feel like having some place to share my stuff publicly, so this is what I’m doing for now.

[secret-tacos]

re: ides of march discourse

i debated for a really long time on posting an official response to this, but this has really been eating at me and i feel like i need to get this out in the open, so here goes:

my original intent behind the event was to provide a space to enable darker content. a lot of the content in this fandom is very fluffy ship content and i have absolutely nothing against that; i just wanted to encourage content that was more show-accurate, because i thought it could be a fun contrast.

it wasn't done thoughtlessly, or for shock value, or to create something that serves no purpose except being edgy and gross. you can do a deep character study. you can do something fun and wacky. you can write porn. i do not care. the show is dark by nature. one of the reoccurring characters is a pedophile. one of the most popular OCs in this fandom involves a heavily romanticized and normalized relationship between a grown man and a teenage girl. i have not seen a single person take offense to that. it should go without saying that i don't encourage any of this irl.

i genuinely, wholeheartedly do not believe that fiction and reality have a one to one correlation. i do not think brendon small encourages dating teenage girls, or throwing acid on women, or mass murder. fiction is a healthy medium for people to explore topics that they wouldn't explore irl for very obvious reasons.

if you have experienced hurt in the past, i am sorry. it's not my intention to bring up memories of that hurt. it never was.

i did expect hate going into this, but it's genuinely frustrating to see people respond with childish hate on the post itself, or to complain about how morally bankrupt i am as a person in a discord that i'm literally in. that's frustrating.

i'm sorry that i didn't tag the original post. it's tagged now. i genuinely wish that we could go back to the days of 'don't like don't read'. i don't owe you a detailed glimpse into my psyche and my various traumas. nobody does. people have been consuming dark media since the invention of media and they will continue to do so.

if you are genuinely traumatized, block the tags. blacklist them. everything will be tagged accordingly. by continuing to engage with content you know upsets you, that's really unhealthy. and, if you're engaging with it on the level of 'i am good, and want to show how good i am by pointing out how much i hate this thing'... that's just kind of lame.

i will be continuing with the event. blacklist the tag. have fun. bye.

[viscountessevie]

Do you think JQ cares at all at how her characters (and to an extent the actors too with the promo and stuff) are treated or does she only care about the money? I mean they already did huge changes and they will probably do more going forward. As an artist myself I would find it disheartening how something I created would be taken apart so much that it barely resembles my own work. And also how does she feel about all her fans response to the season 2 disaster? There was a lot of complaining on her insta posts about what they did to Kate and Edwina (especially on her video post about the sister soulmate stuff). Okay yes she signed off all rights, if one should do that is another debate (i wouldn’t ) but do you think she regrets it? Because it doesn’t feel that way. Makes me resent her a bit tbh.

Ask Dated: 31st July 2022

I can't quite remember what may have prompted this ask but probably them feeling the same way I felt about S2.

While yes Simone and Jonny's chemistry and some acting choices/scene and tone changes saved the season, I still felt robbed of my favourite lines and scenes from the book not being adapted. And of course how they massacred my favourite book family, The Sheffields/Sharmas. We really could have seen a healthy and loving Indian family of women instead we got the same toxic shit I grew up in.

Anyway, to answer your main question anon, I have a feeling the Netflix/Shondaland check was big enough for JQ to sell her soul and writer's integrity. If she did care, she hasn't shown it one bit. Or alternatively her lack of enthusiasm for Kate, The Sharmas and Kathony now that Kate is an Indian woman, can be a sign of expressing her disappointment in the colour blind cast. I mean before the show was announced (and old time Bton fans feel free to correct me), Kathony (and TVWLM) and Polin (and RMB) were her favourite couples and books to hype up. Ever since Simone was announced as Kate, she did the bare minimum talking about her and has ignored Kate in favour of her fave and only white tv couple (so far). So take what you will from that.

There are a few articles out here where JQ kind of does mental gymnastics to justify all the big changes to S2 which I thought were cop out answers. [Note: it is almost 4am as I am writing this and I am a little tired to find for her exact quotes but if I come across them I'll link at a later time but for now Google is your bestie!]

I did find that she stipulating that *only* the Pall Mall scene could not be changed at all, really dumb in hindsight. Because the way they shot and edited that scene was super lame (there was barely any tension visually - Jimone was carrying the tension and rivalry of the scene and match) and there was SO MANY MORE important scenes and characterisations that made TVWLM so popular and beloved and nothing else mattered to her???

I will admit; while I LOVE the OG Bee Scene, I liked the new one too. I just wish they had gotten married earlier. Also of course the new accident scene is superior. But it still does not make up for how badly they fumbled the Sharmas, cutting out their backstories and then giving away an whole useless hour to the Featherflops. DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE TWO WEDDINGS THAT WEREN'T EVEN KATE'S!!!

I really wanna know how much she was paid to just go along with everything because even Rick Riordan was able to express his disdain with the Percy Jackson movies!! I think at this point, its safe to say its enough money to make her turn a blind eye to all the horrid changes and not regret anything. It even is enough to make her eat her words about not being able to write characters of colour (will expand more in the next ask) but now suddenly after all these years, she can write a romance novel centred on a Black heroine. I guess characters of colour are only worth writing if she can profit off them. It makes me resent her too anon. 

[3liza]

I was beat up by left anarchists in Greece

I don't usually use forums or Reddit, I usually just post comments on Ancap blogs like Molyneux or Cantwell's blog, but they didn't seem appropriate places to post my story. So here goes, I just wanted to share this with all of you.

Nov 3 I flew to Europe for a Eurotrip type tour. Not a guide or packaged deal, just going around by myself. I paid for half of the trip with the wages I earned over the last two years, my dad paid for the other half. I am 19, I guess that is normal starting college and all. (Before that I worked for my dad's company part time, so I guess you could say he paid for all of it, lol).

I did France and then Italy and then Greece next. I am an Ancap so I wanted to see anarchists in these places. Yes, I know they are different kinds of "anarchists" and not really full anarchists like us. I went to an anarchist book store in Italy and it had a lot of English books, but no Rothbard or Ancap. Like I said, I expected that, not a surprise.

I went to Greece, which everyone knows is famous for its revolutionary anarchism, its economic crisis and everything going on right now. Here I found directions for a local anarchist center. I went and didn't see anybody, but it was covered in graffiti, mostly in Greek so I couldn't read it. Whatever, I started taking pictures. Then some people came out and confronted me.

This should have been my first warning sign something was not right, because photography is not a crime. They were not violent, but they were not friendly, like asking who I was, what I wanted. They all spoke good English actually. Not uncommon in Greece. I said I was a tourist and an anarchist and I just wanted to take pictures. Then they got friendly and told me I should have asked first (but pictures are no NAP violation so I don't know why, but I didn't say anything) and they invited me inside.

We hung out for a while and smoked hash (there is no good dank in Europe as you might find out like in Cali, everyone smokes hash with tobacco which isn't as cool as it sounds). We started talking about politics and anarchism. I was trying to talk about the state, they were like yeah no doubt the state was bad. But they wanted to talk about capitalism, capitalism this and that. This is when we started to get into a debate.

I told them that what they called capitalism is different from the free market. They said capitalism is free markets. And I said I agreed. That is what I am saying. Real capitalism is free markets. And they said yes, that is what we are trying to get rid of. And I said no, but we don't even have that right now. We need more free markets. And everyone at the same time was like "nooo" we are anarchists, we are against capitalism. Anarchists oppose capitalism.

And I said but not anarcho-capitalists. Anarcho-capitalists are the anarchists who support capitalism. I had a fanny pack (yeah, lame I know) for my camera and in that I had this yellow and black bowtie (also super lame, it was a joke but I wasnt wearing it). And I said look, these are the Ancap colors, yellow and black, like versus the communist red and black. Well, these guys had a lot of red and black in the building already so I thought they would get it.

I think that is when it started to get a really bad vibe, really tense in the air. The free market thing was funny, we disagreed but I think they thought I was just confused. Everyone was uncomfortable now. Then someone said markets wont work with democracy. And I said exactly, that's it, democracy is against anarchism. And they kind of agreed, and said yes, we don't have real democracy, just governments, and we needed more democracy. I said no, we need less democracy, democracy is the enemy. And we need to end democracy to have anarchy. Then they were all like "noooo" again. You know that thing people do in groups when everyone all says "nooo" or expresses some disapproval at the same time.

And one of them said "but we do want to stop democracy" and then they kind of spoke back and forth in Greek. I didn't really understand it. And they asked me what I meant.

So I said okay, I had the floor, I was going to tell them about ancapism. And I tried to explain to them some Rothbard and Hoppe. I said the natural order in anarchy is that the best rise to the top, the market picks who is the best. They compete and are peaceful. They said what do we want instead of anarchy. I said we want private owners to own their own land and businesses, and to employ people. They said that is what we have now. I said no, it would be even better. One of the guys said it was like feudalism. And I said it is not feudalism.

Eventually one of the guys spoke up and I thought he was Greek, but he spoke English perfectly so he may have not been. He said he knew what anarcho-capitalism was and that we were basically fascists. He asked me if I thought everything should be private. And I said yes. And he asked me if I thought people were unequal. And I told him yes. And that not everyone would have equal rights. I said everyone has the right to own property and not be done aggression against. But that not everyone had to be treated equally by the owners. He said what about immigrants and racism. And I said that would not happen in a free market, but yes property owners could be racist if they wanted to. They had to respect property.

Then he called me a fascist again, and someone else said I was a fascist. And then they basically all started shouting fascist at me, and one of them grabbed me by the wrists. They pulled me out the door, it was up three floors, and basically drug me down the stairs on my back. It hurt really bad and I remember yelling "you're breaking the NAP" and things like that. "Stop initiating force against me." Then they kicked me around on the ground in the hallway, before they took my camera and threw me outside. I was crying and stuff, I just sat there. I was in shock because it was so sudden. Looking back there were warning signs though.

I think they felt bad for me and gave the camera back, but when I looked later they stole the memory card with all of my Greek photos.

So they initiated force and theft. They broke the NAP. I knew the left anarchists were not real anarchists, but I never knew they would do something that bad.

I wasnt seriously hurt, just kicked around a little, lots of bruises and little cuts. I am fine guys so don't worry. Just needed to share.

Can you elaborate on how the NAP is inconsistent? A lot of examples people bring up seem to depend on the culture. A common one is driving, since driving near someone's house pollutes it and as such infringes on their property rights, but slapping a friend playfully or pinching them also would. However people don't go around suing each other for things like that.

"aggression" is not consistently defined (by anyone, not just libertarians), and depending on your construction of property rights, you can turn almost anything into aggression. anarchocapitalist types claim to be deriving their anarchocapitalism from first principles like the NAP, but it's pretty clear their definition of the NAP is a gerrymander to justify their preexisting political assumptions.

[aclosetfan]

Lmaooo some of you already know i live for tough girl Buttercup. I love love love how people have developed her into someone who kicks ass, takes names, and looks good doing it. She’s a one-liner queen 👸, doesn’t take lip, and make a sailor blush!! There’s no way she’d ever be soft! No way!!!!

Except, SIKE, you already know I don’t mess around with that one dimensional bs because every tough girl’s a little soft in the middle

Don’t get me wrong, Buttercup’s tough, but that just a defense mechanism. she cares a little too much about what other people think of her, so she tries to build walls. Can’t blame her, last time she easily allowed people in, she was chased to a meteor. That does shit to a kid.

On one hand, she really likes the superhero gig. On the other, she’s so eager for people to threat her like a normal person that when she was little, in an effort to fit in, she ended up bullying pasty little Elmer, but we all know how that worked out 🤷‍♀️ the guilt still eats her up alive, so she ends up being president of the Bully Patrol Squad at her elementary/middle/and high school. It’s her self-imposed, never ending penance.

When she grows up and fully matures, she’s overly apologetic about everything. It’s the “I use to be an aggressive kid” instinct. She may not come out and say it all the time, but you know when Buttercup’s feeling sorry. Don’t believe me on this one? Watch the movie (after she lands the first punch on the gorilla) AND anytime she has to apologize to Bubbles/Blossom in the show.

She still has a bad habit of acting cool in front of new people (it those defense mechanisms dude). In reality, though, out of the three sisters, Buttercup’s actually the shy one. Bubbles and Blossom were given their names for a reason. They’re the outgoing mouth pieces, not her. But cool kids don’t have to say much to be cool, so people tend not to notice

Take a moment to get to know her though, and Buttercup’s dorky personality really shines through. She’s that one kid who knows too much about pro-wrestling, religiously keeps a fantasy football team, and still watches Saturday morning cartoons.

“We’re not keeping that stinky fleabag.” She pauses, looking down at the kitten as it plays with her yo-yo, and the sour expression on her face softens, “Because I’m gonna end up feeding it, and cleaning it, and loving it.” REAL dialogue people!!! REAL dialogue from the show that should persuade you that it is not Blossom or Bubbles who is the Mom Friend(tm) but in fact one Buttercup Utonium!!!!! (fact check me, I dare you)

She may be the “tomboy” of the trio, but Buttercup can’t stand bugs and that doesn’t go away as she gets older. Spiders are public enemy number uno. She screams like a baby if she ever accidentally walks through a spider web and an actual encounter with the bug? Oof she books it out of the city.

Happy and gigglely when drunk and it scares everyone but her sisters (they have no idea why people think she’s so intimidating otherwise, BC’s always happy and gigglely to them). The real her really comes out when she switches off hero mode and allows herself to have fun

Daddy’s girl for life

Every birthday Professor gives her a bouquet of buttercups. Every birthday she rolls her eyes and sighs, but when no one’s looking she stuffs her face in the bouquet, takes a deep breath, and keeps the damn things alive for as long as possible

So, sue her. She likes buttercups. It’s still a stupid name. It spawns a horrible amount of cheesy nicknames and really impedes on her tough-girl persona!!! You can’t be tough and be named after a flower!! Everyone knows that! Anyway, buttercups are pretty and she’s not very pretty, but sometimes she likes to think that maybe someday, maybe, someone will think she’s pretty like the flowers too

The idea makes her giggle. In fact, any romantic thought or feeling makes her giggle. If she giggles at something you’ve said? Watch out friend, she’s got it bad for you. Her sisters tease her relentlessly for this “character flaw”

Yes. Obviously, physical touch and quality time are her love languages. Yes. Obviously, the idea of physical touch and quality time embarrass her to no end. And NO play fighting with someone is not “basically the same thing,” stfu Bubbles.

But whose to say playful shoulder punches cannot be innately intimate? Not her

She likes hair ribbons! Based on the show and cute comic strips, when she can, she steals Blossom’s bow to wear it. How damn cute would it be if she just really likes them, but knows it was Blossom’s thing so she just admires them from afar.

Speaking of arbitrary pieces of fabric, she still has her childhood blankie. It’s folded neatly underneath her pillow at all times. She’d be damned if she ever lost it again.

Finally, she’s loyal to the max and doesn’t give up easily, so once she lets you in, you’re in for life.