#roles it feels way different to how humans feel regarding this stuff. You don't feel what humans feel when you get snapped at

[blackvahana]

Ugh. Honestly? Lev asking (emphasis on ask.) me to veil when we go out in public as a sign of claiming and being one of his spouses... the territorial "you're my (partner) so you should veil for me"... one of the most beautiful instincts. I'm wearing a hell of a lot of black now with the veil that kinda borders on victorian widow aesthetic, but there's something insanely. beautiful? Really no other word for it. about being veiled for him

[drdemonprince]

I was wondering if you have any thoughts on age gaps in relationships? I really struggle with basically everybody talking about this. I’ve seen a lot of grooming in my friends/community, where I can see they’ve normalized some of the abuse they’ve been through and say stuff like “age is just a number” and then also continue to take advantage of people younger than them + in disempowered situations. And this feels obviously bad and more common than at least how much we collectively acknowledge it. And then I also see people who obsess over the number 18 and legal adulthood that makes no sense to me. Like all the “age in bio!!!” 18+ nonsense on tumblr that doesn’t actually seem like it would do anything to protect or help kids in any way. Or like how consent laws often treat 18 (or some other age) as suddenly when you’re able to consent to any other age but certainly when I turned 18 and the years after that I felt exploited by people older than me. But then I also know that people have positive relationships with people much older/younger than them, you talk about this. So how do we actually talk about this stuff without falling into bad thinking?

I think people need to adopt a far richer understanding of the many dynamics of power that enter into any kind of relationship, and realize that a relationship having a power dynamic within it does not preclude it from being a kind of relationship that can and does often happen. We should be operating out of the assumption that human beings will continue to get into relationships, some of them abusive, and that we must find a means of providing for them when they wish to escape rather than restricting their autonomy or believing that there is a singular type of person who can be easily identified as abusive.

Most human relationships, romantic or not, are impacted in some way by differences in age, gender, race, access to financial resources, and other sources of power. We have to ask ourselves whether the state should ever have a role in managing the power dynamics that emerge in human relationships or in determining which kinds of relationships are permitted to exist. I do not think it should. I don't think the state can ever be trusted to manage human affairs in a way that benefits the people with less power.

There are a variety of aspects of a person's status in the world with regard to power that is often related to their age, but rarely in a straightforward way -- ability level, financial standing, sexual and romantic experience, legal personhood, education, and established social connections are *related* to age, but it's not the case that every older person has more of these things than every younger person, and indeed, as we grow older, we often lose access to many of these things and become far more disempowered.

There are also a variety of intersections such as race, gender, legal disability, and citizenship status that dramatically influence whether a person is ever even seen as "an adult human being" under the eyes of the law. Many people who are adults in age-wise do not have that legal and social standing of "full human adulthood" and that is relevant to these things.

Of course, when people ask about this they don't always care to know my views on the law (I don't think there should be an age at which you become a person, I think everybody should be a full person no matter their age), they also want to have what emotionally troubles them about the abuse of minors to be soothed. And to that I will say yeah, like a lot of people I was sexualized as a child in ways that seriously damaged me, I have seen many exploitative relationships between older people and younger people (as well as the reverse), and when I see a thirty-something dating a teenager I do think it's gross as fuck at best.

I just don't really think the state declaring that certain highly vulnerable categories of people are not people is ever going to be a strong defense against abuse. I think it makes abuse more likely and legally facilitates it in fact. I think, as troubling as it might be for us to wrap our heads around from under the current paradigm, giving all people body autonomy and full legal personhood and providing all people the resources they need to live comfortably and safely are the way that we minimize relational abuse of all kinds. Not just adults dating and abusing minors, but adult children abusing their senile parents, white partners abusing their Black loved ones, non-physically-disabled people abusing the disabled people they are supposed to be caretaking, and on and on.

[profounddefendorcrusade-blog]

Clover's personality (in-depth)

This thing turned out way longer than intended. As promised, I wrote my opinions in regards to Clover's mbti; I also wanted to include the enneagram but figured it would be too much, so I'll do that separaretly. For those who wanna get straight to the point, just scroll to the end of the post for a pic of the functions I think Clover has. But if you want more details, read the whole thing. Probably not many people will wanna do that, but I had fun, lol. Please excuse me for nerding out

Analysis

Even before they got into the Underground, Clover thought to themselves "Ok, this is a dangerous mountain and I ain't coming back, I'm probably gonna die and therefore not live to see the rest of my life play out BUT I'm gonna follow my values anyway. They're worth the risk." To me, right off the bat, that's Fi over Ti (aka inner values and morals over inner facts and logic).

I've done some research on this stuff and found out how "Fi knows the value of something not by analyzing it but by feeling it deep inside themselves that it is how it should be" Ti has to be as objective as possible, Fi doesn't. So I sat down and thought about how exactly Clover approached situations.

I feel like their main reasoning for being in the Underground were their inner values and beliefs of finding out what happened to the children. That's why I'd say they're an introvert rather than an extrovert (it's not because they're quiet and reserved, although they are, but because Clover's inner world affects their outer world). Now, both Ti and Fi look inward, and those inner thoughts and feelings affect how they interact with the external world. The real question is: is Clover objective enough to be considered a dominant Ti user?

We can see in the Vengeance route that Clover is stubborn with their beliefs and refuses to look at things from a more... logical POV: "Asgore killed five humans. Is it fair to wipe out every other monster in my way who gives me even the slightest reason to do it?" Martlet was the only exception because she was the only one who had tried to be nice and understanding. Clover's dark side is that they're tunnel-visioned and see morality as black and white (don't look deeper as to WHY the monsters do what they do), and blindly follow their own beliefs over what objectively makes sense. Just like Ceroba, who I'm positive is a feeler (she only considers how she felt about Chujin and not how skilled of an engineer he actually was, even when there's clear proof he wasn't the best at his job). 

Objectively, it's not fair to kill so many monsters after only five humans were killed. If Clover wanted fair vengeance, they would have stopped after five monsters were killed. But no. According to Clover's own logic, everyone morally imperfect, everyone who's hurt them, who tried to hurt them, or messed up somehow, must die. So, Clover isn't thinking about what makes sense; they're thinking about what makes sense to THEM, and stubbornly hold onto that till the end (again, like Ceroba), even after Martlet's warnings. She says how the Royal Guard will be after them.

The logical (T) thing to do would be to STOP before things become even messier, but once again, no. Clover doesn't care about the consequences, only fulfilling their mission that is driven by their own set of values. No matter which route you choose, you will be presented with Clover's own version of what "justice" means. It's not the objective truth, it's not what's the logical thing to do; they follow their own framework based on their (our) choices.

"If unhealthy INFPs are dealing with threatened values or viewpoints that oppose their own, they can go the other way and imagine that others are all corrupt, thinking badly of them, and deluded. They may see themselves as the only people who see “the truth”, or the only people who really care to make a difference in the world. They can become especially harsh and critical of others and take on a martyr role, gradually secluding themselves from other people". - this feels like geno Clover; they thought they were the hero but they were playing the villain all along

Now that I think about it, the logical thing to do, the one that makes the most sense, would be never to have entered Mt. Ebott in the first place. And if vengeance was what Clover wanted to do, it is fair and makes objective sense to kill only five monsters (since that's how many humans died). But as explained, Clover didn't follow that logical conclusion, but rather their own twisted sense of justice. The same goes for neutral. It's Clover who chooses who gets to live and who gets to die based on their own beliefs and feelings, which are not backed up by facts. Everything they do they do because they themselves feel like it should be done. They are the one who decide who gets to live and who doesn't based on their own opinion/how severe they think the misdeed of the final boss is. This counts for the regular monsters who attack them, too; again, THEIR own subjective decision.

For example, they might see Dalv's actions as acceptable/forgiveable and spare him, but not Starlo's and kill him. Objectively, both characters are messy in their own way, but Clover gets to be the "judge" and decide their fate, not objectively looking at the situation, but subjectively. In short, according to them, Dalv may deserve to live, but not Starlo. 

And even if they're a dominant Ti user, which I don't think they are, Clover is more past and future-oriented than present-oriented (N over S). As mentioned, they thought about how much they'd risk by going down Mt. Ebott (potentially dying, and definitely never seeing the surface ever again, or their family) but they followed their heart's desires; to them, morals and ethics (their own morals and ethics) were more important than what the more logical thing to do was (stay on the surface where it's safe).

In other words, they could already "predict" what would happen in the future, while in the present moment (the beginning of the journey).

And right before sacrificing their soul in pacifist, they think about how their death would affect ALL the monsters in the future, whether they had directly met and befriended them or not, even though they wouldn't be there to see it.

Clover seems to be able to easily move between the past, present and future, unlike sensors, who are mainly in the present moment (this is what I've heard somewhere at some point and remembered it, dunno how true it is). They can easily recall the past, and what they remember are things that moved them on the inside.

I've heard some of my friends say that Clover's character arc was to become a kinder person (develop their Fe), which, honestly, I don't think is the case. They simply acted on their inner views of what justice truly means, without further analyzing whatever they believed justice to be.

In pacifist, they're naturally selfless and kind and forgiving: a bit of a prankster, but they're one of "the best souls" according to Martlet. Just look at the ACT options that they used to befriend monsters. Quietly listens to Decibat, offers Dalv a handshake (and friendship), easily forgives Martlet, Starlo, and even Ceroba (+ gives her a hug), endures so many hardships yet keeps their heart pure and selfless. 

They were always driven by something bigger than themselves (like Chujin, who I also think is a N user).

ISTPs are more adventurous and independent and flexible and focused on current problems in the present moment; Clover has been future-oriented from the start; they depended on Toriel to take care of them, and didn't try to immediately "adapt" to the monster world. Their 1st reaction was to stay safe and cozy. ESTJs (yeah, at some point I thought Clover could be one) are more "ruthless" in their pursuits, they "force" others to adopt their inner values. Clover doesn't do this in any route; they simply act upon their own beliefs, but aren't demanding that other monsters to have those same beliefs.

That's why I think they're an INFP.

Functions

Fi (dominant) – "If something goes against their moral code, they will not go through with it." It went against Clover’s moral code to spare monsters in genocide and abort the mission, so they didn’t, regardless of Martlet’s warnings.

"Fi dominants are inclined to speak up against beliefs or actions that go against their personal values or express disapproval of certain behaviors." I can't find the screenshot, but in the Mines, if you interact with the character who's in the same room as one of the puzzles, Clover will find out how that character pulled a prank on that guy who later got a promotion in the pacifist end credits (I need to reply the game to find the screenshot). But basically Clover was upset that their own morals weren't met and gave them a "disapproving look" or smth

"Ti dominants most often feel compelled to speak out when people are acting inconsistent (ie: contradicting themselves) or when people are being illogical from the Ti user’s perspective." I think Clover reacted to the above situation as a Fi user

"Unlike Fe users, Fi users are very blunt and direct. Fi and Te creates a person who is brutally honest about their opinions and feelings. If they don’t like a person, they will let that person know." Not a person in this case, but an example of this are the options we get for Martlet's questionnaire. Clover will have no problem honestly giving her the lowest scores for both questions; we also also get the chance to honestly tell Ceroba that we're not into Starlo's training. There are these cases where they're direct as well:

...and blunt:

they would have given at least a smile or a thumbs up, but no, their honest opinion is their honest opinion

"They appear cold and withdrawn, but tend to warm up as they get to know a person."

Ne (auxiliary) – "Ne views a situation from multiple angles and motivations" I feel like this is best seen in pacifist; this is exactly why Clover decided to give up their soul in the end; they saw all the motivations of the monsters, from many different angles. On the flip side, in the vengeance route, it’s the complete opposite situation: Clover only looks at things from their own pov, completely disregarding others. That’s the thing about the INFP dark side: INFPs become "disillusioned or stuck in their ways." This 100% describes Clover at their worst: stuck in their ways is already explained, while we can say they were disillusioned when even Martlet turned against them/gave up on them (in Genocide). That was enough of a reason for Clover not to feel bad about finishing her off. They never liked her, but they definitely liked her more than anyone else, so I’d say it counts.

"Creative, open-minded, and able to think outside the box" We can say Clover’s creative when they build Axis’ robot companion, solved the two puzzles in the Mines, they’re also most likely into role-playing just like Starlo, based on their clothes (and they seemed into the whole larping thing with him), and how they seem to be into drawing; open-minded, definitely (Clover with everyone; the pacifist route in a nutshell); able to think outside the box (this goes hand in hand with them being creative: I forgot to mention the many creative ways they found to befriend monsters)

"Ne lives in the present like Se does but makes connections to past and future." Imo, this is exactly what Clover does (their sacrifice in the future, and all the things other monsters had said to them in the past; however, they DO interact with the present world at the same time. This is what I meant when I mentioned how they "jump from and connect all 3")

Si (tertiary) – "happy in their comfort zone" Is this Clover? Yeah. Initially, this was their "default" reaction/behavior: with Toriel. They subconsciously became more independent thanks to good old Flowey. As I said, their values led them to take the risk and come into the Underground in the first place, not adventure/excitement (the way I see it). Were they also seeking the truth? Yeah again, they wanted to know the truth behind the whole situation, but I think it had more to do with how they had found the fact that no other humans bothered to look for the kids immoral.

"Si users may draw on their past experiences to guide their present actions and decisions" Example, how the detailed lines they remembered everyone said in true pacifist, influenced them to make the decision to die in the present moment. Or when they asked Ceroba if she would date Starlo, after hearing and remembering Crestina mention his crush on her beforehand, wanting to set them up.

"Si users have a strong memory for past experiences and details" Yep, explained above. Also, dunno if this counts as noticing details, but we can make them beat the Shufflers’ game with ease.

"Si users are typically practical and realistic in their approach to solving problems" The Snowdin mini-quests come to mind (although they use past information here too to figure out what each character needs to be helped). Also, how they fixed the elevator by using a pickaxe (most practical & realistic choice). They’re also pretty rational while dealing with Guardener, and in general, while dealing with enemies.

Te (inferior) – I guess this is why I suspected they could be an ESTJ.

"seen as leaders" By everyone.

"Come up with ideas quickly" Pretty much throughout the game. They’re more low-key about this than ESTJs though.

"Ruthlss and domineering" This is them in vengeance route

"Extraverted Thinkers recognize the emotional content, but then they set it aside to focus on the facts" I feel like this inferior function of theirs is mostly seen in flawed pacifist. They recognized Ceroba’s emotional situation, but chose to be fair and just instead.

"Te users are logical" Recognizing the dangers of the Underground and deciding to stay with Toriel. We can also say it makes sense that Clover attacked those who attacked them first, and finished Ceroba off (Te is what is objective, but from the external world)

"Though they are generally free spirits, they like to have a certain order in their lives. They do enjoy structure, just as long as it does not intrude with their feelings/morals/ethics/etc. They like to be the ones to create the structure, not to have the structure to be created for them."  Vengeance route and Clover’s "mission" come to mind. Basically, the structure is that, whoever Clover sees as morally flawed, gets to die. And they stick to it

tl;dr this picture pretty much explains the way I see Clover's functions in a nutshell ↓

[darthkvznblogs]

I know the point of the universal meld was to keep them as close to canon as possible, but has there been any noticeable change in some characters thanks to the fusion or any obvious butterfly effect?

Some off the top of my head.

Regarding the world:

-SHIELD is a lot bigger and has more influence in the Kverse than it did in the MCU, for better or worse. There's any number of hidden projects and weapons derived from non-Marvel entities and concepts that I haven't even alluded to yet.

-There's a similar story with SWORD, though this is more due to the relationship with the Kree Empire through Hala. Abigail's been able to procure a lot of goodies that, even if they can't propel Earth centuries ahead, should at least give us a decent edge in a fight if the worst comes to pass.

-The Moon is a lot more storied, having housed the Silver Millenium, the Inhuman realm of Attilan, Pink Diamond's original base of operations, a SWORD base, and now a Bounty Hunter's Guild outpost throughout its history.

-There's obviously a lot more magical stuff in general, of all sorts, but also a lot more backlash towards it from scared, mundane humans. Even now, there's oodles more magical beings than there ever were in the MCU, but they exist in insular communities, largely cut off from one another, thanks to centuries of anti-magic crusades courtesy of groups like the Forever Knights and their allies.

-It felt like the Masters of the Mystic Arts were pretty isolated sorcerer monks in the MCU with little, if any connection to the other magical spheres. They serve a more SHIELD-like role in the Kverse - just, y'know, not nearly as militaristic - providing much needed diplomacy and conflict resolution between the isolated magical realms and protecting them from factions that would seek their destruction. They're kinda like Jedi before the Clone Wars (and with some of the same flaws, too).

Regarding the characters:

-An important part of Kara's story is figuring out she's actually underpowered, and really, subconsciously holding herself back from the true strength and wide range of abilities of a Kryptonian under yellow sun conditions. You might infer that she was initially mirroring the perceived power level of the world around her (though there's some standouts, certainly).

-Tony's at least partially connected to a bunch of non-Marvel figures simply by virtue of being born into incredible wealth. All rich people know each other, on some level. I'd say he's also a little less reckless and short-sighted (but more paranoid), just because he's more aware of just how many powerful figures could easily change the status quo - good, bad, and everything in between. He'd be less inclined to go out in a blaze of fire, at least until he's reasonably sure other people could pick up the torch.

-While not fully tethered to Earth like the Olympians are, Thor's a lot more of an actual god than he is in the MCU. He can feel the belief directed at him, even if it doesn't sustain him, for example, and more generally I've strived to move away from the "Asgard and the Nine Realms aren't actually magic, just really advanced tech" angle of the earlier phases in the MCU. There's a high (equivalent) tech level, don't get me wrong, but their powers are magical in nature first and foremost.

-I think Steve's a little less jaded about the modern world, but also less patient with people who would do it harm, intentionally or otherwise. Like, I don't think Nick Fury would find it prudent to show him a secret helicarrier armada, for example, even to gain his trust. He's inspired by people living their truth and embracing each other in a way that would be pretty unimaginable in the 40s, but disappointed at authority figures for running a society no less unbalanced and disjointed than he left it (just in different ways).

[k-s-morgan]

Hey, I hope you are doing okay! Reading TGSTLTH is honestly a religion for me now, it is an amazing story.

I particularly like your interpretation of Sebastian being a social outcast in hell, it really fits the canon. In the Jack the Ripper Arc, where Will and Sebastian first encounter each other, Will asks "Why would a beast like yourself want to dress up as a butler?" Or something among the lines of that. And it goes to show how out of character Sebastian is among his kind.

That being said, I have this theory that demons do not usually take an active role in their contracts, they are usually sitting on the sidelines using magic to solve problems and whatnot. I only think this because of the Reapers and Angela's reaction to Sebastian's role in his and Ciels contract. Every other supernatural being seems to not understand why Sebastian is demeaning himself by presenting himself as a human butler and serving Ciel directly. From what you've said about demons, they quickly fulfill their master's wish and don't spend time pretending to be a human, especially not in a lowly position as a butler.

I was wondering what you think on this subject, is Sebastian one of the only demons to serve their masters as a human? Did Sebastian ever have such an active role before, where he changed his form for his master?

Thx ❤️ xoxo

Hi! Thank you so much for your wonderful, encouraging words!

I always felt that Sebastian has a contradictory status in Hell. On the one hand, he's obviously strong, and demons like Claude and Hannah seem to respect him (in a twisted way). He holds himself with a lot of pride and dignity, he's confident and self-assured. But on the other hand, he's so greedy for praise. He basks in it, he loves attention, and he genuinely enjoys the concept of being admired. This, plus the comments everyone else makes got me thinking that Sebastian is a weirdo who doesn't feel like he belongs in his world, with his fellow demons. He might have their respect but not their true admiration and regard, so he compensates for it by showing off in front of humans, most of whom are more authentically responsive to it. That's one of the reasons why earning Ciel's regard is so important to him: Ciel is extremely hard to please now, but when it happens, his stiff acknowledgement means the world. Sebastian lives for it now, even if he's not fully aware of the extent of it yet.

And yes, I also think that other demons seek to end their contracts as soon as possible. They prey on humans who make easy wishes, fulfil them through magic and then eat them, often in one day. Sebastian is different as he enjoys a challenge. Like he himself said, he got tired of mindless eating. In BoA, he thinks how annoying it might be to serve Ciel but how he can wait even if it takes a lifetime because it should pass quickly enough for him. Granted, he doesn't look all that eager, but it shows that he was willing to spend a lot of time cultivating a perfect soul for a meal. This amazes all other supernatural creatures who come in contact with him. The fact that Sebastian not only serves Ciel long-term but is clearly going above and beyond the contract is even more confusing to demons.

I imagine Sebastian had a few lengthy contracts before, but I don't think they lasted for more than a couple of years, and they signified only extremely interesting cases. We know how easily Sebastian gets bored - he tried to eat Ciel just months into their contract, so I doubt the situation was different with others. I'll probably flesh this all out in future chapters.

And yes, I'm sure other demons choose contracts that don't require them to actually be servants. Like, making someone rich, accompanying someone somewhere, getting them stuff, etc.

[lemmeaskthedevil]

Trying to explain how queerphobia + racism intersect in this fandom especially with the treatment of Eddie, Buck, Buddie, and now BuckTommy.

Oliver and the fandom already touched on how henren and David/Michael shouldn't be ignored because of Bucktommy (as that one anon said the white boy supreme).

I think:

• "People are jumping ship from buddie to bucktommy because they don't truly care about Eddie."

Lines of thinking: Eddie is ignored as the POC in favor of Buck and another white character (+ his role with the bigotry in the past).

While this fandom does have a problem with ignoring, incorrectly portraying the people of color on 911, including Eddie, and while some people may be doing this due to racism, in this instance most people are just celebrating being queer and feeling seen.

This is where the queerphobia steps in. People being happy about someone's queer journey (Buck in this case), should not be seen as a negative thing just because you don't like that person.

• "Buck is not receiving the same level of anger for spraining Eddie's ankle as Chimney received for punching Buck"

Lines of thinking: Buck is white, is being excused for his violent behavior, Chimney got hate because he's Asian.

Chimney did get hate because he's Asian and this fandom is racist. So those who were hating on Chimney, block them, especially if they are excusing Buck's actions. Fortunately, the show, through Maddie and Buck, all say that Buck was wrong. Probably why nobody else echoed it online + the excitement for Bi!Buck and being that much closer to canon Buddie.

I get the confliction when it comes to hearing Eddie felt bad, but Buck did not hurt Eddie on purpose and Eddie and Buck understand each other which is why Eddie feels bad because he also didn't mean to hurt Buck. (Of course Eddie living his life shouldn't hurt Buck in any way but the show says that, too. (Could say something about buddie being in love here but I digress.))

I also get wanting to see Buck apologize. He makes a lot of mistakes and some of them are more shitty than others, but he's also a fictional human character and we have seen him apologize to Eddie (3.09).

There's even "you want Buck to hurt Eddie that's disgusting" pre basketball scene line of thinking which wanting conflict between buck and Eddie shouldnt come at any cost since this show isn't dark and we want our relationships to be healthy here but it's an accident in this case.

And it is fine to not like Buck, to be tired of seeing him after s6 centric stuff, but people holding love for both Buck and Eddie in different ways and in different moments does not mean you can be queerphobic.

It also means people shouldn't ever be racist and should seriously examine the roots of their behavior in regards to Eddie, Chim, Hen, Athena, and their extended family members.

I implore a lot of you to realize where people are actually being very sneaky in their racism, ableism, misogyny and queerphobia. In the group chats you are in, with the fics you read and they write, and with that gut feeling that something is wrong but you ignore in favor of being friends.

[raptorific]

Okay but I was just saying today how bad I want a spinoff about how Tigress Snow become who she became. Which is why I'm offering an open question to you: I'd love to hear any theories you have on the trajectory of her life that lead her where it did.

I can always count on you for good stuff like this--

So, the fun thing about Tigris is that when I first read Songbirds, they mention she's Snow's cousin on the very first page, and I literally had to put the book down and go paw through my copy of Mockingjay to see if they'd ever actually referenced that before. It didn't feel like a reveal, because it just made so much sense that she'd be his cousin that I assumed I must've already known it.

So, the thing that's clear to me after Songbirds is that Tigris and Coriolanus have very different priorities with regards to the games. Tigris thinks they're monstrous and over-the-line, and feels for the tributes, Coriolanus thinks they're necessary and that the tributes (and in fact all human beings) are inherently brutal and need dramatic examples like the games to keep them in line

I think this is reflected in their diverging, parallel paths in their participation in the games. Tigris is a stylist, a role which allows her to work directly with the Tributes, maybe even give them more of a fighting chance to survive, while Snow worked as a mentor and gamemaker, and orchestrated ways to make the brutality of the games even more effective

You also see, towards the end of the book and movie, that Tigris has begun to feel fear and disgust towards her cousin, but she is still effectively dependent on him financially, and doesn't want to alienate him entirely. This was a reversal of their positions at the beginning of the book, when Coriolanus was entirely dependent on Tigris' pawn shop savvy, arts and crafts skills, and implied sex work to keep afloat, and she put almost every resource she had towards making sure he could succeed so their family could regain its old prestige

So at the end of the book, Snow is back on top, they've got the fortune back, the people standing in the way of his return to high society are eliminated, and he's been taken under the wing of one of the most powerful people in the Capitol. Of course he used his connections to get Tigris a job, in his mind that's only fair, he did for her what she'd always done for him.

The crucial thing, for me, is that eventually, Coriolanus screwed her over the same way he screwed over Sejanus and Lucy Gray and everyone else who ever got close to him who became an obstacle or liability to his ascendancy. When her furry-ism got to be embarrassing to the family name, she was canned from that job and shoved out of the way somewhere she couldn't get in the way of his political prospects

The thing is, based on Songbirds, I don't think Tigris was necessarily surprised by this. I think she took the job while it was an option for her, because she'd seen her cousin's true colors through the Tenth Games and his time in District 12, and knew eventually she'd be cast aside as well. She was dependent on him, and that wouldn't last forever, and so she needed to take advantage of it while she could.

I think her body modifications were probably similar in motivation to the rest of the Capitol's insane cosmetic procedures, but I also think they come from a place of desperately wanting control over her own life. She spent her whole adolescence serving the needs of her cousin, and then she ended up entirely dependent on her cousin and unable to do anything that would embarrass his standing in high society. I think transforming herself into a human cat was an attempt at feeling like she was, in some small way, in control of herself.

I hope there was a solid answer somewhere in all that rambling! I find Tigris to be such a fascinating character

[olderthannetfic]

I don't know how many people kept up with this, but if you're on the internet you probably know about it, but there's a new Sam Levinson TV series that has been bothering a lot of people. It's called The Idol, and features Johnny Depp's daughter and The Weeknd, the former being this super popular singer and the latter as the cult leader who brainwashes Lily Rose into doing humiliating sex stuff with him with the excuse that it'll make her better at her job.

Now… the existence of this show bothers me a lot, and I know I'm not the only one, but while I can't attest to what others think regarding fiction, I know that I'm absolutely not one of those people who think that any depiction of sexual assault should be banned, or that kink has no place on TV, or that all sex scenes must advance the plot.

There's just something, in how those shows and movies are set up, that makes it all feel so exploitative and horrible in a way that, in fics, never seems to be.

Like... I'm a huge fan of Miss_Lv, who is definitely a "dead dove" author, and yet there's just something that makes me want to throw up at the idea that Sam Levinson shot a scene in which a bunch of guys (or maybe it was just The Weeknd, idk) come on Lily Rose's face and The Weeknd posts a pic of it on Twitter and makes it go viral with the tag #humancumsock.

I guess it's because it's acted out by real people, and there's a huge difference between "I'm imagining all of these characters doing these things in my head" and "These characters are played by actual people," but the amount of disgust the idea of seeing The Weeknd push an egg in Lily Rose's vagina and tell her that, if she cracks/drops it, he's not going to rape her is almost inexpressible while, if a fandom friend pitched me with this idea, I would simply reply with "That stuff makes no sense, but ok, I guess. Just good luck finding the tag for it."

My other best idea, as to why this whole series disgusts me so much, is that PR made Lily Rose go around interviews saying that she felt so empowered by the series, which is the usual crap that is pasted and copied from woman to woman whenever they act in a series in which their role is that of personality void human flashlight and doesn't really mean anything at all. It's that, and the fact that the series was supposed to be a feminist view on the world of celebritydom and Hollywood, but then the female director was fired in favor of hiring Levinson because The Weeknd threw a tantrum about the show being too focused on the female aspect of the question, rather than putting the spotlight on him.

I don't know, I feel like I'm the only one who's been conflicted about this series (which I have no intention of watching legally nor by pirating it, because it disgusts me to the bone) and wanted to know if someone else thought the same, or if there was no moral/interior conflict upon reading all the articles written by the exploitation of the female cast and how rape is depicted.

--

I hadn't even heard about it. I guess I haven't been watching much TV lately.

I think a lot of sexually transgressive media is made by people who, frankly, don't know how to execute something like that in a safe or self-aware way. You definitely do see examples where the actors say they were cool with it and I believe them, but the ones I can recall have mostly been indie movies or stuff from Europe with very different production dynamics.

I met a lady in L.A. who works as a... man, I can't even remember the term, but she's the person on set who works with the actors before a sex scene to figure out their limits and be a buffer between them and the director. For indie films, the usual procedure is to kick 99% of the crew off the set so the actors only have to deal with each other, the director, and the camera person.

I think live action media about weird sex stuff is harder to do safely and ethically than a written work is, but it can be done. That doesn't mean they did a good job in this case though.

[animehouse-moe]

Call of The Night Volume 13: The Sins of The Mother

Well, here we stand again. In awe of Kotoyama's ability. This started out as a romance manga between a human and a vampire, trying to understand what love is. I mean, that's still sorta the core to it, but it's grown to be so much more, to reach even greater heights, to dive even deeper into what is love? (baby don't hurt me). So of course, there's a mountain of content to talk about with this volume, and I really can't wait to get into it.

Kiku Hoshimi, an enigmatic character that only gets more and more inscrutable. An incredible pairing for Mahiru, in the written sense. Two people devoid of love in different ways, trying to fill those gaps with something that isn't real for either of them.

Mahiru, a young boy that could only ever be his older brother in his family's eyes. He was always missing something, always had a missing piece that made him feel different than those around him.

Kiku, a vampire that's unable to love. Desperate to find a way to reciprocate that feeling, she turns person after person, abandoning them in search of the one that she'll certainly love.

Together, they form an incredibly toxic relationship where Kiku, much like with all her other offspring, manipulates them into loving her. Mahiru looks to her for the answer, for the void that his mother has left in his heart. And Kiku is all to eager to plug that gaping hole with herself. To force her way into Mahiru's life, to take control of him by the heartstrings and bend him to her desires.

She rips him away from his mother, tramples all over her relationship with her son. She whispers sweet nothings into Mahiru's ear to stop him from doubting himself, to stop him from finding a way to exist on his own. She causes him to lash out, to disappear and deny the support and help of his friends. Because in the end, they don't matter to Mahiru. His past and trauma occupy a far greater space in his heart, a far more central piece to himself.

It's an incredible storyline that digs deep into the concept of love, motherly love, even. What children themselves desire of it to grow and become independent, and how parents can believe that a child is what makes them whole. That having someone to love that is yours will provide you with a sense of self and happiness.

And it's not just Kiku that we see in this volume in terms of mothers, we finally get to see Ko's own mother. A great move from a written perspective, it sets the stage for Ko to go through his own challenges in regards to parents, providing both parity and a dichotomy to Mahiru's experience. Where Mahiru is let loose by his own mother, Ko's appears to tighten the reigns.

And just to tie a neat knot on the concept of mothers, Azami's relationship with Kiku, and the subtitle of this post. The relationship between parent and child in Call of The Night is decidedly unique because they can also be considered "lovers" to some degree. It's very interesting in that sense because it blurs the lines between the typical behavior of each role and turns it into something incredibly fluid. Anyways, to the point. Azami burdens himself with the sins of his parent, Kiku. It's a very typical thing to do, and holds somewhat different meanings from both perspectives in Call of The Night. As Kiku's "lover", it's his duty to kill the woman that he's allowed to do what she has, and as her son, the burden of her sins falls to him. So, in one capacity he chooses to shoulder the burden, but in the other it's forced upon him. In a way, it shows that while Azami is undeniably Kiku's offspring, he chooses to accept the fact that he was at one point her lover (or at the minimum in love with her).

Now, onto the cool stuff! Kotoyama's art. Incredible, very much some incredible work. If you were to pick a concept to define this volume's approach, it'd be depth. So much of the layouts and character blocking aim to present a 3d perspective from a 2d plane, and it looks so insanely good.

Even just simple panels are approached in an incredibly unique way.

And then there's Kotoyama's penchant for perspective, which plays wonderfully with the effort placed in depicting depth in this volume.

All of these sequences just feel so alive. The character acting is really incredible in that sense. It feels like, rather than trying to depict a moment, we're given a snapshot of its flow. A picture taken as the characters move around and act out their story. It's a hard thing to really explain, but you can spot good character acting a mile away in manga.

And of course that character acting extends to the action. While it's not really choreography focused, you can undeniably feel the flow of the fights from Kotoyama's depiction of them. They most certainly focus on impact before movement, but it still reads so incredibly well.

Call of The Night isn't a dark horse with English audiences by any means, it's certainly not a flop or a niche title. But I'll be damned if it hasn't gotten near the attention and praise that it deserves. In terms of both action and romance series (as independent entries), Call of The Night completely trounces the average title out there, and ranks among the top series being published in English for each category. From start to finish, Kotayama doesn't waste a page, a panel, even a pen stroke through this volume, and delivers incredible work on a series that everyone (author included) doubted could go the distance.

[prowerprojects]

AU & fic ideas masterpost

I just thought I'd put it down for myself, but if any of those interests you, feel free to ask me questions about them! (Most of them are Tails-centric because of course they are)

General ideas & aus building off the mainline setting

I probably wouldn't actually write fics about those but but some of them hardly qualify as "aus" to me. Also most of those don't have actual names

Sunflower au – this is just my general Tails-centric au where I dump all of my worldbuilding headcanons. I base some of the other aus off it.

Roadtrip au – this one is about Tails and Sage as adults going on another soul-searching roadtrip.

The one with Tails's parents – ok I firmly believe that Tails doesn't need parents in canon and I'm glad that it's left up to interpretation, but I was like "what if he has a human name because one of his parents was a human?" And then it kinda happened.

Parents au – similar name to the other one but this one is actually about Knuckles, Amy and Sonic coparenting Tails together. Everyone is older in this au, except for Tails.

Tailswap – this one is just Tails getting bodyswapped with a version of himself from another universe where he only has one tail. They try to swap back (It's not compatible with some of the other aus because alternative universe Miles has different parents)

Bodyswap au - another bodyswap idea, but this time it's the core four getting swapped around. It's just shenanigans all the way through.

Storybook au - this one is just the classic "characters get trapped in a book and have to finish the fairytales to get out", this already kinda happened to Sonic, but this time it's with 6 more people. (Each for a chaos emerald). Each of them is the main character of their own fairytale and they only recover their memories when they get to the end of their story and get the chaos emerald (this part is inspired by the iseakai stories Sonic Channel is doing rn)

Sickfic idea - Tails gets sick for the first time after meeting Sonic. This one I kinda do want to make into a fic.

Memory loss idea - basically Sonic gets a... very specific fantasy version of memory loss (accident in Tails's lab). It's meant to explore how unconventional Sonic and Tails's sibling dynamic is to an outsider, except the "outsider" here is Sonic himself.

Hanahaki idea - I honestly don't have anything specific for it, but maybe I'll come up with something.

Anti au - basically Sonic & his closest friends (at least Tails and Amy, I'm not sure what I want to do with Knuckles here) are... well not evil necessarily, but they cause destruction with no regard for others, they just want to have fun mostly and don't care who gets in the way. Eggman is still not a good person, but he's not as open about his villainy and tries to present a good image to the public. I need a better name for this.

Alvin and the Chipmunks crossover - I just feel that the aatc cast would fit so perfectly into the world of Sonic. I don't know.

Aus that are more explicitly alternative universes

Superhero au - this also doubles as a high school au. It's the classic teenage superhero thing, but it's probably my favourite au and I have a lot of stuff for it.

Magical girl au - magical girls! and boys. Chaos emeralds help the characters transform so it's only 7 people getting the power. Each of them gets a unique power that they can use even without the transformation (for example for Sonic it would be his speed, etc.)

Tangled - au based specifically on Tangled the Series. It's mostly me putting the Sonic characters into scenes from the show and amusing myself with it.

Wizard of Oz - not actually based on the Wizard of Oz, mostly its vibe. Cream and Shadow are the main characters there.

Actual Wizard of Oz au - au where the characters take on the roles of the Oz characters from the first book. It's kind of supposed to be a comedy, all the characters know they're doing a parody.

Aus that are based on specific adaptations

Ever After High au - that's what it is. I'm having a bit of a trouble assigning the characters fairytales, especially Knuckles (he's a very important character there)

Magic School au - eah au is too complicated with assigning the characters and all, so I've decided to also make a regular magic school au

Aosth au with Amy and Metal Sonic - exactly what it says it is. Except Amy has a plot with Scratch and Grounder, while Sonic and Tails try to fight Metal Sonic. It's mostly about Scratch and Grounder leaving Robotnik and Amy becoming a freedom fighter in her own right.

Au based on the Martin Adams novels (with Amy and Metal Sonic) – Metal Sonic here is actually the character that already exists in the novels, I'm just making them into this universe's version of Metal Sonic. But this au is actually mostly about Sonic & Tails's relationship. Sonic has a quarter life crisis.

Boom au where Tails does become Eggman's lab assistant - ok so you know how in like episode 3 Tails offers to become Eggman's lab assistant for the return of his robot, but then the team gets him out before he signs the contract? But what if they were too late? This au is mostly Tails and Eggman being insufferable to each other, also it could be an interesting challenge to rewrite s1 episodes to be without Tails.

Au where Aosth Tails ends up in the Boom universe - exactly what it says it is. It's mostly shenanigans.

[mikunology]

Can you tell us more about the dynamic between Luka and the rest of the main Vocaloids? And what her role is once she comes into the AU?

oh! yeah, I can talk about that! Luka...

well, to reiterate for those who don't know, Luka comes in kind of late in the AU's "main plot", kinda mirroring how irl she was a bit late to the party (Gakupo came out before she did, after all). She's the latest model and therefore is the one who still is sorta growing her own personality and traits - she's still very robotic.

I like to think the relationship she has with the others is a kinda complicated one...lessee...

(this accidentally became a whole-ass essay so I'm just gonna put a read more)

Miku and Luka get along pretty well right away - just like when the Kagamines arrived, Miku is always excited to get a new "sibling". XD Miku's very patient with Luka - she likes teaching her the things that she and the others have already learned about humans and the world. Luka finds Miku's company interesting, and is curious about her way of doing things since it tends to differ a lot from Luka's.

Luka and Rin...oh boy XD Rin has very...mixed feelings about Luka to say the least - Luka's arrival means that she and Len aren't the "babies" of the family anymore, which already irks her a little (she's petty like that) but also...why did they have to make this new model like this?! Why'd they have to make her super hot and intellectual-looking and mature?? This isn't fair at all!! XDD Needless to say, Rin starts off feeling very jealous - she already worries a bit about being in Miku's shadow, so Luka entering the scene just makes her feel worse. Luka of course is completely uncomprehending of this, but because of Luka's aloof and clinical way of speaking Rin just ends up feeling like she's being talked down to :'D I think Rin will get over it as things go on, to be fair, especially once Len shows her that Luka is trying to be friendly in her own way. Luka also finds Rin fascinating, since she is so cute and so loud - completely opposite of herself. She can't help but want to analyze further; I also think Luka wishes on some level she could express herself the way Rin does so freely.

Luka and Len, on the other hand, I think have a similar relationship to Luka and Miku - Len likes showing Luka around and helping her get comfortable with their jobs. I like to think Len was pretty surprised as well when he noticed how...pretty...Luka was, but finds the contrast between that and her rather deadpan personality to be funny, in a strange way. He almost doesn't know what to do with her, kinda - she's very hard to read, which throws him off, but he does his best to be as friendly as he can with her. I also think they tend to have similar interests - reading, cooking, languages, stuff like that. Luka acknowledges how smart Len is and I can see her coming to him for advice on certain things pretty often, despite him being much "younger" than her.

In regards to herself, though, I think Luka knows she's rather different from the other three - and while she doesn't like to dwell on her own feelings (if she acknowledges them at all, at least at first) I think she's very self-conscious about that fact. She worries a little that she might never truly be part of their group because of her own quirks, although that couldn't be further from the truth, heh~

Now, as for her role...I've said this before, but Luka's role is a bit disjointed amongst the group in terms of like, their heroics - mostly because for a good while, Luka isn't really doing it because she wants to, it's more her following everyone's lead. I like to think she might settle into more of a defense position when she starts coming into her own and finding her own reasons to fight crime, though.

[fabdante]

Related to my last ask:

How do you think reboot Dante's relationship to violence would change, after the end of the first game? WOULD it change? I mean, he's got Kat now, as a stable friend and maybe girlfriend, so he at least has someone he can trust and go to for physical affection (as long as Kat is okay with it). But also demons still very much exist and inhabit the Human Realm, and Dante basically (helped) killed their King, and they know Dante's a Nephilim besides, so I doubt the demons have stopped hunting him. Or Kat, since the demons know about her, too, from Mundus and Bob.

Also, what DID Vergil expect/want Dante to say when Vergil told Dante about how Vergil gained a sense of control through learning computer stuff? (Not sure I understood what you meant by that comment, sorry.)

I've always seen Dante with like a social circle (though he's clearly gone off the grid a bit by the start of the game so I don't think he's really seeing them at the moment) so I don't think the inclusion of Kat would change all that much. He's got years upon years of history and trauma that's sort of shaped how his brain works in this regard and it'd take a long time to undo, which he also has to be interested in undoing in the first place.

So I think the answer to that is complicated. I mean circumstances have changed a bit, sure, but violence is still such an easy outlet for a lot of what he's feeling and he's also required to be violent to fulfill his self proclaimed role as mankind's protector. The demons are out and loose now and they're going to be after not just him or Kat but like they're going to be after everyone.

It's hard to break that sort of mentality especially when its what people now expect of you to keep them safe.

Plus there's safety in old habits that have now become easy like. And Dante's had to lean on violence and anger as a self preservation technique since he was 8.

And no problem! With Vergil in general I just tend to think he didn't expect Dante to be how he is. In that scene in particular, he seems all excited and hopeful at first to have this bonding conversation (it's one of the few times if not the only time Dante shows interest in what Vergil's up to as well) and find out more about Dante and then Dante's response just is very like...not very detailed and almost kind of brushes him off and that abruptly ends the conversation.

I think Vergil wanted to know something new about Dante he didn't already know, but more then that I think this can go back to the possible guilt Vergil might have about this whole situation. The thing separating him and Dante after all is just that Vergil got adopted and Dante didn't. Vergil got to have a privileged life where he got to remain hidden from the reality of the world, Dante didn't. Even in game as this is all happening Vergil's still protected by the fact he's still a secret like Mundus still doesn't know about him.

Dante's answer kind of exemplifies that. Vergil got to spend his time learning about computers, a skill that would net him his own independent fortune apart from his parents and help enable him to form the Order and so on and so forth. And Dante got to run around being hunted down by demons who he had to kill.

I also think it exemplifies the ways Dante kind of like shuts himself off to Vergil in the reboot. Unlike the preboot where the twins know each other pretty well, the reboot twins for all extents and purposes kinda just met. Like sure, they were close when they were kids but that's when they were 7. Dante just remembered he had a brother and they both are very different people from when they were kids like, a lot has changed. And I've written about it before but I feel like Dante in the reboot spends a lot of the game trying to figure out if he actually trusts Vergil or not, which results in him not sharing a lot about himself I think. Which, naturally, Vergil who wants to get to know him probably doesn't like all that much. Vergil wants Dante to trust him, after all. Vergil has to trust Dante so like the fact Dante doesn't trust him back is probably a bit saddening.

So that's what I meant by that!

[midwinterwings]

Ok. Response to your response. you're not gonna like this one, Oho I can tell ya that. So first off. Admittedly I was having a bit of a moment- I think that's fairly obvious, my tone is wildly different. But uh. Ok this is gonna sound mean. A lot of people on the godkin/deitykin tag don't.. they associate, or they feel like a demigod to themselves, but to everyone else looking at them they're just.. Disappointing. A god doesn't beg for worshipers, they find and reach out. That's kinda what I mean by blind. They can't tell shit, but what they can feel makes them feel big. I was on the tag just looking for stuff to fuel my ire without saying anything (because yk. hatescrolling is what you do while insane.)

That being said. I'm an astral crazed person first. This comes with me trusting the shit out of my intuition, and I saw your stuff and my immediate thought was "..is that a god?? Huh? Hello??" It's one of those things that I've kinda just. Practiced doing, finding people who can see more clearly their situation, and those with an incomplete picture. How I figured myself out is another answer you're gonna hate me for; I'm not an established god. I'm not a forgotten pantheon. I'm a weird little inhuman entity who sat up, and over the course of thousands of years mapped out the very nature of apotheosis until I pushed this life over the cliff and made it through into something I wanted to be. So now I am, and I get to decide what comes with that! I'm the only one with my names, and I've tried to seed it along the internet to like. See if I can get people to look, instead of just reaching out and pretending to be a face I'm not. Or deciding that I'll just Help Anyways faceless. Though I can and am also working to do Helping Anyways from a faceless pov. You're not really screaming into the void though. Just gotta be aware that the viewers that scroll through are. Well. Like me. Sometimes utterly nuts with a personality line between what I deem "Udstcarnaitasin" and just "lil guy strange :3"

OK to your first point - I actually do get where you're coming from, and this isn't excusing their behaviour by the way, but I think one reason we see that is because with deitykin, there's no deitykins who can help out like therians can. For example, after you figure out you're a deitykin, it's kind of "congrats. You're deitykin. What now? No one cares, have a towering heap of controversy surrounded with being deitykin because most otherkin don't like you, and hate because yay free hate, bye lol."

Whereas therians have much more resources and therians who talk about their lives - living actual lives rather than using it to escape from responsibilities and the like. Deitykin don't have that, and because they're frowned upon by otherkin as well as pretty much everyone else, they just kind of wing it and make themselves feel important and big. Like using your feelings that you're a deitykin (I personally constantly feel like there's a warm fire in my chest flickering and buzzing, that gets brighter the more I let myself be without pushing myself down) and blowing it out of proportion, thinking that just because you feel like X deity you're special in some way, leading to feeling like you're better than everyone etc etc. Just my thoughts because I've been unconsciously thinking about what you said, some of the posts do seem to vibrate with arrogance, like "my teacher told me to hand in my homework, do you know who you're even talking to???" I was thinking about this wondering where it came from because I didn't really see this in therian spaces, well that's a lie some people do say "stop making me do homework I'm a fox foxes don't do homework" but it's much less common and there's not as heavy of a focus to your role and status compared to 'normal humans'. I know Deities obviously have a big tie to title and status in regard to humans, as Christianity tells us to worship God and how great he is and all powerful, you know the drill. But animals do too, I don't see therians talking about how they wish they were mistreated by humans and treated like crap if they're a fox kin. In my country foxes are considered pests and disliked because of the damage they cause. I'm not sure if I have something here, it's just a theory. A film theory. I don't sleep well until I've at least got a basic foundational grasp of the things I'm interested in and deitykin and why so many act like that is one of the things, which is very frustrating because...no info man. So I had to DIY my own theory to keep myself sane.

And to your second - I'm curious why you thought I'd hate you for it tbh because I do not at all. And the two personalities is a mood heheh, I'm the same, and sometimes both at the same time...

Anyways, now that stuff is pretty much cleared, I'll be back later to actually ask questions instead of asking about your ask 🫠🫠👌

[denimbex1986]

"...I think the film as a whole is very much rooted in human condition. I had about five or six conversations with Andrew Haigh before we started filming - kind of long conversations about Harry - and then all of those conversations kind of go out the window the minute you start shooting, as they should do. And then it's just about; it's a matter of taking it beat by beat. There's no better people than Andrew Haigh and Andrew Scott to be doing that with on a daily basis. Feels kind of like the dream exercise in acting, you know?"

"The part, I immediately knew was something that I'd have to throw a huge amount of my own self into more than any other project that I think I've ever done. There's a huge amount of my own experience I suppose I wanted to bring to it and just, I wanted to do something which felt kind of unadorned and raw and vulnerable. And that's what my job in this one was. And I felt like very much I had a comrade in Andrew to sort of help me along with that."

"When you receive a script by Andrew Haigh that has Andrew Scott, Claire Foy and Paul Mescal attached, you would be an idiot to say no. Of course it's about love..."

"...What's interesting is this collective human history of a family. And how do you reckon with it? How do you reckon with all these things that we've done together and the way we've hurt each other? Especially the child in the story, like we're reckoning with the moulding of this human being. And more than anything, I think Andrew Haigh wanted actors who could reach out to people with love - that was the job. The job was to reach out to Andrew Scott with love; and if you've ever met Andrew Scott, it's one of the easiest things to do because he's just an absolutely adorable, loving, genuine human being."

"I think sometimes just magic happens. I think with Paul it was very easy between us and I think with some people you just have an immediate kind of connection. Paul is such an extraordinary actor and it was so beautifully written, and so we didn't really want to over work it, and we kept a lot of - we spoke a little bit around it, but we wanted to keep that frisson of meeting someone and not knowing them and having that nervousness and that chemistry alive as much as possible and there to be discovered on the day."

"I've been very lucky that I've never been in kind of intimate scenes, and I don't just mean sex scenes, but kind of in an intimate, tight relationship with somebody on screen, and not felt close to them in real life. I think what was very useful for this was that me and Andrew knew each other and like, liked each other like, before we started filming, but we kind of became incredibly close during the filming and have remained so since, and we kind of met each other - we knew each other before but we started shooting at the perfect junction in our own relationship that we could really invest in the separate lives of Harry and Adam. And we didn't know each other well enough that we didn't know which part of us was bleeding into the role, so that was kind of a happy accident in that regard."

"A lot of our stuff was physical. We did a lot of sex scenes, but the ones that I think are so telling and are so tender and beautiful are the ones that are sort of in and around the sex scenes. And I think that they're the most tender and the most radical scenes actually in the movie."

"I think the thing that we were all looking for was an authenticity of feeling. Not necessarily the act of sex and making that feel authentic, because that's an easier thing to do. Like, you can make sex look like sex, but it's like we want this to feel like two people who are having sex for the first time, and what that means to Adam and what that means to Harry. They both have very different relationships to their own sexuality, and the thing that we were looking for, and I think that we've achieved in the film, is an authenticity with that. All of us are incredibly proud to achieve that, because it's not the easiest thing to do, you know? So yeah, we're really happy with how it's turned out."

"Screen chemistry let's say, it's about so many different things...I was never really worried about because I knew that Paul and Andrew, for example, really wanted to work with each other. And Claire was so excited about playing Andrew's mother, as was Jamie playing Andrew's dad. So once you get that kind of like excitement to be with each other, then I think the chemistry kind of bubbles up, and then it's just my job to not kind of dampen that chemistry down and to try and capture it."

"...on this film, I feel like everyone; from all the actors, obviously from the director who shot this film in his own home, his own childhood home, and it's so much about his story and his life. Every HOD, every person from every department on this film, brought something of themselves to it. The connection between people is the thing that's important. Andrew Scott's character lost his parents at 12, and the only way that you can grow, and that's what Andrew Scott's character needs, is he needs to know who he is. And the only way we can get that is through the relationships with other people."

"I'm so proud of the fact that something like this, a part of myself I suppose, that I kept hidden for so long, and a kind of vulnerability and a pain I suppose, that I experienced in childhood and early adulthood, is now something that I've been able to express with wonderful people; just terrific artists and human beings, and that's been turned into something that is useful for people and something that people can see themselves in. It feels enormously wonderful to be able to do something that's of use and watching, not just the devastation and emotionality of the audience's reaction, but the kind of hope and just life-affirming nature of the movie. It's been one of the highlights of my life."

"There's a scene in the bedroom with Andrew when he gets into bed with Claire Foy and Jamie Bell, and there's something I think very special about that scene, where the real kind of emotion and pathos bubbles up within that scene...I'm really pleased about how that scene came together and how it makes you feel when you watch it."

"...I like the fact that it's all in one take and it's - there's a huge amount of emotionality and technical skill to try and keep the focus on the scene. It's an extraordinary, kind of audacious scene, and I'm really quite proud of it because it exemplifies everybody's work in the movie, and that's what it's about. It's a collaborative thing, and that's the one that I think represents that the most."

"One of the things I'm most proud of is the scene when Harry and Adam meet in the - in Harry's apartment towards the end of the film. This was a tough scene to shoot. It was a tough day on set because of the material, but also we got to, as performers, and as Andrew, as a director, I think it's one of those that like, I hold for myself as one of my proudest moments or scenes in the film."

"The proudest moment is when the film is shown to the world, because you'll never know how it's going to be taken. You know, it definitely is, is a personal story to me, it comes from a really personal place, so to see the film resonate, see it resonate with different types of people, that is - that is really, really special to me."

"...It's a film that is actually quite radical and instigates a lot of conversations around many things like familial love and romantic love. And I think also is a film that, regardless of your sexuality, there's something to take from or, to my mind, there is something to take from."

[stumblngrumbl]

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/nansheonearth/745424724512899072 In regards to your reply on this post, my understanding of it is that gender is a real thing, but all gender is is the societal expectations placed upon you according to your sex. Gender can influence behavior, but it's entirely a social construct. The way TRAs define gender (like their belief that your soul or brain has a gender) is garbage but it'd be a stretch to say that gender as an observable construct isn't real. I'm only throwing in my two cents to maybe make the questionnaire a bit clearer for you and others. I hope you have a good day (and also no pressure to respond)!

sure it's real, like the role of a matchmaker was in the old village was a thing, but not everyone cares about matchmakers and just because someone says they're a matchmaker doesn't make them authorized to make matches or whatever

as you said it's a construct - a conceptual construct, not something physical; it's a purely made-up thing and has no existence whatsoever beyond the immediate culture, and even within that culture there would be many who disregard the role entirely

note that things that we make up can definitely appear real. i have a dollar bill in my wallet; the dollar bill is undeniably real - and in this society i'm able to trade these pieces of money for definitely real stuff like spaghetti squash. must be real, right?

no. money is completely made up; go to a different period of time ahead try to explain what money is to people and chances are they'll just shake their head at you; money is something from our time and unlike water or tomatoes it only has meaning if there are people who believe it does

just like gender.

sex exists, whether you've got a society or not. if you happened to be dropped on a island paradise as a young child all by yourself, whatever you grew up into wouldn't be influenced by a society and you'd never say "i feel like a woman!" or "i'm so strong i must be a man!" - you'd have no concept of gender, there's just you. however, you'd have a sex, whichever it was, regardless of whether or not you knew it (and being there with no knowledge of other humans, you probably wouldn't know, unless you observed other animals and made comparisons).

by saying that "gender influences behavior", you're saying "a socially constructed role influences the behavior of people who take part in that social role" and yeah, no shit, but it's because they've effectively chosen to act according to society's rules for that role -- it's a tautology. it doesn't mean that they intrinsically have that behavior - gendered behavior is entirely at the whim of the culture in which that gender exists.

are you strong and war-like? protector of the weak? probably a woman (assuming you're from the land of the amazons), female. oh. you're from somewhere else? then you've got the role of whoever it is that does that. wears a dress? everyone wears dresses! (isn't this still the bronze age?)

if i see someone being protective, that's not an indication to me of what their gender is. are they earning money for a family? cool. doesn't make them "the man of the house". those things are completely bullshit and observing their behavior won't tell me more than "in this particular society chances are that this person identifies with this role [gender]".

most likely i'm preaching to the choir here so i'll shut up

this is the main question that i didn't like

no doubt how someone perceives their role (and thus their gender, presumably) will influence how they interact with the world. but, that's precisely because gender is a set of rules for how a person interacts with the world. it's really a useless question - unless you don't understand what gender actually is.

[invested-in-your-future]

Are there any post v3 characters you do plan on keeping in your rewrite? Sienna, Ilia, Maria, Watts?

Honestly, the issue with that is that plenty of characters post-V3 feel pretty tied to specific plot aspects, which is fine for the plot they wanted to write but makes it hard to use them when most of that plot is gone.

There's leeway with the Tournament participants in V2/V3 because these characters come from somewhere else, so while they serve a specific purpose, they also do it outside of their usual environment, meaning the characters can reappear - we don't REALLY know anything about any of them beyond what they did during the tournament.

Some V4 and onward characters exist to fill up roles highly dependent on the specific circumstances of the story they appear in, with no real ties to anything outside that.

What's worse, there's a subset of characters that often exist solely to delay specific story beats - Cordovin exists as a padding roadblock, for example, Robyn is there for pretend-moral-ambiguity (that ends up not mattering because LOL), Ace Ops group is there to fill up space, Hazel exists there to scream vaguely about Ozpin. Is there a way to use those characters in a completely different context while still making them retain who they are? Is there anything more to someone like Cordovin beyond being that placeholder NPC in an RPG that developers placed in order to block off the bridge to the next region until you progress the story enough?

You could, for example, make Atlas have an elite team of Huntsmen, but would you call them Ace Ops and use the same character names if their role, personalities, and so on would be completely different? You could make a Robin Hood allusion who shares no discernable similarities with the one in the show and still name them Robyn, or you could make a Robin Hood allusion and call them something else. At that point, using the same character is no different than creating a new one, so one would need to strike a VERY delicate balance if you wanted to reuse the same character and redo them.

Let's take Maria for example - the defining aspect of the character is the silver eyes stuff(the show literally uses her for vague silver eyes lore and forgets), but what if the whole idea of Qrow knowing this another random silver eyes person he never mentioned before is no longer there? Qrow is not guiding the cast somewhere, so how does Maria feature in the story then? At that point, it would mean that most of the story beats regarding her role are no longer the same, so is she still Maria? How do you write Maria, who doesn't serve the same narrative purpose, can't have the same backstory, and doesn't come into the story the same way?

Or Sienna - Sienna's definitive part is that she is that "new WF leader that took them down the slippery slope." and a lot of that falls apart if WF is no longer a monolith (hence "welp new boss in town, we all blowing up schools now" is no longer a possibility). What does that make Sienna now? How would one handle the idea of one of the prominent figures of disenfranchised people using a manipulative force of nature with the defining trait of hatred for humanity as a basis, written by a known colonialist, jingoist, and racist also known for writing such masterworks as "White Man's Burden"? Do you purposefully deconstruct everything about the character's origins, completely contradicting everything the character is in the show?

Then you look at the majority of the Faunus introduced beyond what's there in the first volumes and the minefield of how the majority of them are animal allusions, which is kind of uhhhhh considering "treating Faunus as animals" is considered discriminatory, in-setting. Sometimes, they are even literal pointless cultists like Corsac Fenec because we can't have the extremist plotline without that. Not to mention, how do you even start to approach the minefield that is characters like Klein?

Even beyond issues like that, even if you have a strong basis for a character like Robyn (a Robin Hood allusion makes perfect sense in that kind of setting), what the story does and the plot and characterization issues become so convoluted that trying to make any of it make sense introduces new problems.

Even the first three volumes are not exempt from characters that are hard to "continue from" - there's a reason why Port died on his way to his home planet within like two sentences in my version.

Then there's the idea of Flynt Coal - a character named and designed without any regard for the very unfortunate implications present there.

And I am not even going to talk about the other nazi-collaborator-shaped predator elephant in the room right now.

There's a lot one has to consider with stuff like that. It's one of the reasons why I generally chose to ignore most of the post-V3 stuff from the show.

Right now, the main things that are similar are that Ren and Nora's backstory skews pretty close (because, again, their backstory was legitimately great part of V4 and one of the best parts of post-V3 RWBY overall) and that Weiss has a melancholic and rose-tinted kind of outlook towards her grandpa (because it explains so so much about how she views her own privilege and her need to defend her family name).

Most characters still use the same naming scheme, and most stuff is still built on fairytale and mythological allusions.

Otherwise, unless I am absolutely sure I want to do that and end up with some really good idea, I don't really want to use too much of mileswby stuff. There's a lot of underused early material already and I don't really want to bloat the cast too much.

There are some pretty hilarious and ironic coincidences, though.