#she contains multitudes lol

[killerpancakeburger]

If my first Tav was honest she'd admit that despite dressing as a Rogue and using their techniques (lockpicking, etc), she actually ends up failing stealth and is a fighter at heart, aka hitting things and people hard with her huge weapon until they break/die...

[theborzoiarebackintown]

Margo likes to sit on the stoop gazing out into the yard when she’s ready to come in, but then she heard me trying to take a pic of her.

[heikeee]

no but i need to scream into the void or i'll go mad. listen. kikyo wasn't a bitch. i don't think the way she was written did her any justice; it just makes her easy to hate. and don't get me wrong, this isn't about her relationship with inuyasha or kagome at all, i just want to talk about her as a character because she is one of the most complex of them and she needs to be looked at with more empathy.

i've said it before and i'll say it again: her whole thing is that she is tragedy personified. think about it. everything, and i mean every single thing that could have gone wrong in her life, HAS gone wrong. she had a difficult upbringing, having to raise her little sister and having to shoulder the burden of being the sole purifier of the shikon jewel (which constantly put her and her village under threat). she was never dealt an easy hand to begin with. then, she finds solace in love, tries her best to think of a way of unraveling herself from her duties to live a free life, while still caring for others selflessly: she took in onigumo, and he betrayed her. by pretending to be inuyasha, he had her think that her lover had betrayed her as well, and succumbed to wounds inflicted by him (or so she thought), while sealing him to the goshinboku.

the last wish she spoke of was to take the shikon jewel to the beyond with herself. later, kagome finds a way to actually destroy the jewel, which was what kikyo had intended to do but couldn't. in her heart, her last wish was to see inuyasha again. the jewel corrupts this wish and grants it in the most fucked up way possible.

her remains are robbed from her grave and she is brought back to life with NO agency on the matter, by someone who wanted only to exploit her powers. now, untethered from from her past duties, she is finally free to experience emotion. and that includes bad emotions. so anger, resentment, jealousy, contempt, loneliness, selfishness (and that's part of being human). every unfulfilled wish, the unfairness of it all. she spends the rest of the series navigating this undead existence, the duality of not belonging anywhere, constantly torn between doing what is right and what needs to be done to reach her goal, having no choice but to consume souls of recently departed girls to have the energy to fight her only fight (destroying naraku), all the while helping villagers and kids, and even the inugang, despite not wanting to align with their agenda at first. she contemplates sacrificing kohaku, yes, but ultimately her redemption is that she chose to save him instead of purifying the jewel in the end. she showed that she trusted the inugang to finish what she couldn't, and chose to spare another life, if possible (she says so herself in ch441)

it is very difficult to relate to someone that doesn't give access to her vulnerable side very often. her and sango are the two characters who had it the hardest and were forced to make the most difficult decisions out of everyone. but we love sango, even when she chose to sacrifice rin, even when she contemplated killing kohaku then herself, because we know where sango's heart lies and how torn she is about all of it. kikyo, on the other hand, is stoic and hardened by her life (and also post-life), but ultimately her biggest trait was kindness. we don't get to see her cry and be like woe is me about it, something that could've made us more empathetic towards her like we are with sango.

my point is kikyo deserves to be looked at through kinder eyes. she is a complex character, and she requires a bit more analysis and compassion to actually see who she really is. my tragic girl

[qualityrain]

you have to describe hny but u cannot mention or allude to worst toxic guy ever x innocent uwu girl trope and/or the super girlboss x pathetic guy she puts in his place dynamic or else the anvil will drop on your head

[thatscarletflycatcher]

‘Steve,’ said Temple suddenly, the thought of food in the immediate future possibly giving him the idea.

‘Yes?’ she said, with a curious smile.

‘I was wondering if, er, you . . .’ He broke off. For perhaps the first time Paul Temple knew what it meant when he used the word ‘bashful’ in one of his novels.

‘Well?’ prompted Steve.

‘If you’d—er—care to have dinner with me on … on Thursday?’ he said.

‘Thursday? Yes, of course,’ she said happily. ‘I’d love to.’

'Good. I shall be in town, so perhaps we can . . . er . . . lunch together, too?’

‘Yes,’ she smiled. ‘Why not?’

‘We might even manage to have tea together, as a sort of, er—

‘I’d love to,’ she replied softly.

‘Oh, er, splendid,’ he said. ‘Well, that’s about all. Of course, there is breakfast, but—’

‘I always have breakfast in bed.’

‘In bed?’

‘Yes, in bed.’

‘Well, that’s a bit awkward!’

‘Of course,’ put in Steve a trifle glibly, ‘we could get married.’

‘Yes, I suppose we—’ Temple suddenly gasped. ‘I say... are you proposing?’

‘What do you think, Mr. Temple?’ she asked brightly, in a voice that was a perfect imitation of his. ‘What do you think?’

--Francis Durbridge, Send For Paul Temple (1938)

[stellarbay]

yes taylor's my top artist yes i have every single version of her name and every edit tag and blog that gets tagged in edits muted on this webbed site

[joelletwo]

gkjsfd beefing with a portion of an already small fandom thats about currently five active people

[stelashe]

Little niece at the cemetery after seeing a statue of jesus: you Bro what's up?

[faery-berry-blast]

she contains multitudes (aka intersectionality)

[laikabu]

re: my thoughts on laios’s sexuality (long post ahead lol)

let me start this post with this. first, this contains a lot of references to the new adventurer’s bible world guide book released last february. i can read japanese, but i’m sure they’re translated somewhere. general spoiler warning in case. also… i am ESL, so sorry for any grammar errors

second, if you’re on the team that insists laios doesn’t care about humans enough to form relationships, either read the manga again or at the very least read this thread.

last, please don’t chime in with your acearo headcanons on this post. there’s already a majority of posts here that insist laios is acearo and that anything else is impossible. i don’t like it the same way i don’t like when someone declares they hc marcille as bisexual to a poster who reads her as lesbian. i already have enough people here who declare he’s ace on my own art. at least people on twitter of all places don’t do this sort of thing to me. nothing in this manga is canon, you can headcanon anything i won’t get mad if you hc him as bi or something. just. don’t be weird on my post.

okay. trust me, i love women, and i love the idea of making my favs women lovers but the idea of laios being gay really appeals to me because of his background. this isn’t fueled by yaoi since i don’t even ship the only m/m relationship i bring up here, i just think it adds a nice layer to his disconnect with his own humanity

i do think laios has a very abstract relationship with his sexuality for a multitude of reasons. he grew up in a very conservative backwater village. he has a hard time recognizing his own feelings towards others just as much as vice versa. i don’t really care for the “laios is a monsterfucker” agenda people are pushing but i do think he’d engage in sexual thoughts in his own weird way, i won’t deny his deviantart fetish shit

as an autistic person myself, i relate to how he’d prioritize his special interest over social interactions. after all, he was fixated on monster food so he’s distracted from dark thoughts. he’s not an actual glutton

he’s shy around women, but i don’t think it’s out of attraction. i just think it’s because he’s awkward and doesn’t want to be seen as a threat. there’s a couple of times when, out of armor, he deliberately tries to make himself look smaller and nonthreatening.

he didn’t show any interest towards ashivia (the hubby hunter girl marcille replaced) and just humored her because she wouldn’t leave him alone. his other party members thought he was giving her special treatment so he had to tell her he “doesnt want to give her special treatment anymore”(even though he never did), so she left

ashivia did her best to butter herself up to laios and he didn’t care, but laios thought shuro was his bestest friend in the whole world because he was too much of a pushover to reject him. ironically… what ashivia did to him parallels what he was doing to shuro

also… yeah sorry i keep bringing up that one comic of laios saying if he were falin he’d marry shuro and then begging him to take him back to his country, or that comic of laios wondering why he doesn’t like him(and then the first two questions he asks the magic mirror was what if he or shuro were women). i don’t even ship them! but it’s not a reach to assume that he likes men because of this, even if it’s kinda played like a joke(after all,a lot of people like chilshi even though their ‘shippy’ interaction was played as a joke)

of course, given the setting, i don’t think knows he’s gay, he wouldn’t have the vocabulary to label himself. i do want to dance around with the idea of him forcibly confronting his own sexuality after years of yaad pressuring him to produce heirs lol. laios might not be cishet but he’s a king so he rdgaf about that right now. i’m open to him having female consorts for political reasons, but i don’t think he’s into women, is all.

before anyone brings up his succubus… god forbid an author makes hetbait. a part of the plot twist was that not-marcille wasn’t the only succubus enticing laios, his other party members were copied too. she was the only one who approached him. also… succubi aren’t always inherently romantic. once it realized marcille didn’t work, it switched to appeal to his desire to be a monster.

[onenicebugperday]

@galacticnova3 submitted: Found this absolute chonker of a lady while looking for a mate for Green Bean Casserole! She either contains multitudes or just had a really good meal.

Wasn't too happy about being gently lifted off my shirt, though. Very offended that I wouldn't let her climb me.

And of course, Green Bean Casserole update! She finished her last molt successfully and is now a very unique looking adult! Mostly straightened out and having no troubles getting around or eating, though her shape still differs from the usual a bit, as do her colors.

She also hasn't lost her somewhat clumsy charm.

Thankfully, this sort of thing only seems to happen outside the vivarium; haven't seen or heard her fall when hanging from the lid or her favorite stick. I ended up moving her back to the "recovery" terrarium since it was already set up to be usable by her and I still need to properly update the mesh lidded one to be safe for mantises. Haven't had a good chance to shop for any kind of screen yet.

Anyways, here is Green Bean Casserole's "you better not be sharing unflattering pictures of me online" look.

That woman is very chunky! Most likely gravid. Usually a wild-caught meal isn't big enough to get her that fat just from eating, but it's possible. I'm so glad Green Bean Casserole successfully molted into an adult and is doing well! And only slightly misshapen lol. Please tell her she's still beautiful and perfect.

[imanes]

doing a lil august reading wrap up because apparently i read 13 (!!) books. in chronological order (bolded are those i recommend):

city of stairs by robert jackson bennett: quite the interesting read. i think the character work in this one is a standout, as well as the world building. the good thing is i have no idea where this trilogy is going so it's exciting. the audiobook for the second book arrives in 2 weeks on my shelves on libby so I'll be reading the sequel soon

braiding sweetgrass by robin wall kimmerer: this one took me a whole entire year to read and finish lol. no comment. or maybe one comment: i think i'd have found this book a lot more eye opening if i had read it three years ago so right book wrong time i guess? i do recommend it i just think it didn't impact me as much as i thought it would

the blighted worlds by megan e. o'keefe: this one hit me like a truck!! i was so obsessed. it's a sci-fi space opera with an element of horror and an interesting romance sub-plot. basically everything i love lmao. i really do recommend this book it might actually be my fave of the month

sanctuary by ilona andrews: i have to stay up to date on all things kate daniels-related to this spin off was high on my tbr. it was a lot of fun but it petered out toward the end

where the dark stands still by a.b. poranek: a bit of a let down not gonna lie. the gist of my opinion is that it felt underdeveloped and in turn i felt under-interested in whatever was going on

shadows of self by brandon sanderson: once again i am begging the protagonists of this series to stop being aggravating

the fractured dark by megan e. o'keefe: continuing my obsession with the devoured worlds trilogy... unfortunately i have to wait on my libby hold to get the audiobook of the next one (i read with my eyeballs and listen at the same time to help with concentration)

the right to sex - feminism in the 21st century by amia srinivasan: i read this book because i know of two people who broke up with their significant other (one of them resulting in a divorce) after reading this book so i had to know what srinivasan had cooked in there and yeah she did cook.

the way of kings by brandon sanderson: just part of my re-read in preparation of the release of wind and truth in December. this month we tackle (again) words of radiance teehee

just for the summer by abby jimenez: womp womp womp. idk what it is with romance authors these days they're in a competition with themselves to portray the healthiest love stories but this one teetered on the wrong side of boring one too many times and the volume to therapy-speech in this one was staggering.

the ex vows by joyce jessica: twas a cute poolside read, it's nothing revolutionary but it was pleasant enough and it didn't make me roll my eyes like just for the summer jdkjgsk at least the love interest had a personality and a life... i mean it's fiction so it's not a life but it appeared as if he contained multitudes or something

funny story by emily henry: I'll go ahead and say it nobody writes a contemporary romance quite like miss henry because she's got the secret recipe for the right balance between heartfelt feelings and amusing situations + her dialogues feel a lot more natural than most (though if i had to nitpick she always has this side character who's a fountain of wisdom and gives you life-changing monologues but i guess such people exist out there)

the thief by megan whalen turner: the megans are really out in full force because this is another book written by a megan that i loved so much. yes half of this book is a fairly episodic journey across made-up countries, yes i ate it up, yes the second half is worth the wait (if you were out of patience, which i wasn't, bc i was having fun) and yes the plot twists are chef's kiss. "gen's ambitions are his own" is the perfect summary. everand has all the audiobooks so you know what I'm gonna do... that's right... listen and read at the same time

as an aside the tandem reads i do with both books and audiobooks happen only when i like the narrators. if i find a narrator i like i stick to them like glue because they're few and far between as far as my picky ass is concerned. i never do romance audiobooks they're the worst...

[tragedycoded]

friday kiss tag!

Well on the plus side I have something today. Thank you (and/or congrats) to @the-golden-comet for finally getting the boys to bang, @cowboybrunch for showing Rosalie and Andrew being nerdy kissers, and @sableglass for whatever the hell is going on with Maeve and Dante.

Rules: From your story/WIP, post a kiss. It can be any kiss, from familial pecks on the cheek, forehead kisses, platonic smooches, to full-blown makeouts.

This is from Chapter 24 of Doom Metal Love Story Book 2. It's 635 words of daydreaming that is probably about to get cut because LOL this serves no purpose. But for a brief and shining moment, Sullivan imagined a world where he and Royston made it to St. Louis to spend two weeks with his mother.

Sullivan allowed himself a moment to imagine they had made it all the way to St. Louis. They would have had a brief stop in Catena. In Sullivan's mind, they took the time in Catena to stretch their legs and admire the sprawling grassland and pretend they could walk around the station as the other couples walked, arm-in-arm. Even in his imagining, Royston tried to touch him more than was appropriate, whispering To Hell with them; and even in his imagining, Sullivan was short with him, aware of the weight of his uniform and the acid in his stomach, of the fact they could not wrap their arms around each other's waists as they walked. He wanted to imagine he would compromise. That his elbow would touch Royston's upper arm, with pressure, and they would be content with what contact they could steal. If they saw a couple with children, Royston would ask Sullivan if he wanted some of those things, and Sullivan would think and tell him, No, sir. I do not. Especially if your plan for providing them involves kidnapping.

They would board the train again, and travel the rest of the way to St. Louis, and his mother would be a mature woman where he remembered her being young and far from her family and tasked with raising a son who wasn't like other children. She would look sad even as she waved her arm to draw him to her, because she was an orphan and a widow and her only child was a cavalryman. And she would not expect a hug, because her boy Cole had not been disposed towards physical shows of affection. But he would hug her, and kiss her on the cheek, because he had not seen her since her marriage to Mr. O'Hare in the spring of 1869, and he believed his mother deserved a son who would show her he loved her even if he wasn't quite sure he did. He would introduce Royston to her as my friend, and Royston would be charming and affable and speak to Mrs. O'Hare like a man who wanted his man's mother to like him. That was important to Royston, the first time. That Sullivan's mother like him. Sullivan had hoped he and Royston would be quiet at night, sharing a wall with his mother, and knew they would have to press their mouths hard together to keep their moans suppressed, he knew they would laugh and sigh and grunt into palms and shoulders and ears, if that would keep the sound contained. When Royston had him face down and was licking the places Sullivan had never even let the sun caress, Sullivan would have needed a pillow and a firm grip to keep from crying out in praise. In that world that would never exist, he had hoped his mother would enjoy sitting on the balcony and having breakfast with him, drinking coffee and reading the paper and discussing current affairs. He knew Royston would sleep clear on through the morning, because he would not be able to fall asleep until near dawn; in that other world, Sullivan had hoped Royston would be too excited to sleep long, hearing Sullivan's voice on the balcony. That he would rather spend time in the bathroom preparing for the day than in bed, sleeping. And that hope spiraled outward, contained all the multitudes that would never happen. That his mother would like the historical places he had chosen to visit with her. That she would enjoy the sights they could walk to downtown. That she would enjoy the food in the restaurants they visited. That she would be pleased with the church he chose to take her to Mass. He had hoped, and he had been nervous, and then it hadn't mattered. That world had never existed.

Tag time! If you've already been tagged, it's less of a double tag and more of a "Hey check this shit out!"

@cowboybrunch @finickyfelix @saturnine-saturneight @ashfordlabs @autism-purgatory

@noblebs @aintgonnatakethis @the-golden-comet @asablehart @mauvecatfic

@leahnardo-da-veggie @sableglass @gioiaalbanoart @words-after-midnight

@lavender-bloom @jev-urisk @wyked-ao3

[orangerosebush]

Ive always had this headcanon that artemis was very cold to juliet growing up to distance himself from anything child-like as much as possible since being friends with another child who doesn't share his intense Parentification traits and as they get older (like mid 20s) artemis is finally self aware enough to be like "hmm i probably treated her like shit for a long time and didn't even think about it cause I was so focused on crafting this impenetrable image of a Fully Functioning Adult since I was a literal toddler".

IIRC, the most intimate look we get into Artemis and Juliet's dynamic is in the first book -- and like, everything about them in B1 is bizarre.

I share the headcanon you mention -- and that past is made worse by the fact that Juliet (~16 y/o) was the main person in charge of Angeline's care when things progressed so severely that the woman was bedbound.

There's a tension between Artemis allowing Juliet to take liberties that he'd typically only permit his mother (and Juliet wanting to take those liberties!), and Juliet being freaked out by how intense (arguably creepy) Artemis used to be.

Here's this scene from the start of the book (where Juliet is able to use the diminutive "Arty" during a time when the Fowl-Butler dynamic is such that Butler still calls 12-year-old Artemis "Sir"):

“These alterations must be made to the cellar. See to it, Juliet. To the letter.”  “Yes, Arty.”  Artemis frowned, but only slightly. For reasons that he couldn’t quite fathom, he didn’t mind terribly when Juliet called him by the pet name his mother had for him.  Butler scratched his chin thoughtfully. Artemis noticed the gesture.  “Question?”  “Well, Artemis. The sprite in Ho Chi Minh City . . .”  Artemis nodded. “I know. Why didn’t we simply abduct her?”  “Yes, sir.”

Then:

“Juliet pointed to a viewcam mounted on the wall.  “Oh, he’d find out. Artemis finds out about everything.” She leaned in close to [Holly]. “Sometimes I think he can see inside my head, too.”

Though! It must be said that canonically Artemis gifts Juliet multiple expensive (sports?) cars when they grow*** up. Their dynamic contains multitudes

*** I misremembered. Artemis leaves her the cars in his will. Well. LOL. ("To Juliet Butler, who has protected my brothers so faithfully, I leave my sound system which is based on gel-speaker technology and which should make even her collection of modern music sound reasonably non-offensive. I also leave to Juliet the three sports cars and a lifetime subscription of the Wrestling Channel.")

[borgialucrezia]

i'm kinda obsessed with the way juan/lucrezia's dynamic flip flops throughout the show like in the first half you'd get a soft dynamic where lucrezia rides her horse in the middle of a battlefield worried sick about juan who was willing to die but backs up because he doesn't wanna cause his sister grief if he died then the second half you'd have lucrezia wrapping her arms around juan's arm smiling and cracking jokes then later at the same day they're spiting out each other, giving each other stink eye with a full antagonistic tension then later he goes back from spain going all cute on her like omg sister look i brought you a beautiful rare panther in a heart-shaped gilded cage 🥺 then later when he became frustrated that she refuses to reconcile with him and recognize all his efforts (misguided or not) are rooted to protect her he spitefully teases her with dropping her baby from the balcony....their uwu/toxicity managed to coexist because they contain multitudes lol

[majorbaby]

some early and candid thoughts on MASH: The Comedy that Changed Television

I thought Gary Burghoff had the most illuminating commentary to offer. he was specific, technical and detailed when recounting how the show was constructed, a style of media commentary that caters to my preferences. he has one comment that really stuck with me as a strong descriptor of the Radar character (paraphrase from memory): they needed a character who was experiencing the concept of war for the first time, for whom you could see the

after Burghoff, I thought Jamie Farr had some interesting things to say re: Margaret - 'she contains multitudes' being one of them, and a recurring theme when everyone was speaking about the character

i have to talk about mike farrell's comment on anti-war vs. anti-military: i've talked about how I feel that the post-reynolds/gelbart years have heavily watered-down messaging re: war before, and i've pointed to several episodes where i feel this is obvious, but mike farrell saying (quite strongly) that he felt the show was anti-war but never anti-military is pretty damning evidence.

i mean, i think this is good characterization for BJ, to take a more, let's call it 'broadly', anti-war stance, rather than be opposed specifically to military, particularly to the US military. it fits with his aspirations to live a quiet, middle-class life, with his insistence that he's always done 'the right thing' and imo, a good motivation for him to butt heads with the more radical Hawkeye, who opposes authority figures in general (per Alan Alda himself in this same special) - which actually goes beyond the military...

so i love it for BJ but i hate it for a show that never framed him as being wrong about that idea specifically. i can't say for sure whether BJ always held Farrell's beliefs of course, or vice versa, but if BJ ever did oppose the military as a system, Farrell doesn't know it. this knowledge makes episodes like Preventative Medicine and Back Pay land even worse with me.

'some of us were IN the military' he added, as a justification for his point that the show could not have been anti-establishment which i would speak on even more candidly if i was going to make this unrebloggable lol. but truly it's not that serious except in terms of how i think about the themes of this show - he seems like a perfectly lovely person who really loved making MASH and i think his fans will enjoy watching him speak about that.

Mclean Stevenson makes a point about how what Radar anticipates about a character tells us something about that character beyond what we would receive if we just heard the character say it themselves (which they usually do, at the same time as Radar) - I need to think about this some more when re-watching those scenes...

dlfkjaljfk I've never heard David Ogden Stiers' natural voice I thought someone was giving commentary over footage of him and then i realized he was actually giving the commentary - I feel like everyone knows this, but he was immensely talented, a master of voice and speech

1 hour and 10 minutes (including ads, or 'commercial breaks' as we used to call them back in my day) spent on seasons 1-3. tbf there's character-specific commentary in the first half that is for characters that were with us for the whole run, but, there's also a lot of time devoted to talking about how the show was initially constructed, the pilot being good (correct), and something that made me smirk - Larry Gelbart's commentary on how people were incensed and outraged at Henry's death and felt they had been misled, lied to, about their funny haha, wholesome weeknight comedy (set in the Korean War???) is almost indistinguishable from how people talk about plots they don't like in media nowadays

it was good! i had fun!