#shes girlbossing either way

[matteosilly]

No girl you're cool it's just the fact that you're a literal swarm of bees that threw me off

[himehomu]

“Homura callously destroys everything and everyone else because she's selfish and she only loves madoka” right that's why, when she rewrote the entire universe, she not only made it to where Madoka would be surrounded by her friends and her family, but she also gave Sayaka a second chance with not only Kyoko, but with Hitomi and Kyoske as well. That's why she gave Nagisa and Mami a life together. Because she's callous and selfish and she doesn't care about anyone but Madoka. That's why she took on the brunt of immortality for Madoka to be human again, even if it's temporary, choosing to suffer alone whilst everyone else has a second chance at a life. Go fuck yourself. I'm so tired of seeing ppl minimize Homura's love for Madoka and her friends by writing off her actions as “oh she's just a selfish evil edgelord who destroys everything and everyone who isn't madoka bc she doesn't care about anything else bc selfishness vs selflessness themes!!” like you do know that you can point out Homura's selfishness and Madoka's selflessness without blatantly lying and trying to rewrite canon to fit your narrative, right?

[bumblingbabooshka]

My name is [BRUTUS] and my name means [HEAVY] so with a [HEAVY] heart I'll guide this dagger Into the heart of my enemy

Something about having absolutely no choice in who you marry. About being literally forced by the law to spill blood - to accept this stranger as your husband over a man you truly care for or accept the fact that the man you love might die because you put him in danger. Something about risking becoming the wife of a man you've never even seen before a few minutes prior because you know anything would be better than putting your beloved in harm's way. Something about the trust inherent in that decision and in the way she speaks of it after. Truthfully, T'Pring doesn't know the captain and she doesn't know Spock. Either one of them could have taken her as their wife but she does know Stonn. She knows that Stonn will remain by her side no matter what. They made a plan together. They have an agreement which T'Pring believes will be upheld even though the plan changed with the arrival of Kirk. Stonn will always be there, always, and Stonn will be hers. Something about the language used around T'Pring: Ownership, subservience, non-personhood. T'Pring is an object that Spock can win. She cannot reject him, she has no say in the matter other than having Stonn 'claim' her instead. Even when Spock leaves after being very clearly rejected by T'Pring he says "Stonn, she is yours." as if despite her clear rejection he still owns her and is must formally 'give' her to Stonn. But the language T'Pring uses around Stonn is a break from that: "There was Stonn who wanted very much to be my consort, and I wanted him." Stonn who wanted very much to be HER consort and she WANTED him. The language here is very particular - It's not, for example: "Stonn wanted me to be his wife" - he is HERS. And she WANTS him. There's a mutual affection there and a strong trust - a trust which seems to be well founded since Stonn (though silent) stands by her side at the end of the episode. <- That might seem small but if Spock would reject her for 'daring to challenge' (again, the language is not 'because I don't want you' but more of an implied disgust at her having the AUDACITY to reject him) then it's not a stretch to assume that it'd be considered an insult in the TOS Vulcan society to NOT choose Stonn as her champion after a prior agreement. Anyway T'Pring was a woman in an impossible situation within a society which saw her as more of an object than a person and she wanted Stonn and Stonn wanted to be hers and she trusted that he would understand if she had to publicly pick someone else to ensure his life would be spared and he did understand.

[fumifooms]

Here to share Hien thoughts today.

One thing that defines her is that she’s very capable. She’s the highest ranking in the squad after Maizuru so her confidence is in part because she does have that senior coworker &/ leader authority to her, confidence which is very much earned.

If I had to dig deeper at her beyond just what we’re shown I’d go with the angle that… She was born into the Nakamoto household and being a ninja servant, she grew up there, she doesn��t know anything else beyond the job, and it’s a job she does well, traines to get there. She’s here to do her work and she’s content with her life being how it is, not that she knows anything else. I don’t think she’d be self-aware about it all? Both because this really is pretty normal for Wa and it’s her normal, and because, while she doesn’t fold her spine or care for things like cosmetics, she does mold her attitude to be both capable and respectable. Her home, the Nakamoto household, is simultaneously a professional setting, it’s a 24/7 thing.

She’s critical of others, including her superiors and she doesn’t shy from it. Everyone shittalks Toshiro’s father regardless, but she also gets reprimanded by Maizuru for seeing Toshiro as vaguely unreliable, again likely influenced by their history as childhood friends, sasses Maizuru when she goes off into an anecdote again, etc. Even as a kid with Toshiro, doubtlessly after starting her ninja training already considering that Toshiro started his at ~5yo, she told him it was unbecoming of him to cry. She’s the one both with the job and the will to keep others in check, like when it comes to Izutsumi not doing her tasks, etc etc.

Her childhood friend relationship with Toshiro only grew more professional with time, to her surprise but seems to be more about the thought of it rather than it affecting her emotionally. With the way her extra comic lays it out, it seems she expected to become Toshiro’s mistress because of history repeating itself, in a "it is what it is" way more than anything, which is in line with the reading that she’s more go-with-the-flow and "anything that I’m tasked with I’ll accomplish, as a matter of course". She’s not really social, and keeps herself ready to act at beck and call. She’s not uptight but she’s hard-working. So yeah like, taking pride in your skills but also keeping your identity mostly molded for efficiency. She doesn’t really think about it all, she just is and she’s fine with things as they are, going from one task to the next.

I think it’d be neat to look at her relationship with her parents… They’re both servants at the Nakamotos’, so while maybe busy like Maizuru was at times while raising Toshiro but still taking the time to cook for him (which, parents that prioritize work over her would make sense with how she became how she is), I wonder what their relationship was like, how much time they spent together, how Hien feels like towards them… I assume they’re a part in molding what her definition of normal is, after all if they are longstanding servants of the Nakamotos she has that much less reason to question such a life. But like… Have they ever had hard-hitting discussions, or is she pretty distant even with them? Did they push her into working harder, or were more hands-off? Does Hien maybe want to earn recognition by being capable? Hien has a younger sister that she gets along "so-so" with…

Hien’s younger sister seems to smile more, be more social and a bit nonchalant, such and such. Could be a point of tension that points to the "so-so", that they’re dissimilar/Hien thinks she doesn’t behave right or takes things too lightly, that she’s "unreliable" maybe. Or it could also point to some difference in how they grew up… Like oh I bet there could be tasty angst with mertocracy and siblings favoritism with her family thrown in there… Having to earn the love, earn your keep, earn your spot in the hierarchy (in work and family both)

To me she shines best as a foil, like to Beni, but like. She’s got neat stuff going on If you’re wondering where I took half of what I referenced from I recommend looking at my masterpost on the Nakamoto party, info and extras are compiled

[therighthandofvengeance]

out, damned spot; out, i say.

[lunar-years]

S1 Keeley with a boyfriend she genuinely likes and has fun with (the first one in ages) and is maybe even starting to love, even though she hadn’t ever planned on falling in love with him, and this was only supposed to be PR, right (probably), and he isn’t even the right material for a longterm thing anyway (unless he could be?) only for him to go and break their carefully woven trust and demonstrate that he really is more the arsehole everyone else keeps telling her he is, rather than the person he's been to her (the one who, sure, has an ego through the roof, but who's also funny and kind and ambitious and brave) in one fell swoop. To have to wonder if she’s been blind this whole time to who he really is, and to be made to feel like a total idiot because of how he treated her, and then to decide firmly that no, he is good and he is trying, and then to make the choice to continue to be there for him and help him when he asks...

Late S1/S2 Keeley with a different boyfriend, and this one she's certain she loves, and he could most definitely be longterm material with only a little polishing, in fact she's pretty sure this is it, and she's going to see this man through to his shine, because he's worth it. Even as he spirals in retirement and even as they hurt each other in small ways that eventually start to add up into something bigger, she keeps believing things will get better and they both will do better, because the little life they've been building is worth it. Or it has been, up until he goes and breaks up with her and doesn't even give her the courtesy of presenting something passable as a reason, even as he's turned into a stranger before he's fully out the door. And then they're barely talking and she's heartbroken and she knows she probably went wrong somewhere in there, too, but he never told her how and she's too tired to pick apart all the whys, and she's mad at him but it's difficult to even hold space for that anger because she misses him....

S3 Keeley Jones who stumbles into another new thing, and it's not going to be anything serious (unless it could be), and she's still grieving the last one (maybe the last two?) (but this will be different, really) and Rebecca's telling her she isn't certain this is a good thing (but Rebecca never liked Jamie, either, and Jamie's turned out all right, hasn't he). Her new girlfriend flying her on extravagant dates and flooding her with extravagant gifts and making Keeley feel appreciated, like all the time she's put in is finally being recognized, makes her feel worthy of love (she only wants to be loved. she wants people to stop leaving.) Even as her new girlfriend announces their relationship to the entire office (and sure, it's a little sticky, being that her girlfriend is also her boss, and it makes Keeley feel a little uncomfortable, actually, having all those eyes on her, her employees, but she pushes it aside because Jack isn't afraid to acknowledge her, to make it known that she likes her, to stick with her, and that's something). It's something until it isn't, anyway. Until she only acknowledges Keeley where she wants to, to the people she wants to. Until she leaves, too, and takes Keeley's funding with her. And then Keeley is left to feel like the clueless one again, the idiot for not spotting it coming all along.

And she's making stupid decisions again (sleeping with exes just to get the chance to feel someone), and Jamie and Roy are weirdly close now, and isn't that just flipping great. somehow she missed that, too. And she's the one who made them both better!! they never would have turned out like this if she hadn't been pushing them towards it all along, and now they're there without her, which really doesn't seem fucking fair and definitely sucks. And she's maybe still a little (a lot) in love with both of them, but then they're demanding she choose between them like quarreling stupid schoolboys, and she doesn't even want to choose and she wants both of them at the same time she wants neither of them and then there's still the sticky business of rebuilding her firm with what Jack did still sitting so raw in her chest (and it was never that serious anyway, so why does it bother her so much? why does everything bother her so much?)

(im gnawing at my enclosure)

[notguccienoughforthis]

Hey just like a lil teeny tiny Elden Ring Detail™️ I noticed on my second go around -

When Rani slays her two fingers and discorporates, all of her closest allies are attacked by Black Knives - you know, the VERY SAME group of assassins SHE armed and commissioned to help slay two demigods. When Blaidd dies by our hand, Warmaster Iji hints really strongly at the fact that he would be joining Blaidd soon.

I think my first time around I was so blindly captivated by Rani that I never thought to question if she truly would bear any cost to bring about her order. Maybe she really did want all loose ends to be tied, maybe she wanted to leave no trace behind of those who served her, who knew her deepest secrets. I mean I love that all interpretations can be argued for, depending on how you HC Rani. My first time around as a Sorceress I swore immediate fealty to Caria but this time around as a Dragon Hunting Mercenary… I’m less inclined to trust the machinations of those foul sorcerers… can’t trust mages ever

[ultramarine-spirit]

Why Athy's coronation is a bigger deal than it seems

Or me overthinking WMMAP's worldbuilding

The narrative of Athy's coronation is so interesting to me. Perhaps it wasn't completely intended by Spoon, but its implications for the world of WMMAP are more than impressive.

What got me thinking about this is that, in real life, the heir to the throne is not "crowned" as crown prince, they are the person expected to succeed since birth. That would be Athy as Claude's only child, so why would she need a coronation? Apart from securing the position that people have been trying to steal from her since she was born. Well, if we look at how royal succession works in real life, until the 20th century crown princesses weren't considered heirs. Being the rulers of their nation by their own right was just not allowed.

They were more often than not the spouse of a crown prince, but even crown princesses by birth wouldn't inherit the throne in a male dominated succession. Which seems to be exactly Obelia's case, despite how its first ruler was a queen, Queen Ambrose, as stated in the novel by Athy. Some interesting events must have happened between Obelia's foundation and the present day for that to change.

We see some subtle signs of this in the manhwa. All the royal portraits only depict male rulers, and Athy mentions how immortal names were only granted by the emperor to his heir, the empress' son, that's why Claude received such a name (meaning "limping"). We aren't told that giving immortal names to the emperor's daughter was outright forbidden, but it's certainly unusual, as -apart from Ambrose- Athy is the only member of Obelia's royal family that we know has a name evocative of immortality. The named emperors, Anastasius, Aevum, Aeternitas, Caelum, were all males.

This makes Diana naming her daughter "Athanasia" incredibly daring. She wasn't the emperor, who has the right to choose an heir, she wasn't even Claude's wife, and yet Diana was the one who gave Athy her name.

So, following Obelia's succession and history, it looks like Athy was never expected to actually rule the empire or exert authority. Sure, she would be the empress, but she wouldn't be looked as an equal to her male predecessors. In the novel, both local and foreign nobles were very invested in who Athy was going to marry, saying that she needed to have a strong and capable husband, like Arlanta's prince Dice, since as a princess she was delicate and weak. Others (Roger) argued that she must marry an obelian nobleman, to maintain the power within the country. This was followed by a hilarious scene of Athy breaking the cutlery and shutting their mouths.

This kind of worldbuilding also explains why Roger was so focused on Ijekiel marrying Jennette, he wanted him or their future son to be emperor. As we see in the novel's LP side story, they never wanted Jennette to seize the throne, and she never got a coronation or the title of heir. The same could be said for the manhwa, Anastasius and Aeternitas wanted to use her as a puppet, not make her an empress, and in that way legitimize their accession to the throne.

Athy actually being considered the heir to the throne by her own merits and later crowned as such is pretty extraordinary for a world like Obelia's. Other series have coronation ceremonies for princes and princesses, so maybe Spoon thought it was a real thing, but both analyzed from a real life point of view and from within the narrative, it's an amazing achievement. Claude is obviously not someone that cares for Obelia's traditions, the nobles rescenting him for his origins, so it's even possible that the ceremony was the first of its kind.

Since Athy is Claude's only child, the reader would expect her to be the next ruler by default, but Obelia doesn't seem like a particularly equal society when it comes to both class and gender. This is even more apparent with the misogynistic treatment she received in the novel, or how a noble tried to belittle her in the manhwa. Even more polite nobles mentioned they thought of Athy as little more than "a cute little princess" before she became the emperor's proxy. So it was natural that, with Anastasius suddenly coming back to life, a good portion of the traditional noble faction would back him, despite being an overthrown tyrant.

In summary, Athy being crowned as heir is an extraordinary accomplishment in itself, breaking Obelia's tradition of perhaps centuries. I would dare to say, maybe an unprecedented event since Queen Ambrose's rule. And as the final chapter states, she would become an empress adored by the people and who would live on in history.

[lesbianneopolitan]

Do you think Neo ever though about adding some sort of gun to hush?

Nope, she's never been interested, in CANON and in my own AU

Girl likes it classic with the fencing knowledge

Like she literally had the chance to design her own weapon (in Roman Holiday) but she designed it without a gun because she wasn't interested in that LMAO

And I totally support her for it, the woman's a sword lesbian to me

[dolokhoded]

mel c magdalene made me realize what was missing from my magdalene design and it's that she's not fucking jacked. it's crucial to her character

[curseofbreadbear]

@starfoam ❤’d!

❝ Was I REALLY the villain in your mind? ❞

[theghostofwilburtheworm]

nobody understands megara from hades like i do/hj

[gothic-chicanery]

I am writing a paper on the final girl trope in conversation with heroines in Shakespeare comedies which means I have to use the foundational final girl text which at one point does argue that the final girl trope is just gay sex

[thawthebeez]

thinking about my final english presentation i had to do last year and how if it weren't for the fact that i had to share an equal amount of information on both novels and the 15 minute time limit i had i would have talked about dracula for an hour straight i love that book so much

[dutybcrne]

It’s always so fun to explore genderbends for how the story gets affected

[doctorhoe]

I love wuthering heights, but I think the internet is full of the worst takes known to man when it comes to this book. the characters are all awful and yet people jump through hoops to excuse all of them and then turn around and blame it all on *checks notes* the unreliable narrator who also happens to be a servant with virtually no power except for the fact that she is generally tolerated by all the characters in the book. "it's like nelly dean doesn't even care about the rich kids that make her life a living hell!!" good. she shouldn't.