#so make a choice

[heretherebedork]

Okay, hear me out...

Lomfon is the true representation of the damage that the belief in soulmates do to the people that could love them.

So if a soulmate is destiny and leave no choice in the matter and people actively believe in that, they will reject the people who don't fit their idea and ideal of a person in a way that leaves them with no choice.

Lomfon might have claimed not to believe in soulmates but we know he believed in fate from his keychain and now that he has Tai and Patt's voice in the rain it's confirmation, in a way, that there is something there.

But it does not bring any happiness.

Because Lomfon was clinging to fate while Tien was right in front of him and only after he saw him did he receive the supposed sign that Tai is meant to be his soulmate.

Because a soulmate takes all the choice and chance out of love and leaves you ignoring all the signs that don't fit into your specific view of what soulmates means.

Lomfon is falling apart now because he was so sure about what he believed and what was meant to be and now he's confronted with the reality that Tai has no interest in him and that he's starting to fall in love with Tien and it's all wrong.

(But it's not, it's not wrong, because soulmates are only what you make of them.)

Lomfon is not a nonbeliever, Lomfon is a believer who was in bitter denial because the reality he faced wasn't the one he had hoped for and now that fate has twisted and wrapped him up and pulled him in he's suddenly realizing that what he thought he wanted wasn't what he actually wanted at all.

In the preview he is pleading to know what he thinks, to know who he likes, because he doesn't know.

Because he placed all of his love into the fate of the keychain and now that's all been swept out from under him between the rain connection and his growing feelings for Tien that he doesn't know how to react.

If you decide to set your path on fate and destiny rather than your own choices, you will hurt the people you love because you will not see what you are doing because you do not see any of it as a choice.

Lomfon is going to hurt everyone around him in a desperate bid to figure out what fate and destiny have been trying to tell him because the idea of making a choice is terrifying.

(This also reflects back on Tai and Tien's parents, their divorce and how Tai's father talks about how love is something you have to work for to keep and how the entire show is showing us that love is a choice you make and that fate and destiny cannot take that step for you.)

And so this final act isn't about Lomfon as a second love interest for Tai (he never was). This is about the act of choice and the way that trusting in fate and destiny without making choices hurts the people you love and yourself in the end.

Tien is the one who is going to be the most hurt, the one who is caught between all these people and all their fates and has only himself, only his own life, no voices and no keychains and no notes and nothing but the fleeting calm that Lomfon's touch leaves and the love he's just starting to discover.

Love is a choice. But that also means you have to make a choice.

[one-piece-stuff]

Which is the lesser evil according to you?

[inkskinned]

the tradwife movement is the same as it has always been - back in the kitchen, back to breeding - it just has better branding.

when i was younger, i hated pink. i was not like other girls. this is now something i'm embarrassed of - this was not me being a "girl's girl."

but it was expressing something many of us felt at the time: i literally wasn't what girlhood was supposed to be. this is a hard thing to explain, but you know when you're not performing girlhood correctly. it isn't as easy as "i liked x when girls liked y" - because there were other girls that liked x, too - but i never figured out exactly the correct way to like x, or to be interested in y.

now there is the divine feminine. this is the same rhetoric it has always been: women are biologically driven to like pink and ribbons and submitting to our husbands.

the problem is that the patriarchy found a better PR team. because yes, actually, i want every woman to have the choice to be a homemaker. i also want her taken seriously for her legitimate home-making labor. i want her to be recognized as also having a job, just unpaid. i want men to have this opportunity, too.

but it is no longer "i made this choice and I love it." instead it is a sixteen-paragraph rant about how selfish it is that my generation isn't having kids. instead it's long videos about how if you feed your children processed foods, you're going to kill them. instead it is "this is what womanhood is supposed to be. i feel bad for any other choices you're making."

the shame spiral is just prettier. it is large houses devoid of personality. it is the implication: if you don't have this, you aren't happy. the solid, everlasting assurance: women are actually supposed to be submitting. this is the default. this is the natural state of things. all other attempts inflict suffering.

but you can no longer say i'm not like other girls. you can no longer reject this image completely. you cannot find it revolting, even if you know that the underbelly is toxic and festering. sure, it is the same repackaged patriarchy. but the internet does not have shades of grey. you should support and reward other women! your disgust is actually internalized misogyny. not because you are seeing a vision of yourself the way they're trying to train you to be. not because you feel her ghost pass within an inch of your earlobe. not because your father will eventually ask you - why can't you be like her?

because they figured out how to make it beautiful: women will sell other women on this idea, and we will find the singular loophole in feminism. sure, she's shaming you in most of her videos. sure, she implies that a different life is obscene. but she just wants you to be happy! you'd be happier if you were listening!

and the whole time you're sitting there thinking: i'd actually just be happier if i had that kind of money.

[c-rowlesdraws]

Ratatouille would have been a better and potentially much more interesting story if Remy had partnered with Collette instead of Linguini. Two underdogs with talent and passion forced to maintain a dangerous ruse. Fiercely independent Collette giving up temporary control of her body to a creature who, despite the insanity of a rat wanting to cook professionally, she can relate to on a personal level and who she does want to teach. The inner conflict of wondering if Remy’s growing talents are eclipsing her own, if the praise their food is earning belongs more to him than to her. Her guilt over feeling resentment and jealousy towards this little guy who wouldn’t have a hope of realizing his talents if not for her trust and protection. Both of them unraveling the mystery of that sweet but bumbling kitchen boy with the obvious crush on Collette being Gusteau’s secret son, and working together to thwart the new evil owner’s plans to stop Linguini from claiming his birthright. The message of the movie not being this weird, almost smug “some people are born with talent, some people aren’t, and that’s how being a ~great artist~ works”, but something more like, “if you have a dream, you deserve to pursue it, and be supported and encouraged in your pursuit of it, even if other people tell you that, because of some intrinsic aspect of yourself or the circumstances you were born in (like being a human woman in the restaurant industry, or being a literal rat), you have no place pursuing this dream. Also, raw talent can only get you so far, and skill and passion existing in the right balance is key.” I’ve been thinking about this for seventeen years. I’m breaking my silence

[flagellant]

yeah we might be brothers in christ but so were cain and abel so shut the fuck up before i decide to find a rock about it

[overseer-picard]

TNG text posts part 5 feat. DS9 era O'Brien

[avarkriss]

listen. listen to me so carefully right now. (if you're in the eclipse path/planning on viewing). please don't stare directly at the sun tomorrow. i am begging you - do not stare at it. if you got eclipse glasses off of amazon/other, please put them on in your house and make sure you can't see anything; if you can still see like regular sun glasses, they are not safe for eclipse viewing, you will burn your retinas, and we cannot fix that. eclipse glasses should be iso/ce certified, and aas (american astronomical society) approved. please make smart choices and protect your eyes. please.

[wojtekaneko]

That's how it went

[hinamie]

new official illust of them with puppies healed something in me

[absentlyabbie]

taking my life into my hands to resurrect this godawful hellpoll and let it run for a week this time

[fonulyn]

since I've seen it talked about in several places recently:

if you are going to do a whump- or kink- or ANY-tober or other similar challenges please please please don't post them as one fic with 31 chapters unless it actually is one coherent fic. if they're 31 completely separate fics or ficlets then please just make a collection for them or just post them as separate fics. it doesn't matter if they're only 100 words or if you think they're too small or insignificant to post alone, they're not.

and why this?

because if you post all 31 of them in one fic the tagging is absolutely useless. if I look for things to read on ao3 I'm gonna look at the tags, and if the tags include something that's a dealbreaker for me, i won't even click on the fic. I might not even SEE the fic because I've filtered out the nope-tag! so I'm gonna lose out on reading 30 perfectly nice fics because of one fic that my nope-tag applied to.

ao3 is about archiving. it's about clear tagging and being informative. there is nothing informative about it if the tags in the fic apply to random chapters while others have nothing to do with it. it makes so much more sense to have each work as an individual fic with its own individual tags and warnings, so readers can make informed choices.

of course, you do you. I can't police what other people decide to do. but personally, I find it incredibly frustrating to weed through 31 chapters to find the ones I actually want to read. so I don't. I automatically scroll past all works posted like that. and I know some others do, too.

there is absolutely no shame in posting short things on ao3. there is no minimum word count. no one is going to look at you funny if you post a small ficlet on its own, I promise. it's just going to make some readers very happy when they can actually find the things they want to read.

so, please. at least consider the upsides of posting each work as their own fic.

signed, one very frustrated fandom grandma.

[stump-not-found]

got a long-form comic/story i wanna do & wanted to have fun doing twins designs yaaaaaaaay

[chloesimaginationthings]

Michael still has beef with Ennard in FNAF…

[bloominglegumes]

tf one orion scribbles,,,, hes just a little guy,,,,,

[lilislegacy]

percy, holding out his fist in his palm: ok wise girl. rock paper scissors time. if i win, i get to pick the movie for date night

annabeth, doing the same: fine, but if i win, we move back across the country to that house in westchester that i love

grover, looking over in alarm: what?! how is that even—

percy, nodding firmly: deal. rock pap—