#so please attack me with those unpopular opinions

[metamorphesque]

I don't know how unpopular this opinion is but I strongly hold the position that society today seems unable to differentiate "Art" from entertainment, and this blurring of lines harms both. _ what do you mean?

What I mean to say is that society nowadays fails to recognize the fundamental differences between art and entertainment. Thinking that they are the same or interchangeable does a disservice to both. To me, it's not an "art vs. entertainment" situation. Rather than opposing them, the distinction lies in recognizing their complementary roles because a healthy individual needs both art and entertainment, but for very different reasons.

Entertainment, of course, entertains us; it delights and validates us by affirming our existing beliefs and emotions. It's there to make us feel good — a safe space that doesn't challenge us, as it has been created specifically for our needs and is catering to our preferences. However, it leaves us unchanged and not transformed. Entertainment is produced because there is a public demand for it.

Art, on the other hand, is meant to change and transform us. It's not always delightful, entertaining or self-affirming. On the contrary, it can sometimes feel like an attack on our beliefs and the reality we think we’re living in. Art can be uncomfortable, even disruptive, and by being so, it forces us to engage with it on a deeper level, challenging our perspectives and encouraging us to evolve. Unlike entertainment, art is not made because there is public demand for it. To be more precise, the demand for art exists, but it doesn't come from us — the public; art meets the demands of the time. Real artists are those who can discern the lessons and demands of the time and make them digestible for the public. While entertainment caters to an audience’s desires, art challenges its audience, often presenting ideas or emotions they may not have asked for but need to confront. It’s not about pleasing or fulfilling expectations; instead, art serves as a catalyst for intellectual and emotional growth, pushing society to reflect, adapt and progress.

My beloved Armenian poet Paruyr Sevak has a very thought-provoking piece that, I think, is about real artists. I'll present a rough translation: "They come unoften, yet never too late. / They are born at exactly the right time. / And they get ahead of time itself, / Which is why they are not forgiven".

The role of a true artist goes far beyond technical skill or the ability to produce aesthetically pleasing works that will be liked by many and, thus, make a fortune. A true artist serves as a visionary, a truth-teller and a catalyst for change. They push us to reflect deeply and think critically about the world around us. This is why, in the absence of such people (and I strongly believe that we live in such times), individuals become more susceptible to propaganda, manipulation or conformity, as there are fewer voices prompting them to critically examine their environment. Additionally, without these voices, society loses touch with its emotional depth, becoming more disconnected, indifferent and apathetic to the suffering or experiences of others.

True artists are what we need today. There are many discussions held online about whether today’s celebrities should address "political" issues and the problems we face as humans.

My answer to this is no, at least not for everyone that society considers an "artist." Most of these individuals are mere entertainers who are there solely for entertainment purposes (I would be quick to add that some of them even fail at that). Dozens of them can't even form comprehensive sentences in their mother tongues; how can we expect them to express trustworthy opinions on grave issues? This is one of the reasons why it is highly dangerous to confuse entertainment with art.

[howhow326]

Monster Discourse Simulator

🧜🏿‍♀️ Wata.Mami69 reblogged Sashasabonsam

🦇 Sck.My.Bldng.ns Follow

Ok guys the year is 2024 can we please stop pretending that Fairies are part of the Monster community? They don't face oppression like other monster groups, but they do want the benefits of being in our community and we should stop letting them.

🧚🏿 MmoatiaRepBlog Follow

Oh joy, another Vorpalblade Vampire in 2024...

🦇 Sck.My.Bldng.ns Follow

Yes, I'm a Vorpalblade Vampire and y'all will not intimidate me into silence!!!

The monster community is for the undead, the cursed, and other former humans. If you do not fit into any of those catergoies (i.e., Fairies) then you do not belong.

If you want talk about whatever problems Fairies have then fine, but do not drag my community into it.

I. Will. Not. Let. You.

🐺 LittleHowlingMonster Follow

For the record, Fairies are accepted into the monster community and OP's opinion is very unpopular.

I am very sorry op snapped at you MmRB.

🦇 Sck.My.Bldng.ns Follow

I will literally shoot you with a silver bullet if you don't stop being a bootlicking mutt (affectionate)

🐺 LittleHowlingMonster Follow

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK???

🧚🏿 MmoatiaRepBlog Follow

Werewolves are catching strays from OP showing the whole world his exclusionism / racism (don't act like I didn't catch you using AAVE to sound scary)

🦇 Sck.My.Bldng.ns Follow

1.) I have Fairies DNI in my bio, and I will be blocking any Fairy that interacts with me

2.) @ LittleHowlingMonster, I'm sorry I hurt your feelings, but you weren't showing solidarity with me when that baby stealer blog attacked me, so I called you a slur. I won't apologise for doing that until you do better.

3.) I don't even know how Human racism was dragged into this conversation, but I think it's clear to everyone that the fairy blog is grasping ay staws to discredit me and any African vamp or monster blog would agree with me.

I. Will. Not. Back. Down.

This thread proves that we should have never allowed fairies into the monster community.

🩸 Sashasabonsam Follow

OP: is not black american, southern american, or have any cultural ties to the word y'all at all (he's European).

Also OP: uses the word y'all to make themselves sound scary, asserts that any other vamp would back him up (I don't), and doesn't even follow any non European vampire blog.

Now if I said I didn't agree with you...

🦇 Sck.My.Bldng.ns Follow

Wow, you bootlickers are really coming out of the woodwork today 😏

🩸 Sashasabonsam Follow

Smug face emojis aren't going to save you boo

🦇 Sck.My.Bldng.ns Follow

Shut the fuck up you dumb bitch!!!

Im one of the top people on this Heavensite working for Vamp rights and all I ask for are allies. If you won't be an ally then leave! And take every "muh culture" blog with you!!

🩸 Sashasabonsam Follow

Adding misogyny to the list now 🙄

🧜🏿‍♀️ Wata.Mami69 Follow

There's no way you guys spent all that time arguing with a scat kink blog.

(7,777 notes)

[nebbyy]

A list of my most unpopular ASOIAF opinions and theories

Please remember this is all based on the books alone, and there also might be SPOILERS for Fire and Blood and the Game of Thrones book series.

ALSO I might open the requests for Game of Thrones fics and headcanons, and maybe for Baldur's Gate as well once I get back into it.

Okayyy so here we gooo.

1. Maegor's story doesn't add up

Don't get me wrong, he must've obviously been a horrible king and a shitty husband, but reading the chapters that talk about him in Blood and Fire, it all just felt like a list of rumours and versions of all nefarious crimes he would've committed. There are about five versions of whatever he did with each wife of his, each of them more depraved than the one before.

Again, I don't think he was an angel or anything, but my theory is that his history was written by biased sources. His reign was made illicit by Jaehaerys, so it would've been in his best interest to have him remembered as nothing more than a viscious monster.

It's a form of "damnatio memoriae" that we've already seen, in a way, with Mushroom and the Dance of Dragons. When in a conflict, and especially after a victory, each side wants to depict the side they beat as badly as possible Caesar did a similar thing in "De Bello Gallico", the book about his conquest of the modern French and Swiss territories. In this book he excuses his conquest with the supposed preparations for an attack by the Helvetians, a fact that was proven to be misinterpreted as it was a mere pacific migration. And again, he did the same thing when he accused them of cannibalising each other while being under siege, another untrue fact made up to just make them seem worse.

So in a way, Maegor's reputation could've been made worse by following historians to legitimate Jaehaerys' reign over Aerea's claim.

2. Incest has no effects on Valyrians

Okay, this is a bit weirder. My theory is that Valyrians practised incest because it had no effect on their offspring.

Looking at the Targaryen family tree, I noticed that the cases of madness increase the more Targaryens marry with other houses. Baelor the Blessed was the first mad Targaryen, and he had a grandmother of house Harte and a great grandmother who was half Arryn.

Before Baelor, Helaena is questionably considered mad as well, which would prove my theory furthermore had it not been for the amount of trauma she endured in her life so I'm honestly not gonna count her as "mad". Rhaegel Rargaryen was the second confirmed mad Targaryen, with a Martell mother; his daughter Aelora is questionably considered mad too, and her mother is an Arryn.

Aerion Brightflame was another mad Targaryen, with a half Martell father and a Dayne mother. The last two mad Targaryens were Aerys II and Viserys III, but at this point, the bloodline was mixed with others enough to make the Targaryen madness an unpredictable factor.

3. There is no good or bad in the Dance of Dragons

So I think we could theorise that Valyrians can perform incest so long as it remains within pure Valyrian blood.

Edit: some of you have pointed out how there were other signs of incest complications in the Targaryen family such as malformities and stillborn babies. I really am no biologist and I don't want to dwell into that "Valyrian race supremacy" craziness, but those cases are once again always correlated to marriages between Targaryens and other houses, for example all of Maegor's stillborn and unborn children (as 5 out of his 6 wives were not Targaryens/Valyrians) or the following cases.

Rhaenyra had a claim on the throne because of Viserys' will, but Aegon had a claim on the throne because of the laws of Westeros themselves. You can argue that Alicent wasn't the nicest stepmother, yet you can't look me in the face and tell me a woman in the middle ages married to a KING to whom she had given THREE SONS wouldn't complain when the king dismisses all of them and their claims in favor of his firstborn daughter.

Otto may have manipulated Alicent, but that was just how a Lord was supposed to act in that situation: have her marry the best candidate (the king), have her birth at least a son (she did) and make sure those children are first in line for the throne (as it should be, by the laws).

Viserys shouldn't have remarried if he already had his heir, period.

At the same time, Rhaenyra had every reason to fight for her claim and try and go against the actual laws of Westeros, but it was inevitable that many would've seen badly her attempt at claiming what was Aegon's birthright.

Lucerys was an asshole for mutilating Aemond and never showed remorse, quite the opposite. Aemond was an asshole who shouldn't have had all the power he had, plus I hardly believe his and Alys relationship was really consensual so there's that..

In the end, they all had their rights and wrongs, but that doesn't matter at all. The only point about the Dance is the fact that a pointless conflict led to the downfall of one of the strongest families in Westeros history.

4. Rhaegar didn't love Lyanna

I hate the series for making them marry. Like, seriously, have D&D ever read the books? Have they not read what happened between Maegor and the Faith when he took another wife??

Never, not even in the most twisted of universes, would the faith let Rhaegar kidnap and marry a Stark girl while he was still married to Elia. That just wouldn't be plausible.

And I also don't think he'd just fall in love at first sight with a random girl at a tournament. She was a beautiful soul and had many qualities, but she had nothing that could truly make a man throw away his whole life to pursue her.

He needed another child. The dragon has three heads. He had Rhaenys and Aegon, but Visenya was missing (I just made up the name for the third possible child considering he was naming them after the three conquerors lmao). He needed Lyanna to have that third child, and he knew how to get her to get what he wanted.

Perhaps we'll find out this isn't true. Perhaps Rhaegar really was head over heels for Lyanna, but I honestly really really doubt it.

5. There is no certainty on who the Prince that was Promised is

No matter what the show wants us to see, we still don't know who it is. It could be Daenerys, it could be Jon, it could even be Stannis and we're not gonna know it until Martin reveals it.

I honestly think Daenerys is Azor Ahai, but I'm still curious to see why we would need to revive Jon then. And considering Stannis' sword possibly being Azor Ahai's sword, is it a fake one made by Melisandre to get what she wanted from him, or does he actually possess the original sword?

Well, these are the first theories and opinions I could think of right now, I might post more in the future. Again, please don't slander me in the comments, these are just my personal opinions and I respect all others.

[beanghostprincess]

Sorry I really didn’t mean I’m attacking you or your ship. I also don’t think it’s a red flag, most gay men I saw don’t really like shuggy either. I mean, probably the entire world prefers any other shanks ships? On almost every site, con or store there’s always tons of mishanks and Bennshanks and never shuggy. I get it’s also about dynamic and connection those two pairs have, like with the parallels to other ships the base for them is extremely strong. But the minimal shuggy does speak volumes. I genuinely wonder about this. Shuggy is unpopular and again while I do agree there’s strong connection between “rival ships” I don’t think that’s the only reason… and like…. Buggy is ugly, isn’t he? He doesn’t have cool style, doesn’t look cool, makes ugly faces all the time, also is a coward. I like him as comedy character and shanks brother though!

I understand where you're coming from when you say Shuggy is unpopular amongst some people (actually, before anyone says anything. It IS an extremely popular ship in Japan but I have seen A LOT of hatred towards it in this side of the fandom, so that's what I'm talking about when I say it's unpopular). I have talked about this before. And I have said a lot of times that the reason why is often because people only focus on looks and Buggy is not conventionally attractive for the fangirly twinkified sexualized gaze numerous sides of the fandom and the general audience seek. Like, I am not forcing people to ship them, but I have had people admitting the only reason they don't is because of the looks, and I personally believe that is a very (despite valid, of course) dull way of seeing ships. And respectfully, I don't care that other gay dudes or all the people in the world agree with you. It's not a red flag to not like Shuggy, what it is a red flag, though, is to come into people's inboxes to do what you're doing!

I know you don't mean to attack me or anybody who ships them but your tone does wonders showing otherwise. Your perception of shipping is just based on looks and the fact that you came here, to a blog that explicitly ships these characters and is fond of Buggy, talking shit about one of the characters' looks... Is just straight-up mean and not following the social etiquette this site should follow, which is "let people do whatever the fuck they want".

So with all due respect, what makes you think I won't find your questions offensive in any way? Because you keep talking bad about a character I like in my inbox for literally no reason. Do you expect me to admit that the ship is unpopular because Buggy is ugly and boring? Well, I do admit people view him as ugly and only a comedy relief, but I don't. Expecting others to find beautiful and interesting the same things you do is having a very close-minded vision that One Piece's plot itself is against.

By the way, you're showing that you clearly don't like Buggy in the slightest because you're only talking about the traits that you find negative about him. But of course, you like him as comedy relief. Of course, you like him as a character in Shanks' story and not as a character himself. Despite Buggy having lots of depth. Your perception of these characters seems, in my opinion, extremely empty and, as I said, only based on looks. And you're free of shipping whatever you want however you want! But please, please, don't do this anymore. This is just petty high school mean girl behavior. Even Regina George would word this in a more polite way.

So, as a little advice for you, let people ship whatever they want without questioning their favorite characters! I am sure you will live a more peaceful life!

[hwsing]

Thoughts about pegging the allies and mayhaps Italy 🧍‍♂️

pegging? pegging!

notes: 18+, top reader and bottom characters. includes: america (alfred), canada (matthew), france (francis), england (arthur), china (yao). i think some of my opinions on this are unpopular but pls don’t attack me for it lmaoo, as always, reblogs are appreciated!

cw: talk about pegging, slightly toxic views on sex (ivan)

first of all, those who would be most interested in it would be francis who is just kinky as fuck, feliciano who is down to roll around however and yao who is so old and easily bored nowadays that you have got to switch it up often anyways. the least would be ivan, who is just overall not a super big fan of bottoming and arthur who is similar and just. struggles to get into most things involving toys. alfred and matthew are in the middle area.

francis loves sex. something has to be really bewildering for him to be particularly opposed — hell, it’s likely that he brought it up himself if you’re more hesitant to. if you bring it up first, he’s pleasantly surprised and causally agrees; he has high expectations! but, honestly, even if you suck at it, he just takes it as an opportunity to teach you. he’ll tell you how to fuck him right through his breathy, soft moans, encouraging and awfully sweet about the whole thing. but, if you do know what you’re doing or are more confident, he’s more than happy to take it. he actually cums a lot harder when something is in his ass to be honest. he’d most certainly want it to become a more regular thing.

like francis, yao might end up bringing this up himself. he is old and, honestly, very few things shock him. he’s not someone who needs super niche hardcore stuff to get off, but he thinks it’s beneficial for everyone involved to switch things up often enough!! he’s used to bottoming to begin with, so this is by no means his first rodeo. bigger the better

alfred is not very opinionated about these things, to be honest. by default, he likes getting his dick wet, so he doesn’t think about bottoming very often. when presented with the idea, though, he’s by no means opposed! he takes it like a champ, and if you didn’t already have it, he got plenty of lube! would be very embarrassed by the fact he got fucked though. he doesn’t really have a reason to be, he just gets flustered if you remind him outside of the bedroom

ivan isn’t inherently particularly dominating in intimacy, but he very much likes to be the one deciding the pace with sex. and while you can argue that bottoming isn’t a forfeit, because that’s true to him it feels like it. he’s just…. very stubborn and would likely be dismissive of the idea. if he trusts you a LOTTTTT i think he’d be more open to the idea. you’ll have to unlock ivan level 99 first though. good luck adventurer

i was having very mixed feelings on matthew. i do think he’d be down though. at least post 2020 matthew would be. prior to that, i dont think he’d be downright opposed to it, but he doesn’t entirely get it…. once it happens though, he doesn’t think it’s a huge deal. doesn’t love the feeling (just isn’t really into the feeling if the toy, thinks its a bit uncomfy regardless of lube) but if your thrust game is good enough it can compensate for the toy feeling!

arthur has bottomed before, but it was almost, if not just straight up always, because his companion for that night had a willy and refused to bottom themselves. arthur isn’t against it, even if it isn’t what he naturally gravitates towards — but… pegging? maybe a younger, more adventurous arthur would be a bit intrigued, but the man barely accepts that vibrators can help spice things up. he just… struggles to see the point, but he’s likely to try it out if you two are long term partners. i can’t see him being very into it, but he’ll indulge you once in a blue moon to please you because he loves you <33

[reyreadersblog]

My unpopular TIG opinions.

Since y'all are expressing opinions out here..who am i to leave out? Now have in mind that these are MY opinions, some of these are unpopular some of these are NOT, some of these are even underrated facts but let's just ignore that..

(Please don't hate me)

1. I DON'T CARE ABOUT EVE, and i don't want her to be with Grayson..bcs APPERANTLY and very unfortunatly there are people out there who ship Gray and Eve..crazy..i know, i really don't care about her, i already made a whole post about why i don't like her at all, she's a manipulator, she's a liar, she's a backstabber. She traumatised poor Gray and threatened Ave. I respect your opinion if you like her and i truly understand where some of you are coming from, but i just can't manage to like her, don't hate her i just dislike her. Even if she gets a redemption arc..i can't seem to understand how i'll like her character after what she has done, but if i will..."forgotten but never forgiven"

2.underrated characters, there are so many of them in this books, for example Zara Hawthorne. I love her honestly, i could never hate, i understand she may have done some wrong things...but i love her nontherless♡♡ and same goes for Alisa Ortega.

(Honorable mention) also come on, give my man Oren some appreciation he deserves, you think following teenager around is easy? Even if it's his job and he gets paid, it's still tiring..😔

3. Uhh..i am scared to say this...i prefer Nash and Alisa to Nash and Libby...WAIT, WAIT, WAIT...DON'T KILL ME YET..LET ME EXPLAIN FIRST🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻, i saw @hawthornesbiggestfan 's post, and that encouriged me to say this, read that post bcs that explains exacly how i feel. I love Nash and Libby, they're super cute, i can't wait for their wedding and think they are going to have a very happy family...but..i'm still at the restaurant😔, EVEN THO we never got to know Nash and Alisa's story, smtg about those two had me invested in them from the beggining, like imagne Alisa growing up and Nash slowly developing a tiny crush on them..young love..passion..childhood lovers...love confession..ughh, also the fact that Gray, Xan and Jamie already saw her as their family, like an older sister. Such a shame we never got to see their story. Again, i'm not saying i dislike Nash and Libby tho if it had been love triangle between Nash, Libby and Aliso...i would choose Nash and Alisa...

3.Avery is freaking underrated, yk what's sad? SHE IS THE MAIN CHARACTER, and she doesn't get enough hype (i've made a post about this too) meanwhile people are swooning over Hawthorne brothers, and yes i am one of them but i love Avery to death, i even saw someone comparing Avery and the brothers saying "oh she's so boring..Hawthorns are way better than her..blah..blah..blah" technically they were saying fuck poor people, i know for a fact NONE of the brother would last an hour from where she came from (iykyk), she's a girlboss, and a main character for a reason.

4. As much as i love Averyjameson, i have to say their story is pretty much over, We'll probably get some cute moments from them in tgg or in games untold, but they ARE NOT a main couple anymore.

5.TGG IS A NEW SERIES, please understand that it's new book series with new characters (at least most of them) stop attacking JLB, it's her books, it's her choice.

6.Lyra Kane's haters don't make sense to me, especially those one who mock, and laugh at her lovers saying "you don't even know her, i'm gonna laugh at y'all when she turns out to be Eve 2.0" uhm...sir..miss..shut it. I respect your opinion if you're a Lyra netural bcs it's true we don't know many things about her and i totally understand if you can't love her yet, but don't hate, we know we're delusional most of the times, but that's what headcanons is for, for fun, alight, let people have fun.

7. Will all due respect i have...Averygrayson shippers are...dumb..yikes..sorry, but it's the truth, i'm tired of talking about this, it's been 4 books, Avery is happy with Jamie, they're perfect for each other, their relationship status is great and Gray is most definetly getting a new love interest..but of you still ship and have faith in them..do so..who am i to stop you? Just don't be disappointed when it won't be ture.

8.i may be judging too early but Savannah and Gigi being in the game..doesn't sit right, tbh honest it'a NEPOTISM at it's finest, i love both of them so much..but..nah. again, idk for sure..it may be some trick, it's JLB after all.

9.there are too many repetitive charcter traits..Jameson and Rohan, Grayson and Savannah, Gigi and Xander, Eve and Emily, every single dad, exept for Isaiah.

10.Speaking of Isaiah, he is extremly underrated, i mean he is the best dad in the series and somehow people talk about Sheffield Grayson more than him.

Sheesh...don't kill me in the comments please, i'm too young to die🙏🏻😔

(I'll probably do a part 2...

[evanpeterswifeyyy]

Phantom of The Opera rant because I just watched the full movie of my favorite stage play and it’s on my mind.

Warning: controversial/ unpopular fandom opinion. Key word: OPINION. Excessive yapping—I’m pulling up recipets yall. This is actually an essay. Despite that, I will definitely make some spelling mistakes, explain things poorly or repeat points. I am human, thanks.

I’m not sure if this is controversial or not, but I don’t fully understand how people like Christine and the Phantom together. At a basic level, I can understand why:

- It has dark romance themes/ tropes (totally different topic I could rant about)

-It’s taboo and edgy, kinda raw

-Many actors who play the Phantom are conventionally attractive

-Christine and the Phantom usually have more on-screen chemsitry (chemistry does not always mean romantic, please be mindful of that)

So, I wanted to write a small little essay picking apart why I believe The Phantom and Christine are a toxic and abusive pairing.

This is not an attack on anyone who pairs them together, nor do I honestly care that much if you do, I just don’t see many in-depth second opinions about this.

With this knowledge, proceed at your own discretion and be respectful:

I want to start off with the main reasons why I believe the Phantom and Christine should NOT be paired together. To preface, I have only seen TWO pieces of media related to the POT. I will be using those as my evidence, as they are also the most popular reditions of the play that I’m sure most of you will know and reference yourself.

Those being:

The 25th Anniversary stage play with Sierra Boggess and Ramin Karimloo

The Phantom of the Opera screenplay starring Emmy Rossum

To begin, in the screenplay Christine has been shown to have known the Phantom since she was a child. Throughout multiple reditions, Christine has always been portrayed as in her late teens to early 20’s during the main events of the play and the Phantom is depicted somewhere around his 40’s-50’s. That in it of itself is creepy.

I understand that age gaps are a big topic in fandoms and media, and I would have little problem with this age gap if it weren’t for the fact that it is implied many times that he has been training her to sing since her father died. To get to Christine’s level in the opera, that would take years. Even if she already had vocal talent. Meaning that she was a minor when he met her.

That would be grooming. Literally.

To add onto this point, I want to paraphrase and quote some of the things the Phantom says to/ about Christine.

“Sing for me, my angel of music”

“Since I first heard you sing. I have needed you with me, to serve me, to sing. For my music”

Now, anyone can interpret these lyrics differently, but how I interpret them is:

He is using Christine for her voice. He has groomed her (in multiple ways) and polished her voice to sing so he can use her for his music. I mean, he literally kills and threatens people who do not allow Christine to be the star of every play once the main events happen.

He calls her his “angel of music”. Which might be endearing, if you remember the fact that he has been grooming her since she was a child to “serve” him. This is an objectifying name. He is saying this in contrast with Christine’s angel of music, which is a literal angel that her father promised to send her. To Christine, her angel of music is her father’s love and legacy. For The Phantom, it is his magnum opus: Christine.

Speaking of Christine and her “Angel of Music”. This leads me to my next point:

The Phantom pretends to be Christine’s father/ angel of music to manipulate and trick her.

During both graveyard scenes (the musical and the screenplay) Christine says:

“Angel or father, friend or phantom?”

The way I interpret this:

It is not a coincidence the comparison. [The split/ play on words]

Angel or friend?

Father or phantom?

Christine believes the angel to either be her father, or an entity he sent. When the Phantom says to her in the next moment:

“Have you forgotten your angel?”

That is him admitting he knows that Christine has believed he was the angel of music/ her father teaching and guiding her this whole time. And in the same song he is manipulating her, putting back on the facade of being her “angel of music” and leading her back to him—where Raoul has to snap her out of it.

Raoul has to literally tell Christine that the Phantom is not her father in both the play and the screenplay. Further solidifying the fact that she believes that the Phantom is her father or a being sent by him.

If we take that into fact, that means that the whole time up until at least now, she has only seen the Phantom as a fatherly figure.

Now, let’s talk about the final confrontation.

I’m already hearing the “but she says she loves him at the end!” Or “then why did she kiss him?!”

Glad you asked!

The final confrontation is the most blatant showcase of the Phantom’s delusion and abuse.

First, lets it back to the fact that the Phantom is shown to be a murderer. Someone who kills for their own benefit without remorse. Christine says it herself, and there are multiple scenes where she speaks of the Phantom and is afraid. She believes the Phantom may even kill her if she does not comply with his rules.

Quotes/ Paraphrases here (from the broadway and movie scripts):

“(to RAOUL, pleading)

Raoul, I'm frightened -

don't make me do this

Raoul, it scares me -

don't put me through this

ordeal by fire

he'll take me, I know

we'll be parted for ever

he won't let me go” (Christine talking about doing the Don Juan play)

“RAOUL

When will that be?

It's an engagement,

not a crime!” (Raoul fighting with Christine about hiding their engagement. It’s implied here that Christine is hiding their engagement from the Phantom because she knows it will upset him.)

The most damning piece of evidence:

“CHRISTINE

Twisted every way,

what answer can I give?

Am I to risk my life,

to win the chance to live?

Can I betray the man

who once inspired my voice?

Do I become his prey?

Do I have any choice?

He kills without a thought,

he murders all that's good

I know I can't refuse

and yet, I wish I could?

Oh God - if I agree,

what horrors wait for me

in this, the Phantom's opera?” (Christine speaks about the Phantom after being told she is forced to play in Don Juan)

With this information, we know that the Phantom kills for selfish reasons. He will do anything to get what he wants. Regardless of even the feelings of Christine.

Back to confrontation, Christine in the movie is shown to have the Phantom force her to put on the wedding dress. She clearly does not want to do it, but feels threatened by him to do so.

The whole time she is uncomfortable. Then, he captures Raoul.

He gives her an incentive and she only has two choices:

-Admit she loves him to free Raoul

-Deny she loves him and kill Raoul

Now, if you know anything about incentives and abusive people. This is the most toxic thing to ever do. It is completely self-serving and both Christine and Raoul know that he is going to kill him regardless and is pressuring her to lie and say she loves him.

Quotes/ Paraphrases:

“CHRISTINE:

Farewell my fallen idol and false friend

We had such hopes, and now those hopes are shattered!

PHANTOM:

Too late for turning back, too late for prayers and useless pity!

RAOUL:

Say you love him and my life is over

PHANTOM:

All hope of cries for help; no point in fighting!

RAOUL/PHANTOM:

For either way you choose, he has to win/you cannot win!”

The Phantom is not doing this out of love. No one who loves someone would threaten to kill the person they love/ choose instead of them. The Phantom up until this point is possesive, infatuated and obsessed wih Christine. There are no signs of real love from him. It is all self serving and an idolized image of Christine.

When Christine shows him a bit of kindness during this moment I believe she is being genuine, but I also believe she’s only doing it to save herself.

Christine feels pity for the Phantom because she realizes during this encounter that he has been traumatized and isolated so bad that he feels he has to torture others to get what he wants. That he truly believes that no one but Christine will love him, and therefore he must make sure at all costs that he will get what he wants. Christine, being empathetic, tells the Phantom that she hears him.

I don’t think Christine kissing the Phantom is out of love. Not in a romantic sense. Christine kisses the Phantom not only to save her and Raoul’s lives, but also because she is feeling pity for the Phantom. He has never felt the physical touch of another person as he says in his own words, so she kisses him.

This obviously works, and she sets him free.

Lets talk about the musical because there’s a scene after this where she returns while the Phantom is wallowing after freeing them.

I still don’t think Christine returns because she loves the Phantom. Up until now, she has no reason to except for the fact that she finally humanizes him. No, I think that this scene just further solidifies that she yes, she loves the Phantom. But not in a romantic sense. From the beginning she has been shown to have a fatherly view of the Phantom, and I believe that paired with the memories of her father and the years they spent—she returns because she continues to see her father in him and feels pity for him. She wants to help the Phantom be happy because he brought her a piece of her father. Possibly she even still believes that he was in fact sent by her father to teach her music and take care of her in some way.

This is my interpretation of the scene.

A point I see brought up A LOT when it comes to justifying Christine’s romance with The Phantom is:

“Well, Raoul is abusive in the second rendition and her and the Phantom have an affair.”

Have you ever seen Cinderella 2? Have you ever heard of it? There are 3 Cinderella movies.

But we all refer to the first one because A. It’s the most popular and a classic B. The other movies sold poorly because they were bad and nobody asked for them.

My point here is: so is Love Never Dies.

I said what I fucking said. Cry about it.

But lets imagine for a moment if we took Love Never Dies as part of the main canon:

I don’t think Christine should be with Raoul either.

Another point I see a lot is: “They just meet again and instantly get engaged”

Which yes, that’s definitely a point of contention.

But considering just The Phantom Of the Opera in this case, they have known each other since they were kids. And considering the time period the events are set in, this is actually not that surprising or uncommon and makes sense. Even if Christine didn’t love Raoul, given her position, it would have been beneficial for her to get married. And it might as well be someone she’s known for a long time.

But if you were to ask me, without being forced to choose between Raoul or the Phantom, I would tell you that I believe that she should be with neither.

Both are abusive towards Christine. One just more literally stated than the other.

Edit because I forgot to add this crucial point:

The Phantom of the Opera was NOT a story created by Andrew Lloyd Webber (the man who created the musical adaptation and scores)

It is a story from 1910 by french author Gaston Leroux. If we take that context into consideration, (as someone who has not yet read the book) the movie (based on the musical) and the musical are not accurate representations of the original material or intention.

There were definitely creative liberties taken or misinterpretations. Especially with Love Never Dies.

There were black and white movies made of the story as well. The Phantom is specifically portrayed as a real life monster. This image of him being a handsome man with a scarred face and tragic past only happened in the 20th century.

I believe that is the conclusion of this rant/ essay. I know this probably won’t get a lot of reach, but if you read this whole thing (whether you agree or not), thanks a lot. Truly.

Hopefully this will add more discussion to the topic and give people a more open minded view on the topic, and realize the real nature of the Phantom. There are so many ways to interpret and art piece, and time and time again, this is what I see in it. So to see people romanticize their relationship always gives me the ick (ofc, you do you boo, I can’t stop you). So I’m tired of arguing individually with people, so I might as well have a full reference to come back to.

I’m sure there’s more evidence and points I could have made, but this is long enough. Regardless, I hope you can take away something from this, and if you want to possibly hear about any more of my controversial opinions—leave a note so I know! <3

[milogreer]

Grah (Milo 🥺🥺) ('send me a character' ask game!)

@darlinghowl asked: milo too!

YAAYYY HUSBAND TIME 🩷🩷 ↳ send me a character!

My first impression: i’m being so so serious when i say i had to pause milo’s first audio pretty much immediately after he started talking because his accent made me blush LMFAO it’s like he was built for me in a fuckin lab. werewolf with a ny/nj accent, the cockiness and bitchiness with just that hint of a soft side near the end when he talks about wanting dahlia to stay safe, and the FLIRTINESS my god. and that was ONE AUDIO LMAO that’s not even getting into everything else he has going on that felt tailored to me (*cough*heatingupinthebedroom*cough*) 🫠💖 

My impression now: unchanged baby he has been my number one since day one!!! not that this is surprising to anyone given my blog theme 🤣 i may not talk about him all the time but he’s never losing top spot in my heart. i’ve gotten butterflies from a handful of moments across the redactedverse but nothing that stuck with me as hard as the panic attack audio did, and he still makes me kick my feet and twirl my hair whenever he gets all sweet 💘 he’s truly the redacted love of my life

A favorite thing: as a massive horror media enjoyer, i think it’s so cute that he’s a little scaredy cat when it comes to ghosts and demons. the gameplay vids are super immersive for me bc whenever he jumps at something i start giggling and then he tells sweetheart to shut up for also giggling LMAO 

Least favorite thing: nothing. he’s the most perfect man ever. actually no least favorite thing is that he doesn’t talk abt his family enough !! i wanna know more about his family life so badly after the “worried about you” audio 😫 i wanna know more about marie other than that she likes ghostbusters and nags his ear off when he gets himself hurt and i wanna really dig into his feelings for his previously alcoholic/gambling addict father

Favorite interaction they have with another: AHHH THE ASHER MOUNTAIN INCIDENT. ok ok i’ve talked abt this before but i’m gonna say it again bc it always bears repeating. this was i think the first time we’ve heard about him shifting after regaining the ability post-inversion and it made me actually cry bc it was just two best friends having stupid fun together as shifters 😭😭 like even though milo came out of it injured he still got to wolf out and fuck around with asher and that makes me sooo happy for him after suffering through those 5-6 months being unable to shift

A character that I wish they would interact with more: DARLIN PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE erik i’m on my knees!!! darlin’s gotten audios with david and asher, when will it be milo’s turn!! i’ve thought a lot about them as teens and how they got on and how they navigated being sort of the odd ones out wrt their family dynamics vs david and asher’s + how the pack meeting with darlin went ☹️ i need them to get a one on one audio

A headcanon: aggro is a black cat that milo adopted from a shelter specifically because of the stigma surrounding black cats. people think they’re unlucky or evil or whatever but aggro is the sweetest little thing and he was just a little baby who had been there for probably a month or two and when milo came around, there was an instant connection 🥺 i also think that if he wasn’t already a registered ESA then they definitely would’ve gotten it done post-inversion. milo doesn’t typically take him anywhere but sometimes sweetheart will take him with them to the office; he even has a cute little ESA vest 🥰

A song: this is so hard because i have a handful of good ones… one i don’t think i’ve posted before is just what i needed by the cars! really early relationship vibes, i like it a lot 💕

An unpopular opinion: [looks around cautiously before leaning close to the mic and whispering] i don’t think he’s into being called daddy. MAYBE I’M BIASED because i don’t usually vibe with it myself, but i just don’t see it. however i think if you called him “sir” you’d both be locked up in the bedroom for several hours 🤷🏼‍♀️

[spidermanifested]

Greed or Bido for the give me character thing so you can ramble for 3 hours straight grins

okay well i uave to do both of them now. you understand this.

GREED

how i feel about this character:

he is the perfect man. i want to lick him. no further comment

all the people i ship romantically with this character:

BIDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you know this. bido is such important representation as the first ever Fridged-For-A-Guys-Character-Development Barely-On-Screen Love Interest to be a middle aged bald man. every day i lose my marbles about how im cursed to carry this torch all by myself. four foot something homeless guy says fuck it ill do anything to save this person magnitudes stronger than myself, after ive already lost everything we built together. ill follow him into hell for the faintest chance of saving him. because hes my friend. and then he dies in his arms. abd a flashback of him looking lovingly into his eyes is the last straw to make greed accept friendship into his life again. royai WHO

i went into greed/scar in my scar post so im not typing all that out again but its also so good. extremely potent character development to be had. somebody validate me here im right

my goofy one is greed/madame christmas "married for tax benefits and also every couple years they meet up and have crazy sex" style. only a little bit because i thought about greed getting to say i fucked your mom shitlips to roy mustang.

is there ajybody else. im thinking. Uhhhhh. honestly i dont think so dvdggxf im too committed to the ones ive got and i have to put all my energy into those because NOBODY ELSE IS DOING IT!!! whole fma fandom spinning a roulette wheel to find a new random man they think is hot to ship him with every so often. when they could instead be sipping from my font of boundless wisdom.

my non-romantic otp for this character

the devils nest gang will never die. in our hearts and souls. also i need him and mei to be friends IMMEDIATELY

i DO appreciate the friendship between him and ling, but im not as nuts about it as a lot of people (i say with fondness). they can do bros attacks it is true. but they also knew each other less than a year, and sometimes it feels like people tend to. overstate i guess? the impact of ling and ed vs the whole, One Hundred Years Of Living In Human Society thing. i promise a couple of 15 year olds did not give him all that character development okay he was already basically there he just got set back a LOT because of the-- see now youve really got me rambling for 3 straight hours this wasnt even what the question was about

my unpopular opinion about this character:

wow i could have literally just waited one question to say all that. now i have to find a new one

uhhh "hes openly 200 years old and solidly established as an adult man from his very first appearance and the fact that his soul later gets a timeshare in a 15 year olds body does not change that fact and its alarming to stick your fingers in your ears and pretend that it does". is that unpopular. bbecause sometimes im so scared it is

one thing i wish had happened with this character

@catenation

okay now BIDO

how i feel about this character

would that i could simply transmit my feelings through a less uncertain interface than words. words alone cannot do them justice. look at my blog i guess

all the people i ship romantically with this character

greed and scar ive gone into already so now we can get into the even nicher stuff. Awesome

not quite romantic but i tjink he and ulchi had a fwb thing going on. bidos into hunks with sharp teeth we already know this

hmm i think theres a lot of guys in the series hed be INTO/would be into him to some degree or another, but i dont know if itd be romantic per se? like. theres only so romantic you can get with barry the chopper even if it would be really funny. "please please please let me chop up your tail it looks so juicy. itll grow back anyway right. ive never asked before"

also for catenation i thought itd be really funny to make him and greed and yoki into an extremely lopsided love triangle, where yoki develops a weird crush on bido which manifests in very odd ways that bido cant make heads or tails of and doesnt really care to because he doesnt like him at all. does that count.

i also have. a handful of crossover ships, which grew out of roleplays with friends. bidos boytoy and boytoy-adjacent collection includes

psycho mantis from your playstation

the bad guy in the harley quinn movie but not that version of him

KING MORGOTT, LAST OF ALL KINGS

and yes. they do smoke weed.

my non-romantic otp for this character

once again the devils nest gang at large has me in a vice. i care about greed and bidos friendship as well as the romantic aspect but the fact that bido doesnt really interact with any of the gang aside from greed SUCKS and i wish we could have seen some of that

however we do at least get a flashback of bido Standing Next to blondie and one of the bouncers. which in true "desperate enjoyer of a very minor character" fashion ive extrapolated into him having been good friends with that bouncer, because from what little pagetime he gets he seems levelheaded enough to win bidos trust. at a baseline i think bido would be wary around most humans and especially just after escaping, so knowing one reliably-decent human would have probably helped a lot with readjusting to the outside. & then i think out of the chimeras he was probably on the best terms with martel and ulchi, both from Reptile Solidarity and those two being more outgoing and upbeat than average

i ALSO WISH he got to meet mei because i think theyre really similar in a lot of ways. he would relate very heavily to being small and disregarded and saddled with the responsibility of helping so many people survive by whatever means necessary. they also both love yelling indignantly at rude people which is awesome. i think theyd yell at each other like that Once and then shake hands out of respect

my unpopular opinion about this character

all my opinions about him are unpopular babey Nobody is tjinking about him as much as me!!! he is important and memorable for one. and he is so brave and he loves his friends so much. he deserves as much focus as the rest of the gang if not more. he is the gayest fma character. and his face is HANDSOME he looks like an awesome muppet and if you cant handle that then get your ass off sesame street........

one thing i wish had happened with this character:

the chaptwr after greed gets introduced should have been just 43 solid pages of bido and greed making out rapturously, with the rest of the gang doing various tasks in the background. for flavor

[molluskmustelid]

Clears throat. UNPARALLELED INNOCENCE ATTACK!!!! 🤲👂

AHHHH HI okay i haven't talked about my ui interpretation so im gonna do the ask game and also ramble about her :3 rambling will be under the cut, ask game will be right here vvv

how i feel about her: i started out hating her just because of the throwaway line from chasing wind but she kinda grew on me? idk i like "mean" girl characters. she's one of my faves now and basically my oc at this point since we know nothing about her

my ships: calloutpost/milkshake (her and five pebbles) i think it would be funny. i have a lot of thoughts about them actually please ask me about them

my brotp: her and no significant harassment would be so fucking funny together i fear. i take sig as something of a prankster and he and inno would have some pretty terrible ideas

unpopular opinion: i don't actually think inno is as mean/as much of a bully as one would think. a lot of people take wind's dialogue at face value which is understandable tbh. usually when a character says something else about a character and there isn't any real firsthand confirmation of whether or not its true its probably safe to assume that it IS true. we know nothing about this character aside from the fact that wind thinks she's mean, and their dialogue implies that this is something that happens a lot. i like to interpret inno as being really impulsive and a huge gossip, but i don't necessarily think she's cruel or malicious. this is just what i think though lol

thing i wish happened: idk i wish she actually got dialogue instead of just being offhandedly mentioned once. she is so interesting to me solely because of that one line of dialogue. what are they implying about you babygirl. i want to know...

other rambly things under the cut

ill just be elaborating on her personality a bit here. like i said earlier, she is very impulsive and nosy and likes to gossip. do not tell her your secrets because she can't keep them to save her life!! she also struggles a lot with empathy and has trouble relating to others. she tends to be very stubborn which leads her to butt heads with other iterators. i don't think she is intentionally cruel but she does have a bit of a mean streak that shows with those who are just as stubborn as she is. she and five pebbles in particular bicker a lot. she has low self esteem and because everyone else perceives her as being "mean", it's something she leans into simply because she doesn't feel that it's worth it to try and convince anyone otherwise.

[felixravinstills]

For the Send Me a Character meme, Coriolanus Snow please.

Ask Game Thanks, anon! I'm keeping this mostly to Snow in tbosas, because I really need to re-read the OG trilogy. (also I fell asleep writing this last night for me, and my laptop died and I had to start over, so that's why I had to take a break for a bit from answering these)

My first impression

He is the villain. (no judgment) Read this as "he's just a guy filling his role in the narrative" type comment. I was like nine when I first read THG… I wasn't having the deepest thoughts. I did like him as a character though! But there were no deeper thoughts than "he's a good villain!"

My impression now

He's so interesting! Like I don't talk about him that much but I feel like there's so much to talk about! I really love hearing my mutuals talk about him! There's so much there!

Favorite thing about that character

The way that he is shown to be capable of empathy and has every reason to not accept/support the Capitol, but he does! He does! What a tragedy! You could have put the pieces together and realized that this system is broken and will only ever harm you, and he decides to try and control it instead.

Least favorite thing

I think some people on Discord brought it up recently (el, was it el?), but his plastic surgery being kind of used to accentuate his villainy felt like a bad stereotype.

Favorite line/scene

How awful, Coriolanus thought. To have you be the first person in the world a baby sees. (Ch. 16)

Genuinely, so funny, and the rest of that scene… well, it's my favorite interaction.

Favorite interaction that character has with another

Continuing on from the scene above! Just Volumnia sharing her worldview with him! While she's stitching him up! (He's her creature :) ) She also is sharing this "we are all inherently violent" worldview with him right after he killed Bobbin… she's like offering him an emotional out. An kind of escape from guilt (whether she know it or not). Absolution. It's okay/normal you killed someone, Coriolanus! It's human nature <- according to Volumnia's worldview.

A character that I wish that character would interact with more

Making eye contact with my url and pfp… Felix… Please, Coriolanus. For me. Prove me right. Prove my weird "I'm who you should be" jealousy (on both sides) correct.

Another character from another fandom that reminds me of that character

John Gaius from The Locked Tomb! I've made the comparison before, and I won't get too into it lest I insert more TLT spoilers onto my blog.

A headcanon about that character

He does have a soft spot for the people he grew up with! Especially Clemensia and Festus! I also, however, don't think that it would save them if they become too much of a threat in his eyes, but he'd be more willing to ignore the possibility of them becoming a threat for longer than others.

(i also think that he probably kills a good chunk of his classmates, but not all of them. I think some people died more normal death, maybe a rebel attempt at an attack, maybe other Capitolite's climbing the ladder. I think he kills enough of them that some of the others suspect, and the growing horror of that person who was some sort of friend to you in the past. mwah! that's enough for me!)

A song that reminds of that character

A Mark On You by the Mountain Goats. Guys, you reached the depths of my ability to think up songs. idk if I can articulate why with this one. It's not the style for sure. But the lyrics. There's something there for me.

An unpopular opinion about that character

This isn't really an unpopular opinion, but every time I see one of those posts going around about how you shouldn't thirst over young Snow, I always think "honestly, I'm really shocked that there wasn't this level of thirst for older Snow." But also I like hanging out at the geriatric ward of Panem so maybe I'm biased.

Also again, not really an unpopular opinion where I hang out but maybe out in the world, it is idk. I don't think he's a lady's man or anything like that. I don't think he's like sleeping around even when he gains confidence after becoming financially secure. (but I respect everyone's different interpretations!)

Favorite picture

I mean... of course, it's from one of my favorite scenes!

But also I love Snow laughing at his execution <3

[munchbuddi]

I typed out a big ol rant about why I think voting today in the US election is still important despite both presidential candidates being very awful.

I have hidden it under a read more for your convenience if you are a non-american, or someone who already voted.

I think it's damn near impossible to capture all the nuances of my frustration with this election, these candidates, and the political system that has gotten us here in ANY number of words, so please forgive me if my reasoning isn't as fully worded as you would like it to be.

Basically the TL;DR is that if you are choosing to abstain from voting this election to "stick it to the Democratic party who never listens and has failed us", I want to say that I truly understand your frustration. The two party system and the democratic party in particular has TRULY failed us. That being said— to not vote this election is to throw any person who would be negatively impacted by a second Trump presidency under the bus to make your point. On every issue that Harris holds a terrible opinion on, Trump's opinion on those same issues is unquestionably worse.

I am as tired of all these "hold your nose/damage reduction" election years as everyone else is, but as a person who's MERE EXISTENCE is a political hot topic, I truly cannot in good conscience say that damage reduction is not something that is important. My safety and the safety of DOZENS of other demographics of human beings are on the line this election.

I don't believe that anything will get better under a Harris presidency, but I know for sure things will get worse under a Trump presidency, and I think to pretend anything to the contrary is foolish and disingenuous. I greatly dislike Harris, but anybody saying "they are both equally bad" is not thinking nearly hard enough about the issues at hand.

Click the read more for 15 more paragraphs of wishy washy attempts at political nuance to say the exact same thing—

If you are an american who is registered to vote, but have not voted yet, or were not planning to vote in today's election I would deeply urge you to reconsider.

Firstly, and perhaps most importantly is that today's election is not just about the presidential race. There are a whole bunch of local races and amendments down ballot that will impact your day to day life far more than the president race alone. State supreme courts, senators, and many other seats are up for grabs, and you really should care about those things.

Additionally, while the presidential race is incredibly dire, and both candidates we've ended up with are TRULY TRULY disappointing, I think you are really on some chemical grade copium if you think both options are equally bad.

Do not misconstrue me, Harris has been an UNDENIABLY awful candidate. She has turned what SHOULD have been the easiest slam dunk election of all time into what is looking to be a frighteningly close race. I think time will show that her deciding to make her presidential platform basically ""I am Joe Biden, but even further to the right/ more conservative" has TRULY been the wrong decision. She has absolutely worked tirelessly over these past few months to alienate the core democratic voterbase in favor of trying to nab the centrist and "never trump"-republican votes, and I think that is an EXTREMELY stupid decision.

Her stance on Israel-Gaza has been awful and heavily prone to full blown genocidal talking points (see her speech at the Democratic National Convention for proof). Her hard-on-crime rhetoric is deeply unpopular and dangerous. She has pretty well abandoned any pro-trans talking points ENTIRELY in the back half of this race because the Republicans have decided that that's her weakest position and has been using that to attack her. All this to say that I FULLY FULLY understand why people are not quick to vote for her, I am not a big Kamala supporter by any stretch of the imagination, but even then I KNOW I would rather see her in office than Trump.

To be perhaps a bit more clear, Harris still definitely calls for a cease-fire in Gaza (when she remembers to do so or is pressured to), but she does so VERY unconvincingly, all the while she refuses to acknowledge the atrocities being committed by Israel, and still holds very pro-Israel stances.

I guess I specify this to say that her stance on Israel-Gaza is completely abhorrent, but it comes with the slightest bit of nuance whereas Republicans are currently leaning more "finish the job". So it's basically a distinction of Dems going "Ceasefire; but also Israel has done nothing wrong" and Republicans going "Keep going and also please destroy the rest of the middle east while you are at it". Again, both of these positions are completely and unquestionably terrible awful pro-genocide mentalities, but I DO take issue when people try to say that both parties are exactly the same level of bad on this issue.

Perhaps I'm too optimistic, but I believe that over time and with enough backlash, Harris could potentially change her stances to this issue in a way that Trump and the Republicans never will. I think it's an absolute failure in basic humanity that these are our only two choices on the issue, but I truly think that letting Trump win would be to give up hope for a free Palestine entirely.

The two party system has failed us yet again, and I TOO am tired of every election being an awful "hold your nose/damage reduction" election, but it's just the unfortunate reality of our current dogshit political system. Democrats have no incentive to EVER bend a knee to leftists or ANYBODY with a basic conscience because they know that you don't have a choice, and that is incredibly frustrating. You should NEVER stop being mad about how the Democratic party has failed you, and you should MAKE IT A POINT to let them know you are angry.

Every day of her presidency you should be letting Harris and Walz know that you HATE THEM. You hate their policies, you hate their dishonesty, and you hate their genocide, and you should strive every day to move them further to the left. That is something you will never be able to do with Trump. He can't be reasoned with and you can't move his stances in any direction but further right.

On every stance of Harris's that I am critical about, I believe trump is undeniably worse. He told Netanyahu to "finish the job" in regards to Gaza. He has spent most of his political advertising spreading anti-trans hate speech. He openly talks in his rallies about wanting to use the police and military to purposely target and harass black and brown Americans, and his speeches are filled with some of the vilest hate speech possible.

Whatever exists in your heart that makes you apprehensive to vote for Harris should also make you SICK TO YOUR STOMACH to consider the idea of a second Trump presidency.

As a trans woman who lives in Florida, I can ASSURE YOU that it sucks to have a racist sexist EVERYTHING-phobic egomaniac running your (state) government, and I truly thought this was a lesson we all learned back in 2016 when trump held office the first time.

I believe if you are a person who is """willing to live through another Trump presidency if it means sticking it to Kamala and the Democrats who never listen to us""" I TRULY understand your deep frustration with the democratic party, but I need you to analyze the absolute PRIVILEGE you are exhibiting in that mentality. YOU very well may be able to survive a second Trump term, but not everyone is in that position, If someone is a part of ANY of the dozens of demographics that trump has made it clear he considers his "enemies inside america" (aka if you are black, brown, or any flavor of trans or simply a woman in general) then a second trump term has DEEPLY DIFFERENT CONSEQUENCES in those demographics than it does on white cis-gendered people.

Just know that if you are choosing this election to be the election where ya "stick it to the Democrats" I would really just like you to acknowledge who you are throwing under the bus to make that point.

[buginateacup]

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

🪐 ⇢ name three good things going on in your life right now

🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

🌿 ⇢ give some advice on writer's block and low creativity

🦋 ⇢ share something that has been on your heart and mind lately 

:green beetle: ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here (emoji is not working for me smh)

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

I was gonna say Drifter/Eris and that they both smell really weird in very different ways...

But let's be honest I gotta go Megarox. Megamind is a flower eater, he enjoys nectar, and Roxanne can and will encourage this, usually by bringing him flowers or when they go on walks in parks together (night walks, naturally. Those are the best kind), she plucks flowers and feeds them to him, usually by shoving them in his face because she is a terrible gremlin and it's why we love her.

🪐 ⇢ name three good things going on in your life right now

My wife came out to a bunch of our friends and they are all so loving and supportive! She smiles so much now!

We are getting a patio installed out the back! It only took 7 years but finally we can eat out there without having to balance on gravel

There is a very cute cat loafing beside me

🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

This is not me trying to yuck anyone's yum but I really, really cannot stand casting Megamind and Roxanne in parental roles for Keiko or her calling them her parents. It squicks me out to the point of repulsion. I am all for feral aunt and uncle to a wild niece, but fun characters who are NOT reduced to parenting (reluctant or otherwise) in sequels are so few and far between that I just don't want to see it. They can be supportive and caring without having to force everyone into Nuclear Family Unit.

And sure, a lot of this stems from growing up with the expectation in both media and irl that of COURSE becoming a parent is the only outcome for you. But that doesn't make it any less of an ick! We SHOULD be getting more non nuclear family options, we SHOULD be getting more it takes a village. But if your only approach to setting characters up as a family is to make them "Here is the mummy and here is the daddy and here is the baby" just no. Please. There are a thousand more possibilities there, open your mind.

🌿 ⇢ give some advice on writer's block and low creativity

Go for a walk, take some music with you, or do dishes or sweep (also with music).

Additionally, if you're wanting to write something but are holding off to find out if future canon will change things, stop waiting. Just go. Do you think we'd have anywhere near the creativity and wildness of fanfic if we had to stop and wait for canon's blessing every time. it's FANFIC! Who fucking cares if canon contradicts you down the track, it's not gonna be any less fanfic for waiting!

(I do think we actually saw a drop in the level of creativity and engagement with fandom ideas when the show was announced, which is a bummer. Kill the cop in your brain. Write shit that will be immediately contradicted, have someone come to your completely disproven fic years down the line and go "I thought this was going to not work because we know X but holy shit this is a whole new way of looking at things!")

🦋 ⇢ share something that has been on your heart and mind lately

I uh....no thoughts, head empty. How do I stop my cat attacking me for wearing jeans in the house? I got my other rants out up above so... *le shrug*

:green beetle: ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here (emoji is not working for me smh)

Oh you sneaky little shit, you got me writing!

(context: Look we aint supposed to let the prisoners get gifts. There's a whole chapter in the handbook about what happened last time we let the kid get so much as a bobby pin.

But you tell me how I'm meant to turn down such a sweet little old lady when she comes in with two pristine old shoe boxes, all carefully packed with tissue and hands one to the kid and the other to the repoter and with a quavery little voice about how she and her husband, god rest his soul, used to go dancing every saturday night for almost forty years and how they entered the ameature ballroom competitions together. Told us they were the last pairs they brought together, before the cancer took him and oh she'd never get these on over her bunions now but it would do her old heart good to see some use coming to these shoes which hadn't seen the light of day in nigh on twenty years.)

There's only so much a man can take right before retirement.

I might have been able to hold her off if she hadn't handed one of the boxes to Miss Primetime, who looked really touched and immediately buckled herself into a pair of sparkly red shoes to the encouragement of all the old biddies.

So now the kid's the proud owner of a pair of actual ballroom dance shoes, all polished black to go with the bright orange jumpsuit.

[carmendeiact2whenplz]

Character for the ask meme: Arlecchino !

What I think of her- Despite having done all the fontaine archon quests, her story quest, and having her at friendship 10 and triple crowned I really don’t know that much about her outside of those (aka: I haven’t read any of her voicelines or character stories). What I do know is that she hits like a truck when built well, and has one of my favorite character designs in the game. I wish I could get her scythe eventually for the aesthetics.

Romantic ships- I can’t really see arlecchino with anyone, and even if I could I don’t think she could actually be involved in a relationship. Her x Columbina does seem fairly interesting in theory although I don’t know much about why people ship them in the first place.

Non-romantic ships- I’m not sure if this counts but her relationship with lyney, lynette and freminet is pretty interesting, and is a lot more complicated and nuanced than a lot of other platonic/familial pairings that can be summarized as “silly little found family”

Unpopular opinion- Not sure if this is “unpopular” per se, but while she is fairly easy to build, she can be difficult to play, especially in coop and/or without a shielder. She can only heal from her burst while in combat which means any damage she takes *stays*, while having to constantly manage her bond of life, and in the overworld when not in combat you have to avoid her from healing, so you can keep her bond of life as high as possible. Also, her charged attack, while convenient, drains stamina incredibly fast so it’s only useful when traveling short distances and/or if you have other exploration characters on your team.

What I wish would happen- If this is explained anywhere please correct me, but to my knowledge we have no idea why she transforms into a spider. Scaramouche and Childe have well-documented explanations for why their boss forms are Like That ™ but Arlecchino completely changes her form with virtually no explanation. Also I would like to know more about her khanreian past.

[henrysglock]

another thing which is more fandom related is that the Byler fandom is just insanely annoying at times. like i love my mutuals and some of the theories and all but idk, the way we have so many stupid arguments abt small things (think this is just a problem with the entire ST fandom but i’ve not really interacted with the other sects closely enough to see those), the way alotta Bylers don’t just ship Byler bcz they like it/dislike Mlvn bcz they don’t + to us it doesn’t work but are absolutely obsessed with hating Mlvn to a stupid degree. i’ve seen alotta ppl (rightfully) clown on Mlvns for saying that all Bylers r ableist misogynists who hate El from the bottom of our hearts and specifically don’t think autistic/ND ppl can do anything and women are the devil or whatever but then turn around and say all Mlvns r homophobes who hate Will for being gay and hate Mike bcz they misunderstand his character and want him to be miserable or whatever as if that’s any better, and then there’s how so many ppl just tag any post they make as “byler”, ranging from yk, actual posts abt the ship to posts abt the fandom/nothing posts abt the cast to random unrelated ST posts that they idk don’t want those horrible evil mildew shippers finding to shit that’s entirely unrelated to Byler/ST (honest to god a few months ago i was scrolling the tag and had to block someone bcz they were clogging the tag with their random life updates) and yeah idk i’m not sure if this is exactly an unpopular opinion since we all talk a lot abt how toxic the fandom is but idk i feel like no one talks abt the over the top Mlvn hate and the annoying mistagging (at least from what i’ve seen) (also sorry this is kinda long TwT)

"...the Byler fandom is just insanely annoying." Full stop. Bylerblr gets on my nerves day in and day out, even though I made my best friends in that mess.

It's the way bylerblr starts shit and then plays victim for me. It's the vaguing people and then acting like they're being attacked when that person responds for me. IT'S THE TAGGING UNRELATED SHIT AS BYLER FOR ME!! YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!! And yeah tbh...the mileven hate does get Extensive at times. There's disliking a ship, and then there's devoting your time to antagonizing shippers...like a loser. Atp bylerblr's not much better than the milevens are. Bylerblr is just a different flavor.

The fandom in general is gross no matter where you go, and honestly I'm glad I've detached from it to work on my own analysis niche.

(Also please don't worry about it being long, I love rambling and ranting about shit like this because it annoys me to no fucking end.)

Send me unpopular opinions!

[aeternallis]

May I just say though? Personally, when someone asks me to be accommodating towards them, I can usually entertain, should the circumstances allow it, and if I had also been given that in the first place.

However in this case, why exactly should I be made to feel obligated to accommodate that person (or anyone who had a hand on the dogpiling/gossip train) and give them the benefit of the doubt, when I myself was not given the courtesy?

That's like asking for something I don't have to give. You think it only takes a few days to get over incidents like this?

How about you all fucking try what it's like to be called "ableist" based on a few tags that was written in frustration, then to be dogpiled on and gossiped about god knows where, and called out publicly without even a chance to explain myself in private?

Like sure, now they ask me, now-when they may or may not have found out that I too am a POC in the fandom, who was just literally vibing in my own damn lane, when the defamation has already occurred, when I've already been gossiped about in certain circles, etc.

It's easier to ask for accommodation when the deed has already been done, yknow? LOL

I have no more hesitation to rant on this stupid blog of mine (besides the fact that this is my online diary, haha) since I've already been cancelled and called all kinds of ugly names in the book in this stupid fandom, but to whomever is still somehow keeping an eye on this blog-while I may not be in the icky habit of call out culture, please be aware that I have receipts.

And ngl, the hypocrisy is through the damn roof. Lol

Somehow those people who are still complaining about me on their platforms are bold enough with their back and forth behavior of "all fandom opinions should exist" vs "they should keep what I perceive to be character wank out of the tags" is such a damn whiplash that at this point, I'm pretty sure the two scary extremes of their behavior are all just efforts to create an echo chamber around them where their headcanons are affirmed.

And that's all well and good, create that echo chamber as much as y'all want and invite those people in said echo chamber under the guise of positivity, but lemme just say one thing now, as someone who's read the stupid KP novel twice now, as well as watched the show all the way through three times: no matter how much you want your headcanons to BE canon, THEY ARE NOT. echo chamber numbers don't mean shit against what's canon and what isn't.

Sure, pick and choose what aspects of canon you want to play with, that’s more than fine. But for the love of all the green pastures on god's earth, it is not a personal attack on you that I choose to engage in the canon dynamics, as depicted in the book and show. it is not a personal attack that I choose to talk about these things, omfg.

because believe me, I am NOT the only one with unpopular opinions in this fandom, and lemme tell y'all now, they want to be able to say what they want without fear of being cancelled, and you can only control an atmosphere of fandom for so long.

And finally, a few more things: one, the damn tags don't belong to anyone. Trying to control what is said in the tags, now that's fandom policing, not whatever the hell I was doing just ranting in my own blog and thinking to myself this is my safe space. two, playing the high horse card and saying it's all for the sake of "keeping the positivity in fandom" only creates an atmosphere of people walking on eggshells, of not being able to say what they want to say about the characters, as if somehow people aren't allowed to make mistakes, lest they too are dogpiled like I was.

how sensitive you are about these characters is no one else's problem but your own. I (and anyone else who doesn't agree with your headcanons) am not a damn babysitter, grow tf up.