#sometimes. mean girls. sorry

[blankvort]

seasonal depression but the season is pride month and the depressive symptoms are looking up photos of lost scenes from the children's hour (1961) and watching the children's hour (1961) in 240p and writing a transcript of the children's hour (1961) in a notebook to read on the bus and

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

main take aways from Halloween (1978) rewatch:

michael myers is canonically 21??? this bitch should be at the club

*sees tiddies* ***MURDEROUS RAMPAGE NOISES***

that's it that's the movie

outside of the fact that everyone who has sex is murdered by the narrative, this is a surprisingly chill portrayal of female sexuality? these teen girls are horny and actively enjoying Getting It On with their boytoys. no pushy boyfriends sneaking in through their bedroom windows--these ladies are taking the initiative to sneak out and GET SOME. one of them gets laid and then immediately orders her boyfriend to get her a beer. (yes she gets Slashered soon afterward, but so does the boyfriend so honestly, gender equality.) yes the Final Girl is the only one not having sex, but she's not bullied for that, nor are her friends slut shamed except possibly by being murdered by the narrative

actually the only character who is shown being morally condemned on-screen is michael myers. specifically FOR his violent overreaction to other people's sex lives. (people he is spying on). metaphorically, the villain is American Puritanism sticking its judgy nose into other people's business.

aka Michael Myers Is A Republican

but actually the real villain is the doctor. guy's a judgemental, shaming, pathologizing asshole. and he's been in charge of michael's care since he was SIX YEARS OLD? kid never had a chance. i'd go on a killing spree too

also the parents. where are the parents? it's halloween night and all the teenage girls are home babysitting their younger siblings? come to think of it, michael's first victim was his own older sister, whom he killed while she was babysitting him. teen girls are really shouldering a labour burden here. maybe parentification is the true villain

side note: mike commits his first murder wearing a clown costume...which is never referenced again? his 'iconic' costume is a generic mask and wig and jumpsuit, when we coulda had a Killer Clown Michael Myers??? travesty

i like how the Final Girl and her friend casually smoke weed in her car. yeah she's an honor student and her friend is the sheriff's daughter. yeah they smoke weed. so what it's 1978

(to reiterate, mike is 21 and should be at the club. im not saying he shouldn't be rampaging, im saying it's sad that he broke out, tasted freedom for the first time in his life, and immediately snuck back into his childhood home to go rampaging. let's have a remake where he goes to a nightclub and has a few beers. maybe some slutty dancing. then rampage)

oh no he's hot

[gurinpotte]

Please more buff aang I'm thirsty 🏃🏽‍♀️🏃🏽‍♀️

well i hope these will quench ya....

i had wayyyy more fun with this than i should have had. i was giggling and kicking my feet nonny, it's my first time doing quenching drawings like that. i'm not that great with manly muscles so i'm sorry for the messyness and mistakes. thank you sm for this ask my dear thirsty anon! also sorry if the kataang wasn't that you expected but in this house we serve kataang at every chance

[churrorat-art]

SO! I got night in the woods a few days ago! And uh. I've been playing it nonstop and I have like 5 neglected assignments due tmrw!!!

So I drew mae with my new alcohol markers!! Just testing them out. I've gotta get good at using them, but I think I did good for a first try.

I fucking love this game so far. I'm on chapter 3/part 3 the harfest part. Mae is such a relateable character I think. This game makes me wanna go out and run around and live life and have friends. It makes me wanna give a shit.

I love the scenery, and hanging out with my friends is so fun. I mostly hang with bea, I don't rlly like all the dangerous stuff gregg does. I did hang with gregg once, and damn. Like. Damn. I didn't know he had mental issues:(I feel bad for hating on him. I also can feel it in my bones that bea has stuff going on in her life that she isn't letting me in on. I wanna know why shes so under the weather. Also wtf do I have fucked up dreams every night since the party??? I really like using the baseball bat ingame when I can. It's so fun. I REALLY VERY suck at playing the guitar tho;-; I cant hit any good notes and i bring the whole band down :( 'practice makes perfect' but I'm practicing and I ain't improving SHIT.

I cant wait to play more:3 I just don't wanna finish it too early. No spoilers btw. Istg if I get spoiled

[epickiya722]

I think about how some people actually hate on Yuji, Nobara and Megumi and get confused because I went into JJK and by episode 3 I adored them.

[pmpknsoup]

i actually am a defender of georgie and melanie and basira being mean or rude to jon bc that man really needed to be put in his place sometimes. like i understand that they were also wrong sometimes— basira is hypocritical and the other two could be nastier than necessary, but i literally cannot blame them at all. jon was so out of line sometimes

[prolibytherium]

I never touched it but I feel like i only ever hear positive things said about song of achilles.. in (rough strokes at least) what makes it dogshit to you?

Okay it's been a while since I actually read it so some of this might not be spot on accurate. Sorry if at any point I say 'the book never does xyz' and it actually does once or twice but I think my underlying criticisms are accurate

-Patroclus is made into like this soft gentle tender quivering little yaoi boy. In the source text, he's shown as compassionate and moved by the suffering of his own men (and apparently having some medical skill, tending to the wounded in the camp), but very much invested n combat and very, very good at it (pages worth of descriptions of the guys he's killing left and right). In this, the arguably more complex character from this 8th century BC text is flattened into Being A Healer, he doesn't want to go to war he just wants to help people, he only goes because Achilles has to but he doesn't want to fight he's a HEALER he's a gentle lover NOT A FIGHTER who just wants to help he just wants to help everyone around him he HEALS while Achilles is a doomed warrior who is so good at fighting and KILLING its a DICHOTOMY GUYS!!!LIKE THE BEAUTIFUL SUN AND MOON DOOMED LOVERS SO SAD patocluse HEALER . (I Think he's specifically characterized as being BAD at fighting but might be misremembering)

-I don't remember much about Achilles' characterization I think it just makes him less of a jackass while not adding anything of interest and levels out into being mad boring.

-Not getting into the literal millenias old debate whether the mythological characters Achilles and Patroclus were being characterized as some type of lover by the original oral sources of the Iliad or its Homeric writers. We will never know. We don't even know what (if any) culturally accepted conventions of male homosexuality existed in bronze age Greece (we know much more about their descendants). But there are some interesting elements of their characterization in this direction, with how unconventional their relationship is WITHIN the text itself- Patroclus is described as cooking for Achilles and his guests (very specifically a woman/wife's job), Achilles chides Patroclus like a father, but there's also scene where Achilles' mourning of him directly echoes a passage of Hector's wife mourning her husband, Patroclus is explicitly stated to Achilles' elder, and is overall treated as his equal or near-equal, closest confidant and most beloved friend (to the point that pederastic classical Greeks would debate over who was erastes (older authority figure lover) and who was eromenos (adolescent 'beloved')- many took it as a given that this text depicted their present-day cultural norms of homosexual behavior but it existed so Outside of these norms that it had to be debated who was who). Their relationship is non-standard both within the text and to the descendants of the civilization that wrote them.

Basically what I'm saying is this book had opportunities to like, explore the unconventionality of the relationship (being presented here as explicitly lovers), explore the dynamics of why Patroclus wants to do 'women's work' (besides being a tenderhearted softboy), the weird dynamics where they take on paternal roles to each other but also roles of wives, how they feel about being this way, and just kind of Doesn't. Which I guess isn't an intrinsic fault (because it omits much of what I just talked about to begin with). it's just like.... Lame. This book takes jsut abandons everything interesting about the source text in favor of flattening it into bland Doomed Yaoi.

-The conflict that sets off the core story of the Iliad is Achilles and Agamemnon fighting over Briseis, an enslaved Trojan woman taken by Achilles as a war-trophy, Achilles spends most of the story moping because he was dishonored by his 'trophy' being taken. Achilles and Patroclus and everyone else are raping their captives, all the women in the story are either captured Trojans (or in the case of the free women within the walls of Troy, soon to be enslaved, and are slave owners themselves). Slavery as an institution and extreme patriarchal conventions are innate to the text and reflective of the context in which it was developed. You cannot avoid it.

But obviously you can't have your soft yaoi boys doing this, so the author has them capturing women to Protect Them from the other men. Their slaves are UNDER THEIR PROTECTION and VERY SAFE (and they might even Like And Befriend Them but I might be misremembering that. Briseis does though). Our heroes have apparently absorbed none of the ideals of the culture they exist in and the author seems to think "they're gay and aren't sexually attracted to their captives" would translate to them being outright benevolent (also as if wartime sexual violence is just about attraction and not part of a wider spectrum of violent acts to dehumanize and brutalize an accepted 'enemy')

In the source text, Briseis mourns Patroclus as being the kindest to her of her captors, who tried to get her a slightly better outcome by getting her married to Achilles (which probably would be the Least Bad of all possible outcomes for a woman in that situation, becoming a legal wife instead of a slave), and wonders what will happen to her now that he's gone. This is a really really sad, horrible, and compelling dynamic which could be fleshed out in very interesting ways but is instead is tossed entirely aside in favor of them being Besties. Like brother and sister.

All of the above pisses me off so much. If you don't want to engage in the icky parts of ancient/bronze age Greece then don't write a retelling of a story taking place in bronze age Greece. I'm not gonna get mad at children's adaptations of Greek myths or silly fun stories loosely based on them for omitting the rape and slavery but it is SO fundamental to the Iliad. If you're not willing to handle it, either fully omit it or better yet set your Iliad inspired yaoi in an invented swords-and-sandals setting where you can have all your heartbreaking tragic doomed lovers plot beats and not have to clumsily write around the women they're brutalizing.

-The author didn't seem to know what to do with Thetis and she made her just like, Achilles bitch mother who spends most of the story trying to separate our Yaoi Boys (iirc her disguising Achilles as a girl and hiding him on Scyros is made to be more about getting him away from Patroclus than trying to save her son from his prophesied doom in the Trojan War) until she sees how much they loooove each other and I think helps Patroclus' spirit get to the afterlife or something in the end?

-This is more of a personal taste gripe but it has that writing style I loathe where the prose feels less like a story and more like an attempt to string together Deep Beautiful Hard Hitting Poetic Lines that will look great as excerpts on booktok (might predate booktok but same vibe). It's all very Pretty and Haunting and Deep but feels devoid of real substance.

I really like The Iliad and The Odyssey in of themselves. They're fascinating historical texts that give a window into how 8th century BC Greeks told their stories, saw their world, interpreted their ancestors, etc. And genuinely I think these texts have 'good' characters, there's a lot of complexity and humanity to it.

WRT the Iliad- all of the main Achaeans are pretty fascinating, the one singular part where Briseis Gets To Talk and laments her situation is great, Achilles fantasizing that all of the Trojans AND the Achaeans die so he and Patroclus alone can have the glory of conquering Troy (wild), Achilles asking to embrace Patroclus' shade and reaching out for him but it's immaterial (and the shade being sucked back underground with a 'squeak' (the squeak kinda gets me it's disturbing and sad)), Hecuba talking about wanting to tear out Achilles' liver and eat it in a (taboo, exceptioally pointed) expression of rage and grief for his mutilation of her son's corpse, just one tiny line where the enslaved women performing ritual wailing for their dead captors are described as using it as an outlet to 'grieve for their own troubles' is heartrending, etc. A lot of grappling with anger and grief and the inevitability of death, a lot of groundwork laid for characters that could be very interesting when expanded upon in the framework of a conventional novel.

And Song Of Achilles really doesn't do much with all that. I know a lot of my gripes here are kind of just "It's different from the Iliad", I would have thought of it as mostly mediocre and forgettable rather than infuriating if it wasn't a retelling (and I DEFINITELY have strong biases here). But I think the ways in which it is different are less just a product of a retelling (of course there's going to be omissions and differences) and more a complete and utter disinterest in vast majority of its own subject matter, to the book's detriment. I think a retelling has a point when it EXPANDS on the source, or provides a NEW ANGLE to the source. This book doesn't Really do either, it just shaves off the complexity of its source material, renders the characters into a really boring archetype of a gay relationship, and gives very little else. Its content boils down to a middling tragic romance that has been inserted into the hollowed out defleshed skeleton of the Iliad.

Bottom line: I definitely would not be as mad about it if I wasn't familiar with the source material but I think it's fair to expect a retelling to Engage with/expand on its source, and I also think it's weak purely on its own merits. This book was set up to disappoint Me specifically.

[confoodles]

Does anyone else feel like Aylinluna was horribly out of character this episode?? I've heard that apparently some things were cut, so that might be the reason but it still felt weird. Like ur telling me Luna, who has literally been so respectful of Aylin's boundaries literally even last episode, is suddenly forcing her to go out of her comfort zone?? Okay, fine, I understand the concept of wanting ur gf to get along with ur friends, but ur telling me Luna wouldn't stand up for Aylin when someone is clearly getting in her face and making her uncomfortable?? That she would call her an ALIEN??!!!

[xxplastic-cubexx]

Can we talk about how fcked up Charles can be sometimes? Can we talk about how Charles can sometimes be actually scary as a person? Like he can legit be nefarious sometimes, but those moments are not as talked about as Erik's warcrimes (aside from the holocaust visions from TAS)

girlfriend i promise we're all very aware about how wack charles xavier can be and i assure you his nefarious moments are talked plenty from what i run into. like outside of this inbox most times you breathe charles' name to someone they'll be prepared to start swinging

[heatherchasesyou]

guys I might be discovering something lately--

[stellaluna33]

I’ve always disliked the idea that Rory was a pick me girl, most often not people use her conversation with Tristan of all people to prove that she is by using ‘substance’ line. A pick me girl is a girl who will tear down other women for the sake of male validation. Rory doesn’t do that, she especially doesn’t want Tristan’s attention or validation. If anything, she has a not like other girls' mentality, but whose surprised when her mother and town feed into that. That being said, Rory is incredibly cruel to other women, but it's not for male validation It's because she's judgmental just like Lorelei and Emily, it's a trait they all have in common.

Hmm, ok! Thanks for sharing your thoughts! There's a lot here to talk about!

I would agree that Rory does not tear other women down for male validation. She doesn't really care much about male validation in general (the Logan Era might be a slight exception, but Logan is a SPECIFIC guy, and there were other things going into that psychologically for Rory SPECIFICALLY) and would be insulted by the mere idea, haha. In the show, there are boys that like her, because she's the main character of a TV show, but she doesn't usually seek them out. Once she's in a RELATIONSHIP, she does tend to seek approval, but that's because she's a People Pleaser IN GENERAL, not because her boyfriends happen to be Male...

As far as the "not like other girls" thing goes... *sigh* Ok, look. Haha. These conversations are awkward for me, because you probably would have accused ME of being "not like other girls" in highschool. And this RANKLES me, haha! Because I did not put myself in that category. It was the "other girls" who decided I was "not like them," you know? And I guess I wasn't! But WHY should that be shameful?! And my misfit friends and I were probably a bit insufferable about it sometimes when we were teenagers, but that is a defense mechanism. You get told "You're weird" enough times, and you start saying, "Well maybe being Weird is a good thing! Maybe it's BETTER!" And if that's "problematic," shouldn't expecting girls to be "JUST like Other Girls" be problematic too? I just don't think the burden to "support all Women! And don't you dare criticize any of them ever!" should be placed on the girls who got REJECTED by the "other girls!" It just starts sounding like "Conform! Or else you must Hate Women!" "Women" are not all the same! And we shouldn't HAVE to be! I don't think girls should be obligated to like every other girl. Do we expect boys to like every other boy?

ANYWAY, I'm sorry, I'm getting way off track now. 😅 Here's the thing: Rory WASN'T "like other girls." She likes reading and studying and listening to weird music, AND THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT! Why is there something wrong with that?? And I know from experience that liking those things generally didn't make you really popular in school! Rory's classmates think she's weird! And she's not heartbroken about it, because she LIKES WHAT SHE LIKES, and if she thinks her interests are "better," isn't that kind of... Human and natural? Especially for a teenager? I just don't consider that a "red flag" or a character flaw, sorry! My goodness, can't I have ONE girl main character of a teen show who was a bit of a misfit instead of a "cool girl?" (I know I'm probably exaggerating, but Rory was one of the only tv characters I could actually RELATE to as a teenager! 😅😭) Should she have to apologize for it?

Anyway, I also would not say that Rory is "incredibly cruel to other women." I mean, this is the girl who went to her highschool MEAN GIRL BULLY and basically said, "If you're going through something, you can talk to me"!!! Like, that is going ABOVE AND BEYOND, haha! Is she perfect? NO! She's not perfect! Sometimes she's in a bad mood, or gets jealous or bitter! It's not great! Neither Shane nor Lindsay deserved her jealous sniping! (And I think Rory, in hindsight, would probably agree! Rory only had nice things to say about Lindsay before Season 4 anyway) She messed up! I have occasionally said things I regret saying also! And when she wrote the critique of the ballet, it was in the specific context of being asked to be more ruthless by her Editor. So she was ruthless. And felt uncomfortable about it later! But "incredibly cruel?" Rory's INCREDIBLY cruel? When there are characters like Blair Waldorf or even, in this very show, Paris Geller??? I just... don't see it!

Anyway... I'm sorry for all of this ranting, dear Anonymous. 😅 I hope I haven't offended you terribly! It's not your fault you happened to hit several of my personal triggers there! I hope you have a lovely day.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Just wait, Roku's gonna see Kyoshi and call her "mommy" (non-sexual) and Kyoshi's just going to stare blankly at him and be like "Fucking hell, you ARE my reincarnation. Is this what Kuruk felt like? Thank fucking christ Nyahitha is dead, I wouldn't be able to take the bullshit coming out of his mouth"

And Roku is just standing there both embarrassed to all hell, terrified (he called the scariest lady in the world to ever live mommy c'mon), and confused as fuck. jkaljsfs;af

[fisherrprince]

oh so alisaie’s exaggerated bully behavior is 80% fanon. saying this she casually picks up a large rock

[darkgifted]

obsessed with the fact that in most rpgs, the "good" companion endings usually involve you helping them get what they want

whereas in bg3 the good ending for characters usually means steering them away from what they want, because it isn't actually good for them, even at the cost of them never feeling the warmth of the sun again

[silverware-is-interesting]

Remember that time I mentioned that I needed to draw something other than Sgt Splosion?? (plus Guardener, my sona, and my ocs)

varying quality doodles of mostly sgt splosion

[lntrusiveknock]

sometimes

i am a femcel, i am a morally dubious believer, i am just a girl, sometimes i know i am more than the disempowering connotations of one, i am only one, i am everything and everyone that makes me, i am in need to document the shitshow and self indulge