#sorry for the condescending tone

[minotaurs-my-beloved]

If you're fucking me and you go "I know baby, I knowww, biiigg stretch" you legally own me now.

Im yours.

There is nothing you can do about this transaction.

[nightcolorz]

Unhinged Sybelle and Benji tangent (cw references to abuse csa trauma etc)

yeah so Marius’s turning of Benji and Sybelle isn’t about whether or not that was the right decision to make and isn’t made better by their contentment living as vampires in late canon. Benji and Sybelle’s relatively happy lives as vampires are irrelevant to me. The cruelty of how he did it is made worse by the hypocritical nature of turning a kid into a vampire after so firmly insisting that turning children is morally abhorrent and smth he should’ve never done, yeah, but that’s only a small part of it.

It was so awful and upsetting to me bcus of the deliberate stripping of Armand’s agency. See, we have a whole book where Armand tells the story of how throughout his entire life and childhood he was forced into the role of submissiveness and/or dependency. whether that be his childhood religious devotion that would eventually lead to his being buried alive for God or being sold into sexual slavery or Marius’s mentorship of him that ultimately intended to teach him to stay loyal and dependent on Marius’s authority to Marius’s relationship with him sexual and otherwise to the cult indoctrination, up until Lestat comes along and tilts his own view of submission and devotion as his only way to survive and function in the world onto its head.

He gives him a theater and then he gives him Louis. Armand floats around, tries to find purpose without devotion through using Louis and Daniel as tools to understanding the modern age. The modern age to Armand is possibility and independence, things he’s never had so much access to and doesn’t know exactly how to apply to himself until the devils minion chapter when he’s like ah ok I get it, life without devotion is something I’ve always been familiar with—it’s what Marius taught me! I Am The Master now with my excessive indulgence and my Boy and my sea side paradise.

But Armand is a Void™️ with no concept of self besides a collection of concepts and experiences and people he’s been exposed to throughout his existence, so rlly he’s kind of a fraud. Internally he’s still a saint who yearns for a God to follow, he’s no Marius, and this all comes to a head in Memnoch the devil when he throws himself into the sun for Jesus etc. and so TVA Armand is mixed the fuck up, he’s lost everything he’s been building for himself, he’s like an open wound, like red and gold sand art shaken around until it’s sludges of brown.

Armand believes himself to have no coherent narrative of a life, no coherent and consistent sense of self, just a collection of unrelated sequences that he draws from to occasionally preform personhood, and at the beginning of TVA he is very much just that. No thoughts only colors and pain. But he’s trying to rebuild himself as best he can, he has these young humans who he’s caring for, and through caring Armand finds meaning.

These humans are very much reflections of himself, or who he used to be, and seeing a personhood reflected back at him through these two gives him insight into his own value as an individual, as someone who is inherently worthy of having a life. So with Benji and Sybelle he tries to rebuild his own sense of personhood by giving them what he would want in there place. The conclusion he reaches at the end of his story to David is that after everything ultimately he is learning and rebuilding, gaining fulfillment and individuality he’s never had before through his empathy and care for these two people in his life. Benji and Sybelle are representative of Armand’s healing process!!! They mirror him bcus they are him!! He’s literally nurturing his inner child!! And with that there comes self care and self love etc etc. but then the book doesn’t end!!

Then after all that trauma and all that healing everything that Armand was tenderly attempting to build for his new life is stripped away ! When Marius turns Benji and Sybelle it doesn’t matttttter that they like being vampires. What matters is that when Armand finally gained agency and individuality Marius decided to take that from him! Marius decided that he actually knew better then Armand, and if Armand would just allow him to do what’s best for him then everything would be so much better and so much easier. And when Armand starts sobbing and screaming and fighting him that’s just justification to Marius that Armand isn’t capable of independence or self sufficiency, that he’s a child throwing a tantrum who can’t make his own decisions, that he should just be dependent on Marius like he used to be and trust that other people know what’s best for him.

That’s why it’s so tragic! That’s why it’s so frustrating and so sad. Armand was on the road to healing but then Marius stormed in like the symbolic representation of his past telling him that no matter what he does or the progress he makes he’s still Armand in the catacombs, Amadeo on the red sheets, Andrei waiting to be buried alive. So I don’t really give af if ultimately Benji and Sybelle are fine! It’s great that despite being a child vampire Benji is able to function independently and contently as an adult with minimal body dysmorphia and existential dread, but you know who’s not able to do that? Armand 😭😭

[flowerakatsuka]

there's a fucking rude ass customer in the store, i need kurokara to comfort me—

[whitehartlane]

i rly do think there is a line between being critical of saudi, their involvement in football, where all the money is coming from, the millions of human rights violations that the government perpetuates and covers up via sportwashing … and then just straight up dunking on football cultures outside of europe (specifically england/germany/italy) and acting like the fans there are inferior in some way (even if they are smaller in number that does not mean that the football being played is worth any less) and implying consciously or subconsciously that the footballers who grew up in the system there don’t deserve to play football. i’ll be honest, way too many ppl cross the line.

[holygraund]

hello! just wondering how youre 100 percent taylor swift when she knowingly does this to the environment? with the private jets especially, making her directly responisble for a noticeable negative impact. and her lack of enacted change ig. ok ty have a good day! hoping your response isnt just climate change denial lol

Hello, condescending anon! Good to know that your idea of the solution to environmental problems is going to stranger gif maker's inbox and taking it out on them.

[vamptits]

you cannot be bringing this energy to my posts i am disableddd i get dizzy when i stand up on account of my chronic illness!!!

[neredoesnotfail]

❛ do not forget what i am.  ❜ // @lcftyambiticns

"And what is that?" the drow questions with a mocking not-quite-smile, that telltale [ patronizing ] sing-song to his voice.

His head canted slightly to one side, he continues, pondering the potential answers aloud.

"A ne'er-do-well? A cad? A wizard of... questionable renown? A mere mortal hoping to cast off his mortality? What, precisely, is it that you wish us to remember that you are?"

[mudzdale]

so cool that one of the outcomes of this event is that people who do unserious things like refer to the far right as "trump's fandom" get to be condescending about voting and call everybody reading their posts morons

[edmunderson]

wild response i got to a comment i made on a webcomic. sorry you think compassion is weird and somehow specifically christian or something. idk what to do with that 🧍‍♂️

[violexides]

like whatever here's the thing do you want democrats to take away the idea that no matter what their politics are so long as they're not trump they'll win? or do you want democrats to understand that they're not going to win votes unless they make political changes?

[asphalt-eater]

Quit simping for those Saw victims, you can do better

you cant tell me what to do 😜😜😜

wait... anon... when you say i can do better... do you mean... you!??????? awww if you wanted to date me you didnt have to be so sly with it!!!!

[parakeetpark]

I've finally cracked and I'm learning how to mod skyrim. My poor laptop doesn't deserve to suffer so I'm downloading the unofficial patch, and at most 10 mods....What made me crack was the repetitive dialogue ngl... BUT, this will NOT become like Stardew Valley where I have 350 mods and got really into it bc Skyrim is too... much work and possible issues for that

[cliveguy]

i keep seeing people say stuff like this and it's so crazy to me literally what circles are you running in that you think it's THAT common to be desensitised to seeing videos of people dying....like i don't think it's a gen z thing to have an emotional reaction to seeing someone get beheaded

[skeletons-in-ur-closet]

i gotta beat my brother with hammers ong

[ectonurites]

For me an industry plant is "someone who may or may not be that talented, but they’re still pushed to stardom because they have an entire company marketing/investing in them" and using this term on a fictional character is kinda tricky, but I do think it can be applied to Tim, since *on average* DC's writers/editors tend to showcase him in a more positive light compared to other Batman-related characters due to their bias towards him.

Personally speaking, I have seen way more writers claiming that Tim is their favorite Robin compared to the other Robins (although Dick is a close 2nd) Which explains why they're desperately trying to make his whole thing be "he's the best Robin!" by always making him appear smarter/more capable than the others and why he is rarely treated in a negative manners by the narrative compared to lets say Damian or Cassandra, who had awful storylines with the goal of demonizing them for no other reason than "someone in a high-position in the company hates their guts."

Well I mean, if we're using different definitions for the same term then obviously we're gonna come to different conclusions about it sgdfdhgfjhg

Like when I hear 'industry plant' I can not separate that from the idea that their connection to the larger entity backing them is kept secret/downplayed—that just feels like way too large a piece of what the term actually means to be tossed aside. Every one of the multiple definitions for the term that I came across while searching includes something about that aspect of it. To include a few:

Noun. industry plant (plural industry plants) (slang, derogatory) A music artist associated with a label but appearing as if they are independent and self-made. (slang, derogatory, by extension) A music artist whose popularity is perceived to be due to marketing efforts alone. (x)

An industry plant is an artist who has Major/Indie Label backing their movement but presents themselves as a "home grown start up" label to create a pseudo organic following. They act as if things are miraculously happening for them based on their talent (via blog coverage, media coverage, mtv playing their vids, etc.) The reality is a low risk/high reward situation for labels looking to build the next "new star" (x)

The term ‘industry plant’ is a musical term derived colloquially from hip-hop which is understood to mean, “an artist who has a major/indie label backing their movement but presents themselves as a ‘homegrown start-up’ to create the illusion of an organic following”. (x)

Even in the early days, there was some debate about how best to define an Industry Plant. On a fundamental level, it is an artist whose development takes place away from the public eye. While the major label downplays its influence, it quietly hones the artist into a star. While their rise to fame might appear to be organic, it’s actually been meticulously planned by a major label. As a result, Industry Plants are usually regarded as lacking authenticity. In the eyes of genuinely DIY artists, the Plant is merely a puppet whose success results from someone high up in the music industry ensuring they have the best connections. The key element here is deception. (x)

So the lack of an attempt to deceive/downplay a connection to a bigger entity/character is what makes me really really strongly disagree with the term applying to him.

I also think there’s something else to address in what you’re saying, which is maybe another reason we disagree here:

I think it's totally fair to say that nowadays there is a bias from people at DC towards Tim which makes them prioritize him over others. I'm 100% in agreement with you on that part, and it's annoying the way they try to push him as the 'best Robin' and downplay other characters like Damian and Cass.

But that became a problem after Tim had already become popular.

Like, he certainly had a dip in popularity for a while (largely bc of the New 52) and one could argue there’s been a sort of artificial push to bring him back to popularity in recent times… but when we're talking about the idea of him as an 'industry plant' I think we need to be looking specifically at when he first rose to popularity like 30 years ago. Because otherwise we’re not talking about how/why he became popular in the first place, we’re talking about the effects (and ups and downs) of his existing popularity.

When Tim was introduced and first rose to popularity in the late 80’s/early 90's.... that was years before Damian or Cass as we know them (i say this because technically the baby that would become Damian existed but like, that is not the same character) were introduced to even compare to the way you’re talking about.

At the time he was created, DC wanted to fill the Robin/‘Teen Bat Character’ spot after readers voted to kill Jason because they didn’t like him… Thus, Tim was designed to fit a specific niche—DC knew there would be an audience for a new Batman sidekick as long as they learned from what happened to Jason and created a character different from him that would be better received. Back then it's not that he was 'the young Batman character that people internally decided they like more than the others and thus push more' it's that he was 'the young Batman character'.

He had the opportunity to become a popular character because of being Batman’s new sidekick and managing to be more well received than Jason. Like, that's really it. But that was totally out in the open—he was by Batman's side before he got his chance to go solo, and promo for his solo made a point of bringing up Batman and featuring him. The connection to Batman was always incredibly clear and highlighted.

When we're trying to apply these slang terms from other industries to comics, Tim's situation is just far closer to 'nepo baby' than anything else. He had the opportunity to become popular because he was designed to fill a specific niche connected to an already popular character.

[classicsmosh]

hi, im that aro anon you were talking about. you didn’t sound preachy at all, dw, i just wanted to clarify myself because i sent that ask like a week ago i think and i probably could’ve explained myself better.

..which is sort of the hard part for me because articulating my thoughts on love is just as hard as fully grasping haha. it makes sense in my head but writing it never comes out right.

i think you bring up a lot of good points and i totally agree with your thoughts on platonic love, always have, and i’m the last person that treats platonic love as second best to the romantic kind.

what i was trying to say is that the label or line itself doesn’t really matter to me when it comes to ianthony. in real life they’re obviously platonic, but a lot of people see them in a romantic context too for fun, and i understand it regardless so it doesn’t make a difference to me. in my mind, it doesn’t even really require a label. it’s just Love, and that’s why i felt that i could understand it fully in a way that’s usually hard for me.

to quote myself, they are [an example of] my definition of love, and that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s romantic— i didn’t mean it romantically. it just is. my aromanticism felt relevant when talking about this because it affects the way i view all love, but i think that might’ve led to confusion.

you said it better than me: “I’d even say it’s true love”. that’s what i was originally trying to get across, and i think it might’ve gotten misinterpreted a little. but i really appreciate you talking about it because i love discussing things with other aro(aces) like myself. sorry for the essay ❤️

Thank you for the clarification! I also didn't mean to sound like I thought you were devaluing platonic love! That wasn't the thought process, the whole thing sort of came from a misplaced sense of concern, I guess. 😅