#sorry this is so annoying and incoherent

[ranticore]

Now that you mentioned it in the tags; I really enjoyed how you did the queerness of characters in-text and I saw you mentioned more than once before how they consider/call themselves gay or anything and I was wondering if you'd be willing to elaborate on that (in Ironwall, MVF etc), but more from a writing standpoint than a worldbuilding one. Hope Im making sense lol

i looked up the invention of the word 'homosexuality' and found that it was invented 6 years after stbh is set

ghksjdg i mean there's more to it than that but it meant that my language was constrained, which also means that the characters' language is constrained as well. i have to think about ways i want this to come across to the reader. at the time i was thinking about how the basic concept of "btw this character is not straight/cis" is communicated in some of the stories i'd read, and one that stood out to me was a comic i read in a fully fantasy setting where the writer brought the narrative to a juddering halt to explain exactly how gender & sexuality are handled by the people here. as in the characters essentially turn to the camera and give the main character a lecture. i really didn't like it, the author's hand was too visible behind the panels.

but i took it as a learning exercise as well on what i didn't want to do. i didn't like the neon signs pointing at any instance of non-heteronormativity and i also don't like stories that market themselves based on the characters' gender identities, particularly stories which do not involve a coming-of-age/character learns to discover themselves narrative. it's a book about two trans men but it's not a book about being trans. that's none of the reader's business, that's hidden from you (particularly in islin's case, intentionally). i never wanted to foster a sense of voyeurism towards trans people particularly knowing that most readers, statistically, will not be trans. crucially the characters are stealth to literally everybody but like 3 people. their transition is done.

i never wanted a coming out moment, or an "i'm here i'm queer" moment either - not even because Society in the setting just because i don't like those things. to completely normalise it in the narrative between these characters is the goal - almost to the point of never even pointing it out at all except when it has to be. the vibe i wanted was like... hanging out in not necessarily a gay space, but with gay people, talking about random other stuff. i didn't even like the One coming out scene i had to put in (senca being like "i only fuck women" to bowman so that he would stop hitting on her)

so when writing i had a pretty good idea of what i didn't want. for the setting i had some strict rules to follow as well. characters would not identify as gay or bisexual or even some fantasy equivalent because those were not identities, they were acts. and heterosexuality wasn't an identity either, it wasn't even "the natural way of things", it was the means by which wealth could transfer between generations. if you do not marry, then you are not conforming to your gender. the four unmarriagable men in mvf are all denied entry to normative manhood for many de-gendering factors (disability, unmanly hobbies, vow of chastity, etc) but the culmination of those factors is that they can't marry, which is the whole POINT of being a man. three of them are entirely denied generational wealth - forcing them into poverty (it's not a coincidence that gay people are overrepresented in the criminal organisation)

from a writing standpoint this leaves them in a grey zone. when writing i tried out different language to see if it read nice to me (19th century equivalents to 'boyfriend' etc) and they all rang quite false, because outside of the whole 'can we put a label on something that doesn't officially exist in society' thing, the characters themselves are not the types of people to think that way. Bowman was dating Léa but he was never dating Félix. you can't date another man. the only people who date men are women, and Bowman is not a woman. therefore he is not dating Félix. to give just one example. ultimately for the language used i found that just leaving it as-is worked the best for me.

so after working all that out i wrote tha thing and then wanted to kind of explore - at what point does it become romantic? is there an actual border between romantic and platonic when you've kind of already fallen between the cracks in society into the grey zone where nothing is defined because it doesn't affirm the power of the ruling class. and in these particular friendships, where they've already been all things to one another, they've already done everything together, good or bad, does adding 'romantic love' to that list of things wildly recontextualise it retroactively or does anything change at all? just like the ending reveal of stbh says: who actually is the guy we've been thinking of as 'félix ortega' ? does it recontextualise everything we've just read? no, right? (or does it?)

the usual 'will-they-won't-they' romance plot isn't a factor in the book, we already know they will, they have, they won't, and they refuse to, all at once.

(jean-baptiste thinks of himself as an invert because he is Learned and has read some fascinating journal articles about cutting-edge sexology, and his relation to his sexuality is very very different. it's not something he shares with his closest friends in spaces without scrutiny; his entire life is scrutinised and his social system is predicated on marriage. like i think i said in the book, probably, i don't remember: he and renard are two guys clinging to the same life raft. they hate each other! but if you push the other guy off the life raft, then you're just one guy alone at sea, forever.)

[im-smart-i-swear]

some lore. this may all change lol im still figuring stuff out but this is the general gist

[blmpff]

No, because I'm still stuck on Aob and Puen.

I get this scene, we haven't believed in Aob's cold facade for a while/ever. He'd caught feelings for Puen whether he liked it or not, and for unknown (underwritten) reasons tried to brush them off/ignore them and keep Puen at arm's length.... so to speak:

This one is understandable for the same reasons as listed above, he has (actively repressed) feelings for Puen and doesn't want to interact with him sexually and/or see him that way with other people, so he walks away:

Now where did this lovely-dovey, high school style piggy backing later that very same day came from?? Did seeing Puen with Ndozenth client suddenly broke his shyness and tore down his walls to make a move on him??

There was no backstory on either of them (Puen attends the rich kids uni, and the sport's scholarship money isn't enough hence the side gig as Playboyy, that's it), we don't know any reasons for their actions, they get the least time and what they do get barely holds together (Aob is the Top Playboyy and had to teach Puen the ropes, period). Are they casualties of the writing room or the editing room?

I'm with @italianpersonwithashippersheart's tags on this post that they probably suffered due to rewrites, which is a shame and also really sticks out. Like I said in the linked post, the promotional posters gave the impression that Nuth and Phop will probably have the least to do with the plot (even despite the "?"),

why is the two guys from one of the two main groups then.

It's giving hard "pair up the leftovers" and "we don't know what to do with you" vibes. I wonder if it'll change in the future, there are still 6 episodes ahead of us.

[deus-ex-mona]

my five surviving braincells when something remotely good happens:

[rizavii]

sorry still mad at that allura post. fandom will really bring out the racism in people like nothing else will. we need to start putting bitches on blast actually. block button isn't enough I need a Monetary Compensation For Having To See That Post button

"she's fictional" yeah but your attitudes to black/brown people in media will 99.999% of the time mirror your attitudes toward black/brown people irl. without fair when I've given vehement allura/katara/korra haters a chance they have been aggressive and racist to me and my friends.

it's just. god it's so tiring to see racism fucking everywhere. and every bitch is an anti-racist advocate until they're confronted and suddenly brown people are just too much to handle. I get so fucking tired.

[antikr1sta]

Cringing bc i started thinking about my month long obsession with gojo from jjk

(yes i bought a cheap ass wig off temu and went to a huge Halloween party;

i kept doing the gojo walk while drinking and then after the party was over i was so wasted I fell asleep on the tram, missed my stop and lost my phone at like 8am;

realized it was missing while pissing in a bush and somehow got it back because the tram driver found it and i called my phone using some random guys phone.)

I KEPT REPEATING "ITS GOJ-OVER" ALL THE TIME I WANT TO PUNCH MY PAST SELF

As a dazai kinnie now i am disappointed and disgusted..

i feel sick

Pics of that god forsaken day

[kookjinnies]

don't want to seem like a hater but i wish they let happy be released before this new announcement 😞 it's like the astronaut era again

DISCOURSE AHEAD SO DO NOT READ IF YOU DON’T WANT TO

i had to let this ask sit on the inbox bc i logged in twt and the first thing i saw was “focus on taehyung. treat this as an ot7 comeback” like we don’t have a member releasing an album next week. on top of bh being absolute shit at managing their announcements, we have all these fans that only really move for certain members (specifically maknae line and maybe 1 or 2 from the hyung line lollllll) anyway this is backed up by the way armys chart ml songs during the ibt tracking week with higher and more daily streams than ibt itself lmaoo.

i’ve been feeling this way lately actually but do not want to spread negativity on the dash but idgaf anymore lol (i was on the trenches during ibt release tracking week)

atp there really is a BIG difference with the way this fandom is from before the solo era and MS. ofc, this is prevalent on all fandoms (seeing that i was a 1d stan and it’s apparent that the fan favourite is hs) but to see this unfold in bts again is so exhausting lmao. anyway, let’s just give it our all to support seokjin but i truly hope bighit pushes promo EVERYWHERE BUT SPECIALLY US AND HAVE PLAYLISTING PLS GOD if they want us to secure that elusive b200 top 1

[itspileofgoodthings]

Porfiry telling Raskolnikov that at least he was honest and in one bound took the furthest leap to put his theory to the test of actual action——

[gayeddie-saved-me]

For "fuck season 9 you know what you did" what was it they did? Because spn has none A LOT

personally s8 and s9 kinda just run together in my head, because most of s8’s plot lines lead right into 9’s. i hate s8 with an intense passion, and a lot of what happens in s9 is too similar to truly separate it. mainly the gadreel plot line, and what happens between sam and dean. it’s a follow up of the trials which are built on the awful s8 sam characterization. the entirety of s8 contradicts itself which leads s9 to do the same, especially since the main point of contention between sam and dean in s9 is gadreel and sam’s insistence that dean betrayed him by saving him. the season ends with dean dying and sam doing exactly what he faulted dean for doing—making the choice to save him no matter the cost (this contradiction continues in s10 too so don’t think s10 is left out of this) idk it’s hard to explain but overall i find the stretch of 8-10 to be incredibly frustrating mainly because it has some half decent plot lines that are ruined by their shitty execution. also the abaddon plot line is boring to me, and dragged on forever. oh and kevin fucking dies and for what??? for their bullshit sam vs dean conflict about doing stupid shit to save each other when sam is the one who started all of this in the first place???? not to mention i don’t enjoy how they handle cas’s plot at ALL. not even just kicking him out of the bunker, but like in general human!cas is just not well written to me. i think they could’ve gone a lot of ways with it and chose like. the most boring ways possible. oh and them bringing back gabriel for one episode only for it to not even be real. stupid ass shit. the funny thing is everyone i know who hates this season hates metatron but i actually don’t mind him as much.

anyway. um. it’s okay if no one agrees with this, i personally don’t enjoy getting into arguments about things that are just my own opinion. i don’t even know if this fully makes sense, i haven’t taken my meds yet m

[themoonofblueside]

i think you either misinterpreted or underestimated max's academy statements... not only were his mom and his sister in karting, but he also had female karting buddies. he was close to women that were serious abt motorsport, he's very much aware it's a gender issue and is questioning why won't the sport do more, not why should it be done if it's not enough. but he's chickenshit abt political-y statements and wouldn't call out FIA so directly with "big" words like discrimination.

It is possible that I misinterpreted his wording, and it might've been that he's going for a "yes, yes, fia and f1 world is deefinitely not prejudiced against women, however-" tactic for the media, but this is honestly not the first time i've seen him state something like "haha of course f1 teams don't judge against genders, they'll choose whoever is faster." and it irritates me to see such...obvious false information?

I am glad max is calling for faster cars and higher ranks in racing for female drivers, i truly hope that he actually does something about it(he doesn't have to, but it's obvious that he cares for competitive racing, and as you've stated his mother did karting so i do wish that at some point max thinks "okay this is very annoying, maybe i should do something about it" because he absolutely has the power to make changes even if they're small).

Which is probably why the first part annoyed me this much, because everyone is aware that the series should be higher, but that won't change with a few think pieces here and there, and like i said, max does have some limit of power as

1) reigning champion of 3 years with championships equaling sebastian this year

2) son of an old wdc with insane amount of connections as one of the most valuable f1 drivers currently

The first part also rubbed me the wrong way, because as I've stated, max did not experience any hardships in regards to sponsorships or finding teams. That is the main problem about women not reaching f2 or f1: even if they are fast as hell, they are still seen as more vulnerable and more "risky" than men for racing. So when a guy who was born and nurtured to race without having to worry about the more economic parts of the motorsports industry and market says that "oh yeah the system is fair, teams choose whoever is faster" i can't help but bristle a little. It shows so much ignorance and honestly arrogance on max's side, and personally that part overshadows his more leveled out and nuanced questionings and opinions.

I really hope that you're right, anon, and that max is aware that it's a gender issue, but i do think that his comments feed the "the best gets to the top, so if only white men are at the top they deserve that spot" way of thinking when things are definitely more complex than that.

[patchworkmirage]

one of those days again (thinking about philip library of ruina)

[a-huge-fuck-off-dragon-bee]

So I've been doing some testing and I have confirmed for myself that this account has just straight up been shadow banned and I am invisible to everyone except for the people who already follow me and even then only my reblogs seem to be visible on the main dash as I appear to be invisible in the activity feed

I'll leave a link to my new account in my description if you would like to follow that

I'll probably be following my mutuals on my new account since I enjoy your blogs and I hope to be more chatty now that I will actually be able to chat

[mibuchis]

i always find it quite funny how in knb the gom are considered almost like celebrities when in real life that would never be the case 😭😭 i know where i live it’s just not like that at all, in fact anyone who would be anything close to that are just so arrogant and are like “do you know who i am??” when you meet them and i’m like,,, no??? who are you?? 😭😭

[fishingscam]

extremely hyperfixated on alison bechdel

[aelswiths]

I need you all to understand that I have the entirety of the 1x08 Aelswith x Alfred moment memorised and I think about it EVERY SINGLE DAY.

“For me, there can be no other country but England. No other wife but Aelswith.”

SHUT UPPPPPP

[uchimakis]

been seeing so much unnecessary bi mike slander on my dash recently. sometimes selfcare is blocking 15 people and going into the bi mike tag for an hour <3