#tagging him that because I have no idea what the fandom tags him as

[nielsthecat]

[ID: Tags from @autisticstarscream reading, "#that's why sometimes to me starscream is a woman #she's either a woman or a gay man. there is no in betweens #ratchet... 💖 #i love gay old man ratchet but woman ratchet? Hi 💖 #transformers #to be fair transformers don't [really] have binary gender #the concept of femme vs. mech was a newer thing i think...? i'm not sure #they're giant alien robots i feel like assigning them binary gender is a little dumb but [whatever]". end ID.]

Hey by newer thing do you mean 1985 because that's when the first female Cybertronians showed up. they were never called "femmes" because that's a fandom term that has slowly started seeping into canon, but they were called female, and woman.

Also, do you only bring up the (actually recent, by dint of being ~20 years old) idea that Cybertornians are "genderless" when people start headcanoning character as women, or do you also bring it up when people use "he/him" to refer to characters like Optimus Prime who are for all intents and purposes, men?

The whole idea of them being genderless due to their alien robot-ness is deeply sexist anyway, because they aren't actually written as genderless, they're written as men. It's only brought up in canon to do what you're doing now--to say that there shouldn't be women.

Also just to clarify

banner by augustheart

i know i clowned hard on that jason todd is female coded post but guys. why does starscream experience misogyny

[joejhang]

my unasked-for input in the jeremy discourse

been seeing a lot of jeremy knox discussion as of late while mindlessly scrolling thru the aftg tag so i've decided it's time to step in. spoilers ahead continue at ur own risk.

the main criticism of jeremy i've seen in the fandom is the way he treats/deals with jean's situation. a lot of people think he's just not doing a good job and can be insensitive or thoughtless at times. i'd like to counter this by saying: he's doing his best, and he's actually doing pretty well.

the aftg fandom at large has this superiority issue where they seem to always know the right thing and the right way to go. i'm gonna remind y'all that we are very used to the foxes and andreil, and the trojans are a totally different environment to the one we've been acclimatised to. the foxes are not well-adjusted AT ALL and to an outsider's eye the way they deal with each other is probably really cruel and rude at times. it works for them because they're in similar positions in life and have no time for politeness and courtesy, and the only way for them to work together is to work out all the fights and issues head-on, with little concern for hurt feelings. it works for them, but that doesn't mean it's the best or only way to go for anyone else.

jeremy may have an untold backstory of his own, but i think we can all agree that he's much more well-adjusted than jean, who has been living in an abusive cult environment for years. the trojans and jeremy are completely unfamiliar to jean, but so is jean to jeremy. jeremy has no idea the full extent of jean's past and history of abuse, so you can imagine his shock and horror when he finally begins to realise the ugly details of what happened to him.

there's a lot of emphasis on action and reaction in the way the fandom sees characters and relationships, but not a lot on intention. i think, no matter the mistakes jeremy makes, his intentions are good. he wants to support jean and help him in his healing journey. was it wrong of him to tell cat and laila what happened in jean's freshman year without his permission? yes, of course. but i think people need to consider that jeremy is literally only human. he's a 22 year old boy who has unresolved issues of his own that's just trying to do the best he can with what he has. he shouldn't have talked about jean's past without his consent, but it's important to know that he didn't do it with malicious intent or just to gossip. he probably genuinely thought it was the right way to go to let cat and laila know, so they can help jean better by knowing what happened. it wasn't the right thing to do, but honestly i think people in the fandom are more pressed about it than jean is. jean remarks on it and seems a bit annoyed, both with himself for telling jeremy and jeremy for telling the girls, but he doesn't hold it against jeremy and clearly still trusts him. jean knows that jeremy wants the best for him, and is doing his best, and the fandom should remember that too.

i think a lot of the issues the fandom has w jeremy and also jerejean is that they seem to think jeremy is going to "heal" jean. i cannot explain how much this take boils my blood because people can't "heal" other people. healing is a complicated and long process that requires, yes, help from others, but also changes in perspective, environment and core belief. jeremy alone is not going to fix jean and make him good as new, and that attitude towards them is unhelpful when analysing the narrative. jean's slow journey of healing comes from the combination of: a huge change in environment (the mob mindset of the raven's nest -> the sunshine court), a support network (jeremy, cat, laila, wymack, the trojans, occasionally kevin and neil), a change in mindset (both towards exy as a sport and towards relationships with others and a relationship with himself) and simply time. no one person can heal another, and no matter how large a role jeremy plays in jean's healing, he knows he can't do it on his own. so do the other people around jean. it's why cat takes him on a motorbike ride, just to let him relax and see the world. it's why renee doesn't get jean to stay with her, because she knows how good the trojans will be for him. jeremy is not going to heal jean, but he can definitely help him with it.

the last and arguably most important thing is this: jean trusts jeremy. y'all can talk about how jean is traumatised and unfamiliar with the world outside the nest but i swear to god this fandom babies and uwufies him to unbelievable extents. jean may be unspeakably traumatised and at the end of his rope, but he is an adult, and he does have agency. he understands that jeremy cares about him and his wellbeing, and he trusts jeremy. jeremy isn't perfect. he's inevitably going to make mistakes and do questionable things along the way, but i don't think he's at all impeding jean's healing or growth, and he is doing everything with genuine good intentions. one person's definition of the "right" thing to do is not objective and all-encompassing. jeremy may do things that offend you, and that you would hate, but everyone has a different opinion on these things. do you guys remember the conversation between andreil after dr*ke's attack, when neil pushes andrew just to see him crack? if u think about it on an objective level, it was wrong, even cruel, to press someone about their history of trauma after a horribly traumatic event has just happened to them. but andrew doesn't hold it against neil, and doesn't even seem all that bothered by it. i think the aftg fandom would do well to look at things and events that happen in the books in context and stop thinking that there is only one right answer to every question and only one correct solution in every situation. just because something would be a no-go for you, doesn't mean it would be for everyone, and that goes for fictional characters as much as it goes for real life.

anyway i just find it so interesting how critical and quick to judge people are when it comes to jeremy, when, objectively, the foxes and even andreil have done probably more pressing and objectively "wrong" things to each other. if u read the series back, there are a lot of times when they push and challenge each other's boundaries, but there's an understanding that that is the best way for them to engage with each other. it would do everyone a lot of good to apply the same attitude to the sunshine court, considering how vastly different of a context this new series is in.

[prettygoododds]

Thank you so much @rimeswithpurple @emeryhall @roomwithanopenfire @monbons @nausikaaa @artsyunderstudy and @martsonmars for the tags! You can definitely tell everyone is done digging themselves out of the holidays and countdown. I'm loving all the content I'm seeing.

I've particularly liked seeing some people's fandom's resolutions. It made me think of my own.

I spent a lot of last year trying to find a good balance between the things I'm obligated to do and the things I want to do. By the time the COC hit, I was in the mindset that the things I needed to do were too much and I had to skip COC this year. This made me incredibly angry and resentful. I hated that the thing I wanted to do was the thing I gave up. So, with spite fueling me forward, I did the COC and I'm so glad I did. But that did make me reflect on how I proceed.

I'm not going to overthink things. I'm going to do the things that make me happy. And what makes me happy is this fandom, the supportive people in it and writing. I need to lean on other folks for the things that are obligations. I don't have to do all the things, but I should at least do the things that bring me joy.

That being said, who wants to see a little of that joy?

Picket Fence blurb:

This happens again and again.  An almost blowie in his kitchen, a hot and heavy grind on his sofa that came to an abrupt halt when his aunt stopped by, and one unfortunate tumble in his garden that ended with both of us thorny and grumpy. And look, I’m all for edging, but not like this. Not spread out over days and days and with no actual end in sight.  I’m ready to explode. Literally.

A non-Carry On blurb (A Power Unbound Jack/Alan) :

“Apologies my lord,” Alan says back, breathing heavily into neck. “I wasn’t expecting you.” “Am I to understand you are always entertaining handsome men at your desk then?” “There was a handsome man at my desk?” Alan says cheekily. “I only saw you, my lord. Who could see anyone else once you’re in the room.” “You do not have to placate me,” Jack growls, frustrated by his own insecurities. “I know a younger, better man when I see one.” “You’ll have to point them out to me next time,” Alan says, catching Jack’s chin in his fingers and forcing him to look him in the eyes. “For I saw no one who could hold a candle to my stubborn aristocrat.” Jack has to close his eyes and absorb that last sentence.

I have something else that I'll be posting soon, but I don't want to spoil it so just know you'll see something soon-ish.

I've also got to start work shopping something for the COBB. If anyone has an idea I would not be opposed to a little jump start because I am stuck.

Ok, well, I feel this got wordy. Thanks if you stayed to the end. Here's some very non-pressure tags:

@ic3-que3n @dohrnaira @thewholelemon @facewithoutheart @imagineacoolusername

@shemakesmeforget @ivelovedhimthroughworse @wellbelesbian @aristocratic-otter @cutestkilla

@blackberrysummerblog @supercutedinosaurs @nightimedreamersworld @valeffelees @iamamythologicalcreature

@shrekgogurt @ileadacharmedlife @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @hushed-chorus @youarenevertooold

@noblecorgi @talentpiper11 @bookish-bogwitch

[dustorangeheartssnow]

TAGGED BY @bluegarners and @daringyounggrayson THANK U!!!!!!

TAGGING @danishsweethearts @havendance @saturnaftertaste @biromantic-nerd @your-worst-knightmare

Number of stories posted to ao3: TWO

Word count of works posted last year: 26,177

Fandoms I wrote for: bat….man..

Pairings: all gen

Stories with the most kudos, bookmarks and comment threads: 

Most kudos: the lower and coarser soul

Most bookmarks: New Again

Most comment threads: New Again

Work I’m most proud of (and why): NEW AGAIN! 1) I neverrrr finish multi-chapter works and 2) IT IS AN IDEA I TRULY LOVE and an idea that i have desperately wanted to see executed for a LONG TIME and i am glad to have done it and am pleased as punch with the concept and the angst

Work I’m least proud of (and why): the lower and coarser soul i now think could be punchier and have more economy of language. Reading it back it feels tryhard and a little saccharine 

share or describe a favorite review you received: i got a review on a different fic asking if i would be updating New Again because they really liked New Again—and that was like omg. It really touched my heart that like someone was following my stories and thinking about my first chapter of another fic like enough to ask. New Again was really my baby and I more or less felt like it was me and that work against the world and it wouldn’t be very popular because it’s sort of a cheesy concept and Thomas Wayne Jr also is not too well-loved so it was like THAT ONE??? YOU WANT MORE OF THAT ONE??? And it was because of that comment from theknwing that I actually wrote and posted the next two chapters!!!! I literally would not have done that otherwise. I was so shocked and like omgggg when they asked. So thank u theknwing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A time when writing was really, really hard: Writing is never hard for me but Having Ideas is REALLY HARD i never have ideas 

A scene or character you wrote that surprised you: 

I always knew I wanted to end New Again on the bittersweet (or just bitter) “watch his face when I leave and see how it falls” with Dick choosing Thomas over Bruce because Dick feels attached to Thomas and too melted-down and undeserving for Bruce, but I didn’t intend initially for the timeskip to be so many years. Frequently think about going back and revising it, but haven’t yet. BUT I DO REALLY LIKE THIS SPECIFIC PASSAGE

A favourite excerpt of your writing: 

THE SCENE AFTER THOMAS MAKES DICK KILL SCARECROW AND THEYRE BACK IN THE CAVE:

Dick slowly folds to his knees next to the computer. Thomas gazes down at him. Dick looks up. Onscreen is a description of the night as it happened in Thomas’s characteristic clipped, short sentences. The glow from the screen colors Thomas’s cheekbone angel-white. Next to the keyboard is a tray Alfred must have left, with sugarcubes, what smells like very strong peppermint tea, and neatly cut cucumber sandwiches. Thomas brings down a hand and brushes the back of his knuckles against Dick’s cheek. 

“I told you,” Thomas says quietly. “This doesn’t change anything.”

Dick turns his cheek away from Thomas’s hand. Instead, slowly, he presses his forehead against Thomas’s outer thigh, still plated with the Owlman suit. Thomas exhales sharply.

Thomas’s hand moves to the crown of Dick’s skull, where it applies almost possessive pressure, fingernails scraping against Dick’s scalp, even though Dick’s hair must make Thomas’s fingers wet. 

“I adore you,” Thomas says. 

Dick shudders.

How did you grow as a writer last year: I REALLY CUT DOWN ON A LOT OF MY PURPLE PROSE

How do you hope to grow this year: I WANT TO WRITE THINGS THAT ARE EXCITING AND LIKE FORCE ME TO MAKE JUMPS AND LEAVE THINGS OUT FOR THE READER TO HOTWIRE TOGETHER instead of me over explaining or lingering too long everything and undercutting the shortest point   

Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer, beta, cheerleader, etc.): EMMACORTANA MY BELOVED. Omg what a thing to be mutuals with one of your fandoms biggest writers and have them enact stunning hyperperceptive analyses of your work. She catches every single detail i cannot tell you how often i reread her notes. My hero mon ange whom i adore beyond measure 

Anything from your real life show up in your writing last year: Im sure lots and lots but nothing i can think of off of the top of my head. However the “Have I told you I love you yet today?” thing that Alfred says in a bunch of my work is from my mom saying that

Any new wisdom you can share with other writers: If what you want to write doesnt seem like it will have an audience and no one will want to read it but you REALLY love your idea, WRITE IT and do so with such like satisfaction and like dignity that you’re writing something truly a product of YOU and YOUR intuitions and knowledge and desires and thoughts, not just some burned-CD version of what you think some abstract Audience arbiter of popularity wants. Don’t even worry about things being popular. I know people say dont worry about that and then it is sad when your thing is unpopular or less popular and its like okay well. But its serious and its very important to not let people pick you up and move you from what you want. Do you know those people whose politics for example are just what will get them applause and what slogans they memorized from the Ideological Software Updates or whatever they can glean from çanva posts on  social media? Have you ever looked around and realized all of the people around you were saying exactly the same truisms you believed and thought were being especially Good and Clever for believing and they’re saying them all inelegantly and hamfistedly and for the wrong reasons like grievance and applause???? You HAVE to find it for yourself. That is a bad place to be—and that happens when you let yourself be moved too much. You have to not let yourself be moved except by you. You dont need to be on the cutting edge: You need to do you. Reinvent the wheel by all means if the wheel schematics are in your brain, or be a real true normie with the most basic aesthetic and media tests ever (I AM!!!!) but NEVER change your work and the sake of it being more popular. To make more $ sure, def change it, but for fun???? HAVE INTEGRITY WITH YOURSELF and what you want!! 15 kudos for something that is 100% truly yours what you wanted it to be is superior to 100 kudos for something that you compromised on even just 5% and buckled for bc then it’s something you don’t even want so like what was the point?

Any projects you’re looking to starting (or finishing) this year: 

i have this one medieval dc fic within the context of like william blakes mythopoesis that I’ve been TRYING TO GET OUT and i alsoI have this Azrael&Dick enemies-to-???? fic in my mind where there shall be a silly (in context it is supposed to b sad. But describing it, it is very silly) scene where JPV has like all these mini hard pretzels in a bag and drops the bag and then half are broken in half and so JPV spreads them all out on the countertop and is breaking the others in half because of like. i don’t want to diagnosticize here bc JPV has a Lot going on but like OCD-adjacent reasons and Dick comes in and sighs and then in total pure silence under the kitchen light in the middle of the night they sit across from each other and break the rest of the pretzels in perfect halves until the unbalancedness doesnt  bother JPV anymore and after that JPV is so totally touched by that act and he is so obsessed enamored with DG

[nanawaffles]

... so I'm pretty sure this is likely going to fall on deaf ears, but this crossed my dash, and I have to add some thoughts. So on one hand I agree with you, Aredhel has so little representation in this fandom apart from romanticizing her clearly abusive relationship compared to Galadriel who is pretty much everywhere; aaand there's a lot of uncanon gender roles pushed not just on elven society, but Arda as a whole.

However, there are no "obviously gay characters" in Tolkien, there's a lot of friendships which are so lacking in fandom consumption of media. And the fandom has characterized a lot of characters who are gay, including ones who are not gay, regularly. Samwise Gamgee, not gay, marries Rosie Cotton, canonically loves her to bits-- on AO3 2,500 fics are of him and Frodo. Him and Rosie? 338. A character that's canonically straight. How about Aragorn, again, another canonically straight character... on AO3 his main ship is Legolas with well over 2,000, while his canonical ship with Arwen has 1,380. A little more balanced. How about Thranduil, y'know the guy who had a wife and was still so devastated about her death centuries later that he couldn't even talk about her to his son? Naturally we'll have to come up with OCs for that, right? Okay. According to AO3, thranduil/his wife tag has 485 and thranduil/ original female character has 588, together that's 1,073. However, thranduil/bard is 1,375, thranduil/ thorin is 648, thranduil/elrond is 336. All told that's 2,359. Canonically straight. But then again fandom has painted him as a pretty boy who likes to drink wine, be sassy, and be very flamboyantly gay.

In other words... the fandom has collectively made all these characters gay when they weren't. And I'm not talking Bisexual, there's so much bi-erasure it's kinda ridiculous. But I digress.

Now, Maedhros and Fingon. After reading this post I did a little breakdown on AO3, to see if you're right about women creating ocs. So i found there's 85 maedhros/ofc. There are 20 fingon/ofc and 39 of fingon/fingons wife (I'll touch on that in a second). There's even 7 brave souls who do fingon/maedhros/ofc. All told that is 144. Fingon/Maedhros however? 2,754. In other words, not even close. The fandom seems unanimous, the tag is full of it, and it's actually pretty hard to even find either of them in a heterosexual ship. Especially given there isn't actually any canonical base for it. You can reference Tolkien aaand WH Auden all day, but that doesn't change that at a core level he didn't write it. It isn't there. And yes, Christopher Tolkien has stated he mistakenly made Gil-Galad to be Fingons son instead of Orodreths when he published Silmarillion, but he still got that from an original idea. In fact there's actually more children in the old ideas, meaning that Tolkien had a wife in mind for Fingon. Now he changed it it would seem, but that doesn't negate that with that baseline... that kinda points to Fingon being straight.

I believe you mentioned "uncanon gender roles... for no reason". Define for me the difference? Russingon is, in the end, fanfiction. They are friends in canon. They're ride or die friends. And what's wrong with that? What's wrong with loving a friend so much you'll walk literally into hell for them? Now you could say "what about Beleg and Turin?" To which I would have to concede. Turin kissed him on the mouth. Plain and simple.

"But it's implied" ... implication isn't canon. You can build headcanons off implication, but at the end it's still not canon. For instance, earlier I said Aredhel/Eöl is clearly abusive. However, there's lots of people who see it as full of possibilities and half her numbers on AO3 are with Eöl. Now I may not agree with a loving relationship, but it's not un-canon, it's just interpretation. On that same note, ship what you want, it's not illegal. Whatever floats your boat.

However, calling anyone who doesn't agree with you homophobic because when they read the Silmarillion they saw a deep and beautiful friendship, and wish to ship either Maedhros,Fingon, Glorfindel, Ecthelion, Etc,etc,etc.... with women... that's pretty messed up. It would be like if I took Achilles and shipped him exclusively with Briseis, got everyone to agree and then called those who shipped him with Patroclus or other men, names. As a matter of fact, isn't that what most of the academic community has done for ages? What's the difference? You're saying any woman who writes a fiction with these characters in a ship with a woman they're in the wrong because of the "obviously gay characters".

Additionally the female characters in this fandom don't get the same treatment. Somehow they're all straight, they're all there for only their ships, no one ever crossovers the men around them. Oh sure there's Aredhel/ Celegorm, but fyi that's it for her apart from Eöl. Women are treated as wingmen for all the gays, which I don't have an issue with overall, but it's everywhere. Aredhel I know mostly because she's my favourite character, Aredhel who out of the 1,541 works on AO3, 315 of those are her playing wingman or being otherwise in the background for Fingon and Maedhros. Out of the leftover 1,226 Celegorm is her main ship with 295. 172 are her and Eöl. Also, you know how Fingon and Maedhros have 2,754 fics? Comparably we should have as much f/f fic for the other two cousins, Aredhel/ Galadriel---21. Okay okay maybe not Galadriel, maybe Elenwë? 13. This is from a character who a lot of people see as bisexual.

Okay but she's not as popular. What about Galadriel? ....Halbrand/Sauron+Galadriel is 2,130. Celeborn follows with 633. She has a total count of f/f : 348.

Wait what was Maedhros' count on m/m? 3,036.

... in other words this fandom has zero balance. M/M ships are the top ones in spite of them having zero canonical support (Turin/beleg & morgoth/sauron excluded) actually hold on lemme get the silmarillion numbers.

Out of 31,498 fanfics on AO3 of only the Silmarillion. 10,718 are M/M. 5,919 are M/F. 1,289 are F/F.

The ship orders are these.

1. Russingon

2. Angbang

3. Feanor/nerdanel

4. Maedhros/Maglor

5. Celebrian/Elrond

6. Silvergifting

7. Feanor/Fingolfin

8. Erestor/Glorfindel

... in conclusion this fandom is primarily gay, with only two main ships that are heterosexual, and females are supposed to stay in their lane with only the canon ships where the men have wives... in spite of the fact that theres no canon evidence except conjecture that 95% of the men are gay. Even though when you stay in your lane, even the heterosexual men are still categorized as in the closet. Aka everyone. In truth. And if anyone complains about the imbalance they're homophobic.

Is that what you're telling me??

I know we all talk about homophobic straight boy Tolkien nerds, but what about homophobic straight girl Tolkien nerds, the ones who write fanfic of obviously gay characters x f! Readers, the ones who have no grasp that sindarin is not the only elvish language, the ones who idealize aragorn, and love Galadriel for being a girl boss but not Aredhel, the ones who make up fictional, completely canonically unsupported wives for Maedhros and Fingon, the ones who love the women of Tolkien but put tons of uncanon gender roles into elvish society for no reason.

[unma]

Here's That Heathcliff Ramble You All Wanted

Okay so forgive me for whatever inaccuracies are in here (and correct me if you notice any!) I'm simply sharing the mess of thoughts sitting in my head and while I'm sure this will be more organized by the time I take this out of Notepad and post it I don't promise it won't be obvious how much of a ramble this is. But okay let's go.

Heathcliff and Other!Heathcliff: One and the Same

No, this isn't a theory that Other!Heath is a future Heath or something. It's been made pretty obvious that isn't the case, given ids only pull from other worlds as far as I know. I will also not comment on how this happened; I am aware this (or something similar) happened in Leviathan, but I haven't read Leviathan so I am not aware of the specifics of how this works. Neither does that matter.

Now, to get into my point, I first need to compare this Canto's progression to the previous Canto's, Canto V. Some comparisons in terms of character development could also be made to Canto IV, but my understanding of that is limited and I need to replay it more, and Canto V is a much better comparison due to their similarities. You see, in Canto VI and V, Heathcliff and Ishmael are mirrors of their respective antagonists. While in Ishmael's case, it is because her obsession with defeating Ahab was leading her down the path of becoming Ahab herself ("That bastard… has to be alive still."), for Heathcliff that is because Other!Heathcliff is literally him. In ever single way except for the world he originates from. Given that Ishmael's arc is about seeing that and changing for the better, you would expect Heathcliff to have a similar arc. You would expect their battles to progress the same, with Heathcliff overcoming his issues over the course of the battle acting as a show of their growth so far …right?

The Other!Heathcliff boss fight was great. Music was banging, fight was pretty damn fun and somewhat challenging, and my Shi Heathcliff was doing utterly nothing because I didn't want to stagger him (I have only two none base ids, and the other is a level 1 N. Corp Heath. I was not spending the next half hour in Luxcavation). But, back on track, during the fight I had the distinct feeling that unlike Ahab and Ishmael, there was literally no difference between the two. There was no character growth or sudden realization. You could switch the characters around and it'd be the exact same—hell, give Heath a couple more days and he'd be the exact same. This is even shown in how both of them can get the Deep Bereavement buff.

Where am I going with this? Well, I want to point out the end of their fights. Specifically their base EGO's changes. Ishmael's Snagharpoon was a representation of her undying hatred for Ahab and her obsessive focus on the goal of hunting Ahab down. Her striking Ahab down with the harpoon would be the realization of those efforts, but it would also cement her existence as an Ahab. It would show that she was truly willing to let herself be blinded by her obsession for revenge at the expense of those around her, and thus her striking down the whale after would be Ahab striking down the whale. However, in choosing to strike the whale instead of Ahab, she shows her ability to not let such an obsession completely overtake her; to follow her compass not with blind devotion but with a sharp understanding, like a great sailor. She has learnt to use her compass as a guide for a journey of her own making, not as a rule for where she must go. "This is how I will chart my own path…"

Heathcliff, on the other hand, does not have the meaning of his EGO change or evolve at the end of the battle. Instead, the meaning is further reinforced and revealed plainly for all to see, with the extra context of what Other!Heathcliff told him. "You… and everything that crushed me under their feet, built this wall between me and Cathy…" may include Hindley and Edgar, but ultimately they're only extras. The true meaning of the Bodysack is made literal as he proceeds to beat Other!Heathcliff to death with it, who, as we've established, is literally him. He is beating up himself with the sack. He is going to shove himself into the sack. And as the beating continues and extends past its usual duration, we see the envy outline fade and be replaced with wrath, and the damage counter changes to that of corrosion. He is not wielding the EGO. It is wielding him. This acts as a representation of how this battle has affected him; but unlike Ishmael who grew positively in her cutscene, Heathcliff is faller deeper and deeper into his already existing issues. Bodysack's envy assignment showed just how much he envied everyone else: he seems himself as an absolute wretch, the worst of the worst, and because he sees everyone as better than him, he journeys to better himself such that Cathy will acknowledge him. And yet, as the Envy fades to wrath, its meaning is not completely altered, only further revealed. He doesn't just envy others for not being as pathetic as he sees himself to be, he hates himself for being such a wretch. The bodysack isn't just meant for others. It's meant for the object of his hatred. Himself.

In killing Other!Heathcliff in such a manner, he cements himself as the same person, much like it would have been if Ishmael killed Ahab.

Here, I will shift a little to talk about Other!Heath, who I view as simply a more complete version of Heath. In the sense that he's already been through the entire book, his entire journey. He is Heath with the benefit (or demerit, I guess) of experience. And yet it's interesting how he's not even the slightest angry about losing. He doesn't just want to kill Heathcliff, not to just watch him fall into despair. He wants Heathcliff to come to the realization that he has: he is the wretch that murdered Cathy. He is the reason she was destined to be miserable. And for that sin, he deserves nothing worse than hell. Other!Heathcliff doesn't just want Heathcliff dead, he wants himself dead. He's not just journeying to other worlds to fulfil some hate boner. It's either he kills other Heathcliffs, or they kill him. There is no in-between. All Heathcliffs must die, and as long as they continue to die, he is fine with his own death.

There is another thing I would like to comment on, but only lightly, as I would like to wait for the reveal this Wednesday to complete my thoughts on it, but Heath's conversation with Carmen is interesting, specifically the point where he distorts. There, he affirms just how he sees himself: not as a human, but as a beast, something much lesser than a person. Such is the shape his distortion shall take, as said by Carmen and laid out by Heathcliff: "I shall become an infernal hound; snarling, tearing at the fabric of the City… And I will shove its remnants into this sack… and grate it across the broken earth." One cannot help but think this is a result of all the dehumanization he had gone through at the hands of Hindley. All the verbal abuse he suffered at the hands of everyone but Nelly and Catherine has been internalized, and this is the result.

Lastly, I would like to point out two things that came to me upon remembering the start of the book: Cathy died in childbirth from what I heard, and Ms. Heathcliff (I am unaware if her name is revealed in the book, I have either not reached that point or it never is) has yet to show up in this Canto to my knowledge. However, that is not what I want to talk about here. The thing is, Heathcliff owns dogs in the books. The hounds that threatened to bite Mr. Lockwood. And I can't help but think that his distortion would reference them, in some part. I know Heathcliff already has Telepole (which is sure to take on meaning given this Canto, especially its corrosion), but I doubt they would go the route of making his distortion straight up Telepole. That would be disappointed and honestly doesn't seem like what PM would do. Allow me this little bit of speculation, alright?

I think that's all I have to say for now. I can't wait to see what happens next honestly, so I'm kinda glad I have GBF Guild Wars to distract me until the next part is here. Feel free to share your thoughts in the notes! I may take a while to respond, but I promise I'll do so eventually! (Be patient with me, I have social anxiety and ADHD, admittedly self-diagnosed though.)

[anoant-haikyuu-dump]

Kenma meets his future self

[highseas-swede]

...I seriously cannot stress how much I hate tags like "Give us BAMF Aziraphale" because it seems to imply that he's not badass.

He IS. Tell me how well most people could endure 6000 years of consistent, persistent demoralization, harassment and shitty treatment without snapping?

Do you know how HARD it is to be kind when you've been put through a system that actively discourages kindness and softness, a system that tries to beat it out of you - not physically, but still. The fact that Aziraphale got through all of that and is not just still kind, but still has the capacity to be kind to the very people who hurt him, is fucking remarkable.

Aziraphale is badass. Period. Full Stop.

It's well past time that we stopped equating physical and fighting prowess as a measure of badassery. Just about anyone can exercise and get strong enough to fight someone. Just about anyone could possibly get weapons training. Neither of these things is half as brave as putting yourself in front of a crowd of people and holding off 70 demons with just conviction and a candleholder because it's the RIGHT THING TO DO.

EDIT: I had to add this while I was thinking of it.

I feel like people are buying into Heaven's version of badassery. Angels were made to FIGHT. To fight the last big battle against demons and Hell.

Aziraphale is a deviation because he DOES NOT WANT THAT. He doesn't want to fight a war that will hurt billions and destroy the world. His defining moment in Season 1 is when he stands in the face of the quartermaster and refuses to fight the way they want him to. Instead of a weapon, he chooses to find another way.

If anything, I would think it's leading to the idea that Aziraphale feels he must fight, that he has no choice, and then, when it comes right down to it, finding another way. A kinder way. A BETTER way.

By the standards of Heaven, Aziraphale picking up his sword and fighting would be Normal. Him refusing and finding another way is what makes him Unique. THAT'S what makes him badass.

[bellaaldamas]

The "mistagging" was clearly not accidental, sadly. This person deliberately used the ship tag (freytos) so that the fans, myself included, would find it. Whereas the "progressive left" has demonstrated yet again how they embrace patriarchy in it's most primordial form by claiming Freya's development and "freedom" from abuse will be "downplayed" if she enters a healthy relationship with another man. This same person never received any kind of aggressive backlash or trolling when it comes to their own, completely AU and fanon headcanons about Atreus and the yaoi involving him. But they cannot extend the same courtesy to other people in the fandom, in this case freytos shippers, and refrain from using the appreciation tag for their outburst.

And as much as I absolutely hate going into that territory and playing the "Greek woman" card I cannot help but be disturbed and appalled by how Lysandra is being used as a weapon against Freytos by the people who do not - nor have they ever - cared about her. Beyond her being a "proto" Greek wife who has "fulfilled her duty" of carrying a brooding and violent man "forward" before he could find a more "advanced and developed" Nordic woman Faye who "finally fixed him". Thus, Faye has also fulfilled her duty of making Kratos into a better person and being the perfect wife and mother before dying on him. Those same people do not even recognize how misogynistic it is to reduce both Faye and Lysandra to the accessories in Kratos's story.

@rhythmsmith and @freytos already covered most of the issues with the anti-Freytos rhetoric in the replies. Therefore I will just copy and paste my own responses to their eloquent summary (you can read their comments in the reply section to this post):

This attitude stems from misogyny and the idea that women become reduced to sexual objects the moment they get involved with men. This is normalizing the society's sexist notion that romantic/sexual relationship mean an automatic loss of autonomy and agency - but only for a woman. Same notion does not extend to men and THAT is why the anti-Freytos types support all manner of ludicrous Yaoi with Kratos involved. Including Kratos and Atreus of Sparta which is absurd because Kratos would never name his son after a man he supposedly had a "crush" on let alone a relationship with. Or Kratos and Tyr and Kratos and Thor where the former has zero basis in canon and is even more fanon than Freytos (which had allusions and direct mentions of the possibility of their involvement in Valhalla). Whilst Kratos/Thor is an outright toxic ship where antagonism between two characters is being fetishized and sexualized. Those same people would bend over backwards calling an M/F ship such as this "abusive" because "dumb women" cannot resist "bad boys'" charms. But men totally can and should be paired with such bad boys.

Finally, there is the greatest evil in the form of the idea that platonic and romantic relationship should be held to a different standard.

This is why the Baldur issue only EVER comes into play when the subject of Freytos romantic involvement comes into play. This is especially offensive in the context of Freya's story where Odin's abuse of her did not exist in vacuum and was enabled and made possible by her community, her own people and both the "evil/misguided" Aesir and the "good/confused" Vanir.

Freya's own people, for whom she had entered the marriage with Odin in the first place, denounced her - including her own brother - and wrote insults on the walls of her realm in order to humiliate her for daring to exercise her agency. But both the fandom and the narrative expected Freya to just forgive and forget because this is what women ought to do.

Then the anti-Freytos types spit on abuse victims from their victim blaming, pseudo-feminist high horse when they pair Freya with Sif - a woman who raised her own daughter to consider Freya a "treacherous ex wife" of her genocidal granddaddy (but Thrud is still a "feminist icon" and should totally be friends and even "more" with Atreus who made it clear time and again he is not interested in her and who, mind you, killed her brother in cold blood; but it's totally ok, because Thrud dismissed Modi's death in an outright sociopathic manner of "we're better off without him").

Most of the anti-Freytos misogyny is repackaged patriarchy from yaoi shippers which suggests a woman loses her individuality the moment she gets involved with a man. Particularly atrocious is the rhetoric of "let Freya just be Free" after her separation from Odin and his abuse, as if commitment and romantic/marital involvement means an automatic loss of freedom and autonomy but only for women. This is both misogynistic and absolves men like Odin of responsibility for their abusive behaviors by implying that the problem was/is not them but the fact of a woman choosing to enter a relationship and marriage. And, by doing so, supposedly "signing up" for marital and domestic violence. This is a progressive version of "she had it coming".

This is also where another misogynistic claim comes into play: the idea that Freya being involved with Kratos "destroys her entire arc, their beautiful friendship and Freya's liberation from Odin's abuse". Yet again the mechanics of abuse against women is being misrepresented and implies that involvement, for a woman, comes with the inevitability of being A) abused and B) losing her freedom/autonomy. By arguing that, the anti-Freytos camp is placing the responsibility for those occurrences on women.

But a man can totally be involved with any other man because men in general have "evolved beyond" losing their individuality and freedom when they have a relationship. Only "hormonal and gullible women" do. Hence the assorted yaoi with Kratos passed off as "progressive".

The Freytos opposing crowd is so miserable they believe their "progressive misogyny" gets a pass for invading freytos tag with their "hot takes". Of course said progressive misogyny involves an insulting anti-women claim that woman's separation and freedom from her abuser (Odin in this case) would be downplayed if she enters a positive and healthy relationship with another man. And no, you do not get to play the "but Kratos killed Baldur!!11!!" card if you still "Wuv their Bootiful Friendship" and don't want it ruined by the "dirty romance" which supposedly turns women into sexual objects and robs poor men of the ability to still respect them and acknowledge their needs. Holding platonic relationship to a different standard than romantic relationship is offensive, especially when talking about a character like Freya whose marital abuse at the hands of Odin was only possible because it was enabled by the people she had platonic connections to (including her own people and her brother who had denounced her). Kratos was the only one who did not enable it.

Needless to say those progressive misogynists are totally on board with Kratos being a part of some completely fanon yaoi such as Kratos/Mimir or Kratos/Tyr or Kratos/Thor. Because men are "more complex and deep" than women and THEIR progression, development and "journey" can never be undermined if they take romantic interest in one another. Only women become servants to their hormones if they do, didn't you know?

Predictably, in order to make this progressive misogyny work and get support from the fellow "progressives" the anti-Freytos types proudly establish themselves as the "not like other girls" of the fandom who do not need to learn proper tagging.

One good thing to come out of their sexism, entitlement and lack of tagging ethic? It gives a perfect opportunity to block everyone in the notes.

[letsmcfreackingloseit]

Hey-ho! I'm back again with some Apex Polarity art, but this time it's some designs for the humans' snow gear!

It started out with me just trying to figure out a design for y/n in my little comic, but then I thought it would be fun to also try and visualize the other humans, so here's my take of y/n, Vanessa and Michael! I really like how they turned out, although I don't think I got Vanessa's "patchwork" look quite right, but I still like where I landed. I added a blue scarf and I was really tempted to give her those red goggles, since it would've made her resemble Vanny even more, but in the end I desided against it.

So yeah- nothing too big this time, just something fun and easy!

But to round this off, I will of course credit the wonderful author @naffeclipse who is writing Apex Polarity, which you can go read if you click right here (can 100% recommend, especially if you like stories with a bunch of fluff, mystery and drama~!) and today I give credit to myself for the designs of the humans! ;P

[foggyfanfic]

Themes vs Realism

Saw an old debate about how isolated the Encanto is and it got me thinking about my own headcanons.

I watched the movie, saw the windows and wine glasses and thought “Oh! They must have trade, glass requires a specific sort of sand and while glass blowers would be relatively common, the odds they had somebody who knows how to make glass frit are pretty low”. And I can back up that argument with research and facts, buying glass is getting more expensive because we’re running low on sand with the right chemical composition, glass frit production would be more likely to happen in towns near silica rich beaches, where as Alma’s hometown looked like it was in the middle of the forest. Nowadays, not every country in the world has the right sand, when I worked with glass blowers they imported their frit from I think a family in Sweden(?) that are like one of the last few people making frit. So glass is actually a very big deal! I digress. Basically, realistically, the fact that they have glass means that they must have some trade.

But that’s completely irrelevant to the movie, isn’t it?

The movie is all about healing from generational trauma, Encanto being completely isolated is better for the movie’s themes. It’s like how we all love the deleted scene where Bruno argues with Alma and says “I wish I was dead” but the writers cut that scene because it gives Bruno confronting Alma on Mirabel’s behalf an extra bit of punch if he was never willing to do so before. Realistically, a deeply unhappy, almost forty adult who is as blunt as Bruno would have had that argument with Alma; thematically, Mirabel’s mysterious Tío couldn’t muster up the courage/passion to confront the movie’s antagonist until he was doing it for love. Realistically, it is actually necessary for Pepa to control her emotions because she can create hurricanes and that sorta disaster could wipe out the village; thematically, Pepa needs to be allowed to let her feelings flow through her without anyone snapping at her about it. Realistically they must have trade; thematically, they must be completely isolated.

There isn’t really a good way for canon to bridge this gap as far as I can tell, in story telling themes usually take precedence over realism, especially in a fantasy setting. But for a lot of people (like me) the funnest thing to do when writing fanfic is throw in a dash of realism and see what comes out of it. Obviously, the way you want to reconcile this is absolutely up to you. I personally care more about the movie sticking to themes than I do it being realistic or conforming to my background knowledge, I’m fully expecting to have most of my head canons disproven when they release more material. That said, for the sake of fic, I think asking questions like “Where are they getting the raw materials to build that” is a great launching pad.

I don’t know how to word my conclusion. That year I spent working with glass blowers is going to butt heads with my suspension of disbelief for the rest of my life? Realism is great for fanfic but not so much in short stories like movies? My head canons will never be canon and it’s better that way?

[dykedvonte]

why do you hate Joshua Graham or Honest Hearts so much?

This DLC and character represents a bigger issue with fandom spaces I have but particularly fallout fandom in general.

Fallout tends to tackle a lot of topics controversial and not. The first two games it’s heavy cause they are the most satirical and direct with how anti-war, nationalism and etc… they are. 3 loses this as it’s very clear once you play or learn about all the games that Todd and a bunch of guys at Bethesda just liked the 50s post apocalyptic aesthetic and refuse to actually critique the ideals of the time period like the earlier titles.

New Vegas is the game that really gets back into it a degree it almost seems like it’s taking too much on. There are things done exceedingly well while other things are done horribly wrong . I’ve made posts about it before and plan to make a big series of posts (it’s a lot of writing) but my biggest gripe is with Honest Hearts and all the gross and white savior esque depictions it has of indigenous peoples. The entirety if FNV does not do the injustices faced by indigenous people correctly on any count. My two biggest complaints are with the Khans and the tribes in Zion but I’ll talk about the former on a different post.

Both characters of Daniel and Joshua are the most accurate depiction of white saviors I’ve seen and I hate how the DLC tries to justify and defend them. The DLC treats Joshua like this man who has repented for his past actions when he is just retracing his steps after his cruelty bit him in the ass. He was one of the worst parts of the Legion and it is all but explicitly stated that if you don’t force him to be non-violent he will turn the tribes of Zion into the legion 2.0. The Dead Horses and the Sorrows are horribly infantilized by both Daniel and Joshua who both use them for self serving purposes guised by religious duty. The White Legs are the horrible stereotype of violent and savage indigenous and I personally think a lot of their interlinking with Ulysses, his hair and Ulysses character in general are distasteful and very telling of how BIPOC or POC where involved.

But outside of the game it’s the weird obsession people have with these characters ideologies and trying to make them seem more interesting/philosophical than they are. Tumblr is an echo chamber and many fans of Fallout are not the people on this site. Many people are not educated in the issues these characters convey and how poorly they do or used these characters as a poor introduction for their takes. Contrary to what a lot of people believe in, fallout has a prediomeny white cis male fanbase. More importantly a large portion of the fanbase is white.

You can joke how FNV made you trans or see the numbers on post/fics or diverse headcanons but these are kiddy numbers compared to the millions that consume the franchise and aren’t in those more aware spaces or don’t engage in the spaces the same way someone like me does/has to. Their views shape a lot more than people realize and it’s exhausting to be in a space where people don’t correct the more subtle yet toxic aspects of it but also adopt them into some weird quirky view point on the characters or issues. Some people don’t realize and some people don’t care.

My main issue is just the idolizing of these sort of thing in this fandom space and people try to acts like a game like fallout whose tagline is “War never changes” and has never had a game not revolve around political or militaristic factions issues isn’t that deep or doesn’t relate to real issues. I think it’s mainly caused by how over powered you can become and how you can strong arm your way past these learning moments as majority of people who play this game do play it as a power fantasy where they can do so as they please (which of course, go ahead it’s fun) but never take in parallels or lessons in the story as if it was just another first person shooter.

Also like another personal gripe is Cazadores spawn like hell whenever I’m there and I have not found a mod that works to mod them out so I have to play Indigenous Racism the DLC while getting jumped by giant wasps WHILE helping Mormons. Like I cannot catch a break.

[licorishh]

Genshin characters age headcanons masterlist (updated)

Yeah. I could give you many reasons why I believe some of the more debatable/"controversial" ones are very sensible and Good based on just freaking paying attention to context given in the game but for now I'll just compile a basic list. If you'd like to hear my reasoning for some of these you're welcome to ask as long as you're polite about it.

List under the cut.

Aether/Lumine: 19

Amber: 18

Kaeya: 22

Lisa: 33

Barbara: 17

Razor: 16

Xiangling: 16

Beidou: 29

Xingqiu: 15

Fischl: 19

Ningguang: 31

Bennett: 18

Noelle: 18

Chongyun: 16

Sucrose: 20

Jean: 21

Diluc: 22

Qiqi: 6-8 (Hard to tell given she's a zombie and talks and acts differently from normal)

Mona: 20

Keqing: 21

Venti: 20 (biologically)

Klee: 7-ish?

Diona: She's so hard because she literally runs a business and acts like an adult but she's super short. I have no idea.

Tartaglia: 21

Xinyan: 19

Zhongli: 37

Albedo: 21

Ganyu: 23

Xiao: 20

Hu Tao: 18

Rosaria: 23

Yanfei: 21

Eula: 24

Kazuha: 20

Ayaka: 18

Sayu: 9- or 10-ish maybe?

Yoimiya: 18

Kujou Sara: 24

Raiden: 28 (biologically)

Kokomi: 18

Thoma: 20

Gorou: 18

Itto: 26

Yun Jin: 19

Shenhe: 23

Yae Miko: 30

Ayato: 26

Yelan: 24

Shinobu: 20

Heizou: 21

Collei: 16

Tighnari: 22

Dori: Super hard to tell, because again, she lives alone and runs a business by herself despite using the short girl model.

Candace: 24

Cyno: 23

Nilou: 21

Nahida: 7-9

Layla: 18-19 (she seems to maybe be in her first year of college - definitely in college, I'm just guessing the year here)

Faruzan: 24 (I know she's like a hundred years older but she was stuck and didn't age and I'm talking biologically still)

Scaramouche: 21 (biologically)

Yaoyao: 7-ish?

Alhaitham: 26

Dehya: 25

Mika: 17

Kaveh: 27

Baizhu: 34

Kirara: 20

Lynette: 20

Lyney: 20

Freminet: 17 (Don't know how much younger he is than his siblings, just guessing based on context and the way he talks and acts)

Furina: 21 (biologically)

Neuvillette: 36 (biologically)

Wriothesley: 32

Navia: 26

Clorinde: 27

Sigewinne: Basically impossible to know as she's a Melusine and not a human

Charlotte: 21

Signora: 29

Dottore: 33

Arlecchino: 31

Dainsleif: 22 (biologically)

[toothlespoggers]

So I was feeling kinda depressed since my blog kinda dies when I’m focusing on my health and irl life, and character development, writing and art takes a lot of time to create something impressive and coherent.

so since I need notes for my blog to stay alive while I work on stuff i thought I’d make a cool sans au to show everyone on tumblr so I get thousands of notes and really cool fanart and get featured in tiktoks and stuff with my character.

Since this is all it takes to become famous in the undertale fandom I thought I’d just throw away all the research I’m doing and just go with what works yanno?

😳 maybe I’ll draw horny art of him next, that’ll reel in the notes.

[honestlyvan]

now im thinking of the agnians being weirded out that kevesi dont have core crystals. taion is simply the most fun to imagine quietly freaking out about this. what are some other bodily differences? the agnians wanting to touch eunie's feathers is fun, but maybe lanz has a different body temperature. noah's got nothing tho. he's just lame and boring lmao

I think Noah might actually be the most disturbing out of the Kevesi for that very reason, especially to Taion as their healer, like, he looks so close to being "normal" (Agnian) except he doesn't feel like an Agnian on an etheric level so he sits right at the bottom of the uncanny valley. Eunie and Lanz, at least, have significant physiological differences that put them firmly in the "other" camp.

The same goes in reverse, Eunie actually hits a jackpot being paired with Taion, the most "normal" Agnian, it raises the incredulity ceiling for her to be dealing with the differences in Agnian physiology by experiencing it first as this Normal Guy being extremely weirdly and abnormally put together, it's like an on-ramp to dealing with the weirder blended physiology of Mio and the straight-up magical of Sena.

Agnians might just also be easier to understand, since they all exist on various points on a continuity, none of them are "fully" anything, all of them have a little bit of Blade in them, whereas Kevesi are, like... you pretty much have to learn to know homs, High Entia and machina physiology, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of overlap, even if High Entia and homs heritages have fully blended (which I don't think is possible, I think High Entia genes are dominant).

I think the plot is much stronger if Kevesi and Agnians inherently have that "are you even human????" response to each other, something just feeling.... off because they're essentially dealing with...not-quite-mirrorverse versions of what they're used to dealing with, I think that makes the text about recognising the personhood of the other, and learning to appreciate them, to seeing the common enemy as someone who wants you to hate the other just for being the other. But I do, also, like it when Taion suffers and is uncomfortable :D

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

underrated genre of character playlist entry: songs a character would relate to because they do not understand their situation, themself, or the song itself well enough to realize it is not accurate (and might well straight up be a callout for people like them). which song is your blorbo's fight club