#that theory deserves its own post tbh

[jevilowo]

COMIC BINGO COMIC BINGO

I'm half convinced it'll come out in and around the tenth of October for the orange box anniversary and if I'm wrong I'll be DEVASTATED.

I'm also so convinced Charles Darling will be relevant somehow I've dedicated a free space to him. I'm also so wary of the possibility of the 4chan leaks being real I've dedicated the other free space to widespread hatred.

[sexcromancy]

hii what is men love orphans in ali h world <3 and !! whats its application to louis in your opinion :)

^ first ever mention of men love orphans in the tags of this post. my own joke still makes me laugh tbh

men love orphans is a concept I developed to help me describe some of the dynamics I was witnessing in alibooks/hetromance, and then I started to see it everywhere. it also synthesized some other ideas I'd been working on for a long time. I'm going to give some context, pin down the explanation of the concept, and then apply it to LDPDL. okay let's go!

I first identified the idea of dadgender in the character of Joel thelastofus: someone who defines themselves completely by their relationship to a child, a dependent, someone to take care of. this idea was really compelling to me; it's obviously not new in tlou or my imagination but it connected well with my John theories and my general fascination with how men operate within and react to the patriarchy.¹

as I read more Ali novels and other hetromances, I began to notice a trend. many, many of the main women characters were orphans, or otherwise abandoned or unloved by parents/family. this is nothing new in literature - Harry Potter is the most obvious example, but there's plenty of writing about the allure of being an orphan, how it frees you from the family ties that might keep other heroes from their fate, etc. it's a very simple and straightforward tragic backstory. my whole goal with AHU is to interrogate the choices Ali makes in her books, and to respect those choices as legitimate, intentional, and deserving of analysis. so once I noticed this, I wanted to figure it out. off the top of my head: olive, bee, elsie, rue, and misery are all orphaned or have one dead parent and a difficult relationship with their surviving parent. family is rarely a significant plot point; it serves only as color and tragic backstory. now, of course, rey starwars is an orphan. rey is famously the original aliheroine, the first character she wrote fic about. one of the biggest reylo scenes in tlj is kylo negging her about being an orphan. ali does gradually distance her own orphans from rey,² but she is really only reinventing it. the loneliness, the isolation, the feeling of being unloved and unloveable, is a constant for all the girls. it is essential that these girls be "orphans" to the varying degrees that they are, in order to facilitate the fantasy.

and what is that fantasy? well, it depends who you ask. the fantasy is the attractive validation of looking after something small, weak, needy. taking care of someone. or, the fantasy is being taken care of, your hurt being acknowledged and treated seriously. the "who did this to you" trope is about protectiveness, yes, but it's also about someone seeing that you got hurt and that it matters! or, the fantasy is about daddy kink going both ways: a woman who needs a strong older man because she was abandoned by her father, but also a man who needs the affirmation of "fatherhood" to feel good about himself. dadgender!³

men love orphans is all of this, and in alibooks it manifests in some specific ways. as mentioned above, there's the literal orphanhood of some of the girls. there is also the control aspect, manifesting in the repeated fantasy of being locked up and treasured and used. another repeated fantasy is found family: that a woman would find not only an adopted father in her lover, but also a new cadre of loveable misfits to belong to as well. Eli has his coworkers and little sister, levi has a best friend and a goddaughter, Jack has useful colleagues and Adam and olive, and lowe, of course, has his literal wolfpack.

AS FOR LDPDL, I think that iwtv plays with men love orphans tropes in some fun and creative ways. when lestat is courting Louis, it's not because he's pathetic and vulnerable. it's actually sort of the opposite; he's attracted to his rage, initially, and his slippery sexy unforgettableness. lestat brings louis down on purpose, systematically taking away everything he loves, in order to draw him into vampirism. but i think the distinction is important; lestat doesn't want to actually take care of a needy man, he just wants to create circumstances where he will be needed. I say all that with the caveat that our version of their early relationship is canonically based on louis' recollection of the time. not that I think our gorgeous princess would ever lie to us, but, well, that is sort of the point of the show. all that being said, I think the turning Claudia scene (both versions) has strong men love orphans themes in multiple directions. Louis is experiencing a strong dadgender moment, needing Claudia to live in order to validate his own existence, but he is also using his own terror and despair to compell his daddy (lestat) into saving this sad and needy thing (Claudia). that goes all the way back around to this post and the idea that a husband-daddy can give you not just his own love and care, but also an entire family. rich text!!!

and loumand: I think that the show is always contrasting the two relationships and the way Louis falls headfirst into both, headed straight for the megalodon headless of consequences, etc. and I think he is partially repeating the patterns of above. in Paris he is more actively pathetic, and Armand does get off on that, but the thing that is so thrilling about loumand is they're sort of doing Tetris to each other. like, "yes, maitrê" scene. no one has painted me for centuries. the obvious constant back and forth seesaw of power and control in Dubai, and the occasional reminders that that seesaw is itself a fantasy to keep Louis mollified. anyway. what I'm saying is a) loumand crazy b) they're sort of doing nesting dolls men love orphans but it never ends c) with the slight variation that any external "family" is treated as an existential threat and terminator'd. 

ultimately, I think that any relationship with a power dynamic could have some amount of men love orphans going on in some direction. I definitely love to put the goggles on. I love that straight women (and anyone else) can make anything hot as a cope. great time to be alive if you love seeing what makes other people horny

footnotes

1. this has always been an interest of mine; I had a phase where I was obsessed with incels. brand new is one of my favorite bands. etc.

2. as discussed in this post, she becomes a better writer in real time as her books get further from her fic.

3. I made a men love orphans lbxd list if you'd like to see more, linked in this post

[slightlyrebelliouswriter23]

in chapter 3 of tcp, there was a scene of cardan attacking then tearing a boy’s wings because he didn’t bow, do you think there are more meanings behind this action? it’s my 2nd time rereading tfota trilogy and this scene still baffles me

(i'm gonna copy/paste a lot from this post because i did answer this, but it was part of a reblog, and tbh it deserves its own post cos it's a damn good question.)

i don't think Cardan had a reason behind his actions in that scene so much as i think Holly had a big reason for including it.

i would argue that, from a character creation standpoint, the ripping of the faerie's wings provides the most important context for Cardan's character in TCP. foremost, it is our very first impression of him. he is truly cruel in that scene. he is at his worst.

one thing they taught us in Creative Writing school: always introduce your characters in a way that shows them doing something that is fundamental to their character.

the book is called The Cruel Prince, ergo we can only assume Holly wanted Cardan to be perceived as cruel. so the first thing we see him doing? something vicious and irredeemable, for no apparent reason (other than to be a dick). it makes us trust Jude's hatred for him; it makes us hate Cardan, too.

if we take that scene out, however, Cardan seems all bark and no bite. sure, he actively insults Jude. and he may even participate in his friends' more malicious bullying. but he's shit with a sword and clearly takes a more subdued role in the bullying scenes (see: watching out for the nixies to make sure they weren't getting too close, telling Valerian to stop when he was suffocating Jude, pricking Jude's finger to sober her up).

so what does Jude really have to be afraid of without that first scene?

certainly not Cardan specifically, but rather, his cohort as a whole. and tbh that's not much more specific than just saying "everything in Faerie is terrifying", which she does indeed point out multiple times. but she needed to be afraid of him, and therefore, she needed a believable reason for that fear.

there's a difference between being actively cruel and passively cruel, and the ripping of the faerie's wings transforms Cardan from the latter to the former simply and effectively.

so yes. he is mean and cruel and cowardly. i suppose it's fine for people to have qualms with him for everything he did/did not do in TCP.

but i happen to think growth is very sexy so i will not be holding any of that against him 😌✨

–Em 🖤🗡

In Defence of Cardan Greenbriar

more theories and analysis

[raayllum]

hi. i always see your analysis and theories in my dash and they're always so well thought and interesting and conecting a lot of things i personally would never think to conect but actually make so much sense when put like that

so hm, not to be weird online, but how does one learn to like interpret and understand what's going on on a piece of midia, yk, cause only consuming doesn't do it? Anyway

your edits are really nice

FIRST OFF this is soo nice omg thank you <333 also never worry about being weird online i'm always more unhinged, this is an unhinged space

which ironically is kind of the best way to get good at literary analysis tbh! I wrote a post about it here but that was more on how to organize thoughts / write meta > finding the things to write meta about (aka the "this feels gratuitous" draft is still in my drafts as we speak — might be time to clean it and some others up and post it).

In a lot of ways there tends to be like.... two main avenues for analysis? Which is an oversimplification but is making sense to me in the moment, and I'd specify the divide is

Treating characters like people (characterization, relationships) vs treating characters like tools (motifs, symbols, plot structure, dynamics).

Ideally, a narrative merges these two things so completely it's hard to separate, and I think TDP does an extaordinarily good job at it. I'll call this marriage Theme since its the main idea(s) of the Story/Narrative and everything should at its best be working together in service of the Theme if you want something cohesive.

I'll use Callum and Rayla as an example just cause I think they exemplify a Lot of how/why this all works and works as well as it does.

If I want to write about Callum and Rayla's internal psyches, i.e. where does Callum's temper or Rayla's gruffness come from? I'm going to look at them as people. They're going to have consistent triggers, responses, contradictory emotions or emotional reactions, etc. This is like the how you wrap a present, the colour and feel of the paper. Any character in a story can technically have any kind of personality, i.e. an assassin can be sweet and snarky (like Rayla) or stoic and rigid (Runaan). That's not all they are, of course, but the characters' personalities often times affect how and why we ship what we do, or have certain favourites, etc.

For example, Callum's primary Narrative Purpose is to be a human mage. He's there to explore the range of possibilities a human who wants/chases magic in the story can have, and we pretty closely follow his magical journey of feeling powerless, struggling and achieving primal magic, and guilt and desperation that drives him to dark magic. But absolutely none of this means that Callum needed to have a temper.

To see the way a character trait can be married to a motif (repeating symbol) let's look at Rayla. Rayla can be secretive — not telling people everything and being closed off about her emotions — and often leaves to try do things on her own, occasionally flat out disappearing. These are her personality traits (characterization), most of these psychological aspects come back to not feeling like she deserves help or not wanting to hurt people, thereby hurting her relationships. She's a person.

At the same time, these traits help us as the audience understand and grasp how the series treats the Moon and its arcanum. The Moon is a symbol, and it's all about changing faces, secrets, and illusions. We don't know whether the ideas for the Moon arcanum (which seem to be loosely taken from Tarot) or Rayla's personality came first, but it's clear that at some point they merged to reflect each other.

If I want to talk about Rayla as a person, I'll talk about how her personality/choices affect her relationships. If I want to talk about how she reflects her primal or how she choices affect the plot, I'll be talking more about structure. If I want to talk about how both of those things say, in a speculative meta about Callum connecting to the Moon arcanum as he understands Rayla (and himself) better, then I'd be talking about both simultaneously (theme).

But those are all like, examples of how you can break stuff down that you see. How do you go looking for stuff / know what to break down?

1) Pick a piece of media, ideally one you already feel very comfortable and familiar with. Book, show, whatever. This familiarity means you can focus less on the processing the plot and more about other elements of the story. Then watch or read the thing but try to pay attention to like, a few pre-chosen ideas or themes. It could be the theme of power, or — I'm thinking for something like ATLA - how the characters reflect their elements (Aang is evasive and avoidant, and air is light and breezy, etc).

For a TV show in particular, it can mean breaking things down scene by scene in an episode to see what the anchoring idea of it, i.e. 1x06 in TDP is all about Soren, Claudia, and Rayla keeping secrets. Soren and Claudia keep their secrets and isolate themselves, because isolationism in the series is usually Bad; Rayla shares her secret, because working through problems and letting people help you (being collaborative) is Good, etc. These messages are pretty consistent throughout the rest of the show as well.

If applicable, I'd recommend starting out with stories where you already know the ending and/or even better, the story itself is aware you know the ending from the beginning (i.e. in Titanic, you always know the ship is going to sink). This can help you pick up on dramatic irony (everyone emphasizing the ship won't sink) as well as setup (the movie making sure we know there's not enough boats, people making the boat go faster, the moment the ship hits the iceberg literally separating Jack and Rose from each other to set up what happens later, etc).

2) If you wanna learn how to analyze, to a certain degree you have to learn to shut down your feelings and biases. This doesn't mean that feelings can't affect how you analyze, or dictate what you want to analyze (I feel very positively towards TDP and therefore I want to deeply analyze it! same with Rayllum) but it does mean leaving "I want this thing so it has to happen" at the door — or vice versa.

The best example I can give is a hypothetical one. For example, it kind of doesn't matter if I — personally — think that Callum and Rayla have known each other that long to know each other well. (I don't, for the record, but bear with me.) In the Text of the Story, they know each other incredibly well, and more to the point, thematically, their senses of self are so incredibly intertwined that them affirming each other's senses of self is like... the only place we could be going. Rayla is "Rayla saves people," so by saving a possessed Callum she's saving herself, and if she goes to kill him, she's likewise metaphorically going to be killing herself (her own sense of identity), etc.

Or for a non-ship example, my real life feelings about monarchy don't matter. I don't like monarchy, I think most western monarchies are crap... and I'd be silly if I brought those feelings into TDP's discussion of monarchy, because they're using monarchy as a vessel to discuss things like power, responsibility, and growing up, particularly for Ezran and Janai (and how often do we see non-white monarchies in media anyway?). And if I want to engage with those themes, then I have to engage with TDP's discussion of monarchy.

It's kind of like how even if something in a story grosses you out or makes you uncomfortable, you have to be really damn sure that wasn't an Intentional writing choice on Purpose or a chance for self reflection before it's launched as a complaint.

Doing this kind of awareness and predictive work also means you'll get better at predicting where stories might be going and leaving ahead of time if something is going off the rails / not going your way (in a bad way).

3) Growing a list of common themes and symbols that stories tend to have. Birds = freedom, chains = entrapment and coercion, grief, identity (particularly in coming-of-age stories), etc. If you have a loose idea of what to look for, that means you can also start to look at the specifics of how stories use these themes/symbols. For example, Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet both feature a theme of love amongst forbidden lovers, but the first is a comedy (love conquers all, even if it makes people foolish) and the second is a tragedy (love is not always enough to conquer hate/violence/our worst impulses).

For example in TDP, although it was in the background in s1-s3, light and darkness has now become a very overt motif (repeated symbol) in both dialogue and imagery. Tracking what those things represent or how the show complicates their meaning (light isn't always good, etc) can help indicate where certain characters or plot beats are going.

This can also mean trying to notice consistent metaphors (i.e. dark magic is often consumed by the caster for spells / referenced with cannibalistic language; dark magic corruption is increasingly seen as spreading sickness/illness) and then being on the lookout for the next time(s) they show up. So much of media literacy / critical thinking is just being able to explain/figure out why you think what you think (with evidence) and it's always a skill that can be nurtured and improved

End of Blabbing

Very long winded but hopefully helpful, and always feel free to ask more questions and/or DM if you'd like! I always love talking about stuff like this and it's such a treat tbh <3

[mcjoebond]

So hear me out

I don't like that Bi-Han is perceived as an evil character (although I know he is probably designed to be evil). That's why I have a hobby of making up excuses for his bad actions and decisions

Please do not take this post 100% seriously, I understand clearly that I'm probably wrong (or the creators haven't thought over the character so deeply for it to be true for that matter). I just love Bi-Han and think he deserves better than to be a villain in every timeline

This is part 1

Bi-Han's ideas on the clan development are actually not that bad in the beginning. I mean, when they discuss it before the meeting with Liu Kang and before the invasion on the castle. His ambitions are really strong and all he wants, in my opinion, is to participate in making decisions, not to serve and obey. He says they could help to rule, not to rule on their own. Also he doesn't argue with their father's principles, he said that the principles should guide them, not that Lin Kuei should ignore them. I don't see anything bad in his desire to have more power and more respect for the clan. Even I felt bad when either Kuai Liang or Tomas said that they served not ruled. Lin Kuei had been working for Liu Kang for hundreds of years and although they had a loud name of 'Earthrealm protectors', they had to do not a very respectful job. We know that it used to be a very peaceful timeline before Shang Tsung intervened. And as Bi-Han, who was the clan's Grandmaster, supposedly the busiest person in the whole clan, participated in every Earthrealm's champions' trainings, we can assume that it was the most interesting event in their task list. Which, imho, is pretty small for the Grandmaster of a great and respectable clan. They even were not taken to the tournament itself! And I suppose they were never chosen to be its champions either. In the castle, after defeating Ermac, I believe, Bi-Han mentioned that he'd missed a real kombat. So while Liu Kang had a lot of issues to solve on his own, Lin Kuei were supposed to protect the Earthrealm from dangers which didn't exist, thanks to Liu Kang. It's actually a very common situation: when you don't see the person's potential and you don't help them to fulfill it, the chance to lose the person's interest or loyalty is extremely high. Tbh, it seems very weird for me that Liu Kang didn't think of anything to keep Bi-Han loyal. I mean, he put Shang Tsung and Quan Chi into such circumstances so they couldn't gain or even desire power without somebody's help. And Bi-Han? He wanted more power even before Shang Tsungs's intervention affected him. Liu Kang pretended he didn't notice? Or he just didn't care? Or why else he decided to keep someone like Bi-Han in charge of a powerful clan? There is a theory that he gave Hanzo's power away to Kuai Liang because he thought Kuai could handle it better and avoid destructions caused by Hanzo's anger. And if that's so, why would he do nothing about Bi-Han? He wanted to give him another chance like he did with Shao? Okay, he couldn't watch Shao all the time as they were in different realms. But Bi-Han literally worked for him!! And he didn't notice anything wrong and demanding attention? Either we don't know something yet or Liu Kang really doesn't care enough for Bi-Han. And if that's so, it shouldn't be surprising that Bi-Han would leave his side one day.

Bi-Han's attitude towards Tomas is rude and unacceptable, Tomas doesn't deserve it from the perspective we see. The most obvious reason - Tomas doesn't share Lin Kuei blood and makes him unworthy for Bi-Han. What if it's more complicated that just that? There are some hints in the game that Bi-Han has daddy issues. Johnny Cage presumes that during one of the intros (it was something like 'Your daddy issues are even stronger than mine'). And his whole bossy, 'Obey-Your-Grandmaster'-like attitude also may indicate that. Kuai Liang and Tomas respect their father a lot and Bi-Han obviously doesn't. I mean, I feel some respect there, which I cannot explain rn, but anyway there is not enough of it. I don't think this attitude came out of nowhere. Bi-Han is the eldest so he was most likely to become the Lin Kuei Grandmaster after their father. So the father could treat him differently from the younger brothers. Even if he sought peace, it didn't mean he was an excellent dad figure. Maybe he pushed Bi-Han too hard whereas Kuai Liang and Tomas got much more freedom and less trainings. Bi-Han could envy them. Of course, he didn't hate Kuai Liang as he was his little brother no matter what. But Tomas came out of nowhere and got love from Bi-Han's parents, his father especially, which Bi-Han didn't receive himself. It was his love! Why would some stranger come into his family and steal love that should have been Bi-Han's? Why was this 'nobody' treated better than their son and brother? An offended kid usually cannot understand other kid's struggles so as long as Tomas took something, which as Bi-Han believed belonged to him, he wouldn't consider that Tomas was an orphan. Nobody could understand Bi-Han's struggles, why would he try to understand others'? Maybe the father even mentioned something about Tomas not being the original Lin Kuei - for example, answering Bi-Han's question why couldn't Tomas become the Grandmaster, the father would say that. And little Bi-Han learnt that as a reason to hate Tomas and not to accept him as a part of the family. None of that is an actual excuse for Bi-Han, he should've visited therapist or something. But I doubt assassins, especially in MK, know what psychological help is, so there's not an option. Especially for Bi-Han, he is super cold and closed. And this also may have been formed thanks to the father's upbringing.

As I've already started on the father... Let's go to Bi-Han's confession that he let their father die. It's hard to speculate on the topic as we don't know what kind of accident had happened. But we'll try without it. I think the detail that he let him die, not killed him, does matter. I still suppose that the father used to abuse Bi-Han. Imagine the person, who has been bullying you for your whole life, happens to be on the verge of death and you're the only one who can save them. Of course there are people who would save the person no matter what. But a lot of them would think if the person deserved to die and they couldn't help but rely on the their own experience. The father's death would finally give Bi-Han the freedom, he would get rid of the chains of his father's control, he would become the master on his own and not only he could manage his life for the first time, he could manage other people too. People who used to lack power are most likely to worship power in the future. A bonus to this thought: the father could get killed because of his clan politics. Not to let this happen to himself Bi-Han got so obsessed with changing the rules. There's an upcoming question - why didn't he tell Kuai Liang and Tomas? Maybe there was something else he didn't want to share with them. Maybe for their own protection. Which, shall I remind, is just a theory.

To be continued in the next post...

[chocochipjewel]

Okay yall Bad Batch finale aires in just under 12 hours and I have some finale theories to talk about! Hopefully I'll be able to post at least some rough art after the finale where I talk about the show some more but for now final theories!

I think CX-2 is Cody, it's too late for it to be Tech and it would be delightfully tragic if Rex or someone (who I think is definitely showing up for the finale) kills CX-2 and unmasks him after the fact or something

I think Hemlock did retrieve Tech's body and I think he's one of the experimental CX units who have not been released yet. But I don't think it worked. I want his sacrifice to mean something, so I want him to stay dead (even if my heart wants otherwise 😭) maybe his body is found, maybe he's never seen again, but I don't think he's coming back

I'm pretty sure Rex and his group of renegade clones will make an appearance, and I hope Phee gets a final moment to be badass as well. Apart from that, I'm hoping for no more extra characters cluttering the episode cause we already have so many loose ends up tie up here

I wouldn't put it past Disney to end the clone rebellion storyline on a cliffhanger tbh but I so badlyyy wish it won't be that way. Let their story end here. It will be sad but you know what that's better than the finale just being a tease for a future show. Let all the Tantiss prisoners break out and branch out to live new lives and die naturally as they deserve.

Now... for the actual Bad Batch itself

I'm certain someone is going to die. No one they're all making it out, not after all the teases and death flags. This isn't going to be like Mando S3 where the characters retire on some field for the rest of their lives (that's just for my fix it headcanons ❤️)

As for who, I've gone back and forth on this but I'm not sure. Every remaining member of the 4 troopers we have here have enough death flags on them and I've read compelling theories for all possibilities, including ones where they get Rogue One'd and everyone dies 😭

So I guess I don't really have a theory for this. I'm certain someone is going to die and I'm honestly scared for who it will be but I don't have a specific person yet. I'm leaning towards Hunter or Crosshair cause their conflict and relationships with Omega make the heart of the show itself, but I wouldn't be surprised if Wrecker or Echo died instead, or any other combination of the team members

Only thing I'm mildly certain about is Omega surviving. Disney Star Wars doesn't like to kill kids much. She's not 100% clear but least likely from my perspective. Plus it would end the show on too sad a note if the character driving the entire plot so far dies 😭 I can see a possibility in which she dies to delay Project Necromancer indefinitely, and it would honestly be sad as hell, but that's just it, it would be way too sad. I don't think the show likes being that dark, especially for its finale. And frankly, Omega's arc deserves to end with her finally getting to stop running and just live her life on her own terms.

Hemlock is definitely getting eaten by the Zillo beast while it destroys Tantiss and Rampart is almost surely making it out and turning a new leaf in my eyes. He's not any less of an asshole but he might just go live somewhere away from the Empire and away from the Bad Batch too.

Emerie is an interesting case cause I can't tell if she'll get the redemption = death thing or she'll make it out too. I honestly have 0 predictions for her. I can see her dying to save the force sensitive kids, but I can also see her making it out.

The force sensitive kids, clone cadets, Batcher, and Phee are probably gonna make it out and you know what good for them. They'll probably be the emotional support for the remaining members of the Batch (if there are any) to move on after this.

I am hoping and praying for no Boba Fett or Ventress or Vader or Palpatine cameo cause this is the last episode of the Bad Batch show and it should ideally focus on. The Bad Batch. The show already has too many loose threads. No more cameos please.

As for whoever survives in the Batch, my ideal wish would just be for them to retire to Pabu under a new identity or something and live out their lives. After Tantiss is destroyed, there would be no clones left in captivity. They can finally rest then. It would be bittersweet to see the end of their adventures as they knew it, but it's at least a peaceful end.

Anyways, that's all for my theories I think! Whether I end up being right or not, I hope the finale is actually good 😭 and I hope whoever dies doesn't make me TOO sad, just that sweet spot of devastated but in a good way 😭😭😭

I'll be reblogging this after I watch the finale with updates on whether my predictions were true or not, probably with a thank you post to the show, so I suppose this is it.

See you all on the other side, TBB nation!

[hindulivesmatter]

I used to a staunch leftist tbh but your blog and other hindublr blogs that post about hindu related stuff, have honestly forced me to question my belief - where I am standing, who's voice I am echoing.

I'm still coming to terms with the whole casteism thing, then (now disproven) Aryan invasion theory, white-washing of history.

It makes you ask yourself, why was it done so? What was its purpose?

Welcome to the club! Once you open your eyes, you can never see things the same way ever again.

Hinduism as a religion, has been hurt and erased repeatedly by colonizers. There were two main invasions. The Mughal and British empire. Islam and Christianity. It was absolutely brutal. The erasure of our culture, our temples and libraries was heartbreaking. They slipped lies and fake facts about our religion to the rest of the world, and created unsavoury opinions.

All because we refused to worship one single god like theirs. Allah or Jesus. They hated us. We are called idolators, cow worshippers and backward. But we remain placid because Hinduism really is a religion of peace.

All this secularism bullshit is only seen in India, a country with a Hindu majority, because these days, we are really just people pleasers. I can bet you wouldn't see the remotest form of secularism, forget secularism, even tolerance isn't found in Muslim-majority countries.

When you start seeing the influence of Muslims in India, its shocking. Its insidious how many turn a blind eye to the pain we went through. How much they scream and rage when the mere fact is noticed that our temples were struck down and mosques were erected in their place. We are not allowed to mourn our past. How much disrespect Hindus have for their own religion, while Muslims base their whole life around their faith and any criticism equals death. But Hinduphobia is seen as deserved.

Always question what you read, because what we're being fed by the media is always poisoned.

[Exhibit 45]

[pauls1967moustache]

Something you posted a while back has really stayed with me and i cant stop thinking about it. Its the idea that most people have this idea that Paul can't say no? Like i don't believe it but in the case the small chance that he did say 'no i don't like you like that' to John in India so many people have this idea that he's totally in the wrong for that? that he had to say yes and its so strange to me? and its actually so upsetting tbh and that's me not me being a no.1 Paul fan that twink deserves death more often than not or to be put in his place even now as an old bingo granny, id take the thickener out of his soup if i could but i really think it relates back to a lot of the feminisation/misogynistic attention he gets. Especially that one quote by certified Beatles writer that describes HDYS as something a scorned lover would write to show he would never be rejected again and its like ??? Paul is allowed to say no? hes very much allowed to not want a relationship? he's allowed to reject it and again its a roundabout way of misogyny with the idea when a woman rejects someone oh she'll be sorry because he'll spend the rest of his time saying mean things about her to everyone who will listen, and just how much she's in the wrong for not wanting/liking them like that, how she is such a bad person because she made him sink that low and do something he later 'regrets'. It's just really strange and sad to me cause again i don't think thats what happened but it the reaction that John was allowed to scream and be angry about it, he was allowed to write piece after piece especially 71 John he was allowed to be angry (and he was yeah) but Paul is never really allowed that same treatment? and even now he gets the treatment of ex-wife who really broke his now dead husbands heart and has to spend the rest of his life 'fixing' that. You can even see it a bit with the way they talk about George and Pauls relationship too the way they use constant femanising language in a derogatory way (bossy, irrational, controlling) to show just how much Paul isn't allowed to be angry and upset the same way they are he has to deal with it

i mean i don't think there was any rejection in india to speak of so this is purely hypothetical nonsense to me anyway, but yeah, i do think it's a silly way to look at it.

i think there's an argument to made like: john and paul's relationship had this weird romantic element to it already, and paul saying no is him kind of leading john on but refusing to ackowledge the truth of what they are - which would be frustrating from john's pov, i get that. the thing about that is that it's not something anyone on tumblr.com/dashboard actually knows for a fact, it's just emotional conjecture a bunch of people decided to project on. which is why the whole paul rejection theory irritates me so much. like yeah! he actually can say no, if that is what he felt! he's not required to be in love with john just because we all want him to be! (not to mention, that if there was a situation where he did reject john, i do not think that's the kind of thing he'd do lightly and without guilt, regardless of any added guilt john would make him feel by being mad about it). it's just a very unkind and reductive way to look at the very real love that DID exist between them, romantic or not. they cared about each other so much. it would be a cruel way for john to treat paul, and it's a cruel way to read into paul's treatment of john.

and i think the other side of it is that a lot of paul's sense of anger and his own feelings of rejection during that whole mess gets overshadowed in the john/paul/yoko triangle. paul was quieter about his anger because john already chose to be with yoko and he didn't feel he had a right to fight that. and the fandom cannot talk about it because half the time it's tied up in the very real mysogyny yoko faced as the face of The Thing That Broke Up The Beatles (even if she isn't), so paul's anger just kind of goes unacknowledged here in relation to john's.

[p2ep]

act 3 of the fontaine archon quest is making me go insane with how dog ass shit terrible boring it is. aside from g*nshin's usual shit writing this seems rather intentionally offensive given the current climate.

so this story line involves the player (willingly) getting sent to privately owned for-profit prison so they can rescue someone who was sent there wrongly(?) because this country's automated justice machine said so. this country has an automated justice machine that made the ruling btw. not what im mad about in this post i just wanted to mention that because this nation is in shambles tbh. my theory is that they have the previous hydro archon in there cabinet man style. anyways. so there's the for profit prison. before you go the person arranging this for the traveler mentions that we should take a nice bath and eat a nice meal before we head there cause it's going to suck.

HE WAS RIGHT. THIS PLACE FUCKING BLOWS.

after the traveler gets there we are treated to some history about this place. all of fontaine's laws regarding the punishment of criminals state that the offender is to be "exiled", and allegedly a bunch of exiles created this settlement that eventually BECAME the prison, and the state just started sending guards there to "protect" the prisoner- i mean Exiles. this explanation really makes no sense on account of this entire structure being very obviously a prison factory and not a settlement free people would make. but whatever. everyone in the story treats this backstory as good 👍 and true 👍

we also get an explanation of the general culture here. instead of money everyone uses "coupons", a form of currency you get from prison labor. all of the npc's seem fucking brainwashed. "isn't this such a good system, it's a cool place where everyone is on equal footing and everyone can pull themselves up regardless of status :)" insane individualism going on here.

another big part of this place's culture is the fact that everyone is constantly deepthroating the warden's entire dick and balls. constantly. EVERYONE loves it here! isn't this place so nice? the warden is SO cool after he came into power we get ONE free meal a day!!!! YAY!!!!!

i can't fucking stand this ^. every human being deserves life, calling people who can't or won't work in a PRISON for SCRIP "no-good slackers" is fucking disgusting.

i cannot stress how the game CONSTANTLY tries to pretend that this place is cool and normal. we're helping people get their lives back on track! (there are NO amenities in this prison besides a FIGHTING RING. no library no gym no NOTHINGGG) the warden treats us so well! (he shows up every now and then to tell you to get back to work) everyone is equal here since mora isn't used! (classic bootstrap shit) (what are these people supposed to do when they get out? since they have NO MORA. since you pay them in "coupons").

a smaller gripe i have is that this prison has ONE nurse and she's portrayed as constantly overworked and its treated as a wacky quirky joke or something instead of bizarre? i'm not like crazy mad though because this is just strange and not really applicable to the many wider ideological issues with this place. also i hate the fact that they made her some kind of human-melusine hybrid with no explanation it's fucking weird. fuck this place and fuck you s*gewine i would hate you less if you were a SLUG.

you spend like, 3 hours of your own human life in this prison watching the traveler do manual labor and listening to paimon go on and on about how nice this place is.

i have not finished this quest yet but i have Seen a bit of it and when you're about to leave p*imon says ":(i love it here we get a free meal" or whatever. what the fuck.

i just. this is a privately owned prison where people are forced to work in a factory to build police robots and aren't compensated with money. it's a good thing :) we LOVE prison :) slave labor is cool :) I HATE IT HERE I MISS F*RINA AND NEUVIVI AND L*YNEY wait LYNEY WAS HERE BUT THE GAME JUST ASSUMES YOU HATE HIM BECAUSE HE'S FROM THE FATUI but that's a matter for another post

g*nshin fans will be like my manager 😍😍😍😍😍

[mikka-minns]

Opinions on characters: Kiryuu Nanami, Saionji Kyouichi, Tatsuki Shiori

Thank you for the ask! Im guessing its for the ask game(the general opinion is included so yeah) Sorry i didnt answer until now😅

Kiryuu Nanami

General opinion: She is everything to me. Her mere existance confirme half of my theories about Anthy and Akio.

She is a queen. She didnt deserve this.

The reason she isnt in the movie is because she realised the truth about Ohtori in time and when things started to go back to their bad nature she was able to leave.

She is the perfect first character to find out about Akio's abuse because she lived with one of his victims, he ruined her life in-directly and was about to make her another one of his victims. Her character and story are perfect, i would change nothing about her.

(i have a big post about her, Anthy and Shadow Girls to write so stay tuned for that)

A ship i love: i cant decide if i like the idea that Nanami is aromantic or a lesbian(so probably both) and i dont have a ship with her i realy love. I like Nanami x Kozue a bit, mostly for the parrallels, but i have my own problems with Kozue(which is its own topic), so im not sure how much i actualy ship it. But then again, most of my Rgu Ships go under "after 15 years of therapy they can actualy date", so... Who know.

A non-romantic relationship i love: her friendship with Utena and Anthy and her friendship with Saionji. I wish she got a chance to apologize to Anthy once they were both in a good place and far away from their brothers. For Saionji, i hope they got to meet after he left Ohtori with Juri and Miki. If he grew as a person(which is necessery for escapong Ohtori) he would be a great big brother. Also, the egg episode realy sells me the idea he is her brother figure. "No appreciation for brotherly advice".

A NOTP: Nanami x Touga and Nanami x Akio(OBVIOUSLY). I havent seen anyone ship it and GOOD. That is a one way ticket to hell. I Also dont like Nanami x Saionji, but thats mostly personal opinion cuz i see them as siblings. Might Also be the age gap but idk.

My biggest headcanon about them: as i said, SHE LEFT THE OHTORI NOT LONG AFTER THE SERIES FINALE! She is also an animal person but is not used to them because of her family(cats trigger he trauma too). Once she and Anthy make up, BECAUSE THEY WILL, Anthy  lets her spend time with her animal friends, maybe even helps her adopt an animal of her own.

An idea for fanfiction: Nanami meeting with everyone from Ohtori after they escape, exploring their relationships once they arent under control of their abusers.

(this one is in my WIPs, i Just have to finish it) Weed bride. Anthy and Nanami smoke blunts together along with everyone else. They Also take over Ohtori. I dont wanna spoil anything.

Something that makes me think of them:

Songs "Oh no!" and "Family jewels" by Marina and the diamonds, "allies or Enemies"(about her and Touga) and "Take me to War" by crane wives. And a few more but this is on the top of my mind.

Kyouichi Saionji

General opinion: He was the perfect first antagonists for the series. He is so pathetic, no one takes him seriusly, which is a perfect foil to Akio being adored and trusted by many characters.

He most likely isn pure evil as he is still a child, but he should defenetly be taken responsible for his actions(abuse of Anthy).

A ship i love: touga x Saionji but ONLY AFTER 20, NO, 40 YEARS OF THERAPY! They both hurt each other, they should solve their problems. I wish we saw Saionji's Thoughts about Touga in the movie, but hey, we cant have everything.

A non-romantic relationship that i love: as i said, he would make a great brother to Nanami. As i doubt either of them will ever see Touga again, they could help each other with the trauma. Saionji defenetly has family problems, everyone does in Ohtori.

I also like his friendship with Wakaba, i dont ship them tbh. I feel like she can put him in his place with ease(she beat Utena up as a petty joke).

Not realy a positive relationship, but his rivalry with Utena is very intresting. He is like a trashy version of her. Their straight love intrests are each other's real crushes, but they project. This would all be solved if the world wasnt homophobic. I want them to fight, middle-school-girl style cuz Saionji would get his ass handed to him.

A NOTP: saionji x Akio (OBVIOUSLY) and Saionji x Nanami (again, its just my personal preference)

My biggest headcanon about them: he projected Touga onto Anthy. Thats what kinda stings about how he treated her. Its obvious that relationship was going nowhere, but he never even liked her for her and so it was Just cruel.

He feels as if he isnt good enough for people around him and was at some point jealous about Touga's relationship with Akio cuz it seemed like Touga was so much more mature that he was getting attention of another adult.(angsty i know, but its based on reality)

A fanfic idea: him and Nanami meeting again(as you can see, im very normal a out them)

Maybe an AU where he and Touga dont go so off the edge ti become the pricks they are in the canon and instead Run away with Nanami and live as a little family(THIS SHOW HURT ME, OKAY)

In weed bride, Anthy wrecks his shit cuz he was with Touga and she was about to end Touga so obviously he will get some too. (that fic is Just pure crack)

Tatsuki Shiori

Something that Reminds me of them: tbh i cant think of anything right now.

General opinion: gurlfailiure. I love her. Just another child in a cruel world. She only had the worst adults to look up to and so she hurt the Ones she loved the most. She has room to grow and redeemed herself, she is only a child after all.

I think her place in the movie was great because of that. (i think her role was methaphore for what happend after the series finale, Just like with everyone else)

A ship that i love: i like Juri x Shiori and kinda Shiori x Kozue(both girls are disasters) but i wouldnt say i love either of those. Again, years of therapy, then they can get bitches.

A non-romantic relationship i love: not sure

Maybe her relationship with Touga cuz i dont see it as a real romance. I like it for the narrative(its not realy healthy) and how we found out a lot about Touga trough it.

I think her relationship with Ruka was a perfect example of an older guy messing with a younger girl. Toxic and cruel.

A NOTP: Shiori x Akio (look i have to make sure its known i do not unde any circumstances support these Ships) and Shiori x Ruka(he is an abusive asshole. A mini Akio, if you will)

My biggest headcanon about them: she is queer and full of internalised homophobia. She loved Juri but she is Just another pawn in Akio's game and so she could do nothing but hurt her. I dont think they made up after the end of the movie, im not even sure Shiori escaped, so idk if they even met after.

She liked Touga less because he is a prince and more because he is like a rose bride(like her, in a way) but is not a girl so its fiiine(side eye).

A fanfic idea: i dont have any right now

Maybe exploring her movie role and/or her mindset trough a fanfic?

Something that Reminds me of them: again, not sure.

[cmdonovann]

ok sure fuck it, tomorrow is april 1st, so it's announcement time.

april 5th is the 7th anniversary of quantum break's release, so im doing an event for the ENTIRE MONTH OF APRIL where i post about quantum break EVERY DAY for THE WHOLE MONTH!

its QUANTUM BREAK APPRECIATION MONTH baybee!!!!

i announced this a little bit earlier this week on the quantum break discord i run (send me an off-anon ask or a message if you want to join the discord, btw!) and we have been compiling a list of prompts. they're not in any particular order, but i'll include them in this post (under the readmore below).

anyway, thats it! thats the announcement! get ready for quantum break month!! i am going to single-handedly revive this fandom so help me god

here's the prompts list, as it currently stands. these don't have to go in any particular order! it's mostly just so that i don't run out of ideas.

meta posts/essays

specific character appreciation days (your choice of day)

screenshot edits

fanvids…?

character mood boards

ship mood boards

fic mood boards? (either for ur own fic, someone else’s, a WIP, etc)

character playlists

ship playlists

high school or college au

college PROFESSOR au specifically lol

fantasy au

d&d au (this is slightly more specific than “fantasy au” imo so i listed it separately)

superhero au?

star trek au?

victorian era au… this could be “1980s detectives/sherlock holmes au” tbh

MAFIA AU?

more phantom of the opera au lol (i have drawn SO MUCH of this already lol sorry)

pacific rim au (drift compatibility!)

any other weird aus you can think of

youtuber au…or like, twitch streamer au…i just think this concept is funny

choose pokemon teams for each character?

draw/assign fursonas for the characters

shifter appreciation posting day :3

theory stuff (this could fit under the same category as "meta/essay" stuff)

QB memes! there are never enough memes!!

otp day?

ot3 day??

ot4 day?!?!

brotp day? (is this a term ppl still use?)

crackship day XD

remedy cinematic universe day

crossover day :3

feel free to join in if you want! you can use any of these prompts in any order, or come up with other stuff. whatever you want! i'm just trying to hype up quantum break, cuz i think it deserves some love & attention! it's a good game!!

[ladymorghul]

Just to make it clear I didn’t mean people are being dramatic because they’re getting attacked. Of course everyone is allowed to defend themselves and no one should ever be attacked over fictional characters. And this is exactly why I said everyone is a bit too dramatic because on one side as a Helaemond I get hated for being a Helaemond and on the other side I get excluded for not agreeing or liking the "Helaena’s children are Aemond’s" theory. The fandom in general is such a mess and everyone is so on edge about every little thing. Fact is not one ship in Hotd is unproblematic. Whether it’s Alysmond, Helaemond or Helaegon all three of these ships have some kind of sketchy vibe on them. Though I have to disagree that everyone should suddenly be okay or comfortable with incest just because it’s one aspect of the show. I mean rape, misogyny and other bad things are also inherent to the show but that doesn’t mean we have to like or be comfortable with it. A large age-gap is not the same as incest imo so again I do understand why not everyone is on board with Helaemond or any other incest ship for that matter. What’s not okay is to attack someone because they ship it. I think the only ship that really really makes me uncomfortable and that actually deserves the hate it gets is Lucemond tbh.

well, if it helps, you won't get hate from me for not believing the children theory or not wanting it to be true specifically as i wasn't its biggest rider either. i mean i've always considered it a realistic possibility, but as an alicent fan i cringed at the amount of hate that would double because of it because she's a "hypocrite", even tho the circumstances are different from viserys.

i've gradually came to embrace it and just psychologically prepare myself to get jumped for still standing in my girl's corner.

however recently i've also started to post about it just because of people see it as a reason to bully others. like you will have people post that picture of that supposed jaehaera casting next to aemond and say something really mild like "copy paste" and get death threats but a post that puts her next to aegon and says "she got x from her dad" doesn't. imagine if i started commenting about people also supposedly "romantcizing incest" and lowkey dismissing the possibile dub con of jaehaera's existance as a child of a forced marriage and use this to say really shitty stuff like "go kys" and "stop using children to fulfill your nasty fantasies"

so because i always saw it as a realistic direction the show could take i said fuck it, let's post some about this and spite some people. because hypocritical bullies should get pushed back down on their asses every time.

(however if it does become canon, i'll likely be in these kids' corner trying to protect them from b&c and discourse w my bare hands 😂)

but still... i don't think the hate one might get for being a helaemond shipper but not a children theory supporter (whoever sent you hate / bullied you over that sucks) compres to the hate campaign ran against helaemonds as a whole for months by alysm*nds. and now by helaeg*ns too.

gonna have to disagree w the incest aspect tho simply bc many if not most antis who hate helaem*nd support helaeg*n or some other form of incest, like aegond, rhaemond, etc. in fact i had someone try to explain to me that it's not the same thing if they're cousins. and still, i would hope that universally anti incest uncomfortable people would spend their time blocking and muting rather than, idk, sending anon hate. seems more productive to me.

anyway this is getting long but i think my bottom line is this: i get that you probably had some experience maybe that you felt you were sidelined for not believing in the children theory and i think that's valid, but looking at the bigger picture, the helaem*nd fandom is, for a lack of a better word, stressed out and while i myself have my own gripes w opinions of other helaem*nds on certain things, i also kind of get how things can get tense

but to come back to this: if you don't think that the children are aemond's, or don't want them to be aemond's, that's fine with me!

[yuukei-yikes]

any thoughts on remind blue?

currently, it is my favorite kagepro song (this changes like every week but i digress...) and i really want to make a pv for it but i lowkey have no idea where to start

your analysis/ramblings on things is really interesting to read and see, so also just wanted to let you know that i love all the content you post!! :D

I LOV remind blue. like every kagepro song makes me want to rip my face off ♥️♥️♥️ but this one is one of those that make me feel so strongly that i cant listen to it ♥️♥️♥️ cuz i do that btw. i cannot listen to kagepro songs without preparing myself emotionally and it has to be when i am alone in my room. i could never listen to them in public. that'd be weird. im drawing and suddenly a kagepro song comes on in my playlist and im like this is so fucked up who put this here (<- i did)

songs like summertime record, lost day hour, remind blue and ayanos theory of happiness specifically i basically never listen to because it causes something in me both mentally and physically. im normal though.

TOTALLY support the idea to make a pv!!! i wouldn't know how to start either tbh💔 who would u make it be sung by?? like the song is so good but for the lyrics im like meh like str is already a thing. idk it sorta has the same vibe. its like summertime record and lost day hour's lyrics had a little baby together. which is why i always liked to interpret it as a haruka song but fuck it ig its shintaro's.

i also liked the idea of it being seto's or hibiya's. i think they'd deserve a song like this, especially hibiya!! tho for hibiya the whole "adult" thing is different LOL and even seto, he's just 17... ive always loved haruka being the punchbag for the "im an adult wtf" feeling because he goes from living his whole life thinking he will die and then he doesn't. or well he DOES die but then comes back, and suddenly he finds himself with his whole life ahead. like haruka and his early 20s crisis abt i did NOT think id be alive this long and now i gotta deal with everything those feelings bring me but at the same time i have to pay rent and worry abt what to make for dinner soooo erm fine ig. that's also what i think lost day hour is about, i know jin describes it more like a song abt old friends but girl idk it rly only has a couple lines abt that as opposed to all the rest of the song... erm. what was i talking about again.

i just think it was rly funny how we were all like ok remind blue uses "boku" so it's seto kano hibiya or haruka (or konoha). and then jin was like hehe. shintaro♥️ SHINTARO DOESNT EVEN USE BOKU whatever im pretty sure he also said it can fit anyone and its more a general mekakushi dan song. but tbh so is summertime record sooooo. sorry im sidetracking a lot

i dont particularly care for remind blue so much (LIKE THE SONG SLAPS im still talking about lyrics) bc it's very heavy on the shit abt like growing distant and stuff sortof??? like kagepros ending/str is implied to have the mekadan not grow apart but kinda do their own thing while still meeting to hang out, bc kagepro is also about growing up and with growing up comes maybe growing distant from these friends you love, but they will always be important and one of a kind in ur life and when u meet its like time hasnt rly passed between you. not to mention the whole thing about combining eyes and how all the snakes will always end up gathering by the queen no matter what, meaning the dan will always be bound to make their ways back to each other no matter what, and are connected to one another by the literal narrative that theyre all actually sort of aware of a little bit (they always refer to their tragedy as a "story"..kagepro is a little meta lol). and like that's all so beautiful but also fuck it. they all meet for pizza nights every week. erm. the passage of time am i right

ALSO TY FOR READING MY POSTS:///3 I LOVE KAGEROU PROJECT A NORMAL AMOUNT AND IM A NORMAL PERSON

[pinkseas]

[parasocial bestie] I LISTENED TO YHE SONG AND SAW THOSE LYRICS AND I JUST. UE. UEUUEUEUEUUEHRGDHHHHHHH UEHHHHH a place,, whwere ppl treated u like a person,.. ur always a person 2 me,... crying shitting on hte floor

anyways thingkin abt the brainrot thing again (its ok to publish ye) im not the type to have Too many ppl involved but like. if thers gonn be another person id have nahida paying a quick visit. maybe. mayhaps on the times lumine, after xiao wakes up and telling her she shouldnt stay with him all the time and to focus on her quest, prolly goes to sumeru and nahida had the interest to take a looksee at the neighbour liyue. lumine brings her to the inn where he recovers. hes a lil down, a lil tired, still on the weeks he could barely stand properly. physiotherapy Sucks. living Sucks. nahida wud be there for advice, for reminiscing- for books (lumine had brought back books before, borrowed from house of daena, theres a hella lot of scenes i had merely on lumine wasting time before and after xiao woke) for dreams and everything.

gosh its the way i can tell u every lil scene i had of pre and post-awakening. tho idk if u like paimon cus im also super attached to her and said screw her in-game hyv staff projection dialogs JDJAJFHHSHF anyway!! nahida. like Man nahida xiao dynamic can be so personal, not as personal as zhongli but she has perspectives of how it is to simply be open and accept things and how it feels to be restrained from what you truly want to do with ur own hands. about curiosity, about learning, about being young methinks.

xiao takes a while to adapt to it all when the incident reverts his mindset to being Useless Worthless Lamenting, but to have all of these ppl who isnt just there to make him feel better, but also to themselves, is an unknown comfort he needed yknow i justfkkehrjshhfjrjshshhdhd my words are G O N E

XIAO AND NAHIDAAAAAAAAAAAA explodes and dies. the advice the reminiscing the Books........ they could have such simple little conversations that even for a short time bring his mind away from the exhaustive pain that is Everything Else.... curiosity and learning and be young GODDDDDDDDDD im so. thinks about very few people Being There but people who know xiao, whether just barely or through zhongli speaking of him or through lumine speaking of him, wishing him well sending regards and how does that make any sense? that those who know so little about him would care that he gets better? why would any of them take the time to say anything at all? and zhongli and lumi and nahida and paimon all doing just. countless big things, sure, but also little gestures, things to make him more comfortable or help him heal or take his mind off things. undeniable acts of love and care at all times.

paimon is !!! complicated. i LOVE her in theory but i hate her ingame. one of the first genshin fics i Ever read and still one of my favorites to this day characterized her EXTREMELY well imo and because of it i do admittedly have an attachment to her and everything she could've been, i love love love the way they wrote her and lumine like its so fucking important to me nadsfnmdsfamnfndsg. "screw her in-game hyv staff projection dialogs" LITERALLY SO REAL she deserves better. tbh.

[jewish-microwave-laser]

[id: tags reading "#newsflash ableists. if youre lucky enough to live past like 60 #barring other reasons. your bladder will stop working how its supposed to because thats what bodies do #< prev tags #didn't want to rant in the tags cuz the post worked well enough on its own and i didn't want to talk over anyone #but also just. giving birth can do that to you #especially if you end up having more than one child #idk where i want to go with this. #it's just. it just happens #a lot more than people probably realize #for reasons much more common than people would like to acknowledge" /end id]

"prev" tags by @ollieopossums-revenge , additional tags by @spazmat

responding to spazmat first, i honestly don't think that's talking over . at least in my mind, pregnancy is a fine example of why the supposed binary between disabled and abled is useless. with the medical model of disability rather than a political one (i'm not a fan of the social model either tbh) seeing disability as individual problems that need to be cured, things like pregnancy aren't understood under the same umbrella as Disability™ even tho functionally they really have very similar effects on a person's (and their community's) life

this gets into something that bothers me about the "you should care about disabled people bc one day you'll be disabled too" narrative that ollieopossums illustrated (i'm not saying it was out of any malice or anything like that, i'm just using this example with the acknowledgement that this talking point is common and was surely offered in the best of faith). beyond just "why can't we just care about disabled people because they're people" (which, yeah, is true, but also i don't think that really gets us anywhere because if it did, then ableism wouldn't exist) it's more "don't reinforce this useless binary between disabled and abled that only serves to hurt us"

this gets further into crip theory than i'd like for this post just bc i'm trying to stay brief (ha) but yeah. in my mind, there is no gotcha against ableists, because "you wear glasses, that's an assistance device, you're disabled" is kind of going along with the idea that being disabled is a bad thing. rather, it seems that being open about our experiences, not in an adversarial way but a humanizing way, is the only way for us to actually make headway

all that being said, the person i was vagueing in this post is still an asshole and they deserve to have been blocked. the only way to have these sorts of humanizing conversations is if both sides agree to not being fucking assholes in the first place

y'all's solidarity with disabled people leaving your bodies when you get the chance to make a joke about incontinence

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

1. i see LO stans defend it as "it gets some people into myth! thats good!" like?? i dont think ive seen a group of readers less interested to learn the actual mythology than lo readers because theyre convinced that IS the truth and RS is so accurate about it. yeah they know it doesnt take place in modern times but why would they question hxp being consensual, demeter being the bad guy, apollo being a [redacted], and so on? they tried to edit the actual gods' wiki pages to match LO for gods' sake!

2. I remember awhile ago there was an ask about heads being used for height and I would like to add 7 heads is used for realistic height and proportions, so yeah, it's a bit weird LO Persephone only averages about 5-6 heads best with even shorter limbs that are not proportional to her (especially her legs for some reason? Her torso is usually too long too) while LO Hades sometimes goes beyond 8 heads (which used to show extreme fantasy proportions) with too long limbs. RS has an art school degree!

3. it really seems at this point lo artemis will end up a villain too because shes framed way too much as anti hades and close to her brother to not be. i can def see rachel pulling she's a "tragic" villain who didnt get enough love as a child and shes so jealous of poor persephone and what she has over her that we'll have to pity her while also wanting her to suffer for being the first person to stand in hxp's way. rachel loves her "twist" villains after all.

4. LO sees more and more clear to me it's about trying to make us feel bad for Hades and show he "deserves" Persephone as a symbol of his desires (a wife to not push back against him or his actions, a wife who does whatever he wants, a wife who is dedicated to giving him heirs and will drop everything for him, etc) while she's just ... there. RS can claim all she wants it's a story about Persephone but it's really about how Hades should get what he wants with Persephone being the ultimate "prize".

5. so persephone who was originally studying biology (which makes perfect sense for a spring goddess to study) now wants to give that up to align even more with hades??? rachel please stop claiming youre "empowering" persephone when you have literally ripped every unique feature from her to make her just hades 2.0. she has NOTHING left to her that was her own while he's given up nothing for her. Hades gets his perfect, docile wife and everything he wants while she has noting and bends to HIS whims.

6. i think rachel also thinks over-complicating the story makes it "deeper" which is not the case?? theres nothing wrong with a simple story (and tbh the hxp myth is straight forward in what to do with it) that overcomplicating it with politics, courtroom drama, attempts coups, and a full out WAR really?? adds nothing to it?? like its supposed to be about hxp getting together too so it even more is just filler that she doesnt have the skill to tackle.

7. i realize the assets arent the same between CSP and Photoshop but you can google greek photoshop brushes or greek architecture in sketchup and find countless free assets?? like theres so many resources at her disposal to at least make LO look aesthetically like it's greek (even superficially) but even that's too much of her. Like why make it a story about "greek" characters when she clearly just wants to make a story about NYC socialites hate poor people 🤔🤨

8. RS really desperately wants to come across as some deep, complex writer who is so well versed in genres and tropes and how to 'twist" them as if the majority of her writing isnt just playing the tropes completely straight with zero change, tumblr posts, memes from 2015, being overtly sexual in how how horny P is, and "borrowing" theories from fans who have more creativity than she does. rachel, honey, youre writing juvenile smut for kids, youre not reinventing the wheel here.

9. I swear white women like rachel and miller are convinced theyre ~subversive~ for depowering powerful goddesses to then "empower" them, putting a gross emphasis on them being sexually abused by random men to excuse them being "dark', then having them be obsessed with and throwing away their lives for the sake of a man. also a dose of hating mother figures. how is rick riordan a white cishet man who shows more respect and nuance in his series for kids than two women writing for literal adults??

10. The thing with deconstruction in lit is that it's used to look at other interpretations of a story's meaning, but H/P's myth was very set it only had one meaning? RS is basically claiming she's found a secret better meaning in the text which was never there and claiming it as fact. That's why most call their H/P stories a "retelling" instead of deconstruction, bc retellings has the leeway to change whatever they want, but deconstruction means academic dissection, which LO very much is not.