#that's a cultural thing i don't get
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There's a genre of post that I see pretty frequently, which can overall be summed up as, "Modern fandom has a culture problem where fanfic authors are treated as content producers instead of community members and their fanfic is treated as a commodity to be consumed instead of a high-effort labor of love that deserves attention and compliments given directly to the author". I agree with 3/4ths of that. I find the part I disagree with very interesting, the same way I find a lot of writeblr interesting, because it's a perspective that I had to work very hard to actually understand.
Because the posts have such a warped view of what writing is and why we post our writing! They say that fanfic fights against the commodified internet we live in, but all they're doing is changing the currency of payment in this attention economy. Another way you can summarize about 70% of these posts is, "My payment for writing and posting my fanfiction is compliments, and if you do not give me those compliments you are not paying. If you give those compliments behind my back, or talk about them privately without giving them to me as well, then you are stealing from me." I don't want to put it like that, but a lot of these posts use words like 'deprive', as if the reader who enjoys the fic without commenting is withholding something from them that they deserve. They use the word engagement, and they do talk about how part of that engagement is just the joy of talking about AUs and ships with other people, but when people say that comments are their motivation to keep writing, what they mean is that validation is their motivation to keep writing. Which is compliments.
I understand that, because I understand that fanfic writers are not immune to the attention economy. But I don't understand how almost every one of these posts talk about how this lack of attention makes them stop writing - that this act of theft is killing their desire to write. I could understand this if they meant 'desire to POST fic' (I don't post fic I think zero people would read.), but they talk about how lack of payment stops them from writing at all.
IMHO, that is what creates a commodity from fic. People want to treat fic as art, but an artist makes art for themself. Art is made because we want to hold parts of skills and ourselves in our hands. If you won't make art if you get no payment, then you have devalued the art completely.
We think of AO3 as this unique site that's born entirely from passion and is filled with fics written for love of the game. But guilt-tripping posts that shame people for not commenting on a fic they enjoy, and that describe how there's no point in writing fic if it's not getting attention, are directly contributing towards the culture of treating fic like a commodity.
I also really want a fandom culture where the relationship between artist and reader is reciprocal, where it feels like a community, and where I get to talk about my fanfic with people. My favorite part of posting fanfic is rambling about it on my blog, because I can talk about my art all day and I love it when people stop and listen. But I love that because I love my own art. If you love your own art, then it'll always have value.
Also Google your username, just trust me, that's how you find The Secret Discussions. Someone made a TikTok fansong of me once. WHAT?
#ftr wanting comments bc you're a newbie writer and you want reassurance that your fic doesn't suck is#the most normal and reasonable thing alive and everybody feels that way#im not saying it's bad to want comments. everybody wants comments. i want comments.#but i disagree with saying that people who don't comment are Killing Fandom America#i get that we want to build a healthy community and culture but a culture that focuses on making everybody fall in line#with the way they think things should be#isnt a community i want to be a part of
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paint me like one of your french murfs
#murf#star trek#star trek prodigy#prodigyedit#star trek prodigy spoilers#prodigy spoilers#my gifs#my posts#mine: prodigy#startrekedit#trekedit#trekdaily#scifigifs#cinemapix#userthing#dailyflicks#usersource#tvedit#filmtvdaily#userstream#useroptional#scifiedit#animationedit#animationsdaily#need someone to make a video edit of the one where a cat has been put into the titanic montage with jack#but do this with murf. there must be enough scenes for it. i can imagine the scene at the end of it with jack painting murf#and rose walks in and sees them ahahahhaa it's living in my head but i need it with my eyes#sidenote: gone down a mandela effect wormhole because it's actually 'draw' and not 'paint' ahaha i know in the film it's draw when i watch#but pop culture for me it's always paint. love how things get widespread like this. pls don't drag me for writing paint. i like it better
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Faiza performing the Kagnoma Odo (pretty literally 'lion dance'), a weapons dance and one of the more important ritual duties of Odonii priestesses. A relatively new addition to this traditional dance involves the musket as the primary weapon, which is fired mid-twirl into the ground at the climax of the dance. Faiza is experiencing an 'oh fuck' moment because her shot is more than ideally diagonal, but she’s being so cool with it.
This is a wholly ceremonial performance at the onset of the pilgrimage, performed in full regalia and lion skin (of the small, semi-domesticated strain) but no armor. It’s also distinctly a display of political allegiance between the powerful and beloved Odonii priesthood (and its loyal military) with the increasingly reviled and destabilized imperial family, with Faiza prominently wearing a bracelet of the royal serpent, which was gifted (along with the musket) by the usoma Stavis Amanti himself (Usoma is the Wardi word for king, which has been retained in the context of emperors).
The Kagnoma Odo is the ultimate demonstration of the Odonii as an embodiment of the Lion Face of God and living vessel of military might and sovereignty, demonstrating her fitness and proficiency with weapons and as a spiritual unifier for soldiers. It is accompanied by drumming and occurs in stages, running through the three keymost weapons used in war- the spear, the sword, and the musket. The musket is of the most significance, given the weapon has developed a particular esteem as the ultimate embodiment of might and superiority. Assistants (almost always other priestesses, occasionally high ranking soldiers) load and prime the musket to be fired at the climax of the dance, where it is shot into the ground as the priestess leaps out of range of the shot. The firing signals the end of the dance and the rite itself.
While not the utmost exemplar of trigger discipline, only fully inducted and senior (and therefore very thoroughly trained) Odonii are permitted to perform the dance, and injuries during actual performances are quite rare (though are known to occur during training, more than a few Odonii have burns and wounds on their feet).
The most important renditions of this dance are performed upon declarations of war and before battles (in this case, generally done in full armor along with the lion pelt). It is also done during some trainings (while a dance, it is carefully choreographed to include naturalistic maneuvers of the weapons involved and helps soldiers limber up and learn to move their weapons). It is regarded as an impressive and motivating sight and a morale booster, and, seen at a distance, potentially intimidating to enemies.
A special variant of this dance is performed as means of fully incarnating the Odomache, which is done in full nudity with the body covered in the blood of the freshly sacrificed lion and cloaked in its raw pelt (the lion has become the corpse of Odomache in the moment of death, as part of its recreation of God's sacrifice). Her public, full nude appearance once (and only once) in this act is what allows the Lion Face of God to incarnate within her. Those in attendance see the spiritually vulnerable, naked human body obscured with the sanctified and deified blood and cloaked in the sanctified and deified skin. It is a merger of the contradictions of mortality and divinity, the boundaries between the two indistinct in flickering firelight and the flash of musketfire. She is witnessed by her people, dangling in between humanity and divinity and leading them in dance, and and is thus transformed.
#faiza haidamane#Not really relevant to the core post itself but I don't have anywhere to put this#Faiza is a pretty extreme cultural rarity in that she's something along the lines of agnostic (regardless of her priestesshood)#It's a culturally specific form of agnosticism where the notion that God continues to exist and interact with the world in spirit form is#questioned. She personally gets the distinct vibe that God truly and wholly died in the act of creation and is no longer present#This isn't just a Her Thing it's a concept that comes up in some strains of religious philosophy but it's pretty rare#Orthopraxy is SIGNIFICANTLY more important to the faith of the seven faced god than orthodoxy so her merely thinking this isn't#a fundamental issue as long as she performs all expected rites and behaviors and etc (which she does quite devotedly) but it would#definitely not be socially accepted to openly proclaim (least of all from a senior priestess devoted to maintaining the connection of God's#spirit to Its lands and people) and she keeps it to herself.#She is the only main character who WHOLLY doesn't expect the pilgrimage and rites to end the drought. She doesn't fully DISbelieve#either (kind of like 'well maybe?') but for her this is all a very pragmatic political maneuver to stabilize the crumbling empire and#regain the people's faith in its leadership. It's not fully cynical like it means a lot to her but in a sense of very practically protectin#her beloved empire rather than a more spiritual sentiment.#It's very complicated for her like she takes her role very seriously and cares deeply for her faith while not actually believing#in it in any personal sense. More about what it represents to her than what it's supposed to literally be.#the white calf
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What are you looking for here? Scroll back up.
Just kidding, here’s a treat:
#laishuro#laios touden#nakamoto toshiro#dungeon meshi#delicious in dungeon#Fic writing takes time but at least my wife is helping m#e proof read#for now.. i can at least draw the possible scenes that i wANT TO WRITE SO BAD but don't know how to go about em yet lol#STILL!!! As you can see i refuse not to let these dudes feel themselves a lil bit :)#Laios wants to feel all of those textures and toshiro's heart will explode with all the intimacy#also Laios' getting into the intricacies of the East culture that he starts to notice and enjoy things about Toshiro#also both of these guys have dad issues#that alone gives me TOO MUCH to work with >:)#But I must admit 70% of these are self-indulgent and I will not stop <3#Sam's doodles of the day#shuro
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I think the other reason I don't really get into ships as portrayed by fandom culture is that it seems like the mindset is more like. "I want these characters to be in a Romantic Relationship(TM)" instead of "I want these characters' relationship to be romantic"
What I mean here is that, so often I see pairings enacting romance tropes to the point of heavily altering or downright replacing their original dynamic - as if the people behind it only understand romance as a series of checklists to tick off. Couples like to kiss and sleep in the same bed and flirt with each other, so it doesn't matter who the characters are, if they're a couple then naturally they'll do those things, right??
And that's where the whole thing starts to lose me, because I would assume that the appeal of shipping characters is, y'know... the characters? Rather than just, the idea of a couple? If I'm thinking about how it'd be cool for them to be in love, my first thought is always "so how would they show it," because just like everything else about a person, the answer is going to be different on a case-by-case basis.
Maybe the characters involved aren't really into kissing, but they like arranging date activities. Maybe they aren't committed to the structure of dating at all, and just want to be around each other whenever they can. And even if they are the types to like doing traditionally romantic things, that doesn't suddenly erase whatever else they had going on before they started adding that on top of it.
I'm not saying that the more typical romance tropes and activities are bad, just that they're applied kind of excessively, regardless of whether or not they actually work for the characters involved. I want to see my favorite characters having relationships that are true to who they are, not what the stock depiction of a couple says they should be.
#amatonormativity#fandom#shipping#media discussion#fandom culture#analysis#meta#This would be easier to illustrate with examples but I don't wanna sound mean by targeting specific ones right out the gate#And yes people are just having fun with their metaphorical dolls and I respect that#But also. they get to find other people playing with their dolls in the same way that appeals to them all the time#I gotta play all by myself over here with how difficult it is to find the things I want
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early seasons spn homophobia is actually so crazy because they literally do not look gay. hamfisted gay jokes when the characters look straight as hell. "you look the type" they literally don't. is the thing
#spn#there just truly was something in the waters of 2005-2008 in general. everybody just ITCHING to make gay jokes#even if there was really no actual foundational set up for it.#i'm rewatching himym right now which is. well it's many things but it IS interesting. to see#and there are SO many gay jokes that like. don't even make sense???? they're so forced.#like why are y'all so desperate to mention gayness even when it doesn't even suit the situation to make that joke.....#like you didn't need to do all that. you didn't need to even mention it. but you went out of your way to make a little gay joke#wish i could write some sort of thesis on the flirtation society had with gayness in 2005-2008 like. omg i don't even KNOW how to sum it up#obsession with gayness but still have to put on the front of it being Not Desirable but still can't help but mention it at every opportunit#like kids pulling on each other's hair and calling each other names in an effort to get attention#but that was mainstream society + culture @ the concept of being gay
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the idea this game posits that just as much as or even more so than lucanis is having a demon problem, spite is currently having a lucanis problem. is everything to me. spite voice bitch you live like this???
#'rook. talk to him >:('#<- both people in this ongoing one person family therapy session. thank god my rook is a watcher I think they might get it#dragon age#dragon age: the veilguard#dragon age: the veilguard spoilers#dragon age spoilers#lucanis dellamorte#spite#it's a good metaphor for trauma AND it's excellent da spirit lore building on a lot of things already established#and also. frequently hysterically funny. mary kirby has such a knack for Thematic Depth sneaking through#she did it with varric and storytelling and here she is again 'what like it's hard' style. god fuck EA so much#having to admit that the thing happened and was not in his control and that he's different now and can't go back is harder to deal with#than the actual ways he's different now when engaged with honestly. I mean. yeah. yeah. trauma breaks and rearranges a self#and no one goes 'great love this I'd like some more' right after that#add all the cultural fear and shame around demon possession in andrastian thedas and I would not be doing well either haha#but also. poor spite in the middle of all that being like physical reality is already so weird but I really don't want this to be happening
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Hi there! I have a UK specific question for Dead Boy Detectives. Something I see a lot in fic is the hc that Charles is working class and Edwin is rich. Do their different accents (like in the post you just reblogged) support this hc or is there other cultural context that I’m missing? I thought their differences in presentation were just down to era, but I’d be interested to hear what you think!
Yes! Charles' accent is far more commonly associated with working classes and Edwin's is much more common in the upper/middle classes (and Edwin's accent is more the type of accent you're taught to emulate if you have a regional/working class accent and want to be taken seriously in your career etc.). It's not the only indicator, Charles' involvement in the ska/rudeboy/skinhead subcultures would also make more sense for a working class lad, but it's a very strong indicator.
I'm afraid I'm personally not an accent buff (I just live here etc) so I couldn't tell you *exactly* what variation of working class London accent Charles has but yes, it's quite a major hint. Not to say someone middle/upper class COULDN'T have that accent but it's definitely not the norm — and any working class kid who talks like Edwin is liable to get picked on in school for being posh (speaking from experience — I wasn't posh but my parents sure talked like they were and I absorbed it like a sponge lmao. My mum actually ditched her working class Manchester accent when she moved to London and became an opera critic among other things, to this day she talks more like a posh southerner, sounds Completely different to her brothers who never left Manc).
In the comic I *think* the school basically takes in the kids of people in active military service, so Charles or anyone being there isn't necessarily a sign of being rich, idk if show Paul Rowland is meant to be military but if not it seems likely to me that Charles' family lived in the school's catchment area so he got in as a day boy (non-boarder) by virtue of it being his closest school.
#dead boy detectives#mr. bees speaks#i am NOT an expert of the intricacies of british class culture i literally just live here#but yeah. i think if you don't get the class and accents thing we've got going here#it'd be very easy to be like 🤨 at the rich edwin/poor charles headcanons#considering Edwin's white and Charles isn't#but yeah. there is evidence and it points to them being in different classes#which sadly is probably another thing Charles had against him when his 'friends' turned on him#but yeah there's defo era-specific differences in the way they present and talk#but if you took Charles and his accent and class and translated it Edwin's time he'd probs be closer to cockney than Edwin's posh ass#anyway if any uk folks seeing this actually ARE accent and class system buffs feel free to weigh in!#charles rowland#edwin payne#classism#meta
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"why couldn't shuro have just been honest about what he felt with laios and falin it's not that hard" are you. are you White
#dungeon meshi#shuro#toshiro nakamoto#look you can hate him for other things but this is very clearly a case of cultures (& personalities influenced by these cultures) clashing#shuro is japanese/east asian-coded and laios is european white boy#i am not japanese but i also come from a collectivistic society#pakikisama is a filipino value both prized and abhorred#it relies heavily on being able to read social cues and prior knowledge of societal norms#shuro being from a different country/culture is important to his character#his repressed nature is meant to contrast with laios' open one like that's the point#they both had similar upbringings but different coping mechanisms#shuro explicitly admits that he's jealous of laios being able to live life sincerely#anyway the point is they were operating on different expectations entirely and neither had healthy enough communication skills#to hash things out before they got too bad#re his attraction to falin i personally believe he unfortunately mpdg-ed her#she represented something new & different. a fresh drink of water for his parched repressed self#alas not meant to be#i'll be honest the way ryoko kui handles both fantasy & regular racism in dm is more miss than hit for me#i don't doubt that a lot of the shuro hate is based off of marcille's pov of him#marcille famously racist 😭#characters' racist views don't often get (too) challenged#practically everyone is casually racist at some point#anyway. again if you're gonna hate shuro at least hate him for being complicit in human trafficking & slavery#he couldn't help falling for the wrong woman goddamn 😭#calemonsito notes#edit: upon further reflection i take back what i said about toshiro mpdg-ing falin!#i'm sorry toshiro 😭
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i can't get over how cute javier is when he introduces himself to ppodong. he's so serious about it that lloyd thinks he's about to question his cover story for how ppodong was summoned but no. he was just thinking really hard about how he should call him or if he had a name. and then when lloyd gives him the go ahead to call ppodong however he wants he just. calls him sir ppodong and fucking shakes hands with him. he introduces himself and shakes hands with the hamster like c'mon that's so fucking cute i cannot stop thinking about it just look at him
it's adorable.
and it's also one of the first times in the novel that you get the sense that 'oh. that's a kid.' it's subtle and lowkey but you can kinda feel that javier is actually excited about ppodong, he's curious about him and really gentle when he meets him. like. he's just a kid. a kid that probably never had a pet before and is now in close proximity with a cute and fluffy little hamster and just. wants to know his name.
it's just. it's very cute.
#i talk a lot <3#tged#the greatest estate developer#javier asrahan#ch 18#sorry i get emotional everytime javier acts his age. less like the tragic protagonist of a novel and more like the 20yrs old he really is.#i also haven't stopped thinking about sun's post about how they're probably a year younger than the text says because cultural differences#and. if javier is actually nineteen at the start of the novel. i don't think i can handle that.#another reason i think the choice to make javier look buff and chiseled is not the best one from a story telling perspective#the tragedy of just how young he truly was when he was fated to lose absolutely everything he loved#hits much better when you can see that he still has a bit of a baby face because he's not old enough yet to grow out of it completely#i have opinions on this novel about things most people wouldn't even realize there were opinions to be had lmao
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I have a lot of complicated feelings when it comes to what Neflix has done with the Witcher, but my probably least favourite is the line of argumentation that originated during shitstorms related to the first and second season that I was unlucky to witness.
It boils down to "Netflix's reinterpretation and vision is valid, because the Witcher books are not written to be slavic. The overwhelming Slavic aestetic is CDPR's interpretation, and the setting in the original books is universally European, as there are references to Arthurian mythos and celtic languages" And I'm not sure where this argument originated and whether it's parroting Sapkowski's own words or a common stance of people who haven't considered the underlying themes of the books series. Because while it's true that there are a lot of western european influences in the Witcher, it's still Central/Eastern European to the bone, and at its core, the lack of understanding of this topic is what makes the Netflix series inauthentic in my eyes.
The slavicness of the Witcher goes deeper than the aestetics, mannerisms, vodka and sour cucumbers. Deeper than Zoltan wrapping his sword with leopard pelt, like he was a hussar. Deeper than the Redanian queen Hedvig and her white eagle on the red field.
What Witcher is actually about? It's a story about destiny, sure. It's a sword-and-sorcery style, antiheroic deconstruction of a fairy tale, too, and it's a weird mix of many culture's influences.
But it's also a story about mundane evil and mundane good. If You think about most dark, gritty problems the world of Witcher faces, it's xenophobia and discrimination, insularism and superstition. Deep-seated fear of the unknown, the powerlessness of common people in the face of danger, war, poverty and hunger. It's what makes people spit over their left shoulder when they see a witcher, it's what makes them distrust their neighbor, clinging to anything they deem safe and known. It's their misfortune and pent-up anger that make them seek scapegoats and be mindlessly, mundanely cruel to the ones weaker than themselves.
There are of course evil wizards, complicated conspiracies and crowned heads, yes. But much of the destruction and depravity is rooted in everyday mundane cycle of violence and misery. The worst monsters in the series are not those killed with a silver sword, but with steel. it's hard to explain but it's the same sort of motiveless, mundane evil that still persist in our poorer regions, born out of generations-long poverty and misery. The behaviour of peasants in Witcher, and the distrust towards authority including kings and monarchs didn't come from nowhere.
On the other hand, among those same, desperately poor people, there is always someone who will share their meal with a traveller, who will risk their safety pulling a wounded stranger off the road into safety. Inconditional kindness among inconditional hate. Most of Geralt's friends try to be decent people in the horrible world. This sort of contrasting mentalities in the recently war-ridden world is intimately familiar to Eastern and Cetral Europe.
But it doesn't end here. Nilfgaard is also a uniquely Central/Eastern European threat. It's a combination of the Third Reich in its aestetics and its sense of superiority and the Stalinist USSR with its personality cult, vast territory and huge army, and as such it's instantly recognisable by anybody whose country was unlucky enough to be caught in-between those two forces. Nilfgaard implements total war and looks upon the northerners with contempt, conscripts the conquered people forcibly, denying them the right of their own identity. It may seem familiar and relevant to many opressed people, but it's in its essence the processing of the trauma of the WW2 and subsequent occupation.
My favourite case are the nonhumans, because their treatment is in a sense a reminder of our worst traits and the worst sins in our history - the regional antisemitism and/or xenophobia, violence, local pogroms. But at the very same time, the dilemma of Scoia'Tael, their impossible choice between maintaining their identity, a small semblance of freedom and their survival, them hiding in the forests, even the fact that they are generally deemed bandits, it all touches the very traumatic parts of specifically Polish history, such as January Uprising, Warsaw Uprising, Ghetto Uprising, the underground resistance in WW2 and the subsequent complicated problem of the Cursed Soldiers all at once. They are the 'other' to the general population, but their underlying struggle is also intimately known to us.
The slavic monsters are an aestetic choice, yes, but I think they are also a reflection of our local, private sins. These are our own, insular boogeymen, fears made flesh. They reproduce due to horrors of the war or they are an unprovoked misfortune that descends from nowhere and whose appearance amplifies the local injustices.
I'm not talking about many, many tiny references that exist in the books, these are just the most blatant examples that come to mind. Anyway, the thing is, whether Sapkowski has intended it or not, Witcher is slavic and it's Polish because it contains social commentary. Many aspects of its worldbuilding reflect our traumas and our national sins. It's not exclusively Polish in its influences and philosophical motifs of course, but it's obvious it doesn't exist in a vacuum.
And it seems to me that the inherently Eastern European aspects of Witcher are what was immediately rewritten in the series. It seems to me that the subtler underlying conflicts were reshaped to be centered around servitude, class and gender disparity, and Nilfgaard is more of a fanatic terrorist state than an imposing, totalitarian empire. A lot of complexity seems to be abandoned in lieu of usual high-fantasy wordbuilding. It's especially weird to me because it was completely unnecessary. The Witcher books didn't need to be adjusted to speak about relevant problems - they already did it! The problem of acceptance and discrimination is a very prevalent theme throughout the story! They are many strong female characters too, and they are well written. Honestly I don't know if I should find it insulting towards their viewers that they thought it won't be understood as it was and has to be somehow reshaped to fit the american perpective, because the current problems are very much discussed in there and Sapkowski is not subtle in showing that genocide and discrimination is evil. Heck, anyone who has read the ending knows how tragic it makes the whole story.
It also seems quite disrespectful, because they've basically taken a well-established piece of our domestic literature and popular culture and decided that the social commentary in it is not relevant. It is as if all it referenced was just not important enough and they decided to use it as an opportunity to talk about the problems they consider important. And don't get me wrong, I'm not forcing anyone to write about Central European problems and traumas, I'm just confused that they've taken the piece of art already containing such a perspective on the popular and relevant problem and they just... disregarded it, because it wasn't their exact perspective on said problem.
And I think this homogenisation, maybe even from a certain point of view you could say it's worldview sanitisation is a problem, because it's really ironic, isn't it? To talk about inclusivity in a story which among other problems is about being different, and in the same time to get rid of motifs, themes and references because they are foreign? Because if something presents a different perspective it suddenly is less desirable?
There was a lot of talking about the showrunners travelling to Poland to understand the Witcher's slavic spirit and how to convey it. I don't think they really meant it beyond the most superficial, paper-thin facade.
#The witcher#Sorry if its convoluted I just got reminded of something and it made me a little angry#and as I had this conversation a lot of times I've decided to put it into written text#sorry about being bitter#but these are some of my favourite books and I'm still upset when I get reminded how badly they were treated in the recent adaptation#I'm not saying you should never change anything#But it's good to have enough background to understand why some things are the way they are in the original#and to understand what the source material is about#we don't talk about particular character's looks or something (altough I feel they could care more about it too)#but central themes tropes and motifs#long post#it may seem like I'm talking from a high horse here#people are welcome to interpret literature however they want#Nobody has a monopol on themes#I just think that in this particular case the cultural context influences the worldbuilding#and if changed it doesn't have the same impact anymore#meta
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A kulustaig bull, the distinctive cattle landrace of the highlands.
Kulustaig have striking differences to other native cattle found across the Imperial Wardi claimed territory. Their aurochs ancestors were domesticated in a separate event from those found south of the Inner Seaways, and the broader cattle population kulustaig derived from may have trace bison genetics. The progenitors of this landrace were brought south across the Viper seaway by the ancestors of the contemporary Hill Tribes, and were gradually shaped into the kulustaig in adaption to the high altitudes, mild but dry summers, and cool/snowy wet seasons.
These cattle are mid-sized and stocky in build with large, broad faces, most distinguished by curly manes and 'beards' and thick, V-shaped horns. Genetically undiluted kulustaig are almost ubiquitously black, white, and/or gray, though breeding with other cattle has introduced a greater variety of coloration in contemporary stocks.
They are adapted to higher altitudes, having larger hearts and a bigger lung capacity than comparable lowland breeds, and grow thick, curly winter coats that allow for superior resistance to seasonally cooler temperatures. They can maintain condition on less food and lower-nutrition grasses than the average cattle, and are excellent instinctive foragers. This particular quality makes them attractive for crossbreeding efforts with cattle stock of the dry scrublands in the south of Imperial Wardin, though most of their other traits are highly unfavorable for hot, low altitude environments, and scrub-kulustaig hybrids with idealized traits are rare (and highly sought after as studs).
These are all-purpose cattle that can adequately fulfill roles as meat, draft, and dairy animals, though the latter role has the most importance in day to day life, and they show the most selection for milk production (though are not as high-yield as pure dairy breeds). Their meat is mostly lean and somewhat gamey, as they rely more on thick winter coats than fat stores to manage cold, and the vast majority subsist entirely on wild grasses and forage.
Most kulustaig have fairly calm, gentle temperaments, and accommodate well to human handling (it is not uncommon for cows and geldings to be passively ridden by herders otherwise traveling on foot). Their herds have strong, well defined, and stable dominance hierarchy structures, which reduces actual fighting and lends to them being more easily managed by their human herders. In most traditions, the dominant female in each herd is regarded as blessed by and belonging to the agricultural goddess Od, and will not be milked or slaughtered (this untouchable status is often maintained even if the cow's rank in the hierarchy is displaced, though traditions vary).
Bulls are almost ubiquitously given personal names by their owners (the honor often belonging to a family or clan's matriarch, who is generally considered the owner of the herd and other familial assets), while other traditions vary between just the bulls and dominant cows, personal favorites, or entire herds receiving names.
These cattle are of tremendous importance to the peoples of the highlands (particularly tribes and/or individual clans living above the river valleys, who fundamentally rely upon them for subsistence). They provide much of the meat and dairy that the core diet revolves around, and are the greatest measure of wealth within the highlands. Non-native cattle can be commonly found in parts of the highlands in the contemporary (and may be bred in to impart unique qualities to established stock, such as improved milk production or fattier meat), but kulustaig are typically prized above all the rest. These cattle are often a source of great pride for individual clans, and one of few agreed upon markers of shared identity and pride for all of the collective Hill Tribes.
Cattle raiding is a near-ubiquitous practice (both as a practical resource acquisition, and a less immediately lethal method of settling larger disputes than open warfare), and most cattle will be branded with a mark identifying their owning clan as a method of dissuading theft (often futile, particularly given cattle marked as belonging to certain wealthy clans may be especially prized). Nose rings are commonly used to assist in the handling of bulls, but have secondary protective functions that lend to their common use in even the most docile of cattle. Rings are usually blessed or have spells woven into their making as a supernatural barrier against theft, or against malicious (or at least devious) mountain spirits such as tiirgranul (who take pleasure in frightening cattle (and their herders) and are known to cause stampedes) or wildfolk (who are known to sometimes steal or curse cattle when offended, or just bored).
The word kulustaig derives from the common word 'taig'/'taigr', which refers to cattle in the contemporary languages of both the Hill Tribes and Finns, and the 'kul' root (heavily antiquated and not used in contemporary speech, most commonly recognizable in the name of the kulys plant), which has connotations of hardiness/robust qualities. The name would have derived from complimentary descriptions of the animals as 'the best and most robust of cattle'.
#GET EXCITED: 9 COW PARAGRAPHS#creatures#hill tribes#Just in general an obsolete word that was something like 'kulus' was used as a modifier to describe something as THE MOST hardy/robust#The name 'kulys' for the plant would have been derived from ancestral populations just referring to it as 'the hardiest' plant#Or like it's possible that the culture hero Kulyos was named after the plant but also very possible that the word was actually#an epithet meaning 'the hardiest' which over generations and linguistic change was reinterpreted as his actual given name#The -kul in Brakul's name also comes from this root but no longer has any literal meanings of hardiness. A name with -kul in it will#at least be associated with hardy/robust Things like tough plants and cattle#I don't have a word for the local strain of barley yet but it's probably got a kul root in there somewhere (given it would be especially#noted as the hardiest of all grains)
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personally i don't want an x-men reboot. they got the cherik gay tension down right the first time in a miraculous turn of events (considering this was a comic book movie franchise) and i don't want to see disney fuck it up the way they have been marvel movies the past few years #tbh. call me selfish if you must
#x men#x men movies#cherik#like i really don't think we're going to get much better#have you seen the culture wars going on over on twitter over the simplest things#god forbid they decide magneto isn't jewish for the 2024+ reboot#which seems more and more likely to happen with the way things have been panning out so far
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I have a germ of a theory that good Christian fiction has stories that are less about shaving down your personality to meet some specific mold of what a good Christian looks like, and more about "how gloriously different are all the saints."
Not that the Christian life doesn't involve fighting against our own sinful nature and conforming ourselves to Christ-like behavior, but I think it makes for better, more realistic, and more universal stories when you also recognize that people have different gifts and flaws and they're going to be called to use their unique personalities to serve the kingdom of God in their own unique way, instead of assuming everyone has to conform themselves to a very specific (often secular-culturally based) image of good behavior. It makes for a much more vibrant story.
#catholic things#books#i'm still ruminating on charlotte yonge#because i usually contrast modern christian fiction with how the classics incorporated christianity#but she's the first classic victorian author i've found that i'd describe as writing christian fiction#which makes for a more direct comparison#she did handle religion in some very good ways#but i tried another of her books after 'heir'#and it reminded me of what i didn't like about the childhood section of 'heir'#but magnified a lot#she wants to show her children overcoming flaws#but she has a very narrow english anglo-catholic view of goodness#and that means her idea of christianity can come across as very judgemental and narrow-minded#things that are not actually sins in and of themselves are treated as moral failings inherent to other cultures#and the kids spend so much time worrying about cutting out sin that you don't get to see enough of their unique personality#i'd be willing to try more from her but i think i'd have to stick to the stories about adult characters
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Someone should write a very practical and down-to-earth story about a dragonriding culture and how they deal with the potential for whiplash and related injuries. I just saw a gifset from a certain realistic dragon show, and watching those tiny CG riders bobbing around up there makes me concerned for the sake of their spines.
Do the saddles have backs and headrests? Does part of training involve teaching the dragon to hold its back unnaturally steady? Is there a handy magic spell to counteract inertia/gravity? Or are a number of riders lost each year to snapped necks, along with the ones who pass out from G-forces and are forbidden from flying?
#shoutout to my homies who should never scream on a roller coaster#because that doesn't leave enough air to breathe with#I used to get tunnel vision on the more extreme ones#scared a friend once when I was staring like a dead thing#but all is fine now that I know I have to conserve my oxygen#because my blood pressure is apparently not the best#I don't like what this says about my dragonriding possibilities#though I'll bet dragonriding cultures would have similar breathing/flexing exercises as the astronauts do#dragons#dragonriding#writing prompts
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A thing that bothers me is that a lot of pro-ship people are not pro-fiction, and a lot of people who call themselves pro-fiction are not actually pro-fiction.
Without getting into the hypocrisy of people who are pro-ship but not pro-fiction, there's a need to engage in a little bit of healthy gatekeeping here.
I've seen "pro-fiction" folks who understand that sexual topics in fiction are fine, even defending the especially gratuitous stuff as you'd expect, but then they still have their hang-ups about the use of non-sexual tropes that they find distasteful, and I've seen "pro-fiction" people call others "braindead" for being in fandoms they dislike.
So let's set the story straight.
Pro-fiction means all fiction. If you, at any point, claim a certain trope or theme shouldn't ever be used in fiction because it "might offend someone", then you are not pro-fiction. If you insult people for liking a piece of media or being in a fandom that you don't like, then you are not pro-fiction. You are only using the label because it makes you look good.
And for anyone who might be considering replying to this post with anything along the lines of "Yes, except---" then instead consider not doing that. There are no exceptions. Fiction is fiction. I will block you. Have a great day.
#rant#glue speaks#proship#profiction#purity culture#I don't care how offensive you find a trope#it's allowed to exist#period#people can do whatever they want with their stories#people can do whatever they want with their characters#if it upsets you then block them#you are allowed to find things personally distasteful#but you still don't get to police other people for what they draw or write
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