#the cornerstone of society tbh

[goddesspharo]

Relatable. (Now give me a Glen Powell interview that is basically like that Chris Evans cover story from ten years ago where they got wasted and the interviewer went on a meet-cute pub crawl with him on GQ's dime while fantasizing about him taking her to the Oscars.)

[eriochromatic]

I am in love with the wha cross guild designs. Can you say something more about them? Like the thought process behind them and stuff.

sure! What I focused on first is how Mihawk, Buggy, and Crocodile's motives and personality would translate into the WHA world (I need a loose story first to be motivated before delving into the design!)

tbh I think with one piece's characters so focused on freedom and living without constraint, all pirate characters would technically be brimhats LOL (and Coco's arc of realizing the flaws of the current insitution is quite similar to Koby and the marines).

Devil fruit powers are easy to translate into seals tattooed on the skin (hence wha!Buggy's seal on his chest letting him split his body and wha!Crocodile's on his hand giving him sand manipulation). Mihawk is more interesting since he doesn't have a devil fruit, so naturally wha!Mihawk also doesn't have tattooed seals. Another way for a witch to become a brimhat is dabbling in forbidden seals, so wha!Mihawk has cursed seals on Yoru instead (which makes him a brimhat without modifying his body)

As for cornerstone character traits in the original: Mihawk is the greatest swordsman, Buggy is… just vibing LMFAO, and Crocodile is ambitous/power hungry/looking to rule his own kingdom. Obviously the greatest swordsman title means nothing in WHA, so wha!Mihawk instead is a great artificer, with Yoru being the strongest magic imbued weapon in existence. I'd like to think Yoru's seals were initially within guidelines, but Mihawk felt those rules were suffocating Yoru's potential, which is when he started using cursed and forbidden seals instead, all for the sake of Yoru becoming stronger.

Buggy I'd imagine is kind of like how Iguin is introduced in Coco's past- as a solo traveling witch mingling amongst common folk rather than being in a community of fellow witches. I think he'd be addicted to that feeling of superiority he'd get from being a revered witch in the eyes of the common people, so he's probably the head of a traveling circus troupe (where he's the only witch) touring the countryside (keeping a relatively low profile in the realm of witches, never staying in one place too long so the Knights Moralis don't go after him). Buggy's definitely not as altruistic or eager to help those in need as witches are supposed to be in WHA society, but of course he'd put on a good show to entertain the masses.

Eolio mentioned something interesting in chpt 53 ("We can be as in the tales of yore. King and witch, side by side"). There might've been more references to this concept of a monarch/person in power with a witch as their advisor (I just can't find it at the moment a;sldkfs) but I'd imagine that's what Crocodile would be doing. Like Buggy, I think he also gets a sense of superiority by being alongside commonfolk (vs Mihawk who's goal is to genuinely just make the strongest weapon possible and not interested in mingling with others). But instead of Buggy's route of mingling with commoners, Crocodile would definitely go the more sinister route- find some easily manipulated king or high lord and get into his good graces, eventually becoming the witch operating in the shadows and whispering machinations in his liege's ears. We don't know much about the pennisula yet and how far the witches' institution reaches so I don't know the exact position of power Crocodile feels safe aiming for without the Knights Moralis coming for his ass (a ruler might be too obvious lol but then again Crocodile tried to take over Alabasta right underneath the World Government's noses so who knows).

As for the designs themselves: Mihawk's fluffy plume being reminiscient of a brushbug is what started this entire idea for me, so I knew I had to add that in somehow. For each character I picked an overarching motif/theme I wanted in the character design, as well as adding in WHA design elements. WHA characters all tend to have large cloaks to cover their body while writing seals, and even though Cross Guild is all brimhats, nobody starts out as a brimhat so I'd imagine a large cloak or something top heavy would still be familiar to them even if they don't care about covering seals anymore.

For Mihawk I leaned a bit more into the vampire theme than his usual (cloak silhouette is bat like, plus the additional crosses everwhere. His sleeves aren't exactly attached to his jacket (like OPLA) and I also added that detail in the pants haha. I think Yoru is the real star here with all the seals on it, the two big ones are actually modified seals from the Ars Goetia (since they're supposed to be cursed after all); the top one is Glasya-Labolas (manslaughter and bloodshed) and the bottom one is Ronove (taker of old souls). The flower pattern on his sleeves is also not as paisley looking since it doesn't fit with the WHA artstyle, but there's so much hatching that at the end of the day I don't think it mattered lol. His cloak is the least cloak like since he needs to be able to swing that sword HAHA also he's not interacting with normal humans much anyways, usually he only interacts with witches that try to challenge him. Personally I think wha!Mihawk is quite bad at drawing seals on the fly- his specialty is being able to carve complex ones on metal perfectly so they'd be suitable in a fight later.

Buggy I went full medieval jester mode (I always tend to lean toward that aesthetic for Buggy rather than Joker Batman anyways haha). A couple of star motifs here and there, as well as slashed sleeves to reinforce the slicing and dicing of his body. Overall there's just a lot of vertical and horizontal lines on his body for that purpose. I really wanted to let Buggy's beautiful hair down since WHA's style is lovely with that kind of flowing hair. Oh all three of them are also wearing slyph shoes!

Crocodile's coat is directly inspired from Iguin's (esp for that scale motif); overall I wanted to incorporate flowy ornaments for him since I'd be drawing a lot of flowing sand; hence all the tassels on his cloak and sleeves. Cutouts are there for him to use sand manipulation more effectively. I know in canon both for him and Buggy the clothes also are affected by devil fruit powers but I don't think that would be the case here- Buggy's clothes also probably have seals in them and no one would be able to see if he's on stage but I think for Crocodile, since he'd be working with normal humans more he does have to be more cautious about things (hence why he also has a more traditional cloak compared to the others). Sand hat for coolness also for convenience bc he can just dissipate the sand if he's trying to disguise himself (like how Ininia's ribbons can appear normal instead of brim shaped). I also gave him a smoking pipe instead of a cigar because the pipe can be used as a red herring of sorts- to outsiders it might appear the pipe being the source of power (like for Mihawk's sword) but Crocodile's sand manipulation ability has the same scope as canon.

ANYWAYS that's probably a way more detailed response than you expected but hopefully that was interesting to read my thought process behind things! even though i captioned it Cross Guild I guess it ended up being more East Blue/Alabasta saga personalities than actual post Wano Cross Guild dynamics haha

[sharpstake]

I’d pretty curious tbh on what went on in the writing room between tch 1 and 2 because like. having recently re-read them both, the first book is written around a specific kind of fantasy ->

> in that it’s simultaneously the intended cornerstone of appeal for the reader and a fantasy that the mc has to negotiate a conflict with internally because it’s their like. lived experience coming into conflict w their sexual tastes, and given the genre of the book (fairytale) and the lived reality of the power disparity in class + nature (mortal/immortal), neither Keiran nor the mc actually have like. the language or narrative opportunity to unpack how the fantasy of a power imbalance intersects and interacts with the lived reality for the characters.

Until book 2 where, even though yeah you’re not getting the characters explicitly sit down and hash out this conflict and how it’s shaped/eroticised/influenced sex & sexual attraction in their relationship, by virtue OF the characters being forced to confront the attitudes and behaviours symptomatic of a classist society, you actually see the fantasy of power imbalance transition explicitly to the realm of just fantasy, where in book one there’s a huge element of obscurity to this entire Thing as it were, making it both a source of narrative tension (and is in fact part of the original reader fantasy that book is trying to appeal to, though whether that’s appealing to you personally is a ymmv)

[rohanscornernz]

Lots and lots of things tbh - Here are 7 to start with

What would you change about modern society? Seven Transformative Changes for a Just and Equitable Society Introduction Society, in its various forms and functions, is constantly evolving. However, certain systemic issues and injustices persist, requiring substantial change. In envisioning a future where fairness, equality, and justice are the cornerstones of daily life, we must address…

[almoravid]

OK so, I have a couple of very different books I think could match. First, let me congratulate you on the choice of Wool. Incredible pick. My suggestions :

1. Jingo, by the one and only Sir Terry Pratchett. STP is interesting because he writes science fiction disguised as fantasy. In Jingo, an island suddenly appears between two neighboring countries. The reactions of the countrymen as well as how it's handled politically is hilarious, deeply cutting and an interesting take on how human work. Any Pratchett would work tbh. Special mention to Monstrous Regiment, which explores themes of relation to authority, patriotism but also transness and makes it all make sense.

2. A classic : the Handmaiden's tale. Bleak tale in a dystopian future where women lost body autonomy. It matches your themes really well, but is also one of the rare book which, while I loved it, made me want to puke and cry of disgust.

3. I'd be remiss to not mention the cornerstone of the genre : 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. I don't think you should base your work on them, but if you havent read them, I do think they are great reads to build off of.

4. The Giver, by Lois Lowry. This one was a mandatory read in France when I grew up, funnily enough. Explores what it does to "flatten" a society by eradicating emotional depth.

Lastly, if you havent watched the movie Equilibrium, give it a whirl. CW for violence and gore.

I realise all of those are really mainstream and maybe you wanted something a bit more niche, but I do think they match :) lmk!

Guys im worried because we are starting english coursework and i decided on one of my books (Wool by Hugh Howie) but i have no clue what the other one should be.

I want to explore themes of authority, human nature and maybe something else but there are no resources on the internet to find books.

It has to be fictional and originally written in English (unless the author themselves translated it) because if anyone else translated it the original meaning by the author may not be legitimate.

Does anyone know any books like this???????? If you dont please can you reblog so others who might know can see it??? 💕🩷

[coldtomyflash]

Thank you for answering ! I did finish the fic and chapter 3 does a great job of establishing Snart's history with his soulmark, but it's also specific to that fic ? Like it's an explanation for how he came to feel that way about his soulmate in the context on that particular fic, I was wondering more about what it was about their canon characterization that made you decide this was how they both would react to finding out they were soulmates in the first place.

hmmm i didn’t come at it that way and i think therein lies the disconnect with what you’re asking and how i’m able to answer.

i didn’t start with “what would barry be like if he met his soulmate” or “what would len do if he met his soulmate” in a way that started from canon and then extended to a new setting.

i mean i sort of did, in that i went “what if they were soulmates” then went “len is a dramatic ho who would think that bank robberies and heists are the right way to woo his beloved and barry would be progressively more annoyed with this bullshit” then went “oh nevermind let’s take that idea but make it angst” 

but in many ways i couldn’t start perfectly linearly from canon because i was started in a world that exists just to the left of canon. the way soulmates are setup in that world makes everything just sightly different, and i had to take that into consideration.

so while i started with “haha what if len was a total brat” (much like i always start with tbh), the crux of the story’s starting point was the shape of the soulmate bond, the bleed. i’m a hopeless romantic who loves the idea of soulmates but i get stuck on worldbuilding details. soulmate AUs with the “first words” or “see in colour when you meet your mate” really leave me wanting more because -- what the heck would society even look like if that were the case and what are the millions of ways it would be different? 

so the bleed was baked in from the beginning, from before the beginning, half because there was a post that went around about “what if barry and len accidentally got psychically bonded thanks to a meta”. so psychic bonds and soulmates, that’s the setup.

then i dropped barry and len into that setup -- into that alternate universe i’d made with all its societal backdrop. and i knew i was writing for angst, and i knew i wanted it to be messy and complicated. i wish i could say that i sat down and was like “okay so if barry were soulmates with len here’s how he’d react” but i didn’t. instead i sat down and said “i’m making a story where barry and len are going to be bonded with an emotional bleed and they’re going to be soulmates and it’s going to cause problems.” and i implicitly knew i wanted to explore themes related to separation, expectation, and identity navigation.

so why was barry the one who pulled away, and len the one who wanted to bond? in part because it just seemed a lot more interesting to me, and i’d already written stories where barry is the one who is “all in” and len is the one who is reluctant to commit. 

i also felt it very true to len’s character from a “i’m a thief” standpoint that he’d be a bit greedy/possessive over someone who the universe has literally said is supposed to be his, in part due to his past and how much he keeps people at arm’s length (but how obviously he thaws for the people he does let close). len might not want to open up or commit or be emotionally vulnerable under normal circumstances, but this is a sort of ‘sure thing’ in his mind, at least at the outset before that faith is shaken. 

barry though - barry was tricky, actually. i did have to figure out that if the central romantic conflict was going to be him pulling away -- why? 

if he was on board with it quite then it would be a much shorter story. i knew he would plausibly balk at being soulmates with len at the outset, but barry is a forgiving and kind person, so realistically how/why might he pull away?

so of course they bonded in/under terrible circumstances. that was like - step 1. otherwise, if len had been like “oh should we bond” and barry agreed, then there would be a lot of cognitive dissonance involved that would make barry retroactively justify his agreement to bond by interpreting it as being because he wants to be close to len. so i had to take barry’s choice away, and then realistically i think he’d react negatively because that’s overwhelming and the whole thing was a mess and very confronting.

but i also -

there’s this line from season 1 when he first asks Len for help, right before he goes to the bar. the thing that gives barry the idea to ask len, when he’s talking to joe at the precinct. “we only break the rules to help people”

it tells you so much about how barry sees the world. so. much. i could unpack that for days. and it’s wild that he immediately thinks about len as a result of breaking the rules for somewhat noble reasons???? just - what???

but barry sees himself as the good guy. it’s fundamental to his worldview in this really really huge way. and what we know about self-concept is that very close others become enmeshed/embedded into our self-concept: our partners literally become included in how we see ourselves.

if you see yourself as the good guy, and that is fundamental to your identity and worldview and necessary for you to be psychologically healthy because you’ve made it a cornerstone of your self-concept.... how the hell do you respond when a giant fucking grenade lands right in the middle of that self-perception and says “actually part of your self-concept now involves kidnapping, tormenting, and torturing your friends, also killing a dude just to test the cold-gun, also a lifetime of theft and murder, also betrayal can’t forget that sweet sting of betrayal.”

barry coming to len over time in his own way is one thing. barry having len bond with him as a soulmate out of the blue is about the biggest psychological threat possible. it’s threatening his sense of self, his worldview, the structure of his self-concept, his expectations for himself (which are too damn high, he has to save everyone, he ‘has to try’) and leads him to believe that others he loves will be disappointed in him or reject him for this because len has hurt them, and because barry is disappointed in himself for wanted to connect with len, with his soulmate, despite all the harm he’s caused.

as soon as that clicked for me, as soon as i put it in context of barry’s self-concept, everything kind of flowed from there really really easily.

i was overly ambitious in writing that out though i think because most people, barry included, don’t introspect a lot about the structure of their self-concept, and don’t have the language related to social psychology to articulate what it means to be psychologically threatened. so he doesn’t really understand his own reactions and why they’re so visceral, and when he does he’s lying to himself about how much of it is coming from the fact that he wants len and wants to be with len but he’s upset with himself for how deep he wants that because the absolutely massive guilt he experiences because of it.

aaaand all that brings me to pointing out that the obvious resolution there is having barry’s loved ones find out about len and accept len as part of barry’s life and show that these people aren’t rejecting barry for being with len. if/when that’s the case, barry is able to more authentically work through all this shit. but because of how they bonded and how goddamn secretive his is (canonically) about personal shit, he decided to hide his bond with len, which meant he wasn’t able to deal with literally any of this during the first several chapters and all of it compounded and magnified until it reached it’s first breaking point.

whew - okay that was a wall of text sorry not sorry i hope this helps answer your question but it probably just complicated things a lot.

[polyolefinprince]

What would you do for the next Pokémon region? What theme would the pseudo legendaries and legendaries be?

In terms of the actual region, I prefer fantasy lands to actual places (I'd rather explore Hyrule than NYC, you feel?) which also permits more diversity in location so there can be stuff like a desert area and a snowy area without it feeling forced. I'd also want caves to come back a bit. Places like the Ice Path in Johto allowed so much more exploration than locations like the Galar Mine which is just one path with an optional offshoot.

Honestly, I want a Breath of the Wild type of game where there is a lot more exploration and letting us approach the story how we want. Gyms would be hard to force in a more open-world game but in the past two generations they've been changing how gyms work so I think it's totally feasible to still incorporate that with badges acting as milestones to unlock stronger pokemon and areas. I still think having the region somewhat split up is a good idea, so maybe having different areas going further into the region, with three gyms per area, and you just have to beat one of them to go on but you're encouraged to beat all three so you're pokemon will on-par with the levels of the next region. This allows for a chance of a gym for each type which would give us 6 different levels of area, similar to Alola's four islands (I don't think I would want them to be islands though because the story requires more forest area than oceans). I think this works well because the first could be a classic Grass/Fire/Water trio, then maybe Electric/Ground/Flying as classic types to teach resistances, then Bug/Ghost/Poison to have a generally spooky vibe, then kick off the second half with the classic Fighting/Psychic/Dark trio, then Ice/Ground/Normal (partially because it's what is left and partially because by now you have typing figured out so a strong normal gym is a challenge) and the final one could be the stronger types with Dragon/Fairy/Steel.

In terms of the storyline, I love what Hoenn did with having two teams with contrasting views and depending on the game you chose you got to see different points of view. I want to try that again but have more nuanced arguments rather than Team Aqua and Magma's opinion on the size of the ocean. I think I'd want my two teams to be focused on Nature vs Society, where one team wants to exhaust the natural world's resources for industry and science while the other wants to push civilization back to make room for the return of forests and wild pokemon. This has definitely been done before so it isn't a new concept, but I think that it's something where arguing for the extremes can lead to disastrous consequences in either side. I'm talking Community Center vs Joja Mart but like to the max.

Playing off of that, Princess Mononoke is one of my two favorite movies and while I would love the forest spirit there to be the Nature legendary, I don't want it to be too similar to Xerneas. Instead, I think looking at the boar gods there is a good choice as they can show the wild strength of nature that I want. So the Nature legendary would be a Grass/Ground giant boar. Let's call it Boarture, even though that's not at all what it's name would be because that sounds too much like torture and I specifically want to stay away from making either of them evil, just dangerous. Still, Boarture works for now.

The Society legendary is harder. I don't want to minimize society to industry because that's harder to justify against nature. I still want industry to play a part, as well as scientific advancement but also history and art as important cultural cornerstones. There are a couple different type combos I like for this one, but my favorite is Fire/Steel, which isn't a type combo we've seen before and also pairs up human civilization really well with the myth of the first fire and cooking and shelter and stories which are all decidedly human traits and the steel incorporating technology and science. I think it would take on a more humanoid appearance while still being wisp-y, a body composed purely of a white fire fueled by ambition and hands of liquid steel that it shapes at will to demonstrate its creativity, while still being dangerous to embrace in entirety. Lets call it Muse.

It might be a lot, but I think I also want a separate legendary trio to accompany them both. With Boarture I think you should have to make a case to three disciples before you get to confront Boarture itself. Each of them composes an aspect of the natural world. I like the idea of them being bugs because there aren't enough strong bug types. One of them is Flying/Bug and it helps herald in storms, another is Rock/Bug and it presides over the desert, and the third is Water/Bug and it protects the rivers and streams throughout the region. For Muse's, I like the idea of them all being Fairies because fairy tales are a human creation, and each of them having to do with humanity and society. One would be Ghost/Fairy and presides ovrr stories and history, another would be Electric/Fairy and would be immersed in technology (like a non-tricky Rotom), and the third would be Psychic/Fairy and would deal with identity and the concept of the Self. I don't like the idea of Pokemon being version exclusive, as somebody who didn't have friends to play with growing up, so I think 3 would be plot relevant, but after the game is complete you can potentially go through a second quest to fight the second box legendary and with it in the party you could find the other 3.

Idk what I would do for pseudo legendaries tbh. I've always wanted a Fire/Grass forest fire pokemon so that would be there. I also want a Poison/Steel radioactive pokemon that would fit well with the industrial aspect of the games. I love the idea of a Water/Dark kraken-style pokemon but I don't know if it would fit in well with my idea of the region. A Grass/Fighting moose pokemon covered in bark? A Poison/Fairy witch pokemon with a special move where it throws a potion with different effects based on the type of Pokemon it throws it at? An Ouroboros pokemon that starts as just a snake trying to bite its tail but turning into a fearsome dragon?

Overall, I think it's ambitious. Making it so that the story is different depending on the version while still following the core story isn't too hard, they've done it before. On top of that, making it so you can fight between 6-18 gyms and not necessarily in order will allow incredible individuality to the games, making it feel like everybody can play their own game with a different story than their friend. It would also allow great replayability as people fight different gyms or challenges like a Nuzlocke but you can only fight one gym per area. Or fighting one gym per area and then going back with a fresh team to fight the next 6 and then a third team to be the final 6.

And then having a nature-team is a great segue into another Pokemon Rangers game which they could have done so well on the switch, with moving the controllers in a circle to catch pokemon.

The problem though is that the Pokemon Company is currently emphasizing quantity over quality. I legit don't know if we'll ever see another epic main pokemon game because they are so focused on getting smaller games that they know we'll buy just because it has pokemon in it. They are prioritizing profits over telling a good story with a good game right now, which is disappointing, but I think it's possible we are in the stage where pokemon as we knew it would have died off by now and the only reason it's still going is because there is still money to be made. This is unfortunate, but I understand that we can't have the pokemon we grew up with our whole lives.

[the-english-student-studyblr]

Hello, I have history discourse for us this morning so buckle up.

This is specifically about representation in historical fiction and/or academia so this should be fun.

So I was writing last night (yes I know nano is over) and doing research at the same time and now I'm angry. Part of it is the anger that spawned The Book in the first place, but part of it is just generalised anger at attitudes generally. I'm going to say it very simply:

There is no excuse to not include people of colour in your historical books.

This is a pretty big issue in fiction writing, screenplay and academia too (I watched a pretty cool talk about racism and elision in medieval studies which you can watch here). The further back you go in history, the whiter it is. And it's always excused. You see it a lot, the constant "but that's just how it was back then" except that isn't how it was back then.

So just because I know the most about them, I'll focus on the Norse. People always think the ancient Norse were, well, nordic. White, blonde haired, blue eyed, big buff men etc. This is a huge misconception (and I wonder how much of it came from the education system's focus on Hitler's ideal of the "Aryan race" being "nordic") not least because the predominant hair colour in Scandinavian countries at that time was brown. x

The Norse were traders. Slave traders, sometimes, and raiders, sometimes, but they were traders - the ones we know who sailed down rivers and across seas. Their "empire" spanned from the shores of eastern Canada (Vinland, widely believed to be in the Newfoundland area) to Eastern Europe and the Middle East. And what happens when you trade with other cultures? Sometimes you settle there. There's evidence that Vikings joined the praetorian guard in the Byzantium, that they settled down in villages down the Rus. The opposite is also true. It is highly likely that some people in these places - either willingly or as slaves - were taken back to the Norse homelands. x x

This is all written down in the sagas as well. Harald Hardrada who would later go on to invade Britain in 1066, served in the praetorian/Varangian guard, as told in the Heimskringla. Ibn-Fadlan, an Arab traveller and chronicler, wrote one of the only surviving accounts of a viking burial in his travel writing, the Risalah.

So, if your viking story is only white, you're doing something very wrong, but there’s more.

The Vikings raided and traded with Spain a reasonable amount, mostly between the mid-9th century and the late 10th century CE. Slap bang in the middle of the Moorish empire in Spain which lasted from the 8th century all the way up to the late 1400s (that's over 700 years!!). It can be assumed then, that the Vikings would have taken some of them back with them, probably as slaves, maybe as servants or just people, we don't yet know. x x

For people not in the know, which is probably a lot of people tbh. The Moors were North African muslims who invaded Spain in the 8th century. Their empire later extended across Malta and part of the Mediterranean. The term 'moor' in later years could refer to north Africans, Arabs or even just European muslims, often with derogatory implications (this is partially why Othello is getting a lot of consideration at the moment, especially in critical race and literary studies).

So, to sum up, the Norse traded and raided a lot of places with a lot of different people. Loads of those people were people of colour. The inclusion of these people is a requirement of historically accurate story telling, because trading is literally the cornerstone of Viking society (the Norse in general were farmers etc, but if we have to do Vikings at least do it right smh). There is no excuse. If you think Europe is somehow some kind of pure white monoculture, you are deluded.

[blackwoolncrown]

I would like white people to actually engage with their perceptions of what a ‘witch’ is bc like it’s one thing to use the term to mean ‘someone with interests in herbology, crystals, cartomancy, science, medicines etc’ but when you continue to conflate that with ‘witches are scary, mysterious, and untrustworthy (cross them and something bad might happen! as if that’s not the rule for idk fucking everyone?)’ then we just keep dragging the same old notions that got people who supported skills like medicine making, home remedies, fortune-telling etc killed, ostracized and otherwise persecuted. Like throughout history this has happened to various groups of people- some more than others- and I think at this point we all- but especially those with privilege- need to actually examine what the fuck these stereotypes and tropes imply.

Like it’s 2019 I think we can dare to understand that knowing skills and information about the world you live in isn’t scary or cursed, and is not the rare purview of kooky women. I’m all for the concept of ‘witch’ eroding to include literally anyone with these interests- but only in the hopes that the word stops persisting, because the general concept of ‘witch’ includes so much ignorance, fear and roots of bigotry. And I just also think it’s corny that people are still othering themselves from some of the most knowledgeable people in their community, even if you like us, bc we’re witches and you’re not, supposedly.

It bugs me because all of the things I’ve been called a witch for have just been my intelligent and curious interactions with nature and the mind and like, our society suffers when people continue to think that knowledge is ....some kind of lifestyle, some kind of fringe activity, when it’s actually supremely important  that as many humans as possible understand how to heal themselves and each other, what the plants around us do, and how to participate directly with one’s destiny. What we do is not optional, but a cornerstone of human civilization and I’d much rather everyone be more wise than having to keep heaping this all on a handful of people.

And tbh it’s just..unconscionably stupid that when people like me educate ourselves on who to interact with the world a bunch of you drooling babies point and accuse us of ~malicious intent~ just bc you’re too dumb to want to learn things. I’m not empowered by people thinking I’m a witch, though I have turned that into something I can use. I’m annoyed. My spirit is disappointed in ppl each time, bc people are refusing to grasp their OWN nature and pestering me about how strange it is. We go ‘look! look what’s possible!’ and get in return ‘THESE ARE EVIL POWERS’ or at best ‘wow what a strange skill you have’ when the intent was the enlightenment and betterment of ALL, not to show off what the individual achieved. You were supposed to be inspired.

I dare to hope we’re mature enough as a society to stop othering our wisdom keepers and joking about curses. Sure it can be useful for people to just be afraid of us, but it’s only useful when their ignorance easily turns to anger and aggression. It feels some type of way being in a society largely filled with people who have persecuted ‘others’ so much throughout history still espousing the same attitudes that got our ancestors killed or kicked out of their communities.

What if there was no threat? What if we stopped leaving it to the few who dare take on the mantle of ostracization and religious persecution to keep these skills alive and the same people who thought themselves different than us realized that they, too, could wield their own power instead of relying on us or ignoring us?

Just a thought.

[permian-tropos]

The War is Real in The Sequel Trilogy

back at it again with analytical essaying (most of the essays I write don’t get posted so this has been more of a regular occurrence than you would think). tbh i gotta start shopping these things around

How much of the war narrative can you abstract out of Star Wars and keep the emotional journeys intact? Because I recently saw Another meta about how Kylo Ren represents people who are in a dark emotional place and why this means it’s important to show his recovery. And I wondered why I still can’t go along with that reading, even though I can easily apply abstract redemption to Anakin/Vader. Why do Kylo’s war crimes feel more war crimey to me than Anakin’s? Why do I think, for him to redeem himself, the war crimes have to be addressed?

I think the answer is that the OT can abstract a lot of war narrative out. But the ST is keeping more and more as essential to the story. 

A New Hope is the hero’s journey, so it follows classic coming-of-age tropes. The deaths of Owen and Beru can be abstracted into the push away from home and parental protection. Obi-Wan’s death is the loss of the mentor. Alderaan’s destruction only adds tension, and doesn’t affect Leia’s character arc. The war is simply providing conflict so that the heroes can prove themselves.

ANH sets this tone where war is an aesthetic stage for personal melodrama. The next two movies stay somewhere in that ballpark. I think the prequels go for something very different, but these Kylo metas I keep seeing are talking about an abstract reduction of Star Wars which we definitely get from the OT. 

But The Force Awakens changes all of that right out of the gate, because of Finn. At its most abstract, Finn’s heroic moment on Jakku is: he was raised by his society to commit evil acts, but he refuses to obey. Already, the fact that the First Order is committing violence against innocent people is relevant to Finn’s emotional arc. It’s not a backdrop, it’s not there for spectacle, it’s not there to provide a strong antagonist you want to see defeated. Finn is a soldier who chooses not to kill people, and it’s the cornerstone of his whole story. It’s the first big personal melodrama of the movie.

The fact that Kylo Ren gives the order that Finn refuses to follow immediately denies Kylo any vague, symbolic, purely psychological Darkness. The weight of what Finn rejects is the weight of what Kylo accepts. Finn is a hero because he is what Kylo Ren is not. 

The rest of the film reverts to war-as-backdrop for the most part (since it’s so similar to ANH), except -- Starkiller. I know the Nazi rally imagery is still aesthetic, but the fact that we spent however many precious seconds on Hux delivering his speech tells us that the villains are political. When Tarkin destroys Alderaan, it is centered on Leia, and the fact that she is being menaced. It’s narrative tension for Luke and Han and Obi-Wan. When Hux gives the order to fire Starkiller, no personal heroic journey is affected. Rey hasn’t been kidnapped yet, so in that moment Finn’s journey is on pause. Poe is still presumed dead. Rey herself has no connection to Hosnian Prime. Her journey at that point is focusing on her fear of letting go of false hope (isn’t it intriguing how FALSE hope is a recurring theme in the ST? even before the supposedly deconstructive TLJ? shall I write another essay). 

Even on the most abstract narrative level, Hux gives an ideological speech because he is an ideologue, and Starkiller’s firing doesn’t advance character arcs -- it starts a war. 

The Last Jedi is even more about war, which they said upfront in promotional interviews. The Canto Bight arc literally can’t abstract war out of the narrative. Some people hate it, but it has a huge effect on the tone of the saga. You can’t reduce a blatant moral about how war profiteering is wrong and how it feeds war from both sides while the oligarchs get rich, and make it about some personal emotional journey. It’s a political message through and through. Sacrifices like Paige’s, Holdo’s, and Finn’s (attempted) are symbolic of actual deaths lost in war. Owen and Beru aren’t dead to Luke in the abstract (they are never relevant again, and if he forgives Vader for basically ordering their deaths, it’s not in the text). Han is definitely abstractly dead in Rey’s arc, because a) she’s angry with Kylo over it and b) Han’s attempt to save his son probably contributes a lot to Rey’s attempt. Han was like a father to her. She wants his sacrifice to have meaning. Paige is definitely abstractly dead in Rose’s arc. Holdo’s death is part of Leia’s arc -- when Holdo tells Leia that she can lose more people she loves, it’s leading to Leia’s acceptance that she has lost her son. 

And Luke’s moment of willingness to strike down his own nephew is not the character assassination people think because, as Mark Hamill put it, the moment is on the level of ��would you kill baby Hitler”? Ben Solo is more than just a troubled nephew. He’s a catalyst for war. 

War is real, killing is real, death and loss are real. They don’t represent transitions through stages of maturity. TLJ in particular asks the question: “What is the right way to wage war against a political evil?” That’s not asked in the OT. Luke’s story after ANH is about the right way to resist one’s own inner darkness. 

And the culmination of Luke’s story is about how one must move on from the fight to resist inner darkness, to wholly commit to the war against political evil. He has to let go of his guilt over failing to maintain the apotheosis, the transcendence to godhood, that the hero’s journey ends on. Because the war wasn’t just the aesthetic stage for personal ascension. The war is real. 

Which means I don’t want to see a story culminating in Kylo fighting his inner darkness. The ST has decided to distinguish itself from the OT by being about external victory and material heroism, not internal victory and spiritual heroism. 

[aoife136]

I was tagged by @causeimjustateenagefangirlbaby (great url) to do this lil tag game; I love doing these, thanks!

1. Star sign: Gemini!

2. Height: 5' 6'  (~171cm)

3. Sexuality: Tbh I decided a while ago that trying to organize and categorize each facet of my orientation to find a fully appropriate label was just gonna leave me frustrated and underwhelmed, so I didn’t bother and BAM; liberation lol. Generally I identify with queer cause it’s a good ol’ umbrella term and I don’t want people mistaking me as straight (lmao)

4. Phone wallpaper: A photo from graduation holding my diploma and wearing the v cool science graduate robes :)

5. Ever had a teacher crush? God no.

6. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? I’m doing a masters at the moment which means I meet new academics and professionals every week, and they always ask me about my career goals and what I plan on doing after graduating etc to the point where I actually have a rehearsed reply now lol. But thinking about this seriously ... I’ll be nearly 33? I mean that seems like a lifetime away tbh so who knows, but academia and work are very important to me so I would definitely want to have a good job that I enjoy and find fulfilling. I’ll have moved out and be living in either Dublin or Edinburgh, probably? A nice apartment and my own space. I’ll still be writing about music in my spare time and hopefully have interviewed a couple more of my favorite bands. I’ll still be in regular contact with my circle of friends and it’d be nice to make some new ones that I can share my more nichey interests with as well. It sounds quite basic but doing work that I enjoy and that is meaningful is really important to me, as is my independence, and having a small group of friends that I can trust, so they’ve basically always been the cornerstones of everything that I do, and likely always will be. Also this sounds really stupid and random but nobody in my family has ever had a car or learned how to drive so I’ve always wanted to do that lol.

7. If you could be anywhere else right now where would it be? With my best friend in Abu Dhabi, I think she needs me right now tbh and I miss her a lot.

8. Best Halloween costume? Wednesday Addams! It wasn’t even really a costume, I just decided to go to a Halloween screening of Rocky Horror with my choral society in Uni last minute so I needed a costume and knew that I had a black, white collared dress like Wednesday at home (because 90% of my wardrobe is black and gothic lol) and when I put my hair in plaits and did my makeup everyone recognized me as Wednesday instantly lol. So it was both extremely low-effort and effective which I’m all about  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (coincidentally I literally finished watching The Addams Family like an hour ago) 

9. Last kiss? L o L

10. Ever been to Las Vegas? Nah I live in Ireland and if I was to visit the US Vegas wouldn’t be my first choice lol.

11. Favourite pair of shoes? 100% my Doc Martens, I live in them and they’re v much a part of my *~aesthetic*~

12. Favourite fruit? Agree that all fruit is gr8 but I’d probably say mangoes and apples. Mangoes are delicious but apples are just such a cheap and practical foodstuff yano.

13. Favourite book? I was a massive reader as a child/teen but college ruined it for me and now I rarely read for pleasure any more :( I’ve been meaning to get back into it but I’m so busy that any free time I have I listen to music, that’s what I find most relaxing as well. Aside from my poetry books I would actually say Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events are my favorite, which I realize sounds ridiculous and childish, but I think the books we read as a child can be really formative. Lemony Snicket made me really excited about words and what we can do with them from such a young age, and I think that deserves recognition. My mom got me a fancy boxset of all the books for Christmas last year and it was actually really cute. I read them sometimes when I’m feeling tired or sad and they make me feel all warm and nostalgic :)

I think I’m meant to tag people but if anyone wants to do this then pls do and just say that I tagged you :)

[danafraedrich]

❓ #QOTD - What's your favorite feminist book? If you don't think feminism is essential, then TBH this isn't the feed for you. Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" was one of the first feminist books I ever read. Even though I don't agree with everything Wollstonecraft wrote (e.g. I don't believe education should be based on class but rather that society should provide EVERYONE high quality education. Everyone, no exceptions), I still consider this book a cornerstone of femnist education. . . . . . #booknerd #books #booksarelife #booksaremagic #bookstagram #bookstagramcommunity #bookstagrammer #bookworm #read #reader #reading #lovetoread #bookdragon #bookwyrm #booknerd #booknerdigans #danafraedrich #feminist #feminism #pussyhat #MaryWollstonecraft #AVindicationoftheRightsofWoman #feministbooks

[xiamaras-blog]

ahoy !! because i have absolutely no self-restraint, i made a second character (i play the child that is aidan) !! in any case, here is XIA, the woman who became a pirate to avoid marriage. bare with me, this post is going to be as messy as AIDAN’S.

&&. LINDSEY MORGAN | SHE/HER | CISFEMALE —— that is XIAMARA DE LEON. the 27 year old who is a GUNNER on board poseidon’s curse. it is rumored that xia is DEBONAIR && TEMERARIOUS. while on board, xia is watching ANY FC until the ransom comes through.

ORIGINS

it’s no surprise that historically, working women only had a few EXPECTED choices marriage, prostitution, life in a convent or hard labour in farms and cities -- with an emphasis on the life of marriage and children. in fact, xia was originally forced to wed a local cuban elite, but at the age of eighteen burned his house down. let’s just say that in order to avoid charges, she faked her death. (inspired by “back from the dead red” !!)

so let’s just say NONE of those options sat well with the de leon daughter, despite the grievances of her parents. 

so of course, xia turned away from that life society and her parents created for her to become a pirate, preferring the state of war to the state of marriage.

she’s been with the poseiden’s curse, ever since and honestly would do ANYTHING for them. she comes off as this insouciant femme fatale that doesn’t give two shits but she’s not a GUNNER with an obsession for mechanics for NOTHING. like

literally like if there’s not gun powder on her face something is wrong. she loves machinery more than people tbh

PERSONALITY / HEADCANONS

xia is very much a spitfire with true feminist inclinations. she isn’t particularly VIOLENT, tho she will resort to it if needed. she can be a bit of an impulsive pirate but that only comes with curiosity.

she’s also very reticent in some ways?? she’d rather give up treasure if it meant no one seeing her cry tbh (i call her a phoenix because she kind of started from the bottom now she here)

her favorite pasttime includes sleeping with strangers (all genders) just to steal their money and precious belongings before they wake up in the morning

also just straight up stealing. she is quite the good pickpocket

likes flirting

doesn’t like dogs because she got bit by one when she was young

WANTED CONNECTIONS

i’m too tired to write out descriptions but if you need some explanations just im me!! 

pirate buddies / squad

training buddies

slow burn relationship

frenemies

childhood friends (either on the ship or someone she knew prior to becoming a pirate)

ride or die / cornerstone

drinking buddies

flirtationship

fwb / ex-hookup

sibling-like relationship (overprotective, stuff like that)

good influence

secret friendship

unlikely friendship

first love

HONESTLY anything tbh

[serenagaywaterford]

Who's the new commander/wife in s3? And yes, please give me s3 spoilers! Also, do you have any thoughts about mayday? How I wish we got to see more of it

OKAY ERRYBODY IN THE CLUB GET TIPSY. SPOILERS AHEAD.

EDIT: added in the Mayday stuff cos I forgot the first time around.

Like the actors? Christopher Meloni and Elizabeth Reaser, and they’re playing the Winslows who host the Waterfords in DC. (Which I’m not sure if you’ve seen all the hubbub about the DC trip but there are loads of pics of them shooting one of those scenes. You’ve probably seen them. Like with the Handmaids’ mouths stapled shut? Fred looking all Evil Supreme Leader-y with Serena and June alongside him.). Meloni is “powerful and magnetic” and Reaser is supposedly a “friend and inspiration” to Serena. Whatever the fuck all that means. It could be good, it could be bad. (Personally, I can’t stand either of those actors but meh. Maybe they’ll be okay.) And DC, not Boston, is Gilead central… and so Fred’s not really as important as he thinks. 

Off-topic: To be honest, I find this odd. We see frequently that all the dudes responsible for the rise/creation of Gilead are in Boston and it was formed IN Boston (Putnam, Pryce, Waterford, Cushing?, Lawrence, (Nick), etc.) so how there is a ANOTHER HIGHER level group of SOJ in DC is a little stupid, imo. It doesn’t make sense how that core group (the literal architects of the entire system) are off in Boston while the other guys (who we’ve literally never seen nor heard of before, even in flashbacks–bad storytelling, show) are top dogs in DC. Seems like yet another plot contrivance. Now, fair enough, that I think it’s sort of funny that Fred is still in Boston rather than with the big brass in DC cos he THINKS he’s so much smarter/better/etc than all these other guys but the fact he’s not there just shows that as much as he was one of the Gilead OGs, he’s too incompetent to be trusted at the highest level of government. HA HA FRED. Ya moron. I get that there’s never a guarantee that the evil people that come up with a totalitarian society are in charge of said society when it comes to fruition, but it’s a general trend throughout history. The fact all these guys would give up top billing of the SOJ to some punks from DC seems… a bit off. But then, hey, maybe said punks were the other part of the SOJ that Fred was talking about to Serena when he suggested bombing congress.

As for a few more, June flips out at one point, turning on other Handmaids (Brianna is holding her back.) It’s against a Handmaid who is a “true believer” in Gilead. I’m going to take an educated guess (based on where they’re filming) this is the lead up to the mass hanging. I guess I should mention: the Handmaids are gonna have to hang a bunch of people. Like a salvaging, but with hanging instead of stoning or beating.

June gets dressed up like a Martha.

June apparently works with Lawrence. It’s assumed she’ll be his Handmaid although the production, especially the DC scene, seem to imply she’s back with the Waterfords.

Serena’s mother shows up.

Luke & Moira are fighting against Gileadean ideology in Canada. Cos obviously it would come up here too. I always thought it was too happy-happy that Canada wasn’t experiencing ANY fallout from a worldwide birthrate crisis. Like, we may be more liberal than the US, but what happens there, spreads here fairly quickly. Like we have some Trumpian/Tea Party-esque politicians and racist/homophobic/xenophobic/misogynistic activist groups too, with a lot of power. And a lot of ignorant regular people to boot. The fact Canada was portrayed as like this utopia free from Gilead’s evilness just seemed unrealistic to me. While I do believe it would take a bit longer to take root here, the building blocks are already here and ripe for the pickin’. 

(I also have a huge issue with how unrealistically and healthy they portrayed the economy in Canada without their main US trading partner. We’d collapse if the US economy collapsed, at least for a time until we figured a way around it. Oil alone would go crazy. It wouldn’t be all life as normal. What Serena saw in 2x09 was literally what I see everyday here and I find it super hard to swallow that our lives would just go on as if nothing happened if the USA fell into massive civil war and was overthrown by a theocratic “republic”. 

And I also have a HUGE issue with how rosy they portrayed refugee and asylum seeking here. It’s just as bad as elsewhere, with all the same struggles that European countries (for example) are facing right now. Like if Gilead was an actual thing, Canada would be having a fucking mASSIVE humanitarian crisis along the border. We had a taste of it when Trump was elected and loads of people fled across the border. We could barely handle THAT, let alone hundreds of thousands of Americans swarming in to safety.) So, yeah, that’s a really long way of saying THANK FUCK the show is going to start to deal with some of the reality of the situation north of the border. They already showed Mexico breaking down and there’s no reason Canada wouldn’t too if the birthrate crisis is indeed as catastrophic as it’s presented by Serena/Fred/Gilead.

Emily makes it to Canada with Nichole. It’s all happy families. At least from the set photos the whole gang is there: Luke, Moira, Emily, Sylvia, Nichole. Not sure about Oliver or Erin. Now, the photo was likely taken when they weren’t filming which is why they’re all so fucking smiley and happy laughing together. That’s probably just the actors. But it could be shooting. I didn’t actually save the photos and I’m not sure where they are now. I think reddit?

Aunt Lydia is alive and will get some backstory and her character is gonna change. Somehow, somewhat, unclear how much. All cos of what Emily did to her.

Lots of stuff about Nichole, the whole Gilead vs. Canada thing, etc etc. 

____

I totally forgot to add about Mayday!

Personally… and first off: I much prefer the name “Mayday” to that weirdass co-opted “female railroad” or whatever shit they called it in the show when Moira was getting out. That was just in poor taste and completely uncreative. You don’t have to call it a railroad at all, tbh. It could be an extension of Mayday, or it could be called something entirely different. Sometimes the THT writers really drop the ball.

As for Mayday… I am not even convinced it exists as such? When I was reading the book, I liked the theory that Emily was sort of … not crazy, but misinformed or exaggerating. The only we really hear about Mayday in the book is through her and there’s no real evidence it exists as a cohesive organization. 

In the show, it’s like we’ve been fed this Mayday idea… but again, not seen anything particularly solid in terms of evidence it exists as a large organized resistance effort. 

We see Emily talk about it but she never seems to get anything from it and everything she does is through her own agency. Mayday never helps her.

We see June ask Alma about it. But Alma doesn’t really say much.

We see Nick, kind of doing his own thing and organizing shit for June, specifically. (We never see him do anything for any other woman except the one he’s banging. Snerk.) 

We see Lillie somehow get a complex explosive and blow shit up. Obviously that came from somewhere and it’s not the sort of thing a Handmaid can just make herself. There has to be a “terrorist cell” (as Gilead would consider it) within Gilead that siphons off weapons to a small rebel faction and passed it to her.

We know there’s a war still going on because Fred talks about the front so there are obviously large pockets that are actively and violently resisting Gilead within the continental US. IIRC the map they showed, the fighting tends to be along international borders and in the west and Florida? I can’t really remember the map exactly. There’s no real evidence that these people at war are also running an underground resistance network within Gilead strongholds like Boston. But other than sympathetic Guardians, Eyes, Angels, they could be the ones supplying weapons.

We see the butcher hand June the package from Moira. Somehow there is a network that passed this along.

We see the Guardian give June the way out of the hospital to the butcher’s truck. This could be Nick’s doing alone, not a network.

We see the butcher/delivery dude who brings June to the Globe. Again, this could solely be Nick as well, but we don’t know.

We see there’s Omar, who seems more like someone who accidentally fell into it rather than an active participant. We also learn that “Mayday” has supposedly safe houses within Gilead, but we never see them.

We see the pilot who helps people escape to Canada.

We hear of “Rachel” often, especially wrt Jezebels. I don’t think we ever see Rachel however. It could be code, it could be a person, it could be a group of people. Considering the gravity of the name Rachel in Gilead, I would put my money on this being a code name cos the writers don’t just throw little things like that around. Especially since Moira, who lived and worked at Jezebels, claims she doesn’t know a “Rachel”. Sure, she could just be protecting June or she could actually be telling the truth. I find it really interesting that the consulate worker in Toronto is called Rachel as well. While I don’t think the two are connected, I’m just surprised at all the references to Rachels in THT, esp with the story of Rachel & Leah (+ Bilhah, Zilpah, etc.) being such a massive cornerstone to the entire society.

We see the Marthas have a very complex network that is referenced multiple times and is known to Commanders, and they’ve done very little to address it for some reason.

We see Serena get both cigarettes and a pregnancy test, both of which are illegal technically although nobody seems to take issue with Serena’s smoking. I would assume this is unrelated to Mayday and more akin to Jezebels (and its sex trafficking) as the illegal underbelly of Gilead that everyone knows exists and everyone uses but nobody talks about. The black market likely has no connection. But it’s still something that requires a large chain of procurement and distribution, and secret knowledge of how to access it.

I’ve probably missed some other examples…

None of this really speaks to a larger web, imo. I can easily see these as individual cells, sometimes connected, rather than ruled by some grand master command somewhere nonspecific and so far unseen. Resistance usually doesn’t begin with a cohesive structure but small cells that see a need to rebel or at least protect/assist victims. It’s also MUCH safer that way and harder to dismantle the entire thing if cells are independent. (I used to be fascinated with the so-called “eco-terrorist” culture.) 

And I would say Mayday, if it exists, relies on Econopeople, specifically Economen and Guardians who have “normal” jobs and freedom of movement within Gilead. But we’ve been shown SO VERY LITTLE about the lives of Econopeople (the majority). I mean, it makes sense since this is the Handmaid’s Tale, not the Economan’s Tale… still, it’s very abrupt to build a giant resistance network suddenly and not have shown anything of real substance about it in 2 seasons.

Other than Lawrence, there’s no indication that any other Commanders or Wives are involved in any resistance but I think we’re supposed to believe some are. So it’ll be curious what side these new characters fall on, whether Mrs. Winslow is an “inspiration” in terms of resistance or compliance. I think we all assume she’ll be on the side of resistance and inspire Serena to take that path (although I think June and Nichole and her own awful husband should be inspo enough lol). I’m not so sure since this is THT and I am absolutely terrible at predicting anything, lol. I can see THT going the opposite direction just as easily. I hope not, but hey.

I think for simplicity within a TV show, they’ll flatten it to a single resistance organisation. 

Quite frankly, I wish we had already seen more of Mayday, if it exists. I feel a bit annoyed that it’s been 23 episodes and other than a few hints, we’ve never seen a significant exploration of any of it. Like how on earth June is supposed to just be a Martha…? I just… I don’t know. Who knows.

Since we know this season is going to be all about Team Resistance, obviously they’ll go into more detail. I just wish we had seen more ahead of time. Although to be perfectly frank, I also really enjoyed the “Emily is sorta crazy and Mayday doesn’t quite exist” theory too.

[theravennest]

lmfao @ people who are like, “The reason we didn’t see the Malec first time is because that’s important and intimate and private because they’re so in love and it’s Alec’s first time. It would be invasive for us to see it, so it’s fine that we don’t see anything. We saw Meliorn/Izzy and Jace/Kaelie bed scenes because they don’t matter in the end and they are harmless fun.”

My god, that is the most nonsensical and inane idea that’s ever come out of this fandom, tbh.

Magnus and Alec are not real people, they are characters in a story. We are not peeking into our neighbors’ bedroom. While their characters can be presented in an exploitative way, if you’re not careful, ultimately the audience is supposed to see all of their important moments to an extent. No one is asking for porno; we are asking for well rounded presentation and representation of their lives to suit their character arcs and tell a good, engaging story.

It makes no sense and is, frankly, the ANTITHESIS of good storytelling to not clearly engage with Magnus and Alec’s first time on screen. Especially not in 2017. Any scene, event, or conversation that has a large impact or lasting effect on the characters, plot, dynamics, or status quo needs to be shown to the audience to have good storytelling. 

The more emotionally intimate, resonant, and impacting the event is for and has on your main characters, the more vital it is that the scene happens on screen. Magnus and Alec are in a romantic story line. Any events that have to do with a change in their relationship need to happen on screen for clarity, pathos, and character logic. 

This is Alec’s first time ever having sex with a man after years and years repressing his sexuality in a homophobic family/society. This is an important milestone for his character, and his emotional state during and after should be shown. This is Magnus’ first time with a man who captured his heart so completely after nearly a century of closing it off to love because of pain and heartache and fear and loneliness. This is an important milestone for his character, and his emotional state during and after should be shown. This is the first time these two are allowing themselves to be together in the midst of a violent, genocidal war. We need to see this change in their relationship because it is so important to their characters and their love story.

Robbing Magnus and Alec’s character arcs of their due diligence regarding clarity and pathos was a massive disservice to their characters, the story as a whole, and the audience. It was not “classier” or “more pure,” it was at best inept storytelling, and at worst latent (racialized) homophobia. 

Just like the Izzy/Meliorn scene, they should’ve shown them starting to undress in the bedroom while kissing, fade to black into a commercial break, then come back after they’ve had sex while they’re sleeping or cuddling together. Or better yet, have them talk afterwards to each other about what just happened.

“This moment was important, so they didn’t show it.” My god, who says that with a straight face? 

That’s like saying they should show that time Clary went to the 7-Eleven to buy a slurpee and she paid for it and left fine with no trouble or attacks, but they should fade to black on that entire scene of when Valentine tried to force her hand on the Soul Sword to activate it. Then we never follow up on what we didn’t see, and only learn that it was actually Jace who touched the Soul Sword afterwards through oblique references Clary sort of has with Luke two days later (no flashbacks).

One of the very cornerstones of good storytelling is “show, not tell.” Showing Magnus and Alec’s first time and what they were feeling and communicating is better storytelling than Jace and Magnus vaguely talking about it happening in a scene in the next episode.

Bonus: Everybody pick what useless, unimportant scene you would show in detail on screen and contrast it with an extremely important scene you would fade to black on because it’s too important and intimate. lmao

[gololblr]

"Did god have a say in the creation of the world" is a phrase that doesnt seem that odd when first looking at it, but can really mess someone up.

Like, was he limited to making our world with the constants we currently have? Could god have just said, yea lets round the G to 7*10^-11 and everything would still work out?

This also goes into my personal gripe with lines. Draw a line on a piece of paper, yea? Look closer. It aint a line. Its a gradent. There is no point that it suddenly becomes black from white. There's always white in the black, and vice-versa. There's always gray area.

Science knows this fact. They know that there are always more decimals n stuff, but they just choose to ignore it. Pass it off because its too small to matter in the long run? And yet, decimals can still fuck up am equasion a lot. Using 10m/s compared to 9.8m/s compared to (G*M1*M2)/(d^2) doesnt seem like a lot, but it really is a lot. Highschool physics? Literally throw air resistance out the window for the entire class. The only mention is that its not to be taken into account.

Seconds are the same way. If someone asks you to do something at a particular second, its really hard. Even then, theyres still gray area. Even with the implimentation of frames and button presses in video games, theres still a kind of window where its gray. Where its in between two frames. That area still exists.

Im honestly no "big brained" individual, but honestly humans are literally like if you hit the "randomize all" option on like the mii creator, but with like infinite possibilities. And honestly, to me thats much more beautiful and poetic than being told im made to fit the mold of some perfect being and its standards.

This goes into my own personal "dice roll" think. Tbh, theres probably some big brain theologian or old dude with a beard thinking about this right now, but in a different context, but my idea is as follows.

You can roll a dice yea? Its got like 6 sides on it. Now you'd think that that means when you roll it, there are only 6 possibilities right? And roll it enough times itll land back the same as when you started? Well in my mind, it can technically land on the same number, but it cant land in the same position. Think about it. Just from the directions of the corners, you can tell its wont. But if you look closer, you can tell it will never be the exact same positioning. If you roll a dice, it may land on that number again, but itll never land in the same spot.

This can also be seen in identical twins. Even though they look the same, they still have differnces. Whether it be a nose .00004 mm to the left, or a scar over their eye, or a hatred of spinach, there will be a difference. Even 2,000,000 years down the road, when someone is born with the same name, and the same face, they wont be the same as you. They wont have the same inteactions, or likes n dislikes. Even if they did somehow do not only gene manipulation and simulations on someone to replicate you, they couldnt possibly have the exact cell mutations or gene replication errors that make the little things in you, you.

You are just as unrepeatable as the roll of a dice, or the exact moment a leaf breaks off and falls. Which brings me to my next point.

I have never witnessed a leaf leave its branch. I have literally sat and watched trees and leaves every fall since i realized how mind boggling it is, and i still have yet to see it.

Dont get me wrong, ive seen falling leaves, seeds, and pinecones. I know gravity works and why fall is so great. Bit i have never seen a leaf cross the threshold of letting go of its branch. I know it exists. I know that wind probably effects it, but leaves will fall even without wind. I cant help but wonder at what causes that windless leaf to fall. Is it a cornerstone cell that just finally gives out? Is it some other kind of thing? What could possibly result in a falling leaf?

What is the exact chemical process that results in decay? Suprisingly, thats a question i can anwser. That is simply the improper copying of dna and stuff.

And yet, we still dont know how our brains work. We can look at cells, we can look at atoms, but we cannot possibly understand why laughter is a thing. We dont know anything about sleep, and even less about anaesthetics. Yet we do them regularly, even rely on them.

Humans survive mostly from two things. Sweating, and speaking. And honestly, those are probably the most horrifying things imaginable for prey. Sweating means we have cazy endurance. We can and will hunt anything down until it physically cannot move, and then kill it. And screaming to eachother at the same time. To be hunted by humans is much more scary then literally anything else. That is why horror mostly stars human-esk creatures that hunt humans.

One of humanity's greatest assests is also one of my biggest gripes. That is our obsession with observation and ourselves. We observe the world, and from that are given measurments and tools. We then use that to help ourselves. But we also have to see things. A famous phrase is "seeing is believing". Perfect example of this. We have to touch things. Even if its just with our eyes. But we also for some reason dont want to process things that arent ourselves.

Think about the non-humans that humans create. All those elderic abominations amd the like. Even the green martian men. They all are humaniods in shape. Even demonic, and cursed things have limbs. They have a head, and they have a brain. Anythign that is supposed to be equal to us or greater to us in power is humaniod. God? Humanoid. Satan? Humaniod. Kuthulu? Generally depicted as humaniod. Honestly the only exception to this idea is the angels in the bibel, like the cherubim and seraphim. Which at least one of them is a munch of rings with eyes and also wings.

Anywho, where was i? Oh yea, lines.

Nobody's perfect. Even in a computer world. Pixels are made of lights, which blend together and create gradents which are imperfect. Imputs are rounded. Time is rounded into frames. Fundamentally we are out of sinc with the universe. We round the numbers to the place we care about, putting a blind eye to those things.

Yet dont they add up? I mean in some cases yea, they do. Clocks become slow or fast. Heck even the official weight of a gram has changed. The object that was used to measure a gram actually ended up decaying enough that it messed up the official weight.

Dont even get me started on pi and natural e. Apparently (and i dont know for sure on this) but engineers round those numbers to 3. Like that is just messed up. That will actually, and legitimately fuck up a building or anything else.

Humans are truly odd creatures. Did you know that the current understanding of why we want to closely touch and even harm/kill cute and adorable things and even have the epression "i could eat you up... etc." Is beause we cannot process that emotion and so to relieve ourselves we want to rid the world of its existence? Its freakin wild honestly. We cant process something so we kill it. Itsnt that something just so specifically human?

Humans have such a thirst for knowledge, and yet also a fear of it. Consider comparing people like stalin and hitler and even the church, who burned and banned knoledge, to librarians who kept that knowledge.

Consider the eletric universe theory. Something that goes contrary to the current model of physics, but also works better in some areas. According to that, the sun wasnt always our sun, and also we were originally orbiting a red sun. Something totally wild to think about, but also makes sense. Like why ancient peoples kept talking about a red sun, and venus as a comet. It also states the idea that we didnt always have seasons, and that has something to do with why plants bloom when under red lights. I honestly dont know as much as i would like about this part to explain it better, but oh well.

We have this need to put everything in order, to have perfection. We just want to be the best we can. Specifically better than everyone else. And even if that means killing, harming, or demeaning others. Only if we are on the top, we will be alright.

--- Intermission---

... i just want to mention that i have no degree in this shit and also no sources bc im too lazy and tired to look up that shit. Also, when i say "human" really i can only speak generally. I know for a fact that some peopld break the mold to certain extents n stuff, i just wanted to streamline it a little bit.

---Intermission over---

Our obsession with being the best has led us to ome conclusion. However, that conclusion is contradictory to the question asked. To become the best, we have to work with others. Because "if i cant be the best, then nobody can.". And boom, we got society n shit. We start working together to hunt amd gather, and generally be nice people. Because loosing someone means lossing another source of food.

But im getting off the point. This isnt supposed to be a history of humanity. Everyone already knows that story. Humans started planting things, created towns, created cities, fought eachother and died a lot. Eventually enslaved eachother and finally decided that was a bad thing, even thoug not everyone in the world agrees. Now there's god, and politics, and school, and problems.

But what caused all of this? What was the catylist? What was the starting factor? Can the reason people fight today be traced back to the first accidental killing of a brother like cain and able? Or is it somethig totally recent. Is the reason we have society because two ancient homo sapien families merged? Or was it something else? Why do we wear clothes? Theyrs little to no reason except in the winter. Especially if we started in africa or Australia. I have no anwsers for these questions.

But dont let the past decide who you are. Theres a reason we have memories. Its to improve yourself. We are constantly at a crossroads. Even if you dont realize it.

You can physically do anything. Humans are scary crazy. If you just put enough minds to it, literally anything is possible. Sending someone to space? Yep. Being able to kill all life on the planet? Yep. Be able to eat uncooked broccoli? Definitely. There are of course some holes in that last statement. Like you cant physically eat the planet in 30 seconds, or (at least right now) cant change the way you think about cheeze puffs. Doesnt mean that cant change in the future. But at the moment.

The future is scary too. Genetic engeneering, designer babies, and pollution is all on the horizon. The only thing stopping is it ouselves and maybe god.

If you could ask an animal what god it believes in, what would it say? Is such an easy question for theologians to brush aside. (Not that ive asked one) i can just imagine them quickly responding "animals cant think dumbass" or "animals dont have souls" or "animals arent made in the image and likeness of god". Those are nice anwsers and all, but they dont anwser the question. I asked what god does your pet dog believe in, not why doesnt my dog tell be about every time zeus boned some village girl and how that gives them the right to bone me too.

Thank you for listening to my insane ramblings about the human condition, lines, and other weird stuff i have no sources for. I want to mention that most of this stuff is probably fallacies, but this was never meant to be taken seriously or coherent anyways.