#the great escapist: part two

[2sw]

Supernatural S2E22 All Hell Breaks Loose: Part Two S4E08 Wishful Thinking S5E16 Dark Side of the Moon S8E21 The Great Escapist // S11E17 Red Meat S13E21 Beat the Devil // S14E17 Game Night

[starastrologyy]

Astrology Notes 🪐

Hi everyone :) My chart readings are still open! The link is in my bio for those who are interested 🤍 My reading reviews are on my Masterlist :)

When your Solar Return Mars is in the 6th house, this is likely to be a very productive year. However, you need to make sure you’re taking care of your health and not overworking yourself. Burnout and poor health will often emerge in such a year, if you are not prioritizing your health and peace.

If you have the ruler of your midheaven in the 10th house, you may own your own business or be in a managerial position at your job. People who reach great heights in the careers often have this placement. It is also possible that you may work in a traditionally ‘prestigious’ or well respected career. Examples are working as a doctor, lawyer, CEO of a successful company etc…

If you have the ruler of your 8th house in the 4th, you may find that you make a lot of money investing in real estate. This is also a placement that can suggest receiving an inheritance from a family member.

Saturn transiting your 3rd house can be a very somber time in your life. You may feel unmotivated or prone to feelings of loneliness and melancholy during this time. Similar to Saturn transiting the 9th house, your outlook on life in general may not always be the most pleasant during this time. Nevertheless, this can be a good time to enroll in a short course or some kind of educational program.

Saturn in the 9th house of a composite chart can be that the two people have very different belief systems and that consequently causes restrictions within the relationship. However, it can also be the opposite. Meaning, the thing that “binds” the couple together is in fact their shared belief systems. Saturn in the 9th is also common to see in the composite charts of couples who are long distance or those who travel long distances together(couples who travel to different countries together).

Something so interesting is that we often have aspects or placements that are associated with the sign over one or both of our parents 5th house cusp. For example, your mother may have Uranus in the 5th house, and you may have an Aquarius Sun, Moon, or rising. Alternatively, it could be that Uranus aspects many of your other placements. I know this may not apply to everyone, but look into your parent’s birth charts! You may be surprised!

A new romantic or business relationship can often start when your Progressed Moon makes a conjunction to your natal descendent. This is especially true if it is a “progressed new moon”. Meaning, your progressed moon is making a conjunction to your natal sun.

Moon square Mars synastry can at times be difficult (especially if it occurs at an orb that is less than 3 degrees) because the Moon person may perceive the Mars person as being insensitive, harsh, or even impulsive. Whereas the Mars person can view the Moon person as being overly sensitive. In a romantic relationship, this aspect can add to the attraction. However, if there are no mitigating factors there can be hurt feelings over time.

When someone’s Mercury falls into your 12th house in synastry, you may feel comfortable opening up to them, and telling them things you would not ordinarily tell someone else. You could often talk about spirituality, mental health, and things you prefer to keep “hidden” from others. At times you may even feel like they can “read your mind” or easily sense what you’re thinking.

People with the North Node in the 7th house tend to be hyper independent (South Node 1st house). Thus, actively dedicating time to connect meaningfully with others is a big part of their karmic destiny here on earth. There is a tendency to self isolate with a 1st house south node, especially when the individual is struggling in any capacity.

On the topic of isolation, those who have the ruler of their Ascendant in the 12th house are also inclined to isolate themselves from the world when struggling. Escapist behaviors can also be high with this placement. However, these are some of the most compassionate and resilient people you will meet.

People with Mars retrograde in their charts may struggle when it comes to the manner in which they express anger/their drive. These people can often hold onto anger for extended periods of time only to let it all out at once. Thus, their anger can often seem misplaced or to come from “out of the blue”.

[comicaurora]

As someone who might be interested to make their own webcomic one day: Why did you decide to put Aurora on its own dedicated website instead of a platform like Webtoon or Tapas?

Don't get me wrong, the site looks great but it gotta be a lot of work to maintain, right?

It was a couple week's worth of work to set up and polish, and I've had to do very minor adjustments every couple months. In return I don't need to deal with ads, I don't need to conform my story or layout to any sort of site standard, I haven't been locked into any publishing arrangements and I can customize the site however I want. For me, that's an easy trade.

When the channel started getting big several years back, we started getting approached by multichannel networks asking to absorb us in exchange for guaranteed clicks. We decided very early on that we weren't going to do that, in large part because even the multichannel networks that weren't scams were at all times one executive decision away from exploding and taking all their subsidiaries down with them. We saw it happen to Machinima, and recent years have seen even more cases where one boss's boss's boss who doesn't know what they're doing absolutely wrecks everyone's arrangement - like how Unity spontaneously destroyed everyone's trust in them by trying to retroactively charge game devs for user downloads of their game, or how the Escapist fired the one guy who was holding their channel together, or when CollegeHumor got corporate-mandatedly forced into pivoting to Facebook video and then everyone got fired when that turned out to be a terrible idea, or even the whole Channel Awesome thing. Big conglomerates of small indie creators tend to catastrophically explode on the regular, scattering those creators to the winds and potentially destroying the archive of their work.

We've even seen social media platforms thought of as solid staples of the online landscape start withering away because one idiot buys them out and starts chewing on cables. People whose entire professional networking presence is on Twitter have had a really rough year.

From my perspective, centralizing the world's webcomics into two or three baskets is a really good way to lose all of them at once. Also I put all this work into never having to deal with a boss, and it would be weird to go out of my way to change that.

[ash-says]

This one is for my girlies who grew up in dysfunctional families.

Girls who don't know healthy love, care and affection. Girls who grew up watching fights, in violent and stressful environments, being picked on by their peers, their own family members.

Know that it's not your job to maintain peace, people please and accommodate yourself to other people's expectations.

Take this as a BLUNT reminder for yourself:

1) Have strong boundaries. Surprise. I know you read this a thousand times but before you eyeroll read this again.

2) Stand up for yourself. It might be scary but sometimes fighting back against your family can be helpful. Do it strategically. Don't rush in blindly. The main goal is survival afterall.

3) No doing drugs, self harm, compulsive relationships, casual sex, alcohol and many destructive, addictive and escapist behavior won't help you in rebelling against your family. What are you three years old???

4) Establish your relationship with God or whatever the hell you believe in. Have a strong belief system. That's the only way you can save yourself and keep yourself on track. Even if you deter on the wrong path it will swing you back. Trust me.

5) Form strong female friendships. PLEASE. Female friendships are literally holiness in disguise. My girls are my biggest assets. The amount of emotional intelligence and support a female can provide. Chefs kiss.

What ? You can't vibe with girls?? You are more of a girl who vibe with boys?? Girls are secretly jealous of you??

Okayyyyy... I am no one to criticize but I think we need to reassess somethings.

At least one female friend. Won't cost you a fortune. Will it???

(If you think you got no one around you. My inbox + Gossip Box is always open.)

6) Academic Validation>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Male validation. Always.

7) Exercise and work out. Woahh did not see it coming right. Well it's important because it helps you in calming down your mind and expressing those repressed energies. Any anger issues babe in the house?? Guess what it's the best outlet for all your angst.

8) This is for those girls who are into toxic households please find a way to get out of there. I won't suggest permanently cause I believe in mending things and parents are a crucial part of your life. But find a way to live your college life or at least two to three years of your life out of your hometown. A lot of things you will understand by yourself then. If you know. You know.

9) Sharpen your people and survival skills. I hate to say this but we are highly susceptible to attracting people who want to take advantage of us. So listen to your gut the next time it warns you against someone.

10) Tone down your intensity. Not everyone is trying to get you or attack you. Coping mechanisms are great they kept/keep you alive but make sure they won't create trouble for you. Keep them in check. Got it??

[mymanyfandomramblings]

For TOH:

Which is your fav character?

What do you think of Belos as a villain?

How does TOH compare to Amphibia and Gravity Falls in how it handles it themes and character arcs?

What are some things TOH could have done better?

Which is your fav character?

Gus! Closely followed by Willow and then Hunter. Honestly, there's very few characters I don't like in this show.

What do you think of Belos as a villain?

He was a great villain, A+ villain design--he was powerful enough to prove a threat, intimidating in design, he had a sense-making motive, but not one that absolves his actions in any way. His defeat could have been done better (couldn't Hunter have been there, instead of Raine--as lovable as Raine is, they had zero thematic reason to be one of the very few characters at the final defeat scene), but Belos is a great villain for the themes.

How does TOH compare to Amphibia and Gravity Falls in how it handles it themes and character arcs?

TOH is a good show, but it is nowhere near as good as the other two shows with handling its characters. It's written as though Dana Terrace was afraid of ambiguity or giving good characters flaws/bad characters strengths. This isn't to say that all the good characters have no flaws, but the show seems scared of actually acknowledging those flaws.

Luz does have an external arc of going from 'naive girl who wants to learn magic' to 'less starry-eyed girl who is very good at magic', but her internal arc doesn't make as much sense--the show seems like it's deconstructing escapist fantasy at the beginning and Luz needing to have an arc about seperating reality for fantasy, but that kind of gets lost along the way, in favour of a 'you're perfect just the way you are and people just need to understand you' arc, and giving her quirks, instead of flaws. Similarly, Odalia is made into a cartoonishly evil character, so that Amity is absolved of all blame for the way she treated Willow, which I think does all three characters--Amity, Willow and Odalia--a disservice. Compare this to Amphibia, which pulls absolutely no punches when it comes to the main characters being horribly flawed and accountable for their actions, or Gravity Falls where the characters flaws very much drive the action, in a way that they don't in TOH.

The other way I think that GF and Amphibia write their characters and themes better than TOH is by making key character moments tie in with their themes. The best example to talk about this through is by comparing Anne's fake death to Luz's. Anne's entire arc has been about one main thing--learning to do the right thing instead of what is easiest--and her main character flaw from the beginning is that she prioritises her own comfort over doing the right thing for herself and for others. Anne sacrifices herself for Amphibia--doing something incredibly hard, but for other people, which is the perfect culmination of everything she's been learning. Luz's fake death results in her becoming the Titan's Chosen One, which contradicts the arc shaping up in S1 where Luz had to learn that there are no Chosen Ones and that the Boiling Isles aren't a fantasy world. To be totally clear, this does make sense as part of her arc--harnessing the power of the Titan is the final piece in Luz truly becoming a witch, but her entire arc is external. Her internal character doesn't significantly change over the course of the show, because it can't because her flaws are all written off as 'quirks' and the show's big thesis is that weird people should be able to be weird. (This is coming across as really complainy, I'm sorry. I promise that I genuinely really enjoyed the show.)

What are some things TOH could have done better?

Write the Blights better. Escaping Expulsion was the best episode for the Blight family dynamic, with Odalia being awful, but not cartoonishly evil; Alador having a conscience but also being a pretty checked-out and neglectful parent, and Amity seeming actually influenced by her mother's influence

On that note--let Amity take at least some accountability for the way she treated Willow

Put finding Phillip Wittebane's diary, Amity's hair-dyeing, and the first Lumity kiss in any episode other than one of the only Gus-centric episodes in the whole show

Allow characters to be more morally grey and let redemption arcs take some time

Reduce King's-ego-trip subplots by AT LEAST 50%. I didn't actually enjoy him all that much until Echoes From The Past because I found his whole trying-to-take-over-the-world shtick a little annoying

I think that's all

Once more, I actually really, really enjoyed the show and had a great time watching it, I just have lots of feedback

[themedialmercurial]

✈️🪁Asteroid Vibilia (144) and how you travel🪁✈️ pt. 3

This asteroid was named after the Roman goddess of travel, representing both short and long journeys. Depending on the placement of said asteroid, it can point towards your preferred travel destinations and where you may choose to take a journey - - - 🛩️

P.S this is based on my observations, by all means I’m far from a pro. Take this with a grain of salt and feel free to share your thoughts!

⬇️The first two posts⬇️

Vibilia🛩️ (part 1)

Vibilia🛩️ (part 2)

Aspects to the sun-many prominent and important trips during your lifetime

Aspects to the moon-intimate trips, meant to evoke strong emotion, emotional development

Aspects to mercury-trips involving a life lesson, challenges your way of thinking

Aspects to Venus-trips based on aesthetics, art and love

Aspects to mars-action filled trips, fast-paced, living on the “wild-side”

Aspects to Jupiter-potentially winning a trip to a destination, or winning something during a trip, luck

Aspects to Saturn-trips that are structured/serious in nature (defined itinerary), prominent business trips

Aspects to Uranus-random and spontaneous trips, many of surprises during the vacation, expected events

🪁VIBILIA IN THE NINTH HOUSE🪁

Vibilia especially loves this placement as this house is known to represent travel. The native is likely to indulge, as often as possible in long travel journeys where they can immerse themself in a culture different from their own. They'll likely learn as many languages as possible (not necessarily fluent but they'll retain what they've learned during their travels), will find great growth opportunities and will overall find luck wherever they venture. People with this placement are also likely to enjoy fast-paced environments though due to their natural open-mindedness, they surely would fit in no matter where they go. The individual might, once they return home, find themself aching for the next destination as they tend to exude a lot of restless energy when they feel stagnant in life.

🪁VIBILIA IN THE TENTH HOUSE🪁

This native will travel for work-related reasons, as a means of boosting their career or in simpler terms, business trips. Not that the native won't be able to have fun, it's just that's not the goal of the trip. There will be limitations and responsibilities that ensure that the primary focus is their job. Also, this trip will be cost efficient and not very luxurious as it'll be mostly if not entirely covered by their company. Much discipline is required to reap the true benefits of their endeavour. The native may be granted more authority and choices to make concerning the future of the company they are employed at

🪁VIBILIA IN THE ELEVENTH HOUSE🪁

The native will travel with a group of friends and likely just for fun to celebrate life. This trip can be well planned, being a goal the native wanted to carry out for a long time. This destination choice can be entirely different to the place the native calls home and lots of partying comes to mind as that's not something that occurs in everyday routine and it's quite "rebellious" in nature. Also, there can be events in which people are expected to dress "otherwordly" and perhaps competitions come to mind such as the world's biggest pumpkin or sand sculpture and even new technological developments. Overall, this native will have to expect the unexpected, making for many memories for years to come.

🪁VIBILIA IN THE TWELFTH HOUSE🪁

The native may travel for reasons related to spirituality and to find themself after experiencing a shift in consciousness and their personal beliefs and, if they aren't aware of this reasoning prior to their travels, they'll surely become aware during the journey. This individual will have to confront their fears, likely alone (solo traveler, can be a remote location away from much civilization, small town energy). There are likely escapist ideas here only to become more aware and develop their morals and values.

______________________________________________________________

As a collective, water signs would likely prefer travel destinations closer to bodies of water such as an island or coastal environment🏝

As a collective, fire signs would likely prefer travel destinations that are warmer in temperature with sun-filled days 🏜

As a collective, earth signs would likely prefer travel destinations that are mountain-filled along side valleys and rocky places. The Appalachians come to mind 🏞

As a collective, air signs would likely prefer travel destinations riddled with cooler, windier weather🌬

Andddd that's a wrap for this series! I think I’ll stick to one post for all the houses in the future😅

[shinelikethunder]

kripke: show creator; seasons 1-5 showrunner; wrote or co-wrote 1x01 pilot, 1x02 wendigo, 1x09 home, 1x16 shadow, 1x22 devil’s trap, 2x01 in my time of dying, 2x22 all hell breaks loose part two, 3x01 the magnificent seven, 3x16 no rest for the wicked, 4x01 lazarus rising, 4x07 it's the great pumpkin, sam winchester, 4x10 heaven and hell (story), 4x22 lucifer rising, 5x01 sympathy for the devil, 5x09 the real ghostbusters, 5x22 swan song, 6x22 the man who knew too much; directed 2x20 what is and what should never be, 4x22 lucifer rising

gamble: seasons 6-7 showrunner; wrote or co-wrote 1x03 dead in the water, 1x12 faith, 1x14 nightmare, 1x21 salvation, 2x03 bloodlust, 2x08 crossroad blues, 2x13 houses of the holy, 2x17 heart, 2x21 all hell breaks loose part one, 3x02 the kids are alright, 3x07 fresh blood, 3x10 dream a little dream of me, 3x12 jus in bello, 3x15 time is on my side, 4x02 are you there god? it’s me, dean winchester, 4x09 i know what you did last summer, 4x17 it’s a terrible life, 4x21 when the levee breaks, 5x02 good god, y'all, 5x07 the curious case of dean winchester, 5x13 the song remains the same, 5x21 two minutes to midnight, 6x01 exile on main st, 6x11 appointment in samarra, 6x21 let it bleed, 7x01 meet the new boss, 7x10 death's door, 7x17 the born-again identity, 7x23 survival of the fittest

edlund: wrote 2x05 simon said, 2x12 nightshifter, 2x18 hollywood babylon, 3x03 bad day at black rock, 3x09 malleus maleficarum, 3x13 ghostfacers, 4x05 monster movie, 4x08 wishful thinking, 4x16 on the head of a pin, 5x04 the end, 5x10 abandon all hope, 5x14 my bloody valentine, 5x20 the devil you know, 6x03 the third man, 6x09 clap your hands if you believe, 6x15 the french mistake, 6x20 the man who would be king, 7x02 hello cruel world, 7x09 how to win friends and influence monsters, 7x15 repo man, 7x21 reading is fundamental, 8x05 blood brother, 8x13 everybody hates hitler, 8x21 the great escapist; directed 6x20 the man who would be king, 7x21 reading is fundamental

[rallamajoop]

Hi!!! okay so i love your theory crafting abt re8 & the free cam pics and analyzing everything so i thought maybe you would find this interesting (and maybe a little reassuring)

i dont think heisenberg has nazi affiliation, despite some of the nazi military equipment we see him with. and i dont think its mentioned anywhere in the game, but rather implied, that karl scavenged that stuff from a battlefield? for example, the tank used in his boss fight is a combination of a nazi gun tractor, combined with an american tank. the two guns mounted on it are also a german recoilless rifle and an american machine gun.

personally, i think his dogtag is probably his dads, but thats just a headcanon based on what little we know of the early concept designs and stuff (originally the giant metal and meat monster was heisenbergs dad. and to me heisenberg probably wouldve outright mentioned being a soldier or something in at least a diary entry or note if he was old enough during ww2 to remember it) it could also just be more stuff he scavenged. which is what i think is the deal

Hoo boy, you're really going to make me do a deep dive into all the evidence that Heisenberg might've been a Nazi, aren't you? (For context for anyone coming in cold, this is a response to my post on the fact Heisenberg's costume includes a very distinctive Nazi signal lamp, and why that bothers me.) Goddamnit. Fine.

So, first up, for a character we get as little background on as Heisenberg, there's no point framing this one "was he a Nazi?" Of course he wasn't, he's not anything, because he's not real. What we can ask is whether what made it into the game suggests that he was maybe going to be a Nazi at some point in development (or at least, that someone on the design team was uncomfortably into Nazi paraphernalia). And the answer to that one is, unfortunately, that it seems very plausible.

To be clear, there's nothing here you can't easily find other explanations for, at least for your own headcanons. "Heisenberg was a Nazi" is no more valid an interpretation than any other, based on what made it into the text. What annoys me is that it's arguably no less valid than any other take either. I do not like Schrodinger's Nazis popping up unexpectedly in my escapist fiction. And I hate to say it, but the more I've thought about the points you make here, the more Nazi shit I keep finding ‒ well beyond what I covered in that last post.

Let's start by going back to the dog tag. The inevitable problem is that the act of wearing one after the war ‒ regardless of whose it was or what country they fought for ‒ is that it kind of loudly signals pride in your military service. The tag may not be from WWII. It may not even be German. But Heisenberg is a character with a German name, who names his creations in German, and who's lived in the village under Miranda's thumb for decades. Statistically, most Germans who ever carried a dog tag that looked like that probably fought in WWII. And he carries that fecking Wehrmacht signal light to go with it. At that point, trying to argue that "maybe he just scavenged the signal light" or "maybe it was his Dad who was so proud of his Nazi service that he passed his dog tag on to his son to remember him by" starts to feel a lot like someone's protesting too much. You don't have to interpret Heisenberg as a proud Nazi soldier, but the costuming clues don't look great.

i dont think its mentioned anywhere in the game, but rather implied, that karl scavenged that stuff from a battlefield? for example, the tank used in his boss fight is a combination of a nazi gun tractor, combined with an american tank. the two guns mounted on it are also a german recoilless rifle and an american machine gun.

Uh, look, do you have a source for any of this beyond "someone wrote it in the wiki"? Because anyone can add anything to the wiki, that doesn't mean it's more than some military nerd's headcanon. Even if part of the vehicle looks like an actual American tank, all that means is that someone working on the game used one as a reference, maybe.

Meanwhile, the one genuinely plot-critical thing we're told about that tank is that it's made of metal-polymer composites, strongly implying that all the components were custom-made in the same place. The idea it's tacked together from salvaged components just doesn't hold water.

So how would Heisenberg have made those parts? Simple: his factory used to make tanks.

I'm sure it's possible to miss the half-dozen partially-wrecked tanks in the front yard outside the building ‒ there's a bunch of other scrap metal out there too, they kind of blend in. But when you've spent as much time as I have digging through the game files, it's much harder to miss how many files relating to the factory are explicitly labeled 'tankfactory' (...at least when they're not labeled 'geek'). There's even an asset for a pile of tank cannons. I don't know if or where that particular asset actually appears in the game, but no-one has that many tank parts lying in a pile unless they're building the things. Heisenberg's obviously re-purposed the factory for soldats now, but it plainly used to make tanks.

i think he scavenged that stuff bc of germany invading romania during ww2

I really hate to keep jumping on you here, but you can easily google this stuff. I am no-one's expert on the history of Romania in WWII, but even a cursory read up on the subject tells me that a fascist political party took power in Romania in 1940, and voluntarily allied with the Germans. Romania was itself an Axis power. How they were actually treated by their new 'allies' looks like it might be a thornier subject, but goddamn it I do not have time to fall down yet another research rabbit hole right now (my apologies on that front to any actual Romanians, god knows there is a lot of WWII history that us Westerners do not get taught about in school).

But now that I've had to look that up, I can pretty confidently state that if Heisenberg's factory was functioning during the war, it would have been manufacturing tanks for the Nazis. And if Germany did set up a tank factory in Romania, it's not implausible they'd have assigned a German to take charge (say, a former soldier who excelled on the battlefield, and is proud enough to keep wearing his dog tag?), so that all adds up uncomfortably well.

If anything, the more ambiguous part is whether the game is even set in Romania. Most people assume that was the intent, but the only location we're ever given is 'a county in Eastern Europe'. God knows if anyone at Capcom ever bothered to google Romania's involvement in WWII either, so I can't speak to their intent. But "maybe the German wearing the WWII era dog tag and the Nazi signal lamp wasn't personally responsible for manufacturing tanks for the Nazis with the tank factory in Nazi territory that he apparently lived in" is not an argument I'm prepared to build my house on. Let's at least allow that it does not look good. It'd hardly be the first time a piece of Japanese media has stuck its foot in its mouth over Nazi shit either.

to me heisenberg probably wouldve outright mentioned being a soldier or something in at least a diary entry or note if he was old enough during ww2 to remember it

Earnestly, why? Heisenberg's diary tells us nothing about his background whatsoever. We don't know what country he was born, how long he's lived in the village, how he became one of Miranda's experiments, how many decades he's been part of her family ‒ anything. Why would military service rank a special mention, when even clarifying whether he's a village native doesn't?

And again, it isn't hard to come up with theories where Heisenberg isn't a Nazi. Maybe he was a deserter, who still carries that dog tag because 'Karl Heisenberg' is really just a sham name Miranda gave him to match one of those four founding houses, and that tag is the only proof he's got left of his real name. Or maybe it's the only thing he's got left with his Dad's name on it, even though his Dad always said the war was bullshit, sure. Maybe the factory really was run by Nazis who left shit like that signal lamp lying around (to be repurposed into a handy electronics case like I suggested in that last post), and Heisenberg only moved into it more recently, because at least he speaks enough German to read all the shit they left around the place. Or maybe he only moved in because he found out someone was using it to build that polymer composite tank to kill him (why remains a much bigger dangling question than how), after which he figured he should probably stick around to make sure no-one else tried the same thing. These are all perfectly valid interpretations, and no-one is wrong for preferring them to having to deal with all that Nazi bullshit (though most still depend on some awkward German-nationality-coincidences). The fact that Heisenberg runs a tank factory and carries Nazi paraphernalia is really easy to miss, and no-one's less of a fan for not spotting it.

What little we do know is that Heisenberg's family got rewritten repeatedly during development. He was a twin at one point, his mother may have been used for experiments, his father was variously Sturm, Heisenberg's monster form, the village mayor, and maybe even Urias ‒ it's all over the place (all this comes from notes on the concept art that comes with the game, if anyone wants to fact-check me on it). Heisenberg probably wasn't originally meant to be Ethan's pseudo-ally either ‒ it's Ada rather than Heisenberg who gives him the chance to escape his trial in that early storyboard. Fuck, maybe at some point he (or his dad) really was going to be a goddamn Nazi mad scientist who fled to Romania and hid up a mountain somewhere, or whatever (though I can't easily imagine any Nazi scientist would be wearing that dog tag ‒ that's an accessory for the expendable rank-and-file of the military machine).

But possibly (and I'm really just speculating here), as Heisenberg became a more likable, ambiguously-grey character during development, Capcom may have decided it would be a good idea to tone down the Nazi stuff. They just accidentally left in the dog tag, the signal lamp, and the goddamn tank factory in presumably-Nazi territory, and had to quickly deny all Nazi associations when people made the obvious connections. If the official word from Capcom is that Heisenberg isn't a Nazi (or at least, that we aren't intended to read Heisenberg-the-fictional-character as having any Nazi sympathies or affiliations), I should be pretty happy to take that as official.

If you really want textual "evidence" that Heisenberg wasn't a Nazi, the best I can offer is the fact Dimitrescu dismisses him as 'a child', which suggests to me that he's much younger than her, and possibly even younger than her daughters (though I still can't buy he was a child when he first met Dimitrescu or Miranda). We don't actually know how old she or her daughters are, of course (they were in already the castle in 1952, but whether they'd just moved in or whether they'd been there for decades we don't know), but dismissing someone who was old enough to have served in WWII as 'a child' strikes me as a bit of a stretch even for Lady D. But that's not much more than interpretation, and one can easily be a Nazi sympathiser without personally having taken part in the war.

I still love Heisenberg as a character, flaws and all. I'm definitely not going to stop writing about him being his terrible, ridiculous self. I'll gladly go on ignoring all this nazi shit as much as I can get away with. I'm absolutely not here to tell you that RE8 is now #problematic and can only be addressed after adequate hand-wringing. That shit helps no-one.

But back in the real world, where fascism is on the rise again across the globe, and where the internet would have me believe that coded references to shit as vague as the date of Hitler's birthday is apparently a popular cryptofascist dogwhistle or some shit, do I have to waste mental energy on whether it means something serious that there are surprise Nazis popping up in my innocent little zombie-horror-game? Like, if a character isn't a Nazi, is it so damn hard not to include two different bits of Nazi memorabilia directly on their character model? The horrors of capitalism I signed up for; the horrors of People You Never Realised Were Secretly A Nazi is one I could have done without here, kthx.

And the sad fact is, it's really not that easy to just explain away.

[samepisodebracket]

justice for sam

If the spnepisodebracket craze has shown us anything, it's that the supernatural fanbase is extremely divided, with the lowly sam stan seemingly at the bottom of the pile. sam is always last in polls, so this is a bracket for the 10% or so who always votes for him. because yeah, there's 327 episodes of Supernatural, but how many are popular because of a dean or destiel moment? how many good episodes are drowned out because they focus on sam?

i've chosen, with some crowdsourced peer review (special thanks to @spneveryseason, @suncaptor, and @ambersock!) 125 episodes that are Sam Relevant. Some are extremely sam-centric, some just have a shot where sam looks like he's being crucified that gives me brain worms -- i tried to be generous about it to keep a relatively even seasons distribution! matchups will be random and polls will last 24 hours each. in the tradition of @spnepisodebracket (who this is obviously inspired by and would not be possible without!) i'll try to rb a gifset for every episode in the poll!

a final note: no this is not that serious but the criteria for voting here should be how good the episode is as a SAM episode, not as anything else, so please vote accordingly! i am making this for people who actually enjoy sam and if that is not you, then this is not the poll for you!

with that out of the way, here is the compiled list of episodes! voting starts this sammy sunday, 3/26!

Season 1 Pilot (1x01) Bloody Mary (1x05) Home (1x09) Asylum (1x10) Scarecrow (1x11) Nightmare (1x14) Shadow (1x16) Provenance (1x19) Salvation (1x21) Devil's Trap (1x22) Season 2 Simon Said (2x05) Croatoan (2x09) Hunted (2x10) Playthings (2x11) Houses of the Holy (2x13) Born Under a Bad Sign (2x14) Heart (2x17) All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1 (2x21) All Hell Breaks Loose Part 2 (2x22) Season 3 Bad Day at Black Rock (3x03) A Very Supernatural Christmas (3x08) Mystery Spot (3x11) Jus In Bello (3x12) Time is On My Side (3x15) Season 4 Metamorphosis (4x04) It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester (4x07) I Know What You Did Last Summer (4x09) After School Special (4x13) On the Head of a Pin (4x16) It's a Terrible Life (4x17) Jump the Shark (4x19) When the Levee Breaks (4x21) Lucifer Rising (4x22) Season 5 Good God, Y'all! (5x02) Free to be You and Me (5x03) Changing Channels (5x08) Sam, Interrupted (5x11) Swap Meat (5x12) The Song Remains the Same (5x13) My Bloody Valentine (5x14) Dark Side of the Moon (5x16) 99 Problems (5x17) Two Minutes to Midnight (5x21) Swan Song (5x22) Season 6 Exile on Main St. (6x01) You Can't Handle the Truth (6x06) Family Matters (6x07) Clap Your Hands if You Believe (6x09) Caged Heat (6x10) Appointment in Samarra (6x11) Like a Virgin (6x12) Unforgiven (6x13) The French Mistake (6x15) The Man Who Knew Too Much (6x22) Season 7 Meet the New Boss (7x01) Hello, Cruel World (7x02) The Girl Next Door (7x03) Season 7, Time for a Wedding! (7x08) Plucky Pennywhistle's Magic Menagerie (7x14) Repo Man (7x15) Out with the Old (7x16) The Born-Again Identity (7x17) Season 8 We Need to Talk About Kevin (8x01) Hunteri Heroici (8x08) Trial and Error (8x14) Taxi Driver (8x19) Pac-Man Fever (8x20) The Great Escapist (8x21) Clip Show (8x21) Sacrifice (8x23) Season 9 Holy Terror (9x09) Road Trip (9x10) First Born (9x11) The Purge (9x13) Meta Fiction (9x18) Season 10 Black (10x01) Soul Survivor (10x03) Fan Fiction (10x05) Inside Man (10x17) Book of the Damned (10x18) The Werther Project (10x19) The Prisoner (10x22) Brother's Keeper (10x23) Season 11 Form and Void (11x02) Baby (11x04) Just My Imagination (11x08) Oh Brother Where Art Thou (11x09) The Devil in the Details (11x10) Into the Mystic (11x11) Ouroborus (11x14) Red Meat (11x17) Don't Call Me Shurley (11x20) Season 12 Keep Calm and Carry On (12x01) Mamma Mia (12x02) American Nightmare (12x04) Rock Never Dies (12x07) The Raid (12x14) Who We Are (12x22) Season 13 Lost and Found (13x01) Patience (13x03) The Big Empty (13x04) Various & Sundry Villains (13x12) A Most Holy Man (13x15) Funeralia (13x19) Beat the Devil (13x21) Exodus (13x22) Let the Good Times Roll (13x23) Season 14 Stranger in a Strange Land (14x01) Mint Condition (14x04) Nightmare Logic (14x05) Byzantium (14x08) Prophet and Loss (14x12) Lebanon (14x13) Peace of Mind (14x15) Game Night (14x17) Moriah (14x20) Season 15 Back and to the Future (15x01) Atomic Monsters (15x04) The Rupture (15x03) Golden Time (15x06) The Gamblers (15x11) Unity (15x17) Inherit the Earth (15x19) Finale: Carry On (15x20)

Edits: Bugs (1x08) will be added, polls will not be completely random bc im not doing this for science im doing this to see a good episode win and my randomizer pit when the levee breaks against swan song in round 1

[crookedfandomquill]

I am about to lose my mind with y'all, for real. To recap, we got: tons of new backstory content on Aziraphale and Crowley's relationship; tons of cute new content including them dancing together a la Jane Austen; two other queer relationships meant to parallel and contrast their own; a FUCKING KISS; confirmation from Neil that he has an entire third season planned out and, regardless of whether it gets made in a TV format, will definitely give it to us in some form or fashion... and there are still fans jumping online and acting the fool.

Look. I totally understand if relationship angst isn't your thing. I'm not always in the mood for it, and it has to make sense for the story and the characters. However, feeling a lot of feelings about how the season ended, or wishing it had gone differently as a personal preference, is not the same as getting on this platform and saying, with your whole chest, that it was HOMOPHOBIC for Aziraphale and Crowley to hit a major relationship snag. Was it goddamn sad? Absolutely. Did it hurt my soul? 100%. But there are people claiming that it's part of some new "queer people have to suffer" trend (an emotional bury-your-gays, if you will), and that Neil (noted storytelling genius and LBGTQ ally) wrote this ending as an elaborate form of queerbaiting.

My girls. My gays. My theys. My sweet, silly geese. This is preposterous. First of all, this is not how the story ends. It is a clear and masterful setup for a third season (or whatever form it takes, hopefully TV but we shall see). It's pretty typical for the second act of a story to end in some kind of tragedy or twist that needs to be resolved in the third act, and it's typical because it works great for narrative flow and character development.

Second of all, and I'm begging you to listen to me: it is not homophobic to have your queer couple experience relationship problems. It is not homophobic for there to be pain and difficulty before they get a happily ever after. It is not homophobic to let your queer characters deal with commitment issues, unresolved trauma, or other baggage that temporarily prevents them from being together. This is literally a staple of the romance story, regardless of the sexualities involved, and is something that almost anyone who's been in sexual or romantic relationships has experienced in real life to some degree.

Now, if there were truly a phenomenon in fiction where every single queer couple had to go through astronomical levels of difficulty to get a happy ending, proportional to fictional straight couples, and the sweet, uncomplicated stuff just wasn't there to indulge in, I'd concede a little. But that's just... not true. If you think it is, you may not be reading or watching broadly enough. Queer folk deserve to see queer characters overcome relationship conflict just as much as they deserve to have sweeter, escapist options.

If you're mad about Good Omens 2 because you prefer drama-free escapism in you queer relationships, or were expecting that and felt let down, that's fine, you have a right to your feelings. And it's always hard when you've waited for a story for four years and built it up in your head (which is why I generally try not to do that, but you do you). But, you do not have to justify your feelings by accusing the story of queerbaiting or homophobia. In fact, I beg you not to. Just say that it hurt and you wish it had been happier; it's okay for you to feel that way, and people shouldn't put you down for it.

But propping up your emotions by accusing a piece of media of implicitly contributing to a system of oppression that it actively works to undermine is just not where it's at, folks. There is media that genuinely does that, but this isn't it. Again, have all the emotions about the ending that you want, but stop crying wolf. It's getting old.

[yuurei20]

Riddle Info Compilation part 2: Upbringing (pt2)

At the beginning of Book 4 we see a very subdued Riddle (Grim describes him as “kinda defeated”) in the Hall of Mirrors.

Ace explains that Riddle is not enthusiastic about going home due to “an extreme case of helicopter parenting waiting for him.”

Trey reminds Riddle that he is not allowed in Riddle’s house and thus cannot bring him any cakes, but encourages him to visit his parents’ bakery, assuring him that Chenya will probably be visiting as well.

Riddle says, “I think…I’m going to try talking with Mother some. I don’t know if she’ll listen, but even so.”

In Book 5 it is revealed that Riddle was ultimately not able to escape his home to Trey’s family’s bakery during the vacation.

We learn a little bit more about Riddle’s upbringing during Spectral Soiree when he tells Ruggie and Ortho that he has had “no exposure to the comic books and video games the rest of you enjoy.”

Riddle says that his opinion is “entirely grounded in reality” as a result, and that he has “never had much interest in watching or reading escapist fare. Ah, but I have read a great many autobiographies. By the time I was your age, Ortho, I was already reading medical dictionaries.”

Ortho comments that “there are studies that show consuming entertainment media is essential for well-rounded emotional development,” and Ruggie points out that Ortho—a robot—is worried about Riddle’s emotional growth.

Riddle accuses them of ganging up on him, saying it is none of their business.

Riddle insists that while he is not up to date on popular culture he has “read all the classics that are foundational for a literary education. Treasure hunting? Adventure? There’s no point in bothering with stories that have no lesson to learn.”

Ruggie reacts with surprise, as treasure hunting “is like solving a puzzle,” but Riddle seems confused.

We learn during Book 6 that Riddle didn’t have a TV in his home growing up, and he first tries to opt out of the video game that Ortho encourages him to play on the grounds that his mother has told him that “video games are addictive and can hurt academic performance.”

Idia mocks him for blaming games for his own lack of self control, leaving Riddle momentarily speechless.

Riddle takes offense, insisting that his grades would never drop just because he happened to play a video game, and Idia successfully provokes him into playing the game in order to prove it.

Vil comments that Riddle playing right into Idia’s hands is “embarrassing to watch” and Azul says, “Riddle’s very bright, but has zero resistance to trolling.”

Later, Riddle says that he has spent most of his time learning magic ever since he was born, receiving specialized magical training lessons at three years old.

Azul says he must have been quite the prodigy but Riddle explains that he can’t be certain if he ever had any special talent to begin with since his mother “apparently went to every possible length to ensure I’d be an exceptional mage, starting from when I was in the womb.”

Riddle says that grade skipping isn’t really done in the Queendom of Roses, and the private school he attended prior to NRC didn’t allow it,1 which is why he never did so.

He explains, “Besides, you have to be at least 24 to get a medical license in the Queendom of Roses. So I doubt my parents saw much point in me skipping a grade or two.”

Riddle’s education also included dance:

He explains that “social dancing is part of gentlemanly etiquette” and that he has “mastered it, of course.”

He offers to lead Ortho and Ruggie in a dance to thank them for what they taught him during Spectral Soiree, but Ruggie turns him down in favor of the buffet.

We also see Riddle waltzing with a ghost, and then with Vil.

Riddle explains, “I’ve had an interest in social dancing since I was a child. I learned it from my mother, as part of my rigorous education.”

Riddle says he knows how to behave in formal situations and will occasionally call out other characters for poor etiquette, such as when Silver falls asleep during a party and when he scolds Heartlsabyul students for holding conversations in the entrance to the dorm.

[juliettedunn]

You’re based for focusing on Luz and King! Sense and Insensitivity is a comfort episode to me because while everyone is focused on the B-plot with Eda and Lilith (which IS good don’t get me wrong) I’m ultimately about the A-plot with Luz and King. The way they both have opportunities and reason to be mean to each other but in the end their tenderness for the other person and desire to be with them always overpowers!!!

Yes Sense and Insensitivity is a comfort episode for me too! It's generally looked down on by the fandom but it's crucial for Luz and King's relationship development. Luz and King both initially struggle with seeing the world outside their own visions, with people having their own agency apart from the assigned role in their idealized "story." The two writing a book which reflects their idealized self-insert conceptions of the world and then inevitably running into conflict when their wishes don't match up and aren't respected by each other is a great demonstration.

Luz started learning to see King as his own person to be respected and listened to in The Intruder, and she makes many attempts to compromise with him here and enjoy their time together as bonding. But King has to start learning the lessons she did, because, like her, he gets swept up in his ideal vision - his one of complete control.

King has to learn that his quest for control (like Luz's fantasy, it's a reaction to the complete lack of control and respect he's experienced from the world) has led him to harming a bond that's important to him, and that pushing his ideal way isn't how he's going to achieve happiness and understanding from others. I love the two's parallel escapist fantasy struggles running into conflict, and later the Collector joins them in this sort of arc.

The two fumble but they learn to relate to and respect each other as they are, and appreciate both each other's gifts. Only when they write together and balance out each other's wishes do they make a good story.

It's also just a really cute and funny episode, it's sweet how torn up the two get. Their fight isn't really that major, a typical sibling fight about things not going your way, but they are so unused to genuinely fighting that they mope and mourn like it's the end of the world. It shows how much they mean to each other even this early in the show. And the slap Luz gives King has me dying.

Also it has one of my favorite moments between them, with Luz telling King "Being with you is one of my favorite parts of this dream."

Overall a highly underrated episode, nice to see someone else appreciating it!

[larrythefloridaman]

Hmm. Peppermint for bingo

the thing with peppermint is there are kind of two peppermints to me?

pre-nccts peppermint as-voiced-by-katie is a being so fascinatingly, hilariously, suffocatingly rancid that i felt the need to take a breather at one point when the streams originally aired and still wince going back to her scenes, an erratic obsessive creep armchair psychologist writer and masochist on a constant dizzying sugar high who happily rejects all adherence to social contract in devotion to an evil god she's actively stalking who wants nothing to do with her in pursuit of an escapist fantasy she's projected onto him. (red candy)

nccts peppermint as-written-by-ryan is a particularly unstable cringe sad wet newly crowned old god in a box all alone with abrasive and obsessive tendencies over shipping, fandom drama and her own opinions about character writing to the detriment of her ability to engage positively with the 'real world' (Relatively Speaking) outside of those lenses, her derealization and her tendency to treat other people as fictional objects to project her desires onto in violation of their boundaries only being worsened by Prism's enabling of that mindset and her possessive and obsessive desire for a tooth-rotting archie-andrews ass romantic fantasy with Crimson, but she's observant and sharp and self-assured enough to stand her ground when she realizes she's being manipulated with the promise of companionship and to not waver in her conviction that Prism is wrong. (green candy)

these arent at all incompatible, in fact they read to me as two parts, almost two perspectives, of one greater whole, but they are pretty noticeably distinct in their focus execution and tone, i think?

she's still a creep, but ryan doesn't always sell it as hard or as strongly as katie did, often leaning on common (and thus usually less shocking and by extension less effective due to not hitting as hard) 'unpredictable viscerally lonely yandere' trope stuff. Or maybe the written medium just dampens its effect- hard to explain what specifically makes katie's pep character voice so Offputting, i cant imagine it's easy trying to translate it into text without losing some of its offensive punch when you lose the element of vocal delivery, im not sure how id do it. Havent gotten to the most potent ncct pep stuff in the reread we've been doing yet, my opinions' subject to change, maybe shes worse than i remember, lol

if peppermint's character premise is summarized and boiled down to the absolute basics as 'creepy and obsessive parasocial fan of the sport' then katie put the emphasis on 'creepy' and 'obsessive' and ryan put the emphasis on 'parasocial fan of the sport' to better use her as a character that reflects the concept of fandom and position her as being on the side of characterization over strict narrative structures and expectations for the nccts' metanarrative thematic purposes, you get what i mean?

marking 'couldve been a great character if handled differently' is admittedly kind of misleading when what i really mean is 'i hope these takes on her character maybe get synthesized a little more going forward now that prism's arc villain era in the nccts is effectively over and the narrative actively problematizes her violative and antisocial behavior more again because shes less interesting to me when its treated as inconsequential in the grand scheme of things as it kind of mostly is after ncct2, and that her loneliness and the roots of how she is and why are explored more.' alas the bingo board is written in past tense. None of this is a criticism really just kinda observations of the disconnect that sometimes comes into play when a character is really Made by their voice actor in a way thats sorta lost in translation to another medium and to the hands of another writer with different goals.

All this being said, i like her! In a show about identity and connection and our responsibilities to ourselves and eachother when living in community with others, a character defined by loneliness, disconnecting from other people and their own reality and sinking deeply enough into themself and their eccentricities and what little they DO find connection through to the point of lacking consideration for others' existence as full, real people, reducing them to picking them apart as though theyre storytelling tools, trying and struggling by navigating the world around her as though its the fiction she loves with no REAL consequences, until she upset someone badly enough to be forced to consider them as a real person with feelings (relative to her as. Also A Fictional Character,) is a really interesting character concept for a metanarrative arc of the show, and her being manipulated by the godly 'author' into being her lackey through a sense of companionship and enabling that perspective on the world by letting her in on the in-universe Cosmic Secret that their world IS a fiction to someone, us, the audience... its pretty fascinating, especially because she only falls for the lie in it for so long. It does matter. It may not be real, but it does matter. And she took us believing in her so close to heart...

[yermes]

After two hours of sleep and a mental break down pick a card and reveal how you can grow in a magic space. 🌻

Pick a meme

1: The Universe 🫐

Represents Yesod to Malkuth, the completion of the great work, if the fool is the beginning this is the end.

You as an individual found your truth so to speak. Theres always room for improvement but your technique is stable. You have as much of an understanding as ever for what you do and how you do it. The one thing is when you have all this vastness ahead of you it can cause somewhat of a depression. However, the end gives birth to the beginning and with the end of whatever you got going on its setting you up for newer paths. Take your wisdom, knowledge, and experience and go off on another adventure! Grow by simply growing more. You are doing amazing but never settle theres always more to learn even after you think you mastered one aspect.

2: Knight of Cups 🫖

Represents 21° Aquarius to 20° Pisces, represents Chokmah, is called “The fire in the waters of Briah”

Deciding you need help is a great step. A big part of this card is the sexual, holy, escapist imagery. I know its a lot but thats okay, if you don’t like a lot go find less. At this point you seem unstable, at times its like you don’t know WHAT to believe with so many conflicting sources and at times bad guides. This card represents trying to reach medium out of every extreme and you may just need to sit back, ask for help, clear your head and get a little boost to that holy grail queen. For growth I would talk! Bounce ideas around, maybe ask for help. The world is your oyster yeah things can be scary and confusing and extreme but you can make this experience all your own and reach the grail your own way.

3: Pleasure 🍷

Represents six of cups, Tiphareth, Sun in Scorpio

You are not all the way full with your personal Journey you still have a ways to go. However, you reached a certain level of success and while enjoying the fruits of your labor is amazing be careful at becoming that guy.. like you pop up in the chat and everyone leaves because you decided its your life and they’re just living it. Be happy with your growth and progress but do not become vain, realize everyone is on a personal journey and you are not always right. The more you learn the more you realize we know nothing. Take time to think before you speak and act! But keep growing you are flourishing!

End.

I just want to add this to the end because I wanted to say I wasted a lot of time in magic or occult spaces. I wasted my time arguing and starting fight but while the community definitely has draw backs its also a great resource! Instead of attacking off the bat I slowly research and see if I can understand their point of view but also stay at arms length to keep my energy relatively safe. Im a tired bitch. I kinda came back to be more social in these spaces when I realized that when in moderation and being safe they can have so many studying benefits and I don’t have to conform to a space to be a magician or to be who I am as a whole. I also saw some bullshit on tiktok pop up and instead of losing my mind over it I researched it found where they may have misunderstood and moved on. Thats character development.

[alex-richey]

Blog Post #9 (Due 11/7)

Is Social Media an effective way to spark social change?

In Social Media and Communication Power, Fuchs notes that the internet is "embedded in the antagonisms of contemporary society," meaning it has no inherent determinations. While social media can be a great way to connect people worldwide, there will always be hold-ups when trying to use it for social change because that's not what it was made for.

How is online advocacy imperfect?

We often discuss how not everything on the internet is true, and that applies to online activism as well. While the intention of promoting social justice and calling attention to social problems is often lighthearted, it is not immune to misinformation. When misinformation circles online, it can quickly skew the outcome of social movements.

How does Animal Crossing mirror real life?

In The Atlantic article, the author explains that Animal Crossing can offer some comfort, especially when the new version of the game was first released (during the initial COVID-19 lockdown). They explain that in the game, virtually any activity can be capitalized, as characters can fish, garden, and more, and exchange goods and money with other characters. The author also argues that although the game is often dismissed as escapist, it's relatively realistic. Each Animal Crossing island has limited resources, which players need to use wisely when deciding how to build their town.

Has Blackness always been associated with criminality?

In short, yes. In her article, Lee explains that laborers (who have the power to disrupt the capitalist societies they're part of) have always been closely surveilled. In the 18th and 19th centuries, as people became concerned with "problem populations," the two began to intertwine. The U.S. continued to surveil laborers, particularly Black folks, in an effort to maintain the racial hierarchy embedded in the country. Thus, Black individuals became associated with these "problems," leading to the criminalization of an entire race/ethnic group.

Bogost, I. (2020). The quiet revolution of Animal Crossing. The Atlantic.

Fuchs, C. (2014). Social Media: A critical introduction. Sage Publications.

Lee, L. (2017). Black twitter: A response to bias in mainstream media. Social Sciences, 6(1), 26. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci6010026

Vegh, Sandor. Classifying Forms of Online Activism.

[hottakehoulihan]

I'm considering a differentiation in nomenclature: yuri and yaoi fiction distinct from queer fiction from love stories distinct from other queer relationship fiction.

But I haven't worked out the details of what word would go with what. So I'll ramble on it for a moment while it's fresh in my head.

It's just...in some WLW or men-loving-men (I'm avoiding acronym puns) stories, the story is set in a world where queerphobia doesn't exist. Women date and get married to each other, nobody bats an eyelash, and nobody spends months or days agonizing about whether they might be gay because that's as important as wondering if you like maple syrup on waffles.

And in other WLW / queer stories, part of the story is the characters overcoming their own internal resistance, gauging whether the person they're attracted to is safe to approach and if so how to do so, dealing with the queerphobia of family/friends/authorities, and even coping with systemic queerphobia.

And the queer-accepting world of the first sort, which is the sort of comforting escapist fantasy (approbation x3) we need and want sometimes, where flavor-of-queerness doesn't matter because people aren't scummy about it and while we're at it we also don't have nazis it's a romance story but without all the depressing ugly bullshit and instead with representation of a sort; a blanket to wrap around oneself and squee.

Valuable and needed.

Then there's an actual exploration of the bullshit society has; showing life-as-reflected-in-art so you get multiple perspectives on what is because that's ALSO representation, and that's part of what art is needed for.

And then there's the fact that stories need conflict and love stories need (no pun intended) friction or else there's...not really a story it's just "Little Red Riding Hood went to her grandmother's house and grandmother was fine and the wolf was her friend and all three had a nice dinner and lived happily ever after." (Cute, but only because it's a novelty.)

And I adore the friction (still no pun intended). Cherry Magic wouldn't have the delicious erotic suspense if it weren't set in a world where queer pairings were more difficult in all the aforementioned ways.

This ain't just true about queer pairings. I'm fond of My Queen both despite and because of its absurdity, and it's a fun TV show in which a 33yo high-level professional finds herself pursued by a 25yo gentleman and he's great but she's totally (initially) not okay with the age gap (and she's Taiwanese, and it's an older show, so the bullshit women have to deal with is more enhanced in some arenas)

...and of course there's a reason we've got the "meet hate" trope, the "it was all a misunderstanding!" trope and so many others; you need some reason for the leading pair to not snap together instantly like rare-earth magnets.

(I think it was Ebert (his negative reviews were once a guilty pleasure of mine) who said something like "if you have a meet-cute, they might be together in two hours. If you have a meet-hate, they'll be together in 45 minutes")

Back-of-the-envelope, I'm considering using yaoi/yuri for the trope-heavy "but can a girl love a girl!?"

"queer-friendly love stories" stories where romance decisions are as low-orientation-consequence (as they are in Dragon Age / Mass Effect games, where some characters are pan, some are unavailable, and some only go for specific gender and/or background) as seems plausible to ever reach IRL.

"Queer literature" (or cinema or some other potentially pretentious-flavored indicator), which reflects life as it is or was, and where the happy conclusions are those that happen because of judicious placement of "The End".

IDK.

It is to be strongly desired, a world where (as in an Arthur C. Clark book a friend of mine kept stealing from the school library) there's no societal expectation driving the need to even have the distinction represented by the word "queer" because they're as par for the course as finding out what foods someone likes or won't eat.

But there is something lovable and titillating in the queer stories where folk are struggling through the various plinko of internalized phobias and ignorances, and those of society, in order to finally get some wonderful handholding or sex in.

Yeah, I'm not satisfied with any terminology choices. Gonna abandon that for a bit. Reminds me of a quote:

"It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it." - Joseph Joubert

There's more to say (something I pulled from Contrapoints (yay!) and her choice of name), but I'm reaching diminishing returns on trying to chew down to it so I'm putting this blag entry to bed.

But anyway, there's romance in the friction, there's friction in the romance, and there's beauty in queer fiction that has queer friction and there's beauty in queer fiction that has only the ordinary romantic friction and allows queer romance to be as free from phobia as we'd desire.

And maybe it's good we don't have names for all the flavors.

Gonna go back to my WLW monster+Jewish Gal romance now. : 3 ...and then to my high-stakes overdue chores. : /