#the irony is that the 'but things will be great for us who cares' view of climate changes that folk like the above screenshot want

[istoppedlurkingforthis]

First off? Fuck that tory, and all other people, tories or not, that have voiced a similar sentiment in the last few days. I have heard so many versions of it this week and I could scream.

But tweets like the above are, to me, symptomatic of how we discussed climate change back in the 90s, 00s and up until surprisingly recently (haven't heard it as much recently though). One of the most common examples (in a UK context) that I heard/saw given was "the UK will be like the Mediterranean", and unfortunately peoples reactions was usually "GREAT! Bring it on! I can't wait to have perfect weather for my holidays at home!". Because whenever we said that, we never focused on the horrifying implications.

Because the horrifying implications, that we chose to leave unsaid likely because we all got told something along the lines of 'keep it positive and don't scare people', was what's happening in the Mediterranean now. What's happening in Northern Africa. All across Asia. In Canada. In the Ocean surface temperatures.

And I really wish I could go back in time and slap everyone in the face who uttered that phrase, me included, without including an immediate caveat. Actually, we shouldn't have used it at all. We should have focused on the bad part. Clearly trying to be kind about it didn't work.

But yeah. Fuck that tory in particular for saying that. People are dead. More are going to die.

Firefighters have been killed and homes are being destroyed.

Scottish Tories: Wish we could have some of that sunshine☀️😎

[thestobingirlie]

conformity in stranger things

(as we see it through the characters of steve, dustin and eddie)

dustin meets steve while steve is already heading down his own path — he’s leaving behind ideas about high school and relationships, and figuring out who he is without them.

steve, by season two, had already become disillusioned with the idea of high school, and power struggles, and being the most popular guy in school. which is why he doesn’t react to billy’s taunts.

despite what the fandom may have you believe, steve’s seasons long arc about his struggle with conforming to the person people expect him to be is done.

don’t get me wrong, steve is still hanging onto some ideas in s2, like pretending you don’t care to get girls, and seeing nancy as different to all his other girlfriends (though i personally think that speaks more to steve’s prior relationships than the way he views woman).

and so, dustin and their friendship play a major role in steve fully moving on from the concept of ‘conforming’. steve doesn’t want to change who he is to get people to like him, or love him!

and with dustin, he doesn’t!!!

they make up dorky handshakes, and give each other advice. they talk about girls and steve teaches him how to achieve his signature hairstyle.

their relationship impacts both boys, but neither of them are conforming. it’s pretty much the exact opposite!!! despite what some fans would have you believe steve and dustin have a positive impact on each other!!!

dustin doesn’t change who he is to impress steve! he’s just as dorky as before, and in fact imparts some of that dorkiness onto steve!! steve and dustin help each other to find who they are, and figure themselves out.

on the other hand.

eddie had a negative impact on dustin.

dustin in s3 is dorky. he likes science, and school, and building great big radio towers up hills.

dustin in s4 is failing classes, treating friends like shit, his hubris is at an all time high; all aided by eddie’s high opinion of himself and ideas about conforming.

see. when eddie talks about conforming, he doesn’t really understand what he’s talking about (which is why his fans don’t either).

when he criticised people for ‘conforming’, all he’s really talking about is people being interested in things he doesn’t like. parties. band. science. basketball. he looks down on them all.

he makes snap judgments, and reduces them down to stereotypes. we literally watch him learn this on screen!!!

we literally watch as he verbally recognises that he knew nothing about steve, and yet reduced him down to his interest in basketball.

and here’s where the irony comes in. eddie is literally leading the club on conformity.

everyone in hellfire wears the exact same thing, and he makes fun of the clothes they used to wear. he seats himself on a thrown, and judges anyone that wishes to come before him before he deems them worthy to play a game. he’s not accepting all losers. he’s literally telling them they’re lesser than as he stands on tables in the cafeteria, and then fights against erica playing with them… just because he thinks she has to prove herself to him first.

that’s the point of eddie’s character!! that his whole big speech at the beginning of the season is wrong. and we literally see how he’s wrong scenes later when eddie interacts with chrissy.

people watch eddie learn and grow as a person, and then reduce his character right back down to who he was when he was first introduced.

tl;dr — if one of dustin’s relationships is about conformity, it’s his friendship with eddie, not steve. his brother dynamic with steve is about the complete opposite. about reaching across dumb nerd v jock social divides and finding a family.

in looking up to eddie, dustin has let his other interests fall to the wayside. he’s snarkier, makes fun of steve more (just like he’s been watching eddie mock jocks for months), his friendships with the rest of the party are at an all time low.

and yet. some people would have me believe this is dustin’s truest self? who gets his mormon girlfriend to hack into his school because he’s failing latin. who mocks steve for ‘wanting to be a hero’ when just the season before he was prepared to die by steve’s side.

[thecrustiestpurp]

Genius writing of Pavitr Prabhakar

They made an ass of a spiderman in theory yet he's my favourite out of all of them and naturally I'm thinking why.

Ignoring the aesthetic aspects like his sick design and his distinctive web slinging style. I think it's most interesting how they do this through the writing, the way they tackle his fatal flaw, his fat ego and blind optimism by creating a really sharp interval logic and communicating this within the space of 15 minutes.

We understand that his big ego is all earnest and out of naivite rather than him putting down others. He just so happens to be the best and perfect, and therefore everything is great for him. He was given a blessing at a very young age to be a spider and he happens to be good at it of course he's going to be prideful how can it not be. And why would he not gloat, he's a perfect guy perfect grades perfect hair and he knows that makes him special. Especially considering the rest of the Spider-Verse, having a perfect one like Pavitr is unexpected so we're at least intrigued by him.

But why do we like him despite characters with perfect lives and a big ego typically being frustrated. Using his humour the writers made his introduction it as playful as possible so we laugh at how him you know. One of the first things he says is "being Spiderman is so easy" and knowing he's been at it for 6 months it's super funny. He's also relatable, the successes he points out, skipping working out because he has a perfect body, having a girlfriend her parents don't know about, doing well in school are all things that are relatable to us especially if you're Indian, it feels like a real student who's living their best like. Also playfulness is maintained when they go to unglitch spots thing the collider scene, he treating it with even less seriousness "just another easy day of being spiderman" he says and is subsequently blown up - it's funny. We also can't get annoyed during that scene really being invasive to Miles' attempts and channelling the electricity so he's not being frustrating to us or to Miles, just a little naive. We can get humour from it but we also understand this as a flaw too because of the dramatic irony, we're hinting that he's not supposed to think this way.

They also give him the nice internal logic making his mindset sympathetic by testing it within the movie. In the saving India scene, what's most notable is the line "I can do both" turning his idealism into tragedy when he's faced between saving his girlfriend and saving his girlfriends dad. The surrounding microelements and whatnot making the atmosphere feel dire which contributes to the tragedy. But it's that were seeing the life that he easily lives turning on its head. His mentality given definition as a this it will work out so long as I do it, a noble origin for his confidence. Though he knows he's special but he doesn't think he's any more valuable. "do both" showing no real bias towards to what directly affects him - he can empathise with his girlfriend and recognise loosing her and her dad would be devastating. He's not egotistical like thinking he's better than others, he's empathetic and values the people he saves as well as the people they value. The words "do both" colours his saving as this as being an overexertion, he's unaware of what he can't do solidifying his perspective of viewing this as easy coming from a place of naivite. Additionally he has to be the one to save people - "I can do both" - and this is why being Spider-Man is easy for him, it has to be. This all makes him more understandable and the fact this is clearly failing him and tragically makes him sympathetic. Moreover, we care about the love for his girlfriend and for his people because it was fun hearing him explain it earlier so its even more sympathetic that he's loosing what he loves. I think this also stops being a careful what you wish for where we could reproach him because of the scenery we understand him to have.

It seems more he does everything because he's so loving, and he just so happens to be blessed and stuff. Which is super enjoyable to watch! and this burst of characterisation happens in like 20 minutes so like wowowowoowwwowoowowowowow

Anyway, this isn't the greatest most insightful analysis but I just had to ramble about my favourite boy!!

[xshingie]

Exploring The Narrative Significance of Edouard's Blue eyes

Something that piqued my interest was the fact that Annette was so insistent when she saw NightCreature!Edouard, she was so convinced it was him and she would not consider any opinion otherwise. Initially, one might think it speaks to the implicit depth of their connection that she would recognize… but perhaps, what if it speaks more to Annette might have perceived how well she /thought/ she knew him? What possibly would have occurred for Annette to retain Edouard's eyes in her memory so vividly?

This below quote from All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren serves as the springboard for my inspiration for what eventually became my Annette/Edouard short story, Yours Truly https://archiveofourown.org/works/51906367 (I also sampled the phrasing as well):

"I suppose that that day I first saw Anne and Adam as separate, individual people, whose ways of acting were special, mysterious, and important. And perhaps, too, that day I first saw myself as a person. But that is not what I am talking about. What happened was this: I got an image in my head that never got out. We see a great many things, but that is different. We get very few of the true images in our heads of the kind I am talking about, the kind which become more and more vivid for us as if the passage of the years did not obscure their reality but, year by year, drew off another veil to expose a meaning which we had only dimly surmised at first. Very probably the last veil will not be removed, for there are not enough years, but the brightness of the image increases and our conviction increase that the brightness is meaning, or the legend of meaning, and without the image our lives would be nothing except an old piece of film rolled on a spool and thrown into a desk drawer among the unanswered letters."

I took inspiration from the concept described above: In Yours Truly, Edouard had tried to tell her something she didn't have a concept of understanding at the time. And yet, it's with narrative irony that when Annette looks into his eyes, despite color being so clear, but she couldn't really get a good "read" into him. The most we know about Edouard is through Annette's lens, and she describes him in a very romanticized, idealized manner -- which hints to me that she views him in a special way, but doesn't understand him -- not really.

This is veering into headcanon territory by this point, but a distinct vibe I picked up from Edouard is that while he is friendly and appears to be warm, kind and collegial, he seems to almost keep people an arm's length distance, revealing almost nothing (vulnerable) about himself in his interactions with others. If you look at these screencaps, his eyes are so bright, but his smile is very subdued and tight-lipped -- even his eyes don't really convey any turbulent emotions. I think Edouard might have been kept a lot to himself, which partially contributes to Annette not really understanding him on a deeper level. Hence the feeling of staring at something, which is calm, serene… but tells you nothing about the person themselves. Although it may sound romantic when I describe the feeling of looking into Edouard's eyes "as reflecting her soul like a still gemstone", what I had actually intended to convey that relationship between Annette and Edouard, while undoubtedly close and Annette grew to understand herself on a deeper because of him, this very quality actually was capped the limitation of Annette/Edouard's connection.

Edouard seems to give off a vibe that he keeps people at a certain arm's length, all the while being able to charm people (""I make them [the nobles] happy, and they lower their guard and loosen their tongues.") while keeping is own guard up, I took a lot of care to weave in in a lot of subtleties that showed both a mismatch in understanding and Edouard keeping an arm's distance. Edouard sidesteps her question and doesn't tell her who exactly who he's writing to. He brings up that everyone has their own reason for fighting, but he doesn't reveal his own. He tries to get Annette to get interested in writing, explaining letters on an abstract romantic level; he shares a personal story about his grandmother, but all Annette's response is that she doesn't understand.

What was Edouard keeping to himself, that he never shared with Annette? Perhaps he was reconciling with the inner conflicts of his mixed heritage. Perhaps he was dealing with his own demons or vices that would have condemned him to Hell to enable him to become a Night Creature in the first place.

This "image" that Annette had of Edouard's eyes in her mind, represents the image that continued to stay with her, as she gradually begins to understand what Edouard was trying to convey to her on a deeper level.

(and why yes, to write this I did spend an inordinate amount of time starting of screencaps of Edouard to try to incisively capture the vibe of what it feels like when Edouard looks at you with those gorgeous AF eyes of his lol)

A huge thank you to ladyeama/@pansexual-chocolate for being an amazing headcanon partner in all of this!

[stoopid-turtle]

On the Acceptance of Unsteady Ground

Throughout this whole dive into turtle world, I've been very conscious of just how LITTLE access to information I have. I'm relying so heavily on English translations and platforms, and most of these are from turtles, so I'm fully aware I'm getting a biased perspective.

I've tried to read stuff from solos or even just neutral third-parties. The neutral parties don't have much depth of information, though, and I found solos heavy on accusations and declarations but light on actual...evidence. And they sometimes use some really nasty rhetoric against the idea that gg and dd might be gay.

Don't get me wrong, turtles get weird too. There's plenty of clearly false rumors, deceptively edited videos, silly stretches of logic, weird ideas of what how people in a relationship would act, etc. But there's at least enough English-speaking turtles that I can find some who are giving open and, as far as I can tell, accurate information (honestly, I find tumblr turtledom better at that then other platforms). I haven't really found a similar pocket of solo fans.

I'm also aware that there's always going to be a limit on how much I can know. I don't speak the language, so I'm always relying on translators. I have limited access to Weibo (even putting aside the language barrier, I'm in text confirmation limbo in actually getting an account), and I have little familiarity with the culture. I don't get a lot of the jokes or references, and stuff may strike me, an English-speaking American, differently than it would someone in China.

Add on top of that the fact that I'm trying to find out purposely obscured information about two celebrities, and, yeah, I'm fully aware that I'm on unsteady ground here. I can do my best, but I'm never going to know anything for certain.

But I've become okay with that.

It took a while. The dissatisfaction with the unknown (and unknowable) is what drove a lot of my early fixation and subsequent fall into the turtle pit. But now, especially after laying out my thoughts, I've reached a zen place with it. I'm 100% certain ggdd were together during filming/promo, and I'm 95% certain they're still together (I had this at 85% originally, but then the whole dd being sick and gg changing his schedule thing happened and I'm just...welp, guess I'm in this confidence interval, then).

Just having that certainty means I can enjoy updates from them without anguishing about "proof" or uncertainty. Oh, gg took the day off on dd's birthday? That's really sweet! I'm not gonna fuss about if it's coincidence ENOUGH to convince me, because I'm already convinced. It's a good place to be.

I typically don't care about celebrities. In fact, I've long been bewildered by celebrity culture here in the US, and I've often been actively annoyed when people assume/expect me to have opinions on things celebrities do. I'm the nerd who doesn't get why the actors get all the attention when the writer or director would be much more interesting.

So the fact that I've gone all fangirlish over two celebrities is bizarre to me, and I appreciate the irony. Well done, me. I attribute some of it to just being able to watch the bts and see their early interactions play out like a story. I find stories compelling, and both gg and dd are charismatic, attractive and have great chemistry. Whatever disdain I have for celebs, I do love a romance.

In my foray into the ggdd world, though, I've also had to learn more about c-ent, and y'all. It's nuts. Like, US entertainment is nuts too, but c-ent ratchets it up to 11. I've been in fandom a long time, and I thought I'd seen some weird stuff, but it's got nothing on c-ent. Just wrapping my head around the culture these guys are in took a lot of learning.

But I appreciate being able to dive into this culture and this country, because I knew very little about China beyond the antagonistic politics. It's been refreshing to get a view on life on the ground in China to humanize the folks there and get a clearer picture of the country.

I started this thing bc I had been spending so much time on Youtube watching clips, and I had thoughts and opinions and nowhere to put them. I already had a tumblr that I use to lurk on some fandoms and I had started following turtles too. I figured tumblr would be a decent place to splurge out my thoughts, so I set up a throwaway account to do so.

I get the vibe that a lot of new turtles come to bjyx through the same route I took? They watch The Untamed on Netflix. They get curious about the show and start watching some clips on YT. Next thing you know, they have 3 playlists full of purported "proof of love" and they need a whiteboard to connect everything together and their wife thinks they've gone completely bonkers supports them in all their oddities.

Like, I was really confused by turtles at first. I was just trying to watch bts videos on YouTube and I didn't know what bjyx meant, but the videos with the label were weird and had strange disclaimers that they were "only for turtles" and I had no clue what that even meant.

My confusion continued as I tried to read more. The fake story disclaimer convention is hella confusing as an outsider, and my first impression was that turtles were kinda crazy. The videos I saw gave overviews of candies without context, and some of them explicitly said they were proof of Yizhan love while still having that fake story disclaimer. Basically, it was a big confusing environment, and it's why I resisted buying into bjyx so hard for so long. It all seemed delulu.

But in reading more, I guess part of that is the point? Recognizing that gg and dd are in a vulnerable position should their relationship ever come out, having so much noise to muddy the waters makes a twisted, clownish sense. I don't know who came up with that convention or if it just kinda happened (is it a normal thing in c-ent? I don't know enough about celebrity fandoms), but hats off, I guess.

With the supertopic recently hitting 4 million active fans, there's something heartening about such a depth of support for the guys. I'm not naive enough to think all 4 million (plus international fans) are allies to LGBT folk in general, but it surely means something to ggdd to have that sort of support for their relationship. Honestly, it means something to me, as a random gay chick on the other side of the world, to see a gay couple get that kinda of support behind them.

I started watching the bts because I was afraid there'd be a lot of cynical homophobia on the set or some evidence of all the male cast being icked out by the whole thing. Instead, I got gg, who was so passionate about WWX being gay. I love that everybody knew they were telling a love story with as explicitly as they could get away with. I love that the guys wanted more Wangxian scenes and that the cast and crew made "everyday is everyday" jokes in a non-mocking way. I'm glad that the whole shoot seemed like such a positive environment for the cast and crew to being themselves and tell a type of story that they may not be able to be involved with ever again.

So, yes, this is my zen turtle place. When I set up a soapbox for myself, I didn't think too much about the fact that people would respond, but I'm so grateful to have had a chance to talk to some other turtles! Everybody is lovely and thank you for sharing my enthusiasm.

Like I said in the beginning, I don't have the time to keep super-active in the long-term. I had intended to write up my thoughts and poof away. But I do also plan to keep up with gg and dd and turtles, so instead I'm just gonna leave off with the potential for further posts down the line.

I'm not gonna be incredibly active, so please don't expect frequent updates or interactions from me. But if I have more Yizhan thoughts I'll pop up again with a post (I mean, I do have lots more thoughts, but nothing energizing enough to write about), or I'll leave a comment somewhere if I have something I simply must say. I'm also open to responding to asks about the timeline or anything else. And if I ever do stumble across anything groundbreaking with regards to the timeline, I'll probably add that in, because I'm particular about things being complete.

So thanks for being so welcoming! It's been a joy to clown around and make up completely fictional stories with everybody here. 🤡🐢🙇🏼

[thoughtfullyrainynightmare]

why do you love/like fuegoleon so much? / gen

Hiya! ^^

Honestly, I think this is a very good question to ask, because, one, it gives me an excuse to talk about him, but also get into a discussion why love him when the heroes of the series are other people. And... I'm not sure how long this will be, but perhaps it's better to buckle down.

Though, in a sentence I would answer: "Because of the vibes"

But. Let's get to the long answer

Admittedly, from the point of view of the grand plot, he seems to be a bit of a Sexy Lamp(tm). Meaning that he has no great contribution to the story as a whole, at least not until this point at least. Some of the criticisms I have seen about him include "[him] not being able to teach Asta about antimagic/devil union/ fighting". Which I think is unfair to use as a source of criticism because, well, Fue doesn't use antimagic. No other character uses antimagic. It's be the same as asking a Water Magic user to teach a Fire Magic user. The affinities are profoundly different, so it'd be incredibly difficult to teach someone with a different affinity from your own properly, or so I imagine. Sure, general guidelines and ideas could be discussed, and some techniques that involve mana, and not the magic type itself, are doable (an example would be Yami (or Sukehiro) learning about using mana zone in another way from Mereoleona). The reason why Yami is the best suited to teaching Asta in the beginning is because Yami teaches about ki which is a different concept, and gives Asta something, a foothold, into a fighting style. And the same applies to Devil Union. Fuegoleon doesn't have a devil. He's not affiliated with Forbidden Magic or the dark arts, so he's not suited for such a mentor. When it comes to not teaching Asta fighting, I think the most important aspects are that Fuegoleon was in a coma for the majority of Asta's early journey, and even during the times he was around, Asta wasn't his (Fue's) underling. We don't see Captains of different squads coming to mentor/teach other squads' knights. So, there is no reason for Fue to have undertaken this feat.

"He had one job and that was to keep the magic stone safe, and he failed". That's another criticism I have come across, and... I don't think people realize the situation there was. Sure, Fue lost his cool for a second, which against a Light Mage, is more than enough for it to be a fatal shot. And, Fue recognized his peer! Someone he trusted to keep the kingdom safe. Someone very high in the hierarchy! Of course he was taken aback by the betrayal. And the thing about betrayal is that it never comes from our enemies. Betrayal comes from our friends. So, him having that moment of shock doesn't make him weak. It makes him human.

Personally I've been drawn to determined, charismatic and intelligent characters throughout my life, and he is that as well. Yes, he is a bit aloof at times (the degrees depend on if you follow the manga, or anime, or take into account both of them), but he is still intelligent, charismatic and driven. He is a proper gentleman, but he is also a warrior, and a knight. He's level headed in a battle, and does know that hesitation and wavering can be fatal in a field of battle (which brings layers onto point 2). Irony is one of those layers.

He genuinely cares about his knights. This can be seen from how his knights defended Fuegoleon's efforts and dedication to Mereoleona, who accused the Lions (and Fue) of slacking off after the Star Festival. It's been established that Mereoleona is a force to be reckoned with, and that the Lions, are at least to a degree, afraid of Mereo. Plus, Mereo was the authority figure there. And the Lions, with Leo taking the lead, talked back and defended Fuegoleon. So, the Lions must really, genuinely, feel that Fuegoleon cares about them through the time and effort he puts in training and honing the Lions' skills, along with his own.

Fuegoleon is all about growth and looking into the future. The ideology of: What matters is what you choose to make out of your life. "Being weak is nothing to be ashamed of. Staying weak is." I find this incredibly inspirational.

He is resilient as hell, and willing to put the good of the kingdom before his own. I cannot properly describe the backbone he has to have, for him to be able to still serve the kingdom that overlooked his dismembering! He is still there! As a knight, and working side-by-side with the man who did dismember him! (Or at least looked through his fingers when his body was doing the deed. Granted that William's story is a whole different post and analysis, but this is about Fuegoleon's point of view.) The person who was pardoned by the system which they both serve! A little slap on the wrist to William, while Fue is there without an arm! Constantly at a disadvantage by having to use mana and concentration to have two functioning arms! Which probably is required for him to use some spells too, so he needs to first cast mana to make his arm move, which then fires a spell. Layering a spell on top of another, essentially.

The fact that Fue is able to uphold mana control and concentration constantly with his arm is really cool, and speaks of his skill level.

Tabs hasn't given him a Spirit Dive, which is Tabs having done Fuegoleon dirty. Must protect. Canon is doing Fue dirty. Fue is my poor little meow meow (kinda) /lh

He is genuinely a good guy. He wants the best for the kingdom, and its people. He's someone who always tries to do the right thing, and works for it. He puts in the effort and the hours, and really, really, tries hard. I just want to kiss his forehead and tell him that it's okay to take a break at times too. Because he must be tired. Physically, emotionally, and mentally. And still he tries, and continues forward. With the stubbornness of a lion.

He's handsome! <3

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk ^^

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

There is a jikooker army account obsessed with pjms that post anons about pjms and make fun of us....jkkrs army are the most useless and pathetic breed, they only care about the company and their ship, they don't stream for jimin, they don't vote, they protect hybe and their fave (Jungkook)

Anyway I agree with you. I think Suga and Jk have a lot in common, they are obsessed with charts and numbers and their hobbies are

- making fun of jimin

- talking about views and charts

- praising each other (the genius rapper and the golden pop star)

- lying

I think I know exactly who you're talking about.

First of all, just to get it out of the way; there's nothing wrong with making fun of others, I'm constantly making fun of peope like her, sheep minded armys, jikookers, and the lot. It's funny when you see the irony in her being as obsessed with solos, as solos are with armys.

If this was a comedy movie, you'd have a shot of her talking about solos, and the next footage would be solos talking about her in the exact same way.

But people like her actually think they're so superior, they believe they're better than everyone else just because they like seven strangers men in the same way?? Please. They don't even love them the same, they just can't say that because then they'd have to allow others to not like them as well.

They're just as brainwashed as solos/akgaes, but in a different way. They're the other extreme. Solos think everything's wrong and sad, people like her, on the other hand, think that everything is great and happy.

People like her are the kind of dimwit, gullible that think BTS members own half of the company because they have 0.2 shares when even J Balvin left with more than what BTS own.

The kind that say the members choose everything and whatever they decide, the company complies no matter what. But when Jimin says "I asked for more MVs and they said no", they don't have anything to say about that. You'll notice they don't discuss things that prove them wrong, ever. They keep discussing things that others were wrong about, or things they don't agree with.

The kind that are very loud on opinions when it comes to akgaes saying "payolakook", even though they're right. But have nothing to say when Jungkook's fan deepfake porn pictures of random girls just because they're fans of Jimin. Those solos don't get a name, don't get laughed at, don't get called out. It gets swept under the rug and the people who do call it out are shushed in the guise of "keeping the calm".

These same "ot7" who claim to love everyone equally, are also very, very capable of talking about who they think it's a better singer, dancer, performer, and they LITERALLY talk about who's more popular all the time. Oh, yeah. They discuss and rank the members' popularity all the time. They are able to discern the differences between one and the other perfectly well, and talk a lot about their differences to uplift one and downplay the others so it'd make sense with their "the members choose everything and the copmany is so great" bedstory. Especially since July.

People like her are basically 24/7 saying how one deserves it all because he's a good singer, or the center, or whatever. Ironically, solos are being more ot7 when they say that all members deserved the same support from the company. Meanwhile """true ot7s"""" like her, are saying it's okay only one got it. Which one is asking for a fair treatment here, you tell me? The ot7 or the solos?

[period-dramallama]

Review: The Concubine by Christopher Bae Rae

TLDR: The first 3 chapters are great, the last third is great, the middle bit is kinda meh. I want to proofread and tweak this book, but overall I could recommend it to someone really into Anne Boleyn.

Overall this is a good depiction of how events evolve, with the delineation of responsibility between King and Cromwell fuzzy. A lot of factors combine to make this storm of disaster.

For @fideidefenswhore xxx many thanks for buying this and The King's Mind for me, I hope the review entertains.

We begin with Anne waiting impatiently for news of the death of 'Aragon' (Chris, please just call her the Princess Dowager. Aragon is not a surname!)

She has chosen Edward for her unborn son's name. A fitting choice, and chock full of dramatic irony, especially as Anne isn't wrong that a king called Edward will 'cleanse England of popery'. Anne's ambition for her son is sad because we know what will happen, but there is an unpleasant streak to Anne who imagines how "sweet" Princess Mary's death would be.

"All is well and all manner of things will be well." It's nice to see Rae has at least a passing knowledge of the Bible- better than most Tudor novelists.

"Her heart was black!"

Anne:

I'm narrowing my eyes at the characterisation of Janes Seymour and Rochford but it's not TOO bad. Could be worse.

Henry examining the heart was a great touch. The tension, the duality of his response: amazement at the human body but also a Christian revulsion/fear/disappointment at its animalness. The tension felt very Tudor, Christian, and (renaissance) humanist all at once.

Also his suspicion at Katherine's death feeds nicely into his paranoia. Will whoever did it stop at Katherine? It's a good moment for his character arc. Anne's laughing at the heart is also in character in a dark-sense-of-humour kind of way.

"Henry does not care to admit it, even to himself, but he sometimes feels a sensation of being overwhelmed by her energy and confidence, an uncomfortable intimation that she does not always quite remember her place. A feeling that she may in some ways be quicker and cleverer than he is."

It would be nice to have some more dialogue. Anne and Henry spend a happy evening together and the narration tells us about it but it would be nice to hear them banter and bounce off each other, especially given what's going to happen.

Henry doesn't seem that enthusiastic about Katherine in his dream but it IS a dream so I wouldn't be surprised if he's got a case of self-serving memory and his brain has retconned any memories of happiness with Katherine.

"The continuance of your house must be seen to be assured, for without that the continuance of their own is in peril." A good point.

Rae handled the yellow-wearing incident well: Anne doesn't want to, but she didn't persuade Henry in time.

"She waves her hand, as if this might be sufficient to consign Mary to some kind of perpetual limbo."

I am very pleased to see an acknowledgement that Anabaptists exist and are persecuted by Protestants, as they're ignored in 99.9% of Tudor novels especially Protestant-leaning novels: "These are madmen, their views are too extreme for any God-fearing Lutheran and they must be suppressed. But such people are a sign of these times." BUT Protestantism is not about going forward, but BACK- back to an ideal golden age late antiquity Christianity of simple purity. Protestantism in this novel comes across like innovation which is certainly not how Protestants like Anne would have seen it. (yes I know the word Protestant itself is anachronistic because it's a 1550s word but bear with me).

Elizabeth Boleyn is well written: blunt, shrewd, loving but not emotive, but also not judged for having a stiff upper lip. "her mother comes and bustles, exuding a strained air of optimism." I like this portrayal of Elizabeth as being strong for other people, it's a nice bit of characterisation for a minor character. There's a good back and forth between Norfolk, Anne and the Boleyn parents.

Fat Wolsey stereotype...did Anne really hate him? Some historians have questioned that. It would have been interesting to see a fresher interpretation of their interactions.

We're leaning hard into the "Thomas More is a sadist torturing people in his house and he loves burning people" myth BUT I will give it half a pass because it's Anne's perspective and it makes sense she'd unquestioningly absorb Protestant gossip. It also leans hard into Fisher and More being personal enemies of Anne, saying they refused the oath to the succession when it was the supremacy More refused to swear to. More was willing to swear to the succession, and it was Anne's own ally Cranmer who suggested a compromise: More swearing to the succession alone.

Opening a chapter with Henry coming to from the jousting accident was very effective because we are like Henry, we don't have the immediate knowledge of what just happened (in theory anyway lol we know the history.)

'Something very bad must have happened to him.' You don't say.

I think Rae's portrayal of Norfolk is a little OTT. Don't get me wrong, I hate Norfolk, I don't give him a nuanced sympathetic portrayal in my own writing- he's ruthless, condescending, materialistic, greedy, and obsessed with hierarchy to the point of comedy- but I think it's OTT to make him literally stinky. Norfolk was a git but he was an aristocratic git, so there's no reason for him not to cover himself in rosewater or musk or civet or rose oil and chew cloves and mint for fresh breath.

"It's not for the first time that she imagines that the duke's death would not cause her any great or lasting sorrow." Spitting facts.

"These men, with their constant needing, wanting, thrusting- can they not ever leave off?" I can see the real Anne thinking this.

Cromwell is called the chancellor, but that was Audley- as Rae says later in the book. What gives? Is this a different chancellorship? Rae really really really wants to keep reminding us that Cromwell is an efficient fixer who knows 'where everything is and who it belongs to.' He is described as having a 'prodigious capacity for work' and I'm pretty sure I've seen that exact phrase in a history book.

Anne's panic and shock written very well: "She stares at the cloth and the stain, as if it is a trick of the light and gazing at it intently enough might cause it to disappear."

Christopher loves adding in definite articles. "The relief floods through her" "the tears staining her pretty cheeks" "a part of" rather than "part of". "Skill at the jousting" "threatened with the torture".

But he also misses out words and letters. I had to silence my inner editor reading this, I was itching to get my red pen, particularly in the middle third of the book. 'You' where it should be 'your', 'away' when it should be 'way' 'when sings' instead of 'when he sings' 'is wife' instead of 'his wife'. 'He is mind is elsewhere'. Sometimes Rae will say the same thing twice but in different words. I'm itching to tidy up some of these sentences.

"Soon enough they are ensconced together in the study very privately and Cromwell can speak his mind having first taken the precaution of having his guest sign a solemn of secrecy."

"Cromwell asks his guest if he would care to view the current progress of the works he is undertaking on the new accommodation and the splendid garden."

"the style favoured by old Granny Beaufort." I'm wincing.

Hire me as a proofreader, Chris!! Let me tidy your sentences!! My rates are super duper reasonable!! ;) xx

"She must be bright and gay" I was surprised to see such an antiquated use of 'gay' in a book published AFTER 2010.

"she must amuse and entertain him as only she can do, she must have faith in their future and give him confidence in it."

The image of their relationship as a sinking ship works particularly well given that ship-jewel she gave him with the self-insert maiden onboard.

If an old woman is talking shit about you why do you eat her gift of pastries?! She's probably spat in them AT LEAST.

Sir 'Nick''s suggestions to Henry are so heavy-handed that the manipulation is almost darkly comedic.

I am narrowing my eyes at Chapuys contemplating 'the austere beauty' of the chapel at Austin Friars. It's just a little early for Protestant whitewash aesthetics to come in. I'll give it a pass.

"The king's amours are not my affair, my dear Eustace."

"I can see that you are unhappy about these arrangements, and of course I sympathise. I do not much like them myself...Seymour having the king's ear, or to dwell on what nonsense he may be pouring into it. But I do not think we should be unduly alarmed about any of this." Cromwell is very clever here, using 'we' and joining their interests together to convincingly sound like he's Anne's ally.

"The ambassador is more than capable of building towering insubstantial castles of speculation in the air; he is also a master of the direct question." Good! But Chapuys would talk of Christendom, not a brotherhood of Catholic nations.

I do think Chris should have read Macculloch on Cromwell, because this Cromwell is too secular. "Survival is in the end his only goal." As Macculloch showed, Cromwell took risks for the sake of the reformation and he also made political errors because he wanted to found a political dynasty through his son Gregory. So Cromwell has multiple motives: yes he wants money, power, prestige, etc., but he is devout too. "not a wit, a raconteur, a teller of tales." It's unfair on Cromwell to portray him as someone who can't amuse highborn ladies: the real Cromwell was an outgoing, hail fellow well met kind of guy.

The Tudor court does feel rather depopulated, Anne is alone with Nan a lot. Where are her other ladies? they tend to vanish.

The king eating partridge with a cherry sauce, a nice detail as IIRC cherries were a favourite of Henry's. "His smile congeals upon his face into a cold mask of reserve."

The memory of being 6 years old and sheltering in the Tower was a good character moment for Henry, especially him recreating the rebellion with his toys. There's a cold pride to Elizabeth of York as well as the typical motherly tenderness, which I like. She was born a Princess after all.

"Do you follow?" He follows. Cromwell has no trouble following." Double meanings! We love double meanings!

Nan Gainsford trying to help Anne by mentioning Mark Smeaton's crush...oh, Nan. A great moment of tragedy. "Cromwell looks at her, quietly recording every word for a remembrance." Later on "Anne nods, as always Nan's good counsel can be relied upon."

I do think this story is missing some key parts, like the scene where Chapuys around Easter 1536 was forced to publicly acknowledge Anne as queen, suggesting the plot to destroy her was rather last minute. Henry orchestrated that little diplomatic trap, and it doesn't really fit Rae's framing of events. Also the countess of Worcester should have been involved in Anne's downfall, but instead it's Jane Rochford.

The meeting with Lady Rochford is enjoyable as fiction but it seems unclear whether she is on Anne's side or not. The real Jane wouldn't want Anne to fall- her fortunes are tied to Anne as history showed: when the Boleyns fell Jane would never be as rich again.

"[Anne] has thought of Cromwell for so long as an ally." Has she??? At the beginning of the book she didn't trust him in the slightest so why is she so taken aback?

"In these times of division and dissent it is so easy to assume that those who share our opinions on matters of faith and religion are somehow bound to be our friends." But she didn't assume!

I like the description of Cromwell being like a bat, it makes a change from comparing him to a pig, which is lazy and boring and unoriginal and uncreative and unfunny.

"Once a single brick is loose, the wall will be brought down quite easily." "this notion, and the twisting, spiralling curlicues of imagined consequence which may issue from it." "the tower of fantasy spirals upwards, out of control."

Henry goes from 'Smeaton won't confess to something that isn't true' to 'I think I've been deceived' back to awareness alarmingly quickly.

"he has endured this kind of assault before, but it was a long time ago, in a blacksmith's yard in Putney, with another man who had absolute power over him". Someone's read Wolf Hall.

Jane Rochford is more malicious here than the evidence suggests.

"She studies Jane's insolent look, and begins to think she might do well to ask George to keep his wife at home in future. If she is allowed to remain at court she will cause trouble somehow. But what ails her? What does she hope to gain from it?"

"he is still a little puzzled by her motivation, because the naïve and trusting might think that her interest lay with the Boleyns since she is married to George, whereas in fact she seems to be determined to do everything in her power to destroy him."

CHRIS. YOU ARE SO CLOSE TO GETTING IT. It's frustrating because Rae is good enough as a fiction writer to spot the obvious holes, but not knowledgeable enough in this history to fix them. Like yes, Anne and George could have sent Jane away if they didn't like her! That suggests they probably DID LIKE HER!

He tries to fix it by having Jane want Anne "disgraced, brought down a peg two, and abandoned by the King...she has done whatever she could think of to help to bring such a conclusion about" that Jane is "nothing more than Anne's lady in waiting." But it doesn't make sense! If Anne were abandoned by the king, this proud and covetous Jane would see her own position decline. She isn't just Anne's lady in waiting- she's her sister in law! She has a fancy bed with Rochford knots and a fancy counterpane! Under Anne's replacement she would just be...another lady in waiting! Also we have Jane's signature and Jane "scratching out her mark" implies she can't write, which is inaccurate.

Smeaton saying "I have risen by my own talents and found favour" is a nice subtle parallel to Cromwell's own rise, which makes Smeaton's fall all the more tragic, as a foil to Cromwell.

Cromwell using the classic 'sign here without seeing the full document because it's hidden by the document above' from I, Claudius.

At Chateau Vert Jane was Constancy IIRC.

"a galliard she knows very well, so beautiful, sad and stately." I think Rae is thinking of a pavane here, a galliard is an upbeat dance.

"although she must suffer patiently the king's delight in revels and pageants, Katherine of Aragon does not care much for this kind of lewd and brazen display, and thinks privately that dancing is a business best left to whores and drunkards." I think this is an unfair portrayal of Katherine. She was pious, but she wasn't a killjoy.

The juxtaposition between Anne falling down into despair next to Henry's mood 'rising' is very effective, like he's draining her like a vampire. Henry believing his own lies and turning his thoughts to "pleasure and pastime with good company". I saw what you did there, Chris.

There are some excellent moments of extreme black comedy in this. "They must believe that there was a conspiracy against myself, not one that has been crudely fashioned against the Queen.' Cromwell winces. Crudely fashioned?"

"It is simple enough, she is to be burned alive, according to the law. This provokes a murmuring from the Lords, and Norfolk looks puzzled until he remembers to add that the king in his great mercy is expected to commute this to beheading."

[animemocha]

Why Mikasa Ackerman is a Great Character

Mikasa Ackerman is a character that gets a lot of hate. But is any of it actually deserved?

Well… no. 

No, it’s not.

And I’m going to explain why all of these videos are wrong. And don’t worry, there are no spoilers in this essay.

(Note: There is a very mild spoiler for the final chapters in the last image. So if you don't want to be spoiled... uhm... don't look at it?)

Dissecting the Dissent

Mikasa is a crucial yet misunderstood cog in the Attack on Titan universe. People complain that she’s overdependent, blindly infatuated, perpetually donning a tattered scarf, and one-dimensional. But is any of this actually true? 

Again… no.

First things first. Why do people think Mikasa is a bad character? 

Number one, her over-reliance on Eren: everything she does is in service to Eren, in other words, she’s a simp.

Number two, a lack of character development: she doesn’t change through the series. Her views and values stay the same, making her static, rather than dynamic.

Number three, she’s a plot device: her strength is used to move Eren’s story along, rather than her own.

Number four, she lacks complexity: her ideologies don’t evolve and are centred around… you guessed it, Eren, and she doesn’t have the depth that Eren, Reiner, or Levi do.

Echoes from the Past

Let’s rewind back to Episode 6 – "The World the Girl Saw". 

Here, we first catch a glimpse of Mikasa's past. She's an only child, raised in a loving household until the cruelty of their world brutally tears it away. 

Tragic irony tinges every anime tale – happiness is fleeting. In Mikasa's case, it was cruelly snatched away, leaving her at the mercy of black-market bandits. But, fate intervened in the form of young Eren Yeager, igniting Mikasa’s fighting spirit and triggering the emergence of her formidable Ackerman abilities. 

A Bond Born from Trauma

Now, let's dive into the heart of her relationship with Eren. We see her protectiveness, her blind loyalty, and her undying love. But how far will she go for him? Let's hold that thought for now. 

Mikasa’s affection for Eren is no secret.

Yes, Mikasa is attached to Eren, but this attachment stems from a deeply traumatic childhood event where Eren saved her life and gave her a reason to live.

This relationship is integral to Mikasa's character, but it's not her entire character. Her sense of justice, her ability to make hard choices, and her care for others outside of Eren (like Armin and Historia) showcase a character that has more facets than just her relationship with Eren.

She is not a "simp"; she is a survivor who found a purpose and fought for it.

Love and Morality

Fast forward to Season Four, where Eren reveals a different, darker side, and Mikasa faces her greatest challenge yet. Eren, the person she devoted her life to protecting, declares his hatred for her.

Is it truth or deception? Well, it doesn't really matter. Because, the blow is dealt, and Mikasa’s world is shattered.

As Eren marches towards devastation, Mikasa grapples with her inner turmoil. Her love for Eren is pitted against her moral compass, forcing her to make a heartrending decision. Should she protect Eren, the architect of a forthcoming massacre, or defy him in the name of humanity?

A Symbol of Resilience

While it may appear that Mikasa does not undergo a significant transformation, she does change throughout the series. Her struggle with her feelings for Eren, particularly in the final arc, and her decision to stand against him illustrates her growth.

Her constant struggle to protect those she loves while grappling with the brutal reality of their world is a significant and subtle form of character development.

In this defining moment, Mikasa steps forward, propelled by her principles rather than her love for Eren. She becomes a symbol of humanity's strength and resilience.

People hate Mikasa's character because she has no depth in her ideological or philosophical beliefs. But that was never the point. Her depth is in her emotional journey. Her struggle between loyalty, love, and duty, her grappling with the harshness of their world, and her longing for a semblance of peace make her a complex and layered character.

She may not have grand speeches or explicit ideological conflicts like Eren or Levi, but her internal struggles and choices add depth to her character.

In a show that heavily focuses on ideological conflicts and grand narratives, Mikasa's simplicity and her struggle with personal, intimate issues offer a refreshing perspective and adds to the overall complexity of Attack on Titan.

So, what have we learned from Mikasa's journey?

The woman many dismissed as one-dimensional is, in reality, a character of depth, complexity, and heart.

If Armin personifies courage and is the embodiment of the human spirit, then Mikasa personifies loyalty, love, and most importantly, the strength to stand against the person she loves most for the sake of humanity.

And that’s why Mikasa Ackerman, is in fact, an amazing character.

psst... if you liked this essay, check out the full video essay on my youtube channel!

- love ya

[dippedinmelancholy]

So I've had some time to sit on reading CC3, and I want to talk about something that feels like a weird opinion but will not leave me alone. I swear it's like brain rot. Obviously, spoilers ahead. I really enjoyed Crecent City 1. I thought it was enjoyable, did a great job of showing rather than telling, and earnestly had themes of friendship, mourning, and loss at the forefront of the story rather than just smut or romance. But by the time CC3 rolls around, we jump rapidly to massive fights. Let me explain.

CC already has a huge burden of world building. Even though we get through a bulk of it in CC1, it focuses wholly on a SINGLE CITY and the focus is more on solving a mystery. By the way the series is set up, you think the focus is going to be on more lower level authority figures, the corruption amongst the various Houses, and work up to a bigger plot. This ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT HAPPEN. We jump 100% to fighting the 7 (I think????) ultimately leaders of this entire world with their obscene amount of power. Rather than focusing on the innate corruption of the various Houses, how they've been weakned and changed, and working to both rebuild them and creating strong allies to stand against the Asteri we get Bryce just thinking she can smartass her way through literally every single encounter. She grows none as a character. She mindlessly hates the fae unless they are useful to her. She doesn't care to show respect to other factions who have been working against the Asteri this entire time. She shows absolutely no care for how her actions effect others. All the while, we have no build up to facing down the Asteri. Worse, the characters who are supposed to be double agents, morally grey, because in a war no one remains innocent, we are just told why we should hate them. Every bad character is basically "This is X. We hate them. They have their reputation." The story tells us rather than shows us, constantly. Danika is a magical creature who of course knew everything and left surprise clues everywhere for Bryce. There is no build up or emotional connection for literally anyone. Comparing this to Throne of Glass . . . as much as Throne of Glass is at best heavily inspired by Game of Thrones, and at worst a rip off of it, it's world building is enjoyable. The tensions rise. You are given time to get to know characters, to understand them, and are shown their actions rather than just told things. The irony of this is that Throne of Glass was written first, and you can clearly see the story and writing skill improve. I love powerful female characters. I hate characters who are just a cartoonish "girl boss" moment who refuses to respect any person or embodiment of authority, to take responsibility for their actions, or to grow as a character at all simple because they're just too snarky and badass for it. This is all Bryce is in CC3. I wish more effort had gone into her development. I wish you could see a difference in how she views the world. I wish literally anything had happened to teach Bryce she can't do whatever the fuck she wants and it never has consequences.

[softguarnere]

For Whatever We Lose

Lewis Nixon x OFC (slow burn, enemies to lovers)

Chapter Six: Lightning Strikes

Summary: As the men and women of Easy Company finish their scavenger hunt, certain things just seem to fall into place A/N: This chapter contains the worst limerick I've ever written in my life Warnings: language Taglist: @kujofam @dcyllom

Hoobler and Webster’s dynamic seems to be that the former gives him a hard time and the latter takes it in stride. They both seem to enjoy it, though, and Minerva is enjoying watching it.

Webster has a manner of expressing himself that makes him sound as if he has just stepped off the page of one of the great classics. He’s well spoken and articulate, yet there’s an awkwardness to him that makes him endearing. It probably stems from the fact that he says what he wants in the way he wants it, and then those around him have to puzzle out his meaning. Hence all the jokes at his expense. But he seems used to them, and even throws some back; he can dish it out and take it.

Minerva doesn’t mind, much to her own surprise. Webster is the type who come from money, the type who invade her beloved Outer Banks in the warmer months and build their fancy houses in the best places without care for the fact that they’re obstructing the views. The type who never notice her family, providing the fish they dine on and cleaning those big houses, manning the Life-Saving Stations and the lighthouses that keep them safe while they sail the sound on their expensive boats. Yet in his language, in his obvious love for literature and the way his eyes roam over the world around them, drinking it all in so deeply, she finds some common ground.

Of course, shortly after she joins the group, one of the men makes the obvious comment about her accent.

Very forward, Hoobler asks, “Are you Irish, or something?”

She draws a breath through her nose, reminds herself that it’s not their fault, that they don’t know any better. “I’m from North Carolina. Frisco. It’s on the Outer Banks.”

“The Outer Banks?” Webster’s eyes light up. “The Graveyard of the Atlantic. Blackbeard lived somewhere around there.”

At the mention of the pirate, something cracks in Minerva’s heart, like it’s a baseball that has just been pelted with the bat. Homerun, Webster – and he doesn’t even know it.

“Yeah. He stayed in Ocracoke.” It takes more effort than it should to add, “I grew up with a boy who was descended from him.”

“Really?”

“Jack Teach.” It’s the first time she’s said his name out loud in a long time. She’s so used to him being around that she halfway expects saying his name to summon him, somehow, like he might just appear, his grin as bright and as happy as ever. But he’s a world away. “He joined the Navy, just for the irony of it all.”

Webster chuckles. “Hell, I would, too.” Thankfully, his interest seems to be elsewhere. “Do you sail at all, Sergeant Revels?”

“Awe, man. Here we go again with the sailing. Maybe you should have joined the Navy, Webster,” Hoobler sighs.

But Minerva perks up. “With my grandpa and my dad – he’s a fisherman. I would be, if I could.”

“What’s stopping you?” Webster asks, tilting his head.

So many things. Societal convention. Her mother. Her “proper” job. Helping look after John-Michael.

“I’m too busy teaching at the school.”

“Oh, a teacher!” Hoobler whistles. “Now we’ve got two professors.”

“Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.” Minerva raises an eyebrow in mock seriousness. “We could probably improve your grammar by the end of the war, Hoob.”

The rest of the group erupts into laughs, and Minerva can’t help but smile at what she’s done. Now she’s in.

By the early afternoon, Bianca just knows that the hair around her face must be in wild, lions-mane curls and that her ponytail must be frizzed beyond belief. If she were back home, her brothers would have given her grief over it by now. Then again, they don’t have this kind of humidity in New York City, so they wouldn’t actually have anything to say.

Still, she’s grateful that the men in her group don’t mention it. Having her appearance criticized always makes her feel like someone has reached into her chest, grabbed her heart, and squeezed it too tight. Although that has never stopped anyone in her family from doing it.

Storm clouds are moving in. There is no thunder – yet – but the air quivers with the very anticipation of the approaching storm that promises to unleash itself. She wishes it would. Maybe the rain would cool everything off.

“You know what?” Talbert muses. “Winters never gave us any clues about what we’re looking for.”

There’s a beat of silence while they all consider this. Then Tipper quirks an eyebrow.

“So what?”

Talbert shrugs. “None of us actually know what we’re looking for. How will we even know if we find it?”

Liebgott tilts his head, scrunches up his brow while he thinks. “He said we might find it right away, or it might take all day. The hell does that mean?”

“Is it a riddle?” Bianca suggests – quietly, just in case no one else agrees, that way they may not even hear her.

Unfortunately, they all seem to hear her. Which is maybe the first time in her life that someone has taken note of anything that she’s said.

Tipper scratches his head. “I mean, it is vague enough.”

“Aren’t riddles supposed to rhyme, though?” Liebgott asks.

Talbert frowns. “I think that’s a limerick.”

Riddles don’t have to rhyme, Bianca wants to tell them. But limericks have a specific rhyme scheme, and they’re usually just funny. Sometimes –

“What’s up, Bianca?” Liebgott asks, completely derailing her train of thought and transporting her back into the present. He watches her intently, curiously. “You look like you have something on your mind.”

She can’t tell them about the rhyme schemes – they’ll think it’s silly. Heat creeps into her cheeks at the very thought of it. “Oh, it’s nothing.”

“Are you sure?” Tipper asks. “It looked like you wanted to say something.”

“It was just something silly,” she explains, waving them off.

“I like silly,” Talbert says. “Who doesn’t like a good laugh?”

The three watch her so expectantly that to say nothing somehow feels like she would be letting them down. And besides, she has to remind herself that it was Liebgott who stuck up for her when Sobel screamed at her in front of everyone for being the last one to get her rifle assembled. Surely he, of all people, wouldn’t laugh at her.

“I was just thinking,” she begins quietly. “about how riddles don’t have to rhyme. Limericks have a specific rhyme scheme, but they’re usually just funny little poems used for entertainment.”

“Huh,” Talbert marvels. “I didn’t know that.”

“So what Winters said was a riddle, then. Not a limerick.” Tipper thumps Talbert on the back of the head. “You dumbass.”

“Hey! I didn’t know!”

“So what would a limerick be?” Liebgott asks over the din of his friends trying to hit each other.

Bianca considers this for a moment, trying to remember what limited information Lieutenant Winters gave them and shaping it to fit into the limerick’s mold. Finally, she comes up with something. “To go to war with peace of mind, something waits in camp for you to find. Find it right away, or maybe take all day, we could find it if we were not so blind.”

“Hey!” Liebgott grins. “That’s really good!”

“How did you come up with that so fast?” Tipper asks. “Are you secretly a poet or something?”

“Or something.” Bianca smiles.

“Do another!” Talbert urges.

The rest of the afternoon slips by as they wander the camp, the men suggesting prompts and Bianca spouting off poetry on the fly. By the end of the day, they’re in heaps of giggles and have forgotten that they’re even supposed to be looking for something.

But as Winters watches them pass by, he smiles to himself, knowing that at least one group has found it.

The Georgia weather is not as easy to read as it is back home. Though the blue foothills roll like waves across the landscape, they reveal nothing the way that the ocean does. If they do, Minerva hasn’t figured out how to read them yet.

They do conceal things, though. The combination of the hills and the thick trees hide the oncoming storm from her, whereas at home she would have known it was coming from miles away. It’s not until her group has returned to the middle of the camp – having found nothing but having had, admittedly, a great time – that she senses the storm, and then it’s only because a cold, fat raindrop hits her square on the forehead.

“Here comes the storm,” Lieutenant Nixon notes as the quiet shuddering of raindrops on the leaves above them begins.

“Most of the groups are back,” Winters says, his eyes darting around to check everyone off a mental checklist. “There are a few stragglers, though.”

“Do you want me to go round them up?” Minerva suggests. It wouldn’t be her first rodeo. She’s often had to chase students back inside after their early afternoon breaks. This probably won’t be much different.

Winters starts to say something, only to cut himself off. He nods. “If you wouldn’t mind. Thank you, Sergeant Revels.” Then, almost as an afterthought. “Lieutenant Nixon, why don’t you help?”

Although she doesn’t really know Nixon, Minerva has never seen the expression that crosses his face – eyes widening ever so slightly in shock, before casting a look that’s almost a glare in his fellow lieutenant’s direction, then settling into a blank mask.

“Sure thing, Dick,” he quips, putting a little too much emphasis on his friend’s name.

Minerva should be thanking Lieutenant Winters. She hasn’t been paying as much attention to the men of Easy Company in the way that the other women have – her heart aches when she even considers it – but she would be a liar if she didn’t admit that the way Nixon looked at her the night they met doesn’t flash through her mind every now and then. He had clearly been flirting, despite everything at risk. And now she’s practically alone with him. Well, it’s like her mom always says: the Lord works in mysterious ways.

Nixon doesn’t look at her once while they trace the outskirts of the camp, looking for anyone from their company. Most of the other regiments and companies are inside already, waiting for the storm to start in earnest. Minerva studies any figures she sees that are still out and about. The only familiar faces are those of Anna and the group she joined, and they send them on their way to meet up with the others.

“I think that was it.” The words are no sooner out of Minerva’s mouth than a crash of thunder booms overhead, shaking the very air around them. Rain immediately begins to fall, no longer the few scattered drops from before, but a full-blown deluge that sends the two of them scrambling, trying to get out of the open in case lightning strikes.

They end up under the overhang of a building, pressed up against the whitewashed wall as they catch their breaths. For a moment, they do nothing but breathe and watch the rain falling around them, pelting off the side of the roof like a waterfall that traps them there.

Nixon huffs a laugh. “Oh, this is too perfect.”

Indeed, Minerva can’t help but find herself agreeing. Her mother’s voice is there in her head again. The Lord works in mysterious ways, Minerva-Jane. It’s almost like this was meant to be.

The lieutenant must feel the same way, because he stops watching the rain and starts watching her. He’s got an expression on his face that Minerva can’t read. Brown eyes wide and almost vulnerable, staring straight at her lips. His own lips are parted slightly as he tries to catch his breath. He looks like a man on the verge of something, deciding if he should take the plunge into waters unknown.

He’s going to kiss me, Minerva thinks. Then, heart fluttering, He’s going to kiss me!

Which is exactly what seems like is about to happen. Nixon’s soft hand reaches up and caresses her neck. He leans forward, slowly, like he’s giving her time to back out. She does the same, closing her eyes and readying herself for their lips to make contact –

Contact that never comes.

Minerva opens her eyes when she feels Nixon remove his hand from her neck. He shakes his head, not meeting her eye again.

“Sorry,” he says. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

She almost tells him that it’s okay, but she doesn’t actually feel that way. She wanted him to kiss her. And he seemed like he wanted to. So why didn’t he?

“Sorry,” he says again, holding his hands up as if in surrender. Then he steels himself and takes off into the rain, heading back to the middle of camp and leaving Minerva behind. He doesn’t even have the decency to look back at her.

“What the fuck?” Minerva mutters under her breath. She waits for him to get out of sight before she braves the rain herself, rejoining the rest of the company – and not bothering to spare a glance at the man who left her stranded without an explanation.

It’s late, but Nixon can’t seem to shake the chill of the rain outside. When no one is looking, he adds a splash of liquor from his flask to his coffee cup to help warm him up. He sips it quickly as Dick approaches the table with his water.

“I think that went rather well today,” the ginger notes with satisfaction as he takes his seat.

Nixon hums noncommittally into his coffee cup in reply. He’s sure it probably went well enough. Good for them. But he has a feeling that he knows what Dick’s comment is leading up to. Maybe he can beat him to the punch.

“Most of the men seemed to actually get along with the women pretty well,” Nixon notes. “Not as much flirting as I thought there would be.”

“Really?” Dick asks, raising his eyebrow in question.

“Yep,” Nixon admits miserably, popping the p on the end of the word. “Some of us didn’t experience any at all.”

Dick exhales, a short sigh through his nose. “I’m sorry, Nix – “

He waves his friend off. “Don’t worry about it. It’s for the best.”

And maybe it is. He had wanted to kiss Sergeant Revels – had planned on doing it – but too many things flashed through his mind all at once, lightning fast, and held him back at the last second.

Because Dick is right: what if it was Blanche? Or Anne? Which made him think of all the mail that he’s censored, all the gushing letters that he’s seen from Revels’ family . . . Which led to his own family. His father, his affairs. There was surely a time in his life when Nixon had vowed to himself that he would be a different man – a better man – than his father. He, Lewis, has a wife waiting for him. If he drags this up-and-coming sergeant into this, what will that do to her? Ruin her life. Ruin her reputation. What if it was Blanche? He couldn’t do it.

He's been so distracted with his own inner turmoil that he hasn’t really been paying attention to the other results of Dick’s scavenger hunt.

“Say, did any of the groups find what they were supposed to?”

Dick smiles. Beams is probably a better adjective; he looks so proud. “All the groups who participated found exactly what I wanted them to.”

Maybe he had been too preoccupied with his love life. He has no specific memory of anyone turning anything in to Dick, or bragging about having found . . . whatever it was they were supposed to find.

“Oh yeah? And what might that have been?”

Dick chuckles to himself in the way that someone laughing at a joke their own inner monologue has just made would. He rearranges his expression, all serious when he splays his hands like a magician performing a card trick and says, “Friendship.”

It takes a minute for it to sink in. God, how corny!

“You sneaky bastard,” Nixon scoffs. “You didn’t hide anything.”

“Nope,” Dick admits. “But everyone found what they needed to.”

Nixon has always liked Dick, but perhaps he should start giving him more credit for his cleverness.

[tiodolma]

You have finished Kaamelot, right? 😗 So, what do you like more: BBC, Starz or Kaamelot?

Thank you for this ask, @the-king-and-the-druidess

I'm gonna put it this way. BBC Merlin (the show) fascinated and pissed me off so much that it opened me to all other Arthuriana and other modern adaptations because of my desire to understand just why everything went to sht in the series (⌒_⌒;)

Meanwhile I like how solid Camelot (Starz) and Kaamelott were in terms of honest characterization.

Kaamelott may be, at most, a gag/comedy show but the love/passion/genius of Alexander Astier (producer/showrunner and Kaamelott!Arteur) is so real it just shines, you know? The care that has been put in the comedy series.... it shows.. it really shows. Kaamelott is a product of sincerity and love. It is honest. It doesn't shy away from unsavory topics. Not one character claims to be the ultimate good. Not one character is the ultimate evil. All of them are idiots and all of them are smart. It's so human. It is disjointed, there's no real plot, it is funny, heartwarming... but when it hits you, it hits you. IT'S GREAT. That's what I can say. ٩(◕‿◕)۶

Camelot (Starz) is a masterpiece in itself. I like it so I really don't have a lot of complaints about it other than certain choices (esp surrounding igraine and leontes/lancelot). The storytelling was more solid. The characters and worldbuilding were more grounded and mature and closer to the legends. The dynamics were pretty much what you'd expect arthur-centric arthuriana should be on screen.

..........................

What i feel for BBC MERLIN isn't hate... it is more like.. disgusted awe. I do admit that they went to lengths (and audacity) that probably no other modern arthuriana has ventured before. The show left behind more What The Fuck questions, idealogies and propaganda rather than answers though. (And that is insidious especially when the show's cover was that it was "just a family-friendly show" and "geared towards children", YIKES).

BBC Merlin is not my first rodeo on a series where everyone-and-their-mother just wants to "fix it." In fact I am used to stuff that needs a lot of "fixit". However BBC Merlin just has this unprecedented level of fixit potential that I have never seen before. I don't know if that is awful or not. I don't know if it's shoddy writing or not. I am still on dying on the hill that the writers tried their best but the producers and bbc just had other ideas. idk.

Perhaps i am at fault though. I am more drawn to things where everyone is morally grey. In true early arthuriana fashion, BBC MERLIN IS NOT MORALLY GREY. There is an intense Black and White messaging that is so prevalent in the seres. It's so... Christian even when it never mentioned Christianity. There was a clear line drawn between who was the absolute good and absolute evil. Regardless of their actions, the characters were never classified as "doing bad when they are on the side of good" or "doing good when they are on the side of bad" because their roles have already been predetermined. They were just all just either "good" or "evil" and nothing else within the context of the show.

That's the irony of it all. BBC MERLIN being so unapologetic, absolutist and propaganda-like actually made it a lot more "Early Arthurian" in spirit compared to the "i know what i did was wrong but i gotta do it anyway" kind of morally gray storytelling that the other modern adaptations such as Starz Camelot and Kaamelott have.

And that's what sets BBC MERLIN apart from Kaamelott and Starz Camelot. It was so idealistic. It disgusts me. It brings me awe. I can't watch it anymore. But I want to study it. I wanna view it under microscope.

..............

If possible I'd rather have unlimited runs of Kaamelott and Starz Camelot. Five seasons of BBC Merlin was enough. We already got the message. Let the bbc merlin actors rest and pursue better roles without always being pressured to return to it.

[byneddiedingo]

The Great White Silence (Herbert G. Ponting, 1922)

Cast: Robert Falcon Scott, Herbert G. Ponting, Henry R. Bowers, Edgar Evans, Lawrence E.G. Oates, Edward Adrian Wilson. 

Back in the 1980s, Ted Turner provoked an outcry with his proposal to colorize the black-and-white films in his library. Filmmakers, historians, and critics protested, and with good reason: I remember watching Turner's colorized Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) and being startled by the paisley print on a blouse worn by Ingrid Bergman; I had never noticed it before the added colors made it stand out, which was certainly not the intention of the director, cinematographer Arthur Edeson, or perhaps even the costume designer, Orry-Kelly. Eventually, legislation put restrictions on such manipulation of old movies. But colorization was not a new thing: From the very beginning, filmmakers tried to add color to movies, usually by tinting the film stock a solid color: blue for night scenes; reds, oranges, and yellows for hot settings like Death Valley in Erich von Stroheim's Greed (1924); even pink for love scenes. Most silent movies after 1920 were colored in this way. But there were also attempts at more realistic coloring: For some of his short films, like A Trip to the Moon (1920), George Méliès used a technique devised by Elisabeth Thuillier, a kind of factory assembly-line of colorists who painstakingly added colors to the actors, costumes, and sets in each frame of the film. The technique proved too cumbersome and expensive as movies reached feature length. But it's one of the hallmarks of Herbert G. Ponting's documentary about the fateful Antarctic expedition of Robert Falcon Scott in 1910-13, The Great White Silence. Even though the whiteness of ice and snow is Antarctica's dominant feature, Ponting decided to hand-tint the footage he had shot ten years earlier, and thereby accentuated the contrast between human and animal life and the deadly whiteness of the continent. Color provides the life in the life-and-death struggle to reach -- and return from -- the South Pole. The images Ponting captured as the photographer for the expedition, using photographic equipment that now seems primitive, are the essence of the movie, and they often seem as fresh as if they were shot yesterday. Ponting was not allowed to accompany Scott from the base camp to the pole, which is from our point of view fortunate, as we might not have the record he made of the expedition now. But he filmed Scott and his fellow explorers as they rehearsed for the journey, trekking through the snows, setting up tents, bedding down, so he was able to give us at least some sense of what the men endured. Too bad that The Great White Silence is accompanied by a narrative that seems antique in ways that Ponting's images aren't. There's a lot of rather jingoist rhetoric about how Scott's expedition is a tribute to the English spirit, a credit to what Ponting calls "the Race," by which he seems to mean Anglo-Saxons. (One of the crew members has a pet black cat with an unfortunately racist name.) Ponting seems unconcerned with the irony that the doughty Englishmen of Scott's team failed to reach the South Pole before their chief competitor in the race, the Norwegian Roald Amundsen. Ponting's images of the animal life of Antarctica, seals and gulls and penguins, are accompanied by coy, condescending, anthropomorphic commentary that sets the tone for nature documentaries that followed. Still, it's an astonishing and invaluable film that fully merited the careful reconstruction that makes it available to us a century later. 

[heiserosandhesapollo]

that blazed post was satire right

REAL fucking suspicious that all these rolled into my inbox in a single night, back to back. Almost like you forgot to turn on anon for half of them 🤔🤔🤔

But let's go ahead and give you the benefit of the doubt.

"How to be a trans man (according to the internet)" was loosely inspired by Sherman Alexie's "How To Write The Great American Indian Novel" in the sense that I wanted to do non-rhyming couplets that directly contradicted each other to point out how people outside of a marginalized group stereotype and fetishize said group. (Alexie's poem is much, much better than mine. He breaks the format pretty quickly and the last two lines are the greatest gut-punch I've ever read in a poem. I am white and did not want to appropriate an indigenous man's pain, so I tried to only take broad inspiration from the opening lines and go in my own direction.)

Now, with that context, let's examine the title.

"How to be a trans man" denotes a set of instructions or rules for behavior. But the poem has a parenthetical, "(according to the internet)", which implies that these are not the author's (my) rules, but rather something that comes *from* the internet. Reading the poem I used as inspiration, and the last two lines, "In the Great American Indian novel, when it is finally written,/ all of the white people will be Indians and all of the Indians will be ghosts," we can infer that this is a poem not about representation, but about cultural appropriation (and, really, genocide). It is not meant to be serious advice, but layers of irony about how colonizers use literature as a tool to erase an entire culture.

When you take irony into consideration, you can then look at the structure of my poem.

Every couplet (except the final one) starts with "You must", with the second line starting with "but". This sets an expectation, then immediately limits or contradicts the expectation. For instance:

"You must have a common, boring name,/ but nothing as common as "Aiden."" If you pay any attention to how trans men's names are treated, you may have heard jokes about trans men having the names of "Drowned Victorian orphans", which is just a way to say that trans men pick old fashioned, pretentious, or "weird" names. A trans man who is not out may see these jokes and therefore try to steer towards really common names, especially ones that are common *right now*. This meant that a few years ago, there was a flood of trans mascs naming themselves "Aiden". But again, if you've paid attention to the treatment of trans men the last few years, you'll know that "Aiden" is used to insult trans men with "basic" names.

Again, look to the title of the poem. This is how *the internet* tells trans men to behave - giving them one set of instructions and then immediately punishing them for following it. The poem uses an ironic structure to show the irony that trans men experience daily.

All of the lines in the poem were either things I have been told to my (digital) face, or seen other trans men on Tumblr, Twitter, Youtube, and Tiktok been told.

Now, not to be mean, but perhaps do some literary analysis when you find a poem that rubs you the wrong way. Look at the title, structure, imagery. Perhaps even look at the rest of the author's work - if you search my blog for "trans", you'll find multiple poems about the trans male experience (my personal favorite is "I relate to werewolves for more than just aesthetic reasons"). These, taken together, paint a pretty straightforward picture of my views on the trans male experience.

I'll admit, had I gotten these asks when I first posted these poems, I would've freaked out, wondering if I was being too subtle. But at this point, with over 4,000 notes on the post and tons of people in the tags telling me that they have felt the exact emotions of the poem... I think you and anon either aren't taking the time or don't care to actually analyze a (pretty straightforward) poem.

[harukamitsuki]

When I created my oc vigilante herpeton, I wanted to make his archnemesis someone to truly be his antithesis. Thats why I created the maestro, A gorilla with a psychic quirk who was raised by chimaonzees to be a ruthless power hungry egomaniac. There is some symbolism I implemented that I want your opinion on.

The main thing being the fact that it subverts the "ape vs reptile" trope in movies. Ever notice how in any monster movie that pits a giant ape against a giant reptile, the ape is the complex emotional good guy/anti hero that forms a bond with the humans, while the reptile is the unfeeling, heartless destructive bad guy the ape must stop? (Ex. Pretty much most king kong movies, and rampage)

In this scenario, its the opposite, the maestro cares only for himself and his lust for power, he will manipulate and toss aside anybody as he sees fit, even his allies. This is most shown when herpeton first meets and saves him from poachers, and then the maestro pretends to be his friend so he can use him like a scapegoat for his misdeeds.

There is also some symbolism in their tsctics. Herpeton is generally a lone wolf-err, herptile, often with the world out to get him, from both heroes and villains alike. But the maestro is always scheming in the bsckground, hsing others to get what he wants.

This correlates into the maestro death in their final battle in the reptile house. Herpeton isn't the one to kill him, rather the maestro falls into the water and is eaten by crocodiles. This is meant to be ironic in that herpeton, the solo fighter, had help in defeating the maestro, while the maestro had no lsckeys to fall back on. So what do you think?

Okay, so, first of all, I want to explain why it's always the reptiles being cold, unfeeling monsters. Reptiles are biologically cold blooded, most of them anyway. There are a few outliers, but their blood generally runs cold.

Of course, cold blooded is associated with heartless, therefore reptiles in media tend to be a reflection of that.

There are execeptions - the dragons in HTTYD and Fairy Tail aren't cold hearted at all, and are very much the opposite. I mean, Toothless is adorable and loyal, and the Fairy Tail dragons raised their own children.

On the opposite end, apes are commonly viewed as biologically close to humans, and it's chimpanzees who are the closest. Because of this, they tend to be the animals that media presents as warm, fuzzy, and humane. The Jungle Book, Tarzan, King Kong, and so on, all present apes, monkeys, and gorillas as the most humane animals.

Your idea is more of a deconstruction of this trope, and it's amazing.

Challenging the generally accepted view that reptiles are heartless and apes are warm is a great pull, and it would hook viewers in. And reflecting that on the society within your universe would be great, as it would serve to make the audience feel validated yet challenged in their views, seeing people generally accept the maestro and become oblivious to their darkness.

The tactics/strategies symbolism is cool, and it's great to know you took that into account. Especially because apes, depending on the species of ape, are pack animals - and even if they're not, they are social animals. In that sense, the maestro would be using their pack animal/social animal instincts to further their misdeeds.

On the other end, the herpeton would have the solitary animal instinct of reptiles, and it reflects on his recluse ways. However, some reptiles can be social animals, though it tends to only be within their species. Seeing him interact with other reptiles and eventually learning to rely on them would make a great story, and would make the audience want to root for him.

I think the irony would serve further if it were apes/monkeys who killed the maestro, as his own species would be the end of him due to his cruelty. The Lion King does this well with Scar's end being the hyenas who he mistreated, and he couldn't let go of his pride long enough to even beg for his life.

Oftentimes, whenever there's a tyrant in control, it's not the enemy who ends that corrupt ruler - it's an inside job. Usually done by someone who isn't even a fighter, whether it be a romantic partner, a servant, or even a medic.

The maestro sounds like the perfect opportunity to show this, and it would send a message that a tyrant never wins, and nobody, not even their own people, will stand by their side.

All in all, it sounds like you have a solid idea of how you want to write your story, and I say go for it. The deconstruction of Apes vs Reptiles is an interesting one, and irony would make me gasp multiple times if I read it written in a book.

[messymindpalace]

let's break it point-by-point, shall we?

1. the point of the original post was that instead of having gifs made about Lily Gladstone, the first indigenous woman to ever win a Golden Globe, op saw more gifs about Taylor Swift, a white privileged woman and finished with "go girl, give us nothing"

what i pointed out was that here on Tumblr Taylor's fanbase is huge and you will most likely stumble upon gif sets made about her. i, myself, did not watch the Golden Globes (even though i love cinema, i really don't care about how the academy in general feels about movies because there's intere$t$ behind all of this) and only went to see the things of my personal interest (Taylor, Barbie, Oppenheimer) and that's it.

so instead of saying "there should be more people interested in this [aka, the very first indigenous woman to ever win a Golden Globe]" op used this opportunity to drag Taylor for simply being there (???) even though once again she was the subject of a misogynistic joke.

what i said is: people will target Taylor as if she is to be punished for a public favor that she receives, instead of arguing with the big media vehicles that give this favor only to her.

so, once again, feminists attack a woman because they think other people deserve more than her, INSTEAD of demanding what's fair from the said people (which is such an irony that blows my mind).

2. other people should be Time's Person of The Year?

great.

who decides the person of the year?

answering this question will direct you to the ones you all should be demanding things.

"oh it says how the American citizen [which, just let me make abundantly clear: I'm not north american] behave and view the world"

sweetie, as a person who watches US from the outside: there's yet to come a time when the north american people (and here I'm saying in a general way) will behave as if they aren't the center of the whole wide universe.

so...US just being US. (:

3. the problem with this younger generation (and even mine, i should say) is that they look up for a singer's moral compass as a way to dictate their lives.

Taylor Swift should use her power and influence to a good use? sure.

is it her obligation, as in, she has a duty to teach others? no. she is a entertainer. that's her job description, to entertain people. in her case, with songs.

demanding things from a singer or any other artists is not the way to get things done.

but if you want to keep barking at the wrong trees...

4. about her earliest songs: i love how you people love to talk about growing and evolving but keep dragging the subject of your hate for their past.

Taylor has been changing her lyrics to better conform to who she is now.

but of course you wanna talk about the past.

because feminists left their mom's womb already so awake about everything.

not a speck in your past...let's keep pretending you all have such a higher moral ground since that's what you all cling so desperate to.

5. last, but not least: she buys carbon credits. and i could elaborate about what this is and how it works, but Google exists for a reason. (:

and that's pretty much it.

once again, i reiterate myself: that's why feminism is such a joke, you aren't for equality or lifting each other up, you are just bitter filled with rage and wanting to draw blood from anyone who resembles the ones who truly hurt you

and finale, won't coming back to further discuss, have a nice day (:

White feminism is when there are a gazillion gifs made of Taylor Swift attending the Golden Globes 2k24 for doing abso-fucking-lutely nothing but none for Lily Gladstone the first Indigenous American woman to win a fucking Golden Globe. Go girl, give is nothing 😘✌🏼