#the lesser man

[meshaamem-li]

"we need weirder queer identities" y'all can't even handle queer mascs

[antiyourwokehomophobia2]

Something that's important to realize is that men do not view their hatred of women as political or as a personal viewpoint. When men say things like women are less than men or stupid or not good for anything or that they belong in the kitchen, they view it as a natural fact of the world. They're fine saying vile shit about women because they firmly believe those things to be basic truth. They view it as natural order. To them it's as true as the sky being blue. They don't consider their views to be subjective. They think everyone feels how they do and the ones who don't are too stupid to recognize very simple truth. If you've ever wondered why a man would feel comfortable freely saying something offensive about women, that's why. To them, women being less complex than men is as simple as saying that humans need food to eat.

[uncanny-tranny]

Hey, if you have speech impediments, you are so amazing.

If you stutter or have a lisp or misspeak easily or you have a flat affect or a limited verbal vocabulary or if your voice is AAC or if you just have a difference in your vocality, you are so incredibly important and amazing.

Just know that your voice is yours. Nobody will ever be able to truly take it away. Your voice is part of you, and you deserve to make it as true to you as you deem fit. I hope you have the space to grow with your voice and whatever about it makes it unique.

[junopede]

Kayne is a 13 year old girl writing fanfic on his school Chromebook at two in the morning

[charmac]

Opinions on Charlie woobification? Also, do you think the fandom woobifies Dennis (too much)?

A few people have sent me asks about my thoughts on Dennis being woobified in the fandom and I’ve failed to answer them (sorry). Not for lack of interest on the subject, it’s just hard to answer. I think, though, answering this Charlie question in the same ask might make it easier to explain my thoughts on this.

When we talk about the fandom we’re generally talking about the people here, a couple hundred people on Twitter, maybe some Instagram stans(?) and tend to ignore the million (1,000,000)+ people on the subReddit and the huge chunk of people on Facebook and casual Twitter who are constantly, continually pushing a narrative that these characters have no depth, and thus their characterisation is what we see on the surface and nothing more. I think the one time it’s probably important not to ignore those people as fans of the show is when it comes to woobification.

Because at a surface level, the people who are consuming this show as a comedy and making posts that exhibit their takes/opinions on these characters to the majority of people portray the characters very simply: Charlie is an idiot and the best member of the Gang, in every sense of the word, and Dennis is a mere representation of toxic masculinity to a psychopathic degree. And those opinions are the loud majority.

So any discussion in our minority section of the fandom that woobifies Charlie or Dennis operates within and on top of the general narrative of the public perception (“face value”) of the characters. Woobification of Charlie, then, almost always further infantilises the majority of his traits to contribute to the idea that he’s not a bad guy and doesn’t deserve the position he’s in in life, while woobification of Dennis mostly works to counteract the idea that he’s a cold-blooded psychopath.

In a way, I think you have to woobify Dennis to a degree in order to properly understand his character (and Glenn makes that clear). Do some people take it too far? When it gets into the realm of genuinely somehow believing he’s not a bad person, absolutely, but in over a decade of Sunnyblr posts, I think I’ve seen that conclusion once, maybe twice. I really don’t think any post that’s diving into how Dennis' actions reflect his insecurities and trauma is ever speaking ignorant of the rest of his character, and that normally seems clear to the majority of people because rarely, if ever, does a dive into Dennis woobification cause fans to understand the character worse than they understood him at face value.

Whereas, with Charlie, you constantly do see this. Posts and threads and fights between fans arguing up and down that Charlie is better than the rest of them: he’s the smartest, actually, he means to do good, he shouldn’t be lumped in with the rest of them as sexual predators... People in this fandom genuinely argue that you are a *better person* if you’re a Charlie stan, that Charlie ships are softer, more moral, than toxic Dennis ships. The result of Charlie woobification seems to often make people less media literate about the character (and the show as a whole if we’re being real) than they would be if they just watched at face value.

They’re all morally despicable characters.

TL;DR: Due to the face value perceptions of the characters, woobification is an almost necessary tool for better exploring and understanding Dennis under his surface, while it really only exacerbates an annoying surface-level understanding of Charlie

[eyedoeluhn]

eidolon’s talk with yamada is so fucking funny to me. Piggot’s like fuck me man capes are so inconsiderate about boundaries and you know what she’s so right. What the fuck do you mean you opened with ‘I looked into the past and analyzed your behavior’ how was she supposed to respond to that. And then he immediately just starts drafting his suicide note. David. David please.

[jonsnowunemploymentera]

And remember kids, the next time someone tells you, "George R. R. Martin wouldn't make Jon Snow the typical fantasy hero because that's cliche".....

Oh yes he would!

One viewer wants to know what character would you play (on the show)? GRRM: If I could magically clap my hands and become a different person, it would be cool to play Jon Snow who's much more of the classic hero. Everybody wants to be the classic hero! ABC Interview, 2014

GRRM: And the character I’d want to be? Well who wouldn’t want to be Jon Snow — the brooding, Byronic, romantic hero whom all the girls love. Meduza Interview, 2017

In fact he already has ☺️

[sunshine-zenith]

(I know this is like three years too late but I only JUST discovered Arcane, bare with me)

Listen, I love Jayce, especially in season one, his introduction episode tugged on the heartstrings for real and I couldn’t help but want him to succeed nearly every second he was on screen in S1Act1, but like. Bruh. Forget becoming Magic Metal Jesus in season two, with how often Jayce was talked about like an underdog from humble beginnings, Viktor must’ve been born with the patience and tolerance of a saint to listen to it

[loveisinthebat]

Lil Funk Loaf

[bowielit]

everyone always talks abt johns aggression and paul's diplomacy like they are two opposing and inherently combative traits, not tendencies they both might've adopted precisely BECAUSE of the way the other was. like maybe its because john was the all-honest sharp mouthed man that paul had to be the safer, people-pleasing, diplomatic one of the two, and vice versa. john's sardonic dry honest songwriting probably impacted, warranted, and created avenues for paul's more jovial whimsical lovey writing. they definitely seeped into each other but it's their external yin and yang that makes them appear even more special as individuals in retrospect.

[rainbow-nijisaki]

Butterflyyy

After the last batch I feel I'm obligated to post husband at least once, so how about some hairstyles?

[luckyblackcatxiii]

This post is dedicated to the scrunkly burgomaster himself and the current relationship between him and Saverio. He thinks it's going well enough, but it's hard to tell when Ismark keeps making a unique expression only for him. Is it good, bad? Guess time will tell...

(Ireena seems invested though)

[uncanny-tranny]

So often, twink death is framed as a bad thing. However, the "twink death" for trans men* is frankly one of the most healing things you will bear witness to (pun intended).

[thaliajoy-blog]

Just watched the whole of the Acolyte & I can say that the reversal of Mae & Osha is one of my fave things in it. It's even there since the starts even if we don't exactly look at it ; Mae's desire to kill the Jedi is based on a rightful need to see the harm done to her community finally punished ; she later let go of her bloodlust and anger to reconnect with her sister, also accepting a less violent & more legal punishment for Sol, which will regardless finally see his crimes recognized. She chooses love & sacrifice. While we know from the start that Osha failed to become a jedi because her negative emotions, how the "accident" Sol caused forever altered her & tainted her dream ; and her anger only grows, until she murders Sol. She chooses a path that lets her revel in both power & her emotionality.

[rubikor]

non-existent memories

[lemonhemlock]

I did not get into Game of thrones when it first started airing. In fact, I waited until it was long past it's heyday (around s6 or 7) to check it out because the marketing and the conversation surrounding it misled me into thinking it was nothing more than "grimdark" bullshit. As one famous YouTuber sarcastically called it "hot fantasy that fucks." So, I avoided Martin's work for literal years due to the impression that I got from online reactors and show-only casuals who did as you and a few others have described as his work being fundamentally misinterpreted.

Fortunately, I overcame my hang-ups, purchased the books (even the supplementary material) and fell down an entire rabbit hole of ASOIAF which led me to recognizing that this world he spent decades creating is far more complex than what had been portrayed onscreen. Regardless of the possibility of the books remaining unfinished (which I am fine with, personally), what George has created is a genuine work of art that I imagine took a tremendous amount of time and energy. So, for so many people online to behave like children and throw tantrums because they feel entitled to him (ew) instead of ushering forth more reasonable conversations and legitimate debates about the nature of his situation frankly makes me look at this fandom with a heavy dose of skepticism.

It is truly baffling to hear even professional critics and see articles describing George as being "ungrateful" or "unprofessional" when it has been well-documented just how often authors get locked out of the adaptation process and left to the wayside as consultants. Look at what happened to Rick Riordan and Christopher Paolini! George R.R. Martin is not the only author to have qualms with how a multimillion dollar studio has mishandled his creative work, and to act like he should remain silent just because he's amassed a certain degree of wealth is quite frankly, ridiculous. He shouldn't have to settle down, be grateful, and stay quiet because the greedy corporate executives and their media drones will get offended by actual criticism that could alter the perception of the adaption being revealed as mediocre for having departed from the source material.

TLDR: authors should be allowed to speak up about their art being sacrificed for commercialization.

Thank you so much for this message, anon! This needs to be talked about more, because I don't think a lot of commentators truly understand the vulgar, late-capitalistic sheen that seems to set in and slowly poison any ASOIAF adaptation. It honestly baffles me how quick some members of this fandom are to rush to the defense of, what is essentially (let's not be kidding ourselves here), a cashgrab by a giant corporation to the detriment of the actual artist and the actual creative foundation behind it.

Why else would "MAX" (if that is even their name) make another (or several other) ASOIAF adaptations? Not to stay true to any philosophical aesthetic vision, as it has become more than apparent with Season 2, but to increase shareholder profits by appealing to the lowest common denominator. Even the basic premise has been shifted in order to address popular trends and satisfy the mindless consumer that doesn't want to engage with anything deeper than their favourite tropes, prettily packaged:

from a story about a doomed ouroborous family superimposed on the pitfalls of feudalism, with villainy and heroism to be found on both sides, it has been simplified and reduced to a narrative that exalts white feminism and disqualifies anyone who opposes its girlboss protagonist. This is Sheryl Sandberg's version of Fire and Blood.

Truly, I think Sara Hess did (unintentionally) outline it the best: "civilians don't matter in Game of Thrones". They don't matter in Game of Thrones, but they matter in A Song of Ice and Fire. The entire heart of the series is contained in Septon Maribald's speech. The writers "kind of", must have forgotten, though.