#the original argument it and their argument brings up evidence that has nothing to do with the original point

[cinematicbookworm]

Hmm seeing some miss info about early hominids specifically early Homo sapiens being spread around by people who seem to be using modern humans as there reasoning why certain things about the hunting dinamics of human species that predate Homo sapiens and vice versa couldnt be true seemingly implying that hunting and foraging patterns couldn’t have changed over the multiple hundreds of thousands of years that evolution has taken place during and I don’t want to draw attention to my self because like the post has so few notes and it’s a couple years old but it’s blatantly wrong and drawing incorrect conclusions using a couple nature articles as their sources and the whole thing seems to be written by someone who if they do have a science background it’s clearly not in paleo anthropology and while I do have a degree in bio anthropology and archaeology I do not feel like wasting my time arguing on the internet about it

Edit: Oh I read through the notes and somebody a year ago read them for filth with actual scientific arguments and sources good! That post also called out the lowkey racism I didn’t quite realize I was picking up from the original post

Wish that version and not the version with the funny joke at the end was the one getting passed around

[inbarfink]

Okay, so here’s the thing about Zim and GIR…

When talking about the idea that Zim might have some affection towards GIR - a lot of people bring up the fact that, like, GIR is even still functioning in the first place. After all, why would the Famously Sadistic and Callous Invader Zim keep around an evil minion who messes up as often as GIR does? Rather than scrap him for parts or just throw him in the trash? ….Unless he had some sort of emotional attachment to that minion in the first place?

But that’s… I’m actually not sure that argument 100% works. Because there’s one important variable that argument discards. GIR isn’t just a regular ol’ robotic minion - he is a special top-secret model SIR Unit personally gifted to Zim by the Almighty Tallests.

Zim cannot fully discard GIR as a worthless garbage robot that’s nothing but a hindrance to his mission the same way that he can’t discard Earth as a worthless garbage planet with no value to the Irken Empire - because that would be confronting and admitting that he is not actually a great and respected Invader in the eyes of his Tallests.

But I still think there are some other evidence to the idea that Zim likes GIR. Because, I mean, Zim is incredibly lenient towards him.

Zim… feels bad for yelling at GIR and making him cry. 

Zim. Feels. Bad. For. Yelling. 

This alone is incredible evidence for Zim’s affection towards GIR.

And that is absolutely not something Zim will do for just any minion. Just look at how he treats his Computer, and not to mention all those poor saps from Hobo 13. 

The fact that in his deluded world, GIR is supposed to be a top-of-the-line personal gift from the Tallests certainly plays a part. But I also think that while these delusions might explain why he doesn’t throw GIR in the trash… Zim is very good at twisting reality and logic and his own ideology for the sake of justifying his own selfish desires. 

If he actually wanted to hurt GIR, he could’ve very easily rationalized it as ‘you are supposed to be the bestest most prided minion in my army of doom and a personal gift from the Almighty Tallest themselves therefore I will hold you to a higher standard and punish you accordingly’. But instead he is incredibly lenient with GIR and his constant screw-ups and obnoxious whims.

So my read of why Zim is actually fond of GIR in his own weird way is very much tied to, like, a Big Thing about how I read Zim’s character in general. Which is, Zim’s delusion, like Ogres, has layers. Like, there are some aspects of reality that just genuinely never penetrated his thick Irken skull - and there are some things he does realize on some level even as he tries as hard as he can to convince himself otherwise. 

So I think on some level, as much as he outwardly denies it, Zim is aware of how much he messed up things for the Irken Empire in ‘Impending Doom 1’ and how the Almighty Tallests really view him. This is basically how his thought process is described in the Pilot -

And it’s also supported with how Vasquez describes Zim’s similarities to Dib in some of the ‘Florpus’ interviews.

Dib is obviously painfully aware of the ways his father does not respect him - but for Zim to similarly want to prove his own amazingness to the Tallest, he has to be aware on some level that the Tallest don’t acknowledge that he’s amazing. And I think it also matches with his interactions with the various Tallests in the ‘The Trial’ Flashbacks. Because he wasn’t originally that feverishly devoted, eager to prove himself and deluded about being beloved by the Tallests as he is right now.

That’s a trait he has developed either in response to his spectacular failure in ‘Operation Impending Doom 1’ or just to Red and Purple - who already knew him beforehand and decided they can’t stand him - rising to power. He is aware on some level of how the Tallests perceive him, and while he cannot consciously acknowledge it, his behavior is him overcompensating for it.

And I think… Zim projects this aspect of himself on GIR. He sees himself in GIR. Not the self he wants to see, the hypercompetent and beloved Invader. But the self he keeps denying - a devoted and loyal minion who despite messing up sometimes (or rather, all the goddamn time), is always eager to please and driven to prove himself.

Which… is also not a fully accurate view of himself, but like I said, it’s Layers of self-delusion. But that’s subconsciously how he perceives his own relationship with the Tallests and how he perceives GIR’s relationship to himself. 

So Zim being so tolerant of GIR’s constant screw ups, never really seriously punishing him, always putting him in important positions in his schemes, always acquiesce to his stupid and annoying whims… that’s because he sees himself in GIR, and that’s how he would like the Tallests to treat him, that’s how he pretends the Tallests already treat him, and so that’s the treatment he gives GIR. He believes he deserves these infinite second chances and high-ranking roles in all of the Empire’s universe-conquering plans despite his constant failures and that’s what he keeps doing with GIR despite being just as frustrated with him as the Tallests are with Zim.

And the thing is, because of Zim’s Extreme Projection to the Max - he kinda got the entirely wrong idea about GIR. Zim is not exactly that eager-to-please loyal drone of the empire - but GIR is not that at all, not even remotely. While GIR might have some affection towards Zim, he doesn’t care at all about the mission - much less being ‘allowed’ to do Important Things Vital for the fate of the Zim’s latest scheme. He would much rather goof off and watch TV then be given any sort of responsibility.

Again, the cupcake scene is very illustrative. Zim thinks GIR is upset because he feels very bad about screwing up their mission and thus is immediately forgiving - but GIR was only sad because he ran out of Cupcake to eat.

With how distractible and chaotic and generally detached from reality GIR is, it’s… kinda hard to determine when he’s trying to obey Zim’s orders but failing and when he just never really gave much of a shit about them in the first place.

But he’s usually not even a little bit bothered or upset about the idea that his inaction has put his ‘master’ in mortal danger.

I guess the funny thing is, like, there are times where Zim needs an extra pair of arms or eyes on board - times where he needs the skills of… maybe not GIR but at least a hypothetical fully-functional SIR Unit. But there are many other occasions where GIR is nothing but a burden and annoyance to him and the thing is that they both would’ve been happier if GIR was just allowed to stay home to watch TV and eat babies but Zim keeps putting him in important positions because Zim likes GIR but he’s unable to understand what GIR is actually like beyond an image of all the projected insecurities he can't admit about himself.

And of course, as we all know, if GIR was actually driven to fulfill their mission - that turns out very bad for Zim very very quickly. 

[spicybylerpolls]

I mean... people act differently in the bedroom. Just point blank, if you look at your friend and go "she would never do that nah." Its possible, she could be a closet freak. No one acts like themselves in the bedroom. So nothing is really out of character unless there is canon material for how they act in such situations.

i just found this on a reddit thread that complains about smut being out of character in fandom in general and it seems like these debates we have re: byler (esp top and bottom, sub and dom) happen everywhere, and tbh, that fact alone speaks volumes? the above argument has been used for byler on this very blog! while it is technically true, it also seems to me to be a bit too obvious and a crutch/excuse for bad writing. for example, the duffers could have said 'mike has never been in a mall before s3, who knows how he'll react?' and then he's opening s3 just twerking on the mall fountain while waving his top around cos he's so excited about all the new shops and the free cinema trips and ice cream. i mean, technically its possible, but is that really mike?

thats a very infantile example because sexuality is complex. but my point is: I KNOW people do act differently in the bedroom, because it brings out another side of people, but the point stands about what 'out of character' actually means, and in writing you need a set of rules decreeing the boundaries of a fictional character - a personality outline - because otherwise their edges blur and they become everyone and no one. and i think this is the problem with lots of smut, as this user wrote:

It's sex scenes where characters stop being themselves and just start being people who are having sex. The sex scenes that feel very could-be-in-any-fandom. Like, for example, when people stop talking like themselves, and not because it's dirty talk or kink or whatever.

THIS! the amount of smut i've read where mike and will could suddenly be interchangeable with any character from any story anywhere, because theyre just two bodies doing sex acts. there are carbon copy phrases and buzzwords (apparently there's even a famous essay on this, says one user: 'you may enjoy ariaste's one finger/two fingers/three fingers/cock rant...')

this is what i mean when i say bad writing. someone on the thread explained that 'A lot of fanfiction is wish-fulfillment, and many of us want to believe the characters we're attracted to are sex gods, even if there's no canonical evidence of it.' the idea of mike and will being sex gods made me laugh and i think very few people who discuss byler seriously here believe they would be, but the operative phrase here is 'characters we are attracted to.' i think this is an unspoken part of fandom, and what divides fans who create fanworks, and original creators. the argument 'the duffers aren't creeps for writing teen sex so why are we?' does hold much water, not because writing smutfic makes you a creep, but because fans are infatuated with characters in a way that original creators usually aren't.

but why not? i dont think it's weird or bad to fall in love with a character. but this still doesnt answer the question of why many writers choose to lean towards this tried-and-typical smut style rather than aiming to emulate the characterisation or writing style of the original creators. so....

why do people think this might be? here are some of my suggestions, and i would love if some of the people who respond are also people who have written/thought about writing their own smut and answer honestly about their thought processes! choose the best that applies to you. thanks to all who partake!

A) the only access to erotic literature i've had in general is via fanfiction, so i can't see any other way of writing it.

B) i've read published erotic fiction and i end up emulating that rather than fanfiction, so i dont think my work is tropey or fanfic-typical.

C) i've read published novels that include sex written in a way i like, so i try to take inspiration from that instead.

D) i write sex the way I have sex/think about sex i've had in real life.

E) i write sex the way I imagine/want to have sex in real life, and this is mostly influenced by porn/fanfiction fantasies.

F) i write sex the way i imagine/want to have it in real life, and this is mostly influenced by my own individual imagination/life experience rather than porn/fanfiction.

G) i prefer the writing style in much of smut fanfiction (e.g. tropes and well-used phrases) because i find them genuinely realistic to character.

H) i prefer the writing style in much of smut fanfiction (e.g. tropes and well-used phrases) because i find them hottest and i typically prioritise this over realistic characterisation.

I) i worry that if my smut is too personal or doesnt read as familiar, people won't like it and i typically (but not always) prioritise audience response over artistic expression or experimentation. i want to add to the canon of byler smut in a familiar way.

J) i try to prioritise what i genuinely think the characters would do during sex rather than my own fantasies/projections/aspirations for either the characters or for myself.

K) i don't usually think this hard about smut.

L) i believe that smut fanfiction, including tropes and well-used buzzwords, does make genuinely compelling and wonderful reading, and i'm happy with the state of smut in general.

Please note that the purpose of this blog is not to be creepy or to make anyone uncomfortable. That's why I created the #spicy byler tag (I will tag all polls with this). If you don't want to see this blog or anything related to it on your feed, please block that tag. Not everyone is comfortable with this sorta stuff, and that's okay.

[honesty-my-policy]

Part One of publicly rebutting people from the comments & reblogs of this post:

First off @bookwyrm314 has been fighting tooth and nail, yes, I am going to call out people who are defending terrorists who in their charter call for the genocide of Jews, blaming them for everything that ever happened in the world (hi Nazi playbook) and just the general lack of any acceptance of peace. link to their charter that if you haven't read or even skimmed... why are you backing a group you know nothing about? HAMAS CHARTER

Okay to be honest i copied and pasted the comment thread into chatgpt cause the original thread was really wordy & repetitive, with lots of detailed examples & emotional appeals. it was hard to follow after seeing it all in one place. i wanted to shorten it to just the main points.

The difference between war and genocide is that war involves two military groups, while genocide involves a military group targeting civilians, which is happening in Gaza. War has rules: you don’t target civilians, especially children, or pen millions into a single city and starve them. That's ethnic cleansing, not war. The IDF is shooting children and forcing an entire population on a march to Rafah, then bombing the city. This is genocide, not war.

The logical fallacies are off the charts for the entire argument but I'll play.

False Dichotomy = Black-and-White Thinking or presenting a situation as only having two possible categories (war or genocide) without acknowledging the complexities and nuances of the conflict.

What a hasty generalization or generalizing the actions of the entirety of the IDF, as well as the whole conflict with no evidence to back it up. It's also a nice appeal to emotion, which yeah, we should use emotions it is what makes us humans but what truly makes us humans is having emotions but not letting them dictate what we do or think.

Colonization isn’t a justification for ethnic cleansing. It’s insane to say, "You should have ceded your country to colonialism for peace." There are 1.5 million displaced and starving Palestinians. Mass murdering civilians and claiming there were terrorists among them is a war crime. Hiroshima was genocide because it mass-murdered a city. War involves two military groups, not civilians. This situation isn’t war; it’s military versus civilians. Hamas isn’t the children or the city of Rafah.

This is a straw man. You've misrepresented my argument or maybe based on the arguments below not understood that Israel is an indigenous people of the land, they also accepted a two state solution but the Arabs didn't, which led to the Nakba. I explained all of this but you replied with this which is why I say this is a straw man.

Another appeal to emotion instead of actual facts or references. For the record, you stated earlier that war was ugly, this is part of war.

Hiroshima is a false equivalence, you are equating two very different historical events without even acknowledging the significant differences in context and nature. The second bit is circular reasoning, you are assuming what you are trying to prove without providing any evidence.

Another bit of black-and-white thinking, as if civilians have never waged wars in history or things might be more complex in this situation.

Palestine has existed since families bought land from the Mongols in the 14th century. British colonization doesn’t erase that history. Forcing Palestinians to Rafah, starving, and bombing them is a deliberate strategy, not war. Killing civilians creates more terrorists, not fewer. It looks like an attempt to eradicate a nation. The IDF is blocking aid and killing those bringing food. Forcing people to walk across the country with nothing is like the Trail of Tears. It’s ethnic cleansing.

You are appealing to antiquity/tradition as though because something had historical precedent it should be valid or justifiable in the current context. The Jews do the same but they don't go around in their official charter saying that everyone else are infidels, that one specific group is the reason for every bad thing that happens in the world or that until all Arabs everywhere in the world are dead the 'day of judgement' isn't going to come. So... think on that.

To be honest this has nothing to do with anything. It's a non sequitur.

You present another situation with black-and-white thinking, as though there are only two possible categories, ignoring once more the complex nuances of conflict.

This is a classic slippery slope way of thinking. You are suggesting that killing any civilian ever will inevitably lead to the creation of more terrorists without any evidence for this progression happening.

You again assume what you are trying to prove - that there is an attempt to eradicate a nation - without any sufficient evidence.

A final appeal to emotions.

You claim I lack empathy for civilians, but I can distinguish between soldiers and civilians. Your "whataboutism" shows you care more about winning an argument than understanding the truth. Citizens shouldn’t be targeted, that’s a global rule. Were child victims like Hind child soldiers? The Holocaust had survivors; does that mean it wasn’t genocide? Your argument insults Jewish, Japanese, and Palestinian people. The IDF targeting civilians isn’t war; it’s mass murder. They admitted to waiting for targets to go home and killing entire families. Killing 300,000+ civilians is villainous. Making people walk a trail of tears and starving them is evil. Repeating Nazi tactics to win isn’t worth it. Fifty years ago, we’d agree Hamas is bad, but now Hamas is filled with Palestinians angry because the IDF killed their families. Bombing Palestine makes more angry survivors, not fewer. Killing civilians isn’t smart, and it seems like the goal is genocide.

Another straw man at the start, you aren't actually talking about the point.

Oooh! A new one! You decided to attack the character and motive instead of addressing the actual argument. That's an Ad Hominem. Another new one! A Red Herring! Diverting from the main argument and creating distractions instead of focusing on the main discussion.

You really do view the world entirely in black-and-white don't you? How easy life must be.

You also love to generalize the side you don't like without any evidence or nuance and not acknowledging any of the complexities of the situation.

And another slippery slope!

I was going to go through each point and provide evidence to refute everything but goddamn. For one, you provided no actual evidence, for two this entire thing was so laughable after reading it like this.

You are exactly who my original posts targets and that is why you were triggered.

[blender2902]

DEBUNKING THE NIGHT OF THE BLACK KNIVES ALLEGATIONS + Theory on Marika reviving the soulless demigods

This was originally going to be a small post on just my theory on Godwyn and the soulless demigods but as I kept writing that, I kept bringing up why the night of the black knives theory does not work. So, I just ended up dedicating the first part of this post to giving all the arguments against that theory. This turned out to be the majority of this post ironically lol.

Do read my messmer post as that will make what I say next in this entire post make more sense as the timeline I follow is based on that. It’s a long post so the TLDR of the post, Marika sealed Messmer away in LOS after godwyn’s death in order to protect him. (Only thing to add to that is the sentry torch being held by the tree sentinel outside shaman village and Messmer’s remembrance being mistranslated. The sentry torch was made after godwyn’s death and Messmer’s remembrance’s original Japanese descriptions mentions nothing about fear just that Messmer’s eye was sealed and then he was sealed in LOS which leaves the timeline and motives pretty vague

Marika planning Godwyn’s murder is what I will call the biggest conspiracy theory in the Elden Ring lore. However, I believe that this theory has very, very shaky grounds to stand on and fundamentally fails in logic when we go into the details. I will say it here, whether Marika had a hand in aiding Ranni or not I simply see no logical way Marika would want Godwyn dead. The problems with this theory can be classified under 2 categories- evidence and motivations.

Evidence: -

I have spent some time looking at all the common pieces of evidence that ‘supports’ this theory. Let me refute them one by one.

Black knife assassin Armor-

Like many have said before me, the original Japanese description of this armor is very vague about the ties between Marika and these assassins. It could simply mean that Marika and the assassins were from the same race and nothing else. Also, the eternal city is stated to have been banished by the greater will-

According to Rogier, the black knife assassins are scions of the eternal cities so it would be very odd for them to have helped the god chosen by the greater will (or at least said to have been chosen). All in all, this is way too shaky to count as anything solid.

2. Gurranq’s death dialogue-

Every person who believes in this theory loves to show Gurranq’s death dialogue-

Conveniently leaving out his final line-

‘why shatter’ hmmmmmmmmm.

So, the ‘gulling’ Malekith is talking about is not stealing the rune of death but shattering the elden ring. This line of dialogue pretty much confirms that entirely. It is kinda baffling to me that people confidently give this out as proof that Marika planned Godwyn’s death when the same speech directly contradicts it. I understand missing an item description or two (the game is huge after all) but missing this while citing the previous two lines is just ??? but whatever.

3. The black knife assassin ‘guarding Marika’s bedchamber’-

So, to decipher the implications of this enemy location let’s look that the environment-

A bunch of dead finger readers who do not pose a single threat at all, the assassin is implied to have killed them clearly. We do know that many demigods were slain during the night of the black knives so the black knife assassins were going for several demigods. This one here was likely trying to kill Morgott but failed. We do see black knife assassins at ordina(the town from which we access haligtree) so those guys were trying to kill Miquella or Malenia so this does check out. The environmental storytelling here is quite clear to me so this is not a good piece of evidence at all. I swear the next conspiracy we hear will be ‘Miquella planned godwyn’s death’ pointing at the black knife assassins in ordina or something like that. This is flimsy evidence at best.

4. Marika supposedly wanting to sacrifice her kids

Everybody loves to point towards the Melina dialogue outside of capital when they say this. Let’s fully break it down.

2 ways of interpreting this. 1) she will sacrifice them if they don’t become ‘aught at all’ or 2) she is giving them a warning that soon they will have to make something of themselves or they will be sacrificed by someone or something which she does not want so basically tough love through advice. Which is the more suitable interpretation based on actions? Well, the only way to judge is by seeing what happens next in the story. The guidance of grace is likely controlled by Marika as the greater will has left the damned place. How much control does she have is unclear but for the sake of this argument let’s just assume she had complete control over it as this will be the hardest and most interesting interpretation for me argue against. Now if she does not have full control over grace then nothing can be determined as we can make up an endless number of rules for grace. Let’s assume that Marika controls where grace points.

People who make this assumption always say that ‘Marika guided the tarnished towards her kids to kill them for (insert whatever reason)’ So yeah, the guidance of grace points towards the demigods right? Which would mean that this take is correct right? NO! First let’s take a close look at where grace points.

If you observe closely, you will notice that grace only points towards the demigods from Radagon and Rennala’s side of the family (who technically aren’t hers) and Godrick (who nobody likes and he disrespects the golden lineage)  with the sole exception of Miquella(I’ll talk about him later) and Morgott but in his case he is literally guarding the erdtree so not much choice there and if you want to go into delulu territory then in Godfrey’s cutscene Morgott turns into grace and points Godfrey towards us which kinda implies Marika taking revenge for Morgott in a way(like I said delulu). Another important point to mention here is Vyke. He somehow got to the forge of the giants without killing any shardbearer which means Marika at first had a way to get to the forge while avoiding Morgott but that ended up failing. It is also important to point out that no site of grace points towards mohg as you can see here-

So, it may not exactly be an omen twins thing but either way that is a discussion for another day, what matters most is that Marika actively avoids pointing towards her own children. ‘AHA you forgot about the divine beast grace pointing towards Messmer’ No I didn’t, because that grace does not point towards him. If you follow its trajectory with a straight line, you will see that it points towards scadutree avatar, you know the boss holding Miquella’s great rune-

Miquella at this point was shedding aspects of himself which would lead him to failure like his mother and he would be in the same prison as her. Hence death would be a mercy. It is likely Marika can guide us to the shardbearers because she can feel the great runes, hence we are guided here. Marika guides us towards Miquella’s great rune but we are too late and he sheds it. Now we can observe that no site of grace points towards Messmer at all. This is because Marika knows that killing Messmer is the only way in which we can reach Miquella. She probably thought ‘Tarnished please just take that great rune get out of that place. Let my son live please.’ Or something along those lines but we end up killing Messmer anyway. Now that the damage is done, might as well finish the job, and put Miquella to rest. Then Marika starts guiding us towards Miquella. There could also be an angle of revenge here as it is Leda and Danes notes which directly tell us to kill Messmer. They serve Miquella, so he got Messmer killed in a way. All in all, even in the dlc she is actively avoiding pointing towards Messmer and is trying to put Miquella to rest so she is not really sacrificing them.

Some other graces in the base game worth mentioning-

Castle sol and Millicent

Sorry for the low-quality pics

These are interesting as they point towards a npc and an item that leads to Malenia. However, if Marika did know where these are and points there, why not point towards Malenia? No grace on the map points towards Haligtree. If she can sense an offshoot of Malenia why can she not sense Malenia herself? She is holding a great rune for crying out loud. There must be another explanation for these. For Millicent maybe Marika is just pointing towards Radahn, it’s just that the road is not right. For castle sol, maybe it’s the same as castle Morne, where she is pointing towards a place where we can get stronger-

Ranni-

It’s a bit hard to see due to low quality but Marika points towards renna’s rise when we rest after ranni leaves. The simple explanation to this is Marika wants Ranni to be killed as she got Godwyn murdered. This is quite funny as most of us just ended up marrying her lol. The spicier interpretation of this is that even though Ranni got Godwyn killed, Marika does agree with Ranni’s end goal and is hence willing to help her out with that. In Ranni’s ending cutscene she does hold Marika’s head in a gentle way so that does imply some respect. Also in that ending Ranni does put Marika to rest in a way so that could play a role too.

So that covers everything related to grace. Now what we get is a Marika trying her best to get the tarnished to become elden lord while avoiding her children getting killed as much as possible. This pretty much refutes the perspective to ‘Marika wanted to sacrifice her kids.' All this to say that all the implications point towards the second perspective of ‘Marika giving her kids some hard advice which deep down comes from love’ being true.

Like I already said, if you think Marika does not control grace (kinda unlikely tbh) then we simply cannot determine anything about her motives behind this dialogue, hence it does not prove or disprove anything.

Now that is all the common pieces of evidence covered. As you can see, they were shaky at best.

Motivations

This is in my opinion the biggest problem with this theory. There is not a single motive that even makes complete sense. By that I mean that killing Godwyn would have been the best/only option Marika had to achieve whatever her motives are. Let’s go over all the common motives I have seen and explain why they don’t make sense.

Killing godwyn would show the flaw in the golden order-

This assumes that Marika wanted the order to change(which I believe is part of her motivations). Why would she even think this would work? Radagon had made sure everyone in the golden order blindly believes in it so why would they see this as a flaw? Like we do not see a single person in the game that sees               Godwyn’s death as a flaw. Instead, we see D (a golden order fanatic) hunting down those who live in death. There are literal incantations made to fight them off. Everybody who is discriminated by the order already know that it’s full of shit. This motive just does not add up.

2. To rebel against the greater will/golden order

This is similar to the last one but slightly different. This comes with the assumption of Godwyn being loyal to the golden order rather than his mother. We don’t get anything directly characterising godwyn’s feelings so we must look at implications, and they point towards him being loyal to his mom. The first one being the general development of Marika’s order. At first, during the age of plenty before Radagon, the erdtree was giving away plenty of blessing. However, as time moved on, the erdtree became an object of faith. Marika herself became doubtful according to her dialogue in the minor erdtree church. Also Marika does go inert during Radagon’s age while he is just doing a bunch of stuff(creating golden order fundamentalism). This plus the way Radagon shows a more dominant posture in his statue-

Implies that Radagon was being the more dominant half during his reign which further supports my take on the golden order changing as the timeline progressed. Godwyn was around during the age of plenty so naturally he would see how Marika developed overtime as well. The biggest clue though is the crimson, viridian and cerulean amber medallion +3 description-

These were made during Godfrey’s age where Marika had 100% free reign on what she could do. These were given to Godwyn’s death knights which was likely seen as a precious gift that would help them protect their master. Seeing this Godwyn would likely be loyal towards his mother. Godwyn being loyal to the order that is heavily implied to be changed by Radagon in many ways instead of his mother who gifted his knights these ‘precious jewels’ is just very unlikely. Hence if rebelling was the motive, then she would immediately shatter the elden ring.

3.To attempt to restore death (in whatever way) so she could die

If this was her goal then why would she not just go fight Malekith herself? She probably can teleport just like Radagon so it’s unlikely Malekith could restrain her. This means that either she dies (mission accomplished) or Malekith dies and the rune of death is free so she can die (mission accomplished). Fighting Malekith to the death in some remote location would simply be the best option instead of whatever ends up happening if this was motive. Now if you wanna argue Radagon was restricting Marika so she could not go ahead with the Malekith plan, then tell me how she could plan the assassination with him around? Also the rune of death was stolen and the black knife assassins were running around. Find one and accomplish your goal. Yet she did not do that. The logic just does not add up here.

4. All the theories along the lines of ‘Marika planned to grant Godwyn a higher state of existence of some kind.’

All these theories have one big problem, evidence. Pretty much all these theories are just ideas people have which have zero grounds to stand on. I do believe Marika tried to revive godwyn over her grief but I see no way that she could ever foresee what these theories suggest.

So that should be it for all the arguments I have against the night of the black knives theory. Now onto my personal theory and speculation about Marika trying to revive Godwyn and possibly the undead demigods in the mausoleums too.

In my Messmer post from earlier, I did touch on Marika allowing the death knights into the realm of shadow but I did not go too deep into that rabbit hole but I will here. Like I said in my Messmer post, the incantations that do more damage against those who live in death are all golden order fundamentalist incantations not erdtree incantations. Erdtree incantations are linked to Marika and Golden order incantations are linked to Radagon. This implies that the stigma against those who live in death was mostly Radagon’s doing. Also something interesting about the death knights is that the last rites ash of war’s effect that makes us do 2x damage against those who live in death suddenly does not work on them, I used the golden arcs incantation with min stat req and a plus 0 finger seal at blessing level 9 or 10 I don’t remember exactly, before the buff the incantation did a max of 126 damage and after the buff it did 138 damage max which I am pretty sure is the +25 holy damage that the buff adds which means the game does not count these guys as a part of those who live in death and hence are not ‘dead’. This would make it even unlikelier that the death knights got into the LOS through some death stuff. Anyways the death knights were sent to find and protect the ‘cadaver surrogate’ which means second body. Why would they need a second body? Well for his revival of course. So, during the period between the night of the black knives and the shattering, Godwyn’s corpse must have started to mutate and all the death cult stuff started. Now as to who sent the death knights to search for the cadaver surrogate, I have 2 answers 1) It was Godwyn’s corpse itself that somehow gave them a message and they went in search for the cadaver surrogate. They needed entry into the LOS which Marika granted them. Marika saw this as a possible way to bring Godwyn back so she was in support of this. 2) Marika herself got some sort of message from Godwyn’s corpse and sent the death knights herself. Either explanation results in the same story. Now I see many people talking about the dialogue of the ghost about the ‘unwanted child’ in weeping peninsula but there is one item description that flips this entire thing on its head.

Lhutel the headless spirit ash-

So, she sacrificed her life to protect an ‘unwanted child’ of Marika yet was awarded with the honour of Erdtree Burial, a practise which Marika herself developed. Also, she has an attack where she straight up throws a spear at an enemy which is quite reminiscent of the smithscript weapons (and messmer’s spear) we find in the dlc. A whole lot of dots here. All of this leads me to believe that maybe the demigods in the mausoleum maybe aren’t even unwanted at all as Marika is helping in their revival. Oh, and not to mentions that all this is found in weeping peninsula where we find a catacomb called Impaler’s catacomb-

This catacombs also has spike traps which are not quite the same as the ones found in the dlc but are similar-

Impaler’s catacomb spike trap-

Dlc catacomb spike trap-

So maybe Messmer used this place for early versions of his spike traps which were also used/tested in other catacombs in the base game like the seeth water catacomb for example. There are a lot of things in weeping peninsula connecting to death and Messmer which is very intriguing.

Maybe the stone tablets in Marika’s bedchambers which look exactly like the ones in shadow keep were being studied by her to find a way to revive Godwyn along with finding a way of curing the jar innards.

So, this is how I believe the story went. Godwyn was murdered in the night of the black knives and Marika fell into depression. When all the death cult stuff formed, Marika sent the death knights to find Godwyn’s cadaver surrogate. She saw this as an opportunity to possibly revive the undead demigods (maybe the ones that died in the night of the black knives as well) hence honouring Lhutel. However, before she could do anything, Messmer’s base serpent got revealed to the public and she sealed him away into the Land of shadows where he would be safe. In the process she also gave up the opportunity to revive godwyn(and the undead demigods). However, it does seem that Marika still tries to have godwyn revived in a way by granting grace to Fia. Godwyn’s corpse does fight back if you attack Fia, so it appears some part of Godwyn might be kind of alive in a way and is trying to protect Fia. Marika might have learned about Fia somehow and granted her grace so that she could go on her quest to help Godwyn. Not too sure on the logistics of everything but I feel this is a very interesting theory and the Lhutel descriptions + all the minor details provide quite a bit of support.

[gotta-bail-my-quails]

I would like to preface this post with an acknowledgement that I have blocked the user who originally posted this. The main reason is because nothing would convince them to change their mind (especially because they seem to be intent on "changing minds" but only if it is from a Pro-Palestine to Pro-Israel mindset). That being said, this post I'm making may seem superfluous—why make a response if I don't want the person to see it? Mostly, I want to warn others of the rhetoric used against support for Palestine and—as I will soon address—because these people dared to bring up a subject personal to me and I will not stand to let it to be appropriated for this purpose.

I will be addressing one main post and a few other arguments used against Palestinian resistance.

The main post was posted on Tumblr, and was a respost of a post from Reddit. It is in image form below, but I will add the text if asked in a reblog. My response summarizes the points I address. Also I'm going to have to add my full response in multiple reblogs due to character limits.

The arguments can be summarized as thus:

The methods Western leftists use are ineffective and/or immoral due to idealism and radical approaches. The suggested solution is to give funds to "the Israeli left" and supporting a "reasonable solution" meaning a two-state or one-state under Israel solution, with a "humanitarian end" with a "unilateral Hamas surrender"

Here, they compare the "dream scenario that will never happen" to the situation in Vietnam. I presume they mean the opposition to the war, while the government continued to bomb the country more than all of Europe in WWII combined despite knowing full well they would lose and that they do not mean to make an analogy using the war as a whole. If they had, then I would like to make a snide comment here about the North winning despite the South having the US's support, but I will refrain. More than that, I would relate this to a later argument the poster makes about the "destabilization of Western democracy". Considering the poster is American, I will address this within a US context (although we should really explore the ways other Western countries are acting). This is a reflection of the failure of the power structures within the US as a whole, and not the ineffectiveness of the protests. The war in Vietnam was vastly unpopular but the executive department has historically used presidential power to push war—evidenced by the war power acts previously and Biden forcing through funding for the conflict now. The US is a republic, not a true democracy, and it is self-evident that the same reason the poster claim protests don't work invalidates their claims of an otherwise functioning Western democracy. I would go so far as to suggest revolution is being implied, but the poster evidently thinks resistance is hardly reasonable.

I am curious as to how the poster thinks positive changes have occurred, if they consider boycotts and the like are ineffective (they only say "it doesn't take a lot of thought" to see their point, but it seems to me they are avoiding the issue under the excuse of "common sense" and "brevity"). Most Americans (and most in general) do not have a direct hand in the government—California excepted, perhaps, given the proposition system—so, we turn to utilizing economic power and force. Unions, for one, have earned better treatment for workers for decades (remember the recent SAG-AFTRA strikes?) through the threat of withholding labor and therefore profits. After all, our world is one based heavily in economic-morality (which I am currently writing a separate essay on and which we may point to the response to Yemen right now).

1/5

[joemerl]

Okay! So, a few days ago, a pro-Palestinian picture came on my dash with the "river to the sea" slogan. This naturally led to me debating a lot of people in the comments, one of whom, @hvly asked me to back up my assertions with sources. I decided to do this in a separate post because a.) makes it easier to post a bunch of links, b.) the original artist took down the picture, and c.) I recently read how many on the pro-Palestinian side lack a lot of context on the conflict, so I figured this could serve as a general resource.

(Not linking to the original artist, but if he sees this, I do apologize if it seemed like I was attacking you, or if all the arguing just stressed you out. It was a cute picture and I trust that you didn't mean anything by it, but my point here is that a lot of well-intentioned people don't get the nuances of this issue.)

I'm not sure which of my arguments Hvly wanted evidence for, so I'll just try to be thorough.

Why is the "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" slogan anti-Semitic?

Because it is a call for the elimination of Israel. A two-state solution would involve Palestine and Israel in the space between the (Jordan) River to the (Mediterranean) Sea. If Palestine takes up that whole area, what happened to Israel and its 10 million inhabitants, 7 million of whom are Jewish? I don't think Palestine is gonna give them citizenship, in case the October 7th massacre didn't make that clear.

It's also worth noting that "will be free" is not the only variation on this chant. Especially early on, it was often "Palestine is Arab" or "is Islamic." Can't really deny that those are about excluding Jews (and/or Arab Christians, Druze, etc.)

Put another way: imagine if in the United States, we popularized the phrase "from the Canadian border to South America, the U.S. will be free!" Sounds great, right? Nothing wrong with freedom! But, wait...how do Mexico and Central America fit into this geography? And oh, yeah, the people promoting this slogan are the KKK, and the first draft was that the U.S. would be "white." Would you pooh-pooh a Hispanic person who found this kinda racist? Then why are Jews different?

I appreciate that many Westerners want this phrase to be about freeing Palestinians from Israel's supposed occupation (we'll get to that in a minute). But it's not. It's about killing Jews.

Are you sure? Has Hamas ever SAID they want to kill all Jews/Israelis?

Yes. Right here. Right after they killed, raped and terrorized them on a Jewish holiday.

It's also in their official charter. Contrast the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which calls for peace between it and its neighbors. (They declared war the day after it was signed.)

But isn't Israel trying to genocide the Palestinians too?

"Genocide" means that you're trying to kill every member of a race within a certain area. So if Israel wants to "genocide" the Palestinians, dropping pamphlets warning them to seek shelter seems like a poor strategy.

Israel is not trying to kill civilians. They're trying to kill Hamas—which, as established, does want to commit genocide. Unfortunately, this is urban warfare, and Hamas' strategy is to use Palestinian civilians as human shields. So yes, a lot of Palestinian civilians are dying. That doesn't make Israel the bad guy. At least 1.5 million German civilians died in World War II, but that doesn't mean the Allies were wrong to overthrow the Nazis, let alone that they were trying to "genocide" them.

But isn't Hamas only trying to throw off Israel's occupation?

Gaza hasn't been occupied since 2005. That was 18 years ago. A child born the day of the disengagement would now be in college, listening to people protest the non-existent occupation.

Israel didn't even withdraw due to a peace treaty; they had no promise that this would stop Palestinian terrorism. They withdrew in the desperate hope that it would bring peace. Instead, the Palestinians elected Hamas, which, as we've ascertained, wants to genocide all Jews.

What would a ceasefire mean?

In the short term, Israel would stop bombing Gaza. Good for the Palestinians, in theory. But Hamas would remain in power, and immediately start gathering strength again. Which means that within a few years, they'd attack Israel again, and there'll be another war, killing people on both sides.

Also, the 100+ Israeli hostages—including women and children—will remain in Gaza. After all, if Israel gives Hamas what they want for nothing, why should they send them back?

Anyway, that's all I have time for. If anyone still wants to argue, I'll be incommunicado until at least tomorrow night. Have a peaceful Saturday.

[minerwarfare-suzuya]

Aftermath

Miles Ownership timeline drama

Public Announcement

So, apparently Mobox87 has blocked me (not surprising or upsetting. Not like I'm going to have an outburst like I did in 2016) and messaged Kevonica about my post on Miles due to how she's brought up in it. I just want to clarify that she wouldn't have been brought up at all if she didn't put Miles on a pedestal for any issues that he causes with artists or with Mobox87 fans. So, yeah not my fault you get dragged into drama because Miles has to bring you into the argument for his defense.

But-

I will just say that I won't do another rant post on Mobox since I don't want to thrive on that to where she's becoming more uncomfortable being online than she already is. I don't support her IRL stalker and online stalker madbox91 harassment nor do I wish her to harm herself like she did before over Zombify's Twitter thread and feel that she needs to be taken off the internet by deleting her accounts all over social media.

I've come to a point where I don't care if Mobox87 apologizes because her and I will never be on good terms which the same could be said to her ex-friends that were once close to her. Plus, her apologies won't ever go into details on what she's done wrong since they always go on to say "I've done some bad things" (like what did you do?) or victimize herself saying "I was a manipulable person" (that neglects the fact that you made bad decisions on your own sense of mind not by others requests or demands). Either way, it's whatever at this point. I don't need 21 apologies for her to say publicly or privately to everyone.

Honestly, what goes on with Mobox87's art is whatever at this point. As long as she keeps explicit content on a second account that isn't advertised on her main then that's fine. Some may disagree but that's a post I'll talk about soon since I do want some understanding on what can work with mature story tellng.

So, Mobox this won't be the last you'll hear from me. Not until I make one last post on giving a sneak peek of my script segment "Understanding" which will later follow up with a Maverick video posted here. For now, do whatever you want Mobox. Anything and everything said about you has been done.

In other words, I'll leave you alone for now since I do want you to succeed expectations to prove that you have changed as a person online.

Anyways!

Miles responded to my timeline post, specifically part 6 of my post cause I showed how he wanted to be in a committed relationship with a minor that was 16 who barely becoming 17.

Apparently he's been calling out Kevonica, Cagney and I out. Kev has been getting labeled as homophobic, racists and a pedophile with no evidence provided against her.

Most of the stuff said on his new account is just propaganda to make him look like he's the victim in the situation I called him out in. It's quite honestly no surprise he'd stoop so low as to label us as something we're not with out any evidence.

So just know that Miles is saying shit out of his ass.

One example being that he posted on his Instagram account "human_anthony_dust" and reposted on his new Tumblr account, calling me out as a pedo still and lying about how I "claimed false age" to his OC that he bought from Mobox87.

Which again he never announced the age of the OC publicly. Even then you can age up characters in drawings but I didn't since the OC is 30 years old or in his 30s. He's complaining over nothing.

Vinsnake is literally William Afton created as a fantasy character for Faces of Nothing. William Afton is a character in his 30s in which Mobox87 herself made Vinsnake around that exact age as it was originally attended.

Again, Miles never made the character 16 years old until he bitched about my drawing in response for harassing Yuriviq on DeviantArt.

Ironic though-

You made a character 16 years old last minute while you were trying to get with someone who you said was a 16 year old.

Even more ironic, that most of the OCs you kept the longest were kid OCs from Mobox87 while the adult OCs you owned were sold off first.

Doesn't really help your case after admitting you wanted to be with someone under 18.

Oh but wait-

I suppose you did take Kev's own words into consideration.

But that contradicts your deleted post before publicly sharing that "Important info".

You're obviously lying to protect your image and make Kev look guilty for showing me her conversation with you so I can look like I'm the dumb one jumping to conclusions.

The last response from Miles was this. Still being misleading and excusing his own actions

The following list says.

• Kevonica, Cagney and I look down at people for simple human mistakes.

Ah yes because saying I like a 16 year old barely becoming 17 while still under 18 when you're 21 surely is a "simple" human mistake.

Heck maybe the harassment all over Amino without remorse was a "simple" human mistake.

Surely, that IP ban you did to someone over a drawing of your paid OC was a "simple" human mistake.

• Lie about others and only care what they think is the correct answer.

Miles, that is you as a person. You fit that description cause you are a liar and only care what you think.

• Sick of our mental abuse, harassment and cuber bullying

Mental abuse? Where is the evidence on that of us ever doing that? Harassment and Cyber bullying is what you do since you fucken spam our DMs at 7 in the morning to talk out of your ass!

• Time to take a real adult step

You're a literal man. Whose a cry baby and the epitome of a bitch online over your petty nonsense. Like get that in your head. I'm not the one with entitlement over stupid reasons and lack of common sense.

Anyways, I'm just going to end it here because this asshole begged for a response after I went silent. So, here it is because you practically asked for it. This was your moment.

[kpujing]

• 801 DAYS | BTS JIN AU •

AU where Jin has a girlfriend, and she has a breakdown after finding out he's going to mandatory military service... and still didn't ask her to marry him.

Portuguese version | English version

Pairing: Kim Seokjin x Original Character

Genre: Fluff, Comedy, Lovers [little bit of Enemies], a tiny sprinkle of angst ((cause I HATE sadness))

A/N: Just me writing fanfic about dating my UTT [and having a mental breakdown over him going to military service]. Chapters are really short cause 1. This was written for Twitter and 2. I didn't get to the point of building up a more intricate narrative over the original plot, although I had some ideas for it.

Originally posted on Twitter, but I'm from Brazil, and since the app is indefinitely banned in my home country I'm posting it here too...

Previous | Chapter 18 | Next

Healing a Broken Heart

Hoseok and Jimin are on an emergency operation to try helping Aurora win over her sadness, but nothing seems to do the trick. Thankfully, Seokjin knows exactly what to do to be forgiven by his girlfriend...

— Alright, who wants brigadeiro? — Hoseok asked, trying to lift the mood in Aurora's apartment living room.

He and Jimin were set on keeping her company and, ignoring her protests, they rang her doorbell soon after the argument in group chat had ended.

The situation couldn't have been more discouraging. The girl had her face extremely swollen and red - a clear evidence of how much she'd cried -, and her humor was grumpy to a point there wasn't even a small semblance to their usually lovable and energetic friend they'd always been so used to.

— You don't know how to make brigadeiro, Hoseok — Aurora retorted, all curled up under a blanket while sitting beside Jimin on her couch and pretending to be entertained with a random program playing on her television.

— Ow Sunshine! I really didn't need that kind of criticism right now — he whined with a pout, still Aurora didn't show any reaction to it.

Hoseok and Jimin exchanged a glance.

— Rora... — Jimin tried, rubbing her shoulder gently. -- You know we're here just to keep you company, right? There's no need for you to attack us like that.

— I know... Sorry, Hobi — the girl muttered, sniffling and hiding her face under the blanket to try to ignore her friend's worried gaze. — I'm really not in the mood for anything right now...

— It's worse than we imagined — whispered Jimin, moving away from the girl and closer to Hoseok with a nervous expression. -- I don't think we'll be able to solve this, hyung.

— She denied brigadeiro, Minie... She NEVER says no to brigadeiro — the Jung answered, trying to keep his voice low enough for the girl not to be able to hear it. — I don't know what to do!

— Don't worry, I do -- they heard a low and slightly hoarse voice, startled they turned around to find Seokjin standing right behind them, holding food boxes. While both friends were focused on the girl depressed on the couch, neither of them heard the sound of the apartment door opening or the not-so-subtle noise of the brief stumble that almost made all the boxes the Kim carried fall to the ground.

— Hyung! — the younger ones, still surprised by his presence, exclaimed. Split between celebrating Aurora's boyfriend's arrival and kicking him out of the apartment for hurting her.

— Aurora's not good, hyung. She's sad with you. I don't know if you being here is a good idea right now — Jimin soon took the lead, voicing the feelings he'd noticed on his friend while following the Kim to the kitchen.

— I know, Jiminie — he muttered after a deep, heavy sigh, having put the packages he'd bought over the table. -- But I don't think keeping a distance right now will be good for both of us or our relationship.

— You're right — Hoseok barged into the conversation before Jimin could bring up his point of view once again, knowing well how he's friend, empathic as he was, had already taken their friend's pain to himself and now voiced them as if they were his own. — We're gonna leave you two to talk and solve this out. But please, hyung, be careful about what you're gonna say to her.

And so, Hoseok and Jimin - the latter, still a bit reluctant - left the apartment, giving Seokjin some privacy to solve his relationship problem.

Still, Seokjin had his doubts about how effective his plan would be, given that, knowing Aurora as he did, it was obvious that his decision to hide the information about his military service had hurt his girlfriend.

He walked out of the kitchen and closer to the couch as silently as possible, feeling his heart tighten from knowing the small rumble of blankets over the furniture was his girlfriend. There were very few times Aurora had felt sad or hurt to the point of letting that influence her humor, and from those few ones it had indeed happened, Seokjin felt his heart tightening knowing the only thing he’d be able to do for his love was tightly embracing her in his arms to try and protect her from a feeling he had no power over. But now things were different.

Aurora was crying because of him.

Carefully, Seokjin knelt in front of the rumble the blankets formed and lifted them slowly, revealing her swollen and flushed red face from crying. He smiled, incapable of stopping himself from admiring how beautiful and adorable was the girl who held his heart, but his smile also had this hint of melancholy that he couldn’t get rid of before being able to explain and show her how much he regretted being the cause of her tears.

His hand, soft and trembling as if he was afraid the girl would vanish in thin air, made its way to a lock of her hair that rested over her forehead, moving it away from her face. Knowing well, that would be enough to pull her out of her sleep - although he suspected she wasn’t even actually sleeping. He felt his heart racing against his chest once her eyelids lazily lifted, giving space for her dark brown iris to focus on him with that warmth he was so familiar with, although also carrying this cold glare that made his throat dry out.

— I hope you’re the Seokjin of my dream, cause if you’re the real Seokjin, you better get out of my house right now… Before I go grab a broom to kick out of here myself — Seokjin couldn’t hold back his smile as he heard those rough and threatening words that rang in his ears in a rather adorable way.

Once more, he realized how lost and fated he was towards spending all the time Aurora would let him love her, or he’d be forced to resign to an eternity craving for her heart.

— If you really wanted to kick me out, you’d have done it the moment I opened the door… And I thought I was already the Seokjin of your dream — he teased, laughing as he watched the girl roll her eyes around with a scoff, not truly seeming to be that bothered.

— You are… Just not when you hide things you know are important to me and that obviously affects both of us.

— I didn’t hide anything from you, my love!

— But you didn’t tell me either!

— I didn’t get to!

— Why not? We tell each other everything! Did I give you any reason not to trust me?

— That’s not the point!

— Did I stop you from telling me?

— No!

— Then why-

— I got scared, ok?! I got scared that you’d give up on me!

They halted, staring at each other with eyes watering up. The silence seemed to form a lump in their throats, and Seokjin thought for a moment he had said too much.

— I love you.

It was so simple and at the same time, it seemed like the whole world had faded away. Seokjin always loved how Aurora was so soothing by always knowing the right time to say just the right things. Sometimes he thought this was one of the greater reasons he had fallen in love with her.

— And sometimes swear I wish I didn’t love you this much — she whined, making him smile when she unconsciously pouted.

— And sometimes swear I get surprised from not knowing I can't still love you even more than I already do — he answered, feeling pulled into the warmth in her eyes.

— I don’t know why you felt the need to be scared, but at least I hope you get once and for all that there’s not even the slight possibility I’ll give up on you. Not even if you give up on me. You wanted to date me, now it’s for the rest of our lives, Seokjin — Aurora pointed her finger against his chest, they were so close he was sure she could hear the quick thumping of his heart.

He felt the need to kiss her, but still needed to be sure he’d been forgiven first.

— Please forgive me.

— I do forgive you — Aurora muttered, her eyelashes slowly brushing over her skin before her eyes stared back into his. Seokjin gulped, knowing her next words would seal out his destiny for the rest of the night. — But you better cook for me every day until you have to go, got it?

And so he smiled, a sided grin that brought with it a thousand promises from a man completely surrendered to love.

— Your wish is my command, my lady.

Previous | Chapter 18 | Next

[itsclydebitches]

With all the discussion of CRWBY/RT's apparent obsession with heroic sacrifices in RWBY as of late (and how poorly framed/managed they are), a part of me can't help but wonder if they're trying to chase the high of Epsilon/Church's sacrifice at the end of Red VS Blue Season 13. (Here's the scene in question for context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5jM_mrOqec) Which I will admit, I found to be a pretty good scene as a sendoff to the character and at the time thought it was a nice way to end the show. Though RT ended up souring it by continuing on with season 15.

Thank you for the clip! I obviously have no idea what RT's motivations might be regarding the prevalence of these sacrifices - is it "chasing the high" or is RvB just early evidence of a writing trend? - but regardless, I like this a whole lot more than what RWBY's been giving us. I think this has a nice balance between the somber, emotional soundtrack and the funny one-liners that sound like they're core summaries of many character's personalities (unlike Weiss who suddenly becomes the comic relief). I like that Church (if I'm right about how is speaking there) doesn't actually end with "...I hate you all the least!" but has his actual goodbye speech once he's privately recording. I'm missing a ton of the nuances of his argument, but I like that it at least comes across as thought out: he's reassuring the AI voice that he's sure about this, he lays out how the sacrifice will hopefully help the others survive, he acknowledges that he's only here in the first place because of them, and there's some element of being "held back" that this sacrifice would do away with. Finally, I LOVE the self-referential acknowledgement that heroes don't get to see if their sacrifice was worth it (which is one of the problems with having Penny die and then chat with Winter, or Ruby drinking the tea and then waking up fine in the tree: suicide presented as just a journey where you don't really lose your connection to life), ending with the blank screen. We don't get to know if they win either! We are emotionally connected to Church in this moment, experiencing the story through him, and like him we don't get the reassurance of knowing whether the others survived! (Well, until you hit Season 14, apparently lol). You've just gotta have faith that the sacrifice meant something - "aint that a bitch."

And all this, I want to stress, is coming from someone who has NEVER watched more than like two episodes of RvB,which I've now totally forgotten. This scene is the entirety of my context... and I enjoyed it. Which I bring up largely because of the Moistcritikal drama. Personally, I take issue with the idea that someone's negative opinion of a clip is unreliable because they haven't seen the rest of the show. Does that mean then that my enjoyment is unreliable too? Most RWBY fans wouldn't say so because, after all, why would you get mad about others agreeing with you? They're only up in arms because he was critical of the show, rather than praising it, despite both situations stemming from the same ignorance. To say nothing of the fact that criticism is dismissed even when fans (like me) do keep up with the canon, a ton of the side material, are immersed in fandom, and are present for every major development. Doing everything "right," apparently, still doesn't earn you any trust in your opinion, so... why was all that necessary again?

I do believe that context (for obvious reasons) can severely skew an opinion one way or another. For example, I recently saw a new Magnus Archives listener saying that although they were loving the podcast, it really took them out of it to try and believe that all these people just happened to write down perfectly composed, poetic narratives about their experiences. I so wanted to say that there was a reason for this. That, eventually, the podcast would reveal a canonical explanation for how this occurs, taking what's originally a huge aspect of suspension of disbelief - arguably to the point of annoyance - and reframing it as a major worldbuilding detail that enhances the enjoyment instead of detracting from it. So there are obviously cases like that, just like I might enjoy the RvB scene more or less depending on my experience with the rest of the show... but that doesn't mean my enjoyment now is wrong? Nor is Moistcritikal's lack of enjoyment wrong. I find the 'Oh, you just don't understand and you're willingness to speak on the topic without every scrap of information is insulting' to be, itself, a pretty insulting response. This desire to invalidate someone's honest opinion of what they've been given is an issue on its own, but beyond that, a good show should be able to read well even without the rest of the context. Hasn't anyone ever analyzed a clip of a show in school that they enjoyed? Gotten excited over an ambiguous moment in a trailer? Decided to watch something based on just a video/GIF-set here on tumblr with no other info? Good media is good even when you don't fully know what's going on and bad media will read badly without the distraction of already being emotionally connected to the show. Toss in the fact that people can pick up a fair bit of context from the scenes themselves and that Moistcritikal had fans in the chat explaining the situation. People can still look at a clip and think the dialogue is badly written, or the acting shoddy, or the animation poor, or the whole conflict - once explanations are given - to be pretty badly conveyed. None of this takes an intimate knowledge of nine Volumes to develop an opinion on. Moistcritikal might miss character dynamic details like Yang standing in front of a passive Blake to 'protect' her from her little sister, but he can still respond to the general gist of the situation and the ways in which it was executed.

[csmeanerr]

“i’m not affiliated with the species or terralien staff” “LET ME ASK COY” make up ur fucking mind dude

.https://toyhou.se/~forums/5867.service-reviews/457397.terraliens-psa-upd-03112023

specifically this comment

quick breakdown to all of their points

1) yes terraliens originated as a cham concept! however iirc chams are aware of, and alright with, the existence of terraliens.

yeah that's not the issue. the issue is terraliens were similar to chams and were given their space but when another species does the same terralien owner spat in their face and started this entire thing. what's being pointed out is the hypocrisy with the origin of terraliens being a rejected cham myo to show that terraliens came from a similar background

2) “doxxing”… yeah, there was no evidence of doxxing in those screenshots. 

as the second comment says they were intentionally trying to get someone's IP by trying to get them to click links that will give it. in what fucking world does the sentence 'we need to bait them into click links' not put them in a bad fucking light

3) coy’s CENSORED nsfw stories. It’s exhausting seeing people make such a big deal of them. Nothing they posted was actually NSFW. The worst they posted was a cropped image of their oc without clothing on, with the uncropped version on their (age verified) CF stories. They do NOT post uncensored nsfw, and i don’t know why people keep bringing it up. Also you straight up put words into their mouth with your paraphrasing; they released a whole thing explaining their thought process, and said they wouldn’t do so again (which they’ve lived up to, moving all nsfw content to a different account entirely, which again requires age verification to see). even if they had posted uncensored nsfw, it would still be a non-issue since they’ve since acknowledged and rectified their actions.

contradicted yourself in the same argument and then added 'they fixed it so don't bring it up again'. nudity ≠ sexual intent but the context of the pieces does imply it so trying to say it's not nsfw because it's just nudity is misleading.

the first image is of their oc nude with little showing but also has ghost hands on them, one close to their ass. there is also blush on the character's face and ass so let me ask if you would be comfortable showing your coworker this picture. nsfw means not safe for work aka it's inappropriate to pull out in a public space it does not inherently mean porn.

the other is of a bunny thing in shibari which of course many people claim isn't sexual which is a subjective issue. shibari is often associated with the bdsm community so just because you think it's not sexual does not mean it's not inappropriate

4) stitch adopts. they’re not breaking copyright by drawing the same species as a movie 💀by that logic, nobody could sell pokesona adopts, or sonic adopts, or adopts of any other fandom. this is also a very dumb argument that keeps getting brought up for no reason.

i dont really give a shit about this one cuz it's a whole can of worms and its arguement boils down to being a massive grey area. YES is it breaking the law of designs and you shouldn't even call it stitch because then you're affiliating the design with the brand, which is what they are against. The reason pokemon and other stuff gets made and sold though is because these large brands don't go after one-time transactions cuz they don't have the manpower nor interest, they only crack down if it's of a larger scale that would harm their image.

[dragontamer05]

Had more sudden thoughts on annoying fanon things that I see or at least used see,

Everyone just jumping on an accepting the idea that Ryou's Dad (and by extension Yugi's too) are Bad Dads.

Yes the series does have a lot of antagonistic parentals in the series so it's not out of the realm of possibility but like there's no hard evidence.

His dad gave him a magical artifact with a dangerous spirit attached- sure but both the anime and early in the manga it's brought up/mentioned it was something he bought on a trip otherwise unaware of any dark magic connections at the very least would have 0 reason to actually believe in any claims he might have been told anyway.

Even if we include DSOD- where one can assume the story he originally told his friends was perhaps just something he made up to avoid the truth none the less context clues 1. point to the fact Ryou probably wasn't supposed to be there in the first place happened to sneak out to follow his dad 2. Yah the guy was after the artifact but again it's not fully clear on if he actually believed in the magical properties it held man could have just wanted it for the museum or something (Not saying he's a great guy for just trying and wanting to take an artifact even after being told No but this is about him as a parent more then over all person- good people can do shitty things to you know)

and in that case the Ring just kinda latched itself to him and his dad had little to do with him actually acquiring it.

[Side tangent after that movie I also frequently saw people jumping on an accepting the idea of his dad being dead which idk like yah in the dub they gave him a line of "I lost someone too that day" or whatever but like that could have so many potential meanings. At best his dad was just knocked back an unconscious for awhile not dead.]

Other evidence I think I've seen used is Ryou living on his own which like there is plenty of evidence and I believe even dialogue pointing to Ryou having moved out on his own being his OWN choice to avoid anyone else getting hurt. Kid doesn't seem to have or need any part time jobs/ nothing to suggest money troubles so I'd say based on context alone at the very least Dad/someone is probably paying for him to live there and just in general through what little information we do get within canon there's no like smoking gun or obvious implications of him having a bad relationship with his father.

--

Same deal with Yugi's dad it just seems such popular fanon to write/portray him as being some dead beat non existent parent when there is all of nothing to imply that.

I realize there is an argument to be had that there's no evidence he isn't but here me out.

Considering this is a series that has no problems with acknowledging and mentioning when one does have a shitty home life I have a hard time believing that if something was indeed going on that even a single mention of it wouldn't get dropped even as like a side thought bubble you know but we don't.

That said what we do have is that somewhere in an interview Takahashi did bring up/ mention that his dad just works a lot.

Which look even if he hadn't said it how is it that hard to believe that just because we don't see them during the story that they have to be totally absent. For one Yugi n co spend a lot of time at school/not at his house so we aren't likely to see him. We barely see much of his mom as it is so seems less likely his dad would get any screen time.

Besides potential work travel what's so hard to imagine that the guy just works long hours or something

[randomcollectionitem]

Cirith Ungol - King Of The Dead

https://www.discogs.com/release/10276929-Cirith-Ungol-King-Of-The-Dead

Man, I couldn't have asked for a better pick to start things off. If you have any interest at all in classic heavy metal, stop what you're doing and listen to Cirith Ungol. If you don't have any interest in classic heavy metal, stop what you're doing and listen to Cirith Ungol anyways. King of the Dead has it all: heavy riffs, tight leather pants, Michael Whelan art ripped straight off a Moorcock novel, Lord of the Rings references... what more could you want?

Cirith Ungol is one of those strange bands like The Scorpions that hustled all through the 70s but didn't really make a name for themselves until the 80s. Despite forming in '71 their first album didn't release until a decade later, followed up by King of the Dead in 1984. King of the Dead moves away from the proto-power-metal sounds of their debut and focuses in on slower Sabbathian riffs. There's a common argument floating around that King of the Dead is the first doom metal album, and while I'm not much of one to get mired in online debates about metal subgenres I will say that the title track makes a damn good argument for that classification. As a bassist myself, I'll also note that this album has some of the tastiest bass playing in heavy metal. Their bassist, simply known as Flint, takes the front stage of many tracks with punchy Rickenbacker tones and busy, melodic bass parts.

The copy I have here is the 2017 deluxe CD reissue on Metal Blade. They've done a nice job with this edition. I'm a known hater of the digipack but they picked one that's a bit heavier duty than most and has held up well, still looking fairly new 6 years later. The booklet includes track-by-track interviews with band members, a few collages of scanned-in ephemera, classic photos of the band, lyrics, and a good page of credits and recording info (often undervalued but infinitely useful for collectors/dorks like myself). This reissue features newly remastered audio, attempting to bring it back closer to the sound of the original 1984 Enigma release per the aforementioned helpful liner notes. I don't have an original LP or the '99 Metal Blade CD to compare to, but this one sounds pretty good for its age and fairly low budget (with the original recording being self-produced by the band). The ever-helpful dr.loudness-war.info provides an average dynamic range score of 10 for our version (pretty solid for the age and genre) with the '99 reissue clocking in at an 8 (for the socially well-adjusted people who don't obsess over this stuff: a higher DR number means loud parts are louder and quiet parts are quieter, evidence of less use of wideband compression during the mastering process and typically resulting in a more "musical" sound overall; google "loudness war" for more info on what this is and why it matters). The CD follows the main album up with a live cut from '84, a rare compilation track, and a few live tracks from the band's 2016 reunion. Nothing essential, but a nice selection of bonus material.

This edition comes with a live DVD of the band at The Roxy shortly before the album's release (recorded on 1/19/83 for those keeping score at home), preserved in authentic 1980s blur-o-vision. The DVD audio sounds like it was taken from the VHS tape rather than the soundboard, with the bass and kick drum often blowing out the rest of the mix. Overall it's a pretty rough watch, cool to see but I doubt I'll revisit it. I did enjoy watching their roadie cheesin next to the guitar amp the whole time, dude's just happy to be here. Same buddy, same.

I'm sure it's obvious at this point, but I absolutely adore this album. Cirith Ungol has soundtracked a hell of a lot of sessions of my old AD&D game and a hell of a lot of hours on the road back when I used to drive around putting up show flyers for a living. I don't plan to do numerical ratings on this blog, but I do give this a wholehearted endorsement for anyone looking to bring some classic 80s cheese into their life. Until next time, may your hair stay long and may your heavy metal Bach interpolations stay as tight as your pants.

[becuzmdsaidineededpersonality]

I don't know. I think it's a little disingenuous to portray conversations and frustrations from lesbians and sapphic women as just "petty infighting" and that these arguments are meant to breed "frustration and resentment".

Amazon Prime has removed several queer women from their adaptations while the queer men are still included.

21/30 of the canceled queer shows between 2020-2022 were about lesbians, sapphic women and/or WLW. (And this isn't even all of them...)

It's also been pretty well known that outside of a few exceptions of adaptational shows and films, shows and movies that focus on lesbians, sapphic women and/or WLW tend to get far less advertising and less diversity in the types of advertising that are given. I think a really good example of this is how much and how many different advertising methods were used for the adaptation of Red, White, & Royal Blue (a one-time summer film that is now getting a sequel that has nothing to do with the original source material) and A League of Their Own (a show with multiple episodes that was originally slated to have more than one season before the creators were ultimately screwed over by Amazon and it was cancelled after one season)

Don't even have to do a deep analysis. Just count the number of videos on Amazon's youtube channels RWRB has in comparison to ALOTO.

We're not mad and bringing this up because we think there is "too much gay man rep" because this is a pointless argument and a stupid one because what does that even mean and why would these standards of "too much" not apply to all the straight male characters out there? Also, I am pretty sure Asian gay men and Black gay men and Arab gay man and trans gay men and so forth and so on do not feel there is "tons of gay rep for them!"

We're also not mad and bringing this up because "certain content with your identity blowing up but it doesn't feel representative of you, isn't a genre you like, or is made by straight people / those not of your identity."

Now, are there people on places like twitter who will never be happy with any kind of lesbian, sapphic, and/or WLW representation in any storyline and literally are unable to accept the concept that "no, not every single storyline with a lesbian and/or sapphic character is going to align with your experiences" and will say things like "there has literally never been lesbians in (insert genre here) and when someone provides them with examples, they get defensive and shift the goal post because "well that genre is stupid and so and so ain't even a real lesbian so it doesn't count"? Sure, but should they really get to be discussed with any sort of validity when there are genuine points to be made about systemic discrimination and underfunding and undervaluing of lesbian, sapphic, and/or WLW representation in comparison to gay, achillean, and/or MLM representation...and when these arguments and evidence and discussions come up, it just gets brushed away and not taken seriously and literally nothing is done about it?

In fact, a lot of the canceled shows I am defending and talking about I don't even like because they are...well...not my thing.

And one of the problem shows mentioned, the Invincible adaptation, I actually enjoy for the most part. But as another fellow gender media studies researcher who is way smarter and better than me said, it's both possible, and even necessary, to simultaneously enjoy media while also being critical of its more problematic or pernicious aspects, and blatantly straight washing a lesbian character and a lesbian couple is a huge problem and I can and should speak out about this. And I will!

Now, I do agree with the overall message of this post. Consume media outside of your own genres to see more rep you want to see. The real issue is there not being enough representation in general. Yes, yes, yes. All good and correct things.

But it is beyond frustrating when every time this conversation comes up and lesbians like me point out the lesbaphobia and sexism against storylines revolving around lesbians, sapphic women, & WLW in many different facets that ultimately cause real world effects...I can't stand this framing because it ignores the larger picture and allows this stuff to be considered normal and expected.

Also, in what world is there more WLW representation than MLM representation in animated shows?

In kids shows, sure. But adding in adult animation?

Harley Quinn, Hazbin Hotel, Tuca and Birdie, and Arcane are four shows out of hundreds that tend to be male dominated and focus primarily on male storylines. Also, they suffer from the "later season sapphic trope" (with the exception of Hazbin) which while not an issue in and of itself, should be included in this conversation. No, not every person is going to like every single one and not every single one is going to be the "gold standard" when it comes to gay male rep...but if we are talking a pure numbers game...it's probably not even going to be close.

And speaking of adult animation, I often use Q-Force as an example of subtle lesbophobia presented in lesbian representation. The main gay male couples get tons of sex scenes, get to tell sex jokes...while the two main lesbian couples can't go past holding hands and a quick kiss (maybe, I don't even think they kissed but just to be sure) If you ever want to see some of the stuff I am talking about, watch that show and you will see. (now it is still a legit fun show too and I like it but again...the whole "it's both possible, and even necessary, to simultaneously enjoy media while also being critical of its more problematic or pernicious aspects")

I think a way better example to point to would be AAA studio video games because while m-spec and bisexual characters outnumber all LGBT representation in AAA studio video games, removing them from the equation and not including NPCs and putting the lesbian and gay male representation of protagonists side by side, this may be one of the few media categories where lesbian rep outnumbers gay male rep, and that is an issue and should be discussed.

But maybe I am wrong and there is a whole list of lesbian and/or sapphic characters in adult animated shows I am missing...this is more of the anecdotal part of the rant rather than the "here's proof this is happening" so take this with a grain of salt."

I see a lot of fighting online when it comes to gay rep. With extreme people on either sides but at the end of the day the real issue is we just don’t have enough lgbt rep. Plain and simple.

Some mediums / age demographics tend to lean a little more in one direction then the other, so if you only consume one you can feel like you are missing out (ie : there being more wlw content in animated shows and there being more mlm content in YA books)

And it leads to a lot of yelling online. People saying gay men get too much rep, people saying lesbians get too much rep. People wanting to see themselves in a medium they often consume and either getting straight content or content about lgbt not like them.

Or certain content with your identity blowing up but it doesn’t feel representative of you, isn’t a genre you like, or is made by straight people / those not of your identity.

It can lead to feelings of frustration, anger, resentment and being left behind. And I see it also leads to soooooo much infighting. When at the end of the day there just isn’t enough gay content.

It’s something that has to be sought out, even if it’s easier now then ever and we have access to stuff old and new. It’s still not enough.

[star--joy]

5 Times People Thought Percy and Vex Were Dating...

And the one time they decided to prove them right.

Chapter Three: Allura

-

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Warnings: None

Words: 1068

Originally posted: 12/31/22

Ao3 link: archiveofourown.org/works/43509219/chapters/110534658

Professor Allura Vysoren narrows her eyes at the pair that approaches her desk, whispering and laughing quietly among themselves. Percy and Vex are, individually, two of her brightest students, so it surprises her to see them trying to team up. She’d been very clear in her instructions; couples are heavily discouraged from partnering on her assignments. In her experience, that ends up in too many fights and sloppy projects.

Still, they’re adults, and she doesn’t feel right making their decisions for them. She had just hoped that these two would be smarter than this.

“Professor, can you check over our proposal?” Percy asks, sliding over the idea for their final project. It looks well done, written in a mix of small, neat writing from Percy and looping cursive from Vex.

Still, Allura can already see the approaching screaming matches. God knows they’ve happened before between other couples. “Percival, Vex’ahlia, are you two partnering together?” she asks, pressing her fingers against her temples and massaging steady circles into her growing headache.

They pause at her evident disapproval. “That was the plan. Is there a problem with that?” Percy asks, sharing a glance with Vex, the kind of glance that’s only exchanged by those who can deeply understand each other.

Allura sighs. “I can’t forbid it, but I would rather you didn’t. Things get complicated when couples work together.”

In sync, they tilt their heads to the side. It’s rather cute, even she has to admit. They work well together. Just not for schoolwork. “You said it was a group assignment, though,” Vex questions, eyebrows drawn.

That makes her blink. She hadn’t expected them to play dumb. If they’re trying to hide their relationship, they’re doing a truly shit job of it. They sit together, always sharing notes and whispers during every lecture. Vex brings Percy coffee every day. He ‘secretly’ does her assignments when she gets sick. Besides, the way they look at each other? There’s nothing platonic between them. “Like I said, I can’t stop you. But, please, if you’re going to fight or break up, keep it out of the classroom.”

Vex goes completely rigid at the same time Percy sucks in a deep breath, a pale pink blush instantly invading his pale skin. Silence hangs in the air for a few moments.

Then they burst into motion.

“We’re not dating!” Vex exclaims, tacking on a nervous laugh at the end.

“I’m not— Vex is lovely, but we’re not—” Percy stutters at the same time, ducking his head in a futile attempt to hide his tomato-red face.

Allura looks between the two of them. They’re nervous, yes, but she doesn’t detect any dishonesty. Actually, they seem brutally truthful.

Oh, dear lord. They’re not dating, they’re just clueless about their own emotions. Somehow, that’s worse. The only thing she wants less than domestic arguments is awkward confessions that pull the attention of the whole class.

“Ah,” Allura sighs. “My apologies. I didn’t mean to assume.”

“It’s fine!” Vex chirps, high and reedy. All Percy can muster is a nod.

Okay. Okay, how does she avoid this dilemma? Allura presses her mind for a solution. Perhaps if she pushes them into a confession on their own time, rather than in the classroom, she can prevent the drama. That might work.

“Well, if you’re not together, I see no problem with you tackling this assignment together. You do work exceptionally well as a team,” she hums, smiling and briskly turning their draft back to them. “This draft is perfect. I can’t wait to see where you take it.”

The intensity of their deflating is reminiscent of a balloon letting out all the air. “Ah, thank you,” Vex mutters, and now she’s blushing, too, though her tanned skin makes it less obvious. She reaches out to take the draft back.

So does Percy.

Their hands accidentally brush, and they immediately pull back as if burned.

Allura fights to not roll her eyes. What kind of cheesy rom-com has she stumbled into?

Vex snatches the paper and both of them practically run away, heads down and doggedly not looking at each other.

She smiles. Getting involved in the romantic lives of her students is not usually a good idea, and yet… they are rather cute.

“Don’t tell me you’re playing matchmaker,” Kima, the teacher’s aide and Allura’s wife, groans, catching Allura’s attention. She’d been unusually silent for the interaction, choosing to observe with little more than an amused smile. “I though you left those days back in high school, ‘Lura.”

“Shush,” Allura mutters. “I am not playing matchmaker. I am simply avoiding classroom drama.”

“Riiiiight. Should I tell them to send you an invite to the wedding?”

“Kima!” she hisses, turning to look at her wife with death in her eyes. “If you’re going to say ridiculous things, at least be quiet about it!”

Kima’s grin is absolutely devious. “Are you afraid they’re going to catch on to your plan? Because it wasn’t very subtle. Seriously, ‘you work exceptionally well as a team.’ It’s like you begged them to make out.”

“I’m going to ignore you, now,” Allura hisses as the next pair of students approach the table with their draft held nervously in hand.

She laughs. “Fine, fine. But you can’t ignore them,” she says, gesturing to where Percy and Vex continue to work on their assignment, a noticeable distance between them. The blush has yet to leave Percy’s face, and it’s almost concerning how bright it is. Vex keeps tugging on her braid. They’re both sneaking nervous glances at each other near constantly.

Dear God, they’re so oblivious. It should be annoying. So why can’t she fight her fond, only slightly exasperated smile?

“Professor Vysoren?” one of the students at her desk asks, pulling her attention back. “Is our draft okay?”

“Yes, it’s fine,” she approves with little more than a glance, too busy glaring at Kima to fully read it.

Kima just snickers under her breath, not being subtle about how she’s also staring at Percy and Vex. “I give them ten days before they get over themselves and get together,” she says once the students are out of earshot.

Allura sighs. She really should not take this bet. It’s invasive. It’s unprofessional. It’s a horrible, horrible idea.

And yet… “Five days, maximum.”

Grinning, Kima holds out a hand to shake and cement the bet.

Sighing, Allura takes it.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

hmm i was reading your rook analysis (and while i agree on some things i strongly disagree on others) and i was honestly not going to send a message because hey, everyone has different opinions and all, but i find a little bit weird you didnt bring up the whole stalking thing. because it was... kinda how their friendship began, right? and stalking is not exactly... huh. you know.

[Referencing this analysis!]

***CONTENT WARNING: This post will mention stalking, as it is pertinent to the ask and the discussion that follows as a result of it.***

I understand that Rook is a very contentious character due to his penchant to stalk others and make them uncomfortable with (and even fearful of) him. It’s definitely an unsavory trait of Rook’s that needs to be factored in when looking at his character, and it’s up to every individual how they want to perceive Rook as a result of said unsavory trait. Personally, I can understand why Rook’s behavior is bad (as I’ve been a victim of real life stalking myself) and acknowledge that it is wrong while still liking him as a character. The same can be said for many of the other boys, who also say and do bad things (even attempted murder); we can enjoy them regardless of what awful things they get up to because it is all done in the realm of fiction, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that we approve of said content just because we are absorbing it.

What I disagree with is when the fandom solely defines Rook by his stalking or believes that stalking permeates into every single aspect of him, including his past. For example, the belief that Rook and Vil’s friendship started because Rook stalked Vil is a broad assumption, not explicitly stated or implied fact (hence why I did not bring it up in my original post), but people tend to believe it is fact anyway because they think of Rook as “nothing more than a stalker”. Nowhere in the actual recollection of their shared past is it stated or strongly implied that Rook stalked Vil.

Vil and Rook’s initial meeting was a few months into the school year; Rook describes Vil as the type of person that attracted attention from a lot of other students due to his status as a celebrity. This doesn’t explicitly point to any stalking on Rook’s part. Vil naturally turned heads and had other people trailing after him because of what he was to them. Neither Rook nor Vil mentions that he followed Vil around, and given how Vil often calls others out for acting out of turn (for example, he points out that Rook’s manner of giving critique was rude), it’s weird that he wouldn’t also call Rook out for invading his personal space and privacy (if Rook did, indeed, stalk him). From Rook’s dialogue in the flashback, he only appears to observe Vil from watching his various performances.

I guess you could make the argument that Vil simply didn’t know that he was being watched from a distance (as Rook is notoriously undetectable), but it’s hard to really prove as that would be an assumption made based on Rook’s current behavior, not his past behavior. Vil actually notes that Rook would “immediately leave after giving his critique”. This (to me) implies that Rook only lingered around for long enough to drop his thoughts before leaving Vil alone.

Vil does mention that he ignored Rook, but that Rook would continue to reach out to him in spite of that. This is the only part I would really consider as a potential piece of evidence which indicates Rook stalking Vil, but it can just as easily be interpreted as someone innocently trying to chat with another person/trying to get someone else to warm up to him depending on the perspective of the person interpreting the situation. (Side note: this could also very easily read as Rook failing to recognize a certain social cue; this in of itself is not always indicative of stalking.) Vil ignoring Rook and Rook continuing to try and engage with him only described to us in a single sentence, so we don’t get enough details to really understand what Vil means by it.

“Ignoring” someone is pretty vague; does that mean Vil just didn’t talk to Rook at all, or that Vil just didn’t react to certain comments? Did Vil ever explicitly tell Rook he didn’t want to talk with him? Did Vil ever express that Rook was bothering him with the unwarranted critique? How exactly did Rook “reach out”? Was it intrusive? Did he disrespect Vil’s personal boundaries by still speaking to him (if Vil told him not to)? Did Rook use other methods of communication (text, email, etc.)? None of these are things we know, so everyone comes into it with their own preconceived notions of what “ignoring” and “reaching out” mean, which will color how they see this line (ie if a person walks into this already perceiving Rook as “just a stalker”, then they’re probably more likely to assume Rook also stalked Vil to get him to talk with him).

The only other thing I see that could potentially point to stalking is that Rook transferred to Pomefiore from Savanaclaw, even though Vil was against the idea. This is another situation in which context and lack of detail matters. The first reason Rook gives for wanting to transfer is NOT to follow Vil, but because he thought Pomefiore could best help him understand what “beauty” means on a deeper level. He was inspired to act through his friendship with Vil (which, at this point, was already well established), and wanted to continue supporting his friend as his right hand man. Rook’s goals and aspirations just so happen to be tied to Vil, whom he sees as the epitome of beauty and someone who will relentlessly also pursue it, but his end goal is the pursuit of beauty itself, not Vil. (For example, Rook wishes to see even more beauty with his Wishing Star, not to specifically see more of Vil’s beauty.)

Vil has another vague one-liner in regards to Rook’s dorm transfer. He says that he tried to dissuade Rook from making the move, but never says why he didn’t want to Rook to do it, nor the reasoning that he attempted to use to persuade Rook to change his mind. Assuming that Vil didn’t want Rook to transfer because he felt uncomfortable with him around or because he thought Rook was stalking him is remiss; it projects a lot of things onto Vil’s perception of Rook when, in reality, we don’t have the details and Vil is already shown to be comfortable with Rook by that point in time. How do we know that Vil wasn’t actually worried for Rook (whom, as far as we know, he considers a friend that he talks to for hours at a time about their interests) being in an entirely new environment with new expectarions (recall that Rook was not well groomed back then)? How do we know Vil just doesn’t want him to go through the trouble of the (implied to be) tedious transfer process? There are many possibilities that aren’t looked into.

I hope that this post (and my original one) helps to broaden people’s perspective of Rook 💦 I’ve always thought it was unfair that the fandom seems to judge and condemn Rook for his bad behavior while ignoring or even outright praising the just as bad (if not worse) behavior of the other characters whose actions also negatively impact members of the student body. Isn’t the whole point of TWST that the characters are morally grey? That we can get into deep discussions about their characters and what is “wrong” and what is “right”? That we question why we like them even when they are responsible for terrible things? That’s how I think of it.