#there might be a third version of it that is more popular but i dont feel like doing a dive rn

[muirneach]

an og incel song tbh

[vyeoh]

i dont understand watchers lmao

like i kind of get the gist

but i did not watch evo

and do not have time to (sadly)

so...help???

Luckily for you, the watchers at this point are pretty removed from the Evo ones! There are some pretentious purists out there, as with anything, that like to bitch about people not following the original script (god knows I'm guilty of this with other stuff lol) and I've noticed bitching about this specifically becoming more popular, but I'm assuming you're coming to me about the lifer series watchers and not Evo watchers. That being said, here's Vio's Watcher guide of questionable accuracy:

The Life Series watchers are only really "canon" in Martyn's lore, with them being referenced but not explicitly canonized in the Secret Life state (the symbol on the mask is their symbol from Evo but no one else really has lore, period, so I hesitate to count this as more than an easter egg for anyone else but Martyn). From what I can tell, the Watchers retained a few things from their Evo lore:

1) The ability to move players to new worlds- In Evo, the Watchers were the ones who moved people to more updated versions of the game (the series concept was playing survival but gradually updating the game version as they went). This ability lends to the life series Watchers being the "gamemakers" and being able to put players in a new game ever season

2) Grian - at the end of his Evo series (tho notably not the Evo series in general), he was taken after jumping into the end portal by the Watchers. Based on the end credit poem being replaced with a dialouge between two of them, and a third one joining in at the end, the assumption is that Grian became a Watcher. As Grian is also the server owner for the Life Series, him being a Watcher plays well into the Watchers being the game runners. I'm not sure how canon this is in Martyn's lore or if it's still an unknown, but it is a prevailing theory that Grian's involvement isn't part of the other Watcher's plans and is to try and fuck up their shit on the inside and essentially do damage control for his friends. This is based off of the quote "He was never meant to interfere, he was onlt ever meant to watch" from Martyn's videos. However, c!Martyn, who is the perspective we see, is not omniscient and therefore there's a lot we just don't know.

3) Listeners/ why the Watchers seem to hate Martyn and also Jimmy: from what I understand from the little Evo lore I remember (this was years ago lmao), the Listeners appeared later as an antagonistic force to the Watchers, and got Martyn and Jimmy on their side. They were presented as a route to freedom vs the Watchers, but once again unreliable narration needs to be kept in mind. This is likely why the Watxhers keep fucking w Martyn specifically (and might provide an in canon reason for why Jimmy keeping dying first as well lmao) but it hasn't really be touched on beyond 1) Martyn is canonically a Listener and 2) the Watchers know he's a Listener

4) So.... what are the Watchers? - this one is, canonically, unknown and therefore the source of the aforementioned pretentious bitching. You need to keep in mind that mcyt roleplay is not structured and Evo especially didn't start out expecting deep worldbuilng. This, plus the fact that the Watchers are higher powers that different people have different opinions on, means there's going to be a lot of info that just doesn't line up, from both a meta and in canon perspective.

One theory is that they're a representation of viewers. This is at least somewhat true, imo, based on how Grian "becomes a viewer" after ending his series. This is not canon, but personally I do like this theory lol. This also carries into Secret Life, where viewers can submit tasks via the statue. However, I don't think this is canonized ever and might just be more symbolic than literal. There's also a theory that Watchers vs Listeners are a dichotomy between the bad viewers who just "watch" and demand things without "listening" to the players, while Listeners are viewers what actually "listen" to what the players want to do. However, as with everything, this is speculation based off of a 3rd person limited perspective.

5) Are they evil?- once again, depends on who you ask and what version you're talking about. According to c!Martyn in both series, yes. According to c!Grian from Martyn's lore, probably? Or at least he doesn't like this particular plan of theirs. According to Evo fans who remember them as just "plot bunny for why the version of the world keeps changing", probably not. We really don't know a ton about them and so you are free to make them as evil as you want or as neutral as you want.

This is preally much all ik about the Watchers and how they relate to the Life Series. You will notice that most of it is theories or hinted at things. The beauty of mcrp as a genre is that it's very semi-formal, and so canon is a bit wiggley. So TLDR: do whatever the fuck you want lmao. You don't need mine or anyone else's approval. It's your right to do what you want with canon, just as it's your right to bitch about it on the internet. Just don't be a dick about it and everything will be fine 👍

[animemusicbrackets]

HERES THE BRACKET. FINALLY. GOD.

sorry for the wait u_u

(Text version, with dates under the cut below)

For franchises that had more than one submission, I grouped them together so that after round 2, there will only be one contestant per franchise. to try to be fair or whatever, so that a small number of franchises dont dominate the bracket

yes i know mdzs and tgcf arent anime but its my poll tourney and i do what i want godbless

this might be too much to ask but please watch the videos if you can and vote based on that! idc how much you like or dislike the anime, how much do you like the OPENING. obviously this is for fun so you can do whatever but if possible i dont rly want this to be a popularity poll :')

propaganda welcome :)

Tag List: round 1 round 2 round 3 quarterfinals semifinals finals third place round propaganda bracket updates matches (the actual polls, not including any reblogs)

ROUND 1

PART A (5/6 12:00pm ET)

Match 1: "Peace Sign" - Kenshi Yonezu (My Hero Academia) {VS} "Hitamuki" - SUPER BEAVER (My Hero Academia) Match 2: "THE DAY" - Porno Graffitti (My Hero Academia) {VS} "H. T. [Humanoid Typhoon]" - Tsuneo Imahori (Trigun 1998) Match 3: "Kaen" - QUEEN BEE (Dororo 2019) {VS} "Naru" - PON (Tsurune: Kazemai High School Kyudo Club) Match 4: "DANZEN! Futari wa Pretty Cure" - Gojo Mayumi (Futari wa Pretty Cure) {VS} "Bye Bye" - 7!! (Kimi To Boku) Match 5: "Hikariare" - BURNOUT SYNDROMES (Haikyuu!!) {VS} "FLY HIGH!!" - BURNOUT SYNDROMES (Haikyuu!!) Match 6: "Gun's & Roses" - Paradise Lunch (Baccano!) {VS} "Flyers" - BRADIO (Death Parade) Match 7: "MAN HUMAN" - Denki Groove (Devilman Crybaby) {VS} "Goya no Machiawase" - Hello Sleepwalkers (Noragami) Match 8: "Maji LOVE 1000%" - STARISH (Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love 1000%) {VS} "KICK BACK" - Kenshi Yonezu (Chainsaw Man)

PART B (5/8 12:00pm ET)

Match 9: "Papermoon" - Tommy heavenly6 (Soul Eater) {VS} "Resonance" - T.M. Revolution (Soul Eater) Match 10: "Hyadain no Kakakata☆Kataomoi-C" - Maeyamada Kenichi (Nichijou) {VS} "Parallel Hearts" - FictionJunction (Pandora Hearts) Match 11: "Easy Breezy" - chelmico (Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!) {VS} "Bara wa Utsukushiku Chiru" - Koji Makaino (Rose of Versailles) Match 12: "Tank!" - The Seatbelts (Cowboy Bebop) {VS} "COLORS" - FLOW (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion) Match 13: "Melissa" - Porno Graffitti (Fullmetal Alchemist 2003) {VS} "Golden Time Lover" - Sukima Switch (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) Match 14: "Rain" - SID (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) {VS} "Again" - YUI (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) Match 15: "Monochrome Kiss" - SID (Black Butler) {VS} "Brand New World" - D-51 (One Piece) Match 16: "Smile Bomb" - Mawatari Matsuko (Yu Yu Hakusho) {VS} "Dream Island Obsessional Park" - Susumu Hirasawa (Paranoia Agent)

PART C (5/10 12:00pm ET)

Match 17: "R★O★C★K★S" - Hound Dog (Naruto) {VS} "Lovers" - 7!! (Naruto: Shippuden) Match 18: "Far Away" - Asian Kung-Fu Generation (Naruto) {VS} "Blue Bird" - Ikimonogakari (Naruto: Shippuden) Match 19: "Hero's Come Back" - Nobodyknows (Naruto: Shippuden) {VS} "BLOODY STREAM" - Coda (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) Match 20: "Aoi Hana" - Kikukodan (Sweet Blue Flowers) {VS} "Unravel" - TK (Tokyo Ghoul) Match 21: "Setsuna no Ai" - GRANRODEO (Bungo Stray Dogs) {VS} "Gurenge" - LiSA (Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba) Match 22: "Scar" - Tatsuya Kitani (Bleach) {VS} "Eternal Blaze" - Nana Mizuki (Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's) Match 23: "Sono Saki e" - RIRIKO (Children of the Whales) {VS} "Rondo-Revolution" - Masami Okui (Revolutionary Girl Utena) Match 24: "Motteke! Sailor Fuku" - Aya Hirano, Emiri Katou, Kaori Fukuhara, and Aya Endo (Lucky☆Star) {VS} "Moonlight Densetsu" - Dali, Moon Lips (Sailor Moon)

PART D (5/12 12:00pm ET)

Match 25: "99.9" - MOB CHOIR feat. sajou no hana (Mob Psycho 100) {VS} "1" - MOB CHOIR (Mob Psycho 100) Match 26: "99" - MOB CHOIR (Mob Psycho 100) {VS} "Kibou no Uta" - Ultra Tower (Food Wars) Match 27: "Departure!" - Masatoshi Ono (Hunter x Hunter) {VS} "Sakura Kiss" - Chieko Kawabe (Ouran High School Host Club) Match 28: "History Maker" - Dean Fujioka (Yuri!!! On ICE) {VS} "Kaikai Kitan" - Eve (Jujutsu Kaisen) Match 29: "Drunken Dreams of the Past" - Lin Zhixuan (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) {VS} "Connect" - ClariS (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) Match 30: "No Parting" - Jeff Chang (Heaven Official's Blessing) {VS} "Delicate ni Suki Shite" - Ota Takako (Mahou no Tenshi Creamy Mami) Match 31: "Kiss Me" - Celeina Ann and Nai Br.XX (Carole & Tuesday) {VS} "Sudachi no Uta" - Anemoneria (Wonder Egg Priority) Match 32: "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" - Yoko Takahashi (Neon Genesis Evangelion) {VS} "Shinzou wo Sasageyo" - Linked Horizon (Attack on Titan)

[godsofdeathloveoranges]

Between a fem Near and Fem mello who would be more popular?

Hmm idk if you meant in fandom or in canon but-!

I think fandom-wise a fem!Mello would probably be more popular, especially with a more western audience. People tend to like hot, fiery bombshell blondes (most) of the time + i think a fem!mello would have the sensual appeal that misa does. It would definitely be appealing to see more of a tough girl- especially because the other female characters are only really there to be used as pawns in light's game (aside from lidner and naomi- who did end up being tricked by him but damn if she didnt give him a time of it), and i think people would like the "take no shit" attitude. ... but it depends tho bc fandom is largely populated by a very particular annoying type of ("dudebro") fan, the type that hates female characters that are TOO loud or aggressive, the way Mello is. I find that a lot of male fans like Mello for his agression and more (stereotypically) masculine attitude (though mello is VERY queer with his croptops and leather and long hair), as well as being somewhat of an underdog- i have a feeling the same fans are the ones who'd despise the very same traits in a female counterpart.

Near would be split into three receptions. 1) hated even more feverishly- near was NOT generally liked by the fandom back then- i didnt get into DN until about... 2015-ish? But even then you could tell from the fics and fan reception more from the time that people did NOT like Near at all, and it was rare to find someone that did. I largely suspect this is because he's just very misunderstood- like being seen as emotionless/uncaring when he's just guarded, seen as cocky when hes just confident, seen as 'getting lucky' rather than credit being given to his intelligence. This would be a LOT worse if he was a girl- just look at Misa. Whilst yes, the series does unfortunately downplay her intelligence a lot and turns her into pretty much comedic relief for most of the last third, there are times you can see just how smart and calculating she can be also- that are frequently ignored because shes. Well. A girl. Same would go for fem!near- absolutely everything would be an asspull, people would hate her for being "the worse, girl version of L", and people would respond more negatively because if they already hated near for beating light to begin with, theyd hate even more for a GIRL to do it. 2) the people who'd like fem!near for the appeal of a cute female character- some fans just like cute anime girls and... tbh valid. Some people like characters less when theyre girls, some like them more! I do think early receptions to near might have been more positive if there was that moe factor (and yes near is moe as a boy too but yknow what i mean). She'd definitely be a cute waifu to a lot of people. 3) the people who like near pretty much the same, just that near is a girl now. Id definitely have found a fem!near interesting- the underdog aspect would have been even moreso, and id have loved to not only see light get his ass handed to him by a girl, but a female character who actually got the writing they deserved? Yes please!

I think both characters would be more well recieved now, the way their male counterparts are- especially near, who's much more well liked by this generation of fans than the previous one. I think people would pay them more attention, bc holy shit strong female characters who are morally grey (mello) and very neurodivergent-leaning (near but tbh mello too).

Now IN CANON i think things would be v interesting

Near might have a slightly more difficult time with her team and presenting a case- not the SPK, i genuinely dont think they'd have a problem being lead by a female lead, but i think near would definitely have a lot more problems (from external sources) in general when it came to being in an authoritative role, and would definitely see a lot more pushback when it came to decisions. So she'd let NO ONE outside the team think she was female- as far as everyone would be aware, 'N' would be a man, and the voice filters would reflect that, maybe even purposefully pitched down a little. Of course, Near is canonically voiced by a female VA anyway, so its not like her voice would change, just that she'd be more conscious of it. She'd also be aware that she could use that to her advantage, knowing Kira wouldn't be looking for a woman. This would continue when she succeeded L. As far as everyone would be aware, L would be a man- and this would benefit her greatly on field missions (if there ever were anyway), with people (if ever suspicious) assuming she'd be L's secretary at most.

Mello would definitely definitely use his- or, rather, her looks to her advantage. I think it would be a lot harder for her to climb the rungs of the mafia though, and she'd probably have to work a lot harder and rely a bit more on charming her way up than earning respect the way a man would. Still posing a threat, dont get me wrong, but she wouldn't be stupid to think that she'd ever earn the same level of respect as a man would (i mean its the mafia lets be real here idk much about the criminal underworld but i think its fair to say it's male-dominated and probably quite misogynistic). That probably makes it easier for her to gather intel on potential traitors and targets, though. But mello was never the head so much as a right hand man (at least to my knowledge feel free to correct me if im wrong), so that's probably a more palatable position to the other mafia members than if she had her eyes on the top.

[lnane]

OKAY BUT I HAVE THOUGHTS ON WHY SHAPESHIFTING IS LITERALLY OBJECTIVELY THE BEST SUPERPOWER BESIDES THE TRANS REASONS. GET READY FOR A MINOR ESSAY

So first of: Shapeshifting has many different variations. So does the rest of these. Flying can be just hovering to wings to basically telekinesis. Teleportation is a science on its own. You get it. But for the simplicity and sake of it we can assume this poll refers to them in their purest truest version of themselves. So whats that mean for shapeshifting and what are the alternatives?

First of we got the most popular variation of shapeshifting, and arguably the weakest, what I like to call the Chameleon Variation. Think the typical changelings. Mystique. Changelings in dnd. That sexy lizard from She-Ra. The ability to take on the appearance of other people, but nothing else. The furtherest in ability changing this does is that if you shift into someone with other physical abilities than you, like being more athletic or being able to sing, you might be able to mimic those (granted you have the knowledge to utilize those abilities) (Note: this is usually limited by your own biology, so even if you change into someone with super strenght you dont necessarily get super strenght, just more muscles. And that is IF you even get stronger at all). This variation is only looks. Camouflage. Outside of the benefits of looking differently, you do not get anything out of shifting (or only something minimal).

The second variation are Form Changers. These are the ones that have a determined set of forms they can change into, with very little flexibility in terms of mixing and such. These forms each typically have different utilities and powers on their own, but very rarely do you get access to both. The list of forms can increase or decrease, depending on what the plot wants. Popular examples of this is Werewolves from Everywhere, Ben 10, Beast Boy, Vampires (sometimes), Zoan Devil Fruit users in One Piece. Your shapeshifting is easily defined as "Youre either form A or form B. No inbetween". The rare occassions there are "inbetweens", those are typically treated as seperate forms.

Third variation are the Utilities, normally also the Partial Changers. These are the shifters that can shift parts of themselves to fit specific needs. They got limbs that can become tools, or they can just harden their skin, and so forth. This variation is kind of a gray zone, as there are a lot of powers that can fit into this category without being explicitly shapeshifting. Think Kevin Eleven from Ben 10, Kirashima from BNHA, Human Torch. Theyre technically doing a shapeshift to some extent, but normally their regular form is still distinguishable, and they just added something to make a particular situation easier. I also like to see this category as the half shifters. Theyre kind of it, but also not.

Basically every super power has some form of variation similar to this, different ways the power manifests and different rules to how it works. This is developed so that you can have a roster of characters with basically the same superpower without them being the exact same. But the rawest form of the power, the pure form that is the entirety of the power, can (most of the time) do all of the variations to some extent.

True shapeshifting, however, can do all these variations, and so much more.

True shapeshifting, in the definition that ive developed over the YEARS that ive had this thought, is simply true self control. You can control the shape of every aspect of your own body at any given time. Down to at least a molecular level, if not atomic or even subatomic. You determine the material of which each minuscule part of your body is made of, as well as its shape, at any given time, all the time. Now this might sound like a lot of effort, which it is, because no great power would be great without some work being required to it. So let me walk you through just how to make this power great.

So you discover you have the ability to fully control the molecules in your body. First of you need to figure out how to Stay In Shape, literally, and not just dissolve into slime all the time. This is easy part, but the most necessary as it will need to become second and first nature for you to function. The second step is figuring out how to do the basic other stuff. Id recommend learning about human anatomy and physics for this. As well as chemistry. Expect that to master this power you need to be an expert in the art of being a girl in STEM. Change the material of your skin to be sturdier. Figure out how to change your appearance. The simple stuff everyone wants to do with shapeshifting. Try to grow and shrink in size. Now this point is where its getting interesting. Because, true shapeshifting gives you the ability to control how the material of your body is built and how that looks, but it doesnt give you the instant ability to just. Create or destroy mass. So, even if you grow larger, or shrink, your mass is still the same. If you weigh 100kg reguarly, you still do even if youre now 5 meters tall. And the same goes for being 1 meter tall. Youre just more or less dense.

SO. How to fix this? Easy. Add more mass. Figure out how to fuck around with eating so you gain more molecules to work with. Doing this enough will grant you the ability to grow to incredible sizes. But this also creates a problem. The added mass doesn't go away, so eventually youll start cracking the concrete on the street by putting several tons of pressure on the point of Size 40 shoes. Thats not very good for your enviorment, especially not if you want to be sneaky about your powers. How do you solve that?

Easy answer: Gas. Just become gas. Your body is still your body no matter its material, and if you can control your own blood flow why can you not become a cloud. Just disperse a large part of yourself in the air around you. And guess what? The adding of mass and fucking around with how your body works mightve given you a lot of physical powers, like super strenght, endurance, size changing, some super speed, etc. But now? You basically have telekinesis as well. Think about it. If your body is the physical meat suit that everyone sees, as well as at least 50% of the air in a 100 meter radius, you can just. Shove things around. Without noticably touching them.

At this size you might also need to figure out more effective ways to add mass than eating. Like just absorbing large swats of material. And when you do, whats stopping you from just absorbing everything around you and just letting it be what it is. Congrats! You can now become a planet! And for everyone on that planet, you might as well just have reality warping. Not that it matters unless you want it to, because you are also those people! Try not to go insane from the potential hivemind you accidentally created.

Now you could easily stop there, or you could easily (but slowly) start sending pieces of you out into space and eventually absorbing the galaxy and beyond.

And with that level of mass under your control, you can simply do whatever you want. You are literally a god now. Any material is yours to control and you can do whatever you want. If there is any power that can sneak its way into higher planes of existence, its true shapeshifting.

If you remove the limiters commonly placed on shapeshifting as a power, someone is eventually just going to become everything. And to be fair, it makes sense that all shapeshifters are limited to not do that, because that would just make them too overpowered and that wouldnt be fun narratively. But it is funny that the argument that you could make as a child that shapeshifting can get you any power because "ill just turn into someone with [Insert power here]" is literally true. Oh universe ending level of threat has appeared? I either spawn a black hole on them or Become Them. Get assimilated idiot.

[clippy]

if they put you in charge what would you put in the new disneyland expansion zone

this is pretty much confirmed already (by which I mean it's been brought up like, twice, and a photo of it was in a pamphlet someone gave me), but the TRON coaster....... i miss my wife (tho ideally i would want this added in during a GIANT tomorrowland overhaul rather than put into the disneyland forward area)

anyway uh. as far as other stuff goes... i genuinely have no idea. like, blue skying it, i would want it to be entirely new, theme park specific IP! like bring back some discarded old imagineering ideas for it, clone something original from an international park or something. idk. im not picky.

it wouldnt happen but a Dinoland USA clone would be so funny considering Dinosaur and Indy have the same track... but i want my friend Dr. Seeker to be known to the Disneyland goers because he is probably my 3rd favorite parks character

if i had to pick movie-based IP stuff, my top pick would be the disney villains land that's been... kinda hinted at for magic kingdom? i feel like that would go over INCREDIBLY well here, considering how popular the oogie boogie bash is lmao.

as far as my opinions on what's possibly coming in, since i dont have any ideas of what i would IDEALLY want...

zootopia land is in the rumor mill which i would be okay with if it wasnt. zootopia. the attraction for it is a trackless police chase ride with Judy and Nick... having this so close to LA (since LAPD is awful + SoCal in general is rife with fatal police chases) is in poor taste so that is one thing i DONT want.

also not a huge fan of the rumored Wakanda land cuz that just feels....... weird? they have to make it "canon" so idk, seeing a bunch of white people running around it (both as guests and likely CMs, too) seems tone deaf to the movie's message? i say this as a white person though. but maybe im missing something, and im sure it would be cool as fuck to see an incredibly important part of the MCU as a black kid, but again, not a perspective i have, and im sure there's a bunch of nuances im overlooking etc etc. esp since i dont care for the MCU and dont keep up with that stuff lol

other possible stuff ive seen thrown around are....

a Pandora clone which i feel indifferent about (mainly because Na'vi river journey sucks, and neither it or flight of passage are particularly high capacity rides, which the DCA part of the expansion will DESPERATELY need; Pandora is speculated to be in the DCA side)

world of frozen clone, which, again, i feel indifferent about. i thought it was going to be a fantasy springs clone (which is what Japan has and it's frozen, peter pan, and tangled) so finding out it's likely JUST frozen (based on what the park president recently said... tho looking, the DLF site still mentions peter pan and tangled) and will have that short ass kiddie coaster is a bummer

toy story land, which i will be OK with if we get a good version of the land... which is likely since our midway mania is already in pixar pier, which in theory gives us room for slinky dog dash + some flat rides... slinky dog dash is mandatory so i can see my friends Mr. Mike and Wheezy

anyway i just think it's funny how we might get an entire third theme park's worth of stuff greenlit when we STILL dont have any idea what that avengers E-ticket at avengers campus is gonna be LOL... curious what all is gonna get confirmed if the city of Anaheim approves this next month, or if we will have to wait until August to hear more at D23

[theaveragepsychoticbitch]

Luke is such a cute character- and now there's five of him?!

Credit to @aphfemamericahero for the inspiration

Including the brothers! Might make a dateables version if I feel like ignoring not seeing my asks some more!

Just a normal day in the devildom, you and the brothers doing normal Devildom things (read: being unreasonably destructive and chaotic) when Luke bounds in absolutely ecstatic!

"My siblings are coming to visit!"

The fuck?

You didn't know he had a sibling. Let alone several.

The day approaches, anticipation building, mounting to a peak-

The celestial realm portal opens, and out comes- another Luke?!

LUCIFER

Surprised, but surprise immediately turns to glee at all the evil teasing he can do

Luke's siblings aren't all exactly like him though- especially the two girls

They dont hesitate join together in bullying Lucifer back, in a very much so "you go low, I go to hell(ironically)" fashion

"Oh look, a litter of Chihuahuas!"

"At least god still loves us."

Despite the increasing urge to punt the lil shits, he adores them the same way he adores Luke- quietly and indirectly, by being there when they need it and using other means (cough Barbatos) to give gifts things he came across and decided he couldn't use

Mammon

Don't tell anybody, but he loves them

They're just soooooo cute! Seeing the Chihuahua's face make so many different expressions, his mouth saying thing's he probably doesn't even think!

He's babying the ever loving shit outta them, and they bask in his generosity.

Especially one brother in particular! Though it's not nearly to Mammon's extent, he's a bit of a tricky one as well

Keen interest in bro's money making schemes, and being a child, no one suspects him when he sends him in to do some "casual borrowing"

The minute Lucifer and Simeon find out, you cringe as you and the brothers attempt to cover five sets of ears

They don't need to hear his screaming

Leviathan

Woah! This is just like that anime [bullshit long title]

He's shy about dealing with them at first, seeing how strong their personalities are.

But oh, the cosplay ideas! He could have FIVE Ruri-chans! Then, he could dress himself and his brothers up and have TWELVE Ruri-chans! It could be Ruri-chan mania!

Goal in mind, he sets out of his cave to face his first obstacle: interaction.

What the hell?! What do you mean you like Ruri-chan too?!

He never expected that a Luke-lookalike would be so.... Cultured!

Together, the two drag their siblings to various cosplay photoshoots that gain them more popularity on Devilgram than Asmo!

Hurry and console the guy before he tries to rip Levi's throat out, please.

Satan

He's keenly interested in how we know for sure Luke is Luke.

For all we know, they were switched at birth and-

He's got a whole essay's worth of shit to say, tune him out and play with quins for your own peace

Once he's finished analyzing their differences down to the bone, he gets very friendly with the girls.

I mean, two pint sized crotch goblins with the gull to talk shit to Lucifer's FACE? Where have they been all this time?! Why weren't they introduced sooner?!?

Similar to Mammon's situation, the girls join the Anti-Lucifer League and get up to all types of crazy, out-of-the-way bullshit

They offer new, fresh ideas to the League, making them irreplaceable and solidifying their lifetime of crime

Lucifer finds out quick what's going on, but Simeon's faster. While Satan and friends can handle Lucifer, an angry Simeon....

I'd say pray for them, but even God doesn't wanna get between that

Asmo

At first, he was simply ecstatic at the two girls!

Luke never lets him do his makeup, despite how cute it would be:(((

But upon finding out what a pension one of Luke's third brother has for makeup, he locks in immediately!

This is way better than Luke! They can have actual conversations, he understands the brands, the blending, beauty!

He appreciates Asmo's collection the way no one else did, could! Why the hell were they only just meeting?!

These two also get into lots of photoshoots, going out to dine together for the simple purpose of Devilgramming the experience, raiding Majolish. The usual.

After the fiasco with Levi, they challenge Levi to an unspoken contest of social media popularity. May the best Devilgrammer win!

Beel

Five Lukes? They must eat a lot. Especially to all be that energetic all the time.

He's extremely protective of them, and enjoys when they use him like a playground, climbing his legs and swinging from his biceps.

LOVES taking them all out to eat, the kind of parent to actually go to McDonald's when the cheering starts

Takes them out on walks Watches them while they play at the park! Lotta nasty demons looking for angel souls, and he's more than willing to devour a low level while their backs are turned.

First time they saw him eat, they were kinda scared. No, really, really scared. Where does it all go??? No way the toilet can handle that!

Still, they love him the most out of all the brothers. Being the only one Luke had mostly good things to say about, their good impression only furthered when hanging out with him.

They even offer to share a cake Luke made with him! Talk about never again.

They'll never need to learn THAT lesson again. Sorry Beel, no more snacks for you.

Belphegor

Ugh. Kids. Loud, noisy, rambunctious kids.

He doesn't hate them, but.... Keep them away from while he's napping, please...

Anyways, after a long day of fucking around with the other Avatars of Sin, the adults are exhausted.

The kids, however....

Are bouncing around, wrecking the place and generally being disastrous

Then you, smart as you are, remember Belphegor is literally the Avatar of Sloth. Can't he help with this???

Unfortunately, his brothers made it so that lying would not work. Yeah, he can help, not that he wants to.

Until he agrees, you really the kids into a screaming competition.

He folded quickly after that.

Sleepy powers on, the kids were knocked out like a pile of puppies in minutes.

Simeon learned how to work a camera for the pictures you got!

They were so cute, even Belphie couldn't deny it.

When Luke woke up and saw the framed photos, he was indignant, unbelievably embarrassed, and made the fact crystal clear to everyone.

All his barking even woke up his siblings, who joined in! Where the hell did Belphegor go?!

He's asleep, somewhere well hidden, enjoying his peace and quiet, naturally.

Not so funny when you're the one stuck with the screaming, huh?

------

A/N: I just wanted to write this real quick while I had the inspiration. I really like this concept, might expand on it more some day. hehe.

Remember, comments are appreciated and encouraged! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed. This work is not spellchecked, sorry.

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket Manga Review , ch 107- 108

se03, ep 6 is weakest ep in se03 despite it being tohru’s long waited focus & having the biggest plot keys & character impactful moments & one of the best pining hug scenes in anime history “ thro the laundry sheets at sunset”. Reading the chapter that starts this ep in the manga made me feel so happy & so angry.. I lament all the subtle yet effective changes & the powerful character-influenced changes that the anime ditched for cheap drama or unexplained wide shot.

-The Art of Subtlety: Power Resides in Words:

In se03, ep 6 when tohru tells kyo that Isuzu will be staying at Kazuma’s, kyo responds that” then Master won’t feel lonely”. Meaning after his imprisonment. Huge gut wrenching moment since kyo doesnt know that tohru knows abt his imprisonment.

The anime chooses to displayed it in their mandatory style of “ kyoru-moment inside shigure house : which is widen the shot so much to include yuki & shigure & flatten the emotional impact to include other characters reaction that has nothing to do with the moment itself... They never consider zooming into the kyo-tohru reactions to their words, then widen the moment o include yuki, shigure, the tv, the woods, kyoko’s grave or the moon if they want to.. Complete lack of understanding of the emotional impact. This isn’t abt romantic lovey dovey moment. This is abt character development. The biggest loser i this design is : Tohru’s emotions. God, I hate how bland she is in the anime in regards to situations that affect HER.

Also, the anime chooses to squeeze in another moment here, which is kyo’s reaction to tohru’s grave visit & still lacks in showing the emotional depth even here & opted for what? yup! you guessed it. Widen the shot to include yuki & shigure. At this point I wonder why kyo & tohru didnt adopt yuki & shigure & took them with them in their house by the end of the story. To complete the tradition of these two poor guys witnessing everything..-_-’. Jokes aside, This doesn't just affect kyo-tohru. But also reflects badly at shigure & yuki. They become an unwanted third-wheels without proper plot or character driven reason. In good story-telling “ forced-third wheeling has a purpose!!”, such as to transfusion to the 3rd character moment or to be later used for the 3rd character driving emotional moment. not just a reminder that characters X & Y live here & therefore see this & that.. This is an example of missing the impactful design of the moment. I dont even understand how can someone miss such basic story-telling devices... 

Lets look at only 3 panels from the manga:

See how in the above panels in the focus is on tohru’s emotions. This is Tohru’s focus why not show her emotions instead of her stupid wide eyed, new eye lashes face & zooming out on tohru to include yuki for no reason!!!!! The anime is capable of focusing on characters pain, we saw that wioth yuki dozens of times. The anime is capable of focusing on showing facial emotions, we saw this with kyo in all his focused eps! Why can’t they give tohru half of that.. Just look, she looks like spacing out thinking of what to cook~ lala~ gotta feed the boys.!! zoom out on her & her purpose on the story~~~~~

-The power of words is unbelievable~~

Kyo’s little sentence of being happy Isuzu will stay with kazuma, destroyed tohru. Look how the manga makes tohru continues to think abt it. You might wonder why will the author do this? The author is building towards tohru realizing her romantic love & uncovering her traumatic attachment to her mom. Reminds you of sth? the 6 or 7 eps that se02 dedicated to yuki where every sentence established his journey towards facing his emotions. In se02, yuki thought abt the words of many characters until he reached his conclusion. The anime refused to give tohru ONE sentence.

-Powerful Character-Influenced Moments:

The manga made rohru leave screaming abt wanting the curse to break before spring. Why? because (a) tohru must be giving time to think abt HERSELF, not the cat or the curse, so tohru wander around thinking abt her mom, we saw that in the anime.  the the moment of shigure tells tohru abt the zodiacs ugly spirit & delight at seeing the cat suffers happens right before kyo finds crying tohru. Why? because (a) it was established that kyo will visit kazuma, so no weird out of no where lover finds lover in the streets for loving support moment, (b) to make kyo’s emotional support to tohru reasonable. In the anime, he saw her crying & comforted her assuming she cried cuz of the grave visit or sth, it was never hinted at anything, cuz kyo never gets any inner thoughts until it is his dramatic moments, but here he comforts her cuz he thinks she’s upset abt Isuzu, why oh why you write this thing out??????????????????????????????????

Not enough eps? but you gave motoko half an ep?!!! Why write off your main protagonist? I dont get it??? why intentional make tohru one-denominational character. Either yuki’s momma or a girl in love.... Is that what women are for the anime? a caring loving mothers & good lovers?

-Shigure’s words are to tohru are so watered down in the anime. Here he connects everything to the major plot of “ zodiacs turing into cute animals ” premise of the story, this is not sth cute as the early story made it out yo be. I love this!!!! why the anime cut it! Tohru screams when shigure brings an unavoidable question. Ask yuki & the the others whom tohru loves & believes they’re the kindest. Ask them of they KNOW kyo will be locked & are relieved! so cruel & shocking thing to thin abnt that shatters tohru’s world! shigure knows tohri will NEVER ask! so true to his character! epic moment! My best shigure-tohri moment! both of them NOT hiding anything & both in theit lowest moment!!  INGENUOUS WRITING!!! so plot-worthy!!! WHY CUT IT!!!

Kyo finds tohru cuz he saw her sad! bringing the realistic aspect of story-telling & ditching the dunb superficial coincidence.

Look at how tohru uncovers her trauma little by little:

parallel between loosing her mom & loosing kyo. By showing this, the readers/ viwer will begin to be prepared to question tohru’s “ I cant love mom more than kyo”. The following chapters will for sure dive into this deeper, writing tohru as more understandably, more flawed., more real. Nothing like a the fixer for grown men, nothing like an angelic mom, nothing like the princess saved by the prince’s love. Basically, nothing like her shallow anime self.

Side Notes:

I was right abt the anime wanting to close Isuzu & Haru’s arc in ep 5, cuz in this chapter we have a lil scene that is the follow up with their plotline. Haru wanting to thank Kureno & asing Isuzu to never risk herself. It’s the little things that add depth to characters.. but I get it Haru in se03 can no longer support yuki cuz yuki have Kakeru, so his plotline is reduced to isuzu’s lover & that was closed in ep 5. Isuzu still had few things to add to the plot in ep 6 which is be tohru’s unfiltered deep talk partner. 

The sad reality of the anime focusing on wide shots lost us yet another good emotional impact besides kyo-tohru moments. This time, we lost kazuma’s reaction to isuzu being held in cat’s room & haru/yuki’s reaction to kazuma’s sadness.. The anime gives us wide shot to include all the room. so,Screw haru & yuki’s reaction???.. they dont care abt the cat? is that it? nope, cuz this reasoning requires emotional depth of hate & disgust. The anime just loves wide shots “ so artistic~” but the real reason, the anime is flying in bullet speed in this ep to include as much as it can to save place for the “ new added moment of kyoru’s united shock” & still include the intro & outro... yep, ep6 is the weakest ep in design...

More on ep 6 in the following chapters, I guess. I’ll stop here this time. I’m so mad.. I’ll calm down & read the flowing two chapters later to articylate proper thoughts.

 I hate hate how tohru was done so dirty! I’m loving everything abt her so far in the manga, but when I remember her in the anime! ugh! I still love kyo & yuki’s anime stories. But tohru, nope. I stopped loving her in se02 once the beach arc is over & she became a full mother to yuki & nothing more. I adore her character & she’s so endearing, but My God, she’s so bland in the anime, just the lightest version of her manga self... so light, it’s a shame she’s a protagonist...

I really wonder how manga readers feel abt the lack of tohru’s focus & lost emotional depth? is tohru even popular in the manga days? I know kyo is popular & i know lots adore yuli’s growth. but what abt tohru? I’m curious how manga readers felt watching her butchered arc in se03?

[evilkitten3]

#i dont go here and have no idea what this means but its funny#<-prev me too#save

@ospreyonthemoon @thealchemistal (also @rotary-phonecall; sorry missed you but in my defense you reblogged it as i was typing all this lol)

it's funnier in context, so i'll explain!

in volume 64 of the naruto manga (pages 68-69, at least in the japanese version), naruto confronts two of the series main antagonists, madara and obito. i'm not very good at taking pictures, but i couldn't find the pages online, so i did my best. the scene in question:

transcript:

madara: ...your specialty, the shadow clone? even if it's a forbidden high class ninjutsu, you're just multiplying the same incompetent person, so... naruto: i ain't incompetent!! kakashi: cut it out, naruto...! there's no point in shadow clones that'll just divide your chakra even more than this! even if it can be used as a distraction, it won't be a decisive blow... if you fall... we'll lose this war! madara: in the end, just a motley crew... (note: the actual translation of the phrase he uses isn't exactly "motley crew", but that's the official english translation and i can't think of a better one that would still make sense for naruto to not understand) naruto: huh!? m... motley crew...!? madara: sure enough, incompetent. obito: he's saying that even if you increase the number of heads, it's meaningless if they're all empty. you and i are, in the end, both powerless shinobi. you also... no, everyone someday... will end up like me.

(relevant part ends here; i can transcribe the rest if anyone wants but for now this is fine)

the term madara uses stems from the chinese term 烏合 (wūhé), meaning "to gather together without discipline, like a murder of crows", and the earliest source i could find is from the dongguan hanji, a text from the han period of china. specifically, this was said by a staff official of the warlord gongsun shu, who was belittling liu xiu (later known as emperor guangwu, so you can guess how that particular dispute went). the thing is. most of the dongguan hanji is lost (i think they've managed to restore some of it, but the original text had 143 volumes, and we have under 30 afaik), and it's also from a fuckass long time ago (it was written by a bunch of people over a couple hundred years, starting in 72 ce, but the final revision was made in 220 ce, so it's. old. old as balls), so naruto not understanding wtf he's talking about is understandable bc naruto is not exactly what you would call booksmart.

madara is a character who died like sixty years ago (muramachi/azuchi-momoyama fusion period to meiji/taishou/shouwa fusion period speedrun, i guess?) and then got better and then died again a little under twenty years ago, and while you might think this is his third life he's actually still dead here and will be for the next ohhhh three hours or so, give or take.

meanwhile obito, back when he was a happy cheerful kid who hadn't realized everything sucks forever and he should start killing people about it yet, used to be really good at helping out the elderly (he met madara when madara was an old man on magic treeman life support which makes obito pretty much the only human character in the whole story who's actually seen madara as an old man bc when he got brought back as basically-a-zombie-but-with-ninja-magic the guy who did it played around with the technique a little to bring him back at his prime.

basically, imagine if your great great granddad popped out of the dirt to fight you in the desert, then called you an incompetent idiot while using a phrase from a book you've never heard of and you had no clue what he was talking about until your most mentally ill uncle opts to translate for you.

the scene was and is phenomenal, and it was actually a lot more popular in the japanese fandom than the english one from what i could tell, but it spawned a bunch of fanart and comics concerning obito and/or madara teaching/making fun of naruto and the others.

(for anyone wondering: here is my favorite, which happens to also be the comic that inspired my original post way up there. it's in japanese, but the basic idea should be fairly clear and it's funny even if you can't read it imo)

it would've been really funny if madara had just kept using words naruto didn't know and obito kept pausing to explain them to him, with the words getting more and more obscure each time and naruto starting to just automatically look to obito for help all while obito wonders if one or both of them is messing with him but they're genuinely dead serious

[perperam]

OKAY I saw your Instagram post things and I just want to know what are your headcanons for that universe?? Is there any specific AU you imagine the Instagram AUs happening in or do you have specific rules for your own ideal version or

somehow, surprisingly, you're not the only one to ask this !!

okay so funny story at first I literally just drew the instagram things bc I thought yeah harley would be so loved by all of internet generation gen z college kids (as an internet gen z recently graduated undergrad myself)

but then as I made the posts more and more intricate with the comments and stuff it kinda...grew into something bigger? like they actually have a particular AU for them now!! so that's fun

here's what I'm thinkin I want in my social media AU:

world building wise:

neither of them are really "heroes" but they aren't outright supervillains either—like they're anti-heroes that dont give a shit about corporate & capitalist culture

aka they can, have, and will continue to steal from big market names and threaten CEOs, but will also pool money to pay small business and support local folks

much like the vibes of the harley quinn animated series, harley and the rest are literally Just People and go to coffee shops and just hang out in public (the fuck is GCPD gonna do for them drinking coffee, send em to Arkham??)

this makes them really well liked by Gotham's general public

also because ivy has and will kill rapists and bad men on sight and harley has on more than one occasion been linked to crimes where abusers have mysteriously turned up dead or beat to a pulp with a blunt object suspiciously shaped like a bat or sledgehammer

there's this specific tattoo shop harley really likes that she goes to whenever she wants a new piece done, and because of her instagram they've become the most popular place in Gotham, in fact if you go there on any given day you have a 25% chance of seeing harley

also I wasn't kidding when I said harley really would have her own psychiatry clinic and continue to treat people (mostly college kids and criminals) for free because harley says fuck the US health care system and helping others would be really fulfilling to her

harley advertising on her instagram story: hey yall I'll be having a trauma processing session tonight at my clinic please stop by if you want to make an appointment or listen to my lecture

oh also harley has a podcast and the episodes vary from "workout routine" to "breaking the glass ceiling of female supervillains and the male gaze in crime" to "why stealing is sometimes okay" to "studying for the mcat and quick tips" to "perhaps marx was right" to random tangents that go on and on and on

pam on the other hand is not only a feared ex-supervillain but now a revered member of Gotham's city-revitalization planning committee

in between heists for rare floral specimen she plans climate protests and tree-planting events and in general does her damn best to try and bring some sort of green to Gotham in a "legal fashion" (a news source once said this and ivy almost killed the news anchor on the fucking spot from how much rage pumped through her veins in that moment)

characters & dynamics wise:

harley and ivy have been living together and literally married for like, a year now by this point

selina is over so often she might as well be living at their apartment

the gotham city sirens and the batkids are besties!! as they should be (this used to stress bruce out to no end but after the third family dinner dick planned with "aunty harls and pam" he had to eventually give up)

in fact jason and harley often get involved in stupid shenanigans and dick is almost always there with them and literal seconds from being implicated in their scheme somehow

jason is often at harley and ivy’s apartment and can greatly relate to harley in many different ways (from growing up in a crime riddled neighborhood to having intense trauma courtesy of the joker and ivy finds it endearing that he trusts harley enough to let people in (and there is a visible, tangible change in him after he starts getting closer to harley, everyone can feel how much happier he becomes)

harley and ivy are 28 and 32 respectively but because ivy literally has the interests and name of a 90 year old everyone just teases her by calling her "grandma pamela"

the batkids refer to them as aunty harley and aunty (sometimes grandma) ivy and ivy fights every time for a different name but just gave up sometime after tim joined in

ivy and tim get along really well, surprisingly

also alfred literally loves pam because she helps the plants in bruce's neglected green house thrive and ivy really enjoys his company because he's on the same wave length as her and "knows when to shut the fuck up and just bask in the quiet unlike literally all other men"

I think I want babs and dinah to be dating bc have you seen their chemistry and dick and kori to be dating bc again have you seen their chemistry but I'm kinda torn and in between and idk

bud and lou are great cuddle bugs and ivy secretly loves it but pretends she hates it to harley's face bc a girl's gotta save some semblance of dignity right

details:

harley has adhd and you can't convince me, someone with adhd, otherwise

harley has both shitty tattoos that she gets for no other reason other than that it's funny or that she hyperfixates on them super hard for half a second and suddenly there's art on her again and ivy's just ?? when she gets home. she also really meaningful tattoos that she has multiple consultations about

she had two ribcage tattoos before the joker, got three tattoos commemorating him during their (highly abusive) relationship which she immediately covered with new ink upon leaving him, and gets a lot of patchwork style tattoos down her arms and thighs

she has a giant flower tattoo going down her entire spine and it's ivy's favorite thing ever

ivy actually also has a (singular) tattoo and it's a diamond with a stem and leaves as if it were a flower

it's still very much a work in progress but since multiple people have asked me about this I thought I'll dump all my thoughts here

[crispyapplepies]

AkuRoku Defense pt 2

Axel and Roxas’s ship has had one of the most bizarre fandom journey’s i have ever come to witness. It has gone from being one of the most popular ships maybe ever, to being dead cancelled over a supposed age gap and I find that completely unfair, especially when it speaks to so many innocent people who emotionally depend on the ship, (yes innocent includes the spicy people because art literally is not a crime). So its time to defend it.

Brief Review on Nobodies vs Aging

First of all, l already explained in part 1 what the Nobodies Don’t Age thing means but I’ll go over it again briefly, since it can be confusing, though also many people seem to demand their hands be held rather than use their imaginations to understand. Even so, here’s the short version just for a review:

-A person in KH is made of a heart, body, and soul.

-The body reflects the heart in KH. (See: replica bodies taking on the appearance of the heart that’s inside them). 

-A nobody lacks a heart, making them just a body and soul. They’re advanced zombies of sorts.

Nobodies do not age because they have no heart for the body to reflect. This is why they won’t change until they form one. Change includes age

-Ergo, you can imagine any age you like for Axel to be nobodied, cuz he was frozen at that age and did not change for 10 years. Not until he met Roxas. 

We’ll come back to this again later.

Axel Loves Roxas Canonically

Second of all, Axel loves Roxas and you are allowed to interpret that as platonic, familial, or romantic, I don’t care as long as you’re not forcing that idea on others like the ship police. That said, people are allowed to explore how romantic this love potentially is. 

And what you might like to know is that the canon is even open to this. Axel’s love for Roxas is canonically expressed, and if you would like, you can even interpret that love as romantic. See below:

We are going to look at the japanese translation because AS ALWAYS good old SENA is here for the straights and erases the gay, like clockwork. 

In English, Axel says this:

Axel: I wanted to see Roxas. He...was the only one I liked... He made me feel...like I had a heart. It's kind of...funny... You make me feel...the same...

Axel’s line here in Japanese:

Axel: I wanted to see Roxas... I loved him. Being with him... it made me feel like I had a heart. I feel it from you, too... the same kind of....

You may notice that as romantic as the line “he made me feel like I had a heart” sounds, the original can be read as wAY gooier, specifically cuz of this word:

好き: "suki"

Now here’s the thing. Japanese is a pretty vague language which is why context is so important for these things, as well as what you say, and what you don’t say. 

“Suki” is a very key word here because it is often used in romantic confession scenes.

(I have no idea what this panel is from, I apologize lol) 

It CAN mean something casual, like “I love video games”, but considering Axel is saying this with his dying breath, I don’t think we should be treating it as some hyperbole. He is referring to a person and it is meaningful. However. It is still a word with plausible deniability. Japanese has several words for love, “ai” for example being one of the most inarguable means of referring to romantic love. So choosing “suki” still leaves room for the homophobes to disregard it as something not romantic. Which makes it objectively inconclusive. Here is the thing though… they specifically chose that word, suki, a word which IS so often used in a romantic context in many anime and manga. 

They also chose to use that word rather than something objectively platonic. Which means you also cannot conclude Axel did NOT mean it romantically. Given his devotion to Roxas, and the fact that they chose this word of all words for him to say… I’m personally going to assume it’s romantic. You are free not to interpret it that way. But I am because I am considering the fact that they did not choose something strictly platonic. 

(My translator friend actually freaked out when I showed her this, she’s translated and seen enough confession scenes to know what connotations that particular word comes with lol). 

If you’ve read my queer coding doc, you may recall I also go over how this is one of the most important tricks with queer coding. You write something that CAN be viewed as queer but with plausible deniability for straight people to ignore it. It’s a means of protecting oneself and the text from homophobic oppression. It is a legitimate practice. So even though it can be denied as a queer text, it can also very very well be viewed as a definite queer text. We are choosing to queer it here. It is not as explicit as it could be, but it is still very bold, suggestive coding considering the homophobic world we live in, and especially with KH2 being released in 2004. 

“But Age Gap!” (ughhhhh)

We’re back to this cuz I also finally have the Japanese version of that infamous page in the Day’s novel to look at.  

I hope you’ll forgive me if I get a little bit salty but I don’t like to repeat myself lol so I’m gonna try to keep this section short and to the point.

In this interview with Nomura, he expresses that nobodies do not age, and they exist as they were at the time of becoming a nobody. He then suggests Xemnas seems 30 ish.

Now I truly do not care to hold your hand through the process of thinking creatively because you should be using your own imagination, if you have one, to think critically and creatively about what this idea means.

Kingdom Hearts is a FANTASY game. Nobodies are a FANTASY concept. They can break ALL the rules about real life that you want them to. But I will go ahead and explain this for you even though I’ve already done it many times, in this very document even and in other meta posts.

The body reflects the heart. Nobodies are frozen as they are from the moment they are “born”, which is to say the moment they are created. Glorified zombies. They aren’t going to age unless they form a heart. Why does Xemnas look 30? He has a heart! Or he was formed 10 years after TerraNort defected. You tell me. Why did Ienzo age? I dunno, you tell me! Either he formed a heart and didn’t know it, (he’s passionate about his work, he loves Ansem the Wise, any number of things could’ve made him form a new heart), or he was nobodied later in life. Axel is frozen at whatever age he was when he was nobodied, all the while Ienzo could’ve been nobodied 10 years later. It’s a fantasy, and these are fantasy rules. That scenario can happen. YOU decide. Until the canon tells us for sure, your imaginations can run wild with explanations. Even if the canon does tell us, you can still imagine whatever you want for your own headcanons. Freedom is amazing, it’s salty and sweet. 

Now let’s talk about that annoying page in the Days novel people keep shoving in my face.

This one right here. The official english translation is this:

That’s not the worst translation I’ve seen them put out there. But let’s look closer at the Japanese:

 Here, Axel says he thinks Roxas is about 10 years separate from himself, but things like age don't exist for nobodies.

Already that’s making a lot more sense to me for nobodies since we are told nobodies do not age. As such Axel speaking like he is 10 years older would feels almost contradictory when he has no heart and cannot change. 

This wording is important. Recall me saying that Japanese is very vague so all of the context matters. No one is denying that 10 years passed between Birth By Sleep and Axel meeting Roxas. However. Nobodies don’t age.

(please dont make me explain that a third time in this essay alone)

The Japanese and English both express that age does not apply to nobodies, (as discussed above^^^^) and the Japanese furthers this with its wording. They have 10 years of separation between Axel being nobodied, and Roxas existing.  

Axel saying in English that Roxas is simply 10 years younger than himself is rather misleading considering the ambiguity of the original. I can’t fault the translators too much for not understanding this nobody concept so well because it is obviously confusing. However, I do not think Axel was saying Roxas is literally, in real life human somebody terms, 10 literal physical years younger than him. He is expressing that he became a nobody 10 years ago whereas this guy became a nobody very recently, and it shows with how little he can even function right now. A zombie who has been wandering around with no heart for 10 years meets a fresh zombie wandering around with no heart for 1 day. 

I know antis are gonna use it against us no matter what, but at least know that akuroku is not inherently pedophilia nor is it inherently an adult/minor ship.

In many of our headcanons, Axel was frozen at age 18 or 19, with Roxas being 16. Absolutely no one is required to view them with a big age gap because imagination is free and you literally have no right to police it, but also because the canon expresses these nobodies as beings outside of the realm of age. They do not operate under real life rules or somebody rules. Think of Steven Universe where Rose was thousands of years old but only “grew up” as a person when she fell in love with Greg, a human in his 20s-30s who asked her to consider other people’s feelings. Consider the mind of a nobody as a state of Neverland. You aren’t gonna age unless you step out of it and change. Mature. Isn’t it sad that Axel did not feel like he had a heart until Roxas? No wonder people ship it!

Coding is Obvious

Finally I wanna conclude on a simple thought. This interview right here? I’d be curious what the original Japanese actually says lol but the english translation of it says that romantic akuroku was not Nomura’s intent. 

Here’s the thing though. If you know anything about queer coding, you know that using romantic coding between 2 male characters is signaling something. It is not something you should ignore. It would not be there if the characters were meant to be viewed as objectively straight. And for something “unintentional”... there sure is a lot of coding at work here.

From Axel pinning Roxas down and asking him to come home in a very sexually suggestive pose,

to watching the sunset in sheer bliss together just enjoying the peace of reunion,

to watching the sunset together while talking about what LOVE is, specifICALLY romantic love,

To this. And I already told you what this was in Japanese.

I’m not saying Nomura lied…

But I am saying that a whole staff worked together to create these games, and it is very difficult for me to believe that no one thought to say “these characters appear to be romantic, let us change the scene to be more platonic” if the characters were not meant to be romantically suggestive. 

Tl;Dr I wanna live in the timeline where people let you ship akuroku lol

[sinmenon]

Hi, saw your very helpful reblog with free adobe replacement programs and i just thought you might be able to help me with a simular problem. I work just fine with iMovie for video editing, but i dont have apple anymore..I have tried and failed to find a replacement for it for windows...The free ones ive tried cant handle speeding up long clips (for making speedpaints) which is the one thing i need to do pretty much (and picture overlays). Maybe you or someone seeing this could help? :)

Hi! I hope that post was helpful to you but the real credit goes to this twitter and the original tumblr poster, I just took some time to write down the image and locate the links. I have had similar problems with recording videos, so I figured out I could give you a hand and share the software I know. If you are still trying to find other options, let me know and I’ll do some more digging, but those are the most popular tools around for free. There are a few others that I have tried, but they either weren’t very intuitive, or couldn’t handle big videos, or I had to use third-party software to convert the video formats I wanted to use. I also ommited all the paid ones, like Vegas and Adobe Premiere.

Windows Movie Maker is usually the first one people try but, unfortunately, have been discontinued. It is very easy to use. You can download it here, here or here (all verified).

Windows comes with a replacement called Video Editor, if you search that term on your windows search bar you’ll find it. You don’t need to download or install anything.

Movavi Video Editor comes in two flavors: the free version and the plus. I have recently bought a license for the plus version via steam and I have been enjoying it a lot! You can download the free version here. And this is the link for the steam version.

Openshot is considered one the best video editor for beginners and is also cross-platform and open source, meaning it is 100% free. Download here. 

Lightworks is also a very good video editor, one of the most traditional ones available and was used in some blockbusters too! Download here . It has an optional pro version

Shotcut is a very powerful tool as well, with many resources out of the bat. Download here

Davinci Resolve was one of the software in the original post and is still a very versatile editor. Download here.

VideoPad takes pride in its simple interface and easy access, but I particularly didn’t try it. Download here

OBS is the best for recording and streaming, in my opinion, as long you don’t need to do any editing. Download here

[random-thought-depository]

I don't think it's confused, I suspect what's happening is you've encountered the position in the form of the pithy sound-bite version that leaves an important part of the argument implicit.

A compelling complete case for democracy in the workplace would talk about the concrete benefits democratizing that part of society would bring, but the same is true for a compelling complete case for democracy in government. I think there's a pretty good argument that democracy in government is good, and I think the same argument also suggests workplace democracy would also be good.

Democratic institutions have tighter feedback between policy and the preferences of most of their members, and therefore tend to have policies closer to the preferences of the average member. Democratic governments tend to have more popular policies. Most people strongly prefer having their basic needs met and being safe and comfortable, so a government with policies strongly selected for popularity will probably try to insure that most people in its jurisdiction have their basic needs met and are safe and comfortable. The same feedback loop doesn't operate in oligarchic governments, where the rulers are primarily answerable to relatively small privileged classes of people who can be doing fine in a society where most people aren't comfortable or safe and who may even materially benefit from depriving large parts of the population of basic needs and making the average person less comfortable and less safe.

By the same basic argument, I'd expect democratic workplaces to tend to treat most of their workers better than oligarchic workplaces. The problem with the sort of oligarchic workplaces we have now is they're controlled by people (owners and shareholders) who directly experience the upside of working employees hard, paying employees little, and prioritizing profit over employee safety and comfort (all those things mean more money for owners and shareholders) but don't directly experience the downsides of those things or (in the case of business owners who work in their own businesses and have employees) are at least more able to opt out of the downsides than ordinary workers. This creates a structural bias toward low worker pay, long working hours, and unsafe and uncomfortable work environments. The obvious remedy to this bias is to democratize the workplace (maybe through some kind of syndicalist arrangement), thus putting it under the control of the people who experience both the benefits and the costs of its practices. I would expect that in worker-controlled workspaces most workers would be paid more, work less hard, and have safer and more comfortable working environments. Note how concrete these expected benefits are!

Also, more generally hierarchy inherently creates increased potential for abuse and also tends to encourage abuse as a mechanism for stabilizing the hierarchy, and workplace hierarchies follow this pattern. "Do you really live in a democracy if you have to spend a third of your life in a structurally oligarchic environment?" is a critique that resonates widely because it reflects a lot of people's lived experience; the workplace is a major site of petty tyranny in our society.

You might be interested in reading this essay about the workplace's historical role as a major bastion of illiberalism in the United States.

Incidentally, the "philanthropy is undemocratic" case is similarly concrete; the objection is that rich people often use "philanthropy" to purchase control and this has a large number of possible concrete undesirable effects (e.g. resources getting diverted from feeding the hungry to some billionaire's much less helpful pet project).

I think people who use the "we dont live in a democracy because businesses arent publically controlled, so you spend lots of your time under nondemocratic control" argument are usually talking to a target audience of people who are at least liberals (in the expansive sense in which even somebody like George W. Bush is a liberal) and who therefore already think democracy in government is a good idea.

ok not to subtweet anybody but i feel like the whole "we dont live in a democracy because businesses arent publically controlled, so you spend lots of your time under nondemocratic control" thing is like. really deeply confused about what it could possibly mean to live under a democracy. like. not to go full randian, but working a job is like... a choice you are making! a contract freely entered! obviously all choices are coerced by scarcity, but if your requirement for something to be a democracy is that it is free of scarcity, then like. this seems like kind of a gerrymandering of the term

but also i think it comes at the concept of democracy from a weird place that sees it as like...justified-in-itself, rather than something we like because it produces good outcomes? i feel the same about people who are against tax breaks for charity because theyre undemocratic. like i think there are reasonable complaints abt the way the system actually functions but i feel like "the world would be better if more of it was controlled by the process of voting" is an assumption that is not really justified

[illfoandillfie]

ok sorry but how many people do yall think rog has ever slept with cos i’m guessing four figures no lie

okay, i don’t normally respond to messages like this because, frankly, i dont really feel like its my place to speculate on roger’s sex life. Theres a difference between writing a fiction story with a character named after and inspired by him and discussing his actual personal life which i have no real knowledge about. What he gets up to in his free time is between him and the women he does it with. but i didn’t really feel able to ignore this one. please don’t take this as me telling you off or shutting you down or anything like that. If you want to speculate about roger’s body count thats up to you, go nuts with it. and i love when you guys message me and I don’t want to discourage you from feeling like you can talk to me or just send me your random thoughts or whatever about any subject. But I feel like I need to address why I disagree with this sentiment. Also so I can ask ya’ll to please stop asking me questions like this. 

So firstly, just to get this out of the way. 1000 is a lot. even 100 is a lot. I think if rog had slept with 1000+ people he’d have a least a few illegitimate kids and probably would have been checked into rehab for sex addiction (not to mention STIs and such because lbr people in the 70s specifically probs werent the most careful especially if drugs were involved). I mean even if we were going to say Rog got lucky with a different woman after every show we wouldn’t reach 1000. According to google, Queen played around 700 shows in their entire career. If we add shows played by The Cross thats only another 67 odd shows (according to wikipedia). 

now, i think there are 3 things that contribute to this idea of roger as especially promiscuous. 1. His attitude/demeanour/general way he sells himself. 2. the generally held conceptions about rock stars and rock star behaviour. and 3. what i’m going to call fandom dumbassery (but i mean that with a lot of love) 

So lets start with the man himself. Roger Taylor is loud and opinionated and not particularly humble. He knows he’s talented and attractive though for at least some time he was a little self-conscious about how feminine he looked. He’s always up for a laugh, likes to party and has admitted to enjoying his drink and his women. He’s had kids with two different women, who’s relationships “overlapped”, and is currently married to a third. At least that’s the perception we can gleam from his interviews, behind the scenes videos, and other public appearances. 

It’s easy to see how that image leads to accusations of being a womaniser and a cheater and basically a bit of a slut lmao. But here’s the thing. I think Roger, in part, markets himself that way. The thing is, if you look at his solo songs and the relationships he currently has with his kids and their mothers, and things other people have said about him/his relationships over the years, I think it’s fair to say he also has a bit of a romantic streak maybe? idk if thats the best way of describing it...he’s self confessed to not being a fan of marriage and the like but he’s not opposed to writing and singing love songs and seems to believe in ~love~ as a concept/power. He certainly cares deeply for those closest to him. Whether or not that translates to an agreement with monogamy I can’t say for certain. It’s hard to draw conclusions here because a lot of what we know of his personal life was fed to us through magazines and news paper gossip column articles and they were never looking for the truth, they were looking for scandal and sensationalism. 

For instance the whole thing with the overlapping relationships. I think most people who have read anything about roger and dom and debbie realise that it’s not as cut and dry as “he was cheating with debbie and left dom for her” even though that was the story being sold by the press at the time. The reality (or at least the version closer to reality since obviously no one outside of them and whoever they were closest with knows all the nitty gritty details) is that rog and dom had already split when they got married. it was a marriage of convenience to make sure her and the kids would be looked after financially etc even after he’d moved out. So while it looked to the public like he married one chick and 30 odd days later was spotted with another, there really wasn’t anything untoward happening.  I’m not saying he never had casual hookups or one night stands and i’m not saying he never cheated, but I do think some of it’s been exaggerated, whether by him to encourage the rock star perception or by newspaper/magazine articles.

Now, obviously, we have stories of rog, particularly in the late 60s and into the 70s, being with multiple women. There’s that bit in the Interview with a Queen “Groupie” (which is a fantastic read and i defs recommend checking it out if you havent already) where she talks about roger being a chick magnet and says that, at the time, it was pretty common to sleep about. But, she also says she didnt notice him doing it more or less than anyone else and seemed to mostly be with Jo (his girlfriend at the time). This is the same Jo that got a mention in the Queen in 3D book (”i think we all had the feeling that these two were together for life, but it was not to be”). Conversely, we have that quote (which i cannot find rn but i’ll link it when i do) about roger sometimes having one girl upstairs while another waited in the garage for them to be finished. I think it was about Rog in the mid-late 60s in Truro but whatever. Obviously he wasn’t anywhere near celibate and it’s likely was sleeping with people outside of his relationship(s). But one has to assume that as he got older those kinds of antics stopped happening, at least as frequently.

There is one potential story that I remember reading somewhere along the way about Roger cheating on Debbie while she was pregnant. But, take that with a grain of salt because I can’t find the article again and also I think it was from like The Sun or something equally as rubbish. The press was notoriously always printing mean shit about the boys and that might have been another thing they published to create scandal. Even so, if we assume it’s legit that is still only 1 story. Not to throw him under the bus but Brian is the one with multiple confirmed affairs, who literally wrote songs about it all. So why is Roger the one with sleazy reputation? 

This is where my second and third points come in. There is a pervasive idea about what it means to be a rock star. The whole trashing hotel rooms, sleeping with groupies, passing out drunk every night thing. And I’m sure that Queen was like that to an extent. I think it’s pretty common knowledge that all of them got up to shit on the road. Between innuendo laden interviews and songs, videos and accounts of their parties, stories CT has put online, and other stories like the one of Roger bringing out lines of coke as dessert when he was having dinner with motley crue. They definitely embraced the rock and roll lifestyle. And I think with Roger’s personality being what it is, it’s easy to link him to those traditional rock star tropes and say it was all true all the time. I also think Roger has done nothing to counter those beliefs. He’s been open about how he wanted to be a rock star since the minute he picked up a guitar, he’s labelled himself as a great lay in magazines, he’s joked about girls pulling their tits out over dinner in interviews (though he said he didnt take her home), he’s written songs like One Night Stand and Dirty Mind and Airheads which explicitly mention his preference for women and alcohol. I think it’s fair to say he’s kind of encouraged that view of himself. Whether it was just a side effect of being part of such a well known band and having such a boisterous demeanour/personality, or whether it was intentional as a version of promotion i don’t know. maybe a mix of them? I mean I’m sure it didn’t hurt sales and stuff. it’s the whole guys want to be him, girls want to be with him thing, right? Maybe that’s just me being cynical though lmao. 

Anyway, the fandom brain has taken all of that and compressed it into memes and jokes about rog being the band slut. Which i’m not complaining about, lord knows i’ve made the same jokes and reblogged the same posts and used those tropes in my fics. They’re funny and lend themselves to interesting fic concepts. Plus, i think roger is the sort of person who would probably laugh about most of it. But it’s an idea that keeps feeding into itself through fandom, perpetuating what is probably a misguided view of his personal life.

Again, I am sure he’s had his fair share of fun and I’m not trying to make out that he was always perfect or whatever, but I don’t think he’s been with as many women as the popular discourse would imply and I certainly don’t think he’s in the 4 digit numbers. 

[chikkou]

Talk more abt your interests or we're selling you to 1 direction(jk I just like listening to you ramble about things cause you have a lot of cool and indepth opinions)

OH GOD OH FUCK PLEASE DONT SELL ME MOM AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

honestly its SO sweet to ask this and im rly glad u guys dont mind when i ramble about shit no one knows or cares about LMAO... i honestly struggle to reel it in sometimes bc i can just go tf off kdfgd

one hyperfixation i rarely have the opportunity to talk about on here is my lifelong OBSESSION with fairy tales and folklore.. ever since i was a kid ive been in love with all kinds of fairy tales!! im very partial to the brothers grimm because they just collected so many of these stories, but i have a very special love for lesser known ones, and ESPECIALLY the original versions of popular ones bc they tend to be so much more different than people know

for example did u know that in snow white, the apple was the evil queens THIRD attempt to kill snow white? the first two attempts were a corset tied too tightly and a poisoned comb, both of which were thwarted by the dwarves coming home from work like 5 minutes later dgkfjgndf

and did u ALSO know that that story ends with the evil queen being invited to the wedding of snow white and the prince, only for them to force her to dance in red-hot iron shoes until she died?? they really didnt play in those stories LMAO

what i find really fascinating about these kinds of folklore (and this applies to general mythology too) is that a lot of times you can easily tell which stories were originally the same story that got either repurposed or retold with different details, as almost every fairy tale was originally shared orally, and therefore details were changed and/or were forgotten between tellings.

for example, there was a fairy tale i read years ago about a character named buh nansi who was caught stealing from a king and was captured. as the king decided what to do with him, buh nansi begged not to be thrown into the ocean as he could not swim and would surely die. the king decided to throw him into the sea, and buh nansi swam away freely as he told the king that the ocean was his home and hed just set him free.

there was ANOTHER one i read abt a selfish rabbit who refused to help the other animals dig a well, and so was banned from using it. however the rabbit ended up drinking from it anyway, and as punishment, the animals created a wolf out of tar to keep it away. the rabbit first reacts accordingly, but when it tries to talk to the wolf and the wolf doesnt answer, it gets angry at the disrespect and swings at the wolf, causing it to get stuck in the tar. the animals find the rabbit the next day and try to decide what to do with it, so the rabbit begs them not to throw it into the thicket, which they of course do. the thicket catches the tar and sets the rabbit free, and it brags that the thicket is its home before it runs off. sound familiar?

if not, let me spoil it for you - both of these stories are more modernly associated with the uncle remus br’er rabbit fairy tales (these were some of my favorites as a kid). the br’er rabbit story is that br’er fox, who is br’er rabbits enemy, wants to capture him, so he sets up a tar doll (or tar baby; incidentally, this is a VERY racist term now LMAO) in the road to trap him. br’er rabbit comes upon the doll and bids it good morning, but the doll (obviously) doesnt answer. br’er rabbit gets angry at the disrespect and eventually tries to smack the doll, which of course gets him stuck fast to the tar. br’er fox comes along and grabs br’er rabbit as he decides what to do with him. br’er rabbit begs the fox to do whatever he wants, as long as he does not throw him into the briar-patch (its just thorny brambles basically), which he is deathly afraid of. this of course prompts the fox to throw the rabbit into the brambles, which sets the rabbit free and he escapes while bragging that the briar-patch is his home

all three of these stories are essentially the same tale retold very differently - and, fun fact, “buh nansi” is actually anansi, a trickster god seen in a LOT of west african and caribbean folklore. also, both “br’er” and “buh” mean “brother” (which becomes obvious if u say them out loud LMAO), and are used as terms of respect. br’er rabbit is a little more new than buh nansi and the rabbit story - the uncle remus collection was published originally in the late 1800s, while the other stories have likely persisted for centuries. transparently, br’er rabbit is an amalgamation of these two stories (and probably many others), and was repurposed to fit the environment that the storytellers were in; in this case, they would have been slaves living on southern plantations, thus why the story had to be retold to cut out anansi (a non-christian god). almost every br’er rabbit story i can think of is actually a retelling of a traditional west african fairy tale, updated to suit their circumstances.

its honestly pretty fucking fascinating, and there are quite a few stories that share a lot of commonalities like this if you look! not just the southern folklore either, but pretty much any folklore you can think of dates back much, much farther than you might know. as a quick thing, if youve ever heard of the “firmament” in the bible, that is referring to a layer of water surrounding the earth which was believed to cause rain and, if too much water fell onto the earth, floods. but, if you can believe it, this did NOT originate with the bible - the idea of the firmament is actually a holdover from babylonian mythology, which makes perfect sense as the writers of the bible would have been IN babylon at the time of the firmaments inclusion, and therefore would have been influenced by its own folklore!

ok i can talk about this forever so im gonna stop myself here but like. yeah fairytales and shit are fucking cool LMAO

[thesharondefenseleague]

mlm imo werent sexualized to the degree that wlw were in most canon media mostly because of the male gaze. Gay and Lesbian relationships or moments got very limited representation. One was probably more sympathetic but also heart breaking like say brokeback mountain. One was explicit but depicted as grotesque or twisted or perverted or immoral in some way. And the last version was the titillating version. In western media because of the assumed straight male gaze lesbians making out to titlate guys was a common thing like say in Jennifer's body. The equivalent of that with guys wasnt really that common not in western media. Not that wlw couldn't like that content but it was made to be fanservice for men .

So thats what I kind of mean by wlw were sexualized at least in western media. This equivalent with mlm in fandom never really existed they never made out for girls to find hot in the same way. It was never marketed like oh look hot guys making out. Fandom did that but not canon.

As for comic book men being sexualized kind of. There is definitely the unrealistic beauty standards but theres that debate of was it for the purpose of titillating women? Or a result of toxic masculinity putting this unattainable unsustainable goal for men. Maybe both? But both in comics and the movies they are based on the posing and clothing and moments with women get made to clearly sexualize them . It especially ovbious with comics with them twisting their bodies so their boobs and butts are jutting out. Or like movie moments like Bruce landing in Natasha's clevage. Or angles where you are staring down a female character's shirt or she has a boob window for some contrived reason. Or just reasons to give full page spreads of them in skimpy clothing.

Its rare men get depicted like this or posed like this. And when they do it often stands out because its not the norm. It's something unique. Not true with men. Even in form fitting spandex they are often posed and framed to make to make them look powerful or intelligent or to reveal things about their character.

Again not that men never get sexualized or that fanservice is always bad. Or that its not a concern that men are having these terrible body image issues. But just that for women for the sexualization its so pervasive and constant was my point.

Its just as bad in wlw in canon as it is for women in relationships with men in canon when it comes to that sexualization but i hear so much more about the problems about the wlw ship than the mlw ship. Like to use DC as a example i hear so much about how people sexualized or mishandle harleyivy but compared to that i hear very little about batcat in comparison even though Catwoman is often just as sexualized in that ship.

As for misogyny in shipping wars yes it definetly exists and is a problem as is racism and homophobia. But my issue is mostly that the problem isnt because the main popular ships are mlm. But so often I see the argument framed that way.

Like shipping wars existed between m/w ships and still do today. And they are still often pretty misogynistic towards the woman in the other ship. I don't even have to look at other fandoms I remember Steggy vs Starton getting real ugly.

Mysogny in fandom doesn't uniquely pop up when mlm are the more popular ship. Its often just as bad in fandoms where m/w is the popular ship. But people just bring it up alot more they make it bout valuing the men over the women .

Well i mean that goes both ways you could say its homophobic for valuing the straight ship as better than the gay one or liking it more. But either way its stupid they dont care bout sexism or homophobia only that their ship is more popular.

Thats the sentiment of all ship wars the gender dynamics and racial make up change nothing. Nothing except the bullshit you use for the ship war.

The problem is that people are being homophobic and mysogynistic and racist not just in regards to fictional characters but towards real people just to win a ship war. It comes out so easily. Thats the problem imo.

Mysogny for example i think isnt discussed as much when its a m/w vs m/w ship war or drama because as both ships have women it can't be used to slander the other ship. But when its drama between fans of a m/m and m/w it comes out alot again not because anyone really cares but because now because one ship lacks a woman it can be used as fodder for what people actually care about. Tearing down the other ship.

Again not that mlm fandom doesnt have mysogny. They definetly do. But they aren't mysogynistic because they ship two guys together. Thats not proof they hate women. Having a ship with women isnt proof that you aren't sexist towards women. There might be homophobia in fandoms of mlm ships and mysogny in fandoms of m/w ships.

But in the drama between a m/w and m/m ships that doesn't get brought up because no one cares if that problem can't be used to show that someone only doesn't ship your ship if they are bigoted against it. Who cares about misogyny if your ship is two guys? Who cares about homophobia if your ship is straight?

No one because they cared about the popularity of their ship not the actual issues.

Gonna under under the cut for length again.

This is a lot to read so I'm gonna respond paragraph by paragraph and hope for the best in terms of comprehension.

When it comes to media made about the LGBTQ+ community, you have to keep in mind when it was made, who made it, and who was it made for. And that it's been shown that straight women have had the same reactions to mlm content as straight men to wlw content. QaF was dumbfounded to find that the majority of their audience was straight women when the show's sex scenes were 95% between two or more men and yet that's what they ran with because hey, it got the views. The views of mlm and wlw content in the mainstream media before then was minimized, despite how fucked a lot of the other content could be. If by "most canon media" being directed at the male gaze being summer blockbusters, and more specifically comic book movies, then sure. If we step out of that box, then not really. The film examples you chose are interesting because BB is portrayed exactly how the author of the original short story wrote it which was meant to be heartbreaking since it was a tragic dramatic piece while JB has a woman who wrote and another woman who directed it while purposefully trying to allow to actress to have a level of sexuality without exploiting her as past directors have (also neither of the main characters are lesbians - one is bi, the other I think is straight but maybe questioning?).

The sexualization of wlw in modern western media is definitely a thing. I mean, the first Iron Man film has stewardesses on the private jet pole dancing if I remember correctly. It took until 2016 to stop sexualizing Scarlett in every movie: the changing scene in IM2, the lowered zipper in A1, the ass shot in Cap 2, the boob faceplant in AoU (in your third paragraph, but mentioning it here anyway). It's a joke that you know when a man directs a wlw indie film during the sex scenes. But the mlm equivalent did exist alongside it, and it's what kicked off the century.

Comics and their movies were always for men. The male bodies are male wish fulfilment for their physical appearance. The women are male wish fulfilment for their dream girls. Funnily enough, one of the least sexualized women in comics I've ever read is Sharon. She's rarely, if ever, drawn to be sexualized for the audience. I'm not even sure she's even been in those swimsuit issues Marvel did years ago. And it shows heavily that Marvel struggles to know how to appeal to women without being aggressively in your face about it. The best example of them appealing without pandering is WV, and the worst is the group shots the Russos did in IW and Endgame, especially the latter.

But the men get those poses in the movies too. Thor bathed shirtless for no reason in TDW. There's a scene in Endgame dedicated to talking about Steve's ass. Pratt in GotG. Rudd in Ant-Man. Most actors are expected to look good shirtless and put themselves through intense shit to look that way. So do the women, but they aren't doing it to have the glamor shots of their muscles. And the MCU is not the only film franchise like this. Most, if not all, franchises with majority or entirely male leads expects them all to look like bodybuilders. And I'm gonna take back that it's just for the male audience, because these bodies are meant to appeal to women who are intended to thirst for these actors too. They think these bodies is what will bring women to the theaters.

None of this will change, as you say, that women's sexualization is "constant and pervasive". The film industry is just a part of the larger whole of media. Television and advertising have a treatment of women that's beyond whatever you or I say because there are decades worth of shit to go through that would take dozens of essays worth of writing to fully divulge beyond "please stop it's gross".

Now DC is a whole other ballgame. They're pretty infamous for their artists' sexualization of heroines and villainesses. Harley, Ivy, and Selina are definitely pretty bad, but when I remember what I've seen drawn of Kara, Kori, or sometimes Barbara... But outside of one artist, I think Harley and Ivy as a couple have been drawn tamely. Can't say the same for Selina, because they just can't not draw every part of her body even when she's fully clothed.

I think it's hard not to talk about fandom misogyny outside of m/m ships because of how often popular m/m shippers have rooted their shipping into misogyny. And even with m/f ship wars, a lot of the time the "faulted" character is always the woman when majority of the time it's the man who sucks. I don't get why everyone is fighting for who should kiss Steve because Steve sucks and they'd be better off without him. But because Steve is the object of affection for our fave, we have to fight off everyone else.

Don't look at other fandoms for m/f ship wars. We don't appreciate how tame we were, even at our worst. I'm serious, I've seen so much worse.

I think why the topic of misogyny comes up more with m/m ships is because they follow a similar principle of the male characters being more developed in canon and fanon so it's who people gravitate towards.

There is definitely layers of homophobia in fandom, but there's many versions of how we see it. Homophobes who won't ship anything that's not m/f. Homophobes who ship m/m but won't support IRL rights. People who love m/m but abhor f/f, and vice-versa. The shippers who use them for personal fodder. But the sexism is more prevalent than the homophobia. And the racism way more than both combined.

And it does cause a lot of ammo, and much of it severely unjustified, in ship wars. Literally the bullshit I've seen pulled out of thin air to accuse Sharon of not being worthy because someone said she's a racist for [they literally had no reason just called her one because we said Sam and Sharon are friends because they are] and other nonsense.

The real world repercussions of the homophobia, the sexism, and the racism in fandom... there's just so much. Like we are all still people, and yet we decide because we hide behind screens to be antagonistic, and use homophobic, sexist, and racist shit to attack each other over ships just because we want to paint the other person as crazy, I guess? If you can't see that there are no enemies in ship wars and that the other side is still people, maybe you need to sit out and log off. It's baffling how often it still happens to people. Then it's no longer about ships, it's about who is an asshole.

I will say that Steve and Peggy vs Steve and Sharon is probably the only m/f ship war I've seen where misogyny is talked about. Is, not was, because it still is. Both sides call the others misogynistic. I don't think either side is, but you can see in individuals. Those who tweeted at a certain actress that she was a slut for kissing her costar certainly are though.

You are right that shipping m/m isn't inherently sexist. But tearing down women in those ships to prop up m/m has made me stop shipping certain characters altogether. People, seriously, we don't have to justify why we like them! We can just like them! And other characters can still exist! It's never been that deep.

And you're right, the popularity of the ship helps people ignore any deeper issues within them and this is a power used to silence valid criticism if it pops up.

(I hope I answered everything well for you.)

~Mod R