#though i blame some of that stuff on the misogynistic writing

[murdockhawkeye]

[floofeeeeee]

Time to be a little hater HEHEH this my rant on the Kotlc sub reddit

I HATE and I mean HATE THIS REDDIT ONG homophobia has tow down a bit but ugh…this sub Reddit….is depressing as hell

Like LIKEEEEE uh there’s a lot of things I dislike that I’m going to explain here I’ll try not to make it long but I’m a yapper SOO no promises (also there will be so many spelling mistakes erm)

Ok First things first

They hate the books like genuinely hate it, it’s wild. And not in the way we’re there just criticizing like I’ve seen on here. I’ve seen some very good points and discussions that have been overall respectful and you can tell they still enjoy the books even with the criticism. Like I’ve eaten up every book but still had the things I like to nitpick. But on the sub Reddit…it’s such a different vibe man.. like they find it childish (crazy it’s almost like it was made for 12 year old ) and just dislike every book except like the first. They constantly talk about how much they think the newer suck. They hate the plot and most of it writing. At this point don’t read it????? You clearly do not enjoy the books why are you here???

And the worst part is there are a lot of younger kids on there then here.. like these are kids who want to find a space to talk about there favorite books and your just complaining all the time…UUGHHHGBHBHH

PART TWO

The homophobia…. Sighhhhh it’s Reddit idk man but I’ve seen a few things erm.. yeah it’s gotten better like a lot I’d say compared to Pinterest but still it’s gross.

Part three my favoriteeee part! (Lies)

The Sophie hate. (Oh that hurts my soul)

Now I’ve seen criticism of Sophie on here before! It’s normal! But this is actually hate like…Ong why

Let’s just start of with the fact the if you go on there now I guarantee if you scroll down a bit you will find a post hating on Sophie. It’s all the same stuff to “I miss the old Sophie! She’s such a brat now!” She’s so annoying she doesn’t deserve Keefe!” “I hate how rude she is in stellarlune !” That pretty basic and toning  it down a lot . But you get the idea it’s that all the time with a few more things obviously. They think she’s a Mary sue they hate how many powers she’s has they call her weak and are annoyed with the fact that she can’t ever beat the neverseen (it’s almost like she 15 with very little training on how to fight and no one ever offers except until FLASHBACK. when they finally are like hmm maybe we should teach her how to defend herself! REALLY NOW? AFTER ALL THIS TIME??) they give very very little grace.

But it keeps going now there is hate for fitz…but I feel like the hate for Sophie is worse.

That brings us to our next part

There highkey misogynistic .. NOW HEAR ME OUT OKK get it they can dislike a girl character that’s fine! (It’s not /j) but here’s why I think that

fitz defenders on there and they are interesting…like I love fitz lovers on here there very cool and are respectful

Not Reddit!

A litte while back I saw post talking about sofitz break up in legacy and well…they blamed it all on Sophie!!! How sweet 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 now this isn’t me saying she wasn’t at fault at all during that time BUT neither was fitz they both were they both had there struggles and it was clear to me that Sophie wasn’t ready. But they want on a long rent about how most of it was her fault and how much she ruined the relationship…oh my. And yes it’s there opinion but when a whole sub Reddit is in favor of the man more then the woman……….I just thinks it’s weird and maybe this isn’t very misogynistic

But! I’ve seen Keefe lover on There ranting about how bad sophie is for Keefe and how much they hate the idea of them together. I’ve seen multiple post loving both of those boy and ragging on Sophie they praise the boys and hate her it’s it’s so…ANNOYING holy crap I hate it. It feels so misogynistic the way they treat those two boys with so much love and affection even though Sophie shows sighs of similar behavior as both of them BUT NOOOOO she’s annoying bratty B and deserve nothing not like my Keefe who deserves the world……….

I’m sorry if I’m not explaining well and I’m getting things wrong this is fully just me needing to rant about that stupid sub Reddit.

I’m not done btw um

Also I saw this person post such an innocent and nice question on why they hate Sophie so much. They were like I’ve seen a lot of hate on Sophie. And I’m a big fan of her can anyone explain to why? No hate I respect your opinion! Something along those lines

And man…it was all the stuff I said before long messages about why they hate her … SIGHHHHHHHH

Anyways besides that there boring that’s all they ever talk about is this and that and there litte hot takes that are just straight up hate Radom person who nos nothing about it and is like ask me questions u have no idea what this book is about! And that fun until you look at the comments and there just annoying about it..And it’s just gahhh

Anyways my wrist hurts and that pretty much the end of my rant feel free to discuss! But please be respectful this was just my frustration that I needed to get out its not that deep I swear

[fairycosmos]

really urgent

do you have any advice for dealing with violent, aggressive younger siblings? I try to avoid them both as much as I can but I you know tell him to do the dishes or no, I won’t share my food with him and he’ll kick me, scream or yell and he always taunts me oh are you scared I’ll hit you? and I’m physically disabled, weak, have no balance and it’s so humiliating. and I just have to take it and pretend I don’t care. I also always tell myself to just ignore him like never interact with him again unless my dad tells me to or sth and only then but idk I can never keep my promise. UGH now I’m crying because I don’t know what to do. Like they both threaten violence, one is 15 the other 19, but they’re both really strong and muscular. None of my friends understands because most of them are only children or simply don’t live in an insane family. I hate them both so much and I hate that I’m scared of them and that they know it. They’re also both big misogynists and this is like stuff that they’ll brag about to their friends. I’ve tried telling my parents but they don’t really listen, they either don’t believe or tell me it’s my fault if they retaliate. I also can’t tell my grandparents bc it’s humiliating and also I think they would think that I’m exaggerating. But idk what to do and it’s getting annoying. and also dangerous. help (like there’ve been times my brother and his friends have chased me through my town I mean literally, like I had to run away and hide. Or times when the older one has p*ssed on my bed. The older one also at times has threatened to use a knife on my mom and cut her, so she’s also scared off him, which is why she won’t intervene) 😐

hey, thank you for reaching out to me. this is so so messed up and i'm so sorry you have to deal with it - i literally can not fathom the gravity of what you're going through and the fear you have to live with every day. it's completely unacceptable and no matter what, there is no justifying the shit you've been forced to put up with - while i absolutely understand that your parents are scared of your brothers too, they have a duty of care and responsibility to protect you and they are not seeing it through by allowing this to continue. i know it's very nuanced and i'm not blaming anyone other than your brothers for how they're acting, but none of this is fair to you at all. i also understand that telling your grandparents seems like a scary, daunting prospect but if it is something that is on the cards i really urge you to consider it. write down what you need to say if that helps you get your thoughts organised. if you're worried about having to prove their behaviour, would you parents not at least consider backing you up on this? are you able to record a snippet of these meltdowns to show them? though you truly should not have to go to those lengths, it's awful. you just deserve all the support you can possibly get, and i don't want fear of not being believed to stop you from seeking that.

this is a very serious situation and i'm worried about giving you the wrong advice that could possibly exacerbate things. staying in your room and completely disengaging from them as much as possible is definitely recommended as a first step, but there has to be other resources you can possibly look into. i'm going to leave various links below that can offer you that support and those coping mechanisms and i hope you at least check some of them out - i wish i could offer more insight myself but your brothers sound extremely dangerous and i think it's urgent that you reach out to family, friends, communal support, your GP, or the authorities that are actually tangibly around you. i know that's infinitely easier said than done, and i'm not expecting you to gain some superhuman amount of courage that will allow you to sort everything out overnight. that's not your job. it is absolutely 100% understandable that you are scared and traumatised by their actions. what i am saying is that you are clearly at a place where you know this isn't right and that it can not continue, and that the resources below can help guide you towards reaching out and also coping with the situation at hand. i hope you're able to check them out, even just one or two, and implement them into your life moving forward. again, i'm so so sorry you're dealing with this and i hope you know that there are people who can help, that you are not doomed to live in this exact situation forever. sending so so much love your way, please reach out if and when possible. you do not deserve this and i am rooting for you with all of my heart. if you need a friend, someone to talk to a more specific form of support please reach out to me and i will try my best to help as much as i am able. x

if you're under 18 - please please consider reaching out to a teacher, a friend's parent or CPS/childline (resources for that here, here, here and here.) if you are in ever in immediate danger, call the authorities immediately. it is ok to put yourself first.

info on sibling abuse

international abuse helplines

disability and abuse helpline

getting help for domestic violence

domestic violence safety plan pdf

info on toxic siblings and estrangement

living with abuse: coping mechanisms pdf

abuse: self help guide pdf

the survivors handbook: support for disabled women

disability & abuse resource

simple trauma coping mechanisms pdf

coping with trauma worksheets/exercises pdf list

how to report domestic abuse 1

how to report domestic abuse 2

how to report domestic abuse 3

women with disabilities: how to identify abuse and get help

anxiety: coping mechanisms pdf

healing from domestic abuse pdf

surviving domestic abuse pdf

domestic abuse: survivors handbook pdf

identifying and coping with emotional abuse

[jewishbarbies]

"When the JD/AH trial first came out it seemed like everyone was on Depp’s side and hating on Amber, but then overnight that changed"

It happened only in specific, famous from being rapid and not factchecking first places, like certain areas of TikTok or Twitter. And it was because of unsealed documents combined with the fact, that people didn't understand what they even are and they are just pre-trial motions and claims made by both sides. It was basicaly "Amber said" and she said quite a lot of completely out of pocket stuff, that didn't make sense, when put together, to make as big damage as possibile and to see what sticks. I mean, her lawyers were often very unprofessional and all over the place during trial, so imagine how chaotic and not making sense they are in motions that got tossed out by the judge pre trial.

Meanwhile those people, who changed their minds didn't really pay attention in the first place, because to actually watch the trial and read all these unsealed documents or documents from prev trial, you had to spend a lot of time on that. So what happened is a lot of people was interested in the topic, because it was popular, but they were not commited to it enough to spend so many hours on that, so they were getting their informations just from some biased twitter threads and such (there was so many Amber Heard's supporters on Twitter writing just factually wrong or misleading things, that I refuse to believe she didn't have something to do with it, especially that there are some leads that one of her most popular advocates was actually a member of her PR).

So when unsealed documents dropped, those people looked at "Amber said"s and treated them as facts, especially on websites full of radfems, because they foster this sexist ideas, that in hetero relationships it's only women, who can be victims and you always have to believe women and if you don't, then you're a misogynist.

Also anon is wrong about everyone at first being on Depp's side, most of people went into this trial sympathizing with Heard, me included, based on those mainstream media bits throughout the years, that get to you even when you're not paying attention. People shifted a little after Depp took the stand, but what really made public side with him was actually Heard's own testimony. It became clear, that not only she's a liar, but also an abuser.

And her fetishizing Jewish people is absolutely correct, also being racist and elitists towards people from behind the south border of USA, just look up her tweet about ICE checkpoints. Worth noting that she's besties with Eve Barlow (who actually got kicked out from the court for acting as if she's a part of Heard's legal team and asking to show the judge some post on social media to make one of witnesses stop testifying, which had to happen after that claim, even though later it turned out that this claim was false and witness didn't do anything wrong) and there is tweet of her with photo of both her and Amber in Israel camplaining about sushi delivery taking a lot of time, because of bombings.

this is very well put.

I can’t stand Eve so when i found out she and Amber were together it just sealed the deal for me with her appropriation and overall antisemitic/racist mentality. there’s SO much evidence to Amber’s mental state and while i don’t think she’s evil for having mental health struggles, I think everyone who ever enabled her behavior instead of getting her help is just as to blame. there were a lot of wild theories at the time of the trial and a lot of depp supporters acted in disgusting ways imo, because a trial over this should be treated seriously and with respect, but nothing has changed my mind. people think to support Johnny you have to believe he’s somehow never done wrong in this situation or another, but there’s a lot he’s done I don’t like or support and it still doesn’t mean he wasn’t abused. shitty people can have unfair things happen to them. I’m glad he got clean and is living a better life and I hope someday Amber can do the same and be a better person.

[sneezemonster15]

I find it so funny when people try to dissuade people from shipping same sex pairing by using the "We need more representation of close and intimate male friendship. People need to stop making everything gay" excuse. But the reality is that the friendship who is truly under representated is male/female friendship. Ask anybody if 2 guys can be friend? Of course! Ask if 2 girls can be friend? Obviously! Now ask if a a guy and a girl can be friend? "Well, hum ... not really ... the guy probably want to fuck the girl if she is pretty ... the friendship isnt real." Clearly society lacks representation of healthy male/female friendship. Tv shows, anime etc ... give the MC a whole harem of girls (girls who are supposed to be just friends and he thinks of as only friends at the beginning) pining for him or love the trope of the good guy friend who is waiting for the girl to stop dating assholes and finally notice him. Which also lead to the gay best friend trope bc its the only guy who can be the girl's friend.

Representing male/female friendship not only help against heteronormativity but also misoginy. The idea that women arent fun to be around and are boring perpetuate the thought that women are just good at being fucked, at being wifed etc, and not fun enough to just have a good time doing friends stuff ... So men end up thinking they can only return romantic or lustful feelings toward women.

All that to say that those people clearly do not care about friendships representation. They are just annoyed that people prefer same sex pairings to the holy straight pairings. And "feminist" women who cheer because their queens finally got to get the dicks they wanted are advocating for the wrong thing. Celebrating their faves girls being used as sequel factories or for disney happy ever after the heteronormative and misogynist society craves so much, isnt the big flex they think it is.

Well said anon.

Yes, I agree there is a dearth of healthy and realistic m/f friendships in media and they are surely underrepresented. Lately, more creators are portraying m/f friendships in their films/series etc. But yeah, it's such a stereotypical thing to reduce m/f relationships to romantic or lewd isn't it?

I liked how the character of Amy in Gone Girl talked about the Cool Girl trope. How men wanna see women they wanna hang out with in a certain way and outwardly, it seems this is a fun girl, with a free, liberal and casual devil may care attitude yet still have their personalities revolving around the desires and fetishes of men. I also liked how again, the character of Amy in a film called Chasing Amy portrayed a similar issue, even though the film has its own problems. How men see lesbian women and even though their sexual interests don't intersect, men nevertheless feel righteous about constructing sexual fetishes around it, objectifying lesbians because women, by the simple grace of being women, simply cannot do without men, that their whole existence is nullified if men aren't in it.

A male/female relationship which is platonic and based on equal terms can do so much to give some resolution to this issue.

As for the 'feminist' fans in this fandom, it is interesting to see how Sakura or Hinata stans think cheering their faves is a holy act of feminism while understanding nothing about feminism and female representation in media. It has created such a toxic environment in this fandom, and I am sure others. To a huge extent, I blame the industry because the target group of this genre is so impressionable, it's so easy to misinterpret things, especially with how these women are written. While I get why Kishi did it with these two female characters, given they would be paired up with his two main (and clearly gay, living in a homophobic world) characters for the sake of the sequel and that he writes other female characters much better than theirs, it still is very problematic. Because they were never condemned in the actual story. They were never called out. Never made to face consequences for their actions. And this, THIS, makes their fans so insistent about the apparent goodness of them, while sweeping the rest under the carpet. While it doesn't take a genius to spot their faults, it certainly takes a certain level of understanding of narrative, visual language, themes and understanding of the world.

I can talk about narrative subversion till my lungs give out but unless one shows an inclination to learn how narratives are built, they would keep sticking to their token understanding of concepts such as representation and feminism. Which is such a sad phenomenon. It is almost hurtful how so many fans are so willingly tone deaf and blind, all because of some shallow relationship they wish they had. It's amazing to me how well fortified their delusions are. How strong their willingness to be courted by a hot popular boy. How fine they are with having their fave character revolve around some guy for the most superficial of reasons. This is what their understanding of feminism amounts to. All this nonsense for some cheap self insert.

Even Sasuke stans who are anti SNS. They prefer thinking of Sasuke as some cool, badass, revolutionary man archetype who sleeps around and struts with his massive dick out. And this is how they facilitate their Sasuke*fem reader smut. These Guevara extremists who think homosexuality only exists in western societies, who also consider themselves uber feminists, who think Sasuke casually slept with Karin (because why wouldn't he? He is a man and he has a dick and a willing girl is around, it all makes sense lol), are fine with self inserting into a female character, as long as the badass revolutionary would casually fuck her and then throw her away or let her die without a second thought after his demands have been met. Because yay, feminism. Like irony goes to anti SNS and SS/NH to die a horrible death.

Hinata stans would get triggered at SNS posts or anti NH posts and share the same four Spanish panels of photographs of Naruto with his family because that's their understanding of a happy family. Orchestrated studio pictures. Because gay men living in a het marriage have never been clicked. Because gay men in het marriages don't exist. That's their extent of understanding a relationship. A family picture. It is certainly not a flex.

Just look at how SS apply all sorts of mental gymnastics to justify Sasuke staying away from his family for 12 freaking years. Like you can certainly feel bad for SS stans who even after Gaiden, had the courage to ship this ship. The levels of desperation. And to what ends? What is even their payback? Where is their reward? Kishi certainly isn't giving them any.

You know sometimes I feel shipping is a strong word for what I feel for the story. Because Naruto is just a love story about two boys. If I want them to be together, is it shipping? Shipping is such a fandom term. If that's what the story has led me to, to hope for the two main characters to have a resolution that the entire narrative has painstakingly led me to, is it really shipping? I am just an ordinary reader/audience who wants a good ending to this story. The way the creator wrote it. All I did was to follow what he wanted me to see. Is it then shipping or just a natural conclusion to the story? To want them to be with each other?

As for those fans who say 'we need more representation of men being friends, stop making everything gay' are so fucking silly. Like damn, don't we have enough representation of platonic male bonding? There are entire tropes based on that dynamic. Cop buddies, bro code, band of brothers, big brother mentor, bromantic foil, bros before hoes, brother from another mother and this goes on and on and on. I can count like forty films and twenty books off the top of my head that use these male bonding tropes. Just say you are a homophobic piece of shit. Why circumvent facts? Like we live in a patriarchal, heteronormative world and suddenly stories about men being friends are in jeopardy. Like c'mon, cut the utter bullshit. Lol.

There are only a handful of sane voices in fandoms. Because the rest of them leave and I totally understand why. Hehe. But while you are here, do what you can and then get out. This shit is not good for anyone long term.

[jessica-problems]

Rosen Garten Saga(Fuji Sakimori) and Joshi Kouhei(Jiro Matsumoto) are two fascinatingly messy transgender stories. I wouldn't say they're good, necessarily. They're both pretty uncomfortable in a lot of ways, and they have loads of problematic stuff, but they both come from a place of the author struggling to process some messy gender feelings.

They're bout about some who is technically not a trans girl going on a surreal ultraviolent adventure, and dealing with crazy battles and struggling with weird ideas about gender and sexuality.

They both feature a fair bit of misogyny and transphobia, though it is absolutely addressed in the text. These are characters who are slowly, messily, processing their feelings about gender in a hostile world, and sometimes that means awful and unpleasant things happen and they respond poorly to them.

Rosen Garten Saga reads like the author started out as a horny misogynist, and then, over the course of writing the first few arcs, genuinely became a better person, and pivoted to unpacking those ideas and exploring how toxic masculinity is ridiculous and embarassing. If it was always planning to unpack the gender stuff, it does a very poor job of telegraphing it. I absolutely would not blame you if you took one look at the opening few chapters and ran away screaming from how awful it looks, but I promise it does engage with how fucked up the ideas it presents are. It's definitely aware that sexual violence has more in common with violence than it does with sex, but it does approach normal violence in a pretty standard shonen-battle way. It discusses a lot of stuff about sexuality and kink. Often by dropping the characters into a kinky situation, and having them get real uncomfortable. I might describe the overall arc as one of teasing apart the difference between attraction to women, and wanting to be a woman, and of unpacking various kinks and wrestling with whether liking them makes you a bad person or not.

Joshi Kouhei is, according to the author, NOT about being transgender, but "just about cool girls fighting monsters" However, he has a trans sister, and there's so many scenes in it that read like real personal moments in a trans woman's journey to accepting herself. It's very popular in the japanese trans community. It ends in kind of a messy place that could be taken as a metaphorical "sometimes people have good reasons for staying in the closet"(as well as a metaphor of actually transitioning, it's complicated), so if the author IS trans, I'm sure he'd rather not have people ask about it. This one is less horny(though still fascinated by women's bodies). It's more focused on, like, the social roles of women, and their relationships, and the idea of just existing in a woman's body while doing normal stuff.

Neither one is what I'd call especially feminist, but they're both very visceral explorations of someone's messy pile of gender feelings. I want someone else to read them, not necessarily because I think they're good, but because they're fascinatingly flawed. Though they both have some very good moments.

both have a fair bit of fanservice, though it comes across thematically like the author is grappling with "am I attracted to girls, or do I want to BE a girl? do I even have a clear idea of what the difference is?"

cw in Rosen Garten Saga for basically every kind of power-dynamic kink: sexual violence, sadomasochism, tentacle monsters, bondage, mind control, age-play, 600-yr old lolis, and more

cw in Joshi Kouhei for: suicide, self harm, body horror, gore, the horrors of war, ego death, ambiguous consent, and brainwashing

[thedevotionaltour]

your posting about brat pack has got me so curious

ohhhh my feelings on bratpack are both So Complex and Extremely Easy. i'm gonna put this under the cut bc it accidentally got long. and then this got long too IM SORRY. this got so damn rambly. anyways. what i deem important i'll keep up here

summary of feelings: underground gritty take on superhero sidekick story contains both well done genuine critiques of the genre and its fans but i think has some contempt in there, too (but then again, who can blame a guy). offers interesting ideas. has some piss poor writing in there where occasionally trying to satirize something just makes it into exactly what it's trying to critique if not handled well. READ THE REVISED TPB INSTEAD OF THE SINGLE ISSUES AS THE REVISIONS MAKE THE STORY MORE IMPACTFUL and reminds us that capitalism is the upholder of evils. and lets itself breathe here and there a bit more and allows for more depth. though if you want to read both for comparison, i wouldn't advise against that-- rereading it in the tpb form as opposed to when i just read it as single issues helped me with some of the meh feelings i had about it.

it is also a comic i will absolutely say right now is NOT one i would recommend to everyone. at all. i'd say if you are not a fan of american underground comix, this may not be to your taste. but if you're willing, or enjoy edgier comics even with no underground experience, and enjoy comics that satirize the cape genre, it's worth giving it a go. and please keep in mind that not only is richard veitch's career from an undergound background, it is also the 90s. so it's good to keep that in mind, too.

also, important to note content warnings on the comic itself include homophobia, sexual abuse, racism, and misogyny. alongside other things, but i think those are the most important to be upfront on. this isn't a here and there thing with it-- they are major points through the whole story and will be carrying it along.

final important statement: i am so sad for all these children and wish the heroes would die.

and here is a link to the comic!

i think a good background context for this is to my understanding, it's was partially written as a response to the jason todd vote to kill hotline and how people acted about it afterwards. well, inspiration at least, not quite sure on the response part at all. im trying to vaguely remember things right now. the comic as a whole is satirical poking and prodding about it. for some further context, jason todd had only died two years ago when this began publication.

the comic is a very gritty, edgy superhero style story, talking about all the dark parts and the "you know, this wouldn't be all the fun in real life, now would it?" stuff. so these kids are going through the fucking ringer of abuse, life as child soldiers who are both idolized and despised by the public, and are seen as icons as opposed to people. and that it's adults who are putting children through this. you get the awesome reminder of it is not as easy to survive being blown up as dc and marvel may have you think just because you're the hero!

as mentioned before, it's a story that is a satirical and critical deconstruction of the superhero genre, sidekick and young hero groups in particular. author richard veitch's career started in underground comix and it shows through and through. i think it has a lot to offer in how it handles its critiques, how it points out the hypocrisy in the fan culture. it also has a lot of blunders with it too. sometimes when trying to satirize misogyny and homophobia within the fan culture and stories, it just winds up as actually misogynist and homophobic writing.

a lot of where my more negative feelings on it definitely lie in the realm of sometimes the line between crit/satire and then just contempt for the genre and its fans feel occasionally blurred. i think a lot of this comes from some parts of the writing i find really mishandled. a lot of my critical feelings also come from the aforementioned homophobia-- i have. many feelings on the character the mink. i think it is absolutely possible to write a gay sexual child abuser. i think it is very much possible to write a character like him, stereotypical flamboyancy and all. but i also think the caricature gets pushed too hard sometimes, and it leaves a very nasty taste in my mouth. i know exactly that this character and his sidekick are meant to be an exaggerated portrayal of the homophobic beliefs and gay interpretations surrounding batman and robin. knowing that fact and what it's meant to be does not make that better and mean it is done well. i think it could have been handled a lot better. maybe if i returned and reread after sitting with this comic for a while, my opinions would change. as of right now though, they remain... less than pleasant.

i am willing to hear someone out if they wanted to say, "eiffel, i think your feelings are truly more discomfort as opposed to veitch having handled this story point poorly, and here's why the writing with the mink is not actually as bad as it feels". but i will also say i dont think every second of it was bad. again, i think there are some interesting approaches here and there with it, and as a function overall in the group of heroes, none of them are any better than him. but it's. hooh. oh boy. oh boy. it's a lot. get ready for every stereotype about the flamboyant gay molester you could imagine.

mink is also not the only caricature here-- all of the heroes are meant to be some caricature taken to the extreme with the heroes they're meant to mock.

THAT BEING SAID I REALIZED I HAVENT ELABORATED ON LIKE. THE BASICS OF THE HEROES AND STUFF AND WHO THEY'RE PARODYING. It's obvious when reading but since I don't know if you'll read it, I'll say it here. Midnight Mink and Chippy are Batman and Robin, Moon Mistress and Luna are Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl, King Rad and Wild Boy are Green Arrow and Speedy, and Judge Jury is a combo of Captain America and Judge Dredd (and one more character?) while Kid Vicious is meant to be Bucky. The last one I couldn't figure out until TvTropes told me bc despite loving heroes my knowledge on many of them is highly limited to a few of them.

anyways, this is also where i really try to remember that veitch's background lies in underground comix, which are the most edgiest and pushing your boundaries comics you can come by. and it's also the 90s. oh god it's the 90s. it's the 90s in the way it's 2008 when the comic kick-ass was published. but i also think i can recognize when it's just me having to sit through some discomfort and when some stuff just becomes distasteful. i think he handles the other characters better, though. or maybe i just choke them down easier. again, i'm willing to hear someone out if they'll talk me through it in a convincing way.

however, my enjoyment of it comes from that i do enjoy a good darker hero story. i do! i will always prefer a hopeful for humanity and that's why it's worth is superhero comic, but that's mostly for actual hero comics in the genre that are not critiques or satires. when a comic lets it be known this is entirely its purpose, then it's better than guy who just hates hero wrote a superhero comic, for some reason. knowing veitch has a background in heroes is what makes some parts of this a bit easier to take in good faith, but like. i wouldn't be surprised if there was absolutely some contempt and bitterness interwoven into it, too.

i think the sidekicks are a really interesting cast, and i like them. my favorites are chippy (cody) and luna. my heart goes out to them sooooo much. everyone talks about how much they want mink to die for sexually abusing chippy but no one talks about how moon mistress was... also sexually abusing luna. 100%. not the same way as mink with chippy, clearly, but luna was absolutely 100% sexually exploited too. so i think moon mistress should die badly too.

with the revised tpb of brat pack, i think it's good how it shows what the actual driving force behind all the insane abuse these children go through; it's capitalism. the heroes sold their imagery to companies for money, and so they have to uphold it to continue their funding. their greed and selfishness is what causes harm.

it also goes into how vigilantes are highly conservative reactionary as a concept politically speaking. politics and superheroes are a long as fuck conversation with a lot to talk about, and im just not totally qualified for it, nor am i gonna go into it here. but it's less exploring the reactionary side of heroes as wooooaaaaah edgy looook at this guys the heroes are actually ~baaaad guuuys~ as too many people in non critical comics like to pull (and then do a piss poor job at it bc they dont understand what actually makes vigilantism bad as a real life thing. bc they arent trying to point out the actual bad politics of superheroes-- they just wanna see a good guy be a bad guy without further thought. but instead of just doing that, they want to think they're being oh so smart about it. so it sucks bad most of the time.), and i think it's honestly a more sincere approach that actually understands what it wants to say about that. because it understands capitalism as a system that upholds abhorrent abuses. and for all the shit i think it does wrong, i will say that veitch understands the phrase "abuse of power comes as no surprise" in this story.

anyways this is getting... really long! apologies! and it's super duper rambly for which i also apologize!! my feelings on brat pack are mixed, but i've come around to this comic way more the longer i've sat with it. it's not perfect, no comic is, but it is. definitely for a certain crowd. and i do, ultimately, consider myself part of that crowd, even if im certainly not envisioned in it most of the time. i'm also sorry if you were looking for way more stuff on the story as opposed to my feelings-- i feel like i can't give a lot on the story, especially bc i sometimes feel unsure how to explain without also spoiling too much and also i just cant remember a lot of what happened outside of some pretty key plot points. i've only read it twice, and it was like, twice in two days! like, in april.

overall brat pack does some things right, i think it does a lot of things wrong, but what makes it a comic i find worth reading is that it does offer some interesting ideas and approaches, and i think it has some neat characters. i think it falls in the realm of "mediocre story with insane potential will stay with you even more than a really fantastically written story you love". for me, at least. again, i don't think this comic. but there's a lot it could do better. and what it does do right (and honestly even what it does wrong) highly compels me.

... and i can't help but enjoy an edgy superhero satire.

[septembersghost]

soe of the answers in this thread are really funny but https://www.reddit.com/r/TaylorSwift/comments/16a46gb/comment/jz7il7p/

"I was definitely listening to her less and less during that time, trying to slowly faze her out and find other artists I love. No one makes me feel like her but if it happened again with him or someone similar or if she was exposed as a bigot, I will definitely walk away. I can somewhat excuse her now for rebound from hell because she was going through the hardest break-up. But I’m still side-eyeing that friendship and some of her others. On the other hand, nobody’s perfect and she has many good qualities. and with so much dirt coming out on other artists I think she might be one of the best navigating the higher levels of the industry. considering how efficient her team is, I don’t see any such scandal in her future. But she was once burned at the stake for a fake phone call which, even if true, was no big deal so you can never know what might trigger the gp and less commited members of her fanbase to turn on her."

*nodding* relatable, yes. the part about the edited phone call is true too, it's scary how quickly things can turn for NO reason.

there are several fair comments about the situation in there: "I'm not saying it’s the best relationship but I don’t think using him as a rebound affects her own morality in any way, and I agree with what you said about the [band]. People didn’t care until he was with Taylor, but then it was all HER fault somehow. So to me saying such a brief relationship even means anything at all, could knock her down at all etc, is just like, how misogyny has led us to view it. She got SO much blowback. He’s def disgusting and I can’t believe she got with him / stayed after he said that stuff."

someone thoughtfully counters that blowback wasn't just misogyny, and i will assert it was in the middle. the very initial reaction, from fans, of disappointment and concern and hurt was NOT misogynistic, it was legitimate. and it was a lot of marginalized fans feeling sad and displaced who deserved to be heard. the second, louder, reaction, from the general pop culture proletariat, which was slut shaming her, calling her awful names, diagnosing her with personality disorders (the sexist and ableist double whammy!), saying she has no talent, claiming everything about her is fake, and rooting for her to get hurt, that's when it crossed from valid criticism to outright misogyny, and that's when the conversation was no longer constructive or tenable. and then the whole thing was over and not even a month had passed. but yeah, people saying that was ick and uncomfortable, i get it. and people saying he deserved the brunt of the criticism, blame, and consequence are also right.

the comment thread about what would happen if she dated scooter is hilarious though: "This would be 100% messy but it wouldn't make her lose her fans whatsoever. Me personally I would just laugh my ass off and move on, I don't have any personal beef with him, so if she ever forgives him... I guess I don't mind. Hopefully she would write good songs about the whole enemies to lovers situation. The chaos would be 10/10 entertainment" "I would honestly still ride for her in this situation. The drama would be too good for me to dip out" adsgsghjfg

[remmupom]

Ci who's ur fav TWST chara? (Can be more than 1)

WWEWEWEWEWEEW *babbles in excited toddler*

I love pomefiore Trio! I used to have a blog dedicated to twst Art, little rambles n writings, and some AUs of mine. (Remturtle) But I deleted it after my spark for it died, mainly due to toxic fans n harassment. I mostly kept quiet about it, but it was pretty icky at some points. I may do small bits of twst art for Friends n things in the future but unfortunately I’m too scared to be fully like,, public about my interest in it now.

Anyway, a big part of my love for the silly little Trio is that i am very trans and a lot of Vil & Rook’s ideologies really resonate with me. I also love Epel a huge amount too, he kind of reminds me of when I first realised my trans’ness and wanted to avoid being perceived as feminine or girly or ‘flowery’ in anyway and would often come off a little bit toxic (and honestly kind of misogynistic) with my avoidance of that stuff.

I’ve calmed down now, and re-evaluated a lot of stances. It was hard to put into words before, but with Vil’s views on makeup, fashion and self-care/self-respect, you could probably understand where I am now??? Basically live and let live, i don’t really blame anyone for doing their thing unless they’re actively harming others or themselves. If I don’t agree with someone’s actions on here I’ll usually just block them and move on. (And that happens a lot in the twst fandom 😬)

So yeah! Pomefiore Trio would be faves! Vil especially, mans can single-handedly cure my dysphoria with a smile! (Though as a Side Note, I personally dislike transfem HCs for pomefiore Trio, esp Vil and Epel. I think Aster explains it really well in a post from ages ago but I couldn’t find it to give you the link)

God this response went all over the place but that’s adhd for ya

[guineveredulac]

which guinevere storyline hurt you, OP?

I'm gonna be honest, I have problems with the texts OUTSIDE of Guinevere's storylines too, but the fact that Guinevere is IN a lot of the stuff I don't like made me wanna do angry jumping jacks around my room. So if you're ready for me to yap about everything I dislike, let's start with this: no Arthuriana content has angered me as much as The Once And Future King by T.H. White. The albeism, the misogyny, the racism, the unnecessary comparisons.. like my god?? Pick a struggle?? When it comes to Guinevere and Morgause..? Get behind me..

I can't give you a long answer on a lot of the texts because I recently dived back into Arthuriana after taking a long break from it to hyperfixate on something else, so my knowledge is a bit hazy and I'm CURRENTLY re-reading all my favourite stuff, but what I CAN remember, I'll tell you! All in good nature, of course. I know I may seem intense, but this is all just my general opinions and not everyone has to really agree with them. 😭 I just love Guinevere man!

I feel like a lot of the hate for Guinevere stems from the fact some authors made it seem like SHE was the sole reason for Camelot's downfall, and I feel like that's such a lazy, misogynistic writing move? That, and because a lot of men love Arthur for god knows what reason, they specifically target her. Why is the blame SOLELY on the woman who fell in love? Don't get me wrong, I get it, medieval times were different and affairs were a whole fiasco, but I feel like as a writer you should still try to lean into the fact that Guinevere is just following her heart when she's in an ARRANGED MARRIAGE. Yes, adultery and cheating is bad, but nobody hangs it over Arthur's head that he fucking cheated multiple times! Instead of making it seem like Guinevere is wicked and that everything's her fault, the audience should know that this outcome was caused by a whole lot of reasons outside her and Lancelot. THAT and also, at the very best Lancelot's and Guinevere's relationship is just a catalyst in the grand downfall. Mordred was gonna be a big problem regardless, but people wanna blame Guinevere for EVERYTHING and make Arthur look like some poor, sad, innocent man AKHSJS?? That mindset runs so deep that we have Guinevere hate in 2024, in all sorts of variation.

Like idk why we solely blame the woman. I mean, kudos to people who like Arthur, but he's just not my thing unless he's PlayChoices Arthur lol.

That, and I've seen (not specifically on Tumblr because everyone's very chill about ships, which I love) people just.. be misogynistic to Guinevere for no reason. Whether it be in BBC Merlin or Arthuriana. I've never watched BBC Merlin but I know enough to know that Merthur (Merlin and Arthur) are a really big thing, even though Gwen and Arthur marry in the end. In BBC Merlin the fans want two men (Merthur) together, and OF COURSE the woman is SOMEHOW in the way of their precious ship! It would be fine if they just shipped their ship without hating on Guinevere for no reason or making it seem like she's intruding on something, but no! They just wanna hate her. There's this running trend that a woman, no matter how innocent or unproblematic she is, always get degraded or made fun of in favour of the non-canon mlm ship. Tbh you'd believe it if you were on anime twitter for at least a month, lmao. The way they hate female characters on there while centering themselves around male characters is crazy 😭 I've seen women being called Hans Bellmer dolls, bitches and whores over SHIPS. Just really nasty shit that I'm glad happens not as often for Guinevere, but still upset that I sometimes see it happen.

Thankfully we are evolving as humans beings and FINALLY being critical about stuff.

[lord-x-slayr]

I should write a paper about the “cel aesthetic.” There would be so much to cover and research tho. Chronically online people that almost became true “incels” and delved into the manosphere and pill shit, but didn’t get their minds completely destroyed by it and instead created offshoots of celdoms and mixed more developed politics with it. A lot of centrist and right wing politics, but also libs and left. The “celdoms” are like different social or political groups among the people that use the cel aesthetic. It’s different from how incels classify themselves tho. So not __cels, like official terms among incels, but with the cel aesthetic the celdoms are more ironic and not as serious or limiting. They can be jokes but it’s based off the true incel names. Cel aesthetic people use the overall aesthetic to connect with more reasonable people or to gain clout with shared opinions that aren’t as hardcore. They are more like real people that chose for the aesthetic of incel shit. The reason why true incel culture resonated is unclear but I think it’s mainly due to online memes, or downplayed impact of incels, or shared values, or overlap between incel and manosphere stuff, or conservative stuff. The incel movement got popular but was infamous and had a bad reputation. The cel aesthetic is more like punk or rebellious. It’s like an evolution of it. It’s like when a kid learns something but then learns the issue is actually more complicated. Incels use childish logic, but ppl with the cel aesthetic are more grown up but they still have that past, or almost went there in the past. Cel aesthetic has elements of true incel movements like language and memes and shared interests but it’s not as hardcore as true incel shit. Either that or they actually thought they were an incel but later on realized it’s not cool or that they actually aren’t capable of being one or that they actually could be involuntarily celibate for more reasons than what incels say. Or the real incel movement had too much hate and misogyny but these more realistic people in the celdom aesthetic don’t want to be straight up misogynist even though it inherently is, or they have more outdated or conservative influenced views on male and female gender roles. The mistake of celdom aesthetic caused by their lack of romance in their young adult/teen years and them thinking that makes them an incel, when it doesn’t. Or that they would be hated by women when all they needed to do is grow up a little bit overcome some bad habits or fears. Or I could include the overlap between fakecels and true incels and the cel aesthetic. I could go into some psychology and self worth/esteem, maybe some blame game stuff. I could add some politics and shit too. Also maybe I could include non incel people’s role and views of true incels and the differentiation of the cel aesthetic as a weaker version of the hardcore hate. I’m not an expert on this but I think I could do something if I wanted to write an essay.

[boreal-sea]

"You’re blaming america for Muslim countries being sexist and misogynistic"

Yes, and I am specifically blaming America for Iran. Are you... not aware of how thoroughly the USA has fucked with Iran and the middle east over the last century?

If you're not American, then I don't blame you for not knowing American history. If you ARE American... you really need to learn this stuff. America is EXTREMELY responsible for how fucked up the middle east is these days and we are responsible for religious fundamentalists being able to gain so much power over there.

The Islamic Revolution in 1979 is America's fault. We went in, fucked around with their government, destabilized it, then acted shocked when it was overthrown from within. Iran is the way it is today specifically because of US interference and the cold war.

Also - I don't know you or your life. But you seem to believe that all religions are sexist, and you seem to believe that Islam is uniquely horrible among them... and that sounds like cultural Christianity and the Islamophobic propaganda that comes with it, especially in the west.

You don't have to be Christian to be culturally Christian; just being raised in a Christian-majority country (like the UK, Canada, the USA, and many others) is enough for it to seep into the culture you are raised in without you being aware of it. Anyway.

---

As for "how does it change what is written" -

As an actual real former Christian, let me explain how Christians view the Bible: it is a foundational and unchanging document that should be interpreted as literally as possible when convenient to do so.

As a converting Jew, let me explain how Jews view the Torah: it is a foundational and living document... and then there are the centuries of writings and commentary on the Torah, thousands of words that have been written about, argued about, and debated about. Judaism is not static and does not act like there's one end-all-be-all interpretation of the Torah that everyone has to believe "or else". Judaism is constantly evolving and changing and arguing with itself, wrestling with the texts and how they can be applied to life in every new century.

It is, in my opinion, a completely different viewpoint on the texts compared to Christianity.

So please don't mind me when I chuckle at the idea that a religious person must look at the original text as some kind of incredibly strict set of rules that must be followed or your thumbs fall off (hyperbole). Again, that feels like a very culturally-Christian belief.

Also... not all religions have texts saying women must obey their husbands. You know that, right??

Like, if you're only thinking about the Torah, the Christian bible, or the Quran, then yes. Those texts do contain parts discussing how women should obey husbands.

And feminists from these religions discuss this, and grapple with it.

And, specifically with regards to Jewish feminists, there are many opinions about what it means to reconcile feminism with Judaism:

The Jewish feminists I associate with generally believe that there are bits of the Torah that are simply not ethical in modern day life. Other Jewish feminists believe there is no chance of reconciliation. They are valid, too. That's just not my favored interpretation.

There's a lot of stuff that's written down in holy books of all kinds that people from multiple religions don't follow these days, often because culture has advanced and we've decided certain things are unethical - like, y'know, slavery.

A LOT of that stuff involves human rights. Just because it's in the book doesn't mean we have to follow it if we decide it's unethical.

So if religious folks can say "yeah slavery is bad actually, let's not do that anymore even though it's written in the book", why is is so hard to believe that we can also say "Yeah, sexism is bad actually, let's not do that anymore even though it's written in the book"?

Friendly Reminder: radfems are fascists and fully support cultural genocide if it furthers their White Western Feminist goals.

This radfem doesn't actually care about Islamic women or children. She would never admit Islamic feminists exist and she sure as hell isn't listening to Islamic feminists - because if she did, she wouldn't have this viewpoint.

She just hates Islam, because that's what Western Christianity taught her to do!! She wants to erase Islam from the face of the Earth and will use any excuse to do so. Feminism gives her a cute excuse to be a bigot.

Also, I love that once again "children" do not have sex or gender and/or are somehow equivalent to women. At what point to boys stop being "children" and become "evil men"? At what point to boys lose this safety and become the enemy?

[goldustwomun]

false god (e.m.)

pairing: eddie munson x best friend! fwb! reader

summary: sleeping with your best friend was never a good idea, and though he’s confessed his feelings to you, they were feelings he felt for an entirely different girl. 

warnings: some smut-type-spicey stuff! angst!! a whole lotta swearing because i just loved dropping the f-bombs; some l-bombs again because reader is entirely infatuated with our boy eddie; mentions of drugs and smoking and drinking xx err also possibly ooc eddie because it’s my first time writing him (second time writing so be kind)

wc: 3.2k+

note: this wrote itself, i have no regrets :) entirely inspired by the t swizzle song & it’s unedited for now because I just want it out in the world and my brain hurts too much to read it over xx but likes & reblogs are much appreciated <3 love u alllll 

read part two - part three

The two of you were never a done deal. There was no handshake, no whispered promise, no exchange of blood under a full moon. It’d only ever been stolen moments that were brushed aside as slip-ups. Blame placed on the drink, the drugs, the look in each other’s eyes. 

How was he meant to resist when you walked into his trailer in that tiny skirt, lips pouting and talking a mile a minute? He was a patient man, sure, had to be when just about everyone treated him like some kind of satanic ‘freak’. But you’d talk, and talk, and talk, and as much as he loved to hear you talk, sometimes (most of the time), he’d lean over and shut you up with his mouth instead of hearing just how much you hated whatever misogynistic prick you’d seen on TV that day.

It was the same with you. How were you meant to keep your hands, your lips off of him and his skin when he smiled at you in that crazed way he always did? With his constantly-flourishing hands and his ability to look at you for not even a minute before he’d deciphered what it was that had been bugging you since you’d woken up. 

To everyone else, Eddie Munson was the guy who was probably in a cult, listened to the devil’s music, smelled of pot (always), and was exactly the kind of guy mother’s warned their daughters about. He wore leather and chains and had tattoos you loved to trace when you were in bed together.

Eddie Munson was all of these things, and more, to most of Hawkins. 

Yet to you – you were certain he’d be the only man you’ll ever love. 

Now you know you’re young, somewhat naive to the world, and definitely haven't lived enough of life to make such profoundly passionate claims. 

But somewhere deep down in your heart, in your soul, in your very being – you knew it to be true. That it would always be Eddie. 

Eddie. Eddie. Eddie. 

And the worst part of it all, the real irony of it, was that you’d yet to find the courage to say just that to him, and though he’d said it to you, he’d been talking about someone else. 

“It’s Chrissy, babe. I’m telling you – she’s the one!” 

He’d been gushing non-stop since he’d fallen into step beside you, arms swinging with such dramatic ease that you had to duck occasionally just to avoid getting hit. “I don’t know why now. It’s not like we’ve ever talked, not since middle school, at least. And yes, yes, I know what you’re going to say– she’d never be into me. But I’m telling you, she is, she has to be – I just know it.”

He stopped, finally, hands landing on your shoulders to turn you towards him. Eddie Munson smiled down at you, waiting, panting, expectantly, to hear just how happy you were that your best friend had found the one. 

You could only offer him a tight smile and an encouraging squeeze of his bicep before you shrugged him off of you, stepping past him. The ground looked oddly enchanting, what with all of the dirt, and twigs, and stomped-on bugs. You couldn’t get enough of it, really. Well, you couldn’t get enough of anything that’d distract you from the frown that had replaced Eddie’s previous grin. 

He didn’t say anything, only walked beside you, having understood that if he pried, you’d only lash out. And while those fights and arguments usually ended with him inside of you and you screaming his name to oblivion, he had a feeling this time wasn’t like the rest. 

It wasn’t until you made it to his Uncle’s trailer that he finally spoke again. Shoving himself between you and his bedroom door so that you couldn’t avoid the conversation – the catastrophic explosion, more like – any longer. 

“What’d I do?” he asked, confident it was the right route to take. If it was anyone else you were upset with, it was Eddie you’d go to, to rant and complain and curse out. So he knew, if it wasn’t anyone else, it had to be him who’d fucked up. He just didn’t know where he’d gone wrong. 

“It’s nothing, Ed,” you brushed off, trying, failing, to push past him. When he didn’t budge, you sighed, glaring up at him and his stupidly endearing curly head of hair. “I’m serious. It’s nothing, just move out of the way.”

“Why?” Eddie wasn’t usually this pushy, but this time around, he stood defiantly at the door frame. 

“Why? Because I want a fucking smoke, Ed. What’s wrong with you?” The anger was building, he could see it buzzing under your skin as your nostrils flared at him in annoyance. That was good, though. Some emotion, even the bad kind, was better than whatever apathetic bullshit you were currently trying to feed him. 

“You’re not gonna get a smoke until you tell me what’s wrong!”

“I told you– nothing! For fuck’s sake–”

“It’s obviously not nothing if you’re fucking shouting at me, now is it!”

“Whatever Munson. Keep your drugs.” You shook your head, fists clenched like you were readying yourself to punch him right in his face (the face you hated to adore), but instead you spun your heel, snatched your bag off of the pathetic excuse of a kitchen table, and hauled ass out of the door. 

“Hey, hey hey!” He rushed at you from behind, slamming the trailer door shut before you’d even had a chance to think about how irrational you were acting. You think it might be your body’s way of getting you to confess, to just tell him. “God! Stop acting like such a brat. Just tell me, I’m not here to judge you, you know that’s not me!”

You knew you were being unreasonable, you knew he’d know something was wrong, and you knew Eddie was just the person to pry it out of you. You were just afraid of what it’d do to the two of you. 

You were glaring holes into the dented metal of the door, knowing the only way out was the truth. 

“It’s Chrissy,” you said, though your voice was barely above a whisper.

“What?” he asked, still confused by your outburst.

“Chrissy.”

“Babe, I can’t hear you if you mumble you words like tha–”

“It’s fucking Chrissy, Munson, you fucking moron! Chrissy, Chrissy, Chrissy!” you shouted, finally, right in his face. 

And you laughed at how dumbstruck he looked, because you could tell he knew where this conversation was headed. It was a road you’d both avoided for months now, ever since the lines of friends and more had started to blur. 

“Chrissy? I– What? Why Chrissy? What’d she do to you?” You flinched at the concern in his voice, hated that he cared so damn much for you. But you had to remind yourself that care and concern didn’t equate love, and you loved Eddie Munson but he’d never love you back. 

“She didn’t do anything. It’s– She’s– Fuck! Eddie, I don’t want to talk about this!” you cried indignantly, hands flying to hide the emotions so blatantly apparent on your face. He could read you like his favourite book and you needed to rip some pages out before he got too far. 

“Then what do you want to do?” His voice was raw, rough and achingly soft. Eddie’s hands moved to pull your own away from your face, pinching your chin harshly between his fingers so you looked him in the eye. “What do you want to do, babe?” 

Sure, you were looking at him and he was looking at you, but Eddie’s gaze was blatantly trained on your mouth as you gaped up at him, now dumbstruck yourself. 

“You,” you breathed into the slowly shrinking space between your bodies. “I want to do you.”

It was all he needed to hear before he’d crashed right into you. Eddie wasn’t the most useful member of society. He hadn’t yet graduated high school, didn’t have a job, and spent most of his time with fourteen year olds that could probably pass for twelve. But sex, and even more so, sex with you – he knew how to do that, was really good at doing it, as well. 

“That’s it sweetheart, melt right into me,” he urged into your ear, hands shifting from your face, to squeezing your hips, to the heated back of your thighs before he pulled you closer, forcing you to jump into his hold, lock your legs tightly around his waist. 

He walked blindly to his room, one of his hands stretched out to steady the both of you because he couldn’t quite convince himself to tear his lips from your neck long enough to see where he was going. 

“Fucking– fuck!” he cursed when he bashed his hip into the door handle, only for the same offender to jab into your side. You whined into his mouth, brows furrowing in pain, but his fingers rubbed circles into your skin to soothe the ache. 

“I’m sorry, baby, I know– I know, it hurts. But I’m going to make you feel better, yeah?” His voice had dropped into that register that always had your thighs squeezing shut. You could feel his words right down to the pit of your stomach.

 “That’s it. That’s my girl. Isn’t this so much better than fighting?” he asked sweetly, lifting your little dress off of your body before running his warm lips across the top of your breasts. 

“Eddie, please,” you managed to whimper out between gasps and moans. You couldn’t wait, not this time. You need him now, hard and fast, before the spell breaks. 

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” he hushed, then giggled quietly to himself in the midst of stripping his clothes off. “That’s what you’re going to be saying very soon.”

You tugged at his hair for his cockiness, manoeuvring around him to push him back on the bed. “I want to be on top,” you stated firmly, unhooking your bra and slipping your panties down your legs. They were shaking with anticipation but your movements were practised; confident enough that he didn’t notice.

It was only when you picked his discarded band tee from off of the floor that his smile dropped, watching you with pinpointed fascination. He leaned up on his arms to get a better look at you, standing, naked, in his shirt that barely reached midway of your thighs. “Fuck,” he cursed under his breath, hand snaking down his own body to palm at his growing prick. “You’re killing me here.”

“That’s the hope, Munson.”

Climbing onto the bed, knees resting on either side of his hips, you gave into the urge. Your fingertips traced the ink, stark against his flushed skin, across his chest, admiring how it puffed out towards you with every deep pant of his. “Sweetheart, please,” he begged, words barely forming at his lips. 

You were sat, bare, right on top of where he needed you, and as much as you wanted to get on with it, you relished in the feeling. In the feeling of him needing you, wanting you, for just a few more minutes.

Eddie, of course, wasn’t as patient. Not when you were in his shirt, in his bed, skin on display. You were entirely his, in that moment, and he was going to make you remember it. With an easy back of his hips, he had the two of you flipped as your back collided hard with his mattress. He grinned down at you, teeth flashing that deadly smile that told you, you were in for it. 

“I thought I was the one in charge here?” he mocked, caging you in with his arms. Eddie leaned down until his face was barely inches away from your own, hot breath mingling with your own. You leaned up, trying to capture his lips but he moved back in time to avoid the fated collision. 

“Sweetheart,” he mumbled, staring so deeply into you, you were worried you’d combust right then and there. Spill all your secrets and beg for mercy later, after he’d fucked you. “Do you want me?” 

It was the stupidest question you’d ever heard. He knew it. You knew it. But you answered anyway, your words wreaking desperation. “Yes, Eddie, please. I want you, so fucking bad.” 

“Why are you upset with Chrissy?”

You didn’t think you’d heard him right. It was like a needle scratching against a record player as the spinning stopped, and suddenly, all you wanted was out of his arms. “Fuck you, Eddie Munson,” you whispered curelly, shoving him off of you as you scrambled across the ground to shove your underwear up your legs, your dress over your arms. 

He didn’t stop you this time, only watched you clutch your things in your shaking hands as you sprinted out of his room, out of the trailer, and most worryingly, out of his life. 

You avoided the man known as Eddie Munson like a plague you weren’t too eager to catch. You hid in the girl’s bathroom during lunch, took the long way home or begged Nancy for a ride, even skipped out on work for a week, feigning illness. 

The problem, of course, was Eddie knew your routine, and your plan B for these exact situations, so it didn’t take long for him to catch-up with you after you slipped-up and returned to your usual walk home. 

He stood under a tree, looking entirely calm, cool, and collected. Of course, you could tell he was shitting bricks. That it was a facade he had put up because there were other people on the suburban street you lived on, and he wasn’t looking to draw unwanted attention. 

“Can we talk?” he asked, grabbing your elbow as you walked by him so you turned to face him. He pulled the pair of you deeper into the grove of trees when you refused to answer him, instead staring blankly at a spot on his chest. 

“I fucked up. I know I did. I shouldn’t have brought Chrissy up and–”

“Don’t say her name,” you insisted, cutting him off. “In front of me, at least, just don’t say her name. It makes me want to rip my skin off my bones every time I hear it come from your mouth. So don’t.” There was venom in your voice he hadn’t ever heard before, and he worried he’d slipped you the vial. 

“Baby, please, I need you to tell me. I’m worried about you, about us.” He was entirely earnest when he spoke. Eddie had a knack of being the most genuine person you’d met.

“There’s no ‘us’, Eddie. There never was, and there sure as hell isn’t one now.”

“What are you talking about? Things were fine! They were good! I thought you were enjoying yourself because I sure was!”

“I wasn’t just enjoying it, Eddie. I loved it!” you fired back. “I loved you! Fuck– I love you.” The admission hurt even more as your voice cracked. Eddie’s lips moved around words that weren’t quite making it out of his mouth as he stared at you, slack jawed. You relished in the satisfaction of doing the unexpected, leaving people so completely shocked and surprised by your every move.

But in that moment – a moment you had dreamed tirelessly of, when you’d admit your feelings to one Eddie Munson and the two of you would be forever – the confusion on Eddie’s face wasn’t something you took pride in then. 

“I didn’t know,” he confessed himself, reaching out for your hand that lay limp at your side. You pulled back immediately, not trusting yourself. 

“I know you didn’t. You’re too kind of a person to go on and on about another girl you think is the one, in front of the girl who actually loves you.” You hated saying it, but it was true. Eddie, despite the town’s best efforts to disprove, didn’t have a mean bone in his body. He was annoyingly good, even when he was being an oblivious prick. 

“It doesn’t matter, Eddie. Not anymore. I’m tired, really fucking tired, actually. And I know you don’t love and trust easily, so I know, as your friend, best friend, fuck buddy – whatever we were, that she’s good for you.” The tears were falling freely now and you were sure the place in your chest reserved for your heart was nothing but a decaying pit of black. It hurt, but you knew he was too selfless to let you go himself. 

Wiping aggressively at your tears, you continued, having rehearsed the speech in your head, over and over again, the past week. 

“If Chrissy is what you want– who you want, I mean. I’m not going to stop you. I can’t. Not when I’ll be second to her on your list when you’ve always been the whole damn universe to me. It’ll be hard, because I know you need help with Spanish and fixing the lightbulb in your room – but I can find you another tutor and write down the instructions, so don’t worry about it, yeah? 

It’ll be hard for me, too, but I have Nancy, and Steve, and Robin, and I know they’re your friends as well but we’ll make it work– schedule times to see them separately, or whatever and–”

“Stop talking,” he interrupted abruptly, hands flying to fist his hair as he paced in front of you. “Fuck! Why does it sound like you’re breaking up with me? You’re acting like we’ll never see each other!”

“I don’t think you heard me right, Ed. I love you. Like fucking fireworks and cupcakes and ‘I do’s’. I can’t just be friends with you anymore.”

“Why not? We’ll make it work, like you said, but I can’t not see you, I mean you’re my best friend and what if I lose the instructions for the lightbulb or something, then what? I’m not the smartest, you know that, I’d definitely write my grocery list on that same paper and toss it in the trash or something–”

“Because it hurts, Eddie, it fucking hurts,” you breathed out. You grabbed his hand, resting it against your chest, right above where your heart was currently pounding, threatening to burst free from the confines of your body. “It hurts when I look at you because I know you don’t love me like that. Not now, not ever. We fooled around with each other, and maybe it was a mistake, but we did it anyway, and now I’m in too deep, Ed.” 

For the first time in your friendship, Eddie Munson looked afraid. Eyes wide, nostrils flaring, fingertips gripping the soft material of your shirt. He was afraid because he didn’t know how to fix the mess laid out before him, and his usual methods were moot. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know,” he repeated again, finally, letting go of you as he stumbled back.

“I know you didn’t, Ed, I know it. You did your best– you were the best friend a person could ever ask for, and I don’t regret a thing.”

It was all you could say before you left him in the clearing, surrounded by dirt, twigs, crushed-up bugs and the pieces of your breaking heart. 

You weren’t one to pray, never having believed in a God of any kind, but even if it was some false God with minimal powers and few believers – you prayed he took care of your Eddie Munson. You prayed Eddie Munson made it out. 

Likes & Reblogs are much appreciated! Hope you enjoyed x

[dailyadventureprompts]

Why is every time I get interested in a genre I find out it’s built on a bunch of horrible stuff ? Now I have to find something besides westerns & scrap those ideas. What about if the frontier was only formerly inhabited, any previous peoples long dead by the time the frontier gets there & have it where people are trying to figure out why they all died ? That’s probably not any better, just bad in a different way though isn’t it ? Thanks anyway for answering

Heavy Topics: History is Written in Blood

Friend, let me share a lesson that you pick up very early on if you end up studying the humanities: As long as there have been humans, everything we have accomplished has been built on a scaffolding of exploitation and atrocity, meaning that there is nothing we can conceive of that is not in some way informed by one tragedy or another.

The reason I bring up these harsh realities in the context of d&d is because I want to tell stories that highlight the very real evils of the world and show how they can be overcome, how they come to be in the first place, and how our losses in the pursuit of a better world carry some meaning in the face of what seems like an insurmountable task.

Likewise, when I write things like Heavy Topics or Monsters Reimagined. It's because I want to pinpoint what I think is a harmful idea that has slipped in under the radar of gamers and creatives alike. In my time around the table I've met one too many people who want games where they're allowed to slaughter goblins wholesale, only to later develop some pretty yikes opinions when topics like immigration, poverty, or gender came up. I'm not saying that d&d is inherently xenophobic, but that the veneer of fantasy gives people with xenophobic beliefs a space where they're able to scratch their hateful itch by contriving scenarios in which they're the good guys. People being assholes "because its what my character would do" are just assholes that have found themselves an excuse, the same way people who are misogynistic or rapey "for historical accuracy" are just creeps that think they've found a place. If you'd like an example take a look at the ongoing saga of the conservative who keeps asking me to give him an excuse to beat up antifa.

To return to the topic of Westerns: I don't blame anyone for wanting to strap on some six guns, spurred boots, and a bad accent while having themselves a good time. Westerns are fun and corny and at times poignant, and they make a useful creative springboard when building a new setting. That said, the key to being able to enjoy anything historical or historically inspired is to be very open about who the bad guys were, and not paint their abuses as justified.

You could for instance, have a setting deeply inspired by the pre-war south, provided you made sure to paint the analogs for the antebellum gentry as villains (ignorant or otherwise) for their perpetuation of the monstrous institution of slavery. What you should NOT do is create a fantasy-analog slave race that deserves to be chattel because of its own savage inferiority, and have your party as heroic slavecatchers that go around defending the white race civilization.

Plan your western, my friend. Make it as gritty and absurdly bombastic as you think your players can tolerate. Just make sure to focus the camera on the real goodguys; the poor, the desperate, the wronged, and the compassionate. Give your world the scars it deserves, the cruelties and atrocities that parallel our own tragedies, so when your players prevent the next massacre or injustice they can fight back against the hopelessness in their own lives.

That's why we tell stories about heroes after all, to imagine a world and a future where we don't make the same mistakes as our past.

Art

[the-music-maniac]

Okay so, this post here https://multsicorn.tumblr.com/post/649671498154557440/i-believe-were-supposed-to-think-that-evil is actually what made me think deeper about this scene, and also what made me get off my butt to write about this, so go check it out! But I wanted to voice why a couple sentences in the english subs for Episode 21 of Word of Honor irked me slightly in the scene with Du Pusa and Liu Qianqiao, this one onwards:

Now keep in mind, my mandarin is serviceable for casual conversations, but I struggle more with formal language, so feel free to correct me if I’ve gotten translations/the feel of the scene wrong. I’m gonna go through the subs that I’m annoyed with and then explain why I think they’re inaccurate and important to the scenes at the end.

But basically, some of the translations for the Youku english subs lightened Du Pusa’s language when she was talking about the dude that betrayed Qianqiao (still don’t remember his name, so I’m gonna call him cheater dude). And the thing is, I really can’t think of a reason why they wouldn’t translate it entirely? Like is there a reason?

For example, this?

The subs say “this lady’s lover” and I can sort of understand why it’s translated like that, she says “她这个“ which is “her” implying ownership (”her lover” as an example). So ”this lady’s” is correct. But that’s not all?? She says in the second half “狗男人“ which translates literally to “dog of a man”. It’s an insult, and without it, the feel of the sentence is completely different.

The english subs also don’t exactly translate this. She didn’t say “she fell for” in this sentence, instead Du Pusa exact words are, “she was tricked into hand”.

Here too, she didn’t call Qianqiao pitiful (I think, there might be cultural nuance I’m missing so let me know if this one is wrong) and the exact translation is “only a pity that she was blind”.

Finally this one, I’m pretty sure “废物“ is harsher of an insult than loser. It literally translates to “useless person” or “a waste of space”. Now I don’t know which officially ranks higher between “loser” vs “废物“ in the level of burn across languages and cultural contexts, but in my mind, 废物 is harsher.

Okay, now with the scenes and translations explained:

So. The reason why I brought all of these instances up is because I think the wording Du Pusa used to explain the story is pretty important, not for plot reasons but just because it changes the feel of the interaction. The post I linked at the very beginning pointed out that Du Pusa is meant to be a character that basically taunts the women she fights with, with her superiority in beauty, etc., but while she does that, at the same time her character doesn’t have that feel of misogyny that I think is so prominent in media when writing women characters who dislike each other.

Granted, Du Pusa also insults Qianqiao, and that didn’t show up in translation either, she calls her “小娘皮“ in place of “lady” which is not exactly a flattering thing to say. But I think the important thing is that throughout the entire telling of the story, Du Pusa recognizes that in this situation, the person that messed up, and is mostly at fault is cheater dude, and she places the blame rightfully on his shoulders despite how she dislikes Qianqiao.

Particularly in the sentences “she was tricked into hand” and “only a pity that she was blind”, instead of “she fell for” and “only pitiful”. “She fell for” puts more responsibility onto Qianqiao’s shoulders, because she’s the one who fell in love with cheater dude and his sweet talk - that’s her business. But “she was tricked into hand” places more of the emphasis on cheater dude, on the fact that he sweet talked her into believing him, that she in fact was tricked, and not because she just simply fell for him.

(Now I’m not here to discuss whether cheater dude’s feelings for Qianqiao are genuine or not, or whether he purposely tricked her - I do think that he does care about her but that’s also not enough to absolve him of the shitty things he did. So I’m not very willing to be lenient with him here)

“Only a pity that she was blind” also places less of the blame on Qianqiao then the phrase “only pitiful” because pitiful as a word implies that Beauty Ghost herself is pitiful. That she’s a pitiful person who’s too dumb to notice that she was being tricked. “Only a pity” however leaves room for her to be a victim of circumstance, and implies that the situation was “only a pity”, not her as a person.

Finally the two harsher insults, I think are important because for once, a character like Du Pusa doesn’t leave the man relatively unscathed in her process of taunting another woman, and also doesn’t hold misogynistic victim-blaming views about situations like this. She’s fully acknowledging here, even as someone who doesn’t give a shit about Qianqiao, that cheater dude is kind of a piece of shit. You see that fully in these three scenes as well:

First the rolling her eyes at cheater dude’s explanations. I think that one is pretty self-explanatory, it gives me strong “oh god don’t make me laugh” and “cut the bullshit and shut up already” vibes, which I high key love.

Second, this one where she pushes him back, feels like she’s sick of hearing cheater dude’s excuses and his attempts to sweet talk Qianqiao again, and so she decided to interject. Also has a little bit of, “okay, get away from her, I’m sick of you” vibes.

Finally, Du Pusa has an incredulous look on her face, and then gives a huff of disbelief when Qianqiao sorta defends cheater dude, saying she’s the one who had bad intentions. This one gives me a sort of “really? You’re defending him?” vibes, especially since it follows her asking if Qianqiao’s brain is broken for actually trusting him a second time after what he did.

Anyways, this turned out to be a long analysis, but I just wanted to translate/talk about my thoughts on some of the subs, and my low key appreciation for this scene. It sort of feels like Du Pusa almost backhandedly defended Beauty Ghost - although I admit that might be going too far/giving too much credit since Du Pusa isn’t exactly going easy on her either, and she might just be listing things as she sees it. Still though, what I’ve always appreciated so much about Word of Honor is that it creates so many female characters that are compelling to watch and well-rounded; who feel realistic, who are their own people and have their own stories to tell, who aren’t killed off as soon as it’s convenient or just to reinforce the heterosexuality of the male leads, who are vital to the plot, and most importantly, act in a way real women might act, and aren’t all internally misogynistic and apologetic towards guys who act shitty.

It’s really refreshing to see a “bad” character in this show, who’s mannerisms suggest she’s a character that’s a woman who taunts women, do so without piling on deep-seated misogynistic accusations or halfway pandering to the man in order to create some misplaced “jealousy”, and instead manage to taunt people/hit people where it hurts and yet still...almost purposely calls the man out on the shitty stuff he did?

Anyways, overall I think this scene was a pretty cool dynamic to think about, and I appreciate it a lot (although I appreciate the subs a bit less, for obvious reasons).

[buffysummers]

I need to get this book. I was a fan starting from the beginning (happened to turn on Welcome to the Hellmouth the night it premiered when I was in high school) and for years fans knew the Buffy set was fucked up, but no one blamed JW for this at the time (it was largely assumed to SMG's fault). Even the sexist stuff in his writing was given a pass for a long time. I feel like his backlash didn't start until S6 when they killed Tara and wrote Spike's sexual assault of Buffy but even then these things were largely blamed on Marti Noxon. It's awful how much cover he got either because he manipulated it or just because the media and internet culture is so default misogynistic.

Marti Noxon is pretty fucked up, though. Pretty sure the AR was her idea, actually. Joss was more twisted, but they both were very, very twisted. And that's why they worked so well together.

Evan (the author) was not able to get in touch with Marti for his book and he has said MANY times that he reached out to her and he didn't get a single response. Not even a decline! You have more insight into Marti's thought processes in "Slayers & Vampires" by Edward Gross and Mark Altman.

I don't think it was fair to blame Marti, but from what I have learned from the Gross and Altman book is that it was a very collaborative process between her and Joss. Truly two peas in a pod. I am not one of those people that think the attempted rape was OOC for Spike AT ALL. It was very much in character. But I am one of those people that think that the frustration of the writers (and the fact that they blurred the lines WAY too much in season six, even IF they kept insisting they weren't) should NOT be taken out on Buffy and Sarah. I do think a lot of the blame was the audience just being... twisted and heartless. But I think some of it was the fact that the writers made these very abusive scenes seem... almost titillating at times. Like, if a random person popped into episodes 9-15 of season six, they would NOT understand the context. And would perhaps think, "This is hot." (I am not one of those people. I find none of the scenes hot, tbh. Although I think there’s a few decent kisses in there but it’s still not my cup of tea.)

SMG not only was forced to shoulder the blame, but deal with god knows what else on the set. It's her decision to tell, and I don't believe she ever will. But I know it was bad. And I empathize with her and I'm so awed by her strength and thankful that she was strong enough to deal with it because she gave me my favorite character. I don't know where I'd be without Buffy.