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

[murdockhawkeye]

[ninja-confession-go]

I'm not here to start any arguments really as I'm sure there has been plenty I'm just here to share a bit of the whole ""#jayinwomenfields"" stuff cuz I think I may be able to explain it in a way that non Jay fans can understand as a non Jay fan myself who kinda agrees with them

As someone who's has at least been an og watcher of the show I honestly don't blame Jay fans for believe that Jay revoles entirely around Nya cuz the show doesn't do a good job showing otherwise

Liek Jay from the beginning was infatuated with Nya and as such so many of his actions were made to impress her

His biggest(and honestly only cuz I do NOT count Prime Emprie) arc that led to the most development for him was entirely brought in by his desire to get Nya back. Sure it wasn't the only focus and it wasn't the only thing in that season that led for Jay to change but their relationship WAS the catalyst for everything that followed and was even the catalyst for the conclusion(it was due to Nya dying that Jay was able to find the correct words to resolve everything)

And then from then on Jay...ceased being a complex character

Jay became more and more simplifed down to just being the comedic relief, his intelligence, his skill with machinery and inventing skills were all wiped away and he became a dumb, goofy character with nothing else too him who's main focus (and honestly only interesting thing) was his relationship with Nya.

His relationship with Nya was THE one thing they kept and as such was pretty much the only good and relevant thing about Jay in those seasons

Than PE showed up and it was finally the chance for Jay to get some developement.. it was all set up to finally have a season focused on him that didn't involve his relationship with nya

But then...the rug was pulled out from under Jay fans feet

The seasons had nothing to do with Jay, in fact he got NO focus except for the final episodes where he talk-no-jutsu'd his way to victory

Stripping Jay fans of thier shot of seeing Jay get some individual focus

Now about Nya

She was treated like absolute shit by the writers In the early seasons I'm not even gonan fake. She was barely a character and while she had some good moments (aka being the badass samurai and her intelligence with machinery) she still suffered from misogynistic writing

But then eventually the writers got their head outta their ass and realized that she should actually be a character and staring working on such

In the beginning it was ROUGH as they were trying their damn hardest to undo all the misogynistic shit they had about her

Eventually though they started fleshing her out. they started giving her hopes and desires and a wish to choose her own path and it was exciting to see! Nya was finally get some interesting development!

Than she became the water ninja and we really got to see her shine even more! She just kept growing and becoming better and it was awesome to finally see her get the development she deserved!

Fron then on Nya became better and better, she got more and more development and became more complex to a point where i would say she was becoming more complex than the boys

Than seabound happened and that's where it hit peak for her character. She became so much more and got the praise from the citizens of ninjago that she deserved they mourned her loss so much more than the others ninja. She was essentially a legend and it's what she deserved.

So why bring this up?

Simple.

The reason many Jay fans say they believe Jay's Arcs revolve around Nya oz cuz the writers had one Arc for him that essentially did and proceeded to do nothing else with him. Stripping him down to nothing and making his relationship with Nya the only interesting thing about him in the later seasons

As time went on Jay became more and more simplied down to a bare bones character while Nya became more and more complex, a more individual character with perhaps the most development out of all the ninja! She went from being a character with no personality to being one of the most complex characters in the show

While Jay went from being a decently complex character to being one of the least with his relationship with Nya being the ONLY thing interesting about him in those later seasons

Nya got development that didn't focus on jay

Jay's only Arc was driven by his relationship with Nya and then his relationship with her proceeded to be the only interesting thing about him later on

If it sounds like I'm repeating myself a bit that's cuz I am. I want to drive home that these reason are why Jay's fans feel the way they do and why as someone who isn't a Jay fan I can kinda agree with them

Alright I'm done with this I've been typing for waaaaay too long I just wanted to share this cuz it's been in my head for a while

Sorry lol

.

[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

[rinamohn]

Have a quick overview of all Visual Novels I played in 2024:

In no particular order:

Hana Awase: A four game series where each game builds upon the previous game. I absolutely LOVED the card battle minigame. It really made dangerous moments more tense because I worried about being able to defeat the enemies.

In terms of story and romance this series shouldn't work but somehow still does.

As an old Otome Game with Yandere galore and overcomplicated plot it has a lot of stuff that will make modern players uncomfortable (so much sexual harrassment played as a joke, misogynistic love interest who gropes MC, wild Yandere ends etc.).

And yet it's just so entertaining to watch all the shit go down.

It's impressive how loveable they made the misogynistic sex pest. If you told me that he would be favorite character at the start of the first game, then I would've looked at you funny lol

Fun series! Would slap Karakurenai again and again~

Tengoku Struggle: This game makes you think that it will have a cool, action-y plot with romance on the side, but it's almost entirely slice of life. So how much you will like it will depend on how much you can adapt to this...

Frankly the writing in this game is not very good overall, but it's a fun romance and character game if you don't think too hard about how much potential the game could've had.

I can definitely see why so many were deeply disappointed in this game, but thankfully I turned off my brain fast and could enjoy it as it was.

Well except for the final route. There they actually tried to have a plot and it was so bad I can only remember everything I hated...

Virche Evermore Epic Lycoris:

The fandisc of my beloved Virche! It very much does not feel like a fandisc though.

It's pretty much more of the same as the main game which means a lot of despair!

Fluff? Happy endings? What is that?

I can see that some people were very disappointed since they expected romantic fluff after all the despair and tragedy of the main game, but sorry this FD was not made for you...

This FD was made for me instead, who enjoyed watching the horrific endings with all my heart.

That said I was happy that Ankou finally got the route he deserved. I really loved the new character Spinel they introduced as well.

She is SO cool!

9 RIP: I think for this game expectations are key. This is not a Horror game! It has very few spooky scenes. Honestly Amnesia Memories ist much more scary than 9 RIP. I saw more than 3 people being let down by it not being scary enough. I blame the marketing...

That said I found this game quite enjoyable! I was very worried about having 9 love Interests since that can easily go badly.

I really didn't like the last VN that tried that due it's direction being all over the place.

But 9 RIP managed it's many love interests very well in my opinion!

The last "world" was a bit meh in my opinion, but well it's hard to compete against being stuck in literal hell.

Hibiki best boy btw.

Sympathy Kiss: Modern Day Office Romance! A rare localisation settings for console Otome Games. And it is absolutely not for me...

Well I liked it more than Lover Pretend, but boy I barely remember anything that happened in this game...

I guess I really need my fantasy or other thrilling stakes to be interested in the romance going on...

Best boy was the single Dad. The only guy I remember stuff about and I remember really enjoying his route.

Emio: My first Famicom Detective Club Game! I got really curious after hearing how much everyone loved it.

Sadly I must have gone in with wrong expectations since I came out of it feeling lukewarm.

In the end I was too distracted by my issues with the mystery.

Death Mark 2: At this point I will play any Spirit Hunter game no matter what, even if this game was definitely the worst of them.

The best thing about it was the characters. I loved seeing all the companions from the first game again!

I also liked the stories of the new spirits.

The stories are very high school centric due to the setting, however.

So there is not as much diversity in the stories as the other two games.

The gameplay is also much less scary than the other two games. Side scrolling is just much less scary than first person "dungeon crawling".

All in all I didn't hate it, but it just wasn't as good as the other games.

Nusantara Bermuda Triangle: A indie Otome Game I have been following for 7+ years! I loved the creators previous game Nusantara: The Legend of the Winged Ones so I waited as long as it took for Bermuda to come out!

I was quite taken it!

It was rather different from The Winged Ones which was more romance centric. Bermuda had one big common route with branches for the three main love interests. It was much more plot-centric with a compelling mystery that because more and more concerning the further you get.

The big reveal was very satisfying and the finale was grand!

A downside of the massive common route was that once you do the next love interest you feel like you just skip everything.

So the romance definitely works on your first route.

However once you finish the three main guys you unlock a route for the Antagonist!

And this route does not have a common route, from the prologue on everything is suddenly different.

This translates to one massive route just for him!

It was the best route I played all year honestly.

"I can fix him" the route in the best way possible. I greatly enjoyed seeing Maya slowly worm her way into his heart against his will.

It was SO satisfying!

428 Shibuya Scramble: Great, funny yet thrilling Game! I had a very good time and I really grew to love a lot of the characters.

The puzzle of trying to progress by matching correct choices over several paths was fun and the bad ends could be so hilarious at times!

I was a bit miffed at the end though when I had to do all Bad ends to see the true end.

Considering the masses of bad endings, I felt it was a massive chore to go through all of them...

[wrongcaitlyn]

OH MY GOD THE POLLEN FIC ?????? Good lird my heart is broken into many pieces. the POVs so good!! Darren going through the gender hells™️!! And the anxiety of not knowing whether your loved ones will wreck you for it!! God!!

Man Apollo’s is a great balance between being able to tell he’s toxic and also desperately needs to go to therapy and also hit by stuff not under his control but also not doing enough considering the things he DOES have under his control MAN he’s so INTERESTING AUAGH!! and like!! The thing Will said about knowing that his dad would always eventually do what he should, even if he takes some time, because he loves them WHEN HERE HE’S AVOIDING DOING JUST THAT EXACTLY it’s so cool to be able to see how he’s changed so specifically! also is the nonce tgol’s Commodus bc goddamn I know Apollo doesn’t kill him in this universe but if he did brother I’d be cheering and whooping FRRR. literally when I read those bits I wanted to shake Apollo by the shoulders and yell ‘you are a victim!! You’re a victim!!’. i sincerely hope he gets to clock said nonce in the face!

ALSO also idk if this spoilers or not but I’m so interested to find out how the situation has changed so Darren’s feelings about being reduced to Apollo’ “wife” are resolved somehow when they DO get married (either this or I’m a fool who can’t put two and two together): is it more of a focus on his gender specifically, where people see him very much as a guy now (enthusiastic)? Do the press just dgaf about him and Apollo moreso now (very enthusiastic)? Is it that he’s more established in archery that people solidly know him as a coach and don’t generally reduce him to Apollo’s partner at large (maybe??)?

anyway I hope you’re having a great day and week!!

AHH THANK YOU SO MUCH <33

apollo has seriously always been one of my FAVORITEEE characters to write even when it was just the memoir, but going into early twenties apollo's head??? it's some wild shit going on thereJSDF he's dealing with a LOT and definitely not in the best ways and he is so not aware of most of it while being overwhelmingly aware of other stuff. it's just a total mess and it pains me whenever i write it knowing that one day this will turn into memoir!apollo and he will look back on all of these days with regret </3 he truly is toxic as hell but can we even blame him???? that's a question i still don't actually know (but darren would say yes)JSDFJ

"also is the nonce tgol’s Commodus bc goddamn I know Apollo doesn’t kill him in this universe but if he did brother I’d be cheering and whooping FRRR" JSDFJDSF DAMN U GUESSED IT okay so like. i didnt wanna make his ex's actual name commodus bc like. bro who names their kid commodus and also that'd be too unrealistic but (spoiler for future memoir excerpts!) i plan to have apollo not out his ex by giving him a name of an ancient roman emperor. and he chooses commodus. the guy who drowns in his bathtub. he's petty like that :)

"is it more of a focus on his gender specifically, where people see him very much as a guy now (enthusiastic)? Do the press just dgaf about him and Apollo moreso now (very enthusiastic)? Is it that he’s more established in archery that people solidly know him as a coach and don’t generally reduce him to Apollo’s partner at large (maybe??)?"

it's a mix of all of these things! for one, darren is fully transitioned now and when he would be marrying apollo, he would be recognized as apollo's husband. also gay marriage is legal in america atp so like that can actually happen. (which was def a factor for darren, bc at that time he literally wouldn't be able to be recognized as male and also as married to apollo in the us). the press/media has definitely shifted its focus a bit from apollo and darren (though they are obviously still there sometimes) and overall is much less homophobic & transphobic & misogynistic (don't get me wrong, it still 100% is, but like, slightly better!! small steps!!)

and ofc, he's just... grown up. he's abt 3 years older than apollo so they obvi weren't children by any means when they were dating, but apollo was,, well. we know how apollo was. and darren was lazer focused on the olympics. since all that's happened, he's been able to mature and live for *himself* rather than a medal for a much longer time, and reprioritize some things in his life. plus the fact that he's not actively aiming for a medal/competing in the olympics leaves a lot more room/time in his life to open up to the idea of being married.

but also like. they've given it over a decade. they're still in love with each other. i'd say that's reason enough for them to get married finally - long story short, 2004 was wrong time, but 202[insert year] is right time :)

thank you for the ask!! <3

[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.

[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

[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?

[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

[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

[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.