#to argue against that

[daeneryscel]

“i’m not team black, i’m team rhaenys.”

i think it’s incredibly idiotic to argue over which woman is the rightful heir when you could be arguing about how all of the women who were passed over/usurped are the rightful heirs 🤷‍♀️ rhaena should’ve been queen followed by aerea, rhaenys should’ve been queen followed by laena and then followed by baela, rhaenyra should’ve been queen followed by jace as king, etc. instead of continuously pitting the women in this world against each other, why don’t we just admit that the system as a whole is sexist and hold the people (cough couch men) upholding the patriarchy and denouncing a woman’s right to rule accountable instead.

they ALL should’ve been the mf queen.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Vibes based grading system.

(for @epistemologys, who wanted some post-canon, teacher WWX)

[sky--phantom]

Awww, Spite

[thecoolertails]

too many books written by people who don't read books and only read fanfic. to counteract this there should be more fanfic made by people who don't read fanfic and only read books

[kevindavidday]

love kevin's 'when you know what someone wants, it's easy to manipulate them.' he's such a fuxking cunt. mansplainer...manipulater... manwhore of the century truly

[tinfoil-jones]

Jerk Ford AU: Stanley Design

[Art by @tearosepedall]

"Please, you can just call me Stan. Dr.Pines is my brother."

A lot of stuff about Stan is mainly determined by the artist because I don't know anything about the education system, and Stan is a teacher.

Quick facts:

He has a PhD in Chemistry, and a Masters Degree in Education.

Chemistry was the only scientific discipline Stan and Jerk Ford had in common. But Stan's specialty is Analytical Chemistry, while Jerk Ford's specialty was in Biological Chemistry.

His adopted son Soos is a former student, and currently the drama instructor (Stan sometimes works with the theatre department)

Wendy is also former student and his current Teachers Assistant (TA).

He was Gideons teacher the latest school year.

Anyone who grew up in Gravity Falls in the past three and a half decades has had Stan as their teacher at least once

Design Notes:

He's taller than canon Stan and has proper, straight-backed posture. He doesn't slouch.

His hair is long enough he can pull it into a ponytail or a braid. He leans more towards the latter during the summer with the twins because of Mabels love for braid-trains.

During the school year, if he's working at the elementary school instead of the middle or high school, he'll wear different hair clips/pins to amuse the students. During the summer with the twins, Mabel makes little hair clips for him that match the design of her sweater for the day so they can match with each other.

His zodiac symbol is on a hidden necklace.

Stan in the image is using a marker board tap method to get students to quiet down or pay attention to the board.

Sea Grunk Era outfit TBD.

[udkmehahaha]

!!

[crowlixcx]

[backpackingspace]

Odysseus: demanding Athena take off whatever enchantment she put on him the second the situation ends.

Odysseus: who constantly reminds Athena that he has great plans to grow old and die with his wife so don't even think about getting any ideas.

Odysseus: side eye diomedes who has started fucking glowing he has so many enchantments on him: bro you should talk to Athena about getting those removed. You're going to end up immortal or some shit

Diomedes: who has been a solider since he was 5 who has intersting thoughts about his own personhood who has a much more traditional relationship with Athena and would rather literally stab his own eye out with a rusted sword than speak out of turn: I don't know what you're talking about

[peanut-with-wifi-access]

[outdated] THE COUNCIL HAS REACHED A DECISION

vaporeon is in fish purgatory jail for the crime of being unidentifiable as a real creature

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

obviously I'm all for complementarianism and Biblical male headship and gleaning wisdom from history, but Alisa Childers was so correct when she said some on the Christian right are trying to bring back a type of patriarchy that never existed

[katerinaaqu]

No one absolutely no one:

Athena and Diomedes in Iliad:

[yazthebookish]

Why is the whole "Gwyn is a child" topic is being discussed again? Sarah killed it in May 2021 by confirming Gwyn is a "fully grown woman". She left no question about it.

Cassian calling her a girl is irrelevant because Rowan called Aelin both a girl and a child, that didn't stop him from ending up with her because we know Aelin is already almost an adult at 19.

Sarah retconned (which is not something new) the aging process of Fae in ACOMAF. The bat boys and Mor fought in the Great War in their mid-20s, are we to believe the Night Court is sending children as soldiers? Mor and Lady of Autumn were betrothed/engaged at 18, would SJM promote child marriages? Gwyn tells Nesta she didn't get a chance to lie with a male during the Great Rite, meaning she was already old enough to have sexual relations with others.

The books have enough hints that High Fae are already adults once they reach their 20s. If people didn't complain about Mor and the Bat Boys joining a war as "children" in their 20s, then there's no point in arguing about Gwyn's age over something that was retconned in ACOMAF not ACOSF.

Her being bubbly has nothing to do with maturity, if you don't have a bubbly adult in your life it's probably dull. Also, it's not like she's bubbly and unserious 24/7, she's vigilant about her work and is quite empathetic and helps Nesta understand her own feelings.

This argument has been dead for 3 years and a half, let's put it to rest.

[qiu-yan]

MDZS and asshole victims: thoughts on the second siege of the burial mounds scene

this post is not about morality judgments. this post is about reader sympathies only.

one rather clever rhetorical trick MDZS employs is putting all the more background "surviving victims of wei wuxian's actions" into one big angry mob at the second siege of the burial mounds, instead of letting them crop up anywhere else in the story. it's easy for a first-time reader to write off the guy who lost a leg at nightless city, or the guy whose parents died at nightless city, because both of those guys are being dicks. they're part of an angry mob baying for wei wuxian's blood--unfairly baying for wei wuxian's blood, because this time he didn't even do the thing they're saying he did. by putting these two victims into a mob of not just fellow victims but also unaffected individuals (ie. sect leader yao, who just showed up for kicks), the story can effectively equate these victims' grievances (ie. "you killed my parents") with unreasonable mob rule--even if these two things might not actually be equivalent.

the effect of this rhetorical trick, then, is that the reader can at once perceive the themes about mob mentality MXTX wishes to convey, and also effectively write off the victims' complaints. "yes, i did that to you, but i literally died already, what more do you want me to do? shall i walk on my knees repenting?" becomes easier for the reader to accept. and more importantly--wei wuxian's likability as a moral and just protagonist is not impacted.

ngl tho. it would be a bit more difficult for the reader to write off these victims' complaints if, instead of meeting said victims in an angry mob, the reader instead met these victims almost anywhere else. imagine if, instead of meeting mr. "you killed my parents" at the second siege of the burial mounds, we instead met him getting smashed at the local bar and crying about how his parents are dead. imagine if, instead of meeting mr. "you chopped off my leg" as a member of an angry mob, we instead met him begging for alms on the side of the road because his disability rendered him unable to work in a wuxia-esque setting. or imagine--if either of these background characters, overcome with survivor's guilt and trauma from nightless city, hung himself in his bedroom, and the next day his body was discovered by his 15-year-old daughter.

all of these scenarios are entirely plausible. you could easily include any of them into the story without changing the main plot at all. but suddenly shit just got a lot more depressing.

however, no such scene would ever be included in MDZS. the reason is that, as a work of fiction, MDZS's single most ardent goal is for us the readers to conclude not just that "we like wei wuxian as a character," but also that "wei wuxian is ultimately a morally righteous person." when the narrative focus shifts onto the people who were actually helped by wei wuxian's actions (mianmian and her family, lan sizhui, the few months of dignity the wen remnants were afforded) this becomes much easier for us to conclude; wei wuxian does indeed look like a hero. but the more narrative focus is given to the negative impacts of wei wuxian's actions--the more the "victims of wei wuxian" (whether actual victims or not) are given a face, instead of abstracted away by broad summaries--the more the reader might side-eye wei wuxian instead. every new victim given a name, given narrative attention that isn't just focused on making them look like an asshole, arouses the reader's sympathies in the opposite direction--and thus increases the risk that the reader might ultimately disagree with the novel's conclusion of "wei wuxian is a righteous person."

tbh, this does not seem like a risk MXTX particularly wants to take. instead, she's mastered the art of writing Asshole Victims.

which is an entirely valid writing decision, because imo basically every work of genre fiction out there does this to some extent.

[nellasbookplanet]

The fandom god discussion is interesting, but I feel it’s sometimes hindered by an unwillingness to separate gods from mortal society, or even a sort of over-eagerness to project our own reality onto them, which simply doesn’t work. I've seen the gods referred to as rulers or tyrants demanding worship (which I kinda understand because it’s something Ludinus says in-game, though it’s funny to see fandom corners confidently repeat the inaccurate talking points of the antagonist) but more interestingly I've also seen them referred to as a higher/the highest social class, as colonizers imposing themselves on mortals, the raven queen specifically as new money. Overall these comparisons tend to talk about the gods and their actions regarding Aeor in the past and predathos/the Vanguard in the present less as if they're about saving their own lives and more as if they want to preserve their powerful position.

The gods, by their very nature, are above mortals. They cannot be compared to any mortal ruling class because they didn’t choose or strive for that power and cannot feasibly get rid of it/step down/redistribute it (nor do they actually in any sense rule; killing the raven queen, unlike killing an actual queen, will not end the 'tyranny' of death), they simply have it by virtue of being gods. Saying that’s unfair or unequal and that the gods should be killed because of it is akin to saying it’s unfair a mountain is bigger than you and demanding it be levelled, except the gods, unlike mountains, are living, feeling beings who shouldn’t have to die because some people can’t stand the idea of not always being top dog. Thing is, the gods themselves ultimately understood this power imballance and that they can't help but hurt Exandria the way humans can't help but step on bugs, and thus removed themselves from the equation by creating the divine gate. Saying this isn’t enough and that they're clinging to power is just demanding they line themselves up to be killed.

[paperclipninja]

*furtively glances side to side*

*cracks open the window*

*whispers into the wind*

Aziraphale didn't choose Heaven over Crowley

Aziraphale chose Heaven for Crowley