#to tag or not to tag lol

[izzyspussy]

actually you know what. literally YES we are supposed to be ""handwaving"" away where the real stede bonnet's wealth came from. in the exact same way we're supposed to be ""handwaving"" the fact that the real blackbeard was white and a rapist, and that bonnet, blackbeard, and hands were all under 30 at the time our story is taking place.

when engaging with fiction the conventions of the genre are important and should directly inform your interpretation.

historical fiction is fictional. the conventions of the genre are that creators cherry pick aspects of their chosen time setting to create an environment and and aesthetic to be the delivery method of something else.

when you start reading or watching or listening to a piece of historical fiction, the set up and exposition will tell you where to expect inaccuracies. it is your job as an audience to either accept them or if they're unacceptable to you to find something else to enjoy. write a scathing review if you must, tell your friends you don't recommend it, make something yourself set in the same time period that has different inaccuracies instead (because it won't have none), etc. but pointing at an inaccuracy in a piece of historical fiction that formally introduced itself in the beginning and asking what it's doing there is quite silly.

of course stede bonnet, fictional character, doesn't have slaves - or at the very least it would be tonally jarring and narratively ineffective to show him doing so in this particular work. he is here to be an insufferable silly little guy who is coming of age at 46 and romancing a pirate on the jaunty high seas with benny hill music metaphorically playing in the background. it would have to be a completely different story, and he a completely different character, to put that particular historical accuracy in.

romance is also fictional. the conventions of the genre are that conflicts and/or the relevant consequences thereof are primarily interpersonal, that it is fun and/or sentimental, and that there will be a relatively clear cut happy ending. there's almost certainly some aspect of wish fulfillment fantasy.

romance is one of the genres that is most adherent to its conventions. all romance is the same at its most basic level, and that is a feature of the genre for its fans not a bug. the leads are attractive and lovable. characteristics that in real life might be unattractive and loathsome - like, for example, extreme wealth - but that would be attractive if only they could magically exist without any of the real world things that make them suck... will be present as things that are attractive by necessarily removing the real world things that make them suck, because it's fiction and you can do magic there. the characters are created to be endgame love interests from inception. they simply won't have qualities that make them impossible for the other one to love. they are not real people who have to meet by chance and make a relationship work with effort, they were formulated in a lab to be in this relationship with this person forever. yes, even when the characters are based on people who were real. in some cases (like this one), especially then.

stede bonnet, fictional character, would not fall in love with a rapist. therefore blackbeard, fictional character made to be a love interest to him, cannot be a rapist. blackbeard, fictional character, would not fall in love with a slave owner. therefore stede bonnet, fictional character made to be a love interest to him, cannot own slaves. this has to be true for the story to remain a romance.

(or i suppose you could write a romance romantic narrative between bonnet, slaver, and blackbeard, rapist, if you really wanted to. it wouldn't qualify for the specific genre of RomanceTM though, and it would be niche as hell if it had any audience at all, and there certainly would be no benny hill music metaphorical or otherwise. see? this is something else now, practically unrecognizable from what we started with despite having the same historical setting and characters.)

comedy, unlike romance, is one of the genres most versatile and least beholden to convention. however, it still has to be funny. of course, dramatic relief in comedy is just as important as comedic relief in drama, but the primary goal of comedy is to make the audience laugh. and while there are not many conventions other than that, and a skillful enough comedian really can find a way to explore any topic in a way that's funny, a romantic comedy must necessarily also follow the rules of romance - or else it is not a romantic comedy. it can't have jokes in it that ruin the romance.

and tbf, recognizing as an audience that a detail or topic that would be true and relevant if this were all really happening isn't necessarily true or relevant or is just never going to come up in a work of fiction for reasons inherent to that particular work is not ""handwaving"" those things away. those things are not there, in this thing. and if you want to think about those things in the context of this one specific thing that doesn't have them, that's what fanfiction is for. but it's an added thing, not something that is missing from the source or that is being ignored by the creators or other audience members.

[everoutoftouch]

If you have Spotify reblog this and tag what your number one song on your “on repeat” playlist is.

[sirompp]

hi. i made some images.

feel free to take them and use for whatever you may need them for. no credit required

[orphetoon]

when there’s historical romance written abt ur friends

[yumenikkii]

just another average day in gravity falls

[zytes]

this manatee looks like it’s in a skyrim loading screen

[sleepy-bebby]

[doccywhomst]

[mostly-funnytwittertweets]

[minjimunji]

bi 4 bi percabeth,,,,, 👉👈

[inkskinned]

i got rickrolled today but it didn't work because i have adblocker installed, so youtube just told me i violated the terms of service. yesterday i was trying to edit a picture as a joke for my girlfriend, and google made me check a box to prove i'm human because i wasn't "searching normally".

it isn't just that capitalism is killing fun and whimsy, it is that any element of entertainment or joy is being fed upon by this mosquito body, one that will suck you dry at any vulnerability.

do you want to meet new friends in your city? download this app, visit our website, sign up for our email list. pay for this class on making a terrarium, on candlemaking, on cooking. it will be 90 dollars a session. you can go to group fitness, but only under our specific gym membership. solve the puzzle, sign up for our puzzle-of-the-month-club. what is a club if not just a paid opportunity - you are all paying for the same thing, which makes you a community.

but you're like me, i know it - you're careful, you try the library meetings and the stuff at the local school and all of that. the problem is that you kind of want really specific opportunities that used to exist. you are so grateful for libraries and the publicly-funded things: they are, however, an exception - and everything they have, they've fought tooth-and-nail to protect. you read a headline about how in many other states, libraries have virtually nothing left.

do you want to meet up with your friends afterwards? gift your friends the discord app. you can choose to go to a cafe (buy a coffee, at least), a bar (money, alcohol) or you can all stay in and catch a movie (streaming) or you can all stay in bed (rent. don't get me started) and scream (noise complaint. ticket at least).

you want to read a new book, but the book has to have 124 buzzwords from tiktok readers that are, like, weirdly horny. you can purchase this audiobook on audible! your podcast isn't on spotify, it's on its own server, pay for a different site. fuck, at least you're supporting artists you like. the art museum just raised their ticket price. once, they had a temporary exhibit that acknowledged that ~85% of their permanent art galleries were from cis white men, and that they had thousands of works by women (even famous women, like frida! georgia o'keefe!) just rotting in their basement. that exhibit lasted for 3 months and then they put everything away again.

walmart proudly supports this strip of land by the street! here are some flowers with wilting leaves. its employees have to pay out-of-pocket for their uniforms. my friend once got fined by the city because she organized a community pick-up of the riverfront, which was technically private property.

no, you cannot afford to take that dance class, neither can i. by the way - i'm a teacher. i'm absolutely not saying "educators shouldn't be paid fairly." i'm saying that when i taught classes, renting a studio went from 20 bucks an hour to 180 in the span of 6 months. no significant changes to the studio were made, except they now list the place as updated and friendly. the heat still doesn't work in the building. i have literally never seen the landlord who ignores my emails. recently they've been renting it out at night as an "unusual nightclub; a once-in-a-lifetime close-knit party." they spent some of those 180 dollars on LEDs and called it renovating. the high heels they invite in have been ruining the marley.

do you want to experience the old internet? do you want to play flash games or get back the temporary joy of club penguin? you can, you just need to pay for it. i have a weird, neurodivergent obsession with occasionally checking in to watch the downfall and NFT-ification of neopets. if i'm honest with you all - i never got into webkins, my family didn't have the money to buy me a pointless elephant. people forget that "being poor" can mean literally "if i buy you that toy, i can't afford rent."

you and i don't have time to make good food, and we don't have the budget for it. we are not gonna be able to host dinner parties, we're not made of money, kid. do you want some kind of 3rd space? a space that isn't home or work or school? you could try being online, but - what places actually exist for you? tiktok counts as social media because you see other people on it, not because they actually talk to you.

there was a local winter tradition of sledding down the hill at my school. kids would use pizza boxes and jackets and whatever worked, howling and laughing. back in september, they made a big announcement that this time, rules were changing, and everyone must pay 10 dollars to participate. when im not scared shitless, i kind of appreciate the environmental irony - it hasn't gone below 40. so much for snow & joyriding.

i saw a bulletin for a local dogwalking group and, nervous about making a good first impression, showed up early. the first guy there grimaced at me. "sorry," he said. "there's a 30-dollar buy-in fee." i thought he was joking. wait. for what? the group doesn't offer anything except friendship and people with whom to walk around the city.

he didn't know the answer. just shrugged at me. "you know," he said. "these days, everything costs money."

[honeyhobbs]

Kitten square!

[chessb0r3d]

Analysis so bad you don't even know what it's talking about anymore.

[bytedykes]

ok fine maybe i DID come back wrong. what are you going to do about it. kill me? put me back in the ground? after all this effort? all this pain and suffering only to find out bringing me back wasn't worth it after all? you worked so hard. are you going to waste all of that just because im not what you wanted? just because i belong only to myself? are you going to let me pick out my own coffin

[notherpuppet]

I just love the idea of Lucifer having to deal with this fucking guy every time he wants to see Charlie

[eric-bogosian]

Re-sharing this post I found on Twitter for people looking for alternatives to NaNo. I haven't tried any of these sites but they might be worth looking into.