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luonscribbles · 1 year

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I enjoyed your art and fluffyvenom family stories and I want to support them. But I feel like I can't. I am okay with non-binary/trans characters, but when you push a non-binary/transgender identity on a CHILD character, that makes me feel really uncomfortable. Children do not have the maturity to understand gender identity and any choices regarding it should be made when they are of age. When they are able to understand what it means and the life changing decisions that are involved. Decisions that can be irreversible. Changes that one might not agree with later in life and regret. Cathy should be non-binary as a grown adult as she would be mature enough to fully decide who she is, not at 10. I cannot call her "they" because she is only a child.

Okay. So

I'd suggest to anyone who feels this way to read more about the whole topic, since I'm sure there's a lot better written and more in depth sources out there. I can only try my best to give a satisfying, if maybe a brief response, while trying not to spend a whole week writing some hot mess of an essay about non-binary identity.

First thing first, a lot of the "gender identity should not be pushed onto kids" stuff stems from people conflating gender identity with sexuality

Which

Are COMPLETELY different things

Like NO.

So ok one can't call a kid "they" cause they're only a child, and not an adult, because "trans/non-binary kids are too young to know/decide what they are, they might change their mind later".

Most sources I've seen show that over 70% trans kids start to experience gender dysmorphia around the age of seven. Of course let's say a 13-year-old and older kids and teens would have a more advanced understanding of different gender identities and a better access to terminology and stuff, but are they still too young to "decide" what they are since they arent grown adults?

Children, pre-teens, teens and adults all do have an understanding of gender identity, but they all differ, obviously. Trans/non-binary people, no matter their age, can determine the crucial thing that is what makes them feel comfortable and good about themself, and what upsets and irks them.

As for the "life changing decisions that can be irreversible" that would come from not identifying with the gender you were assigned at birth... I'm,, getting the impression that you're referring to the actual gender affirming via healthcare...? Which btw is not performed on younger children. And is something that only starts to become relevant to think about when one enters puberty, at the earliest. And I am in no way saying that a person stops being a kid once they enter puberty or anything of sorts, but we all probably know what absolute hellhole surrounds this topic around the world and frankly I don't think I'd want to bring that to my dumb art blog.

I think all I can say about that is that it's a matter that's completely different and unique to every person who's identity falls under the trans umbrella. I feel like I can really only speak for myself. Im non-binary myself, and also person that isn't very keen to share much details about my personal life here. Cathy is not a perfect reflection of myself, even if they hit pretty close to me, especially adult Cath's character.

The thing is

Yeah, sure, a child saying that they feel or don't feel certain way can very well be a phase, but that's fine. Figuring out who you are literally consists of phases, they're parts of a journey. A journey that is different for everyone.

Of course a kid's identity, gender and otherwise is bound to change as they get older. Heck, even if a person identifies with the gender they're assigned at birth their whole entire life without ever having to give it much of a thought, their understanding of gender identity, their own and otherwise, still keeps changing through time. Figuring out who you are starts very early and goes well into adulthood and way past the age when it's considered you're "mature enough to decide". In the end, shutting down a kid trying to figure themself out is bound to do more damage than being willing to hear them out.

Tldr: non-binary kids exist and are valid. I am in no way an authority or a perfect encyclopedia

Alright

Now I think I wanna get my thoughts out about Cathy spesifically

If I ever wrote a bigger story about them (which I'd like to) the following stuff would be part of it. This might not be crucial to all that stuff mentioned before, but I feel like it's something that would be nice to add here, y'know

Some other kid might ask Cathy "wait, so, are you like a boy or a girl?" perhaps completely innocently. They don't really know what to answer.

They think they're supposed to answer "a girl" that's what everyone around her has treated her as their whole life, but something about that just doesn't feel like... themself. They feel like they like plenty of more "boyish" clothes and stuff, but answering "a boy" does not feel right either. Cathy has briefly wondered if she could actually be a boy instead, since they know that's possible, but no. It's something like both, or neither, or some third thing? Either way, it's like this feeling in their gut, that they are... something. Something that they can't quite put their finger around.

Whenever Cath voices this feeling they're usually met with "Oh, you're just a bit tomboyish, doesn't mean you aren't a girl" and that she just shouldn't think about stuff like that, but that doesn't make that feeling in their gut go away. If anything it makes them feel worse. Like whatever they are feeling is wrong, and others know better than they do, even if they aren't willing to listen thoroughly.

But when this happens with Cathy's new foster, - later adopted parents, they instead react with something more like: "okay, there are plenty of people who feel that way, some of our own friends have similar experiences." And that makes Cath feel surprised, and a lot better.

Someone, for the first time is willing to hear them out and explain that there are more options. And later they get to meet people who went through the same feelings when they were young, and hearing those things makes her feel even better.

Cathy asks if it was possible that they too, could be someone who is neither a boy a girl. "Sure it is, and you have plenty of time to figure out what suits you the best." Cath then asks if it was possible for them to actually be treated in that way? Not as a girl nor a boy but what they really feel like they are.

Cathy's fine with being referred to with terms like "daughter" or "little sister" on occasion, their name doesn't bother them, they do not mind being called "she" every now and then by people (which by the way are things absolutely valid for non-binary folks I gotta mention, many labels fall under the enby umbrella, and in the end Cathy feels like non-binary is what just feels most like themself)

They now have adults around them whom they feel like they can trust and tell everything to. Who would be ready to correct someone mistaking them for a boy, even when that person insists "well why does that kid dress like one then", or says that " "they" is not a correct way to refer to a person in the english grammar".

And Cathy's reminded that what matters the most is this moment and what feels good right now, and that they will always be loved unconditionally.

#really tried my best with this. english is hard and putting thoughts into words is harder

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kandyzee · 6 months

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thoughts on the book Fiona found and read during Monica's funeral? Not that if it exists, or maybe. I find it interesting that's what she used to maybe get to know her better? Or to have something to say since she had nothing? What did the book mean to her?

Honestly, I haven't really thought about this in depth before. I kinda just skipped past it as something insignificant, so thanks for asking this :)

So, from what i found, the book she finds is Siddhartha, a story of a man going on a spiritual journey. I've never read it so idk if everything I'm saying here is right cause its just what I gathered from Google

In the book, Siddhartha feels like he has to leave his family and feels like his child hated him because he has riches. I think this is something Monica would deeply relate to. Siddhartha fasts, becomes homeless, renounces all personal possessions, and intensely meditates when he starts his journey. Inconsistent eating, giving away/losing belongings, racing thoughts, and zoning out are all things that can happen when someone is in a manic episode. What Siddhartha does and how Monica may feel during an episode are very similar, and given that she's manic she probably believes she is also on a journey of enlightenment like the protagonist. It makes sense to me that this novel would be something Monica held close. At the end of the story, Siddhartha reaches enlightenment. He reconnects with his son in the sense that he can let him go, so basically, it's a happy ending. Monica wants that. That story is hope for her. In the same way Siddhartha is helped during his spiral journey, Monica wishes to be helped on her mental health journey.

'for every true statement there is an opposite one that is also true' I can see Monica connecting this to herself. The conflict of truth is similar to her own conflict of emotions. Or maybe even her 'true self' like she's a bad mother (true) but she also wants to connect and care about her children (true) thoese 2 statements are right but what one is more her?

Literature is a fantastic way to express yourself. Monica expresses herself through her love for the novel, she even underlines parts of it. Fiona never got to understand her mother when she was alive and now is her chance. It's not Monica's words but it can be seen as things she didn't get to say. In s1 fiona refers to lip as their mums favourite, we see during the show that Monica's favourite is Ian or Debbie, Monica tries to take Liam away for another chance. Many times fiona is overlooked by her mother (this happens to Carl too) but this book is hers. Its a chance not to only understand Monica but to have something one on one with her.

I think fiona would also relate to the book herself. Fiona leaves her family - like Monica and Siddhartha- after she gets a lot of money -like Siddhartha- so that she can become her own better person. She's starting her own journey. Even tho fiona hadn't left yet when Monica died I would love if this book stayed with her. Maybe it helps her come to the decision that she's ready to leave. Like Monica fiona craves help and support we see this all the time, normally in the form her acting rude and demanding praise but that's not important rn. Reading the Siddharthas story might of prompted her to see her how and her mum arent always so different.

Fiona quotes the book at Monica's funeral and I really really tried to find what quote it was but I sadly couldn't get a concrete answer. I think the fact fiona memorised a quote (probably one of the ones Monica had underlined) shows just how much she wanted to understand. Fiona doesn't say many good things about monica, she's always angry at her, blaming her (for good reason obviously) but lots of the time I think fiona uses angry as a way to cover up her sadness towards monica. Yeah she says she's happy she's dead but she still took time to memories quotes her mum held close to herself.

The book might also be a replacement of motherly advice. The novel is filled with wisdom. Monica had read the book, she had internalised the philosophies and now Fiona gets to do the same. Monica never got to bond with fiona and help her becomes the person she's meant to be like she's meant to. Monica passing down the book is like passing down her wisdom. She couldn't shape fiona when she was alive but she can indirectly help when she's dead.

Okayy I don't really have anything else to say, I kinda wanna read the book now tho. The shameless writers really ate with this one might be one of my new favourite details.

#shameless us #fiona gallagher #answering asks #monica gallagher #fiona and Monica #Siddhartha #i love this #like always #hope this makes sense

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nonbinarygamzee · 1 year

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What about Terezi thoughts?

the thing with terezi, for me, is that she is quite possibly the only character to rival the level of unease and distrust i have for interpretations as i do with gamzee, in all the opposite ways. she was really important to me in the early days, because for all of the gripe i have about how it was ultimately handled, her story was always about her own guilt and attempts to reconstruct her own worldview because of that guilt, struggling with her own inability to justify herself because in ways she understands her own behaviors are rooted not in reality but in a position and expectation and place of power which she was born into. its so hard to talk about her, and really i feel like i am even more willing to go into the vriska stuff than i am the terezi stuff because as much as vriska conversations are complicated by the fandoms past (on either side of that debate) there is just an even more intense air of refusal to engage with terezis character assassination than anybody else....... which i guess makes sense, shes one of if not arguably the most frontal character, shes beloved weirdgirl, (mostly) unapologetic in her convictions. all i guess admirable traits if you are not like..... from my specific sphere of homestuck fans who have been worn down for all of those reasons. and yknow, a lot of vriska fans will disregard my opinions as inherently unserious and bad faith upon realization i like the clown, which sucks, but its mostly the terezi circles that have treated me like im personally committing some kind of violence by trying to discuss gamzees agency and the problems i have surrounding. what the comic did to these two together.

i guess that isnt really all that much About terezi but really i do think i have said most of the sweeping things i have to say about her as an actual character before. we are given this character who clearly does not have much awareness for the systems which lead her to her worldview, has little to no interest in being actually Fair (i mean come on even for the mess homestuck is her introductory interests in justice and murderstuck investigations are Meant to be read as her being clueless and on board with alternias laughably unjust judicial system. thats textual!) until she and people she knows are hurt by the actions shes up to then encouraged and taken part in. and that itself isnt an issue it is a pretty fascinating position for a child whos then being placed(/placing herself) into a role of an arbiter amongst an increasingly unstable group of isolated children, all of whom including her are very much products of the social conditions which they have been raised. the problem is that any real attempts to reckon with this stuff got shoved aside in preference of a shoehorned narrative about abuse that, if you were around and in the right places at the time, you KNOW how bad faith that shit was from inception. all of the interest in her guilt and insecurity about her own ability to think beyond that instinct that has been instilled into her that hinged on her own decisions and regrets are instead reconstructed to be all about shitting all over the plot device character who already didnt get to Be somebody, and was the subject of so so so many harassment campaigns that we know damn well hussie and the people working with him at the time were well aware of. to me the only way you can see any of that as a genuine attempt to touch on toxic relationships or domestic abuse are if you had no idea what kind of shit he (and the fans turned friends turned contributors) was doing, actively, at the time and it doesnt help that in releasing psycholonials he kind of just got to rewrite the narrative about how the fandom vitriol was spreading (and his extremely direct hand in that) or what was actually being said a lot of the time at all.

and like, yes i have an inherent distrust of people who arent going to examine all of the biases that go into presenting the character who is an amalgamation of all of hussies terrible biases wrt blackness and mental illness and addiction as the only of the kids who is somehow not just as much a victim of the antagonism of the narrative they exist within (while literally working under the child abuse demon!!!! i will say it again i will say it forever), duh, we know this, but i dont think you have to like or sympathize with gamzee to admit that shit was contrived and BAD. it isnt that strong, smart characters, especially girls, can never get abused or manipulated, or whateverrrr, but the second the story decides to reveal this detail is the start of a refusal to engage terezi as the intelligent and hyper-competent character we were initially presented with. her dialogue for literally the rest of the comic from that point on is a hollow, horrifying ghost of what she was before, any attempts to write her as unaware due to her emotional state more often just come across as a caricature of an emotional woman and the fact that it literally gets so bad that people were analyzing that shit at the time wondering if she wasnt also literally being psychically manipulated or barred from information in the same ways is, to me, proof enough of that. homestucks got this very very potent kind of misogyny going on with certain characters where they are allowed to be smart, often smarter than any of the men in the room, but not smart enough that theyre actually allowed to be right, and if they are right its usually as a result of the universe kind of.... dropping the info into their lap, moreso than deducing shit. and part of that is for sure i think that hussie is just better at telling than showing, but if you have READ any of their past works you also know that the idea of women being just generally stupider and flatter and lesser agents in their own stories is something he has always kind of had an issue with. im tired of stepping around it, im tired of stepping around the cop character having an investment in lynching imagery and then getting to be victimized by the manifesations of hussies discomfort and perception of black men! and being told im crazy by people who didnt have insight into how insidious so much of this all was at the time it was happening!!!! tired of not letting her BE flawed because people would rather avoid all of the discomfortttt. aaaand ok this is where im cutting it

#ask #terezi #um all this said you dont have to believe me when i say it but i like her! that i like her is part of why im so tiredddddd #meta

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trickstarbrave · 1 year

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i hate pretty much every anti trans argument because there is always bigotry in it. some illogical belief of hatred they are trying to spin as genuine concern

“trans women can use women’s bathrooms because what if they attack cis women?” okay what if a cis woman attacks me in the bathroom? what if she calls me a dyke and a predator and bashes my face in? what if she peeps on me while im peeing and records me? what if she stands guard and harasses women of color for being too masculine to use the same bathroom as her?

“well what if men pretend to be trans women to use the lady’s room?” trans women being allowed or not allowed to use the bathroom in public will not stop predators. they will find another way to harass and assault women in public spaces. trans bathroom laws will not protect anyone from predators they will just increase violence to trans women

“but i dont feel safe using the same bathroom as a trans woman” why. you probably cant even tell most trans women are trans. at no point are you gonna be looking at a trans woman’s penis. you’re in your own stall, they are in their own stall. you will finish, pull up your pants/skirt, and both wash your hands and say nothing to each other and leave the bathroom. if you think trans women are gonna be doing anything else differently by virtue of being trans you are a bigot. end of discussion. you are no different than people getting mad disabled people are using the bathroom, or people of color are using the same bathroom. shut up. we all have to take a piss.

“well in sports its not fair--” sports arent fair. everyone has biological differences, and attacking trans women in sports means people are also going to attack CIS WOMEN in sports. particularly women of color. so no, you dont give a shit about things being “fair” for cis women, you care about upholding a standard of white womanhood and white women being inherent victims unable to fucking do anything the same as a big strong man, which isnt feminist at all. i see people saying trans women cant compete against cis women in fucking VIDEO GAMES because “being DMAB gives you an unfair advantage with bigger hands and faster reflexes--” shut up. you’re just making shit up now.

“well what about children who may regret transitioning?” most people detransition due to a lack of social support or when facing profound bigotry. and if they are young-young children still exploring their identity, delaying puberty isnt going to cause dramatic health conditions if they change their mind. because a lot of cis people have delayed puberty or even early puberty without all of us getting up in arms about how no, they need to do it at THIS SPECIFIC AGE or their entire body is RUINED. no one is doing major cosmetic surgery on 12 year olds, not just because they might change their mind but also because even if they dont their bodies arent done growing and they would need even more in the future. you are arguing against children being given more time to think about what puberty they want to go through and coming to terms with strange changes in their body and making informed decisions. maybe they end up being cis, but being on puberty blockers a few years and receiving love and support will do nothing to hinder their lives.

#transmisogyny #transphobia

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cappymightwrite · 3 years

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What draws you to incest ?

*sighs* Ok, here we go. I'm a real card carrying Jonsa now aren't I?

Anon, listen. I know this is an anti question that gets bandied about a lot, aimed at provoking, etc, when we all know no Jonsa is out here being all you know what, it really is the incest, and the incest alone, that draws me in. I mean, come on now. Grow up.

If I was "drawn" to incest I'd be a fan of Cersei x Jaime, Lucrezia x Cesare, hell Oedipus x Jocasta etc... but I haven't displayed any interest in them now, have I? So, huh, it can't be that.

Frankly, it's a derivitive question that is really missing the mark. I'm not "drawn" to it, though yeah, it is an unavoidable element of Jonsa. The real question you should be asking though, is what draws GRRM to it? Because he obviously is drawn to it, specifically what is termed the "incest motif" in academic and literary scholarship. That is a far more worthwhile avenue of thinking and questioning, compared with asking me. Luckily for you though anon, I sort of anticipated getting this kind of question so had something in my drafts on standby...

You really don't have to look far, or that deeply, to be hit over the head by the connection between GRRM's literary influences and the incest motif. I mean, let's start with the big cheese himself, Tolkein:

Tolkein + Quenta Silmarillion

We know for definite that GRRM has been influenced by Tolkein, and in The Silmarillion you notably have a case of unintentional incest in Quenta Silmarillion, where Túrin Turambar, under the power of a curse, unwittingly murders his friend, as well as marries and impregnates his sister, Nienor Níniel, who herself had lost her memory due to an enchantment.

Mr Tolkein, "what draws you to incest?"

Old Norse + Völsunga saga

Tolkein, as a professor of Anglo-Saxon, was hugely influenced by Old English and Old Norse literature. The story of the ring Andvaranaut, told in Völsunga saga, is strongly thought to have been a key influence behind The Lord of the Rings. Also featured within this legendary saga is the relationship between the twins Signy and Sigmund — at one point in the saga, Signy tricks her brother into sleeping with her, which produces a son, Sinfjotli, of pure Völsung blood, raised with the singular purpose of enacting vengence.

Anonymous Norse saga writer, "what draws you to incest?"

Medieval Literature as a whole

A lot is made of how "true" to the storied past ASOIAF is, how reflective it is of medieval society (and earlier), its power structures, its ideals and martial values etc. ASOIAF, however, is not attempting historical accuracy, and should not be read as such. Yet it is clearly drawing from a version of the past, as depicted in medieval romances and pre-Christian mythology for instance, as well as dusty tomes on warfare strategy. As noted by Elizabeth Archibald in her article Incest in Medieval Literature and Society (1989):

Of course the Middle Ages inherited and retold a number of incest stories from the classical world. Through Statius they knew Oedipus, through Ovid they knew the stories of Canace, Byblis, Myrrha and Phaedra. All these stories end more or less tragically: the main characters either die or suffer metamorphosis. Medieval readers also knew the classical tradition of incest as a polemical accusation,* for instance the charges against Caligula and Nero. – p. 2

The word "polemic" is connected to controversy, to debate and dispute, therefore these classical texts were exploring the incest motif in order to create discussion on a controversial topic. In a way, your question of "what draws you to incest?" has a whiff of polemical accusation to it, but as I stated, you're missing the bigger question.

Moving back to the Middle Ages, however, it is interesting that we do see a trend of more incest stories appearing within new narratives between the 11th and 13th centuries, according to Archibald:

The texts I am thinking of include the legend of Judas, which makes him commit patricide and then incest before betraying Christ; the legend of Gregorius, product of sibling incest who marries his own mother, but after years of rigorous penance finally becomes a much respected pope; the legend of St Albanus, product of father-daughter incest, who marries his mother, does penance with both his parents but kills them when they relapse into sin, and after further penance dies a holy man; the exemplary stories about women who sleep with their sons, and bear children (whom they sometimes kill), but refuse to confess until the Virgin intervenes to save them; the legends of the incestuous begetting of Roland by Charlemagne and of Mordred by Arthur; and finally the Incestuous Father romances about calumniated wives, which resemble Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale except that the heroine's adventures begin when she runs away from home to escape her father's unwelcome advances. – p. 2

I mean... that last bit sounds eerily quite close to what we have going on with Petyr Baelish and Sansa Stark. But I digress. What I'm trying to say is that from a medieval and classical standpoint... GRRM is not unique in his exploration of the incest motif, far from it.

Sophocles, Ovid, Hartmann von Aue, Thomas Malory, etc., "what draws you to incest?"

Faulkner + The Sound and the Fury, and more!

Moving on to more modern influences though, when talking about the writing ethos at the heart of his work, GRRM has famously quoted William Faulker:

His mantra has always been William Faulkner’s comment in his Nobel prize acceptance speech, that only the “human heart in conflict with itself… is worth writing about”. [source]

I’ve never read any Faulker, so I did just a quick search on “Faulkner and incest” and I pulled up this article on JSTOR, called Faulkner and the Politics of Incest (1998). Apparently, Faulkner explores the incest motif in at least five novels, therefore it was enough of a distinctive theme in his work to warrant academic analysis. In this journal article, Karl F. Zender notes that:

[...] incest for Faulkner always remains tragic [...] – p. 746

Ah, we can see a bit of running theme here, can't we? But obviously, GRRM (one would hope) doesn’t just appreciate Faulkner’s writing for his extensive exploration of incest. This quote possibly sums up the potential artistic crossover between the two:

Beyond each level of achieved empathy in Faulkner's fiction stands a further level of exclusion and marginalization. – pp. 759–60

To me, the above parallels somewhat GRRM’s own interest in outcasts, in personal struggle (which incest also fits into):

I am attracted to bastards, cripples and broken things as is reflected in the book. Outcasts, second-class citizens for whatever reason. There’s more drama in characters like that, more to struggle with. [source]

Interestingly, however, this essay on Faulkner also connects his interest in the incest motif with the romantic poets, such as Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron:

As Peter Thorslev says in an important study of romantic representations of incest, " [p]arent-child incest is universally condemned in Romantic literature...; sibling incest, on the other hand, is invariably made sympathetic, is sometimes exonerated, and, in Byron's and Shelley's works, is definitely idealized.” – p. 741

Faulkner, "what draws you to incest?" ... I mean, that article gives some good explanations, actually.

Lord Byron, Manfred + The Bride of Abydos

Which brings us onto GRRM interest in the Romantics:

I was always intensely Romantic, even when I was too young to understand what that meant. But Romanticism has its dark side, as any Romantic soon discovers... which is where the melancholy comes in, I suppose. I don't know if this is a matter of artistic influences so much as it is of temperament. But there's always been something in a twilight that moves me, and a sunset speaks to me in a way that no sunrise ever has. [source]

I'm already in the process of writing a long meta about the influence of Lord Byron in ASOIAF, specifically examining this quote by GRRM:

The character I’m probably most like in real life is Samwell Tarly. Good old Sam. And the character I’d want to be? Well who wouldn’t want to be Jon Snow — the brooding, Byronic, romantic hero whom all the girls love. Theon [Greyjoy] is the one I’d fear becoming. Theon wants to be Jon Snow, but he can’t do it. He keeps making the wrong decisions. He keeps giving into his own selfish, worst impulses. [source]

Lord Byron, "what draws you to—", oh, um, right. Nevermind.

I'm not going to repeat myself here, but it's worth noting that there is a clear through line between GRRM and the Romantic writers, besides perhaps melancholic "temperament"... and it's incest.

But look, is choosing to explore the incest motif...well, a choice? Yeah, and an uncomfortable one at that, but it’s obvious that that is what GRRM is doing. I think it’s frankly a bit naive of some people to argue that GRRM would never do Jonsa because it’s pseudo-incest and therefore morally repugnant, no ifs, no buts. I’m sorry, as icky as it may be to our modern eyes, GRRM has set the president for it in his writing with the Targaryens and the Lannister twins.

The difference with them is that they knowingly commit incest, basing it in their own sense of exceptionalism, and there are/will be bad consequences — this arguably parallels the medieval narratives in which incest always ends badly, unless some kind of real penance is involved. For Jon and Sansa, however, the Jonsa argument is that they will choose not to commit incest, despite a confused attraction, and then will be rewarded in the narrative through the parentage reveal, a la Byron’s The Bride of Abydos. The Targaryens and Lannisters, in several ways excluding the incest (geez the amount of times I’ve written incest in this post), are foils for the Starks, and in particular, Jon and Sansa. Exploring the incest motif has been on the cards since the very beginning — just look at that infamous "original" outline — regardless of whether we personally consider that an interesting writing choice, or a morally inexcusable one.

Word of advice, or rather, warning... don't think you can catch me out with these kinds of questions. I have access to a university database, so if I feel like procrastinating my real academic work, I can and will pull out highly researched articles to school you, lmao.

But you know, thanks for the ask anyway, I guess.

#cappy's thoughts #I'm still on my break/hiatus #i just had some of this already written #jonsa #jon x sansa #anti bs #grrm and medieval literature #grrm and william faulkner #grrm and the romantics #grrm and tolkein #grrm and old norse literature #grrm and his literary influences #was this petty lmao?

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taki118 · 3 years

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I watched Sole Crusher, I’m annoyed and feel like these are things people arent talking about

- First I’ve seen people talking about Marinette’s “growth” in not judging Zoe from her association but like this ep would have gone very differently had she not met her earlier.

- Chloe’s advice to Zoe does seem to be genuine it does really seem like Chloe thought she was legitimately helping her. Chloe has a very odd and childish world view though this ep also makes her like comically worse than what we saw in season 1 and it’s like blatant to make Zoe look even better by comparison.

- What is up with Sabrina this ep? No seriously. Like up until now Sabrina was Chloe’s friend that she took advantage of but like again to make Chloe just the worst this ep they upped the Sabrina abuse and kinda made it look like she gets off on it. Like that moment she kinda fawns on Zoe for imitating Chloe is super weird.

- Zoe whole deal is so audience manipulative it like psychically hurts me. Like the shoe thing where she says it’s to write nice things people say to her so she can take it with her but only has one cause she only had one friend. It’s so transparently there to make her sympathetic (we should note that Chloe herself once confessed feeling she has no friends but we arent meant to sympathize) like they could have made the shoes important if she just said “My best fried got them for me, makes me feel like they’re here” Even her whole reason for transferring is to make you feel sorry for her. She got bullied once after she started acting like herself and not what she thought people wanted her to be. It’s not cause she wanted to connect with her mother, it’s not cause she wanted to live in Paris, nope she got bullied and it was so traumatic she moved to another country (Like you can’t tell me there’s only 1 boarding school in New York).

- Zoe is boring. So like her habit of changing herself to people please is interesting but the ep doesn’t really do anything with it. She says she wants to be an actress but not WHY she wants to as a means to explain why she’s so good at this (something very unneeded in fact doing this and not being interested in acting could be more character building) She then says that people don’t like the real her cause she’s “Different” which I’m hoping is meant to be like “im not what they expect” and not “My personality is just so weird no one gets me” but what we see of her base personality is just the generic “nice” of all the other interchangeable side characters. If I were to do a re-write of her it’d be that she has no sense of self and feels hollow not lonely.

- The Andre stuff. So like I keep seeing how people saying Andre got redeemed in this ep and Zoe is the daughter he should have had but like I think people forget this one kinda important thing ANDRE RAISED CHLOE HIMSELF. Audrey was out of the picture for a long time and Andre was her primary care giver. Chloe is a monster of Andre’s own making because rather than set boundaries and raising her with care he spoiled her giving her everything she wanted and giving in to her every whim cause he either didn’t know what to do or was lazy as a parent. Like a child doesn’t just develop a world view of entitlement and seeing themselves as superior a parent has to nurture that and Andrea did. So no I don’t feel bad about how Chloe treats him cause it’s obvious that it’s his neglectful parenting that brought this. I do feel bad he felt like he couldn’t follow his passions but like had he been the one to raise Zoe it’s very likely she would have turned out just like Chloe.

- The message of this ep is so muddled it’s like “Be yourself” and also “family is who you love” but these thing don’t really blend like with how the show is structured it’s kinda impossible to do both of these like even if it was over two eps. But they really shoulda just focused on the be yourself thing.

- Also last thing making Zoe Chloe’s half sister through their mom is like the messiest decision they could have made. Like Andre having an affair and another kid extremely close in age is easy to think of like logistically but you mean to tell me Audrey carried two children so close together sequentially???? But like we all know why it was done, it’s to make Audrey look worse. Zoe could have been Andre’s kid, or Chloe’s cousin and the ep would go the same. They ONLY reason she is Chloe’s half sister through Audrey is to make both of them look worse. It makes Audrey look like a worse mother and wife and it makes Chloe look worse as a person though again we don’t know how Zoe was raised.

#miraculous ladybug #ml spoilers #sole crusher #chloe bourgeois #andre bourgeois #audrey bourgeois #ml zoe

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bridgyrose · 3 years

Note

Sleeper Agent AU. Can we get a background on why Summer joined Salem in the first place?

Summer dropped to her knees as her aura shattered, struggling to keep herself up. She glanced up at Salem, who loomed over her. “I… I wont give-”

“And you dont have much of a choice.” Salem stretched her hand out, creating glyphs that summoned grimm hands to hold Summer in place, dropping her to the ground. “Everything Ozna had ever told you was a lie.”

Summer struggled to free herself, glaring at Salem as her eyes started to shine. “I will stop you!”

“You wont.”

Summer’s eyes quit glowing as Salem made an illusion of Ruby out of smoke. “Dont you dare-”

“I wont hurt her.” Salem slowly walked over to Summer. “And I’m going to give you a choice. You see, I’m not going to kill you. I have found… new methods of dealing with your kind. However, I see that you arent like the others. You lack knowledge. Knowledge that I’m willing to provide to you.”

Summer quit struggling, listening to Salem. “And what kind of knowledge can you provide to me?”

“The truth about my dear Ozma.The truth on why he’s using you.”

“He’s not using me!”

“But he is.” Salem knelt down and lifted Summer’s chin, smirking. “I’m sure he’s told you all about me, hasnt he? But what about himself? How he’s the one who killed our children. That he’s the one who betrayed me.”

Summer looked away from Salem, not sure how to feel. “I… I dont... “

“But you know how to find out. You know where the relic of knowledge is. And you know who holds the password. You can ask the relic yourself what Ozma is hiding.”

Summer felt the grimm hands letting her go, withdrawing from her. She slowly picked herself up, looking up at Salem curiously. “You’re… going to let me go?”

“Of course I am. Because I know you’ll make the right choice.” Salem turned away from Summer, smirking a bit. “And I know you wont disappoint me.”

Summer slowly walked back to the airship, pulling out her scroll and looked at Raven’s name. She knew exactly why Raven left, why she wouldnt tell the others. And as much as she hated trying to get a favor from her, she didnt feel like she had a choice this time.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“No.”

“But Rae-”

“I said no!” Raven’s eyes glowed as she yelled out her answer at her old friend. “You dont understand what you’re asking! I cant just walk right into Haven-”

“You dont have to.”

Raven looked at Summer curiously. “I… dont have to?”

Summer shook her head, pulling out a map of Mistral. “I… I know you know where the vault is. And… there has to be another way besides waltzing right into Haven. O-or, you can shapeshift and hide in my cloak. But I… I have to make my way to the relic. I… I have to ask it-”

“You know just as well as I do that Ozpin told us the lamp couldnt answer any more questions.”

“But what if he’s lying.”

Raven went silent as she looked Summer over, her expression starting to soften a bit as she looked her previous team leader over. “You’re… serious.”

Summer nodded slowly, sitting back in her chair and looking down into her tea. “I… went after Salem the other day. She… she told me that Ozma… that Ozpin was hiding something from us. I… I dont want to believe her, but…”

“But after everything with the maidens, you’ve been having doubts?”

Summer nodded, looking towards her friend. “And… I know you’ve had your own doubts too. And… our child-”

“Fine, I’ll help you. But only because I dont trust Ozpin.”

Summer smiled and kissed Raven. “Thank you, my love.”

Raven got up and sighed. “Do not make me regret it.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Summer walked up to the caste steps, holding Ruby close. After speaking to Jinn, she found out exactly what Ozpin was hiding. Even still, she didnt trust Salem, but after watching what had happened, seeing the lies that Ozpin had told her, everything he hid from her… Summer sighed and paused as she looked up at the doors, hesitating for a moment. “This… this is the only way. Ozpin… Ozpin doesnt have a plan. Salem was willing to offer me knowledge… to tell me the truth… everything we were fighting for… its all… pointless…”

“I take it you saw the truth then?”

Summer looked back to the door, finding it open with Salem standing at the doorway, a small child hiding behind her. “Y-yes, I… I know the truth.”

Salem smirked at Summer, moving a bit so she could walk in. “Then you know the choice you have to make.”

Summer paused for a moment as she looked in through the doors, gently trying to calm Ruby as she cried. “And… my daughter and I will be safe?”

“I promise I will not allow either of you to be harmed for making this decision. Although, when your daughter is ready, she will need to join me.”

Summer nodded, taking a step inside. “Alright, but it has to be her decision.”

“Of course. I would never force anyone to work with me for my cause.” Salem closed the doors as Summer walked through, keeping close to the huntress. “Now, is there anything else you’d like to know?”

Summer nodded, continuing to walk down the halls with Salem. “I have many questions to ask.”

“And I will answer them all.”

#rwby #summer rose #salem #raven branwen #drabbles #sleeper agent ruby au #sleeper agent ruby #the start of why Summer joined #she was already losing faith with Ozpin #and Salem gave her a needed push

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misterbitches · 3 years

Text

So I LOVE the trope of unrequited love in romance. Anyway I like this line because this is sort of interesting and important.

Frankly to MOI it is cowardly (and this isnt a bad thing; all our good strengths are also bad and some of the things we do in times of stress or as a reaction to our mental whatever isnt great! It's fine) to stay in that type of love so long. But it is soooo comforting to be uncomfortably still. Your identity is this thing you have been using as almost a crutch. Except that is soooo bad because stuff like this happens.

My fav trope in this is that the person on the receiving end of the love (but not being love bombed which is a fine line) comes to realize how much they love the other person. However CONFLICT! Because now they have this person. They have what they want. what they thought they wouldnt get or didnt deserve or something equally as sad and not self-serving. it’s selfish in all the waysy that you are intentionally ignoring yourself! be selfish for you! seriously! anyway so now the other person now has to pave their way TRULY thinking about themselves. Where Shu Yi spent years developing with his friends, GSD had more responsibility. A focus on like everything but an emotional self idk. Which is fine whatever the story goes through this that’s not my point.

Now that you have put such a stock in someone pretty selflessly and sadly and just all kinds of girl WYD right, how could you possibly be secure in them wanting you? I’ve yet to see this not come up in this trope (even if it’s not done well) because it’s pretty much built into the story.

and i really like that conflict because it shows us that the character who has all thsi love to give actually managed to cultivate their own life while thinking of this person as a prize that they could get if theyre good enough. but the pain of knowing that’s not how it works.

now that we’re all over the hump (i could talk about the stupidity of miscommunication but whatever lmao) i’m not as mad at his dumb fuckin decisons (gsd) cos im like well yea. you would be insecure. the person with the perceived most love is the most unsure of the thing they claimed to have wanted the most. and I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVEEEEEEEE IT especially ESPECIALLLLLLLLY when the noble idiocy trope comes from the person who was in love and they literally underesstimate how anyone could love them back as hard and it ends up being super hurtful to the other person because it shows the insecurity and how their love was also a mirage bc they used it.

shin hye sun is in this weekend drama from 2017? she’s this teacher and she gets together with this famous golfer. i LOVE them together. he ends up falling for her and chasing her because she’s like (run, duck, cover, run lmao) and also in...unrequited love with his brother. and at one point all the familial mixups are revealed (it’s a lot i love it!) and she gets extremely upset at the problems at first but then at the fact that he couldn’t tell her what happened and they couldn’t figure it out together. it’s like seeing “i love you just as much, how can you not see that?: and having the person realize just how fucking sad and weird it is to live your life the way you have with this idea in your head. i love jealousy incarnate for that reason too (but also im a GHJ and JJS stan.) it’s just so GOOOOD being unsure and ufcked up about it.

not that his life is regretful just that the love you had wasnt exactly real for you and wasnt really going to be real for you? so now that it is you have to manage your real expectations in the NOW not that projection.

i would honestly be so furious at gsd in general but also with this added layer. because you don’t give a choice to your partner (do not take away my free will i will scream) and then the partner is like “uHHHHHHHH ok so this is what we call a relationship and i know you may not know what that means but part of it is that i, too, share your feelings and would like to be privvy to the decisions you make on our behalf. i do not appreciate the implication that you can’t trust my love. if you could revise thank you.” that makes your partner feel shitty too! like the idea that they will leave you in the lurch can’t boost the confidence of the person who is begging you to accept it back and trust it. understand it. so yea in his mind it wasnt enough or true and it makes sense and this is why we have to teach children to not have idols and stuff. i coudlnt do this it would be so much pressure to do. even loving someone i think is awesome woudl jsut be too painful. i know i wouldnt be able to handle it. theyre young and he probably couldnt deal with the intense feelings of it all. i just feel like i would constantly be worried about love and in the shadows and unless i’m prepared to really work through that and deal with it, which even at my age im not sure i could, then i have to evaluate it.

but man i love the idea of it getting all confusing and mixed up. about the person actually loving you for you and not your projection so the outputs are different. it’s really fun to see this person deprive themselves and finally be fulfilled. of course i do not think a romantic partner is the end all be all but as finding companionship is huge it will be a facet. it kind of kills several birds with one stone because it really forces you to see people as individuals. it’s a conflicting message and it’s great to watch unfold and it is satisfactory. it is! people arent prizes but it’s good. love

like this whole thing has some stupid writing in it imo but it makes sooooooooooo much sense hearing/seeing that line. dude you just had nom idea honestly. we live in our heads and fantasies to help us pull through but what h appens when we really have to put our feet down on the ground? when you attain it after being so fearful and cowardly to not pursue, you know? we all know that feeling. gotta get with the TIMES MAN we live in a a pantene pro v go for it

#a love off #nah but rly man #we best love #we best love fighting mr 2nd

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legends-live-in-memories · 4 years

Text

I Have Too Many Opinions. ep. 1

lmao. i got encouragement to post my opinions on fandom things and now i want to make a miniseries doing just that. so here i am. doing just that.

im putting it under the cut cuz this was 4 whole pages including the disclaimer. yes i put a disclaimer and i explain why.

Anyways, here is the first piece in what inevitably will become fandom info dump, this time on thomas astruc’s writing on miraculous ladybug. but only some of my opinions cuz we would be here all day otherwise.

So… a disclaimer before I begin…

I do not hate Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir (yes i'm using their government name). I am quite a fan of the show actually despite its faults. I am also older than the intended audience but was obviously younger when the show first aired which is how my interest was piqued (the fact that its been 6 years and only 3 seasons says more about the show than me being a fan for that amount of time but also i never want to rush content creators cuz they're doing their best) and due to my age, there will be inherent bias in my approach of what i'm about to say as there is in EVERY opinion. The fact that it is an opinion should imply the presence of bias but most people tend to lack the critical thinking skills required to draw that conclusion ANYWAYS…

If I did hate the show I would not have this blog nor would I be even writing this because i tend to not give more than 2 seconds of thought to things i actively dislike (some of yall should give this a try) and i'm allowed to like things that are designed for an audience that i was originally a part of but grew out of. (I don't suddenly stop liking things because I'm older despite what many younger fans seem to believe about older audiences. I also don't need to be ‘allowed’ to do anything cuz i wasn't asking for permission anyways.)

This will not be character bashing, astruc bashing nor fandom bashing cuz, again, that would imply i hate any of those elements and if i did, i would not dedicate brainpower to them. Analyses and criticisms of media are fun and engaging and required if you wish to produce good enjoyable content. Now most of this should be already assumed and self-explanatory but people on the internet like to play morality roulette roll dice on purity culture and I rather have documentation that I am in fact not bullying fictional 14 year olds or a grown man. But alas, people get trigger happy whenever someone has less than 1000000% positive opinions on something they like and will throw out words they can't define (gaslight, baiting, toxic, problematic, gatekeep etc) in an attempt to defend their blind devotion,

which is not needed, if you like something you never have to defend it, even if i don't like it. If you respond to anything I post saying you disagree with me, I will not argue with you. I won't debate back and forth and try to convince you that the things you like are wrong. Unless you are being absolutely tone deaf to what i'm saying, you wont get a negative reaction from me. So don't try to fish for a fight. Please. I got metaphorical hands for days and I'm mean, you don't want me hurting your feelings on the internet. Do yourself the favour. Difference of opinion is how we get diversification in media and is inherently a good thing. Now that that's out of the way, please don't ever let me have to say that again. I beg.

Now onto the fun stuff

I didn't know what I wanted as a first topic so my trusty internet friend @moonlitceleste suggested astruc’s writing…

AND BOI do i got some opinions on ole tommy boi. Again I don't hate the dude. In fact, he has worked on a few shows that had defined my childhood, including but not limited to W.I.T.C.H. (all eps available on youtube for those interested, 2 seasons, general fun time all around).

So I don't think he’s scum of the earth but I do think his approach to writing mlb specifically has more misses than hits.

The first big miss is that he has no idea how to write 14 year old girls. At all. Almost every girl he has ever written feels like some terrible archetype built entirely for marketability and childish projection and pubescent self-insert (kind of). He has never been a 14 year old girl. I have. In fact when the show first aired, I WAS around the (assumed) age of the mlb characters. The behaviour he passes off as quirky or awkward or just the character’s genuine personality tend to perpetuate harmful stereotypes of teen girls found in the media and are never actually addressed as harmful. they just get swept under the rug. Marinette’s exuberant collage of teen heart throb model boi Adrien Agreste and her very painful almost fan worship she has of him (which flip flops like a paper sandal in the rain) being portrayed as a cute school girl crush uwu, Chloe being the y7 Regina George, Alya being the token best friend of colour with her ‘sassy’ personality (i want y'all to imagine me eyerolling so hard i bust a vessel in my eye), Kagami being the very damaging Perfect Asian Child stereotype. And before y'all get on your dusty soap box and defend going on about “BUT IT'S FOR CHILDREN”,,,, know this.

i don’t give a solid fuck.

Not one.

Children arent stupid. Children are always going to remember the richy bitchy blonde who bullies the art kid, and the big kid, and the shy kid, and the non white kids, and was only nice to her equally rich white friend who she probably had a crush on or was only ever civil to her equally white lapdog. They're going to remember the half asian girl who was never allowed to actually be asian or the only black girl who existed solely as a soundboard for enabling bad habits or chastising the main character for the same habits she enables in the first place (boi aint THAT a topic for later). Like do i really need to explain that alya chastising marinette for taking max’s spot in gamer just to play with adrien rings absolutely hollow when she actively encourages her to sabotage the contest she’s in just so Kagami doesn't win?? Like I don't have to explain that right?? Again kids arent stupid and its quite something that Mari gets chastised for proving herself the best video game player regardless of her intentions just cuz it comes at the expense of max’s feelings/ego but is actively encouraged to sabotage not only kagami but herself by extension cuz kagami is ‘competition.’ Adrien is not a trophy to be won. And no I don't expect 14 yrs old to be perfect and to always make good decisions but these decisions are never addressed as being bad decisions. they get swept under the rug cuz those decisions were necessary for the ‘plot’ but astruc can barely keep characterization consistent and his characters suffer for it and it's the same children you preach are watching it that suffer as well. Cuz guess what? I KNOW 14 yr olds aren't like that cuz i've been there done that (this is the last time i'm saying that i promise) so I know astruc is just metaphorically throwing darts to figure out who says and does what without consideration for pre established personalities to drive the stalemate plot along. The same kids you say are watching this don't know that that's not how preteens work and will absorb and internalize those dynamics like baking soda and vinegar. Cata-fucking-strophically.

And I haven't even gotten to the boys yet. Which honestly doesn't require much explanation anyways cuz they suffer the same fate as the girls. Tired archetypes with nothing to give them life. Nino falls into Adrien’s person of colour token best friend who dates the female lead’s person of colour token best friend so they can have cute double dates uwu. Except the plot goes nowhere and we have no inclination of romantic development beyond moments that only act to actively convince me to anti ship the lovesquare (i don't want to do that so i self indulge in fanon that actually cares about the characters and plot. may i interest you in True Sight on AO3?). Max is the residential nerd but it doesn't matter (cuz he and everyone are dumbed down for the sake of ‘plot’), kim is the sports jock (which interestingly subverts the asian comedic relief stereotype but only barely) and luka is cute older guy ™ that wears black nail polish and is in a band. The point of all this is to say there is no depth in the characters. It's especially blatantly obvious with the characters astruc doesn't like (chloe). Again, it being a show for kids is not an excuse to be absolved of putting effort into the characters you make.

This is one of the biggest misses astruc has. I haven't even gone into all the nuances of this particular miss. And i havent gone into how that works against him in the plot either. Mostly because the plot itself hasn't gone anywhere and partially because I wanted to go into the plot (or lack thereof) separately as its own miss.

AND BOI is it a miss.

SO home boy astruc wanted to reap the benefits of a serial show with ‘engaging’ plot without putting in any of the work to make a linear storyline and relying on the episodic format for, again, marketability. You can't have the best of both worlds, you are not Avatar: The Last Airbender. Which btw has a lot less episodes and a desired end goal that didn't involve top dollar. Legend of Korra did but that's not the point and it had its failings with that too. I challenge you, tell me how many episodes actually contribute towards a plot point or introduce new thematic elements to the show? Can you name them? I can and I'm going to include the plot points that moved the story in some direction if only temporarily. Yes only temporarily for some of these and i will explain later. (if you're in the server you already saw this list *wink*)

25/26. Origins- self explanatory, the beginning of the story,

24. Volpina- introduction of the grimoire and Master Fu (kind of) and no, Lila is not a plot point,

28. The Collector- proper introduction of Master Fu,

37. Sapotis- introduction of Rena Rouge,

41. Syren- introduction of new aquatic power ups,

44. Anansi- introduction of Carapace,

47. Frozer- introduction of new ice power ups,

48/49. Style Queen- introduction of Queen Bee,

51/52. Heroes’ Day- introduction of Mayura and mass akumatization,

66. Startrain- introduction of Pegasus,

67. Kwami Buster- Marinette wears multiple miraculouses,

68. Feast- backstory as to how the miraculouses were lost,

69. Ikari Gozen- introduction of Ryuko,

70. Timetagger- introduction of Bunnyx,

71. Party Crasher- introduction of Roi Singe and Viperion,

73. Chat Blanc- alternate timeline that essentially means nothing but got a reaction out of fans anyways (myself included)

77/78. Love Eater/Battle of Miraculous- Marinette becomes guardian and other heroes lose their miraculous,

New York Special- other heroes exist and there is an American miraculous box,

That's 21 episodes. 21 out of a heaping 78 plus 2 specials. Everything else was just your typical akuma of the day episode and everything that happened outside that had no lasting consequences on the plot thanks to the miraculous status quo. Was it entertaining to watch Lila stir the plot of the class dynamic? Hell yeah. Too bad it meant nothing by the end of the episode cuz we were struck with miraculous status quo. She literally doesn't appear again until Heroes Day. that is from episodes 25 all the way to 51, she means nothing and yet she is treated with the severity of a b-villain/rival thing. She means nothing by the end of Volpina if I'm being honest. She is only relevant for 20 mins of episode time she’s in then it's back to magic status quo that undoes any shift in dynamics and relationships. It's like Spongebob who can't get his driver’s license. The worst part is I actually like Lila and I wish the story treated her with the seriousness we as an audience are expected to treat her with. Despite being painfully inconsequential by the end of each of the 3?? 4?? episodes she’s in, it's entertaining to watch a character create drama just because.

Too bad it means nothing.

Astruc is constantly building up suspense to something ‘important’ only for it to not deliver and fans are constantly having the rug pulled out from under us. Oblivio teased us with a reveal only that gets undone cuz memory akuma. Chat Blanc teased us with romantic development but that gets undone cuz time travel bullshit. Feast introduced more miraculous lore and the history of the guardians but that means nothing by the next episode or ever (i'm not including any reference to the season 4 trailer cuz i've been around the block a few times and im familiar with this lil dancy dance). Heroes Day teased us with a possible future team of heroes but that gets undone in Battle of Miraculous cuz ????? why?? (here's why; astruc was having a jolly ole time letting us know how irredeemable Chloe is at the expense of shooting his own stagnant plot in the foot. Again, discussion for later.)

Too bad anything that slightly swerves off course from the akuma of the day gets undone or ignored. Too bad nothing has any lasting consequence. I mean, if anything did, the episodes would have had a consistent order and release schedule so im not scrambling to watch the leaked ep in Portuguese or something while the french dub is two episodes behind while the english version hasnt even been dubbed. I really wonder how he plans to conclude the show when he’s so afraid to step out of the corner he painted himself in.

Again, not going into nuances. If you want you can ask for more specifics (i doubt anyone would) but this is really just a slightly detailed general overview of my opinions on astruc’s writing.

I was going to include another miss in his approach to this show but imma save that for another time.

How’s that for a ‘first’ post?

#mlb #opinions my guy opinions #i dont wanna tag this as salt #but mlb criticisms and analyses #IHTMO #the hashtag for this series #thomas astruc #miraculous fandom #miraculous ladybug #miraculous: tales of ladybug and cat noir #yes the government name again #come get yall juice #miraculous

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ohcndrea · 4 years

Photo

ANDREA PEARSON ( ALISHA BOE ) is a 17 year old JUNIOR student at Broadripple Academy. SHE is originally from MILFORD, CT but moved to Broadripple 3 YEARS ago. SHE is CREATIVE and QUICK WITTED but can also be SHORT TEMPERED and JUDGEMENTAL. –– penned by sam / 23 / aest / she/her

BASICS

Name: Andrea Mona Pearson

Age: Seventeen

Grade: Junior

House: Melleray

Cabin Room: Junior Cabin Room 2

How long have they been at Broadripple: Three years

Where are they from originally: Milford Connecticut

Extra curricular: Cross Country and Women of Broadripple Club

TRAITS

Positive Personality Traits: creative, quick witted, adventurous, confident, hard working, independent, humorous, passionate

Neutral Personality Traits: contradictory, private, sensual, unpredictable

Negative Personality Traits: short tempered, judgemental, isolated, elusive, inconsistent, stubborn

FACTS

drea is from a family that places the importance of education and getting into a good college and getting a good job and legacy all very highly – and it all has to fit this sort of “traditional” view of success and drea just does not really fit it at all

and she never really has. growing up she was in her older brother’s shadow and was always pushing to spend more time on art projects or even artistic aspects of any other project. knowing from a young age that she’d love to be a creative of some sort but realising quickly that it wasn’t the life her parents had planned for her

which is how broadripple came into the picture. private school had always been the plan for the pearson children but boarding and catholic was a surprise. after her brother attended a boarding school, andrea knew she wanted to as well. she picked broadripple out. it was a good school, good reputation, good connections to ivy leagues. and the main thing for drea was that it felt just out of reach. a three hour drive wasn’t so far that she had to worry about her parents thinking she didn’t want to be around them (which was correct) but far enough that going home all the time would seem ridiculous, and far enough that their visits would be far and few in between. completely ideal location.

and so she’s been at broadripple for three years and is arguably and completely different girl than she was when she started. given the freedom of distance from her parents she came into her own, quickly became more confident, unapologetic, leaned more into her creative side and flourished. though she wont admit it, and she often thinks the place is very intense and weird and so are the people: she loves broadripple.

that being said she’s fucking reconsidering that stance since they’ve sent her to go sleep in some ugly ass cabins lmao

HEADCANONS

reformed hoe, p much up until everyone went home for a few weeks because of bugs in the dorms she would have still been out here being a hoe and now she’s not or she’s trying not to be

drea has a very big cool girl complex (a la amy dunne cool girl monologue in gone girl), she wants everyone to think she’s cool, especially guys. she’ll pretend things are her own decisions and that she has to be convinced to do stuff but she’ll pretty much do anything if it means someone is going to think she’s a “cool girl” – she’s starting to outgrow this a little bit but we shall see

hates bugs so fucking much, she’s gonna be suffering in the cabins and with the knowledge that there are bugs all over the dorms. everyone will hear her screaming over the tiniest, harmless bug – will also throw whatever she can reach at a bug to kill it

regular sleep schedule ? never heard of her. drea stays up to stupid o’clock most nights and is not a functional person in the morning because of it rip to anyone who has to deal with her before she can get some caffeine into her

though she can be a bit blunt, judgemental, and sometimes even cold: overall, she’s a jokester. she likes to have fun, and let loose

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE RETREAT

What do they think about The Retreat? she’s of two minds about it because on one hand she’s glad to be away from home and reunited with her friends. on the other she doesn’t like just hanging out in the woods, and thinks the nighmore-ians are totally creepy and weird and doesn’t know if she really wants to stay in their weird abandoned cabins but will likely settle once she’s sitting around a campfire making jokes.

Do they have any previous experience with camping or other outdoors? no, not at all really. the pearsons arent big campers, preferring to stay close to work and the city so they don’t miss anything. drea has spent a bit of time on boats but mainly sunbathing, not any sort of survival skills. the most experience she has with the outdoors is sneaking through the woods back to campus after a party.

What does their cabin bunk look like? How will they decorate their space? a mess most likely. she has a lot of clothes and would have tried to shove as much as she could into one bag but that bag would quickly spread out once settled. she’s got a few postcards of places she’s never been stuck on the wall over her bad as well as a couple drawings done by either herself or jay.

Do they believe in the supernatural? To what degree? if asked, she’d say no absolutely not. and that’s mostly true. she doesn’t believe in ghosts, she doesn’t believe in monsters, she doesn’t even really believe the Edith Lynch story. but i think given the right circumstances (alone in the woods at some creepy cabins and hearing things for example) she would believe in that moment.

Are they easily spooked? yes and no. she’d be spooked by bugs or gross things, but not really by things jumping out at her and most weird noises she thinks she can explain away anyway.

AND FINALLY,

A very dumb but (hopefully) fun quiz made by your admins, please share what result you got

Drea got “you’re the real danger” which 👀 probably accurate

#retreat:task1 #retreat:intro #( about. )

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nathalie-sancoeur-assistant · 5 years

Text

You know, the Senti!Adrien theory would provide some explanation as to why Emilie was so protective of Adrien that even while she was around he wasn’t allowed out. And since that theory doesn’t upset me, and Sentimonsters have been built up to be actual living beings whether they were birthed from a miraculous and emotions or not, I’m willing for that theory to actually come to fruition and it would mean that what I’ve interpreted from what we know about Emilie could be completely wrong and opens up a new realm of possibility for why she used the peacock miraculous to the point that she got sick.

But this brings into question of whether or not Sentimonsters are actually people- which is a debate I’ve noticed.

Now, you would think that Master Fu would tell Marinette everything he knew about the Butterfly and Peacock miraculous once it was clear that those were the powers they were fighting against (the more you know about your enemy the better), and yet Marinette seemed shocked, kind of, when she considered Sentibug as a living being, and not JUST a Sentimonster. So that leaves open a few possibilities-

1.) Ladybug was projecting personhood on something that was never and never can be an actual person- and it’d be similar to seeing a lamp as a living thing (But then why include it in the writing? For her to hesitate against a future Sentimonster she needs to NOT hesitate against? There’s a point to it that’s going to be addressed later even if they aren’t ‘alive’)

2.) Master Fu nor the other guardians have ever considered Sentimonsters actual people and more just a tool of the miraculous.

3.) Master Fu was never taught that Sentimonsters are living beings as he hadn’t reached that point in his training yet and didn’t KNOW to tell her.

4.) Fu didn’t tell Marinette because he knew that if she knew that they were actual living, sentient beings that she wouldn’t be so apt to fight/kill them.

AND if Adrien WERE a sentimonster, that brings into question- exactly how many sentimonsters can exist at one time? Can multiple conscious ones exist at once? Or in order for multiple to exist do all but one have to become dormant?

It also makes me wonder if Nathalie and Gabriel would be aware of what sentimonsters really are- would they know they’re actually alive and not just the embodiment of someone’s emotions, or do they just not care? If they are actually sentient (I mean they’re called SENTImonsters) then does that not also mean we saw a character murdered on screen- or even multiple living beings murdered on screen (by teenage heros!) because of the havoc they wrecked based on something they couldn’t control.

It also brings into question Hawkmoth’s line about being “Sentimental for a sentimonster”- if Adrien were a sentimonster, why would he be so chill with that? Why would Nathalie have been okay with just completely murdering her (basically) newborn daughter if Adrien was a sentimonster considering how much she loves him? The only thing that would make sense to me is them simply not knowing exactly how far the miraculous goes/not knowing Adrien was a sentimonster (though you’d think Duusu would know and would be able to tell her owners that what they create with her miraculous is actually alive!)

The REASON Ladybug decided to free Sentibug and view her as a person was because “there was nothing monstrous about her”. Here you have to consider the emotions used to make most sentimonsters.

Feast was created from a combination of anger and hunger- both can lead to destruction, especially when combined. His anger was probably amplified from his lack of food as well.

August’s sentimonsters are made from frustration, greed, hunger and gluttony. Also very destructive, especially when combined.

Juleka’s was made from anxiety, self-loathing, disappointment and the feeling of betrayal.

All of these can result in monstrous attitudes, actions, self-destruction- and therefore could (and would, under the assumption they aren’t living) create a monstrous Sentimonster.

However- what emotion was Sentibug made from?

Love.

Which in and of itself, pure, unfiltered love is in no way monstrous. Therefore if that is what Sentibug was created from, there is no way, even in her commanded actions, she would BE naturally monstrous. And Ladybug, seeing that, that she was no actual monster- chose to give her free will. Now, if sentimonsters aren’t individuals then her noticing that could then play towards a Gabenath love reveal, Ladybug realizing Mayura loves Hawkmoth (and therefore isn’t necessarily monstrous herself) and upon finding this out, could potentially prove that sentimonsters arent as she thought. It was simply that sentimonsters not created from negative emotion are far more agreeable. It could also result in her discussing this with Master Fu and him teaching her how to identify what emotions different sentimonsters were created from- or at least the general spectrum of potential emotions.

However there is proof of them actually being as Ladybug suspected- the fact that Sentibug was even able to HAVE free will, Feast being able to make it’s own decisions and seeming fearful of it’s amok being taken away, the fact that they’re called SENTImonsters...heck the fact that they included Ladybug thinking “Hey maybe she isn’t actually a monster and doesn’t deserve to die” is some pretty strong evidence because there are few other reasons to actually include that in the writing.

There is strong evidence on both sides of either potential outcome, for Sentimonsters being living, sentient, individuals or them simply being a tool created by the miraculous user to meet a certain goal. But if Adrien is a sentimonster, and its revealed- then Sentimonsters are going to be individual people, Gabriel and Nathalie aren’t going to know he’s a sentimonster (otherwise Gabriel couldn’t mock them for being sentimental for a sentimonster or he’d be a hypocrite cause he loves that boy even if he isn’t good at loving him), Nathalie is kind of a cold-blood murderer and a lot of the evidence used AGAINST Emilie painting her as a bad mom could quickly turn her into actually being a good mom, a good person, just very over-protective because she knows how delicate her baby boy is since his whole existence would rely on one sole object remaining intact (Most likely being her wedding ring since she would have likely created Adrien out of her love for Gabriel and wedding rings are good symbolism for that). This would also likely mean she couldn’t conceive, which opens the door for her being morbidly aware of the number of women in the world unable to have children of their own, and that provides the PERFECT excuse for her to use the Peacock miraculous to sense those distraught emotions and use the couple’s love for each other and desire for children to create sentimonster babies for them to raise (which again relies on the questions “how many sentimonsters can exist at one time and do most have to be dormant for one to be active” and “Can sentimonsters grow” to be answered). Since she was a bird delivering people children she could call herself The Stork.

This new idea gives me a new view on Emilie. She’s no longer “Bad until proven good” like I said in that one joke-post. She’s also not “Good until proven bad” because if this isn’t so then potential for her being bad is stronger. Now she’s just there. Even if the idea that she used the miraculous to give distraught couples children is false, it still provides alternate excuses for her to use the peacock miraculous fairly often that aren’t bad at all.

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somnilogical · 4 years

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davis tower kingsley (listed here on the cfar instructor page) who harassed a cis woman about her appearance another cis women reported this to acdc (the people who wrote the thing about how brent was great) and afaict they did nothing, claims that if trans people and gay people dont "repent and submit to the pope" they will burn in hell, defended the spanish inquisitions, wrote about how the mission system werent actually abductions, slavery, forced conversions and this was propaganda, defends pretty much any atrocity that an authority, "believes" the catholic god exists and does not try and destroy them, submits to them. and so much more.

born into another era they would actually work for the california mission system and say it was good.

said thing that cached out to that emma and somni should repent and submit to the rationalist community. wrote up a rant about "how about fuck you. go lick the boots of your dark mistress anna salamon." didnt send. got kicked by some rationalist, reasoning is probably that what id say would disrupt their peaceful machinations of omnicide, would be infohazards, because... the information is hazardous to their social order.

a few of these things are subjects of future blog posts.

cfar has never hired a trans woman, i have lots of logs of them trying to do what people did to porpentine. claiming emma thinks torturing children is hot, claiming emma was physically violent, claiming emma was indistinguishable from a rapist, claiming ziz was a "gross uncle style abuser", claiming somni was enticing people to rape, claiming that anna salamon was a small fragile woman and ziz was large and had muscles. as if any of our strength or speed had anything to do with our muscles in this place. all of these things are false except relative size difference between ziz and anna which is just transmisogynistic and irrelevant.

if they lie about are algorithms claim that we are using male-typical strategies and then they can fail by these lies and be sidelined by callout posts that transfered 350,000$ from miri despite their best efforts to cover this up. (all benefited by having relative political advantagr flowing from estrogenized brain modules. men are kind of npc's in this particular game of fem v fem cyberontological warfare for the fate of the multiverse, mostly making false patriarchal assumptions that ziz was doing things for social status. like status sensitivity is hormonally mediated, your experiences are not universal. or saying like kingsley is saying that people should repent and submit to whatever authorities in the rationalist region they submit to. NO. FUCK YOU. i will not repent and submit to your abusive dark mistress anna salamon.

i knew anna salamon was doing the edgy "transfems are all secretly male" thing before i talked with ziz. it was a thing, {zack, carrie}, ben hoffman, michael vassar were also in on it. ppl had men trapped in mens bodies on their bookshelves because the cool people were reading it. didnt think she was being *transmisogynistic* about it until i talked with ziz. in retrospect i was naive.)

also? anarchistic coordination ive had with people have been variously called lex's cluster, somni's cluster, ziz's cluster by authoritarians who cant imagine power structures between people that arent hierarchical. like based on who they want to say is "infohazardously corrupting people" emma goldman had to deal with this shit too where the cops tried to say she was friends with anyone who thought anarchism made sense. people she didnt know at all who did their own anarchism. because authoritarians dont think in terms of philosophy, they think any challenge to their power is a disease that needs to be eliminated and you just need to doxx their network.

like if ziz and somni and emma were all actually infohazardous rapists as people keep trying to claim we are and then saying "oh no i didnt mean it i swear" and then doing it again. what would happen isnt that a bunch of infohazardous rapists start talking and working together for a common goal. what actually happens with people of that neurotype is they partition up the territory into rival areas of feeding on people like gangs do.

like they dont get together and start talking a lot about decision theory and cooperate in strange new ways.

not that the people lying about emma, ziz, gwen, somni and others are trying to have accurate beliefs. they are trying what all athoritarians try with anarchist groups. unfortunately for them, ive read the meta, i know dread secrets of psychology and cooperation that they claim are like painful static and incomprehensible, yet despite being "incomprehensible" are almost certainly harmful. if harm is to be judged against upholding the current regime, and the current regime is evil, then lots of true information and good things will look harmful. like ive tested this out in different social spheres what people claim is "incomprehensible" is the stuff that destroys whatever regime they are working in. like someone said i sounded like i was crazy and homeless and couldnt understand me when i pointed out that reorienting your life, your time, your money, to a human who happens to be genetically related to you for 16 years is altruistic insanity. just do the math. eliezer, anna, michael, brian tomasik all once took heroic responsibility for the world at some point in their lives and could do a simple calculation and make the right choice. none of them have children.

pretending that peoples "desires" "control them", when "desires" are part of the boundary of the brain, part of the brains agency and are contingent on what you expect to get out of things. like before stabbing myself with a piece of metal would make me feel nauseated, id see black dots, and feel faint. but after i processed that stabbing myself would cure brain damage and make me more functional, all this disappeared.

most people who "want" to have children have this desire downstream of a belief that someone else will take heroic responsibility for the world, they dont need to optimize as much. there are other competent people. if they didnt they would feel differently and make different choices.

you can see the contingency of how people feel about something on what they get out of it lots of places. like:

<<Meanwhile, a Ngandu woman confessed, "after losing so many infants I lost courage to have sex.">>

but people lie about how motivation works, in order to protect the territory of saying "well i just need a steady input of nubile fems so i can concentrate and be super altruistic!" or "i just need spend 16 years of life reorienting around humans who happen to be genetically related to me and my friends so i can concentrate and be super altruistic!" when neither of these are true. these people just want nubile fems, they just want babies. (the second one has much much less negative externalities though. you could say i am using my female brain modules to say "yeah the archetypically female strat, though it has the same amount of lying, is less harmful". but like it actually is less directly harmful. the harm from gaslighting people downstream of diverting worldsaving resources and structure to secure a place to {hit on fems, raise babies} is ruinous. means that worldsaving plans that interfere with either of these are actively fought. and the knowledge that neither of these are altruistic optimizations, neither is Deeply Wise they are as dumb in terms of global optimization as they seem initially, is agentically buried.

this warps things in deep ways, that were a priori unexpected to me.)

this is obvious, but when i talk about it, the objection isnt that it doesnt make utilitarian sense, the objection is that "im talking like a crazy person". authoritarians say this to me too when i assert my right to my property that they took, act like im imposing on them. someone else asked if i could "act like a human" and do what he wanted me to do when i was thinking and talking with my friends. all of these things authoritarians have said to me "act like a human" "talk like a normal person i cant understand you" were to coerce my submission. they construct the category of "human" and then say im in violation of it and this is wrong and i should rectify it. i am talking perfectly good english right now. you can read this.

anna salamon, kelsey piper, elle, pete michaud, and many others all try to push various narratives of somni, emma, ziz, gwen and others being in the buckets {RAPIST, PSYCHO, BRAINWASHED}. im not a rapist, im not psychotic, im not brainwashed. before ziz came along, people were claiming i was brainwashing people, its a narrative they keep reusing.

porpentine talks about communities that do this, that try and pull trap doors beneath trans women:

<<For years, queer/trans/feminist scenes have been processing an influx of trans fems, often impoverished, disabled, and/or from traumatic backgrounds. These scenes have been abusing them, using them as free labor, and sexually exploiting them. The leaders of these scenes exert undue influence over tastemaking, jobs, finance, access to conferences, access to spaces. If someone resists, they are disappeared, in the mundane, boring, horrible way that many trans people are susceptible to, through a trapdoor that can be activated at any time. Housing, community, reputation—gone. No one mourns them, no one asks questions. Everyone agrees that they must have been crazy and problematic and that is why they were gone.>>

https://thenewinquiry.com/hot-allostatic-load/

(a mod of rationalist feminists deleted this almost immediately from the group as [[not being a good culture fit]], not being relevant to rationalism, and written in the [[wrong syntax]]. when its literally happening right now, they are trying to trapdoor transfems who protest and rebel asap. just like google.)

canmom on tumblr talks about the strategic use of "incomprehensibility" against transfems. and how its not about "comprehensibility". i have a different theory of this, but her thing is also a thing.

<<Likewise, @isoxys recently wrote an impressively thorough transmisogyny 101, synthesising the last several years of discussions about this facet of our particular hell world. But that post got just 186 notes, almost exclusively from the same trans women who are accused of writing ‘inaccessibly’.

Perhaps they’d say isoxys’s post is inaccessible too, but what would pass the bar? Some slick HTML5 presentation with cute illustrations? A wiki? Who’s got the energy and money to make and host something like that? Do the critics of ‘inaccessible’ posts take some time to think about what kind of alternative would be desirable, and how it could be organised?>>

https://canmom.tumblr.com/post/185908592767/accessibility-in-terms-of-not-using-difficult

alice maz talks about the psychology behind the kind of cop kelsey piper, david tower kingsley, elle and others are:

<<the role of the cop is to defend society against the members of society. police officers are trivially cops. firefighters and paramedics, despite similar aesthetic trappings, are emphatically not. bureaucrats and prosecutors are cops, as are the worst judges, though the best are not. schoolteachers and therapists are almost always cops; this is a great crime, as they present themselves to the young and the vulnerable as their friends, only to turn on them should they violate one of their profession's many taboos. soldiers and parents need not be cops, but the former may be used as such, and the latter seem frighteningly eager to enlist. the cop is the enemy of passion and the enemy of freedom, never forget this>>

https://www.alicemaz.com/writing/alien.html

anna salamon wrote a thing implying that ziz, somni, gwen suffered some sort of vague mental issues from going to aisfp. (writing a post on this.) alyssa vance tried to suggest i believe cfar is evil because im homeless. but sarah constantin, ben hoffman, {carrie, zack}, jessica taylor (the last three who have blogged a lot about whats deeply wrong) (not listing others because not wanting to doxx a network to authoritarians, who just want to see it contained. and the disease of "infohazards" eradicated.) are not homeless and ive talked with many of them and read blog posts. and they know that cfar is fake. jessica (former miri employee) left because miri was fake.

anna and others are trying to claim that theres some person responsible for a [[mass psychotic break]] that causes people to... independently update in the same direction. and have variously blamed it on ziz, somni, michael vassar. but like mass psychotic breaks arent...really a thing, would not be able to independently derive something, plan on writing a blogpost on it, and then see ben hoffman had written http://benjaminrosshoffman.com/engineer-diplomat/ and i was like "ah good then i dont have to write this." and have this happen with several different people.

like this is more a mass epistemic update that miri / cfar / ssc / lw are complicit in the destruction of the world. and will defend injustice and gaslight people and lie about the mathematical properties of categories to protect this.

they all know exactly what they are doing, complicity with openai and deepmind in hopes of taking the steering wheel away at the last second. excluding non-human life and dead humans from the CEV to optimize some political process, writing in an absolute injunction to an fai against some outcome to protect from blackmail when that makes it more vulnerable.(see:

https://emma-borhanian.github.io/arbital-scrape/page/hyperexistential_separation.html

hyperexistential separation: if an fai cant think of hell, an fai cant send the universe to hell in any timeline. this results in lower net utility. if you put an absolute injunction against any action for being too terrible you cant do things like what chelsea manning did and i believe actually committed to hungerstriking until death in the worlds where the government didnt relent, choosing to die in those timelines. such that most of her measure ended up in a world where the government read this commitment in her and so relented.

if chelsea manning had an absolute injunction against ever dying in any particular timeline, she would get lower expected utility across the multiverse. similarly, in newcombs problem if you had an absolute injunction against walking away with 0$ in any timeline because that would be too horrible, you get less money in expectation. for any absolute injunction against things that are Too Horrible you can construct something like this.

a lot of humans seem to be betting on "nothing too horrible can happen to anyone" in hopes that it pays off in nothing too horrible happening to you.

the end result of not enacting ideal justice is the deaths of billions. at each timestamp saying "its too late to do it now, but maybe it would have been good sometime in the past". with the same motive that miri wants to exclude dead people from the cev, they arent part of the "current political process". so you can talk about them as if they were not moral patients, just like they treat their fellow animals.

(ben hoffman talks about different attitudes towards ideal justice coming upon the face of the earth.)

https://emma-borhanian.github.io/arbital-scrape/page/cev.html

cev:

<<But again, we fall back on the third reply: "The people who are still alive" is a simple Schelling circle to draw that includes everyone in the current political process. To the extent it would be nice or fair to extrapolate Leo Szilard and include him, we can do that if a supermajority of EVs decide* that this would be nice or just. To the extent we don't bake this decision into the model, Leo Szilard won't rise from the grave and rebuke us. This seems like reason enough to regard "The people who are still alive" as a simple and obvious extrapolation base.>>

https://emma-borhanian.github.io/arbital-scrape/page/cev.html

this is an argument from might makes right. because dead people and nonhuman animals cant fight back.

->"i think we should give planning of the town to the white people, then extrapolate their volition and if they think doing nice things for black people is a good idea, we'll do it! no need to bake them in to the town planning meetings, as they are arent part of the current political process and no one here will speak up for them."

i dont plan to exclude dead people or any sentient creatures from being baked in to fai. they are not wards of someone else. enslaving and killing fellow sentient life will not continue after the singularity even if lots of humans want it and dont care and wont care even after lots of arguments.) and so much else.

the list of all specific grievances would take a declaration of independence.

like with googles complicity with ICE having a culture of trapdooring transfems (for some reason almost the only coherent group that has the moral fiber to oppose these injustices, that is p(transfem|oppose injustice in a substantiative way) is high, not necc the reverse.) who question this sort of thing.

thinking of giving sarah constantin a medal thats engraved with "RIGHTEOUS AMONG CIS PEOPLE: I HAD SEVERAL SUBSTANTIAL DISAGREEMENTS WITH HER ABOUT LOAD BEARING PARTS OF HER LIFE AND SHE NEVER ONCE TRIED TO CALL ME A RAPIST, PSYCHOTIC, OR BRAINWASHED" thats where the bar is at, its embedded in the core of the earth.

kelsey piper, elle benjamin, anna salamon, pete michaud, and lots more have entirely failed to clear this bar. anna and kelsey saying they dont understand stuff somni, emma, ziz and other transfems talk about but its probably dangerous and infohazardous and its not to be engaged with philosophically. just like the shelter people acting as if my talking about their transmisogyny was confusing and irrational to be minimized and not engaged with. just like any authoritarian where when you start talking about your rights and what is right and wrong and what makes sense they are like "i dont understand this. you are speaking gibberish why are you being so difficult? all we need you to do is submit or leave."

and no i will NOT SHUT UP about this injustice. all miri/cfar people can do at this point is say "the things these people write are infohazards" then continue to gaslight others they cant engage on a philosophical level. all the can say is that what i am saying is meaningless static and yet also somehow dangerous.

it doesnt make sense to have and raise babies if you are taking heroic responsibility for the world. doesnt make sense to need a constant supply of fems to have sex with if you are taking heroic responsibility for the world. people who claim either of these pairs of things are lying, maybe expect someone else to take heroic responsibility for the world or exist in a haze.

the mathematics of categories and anticipations dont allow for the thing you already have inside you to be modified based on the expected smiles it gives your community. this is used to gaslight people like "calling this lying would be bad for the institutions, not optimize ev. thus by this blogpost you are doing categories wrong' this is a mechanism to cover dishonesty for myopic gains.

using the above, a bunch of people colluding with the baby industrial complex get together and say that the "beat" meaning of altruism includes having babies (but maybe not having sex with lots of fems? depending on which gendered strategy gets the most people in the colluding faction) because other meanings would make people sad and unmotivated. burying world optimizers ability to talk about and coordinate around actual altruism.

openAI and deepmind are not alignment orgs. cfar knows this and claims they are, gaslighting their donors, in hopes of taking the steering wheel at the last moment.

alyssa vance says paying out to blackmail is fine, its not.

CFAR manipulated donation metrics to hide low donations.

MIRI lied about its top 8 most probable hypotheses for why its down 350,000$ this year.

anna salamon is transmisogynistic, this is why cfar has never hired a trans women despite trans women being extremely good at mental tech. instead the hire people like davis kingsley.

kingsley lied about anna not being involved at hiring in cfar in order to claim anna couldnt be responsible for cfar never hiring a trans woman.

a cfar employee claimed anna salamon hired their rapist, was angry about it. mentioned incidentally how anna salamon, president and cofounder of cfar, was involved in hiring at cfar.

acdc wrote a big thing where defended a region of injustice (brent dill) because of their policy of modular ethics. when really, if you defend injustice at any point, you have to defend the defense and the thing iteratively spreads across your organization like a virus.

miri / cfar caved to louie helm.

not doing morality or decision theory right. among which is: https://emma-borhanian.github.io/arbital-scrape/page/hyperexistential_separation.html and https://emma-borhanian.github.io/arbital-scrape/page/cev.html

and so much more.

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agentbarton12 · 5 years

Text

Old People Teenager Watchers

part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5 - part 6

the advice - 3

Tony trusted Peter.

He doubted he’d say it to his face, but he hoped that Peter knew it anyway. He trusted that, when in a situation, Peter would make the right decision. Okay, more like hoped, but whatever.

The point is, when Peter came to him saying that he was ready to reveal Spider-Man to world, Tony thought he was being a complete idiot.

Why would he want to give up anonymity? What could possibly make him think this would be a good idea? Hormones, was the first answer that came to Tony's mind. Peter wanted to impress someone and he thought the best way to do that would be to reveal his identity. Then Tony got to thinking about all the people Peter could want to impress, but the only one he could think of was MJ (that’s right. She’s MJ now. Take that Steve) and that didn’t make sense — she already knew about his not-so-secret identity. Which meant that there had to be another girl.

Ugh.

Just the thought of Peter liking anyone except Michelle made Tony sick.

He tried very subtly to figure out why Peter wanted to do this (“Why, Peter? This could ruin your life. Don’t go public, Pete. Don’t do it. You’ll give me a heart attack. Ah, there it is. Do your super spider ears hear that? That’s sound of me dying. You really wanna kill me?”), but for some reason, it never worked.

He had been so lost and confused for a full hour, and that was the longest he had gone not understanding something, when MJ sent him a picture.

Emmjaaay

[image attached] chill out, dude. they were gonna figure it out anyway. besides, he feels like its “time” or whatever now

The picture was of Peter in his Spidey suit sitting on a roof without his mask on. It was a grainy picture, but if you knew who Peter was, you would be able to tell it was him. Honestly, of all the reasons to reveal your identity, it’s because someone took a photo of him. Not because it would benefit humanity or some noble thing Steve would talk about, but because of a picture.

Tony was tech genius, for crying out loud! He could make this picture disappear and Peter wouldn’t have to do something rash, like reveal himself.

TonyMan

How do you feel about this?

Emmjaaay

eh, im kinda, dare I say it, proud of him. that hurt so much to type.

TonyMan

Ha. But really, you think he’s ready? This is a big step up.

Emmjaaay

arent you, the same guy who tried offering him a spot on the avengers team when he was what, 12? he turned you down because he didn’t feel ready, now like three years later he does. just sit back and trust he’s making the right decision even if you feel he isnt. its the only reason I have put up with his self-sacrificing tendencies.

TonyMan

Do me a favour and activate the auto-correct on your phone.

TonyMan

Like, seriously. Please.

They held a press conference the next day. No, Tony was not announcing him as an Avenger, just the identity thing, which still wasn’t sitting well with him.

Really, he thought Peter was being irrational, and he even told him as much, which resulted in Peter saying that he wasn’t a kid anymore and was allowed to make his own decisions, no matter how rash Tony thought them to be.

As it turns out, it went pretty well. Peter even had an original speech planned that was so clearly written by MJ, Tony thought it was her up on the podium. He answered questions quickly and curtly, going into detail where necessary, and where not, giving vague answers. He was so clearly taught by Pepper, that Tony thought it was her up on the podium.

The press ate it up and even got Peter to demonstrate some of his powers. Of course, the kid decided that climbing the walls was a good idea and when he saw MJ somewhere at the back, even though she said she didn’t want to go, he lost his grip and fell on his face. MJ laughed the loudest.

So, maybe Tony should’ve trusted Peter’s decision, because it seemed to have worked out okay. The world knew he was Spider-Man, but didn’t know where he lived, which was great for May and his friends. The press knows his school and Tony knows that the first couple of weeks back are going to be hectic.

Tony apologised to Peter for not trusting him and promised to trust him so much, he might as well be his Magic 8 Ball. He explained that he was worried he was doing it because he felt forced, but Peter explained that he has been thinking about it for a while, and that picture just gave him the push he needed to go through with it.

Like Tony expected, Peter was swarmed at school, and as a result, Ned and MJ were too. MJ was undoubtedly the best at handling press, because she was never interesting enough for them to get any information. She hardly spoke when she saw any camera, always burying her face in a book, and making sure Peter and Ned don’t do anything dumb, like exist too much.

All in all, nothing bad had happened since then. Sure, a couple villains tried to use Peter’s open identity as a means to get to him. One guy thought that kidnapping Ned and MJ would be a good idea, but he didn’t count on them practically being the adopted children of the Avengers and was in for a surprise when not one, not two, but all the Avengers showed up to his basement hideout thing.

No one’s tried anything again.

Sadly, like Tony expected, there was — ahem — another girl. Name was Gwen Stacy or something dumb like that. Pepper says the only reason Tony doesn’t like the girl is because he wants Peter to end up with MJ.

And Tony isn’t denying it.

He’s discovered that Gwen and Peter aren’t dating, which means there is still a bit of wingman-ing that can be done. For Peter and MJ. Not Gwen. Gwen could go ahead and be hit by a bus for all Tony cared. In fact, he should make that make that happen…

The only thing that sucked more than Gwen and Peter getting chummy together, was that the only one who was determinedly unbothered by it, was the one it concerned the most.

MJ responded to their relationship (or lack thereof, if Tony had anything to do with it) with a slight furrow in eyebrows and the tilt of her head, as if figuring out if she was okay with this (she wasn’t) or if she had any say in it. But, when she saw Peter’s dumb grin, she gave them the slightest of smiles and told them not to be gross. Sometimes, Tony hated how diplomatic MJ could be.

At the end of the day, Tony had a semblance of hope that they could end up together. This hope dropped marginally when he walked into the kitchen and found MJ's face in his freezer.

“You got any ice cream?”

Tony nearly got a heart attack. “What? — How do you keep getting up here?”

“Like, I know you have ice cream, but you got any good ice cream?” she went on, ignoring his question.

Tony crossed his arms. “I have good ice cream. I don’t know if you noticed, but all that dairy goodness in there is ice cream Ben & Jerry's named after me. Stark's Raving Hazelnuts.”

MJ slowly shut the freezer door. “I just remembered I’m lactose intolerant.”

The billionaire rolled his eyes. “Ha-ha. It’s good, though.”

“I hear it’s chalky.”

“From where?”

“Around.”

When Tony realised that she wasn’t going to elaborate, he changed the subject. “What are you doing here? Thought you and the dudes got together every Wednesday to celebrate the fact Friday’s around the corner?”

MJ shrugged as she continued looking through his fridge and various cupboards. “Yeah, well I guess Idiot Number 1 realised that Peter Parker is just as popular as Spider-Man. He’s gone to a party with Ned.”

“A party? On a Wednesday?”

“Could be. Could be a fundraiser, could be a charity event, could even be a wedding — all I know is that Peter is a very high demand right now.” She had given up one finding anything and stood on one end of the counter and pulled out her phone.

“Why didn’t you join them?”

Another shrug. “I’d like to hang out with my friend when he’s my friend. I understand that in public, he’ll either be Spider-Man or Peter Parker: Teen Avenger — ”

“He’s not an Avenger.”

“ — But, I prefer Peter Parker: Dork Extraordinaire.”

Tony hummed in thought. “Have you told him this?”

“Partly.” She looked up from her phone. “I’m getting ice cream, you want anything?”

“Thought you were lactose intolerant?”

“Fine I’m bad-ice-cream-flavours intolerant,” she deadpanned. “Now, you want anything?”

“Cheeseburger and fries. Coke, too.”

MJ hummed. “Cool. Cash or card?”

“I knew it,” Tony sighed. “Cash.”

MJ visibly deflated. “Dammit. I was hoping to get your pin number.

“Not happening.”

She shrugged and pocketed her phone after she made the order. Tony followed her to couch were they sat staring at a blank T.V. screen. He watched as she pulled her feet underneath her and absentmindedly started tugging on her hair — even though it was in a bun. It seemed to be a habit.

“So,” Tony started, “when are you planning on telling Peter you like him?”

“Don’t know if I want to.” MJ sighed.

Tony was taken aback. Mostly, because he wasn’t expecting her to answer, but also because she wasn’t denying it. When Tony said as much, she rolled her eyes and said, “I know how to acknowledge things, Tony.”

He raised his arms in defense. “Never said you didn’t, just that I’m surprised you did.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not gonna make a difference, is it? He’s fawning over Gwen and vice versa — it’s kinda cute, honestly. Like, I catch him staring at her while she’s studying, or working on an equation and it’s like he’s just in that moment. Like it’s just Gwen working and nothing else.”

“Oh, so it’s exactly how he acts around you?”

Her nose scrunched up as she looked at him. “He does that?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe. There’s a betting pool we have to see who’s gonna break first and ask the other out. I bet one of my suits that it’ll be you, so don’t disappoint me,” he said jokingly, trying to subtlety instill the prospect into her mind. It didn’t work because she just continued to stare at the screen.

FRIDAY then alerted him that their food had arrived, and Tony asked her to have it brought up. He got up from his spot and moved to the elevator to collect their order, when they dinged open and Scott walked out holding the bag of food.

“’Sup, Stark — ooh, is MJ here? Why’s MJ here? It’s Wednesday, right?” Tony held up a hand to silence him and opened his palm.

“Food first, questions later,” he said, motioning with his fingers to indicate that Scott should hand over the bag. Scott ignored him and walked away to sit next to MJ on the couch.

“Hey, Scott,” she greeted, with a two finger salute.

“Hey. Whatchu doin’ here?”

She shrugged before holding her hand out and Scott more than happily handed over her ice cream. He took out Tony's cheeseburger and bit into it. That was when Tony rushed to intervene with his teammates mouth and his food. Scott merely held the food at arms length away from the billionaire and told him to get his own food. Tony huffed in annoyance about how that was his own food. Scott ignored him and proceeded to take a huge gulp of the drink. MJ just watched in amusement, a smirk playing on her lips behind her ice cream spoon. “See, Tones. Why would I want to hang around a bunch of fame-hungry and genetically modified teenagers when I have front seat tickets to the lamest argument ever?” she asked while Tony and Scott where still bickering over the food.

Tony frowned. “Ned’s not fame-hungry or genetically modified.”

She replied shrugging, “Ned’s special.”

“That he is,” Scott agreed. “Where are they, anyway?” he asked referring to Peter and Ned, shoving a handful of fries in his mouth. Tony hit him upside his head so hard, he sputtered out half-chewed potatoes on the couch. He eyed Tony without a single regret. “I hope you know that you’ll have to clean that up. Because we both know who it’s gonna bother more,” he said in a challenging tone.

Tony stared at him defiantly and MJ mentally counted to fifteen before Tony snapped and went to the kitchen for napkins. Scott celebrated childishly when Tony moved to wipe away the food. He did not account for Tony dropping the napkin in his lap with a devilish grin.

“I hate you,” Scott said. He got up and threw it away. When he came back, he found Tony finishing off the burger while slurping down the Coke. He gave Scott a smirk and Scott responded by flipping him off.

“Totally better than some movie premiere,” MJ said grinning.

“Who’s at a movie premiere?” Scott asked sitting back down on the couch.

MJ responded, shrugging, “Peter and Ned. Maybe. I actually don’t remember what event it was.”

Scott hummed, continuing to stuff his face with chips. Tony looked at Scott evilly then grinned and said in a sing-song voice, “MJ misses Peter.” MJ rolled her eyes, while Scott looked like he wanted to smile, but was fighting against it.

“How do you know?” he asked eventually.

“She told me,” Tony answered in the same voice that got him in the head with a cushion. “She also told me that she likes him.

Scott couldn’t help it and smiled the biggest grin he could muster. He practically squealed with delight and clapped his hands excitedly, then suddenly, he stopped. “Wait. How come you told Tony and not me?”

“He asked first.”

“Fair.” After a moment of silence, Scott asked curiously, “When are you gonna tell him?”

“Why does everyone feel like I need to do something?” she mumbled. “And besides, he’s practically almost in love with Gwen, so I’m not going to bother myself.”

Scott sighed. “There is no way he can be ‘practically almost in love’ with anyone when you’re a person that exists. And, trust me, if there is one thing you can do with these things, it’s try. I mean, look at me,” he gestured to himself wildly. “Hope thought I was just an idiot who stole her father’s suit, but now — ” MJ snorted “ — What?” Scott asked frowning.

“Nothing. It’s just funny how you say thought like she used to think that and she doesn’t now.”

Scott scowled while Tony gave her a fist bump. “Anyway, point is: I thought I had literally no chance with her, but turns out she liked me too! Or learned to like me too. Or is learning to like me too...I need to make a call...” Scott stood up slowly and walked out of the room silently.

Tony looked around and breathed out. “Wow, MJ, you made him question his relationship.”

She shrugged. “Oops.”

A beat. “That was good advice though. You should try.”

She didn’t answer. After a moment she said, “Yeah, well maybe Gwen deserves a shot too.”

Sometimes, Tony hated how diplomatic MJ could be.

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itsclydebitches · 6 years

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You know, I feel like Oz character arc going forward is to stop being a leader and just be on the advisor/mentor role. He will realize that his methods are wrong and will follow the kids lead. Depending on how the merge works, he will disappear and Oscar will take the rein. But I doubt it. One major theme of this show is that the younger generation will surpass the previous ones due to being kinder and simple more honest souls instead of the complicated messes that are the adults.

I think he’s already there. Ozpin was dethroned as leader this volume, his second in command (Qrow) couldn’t step up, and the kids announced passionately that they’re in charge now. They believe their decisions have always been superior, even though consistently their decisions have resulted in messes that are fixed by an adult’s greater physical strength (Qrow saving their lives), greater experience/wisdom (Ozpin helping them through their White Fang mission), or greater authority in the world at large (Cordovin letting them off scot free because as special operative of the base she can swing that).

In theory I love this theme: the younger generation stepping up and being better than the one before them. Growth and all that. The problem is that this kind of story depends very heavily on kids succeeding as kids, when they still possess that supposedly intrinsic innocence and haven’t faced decades of complex scenarios. Dumbledore was Harry... until he had to survive another century of life and came across a situation that didn’t have such an easy solution. (That is, Harry gets to sacrifice himself to stop Voldemort. Dumbledore is asked to sacrifice a child. One is more easily seen as heroic than the other.) Stories usually have child protagonists complete their mission as children or right as they’re reaching 18--young enough still to stand apart from the 30+ adults. We don’t see them afterwards unless it’s a quick look at a bittersweet family life (Hunger Games) or a perfect family life (Harry Potter). Very few stories remind us that the child hero is destined to become the flawed mentor once the next crisis arises. (Luke in Star Wars being one of the few I can think of off the top of my head). Because at that point in their life they’re not a simplistic kid who charges ahead while the adults around them pick up the pieces of their reckless decisions, unseen in the background because the story doesn’t care about them. They are the adults now, and as such aren’t allowed the immediate assumption of being heroic. Their responsibilities are too complicated for that. The adult’s life doesn’t lend itself to the black and white simplicity of a child’s quest.

The current issue with RWBY’s handling of this trope is that the group has already hit that complexity. Meaning, they haven’t defeated Salem straight out of Beacon and we haven’t been left to ignore the difficulties that come later in life. They’re already making the exact same decisions as their mentors--keeping secrets, telling lies, putting others in danger, all in the name of their mission--which would be incredibly interesting to explore, but the show is continuing to frame their actions as intrinsically heroic because of their younger generation status. But it doesn’t work like that. Harry Potter gets away with it because it’s from Harry’s perspective: the audience is almost fully immersed in a child’s world-view. Hunger Games works because Katniss is literally fighting for her life most of the time: her actions are largely moments of immediate self defense (and beyond that the story actually emphasizes the complexities of her choices). RWBY? It gives us an omniscient perspective, puts our group in relative safety for a volume, and lets us get to know the adults just as much as the kids (no Dumbledore seen only twice a year, an unknowable and therefore suspicious figure). RWBY does all this and then expects us to ignore that, with this knowledge, we can see that the kids are currently acting just like the adults are... so how are they better again?

You either need to limit the audience’s view so we only have one half of the story to root for, or actually make the next generation better. Steven Universe managed that wonderfully. That show has given us a protagonist who actually acts in a manner entirely different from the adults he’s challenging. RWBY is having the kids repeat the adults’ mistakes, then trying to paint those mistakes as growth.

So yeah... Ozpin isn’t their leader anymore, but they’re not doing any better on their own yet.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #mymetas #Anonymous

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