#what is it with me and not caring about white male protagonists recently - either be rand here or lestat in iwtv 😅)

[dracimexidae]

Watched the first 2 episodes and the only conclusion i got so far is that Sophie Okonedo is the real true QUEEN and i would gladly submit to her, she doesn't even have to ask ❤️‍🔥👑🧎

[rjmhereunderprotest]

Shocking News: Ubisoft Does What Every Developer Ever Does to get Positive Free Marketing for Upcoming Video Game! Rando CHUD Gamers In an Uproar!

This has been fucking bothering me at this point, okay? So I'm using this opportunity to vent because ignorant stupid people don't know how the gaming industry works and/or are exploiting the fact people don't for clicks. And I'm so fucking sick and tired of this shit at this point so I'm going to rage for a second.

Try not to see this as me defending UbiSoft, fuck them, I have no love for any video game company ever and feel that cheerleading corporations is fucking stupid, either for or against them. But this sudden attack on them is less about actually shitty gaming industry practices that HAVE valid problems associated with them and more about the ridiculous culture war that this Space Wizards IP is trapped in. If this was any other game by UbiSoft no one would care, but it's a Star Wars game, so some idiots do care. Here's the run down.

UbiSoft recently sent previews out to various gaming news websites and major YouTube Gamer Influencers concerning the impending release of "Star Wars: Outlaws." A bunch of them got to go down a private preview event where they got free merch, hung out, played the game for a few hours, that sort of thing. They supposedly even got a trip to Disneyland out of it and a Boat Tour.

Finding out about this, every single right-wing culture warrior on YouTube instantly pounced on this and declared that UbiSoft was bribing people to give good reviews for "Star Wars: Outlaws" to convince people to buy it! Because the game is actually terrible and no one would actually like it on its own merits, and they know its terrible despite not getting to play it because... well... uh... it's Disney-Era Star Wars and that's always bad! Kathleen Kennedy made their wives leave them and shat on their rug! It wasn't them, it was Kathy! She did it! She snuck in during the night and shat on the rug! Then she took their last can of gamer fuel and broke their waifu figurines!

If you must know, the real reason "Star Wars: Outlaws" is in the crosshairs this go around is simple enough. The lead star of the game is a woman you see, a not fair-skinned woman, and people got pissy over this. How dare they not make the most basic ass video game protagonist design for this one game! Brown hair and eyes with four o'clock shadow white dudes are the only heroes that should ever appear in any video game ever, says they. "Why can't you just let us pick our gender?" they cry. You couldn't pick your gender in "Jedi Fallen Order", where was your crying then? Oh? Was the protagonist a dude there? Gee, I wonder why you found Cal Kestis being your only option as a player character okay, but Kay is an awful choice forced onto you?

So Kay Vess being a woman means "Outlaws" must be opposed, must be bad, and therefore must fail in order to stop the horrible scourge of DEI Gaming Development before all our precious white male protagonists are gone forever! Boo hoo! We don't get to play a dude in this one game out of the several dozens that will allow us to! If we don't stop this now, gaming is ruined!

And of course, anyone who plays the game and has something nice to say about it? Well obviously they're corporate shills, who were bribed by Disney to say positive things and there can be no other possible answer. No one can legitimately like a game that has a g-g-g-g-girl as the lead character! That's insane! And to prove how not sexist they are they'll list all the female characters they actually like in games, mostly all the ones that make their peepee hard.

They even went after GManLives, a respected independent gaming critic, just because he apparently played and liked the game. And they're still going after him even after he took the video down because he didn't want to deal with that shit. Accusing him of selling out his principles for a trip to Disneyland.

It's ridiculous and not just because it's a bunch of people complaining about a video game that isn't even out yet and hasn't been properly reviews. It's because critics and influencers getting special perks and shit for previewing games is nothing new. It's been going on forever.

Publishers of video games want to maximize their chances of getting good reviews. But they don't bribe people for them. They try to butter them up a little by inviting them to big marketing events, but that's just standard. You always try to give the people looking at your product a good time. Especially if they are critics with the power to sell it for you for free.

What they generally do is promise you exclusive coverage, behind the scenes details, access to developers, hands-on demos, interviews with the cast, inside information. And they provide it to the critics and influencers first who they feel will best promote and be favorable to their product at no extra cost to them.

If you decide to not be fair or NOT provide positive feedback, well then next go around they won't invite you to the big marketing event party. They won't give you hands-on demons. They won't get you access to developers or the cast. It's a major misbalance of power, but it's been a thing in gaming since forever. Nothing "Outlaws" is doing in the lead up to its release is that different.

And no one is actually hiding this anyway. Gaming websites and the influencers in questions regularly admit they were provided these previews by the publisher or developer of the game. That they were invited to check it out directly. That this is a preview that they scored under the watchful eye and with permission by the developer. They admit to the sponsorship element of what is essentially a commercial advertising something. They can't be too harsh or they won't get invited back, but they also won't withhold criticism if they find fault in something. In fact, sometimes to convince people they're not being too positive, they will force themselves to say something negative in some way to prove they aren't biased. It's usually something extremely subjective concerning the article writer's or content creator's personal taste.

Being driven out to Disneyland or given a boat tour aren't what I'd call major bribes. They're at best, the company trying to cozy up to an interviewer or influencer in order to keep them in a good mood and retain positive feedback. It's about maintain the relationship between their halves of the industry, putting on a show, treating the guys who help you sell your games right. Is it a problem? Oh yes, it very much is, it makes a lot of gaming web sites rather unreliable given how they'll go softer on a game to retain that relationship. But it is nothing new and Outlaws hasn't been the first game to do it, nor will it be the last.

And all the same, if the positive feedback as that consistent overall, it's not because they were bribed to say it. It's because they genuinely enjoyed the slice of game they were given and allowed to play around in. Even then, in those positive looks, I noticed complaints about this or that, minor quibbles, about what I'd expect from a preview event that went well but isn't ready to call it just yet.

My opinions on UbiSoft are fairly simple, they make some pretty good games overall. But they're still a gaming company, and that comes with a lot of baggage. Especially given Ubi's recent sexual harassments scandals and poor working conditions. They're not special and deserve to get ripped open when deserved. But not for letting a bunch of influencers run around an organized event where they got to play a game, get a plushie alien salamander and then run off to Disneyland when they were done. Because that's not a UbiSoft problem, that's an industry problem and one not easily solved. If you're a major gaming company, is it wise to keep giving exclusive peeks into your stuff if the news site was unfair to you? That's money better spent on someone who doesn't have an axe to grind. And gamers can hold grudges worse than anyone. I should know, I'm a gamer. I tend to hold a grudge.

Everything I've seen so far about "Star Wars: Outlaws" suggests it is, at the very least, a solid open world action game with UbiSoft and its stable of developers is fairly good at creating. And Massive Entertainment, the developer, has made some of my favorite games in the past. I believe Outlaws will be good, nothing I've seen suggests it's a bad title, let alone a bad entry in the Star Wars brand. I just don't see the justifiable reason to cry foul play here. This isn't like "Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League" where the red flags are obvious from the word go. This isn't even head-tiltingly worrisome like Cyberpunk 2077, which kept getting delayed and delayed and problems were apparent even in preview builds that news sites raised eyebrows over. Nothing Outlaws has done suggests this impending disaster. At worst, it will be a fairly okay game, but nothing that's going to completely collapse a company under the weight of its failure.

But that's not the point. This isn't about any of that. It's about a stupid culture war and it's pissing me off how some idiots are pretending they have anything legitimate to complain about. Fuck, if they thought they could get more money out of it, they'd all be lining up to go to Disneyland for Free and take a boat tour themselves. But they're pathetic, loser, dipshit little fuckwits who can't cut it as real journalists. Because then they'd have to actually fucking do real work instead of shitting out 12 videos about how Brie Larson is evil incarnate in a day.

And at this point, I'm seriously rethinking my plans here. I was intending to get Outlaws at a reduced price through some Microsoft Rewards points. But now I'm not so sure. Maybe I should just pay for most of the game or something, if only to piss off the fucking CHUDs who want to convince me it will be a horrible failure. But I don't like the idea of playing the Capitalist Cheerleading game just to own some fucking douchebags on the internet. So I'm not sure at this point. I know I don't like playing $90 for a fucking video game. Wish they'd complain more about the increase in prices for Triple A titles than bitching about Girls existing in their Space Wizards Media.

Fuck it, I don't know what I'm gonna do at this point. I just know that stupid people are given way too many platforms these days to spew stupid shit and no one calls them out on it. It's fucking infuriating. Pre-Order or don't to your heart's content folks, stop listening to fucking idiots on the internet.

[rivetgoth]

Sorry for being a little bitchy but I’m gonna come back to this real quick to say like. I generally consider myself in a place of pretty material privilege most of the time but it’s a bit harrowing to consider that realistically literally every single thing I really care about has either been illegal in my lifetime, is currently illegal now, is still illegal in massive parts of the world, and/or faces massive amounts of systemic backlash and frequent pushes towards criminalization. This is everything from my hobbies to my relationships to my sexuality to my transition to the fact that I am alive and live where I do today on account of my family being war refugees from the Middle East. Sexuality, kink, medically & socially & legally transitioning to male, body modification, drugs, clubbing, nonmonogamy, writing novels with explicit controversial content, being mixed and Arab, so many of my friends being various types of queer, not straight, trans men and women, kinky, polyamorous, nonwhite, drug users, alternative artists, and/or immigrants, living my life for pleasure and for love and for magic…

Again, I don’t say this to suggest that I’m in any frequent or immediate material danger, I’m not. I’m very lucky that I am able to live how I do and be who I am happily and comfortably. But I say this to highlight the fact that as I’ve grown up I feel I’ve only become increasingly thoughtful of the genuine absurd inequities in society and how easy it is to slip into complacency as other people just living their lives are facing incredible subjugation and violence and marginalization just for existing. And I’m not like saying I’m some enlightened individual who is ideologically perfect (of course not), but more that it’s a real exercise in humility to consider how much of who I am and what matters to me is shaped by things that could get me or people like me killed and I really try to be cognizant of that.

And if I’m going to be a little mean I don’t know how many people on this website can say the same… I know there are all the kinda nasty jokes about how nobody on here goes outside or has sex or whatever and I don’t need to take cheap shots but I do think it’s saying the obvious that a lot of the people on this site by their own admission self-identify as like. Introverted individuals who don’t enjoy going out much, who are very nervous or anxious about doing anything wrong or stepping on toes, who are white, who either are not in a relationship or having sex or who are primarily having vanilla sex in monogamous relationships, those doing drugs and those who aren’t white and those who come from poverty and those going out and living explicitly queer or kinky or non normative lifestyles are a minority and I feel that it shows more and more as the user base I’ve been apart of for a decade+ age and settle into whatever path adulthood has in store for them. I actually specifically have been kind of in shock recently at the amount of generational wealth the user base of this website collectively seems to have—That poll where like 70% of respondents said their parents paid their college tuition. Or the one that asked how much people’s parents made and the winning results were 6 digits. or one I just saw where 90% (!!!!!) of respondents said they didn’t live in a neighborhood with any gang activity.

I kinda feel that for a lot of people, as teenagers they liked the aesthetics of revolution because it made them *feel* radical which was kind of just code for feeling like they were sticking it to their conservative parents. To be mean it made them feel like Hunger Games protagonists or something you know. And to be fair! These were people who were outcasts, they were weird introverts who probably were bullied or excluded at school, they felt powerless and angry, and LBR, just being a teenager sucks and denies you incredible amounts of freedom that adults are afforded so of course this image of rebellion is appealing. But I think a lot of these same people didn’t bring that energy into adulthood in earnest because it wasn’t a super earnest activity to begin with. It was like, online thought experiment, but as is the case with many teenage dreams it wasn’t really grounded in a material reality or ideology. And they still SEE themselves as rebellious revolutionaries because they’ve held onto the aesthetics of their youth; most of them aren’t explicitly becoming conservative. But it’s still just aesthetics. “How can I be conservative?” they ask, “I use they/them pronouns! I believe in equality! I believe oppression is wrong! I hate conservatives! I’m a tumblr user!”

“…But kids these days and the things they like are just more annoying then I ever was. But I keep accidentally reblogging from fascists, conservative religious fundamentalists, and TERFs. But when I walk down the street I am scared of strangers who look different than me. But I do have a gut reaction if someone tells me they have a lifestyle that isn’t the same as my own. But I do feel like there’s value in tradition and that modernity is less pure. But I do feel uncomfortable when I see a black person get angry. When I see a trans woman get mean. When I see a Palestinian person ask for money. When I see someone on drugs-” And it just goes unchecked and keeps getting worse. Idk.

I think it’s a more societal thing and this is just one microcosm but I do think the userbase of this site really has broadly become increasingly reactionary and socially conservative in its school of thought over the last ~4 years and it’s pretty bizarre to see. Especially because I’m not talking about there being some influx of new politically conservative users who migrated from 4chan or something, I mean the same cannibal horror sex fag punk blood crowd who have been populating this site are adopting unchecked reactionary tendencies as they age and now posts about like basic feminist theory can’t be made without a bunch of devils advocates in the comments who would’ve been right at home in like, the 2011 version of the internet where just the word “feminist” itself was a widely accepted insult. It’s really wild to see honestly. I do think some people have grown out of their teenage radicalism and now that they’ve settled into comfortable adulthood are no longer interested in disturbing (or really even, questioning) the status quo.

[popanalysis99]

Toxic Men in TV Series who are the absolute worst.

(TW: R*pe and Sexual Assault)

While there are some men who seem to be interesting, let’s not deny the fact that there are most male characters who act like their “toxicity” is cool but honestly, it’s horrible and something not to root for. So here are the toxic male characters who are the absolute worst, excuse my misandry:

Kevin McRoberts - Kevin Can F**k Himself

We had to start somewhere from the bottom of the underworld. A recent entry on this list, Kevin is the lead character Allison’s husband who...let’s just say has the brain of a dumb frat bro who is extremely high on pot and hasn’t recovered since then. While most of the sitcoms in the past would portray these so-called goofy and dim-witted husbands as “big fun” and lovable, Kevin is not like that, at all. In this anti-sitcom nightmare, Kevin literally believes that the whole world revolves around him. He plans such stupid unrealistic schemes to seize the day, recklessly spends the savings on stupid irrelevant sports merchandises and doesn’t even let Allison have her own agency outside of his life. Plus he is so petty and spiteful to the point he destroys one good thing that any of the women in the series have, like Allison’s dream job and Patty’s love life. And that latter was because she didn’t bring him a burger! All of this makes him look less funny and more tyrannical. No wonder poor Allison got spurred into wanting to kill him.

Ross Geller - Friends

Ross may seemed like a “nice guy”, but let’s just agree it was a facade. Ross believes that he knows what’s best for the women he dates in the series and thinks he is superior and is always right about everything. He is seems extremely disturbed over the fact that his ex-wife, Carol is a lesbian and is jilted towards her current wife, Susan and snarks at the latter for it. And then there is her extreme control and jealousy towards Rachel, especially in her career. While Rachel is no saint either, Ross jumps to the conclusion that the man who got her a perfect job wants to sleep with her, then goes out of his way to humiliate and mark his territory on her and even if it’s revealed that the said guy has a girlfriend of his own, Ross still doesn’t abandon his theory, unless he believes that the guy is cheating on his girlfriend with Rachel. And then there is the fact that he joined his student girlfriend on a spring break just to have her all to himself, not caring about the fact that what if one of his students or colleagues would’ve seen him on TV with her and that could’ve put him in a huge scrutiny.

Joe Goldberg - You

The show is basically built around how toxic Joe is, but this didn’t stop him from having his own fanbase apparently, with most of them glossing over his actions. But Joe is not a dream boyfriend at all. Once he sees a woman in front of him, he immediately gets obsessed with her and believes she belongs to him and him only. And to achieve that, he stalks her, he checks everything about her, kills people he believes are harmful to her when he himself is the same and when the woman finds out about him and rejects him, he kidnaps and kills her and the cycle begins again.

Chuck Bass - Gossip Girl

What is it with the teen drama industry’s obsession with the “Bad Boy who can be redeemed with love” trope? Chuck Bass is “the bad boy” of Gossip Girl. If his attempted rape of Serena and Jenny didn’t give fans an indication that how deranged he is, his violent and emotional abuse of his girlfriend Blair cements him as this. He slut-shamed women around him, hit Blair once and even traded her for a hotel ownership and somehow he gets a happy ending with her at the end! What?

Nate Jacobs - Euphoria

Nate is a star quarterback of his high school football team and seems like he has it all, but underneath, he is fucking deranged. His untamed manly rage causes him to physically and emotionally abuse his girlfriend Maddy and blackmail Jules, who didn’t do anything wrong but just sleep with his father, which makes me think that Nate is blackmailing her into lying to the cops about his assault on Maddy when she wasn’t even there when it happened just because it’s fun for him. Honestly, I’d like to see the imagine Rue and Jules had of killing him become a reality someday.

Dawson Leery - Dawson’s Creek

Just because the show is named after him since he is the protagonist, doesn’t justify his actions. Dawson sees himself as some sort of a Nice Guy hero who believes he is entitled to everything. He has this extreme view on women and how they should fulfil his fantasies of his Rom-Com world. He is extremely critical of Jen when he finds out about her promiscuous past and tells her that she should be ashamed of herself for it, and gets jealous when his two best friends Joey and Pacey begin dating. And when he was briefly in the movie business, he was a rookie but was already a primadonna with the director and crew of the movie was working on and insulted a film critic for criticising his movie which was actually bad.

Kilgrave - Jessica Jones

Kilgrave is the main villain of the Marvel-Netflix series Jessica Jones. He becomes obsessed with the titular heroine when she breaks off from his mind-control. Before that, he spent years treating her as his sex slave and raping her constantly, which left her traumatised. He begins to stalker and believe it will be a “lover’s reunion” when he will see her again someday. He manipulates and brainwashes everyone around him to his whim and treats most women as objects but despite all that, sees himself as the good guy of the situation. Even after Jessica finally gives him his just desserts, he still haunts her everyday.

Fernando Vera - Mr. Robot

This spawn of satan is the reason why I decided to write this list in the first place. Where do I even start? He is first introduced into the series when he forces Shayla to go on a date with her and later rape her. This is what causes the misandrist vigilante Elliot to sell him out to the FBI and this apparently turns on Vera and moves his unhealthy obsession to Elliot. He has Shayla killed when he tricks Elliot into breaking him out of prison, then returns to have him all to himself by kidnapping his therapist Krista and forcing information out of her about Elliot so that he could “break him and build him back up”, like a fucked up version of The Taming Of The Shrew. He psychologically abuses Elliot into remembering being sexually abused by his father as a child and proceeds to gaslight him into thinking that he was just helping him. The huge problem with Vera is that he sees himself as some sort of Christian Grey who believes that his abuse towards both Shayla and Elliot is charming. Whenever someone failed his desires, he immediately gets bored of them and moves onto someone else, like when he got Shayla killed and moved onto Elliot. That’s why it felt so cathartic when Krista killed him.

Tate Langdon - American Horror Story

Apparently, he is Tate Langdon and he is...hot?? While most of the AHS fans glorified him due to his emo bad boy nature, let’s not forget the fact that he was a school shooter who murdered innocent students and staff and was in general possessive and toxic towards Violet. So no way he is boyfriend material!

Don Draper - Mad Men

Don Draper was the main protagonist of Mad Men. He was an advertisement and marketing executive who had a lot of vices and did a lot of horrible things such as cheat on his wife and treat almost every women and colleagues like crap.

Dexter Morgan - Dexter

While Dexter might seem like the serial-killer killer, there are a lot of things about him which are unadmirable. He gaslights those he is close to so that they could get off his back, obstructs evidence pointing out to him, captures those who didn’t even fit his victims like Doakes and caused the deaths of LaGuerta, Rita and finally his sister Debra. Yeah I think you should stay away from him.

Walter White - Breaking Bad

Aaah..the worst of the worst. Walter White is the protagonist of the series Breaking Bad. He first starts off as a pushover high school teacher who isn’t respected by anyone. When he gets diagnosed with Lung Cancer, he gets into the meth business so that he could support his family, but we all know that it’s not true. He relishes on the power and glory from being a drug dealer and then kingpin and because of that he ends up abusing both Jesse and Skyler, emotionally abusing and selling out the former to the sadistic Nazis and raping the latter several times. He is so petty and spiteful that he kills anyone insulting his ego, just ask Mike. And even after all this, he still claims that it’s all for his family. Like what?

[translations-by-aiimee]

Mistakenly Saving the Villain - Chapter 1

Original Title: 论救错反派的下场

Genres: Drama, Romance, Xianxia, Yaoi

TW for this chapter: Mentions of suicide

I wanted to provide some ~variety~ so I'm doing another novel. I'll give a warning that the first few chapters are kind of intense and I'll keep the TWs updated as they come and put a TL;DR at the end if there's anything too graphic.

This translation is based on multiple MTLs and my own limited knowledge of Chinese characters. If I have made any egregious mistakes, please let me know.

Chapter 1 - The Beauty in Red

Song Qingshi is dead.

After his death, he came to in a strange space, and in the space, there was a sphere randomly flashing red.

The sphere said that he is a book-transmigrating system from a high-dimensional world. There was a xiania novel called "The Exceptional Furnace", which was about to be plagued by readers' resentment due to the tragic fate of the protagonist, causing problems in that world. It needed to find someone who is familiar with the tropes of these novels and someone with the power to change and repair the body and mind of the protagonist, and fulfill the readers' wishes - change the fate of the protagonist, dote on him, and let him live the happiest and most fulfilling life □□ □□□□□

The information in the system came intermittently, and in the □□ there were incomprehensible, alien-like characters.

Song Qingshi suffered from Lou Gehrig's Disease during his lifetime and devoted himself to studying medicine to try and save himself. He was a medical student who studied and experimented frantically every day and never wasted time reading novels.

In terms of emotions, he is even more obtuse. Although he is very handsome and has an attractive and obedient personality, due to his physical problems, even the school bully treated him like a precious thing. With all the excessive loving care and sympathy, not only did he never have a crush, but he also suffered from a slight fear of talking to strangers.

This was the worst soul for this task.

Song Qingshi didn't know how he was picked up by the system. He had read Marxist philosophy novels in vain. But from his messy information and analysis from the system's explanation, as long as he accepts the task, the system will send him to the virtual book world, give him a healthy body, and he will come back to life.

After Song Qingshi realized this, he was ecstatic. A healthy body is was his biggest desire. Not to mention the fact that the system only asked that he take care of someone. Even if the system had asked him to swim through seas of fire, he would have accepted still.

Because of this, he ignored his conscience, structured his response, and lied for the first time in his life: "I have read tens of thousands of books that I have memorized. I have extensive medical and nursing knowledge, have taken a psychology course as an elective, and I could solve all the physical and mental sufferings of the protagonist. And love. . . I have lots of experience with love, I know how to communicate, absolutely, I. . . can definitely accomplish these tasks!"

If there was any blood that could exist in a soul, he would definitely be flushed.

The system didn't notice his lies. It registered the identity of the task performer, and sent a series of garbled commands, mixed with all kinds of chaotic and disorderly information into Song Qingshi's mind, sending waves of discomfort through his soul.

Suddenly, the system let out a sharp alarm and the data transmission was cut off. Song Qingshi's vision went black, and his soul drifted away towards a bright white light. . .

. . .

When Song Qingshi woke up, he found himself lying in the woods, surrounded by the faint fragrance of various herbs. He squinted his eyes and looked towards the dazzling blue sky. There was a gorgeous golden luan bird dragging its long tail feathers, letting out a loud caw as it flew past, with countless immortal birds following it.

Was this the world from the novel?

It seemed too real. . .

A soft breeze blew across the forest, shaking off the dew on the trees. The dew fell onto his pale fingertips, bringing a slightly cool feeling. Then, all the memories of the original body flooded into his mind like a tidal wave, trying to merge with his own soul - this body was also called Song Qingshi, the master of the Medicine King's Valley, and the most talented medical immortal and pharmaceutical expert in the immortal world. His medical skills could heal the dead and revive bones, and the spirit pills he cultivates were considered treasures by every cultivator.

However, the original body's temperament was extremely troubling. He rarely left Medicine King's Valley at all, never made friends, and had no interest in matters other than medicine and alchemy. When a patient sought him out, he only looks at their temperament and never asked their identity. When he was in a good mood, he treated mortal beggars. When he was in a bad mood, regardless of the identity of the visitor, he would turn them into flower fertilizer for his garden. He often used living people to test medicines. Cruel, but because of his Nascent Soul cultivation base and various skills with poisons, the immortal sects didn't dare provoke him easily, only secretly calling him troubling behind his back.

Cultivators in the immortal world had long life spans, and the knowledge and memory of this original body had for its hundreds of years of cultivation had not arrived yet. Various data fragments of the system rushed in frantically, with countless garbled codes, tearing the original body's memory into a mess, leaving Song Qingshi at a loss. It took a long time before he managed to figure out his current situation.

This was Golden Phoenix Mountain Manor, the most luxurious place in the immortal world, where there are rare and exotic animals and countless immortals and beautiful concubines.

The owner, Jin FeiRen, was also a great Nascent cultivator. He was a true romantic, an excessive spender, and had friends from both the immortal and demonic cultivation world. He was a well-known figure.

The original body had always been cold, obsessed with his work, and never touched either men and women. Today's arrival was accidental. The Manor Lord Jin wanted to give him Ten Thousand Year Snow Ginseng to exchange a batch of medicinal pills for him. The original body had recently been lacking Snow Ginseng to make his medicines, so he agreed to the deal.

Since Snow Ginseng grows in the secret realm of the snow mountains of the Jin family. If you wanted to get the ones with the best medicinal properties, you needed to pick them at night and preserve it with a special refining method. Therefore, the original body came here to pick it personally, and Song Qingshi somehow ended up here.

Then, Song Qingshi was sent here by the system. . .

Where was the protagonist? What does he look like?

Song Qingshi wanted to ask the system to ask for more information, but the system seemed to disappear. The materials it sent not only contained no plot points from the novel, but also very little character information. There were garbled characters everywhere, even though the protagonist hadn't been introduced yet. Song Qingshi got dizzy going through all this information before he found some descriptions in the copywriting introduction: the best physique, unmatched beauty shou X□□□□□ gong, procured by trickery, sadomasochistic, □□, □□, □□ There were only three texts that could be read clearly: Banquet of Bea□□□.

. . .

If this were someone who often read these types of novels, they would immediately recognize that this situation was problematic.

Song Qingshi, however, didn't recognize any of this as problematic. He believed that this was a test given by the system to assess his reasoning skills and ability to do things. Song Qingshi was very accustomed to being assessed like this. Usually, when he and his teacher started developing a new drug, he often didn't have any prior results in his hand. It required some experimentation and to experience many errors and difficulties in order to reach the final result. Most of the time, that result was not what they were hoping for.

Many pharmaceutical companies invest billions or even tens of billions in drug research. Scholars have spent decades trying, right until their hair turned grey, only to fail during their clinical trials.

Therefore, every drug researcher is a strong man who has experienced many battles, repeated defeats and never-ending setbacks.

These questions from Teacher System were not difficult!

Scholar-Tryant Song expressed no fear! He will definitely find the correct answer and live up to the teacher's expectations of him!

Song Qingshi thought about the information he was given, determined the goal of the protagonist, and then quickly understood the key points of the novel: the protagonist will appear at the Banquet of Beauties, it will be a male, homosexual, unmatched beauty, superb body; a pitiful character with a tragic fate. He needs to save the protagonist, give him the greatest care, heal his physical and mental health, and then help him find happiness and joy!

During Song Qingshi's time, respect for sexual orientation was written into the law, and same-sex couples could get married.

He once found a novel lost by a rotten girl classmate, titled "His Evil Majesty's Spoiled Husband". On the cover was a handsome and domineering man in a period costume holding a beautiful woman with long hair with a super flat chest. He didn't understand it, and returned the book. When he asked curiously, his classmates told him what Danmei was, and told him that the beauty on the cover was actually male. The beautiful male was the "shou", and the domineering one was the "gong". So Song Qingshi is confident that he would easily distinguish between the gong and the shou in the novel. He would never mistake the gong as the protagonist.

He had thought it through and the direction of problem-solving has been determined. All that was left was to wait for the Banquet of Beauties to start the exam.

Song Qingshi's spiritual sea gradually became clear. The soul and body were merged and became flexible. He sat up with his hands cautiously, took off his shoes, raised his feet, and tried to stretch the toes that had been stiff for many years. The white and round toes curled happily. Song Qingshi stood up shakily, briefly walking forward a few steps with hands and feet before finally remembered the walking posture of a normal person, and his movements gradually changed from jerky to steady. . .

Under his feet was soft green grass and moist soil.

Outside the forest was a calm river. Song Qingshi stepped into the water and took a handful of cold river water to wash his face, confirming that he was not in a dream.

Tears fell out of extreme joy, and the big tears fell onto his palms. His hands couldn't stop no matter how much he tried. The river calmed down from the slight disturbance, and the reflection of the boy's figure appeared.

Song Qingshi was surprised to find that the body given to him by the system was very similar to his high school appearance; he was not very tall and significantly thinner. He wore a Daoist cultivator outfit made of many layers of snow-coloured cloud brocade, wrapped tightly around his body. At first glance, all the layers of clothing gave the illusion of a frail man.

His thin hair was simply tied up with some loose hair dangling freely. His appearance may be related to immortal cultivation. He is a bit more refined than his original body, with a cold, pale complexion and clear eyes. Because he often blocks out the world and focuses on his study, he feels a bit dull and extremely gullible, leading many unlucky ghosts to think that the original was harmless and would become the fertilizer or poison tester.

. . .

After Song Qingshi vented his emotions and saw the red-rimmed eyes in the reflection, he was a little embarrassed. He hurriedly lowered his head and fetched water, trying to wash away the tears on his face, but behind him came the sound of fine bells and ridicule.

"It's useless to commit suicide. It will only cause you needless pain. If you are still not reconciled, you can try and sink slowly to see if you can succeed."

Surprised, Song Qingshi turned around and saw the most beautiful thing he'd seen in his life.

There were trees full of peach blossoms, and under the tree was a beautiful young boy in red. Who knows how long he was watching Song Qingshi stupidly crying. The young man's appearance was blooming, like a scroll of rich colours and ink, painted with all the romantic colours of the world. The warm jade-like skin, the most beautiful thing about him were the dark golden phoenix eyes under the crow-feather-like eyelashes. He resembled a noble and dignified phoenix in the sky, but there was an extremely gorgeous red tear-shared mole under the corner of his left eye, desecrating his nobleness. The dignity of his appearance was crushed, and the phoenix rejoined the mortal world, turning into a creature stained with flattery and seductiveness which made people feel unbearable tempted.

His long hair was untied and hung casually around his waist. The ends of his hair were slightly curled, his feet were bare, and he was only wearing a red dress made of shark silk. The shark silk was as smooth as water, clinging to his body, covering all the desirables underneath.

Song Qingshi did not think anything blasphemous, but because he was caught crying, his social anxiety became more intense. After a long pause of building courage, he stumbled and said: "I, I just..."

His hesitation became reluctant approval in the eyes of the beauty in red.

There are dangerous monsters and birds everywhere in the immortal world. Cultivators were equipped with spiritual auras and keen senses, and can easily detect the wind and grass around them. Even the minor cultivators in the time they were establishing their cultivation base would not miss the sound of mortal footsteps with bells, let alone the Nascent Soul cultivators. If they release their spiritual thoughts, the smallest creatures on the mountain would not escape their attention. Except for Song Qingshi, a newly-born soul who had just arrived in this world, and was still very unused to spiritual power and these world conditions. . .

The beauty in red had completely misunderstood, thinking that Song Qingshi was also a mortal. There was only one use for such a beautiful mortal in Golden Phoenix Manor. He clarified: "A new slave?"

Song Qingshi looked up in amazement. He wanted to ask questions, but his eyes fell on the beauty of the red dress. There seemed to be some strange bruises on his neck as if it had been bitten by a mosquito, but it seemed that it might be something else. He took a few more secretive glances, trying to determine what they were.

The beauty in red noticed his curious glances and his heart grew upset. With growing malicious intent, a very gentle smile appeared on his face, and he said in a sincerely blessed tone: "Don't stare, you will have them soon, too."

Song Qingshi was very sheltered before transmigrating. He had never encountered malice and did not understand the mystery behind these words. Although he thought this blessing was a bit strange, he still answered politely: "Thank you."

The beauty in red choked hearing this answer. He was stunned for a moment. He looked at Song Qingshi up and down like a fool, and found that the person in front of him was clean and his skin was free of any injuries. He had never experienced the ravages of hell in his eyes. He was pure.

This discovery made him feel pity for the heart that had been tempered by suffering. He retracted his sharp malice and said softly, "After tonight, you will know that death is a luxury." He turned slightly to his side, looking at the river's flow. He warned, "When I first came here, I tried to commit suicide many times, but it was useless. We are slaves who are branded with the Acacia Seal. Our spirits belong to our master. So long as the master doesn't allow it, we cannot die, even by our own hands. . .

The beauty in red was silent for a long time. He slowly stretched out his hand and stroked Song Qing's hair that was soft as the fur of a small animal.

Song Qingshi saw several red rope marks on his pale wrists. He realized that this was pain that the beauty wouldn't want to be questioned about, so he pushed down his curiosity.

The fingertips of the red-dressed beauty slipped from his hair to Song Qingshi's delicate face, watching his innocent expression. He held his hand there for a moment before putting it down, conflicted. He didn't want to say any more. Since he didn't know those nightmarish experiences, it was useless to say anything more. Being able to preserve this kind of innocence, it was one more moment of happiness for him. Finally, he sighed, "You look good, but unfortunately the more your looks improve as you grow, the longer it will be until you're freed. . ."

Song Qingshi was puzzled: "What do you mean by 'freed'?"

"You'll know soon." The beauty in red's expression suddenly relaxed. He glanced around carefully, then stretched out his index finger and tapped his lips lightly. With a voice so light that he could barely hear it, he said ambiguously, "Tonight I will be freed. . ."

The beauty in red turned around with a smile and, with a crisp ring of the bells, turned to leave. His steps were a bit unstable, and each step was strenuous, like a mermaid walking on the tip of a knife in pain.

A pair of exquisite gold shackles were exposed on the beauty's ankles under the red clothes. Each of the shackles was decorated with an exquisite bell. The middle was connected by a slender golden chain. When walking, the bell shook slightly and made a clear and sweet sound, just like a tethered bird.

The golden chain dragged across the grass, and a few drops of blood dropped onto the green leaves.

Song Qingshi mustered up the courage to overcome his social anxiety, and shouted to the beauty who was about to leave: "Are you. . .injured? I, I know medical skills. . . Do you need me to treat you?"

The beauty in red turned back, looked at him for a few seconds, and he couldn't help but smile. This time the smile finally reached his eyes, like a ray of golden sunlight breaking through the clouds, dazzlingly beautiful. He shook his head towards Song Qingshi, and gave himself a sincere blessing: "I hope you have better luck tonight."

He turned his head, and the sunlight in his eyes disappeared in a flash, as if it had never existed, only the dark clouds that would not retreat.

Having endured these nightmares for years, he has long learned not to remember the kindness of others, and not to care about being offered charity from others.

He walked alone in this prison without stopping, step after step, wearing those painful shackles.

[miraculouscontent]

(non-Miraculous asks)

Anonymous said:

Ok this may just be me but I hate deconstructions. I feel like they are always mean spirited and try to be dark and edgy and thinks that every single person is an asshole because that’s “realistic” when no it’s not. This maybe because I like superhero stories and love it when the heroes overcome their struggles.

I can agree for the most part. Whenever I hear “okay but what if it was dArK--” I’m just okay, gonna stop you right there.

Anonymous said:

I swear, nothing bothers me more than people who want Miraculous Ladybug to literally just be Yandere Simulator(with Marinette as Ayano, Alya as Info-chan, Adrien as Taro, Chloe as Osana, Lila as Kizana, Kagami as Megami, and Luka as Budo). It just grinds my gears, especially because they're, once again, framing Marinette as a stalker, which just makes her look bad, AND pits all the girls against each other for Mr. Generic Harem Protagonist, once a-fucking-gain. Just go play the actual game, ok?

All I'm hearing is that now I have to ship Ayano and Budo and write a fic where the ghost girl uses fancy fantasy magic to merge her soul with Ayano and lets her actually have emotions, healing her from being a yandere while the ghost girl (in a way) gets to live a life she was cut short of, also allowing Ayano to be happy and go onto be friends with all the rivals.

Extremely convoluted but that’s the only way we get happy endings in this house.

Anonymous said:

I remember how, when writing Sailor Moon, Naoko Takeuchi refused to bow to older male writers wanted, say, for the girls to be stereotypical manga characters, with one being overweight, one being a stereotypical nerd, etc. But Naoko wanted each of the girls to be beautiful and feminine. While I don't like that they all share a body type, I admire how she didn't listen to grown men when writing for and about young girls. And I can't help but think about how Madoka is the antithesis of all that.

I can appreciate writers who put their foot down to stick to their values. There are limits of course, but yeah, a women writing women probably shouldn’t be listening to a man’s input. I’m sure good advice exists buuut...

Anonymous said:

What is your ranking of the seasons of the year from most to least favorite and why?

Summer - I work best in the warmth

Spring - Always brings images of flowers blooming to mind

Autumn - Things are getting cold and I don’t like it

Winter - It can go choke for all I care

Anonymous asked:

Someone on TV Tropes actually said that the name Feminist Fantasy should be changed because "feminism excludes men the same way meninism excludes women" and actually had the nerve to link that to the "Not So Different" trope, as if women haven't been excluded throughout the history of almost every human society. Fortunately, someone responded to them in a way that technically amounted to "do your damn research" but I'm still facepalming so hard at TV Tropes' "what about the men" rhetoric.

I feel like I lost braincells reading this.

Anonymous asked:

I feel like in fiction written by men there are only three flaws that female protagonists are allowed to have: clumsy, boy-crazy, or ashamed of their flat chests. I hate it.

Don’t forget, “having to listen to the men for how they’re supposed to feel.”

Anonymous asked:

Jatp. Nominated. For. Seven. Emmys. SEVEN!!!! Miraculous could NEVER. Literally.

omg!! Congrats to Julie and the Phantoms!

Anonymous asked:

WHAT ARE YOUR FLASHBACKS TO EVER AFTER HIGH?? I GOTTA KNOW? OMG?

Oh, I’ve seen basically the whole series, though the one I remember most is definitely Epic Winter. It was my favorite one though Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie so I’m biased.

I also like a lot of the “twists” and just--crazy concepts they rolled with, like with Red Riding Hood’s story and how Apple White gets woken up from her slumber.

Anonymous asked:

You're gonna be happy to hear this...I just started watching Cardcaptor Sakura today, and holy shit not only do I love it, but I also love how freaking META it is! I know you said you're not all that knowledgeable about Magical Girl, but this show is AWARE that it's a Magical Girl show! From Tomoyo(the main reason this show is so meta, tbh) realizing Sakura is a Magical Girl and asking if she has a transformation pose, to designing outfits for her(more on that later) to videotaping her(aka literally making a Magical Girl anime out of her Magical Girl friend), it just has fun with itself and plays with Magical Girl tropes without making a mockery of them like all those "dark" male-aimed ones do(lookin' at you, Madoka Magica and Yuki Yuna!).

And not only is it hilarious and adorable(especially with Sakura's crush on Yukito, Tomoyo's crush on Sakura, and Touya picking on Sakura, but playfully), but I love how it's riddled with girl power. While watching some of the first episodes I was looking forward to seeing Syaoran(partly because I love male Tsunderes and partly because I can't pronounce his name), and was surprised that he wasn't in the first few episodes, but more importantly I was so happy to see a show that treats its female characters with respect and shows women unironically receiving support from other women and being shown possessing power and authority.

I love Sakura and Tomoyo's friendship even if I hate the trope of "Lesbian Never Gets The Girl"(not that I think she's entitled to Sakura's affections or anything, but still.) and watching her support Sakura in her magic endeavors without being jealous or vindictive, I love that they're allowed to be independent and smart but that the show doesn't forget that they're kids, instead of making them like Manon and Chris, and I love that the show passes the Bechdel test in pretty much the first or second episode, and that pretty much every important and unimportant character we meet that's not Sakura's family members, Kero, or Yukito(plus maaaayyybe the Shadow Clow Card) are female.

Even little things, like all FOUR of Tomoyo's bodyguards in the second episode being female without there being a "reason" or the show making a big deal of it(either in a "yay girl power!" way or a "what but women can't x" way or an objectifying way) fills me with insurmountable joy. Also, I love that the show follows the Magical Girl trend of pretty much admitting that femininity is power, since frilly dresses are stated to be the most "fitting" thing for a Cardcaptor to wear, as without it, they might not be mentally up to the task, and this is an unironic truth rather than a joke(although Sakura is shown to be embarrassed, but it's much more likely that she's simply not used to that kind of gear due to not being rich as Tomoyo is.) or a gag.

I just thought I should tell you this because I know you like Cardcaptor Sakura, and with the crappy episodes that just came out of this show, I think you deserve to read an ask that's about a GENUINE girl power Magical Girl show, instead of yet more Miraculous Ladybug salt or Madoka Magica hate(not that there's anything wrong with either of those two, but it just gets grating after a while.). Overall, I'm looking forward to watching this show, since I've been looking for a Magical Girl show to watch nowadays(I've been meaning to watch Star Twinkle Precure but I can't find the third episode and all of Cardcaptor Sakura is on YouTube now, so.). So excited!

Hey, I’m glad that you’re having fun with it!

Though, just a warning, you might wanna steer clear of the Clear Card arc. It’s a sequel to the original series made waaaay after the original (think the equivalent of Yashahime for Inuyasha, though continuing with the original characters) but omg I hated it.

Anonymous asked:

With the crappy Season 4 episodes that just came out I'm glad I got into Cardcaptor Sakura when I did. Who needs "Marinette needs to make a mistake every episode and learn something from it" when you can have genuine girl power and sweetness incarnate?

Alya could never compete with Tomoyo, I’m just sayin’.

Anonymous asked:

Your comment about white men feeling "disenfranchised" because more shows are about black people and/or women(I say and/or because the two aren't mutually exclusive.), as if there aren't a million other things they could be watching instead is so true! It reminds me of how I was talking to someone recently about the new generation of MLP, in which I stated that we didn't need a male mane pony(spoiler alert: they have one, sadly.), and he claimed that it would be beneficial since many shows aimed at boys at least try to include at least one main girl, and that it would be good for G5 of MLP to have at least one strong male lead so that boys could have a role model and know that the show isn't "girly".

Okay, so far, so good, but this I could chalk up to just unconscious internalized misogyny, especially since he didn't say it in any sort of "way". So I respectfully told him that the scale regarding representation is already not equal and that boys can look up to girls and that a show being girly is not a bad thing and all that stuff that you already know about. Then he responded claiming some stuff about how he keeps trying to pitch stories about straight white male characters and how nobody is accepting his offers and so this means that straight white men are underrepresented compared to everyone else. He even explicitly said, and I quote "White people are actually critically underrepresented in media right now. Especially boys."; I swear to the Goddess above.

At this point I was officially upset as a black girl, to hear this white(and presumably adult) man telling me that he was underrepresented in media compared to me, even saying that the media execs are practicing "quotas and tokenization"(and yes, he repeatedly used those terms for any instance of representation, even when I asked him politely to stop.) by replacing women with men or white people with pocs and are making white men look like incompetent doofuses.

He also kept saying stuff about how shows are always shoehorning people of color in where they don't belong by casting them in settings such as Shakespeare and medieval times when "realistically" there were no people of color during those time periods(which is obviously not true, it's just not what the history books show us.), and made a really insensitive comment about how black children in the USA today don't know the significance of having the first black president because the media supposedly already shows them black people in various professions(despite also claiming he couldn't speak to the "black experience" and yet here he is whitesplaining that shit.).

It got to the point where he was seriously and unironically using the word "blackwashing". When I pointed out to him that white men aren't underrepresented and that it's just his self-centered ego telling him that they are, that the word "blackwashing" isn't a thing, and that mis/underrepresentation in media DOES affect black kids negatively(even citing myself as an example) he went on to claim that I was being tone-deaf and that "blackwashing" is just as bad as whitewashing, and that making Ariel black is just as bad as making Jasmine white.

At this point I had to bang my head on the table and explain to him the difference; his ass still wouldn't get it. Eventually he started saying some really skeevy and hypocritical shite that white men say all the time when whining about how "oppressed and underrepresented" they are: that black people and/or women

(it looks like there might be an ask missing here, in which case, sorry if Tubmlr ate it!)

avor of supporting the commonly believed LIE that "women and/or minority groups don't have as much history worth learning about, so there's no point in focusing on them." He also kept using patronizing, condescending, mansplaining language such as "let me explain it to you" or "you still don't get it do you?", and when he said women had nothing to contribute to society because "oppression" he even had the nerve to tack on "welcome to the unequal society" as if I hadn't been lecturing him about just that.

Because obviously only white men did anything worthwhile or important in history. At this point, I had to block him. I couldn't take it anymore and this was on an MLP site of all places(although I'm probably just as guilty of that part, but at least I wasn't an ass!). I just can't stand white men who "want to be oppressed so bad" but still want to claim that their achievements are more important and deserve to be more prominent. Honestly, so many white men are so fragile the second they're not in the spotlight. I can't help but think that despite all the privilege afforded to their class being a white man sounds like the worst thing ever.

“he claimed that it would be beneficial since many shows aimed at boys at least try to include at least one main girl, and that it would be good for G5 of MLP to have at least one strong male lead so that boys could have a role model and know that the show isn't "girly". “

I might be looking too deep into that but I don’t like the idea of, “Well WE squeezed in a girl and therefore YOUR SHOWS--” like it’s some sort of matter of “fairness” or that boys’ shows aren’t putting in girls out of a genuine like for them but because they “need” one or it’s some sort of obligation.

Also, we need to stop this idea that boys can’t look up to female characters and vice versa for girls. You already said it but yeah.

And yeah, I hear "quotas and tokenization" and I officially tune out of whatever the person is saying, lol. White men are critically underrepresented???? Newsflash, maybe it’s just because others are being represented more??

Just the whole thing about whites being “underrepresented” boggles my mind. White people don’t have some sort of special ability or skill that other races can’t do themselves unless you count the “superpower” of white privilege.

Like, oh my god, all that “whitesplaining” and having to read the word “blackwashing” was physically painful. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I don’t know how they got hold of the technology to communicate with you from whatever time period their from, presumably the Stone Age.

Don’t even blame you for blocking them. There’s just a level of absolute... blindness? Arrogance??? That comes with the territory with them sometimes, I swear. You had every right to be upset; other races come to ask for equality and fair representation and suddenly you have these white men (not all obviously but damn) coming by and crying that they’re being oPpReSsEd. U_U

Like, honestly, my father in particular is absolutely that kind of person so I’ve heard that kind of stuff before. it’s all gross.

On a slightly unrelated note (trying to end this with some positivity), I hadn’t even heard about a fifth generation of MLP until I read this, and just wanted to let you know that I really hope you have a really good time with it! Hopefully the male character isn’t... well, you know.

[sweeethinny]

The Duke - Chapter 7

I know it took me a while to update, really, sorry, but it was because it was difficult to organize this chapter as I wanted. thank you so much for the comments, as always, is what motivates me to write I promise to take less this time

I hope you like it <3

AO3 | FF.NET | SIYE

read bellow the cut :)

| G.W |

‘‘I don’t think I’ve ever been this anxious.’’ Ginny comments, watching Henry move his wand and stack her suitcase with the others who are concentrated by the fireplace. ‘’I’ve never gone this far. You know, when I was little, I climbed the trees and dreamed of the day that I could go as far as I wanted.’’ She smiles from ear to ear, anxiously walking around the room, her dark green dress still a little wrinkled. She didn't even want help getting ready, she tied her hair with magic and tied the bodice as she could.

‘’I’m glad you managed to convince them, Miss.’’ Henry smiles at her, wearing the black uniform and maintaining the most serious tone he can, even though he also looks excited. ‘’I’ve never gone this far, either.’’

‘’We still have hours, hours, until we go.’’ Ginny watched the auror, a smile on her lips taking over her freckled face. ‘’We could fly! If my father agreed to take me to the Dueling Ball, then I can fly!’’ She comments as if she were a ten year old child asking for the cookie that is in the jar on top of the cupboard.

‘‘Sorry, Miss, but the shed is still locked.’’ Henry smiled awkwardly, shrugging. ‘’But we can go to the greenhouse, we haven’t been there in a while.’’

‘‘I don’t want to go to the greenhouse.’’ Ginny sat down on the mustard-yellow armchair that her mother insisted on keeping in the living room, even though it didn't match the rest of the decor. ‘’Can we do something else? Can we go to the city?’’ She didn’t even like going to the city, but if it meant leaving home, she would be accepting. Ginny just wanted time to pass as quickly as possible. ‘’Can we do anything? I just don’t want to sit.’’

‘’Your mom asked you to train the dance.‘’

‘’Nooo,’’ She stood up, approaching Henry and looking him deep in the emerald green eyes, she could almost see the reflection of herself in his round glasses. ''Let's do something fun ... You can take me somewhere fun, can't you?'' Henry sighed, looking quickly at the bags on the floor, then at the clock where he pointed out that everyone - apart from Ginny - was out of the house, and finally for her.

‘’We have to go back before everyone else,’’ Her eyes widened as she jumped in place and smiled like she hasn't smiled in days, locked up inside the house. ''And you must promise me that you will obey me.'' Ginny laughed, throwing her arms around Henry as if it were the most natural thing, hugging him tightly and feeling his chest tighten with intimate contact. He had never even touched her shoulders.

‘‘I promise.’’ Ginny stood on tiptoe, fearless enough to kiss him on the cheek flushed with shame. ‘’I’m going to get my hat!’’ And then she leapt out of the room, running up the stairs like a child who had won the cookie, almost screaming with joy.

It has been a difficult few days, locked up at home and barely able to go to the garden itself, without being escorted by Henry or one of her brothers. Her name had returned to the tabloids, but now, they said it was all a lie on the part of her family, to create fame. They went so far as to accuse her of being psychotic mad, and that respectable ladies should stay away from her. Some women even removed her mother's name from their guest lists for afternoon tea.

Ginny still didn't know how the family was still invited to the Dueling Party, but something told her that Mrs. Potter understood what it was like to have her name in the tabloids with several lies made up about her.

She also didn't know why she was so excited. Something inside her made her think that the party could be good after all, living a week in a completely different house and with new places to explore. If no one danced with her, at least she would have new gardens and new libraries to visit.

Putting on her hat and gloves, not even bothering to look in the mirror to check her clothes or put on more perfume, just running down the stairs again, almost tripping over her dress, but being held tightly by Henry, who was waiting patiently for her.

‘’Calm, Miss.’’ He smiled, and something inside Ginny burned and trembled, like that night when she dreamed that he kissed her. ‘’If you get hurt, you won’t be able to travel or go out to the city. ’’

‘‘I’m sorry, I’m looking forward to it.’’ She running her hand over her dress and waiting for him to give the orders to know where they would go. ‘’Should I get my cape?’’

‘’Of course, we don’t want anyone to recognize you, and there are always eyes everywhere.’’ Ginny didn’t think his over-care was stupid, not after the attack and having spent days locked up Ginny would even put on a wig if that meant leaving the house and seeing daylight, smelling new smells and seeing people besides her family.

[...]

‘’This is incredible.’’ She smiled, almost standing up so she could see even more of that man sitting on the stage below, concentrating on playing the piano, while ten women wearing white and black clothes, danced perfectly and synchronously around. They stood on tiptoe, rolled, jumped, and never seemed to lose their balance, always in the rhythm of the music.

That was their first stop, at least that's what Henry said. They Apparated into the middle of Muggle London, which Ginny had seen less than twice in her life, and then rode in a carriage to that huge building from which very loud classical music came, and some people entered. There were several columns, a huge staircase - the biggest one Ginny had ever seen - and several pictures that didn't move, scattered all over the place.

No one looked at her, except for the man in the suit at the door, no one even seemed to pay attention to her, which was a divine sensation, to say the least.

Henry managed to get them up to the top floor, entering a mezzanine that had the walls covered in a wine red velvet that reminded her a lot of the color of the dress that Fleur wore at one of the balls she went to, and that the wizarding world spent weeks talking about every little detail of the piece and how the woman was one of the most beautiful in the night. There were chairs, too, and a parapet that kept them from falling over to where the dancers and the man playing the piano were.

‘’What’s the name of that?’’ She whispered, unable to take her eyes off how the skirts of those women were static and round, and how they tiptoed with frightening ease.

''Ballet. It's just a rehearsal, the presentation is always done at night... They are rehearsing Romeo and Juliet.'' Ginny almost couldn't resist the temptation to look away from the women when she felt his hand next to hers on the arms of the chair, but maybe not even Henry noticed how their fingers were almost touching, and how close they were now too, given the fact that they needed to whisper to each other.

His scent flooded Ginny inside, something that reminded her of fresh herbs and male soap. Her chest heated up, her hands tingling as if something was out of control inside her, which Ginny believed was her lack of human interaction in recent years, and it suddenly became difficult to breathe with Henry so close, so hot it seemed to burn her shoulder where they touched, and so overwhelming that it seemed that every key on the piano that was played on stage resonated inside her head as if all her demons decided to dance to the beat of a racing heart.

‘’It’s a beautiful piece, too bad it’s a tragic story.’’ He kept talking, the women down there dancing at an even faster pace, which made Ginny more euphoric. ‘’I don’t know if there’s a version in the wizarding world for this, but if you want,’’ And this time, Henry actually put his big palm over her hand, squeezing it lightly and smiling gently at Ginny. ‘’I can lend you. I have the book stored in my stuff. I brought it as a reminder of my mother.’’

The woman did not understand how they went from almost never touching, to that stage. She didn't understand what it was that shone in his green eyes, let alone her fast beats, disagreeing with the now calm music.

She had already read several books to know that if it were described in a love story, it would be the prelude that the romance between the couple was emerging; racing heart, inappropriate thoughts that invaded her mind - did Henry kiss as well as he kissed her in the dreams that tormented her the last few nights? - and a feeling of numbness that made her almost unable to think. If that were a love story, Ginny was smiling like an idiot for the book and would feel as flustered as the protagonist.

But Ginny Weasley had no chance of having her own love story. Not when her entire reputation was destroyed by people who tried to kill her, and men who never accepted that her, a madwoman without a hopeful future, says no. There were no love stories for a woman like her, who, unlike Fleur, Hermione, and all the other women who had a line of men waiting for her, was abandoned at the back of the room like a long-forgotten widow.

She allowed herself to feel just one more second of that feeling that burned in her stomach, before blinking and turning her eyes to the dancers, pulling her hand back to her own lap and trying not to pay attention to the pain that seemed to plague her chest now more still.

‘’Thank you, it would be amazing, I’m sure we don’t have it in our library.’’ She sighed, steadying her hands so that the magic that seemed to burn her fingertips would cease.

The rehearsal continued and she and Henry remained silent for the rest of the time, just admiring the dancers and the pianist, from time to time she would glance at him just to catch him looking at her fingers, covered by the white gloves, resting in her lap. It was kind of silly that they still tingled, but Ginny made a point of ignoring it, for her own good.

When everything went quiet a few minutes later and people on stage started to talk, they got up to leave, still in silence and avoiding contact as if the two had some contagious disease.

Before they could walk out into that hall full of photos and trophies, a tall, dark-haired man appeared in front of them, wearing all-black robes like the ones she saw some men wearing at dances, with a snake badge that Ginny did not recognize for being from no family. But Henry seemed to recognize it, mainly because he put his arm around her waist and pulled her close to him in a few seconds.

''Put your head down and don't say anything.'' Henry's voice sounded in her mind, and Ginny followed the orders without thinking twice, feeling the tingling again at her fingertips, but now, it wasn't something that seemed happiness. In fact, it was the same feeling she had felt before being attacked in the park.

Something burned inside her and an acidic taste took over her mouth, while her survival instinct made her magic swirl inside her chest and seem close to exploding. But never really getting to do it.

‘’Good afternoon, Sir.’’ Henry speaks, but his voice is louder and thicker than usual. Ginny just pretends to fix the wrinkles in her dress, avoiding as much as possible to look at the coat with the snake again, trying to remember where she had already seen one like that.

‘’Good afternoon,’’ the male voice responds, taking a step to the side and letting them pass, even though she feels that for the first time in the hour they’ve been out of the house, they were being watched. ''Beautiful wife.'' Only then does she notice the delicate ring on her left finger, and Ginny knows it's just an illusion, but can't help but be surprised for a few seconds, before returning to normal and continuing to keep her eyes down. 

''Thank you,'' but Henry doesn't move, and before she can understand what's going on, a cold shiver runs up and down her body, even causing her eyes to close to the weird sensation, before finally being pulled away by Henry.

‘’What was that?’’ Ginny whispers, feeling the air return to her lungs as soon as they step on the street in front of the theater, the afternoon light flooding them, as well as the sounds of a London that never seems to stop.

‘’I don’t know, but that man was a wizard.’’ Henry hasn’t released her yet, walking with her as fast as he can down the street, towards something Ginny has no idea what it is. ‘’And not a good one.’’

''What do you mean?'' They walk into an old library, a lady smiles at them as if she's never seen anything like it, and Henry directs them to one of the most hidden sections, then lets go of Ginny, and the shiver runs through her again, but this time, it's like she fell into a volcano. Was it that hot?

‘’He was a Death Eater.’’ Henry speaks in alarm, his hands running through his messy hair naturally, pulling on the strands as he leans on the shelf behind him, closing his eyes and sighing.

‘’Sorry.’’ Ginny asks, embarrassed and still a little moved by the latest events. A death eater! She had only known two in her life, and her father always said that she shouldn't want to be in the presence of another a third time. ‘’I put us at risk again.’’

‘’Don’t say that,’’ The man seems to allow himself to roll his eyes, taking his glasses off his face so he can wipe the lenses, as if he wants to buy time to process the ideas. ‘’You liked the rehearsal, and it’s a pity that you can’t see the whole performance, but at least we left the house.’’ He shrugged, then suggested. ‘’We have less than an hour yet, if you want to… do something.’’

''Aren't you going to demand that we go back to my house?'' Ginny's eyes flashed, the thought of being able to spend more time outside, lit her up like a hundred thousand lit wands towards her.

‘’Well, we’re already here, right? We can venture a little further. That wizard didn't recognize you, or me.’’

‘’How are you sure about this?’’ Henry shrugged.

‘’Something tells me that no. The ring was pretty convincing as well.’’ His cheeks burned, but his green eyes held steady on those of Ginny, who also felt her cheeks warm up. ‘‘Forgive me for that, Miss, but it was necessary.’’

‘’Oh, don’t worry,’’ Ginny meant he could have kissed her to convince the man, and even then, she wouldn’t care. ''You were fast.''

‘’A quality that I acquired working for you, Miss. You never know when I'm going to have to do a non-verbal spell and protect us,'' Henry whispered, moving a little closer to her and making her feel that whirlwind of emotion again, before turning away and resting his back on the bookshelf. ‘’But we’ll have to be careful if we stay here. We can go to more reserved places, that no wizard would visit. ’’

‘’How you know so much about the Muggle world, if I may ask?’’

‘’I worked for a few years with the Muggles, Miss.’’ He smiled simply, lifting his shoulders. ''Shall we go?'' Henry took her arm, as he sometimes did - in rare exceptions - and Ginny nodded, ignoring her belly being mistreated by the thousand bats that flapped their wings inside, and followed him for a walk through London Muggle, as if it were very natural for everyday life, to walk arm in arm with a handsome man as they strolled.

She knew that she needed to enjoy that moment with all her heart, as she probably wouldn't have many more, and for the next few hours, Ginny would pretend that she was not a ruined woman and without a very hopeful future.

| ? |

‘‘She isn’t a normal witch.’’ The man sitting at the end of the table looked up at the woman on his right, looking a little desperate at the blood dripping from the body hanging on the table. ‘’I’ve seen her up close, her magic… it’s scary.’’

‘’Scary? Is a 23 year old girl scary?’’ He rolled his eyes, looking again at the photo of the redhead in front of him, dressed in a long blue dress and looking bored, sitting on one of the chairs at the party. ''Who is he?''

‘’Her bodyguard. One of Robards best aurors, I heard.’’ Another man, this time on the left, replied, not even seeming to care when the blood of that filthy woman dripped near his hand.

''A scary witch and one of the best aurors... What a great pair '' His humorless laugh echoed through the dining room, his finger running over the photo of the redhead and then that of the man who was dressed in the black uniform, proudly displaying the coat of arms of the Ministry and Aurors. ‘’Kill them. Don't waste any more time and hit him first.'’ He smiled, looking at the woman’s lifeless body, hanging from ropes that went from the ceiling to a few meters above the table, her dying hand falling near the frightened woman’s plate. ‘’They’re going to the Dukes ’party,’ Looking down, he watched all his followers there, ready to do anything he assigned them. ‘’Kill them too.’’

| H.F |

‘’Why are we going to go in a carriage?’’ Ginny asked as they waited in the living room, she perched on the window like a child, watching the three magic carriages posing in the gardens, the thestrals waiting patiently to fly back into the sky.

‘’It’s safer, and it would be too tumultuous to use the Flu or Apparate, we would end up overloading the flow and maybe some people would end up stopping at different places. Furthermore, the exact location of the Dukes' country house is unknown for security reasons.’’ Henry replied, standing near the door so he could escort the family when he was called, ready for the most important job of his life.

Robards had warned him to escort the whole family as safely as possible, even sending two other Aurors to travel together in the other two carriages, to avoid any surprises, since the protection around the house had been removed so that the Thestral could enter and leave with ease.

He would obviously stay with Ginny, escorting her at all hours, especially now, still a little affected by the presence of the Death Eater they encountered.

If he were alone, Henry would probably have followed the man and tried to find out some new information about the possible attack that Voldemort was planning, but with Ginny at his side, all he had to do was move on, but always with his eyes open to any stranger to follow or look at them.

The bewitched ring had already disappeared from her finger, but Henry thanked himself for having remembered the spell in time, happy that he managed to protect her. Of course, they shouldn't have even gone to the theater in the first place, but Henry thought the sparkle in her eyes and the smile on her face for all the hours they spent together had been worth it.

Ginny deserved a few hours of a 'normal' life, without a thousand eyes judging her and commenting on her every step.

‘’Do you know where it is? You told me the road is long.’’ She looked over her shoulder, her hair tightly tied in a complicated hairstyle that unfortunately left the red hair hidden in a bun. Ginny had also changed the dress, wore a much more elegant one and that Henry knew had cost a very high price, as well as some others that she would wear during the week ahead. The purple color looked great on her - like all the others, Henry suspected - and the white and silver details made her shine.

"I was allowed to know only as a security measure, in case we need to escape in a hurry, but I had to swear with my own life that I wouldn't tell anyone." He clasped his hands behind his body almost automatically, vaguely remembering the light pain he had felt. Ginny's brown eyes bulged, and she jumped off the couch, hurriedly walking over to him, holding out her gloved hand as if asking to see the mark.

‘’You… why?’’ Henry reached out, feeling warm and electrified when her delicate fingers touched his palm, his chest feeling like it wanted to explode with the gesture.

It was almost distressing that he felt so… sick when she touched him. It always seemed like something inside him was stirring, and Henry was ready to die.

‘’For your safety, of course.’’ He would do anything to guarantee that she would be okay, he thought.

‘’This is eternal.’’ Ginny looked at him, brown irises shining toward him like the caramel candies that the elves make every Thursday afternoon, and Henry always eats.

‘‘I will hardly have another opportunity to go to the Dukes’ house, Miss, so it won’t bother me, I promise.’’ Henry smiled, politely pulling his hand away from hers, his palm feeling like it was on fire. ‘’Now, let’s see… I’ll have to go talk to your father, but another Auror will be taking care of your safety until we need to go, okay?’’

‘’Why can I never go with you? You will talk about me.’’ With her chin up and her eyes defiantly staring at him, Ginny raised her eyebrows, looking a lot like when he met her.

‘‘I don’t think your dad approves, Miss.’’ He wanted to laugh, but he kept his face straight and his hands were behind him, as the label said. ‘’We’re just going to go over the protocol, it’s pretty boring and you won’t miss anything very fun, I promise.’’ As if in sync, he hears a knock on the door, and Thomas, the other Auror, bowed to Ginny. ‘‘Please forgive me for having to leave you,’’ Henry did the same, despite not remembering the last time he bowed to her - not being in public. ‘’But you will be in good hands.’’

‘’I don’t believe that much,’’ she whispered, making a face. ''But that's what I have.'' With that, Henry withdrew from the room, waving to Thomas, who kept an unfriendly scowl, and making his way to the office on the third floor of the house, where Arthur was waiting for him.

Henry wanted to think that when he got there, he wouldn't have to listen to the same conversation that Robards had passed on to him and the other Aurors, but it was almost possible that Arthur would repeat the speech about taking care of Ginny and, as much as the Duke and Duchess were good people, keep an eye out for any strangers. Deep down, Henry knew that it was only Arthur  father's concern that made the man say something Henry had already heard from the boss, but he couldn't even imagine what it must be like to know that his daughter is being threatened with death.

''Excuse me,'' He opened the door, entering after confirmation from Arthur, who was sitting in the usual chair, shuffling some papers, which Henry suspected was the letter the Duke had sent him a few days ago, reassuring the man about security. ‘’Did you call me, Sir?’’

''Of course, of course, sit down, my man.'' Unlike Mrs Weasley, Arthur was much more affectionate with Henry, respecting the limits of the hierarchy, of course, but still not taking some rules very seriously. His wife treated him very well, but Henry felt that the woman harbored a little dislike for him, but it may not be something directed at who he was, but the work he did in Ginny's life. Again, Henry would never be able to imagine the pain of needing his youngest daughter to be escorted, for fear that someone will kill her. ‘’I call you here to talk about something…’’

‘‘Say sir.’’ The man sighed, running a hand over his red hair that seemed to fall more each day.

‘’I found a good husband for my daughter.’’ Henry swallowed, happy that he managed to keep his face serious, but feeling out of breath in his lungs. ‘’He’ll be at the party, and I need you to watch him for me. If he’s respectable, he will marry her as soon as we get back.’’

Henry's tongue seemed to burn with unspoken words, like; will you marry your daughter to someone she doesn't even know? Your daughter is not an animal to be sold. Does she even know that? Will I have to leave her? But the man took a deep breath, clasped his hands on his knees, and continued to stare at the boss in front of him.

‘’I’ve already had him track down and everything is clean, but I need you to see the way he’s going to behave next to Ginny. My daughter does not deserve a man of arguable morals at her side.’’ Henry nodded, still a little dizzy. ‘’Furthermore, Mr Potter also knows him and has guaranteed that his family will more than approve the bond, as they need allies if they want to fight against You-Know-Who.’’

''I'm sure yes.’’

"And Ginny is an excellent witch, you know that yourself, the last two years she has perfected her art of dueling and the control of magic perfectly, so it will make a lot of difference for the family." Ginny hadn't improved her magic and control, to marry a weakling who needs a woman to defend himself. She needed someone to keep her safe enough, so she no longer had to worry about staying alive. The woman was barely 24 years old, and seemed to duel and defend herself as an Auror with over 30 years of service.

She definitely shouldn't marry someone who couldn't provide her with the least amount of security, so that her biggest concern would be that tomorrow the weather would be good enough to fly.

‘‘Sir, excuse the question, but does she know him?’’

‘’Oh, no, no, she’ll meet him at the ball.’’ Arthur assured him, pouring some Firewhiskey into two glasses that were already there on the table, but Henry denied it when the glass slid towards him.

‘’Thank you, sir, but I think I need to be sober for the trip.’’

‘’You’re a good man, Mr. Figg, an Auror of respect.’’ Arthur smiled at him, bringing the drink to his lips and then closing his eyes, as if he had headaches. ‘’This situation,’’ The cheeks almost automatically turn red with the liquid ingested. ‘’It has driven me almost crazy... Mr Potter organizing this party again called attention to the things that happened between our families.’’

‘’The kidnapping of the Potter boy?’’ Arthur nodded.

‘’But not only that, Mr Figg, actually, I wish it were just that… But the king has been pushing me too.’’

‘’The king?’’ If Henry had never even met the Dukes, the King was the last person he dreamed of seeing.

‘’Yes, Dumbledore has.. has been reminding me and James of something that connected our families for a long time.’’ Arthur drank some more, seeming to gain liquid courage to continue. ‘’A prophecy that made all this happen… ’’ Henry waited for him to continue, barely knowing what to say in the face of it. "It said that.. That two kids would be born 10 days, 10 hours and 10 minutes apart, and that they would be the only ones, with the wedding bond, to kill You-Know-Who." The man sighed, and Henry noticed that he was looking at the picture of Ginny on the wall, dressed in a light pink dress, and with a mouth dirty with blackberries. ‘’Are you aware of what it is like to look at your little girl, so small, and think that she is destined to kill one of the greatest wizards that ever existed? That if she doesn't do that... ’’

‘’If she doesn’t?’’ Henry insisted, thinking he was never under so much stress as he was at that time.

‘’She will die.’’ Then Arthur was silent, watching little Ginny laugh and hide her dirty hands behind her back, looking away, as if he wanted to get into the photo. ‘’Die like Harry Potter died.’’

‘‘I’m sorry, sir, but I thought the Dukes had said it was just a lie.’’

‘’No, James just doesn’t want to accept the idea, but Dumbledore believes that the boy will not have survived until now. The prophet who predicted this, was clear in saying that the farther the soul mates got, the weaker they would be, and the more likely they would end up being taken by You-Know-Who. After Harry disappeared, she was consulted by the king, who thought it pertinent to warn us now that she made it clear that if the boy had indeed survived, he would have died at the age of 20 or 21, and would not have passed that age. ’’

''Why that?''

‘’Because he would have spent a long time away from the protections that the soul mate and prophecy govern him. It was at that same age that Ginny was attacked. On her 21st birthday.’’ The man denied, closing his eyes again. ‘’Dumbledore insisted that I marry her once and for all, so that she is safe about marriage protections. It’s not much, but it’s much more than we can offer.’’

‘‘Do you believe in this prophecy?’’ Arthur laughed humorlessly, opening his blue eyes towards Henry.

‘’Harry Potter was never found, was he?’’

[...]

''Miss, I beg you to wait for me, then go inside the carriage,'' Henry asked, feeling an irritating headache, redoing the security spell around the carriage that Ginny would travel in, just as Thomas and Joe did with the other two.

The Weasleys were all talking behind the Aurors, eagerly waiting to board. Ginny was the happiest of all, barely stopping in place as she chatted excitedly with Ron about what she imagined they would do during the week they would be away from home, looking much happier than Henry remembered seeing her.

But at the same time that he was happy that she was happy, Henry remembered her conversation with Mr Weasley, and how desperate he looked. Ginny was getting married. Ginny could die.

Damn Harry Potter, who arrested her in that fate.

‘’All done, come on in, Miss.’’ Henry signaled to her, interrupting the conversation between the brothers, and smiling apologetically at them.

‘’Thank you, Mr Figg.’’ She jumped into the vehicle, followed by Ron, the twins, and lastly, Henry. As soon as he closed the door, and touched the magic coin that was the point of communication with Thomas and Joe, the carriage began to move and leave the floor. ''This is so exciting!'' Ginny opened the window curtains, and Henry even thought about asking her to close, as it was safer and prevented anyone from seeing her inside, but there were so many charms around them, that he thought it was okay to let her have fun for just a few minutes.

There were two benches, facing each other, the twins and Ron were in front of him and Ginny, and everyone seemed to marvel at the view of the property from above, much higher than they normally went with the brooms.

‘’How long to wait, Mr Figg?’’ Ron asked, still looking out the window, before he got tired and closed the curtain.

‘‘I think two or, at most, three hours. Thestrals are fast animals, they tend not to linger.’’

‘’Do you see them?’’ It was Fred who asked this time, and Henry nodded.

‘’He has seen death several times.’’ Ginny spoke before Henry was able, as if to say the obvious. ‘’Almost all Aurors have seen someone die, and if they haven’t, they’re not doing their job in the right field, because in the midst of wars, it’s impossible not to witness it.’’

‘’You shouldn’t know about that.’’ Ron pointed out.

‘’But I know, because I ask him. What else would we talk about? One hour this matter would come up, Mr Figg has been with me since I was 21.’’

‘’Miss Weasley doesn’t know any macabre details, only that I’ve seen death.’’ He lied, thinking that her brothers shouldn’t know that Henry once described how a man’s eyes were pulled out of his face. ‘’I would never give that kind of detail.’’

‘’Besides, Ron, I think I’m better able to hear about it than you are, because although I remember, when you first saw blood, you passed out.’’

Henry did not listen very much to the conversation between the siblings, looking at the small window beside him, and watching the clouds.

If Ginny married, he would be forced to walk away from her and never work with her again, even if her husband asked for a security guard, Henry would no longer be assigned to work. His contract, of course, said that when she signed her name on the wedding paper, he would automatically be disqualified as her personal security guard, and for some reason, it saddened him.

Henry had spent so much of his life alone, without many friends besides his mother and the boy who took piano lessons with her, without much vision for a profitable future. As soon as he was able to join the aurors, he imagined that he would prosper and be more social, but soon it proved much more difficult than expected. When you worked with arresting, killing and looking for murderers, there was not much time and energy left to make friends and date, and most guys didn't want to be friends with the same guy who helped him carry the body of a dead child in a confrontation.

It turned out that he just stayed at home, reading some book or the record of someone wanted, making theories and trying to think of a plan for the next day. Always trying to stay alive, even though it seemed to get more difficult with each passing day.

He had been so sorry for Robards when he told him about Ginny. The girl had lost control of her magic and now in addition to being threatened with death, she suffered public retaliation. Henry understood, at least in part, the pain she was suffering, as he felt the same thing when he saw someone dying in front of him for the first time - a colleague - and also lost control of the magic.

It had been traumatic, and Henry almost took his own life when memories of Cedric's icy white body fell in front of him. That had been the closest to a friend he’d had in years, and even though they had only known each other for a few months, the man tried to stop the Death Eater who raised his wand for Henry.

He understood what it was like not to be able to control even the wand in his hand, feeling his body tremble and his chest warm with magic, even looking like the spells would come out of his fingertips. He was desperate to say the least, and Henry sympathized with Ginny before he even met her.

A woman shouldn't feel as out of control as he had, a few weeks before he met her.

And now, he was going to see his best friend - and the woman who moved his poor heart - marry a guy who wouldn't even bring her so much security, and all Henry could do is nod, bow, and leave.

Henry sighed, closing the curtain and realizing that the argument between the brothers had stopped. ‘’Do you think the transfiguration festival will take place?’’ George asked - Henry knew how to differentiate them, no matter how difficult it was.

‘’Sure, it’s a tradition,’’ Ron said, running a hand through the red hair so characteristic of the family. ‘’I trained all week, I want to show that I’m good.’’

‘’Hmmm, is it because of Miss Granger?’’ Ginny winked at her brother in front of her, a smirk on her lips. ''Oh, Mr Weasley, you are so good at transfiguration spells, please marry me.'' She spoke of what should be an imitation of the Miss in question, the back of her hand on her forehead dramatically, and the other, stretched out towards Ron, who had red cheeks like curtains.

‘’She doesn't talk like that, you idiot.’’

''Hey. Women don't like men who treat their sister badly,’’ Fred warned him, punching Ron in the arm. ‘’And neither are the brothers!’’

‘’Women like polite men, who take her for a walk and treat her politely.’’ Ginny raised an eyebrow, arms crossed under her chest as if she could duel with her brother right there. Ron rolled his eyes.

‘’I treat her with respect... And what would you know about it? As far as I know, Mom didn't tell me about anyone taking you for walks.'' Ron looked sorry for saying that the next moment, but before he could apologize, or whatever, Ginny seemed to bristle like a wildcat.

''Because I'm a woman, you imbecile, and unlike the three of you, my head doesn't work just to think about when I'm going to sleep with someone.'' The three in front of her opened their eyes wide, and Henry almost laughed, but he thought they were too far from the ground to risk being thrown from the carriage. ''What's it? Now, after all, will you think I don't know about that? Oh, please, that's why the three of you are single, you very much doubt a woman's intelligence.’’

[...]

As soon as they landed on the floor, Henry felt the headache bothering him again, especially the scar on his forehead, the one that was always covered by his hair. After making sure it was safe, he got out of the carriage and undid the necessary protections for Ginny, Fred, George and Ron to get off too, and as much as he closed his fists around his wand, relaxed his shoulders, and took a deep breath, he still felt that tightness in his chest and burning on his forehead, which had bothered him since they started approaching the village where the house was.

It was much more than he ever thought he would have the honor of entering; it was a bigger mansion than any he had ever seen. There were more windows than he could count, large columns surrounded by rose vines, the stone-clad house was much better cared for than any he had ever known. The garden was very well maintained, with trees well over 100 years old, and flowers perfectly pruned. There were even statues, like the ones he had seen in a Marquis' house, but unlike that of the man, it was not just one, but several scattered around the garden in a way that looked beautiful and made sense. Some waved at them, and others just continued in their poses, were very well made and almost made him think that they looked like humans covered in plaster.

It was like going to an enchanted place, which brought an immense sense of peace and something even familiar, as if Henry had already been there before. What was silly, he knew.

As soon as they were ready, the Aurors followed the family to the front door, the path was long and well defined, separated from the rest of the garden, with bushes decorating the sides of the small road, and as far as he could see, the Dukes were waiting for them, wearing neutral and elegant clothes.

Henry hadn't been prepared to meet the Dukes in person, and he guessed it was nervousness that made him feel a strange urge to cry or run, as if something stopped him from breathing fully and made his knees look weak. He never imagined performing for such important people.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were the first to greet, bowing first and then giving hugs and smiles, then the children, who just bowed one by one as the rule dictated and spoke a few words, and finally, the Aurors.

The Duke and Duchess looked at Henry as if they recognized him - perhaps Arthur had shown them his identification as Auror, where there was a photo. The Duchess had red hair that was darker and shorter than the Weasleys', and green eyes that looked like big, shiny emeralds in her thin and pale face. The Duke was almost the opposite of her, tall, with skin that was darker and tanned than his wife's, black hair and cropped but still a little messy, and dark eyes.

The clothes looked of great quality, much more than he could buy in his life. The thick fabrics covered them without any wrinkles, and the Potter Family crest, carved in gold, was proudly displayed.

Something inside Henry burned even harder, and as if his memory tried to remember where he had seen them - probably, in a newspaper in the past few weeks, which had several pictures of the two - his head hurt a lot. He wouldn't show weakness in front of them, so he just closed his eyes and bowed completely, swallowing the desire that had arisen.

‘’Mr, Mrs Potter, it is a pleasure to meet you.’’ Henry said as soon as his turn came, much closer to the two, who didn’t seem very comfortable with the situation. Perhaps it was the fact that it was the first party they had been throwing in years, and after what Henry had heard from Arthur, he couldn't imagine that the Dukes were happy knowing that their son was probably really dead. ‘’My name is Henry Figg.’’

[s-n-a-k-e-p-i-t]

So I finished the Grisha trilogy

In anticipation for the upcoming Netflix series combining Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows, I decided to give the universe a try. I have been recommended Shadow and Bone over and over for YEARS after seeking similar books to the Shatter Me series by (the literal loml, seriously this book changed my life)  Tahereh Mafi--if you haven’t read it, please go rent/buy the first book and ENJOY--but anywho... I was recommended this series because I google searched “books with boys like Warner” because

SPOILERS BELOW for Shatter Me, Shadow and Bone, Storm and Siege, Rise and Ruin:

I love Warner and who doesn’t like a dick ish male character that the female protagonist hates and soon we learn of their tragic backstory and slowly grow to love through a story of redemption (friendly reminder, I am now a dramione person, I wish I could be surprised) 

So ANYWAY. Started the first book. I feel like the characters are kinda lacking in it. I don’t really care for anyone and I don’t feel like there’s enough Alina introduction to make her a compelling character. The first book also felt like a lot of traveling with very little plot... very Deathly Hallows--but it was the first book of the series. I’m considering the fact that I read the trilogy as one big book on my kindle adding to the fact it felt like nothing happened, because when I finished book 1 I was only 30% of the way through it, but still it’s very difficult for me to recall specific events as nothing really felt climatic at the end of the first story. 

The SECOND book however, saved my Tolya, Tamar, and the now second loml Nikolai was significantly better. This was also the book I confirmed I hated Mal. Maybe I hate that he had ignored Alina forever and was pining and he literally didn’t think twice about her and then suddenly because she was interested in someone else he was like WELL WHAT ABOUT ME. Idk. Not my cup of tea. Also let my track record show that I never like the childhood best friend to lovers character (except for Gale in hunger games, unpopular opinion go ahead sue me) But anyway I could see her with Nikolai WAY MORE than Mal. I was honestly surprised that wasn’t explored more. 

And shocking to me, and I’m sure everyone who knows me, I LOVED the third book the most which is never the case, I always hate the conclusion books-often they’re rushed, super anticlimactic, or just messy in general. I felt the pacing finally hit its mark, the story was intriguing, we were done hunting finally and it was all coming to the build up face off. This was where I started reading faster. Mal being the third amplifier, I literally tweeted “MAL IS THE WHAT” on my 1d/5sos twitter and everyone was like Emily wtf are you talking about and had a solid breakdown about it. I also started to like him more after the White Cathedral stuff went down, but still the idea that she had to kill him to get his power didn’t make me upset. My head went: great she can do that and be consoled by the ever amazing Nikolai for the rest of time, PERFECT. The near cousin thing w the Darkling though? I was like PLEASE DONT JACE/CLARY ME PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. But despite my distrust and dislike of Mal, I thought the ending was super strong and I did actually like it, it felt realistic that she lost everything but him essentially. 

I was on my way to read Six of Crows after this series, so I could be up to date with the show, but my friend recently recommended The Cruel Prince and I read 75% of the book last night. I couldn’t put it down, so Six of Crows- though I’ve heard even better things about it- will have to wait a little longer.

Now back to why I was referred this book. Was the Darkling like Warner? If you need something like the Shatter Me series would this be a good fit for you? I don’t think so. I don’t think you go deep enough into the Darkling in his own words to make them comparable and I don’t think there’s enough self reflection either. I got a very stand offish vibe from the Darkling and while ya Warner isn’t the golden child for spilling feelings, I feel like he is more human and simply tortured by his past than the Darkling. So this one unfortunately did not fill the Shatter Me hole in my heart. And I am sad, but I will keep searching.  

[darklightsworld]

Hello, I remember you saying some time ago you didn't like how female characters are portrayed in (current) anime because of how annoying and, maybe, misogynistic their archetypes are. Could you maybe elaborate on this point? I feel similar but can't articulate well and always end up feeling like I'm the one being misogynistic whenever this type of subject comes up in conversation x.x Sorry if this comes up as too personal.

Sorry about the late reply, I have been busy with a conference. Also sorry, because my answer is a bit long and all over the place ^^;

This is a difficult question, especially because nowadays people like to think in black and white, and everything is so extreme, like if they don’t like something, then it must be wrong and eliminated, not to mention the policing of every content based to this – which kills diversity and dismisses personal (and gendered) preferences. What I think is really a personal preference and not exactly a general critique of female characters in anime, especially because there are many factors to consider (genre, age and gender or the target audience, cultural background, etc.), and there’s also the audience with its multiple readings.

Personally I dislike most female character types manga and anime has to give, because I’m not really a person for overly feminine and girly things. The Japanese ideal is very cutesy and it’s the standard in both media for men, women and also real life. Not just looks, there is also the behavior side of things, the cutesy, childish, girly ideal, the passivity, helplessness, pretending to be stupid, etc, and I outright hate it when female characters are treated as stupid, clumsy messes. The question is, though, is this ideal really conservative and an embodiment of the toxic patriarchal system? Actually not necessarily. They definitely originate from the oppressive system, but over the decades girls made these ideals their own, and turned them into a weapon to get what they want. Even in real life, fashion is very feminine for me, always with frills, ribbons, flitters, tons of dresses and skirts, and it’s difficult to find plain clothes without any decoration, not to mention all the cuteness in goods and stuff, but as for the behavior of girls and women, the cutesy ideal seems more like a role to be played at a certain age or for certain purposes, like getting things they want and eventually the man. A woman, who didn’t like this ideal herself defined it as “they had to play the wounded deer”. Actually women, who use this role too much and even among women, are usually hated – this is the infamous burikko.

But no matter how they were in their younger years, married women don’t use this role anymore, and they seamlessly slip into a different identity, one that rules the family and the finances with iron fist (I’m stereotyping) – nothing cutesy, helpless or stupid about that. The Japanese themselves are aware of this cutesy role, both men and women, it’s their version of cunning flirtatiousness, it’s just a very different type of flirtatiousness than in the West. For example, there is currently even a tv show enacting certain situations where this cutesy behavior is used to get the man, and the hosts rate how effective the cutesy behavior was. But while I understand intellectually that these are not necessarily misogynistic stereotypes, I have some kind of a visceral hatred for them. The above tv show makes me outright nauseous. It’s a personal preference, and I don’t think I have to like these character types. But I also don’t think they should be erased from Japanese media, and it would be a mistake trying to push my very independent Western values onto such a different culture, so I rather avoid these characters – which is not easy.

So, what does this mean for anime and manga? Both are largely determined by genres (manga more than anime), genres work with clean-cut character types, tropes, traditions and reader expectation, so there is a reason why female (and male) characters are the way they are in different genres. Male-oriented works will obviously have female characters that appeal to men even if the work doesn’t have in your face fanservice shots (though let’s face it, if it’s anime, most of them do). I don’t like these female character types, I don’t think I have to like them, they are clearly not geared toward me, but I also don’t think they shouldn’t be there in a clearly male-oriented media. Sure, there can be discussions about removing overly exploitive situations, harassment and rape or things like that, but I’m not really against letting men have their fun – because I expect to have that same freedom in media geared toward women. There are occasionally unisex anime, but usually they still serve one or the other demographic in a way, and I don’t think it’s possible to create truly unisex anime that everybody will be satisfied with – fanservice for women will always bother men, and fanservice for men will always bother women.

Shōjo manga is a more difficult question, because somewhere in the 70s romance started to focus on imperfect heroines who still got the best guy, because he loved them regardless of their imperfections (“I love you the way you are”), and since then the genre is full of the stupid, clumsy, indecisive, housewife material archetype without any dreams beyond getting the boy (or very old-school women job dreams), which does not appeal to me either, so I usually avoid most romance shōjo manga, especially the high school variant, and even most josei manga, because I don’t care for the adult version of the same with marriage as the end goal *shrug* Actually it’s not even about these things only, like, I disliked Arte too (though not shōjo manga), despite it trying (and failing) to pose as a feminist social commentary, just because the mc way annoying. Fortunately there are a lot of other types of shōjo manga as well, even with more appealing female characters or the best, without female characters (plus the whole BL scene), so it’s not all that bad, at least in manga, not so much in anime. Interestingly, I’m much more compatible with shōjo manga by fujoshi artists. If I like a shōjo manga, usually the artist ends up coming out as a fujoshi after a while by posting BL fanart on her twitter or drawing outright BL manga – it’s been a pattern XD

Anime is more difficult, but I also admit, that my tastes might be extreme. In Japan there are many female fans who love the cute female characters of male-oriented media. Many women like Love Live, for example, because the girls are, I quote, “so cuuuuuute” – while I am fighting nausea… Yeah, Japan is imbued with cute. It’s especially difficult, because I’m usually not willing to watch a series even if there are such female characters in supporting roles or as a second protagonist with male characters I would love to see (Cop Craft was a recent-ish example). And while I avoid female only casts on principle, sometimes there are surprises. For example, the Yashahime anime has terrible writing, but I don’t hate the three main female characters (even if occasionally the anime has some iffy things to say about femininity).

I also mentioned multiple readings. It is important to note that the audience does not necessarily interpret everything the same, especially if there are cultural differences. One of the most famous examples for this is Sailor Moon, which was the incarnation of girl power and emancipation in the West in the 90s, but it has the same “dumb heroine gets the dream guy” trope, and the same conservative message of getting married and giving birth to children as any average shōjo manga, and the same “so cuuuuute” packaging. It really depends on the audience what they get away with.

All in all there are preferences, genre conventions, cultural differences, so the whole thing is quite difficult. But I don’t think you need to be worried about not liking or being uncomfortable with certain character types. And it would be a stretch to consider tastes like mine, for example, misogynistic. Sure, even in real life I make a wide berth around overly girly or feminine women (among others), but it can’t be helped, you can’t like and be friends with everyone, and I guess they wouldn’t like me or wanting to be my friend either. And that’s fine, and I don’t think it’s misogynistic for me to reject certain types of femininity for myself and to interact with, as long as I don’t want to erase or invalidate them, or deem them as inferior – and I don't. Of course, this is the attitude I expect towards myself as well. Live and let live 🖖

[lastsonlost]

NO SHIT SHERLOCK!

What fucking took you so long!

The story: ALSO- spoiler warning

Midway through a screening of Joker this weekend at a Chicago theater, I leaned over to a friend seated next to me and whispered: “Is this the same movie that everyone has been talking about?”

I asked because what I was witnessing on-screen bore little resemblance to the ode to angry, young, white, “incel” men that I had heard so much about in media coverage of Joker leading up to its release. Instead, we got a fairly straightforward condemnation of American austerity: how it leaves the vulnerable to suffer without the resources they need, and the horrific consequences for the rest of society that can result.

This message is so blunt that even I, a Marxist and philistine, found its message a bit too clobbering. How mainstream commentators have missed it and drawn the exact opposite conclusion is baffling.

Arthur Fleck, the protagonist and eventual Joker, is a poor, young, white, mentally ill man who works as a clown and seems to enjoy it. In the film’s opening scene, he is beaten up by a rowdy group of teenagers, some of whom appear to be teens of color..

Watching this opening, I thought, here it is: in the very first scene, teenagers running wild on the streets of New York City, a classic rightwing trope in American cinema depicting a society (and its racialized underclass, in particular) that is out of control. We’ll soon be told it needs to be reined in by some old-fashioned law and order and cracking of skulls.

Yet in the locker room of the clown agency, when a coworker calls the teens “animals” and “savages”, Arthur explicitly rejects dehumanizing the teens. “They’re just kids,” he responds. Bruises visible on his body – a body for which Joaquin Phoenix lost 52 pounds ahead of filming, with a disturbingly protruding spine and ribs, that is physically ravaged by the austerity-racked society Arthur lives in, wasting away in front of our eyes – he defends his assailants and rejects his coworker’s racist epithets.

Since critics depicted this as a film for the far right, whose overtly racist views are well-known, I expected the depictions of characters of color to be bigoted. But interestingly, almost all of the violence he eventually metes out as he sinks deeper and deeper into a full breakdown – save for the movie’s final scene, at which point Joker’s nihilistic brutality has fully blossomed, now wanton and indiscriminate – is against white men, many of them wealthy.

A passing interaction with a neighbor, a single black mother who lives on his floor, leads to a disturbing and delusional romantic obsession with her . This culminates in a tense scene in which – on the verge of a full breakdown and after we realize the previous scenes of the two of them on a date and sitting at the hospital bedside of Arthur’s mother were completely imagined by him – he walks into her open apartment.

The viewer expects an act of violence against her, perhaps even a horrific scene of sexual assault, by the lonely man who wants the beautiful woman but can’t have her. In other words, the ultimate incel revenge fantasy. Instead, startled, she asks him to leave. He does.

Likewise, in a scene whose political message was so blunt that it could have appeared in a mid-century Stalinist propaganda film, his social worker and counselor – another black woman – with whom he has a tense but clearly significant relationship, is forced to tell him that due to recent budget cuts, their office will be shutting down. Arthur asks her where he’s going to get his medication; she has no answer for him.

“They don’t give a shit about people like you, Arthur,” she tells him, referring to those who cut the budget. “And they don’t give a shit about people like me either.”

The black, female public-sector worker is telling the white, male public-service user that their interests are intertwined against the wealthy billionaire class and their political lackeys who are slashing public services. Across racial and gender boundaries, the two have a common class enemy.

You can’t get much less subtle, or much more diametrically opposed to the right’s worldview, than this.

It is those budget cuts that drive Arthur deeper into madness. Similar attempted cuts likely drove sanitation workers to strike, resulting in the piled-up garbage constantly visible on Gotham’s streets. These are clear allusions to New York City’s 1975 fiscal crisis and the austerity it produced, which soon spread to the rest of the country.

Elites’ condescending responses to the widespread suffering make things worse. Billionaire Thomas Wayne condemns Arthur’s murder of his three employees (representing young, arrogant, rich Wall Street types) on the subway by calling the average person seething in the streets “clowns”. Don’t they know that he wants to help them, the ultra-rich mayoral candidate asks. He is irritated he even has to explain this. His comments merely stoke the already burning fires of resentment, with Wayne’s obliviousness at their misery rubbing salt in the wounds of average Gotham residents and driving them to the streets to protest Wayne and elites like him in clown masks.

And, of course, when Arthur sneaks into a high-class theatre and confronts Wayne about what Arthur has been led to believe by his ailing mother – that Wayne, her former employer, is Arthur’s father – the genteel billionaire, dressed in a full tuxedo, literally punches Arthur in the face. Again, political subtlety is not this film’s stock and trade. How could reviewers miss this?

What Arthur – and scores of others like him in Gotham and our own society – needs is a fully-funded Medicare for All or NHS-style health system that includes robust mental health services that provide him with the counseling services and medication that can save him (and others around him) from his unceasingly “negative thoughts” and violent impulses.

He needs public programs that can provide a warm, encouraging environment for his creative impulses, allowing him to perform standup comedy or perform as a clown without becoming a laughingstock on national television or getting canned by an uncaring boss. He needs wages for his care work for his infirm mother or a robust elder care system that can respectfully take her under its care. He needs high-quality housing he can afford.

Arthur has more than his share of problems, but a few of them would have been solved, or at least adequately and humanely managed, in a society whose budgets were oriented more towards people like him than Wayne. But he does not live in that society, and neither do we. Instead of public services and dignity, he gets that most American of consolation prizes: a gun, and the sense of respect that, while ultimately hollow, has long eluded him.

Joker’s ending is bleak and one whose general thrust we knew going into the film: in addition to the three Wall Street types, an old mother, a coworker, a talkshow host and a billionaire couple have been murdered in cold blood; rioters in clown masks are running wild in the streets, cheering Joker on the hood of a cop car. In the final scene, Arthur is again speaking to a social worker, but now in handcuffs in an asylum. But it’s too late to reach him, because he’s no longer Arthur – he’s the Joker, and the Joker has no qualms about killing her, too.

Rosa Luxemburg once famously framed the choice for our future as that of socialism or barbarism. Joker is a portrait of a society that has chosen barbarism. No one wants to see violence erupt in such a situation, but we shouldn’t be surprised when it does.

In the real world, we aren’t yet at that breaking point. And unlike Gotham, we have alternate paths on offer – represented best by the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, whose presidential campaign speaks to that roiling anger but channels it into humane and egalitarian directions. If we don’t take it, and that anger continues to find a home in reactionary outlets, the barbarities we see in Joker might start looking horrifyingly familiar.

[fandomshatepeopleofcolor]

hey can you tell me what's wrong with mal? i've only recently finished reading the first book of the series and i didn't find anything wrong with him but i'd like to know how his rship w alina is treated in the other books. i actually ship them as opposed to alina/the darkling which i found super yikes. not trying to stir anything i'm just curious of what i should be wary of.

i debated whether to reply to the other two people and you, or to you only, but ended up deciding to reply to you. What convinced me was that user meherya linked to a post that’s tagged as “mal oretsev defense squad” and honestly. Even if Mal is not as obviously bad as The Darkling, i’d block a Darkling stan for being like that, so it’s only fair that i’d do the same with Mal. 

I’m not linking the post because it says that anti-mals shouldn’t interact with it and I, proud of hating everything Malyen Oretsev, don’t want to do that. You can find it on the notes of the original (completely untagged, and old as all fuck, so how did they even find it?) ask.

Either way, I’m not going to elaborate much more than this reply on Mal, both he and Alina are white characters in The Grisha Trilogy and saying otherwise credits the author with rep that is not there. Making headcanons about them, or any other white characters, being of any ethnicity is great, especially coming from other poc. However, insisting that this is canon to justify the abuse of a male character towards the female protagonist of a series in which she’s already treated like cattle by all the different people trying to marry her off… miss me with that. 

(if you haven’t read siege and storm and ruin and rising, there’s spoilers from here on)

His bad behavior actually starts in Shadow and Bone, when he gets mad at Alina as soon as he sees her after months. He just gets worse from then on, being jealous of her power, resenting the fact that she doesn’t depend on him anymore, completely disregarding that ever since she stopped suppressing her Grisha power Alina is literally healthier. He’s smug as shit at the beginning of Siege and Storm, when Alina feels completely like shit, but hey he’s the only one in her radar now! They are “back to normal”: Alina weak and depending exclusively on him. Tell me that’s not the mentality of an abuser. 

He starts picking up fights with her to the point that they break up because he feels like she doesn’t pay enough attention to him. There’s a war going on in Ravka, Alina is being literally stalked by the Darkling, who wants to enslave her to him. She’s being asked to marry into the Ravkan crown, take control of an entire army, and scape an immortal, almost all-powerful creep… but pwoor Mal feels left out :( So left out that right after they break up he goes shove his tongue down Zoya’s mouth, specifically to spite Alina, but yeah. He cares very much about her lmfao.

It takes Alina almost killing herself in an attempt to stop the Darkling for him to realise that he’s a disgusting piece of shit and apologise to Alina. Not that he like… puts too much effort but whatever. I digress. He does the bare minimun and gets everything he wanted: Alina, powerless, depending exclusively on him while she mourns the loss of the abilities that LITERALLY gave her health, which she had only suppressed for him. And, in case you want to say “it’s ok bc she apologised” well… that’s part of the cycle of abuse, isn’t it? If he manipulated her once, if he guilt-tripped her and disregarded her feelings once, who’s to say that he won’t do it once they are alone, with only children for company, when everyone thinks she’s dead? 

The Darkling is the evident bad choice because he’s Very Obviously Evil. He created the unsea, he wants to rule the world, he tries to enslave Alina, he tortures Genya, he turns Nikolai into a monster, kidnaps children and murders hundreds of people, tortures his own mother. He’s a Darth Vader-type of villain. Mal is just a charming, handsome guy, the one that’s easy to fall for when you get to know him but that you only see is bad once you’re already in a relationship with him and he’s got an easier time controling you. He’s toxic masculinity, he’s the guy that makes your friend cry with his games. He’s bad, but he’s a different type of bad.

As far as love interests go, The Grisha Trilogy has all around only bad choices. ~mod ara

[theampreviews]

Dragged Across Concrete

When I sometimes attended my Film Studies classes at University one thing stuck with me from the Script Writing class; an economy of writing was critical to the success of your screenplay. It was a mantra echoing the sentiments of William Goldman’s “Arrive Late, Leave Early” approach to scene writing (as detailed in his books Adventures In The Screen Trade and Which Lie Did I Tell?). To his mind this prevents an audience getting “antsy”. It’s a notion S. Craig Zahler wholeheartedly disregards.

If Zahler’s first two films, Bone Tomahawk and Brawl In Cell Block 99, could be described as leisurely in pace (both clock in at 142min), then Dragged Across Concrete, with its hefty 159min, is positively lethargic (which, for context, is still only 10mins longer than the last Avengers movie and 5mins shorter than Blade Runner 2049), and will likely push most multiplex audiences to their limits. Holding it to The Goldman Standard; this could be the least economical screenplay ever filmed, but it’s all the better for it.

Going into this film you need to understand that you’ll have to bed down and submit to his tempo, which is at times almost static. Zahler builds scenes of great magnitude that draw his viewers in, enveloping them like a sphygmomanometer (I had to Google that), applying ever more pressure until it’s almost unbearable. Virtually scoreless throughout, there’s precious little to distract from Zahler’s writing, but thankfully he’s still one of the most refreshing wordsmith’s out there. He might not pack his dialogue with pop-culture references as Tarantino can do (someone he’s rather erroneously compared to), but his way with words is just as pleasing to the ear. It’s hard-nosed, pulpy writing that exists purely in a world of his creation - his actors chewing on his dialogue like a T-Bone. He can also show a man eat an entire sandwich in silence and have it pay off.  

The most satisfying part of Zahler’s writing is that everything matters. There’s nothing throw-away about anything he shoots. The space he affords actors within the scenes allows them, and us, to take it all in without relying on cinematic shorthand to move things forward. No matter how long a scene is, it feels right, even (or especially) if that feeling is one of discomfort. The narrative drive of the film is relatively linear, we know exactly where we’re headed from early on, it’s in how Zahler stretches everything to breaking point in getting there that generates an anxiety that makes you shift in your seat; not the run-time. He can cut to the chase, but don’t be surprised if that chase is a leisurely tail across a freeway - the antithesis of Friedkin’s To Live & Die In L.A. but just as enthralling.

The other key attraction to a Zahler movie is his now notorious use of extreme violence. Whilst it would be disingenuous to say he has toned that down here (this is still far beyond much that you’ll see in your average movie these days), it is used more sparingly and dwelt upon less so than in his previous two. If Bone Tomahawk was sparse but unflinching in its depictions of depravity, and Brawl In Cell Block 99 relished the gonzo splatter effects of old, this time Zahler uses short, sharp jolts of violence to provoke the mind rather than overwhelm it. Often shots of explicit detail are cut away from so quickly that you’re still processing what you saw well into the next scene. It can have a disorientating effect, but one that makes you consider what you saw rather than simply have it thrown in your face.

Zahler also expands his eye for Old White Males, something I know many roll their eyes at, with his casting of Mel Gibson. Adding to the ranks of Kurt Russell and two time cast members Vince Vaughn, Don Johnson, Fred Melamed and Udo Kier, Gibson fits into Zahler’s aggressive, grim fatalism with ease. Some might consider this a role Gibson’s publicist might have urged him to avoid.

Since his original “cancellation”, Gibson has sought refuge in B-Picture pulp (Get The Gringo, Machete Kills, The Expendables 3) and couple of Father roles casting him as avenger/protector to wayward daughters (Edge Of Darkness, Blood Father) which all points to him acknowledging his new found villain status whilst also embracing a need for redemption (even the seeming outlier of Studio Festive Comedy Daddy’s Home 2 dines out on his asshole persona). Here though, the role of Brett Ridgeman felt too close to the bone for some; a bitter, mean son-of-a-bitch with a heavy-handed disdain for minorities. Be that as it may, Gibson is perfection and should be recognised for what is close to a career best - certainly it tops the list of performances in this second half of his career. Equal part hang-dog weariness and brittle rage barely concealed below a haggard surface, I can’t think of many others that could embody the character this wholly.  

Gibson and Vaughn’s Anthony Lurasetti are police officers who find themselves suspended without pay for Ridgeman’s abusive arrest of a Hispanic drug dealer; an act captured on a cell phone and spread throughout local media. The idea that Zahler frames their subsequent descent into “crime to make ends meet” as right-wing apologist rhetoric for the "forgotten majority" has made many uncomfortable, and I don’t doubt for a second that this is by Zahler’s design. Do I think he holds those beliefs? I wouldn’t know, but this film is not one for the Red Hat brigade if that’s what concerns people, but it does wave those common red flags without flinching (look to the “Black Panic” scene in which Gibson’s daughter is tormented by black youths on her way home, Gibson’s character bemoaning his lowly wage forcing them to live in such a “shit hole” with a young daughter and disabled wife).

As counter-point, the third main protagonist Henry Johns, played by a revelatory Tory Kittles, offers another staple of the genre; the recently paroled felon in desperate need of cash (imagine Denis Haysbert’s role in Heat given more screen time) providing a cultural juxtaposition to the craggy old cop routine (he and his partner Biscuits even “whiting-up” at one point). Whilst he rises a notch or two above the others in the morality stakes, he’s no Magical Negro; his purpose is not to elevate or educate his white co-stars, he has as much stakes in the game as either (sharing a financial need for care-giving with Ridgeman), and just as much blood on his hands (and sometimes more...). 

The Heat nod was clearly intentional, as Zahler cited that as a reference point in his Q&A, along with Dog Day Afternoon and Point Blank. Lofty comparisons they may be, but as a homage to those films, Dragged Across Concrete holds its own, albeit through the filter of a filmmaker that clearly loves exploitation cinema as much as any. Swimming in those waters, Zahler toes a fine line as to what audiences will find acceptable in both content and execution, and I think he’s pushed back against that line a little further here than he has before. It’s a provocative film without being insolently button-pushing and I’m sure it’s one that will divide audiences for some time (all but guaranteed to be a future Cult Favourite though).

There’s a scene that precedes the pivotal bank robbery that proved contentious to some during the screening I was at. We’re introduced to a character (one of the principle cast members) who we assume will form a large part in the film going forward, only for her screen time to be short lived and inconsequential to the plot. It makes for a quite harrowing and frustrating vignette, prompting one audience member to ask Zahler to account for its inclusion, a question met with spattered murmurs of approval around the auditorium. Zahler, clearly relishing the fact that this scene had struck a nerve, went on to explain (accurately) how everything from that point is framed in an entirely different way. It may have elicited anger from some of those watching, but he’s right in how that scene causes a shift in how you view the film and the protagonists going forward. He also acknowledged that, had he made this film under the watchful eye of a Studio and without his Final Cut deal, that scene would be the first thing any Producer would make him cut.

In a world dominated by audience pandering franchises, I think Zahler’s singular voice is one that needs to be preserved in tact, no matter how acquired a taste it may be.

[lligkv]

In a scene early in Susan Choi's novel My Education,* two grad students are talking about a protest against an elderly male professor for the racism in his latest book.

"They were chanting 'Joseph Conrad, Joseph Conrad!' I evoked, splashing beer as I mimed a hand waving a sign. 'Because, you know, of Conrad's Colonialist Agenda. So we're going to have an emergency meeting to decide if we should boycott his class, or stay and try to subvert it somehow from within."

"Can I ask a really idiotic question?" Dutra said, in a tone that suggested his question would reveal that all idiocy lay elsewhere. "With these people, is that name, Joseph Conrad, supposed to be an insult?"

"Well, yes!--obviously... I don't think they're talking about his writing so much as his politics. And the way his discourse perpetuates the status quo. The inequities in power between whites, who control the discourse, and nonwhites, who are controlled by it--"

"Who cares about his politics?" said Dutra, swinging out of the hammock... "Do you like his books or don't you?"

"Whose?"

"Joseph Conrad's."

Here was a question I hadn't expected. "I've only read Heart of Darkness but...I liked it," I acceded at last...

"Do you like the other guy's books?"

"Whose? My professor's?"

"Exactly."

"I've never read them." Strike three.

Dutra burst out hysterically laughing. "No wonder you're confused!" he exclaimed, in the exaggeratedly bemused, tenderly condescending manner I'd already learned was his method of shifting the mood... "You don't have any empirical evidence..."

It reminded me of something I'd read about a recent controversy in the Romance Writers of America over the novel At Love's Command. accused of glorifying a protagonist who participated in the massacre of Sioux people at Wounded Knee. Specifically, comments by the president of PEN America, Suzanne Nossel, about proportionality: "When the accountability is driven by a firestorm on social media, the notion of proportionality goes out the window because nothing short of a complete repudiation is going to satisfy an audience from afar that's really not immersed in the facts and can't really assess motives. It can mean a default to the most draconian outcome."

The facts of a situation and the motives of an artist being criticized are key ways to distinguish what harm may have been done and what restitution may be necessary. They're not the sum total of the case--but they do sometimes fall by the wayside in these sorts of controversies, at least in the way they're most often covered by outlets like the New York Times. The primary focus is so often trained on the other relevant aspect of these cases, which is the harm that can be done by representations of atrocity and those who are allied with atrocity--which so often isn't quantified as clearly as it could be. (In the case of At Love's Command, for instance, the harm that could be said to have been done is: 1) the book attempts to empathize with someone who participated in a racist atrocity, and 2) it does this in a cultural context in which authors of color are systemically disadvantaged--not given as many opportunities to publish or considered in equal proportion to White peers as having the merit granted their White peers--with representation for their stories reduced as a result, so 3) it should not be celebrated; it's taking an award that could have gone to an author of color, and perhaps should have, given the fact that the award it received was named for Vivian Stephens, a Black woman who cofounded the Romance Writers of America.) Add to this virality--how easy it is to see these conflicts as they emerge and weigh in--and particular facts of a situation and evaluations of potential motives of the participants become even more distant...

I've often thought of the controversies around representation in, say, romance or young adult literature as live looks at a cultural pendulum as it swings--which is something we ought to be patient with. A landscape of what we're willing to endorse and permit is changing, in tectonic ways. We ought to give the new earth some time to settle before we begin to walk it. And many of the onlookers who deride "cancel culture" don't seem to have the patience to understand in good faith why the people who are upset at a book like At Love's Command receiving awards or honors are reacting this way. But the arguable over-the-topness that the complaints can take on when the nature of the harm that's alleged isn't spelled out--and the facts of a situation aren't widely known by all who amplify the complaint, and the motives of an artist aren't always done justice in the complaint--isn't any more helpful... To represent the interiority of a person who commits an atrocity isn't to endorse what that person does; a character's actions or opinions aren't an author's: these are truisms basic to the creation and appreciation of art. And the seeming refusal to acknowledge them in cases like the At Love's Command--so that we can focus on the practical argument about representation and artistic honors and who's getting them that, to my mind, has the most merit--gives the hostile and the ignorant all the ammunition they need to shoot all such complaints down, as "hysteria," before they've even had any impact.

In the meantime, I appreciate the measured response of the author of At Love's Command, Karen Witemeyer, who "said in an email that she did not agree with the group’s decision to rescind the award but said, 'I understand why they felt compelled to take such action, and I harbor no resentment toward them.'" The statement's a bit crisp, and you could read some passive aggression in it. But taking it charitably, Witemeyer seems to grasp what so often falls by the wayside for people injured by accusations they've caused harm, which they cannot understand or bring themselves to agree with: there is a gap between the artist's intention and the art's effect; no artist can be in perfect control of the ways their work will be received, and no artist is immune from the social spirit of the times in which they're producing their work. Sometimes you've just got to accept what happens to that work. All the paratextual stuff--how it's received, how you're thought of as a result--is secondary to it, and much of it is beyond your control.

This is all pretty "basic." But the way these conversations happen online, it's hard to approach anything resembling a first principle. Every so often I want to sit down and figure out something that might interrupt the endless cycle of this same conflict bubbling up and fizzing out before we move to its next instantiation.

A little bit of patience is called for, from everyone involved, and a little bit of grace. And an expansion of the landscape of literature, where outcry over a book like At Love's Command seems to me to encode a belief that this landscape is zero sum--that any depiction of a participant in a racist system will take away literary territory that ought to belong to the victims of that system. Those who participate in atrocious systems, even gleefully, are also part of the human fabric, and it's not always glorifying them to depict their consciousnesses at work, or to celebrate such a depiction for what it reveals about our collective condition. What's more, how much does an award matter anyway? Granted awards say something about what the culture values--but they're snapshots of the values of a moment; for every celebrated text that stays in a "canon," there are tens or more that are discarded... And there are other ways to make a case for literary value than protesting a particular moment it isn't given. Just find more ways to talk about the books you love. As someone who works in publishing, I can say publishers are listening. (Though, you know, grain of salt here: publishing's desires to capitalize on trends are (obviously) cynical; if you want to be taken up by that establishment, you'll likely find it's not what you wanted it to be.) And beyond what publishers or literary establishments do or don't do, the love you have for a book in its moment is really all you've got. No future's guaranteed for any text.

I also think, there has to be some better way of adjudicating this than "give an award" -> "experience outcry by constituents" -> "rescind the honor given." The mechanics of popularity or brand management are at work there, rather than an organization's sincere engagement with the complaint being made, the elaboration of a principled stance for its response and the taking of action according to that stance, or the desire for true resolution or restitution on either side.

*It's somewhat ironic that I'm using My Education as my decorative lead-in for this little post about ethics in artistic representation. The stories of both the male protagonists in that novel--including Dutra--involve unproven allegations of sexual harassment, in a way that probably wouldn't fly in a novel published today as opposed to 2013. I'll admit I was expecting Choi to do more with the accusations than treat them, essentially, as ways to give those characters a bit of spice, a frisson of danger. And a barrier to loving them that only a woman like her protagonist, Regina, is brave enough to surmount.

[scrawnydutchman]

Disney and Feminism

*MINOR DISNEY MOVIE SPOILERS AHEAD*

Disney has undeniably been striking a massive chord with audiences of every generation since the early 20th century and for good reason. Their movies are touching, easily accessible, identifiable, masterfully handcrafted fun for all ages. Even the worst Disney films (that aren’t straight to DVD sequels) have a sense of raw concentrated enchantment that has been keeping the company afloat since it’s inception. But recently I’ve noticed that more so than any other demographic, Disney movies, ESPECIALLY of the Disney princess variety, have been striking a chord with the third wave feminist movement. It should really come to no surprise; Disney essentially built it’s empire off of making enchanting entertainment for little girls especially. The first animated feature ever made is Snow White for crying out loud. But usually the appeal of Disney films among feminists goes one of two ways: they either praise the ever loving hell out of these films and constantly produce fanart of classic Disney characters wearing urban apparel . . . or they despise these movies because they see sinister undertones beneath all the enchantment. I once dated a girl who hated all Disney princess films because in her mind they were always about entitled girls wanting more out of their luxury ridden life than what they’ve been given, directly cause conflict and then get what they want in the end. While I don’t believe it’s nearly as cut and dry as that . . . I do think she has a point.

In response to these critiques of old Disney movie cliches, the Disney films of recent years have been making noticeable shifts in their theming to accommodate for their most profitable demographic besides children and these changes have been pretty successful in terms of winning over the affection of their fans. Frozen is now the highest grossing animated film of all time, beating the long raining champ The Lion King. Zootopia received huge critical praise for it’s underlying commentary on prejudice in modern society. In fact, the whole reason I started up this article was because a couple of days ago when I was in a doodling club talking about Disney movies a member of the club said her favorite Disney film was Moana because it was the “most feminist”.

But while I think all of these films are certainly enjoyable, I have to ask . . . are they really as empowering towards women as they are given credit for? Moana especially troubles me for this reason. At first glance it seems like a great Disney movie where an ambitious wide eyed young woman goes on this adventure to discover her true destiny and save her island, and ultimately saves the day by showing compassion to the antagonist of the film. That’s all well and good, except for two major problems . . . 

1. She didn’t really choose to do any of this of her own volition.

Yes I know, you could argue there’s a whole subplot of her wanting to explore in spite of her father, but really the only justification she gets to finally do it is that she has to fulfill a destiny. The plot doesn’t involve her because she insists that she must be involved, the plot involves her via “chosen one” narrative, where the water chooses Moana to resolve the issues Maui caused. And then from there she’s essentially strung along the ride because she doesn’t know any better by herself in order to make things happen of her own volition. She doesn’t know how to sail or where to go or what to do unless somebody tells her. Grandmother says go see Maui, Maui says go to the monster world to find his hook, Moana is on the verge of giving up until grandma comes in for a pep talk. The only reason she does anything in this story is because other people said so. There are only 3 exceptions to this rule: the part where she tricks Tomatoa (which only happened because she followed Maui’s plan and she would have died sooner if Maui didn’t intervene, more on that later). Second is when she and Maui fight the little coconut pirates (which really I have no qualms with: she was pretty badass there). The last part is the finale, which honestly never needed to happen because there was absolutely nothing stopping the water from bringing the stone to Te Fiti itself. Speaking of . . 

2. Moana gets her ass saved all the time, ESPECIALLY by the water.

*tangent: the water in this movie is effing gorgeous*

When you really think about it, what was stopping the water from just taking the heart back to Te Fiti itself? Maui points this out in the movie and Moana doesn’t even have an argument for it. The water doesn’t need Moana; if anything, Moana was just a hindrance to the plan. She couldn’t get to Maui’s island by herself; the ocean had to drift her unconscious body there. She couldn’t convince Maui to come with her; the ocean had to make it impossible for him to refuse. Had the ocean not been there, Maui would have totally gotten away with her boat. She’s been protected from certain death by incoming projectiles by both Maui AND the ocean a number of times throughout the movie. She was on the verge of giving up until her Grandma showed up and her Grandma outright admitted that maybe she was asking too much of her. Moana’s only real stake in this besides her island dying is that she wants to reunite her people with their voyager heritage which . . . why does the ocean give a shit? She doesn’t even convince Maui to come back after their little fight; he just decides to come back off screen and it’s never really specified what convinced him to do so. Matter of fact his Jiminy Cricket tattoo does more to convince him to act morally than Moana does.

Do you see where I’m going with this? Moana almost never makes shit happen in this movie; 90% of it is just shit happening with Moana in the crossfire. If not for powerful forces favoring her she would have never even made it to Maui’s Island. Is that really empowering? Is this a protagonist little girls can really look up to?

Other Disney movies of recent years have either had similar problems or the same problem to a lesser extent. Frozen is often praised for breaking women stereotypes in fiction but honestly I think it rides it’s success by pandering to said stereotypes harder than any Disney film of it’s era.

Zootopia is a movie all about a woman-allegory bunny cop Judy Hopps proving she can solve the biggest mystery plaguing the city and the whole film takes you on this “whodunnit” plotline that completely defeats the purpose of a mystery when the answer to the problem just magically lands on Judy’s lap and essentially just rewards her for giving up.

Granted a lot of these problems have happened to male Disney protagonists in the past as well, but if the point is to create more empowered women in media than I have to ask; why is it any solution to have these main characters that are essentially strung along by major contrivances that ruin the point that the movie was trying to prove?

You know what would be great? A movie about a female protagonist who tries to adhere to cultural sensibilities at first, fails because it’s just not who she is, actively decides to do something about her conflict through noone’s volition but her own and for the sake of somebody close to her rather than herself, even goes as far as exposes the bullshit expectation towards the OTHER gender and resolves whatever crisis is going on shearly by her own wit and through being herself? Yeah, I can’t wait for a Disney movie like that. Oh, wait . . . I don’t need to. It exists and it’s fucking called MULAN!!!!

This movie is so often glanced over and dismissed when it comes to the Disney movie-feminism discussion and I honestly don’t get why. I consider this the PERFECT feminist Disney movie. This film is in my top 3 favorite Disney films of all time (the other two being Emperor’s New Groove and Hunchback of Notre Dame). Mulan is not only the best female protagonist Disney has ever had, but is arguably the best they’ve ever had period. She has NONE of the problems I listed above. Rather than try to prove a point about womens strength, she only cares about protecting who she loves and quickly puts her own woes aside because that’s how unselfish she is. She’s not a “chosen one”, she doesn’t go out to fulfill any kind of destiny. She goes on her adventure because she is determined to do what it takes to protect what she loves, even if she has to die for it. She doesn’t save the day via deus ex machina: BOTH times she defeats Shan Yu it’s a result of her own cunning and cleverness in how she uses the things around her that she’s had the whole time (side note: her cleverness as well as other positive qualities is demonstrated in the first song of the movie when she passes a checkers game on her way to her inspection). She is a no nonsense, determined, motivated badass who gets stronger by her own determination and ends up saving all of China by being herself. She also helps her guy friends get more in touch with their feminine side by the end of the movie and proves her strength in spite of all the dudes who see women as inferior. She technically has a guide character in Mushu, but . . . let’s be honest, Mushu is more of a hindrance than a help up until the climax. 

Mulan gets shit done and she PROVES her worth. She isn’t told what to do. She isn’t helped unless she proves her qualities as a leader. She doesn’t survive through contrivance and she isn’t strung along her own story. SHE decides where it goes.

That’s what I call a feminist Disney movie!

[goddamnitaisha]

Please list your top 5-10 would-bang characters, possibly segmented by gender/sex if it makes sense to, in descending order. I need to know how similar we are. :D

I’m laughing SO HARD because we probably are similar. I mean, @lilly-white​ has such good taste. I will immediately answer this question. 

Usually, if it has silver hair I probably want to bang it. 

Lastly…. Okay, yes, now the list. No actually, I’ll place the list at the top of this answer and then place all the TMI/too-much-information text under a readmore.

.

                                           T H E   L I S T

Iason (Ai no Kusabi) King of all Seme characters. Since this list is just about banging characters, I have to put him on top. 

Sephiroth - (FF7) my interpretation of him post-Nibelheim: a sane, arrogant, brilliant god and wreck of a person.

Lotor -  (Voltron Legendary Defender) See how high he is on my list? I have him in my ‘to cosplay’ list with not his name but with the text: “I HAVE SUCH A TYPE”. There is nothing about him that I don’t love.

Orochimaru (Naruto) His voice, his arrogance, the cheekbones, and the things he could do with that long tongue. 

Uchiha Itachi / Sasuke / Madara (Naruto) I’ve been trying to choose between these three for 10 years now) (I like the artwork interpretation of the Japanese fan-artist ‘Lily’ best.) 

^That is my hard-bargained top 5 in that order.  Now comes the rest. I still love them tons and tons, but not as much as the ones up ^there. 

Kisame (Naruto) (japanse voice actor) Terrifying face/reputation/fighting methods since he has no qualms with sawing someone’s legs off. But he would make the perfect father of a child. He is muscled, chatty, caring, thoughtful, loyal, sweet, protective and reliable. If I could bang him, I would not prick but punch holes in the condoms.

Skulduggery Pleasant (books by Derek Landy) ASREON DONT JUDGE ME. He is funny, powerful, reliable, cuttroat and has this dark edge that I really dig. 

Loki (as portrayed by Tom Hiddleston) Anywhere in the timeline after he arrived on Earth. I like him under Thanos control, as I like him as ‘shit annoying little brother’. I like it when he is smug: “It buuurns, doesn’t it?” (Avengers) and when he is indignant: “We are not doing ‘get help’.” (Thor: Ragnarok) yet still plays along in the end. 

Oikawa (Haikyuu) because his killer volleyball serve is too sexy, as are his mood switches and his I’m gonna fuck you up-grin. He get to me every time. (Kageyama is also somewhat a fave.)

Lord Carden - Bloodlines (Character from my needs-a-rewrite novel series, Bloodlines. Yes, I want to bang an OC, but in my defence, Lilly also once mentioned wanting to bang him. My friend Jack did too. He is a mix between Iason and Kisame: cutthroat and sexy but best dad.)

Embarrassing TMI & disclaimers & characters that didn’t make the list, are all under the cut!

Disclaimers:

The order listed below is from top(best)-down(last) and always subject to change depending on my mood and fandoms. 

These are characters I would want to bang - not the ones I would sign up to spend the rest of my life with (in most cases that’d be an awfully short life).

I may change this list if anyone brings in better suggestions. 

I can’t decide whether I want to sleep with these people, or want to be these people (role models).  

TMI 

I’m still in the process of trying to figure myself out. I have lived my life as a loner or as a quiet follower (because speaking up was often discouraged in my social circles). 

BUT

My younger brother recently pointed out to me that in almost every relationship there is a leader (the person who initiates plans and decides what and how) and a follower-guardian (who protects the leader from doing anything stupid, this person says “that’s not a good idea” and when they put their foot down it’s DOWN and the leader can do nothing but respect it.)

My brother told me that I’m a leader type: the person that initiates wild adventures. Not the follower-guardian. So OKAY, I’m a leader who thinks she is a follower? I don’t know if I’m sub or dom. 

There is this quote I’m trying to remember, said by either a gay guy or a powerful motherly woman who helps the girl-protagonist. An american production. Intonation is kind. Couldn’t find it with google. Goes something like this: 

“People won’t know whether they want to hate(/fight?) you, want to fuck (/sleep with) you or if they want to be you~<3.” 

That’s the quote I want to put in here. 

What I usually fall for in a character:

Most of the characters I want to bang are calm, self-assured, don’t get worried fast, and are good at what they do. They firmly hold to a certain view of life. They can hold their own in a discussion. They are NEVER lazy, they are hardworking. They never have a nihilistic approach to life, they want to gain all they can get. They have an arrogance that tastes like honey to me. That cheeky, taunting, unimpressed, underhanded, self-assured, i-know-I’m-right, tone is a drug to me. Some examples are: - “Are you sure about that?” and - “I wouldn’t do that if I were you” and - “Is that the best you can do, Cloud?” and - “Foolish little brother, you’re not strong enough, ku ku ku…” That degrading tone that puts me on my place and him on a pedestal…! Yes, I find that finger-licking attractive. 

But I can never figure out if those tones appeal so much to me because they are spoken from a leader perspective as if to discipline a pet, or from a follower/guardian perspective that calmly undermines the leader’s bad idea. (”Sure Mr. King if you want to follow that route… but I’ll stay here and wait until you come back”)

My current running theory is that I’m a leader who thinks she’s a follower? I’ve not levelled up enough in life to decide where I am as a sexual partner as sub or dom or switch. I’ve been a service top/service dom to 2/3rds of my partners and in the 1/3rd of the occasions I did enjoy being sub but maybe that’s because I prioritised myself there. Usually I focus on my partner and aaaah I’m rambling RAMBLE RAMBLE. tl:dr; I need to get laaaid and figure this ouuuut with a person I truuuust.

Characters that didn’t make the list, but which I wish I could include somewhere in a top 30 are these listed below. You can tell by the bolded font which names I took out of my top 10.  

Maleficent (Angelina Jolie)

Cersei (Lena from Game of Thones)

Icy (Winx Club season 1)

Wonder Woman (as portrayed by Gal Gadot) because she’s a perfect. Marvel Studios gave me a female hero and a female superhuman but they did not give me a female superhero. DC did. I’m such a fan of her.

Lestat

Mai Valentine (Yu-Gi-Oh. But that says little,  I’ve had crushes on almost the entire cast. Mainly Seto Kaiba and Yami-Yugi.)

Victor (Yuri-on-Ice) when he wasn’t shown as a person with feelings but still had his idol status.

Riddick - but then again, who wouldn’t do Vin Diesel as Riddick? Especially the second movie.

Aranea (FF15) She was wonderful as a character but I am still salty she was a bit of a disappointment in the narrative, I expected she would be more involved in the narrative of the game.

V (from V for Vendetta the movie) - again the humour, dark past, power, reliability. I fall in love with him every time I watch the film. But I don’t know if I would do him with his mask off? I like the grandiose idea of him.

I’m going to risk burn marks and put Azula (Avatar series) on here.

Tahno (Avatar Korra series)

Suitengu (Speed Grapher) LYRA YOU MUST WATCH THIS. LISTEN TO LILLY. AND TO ME. WATCH IIIIIIT.

Rufus Shinra - (FF7 ACC)The smug remarks, power, face, count me in.

Pitch (Rise of the Guardians)Light (Death Note manga)  

I will always love Riku (Kingdom Hearts) But since he’s so dear to me and part of a franchise for children, I don’t want to think about having sex with him but I totally want to. It’s a grey area. I like him especially when he is lost in darkness and arrogant. But honestly, I really like him in all timelines. I was not ready for KH3′s version. I will always love Riku.

Last notes:

To summarize, I like murder + power + strong worldview + smug undermining comments + smirks.

I think it is curious that I only listed male characters in my top 10. It seems that I am not as bisexual as I thought, or that modern media fails in adequate female gender representation. I could not have been offered enough female characters of the Wonder Woman quality. Now I’ll post this answer before something glitches and I lose all I typed. 

Hope you liked this!

[siderealscribblings]

I'm sorta confused why it seems so many people ship Gabrinette. Not only is it a no-no because of the child grooming thing you were talking about, but I don't see much going for it otherwise? I'm not trying to be rude I just don't get it, even if they were both adults they don't seem very compatible. What do you think?

Short answer: I don’t understand it either; I block it. I block and unfollow people who post it and honestly I haven’t seen any Gabbunette content in months. I highly suggest you do the same, nonny; it makes for a much better Tumblr experience. 

Long Answer/A Mountain of Ship-Hate under the cut. 

I don’t know, it’s especially skeevy when you consider Marinette hero-worships Gabriel and the degree of influence he has over her career/art. The thing they have going for them is “fashion” and a common theme I’ve noticed is Marinette “redeeming” Gabriel through love (as though it’s a girl’s job to suffer so a villain can be a better person). It’s quite a bit like Rey-Lo in that regard, where an assertive female character is relegated to sex-fuel for the conventionally attractive(???) male villain to consume and be transformed by. It’s the “Beauty and the Beast” shit stripped of any subtly and reduced to wish fulfillment by people who want to see their precious villainous favs redeemed. 

Gabriel is also a rich White Man, and people see him as inherently worth redeeming while arguing that characters like Lila and Chloe (a child who’s biggest sin is that she’s selfish and bitchy) are irredeemable akuma causers/the real monsters behind the menace threatening Paris. People are quick to hop over the fact that Gabriel is willing to brainwash and kill (Timebreaker anyone?) to get his hands on something that doesn’t belong to him, and has been shown to be nothing but aloof, distant, and controlling to his own child. 

This is excusable because he’s attractive(okay really? really, people? I know I’m new to this liking guys thing but come on.) and White to the point where people are so desperate to believe that he isn’t actually Hawkmoth (despite sharing facial features, voice actors, and an obsession with Adrien’s mother). I bet you money that no one would stan Gabe so hard if he wasn’t paler than raw bread dough and affluent. And I bet you money no one would ship him with the protagonist either. 

Like people would rather ship Marinette with a man her father’s age (or older) than with Nino or Kim or any of her female classmates. Like until very recently, the Gabrinette and Ninette tags on Ao3 were dead even and there’s still so much more content shipping a teenager with a grown ass villain than there is shipping her with a kind, supportive POC her own goddamn age. They would rather see Marinette with someone who routinely neglects her friends than with a girl whose biggest crime is telling a white lie. They leap over the diverse cast of characters to pair the hero of the story with a shallow, cruel, and frankly unattractive white man to satisfy some kind of carnal desire. And the fact that so much of it’s NSFW makes my skin itch. 

This is not an invitation to explain to me why I should buy into a ship that requires so much mental gymnastics to remove most of its toxicity. I don’t care if you use it to cope; I don’t care if you bend over backwards to erase the power imbalances inherent in the relationship. I don’t care if there’s good art or good stories because I want nothing to do with it. So if you stumble on this and feel compelled to try and explain to me why Marinette belongs with a fifty year old with delusions of supervilliany, please save yourself the time. As it is your right to interact with fiction in whatever way you want to, it is my right to voice my disgust with fandom trends that are quite frankly appalling to me.