#what relationships do you prioritize?

[brunhielda]

In hashtags: “Because Atlantis has big polycule energy”

Can we talk about this? Because I am not mad at poster. They are 110% correct. But do you know WHY it feels like everyone has romantic chemistry?

Because it has good writing. Not necessarily of plot, but of character. Those are people, with emotions, and backstories, and outside lives, banded together in one common goal. Eventually they even care about each other, which we all see and squee over. That’s it.

Leverage and Librarians has the same energy. Original Stargate has same energy. I would argue even LOTR has some of that energy. It’s just an understanding of how to write character without need for constant angst/drama to flesh them out. Is there angst and drama? You bet! But that isn’t what MAKES them people. How they interact the rest of the time makes them people.

Why does that read as romantic to us? Because outside these little pockets of tv joy, the only people in a story who get that kind of interactions are romantic/heroic leads.

In real life? People talk to each other, they like or dislike each other, you have weird inside jokes with co-workers, anyone in constant life/death situations becomes live or die sibs, the world is messy an complicated and that’s just how it works.

Do you know how hard that is to translate that to an audience? It is difficult to translate ONE feeling (like romance) let alone a complicated stew. So storytellers shorthand, they drop signals, they point at things with symbols and instances. That’s just how stories get told, and we the audience pick up on it.

Different cultures have different signals. Did you know that in India, there is an ancient style of dance theater where different hand guestures mixed with feet placement tell you how one character feels about another? And then there’s Kabuki from Japan, where a certain stance can tell you a character wants revenge. But in American media, two characters having a conversation for two actual minutes of screen time means either potential for romance or romantic subtext to be hidden from censors.

I hate that. I hate it has come to that. I hate anyone had to hide romance enough that it is now entangled and confused with true friendship more than it already is in real life. I hate that it has bled into real life, making it difficult for people to accept deep friendships. I hate that straight romance was prioritized over even normal friendships in terms of relationships to explore in stories. I hate that this priority has also bled over into real life, where people chase significant others over deep lasting friendships. I hate that I can’t squee over healthy wholesome friendships without someone saying “no friends look at each other that way.” Because yes 👏 they 👏 do 👏.

You have simply been trained by western media to see all intense/real relationships as romantic ones.

It’s not your fault. It’s not even storytellers’ fault really. They worked with what they were handed and what people already understood. Prejudice, money, and the power those have over media did the rest.

What has been, understandably, defined as “polycule energy,” could also just be “found family,” with decently written screen time… and we need to explore why that is. We need to know how to tell the story of one without nessisarily telling the other wig we don’t want to.

Sense 8 managed to do both… Stargate Atlantis is no Sense 8.

(I am now picturing the fanfic I have created with that sentence 🤣)

So I am so very very happy to see things with polycule energy. Because what you are seeing are also fully developed characters expressing healthy friendships and affection. And we haven’t seen that nearly enough. More found family PLEASE. Let THAT bleed over into real life. Make THAT normal.

And if you wanna ship them, go ahead, please do, the endless pairings make for fun fanfiction. But please, 🙏 I beg of you, do not point to “evidence of crush” and then hand us basic affection. Don’t do it for the “heart eyes” or the physical affection. Do it cause they look cute together. Do it because thier personalities make for good partners. Do it for the sheer curiosity of what it would look like.

Just… know what you are seeing on screen. Know how it is being packaged to you. Know how you have been taught to receive it. Broaden all the ways that can be seen.

Let’s make some more amazing characters.

.

What I love about Stargate Atlantis is you can throw any two characters in a scene together and no matter who it is I’m invested

[altschmerzes]

if the only time you bring up A Secret Third Thing is when someone has suggested generally celebrating or uplifting platonic/queerplatonic fictional relationships in spaces that ordinarily obsess about romantic ones to the exclusion of all else perhaps consider why you’re doing that and also stop.

[cecoeur]

How do you sleep at night? No one to hide behind Betrayed every alibi you had You had every chance to make amends instead you got drunk on bitterness And you still claim that you're innocent, it's sad

[sorrelpaws]

no offense but i genuinely fear that their potential dynamic will go severely underutilized

[contagious-watermelon]

it's kind of like insanely isolating that literally every aspec or "ace & aro" space I've found has been in actuality, solely for aces. perhaps arospec aces or aroaces who entirely prioritize their asexuality could also find company there, but even as an aromantic person who is also asexual, they're really not intended for me. so I can only imagine how isolating it must be if you're aromantic and allosexual

[ae-cha08]

Protecting your peace means caring for and safeguarding your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual self – in ways that you define for yourself.

[reedenthusiest]

Does anyone fw the hyperspecific version of pre cogs inc firesaw i made up in my mind that I don’t even know how to explain but it’s been on my mind this week.

I WAS gonna post my backlog of flint fridays but tumblr decided to not work so.

[sonknuxadow]

ive seen so many people complaining about people making joker sonic just so they can ship him with batman shadow and like i dont NOT believe the people complaining about it because that sounds exactly like something people who are overly obsessed with so/nadow to the point where they try to make everything involving shadow about so/nadow somehow even if its wildly out of character for him and/or sonic or just otherwise doesnt make sense would do . but its also wild seeing the complaining when i havent seen anyone actually making fanart of that concept . i feel like im dodging a massive bullet right now

[cosmicdenro]

'rhm and wilhelm trying to hang out but their duties getting in the way so much so their relationship deteriorates throughout the months but in a way that makes them prone to jealousy of others getting to spend more time with the other and unable to figure out what the other even enjoys enough anynore as a gift' for tonight sir?

[amokslime]

About the whole ADHD "finding a way to motivate yourself without using the stress of impending deadlines" thing:

I hate to say it, but learning to be nicer to myself changed a lot of that for me. I really truly hate to say it. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but you gotta find a way to be nicer to yourself inside your own head, in whatever way works for you. I know it sucks so bad to hear.

The other thing is, if my brain is really refusing to tackle a task, often times the main thing I'm feeling is confused and understimulated. Which leads to me sitting there with the jeopardy theme song playing in my head, and then I unconsciously gravitate towards something that's more stimulating and therefore easier to wrap my head around. So overstimulating myself in some sensory way helps me be less confused about what I needed to do. Everybody's brain is different, though.

And uhh the other thing that helped is concerta, and listening to my body, and working on not being so ashamed when I failed. Which means you will probably have to fail a little bit unfortunately

[to-be-a-dreamer]

And if I make a full post talking about how Abby, Shannon, and Taylor were actually really interesting and compelling characters that were just wildly mishandled by the writers and weren't allowed to fully explore their own motivations or personalities outside of being a love interest then what?

This is a threat.

[jerreeeeeee]

the thing is i very much understand the appeal of lupcretia narratively bc they are foils who betray each other and then forgive each other because the force of their grief and guilt brings them to an understanding and i also understand the appeal of blupcretia bc its a three person relationship who disagree on something major and split apart leaving one party feeling abandoned when the other two agree against her and what does that mean for the fact that the rest of their lives outside a horrible timeloop are supposed to start soon Because of that decision and disagreement like i get it narratively its interesting!! but here’s the thing: i just have an unshakeable belief that lup is straight

[suffercerebral]

me having gone to bed at 6 am every day for the past week and generally spiraling mentally while rotting in bed waking up this morning: a 4 mile hike in the heat is a really good idea right now, and while we're at it let's start like 3 art projects

[dareduffie]

Guy who has not dealt with his trauma and is actively unpleasant to be around and puts other peoples lives at risk numerous times for the sake of his own desperation + his friend who follows him around the world even though he could leave at any time and he'd be better off for it

[wishingprince]

I love queer stories I love reading about love and finding love and falling in love.

I want it so badly I want to have a partner and fall in love and have someone who is interested in learning me and we can learn to love each other the way we need. And the older I get the more the ache is there, this kind of like accepting ache that like okay, it might not happen for me…..but alongside that lonely ache, I get a surge of huge powerful love for the love I have around me anyway.

I love community. I love queer books and music and I love friends and allies and other queers who get it. I love Pride, I love it. This world feels so fucked up but I feel like I have a found family who is strong enough to catch me when I need to be caught and people who feel reliable and sturdy and safe.