#whether knowingly or not

[unreliable-narratoe]

I find it funny how jiang cheng experiences misogyny despite NOT being a woman??

Like he is emphatically not a woman, alright, but he's an 'ex' in the narrative sense. The bitchy love rival between the BL couple fandom would have hated on a couple of years ago before we accepted it was cringe to hate on the rival, she deserved better etc etc except. He's neither a woman OR technically, a romantic rival. Most of the subtext is sibling subtext.

He's paralleled with his mother who is also somewhat given the hysterical woman treatment by her husband. Jiang cheng says "Father doesn't like me because I'm my mother's son". Did jfm take one look at this kid and go "I hereby assign him his mother at birth"??? Even in wei wuxian's narration he subconsciously parallels Jiang cheng to his mom. They both have tempers, wield zidian, wear purple if you want to go there lmao, but that's a surface level 'woman are unreasonable and somewhat the same' reading. Like.

He is actually not his mom. He arguably breaks generational abuse cycles because jin ling is confident Jiang cheng loves him in his own way. He did not set out to have that kid, he chose to be responsible anyway because that's his sister's son. Jiang cheng doesnt spend years not-communicating in a bad marriage and taking it out on his kid. He lets wei wuxian go at the end because there's no point in dragging it out and everyone being more unhappy after he somewhat gets an explanation on WHY wei wuxian went off the deep end (aka golden core reveal).

But the easy read is to go, 'quick temper and harsh words- that's yu ziyuan's next coming'

So it's deeply funny to me that he's assigned scorned-ex-wife by narrative, if I'm making sense.

[shorthaltsjester]

when people think delilah just completely takes over and laudna has no control. when people think jester is just an uwu child who has been manipulated by every man she’s met. when people think vex is an empty husk of daddy issues without her brother by her side. when people think fjord is an arrogant asshole who doesn’t pay attention to the party around him. when people think scanlan saying that vox machina doesn’t care about him is an accurate assessment.

[liminal---nightmare-aliza]

Aliza, I have dinner for you.

It is herb crusted lamb chops with creamy rice and some vegetables.

@animatronic-assistant

(the human sat up, smiling a little at Elara. After a the dish was set down on the table, Aliza hugged the animatronic,)

thanks, Mrs Elara… you’re the best. (She said.)

[tortoisesshells]

if you were in control of a dark shadows adaption (or, hypothetically, could alter the original; whichever you find more interesting to think about!) what does your ideal version of 1795 look like? are there things you would change? things you’d want to keep?

Let me preface this by saying I do genuinely like or appreciate a lot of the 1795 arc! When it's at its best, it's a tragedy born out of hubris and the terrible things we'll do for the people we love (or the terrible things we'll do to hold on to love. or the problem of love without respect). I'm up to episode 741, and the confrontation between Joshua and Barnabas over the latter's coffin is still one of the best scenes in the show, for my money. That said; Broadly speaking, most of my problems with 1795 either have to do with characterization, or with historical context: that DS's unwillingness to delve into historical realities undercuts its ability to talk about monsters, and that it completely mishandles Vicki to the point of functionally ruining the nominal main character (who, to be fair, was already being pushed out).

Historical Context: DS loves the past, conceptually, but it really doesn't deal in historical conditions, and that's on full display in 1795 - witchcraft trials? zippers? claiming a house built in the early 20th century, with the attendant architectural style, was actually built in the years leading up to 1795? okay. I forgive that, because we do live, narratively, in a world with witches and vampires and curses and passenger rail service north of Portland, ME after 1965 - and in a make-believe world where the costumes are as good as a budget of a crisp single and a pb&j can make 'em. I say this mostly lovingly: DS simply is not the kind of show that cares about historical plausibility, let alone accuracy. Plus, Reverend Trask was great, and on the basis of giving Jerry Lacy scenery to chew on, the witchcraft trial plotline is excused.

More seriously and damningly, I do think it's a glaring omission on a show being made and aired in the late 1960s to have three characters said to be from the (fictional) wealthiest family of planters and enslavers on Martinique and have that go unexamined and unpacked, especially when commentary on class in Collinsport has been a constant undercurrent (sometimes more of an under-trickle, or under-vague-breeze) since episode one - and because Joshua Collins is very explicit about how beneficial the connection between the two families will be for the Collinses, who always need cargo for their ships. [Since David Ford's here, you'll forgive the reference to 1776: "Molasses to Rum" playing vaguely in the background] But that's the problem with Post-Barnabas DS. Since there's a Collins running around befanged and literally drinking the blood of others, the show's lost interest in discussing how, exactly, the Collinses became wealthy and powerful, beyond the odd occasional reference to the fishing fleet and cannery or, in 1795, the shipyards. We've got a real vampire, what do we need all that metaphorical monstrosity and class/race/gender analysis for?

As a choice the show's made, I think it fundamentally undercuts one of the show's most reliable and interesting points of commentary: how charming and human some monsters are, or that humanity and monstrosity are not entirely mutually exclusive conditions.

also speaking of monstrosity. the show excuses Barnabas for so much outright evil because he preys on sex workers, primarily, and other assorted poor men and women of Collinsport, who the show ... doesn't really see as people. but that's a separate but not unrelated rant.

Characterization: really, this is about Vicki. So much of what I dislike about 1795 has to do with Vicki's characterization changing for the worse (granted, I think this problem starts much earlier, but see digression a below) once she hits the ground in 1795, AND that the 1795 arc continuously insulates her from the important parts of DS's narrative. If the whole point of Vicki landing in the past was to explain how it all began (whether that's Barnabas's vampirism, or the opening of the great house at Collinwood - Sarah's ghostly goals are unclear here), she's party to neither: Vicki spends very little time in Collinwood, and is kept completely apart from even a hint of knowledge that Barnabas is a vampire. In effect: Vicki, as nominal main character, gets sent into the past, but not as a character - she's just a windowpane, or a magic mirror as far as her importance to the narrative goes. Which is unfortunate for her, because as a character taking up space, she's given screen-time without agency, intelligence, or inner life. The only change that being dragged by her puppet strings through 1795 effects in Vicki Winters is a rope-burn from a failed hanging, an infected gunshot wound, and a I-wish-he-were-more-permanently-dead rebound boyfriend whose response to Vicki panicking about being hanged was to slap her for being hysterical.

Forgive me for being unimpressed.

As far as fixing it goes - there's where I've been striking out. She's fatally passive in 1795 as written. Why doesn't Vicki try to figure out how to get back to her present? (and if she doesn't, perhaps ... gesture at why Vicki might feel like there's not a lot to return to in the present? She nearly jumped from Widows' Hill about 10 episodes before 1795 started.) Why does Vicki persist in making herself suspicious, when she was introduced as a character hampered more by inexperience than true ignorance? In the idea 1795 that lives in my head, why wouldn't Vicki try to figure out who the real witch was, because - given her experiences with the supernatural! - surely a witch might be any help in getting her out of the 18th century and back into the present? End of day, she needs a real plot which doesn't end with her in prison unconnected to the Collinses. Whether that's searching for an escape hatch back to the Swinging Sixties, or Sarah's ghost giving her clear instructions - some kind of a goal! - Vicki either shouldn't exist in 1795 (recycle Moltke as another Collins sibling? that would add a wrinkle to the question of Vicki's antecedents) or she has to be given something to do.

&, finally ...

Digression A: In fairness to the 1795 arc, I think the arc was only following a pattern of characterization and plot involvement that started with Barnabas's arrival: first, that Vicki initially wasn't really involved in the Barnabas plot because she was more involved with the Liz & Jason plot, and, unfortunately for Vicki, everyone still talks about Barnabas, where no one (alas for Patrick and Bennett!) talks up the blackmail thing; second, I think, that the one-two punch of the definitive end of the era of metaphorical monsters & the Burke recast meant that a lot of the dramatic tension that Vicki was carrying either got dismissed or dissipated. We're not playing Jane Eyre any more, we're doing Dracula: Vicki's relationship with Roger and David no longer bears any dramatic weight. We've completely sidelined the question of Vicki's origins, so whether or not Liz is her mother doesn't matter (and the revelation and dismissal of Liz's not-actually-monstrous conduct sort of defangs that relationship, too? oh, Liz isn't actually a murderer? so mother or not, there's no strain on her relationship with the conspicuously virtuous Vicki.). Burke's no longer threatening to burn down Collinsport for revenge, and all of his various relationships with the Collinses or Collinsport denizens have gotten abruptly normalized, so there's no tension to his relationship with Vicki any more: he's rich (don't ask where the money came from), he's in love with her, and now he's chummy with all her friends/stand-in family members. He doesn't even have conversations that are totally just about pens or guns with Roger, for god's sake. The show kicked out all the pillars Victoria Winters as a character had been built on, and it only gets worse after 1795. No wonder Moltke left.

[megamindsupremacy]

would 616 comics tony stark say gay rights? discuss

[rookflower]

Any thoughts about the toxic ship Hawkfrost x Ashfur?

mixed feelings? my personal headcanon of it is that there might have been feelings going on there but neither of them ever actually realised it and it never would have come to fruition anyways, with Ashfur being too one-tracked on his feelings about Squirrelflight, and Hawkfrost being too one-tracked on his ambitions. I feel similarly to it as I do ashbramble. it's not something i'm personally passionate about at all, i've seen people do some really cool stuff with it, i've seen people do some stuff with it that i don't really like.

[sweetchcolate]

and yet yall let her suffer and rot at the saimoris' hands for years until it was convenient

FUCK YOU

[orcelito]

worst fucking post experiences is when i get that notification for the blocked tag 'plantcest' on my dash bc of course i have it blocked. & i have to b like "oh God this person i follow just reblogged this, what did they post..."

and then it's just. a normal fucking post about them as siblings. except the OP tagged it as the fucking incest ship name

genuinely, what is WRONG with you people????????????????????

[goldengodcannibal]

It's so fascinating, people who worship God have so truly lost the plot.

[bumblingbeezzz]

Honestly I really don't think he does. Technically, I think he maybe only has one like...7% of the time? (Like when he apologized to Hughie, stopped him from taking the V24, his good moments with Ryan, freeing the animals at the lab, etc). But it's been made clear that his only motivation to hunt down supes is purely out of a personal vendetta fueled by bigotry, not out of a sense of justice. Otherwise, he wouldn't have murdered Mesmer, tried to murder Kimiko's brother, murdered Gunpowder (who was arguably enough of an ass, but not, that we know, a murderer or worse), or otherwise acted similarly in other instances I can't recall rn. It's possible he may be moving in the right direction with Starlight joining the team, but it's hard to tell. He may just be tolerating it because the others want her on board, as with Kimiko. But as it is, he barely even seems to care about what happens even to The (non-suped) Boys; he doesn't express concern for their well-being, and his actions demonstrate this as well, as seen when he didn't attempt to rescue them when they were captured, his excuse being that "they were big enough to fend for themselves" essentially. He hasn't proven that he needs them as a family, only that he needs them as a means to an end. There may be potential for him to have a heart, but he's just not there yet, and now with his compound V24-riddled brain, he may not ever get the chance.

THE BOYS 4.05 Beware of the Jabberwock, My Son

[coliessions]

nanami kento never intended for your relationship to be the first page of his newest journal. he didn't even notice when he began documenting it with a black ink pen in a plain leather notebook—writing down the moment you finally agreed to be his, as if you hadn’t been smitten by him from the first time you laid eyes on him.

each passing page became a piece of you. his dilemma on buying you flowers filled the 14th page, and by the 34th, there was a polaroid of you holding your favorite flowers—this time, he knew with confidence. your trips together occupied a few more pages, and even more were dedicated to the places he dreamed of taking you. from losses to love, nanami wrote it all down. it was his best way of keeping you—of keeping what you shared. he wanted your love to remain forever, not only in his heart but also in his hands.

when the wedding bells finally rang and he wore a suit unlike his usual ones, nanami kento stood before you, journal in hand. he read from it, a love documented from the beginning to what felt like the end of the beginning. his vows were written as though he'd known all along that he would marry you. but no, his journal didn’t just record the start of your relationship or the journey leading up to that day.

what nanami kento had not expected was that he would end up documenting your entire story.

as he began the last page with your name, followed by a comma, he wrote down everything he planned for your future together—plans he wanted to set in motion as soon as he returned from his mission. plans he would have given to you immediately after.

"let me take you to malaysia?"

you read over and over again, desperately hoping for more to follow, for another page to turn. but there were no more words. no more pages. and nanami’s voice, his presence, would no longer carry past this page.

yet, it’s hard to be angry with him. because, in the end, nanami was always a gentleman. whether knowingly or not, he left you one final letter—a letter filled with love, just like every page in his journal. because maybe, just maybe, the journal wasn’t for him to keep your love. maybe it was for you to keep his—not only in your heart but in your hands, after all.

[lumons]

the tragedy of mari's death on all sides. van practicing for so long and going against her own morals to rig the cards to pick hannah only for shauna to notice and insert herself in the line up so that it would get messed up. shauna, whether knowingly or not, sending mari off to her death by intervening, and van and tai having to watch in horror because it was never supposed to be mari but they can't speak up about it because then they'd have to confess to the card rigging. mari running and getting through the hunt and gen trying to give her every chance to survive by leading tai away. mari dying anyways because of the pit nobody even knew was there

[chongoblog]

Hey all my fellow Americans.

Vote.

Like, seriously, if you can, vote.

Preferably for Kamala.

“But Kamala is really bad”. Yes she is, and I can guarantee you that the alternative is going to be worse. Trump is literally running “Mass Deportation Now” as a slogan and saying that immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country with him and his VP knowingly spreading false rumors that Haitian are eating people's dogs and cats. And he’ll probably appoint even more religious zealots onto our Supreme Court who will last quite a long time.

“I’m sick of picking the lesser of two evils. She should EARN my vote” I agree. And in a just world she would have to do that. But of the two parties, one is FAR more likely to implement policies that will make it so she has to like Ranked Choice Voting.

“So you’re saying to support genocide?” Voting is not advocating for a candidate’s policies. ESPECIALLY in the dogshit political hellscape we live in.

"Voting for a Democrat isn't going to make the changes that need to be made." You're right again! Voting alone isn't going to make those changes. But between the two parties, I think one of them is going to be easier to organize under, and it isn't the one who said that cops should shoot protestors during the BLM protests.

"After all Biden's done with no promise of Israeli divestment from Harris, I simply can't bring myself to make that vote" And I understand that. The issue is that there just isn't a good choice available for that front, especially if you believe that Kamala and Walz can't be bullied. So you have to make the decision based on every other front. And whether it be the economy, rights for immigrants, rights for LGBTQ people, rights for women, foreign policy, or plenty of other issues, the orange man's platform is LEAGUES worse.

So I ask you, if you are able to, vote. It might suck, but at this point in time, it's something we can do.

[aashiqeddiediaz]

you know what boils my blood.

over the last 2 weeks, i've seen countless patients walk into my urgent care center, symptomatic for so many things, refusing to get tested for covid and flu, citing that they don't want to knowingly bring it to their holiday tables. i had a patient tell me, verbatim, "i don't want to test for covid, because i don't want to be the asshole who brings it on a plane."

i understand that - i understand that holidays are times where people look forward to meeting loved ones that they might only see once a year, or where they get a break from the hectic back and forth of their lives.

but here's the thing - whether they get tested or not, they will bring whatever they have to their holiday tables. it's pure recklessness to know that you're sick, and walk into someone else's house spreading the disease.

today, january 2, i saw 91 patients, many of them who have tested positive for covid and flu. many of these patients are the same ones who didn't want testing 3 days ago, until their events were over, and now, they will have to reach out to everyone they know to let them know that they were positive because they were showing symptoms well before their event.

the next week or two? we're going to see many, many more, all people with symptoms that started around christmas. these are the only two viruses we test for rapidly in our office, but they are potent and can be fatal in many people.

so here's why i wrote this post, and maybe it's a little late, but - if you care about your loved ones, please get tested if you know you're sick. it doesn't have to be at a clinic if you don't want it to, because the over-the-counter tests work just fine too (if you test within 5-7 days of symptom onset). just...please don't try to run from the knowledge that you might have covid, because immunocompromised people, elderly people, people with co-morbidities like asthma, pregnancy, diabetes, etc...many of them may not recover. and they may not be sitting at your holiday table in the future because of it.

[dustywarbler]

4?

4. which mechanic/gimmick would you like to see return, if any?

BOOGEYMAN-- I MEAN-- i actually really really miss the ability to give lives to people from last life!! limlife + secret life have made in-game lives a bit looser in terms of a set timer that is always ticking down/set amount of hearts that can only decrease. i really miss the life-giving mechanic of last life cause it felt more defined/limited in a sense? 2-6 lives randomly assigned, but there's still a set amount of lives to go around. plus the only way to get them is from coordination with other players, in a game that incentivises you to be selfish. and the boogeyman feature i want to see return only because it worked so well in last life's system. you can share lives and work together but don't forget one of the group is lying and in the end only one of the group can win. it just made alliances/friendships/acts of kindness feel way more impactful and significant/dramatic!!