#which is not an excuse for the material that is on there

[methed-up-marxist]

Interested parties explain the culture industry in technological terms. It is alleged that because millions participate in it, certain reproduction processes are necessary that inevitably require identical needs in innumerable places to be satisfied with identical goods. The technical contrast between the few production centers and the large number of widely dispersed consumption points is said to demand organisation and planning by management. Furthermore, it is claimed that standards were based in the first place on consumers’ needs, and for that reason were accepted with so little resistance. The result is the circle of manipulation and retroactive need in which the unity of the system grows ever stronger. No mention is made of the fact that the basis on which technology acquires power over society is the power of those whose economic hold over society is greatest. A technological rationale is the rationale of domination itself. It is the coercive nature of society alienated from itself. Automobiles, bombs, and movies keep the whole thing together until their leveling element shows its strength in the very wrong which it furthered. It has made the technology of the culture industry no more than the achievement of standardisation and mass production, sacrificing whatever involved a distinction between the logic of the work and that of the social system.

This is the result not of a law of movement in technology as such but of its function in today’s economy. The need which might resist central control has already been suppressed by the control of the individual consciousness. The step from the telephone to the radio has clearly distinguished the roles. The former still allowed the subscriber to play the role of subject, and was liberal. The latter is democratic: it turns all participants into listeners and authoritatively subjects them to broadcast programs which are all exactly the same. No machinery of rejoinder has been devised, and private broadcasters are denied any freedom. They are confined to the apocryphal field of the “amateur,” and also have to accept organisation from above.

But any trace of spontaneity from the public in official broadcasting is controlled and absorbed by talent scouts, studio competitions and official programs of every kind selected by professionals. Talented performers belong to the industry long before it displays them; otherwise they would not be so eager to fit in. The attitude of the public, which ostensibly and actually favours the system of the culture industry, is a part of the system and not an excuse for it. If one branch of art follows the same formula as one with a very different medium and content; if the dramatic intrigue of broadcast soap operas becomes no more than useful material for showing how to master technical problems at both ends of the scale of musical experience – real jazz or a cheap imitation; or if a movement from a Beethoven symphony is crudely “adapted” for a film sound-track in the same way as a Tolstoy novel is garbled in a film script: then the claim that this is done to satisfy the spontaneous wishes of the public is no more than hot air.

We are closer to the facts if we explain these phenomena as inherent in the technical and personnel apparatus which, down to its last cog, itself forms part of the economic mechanism of selection. In addition there is the agreement – or at least the determination – of all executive authorities not to produce or sanction anything that in any way differs from their own rules, their own ideas about consumers, or above all themselves.

In our age the objective social tendency is incarnate in the hidden subjective purposes of company directors, the foremost among whom are in the most powerful sectors of industry – steel, petroleum, electricity, and chemicals. Culture monopolies are weak and dependent in comparison. They cannot afford to neglect their appeasement of the real holders of power if their sphere of activity in mass society (a sphere producing a specific type of commodity which anyhow is still too closely bound up with easy-going liberalism and Jewish intellectuals) is not to undergo a series of purges. The dependence of the most powerful broadcasting company on the electrical industry, or of the motion picture industry on the banks, is characteristic of the whole sphere, whose individual branches are themselves economically interwoven. All are in such close contact that the extreme concentration of mental forces allows demarcation lines between different firms and technical branches to be ignored.

The ruthless unity in the culture industry is evidence of what will happen in politics. Marked differentiations such as those of A and B films, or of stories in magazines in different price ranges, depend not so much on subject matter as on classifying, organising, and labelling consumers. Something is provided for all so that none may escape; the distinctions are emphasised and extended. The public is catered for with a hierarchical range of mass-produced products of varying quality, thus advancing the rule of complete quantification. Everybody must behave (as if spontaneously) in accordance with his previously determined and indexed level, and choose the category of mass product turned out for his type. Consumers appear as statistics on research organisation charts, and are divided by income groups into red, green, and blue areas; the technique is that used for any type of propaganda.

How formalised the procedure is can be seen when the mechanically differentiated products prove to be all alike in the end. That the difference between the Chrysler range and General Motors products is basically illusory strikes every child with a keen interest in varieties. What connoisseurs discuss as good or bad points serve only to perpetuate the semblance of competition and range of choice. The same applies to the Warner Brothers and Metro Goldwyn Mayer productions. But even the differences between the more expensive and cheaper models put out by the same firm steadily diminish: for automobiles, there are such differences as the number of cylinders, cubic capacity, details of patented gadgets; and for films there are the number of stars, the extravagant use of technology, labor, and equipment, and the introduction of the latest psychological formulas. The universal criterion of merit is the amount of “conspicuous production,” of blatant cash investment. The varying budgets in the culture industry do not bear the slightest relation to factual values, to the meaning of the products themselves.

Even the technical media are relentlessly forced into uniformity. Television aims at a synthesis of radio and film, and is held up only because the interested parties have not yet reached agreement, but its consequences will be quite enormous and promise to intensify the impoverishment of aesthetic matter so drastically, that by tomorrow the thinly veiled identity of all industrial culture products can come triumphantly out into the open, derisively fulfilling the Wagnerian dream of the Gesamtkunstwerk – the fusion of all the arts in one work.

The alliance of word, image, and music is all the more perfect than in Tristan because the sensuous elements which all approvingly reflect the surface of social reality are in principle embodied in the same technical process, the unity of which becomes its distinctive content. This process integrates all the elements of the production, from the novel (shaped with an eye to the film) to the last sound effect. It is the triumph of invested capital, whose title as absolute master is etched deep into the hearts of the dispossessed in the employment line; it is the meaningful content of every film, whatever plot the production team may have selected.

The man with leisure has to accept what the culture manufacturers offer him. Kant’s formalism still expected a contribution from the individual, who was thought to relate the varied experiences of the senses to fundamental concepts; but industry robs the individual of his function. Its prime service to the customer is to do his schematising for him.

Kant said that there was a secret mechanism in the soul which prepared direct intuitions in such a way that they could be fitted into the system of pure reason. But today that secret has been deciphered. While the mechanism is to all appearances planned by those who serve up the data of experience, that is, by the culture industry, it is in fact forced upon the latter by the power of society, which remains irrational, however we may try to rationalise it; and this inescapable force is processed by commercial agencies so that they give an artificial impression of being in command.

There is nothing left for the consumer to classify. Producers have done it for him. Art for the masses has destroyed the dream but still conforms to the tenets of that dreaming idealism which critical idealism baulked at. Everything derives from consciousness: for Malebranche and Berkeley, from the consciousness of God; in mass art, from the consciousness of the production team. Not only are the hit songs, stars, and soap operas cyclically recurrent and rigidly invariable types, but the specific content of the entertainment itself is derived from them and only appears to change. The details are interchangeable. The short interval sequence which was effective in a hit song, the hero’s momentary fall from grace (which he accepts as good sport), the rough treatment which the beloved gets from the male star, the latter’s rugged defiance of the spoilt heiress, are, like all the other details, ready-made clichés to be slotted in anywhere; they never do anything more than fulfil the purpose allotted them in the overall plan. Their whole raison d’être is to confirm it by being its constituent parts. As soon as the film begins, it is quite clear how it will end, and who will be rewarded, punished, or forgotten. In light music, once the trained ear has heard the first notes of the hit song, it can guess what is coming and feel flattered when it does come. The average length of the short story has to be rigidly adhered to. Even gags, effects, and jokes are calculated like the setting in which they are placed. They are the responsibility of special experts and their narrow range makes it easy for them to be apportioned in the office.

The development of the culture industry has led to the predominance of the effect, the obvious touch, and the technical detail over the work itself – which once expressed an idea, but was liquidated together with the idea. When the detail won its freedom, it became rebellious and, in the period from Romanticism to Expressionism, asserted itself as free expression, as a vehicle of protest against the organisation. In music the single harmonic effect obliterated the awareness of form as a whole; in painting the individual colour was stressed at the expense of pictorial composition; and in the novel psychology became more important than structure. The totality of the culture industry has put an end to this.

Though concerned exclusively with effects, it crushes their insubordination and makes them subserve the formula, which replaces the work. The same fate is inflicted on whole and parts alike. The whole inevitably bears no relation to the details – just like the career of a successful man into which everything is made to fit as an illustration or a proof, whereas it is nothing more than the sum of all those idiotic events. The so-called dominant idea is like a file which ensures order but not coherence. The whole and the parts are alike; there is no antithesis and no connection. Their prearranged harmony is a mockery of what had to be striven after in the great bourgeois works of art. In Germany the graveyard stillness of the dictatorship already hung over the gayest films of the democratic era.

[writingblogsandothers]

The Chosen One

Part 5

Writer's Note: We will have a few more parts to this series, and then it's all over for this one! Any suggestions of who, or what you would like to see next, then drop me a line! Sending all the love, as per X

Word Count: 1.8k

Warnings: Mild Taunting/Teasing // Mild Fear // Mild indications of sleeping together (nothing overly descriptive)

Use of She/Her/Lady - Female Pronouns

Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4

In the days leading up to the wedding, there was little to report. Everything was a-go. Aurelia hadn’t heard anything from her family in response to her letter – she only wished that they had received it. She didn’t see Geta or his brother in recent days either. Instead, she had spent her days reading, painting and learning how to do new hairstyles. She never had thought anything about her hair, apart from scooping it away from her features when completing her laborious tasks.

It had finally arrived. The day of her wedding. She hadn’t slept all night out of fear, anxiousness, and dare she think a bit of excitement? Alba stepped into her room, “Good morning My Lady. I trust you are excited for your big day?”

“Yes Alba, but I am extremely nervous.”

“Please! You have no need to be! Excuse me for saying, but I have known Emperor Geta for a long time, and I have not seen him in such a light before. You bring out the best in him. I hope it will continue.”

Aurelia smirked and blushed into her shoulder. Alba laughed, and made her way to the bathroom to prepare the bride’s bath. A short rap at the door made Aurelia jump, and when she peeped out to see who it was, it was Decimus and Faunus along with 15 other helpers to carry in all the materials and accessories.

“Lady Aurelia, our darling blushing bride. Are you ready for the happiest day of your life?”, asked Decimus.

“Yes, Decimus – I think I am. I must go and prepare myself; I will be out as soon as I can.” Alba followed Aurelia into her bathroom and began the bathing process. The dressers continued to faff in the main hall to organise all materials and ensure everything was good to go.

Bathed in her robe, she entered the main hall where Decimus and Faunus awaited. “Come, come My Lady – we have much to do.” They ushered Aurelia into her dressing room, while Alba waited outside for the dressers and assistants to complete their job.

Some time later, the dressing room door opened and out Aurelia walked. On her feet, a beautiful small heeled gladiator-esque sandal, in gold colour. Her dress draping around her body perfectly, with a slice right up to her high thigh. The bodice tight around her waist, with a laurel leaf belt attached. The sleeves are nipped at the shoulder by gold clasps, leaving her entire arm exposed. The dress was low cut, right down to meet the skirting, with the back mirroring the front. A crimson red shall was draped around her head, fell to her arms gently, and was embroidered with a small ‘A’ and ‘G’.

Her hair was full of tiny braids, along with luscious curls which had been carefully pinned up to show off her face shape and fine décolletage. Her eyes were lightly lined, as well as a fine blush on her cheeks. She radiantly glowed. Alba welled up. She knew Aurelia was beautiful, but something about today just made her look goddess-like.

“My Lady, you are beautiful. How do you feel?”

Aurelia breathed in deeply, “Pretty?” Alba laughed, as did Decimus and Faunus. “Aurelia, let’s get you to your ceremony.”

***

The group made their way down the hall toward the event, and the sweet sound of the lyre became louder. The nerves were at an all time high. The doors were about to open. When they did, Aurelia searched for her family. First row, not there. Second, not there. She started to fret, but then she saw four faces who she adored. Four faces who never let her down in her life. Never. She burnt up, and tears welled in her eyes. They were here. Her family. She was elated.

Zoning back to the task at hand, she focused to the bottom of the hall where her to-be husband. He looked rather special today. He adorned a robe the same colour as Aurelia’s shawl, embroidered with gold detailing. When she reached him, he lifted her shawl off her head to let it rest gently along her back. He smirked down at her, a gesture to which she returned. When she looked behind Geta, she found a grimacing Caracalla seated, with his ginger hair as unruly looking as ever, and an entourage of men and women around him – a scene which was not unfamiliar with the co-Emperor. Dundus sat perched on her little cushion, wearing a little gown and hat, which Aurelia had to admit she thought was pretty cute.

The ceremony began and didn’t last particularly long. Both parties were required to make a statement. Aurelia promised to devote her life to her husband and obey his every word. Geta promised to live a long reign and provide for his wife. In an exchange, they were offered the chance to give one another a gift as a token of their appreciation. Aurelia went first, gifting the Emperor a golden chain to wear around his neck. It was fine, coiled gold and when she reached round to put it on him, she felt an electric shock from the touch of their skin. Geta removed the ring he had on his left pinky finger and placed it on Aurelia’s hand. It had a large green stone in the middle, with metal entwined around the outside – it was beautiful. The final exchange was Aurelia to be crowned. A servant brought forward a cushion with a laurel leaf golden crown lying on it. Geta lifted it off the cushion and brought it toward his new wife’s head. It lay gently upon her, with Geta smoothing her hair that was strewn around it. “Beautiful…” he muttered. Aurelia stared at him with a half-open mouth. What was it about today’s light that made him shine in a particular way? The priest broke their thoughts and announced for everyone to gather in the dining hall for the beginning of the festivities.

Once seated, Aurelia asked Geta, “Emperor, may I pay my family a visit?” He quirked an eyebrow at her, “Wife, today you can do as you wish. Go to them.” She thanked him quietly as she made her way over to her family. They all hugged in a group, sobbing. Her mother started, “Dear, sweet Aurelia. Are you okay? Are they treating you well?”

“Yes, Mater – I can’t say anything so far. It has been grand, however I miss you all terribly. I am hoping when I get to know the Emperor a bit better, I can ask for you to come around more frequent.” The family nod in  agreement, knowing too well not to play the dice of the gods for both Aurelia and their own sakes. The family all had a pleasant catch up and laughed over memories from before when a glass clinking caught their attention. Caracalla stood from his seat.

“People. I have an announcement.”

Aurelia looked over at Geta in a bit of horror. What was he going to announce? Geta looked back at her, equally as confused.

“Subjects, I want to wish my brother and wife well. In a bid to celebrate, I wish to part them with a gift. A gift like no other. 100 days of games at the Colosseum! It is to be arranged. Aaaand, to make it even better – fresh blood. We are recruiting new gladiators as we speak! Ohhhh the excitement of it all!”

The room erupted into cheers and clapping. Geta looked quite pleased, he walked over to his brother, they hugged tightly with Geta thanking Caracalla. The brothers began discussing their plans for the games, where your family looked on also with a bit of excitement. “Aurelia, that will be pleasant for us all. We can go to be entertained and still see you from the Royal Balcony!” Aurelia smiled at them in return, but couldn’t help but think Caracalla had something more up his tiny sleeve.

Growing tired, she left her family and made her way back to her seat to find Geta. When he plopped down beside her on the bench, she looked at him, “Husband, I am growing quite tired.” He looked down into her pools of blue, “Okay, let’s leave.” He stood, taking her in his arm when the group erupted into loud cheers and jeers at the newlyweds.

They made their way toward Aurelia’s chambers when Geta stopped in his tracks. “Aurelia, I-” he sighed as he cut himself off. “I do not wish to pressure you. I didn’t even want to bare my lips on yours in front of the others in case it offended you.” Aurelia internally wept in happiness, where had this softness come from? He seemed to callus and cold toward you at other times, and other subjects? Treated like dirt. He began again, “What say you, wife? What do you wish?”

Looking up into his puppy dog eyes, you brought yourself slightly closer to him. “Well, I had a special garment made just for you… that’s only if you would like to see it?” He smirked, dragging Aurelia into her chambers. Stopping in the middle of the hall, he took her face in his hand, her skin was so soft. He looked at her intently, taking in her beauty. She truly was a sight to behold, especially with whatever magic the gods had sprinkled on her today. Aurelia looked to his soft pink lips, to his eyes, and back to his lips. He noticed how his wife stared at him with such intent, “May I? May I kiss you?” Aurelia didn’t answer him, but merely brought her mouth to his and joined their lips in union. The kiss was soft, dare she even say loving? There was no rush, both of them took in the moment and bathed in the beauty of it. Geta broke the kiss, resting his forehead on hers, “So, where is this garment you were so keen on showing me?” he taunted her. She smiled at him and dragged him to her chambers where she forced him down on the bed. He was taken-aback by her rash actions, but it ignited something within him.

“Sit there Sir, and all will soon be revealed…” Aurelia winked at him and turned on her heels to get changed. Once she got into her dressing room, she breathed out deeply. What had come over her? Where did this confidence come from? Taking a deep breath in, she began to change as the show must go on.

Meanwhile, Geta sat perplexed on the bed. What happened to the sheepish girl he married? Was he complaining? No, for strangely, this power dynamic was something that seemed to get Geta’s pulse racing, and the night was only beginning…

Part 6

[decepti-thots]

☕ ~ trans woman whirl?

I love trans Whirl headcanons but I think I love them for totally different reasons than I usually see, tbh? That is- I think a lot of the time the fandom just goes 'oh! Girl Holoform Spotted! now this character is girl, and we can say character is trans girl because in the comic they are called he/him' and tbh I find that attitude as fandom often implements it annoying for a couple reasons; one, it often feels like a kind of 'if character Looks Like Girl, well, character Is Girl' deal which tbh feels kinda shallow to me ngl, and two, it (and similar under-expanded upon headcanons) not infrequently seems to be a way for the fandom as a whole to justify the general lack of content for the very explicitly canon trans characters by instead being like 'all the material we make for these characters not treated as such in canon proves that we definitely love trans characters. don't think about how lug or anode or arcee don't get that same attention, or that this content only offhandedly actually deals with transness 90% of the time', you know? Bit mean, but I can't help but feel that's a repeated tendency in the fandom, tbh. I would feel less like this if the fanon trans headcanons did not just vaguely go 'oh. also ig they are trans, how nice' with no follow up and instead actually treated these characters as having opinions about being trans, but in too many cases they unfortunately... don't. (And no, them being robots is not an excuse. Anode has opinions on this. Arcee has opinions on this, a lot of them!) But we're here to talk about Whirl, and I want to talk about why I do love trans Whirl, so.

I love trans Whirl for reasons far outside of that, and I think taking that approach to the idea does it a disservice tbqh. Specifically I like trans Whirl for the same reason I like reading Verity as trans, because it adds to Whirl's character arc about being denied agency over identity and clawing it back on purpose in a way where the trans reading feels especially resonant and like it genuinely adds to the overall subtext of her arc. Whirl's entire character is one where the violent removal of agency in her life is so much a focus it changes the course of history; Whirl refusing to let the functionists that ruined her life win is why Elegant Chaos plays out as it does. Whirl is a character whose entire sense of self as a person with the ability to make any choices at all was viciously ripped away from her, and in turn a character whose response to that is to make her ability to choose exactly what she does so utterly undeniable that even if you hate her, even if you think she's repulsive, even if you want to throttle her, you cannot pretend she is not in control. In that specific context, adding in the idea that she would choose her own gender, in defiance of a Cybertronian culture that implicitly treats gender as an alien unwelcome influence, so she can have what she wants- that rules. There's also such a line to be drawn there between Arcee's arc and Whirl, I think, that is so great. That's where I see why it is so good. Being seen as just a gun to be aimed that everyone professes distaste for but still wants to stick around and do dirty work, but you insist upon your interiority being seen as just that; your interiority. And all the things the people who want to do to you which you hate being what you embrace. It's fantastic. I simply prefer that as an angle through which to view the ideas than like... haha well Whirl's holoform is Girl With Guns how funny. You know?

And one of her most "humanising" moments is when she extends that to someone else. I'm thinking of when she tells Tailgate that Cyclonus was lying about his injuries; that part where Cyclonus is trying to protect Tailgate in a way that is ultimately toxic for them both. Sure, everyone else agrees that the best way to handle this is to lie for your own good so you don't make a decision people don't want you to. But that's not fucking fair, and who gets to decide what's "your own good"? Viewing that in light of a Whirl who is not just vaguely a woman but specifically linking that to the way Whirl's rigidly defined role under a functionist heel ruined her sense of identity, because they know what's best for you whether you like it or not- damn, that is COMPELLING. And I find that just. So much more compelling than what fandom so often does with the idea. Whirl, above all else, knows how important demanding agency is. I think that makes Whirl a character ripe for a reading as trans, and I love that for her so much. she'll grab you by the throat and make you acknowledge her. and she's right every step of the way, no matter how much you want to look away. i love her.

tl;dr WHIRL TRANS WOMAN GOOD. LOVE IT. no really i just, it's so good.

[thatbuddie]

"eddie isn't queer/gay," you say. "he is straight in canon, so him being gay is just a head canon. it's ok for others to think of him as straight because that's what he is."

let's ignore for a second the fact that eddie has never ever ever ever not even once, said in canon that he is a heterosexual very straight guy. seriously!!! he has never once said it!!! if i am "assuming" he's gay then you are also "assuming" he is straight even though he has never once said it!!

how do you think we got bi buck as canon? like i am serious right now, answer the question. how do you think we go bi buck canon? evan buckley was never conceived to be a bisexual man at the beginning of 911. the reason we have evan buckley as a canonically bisexual character today is because us, queer fans of 911, interpreted him and headcanoned him as bisexual. i would go even further and say that it was us, BUDDIE FANS, who interpreted him and headcanoned him as bi. even before the writers were explicitly writing him as bisexual. we read his actions and his story and his identity and said: "this is a bi character!" and the writers looked back and realized that it made sense! and so they started writing him explicitly and canonically as bi.

was it wrong of us to headcanon a character as bisexual then? like for all intents and purposes we were reading a "straight" character as bi. were we doing something wrong? how come you are not complaining/chastising us/shaming us for how we took evan buckley, an otherwise straight character, and saw him as bi? is it because it now serves a purpose to you that he is bi?

also, taking characters that aren't confirmed queer and reading them as queer is what the queer community, and specifically the queer fandom community, has been doing for DECADES. look up the history of queer coding, i am begging you. it has been through the means of queer coding and the perseverance of people that are engaged in it that actual queer representation in media has increased. and let me tell you right now, eddie diaz is, undoubtedly and undeniably, one of the most queer coded characters there is. whether you think this queer coding is conscious by the writers or not. eddie diaz is queer coded.

and i want everyone who says things like "eddie diaz is not a queer character. he is straight in canon. it's wrong to assume a character is queer without the character saying so" to know that this is exactly what straight and homophobic people say. you are using the SAME rhetoric that has been used to shame queer fans for decades for seeing themselves and their experiences in fictional characters of all types. in fact, us, queer fans (and again BUDDIE FANS), were told so many times by straight fans that we were wrong for reading buck as bisexual. and where are we now? where did reading buck as bi take us? oh yeah, to having bi buck in canon.

so please just stop with the "eddie isn't queer in canon" comments. if you don't want to interpret eddie as queer then that is your prerogative. i will be judging why that is, for sure, but it is your right. but be honest about it. it has nothing to do with whether or not he is straight (which hasn't been said) or queer coded (which he so obviously is seeing as so many of us can very easily read him as queer). it's a personal preference and you're not engaging with canon better because of it.

[agnesmontague]

idk how to put this more smartly but theres a weird trend among online leftists who have circled right back around to this quasi-religious hatred of all material need and its just. sorry but needing money to stay alive isn't... greed. you're not selling out by doing an ad read esp if it's something you're doing as a job. even if the job is artistic in nature

anticapitalism is the main tenet here for sure but at the same time it helps to.., idk. not act like we spiritually need to start forfeiting all mortal goods bc it's the one path towards nirvana or something. every once in a while i notice people reinventing asceticism in the name of praxis and it's very Sigma Grindset but with a lefty hat

[mars-ipan]

I JUST WANNA MAKE THE WHOLE EARTH SMILE

[bonebabbles]

wait im sorry. ive never read past the first book of dotc and all my knowledge of it really just comes from your blogs. wh. why did the erins decide to include sexual violence in warriors? like. that seems a little. too much? like all im hearing of dotc is just. terrible shit. i like reading more angst/serious stuff (i wanna say darker but not in the way "dark media" usually means on this site) but this feels like WAYYY to much for a book series meant for kids....... what were they thinking??

I legitimately do not understand what people like about DOTC. You can go back to where I started this re-read, and you can visibly watch my charitability drain as the project goes on.

It feels like literally everything that people say they like about this arc is not there, while they've completely forgotten or misremembered SERIOUSLY awful shit

And now, listen. I'm a huge fan of xenofiction, which is a genre that is full of kid's and teen's media, but I do love more adult fiction. I love nuanced themes, dark subjects, and complicated plots.

DOTC's message is just plain odious. None of what it sets out to say is worth saying, and it's borderline incompetent at even saying it to begin with.

What they want to say with Clear Sky and Slash is that Clear Sky isn't "evil." He's a "fundamentally good person," and all of his intentions were good, so he learned a valuable lesson from all the abuse and murder. To say this, they CONTRAST him to Slash, a REAL evil person, who just loves hurting kids and harassing women. Clear Sky is good because he is not "real evil" like this fake, cartoon caricature we just made up.

There was absolutely zero need for them to write Slash the way they did. They really want you to be distressed for Clear Sky as his wife is assaulted in front of him and hauled off while kicking and screaming, and they decided the best way to do that was pregnant woman pinning face licking. Sexual violence is an easy way to disgust and anger an audience, simple as that.

As a kid you may not realize how messed up it is (though the asks I get on this blog are a testament to how many kids did, but didn't have the words to express their discomfort) but as an adult with your critical thinking on? It hits different.

[t3chborb]

I don't consider Ramattra difficult to draw, just very time consuming due to all the details.

... Excluding his ELBOWS, of all things.

Try extending your own arm and twisting your wrist and then entire arm. How in God's name do those kinds of motions (or in my case, poses) translate to a robot arm without a ball joint at the elbow???? I swear whenever I pose my arms to get a better idea on where the elbow itself points, which side of the hand has the the thumb, etc etc, then translate the information onto him, 99% of the time he ends up with dislocated elbows...

[freuleinanna]

...but that's the thing. That's the thing. He is young, and so is she, and youth is violent.

Masriel in the post-affair era, meeting before the trial.

[bisexualamy]

.

[faerieroseart]

just realized i've never posted my witch hat atelier OC here! this is aurelia, a jellyfish-inspired brimhat who uses forbidden magic in the pursuit of immortality and criminally good fashion. i wanted to make a witch OC inspired by some of the trends of the 2000s while still adhering to the design conventions of WHA (to the best of my abilities, anyways). i'm hoping to flesh out more of her magic and backstory as i work on her character more, but have this for now!

[rollercoasterwords]

reading the first edition of whipping girl (2007) and getting to the last ch where serano talks abt her current observations on queer activism and then makes predictions abt what the future might look like

well she certainly was right wasn't she!!!

[urban-hart]

*looking through some sketches for that older collab project I mentioned once* I WANNA DRAW MORE PROJECT STUFF!! :D

*flashbacks to the frustrating team dynamics* Ohhhhhh right right, that's why I haven't touched it in over a year :c

[theflyingfeeling]

tomorrow-me's gonna hate tonight-me, part 3522

(an incoherent work-related rant in the tags, read if you will but it's boring lol)

[juniepops]

like the thing is that actually yes many usamerican schools just do not address certain things even all the way thru highschool bc at best different schools have different curriculums+expectations of their students and at worst what they're allowed 2 teach gets manipulated by dipshits in charge esp in red states. so like yea u would be surprised what some ppl just were never taught even the barest info abt, esp history and geography and other social studies type subjects. but at the same time yea a lot of ppl use that as an excuse well in2 adulthood 2 just be ignorant and not look shit up 4 themselves and thats fucking stupid. and yes it's probable sm of those ppl Were taught certain things nd they just didnt pay attention in school altho that kind of loser is universal as seen by the proliferation of the curtains were just blue mentality

[francesderwent]

Lockwood & Co gives us a male lead who is only ever called by his surname, who never lets anyone get too close, who doesn’t reveal his true self. over the course of five books, he starts letting one person in—he actively chooses to let one person see him and know him for who he really is, he brings her along for the things that he would normally have done alone, he lets her carry some of his suffering.

never, once, does she call him by his first name.