#which is something most lotr fans are allergic to

[bluestockingsantababy]

via @anghraine

It's interesting (if often frustrating) to see the renewed Orc Discourse after the last few episodes of ROP. I've seen arguments that orcs have to be personifications of evil rather than people as such or else the ethics of our heroes' approach to them becomes much more fraught. Tolkien's work, as written, seems an odd choice to me for not wrangling with difficult questions, and of course, more diehard fans are going to immediately bring up Shagrat and Gorbag.

If you haven't read LOTR recently, Shagrat and Gorbag are two orcs who briefly have a conversation about how they're being screwed over by Sauron but have no other real options, about their opinions of mistakes that have been made, that they think Sauron himself has made one, but it's not safe to discuss because Sauron has spies in their own ranks. They reminisce about better times when they had more freedom and fantasize about a future when they can go elsewhere and set up a small-scale banditry operation rather than being involved in this huge-scale war. Eventually, however, they end up turning on each other.

Basically any time that someone brings up the "humanity" of this conversation, someone else will point out that they're still bad people. They're not at all guilty about what they're part of. They just resent the dangers to themselves, the pressure from above, failures of competence, the surveillance they're under, and their lack of realistic alternative options. The dream of another life mentioned in the conversation is still one of preying on innocent people, just on a much smaller and more immediate scale, etc.

I think this misses the reason it keeps getting brought up, though. The point is not that Shagrat and Gorbag are good people. The point is that they are people.

There's something very normal and recognizable about their resentment of their superiors, their fears of reprisal and betrayal that ultimately are realized, their dislike of this kind of industrial war machine that erases their individual work and contributions, the tinge of wistfulness in their hope of escape into a different kind of life. Their dialect is deliberately "common"—and there's a lot more to say about that and the fact that it's another commoner, Sam, who outwits them—but one of the main effects is to make them sound familiar and ordinary. And it's interesting that one of the points they specifically raise is that they're not going to get better treatment from "the good guys" so they can't defect, either.

This is self-interested, yes, but it's not the self-interest of some mystical being or spirit or whatnot, but of people.

Tolkien's later remarks tend to back this up. He said that female orcs do exist, but are rarely seen in the story because the characters only interact with the all-male warrior class of orcs. Whatever female orcs "do," it isn't going to war. Maybe they do a lot of the agricultural work that is apparently happening in distant parts of Mordor, maybe they are chiefly responsible for young orcs, maybe both and/or something else, we don't know. But we know they're out there and we know that they reproduce sexually and we know that they're not part of the orcish warrior class.

Regardless of all the problems with this, the idea that orcs have a gender-restricted warrior class at all and we're just not seeing any of their other classes because of where the story is set doesn't sound like automatons of evil. It sounds like an actual culture of people that we only see along the fringes.

And this whole matter of "but if they're people, we have to think about ethics, so they can't be people" is a weird circular argument that cannot account for what's in LOTR or for much of what Tolkien said afterwards. Yes, he struggled with The Problem of Orcs and how to reconcile it with his world building and his ethical system, but "maybe they're not people" is ultimately not a workable solution as far as LOTR goes and can't even account for much of the later evolution of his ideas, including explicit statements in his letters.

And in the end, the real response that comes to mind to that circular argument is "maybe you should think about ethics more."

[shinylitwick94]

Ok, so Wheel of Time initial thoughts before I get too influenced by the wider internet

I liked these first few episodes!

I’m not a huge WoT fan, but I know enough about the characters and setting to care about adaptation issues here and there, but for the most part I was fine with the changes or actively in favour of them.

It’s not groundbreaking amazing tv, but it is a pretty solid show.

It’s not Shannara, it’s not Eragon. It’s not GoT or LOTR either (please stop comparing everything to those two). It does manage, at least so far, to hold its ground and do its own thing. I would at this stage put it alongside the Witcher in my own personal ranking of fantasy shows. Good, but not extraordinary, and with some issues that will hopefully be polished in later seasons.

If you’re not allergic to fantasy tropes (I understand, personally, I’m allergic to superheros), I would recommend you check it out.

Proper thoughts under the cut because spoilers (books and show)

I think cutting the prologue was a bad idea. I get that for some reason people in the anglosphere seem to hate prologues, but this one specifically was what kept me reading through an otherwise very bland and generic Eye of the World.

Knowing upfront why the dragon is so dangerous raises the stakes a lot right from the get-go, and seeing the madness up close also makes us understand why they go after male channelers so hard. It also ties the ‘chosen one’ to something tangible and not just to the chosen one concept. But ok, whatever, they chose not to do it.

Still on the topic of the Dragon, I personally love the gender-neutral dragon. Few things irritated me more in-story than the girls not being ta’veren. I get that that was partially to keep the ‘surprise’ in the books about which of the boys was the dragon, but frankly there was never any surprise in the books, since it was blatantly obvious from the fact that the book is from Rand’s POV, that the dragon is Rand. Like, there’s no reason why Nyneave with all that she accomplishes later should not be ta’veren when Perrin is. So I’m glad they’re put on the same footing here.

I liked hte changes with Perrin. I’m sure this will be very controversial in some circles, but I’ll take anything that actually gives him a reason for his broodiness.

I still have trouble with the LOTR references, even though I know why they’re there, and I understand that it was just the way things were at the time. Every time the Third Age and Mountains of the Mist get mentioned I am paralyzed by second hand embarrassment.

I liked ep 2 and 3 more than ep 1, I feel like 1 was a bit clunkier in some ways.

There’s an irritating amount of stilted dialogue, especially in Ep 1 village scenes, and the direction feels a bit basic, but it’s not annoying enough to make me not watch.

I kind of expected the show would move extremely fast, but I didn’t think it would be as far as it is by episode 3. It makes sense from a perspective of this show surviving at all (it needs to go through the EotW stuff fast, and get into the things that actually make WoT interesting), but it does leave you with relatively little time to breathe.

Rosamund Pike as Moiraine is absolutely perfect, and the rest of the main cast is amazing too. Lan and Nyneave have a great on-screen dynamic, Egwene and Rand feel just the right kind of awkward and annoying, and Mat and Perrin are both more likeable than their book versions at this stage.

Not very cohertent thoughts, but I’ve enjoyed it so far, and I’m definitely going to follow this one all the way through.

EDIT: On the fridging. I agree, it is undeniably fridging, no question about it, and that’s not good. But it’s worked ok in this story, and the story has plenty of other female characters who do have their own stories and agencies and are very definitely non-fridgeable. Also its implications for Perrin’s developement are significant and not just there to make us feel bad. So, i can live with it.

[feynavaley]

50 Questions

I took this from @mandelene, thanks for the open invitation!

———

1. What is the colour of your hairbrush? Light brown. (It’s a wooden hairbrush.)

2. Name a food you never ever eat. Well... I’m quite a picky eater but I generally try everything if I’m pressed (even though I end up not liking it). I won’t eat very spicy food though, I don’t have a good tolerance for it. Another food I used to enjoy but now I can’t even stand the smell of anymore – and even less I would eat – is almond paste. (Long story short, I came up with something – maybe labyrinthitis – that made me awfully nauseous and dizzy for a few days. I would throw up any time I even just stood up, I couldn’t eat anything. But my roommate had on her desk and almond paste cake, which has a very strong smell. Since I constantly smelled it while feeling so sick, now that’s what I associate that smell and taste with.)

3. Are you typically too warm or too cold? Generally, too cold. I handle being cold better than I handle being hot, though.

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? Translating from English to Italian some stuff my dad needs for work. (He doesn’t understand/speak English.)

5. What is your favourite candy bar? Kinder Bueno, Tronky, and Bounty.

6. Have you ever been to a professional sports game? No.

7. What is the last thing you said out loud? “No, I haven’t seen your glasses. Are you sure you didn’t leave them upstairs?” to my mother.

8. What is your favourite ice cream? If it’s good, Pistachio. It’s very hard to get right, though. Not many ice cream parlours can prepare it well, they tend to make it too sweet.

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? Water.

10. Do you like your wallet? Yes. Actually, I have two – one is a big red one where I keep basically everything, the other is blue and small and I just put in there a few banknotes and coins and the cards I need, changing them every time. I like both of them.

11. What was the last thing you ate? Chicken breast and salad for dinner.

12. Did you buy any new clothes last weekend? Nope. I’ve been confined home for almost one month and a half. 😅

13. The last sporting event you watched? I don’t know. I’m not a fan of sports so I don’t watch anything spontaneously. I only watch something if I’m with somebody who wants to watch it, but I don’t remember when the last time was.

14. What is your favourite flavour of popcorn? Uhh... there are different flavours of popcorns? I only know one... 😅 I’m not a great fan, though.

15. Who is the last person you sent a text message to? An aunt of mine. (My mother’s youngest sister.)

16. Ever go camping? Yes and no. I’ve never gone with a tent in the wild or anything – however, my grandparents used to own a trailer that they kept in a fancy camping location/trailer park by the seaside. When I was a child, I would spend the entire three months of summer break there. I don’t know if it counts as camping, though. After growing older, my sister and I would sleep in a tent instead of the trailer (because the trailer was too small for everybody), but it was still in that fancy campsite which I don’t know how much can count.

17. Do you take vitamins? No.

18. Do you go to church every Sunday? Yes. I mean, not right now, clearly (all the Churches are closed due to Covid-19 lockdown) but I would go under normal circumstances.

19. Do you have a tan? No. And it’s very hard for me to get one, anyway. I’m as white as a person can possibly be. 😅 (I’m paler than an actual albino person I know at work. I wish I were kidding. 😓)

20. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza? I prefer pizza. Very stereotypical, I know. 😅 (I’m talking about real Italian pizza, though.)

21. Do you drink your soda with a straw? Generally not.

22. What colour socks do you usually wear? White or black.

23. Do you ever drive above the speed limit? Depends on where I am and what the speed limit is. I respect the 50 km/h limit inside the cities and towns, but the 30 km/h that can be often found... yeah. 😅 (I’ve never met a driver who respected it, though.) If I’m out of the city and on a straight street across the countryside, I respect the 70 km/h limit but I tend to go faster if there’s a 50 km/h one. (Unless I know there’s an autovelox.) I’ve never gone above the 90 km/h limit, either – actually, I tend to go more around 80–85 km/h on those streets. I should probably also mention that I never drive much above the speed limit, though.

24. What terrifies you? Failure. Hurting or even just disappointing or upsetting other people. On the irrational side, I’m highly arachnophobic and I’m terrified of dogs.(Because I was attacked by a freaking SAINT BERNARD. Luckily, it just got my sweater, but it was completely mauled by the time somebody managed to get it back so... It also turned out I’m mildly allergic though, so me not staying around dogs is probably for the best anyway.)

25. Look to your left, what do you see? I actually don’t know how it’s called in English. I have a sloped wooden roof covering the left side of my bedroom, and I see it along with the skylight.

26. What chore do you hate most? Washing the dishes. Our sink is at a height that forces me to bend in an awkward way and makes my back ache if I have to wash more than a couple of dishes.

27. What do you think of when you hear an Australian accent? “OMG what is that person saying?? 😭” I’m not a native English speaker so strong non-standard accents always throw me off a bit, at least at first. 😅 I need a few minutes to get used to them.

28. What’s your favourite soda? Citron soda (I don’t know the brand. It was one my great-grandparents used to have in small glass bottles, it tasted amazing and was so refreshing...), Fanta, or Coke Zero. I don’t drink soda often, though.

29. Do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive? I go in. I think there’s only one place with a drive-through in my hometown. 

30. What is your favourite number? For some reason, I’ve always liked the numbers 3 and 11. They aren’t my lucky numbers or anything, I just like them. (Actually, thinking about it, I know why I like the number 11... In German, it’s ‘elf’, and I started taking German around the period I was obsessed with LoTR... 😅)

31. Who’s the last person you talked to? My mother.

32. Favourite cut of beef? I hardly ever eat beef (I eat meat about every other day, but it’s generally chicken or turkey breast), I don’t have a preference.

33. Last song you listened to? This one. (You’re welcome.)

34. Last book you read? Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin.

35. Favourite day of the week? Saturday.

36. Can you say the alphabet backwards? Yes, but only the Italian one (that is missing J, K, X, Y, W). I tend to mix up some letters in the English one. 😅

37. How do you like your coffee? Plain espresso.

38. Favourite pair of shoes? My ankle-height black converse.

39. The time you normally get up? Since the lockdown started, between 8:30–9. I’ve been having trouble sleeping so I’m always tired in the morning.

40. What do you prefer, sunrise or sunsets? Sunset, the colours are gorgeous. Sunrise is still beautiful and so it’s the atmosphere, but the colours tend to be fainter.

41. How many blankets on your bed? One, at the moment.

42. Describe your kitchen plates. Kind of square, white with blue and yellow stylized flowers in the corners.

43. Describe your kitchen at the moment? Quite empty. We’re due a grocery run.

44. Do you have a favourite alcoholic drink? No, I don’t like any alcoholic drink. For some reason, I don’t like the taste of alcohol. (And there’s probably something genetic here as it’s also true for my sister, my father, and other relatives from my father’s side.)

45. Do you play cards? Technically, I know a few games but I’m not really good at them and I don’t play often.

46. What colour is your car? I use my mother’s car and it’s dark blue. We also have a dark grey car (belonging to my father) but I’ve never used it because it’s very big (you can go up to 7 seats), I wouldn’t feel comfortable with driving it, let alone parking.

47. Can you change a tire? No.

48. Your favourite state? I’ve never been anywhere in the US so I can’t say.

49. Favourite job you’ve had? The current one. The pay is very low so I’ll have to leave it as soon as I find something better, but I love these children so much. 😭

50. How did you get your biggest scar? I actually don’t have any big scar... I have several small ones. The biggest one is probably on my arm, from when I leaned against the toaster to unplug it and got this long, thin burn. 😅

———

I tag anybody who feels like doing this! And please tag me back, I’d love to read your answers! 😊

[pinelife3]

Sleepless in Seattle

I rewatched Sleepless in Seattle recently on a plane, and now I’ve crawled out of my cave to declare: this movie is not romantic!

Directed by Nora Ephron, Sleepless in Seattle, is regarded as part of the canon of great rom-coms. Ephron and Rob Reiner (who actually appears in Sleepless in Seattle with a great bit about tiramisu) are kind of the big-dogs of rom-coms in that people still talk about the films they made 20+ years ago (some together, some separately):

The Princess Bride

When Harry Met Sally

Sleepless in Seattle

You’ve Got Mail

Rom-coms are tricky to define - for example, is Shakespeare in Love a rom-com? There is romance and comedy, but the lovers are separated at the end. What about Top Gun? There are iconic romantic scenes and the lovers do end up together, but the love is really a conciliatory prize (the real prize is being the best at flying) and the romance is more of a B or C plot in the film, so Top Gun probably doesn’t qualify. People talk about rom-coms as having to posses certain tropes - for example:

A neurotic, highly mannered protagonist (ideally played by Meg Ryan or Hugh Grant)

An argument featuring dramatic irony, where the audience knows more than the characters and sees their misunderstanding unfold

A grand final gesture to win a lover back after a stupid misunderstanding: a last-minute dash to the airport, a last minute dash to a new year’s eve party, a last minute dash to the Empire State Building

But for our purposes, let’s say a rom-com is anything that:

Places the romantic plot at the core of its film AND

Has a happy ending (i.e. the lovers are together at the end) AND

Features genuine attempts at humour along the way. 

LOTR features a romance plot, but there’s a lot of other stuff going on (something about a ring?!), therefore it’s not a rom-com. Same deal with Bridesmaids. I would classify Superbad as a kind of rom-com because most actions taken by the protagonists are to secure love (or at least sex) from the girls they like. The English Patient? Romantic and HILARIOUS but the lovers aren’t together in the end.

So does Sleepless in Seattle qualify as a rom-com?

Yes, the whole point of the movie is to get Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks together. This plot dominates the film - but is it romantic? More on this to follow.

Yes, in the world of the film, a happy ending is secured because Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are together

Yes, there are some laughs along the way. Mostly at the expense of poor Bill Pullman who is playing a man with severe allergies. There is also some precocious-child related humour

Back to point one: I contend that the ‘romantic plot’ in Sleepless in Seattle is actually anti-romantic. In fact, there are two romance plot lines (both of which fail to be romantic) because this bitch is engaged to another man throughout the ‘romance’ with Tom Hanks.

Before we get into that though I have another major gripe: at the start of the film, Meg Ryan and her fiancé (Bill Pullman) leave home together to drive to a family Christmas lunch. They leave the same location at the same time and are heading to the same location - no stops along the way. But for some reason they take separate cars. The film provides no reasoning for the separate cars. It is patently odd and really bothers me.

Let’s take a look at the script:

________________________________________________

EXT. BALTIMORE SUN BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON - CHRISTMAS EVE

As Annie [Meg Ryan] comes out of the newspaper building with WALTER JACKSON [Bill Pullman], a tall, handsome man who wears a hat. They're carrying an armful of Christmas presents. They're walking toward the parking lot.

WALTER

The short one with black hair  is your cousin Irene --

ANNIE

-- who's married to --

WALTER

Harold, who ran away with his secretary but came back --

ANNIE

-- because Irene threatened to put the dog to sleep if he didn't --

WALTER

And your brother Tom is a psychology professor and is married to...Betsy --

ANNIE

-- who is the most competitive woman in the world --

They put the presents in the backs of their two cars and pull out together.

EXT. A HOUSE IN BALTIMORE SUBURBS - NIGHT

Christmas lights twinkling as the two cars pull up in front of a comfortable upper middle-class house and park their cars. They get out assembling presents.

________________________________________________

This whole thing with the two cars was scripted - and even in the script it’s unexplained. My suspicion is that this just a device to get her in the car alone later so she can hear Tom Hanks on the radio - and thereby fall in love with him. This is LAZY writing. Why not just write that she had a premonition and saw a wonderful widow in Seattle and knew that they should be together. That would make about as much sense as the separate cars.

People criticise rom-coms for having unrealistic premises. For example: Last Christmas, in which a woman hangs out with the ghost of a man who gave her his heart - via transplant - the previous year. A ridiculous premise made unbearably kitsch because of the connection to the WHAM song. But honestly that makes about as much sense as an engaged couple taking separate cars for no reason.

Allow that gaping goatse of a plot hole to set the scene for the other major problem with this film: our romantic heroine is already engaged. Engaged to a man she finds boring. She remains engaged to this poor guy throughout her infatuation and pursuit of Tom Hanks. She lives with this guy, sleeps with him, plans her wedding with him: all while she is falling in love with Tom Hanks. She remains engaged until the final 10 minutes of the film when she finally dumps him. She keeps telling this poor guy she loves him. It’s evil. Can you imagine what /r/relationships would say about someone who behaved this way? This is an emotional affair.

As much as rom-coms celebrate the pursuit of love and marriage, they also caution against bad or inadequate love: it is not romantic to settle. A classic example of this is Charlotte Lucas in Pride & Prejudice: she marries the ridiculous Mr Collins to secure her future and avoid spinsterhood - but she doesn’t love him and won’t ever love him because she doesn’t respect him. Readers in Austen’s time may have been more sympathetic to Charlotte’s decision since the nature of marriage was quite different back then and spinsterhood was a seriously undesirable outcome, but contemporary audiences commonly interpret Charlotte settling for Mr Collins as a weakness of character. That decision and her life with Mr Collins only serve to reflect further radiance on Elizabeth Bennet: wistful, bitey, beautiful, beloved for centuries. That’s why no one writes fan fiction about Charlotte Lucas. 

So, in Sleepless in Seattle, the audience sees that Meg Ryan is settling for the wrong guy. This is communicated to us primarily through the visual gags around Bill Pullman’s allergies: he uses a huge number of tissues, he’s allergic to everything from strawberries to bees, he has a special respirator machine to help him sleep. This guy can’t get the girl! He can’t even breath properly. It’s clearly isn’t meant to work out between them. No, no this won’t do at all. 

What is the function of the unsuitable fiancé as a plot device? Why couldn’t this be a romance between two single people? Is it to make her cross-country pursuit seem more whimsical and fun? If it to demonstrate that she can get a guy? I actually think it’s meant to create stakes: it’s so she has something to hold her back from ‘following her heart’. This is a way of adding tension so she’s risking something (normalcy, comfort) by making the last minute dash to the Empire State Building to meet Hanks (who represents the possibility of windswept romance). Never mind that they’ve never actually spoken to each other. He’s a single parent? Um sexy! He’s a widow? Swoon. Seattle is rainy? I’m already wet.

If it’s important to the plot that she is already in a couple when she falls for Hanks, and that she casts aside an unsatisfying relationship for the mere possibility of passionate excitement, then we have had it wrong all along: the grand romantic gesture of Sleepless in Seattle is Meg Ryan dumping her fiancé. Forget the Empire State Building. It’s her telling him that she’s had an emotional affair. It’s her taking off her engagement ring. It’s her blaming him for being boring rather than working on their relationship. It’s her leaving him sat in that restaurant alone so she can go and pursue a stranger.  

This movie is not romantic. 

[onlykadi]

rules: answer there 85 statements about yourself, then tag 20 people

I was tagged by the lovely @90sjongin, thank you so much! 💜 I”m going to put most of this under the cut.

last

1. drink - boba milk tea

2. phone call - to order pizza

3. text message -  my mom telling me what kind of pizza she wants

4. song you listened to - Boomerang by EXO

5. time you cried -  It’s been so long I can’t remember. The last time might have been shortly after Jonghyun died, and I heard EXO’s ‘Been Through’ for the first time.

ever

6. dated someone twice? - yes

7. kissed someone and regretted it -  Not a big fan of kissing, but no I don’t think I’ve really ever regretted it.

8. been cheated on - no, I don’t date enough to get cheated on

9. lost someone special - yes

10. been depressed - functionally depressed, yes

11. gotten drunk and thrown up - No. I’ve never been drunk. I hate the idea of it.

fave colours

12. black

13. silver

14. blue

in the last year have you…

15. made new friends - yes

16. fallen out of love - no, I don’t think I’ve really ever been in love, I’m not into that sort of thing

17. laughed until you cried - no, unfortunately, it doesn’t happen much anymore

18. found out someone was talking about you - no, I’m not social enough for that

19. met someone who changed you - nope

20. found out who your friends are - I already know

21. kissed someone on your facebook friends list - hell no

22. how many of your facebook friends do you know irl - uh, my friends/family one 99%, my kpop one 1%

23. do you have any pets - yes, I have a lovely cat named Logan

24. do you want to change your name - nope

25. what did you do for your last birthday - I don’t consider my bday special, so I honestly can’t remember, and it was just in July :/

26. what time did you wake up today - 5:30 am, and it wasn’t even a work day

27. what were you doing at midnight last night - sleeping

28. what is something you can’t wait for - EXO’s comeback, and the 3rd Along with the Gods movie

29. (there’s no question??)

30. what are you listening to right now - Fear the Walking Dead tv show in the background

31. have you ever talked to a person named tom - Well, years ago I talked to Thom Yorke from Radiohead. He’s a hero of mine so I almost had a heart attack.

32. something that gets on your nerves - My a-hole neighbor below who plays video games at top volume in the middle of the night so my whole apartment vibrates.

33. most visited website - instagram, with tumblr a close 2nd

34. hair color - reddish brown

35. long or short hair - long, I really need to cut it, it’s annoying

36. do you have a crush on someone - nope, not in real life, just idols from a distance

37. what do you like about yourself - I’m kind to animals and critters, including spiders

38. want any piercings? - nope

39. blood type - I have no idea

40. nicknames - Stiney, Stina, Tina (my name is Christina)

41. relationship status -  blissfully single

42. zodiac - Cancer

43. pronouns - she/her

44. fave tv shows - 

Walking Dead, Why Planes Crash, Monsters Inside Me, I Survived, What on Earth, Strange Evidence, The Universe, Will & Grace, Knowing Brothers

45. tattoos - nope, my skin is so sensitive I’m afraid of the reaction

46. right or left handed - right

47. ever had surgery - yes

48. piercings - I have my ears pierced but I’m allergic to all earrings so I don’t wear them

49. sport - I took dance and played soccer as a kid, but I’m not sporty so nothing now

50. vacation - I rarely travel, but I went to England last year. I’d like to visit Korea and Japan.

51. trainers - I just wear whatever’s comfortable, right now Sketchers Go Walk

more general

52. eating - popcorn

53. drinking - boba milk tea

54. i’m about to watch - The San Francisco eps of Salty Tour with Chanyeol 

55. waiting for - Yixing’s return to EXO

56. want - to get rid of a lot of stuff, I have too much crap

57. get married - hell no

58. career - I’m already in my career, I’m an analyst (not a psychological one)

which is better

59. hugs or kisses - hugs, I’m not into kissing

60. lips or eyes - lips

61. shorter or taller - slightly taller

62. older or younger - either

63. nice arms or stomach - by nice does that mean muscular or toned? It doesn’t really matter, but I guess arms

64. hookup or relationship - neither

65. troublemaker or hesitant - hesitant

have you ever

66. kissed a stranger - yes

67. drank hard liquor - yes

68. lost glasses - no

69. turned someone down - yes

70. sex on first date - no

71. broken someone’s heart - well, I don’t know, I’ve turned people down so maybe?

72. had your heart broken - once, but it taught me a lot

73. been arrested - no

74. cried when someone died - yes

75. fallen for a friend - no

do you believe in

76. yourself - I try, but not usually

77. miracles - yes

78. love at first sight - no

79. santa claus - hhahahaha no

80. kiss on a first date - well sure, if I was a person who dated

81. angels - well, something of the sort

other

82. best friend’s name -  Jen

83. eye color - blue/green

84. fave movie - this is an impossible question: Billy Elliot, LOTR series, Rocky Horror Picture Show, the Goonies, Star Wars Eps 4-6, Dark Crystal, Labrynth

85. fave actor - Doh Kyungsoo

Not tagging 20 cause I’m a rebel, but I’ll tag a few. No pressure, only do it if you want!!!! I won’t be offended it you don’t.  @ravingsbyrav @mym8812 @alil2confident @overdosedonkaisoo  Or if you think it looks fun just do it!  😁

[femsff]

From the Identity Ask post: 1, 11 and 12?

I’m keeping the ones I’ve already answered to others in here as well, just so everyone can get to know me even better!

identity ask………oh shit

if someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to?My body language, me, and whatever I’m talking about. That may seem like a cop-out answer to some, but I really do believe the only way to get to know someone is to observe, talk to, interact with and listen to them. Not necessarily in that order. I come into contact with a lot of different people through my work but also see/read a lot online and it often amazes me how little attention people pay to others! Be that cues (non-verbal or verbal), body language or just downright listening to and hearing what they have to say. No wonder people often don’t understand other people’s actions, points of view or feelings. Can anyone really be surprised or confused by someone if they ignore everything they say/do/emote?So, I like to think you can really get to know me by interacting with me. it seems to have worked for me in life so far.

have you ever found a writer who thinks just like you? if so, who?

list your fandoms and one character from each that you identify with.

do you like your name?  is there another name you think would fit you better?

do you think of yourself as a human being or a human doing? do you identify yourself by the things you do?

are you religious/spiritual?

do you care about your ethnicity?

what musical artists have you most felt connected to over your lifetime?

are you an artist?

do you have a creed?

describe your ideal day.Sleep in a little, have breakfast, go out to the grocery store/farmers’ market to get groceries and enjoy some brisk air (I prefer colder weather), relax, maybe go swimming, catch up on social media, news and emails*, have lunch, watch a new episode of a good TV show or two*, read a book/fanfic*, write some fanfic*, make dinner, maybe watch another TV show or continue writing* while chatting with some of my online friends*, whatsapp family/friends (not a phone call person), read the news, gossip and (post to) social media*, shower, go to bed*.*With my kitties by my side,

dog person or cat person?Cat, cat, cat! I’ve grown up with* both, first we had a dog and when she passed away when I was a toddler, we got another one two years later. We got our first cat about two years after that. She had a litter, from which we kept one kitten. Unfortunately both cats died when I was in my early teens. My sister managed to get us another cat by asking one for her birthday (and I was totally in cahoots with her and together we picked a kitten from an ad in a newspaper, behind my mother’s back) and then naturally, I needed my very own cat a year almost two years later. Let me tell you, my mother was not impressed with the tiny orange fluff ball (riddled with flees) my stepfather helped me pick up without her knowing about it. Unfortunately, sister’s cat was killed in a traffic accident a few years later. When I moved to uni, my mother insisted I took my orange cat with me as the cat only liked me (according to her) and, well, it was just mean to leave the cat all alone in my new house... so my housemate agreed to get a kitten! Sadly, both cats passed away about a year and a half, the orange one due to ‘old age’ (she’d had a brain infection a few years ago and recovered remarkably well, but her health wasn’t optimal) and the other one was so affected by it that she refused to eat or drink and died a few days later. It was awful! The house was very quiet and I was terribly upset, so my mother suggested I get another kitty. At first I thought that was a bad idea, but then I reluctantly started looking online and fell in love. The little attention seeker was so affectionate, playful and active that I felt awful leaving her on her own while I went off to work, so a few weeks later I got another kitty. They’re Best Felines Forever (BFFs) and the cutest, sweetest, most affectionate and lovable cats I’ve ever had.Don’t get me wrong, i still like dogs. But... I’ve also discovered I’m actually allergic to dogs ever since moving away from home and not having one around me/in the house. My sister and mother both have a dog and they’re nice, but always need entertaining and they have that typical dog smell I’m not too fond of. I not-so secretly like my sister’s dog better because it’s trained better and actually listens and doesn’t constantly jump into my lap like the hyperactive dog of my mother. Coincidentally, I was also allergic for cats but by having them around 24/7 I’ve built up a tolerance and rarely have reactions. Also, my current two kitties are half ragdolls, a breed which is known to be more tolerable for people with cat allergies.* Over the years we’ve also had birds, fish, hamsters, guinea pigs, mice (it was supposed to be one but of course I bought a pregnant one and got 10!), a rabbit and a turtle. I think my mother tried to make up for the fact that she never got to have pets as a child and instead took her stuffed toy dog out for walks on a leash in the neighborhood.**The dog I grew up with died almost a decade ago.

inside or outdoors?

are you a musician?

five most influential books over your lifetime.

if you’d grown up in a different environment, do you think you’d have turned out the same?

would you say your tumblr is a fair representation of the “real you”?

what’s your patronus?

which Harry Potter house would you be in? or are you a muggle?

would you rather be in Middle Earth, Narnia, Hogwarts, or somewhere else?I have a secret… I’could be considered a terrible sci-fi/fantasy fan as I’ve never read the LotR books (my brother loves them), the Chronicles of Narnia or Harry Potter. I do vaguely remember watching some LotR and HP movies at certain points in my life (in the gym, recuperating from surgery, passively watching something someone else is watching), but they never really spoke to me nor make me want to read the books. So, if I have to choose a universe, I’ll definitely be in the Stargate universe even though it’s simply on ���boring” Earth. Well, most of the time, anyway.

do you love easily?

list the top five things you spend the most time doing, in order.

how often would you want to see your family every year?

have you ever felt like you had a “mind-meld” with someone?

could you live as a hermit?

how would you describe your gender/sexuality?

do you feel like your outside appearance is a fair representation of the “real you”?

on a scale from 1 to 10, how hard is it for someone to get under your skin?

three songs that you connect with right now.

pick one of your favorite quotes.Honestly, I’ve got nothing… Some of the things I’ve learned over the years through (online) media is that quotes and quoting important people is a thing in the US. It’s not in my country. I’ve never been asked to memorize/apply quotes from famous inventors, authors or other historical figures in school. Granted, I did drop history in the equivalent of 9th grade, but it was never a thing in Literature (of any of the languages) either. The only things I can really quote (which I’ve learned in school) would be the laws of physics, mathematical equations and such. And, outside of/after school I never developed an obsession with quotes either. Sure, some of my favorite characters on TV have great lines, but nothing really noteworthy for a question like this one.

[femsff]

Identity asks... 3, 13, and 23 (because I seem to be picking number themes...)

I’m keeping the ones I’ve already answered to others in here as well, just so everyone can get to know me even better!

identity ask………oh shit

if someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to?My body language, me, and whatever I’m talking about. That may seem like a cop-out answer to some, but I really do believe the only way to get to know someone is to observe, talk to, interact with and listen to them. Not necessarily in that order. I come into contact with a lot of different people through my work but also see/read a lot online and it often amazes me how little attention people pay to others! Be that cues (non-verbal or verbal), body language or just downright listening to and hearing what they have to say. No wonder people often don’t understand other people’s actions, points of view or feelings. Can anyone really be surprised or confused by someone if they ignore everything they say/do/emote?So, I like to think you can really get to know me by interacting with me. it seems to have worked for me in life so far.

have you ever found a writer who thinks just like you? if so, who?

list your fandoms and one character from each that you identify with.The only fandom I actively participate in is Stargate SG-1. Somehow, others just don’t grab me. It’s a bit strange because I watch a lot of TV shows but I think it’s the interesting Sam/Jack ship and its lack of resolution that keeps me going back, in combination with the show’s plot and everything of course. If I have to choose one person, it’d be Sam Carter, but I also identify with Jack O’Neill in some aspects.

do you like your name?  is there another name you think would fit you better?

do you think of yourself as a human being or a human doing? do you identify yourself by the things you do?

are you religious/spiritual?

do you care about your ethnicity?

what musical artists have you most felt connected to over your lifetime?

are you an artist?

do you have a creed?

describe your ideal day.Sleep in a little, have breakfast, go out to the grocery store/farmers’ market to get groceries and enjoy some brisk air (I prefer colder weather), relax, maybe go swimming, catch up on social media, news and emails*, have lunch, watch a new episode of a good TV show or two*, read a book/fanfic*, write some fanfic*, make dinner, maybe watch another TV show or continue writing* while chatting with some of my online friends*, whatsapp family/friends (not a phone call person), read the news, gossip and (post to) social media*, shower, go to bed*.*With my kitties by my side,

dog person or cat person?Cat, cat, cat! I’ve grown up with* both, first we had a dog and when she passed away when I was a toddler, we got another one two years later. We got our first cat about two years after that. She had a litter, from which we kept one kitten. Unfortunately both cats died when I was in my early teens. My sister managed to get us another cat by asking one for her birthday (and I was totally in cahoots with her and together we picked a kitten from an ad in a newspaper, behind my mother’s back) and then naturally, I needed my very own cat a year almost two years later. Let me tell you, my mother was not impressed with the tiny orange fluff ball (riddled with flees) my stepfather helped me pick up without her knowing about it. Unfortunately, sister’s cat was killed in a traffic accident a few years later. When I moved to uni, my mother insisted I took my orange cat with me as the cat only liked me (according to her) and, well, it was just mean to leave the cat all alone in my new house… so my housemate agreed to get a kitten! Sadly, both cats passed away about a year and a half, the orange one due to ‘old age’ (she’d had a brain infection a few years ago and recovered remarkably well, but her health wasn’t optimal) and the other one was so affected by it that she refused to eat or drink and died a few days later. It was awful! The house was very quiet and I was terribly upset, so my mother suggested I get another kitty. At first I thought that was a bad idea, but then I reluctantly started looking online and fell in love. The little attention seeker was so affectionate, playful and active that I felt awful leaving her on her own while I went off to work, so a few weeks later I got another kitty. They’re Best Felines Forever (BFFs) and the cutest, sweetest, most affectionate and lovable cats I’ve ever had.Don’t get me wrong, i still like dogs. But… I’ve also discovered I’m actually allergic to dogs ever since moving away from home and not having one around me/in the house. My sister and mother both have a dog and they’re nice, but always need entertaining and they have that typical dog smell I’m not too fond of. I not-so secretly like my sister’s dog better because it’s trained better and actually listens and doesn’t constantly jump into my lap like the hyperactive dog of my mother. Coincidentally, I was also allergic for cats but by having them around 24/7 I’ve built up a tolerance and rarely have reactions. Also, my current two kitties are half ragdolls, a breed which is known to be more tolerable for people with cat allergies.* Over the years we’ve also had birds, fish, hamsters, guinea pigs, mice (it was supposed to be one but of course I bought a pregnant one and got 10!), a rabbit and a turtle. I think my mother tried to make up for the fact that she never got to have pets as a child and instead took her stuffed toy dog out for walks on a leash in the neighborhood.** The dog I grew up with died almost a decade ago.

inside or outdoors?Inside for sure. Don’t get me wrong, i don’t mind going outside or anything but I prefer being shielded from the elements/heat and would never voluntarily go hiking or something. It’s just not in my nature. But I do need to go outside, even for a little while, every day just to get some fresh air and maybe let the wind mess up my hair.

are you a musician?

five most influential books over your lifetime.

if you’d grown up in a different environment, do you think you’d have turned out the same?

would you say your tumblr is a fair representation of the “real you”?

what’s your patronus?

which Harry Potter house would you be in? or are you a muggle?

would you rather be in Middle Earth, Narnia, Hogwarts, or somewhere else?I have a secret… I’could be considered a terrible sci-fi/fantasy fan as I’ve never read the LotR books (my brother loves them), the Chronicles of Narnia or Harry Potter. I do vaguely remember watching some LotR and HP movies at certain points in my life (in the gym, recuperating from surgery, passively watching something someone else is watching), but they never really spoke to me nor make me want to read the books. So, if I have to choose a universe, I’ll definitely be in the Stargate universe even though it’s simply on “boring” Earth. Well, most of the time, anyway.

do you love easily?

list the top five things you spend the most time doing, in order.

how often would you want to see your family every year?Oh, I don’t know... we don’t have a very big family and we don’t do things like family weekends or anything, so I tend to just go visit when I feel like it or my mother/sister “subtly” hints it’s been a while since I’ve been by. I do like spending Christmas with them and I always try to make it to everyone’s birthday (or whichever day they celebrate it), but I’d say about half a dozen times a year is plenty*. Also, my sister had a baby this year and I’m a first-time auntie so I do make an effort to see the little one. I get almost daily pics and vids though, so it’s not like I need to be there every month.*I live in a small country and everyone is practically in a different region (north, north east, west, and center), except for sister and mother who live in the same city. Anyway, for us traveling an hour is quite a distance and two hours is like very far away (and when I have to go west, phew, it’s 2.5 hours and that’s me making a lot of effort), so we don’t generally feel like we have time to have weekly visits.

have you ever felt like you had a “mind-meld” with someone?

could you live as a hermit?

how would you describe your gender/sexuality?

do you feel like your outside appearance is a fair representation of the “real you”?

on a scale from 1 to 10, how hard is it for someone to get under your skin?

three songs that you connect with right now.

pick one of your favorite quotes.Honestly, I’ve got nothing… Some of the things I’ve learned over the years through (online) media is that quotes and quoting important people is a thing in the US. It’s not in my country. I’ve never been asked to memorize/apply quotes from famous inventors, authors or other historical figures in school. Granted, I did drop history in the equivalent of 9th grade, but it was never a thing in Literature (of any of the languages) either. The only things I can really quote (which I’ve learned in school) would be the laws of physics, mathematical equations and such. And, outside of/after school I never developed an obsession with quotes either. Sure, some of my favorite characters on TV have great lines, but nothing really noteworthy for a question like this one.

[luwupercal]

long post / i am allergic to absolutely everything european and with elves set between the fall of the first half of rome and the early to mid 16th century, with extremely few exceptions, i am sad to inform you

how i became a skyrim fan in spite of this allergy is entirely due to peer pressure and Miraak existing and even that wasn’t able to keep me around for more than a few months once the peer pressure was gone

mind you that it’s exclusively an european allergy, i will happily devour any medieval fantasy novels you’ve got going on as long as they’re set in another continent. it’s also exclusively a fantasy allergy -- i’ll happily read a historical novel set during the black plague, for example, and i might even dip into medieval magic realism, but as soon as the magic is something established and not a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it minor plot facilitator i’ll dip

i blame being raised on a strong diet of greek myths and 00s/early 10s YA novels (any fellow percy jackson kids in the audience for that double combo?), and also having at one point of my life wondered what the hell people do all the time in medieval fantasy and being unable to come up with anything, and also just being endlessly goddamn bored of it. i would like LOTR a whole of a lot more if they showed us elves performing conlang creation or whatever it is they do for fun rather than merely telling us, there’s ought to be room for fun even in the midst of times of war shouldn’t it (though for reference i’ve never read the LOTR books proper, i’ve only ever watched the movies and i was more or less held captive throughout them. all i could perceive properly was the bits where sam was in love with frodo. i might be doing a rewatch this month though)

i would actually prefer fantasy to be proper medieval rather than renaissance because what most people mean when they say medieval fantasy setting is renaissance, the real middle ages were not only a thousand years long but also extremely fucking weird. have you seen the drip germanic knights had going on? i want sigvald to be dressed in silk stockings and have them all tactically ripped up every battle. i want him to be wearing rainbow patchwork panties under his armor. i want to have a dnd character who’s an elderly irish monk who’s been empowered by the fae posing as catholic angels to find and destroy the magical norse runestones the vikings utilized to raid his homelands, who during his journey learns of the many cultural losses and outright colonialism wrought on by early christianity and thus is able to reconcile his warlock pact and his faith in god once it comes out that the being who allows him to shoot eldritch blasts at Hravsdalf Hjorkmergssen and his merry gang of slavers is not exactly someone able to be baptised successfully. actually does anybody have an early medieval discord text message-based ttrpg game going on that i can join--

i guess my rule of thumb is that if you just operate on a vague medievalesque tier of worldbuilding and i cannot quite intuit the culture or technology of your world from a glance at a scene set in it because everyone’s dressed like robin hood it will simply not really be something for me. i’ve seen enough of them to be forever uninterested unfortunately. if you don’t actively shown me birth control being made or something like that i won’t have any fun no matter how excellently calculated your magic system is

please do not take my grumbling as legitimate criticism though (besides my plea for more sigvald drip because we could all utilize it) (and also the dnd character concept which you’re all free to use as long as you report back the results). the only medieval setting i’ve ever truly loved was the Eragon setting and i had more fun reading the last book of that series than i will ever have watching the LOTR movies’ elf scenes. i unironically came out of batman v superman an extremely starry-eyed 14 year old. i run a warhammer 40k blog, for goodness’s sake. i am merely a man, sitting at his porch, grumbling about Legolas these days. i have very bad taste, and this is known (okay, maybe i only had fun watching BvS because i was (1) fourteen and (2) a budding superbat shipper. but have you seen the worm sex issue though)

but at the end of the day i am not sure there is any argument that can convince me to fully get into fantasy further than enjoying stormcast greatly as a concept. it’s like asking a diehard skyrim fan to get into enderal just because they share the same engine -- all i will be seeing will be the uncanny valley of one of my greatest passions, repeating endlessly into the sunset

i do like the skaven though. i give the skaven the Sonky Seal of Approval

(also: we should have more roman elves. why don’t we have Elf Jesus dying for your Elf Sins, eh? dwarven Pontius Pilate? tiefling Incontinentia Buttox, at the very least. i would like to see Pact of the Fiend Warlock Julius Caesar, if only to have a version of old Shiza i can successfully kin. there’s a lot of fun stuff in rome, it’s the perfect Asshole Civilization to base an Asshole Civilization off of, it’s just distinct enough from modern society to be bewildering but also they had take-out and hair dye and racism and senators calling each other slurs. like come on, people. it’s way more fun than boring old renaissance italy! and you have so much more research you can do because they actually wrote down their politics, extensively! just do a bunch of research and be careful to show the ugly side prominently enough that it can’t just be ignored and you’ve got a recipe for super fun times, come on...)

I know the nature of the Old Ones is what the Emperor wants humanity to achieve and that---unlike the Old Ones teaching and "uplifting" some aliens---the Emperor would just wipe-out all aliens to turn the galaxy into some kind of human-only country club (which is shitty), but I can't ignore the image of some godlike human floating through space on a chair, finding a planet full of funky little aliens, thinking "hey these guys are kinda neat", using immense psychic power to slam the "Skip Scene" button on evolution's universal remote VERY HARD and now, the man-sized armadillos have space travel

LMAO that IS pretty fucking funny but it took me a mo’ to realize you were describing theoretical uplifting ‘cause my thoughts on how the old ones “uplifted” the aeldari are, er. significantly less “skip scene button” and significantly more “exploratory surgeries and selective breeding of sapient beings* for a very sketchy, undefined purpose”

*or “eugenics” for short

killing is bad. uplifting is sketch too. maybe we should just leave aliens alone. would you like aliens to come to your house and uplift you? i wouldn’t

also unrelated but “jingle jangle” off the new vegas soundtrack started playing as i was answering this ask and it is the perfect bgm for what you’re describing