#why am I incapable of brevity?????

[leofrith]

not me actually considering reblogging one of those prompt lists again and asking for requests 🤡

[leninisms]

question how did you start getting into marxism leninism/ political theory in general and why did you gravitate towards that ideology over anither

also answering: howd you start doing political organization and how is it?????

hiiii<3 i love these questions<3 this is going to be long and might read like a memoir because i’m incapable of brevity, but hopefully it’s coherent<3

how’d you start doing political organizing?:

i’ve been reading (political) philosophy for years at this point. i have OCD and one of the primary ways it manifests for me is as an obsession with Being The Most Good I Can Be. i turned to ethics and moral philosophy when i was maybe 13 or 14, and ended up falling in love with every branch of philosophy.

long story short: i am a revolutionary because i want to be and do good, but i want to be and do good because i am a revolutionary.

i joined my college’s socialist student union during my first year and i loved being around other marxists, but it felt like i had just joined a book club. there wasn’t any political action being taken. we’d just meet up and discuss politics and theory. these things are of course important, but they don’t accomplish much of anything if not paired with actual organizing.

when the school year ended and i decided to take some time off, i decided to get more involved in politics. i started looking into all the leftist organizations that were active in my area and reading their programs. most organizations are active on some kind of social media (i used instagram to find them), and generally once you find one local group it’s very easy to find most of the others because they follow each other or collaborate on posts, even when they hate each other.

if you find an org you like, but they don’t have a branch/chapter/network near you, i recommend reaching out to them to see if you can schedule a call with one of their members. i know this is something PSL does and i think it’s very worthwhile for people looking into political organizing. if a call seems scary, look into upcoming events and try to attend a few if you haven’t been already. this can really help you get a feel for how different organizations operate, as well as allowing you to meet members and ask questions.

this is super important: if you join an organization, and then realize you hate it, you can just leave. more importantly, try to identify the things you hated or were uncomfortable with, so that when you join a new organization, you know what to avoid! even more importantly, don’t just swear off organizing forever after one try. most of my comrades were in at least one other org (if not more) before they found our party.

and how is it?:

nothing has helped my mental and physical health the way organizing has. not to be tragic and tortured on tumblr dot com but i genuinely felt so lost and depressed and miserable for so, so long. but i started organizing and suddenly i felt alive and human and like i had a reason to get up in the morning.

my involvement in organizing has helped me improve my social and communication skills. it’s helped me learn and grow in my politics, but also just as a person. i’m happier, i have more energy, i’m more confident and comfortable with myself, i’ve made new friends, and it’s even helped with my OCD. i was detained by the police at a local university’s encampment and when i told my psychiatrist, she told me she was proud of me lmao

this all sounds very dramatic but you can ask anyone who knows me and they’d agree with everything i just said. there was a version of myself that existed before i got involved in organizing, and there is the version of me that exists now.

marxism-leninism?

i am a marxist-leninist for truly so, so many reasons.

anti-imperialism is the most fundamental aspect of my politics, and i could talk about it forever but i’m trying to control myself. u.s. imperialism is responsible for so much horror and bloodshed and suffering around the world, and it must be dismantled. i believe i have a responsibility, as someone living in the imperial core, to oppose u.s. imperialism wherever it exists. that means organizing in support of palestine, sudan, congo, korea, venezuela, cuba, haiti, and every other nation and population that has been and/or is currently being exploited and abused by the violence of the united states.

from mao’s “u.s. imperialism is a paper tiger” :

before this next point, obligatory “this is not criticism of any specific org/party, it is just my experience and opinion” disclaimer.

democratic centralism was something that was very important to me when i was looking for a party to join. i really just felt very opposed to joining any org that struggled with factionalism. for some people this doesn’t matter or seem like a big deal, but it’s always felt important to me that i should be able to travel to any city in the u.s. and be able to organize within the same party.

there are branches of organizations that cannot work with branches in cities 30 miles away from them because they are so fundamentally different. i was able to organize with comrades in a city more than 400 miles away from my branch with no problem.

political education is also very essential to me. i chose to join a political party that emphasized political education, not just for public-facing events, but internally. i wanted to be in an organization where i’m constantly learning. there are so, so many issues and conflicts around the world, and though it’s impossible to know every detail of every struggle, i believe it’s important to have at least a basic understanding of major conflicts, and to stay as up-to-date as possible with global politics.

there are so many wonderful elements of marxism-leninism, so i’m just going to link a couple of resources for anyone interested in learning more:

if leninism is brand new to you, then i highly recommend this 3-part educational series about lenin. this is also available as a podcast on spotify and apple if you prefer.

the state and revolution, v.i. lenin

imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism, v.i. lenin

i hope this answered your questions:) everyone, please feel free to ask me anything about organizing! i love talking about it obviously and will never be annoyed <3

[averseunhinged]

what are your top ten favorite klaroline fics?

hello, friend! so glad you asked. this is more than ten, and i have more in my bookmarks, plus there's stuff on ffn, but this has been 90m of my life, because i am incapable of brevity or culling. i'll probs do a part two? maybe? idk. i'll try.

fine china and dull silver by@yespumpkindoodlesthings

wrote a review here!

where it begins: by endoftheline7

i've been trying to write a review of this for fic rec friday for a month, but i just have so many incoherent screamy thoughts about it. it's one of my favorite reads on both klaus and caroline and plays with the idea that vampires are always a little bit the age they were when they died, no matter how old they get, and spins it into a sort of teen summer romance. klaus is mostly awkwardly thrilled to hang out with caroline, but still has a moment of oh, right. he's batshit and full of murder. caroline's less perfect qualities aren't glossed over. they're fully confronted and caroline doesn't just accept those things. she begins to learn how to turn them into strengths. also, i think about that conversation between rebekah and caroline at the beginning a lot. the whole thing about it not being their responsibility to correct the behavior of the awful men in their lives, but the alternative is to let those men burn themselves out, and that option sucks, too. very hmmmm. so much thoughts.

a statement for the masses (series, but it's one longer fic plus a short one shot) by but_seriously

i don't usually like human au in this fandom, because i think it's hard to make klaus human and in character without him being more awful than i can stand. like he ports pretty well to a shitty billionaire, but ew. corpo romance. not for me. rock stars, however? perfect. i love the rivalry. i love the family drama. i love the complicated relationship between rebekah and caroline.

leave the dust behind by whirly

tons to say about this, but it's mostly all about the ending for me. it's open, so if you like a strict hea resolution, it's probably not going to be a satisfying read for you. but i love this sort of slow ticking over of caroline's thought progression while she figures out what her relationship with klaus could or should be. there's a sort of balance between her own developing moral code and klaus's atrocities that needs to be struck. most of all, i love klaus's faith in her and his belief that they'll figure it out eventually.

someone that'll look like you by @cupcakemolotov

i probably don't need to talk this one up, but whatever. it's super popular for valid reasons. it has a number of my favorite things. amnesia! a more interesting augustine society! enzo! caroline being a stone cold badass! the dichotomy of klaus being both ancient and immovable and willing to bend for what caroline needs! all delicious things.

there's a devil on my shoulder where the angels used to be (and he's calling me the queen) by meet_the_girl_who_can

my favorite no humanity caroline fic. i have such a love/hate relationship with the humanity switch. it could have been so interesting, but tvdu mostly made it silly and samey and boring. this is more in line with what i can see caroline getting up to with her humanity off. like why would she just hang around mystic falls? other than the shitty budget of this shitty show, i can't think of a reason why she would. and i really enjoy how smart klaus knows he has to be with her. she's still caroline, but she can't be careful with him with her humanity off, and that has to be a scary prospect, because she was capable of hurting him badly when she did reluctantly care about him.

the fate makes for a lousy poet (longer fic plus a short one shot companion) by @stars-and-darkness

so. like so many of us, i love soulmates au, and this is probably my favorite in this fandom. but the part i go back to the most is the second fic. i love elena so much, because of that dichotomy of compassion paired with a near total inability to relate her own feelings and needs to those of other people, not in spite of it. she's a really interesting character and ella's treatment of that is so deft. elena absolutely cannot equate her own situation with caroline's, despite it being so obvious from the outside, because she's so mired in her own suffering and the indulgence of almost everyone she's ever known. she's simultaneously cruelly selfish and extraordinarily selfless and it's a wonderful read, as is the first caroline + mikaelsons fic. ella always writes concepts and does character work in a way that makes me go YES THAT EXACTLY THAT.

like the sun shines by @lalainajanes

this is like my #1 wish it wasn't unfinished fic, but i also absolutely do not care that it isn't finished, because it's just so much fun. canon barely goes here, which is so very favorite. i love a mostly everyone lives (contemptuously with each other) au. and i love caroline traveling the world. and i love caroline and bonnie in new orleans with secret, (probs) very important business. and i love a klaus who is still kind of the worst.

lost in the right direction (again, a series) by @kirythestitchwitch

there is nothing i love more than klaus and caroline traveling the world together and just doing stuff. all vibes, minimal plot. this series is A+++ murderfluff and it's enormously engaging, watching them figure out themselves and each other and whatever they have the potential to be together. totally one of my comfort reads

feel the madness closing in by yokan/@galvanizedfriend

this one is ugly and sad and awful and such a realistic take on caroline in new orleans during the events of the originals. i love so many things about it, but caroline's thoughts about whether he's been cursed or gone mad or if it was simply that klaus wasn't capable of loving someone without treating them like a possession are on point.

leave my rage to the sea and sun by sophisticatedfangirling

another ugly one. as much as i love that klaus never compels caroline, i can't help but think if he fucked up badly enough and felt like he'd lost everything else, too, he'd probably do it. this is so sad and slides pretty seamlessly into canon.

bride by brombones

this is one of those surprisingly layered, literary flavored fics. i'm planning on writing a dedicated review at some point (lololololol), but the very basic gist is caroline runs an experiment with klaus's blood and manages to completely fuck up her life to the point where she'll never be able to escape him, even if he never finds out the results. it is WILD with a fantastic use of silas that makes me want to shriek incoherently.

[riorangedeezguts]

(9> make em seethe, I'm playing with fire here lmao)

Okay, so your name's Rio Ranger...

But like... as in the term to arrange?

Just like how you rearrange your clothing with those of the deceased to appear more human for your liking? :)

Along with how you keeping switching those cards to rearrange your facial features and mimic a smile because you're physically incapable of making one yourself? :)

And how you keep arranging your pretty-boy personality to keep up with your father's standards? :)

Doesn't being referred to in such way make you feel more inferiorly inhuman?

(sorry this took so long to answer, anon! I've been thinking abt how I wanted to do it for awhile now, and I can safely say the ending is a bit disturbing lmao)

TW: a touch of body horror at the very end! (It's separated from the rest of the writing so you can't miss it, and the cut is for brevity since this is kind of a longer post. Enjoy!)

Tch. Look at the grating grin on this bastard...

"Hey, shit for brains! I'm the most human of all the dolls dad's ever worked on!" Ranger reminds you, flapping his expression cards against your forehead a few times in clear exasperation, as if to scold you the way a dog owner might lightly hit Fido with a rolled up newspaper. "Don't'cha know that means I'm the best of both worlds?" With a paper smile pressed to his lips, he goes on to explain why.

"First of all, I can't get sick and die like you losers, and even if the me standing before you became scrap metal, there's puh-lenty of backups for my code, my parts, my blueprints, my possessions... Dad's got alllllll of that junk on file in case something happens."

And yet, the doubt still creeps into his mind.

A masterpiece, huh?

What masterpiece constantly feels like shit?

"But I get it!" He exclaims, interrupting his own thoughts. "I get it! Really, I do! I'm sure it just gnaws you up inside knowing my dad loves me so much. Call me a gambling man, 'cause I'd bet big on you not thinking he was capable of it, what, with how stony faced he tends to be." Then Ranger pauses. "Say, whadda you think, bastard? Am I my dad's son?"

With the purposeful flick of his wrist, his mouth is no longer concealed by any cards, revealing nothing but the thin line of his lips behind them and the darkening whites of his eyes. Orange and yellow swirls of madness twist their way through the murk, pinning you in place beneath the weight of his gaze and the lack of a smile.

"The resemblance is uncanny, wouldn't you say?"

But something about the way you keep smiling at him says you expected this outcome. You think you've won, you cheeky bastard?

"What's wrong with being a bit inhuman, eh?" He asks tonelessly. He's asked himself this question a thousand times, because he is human in all the ways that count, isn't he? That's always what dad said.

"I'm a masterpiece with or without my humanity," he adds convincingly. You'd never guess he was trying to convince himself with those words too.

Why? It stings to question dad, but why?

Why was he made like this? Why does he doubt himself so much? Why aren't dad's answers ever enough? Every. single. time dad tells him the truth, and every. single. time Ranger squanders it.

He hates himself for it. But he hates you more.

"You're lucky your clothes are so damn ugly," he says to you at last, lazily eyeing you up and down once before turning on his heel to walk away, not even bothering to raise his cards as they hang dejectedly at his side. "You're not worth all the clean up killing you would require."

.

.

.

If only he could flay you alive.

Wear your frail, peeled skin like a mask, and see the look of horror in your eyes as the sight of your own face is the last thing you see. Skeletons can't smile back, after all.

But maybe, finally and at last, he could.

[mischievouslittlecreature]

hi there sweets. i love your story titled “love me where i’m most ruined” i think i’m somehow halfway through it cuz i’ve been binge reading like crazy! i have a question for you: would have thomas been able to keep going if it had been lucy the one who had been shot instead of grace? i often times find myself wondering that. i enjoy the throuple and how much love, respect, and communication is present there for one another, however a part of me is inclined towards the notion that lucy might have been a bit more important to him than grace was. especially when grace felt frustrated when she sensed thomas wouldn’t completely open up to her as he did with lucy. or maybe i’m just misinterpreting what you wanted to convey. thank you love for giving us such a great story! you’re an awesome writer! xo

Thank you so much, anon! 🖤 It always means the absolute world to me to hear that someone is enjoying my fics, especially this series, which is so near and dear to my heart.

As usual, I wrote a big 'ol essay in response to this because I am incapable of brevity and love to yap nonsensically about my OCs 😅

TW for suicide mention under the cut:

The short answer to your question is: no, I don't think he would have. Part of this is because I have very purposefully written Tommy and Lucy as being incapable of living without each other. Even before Grace's death, they were quite codependent (though this admittedly got much more pronounced after her death) and Tommy relied on her massively for so many things.

I could see him trying to keep going on for awhile after, for Charlie and Grace if not for anything else. But he would be a complete shell of himself, and what was left of him would start unraveling quickly. As much as I love her and her relationship with Tommy, I'm just not sure if Grace would have had to tools to be able to help him the way that Lucy could.

At the end of the day, Lucy is able to provide support and understanding to Tommy in a way that no one else can. I think that he truly feels like she is the only person in the world who actually loves him unconditionally. And I think that's part of why he's so much more willing to open up to her than a lot of the other characters in the series. Her ability to understand his thought processes, actions, and feelings without him even having to explain them to her a lot of the time is a huge part of why she's his main source of emotional support. Losing that would be crippling for him.

I think that Grace would try her best, and they both would be hurting hugely from the loss of Lucy. But as you said, Grace struggles more to understand him than Lucy did, and I think Tommy would grow frustrated at her not just being able to immediately tune-into him like Lucy could. And his PTSD symptoms would get worse, particularly his inability to stop working in an attempt to distract himself from the pain and grief. That would have caused conflict with Grace, especially long term.

I also could see him thinking that Grace and Charlie would be fine or even better off without him, and seriously contemplating and perhaps even going through with committing suicide.

Sorry for such a downer answer! 😭 You are right that generally speaking, I always have written Lucy as being Tommy's #1 person. It doesn't mean that he didn't love Grace and that she wasn't important to him, but Lucy is his soulmate.

Thank you again so much for reading and loving the series, anon! 😘

[blujayonthewing]

Heartbreak, midnight, mistake for Mel if they haven’t been asked and actually can you dow them for Felix too, cause why not.

heartbreak: Have they ever had a relationship that ended badly? Experienced some other kind of heartbreak? What happened?

biting my fist I wish I had better answers for this because I love this question. The problem with both felix and mel is that they are in their 50s and 60s respectively, which isn't very many for a gnome but is still just A Lot Of Years for me, an idiot, to fill with life experiences and I've mostly been really bad about doing that kfgjhdgj.

Melliwyk has always been really bad at relationships in general; she's dated a little, mostly very casually, but especially once she was in the academy she fell pretty hard into 'yes yes yes I'll go socialize when I'm done working on this' chaining one project into the next ad infinitum, especially after the experiment backfire explosion that gave her a reputation as this sort of ruthless researcher and resulted in kind of a feedback loop of people assuming she preferred to be left alone, which meant fewer people bugging her into socializing once in awhile, which reinforced her perception as a loner, etc. I think she's been in at least a handful of relationships with people she really liked that could have been serious but just... sort of fell apart; more regrets than outright heartbreaks.

Honestly as of current canon, I think the worst outright heartbreak Mel's had that I know of was being attacked by, and then losing, her house's ghost as soon as she found out he was real the whole time; aside from Baxter, he was her only friend for years and years, even if only an 'imaginary' one, and it was a gut punch to, essentially, finally find him but then immediately lose him forever.

Felix has even less canon backstory I could tell you about right now, alas :') He's been in very few meaningful relationships; he's not good at putting himself out there, and having a brief encounter with a stranger is a lot easier to navigate than... well, someone else being disappointed with the way he is as a whole person. To be fair, I don't think he's been openly rejected a lot, but the way he sort of expects it shapes his behavior such that it makes it harder for others to get that close to him in the first place. I can very much see him having had his heart broken before, but I'd have to get back to you on specifics ^^; These days he mostly keeps to himself; he likes people, but it's easier for him to be around them than to be one of them.

I am incapable of brevity! The rest under the cut!

midnight: What keeps your OC up at night? Do they have nightmares? Fears? Anxieties? What do they do in the small hours of the morning when they should be sleeping?

Melliwyk is up working. She'd be up working anyway, but especially if she's upset-- working tirelessly, if not relentlessly. She's not good with emotions; she processes things by keeping busy, either looking for Solutions or just looking to throw herself into something productive rather than having to feel her feelings. This is overlapping really neatly with her current major source of stress, which is that everything she's working on is deeply important, and anything she neglects in order to work on those things is also deeply important, and other people are getting hurt and will continue to get hurt if she can't prioritize tasks correctly or do enough quickly enough and well enough. She doesn't have time for fears! Or anxieties! Or sleep! Or dinner! And it's great! After all, she loves her work! She's interested! Passionate! No downsides!! She doesn't have nightmares because the reason she wears that goofy hat at all times is literally to magically prevent nightmares, but I bet if she slept without it her nightmares would be real interesting right now :)

The facetious answer for Felix is: his sleep schedule is sort of unusual, so when he's up in the small hours it's normal and he's getting up to whatever his normal gnome business is, lol. But in the proper spirit of the question:

He lost a lot of sleep after the mysterious encounter that took a chunk of his memory and left a strange mark on his skin. In general, Felix is not immune to getting too invested in [area of interest] and staying up way too late, so he's certainly lost sleep working on/ thinking over really interesting mysteries before, but that situation has so many unknowns, has so many worrying or grim implications, has given him so much to think about and yet so little to actually work with...! The fact that he can't remember getting back to town is what upsets him the most. He's found himself (or put himself) in a lot of really dangerous situations, but he's always had control of his own mind and body before, even when he's been physically overpowered by others.

More generally, sometimes he'll learn something or uncover some secret that he ends up losing sleep over, especially if it's information about something bad that he doesn't feel like he can actually act on. The city he spends most of his time in is less-than-secretly controlled by a powerful criminal guild, so he has to maintain a really delicate balance between snooping around a lot just because that's what interests him anyway, helping others as much as he can, but also staying out of the way of the guild and the law enough that the worst either of them do is, you know, beat him up a little and/or throw him in jail for a couple days, rather than deciding it'd be better if he Just Disappeared.

If he's worried or anxious and can't sleep over it, he'll generally go for a walk, or go sit on a roof for awhile, or sit somewhere and draw if the weather's bad. He doesn't have a lot of nightmares, but when he does they're often about being trapped somewhere and being unable to call for help, or seeing people pass by who can't seem to see or hear him (all of which he stubbornly refuses to read into).

mistake: What’s the worst mistake your OC ever made? What led to them making it? Have they been able to fix it? How have they moved on?

A little while back, Melliwyk's party returned from a ground excursion to find our airship under attack by a powerful archmage, her personal bodyguard, a bunch of summoned fiends, and a crew of elite soldiers; as soon as she managed to get back on deck Melliwyk launched a fireball at the archmage and then moved toward the cabin looking to get cover inside, and the archmage returned with a massive flamestrike right on top of Mel, who... had just run directly to where most of the crew of the ship were, all of whom had already taken damage before we got there. Our first mate went down, and we managed to get him just inside the door to the stairs leading belowdecks, but before any healers could reach him a previously invisible imp stung him, killing him instantly, right at Melliwyk's feet.

And the thing is. Maybe it wouldn't have mattered whether she, personally, drew fire to him; he had already been pretty hurt, and it was a rough battle for everyone, and there's no reason to believe the archmage still wouldn't have dropped a big AOE on half the ship. And maybe it's perfectly reasonable that Melliwyk, a wizard, a transmutation wizard, didn't try to use her entire action in the middle of a pitched battle to try to stabilize him when there were no obvious enemies nearby, and an actual healer was literally feet away, running to help him. Maybe. But she can only think that it was so, so stupid of her, that if she'd just thought for one second, for once-- ... anyway. The next week or so were all 'Mel doesn't leave her room or speak to anyone' days. Working. Relentlessly. She'd already been working on figuring out a method to use her newly-learned insights into artificing to cast spells, but the first spells she actually programmed into the device she was working on were spare the dying, cure wounds, and revivify.

Felix bit off more than he could chew; he was following the trail of some weird rumors in a smaller town, hoping to find a connection to a string of recent petty thefts he'd been looking into, but he underestimated what kind of people he was dealing with-- both in terms of skills, and of how serious their operation actually was. He got caught pretty deep into their base of operations, way too deep for any attempt at plausible deniability, and after beating the shit out of him they opted to just tie him up and leave him in an abandoned and mostly blocked-off sewer passage to die, rather than kill him outright. He only escaped by convincing the rats to chew through the ropes, quickly made his way out of the city by staying belowground for as long as possible, and has never been back since-- there's a chance they forgot about him immediately, but there's also a very good chance that they'd be really upset if that guy who Knows Too Much is still just running around like a dangerous loose thread.

It was just-- well, maybe not cockiness, he's not exactly the cocky type, but certainly carelessness. He got sloppy, over-interested and under-cautious; he hadn't really expected to be dealing with people who'd be able to catch him so easily, much less that he'd be in any serious danger if they did. He was expecting, like, a gang of teenagers at worst-- not not a threat, but people he could maybe stand up to in a fight, or wriggle free from pretty easily, or who at the very least wouldn't try to fucking kill him. This would have been fairly early in his career (so to speak) of trying to tail people and break into places for actual, like, private investigation reasons rather than pure curiosity, so he didn't have a good handle on the risks, or the stakes; he's (usually) a lot more careful nowadays, although sometimes he still can't resist pushing his luck.

ask about my OCs?

[poetry-protest-pornography]

I don't know why I ever bother to tell myself that the idea in writing is going to be short.

Or just fluff.

Or funny.

Or angst-less.

I am constitutionally incapable of brevity, or of keeping from getting feelings all over everything.

Why am I like this?

[kafkaoftherubble]

Alright. I usually refrain from commenting on discourse posts—especially those that don't pertain to my usual domains because I always believe I either don't know enough or my opinions aren't something so enlightening it's worth sounding aloud—but I want to weigh in on what you reply to @/these-detestable-hands there.

Be warned, it is long—but again, if we hope to have some nuances in a conversation, brevity often does more harm than good.

I don't deny the prevalence of American (or even, as you brought up, Christian) soft power in globalization. But I don't think chalking this up as all "Americanization-is-white-washing" is remotely close to the full picture.

Why is these-detestable-hands' alternative inferences somehow an example of a "cultural Christianity" class of arguments instead of legitimate possibilities? Dude. They're themself are European. They are not White, either. When they said Europeans do don this type of aesthetics, they were just speaking from their experience growing up.

I'm from Malaysia, a Southeast Asian country that is Muslim-majority, socially conservative, and politically, visibly infused with anti-American rhetoric. And yet I've seen this same aesthetics, mixed and matched with others, among the people I live with. Mainland China has an even louder blaring of anti-American tone (it's considered a politically correct stance there), and yet some of their young people also show up in this sort of aesthetics.

Tell me: do Americans somehow have a monopoly on bun hairdos? Or that straight-short hair? Or that way of wearing a jacket? Or the man's facial hairstyle and white shirt? Or a bland t-shirt, that sort of dress, etc.?

Because I've seen similar fashion techniques in diverse cultures, past or present. The reason why they look so "whitewashed" here, methinks, is because these characters are fair-skinned. That's really it, innit? I could easily imagine a Malaysian Indian in the male's outfit, or a Chinese in that bun-haired Anna getup (bun-haired [发髻, article in Chinese] is a very ancient hairdo in Chinese history, going back about 6000 years ago or so, with many types being trendy throughout different dynasties). There's a plethora of people who could or do dress up like this. I've seen it.

Now, you might argue that this is because American soft power has become so embedded in globalization that people take up their cultural import without being aware of it. "Even if people from other countries like Malaysia adopt aesthetics like this, can we really say that it is completely devoid of American influence, considering how dominant it has become especially after World War II?"

No. I'll concede we cannot unequivocably say the American influence, however its shape or form, is absent. But I will also tell you that this argument is weak, because all cultural osmosis is multidirectional. Yes, there will be hints of American elements in certain fashion trends or aesthetics, but when it came to different parts of the globe, they always blend with local cultures (including fashion sense), and that includes Europe. By saying this "boring" aesthetics "can also be found in Europe", these-detestable-hands was (I hope I'm getting you right, mate) saying that Europeans can also just come up with this from their own local fashion sense regardless of how much American input there might be.

One of the things that really prompted me to write a response, other than your strange example for "cultural Christianity" (I'll get to that later), is the latent Americentric undertone when you refute these-detestable-hands' arguments. You made it sound like everything in this image can only be American inventions. That if I were to propose that maybe this isn't necessarily an example of "Americanization", I am being blissfully unaware of "cultural Americanism," because somehow other cultures are incapable of coming up with an aesthetic like this. Or even if they could, it's because they have seen the American Whites do it first, and so any similarity in other cultures' modern fashion sense is just following this American trend, instead of them coming up with something of their own and mix-matching different elements from different places that are not necessarily American in origin alone.

The Americentrist assumptions, therefore, are these:

People of other cultures or regions have no choice but to be subjected under American influence wholesale just because Americans have had really strong soft power tools for a few decades. This is ignoring how, in this modern era, different cultures and societies of the world often pick and choose what elements of a non-native culture they want to adopt, adapt, and reject.

People of other cultures/regions cannot possibly have come up with modern-day aesthetics that are similar to this^ on their own, even by mix-matching with whatever cultures they have seen. Even if they did, it's gotta' be Americanization at work, nothing else. To this, I wonder what un-Americanization in the modern era supposedly entailed. Are we Malaysians only allowed to be in our "traditional" outfits to be rid of "Americanization," for example? Am I, Malaysian Chinese, only allow to wear qipao or changshanzhuang to avoid the corrosive force that is "whitewashing" or the "American mold?" Do you know that the qipao is also not a purely Han Chinese cultural product, but influenced and adapted from another tribe(s) in China, among other things?

Of course that's not what you meant. I get it. My point here is to show how decrying this^ as "Americanization" without leaving room for other legitimate reasoning is itself Americentric.

"This is whitewashing; you guys just don't know it yet! They're being stripped off of their cultural background to fit into an American mold!" The non-American, who proposed a different viewpoint, are being told. But this isn't an American mold. This is a more of a modern mold—a bland fashion trend one could even say are

(1) fostered by the lack of options we have as consumers when it comes to fashion,

(2) the homogeneity of fashion sense propagated by celebrities (of different origins, I have to stress, but nonetheless they are rather homogenous because these are essentially one small elite group's preferred aesthetics being marketed toward a diverse population of different tastes),

(3) one of the safest ways to "look presentable" in the modern era when you don't want to spend too much time fussing over it, but sweatshirts, sweatpants etc. are not acceptable under your current circumstances,

and more.

It's a whole web of cause-and-effects, not a single line of it—which these-detestable-hands' arguments provide. So why dismiss them?

I suggest reading The Lies That Bind by Kwame Anthony Appiah, a Ghanian British-American philosopher. His chapter on "Culture" is exclusively devoted to topics like these, including the Americentric assumptions I marked out just now, but the entire book is a meditation on identities as a whole.

----

Also: no, the idea of "revenge is good" is not believed by Christians or "people brainwashed by Christianity" only. Revenge is simply retributive justice done by an individual, and the idea of retributive justice itself predates Christianity. It is seen in the Code of Hammurabi, an ancient Babylonian legal code, for example. It's just an instinctive way of exacting justice, hence seemingly "good." I don't know what made you think it's a Christian idea, nor what examples had made you come away with that understanding.

Or maybe I misunderstood what you wrote there. In that case, my bad.

----

Important addendum (to avoid having people misunderstand my position):

I did not say Americanization is not a real phenomenon. I'm a Chi-Eng translator and my translation guide is explicitly made to follow American localization regardless of the reader-base's preferred English. That's one of the many examples of it.

What I'm saying is that this particular case is not a strong case of example of "Americanization", and that the other person's arguments also legitimate.

My friend blocked me because I wouldn’t stop sending him this picture

[l3monsoda]

quarantine tag game, tagged by @ribbonreverse thanks for tagging me!!

1. Are you staying home from work/school?:

Well see it’s kind of funny. Right before the stay at home orders came down on us I was planning a two month leave from work to finish up my schooling which is entirely online which is what I am doing currently so technically. I work drive through so work is still running but I’m not there.

2. Who is at home with you?:

My bed ridden chronically ill mother and my father. I room with my parents so I can afford school bills on a part-time salary. Plus my mom has been pretty sick for the last few years and can really be out of bed for more than a few hours at time. So in a way not much has changed for her in the quarantine with is both a good thing and incredibly sad. Having me here heps tough tbh my dad is pulling most of the weight lately, he does all out running around so mom and I can stay home. (I have the same illness as my mother just not as bad)

3. Are you a homebody?:

Yes incredibly so. Sometimes I take week vacations just to shut myself up in a room and not talk to anybody and be blissfully alone consuming massive amounts of media and making art. I need way more alone time than the average person I think. This quarantine has still been hard though. I REALLY REALLY miss the movie theater. When things are hard and I want to forget I go see a movie and obviously I can’t right now. I also really miss craft stores.

4. Any event you were looking forward to that got canceled?:

Not really as stated before I don’t really do much. Easter dinner getting canceled was honestly a relief for me my extended family is something of a double edge sword. However I DO hope that everything opens back up in time for the Medieval Faire around here. I go every year in full costume and I had some really fun idea’s for this year. 

5. What movies have you been watching recently? :

I finally got around to watching Promare which was really good, loved the art style, I watched endless and a dark song(very bad quarantine choices lol), I saw Emma and really enjoyed it,I re watched muppets most wanted, into the spiderverse, and hail Caesar, all of which I really love, I just watched the Willoughbys and really loved the stylized cg animation. My sister and I are getting together to watch the Ms. Fischer movie tomorrow and I am very much looking forward to that.

6. What are you doing for self care? Does eating count?: 

Cause I eat more regularly now that we are in quarantine than I did when I was working. I went from maybe one meal a day to 2-3. Also I am trying to make a pointed effort not to think too hard about the weight I’ve gained. When I almost never ate it didn’t matter that I ate crap foods but now that I am eating regularly it does. Plus I get out for walks less right now.

7. What shows are you watching?:

DC’s Harley Quinn (it is hilarious if you like dark humor which I do), Owl House, but not much else right now I am not a huge fan of the show media format. The way narratives tend to get structured for TV really irks me. I like miniseries better. Plus I’m not of a web comic kind of person. 

8. What music have you been listening to?: 

So much music you guys, all the music. but mostly I listen to my study playlist while I’m working. Stuff with enough of a beat to keep me motivated but not likely to pull me out of my work, it’s mostly Marian Hill (The lady who did Down) with some Billie Eilish and Halsey sprinkled in along some stuff by Avia and other random artists.

9. What books are you reading?:

I recently read Things in Jars by Jess Kidd and if you like that whole Victorian when medicine was a fine line between civilized and barbaric aesthetic with some aquatic monsters and ridiculously painful pinning between a woman and a ghost I def recommend it. After reading The Alchemist’s Daughter I have really developed a liking for these kinds of things. I am also reading Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene and it’s all about the way we let shame take over our lives.

Thanks for tagging me in this hope i didn’t over share (kind of super guilty of that lol) I love these kinds of things please keep tagging me!

Anyone who bothered to read this consider yourself tagged. lol

[deliriumsdelight7]

The Language of Flowers

.Hey @killingkueen

It’s your gifter for the @rumbellegiftswap

Here’s your gift fic!  Hope you enjoy!

(I also hope I’m tagging correctly, I suck at Tumblr)

As Belle stepped through the front entrance of the Rabbit Hole, the dive bar’s seedy atmosphere washed over her.  Loud rock and roll music blared from the jukebox in the far corner, and the astringent scent of alcohol hit her in a wave.  The place wasn’t empty by any means, but it wasn’t full, either.  Patrons milled about the darkened corners of the room, or hustled at the billiard tables, or slumped over their drinks at the bar.

She sighed.  She didn’t really care for places like this, to be honest.  But it was late - sometime after nine PM - and in a small town like this, most places didn’t stay open late.  There was a diner nearby that was still open, probably because it was attached to what Belle assumed was the town’s sole hotel.  But Belle had already eaten; she didn’t want to put out the staff by loitering.  That left her only two options: endure the cheap drinks and grating din of the seedy bar, or go back to her dad’s place and spend the rest of the night listening to his passive-aggressive grumbling.  The choice was an easy one.

Belle eyed the bar.  There was only one unoccupied stool: on the right hand side, second one from the end.  To the left was a young blonde woman with her back to the empty seat, her attention occupied with the man next to her - her boyfriend, judging by their warm looks and light touches.  To the right of the empty seat, a man in a charcoal gray, pinstriped suit, his long brown hair curling slightly at his collar.

Read More on AO3

[big-ass-magnet]

If you don't do Demands of the Qun, the Chargers live, but Bull remains loyal to the qun. If you leave him behind, he'll arrive through a side door to fight you on Viddasala's orders anyway.  

Consider Krem.  

Consider Krem, who sits in a chair on Bull's bad side, to be his eyes, so the chief can relax when he's off-duty. Consider Krem, who trusts Bull with his life, but knows he can get up to some truly hair-brained shenanigans when left on his own, and watches him as often as he watches the room.  

Consider Krem seeing Bull slip out of the tavern, silently, without a word to anyone, with his jaw set and his eye sharp. Consider Krem feeling unease in the pit of his stomach, an unshakable feeling that something is up. Consider Krem following, quietly. 

Bull is good at what he does, but he's focused on his mission and he's taught Krem well. Consider the Iron Bull and his shadow passing unseen, both driven by a duty and loyalty of very different kinds. 

The Iron Bull arrives to join the fight, on the wrong side, on the right side, to prove himself a traitor and a loyal soldier. 

Krem knows Iron Bull is a qunari, knows he is Ben Hassrath, but it's one thing to know a fact and another thing to know. The Iron Bull does not act like a qunari. He sings dirty songs and he drinks and he laughs too loud and he fucks like it's going out of style. 

Consider Krem, for the first time, seeing Hissrad. 

No hard feelings, bas.

In this version of the story, Iron Bull's loyalty was never tested. He never had to make a sacrifice, one way or the other. This is the story where Iron Bull could have it both ways, where he could continue his knife-edge dance between Tal Vashoth and Qunari. 

But in being both, he is also neither, and when Krem charges in and places himself between Hissrad and the Inquisitor, there is no certainty for the Iron Bull to lean on. The qunari sees an obstacle to be dealt with, but the tal vashoth sees Krem. 

"What are you doing, Chief?" 

Do the words come? I am doing my duty. Anaan esaam qun. Or do they stick in his throat, hot and raw, because without certainty, the orders made his head swim and his stomach tie into knots, made the faces of the men and women he's fought beside flicker like nightmares in his mind. The qun has been so far and so distant for so long. To have it this close again, is it a comfort? Or a cage? Does he know the difference? 

"Get out of the way, Krem." 

"No."

Krem is loyal to the Iron Bull first and foremost, but in this world, the tal vashoth world, loyalty is not blind obedience. It's Krem's job to push back, to question schemes, to be the voice of something like reason. 

"Don't do this, Chief. This isn't you." 

But it is. But it isn't. An order was given. One that Hissrad is compelled to obey. One that the Iron Bull is incapable of obeying. 

"You have to go through me first," Krem says, angry, determined, defiant, unflinching. Consider Krem, loyal beyond death, who found a friend and a purpose and a home with the Iron Bull. Whose last thoughts, in another story, were of certainty and trust. He'll come. He'll call. He won't leave us. Horns pointing up. In every story where he stands between Hissrad and Iron Bull, he is not afraid.   

There is no version of this story where he dies. When the ax falls, it is from numb fingers, and it rings bloodless against the stones at their feet. 

As long as Krem draws breath, Hissrad will always become Iron Bull.

[tecceran]

i have thought about this before so i’m going to add my two cents. (this is long, sorry, i am incapable of brevity)

i think like in the game, the other three should be somewhat established as adventurers and kohane isn’t yet. akito and toya could already be partners and an is still looking for a partner of her own. all of them want to be great adventurers and help people. (maybe ken and the rest of rad weekend could be a legendary adventuring party that killed a dragon or something, and they’re like “retired” now)

at one point kohane’s home village is being attacked by some kind of monster, and an and the bad dogs (separately) are trying to defeat it and save the village. kohane happens to be on the outskirts of town one day (maybe collecting something like mushrooms, berries, or flowers) and that monster stumbles across her. luckily an has been right on its tail this whole time, so she’s there to save kohane! but during the ensuing battle with the monster, it turns out kohane has some talent for adventuring. maybe she instinctively casts a bit of magic or is just able to join an in singing and that somehow that powers up her bard magic.

so an then is so impressed with kohane she asks if kohane will become her adventuring partner. kohane’s living situation is probably less than ideal considering she was desperate enough to be out in the woods alone when there’s a monster known to be lurking around terrorising people, so maybe that’s why she agrees to join up with an. maybe that latent magic in her brings up questions she can’t ignore. maybe she secretly always dreamed of being an adventurer too, she just never thought it was realistic. whatever reason, kohane joins up with an and they do go do adventuring things trying to turn a profit by helping people.

i imagine since they’re just partnerships and still kinda younger, both an and akito and toya stick around a general area (all of the little villages and towns around one major city). so an knows about the fact the bad dogs have a similar goal to her. after teaming up with kohane, maybe another monster is reported in whatever tavern or place these things are posted in, and both pairs are there together and hear about it at the same time. an thinks it’ll be a good first adventure for kohane, but akito thinks kohane isn’t cut out for adventuring because she has no training or experience. so he says he and toya are gonna find the monster and beat it first.

mita is there (because i love vbs npcs and i say so) and also overhears this. and he decides to back up akito’s words by sabotaging their monster hunting. he follows an and kohane so he can buff up the monster or summon more when they encounter it, hoping kohane will run away scared and will prove she’s not cut out for adventuring.

an and kohane do succeed in finding the monster before the guys, and kohane has learned a simple spell and got outfitted with a weapon for defense. it’s going well, but then mita does his sabotage thing and accidentally calls way more monsters or in some way causes a much bigger threat than any of these guys really think they can handle. so he scrams.

when fleeing, mita bumps into akito and toya, who were also hot on the monster’s trail, and he tells them how he fucked up and there’s way too many monsters. akito is pissed that mita did something so reckless and frankly stupid, but he lets him go and runs to help. even if akito thinks kohane’s not cut out for this, he’s not going to just let them get killed.

akito and toya show up to find the drastically escalated situation. kohane maybe got too scared and overwhelmed to cast magic anymore, but an is still managing to hold the monsters off. the guys help out and they’re able to take out the threat together.

an maybe realised that someone had summoned more monsters, and how dangerous it was. akito doubles down like he does in game that kohane was not cut out for adventuring. going on some rant about how true adventurers don’t back down from anything. an accuses him of summoning the monsters, and akito takes the blame and he and toya head off.

toya hears akito’s rant and thinks about how he ran away from his father’s intense training to be a knight or something. akitoya break up ensues. toya tells akito that adventuring is dumb and you’re needlessly and stupidly seeking out danger. akito probably more or less ran away from home to pursue adventuring, and it means the whole world to him to be an adventurer and help people like how he was saved by the legendary ken when he was younger. so he attacks toya and runs off on his own and shit.

an and kohane run into toya again, i guess maybe ken has bed and breakfast or tavern, and he tells them about breaking up his partnership with akito and how akito lied about summoning the monsters.

someone else in the place overhears akito’s name and tells them all how akito ran off alone to defeat a really powerful monster and all that. and toya does really care for akito and wants to go after him and save him. an and kohane come too because toya’s gonna need all the help he can get, and they do owe them for the other time. ken tells toya that he doesn’t think adventuring is about never backing down period, but rather about never giving up on a problem. and sometimes you have to try a different approach. sure toya doesn’t want to defend people as a knight, but he wants to protect people as an adventurer, just like akito.

idk ken is too old for adventuring or had some major injury in his final battle or something. so he can’t go with. but toya, kohane, and an go chase after akito. they catch up to him just at the last second as he’s about to get overwhelmed by the monster and help him out. they defeat the monster together. akitoya reunion moment, the boys apologize for things.

at this point either they just decide they work well together as an adventuring party and can overcome stuff together they couldn’t do alone. or if you wanted to include sekai maybe miku in some way delivers them a prophecy where they need to work together to prevent some grand destruction. either way they can now venture out into the adventuring world. the others help kohane learn stuff, but she’s probably just really naturally talented like in game so she managed to keep up.

if there are any other dnd and pjsk players out there, how would you make a more fantastical version of the vbs backstory if they were a party of bards? asking for uhhh uh uhh jay

[invisiblegarters]

Eternal Yesterday Ep 4 Thoughts

This drama, man. It somehow manages to get just a little better every single week - how does it do that? Japan is killing it at the end of the year again, only this time I have no confidence that my heart won’t wind up ripped right out of my chest at the end. 

As with last week, I’m incapable of either objectivity or brevity. I blame these two:

This friend group is great. Even from episode one they seemed like a group who knew each other well and were comfortable with each other (and I was utterly tickled by the “this again *eyeroll*” reactions that Hashimoto and the Class Prez had to Koichi going on about Mitsuru’s cuteness in that ep. Said so much with so little). And I am glad that they explained the whole thing with Kagami, because now it is starting to make everyone’s acceptance of Koichi as the Living Dead Boy make a little more sense. They’re already used to weird and inexplicable. Also they make me laugh. From Hashimoto’s “Morning! Still dead, then?” to how excited Kagami was to see a demon in the flesh (so to speak). 

Dying.

I think that she and Mitsuru are the only two following the conversation enough to understand that Koichi might be feeding off of Mitsuru. I could be wrong, but that is how I interpreted that little nod between them. But it���s probably only a matter of time before Koichi figures it out, and then I think we’ll see him start to pull away. As if he isn’t horrified enough by himself already. 

Mitsuru’s house is so gorgeous and so sterile. It seems like the kind of place where you can’t actually live, because you might mess something up.  But I don’t think Koichi notices:

I’d be kinda worried it was a zombie thing if there weren’t a dozen examples of Koichi looking at Mitsuru like that already.  Best part? Now Mitsuru is looking back just as fondly.

I’m struck by how stark the difference is between the way he acted in the flashbacks vs. the way he is in pretty much this whole episode. And can I just say how much more attractive Mitsuru is when he’s making expressions? I’ve never liked him so much as I do this episode. 

The mom stuff just breaks my heart. I don’t know why, but I’d assumed she was a loving mother (I had also assumed she was dead, fwiw). Poor Mitsuru, with a distant dad and a strict mom who never touched him. No wonder he didn’t recognize Koichi’s love for what it was, sheesh. And no wonder he’s embracing the whole “Living Dead Boyfriend” concept. Who wouldn’t, if it meant that they didn’t have to let go of the one person that they knew loved them? I’m not crying, you’re crying (no, it’s me. It’s going to be me a lot I think). 

I am glad that we had some reaction from Koichi about being dead. He was so happy go lucky in episode two, not really seeming to care, and it threw me a bit. I am also completely fascinated with him finding himself disgusting and thinking that Mitsuru must too (I kind of love how it never occurs to him that Mitsuru feels absolutely the same as Koichi would if the situations were reversed). And Mitsuru is just lovely here with his reassurance. 

And then this drama proceeds to destroy all my expectations by not only serving good kiss:

But also bringing the heat:

Koichi went full seme in a way I did not expect holy shit. Although that makes his reaction when Kagami asks if they did something special that night even more hilarious. Chill, thy name is not Koichi.

So I had to eat all my words about JBLs and dead fishies, not that I’m complaining. I’d already come around to the idea that the kiss in the previous episode fit where the characters were at the time, but this solidified it. 

Okay WTF is up with the teachers? I’m officially curious. But also when I saw this:

I have to admit my first reaction was “we already have our zombie member, my dude.” 

Next week: more cuddles! And I’m guessing the teachers find out about Koichi. I guess we are going to see what happens with his family, which I was wondering about and which I know will probably wind up breaking my heart, like so much of this drama is set to do. Bring it on, I guess. I mostly knew what I was signing up for. 

[stellocchia]

Since I really enjoyed yesterday's stream I decided to do one of my overly long analysis on it

So, here's my analysis of (DSMP LORE) Healthy Competition

Dialogues will be color-coded as usual, so here's what I used: Phil, Wilbur, Ranboo

As always I am incapable of brevity, so everything's under the cut

The stream starts with a conversation between Phil and Wilbur in which Wilbur admits that he hasn't been to visit Phil in a while, which makes Phil's later threat about throwing him out feel that much more ridiculous since Wilbur clearly doesn't really live with him either way...

"Alright, it's got one for Phil, one for Ranboo, and one for Techno. Is that all that live here? Just you three?" "Yep, just us three, just chilling"

The only reason why I'm singling this out is that it was right after the mention of Techno's birthday and Wilbur was pointing at the seats occupied by the 4 members of the Syndicate so it feels slightly weird that Niki wasn't mentioned at all. But also it's technically not a lie, she doesn't live there and she only comes around for the Syndicate meetings.

Another thing to add is that Wilbur did notice the chest Ranboo left for him and consciously decided to ignore it.

"I must admit I've come to you with a bit of a- a bit of a proposition. You're into propositions Phil? Are you a bit of a 'propositions' kinda guy?" "Oh, depends, depends. You- you've had some pretty... let- let's just say, uh- not- not a great track record on propositions that you've had in the past" "Alright... I mean, I'm trying to move past that"

I wonder what exactly Phil is referring to here. Because, like, Wilbur did bad things, don't get me wrong, but what's his track record with "propositions" in particular? Because he isn't talking about "Tommy, let's be the bad guys" here since he doesn't know about that. Is he talking about Wilbur founding L'Manburg? But then again, I don't think Wilbur interpreted it that way. I think that, from Wilbur's reaction, he clearly interpreted it as a jab at him exploding L'Manburg (which is the one thing he's trying to move past) which would be extremely hypocritical from Phil since he did the exact same thing but worse.

Also, I really do think that Wilbur is trying to move forward. He's lonely and he has the lowest possible opinion of himself so it doesn't feel weird that he'd want to move on. He isn't putting the work in it right now and he hasn't really changed, but he does seem to want to (though I think he may not know how).

"He [Quackity] didn't seem afraid of me, which is cool. Not many people- I mean you don't seem afraid of me. You aren't afraid of me, are you Phil?" (little look into Wilbur's mind and his fear of isolation once again. And this is fear of isolation, he's worried that other people are afraid of him and therefore are only waiting for him to step out of line so that all their fears would be confirmed)

"'Cause I'm not afraid of you [Phil]" (bold words for someone who spent who knows how long lying to his dad because of a crippling fear of disappointment...)

"Technoblade spent his entire time taking down the establishments, what he left is, as predicted, a power vacuum for a new establishment to come in" (in case it wasn't obvious, Wilbur is not the biggest fan of anarchy. And he actually got this one criticism spot on, indeed all taking down L'Manburg did was getting 4 new governmental-like structures to sprout in its place)

"Phil, I want to make a burger van" *Phil sighs and walks away* (I'm more sure now that Phil really meant "creating L'Manburg" as Wilbur's bad track record with propositions)

Wilbur repeating 4 times that he has no ulterior motive with the burger van managed to make me think the exact opposite. That said that ulterior motive may just be to create a safe little home for himself and Tommy for all we know honestly. Also, the whole thing with Phil trying to convince his grown-ass kid to go play with the neighbor kid and Wilbur throwing a tantrum in response was hilarious...

"If he's [Ranboo] shit you gotta come help me okay? If he's shit you've gotta come be burger boy with me, okay?" (he still is mistrustful to an extreme and pretty childish admittedly)

"Why is he [Phil] treating me like a kid?! Why is he treating me like a little baby?" (remembering how Wilbur treated Fundy I think it may be a family problem)

Another interesting thing to point out is that Wilbur was openly scared of the spider attacking him here, and fights it off, but he doesn't move away from the explosion later on and he didn't move away from the exploding creepers last stream. Other people already made this connection, but I do think it may be a sort of way to punish himself. Specifically, it's brought up later on that he thinks he got off easy for what he did, so he's using what he hurt others with (explosions) to hurt himself now as a sort of punishment for that. Which is another indication of just how much his stay in Limbo didn't help with his mental health.

"Am I being- is this [Ranboo having both cows and wheat] a setup?" (the paranoia never left)

"Ranboo I'm gonna go out on a limb here: do- do you wanna be friends?" "Su-sure yeah, I don't see why not" (I think that at this point it was still just Wilbur following along with what his dad told him to do and trying to find out more about Ranboo. That does seem to change later down the line)

"And then we decided that it [the 'cookie' outpost] was too much trouble so we kinda just left it" (So we have confirmation that the cookie outpost was abandoned)

"We're not gonna annoy Quackity" "That's good" "We can't annoy- we can't annoy him because we're simply put- we're simply put gonna be making...- I got the real estate! He's giving me the area and we're gonna be making a competing business"

Wilbur says this as if he wasn't perfectly aware that this would annoy the sh*t out of Quackity. As if the point of it wasn't exactly to annoy Quackity. Or well, annoying him isn't the end goal, it's just the means to an end. We don't know the actual end goal (though I think Wilbur still wants to either be let into Las Nevadas or actually instate a rivalry between them as he said, one of the two).

"We [he and Quackity] were a part of the same cabinet during New L'Manburg or whatever" "Cabinet?" "Yeah a cabinet is like-" "Was this- was this with Tubbo?" "Yeah yeah" (...) "So you were part of the old L'Manburg? I didn't know that actually, I thought you were a bit of an independent"

Once again: Wilbur is missing A LOT of knowledge. He wasn't aware that New L'Manburg had a cabinet and he wasn't aware that Ranboo was ever part of the country either. He has a lot of misconceptions about what happened during the time he was dead so it really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that his views on a lot of things are as warped as they are. Wilbur is getting to his conclusions with an incomplete and sometimes wrong set of data.

"Do you dislike anyone Ranboo?" "Not too much I don't think. I mean there are other people I don't, like, agree with what they've done of course, but I think that everyone is just a product of what they've gone through and everything so if you understand that then you understand the person!"

There is nothing inherently wrong with Ranboo's reasoning here. It's true that most people are a result of their environment and, once you understand what they've been through you can understand them better as a person. It's also fine that he personally doesn't want to hold grudges. But that way of thinking isn't applicable to those who have been hurt by others, sure they can reach an understanding, but an understanding of a person doesn't justify shit and doesn't change shit unless that person works towards repairing old broken relationships. It just all sounds like a nice way of thinking about things in theory, but in practice, it just takes away responsibility from those who have wronged others to fix things and moves it to those who have been wronged. (Ranboo isn't advocating for everyone to think that way though, but I know the fandom will).

Either way, they arrive in Las Nevadas and Wilbur talks about how their place doesn't benefit the consumer and puts down 3 signs.

"I've been trying to think of a name for it [his and Tommy's area], I'm thinking about 'Paradise'"

There are two possible reasons for the name that I can think of:

1) It's in reference to Las Nevadas itself and how Las Nevadas is based on Las Vegas, the famous city of sin

2) It could be a reference to Tommy insistently calling Las Nevadas Paradise in the last stream and Wilbur trying to convince him that their place is the true Paradise

Wilbur does decide to make the Burger Van right at the border which really feels like a very obvious provocation. The other thing is that he makes it clear that he wants the van to be red and white which could be a random choice, but really feels like a reference to Tommy (since they are famously his colors) or an imitation of their opposition. Or both considering how much Tommy liked the restaurant of the opposition and the fact that Wilbur is still trying to convince him to stay.

"I'm not very fond of blue" (at this point it's obvious that Wilbur has quite a bit of pent-up animosity against Ghostbur. I wonder if it is because it still feels like people liked the ghost more than him...)

"Like, the Cookie Shop, I don't even know if it was a cookie shop, to begin with, because it was a little... fortified if I'm entirely honest, I realize that now" "Really?" "Yeah did you not see- oh wait- that giant stone structure?" (Ranboo really did fail to realize that the cookie shop was actually a military outpost, huh?)

"See, I like Tubbo. He's strong-headed, he doesn't let people push him around, you know?" (this is both an interesting change in what he thinks of Tubbo if he actually thinks that and further confirmation that Wilbur isn't a fan of people he considers to be 'followers')

"Why do you claim that you're so 'peaceful' and 'neutral' and yet somehow appear in almost every conflict this server's had since I died?" (since I saw people claiming this is manipulation already, just know that it isn't. He's just confused because, admittedly, Ranboo is a confusing guy and Wilbur doesn't really know him at all)

"Ranboo, why did you come to help me?" (...) "And then also I just think, you know... you can, you know- I think- I think you're an alright person, you know? So I wanna- I did kinda wanna get off on a better foot with you then what happened-" "Why?" "Just because I don't really like having the thought that people don't really like me" "Nonononono not the bit about the right foot, the 'why don't you think I'm a bad person'" "Well I mean, I think that you did bad things, but like, I think that you also went through things that made you that way and then I also think that you've changed now (...) but I think that now you've- apparently you've been away long enough that I think that if anyone goes away for that long eventually they'll have a thought about their morality and everything and maybe become a better person because of it"

I know this quote was absurdly long, but it is one of the most interesting conversations of the whole stream and it is really important and it tells us quite a bit as well. For one thing Wilbur was left quite emotional from someone simply admitting that he's an "alright person" and that they think he's capable of changing and this does bring him to open up to Ranboo right after. What Ranboo says to be exact is that anyone would have changed after going through what Wilbur went through and that change could be positive and while I completely disagree with it, it's clearly something that Wilbur needed to hear.

Now as to why I disagree with the notion that 13 years of semi-complete isolation could change anyone for the better should be rather obvious. But if it isn't, well, that's torture to put it simply. Psychological torture. Just like abuse it's one of those things that only cause trauma and a worsening mental health state and we see this with Wilbur because he didn't change, he only became more self-deprecating. Hurting someone doesn't make them become a better person all of a sudden, that's really not how it works. Hurting someone makes them become more traumatized.

"I think I scare people" ( as I said, immediately opening up about his insecurities)

"I think that a lot of people share your idea, but they share your idea in trying to- trying to keep me from hurting them" (for a bit here Wilbur talks about how he feels like everyone else is just waiting for him to step a foot out of line, which does really show that he's still interpreting all his interactions with people through the lens of his paranoia and self-deprecation, because no one is really interacting with him with that objective in mind)

"Dream's had his comeuppance and I've not" (this seems to be the crux of Wilbur's insecurity. This idea that he got off scot-free for his crimes, the idea that the only difference between him and Dream is the punishment that's been bestowed upon them which, of course, is wrong, but he doesn't know this, because he doesn't actually know why Dream's in prison)

"I've been investing into the wrong areas Ranboo, I've been investing into the wrong people" (This is either a reference to Tommy, to Phil, to Quackity, or to all of them)

"We're kindred man, we get each other" (the reason why he thinks that is because he seems to think that Ranboo has a similar type of paranoia to what Wilbur experience himself and he's not entirely wrong. Ranboo is deathly afraid of conflict and of being disliked so much so that he never stands up for anything in fear of angering others)

Little definition of "neuroticism" for you all since Wilbur kept mentioning it: neuroticism, one of the Big 5 personality traits, is typically defined as a tendency toward anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and other negative feelings.

I'd say it's quite fitting for both characters...

"I feel like life dealt us the same cards and the difference is that you built your trust by showing people your cards whilst I- I keep them close to my chest and I feel like that may be the big difference" (I felt like this was interesting. Especially knowing how much Ranboo actually doesn't share and how much he actually also keeps close to his chest)

They talk about tubbo in general for a bit and about what's been going on the server in general. Ranboo also that he's part of both Snowchester and the arctic commune (mostly the latter though).

"This has been chill, this has been good, I'm excited to show Tommy. What's your opinion on Tommy?" "Oh, he's- he's great. Tommy's awesome" "I agree I agree" "Definitely gone through a lot but I think that it's made him a good person" "Well you seem to think that everyone going through something at least gives them some merit you said" "I mean, yeah. I mean if- if no one- the only really bad people are the ones who are just evil because- just because and they don't have any reason why"

Included the whole thing here because if I stopped at Ranboo saying that Tommy going through trauma is what made him a good person it would have sounded really bad. As things are I think that that was just poor wording on his part and that this mostly goes back to the mentality he expressed before about how people sometimes do bad things because of the environment they're in pushing them and this idea he seems to have that actual hardships (like 13 years in Limbo or whatever he knows about what Tommy has been through) can encourage people to be better which is... sort of naive honestly. Again, trauma isn't a catalyst for the betterment of a person, and any improvement Tommy has made came from his self-reflection, not what he's been through.

After they're done with the van Wilbur brings Ranboo to their competing establishment and asks him to smash the windows, which Ranboo does with no hesitation whatsoever. After that Wilbur proceeds to place down one single block of TNT in a corner and Ranboo starts being a little more hesitant.

"You trust me right?" (I feel like that was a trick question considering how their common paranoia is the thing that Wilbur praised in Ranboo before)

Wilbur hands Ranboo the flint and steel to detonate the piece of TNT which Ranboo does, albeit with some hesitation.

"You passed the test, good job man, you go back to the van (...) Ranboo- Ranboo... I'm proud of you man. You've taken a side, you've proven that you can choose a side"

Quite a few people have already pointed out how similar this scene was to the time Wilbur tested Tommy in season 1 to decide if he was fit to be his right-hand man. In both situations, Wilbur gave someone a chance to cause some destruction against someone on the opposite side. Tommy passed the test by refusing to do so and showing that he was willing to uphold his morals and what he believed in. Ranboo passed the test by doing the exact opposite, by showing that, as much as he talks about how he chooses people and not sides, he's not willing to prove that even when all he would need to do to do so is doing nothing.

And it's an interesting scene to analyze as a parallel to that, but it's also interesting to note that Wilbur knows about Ranboo and Tommy griefing George together. He knows that Tommy was the only one to face any consequences for it (not that exile was actually the consequence for the griefing, but this is from Wilbur's point of view). Now putting this in the context of Wilbur seeing himself in Ranboo and thinking that he himself got off scot-free explains this next part perfectly in my opinion.

It explains why he made sure to leave this sign:

To me at least. This is only a theory honestly, we don't have an actual full explanation. But I do think that Wilbur may feel like the both of them never got the comeuppance they deserved, which is why he did something that's sure to get a reaction from one of the most powerful people on the server. Though considering that he also left 2 diamonds as retribution + a chest with all the materials he picked up it could have also been Wilbur's idea of a bonding moment and he could actually really be proud of Ranboo.

[theywontletmebeprincipal]

ok I am STILL hung up on this unfortunately so here’s a breakdown of why this lyric sucks balls (perhaps even sucks them during a game of grand theft auto)

first off — this goes deeper than “it just sounds clunky”. while “there is no syllabic consistency between phrases” is a criticism I could levy at the bulk of this album, and it’s definitely still an issue here, that’s not actually my problem with this lyric in particular.

to get why this lyric really sucks we have to talk about my good friend the double entendre:

these bad boys are everywhere in every kind of creative writing, as they’re a very fun device to employ. here’s a great example that you’ve probably seen around the internet:

this is a one-liner from the cat in the hat (2003 live action film), spoken directly after the titular cat is hit in the face with a garden hoe. we as an audience fully understand that “dirty hoe” in this context is a disparaging remark directed at an inanimate object, but we also understand that the phrase “dirty ho(e)” isn’t normally used that way — it’s much more commonly used as an insult towards a person who’s alleged to be, well, a ho. the humor here comes from the fact that the cat is saying a funny sex phrase in a completely nonsexual situation.

but this is only half of why the double entendre works. it also works because, and this is absolutely crucial, if the audience only interprets the line in the most literal surface-level way (eg. insulting the garden hoe) it still makes complete sense. there are millions of small children who saw the cat in the hat (2003 live action film) with no idea that the phrase “dirty hoe” could mean anything other than what it was literally presented as on screen. for them, “dirty hoe” was just a throwaway line where the cat expresses his frustration with an everyday object. with double entendre it is essential that if an audience member doesn’t pick up on the secondary meaning, that still doesn’t interfere with the effectiveness of the literal interpretation.

“dirty hoe”, as silly as it is, exemplifies this perfectly. a small child might wonder why a parent/older sibling/cousin/whatever thought the line was funny when they didn’t, but that’s really the extent of the ways that “dirty hoe” could hypothetically break immersion.

with all this clarified, let’s return to taylor swift.

there’s a clear attempt at double entendre in this lyric, with the crux of it being that “heroin” and “heroine”, two VERY different things, sound the same when said out loud. here’s a handy diagram for anyone who might not know the difference:

for now, let’s ignore the clunky phrasing of the actual lyric and pretend travis (I am like 80% sure this song is about travis) had instead said something along the lines of “you’re my heroin(e)”. this is a great double entendre, as it has two clear cut meanings, one innocent and one risqué:

1. “you’re my heroine”, meaning “you’re my hero”.

2. “you’re my heroin”, meaning “you, and our relationship as a whole, is wildly addictive. when I’m with you I feel happier than is normally humanly possible and I don’t know if I can function without you”.

at this point, you might be thinking “sander, you’ve just proven that the the lyric works perfectly fine. what’s your deal?”. in response I would like to highlight the fact that I Had To Fundamentally Change The Lyric For It To Make Sense. because taylor swift — a woman who is incapable of brevity — has not written “you’re my heroin(e)”, she has written “it’s like heroin, but this time with an e”.

in that phrasing, swift has forsaken The Second Rule Of Double Entendre — the saying must still make sense if only one of two meanings is understood. “you’re my heroine” and “you’re my heroin” both stand on their own as lyrics despite their wildly different meanings, and both independently make sense within the context of a song about extreme devotion. “it’s like heroin […] with an e” only works if the listener not only knows both meanings of the word, but also that one is spelled with an e and one without — not to mention the fact that there is a time limit on this pun, as this is something the listener has to extrapolate before the song moves onto its next words lest they get completely lost for the rest of the song or (god forbid) have to break their immersion and pause it.

which is to say a good double entendre should have depth, yes, but it should also just click. in fact here’s an example I’ve been saving for just now of that click happening using, I shit you not, THE EXACT SAME JOKE AS TAYLOR:

I’m not going to bog us down in Saw Lore (today), but I’ll give the necessary context — this character, amanda, is a former heroin addict turned sober serial killer/torture enthusiast. she views herself as a heroine (with an e) for all the torture she’s doing because having a torturous near-death experience is what shocked her back into control of her own life, and she’s now providing the same “service” for other people that she sees her old self in.

when amanda says “I’m your heroin(e)” it’s once again meant in both senses of the word — she’s a “heroine” because she thinks that she’s doing something heroic, but she’s also “heroin” because, in reality, she’s slowly breaking apart and often eventually killing the people she attaches herself to. however, the second meaning is still just an added layer and the lyrics works just as well if you only ever interpret them as saying “hero”. the actual drug heroin is only mentioned once, towards the end, after the heroine/heroin pun has been repeated in the chorus ad nauseam and been given full time to click with the audience. in fact, you can actually hear the pun clicking every time an audience member laughs at a seemingly non-comedic line.

I bring this example up to show that double entendre doesn’t always have to be lighthearted comedy like the cat in the hat (2003 live action film)’s is, and to highlight how “taylor’s work isn’t meant to be funny, so she shouldn’t have to follow proper joke technique” doesn’t make sense as a rebuttal, which will hopefully dissuade anyone from making that claim. it isn’t just proper joke technique to nail a double entendre correctly, it’s proper writing technique. the non-swift examples I’ve shown you simply wouldn’t work as well if the cat had said “you’re a dirty ho, but with an e”, or if amanda had said “I’m your heroin, but with an e” (although unlike swift, she would’ve at least had the proper context in her song to attempt pulling that off).

all of this is of course to say that yes, the lyric is clunky, but more importantly the lyric is confusing. at best it’s a noticeable stumble in the prose, something that makes you go “huh? did I hear that right?”, and at worst it’s completely immersion-shattering.

I’ve noticed that the most common defense of this album (which I’m sure I’ll see in my notes if this post even remotely escapes containment) is “the lyrics aren’t bad, they just make you stop and think”, to which I would ask “think about what?”. there is a major, major difference between stopping to think about a cleverly complicated story, and stopping to think because the thing you just heard made no sense whatsoever. wordiness does not automatically a good piece of writing make, and if brevity is the soul of wit I think we should all stop for a little to question the nature of swift’s.

I think in terms of Dumb Taylor Swift Lyrics we are all really sleeping on “he says it’s like heroin but with an e”

[joeyjoeylee]

How would you rank the good girl szns?

Oooh, fun question! I’ll put this under a thingie b/c as I have proven time and again, I am incapable of brevity.

I’d go:

1. Season 2 – This one worked on every level for me up to the last 20 minutes or so of the finale.

Too many reasons to list them all, but off the top of my head: the Girls’ interactions together all season. Dean being shot and bleeding out on his own dining room chair after watching the guy who beat the shit out of him caress his wife’s face. Mary Pat acting out “machete.” Those multiple episodes where I thought Boomer was dead and rotting in the ground. 2.04 & 2.09 - I will never know peace again in my life b/c of these. Annie helping Nancy give birth. Dean being dunked on by middle-aged Krav Maga instructors and child hitmen alike. Rio and Beth at a picnic table in the sunshine. Dean being ignored by a trendy hipster bar waitress with a professionalism problem while his wife got railed in the bathroom. The really deep dive into the Stan/Ruby relationship and how the strongest of strong couples were tested in a way that had nothing to do with infidelity (felt so rare and true).

The biggest reason I think though is one Agent James Turner. Holy crap, I loved him in Season 1 and that grew exponentially in Season 2. Such a rounded and nuanced character, a law enforcement antagonist outside the traditional White Hat mold, so cunning and ruthless and funny. And so well-acted, his chemistry with everyone was amazeballs. I laugh every time I think about him and Mary Pat together. I lived for his palpable Boomer disgust, him and Rio going head-to-head, his loaded conversations with Stan. And seriously, the scenes with him and Beth? I think in some ways those two characters saw each other more clearly through all the bullshit they both put on than anyone else saw them. And then to have them both so fully engaged in trying to top the other? Man, that was the shit.

2. Season 1 – I binged this one in two days straight I think (probably less, lol). Just was captivated by it all, the setup, the music, the characters, Eddie breaking a small child’s finger and stuffing half a hotdog in his face, the styling, etc. The pace was frenetic and I think they burned through a lot of story maybe too quick that they could have spun out and drawn more viewers in – but as a binge-watch, it was impossible to beat. It sent me straight to Tumblr and AO3 and I was hyperfixated from the get-go, which is always a fun and frothy feeling!

3. Season 3 – There were a lot of stand alone moments that I loved in Season 3. Ruby seeing how her choices were playing out with Sara. Annie taking steps to grow up (although thumbs down to Dr. Cohen, boo to him for one thousand years). Brio sitting at dark picnic tables processing their anger/don’t-call-it-a-breakup-but-it-was-a-breakup on their beautiful faces.

And after where the writers decided to go in the Season 2 finale (still baffled by this tho), I understood why the writers had to do a lot of things they did to both keep Rio as a character long term and try to make it make sense as to why he wouldn’t just immediately kill all 3 of these women asap. And I understood how this made the overall mood much darker as they tried to work through that (made more difficult by the whole pandemic thing too, etc).

But for me, I liked it better when it was the Girls v. a third-party antagonist like Boomer or Turner or even Mary Pat, with Rio as their Boss/Reluctant Quasi-Partner Not to Be Trusted Yet Still to Be Hooked Up With. So to have Rio be the Big Bad of the season, this was less bueno for me.

There were also things I found….off, for lack of a better word, tonally, like the sort of amnesia that the Girls seemed to develop that Boomer had once framed Annie for felony drug possession which put her in danger of losing custody of her child, oh not to mention had attempted to violently rape Annie and had raped Mary Pat.

I know a lot of people love Season 3 for the angst, and for them I am happy they were well-fed! And I liked it too, overall. But lower than 1 and 2, my one true love.

4. Season 4 – Somebody always has to be last, and that sadly is Season 4. Still loved the characters and the actors too, natch. Was intrigued and excited by the expansion of Rio’s family/backstory. Loved seeing Dean in jail and then being infantilized riding up and down the street like Jane while his wife openly met with her former/current lover who had not only shot him in his own house but also waved to Dean like a dick. The serotonin from that moment, my God.

For the last season though, the fact that so much time was spent with the Girls not interacting as much or plotlines that made me bored as shit (what was that Homeless Guy stuff, I mean seriously, I can't even keep his name in my head it tranquilized me so much) or characters I didn’t care about (I will always love Travis from Clueless but if I had to see his little bike shorts or his tiny face one more time, I’d kill him myself. I’m glad his wife and dicky child hated and disrespected him, because same.) or main characters' actions that were so ambiguous that I had to contort myself into a pretzel to try to make narrative sense. And like most if not all white men, Bill Krebs needs to stop speaking forever b/c much like the creators of Game of Thrones, every time my eyes drifted across something he’d written in an Instagram DM, I got dumber. Also everything he said was either a lie or drastically overexaggerated or offensive, so that was weekly frustrating as well.

Mostly I loved this season b/c it was the last and because I loved reading all the posts and seeing all the gifs and everyone from the community talking together in real time. So that made me happy, even when I was frustrated with the content itself!