#why are you latin too? like he’s not just chinese he’s latin too WHY

[cometrose]

i’ve got two zhongli origin theories

1. he’s a fallen star or a piece of the sun that fell in teyvat or a sun god/solar chariot

2. hes a servant of celestia but was banished/demoted for disobedience

theory 1 is an old theory but i always feel he’s an astral body of some sorts “planet befall” is his burst name “stars dim light fades” is his namecard description “gold is the tears of the sun” this is what the melusines say after being handed a piece of cor lapis the fact the solar chariot crashed when rex lapis was young and then zhongli is always symbolized by the sun with gold as his signature item. All the other archons (ei, rukkha, nahida, furina etc) are represented by the moon as are many other deities or divinities (azhdaha, guizhong, xiao and ganyu) zhongli is one of the few immortals to fully embody the sun

theory 2 has more to do with his connections to celestia. while super subject to change and not at all reliable i always think about one of zhongli’s beta lines is about celestia and he speaks very fondly of it stating he hasn’t been there is a long time next is the mora he produces with the triquetra symbol associated with celestia

then in chinese it states zhongli was demoted 6000 years ago when he arrived in teyvat as opposed to the eng version of ‘descended’.

In his 5th character story prior to rukkha getting erased it stated that barbatos and morax were the only original members of the seven and now it states that they were the only two in positions of leadership but isn’t that the same thing? not to mention barbatos fell asleep the same time nahida was born so in reality of the original 7 only rex lapis was in a position of leadership and then in the same text later down it still says that “The seven seats changed and again were changed, till five of the seven at the table were all departed” but if he really forgot rukkha shouldn’t it be four not five? this section of text is the same pre and post sumeru so long story short i think he remembers rukkha to some extent so he didn’t come straight from tevyat

and then even though he states he’s eroding he is very confident in his memories likely due to his contracts so i think erosion effects him differently and then their is his connection to the heavenly principles he specifically states erosion was imposed on him by them and then he praises furina for deceiving them and then there is his contract with them that stops him from talking about the cataclysm all in all i believe he’s familiar with the heavenly principles on a deeper level like he’s playing both sides

bonus: i think it’s neat zhongli is always associated with life and creation much like celestia (and the sun), he gave azhdaha eyes and created the archaic petra flower he created whales and eagles and beasts made of stone granted the adepti illumination and a mastery over alchemy

bonus bonus: morax was alive during the age of the 3 moon sisters and there are few stories were it’s implied he mentions them directly anyway this just means he’s far older than 6000 and has lived through numerous tevyat societies so he’s got a very long lifespan not as much as an elemental being but he knows far more about this world

bonus bonus bonus: zhongli’s 6th constellation is “Chrysos, Bounty of Dominator”. Chrysos is latin but is borrowed from ancient greek meaning Gold (Khrysos). Khrysos is a daimon which are lesser divinities in greek mythology and often a personification of abstract concepts. Daimons were great and powerful figures who after their death were granted divinity and some were transformed by Zeus to guide humanity. Khrysos is son of Zeus and the personification of gold and wealth ‘that cannot be devoured by moth or rust’. Son of Zeus? Free of impurities? Tasked with guiding humanity? Very similar to the relationship to the archons and celestia and could mean zhongli has very divine origins.

anyway that’s what i got, as to what he *is* maybe he’s a celestial dragon that got demoted.

or i think about heavenly chinese immortals who, when they commit crimes, or want to grow as a person, may be sent to the human realm to go through trials and suffering that comes with living and guess what zhongli does in his free time.

May he’s a piece of the sun that crashed down in teyvat and got assigned godhood hence his dedication to the future and seeing a new day

[loventian]

Touchstarved character name meanings!

Lemme preface this by saying I’m not a name meanings expert I just love crawling through google pages and over analyzing things ALSO to make sure the results weren’t influenced by fandom everything here is from pre-2020! With that let’s get into things!

Mhin:

Mhin is a little bit tricky, as I can’t find anything for their name spelled as it is. Min, however, has several different sources and meanings.

In Chinese, Min (敏) meanings “quick, clever, sharp” Which seems rather fitting for our neighborhood soulless hunter. An alternative script for Min (民) translates to “people, citizens” which could have some interesting implications, as Mhin is implied to have strong connections to the city of Lovent.

In Burmese Min means “king, ruler” which, connected with the second Chinese translation, could perhaps be some foreshadowing? We don’t know how Mhin is connected to Lovent, but the city must have had a ruling class, perhaps Mhin held a position of power? It could also be why they survived, and which a powerful curse nonetheless

Finally, in Irish Min is said to mean “smooth, fine, small”, though I can’t find as many sources on this one. I include it because people have pointed out Mhin’s cloak pins are triquetra, which are Celtic symbols.

Kuras:

Please know I adore Kuras when I say this, but he really got the short end of the naming stick it seems. The most promising thing I can find is the usage as a Hindi surname, which doesn’t seem to have a meaning listed. If you remove the S and go with Kura, it can mean “river” in Turkish or possibly “fierceness, tiger” in Japanese.

Now here’s the silly translations! In Arabic, Kuras (كراس) seems to translate to brochure. In polish, it translates to chicken.

I truly doubt the devs thought brochure/chicken were good labels for the dear doctor, so I’m favoring the Turkish translation. Mostly because Eridia is a city divided by a river; could there be something deeper hidden in there? Maybe!

Ais:

So clearly Ais has a lot of Japanese influence, with his design being inspired by Oni, so I looked for those possible translations first. Ai (愛) translates to love in Japanese, and is typically used as a broader term to refer to emotions tied to like compassion, empathy, or platonic forms of love (as opposed to 恋/koi which refers to romantic love).

I’m gonna focus on this translation for a bit. Someone on a translation forum phrased it in a way I really love: “Ai” is something you do or give. Ais is our introduction to the Seaspring, and to groupminds in general. While the concept of a hivemind is usually used in horror as a way of taking away agency, the Seaspring is framed as a refuge for people to turn to. Could Ais’ name be an allusion to a goal he keeps hidden? Is the Seaspring a manifestation of a desire to give love despite the violent world? Or am I just reading into this too deep?

Vere:

Vere actually has a straight up name meaning! Most of the sources I found say that Vere is a French/Gaulish name meaning “Alder”, and it usually pops up in the surname “De Vere”. Alders are a kind of bitch tree, and I have no idea how that tie into Vere as a character.

But if we take “Vere” as a word rather then a name, then Latin translates it as meaning “truly, really, actually, rightly”. Vere’s introduction to us is as someone to not trust, a cunning fox waiting for the next meal, stealing our darn room key and lying about it! So I find it really interesting that his name could be a word for truth. Perhaps before his chains Vere was someone a lot more truthful ?

Leander:

Big shout out to Leander for having a plain ass easy to translate name. I’ll give you googles exact definition here: "lion of a man", from leon, "lion", and andros, "man".

That was easy, so now let’s pick it apart!

Traditionally, lions are symbols of nobility, courage, strength, and protection. Leander has a reputation for being That Guy; he’s a leader, a protector of the masses, etc etc. for all intents and purposes, Leander really is a lion of a man!

…On the surface at least. Because under all the symbolism, lions are still predators, no matter how noble.

[littlepuddingsworld]

Okay, this is going to sound insane, but please hear me out.

In the 19th century, there were doctors who specialised in curing "female hysteria", which was often just misdiagnosed sexual frustration (Whenever women were too out of control for men to handle, it was diagnosed as hysteria. So it was basically anything, sexual frustration included...). The cure was fingering...yeah. It was relatively normalised to, as a doctor, finger someone's wife...quite a way to make a living. There was basically a handbook written in Latin about how you do it (oil up your hand, insert here, there will be muscle contraction, the lady in question will breathe heavily before ultimately having a hysteria paroxysm (this is a former medical term for orgasms btw)). Obviously, there were mixed opinions about giving another man's wife an orgasm, however, the Catholic doctors concluded that it cannot have been sexual, since there was no penetration. "It's our duty as doctors to cure these poor women of their hysteria, Sir 🫡"

FUN FACT: Since some doctors would experience wrist pain from the...hard manual labour, they invented a device that does it for them: The vibrator. When the vibrator was first used in pornography, the doctors said NOPE and left their profession behind. In 2011, there was a period romcom made about this called Hysteria. It's not even that bad, unironically. Oh and by the way, the name hysteria is derived from the Greek word hystera, meaning uterus, hence why only women were diagnosed with hysteria.

Anyway, getting to my point:

Imagine a yandere thinking that you're being incredibly hysterical, emotional, out of control and then proceeding to sit you down and curing you of your hysteria the old-fashioned way...

They either do it knowingly, or are just too oblivious to even realise that what they are doing is...not quite the correct solution for the problems they caused you in the first place...

Just wanted to share this with someone...take it as you will...

,,, to be honest, I knew about the hysteria, but I didn't know about the fact that a vibrator was created that way,,,, sexy big brain<3333 i love your words so much, mercury kissed you at birth,,,, very brainy, very many cerebral convolutions, I love it,,, come here to kith kith pretty pie—

𝐁𝐈𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄

your husband is so sweet, so adorable — especially when he's on his knees in front of you, purring something about how he should help you, as if it's not his personal fault that you feel like this.

... ♡ unhealthy relationship, misconception of the century / time, hierarchical society, mild sexism? (more classism?), mild maledom elements, mention of religion, forced marriage implied, male pregnancy mentioned because no pregnant reader, unethical treatment methods?; doctor!noble!husband x darling!reader

dubious consent (dubcon) -> consensual sex, crying, mild sadism/masochism, mention of degradation (g.), hair pulling (g.), oral sex (r.), mild fingering (r.), praise (r.)

If THEODORE had been told that he was "mistreating his darling spouse", he would have

agreed.

It was logical: if he treated you well, then would you enter into a frenzy of emotions, scream and look as if you were about to faint before falling at a table made of pleasantly smelling wood, — Theodore knew that you love this variety; almost all tables, chairs and other wooden utensils was of this sort, — completely exhausted, unable even to drive away your narrow-minded husband, only waving a fragile palm in his direction, as if desperate, while he took your fan, straight from the hands of the best chinese craftsmen, and gently fanned you, letting you hang head? Of course not.

You, his breathtaking spouse, were so touching and gentle, full of spring charm and a few drops of exquisite, expensive coquetry, like the first flowers in spring — delicate, almost transparent, not at all like the luxury of scarlet roses that gardeners grow every season, or the exuberant scent of lilac and juniper, especially in July. Not at all. Your charm was subtle, unique, corresponding to the rumbling of the first rivers or the first drop falling from the roofs after the melting of the snow. You have never been a socialite — never; parents were rich enough to support you and your siblings, but not rich enough to live in idleness and not worry about money.

You were introduced at the first ball and attended others from time to time, but most of the time you couldn't afford to walk around with "old dresses", not wanting to be considered poor or shame family by not being able to buy new clothes. Theodore understood perfectly well — being from a not-so-rich family, somehow coping with this whole world, you simply could not afford to live bohemian, expensive and shameless out of fear that money was too little, as if you did not even think that you could just marry someone rich and sponsor with their help your family. Theodore didn't blame, having heard about you for the first time from the mouths of other dandies who follow every new "coquette fan", more than an eloquent sign of finding a partner, though; "too conscientious and didn't understand how this world works" or just a prude,

but now, he understands that you just knew your worth and waited for someone like

him.

After all, in a world where divorce can only happen after death, and infidelity is punished by an enraged spouse with a knife, how could you easily marry someone? You were so alluring, like ripe peaches filled with juice — naturally, not everyone can and should touch your delicate, perfumed hands and caress skin so soft that no overseas silk can compare.

Theodore was sure that there were words about you: "If the cost of their kiss was hell, // then I will kiss their lips, // so that in hell I can brag to the devils // that I was in heaven without even entering it." Because you were paradise, it didn't matter if you smiled, cried or screamed — or were "not a couple who deserved," but only because you could have become the monarch's spouse right away, but he found you earlier.

He had no doubt that you were special — definitely to him. Therefore, he did not think long before he came to your parents to take you to his estate, in the sweetly itchy haste of first and only love, kissing your hands and touching the slightly trembling fan with thin fingers while you looked down in frightened amazement, while your parents confusedly exchanged glances, not understanding why he came to "court you". Theodore did not ask if you had someone — after all, if you had, you would rather slit your throat than let another touch your thin fingers, because he would have done exactly the same in your place if he were still a dependent young man (now, of course, he was not — having studied at a very prestigious university, where his parents also studied, he was more than an enviable independent bachelor and knew it). And if earlier he was afraid that, what if!, was not "normal", then when saw you, he knew that he had been waiting for you all this time — and you were undoubtedly waiting for him too.

If, in order to be with you, he had to refuse the sky, the sun and the moon, he would do it without hesitation. This is love — Theodore had no doubt that you yourself understand this.

Your parents, however, soon dispelled his prejudices. You didn't just "didn't understand it" — you weren't like that, but Theodore, hesitating only for a few seconds, realized that you just weren't like everyone else. While others were blinded by love, like him, you couldn't be like that — you just didn't understand it, didn't feel like that, and your parents were only afraid that your "defect" in the marriage market would make you lonely for the rest of days.

Theodore, however, did not think so: you were the same age as him, he was childless, unmarried, rich and educated, had an estate with intelligent and trained servants, good sources of income, a lot of free time, did not have the habit of drinking a lot of alcohol or tobacco, — and the fact that you were allegedly "not sensual enough" was, of course, stupidity. He wasn't going to use the fact that you can't pick up a knife to kill an unfaithful spouse! And I wasn't going to cheat! He won't do any harm! Yes, you may be a little... very very little defective-ish, but isn't love blind? He will accept you at any cost, even with such a... 'setback'.

... Of course, it is wrong and even abnormal that you cannot kill someone who is cheating on you, and are not ready to die just to be with someone you love, and that it is wild for you to give up everything for your beloved... But Theodore understands that you are already too perfect, and it's okay to have flaws. He's not thirteen anymore.

As long as this is not passed on to children, everything will be fine, please, don't worry, ma joie, — he gently whispers to you, touching gloved fingers, stroking fingers gently, looking into your very happy face ? — I'll accept you for who you are, even with this. With everything. Because you and I, being whole by ourselves, become more than just "ourselves" together.

And it was true, don't get him wrong! His pedigree was good, he was, uh, "thoroughbred," and his family tree was beautiful, worthy of your hand. Theodore was not self-confident, but he was confident, buying everything you want, not walking through salons and entertainment houses and not being in any dubious circles, his entourage was only intelligent people who had an education and could both write and read, and not in two languages, and there was no one in his circle someone of the same gender, and he wasn't squeamish or suspicious. After all, what else can you worry about? But you were worried. Over time, it's even a little noisy.

You shouted, sometimes threw yourself, behaved strangely, as if he was not a refined learned man who was your shadow and wrote poetry to you, not forcing you to do anything even after your approved marriage, but a brute or an invader. Did he take you away without permission? Perhaps using his status in society to a little and influence your parents with children who have not yet appeared to the beau monde, and used a little influence to convince these people that he will help your siblings in the future to find a better match than they can now count on — but then why does he need it: status, influence, reputation, — if he can't even convince his love to stay with him? Otherwise, you can't blame—

... Oh wait.

You can.

Theodore realizes with annoyance, sitting hs office with a book in hands, writing notes in diary, and adjusts his glasses: he had completely forgotten — you're "not like that." You're different. Your parents told him. You understand love differently, you look at your partner differently, you cannot understand the concept of love itself... Theodore used to think that they just raised you wrong, but now he understands what they meant: that the feelings that ordinary people spend on a partner, you leave inside, letting them accumulate, and when you realize that you can no longer, you emotionally explode and behave as if something is wrong with him or you — it's obvious! You just can't do it any other way! Of course, why else would you be unhappy with your situation? After all, it's natural that your family hardly communicates with you or that you can't spend a lot of time outside the house — everyone lives like that, except the unmarried! You just don't understand it!

Because you are so emotional, so sensitive, so responsive, that, naturally, you need special care and care, and not a sidelong glance from your husband, who behaved so coldly, only supporting, but not helping you in any way! After all, he studied at the best university, was one of the best students, even had an internship and, of course, corresponded with his comrades, learning new ways to deal with diseases and disorders. After all, what kind of "good husband" is he if he can't even help his gentle, easily excitable spouse cope with their, he's not afraid of that word, illness?

You just don't understand...

“... Darling, we need to make one thing.”

You are gentle, soft, not submissive — both in clothes and under them, and although you may consider him a little pathetic when he whispers it to you, burying cold nose in your thigh like a lost dog, but after shouting and throwing things, you are no longer so full of destructive energy. Holding him tightly by the hair, you look down with pursed lips, but do not answer anything — and in expensive clothes, with jewelry, sleek and clearly not deprived of the love and affection of a bohemian husband, you look like a deity that descended from heaven.

Theodore knows that he must decontaminate for sure, but what can a spouse hide from a spouse, right? After all, you are more than a "single whole", especially when he is sitting on his lap, no problem as long as you are sitting on a chair made of your favorite wood, soft and comfortable enough, allowing him to carefully get rid of excess clothes without disgrace, looking at how thin lips touch your skin in a respectfully pious way.

Even your heavy breathing from the outburst of emotions sounds like music that should be played in the church if they want the heavenly ambassadors to descend.

Is he too "sugary"?

No, he's just a realist.

“Darling, please...”

You don't push away even when fingers gently touch your thighs like feathers, just frowning a little harder. But not by pushing it away. You are smart, you always have been, and, of course, you yourself understand that you are sick, and only he, as your husband and doctor, can help you. It's natural. Why do you need another men- or women- another doctor? How dare someone else touch you? Only you can touch him and only he can touch you. He's yours — a husband, a doctor, anyone. As soon as you become healthier, he will definitely be your lover — and maybe one day you will take a child or will he carry it. After all, how dare he sleep with you and use you, so gentle and airy, like a messenger from heaven, while you are so deeply ill, not even really knowing what love is and how to react to it?

“Darling... It's just a little help. Just say the word and we'll stop anytime. I don't want to harm my spouse, you know... Besides, you can always stop me by force.”

You yourself spread your warm, soft, almost plush thighs while he meekly looks up from the bottom, trying to unobtrusively encourage you to let him just look a little. Theodore was not an expert on issues related to sex life or the influence of genitals on human behavior, — although, undoubtedly!, it was important, but he preferred less dirty things, — but now, kneeling in front of you on a soft carpet, stroking your skin, it did not seem something vile or dirty, animal, but for some reason pleasant and... airy-natural; the very sight made him want not to wince and turn away, but not to look away, even when you pull his hair harder, frowning, clearly not too willing to continue this, but it's better than if he drags you to someone else.

You knew yourself that your husband sometimes got too involved with the human body in a not too, uh, "harmless" sense, but it was never dangerous or illegal, unless against the law of god, so you let him correspond with 'friends' and 'colleagues', studying new diseases and learning more about experience and practice. But if you knew that one day you would be the subject of research, you would definitely throw his ink and letters into the fireplace — along with other things.

“Mi único... I want to help... Do you know what hysteria is? This is when a darling behaves very much... emotionally because of the internal tension. And so we have recently come up with a... new way to deal with similar diseases. It can help our marriage... Te quaeso?”

Theodore is not an idiot; rather, he feels like a trainer or a tamer, gently pushing and touching, without making any sudden movements while you look at him, gradually relaxing the tense body, letting his fingers, slightly slippery from oil and disinfectants, touch the delicate skin of the inner thigh, massaging and stroking, not hurrying. He doesn't have much experience — practically none, you never shared a bed even after the "wedding night", — but there is enough theory and ideas how to use it, especially when thin, slightly cool fingers slowly touch the skin under stomach, stroke as lightly as possible along a sensitive line, kissing with warmed lips the skin. If he could, he'd love to just open his mouth and eat you, or at least nibble — but he's not the type who eats his darling and then walks around saddened widowers and widows without the opportunity to remarry, he's a more sophisticated type and definitely not that creepy, even if the way you are you pull his hair as fingers gently circle around, rubbing and stroking, using precum for better contact, makes his eyes water and his mouth open slightly, breathing, feeling too ambiguous even for a "husband", let alone the role of the "doctor" in which he was.

“Please... d-darling...” He chirps something slightly hoarsely, stroking, caressing, breathing every other time, as if you are holding not by the hair, but by the throat; when his fingers tremble slightly, you hiss, making him blush slightly shamefacedly, as if from your swearing, — but he tries not to break the rhythm, ignoring, as befits a refined well-mannered husband. Do well-mannered husbands use their fingers on their spouses? Theodore doesn't have that much experience to respond, especially when you flinch slightly, curling your toes, — and he wants to bite just to remove this strange shameful, almost perverted feeling of a mixture of lust and guilt inside, clearly not too approved by religion, but when you start breathing shallowly and harder, closing your eyes, Theodore moves his fingers faster, watching your face.

Is that right? You don't hold him so tightly, but don't take your hand away, and his fingers are so slippery and wet that he's almost ashamed, as if it's all his juices, and he definitely should at least look away, but this is scientific curiosity, just curiosity, even when he changes his position, sinking lower shamelessly, feeling himself for a moment, it really was some kind of fallen man from entertainment houses, with an implicit gurgling feeling in the lower abdomen, listening only to your breathing and slightly squelching sounds. Theodore hardly breathes, looking at his fingers, trying for a moment to distract himself with the fleeting thought "good that cut nails" — but when your... your bare foot touches his shoulder, it seems so perversely seeing your calves that he does not know where to look — freezing for a moment, his eyes are drawn only to you, even if it looks so... sweetly vulgar, completely wrong, — but you're already married, so it's okay even if you're not like that, right? It's okay when he sees something below your neck and bare arms, it's okay when you squeeze his hair tightly again, it's okay when he hears your hot, loud breathing, as if you're breathing directly into his red ears, although he can't even look up from the way you're holding him.

Your fingers are strong, dexterous, squeezing his strands so hard that he can't move anywhere, but for some reason he is too pleased with this than he should be, even when Theodore feels like you are pushing him even closer shamelessly, as if he is not your, actually, noble and high-minded husband, who is now plays the role of your doctor, helping you with your "hysteria", but some kind of fun boy!

Outrageous!

“D-darl-!~”

You hiss something, almost growl — and pull too hard, forcing Theodore to briefly let out a distant sigh without resistance — and obediently open his mouth, hastily removing his fingers so as not to interfere before he finds a new, more comfortable place. His eyes are slightly watering from the mild pain, but when he does not see a shadow of the old irritation or anger in your face, he obediently sticks out the tip of his red tongue, not trying to shirk his doctoral duties — or is this already a marital duty? Theodore doesn't know, he's not sure, — especially when you hold him even tighter, not listening to what he says, knowing that if he really was "against it", he would have already got out, and not looked at you like a fawn at a hunter, as if it wasn't because of him that you were here, with legs spread apart and heavy breathing from the heaviness in the lower abdomen.

Is this really what he was taught at university?

A boy for fun.

The corners of your husband's eyes turn red, but he does not try to say anything or justify himself, — why should he? — making inarticulate sounds, but only moving his head, hesitantly holding your hips as much as he could do it respectfully and unobtrusively; after all, he is a learned man, even if he was kneeling like some kind of animal or a slave.

When Theodore awkwardly, clumsily moves his tongue, trying to make sure that you feel good, for some reason the world feels much brighter and sharper, — especially when the heat gets stronger, making you tremble slightly, feeling a wide tongue and thin flexible fingers, as if they are perfect only for this, but there is less air in your lungs than you need to continue dirty deservedly whisper to him how low he has sunk, from his 'writing letters to the best doctors he studied with' to kneeling in front of his spouse.

It's not that you're going to stop him or let him change his position, of course, but just force him to continue doing what he's good for, while he's almost meowing, almost purring, not trying to pull away anymore.

... It's not that he's wrong, though.

You definitely feel better after a little therapy.

[atimeofyourlife]

Happy New Year

written for @steddieholidaydrabbles prompt: new years resolution | rated: g | wc: 460 | tags: minor steddie Steve has an awkward past with new years resolutions, but he found one he wants to keep. To be happy.

Steve didn't know how he felt about new years resolutions. It was something he'd hear his mother do so often. Every year, another list, often the same resolutions as previous years. Get better at cooking, lose weight, exercise more, do more with the women's lunch group, get Richard to stop sleeping with the secretary, stick to the diet, take up more hobbies, stop being treated like a doormat. But most of the time, she failed. Which is why there were so many repeats so often.

And her resolutions setting didn't stop at her. All throughout his childhood, she would make Steve lists of new years resolutions she expected him to stick to. Keep the house tidy, learn how to clean the pool, garden every other week, get better grades, stop partying so much, make the teams, make captain, hit the gym more often, lose the puppy fat, eat healthier, don't eat so much, be more independent, be a better representative of the family.

It was exhausting. But it was a cycle that he couldn't break. His mom always made such a big deal about it, it felt too big of a thing to stop. Like if he didn't make, and at least try to keep new years resolutions, something bad would happen. As if he had cursed himself. So he continued making them. To keep his loved ones safe, to continue to better himself, to be the best person he could be, to graduate, to get a job, to get a better job, to be a better son. Always things for other people, or to improve other people's perceptions of him. Never anything really for himself.

He was learning to be better at doing things for himself, to be kinder to himself. Not just doing things that other people expected of him. For the first time in his life, putting himself first. Letting himself be free, to be who and what he wanted.

As he sat curled up between Robin and Eddie on the couch, watching movies in the down time between Christmas and New Year, he realized just how content he was. Sure, they had one of the shittiest apartments in Indianapolis, but he had his best friend and his boyfriend, he didn't need anything more than that.

"Who has any new years resolutions?" Robin asked out of the blue between movies.

"I want to find a regular gig for the band. We'll take anything, we just want the chance to perform again." Eddie replied. "How about you?"

"I want to learn Latin. And maybe something like German or Chinese." Robin said. "Just any new language."

"What about you Stevie?" Eddie asked after a moment.

Steve thought for a moment before giving his answer. "Just to continue being happy."

[mazosstuff]

Drunk thoughts are sincere thoughts

pairing: Dan Heng × fem!reader

Cw!: none (maybe being drunk? Idk, nothing major happens to the reader or to anyone)

Words: < 800

A tiny bit suggestive but nothing happens!!

Sitting in the data bank, there are 2 young adults that are merely hanging out with a bottle or two of wine.

That night, she gulped down way too many glasses for how much alcohol she could tolerate.

"You've had one to many drinks, [name]" the black haired boy said.

"Y-you know... I was t-thinking about your other name..." She said between hiccups and a few pauses.

"My... other name? Please, tell me more. What were you thinking?" He wasn't even sure about what other name could she be possibly referring to.

"Imbibitor Lunae" She said while looking at the stars outside the window of the data bank.

"That... is more of a title, I guess... why were you thinking about it...?"

"Because people on the Xianzhou ships talk chinese... but... your name is in latin"

"Latin? I've never heard of this language"

"It comes from my homeland, Earth. It's more of a dead language, b-but I don't know how it got to you..."

"Still... that is a title that be-"

"Belongs to D-Dan Feng... I got it... you're making me tired of hearing the same thing over and over again"

"Think of how tired I am for telling everyone the same thing"

"Good though. Why would you ever want to d-drink the moon?"

Was the alcohol starting to get in her system? "Drink the moon?"

"Imbibitor Lunae means drinker of the moon..." She got up and sat right in front of him "Why would y-you ever want to d-drink the moon? I-it's so pretty!" She almost sounded whiny now, but not in an annoying way.

In her eyes, she was making him understand a very important thing for her: She loved the moon, and she loved him, but having her boyfriend's title be 'moon drinker'? Blasfemy!

In his eyes, however, he saw the love of his life getting in a position that was hard to describe: she was sat in between his legs, she grabbed him gently by his hips and started shaking him a little bit.

A faint blush transformed into him becoming even redder than Himeko's hair.

"Could you stop moving me like that?"

"Why do you wanna drink the moon? It's so pretty! It's so pretty that I'd marry it if it were a real person"

Something snapped inside of him with the last sentence. Surely he wasn't jealous of the moon... was he?

"Didn't you tell me you wanted to marry me?"

"That's another thing! I bet you'd leave me too for the moon"

Oh, silly [name]. He could never.

With what little courage there was left inside of him, he cupped her face into his hands and kissed her.

It was almost as if it had a hidden meaning.

He wanted to tell her he wasn't going anywhere. The moon may be pretty, but she was prettier. The moon could never beat her in a contest because it would have lost even before the beginning. But he couldn't find the words to say it.

"I will always choose you" He broke the kiss and hugged her.

She remained dumbfounded, frozen like a statue and unable to process everything that happened.

"By the way, how many drinks did you have? I can taste the alcohol on your lips"

"Uhhh... i don't know, I never counted...I'm not really a math gal"

"[Name]..." He sounded serious now

"Okay... maybe 5... or 6...?"

"My Aeons, you're unbelievably irresponsible with alcohol. It makes me wonder how you survived until now"

"Oops..." She said as she suddenly fell on him. From being on her knees, in between his legs, she just let herself fall on him.

Thinking about the various mentions of his past reincarnation, she felt like it was appropriate to remind him of who she loved.

"I love you... Dan Heng" She made sure to highlight the character 'Heng' in his name.

"And I love you not because of who you once were, b-but because of who you are now. Yeah... your vidyadhara appearance may be so cool and it's nice to tease you while you're in that form, but I fell in love with you, not Dan Feng, and if i had to choose between you and him, i would choose you every single time somebody asked me that"

He could feel his eyes tingling and ready to burst out in tears.

"If you ever get tired of reminding people who you are, t-tell me... because I w-will not let anyone disrespect you like that"

And with that she fell asleep on him.

He looked at her with a smile on his face

"How could I have been so lucky to have met you, my dear?"

People say that drunk thoughts are sincere thoughts.

A/n: hope you liked this little one shot. I swear, inspiration comes when you don't find the things you're looking for.

Another character that I love to the moon and back is Dan Heng. I have his E1 in his 5 star version and E2 in his normal one and I swear I'm tryna build him, but the drops of the calyx are awful.

As always, if you have a request for a one-shot, don't hesitate to send it to me!

[total-drama-brainrot]

Deep diving into Alejandro's ethnicity and family because the show is vague with how both are portrayed, and I'm pedantic:

Off the bat, we know that he was born in 🇪🇸 Spain. Or at least, that's what his wiki page says, so I'm sure it's mentioned in some kind of canon content (the show, the character interviews, the creators' stating it, ect). He often times speaks en español, either by replacing words and phrases in otherwise English sentences or cussing out his team in an entirely spanish confession. His name is also rooted in Spanish origin; 'Alejandro' is the Spanish equivalent of Alexander, and his surname 'Burromuerto' literally translates to "Dead Donkey", likely a combination of the idioms "beating a dead horse" and "no ver tres en un burro", translation: can't see three on a donkey; akin to 'blind as a bat'.

I could go on about the symbolism of his name(s) and how it relates to his performance on Total Drama, but that's not essential to the topic at hand so I'll go over it later.*

With this in mind, the show really wants us to believe that he's Spanish, or at the very least Hispanic.

In Chinese Fake-Out, we learn that he won a gold medal at the South American Skate Olympics, so he presumably lived somewhere in South America in his childhood. On the wiki, it claims that he moved to Latin America soon after he was born. His comment in the same episode about eating barbequed guinea pigs where he grew up had a lot of people deducing that he lived in 🇵🇪 Peru since guinea pig is famously a delicacy there. The question begs, why would Alejandro and the rest of the Burromuertos move to Peru from Spain?

We know that Alejandro's father is a diplomat, so uprooting the family to a new country could be related to his work, but I doubt a diplomat would settle down and start a family just to go through the hassle of moving them halfway across the world to a random country, regardless of his salary.

What other reason would anyone have for dragging their brood across the sea? To see their extended family.

Family is a big character motivation for Alejandro: he has a lot of pride in being a Burromuerto and often times complains about disappointing his family or being susceptible to José's teasing when his plans don't work out. Pride is a staple of the Burromuertos; they even have a family code they abide by. That kind of mindset is usually generational, implying that his parents place the same emphasis on the presentation and opinions of their family.

The most glaring example of this mindset is the hate fuelled rivalry between Alejandro and José, which was sparked by their desperate need to be the "better son". The main goal of the Burromuerto brothers is familial recognition. Understandable, when your parents are too successful to raise you themselves, any kid would be desperate for their attention. Since their competition was allowed to escalate to the point of mutual loathing, their parents probably encouraged their behaviour; when you value familial reputation over everything of course you want your children to continuously prove themselves. (Poor Al is just full of complex familial trauma, from his parents' neglect to his brothers' bullying to the incredible pressure he's put under to succeed. No wonder he's like that.)

After seeing how the brothers are willing to go to extremes for the sake of family, it's reasonable that parents sharing that mindset would move across an ocean just to see their relatives (and likely compete with them, after all even a younger Alejandro was showing up everyone in South America's skateboarding scene).

Suggesting that either one or both of his parents, or grandparents, are Latin American. For simplicities sake, we'll say that Alejandro's dad is Spanish (as he carries the surname), and his mother is Peruvian (since Peru is the assumed country they moved to).

That means that the brothers qualify as both Hispanic and Latino. Alejandro's latin blood really is canon, and the stereotypical 'Latin Lover' archetype he fills (alongside the "Archvillain" he's titled as) is all the more accurate. He's evidently very proud of both heritages.

To clarify, the Burromuertos moved to Peru when Alejandro was young to be with his Mother's side of the family.

If we want to really wade into the theoretical waters, I'd like to suggest that Alejandro's father left Spain because he disgraced himself/his family in some way, and that's why he's so insistent on his sons restoring the family pride and prestige.

So, I've established Alejandro's ethnicity and touched on the bare-bones basics of his home life. But what about his other brother, or his uncle? You know, the characters that were mentioned once and never expanded upon. Don't worry, I've got notes on them too.

Carlos: The eldest child and a professional soccer player. Alejandro doesn't mention anything about a rivalry with Carlos. Instead, he suggests the two share a healthier bond as Carlos taught him soccer skills. 'Carlos' the name is a Spanish variant of Charles, meaning "free man". Fitting, since it's widely assumed that Carlos escaped from the Burromuerto home's harmful environment at his first opportunity and 'freed himself' from their high expectations/standards, hence why he doesn't engage in the family-typical hypercompetitive bullying. A somewhat common fandom troupe I've seen is Carlos being disowned by the Burromuertos, and post-World Tour/All-Stars Alejandro reconnecting with him after he too is disowned.

Uncle Julio: The hypnotist. All we really know about Julio is his name and occupation, but it's enough to pin him down as Alejandro's maternal uncle. Alejandro states that he learned hypnosis from Julio in The EX-Files; as he grew up in Peru, the only family he reasonably could have interacted with outside of the nuclear unit would be his mother's relatives. His comment "manipulation runs in the family" is never ascribed to the Burromuertos by name, which adds to the implication that Julio isn't his father's brother, as any skill as useful as hypnosis would definitely be branded under his surname otherwise. Additionally, 'Julio' as a name is derivative of the Latin Julius or Julianus (meaning "Devoted to Jove/Jupiter", the Roman incarnation of Zeus, though I can't find any meaning in this applicable to his character), and not a strictly Spanish name like those of Alejandro and his brothers. Instead, it's common in most Hispanic and Latin American countries.

José: The middle child and Alejandro's source of his lingering childhood trauma, if the aversion to the nickname "Al" is anything to go by, I've already written about their relationship. The name 'José' is a Spanish variant of Joseph, which means "to add/give" in it's simplest interpretation. He sure does give Alejandro a tonne of issues, so I suppose it tracks.

*And finally, analysing the symbolism of Alejandro's name.

Alejandro, derived from Alexander, meaning "warrior" and "man's defender". Though in Al's case, it's likely a reference to Alexander the Great as opposed to the name's literal meaning/origins- Alejandro conquered the competition like Alexander conquered his empire.

Burromuerto's double idioms combine "beating a dead horse donkey" with "blind as a bat", likely as a convoluted way to say he's blinding the dead donkey; in this case, the beaten dead horse donkey is the OG cast of Total Drama who have already been milked for two seasons of content and have little left to offer (therefore, the third season is the beating of the dead horse, as its' an attempt to force content out of a resource with nothing left to give. that's why they added two more competitors, if that makes any sense? I'm not sure if I'm explaining this well enough,) and Alejandro is deceiving or 'blinding' them through his manipulations.

Obviously, this is all speculation written by someone with too much free time and no expertise. All of my knowledge/facts come from google searches and connecting dots that likely have no real links to each other. I'm not an authority on any subject. Keep that in mind, please.

Feel free to add your own opinions/thoughts! Or correct things that are be wrong!

[wizardfrog69]

sorry for reqiesting when you have alot of requests !!

but can i request hcs for jouno, ranpo, chuuya and kunikisa with a gn! autistoc s/o thats really "childish" (collects & sleeps wirh plushies, likes shows like bluey & mlp, is easily scared) and tends to act like cat + meow at them alot?

SORRY IF THIS SEEMS LIKE AN AUTISM STEREOTYPE, I MYSELF AM AUTISTIC AND IM LIKE THIS WHOOPS.

Thanks for requesting and dw about requesting when I have a lot of requests :)

'•.¸♡ childish and autistic s/o ♡¸.•'

Autistic!childish!gn!reader

Fluff

Masterlist

Enjoy!

Feat. Jōno, Ranpo, Chuuya and Kunikida

Saigiku Jōno

He isn't too fond of your childish nature, even though he can find it cute at times, he mainly isn't a fan.

He finds it odd whenever you meow at him, he's just confused about why you are meowing at him.

He also does know the difference between a cat's meow and your meow.

Ranpo Edogawa

As someone who is childish himself it's really fun to spend time with him.

He always enjoys sitting with a mountain of plushies around him while watching something made for children.

He also likes scaring you, he will try and not do it so often but he just can't help himself! He loves the cute screams you make when he scares you.

Also if you are looking for a cute show to watch then you can watch Molang, it is beyond adorable.

Also if you meow at him he will meow back.

One time Fukuzawa heard meowing coming from the ada office thing and he thought it was a cat, only to be disappointed that there weren't any cats.

Chuuya Nakahara

He isn't childish himself but he finds your behaviour really cute.

He isn't someone who enjoys children's shows (even though he watches them with you, mainly for your company and slightly for his enjoyment) he does make up for it with plushies of a show you like or are hyper-fixated on or one that is your special interest.

He does feel like he has to protect you if you get scared easily, he doesn't want you to be constantly scared.

Whenever you meow at him he's just confused and askes why you are meowing at him.

Doppo Kunikida

A combination which would never mix somehow is working?

Despite Kunikida's strict nature and ideal attitude, he still enjoys having a significant other who has a more child like persona.

He doesn't enjoy children's shows (or any really, claiming they are idiotic and so on) but he likes seeing you happy so he may sit by you while doing some work as you enjoy a show you are watching.

He doesn't want to spoil you too much but that cute and excited smile you hold is something which his heart seeks frequently, not being able to pull himself away from the thoughts of granting you something tailored to your liking.

He may find your meows a bit on the queer (as in odd/unique not as in the lgbtq+ one) side but he doesn't object to them in the slightest, especially if that is the way you communicate your affections.

༺♥︎༻ ⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ *ೃ༄ *ੈ ★ ⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ *ೃ༄ *ੈ ༺♥︎༻

Idk why I started writing like that for Kunikida, oh well.

Okay so this is the random list of languages that has no purpose and isn't significant in any way.

Latin, Old Church Slavonic, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Irish, swahili, Czech, Ukrainian, Russian.

Yeah.

Have a wonderful day/night and drunk something nice like ice water :)

-Love, Az

[uriekukistan]

What languages do you think your favourite TG characters speak :0

wait okay so this is funny bc i have hcs that a lot of characters are illiterate bc so many of them didnt go to school, but anyway

urie the type of guy to speak fluent english but pretend he doesn’t when he visits the us just to piss off americans. respect bro

i think that eto is a hyper-polyglot. she speaks like 12 languages for no reason. she would learn languages that are known for being difficult, like thai or something just to flex.

in canon, hide tried to learn english to understand a song he liked, so i think he definitely at least knows basic english. following that, he probably tried to learn spanish and/or korean after finding some artists he liked (in my mind its bad bunny and twice).

ayato and touka think that kanji is enough foreign language for them (juuzou too)

akira probably learned french or italian. she just gives that vibe.

after kaneki told hinami that kanji comes from chinese characters, she probably tried learning mandarin. she thinks its cool how she can tell what some characters mean without looking them up because of the kanji she knows, but also forgets their pronunciation sometimes (me too)

nishiki is a science person so he probably learned latin to know like. stuff idk im not a science person i just know latin is useful for that.

in my mind saiko likes kpop, so she probably learned korean. not from a conscious effort, just from consuming media.

why can i see kaneki learning some ancient language? not latin, that’s too mainstream. like sanskrit or something. hieroglyphics. idk he just strikes me as the type. but also he references kafka so much in the beginning of the manga, i bet he learned german just to read him in his original language

shirazu the type of guy to do the duolingo klingon course. idk i hc him as a big sci fi guy, so i can just see him doing it.

mutsuki doesn’t actually know how to speak anything other than japanese, but he learns other languages scripts because he thinks they’re cool or pretty. he’s particularly fond of georgian and thai scripts. spends a lot of time making his handwriting super pretty.

takizawa just looks like the type of guy to learn german. idk why, he just. pre-ghoul takizawa looks like all the dudes who major in german at my uni

[hitokiri-izou]

im so glad i found someone else who knows about about and acknowledges the anti-Roma parts of HSR

I love HSR and Genshin but the racism is just...ugh

I went to Penacony and was pleasantly shocked to see NPCs with actual melanin but then I looked at the player chars and realized Hoyo could still be doing better (Arlan is great but he has his own set of issues) (plus, no dark-skinned characters since him? sus)

Aventurine is an awesome character and written really well but certain aspects of his story could definitely be improved upon to fix the blatant appropriation of irl Roma culture and struggles.

And from the leaks of Boothill's backstory, I see a lot of Native American parallels that sadden me. (let him say Fuck, he's earned te right damn it)

Also! I feel Latin American vibes from Argenti as well. I know he's supposed to be more Spanish, but I know I'm not the only one with this hc. Bro is literally a country in Latin America wdym

So yeah, I know it's a Chinese company with all the baggage that that entails but I'm still rightfully miffed (also, not like Roma don't exist in China, so they don't have an excuse at least for that one)

It sucks that the only gacha game I know with decent representation has a trash story (in my opinion, at least) (Dyslite, reboot your story from scratch please) but every game has its problems

I hope that many more people do. I've seen a good number of posts that have talked about it already so i would hope that more people do know about and acknowledge how the story takes from Romani history and culture in a racist way.

I think i can understand what they were trying to do with aventurine but hoyo really needs to learn how to be more respectful of the cultures they base off of. I want to point again to florian's channel on youtube where he talks about romani culture and history.

When it comes to pieces of media we enjoy, it's important to still be able to criticize it or talk about the problems it has or the harm it can cause. I think some people can get defensive about it but if your favorite game or show has shitty aspects to it, you should be able to talk about it and not just sweep it under the rug.

One of my favorite shows is from the late 90s to early 00s so i have an abundance of practice when it comes to tearing apart pieces of media i enjoy haha I like to say that I hate it almost as much as I love it

I was pleasantly surprised about the npc's too but having actually dark skinned characters aside from arlan would be even better. I know there isn't a lot of optimism for that and honestly i have zero expectations but god i really hope we get more diverse characters

Man I'm glad other people noticed the native american parallels in boothill's story too but goddamn it can we please have a character design that expresses that? Historically cowboys were mainly black, native, and mexican and boothill's story strongly reflects native history in this regard. I want to talk about this more or see more discussion but that's an entirely different post.

Unfortunately, gacha games aren't a good place to find representation. Characters and stories, yeah, since they are essentially selling you them but well that's the problem. I don't understand why it's so hard for gacha game companies to create a dark skinned character, or why they don't think they would be popular but ultimately it's not sense or business, it's just racism.

This response got kinda long, sorry about that, but thank you for the ask! I didn't expect to get an ask on my post about the anti-romani writing in aventurine's story but I'm happy to discuss!

(Also I fully endorse latin american argenti haha)

[0owhatsamsays]

Good Omens Gods

I warn you, this will sound a little bit crazy, not so solid and it will be long, but hear me out! PLEASE! I need someone to hear this because if I am right, everything changes and I need to discuss it. The ball scene. Every time I watched it, something seemed off. But also, it looked familiar. I rewatched it several times until it hit me. If you have watched Supernatural and if you are a fan, then you must remember the episode with all the gods in the hotel. Dean and Sam were stuck in the hotel with them. There were Kali, Ganesh, etc. The ball could possibly be something similar! Listen, listen! They are stuck in the bookshop by Aziraphale's magic, just like Dean and Sam were stuck in the hotel. And all shopkeepers are actually different gods. Also, you all saw how suspicious was Ms. Cheng, right? When this hit me, I started digging. So! Firstly, I checked some famous gods and then the list of shops that Aziraphale is holding.

I think Mr. Mutt from the magic shop is Ganesh. The god with the elephant head. I went through the goddess Isis too, but what made me choose Ganesh is that he is often represented with lots of jewelry, and most importantly, his spouse. If he was Isis, his spouse had to be Osiris and his spouse doesn't give away any clues about being Osiris, but they have a serpent tattoo on their chest. And Ganesh is represented with the serpent Vasuki around him, so his spouse probably is Vasuki. His magic shop in Azi's list is "Goldstone's". I searched "Goldstone god" and the first thing that came up was many Ganesh figurines made of goldstone. And the lucky snake from the list is probably Vasuki.

We continue with Mr. Arnold. We don't know much about him besides he is a musician and a fan of Dr. Who. I just wrote "god of music" and the first that came up was Apollo. Now, Apollo was a musician and something like a doctor. He helped with herbs. See, there is a "herbalist" in the list. Also, Dr. Who - Doctor - got it? :D Moving on... Mrs. Sandwich. The only thing we know about her is that she is ... a seamstress. And the seamstresses worshipped Aphrodite, so maybe she's Aphrodite. EDIT: The other possibility is to be Freya from Norse mythology and we know Neil Gaiman has a book about it. She is almost the same. Also, it would explain the feathers on her head. Freya had a cloak made of falcon feathers. Next - Mr. Brown. He is most suitable to be Mercury: The name "Mercury" is possibly related to the Latin words merx ("merchandise"; cf. merchant, commerce, etc.), mercari (to trade), and merces (wages). Mercury was the god of financial gain, commerce, eloquence, messages, and communication. The most suspicious of all was Ms. Cheng. And we know nothing about her. Only that she is Chinese and has a husband. There is one goddess that makes some sense to be her. It's Chang'e. The names are close, and Chang'e doesn't care much about her husband. Long story short, he acquired two elixirs for immortality - one for him and one for her - but she drank both of them, leaving him with nothing. Why is this relevant? We see Ms. Cheng being rude to her husband in the X-ray deleted scenes. She even hit him with a fan.

Now, Maggie and Nina. I think Nina might be Kali. And I say it only because of her looks and because it is said that Kali was the goddess of death, time, and doomsday. And where does Nina work? Right! Give me coffee or give me death. What days are coming? Doomsday? I am gonna talk about time really soon in another post, so I won't go there now. As for Maggie, she was the toughest to guess, but probably Athena, because Nina described her as the bravest person and Athena is the goddess of bravery and the goddess of war. Maggie is the one who invited the demons in and fought with them. Another thing about her is that she said she had brothers. Athena has more than 20 siblings. Also, one symbol of Athena is the olive tree.

I think there is no need to explain what I am showing you here, right? Oh, and one more thing about Nina, which I am not sure about because I can't see it well - at the bottom of Azi's list, about Nina's coffee shop he wrote just "No coffee". At least this is how I read it. Only death then? Kali - death?

Only Justine from Marguerite's and the Italian on the list - I have no idea. Maybe I will find something with time, or if you have read the whole thing and think you can help me figure it out - great! I will be waiting. But if all this turns out to be true, it will explain why everything seems a little bit staged, off, strange, or whatever you want to call it.

[fraeuleintaka]

Thoughts on some more new names in the official Investigations 2 Localisation

This is the 54th post in the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection Countdown: 27 days left until release!

Today's topic: some more new names that have been revealed from the official Investigations 2 localisation!

I already made a countdown post discussing the new names of I2 characters that had been revealed at that point but now with all the new information we got there have also been more names revealed for new characters. They're mainly from the characters in the 2nd case but we also got the full names of two characters from the 1st case that we previously only knew the last names of:

Tabby Lloyd (for Nicole Swift): As previously predicted, the name is a play on "tabloid". I like it, fits the character with the casual quality it has to it. The pun is obvious but it's not bad. I still like Nicole Swift as a name though, these two are about equal for me.

Bronco Knight (for Horace Knightley): I already talked about why I prefer "Knightley" over "Knight" (a bit more clever to not just have the name of the literal chess piece) but I also vastly prefer "Horace" over "Bronco". "Bronco" is a Spanish given name that means something like gruff and is the Spanish word for an untamed horse. The horse connection is obvious and Knightley has a pretty gruff personality so that is fitting as well. "Horace" only really sounds similar to horse so I admit that the meaning is comparatively lacking but it sounds much more like a legit name to me while "Bronco" sounds like calling someone "Stallion" as their given name. I'll probably get used to it over time but on first reading I'm not a fan.

[Major spoilers for Investigations 2 beyond this point]

The rest of the revealed new names are characters introduced in the 2nd case of the game:

Simeon Saint (for Simon Keyes): His first name is a direct improvement since it keeps a similar sound and meaning while avoiding the double naming with Simon Blackquill from DD (which the fan translation team couldn't know about at the time). The monkey connection is still there with the "three wise monkeys" reference, fitting to Keyes' animations (see, hear and speak no evil) as well as his relationship to Money the monkey. The fan translation went with his entire name sounding like "shy monkeys" but I can live with losing that as long as the general reference is kept. There's also still the connection to the game "Simon Says" fitting his manipulations throughout the game and using so many people as pawns. "Saint" is an ironic surname considering he's anything but though you could assume it's correct upon first meeting him. I'm not sure if it isn't a little too on the nose (oh, the character literally named "saint" is the big bad, surprise) but we'll see if new players say they suspected him more because of the name or not. Apart from that I really don't mind the name. The fan translation had "Keyes" be a reference to de Killer talking about a "key individual" in the 1st case so maybe the official translation will do something similar, that'd be neat! All in all, I like both names a lot and think they fit the character well.

Rocco Carcerato (for Jay Elbird): The only pun the fan translated name had was sounding similar to "jailbird" which is enough for a minor character but could definitely be improved upon. His official name sounds much more badass, fitting to a boxing prisoner, and even keeps the obvious pun with the surname just being "prisoner" in Italian. I'm not sure what "Rocco" is supposed to mean or reference (apart from sounding Italian as well) but I like how similar it is to "Rocky", the name of Elbird's polar bear pet companion in the fan translation.

Bodhidharma Kanis (for Sirhan Dogen): What a name! It definitely fits his Buddhist monk aesthetic with "Bodhidharma" being the name of a notable Chinese Buddhist monk. It also sounds like "bodily harm" which gets the assassin vibes across. "Kanis" is similar to the Latin word "canis" meaning "dog" fitting to his love for his specially trained dog. In the meaning department it matches pretty well with the fan translated name, "Sirhan" being the name of a famous assassin and "Dogen" having the word "dog" in it and also being the name of a notable Japanese Buddhist teacher. I honestly can't decide which one is better, I'm more used to the fan translated one so a bit biased towards it but the official name is great as well.

Fifi Laguarde (for Patricia Roland): Her fan translated name is a pun on "patrol" so, similar to Elbird, it works but could be better. Her official name goes in a similar direction with "Laguarde" being a variation of a French surname meaning "guard" (and also having that word in it). I assume her given name is meant to invoke her love for animals as "Fifi" reads like the typical name you'd give a dog or a pet in general. It reads really weird as a name for a person and I honestly prefer "Patricia" as a given name for her. Maybe "Fifi" could be a nickname? I'm probably gonna headcanon that (like for Eddie) as soon as I can think of a fitting full name it would work with. Her official surname is great though.

Overall, I like the new revealed names. In some aspects I still prefer the fan translated ones but in general they're mostly on par with them and some are arguably better. There are none that I really dislike or hate out of these ones and I'm very happy about that. I think they'll be easy to get used to.

[weemsfreak]

The Board Pt 2: The Woman

Summary: Anura Ricci works for the Outcast school board. They're struggling with many factors in life, quietly. They know so much, but can't seem to figure out exactly how to make themself happy. They befriend a certain Principal, and things begin to seem brighter for them. (Probably 12 chapters)

Tw: mention of past SH behaviour

Note: Plz give me feedback if you like it! Or don't like it lol ~2000 words.

Pt 1: The Man

Mid September

As your alarm went off, you looked to the time and saw 5:30am. You questioned why you stayed up until 2am reading old papers in Latin, you knew you needed more sleep than 3 and a half hours. Dreading an hour flight, hour wait, and an hour train ride, you found yourself in the shower, desperately trying to rinse out the cherry red dye that you put in your hair two days prior. Messing with your image was something you did to replace your older coping mechanisms, which according to your husband were much more harmful. They were, you knew, but it's hard to get away from the things that were once so comforting. Watching the red dye fall down your chest and arms, you look to your new tattoo, covered with transparent protective material. The look and feel of your arm was slightly different than you were used to, yet it was all too similar.

On the plane you found yourself diving back into the Latin language. Yes, it is a dead language, but it’s importance in so many subjects lead to the need to be understood by you, in order to posses all the knowledge you longed to. You knew many languages, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, German and Russian, which you learned by the time you were 25.

The last 5 years have been rocky to say the least. You've been married since you were 20, had this job since you were 18, and knew more than anyone you've ever met. Since you turned 25, you've felt distant from your husband, tired from your job, and haven't been as interested in learning things as you once were. Again, you were tired of your job. The travelling mostly, but also the being alone. Right after you graduated, the outcast board took you on due to your language knowledge, organizational skills, and expertise in many fields. You are exceptionally good at recognizing details and scoping things out when going on school visits, as well as conversing with the teachers and higherups. You were lucky to have this well paying job so young, but when you look back, you can't help but think of the many other jobs that could have benefitted you, and still would.

Finally on the train, you took a break from the Latin and focused on the scenery. There was so much nature and so many trees compared to where you lived, and that's one thing you liked about travelling. Maybe travelling wouldn't even be that bad if you had someone to do it with. Your husband traveled for work, but as he had the same job as you, you never traveled to the same places at the same time, and alas, you were always apart. In the back of your mind you were happy about that, even though you knew you shouldn't be.

At the train station, you looked to the time, 11:25am. You were hungry now as all you ate for breakfast was a protein bar on the plane. Walking through Jericho, you came across a bookstore, flower shop, bar, café, and Pilgrim world. Wait, what's Pilgrim world? Not out of the ordinary for a small town you thought, it intrigued you to learn about the history behind places you travelled to. Stopping at the Weathervane café, you found your way inside and put your suitcase in a corner booth. Since it was lunch time, it was pretty busy. You were used to places being busy though, considering you lived in New York City. You looked at the menu and you decided to just get a breakfast sandwich. Coffee, although you loved it, just heightened your anxiousness, and hot chocolate was not something you found appealing, too sugary.

While you ate your breakfast sandwich, you observed people in the café. Some Nevermore students were there. You remembered reading that they weren’t allowed to go into town during lunch, for safety reasons. Besides them, it looked to be a bunch of older people, and some kids, probably from a normie school. Everyone just looked like a bunch of normies, but I guess you did too, since your ability is not a visibly presenting or obvious one.

After finishing your breakfast sandwich, you walked up to the two students from Nevermore. "Hi, nice to meet you" you said with a smile. They looked at you with a bit of concern, wondering what you would want with them, and why you had a suitcase. "Bella and Sydney, if I remember correctly? I'm joking, of course I do" you said with a smirk, knowing that they were super confused. "Yes, how did you know?" Bella said. "I work for the outcast school board, my name is Mx. Ricci and I am here to observe Nevermore and report on how this term is starting out. I do believe I read somewhere that Nevermore students aren't allowed out in Jericho during lunch due to safety concern, is that true?" you asked them, and they looked at each other in defeat. "Yes, it’s true, we'll walk back to school now, sorry" Sydney said. "Nonsense, I'm getting a taxi there right now, I'll give you both a ride if you show me to Principal Weems' office when we get there." They both half smiled and Bella said "Deal."

 When you got to Nevermore, you were in awe. It was a literal castle, so well kept and decorated, and the iron gates and gargoyles made it look so spooky, in a good way. Bella and Sydney lead you up to Principal Weems' office, and you thanked them before going to knock on her door. To their surprise and yours, Principal Weems called to them while walking towards you from the hall, and they looked like they wanted to run. "Sydney, Bella, what are you doing up here? Aren't you supposed to be in the meal hall?" She chirped at them. "Forgive me Principal Weems, I couldn't find my way to your office and I asked them if they would show me" you smiled at her, knowing it was her from the one photo you remembered seeing. Also, you knew your way to her office, having never been to Nevermore before, because you briefly saw a map of the school online. She turned to them "Well, thank you for your help girls, now get to meal hall before lunch is over". You winked at them before they turned and ran to meal hall, hoping you wouldn't tell principal Weems that you caught them at the Weathervane. Turning back to Principal Weems, you held out your hand, "Principal Weems, I am Anura Ricci, from the board. It is so nice to meet you." Her face turned from stern to soft, she shook your hand but gave you a confused look. "Nice to meet you Mx. Ricci. Forgive me, but I did not know you would be arriving so soon. I would have picked you up from the train station myself." You smiled at her and reassured her with a "no worries." She in fact did look worried, but you weren’t really sure why. She unlocked her office door and pushed it open, gesturing for you to enter first.

Walking over to her taxidermy bear in the corner, you admired all the interesting décor that lined her office. You looked to her huge fireplace on the opposite wall, a couch in front of it. She gestured for you to sit in front of her desk, so you did. "Wow, I saw photos of this place online, but I didn't think it would be this immaculate in person." Larissa sat down at her desk. "Yes, it is quite beautiful, the photos don't do it justice. So, did you attend an outcast school?" You panned to her desk where you saw a unicorn mug resting on it. You smirked, "Yes I did, in Italy. Just a small school, nothing too fancy."

You went over your plans for the next two days with her and she seemed content with you listening in on classes and making sure things were up to date. She took a deep breath, "Mx. Ricci, I must let you know, since you will be here during the event, that I am planning a school trip into Jericho tomorrow. I understand that I am not supposed to be planning outcast-normie events or spending time on these sort of things, but I really think the students would benefit from a trip to Pilgrim world, to learn more of Jericho's history." She paused after spilling this information, in doing so, she sounded like a student telling on themselves for doing something they weren’t supposed to. She continued, "Before you say anything, I funded this trip myself, so no worries about wasting the schools money." No worries? No, worries. Is this why she looked worried earlier? You were extremely confused. "Principal Weems, I appreciate you being honest with me. I am slightly confused though. Why do you sound like you're doing something you aren't supposed to be doing" you let out a giggle, "and why did you fund it yourself? The board allows Nevermore funding for trips like this." She looked to you, more confused than you were. Just then, you recalled hearing something that your co-worker Mr. Martell had said in a meeting awhile ago. You recalled it perfectly. 'That pretentious Hitchcock pin-up shapeshifter. Women think they can do whatever they want, spend all our money, 'fix' normie-outcast relations.' It came back to you like it had just been said. "Principal Weems, I believe you are a pretentious Hitchcock pin-up shapeshifter, according to my co-worker." She looked at you baffled, as she recalled that was exactly what he had called her. You continued, "The board, embarrassingly so, is all over the place. We don't see eye to eye sometimes. If you want to push outcast-normie relations and be involved with the rest of Jericho, please by all means. And as for the funding, you will have all the money you wish, I will see to it." You admired her drive, her motivation, and the way she cared for the students. She let out a breath and put her hand over her chest in relief. She smiled with her teeth and tilted her head, with a "thank you Mx. Ricci." You laughed at her, she looked adorable all anxious, "breathe, Larissa" you joked. "My last board visit was rather, unpleasant, and I was prepared for the same thing again." You looked up at her giggling, knowing who was here last time and what he had said, but not knowing what had really happened. "I do believe Mr. Martell was here last time, and hopefully without sounding pretentious, you're lucky I'm here."

She showed you your temporary quarters and you immediately turned on the tv. Putting on a documentary, you spoke just as she was turning in the doorway about to leave. "Principal Weems, I will be staying here tomorrow to explore the school since no students will be present. I hope you have a joyous day in Jericho, and if you need anything, don't hesitate to call." She nodded and a blush was evident on her cheeks, you knew she was relieved that you were not unpleasant, like a certain man. "Mx. Ricci, may I ask you a question?" You nodded your head yes, wondering why she had to ask. "I know nothing about you, but you seem to know things about me. How did you know who I was when you saw me, and how did you know about my last board visit exactly?" You grinned, you knew more about her than that. "I remember things I hear and see when they're something that I care about. I saw your photo online before I arrived. If I'm not being too forward Principal Weems, in person you are quite beautiful. The photo doesn't do you justice, to quote yourself" you said with a wink. You sat down and got lost in the documentary.

Pt 3: Trivia

[jynjackets]

Unpopular (but shouldn’t be!) opinion. But I guess also not a big deal.

I hate the ‘Kassa’ name background it makes no sense. It’s such an obvious misunderstanding of assimilation and why names are changed through immigration and likely thinking the name Cassian is too formalized for indigenous-coded people in the jungle.

I do resume workshops for international (mainly Asia and Latin American) students in the US and people opt to make their names into a shorter and/or more culturally familiar nickname for their audience. Most times they just want you to use their original name even if it’s ‘difficult’ to pronounce. But the show makes it like if my Chinese name were Li but was like actually call me Ashleigh since the original is so unfamiliar.

Also people romanticizing his original name like it was forced against his will; like saying it during sex and whatnot. That’s a grown man 💀 I have a long uncommon Asian name but go by Lila and would be super fucking weirded out if you ever called me my Asian name. My parents may say it, but if my friends (from either country) or partner did I’d just be like hey stop disrespecting what I asked you to call me. It’s not special. I choose my nickname and how I want to go by. It might be a little weird that I had to ���“change”” my name at all but I got used to it and it’s now what is familiar to me.

The show clearly thought they were doing something with an ‘exotic’ migration allegory. So no you can’t explain it away with ‘oh it’s like Sam short for Samuel and I can interchange them’ or ‘oh he changed his name and background because he had to hide’. First of all I’m sure the jungle had a very carefully designed citizen database to keep track of a name literally using Basic letters. And secondly nobody does this and if they are hiding from the government where that literally only happens in spy movies, you pick something super common and completely unlike your original name like

[florelia12]

well flora is the magix version of latina, so saying she might not be is a bit inaccurate. especially because she was based on someone with latin ethnicity.

and the design choices are interesting to me because it's clear that planets in magix don't follow a certain pattern. in melody musa is based on a chinese actress and so is her family, but the princess of melody looks german. same with flora and her lynphean people or stella compared to chimera.

but for helia, I don't believe you should get that defensive. I think the specialists are up for interpretation. helia isn't based on anyone in particular and I also read on his page that he was supposed to be a female character too. with the way he was designed, that's pretty much obvious.

it's like when people hc him as gay or transgender based on his looks, but that does not mean asian people look that way or are like that. it's just that he's a fun character to play with that isn't suited to a single stereotype.

helia is very much bishounen or androgynous, whatever you wanna call it. I notice his design is similar to female characters from winx rather than looking like brandon, sky or timmy. same goes with riven's eyes for example.

I'd say riven is the equivalent of a korean man, especially with the colored hair.

going back to the differences between the winx and people from their planets, I think the winx and specialist designs were just made exclusively to be immersive and present different cultures. it's also why I hate that they killed nabu when he was representing indian and south asians very well, then aisha had to choose between two white guys. they're white right?

so if I had to describe helia according to irl traits, he looks half caucasian half asian (like japanese) to me, especially because saladin is a white old man. although at first I didn't even think he was more asian until people mentioned it, then I changed my perspective. the drawing style is also a bit inconsistent with the body built and height, but helia looks like he could be very tall.

I agree with you that he could be the tallest because he just gives the vibe. around 1.84 and 1.85 suits him a lot.

but still, helia is the specialist people have the most fun with, just because he's not just supposed to fit one appearance.

Hi

Despite the diversity in the main characters, the show itself has its moments. It is not perfect and free of making mistakes such as the princess of the realms of Flora/Musa looking different. 

We have to take into account that these are entire planets they are talking about. We have the unique genetics and features we do because our bodies adapted to the regions they were inhabiting. So even these realms could have countries and colder or hotter regions. But of course, it’s mostly obvious when it is whitewashing that is happening and not world-building that is being done here.

I apologise if I came off as making it seem as though my statement was that Helia is Asian and every other perception of him is wrong. But I do think it is rather problematic when some refuse to see his Asian coding because most of the time, there is underlying prejudice or ignorance. I would have not snapped the way I did if I thought they were coming from a good place. I don’t believe they were.

To say that it is obvious Helia was meant to be a female character would be unfair imo. Also to say “when people hc him as gay or transgender based on his looks its not to say asian people look that way or are like that” is not entirely true. 

When it comes to assigning or discussing races, gender and sexualities or even religions of a character, there needs to be an understanding there there are intersections here. 

Firstly, when it comes to the opinion that Helia was meant to be a female character, there are quite a bit inconcistencies. To start with, I don’t see the point in them wanting to either introduce another female character (they did that with Aisha) or change the gender to “give Flora a boyfriend”. Helia was introduced to be Flora’s boyfriend, there is no doubt in that. So for that, considering this was early 90s and 2000s and a kids cartoon, it was always meant to be a guy they wanted to introduce in season 2. Changing the gender would imply that Helia as a character (regardless of his gender) was meant to serve a plot point or at least be relevant outside of being Flora’s partner before they decided to make him her partner. Did Helia have that? No. We saw next to nothing of his interactions with the other Specialists or Winx or any other character. Almost every time we see Helia, it was to further his development with Flora.

Secondly, it is the reasons why they say Helia was meant to be a female character that I wouldn’t entirely agree with either. For example, his hair. Avalon, Valtor, Tritannus, Nereus and a lot of extras have long hair too. It’s not something unique to their depictions of asian-coded characters or considered female characteristics in the Winx world. Another one would be his name, which has feminine and Greek origins. Maybe that could be a reason, but then there would be the meaning behind the name which is sun. Then following the Winx naming conventions (“Flora” for a flower fairy, “Musa” for a Music Fairy, Tecna and etc) it could imply that he was supposed to be a sun fairy or have sun magic. But then Helia as a character doesn’t really give me ‘sunny’ vibes. Funnily enough, I like to think of it as a contradiction to his character. 

Though one point I haven’t seen around is that Helia could have also been added for diversity. Aisha was admittedly added for diversity, but at least the main Winx already had 2 other poc characters. The Specialists had none that were explicitly said to be poc. So it makes more sense to me that they would add him as an Asian or poc character rather than change the gender of a character that doesn’t truly serve the plot. Then again, I don’t think they cared that much because even if it was to include diversity, they still fell into stereotypes about Asian men.

This brings us to his “androgynous” features and the intersectionality I was talking about earlier. Because it all comes back to stereotypes we have to be extremely mindful of when it comes to perceiving or interpreting characters.

Poc and specifically Asian men have a history of being stereotyped as “feminine” for their appearances and personality by white people. It could stem from wanting to put them down or to emasculate them and a sexist way to do that is compare them to the “weaker gender” aka females. Even the pacifist hcs can be harmful because “feminine men” are considered weak or emasculine for not being aggressive or wanting to fight. So it is not the same as changing up Sky’s gender or sexuality ( I say this as he is a character who with blonde hair and blue eyes that’s mostly associated with white people) because he has longer hair than what would normally be considered masculine. Outside of that, to immediately also go since Helia has long hair and “feminine” features he can’t be masculine or was meant to be a girl has its issues because you’re feeding into the stereotype that guys have to look a certain way to be accepted as a male. 

Helia is absolutely a fun character to work with but not because he is entirely a blank canvas. He has certain characteristics that when changed, twisted or ignored can cause more harm than good. Helia having close to no development or backstory are some of the things that make him the fun character to play with. 

In the end there is nothing inherently wrong in perceiving him as androgynous or ‘feminine’ but you always have to ask yourself why you see him that way and why not the other Specialists. Because if you want to go along with stereotypes, Timmy is almost always seen as white and with a leaner body type in his civilian clothes, is considered meek, and sometimes emasculine. But we avoid it because it is harmful to consider men who aren’t super macho or bulky as weak or feminine. Yet we don’t hold that same reservation with poc or poc-coded characters. 

But then to also make Helia make super violent without reason could be harmful because poc men are at more risk for being assumed to be dangerous.

So yes it is a grey area, but it’s also not too complicated once you ask yourself why. Just one small question can help you differentiate amongst the intentions behind wanting to assign certain races, genders or sexualities to specific characters. Once you do, you can always tell when it comes from a place of experience and knowledge (such as a trans person seeing Helia as trans compared to a cis or white person doing it) or ignorance. Because informed takes on Helia’s gender or expression or sexuality are often quite interesting. I love seeing non-binary Helia and I also see him as bi. 

At one point, I too explored Helia being half-white and half-asian. But, I also wouldn’t say Saladin is definitely an old white man. I think his design is also ambigious as there was one scene of him where they showed the company of light in their younger days and he looked very similar to Helia. 

I do see Riven as Asian too, I think there is a lot to explore with that. And, yes definitely killing off Nabu then attempting to replace him with supposedly white guys is harmful. Though Nex could be Latino if he’s from Linphea since he studied in Linphea College but Thoren from Eraklyon is also there so they both could come from other realms or Thoren could be mixed since he is Sky’s cousin. So yeah, there’s a lot to explore and everyone is free to do it. Just be mindful and don’t be careless with how you describe races, genders or sexualities.

I used to think about his body built too as he looks leaner in his normal clothes. But I would assume the Specialists uniform would have the necessary paddings in certain ares for protection that gives him the built he has when he is in uniform. 

[allwithagrainofsalt]

So I'm watching Princess Weekes' video about confederate vampires (watch it fr) and I wanna expand upon smth they mention about the explicitly White American Confederate storytelling in,

Drumroll please...

Firefly.

Now first: I LOVE Firefly. It's an incredible show and in fact I think it's a beautiful and inspirational piece of political art in many ways, and I'm gonna talk about that part a little bit at the end. But mainly, why did I hear the comparison and immediately start to have 50 puzzle pieces click? Well. This essay got long, and to be honest idk how much I might be repeating others cuz PW mentioned it due to others talking about it too, but I just kinda took a journey of my own off-the-dome observations based on things I've already read about/know. I hope it's an interesting journey for you too.

TW below the Readmore: discussion of colonial / military violence; discussion of Sexual Assault

We are looking at a world of cowboys in the stars, in which there was a recent Civil War. In fact, we're set in a "real life future," where the majority remaining galactic race stems from the great American Empire. We do get influences of Chinese culture with language and clothing, but remember that Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s - which themselves romanticized the values of independent, libertarian southerners (who massacred Indians and no-good loiterers - we'll talk about that later) - heavily utilized "Oriental" aesthetics and caricatures while dehumanizing the Asian people they were ostensibly in relationship with. After all, Asian Americans were a growing population in the landscape of the Western frontier, often working alongside your storybook railroad workers, gold seekers and, even further east than Pacific coastal industries, working & living alongside cowboys. However, the language of Western-genre films (because of the way it mirrors the language of Confederates) does not respect Asian culture as it is, but rather as a collection of "wisdoms" and aesthetics to pick apart and use the "good parts" of - for use by white people in their white expansion. This idea fits a bit uncomfortably well with Firefly's multiple white characters who are "orientalized" by the camera. Kaylee, Inara, and the Tam siblings fulfill various stereotypes and tropes of Chinese- and other Asian-American diaspora people groups. The show, in this way, offers the "diverse" presence of a Chinese influence... using actors of Italian, Irish, German, and possibly Latine background to fill the roles. This makes the Firefly universe look less of a pacifist future between Western and Asian cultures, and more like a colonized universe where the (white) Western colonialists maintain some practices of those forward-thinking Asians who came before them.

But! You may say! Firefly isn't quite so white as that. What about the POC in the show!? Beyond its treatment of the de/re-Orientalization of a decidedly American/Western future, what about Firefly's real interracial representation, like Zoe Washburne and Shepherd Book? I would argue the inclusion of these unapologetic and kind black activist ideas is part of what begins to bring this show towards something more agreeable, but I also think they are at risk of becoming a bit of an obfuscation of a deeper anti-black racist remnant that remains entrenched in the show's Confederate story influences...

We need to talk about Reavers.

Joss Whedon admitted that Reavers were influenced by the role Native Americans played in traditional Westerns. "Every story needs a monster," he said in an interview. "In the stories of the old west it was the Apaches." It's pretty clear how the Reavers, who rape, murder, skin and cannibalize those of the "civilized world" are constructed from the specific racism against Black and Indigenous groups in America. Depictions of cannibals and savages in media have always been constructed to dehumanize those on the outskirts - whether it's the Apache threat Whedon mentions from the Wild West, or indigenous tribes of Africa or South America in any media, or the "terrifying" blackfaced "black" characters in Birth of a Nation, the horror trope of "uncivilized bands of roving lunatics who self-mutilate and can't communicate with their words" is pretty inseparable from its own racist origins. For centuries Europeans have been making "demons" out of pagans and indigenous people for their battle tactics or necropolitics, while simultaneously working hard to entrench our own atrocities in "necessities of the time." For one example, think of the fear associated with "headhunter" displays versus the still-controversial but more civilized-presenting "harsh peacekeeping" of public hangings. What is the difference between these practices besides a different eagernesses to contextualize the practice? I don't argue in favor of punitive violence for cultural purposes here, but it's important not to lose the contextualization of these tropes' origins in the social messaging of popular media. And in fact, the Reavers show an interesting way that the criminalization of Black and Indigenous Americans ties closely to the way we talk about the incarcerated and the mentally ill. I'm frankly not much more satisfied by the Reavers being an embodiment of "space madness" than I would be if they were straight up just Native Americans, or runaways from enslavement. American culture is great at coming up with "madnesses" which are really just the pushback to dehumanizing and unjust regimes. I'm not saying that the logic of the show would allow Reavers to receive constructive community-based mental health support involving free medicine and good therapy. But in a show that claims to be in favor of the marginalized and their voice for power, it's weird that this doesn't come up, right? Do the monsters in our media need to be irredeemable to work as narrative tropes? I would argue, once again, the inclusion of this Western and frankly genocidal trope (and if you think the Reavers are NOT a genocidal story trope, let me know what paths the narrative offers as a solution besides killing them immediately and indiscriminately when given the chance.) works to build a world-feel that's less "for the people" and more "for the justified, downtrodden warriors who know right from wrong," which is a very confederate line of thought.

Although Firefly highlights some literal black voices in their main cast, the plotline of the show is much the same as a confederate apologist story. Some people are more worthy of life than others in this tale - others who are too animistic and uncivilized; or who are simply left behind by the inevitable march of the white, righteous underdog ideologies. And these bold, brave rebels from the Civil War which recently happened are still around, just waiting to reassert their power and their independent desires from the empire. The Confederacy of the US was a white, ethno-nationalist and fascist state, admittedly so by their own politicians. It provided ideological groundwork for Nazi Germany and preceded much of the pseudoscience of phrenology. The Confederate position was based on white supremacy nearly entirely, and argued for the most racist version of a "globalist" idea possible. As evidence, here's some of the Cornerstone Address presented by Alexander Stephens, the "vice president" of the Confederacy: "Many governments have been founded upon the principle of subordination and serfdom of certain classes of the same race; such were and are in violation of the laws of nature. Our system commits no such violation of nature's laws. With us, all of the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the law. Not so with the negro. Subordination is his place. He, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system." But confederate stories and ideas have maintained a long-standing and unyielding influence, as after they lost the Civil War, the ideology of the Confederacy underwent a serious PR rebranding. Rather than "anti-American" racists, they became the noble fighters of a lost cause. They became the "defenders of heritage," and they became the mythologized ancestor of any white people who wanted to claim them. The Civil War "rebels" were painted as noble Southern men and women who, in a political landscape of the South becoming red states and the bible belt, were mythologized as Southern Belles and nobly humble plantation owners who loved Good Black people... just not the "mentally ill" ones who did things like run away or fight bondage.

(By the way, Alexander Stephens had some things to say about mental illness too (same link again)- I'm tying this back to my point about "mentally ill Reavers" being less of a far-cry than you might think from Confederate thinking: "Our new government [the Confederacy] is founded upon [this] idea; its corner-stone rests upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. ... Many who hear me, perhaps, can recollect well that this truth was not generally admitted, even within their day. ... Those at the North, who still cling to these errors [of racial equality], with a zeal above knowledge, we justly denominate [call them] fanatics. All fanaticism springs from an aberration of the mind from a defect in reasoning. It is a species of insanity. One of the most striking characteristics of insanity, in many instances, is forming correct conclusions from fancied or erroneous premises; so with the antislavery fanatics. Their conclusions are right if their premises were. They assume that the negro is equal, and hence conclude that he is entitled to equal privileges and rights with the white man. ... [I] told [a gentleman from one of the northern states in the House of Representatives] that it was he, and those acting with him, who were warring against a principle. They were attempting to make things equal which the Creator had made unequal." It's worth wondering what makes us, as viewers, accept that Reavers are inherently incurable of the mental illness which makes them monsters. Of course this trope could be used in a critical way - but we can see the real-language example here which should make us question what kind of reading to take from media which only addresses the single solution of wiping a True Evil demographic from existence.)

So I hope you see the influences now, how Firefly follows Confederate and White Supremacist storylines. It's of course worth talking about though, the ways it can be read as a radical story as well. The cast includes an empowered revolutionary black woman, a black spiritual elder who advocates for pacifism in resistence, a sex worker who consistently values and stands up for herself and her line of work explicitly, a working woman who struggles with misogyny, and a rich man disgracing himself from society to save his mentally ill younger sister who was facing violent abuse at the hands of the state. These are people who orient themselves for one reason or another in at least some form of opposition to the oppressive and violent power of the government, which once again, is an analogous state to the United States. Of course, the difficulty of the anti-governmental Confederate narrative is that anti-governmental sentiment can have incredibly valid origins. If you are facing discrimination you should indeed oppose the oppressive force that monitors and abuses all its citizens in one way or another. But for God's sake, that opposition should come from a perspective of eliminating discrimination for all. Not a perspective like Jayne Cobb's - the explicitly violent and self-serving voice which, through the show and movie, metaphorically pulls our disaffected protagonist, Malcolm Reynolds, toward the direction of his more cynical, militaristic and even fascist internalized values. Firefly wants to simultaneously make a diverse revolutionary text, but also misses the opportunities it presents itself to say something more meaningful through its own medium. We could've addressed the harm of Jayne's willingness to grant "humanity" ONLY to the people he deems as something like family - or who he feels have properly convinced him that they're worth saving. He is the perfect embodiment of the right-wing, misogynist, white-supremacist ideology at the center of Confederate thinking. He's a Nazi who has been pulled into collaborating with real marginalized people through his relationship with Mal. And there's some level of that which could be an interesting story about deradicalization. In fact in some ways I believe the show could be open to some kind of that interpretation, given the almost-betrayal that Jayne goes back against due to his dedication to Mal. But unfortunatly I'd also say that in the execution of the show I got a different perception, which is back to the whole Confederate thesis...

Instead of a fascist who we could watch be deradicalized by his fellow crew, Jayne ends up doing marginal good only ever out of respect for Mal. I would argue in this way, their relationship mirrors the romanticized mythology of the Civil War being a "war between brothers" due to split households in border states. This narrative clearly holds more respect for the Confederacy than continuing to rightfully call the ideology the abhorrent thing that it is, and it is clear that the same ideology rears its head deep into our legal systems through the treatment of oppressed groups to this day. In ways, the influence of pro-Confederate radicals AFTER the war worked to legitimize bigotry of all kinds in a truly unprecedented way in America. If we have to respect the opinions of the Confederates because they were our "brothers" and not our ideological enemies, then who will we feel more and more comfortable throwing by the wayside - them or the people we work together to shamefully dehumanize? Through this contextual lens, with a vision of Mal as a "decent cowboy" compared to Jayne's more blatantly intolerant cowboy persona, it seems glaring that Jayne's bigoted views are just more intense outward versions of similar prejudices to those Mal feels, but by comparing the two characters to one another Mal would of course begin to look more forgivable despite his relative centrism and lack of care for the marginalized beyond his immediate group. Neither Mal nor anyone, for the narrative's sake, ever really, constructively pulls Jayne aside to actually lay down meaningful expectations of respect. And our rebel storylines of outgroup justice in the future should not accept this lack of accountability! By doing so, we leave no room for the revolutionary need for the Paradox of Tolerance...

The one thing we must not tolerate is intolerance.

Oh and P.S., one last thing: Upon an internet search about the paradox of tolerance I learned that Bill Maher has a famous quote about it, and idk the specifics but seeing that dang centrist asshole liberal made me want to clarify that the argument itself could tie very well into stuff like Islamophobic talking points, since the US defends a lot of its military landgrabs as "defending liberal ideals" due to conflating all Muslims with extremist groups. So I just felt the need to add that being "intolerant of intolerance" is NOT equivalent to dehumanizing groups based on stereotypes of them being "more prone to violence" or other dogwhistles like that. I would imagine that comes through, but it's also just worth making explicit. Even me, in this essay, seeing a character who falls into many of the plot points of a Confederate heroism storyline and is a white man - I'm not intolerant OF those things. In the episodes where Mal successfully subverts those ideologies he's mirroring on screen, by interacting with the world differently because he has learned to humanize an increasingly large group of people, I cheer for him! However, I remain intolerant of the intolerance Mal continues to show by virtue of his failure to hold others and himself accountable to the paradox of tolerance, and lets abuse goes unchecked for longer than he, as a man with power and a growing communal mindset, COULD put to rest.

[katierosefun]

Howdyy I hope you're having a sparkling June day~~~! Neptune, 6H and 9H 😌

thanks for the ask, iva!! // from these asks

neptune ⇢ are you a rational or intuitive person?

i think it really depends on the situation, which is perhaps the most frustrating answer someone can give, but--there are certain instances where i think i'm rather rational, but i think there are a lot of other things where i tend to be a lot more intuitive, kind of go with my gut instead of go with my head.

6H ⇢ do you consider yourself a workaholic?

.. .. . .. okay, so i personally think i'm not a real workaholic. at least, on the bell curve of workaholics out there, i think i'm probably very lax. i like spending time and making time for the people i care about.

that said though, i have also been guilty of just kind. of. tunnel-visioning on certain projects or school things to the point where i kind of forget how to be a person. so that's definitely something i need to work on!

9H ⇢ what languages ​​would you like to learn?

i would really love to be fluent in korean again, just because that's the language my mom's most comfortable speaking in. i also would like to dust off my mandarin chinese too, just because like. so many people speak it.

i also would love to dust off my latin, because i really do love latin, and also maybe i think it would really top off my whole "quiet but mildly crazed writer" vibe. i also just. even though latin's a dead language, i did have the privilege of studying under a very accomplished latin scholar, and i could listen to them for hours just reading latin aloud. i understand why people think it's the langauge best meant to summon demons and the dead.

i'd also just like to learn spanish, because so many people speak it--i think it is, if not already, the most commonly spoken language in my country, so like. i might as well? and unrelated, i'd also like to learn icelandic, just because when i was younger, i watched a video of a guy learn icelandic and he explained how it felt a bit like breathing, and i've been fascinated by the language ever since.