#will be cited in the paper

[fuck-julian]

I am writing a research paper for a Women Gender Studies class at the University of Tennessee. I am writing on the relationship between the LGBTQ+ community and fanfiction. If you read fanfiction at all please take this quiz. I understand that because there is queer and lgbtq in the title there will be sample bias but I do not plan on comparing between non-queer and queer readers.

[say-hi-intrepid-heroes]

@samreich at this point you should start publishing papers on all these social experiments on game changer

[antivancathedral]

I don't even know how to word this in a way that makes sense and I think in an overall world building sense this is a major case of "Man I think it depends" but I actually don't think Spite is a "demon".

Spirits and Demons are essentially the same, yes, and I think there's much to be said about this in in parallel to a healthy person vs a deeply traumatized person, but to quote Neve, "one is more likely to manipulate you, or kill you," etc etc.

A demon is a spirit whose purpose has been twisted. And I don't think Spite's purpose has been twisted much at all.

Determination's purpose is "accomplish my goal (whatever that may be)". Spite (the emotion)'s purpose is exactly the same, with the added benefit of "especially against the wishes of others".

I think the demonic version of Determination would be "Ruthlessness", not Spite.

Spite (the guy) is not wholly consumed by his purpose like other "demons" are. He doesn't pursue his goals at the expense of his companions. He has several other interests even if they seem a little silly (learning what tastes good, or even new forms of combat like fire). And he tells us his purpose several times...it's his promise with Lucanis! Escape, kill, and live! This goal is one of determination and it has not changed by his becoming Spite. The goal is not warped in any way even with his joining to Lucanis.

Bellara speculates as to why Spite doesn't just take Lucanis over or turn him into a nasty mound of flesh. I want to argue that this is because Spite is a named spirit, not a demon.

What's more spiteful than not allowing your captors to change you? What says fuck you to people who would use you as a tool than self-determination? What's more spiteful than being determined to be free, to fight who would enslave you, to live?

My working theory is that Spite is not a demon in the same sense as, say, Wisdom being corrupted into Pride, which twists a desire to guide, teach, or navigate situations with care into a desire to be right and unchallenged.

I think Spite is to Determination as Eulogy is to Compassion.

[rawrsatthetree]

I’ve seen people compare Julian Devorak to Astarion, and honestly I think you’re all embarrassing wrong.

Gale Dekarios is Julian Devorak.

Astarion is Count Lucio

[luguangs]

@animangacreators challenge ⟡ mother's day

↳ YOR FORGER

"I know that this family is just for appearances. But… I still feel like… I want to be a better mother to that girl… Maybe I'll never be like a normal mother, but I'll do my best with what I've got!"

[insp/ref: ★☆★☆★]

[swordscleric]

I'm only halfway through the second phase of Predathos (which, to be clear is an incredible vibe for a bossfight, love a good head & hands/multitarget-same-entity boss) but I cannot shake the feeling of disappointment and just dissatisfaction I have had with this campaign that definitely started with Dusk/Yu, got followed up handily with the first Delilah/Sun Tree fight and then has been unfortunately reinforced with every discussion surrounding the Prime Deities since Hearthdell. This campaign is fascinating to pick apart, I have been really enjoying pulling apart why it isn't working compared to C1 or C2. But as much as I'm having fun dissecting where the worldbuilding has led to the current weaknesses in the gods' argument or reading other people's incisive commentary on the lack of personalities on the Ruby Vanguard's end, the "girlfailure" nonsense, etc etc, man do I wish this campaign was better than it is.

There are so many avenues of improvement -

Matt telling everyone to prep and write characters for this campaign instead of a C2-esque character-focused campaign.

Matt working religious organisations into the world properly.

The cast engaging with Marquet as a genuine location rather than set-dressing.

Otohan, Ozo and the rest of the Vanguard having more than "*insert snappy line here*" for their personalities.

No Delilah.

Bell's Hells having an iota of curiosity for anything outside of their own selves, including but not limited to: the gods, religious worship, the Elemental Titans and why they were sundered, how the people of Exandria feel about the gods, Vasselheim and its role in suppressing information about Predathos, Ludinus Da'Leth's plan and how it would still break the world if they did it in his place

I don't know why all of this fell into place in the way that it did, but it did. We can endlessly speculate why - the cast resting on their laurels after C2, not having enough time between the animated shows and Daggerheart and Candela Obscura and, and, and - but at the end of the day I really do hope that whatever form the final campaign wrap-up takes, they burn the damn questions asking the cast "what if the world was made of pudding and this character and this character kissed?" and instead pick questions that get them to introspect for a potential Campaign 4. Otherwise I don't know what will happen, but it sure as hell won't be Mighty Nein part 2: Issylra Boogaloo.

[essektheylyss]

This paper is currently 2500 words. One of the introductory sections is still entirely in bullet points. The main body is maybe a third done. To finish the one part of the main body that I have written a good chunk of, I need to ask my advisor for recommendations of resources on nineteenth century Ottoman art. The paper is on a D&D module.

This isn't even technically an assignment. I don't have to turn this into anybody. I am just doing it.

[bookwyrminspiration]

it's incredible how every single time you write a paper you miraculously find a resource no citation style guide has ever even heard of before

[roseworth]

FUCK mla format im an apa groupie

[elbiotipo]

I also remember when that deactivatecivilization blog told me "Wikipedia says that disease and plague started with the domestication of animals, checkmate" and I went looking for the source and it was a fanatical vegan tract that considered domestication, sorry, "domesacration" a moral evil and said that humans started to hunt only 19.000 years ago (WHAT) and that began violence, patriarchy and the oppression of women. The only mention of zoonosis on the cited page was in a throwaway phrase listing the many, many evils of having domesticated animals.

So you should be also be wary even if someone says "but it's sourced!"

[cosmichorrorlesbians]

what's your dissertation about? you mentioned it in the siltcord and i'm really interested

oh my god hey I'm so happy you're interested! broad strokes because I've only been working on it for a few weeks but: the current theme is 'resistant landscapes' (both man-made and natural) in the later writing of Shirley Jackson!

Essentially, my main thread is that Jackson had two parallel strands to her work, which as far as I can tell began kind of interrelated but then diverged quite significantly? She's probably best known now for The Haunting of Hill House and to a lesser extent We Have Always Lived In The Castle, which are these. weird surreal psychological horror novels, engaging explicitly or implicitly with the supernatural, and centred around introspective, strange and sometimes deeply misanthropic female characters from isolated social units with dysfunctional, possessive relationships to each other.

Aaaaand then on the other hand she was known for being a 'happy housewife' who wrote these whimsical, quasi-autobiographical stories about all her children and how hopeless her husband was. These were popular too. Betty Friedan called her out in landmark 1963 feminist manifesto The Feminine Mystique for essentially spreading patriarchal propaganda.

The interrelation between the two is really jarring, because in one family is a source of horror and tragedy and in the other it's a source of, like... laundry. And Jackson's home life wasn't everything those stories made it out to be-- her marriage was unfaithful, her mother could probably be fairly called emotionally abusive, and as I talked about on the siltcord, she developed severe agoraphobia which often left her housebound.

So, yeah. My plan is to explore the depiction of families as constructed social units in dialogue with the environments they are constructed in in that work. Obviously a lot of that is relation of house to family, in the context of which Hill House is especially rewarding to consider, but I also want to look at relationships with nature and urban environments (especially in the context of settler colonialism and how that has had an enduring legacy in Jackson's particular part of New England), xenophobia (largely in regard to class, though racism and anti-Semitism are presences in her writing), domesticity and the idea of the housewife, and how horror relates to All Of This. The ideal of making a home within a hostile environment and of that environment turning on you, essentially.

I don't yet have particular areas of focus within that broad umbrella, but I might update with bits and pieces about it as I work? I don't really talk about academic stuff on here but I am very much Critical Literary Analysis Guy and I do also post relentlessly about haunted houses as a concept so if people would be interested in it maybe I will

anyway if you've read this far I recommend Horror in Architecture: The Reanimated Edition (2024) by Joshua Comaroff and Ong Ker-Shing which is a book about how horror movie tropes can be mirrored in built environments! I'm reading it right now and it's conceptually fascinating plus fairlyyy comprehensible by academic standards (if a little dense) if you, like me, are a Fool who knows nothing of architecture. very good also for getting to look at pictures of some of the most Fucked Up Buildings (affectionate) you've ever seen.

[dailyhtfboards]

Day 107

Today’s board is:

I fell down the stairs this morning so instead of posting a storyboard I’m instead giving you all a helpful diagram of what happened this morning/silly

(From TV episode 9B Home is Where the Hurt is)

[trainerethan]

Did green have to buy red a new Xtransceiver(then phone) after he came down mt silver. Or did his mom. Or the pokemon league provide him one. Or does he not have one and hes just going about life with no way to get in touch with him. Theres no way he could buy one right. Or do you think he has money saved from his gym challange/champion battle. Theres also the option for red to just not Want one bc he was on a mountain for years and has no interest in replacing his old reliable pokegear or whatever. Even if no one else uses it anymore.

The option of him just not having one bc he doesnt want one is funniest but i think at some point green would force a phone onto red bc he cant stand having 0 way to contact him. Even if red is often out of service zones at least theres an option.

I think after getting used to it hed fill his camera roll with candid photos of green and pictures of his pokemon when theyre being cute (always) he doesnt strike me as a selfie guy but itd be really silly if he sends green photos of him in the most random situations. Like "your unemployed friend on a tuesday afternoon" type photos where red is in random places with no caption or further explanation. Sometimes its cute pics and sometimes it makes green wonder how red even got up there. I think red would like climbing things. Hed enjoy mountain climbing. And hiking. Its also useful for green when red tells him about the different things hes seen n stuff. Red is a big snack guy so hell bring back treats for green to try. Its ok if green doesnt like them, red will just eat it himself.

[bedlamsbard]

every semester at least one of my students cites something so bizarre and unexpected that I am just left staring at my computer screen going WHAT. HOW? WHAT? WHY?

[lipstickboyboy]

Billy-Ray Belcourt from, A History of my Brief Body

[typhoid-tb-bb]

After doing some wikipedia rabbit holes after watching the Gladiator films, I've come to the conclusion that Roman emperors came in two flavours

1: Twink

2: old

And a twink emperors were more likely to go insane faster than the old emperors, still likely to go insane but the twinks get it faster.