#yeah. like blah blah nuance

[florallylly]

not to seem apathetic but currently adopting the willfully blind "my kid is too good for anyone" mentality that delusional parents have sometimes but atp like. get a job get ur feelings in order be emotionally available before u even LOOK at my child. tired of miscommunication i just want to see them be pampered and spoiled and wooed right NOW!

[tearueful]

I really need people to understand that 'I'm done coddling men' and 'I hate you for being a man' are not the same thing.

I can be done with offering my emotional energy to individual men while also simply not blaming them for everything the patriarchy has done to society.

One is an individual choice for my life and the other is a result of social conditioning.

[surpriserose]

I hate researching...oh pearl buck challenged eugenics by just. Doing eugenics in the opposite direction? Okay..................

[vitrines]

IS THERE DISCOURSE OVER ARG!SUNSHIP. no way. i think they’re evil and messed up and silly and toxic yuri and i love it like

[screechthemighty]

Thinking about Meryl's line in Stampede: "Real people aren't monsters like that", or "real people aren't such caricatures" in the English dub.

Thinking about how across mediums, the extenuating circumstances of people's behavior is often clearly conveyed. Jeneora Rock (or Valdour)'s poverty and problems with their Plant leaving them in desperate need of money. The town that kidnapped Vash to take his stuff left abandoned because of their radiation sickness, sickness caused by an accident beyond their control.

Thinking about how many of the antagonists (not all, but many) are shown to have good traits despite their evil deeds. Brilliant Dynamites Neon having a sense of honor when dueling Vash. Dad Nebraska in Stampede giving up the Plant and his pursuit of Vash in favor of looking after his son.

Even Bluesummers, for everything that leads to him being Vash's one and only victim, is shown to be hugely a product of circumstance--horrifically abused his entire life, only to be saved by and find purpose in a being entirely comfortable with weaponizing his growing misanthropy and suicidal depression instead of actually helping him.

Thinking about how Vash's inability to take sides is because he sees this shades of grey and that he can't stand to leave anyone in pain. Thinking about how even though she's more realistic than he is, Meryl is so aligned with that viewpoint in her own way.

Just. Thinking a lot.

[sodacowboy]

I watched a couple alyson stoner videos on the hollywood horror house child edition and oof… some of those things hit just a little too close to home as an autistic person

[muffinthestud]

not someone making pride banners of the literal fascist trek race

[weemietime]

I really can't overstate how massively tired I am of western leftist children chanting globalize the Intifada. Truly, it's mind-blowing that anyone takes these Tik Toks seriously. It's always someone who couldn't point out Gaza on a map, doesn't know from what river to what sea, doesn't speak a Middle Eastern language, doesn't practice any Middle Eastern religion.

Hasn't ever been involved in armed conflict, hasn't ever experienced combat first-hand yet somehow they have magically become the authority on what constitutes genocide in an urban warfare scenario where the enemy is asymmetrically embedded into the civilian population.

Positively stunning that these folks with their BLM posters in the background start reading Osama Bin Laden's Letter to America which is some of the most profoundly, virulent antisemitic gibberish, with complete and utter sincerity. Never seen a gun in real life, never been homeless or brutalized by the police. Yet they somehow bestowed upon themselves the qualifications with which to speak about this extraordinarily complex subject.

Sorry, man. I don't give a shit what some 21 year Christianized Californian white person who couldn't say a single sentence in Hebrew or Arabic thinks about fucking Israel and Palestine. Have you ever considered the possibility that you should listen more than you speak? Listen to actual Jews, actual Palestinians. These people, they don't even know any Palestinians, lmao. They couldn't name five Palestinians they personally know off-hand.

And yeah someone will probably reblog this like oh blah blah blah I'm this and that - - what I mean is that even if you can say you've had a lived experience, the vast majority of the people around you who are spewing the same takes as you, who you're reblogging from and platforming - - a majority of these dudes genuinely could not even tell you who the president of Israel is.

Am I gate-keeping a centuries old ethnic and religious conflict steeped in highly nuanced, intricate layers spanning generations? Yeah. Maybe that dude on the college campus with the watermelon hat spouting off how much he loves the literally genocidal Houthis ("based Houthis," even) screaming "Zionazis go back to Europe," isn't the fucking four-star General Douchebag we need right now.

[three--rings]

I'm really disturbed by the fact that I'm seeing people post S2ep8 of IWTV still talking about Lestat as an abuser and Louis as a victim, period end of conversation.

Because I feel like we are explicitly told in ep7 and 8 that that is not the case but some people haven't adjusted their thoughts yet.

Now this is a show explicitly about the unreliability of personal accounts and what we see on screen is often proven not to be how things happen. So, obviously things are always up for debate. But.

We are shown the extended scene of what happened before Lestat flew Louis up into the sky to drop him. In S1 we saw that scene from Claudia's perspective, and she just heard crashing and shouting, and then saw Louis thrown through a wall by Lestat before the whole flight thing.

Ep 7 we are shown Lestat's version of events which are Louis physically and verbally attacking him over and over, slamming Lestat into things, while Lestat begs him to stop, warning him that he will fight back and he's afraid of hurting Louis, and Louis merely eggs him on. Then we get Lestat turning the tables and throwing Louis through a wall.

Now, obviously this is Lestat's version and probably a bit biased to be sympathetic to him. But Louis admits Lestat's version of Claudia's turning is the more correct one than his account and he admits to portraying Lestat intentionally as a villain in the interview, so...well I think the show is telling us that our impression from S1 is at least not the whole story.

Ep 8 underlines this with the scene with Louis and Lestat when Louis apologizes for the way he acted to Lestat in the past, saying "I tried to make nights awful with you. I wanted you to suffer."

We also see him throw Armand into the wall in this episode, which I get people feel Armand deserved, but I feel like the conversation around that has been weird as well. Like, people talk about that being a sign that Louis is stronger than Armand, as if physical violence is impossible from someone who is weaker than their victim. But this is also another instance of Louis using physical violence against his partner when (justifiably) angry.

Look, abusive relationships are complicated. Mutually toxic ones even more so. Reactive abuse is a thing, when an initial victim becomes violent or abusive in response to abuse they've received. It's complicated, and I speak from personal experience.

But I very much feel like the show is SCREAMING at the audience that things are not simple and that no one in this scenario is blameless, ESPECIALLY not Louis. He's not blameless in the case of Claudia. He's not blameless in the destruction of his relationship with Lestat. He's not blameless in his relationship with Armand, for all it's built on a lie, because he entered it to fucking make Lestat mad for god's sake and that's a terrible foundation for a relationship.

Raglan James says Louis is the one to really be afraid of. Louis at the end of the season with his "I own the night" speech. Much of the second half of S2 is ABOUT this.

The entire heartbreaking scene with Lestat at the end is Louis owning his part of the responsibility, and that's huge. Lestat accepted his responsibility and apologized on stage in Paris, and now Louis is as well.

So yeah, I think some people need to rethink their attitudes when they call Lestat Louis's abuser and Louis a battered wife. I read that and I go wait, we're not gonna interrogate that at all?

I of course feel at this point I have to put in a bunch of disclaimers about how this is not an anti-Louis post or trying to excuse the violence done by Lestat, blah blah but honestly some people who can only see things in terms of Good and Evil and Guilty and Innocent are never going to appreciate that kind of thing anyway. I just don't know why those people are watching this show, which is entirely about nuance and complicated interpersonal relations that are messy and resist easy analysis, BY DESIGN.

[dyemelikeasunset]

I can't sleep so I'm venting. for the most part i love my d&m readers, but oml sometimes i get qpoc blues so bad 😭😭

It's just liiiike. ppl either don't talk about Mor or completely misinterpret her personality. Like I can always tell if my readers are black or not because nonblack readers no NOT see Mor's significance, or just miss the mark when they talk about her, or they misread her personality. Like I don't understand what's so hard to understand about a cute and thoughtful artist??

AND LIKE LMAO Dom's sexuality gets brought up all the time but no one talks about Mor being a lesbian and how rare that is to find in media 😭 white lesbians are always talking about "we need more open lesbians in media!! ppl shouldn't be afraid to use the word lesbian!! blah blah" and i'm like "here you go!!" and no one claps at all lmao. Like I get it, i know why it happens, i understand racial microaggressions, i know how fandom spaces treat Black women, I UNDERSTAND BUT I CAN STILL BE UPSET. I have the right to be upset about it!!! 💀💀 And I know fem lesbians get ignored all the time, invalidated all the time, but it just sucks to see it happen to my character. I just feel like her being lesbian doesn't clock a lot of people, and I get asked to do more thirst trap art of Mor and I do want to but i'm also trying to be careful about like. Idk reducing a dark skinned fem lesbian to being validated only thru being sexy? LMAO.... Mor should be able to be attractive and lovable without tons and tons of thirst trap art (and it's not like I don't do it at all!! I'm not trying to be overprotective or deny her sexiness but I guess it's considered not enough?? give me a break)

And mannnn I was so mad actually that several comments voiced thoughts that essentially said Mor didn't "help" or "take care" of Dom enough, and that when Dom was finally opening up to her it was "Morgan finally doing something" LIKE HELLO??? HELLO??? It's DOM'S flaw that she can't open up? And Morgan does a lot??? I know immature ppl do not appreciate more soft and domestic/feminine forms of care bc they're used to taking their mothers for granted lmao but wooow I was taken aback. First of all, like, I try to show that Mor is the main cook, works just as much as Dom (let's go double income household), is always checking in on Dom's comfort as she navigates being queer, and is overall a very considerate girlfriend. AND SECOND OF ALL LMAO like even if she didn't do all that she doesn't need to have relationship currency to have a doting girlfriend, like the fucking trope of black women needing to suffer for love is so terrible I'VE HAD ENOUGH AND i"M NOT EVEN BLACK. Like there is NOTHING WRONG with their typical dynamic and I'm sick of people acting like there is. SOMEONE SAID DOM WAS LIKE A COMFORT PILLOW W NO AGENCY AND i"M LIKE WTFDYM???? She has TONS of agency and her sense of agency says she wants to LOVE AND DOTE ON HER PARTNER LIKE LMAO. WHAT?? Why is that hard to understand??? Is it because I made one (1) joke bout Mor being a pillow princess and the anti-princess squad are grinding their teeth in the bushes seething over it? Ppl are so twisted sometimes oh my goddddd. Like as an ace who was very confused navigating the lesbian dating scene as a teen and young adult I WISH i had met a pillow princess. Sometimes ppl don't realize that stone dynamics are very safe for aces!! Dom literally says she prefers it!! It's not Mor being selfish like lord please GOD ALLAH I'M TIRED I'M SO TIRED

and like on the topic of Domi overall she is more "popular" but sometimes I feel like people don't even really take the time to appreciate the significance about her either. She's not just a funny thirst trap 😭 and I feel like ppl dont acknowledge that she's asian half the time. I have so many white aces who only zone in on that aspect of her and it's like YEAH I GET IT, I'm ace and we don't have a lot of nuanced rep but she's also got more layers than that too. Tons of people related to her in the chapters where she talks about her childhood abuse yet very few people really, like, talked about the type of generational trauma that is very deeply embedded in her different cultures, no one saw that and oooof idk idk it felt inivisible. It's sometimes harder to talk about the racist microaggressions that Domi experiences thru my readers bc ppl will argue "well most webtoon leads are asian" but not many of them are asian in a way that like. talk about it. I'm born in the US so my experiences with being othered as an asian is just gonna be different and it's gonna affect my art and writing but it feels so unappreciated. I've had some queer asians relate to her but i can count them on my hand 💀 (I actually think it's two LMAO i"M SO SAD)

And going back to Dom and the comfort pillow w no agency comment lmao. This is another thing that rubs me the wrong way is once again, people are ignorant to the ways asians get pigeon-holed to media roles that have us being depicted as incapable. Maybe I want Dom to be more of a protector archetype bc I'm tired of meek Asian women in media? 🤔 Maybe I want Dom to be a prince-like character because asians get emasculated a lot?? 🤔🤔 Maybe I want Domi to maintain her prince persona instead of being "'physically' androgynous/masculine but really soft and girly on the inside uwuwu please treat me like a 'real' girl" because even in east asian media we won't allow women to exhibit strength and dependability??? 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 Like why is a tough girl empowering but once we have a gentle and doting personality in a romance it's considered cliche and the flaw of her partner for being "too weak." MAYBE THEIR PRINCE/PRINCESS DYNAMIC COMPLIMENT EACH OTHER??? HAVE YOU CONSIDERED? I WROTE THEM THAT WAY FOR A REASON??

Good lord this turned into an essay but I have so many things on my mind always

if you read this all. Thanks. I mainly needed to scream into a towel and put this down somewhere bc I complain about these issues to my discord and they understand/validate me all the time, but I wanna give them a break 😭 I also lowkey wanna document my various feelings as I work through Dom & Mor so I can remember and also grow from it

[dandelionjack]

watching agatha all along now because i wasn’t participating in the week by week release discussions (busy, you know, doing stuff) and what can i say… i’m up to e4 so far… haven’t read the comics so i’m judging purely from what i see on screen — it’s good. proper high quality, thoughtful tv writing.

character-based and mystery-driven, with plenty of foreshadowing. not so strong on the subtlety/subtext front; they do love spelling every bit of nuance out, but then again, it is the mcu. and as far as comic book movies (or shows) go, the absence of superheroes is always a net benefit, as was mostly the case with The Other Good MCU Show That I Watched In August And Totally Didn’t Have Any Knock-On Effects On Me, Nuh Uh.

i am in love with the almost game-like narrative structure that the central premise of ���the road’ demands — a treacherous life-path of self-actualisation represented by a physical route through the underworld, in such a delicious classic-fairytale way, reminiscent of one famous road laid in yellow brick and thousands of other similar stories. it’s simple and effective and evocative of the atmosphere they’re going for; one of ancient pagan folktales and ritualised-ordeals-to-gain-magical-knowledge.

the song itself, and its reprise, is astonishingly accomplished work. the lyricism feels genuinely timeless and mystical, something that could have been written in the 70s by a hippie folk-rock band or passed down through the generations of a hidden initiatory tradition. instantly memorable earworm of a musicaltheatre-style melody, too.

what irritates me? oh, all the maiden mother crone talk, triple goddess blah blah blah, the bastardisation of the concept of a sigil (redaction spell to hide information? huh?) and other myriad inaccuracies in regards to modern witchcraft but hey, at least some of the stereotypes are gone. at least they’ve made an effort to research. and in a show that’s purely entertainment, a little respect goes a long way

rating it SO FAR a solid 6.5/10. will keep watching will keep updated. oh and, yeah, i’m catching the sexual tension and past unsavoury history between agatha and rio, obviously. the end has been plastered everywhere so it’s not a spoiler for me — i’m proud that marvel didn’t queerbait for once and actually delivered

[antianakin]

Ok but in thinking about it very hard, while Anakin is an interesting and complex character etc etc, why would anyone chose to Stan him as the "Ultimate Jedi" when Obi-Wan "Elegance and Sarcasm Incarnate Who Will Kick Your Butt in A Duel While Politely Insulting You" Kenobi and Luke "Ray of Sunshine Who Drinks Hot Chocolate For Fun and Is Ridiculously Force Lucky" Skywalker are right there? Not to mention the myriad of other Jedi who are all interesting in their own right!?

(Also I know the hot chocolate Luke thing is technically legends but it's real to me, darn it!)

Because people hate the Jedi. Literally, though, people HATE the Jedi and view them as the antagonists of the entire story, the thing that had to be defeated in order for the happy ending to even happen, the thing that destroyed Anakin in the first place. And Anakin, as the poor victim of their abuse who has to rise above them to save his own son in the end, perfectly encapsulates all of their views about the Jedi and their interpretation of the story. The "Ultimate Jedi" to them isn't the character who actually best embodies the Jedi philosophies we hear about in the Prequels, it's the more POWERFUL Jedi, and that is generally considered to be Anakin (you can make arguments for some of the others like Yoda or Mace, but they explicitly state that Anakin's midichlorian count is supposed to be higher than anyone else in history so).

Anakin is also the main protagonist of the Prequel trilogy which allows for a lot of protagonist bias, and became the primary villain of the Original Trilogy, one of the characters a lot of people really were into because he was cool and scary. Anakin is a memorable villain as Darth Vader and then is a tragic protagonist as Anakin Skywalker. Those two things combined make for a potent attraction to the character.

Luke is certainly a more complex character than most people realize, but he is often interpreted as a "sunshine boy" kind of character who always does the right thing and barely has any flaws and is always kind and happy blah blah blah. Obi-Wan sometimes has a similar perception by fans of just being TOO perfect. And so Anakin, by contrast, FEELS more nuanced and complex as a character with all of his flaws on very obvious display for fans to connect to and sympathize with. It makes Anakin feel more human and relatable than Luke or Obi-Wan or the other Jedi. (This is ironically kind-of why people seemed to hate the Kenobi show so much, Obi-Wan was suddenly the main character and got shown with a lot more of those obvious flaws and that's NOT how people interpreted him and so they just RAGED against the show for writing Obi-Wan "wrong" and "ruining him" etc. So even when characters like Obi-Wan GET more of that complexity and relatability, they're condemned for it in ways Anakin is not because that's not the way fans have interpreted them.)

So, yeah, fans just hate the Jedi because they've chosen to interpret them as the villains of the story and relate a lot more to Anakin as the emotional mess of a protagonist whose tragic story causes him to become a very memorable villain that gets "redeemed" at the end. I get the attraction, I just don't share it.

[possessionisamyth]

They turned Ashley into an "overly supportive girlfriend" archetype for some reason. Don't get me wrong, she's super adorable and cute but i feel like there's just some spunk and spark that's missing there :/

I know I saw a comment on my ashley defense post that was like "in the og if she was constantly screaming than you were bad at the game", and yeah. Yeah. If she was annoying cause she was constantly yelling for help, why did you put her in a position where her AI would keep needing to do that? She wasn't annoying. Especially when there were places you could hide her.

The commentary of hating her and thinking she was annoying because of this scenario fueled at least half of the writing decisions I'd say. They flattened her out. But I also saw some of those same ppl in passing complain about how they made her boobs smaller in the remake, so I kinda wish those opinions had been taken with a grain of salt.

I think it would've been more interesting if they doubled down on her spoiled personality from the start of the game. Like, made her insufferable to the average non-rich person. I'm talking Princess from Powerpuff Girls style where it's like "My daddy would-!!!" blah blah and all that other bullshit. Then we could get to the knife scene where she runs away from Leon, and when he finds her they have that heart to heart. Let having someone that cares about her, and not being shitty about her money or status, be what brings her down to earth.

Would've been a great way to let the duo find healing in each other, Leon with finally getting to save someone and Ashley unlearning some selfishness with learning she can help and save herself (the playing as her scene). The original was too busy relying on basic tropes for everyone to delve that deep, but the remake could've done it for her had they doubled down on her behavior to add nuance instead of walking it back for likability.

[that-guy-in-the-chiton]

This fandom fundamentally misunderstands why people dislike lucifer as a character they think "oh they just hate him because they're religious, they don't get it" when, no, i'm not religious and i'm pretty sure most people who criticize his writing aren't either (not that theres anything wrong with being religious). I wasn't expecting him to be a villain (he's charlie's dad after all) i don't think anyone was. But i was expecting him to have at least have SOME moral complexity. hes not an "uwu soft boy who can do no wrong" hes an adult who can make his own decisions yet he acts like a teenager for some reason. God i hate the wooby trope

You nailed it on the head exactly why I dislike Viv's Lucy. Yeah, we didn't expect him to be this pure evil megalomaniac but give him at least some nuance and moral ambiguity in order to make him an interesting and complex character. But instead they turn him into this one note teddy bear who's treated by the narrative as this perfect boi who could go no wrong. "See! It wasn't Lucy's fault he was thrown out of heaven, it was those mean angels!" Blah, blah blah. They also did the opposite with Adam, making him this immature, super evil frat boy with 0 sympathetic traits nor complexity.

[cinnamonanddean]

I'm halfway through this episode but it needs notes:

Oh god Conner in the burnt out mansion. Literally standing among the ashes of Lex's legacy.

Uh oh Red-K

Wow I'm just thinking that we got Red-K Lois, and Red-K style behaviour from Chloe and Pete in Rush but never Red-K Lex. Yeah we got Black-K Lex but they're not quite the same. I want Lex with no inhibitions, not Lex with no morals.

Ah jeez he's obsessed with Lois

Welp the supercar obsession has bred true

Good god, Lionel laughing about the Luthor libido is making me want to yak. "Great men, great passion" I MEAN OKAY BUT I DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT YOU THAT WAY LIONEL

Oh gosh everyone just spitting so much truth here. Let's just agree that you both played a part (a very unequal one but still) in destroying Lex okay guys? Nobody's hands are clean.

This reminds me of Connor from Angel being obsessed with Cordelia. Interesting that it's the same name too.

Lol of course there's a fire in the fireplace, even after the place burned down. It's Luthor Mansion baby.

Hmm I feel like inhaling that Kryptonite dust would not be good for Clark.

I know she's good now and all, but there's an element of bio-hacking here that I feel that Tess is too comfortable with, given what Lex did to her.

Also I'm aware I'm asking for too much here, but instead of Conner saying that the Red-K brought out the Lex side and Clark saying that there's a shadow in all of them, it would have been nice for Clark to reverse that and say that Lex had good qualities that Conner also has inside him, and that it's about finding the balance, blah blah. Y'know, a take on Lex that reflects the nuance in his character, especially in the early seasons. But noooo, Lex = bad. Ya boring.

Oh okay the Superboy outfit nod is really fun.

I guess the plan is to go with the little brother/cousin or whatever route for Conner Kent, as I expect Clark trying to explain a 15yo son would be a bit of a stretch.

Wow that's a spooky headstone for Lex.

Okay so I'm assuming that Conner isn't the Lex that comes back in the finale, so where does he come from?

[sozzledjuja]

HOT TAKE: Is there sexism on Ephidea?

This may be just me wanting to rant about smth cause i'm bored as shit rn

So-

Is there sexism on Ephidea? I mean, it definetly doesn't appear so and, then again, considering that there's magic in this universe, worldbuilding wise, it would make sense for gender not to play that much of an important role when considering someone's overall strenght.

I imagine that, in Ephidea, or at least amongst the royals, physical strengh is not valued as much as someone's magical abilities, given that the latter is the defining factor for power. So the biological differences in strenght/muscle mass between men and women wouldn't be seen as that important in the grand scheme of things.

All evidence points to Ephidea being a fairly equal society when it comes to gender. Hell, they're literally mainly ruled by women, which is something the Team has kinda stated in the past (if i remember correctly, they said the kingdoms of Ephidea were more like "queendoms", implying that female royals were more important/powerful than their male counterparts). So fuck it, we could even state that it's a matriarchal society. Which would honestly be so slay of them but alas.

HOWEVER.

The Team has also said once on their Tumblr account that people that are NOT royals are not able to "transform", which implies that they are usually much weaker than people from royalty.

"But Mephisto, Praxina, Lev, and those other two twin mfs that appeared in one episode and then disappeared are not royals, and they can kinda go toe to toe with the princesses!!"

Uhm yeah, but they were all using black magic. And have all probably trained intensely (gotta give them some merit too). Which I bet could make a "regular" Ephidean much stronger. I mean, if dark magic didn't have its pros, no one would do it. The forbidden fruit gotta be appetizing in some way.

Regardless, because the "common people"'s magic is weaker (which I imagine consists on some basic spells to make their general day to day lives easier, like levitating stuff, maybe boiling water, creating light sources, or crystalizing small dangers, etc...), wouldn't it make sense for other factors of strenght, like PHYSICAL strenght, to be valorized more in those communities?

I wouldn't say it's as bad as on Earth, especially considering that the most powerful royals on Ephidea are women, so even if that doesn't extend to regular ephideans, it definetly wouldn't allow or feed the narrative that women are weaker and emotional and unable to lead and blah blah blah. But it definetly opens the possibility of male commoners taking advantage of their "strenght" and impose it on their female counterparts.

Kinda not sure where I'm going with this, because I literally just started writing my thoughts as they came. This whole thought process literally originated from that one scene in Lucky Star, when Mephisto whips out his cane thingie (this sounds wrong, but you get what i mean), and says it's passed down to the "male line", and my brain started spiralling for no reason at all.

Yeah, no, I don't really think there's actual sexism on Ephidea, but maybe there's more nuance to it, amongst the people. And I love reading too much into things, so you're welcome.