#yes this is an essay lol

[sidsinning]

When men like problematic violent video games and media it's easily "life doesn't equal fiction", but when women like toxic romance it's "poor women are being brainwashed into liking abusive relationships we shouldn't glorify", but society don't wanna acknowledge their infantilization of women when it comes to guilty pleasure hobbies geared towards a female demographic, like they don't have common sense and a brain when consuming fiction

[magicandmundane]

Something something Clone Force 99 breaking binders in every season finale

[liauditore]

Equally Invalid

[princemonday]

jeremy turns and sees candace looking at him from 4 feet away through binoculars and all he has to say is "cool binoculars." get you a man that chooses blissful ignorance like jeremy johnson.

[screamingfrenchfries]

bless google scholar because i just KNOW if i searched "psychological abuse in relationships" on normal google id be put on some sort of watchlist when i'm just trying to do research for an essay on some silly little cartoon guys

[dootznbootz]

Telemachus is so underrated in modern media. Like, GUYS I KNOW WE LOVE STINKY MAN ODYSSEUS AND CHEEKY WIFE PENELOPE BUT PLEASE. PEN AND ODY'S LIL BOYO EXISTS TOO- (Cries in Telemachus is favorite Odyssey character)

Cheeky wife Penelope is my everything but yes, Telemachus is definitely underrated (actually I think more sadly talked about in a very negative manner)

He gets hated on a lot but he also doesn't get a lot of attention compared to other myths. Also making him out to be like he's an atrocious person when...holy shit. he's going through SO much.

Yes, he is snappy at Penelope. (I adore that woman and this isn't something I'm fine with but it's understandable) That moment of him telling her to go back to her room and not mind the music is him protecting her in "hey! I know you're upset but the suitors will see you and hound you!" while also trying to assert himself to the suitors. I mean Athena, Menelaus, Nestor, etc. practically everyone also brings up how "You're your mother's son" just as much they bring up how he's his father's son.

'And yet,' said the goddess of the flashing eyes, 'with you as you are, and with Penelope for your mother, I cannot think that your house is doomed to an inglorious future. […]

(book 1, Rieu)

He's acting out. And that's the point. he's a young man who's terrified for himself and his mom. He didn't grow up with his dad around. Him going to see Nestor and Menelaus was kind of a way of "Here's some 'positive' masculinity for you." As Nestor is just everybody's grandpa and Menelaus just taking a more semi-paternal role with him. it's supposed to "mature" him. even Penelope talks about how he's changed from the boy he left as. He's learning and growing!

With his "bossing Penelope around", he's kind of trying to pull a "Let me handle it!" as to try and protect her but he's young and doesn't realize that he's…putting himself in danger too. Yes, he's being a lot but it's not like that's abnormal for young adults at their parents anyway (not that it's right, but it happens)

As a whole, even then, it's to show how so much has gone so messy in the Ithacan Palace with Odysseus' absence. He's trying to do so much despite the situation he's in.

[thelaurenshippen]

re: that *chef kiss* PERFECT Franken-Drummer post and tumblr not being all over The Expanse, I know right?? it’s such an amazing show with so many delightful, complicated characters yet it’s so unfairly slept on! maybe because S1 takes awhile to get going and ppl give up? idk but it makes me sad that I have so few ppl to squeal about Drummer and Amos and Bobbie and Christjen and Ashford and Naomi (ad infinitum) with 😭🚀😭

WHY ARE PEOPLE NOT OBSESSED WITH THE EXPANSE HELLO!?!?! there's literally so much to love about it oh my god. you're right, it DOES take a second to get going but once it does!!!

for those of you who have not read or seen The Expanse series (I myself have yet to read the books), let me tell you why you'll love it:

political space drama with incredibly distinct cultures and phenomenal world building, if you're a details girlie (gn), you're gonna go nuts

the found family vibes!!??! are off!?!? the charts!?!? (minor spoilers for the first few episodes) four people are thrown into a situation in which they accidentally become the most important people/fugitives in the whole galaxy and most of them DO NOT trust each other, what could possible go wrong, and even better, what could possibly go RIGHT

Christjen Avasarala. you are not ready for her. most powerful mover-shaker on earth with the most incredible outfits you've ever seen, refined elegance with the filthiest mouth, plus she's got a classic "whatever those two have going on is so gay it veers into something else entirely" with her younger protective knight lady, Bobbie

Bobbie. the "not to be a lesbian but oh my god" post is made for her. we meet her in the show for the first time when she arm wrestles a robot and WINS. you will be begging for her to step on you with her mech suit

speaking of women I want to step on me Camina Drummer. angry revolutionary pirate queen of my heart. do you miss the unique agony of 2000/10s queerbaiting but want it to be not baiting somehow? this show does that, idk how else to explain it. the most agonizing sapphic pining you've ever seen but it's textual and also not painful because its gay. don't worry, Camina fucks, just not the girl she wants most (also spoilers, but this is not a bury your gays show don't worry)

Jim Holden is literally just Some Guy who becomes the special fantasy chosen one because he simply cannot stop Getting Involved. nosiest bitch in the universe, I love him.

imagine you're a girl who leaves your shitty ex and gets a normal industrial job on a spaceship, only to have a six foot, two hundred pound killer dressed as a mechanic imprint on you like a baby duck, and its unclear whether he wants to fuck you or call you a little sister but he definitely WILL kill for you and will do literally anything you say and then you both end up caught up in a weird galactic war by mistake and there's this other guy with a captain america level moral compass and he's cute and you're into him except your shitty ex is still out there with the biggest secret you have and meanwhile your best female friend is the coolest person you've ever met but you don't think you can be what she needs and you're holding your family together, you're holding the universe together and all you want is justice for your people but unfortunately you've gone and fallen in love with the accidental most important man in the galaxy. well, every day Naomi Nagata wakes up

Praxideke Meng. botanist of my heart. literally tames the rabid guard dog that no one else could. gentle and able to stay gentle because of said dog. which brings me to...

Amos Burton. I saved him for last because he is my guy. he is THAT guy. canonically aromantic pansexual king. are you into guard dog characters? do you find yourself drawn to the "sorry my love language is acts of service and all I'm good at is killing people" characters? amos burton is like seventeen tumblr posts come to life. previously mentioned enormous killer dressed as a mechanic, former heels wearing "I didn't always work in space" sex worker who is always rolling into brothels and being like "you guys unionized?", gives a shit about basically no one in the universe except his crew and every single child in the galaxy, accidental comedian because he cannot stop saying weird shit, not a nice or good person but a loyal one, and one who is always trying to relearn the empathy that was carved out of him as a young person. every time he goes homicidal to protect one of his chosen people (crew + any and every child), an angel gets its wings.

fin.

[brrmian]

it’s snowing. maybe they’ll brush hands to “share warmth.” or maybe they’ll just keep pining forever. [ft. different color palettes under the cut]

[pyjamacryptid]

I'm currently rewatching the dark tower for reasons (fic reasons), and when Gwen said "Morgana's enchanted it to protect me," it rang an alarm bell, this time 'round.

"[...]to protect me."

hm. huh. you don't say. interesting. As in, the knights are the enemy not the rescuers? hm. curious.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it (i mean, hey, that's the fun of it), but that choice of language stood out to me.

[teddy-bear-d]

Real Life Hugs?!!! <3

[seamayweed]

In Defense of Lady Kang/Queen Sindeok (1/3)

As promised, here's the first part of my defense of Queen Sindeok, explaining her historical political situation + clearing up some common fandom misconceptions about her, which I don't blame anyone for since they originate from the show itself. I must admit that I have a bit of a soft spot for her since history generally tends to be unkind to women - this extends to modern media and MCTNA is no exception:

(more under the cut)

Before we start, I thought I'd give a small refresher on the Yi family constellation - crucial for setting up the conflict and crown prince issue - with the aid of this extremely useful graphic by bodashiri (excluding the daughters for simplicity's sake):

(From here: x)

As you can see, Yi Seong-gye (King Taejo of Joseon) had two wives:

His first wife Lady Han (Queen Sinui) gave birth to six sons: 1. Yi Bang-woo (Prince Jinan), 2. Yi Bang-gwa (Prince Youngan), 3. Yi Bang-ui (Prince Yikan), 4. Yi Bang-gan (Prince Hoean), 5. Yi Bang-won (Prince Jeongan) and 6. Yi Bang-yeon (Prince Deokan).

His second wife Lady Kang (Queen Sindeok) gave birth to two sons: 7. Yi Bang-beon (Prince Muan) and 8. Yi Bang-seok (Prince Uian),

meaning that Seong-gye had eight sons overall.

With that out of the way, let's get started!!!

1. Queen Sindeok was NOT a concubine

(From here: x)

She is referred to as Yi Seong-gye/King Taejo's capital/Seoul wife in the show too:

However, every time Bang-won calls her a concubine and her children illegitimate there is never any pushback or correction by anyone, not even when he calls her younger son Bang-seok/Prince Uian a ‘seoja’ (illegitimate child born to a commoner concubine or royal concubine) in front of Seon-ho:

You'd think Seon-ho would defend Bang-seok by correcting Bang-won... but nope. Nada.

Not even Queen Sindeok (!!!) is allowed to defend herself and her children when they get accused of the same:

Like, what is this madness!!!

Anyone who doesn't know about Korean history would never even SUSPECT that this isn’t actually true, and that Queen Sindeok is in fact a legitimate second wife and queen. By giving no pushback to the (false) claims of illegitimacy, the show seems to implicitly support Bang-won’s narrative of her being a lying, conniving, greedy bitch who wants to push her child on the throne despite having no right to it whatsoever as a concubine and bastard respectively.

Queen Sindeok's tragedy, the one that MCTNA fails to portray, is not that she was a concubine who tried to rise above her station (because she was not); it's that, due to the transition from Goryeo to Joseon, she found herself caught between two conflicting sets of laws:

(From Tombstones without a Tomb by Hildi Kang)

A queen while alive, and unjustly demoted to a concubine in death by Bang-won/King Taejong who used these legal changes and the new Confucian ruling to his advantage, her status was a matter of contention for scholars and kings alike for almost 300 years, until finally, in 1669, the scholar Song Si-yeol managed to amass enough people and put enough pressure on King Hyeonjong to make him give in to their demands and restore Queen Sindeok to her rightful status and honor as queen.

+ Bonus:

(From Tombstones without a Tomb by Hildi Kang)

Turns out that according to the new Confucian ruling, Bang-won himself should have been considered illegitimate too!! Surprise!!!

[mamawasatesttube]

that last post reminds me of how, similarly, it drives me up the wall whenever fandom (esp with regards to timkon) portrays kon as completely and utterly spineless and intimidated when it comes to bruce. (i mean, i'm not surprised, bc this comes from the same place as the content where tim is a fainting victorian maiden who needs to be protected by her strong stoic owner i mean father, which is definitely not a homophobic trope rooted in misogyny at all, but. that's a complaint for a different post.)

like, bruce's relationship with kon has admittedly been done differently by different writers and all, but at no point has kon ever backed down to him. during hypertime arc, bruce is cordial and even warm, in his way, as they send kon off:

later, towards the end of superboy '94, when kon and cass get into trouble and nearly get themselves killed, kon sees bruce being harsh on cass about it and inserts himself to demand he get half the blame and half the punishment, because it wasn't all on her. (i personally think the way bruce talks here is extremely cringefail and shitty, like... let's not make batman parrot racist rhetoric thanks, but. i blame that on writers moreso than the character.)

like, sure, he's a little hesitant (the "s-sir..." gets me.) but not enough to hold back an ounce in telling batman he's being unfair and an ass. he's not a shrinking violet just bc batman is ooo scary.

also coming to mind are:

a) the panels from batgirl (2000) where bruce is being an extremely overprotective and controlling figure over the idea of cass and kon being friends and clark tells him off for this (it's not directly kon interacting with bruce, but feels... relevant, lol, to the topic of bruce threatening kon and trying to scare him off in that possessive, steeped-in-misogyny way), as well as

b) the ones from tt03 where kon goes to gotham looking for tim, runs into bruce and steph-as-robin, and flips out like WHERE is tim, and bruce is just like. use your superhearing and figure it out. (note that he doesn't try to kick him out of gotham just for being there, either.)

i didn't include those last two bc i don't have them saved and frankly this post is long enough as is, but. you get the idea. kon isn't scared of batman. batman even likes him sometimes. and batman trying to intimidate him on purpose is something clark gets mad about.

[shorelinnes]

Happy Han Day 🥳 here's a little video I've been working on compiling some of my favorite han singing clips 💕

as much as I really do love han's rapping, I am a han vocal girlie at heart 🫶 as someone who leans towards rock more than pop, I absolutely love his vocal style 💕💕💕 he can really change his voice a lot to suit different songs, but it always has that kind of rawness to it that I always associate with rock ( <- can you tell I have no idea how to describe music lol) and yes I am being 100% serious adding that jeju island karaoke clip I need him to do a grunge song cover sooo bad (anything by pearl jam and I would be over the moon 🙏🙏🙏) I really love how much he's been experimenting with his voice lately too. I remember being blown away when miserable (you and me) dropped because it was so different that what he had done before. he has such a crazy range too! I didn't want to make this a high note compilation but it really is insane how strong and clear his high notes are. (didn't include it in this video but the way he goes above his high note in district 9 every time he sings it live 🙂‍↕️) but at the same time he has such a lovely low register too (his part in butterflies & his karaoke cover of peppermint candy by yb) and just the emotion he puts into all of his singing 🫶🫶🫶 seungmin was so right when he talked about han's voice not being robotic. he's always had so much passion in his voice and I think that's the number one thing that drew me to him in the first place 💕

[unluckysatellite]

...

I'm craughing because what in the name of everything holy was papergames/infoldgames thinking localizing Qin Che/Sylus to sound like some discord daddy dom in English...when he doesn't say any of that cringe shit in Chinese/Korean/Japanese.

I never thought I would see a localization as disastrous as late 2019/early 2020 MLQC's green stubble, but Infoldgames looked sideways at Elex and said "nah, we can do much worse than green stubble"

but hey I guess I can draw a parallel here:

Victor 🤝 Sylus

getting fucked over by localization and getting wildly mischaracterized by the ENG fandom

[bachirasbodyguard]

Shoutout to one of my favorite Blue Lock beefs. No cunning, no grace, no restraint with these two. Just throwing hands ON SIGHT. God bless.

also shoutout to Shidou for being the only person who actually makes Rin lose his composure like that (and so easily too). king

((this post by @bluelock-textposts inspired me))

[funarisjournal]

Let's Talk About Those S2 Promo Photos

At least, the three major ones that always crop up. I think there are some off-shoots that also float around, some in-character and some out-of-character, but we'll ignore those.

Anyway, I got inspired to make this post after seeing another fan's post on Bluesky earlier today. I started talking about how I interpreted the hand-holding photo, and, well, I have THOUGHTS with all three! So, let's take a look at each image and ~scrutinize~

PHOTO ONE: The Double Portrait

This one is probably the easiest to go over. At first glance, it's just two portraits of Nomoto and Kasuga. Simple stuff. What I like about these two, however, is how the photos are composed and what they convey.

I love how they are off-center and complementing one another with their placements - Nomoto to the left and Kasuga to the right. They're looking off into the distance, their expressions filled with serenity. The real kicker, though, is Kasuga's portrait. She's got a pretty visible smile, a sign of how far she's come from the quiet, closed-off, yet secretly kind woman she was when we first met her. She is hanging out with the woman she loves, and she is content.

They may not be looking at one another for this photo, but their expressions give us all we need to know about how they feel during S2's run (especially by the end).

PHOTO TWO: The Main Poster

This one is very obviously THE Poster for S2. It's used in headers, it's going to be the cover art for the S2 DVD...Yeah. Safe to say this is the "main event." So, as the main poster, it has to give us everything in one go. We need to know the characters, we need to know their relationship and what we're getting into if we watch this show...or, in this case, we're revisiting old friends and seeing how different they are/will be compared to the first season.

How does this one pull it off? Well, we have a shot of Kasuga and Nomoto, but compared to the Main Poster from S1 (the DVD cover), we get to see them much closer...literally (lol). They're actively spending time together outside, which they actually do a lot in this season (they didn't go out as much in the first one. It was mostly Nomoto's apartment). It's not just about that initial deal they made - where Nomoto cooks and Kasuga eats - anymore. Here they are, having some food/drinks to-go and simply enjoying each other's company on a nice, cool winter's day.

Nomoto is doing the thing she's known for - watching Kasuga eat with that look of love she has just for her. While Kasuga isn't actually looking at Nomoto, she's actively not just focused on the food, either, like she was in S1 photos. She's got some food, she's enjoying it, but she's also enjoying the world around her...including Nomoto's company, of course. S2 was a lot of character development for Kasuga, and even this poster shows it in the subtlest of ways~

PHOTO THREE: The Hands

Oh yeah, this one gets everyone all giddy inside, huh? It is literally a close-up of Kasuga and Nomoto's hands. Even something as simple has this...has so much going on.

First off, you can't help but love the size difference. Look how big Kasuga's hand is! Just...wow! Nomoto's hand is only a little smaller in comparison, but the angle the photo is taken in really makes the difference much more noticeable.

Next, the simplicity of the shot. It is just their hands. Past their wrists, the focus starts getting fuzzy. This is just like one of those wedding photos where you get the couples' hands with their rings in focus...but...these two don't have rings. It's kind of bittersweet, you know, knowing that they can't actually get married where they live right now. Nevertheless, the tenderness is there. They are a couple, rings or not.

Third, and this is what I ended up writing on Bluesky (but I'll elaborate since I don't have that character limit here) - my interpretation of the pose itself.

It looks like Nomoto wanted to sneak a moment to hold hands, to be honest! Who cares if they're in public? She doesn't. The photo appears as if she was reaching over to Kasuga's hand, not the other way around. In the drama, Nomoto is definitely more of the emotional lead. She has more moments, compared to her comic self, where she starts something, be it trying to cheer Kasuga up from whatever is bringing her down or having a conversation about speaking up about thoughts and feelings.

Kasuga's hand tells me she was a little surprised by the sudden action from Nomoto, but she is also letting the other woman intertwine her fingers with her own. She's letting her in...like how she has let her into her life.

Both of their postures are relaxed. They are at ease, they are comfortable. They are...together!

I hope you enjoyed reading my interpretations! I probably should have started with the S1 photos, but this one was the one that graced my screen earlier, so the thoughts came flying out lol