#you're welcome to disagree

[petit-papillion]

Did you see Sainz impeding Leclerc (again) in qualifying… Nico Rosberg said in sky Italia that Sainz was trying to get a reaction from Leclerc. I honestly don’t know what to think about him anymore

Yeah, I saw.

I didn't hear about Nico's interpretation of the situation, but he does like to stir the pot, so there's that to consider. Clearly Charles wasn't happy about what happened, but we also know a lot is said in the heat of the moment. I appreciated Charles not commenting about it to the press and wanting to resolve it behind closed doors.

I really feel like Carlos is one of those people with the attitude of "don't ask for permission first, ask for forgiveness later". Once the deed/damage is done, they can get mad at him or slap his wrist, and he can even promise never to do it again, but the results stand. Perfect example is Silverstone last year where he openly disobeyed team ordered, left Charles out to dry, and drove himself to victory. Same with impeding during quali. As team principal you can reprimand him after the fact, but the results of the quali session remain in place. Kind of like telling a toddler they can't have a cookie, but they eat it quickly anyway. You can get mad and tell them to never do it again, but they still had that cookie.

Unless Ferrari puts their foot down and comes up with immediate consequences for Carlos, I believe he will continue to go rogue like this. And Charles is a rule-follower, who respects authority. Carlos takes advantage of this, because he knows if he doesn't force it, Charles will nearly always outperform him.

I could be wrong, but I've seen this type of behavior happen too often in the workplace as well as with some notorious family members. "Oops, so sorry I bought that ridiculously expensive gizmo that we really didn't need, and I know you would never have approved. Yes, I promise never to do that again without consulting you first. But since we can't return it now because I already unpacked it, we may as well use it, don't you think?"

[whiteowl-18]

Ok, I'm going to say something slightly controversial and a bit negative. If you don't want to see that, keep scrolling.

Right now, the promise of Buddie is the only reason I'm watching this show. Why, you ask? Because the show is giving me nothing else to care about. Hen and Karen had that whole Ortiz mess, and the only thing the writers gave them after that was Denny almost dying. Chim and Maddie have the pregnancy going on, and they're not giving them anything interesting to do related to that. Then we have copaganda hour with Athena, who is honestly only tolerable because it's Angela Bassett playing her. After returning to the 118, they haven't given anything interesting for Bobby to do either. Also, they spent precious time that could have been spent with the main characters, redeeming Gerrard and, for some reason, developing Brad (who should have been gone after the opening arc), while discarding beloved characters like Ravi and May. So... yeah. Maybe 8b will be different. Maybe the bad writing will improve and they'll give me something to care about. I don't have a lot of faith in the writers, but who knows? Maybe they'll surprise me. But right now, to me, Buddie is the only reason this show is still worth watching. And if they fuck that up too, then I'm out. That is all.

[bookwyrminspiration]

do you think that grady is a sexyman? because i am going through a crisis with the poll rn and need your thoughts

Is Grady sexy? Sure! But is he a sexyman? I personally wouldn't say so. Sexymen (note, everyone that we're talking about sexymen, not sexy men. there is a difference), in my experience, have something wrong with them/have a quirk that gives them the derangement necessary to be a sexyman. They need to be weird! Don't get me wrong, I love him; Grady just isn't odd enough to be a sexyman.

Sorry everyone who voted for him, but I think he's just normal sexy. And this is the sexyman poll, not a sexy man poll. He needs to be sexy and weird, not just sexy. Grady's a dilf, not a sexyman. Brant on the other hand? He's sooo fucked up and weird and that makes him more of a sexyman.

Hope that helps!

[aerypear]

Tears of the Kingdom Review

A very very Long and honest review of the game. I’ve played ... I think almost all of the Zelda titles to completion and I wouldn’t say I’m terrible at playing games (but certainly no expert in playing them.)

I have played botw to 100% completion (Fuck Koroks) So this is from the angle of TotK being a sequel.  There will be Spoilers.

So starting out, the game is very exciting. The whole introduction to the story and plot is very solid. This is the only section of the game where the story is this solid. Thrust onto the main Sky Island where a second Temple of Time rests and you’re released to the races to get through tutorial mode. The progression of this area felt like the Great Plateau in hardness level, which is to say Very forgiving with maybe one or two enemies that may stump you. I did enjoy this area immensely and had fun finding all the ways to get across them with my own problem solving and exploring the various Caves. There’s a few problems immediate problems I noticed but ignored with a “Maybe it’s me solving the problem wrong” or “Maybe I’m using this device wrong”. Minor enough to ignore as there are other ways to solving things. That’s the blessing BotW gave and up until that point TotK also displayed. This quickly became a fallacy in various areas to varying degrees.

The second you leave the Sky Islands you’re off to the races to do... BotW Master Mode. This isn’t a big deal as I had goofed off in BotW in this way and dabbled in it’s Master Mode. While the challenge was happily accepted, I quickly grew weary of it. Monsters in this immediate zone after tutorial mode Can and Will one shot three hearts. The skill ceiling is already much higher than I expected. Add to that that you’re almost punished for making mistakes and not using the weapon fuse system (which require monster parts). Again, wrote off the previous sentence’s revelation as “The weapons are Rusty, It’s to be expected that they don’t perform well”, but this doesn’t go away even after you find their non rusty variants. In a sense, you’re not every relieved of this system. 

Why is it a problem? To get monster parts you must use your weapons, to use your weapons means you’ll need a constant supply of new weapons. This becomes a vicious farming cycle. Add onto this layer that enemies do in fact hit like tanks, this becomes a balancing problem. Nintendo made a Souls level of hardness game and marketed it to children. E10+ means ages 10 and older.

This game would frustrate and upset 10 year olds. Not it’s elements or story, no. But it’s gameplay. The game is tuned too hard for 10 year olds. They don’t get a choice in playing a Master mode level of hardness, they don’t get the freedom to problem solve and bumble through mechanics yet still beat the game. BotW was a little too easy but at least I could confidently say a child could beat that game. I can’t confidently say a child can beat some of the mini bosses and major bosses in Tears of the Kingdom. (and that’s without getting into the weirdness behind the ESRB labeling system.)

Let’s talk about the major mechanic that has everyone excited and making thousands of memes about. The Ultrahand system. It drops your frames (to varying degrees of noticeability) and is tedious. Not to mention tedious. Most of what you make won’t work even though they are designs you see npcs using, the base construct itself will not function as intended, and they added a feature where items will vanish after a certain distance/time has been met. While I’m not typically a harper on items have time limits, it does take the freedom of exploration out of the game. What does it matter that I wish to use a wing glider and soar the skies? Instead of the air balloon vanishing, why not put the fire out after a certain altitude because the air is too thin? The only wing glider I can excuse for having a limit is the one in the Tutorial zone, but outside of it; it takes me out of the game, and puts a damper on the spirit of exploration. I already explored the land in it’s entirety in BotW.  Let me explore it from a new perspective! Let’s round back to the wing Gliders actually. These are the devices that have the most ire from me. When they do work, they work fabulously. When they don’t, You fall out of the air like a rock, for no reason. I can understand this happening in the depths where air is stagnant. But Failed to understand this in the Sky and Land. When it does work, It’ll vanish. Very annoying.

I’m also disappointed that there aren’t more Sky islands that aren’t dedicated to Puzzles. There’s no other islands that exist for the sake of Lore. We’ll come back to lore later. I want to move on to other mechanics that were introduced yet you’re punished for using. Unlike BotW, we can attach buggies to our horses and put just about whatever suits our fancy in it. Koroks, Food, weapons, Zonai devices, etc. This system instantly was rendered null and void with enemies lining the main road wielding fire. I don’t know how npcs are getting to and from locations with a cart because you certainly can’t. They’ll burn anything made out of wood to spite you with ridiculously good aim. The other way this system was rendered useless is via the Save feature. Any items you drop, once you load up a save will be gone. This includes anything you fused onto your cart. 

A not so surprising issue that the game still has is Constantly triggering a blood moon. Something Nintendo said they had fixed, but given the amount of enemies you need to kill just for their supplies to function, was made null and void. Near the start of the game I found I was triggering a blood moon every other in game day. If you’re taking it slow and avoiding every enemy there is, a natural cycle is 7 in game days. 

Let’s finally talk lore. It’s a mess. I have lofty opinions of the Zelda lore as I can word vomit just about any game’s lore at the drop of a hat, and TotK lore is disappointing, pointless, logically flawed, and doesn’t make sense. It’s trying so hard to be it’s own identity but too busy running in the guise of almost every Zelda game. The Wind temple boss was literally Gohma from Windwaker that can fly like Mogera and it’s called... Colgera. I’m fine with Legend of Zelda reusing boss names, and switching up their concepts, but it becomes FAR too on the nose that the wind temple is associated with the Rito, and Gohma was on the Rito’s Island in Windwaker.  Like previous Zelda games, we are once again introduced to the concept of Sages. A plot beat that you can get instantly from going to the major regions where the other races reside like the npcs tell you to do, or one you can scratch your head at if you beelined it to Kakariko. 

Every game had their way of highlighting a Sage, Link to the Past the 7 maidens are descendants of the 7 wise men, Ocarina of time there are 7 sages, 6 of which are the elements Light (Hylian), Forest (Kokiri), Fire (Goron), Water (Zora), Shadow (Sheikah), and Spirit (Gerudo). The Sage of Light’s name, Rauru, makes a reappearance in TotK reprising his role as wielding light. WindWaker introduces us to two new elements that are Sages, Wind and Earth. Laruto (zora) being the previous Earth sage before Medli (Rito), and Fado (kokiri) being the previous Wind sage before Makar (Korok). Twilight princess has six Sages with the sage of water being killed. Spirit tracks shows there are 7 sages called Lokomos, introducing us to 3 new concepts Snow, Ocean and Sand. Link Between worlds are Seven sages that are descendants from the seven maidens. Most of which are Hylians. In Four Swords, it’s a reversal that the 7 maidens are descendants of 7 sages. Wise Men is To Maidens is to Sages is to Maidens.

All of this to say, that in all the games, unlocking the majority of the sages was a part of the plot and the over all story. This is true for learning more about the story in TotK, but you do not need to unlock the sages to face ganon, and you certainly don’t feel their weight of importance as Sages like previous games. Various roles the Sages preformed in previous game was unlocking other sections of the map, Powering the Master Sword, Protecting the Sacred Realm, Helping to Seal Enemies, Acting as Link’s Guides, or requiring rescue because their power being sealed Bolsters Ganon. They’re only Fighting buddies in Tears of the Kingdom. Optional fighting buddies that are a bigger hassle to use than it is worth as you must run up to them and click A. During mid Combat that can be hard. The story takes a “Link doesn’t have to fight alone” narrative but the sages don’t come with link. Their Spirit Simulacrum forms do. Their purpose in the story is Zelda bidding the Ancient Sages to Stand with their temples for a long ass time for the sake of passing on their power to their descendants to take up the mantle of being the next Sage. That’s it. That’s their plot narrative. Did I inundate you with Sage information just to make it clear how VERY off to the side these sages are? Yes. I hope it drives home my disappointment that the sages in this game are just more Tedious versions of BotW Champions that Link for some reason doesn’t have their abilities of anymore. One could even argue that the Champions were more plot relevant given their affiliation with the Divine beasts being taken over by Ganon and that’s what is causing problems in the 4 regions of the world. Not, the ancient Sages left behind their contraptions in very inconvenient locations that are screwing their descendants over...

Zelda’s Role in the game is also complex and stupid. Acting as the Sage of Time (not a surprise given her affiliation with Hylia, and the Princess’s natural born power) she decides that leaving behind anything that would help Link is too logical. See, she does a lot of things for him but doesn’t actively partake in actually helping him. In fact, she’s your biggest road block. Which is a shame because they set her up in such a way in the beginning of the game that made it seem like this wasn’t yet another “Link, you must find me” Round two. The whole game she taunts you in the sky as the Light Dragon (and no this doesn’t make sense), and flies particularly in inconvenient locations While with the Master Sword in her head. It’s fine that she has it. It’s not fine that she’s actively your biggest fucking thorn in the side to retrieving it. Zelda takes a role in the game that I can only explain as Savior Complex.

For a Game that promised to be lore heavy given the implications of talking about ancient hyrule, there’s quite frankly nothing there to learn about it. You’re teased with the prospect of many things having occurred in Ancient Hyrule and the most the npc robots left from this bygone era can tell you is their function and what the location served as. You know small things like the ancient temple of time originally being on land, but now isn’t, you know that they dug underground and made the depths one big mining facility. That’s it. It’s a game that focuses on mechanics, and a good deal of them weren’t thought through.

If you made it this far, you might be wondering if I even like this game? It’s complicated. I enjoy the game. I have become a depths gremlin. I live there now. However, if someone were to say “I love lore, should I play TotK” I would tell them to go play a different Zelda game. If someone didn’t play BotW and wanted to play TotK, I would strongly suggest they go back to BotW and play that where it’s more forgiving to learn your controls. If someone likes dark locations where you can’t see, Come join the depths club. Way more than enough room to join down here. We waited 6 years for this and it honestly feels more like a DLC but at least it has some fun aspects to it.

[alexaryebread]

I don’t support jkr views, but im honestly excited for the hbo hp series. I’m hoping for more canon version of events with more backstories and more character development for the characters who got shoved under the rug. I want to see the canon relationships develop over the series. Harry Potter was a big part of my childhood so I will always love that world. I don’t love the author but unfortunately we can’t separate the two. Everyone has the right to choose if they wish to watch it or not.

You certainly have the right to choose, just as I and others will be choosing not to watch. I hope that if you do choose to watch you at least pirate it so as to avoid giving any money to jkr

In terms of more backstories and character development, eh, that's what fan fiction is for. I doubt anything jkr could add would be better than what the amazing writers in this fandom are already doing

[bixels]

So i have a small nicpic i wanted to share with you about your interpretation of spike in the au and i want to make two things clear before i talk

1) i havent watch the series for a little while as of now so i might be misnterpreting a aspect of this chatacter that might have never been there and only apeared in fan content and personal interpretation (since that whats been keeping me on the fandom)

2) this is not a big problem about the au i matured enough to not get angry at a interpretation of a fictional charater

Now here i go

I feel spike being the same race as the rest of his familie makes him lose a part of his character that might have not been central but was still something interesting about him and is the idea of not mayhering how diferent he looked from his adoptive family (and his cominty as a whole) he was he was still seen as part of it

Again this isnt a big problem with the au as a whole its just a small nicpic that i have about the au and its not going to make me hate the au

This was just my opinion that i wanted to share and im interested to know your opinion about what i said

I understand this criticism and agree that having Simon/Spike be a different race than Thea could speak to their relationship in the original show.

My reasoning for designing them both to be African American is this. I believe Simon's adoption is enough to explore the feelings of separation and exclusion he may have with Thea and her family. The original show doesn't bring up Twilight and Spike's racial differences much because they originally didn't consider Spike to be a part of Twilight's family. As far as I know, there's no moment where someone says, "Wow! You're telling me you're related to Twilight Sparkle? But you look nothing alike!" because Spike was more so Twilights... familiar than anything.

Later episodes that explore their familial dynamic poses the conflict through Spike's adoption. There's one episode where Spike's "biological father" returns, and Spike accuses Twilight of not being his real family, which breaks her heart. There's another that delves deep into Spike's feelings of exclusion from Twilight and Shining Armor's siblinghood. Basically, in discussions of family dynamics, the show places more emphasis on Spike's identity as an adopted sibling rather than a dragon.

I really do believe a multiracial family would be good representation, but the racial dynamics would not be something I'd be interested in getting into. That's not to say I find real multiracial families problematic or uninteresting or unappealing or unimportant. I just wouldn't be interested in having to explain in-text that Simon (non-black) and Thea (black) are related over and over; it would grow tedious. It adds an extra level of writing complication and opens up racial discourse (discourse that I feel is unrelated to their relationship in the original show) that I don't want to concern myself with, especially because I have no experience in navigating such discourse.

[thedragonsfate]

FHJY thoughts under the cut bc I gotta sort my brain and can't be succinct to save my life

I think there's something interesting in acknowledge like

of COURSE Kipperlily underestimated the bad kids.

She's hated these kids from day 1. I know a lot of people want to acknowledge that it's not unreasonable for Kipperlily and the rat grinders to think the school is run unfairly (and you're right! it's a fair conclusion)

-- but we also gotta consider that this is something that took root in her VERY EARLY. Before the bad kids got really very good. Two bad kids die on the first day of school, they spend a significant amount of their second semester freshman year just. In Prison.

Of course what follows I'm sure spurs that hatred, but she all but declared Riz to be her nemesis with Jawbone freshman year.

She's probably got some good ideas of how stuff should change, but also she saw this random Goblin boy with a briefcase in rogue class and decided she Hates Him, for a reason none of us can fathom when several of the other bad kids give off worst first impressiona

She's a teenager, a kid, with anger issues. As much as their can be important nuggets at the core of her motives, she's a teenager without emotional regulation skills. That combination is BUILT to breed resentment and feelings of entitlement. and it's built to actively ignore any evidence of a different perspective.

We talk about how she doesn't understand them, takes Kristen as entirely uncaring, doesn't expect the bad kids to do so well in the Last Stand

and OF COURSE she doesn't. some of this because she of course is not privy to all of the bad kids interactions that we are as an audience. but a lot of it is probably because she's a teenager who's decided she's being slighted and as a result is never going to take the bad kids actions on good faith. she's doubled down and while I have a feeling she's extremely perceptive, she's also in an emotional place that means she probably is ACTIVELY ignoring any evidence to the fact that maybe the bad kids are just ALSO working very hard, and that the school itself may also work against them sometimes.

Add to that a god corrupted into rage (negative in this case) and conquest, and a nefarious faculty member as a potentially directly manipulative adult in her life trying to make something big and destructive happen. Kipperlily strikes me as the kind of person who knows she's smart, and knows she's clever, but is so blinded by her emotion that she is probably missing some of whats clearly in front of her as far as all the Jace business goes. She certainly is about the bad kids.

Jawbone can only do so much to help her in her sessions if he's being actively worked against. Emotional regulation is hard to learn from zero AS AN ADULT and she's probably coming from the negatives if my impression is correct, and is doing so as a teenager.

I guess what I'm trying to say is like

In a vacuum? Sure augeforts comment about trying being stupid or whatever does seem like another slap in the face for Kipperlily, one that justifies some of her feelings.

But not about the bad kids. and not to the extent she has taken them.

And to take that at its word feels weird to me because. To anybody paying attention? The bad kids are and have been trying SO SO hard in class. Them having to take the last stand in the FIRST place is specifically because the school system is treating Kristen unfairly DESPITE her best, GOOD efforts. I'm certain the rat grinders are on some level aware of Gorgugs EXTREMELY uphill battle with schoolwork this season, even if it's just Maryann catching part of a convo with Porter or Ruben hearing about it from his uncle. I HIGHLY doubt that Oisin was oblivious to the way that Adaines academics were affected by her not having the money for the correct materials - she still was able to excel mostly but the effects of that roll being at disadvantage for so long are still THERE. Jawbone pinned down and mentioned to Riz his similarities to Kipperlily within maybe 2 seconds - there is 0% chance he hasn't brought something similar up in Kipperlilys sessions. She may not like it, she may not have the emotional intelligence to see it this way, but his efforts almost certainly mirror hers in a way that makes them equally hard workers, absolutely determined to keep themselves afloat despite it being an uphill battle. Something that she feels she deserves to be rewarded for, and to an extent implies that if just a few circumstances were different she would be able to see equal value in his work.

And sure you can say she may be able to see that and be angry that their work is rewarded and hers isn't, but we see time and time again that she and her party don't always put that same level of work in? Mary Ann at blood rush, absolutely uncaring but doing well specifically because she's got some magical enhancements. The suspicious circumstances of Kipperlily finding the Rogue teacher. Even just the natural advantage of Oisin having more than the funds he needs to excel in wizard class.

But even regardless of that, she seems to refuse to see that any scenario in which others are praised for the same thing she's done, while she is ignored etc, is the sole responsibility of the school here. the bad kids are not her enemies in that fight - augefort is. The bad kids are not going around being consistently given advantages from the school, they're earning the things they get and hitting their own academic road blocks, and they aren't acting better than other people in a way that goes beyond like. Teen stuff. And yet her sights are trained so unblinking on them.

I can see Fabian and Kristen's popularity and personalities coming off like it supports that they're being treated better or feel some superiority. And it's teen stuff to quietly hate those ppl at your school! it's p normal!

But it always brings me back to her SPECIFICALLY hating Riz. Bc Riz isn't a rich kid throwing parties that everyone loves. Hes not sniping out comebacks the way Kristen does, sometimes without even thinking. In a lot of ways he's the/one of the least abrasive of the group to an outsider. Which makes me SO much more inclined to call bullshit that this is truly, honestly rooted in an acknowledgement of any of the REAL problems that come up with their school system.

It's complex, but I feel like we can't exalt their perspective as a Truth of the world like it seems some folks do when these characters themselves do not play fairly. What is fair about the way they interfered with the exam. What is fair about what she did so easily to Buddy Dawn. What is fair about the murder of the couple that owned that farm. Depending on what happened - what is fair from them about Lucy's murder. Certainly what is fair about their hand in Yolandas.

This idea that things are unfair isn't untrue. But not in the ways she thinks, and shes moved so far beyond that notion at this point. Kipperlily probably DOES believe that she's uniquely a victim of this system, or at least that everyone but the bad kids is. But she's moved so far beyond that. Whatever divine rage magic is involved has ensured that, as well as probably some Adult manipulation, and severely underdeveloped emotional regulation skills. and for me that means like. obviously she is unjustified in her actions.

Augefort is absolutely unhinged. his school has never been run in a manner that rewards buckling down in the classroom and the classroom only. It's an adventuring school in truly the most chaotic and violence rewarding sense, and that information is given freely by Arthur augefort at maybe any turn

Saw something about the theoretical being just as important as the practical. and yes! absolutely! a very good point that I'm glad was brought up - going to the classes is important and I think this season has really emphasized the ways in which that's true at least in terms of Staying in School and Honing your Skills

I do think, in the same breath, that that STILL means that the practical is ALSO just as important as the theoretical. It CAN'T be one or the other, it HAS to be both.

and the bad kids are DOING both. regardless of what it may count for, the rat grinders xp leveling by continuing to do freshman level combat in order to excel more on paper ISN'T them really doing the practical part of what theyre learning in their higher level classes. And the bad kids do not get credit for their saving of the world REGARDLESS. Not on its own merit, and to get the credit they'd have to jump a hefty academic bar that sort of invalidates the point of practical efforts in the first place, not to mention works against students like Fig and Kristen.

The school is actively rewarding Kipperlily and her party's cheat code practical use of their skills, over the bad kids putting just as much if not more effort into their LITERALLY WORLD SAVING missions. whatever favoritism shes seeing, or that there may be occasionally, Kipperlily fundamentally takes the bad kids in bad faith. It's not ABOUT what is ACTUALLY unfair to her at this point.

from her perspective every accolade or accomplishment from them HAS to come from favoritism in order to fit how her view of whats actually unfair has been warped. for her it doesn't MATTER that they've been trying because they MUST not be trying as hard as she is. it doesn't matter that they visibly saved the world three times, one of which was livestreamed and included several party members dropping, successfully because surely it's a fluke, or they were given better opportunities than others for no reason, or they're being falsely worshipped for what MUST be a less dangerous quest than it seems (despite us seeing clearly on the first day of school that nobody is putting a pedestal up for their night yorb win)

What could have been a justified spark of frustration with a system has shifted into a vengeful sense of entitlement that to me? fully abandons the good of wanting to change a school system actively working against some (/all?) students.

idk maybe this all sounds like jibberish I just

Kipperlily in her current state is INCAPABLE of not underestimating the bad kids bc that would require some acknowledgement that they have worked and bled and died to reach the level they're at.

You cannot separate the girl who sneaks in to the Last Stand to sabotage another party's chances of passing, of staying at school, of continuing school, of one of them from potentially keeping their god alive, and of being brought back from what she assumes is certain death - from the slighted teenager running for class president to make things "more fair"

you cannot separate the girl who easily slits her own party clerics throat without second thought from the girl who thinks she's been slighted by an unjust system

What she means by unfair is inherently colored by her being that same person

Augefort can say whatever nonsense he wants, and it doesn't really justify her current frustrations at this point because her version of fair is fundamentally unfair now.

Shes a child who's become corrupted, just like Buddy. but unlike him - she's become genuinely nefarious and vengeful. Unlike buddy she is actively plotting. Harming others with full knowledge of it. We don't know how much of it comes from her on her own, or the rage baking underground, or Stardiamonds direct involvement - but I think this most recent episode should make it clear that like

Whatever truth there is to the school being run in a way that is unfair to its students, and regardless of what she says or thinks

Kipperlily Copperkettle is not operating from that grounded perspective. and I don't think she has been for a long time

[soulmvtes]

dif anon. you’re so valid about being allowed to have your opinions on ts and her songwriting but saying that it has never been her strongest appeal is truly insane and i'm fully saying this as a casual listener. i study literature and i've had definitely more than a few courses about her composition and writing process and i feel the hate train on stuff she decides not to speak about (even if it benefits her or not, because i believe she doesn’t owe shit to anyone on that department) on her is just so unnecessary at this point of her career that most people (ngl including you) don’t even try to see beyond the basics and surface on her lyricism and is so wild to me that random individuals just comment on her as if she wasn’t a genuine ally of serious literature but well, that’s just me hah :) id be lying if i say she has some cringey lyrics here and there but it’s the bare minimum because even on her earlier albums she’s been putting exceptional wording to express her feelings and emotions all at once.

i have to disagree with you on literally all of this. in my experience of ts like growing up listening to her, her lyricism really hasn't been her strongest appeal (which is not to say she doesn't have good lyrics at times!!! i think ur misunderstanding me bc i have said that her lyrics can be really good at times even in earlier albums) - i think definitely in more recent times there's been more of a focus on it but still, when i have thought about her and her music i have just never ever associated her with Good lyricism (which isn't a bad thing?) so i'm not sure if it's bc you are a fan/you listen to her a lot so it's more meaningful to you or what else you listen to (which i'm not saying in a mocking way at all) but i just can't see that as her entire thing personally. i study literature too so it's fair to say we have had very different experiences in terms of viewing her lyricism in that regard. i completely disagree that she doesn't owe anyone anything in speaking out about things tho, she definitely should use her reach and sway esp when its clear she picks and chooses. personally an artist means nothing to me if they can't engage with the material world around them. that doesn't mean they are required to be well versed on every single thing and make some kind of stance on everything but it's so clear which kind of lives and issues and people she values and i think that matters more to people (such as me) than her lyricism which people are often willing to look behind.

[dxxtruction]

Sooooo, Armand did tamper with Louis memories but my next question is why? I find 'he wanted to manipulate him' a bit crass of a read; lacking. That's not to say he hasn't, or that he'd be so dense to not know that he had, rather that this wouldn't be what motivates him. So, what does, and why did he do it?

Suppose it's easiest to start with the core of it, which is that most anyone typically acts out of a need to cling to (or run from) some sense of self or identity, especially when it's called into question. We have to reckon with how others see us just as much as we have to reckon with how we see ourselves. Grappling with finding relation to the changing and unchanging facts about ourselves - the total amalgamation of what makes us 'us' - comes with an interplay of inner and outer perceptions surrounding everything we do, or seem to do in both these eyes. Armand is called into question by Louis. And from what we know of his character is that his identity is heavily internally clung to two things: A necessity for having control, and a desperate need to be loved.

It's important that how those manifest in him is deeply rooted in the traumas he's faced (Which he wants to run away from in the form of seeking and identifying with said control/love. Even at the expense, knowingly or not, of replicating those cycles). So, it's like he's living in near constant response to it. Leaving him without much else to find identity in.

And loss of identity directly feeds into his traumas as well, it being one of them, done repeatedly. Making the process of having any ambiguity on part of how another views him - particularly from those he cares deeply about the opinions of, especially on matters of love - difficult to accept, and easy to deny. In other words: he needs whatever sustained self image he can hold on to, so struggles identifying with the truth about Louis' feelings about him being so opposed. Upon question, he can't accept what not being loved would do to that image and finds himself seeking the comfort of living in denial.

So, I'd say that then could explain most of it. Being motivated to maintain certain perceptions in the form of tampering with memory: the means through which said perceptions are perceived. Making everyone live in this denial with him also appealing to his controlling. Thus returning this sense of self back to him in both aspects. The emotional wound does explain (not forgive) why he takes to it in the way he does.

But let's go deeper, because there's more to the very situation (1973) as to why. Why would Armand go out of his way to tamper with Louis memory as well, when they'd already reached a kind of conclusion that does appear to keep their companionship? What, to his mind, called for it given the situation?

Harkening back to above, Armand defines himself around Louis in a major way. Louis is his love, is his need to be loved. There's a developed co-dependancy between them. They're at such point both exploiter and exploited in this. His happiness, is Armand's happiness, is reason enough to preserve it in a way that is agreeable. And that agreement is a tricky one to play a balance with, like they honestly shouldn't be together after Paris, but this goes without saying. It's been on Armand, mostly, to make this relationship work. (And even if it was mostly one of a lot of a denial, I like to imagine there are large periods where it has, and they've lived a relatively normal relationship, had this 'dreamy balance' or it simply wouldn't have lasted so long - with or without mind fuckery).

He wants it most too, which is how Louis is able to have some control over Armand. Control in how Louis ability to love him is very conditional and rests a lot on Armand's ability to satisfy, gratify, console, and control Louis for his own protection - despite knowing he'll never make up for Paris he does everything to earn Louis anyway. So could Armand have chosen to do this to be perceived as someone able to earn it still? That's one option. Very plausible.

Louis has a complicated love for Armand, it's there and isn't, but he also can get from Armand whatever he can squeeze out of him, and in this past he takes heavy advantage of it. As Armand is susceptible to his own much greater necessitation to be loved by him, making him go out of his way to do this 'earning'. However, as had been revealed, for Armand this is played up in part to uphold for Louis' perceptions that he really has that much power over him.

Because what we also have to factor in is Armand's other aspect - control. The line, 'Armand preserves my happiness even when I can't or wont. He had a hunch you might prove useful in later times', is rehearsed in much the same way this entire dynamic is one of great rehearsal. It's practiced, or it would be chaos.

There's certainly a part of Armand that likes being in the submissive role too, he likes what comes with it, but he can't be in total service to Louis, and Louis can't be without rules - or there's no control. Rules, roles, scripts, are very important to Armand, they're a way to facilitate a controlled setting, and he's really the one to enforce the parameters of what those are more so than Louis is. See; when Louis breaks from these things of agreement, what Armand normally gives him goes away.

I picture Louis as like the playwright of the relationship - the one facilitating everything - while Armand seems to then stage direct everything about it, sometimes secretly. In this way, Armand places himself as moreso being the one to meet his own satisfaction, gratification, consolation, and control (he has more overall power here in a duel sense) than Louis. Louis own meeting of these things still factor into it, though. Remember; his happiness, is Armands happiness, is his role to maintain so the play will keep writing itself. The curtains would close on their relationship otherwise.

This is the 'balance' of agreement between them, and again, it's entirely likely such balance just could not be maintained were those memories to stay as they were, almost like the jig is up. There's a factor here of Armand probably catching that Louis wouldn’t be comfortable in this relationship knowing more apparently Armand had so much more power over him this whole time. He knew, of course, but in their roles they could forget. This switch up in dynamics over those few days revealed the imbalance of things, a truth about it, and those needed to be masked back up. Theatre.

But let's explore some other ideas too.

I would first repeat myself in more context, Armand tampers with the script for the express purpose of preservation - of its dynamics, its roles, its rules, and of Louis. Nothing has the ability to change if nothing happened and Armand perhaps wanted to go on as if nothing really did - again there's denial. Armand finds reason in preservation to remove those memories. Preservation of Louis is in several ways preservation of himself, is preservation of their companionship. A companionship which is what he defines himself through - his love, his control.

But tacked onto this there's also this protecting Louis from himself - from the knowing of what he did (the arguing, the attempt, and what came after) and why it all happened. This is maybe Armand's way of going about excusing it? But, he probably does think this is to an extent true. He does think he's protecting him with this, preserving his happiness. There's an argument to be made that Louis wouldn't be alive without Armand acting in this way. That, hypothetically, the reminder would be fuel to attempt again, so perhaps there's merit to this excuse. It is ultimately still an excuse though. It's still a fucked up form of protection. One that can't actually allow Louis to move past into healing from the actual causes of things. Or Armand for that matter.

Removing those memories could also be because of a remorse on his part, Armand's regretful role in how he acted during all of it. He doesn't want to be remembered that way. Yet again with identity, and with denial. This isn't the image of who he wants to be. This isn't how he would paint himself.

Armand in this stage director role also just has a tendency to do that - and edit himself out. It'd not be shocking that such a heightened situation would call for heightened dramatics. I don't see Armand taking it to this extreme as being a common thing, this could've been the only time too. That we can't actually say for sure is the terrifying part, the potential is always still there once you know its there. (and the point was never to know it's there).

There's a part of me that wants to say that pairing the 'cut' with Daniel's isn't without it's place in this either. It seems pointed. Armand's jealousy of Daniel over Louis preferring him motivating removing any memory that he ever did have reason to find Daniel so favorable, let alone bond deeper with him over those days. He was making sure further contact was unlikely to happen? Compliant willingness for it now could be a matter of knowing it's a lot safer to do so. Louis seems in a lot better place than he was. Armand can't really say no at this point. And he couldn't tell him why it ever would've been dangerous to begin with, just be extremely on guard about the whole thing.

Really, there's not an easy answer to it that we can point to and say: it's this one. I wouldn't be surprised if it was all these things building to a list of reasons, and more than the one's I've listed. Ends up with more pros than cons? But there could also be hardly calculation at all and it's a purely emotional choice, coming from an emotional place.

A very damaging choice, regardless, among several other damaging choices, and it's one I think can be read with all this nuance without mitigating that. I hope it's been clear I'm not trying to. Intentions don't = impact. Investigation into the intentions doesn't take away from that.

I'm very interested to see how it all plays out, how they handle this on the impact side of things. If they'll actually give more of an answer. Rolin says some interesting things here: x. That alludes to how they're going to address this whole thing about memory - it's monstrous quality - with some of the same nuance I've given. And how a blanket statement on blame, and who did what, isn't where this kind of conversation will end up going.

[separatist-apologist]

Back by unpopular demand: Acotar characters as Tumblr shit posts

Rhys:

Feyre:

Nesta:

Cassian:

Elain:

Lucien:

Gwyn:

Azriel:

Emerie:

Mor:

[askinkiskarma]

some of the people in this fandom don't have a lot, but they do have the ✨audacity✨

[weedle-testaburger]

ok, gun to your head:

[someonefantastic]

The further I get through these later seasons of Charmed, the more it’s got me thinking about why they just don’t resonate with me the same as the first three seasons did. And yes the obvious big reason is both Constance M. Burge and Shannen Doherty being forced off the show but I’ve been trying to examine it beyond that in a “what specifically in the narrative isn’t working” way and I think one of the reasons I’ve landed on is that the sisters aren’t effected by something that haunts their every move as much as in the first three seasons.

Let me explain. Throughout seasons 1-3, there's Something that is constantly influencing the way the sister's behave and interact with each other. For Prue its her fear of ending up like her parents and thus abandoning her sisters. For Phoebe its feeling like she can't measure up to anyone and will never be adequate. And for Piper it's that this life that they've fallen into will rip away everything she loves. And sure, there's some of that in season 4 and beyond but it feels more because that's how the characters were originally built than intentionally written in. (Brain Drain is the only exception but that episode is written as Piper "conquering" that fear--though you do see her experiencing remnants of it with the preparation of her upcoming child being born but I'm not sure if that's intentional or, like I said, built upon the Piper we've seen in the previous 4 seasons.) But overall we don't really see these deep rooted ghosts repeatedly coming back in the same way that we did in the first season which is a huge miss, in my opinion. As I touched on, Piper's fear of being a witch taking away everything she loves would be a really interesting part of her pregnancy journey and preparing to be a mom. Or Phoebe feeling as if she'll never be enough would make her choosing to stay with Source!Cole even though he's evil really interesting and layered or later when she completely consumes herself with her work. And yes, there are remnants of both of those but the way those themes were so overt in the first three season really helped the show feel grounded and about people who also happened to be witches. There was a relatability that I think the later seasons are lacking because the sister dealt with every day issues that the audience could be experiencing in addition to demons and warlocks and the like.

I think Paige is the biggest example of this theme falling off the radar the how goes on because she doesn't really have something haunting her throughout the show. There are plenty of opportunities for that something to arise--comparing herself to Prue (trying to measure up to a sister she never met), Phoebe telling her off when she thinks Cole is evil (being the odd one out in the three of them's sibling relationship because she wasn't there for most of their lives), her meeting Grams and then Sam (not wanting people to replace the family she's already had), her not wanting to live in the house anymore (feeling stifled as an only child who is no longer an only child)--but it doesn't really. Or at least nothing really sticks. Which I think is a huge missed opportunity. Giving Paige an overt theme that haunts her throughout the show, informs her actions and pushes her forward, would be really good for the narrative. When Phoebe got upset at her at the end of The Fifth Halliwheel for not trusting Cole, I legit thought there was going to be a whole Thing about how Paige doesn't feel like she quite belongs as a Halliwell and what that means for her and there sort of are bits and pieces of that but it didn't really catch on. Not in the same way as Prue throughout her centric episodes or Piper every time she tried to give up her powers or Phoebe as she tried to get a job and couldn't and then eventually went back to college. It's there but it's not really.

Don't get me wrong, I love Paige and I enjoy these seasons but it's missing the same spark that drove me to spread out the episodes so I wouldn't finish a season too fast and caused me to obsessively think about the characters and their motivations rather than how the show structures its narrative. And I definitely think that not having those core motivators that haunt the character's every decision is part of the reason for that missing spark

[reactionimagesdaily]

[fakehelper]

Okay so this is something that I held off on saying outright because of Natalie and the sway she had over the RPC, but one of the reasons that we require fcs to have a large following if they're not already in the entertainment industry (or trying to be in the industry) on GPN is because it feels oddly dehumanizing and tokenizing to take people who agreed to be part of a documentary or are in someone else's vlog because they are disabled or an ethnic minority and trying to use that person as an fc for "representation". While there isn't an abundance of disabled actors, they are out there, and I would much rather use an actor or model than an activist or someone who is literally just disabled and happens to be in a video, because they're not trying to break into the entertainment world, they're just living their lives.

Not to mention, when those people are only in one documentary or an episode of a show about disabilities, you're not going to get a lot of resources anyway, so it's not sustainable to use them as an FC. Just, when you're going forward and making resources of normal non-famous people because you think they'd be "good representation," please think twice about why you're actually making those resources. Would your time be better spent gifing a disabled actor or singer or model who is actually famous or even someone who's trying to break into the industry, who will likely have more footage down the line and actually give people more incentive to use that FC? Or are you just trying to gif as many people as you can to say that you're inclusive?

[plumdrops]

I spend a lot of time trying to get the polycounts of my conversions as low as possible without compromising too much on quality. The lower I go, the more likely the textures start to go squiggly and I wonder how big a deal this is to people? Would you prefer a perfect hair with a high polycount or a mid-poly hair with subtle imperfections?