#I hope this is in any way coherent

[witchy-rook]

Okay I’m a few days late but I keep seeing posts about the Glorious 25th of May and I need to go on a ramble about it and Night Watch as a whole, because I only recently read it and I’m a historian of revolutionary politics and this kind of shit is my jam so hard. So! Major spoilers for Night Watch  (and some of the other Guards’ Discworld books) under the cut  - be warned...!

I love love love the Glorious 25th of May and the events of the Revolution in Night Watch. My area of expertise in my real life is late-eighteenth century and nineteenth century Revolutionary European politics, so everything from the French Revolution up to and beyond the Springtime of the Peoples and the Revolutions of 1848. I loved what was written of revolutionary politics in previous Guards books, like what we hear of Stoneface Vimes in the anti-monarchial Revolution in Feet of Clay. Night Watch is especially exicting to me as it captures exquisitely how revolutions actually progress, and I love that about it.

Because all historical revolutions are, well, historical, we have a tendency to view them with a certain fixed course - after all, they did go a certain way. However, it’s important to remember that, for the people on the ground, they didn’t know where they were going, and so often it was just ad hoc reaction and improvisation. I don’t think many of the people who stormed the Bastille in 1789 would have known that in 1793 they’d execute the King. And that’s the thing: we tend to look at Revolutions like single instances of radical expression, but they’re usually long term, continuous events. They change and shift, becoming more or less extreme as events unfold.

And that’s why I love the Glorious 25th of May and the Treacle Mine Road Republic. The time travel aspect is especially poignant here because Vimes knows how things went because he was there once, but this is a new timeline, and he’s constantly aware that things could go differently if he’s not careful. Through his narration, we are also constantly reminded that no one really intended for things to turn out how they did - most of the events that led to the big revolution in the Shades were only accidentally influential. Everything from the Particulars to the Morpork Street Conspiracy even to the barricades was just people reacting to chance and circumstances. Sure, people like Reg Shoe, Rosie Palm, Madame and the various conspirators dreamed of a better city, a city without Lord Winder, but most of the people manning the barricades on the Glorious 25th were just people who lived there, people who were swept up in the fervour - people who, when the armistice is announced, go back to being normal people, taking their furniture home.

The expansion of the barricades really captures this. It often seems to me that Revolutions are a kind of living social organism that spread. In Europe, the French Revolution (both the one in 1789 and the other one in 1848) inspired other Revolutions. They spread. In Ankh-Morpork, the barricades were just meant to protect Treacle Mine Road, but they get physically pushed out by enthusiastic revolutionaries, caught up in the tide - people who are suddenly energised to push the Revolution further than it was ever originally intended. And, of course, in the real world as in Ankh-Morpork, sometimes this pushing has bad outcomes: people die, revolutionary hopes are betrayed, battles are fought and maybe things don’t change as much as was desired.

I said to my girlfriend once that, I think if magic is real, there’s a kind of magic in the Crowd or the Mob. There’s a way that, when lots and lots of people get together for a common cause, the Crowd becomes its own, emergent entity. If you’ve made it through my ramble this far and would like to read more, I’d highly recommend looking for scholarly articles about the Crowd or the Mob in the 18th or 19th century. ‘Hibernian Sans-Culottes? Dublin's Artisans and Radical Politics, 1790-1798‘ by Timothy Murtagh in La Révolution française might not be a bad place to start, if I may be so bold.

But anyway, that’s besides the point. The point is, the Glorious 25th of May might be a fake revolution in a fake city, but it’s the perfect analogue for real revolutions that happened in real cities. If you were ever wondering why X Revolution went the way it did, maybe you can look to the things Vimes sees, thinks and does in Night Watch, and maybe it will help make it a little clearer.

And if you’ve made it this far, congrats! Please do send me asks about my thoughts on this as a historian if you want, I’d love the opportunity to ramble some more.

#discworld #night watch #the glorious 25th of may #treacle mine road republic #I hope this is in any way coherent

[cirrus-grey]

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck the goddamn music-

I don't know the name for the technique but there's this thing that was in there that's the string players, like, tapping the instrument with the bow to create a more percussive sound and normally I wouldn't think too much of it but I swear to god it sounded like creeping spider legs. During the case set at Hill Top Road. With the very obvious references to the Buried and the Stranger and all the rest. Which dropped about a hundred Achives references including Jon's fucking name???

I have always respected the soundscaping they do at Rusty Quill but they're really going above and beyond for this show.

#i dont know if ill have any more coherent thoughts for this episode thb #my mind is just circling on 'celia knows celia KNOW tapes and manila folders??? doing her own research??? anything SPECIAL about #the ones that get read aloud????? #celia tma didnt know that much how does celia tmagp know did she talk to georgie and melanie after it all does she have news about them- #jon jon jon jon jon #lena worked for starkwell didnt she #jon- #did colin just fucking punch sam????? #j- #oh gwen you are in way over your head #dark coat does this worlds gerry work for starkwell too #celia KNOWS #JON #i hope people dont get too annoying about 'its really him' yall know it could just be an ai #SAM TALK TO CELIA ABOUT THE EMAIL FROM JON #i can send email - no shit really??' #...yeah. my brain's a mess right now #this is what i get for listening at 1am #the magnus protocol #7 give and take #tmagp spoilers #tmagp audio #my magnus protocol stuff #original post #queue cause i'll be at work when the episode airs

[yourqueenb]

As a continuation of this ask that I responded to, all the things I mentioned are just parts of the overall issue I have with Blades…. which is that, in the grand scheme of things, I feel like MC is simply a plot device for the other characters rather than a fully developed character who has a fully developed and satisfying arc herself. It’s clear that Nia’s is the story the writers really wanted to tell considering how intertwined her characterization/development and the overall world building are. They basically even admitted as much.

So my question is why not just make her the MC if that’s really what you wanted on the not so down low? They still could’ve incorporated the skill mechanic. Why create a whole player character just to have us running to solve everyone else’s problems/support them while acting like everything that happens to us exists inside of a vacuum in the meantime? So far, all we’ve really been doing in this book is reporting where the group needs to go, telling them what to do, having heart to hearts with them when they need help moving to the next stage of their development, and then being spoonfed information through the lore tablets, which are apparently more for the players’ benefit than MC’s since they barely affect how we respond in game anyway. I’m fine with being the leader or the glue that holds everyone together, but to me it’s unsatisfying that that’s all we are as the main character.

We somehow become more competent due to the skill mechanic but no less clueless at the same time. We have all this terrible shit happen to us, but are only offered a few lines’ description of how that’s affected us. And then the rest of the attention goes to setting up the light vs. shadow conflict and our friends, who get to have personal and compelling conflicts of their own. I mean I feel like MC is more of an emotional support animal to them than an actual person with dreams, feelings, and a (minimal) background. Imo the only character who’s getting shafted almost as much as us is Imtura.

And all of this might make it sound like I hate Blades, but it’s quite the contrary actually. It’s still one of my favorite series and has a lot of fun moments and lovable characters. But I think at this point, its flaws have become too large for me to ignore. So that’s still affecting my enjoyment a bit and probably the reason why I’m so upset with how certain things are being handled. Of course I’m aware that Blades isn’t the only book that has some of these issues though. I think it’s just a little more disappointing because I expected more

#choices bolas #choices blades #blades of light and shadow #choices stories you play #playchoices #and again it’s not lost on me that a lot of my opinion is probably colored by being on Mal’s romance route alone #from what I’ve seen of Tyril’s route he at least seems to care a bit more #he even shows concern for MCs who have a purely platonic relationship with him #I’m not sure about Nia and Imtura #but even still I feel like MC isn’t being given nearly enough from the writers regardless of who you’re romancing #also I’m still not sure I’ve really explained my thoughts clearly #I feel like I just typed a lot and then decided to post bc I don’t have the capacity to try to organize this any further #so it just never would’ve gotten posted if I waited for that 🤦🏽‍♀️ #but either way I hope it’s semi coherent and doesn’t just sound like a lot of whining and rambling 💀😭 #choices #choices app

[ballwizard]

,,lpl . bblease;; am on my knees begging u ……….please………bestow ur wwisdom upon me……..teach me 2 draw…………………..

OK! So here's a couple of my quick tips on drawing fat people (Sources: I'm fat)

One of the best tips for myself is to keep in mind that fat people are usually physically wider than skinny people, so I factor this into their proportions!! here's a good example:

archies shoulders are much wider than otto's, and so is his neck :-) of course this isn't true for every fat person etc etc but it's a good start.

here's a rough comparison of archies and ottos builds! while archie IS bigger than otto in general, just, like, physically, you can see that when I draw them i kind of segment their bodies. you can see the line breaks where I start segment to segment, but here's a color coded one just to illustrate better.

you can see the comparison between their sizes better here and notice what places hang over or fold differently bcuz archie is fat. (like his chest, stomach, upper arms and thighs)

basically my biggest tip is to keep in mind that difference!! obviously I'm not like. the ultimate authority on fat people but these are just my tips I use :-)

#i hope i explained my thoughts in any way thats coherent. i am still a little high #Smiles serenely

[glitteringdepths]

had some brainworms about transfem furina.... can anyone hear me.

i feel like this would have really interesting implications in her story, much as she loves acting, but struggles with it due to the 500 years she spent being forced to act, would being a woman be the same for her? she doesn't know where the act ends and where her actual identity begins. is she a woman because she wants to be, or just because she had to be one. even if she enjoys it more than the alternative, does she actually enjoy it? or is it just because she was one for so long that she enjoys it?

i can imagine that focalors likely didnt care much about her identity/presentation as archons have been shown to be able to change their forms at will basically, but furina is the human counterpart of focalors. she doesn't have that ability to change herself just like that. i imagine gender identity would be much more important to a human, especially one that must keep up an act at all times, than a god, and thus something that would affect her. something she would think about. a lot.

maybe post-prophecy, she would experiment. figure out if femininity is in fact something she wants. maybe she would try to go back to being "cis" and then realize it wasn't right for her. and i imagine that she would flourish more being able to properly express her femininity rather than doing it just because it was apart of the role.

#my art #genshin impact #furina #idk. i think trans readings of furina in general are very interesting. it could work any which way for her. #but. something about the transfem furina hc really hits for me and im not sure why! #it got me thinking! #sorry if these thoughts arent coherent. im not the best at expressing what i want to say. hope it makes sense though! #but god. furina and how complicated her feelings must be on everything is so so so interesting #it must be a nightmare to figure out who she really is and how she really feels. how she really thinks. #since her identity got blurred together with that of being an archon #kinda scared to post this bc i dont usually post headcanon type stuff (probably fear about being Wrong about something) but here we go! #well whatever this is also my sideblog and not my main.

[rainmidnight]

"my muses, acquired like bruises" is so romajuliette especially if we think of juliette as roma's muse for his poetic love letters and how their entire love story consists of conflict and violence, how they had to trudge through harsh conditions, and how they ended up on the other side of it together despite everything that had happened

#idk if this is coherent in any way but i hope you see my vision #romajuliette #roma montagov #juliette cai #these violent delights #our violent ends #tvd #ove #secret shanghai #chloe gong #last violent call

[bumblingbabooshka]

This is literally one of my favorite moments for both Harry Kim and B’Elanna characterization. I think a lot of people forget how soft hearted and altruistic B’Elanna specifically can be while Harry, of course a friendly and sweet individual, devotes himself most often to the mission, his friends and Starfleet’s ideals. Harry’s been shown to be much more down-to-earth and less fantastical in his thinking than either Tom or B’Elanna. The only time he gets in major trouble with Janeway and breaks protocol is because he wants to be with a woman. This is distinctly different to me than Tom’s (attempting to save an alien world) and B’Elanna’s (giving a robot race the ability to reproduce) transgressions. His other biggest infraction is begin a mutiny which he does in order to save Janeway & Chakotay. He doesn’t get in trouble for this which is why I put it last but again it seems different from Tom or B’Elanna to me because it’s For The Ship it’s For The Captain it’s a crime which displays his loyalty to Janeway instead of one which demonstrates him going against her ideologically (as shown by the lack of punishment). In that way I think B’Elanna and Harry balance each other well. B’Elanna is a person who seems very nervous and defensive when in conversation with others, who thinks of herself as a person who is ‘bad’ and doesn’t believe in herself much. Meanwhile Harry seems to be at ease with most anyone he speaks to, attempting to befriend even Seven of Nine right away. He’s confident in himself and his abilities and out of everyone (yes even Tom who seems most often to just become frustrated) would be the one to push B’Elanna and break through her defenses. That’s to say it makes perfect sense that B’Elanna would be absolutely enamored by this person who views her as inspiring, would be struck by that while Harry views it as just a weird question. 

#I do n't know if I'm being coherent enough...but I really like this scene!!! #and I really like both B'Elanna and Harry Kim!! #st voyager #You might say 'It's just bc B'Elanna's been with these people' #BUT I REALLY think that Harry wouldn't have gone through with the whole 'participating in a play exit'...I think if it was Harry the episode #would have been one of those that ended with him looking sadly out a window like 'It's damn hard to follow protocol sometimes...' but he'd #see no other option #I REALLY hope I'm being uhh understandable HEHEH #whenever I ramble like this I'm like 'Bea you're not making any sense' #also thispost is dedicated to the folks who yell at me (affectionate) about putting the majority of my post in the tags HEHHEHE #I finally di d it...I put the whole post up there... #I was really going to just put 'This is one of my favorite characterization moments' up there and put the rest of that in the tags #but then I was like no...they need the whole thought process #labeling Harry Kim as just 'sweet boi uwu' and B'Elanna as 'fiesty angry lady' is a real disservice to their characters #and might be rooted in some OTHER things #like CERTAIN preconceptions #I think Harry's biggest established fears are not being particular special and being underestimated or babied #But none of those fears seem to drive his behavior the way B'Elanna's do #....God I hope this information is correct I always put this shit in the tags bc I'm afraid someone's gonna reblog this like #'Bea none of this happened what are you talking about' and I'll look it up and I'll be like what WAS I talking about #B'Elanna Torres #Harry Kim #Harry's fears also demonstrate that he thinks of himself as 'good' and more worries others won't be able to see it or he won't stand out #enough for it to matter - again much more confident than B'Elanna

[ruporas]

i've been wondering- what do you think of vash and ww's relationship to pain? do u have any thoughts on it??

cuz i was just thinking like. obviously they're both extremely resilient and don't care much if they get hurt in the process of achieving whatever, but like... as for the pain specifically, i have to wonder.

cuz i'm reading trimax for the first time and toward the end of the sand steamer mess kite basically asks if vash even feels pain. and i mean... he has to, since not that long ago he just hit the floor with a dramatic blood splatter lmao. but like.

is he just suppressing visible reactions? or does he just not feel pain unless it's above a certain level?

and i wanna know about ww too if you have thoughts, i just haven't gotten that far in trimax :')

forgive me if my wording is all over the place, i havent been very elegant in my words Lately, but i am always down to talk about specific shit involving vash and wolfwood,

if we're just talking physical pain, yeah, i think they feel pain normally!

For Vash, he is the master of repression throughout Trimax, so I think naturally, he keeps a strong face no matter the level of hurt, whether on the outside or inner. It's just in his nature to not allow others to worry about him by pulling through with a fake smile or in some cases, he feels like he deserves the pain inflicted on him so even if he's getting pulverized to shit or threatened against his life, he'd default to a silence as opposed to screaming in agony that might make people think he isn't feeling anything. It's probably also second nature for him to no longer yelp or cry at pain after the amount of years he's spent getting hurt, but i think this only applies if he isn't emotionally involved in a fight (which is rare, but it happens in ch. 38).

In terms of physical pain, he seems to feel it like how regular humans do. I've thrown together some examples where he goes owchie owchie owchie that aren't too spoilery:

The Emilio scene is kind of why I don't think he's just playing up the theatrics of feeling pain, though I do think he would on some occasion, especially since he roleplays with children all the time. Verbally saying "ow ow ow" could potentially be an instinctive reaction too or maybe a source of comfort. But yeah!! I think Vash has always been able to feel pain and it's not like being a plant has lessen his ability to do so. Any resilience built is tacked on due to him being alive for 100 years and being a guy with a clear painted bullseye on his entire figure that ends up getting him shot and scarred.

In the end, the pain that gets to Vash the most will always be on an emotional level rather than physical, but Vash is such a genuine person and so present when it comes to other people that even if it's a pain he can take, it'll still hurt him terribly in more ways than one.

For Wolfwood; I think in general, those under the Eye of Michael have a strong resilience to dealing with pain due to the regen potions and the amount of training forced on them. I don't think we ever get the full description of what exactly those in EoM endured throughout their younger years, but we saw WW get shot at an early age in chapter 12 and we can assume it happened more than once. Over and over again until he won't even flinch against it just like how killing without hesitation was attempted to be drilled into him. I don't really know how it works scientifically… but I fully believe that he's mostly numbed to the physical sensation of it and it's the psychological part that gets to him more. Wolfwood himself is a naturally skilled fighter too, not that that really has anything to do with his dealing with pain, but I think his focus and attention on a battle and his stubbornness to win kicks an adrenaline that allows him to ignore the pain.

Though, his body also gets sore and tired just like any regular human does and there's this instance where he goes owie too:

(While NOT as much as Tristamp WW does where he's cracking a cold one every goddamn minute, I do think Trimax WW has gotten used to taking regen pots and thus, can afford to be careless and not give a damn.)

So, physically, technically in canon, they don't really have anything that specially makes either of them unable to feel pain, but just as you said, they're incredibly resilient. And ultimately, the both of them are affected emotionally/psychologically that hurts them more than the physical aspect of it, considering how physical pain is almost a daily chore for them to deal with (Vash being hunted for sport for majority of his life + Wolfwood being involved in experiments/killings for majority of his life.)

I think Trigun in general, while showing physical pain being a strong factor of hurt for regular people like us constantly seeing civiilians get beat up or shot, it tends to boil down to the multiple varieties of pain when it comes to those who deal with physical pain often (Gung Hos, Vash, EoM members).

I didn't know where to put these comments but here are extra thoughts:

They're both evidently really good at hiding their pains or any mark of vulnerability. They both could have a hole in their chest and go days without anyone else noticing so long it isn't killing them.

They're both pretty reckless during battle, but I think for Vash, he already tries to avoid violence at all cost and thus, do in a roundabout way lessen his own chance of getting hit in hoping to not stir that violence against another. As a result, I think Wolfwood can be way more reckless and ends up getting hurt more unnecessarily as a result of it.

They both are capable of healing at quick rates so I'm sure that allows the pain to feel more temporary, less of a risk to sustain, and to further hone in not caring too much about getting shot. That only applies for themselves individually though because every time they see each other get hurt, they're always so so worried despite knowing the other will be fine.

i'm pretty sure i repeated myself like 800 times, but i hope this Answered the question SFGMSDKGSMDKH i also tried to be vague enough in my wordings and focus only on the beginning-ish of trimax so to not spoil! i hope u enjoy ur reading of it!!

#asks #thank you for sending this and for your curiosity on my silly thoughts #honestly i dont think this is very coherent but i hope it is at least comprehensible. if im like. missing or wrong about anything #feel free to lmk..... #i do think its so crazy though that vw both understand the other is not like a regular person by any standard #and like sure vash knows sees and breathes in the fact that wolfwood /is/ human but he also can't see ww as just Another human #bc that human is entrusted with his back and does a good ass job protecting it. ww is like #super abnormal to him but in a positive human way-- #but where im going is that both of them know that about each other but still are so concerned all up with each other #Never once faltering in worrying about each other. granted theyre both so haunted by the amount of people theyv seen die and are thoroughly #afraid of that same thing happening to each other regardless of each other's monstrous capabilities of surviving but theyre just so #protective in some way as a result. #anyway i am sleepyg....

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

#its seems we really may be at the end of vanity #i missed a call from my dad and thought we might be in a connors birthday situation but no. not yet #he did say that it feels like this is it bc my mom's situation is complicated bc she has so much wrong at this point #its like a h0use md episode. the doctors dont seem to kno what to do and shes not very coherent #so my dad was saying that i should look at flights and by tonight hell let me kno if i should pull the trigger and buy a one way ticket home #it sucks. he sounds rough. i feel so bad for him. his wife of 29 years is dying #its not fair. shes only 53 #i wanna be there but im stuck here across the country. i wanna go home. thats a bit frighting tho bc itll take me at least 10 hrs to travel #and i dont want her to die while im in the air but i also dont want her to suffer #i hope she gets better but if she doenst i hope its fast. there dont seem to do any good options. shes so tried and its so complicated #and if she does get better than this then what would that even mean? my sister says it doesnt feel like there will b a better anymore after #this. and bless her to the ends of the earth she reached out this morning and was giving me updates #comforting to kno im not just being dramatic. its actually just really bleak #its kinda funny tho. my sister was like meh it doesnt seem so bad and then like 10min later she was like yeah no i was wrong its sorta #horrible apprently shes been deterorating #god. if i go back home do i take clothes for a funeral? do i keep up to date with my genomics class? will i become offset from my graduate #cohort? will i get my wish to play with legos at home? all questions worth considering #well. ill deal with whatever comes. so it goes. itll b fine. i mean ill b fine #just sad ya kno? #three weeks ago she was alright and saying she could fly out to take care of me after oral surgery #now shes dying #unrelated

[eshithepetty]

Ok. See, you don't get it. It's not just that Mob is autistic. The whole show.... the whole show i tell you, its autistic. No no listen to me,,, yes there are multiple characters who can be read as autistic in the show. But more than that, the whole narrative focuses on the different ways that people view and interact with the world, how their abilities differ, how people treat them because of it. Y'know.... quite similar to neurodivergency- and no, I'm not done, just look at the COLORS. the fucking colors and art style and the goddamn intros, its stimulation city up in here, and the art style is the way it is because it values unique self expression and embracing of the unconventional as a virtue. Have you ever looked at the manga's art and felt a deep, deep appreciation? For this something that isn't what people might normally consider a technical feat, that people might view as weird, as silly, or even as dumb or below? And yet it's so loved and taken so seriously? No no no listen- LISten, I have more- like the music being so weird and janky at times? Or the fact that.... the whole series literally places the most importance upon things people often deem as fairly 'simple' - like adolescence, and connecting to your emotions, and interacting with people, and growing connections, and being understood, understanding Yourself, etc. Above more 'complex' problems that in any other anime, say, a terrorist organisation, would incentivise them to focus on - almost as if.... these things are simpler and easier mostly to just nt people, and the show connecting so deeply to that 'simpler' stuff is cause nd people often have to grapple with their own identities and difficulties and learn how to deal with them in a process that takes more time and is more gruelling than it usually is for nt people, before they're able to go on and explore more of their lives, just as mob was finally able to move onto the next chapter in his life after the finale once he truly accepted himself- no, i promise im making sense, so do you see, do you see how it's all about neurodivergency, how it's all about growing up different- hey, Hey, I promise Im not insane, come into my cage, i wont bite cmon, h

#it is nearing 1 am i have been. in such a weird funk #this is so jumbled because my brain is jumbled. help #i really hope this is actually in any way coherent. but if not. ok yeah i understand lmao #mob psycho 100 #mp100 #autism #meta #kageyama shigeo #themes #late night rambles #neurodivergence #my own post

[lawful-evil-novelist]

Genuinely, I cannot stop thinking about how isolated Kimmuriel must have felt when he first joined the Bregan D’aerthe, how isolated he must still feel.  Considering how psionicists interact with the wider world and each other in canon, it kind of makes sense how Kimmuriel interacts with the world, and also how people interact with him.

In the Forgotten Realms and Pathfinder, at least, psionic humanoids have a habit of forming kin-groups with other psionicists, often forming their own tight-knit communities.  You can also notice that a lot of psionic creatures are highly social.  Myconids and illithids form large kin-groups and I even checked through Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons to confirm most psionic dragon species tend to be very social as well.

Kimmuriel grew up in this kind of environment.  House Oblodra is an intensely close-knit psionic community–a toxic, undeniably unhealthy one, but a psionic community nonetheless.  Kimmuriel’s first, and probably most comfortable, mode of communication is his psionics; it’s telepathy.  We even kinda see it in Servant of the Shard where every drow or human Kimmuriel interacts with struggles to recognize shifts in Kimmuriel’s manner of speech or expression, even as his general emotional control slips.  When the illithid Yharaskrik first talks with Kimmuriel, we get an immediate read on the tone and emotion of his thoughts.  His thoughts are reverent, he’s surprised and initially scared, when asked about his family he’s angry.  Kimmuriel communicates his emotions with far more ease in his thoughts, it’s almost literally his first language.

And as much as I’m sure Kimmuriel considers Jarlaxle and the Bregan D’aerthe a new home, as much as he cares for Jarlaxle and empathizes with Drizzt and has grown to tolerate Artemis, Kimmuriel is routinely blocked off from communicating in the way he is most comfortable.  Jarlaxle regularly blocks Kimmuriel access to his mind, and he’s routinely chastised for entering into other minds, something the early books take time to show is an instinctive action Kimmuriel does without thinking.  Even on this lower level, a lot of people around Kimmuriel find him off-putting and creepy.  Artemis calls him strange, and is visibly uncomfortable with his abilities.  Kimmuriel reads minds instinctively; he outright refers to it as a curse in Starlight Enclave.  I almost feel bad, listening to him talk about his powers, fully aware people find him weird.

I almost think Kimmuriel hangs around illithids for more than just intellectual pursuits; I think he just desperately wants to be somewhere that lets him communicate with psionics without telling him he’s overstepping or getting mad at an instinct.

Like I think he’s emotionally in a much better place than he was in House Oblodra.  That environment was toxic and everyone in it suffered but I can’t help but think about Yharaskrik’s first impression, when asking Kimmuriel about his family, is that Kimmuriel gets angry.  Because Kimmuriel didn’t just lose his family, he lost everyone in his life that could speak the language he was weaned on, and wanted him to speak with it.

#long post #kimmuriel oblodra #legend of drizzt #headcanon #theory #i have a lot of thoughts on kimmuriel and i hope this is coherent #but also kimmuriel makes me sad sometimes like he's lost everything and what he's trying to build up is just not the same #like emotionally he's happier but i feel like he's not really heard the way he wants to be if that makes any sense

[officialpenisenvy]

aren’t there good things that come from family members loving and supporting each other? i’m not trying to be a dick, i just haven’t heard the term “family abolition” before or heard about this as a movement

don't worry, i totally get it, family is an institution that is profoundly entrenched in our culture and has been throughout history, so i know it can be really tough to imagine a world without it. family abolition is an incredibly varied and complex movement and summarizing it is way beyond the scope of my abilities, so this is just the way i personally see it at this point in time. individual families can absolutely be a positive community full of support and love, in fact i would say that my own extended family is a net positive despite it all; still, the institution of the family overall is largely a negative force that creates insular pockets of complacency and silence around the abuse that occurs between its members, while at the same time overstating any potential harm that comes from outside sources or society at large.

if you're anything like me, the vast majority of people in your life come from abusive or otherwise deeply dysfunctional homes, ones that have done demonstrably more harm than good in their own personal development and growth: beyond the anecdotal, just look at the statistics on, for instance, the rates of queer youth with abusive or bigoted families, or how many conservatives today use the family as a shorthand for all that is good and pure and must be protected from degenerate perverts (despite studies showing that the vast majority of child sexual abuse comes from within the home).

i sometimes liken family abolition to church abolition, as both are deeply rotten institutions and forces for conservatism built on abuse upon abuse and wrongful hierarchy upon wrongful hierarchy, as well as both having some good apples such as individual family units or parishes that can be incredibly positive forces in people's lives. however, this comparison isn't perfect: namely, the church responds to the need for a spiritual and ideological connection based around a specific faith and teleological belief, a need that can be met by no other community of people in today's society (barring other religious congregations, of course). the family's function, on the other hand, is not unique to itself: a common adage is it takes a village to raise a child, and i really do find it to ring true when discussing family abolition — a handful of blood-related individuals will never be better fit to raise a healthy and happy child than a wide and sprawling community founded on trust and mutual accountability and communal child-rearing experience, a community that doesn't necessarily exclude the blood relatives of the children but works to integrate them in a larger context where any potential abuse of power is kept in check and denounced.

of course, this is mostly theoretical: we live in a society (bottom text) that is deeply capitalistic, and capitalism is founded on the institution of the family, so it's probably utopian to imagine the abolition of the family before the collapse of capitalism. and even then, many societies in the world and throughout history are not capitalistic yet are still founded on the family (albeit with varying definitions of it, some of which are very close to the proverbial "village" i described above): if the aim is to dismantle the family altogether and not simply alter its definition to fit more members of consanguinity or non-consanguinity, it will have to be a concerted and strenuous effort to go against an ingrained part of our understanding of the world.

#hope this is in any way coherent lol. sorry for putting a wall of text about family abolition on your dashes at 12 on a sunday but in my #defense i had to write a wall of text about family abolition at 12 on a sunday.

[torgawl]

"love should be warm... but to you, it's become a form of punishment"

#SO RAWWWWW #something about him being an orphan... something about him having killed for vengeance at a young age... #i don't know it feels like a more personal line than just speaking out of his beliefs on justice #he definitely knows what it's like to be hurt by people who should have loved you and left alone and uncared for #but more than any lack of sympathy he could feel for that man he genuinely hopes he changes for the little girl's sake and i think that's #a subtle way to show who he is and who he has become?! idk not coherent but i liked the trailer a lot #i'm excited to find out more about him through his quest #one of my favourite genres of genshin characters really is deeply traumatised cryo user and i think that's beautiful 😂 #wrio 🤝 shenhe 🤝 kaeya = everything to me #but like can we talk about wrio being silly and warm and actually easy to talk to and how he doesn't hide the way he feels? #because it's so easy to close yourself after you go through those types of hard experiences but it's genuinely refreshing to see how #bright he is even if he can come across as cold like the little girl said we know that's not his demeanour #the fact he so openly admits he had a bad childhood and isn't able to trust people without any shame?? refreshing #i think he's just so easy to relate to and he feels incredibly dynamic as a character #i love him sm #genshin leaks #< because i talk about the voice lines and that hasn't been released yet

[peppermintfables]

On Monsters

So both Black Sails and One Piece have monsters as a theme (and so do many other pirate shows. Being a pirate and and being a monster are almost irrevocably linked). And since Im obsessed with both and no one else has magically written the exact essay I want I suppose I have to do it myself. The world is a cruel and unfair place.

Generally a monster is defined by two things. First of all they exist outside the norm/ society and secondly they are evil. Stories that deal with monsters as a theme are usually challenge one of those. What if monsters are evil but they also exist within society. Or in fact are more likely to exist as part of one? What if monsters are solely defined by their separation from society without them having to actually be bad and are often in fact only seen as evil because if condition one is true, condition two is presumed true as well. I think on this website we often go with the second option. I dont think I have to tell anyone here is a trend of looking at monsters and going „they are actually so nice and also my friend and we bake cookies and overthrow the government together“. Something something queerness and otherness. Smarter people have written smarter stuff than me and also i just want to talk about gay pirates.

I think the portrayal of monsters in One Piece and Black Sails is both very similar and has some difference that Im not quite able to pinpoint yet (which is why Im doing this in the first place). I think in both cases its about choice. Not only the choice to be a monster but the choice of what kind of monster you’re going to be.

The tag line of Black Sails’ monster theme is probably “Everyone is a monster to someone”. But that’s not where we start. We start with this:

“Monster” is not a thing you are. Monster is a narrative role other people put you in for their own benefit. It’s a tool used against you.

In comparison in One Piece we have this:

Chopper has been thrown out of reindeer and human society for not fitting in (and thus being a monster) and here we have Sanji calling Luffy a monster like it’s empowering. Luffy can fight *because* he’s a monster. And for the first time Chopper can see being a monster as something worthwhile and like he, a monster, maybe has a place amongst other monsters. And while in this scene Sanji is talking about Luffy specifically being a rubber-man and that being more of a monster in a physical sense (and doesn’t Sanji of all people saying that hit different now) we have plenty of scenes that talk about a different aspect. Specifically Usopp calling the monster trio monsters because they know no fear and are also maniacs who love fighting. Id argue that here too is a monster something positive and powerful to be.

Maybe that is the difference I was looking for. Black Sails starting with the term monster as something other people put on you and One piece starting with strength coming from monsterousness. I feel like that is also indicative of each shows tone and attitude towards piracy. So where do we go from here?

In Black Sails we are getting to “Everyone is a monster to someone” with Abigail realizing that pirates arent as inhuman and cruel as she was led to believe. Monster continues to be a narrative role but turns out civilization is not the only one telling stories. We are going towards “maybe monsters are within society as well.” And then we have Flint being iconic:

There it is! Choice! Power! So long society tries to frame Flint as a monster and they go to Ashe and Ashe is like “We can make you not the monster. You just have to tell your life story and that will make you vulnerable enough that people will see you as a person”. And Flint, who would rather have been seen as a monster than apologize, goes “This sucks but okay”. And then Miranda happens. Monsters *are* within society as well. Everyone is a monster to someone and you have the choice to make: Who are you going to be a monster to and what kind of monster will you be? And Flint takes that narrative role that people have tried to assign to him and makes it his own. He makes it into something that gives him power. Because if he’s going to be a monster either way he’s going to be one on his own terms. Im going to go insane.

Number one being Chopper choosing to be a monster.

Look at my boy go! Again: Embracing the monster you are, but making it your own. He’s doing it for his captain not just bc the Strawhats would do pretty much everything for their captain but bc it’s okay to be a monster amongst other monsters. Because that’s where he first learned that being a monster can be not just not bad but a good thing.

And then there’s Sanji. It’s kind of hard to analyze it because I absolutely do not think that Sanji’s arc concerning his modifications is over yet but let’s take a look at what we’ve got so far.

So in conclusion: It’s about being the monster you choose to be instead of the monster others want to make you and Im crying.

#black sails #one piece #meta #captain flint #chopper #sanji #monster #fables rambles #i wrote this during my lecture and have no idea if its in any way coherent #my hope is for someone else to produce better takes than this when seeing it #please send me all your toughts i wanna hear them so bad #also i have an outline for a bigger black sails/one piece paper #but that one needs actual research #anyway #OnePieceForGayPiratesTrifecta2k23

[synthetic-rust]

Kinda sad to think about, but I wonder if I’d have been more likely to get into engineering type stuff if sexism wasn’t a thing…

Like no one’s ever stopped me from doing things like that, but I’d still say to myself in my head that I would be out of place for doing it for whatever reason :[

It’s weird tho, cause in most other areas of life I don’t usually give a damn about gender expectations and all that, but in the subject of technology I still ended up feeling like It’s not something I should pursue.

Been trying to remove that kind of thinking from my head, but it’s hard sometimes. It gets a bit lonely feeling like an exception to things rather than being welcomed.

—

As a sort of extension to what I’m talking about, I’ve noticed that people like to say things that are progressive in one way or another, but then will still silently operate on principles that reflect the opposite (because of societal influence).

This isn’t something I’m exempt from, and no one truly is because of how social we are as a species, but I do wish more people were able to let themselves do without it and stop limiting themselves and others more often.

In that regard I still often feel lonely existing as a girl that doesn’t buy into the things we’re so often silently and not so silently pushed into doing. There are a lot of things that I feel some kind of pressure to participate in despite my disinterest. Mostly because I feel like I become more of an outsider within my gender for not doing them.

(Btw, I’m not exactly the most cis girl, but what I’m talking about here notably calls upon that kind of experience 👍)

#I hope this is coherent enough #mild vent? #vent #sexism #patriarchal society #girls in stem #chatter #very random topic for me to suddenly divulge but I feel like this is somewhat normal for my blog at this point #(._. ‘’) #I never did any engineering classes likely because of the reasons above #I know I’m not alone in thinking this #I was like 1 of maybe 2 or 3 girls in my stem classes #tho I did always find it odd that there was more of a gender balance with chemistry and biology but not physics? #cause it’s considered a harder subject maybe? #idk biology has had the ‘girl science’ label attached to it for a while whilst physics is probably the opposite #kinda cringe it’s that way tbh (to say the least) #why tf do we gender subjects (regretfully I know the answer) #computer science wasn’t any better #me and like the one other girl in the class 😔🤝

[marinsawakening]

[Timmy Turner voice] I wish every Links Meet AU that uses Marin as a phantom to haunt and traumatize Link goes to hell no matter what

#No I am not vaguing any specific links meet au bc ive already seen four different ones that do this #Fun Fact! You can give ALTTP!Link different character conflict! #That doesn't butcher the themes and ending of one of the games! #And reduce a female character and arguably LOZ's first complex character to a flat source for man angst #Marin would murder Link if she found out he was remembering her and Koholint in trauma and tragedy #Rather than treasuring its memory and celebrating its existence #GENUINELY framing Link as wildly traumatized by the events of Link's Awakening the way so many ppl do #Completely destroys all thematic coherence in the game's ending and makes it wildly unsatisfying #Yes Koholint disappearing was sad. No Link did not kill an island no it would not haunt him like a ghost #It's a treasured memory and a net positive experience! I have OPINIONS on this and I'm CORRECT #And I'm calling out Links Meet AUs specifically bc those are the biggest offenders #Of stripping everyone else of depth and focus for the sake of white boy Link #If ur lucky then Zelda still has character depth but everyone else* is shit out of luck basically #*Exceptions apply ofc #Lots of stuff that's not links meet aus also interprets Marin in ways I don't personally like #I am picky #Some of which I'd argue are just. Bad. #But at least they often make an effort with her character #Links Meet AUs are the Link Only Show tho and I'm ANNOYED bc I WANT TO LIKE THEM #I AM A SUCKER FOR MULTIVERSE SHIT. U DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH THIS PAINS ME #Anyway. L + ratio + you did not consider the thematic implications of ur fanproject and it annoys me :( #My posts #Loz #Link's awakening #update when i first made this post i was genuinely not intending to single out any specific links meet aus #however i have since crunched the numbers and two thirds of the marin tag on ao3 is linked universe #and i would like to make it clear. i have no real issue with the actual comic or its portrayal of marin #mostly bc marin has not actually appeared or been addressed in the actual comic at all #however i do hope the linked universe FANDOM goes to hell no matter what