#otherwise the writers have been extremely cruel

[xecutivecucumber]

Executive Cucumber's Thoughts on The Bad Batch 03×12!

Spoilers under the cut

Let start out by saying holy heck that was the cool down episode I needed. My sister watched it before me and was able to tell me that Tech/CX-2 wasn't in it for a significant amount, so I was able to get past my disappointment and not be stressed out during the episode. Yes, I'm still on the 'Tech is CX-2 Bandwagon.' I do think they should have revealed him to the audience earlier, because I have to actively avoid Bad Batch social media (*cough*reddit*cough*) for my own mental health because of the negativity around the idea. It's really draining.

Anyway, on to the actual episode!

Today I realized that I might be triggered by Omega being trapped at Tantiss because of some past experiences. (And yes, if you've read my fics you know that I've done it to her too, but I have control over that and I think the problem is the lack of control I have)

Hi Tech! I love you! Please be un brainwashed soon!

I want to murder Hemlock. I don't know if I've ever hated a Star Wars villain like this before. It feels so personal.

It devastates me that they're going to take Omega's clothes away. Clothes that were given to her by people who love her. Ow.

Also you're playing a dangerous game, not keeping those binders on her, Hemlock.

'Is everything all right, Dr. Karr?' 'No, the Jango parent gene got awakened in me and that does not go away'

Why does Emerie think she HAS to do this?

I'm a little disappointed we didn't see Hunter find out about Omega. He's probably just in 'go' mode, honestly. Adrenaline and all that.

Crosshair is so proud of Omega oh my gosh.

PHEE MY QUEEEEEEEEEN

Oh my gosh Tech told Phee about Crosshair. That implies that had more time than we saw. That makes me so happy and sad.

Phee talks about Tech with such fondness. You can tell how much she cared about him. I feel like I'm watching a widow who's processed her grief but still talks about her husband because she loved him.

Also, looking at Phee, she doesn't really have any implied make up on. She's very natural. Good for her.

...Rampart looks kinda good with a beard.

Okay Tech would find the stunt Phee pulled extremely attractive.

This is the closest we've gotten to the original Batch we've gotten in a very long time. It feels good to see them go mission mode with Crosshair.

This is reminding me of Eriadu and I don't like it.

Crosshair asking Wrecker if he remembered whatever plan and then patiently waiting for him to remember lives rent free in my head he's so sweet.

WRECKER'S THEME IS BACK BABY

Also, Crosshair's theme is played in this really fun way?

Crosshair should be allowed to kick Rampart in the balls. As a treat.

Rampart you snake. Crosshair should have shot him in the leg instead of stunning him.

My sister pointed out that the juggernaut represents how the Batch is right now. You cannot stop them.

Man, it's nice to not to be as conflicted when the TK troopers die, as opposed to when clones were sent against them. Quick thought though, does Wolffe have all the remaining clones?

Man these guys get BRUTALIZED.

Them throwing around passed out Rampart is amazing and should continue to happen.

Okay Wrecker has his knife out HE IS READY TO TORTURE A MAN.

Frick you Rampart. He is the worst replacement for Omega.

Aww they probably didn't bring Batcher on the mission to protect her. (Plus she a half trained dog and it was a stealth mission)

And then the boys spent the next hour arguing over who has to call Echo and tell him.

Hemlock you FOULE you're giving Omega ALLIES. Also why are you telling her all this. She will use it against you.

Gall, I hate Hemlock.

Again, I really needed this cool down episode. Though I'm afraid the final three episodes are going to hurt. THIS IS MY FAVORITE SHOW WHY IS IT STRESSING ME OUT SO MUCH. ALSO WAITING A WEEK FOR EPISODES ALSO SUCKS. A LOT.

#the bad batch #tbb #tbb season 3 spoilers #tbb season 3 #the bad batch spoilers #the bad batch season 3 spoilers #the bad batch season 3 #tbb omega #royce hemlock #emerie karr #tbb hunter #tbb wrecker #tbb crosshair #phee genoa #vice admiral rampart #mount tantiss #tbb tech #tech lives #otherwise the writers have been extremely cruel #tech x phee #techphee #tbb spoilers #tbb echo

[galedekarios]

Something something "Gale is a character who believes the world would be better with him dead and the player can show him that's not true" as a persistent theme of his character arc. *glares at Larian*

Honestly it feels like the Leads fell for the surface level part of Gale's arc. Like, all of them have that shallow impression that the characters themselves are trying to make you believe: Astarion wants you to think he's cruel and suave, Shadowheart is fine with the facade that she's a pawn of her lady of darkness, Lae'zel is brash and rude and initially intolerant of istik society, Wyll plays off the confident persona who has no regrets, Karlach is happy about everything all the time. And Gale's facade is that he's full of himself while simultaneously not being worth the effort.

The game ENCOURAGES you to break that illusion. Astarion's not a seductive wretch, he's scared and securing himself. Shaowheart's whole arc is about retaking her independence. Lae'zel comes to understand the beauty of the world outside what her queen wants. Wyll believes himself to be a perfect sacrifice for others' safety. Karlach is angry, REALLY angry, and terrified. And Gale is desperate to prove himself worthy of everyone's expectations of him, and to hide the mortal side of him he'd been told wasn't worth indulging in.

I feel like that's where the problem is. Gale's writer worked those flaws into Gale's character, with enough moments to show a player who's invested at all in him what the REAL reason is behind his actions, but the other writers didn't bother to invest anything into cracking that open. They took the persona he's trying to push at face value (that and probably not wanting to get on the bad side of the fans who think Gale's annoying due to *checks notes* Larian-side bugs).

Gale killing himself isn't the "right" ending where he "gives back to the world" - but that's what Gale THINKS the "right" ending is, before you prove him otherwise. The dryad test outright says that's what his greatest fear is.

Of COURSE Gale's going to think sacrificing himself for the greater good is the best option if you don't tell him you're willing to fight for him. It's literally the one insecurity that's been consuming his whole being since he got the Orb. Man's been planning his death for over a year. Thanks for not reading past the first page, lead writers.

Sorry for the rant, had to get this off my chest and you've had the most presence in the "why would you tell Gale to kill himself" discussion.

again, don't feel sorry for venting in my inbox! 🖤 i agree with a lot of what you said.

i've seen a lot of speculation as to why the devs said what they said. there is a deluge of posts trying to explain for a variety of reasons and coming up with their own scenarios: gale is supposedly comedic relief (hard disagree btw), they were maybe talking about ea gale, they were just talking about powerful messages, whathaveyou, and i have to say that at the end of the day it doesn't really matter why.

because even if that all was true, it means either one or a combination of the following things:

either they didn't care enough to delve deeper than the extreme surface level & current iteration of their own writing & character

or they parrot the worst reddit & twitter & tunglr talking points to be like how do you do fellow kids with their assumed fanbase

or they have some sort of internal bias

nevermind that the message they sent (intentionally or not) to people identifying with the character for his struggles still very much remains.

#ch: gale dekarios #vg: baldur's gate 3 #series: baldur's gate #text: asks #bg3 critical #larian critical #i'm sorry for taking so long to answer #i'm still recovering from covid (((':

[mdhwrites]

Is TOH Worse By Having Character Arcs?

In a story theoretically about inclusivity, finding your space and accepting who you are... Is it right that so many people change as drastically as they do?

This is going to be a bit of an odd topic because pop culture nowadays reveres the concept of the character arc almost above any other aspect of writing. If your characters do not exhibit change, how can they be deep or interesting? Where is the story in a character who mostly stays static? And that's not a bad instinct because a character overcoming some major flaw or corrupted ideal they hold onto is very compelling.

However, character arcs are like any part of writing: They are a TOOL for the writer to use. Just like with any tool, it won't fit every job. Not every story needs large, grand arcs. So was The Owl House a story where this tool should have been applied?

I argue no, despite the fact that its character arcs are such a lauded part of it. This isn't entirely because there is no space for character arcs in its themes but that its goals are... touchy when it comes to the idea of change. That requires us to first ask what those goals are in the first place.

Well, the show isn't always very good at defining these but if I'm being generous, we'll go with: The idea that one shouldn't be ashamed for who they are.

The need for a space where you can feel safe and like yourself.

Self expression and self determination being the greatest virtues in both people and society.

As a base this isn't bad. The middle one is dangerous because it can very quickly become isolationist but they do all point in the same direction of a story that wants to make sure that 'the other' doesn't feel wrong simply for not conforming to what society expects of them. Whether this is stereotypes pushed upon them, anxieties over things like sexuality, generational gaps, etc. like that, there's PLENTY to explore. Even if you want to go less severe, there's just a lot of quirks, especially in modern society, that can lead to someone feeling fake or wrong or weird, including feeling like you lean too much on your own stereotype just because you genuinely like makeup or the like.

The problem for TOH becomes that only the more extreme version actually supports real, long term character arcs. Someone who is deeply entrenched in a toxic element of society figuring out ways to be themselves despite the prejudice before them. In the show, the only person who actually faces anything like this is Eda since the society of the Isles actually DOES push down on what she believes is her identity as a wild witch. Unfortunately, Eda's arc isn't about grappling with her position as a wild witch and how that separates her from the world and family but more about softening up, getting rid of the activities she used to love/kept her alive and becoming maternal rather than embracing the wild side that made her a wild witch in the first place.

In other words, her arc is about flipping her character around rather than about embracing who she is. Which, you know... Goes against the goals of the show.

Pretty much every arc is like this. Amity goes from being extremely driven about magic and caring about her future in this world, as well as having anxieties about her family to the point where she takes drastic action to get ahead... To caring only about her girlfriend and marginally about maybe keeping some okay relations with her family. Instead of any of her drive, intelligence, cunning, etc. like that being refined by smoothing out the rougher edges and realizing she shouldn't be cruel in order to succeed in her ambitions, her ambitions are blamed on someone else and otherwise her character entirely inverts for the sake of... Luz. Which, you know... Luz needing a maternal figure for her found family is much of why, in hindsight, it feels like Eda became motherly. For Luz.

Hunter becomes a soft boy because when he gets his staff back and reminds her that he is a loyal member of the EC, she disapproves. Hell, 90% of what Hunter ever does in the show is for someone else's approval or survival, with him even ending up following after an ancestor almost 1:1, making him probably the least self-accepting character in the entire cast. Lilith falls under similar issues. She was driven and even had appeared to have softened with age, wanting to usher in new witches into their best forms as part of her job, and then... She stops. She gives up on all of her ambitions besides a little bit of a grudge against someone else and is turned into a joke for the most part. Even her trauma is mocked which doesn't seem to have literally ever been something she would have accepted, young or old nor is it something a show about acceptance should include.

And you might notice that most of the problems for these characters I'm describing aren't for themselves. Solving them isn't about self actualization. At best, they are about getting out of shitty situations but you can do that without changing the core of the character. You can have Luz save someone from death but then have who they are reject Luz anyways because of her position in society. People are complex like that. After all, if you wish for acceptance for what you care about, you naturally have to extend that kindness to others and their interests (so long as those interests aren't hateful/harmful, etc. like that. Do not tolerate Nazis.)

Amity for example is at worst a bully. She isn't hateful, she's just mean as a function of how she sees EVERYONE as an enemy. A competitor who she needs to guard against. You can develop her, because not all development forms a character arc, into still being driven, still desiring to be better, but now she understands that she doesn't need to be an island. That she can drop her guard sometimes and when she needs to crush something, it's an actual enemy. Instead, her desires, beliefs, friends, family, etc. are all put to the pyre. They are not allowed to coexist with the 'correct' version of her, not without them having to also change in a similar manner to her. To a state that the show is willing to deem acceptable in a wider sense.

Why is that a thing in a show about self acceptance and realization? How is that self-expression or self-determination? How is that understanding?

And that's why I think in the end, The Owl House's character arcs hurt it more than anything else.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#the owl house criticism #toh critical

[whalehouse1]

The Red Hood Problem (for me):

This is more for the comic than the show since I think the movie did a much better job at Bruce than the comic did.

Jason is now a murderer after this comic, this part is fine since he can still operate in Gotham having that be true (Cass, Jean-Paul, Damian, Tim, etc.) but the way they went about it doesn’t work for me. His resurrection has him come back, go on a frenzy and kill some of Ra’s’ men before he flees into the desert. Now where his mind is at here is debated, but if he survived the desert he must have been “sane” at one point. Or you like Lost Days and the Al Ghuls just picked him back up to train him, which that’s a different issue I have with Batman comics. He then gets back to Gotham and ruthlessly kills drug lords, pimps and other such criminals as it’s the only way to protect Gotham. This is where my first problem comes into play. Jason’s father was a criminal who died due to Two-Face and his mother (Catherine, that other woman can burn for all I care) died of a drug overdose. So him coming from that background had to be retconned so he wouldn’t go “oh extreme poverty and desperation can lead people to do things they wouldn’t consider otherwise”, but instead go to the classic, “my dad beat me so it’s okay that I became an orphan”, because then he’d have to be shown recognizing that killing people could result in leaving people behind much worse off. They try to do this in Urban Legends but Jason just seems a little off character there, especially knowing Tyler’s mom might not make it along with him just being a lack of impulse control personified. Then on top of them retconning (read gaslighting) his parents, they also keep trying to rewrite him as this super grumpy Robin who just would attack without thought. But we have the original Jason stories, he was rough around the edges, sure, but he wasn’t cruel or nasty or more violent than other Robins. And that’s what makes Red Hood so tragic, is he lost his joy and became resentful instead. He still kept his kindness in well-written stories, because he’s the same as Cass when it comes to bleeding hearts. If they can’t save someone they go full on Bruce moping mode. But nope, now we have Jason who couldn’t care less about saving people, he just wants to sow discord. And I know it was all to get the Joker out of Arkham, which just shows Jason as stupid (he isn’t but they love putting the stupid Robin label on him and Steph) since if he waited a day or two, Joker would be back on the streets. Then we get to my final issue, aside from Bruce not wanting to kill Joker but having no issue slicing Jason’s throat. It completely invalidates so much of Bruce’s decision to not kill the Joker that the hypocrisy leaks through the page and destroys any reason Jason could hold onto the “He didn’t kill because it’s his one rule” which yes is understandably frustrating for Jason but at least could give him some reason to think Bruce didn’t just value him as a body on the job. Which Bruce didn’t, Bruce, before some twats got allowed to write him, loved his children unconditionally, spent time with them and was a good father to them. This dunks on that harder than him and Dick in Infinite Crisis. It also perpetuates the Batman/Joker Optimus Prime/Megatron dynamic of “we’re made for each other to kill!!!”, which I’m fine with when it’s the Joker thinking that but not Batman. These rogues do not mean more to him than his children. He assaulted Two-Face, one of his closest friends when he attacked Dick, extremely violently might I add, but Joker gets a pass because “they’re the same you and I”? No that’s some BS right there. Also it cements the Red Hood backstory and I’m firmly anti-backstory Joker. But the actual final problem is the redemption part of his story. Writers don’t seem to do this and have him revert back to killing or he uses non-lethal rounds 😑, but it usually comes out of nowhere and it never is satisfactory. Have him keep killing and have the Bats have to put him away or actually write character growth for him in the Batman comic so it can more easily bleed over. But they won’t since edge lords sell. I absolutely love Jason and I as much as I wish you could retcon his death.

#Jason Todd #red hood #I just found out tumblr has a text limit #I’ll finish this when I get home

[veryhappyunbirthdaytoyoutoy-blog]

I was inspired...

Both by a story @bitsandbobsofwriting wrote a while back (here's the fic) and a post that @inamagicalhallucination made (though I did NOT follow this prompt at all, the time travel bit did inspire me, so here's the post). 

For a little bit of context, the Merlin we meet at the beginning is Merlin from Season 2, Episode 5: Beauty and the Beast. He accidentally yeets himself into the future to just after Season 4, Episode 10: A Herald of a New Age while trying to escape from under the castle where he was trapped by the troll impersonating the Lady Catrina by creating an overly-complicated spell that grows beyond his control. While used the Beauty and the Beast episode because I had rewatched it a while ago (and thus it was fresh on my mind), I sent the young Merlin to just after "A Herald of a New Age" because I believe that right after this episode would have been the best time for Arthur to find out about Merlin's magic. Seeing as Arthur was just brutally reminded of the cruel things he had done in his father's war against magic, Arthur would be extremely unwilling to kill his best friend over it (And Arthur would have to make good on his promise to the druid boy instead of never mentioning it again. I am still upset with the writers about that).

So, without further ado, enjoy part one of my story: "How the New Age Begins."

Or don't enjoy it.

That's your choice.

______________________________________________________________

When Merlin finally sagged to the floor, much of the night had already passed.

After hour after desperate hour of Merlin throwing every spell he knew at the pile of rocks the Lady Catrina -- or rather, the troll impersonating the Lady Catrina -- had trapped him with, Merlin was utterly exhausted, and wanted nothing more than to be peacefully asleep in his warm bed.

But really, there was no way he could possibly fall asleep, bed or otherwise. The creature was to be married to the King -- the dumb oaf -- in but a few hours, and there simply was no time to waste.

So Merlin staggered to his feet and began to concentrate.

It was time for Merlin to try making his own spell.

To do this, he took bits from what he had gleaned from Sigan's old journals about invulnerability (Sigan had experimented with it a bit on his search for immortality... it would be useful if Merlin tried going through the wall), some things he'd read in Gaius's books on the Old Religion (or more specifically, spells the high priestesses used to move through space using something called "the veil," whatever THAT was), and the structure Merlin had noticed was in each of the complicated spells Kilgarah had bestowed upon him.

Merlin supposed he had to thank the cryptic old lizard for SOMETHING.

As Merlin built the spell, his magic began to wrap around himself in a sheer golden sheen, runes crisscrossing widely of the cocoon-like structure. Despite the IMMENSE amount of effort it was taking to hold the combined spells together, Merlin was beginning to feel a bit pleased with himself.

Which, in hindsight, probably was a sign things weren't going to go as he hoped.

Merlin felt his spell-hybrid grow more powerful for a few moments before he realized something strange was happening. The golden light of his magic that had surrounded him at the beginning went from sheer to solid gold, making him look more like an egg than a cocoon. The spell didn't seem to be malfunctioning per se, but instead seemed to grow without Merlin's prompting. The runes were so tightly knit over the structure, now, that there seemed to be more runes then empty space.

As Merlin felt the spell grow further and further from his control, he prayed to every god and goddess he had ever read about that the spell would still help him escape in one piece.

And he did, in a way, disappearing in a flash of light.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Merlin regained consciousness, he was asleep on the ground in the hallway outside of Arthur's chambers.

Which, you might guess, wasn't exactly where he had planned to wake up (though he had began to worry he may not wake up at all) -- Merlin had been trapped below the castle, and Arthur's chambers were all the way on the third floor which was more than a little bit of a jump. And, as there was sunlight streaming through the window at the end of the hall indicated, he had clearly been knocked out for a long time now -- it was a wonder he wasn't found!

As he frantically scrambled to his feet, Merlin realized there were voices coming from Arthur's chambers. One was Arthur, thankfully, but the other… the voice was of a lower timbre, familiar in a way Merlin couldn't place.

Merlin resigned himself to putting mission "interrupt the royal wedding" on hold until he could assure that Arthur was okay. He straightened up and nervously tidied himself the best he could. Then, after fortifying himself, he walked in without knocking, already calling to the prince.

"Arthur what-"

Then he froze.

In front of him, he saw -- well, a startled Arthur, of course -- and someone who looked eerily similar to himself.

But like, fit.

His lookalike -- whose expression had quickly switched from openly startled to a suspicious glare -- was taller and far more muscled than himself. He didn't have the same awkwardness Merlin was unable to shake but instead carried himself like he was strong and he knew it.

Though, if Merlin's suspicions were correct, it wasn't his physical strength that the lookalike was so confident it.

Swallowing and squaring himself up the best he could with his nerves, Merlin asked (almost a little bit stupid-ly), "who are you?"

The lookalike began approaching the shorter man, angrily saying, "I'm Merlin, who the hell are you?"

Arthur, a bit fed up with being annoyed, stood up from his table and began drawing his sword.

"What sorcery is this? Why are you impersonating my manservant?"

The older doppelganger grabbed Merlin by his shirt, eyes flashing a threatening gold with his back turned to Arthur.

"Who. Are. You."

"Merlin, get away from him-"

"That's what I should be asking!!" Merlin exclaimed, shaking nervously in the taller man's grip. "You look like me but also not like me, and he looks like Prince Arthur, but he is much taller and... well, a bit fatter to be honest-"

"Hey!"

"-and these chambers are all different then they are -- I should know! I clean them every day -- so you tell me what is going on!!"

Merlin panted as the other two men stared at him in stunned silence. Slowly, after a few moments, the hands gripping his shirt released him simultaneously the with sound of not-Arthur sheathing his sword.

The golden-haired man sat back down, sighing deeply and rubbing his hands over his face.

"Merlin, just what on earth did you get yourself into?"

______________________________________________________________

And that's the end of part one!! I hope some of you enjoyed that, so stay tuned for the next chapter!!

Toodles!!!!!!

Edit: Here's part two and three

#bbc merlin #merlin fic #my work #How the New Age Begins #part 1 #wip #I might make it #merthur #or I might make it platonic #i haven't decided yet #stay tuned #i don't know how tags work

[tiktaalic]

i am obsessed with dean and jacks relationship in like an. i want to fix it way. so i understand that i am so extremely biased when i say that the writers were so goddamn stupid when writing their relationship. like as someone who likes dean, of course i dont like when the writers make dean cruel and abusive! and im always going to want their relationship to have a happy ending. but ive thought it over and decided. dean and jacks horrible relationship is very compelling (otherwise i wouldnt be obsessed) but the writers handling of it was not good. this entire ask could have been a sentence long but this topic warps my brain so so bad. anyway i think its really easy to be like "supernatural is a stupid show that makes stupid decisions," cause that has always been true, but i was wondering how you felt about the writing decisions that were made about dean and jack

i do think. jensen acklesgotit in one when he said cas is jack's dad and dean's a grumpy stepdad or whatever . i think dean's feelings towards jack are significantly morecomplex than jack's towards dean because jack thinksof dean and is like. this is an adult i want to love me. with the understanding that dean is going to be a permanent fixture in his life. vs jack thinking of cas as. this is my father and he will protect me and i have his unconditional love and approval. but dean's view on jack is. more twisted up. veers between son/not son kid/not kid. etc. i do genuinely think the widow arc jack stuff is really well done. the point gets across and i get it and i want to chew on it forever. i also think dean's tryhard amends are well done. but conflicts b/ween dean and jack after early s13 are kinda. ehhhh. and i think dean + jack writing suffers partly bc of three men and a babyification and partly bc supernatural is not great at maintaining an interpersonal relationship conflict ball in the air for more than six episodes. and there's also the dimension that it IS this complex thing and to get into that you'd have to get INTO that which the show isnot interested in doing. instead it's more like you're given an essay outlineof their relationship where you have the topic sentences written out but the paragraphs to connecte them aren't actually written they're just "fill this in later 3-5 sentences" . i love it though i do.

#my space bar isnt working today. #but sometimes you have a dad that sort of sux but he does love you and you do want to see him on holidays and you only get in big teary #fights every 2 years or so! and thas called. dean and jack. #spnwatch #ask #anonymous

[northern-passage]

so with this being the Hot Topic of the week i wanted to make a post talking about fat characters and body diversity in IF. if we’re going to talk about it, let’s actually talk about it. and as a fat person myself, i want to talk about it.

i don’t think i really need to say that fat bodies are neglected in media in general - we all are aware of this. in interactive fiction specifically, there is definitely a notable absence of fat characters, but especially fat romance options. and when there are fat romance options, they tend to be stereotyped, or sidelined, or seen as “undesirable” to the average reader. more mainstream IF games don’t even have any body diversity at all, with all romance options being described as conventionally attractive (euro-centric) and skinny, or “super model-esque” which is usually just another way of saying conventionally attractive and skinny. on the other hand, a lot of IF leaves characters more vague and up for interpretation, simply because that is the nature of IF and it is designed for people to be able to fill in the gaps with what they want to see.

unfortunately, this may lead to people automatically defaulting to “skinny.” which, it’s already been said: that says a lot more than i ever could about how society views fat people. though, i do think it’s important for authors to be specific in their descriptions and identities when it comes to representing marginalized groups, not just with fat people but all across the board.

this lack of fat representation does feel particularly malicious when it comes to romance, with fat people very rarely, if ever, getting to see ourselves depicted as the person that is desirable, or the person that gets to be in love, and receive love, be deserving of love. fat people are mocked and shamed and fetishized from a very young age, with no positive depictions of people like us in media to look up to, and it can be extremely cruel and alienating. 

and society is actively hostile towards fat people. the BMI is used to shame us, despite being fake science. doctors actively ignore our problems and reduce all of it to “you need to lose weight.” there is no standardized sizing when it comes to clothing, and fat people are almost always left out. fat bodies, when they are represented, are reduced to negative stereotypes and “cautionary tales”, a thing to avoid and fear. only in recent years has there been any kind of push back against this, but we still have a long way to go.

and then there’s the word fat itself. there can be a lot said about the word “fat” and what exactly it means. it’s something that i think every fat person has strong feelings about. and i know a lot of people have a complicated relationship with the word, myself included. a lot of times people avoid that word to describe their characters - i know i tend to, because as a fat person it’s been used against me all my life and i’m still trying to unlearn that. it’s a word with a lot of stigma around it, and for some people it can be really personal. but ultimately, it’s a neutral word, a descriptor. it took me a long time to realize this, but fat is not a bad word.

i wanted to write all of this out because i do think this is an important conversation to be had, and i think the first step is just making people realize that fat is not bad. skinny is not the default. if you find yourself constantly interpreting characters as thin unless they are explicitly stated otherwise, challenge yourself about that. if you’re an artist, start drawing more fat bodies. if you’re a writer, think about what you can do to normalize fat people through your stories, and help destigmatize the word fat.

here are two articles i want to share:

Fat is Not a Bad Word

Creating Fuller Stories About Fat People

And the Health At Every Size website, which has its own page of resources.

finally, i wanted to highlight some authors & games that do include fat ROs. this is by no means an exhaustive list, but simply the games that i’m familiar with, and i think it’s important to show support to the people that are already doing the work and making strides to turn IF into a more inclusive community. (i also want to note that all of these games are WIPs, and may not yet explicitly state in game the description of their characters. however all have been portrayed and confirmed to be fat by the author on their blogs)

The Unknown One in The Moonless by @moonless-if (demo tba)

Bautista and Devin in Greenwarden by @fiddles-ifs

Florrie in Body Count by @bodycountgame

Hekate in Fields of Asphodel by @asphodelgame

Charlie in You Live and Fern by @beetlebethwrites

Nico in When It Hungers by @roast-ifs (currently undergoing edits)

Aja and Luc in Magician’s Voyage by @magiciansvoyage

EDIT:

Jabberywocky in Rabbit Hole by @if-rabbithole (demo tba)

Blake and Carmen in Off Script by @offscriptif (demo tba)

W in Witches of Ferngrove by @witchesofferngrove (demo tba)

James in Inner Demons by @innerdemons-if

C in The Heir Quest by @theuwriting

Roselyna and JM (as crush options) in Mommy, We Created a Plot Hole! by @mwcaph-game​

Greta and Galeon from Trails Lead Home by @trailshome

Azalea from Speaker by @speakergame

#me: im not posting on this blog anymore #also me: #🤷 #also other games feel free to message me if u have fat ROs and i'll add you :-) #personal #edit: ok im gonna reblog this again bc im getting so many additions i am full of love

[soliyra-the-sunbringer]

Soli’s wishlist for Our Flag Means Death Season 2

Hey, so why not: I'll try typing up my ofmd s2 wishlist. Some of these are improbable and/or unpopular.  You don’t have to agree with everything, but I’ve been encouraged to share my thoughts.  OFMD Season 2 wishlist, in the order in which I thought of them just now: 1. THAT THERE BE ONE.  Things are looking very good as of May 2022 but cruel and senseless things happen all the time and nothing is assured.   2.  Re: the reunion: THAT THERE BE ONE.  Some of you have never had your onscreen kiss and love confession take an immediate hard right into bury-your-gays and it fking shows.  Furthermore the writers and actors on this show are amazing and I want to see how they do it.   3. Abshir returns!  That dude is an absolute legend.  I need to know what he and his friends got up to after 1x05  and I am dying to see Oluwande's 'investment' pay off, hopefully at a point when the crew are at their lowest.   4.  Hornberry joins the Revenge crew.  He obviously likes them (he and Stede have a 'rapport') and there is no way that man is straight.  I want to see the Brittish officer -> pirate pipeline happen in real time.  And I want to see him involved in Stede et all getting off their feet/getting a ship.   LET HIM KISS BOYS.  (Is he sleeping with Wellington?  Maybe we’ll find out!)

5. Ghosthoney joins either the Revenge crew or Blackbeard crew.  I could honestly see it working either way and either way is pure gold.  6. "You're STEDE'S Ed???"  The many people on Tumblr calling for this are right and should say so.  Every drop of Ed & Mary content gives me life, particularly the moment she finds out he and the 'Dread Pyrate Blackbeard' are the same person, regardless of how exactly that goes down.   7. Lines for Ivan (in this economy) Ok, so it looks like this one isn’t going to happen, which is tragic but it does seem to mean that there is going to be a Season 2 for Ivan to not be in, so...great??  Anyway, so the way I would deal with this is for Ivan do die in an absurdly dramatic way off-screen.  It is somehow both heroic and cool and also stupid and hilarious.  The actors can probably improv this one, idk.  But no body, no crime, and leave it just open ended enough that he can just show up down the line (in an equally absurd and ridiculous way) if something changes wrt Guz’s schedule or w/e

8.  Jemain Clement as Benjamin Hornigold.  This has been hc’d so hard by so many fans...are we sure it’s not already canon?  Pirate-hunter arc would be epic.  9.  Captain Thomas EDWARD’S.  What can I say except that historical stuff is only cool if it’s funny and/or romantic and this sh is both. 

10. Doug comes out as trans, giving us bisexual (or otherwise wlw) Mary and transfeminine rep in one fell swoop.  

11. Speaking of which: Izzy Hands tries on a dress and experiences gender euphoria for the first time, which serves as a major turning point for the character.  (Ed and Izzy are lesbians together; I don’t make the rules).  

12.  Ed kisses a girl (and likes it, a la Katie Perry).  Please I am dying for explicit bi rep in OFMD. 

13, and this is an important one: STEDE KILLS SOMEONE ON PURPOSE.   --13a. that person is a dick. --13b. and preferably a racist.  This is an important point on Stede’s white-guy journey to active anti-racism.

13.  Anne Bonny and Mary Read, obviously.  Mary is Tig Notaro but I can think of literally dozens of actors I’d like to see as Anne and they’d all be great for different reasons.  MOAR WLW

14.  My favorite actors from the last major fandom I was involved in, because why the h not, is this a wishlist or what? 

15.  Harvey Guillen as someone extremely flamboyant and completely unhinged.  He’s been the uptight, contained one on wwdits for so long.  Let that beautiful little man be ‘round, brown, and proud’ and completely bonkers.  Let him get in a knife fight with Jim.  Maybe he’s part of the Siete Gallos, maybe he’s Jim’s long lost brother, maybe he’s just some pirate, idc.  This may or may not be a Harvey Guillen stan account. 

16.  A new wig for Jim.  Or maybe just Vico’s hair?  I do not like the current wig. 

17.  CREW.  FLASHBACKS.  The people (including Samba) on multiple platforms who are calling for this are right and should say so. 

18.  Geraldo appears in flashbacks.  He is an underrated character and Fred Armisen is delightful.  I said what I said. 

18.  STEARD NATION.  Murray Hewitt was a LOOK and I would like to see more, ty. 

19.  We all know that Lucius is alive, but have you consider that his life was somehow saved by the wooden finger, AKA the power of ~love~? 

20.  The people calling for Rory Kinnear to return as increasingly distant members of the Badminton family who all, improbably, look exactly like Rory Kinnear are right and should say so.  But male family members only; we will not be doing the ‘man in a dress’ trope on OFMD. 

21.  SHOW US THE TALENT SHOW YOU COWARDS.  The people calling for this ar-- you get the idea.  

22.  (can’t believe I almost forgot this one) Gnossienne 5 played on an unlikely instrument like electric guitar or something. 

23.  GIVE FANG A DOG.  Another popular one that is also empirically correct. 

24.  Explicit ace rep.  I don’t really care who but bonus if it’s someone we already know. 

25.  One time I read a post somewhere that said s2 should start with Stede standing in his dinghy with his hand upraised and he sees the crew and they see him and he is immediately hit in the face by the red silk and.  Yes.  That.  I agree.  that’s all I can think of for now, except for the general idea of ‘boys kissing,’ which really should be a given but, again, the world is cruel and senseless and we can take nothing for granted. 

#ofmd #our flag means death #our flag means gay #ofmd season 2 wishlist #soliyra #wall of text #actually I think I'm just so so but I've decided to carry myself like I'm funny #spoilers #ofmd spoilers

[queenangella]

How did you feel about shadow weavers sacrifice? I don’t think it redeemed her, but I also think that was the point. And she basically resisted everything she ever wanted for adora and catra, so she gets brownie points for that!

Hm. It’s been a full day and I’m still not quite sure how I feel about it.

Before season 5 started, I was absolutely convinced that Shadow Weaver:

had only ever sought power for herself at the expense of others,

did not love Adora–or if she did, it was a twisted form of affection since she knew Adora would one day be powerful, and

never loved Catra. 

I think these were pretty character-consistent conclusions based on her actions as a sorceress in Mystacor, her whole history with Adora and Catra, her heartbreaking betrayal of Catra in season 2, and how quickly she shifted her sights to Glimmer (and her power) in season 3.

Importantly: She never expressed any regret for her actions.

Even up to the end. 

She actually thought she was a good guy, and after this sacrifice she might be regarded as one… which is just… ugh. I don’t like it. 

It’s true she does give up the Heart’s power and sacrifices herself for Adora and Catra, but seriously, she was never going to go back for Catra of her own volition. The only reason she did is because Adora left to save Catra, and so Shadow Weaver went to save Adora. That, or she was just trying to make sure the failsafe Adora was carrying made it to the Heart. 

Either way, they’re more altruistic intentions than we’ve ever seen from her, which I suppose is… something.

Shadow Weaver has some kind words for Catra, even tells her she’s proud of her, which is all Catra ever wanted–but after all the years of being told otherwise, those words are hollow. (I haven’t had it half as bad as Catra did, but I can still tell you that much.)

Still, when it’s something you’ve wanted for so long… yeah, it’ll make you emotional. Especially when Catra and Adora have seemed to care far more for Shadow Weaver than she did for them.

Except in this final case. (Possibly.)

Honestly, I’m not sure where the turnaround came from. Based on Shadow Weaver’s actions in seasons 1 through 4, this came out of left field for me–and I’m not a giant fan of the “suicidal redemption” trope. It almost always feels like a cop-out, and I don’t like the way it robbed Adora and Catra of the chance to move past Shadow Weaver and her abuse on their own terms. 

Either way, she’s gone, and I certainly won’t miss her.

(P.S. check out this extremely good post-s5 fic my friend wrote. It deals a little bit with how Catra might process Shadow Weaver’s sacrifice.)

#oh damn i hadnt thought of it that way! #but it makes a lot of sense tho #spop. #spop spoilers #meta

[ashintheairlikesnow]

Hey Ash

So this has been on my mind for a while now.

I mean some of the whump is real cruel-and i know we humans are not to be predicted at all-yet i can't take it off my mind that any fiction has a touch of reality to it.

Um not accusing anybody of anything but Has anyone-group of people to be specific-been hurt -IRL-in a systematized way like in those box boy stories or signed a contract,giving away their lives or whatever....i mean i hear about creepy things like in deep web and mystery boxes and i just can't help questioning what if some of these stories are happening to people in the real life not just in our fiction stories or what if some of our stories are based on something like that,like,is there any solid evidence?

Some days, it's overwhelming and i guess i'd like to hear what other whump community members think or know about this

This question is probably weird and not well formulated but it's been on my mind for a while now and i just need to know

CW: For discussion of true crime cases that involve rape, kidnapping, abuse, consensual cannibalism, etc

Oof, well, this is kind of an intense question.

I would say, to some extent... yes, there's probably aspects of the story that have occurred to some extent in real life here or there. There is the story of Colleen Stan, a woman literally kidnapped and kept in a box, repeatedly assaulted over the course of years. She was even coerced into signing a "contract" of slavery for life.

Human trafficking networks often go to great lengths to carefully lure vulnerable individuals by offering them a "better life", or an escape from their problems.

Cults often pull people in by "love-bombing" them, or by burying them in affection and hiding their true purpose, and then withholding that earlier affection while subjecting the cult members to malnourishment, abuse, torture, sexual assault, extreme sleep deprivation, and repetitious chanting that numbs the mind and is designed to make it more suggestible.

There’s even a very famous case of two men who met online and one agreed to be murdered and consumed by the other in a case of “consensual” cannibalism. 

Bram recording and posting his torture of Danny references a couple of times a true story where a man who had abducted a young girl was caught because he was live-streaming his torture of her, and one of his viewers realized this wasn't an act, freaked out, and called the FBI to report it.

So, in that sense I suppose you could say yes, there is a touch of reality. But the simple truth is that there is no fiction without a touch of reality to it, because we wouldn't connect with it otherwise. Think about fantasy novels, or sci-fi. Even if they take place on an alien world with alien characters, there will be some aspect of reality within the story - perhaps the protagonist is searching for their missing child, and how many stories have we heard about abducted or missing children with parents desperate to find them? Perhaps the protagonist has magical powers and is going through training at an elite institution where they suffer from violent bullying and harassment - there are plenty of stories about children who are viciously bullied, many of us have experienced that ourselves.

Writers often pull details from real events to add a sense of connection and realism to even the most fantastical stories. I would argue this isn't really any different.

The Room, a book and movie which became more or less a national household name, is a direct reference to multiple real-life kidnappings where women were rescued who had been held for so long they'd given birth while in captivity.

In the Silence of the Lambs movie, Buffalo Bill (the serial killer they are trying to catch before he kills again) pulled inspiration from multiple real-life serial killers.

The killer in Scream was based on the Gainesville Ripper.

The BBU isn't really happening, but there are pieces of it - the concept of breaking people down through abuse, malnourishment, repetition, and torture - that exist in real life.

#bbu #wru #whump meta #whump asks #rape mention #torture #abuse

[omegafrisk]

so i have some criticisms of berdly

ok so i wanna get my thoughts on berdly out in public because the way people have started talking about him after chapter 2 is making me very uncomfortable. apologies for the length of this!

a lot of people have warmed to berdly after chapter 2, but personally i have nothing but criticism for his writing. from his introduction he's been coded like a baby misogynist dudebro. every part of how he talks echoes that subculture. i can't even call it parody because that's literally how these people are.

i've seen people say it's wrong to call him a misogynist or transphobe because he doesn't overtly speak that way in the text, but i seriously object to that. he's a fictional character; toby fox doesn't write microaggressions. he's artificially sanitised because he's not real while otherwise word-for-word echoing the sentiments of real bigots. a man who, let's be honest with ourselves, was likely intended by the author to be cis calling himself superior to everyone is kind of inherently going to fall into misogyny and transphobia. yes, berdly is a child, but so are the people around him and around real people like that who are hurt by his beliefs and actions.

being a child, berdly is of course capable of growth, but he isn't even given the opportunity to do that. he's the butt of every joke and humiliated a bunch, but noelle never gets a chance to properly stand up to him. yeah, she chokes him out for saying he has a crush on susie, but she doesn't get to confront him for how cruel he's been to her or to others in the same way she gets to confront the queen as a standin for her mother.

berdly is right back to his old self once the chapter ends with minimal growth because he spent the chapter learning almost nothing. not even queen tells him off, we just get the running gag (which is hilarious, don't get me wrong) of her avoiding him. of course there's still the opportunity for growth in future chapters, but i think that's extremely poor pacing on toby's part when he's introduced an actual bigot into his story.

berdly is far from the only example of toby poorly representing real-world harm in this chapter. just look at him bending over backwards to defend hometown's police and defang king spades with a "haha, he wasn't THAT bad see everyone? he's funny and he was totally bluffing! queen likes him she's cool!" and, of course, acting like being imprisoned has made king spades way better. these are all completely unnecessary narrative decisions.

because that's the thing about berdly - he didn't HAVE to be like this. his narrative role of being a bit of a jerk who's tied up in noelle's backstory could easily be filled without touching on that. you can be a stuck up prick without echoing real bigoted sentiments.

a character can be a bad person while still being a good character, but i absolutely object to the idea that berdly can be counted as that. he's just unpleasant. quite frankly, i find the fact that so many people like him suddenly because he's kind of sort of trying a bit and might possibly try more in the future disturbingly similar to how people treat real bigoted men when they show the slightest sign of any kind of improvement, too. remember that post that went around about that incel who started healing from depression after learning to take care of shrimp, who called his uncle a homophobic slur in the post and never mentioned no longer viewing women as inferior...?

i guess my point is that sometimes you have to look outside a text to understand a character. or, really, all the time. characters exist in the context of how they reflect the real world. writers you like a lot can do things poorly. #ReplaceBerdlyWithAnOC20k21

#draws an anti-discourse circle on the floor around myself #please be normal about criticism utdr fandom please please pl #edited this post cause i called him a baby incel but it wasn't quite correct

[astralprcjects]

first of all, if you saw me accidentally post this when it was half done, no you didn’t <3 but anyway, i’m following the trend and throwing out some ideas for connections !! i’d love some new plots, so if any of these catch your eye pls don’t hesitate to come yell at me :))) discord is the best place to reach me ( jojo she-ra#5493 ) or tumblr ims work just fine too !! 

i get very confused whether likes are just for support or if you’re interested in any plots so pls pls just dm me or drop a reply and i’ll come to you !! i’m not scary i promise just nervous like a shaky dog <3

a few important points:

mars is a lesbian, so romantic plots can only be taken up by female and non binary characters.

rosalie is bisexual and polyamorous – they have no interest in monogamy. she likes to form connections with people, and so much prefers casual flings and dating with no strings over one night stands.

both of my characters use she and they pronouns interchangeably. please don’t refer to them as women or misgender them in any way ( i’m always happy to answer any questions if you’re confused !! )

── 👻 M A R C E L I N E

extroverted friends – a lot of mars’ friends are introverts and she loves them dearly, but sometimes they just needs to be around people who match their energy !! so friends who will happily get excited with her and share their own passions in return ?? they’re extremely loyal and latch onto people quickly, so would be over the moon for that energy to be matched. ( open – all )

the non-believer – this muse doesn’t believe in ghosts or aliens or anything supernatural. so, naturally, mars has made it her life’s mission to change their mind. they have constant debates and light-hearted fights; they both enjoy trying to prove the other wrong. ( open – all )

horror movie besties – mars loves a good scary movie, but they always appreciates a familiar shoulder to hide behind. she and this character share a passion for horror movies and have regular movie nights. they always accompany each other to see the latest scary flicks in the cinema or re-runs of old classics. ( open – all )

unrequited crush – someone that mars is close friends with, who she is sure she feels more than friendship for. they respect their boundaries and will always be afraid to tell them, but can’t help but quietly pine from a far. ( open – f/enby )

requited crush – same as above, except the other person feels the same and now they’re dancing around each other ( open – f/enby )

friends who grew apart – they used to be close, mars used to tell them everything, but something pulled them apart. perhaps they both had feelings for the same person, or your character became irritated by mars’ constant pestering. mars can also get bored easily, maybe she became bored of this person too ?? or maybe mars had a crush on them and pulled away out of panic. ( open – all (f/enby only for ex-crush) )

amicable exes – they dated for a few months and it was great, but other circumstances caused them to break up. they didn’t see each other for a while, but later reunited and realised that, although they had both moved on, they still really cared for each other and struck up a strong friendship instead. now they are each other’s go-to for relationship/dating advice, since they know each other so well. ( open – f/enby )

co-workers and work connections – mostly fellow journalists, or people who work in the magazine/newspaper industry. marcie works freelance, so she works for various publications across the city and would have contacts in most places who she can call upon for favours. they would also have a string of contacts from previous articles they’ve written; perhaps she has interviewed your character or they are someone with a lot of connections themselves which she can utilise. usually at a price, of course. ( open – all )

no man is an island – mars is desperately trying to become an author, but they can’t do it alone. so anyone who works in the industry is a valuable asset – publishers, editors, fellow authors, you name it and mars probably wants their number. she can go to these people for help and advice when she faces a setback, or just wants to use their placement in the industry to try to launch her career. they are, of course, always well compensated with baked goods and cups of coffee. ( open – all )

rivals – mars can be incredibly irritating and she knows that, but she doesn’t appreciate when people are cruel or rude to her about it. this muse simply can’t stand marcie and so the feeling is mutual and they avoid each other at all costs, even if the universe sometimes has other ideas. ( open – all )

 ── 🌹 R O S A L I E

gossip sources – people always know people who know people and rosalie is insufferably nosey. she always wants to know everything that’s going on and can never keep her opinions to herself. as such, she is an excellent person to go for if you need to rant or want impartial advice, just as long as you remember to tell her not to spread the news beforehand. otherwise the entire borough of queens might know your business by lunchtime. ( open – all )

college friends – rosalie studied at nyu from 2012 to 2016, so could have crossed paths with all kinds of people during this time !! maybe they’ve stayed in touch ever since, maybe they lost track of each other once their lives divulged but now have an opportunity to reconnect ?? ( open – all )

makeover victims – rosalie loves all things beauty (makeup, hair, nails, fashion, the full works) and, even more than that, loves experimenting on other people. these characters are her canvas; whether they have an event they’re attending, or are off on a date, or even just fancy an afternoon of being pampered, rosalie will always be at their doorstep with a fully equipped makeup kit if they just say the word. ( open – all )

practically cousins – rosa’s family is huge and they are well known for inviting anyone and everyone over for dinner, especially if those people don’t have family of their own or are far away from home. rosalie’s friends are considered family and are welcome in their home. ( open – all )

friends of her family – the above courtesy is of course extended to their family member’s friends. perhaps this muse is close to one of rosalie’s siblings, but doesn’t get along with rosa at all. the two try to get along over the dinner table (mostly to avoid her abuela’s wrath), but outside of that they bicker relentlessly and can’t seem to ever see eye to eye. ( open – all )

rivals – rosalie is an insufferable gossip who can’t keep their mouth shut unless they were sworn to secrecy. maybe she spilled a secret of your muse’s by accident and they have never forgiven her for it ?? she’s not spiteful and is very openminded so it would be something she thought was harmless or common knowledge, which also means she doesn’t really accept that she did anything wrong. ( open – all )

heartbroken – their dating life is a mess and they tend to pull away if things get too serious, so she’s likely to have a string of people who have been hurt by her distancing herself from them. maybe there was a miscommunication and rosalie thought they were only hooking up but the other thought they were dating ?? or maybe they were something more serious, but rosalie broke it off when it got too real ?? there are lots of options to play with !! ( open – all )

casual hookups – because she doesn’t want to get attached, rosalie has multiple casual partners. neither party wants anything more serious, but it is fun to hook up with each other and go out on dates without any of the strings that usually comes with that. if we want the d r a m a, perhaps your muse actually does want more, but rosalie is scared to commit. ( open – all )

industry friends – actors, directors, screenplay writers etc. the entertainment industry is a tangled mess of egos, but when you make friends you keep them close. these are people rosalie can run lines with, they tell each other about auditions and support each other through the madness that is the career path they’ve both chosen. rosalie is never afraid to speak her mind, so she is always someone that can be relied upon for constructive, impartial advice. ( open – all )

#( always down for brainstorming !! these are just to get the ball rolling and some ideas of what i'm looking for #if you have any ideas for other plots or things you want to do that marcie or rosa could be used for hit me uP i'm probably gonna be into it #especially if it hurts them <3 )

[mdhwrites]

My Problem/Disappointment With Amity’s Parents

So what the show has done with them is fine. It's fine. Totally fine. They're high society, capitalist jerks who will abuse one of their children for the sake of them having a proper heir and it works and it's been done before and it's effective. It made them perfectly fine villains of the week. It's a shame that it also means missing out on some potential with Amity's character and her fears and makes no sense in context to Emira and Edric. Let's talk.

So, we'll start with Amity and I want to say that a lot more of this part is subjective. I recognize that what I'm going to talk about would have been much harder to do with the show's format and likely taken more time and that it is in fact effective. Her parents make you feel bad for Amity and you understand why she is under such constant pressure and fear. But... What if that hadn't been then case? What if they were strict, sure, and pushed her to succeed, like any set of parents would, but weren't cruel about it? Especially now that she's older and needs to start figuring out what sort of Blight she'll be and experiment with how she interacts with others of all walks of life and not just the best? Suddenly, Amity seems less reasonable to be afraid because a slip up may come with a talk but not a grounding or worse unless it was genuinely egregious.

Except then we get her obsession with never screwing up. Because she never had before Luz. Because she is a perfectionist who was taught that she needed to strive to be the best no matter what and to never show weakness, lessons she took to her core and never learned the second sides of. This would lead to the same character we see but she's now that really smart kid who only identifies as 'the smart kid' and so the idea of relaxing and being something other than that is terrifying to them. The pressure is as much in their own heads as it is from outside sources. They perceive a threat of consequences for failure that are far beyond what would actually be there.

Instead, we know that the consequences for Amity are exactly what she thinks they are, if not worse. I mean, when it came to hanging out with Luz, she likely foresaw getting grounded, yelled at, or worse, but she likely never saw her mom ruining all of her friends' lives as an option. That sort of extreme just means that she needs to readjust her assumptions so that she's closer to the next time her mom attempts to kill someone over her lapsing in focus. That's not nearly as interesting because it implies that she would be much better off without parents. That she'd be able to be close to as healthy as she is with Luz, who makes her forget about that pressure and fear, if she were instead in an orphanage and entirely having to self motivate.

In short: It puts the trait as being something outside of Amity, rather than inside Amity. It's an element of her past, not her. And that's not as interesting to me nor as unique.

But I also mentioned Emira and Edric earlier, right? Because take everything I just said about Odalia and consequences and just yeet it into the nearest sun. After all, while we see the twins try to take steps while directly helping Amity to avoid getting in trouble, such as just asking Mittens to be quiet about it, they obviously aren't subtle people. Hell, one of the main ways of causing trouble that we know about is them SKIPPING CLASS. That's not something you just get away with. Either they are doing something as a trade off to get those teachers to never report them, and report them to very influential people who have heavy sway with the Isles' version of the PTA, or Odalia and Alador have some idea that they're doing this. Also, skipping class usually makes keeping up in class harder so unless Odalia is okay with Cs and Bs rather than straight As, it'd be reflecting on their report cards too.

So how do you make these two halves work? Well, in the case of everything we know right now, you kind of don't. You can headcanon a lot of stuff to make it work but if we just go by what we know, Amity has a genuine reason to complain because a couple weeks at most of her grades not being constant 100s got her double the workload and her friends ripped from her while Ed and Em get to do as they please without consequence. And, reminder, THEY'RE OLDER THAN AMITY. If you want to include them being high society, of status, that means Ed and EM are the HEIRS. Odalia gives more shit currently to her youngest daughter than she does to her oldest. If it's because Amity chose abominations, why wasn't Emira forced into abominations instead? Or was she just that bad at it? We don't know but it is a gaping hole that we don't have an explanation for and I really think it hurts the entire Blight family dynamic because you have to effectively look at it either as it being a somewhat normal, privileged family with the twins, or completely dysfunctional and cruel with the parents.

BUT! This is all just my opinion and, as I said before, all of this has been effective. I still love the twins, I hate Odalia, and I feel sympathetic for Amity because her life is so rough. This is just stuff that has nagged at my brain for a good while now and I wanted to share, especially since I hope it'll help you all consider what the interconnected relationships between characters means rather than looking at them only one on one because otherwise that's how you get the Odalia/Amity and Odalia/Twins disconnect. What do you all think?

And last note because I need to shill if I ever want to make this writer thing work out, if you liked this, maybe consider taking a look at my original work Little Miss Rich Witch which was heavily inspired by Lumity and my thoughts on the high society elements around Amity. It's being published chapter by chapter on Amazon's new Kindle Vella platform where you can read the first three chapters for free and there is a promotion going on to get 200 free tokens which will take you through at least the first 9 paid chapters of the story. It would mean a lot to me and I hope you have a wonderful day no matter what.

#writing analysis #THE OWL HOUSE #high society #Amity Blight #Odalia Blight

[landonkirbyappreciation]

Bad English. In general, I do not know what exactly Alaric got the coin for, as for me he was surprised. For an apology or for the comfort. But I hope that the coin is only for honesty and not because I want a coin, I will say everything because then it is not honest.

As for the age of the characters, I try not to pay attention because they behave as if vampires are human, meaning sometimes they sound like they have been going to this school for years. I don't know much about American education but I remember that Raf already had a scholarship to college in season 1 and a girl was about to join him, and Landon started to worry about college in season 3 plus he was in a class with MG, at least in the episode with the dream demon. And at TO, Conor already had a driving license, unless it was from January. Seylah spoke of hiding for 18 years but that could mean Malivor released her, and it could be about 3 months before she gave birth. Maybe it's a bit weird, but I wish Landon and Hope had the same date on the basis of Universe Balance.

Ah, these typos, yes Triad, although I did not mean literally just as an example of extreme stupidity in wanting to get rid of the "threat" they created a threat. And now "Hope" will act like the box said. I hope Hope still has no humanity because it would be cruel because she would have to deal with someone else's problem again and not her own.

As for Charon, this is really a character from Greek mythology, he really is a carrier of the dead in Hades, only that with a coin in their mouths the dead were buried and only in this way could they cross the Styx to experience peace after death. And Leta, or Lethe, was another river of Hades and literally meant oblivion. The water from the river acted when you drank it, you forgot what life you had. This is the version I read. That's why I thought about this river, because it would be less cruel than waiting.

With Alaric getting his coin, I think he got it by apologizing for the part he played that led Landon to his death and feeling sorry for how being at the school hurt Landon and that Landon lost everything because of it. And I think him comforting Landon was maybe part of it as well. I hope that the coin only appears when they’re being honest, I feel like that would have to be the case, otherwise it wouldn’t work. So at least it’s good to know that Alaric was being genuine, and he seemed to be. 

Yeah, you kinda have to ignore the ages when it comes to the show because it doesn’t make any sense with how much time has passed, and I’m pretty sure the writers want us to ignore their ages too. Oh and I had forgotten that Raf had gotten a scholarship! So he should’ve graduated after season 1, just like Hope and Landon. (Still mad that they didn’t just have Raf go off to college somewhere instead of trapping him in a prison world...) But yeah, Landon was talking about college in 3x03, he should have left the school a long time ago. And that’s true about MG as well, and Kaleb might be older too. And the twins should be turning 18 soon, so none of these characters should still be attending the school after this season. And that’s a good point about Connor as well, he already had a car in TO and we know Landon was at least 15 at the time and Hope was also learning how to drive at the time too. And we know they were both 17 at the start of Legacies, so that fits with what Seylah said if Landon wasn’t far off from turning 18 at the time. But you think Hope and Landon should have the same birthday? That would very interesting if they did, I feel like they probably would’ve mentioned it if that were true. But I’m very interested to know how far apart their birthdays are.

Ok gotcha! That’s very true, and I do wonder if we will see Aurora acting more similar to how Hope did in the therapy box, if she ends up being more violent or if she’ll kill anyone. I really hope that Hope still has her humanity off as well, I agree that it would be even harder on her if she was dealing with that while trapped in another body. Plus I want her turning it back on to be a big moment and Danielle has to be the one playing Hope when it happens (and I want it to happen when Landon comes back too).

That mythology sounds interesting, I didn’t know about that. It makes me wonder if they’re gonna bring in any more of that mythology into the show with the limbo storyline, since they’ve taken the idea of the Charon and the coins too it sounds like. I wonder if there will be anything to do with the river, like you’re talking about.

#answered #s4

[96thdayofrage]

The mental and physical impacts of solitary confinement have been clear for two centuries. In 1829, Pennsylvania Quakers opened the first prison designed for solitary, hoping to inspire reflection in the inmates. Instead, many went crazy or committed suicide. Thirteen years later, Charles Dickens made his first trip to America, and after seeing it first hand, solitary confinement shocked a writer whose bleak perspective inspired an adjective for intolerable suffering. “He is a man buried alive,” he wrote.

In the century and a half since, multiple international agreements have codified the practice as inhumane. In 2011, Juan Mendez, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture — who was himself jailed and tortured by the Argentinean military dictatorship for more than a year in the 1970s — declared that more than 15 days in solitary constitutes torture.

“Solitary confinement is recognized as difficult to withstand; indeed, psychological stressors such as isolation can be as clinically distressing as physical torture,” wrote Jeffrey L. Metzner and Jamie Fellnerin in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, in a paper about the medical ethics of physicians who participate in punitive isolation measures.

According to a report by Citizens for Prison Reform, there are 3,200 people in isolation in Michigan for more than 20 hours a day among the state prison population, like Richard Goddard, who has been in isolation for 47 years; James Miller, who has been segregated from the general population for about 36; and Daniel Henry, for 12. Clarence Henderon, who at 67 had been in isolation has been confined to a wheelchair due to severe arthritis. He allegedly goes months without going outside. “It’s just torture,” says Mario Lee, who goes by the name Akesi and has been incarcerated since 2005, currently serving time at the Ionia Correctional Facility.

Chris Gautz, a spokesperson for the MDOC, denies that the department regularly keeps inmates in solitary confinement for years. (A request for comment on the whereabouts of the individuals in Silenced was forwarded to the state’s FOIA office, and we’ll update if we hear back). “As of February of this year, there was one prisoner who has been in [administrative segregation] for more than one year, but less than two, out of 32,000 prisoners,” Gautz said. But Jessica Sandoval, senior campaign strategist with the national Unlock the Box campaign, says the MDOC fudges those numbers by labeling isolation a variety of technical terms, like Mental Health Unit; Observation; temporary segregation. And Alternative to Segregation (START program).

Akesi, who was recently moved to the START program, says the difference is meaningless. “The program is classified as general population. In reality, it’s administrative [segregation]. The only distinguishing features is that we are required to attend and participate in one hour of group therapy sessions once a week,” he says. “On the other hand, the similarities to seg are many. We are allowed one hour of outdoor recreation five days a week, confined to individual enclosures with concrete floors and enclosed by a steel and wire mesh cage.” He says they’re denied access to any congregate activities including religious services. “We spend between 23 and 24 hours per day in our cells. By no stretch of the imagination can the department of corrections claim that this program is general population or otherwise an alternative to segregation.”

“As social (i.e. human beings) one of the most severe punishments humanly possible that society can mete out to a human is to banish and condemn us to the tombs for the living — or otherwise subject us to extreme social isolation and sensory deprivation,” Akesi wrote in 2020 from the Ionia Correctional Facility in Ionia, Michigan. “It’s endless torture, psychological and physical.”

“This is the techno jargon that keeps the system opaque. All these euphemisms are for essentially solitary confinement,” Sandoval says. She says anything that forces an inmate to stay in isolation for longer than sleeping hours should be defined as solitary. (Gautz told Rolling Stone he didn’t have that information and forwarded the query to the department’s FOIA office.) The Michigan Department of Corrections counts 835 inmates in administrative, or long-term segregation, and 130 in punitive solitary detention, as a short term punishment. The race breakdown is stark: more than 70 percent of inmates placed in long term solitary are Black.

The prisoners’ descriptions are remarkably consistent: they describe severe mental health problems arising from solitary, from hallucinations to paranoia to suicidal ideation. One inmate reports losing his vision after staring at nothing in the near distance for so long. Another, Williams says, was screaming on the phone; he’d forgotten how to talk at a normal volume.

Williams points out that it’s not just the “worst of the worst” being held in isolation — Hannibal Lecters who would wreak havoc if they weren’t segregated. Inmates can get thrown in the hole for any reason, she says, or no reason at all. She claims it’s entirely based on the whim of the guards. “One man was sent to isolation unit after knocking over a glass of water,” she claims. (Gautz, the MDOC spokesperson, denied that guards put prisoners in solitary without due process or a just reason.)

Williams also notes that many facilities are in rural, almost entirely white towns: in some cases, the prison is the main industry. “You’re taking Black people to extremely isolated places. The town survives off of these Black bodies.”

“The further you go up North… its like some parts of the South in the 50’s and 60’s,” writes inmate Andraus McCloud. “The KKK turned in their robes for MDOC uniforms,” writes inmate Anthony Richardson. “Nobody is watching while they do their hate practices.”

When Danielle Dunn, a real estate broker, spoke to her little brother, 38-year-old Jonathan Lancaster, in February of 2019, he whispered the entire time. “There was a change in his voice. Clearly he was having mental health issues,” she tells Rolling Stone. Lancaster had been thrown in solitary after a scuffle with another inmate, and had become increasingly paranoid. “He was saying there was gas pumped into his cell. That his food was being poisoned. I said, ‘Are you OK? It sounds like you’re cracking up a little bit.” Lancaster got silent, Dunn recalls. “Then he whispered again, ‘They’re going to kill me.’”

Even as Lancaster started losing weight and continued to act erratically — he suffered from a variety of mental illnesses, his sister says, including schizophrenia — his sister alleges that prison staff failed to get Lancaster proper medical treatment. He began to hallucinate, crouch in the fetal position, and refused food and water. The Detroit Free Press reported that he lost 26 percent of his body weight in three weeks, dropping 51 pounds, according to the lawsuit.

“They didn’t even know why he was still in solitary confinement,” Dunn says. She begged staff to give him proper care but claims she was told he was “physically fine.” March 8th, 2019, he was pepper sprayed and put in an observation room, where he didn’t have access to water, according to the lawsuit. On March 11th, they cleared him for a hospital visit. Early that morning, they strapped him into a restraint chair and left him in his cell for several hours. At 12:50 he was found unresponsive and later declared dead. (Lancaster’s family is suing MDOC staff for wrongful death; Gautz declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.)

“My brother was severely tortured,” Dunn says, tearing up. “They beat him. There were bruises all over him. Pepper sprayed, beat, when he was unresponsive. They sat there and they literally watched him suffer and die.” Her mother was put in a mental health hospital. “It’s all but killed my mother. She’s suffering terribly.”

“The cruelty, leaving him to die in his own waste, suffering,” Dunn says, of her brother.

Surviving in solitary can be its own cruelty. Daniel Henry has spent more than a decade in segregation and, he says, he’s been told he’s never getting out. “It’s been a long 12 years in solitary at ICF and I have learned so much about the darker side of human nature and how cruel people can become when there is no real accountability or oversight,” Henry wrote to Willams. “I have also learned a lot about myself. And I’ve met many people in here and out there who have taught me how to sympathize with the next man’s pain and suffering.”

“Other countries do not utilize solitary confinement like we do let alone incarcerate their citizens for such lengthy sentences that virtually remove any hope for a future life outside of the criminal justice system,” Henry added.

He, and others, worry about Richard Goddard, who’s spent almost 50 years in isolation. “The man is the most kind, caring and humble human being I’ve ever met and he clearly presents no threat to either himself or the MDOC any longer,” says Henry. “The appearance is that they want us to suffer as much as possible on top of being confined to a small space for years.”

Williams hopes to turn outrage over conditions into action; the website has a “Take Action” page that lets people share their stories and lobby political leaders, like Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

“I am hoping that public pressure makes the MDOC admit that there’s a huge problem, and actually work toward fixing it,” she tells Rolling Stone.

She wishes elected officials could really see the conditions they perpetuate with their inaction. “I want legislators to visit these prisons in July or August, to step inside of a segregation cell and close the door when it’s over 100 degrees and see how long they last.”

[frenchie-sottises]

Skelebros Headcannons.

No one asked for these, but whatever. Also, there may be some triggers, so be aware. (It’s mainly trauma stuff.)

Also, this is like, super fucking long. I included quite a few versions.

Papyrus:

- Is over 7′9 without the boots. He’s 7′11 with them. - Smarter than he looks. (I might as well say that this is confirmed cause he apparently knows of Sans’s ability to prank people across time and space.) - Isn’t the best cook when it comes to dishes other than spaghetti, but that doesn’t mean he can’t learn. Excellent baker though! - He didn’t jump out of the window because he forgot the door exists. It’s his way of being comedic. (And it worked.) - He loves Sans’s puns, but he only gets so salty because he feels like the timing could be better. - Almost burned down the house once when he tried to make spaghetti the way Undyne did it, so he learned to tone tf down. He only gets rambunctious when he cooks with Undyne cause, come on, it’s fun to go nuts every now and again. - Isn’t afraid to curse, but he doesn’t do it cause it’s rude.

Sans:

- Is over 5′2 and is literally big boned. (All the Sanses are, really.) - Doesn’t actually know that Papyrus loves his puns. - The jacket he wears is something he made, so this means he’s good at sewing. - He went outside without a shirt once, so when he made the joke about the cold going through him, he opened his jacket as the wind went through. He got sick like a dumbass hours later. - Speaking of dumbasses, he managed to get Papyrus to call him one for getting sick. He’s managed to get Papyrus to cuss also. (They still love each other dearly, don’t worry.) - He totally doesn’t have PTSD. Nope, not at all. It’s definitely not from the genocide routes and seeing his brother get killed multiple times. - Because of his trauma and not having the proper resources to help it, he suffers a form of CFS. (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.)

Edge:

- Is over 7′10 without the boots. Is 8′2 with them. - No one knows how he can wear heels in the snow. (He runs in them for crying out loud.) - Can be easily flustered when it comes to flirting, but when he’s in the mood to be saucy? Oh boy. - Is practically a professional chef and baker. Undyne’s lessons made him realize that he has to teach himself if he wants to provide decent meals. - Is rough with his brother, but he isn’t straight up mean. It’s more along the lines of him struggling to be kind and gentle out in public. - Half of his encounters usually don’t involve him doing anything. He’s just that intimidating. - People mostly know him for being loud and angry 24/7, but this isn’t always the case. He can control his volume when he needs to, and is actually pretty damn tame. It’s pretty rare to see him genuinely angry.

Red:

- Is the shortest Sans in this list standing at 5′0. - His sweating mostly comes from him trying not to piss off his brother despite the fact that said brother’s made it clear that he would never be angry at him. - He has PTSD, but due to the environment, his symptoms tend to be worse. - He’s resorted to cutting himself several times. His brother has no clue though. - Struggles with his moral code more than his brother. He’s torn between following his own path and suffering possible consequences from the king, and being loyal to the king at all costs to avoid his wrath. - His shoes are always untied, so it’s not uncommon to see him on the ground face down. - If given the chance to take his mind off of things, he will take it. Drugs are off-hands though. You can thank Edge for that.

Stretch:

- Is over 7′6 when he’s not slouching. - The cig’s gonna be lit, but he doesn’t smoke. He only does it cause it makes him look cool. - He actually doesn’t use any drugs, but he did get himself high one time via weed brownies for pure shits and giggles. Boy, was he high off his ass. - Unlike the classic Sans, his jokes have better timing. He’s made Blueberry laugh several times. - “I can make every dirty joke in existence... AND NO ONE CAN STOP ME!” - Stretch at one point in time. - Has an endless supply of hoodies and it confuses his brother to this day. - He’s learned to give mercy while making you wish you were dead. (I may or may not have watched Rising of the Shield Hero.)

Blueberry:

- Is over 5′6 with the boots. Is only 5′5 without them. - Has a bod that screams the power to wrestle BEARS. - Someone teach him how to cook. He keeps overcooking the fucking TACO MEAT- - He has the body of a himbo, the personality of a himbo, and the mind of a himbo- okay, maybe the last one is a little inaccurate. He can be pretty smart. - May or may not be a bit of a perv. - His smile is so bright that it lightens up just about everyone’s moods. - Is a fantastic artist and no one can tell him otherwise.

Pup (Swapfell):

- Is over 7′3 when he’s not slouching. - Does actually smoke. - His blind eye was given from his brother playing far too rough. - He likes to rob people, but will learn to stop if the victim is shown to be far too powerful for him to handle. - Despite his not-so-welcomed attitude, when he’s put in a place where there is no threat of his brother, he can be quite friendly. - Has tried to feel people up in the past, but constantly keeps having his ass handed to him. - Makes only dirty jokes.

Blackberry (Swapfell):

- Is over 5′7 with the boots. Is only 5′4 without them. - Really needs his ass handed to him. - He can say he loves his brother all he wants. Doesn’t excuse why he treats him like shit. - He tends to poison his food when it comes to others. It could possibly contribute to why his brother steals other’s money. (And by “poison”, I mean he’s not a good cook. At all.) - Although he fights a lot, his body doesn’t quite match up to par, and he hates it. - Is easily jealous and possessive. - Surprisingly doesn’t actually swear when he swears.

Slim (Fellswap Red):

- Is over 7′3, and he doesn’t slouch. - Has the fluffiest jacket in existence and wears a lot of the bigger collars. - Is an absolute sweetheart when his brother’s not around. (More so than Red.) - Although he often drinks hot sauce, he’d rather prefer BBQ sauce. - Actually handles his PTSD better than his other lazy counterparts. - Has a bad habit of falling in love too easily. - Is very reserved and quiet for the most part.

Bloodberry (Fellswap Red):

- Is over 5′9 with the boots. Is only 5′6 without them. - Has a bad tendency to be saucy with someone he likes. - Is a decent cook when it comes down to it. - Also struggles with being kind in public. - Has taken a liking to archery. He’s even become good at it. - He hates the queen, but mainly because she’s always cruel to her subjects. He hopes to overthrow her for the betterment of the kingdom. - Unlike Blackberry, he does care for his brother.

Wine (Fellswap Gold):

- Is over 7′4, and he doesn’t slouch. - Since he mostly writes, he’s become a very good writer and artist. - Whenever he’s given a compliment, he sits in silence. He usually doesn’t receive them, so when he does, he kind of just.. breaks. - Like his blacklist, he has a list of names of those who have been extremely kind to him. - Tries not to become someone who has to depend on someone else. - He has days where the braces on his canines hurt like all hell, so he’ll wind up with tears in his eyes. - The constant oppression gets to him sometimes. He isn’t violent, but he will continuously cry and whimper.

Coffee (Fellswap Gold):

- Is over 6′0 with the boots. Is only 5′10 without them. - Wants to try and fix the kingdom so its people aren’t so oppressed. - Will be there for his brother within seconds. - Learned to be a decent cook for his brother. - The oppression gets to him also, but it’s mainly from the people. - A lot of the clothes he and his brother wear are from his own hands. - Has taught his brother some military fighting to protect himself as he is related to someone who the people hate.

Axe (Horrortale):

- Is the biggest Sans on this list standing at 6′7. - Is also the strongest in terms of physical strength. - Really needs to stop seeing human flesh and regular food as the same thing. - To those he cares for, he becomes almost like a guard dog but 10x scarier. - None of the Sanses and Papyruses aside from his own brother mess with him. - If someone is not scared of him for whatever reason, he has some respect for that. He just doesn’t really show it. - Gets easily spooked by really loud noises.

Everest (Horrortale):

- The tallest Papyrus standing at 9′2 with the boots. He’s only 9′0 without them. This also assumes he isn’t slouching, but he always is. - After being without food for so long, he struggles to not eat human flesh. - His kindness challenges classic Papyrus’s. - He hit a growth spurt far too early, and it’s why he’s slouching. (It’s kind of like he suffered Gigantism, but he stopped growing eventually.) - Compared to the other active counterparts, he’s the weakest. - Because of him being so thin, he tends to freeze far more easily. - When he’s pushed in a corner, he will fight back, but it’s best if his brother is with him.

And that ends that. I had these ideas going for a while, so I decided to spill them here. Hope y’all like these.

#Frenchie Rambles #Headcannons #Undertale #Underfell #Underswap #Swapfell #Fellswap #Horrortale #Papyrus #Sans #Underfell!Papyrus #Underfell!Sans #Underswap!Papyrus #Underswap!Sans #Swapfell!Papyrus #swapfel #Fellswap!Papyrus #Fellswap!Sans #Horrortale!Papyrus #Horrortale!Sans