Guys i normally don't yap about this but i was reminded of it when my bf came over the other day-
He admitted to me that he felt like he was forcing me to be around him (which isn't true - if anything i'm the one who's really forward lol).
And while i believe everyone should be held accountable and that statistics exist - teenage boys are demonized in the school system. They are often collectively punished as a gender through high school (this include FTMs in my experience). The phrase "boys will be boys" is lessening the errors of serious bullies and generalizing a whole group of children of different backgrounds and emotional levels to just one gendered expression.
It just made me very sad that he said he was scared of being perceived as a threat to me (or even accidentally hurting me) because of our difference in stature (a solid one foot height difference 💀). I think it's because of how adults ignore the actual emotional depth of boys (includes FTM!!!) since "they're more simple" or they need to grow up on their own to be a "real man".
All teenagers need guidance. And between Covid isolation to the prevalence of online communities trying to lead young people astray to capitalize off of insecurities and strip them of humanity (look at the language used in self-help programs online - it's blantantly objectifying!) that guidance is needed now more than ever.
Behavior is learned but humanity is innate and needs to be cultivated...
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One small pet peeve of mine, but I see it popping up often, is the notion that the gerudos are a patriarchy because once in a blue moon a boy is born and is crowned king about it (at least in OoT lore). And that's... not how structural gendered power works, at least as far as I understand it? Otherwise countries all over the world would magically turn into a matriarchy if they elected a woman/the second they would crown a queen; and every little children would suddenly be taught completely different stories about their social roles and their bodies, and all religions would suddenly shift a little in the core tenents of their philosophies, and infrastructure and laws would magically be reshuffled, and, and... and it simply doesn't happen.
So yeah, Ganondorf grew up as king because the idea of kinghood was thought out, upheld and passed down by women, and specifically by his mothers. Ultimately, any real power rests in the cultural consciousness of a majority of women, which shapes all of them, including him. If they had culturally decided their only boy's fate was to be shunned, or a living coat hanger, and Ganondorf was raised on these ideas instead... I mean, he could have revolted, and he probably would have, but he would have still been a subject to a matriarchal ideology. Just because said matriarchal ideology works to his advantage doesn't mean he has control over it.
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A Gothic Tale of Two Weird Old Men: Dracula, Van Helsing, Ignorance and Obedience
So, we’ve gotten to the garlic flowers. And the first point in the novel where, on my first read, I felt a tiny prickle of recognition and unease. This section in particular made a little exclamation point pop up over my head:
"Oh, Professor, I believe you are only putting up a joke on me. Why, these flowers are only common garlic."
To my surprise, Van Helsing rose up and said with all his sternness, his iron jaw set and his bushy eyebrows meeting:—
"No trifling with me! I never jest! There is grim purpose in all I do; and I warn you that you do not thwart me. Take care, for the sake of others if not for your own." Then seeing poor Lucy scared, as she might well be, he went on more gently: "Oh, little miss, my dear, do not fear me. I only do for your good; but there is much virtue to you in those so common flowers. See, I place them myself in your room. I make myself the wreath that you are to wear. But hush! no telling to others that make so inquisitive questions. We must obey, and silence is a part of obedience; and obedience is to bring you strong and well into loving arms that wait for you.”
Now, full stop, Abraham Van Helsing means well. He’s a heroic old dude driven by goodwill—and, we can assume later, perhaps a bit of personal history with this particular malady. We’re going to see in later chapters that he is absolutely down to fight for far more than just Lucy and his protégé’s sake. Better still, he provides a great foil against the common themes that so far endanger characters who get in Dracula’s path. Skeptics are endangered because they only acknowledge the truth of the bogeyman in their midst when it’s too late while the frightened believers are too paralyzed by the threat to make a move. Van Helsing combines the Scientific with the Mystic, acknowledges both as equally important, and uses them to his advantage.
Knowledge is power and all that. Dracula really does get away with most of the shit he does half the time because his victims don’t know what they’re dealing with. (The other half of the time, it’s because he’s just bulldozing through victims on a spree, RIP Demeter crew.)
The Count is usually the one holding all the cards and using his advantages to cause harm. Van Helsing brings his own intel and uses it to help to the best of his ability.
That being said?
(Mild spoilers below)
The first time I read through Dracula—and, honestly, every time since—I can’t help picking up on how precariously close Van Helsing treads to the Count’s M.O. of manipulation and Dramatic Withholding of Information with his young charges. Granted, I can let some of it slide via the, ‘But no one would believe me if I said it was a vampire! I had to keep quiet about my reasons!’ excuse.*
*(But, sir, could you not conjure up some convincing medical-sounding bullshit?? It’s the 1890s, they would have bought anything. In fact, why was it only down to you and Jack keeping watch, Dr. Drama? There’s a whole house staff here. Yes, fine, there’s Mom with her weakheartitis, but as long as you spin it as some minor irritation that needs checking in on for updates, it should be fine. And why does Lucy have to keep quiet about the flowers? Why can’t she say it’s for her sleep? Or her health? Or a good luck charm from the doctor, it would be Terribly Rude to Be Rid of Them (read: Against every Victorian bone in hers and Mama Westenra’s body to chuck them). Anyway.)
Without giving too much away, I feel Stoker kind of tips Van Helsing’s charisma points a little too far over the edge in future scenes. Mixed up in a shitton of future The Power of Christ Compels You! overtones, there is a lot of frankly bonkers acting from the rest of the cast when it comes to interactions with/gratitude to Van Helsing for [REDACTED] reasons.
As in, characters are going to start kissing the ground this old man walks on. (metaphoric)
And kissing his hands. (Literal. Yes, Godfather style.)
Dracula was lucky to get flipped off by his Brides. Van Helsing will have these youths rally around him and Every Syllable He Breathes as if it were actual factual gospel (which some is, naturally). With a notable exception in a very livid Jonathan Harker when we get to [REDACTED]. Shout out once more to Bram Flakes for accidentally making this solicitor man Spicy+ after certain events.
Most of me wants to believe Van Helsing’s effect on the others is just Bramarama Stoker pouring all his personal fantasies of being the Lauded and Heroic Professor Doctorman (who happens to share his name, no big deal, ha ha) into this character while the others sing his praises.
But the lit critic in me sees an uncomfortable amount of parallels between Dracula’s casual arcane actions, gaslighting and coercing with Jonathan and Van Helsing’s likewise casual mysterious measures, corralling, directing, and borderline mesmerizing the rest of the cast to follow his lead exclusively, with or without offering the full details of the situation, as we see with Lucy. He’s a good man and an interesting character, but there are Some Scenes that make me wonder if he isn’t using some kind of lowkey hypnotism to make things run a little smoother in the vampire hunter brigade.
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YEAR OF THE FANGAN - APRIL EDITION
ꕥ DANGANRONPA: DECEPTION EXAMINATION ꕥ
Ah, Instaronpas. Despite Instagram not being very conducive to hosting fangans imo (unless I'm doing things wrong, navigating to older posts is generally a pain / it's very easy to spoil plot points by doing so), the slideshow formatting makes for a very unique type of experience, and the fandom-centric stories I've read on there (aka Total Ronpa Island and Penguinronpa, two fangans I look back on in high reverence despite never fully reading) invoke a special kind of nostalgia to me. So, upon seeing a ton of people on my feed talk about Deception Examination, I was bound to read it eventually. And, despite my admittingly-rocky reception to the prologue, what I discovered when I kept reading was a really fun story.
To start off, we have the cast. While I admit I wasn't the most receptive to them at first (I'm so sorry for judging you, Naga and Frankie), almost every cast member grew on me. While this mostly comes from their respective quirks being presented in super likable ways, I also think the deeper delves into the lives of the characters / perspectives really helps. Both the second and third killer are given insight into their home lives / how that affected their desire to go through with the murder, the Dream Theatre sections (Chester's in particular) give an internal dive of their desires and insecurities, and Edric Pluto's positing about survivalism and morality make him easily the best-written character in the story to me.
I also have to say this is the funniest fangan I've come across thus far. Vanity getting plastered before the Chapter 2 trial, Chester's Big Reveal™️ over his talent, and especially the non-canon April Fools post are some of the hardest I've laughed at a fangan's jokes before, and that's not even mentioning small, one-off jokes the characters make due to their bantering.
But all of that pales in comparison to my favorite part of the story: the cast interactions. Seriously, the prologue does a major disservice by solely focusing on Faith because damn, does this group of characters mesh with one another amazingly. Small, petty rivalries like Naga's and Arthur's, grounded and earnest relationships like Chester's and Milo's, and even small one-off interactions leap off the pages, as do large group events.
In fact, I'd say this one of the sole fangans I prefer the daily life to deadly life over: while the trials and investigations are certainly fun, losing cast members also loses their unique way of interacting with others, making it feel like there's a hole in the story now that they're gone. Because of this, every death has some sort of impact to me which, while definitely a positive, always makes me sad whenever deadly life inevitably has to show up.
Lastly, it's just such a cool novelty to have a fangan with ARG elements? As much as I enjoy the main story, there's something so neat about additional plotlines and characters being introduced in the super-spoilery side blog that should only be read once you're all caught up and (apparently) the Discord server. There feels like there's a whole other story brewing outside the one we're aware of, something I stumbled upon in happenstance after just wanting to collect some fanart references. And, while I'll warn you some of the mystery of the main story's spoiled knowing the ARG info, it's super duper fun if you want to create an even-more developed story experience for yourself.
And that's all I have to say this time around! Please check this story out if you get the chance, and I'll see you in the next YOTF report!
FORMAT: "Instaronpa" (written, but told through images that look like stills from a game/web video fangan)
WHERE TO FIND IT: Instagram (SUPER BIG PRO-TIP: For the love of all things holy, please navigate posts using the Google Doc sheet detailing all the story posts if you want to avoid spoilers! Almost every death was discovered by me due to having to scroll down manually, so don't make the same mistake!)
FAVORITE CHAPTER: Chapter 3. The daily life follows main character Faith's attempts at being a leader, while the deadly life serves as one massive teardown of her efforts. Mix that with one death that's super flashy and another narratively poignant, really good characterization for a lot of characters, and some super-emotional writing across the board, and you're in for a wild ride.
FAVORITE CHARACTER: Surprisingly, Christopher Polo. While he's a shy, quiet fellow who feels more comfortable exploring than socializing, his keen observational skills and general helpfulness also make him one of the few reliable braincell havers in the cast.
OTHER STANDOUT CHARACTERS: Frankie Instein, who quickly went from "character I wasn't a fan of" to "a goofy breath of fresh air with some of the tightest character writing / compelling character motivations in the story", and Arthur The LXIXth, whose noble-heartedness mixed with his overconfidence and casanova wannabe personality made me want to keep reading the story, prologue be damned (Plus his name translates to Arthur the 69th, for crying out loud! What's not to love?)
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