#‘ here’s your note : shut up ‘

[kaladinkholins]

We all already know Mizu and Akemi are narrative foils. But you know what? Lemme just say it, here's what I think:

Taigen and Mikio are foils.

Not necessarily to each other as individuals in the way that Mizu and Akemi juxtapose each other, but mostly in the contrast between their relationships with Mizu.

I've covered specific parallels between Taigen and Mikio in other posts I wrote; but as the number of parallels I'm noticing between them keeps piling up, I'm compelled to just compile them all in one post. So! This is, thus, the post in question.

First of all, let's look at their similarities.

1. Their status in society is the same. They are both samurai who lost their honour and have dreams of reclaiming it.

2. They are also both diligent as they strive to achieve this goal, they both care deeply about their work, but here as they begin to contrast, as the work in question and way they go about their goals is different:

For Mikio, his work is in taming and rearing horses; in order to prove himself, he must tame Kai—a willful and strong horse—and present it to his lord. For Taigen, his work is in sword fighting and martial arts; in order to prove himself, he must kill Mizu—a willful and strong swordsman—and present her dead body to his lord.

In the parallel above, not only are Taigen and Mikio contrasting each other, but Mizu and Kai are placed in comparison as well. And of course, Kai is Mizu's horse, and represents her. Which is why, when later, Mikio sells Kai off, it represents the way he is tossing Mizu (and their relationship) aside.

From there, the rest of the details of their character begin to contrast and juxtapose each other more clearly. So let's look at those differences, shall we?

Their backstory:

Mikio was a great samurai who was banished. A somebody to a nobody. Taigen was a fisherman’s son who rose to the top. A nobody to a somebody.

2. The first time we meet them on-screen:

Mikio is an adult. An older man. Mizu's superior in age. He is Mizu's to-be husband. A love interest. Taigen is a child. A young boy. Mizu's peer in age. He is Mizu's bully. An antagonist.

3. Their maturity and growth:

Mikio is mature, but stuck in his ways. Taigen is immature, but capable of changing and learning.

4. Their overall attitude:

Mikio is generally relaxed, easy-going and unfussy. Taigen is uptight, irritable and severe.

5. How they talk to and conduct themselves around Mizu:

Mikio is aloof, soft-spoken, and serious. Taigen is obnoxious, brash, and sarcastic. Mikio is quiet, speaking only when spoken to, even when Mizu turns to smile at him and shows openness to be near him. Taigen is loud, talking while others are silent, even when Mizu turns from him and shows no interest in conversing with him.

Mikio doesn't show much of who he is to Mizu throughout their marriage, despite their growing affection. Taigen openly shares his traumas and life story to Mizu during their brief alliance, despite their mutual antagonism.

6. Their external vs internal selves:

Mikio is calm, gentle, and considerate on the outside. Taigen is hot-headed, rude, and selfish on the outside. Mikio is cowardly and deceitful on the inside. Taigen is brave and loyal to a fault on the inside. Mikio tells Mizu that he wants to know and see all of her. But he scorns and betrays her, the woman he loves. Taigen tells Mizu that he wants to duel and kill him. But he endures torture to not betray him, the man he hates.

9. Their hair, a symbol of their honour:

Mikio's topknot is untied by Mizu during their spar. This humiliation occurs in private, the two of them alone in a rural location where no one can see them. Taigen's topknot is cut off by Mizu during their duel. This humiliation occurs in public, the two of them being watched by many others in the Shindo Dojo.

10. Their power dynamic with Mizu:

Mikio believes he is Mizu's mentor. He teaches her to throw knives, how to ride and care for horses, and about the tactical benefits of using a naginata. Taigen believes he is Mizu's equal. He views Mizu as a samurai like himself who received all the same teachings he did, and who possesses the same values.

11. Their perceptions of Mizu:

Mikio sees Mizu's feminine side first. He sees her as sweet and gentle, but also clumsy and incompetent. Taigen sees Mizu's masculine side first. He sees her as terrifying and deadly, but also strong and skilled.

12. The way they approach sparring with Mizu:

Mikio only spars with Mizu once. As the fight progresses and she is beating him, he tries to put a stop to it. When she teases/provokes him, he starts taking the fight personally and seriously, finding no enjoyment in it. Taigen spars and brawls with Mizu all the time. No matter how many times Mizu beats him, he doesn't back down. When Mizu challenges him with a chopstick, he is eager to compete with her and gladly rises up to the challenge.

Mikio and Mizu's one and only spar is a friendly match; Mizu is smiling and having fun while he grows increasingly frustrated. Taigen and Mizu's last-seen spar is a playful wrestling match; both him and Mizu are having fun and laughing.

Mikio cannot deal with Mizu being better than him, so he scorns her and walks off, avoiding her thereafter. When Taigen cannot deal with Mizu being better than him, he follows her to observe her moves and continues training in hopes to eventually beat her. After being bested by Mizu once, Mikio leaves her and sells the horse he'd previously gifted to her. After many times losing to Mizu and fighting alongside her, Taigen commends her and admits she is better than him.

13. When Mizu pins them down in a friendly spar:

Mikio sees Mizu's whole face objectively. Taigen stares at Mizu's mouth and eyes.

Mikio gets angry when she kisses him, throwing her off of him and snapping at her, calling her a monster. Taigen gets aroused, apologising, so she pulls herself off of him.

14. Mizu's blue meteorite sword is a reflection of her soul. She believes most are undeserving to face it, let alone hold it. And on that note:

Mikio is the first person (chronologically) that Mizu fights against using her sword. Taigen is the first person (we see on-screen) that Mizu fights against with her sword. Mikio is the first person (chronologically) to ever hold her sword, as she passes it to him, letting him wield it. Taigen is the first person (we see on-screen) to ever hold her sword, as she passes out, and he picks it up and carries it for her.

15. Then, last but not least, in Fowler's fortress, when she is drugged and in pain, she hears Ringo's voice in the dungeon. She then follows it to an open cell:

Mizu first sees Mikio as a hallucination, the sight of him haunting her and causing her to lose her grip on reality. Her eyes glow a surreal blue to represent this. Her Mama appears then and says Mizu's name accusingly.

Mizu then sees Taigen, but he is real, the sight of him a relief and grounding her back to reality. Her eyes return to their normal blue colour to represent this. Taigen looks at Mizu weakly and says her name softly.

Then, later, when facing Fowler, her revenge awaiting her, she instead chooses to follow her conscience (represented by Ringo's voice in her mind), putting aside her vengeance for a time, in order to save Taigen.

So that's basically all the ones I've noticed so far, but even then, I feel there's already so much that forms a contrast between these two.

What makes it especially incredible about these juxtapositions is that Mikio was Mizu's husband, the man she had fallen in love with, the one person she had ever been intimate with, the man who made her begin to accept herself, to put down her desire for vengeance and instead live a life of peace and happiness.

So for Taigen to have so many parallels with him... Do you see what I'm saying here!

Not to mention that Mizu clearly already has some burgeoning attraction to him, as indicated by how she thinks of him when asked about her desires. And Taigen clearly has shown interest as well (see: him getting a boner after their spar, him holding her hand and telling her, "We're not done yet.").

And on the topic of speculating future possibilities of this relationship, this post by @stromblessed has pointed out yet another parallel between Taigen and Mikio:

Mizu promises Taigen to meet him for their duel in autumn. Mizu fell in love with Mikio and duelled him during autumn.

With all that said, I do believe Mizu and Taigen's relationship is definitely hurtling towards something. But whether they will actually end up together in a sustainable relationship and have a happily ever after? Well, that is a whole other story; we'll just have to wait and see.

#blue eye samurai #mizu x taigen #taigen x mizu #taimizu #taigen blue eye samurai #blue eye samurai meta #hope yall enjoy my thesis on virgin mikio vs chad taigen #this was written last night when i shouldve been writing the new chapter for my taimizu fic that i promised i would work on....whoopsies... #i will get to it eventually but i just have to get a firmer grip on characterisation before i can delve further into it yk #on that note. i kiiinda regret posting the fic on a whim! #my last longfic was written better because i had the whole thing complete and could go back and edit/polish/revise before posting #so it came out much more coherent and consistent ykwim? #this fic might suffer a bit for this reason 🤒 #but its fine i have to remind myself im just doing it for funsies #anyway here have another long ass meta post from yours truly #meta dissertations.pdf #shut up haydar #fandom.rtf

[hawkeyeslaughter]

by far my stupidest mash headcanon is that whenever after!mash hawktrap meet someone and they ask how they met they explain and then hawkeye gets to the part where trapper leaves and embellishes the hell out of it ,, he’s like “ he left without leaving a note ,, i thought i was never gonna see him again … “ he does this bit every single time and trapper hates it .

#hawkeye : of course you have to cut him some slack .. it’s hard for someone who can’t write #trapper : well i just had so much poetry in my heart it would’ve been hard to condense it into little words for you #one time hawkeye brings it up and trapper’s so sick of it he sits down and scribbles out a note and all it says is : #‘ here’s your note : shut up ‘ #hawkeye hangs it on the wall #m*a*s*h #mash #mashposting #mash 4077 #mashblr #hawkeye pierce #hawkeye #trapper john mcintyre #trapper john #john mcintyre #trapper mcintyre #hawktrap #traphawk #piercintyre #piercentyre #lgbt #lgbtq

[otrtbs]

y’all are so weird. if you hate the way i characterized regulus in ahb! then,,, stop reading it? no one is forcing you to read it?? you can just put it down,,, you know that right???? who has the gun to your head making you click next chapter??? you can just stop reading it at any time. no really, trust me!

#but you can’t do that bc then you’ll feel like you're ‘missing out’ on something you want to be a part of #so you’re gonna force yourself to read it so you can understand the references #which is fine. i guess. #but to make that choice AND COMPLAIN ABOUT IT #PUBLICALLY #like it’s the great burden of your life #like bud just put the fic down #or shut up #pink sticky notes aren’t worth it lmfaoo i swear #you hate the writing and you hate regulus ….well i have bad news for u #neither get any better LMFAO. SO WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE? #‘forcing themselves to read it bc ppl are talking abt it’ here’s an idea. don’t. do. that. #haha 😃 #art heist baby! #probably gonna delete this #i feel like i bitch a lot on here soz xx

[brookheimer]

truly do not understand how people are JUST NOW seeing roman as a geniune character with depth and not just "haha funney man mommy issues sexual problems lol!!! 🤪" like listen i started watching succession like. 3 weeks ago. and people that were watching this from the second it came out couldn't see the importance of his character until now?? fucking eleventh hour??? anyways hes the queen of my heart 4 ever and ever

no literally like i genuinely just... cannot conceive of someone watching multiple episodes of the show and still not taking him seriously or seeing how tragic he is. it's one thing to think he's an asshole -- he is -- and it's another entirely to think he's a one-note sex-freak funny-guy who isn't written just as carefully and tragically as kendall and shiv. and it's not like this is new news either -- in the second episode, when logan was in the hospital, everyone was trying to figure out who would run waystar and roman was like can you guys shut the fuck up and worry about our dad? and then roman made greg go back to the penthouse to get him something that smelled like logan?!?! this was, again, EPISODE TWO!!!! and somehow people are only saying just NOW that, like, 'turns out roman roy is the most caring/empathetic/family-oriented/etc of them all'! like oh wow turns out logan roy is a bad father. turns out kendall roy is an addict. turns out shiv roy is not the best feminist activist. we have known all of this for a very long time and none of it contradicts the other parts of the characters -- logan is a bad father and a good businessman who is honestly not wrong about his kids, kendall roy is an addict and he is trying so hard not to be and to escape the cycle of abuse, shiv roy is a bad feminist and entirely the product of a family and an environment that refused to value her for her entire life simply by nature of her gender. why could everyone acknowledge these things for the other characters but not roman? why couldn't roman be both an asshole and a deeply tragic character like everyone else?

like, just bc you can't reconcile the unlikable aspects of a character with the nuances of their backgrounds/psyches/etc doesn't mean those depths don't exist, it just means you fundamentally missed the point of his character for at least 3 entire seasons. crazy how articles are really out here saying shit like 'improbably, roman roy shows emotion' like that is actually so incredibly embarrassing ? like, you're a cultural critic at a well-known magazine, your job is literally just getting paid to watch and analyze television shows, and it took you until the final season of succession to realize that roman roy is an interesting character and not just perverted comic relief? why would you admit that to the world for real

#queen of my heart 4 ever and ever 4 real. like . so real #idk what i'm gonna do w myself now that i no longer have to defend his honor. just kidding i am going to spiral about him anyways #also welcome to the lovely world of succession anon! enjoy your time here and by enjoy i mean undergo severe emotional pain #<3 #succession #asks #anon #roman roy #casey shut the fuck up about roman roy #<-- i have made a new tag for me rambling about roman #shouldve done this with like amy brookheimer and people too tbh but cest la vie #100 #this time on posts i didn’t expect to get notes

[janetsnakehole02]

some swifties really out here supporting matty healy despite the verifiable evidence of the shit he’s said while also coming at joe alwyn for rumors they made up on their own?? another breed fr like this is what some of y’all sound like

#the way they’re coming at joe as if him cheating is a hard fact #like their evidence for this is *checks notes* taylor picked two of her own songs to perform? at her own concert? wild 🙄 #meanwhile here’s a hard fact: taylor is choosing to be publicly seen w a racist holding hands and letting him perform on her stage #but only when you bring up this very upsetting fact #do they have the gall to gaslight you into shutting up because ‘iTs pErSoNaL iTs nOT yoUR bUsiNeSs’ #taylor swift #joe alwyn #matty healy #swifties #the eras tour

[kredensik]

getting into death note again after watching hannibal is like. fruit fruit. tits tits.

#oh yeah get into his head. does your inner voice sounds like him L? how about you light? have you begun to blur yet? shut the fuck up #DO YOU KNOW HIS MIND AS IF IT WERE YOU OWN YET #i hate it here #death note lb #death note

[marshmallowgoop]

Every time I "finish" an AMV, I create a comparison like this.

The left side is the "effectless" draft—minimal transitions, zero coloring, limited text animation—while the right side is the "final" version I post online. It's a way to assess my work; where did the added effort elevate the edit, and where do my eyes find themselves drawn more to the draft because the "final" version is too busy, too overwhelming, too much?

I'm new to video editing. There aren't even 20 AMVs to my name, and I only seriously started a little over a year ago. My process involves a lot of struggling with what a "good" AMV is, a lot of wondering if I'm doing it all wrong—anxieties that were only exacerbated by a popular post that crossed my dash many months ago. It decried AMVs that don't edit with the full song as worthless, bad, garbage. The kids don't know how to do it right.

Not a kid, but maybe they've got a point!

Still, it was a disheartening sentiment to read. And while I might not know much, I think I am confident in knowing this: there are many AMV styles out there, and the shorter ones may certainly not be everyone's cup of tea, but that doesn't mean that they're devoid of love, time, effort, or passion. The video at the top of this post is hardly 30 seconds long, and it still took over 60 hours of spilling out ideas and cutting clips and learning new skills and scrapping new skills and tweaking transitions and coloring and recoloring and shaking my head and giving up and trying again.

Fan vidders, no matter the style they employ, are devoting their free time and energy to create. It'd be ludicrous to suggest that a movie is inherently inferior to a TV series, or a short story automatically meaningless compared to a novel.

The same should absolutely apply to fan videos.

#ramblings #shut up goop #video #amv #eye strain #*says she wants to write heiji and shinichi meta but writes this instead* #the heart writes what it wants ^^; #but yeah been thinking about writing something like this for a while? #tl;dr short vids may not be your thing but it really doesn't mean that they lack effort! #(if anything it might mean they have *too much* effort... definitely been guilty of that) #i'd love love love to create longer videos but i'm very attached to making edits with a high clip count and lots of effects #and that takes a *lot* of time! i can't even imagine doing a full song... that'd take me over 200 hours no exaggeration #and i know my style isn't for everyone but i don't think it's inherently worthy of disrespect #we're all fans here and i think fan vidders deserve so much love <3 constantly astounded by them! #it was really sad to see a post with nearly 50k notes complaining about amv makers when amvs on tumblr get maybe 100 notes if they're lucky #song in the video is 'corridors of time' by yasunori mitsuda with lyrics and vocals by laura shigihara #and the anime is detective conan #but if you're reading this you probably already know that haha

[stellerssong]

starting the new year off right with some werewolves being fucking unwell

@lucienne-thee-librarian @raspberryjellybrains pspspspspsps

#f: mansand #stories #my fic #morphienne #dream/lucienne #TWELVE THOUSAND????????? DREAM IF YOU DON'T SHUT THE FUCK UP FOR REAL..................... #i guess the meta moral of the story is. perseveration takes up a lot of real estate both mentally and in the notes app. #the real moral of the story obviously is even if your gf says it's cute please don't actively have your panic attacks in her workplace. #like she WORKS there bud. #also GWEN IS HERE AGAIN. EVERYBODY SAY HI GWEN WE LOVE YOU GWEN

[frecklystars]

THE LOVES OF MY LIFE OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!! 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 it's been so long since I've rly felt love bursting in my chest for any F/Os and I am feeling so so so so much for my girlboss girlfriend and my horsegirl boyfriend 😭😭😭💖💞💓💓💗💖💕💕💕💟💝

Her smile!!! god!!!! HIS smile!!!! god!!! these two are fucking saving my life I can't believe how much these characters are helping me get through the worst time of my life. THESE TWO are helping me get back into self shipping and helping me feel safe again when I really thought I'd never ever recover. I'm collecting screenshots of these characters and sighing with hearts in my eyes every time... I haven't done that in over a year... I'm making gifsets and writing fics and doodling again... it's all because of them and I'm such a weepy mess over it

#love notes #💕♫♪ ♡ You're the pink in my cheeks 🎀🌸✨♡ #💕 I'll fight for you!! - ̗̀🐎🏖️✨ ̖́- #every time i make a love notes post with them i get teary eyed and um this isnt an exception 😭😭 #theyre making me so happy and i havent felt this way in so long #im fucking happy you guys... god i havent felt. joy. with any F/Os in so so so so long!!!!! #self shipping is like. the core part of me. its all i've got and i went so long without it. that piece of me I NEED #fuck i finally found two F/Os who i know love me no matter what #and they're holding my hands telling me they'll never ever hurt me. wouldnt dream it. couldnt even fathom it #and slowly but surely i HOPE i will get back into self shipping just in general especially for transformers #but god. god!!!! god!!! i owe them my life!!!! #i couldnt fucking take it anymore i was falling so far and they!!!! are here!!!! in my heart!!!! #i was doing so fucking badly i was about to give up and they just. this movie comes out and im suddenly hopeful?? #pinkest movie of all time barbie rly said keri fuck your ptsd fuck your abuser youre getting better #and youll love pink again and youre gonna be okay and im like yes maam whatever u say maam #god 😭😭 sorry i know i talk abt them a lot but its been so long #and i know i keep repeating! that its been so long! i know i dont shut up about how im hurting! but! #i cant! describe how overwhelmed i feel! its like a part of me that was dead for a year is slowly coming back to life #and the fucking relief... i am just awash with tears

[shining-gem34]

Path Choice: Hunt

||Long overdue thoughts regarding how DH obtains his paths and what it means to him. I did want to like write a drabble about it, but now have this short summary of my thoughts.

The Hunt

Initially, Dan Heng followed The Hunt because he feels like he should. Ever since he was born, he was educated of Dan Feng life and crimes (or more like drilled it into his head). Because he is Dan Feng reincarnation, Dan Heng had to bear his punishment.

By following the Path of the Hunt, the Reignbow Arbitor, Dan Heng feels that "he" (Dan Feng) can find redemption- forgiveness for his sins. That way, Dan Heng won't be haunted by that man past anymore.

There is some idea that Dan Heng met Lan in a dream before he was sentenced to banishment. Unable to recognize the vast space around him, he sees a shooting star moving too fast for his eyes to follow: Beautiful but terrifying. All he hears, as arrows of light descends toward him, are along the lines of: "A Scion of Permanence? The Azure Dragon who attempted to drag the Stars into the ancient sea. Very well. If you seek to redeem your crimes, then take my arrows and vow to annihilate all of Yaoshi spawns in your path."

Then Dan Heng wakes up, confused about his dream. He had no time to decipher it when he's escorted out of the Luofu; exiled. The first signs of Lan blessing are subtle:

The first signs of wind gathering in the palm of his hand (a gift to hide the waters running down his veins)

The confidence he feels unflinching in the face of danger as he wields his spear.

The whispers in the back of his mind (Dan Feng? Lan? Who?) that guides him how to keep his footsteps quiet, to find weaknesses against his opponents, and know when to retreat/fight.

But upon his first meeting with Blade as they clashed, Dan Heng realizes the impact of Lan blessings. The single-minded focus he had, his defenses shifting to pure offensive, and the aggressiveness in his strikes he never had before all because of Blade as his enemy. The fury and hate that tastes like bile in his throat does not belong to him.

It belongs to Lan, and it is Lan that controls him at this moment.

Dan Heng hates it. He hates it even more when he feels something else fighting within him- Permanence, Dan Feng maybe. Struggling to keep Lan power at bay, forcing Dan Heng to stagger in his movements and slow (barely avoiding the lethal strikes of Blade).

Oh, Dan Heng is sick to his core that he has no control at the moment. He hates the feeling that he is never free, even in his own body he has no autonomy.

The first time he stabs Blade in the heart, Dan Heng finally feels like himself. He throws up, the whispers in the back of his mind slowly fading. He believes it was Lan at the moment, but the many times after that...

Dan Heng only slayed Blade if the situation is necessary, and it was within his own choice. In a way, he feels like Lan is watching nearby and mocking him.

The thing is, an Aeon's blessing is also a curse for Dan Heng, he was unaware at the time that the beast he killed many times is the same man his previous incarnation, Dan Feng, dearly loves.

And remember, Lan only requirement for Dan Heng in exchange for his blessings (and allowing him to follow his path) is simple: Annihilate Yaoshi spawns in his path. :)))

Inspired by @everlastiingiimmortals and their amazing Jing Yuan Erudition Path HC's. >:333

#the guard of the express (dan heng) #lotus moon blooming from mud (il dan heng) #jade personal headcanons #||I will do Destruction Path later #||This is a hot mess. I was suppose to do a decent summary. #||I will go back and edit this later #||Remove some tidbits here and there that don't make sense #||I am sleepy #||Willow I still love your Jing Yuan HC's of how he got Nous attention and the impact it had on his life...In all the bad ways. :DDD #||This is long overdue zzzzz #||I also need to decide Dan Feng Path too #||Hints of XingYue #||Okay I was going to add that Dan Heng does love the Luofu despite the shit that happens to him but he considers teh Astral Express #||His home now #||As I wrote the “Follow teh Hunt as a path to redemption” thing #||I really went ahead and be like hehe punishment for Dan Feng where Dan Heng ends up taking that punishment too #||Note Dan Heng absolutely feels like shit because he's not sure if he's in control or something else is which #||adds to his fear when he starts to come to terms that he cannot escape Dan Feng past; that he won' be himself anymore but someone else #||OKay I shut up here now before the tags are filled with more rambles

[unforth]

People who don't have children shut the fuck up about how to parent challenge.

#unforth rambles #that poll about millenials and children says like 7 percent of us on here parents #i promise if you are not aparent and or have not raised a child #you have no idea how unfathomable hard this is #im begging you to stop thinking you have the least idea what youre talking about #talk to me when youve tried raising a child #until then please just shut up #im so tired of seeing clueless parenting posts with tens of thousands of notes #where any parent who tries to go well actually #gets screamed at and told they're a horrible person #its exhausting #do you even realize how condescending and rude you sound #would you lecture anyone else about their own experience you dont share #you are literally mansplaining parenthood and then getting angry at anyone who tries to say youre wrong #the fucking entitlement i swear to god

[engagemythrusters]

Here's some angst, because sometimes bodies just feel like a mess. plus a bad background xoxo

#NOTES ARE IN THE TAGS LOOK DOWN HERE I was too lazy to put them on the post #cause then I’d have to be coherent and why do that when I could just ramble wordvomit about it instead #ANYWAY... healing isnt linear! #especially since like. lmao he's not done being surgeried xoxo #turns out if a lot of your body is made up of tech. taking said tech out. may shut it down a bit... #anyway so yea that's whats happening. #waking up in the night bc his body is on fire bc sure yeah its healing but theres still screws and bolts in places that hurt. #and he didnt feel so bad before they pulled everything out because things held themselves in place... #but now everything is loose and things need to be replaced ASAP and thats just possible because the body needs time between #exerimental surgeries (who the hell has reversed this bad of techno union augmentation before?) #and... #and sometimes. sometimes fives lives in a world where it feels like he could lose echo again at any moment. and he's so scared #he almost lost everyone and everything and now... he has echo. #he has kix and jesse and tup and dogma... and he has echo. #YEAH okay #And. to make things clear: echo's skin tone IS based off photos of temuera morrison #when he had probably not seen much sun in a while. #AND the white patches are chemical-induced vitiligo (skin pigment cells died) #*BUT* #that being said. i clearly have room to grow in my art and if it's wrong to have portrayed him this way #please let me know. #thanks <3 #saleucami au #arc trooper echo #arc trooper fives #star wars: the clone wars #star wars #my art #mimse art

[fiepige]

Read these great tags from @the-cat-and-the-birdie and I couldn't get the idea of Venom!Hobie in a pillow nest out of my brain so I just had to:

This is a dark and serious AU I swear!!! 😭

#thank you for feeding my Venom!Hobie brainrot!! #it seriously makes me so happy when people talk about him you have no idea <3 #also seeing people adding him to their own canons (or at least a version of it) makes me incredibly happy!!! #like YEEES! PLEASE make him interact with your OCs I LOVE to see it <3<3<3 #on another note- I've never drawn pillows before lol #well I certainly have now #also Venom!Hobie looks so big here but I guess the pillows are just small guys okay? #what is anatomy? what is scale? idk I can't draw lol #but I won't let that stop me!!!! the brainrot is stronger!!!! #I need to talk about him or I explode #I can never shut up about him <3 #venom!hobie #hobie brown #spider punk #across the spider verse #across the spiderverse #atsv #across the spider verse au #venom hobie #my post #my drawing

[niallandtommo]

finished my reread of the dark verse series and i love it even more now

#i think about this series every single day #i'm not even kidding #i've never been this obsessed with any book/series before #if i ever decide to get a tattoo for tristan and morana mind your own business dkfksjdf #no but seriously this series is my fave and i will never ever stop thinking about it #i need the last book more than air #i actually made a bunch of notes so i'm prepared when the lat book comes out lmao #i don't really like talking about the books i read on here because people are very ✨judgemental✨ #but judge me all you want i will never shut up about this series

[rollercoasterwords]

Have no clue if you’re still on The Prank discourse but one thing I find so interesting about it is how much it emotionally affects people compared to something like Regulus being a canonical blood supremacist or Barty torturing people or other more traditional bad guys. And I think a lot has to do with how it affects two characters that people often project themselves into (Remus and Snape) rather than just being a generic “oh ya he tried to murder someone we hear about for a line or two.” Like people don’t approach it from a literary or a character standpoint, they often seem to see it as something that wronged THEM. It’s so fascinating to me- the epitome of how one attempted murder is a tragedy but the attempted murder of many that I don’t happen to care about is an easily ignored statistic.

of COURSE i am happy to continue talking about The Prank u bring up a really interesting point!! i do think a lot of the things that become these big like...moral debates in this fandom have less to do with like. actual morality and more to do with like....constructing identity through social media. like god ok let me see if i can be concise abt this:

we're being increasingly conditioned to construct our identities around online presence and social signifiers like the media we consume; so for a lot of people the books they read or the shows they watch etc etc are not just something to enjoy but are a pillar around which they are constructing their perceptions of themself. and in order to reify that construction you basically have to put yourself in this constant feedback loop of posting these social signifiers so that other people can look at them and go "oh so this is your identity," because a performance can't be real without an audience.

SO. i feel like that's where we're getting people who will say "oh yeah i'm a [character] kin" and feel as though that is truly an important expression of their deepest personal selves. and then, once your identity is tied to those characters, any attack on those characters feels like an attack on you. you can't accept the fact that other people might interpret the characters differently, because to do so would mean to accept that this thing you've tied your identity to is somewhat meaningless/empty/fluid/unstable, which would force you to confront the fact that this identity you're performing is, in fact, a performance, and not a revealing of some true and inherent inner self.

in reality, all of the things that happen in harry potter do not hold any real-life moral weight. like...these actions aren't happening. we aren't talking about real people doing real things to each other, we're talking about characters. so to use an example from ur message, barty killing his dad is no better or worse than The Prank, because neither of those things actually happened. and THAT means that everybody can take those fictional actions and interpret them in different ways and say they think one is better or worse within this fictional context, but there is no single true and correct interpretation, because none of this is real.

so, yeah. i think ur 100% right that when we do get these really contentious debates about the morality of certain characters, it's because people aren't approaching the topic through the lens of literary critique but rather through the lens of this Personal Moral Performance. like, if you kin sirius, and someone says sirius was bad for doing The Prank, then you HAVE to defend sirius and insist that that person is wrong, because u need to perform ur own moral correctness to the audience. like, sirius can't be a morally bad character, because i kin sirius, and i am morally good.

and yeah, that definitely leads to some cognitive dissonance! people are going to be quick to defend the characters they've attached themselves to while decrying the bad actions of the characters they don't like/don't care about--again, oftentimes to perform Morality on the internet more than in service of any actual literary critique. and like. if ur stuck in this mindset of feeling like you need to be constantly proving to the world how morally good you are, then anyone pointing out the fact that you defend one character but shit on another who did similar things is gonna feel like a personal attack, and that just makes the whole situation worse because then you feel like you need to dig your heels in and insist that your interpretations are right and their interpretations are wrong, and nobody feels like they can give ground without becoming Problematic for defending/shitting on whatever character they're fighting about.

#want to note that none of this post is a moral judgment in people who are like #stuck in the Social Media Morality Performance Loop #in general i think most people who approach media with that mindset simply have not had the opportunity to like #break free from it #and have been very insidiouly conditioned to think that way by things like social media #so!! #yeah this is not me trying to point fingers or make an us vs them situation i think that would be counterproductive to what im saying here #but i do encourage everyone to try and be aware of the ways in which they are attaching their identities to media #it's unavoidable to a certain extent but that doesn't mean we should be losing the ability #to approach beloved stories from the perspective of literary critique #rather than moral performance #you do not need to be constantly performing your morality to the world #nobody is perfectly morally pure we are all human it's much better to foster communities in which we are able to fuck up and learn and grow #at least in my opinion!! #ok ill shut up now lol #ranting and raving #ask

[lausticzt]

I wish laura could let herself be loved but it happened once (1) that someone almost accepted her for who she was ( he also wanted her to stop her ambitions in settlement of a peaceful life with the best intents ; but was so insistent on keeping her safe and them running off for his version of a happy life ) flaws and all that man had to suffer through her antics for many years before his confession. After his death (she was so, so useless to do anything ; and that failure was one of the things that destroyed her spark), she really shut out everything.

all the men in the interior care about her family name and looks (she is so pretty ... only when placid) , and god do they always get so, physically close to her that she just stares into the distance. the amount of times she had to wait for them to get their arms off her and only once they're leaving does she look at them with ferocity in her veins. at a young age she was paraded around by her mother, and marriage was humoured at her from men twice her age ; which her mother delighted on. they were all sick.

she found so many familial bonds in the survey corp and that had meant, everything to her. that was where her true peace was ; even with all the death, the loss of those very people,, the endless fighting and endless gore --- she would say that was her happy life.

complements are wasted on her. her love is unconventional. face her bullshit head on. don't treat her differently , don't put up with her front -- she will show loyalty to individual people, never a cause. but you put up with her for so long and vice versa, she will run to you when you're hurt, barge through the door and the look of panic is something never before seen - she will have to stop herself immediately because (...) what was she doing. traumatic shit goes down? she's keeps looking at you from a distance and god, she's not the best person for it, but she will check on you, albeit, there's so much confliction on her expression because she's not great at it -- but she knows she wants to be there, so bare with her.

but after all that crap, you know if she did love someone, and she could admit that to herself ; it's a freeing feeling. it doesn't matter to say it, or have it known to the other person, but if it passes through that barrier, all she feels she can do for you is watch your back, and make sure you don't die or get hurt. she won't deny it. it will take years and years before she can come to that point ; but fuck, she's holds herself so differently. it is also so true in her platonic bonds she has to go through this entire process so many times jkfdh

#ℒ ༺ ☾⋆* headcanon. ✧. ┊   ​​SUCH A RIFT BETWEEN THEM​ ◞ #( it goes from 'I don't know why I came rushing to you- so. you're fine now so I'm leaving' #( to 'why am I here? because I love you. and that's my decision to make I don't need to hear your response' ) #( it's so DAMN FREEING FOR HER. she doesn't want your reaction or your love - this is her feelings so shut it ) #( even her respect for nile he doesn't get to hear that ever. it's enough that she feelings that way. ) #( note** I imagine that when canon story kicks off further- the second that same MP puts her arm around her ) #( she breaks his finger - because she is not strong enough to wrist break - and oh look she's reprimanded again ) #( and it's just like she's back to acting as feral as she was in the cadets and then early survey corp ) #( aka** she's going off the rails again - her mask can't last any longer ; let her be free ) #( i ramble at 1am again about laura because apparently I can't shut up ever )