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helloilikepurple · 4 months

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DC X DP - Merfolk AU

Maddie and Jack Fenton are ecto-biologists, except, ecto-beings aren't ghosts but rather mermaids.

Amity Park is a small island, a 3-hour boat ride away from the nearest coast. The ferry comes by 2 times a day, and only once on Sunday at noon.

Mermaids are believed to be a myth by most. This is because they are only visible to the human eye when they choose to be. Every mermaid seems to have the base powers;

Invisibility (can choose to be invisible to only humans or everything/everyone else - can also make themselves visible to humans but choose not to. Most tend to be in a constant state of not visible to people)

Intangibility (how they've avoided capture and such)

Strength much more impressive than a human's

Ability to communicate underwater (clicks and chirps and such produced from their core)

Fast healing

Some also have additional powers unique to them. Danny's ice, Ember's music (siren song).

Mermaids only look somewhat human. They share no biological similarities to humans.

Mermaids are an ancient species that have been around far longer than humans have been. They are immortal and only die when killed or if they get "sick". This immortality is largely thanks to their biological make-up. Mermaids don't breath. They don't have hearts that beat. They don't have vocal cords or gills or lungs.

They have a core, that produces and filters ectoplasm which is all they need. Ectoplasm is their life force and magical, to an extent. Ectoplasm exists everywhere, to various degrees, but is especially potent in all forms of water. It's such to a small degree, though, that it doesn't affect humans and/or magic users.

For mermaids, though, this ectoplasm is plenty. Their bodies can naturally pull it from their environment and use it to fuel themselves. Generally, they don't need it, because they produce their own, but it can make them stronger, which is why they stick to water where much of it can be found (by their standards).

This ectoplasm is a result of feelings. Water experiences a lot - life, death, birth and pain. People drown. People drink. Animals drink. Water goes through the cycle and it remembers. It keeps those emotions and over a long, long time, that magical energy evolved to become ectoplasm (vitality).

Which is why we need water to live.

Maddie and Jack are so curious about these creatures, and have managed to collect various samples over the years. With all their research to occupy them, they didn't have time for their daughter, Jazz.

They invented many things. A contraption that could filter ambient ectoplasm from the water, devices that could detect the unique ecto-signatures of mermaids, weapons that could hurt them. They produced the Speeder to allow them to go far deeper underwater than anyone else has ever achieved. They found ways to use ectoplasm as a power source.

They were brilliant scientists, but still they'd never managed to capture a live specimen. Their methods have always proved too lethal, and mermaid corpses have this infuriating habit of sort of melting quite quickly back into ectoplasm that, although useful, is "corrupt" and has to go through an extensive process in order to be purified and thus useful.

Frustrated by this, they decide to create their own specimen using the samples they've collected and some of their own DNA to fill out any remaining gaps in hopes of getting as close as possible to the real thing.

The result is Danny, a halfa, who breathes and has a beating heart, albeit one that's slower than it should be. He can live underwater, thanks to having a core on top of that, that produces what the human-half of his body needs to stay alive without actually breathing. Hypothetically, he could survive underwater for the rest of his life even if his heart was removed, but only manage to last a few hours above water (where ectoplasm is nowhere near as strong) without that heart before dying.

Normal mermaids die if left without any access to water ranging from a day to week depending on their age and strength. Otherwise, they can survive alright for (hypothetically) a few years with only the rare drink and will be reduced to a strength equal to or slightly above a human's.

(Maddie believes that there are mermaids powerful enough to exceed Superman's strength without any water at all. However, their civilizations are so well hidden she has yet to find any proof to back this up.)

Danny, however, can survive in both environments indefinitely. A truly fascinating result.

On top of that, he can turn his inhuman features for human ones while above water. Once submerged, the influx of ectoplasm will force a change back to "mermaid".

His many documented powers and their original owners are:

His wail (Ember)

The transformation (Amorpho)

Ice (one of the Yetis, like Frostbite)

Ectoblasts - the ability to shoot excess ectoplasm in the form of powered beams (Skulker)

Maddie and Jack don't treat Danny well. They keep him caged, away from all other life, and run various experiments on him. Seeing as he can produce his own ectoplasm, they also syphon it from him to power their inventions, as they can get a lot more from him faster than they can extract it from the water.

Once, they test how his body reacts to different stimuli. When they get to electricity, Jack misreads the voltage and the shock very nearly kills Danny. The scream he lets out then is the sound he makes when he wails as it's this experience that unlocks that power of his. From then on he's deathly afraid of being electrocuted.

Jazz is not close with her parents. She had to raise herself, and never paid their research much mind. For a long time, she was sure they were just crazy. And then she saw Danny.

She went down to their lab to ask them to sign a school form and saw young, maybe 5 year old Danny in a tank, tail on full display. From then on she became his self-appointed sister, sneaking him snacks and telling him stories and teaching him things her parents hadn't bothered to.

Danny shows a clear like for the stars. Having never seen the sky before, when Jazz manages to sneak him out (just into the next room to look out a window) for a quick peak one night, he's absolutely in love. Jazz helps him learn as much as he can about them, smuggling in astronomy books and the like for him to read.

As Jazz grows older, she starts to worry for Danny more and more. Maddie and Jack are growing more greedy - more obsessive. They're treating him increasingly poorly and she hates it. She wants to help but finds herself afraid of how her parents would react.

So she times it perfectly. Maddie and Jack are out buying various household appliances to disassemble for a project, and Jazz is to leave that day for college, never to come back. And she's not about to leave Danny.

So she sneaks him out. As a human, Jazz takes Danny on the ferry too. The moment they reach land they move. Jazz rushes them off straight onto a flight. She's gotten herself on a scholarship into Gotham U for psychology with the intention of one day working at Arkham. By tutoring and babysitting, Jazz has saved up over the years and already has an apartment at the ready for the 2 of them and she's gotten a job at the library waiting for her once she arrives.

Most of her stuff excluding essentials was already waiting for her at her apartment, and she had a backpack full of essentials for Danny ready too. She already had plans to go buy him more stuff, letting him choose, once they arrived.

She's already emancipated herself and renamed herself Jazz Nightingale (more than willing to drop the Fenton name). She had a birth certificate for Danny (now Daniel Nightingale), her younger brother made and there are only a few more legal processes to go through that require Danny to be physically present for that they need to go through before she can sign him up for school.

Yes, it's a lot for an 18 year old; to raise a 8 year old child while going to Uni, working and hiding from her crazy parents, but she's more than willing. She loves Danny. Has loved him since she saw him 3 years ago. She can manage.

Danny has never been around so many people before. It's overwhelming. He tries to stick close to Jazz, hiding and cowering behind while watching everything with awe filled eyes. The airplane ride was fun. They were in the sky! And Jazz let him sit by the window. It was nice.

Then they got off in Gotham and Danny and Jazz promptly got separated. An ill-timed Rogue attack had Danny losing sight of Jazz and thus running for someplace safe to hide until she found him. A goon notices him and grabs him by his bag so he slips it off and runs. The goon chases.

Then Danny sees the river that runs through Gotham and dives in, thinking he's found somewhere safe.

Jazz, meanwhile, is losing her mind. They just got there and she's lost him! The rogue situation is wrapped up quickly thanks to the Daylight hero Signal but she can't find him. When she finds his lone backpack during her search she despairs.

She puts in a missing person's report, knowing it will probably be forgotten since it's Gotham. She searches for a long time, until dark, at which point she's forced to head to her apartment. She stresses.

Danny stays missing for a long while. Jazz goes out looking every single day. She calls the police often for updates (for which there never are any). She even hunts down the vigilantes to ask them to look, handing them pictures, Red Hood being the first.

(He keeps an eye out, asks his people to search too. He also helps Jazz make it home safe when she stays out too late searching, and even enlists Barbara's help.)

Meanwhile, Jazz has to start going to work.

She tries to put it off, and even gets an extra week before she starts but she has to start, and Uni is only a month or so away from starting too. Barbara is sympathetic and lets her go easy, seeing clearly how stressed she is.

Jazz does not stop looking. She makes sure to wander by all water sources, and even calls her parents, saying she's getting settled in at Uni in order to see if they had someone managed to get Danny back. They haven't, which is only a mild relief.

---

The water is bad.

It smells horrid and makes his skin itch. Danny doesn't quite know how to describe it but it feels like something angry and sad and hurt. There's trash all over, and the channels are so filthy the water's brown and smelly. It's nothing like his tank was - there at least the water was clean and nice. Danny's scared, alone and lost and all the bad feelings in the water aren't helping.

He swims blindly, getting further and further from Jazz in search for somewhere safe. He'd thought, when he saw the water, that it would be his safe place to hide, but now that he's in it he doesn't feel safe at all. He lets out a whine from his core, the water around him reacting to the young halfa's fear, rippling wildly and that only serves to scare him more.

He scrambles for the surface, teary and wanting Jazz. He doesn't want to be alone.

Unknowingly, he'd been underwater for hours, swimming rapidly and erratically. The sun had set, Jazz had reluctantly headed home, and he'd left Gotham. He'd accidently gone all the way to Blüdhaven, and when he popped his head out of the water and saw nothing familiar and a dark, smoggy sky he felt worse.

He was near the docks and it was night so of course Nightwing was out and at the docks, taking out a drug operation that had started trying to set roots in his city after having been chased out of Gotham where they tried the same thing. Danny heard the commotion and cautiously approached.

He poked his head out of the water again from closer and watched as Nightwing beat up the bad guys. Danny recognised him, as Jazz had made sure he knew of all of Gotham's heroes before they left for Gotham. If Nightwing was a hero, then he should be able to help him find Jazz!

He watched as all the bad guys were caught and tied up with stars in his eyes. Heroes are so cool! Nightwing ended up outside when he jumped a bad guy that had tried to sneak away. He was using some kind of sticks to fight, but the bad guy managed to knock one out of his hand and it fell into the water.

Danny immediately dove for it. He didn't have very much stuff, but he hated it when Maddie and Jack found something that Jazz had given him and threw it away. Nightwing would probably be quite upset too so it only made sense for him to go and get it.

Nightwing knocked out the guy while Danny was underwater and was looking at the surface of the dark, murky water mourning the loss of his weapon.

And then Danny pokes his head out.

Lazarus green eyes look at him, and Nightwing damn near has a heart attack, leaping back with a startled (not at all high-pitched) scream. Danny immediately ducks back under, also very startled. He fiddles with the stick, scales and skin itching the longer he stays still in the gross water.

He waits a bit, hoping the next time he peeks out Nightwing won't be looking at him anymore. After a few minutes, he cautiously pokes his head out, and immediately meets Nightwing's eyes, who'd been looking intently at the water torn between hoping that was a hallucination and hoping it wasn't, although river-monsters weren't much better.

Their eyes meet and Nightwing manages to catch a lot more details because he'd been staring so hard.

White, wispy hair, that floats like it's still underwater. Bright, green eyes, curious but afraid. Face dotted with scales, and weird, fin-like things where ears should be. Most of all though, whoever or whatever he's looking at, is young. They're gone back under just as fast as before, and Nightwing yells out for them to stay too late.

Danny's scared. He's not supposed to be seen like this. He promised Jazz. But he wants to give the stick back and he wants to find Jazz. Heroes help people, right? He steels himself and pokes his head back out. This time, he listens as Nightwing talks, gently reassuring him it's okay and he won't hurt him.

Slowly, Danny swims closer. Nightwing doesn't look angry or afraid or disgusted, so maybe he will help him even though he looks like this? Heroes help everyone after all.

Dick is losing his fucking mind.

There's a baby pit monster in the water - the filthy water that's probably more grime and oil than water at this point - with wide eyes that would be adorable if they didn't have him thinking of pit rage. But they aren't angry. Far from it.

Small, with scales on their face a top normal, albeit very pale, skin. They approach slowly, clearly anxious, and Dick waits, wondering what exactly he's supposed to do here. What even is the protocol for this situation? Is there a protocol? Knowing Batman, probably, but he can't remember it.

Danny carefully sticks one hand out of the water and passes Nightwing the stick, which he takes with a grateful smile and a thank you. Danny pokes his head out a little more so he can smile back.

The baby pit monster has fangs. Adorable, little fangs, but fangs. Okay. That's fine. This is fine.

Danny hesitates. He has to ask, but his voice won't come. So he does the next best thing.

They're chirping at him. The cute, baby monster is chirping at him. He gently says he doesn't understand and when they wilt, he asks yes and no questions. Like this, Nightwing slowly pieces together the child 1, needs help, 2, is lost, 3 has an older sister who's looking after him, and 4, is absolutely terrified of his parents.

Well, he's never been one to turn down a scared kid, no matter how inhuman.

(Everyone's going to make so much fun of him when they find out he took a baby pit-monster home with him. At least they don't have black hair and blue eyes.)

#dcxdp #dick accidently becomes a dad #the fentons are bad parents #jazz is stressed #danny's actually having a pretty good time

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lockandkeyhyena · 3 months

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long anon again! I hope you don't mind me sending you so many asks, your story has been producing so many thoughts out of me lately!

Not sure if this is too personal but I do want to clarify that I am myself a victim of multiple occurrences of grooming / attempted kidnapping. My whole family is comprised of mainly women / children and while I am no victim to any sexual act myself, it is unfortunately very common among the other members of my family (my older sibling is a direct result of csa, our mother is still haunted by the trauma to this day, she turned to drugs and everything it is very bad). I'm for sure not offering my support without any personal say in the matter haha

I feel like, despite my support for your story, my own personal views are very different from yours (and from the other anons who have spoken their own personal support). While I enjoy exploring the humanity of horrible people in media, I feel like in real life, it only truly makes me hate them more. If that makes sense?

The way I see it... Yes, these awful criminals are human, but that only makes their actions worse. They are entirely capable of care and consideration. Of recognizing right from wrong. And yet they make the choice to hurt others in some of the worse ways imaginable, deliberately, sometimes repeatedly, and often for nothing more than their own personal pleasure. And by the end of the day, the crime is nothing to them. They are able to walk away and live their sickeningly normal, bland lives, they are able to work their jobs, and enjoy their hobbies, and hug their mothers like it doesn't even matter. No regret. No apologies. So pity.

They are human but they are just about the worst of what our species has to offer. Forgiveness is off the table and my hatred is something I will take to the grave, and beyond, if there ever is the possibility.

Do I think these criminals can become better people? Yes, but I don't think it really matters after the deed is done. If it were up to me those kinds of criminals would spend the rest of their lives behind bars, and while I don't advocate for *torture* I for certain believe in punishment; proper consequences for ones actions. Maybe I could even tolerate rehabilitation, but never freedom. Never freedom.

To me its just another case of priority. I think of things on a mass, wider scale. These criminals are human, but they are humans who make the deliberate choice to hurt others. Some of them even *enjoy* doing it. They are a legitimate danger to the people around them, and to me it is only the logical decision to put innocent people before criminals, and especially before child predators. I cannot in good faith release someone who chooses to abuse kids out into the wild, no matter how many times I put them through a rehab program, because I absolutely cannot guarantee nobody else will get hurt.

If I make the promise that a criminal is rehabilitated, and that criminal goes on to hurt more people, well that blood would -- albeit indirectly -- be on *my* hands, wouldn't it? Am I willing to risk the lives and wellbeing of innocent people, innocent children, for the possibility of a criminal to be good? I can't do that... Maybe it isn't fair, but it wasn't fair of them to ruin an innocent persons life to begin with. There's only so much a society can do to prevent these kinds of things from happening (even a hypothetical perfect society wouldn't be able to eradicate all crime), at some point you have to make the decision to just keep bad people away from their targets. Obviously that goes without addressing the flaws of the modern day prison system, but I will not go into that.... lol

That and, I don't truly feel like *being good* is enough to constitute a 'redemption' for child abusers, at least in the real world. To me a bad person, especially of that caliber, has to *do good* in order to earn any sort of redemption. If you abuse a child and you truly regret it, I fully expect you to save 20 kids from a burning building and donate charity to victims for the rest of your life. After some proper consequences of course. Loll. Anyways those are just my thoughts!

hello again haha! no worries whatsoever, your thoughts are really interesting to read!

i think your perspective is really interesting and honestly, necessary, while it doesn’t line up exactly with mine, i can absolutely see where you’re coming from.

i definitely agree with you on the ‘being a better person’ and ‘doing better things’ aspect. you better save those children from a burning building.

and your analysis of predators being human and that making them worse is something i’ve never thought about that way and is a perspective i greatly appreciate!!

ultimately, the aim for my story is not to tell you how to feel about these terrible people but to show you that some people *can* change, regardless of people’s reactions to that.

i would personally never forgive alvin, hell i might even never stop hating him, but i think that being the case and him trying to be a better person regardless is what makes the story important.

anyway, i greatly enjoy your anons!! thank you for your thoughts haha, everyone should be reading them- you’re extremely articulate and informed

#yeen rambles #ask #csa ment #abuse ment #rape ment #hell story #alvin's infurno

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sweetmage · 10 months

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VIOLENCE ASK: Number 12 🥺

Thank you for your ask! :D

12. The unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

Probably predictable coming from me but these guys for sure! (I was inspired by your choice of emoji lol)

Sebastian

I certainly get why a lot of people might hate Sebastian and feel uncomfortable about his stances and behaviors and I'm certainly not here to say that isn't valid. However, a lot of other "critiques" of him come from people who either have never taken him with them or who have misunderstood his character. His internal struggle with himself goes much further than just Prince vs. Brother and I think he is a very compelling character, albeit unfortunately underrealized. Perhaps this is cheating but I would like to attach some other people’s meta that dives into his character’s nuances and motivations much better than I could! On how Sebastian’s performative adherence to chantry propaganda conflicts with genuine values and actions. On how Sebastian victim-blames himself and has used some parts of his faith as a bandage for his unaddressed trauma. Oh Sebastian’s admiration of the wardens, his love of violence, and his desires for cut and try good vs evil conflicts (it is hard to sum this one up, I recommend just reading it for whoever is interested)

As for more of my own thoughts, I genuinely find him to fascinating. He is a walking contradiction in every regard and he is as impulse as he is uncertain about everything (those two traits playing off of each other frequently). He is a victim of abuse, neglect, and abandonment who latches on strongly to people and ideals that give him purpose and make him feel useful and like he belongs, he performs to fit those roles even if they go against his nature. He is genuinely kind and thoughtful though kind and thoughtful don't always go hand and hand with the Chantry's definition of good and virtuous. I think he is genuinely funny, he has about as much snark and sass as the rest of the crew if you actually take the time to listen to him. He treats Merrill with kindness and respect and is open to civil discussions about her faith and way of life which is more than can be said about some of my other faves. More of a headcanon but think there is a very delicious and angsty tragedy to the Last Straw if you play a mage and support Anders (which I always do, of course). I wrote a little about that here and drew a comic about it here if you are so inclined to read it! None of this is to say that I agree with or condone his actions, I certainly do not. I will always be pro-mage and, performative or not, many of his actions and statements against mages as a whole and characters who are mages are entirely inexcusable. I also want to clarify that I do not think his faith is ENTIRELY performative or fake, I think he genuinely believes and receives comfort from his faith, but is the actions he takes because of it (conscious or subconscious) that do not align with the ways he conducts himself otherwise and I think he has a lot to sort or morality wise and a lot of impulses to deal with. But it's okay, I can fix him :)

Tamlen

Embarrassingly I do not have nearly as much to say about Tamlen lol. He is just my favorite of the origin companions and his story really really punched me straight in the gut and then much later punched me straight in the gut again. I think he is very sweet and goofy was written realistically in a way that he felt like a real friend I might have had when I was younger. I know a lot of people like him and think of him fondly, but I would love to see more fanart of him and stuff. I would love to shoutout this beautifully drawn and absolutely heartbreaking comic about him that I keep coming back to. Also I will be obnoxious and self-promote my bittersweet AU and series of artworks I have in which he survives and recovers... but at a price!

#sebastian vael #dragon age 2 #tamlen #dragon age origins #da2spoilers #daospoilers #long post #jun art #jun rambles #jun answers

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yanderefairyangel · 8 months

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I have a question about this "Engage isn't talked anymore" discussion. People seems to take this as an indicator of Engage's quality but I don't see the link ?

Yeah well, like I often says Fire emblem fans are used to some sort of things and whenever something different happens or it's not something they are familiar with, they immediately make a deal out of it.

So to them Engage "not being talked enough" = bad quality of the product when it's false. 1/ They simply didn't searched for said content they complained about isn't talked about anymore 2/ the quality of a product has nothing to do with it 3/ reception is always a wonky thing as it can varry over the time due to many, many factors.

1/ is probably and most likely to be the reason why this discussion even exist.

The fact that people believe in 2/ comes from the fact that albeit being very niche, the fandom of this franchise isn't what I would call small because I don't think many of the game would be considered underated. Therefore most fe fans, if they aren't very familiar with other fandom, have little idea how being a fandom of an underrated works feel like. And as someone who knows how this feels like, let me say it but Engage's fandom is not small at ALL. I love this game but imma be real, there are game out there much better written objectively that have little to no popularity at all and when it comes to this game, I do little analysis of it and mostly do one or two fanarts despite it being very good quality but it's most a matter of inspiration.

3/ is something I never saw being addressed but there are things that age like milk while other can find popularity only now. In literature you have to study the reception of the works you study : 99% of the works called "classics" were considered to be dogtrash when they released by their public. For all I know Engage's reception might be a little divised but it could be that in the next few years, people look back on it foundly and were like "ok maybe we were being too harsh". After all, nowdays, especially in the context of comparing to 3H, you will find people being like "ok maybe 3H isn't that good" even though there were already people saying it back in 2019 (it's me, I am people)

#fire emblem

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heliopauseentertainments · 2 years

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Can I take another turn and ask IDW OP? Sorry I have one mind track

Pick a character I’ve written and I will explain the top ~three to five ideas/concepts/etc I keep in mind while writing that character that I believe are essential to accurately depicting them.

Nonsense, you can have as many turns as you want.

It took me a long time to really like IDW1!Op. I always thought he was interesting, but it took me awhile (and exposure to your love of him) to really appreciate him.

I also don't write him as much as I should and I need more practice but I gotta get started on MegOp Week 2022 stuff so, opportunities are inbound. Anyway, here's the stuff I like to keep in mind.

Slight disclaimer: I have not yet finished reading the Op ongoing. I promise it's in my stack of things to read. OP #1 is literally the next thing.

1. Privilege

One thing about IDW1!Op is that he comes from a place of privilege in his society. He's forged, he's from Iacon (the cultural center of cultural centers for Cybertron), he's at list a good way up the caste chain, he's an excellent cop (whatever that means, good or ill), he's respected by previous Primes, and his privileged position in society is further bolstered upon receiving the Matrix of Leadership and all of the responsibility/respect/etc. that comes with it. He's the Cybertronian equivalent of an upper-middle-class cishet white Protestant guy (yes, this is USAmerica-centric for privilege, but bear with me).

This puts Op in a unique position in this continuity compared to most other Ops. He started off fairly high and without a lot social mobility barriers. That privilege clouds his judgement and often interferes with how he understands others. Functionism worked for him, so even if he became opposed to it and the actions of the Senate through his interactions with Megatron early on, he is still receiving the benefit of those systems and can't necessarily see the full of extent of the problems and harms, despite his good intentions.

2. Compromise

Optimus is down for compromise, which is part of what can make him a good leader. Now, whether or not he's good at compromising and actually ceding ground is another discussion, but he is for the idea of compromise and offering a hand to come to an understanding.

Sure, sometimes it's kind of... not great, like when he told Megatron they could end the War with a handshake. In real terms, that wasn't a compromise, but due to Op's privilege-induced blinders (see point 1), he thinks it's a compromise, because they're talking, they're not fighting. No one is getting hurt, never mind the fact that the Cons are starved, stranded, and Megatron is his prisoner (albeit they address this and he lets Megatron free to at least sit down). He sincerely believes they can come to some sort of amicable agreement, especially after some of their story-swapping in Chaos Theory.

Optimus actively seeks common ground with an opponent even if he sometimes misidentifies what the common ground could be.

3. Interpersonal Callousness

This is another one of his flaws that I find really interesting. He loves people. He cares about people. But he cares about people as an abstract concept. PeopleTM. He cares, but due to point 1, among other things, such as his relative lack of close friendships, he's not actually super observant of other people's emotional needs. He also tends towards being paternalistic. All of this leads to him being/seeming callous and making callous decisions.

While he does care about individuals, sometimes, he does it in a way that makes sense to him and not necessarily in a way that reflects or addresses the needs of the people he's caring about. For example: he regularly ignores and talks over Rodimus, someone who looks up to him and respects him. He cares about what happens to Rodimus, he cares about what happens to Megatron, he cares about what happens to Windblade. He just responds to their needs inappropriately: "So you're just going to ignore me," "I pour out my spark and you're taking notes," etc.

Occasionally this bleeds over into that PeopleTM category too (see his paternalistic annexation of Earth because he cares about humans, but neglects to take into account their agency and needs)

4. Hope, kinda

G-d, this man is so full of hope. Sort of. HopeTM. Not real hope. The hope isn't something he holds for himself. He espouses it and gives it to others. It's a facade that he projects loudly to everyone else. He knows he's a symbol of hope to the entire Autobot faction.

But that hope isn't for him. He hopes vaguely that the War will end, that it will end peaceably, etc. He doesn't really hold much personal hope though. He doesn't know what the end of the War would mean for him. That's part of why he runs off as a freelance merc after the Chaos Event (but being burned in effigy is also a good reason to nope out). But he gives hope to everyone around him and clings to that teeny tiny hope that if he projects enough of it, some will reflect back on him. Maybe. Faking it till he makes it.

5. Self-Doubt

Look. Re: point 4, Optimus does not have much hope and incidentally, he doesn't have a lot of confidence in himself either. This self-doubt is something that he seems fairly adept at hiding from others, all as part and parcel of his image as Prime. Some are aware of it though, those that have known him for ages like Ratchet, Ironhide, etc. Even Rodimus eventually. It's not ever really admitted in front of Megatron, but Megatron knows. A few humans even know, thanks to a self-imposed timeout he put himself in in the earlier run of comics.

Behind the image of stalwart, infallible leadership he's put up over the years, Optimus is plagued by self-doubt and is always second-guessing himself.

#ask #ask meme #queztalpapalotl #optimus prime #maccadam #idw1 #long post

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valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn · 2 years

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Yeah, but on the Avengers ymmv no one considers Loki being mind controlled Pandering to the Base

Link to The Avengers ymmv.

Who writes these things? It's so cringe-worthy at times that I almost stopped reading. They don't talk about pandering to the base, that's true, they say this:

Alternative Character Interpretation: Between Thor and this movie, Loki's tactics change from "Silvertongue" to "ranting villain with an army". That and some of his dialogue with Erik Selvig about their experiences with the Tesseract could be read as him also being under coercion from the Tesseract/Staff, if one wanted to do so (moreso since it's revealed in Age of Ultron that Loki's scepter contains another Infinity Stone). He also looks quite intimidated by the threats Thanos sends him through the Other and seems to genuinely believe that Thor was responsible for him falling into the abyss at the end of Thor.

Additionally, the trickster was kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place with Thanos, not really having the option to reject the deal but having no reason to believe the titan would keep his word. Many of the cases of Idiot Ball could very reasonably have been him unconsciously or even consciously trying to lose. And resolves the complete breaking of suspension of disbelief where the random scientist inserted a complex backdoor into the security of a device he didn't really understand, too; he didn't break the mind control at all. The person responsible for assembling the Avengers and defeating Loki might be... Loki. Albeit, not from the goodness of his heart, more to give Thanos something else to worry about and because he lives in this universe too, respectively.

That's nice and all but the rest of the page is disgusting, especially their obsession with "fangirls", there are several examples of this:

Draco in Leather Pants: Search for Loki on Tumblr. The fangirls have gone nuts about Loki ever since the first Thor film, to the point that some have said, without a single trace of irony or sarcasm, that he's the real good guy and all his misdeeds should be automatically forgiven. Yes, this includes his attempted conquest and subjugation of humanity. It's a character interpretation shared by Tom Hiddleston, incidentally. He thinks Loki needs a big hug.

Granted I have only been here for less than a year but I keep seeing people complain that so many Loki fans think he's a baby who's never done anything wrong... and yet I have never seen a post saying anything of the sort. Also, to ignore the countless meta posts written by dozens and dozens of fans and to sum everything up in "he needs a big hug" is downright insulting. Another:

Loki calling Black Widow a "mewling quim" ("whimpering c**t" in more modern vernacular) is supposed to establish that he's a nasty, unpleasant, misogynist villain. Either because the language was too dated and silly-sounding, or because fangirls will forgive anything if the guy is hot, that didn't happen.

Pot meet kettle. I always find it funny when a misogynist complains about misogyny. They mention fangirls not only when it comes to Loki but with Steve and Stark as well:

Ron the Death Eater: Steve is continuously demonized by Tony fangirls as a cruel bully.

This one is funny because half the page is full of the author kissing the ass of Stark in pretty much every single point. What's with this obsession with fangirls? See how nowhere in that page they mention the fanboys, not even once.

But in case that wasn't bad enough, there's also this:

The comparisons that are drawn between Loki and Hitler are much more amusing in light of Marvel's later decision to make Loki an LGBT character.

WTF is that supposed to mean? Amusing? Whoever wrote this is a piece of shit.

#Loki #avengers #the avengers #thanos

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bloededhoine · 3 years

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I notice a lot of fans don't really bring up how Roche uses Ves for her "feminine qualities (for lack of a better word)." I hate that in Witcher 2 he sends her to Loredo dressed as a prostitute and it is implied she does this sort of thing regularly? I do know that Roche cares for her but sometimes his behavior needs a reprimand. Do you have any thoughts on this?

i absolutely love questions like this because they really make me think. plus, this is one of the rare posts that's a system special! give @claire-verlaine your love. she's simply amazing.

first things first, spoiler warning for chapter 2 of roche's path in w2 and big trigger warning for discussions of sex work, sex trafficking, rape, war, unequal power dynamics, and brief mentions of underage prostitution. also this is really fucking long. sorry.

let's start with the geekiness: prostitution as a cover for espionage has a long and awesome, albeit poorly documented, history. it was really big with the confederacy (read: racists) during american civil war, and while their motives were undoubtedly awful, these spies were simply amazing. rose o'neal greenhow was recognized by the confederate president for her role in their victory at the first battle of bull run. belle boyd seduced a union (read: racists but more covert) general, found out the date and location of the next war council, drilled a hole in the floor in the meeting room, and sat in the crawl space and took notes of the entire thing.

although there were many successful female union spies, most of them didn't use sex. there's no clear consensus on why this was, but it's entirely possible that such enlightened progressives figured sex work to be demeaning. clearly, union men were avid consumers, but also thought women didn't know any better and needed to be protected from men who would exploit them. meanwhile, these awful southern racists had no problem with "exploiting" women, but inadvertently granted them a shit ton of political agency and prestige!

this all brings us to our next point, which is that nothing is inherently wrong with sex work, although it does put workers in incredibly vulnerable positions. for every spy that successfully used prostitution as a cover, there were likely many others that failed. without even considering the consequences of being discovered as an enemy spy, sex trafficking was (and continues to be) a very real risk for anyone in that situation*.

nearly the whole history of sex work legislation shows how little people, especially upper class men, understand it. the spies in the civil war were both lucky and unlucky in that they operated quite independently. they didn't need to take orders from someone who was entirely unqualified to give them, but they also had no safety net in case something went wrong. if belle boyd so much as sneezed while eavesdropping, there would be almost no chance she'd get back home alive.

however dangerous this job was, most lady spies during the civil war began spying before they were even recruited by the army. these women weren't doing it on anyone's orders, they were doing it because they had the skills and believed in the cause (remember that in this case that belief was not an admirable quality).

rose o'neal's (possible) handler, thomas jordan, had a huge network of spies, and all evidence points to him giving her way more independence than usual. thomas jordan wasn't who rose went to for orders, he was who she submitted her reports to. in my opinion, the sex she had to obtain this information was consensual.

ves' scenario is obviously different in regard to her chain of command. she is going into sexual situations under the direct orders of a (male) commanding officer. just writing this has the alarm bells going off in my head. what good is having someone to get you out of a dangerous situation when they were the one to put you in that situation in the first place? but this is where we get to what's special about roche. he is, as they say, not like other girls.

it's no secret how much roche loves his team. when the blue stripes are killed he says that everything he loved died. if ves dies in an eye for an eye he is absolutely devastated. the blue stripes aren't just roche's subordinates, they're his family. when you see the stripes outside of battle the camaraderie is even clearer: they fist fight their commander and each other to blow off steam, they play games, have contests, etc. ves' knowledge of roche's dark and troubled past is more proof that the trust goes both ways.

roche would never put his family in an unnecessarily dangerous situation, nor would he have them do something he personally wouldn't do. even if it's just from a morality perspective (like double crossing radovid for the man that had foltest killed), roche goes it alone.

so, we know roche is a (compratively) good guy. but we also know that intention, often, doesn't mean shit. i mentioned earlier how most of the people making decisions for sex workers have little to no idea of what they are doing. it doesn't help that their intentions are all about controlling (mostly) women and getting rich in the process, but even the best meaning legislator could unknowingly do a lot of damage. roche is way more involved in ves' missions than thomas jordan was in rose o'neal's, but i think that's a good thing.

as i'm sure you lovely witcher connoisseurs know, roche is a literal whoreson. he is very aware of what goes on in brothels, and, depending on how you read into his relationship with foltest, what it's like to not really be able to say no. if anything, roche's involvement here is a good thing, since he has years of first hand experience with exactly what ves is going through, but without the safety net of an elite team that loves him and are frighteningly good soldiers.

plus, ves is far more capable than your average soldier, even in a blue stripes-calibre group. she's an absolute badass. most women who used prostitution as a cover for spying went into it with no combat or espionage training whatsoever. they knew how to be personable, how to be seductive, and how to use men's biases to get them to spill all their secrets. clearly, this knowledge served them well, but what about the occasions when it didn't? they were not fighters. at all. ves has both the "feminine charms" and the terrifying combat skills. of course, these scenarios usually have her acting as a spy, not an assassin, so those skills are more of a failsafe, but it's still very important to her own safety and the morality of the whole situation.

TL;DR

to sum up, anon, i do agree with (what i assume to be) your reasoning, but not the conclusion you came to. if someone told me an older male superior was having a younger female subordinate act as a prostitute to gain intel during a time of war, i'd be ready to start cutting off dicks.

but that's not the whole story. the older male superior has a personal background in (possibly) coerced and underaged sex work. the younger female subordinate is a highly skilled soldier, and second in command of an elite unit. both of them have a very close familial relationship developed over several years. a similar relationship exists between the the other members of the unit in their command. personally, i think those factors make this a completely new situation.

that being said, i'm certain that my beliefs aren't the only ones out there. as long as we can all agree that the base scenario is unequivocally wrong, there should be absolutely no reason to (civilly) not discuss whether or not the special circumstances make it okay.

* i'll take this as an opportunity to say that the enforcement of anti-sex work laws force sex workers to be either a criminal, a victim, or dead. these laws are the problem, not the solution. the solution would be supporting unions for sex workers, giving them the same legal protections given to any other worker, and treating them like humans, not statistics.

#anon #sorry this is so long #i got carried away #roche tag #ves tag #shaun the sheep talks to humans #also anon you get the honourable award for most interesting ask ever #i absolutely loved it

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bleachbleachbleach · 3 years

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HELLO.

I just wanted to say that I love, love, love your tags on that character/tool post a lot! Some of my favorite shows/books involve characters that can't keep it together and just barely make it to the end of the story or make it there in an "inconvenient way" and tbh I find that usually the narratives that follow these characters don't really work away from them either--the narrative is just usually more questioning instead of fully formed.

Like, 'what if/how would', y'know? There's less of a clear meaning and more just 'what if they hadn't done that. what if they had done that. what if all that meant nothing. what if that struggle was all there was'.

But oh boy, when they DO work away from the narrative. *chefs kiss*

I mean, most of my favorite Bleach characters are narrative nightmares who either hinder or cut off lines of theme in the story entirely. And, in general, I think there are A LOT of characters in shonen--a genre known for very long narratives that can't possibly complete every thought but also can't just abandon all those characters introduced ESPECIALLY the fan favorites or personal favorites--work in the way you described.

Tbh i think your tags really highlight why so many ppl get drawn to these characters/why they're so fun to play with in fanfiction.

If you have more to add or more thoughts about this you want to lay down I am here, eagerly awaiting and ready to pick them up.

Also, who do you think in Bleach is the most fun characters who sort of drop kicked the story, in your opinion? Who's the one you like the most? And who's the one you dislike the most?

[For posterity the referenced post is this one.]

Aww, thank you! That’s really lovely to hear. I was anxious about even putting it in tags because I don’t think I presently have the capacity to explain it well—and even if I did might still sound bananas to many. Or at least the bit about negotiating with characters and how *they* feel about being subjects in stories. Because as much as that really is my practice saying it out loud takes me back to like… FFN in 2003 where every store was prefaced by extensive chat-form back-and-forths between the fic author and their character "musies" and that is not something I think fandom would benefit from bringing back in force, hahaha. But anyway.

Here’s the part where I disappoint because I don’t think I actually know Bleach well enough to speak to it in this context. WHICH SOUNDS DUMB EVEN AS I TYPE IT BECAUSE LOL WTF IS THE NAME OF THIS BLOG WE ARE CHARLATANS AND POSERS FOR CLAIMING AS OUR NAMESAKE NOT ONE BLEACH BUT THREE BLEACHES but truly, my experience of Bleach has a shallow depth of field. I feel like I have weirdly intimate knowledge of some severe rabbit holes but a non-existent to uneasy sense of the gestalt.

Like idek man, in my "slow re-read where I am actually paying attention" Ichigo hasn’t even met Byakuya and Renji yet. ToT

I'm gonna put this behind a cut because it spidered all over the place, but in summary:

characters and their capacity to produce narrative failure

the charm of longform serialized series and their invitations to imagine stuff

me attempting to talk about Hitsugaya and feeling a fool, as usual

I guess in general terms, I’m really interested in characters and their capacity to produce narrative failure. Not failure as in 'bad' but failure as in things that break form or are circuitous or are actively detrimental to a narrative arc. All my strongest examples of what I’m thinking of are from a different fandom and therefore not relevant to this blog, alas. By comparison I think anyone in Bleach can keep it together better than the characters that are immediately coming to mind, lol. But I think this idea dovetails often with trauma narratives, or depression narratives, because these things are often… non-narrative? Like, there’s no fourth or fifth for minor fall or major lift. Sometimes it’s the same thing over and over again, or maybe nothing. Maybe it’s the exact same self-sabotage narrative dictates could have been avoided. Maybe it’s some act that emanates forth but cannot be explained because it cannot be explained and will never be explained. That’s a version of what I’m talking about, in any case, though not the only version.

Your note about longform shounen definitely resonates with me, too. In my mind I don’t like long things and I prefer series that are more self-contained but whenever I have ever landed in a long-term fandom, with a piece of media I felt obliged to carve out chunks of my life for, and to interact with at that level of creative fannishness, it’s always been something stupid long and serialized by the seat of its pants. I know plot holes or dropped threads bother a lot of people (makes total sense, don’t get me wrong) but I find these things incredibly attractive. I see them as invitations to join in the fun. Especially when it’s so much a part of the form and genre to have this, as you said, lack of real expectation that every thread will be followed to its conclusion (or that it would be worthwhile to do so) and every thought completed.

There’s this piece by David Grann that was published in The New Yorker in 2004 that I really love that speaks to part of this idea, albeit in terms of fictional universes versus fictional characters. But Grann is talking about Sherlock Holmes (Doyle original) and the ways that Sherlockians would like, approach apparent lapses in narrative and then solve them according to the established rules of the universe. I just love that. There’s also the line, "Never had so much been written by so many for so few," which LOL if that ain’t fandom I don’t know what is!!

I feel like I’m actually talking about three distinct but related facets of these thoughts in this post, except all at once and without clear transition, uhhhhh.

Gah, I am broken and now can ONLY think of examples from my not-Bleach fandom, but to try a different tack and add yet another facet to this already funhouse-mirror post, my various attempts to write Hitsugaya often feel like they come up against a version of this. I think Hitsugaya has aggressive side character energy, and I find it difficult to make him the center of a story and have it feel right to me. He feels different to me than writing other minor characters, where they can be the center of their own stories even if their story is not the main story. Like, two of my fave characters in my other fandom have literally like… three lines in 350+ episodes and it feels easier to imagine THEM at the center of their story and I think what it comes down to is that Hitsugaya probably prefers what he not be written. And when he does become more narrative I think he’d prefer that none of it was happening in the fist place. But at the same time he always seems to be…around??? whether there is really a good reason for him to be present or not. XD So while, say, he and Bartleby "would prefer not to" (because THAT'S what this post needs, a Melville reference), Bartleby actually opts out and Hitsugaya out here volunteering.

He also often feels non-narrative to me because he feels very declarative, if that makes sense? Like, the coming-to-decisions or coming-to-realizations parts of existence happen pretty quick, or are approached perfunctorily. I feel like I find narrative in the "coming" part of that equation and instead Hitsugaya will be like, well, I’ve already done that part without you, and/or plan to do that part in the future and it will still be without you, the audience. Anyway, here’s the determination I’ve made, here’s what I’m going to do, and here begins the long and probably tedious process of my doing that thing (off 2 go train in a cave for a bit). I don’t think he actually believes the world is that simple, Tab A into Slot B, but I do think he’s already made that assessment and can see coming to terms with that as a horizon, if that makes sense. So even if he doesn’t know the answer to something, or is completely at a loss of what to do (what to say to Hinamori? how to productively address the number Aizen’s done on him) there’s still not necessarily a story there. Maybe the answer is you grind, and it is repetitive and boring. Maybe you just hold things. There’s not even the act of learning how to hold things, necessarily, just the practice of doing so.

Wow, that probably doesn’t sound good! I feel like I need to suffix this with the assurance that Hitsugaya is my absolute runaway character in the whole series and this was true 15 years ago and it is still true now (truer, even) and everything I just said are reasons why I love him.

#i feel like this is one of those 'well.... that sure was a Post' situations #and i will have to try to articulate this better in the future #probably multiple times #ideally with concrete explicated examples for the sake of clarity lol #but please take this as an invitation to talk about YOUR read of Bleach/Bleach characters and/or elaborate on your also excellent tags

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sandalaris · 3 years

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send your a character impression asks: Seth and Kate if you don't have those already, and Jeff Winger and Annie Edison! ❤❤❤

Seth Gecko

First impression: I think I loved him right off the bat. He’s snarky and quick witted and those are usually the characters I like first.

Impression now: Not much has changed. I suppose I have more of an understanding for how he handled his demons now compared to my initial reaction to his heroin use. And I definitely think he’s at his healthiest in season three.

Favorite moment: Oh jeeze, he has so many good ones! I suppose I rather like him in Shady Glen. Just like his whole taking charge of the group and his awkwardly trying to smooth things over when he and Richie busted in guns drawn on that woman and her son. Reminded me of the convo between him and the Dew Drop Inn clerk.

Idea for a story: Nothing new, but I’ve got anther tUA-inspired AU snippet brewing that touches more on Seth’s Bad Ass Normal superpower though.

Unpopular opinion: I don’t know that it’s all that unpopular, but I’m not convinced Seth used again after season two. I’m not convinced he didn’t either, but it’s never been a personal headcanon or something that I’ve felt was a given or anything. I mostly feel that he went back to popping prescription pain pills and probably mixing them with alcohol (not smart) when he was feeling particularly shitty.

Favorite relationship: Probably him and Richie (although he and Kate are a close second.) Their relationship is pretty much the heart of the show and I don’t think I would’ve loved it nearly so much had it not been.

Favorite headcanon: It’s a tie between Seth getting a cross tattoo to represent Kate after season three, and that Seth started questioning his faith after the blood-transfusion-that-shouldn’t’ve-worked. And as a tie into the second one, that he and Kate do not have compatible blood types, something Seth learned after the fact.

Kate Fuller

First impression: That she was a typical, albeit a bit on the mature side, teenage girl, lol. At least for most of season one. I think I probably stereotyped her a bit, because I remember not realizing just how quickly Kate grew unafraid/immune to the Gecko Brothers until my first rewatch.

Impression now: She is so much a “there’s bravery in remaining soft”/”world’s nicest badass”/”do not mistake my kindness for ignorance” character. She has this quiet strength and is unwavering in who she is at her core.

Favorite moment: Pretty much anytime Kate meets someone new and they inevitably get attached and decide to go to the ends of the earth for her (or they’re evil and decide they want to possess her *cough*Malvado,Tanner,Oculto*cough*)

Idea for a story: I’ve been wanting to write a fairytale!AU, particularly with my favorite fairytale, but it doesn’t fit SethKate all that well. Maybe I’ll just expand on that crack!ficlet I wrote...? Idk. I’ve got too many wips anyway.

Unpopular opinion: I can’t think of one I haven’t named before. I suppose with the increase in purity culture here on Tumblr the fact that I really don’t mind the age gap between Seth and Kate nor do I think it makes any difference if Kate’s underage or legally an adult would count.

Favorite relationship: In show it’s probably her and the Gecko Brothers, but in those inbetween moments I really love her and Scott.

Favorite headcanon: Currently I’m think about how I headcanon that Kate has some lingering muscle memory about swordsmanship from Amaru. Its nothing too exciting, especially since Amaru’s pre-Earth memories -and therefore her memories of learning to use a sword- are fuzzy at best, but her body practiced with one enough during those six months that it falls into place easy enough when she picks up a blade.

Jeff Winger

First impression: Like Seth, he’s that brand of snarky and quick witted that I immediately like.

Impression now: I don’t know that it’s changed much. I love how the show let Jeff grow but also let him slip back into old habits. People don’t change overnight, and while Jeff didn’t need each lesson hammered over his head repeatedly, he did need to learn not to fall back into his default mode whenever he could.

Favorite moment: Anytime Jeff shows genuine excitement to hang out with the study group. Like when he showed up early to the apartment for the wedding.

Idea for a story: I’ve had this idea for a while where Jeff never got caught and is an even worse version of himself than he was circa the pilot. And he somehow meets a few (maybe all?) of the study group only they don’t make him a better person so much as he manipulates them into being part of his life as he unwantingly grows attached to each of them. It’s kind of dark for a Community fic, not counting some of the darkest timeline fics, but the idea entered my head one day and has been living rent free there ever sense.

Unpopular opinion: Its mostly unpopular among Jeff/Annie shippers, but I rather like how the Jeff/Britta storyline played out. It makes sense to me that they became friends with benefits and that the sexual tension between them faded as they got to know each other on a deeper level since they were incompatible. Plus, I really like their friendship.

Favorite relationship: I really loved his and Abed’s dynamic at the beginning of the series, but for the bulk of the show it’s a tie between him and Annie (romantic) and him and Britta (platonic)

Favorite headcanon: I fully believe Jeff is demiromantic. Its why he doesn’t think romantic love is real, he so rarely experiences it and only after getting close to someone, something he actively avoids doing, and why he figured that having a friend he gets along with and is sexually attracted to is all that was needed for a romantic relationship.

Annie Edison

First impression: Mainly I just remember not liking her crush on Troy in the first season, lol. I’ve never been that into ships where one side is super obvious and kind of desperate while the other is oblivious and/or sees them as just friends. I was really proud of her when she decided to not let Troy use her grandmother’s blanket (which is coincidentally also the episode I started to ship her and Jeff, albeit mildly at the time) and their friendship later on was wonderful.

Impression now: She’s one of my favorite characters on the show, although on Community I love them all so that’s not saying much, lol. Troy says it best when he says that Annie expects everyone to be better than they are and for herself to be better than everyone.

Favorite moment: I can’t just pick one moment, grr. Fine, the first thing that popped into my head was Annie saying the line about “a C? Why don’t I just get pregnant at a gas station?!” or something like that. Just her absolute insistence that anything less than perfection in herself is some kind of a epic failure in life is just amusing to me.

Idea for a story: I don’t think I really have any off the top of my head that aren’t Community as a whole fics. I’d love to write an AU for the show someday, it lends itself to the concept so well that just about any sort of AU would do. An I still have the FDtD crossover fic that is sitting all messy in my wip folder.

Unpopular opinion: I don’t really care where they went with her character in seasons five and six (I particularly don’t like how it was played for laughs that she started taking pills again between seasons 4 and 5). Her storylines are mostly fine, but I prefer the way her character went in the seasons that came before.

Favorite relationship: I was trying to think of someone besides Jeff, but even not looking at them as a ship I really did love their dynamic throughout the show.

Favorite headcanon: Annie’s parents where the ones who got her hooked on Adderall, telling her what to say to her doctor to get a prescription or maybe bringing home a bottle themselves, so that she could keep up her perfect grades and do all the right afterschool activities to get into an Ivy League school and make them proud. They were mostly embarrassed that Annie “couldn’t handle it” and tried to quit, saying she needed to try harder and “really, Annie, stop being so dramatic” when she OD’d.

#seth gecko #kate fuller #fdtd #jeff winger #annie edison #community

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minervacasterly · 4 years

Text

The caricature of Margaret Beaufort:

From pop culture POV and the POV of those influenced by it, this powerful matriarch is all of the following: Religious nut case! Bitch. She killed the princes in the tower! Old and ugly! Screw her! She and her son were the worst thing that happened to England!

And yet her son became the founder of a dynasty that reigned for more than a century and continues to fascinate us. Now on to the real Meg Beaufort. In the White Queen she is all this and that but the real Meg was no religious nut case and she certainly didn't plan the murder of the Princes and you can debate me countless times on this but there is no concrete evidence that she did! Richard had more than enough motive and opportunity to kill the Princes and oh wait before I get the Ricardians on my case, I don't hate Richard. I actually find him interesting, I wouldn't find him interesting if he was perfect. Richard had learned from his brother's mistakes but made mistakes of his own. If he produced the boys then that would've propelled them to sainthood and the last thing he wanted was a cult was already building around Henry VI. What happened with this last monarch is fascinating and you might be wondering -hey! Isn't that the guy they smothered with a pillow in the White Queen? Yeah, that's the one. Except there are so many theories abounding to his death. The first one comes from Bettini who wrote three weeks after the Lancastrian king's death that it was Edward NOT Richard who gave the order. At the time the blame was solely pinned on Edward, so let's not confuse contemporary sources with secondary. Rous and Vergil writing in the Tudor period pinned the murder on Richard and even early Ricardians say that he did it, but with one major difference -*under* Edward's orders. If this is so, one thing we can all agree, if Richard gave the order or personally took care of Henry, it was all done under his brother's command. But this backfired, soon people were attributing all sorts of miracles to this guy, he became more famous in death than he had ever been in life. Edward tried hard to suppress this cult but he couldn't and Richard did the next best thing. If you can't beat them, join 'em! He cashed in on the cult and officiated a reburial of the dead monarch and started all new kinds of celebrations for him but people still talked as they always do. Now if he had produced the dead children as he and his brother had done with the Lancastrian king, then it would've been chaos, complete and utter chaos!

Margaret Beaufort's sole aim up until the princes disappearance in the summer of 1483 was to gain back her son's lands and bring him back safely. She was forced to give him up before after the Lancaster line had been wiped out from the face of the earth by Yorkist forces, ending to some historians' view, the wars of the roses in 1471. Margaret would not see him until the aftermath of Bosworth in 1485. She had little to worry about the first years of his exile, he was with his uncle Jasper, his father's brother. They intended to sail to the French court, a court his uncle knew very well but landed in Brittany instead because of the bad weather. Brittany was not on good terms with the French and they had their fair share of enmity with the English so it served the Duke well to have two valuable English hostages, one who had a considerable (if debatable) claim to the English throne via his mother. Edward attempted to coax the old Duke into give up his charge and while the Duke never believed Edward's intentions, some of his ministers did and those who didn't just wanted to cash in on the juicy rewards. Henry was an intelligent youth who was far from the serious and mama's boy he's depicted in today's fiction. He loved to laugh, play, joke and gamble. But he was aware how valuable he was and at one point feigned sickness and took sanctuary in a church when he suspected his future voyage to England was a hoax -which it was -and that small trickery on his part saved him.

By 1480, Margaret had more than enough to worry, but she wasn't giving up on her son's legacy. With Edward's promise to marry him to his eldest daughter, Margaret continued to rely on the faith that gave comfort to so many women in this period, and Edward's promise, albeit a fake one, was something she never let go of. The accession of Richard and Anne changed all that. Always an opportunist at heart, she tried to curry favor with the new regime. Whether she agreed with it or not -we will never know but her husband was an official in Richard's government and she had more than enough reason to believe that Richard would grant her her request to bring her son back. After all he was more busy convincing everyone his brother had never been legally married to Elizabeth and securing his position. But surprise, surprise for Margaret and everyone involved. Her life was never easy, it was one obstacle after another and this was no different. The boys' disappearance changed everything and Buckingham's rebellion gave her a chance she had never considered before. Her moment to shine had come. She was no longer looking to bring her son back as a mere earl but as a king so she started plotting with the queen dowager through her Welsh doctor. After a lot of plotting and intrigue and tragedy at Richard's court, her son's shining moment came and thanks to the defection of his stepfather from Richard's camp to his side, he won. There is a famous myth that his stepfather, Thomas Stanley found the crown in a thorn bush but this is likely Tudor propaganda. Richard's treatment afterwards was one that's always given by the victor to the loser, stripped of all his clothes and shamefully paraded, he was then written as the worst monarch that ever lived.

And while I do agree there needs to be a better assessment of Richard, doing the same to Margaret and Richard is just as dumb. She was born in 1443 and a year after, John Beaufort, her father and Duke of Somerset died. Many said at the time that it was because of suicide because of his terrible leadership in France. Truth or not, Margaret was now a wealthy heiress and her wardship was widely sought after. William de la Pole, the crown's favorite tried to marry her to his son, but after he was murdered, at only nine years old Margaret was brought to court to swear that she never intended to marry his son. Later she rewrote history saying that it was because of a godly vision that told her that it was her destiny to marry Edmund Tudor and establish a great house, that she denied it. Margaret married at only 12 and Edmund Tudor, anxious to get his hands on her wealth, didn't bother to wait. He impregnated her less than a year after and she gave birth in January 1457 when she was months away from being 14, to her only offspring. The birth damaged her, she never had any children with her other spouses. She had a happy marriage with her next spouse, Henry Stafford and they celebrated their anniversary in big style every year and even housed Edward IV in their hunting lodged in one occasion. This doesn't sound like the power hungry, vindictive Margaret of TV. And that's because she wasn't! She was very learned and founded and refounded many colleges, chief among them: Christ's College which had previously been God's House and St. John's in Cambridge. Aware that only the privileged few could attend these institutions she voiced her concerns in 1479, and her attempts bore fruit when Wimborne College was established posthumously in 1509, which was later renamed Queen Elizabeth's school. She also established the Lady Margaret Beaufort Professorship of Divinity at Cambridge in 1502 and the first women's college in Oxford was named after her.

In spite of her joy of seeing her son crowned, she could not help herself. Fisher and many contemporaries described how she cried -a clear sign of a woman that doesn't care about power- and when asked why, she responded because she had lived through so many kings and princes who had been murdered and killed in battle. Who knew if her son was next or if his reign would last. She cried the same tears of grief on her grandson's joint coronation with Katherine, fearing that his reign would face the same troubles.

Margaret passed away days after in 1509, after a long life of hardship and triumph.

#history #tudors #dailytudors #margaret beaufort

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letterstothemidnightsociety · 3 years

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Alright, so if you've been following along with me, Supernatural season 3 starts out on a trio of episodes that are Really Fun, slides into some episodes that are Pretty OK, then takes a real nose dive into Bummersville. Hoo boy guys, I really hope that this season picks up. I mean, it won’t, but I can still dream. 2021 was maybe not the year to start watching this season. Fair warning.

The next three episodes for this season are just, like, real downers. First we get “Fresh Blood,” which, aside from the terrible title, starts out on a high note. Gordon (gross) somehow manages to catch up with Bela (HOW??) and threatens her if she doesn’t hand over the Winchesters. Bela, in all of her class and grace, won’t give them up because she has a high price point and Gordon is really lowballing her here. Just like, yes, ok, please stay forever, you’re amazing and I love you. And what a scene this is! You have two characters, one with a strict moral code (albeit one that allows for violence and winning at all costs) and the other with almost NO moral code, but an allegiance that can be bought with the best price and it’s such a fun back and forth until Gordon pulls out a gun. And then she pulls out her phone and just has Dean on speed dial and that’s maybe my fav part. Bela has run into the Winchesters twice and they maybe legit hate her but she’s very much like, oh yeah, my BFF’s the Winchesters, I love those idiots!

I love that we come back to this moment later in the episode when Bela, like, three days later, is like, Oh! I guess I should warn the Winchesters that some crazy guy is after them! She’s just so casual about it you kind of get the feeling that, even though technically Gordon was threatening her life, she doesn’t view him as A Threat. She gives the Winchesters a heads up just to be like oh yeah, you might want to watch out for this mild inconvenience, and she seems legit shocked when Dean freaks out. There’s this moment that plays across her face like, oh shit, did I...did I fuck up? And it adds a nice bit of depth to her character. She’s seems honestly worried, both for the lives of the Winchesters but also that Dean won’t like her anymore and that is just a charming bit of A C T I N G!

I am gonna miss her SO MUCH when she dies at the end of this season. WHY did we CANCEL HER???

But despite the fun beginning, this episode is about monsters and how people become monsters and how other people are probably the reason. Because our main baddie is a vampire who hunts to...well, listen if we look at the facts that he lays out in his monologue, it’s a little more tragic - he’s trying to replace the daughters that he lost hundreds of years ago, cool motive, still murder. In practice though, he goes around turning hot blonde coeds into vampires and then ?????? Who knows. I’d like to believe that this was a problem with the CW executives or maybe casting/directing and not with the writing, but it’s SPN and you really can’t be sure with anything. The fact is, this is a CW show from the early 2000’s and a lot of their extras are cast to type. And that’s maybe me exhibiting some girl-on-girl crime, but there are other episodes that did a much less blatantly gross job casting their extras/Very Special Guest Stars.

Anyway, the POINT of this guy is that he’s a monster because someone killed his daughter and he’s just been trying to fill that grief hole inside of him for centuries. This is not unlike Gordon, who ALSO has been trying to fill a grief hole that he’s had for decades, except he’s not killing people and resurrecting them as blood suckers, he’s just killing them. And then, when the Vamp decides to turn Gordon it’s a real sweet moment of comeuppance for like, a HOT second and then you’re like, awww dude, ya done f’ed up. That was a bad idea. You’ve made a HUGE mistake.

More importantly, our Vampire In Question finally runs into the Winchesters and get’s to say things like “I was desperate! You ever felt desperate? I've lost everyone I ever loved. I'm staring down eternity alone. Can you think of a worse hell?” and also “I just ... I didn't care anymore. Do you know what it's like when you just don't give a damn? It's like ... it's like being dead already.” and Dean’s v. much like, THIS IS TOO REAL ROY.

Sam may ALSO be feeling Too Real feelings because he is DONE dicking around with Gordon and honestly yes, I like this, this is good Sam development. It’s nice to know that Sam has a breaking point. And I admit I’m of two minds about this moment because 1) I love the idea of Dark!Sam this season and that maybe Sam’s decision to actually kill Gordon is just one step in that process but 2) I ALSO love the idea of Sam Lite finally having a breaking point and Gordon is IT. I don’t know which theory I like more in this scenario, but they are both good theories.

I think as much as this episode wants to draw parallels between the monsters and Dean (thank you artful editors), you can’t look at the “I’ve lost everyone I ever loved,” line and not think of Sam? Cuz he’s got one (1) person left in his life that hasn’t died horribly, so how desperate is he about to get through the end of this season? I’ve definitely been watching this season with eyes on all the ominous Dean foreshadowing, but the Sam foreshadowing is also there, just buried under the heavy weight of a thousand smulders and suicidal levels of denial.

And also, FUCK the tag on this episode! Guys, it is CUTE but it is also HORRIBLE. Dean starts teaching Sam how to fix the Impala and at first it’s all, “Oh! Adorable Brothers Being Brothers!” and I loved it but then I almost immediately hated it because you realize this is about making sure Sam can get along without him once he’s gone and Dean just accepts his own death with such casual ease that it’s just...INFURIATING!

This scene was rude and I HATE IT!

Cut to - “A Very Supernatural Christmas” Special!

Guys, I was so excited when I got to this episode. THIS is Classic Supernatural Shenanigans. Plus, you know a Holiday Special is the ultimate sign that this show has Made It, right? Or it could be a sign that they’re selling out, who knows, but I think we can say that at this point in the series, SPN is established enough to start having fun with their fans. That’s what this says to me. BUT THEN what we get is like...oh boy.

First - like, I’mma beat this horse to death, but what is WRONG with this FAMILY? John Winchester very quickly devolved into the sort of father that forgot about every single holiday and did not ever, even a little bit, make up for it. It’s not a surprise, but it kind of wrecked me seeing a flashback where Baby Dean is just so attached to a father who can’t be bothered to actually care for his children. I know he’s not in this episode because Jeffrey Dean Morgan was tied up in other projects, but the fact that John doesn’t show up at the end to button the flashbacks with a But then he DID show up for Christmas! just makes this plot line that more gutting. And despite Dean’s hero worship of their father, this is maybe the Christmas where Baby Sam stops believing in his own father. The only bright side to this is that it continues to enforce the fact that Bobby should have sued John for custody. Bobby should maybe STILL Sue for custody so that Dean at least would feel like someone wants him for once in his life, damnit.

And then we wrap this episode up with the Best Worst Christmas of all, because we see Sam start to...also?? accept that Dean is about to die? Cuz that’s what this episode is really about - Dean’s Last Christmas. And everything about that makes me ~ u p s e t ~.

So Sam decides to put his curmudgeonly grinchy attitude aside in order to make it a special day for Dean and ugh. UGH. UGHGHGHG. Season three is the worst guys, and I can’t believe I didn’t realize that until right this second now.

So let’s wrap this up with "Malleus Maleficarum", honestly an episode that is mostly forgettable until we get to, like, the last five minutes. Sure, witches and curses and selling your soul, woohoo whatever.

But then we get some real Ruby centric reveals and like, WHAT is happening?? First off, the scene where Ruby and Tammy have a moment is a real Moment. There is some baggage and tension here and it is heavy. And then Tammy drops the mic when she reveals that Ruby used to be human.

THEN, Ruby legit saves their asses by killing Tammy with a fancy magic knife. Ok, Dean does the actual killing, but Ruby brought the fancy magic knife. So between the hot and heavy tension with “Tammy” and her repeated attempts to keep the Winchesters alive, we’re left wondering what IS Ruby’s deal? I personally wonder how much of the show’s mythology the show actually has figured out at this point? Because interviews with Kripke definitely walk the line between “Oh we definitely have this whole thing worked out,” and “yeah, we’re sort of finding things as we go along,” which is maybe why it’s able to last as long as it does. More on that later.

Of course the big kicker is the final scene between Ruby and Dean. Dean is almost on board with Ruby at this point in the season, and much like his scene with the demon in “Sin City”, they share a kind of vulnerable moment together where Ruby admits that, yeah, she was human once and yeah, Hell will destroy you, body and soul, and yeah Dean’s worst fear will probably come true - he will become the thing he hunts, no ifs, ands or buts about it. And Dean knows that Ruby knows that Dean knows that there’s no way to save Dean from his fate, but they both agree that they can’t take Sam’s last ounce of hope away from him because, for both of them, Sam is their hope. Ruby and Dean both see the war happening around them and they know that with Dean gone, Sam’s maybe the last guy holding back the tide to save all humanity.

Which, honestly? Bull shit. Do you know how many hunters are out there? Neither do I, but this season seems to indicate that there are a LOT. We have barely scratched the surface on the hunter community and it’s a damn shame that they are all weirdo loners because there is a war going on. You know what works great in a war? An ARMY. Buncha mentally unstable, martyr-complex ijits who can’t put their differences aside for one damn MINUTE so that maybe, JUST maybe, the could actually defeat the evil they’ve spent their entire lives dedicated to fighting. And if Ruby and Dean wanted to help Sam, what they should probably do is get him plugged in to that community. I do believe that of all they backasswards, self-obsessed, painfully anti-social crazies out there, the Winchesters are THE WORST.

Listen tho, this was like, a solid scene between these two. Just a lot of work goin' into this and it paid off.

Anyway, back to the mythology for a hot second - This sort of loosey-goosey stumbling into your own world building is probably another one of those things that you’ll only really get in a show with this many episodes per season? It’s that room to play and experiment and just make stuff up as you go along. I think the slow drip method of releasing episodes ALSO helps in this scenario because you’re able to see what fans are reacting to in almost-real time. When viewers are binging episodes, I think you're less likely to see what specifically they’re reacting to and more wholistically they’re reacting to. And that’s not to say you won’t see those specific things that they like/love eventually, but by the time you get there, your season’s been produced in its entirety and you’ll have to bear that in mind for (hopefully) next season. But with SPN, they were writing and producing the show at the same time that some of the episodes were airing. That’s why they were able to make decisions on the fly, based on what fans responded to. And definitely by this point in the show, there was a sizeable and vocal fan base that made their feelings VERY well-known. We’re only in season three, but they’ve already had a number of con appearances and a pretty active online presence. That kind of feedback has got to be helpful, from a writing perspective, but it also allows for things like characters getting cut because nobody liked them for some dumb reason. BUT, if you’re fighting to stay on the air for 100 episodes or longer, responding to fan reactions is what’s gonna do it and that’s a fact.

#Supernatural #Supernatural rewatch #SPN #Sam Winchester #Dean Winchester #Bela Talbot #Gordon Walker #Ruby #SPN Season 3 #Fresh Blood #A Very Supernatural Christmas #malleus maleficarum #It's gonna lighten up on the next three episodes #I promise #I hope #Don't watch this season if you're still feeling 2020 #Is my personal opinion

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yaboylevi · 4 years

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Do you think Isayama expected the division of opinions about the rumbling or is it something he wanted to happen? He has often wanted us to question ourselves about what is good or bad and I don't know if this would be the case too.

Mmm, good question. I do wonder…

This is just my perspective, but on some topics, I feel like he subtly expresses his opinion. For example, Hange declaring that in no way, shape or form genocide is acceptable. Or that part, using a much-hated character such as Gross, where he said some people are enthralled by violence. The fact that adults have a responsibility to not push their problems on children, which is even more personal than the simple reading associated with war, considering he doesn’t have a good relationship with his father (ok, I am also projecting in this case, lol, but oftentimes irl parents have baggage from their childhood or adulthood that make them act…“harshly” with their children even though the children are not at fault and it is something, imo, that he criticized indirectly as well).

Other times, Isayama feels a bit like a philosopher: he just wants to present a dilemma or a problem and doesn’t give a direct answer, instead showing different points of view. The first one that comes to mind, since we are talking about the rumbling is…if you’re not willing to dirty your hands, you won’t be able to change a thing or you might even die. Violence is wrong but sometimes it is needed. But when is too much? When can you be forgiven and when can you not? When should you stop?

As you rightly said, he wants the reader to use their heads and decide for themselves - albeit he gives backhanded answers even to these dilemmas, imo, but not overtly enough that you can’t choose to find your own answer. All the while acknowledging that there is a gray area. However, he seems to have already given his clear opinion on the case of a full rumbling.

I seriously hope that, at the end of the day, the "gray area" he will close this arc on won't be "genocide is bad but what if it's to protect your people?".

Still, the fandom is divided about this, and Isayama has done it on purpose, in my opinion. I’m not talking about Eren’s choice, but there is a reason if a “normie” like Jean has considered accepting genocide. Hange could sway him to refuse that idea only because they can fight against it and hope to find another way. But for common people who have no way to fight back, the choice might not be so simple. Some readers end up sympathizing with the common people in Paradis, some other choose to think about it logically (better the death of an island than the entire world), some choose to support the rumbling for other reasons like getting a different ending, an eye for an eye, it’s the only choice when it’s to kill or be killed, and so on.

I personally look at it in a more empathetic, maybe detached way. I acknowledge that the situation is horrible, that the world is wrong but also the rumbling is. That until Magath and Hange were forced to work together, there was no feasible alternative, and I try to understand the characters’ feelings based on this fact.

This might be a controversial opinion, but we don’t have to find a solution to the problem the characters are in. It is their story. We can simply watch it unfold while also disagreeing with some of their actions. But even this constant arguing seems to have been consciously caused by Isayama, because he presented a situation where there is no right choice, only different bad ones.

Maybe that’s it, though. If every choice had far from ideal consequences, and if Eren knows a part of the future, he might have made a choice that would leave him with the least amount of regrets. We can come to our conclusions when this is over. (I’m talking as one who strongly believes Eren’s true goal is not genocide and that he knows he won’t succeed, so it'll be a matter of deciding if the lives Eren decided to sacrifice will be worth the end result).

Finally, even when Isayama has given his opinion in the past, the fandom has still ignored it. Gross said the readers want to see violence and we can all agree that sort of came off as a call-out, Mr. Braus said children shouldn’t bear adults’ sins, genocide is horrifying. Yet so many people want to see the rumbling succeed, which would cause so many children to suffer because of a war made by adults, all because they want to see an overly violent and hopeless ending. They still want our characters to suffer, to wield violence for the sake of violence, not for survival. It is what it is.

Ultimately, I don't really think that we should agree with all of Isayama's opinions. He is writing a medium of entertainment, not some rules the whole world has to abide by. Any piece of art, any opinion, any...thing, really, is destined to become subject of diverse interpretations the moment it starts existing. It's just that if one strongly believes genocide, in this case, is the right answer and Isayama doesn't think so, then they will be disappointed by the ending.

But as I said in another ask, most rumbling supporters appear to just have bad taste about what constitutes a satisfying ending (or they don't care about that, they just want a shocking ending!), I don't think they'd support genocide in real life.

#Anonymous #snk spoilers #shingeki asks #sorry this god long and it could've been shorted and explained the same thing better

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jellyfax · 3 years

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So, I kinda got a rebuttal to this ask I had sent to an "anti-shipper." I'm still pretty confused, frustrated, disappointed, and disturbed that a fair number of "anti-shippers" essentially OK’d the statements from Lindsay Ellis shown below. They, rather poorly, attempted to argue that she's not trying to portray all "anti-shippers" as being unreasonable, overly emotional, aggressive pearl clutchers who have their priorities mixed up. Even though that's clearly what she's doing here. She's using the Beetlejuice franchise as an example, a patient zero of sorts, for how "antis" (people critical of positive and romanticized depictions of abuse in media) ruin fandom with what Ellis views as unsolicited antics.

That group of so-called anti shippers also ignored how Ellis shows approval for what she describes as "an asexual couple [that] give off couple vibes." The couple in question are a 12-year-old child (Lydia) and an adult of indeterminate age (Beetlejuice). The implication here is that Ellis views the pair as a romantic couple which should be concerning to supposed antis. Those anti-shippers made no attempt to claim that that would constitute as a pedophilic relationship. And, they didn't seem even the slightest bit disturbed that, at least according to Ellis, the pedophilic ship could be canon to the Beetlejuice cartoon. Albeit, there's no real, hard proof that that's the case, it seems more like wishful thinking on the part of people who ship Lydia and Beetlejuice, but you'd think that anti-shippers would still be alarmed that child grooming and pedophilic child abuse may be being promoted in a children's cartoon.

It stands to reason that if she's fine with the elements of child grooming embedded in a relationship between Beetlejuice and Lydia, it's not a stretch that she'd be alright with shipping something like Sesshomaru and Rin from Inuyasha. Oddly enough if you really think about it, Beetlejuice x Lydia is arguably worse than Sesshomaru x Rin, because it's rumored to be a canon romantic, "asexual" be dammed, relationship between a pre-pubescent girl and a grown man. Even SessRin doesn't have that kind of baggage because canonical shipping has not occurred between Rin as a child and the young adult Sesshomaru. It's strange that these anti-shippers express more ire towards the least substantiated and comparatively less controversial pairing (SessRin) while the more contentious ship basically gets a slide (Beetlebabe). Needless to say, both pairings represent child grooming in a positive way, so they're both atrocious and it's so bizarre that some antis would be so hesitant to admit that.🤷🏽‍♀️ UPDATE 3/21/2021: In retrospect, SessRin is a much worse pairing as to date it's been canonized in Yashahime. Even so, given her comments, it's safe to say that Lindsay Ellis would definitely think SessRin was fine too.

Then, those antis completely neglected the fact that Ellis presents antis here as mostly newbie fans brought in by recent adaptations and are largely interlopers in decades-old fandoms. Such intruders resist the "ship and let ship" way of elder fans and Ellis is not having it. No matter how unfazed she tries to seem about it, she's obviously very upset by what she believes is new fandom presumably spearheaded by those darn young'uns. What I'm saying is she's giving off noxious levels of fandom mom 'tude here. However, yet again the anti-shippers, some of whom practically wrote essay-length retorts, didn't even mention her clear bias against antis and her favor towards pro-shippers.

Lindsay Ellis isn't just passing overly generalized judgment against anti-shippers in the Beetlejuice fandom, she's applying that judgment to all antis across all fandoms. To defend her statements as an anti is antithetical, contradictory, and even hypocritical. If antis side with Lindsay Ellis on these ideas, it really means that they're going against most of what they claim they stand for. And for what? Ellis has a few good takes, so you won’t oppose her in anyway when it's brought to light that she bears a clear resentment towards people who speak out against media that portrays child grooming as attractive and harmless?

Like, yo she don't like people like you, why ya stanning her? She's not only passing judgment on antis who behave badly, those who harrass, bully, make false claims and are overall very abrasive, she dislikes all antis regardless of behavior. Lindsay Ellis wouldn't consider you one of the "good" antis and she'd never want to side with you over her ilk: pro-shippers. If you're an anti with a blog devoted to anti topics, you better believe she wrote this thread to make you feel like an unwanted, purity policing intruder in fan spaces. Geez, also the fact that these "anti-shippers" are pretty tolerant of fans shipping children characters with adult characters is unnerving in how incongruous it is. "When big media corporations OK positive depictions of child grooming it's totally bad, but if fans do it, those depictions don't really affect anyone or anything. Fan-made media, especially if it's easily and publicly accessible as well as prevalent, exists in a vacuum and bears no weight on how we view and interact with our world! Anti-shippers and pro-shippers can all just coexist, guys!!!"🤦🏽‍♀️ On second thought, maybe ~anti anti fandom moms~ like Ellis would be cool with you, since you give them so much leeway. I swear, this isn't the first time I've encountered antis that are this hypocritical and backpedal on their stances, and it won't be the last.

I had also mentioned how Lindsay Ellis's defense of the Twilight Saga greatly downplayed and even omitted core criticisms of the franchise like it's racism, misogyny, and child grooming in favor of only stressing how backlash against Twilight was due to misogyny directed at the writer and fanbase. Unsurprisingly, the anti-shippers dismissed that claim without much thought despite that being an ongoing issue prevalent in many assessments of the Twilight franchise.

Anyway, if you're critical of positive and romanticized depictions of abuse in media (both mainstream and fan-made), maybe don't stan or defend Lindsay Ellis. Especially when she makes "anti anti" comments like that shown below

#lindsay ellis #anti sessrin #anti beetlebabes #anti beetlelyds #Beetlejuice #child abuse #child grooming #I’m really not sure how to structure this post because there’s so much to unpack here #both what lindsay ellis and the anti sessrin shippers said are all off the mark in their own special ways

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healthyilla-blog · 4 years

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If you're reading this now, you're probably within for a heart-thumping, blood-pumping, balls-to-the-wall workout. And, friend, we have got you covered. We're all about helping you get sweaty in pursuit of your goals, whether meaning getting stronger, hitting a replacement PR, or losing weight. But let's be real for a second here: The tricky thing about weight-loss workouts is that they are kinda, sorta... a myth. aren't getting me wrong—if you're trying to reduce , a solid exercise regimen should be a part of your plan.

Here's the thing: Exercising isn't enough on its own for weight loss. There are different aspects that goes into weight loss and body fat loss; actually, exercise isn't even technically necessary in many cases. If you would like to lose weight—and it's very cool if you are doing and totally cool if you don't—adopting healthy eating habits possesses to be step numero uno. to urge technical, you would like to make a calorie deficit, which suggests using more calories during a day than you consume—and the consumption part plays a way bigger role therein than burning calories within the gym, or while carrying your groceries home, or any of the opposite myriad ways you set your muscles to figure every day . Other lifestyle habits, like sleep and stress management, and health conditions (think thyroid issues, to call only one of many) also affect your weight. Point is, weight loss may be a complicated and very personal journey that does not look or work the precise same way from one person to subsequent.

And before we get into it any longer, I'd be remiss to not means another really important detail here: Weight loss isn't for everybody . for a few people, it's actually much healthier to ignore your weight altogether, or never believe calories, or specialize in literally anything. That's very true if you've got a history of disordered eating; if that's you, you ought to ask your doctor before trying any weight-loss plan in the least. In fact, albeit you do not have a history of disordered eating you ought to ask a doctor about losing weight in a healthy way.

And once you've done all that, there are some additional belongings you should realize workouts and weight loss.

First, here are some very basic items you ought to know before you start an exercise regimen for weight loss.

Your food choices—how you fuel your body—are even more important than your workout choices. I covered this above, but it's worth reiterating: Healthy eating habits are even more important than your exercise routine if your goal is to ascertain lasting changes in your body composition.

Exercise should become a part of your routine in a meaningful way. so as to ascertain results, hitting the elliptical for a half-hour while you catch up with the Kardashians once every week just isn't getting to cut it. Instead, aim for 3 workouts if you're just stepping into a routine again, or five to 6 sessions if you have been at it for a short time, says Holly Rilinger, a Nike master trainer, master Flywheel instructor, and star of Bravo's compute ny. "And confine mind that rest is vital to reset mentally, physically, and emotionally, so confirm to create in a minimum of one full day of rest ."

you will need to push yourself in every workout you are doing. It's quite an enormous deal that you simply bring your A-game to every workout. "I'd rather see you doing balls-to-the-wall workouts 3 times every week than see you give 50 percent for five days," says Rilinger. "Decide once you rehearse that door you're getting to provides it one hundred pc the whole time, and sign up throughout your workout with one simple question: am I able to give more?"

you will need to seek out a workout you genuinely enjoy if you've got any hope of sticking with it. "Finding a trainer or workout that creates you cheerful is really really important to weight loss," says Rilinger. once you enjoy doing it you will be more likely to stay with it. Below are 6 workouts that will assist you to reach your weight loss goal. If you've tried one among the classes here and there and didn't really like it, don't hand over on the game or practice altogether. you'll not have found a teacher you're keen on yet, which can make or break your goals.

Interval Training

The number one training method the experts address again and again for weight loss: interval training. What's that? "Any sort of exercise where your pulse spikes then comes down repeatedly," says Rilinger. This generally means going hard for a group interval of your time (hence the name), followed by active rest, then going hard again. That active recovery portion is vital. you would like to require it down a notch—OK, several notches—before ramping copy to a better intensity interval.

High-intensity interval training, or HIIT, is one among the various styles you'll do. Another popular one is indoor cycling, though this workout leans heavily toward cardio over strength training, Rilinger explains. She also notes that cycling requires you to use various muscles in your body—quads, hamstrings, glutes, and core, for starters—which once more translates to weight loss. "The more muscles you've got to include, the more calories you are going to burn because those muscles all require energy so as to figure," she says. "And the more energy you employ, the upper those calorie-burning numbers climb. It's all a cycle."

Try it: Here are 4 fat-burning stationary bike workouts that you simply might like. If you're more of a treadmill person, this 20-minute treadmill interval workout will kick your meddle the simplest way. And if you would like to skip the equipment altogether,

Weight Training

Consider weight training "the mother of all weight-loss techniques, the very best within the workout organic phenomenon, the highest of the column," says Rilinger. Resistance training, whether it's together with your bodyweight alone or with added weights, is an efficient method to assist build muscle and burn fat. Lifting weights has been shown to extend your resting rate, which suggests your body burns more calories even when you are not exercising. The effect isn't enormous, but building muscle means more muscle mass to churn through calories as you set about your day. Plus, more muscle means you'll go harder next time, increasing your weight, and return more out of every workout. Plus, if you're lifting at a high intensity, you get the added bonus of the "afterburn effect," which is when you've put down the weights but your body remains consumption extra energy.

Rilinger suggests adding weight training to your routine a minimum of 3 times every week. And since your body adjusts to workouts after being exposed to equivalent moves at an equivalent intensity, becoming less effective over time, she says to combine it up about every three weeks to stay your body guessing.

Try it: First, if you've never done it before, make certain to read these strength training tips for beginners before you start. And inspect this primer on the way to choose the proper weights for your workout.

Boot Camp

For a workout that's getting to keep your metabolism elevated, boot camp, as these classes (think Barry's Bootcamp) combine two of the foremost effective sorts of training: interval and resistance. "You'll perform exercises, some more cardio-focused et al. strength-focused, full-out for brief bursts of your time, including short periods of rest," says Adam Rosante, certified personal trainer and author of The 30-Second Body. But if it is your first time getting to a camp class, speak up. He says an honest instructor will assist you to determine once you got to crank up the load or intensity (tip: if you'll cruise through 10 reps with none trouble, it's too easy), keep your form on par, and may always provide modification for any move which may be too tough or irritates an injury. If you cannot make it to a studio, though, you'll virtually sweat it out with Rosante in his 20-minute C9 Challenge, or do this bodyweight-only 16-minute routine.

Boxing

"At its essence, boxing is basically another sort of interval training," explains Rosante. But it also causes you to feel freaking badass. Here's the trick to remember: it is a common mistake for beginners to punch using only their arm strength, but the bulk of your power goes to return from your core and you will use muscles that are typically ignored in other workouts (hey there, obliques).

Running

All you would like maybe a pair of sneakers before you head out the door. But if weight loss is that the name of your game, the lackadaisical head-out-for-a-light-jog sort of running is not the thanks to go. Instead, find a hill you'll sprint up, or crank the incline thereon treadmill. "Running up hills forces you to figure your glutes and legs—two of your body's biggest muscle groups—even more, which needs smaller muscle recruitment and more energy expenditure," explains Rosante. As noted earlier, the more energy you're using, the brighter that calorie-burning fire burns. But proper form here is vital. "Lean into Capitol Hill, and drive your knees as high as you'll, striking the ball of every foot down directly under your body," he says. "Keep your hands open and arms bent at 90 degrees, and drive your arms simple up to face level, then backward to the highest of your back pocket." and check out to not let your arms cross over your body—that'll just waste the valuable energy your muscles need. If you're training indoors, here are a couple of fat-burning treadmill routines to urge you started.

Try it: While this Covid-19 pandemic you can try this portable treadmill by healthyilla.com so that you don't miss your routine cardio

CrossFit

There's a reason CrossFit has become such a booming a part of the workout industry—it works, as you do not overdo it. Workouts are varied—you could also be doing anything from kettlebell swings to rope climbs and box jumps to front squats—and the routines are designed to be short and intense. the foremost important thing to seek out when trying to find the box (CrossFit slang for "gym") that matches you best: a well-informed coach who can explain and modify the moves, and confirm that you simply don't push yourself to the purpose of injury. Here are a couple of things to stay in mind before every WOD,

#treadmill #exercise #workout #cardio #foldabletreadmill

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the-myth-rider · 5 years

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How do you think did the Prophets' society work before the events of The Lost Track of Doom? How did the dragons sustain their humans? Or did they leave them some liberty to take care of themselves? Were some humans born slaves? (Did the Prophets breed them like humans in Dragon City breed the dragons?) How long have they been slaves of the dragons? I am trying to write a fic, and having some insight from another fan would be very interesting and helpful - if you don't mind sharing, of course

Hmm, interesting questions...I shall endeavor to give you my headcanons! Which very much are headcanons, we know absolutely nothing about how the prophets work, beyond the fact that Propheci is the Head Prophet, and that the humans aren’t allowed their own agency.

So, as always, Dragon Booster gets me rambling and giving out essay-level analyses, so fair warning: long read ahead.

I imagine it would be a case of the humans being more often than not grafted to the saddle of their assigned prophet, and speaking for him when the times comes that they need it. But it seems that in the episode, we actually don’t see many prophets with saddles, thereby meaning not many have humans. It’s entirely likely that there’s some degree of ranking among the Prophets, and once you’re high enough in the ranks, you’re allowed a human prophet.

As for sustaining the humans, there *are* animals in the world beyond the few we’ve seen. From what I remember, I think animals were only designed on a needed-for-an-episode basis. Hell, in the Secret Episode 0: The Alchemist, there were “dragon hounds”, or drag-hounds, that we never got to see. I imagine there’s a decent amount of game in the Wastelands if the hydrags stick around. Packs of predators like that wouldn’t hang around somewhere with no prey, same for the muhorta. Who knows, maybe the Prophets have their own dedicated garden for edible plant life, and that’s one of the ways the dragons support them? Obey us, serve us, and we’ll make sure you get fed so that you can better assist us. As for water, well, that’s never touched upon in the show at all, but I imagine the Prophets have their own source, or else they could never stay in that temple. Either they have their humans fetch some from a nearby source, with a dragon escort, or have their own integrated into the temple.

I imagine there’s some degree of independence, to the extent that I mentioned before. The dragons won’t want to have to baby their humans all the time, they may be their servants *coughs*slaves*coughs*, but they still have needs. The Prophets would make some sort of accomodations. Who knows, maybe the prophets allow it as an anti-mutiny regime? Keep your humans happy and subservient, and they’ll let you rule them forever. The humans willingly gave themselves to the dragons, but still, a people will only handle cruel treatment for so long. That is why the dragons rebelled 3,000 years ago, so the prophets would want to keep their humans some degree of content.

I personally doubt that the Prophets would breed humans like the humans breed dragons. While that is entirely a possibility, I don’t think the prophets would care enough to put that much effort into their slaves. Also, the humans of Dragon City have all but forgotten that dragons are a sentient, intelligent race, and have reduced them to mere animals. Even the dragons themselves seem to have forgotten, and that’s why so few of them behave, because they allowed themselves to be subjugated to avoid a war, but now they’ve forgotten who they are. The human slaves of the Prophets, however, maintained their humanity and their agency. They can still tend to their own matters, albeit to a limited degree, while the dragons of Dragon City have been reduced to mere beasts.

I have a feeling that the humans have been enslaved to the Prophets for a very long time. Clearly, not since the first war ended, as that war ended with all dragons being purified. I would say...1,500 years ago, at most. Because it has to be close enough to the present that dragons were rebred, but long enough ago that the Orange Prophets would fall into legend. The Orange Control-Class Dragon fell into obscurity by present day, with very few people believing that they were real. When Mortis shares the tale of the Lost Track of Doom, and Parm expresses fear and concern, Mortis chuckles and says “I said it was legend.” A man raised and trained by what’s left of the Dragon Priests, and he considers this tale to be legend. Clearly, the Prophets have not been seen for a very long time.

...welp, hope you wanted a paragraph per question, because that’s what’cha got! X3 THE MYTH RIDER STRIKES AGAIN.

#Dragon Booster #Orange Draconium #Prophets #Control-Class #Propheci #The Lost Track of Doom #Val runs her mouth #headcanon #dragons #humans #oblakom

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