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physalian · 4 months

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How to Subvert Expectations Without Compromising The Story

Whoo boy, is this a contentious topic with the last few blockbuster franchises. To “subvert expectations” is to do the opposite of whatever your audience expects to happen. Your audience expects the story to go a certain way based on the archetypes and tropes your characters follow, the tone you’ve set for your story, and the level of mature themes that tone allows.

It might mean your long-lost princess doesn’t actually reclaim the throne she’s been fighting for. Or the presumed hero (or any of their straight friends) of the story dies halfway through their arcs. The mentor pegged for death actually survives to the end credits. The villain’s plan actually succeeds, or the heroes fail to deactivate the bomb before it explodes. The “will they/won’t they” is never fulfilled.

Supporters of SE argue the following:

It’s refreshing, novel, new, a fun twist on a classic tale

They like that it’s unpredictable and bold

They’re tired of stories fitting within the same wheel ruts of every other story that came before and like to see creativity thrive

It gives audiences something they didn’t even know they wanted

Haters of SE argue this:

It’s only done for drama at the cost of fulfilling character arcs

It’s a cheap gag that only works once and has zero rewatchability with the same impact

Tropes and archetypes have stood the test of time for a reason - to entertain

Plot holes ensue

When expectations are subverted and the story changes in a more positive light (like a beloved character who doesn’t die when we all think they will), the reaction is not nearly as emotionally charged as when the story changes negatively. Thus, the haters have plenty of evidence of bad examples, but minimize the good ones. Good SE is novel, or a pleasant surprise, or a quaint relief. Bad SE trashes the story and spits on the fans and destroys the legacy of the fandom.

What makes a bad subversion?

Like killing any character for shock value, bad SE takes all of the potential of a good story and gambles it for a string of gasps in the movie theater. It exists only to keep the audience on their toes, or because the writer went out of their way to change the direction of their work when fans figured out the mystery too quickly and now *must* prove all the clever sleuths wrong.

So, say your subversion is making the hero lose a tournament arc when they made it all the way to the final round and the entire story is riding on this victory. They may have stumbled along the way and had some near-misses, but they must win. Not just so the audience cheers, but because this is the direction their arc must take to be at all entertaining and fulfilling.

Then they lose, because it’s *novel* and irreparable consequences are reaped in the aftermath. They lose when, by rights, they were either stronger or smarter or faster than their opponent. They lose when the hand of the author rigs the fight against them and everyone notices.

Sure, it’s not at all what audiences expect, but you, writer, your first responsibility to the people consuming your content is to entertain them. So what purpose does this loss serve this character? How does it impact their arc, the themes that surround them, the message of your story?

Even if mainstream audiences don’t care on the surface about themes and motifs, they still know when a story fumbles. It’s not entertaining anymore, it’s not satisfying. Yes, crap happens in reality, but this is fiction. If I wanted to read about some tragic hero’s bitter and unsatisfying demise, I’d read about any losing side in any war ever in a history book. I picked up a fiction book for catharsis.

On the topic of “gritty fantasy/sci-fi anyone can die and no one is safe” – no author has the guts to roll the dice and kill whoever it lands on. Some characters will always have plot armor. Why? Because you wouldn’t have a story otherwise, you’d just have a bloody, gory, depressing reality TV show with hidden cameras.

What makes a good subversion?

Now. What if this character loses the final round of their tournament, but it’s their own fault? Maybe they get too cocky. Maybe it’s perfectly, tragically in character for them to fall on their own sword. Maybe the audience is already primed with the knowledge that this fight will be close, that there might be foul play involved, but still deny that it will happen because that’s the hero, they won’t lose. Until they do.

Then, it’s not the hand of the author, it’s this character’s flaws finally biting them in the ass. It’s still disappointing, no doubt, but then the audience is less mad at the author and more mad at the dumbass character for letting their ego get to their head.

If you write a character who’s entire goal in life is to win that trophy, or reclaim their throne, or get the girl, and they *don’t* do those things, then the “trophy” had better be the friends they made along the way, that they learned it wasn’t the trophy, it was something *better* and even though they lost, they still won. Even when expectations are shredded, the story still has to say something, otherwise the audience just feels like they wasted their time.

A good subversion does not compromise the soul of the narrative. You might kill a fan favorite character or even the hero of the story, but their impact on the characters they leave behind is felt until the very end. The hero might lose her tournament, but she still walks away with wisdom, maturity, and new friends. Heck, sports movies leave the winner of the big game a toss-up more often than not. Audiences know the game is important, but they know the character they’re following is even more important. Doesn’t matter if the *team* loses the battle, so long as the protagonist wins the Character Development war.

Good SE that should be more popular:

The “Trial of threes” – your hero faces three obstacles and usually botches the first two and succeeds on the third attempt. Subvert it by having them win on the first or second, lose all three, or have a secret fourth

Not killing your gays. Just. Don’t do it. That’ll subvert expectations just fine, won’t it?

Let the villain win

Have your hero’s love interest not actually interested in them because they realize they deserve better / Have the hero realize they don’t want the romantic subplot they thought they did

Have the love triangle become a polycule / have the two warring love interests get with each other instead, or both find someone they don’t have to compete for

Mid-redemption villain backslides at the Worst Moment Possible

Hero doesn’t actually have all the MacGuffins necessary at the Worst Moment Possible

Hero is simply wrong, about anything, about important things, about themselves

The character who knows too much still can’t warn their friends in time, but lives instead with the guilt of their failure

The mentor lives and becomes a bitter rival out to maintain their spot at the top of the charts

Kill the hero, and make the villain Regret Everything

More deadbeat missing parents, not just dead parents

Let the hero live long enough to become the villain

—

Why write a crown prince that never becomes king? What’s the point of his story if all he does is remain exactly who he was on page 1 and learns nothing for his efforts? Why write a rookie racer if he spins out in the infield in the big race and ends his story broken and demoralized in a hospital bed? Why should we, the audience, spend time and emotional investment on a story that goes nowhere and says nothing?

Cinderella always gets a happy ending no matter how many iterations her story gets, because she wouldn’t be Cinerella if she remained an abused orphan with no friends. We like predictability, we like puzzling out where we think the story will go based on the crumbs of evidence we pick up along the way, we like interacting with our fiction and patting ourselves on the back when we’re proven right.

Tragedies exist. There’s seven types of stories and the fall from grace is one of them… but audiences can see a tragedy coming from a mile away. Audiences sign up for a tragedy when they pay for the movie ticket. We know, no matter how much we root for that character to make better choices, that their future is doomed. Tragedy is still cathartic.

What’s not cathartic is being bait-and-switched by a writer who laughs and snaps pictures of our horrified faces just so they can say they proved us wrong. Congratulations? Go ahead and write the rookie broken in the hospital bed. I can’t stop you. Just don’t be shocked when no one wants to watch your misery parade march on by.

#writing resources #writing advice #writing tips #writing tools #writing a book #subverting expectations #subversion

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gravitycircuit · 5 months

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Gravity Circuit has recently hit 60K total units sold!

Never in our wildest dreams did we expect the game to sell as much as it has done in just a few short months. As such, we thought this was a moment to celebrate, with new art provided by @jmanvelez!

Now, you might be asking: why are we taking a moment to celebrate such a specific number? Well, in truth, we were planning on doing a celebratory announcement earlier, at 50K. We were on track to hit that in December, but then the holiday sales happened. Thanks to the holiday sales on various storefronts, we essentially skyrocketed past 50K, climbing all the way up to 60K before the sales were over, so didn't have the time to prepare for it! Goodness, the sales performance just continues to surprise us. All in all, the reception and feedback we have received over these past months have been overwhelming, and we can't thank you, the players, enough. You are the best. Now, you might be curious about the sales distribution among the platforms? Fret not, we have prepared a pie chart for you (based on sales as of January 18th, 2024):

Note: PS4 and PS5 are coupled together due to crossbuy. This means that if you purchased the game on one, you can download it on the same account for the other at no extra cost.

On PC, the game is available on Steam, GOG, Epic Games Store, as well as Stove (Korea). Out of these, Steam is the most popular storefront.

On consoles, the game is available on Nintendo Switch and Sony's PlayStation 4 and 5. The game is also physically available on afore-mentioned consoles, by Pix'n'Love (PEGI), Red Art Games (ESRB) and Oizumi Amuzio (Japan).

Given the amount of wishlists on Steam before the game's release, as well as us getting Steam Deck verified by Valve, PC outselling the other platforms is not a wholly unexpected outcome. Steam is a huge storefront, after all.

But after all the sales across these platforms, what about the reception? Well, even on that front, Gravity Circuit has performed better than even our wildest expectations, as shown by the collage below:

Truthfully, before the game's release some six months ago, we weren't sure about what the reception ultimately would be. As a developer, it can be difficult to distance yourself from whatever project you have been working on for so long, to see the game for what it is. So, ultimately, it was up to you, the players, to determine the game's overall quality. Needless to say, we didn't expect the majority opinion to be this good, both from critics and players alike!

To provide some background: throughout the development, there were a plentiful of sleepless nights, fueled by stress, energy drinks, boatloads of work, and constant lingering doubts about the game's potential success. Creative endeavors while on a deadline are never easy, but we soldiered on, so to try and complete the game to the best of our abilities. Now, months after release, it has been a truly humbling experience that players have enjoyed Gravity Circuit as much as they have. Such a warm reception has made all that effort behind the game worth it. Again, we can't thank you all enough.

Of course, it might go without saying that even with all this positive feedback, the game hasn't been without its own sets of issues. Especially around the game's launch we had to do multiple quick rounds of bug fixes, so to address various situations and oversights that had slipped past us during development and Q&A. While doing all this was taxing, it's perhaps thanks to these rapid, quick responses that have helped minimize any lasting impact that the various game crashes and bugs could have otherwise had.

Essentially, on that point, our policy has been to accept any and all feedback from players with open arms. Whether positive or negative, we have read all points of feedback, and even responded to them wherever we have been able. Ultimately, this back-and-forth discussion with players has then resulted in us implementing various additions and changes post-launch (Speedrun Mode, Armor Paints, Boss Rush, small quality of life additions, etc), completely free of charge. And while we do try, it's not exactly realistic to act or respond to every bit of feedback without fundamentally changing some of the game's DNA. Nevertheless, we do try our best -- and perhaps hold onto the lessons learned for any future endeavors.

In the meanwhile, we at Domesticated Ant Games want to thank you all for all the support so far from the bottom of our hearts -- and we wish you all a good start to 2024!

#gravity circuit #devlog #gamedev #blog

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writingquestionsanswered · 11 months

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How do I write about a guard and a prince secretly dating?

Secret Romance Between a Prince and a Guard

The particulars will depend somewhat on when and where your story takes place. Regardless, the main thing you'll need to figure out is what kind of access they have to one another. In modern times, guards of the royal household are usually part of the military. They sleep and spend off-duty time at a military barracks, not wandering around the palace. When they're at the palace, they're on-duty or on break, but even when they're on break they would be in a specific area. So, any prince/guard interaction would likely be in front of other people and closely monitored. The exception might be when the guard is off-duty and allowed to leave the barracks, at which point the prince and guard could theoretically meet up while out and about.

In historical times, royal guards would still have been military in nature, but they usually slept in a barracks at the castle/palace. There still wouldn't have been a lot of opportunity for off-duty interaction within the castle/palace walls, but it might be more likely. In an imaginary world, you can set things up however you like. Just be mindful of what sounds believable based on historical and modern reality. For example, it would be hard to believe that a guard of the royal household (unless they were a high-ranking officer) would have their own chambers and have free run of the palace/castle when off-duty. Not impossible, but you have to make it make sense in your story.

So, think about accessibility, rules, and expectations and what these two need to do to get around those things. Also, consider what's at stake... what's the worst that can happen to the prince if he's caught dating the guard? What's the worst that can happen to the guard if they're caught dating the prince? Where, when, and how do they meet to spend time together? What do they do to minimize the risk? How does reality (being a prince and being a guard) positively and negatively impact their relationships? How do they each feel about this, both in terms of themselves and the other person? How does the stress of getting caught positively or negatively impact their relationship? What are they both getting out of the relationship and what do they want out of it in the long-term? How does their agreement or disagreement on where things are headed impact their relationship?

Finally, here are some posts to help with setting up the romance:

Guide: Characters Falling in Love Guide: Creating Romantic Chemistry Guide: Writing a Slow Burn Romance The Subtle Signs of Romantic Interest and Love Transitioning Through Levels of Affection Healthy Conflict in a Romantic Relationship

Happy writing!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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See my ask policies

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#writing tips #writing help #writing advice #wqaadvice

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tocomplainfriend · 3 months

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Responding to your post about fiction affecting reality: very well-written post and that’s something I agree with wholeheartedly!

Full disclosure: I am a Vivz supporter and don’t really interact with the critique community because of negative past experience (hence the anon), but I really liked your post as it was well-researched and brought up a lot of points that I did agree on. Mostly that, as you evidenced, “it’s just fiction” isn’t a great argument for poorly portraying a serious concept when there can be tangible consequences for that portrayal. And you gave some really striking examples.

In terms of Hazbin, it is not that I believe that Val’s portrayal as an abuser (and consequently Angel’s as a victim) lacks any impact, but instead that it adds a positive one. This isn’t something I’ve researched so the evidence I have of this is personal experience, but as you said in your post that media can affect real life I felt inspired to add to that conversation with how it personally affected me.

So I was aware rationally that a common result of abuse/SA is hypersexuality, like I’d seen that on psychology blogs and such but never really understood it. I’m ashamed to say I thought it was a little weird and very rare. Hazbin was what finally challenged that notion with me. Being able to see how abuse looks and attribute those events to Angel’s actions step-by-step made something click in my head. I even remember that shortly after seeing that episode, I apologized to one of my friends (a survivor themselves) over some judgmental comments I’d recently made over hypersexuality. Said friend also watched Hazbin with me and it’s the reason they talk more openly to me now and we’re a lot closer. Val’s “stupid” behavior in the show and mentioned in Vivz’s comments did not lessen the impact that episode had on me, or make it unbelievable to me that Val could be manipulative. If anything I understand more now that abusers don’t always appear as psychopathic masterminds. And I know my friend finds comments like the Mean Girls one funny and they tell me it’s empowering to make fun of Val’s incompetence.

That’s not the only positive influence Hazbin’s had on me, but the most relevant to your post, I believe. It’s the reason I’m often a skeptic on most criticisms, because my lived experience tends to go against them. You said the negative impact of Val was that people are drawing fetish art of him, but the only time I ever see that art is within critic’s posts. It never shows up in my regular feed, so it looks to me like he’s equally as fetishized as every other character; the unfortunate inevitability of the internet. I can’t say I’ve seen anyone post about stories like mine about learning to understand survivors, but I have heard positive stories from survivors themselves in person and online which lead me to believe that the positive impact outweighs the negative.

Fiction has real impact, very true. But consider that might be a good thing in this case.

Thanks for being respectful!

TW: Rape, SA

I'm a victim of SA myself and that's why I wrote all of this post. If you got something positive out of this piece of media, that's great. Same with victims that saw potion and were okay with it- that valid as much as the people that didn't like it at all. I recommend watching many others shows yourself (or movies, books, whatever) will help you out with sorts of topics in bigger ways. I understand you feel like you got something good out if (and I'm glad) but I do need to say, this is minimal in comparison to other media you could consume regarding the topic!

I personally suffer with Hypersexuality, and the treatment in the show (and merch and otherwise) I found completely wrong. Even if you got to a good understatement of the topic, please put research into it (also outside Tumblr for that matter! There are better places to find stuff about!). Thank you also for admitting your faults over your treatment of hypersexuality and apologizing for it. Many people will never let themselves grasp this concept, so thank you.

If you took Valentino's comparison to Mean Girls or Powerpuff Girl as a way of making fun of him, that's you. I found it, personally, terrible. Specially cause many comments regarding that (that I put on the post) were people actively disregarding the topic at hand. Saying that Valentino is just a karen, or He is Bubbles coded, feels so out of the realm of everything (the last one didn't feel like making fun of him). I don't like the comparison of an active sexual predator to a mean high school girl or a kinder garden girl that's regarded as bubblely or dumb. Feel like you should reach into his actions over It feels diminishing to me and other people (who also complained about this themselves).

People should be extremely careful of what they portray about this topic in media. Other stuff written in Hazbin or Helluva Boss regarding R-pe jokes also is extremely disgusting to me. Never forget that if you think this portrayal is ok, one episode apart it's a gang r-pe jokes towards Sir Pen... and an r-pe joke towards Moxxie in Spring Brakers. Which I find extremely disrespectful to do and adds to r-pe culture as much as any other r-pe jokes (general or towards men) in media. Especially when they want to portray it in a serious way with Angel, where was that energy then? (Don't say Viv didn't write that, she liked a tweet about the Sir pen joke, and the spring braker is written by Viv and Brandon.)

Also, about manipulation:

The tweet right below says that "He isn't manipulating them" because he is too stupid to do so. Responding "The Vees are just meangirls" it's crazy to me.

About "You said the negative impact of Val was that people are drawing fetish art of him, but the only time I ever see that art is within critic’s posts. It never shows up in my regular feed"

Val has being fetishized by the crew itself! The person (who is not an SA/r-pe victim said by themselves, who has being open of shipping ValxAngel and being into r-pe porn) is the one that produce the whole poison part of the episode (also based on his previously non canon ValxAngel comic). You could also go throught the people Viv's responds and likes and it's mutuals with, and they also do the same thing as this crew-member (Raph). Congrats that it doesn't appear in your timeline, tho. If this art appears in a critic post, it is because it's being criticized or brought up to make a point.

[It's not on my blog yet, but I don't like receiving double ask in the inbox, specially of anons! Sorry. I don't know if it's the same person or not, and I don't want to end up receiving 5 asks in my inbox again.]

#vivziepop critical #hazbin hotel critical #vivziepop critique #helluva boss critical #helluva boss criticism #vivziepop criticism #hazbin hotel criticism #helluva boss critique

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jenniferstit · 1 year

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pac: pick an earth angel

disclaimer: as far as i know, there is no definitive way to know who is/was an earth angel. these are people that i believe embody earth angel energy and whose life journeys echo major key lessons that earth angels are called to master in their respective lifetimes.

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first, a word on earth angels / channeled message:

earth angels are rare, yes, but the world is filled with them. in the same way that there are people born in this world who will never awaken in this lifetime… “soulless” entities that serve specifically to keep the matrix intact, there are also people who are born already awakened… these are earth angels. more often than not, earth angels are born into environments that are extremely tough. most people would break down under such circumstances but earth angels somehow still find a way to thrive, seemingly effortlessly. divinity is in their veins… not even the most challenging of environments can break them. some earth angels actually thrive in chaos, they embody the light that they seek to find in this world. they inspire others with minimal effort, often unaware of how impactful their mere existence can truly be. with that said, bright lights cast dark shadows. earth angels can be amongst some of the most unprotected souls in the 3D, bc the 3D matrix is not designed to support such divinity. Hollywood for example, is not an environment in which benevolent energies thrive; its true nature is exploitative. to be an earth angel who amasses large success in the entertainment industry is to be in an incredibly vulnerable & precarious position. not every earth angel is meant to be in the spotlight, and earth angels are also NOT perfect beings. let the life journeys of these earth angels chosen in this pac inspire you, but also teach you lessons about how to protect yourself from dark entities bc they do not just exist in Hollywood, they are everywhere! question everyone.

a friend of my father recently passed away and her own husband refused to be there when they pulled the plug. he did not visit her once while she was in a medical coma for a week. 2 weeks after her passing, he is now parading his new girlfriends… plural. this man that she laid down with every night was secretly harboring negativity towards her. i ask you to imagine how spiritually devastating it was for her to exchange energy with this man every single night, believing that he loved her. i don’t mean to scare anyone with this message. i only mean to warn people to take spiritual protection more seriously… be aware of the energies around you at all times. re-evaluate these energies consistently. make it a habit to purge energies and cut cords with people you encounter along your journey. people change, as you also change… remember that.

one

i’m seeing the energy of someone who is trying to create a lasting legacy but is constantly running into obstacles. you could struggle with depression or another mental disorder… i’m seeing a bit of a rougher past or pain from the past that still bothers you. the blockages you face have kept you stuck & indecisive. your problem is your mentality. there is a call for you to completely change your perspective, and to stop operating from a place of lack. i see someone who is waiting for happiness, but let me tell you, happiness starts from within. it’s the mindset that first allows you to prepare for happiness and abundance, and instead of waiting for life to change, you can change it right now in this present moment with your mental outlook. i’m hearing the word reinvention, and i encourage you to think about marilyn monroe. marilyn was born norma jeane mortenson… norma jeane was subject to many horrors & tramas. norma didn’t get to dream, she didn’t get to experience abundance… she acted from a place of survival. so what did norma do? she created marilyn monroe. by embracing a persona, norma was able to take control of her situation and change her mentality. she reinvented herself and thus reinvented her life. this message is urging you to do the same, but instead of focusing on the outer, prioritize the inner… reinvent yourself from the inside out. because no matter how much you change the outside, the inside will always catch up with you, as it did with marilyn. but you are not marilyn, you are YOU, and there is a version of you available that is making all the right choices. because what i see in the cards is someone who is destined to succeed, so if you knew success was guaranteed, what would you be doing right now? how would you act? how would you feel about yourself? i think you intuitively know exactly what you would be doing. this is the call for you to start prioritizing the things you love. the heart & solar plexus chakras are being highlighted as things you need to work on. your heart and self worth will heal as you do this, but you have to start somewhere.

two

you are an exceptionally powerful, independent spirit with an abundantly divine feminine energy. because of that, you attract a lot of suitors. these suitors come in fast and want to move very quickly with you. they all talk a big game but at the end of the day, they don’t have the substance. they are posers, acting as if they are on your level but secretly jealous of your energy. their admiration for you quickly turns into avarice. these people don’t know the definition of reciprocity, all they know how to do is take & withhold. they may withhold finances or communication, always leaving you to bear the entire weight of the relationship. this may apply to platonic situations as well. these unions are never successful. others may watch these failed situations with dismay but they don’t know the truth… you don’t go looking for these people, they come to you. people may see you as a bleeding heart, someone who is way too emotionally available. what these people don’t know is that you are extremely intuitive… there was a part of you that always knew these relationships weren’t going to be successful. you were just wanting to experience the thrill of experiencing another human being, going with the flow and seeing what happened. is that wrong? well, no. but there is an important lesson here about trusting your gut when it comes to people. if you know someone isn’t for you, why take the risk? not to sound too preachy but it’s all fun and games until it isn’t. your energy is WAY to precious to share with just anyone. you’re built different, so you have to move different. sadly, you may not get to experience life the same way others do, but this is a GOOD thing. you are simply on a different timeline than others around you… your destiny may be bigger than most. think about that every time you let someone into your life: “is this person helping or hindering my destiny?” again, not to sound too preachy but universe can only protect you so many times… eventually you will have to learn the lesson and sometimes that can be very traumatic. despite this, i see you eventually entering a beautiful relationship after a period of heartbreak. this relationship will be highly desirable & enviable to those around you so be careful, you might want to keep this more private. i’m getting a flash of aaliyah & dame dash… someone close to you may not want this relationship for you. i would strongly advise the members of this group to increase their spiritual protection & possibly do a cord-cutting, especially if you know there is an entity around you who does not want you to succeed.

three

i’m seeing someone who has just recently and/or is very soon about to experience a major victory in finances/career. if this is you, please take this as conformation that this is your pile, i’m picking up that this group will know this message is for them. you are entering a new cycle of abundance… point-blank, period. it’s 100% coming, if it hasn’t already, so make time to celebrate yourself bc you’ve totally earned this. with this new successful cycle, however, there will be a new obstacle to overcome… this is the price of ascension. every time we level up, there is some negative force around us that we must watch out for, you can’t take the good without the bad. i’m seeing some sort of negative influence around you that is draining you or is looking to drain you of your energy… a very powerful energy vampire. this vampire could be a person, a situation, or even an addiction, but this is something you NEED to watch out for. if this is a person, they are definitely jealous of you & your success. warning: something will happen that will expose this person & it will be devastating, but this is happening for a reason. universe really wants you to be alone at this time. spend some time in solitude, continue to level up in private, and be very cautious of the energies around you from this moment forward. in order to really experience this new cycle in full, this thing from your past HAS to be let go, universe is very serious about this. this reading is probably the most vague of the three, but i feel it’s because this group will be the smallest and, once again, they will know this message is for them. right now universe is giving you the opportunity to limit the collateral damage by cutting this influence from your life with your own hand. if you do not do it, universe will intervene & the experience may be more painful. you are being given a choice. tbh this feels like a test, a test of your resolve and self-love. i don’t think there’s really a right or wrong answer, but with the recent eclipses and jupiter now being in taurus, i’m not surprised by this energy. there are a lot of shifts happening… and there is an entire group of souls whose destinies are being activated right now. don’t block your own blessings.

☆ more readings on tiktok ★

#uploads #pac readings #earth angel #earth angels #spirituality #aaliyah #marilyn monroe #michael jackson #psychic readings #tarot readings #pick an image #pick a pile #pick a card #jenniferstit #tarotblr #tarot community #witchblr

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rocketturtle4 · 1 year

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Arthrit was my Favourite Character and I want to write about him; My reflection on the SOTUS Franchise as a newbie

In brief: I am attempting to understand the growth of Thai BLs by watching ABL’s understand the history of thai bl list on the Thai master post. I’m more interested in the growth and change on screen than the tracking of different actors/directors etc. but I do enjoy reading about those things. I am concurrently understanding the history of All BL by watching the Foundation Syllabus lists as well, I am not planning to review everything, but I adored SOTUS and I’ve started following @waitmyturtle’s journey through oldgmmtv and was surprised by our different initial takes on SOTUS and to a lesser extent the SOTUS franchise so I thought I’d share my own feeling about the shows. Yes I know ‘twas a while ago.

I don’t know anything about the actors as people and have minimal knowledge of the IRL ship drama (just aware that there was drama)

Disclaimers:

THIS POST IS LONG (LIKE LONG LONG), and I cut out so much you wouldn’t believe

Obviously, these are my own thoughts, I am not expecting everyone or even anyone to agree, I’m just sharing.

I only talk about Arthrit and Kong in this post, I enjoyed the side couples but I was much more invested in the main one and that’s what I want to talk about.

Not defending Gay for you as a damaging trope

Not defending blushing maiden and sex negativity as damaging tropes

Damaging tropes suck and being aware of them while viewing content is important for not internalising their message for yourself or your perception of others.

I’m demisexual FYI (My sexuality suddenly felt relevant halfway through my reflection so Imma put it here)

General SOTUS Thoughts

In writing this I have realised my attachment to Arthrit started later in the franchise than I thought but eh still mostly going to write about him.

Bullying/hazing (I didn’t mind this time) – I don’t like Hazing or bullying, but the way it was portrayed here, as a form of relationship building which was openly discussed as damaging and then improved on as part of the arc was fine for me. It was about recognizing the good parts of a practice and removing the bad and I was cool with that.

Kongpob (I’m a fan) – He’s hard working, he’s snarky, he’s clearly got good learning habits and cares about his education, he’s supportive of his friends and he stands up for injustice. I was definitely watching SOTUS for this character in the beginning.

Disparate personalities and positions of power (And the different ways our leads present as authority) (there’s also obvs age dynamics at play)

Arthrit is older but also the shyer and less expressive, his assumption of leaderships feels less aligned with his personality and so he cares more about maintaining his professionalism, first as head Hazer and later as an employee while Kong is an intern. (This does not make him a bad leader I think he’s a good one).

Kong is a natural leader, shown overwhelmingly by his standing up for his peers and their inclination to elect him as the campus star and then as the representative (which he runs away from cause he’s already got enough on his plate). His comfort with his own authority is a part of his pursuit of Arthrit and also his differing experience with Authority. (I think the way he bonds with P’Paga the scary office lady is a great example of this difference, he has good instincts).

This feels important to me as Arthrit is holding onto that authority a lot tighter than Kongpob, he’s working to maintain it because it’s NOT natural.

OKAY Onto Arthrit’s Arc and why I found it so impactful.

First up I can tell you the exact moment I fell in love with Arthrit’s character, it was right…

Here (Please study hard P'Arthrit)

(His eyes my good people, they had me and they never lost me) (I literally learnt how to GIF just so I could keep this moment forever) (Episode 13) (I mean, I found a GIF generator) From this point on I was watching this entire franchise for the way Arthrit emoted with his eyes first, and everything else second.

But let’s back up slightly.

My take on Arthrit’s emotional arc through the early parts of SOTUS was essentially:

Why is the first year defiant-flirting with me?

This first year is incredibly clever and that’s dangerous because it could undermine my authority and I want this program to be successful (He did recommend him as campus star, and comment to himself/his friends about not underestimating Kongpob, we had clearly early signs that Arthrit thought Kongpob was pretty amazing, he just couldn’t show this because of this authoritative position) (also age dynamics = a big deal in Thailand)

Then we had the sleep confession (He’s never really sleeping)

Arthrit’s panic over the fact that his sort of friend, definite nong who is a guy apparently had feelings for him

This manifested as his removing himself from Kongpob to work through and process his own emotions, my personal feelings on this were that Arthrit’s reaction was more confused than disgusted and he was trying to avoid a confrontation so he could figure himself out without hurting Kongpob. (There was also some unresolved feelings in here for his highschool friend that needed to be dealt with).

Not the ideal move and poor Kong was so confused and got hurt anyway but then we got to

“I don’t know you well enough Kongpob… But I want to know you more”

Now I seriously appreciated this because I often feel frustrated when characters emotions just immediately match: like one person confesses and two days later other person is like, oh turns out I am also madly in love with you. Boom. Couple. (This does sometimes make sense in the story, just not always).

Arthrit’s emotional response of: Yes I think I like you but I’m still figuring it out so do keep flirting with me so I can keep figuring it out…

I liked it.

Now immediately after this, Arthrit kisses Kongpob (mutual kisses yay!). I don’t take this as say, a final cementation of their relationship (as the kiss often seems to be treated, especially in K BL) but as an expression of interest.

Kiss = I am interested in you romantically, let’s flirt more/date to get to know each other so our feelings can develop.

Then we got to see Arthrit melt (the eyes conveyed it, I adored) honestly it was their tiny little movements that I liked the most and you can’t see that here but still.

Also his shy little smiles.

I totally think that the attraction here is not conveyed by Arthrit’s character the same way Kong’s but to me this reflects

Kong’s more straightforward and open personality + plus his self confidence (Seme dynamics definitely factor into this since these are characters not real people)

Arthrit being more uncertain as to his own emotional state, AND his greater shyness with expressing his emotions publicly (uke dynamics obvs - but not too pronounced I think). I like how the actor conveys these emotions. (whether or not it was intentional)

People have different levels of comfort with any kinds of PDA and that’s okay (look I’m not sure if blushing maiden trope arguably comes into play here but to me some people are shyer of affection than others and I personally feel that for Arthrit, this early on, his emotions were pretty clear and his responses makes sense.)

And then at the end of episode 13 we handed over the gear

In episode 14 we had a bit of drama because it’s early days and Arthrit is just realising he likes a popular boy

Jealously thou name is Arthrit

But things get resolved (by accident by Kongpob’s gift, amusing) and so we have the public declaration (like the kiss earlier this is instigated by Arthrit which I appreciate because he’s the one with the boundaries being crossed in this scenario). His little smile and duck down to hide his face felt very authentic because he’s not a PDA person and so he feels a bit embarrassed about drawing attention to himself.

And they had a good convo afterwards too + Kiss etc but I really want to get onto:

SOTUS S

(Because episode 15 of SOTUS is over the time jump it's included here)

Thoughts on the stuff that happens during the time jump (e.g. the end cut scenes of some episodes).

We had 2 scenes which stuck in my mind from this time, the piggyback ride ("you are my faen after all") after Kong hurts himself.

(THE EYES)

AND

Arthrit handing over the metaphorical power to the future head hazer.

I personally felt this scene was super important because it showed us:

Arthrit simping all over his boy being authoritative and flirting back with the same lines Kong had once used, in a public space.

Arthrit’s continued uncertainty, NOT (in my opinion) with the idea of being openly affectionate with his boyfriend (what do you call his face above if not openly affectionate) but with having his professionalism undermined by being asked to kiss said boyfriend in front of a whole group of his peers while he is technically their leader (plus they will tease him).

Look it's dark here, and I know my love of his eyes and their emotions is irrational but to me that gaze says: “you know I love you, but why are you doing this HERE.” @waitmyturtles, this was the thing I found most discrepant about your thoughts and mine, to me Arthrit’s emotions were conveyed so clearly by Krist, even in SOTUS but especially in SOTUS S. I was so absorbed by Arthrit sometimes I got completely distracted from Singto’s (excellent) portrayal of Kong.

Onto the main timeline of SOTUS S

(How many of my images of Arthrit being a simp can i put it here to justify my having them in the first place) (I restrained myself a lot you have to believe me)...it turns out I hit the limit, enjoy!

(I started doing a quick flick through the show to check my continuity but then I wanting to add stuff so I stopped and I'm trusting my brain)

We get an early sign that their relationship is going strong with their mutual missing of each other: Arthrit’s visit to campus and seeking Kong out because he misses him, and Kong telling Arthrit he has a duty to him as his faen and convincing Arthrit to stay the night with him because he misses Arthrit.

(They're both so doting naaaaww)

Later, we have this scene where Arthrit goes to tell his coworkers he has a faen and gets interrupted ("well I…") Now we don’t know this for sure, but he drew himself up and prepared to face it and then sort of deflates when he missed the chance, so I’m projecting and that’s what I think.

There’s some bumps in the road while they navigate their new seperation and Kong hits a boundary of Arthrit’s he clearly didn’t know existed when he showed up at Arthrit’s work. (I think this is again more of a personality thing, Arthrit is still figuring out his position and authority in the company and feels very unsure about having his male faen show up to his office without warning. This is not the university space where everyone around them knows they’re dating, it’s DIFFERENT. Kong on the other hand is the kind of guy who totally would have interrupted everyone at that dinner to be like, actually I cook dinner for my man. All. The. Time.) Anyways, they talk, Kong visits work in a planned way, and things are more settled and physical (have some more photos, justify my having them in the first place)

until…Kong shows up at work, and then after they sort of talk, Kong shows up next door.

Now while writing this I had a personal realization that I need to check in about (detailed in small text below the next photo) but first.

This moment makes everything else in the Arthrit’s arc make sense to me, to me he’s feeling uncertain about fundamental aspects of their relationship, rather than purely being temporarily hurt by Kongpobs actions, he internalises this uncertainty about their communication.

This is then kind of resolved but then made much worse by Kongpob moving in next door. (Yes Kong says it's to be close while giving Arthrit space, but doesn't Arthrit deserve to be part of that decision?) (We don't see how much they communicated prior to this, but it seems to me that Arthrit's point here, about losing faith in their ability to talk to each other is super relevant)

(Personal note, how secure I feel in a relationship directly affects how comfortable I feel physically in the relationship, and I don’t mean ‘I’m sad so I don’t feel like having sex right now’ I mean, ‘the foundation of our relationships feels less stable and as a result my comfort with physical things, especially sexual intimacy feels significantly reduced’

I THOUGHT THIS WAS NORMAL Y’ALL

Having sat and thought about it right now, I don’t think that’s actually the case for the majority? like not all the time at least? This made me think about my personal reaction to watching Nevertheless a few months ago (a kdrama) and I was crazy uncomfortable with the discrepant emotional comfort vs physical desire plot, (I finished it, because I had to, because leaving in the middle would have been worse but just, No.) I mean I get sex without feelings, sure, or with budding feelings, but sex while you’re feelings have moved from stability to instability or are just floundering in instability without resolution?. Possible? Absolutely. Comfortable? No way.

Is this a demisexual thing? (I'm demi if you missed the disclaimer at the top) Is this a me thing? I am going to examine this more but for now you have my facts and perspective and we’re moving on)

(also this relationship being kind of ace has actually been put forth by ABL (here) and most likely others. I had previously read this post and moved on (because I hadn’t seen SOTUS), so I just wanted to say this is not a Tumblr revelation, just a me revelation)

I may be projecting but…

I adored the way the actor continued to show Arthrit’s foundational uncertainty in where their relationship was going/at, through his discomfort with being physical with Kong even after he’d consciously forgiven him. (Okay definitely projecting)

Episode 7, where Kong gets hurt by the door and is forgiven, but Arthrit still seems kind of uncomfortable with the physical side of things both here and in the next episode.

Plus the excellent scenes where Arthrit keeps telling Kong off for giving him food and then ends up yelling, and Kong goes back to being uncertain about where the line is. (Arthrit needs to talk more I'll admit it).

Arthit during the scene where Kong professes his uncertainty, because it's another screenshot I already had. (HIS. EYES.)

BUT because Arthrit realises he's hurt Kong, they talk about it and tada: Arthrits more comfortable physically again next ep, because he’s more certain of his relationship again.

We get beaches

(seriously Arthrit’s little smile, I’m dying) and fun times and kisses

(I have so many screenshots in here everyone, it's concerning)

And then:

Arthrit get’s double shaken again (Dad + Photo) (and he processes things by taking physical space. AGAIN.) (still totally relatable but I’m actually kind of annoyed with him for not saying a word to Kong now that I’m writing it down, I was not at all annoyed when I watched it, for the record)

And then Kong goes “OKAY THAT’S IT” and expresses his (totally justifiable) uncertainty about what is going on, because Arthrit keeps not being clear and can’t they actually talk about things!! So Kong gives him back his gear and leaves. My take on this was basically:

Kong: You need to be sure you want to be with me.

Arthrit: wait what, you’re leaving? But you’re always there? You’ve been hurting? Oh no I’ve hurt you? *cries* *Processes* *Publicly declares feelings* There I fixed it.

To me, Arthrit was never uncertain about whether or not he Loved Kong (Is this in question?, I don't know), he was just navigating the stability of his existing relationship in a new environment with many new revelations. And I believe that, because, even through the uncertainty, Arthrit continued to stare at Kong with such intensity that I couldn’t look away.

Hmm despite that, I think this reflection has actually left me a little bit less obsessed with Arthrit (definitely a good thing, I realized after I finished SOTUS S that I have 48 screenshots of Arthrit’s face staring at Kong with different adoring expressions and that is… too many).

For me, Arthrit’s emotional arc was so captivating because of the way Krist acted throughout, his expressions (HIS EYES) and the links between his emotions and his physical comfort were compelling and I was sucked into his emotional journey above all else. Did the actor intend this? I don’t know, but I had a great time. I almost feel like I need to rewatch SOTUS S just to pay attention to Singto more because he was kind of sidelined for me.

OUR SKYY SOTUS (the quickest summary because the words are totally out of hand)

(I totally had more pics from our skyy but I've apparently hit my limit oops)

We had some lovely relationship comfort and stability followed by compelling drama and then resolution. I loved it.

The drama is basically just Arthrit going: oh no you’re leaving, what if I make things harder for you, what if things end, how will I live, *get’s bad advice about breaking up* we should take a break because I love you way too much.

Kong: You complete moron, I love you and that’s why we’re supposed to stay together, now I’m leaving tomorrow, and you better prove you love me too by showing up.

Arthrit: *takes time to process* Oh yeah cool cool, I totally love you a lot *shows up and decides to travel with him for a little bit because these boyfriends be clingy*

But with all the excellent acting.

(Tiny note, my understanding is that this performance might be more compelling because Krist is expressing more emotions, but I took that as the first time Arthrit had actually tried to talk about and express his feelings, due to feeling stable enough to do so (all previous space taking was emotional processing). So there isn’t a single scene in SOTUS or SOTUS S where I would have expected this level of emotion (except for when he realized Kong was leaving because Kong was hurt). I would have found it confusing because Arthrits clearly a brooder. So he doesn’t talk to Kong while he’s hurting (an incorrect choice but one he continues to make) and so only the attempt to speak about his emotions here induces this level of physical display.

I cry more when I try to talk about my emotions, anybody else?)

CHEERS FOR READING

ALSO, I appreciate all you Tumblr master posters so much more now (I swear I already appreciated you lots!! but seriously I thought this would take like an hour or two and it DID NOT - and I'm not even meta-ing just throwing my thoughts on a page)

#sotus #sotus the series #sotus s #sotus s the series #rocketturtle4 catches up #thai bl #analysis #our skyy x sotus #Arthrit sotus #Arthrit x kong #rturts is wondering #Rocket4Reviews

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itmightrain · 6 months

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"Hodgkin's Lymphoma was one of the first cancers that was shown to be really responsive to both chemotherapy and radiation, so even though chemotherapy sucks, I knew we were going to do that. [...] I was 100% on board with chemo, and it's definitely extended my life, it's probably saved my life and I'll die of some other thing.

And three of the four chemo drugs that I was on are natural. They're from nature. Vinblastine comes from the Madagascar Periwinkle. It's just in a cute little flower, it was known to the indigenous people of Madagascar, scientists checked it out and found that it had a bunch of anti-cancer properties. Another one, Adriamycin, also called Doxorubicin, was found in microbes in the soil at the base of an Italian castle. The third, Bleomycin, was also found in a soil microbe called Streptomyces Verticillus. [...] Streptomyces Verticillus was never used in traditional medicine as far as we know, but all three of these molecules are both natural compounds and very effective chemotherapies for Hodgkin's Lymphoma (and some of them for other things).

And they've been tested, not just to see if they're effective, but to see:

What doses are most effective

Which cancers they're most effective against

How dangerous they are

What side effects are most common

How they effect women vs men

How they effect people based on their age

Their efficacy at different stages of cancer

How long you can safely take them

Which side effects are most serious and how to minimize those complications, both in the short-term and the long-term [...]

Cancers are not chill! Treatments have to be high impact because these are high impact and sneaky diseases. And so it's kind of amazing that we're in this point in history where a lot of these medicines have been tested in a lot of different ways to see what their best dosing schedule is, to see how little you can take without increasing the chances that the cancer will come back, to know how to be prepared for potential side effects. This is the slow, careful, tedious work of medical research, and it made the cancer treatment that I have just been through way less awful than it would've been just ten years ago.

During the time when I was publicly living with cancer and talking about cancer treatment, I received almost universally good vibes. Like I just want to be clear about that, people were amazing. But I did get some folks who would come to me and say that I would have a better outcome and be healthier if I took a more natural route, by which they meant that I should not be doing chemotherapy. [...]

The question becomes: if most of my cancer treatments came from nature, what do they mean when they say that I should be doing more natural treatments?

I gotta be clear here too, when it comes to like Epsom salt baths and acupuncture during chemotherapy, yes I'm in favor of all of that. If you want to do it and your doctor is telling you it's not going to do any harm and you feel like it's going to do good? Do it. [...] And there are also supplements that we know don't hurt and we think might help. [...] As long as you're talking to your doctor about it and it doesn't look like there's negative consequences I say do it.

There are some things that look like they might have some positive effect, but nothing has a positive effect like actual cancer treatment. So skipping those actual cancer treatments in favor of natural treatment makes me wonder: what do you mean by "natural"?

And here it is. I'm not sugarcoating this. I don't know a nicer way to say it. When we say natural cancer treatment, what we mean is something that either we don't know it works, or we know that it doesn't work, or we know that it does more harm than good. That's the only things that we mean when we say "natural cancer treatment", because otherwise a "natural cancer treatment" would include the three compounds from nature that I put in my body to cure my cancer.

The majority of cancer cases on earth, and an even greater majority of cancer deaths on Earth, happen outside of high-income countries. Those people don't die of cancers because they don't have access to coffee enemas or cannabis oil or apricot pits. They die because they don't have access to chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, and screening.

- Hank Green, Did "Natural" Cancer Treatments Save My Life?

#hank green #cancer #good words #science #vlogbrothers

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being-of-rain · 5 months

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My thoughts on The Church on Ruby Road! I literally can't write one of these without it being much longer than I expect. You think I'd simply expect it by now. But apparently I just had a lot of thoughts to put down about this one!

I really liked it! Going by friends' reactions, I think I liked it more than most of them. Maybe that's because I was expecting the more straightforward fantasy than usual from Doctor Who after hearing about it from RTD. I hope they dive into that more in the upcoming series, and make it explicit that it's because of the edge-of-the-universe-superstition stuff. That's such a fun direction for the show to go in.

I mostly have good things to say. Ncuti Gatwa was an instant fit for the Doctor, I can't wait to watch a whole series of him. His outfits were fantastic, especially that very first shot of him with his hat. And his deduction and reassurance scene with the policeman reminds us that the character has a powerful magic even without the goblins and skyships. Oh and the Doctor loving the name Lulubelle, what an adorable moment.

The goblins and skyships themselves felt very Peter Pan to me, and I love the urban fantasy feel it gave the episode. I also simply adore the fairytale logic, narrative magic that the Doctor was talking about. "The language of luck" and "coincidence is what makes the baby tasty" and "vocabulary of rope" and "if you have lots of accidents, it stitches you in. It weaves you into the day." I eat that stuff up, urban fantasy at its best in my opinion. Creeping into our world around the edges. And of course Doctor Who had to have a line suggesting that all coincidences might be because of goblins, I love it. The unexpected goblin music number felt very appropriately pantomime, and led to yet another moment that made me fell in love with this Doctor; him continuing the song rather than stopping it. Again, adorable.

As for Ruby Sunday, she's fun to watch and well acted, and I don't have anything bad to say about her, but she does feel a little generic-companion to me at the moment. Sometimes companions take a while before they go from 'like' to 'love' for me, but they usually make it eventually, it just takes one really great episode or plot. I do love her family though, they're so much fun, please can we have the Doctor spending more time with them. It's so cute to see a foster family depicted so positively and wholesomely.

Which leads us to the hardest-hitting part of the episode, when Ruby's taken and the timeline is rewritten, and GOD it's bleak. It's another look at that classic RTD cynicism that's just under the surface, but it works soooo well here, god damn. The way a lot of minimal changes made the setting go from "queens of the sky" to "stuck with my old mum up here in the attic" was so Powerful. The performances of Michelle Greenidge as a depressed Carla and Ncuti Gatwa as a raw and heartbroken Doctor was just. Chef's kiss. This time it's sci-fi at it's best; something impossible happening and then the story really digging its claws into the emotional impact it has on people.

The Doctor really showing his emotions is something I love and want to see a lot more of. I assume that's the main change to the character after Tennant Doctor's mental health retirement, which is a relief after Thirteen's years of brooding and hiding negative emotions from friends. So I don't mind Gatwa's Doctor having issues and brooding moments, because obviously you can't permanently fix all your problems forever anyway, especially not in his life. But all that said, specifically his line "I've got no one" really stood out to me as being strange considering the previous episode seemingly solving that in the short term. I know Gatwa's Doctor might potentially be a long way past that now, but surely it robs the retirement ending of its entire point if we immediately skip past not only the healing, but the getting-worse-again-about-the-exact-same-issue as well.

Speaking of Thirteen, it was nice to see RTD once again bring back the Timeless Child from Chibnall's era and give it a bit more depth. Chibnall definitely acknowledged the Timeless Child's emotional impact on the Doctor, and she had an arc surrounding that. But if I had to describe that arc I'd call it rather one-note and uninteresting; going from 'desperate to know more about adoption' to 'accepting it without question' without really any character beats in-between. Seeing how Gatwa's Doctor was dealing with it, how he related to other adoption stories and thought about himself, adds more dimensions to that, and I hope we get more glimpses of it.

When it comes to Ruby Sunday's adoption, I like that there's something of a plot bait-and-switch with the Doctor staring at (presumably) Ruby's mother in the cold open, then the Doctor being more concerned with saving Ruby later in the episode, and deciding not to follow the mother. If the series spends more focus on that plot, I hope it's mostly Ruby making a similar choice to the Doctor, because I'm an absolute sucker for 'it's not biology that makes a family.' I mean, basically my favourite Doctor Who story is Izzy Sinclair's from the DWM comic, and it was basically this. Izzy's story might've even been a direct influence on Ruby's, since we know that RTD was a DWM reader at the time and loved it too, enough to send a letter in praising the final Izzy comic! Anyway, I should probably try not to compare the two arcs too much, because I have my favourite and I'm biased 😂

How does this Thoughts Post feel even longer than usual!? I guess new Doctor, new companion, and new story arcs might do that. So time for random points!

-After checking, the clock on the eponymous church is absolutely the same one on the Christmas Town tower from The Time of the Doctor. I hope I'm not the only one who immediately noticed that aha. -I've seen people diss the narration at the very start, and I get disliking purposeless narration, but I think this one serves a purpose well. It adds even more of a fairytale vibe to a very fairytale scenario in a very fairytale episode. -Random nitpick: one thing I'd change about the episode is how much stress the camera and music give to some comedy minor characters, specifically the lady with the pram, Mrs Flood in her first scene, and the other neighbour. Focusing on them so much felt like it dampened their little jokes a bit. -Random highlight: I love when the Doctor says random throwaway stuff like they always do, but side characters actually pick it up and start trying to pick meaning out of it. So it made me happy when Ruby came back to the Houdini namedrop at the end of the episode. -The international version of the episode had a random Disney Plus ad before the final few lines (rather than that being a mid-credits scene like in the UK) and god I hated it. Praying that doesn't happen again. -I know RTD has said there'll be more about the "mysterious" Mrs Flood in future, but to me she genuinely just felt like a minor character with a christmas fourth-wall break. I really don't care about getting more of her, so if there is then I hope it's more interesting. -The murder of the Goblin King sure was more violent than usual for Doctor Who, and it can bother me a little bit when TV shows start letting things like that go by without comment, but I don't really mind it this time. The goblins vanished like the mythical creatures they were, the Doctor was cool as hell jumping off the church tower to bring them down, and this time the classic RTD Emotional Manipulation was working on me perfectly. -It's hilarious that they're keeping up the 'mavity' thing, I wonder when they'll actually do something with that.

Final thoughts! The Church on Ruby Road was a fantastic start to The Gatwa Era. It had a simple plot and villains, which worked wonderfully with the delightful characters, magical aesthetic, and powerful emotional beats it landed. It definitely felt more like a first episode than a christmas special, which is to it's credit, but with the singular downside that it has me impatient for more episodes!

If you made it all the way to the end, then Happy New Year! I hope you (and Dr Who) have a wonderful 2024 😘

#my thoughts #woof my thoughts always look a lot longer written down than in my head aha #but it's nice to feel like I have things to say about something yknow. I can put some opinions into words.#and I left a little present at the end for anyone who gets that far <3 #doctor who #ruby #fourteen #I may have to start tagging him fifteen soon to avoid confusion tbh

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elsiebrayisgay · 7 months

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there is something that feels so insidious to me in the way certain loved ones will wish me well. sometimes it feels like there is an obvious implication that the presumed goal not just of my treatment but of my life is the absolute minimization of symptoms, which is probably fine on the surface. symptoms feel bad, right? so why shouldn't you do everything you can to avoid them and keep all the "normal" function you can?

however, i think there is some implicit ableism that has snuck its way into that framing and is doing a lot of the lifting, it turns out. first, it implies a narrative of the "illness warrior"—life with an illness is often depicted as a struggle against the disease, and to lose your life (in terminal cases, as with cancer) is to "lose your fight." even in non-terminal chronic illness, i believe that framing is still common, at least from those who are not sick around the chronic illness patient, though there are some sick people who identify with that language. for some people, it can be empowering, giving them the strength to be a warrior and get up and fight, but for me, it feels like it puts the severity of my illness in my hands. to be very ill is to lose ground and fight badly. to some extent this is true, in that there are certain factors in my life i can change that will positively or negatively impact my health, but more broadly, this idea feels brutally unfair. if i am in pain because of a weather-triggered migraine, am i to simply get up and move my entire life in time with the seasons to avoid storms? it feels terribly unfair and lays responsibility for my symptoms existing or disabling me at my feet.

secondly, the high valuation of symptom-free—or as close as possible—existence feels to me to be assimilationist with capitalist values of labor. there has been a lot written about intersections and cross-applications between queer and disability theory. comp het translates to similar ideas of comp-abledness, which i think is a large part of what's going on here. i would extend this further to use queer assimilation as a framework for disabled assimilation. in the way that traditional values will lend more legitimacy to a queer couple who are monogamous, who follow established norms of marriage, cohabitation, etc, there is legitimacy to be had for disabled people who support themselves without or with minimal benefits, who are gainfully employed, who "do not let their disability stop them." yet disabled labor is undervalued especially in the laws that allow for disabled workers to be paid under minimum wages and the bleak landscape of legal accommodations being insufficient, difficult to enforce, at an employer's discretion, or all of the above leaving disabled workers in the hands of petty tyrants. disabled people are encouraged to keep working but not protected or treated fairly when they do. i believe this extends beyond work as well—the minimization of symptoms allows for a disabled person to keep their own household and do their own chores without support, and is therefore the valued goal, however unrealistic or difficult. in what i believe is a critically under-read essay, sunny taylor outlines "the right not to work," defending the value of a disabled life which does not fit norms of productivity in the workforce or the home. so i wonder: if there are supports available, why restrict myself from them? if there is a life that does not involve recovery to the norm but rather prioritizes quality of life, isn't that worthwhile? if there is a life without recovery to the norm but rather recovery self-directed towards the activities and functions a patient wants for themself, would that be so bad, even if they are still sick, even if they still need help?

i hope for such a life.

#disability theory #disability #chronic illness #sorry you can tell i have a theory degree from reading this post i'll try to hide it better in the future

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stranger-rants · 1 year

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This user has already been dragged to hell for the fatphobic and racist tags on this post, but I do want to address these tags for a minute:

Viewing a teenage abuse survivor as a piece of shit who sucks ass absolutely cannot go hand in hand with helping them survive.

It's something I had to learn, because I have certainly run into my fair share of teenagers who have said and done hurtful things to me. However, I am an adult and I have power. The way I think about the teenagers I work with can have a positive or a negative effect on their lives - especially their ability to access resources that could improve their lives.

I have had to make a conscious effort to put aside my personal feelings whenever I've been called a slur or threatened or attacked because I am also the person who could connect them with a counselor or social worker or CPS, and too often these teenagers in particular get cast aside and suffer extreme amounts of abuse and neglect because people like you view them as a POS.

And I have to iterate that the teenagers I have worked with have said and done much worse than Billy. I had a student who murdered someone. I had a student who stabbed someone. I still hope that the both of them can recover and make amends. Just last week, my coworker was cursed out and called a f****t over and over in response to them telling a student they need to be in class if they want to graduate. It's that simple. It makes me furious to hear those things, and they're personally triggering to me to hear that kind of violence since I too come from an abusive home... but this is what happens when young people are immersed in violence, because no! Being 19 doesn't magically make you capable of understanding every right and wrong. Not when your brain has been wired by trauma. CLEARLY age didn't stop OP from posting what they posted. Why expect moral enlightenment from a young person actively surviving abuse?

There are many teenagers who get assaulted or killed every year and headlines will read that they were "no choir boy" or something of the sort. This is an intentional effort to minimize the systematic and institutional harm that was done to them and it disproportionately impacts teenagers who aren't white or straight or cisgender or Christian or able bodied or conventionally thin or neurotypical and so on and so forth. You CANNOT claim that these ideas (Billy is a POS & Billy deserves help) go hand in hand, especially when you fucking draw Eddie and Max flipping off his grave. You CANNOT maintain this attitude in all seriousness if you think that people like Billy deserve help because you are making a mockery of what he went through.

#text post #fandom critical

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fatliberation · 1 year

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Hi there, sorry if it's not cool to ask questions, but I needed some help w/ something. Me and my partner are both chubby guys who have dealt w/ body image issues, dysmorphia and EDs for a long time, and sometimes still use "fat" as a negative term towards ourselves when we're struggling, and I was wondering if you knew any good ways to start moving away from that? We both know it's not cool, and I want to be able to use fat as a neutral and even positive term, I'm just not sure how to reply to him or steer him in the right direction when he says stuff like "I'm so fat" and stuff like that, y'know? I don't want to take away from how he's struggling and I want him to know his body is perfect the way it is, I just don't want to trigger any of his issues or have it seem like I'm scolding him when correcting his wording. Sorry if this is a lot or if you're not sure how to answer, but I rly appreciate you reading this ask

You're all good, anon! it's great that you guys are putting in that work! Body Neutrality might be a good place to start if you're not already familiar, try searching it up and see if you find anything that resonates with you!

“Body neutrality is minimizing body negativity; for example, saying to yourself, 'I may not feel good about my body, but I will try not to put myself down or make myself feel bad about my body.' For some people, getting to body positivity feels like too much of a challenge for any number of reasons, including history of trauma, internalizing weight stigma, and/or feeling restricted because of their body’s limitations. Body neutrality is a place to start to reverse the impact of internalizing the trauma of weight bias and stigma. Sometimes body positivity can feel ‘fake’ and body neutrality feels more authentic, which is so important when you are working on living authentically and joyfully in the body you have.” (Elizabeth Wassenaar, medical director of Eating Recovery Center)

#body neutrality #inbox

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devisrina · 11 months

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has anyone done a deep dive on the closeup of sydney's "three of swords" tattoo that showed up in the scenes of her interspersed with carmy's gf? idk much about tarot cards but a quick search said it represents "pain inflicted by words, actions and intent on the emotional and physical self" which is v interesting

I don't believe someone has done a thorough deep dive into the intricacies of Syd's tattoo, but here is what I have gathered, so I might try to decipher this for you.

If anyone else wants to create a deep dive for this, please do so!

Here is what I have gathered from an internet search.

"Three Of Swords Keywords

UPRIGHT: Heartbreak, emotional pain, sorrow, grief, hurt

REVERSED: Negative self-talk, releasing pain, optimism, forgiveness

Three Of Swords Description

The Three of Swords shows a heart pierced by three swords, representing the pain inflicted by words, actions and intent on the emotional and physical self. The dark clouds gathering in the background mirror this pain but offer the hope that, just as the storm clouds will disappear, so too will the pain and hurt you are experiencing."

And here is an extract from another website.

The Three of Swords depicts the message of rejection, betrayal, hurt and discouragement. In moments like these, we are well served by the mind. If you can think logically about it and prepare for the experience, the impact of this pain may be minimized.

The three daggers represent three meanings. Sydney's tattoo is upright, so that means hers reflects heartbreak, emotional pain, sorrow, grief, and hurt. So now that we know that, we can find the definitions of the upright three of swords

Love meaning- The imagery of this card is plain and simple; heartbreak is to come with the 3 of Swords tarot love meaning. This is likely to be a time in your life of tears, sadness and heartbreak. If you’re in a relationship, this can sometimes point to a breakup, a conflict, or some kind of separation. In the worst-case scenario, since this card is a three, it can also point to a third party creating trouble in your relationship. You and your partner may have to face difficult problems in order to remain together. Without clear and respectful discussions and a willingness to work together, the relationship can reach its end. If you’re single, it may be that past grief and suffering are affecting your ability to date. Past wounds have not yet healed, and it’s important to give yourself time before you attempt to find love again.

Career meaning

Work can be a great source of stress, frustration and sadness for you right now. At worst, it can point to a sudden job loss or collapse of a company. More commonly, it can signal some kind of conflict at work amongst clients and colleagues. If you’re dealing with this, make sure that you have honest and open conversations with your coworkers, while keeping things respectful. There’s likely a lot that you all can learn from one another. If you’re looking for work, or you have just lost your job, the search right now can leave you hopeless. Don’t be disheartened; if you can afford it, take the time now to recover from this period of anguish. It may provide you a more positive mindset for your job search.

Finances meaning

You may be dealing with a material loss right now, or at least something in your financial life causing you a lot of stress. A breakup has both emotional and financial consequences; you may no longer be able to afford your apartment alone, or you may have to split your assets in a divorce. All these things can be overwhelming now. Make sure to be gentle with yourself, but also remember not to avoid taking care of these things. Find support; you can make it through.

So, now we can connect this to Sydney's life.

Love - Considering we don't know what Carmy and Sydney's dynamic is, let's just assume that this is connective to their business partnership. In the worst-case scenario, since this card is a three, it can also point to a third party creating trouble in your relationship. The third party is Claire. Claire distracts Carmy which further hinders his relationship with Sydney. It hurts Sydney because Carmy isn't investing himself in their relationship since at this point in time, he is giving her his split focus and she needs his full focus. Without clear and respectful discussions and a willingness to work together - They avoid communicating about their feelings and she feels worried about if they would be able to work together/ if she can trust him as her partner.

I think it is also purposeful that her tattoo gets revealed in between takes of Carmy getting with Claire. So maybe this could foreshadow her hurt towards Carmy being with another girl? I don't think she is aware of this yet though. She might think she has some kind of feelings towards Carmy, but she doesn't know what kind they are yet.

Career- This involves her failed business track record with Sheridan Road and her fear of The Bear potentially being unsuccessful. More commonly, it can signal some kind of conflict at work amongst clients and colleagues.- This equals her conflict with Carmy. He has not been there as much as he needed to. When he made changes to chaos menu and asked Claire for help without talking to Syd first. Also in episode 3 when Carmy didn't inform her about the walls needing to be knocked down. She is afraid that Carmy is leaving her out of the loop or main decision-making because they don't have a payment structure/co-owner ship of the restaurant.

Finances- She feels insecure about having to move in with her dad after her failed business. Her credit score is in the negative category. She is afraid that if the restaurant doesn't work out, she would be financially unstable. She can't afford to buy an apartment and live on her own anymore, which in turn, stresses her out.

Since it also connects to grief, hurt, heartbreak and emotional pain, it also has a lot to do with her mother. This can connect to the love meaning. She faced a lot of heartbreak and sadness from growing up without a mother figure in her life, so it can be reflective of that as well.

So yeah, I don't really know if I'm right about this. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

#The bear fx #Sydney adamu #carmen Berzatto #Carmy x Sydney #Chaos menu

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rohirric-hunter · 1 year

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If anyone's curious about why I'm so upset about this, it's because Facebook's algorithm made me actively suicidal.

There were a lot of other things going on at the time that contributed to it, but when I realized just how hard I was romanticizing the idea of just. Getting rid of my problems. I did some work to track down where the worst of the negativity was coming from. And it was Facebook.

There have been allegations (that I 100% believe) that Facebook's algorithm was designed to do this. But specifically what I noticed was this: negative posts were promoted and positive posts were suppressed. Posts where I complained about how someone was rude to me were shown to all my friends. Posts where I showed off some art I had made or something I knitted were often shown to no one at all. And I noticed it in the posts I was seeing from my friends, too. They were getting increasingly negative and angry, but I hung out with a lot of those people in real life. I knew that they themselves were not negative and angry. Instead, Facebook had filtered what they had chosen to share to show me only the worst side of them.

And yeah, I was suicidal. Other things changed, and got better, but there's absolutely no overselling how much cutting Facebook out of my life helped. It was like coming out of a pool and being able to breathe again, feeling the sunlight on my skin again.

Tumblr's algorithm does this less -- but it does do this. I never open the For You tab and see appreciation posts. Never. It's always someone I don't know criticizing something they know nothing about like I'm supposed to care about their opinion, and while it's not as dramatic, I do feel the negative impact it has on my mental health.

And more importantly, it's not just me. I don't have some kind of unique allergy to social media algorithms. It does this to everyone. With varying degrees of seriousness, of course, but it is inarguably bad for any human being to be exposed to an algorithm on a regular basis. You are not immune. New Tumblr users are not immune. People from other social media sites are not immune -- they've just been exposed to it for so long that in a lot of cases, they forgot that there's such a thing as clear air and sun on your face.

So yeah. That's why I won't be part of a social media site that puts its algorithm front and center -- for anyone, even just people I don't know and don't interact with.

@staff if you'd like to reply to this post with some proactive steps you're taking to minimize the negative impact of your algorithm on people's mental health I would love to hear it. Believe it or not, I am in your corner here and I want to defend you. Please make that possible for me.

#cw suicide mention

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managedserversus · 1 year

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Prepare for the worst-case scenarios

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