#basically a little essay

[demigod-of-the-agni]

Spider-Man India, but... where from India?

A SUPER long post featuring talks of: cultural identity, characterisation, the caste system, and what makes Spider-Man Spider-Man.

I’m prefacing this by saying that I am a second-generation immigrant. I was born in Australia, but my cultural background is from South India. My experiences with what it means to be “Indian” is going to be very different from the experiences of those who are born and brought up in India.

If you, reader, want to add anything, please reblog and add your thoughts. This is meant to be a post open for discussion — the more interaction we get, the better we become aware of these nuances.

So I made this poll asking folks to pick a region of India where I would draw Pavitr Prabhakar in their cultural wear. This idea had been on my mind for a long while now, as I had been inspired by Annie Hazarika’s Northeastern Spidey artwork in the wake of ATSV’s release, but never got the time to actually do it until now. I wanted to get a little interactive and made the poll so I could have people choose which of the different regions — North, Northeast, Central, East, West, South — to do first.

The outcome was not what I expected. As you can see, out of 83 votes:

THE RESULTS

South India takes up almost half of all votes (44.6%), followed by Northeast and Central (both 14.5%) and then East (13.3%). In all my life growing up, support towards or even just the awareness of South India was pretty low. Despite this being a very contained poll, why would nearly half of all voters pick South India in favour of other popular choices like Central or North India?

Then I thought about the layout of the poll: Title, Options, Context.

Title: "Tell us who you want to see…"

Options: North, Northeast, Central, East, West, South

Context: I want to make art of the boy again

At first I thought: ah geez. this is my fault. I didn't make the poll clear enough. do they think I want them to figure out where Pavitr came from? That's not what I wanted, maybe I should have added the context before the options.

Then I thought: ah geez. is it my fault for people not reading the entire damn thing before clicking a button? That's pretty stupid.

But regardless, the thought did prompt a line of thinking I know many of us desi folk have been considering since Spider-Man India was first conceived — or, at least, since the announcement that he was going to appear in ATSV. Hell, even I thought of it:

Where did Spider-Man India come from?

FROM A CULTURALLY DIVERSE INDIA

As we know, India is so culturally diverse, and no doubt ATSV creators had to take that into account. Because the ORIGINAL Spider-Man India came from Mumbai — most likely because Mumbai and Manhattan both started with the same letter.

But going beyond that, it’s also because Mumbai is one of the most recognisable cities in India - it’s also known as Bombay. It’s where Bollywood films are shot. It’s where superstar Hindi actors and actresses show up. Mumbai is synonymous with India in that regard, because the easiest way Western countries can interact with Indian culture is through BOLLYWOOD, through HINDI FILMS, through MUMBAI. Suddenly, India is Mumbai, India is a Hindi-only country, India is just this isolated thing we see through an infinitely narrow lens.

We’ve gotten a little better in recent years, but boy I will tell you how uncomfortable I’ve gotten when people (yes, even desi people) come up to me and tell me, Oh, you’re Indian right? Can you speak Hindi? Why don’t you speak Hindi? You’re not Indian if you don’t speak Hindi, that’s India’s national language!

I have been — still am — so afraid of telling people that I don’t speak Hindi, that I’m Tamil, that I don’t care that Hindi is India’s “national” language (it’s an administrative language, Kavin, get your fucking facts right). It’s weird, it’s isolating, and it has made me feel like I wasn’t “Indian” enough to be accepted into the group of “Indian” people.

So I am thankful that ATSV went out of their way to integrate as much variety of Indian culture into the Mumbattan sequence. Maybe that way, the younger generation of desi folk won’t feel so isolated, and that younger Western people will be more open to learning about all these cultural differences within such a vast country.

BUT WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH SPIDER-MAN INDIA?

Everything, actually. There’s a thing called supremacy. You might have heard of it. We all engaged with it at some point, and if you are Indian, no matter where you live, it is inescapable.

It happens the moment you are born — who your family is, where you are born, the language you speak, the colour of your skin; these will be bound to you for life, and it is nigh impossible to break down the stereotypes associated with them.

Certain ethnic groups will be more favourable than others (Centrals, and thus their cultures, will always be favoured over than Souths, as an example) and the same can be said for social groups (Brahmins are more likely to secure influential roles in politics or other areas like priesthood, while the lowers castes, especially Dalits, aren’t even given the decency of respect). Don’t even get me started on colourism, where obviously those of fairer skin will win the lottery while those of darker skin aren’t given the time of day. It’s even worse when morality ties into it — “lighter skinned Indians, like Brahmins, embody good qualities like justice and wisdom”, “dark skinned Indians are cunning and poor, they are untrustworthy”. It’s fucking nuts.

This means, of course, you have a billion people trying to make themselves heard in a system that tries to crush everyone who is not privileged. It only makes sense that people want to elevate themselves and break free from a society that refuses to acknowledge them. These frustrations manifest outwardly, like in protests, but other times — most times — it goes unheard, quietly shaping your way of life, your way of thinking. It becomes a fundamental part of you, and it can go unacknowledged for generations.

So when you have a character like Pavitr Prabhakar enter the scene, people immediately latch onto him and start asking questions many Western audiences don’t even consider. Who is he? What food does he eat? What does he do on Fridays? What’s his family like, his community? All these questions pop up, because, amidst all this turmoil going on in the background, you want a mainstream popular character to be like you, who knows your way of life so intimately, that he may as well be a part of your community.

BUT THAT'S THE THING — HE'S FICTIONAL

I am guilty of this. In fact, I’ve flaunted in numerous posts how I think he’s the perfect Tamil boy, how he dances bharatanatyam, how he does all these Tamil things that no one will understand except myself. All these niche things that only I, and maybe a few others, will understand.

I’ve seen other people do it, too. I’ve seen people geek out over his dark brown skin, his kalari dhoti, how he fights so effortlessly in the kalaripayattu martial arts style. I’ve seen people write him as Malayali, as Hindi, as every kind of Indian person imaginable.

I’ve also seen him be written where he’s subjected to typical Indian and broader Asian stereotypes. You know the ones I’m so fond of calling out. The thing is, I’ve seen so much of Pavitr being presented in so many different ways, and I worry how the rest of the desi folk will take it. 

You finally have a character who could be you, but now he’s someone else’s plaything. Your entire life is shaped by what you can and can’t do simply because you were born to an Indian family, and here’s the one person who could represent you now at the mercy of someone else’s whims. He’s off living a life that is so distant from yours, you can hardly recognise him.

It shouldn’t hurt as much as it does, yeah? But, again, you’re looking at it from that infinitely narrow lens Westerners use to look at India from Bollywood.

AND PAVITR PRABHAKAR DOESN'T LIVE IN INDIA

He lives in Mumbattan. He lives in a made-up, fictional world that doesn’t follow the way of life of our world. He lives in a city where Mumbai and Manhattan got fucking squashed together. There are so many memes about colonialism right there. Mumbattan isn’t real! Spider-Man India isn’t real!! He’s just a dude!! The logic of our world doesn’t apply to him!!!

“But his surname originates from ______” okay but does that matter?

“But he’s wearing a kalari dhoti so surely he’s ______” okay but does that matter?

“But his skin colour is darker so he must be ______” okay but does that matter?

“But he lives in Mumbai so he must be ______” okay but does that matter?

I sound insensitive and brash and annoying and it looks like I’m yapping just for the sake of riling you up, so direct that little burst of anger you got there at me, and keep reading.

Listen. I’m going to ask you a question that I’ve asked myself a million times over. I want you to answer honestly. I want you to ask this question to yourself and answer honestly:

Are you trying to convince me on who Pavitr Prabhakar should be?

... but why shouldn't i?

I’ll tell you this again — I did the same thing. You’re not at fault for this, but I want you to just...have a little think over. Just a little moment of self-reflection, to think about why you are so intent on boxing this guy.

It took me a while to reorganise my thinking and how to best approach a character like Pavitr, so I will give you all the time you need as well as a little springboard to focus your thoughts on.

SPIDER-MAN (INDIA) IS JUST A MASK

“What I like about the costume is that anybody reading Spider-Man in any part of the world can imagine that they themselves are under the costume. And that’s a good thing.”

Stan Lee said that. Remember how he was so intent on making sure that everybody got the idea that Spider-Man as an entity is fundamentally broken without Peter Parker there to put on the suit and save the day? That ultimately it was the person beneath the mask, no matter who they were, that mattered most?

Spider-Man India is no less different. You can argue with me that Peter Parker!Spidey is supposed to represent working class struggles in the face of leering corporate entities who endanger the regular folk like us, and so Pavitr Prabhakar should also function the same way. Pavitr should also be a working class guy of this specific social standing fighting people of this other social standing.

But that takes away the authenticity of Spider-Man India. Looking at him through the Peter Parker lens forces you to look at him through the Western lens, and it significantly lessens what you can do with the character — suddenly, it’s a fight to be heard, to be seen, to be recognised. It’s yelling over each other that Pavitr Prabhakar is this ethnicity, is that caste, this or that, this or that, this or that.

There’s a reason why he’s called Spider-Man India, infuriatingly vague as it is. And that’s the point — the vagueness of his identity fulfils Lee’s purpose for a character that could theoretically be embodied by anyone. If he had been called “Spider-Man Mumbai”, you cut out a majority of the population (and in capitalist terms, you cut out a good chunk of the market).

And in the case of Spider-Man India? Whew — you’ve got about a billion people imagining a billion different versions of him.

Whoever you are, whatever you see in Pavitr, that is what is personal to you, and there is nothing wrong with that, and I will not fault you for it. I will not fault you for saying Pavitr is from Central due to the origins of his last name. I also will not fault you for saying Pavitr is from South due to him practising kalaripayattu. I also will not fault you for saying he is not Hindu. I also will not fault you for saying he is a particular ethnicity without any proof.

What I will fault you for is trying to convince me and the others around you that Pavitr Prabhakar should be this particular ethnicity/have this cultural background because of some specific reason. I literally don’t care and it is fundamentally going against his character, going against the “anyone can wear the mask” sentiment of Spider-Man. By doing this, you are strengthening the walls that first divided us. You’re feeding the stratification and segmentation of our cultures — something that is actually not present in the fictional world of Mumbattan.

Like I said before: Mumbattan isn’t real, so the divides between ethnicities and cultural backgrounds are practically nonexistent. The best thing is that it is visually there for all to see. My favourite piece of evidence is this:

It’s a marquee for a cinema in the Mumbattan sequence, in the “Quick tour: this is where the traffic is” section. It has four titles; the first three are written in Hindi. The fourth title is written in Tamil. You go to Mumbai and you won’t see a single shred of Tamil there, much less any other South Indian language. Seeing this for the first time, you know what went through my head?

Wow, the numerous cultures of India are so intermingled here in Mumbattan! Everyone and everything is welcome!

I was happy, not just because of Tamil representation, but because of the fact that the plethora of Indian cultures are showcased coexisting in such a short sequence. This is India embracing all the little parts that make up its grander identity. This scene literally opened my eyes seeing such beauty in all the diverse cultures thriving together. In a place where language and cultural backgrounds blend so easily, each one complementing one another.

It is so easy to believe that, from this colourful palette of a setting, Pavitr Prabhakar truly is Spider-Man India, no matter where he comes from.

It’s easy to believe that Pavitr can come from any part of India, and I won’t call you out if the origin you have for him is different from the origin I have. You don’t need to stake out territory and stand your ground — you’re entitled to that opinion, and I respect it. In fact, I encourage it!!!

Because there’s only so much you can show in a ten minute segment of a film about a country that has such a vast history and even greater number of cultures. I want to see all of it — I want him to be a Malayali boy, a Hindi boy, a Bengali boy, a Telugu boy, an Urdu boy, whatever!! I want you to write him or draw him immersed in your culture, so that I can see the beauty of your background, the wonderful little things that make your culture unique and different from mine!

And, as many friends have said, it’s so common for Indian folks to be migrating around within our own country. A person with a Maharashtrian surname might end up living in Punjab, and no one really minds that. I’m actually from Karnataka, my family speaks Kannada, but somewhere down the line my ancestors moved to Tamil Nadu and settled down and lived very fulfilling lives. So I don’t actually have the “pure Tamil” upbringing, contrary to popular belief; I’ve gotten a mix of both Kannada and Tamil lifestyles, and it’s made my life that much richer. 

So it’s common for people to “not” look like their surname, if that’s what you’re really afraid about. In fact, it just adds to that layer of nuance, that even despite these rigid identities between ethnicities we as Indian people still intermingle with one another, bringing slivers of our cultures to share with others. Pavitr could just as well have been born in one state and moved around the country, and he happens to live in Mumbattan now. It’s entirely possible and there’s nothing to disprove that.

We don’t need to clamber over one another declaring that only one ethnicity is the “right” ethnicity, because, again, you will be looking at Pavitr and the rest of India in that narrow Western lens — a country with such rich cultural variety reduced to a homogenous restrictive way of life.

THE POLL: REINTERPRETED

This whole thing started because I was wondering why my little poll was so skewed — I thought people assumed I was asking them where he came from, then paired his physical appearance with the most logical options available. I thought it was my fault, that I had somehow influenced this outcome without knowing.

Truth is, I will never really know. But I will be thankful for it, because it gave me the opportunity to finally broach this topic, something that many of us desi folk are hesitant to talk about. I hope you have learned something from this, whether you are desi or a casual Spider-Man fan or someone who just so happened to stumble upon this. 

So just…be a little more open. Recognise that India, like many many countries and nations, is made up of a plethora of smaller cultures. And remember, if you’re trying to convince Pavitr that he’s a particular ethnicity, he’s going to wave his hand at you and say, “Ha, me? No, I’m one of the people that live here in the best Indian city! I’m Spider-Man India, dost!”

(Regardless, he still considers you a friend, because to him, the people matter more to him than you trying to box him into something he’s not.)

#long post + more tags that kinda spiral away BUT expand on the points above AND kinda puts everything together concisely #BROS THIS IS AN HONEST TO GOD ESSAY #THAT HAS BEEN COOKING IN MY HEART FOR A WHILE NOW. SIMMERING FOR MONTHS BEFORE FINALLY BOILING OVER IN THE LAST WEEK #genuinely hope you read MOST of it because yes it has Quite A Lot Of Exposition but it all matters nonetheless #put in a lot of thought into this so i expect you to do your part and challenge your thoughts as well #you see how i'm not asking for you to listen to me. but to actually Think. i want you to cook your thoughts and add some spice and flavour #and give it a good mix so you can come out of this a little more wiser than before #because!!! yeah!!!! spider man india is just that!! he's indian!!!!! we don't need to collectively agree on where he comes from #bc it gets rid of that relatability factor of spider man. at the most basic level #think of it as a schrodinger's. he is every single culture and none of them at the same time. therefore none of us are wrong!! sick!!!! #pavitr's first priority is making sure HIS PEOPLE are safe. that's probably as far as we can go that relates him back to peter parker spide #he loves his people and working in the name of justice to FIGHT for HIS PEOPLE is just the duty/responsibility he takes up #it makes sense that he loves everyone and every culture he engages with bc that's the nature of spider man i suppose #if peter parker spidey acts as the guardian for the regular folk.. then in my mind pavitr spidey stands as the bridge uniting the people #because society as its core is very fragmented. and having pavitr act as a connection to other folks.... mmmmm beautiful #that's what i'm talking abouttttt !!! #anyways guys this is literally 3001 words on my document EXCLUDING THE TITLE. THAT'S 7 PAGES AT 11pt FONT. i'm literally cryingggg wtf #pavitr prabhakar #spider man #spider man india #desi #desiblr #atsv #across the spiderverse #atsv pavitr #indian culture #india #desi tumblr #what the fuck do i tag this as #agnirambles

[summertimemusician]

Linktober Shadow Day 8

Majora('s Mask)

*throws bouquet of roses* For the Time lovers.

Also my bias is probably coming through really strongly right now, but I'm not well rested enough to care plus I've been playing Majora's Mask a lot again this month, it's as important to me as Twilight Princess so this is kind of my love letter to it and Time and my excuse to explore the concept of Majora and the Fierce Deity and divinity in LoZ, though that's an essay for another day lol (/j)

As always can be read as romantic or platonic depending on your preferences, Reader is gender neutral and this is definitely self indulgent so it can be read in or outside of an LU context, most of the references to the LU names are for simplicity and to give a rough idea of why Reader has some stuff they do. Makes it easier to clarify lol, though as I've been hit by yet another storm the Linktober prompt will be for tomorrow, I'm basically picking a god and praying this actually posts X_X

TW(?):

Don't think there's any warnings besides MJM's typical body horror really, and very graphic descriptions and Majora in general.

Even after so, so long, so much so it feels like a lifetime ago, Termina still stuck with you and Time.

The thing about being in a timeloop that went on for who knows how long and whose failure to reset it would be total destruction to so many good different people, is that you quickly learn some habits to try and maximize as many successes as possible, how Time (Mask, then, after the living nightmare of Termina, during the War of Ages, still Link though) quickly learned the location of each enemy he could, how you learned to call out the best way to quickly assess and take down an enemy as quickly as possible, how you both learned to watch each other’s backs and to care for the people and Termina to the point Link went from just a warrior to a healer, granted the trust of holding the crystalization of the hopes and dreams of the people of Termina that, even if they couldn’t remember it, wanted the cycle to end, wanted to hunt the threat to reality itself and purge it from the world. To bite down onto it’s neck and feel the thrill and glee and cutting down such an opponent.

Most importantly, after bleeding, crying, sweating and toiling against the unrelenting flow of time and insanity all brought upon by a lonely child being left alone and manipulated to commit heinous acts as ‘pranks’. It taught you and Time the importance of contingency plans, and about always, always being prepared for any and all situations, unlikely as they could be. Of taking through note of even the smallest detail that caught your eyes at a glance.

‘To defeat an abomination, you need one of two things: A deity, or a monster.’, you think cynically to yourself, stepping over Time’s fallen form as Warriors bolted over with blizzard forged fury in his cold, calculated movements to defend him in your stead as you called Hyrule over, the young man quickly starting to heal your Hero as you glare down at the disgusting stain on reality engaging Twilight and Wild all at once, gleeful at having watched the person you adored the most fall, bringing out the ultimate contingency from your cloak, you hadn’t even told him about it, because you prayed you’d never need to resort to this, ‘… Forgive me, Link. The first option isn’t doable here.’

Time was your everything, you knew how his story ended, with so much grief until he finally met Twilight again. You tried, you really did, to not allow yourself to love him but it was impossible because he was Link, the man who longed for adventure ever since he was young, embodying the freedom of the forest of life and death that made up the whole of Faron Woods and the Lost Woods and as steady as it’s moors, voice quiet and calm like a stream in the woods and with and with a smile to rival the warm sun and so, so heartbreakingly kind. Who protected and saved and healed people while slowly healing his own soul and who attempted to soothe his descendant’s pain the second he could even from beyond the grave.

And you’d be darned if you allowed anything to take him from you or the boys before his time without a fight. You couldn’t care less if he would eventually die as he was destined to in every timeline, it didn’t matter if it was futile, because he mattered, you loved him, and you’d keep him safe and happy for as long as you could.

It didn’t matter if one day tragedy will catch up to him, it mattered that he was loved while alive.

Even if you had to step on fire to make sure of it.

“Twilight, Wild. Step away.”, the edges of the spikes of the purple and crimson mask that haunted your nightmares as much as it did Time’s, it leered at you with it’s arsenic and pus eyes, picking apart at your weaknesses as it’s spikes dug into your hand as you tightened your grip to keep if from shaking. Tone falsely confident as you called to the Hero of Twilight and Wild to retreat.

(‘To defeat an abomination, you need a deity or a monster.’

The definition is awfully interchangeable, if you look at it.

You had found it, abandoned and in a dungeon Wind’s Era, not quite awake, but not asleep either. The eldritch hunger almost chocking you with it’s voracity, the darkness assessing, stalking, prowling and starving, it prodded at you but didn’t dig yet. It knew how to play the long game in it’s quest to stop feeling empty.

Funny thing is, so did you. You were a lot harder to break than the Skull Kid, would not break.

Majora wanted to cease, like how it had ceased before the Terminan Tribe ripped it from it’s slumber, taught it hunger, taught it cruelty, taught it how to manipulate and take amusement in consuming the wishes of mortals and their very souls only to never be satisfied. Had fueled it with wrath from being ripped from a lovely, endless dream of beautiful songs and a kind soul. To be torn from it’s fantasy and then left to rot.

You offered to grant it a proper rest. And so a deal was struck. Your one contingency if the situation was truly dire, in case you couldn’t get the Fierce Deity Mask instead -because you knew how Link was, he’d burn himself out until there was naught but ash. You refused to let it ever come to that, after his excruciating screams of pain had clawed an aching, hurtful place into your very soul-, and Majora was starving and desperate, a dangerous combination for any being but something you could use.

So be it, if to protect divinity you needed to become a monstrosity, a monster was what you’d be.

You’d keep him safe. And you knew that if the Fierce Deity put him down once, he could do it again in case you slipped. Between him and Sky you weren’t afraid at all of the risk.

Even if Time never forgave you for taking it.)

You smile bitterly, tearing up in spite of yourself as you see the second Time spots you and the cursed artifact in hand, eye wide, voice ripping from his throat in desperation, “I’m quite selfish, I’m sorry.”

His haunted expression cuts you deeper than any knife, as you knew it was an image that featured in many of your nightmares and his own. But you’re insatiable for his happiness, so you take the plunge.

“NO NO NO NO DON’T-“

You put on the mask, and you scream.

It’s like stepping on fire, a twisted, desperate tune, a note of discord, a belt of harmony and fury and most importantly, the mighty need to consume the one who had tried to take the one you loved away from you.

Defy death, defy entropy, defy chaos, defy flame and voracity.

You cling to your self control with a snarl, howling in defiance. Sinking your nails into the abyss’ throat and biting, tearing, holding, tasting rot and withered flowers and the writhing of shadows and the blood of distorted gluttonousdivinity on your tongue with savagery equal to the way the demon sinks it's spikes onto you. Chew on it’s tender, rotting flesh, quaff down the lukewarm pus of it’s heart and the rust of blood as it bites off your skin, stripping your mind into chunks as it nests into your ribs like the spikes of wild, dead roses when it finds your mind tougher to break and you BURN YOU ARE LIFE YOU ARE CHAOS AND YOU ARE DROWNING AND YOU ARE FLAME-

You move, and Majora’s laugh sounds like a scream and a song as reality howls.

Your bones, sinew, muscles, nerves, veins and teeth are reformed, the being pounces, dancing, swerving, whipping, cleaving, ripping and feeding into the monsters with putrid, revolting gusto. Whenever it’s attention even tries to waver towards the Heroes you sink your hold in harder, stubborn, you’re sure there’s blood dripping from your mouth beneath the mask, your eyes, your ears, as it reaches a crescendo of glee and pain. A human body isn’t meant to hold so much divinity at once, much less as wretched and horrific as Majora’s, but you don’t care, can’t care, when you’re holding onto yourself like a vice, refusing to give it even a single inch.

It doesn’t kill Dark Link, the bastard (the one who’d hurt Time, the one who would have finished him off if not for you and Warriors). But the screech the Shadow releases as it gets ripped to shreds and the ripple of it’s retreating form is enough to make you partially agree with Majora’s vicious, amused glee that it was satisfying. Even if the feeling of you allowing it to utilize your skin temporarily felt revolting and disgusting in a way it made you wish you were actually on fire, not just in so much pain in a metaphysical level that it sure rivaled being set on fire, frost burned and lightning struck all in one go.

All is still now, all is silent.

Now comes the difficult part.

'Are you quite sure?', whispers Majora, crooning like nails on chalkboards, and it’s spikes sink into you tighter when you grip the sides of it, teeth gritted as you start prying it out of your face, amused by your defiance, but no longer as hungry. You did allow it quite the meal, you bet nothing like fellow divinity tastes better to the being, like the taste of a forbidden fruit you were going to be unfortunately acquainted given you’re sure Dark Link’s blood is on your teeth.

'Yes.' comes your faint response, as your sanity frays in fragile threads, you think someone calls your name, but you are drowning, you are burning, and you know that if you don’t focus it will break you. And you’d be fully dead before you let that happen. If you’re going to die you’re going to die as a human.

'Tou are so, so cold… So cruel.' It drawls, the demon’s voice like the gnawing of rats, like maggots under you skin, you convulse, falling to your knees with a wounded keen and pull harder, you barely noticed someone falling by your side, frantically calling your name, but the mask’s eyes dim to an outsider’s perspective, resigned as it hums dreamily, 'I suppose that’s why The Divine Hunter cares for you so, why it’s vessel’s claim is so strong.'

Good, you were banking on it being sleepy, after gorging yourself on the enemy of your boys, Hylia’s gash and Din’s assets your mouth is going to taste putrid for months isn’t it?

Majora hisses, growls, howls and screeches, a brush against your essence as it retreats. Unwinding from every single cell of your body, distorting your atoms back to their proper shape. It still hurts, buy it’s more bearable, although you quickly notice you’re chocking on a different form of Divinity, more possessive, more wild but just as old and ferocious as it snaps at the retreating heels of the twisted, chaotic thorns. Making reality remember your own shape quicker at the cost of filling every crack consumed by the demon.

You swear that thing is smiling smugly at something else, teeth bared and very entertained, taking the suffering of the people of Termina and the cold revulsion in your veins with it as it retreats with it's cacaphony of voices to the shade, 'A shame. Feasting more would be delightful, but very well. We trust that though you hurt today, tomorrow you’ll make sure we head on our way.'

You don’t have the mind or heart to say anything else to it, for it grows silent as the spikes rip from the sides of your face, you bite of a tortured yell as the spikes rip off chunks of skin and flesh, clawing at the ground with, thankfully, soothing, perfectly regular fingers and nails, albeit cracked, you feel someone take their hand in yours, and you crack open an eye, carefully aware of the blood dripping down your face from the half removal of the heart shaped mask and the thrum of thunder replacing the cold in your veins with boiling, protective warmth.

Time.

“You shouldn’t be up already.”, you rasp, looking over his wounded form, healed by Hyrule, you shakily take your left hand to keep prying at the Majora’s Mask, only for him to take it gently in yours, you taste blood, the petrichor of the Lost Woods mist and pine on the back of your mouth, chasing the rot of Majora away.

“It’s nothing, we both know I’ve had worse.” He says, firmly shaking his head. His scarred eye is open, ivory like bone, the markings more vibrant and prominent with the ferocity of a god, he looks tired, and you attempt to speak, to apologize, to voice your worry because you knew channeling the deity without a conduit was a bad idea, before coughing, shaking from the aftermath of your reckless, reckless plan.

(You unfortunately can’t say you regret it much, though, when you silently bear the combined brunt of Time and Fierce Deity’s care once you reach camp and the protective way they act towards you. Even though Majora is long gone much to your resigned exasperation, and the rest of your boys amusement, but that is for much, much later.)

Time gently hums, it rings through you like thunder as he holds you close, tapping your neck in a rhythm you could recognize in your sleep for when he was about to pull arrows, blades or shrapnel from your skin, or was ready to have it done to himself, you immediately loosen yourself as much as possible, gripping his hand tightly as he rips the rest of the Majora’s Mask off, inert and lifeless as when you’ve both woke up from a new day, he holds you close as you try to breathe, reassuring himself you’re still here, “Don’t you ever scare me like that again. Please.” He pleads, begs, prays. He can't lose you too.

And you can’t help it, you smile as you cry crimson and russet tones from your eyes, holding him back as close as you dare to. He doesn’t hate you, you’re sure you’re going to soon participate in the argument of a lifetime. But Link doesn’t hate you, doesn’t see you as a monster any more than you could ever see him as anything but the kind companion you always knew.

So you let yourself nod, helpless to say no to him for anything really. And allow yourself to breathe, you’re both going to be alright.

#linked universe x reader #linked universe time x reader #lu time x reader #also know as Reader Going All in on their Feral Arc on my docs lol #this makes reference to Majora's story in fhe manga before it became a mask. #and basically has some of my many many thoughts about why it evolved the way it did and it's effects #even though all the original version of it as a demon was basically one long nap lol #The Majora's Mask adapts depending on who's wearing it and in this essay I will- #Majora: So what's in it for me if I indulge your little mortal whims? #Reader who us willing to do anything for the Links and Time: Free food entertainment and a nap? #Majora after seeing it can annoy Fierce Deity in one go too: Deal #They're both analogue and aspects to each other and are so mad about it. Majora wasn't gonna to pass that up lol #Mortals holding divinity when they aren't vessels explicitly created for it has consequences in LoZ and that's reflected here #kind of #Fierce Deity x Reader #? albeit very mildly and through Time's care #Fierce Deity doesn't like sharing his vessel or the rest of the Chain with other deities and that extends to Reader #They basically gave them the metaphysical equivalent of a hose down in a lab to avoid contamination #and replaced all of the energy it put in there with his own to make a point and to help with the strain #I have so many thoughts about Time and about this stuff lol #Majora. Appreciating Reader's unhinged defiance: I like this one. FD growling: Back off my vessel has had dibs for years #summer writes linktober shadow 2023 #summer writes #and now I crash lol #Also friendly reminder that the Majora's Mask is MIA in Wind Waker and was never exorcised in the Downfall line #just throwing that out there

[cyberscratch]

A new ref for Lemmy, and an official design and introduction of Limmy in This Universe Has Lemons In It! Limmy was created by the Guardian of the Lemonverse (any pronouns) as an attempt to stop Lemmy from what they are doing, which is creating portals to travel through various universes and dimensions to have fun. Not only is that a risk for the balance of the universe, but GotL just dislikes this kid having fun and wants to see them stopped.

Not wanting to do it in it's own hands, it created Limmy, an angel dog meant to be an direct opposite to Lemmy. Limmy, however, doesn't do much to stop Lemmy, other than following them and bickering. Their relationship is very Tom and Jerry rivalry-esk.

(Names color coded for myself to read easier due to the similar names!)

Fun fact, Limmy was originally going to be based on limes (Lime Angel), but I kept that concept for GotL - and made them more angel-like instead.

#GotL as he has been named for the time being uses any pronouns but it/he are the most used just saying #also this little story/oc universe has been planned for a while so i find it funny that GotL has basically the same motivations #miguel in across the spiderverse minus the trauma and more godly power #i just always had an fascination with like...the idea of the universe...multiverses...different dimensions and traveling across them #ive included this in most if not all my oc projects like this actually! at first mostly inspired by gravity falls #which is literally my favorite cartoon ever #i am watching a 2 and a half long video on the timeline rn its so good please watch it its by hana hyperfixates. while working on this i #watched their first 2 hour long gravity falls video. literally newest favorite video essay project? its very good it talks about queerness #in gravity falls and its their passion project and its so obvious there was a lot of effort put into it. anyways away from my tangent i go #'lemmy' put my actual tags here #oc art #character design #oc ref #ref #tuhlii #this universe has lemons in it #lemon demon #UNSURE again if i wanna use '-core' tags on this. i dont like using them much anymore and im only gonna use 'weirdcore' for some kind of #music bc theres no specifics to what type of music i exactly like that lemmy is also based on aside from lemon demon of course #[Lemmy] #[Limmy] #guz art #[2023] #fun fact! i spent like 20+ or so minutes stressing over GotL's possible name until i settled on this goofy title! #its meant to found goofy. like at first you think its gonna sound cool and then youre hit with 'lemonverse' #which it...technically is! where lemmy is from it's like... a connected bunch of worlds and universes and just places all based on #lemon demon songs and other content. tuhlii is basically a love letter to ena + lemon demon + old/childhood internet ?

[petruchio]

i joke that i should get an honorary degree for my hunger games analysis on tumblr but it’s low key hilarious that i was just like casually getting a masters degree in literature in real life and also basically doing a second one online with my tumblr mutuals. like the way i was just like on here writing fully cited essays and having text based discussions about these novels with the same level of intensity and dedication (perhaps more) that i was giving to my actual real life degree

#i feel like this makes it sound like im embarassed but it’s actually so cool #and if im being honest i think all the literary analysis we did together really helped me in my degrees #but like yeah that is … a thing that i did #like i was getting 2 degrees simultaneously and writing a 60+ page thesis about shakespeare #and on top of that … i was basically attending hunger games discussion seminars online #and regularly writing essays about it. FOR FUN #girls when theyre a little bit crazy. and a little bit insane. 🤡 #caroline speaks

[always-a-joyful-note]

Revue Starlight is just ORV but what if it was theatre instead and what if we told you that a tragedy can always be rewritten? What if the end of the story, the end of the play, your defeat onstage - what if all that doesn't mean everything is over because you can always make a new play, always become better, always rebuild the stage and stand on it again? What if there WAS death but what if rebirth was also possible?

What if this tragic tale that always ends the same had new actors, you know? How would they play it? How would they spin the story a different way? Will they try to outshine the past, outshine others? Or will they find their own unique brilliance instead and join the stars that shine in the night sky?

#in this essay i will etc etc #anyway i was dragged into watching the anime and the recap movie #still have to watch the sequel film upon writing this #and yeah #being an omniscient readers viewpoint stan and then watching this is like...idk #its like being hit by a ton of bricks after youve already been crushed by a building #im gonna tear my pillow and bite the walls about this anime media project thing #i cannot believe these themes and this story is in an anime with a random creepy giraffe and a netherworld magic stage #like youd think theyd question that just a little but no theyre just 'a giraffe????' and move on #anyway....yeah i loved this #revue starlight #fandom spamdom #note's notes #to orv fans this is anime took the goo that was my brain from orv and put in a blender #to enstars fans this is basically what if valkyrie with actual magical realism elements and they were girls #i cannot be normal after watching this

[sweetberrylover]

Can you tell me what was in the Valentine's day story

OH brother I knew someone was going to make this question

Obvious spoilers for the new Plastic man Valentine story from “How To Lose A Guy Gardner In 10 Days”

Basically most people are mad at how bad the characterization of plas is in that story that basically treated him as shallow doofus that EVERYONE hates for no good reason that has to learn a big lesson at the end of the story

So like imagine Joe Kelly levels of bad writing but atleast in this one they didn’t make him a pervert THANK GOD ( although they still make him kind of a horndog and there is a part in particular where he ask Wonder Women out and it’s cringy to say the least )

Also the design they gave him is just… mh not great

( Here’s examples of what I’m talking about so yk I’m just making this up )

It really sucks not only because of how all the waiting we did just for it not be good but also because there really was something you could have done with this concept that would actually be good with Plas

Plastic man is a character that does infact has a history of bad luck in romance mostly because back in the Golden age he seemed pretty uninterested and even scared of woman and in the modern age any love interest he has had is a cardboard girl that’s only exists to give him children or to cause conflict ( in summary most of his love interests are non-existence or straight up abusive/toxic)

Having a story explore his bad luck with romance or a story exploring him dealing with a bad relationship would be very interesting and great development but unfortunately that’s not what happened here. Everybody mistreats him for little to no reason, they paint him as shallow womanizer and throughout the story he hits on a women who turn him down multiple times and also he thinks she’s is married for most of it which obviously paints him in such a bad light

For some odd reason not only does everyone around Plas treat him like trash ( Batman starting to date Plastic mans girlfriend after she basically cheats on Plas all the time and Wonder Woman not knowing who he even is EVEN THOUGH PLAS HAS BEEN IN THE JL FOR A LONG WHILE ) and somehow that’s his fault but also the writers forget the two big things about him is 1 his supposed to be heroic and 2 his supposed to actually be a character and not just a gag joke

Im summary it’s just not that interesting or good. It’s not offensively bad as Joe Kelly or Mark Waid writing but the reason people dislike so much it’s cause we have seen this song ad dance over and over again and it’s just tiring

( forgive me for the bad English or typos this isn’t my first language and I’m also typing this in a hurry because there so much I want to say but also ik I can’t make this super long )

#to add more things to this #plas isn’t allowed to have a cast of reacorring characters #woozy chief branner Luke Edwina Pado Angel Morgan or any of his rouge basically don’t appear in canon anymore or exist solely to cause drama #now with all that in mind he’s also treated as a shag character and Plas himself hasn’t appeared in canon for a long while #pair all this and than have the little appearances he has in comics now is has a background character #a gag character or in bad stories like this ofcourse people get mad #it’s just sad to see Plas being treated as a one trick pony with no dept or something interesting going on #any ways #rant disguised as essay #plastic man #woozy winks #not art related #ask/tell me anything

[rooolt]

The concept of lark finding out “what the doodler wants” and then shattering it before anyone else can know is sooooo fascinating to me because the way I’ve always read it the doodler doesn’t want anything. To me, the doodler was horrifying because it was not an all powerful malicious entity with goals or wants, but a faceless brainless force of nature that was so strong it’s mere presence in the world spelled destruction. Like never once in the podcast has the doodler shown any agency or intent, every action in service of it even in amod seemed entirely motivated and verbalized by its acolytes. We know from amod that the doodler thrives of the concept of randomness and to me that’s all it ever was. It was so heavily entrenched in the random and chaos that it physically could not have wants or desires for power because it would so be against its very nature. That’s why the doodler was scary to me, because it could not be manipulated or tricked like a person could, it was simple raw destructive horrifying power, and I don’t think the lark stuff disproves that. What if that is the truth, what if the doodler doesn’t want anything? If you’re lark, a person who feels crushing responsibility for this disaster and you find out that it is no different in intent than a hurricane, does that not terrify you? Does that not instill in you a fear that if anyone else found out they would feel so powerless against it that they would just give up? They’d give up and the world would end and it would be your fault. This was not the all powerful creature 11 year old you thought it was, the one he wanted to fight to prove his strength, this is pure entropy and chaos and randomness and destruction and no one else can know lest they stop fighting? Is the fighting fruitless, who even knows, but at least it fools you into thinking you’re making a difference.

#Does this make sense idk I’m tired and cold #Basically I never thought the doodler was like a dude chilling in the sky who wanted power with big plans #It just was #and in a gamey sense that’s scary bc you can’t do damage to a force #Idk I wrote an essay but amod a little bit ago and I’ve been thinking about the doodler #Really excited to see where this church of the doodler stuff goes and I swear to go if normal is not the one to put his mind at risk #What’s even the point #Nah I’m just joshing (am I) #Watch out roolts back at it again with long thinky posts that will get like ten notes #Alright good night I sleep now #dndads #dungeons and daddies #The doodler #Lark oak

[ferronickel]

Looking Glasses Page 34

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And here's Lancer! It only took me thirty three pages to get to the third protagonist of the comic.

I think it's important to note that he's 16 in this comic. He's a few years younger than the rest of the fun gang, but I've never headcanoned him as being as young as fandom seems to interpret him these days.

#looking glasses #deltarune #utdr #ralsei #susie deltarune #lancer deltarune #deltarune fanart #deltarune comic #i have a whole essay about why i think lancer should be an age peer with the rest of the characters #but it basically boils down to I don't think Susie would be close friends with a 10 year old #and I don't think the ongoing infantilization of lancer is the fandom's fault necessarily #chapter two definitely characterized him a lot younger than chapter one and people have run with that cause its cuter #but i've always viewed him as just a weird immature teen #that isn't to say i didn't fall prey to young lancer characterization in Everyone Deserves a Leather Jacket #anyway #sleepover time next week #so I probably won't have to worry about sadboytax for a little while

[idiosyncraticrednebula]

Almost all of the "criticism" (i.e., hatred, bashing) thrown at Disney Princesses comes directly from a fundamental misunderstanding, misinterpretation and misreading of the core message of their stories and their respective characters and journeys.

#disney princesses #disney #meta #disney meta #txt #thankfully dp hate isn't as common now thanks to the multiple defense essays that have been done about them there are still people who #spread nonsensical exaggerated and false narratives about them #don't even get me started on the disney princes #if the disney princesses are unfairly lambasted the disney princes are basically burned alive just because they are the love interest #and everything that is said about them is based primarily on the first two princes and even a bit of phillip #but ever since eric they've been pretty damn unique in their own way (except for john because i don't like him but i don't even think he #should count anyways considering the historical basis of his character. anyways that's another topic for another) #i feel like this specially applies to the first 6 who get the most hatred #specially in regards to cinderella and ariel who are undoubtedly the most misunderstood of all #and they also happen to be two of the most popular princesses #if you think all they have ever thought little girls is to be pretty and wait for somebody to “win” them as their trophy wife you are #pretty damn stupid. how the hell do y'all reach these types of conclusions? #the disney princess has always been defined for her HEART the physical beauty just ACCENTUATES their beautiful soul #they have different ways to show it some are tougher and some are softer but at the core they are all good people #if you don't get that about them ofc you are gonna f*cking hate them with every fiber of your very being #this also has to do with the bastardization of the princess archetype being painted as a spoiled brat as opposed to a kind-hearted selfless #and brave individual #also it's kind of funny that they complain about that when they constantly tell women that all they have to do is be pretty and don't have #to do a damn thing because their existance alone is enough and they don't have to do sh*t in the relationship #SO WHICH ONE F*CKING IS IT????????????? JESUS CHRIST #anyway. rant over

[theguyfromthesequel]

KINDA LONG, PLS BEAR WITH ME(or not, it’s a free plane of existence) (this post is about like 5 seconds of Succesion btw)

I’ve seen a lot of people talking about the whole “a child weaned on poison and so on” thing with Succession, and while I agree, this is a valid take, I want to add my two cents specifically in regard to the protest scene in the latest episode.

To first explain my framework for this, I think out of all the Characters on Succession, Roman is the one with the least personality. And I don’t mean that as an insult to the character or the writers or Kieran Culkin. I think, ironically this is his biggest and most defining character trait. Roman Roy is a man who seemingly cares about nothing. When a rocket blows up under his oversight, he washes his hands and gets out of the bathroom. And still, from the very first scene, this man is explosive. He doesn’t stand up from chairs, he practically throws himself off them. Anytime the room is silent for a second, he bursts out with a sex joke, every second word out of his mouth is “fuck”. Because that’s what happens when each of your actions are calculated. Not in a rational way, he doesn’t act logically. But to perform the simplest tasks he first needs to convince himself to continue existing. Roman Roy is a wooden boy. There is no person inside him, he is a carefully crafted amalgamation of collected habits, motions, phrases, ideas, quite possibly even political ideologies(I wouldn’t be surprised if he believes in nothing he is saying). He is mot the firstborn, not even the secondborn, he has no family of his own and nothing to fight for. Roman Roy is a nothing craving to be SOMETHING.

That’s where Logan becomes important, because he, for all his faults, is undeniably SOMETHING. He is a monument, en emperor, Citizen Kane on steroids, the king of the world, but most importantly, he was THERE. Logan Roy was undeniable. When he looked at you, you were marked for life, he walked into a room and everyone went silent. “He made me breath funny.”

Meanwhile Roman was a child. I’ve seen people analysing the way Roman basically becomes a 5 year old when he’s under pressure, and I think all those interpretations are great, but I’d like to take it one step further. Roman isn’t a hard shell harboring a soft core, he is a child who just learned the f-word and is now shouting it at full volume to impress the adults at the table. Because he thinks there’s nothing else he can contribute. He himself is nothing.

Logan, for better or worse, was complete. He was a fully grown man with beliefs, ideas, means and a strong right hook. He was a presence in Romans life, as much as Roman bent over backwards to please others or benefit himself, he would always know that there’s something that never changed. As long as Logan lived, there was SOMETHING in Romans life. That might he the source of Rome’s respect for him in the election episode.

So taking all that into account, I never really saw the protest scene as Rome craving violence. For me, it’s him looking for SOMETHING. This man, this child actually, just lost the only thing in his life that was defining. For years, there was something that made him hold his breath when he saw it. Something that was, in one way or another complete. Logan Roy was a monument, he wasn’t a poison that quietly slipped into Roman’s veins, he was the sound of a thousand screeching nails for 30 years or more in his ears. When Logan Roy was in a room with a thousand people, it was his room. When Roman Roy is in a room by himself, that room is empty. There’s no one around to hear the tree make sex jokes as it falls. If the two of them were together, at least there was SOMETHING there. So for years, decades SOMETHING was there, and then, out of the blue, it was just gone. What do you think it meant for Roman to be in Logan’s presence? It meant stability. Despite all Roman went through, however he slipped and slivered and bent to be accepted and make his way, his no good, piece of shit father was always there, always the same.

So when he walks out of the funeral and stumbles into the street, he doesn’t care about anything. Police? Protesters? Who cares, not this “guy”. It’s only when he sees masses of people go by that he “joins” them. Because maybe, just maybe, a thousand angry people stomping all over you, is kinda similar to being in a room with your dad. The people who walk past and over him, just for the moment are SOMETHING, an undeniable presence. They’re the placebo to the monument Roman needs to justify his existence.

Roman Roy doesn’t like pain. He doesn’t like heartbreak. If he could seal himself in Carbonite, he would. Because the relief he feels upon feeling a hand striking his cheek or a boot on his chest isn’t derived from the pain it causes. Roman loves them because they’re definite proof that there’s something besides him and his charade, that some things are real and true and just like they are, that there’s forces in the outside world, that there’s SOMETHING outside of him,

because there is certainly nothing inside

#succession spoilers #hbo succession #succession season four #succesion #roman roy #church and state #it’s basically social SH #roy family #a child weaned on poison #this could be a cool little joel type video essay but unfortunately I am super lazy

[brostateexam]

Y'all aren't gonna believe this but someone is wrong on the internet rn and I'm foaming at the mouth

#basically every point in this little tweet essay is wrong #even though i agree with the premise amd the conclusion. all of the points are wrong lol

[ofpd]

god i fucking love combeferre

#almost done w my silly little essayyy #sometimes i wonder whether it's wrong that my perception fo combeferre is basically just. what if a man was perfect #but also he basically is perfect. so. #even though in my essay i have to have ''nuance'' #txt

[bright-eyed]

Reading other english majors’ essays for class has forced me to admit that I actually am a really good writer. I’m just gonna let myself have that

#they’re probably all better at fiction/poetry than i am but i’m a v good essay writer. probably cuz i write essays on here for fun #i think being a little older also helps like i’ve just had more years to practice lol. i’m only 3 years older but still #it’s also not just the 3 years but also that the essay and longform blogpost has been my main method of creative expression since like 2015 #which is not the case with most people i mean i think basically everyone sees the essay as like a chore or a thing you have to do for school #kennapost

[rustchild]

can you elaborate on the idea that “the only way to win wrestling is to stop wrestling“?

Loooove your analysis <3

Thank you!!

This is going to be a very long ramble while i try to get my ideas together, bear with me.

So, when I say that the only way to win wrestling is to stop wrestling, what i mean is like... fundamentally, in my opinion, wrestling is a tragedy. as a whole, the basic narrative plot of professional wrestling is extremely simple: a lot of people all want the same thing, and only one person(/team) can have it. So one of the rules of the fictional space, in kayfabe, is that the wrestlers will work their assess off trying to get something that most of them will probably never get (a prominent title reign), losing friendships and experiencing horrifying agony in the process.

Then, if you get it, it's inevitable that you'll lose it again. Part of why wrestling is a tragedy is that once a champion gets a belt, the tension underlying their story immediately switches to 'when are they going to lose the belt?' and that builds up until the point when they, yeah, lose the belt and have to start all over again. It's sisyphean. there's no win state where you get what you want and get to keep it.

And then.... career babyfaces who never turn heel are rare. So the chances that you'll make it through that process, over and over again, without losing your integrity and selling part of yourself to the devil are pretty slim! chances are a wrestler will face multiple betrayals, and commit a betrayal or two themself, so you're also going to lose relationships. the narrative demands it. if your medium is fake violence, every story is going to be steered into the ring--which means that every relationship has a nascent potential match inside it. some of my favorite matches have been between people who on some level really don't want to hurt each other, but who have no choice, because the choices they've made and the narrative rules of the space demand it.

Also, in order to keep the tension high, heels have to win. a lot. So a hero, in wrestling, is fighting a losing battle because they have to be in order for the fictional space to stay the self-perpetuating laundry cycle of drama that it is.

And then what? You fight until your body gives out and you get worse and worse until you're forced to give up. You are chewed up over and over again by a story that demands pain in order to continue. The mode of your universe is violence, so the only way to find peace is to leave that universe.

Wrestling is a competition you never actually win, because winning would end the story, and the story is bigger than you and scarier than you and it is being created, constantly, all over the world, by the collective will of thousands of people who may at any point become your enemy. if the thing that the narrative demands you want is nigh untouchable and will be taken from you, the only way to win is to want something else.

There's an old adage about how wrestlers should retire "on their backs," giving the win to new talent and passing some of their collected audience goodwill over to a rising star. Which is really cool from an industry perspective! but also it hammers in that the inevitable end state of a wrestler's career is loss.

Obviously there are exceptions to this. AEW's mentor system is actually a really interesting and innovative way to gentle the end of a wrestling career and allow for interaction with the fictional space without the narrative pressure. Of course, because the story must go on, we're probably going to see a lot more betrayals of and by mentors in the coming years. it's what the story demands.

#wrasslin #this is a little incomprehensible sorry #basically i have a lot of thoughts about how the fiction of wrestling #is a machine that demands pain in order to fuel its constant churn #every friendship implies a betrayal. every title reign implies a loss. #there's no way to win except to walk out early on a high note #wrestling is a story about love told through a medium of violence and that makes it a tragedy #i think i maybe didn't explain how i'm conceptualizing the narrative space well enough here #which is like #a whole nother essay that underlies all of my analysis of wrestling #but #i'm late for work so #NO FUCK WAIT ACTUALLY THIS IS ABOUT HOW TIME FUNCTIONS IN WRESTLING BUT I DON'T HAVE TIME #RIGHT NOW TO ELABORATE ON THAT

[mariemariemaria]

when deirdre maguire said ‘punk is the only religion worth fighting for’

#yeah! #derry girls #actually thought about this when i was studying today #the punk scene in ni is soo interesting to me #and how derry girls fits into art created about the troubles #because the vast majority of media about them has focused on the violence and political 'struggles'. and understandably so #but both derry girls and the undertones focused on teenager's lives . with the troubles on the periphery #teenage kicks is about the life of one teenager who fancies a girl basically #and derry girls is about a group of teenagers who struggle with ordinary things about being a teenager like school parents and crushes #and both the undertones in the 70s and derry girls today showed the rest of the uk/ireland (and further afield) that ni is more than just #violence and sectarianism. and that the people (esp teenagers) here are just like people and teenagers everywhere #which was a BIG deal in the 70s and honestly kind of a big deal now too when you think about english ignorance about ni lol #(one commentator on a guardian review of derry girls said that it hadnt occurred to him when he was growing up that catholics in ni were #just ordinary people just like him and his friends and family. which kinda shows the extent to which propaganda regarding ni functioned in #britain during the troubles - and still today in some ways) #it also feels significant that both derry girls and the undertones were created by working class catholics from derry but maintaining #a non sectarian aspect is also important - the point is that they both portrayed the realities of being a teenager which crossed religious #and political barriers. i could write a whole essay on this honestly #kinda moved on from the punk scene aspect hmmm in ep 3x05 of derry girls stiff little finger's 'alternative ulster' was played #which calls on the listener to 'grab it and change it - it's yours' to show that ordinary people - esp teenagers - have the power to create #a better society and a better life and a better ulster. and in 3x07 that's exactly what they did.

[wuntrum]

love sitting and thinking about watching a movie and then not actually watching the movie or any movie, for that matter

#personal #fallen off my film bro game :( #tempted to start a project again which i Thought was gonna be my thesis #where its like. reportage/collagey/diaryesque passages about the movies i watch. #basically like an illustrated letterboxd but with more content in it lsjkdf #like some little essays in there. itd be currated a bit #IDK i need to workshop it but i still think it'd be really fun #id make it a little book u could buy