#but I think you can see my influences here wrt my last post

[nalyra-dreaming]

https://www.tumblr.com/nalyra-dreaming/750916431920676864/hi-nalyra-i-may-be-reading-you-wrong-so-clarify

Regarding my last ask I have a rough idea but you can go ahead and explain

Sure!

So, buckle up ;)

So I just checked but the only true Loumand post I tagged “lol“ on was this one (if I saw that correctly):

Note that "I can SMELL the discourse that will happen already" there.

That is something I anticipate - because, well. Armand... is Armand.

I'll elaborate the (book) canon on that below the cut:

Armand has been a coven master for centuries, in the Children of Satan/Darkness and later as the master at the theater. He was literally tasked to uphold the laws of the vampires and did so as he saw fit. I have talked about them here, note also the difference these laws go through in the books:

Armand does what he sees is best, which does not always align with what others think is best. For example he usually hunts down rogue vampires, "cleaning up" so to speak, which is something that Lestat for example is loathe to do in the later books.

And he canonically influences Louis several time with the mind/spell gift, to make him do something - even after he promised Louis not to do so (here an ask with quotes):

Armand originally is interested in Louis because he is Lestat's ... he literally "imprinted" on Lestat when showed up after his turning, because Lestat reminded him so much of Marius.

Lestat goes to him to plead for Louis' and Claudia's life after Claudia tried to kill him, and Armand, though he did promise he would help Lestat if he asked him to, throws him into a dungeon instead, starves him, and then uses him at the trial against Louis and Claudia.

The trial itself happens because Louis - even deeply infatuated with Armand - decides to leave with Claudia and Madeleine after all. (And of course the coven knows, and insists on the rules.)

Armand uses the spell gift on him as they are taken by the coven to be tried.

Louis is sentenced to be entombed, something the original cult Armand was the leader of did to young vampires - until they're mad or manage to dig themselves out.

Claudia is sentenced to death. Madeleine as well. Later on it is revealed that Armand has a little surgical theater there as well, where he conducts the experiment of chopping off Claudia's head to sew it onto a grown woman's body. But he is unsatisfied with the result and puts Claudia and Madeleine into the sun after.

Armand digs Louis out after a while, and Louis feeds (a lot) and destroys the coven.

He thinks Lestat died there, but actually it is later revealed that Armand throws Lestat off a tower instead, and tells Lestat Louis and Claudia are dead.

Louis goes on, numb, and Armand... tags along, keeping a "veil" between Louis and the world.

Louis stays with Armand, because he has nowhere else to go - and despite knowing that Armand killed Claudia.

He stays until the veil is lifted and Armand finally tells him Lestat did not die.

Armand... is Armand.

We will see the horrific things he can do wrt the Devil's Minion arc with Daniel as well, because Armand hunted Daniel. And the beginning of their relationship was far from cute. I think that will be episode 5.

Also, Armand is not too big on consent. He does what he thinks best.

I reblogged something earlier wrt this as well:

So where does that leave us with the show and wrt my tag? :)

When Armand says he never hurt Louis then he is not lying. But look at their faces after:

That's history, baby.

Because no, Armand does not physically hurt Louis.

But he literally hurts everyone Louis loves in an effort to keep Louis for himself.

He experiments and then kills Claudia (and Madeleine). He hurts Lestat and tells him Louis is dead. He tells Louis Lestat is dead and keeps him under the "veil".

And it will be far from pretty.

#anonymous #ask nalyra #armand #consent #mind gift #spell gift #iwtv s2 #iwtv #amc iwtv #interview with the vampire #interview with the vampire s2 #amc interview with the vampire #interview with the vampire amc #iwtv amc #louis de pointe du lac #loumand #links #book quotes

[redinthesea]

Random little wizard design. 🧙 I still struggle with classic fantasy type designs rip.

#artists on tumblr #character design #wizard #fantasy design #wizardcore #me art #I dont like generic tolkienesque fantasy tbh so its why I struggle with it #but I think you can see my influences here wrt my last post #it has a more unique take on the fantasy aesthetic haha

[gxldencity]

4, 7 & 24 for the 🔥🔥 asks!

4. what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

Tbh I don't have a last straw anymore. I use and abuse the block button liberally. If I see an annoying opinion, I block. Sometimes, I don't even finish reading the post because you usually can tell it's rancid from the first 2 lines.

I've blocked half a fandom at this point bc of the constant negativity. I simply don't care anymore. I'm here to have fun. If you take personal offense to that then that's your problem not mine.

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

Alngksgnw as you're said hate IS a strong word and I don't hate characters really unless there is a good reason for me to hate them.

So when I say I began to dislike Dorian Pavus after seeing how the fandom acted towards him, I don't hate him. I guess I do find him fascinating and relatable to an extent but I also don't think he's written perfectly as some people act like he is. Revisiting Dorian's quest as an adult with a fully developed brain and way more comfortable about my own queerness made me realize that I dislike how Dorian didn't really have agency whether to reconcile with his father or not. I know it's the point of The game to have a choice but Idk a bit more dialogue about the choice could've easily solved that problem for me.

I also have issues with Dorian's Indian coding lmao and have since felt like I was duped. It just feels like a cop-out? Like Gaider and team knew about the complaints people have about his comments wrt Asians in Thedas so they made him Asian—only mentioning it in a forum post or Twitter I think 🫠 so to this day ive seen people still surprised that he's Asian—without considering how to code him as Indian in the game.

Things like his clothing having some influences from the cultures in India or family structures and mannerisms. I mean it could be as simple as Indian coding the people of Quarinus so you don't just have this one Indian coded family in the entirety of Thedas. The Alexiuses could've also been Indian coded.

(An aside there's more layers to this like the unfortunate implications of coding a group of people who own slaves as poc but I could write a whole post about Dragon Age's attempts of trying to put Asians in this game)

Anyway, that's canon lol. Fandom makes this all worse. I could just point at the Orientalist depictions of Dorian in fanart and just end it here but nope it goes deeper. Somehow, Dorian attracted the worst kind of fandom. Like the Solas and Cullen stans maybe louder but I was there Gandalf. I was in the trenches. People were forming cliques around this one BNF and their friends. I was in the clique and it was all good until Tresspasser dropped.

You see this clique hated that Tresspasser ended with Dorian and the Inquisitor being in an LDR—because Dorian was off trying to fix a country—to the point where some of them acted like they broke up. Hello? Okay 1) That is such a poor reading on long distance relationships 2) Dorian...got a phone crystal for the Inquisitor, u know a tech that didn't exist in Thedas so they can stay in touch.

It also isn't enough that they didn't like it. Others have to Not like it as well. I remember talking to the BNF about my Inquisitor and Dorian, how they stayed in touch as Dorian was y'know trying to fix a country and the BNF told me that it was a depressing situation for my Inquisitor and Dorian...even though it isn't and they're perfectly happy.

(An side, not from this clique but I wouldnt be surprised if some of them also held this opinion but I saw some accusations from folks that Bioware is homophobic because Dorian and the Inquisitor are in an LDR. This is how batshit this fandom is).

Anyway, to keep it short, I was 19-20 when all of this happened. I probably said some stupid shit around that time but I should tell you these people were in their late 20s to early 30s. They were affected by a 19-20 year old with just a handful of followers saying stupid shit. They were so affected by the barely adult saying stupid shit that one of them stalked me, vagueposted about me and when I found out they were vagueposting about me, proceeded to gaslight me and told me I was the one stalking them. :)

Not only that, they also harassed one of my friends to not posting their fics ever again, harrassed a friend of a friend for trying to steal the BNF's spotlight 🙄. Come on some of you have fucking children.

I don't think I could look at Dorian in the same way which is a shame because for a time he was important to me but like God, it was rough.

I also have not forgotten nor forgave :) hence why I have the studio behind that chorus game or whatever it's called now blocked :) and would not be playing it. Do not care if David Gaider is the one writing it. I mean he kinda was the weakest link in that writing team imo (and I also hate his prose).

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

Very cliche but anything to do with the mages and templars

#elaine talks #im so SORRY about the essay lmao #im okay now though and ive generally put THAT incident behind me

[remythologise]

Hello! I found your blog via you amazingly summarizing all that's going on with the spn drama. Due to my schedules, rl stuff, some of the arcs that didn't vibe with me, my availability to find a place to watch...the rollercoaster I was used to with this fandom was more me binging it in a weekend to going months to over a year without watching it. I still haven't watched the last season(but with a fandom this big it's pretty impossible not be spoiled so I more or less know what happened) BUT oh great one I ask of thee for more information if you have it...other than being busy and whatnot, I'm not really one to keep up with the actors as well. So could you also maybe do a summary of all the stans? I'im seeing terms I haven't seen before. Who is Kelios(sp?)? Hellions?? probably messed it up but like...I guess what are the name of each legion? Who do they have alliance towards? What was their desires? Que paso?!?!?!?

Hi there! 'Some of the arcs that didn't vibe with me' me emotionally quitting Supernatural in Season 7 after they killed Castiel 😂 Anyway I totally get it, I went through the same culture shock mid-last year when I got back into SPN and tried to find where fandom was at! There's really a LOT of lore and content after 15 years though so I'll just do the broad brushstrokes based on my impressions and personal stereotypes PLEASE remember this is oversimplifying groups and individuals to tendencies and I'm very biased! Also important that there are sub-factions within sub-factions - again, I'm simplifying here!

I've also linked to the 'Super-wiki' in terms of some definitions because the Super-wiki has pages for them where the Fandom-wiki does not. Great introduction actually - only in the Supernatural fandom. There are two Supernatural wikis. One, through curation and twitter activity, supports BiBro/Wincest factions and does not support Destiel users. One is more neutral or Destiel-friendly (I don't know that the Fandom wiki has a personality/social media presence per se). You cannot make this up. There is a factional war... within use of fandom wikis.

Destiel faction

People who primarily ship Dean/Cas, love Castiel and (often, although not always) Jack, and the 'found family' of Supernatural as well as the brothers, and like the post s3 seasons too. Hated 15.19 and 15.20 for killing Dean and ignoring the other characters/narrative arc of the show. Nicknamed 'Destihellers' by the Wincest faction as a derogatory term, 'reclaimed' and shortened as 'Hellers', a nickname they use affectionately to describe each other. See more info on nicknames here.

Sometimes also ship ‘Cockles’ (the ship between Misha Collins and Jensen Ackles) although generally speaking they're more respectful of the wives of the actors than J2 shippers, who are notoriously responsible for... a vast series of insane-fan misdemeanours. Historically most were also good at keeping RPF to themselves and not harassing celebrities with it directly, although recently, particularly with younger twitter fans, that has not been the case.

Sub-factions:

The ‘Desticule’ or ‘Destiel tumblr’ - general grouping of Destiel-shipping tumblr users around 20-30 years old, usually LGBT+, most who came back to the show post-15.18 after leaving it for various reasons including getting sick of the queerbaiting. Funniest bitches alive etc. and responsible for the best text posts you’ve ever seen. Can also start stupid discourse and in-group drama when they’re bored.

'POLOL' - People of Lots of Letters, a discord group (of tumblr and twitter users) that ran on the assumption Andrew Dabb was playing a hugely intricate game of 3D chess to do with gnostic symbolism among other things, and would make Destiel canon. Have since had their own factional sub-wars and fallen apart a bit. Some of their meta was and is good and interesting! Some of it was wildly off the mark. Now generally insist that Dabb/the writers were all pushing for Destiel canon and the network is entirely to blame.

Twitter fans (TikTok edition) - younger fans around 18 and younger who (FOR REASONS BEYOND ME) started watching the show around 2018-2020. Definition of 'stans'. Tend to be very loud and aggressive on twitter when Events Happen, which like. I do get, because they've grown up in a completely different media environment and this kind of Dinosaur Politicking around LGBT+ issues is beyond them. Fancam central. Anyway stream #CASTIEL for clear skin!

Twitter fans (AO3 edition) - older fans around 30+ who kept going with the show but either don't have a large tumblr presence or just prefer twitter. A lot of fic writers, GISH-ers, and BNFs in this group. Some of them are very cool and reasonable in their opinions, some of them act like the younger stans. Some of them too accepting of what happened wrt 15.19-20 in my opinion, because, in contrast to the younger twitter stans, they grew up expecting Destiel to NEVER be canon or respected. 'Can't believe we got this far' etc.

Multiship faction

Multishippers or shippers of things not as large as the two main behemoths . Sub-factions based on shipping, e.g. Megstiel and Sastiel. I don't think these groups are very large though, and seem to have very little influence in the Discourse.

Wincest faction

LARGE overlap with the 'BiBro' faction and their opinions, which I'll get to. Ship Sam and Dean romantically. Often pretend to be BiBros on places like twitter and reddit in order for outside groups to take their opinions more seriously. 'Wincesties' etc. are derogatory nicknames given by the Destiel faction.

Sub-factions:

Multiship fans - ship Sam and Dean but respect Castiel/the 'found family'. Politically overlap with the faction of multishippers, I think. I don't have a lot of insight on this group of people honestly, but I know they exist.

Bronlies - the typical BiBro and 'Wincest' shippers most people think of, twitter user 'Kelios' is one of the would-be ringleaders of this faction - typically tend to be older white midwestern women. Historically have been pretty nasty on twitter (leading to Robert Berens, writer who made Destiel canon, occasionally subtweeting Kelios). Also tend to ship 'J2' - and take it very seriously as a legitimate thing that is really real. This is called 'tinhatting'.

BiBro faction

People who think the show should JUST be about the brothers, love Supernatural s1-3 and everything after it should have been just like Supernatural s1-3. Hate Castiel, Jack, and the 'found family'. Largely loved 15.20. Go to literally any comments section on any Supernatural article and You Will Find Them complaining about how the show should just be about the Brothers. Tend to be older, straighter, and more conservative/Republican (and male) fans. (I am aware that the definition of 'BiBro' used to refer to people who just liked the brothers but there's no definitional difference now in the discourse.) The Wincest and BiBro faction are generally much more wealthy than the Destiel faction (they being younger and more diverse/queer/left-leaning in general) and would be the biggest revenue generators at conventions etc.

Sub-factions:

Reddit bros - literally anyone who visits r/supernatural. Well, that's not fair - there are people who post reasonable opinions on there, but it's pretty rare and they get downvoted a lot. Like to talk about 'toxic Destiel fans' 'ruining the show' and how Dean is a straight man who is straight and could never possibly be gay. Might even think the confession was platonic despite all evidence to the contrary. I'm Not Homophobic I Have Gay Friends, But No Gays on MY Show!

Old Guard - group of older fans who overlap strongly with the Wincest faction, but might not necessarily ship Wincest.

GA faction

'General Audience' - These are the group of audience members that aren't 'online' so to speak; most watch the show on TV as a Casual Viewing Experience (are therefore also sometimes referred to as 'casuals'. Mostly their opinions tend towards BiBros, but they have a vast range of baffling views thanks to being Not Online and usually Not caring about Supernatural that much or thinking that deeply about it.

Sub-factions:

People who simply watch Supernatural on TV and then don't think about it very much after that.

I said they weren't 'online' but that's not entirely true; I'd probably classify people on Supernatural Facebook Groups as GA, along with friends of friends who post statuses about how 15.20 was a neat finale that wrapped up the series.

Conclusion

Supernatural is famously the show that appeals to both Republicans and Democrats, literally All Orientations, so there's a WIDE range of factions. However, most warring online boils down to Destiel vs. Wincest/BiBro - the war that started in Season 4 and has simply never ended. In terms of the 'actors' and their stans, in general, Wincest/BiBro fans love Jared, like Jensen, and dislike Misha. Destiel fans love Misha, like Jensen, and dislike Jared. Of course as with everything, there are variations and this is just a generalisation. But that's the summary of it, from my perspective!

This didn't even get into Sam girls, Dean girls and Cas girls. God. Anyway.

Hope that answered your question, anon!

#for some reason read more does not work on my blog main page now? you'll have to click the permalink #season 17 time for a theme change tumblr has broken this one too much sigh #ask #anonymous #this might be the most controversial thing I've ever posted or I might escape with nobody noticing it. Only Two Outcomes #didn't mention any other factional ringleaders because well #I value my life etc. #unironically who will fund me writing the PhD on supernatural fandom etc. etc. #the graphs. the statistics. the sociological insights #kira for ts #supernatural spoilers #spn spoilers

[screechthemighty]

OKAY TIME TO RAG ON T*M C*SSIELLO YET AGAIN.

So. Here’s the thing. The deal. The scoop. My meta complaints can basically be summed up in three sentences. One: T*m kept trying to sell us a friendship that wasn’t there, which only adds to how abrupt it falling apart is. Two: I do not trust this writing team with this plot line, and the way they handled parts of it in the comic itself only cement that distrust. Three: Why the HECK are they putting lore on TWITTER and only twitter. I won’t expand on that one because...that kind of speaks for itself, not everyone has twitter and it’s dumb that they’re confining important plot/character info to just twitter. But for more explanation of the other two, check under the cut.

Part One: T*m Stop Tweeting I’m Begging You

So, in my last post, I referenced the fact that this argument feels really contrived due to a lack of in-canon friendship between Mirage and Wraith. I’ve talked about this before, but tl;dr for those who don’t read my discourse: outside of some banter and bickering, there is little to no interaction between Mirage and Wraith pre-season 6 comics that implies a real connection. The s1 trailer comes close, but with everything else, it’s mostly just “Mirage says dumb thing while Wraith rolls her eyes in the background”, which establishes Literally Nothing.

But we all know they’re friends, right? This isn’t just wistful thinking by us Miraiths? No, we do know...because T*m said so on twitter. Think about it. He’s gleefully sold every interaction they get (or might get) as being food for the Miraith fans who ask about interactions, he’s the one who said Elliott is in her top three people she can stand (she NEVER explicitly names Mirage, only Natalie), and he also said this:

(screenshot orginally posted by @apexmirxith​)

Read that description. Read it again. Think about what we’ve actually gotten in the lore, both before the twitter comic and in it.

Something does not add up here. Literally nothing he said has been reflected in the canon at any point. And I would love it to be! Nothing would make me happier! If I could think of moments that lined up with that, I’d never shut up about them because I’m a single brain cell Miraith shipper and everyone knows it! But it’s not there, T*m!!!!!

Basically, Word of Author and The Actual Text are in conflict in a BIG way. It’s like T*m KNOWS he can just fill in the plot blanks with his twitter canon, but that’s NOT GOOD WRITING, and it makes what should be really interesting character moments SUPER hollow because again, none of the building blocks are there. They’re just in T*m’s mind, and then he offhandedly mentions them while replying to fan art. I swear, this dude should not keep tweeting about the plot of the games, because if he’s not doing stuff like this, he’s actively making promises he can’t keep. It’s so frustrating.

Okay, now that we’re done with that rant...

Part Two: Y’all Don’t Know How To Handle Abelism, Is The Thing

I discussed a lot of this during headcasegate II: the quickening, but for those of you who don’t read my complaining-disguised-as-analysis, the big issues are as follows:

I don’t think the intricate character work needed to grow out of abelism is actually something you can do in Apex Legends as a means of storytelling due to time constraints, the fact that plots can and will be dropped at any time (they did this with Bangalore this season, for instance) and a large cast all vying for attention in the plot.

T*m has repeatedly proven he has blind spots wrt abelism, starting with him implying autism could be cured (he walked this one back and admitted he was wrong, but still), to using abelist language as a plot device more than once, to being dismissive of people pointing that out instead of trying to understand why people were criticizing it. I don’t see any signs he’s actively learned (except the autism thing), so I don’t expect this angle to improve.

Elliott exhibits several traits of neurodivergency, from social anxiety to several HEAVILY ADHD coded traits (chronic tardiness, rambles heavily, impulsive spending, misunderstanding instructions), and has a stutter on top of that, but so far this has been ENTIRELY played for laughs and to make him look like a dumbass, not taken seriously.

And those three points really do stand, and are the basis of a lot of my concern. But there’s another angle that became more of an issue for me as I was reading the latest comic, and it has to do with Wraith. 

The game has already been really, really weird with how they’ve treated mental illness related when it comes to Wraith. They leaned heavily into the “owo scawwy mental patient! owo” imagery with banner frames and arguably her Liberator skin (I do love that skin because shaved head = chef’s kiss, but it does draw on mental illness imagery with the straight jacket look of her outfit), and she has on-and-off talked about/reacted to the voices as if they’re more a harmful influence akin to true psychosis and not helpful alternate selves. All of that leads to her being very heavily psychosis-coded, which has been noted by a lot of people.

And yet.

When the abelism is finally addressed, her breaking point, the thing the comics treat as The Thing You Shouldn’t Be Making Fun Of Her For, is...her amnesia.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s also wrong to make fun of her for having amnesia. But why is that the trait they chose to focus on? When I hear Elliott call her “brainwreck” my first thought isn’t “wow, he’s making fun of her for not remembering her past”, it’s “wow, he’s making fun of her for hearing voices.” It’s not even logical for that to be the thing that he and Bangalore are pointing out by calling her names, because like...who does that?? I don’t think even awful abelists do that. If they wanted to target her amnesia, they’d use completely different language. Brainwreck I can kinda see tying into her amnesia, but how does “headcase” relate back to that?? Literally, how??

Basically, when given the chance to address the abelism thrown at Wraith, they focus on the one thing that’s not the issue, rather than the thing that everyone points out is what makes her a mentally ill icon. And you might say, “but Screech, but it’s not a mental illness, the voices are real!” And to that I say, then why in the hell did they lean so heavily into mental illness imagery and her reacting negatively to the voices as if they are true hallucinations?? It’s just plain inconsistent, and almost feels like they don’t really want to tackle psychosis (in which case they are COWARDS, other devs have proved you can do that in a video game), so instead they focus on her amnesia and call it a day.

Dude. That’s totally not it in any way. What are you doing. What is my life. What is this GAME.

...anyways I hope all of that makes sense.

#apex legends #apex critical #discourse for ts #discourse cw

[bthump]

If you could rewrite Berserk (or maybe parts of it), what would you change? I love the way you interpret this story. The way you interpret this work, makes it so much more powerful, than how some other side of the fandom understand it.

thank you so much, i’m glad my interpretations resonate with you!

tbh my ideal version of Berserk is basically a much shorter story that begins with the Black Swordsman arc and ends on this shot:

more specifically I’d open on a similar panel of Guts fighting ghosts, seen far above, and alone. I’d include a version of the Lost Children arc in the Black Swordsman arc after chapter 2, between Snake Baron and Count Slug, also introducing Skull Knight. I’d make some kind of pointed visual comparison between Skull Knight and Vargas, illustrating that they’re both similarly consumed by revenge and cautionary tales for Guts.

This version of Lost Children is even sadder and more depressing - Jill and Rosine’s friendship is highlighted as positive, the scene where they fly together is beautiful and uplifting, and it’s suggested that if Jill did stay with Rosine her influence could remake the creepy Land of the Elves into less of a horror show and more of an actual place of refuge sans monster transformations. Yk, Rosine is open to Jill’s suggestions basically.

Guts still has his humanizing moments with Jill but he’s shown at his most monstrous too when he kills Rosine. Jill returning to her abusive home isn’t uplifting or hopeful, it’s tragic. Guts’ “this is your paradise” bit isn’t an objective statement, it’s a sign of Guts’ depressed cynicism and increasingly monstrous mindset. Oh and despite the Land of Elves being fucked up (in my version it would at least be sliiiiightly less fucked up), Guts destroying it would have some thematic echoes in the destruction of the Hawks. Maybe the raid we see on the Hawks after they’re declared traitors involves a lot more fire and forest burning down. Maybe some of the elf monster kids try to save each other and one of them gets Guts with a thrown knife lol a la Judeau protecting Casca. Idk, something.

Also the Peekaf story is cut, as is Rosine’s tragic flight home, as emotional as it was in the manga. She dies with Jill here. I’m kinda downplaying the dreams as escapes theme wrt Jill’s flight with Rosine and the land of the elves because I don’t think it works in this arc due to, yk, the alternative being abusive homes.

Afterwards ghosts still taunt Guts about becoming like Femto, but without the “your friend” description bc that gives too much away. Skull Knight picks up Rosine’s behelit and has his suggestive “hm this could be Guts eventually” internal monologue even though Guts doesn’t have a behelit yet.

Count Slug arc is essentially the same. I would turn the fetus into some kind of pathetic looking misshapen dog demon (like the Beast of Darkness but in much less cool form, bc that’s essentially what the fetus was before Miura overwrote it) who follows Guts around and reminds him of what he’s in danger of becoming. Guts picking up Slug’s behelit is the last shot before the Golden Age begins.

Theresia is a more angry version of Jill, and they’re both examples of Black Swordsman Guts ruining lives wherever he goes, along with the zombie girl in chapter 2 - it’s all variations on a theme of Guts sort of creating mini versions of himself bc of his traumatized lashing out. Zombie kid is most metaphorical in becoming a monster after listening to Guts’ cynical take on dying by the sword; Jill goes back to her abusive Gambino-esque father when her potential escape, Rosine, is killed; Theresia swears vengeance when Guts kills her father who couldn’t sacrifice her to save himself.

(this mini me thing would parallel Slug and Rosine’s abilities to create their own monsters, btw. Cycle of violence kinda thing.)

Everything else follows the manga up until Guts and Casca start getting romancey. I’d cut that out completely. They can have a burgeoning friendship but there’s no romantic undertones and no sex and no meddling Judeau etc. Casca still fights Guts and stabs him and yells at him about Griff but there’s no sucide attempt. She still confesses to her crush on Griffith because it’s a good griffguts parallel, but definitely doesn’t say she was lying to Guts and herself when she said she wanted to be Griffith’s sword. But I do want that “Griffith’s not a god... and I am a woman” line in there because it’s such a good parallel.

Guts monologues about his newfound dream to Godo in a flashback during the Wyald fight instead, then does the waterfall log thing and breaks several bones, then gets told off by Erika who points out he just wants to fight Zodd again. I’d maybe move some of Godo’s lines about Guts metaphorically being a nicked sword to here too. Also show the dragonslayer leaning up against a wall lol.

Guts still tells Casca at some point that he fully intends to leave again. Maybe during the rescue mission. Because yk we still need that moment where Griffith overhears someone telling Guts to leave.

Finally the last change is that Casca dies with Judeau, Guts manages to survive until Femto wakes up, they have a moment staring each other down, there’s a clear parallel to a moment of Guts’ childhood - I’m thinkin Guts asks “Why?” and there’s a shot of Femto, shadowed so we only see one eye, a la:

Apostles begin to descend on Guts chanting shit like ‘sacrifice’ and ‘ours,’ (comparison to bb!Guts facing down the wolves btw, Guts is resigned) and then Skull Knight appears and rescues him and we get that last shot of Femto.

The End.

The implication is that Guts and Griffith are alone and monstrous without each other, violence begets violence, relationships are a positive contrast to that but they keep fucking those up, etc. There would still be a slight ray of hope though in comparisons to Jill/Rosine and Slug’s inability to sacrifice Theresia, and Femto lowering his hand, showing that, yk, even monsters have potential. It would be a very thin ray though bc Guts killed those monsters lol so the implication would still be that Guts is kind of doomed to roam the world alone with his sword like Skull Knight or Zodd.

Also... I’d fuck around with the world building and astral plane stuff because Guts and Femto being metaphysically separated doesn’t work for this. I want that thin ray of hope even if it necessarily comes to nothing lol, if only because if I was alternate universe Miura I’d want people to write Femto/apostle Guts fanfic. So no mention that the Godhand can only appear when someone uses a behelit, maybe even imply somehow that Femto could show himself to Guts at any time, he’s just snubbing him.

Anyway yeah, ty for asking.

also if you’re interested I once wrote a very long and involved post here about what I’d change if I had free range to adapt Berserk if you want a longer answer with more details that follows the actual story much more closely (including a less involved take on my answer here lol).

#Anonymous #ask #a #b #theme: opinion #theme: adaption

[bare1ythere]

TMA Theory: Martin’s Domain

Okay it’s almost 2am where I am right now so this is probably Nothing BUT I thought it might be worth writing out before the new episode comes out. (also this post is not Really about what domain Martin would feed off of (lonely vs web vs whatever) its something Kinda different)

I was thinking about how Basira might react to seeing Jon and Martin again, which got me thinking about Martin’s status as probably one of the only non-avatar human beings of the fearpocalypse free from a reality bending nightmare. Jon is extremely likely to be more or less immortal, vs Martin is still at risk of dying at the hands of different domains. This is especially apparent in the Lonely’s domain, where Martin got fully sucked into it vs Jon was immune to its dangers (like any other domain). So what is keeping Martin safe from most of the dangers of the fearpocalypse?

MARTIN: Are we still safe?

ARCHIVIST: Y-Yes. It- It doesn’t want to harm me.

MARTIN: And me?

ARCHIVIST: I won’t let it.

JON! It’s Jon’s influence that’s keeping him safe from most of the things that have tried to harm him. I wasn’t sure if Jon had any specific abilities that are keeping Martin safe or is just keeping a close eye (heh) on him, but I think I might have an idea now.

If, theoretically, Martin was to be shot/stabbed by a Hunter, what would stop him from dying? Martin isn’t an avatar, and although he’s entity-touched he still has no access to the pseudo-immortality or healing abilities being an avatar would give him. Additionally, Jon’s “I won’t let it” from MAG161 has shown itself (SO FAR, just wait) to be More a “I’m going to keep an eye on you” thing than any concrete power due to Martin’s time in the lonely domain (MAG170). Unless Jon would be able to foresee and prevent the injury entirely, Martin might just Die if successfully attacked by a hunter. Unless.

Humans trapped in all domains except the End are unable to die.

...This new world of fear reviles death as a release, but the Coming End cannot exist without its reality.

Even when completely obliterated (See MAG163 In The Trenches) they still come back to continue on in their nightmare. It’s the victim’s connections/bonds to their domains that allows them this twisted version of immortality. But what would that mean for Martin? We haven’t been shown what his domain is yet, although it has been talked about before (chekhov's gun?)

MARTIN: Oh. Right, obviously. Duh. Uh, what about [my domain]?

ARCHIVIST: (cautiously) Would you… like me to -

MARTIN: (overlapping, sharp) No, no. Don’t tell me.

Of course, Martin’s domain as referenced above in MAG167 Curiousity is a different kind of domain, the domain that feeds him rather than feeds Off of him. However, I don’t think this distinction is necessarily important wrt Martin’s mortality. If Martin was to find his domain, I doubt he’d be able to Die within it.

What I’m saying here is. What if it’s Martin’s connection to Jon that doesn’t allow him to die. What if Jon is Martin’s domain? 

Jon has ascended as Jonah’s Archive and is more powerful than any other avatar. Being able to act as a domain isn’t in a typical avatar’s skillset, but who knows what Jon can do now? Additionally, if The Eye being able to feed off a victim’s fear is part of the requirements of being attached to a domain, well,

MARTIN: (quieter) John. I’m scared.

ARCHIVIST: Yes. (sigh) That’s the idea.

Martin’s being scared plenty. He’s also not immune completely to being harmed (MAG170 Recollections) to the point that he is still often afraid. Also, and this one’s a stretch I know, but Martin did kinda refer to Jon as a “place” in the last episode

MARTIN: But – you know what was going on, what was happening. O-Out of everyone, you’re the best place – (squeak) You, you, you’ve got the info to make a pretty damn educated guess!

In conclusion: WHAT IF JON IS MARTIN’S DOMAIN??

[ID:The pepe silvia meme, where a disheveled white guy is pointing to a chaotic red-string board next to him. End ID]

#the magnus archives #tma #magpod #martin blackwood #jonathan sims #shut up me #tma meta #this is probably the worlds worst meta/theory post GHDSKJFHJSKDF #But i had to get it out of my system #ALSO this might apply to an Archivist!Martin theory #long post #I need to go to BED NOW #Before I make some other weird prediction post dhgskjfdjs #smoking

[tinkiisms]

crossover ship wishlist

now, i’ve finally found an rp partner who is giving me the tink/jim i’ve long desired, but last night when i couldn’t sleep i was thinking of the rest of the crossover ships i’ve always wanted but never got the chance to write.

maybe describing my vision for them will convince ANYBODY to consider plotting with me!

in no particular order, i submit for your perusal....the perfect crossover ships w/ tinker bell.

TINKER BELL x PIPS:

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times, this is literally the most perfect conceivable animated crossover ship possible, and idk why it isn’t more popular.

Both characters are sassy and fun-loving, attractive fairies who would certainly take an interest in one another. Pips is quite similar to the character Tink canonically has a crush on (Peter) which being more mature and actually her size/species, as well as Tink having a similar personality to the character Pips has a crush on (Crysta.) Neither ended up with their unrequited loves in their story, so it’s not even like x-over ships with like all the Disney princesses and other characters who found their “one true love” because they’re both SINGLE, READY TO MINGLE, AND LITERALLY PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER

I like the thought of the romantic tension we can have for them because they might both be wary to start anything, having had unrequited love before, but they definitely flirt and vibe with each other.

Also I have already made several edits for them--this is the kinda ship that I’m never gonna stop reblogging inspo for and writing threads, if I only had a partner to explore it with me.

TINKER BELL x CRYSTA

As I said wrt to Tink/Pips, Tinker Bell and Crysta have a similar personality. They’re both curious, easily distracted, and none too concerned with rules--and then their differences in personality just go toward giving them chances to clash and not be the same person.

They would definitely be a good bad influence on each other, exploring and getting into trouble, but helping each other out of it as well.

I don’t have so much to say about them bc Tink/Pips is really where I think the most potential is, but I also refuse to neglect the delightful possibilty of a wlw fairy ship sitting right there for the taking.

TINKER BELL x HICCUP

I’ve seen videos of Hiccup/Fawn--which makes sense on its own bc like, Hic&Toothless + Fawn&Gruff vibes, they're both bleeding hearts--but I’m SHOCKED that I haven’t seen any for Hiccup/Tink?? Let’s discuss:

They look good together, both favor natural color schemes with green. They’re both inventors which is something to bond over. They both break the mold in their respective society, going where none others have gone before/breaking customs that end up making their kingdoms that much better because they have open minds.

The potential plotlines because Hiccup gave a dragon the ability to fly again w/ his wing design, and Tinker Bell broke her wing in one of her films--so let’s say sparkly sister magic isn’t a cure for broken wings, but Hiccup helps her?? I just love it.

The angst, the drama, the romance, the fluff, endless possibilities. Canon divergence is necessary tbh--in general crossover verses I can play Tink as a fairy that can change to be human-sized (like in OUAT) to make for a better match with human characters. But other than that, we have a perfect basis for a x-over ship if I just find a writing partner with the right chemistry!

TINKER BELL x MARIANNE

OKAY ideal fairy crossover ship, yes. 1. Tinker Bell and Marianne have similar character arcs throughout their stories (Marianne in Strange Magic, and Tink from her series of films through the original Peter Pan timeline and then the Disney Fairies books.)

Both start out quite hopeful and sweet, but when their first love breaks their heart, they kinda vow to never fall in love again and swear not to let themselves be hurt like that, they close themselves off from such feelings and develop a tough exterior. Marianne learns to sword-fight, and Tink carries around daggers--fighty couple with each other’s back potential!!

They both eventually open up to love--WITH EACH OTHER. And that would be so sweet oh my god.

The actress for Tinker Bell has done a couple duets with her friend who looks like Marianne and it makes my heart sing.

TINKER BELL x NOD

It’s been a long time since I watched Epic but I remember that Nod was another kind of energetically rule-breaking character who would mesh well with Tink. Again, they look good together. I just want to see how that goes because I can never get my sights off of other tiny-character muses for Tink to cross-over with...

TINKER BELL x TOOTHIANA

THIS ONE WOULD JUST BE SO ADORABLE. Tooth is adorable and Tink is adorable and if they were girlfriends it would be really sweet and perfect, that’s all.

TINKER BELL x HERCULES

I’ve plotted this one out a little bit with an RP partner years ago but we never really got past the first couple replies on our thread to start developing the concept.

I just love the idea of Tink and Hercules being long-time friends even before he realized his lineage, and then when he becomes all famous Tink is like “don’t forget about me” and they both just shine so,

I just think they’re neat

TINKER BELL x ARRIETTY

Here we go. Tink and Arrietty: both little explorers at heart who want more out of life. Both disregard what they’ve been told about humans because they find them interesting and not bad. Arrietty would be fascinated by Tink bc 1. She didn’t believe in fairies though her mom claims to have seen one once in her youth, so meeting her she would be in awe. 2. She wants to be a proper borrower who ventures out instead of keeping the house, and Tink legit lives in nature and makes inventions out of lost human things.

They would just have such an interesting dynamic, like Arrietty fricking running off with a fairy of all things to fulfill her dreams--

TINKER BELL x CORNELIUS

A commoner/royal dynamic I enjoy, because Tink is unused to be treated a certain way. Cornelius is really cute, and together they wouldn’t have as much of a sweet-sweet dynamic as Cornelius/Thumbelina but a little more dynamic and interesting to explore.

I also make edits...

TINKER BELL x THUMBELINA

Tink/Thumbelina would be really cute because imagine them meeting instead of Cornelius meeting Thumbelina, right? She would just see Tink and and be BIG BLUSH over her and Tink would be like “what is this feeling? oh no she’s cute” and I just love it

I already have a temporary tag for them where you can view some art/edits other people have made, but once i find “their ship song” it will get a proper tag

TINKER BELL x ARIEL

One of those things. Um, both fascinated by human junk, both part of a different world, fall in love with someone of another species, but here’s the thing. Ariel is sea, and Tink is sky. The plotting and development that would have to go down to get them both to meet in the middle, on land, is what makes the thought of this ship really interesting to me.

We can basically write our own movie based on the idea of a fairy and mermaid falling for each other.

basically if anyone decides to plot any of these with me, i’m gonna be making edits, playlists, aesthetics and reblogging ship inspo posts & musings bc i have a lot of muse for these potential ships.

i have either currently or in the past written platonic threads with some of these characters, so that’s one thing and good in its own regard but i’m not looking for it with this post lbr.

i’m interested in shipping rn bc tbh i have a lot of random fluff interactions going on but i generaly have a lot more inspiration to reply to things and hold multiple threads with a partner when we develop stronger relationships between the muses. (rather than casual introductory stuff)

like it just keeps me very intrigued in plots when more feelings are involved? & there are more places to go with romance bc you can have every plot a platonic pair can have + additional romantic-feeling based plots. no shame in that...i like ships :s

#⊹*⋅✧ | ���ʳᵉᵃᵐˢ ᵒᶠ ᶰᵉᵛᵉʳᶫᵃᶰᵈ (wishlist) #if u have any other suggestions for crossover ships im all ears #bc im obsessed #it's been a while since i was really making edits #but i might have to get into it again

[serenagaywaterford]

#5 - I am checking in now that you’ve read some of these reviews. Yeah, very uneasy about this development. You are right, if the diehard Serena fans are getting tired of the seesawing, imagine the casual fans, or haters. But I am still hopeful a firm and lasting June/Serena alliance is still a possibility in the second half of the show, we’ll see. Either that, or kill her off. I don’t want them ruining a great character. It is a bit tiring honestly, my enthusiasm definitely suffers a bit.

Numba 5 :D I take it you’ve read all the reviews too? Sigh. Just a great big head-shaking sigh. 

One minute I read all this disappointing, worrisome shit. The next I read something nice and positive that gives me some semblance of hope it won’t be  that bad after all, and then I come back and read new shit that sounds even worse than the initial disappointing stuff! What is happening lol. This is the worst way to build enthusiasm for a new season!! Honestly, I don’t see very many fans all that pleased in general. Serena fans are on anxious tenterhooks, Nick fans seem rather bummed by some of it, Rita fans are flipping out, Lawrence fans seem a bit hesitant, (Are there Fred or Luke fans???), Moira and Emily fans are also worried from what I can see, casual fans seem okay, I guess?? Everyone’s a June fan so... that’s sort of pointless to talk about lol. Like the reviews sometimes sound good, and then another one will say the opposite thing happens. (I really don’t know what to think about Emily’s arc... I can’t tell where its head is at based on the reviews/spoilers.)

I won’t post any spoilers, but just in case people don’t wanna read me bitching about the vague shit in reviews and interviews, I’ll cut this. Also, I’m a major Debbie Downer lol so I’m sure a lot of excited people don’t wanna read that either, haha.

But I feel ya. I’m tired. My enthusiasm has deffo really suffered in the last few days. I was just saying the other day that all these “teasers” aren’t helping either cos everything is out of context and says nothing really, but requires a lot of speculation and that’s just exhausting to do day after day. AND THE SEASON HASN’T EVEN STARTED YET. I remember last year being a lot more excited. Like legitimately thrilled, even reading the pre-season reviews. It’s weird to me to feel this way when I was soooooooo excited just a month ago. I was bouncing off the walls with joy! Now I’m burnt out, lmao.

“But I am still hopeful a firm and lasting June/Serena alliance is still a possibility in the second half of the show, we’ll see.”

You know. I’m with you. All of these reviews are based on the first 6 episodes of the season and it is sorta jumping the gun to judge a whole season based on the build-up. Six episodes isn’t even quite halfway. Maybe it gets significantly better in the backhalf. It just doesn’t bode very well if it takes 6 episodes to get things moving, and that even at that point Serena is still full on her annoying bullshit.

I’m pretty much a hopeless romantic in some ways. Like it won’t really matter completely but I will ALWAYS hope that there is a LASTING June/Serena alliance in the latter half of the season that is significant and shows Serena’s character growth--if there is any lol. Like, even in a non-shippy way, I want June and Serena working together. I’m gonna be picky and spoiled but I need it to be together. Not working towards the same goal, but divided and at odds with each other. I want them communicating and agreeing. Not just “Oh, look, there goes June doing her idea. And, oh, over there is Serena doing her totally separate thing, that’s vaguely related to the same goal?” I want teamwork. And I want teamwork with other women too. With Alma, Janine, Moira, (Emily? I dunno if she’ll be in a healthy enough place tbh.), even possibly Aunt Lydia. I don’t need unrealistic “super happy families!” vibes either. It can be terse and difficult and conflicted and they can stumble and miscommunicate along the way. It can require June ramming Serena with reality checks (as she does)... but I want them all in the same general direction, with the same general ideas of how to get there. Each has their own strengths, skills, opinions, and knowledge that would influence the goal in their own ways. Oh god, I’m making it sound like I want Ocean’s 8: Gilead Edition. And I want the complex June/Serena dynamic at the centre of it. 

But that’s my personal perfect world and this show is very much not willing to be that brave, lmao. (MAKE IT GAY(ER), YOU COWARDS. I’m only half-kidding.)

“Either that, or kill her off. I don’t want them ruining a great character.”

I used to be really opposed to killing off Serena. But that was back when I thought they were going to move her arc along to something better. If this all they insist on doing to her for the backhalf of the season, and presumably the next... just kill her off already. I suspect, based on Miller’s “jokes”, that he has no intention of killing either Waterford off -- which is a shame cos Fred just... go away, Fred. He’s redundant and so superfluous to these women’s stories at this point and I don’t care what headass sympathy-inducing crap they give us in S3, I will always feel that way. But she’s been a fantastic character thus far and to just keep beating this flipfloppy dead horse they consider “interesting” wrt Serena, just let her go. I can’t imagine anybody sticking around and retaining their interest in a character that literally never grows or learns or commits to anything and is constantly going one way only to flip back the other for seasons on end. Sounds... annoying and boring.

Maybe some people like that? Miller and Strahovski seem to. (I get why Yvonne does on some level: it’s fun as an actress to play with all those extremes. It’s challenging and exciting not to play the same note all the time. So, I get why an actress would think it’s a good idea for a character to be so... extra.) What I don’t get is why a showrunner/writer would. I’m not saying never have Serena fuck up--cos we all know she’s gonna--but just not the same ways all the time. Cos at this point, we been knew. We KNOW that every single time Serena does something kind/nice/good, she’ll snap back and do something fucked up. Like, it’s just EXPECTED. There’s no surprise. The first few times, sure. But when they keep doing it over and over and over and over...

That is fucking BORING. It’s come to just eye-rolling now. I don’t read these reviews and comments by Yvonne and say “OH NOOOOO. Serena’s back on her bullshit!! Nooooo. SAD FACE!!!!” Nope. I just read them and say, “Ugh. Again? Really? Yawn.” and “What shitty writers that they can’t come up with anything new for her to do.”

Like, we knew at the end of S2 that Serena was gonna regret letting Nichole go. Miller came right out and said it. And that was fine. That’s actually reasonable and normal and I can get behind that. It makes sense. I was all onboard for some serious grieving and regret. That’s totally understandable under the circumstances. I’m even here for the way trauma/grief/fear influences Serena’s often confounding decisions. And, I mean, I’ve seen a lot of cult-breakers and cults in general and all sorts of psychological stuff so I know Serena’s crap isn’t something she can just shut off in one day; it’s a long process--but it tends to move in a determinate direction, even just baby steps (or not at all). It’s so deeply ingrained and it’s ~safe. It takes time and I was 1000% behind ALL that. But by the sounds of that, it’s not really going in that thoughtful direction. People’s attitudes and beliefs may be difficult to change, but they don’t weave all over the damn place merely for the sake of shock and drama.

More like “We want Serena and June to scream at each other under iconic American monuments! How can we do that? Make Serena do some super fucked up thing for barely any reason!” Also, “Hide all her motivations! Make it really murky so people won’t understand it! That makes us clever. Hurr durr!!”

It’s just giving me Benioff & Weiss vibes...

Harumpf.

I will keep an open mind, but I’m no longer holding my breath that something amazing is gonna come out of this unless the backhalf of the season is exceptionally better than the first 6. (But again, I feel like S2 was like that. The second half did seem stronger overall. IMO, anyway. With 2 major exceptions, heh.) 

So, yeah. I’m trying to just not read or look at too much more until it starts airing. Otherwise I may talk myself out of enjoying it! LMAO. I’m so weak. (But I’m also such a slut for June/Serena so........)

#there aren't really any spoilers i don't think #but if you're concerned about them at all don't go behind the cut #also blacklist 'spoilers' #spoilers #just in case #Anonymous

[killbaned]

like i still constantly see this shit wrt addicts too and it still drives me up the wall and was the main reason it took me so long to better understand the nuance of addictions, even despite fucking being one myself.

you can be mentally ill/an addict and still have autonomy. as an aside: this is not me saying “every addict/mentally ill person is like this” or DOES have autonomy or awareness. i am simply saying exactly what i typed: you CAN be an addict and/or mentally ill and still have autonomy.

i actually ranted about this on twitter a while back while commenting on A Certain Wrestler and his bullshit lately but being an addict doesn’t mean we get or should get free passes for the shit we do.

and i feel like the reasons we keep having to sit through these stupid fucking pieces of discourse about this stuff is honestly because all these terminally online fucking braindead people have no reading comprehension and put all their effort into being willfully fucking ignorant.

a heroin addict isn’t a bad person for becoming an addict. even if that addict got addicted despite KNOWING how addictive heroin is and still tried it anyway, they shouldn’t be ostracized and blamed and discarded because of it.

but that doesn’t mean they should get a free pass for that choice to start doing drugs, and it doesn’t mean they should get a free pass for everything they’ve done after their spiral started. you can empathize with and help someone while still recognizing that they made the choice to start doing drugs.

once of the issues i see when it comes to how nuanced addiction is, is people either going to one extreme end of the debate or the other:

addicts are all mean evil violent manipulators who can’t be trusted and they’re all fucking geniuses when it comes to getting what they want

OR

addicts are all traumatized widdle babies who’ve never done any wrong in their life and are incapable of contwolling themselves bc they just don’t know any better 

both these sentiments are true, to an extent, but neither one is the whole truth and nothing but. the real truth is often in the middle.

this idea of ‘addicts have no control and they can’t help it’ is not only wrong, but the more i see and do the more i think it’s also counterintuitive and frankly fucking dangerous to not only addicts, but the people who love them.

yes, being addicted scrambles your brain. yes, it fucks up your impulse control and it makes it so you have fucking feral rats in your head gnawing at your brain and your senses until you give it what it wants and YES that can, will, and does drive you fucking insane until you can finally get your hands on whatever your choice of substance is and nothing will ever be okay or good again until you fucking have it and you’ve ingested it.

and then you do and everything is good until it wears off, and now everything is bad again, and time is a flat circle and the snake eats its own tail and so on and so forth.

but here’s the tea kids! and please do be aware i’ve rewritten this next section three times because it kept derailing and getting long so i’m going to make a blanket disclaimer: when this whole mile long post is about how addiction is nuanced, this next section is a good example of it because my simple version of this next point is ignoring a lot of the nuance and the probably obvious ‘but it doesn’t always work that way’ points.

so anyway, the tea:

as i said above, addicts making shitty choices because of their addiction doesn’t change the fact we’re still making those choices. we may not be fully understanding of the choices, our judgement in making them is probably impaired, and we may or may not even be aware that they are bad choices but they are still

choices. that we. are actively. making.

when i CHOSE to spend my last $10 on whiskey instead of medicine i needed, i was making that choice. it was being influenced by me being a raging alcoholic, sure, but i was still making that choice.

no one was telling me to do that. no one said “buy jim beam or else”.

when the guy that comes into my job every other day to buy 31g syringes does so, he’s choosing to do that. just like he’s choosing to bring his toddler, who wanders around with no shoes. just like he chooses to buy milk with them.

he’s not an inherently bad or evil person because he is making a bad choice, but he is still making it. and i’m using him as an example because i feel like there’s something so goddamn visceral about an addict getting syringes and milk for their toddler at the same time on the same transaction with the same $10 bill.

he’s making two choices, actually, based on two different things he is aware of:

he needs syringes, and his daughter needs milk. 

those are choices.

i feel like i’m just repeating myself over and over with the same thing in this post but i also feel like the goddamn discourse about addiction and mental illness has gone so off the fucking deep end that there’s no other way to get people to maybe shut the fuck up and reconsider how they view things than to do just that:

yell the same thing long enough and loud enough over and over and hope someone wonders what you’re even going on about and leaves their echo chamber to find out.

#long post #drugs tw #ask to tag

[theincorrigiblemagpie]

Rishton Ka Chakravyuh - The Mother of All Recaps

Ugh so as some of you may have guessed, I stopped watching for a bit. This had nothing to do with the show going drastically downhill *cough*like-some-others-I-could-mention*cough* and everything to do with my life suddenly becoming a little too stressful to keep up with a convoluted daily soap like RKC.

Luckily, my faithful friend Juhi whom I had corralled into watching with me, and who is more dedicated than I am, kept up and also gave me regular text updates. And today, after having missed about 40-ish episodes, I finally sat down and watched bits and pieces and all of the last week’s episodes and can return to business.

The thing is, SO MUCH happens in any single given episode, it’s next to impossible to catch up completely if you fall too far behind. I’m going to do a listicle of important things that happened and ofc, my unsolicited opinions on them, and take it from here. This isn’t strictly chronological because a lot of the points happen at the same time and overlap back and forth, but this is roughly the order of things. I think I may not be able to keep up with daily recaps because I’m not sure I have the time and energy but I’ll do my best.

Just to give you some idea, I stopped watching around episode 24 and we’re on episode 72 now so in everything that follows has happened in 42 episodes (about a month and 3/4). 

1. There is a court order for a DNA test to conclusively deal with the matter of whether Anami is Baldev’s daughter or not. Anami AND Pujan try to fudge the test and end up cancelling each other’s fudging-efforts out and the court declares Anami to be Baldev’s legitimate daughter. (So much for Adhiraj’s “security” which was just Ila in disguise means demote this clodpole right away.)

2. Post-test Gayatri and Satarupa are obviously ecstatic but Vikram is unwilling to declare Anami heir because he’s a chauvinist pig and Baldev also refuses to acknowledge her because he’s useless like that. For some odd reason, Adhiraj also feels betrayed? Don’t ask me to explain the inner workings of men’s minds.

3. Anami decides to run away and makes a plan with the Pathaks and everything for all of them to leave North India altogether (a wise decision-- no good comes of living in N India, full offense to people who like living there). They hope to escape Lal Mahal’s sphere of influence. But then Anami discovers that Vatsalya was her twin brother, the same one she met on the ghats and saved, who later died in an accident. She’s devastated that she lost her twin before she had a chance to know him and decides that running away won’t give her closure or answers and she must stay and fight.

4. Gayatri and Satarupa team up to get acceptance for Anami but Vikram tries to thwart them every step of the way. On the other hand, Narottam manipulates Anami into sympathizing with him by showing himself as the unwanted, mistreated outsider of Lal Mahal. He IS nutty Sudha’s son and he’s effeminate because after birth he was given to a group of kinnars to bring up? And Sudha is locked in an asylum of some kind.

5. Satarupa, who hasn’t learned a jot about how to handle Anami, tries warning her against Narottam with the opposite result of Anami befriending both Narottam and sneaking off to meet Sudha and hang out with her. Narottam, as you may have guessed, is in league with Sudha to take over Lal Mahal and Royal Steel, which they see as THEIR inheritance and right.

6. Adhiraj and Anami have formed an alliance that was initially shaky with Adhiraj’s feeling of betrayal over the truth of Anami’s DNA test and also the fact that Adhiraj ordered a second DNA test secretly which Anami finds out about from jealous Ila. They decide to work together anyway to find out what happened to Vatsalya and keep Anami safe but they become actual friends and there is the whole creepy romance angle again. 🙄

*sigh*

7. Satarupa next bullies Anami into taking admission into the fanciest college in the city and attending classes there. Anami keeps showing up everyone who underestimates her from the Principal to snooty rich kids who are friends of Avdhoot’s. And in the process, becomes BFFs with Tanya who also attends the same college.

8. There is one very annoying side plot involving Tanya and Avdhoot who deliberately manipulates his way into her good graces and charms her because he knows she’s Dheeru’s daughter.

9. Dheeren Pandey aka Dheeru is Adhiraj and Tanya’s dad who has his own agenda against Lal Mahal (obv attuned to Adhiraj’s vengeful feelings). He used to be an employee of Royal Steel until something mysterious happened that he was made to take the fall for. We have flashbacks of him being dragged away by the cops while a smol Adhiraj and Tanya watch and sob. Presumably also related to the mother’s death.

10. With the lack of faith in Vikram and the future, the Royal Steel board was going to allow a hostile takeover by a third party but Dheeru who has somehow acquired 25% shares offers to bail out Vikram if he’s made a 50-50 partner. Satarupa backs him and forces Pujan, Kamini and Vikram to also.

11.That’s why Avdhoot is interested in Tanya. Even Pujan and Kamini think that if Avdhoot marries Dheeru’s daughter, his road to inheriting will become even smoother. I don’t believe anyone at Lal Mahal knows that the son is Adhiraj although Anami finds out that Tanya and Adhiraj are siblings (but she doesn’t know the Dheeru angle).

*takes a deep breath and continues*

12. Pujan and Avdhoot try to get rid of Anami by poisoning her and having her kidnapped but Adhiraj saves her at the last minute. He brings her home and also gets a court order saying that if there are further threats to Anami’s life at Lal Mahal and if she feels unsafe at all, the court will assume custody of her. They just make up any laws they like in this show.

13. Not only Satarupa and Gayatri but also Sudha and Narottam don’t want this. Sudha and Narottam see Anami as their ticket to the Lal Mahal throne. They believe that her do-gooding crusader side will make her fight tooth and nail for their haq and establish them at Lal Mahal.

14. Vikram keeps undermining Anami at every meeting and family thing and brings up Avdhoot as heir. He makes Avdhoot sit in on company meetings and tries to train him in business matters but Avdhoot is a right nincompoop and it FINALLY starts giving him second thoughts. Especially when Anami steps up to all occasions whether asked to or not, shows wisdom beyond her years, and generally is more competent.

15. Nervous about this, Satarupa and Gayatri plot to first get Anami interested in the business by using Vatsalya’s diaries and books and making it a mission of sorts for her, and then roping in Dheeru to train her. She sees through some of it and refuses to meet Dheeru but voluntarily starts reading Vatsalya’s business books and diaries. Just a side note to say Vatsalya had the makings of a good socialist and was just one step away from writing ‘Sieze the means of production!’ wrt to the Royal Steel workers. I’m on board for an Anami-led revolution where Baldev is guillotined FIRST.

16. Ofc she meets Dheeru anyway on the road where he saves a blind man from being run over by a bike and she teaches the biker a lesson about thinking of others. They both come away favourably impressed with one another.

17. Adhiraj catches on to Anami sneaking out at night all the time with Narottam and warns her to be careful. They concoct a story about Narottam seeing a psychiatrist at night and he appears to buy it. 🤦🏿‍♀️

18. Sudha and Narottam plant Naina in Lal Mahal by sending her to Satarupa with information about the dude who’d tried to kidnap Anami. Satarupa trusts Naina immediately (umm WHY) and when she asks for a job, assigns her as Anami’s security detail (what the actual fuck). Satarupa tries to torture the dude into revealing info about his master but he knows nothing as he was an anonymously hired mercenary. (Satarupa plays a frighteningly good mob boss in these scenes, as I’ve mentioned before.) Luckily, the paanwala-informer clues Adhiraj into Naina’s role and tendency to let Anami slip out so there is that.

*getting so tired*

19. Anami says she wants a Durga Puja at home and Vikram initially refuses because apparently there is a curse and every time they’d tries to do Durga Puja, something or the other has gone wrong. Satarupa and Baldev also do not want this because of Vatsalya’s recent demise. But Anami and Gayatri convince everyone and they decide to do the Puja dhoom-dhaam se. Anami claims all responsibility for the puja.

20. The upcoming puja appears to bring everyone closer and they’re all vaguely happy preparing for it. Ofc Pujan tries to sabotage it by loosening the screws of the palanquin that is to bring the idol in so that it falls and breaks. I’m reasonably certain that Anami will stop this somehow. Anyhoo, Dheeru is also invited. (I like how Vikram and Gayatri pretend absolutely NOTHING is wrong with Dheeru. Like they didn’t see him arrested, dragged forcibly from Lal Mahal years ago. Dheeru ofc has reason to appear pleasant. Baldev is upfront about his hostility and Satarupa is equally upfront about the fact that she doesn’t particularly like him but the compromise was necessary to keep Royal Steel intact and with them.)

21. One annoying cousin of Avdhoot’s appears from “Europe” or “America” (I’m vague on this) on the day of the puja and he’s basically a lecherous and aiyaash version of NK from IPKKND. He starts harassing Poonam right away. My god, literally all the men in this show are trash except for cinnamon roll, Vatsalya.

22. Dheeru, Adhiraj, Tanya are set to appear at Lal Mahal for the first time together. Both Poonam and Tanya ship Adhiraj-Anami and since it would be very OOC for either Anami or Adhiraj to daydream about one another, Poonam does the dreaming on their behalf like a dazed Gul-Khan-show-shipper. I see you, makers, I see you.

*falls down dead*

#rishton ka chakravyuh #rkc #narayani shastri #mahima makwana

[ansu-gurleht]

So, what is the technological advancement in your world? Is magic common or rather somewhat rare? Are some species more likely to be magical than others? Classical distinction between good and evil or more complicated than that? How about healthcare? And what do the people believe in, many Gods, Religions, maybe Major Religions? What about love? Special Cuisine? (Sorry, many questions)

okay let’s get CRACKIN! gonna put in a read more here for people who don’t care, b/c this is about to get LENGTHY

technologically we’re not too far ahead! maybe think early renaissance europe? no gunpowder, tho’ we have magic gun staves. we got crossbows, siege weaponry, and also magical prosthetic limbs! a lot of “technological” advances here are b/c of magic, but i don’t think that makes them any less valid.

magic is common enough that everyone knows it exists, but not everyone knows its scope. somebody (esp. like, a human in a rural village) might be surprised to meet somebody who can use magic, but they wouldn’t really doubt that it’s real magic. and also, there’s a bit of mystery in exactly what magic can do, how much there is in the world. think lotr, although in practice, my magic is much more of a hard magic system. (see sandersons laws of magic for what i mean by that!)

the three sentient races in my world (orcs, humans, and elves) can all practice magic to varying degrees. orcs tend to be born with an innate gift, and if you aren’t, then you either can’t do magic, or you can barely do magic with great effort. humans don’t tend to have innate ability, unless they have an innate gift for studying. b/c studying magic is the only way for humans to be able to learn and practice it. you might consider orcs to be d&d sorcerers, whereas humans are wizards.

elves….are a different story. they’re ALL inherently magical. their entire BEING is magic. that’s not to say they’re not flesh and blood, real people - they just treat magic like breathing. that doesn’t mean they’re all wizards or sorcerers or shaman, but they have the best “starting point,” so to speak. orcs have the worst “starting point” in that some of them can’t practice it at all, but orcs ALSO have they highest potential of power.

good vs. evil is absolutely not a thing - this setting really focuses on the grey aspects. it’s important to note - my original premise for this setting was, “what if a huge good vs evil battle like in lotr happened, except the ‘evil’ won?” naturally, orcs aren’t inherently “evil,” they were just slaves to a relatively “evil” force, the trolls. i won’t elaborate on the trolls too much, since even in my head i’m purposefully keeping them somewhat vague, but they were a powerful race who created the orcs as slave-warriors to try to destroy and conquer the world. but then the orcs won and realized being slaves wasn’t great, and that they didn’t like what they’d been made to do, and so they killed their gods, their makers.

there’s another force in the world, one which you MIGHT could consider a “truer” evil than even the trolls, but i won’t elaborate on them. spoilers ;P

(as a small note on my races: i’m using rather familiar names for them, like “orcs” and “elves” and “trolls,” but they’re really very different from what you’d expect. i shan’t elaborate on how, esp. wrt elves, b/c, again, spoilers.)

orcs are a very communal race, and always seek to protect and take care of their sick, weak, and disabled. i’ve already mentioned magical prostheses (orcs, esp. those who regularly fight, tend to lose limbs a lot :P), but magic and traditional medicinal cures are also used to tend for the sickly. the elderly and infirm are cared for and protected as well.

humans are a bit less caring, and esp. in communities w/o orc rule or influence, sometimes even discard the sick, elderly, and disabled. they tend to excuse it as being barely a dent in their population, b/c, well…..humans fuck like rabbits. that’s the primary reason that the orcs and trolls couldn’t completely destroy them. they destroyed their cities and homes, slaughtered them by the millions, but there were always those hiding in the forests and jungles, who just refused to die.

b/c of their magicalness, elves rarely NEED to worry about healthcare. magical healing and remedies are either something anybody can do, or something somebody down the street can do. it’s a non-issue to them.

ooh, boy, religion. humans believe in either a vague almighty God, or a vague almighty Pantheon of gods (possibly derived from old elvish religion), but it’s really not very well established. it really depends on the place, b/c a lot of places developed different religions due to their isolation after the war. 

orcs, and a lot of the humans under their rule/influence, have a very flexible system. they are ancestor-worshipers with some animist aspects. they also worship certain primordial elemental spirits (who they also consider ancestors) of the four elemental planes (earth, air, water, fire). it’s a bit odd to call them “planes”. they’re really like four pieces to the puzzle that is the world; they overlap with one another and their interactions create the world as we know it.

anyways, some orcs tend to have cults devoted to specific proposed ancestors, certain sacred sites, as well as some of the elemental spirits. it depends really on the specific culture - there’s a lot of variety.

elves worship “star gods” who speak to them (and only them) from the heavens, and also send their “emissaries” in the form of “dragon gods” to rule over/protect/guide the elven people. it’s quite a bit more complicated than that, but a lot of stuff about elves is spoilery, so that’s all you get.

ah, love. i’ll give you this: love for humans isn’t exciting. it’s about par for the course either in the real world, or in other fantasy worlds.

orcs, though? it’s very different. there’s not really “soulmates” in the sense of exclusive partners throughout your life. sure, some might be pretty attached and stick together, but it’s not exclusive, and not an end-all-be-all. gender/sex is irrelevant when it comes to orc love/mating. if they like somebody, and that somebody loves them back, they’re gonna fuck. sometimes publicly, but they try to keep it somewhat private, if not always quiet.

it works mostly off of hormones/pheromones. it’s worth noting that orcs age very differently from humans: orcs reach the size of an adult human by age 3 or 4. they reach full orc adulthood by age 8 or so. most orcs live until about age 40, rarely longer.

anyways, once an orc reaches adult age, their reproductive glands responsible for producing and receiving sexy-times pheromones are fully developed. (it makes it a bit difficult to determine exactly what “adult age” is for orcs, since some orcs finish developing by age 6, while others don’t finish until they’re 12, or at all. northern, “civilized” orcs tend to assume an age of 8.) 

for orcs, “rape” is basically an incomprehensible concept. orcs can literally only fuck if they are receiving the same pheromones they’re putting out for somebody. (this is why human-orc relationships are very, very rare, even not considering stigma; a human is just not equipped, from an orc’s point of view, to have sex.) 

way back when, during the big ol’ war, humans and elves spread rumors about the orcs “raping” and pillaging, but what they were really talking about was post-battle orc orgies. these were (and still are, occasionally) very real things. the adrenaline and excitement of battle, as well as the closeness with your comrades that results, tends to result in a lot of orcs getting really horny for each other. this was also effective, especially from the trolls’ point of view, in replenishing losses from the battle by reproducing. so after battles, humans within earshot miles around could hear, uh. a lot of orcs getting it on.

elves are different. obviously. when are they not? they DEFINITELY have life-partners, although sometimes multiple at a time. elvish culture is highly female-driven, and as a result, the most common er, “configuration” for an elvish couple is a lesbian couple. men are also usually expected to be together, b/c a lot of them have a hard time getting with women, due to their lower status. women will have multiple female life-partners, and typically only one male life-partner, which is how they reproduce. (elves are also very romantic, except not so much usually in “hetero” relationships. those guys are just there for babies, more or less.) it’s typically sort of a “competition” among elvish females to see who can pick the least deplorable man to mate with, just as it is for men to try to elevate their status by mating with powerful women.

one quick note on “gender.” humans, culturally, tend to be pretty cisnormative, i guess? there are men, and women, and transgender people are generally considered, er, not good. except in certain northern, orc-dominated territories, where nonbinary people are often considered to be almost as great and important as their genderless orc superiors.

orcs, as i’ve said, just don’t have a concept of gender, nor do their “sexes” look different from one another. there are no secondary sexual characteristics, and their primary sexual characteristics aren’t immediately obvious. 

elves consider there to be three genders : women, men, and “something in between”, as they refer to it. that third gender is sort of a catch-all for noncomformative elves, and have a sort of middle-of-the-road social status: not as high as women, but not as low as men. 

okay, last question! special cuisine…..i haven’t actually thought much of this! which is good, b/c i need to. orcs like to use a lot of spices and herbs, either that they gather in the wilds themselves, or grow in small gardens. they also have a special fermented alcoholic drink which only orcs enjoy, that gives a sort of energy boost, kinda like caffeine. humans tend to eat what they get, and tend to shy away from too many flavors. elves eat…uh….magical food i guess. fish? lots of fish probably. 

#worldbuilding #ask #anon

[vardasvapors]

more meme replies

loved that scenario though!!!                   It makes so much sense, and like, it’s a feling I def experienced in these last two years of my life when I was sure my country was going into X direction, made plans and all, and then suddenly there was a coup and everything went to deep shit very fast. Imagining this feeling on two characters like that wrt disasters as they suffered… yes, i’m super interested hahahahaha            

:\ I can, slightly relate, though I know my country’s situation is a lot different than yours :\ Heh well, I often have a problem restraining myself from writing reams of characters having dialogue about meta ideas, so this is the sort of thing I imagine characters doing in my head a lot

vefanyar replied to your post: crocordile replied to your post:       gurguliare ….         

I don’t know about classier - also because I’m… maybe… considering this, but then I also wrote f/m Maedhros/Elwing so I don’t count… ;)

lol! well I do mean classier in the sense of, tending to be less slimy and clueless about how godawful and unfair their judgements about characters, especially female characters, sound; not about the….restrained-ness of their ships haha. But anyway I don’t really think ships are ever the real problem at all, I think just about any ship can be done in a way that even if I personally dislike it, doesn’t make me side-eye the author

thelioninmybed replied to your post: gurguliare replied to your post:                    erotetica replied…”

I mean, the comparisons with Elwing, absolutely, but an f/f pairing? lol           

Oh but see, there would also be spitefic pushback from people who dislike all the f!Maglor bashing, and the discourse would try to move to less about comparing Mags with Elwing and more about comparing Mags with Maedhros and….god it’s kind of really incredible how much existing fandom trends and tropes influence the emergence of related tropes…

simaethae replied to your post: gurguliare replied to your post:                    erotetica replied…

  no, no, the twins comfort *maedhros* bc of how maglor forced him into a third kinslaying in order to abduct them, you’re losing track of the real victim here /salt                

Haha….you know the worst thing is that when I was very new to fandom and hadn’t encountered the Discourse yet, one of the small-d discourses I encountered was some insane trying-to-be-feminist meta about how Maglor is better than Maedhros (no mention of Elwing) because of his feminine-coded maternal instincts! or something! I think my reaction was somewhere along the lines of “what the no.” Anyway, when I was in the vacuum, I had been very unproblematically affected and charmed by imagining the weird delicate complicated screwed-up balancing act of Maglor trying to raise the twins while showing them the affection and being the sort of figure of trust and reliability kids need, but without fucking with their brains and putting ideas in their head about who to sympathize with or agree with and how to talk about their now-absent parents, since he obviously wouldn’t want them to sympathize with him and Mae, and obviously wouldn’t blame Elwing, since he blames and despises the oath at this point. I really am very salty about how thoroughly fandom ruined my interest in the positive frame of this relationship. *_*

simaethae replied to your post: crocordile replied to your post:                    gurguliare…                             

  i can’t believe how seriously i’m suddenly contemplating this      

Oh, well, if it was you writing it, I’d obvious trust I could read it without backbuttoning upon running into some bullshit halfway through

berrysphase replied to your post:                    shovel talk?                

Would read.                                   (Just saying. Badly. Sorry it’s sleep-deprivation train again)                

thearrogantemu replied to your post:                   shovel talk?                

   WHAT YES PLEASE    

UNFORTUNATELY I HAVE NO IDEA WHICH ONE YOU GUYS ARE REFERRING TO unless it’s both?

berrysphase replied to your post: erotetica replied to your post: berrysphase replied to…        

  I laughed at Elendil and Gil-Galad’s shared life experiences               

You can always count on Tolkien to create situations where characters can commiserate about the extremely similar terrible shit that happened to them and the sense of history repeating itself. Where is that one meta post about fractal narrative structure anyway….

#crocordile #vefanyar #thelioninmybed #simaethae #berrysphase #thearrogantemu #athrabething

[thewritingwizard-blog]

Rough Draft #2 Essay 3

Lauren Lacasse

Janel Spencer

WRT 101s

4/26/2018

 Do Teachers Deserve a Higher Rate of Pay and More Funding?

  School has been an important aspect of our world for centuries. Without teachers, there would be no school, which allows for children and adults alike to become more educated so that they can go further in life. Teachers are the foundation of society and should be treated as such. Now some would think that teachers would make more than doctors, who are only doctors because they went to school and were taught by great teachers, but that is not the case. They deserve more funding and a higher pay, or else they will start quitting the the expansive knowledge and education that this world runs on will be depleted. Not only are teachers important for educational purposes, many people have at least one teacher that they remember having helped them through life’s many issues whether they related to school or not. Teachers are more than teachers, they are mentors, mothers, fathers, protectors,and friends.  Teachers should be the main priority when it comes to pay and funding. some of the highest paid people in the world today would not be where they are without the help of a great teacher. So, why don’t teachers make more money and why are teachers just now going on strike to solve the issue? If it were up to me, teachers would make the same wages as doctors and schools and classrooms would be funded completely to give the teachers and students an opportunity to learn and teach in a healthy, full funded learning environment.

    Being a teacher has always been a risky job. Teachers make some of the lowest salaries out of any career. It has come to a point recently where teachers everywhere are fed up and rightfully so. Teachers in Arizona on average make around forty thousand dollars per year. According to the department of health and human services, a teacher’s salary is right on the line between poverty and middle class. Although this level of pay is already dreadful, teachers even have to often resort to purchasing supplies for their classrooms out of their own pay because schools are not funded enough.  There is also the fact that parents are required by law to send their children to school. Decades of tax cuts and cuts in funding has fueled this inevitable need for better pay by the teachers. Teachers in Arizona are walking out to protest these low wages and terrible funding. Although this walkout will resort in schools all over Arizona to be closed for multiple days, many believe that this is the only way that a change will be made, and I agree. One of the main claims for the RedForEd campaign is, “I am not walking out on your children, the State of Arizona did that a decade ago. I am walking for your children in a fight to save their schools and to increase funding for their needs.” Many of my teachers have recently taken to social media stating the fact that this matter is very close to them as they are not walking out for just themselves, but for the students who miss out on proper education due to budget cuts and aweful learning environments. Teachers deserve a higher wage and students deserve better opportunities in their education.

     When I was in Fourth grade, I was looking forward to my next year in school where I could join the band class and have a fun hobby to rely on. Towards the end of Fourth grade, I soon found out that due to budget cuts, my need and the needs of many of my classmates to be able to get on stage and express ourselves through music were dashed when the bnd class was taken away. Many students go through this every year where they are stripped from an opportunity that should be readily available to them in school. There were many classes that I had where there were more students than desks and a few unlucky students would have to resort to sitting in a chair with a clipboard to do their work on. This is unacceptable. Schools are being overcrowded and underfunded and something has to change. These teachers participating in the walkout hope for this change. Arizona comes in Fiftieth when it comes to teachers pay. It would take on average an 11.6 percent raise to life the pay of the average elementary school teacher to be 48th in the nation for pay. Median pay for Arizona’s teachers has dropped by 11 Percent since 2001. Arizona is currently severely lacking educators as they all end up moving to neighboring states that prioritize education and the funding for education. Of teachers hired from 2013 to 2015, 22 percent of teachers were not teaching in Arizona after a year.

    I went to a RedForEd walkout protest yesterday and everyone was so supportive of the cause and for fixing the issue. All of the teachers that were on the street in the hot sun protesting for what they believe in is a testament to teachers everywhere. It is proof that teachers care just as much for the students as they do for themselves. Along with the teachers on the curb, students stood in unison alongside their teachers to help support the people that taught them how to do everything that people take for granted everyday. Many people oppose this movement however. There are many parent who see this walkout as something that is hurting their child’s education further, as schools will be closed until the issue is resolved. The claims of these worried parents are very valid and they have a reason to be upset but people also need to realize that this movement is helping their children in the long run. If this walkout results in a higher wage and more funding, it will increase the quality of schools by a lot. Teachers will be more motivated and dedicated to teaching the students and the classrooms will not be overcrowded as they are now. Overcrowded classrooms results in less focus from the students and teachers alike. As mentioned earlier, a couple of my old teachers have taken to facebook to voice their opinions. One of my old teachers proceeded to post this in the wake of the walkout, “So proud to stand with my mom, mother in law and husband. You can't put students 1st if you put teachers last. If you can read this; thank a teacher!!! Teachers create all other profession.” This statement is anything but false. Teachers can’t properly teach students and give them a good education if they are not paid to do so.

    I personally have a friend who is a High School teacher in the state of Oklahoma. While the issue in Arizona has had a lot of coverage over the past couple of weeks, a lot of this movement started and was sparked by teachers in the great state of Oklahoma. I asked my friend Rhonda how she thought the movements in Arizona and Oklahoma have affected each other. Her answer was sophisticated and to the point. “I think all of the movements in the various states, West Virginia, Arizona, Oklahoma, and now Colorado, are all influencing one another. I think the movement which preceded Oklahoma in West Virginia gave the initial courage, but i feel that Oklahoma did not stay the course. I hope that Arizona learns from our mistakes and is more successful than we were here” (Rhonda Hartman). I believe that Rhonda is right in that Arizona should learn from the other states in that we should try a bit harder and keep pushing until a change happens instead of eventually just giving up. The teacher pay crisis is a huge issue as seen by all of the states that have participated in the fight and all of the states that are seeing the push from Arizona and Oklahoma and are joining in. I also asked Rhonda what the whole issue meant to her as a teacher. “The support from some people means a great deal to me, but it’s also brought to the surface a lot of negativity towards teachers that I knew people felt but to see it splattered across social media constantly was really difficult. This issue means a great deal to me as I have seen my students have history books older than them. While I would obviously like to be paid as a professional who is required to have a bachelor's degree, pass multiple state tests, and maintain professional certification the more pressing issue for me is that my classroom, as well as all classrooms, are dreadfully underfunded” (Hartman).

     As stated in Rhonda’s answer, there has been a lot of backlash to the teachers. The movement has also sparked an uprising of disgruntled parents who see more bad than good in the whole debacle. A lot of parents believe that this walkout, where school has been out for the past four day, is hurting the students more than helping them. Some parents believe that the students are getting a proper education and that their education is lacking with the teachers walking out on them. Although this argument has some truth and is valid for the worried parents, the walkout in the long term will help the students to have newer supplies and a cleaner, healthier learning environment. Parents are also upset because for a lot of parents, they see school as the educating day care for their kids, and without school, they have nowhere to send their children while they work. People need to realize that teachers are not glorified babysitters. Their job is to educate your child. They are not obligated to watch your child 24/7 and to make sure that they are 100% protected. I mentioned to Rhonda the concern of the parents that are afraid that their child's education is being hurt and she has a very strong opinion on the matter. “I think the students will remain unfazed. Since returning from the walk-out in Oklahoma the most that I hear from students is that they are disappointed that we “gave up” without getting everything we want. Being children they do not understand the full ramifications of what the walk-out entailed. I know that the districts in Oklahoma made a lot of concessions so that students, particularly those of lower socio-economic status, would not suffer. All of the districts still offered meals, and they provided child care alternative options for parents in need” (Hartman). As stated by Rhonda, The school districts still helped families in need who needed a place to send their children during the day. The same thing happened in Arizona. All around Arizona during the walkout, many places were offering childcare services and day camps of sorts to watch the children of parents who rely on school to watch their children while they work during the day. Also as Rhonda stated, the children are not worried. A lot of students do not fully understand what the movement means or what is happening. Many students are just concerned for their teacher’s sakes. In Arizona, I  have witnessed many students out on the street alongside their teachers, helping to fight for the people who have helped them become the educated, strong people that they are today.

        In conclusion, teachers are some of the most important people in our society today and should be treated as such. Teachers are the foundation of society and are the ones who teach doctors how to be doctors, firefighters how to be firefighters, and police officers how to be police officers. No one would be as successful as they are without the help of a good teachers. The government needs to realize that none of them would even be where they are without teachers. There is no reason that a teacher should be denied higher pay and more funding when all they want s to help the students and to build a more educated society that appreciates the work that teachers put in every day.

[nalyra-dreaming]

First off, I absolutely LOVE your writing! You capture these characters so well, and Laden as the Sea was such a treat with filling in what might have been happening between the scenes we saw on the show. Sometimes I find it hard to remember that what you wrote didn't actually happen on the show! Thank you! Now for the ask: since you're a huge book fan too, how "necessary" do you think it is to read Blackwood Farm and Blood Canticle before the Prince Lestat books - specifically for someone who really isn't all that interested in the Mayfair storylines? Probably irrelevant background - I've been a huge fan of the VCs since way back in the mid-80s, but never read those two. I haven't read the Prince Lestat trilogy either, I think at the time those came out I thought the Atlantis storyline sounded a bit out there and I didn't want to end up being disappointed, LOL. But I just have to know what happened with all my vampires, and especially now that they're obviously dropping references to the PL books into the show I definitely have to read them. Just not sure if there's any necessary background info in Blackwood Farm and Blood Canticle that I really shouldn't miss. Thanks for any input!

Ohhhh thank you dear, that is such a beautiful feedback, thank you sooo much!!! 💕 So glad you like! *hugs* Hope you'll continue to!

Wrt to your question (also HIIIIII to another long-time fan, I totally remember being weirded out by the story hinted in the title(s), too^^^)

Those two books... are not "necessary".

I find Blackwood Farm a fun read, and also a bit of a wild ride, but ultimately there is not a lot of "new" things in there - and they barely have a connection to the later books. There isn't even a lot of Lestat in there (but the interesting tidbit that he still "cleans up" young ones from time to time, and that people warn others from going into NOLA.) Maybe the most important thing is knowing that (the names) Quinn and Mona come from this one :) Quinn is a delight though, in his own way, and while they might draw on the connections to the Talamasca and the Mayfairs later in the show (maybe) - you can read it later, if you want.

Blood Canticle... is something of a supposed follow-up, but it's... totally OOC for Lestat, and the whole thing with Rowan... *shudders*.

The book is totally ... IDK. It was written during Stan's illness and subsequent death and... mhh. I do think that influenced things. There's nothing I really like about it. Not the Mayfair nor the Taltos connections, and thank goodness Anne dropped the whole Rowan thing like a hot potato after, too. It just feels off. There is also a very infamous rant (copied here, though the Amazon link does not seem to work anymore, unfortunately) she posted in response to a negative review. In that response rant she closes by saying that Blood Canticle was the last of the Chronicles and that she was... glad.

Fortunately, she changed her mind.

The last three books are definitely a wild ride, too.

They introduce a lot of new characters, new background stories, and a lot of the interconnections of what we supposedly knew is rearranged. I have to say I appreciate them even more now reading them for the third time... there is a lot of rearranging furniture, so to speak, but, without wanting to spoil too much... Anne went, and gave "her" vampires a home, religion (in a way), and "happy ever after" (well, as much as that can be with them^^). There's also hooks in them that I'm quite sure Rolin picked up, if the changes they made for the show are any indication^^. (It will be VERY interesting to see where and when we are in Dubai, seriously^^).

So... my advice would be: skip Blackwood Farm (for now), Blood Canticle (definitely, the rant probably tells you all you need to know^^), and go into the last ones knowing that Anne actually managed to close a lot of arcs and proverbial doors (and opened a few new ones^^), leaving the future for "them" bright open and a lot more hopeful than one could have predicted.

Enjoy 💕

PS: If you feel like talking/yelling about them while you read.... *laughs*

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