#but just thought i’d make a more comprehensive post
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It’s really insane to think about all the ways that they perpetuated Landon’s traumas and hardships and trapped him in them.
Like after he’d grown up being abused, they not only continued to have him being abused by hurting him the whole show, but then chose to kill him and keep him dead in the end.
And after Landon had gone most of his life not being loved by anyone, after he found the person who came to love him most (and who he also loved most), they had her be the one to kill him.
And then, after Landon had been trapped in 2 other dimensions for a whole season, they trap him in another dimension again which they never allow him to escape. Where there are also monsters, after he’d been trapped in a prison world full of monsters where he had to fight for his life. Then he’s gotta be around more of them in limbo and also help them. Even though it’s a totally different situation, you’d think it would still affect him to be around monsters again after having to fight and survive them before. (Not that they ever acknowledged any of this and just had Landon acting fine with everything in limbo.)
And he’d also had to be stuck with the Necromancer for however long it was, the one who killed his brother and forced his brother to kill him, resulting in the loss of his phoenix powers and making it possible for Landon to be dead in the first place. Then Landon’s the one who has to help the Necromancer and he gets freedom and peace while Landon remains trapped in purgatory.
And when part of Landon’s trauma came from him being locked up as a child, when isolation was part of the abuse he went through, he then gets locked up in limbo and remains isolated forever. He hadn’t even wanted to be stuck in a prison world with his brother, yet they put him somewhere that’s essentially like a prison world but worse.
After so badly wanting to escape the harmful life he’d had in the foster system and to have a real home and family and to not be alone, they put Landon somewhere inescapable that is literally damaging his soul, where he is completely alone and without the people he loves and without a real home that he’d always wanted.
And adding to Landon not having a real home, there’s also the fact he’d gone place to place while in foster care, never having any real stability or consistent safe place to be. And then for half the show they trap him in one place after another, and he continues to have no sense of home or stability anywhere. He’s got no real place to go and is basically homeless while trying to survive/escape each place he gets stuck in. And the closest thing to a home they give him in the end is a bar and a dock. And along with that, Landon would have grown up with very little, he hadn’t had many belongings at the start of the show and had to be given clothes by the school because of how little he had. Then by the end, the only clothes he gets to have is one outfit, and doesn’t get to have any other belongings either.
And after being neglected and left behind his whole life, they had him being left behind in every way possible and even said that was his fate. While no one did anything to help him. After his mom had abandoned him when he was a baby, they had her abandon him again (idc if he encouraged her to find peace, it’d still be hurtful to him for his mom to agree and just leave him behind again without helping him). And then they had even Hope, the last person who would’ve given up on him, abandon him as well.
He’d literally started harming himself (in season 2) when he was alone and without Hope and Raf, saying being alone was hopeless. And then the writers made him even more alone in the end, without Hope and Raf and without any hope of being with them again. They took the very things that had made Landon s*icidal and trapped him in them forever and then claimed it was a happy ending for him.
It’s still unreal to me what they did to him and that they took his traumas and basically amplified them and had his ending revolve around them. And somehow thought that was wonderful for his character and story.
#text#landon kirby#my posts#anti legacies#haven’t written an essay in a while#and i know i’ve rambled about this sort of stuff plenty of times#but just thought i’d make a more comprehensive post#about all the different traumas#though there could be things i forgot or didn’t think about#bc of how endless the mistreatment was#cruelest writers ever i think#tw suicide#tw self harm
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Referring to you "anxieties of the culture" horror tropes post, I just watched the 1990 adaptation of IT and this comes less than a month after watching both Kolchak movies & starting the TV show. What do you think it was about the late-70s/early-80s that led to "the killer is a monster that hibernates for a set number of years before returning to perform the killings again, as a grim echo of the past, and it's up to the heroes to stop it now before it rears its ugly head again"? There's gotta be some "pass-the-buck" crisis that PEAKED in that time period, something that was a long time coming before that and may or may not have continued since. I don't think it's climate change, that wasn't really at Critical Mass yet until the HFC hairspray crisis of the mid-80s. Your thoughts?
(In reference to this post: https://www.tumblr.com/elodieunderglass/729604545735458816)
Oh that is SO interesting! I also like the Horrors of the Past that Re-Emerge. You get them in fantasy too. To some extent they’re quite nice, because they displace responsibility, allowing the heroes to grapple with something distanced. necromantically resurrected Zombie Nazis will always be a more appealing enemy, for a broad market, than your present-day actual real life QAnon uncle. You can blow up an Ancient Horror as much as you like, can’t you? You don’t need to worry about the tricky present-day political circumstances that birthed the serial killer if it’s actually an ancient time-travelling monster. Monsters are often articulated and described and used because they are “safe” in this way: a displaced thing that can be used. Separate from us in species, appearance, home planet, history of origin, motives, spacetime - the farther they are from us and our shared background, the more justifiable it is to nuke them from orbit, to make a splashy movie.
HOWEVER. As I said in that post - “horror reflects social anxieties” is a SUPER well-described piece of media study and you can read proper writing about that anywhere. I encourage you to seek it out! They say it much better than I do.
I also said in that post that I, myself, don’t watch horror/movies/film. It isn’t due to contempt for the genre, or fear of the content - I just can’t get into it or get immersed, which defeats the point of an immersive genre meant to provoke response. (For example, despite being explicitly told that I would love Stranger Things Season 4 and that I was required to write fic about it for a friend, I gave out at the beginning of season 2; despite being really fond of Welcome to Night Vale at a formative time of my life, I dropped out before StrexCorp. And those are things I generally liked, wanted to consume, and knew I would enjoy! It’s a me problem, and I’m not bothered by it. I am TOO BUSY.)
That’s just to say that I could spitball some thoughts, but I’d be out of my depth.
But here’s an idea. A very small minority of people in the notes took offence to me having meta thoughts about horror when I don’t consume the genre - and worse, saying them out loud, while also openly admitting that I’m out of my depth and would prefer an expert to say it better. “YOU are a COWARD,” they say. “The audacity of commenting on a trend in a genre that you don’t even watch.” “You complain so much but don’t even watch these films” “imagine writing all this with such a bad attitude about horror.” etc.
I think those people have effectively volunteered to write you an essay. They clearly have the horror-consuming chops! Perhaps not the reading comprehension … or analysis skills… but they definitely watch a lot more horror media than I do, so why not give them a crack at it? (This is jokes, don’t bother them.)
Alternatively - there are a lot of clever and savvy people with good takes around here, so they’re welcome to spin out some answers on this post.
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This is a bit of a vague, broad request (so sorry about that!) but do you have any more info on the Dappletail extended family that hasn’t made it to our ears yet? Any masterposts about them or about individual cats like Darkstripe? I loved the Cricketclaw post a lot and I’d love to see more of these complicated goobers!
Sure! But it won't be comprehensive-- I need to make them a whole post like I did for the Dragonkin family over in RiverClan.
I've been calling them Dapplekin lately, but if we zoom out a little further, I've been calling the whole family the "Tawnyrain" line. I think we could call them Rainkin for the example here.
The Rainkin family descends from Rainfur and Tawnyspots. Tawnyspots is now the FATHER of Dappletail and Thrushpelt, bringing him in line with the statement that he was an old deputy when he retired.
Tawnyspots was an old friend of Sunstar. I imagine he also had a ton of apprentices, he was a responsible and nurturing kind of guy.
Rainfur was gorgeous. She was light golden with those lighter "dapple" stripes you see in Dappletail and her kits.
She is also where the humor came from. She loved the CORNIEST jokes. For some reason I just find it very funny that every cat in BB whose prefix is "Rain" gets a sense of humor.
Tawnyspots: "Hey Rainfur!! What did the tired honeysuckle say to the oak? Leaf me alone I'm bushed!"
Rainfur: (WHEEEEEZE)
The family gets the mane from Tawnyspots.
They were just NICE people, y'know? I think Bluestar looks back at them fondly, they were like the super sweet neighbors in the apartment next to you who would bring over extra food in old, stained tupperware.
And that extended to their kids. Dappletail and Thrushpelt are extremely meaningful to Bluestar, the both of them are sweet as overripe blackberries.
Dappletail has a really BAD case of resting bitchface. I channel a bond villain when I draw her or think of her voice.
She loves telling stories and explaining things, because she is good at it.
When Ravenkit and Dustkit's mother died and their uncle was extremely sick, and she'd just lost Featherkit and Darkstripe skeddadled with Graykit, she looked after them.
I think Ravenpaw's love of storytelling comes from her. Unfortunately though, she gave him a great power, as a kid he had a bad habit of Making Shit Up.
It definitely comes from Dappletail, who never says "I don't know." She will hypothesize, speculate, and seek answers, but doesn't use idk.
"Dappletail, where is the tunnelbun?"
"I saw it last shift, Graystripe had it. He probably took it."
Her kits all actually have the same biofather. I don't know who it is though, I imagine she met him after Rosetail told her a secret story about her honor sire in Chelford, but it might be a Clan cat. But he's monochrome gray; all of her kits are the same color as him.
THRUSHPELT meanwhile, ALSO a ball of sunshine,
I wrote a joke about him saying howdy ONCE and it became a core memory. Guy who says howdy.
Thistleclaw: "THIS IS ENGLAND WHY ARE YOU SAYING HOWDYYYY"
"Well howdy doody thistleclaw"
"AUUUGH"
He definitely says Hello in some weird way. Guy who answers the phone with Yellow. Man who says shucks unironically
And then surprises you by being one of ThunderClan's strongest fighters. If you swear in his good Christian Minecraft server he'll fucking gut you
Dappletail is not the stronger twin. Thushpelt is as thick as a twig but you get in a fight with him and you hear Dark Souls
That's part of why Bluestar could never allow ThunderClan to get taken over by Thistleclaw. The strongest fighter... goes on the front lines.
Moonflower was the strongest fighter too, once.
Unlike Dappletail, Thrushpelt also never needed to know the full story. Bluemoon ADORED him. If she was ever about to overshare for his sake, with the thought that he deserved to know, he would stop her.
"If I should know it, I will learn it in StarClan."
When Bluestar picked her first deputy, she knew it had to be him.
And he was a fantastic deputy, and a great uncle. Super supportive guy, calls you Sport and ruffles your mullet.
He got taken out a few weeks after Featherkit, which was devastating to Dappletail. She is comforted, however, by the idea that Thrushpelt can look after her.
I got into Cricketclaw and Darkstripe recently so I'll try not to repeat too much
Cricket and Dapple were actually extremely upset that Graystripe halted the fight over his kits.
Cricketclaw especially, she doesn't give a shit about Crookedstar and his sadness, she would have invited him to Cry About It, "MY nespring"
Dapple is 50% more diplomatic; "Silverstream is gone. Stormkit and Featherkit's family is here."
Feathertail's name makes them both Emotional, she actually has a tail pattern a lot like Dappletail's
On that note, yeah. They both did not want Featherpaw and Stormpaw to go back. They were both actually pretty upset about it
Cricketclaw got in a FIGHT with Mistyfoot for saying they could go home
How dare you even SUGGEST that actually, go back to the Clan that WANTED TO EXECUTE THEM???
I don't think Cricket could compose herself enough to say goodbye, and she was FURIOUS at Featherpaw for taking the offer. Her final words to them was probably just at Stormpaw alone;
"Don't let your sister decide your whole life for you. You'll always be OUR family."
I don't think Stormpaw actually appreciated it much. Stop making this harder! I know this is a bad idea! I have to be there for Featherpaw when this shit all goes south, god damn it!!
Dappletail and Graystripe are sad but supportive of the twins' choice. Cricketclaw is maaaad
And Stormfur and Feathertail... man
Feathertail sees the good in everything, to a fault. She believes it will all work out if we stick together, and that everything that happens is meant to be.
Stormfur does not agree
He watched his whole ass mentor get wasted, PARTIALLY by his uncle.
He saw people he thought where his friends watch his execution, some curious, some cheerful. All of them just watching.
People don't die clean. His blood didn't anoint the earth, it just gushed and choked. There's no such thing as a noble murder
Everyone rejects the Dishonor Title they gave Stonefur, saying that Tigerstar was not ordained by StarClan.
Stormfur doesn't see how that matters. The stars watched, too.
It was Deerfoot, Swansong, Jaggedtooth, Wetfoot, Mosspelt, and others who saved him... and it was normal cats, just like them, who built the Bonehill
So again; what does it matter that Tigerstar wasn't given the authority by StarClan to change his name?
His mentor was named Heartworm. And that is the only angel he prays to.
If they hadn't gone back to RiverClan, Feathertail never would have been chosen for the journey. Never would have died.
And the destruction of the Forest killed his family in ThunderClan. Devastated them. Even Graystripe was taken.
So when Leopardstar nodded at the "sign" Mothwing claimed she saw, when RiverClan hardened in TNP, and when it kicked out the pawful of Tribe cats who had come to help these ingrates get set up in a new territory...
He was done with Clan Culture. There was nothing left here, for him.
I don't even plan for him to be in love with Brook yet, going to the Tribe was about getting the fuck away from all this.
Yes Feathertail's grave is there too, but I think his feelings are super complicated.
Cricketclaw was right, he let her decide his life, and because of her he didn't get to say goodbye to his family. He would have been in ThunderClan, maybe even been able to save some of them.
At the Tribe, he lives in the Cave Ward. The least populated ward, and practically a temple-town.
At first he thought he would be more of a hunter, but he quickly learned he really doesn't like how you hunt in the highlands. It's a VERY leggy activity, lots of hiking, running, coordination. It was different than he expected.
Anyway I'll stop there because I could write an SE on how Stormfur adjusts after his immigration and I would actually be interested in doing it. Like, really take the chance to show how the BB!Tribe works and explore the feelings of moving to a new place.
It's a theme that's personal to me as a writer tbh.
Graystripe meanwhile... he never gets over Silverstream. Not even with Millie. I don't think he realizes it, but he really is always looking for the glimpse of himself in a happier timeline
And boy oh boy does it fuck up his next litter.
I've spoken about them all before and I plan to collect it all in one place at some point, but briefly,
Graystripe can't ever take a side when Millie treats Briarlight poorly, and just ends up enabling Millie's ableism
Millie is frantic over Briarpaw's injury, and says some AWFUL things right to her face, making the entire situation about herself
But Graystripe will be like, "your mother says things she doesn't mean :( she loves you, you know"
He can't deal with the possibility of losing Millie, too. Or any of his kids. It's something that Briarlight and Blossomfall come to realize, with time and wisdom.
Bumblestripe meanwhile... he's not really smart enough to ever realize that. He just keeps breaking himself on trying to get Graystripe to see him
But Gray is ALWAYS seeing his first litter, and comparing them. No milestone goes by where he's not cheerfully bringing up some story of how their older siblings were, how he wishes they could see them.
That's where he goes, in the end. After extreme carnage from the Impostor, Graystripe decided that he wanted to spend the last of his life with Stormfur in the mountain.
(Graystripe's Vow is now Ferncloud's Parting, FERNCLOUD is gonna go confront her brother)
Thankfully, Briarlight had her mentor Honeysnake to help her realize her worth... but Blossomfall and Bumblestripe meander for meaning into really toxic, dangerous places for their whole lives.
Blossomfall trains in the Dark Forest because she feels so alienated and disconnected from the Clan at large, only stopping in the BOTTE in the last wave when she faces up against Briarlight
She confronts Briar, and she just... cocks her eyebrow. "ILL END YOU" "no you won't."
Squirrelflight actually tried to tell Bramblestar to make an exception with his Dishonor Titles for the DF trainees, realizing that that Blossomfall's problem was alienation.
She wanted Blossomfall to be put into a Secondary Apprenticeship, specifically for the Construction Patrol since Dustpelt was killed. Something where she'd see her work pay off, and she'd be helping to take care of the Clan.
But Bramblestar rejected it, because it would be unfair. If everyone else is getting Dishonor Titles she will get one too; she shouldn't be REWARDED for what she did. It's a punishment.
So she was Shredbloom for a while. None of her problems were addressed and she ended up joining The Kin later, eventually being rescued by Heathertail and her plan.
Returning to ThunderClan was on her family's vouch, bringing the kits she'd given birth to in The Kin with her, and she was on THIN ICE
She mouthed off at the Impostor in typical Blossomfall fashion once, early in his reign, and she got hit with a DEVASTATING second Dishonor Title; Clearface.
"Because it would be better off if we could see right through her."
Bumblestripe became one of the Impostor's favorite lackeys, exploiting his failed relationship and resentment of Dovewing
Briarlight was murdered in the dog attack that Sparkpelt barely survived, and Stemleaf is killed in the assassination attempt on the Impostor.
Bumblestripe accompanies the old people, Ferncloud, Cloudtail, and Graystripe, during Ferncloud's Parting. He says goodbye to his dad in the mountain, and finally meets the Famous Stormfur...
And learns that he's just some fucking guy.
You live your whole life trying to hold up to this standard of a distant, unknown brother in the mountains, and then you learn he was Just A Dude all along.
He went further south with Cloudtail and Ferncloud too, to make sure they were safe. They are old and it is a long journey.
And that's where they all are to the current point of BB! In ThunderClan, the active Rainkin Family is Bumblestripe, Blossomfall, Plumstone, and Shellfur, and all of them want to support Spotfur as she raises Stemleaf's children.
They refer to themselves as "Graykin" currently; their last relevant ancestor. In Clan Culture, families tend to split at a grandparent or great-grandparent.
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I think that the user who made this post is lacking reading comprehension as to me it looks like Netanyahu is just saying that he wants security controls in place which if we go by the Wikipedia article for security controls, is just tighter security. The article in that post also doesn't include his full statement which adds context.
This article has his whole statement
what are your thoughts on this?
Idk what article or post you’re talking about.
I don’t like or trust Netanyahu. I do not believe anything he says. He’s Israel’s version of Trump. Idk what exactly he wants more control of but based solely on this post it seems like he’s offering to end the war by placing more security and checkpoints around Palestine.
My thoughts on that are that people not dying is better than people dying. But that’s too low a bar. Palestinians deserve better than just “not being under siege.” The steps must be in the direction of increasing freedom, not limiting it further.
This is what I’ve been talking about for months while people have been busy trying to compare me to a Nazi for saying I don’t want Jews to die or be expelled.
The only proper way to behave right now is to actively discuss what a future where both Israelis and Palestinians live together in peace should look like and then taking steps to ensure that future.
If we don’t do that, then Netanyahu will get his wish: tighter controls around Palestine, increased tension between Palestine and Israel, a guarantee that enough discontented Palestinians will look to organizations like Hamas for a solution to their oppression only to end up endangered between a terrorist organization and a hostile Likud-run government that stays in power by casting them as inherently vicious villains.
So, idk man. I can’t know for certain that I have any of this right. I’m just going off context clues cuz I refuse to look it up. Why do I refuse to look it up? Because I’d give myself an 85% chance of being right about what Netanyahu is proposing. Because he’s predictable and a bad person and a bad leader whose only goal is to weaponize both Jewish and Palestinian trauma to retain his own power.
This, even more than the personal attacks from antisemites, is what has bothered me most about western leftist “support” for Palestine during this most recent flair of the conflict. By focusing on attacking Jews around the world and stanning terrorist organizations and ignoring Jewish people and Israelis and even Muslims and Palestinians and Arabs who are and have been actively engaged in working towards peace and against Netanyahu for literal decades they have all but ensured that the most reasonable and informed voices have been effectively silenced. And you know who’s gonna fill that power vacuum? Netanyahu. Cuz it’s what he does.
And then the next time this happens, because it will, we will have to all live through this (or fault to live through it) again.
So, do I get a gold star friends? If I’m wrong I’ll delete this post. But man just the idea of Netanyahu proposing tighter security makes my blood boil. He knows what he’s doing. And it’s bad.
I hope I’m wrong. I hope I’ve misinterpreted something. And I will look it up further. But before I do, I genuinely want to know: is that asshole really that predictable? Did the entire western left literally just fall for his whole schtick and end up helping him to concentrate even more power? Did it work because it relied upon people hating Jews more than they trust Jews or love Palestinians? Cuz it feels like that’s what’s happening.
In the meantime, A Land for All is a solution worth actually discussing. Let’s all work toward that or another equally mutually beneficial solution to this conflict instead of helping Hamas gain adherents and helping Likud retain power:
https://www.alandforall.org/english/?d=ltr
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JONATHAN SIMS
PITIFUL WET RAG OF A MAN MOTHERFUCKING JONATHAN SIMS.
GOD DAMN BELOVED WIMP ASS STATEMENT GATHERING ,SAD BACKSTORY, LACTOSE INTOLERANT VIBES, AVATAR OF THE NERD, BLINDEST EYE PATRON OF THE CENTURY, KIDNAPPED FOUR TIMES IN 100 EPISODES MOTHERFUCKING JONATHAN SIMS
YOU CAN KEEP CRINGE LIKING MY POSTS I ENJOY THE NOTES I LOVE HIM SO MUCH
WHY DOES HE ALWAYS END UP IN THE MOST FUCKED UP SITUATIONS , EVER SINCE HE WAS A CHILD ??? NO WONDER HE ENDED UP AT THE ARCHIVE, OBSESSIVE ASS AUTISTIC CODED BITCH
THIS LIMP WRISTED SAD PATHETIC MAN HAS SUCH A VISCERALLY POSITIVE EFFECT ON ME, NOT EVEN IN THE ROOM NEVER SEEN THIS MANS FACE, AND I KNOW HE HAS THE WORLDS MOST DEPRESSED COLLEGE PROFESSOR YOU WANT TO HELP WITH HIS COMPUTER VIBES
If i wanted to get into heaven and god said I had to recant all that I’ve ever said about him being adorable and wanting to wrap him into a bundle of towels like a kitten, I’d simply go knock on hell’s door, they at least might accept my pitiful man loving ways. Almost a full ass lesbian and I would marry this man just for the sake of protecting him from the horrors.
If I have to deal with one more person insisting I have a crush on the voice actor and showing me his picture, I will start digitalising myself to escape their bullshit no good hearing and reading comprehension and I will slow down their internet connection out of spite
i dont even know why i love him so much. he reads messed up stories but i am just obsessed because i am projecting.
he better have some more fucked up backstory episodes bc if I never get to acquire more lore on him I will just have to write it myself
I hope he gets some affection and love soon cuz if he doesn’t I’m going to make him
paypal.com/IFuckingLoveJonSims
Almost all the episodes have him in them and its still not enough. vaguely see something that reminds me of him and I black out and lose my train of thought for the next 20 minutes
I’ve been spoiled about the ending, but I won’t let that stop me from hoping he gets the peace and love he deserves, i love denial and ignoring canon
I'll lovingly squish jon and his sad pitiful little archivist body will simply crumble to pieces when faced with how much I love him until all that's left is one final statement recorded on his trusty tape recorder titled MAG 201 “A Jon Stan” written in curly-q handwriting on top
im not breathing im hyperventilating at this point
i hope theres a date given for when he’s resuscitated or appears as a cryptid to haunt people so i can make it a reminder on my phone
once a year i will see it and will do so many little things to pay respects to the man who recorded hundreds of fucked up little stories and still couldn’t escape his destiny to became one himself.
(very much inspired by the Jurgen Leitner rant : https://jurgen-leitner-rant.neocities.org )
#tma#jonathan sims#jon sims#jarchivist#jurgen leitner rant#this came to me as I was settling down to work on my thesis and I couldn't concentrate until I wrote it#the magnus archives
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Xie Lian taking away Lang Qianqiu’s freedom to choose his own path?
i’ve already addressed this in a reblog post but now that i’ve finished book 1 of the revised version i’d like to offer a more comprehensive analysis.
someone pointed out that in the revised version, xie lian seems much more “selfish”, that he is no better than White No-Face because he also lied to Lang Qianqiu to shape him into the kind of person he wanted him to be.
【Lang Qianqiu said sharply, "You still deny it?! For so many years, you've kept me from knowing who my real enemy is, you've deceived me yet made me grow into the person you wanted! To achieve this, you'd rather be thought of as the murderous culprit of the bloody massacre at the Gilded Banquet, allowing me to drive forty-nine nails into your chest and into the coffin! Guoshi, you're really something!"
With every sentence, Xie Lian couldn't argue because it was the truth. So, all he could do was despairingly say, "It's not like that."】 (new scene from revised version)
as i mentioned in my other post, a narrative that weaves its way through tgcf is how xie lian is supposed to be a parental/teacher figure toward lang qianqiu, and that such figures exist to the end of protecting/guiding children; even in modern society research has shown that the adolescent brain doesn’t develop fully until around 25 years of age, insofar as they shouldn’t be given complete free reign over many areas, for example we have laws pertaining to the legal age of driving or the legal age of drinking, we have age ratings for media and put minors dni in our bios… etc. in other words, it is not xie lian’s onus to completely leave lang qianqiu be to figure out his life. of course, lang qianqiu is a couple hundreds years old, but we will stick to the theoreticals of their what their relationship represents.
a brief aside about culture, i think western culture tends to place much more emphasis on individual choice / freedom in general, versus during my time in Chinese fandom nobody thought this was a problem. haha at the risk of sounding like communist propaganda, choice is not always good. for example, Barry Schwartz introduced the concept of the paradox of choice, which illustrates that while a variety of options allows for more freedom and autonomy, it can also lead to greater dissatisfaction, indecision, and paralysis; this is why businesses avoid presenting consumers with a wide array of products or services, because it could overwhelm them and lead them to give up purchasing anything in the end.
xie lian makes a similar argument:
【Indeed, whether the talisman burns could determine the life or death of what's inside the pot. But if the answer was "alive," it would be easy to kill whatever was inside right there and then. If the pot contained a little rabbit, a small demon, or even a human soul, then the gamble wouldn't be fun at all.
Shaking his head, Xie Lian said, "It's not that I'm worried. Of course, I know you wouldn't do such a thing. I just think it's better not to give others the chance to make such a choice.”】 (new scene from revised version)
this relates to the one-cup-of-water-two-people (i have no idea how to translate this properly) problem, in which no matter who you choose to give the water to, no matter which of the Two Paths you choose, it would always feel as if you’ve done something wrong. it’s a zero-sum game. similarly, alluding to the trolley problem, whether you pull the lever or not, you would either be killing someone or leaving others to die.
xie lian’s philosophy, then, is to prevent a situation such as the trolley problem from happening in the first place. he wants to spare the pain of the decision. he wants to eradicate the “two-paths” narrative.
hua cheng embodies the same philosophy. a few years ago, i asked a friend, how do you think xie lian would choose if he were to do the trolley problem, except on one track we have hua cheng, on the other track we have all the common people? and then i realised — hua cheng would probably willingly die for xie lian so he does not have to make the choice.
choice is burdensome.
another thing i want to point out is the popular phrase circulating on the Chinese internet “因为自己淋过雨，所以想给别人撑把伞” (“Having been drenched in the rain myself, I wish to hold an umbrella for others.”), in which there is no “neutral” option; there is no “support others in finding their own umbrellas”. in that sense, xie lian merely acts as a foil to bai wuxiang by doing the opposite of what he did. i do not think mxtx considered the “in-between” option of giving lang qianqiu the freedom to choose.
having finished rereading book 1, i realised that there is a line in it that directly mirrors the above.
【what he has endured enough himself already, he cannot bear to let another go through it as well.】
hua cheng also adds his own perspective to balance things out:
【He also sat down beside Xie Lian and said, "Moreover, if you value [Lang Qianqiu] so much, why can't you trust him?"
Xie Lian lifted his face from his arms. Hua Cheng said lightly, "Trust that since he is the one you've chosen, he will not lose himself in hatred. Even if he once wished to destroy the entire world, in the end, he will do what he must.”】
in the end, linking back to the narrative that xie lian is lang qianqiu’s parental/teacher figure:
【Lang Qianqiu looked as if he wished he could cover his ears: "Why are you lecturing me like this? What gives you the right to act as my master?"
Xie Lian replied, "It won't happen again." Lang Qianqiu was startled, and Xie Lian added, "This is the last time. Faults need fixing, and the rest is up to you to figure out slowly on your own."】
a popular interpretation amongst Chinese fans is that only upon his third ascension did xie lian “truly” ascend. if we read TGCF as a bildungsroman, xie lian starts off as a naive crown prince who matures through these 800 years. in parallel, then, we have just witnessed the inciting incident to lang qianqiu’s character growth arc. this is the beginning of his coming-of-age.
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I think overall there’s one of two „big“ problems happening for people who have a problem with TOWL (racists and the likes aside… 🙄).
1- The misunderstanding that this was truly much more a Rick and Michonne story than a TWD one. This was not TWD S12. It was about telling the story of these 2 characters and being able to put a dot at the end (or a dot dot dot). And you’ve laid all of that out perfectly. Like yes, in TWD, Beale (& the CRM) would have been draaaaagged out. But this was much more of a Terminus approach than a Saviors one if we will…
2- TWD was never the most ..subtle show. They tended to hit the audience over the head with stuff. And I’m not sure I would go as far as calling TOWL subtle outright either (idk, didn’t think about this until right this moment lol -obviously elements of it are, sure -just as elements on TWD could be on the subtler side) but compared to TWD, it certainly is lol. And there has been a very big „media literacy“ and „basic comprehension skills“ problem happening for a minute now. And I really don’t say this to be mean or make fun of people or anything but these are just facts. Some people really struggle with getting the information when they are not being hit over the head with it, over and over and over again. After the finale I saw several posts on my tl of people wondering why this, that or the other was not addressed or how/why this, that or the other did happen… and I was utterly confused because those things they claimed were missing were very much shown? I was like, there was literally a scene dealing with all of this? And it didn’t require any reading between the lines to be honest, no subtext, it was very much the text of the scene?! So it seems like some people just didn’t get a lot of things that were happening 🫤
(BTW I don’t mean that even if someone didn’t have these specific problems with the show, they MUST love it then. Likes and dislikes etc etc. As much as I really loved the show as a whole, if I decided to put down the Richonne-colored glasses I wanted to and did watch to the show with.. I’d definitely have a few complaints lol, though still very much enjoyed the show even then)
That's definitely what happened. And to some extent, I get why, considering Rick and Michonne are 2/3 of the main show's Big Three. But when the press and promos started, and people were still talking about some Marvel-style meet-up, I was like...oh they're definitely not listening to what's being said, because it's six damn episodes, and also The Richonne story, not the Team Family jamboree. And then acting as if it's somehow 'insulting' to the rest of the characters if Rick and Michonne didn't talk about them. The man had PTSD so bad, he couldn't remember his own son's face. Why would you think it would be good time for him to pause in the middle of his wife telling him about a traumatic moment during her pregnancy to ask about anyone else? Please be fr.
I feel you on the comprehension thing, which is nothing new for this fandom. The fact that so many people legit thought Rick didn't know how to drive stick and questioned the 'realism' of it but never stopped to think that it was because he only has one damn hand. Y'all were fine with every silly ass moment that happened in the main show, that was either sheer dumb luck or handwaved away, but now we need a complete breakdown from experts on how Rick managed to fight off walkers one-handed. Now y'all want the realism, when you've been so giddy for weeks because you need one of them to die for the show to be 'interesting'.
I'm really not listening to people who need the narrative to hold their hand through everything, or need to see every piece of the plot onscreen for it to be considered 'legitimate'. (I'm officially banning the phrase 'plot armor' for the foreseeable future).
People didn't get things, because they don't take a minute to sit with the damn material anymore. From live reactions videos to live tweeting/blogging, people are just watching TV to make content and have an online moment, not for what's actually being shown. And yeah, TOWL isn't perfect, but the minor criticisms I have for it doesn't take away from the fact that it is very enjoyable and easily the best material from the TWD landscape in a long time.
(sidenote: I will say one of my favorite things from these past six weeks is everyone struggling to figure out the overall TWD timeline, lmao.)
#.answered#towl spoilers#twd: the ones who live#richonne#I am once again rambling#but I appreciate the message!
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I'm a little sad to see this blog mostly shares polls nowadays... I miss the AU talk and random chatter about ideas or headcanons, your opinions on things and the wip wednesdays
I'm still happy to see your art in between all those polls. (before forgetting: you might have already lost but to me Train of Thought IS and WILL BE my favorite submas AU. No contest. Nope. Never.)
But yeah, missing the old days here. Dearly. Verrrry much.
Don't get this wrong, you're either probably still recovering, you're insanely busy or maybe even moved on... either way wishing you have fun with wherever tracks take you! I was happy to be on this blog in it's prime.
Hey Anon! I will be honest with you on this cause I do want to explain what has happened with this blog lately, and where I plan to go with it. (It’s not going anywhere, don’t worry!!)
There are a few reasons for the inactivity. Part of it is just me recovering from university work. I pushed myself way harder than I should have for way longer than I should have, and now I’m kinda trying to just recalibrate my brain and mental health. It’s really foggy and I struggle with concentration and comprehension a lot currently. (And this is also why I haven’t really answered asks, when I tried to answer Papa Ingo AU asks while like this, it really only led to getting confused and correctional asks in response, because I kept getting things wrong, and that made things really overwhelming.)
AND SECOND! Most of my free time right now is not being spent on this blog, because most of it is going into writing and editing. Concentration and comprehension issues are making it take a lot longer than I’d like it to right now, but I have a lot of content on the way!
- four new chapters of HFBE
- three chapters of IWLYB
- a five chapter, 25k+ word fic titled Rain Check
- another fic titled Entropy Syndrome
None of these are out yet because Entropy Syndrome’s narrative covers a concept that spans across all of these other fics and chapters, and it’s adjusted a lot of content that’s making me rewrite things several times over to ensure it’s properly written in and connected ^^;
And lastly, sadly a lot of it is just irrational anxiety. I stopped posting for a while for university, and anxiety makes me irrationally scared to start again because it always makes it hard to start back at something once I’ve stopped ^^; (I’m hoping dumping all these fics will alleviate this when I’m done with them though! Fic posting is what diminished my anxiety enough to start this blog in the first place!!)
BELIEVE ME I miss how this blog used to be as well, but my mentality is still sort of recovering from what I did to it for four years straight, and I can’t really force it to keep going more right now. It’s certainly a process, but I’m recovering!
Lots of stuff is coming soon! I have a few minutes drabbles on hand, I will attempt to start posting those while I keep working on these fics.
Thank you for the ask anon!! It means a lot that you liked this blog so much. I still love it, and I’m taking care of myself as best I can so that I can get back to running this blog at full efficiency!!
Thank you again Anon!!! ^^
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Going anon because I don’t want you to focus on who sent you this (although I’m sure something I’ll say might give me away <3), but rather, I want you to focus in on your amazing self.
Something I like to do in my daily practice is write down a few things of what made me most happy that day… but for purposes of this, I’d like you to tell me which fic (can be multiple) that you wrote makes you the most happy!
Ignore the notes, ignore the traction — which fic of yours makes you the most happy and warm and all the good feelings, and give an explanation (however long you want) as to why🩶
A lot of times, especially in a world like this where the internet and other’s creativity is so accessible, we forget to give our own selves the credit we deserve. This is my way of sprinkling around that little bit of gratitude.
I hope you have a beautiful day wherever you are.
Endless love🌙
^ me to you right now.
The positivity and love in this message are so lovely and much appreciated. Thank you, thank you, thank you for filling my inbox with love. Ily.
My favorite fic of mine is probably Desert Dust.
I wrote it shortly after getting married and was just in such a happy head space. It was probably the best time I had writing a fic. I hit the flow state so easily, and I 100% fell in love with both the reader and that version of Joel.
I don't really go back and read my fics (even though most of what I write is for myself), but I read that one regularly and it still just fills me with all the warm fuzzies.
Sex on Fire was a close second (but I have a uniform kink so that's probably why lol).
Because this wouldn't be a gratitude post without sharing a little love, I also have immense appreciation for the following fics/creators:
+ @endlessthxxghts L is a gem of a human, probably one of the sweetest people I have ever had the pleasure to know, and pretty much everything they write makes me fall to pieces. I particularly love Breakfast.
+ @syd-djarin Sydney is literally my slutty smutty sister, and always goes toe to toe with me in the naughty thoughts department. Y'all should see some of our text messages. Sugar, Spice & Please Fuck Me Nice lives rent-free in my brain.
+ @auteurdelabre is not only such a kind soul, and incredibly talented, but completely rewrote my brain chemistry with their series Please, Mister Miller? Like I actually screamed into my phone practically every part.
+ @morallyinept Jett is the ray of sunshine we all need in our lives. Not only is she a talented writer, but she has one of the most comprehensive recs series I've seen on this platform. Every fic on her master is a work of perfection, but especially her Joel fics.
+ @atticrissfinch Wowwwwwieeeee, there is nothing that Katy writes that I won't immediately devour. Her Meet Me In the Back series has me feeling some type of way about sleazy Joel.
+ @javiscigarette Cami is an absolute sweetheart and a phenomenal writer. Her Teacher's Pet series is a work of art.
@toxicanonymity wrecks me every time -- mind, body, soul. What I wouldn't give to just experience her genius brain for a day. Her Vampire Joel series makes my younger emo teen self so happy, and her raider!Joel series broke my brain in the best way possible.
...there are so many more, it would be impossible to list them all.
But while I'm on the gratitude train, I want to show some love to some new-ish and upcoming writers in this fandom. Keep on writing babies! I'm so proud of you.
@chulopascal @yxtkiwiyxt @bellamese @mermaidgirl30 @artsy-girl-76 @burntheedges @forthetears @hellowoolf @suzdin @miller-n-morgan
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I finally made a blog, so I think I’m gonna make a post with the things I’ve noticed about Banana Fish that I haven’t seen anyone else talk about :D
(This won’t be very comprehensible, sorry, I’m autistic and gay and there are creatures in my air vents)
°Firstly, I used to wonder why on earth -after all he’d been through- Ash feared pumpkins of all things. Sure, it was something that frightened him as a kid (I’m not one to dispute childhood fears being silly, I used to be scared of my mother’s eyebrows when I was little) but you’d think that he’d maybe have gotten over it by now, right? Well, I have a few theories, but I think the most logical is one I have where it’s just him clinging to the last fear he had that couldn’t actually hurt him. He’s scared of pumpkins because pumpkins can’t molest him or kill him. At least, that’s my theory.
°Next, just want to point out that after Shorter dies Ash starts wearing his sunglasses. :D
°After cross-referencing the image of Skipper being shot and a diagram of a child’s internal anatomy, I’ve come to the conclusion that if he’d gotten immediate medical attention, he could theoretically have lived. To explain; Skipper got shot on his chest, around his collarbones. This missed his heart, from what I can see, but got his collarbones (obviously) and his lungs. While he’d have had shattered collarbones, probably nerve damage and a bilateral pneumothorax, those things are survivable when treated quickly enough. We saw him ‘die’ when his eyes dulled, sure, but honestly seeing as it missed his vitals he was probably passing out from pain. Meaning if someone had called an ambulance, he could have lived. But instead he bled out because people thought he was already dead.
°This manga was deliberately made to contradict the themes seen very often in shojo manga of rape porn among gay men. It was kind of jumping in the face of the industry and screaming “This isn’t fucking okay!!!”. Just figured I’d give you something a little less depressing in the post idk lol.
°Not a sad point, but why does nobody talk about how Shorter slowly gets deyassified in the manga. First appearance, he has a Mohawk, earrings, a heart on his face, a fur coat, the mix. Next appearance, he has the Mohawk but he’s lost the earrings, heart and coat. After that he looks like Walter White. Who did this to him. Who did that to my wife. Own up.
°I’ve seen people dunk on and defend Yut Lung, and I’m not sure who’s side I’m on, but I’d like to point out the fact that in the manga he was way more outwardly remorseful about Shorter’s death. I’m not sure why they changed it, but I prefer the manga.
°Also, Yut Lung in the manga was ᵗⁱⁿʸ
°Also why does nobody talk about how in the manga Shorter had his shirt and shades when he dies, and in the anime they took them. How am I supposed to pay attention to his death when his boobs are out. Come on now
I’ll make another one of these if I come up with more, idk, but I just wanted to ramble. Hope it was interesting, at least.
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not sure if this is something you can do but I thought I’d check here because you are The Xisuma Guy, could you list what you’d call the most notable personality traits / habits of xisuma and some common speech patterns of his? just for a characterisation thing I’m working on! no worries if not
first of all, i very much appreciate the complement ^-^ and hopefully i can be of some help ^-^
now i will preface this with the fact that i havent done much in way of writing xisuma so im mainly going off of what ive picked up in his videos/streams and in fics ive read that i think work really well ^-^
very important is that xisuma is a bit of a derp, he does silly things sometimes. he is very knowledgable in the game but sometimes he just does something very silly (see xisuma fully making a farm/smelter thing to make charcoal blocks just to realize that charcoal blocks are a modded thing) (also see xisuma getting way more obsidian than he would ever need, resulting in a double derp moment)
also very important to include some sassy coments or sarcastic comments in his dialogue. this can really be seen in some of the interations xisuma has with his chat during streams (a moment that immediatley comes to mind for me is the 'pearl's junk shop' moment)
i would definetly recommend watching some of his videos from the hermit x empires crossover or some HHH streams to get a good idea of his dynamic with other people. his episode where he spawned withers with cub etho and tango in the deep dark is also a good one for that ^-^
another trait i would include is that xisuma is very appreciative of the hermits builds/redstone machines. some great examples of this would be doc's TCG anvil cannon, beef's hermitcraft TCG, and pixlriff's copper aging machine
when talking xiusma does a lot of crouching and punching. and when he is listening to someone else he does a lot of crouching as well
i also found some posts that have common phrases and typing characteristics of xisuma in them ^-^
#asks from the void#xisuma#xisuma writing#clips from the void#i hope this helps ^-^#i kept thinking of other things while tracking down videos lmao
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UGH!-6: But like … Did They Stutter?
Yet To Come - by BTS [Proof]
[Music is a very big part of my life and I’m MOSTLY INCAPABLE of writing without music, so I just thought I'd share what I am listening to while writing this]
–🐺–🐺–🐺–
…
Given that even my coworkers, who generally REALLY DON’T CARE/KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT BTS except for the ones who now have started listening to some of their songs thanks to yours truly, came to me saying “So. BTS. They are disbanding uh? …” the day after FESTA 2022 dinner, I’d say it wouldn’t be a gross generalization to assume that at least every ARMY, OT7, x/y/z-biased, solo, anti, shipper, whatever-you-prefer-to-be-called, saw FESTA 2022 dinner. Right?
If you haven’t I’d highly recommend you to do so but as always you feel free to do you as the boys did explain everything that they could at the time, which is pretty much what is happening right now. They also made a couple of sentiments and statements clear, and I, for one, am writing this post even though I am painfully aware that the boys are never going to see it, yet I still wish to put out this message in the universe, maybe its energy will manifest and reach them somehow, as I would really like them not to think that we all have poor listening and reading comprehension.
BTS’ CHAPTER 1: THE END OF AN ERA.
The Beatles. The Jackson 5. Menudo. New Edition. Backstreet Boys. One Direction.
According to the following Wiki definition this is what they all have in common:
A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation.[1] Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Many boy bands dance as well as sing, usually giving highly choreographed performances. South Korean boy bands usually also have designated rappers 🤡 LOL LOL LOL 🤡.
That being said, with hindsight, we can add/examine a couple of aspects, which have surfaced through the years and further represent boy bands. For example, the fact that at the very beginning boy bands were usually the union of a group of friends, or classmates, basically, people who already knew each other. Let’s fast forward a couple of decades, and we see that the music industry catches on to the fact that waiting for the next phenomenal boy band to magically appear is not sustainable and that is when they realise that they can actually make the groups themselves. So starts the scouting and the auditioning with the sole goal of slapping together supposedly talented boys who are complete strangers to one another, but who at the very least, have a desire to become rich and famous. “Win-win”.
Moving on, around the same time, we'll have to leave the West and take a trip to East-Asia, where the boy band industry has had an even bigger eureka moment. What they’ve realized is that even though these boys may not have the affinity of a band of boys who already know each other, from a business point of view they can easily be molded into whatever it is on demand at the very moment, afterall, everybody loves a good story, and even better if it comes with a great soundtrack. So what better than creating a narrative for these boy bands, each member would have a role/character associated and fans can not only enjoy the music but also follow a sort of “storyline” as they watch for example the silent masculine strong member interact with the cute feminine talkative one. Even greater “win”, brr brr!.
Now, in an ideal world, all that reasoning would make sense and bring about endless profit, but we don’t live in such a place do we? The whole purpose of a business is to make money and if money is what you base your every decision on, sooner or later, you are bound to encounter problems that money can’t solve without changing things irreversibly and in most instances, for the worst. The thing about grouping ambitious strangers with the intent of becoming rich (usually more for the company) and famous (usually more for the artists) is that if you don’t have a common goal all you are essentially doing is building a glorified House of Cards.
And don’t get me wrong, Longevity, is something that this type of companies, and the artists themselves, could only dream to achieve but never actually aim at. Nobody does, because it is very much a pipe dream type of thing. In fact, for the most part, the company's goal is it to at least have one amazing CD, make fans go crazy for a year or two, so that they can spend some money, and then if it doesn’t work anymore, the artist would hope to have garnered enough fame to allow them to start perhaps a solo career, or at least stay within the business, while the group inevitably disbands and the company moves on to the next group. Rinse and repeat ad infinitum. This has been the blueprint, and it was indeed the same blueprint used to form Bangtan Sonyeondan.
It was the same blueprint, but Bang SiHyuk was a visionary that had goals of his own, with a knack for unusual experimentation 🤡. And exactly like a Mad Scientist, if you will, he played around with what he believed to be “slightly usual ingredients”. However, what he didn’t quite know at the time, was that these “ingredients” were actually very unusual. Some of the “ingredients” didn’t follow instructions, some very quickly dropped their assigned character, and some even had secret jobs but what they all had, and he probably didn’t account for or maybe he did, who knows right? was an extraordinary fighting spirit, which pulled up strong when it became clear that it was Bangtan vs the World. These boys had something to prove. They had somehow found their common goal.
As we all should know, early Bangtan, due to Big Hit's lack of reputation and funds, became the industry’s punching bag. This would have normally caused an “explosion in the lab”, instead, it created something new. The boys were fired up with this fiery will to fight back. They took the negativity and turned it into artistic fuel and did all of that while naturally learning about each other and consequently depending on each other solely. Somehow, these boys ended up actually liking each other. They kinda fought like members of a band made of family members, but had the passion of members of a band of strangers. They were an anomaly.
An anomaly in a world that had rapidly become full of “anomalies”. Your everyday listener was, yes, looking for good music, yes, looking for something new and entertaining, but when they realised that they could also get someone who they could relate to; … 🤯🤯🤯. And so the “ingredients'' began to mutate. Along the way, they found their true calling, while adapting to their environment and understanding their receptors fandom, which also understood them in return, creating a never before seen bond, Tannies & ARMY, that brought them to where they are now; a world where THEY are the blueprint has anyone else noticed the number of boy/girl bands that got back together.
These boys have created something unique.
Something that other “Mad Scientists” have ever since been trying so hard to recreate in “their labs” and so far to no avail. This “something” is not only insanely lucrative, but also so emotionally rare, and has a chance at Longevity. These are boys who trust and genuinely love each other, but because they are also human, and have learned to be honest with themselves, they also know their limitations. And like they’ve always done, they sat down, exposed the problem, and tried to find a solution. And even though they didn’t have to, they also sat down with us, FESTA 2022 dinner, and quite clearly explained their solution. But, as always, the world managed to take their words and turn them into whatever sold better on the front page of the next morning paper we’ll get to that later on or/and whatever better fits their personal agendas.
BTS’ CHAPTER 2: A LIMITED AMOUNT OF TIME, WITH AN UNLIMITED NUMBER OF POSSIBILITIES.
Have any of you experienced moments where you just wanted some time to yourself? Like, you love your friends, your family, your job, your everything, but at the same time, you are mentally exhausted and you need out for as long as you can afford? This is usually what most people use holidays for, you might be thinking. But the type of out I’m talking about is the kind where you want to be able to pause your present life, start another life for a while, and then go back to your past life kinda out. Basically, a “have your cake and eat it” type of out.
That’s what I feel the boys are trying to experience and I ain’t mad at it, not one bit. Cause, let's be real, most of us regular people can’t really afford to even think of experiencing such a thing without MAJOR repercussions to our everyday life. But not only do I feel like they deserve it, but if it also allows them to reach their goals, and solve their problems, it would be like killing two birds with one stone. I mean, they really are not hurting anyone, by wanting to have a chance to experience life outside BTS other than those who are setting themselves up to be hurt that is 🤡.
October 2022 rolled around and we got the following:
This theoretically gives a precise time frame to BTS’ CHAPTER 2. Let’s say that being back together means that they will physically be together and do a WLIVE on the 31st of December 2025, that means that, if we assume their serving period to be 18 months, the latest any member can enlist is the 30th of June 2024 (which I calculated considering the 30th of December 2025 being their last day). Obviously, I don’t know if their plan is to be together by the end of December 2025 and start working on a new album in 2026. Or be together say by August 2025 and ready for a tour in 2026 with a new album; only time can tell. But for the purpose of this post: BTS’ CHAPTER 2 began on the 15th of June 2022 and could end on the 31st of December 2025.
SO, that being said, a couple of things happened on the 15th of June 2022 that I would like to point out and a couple of things, define a couple of others, and I would like for people to remember one particular thing:
THINGS TO POINT OUT:
Some OT7 ARMY decided to dip and come back when BTS comes back to be 7, so after MS.
Other OT7 and/or x/y/z-biased ARMY decided to support each member’s solo endeavour.
Last but abso-fucking-lutely not least, SOLOS FINALLY GOT THEIR TIME TO SHINE AND PUSH THEIR AGENDA, along side antis.
THINGS TO DEFINE:
FAMILY BOY BAND MEMBER or FBBMs: Is what I will call boy bands with members that already knew each other, or were already related, etc etc etc.
STRANGERS BOY BAND MEMBERS or SBBMs: Is what I will call the type of bands that were put together through an audition, selection, etc etc etc.
ONE THING TO REMEMBER OR REALISE:
There was a point in time when BTS was seriously considered by NOBODY. Many knew about them, but still wanted nothing to do with them. Some that knew about them, went on and treated them like trash. Even though they had the talent, it took their fandom at the time to be persistent in order for people to give them a chance. In short, differently from many FBBMs and SBBMs who eventually ended up splitting up after reaching fame, BTS experienced having nobody but themselves and their label and fame came AFTER THAT. Because everyone was a nobody before becoming somebody, but how many were nobodies, who were constantly shoved down by semi-bodies and ignored by somebodies before they became THE BODIES themselves? So yeah, they may be smiling to people that harmed them in the past, and they might have decided to forgive and forget in other instances, but as real and intended as the experience they had were, you can bet that so are the choices that they make nowadays. A method to madness.
If you are a businessperson like yours truly, or have dealt with managing a business, you probably know that it is like in Love and War; all is fair. Obviously, this brings about injustice right away, but this is a known fact, no matter how clean you are, if you come and play in a muddy place, what do you think is gonna happen? Not to say that everyone is trying to get down and dirty, in fact, there are people that try their best to keep clean, but the reality of the fact is that you are still playing in mud. Yet, there is a difference between purposely trying to suffocate people in those muddy waters and trying to simply play by the rules, harm as less people as possible in the process and going home to live another day and start all over again the next day.
Life is about balance, that’s why I like the color gray so much, it is the balance between black and white. And even though the Tannies are our beloved artists, it is important not to forget that in their own right they are also businessmen. I’m sure they want nothing else than to be there for ARMY always in theri best capacities, but this is not a charity, their lives, and the people who work for them, depend on the amount of money they make; this needs to not be forgotten. Now, how they make this money, all depends on the muddy field they play in, but from what I can see they really try their darn best to keep as clean as they can and harm as few people as humanly possible.
ALL THAT to say that, when you experience having NOTHING with a group of PEOPLE, you will TREASURE THAT GROUP OF PEOPLE. Hence, ONCE AGAIN and it will not be the last time, I’ll keep hammering this, Chapter 2 wasn’t brought by for them to spread their wings and keep the fuck out, but as a means for them to have the experience they each want to have so that they can eventually be together again, healthily in order ot achieve Longevity which I will also get to towards the end of this post, don’t worry. And this brings me right to the current issues on the fandom-streets: FAVORITISM & SOLOS.
So at the moment “JUNGKOOK and his radio play” are the most recent subject. I will not go in depth, as I’ll be damned if I brought up all THE UNNECESSARY energy that has been riding with this valid topic. In fact, one thing that I found very helpful in understanding the radio play issue, was the following post by Ororo and Artiechikoo:
https://www.tumblr.com/chikooritajjk/722232413519052800/so-youll-are-basically-saying-since-the-industry?source=share
Now, once you’ve read that, you’ll understand that the ACTUAL ISSUE HERE IS: WHY DIDN’T HYBE SEND LIKE CRAZY TO BE PLAYED ON THE RADIO, and that ladies, gentlemen and distinguished enbies, is a legit ass question. However, none of the members have anything to do with ANY of that, or with anything related really. During Festa 2022 dinner, they all told us the order in which their albums were coming out, which would indicate that they all sat down months beforehand, and all discussed what they wanted to do during their chapter 2. I would also dare to say that they also all were responsible for their projects, promotions and every aspect of their chapter 2, but that is just me.
ANYWAYS, back to the Jimin radio play issue, which, once again, is A VALID TOPIC, that unfortunately is being muddied from all the shit that solos are bringing forth that has NOTHING to do with anything. Is like the story of the boy who cried wolf, when the actual wolf arrived, nobody was there to help. When you are still stuck on cakes, on accusing members of sabotage, or any moving thing at that, THE REAL PROBLEM WILL BE OVERLOOKED.
Also, just putting this out there, if you actually think that ANY OF THE MEMBERS is out there actively sabotaging other members, then rest assured that you are also stanning a phonie-ass person. If you took a second to check out every other member, for every member who is being sabotaged by members, there is a story about that same member sabotaging another member. MEANING that we would all be supporting a band of phonies, who wouldn’t think twice to backstab their band mates; ALL OF THEM.
So when, for example, you are accusing JK of throwing JM under the bus, or in the mud, stop one second, breathe, and TRY to put yourself in JK’s shoes. Imagine for example, spending a whole day reacting to JM content, or even just the following:
And then, imagine not giving a fuck about him: HOW DOES THAT WORK EXACTLY? Yes we don’t like Scooter Braun, yes we don’t agree with MANY OTHER THINGS, but it is vital to know how to address the correct issue and not just burn EVERYTHING DOWN, or/and involve not concerned parties. So when for example, the company is to blame, then the fucking company is to blame only, and not everything you would like to blame along with it.
I 👏🏾DO 👏🏾 NOT 👏🏾 CARE 👏🏾 FOR 👏🏾 SOLOS 👏🏾 IN 👏🏾ANY 👏🏾 WAY 👏🏾 OR 👏🏾 FORM 👏🏾.
Not too long ago, I was making this example with someone who told me that there was maybe a valid reason for people to become solos, but to me it felt like people saying they had a valid reason for becoming Nazi; would I support a Nazi, no matter what reason? 🤡🤡🤡THERE IS ALWAYS ANOTHER WAY, and unfortunately, keep suffering for a while longer, is one of them 🤡🤡🤡Becoming a Nazi WILL NEVER BE THE ANSWER for me, in the same way in which BECOMING A SOLO WILL NEVER BE THE ANSWER. When you become a solo you actively decide to care fuck all about all the other members. Now the person you want to support, loves and wants to keep building something with the people you decide are expendable, so, once again: HOW DOES THAT WORK EXACTLY? Being able to pinpoint the actual issue is hard, it is confusing, it is stressful, but it is essential, please please please understand that.
BTS’ CHAPTER 3: BTS IS ENDGAME. PERIOD.
… I mean, I really don’t want to sound like a broken record so let me allow them to say it:
💙:
Here is the link to the full article: https://www.instagram.com/p/CpgkLqbtEKB/?hl=en
🩷:
🖤:
❤️:
💛:
💚:
💜:
AAAAAND, Except for Yoongi who is being rightfully private precious:
ALL OF A SUDDEN, I have a feeling that Yoongi got a “matching tattoo with the rest of the rapline, so his tattoo is somewhere on one of his legs …These boys have spent YEARS OF THEIR LIFE fighting against all sorts of prejudice, hate, nonsense, and more. It used to be from those who never gave them a chase, but now it seems that the adversary-wave is coming from within the fandom. YEAH IT LOOKS BAD RIGHT ABOUT NOW. But let's emphasize the LOOKS part of that sentence, because Social media “ARMY” aren’t IT.
When you spend too much time on any SM, it will feel like that’s what ARMY is ALL about but I can guarantee you that there are so many ARMY out there who don’t know or care about the noise and just mind their business and keep streaming and advocating for the right causes. There are ARMY who do their best to support the boys in the best way they can, even if they can’t afford to buy every single piece of merch.
There are also ARMY who are waiting for the boys to come back and also those people who have no idea yet, but will suddenly become ARMY in 2026 when THE BIGGEST COMEBACK THIS PLANET WOULD HAVE EVER WITNESSED, will kick off after they announce their world tour. In conclusion, as always, DO AS YOU SEE FIT, but if you decide that, believing and following people who think that having the boys competing against each other for future solo supremacy is where it’s at, all I’d “cutely” have to say is that:
THEY DIDN’T STUTTER: OT7 IS ENDGAME.
HAPPY ARMY DAY 🫰🏾.
Always respectfully yours,
Marengo.
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I am a guy. I was not trained how to dress myself growing up. My dad--bless his incompetent small-town soul--still can’t dress himself, so it’s not like any of that was being modelled for me. And I was homeschooled, so I didn’t have friends to emulate. Everything I learned about clothing I learned from watching television, and every choice I made was made fun of. But luckily, there’s a lot of media around about how to dress yourself, and clothing can be cheap if you’re willing to go looking. (and if you get 50% off at the thrift store you work at).
I was also not trained in home decorating.
Like, I see a lot of posts about how single men’s homes look, on average, like shit. And yeah. They do. Nobody could really argue that they don’t.
But what you learn with clothing is also applies to home decorating it is a language. There are regional dialects. There’s slang. There’s high and low formality. And learning that language takes time and effort, especially if you don’t have a teacher. Average men's fashion, like, off the rack mall stuff, is extremely homogenous, mainly because men don’t actually speak the language. They see something that looks good on someone else and they copy it. They know clothing phonetically. Not comprehensively.
But men's clothing literacy staggeringly outstrips the understanding most men have of home decorating. The term “Bachelor Pad” describes, for most men, their home during the only length of time where they live in a space which is not decorated primarily by their mother or partner. So it looks like garbage. (It is often also filled with actual garbage, but one issue at a time).
And like...it’s very easy to not be too sad about this. To frame this difference in literacy as further labour women must do for men.
I married someone with a literal fine arts degree, who could run circles around me on every component of composition, colour theory, ect. But she...cared what I thought. She asked me what colours I wanted in our house. She asked me what sort of spaces make me feel good. And when I didn’t know what words to use, she flipped her laptop around with pinterest and asked me to point. And then we found common ground, which ended up being dark academia.
I have never had a partner care enough to do this. Ever. My afab partners have always assumed that I had nothing to offer in terms of decorating the house. My wife told me that a vintage armchair I’d been hanging onto for years finally, finally made sense to her, because it looks terrible in an empty white room but it looks amazing by a fireplace. I’d bought it for 15 dollars. My taste wasn’t bad. I just had no concept of how to express it.
So rather than make the house her house and treat my input with disdain, she used her greater understanding of the language to glean what I liked, and then we built that together. Our house looks absolutely amazing, and I love it, and as a result of having that connection to it, I actually do a lot more housework and decorating projects. I watch tiktoks about Feng Shui and how to organize a space, I find cool old furniture at work and bring it home, i put up shelves for our cat to play on... because the result makes me feel like we have a lovely home. Our lovely home.
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A lot of people refer to Cas as "gay," which I think is awesome and everything. But I personally always considered him more as "queer" for a number of reasons, such as:
angel genders and vessels are very fluid. Would he still be considered "gay" if he were in a female vessel, and in love with Dean? Also, there are several times in the series where Cas appears to be attracted to women (some ppl don't consider these moments valid for Reasons™ which is fine. But I do.) He also seems, in my opinion, to only be romantically interested in Dean, and I think this would be true if Dean were female. So that would make Cas closer to demi.
Point is, I recently saw a post on sm that was like "reminder: Cas is GAY. He's not bi, pan, or unlabeled, he's gay and that's not negotiable."
I consider myself queer and a huge Cas fan, so it was weird to see my interpretation of a character I know really well and relate to just be invalidated like that.
And I just kind of wanted you opinion, cuz I know like in Dean's case, seeing him as anything other than bi is pretty clearly against canon.
But is the same true for Cas? Is it wrong to see him as an umbrella "queer?" I know Misha calls him gay, which I love and respect, but I don't really let my interpretations be dictated by actor opinions. I feel like canon supports a much more fluid interpretation of Cas, but I'm just wondering if I'm wrong for that, in terms of what canon supports.
Anyway, sorry for the long post. Thanks for your thoughts in this fandom I love them
Hi!! Thank you for the nice words and for wanting to know my thoughts on this. I appreciate you :)
Sorry it took me over a week to finish this. I kind of started it, realized it was probably gonna be longer than I’d expected, and then added to it in pieces when off work so as not to half-ass it.
Also, I want you to know that I think you absolutely rock for this message. The fact that you have a strong personal interpretation or strong feelings about what your view of Cas' sexuality means to you, while being open to hearing arguments for what canon supports, is exactly the kind of nuance too many people in fandom lack. Huge fuckin shout out to you, anon, because this takes both guts and brain cells!
I have two primary threads of thought I'm going to address here, as well as how they criss-cross:
I agree that Cas' canon sexuality is a slightly different topic than Dean's canon sexuality. Dean's bisexuality is not unclear/unambiguous, and there's no wiggle room there; he's frequently attracted to women, he's frequently attracted to men, there's bi lighting, it's all not rocket science. Cas is a bit more ~ambiguously queer~, so advocating for fandom maintaining a unanimous hard stance on his canon sexuality is... a little trickier. In that vein, the "reminder" post you mentioned seeing feels too intense in my opinion for the nature of this particular conversation/topic.
That being said: from an analytical standpoint, I do think the strongest argument to be made based on canon is that Cas is gay and demi.
Since you seem open to it and asked for my thoughts overall, I'm gonna break down point 2 before circling back to point 1. Quick reminder/disclaimer that I'm not trying to invalidate you or your personal connection to Cas with anything I'm about to say, so please keep that in mind <3
You mentioned how some people don't consider Cas' moments of being attracted to women as ~being valid~ and said you disagree. That's fair! At the same time... in a nuanced fashion, that's where I land on it. I also think the show took care to ultimately build to and portray a full picture with all of that factored in, and to talk about that I kinda gotta go into detail here, because it's one part of a bigger piece. I’m not trying to turn this into a comprehensive meta deep dive, so I’m going to talk about this in a sort of summarized way but not go too far into breaking down any one point or analyzing any one scene. Hope that’s cool.
Let’s look at Cas’ biggest “moments,” as it were, with women. Or the ones I would guess people intend to reference.
First up: there’s Meg. We’ve got the “pizza man" season 6 kiss, the season 7 arc of Meg watching over Cas during his mental break, and season 8 when Meg sacrifices herself.
The season 6 "pizza man" kiss, to me, really plays into the overall mood of Cas' curiosity as he explores and tries to understand human behavior. He watched porn and was intrigued/confused/aroused, Meg kissed him partially to get at his angel blade (not a euphemism lmao), and then his curiosity kicked in so he kissed her more thoroughly because the opportunity was there. Those scenes are all connected, and he doesn’t have much of a reaction after the kiss. Then, season 7 is a whole suitcase to unpack, but… the bottom line there is that Meg treated Cas with decency when he was vulnerable in every sense of the word. And then in season 8, Cas undeniably had a fondness for Meg by the end, and they were friends... but I don't read it as him having an attraction to her or romantic feelings for her. I do not mean this as shade or hate to anyone who ships them, but my reading on that dynamic overall is that I do think Meg felt something for Cas in terms of both attraction and feelings; and while that makes it all a bittersweet tragedy, it also doesn't mean things were reciprocally non-platonic. She was into him, but he seemingly wasn’t into her in the same way. After Meg’s death, Cas also never asks about her or mentions her or has any reaction at all to her being gone–something that would have been very easy for them to incorporate with even one mention if they'd wanted to or considered it foundational. (For example, mentions of Dean's relationship with Benny are recurring throughout the show, lending its non-platonic nature and its significance for establishing bi Dean even more weight.) Season 8 Megstiel content is also placed narratively right up against the Destiel content, and the contrast of that is–of course–pretty stark. That was likely deliberate. Cas’ feelings for Dean are unavoidably, unmistakably at the forefront.
Then you've got season 9. A newly human Cas–who was given the heteronormative suggestion by Metatron to "Find a wife. Make babies."–gets seduced then killed by April, all of which is traumatizing dubious consent galore. Then you’ve got Cas thinking he's being asked out on a date by a woman in 9x06 as he’s trying to figure out his life as a human. He even says this explicitly to Dean: “Going on dates… that's something humans do, right?” He is doing what he thinks he’s meant to be doing as a human, but is that action based in genuine desire? That line implies the answer being no. Contextually this is, of course, set against the jilted lover vibes he has with Dean in that episode. And then in the season at large, Cas becomes focused on his overall mission–a search for purpose, which (as Metatron helpfully points out later) becomes oriented around saving Dean.
Season 10 is up next. Hannah is very clearly interested in Cas, but Cas is a giant question mark in the face of all of her interest pretty consistently. In all honesty, the way Hannah comes onto Cas—the construction of the scenes—feels like it was intended to show that Cas isn’t interested in women. Half the time he doesn’t clock her vibes, and the other half the time he awkwardly avoids acknowledging it. This culminates in her standing in front of him naked in the clearest signal she can give… and as he says, he’s ~not bothered~ by it. He’s just... well, he's gay. Lmfao. And speaking of the naked Hannah scene in 10x07, something I personally find highly amusing is that that naked scene is immediately followed by Dean enthusiastically making out with a woman. It’s a smash cut with a very pointed contrast, in my opinion! I was very struck by it.
So that's my mini tour (with imperfect recall) of Cas' Moments With Women in the story and how I feel they're positioned.
And to touch upon the idea of contrast a bit further… With Dean, there are ample moments and instances where he canonically expresses (joyful or uncomplicated) sexual attraction to women, and/or romantic love for women throughout the show. This is why his canonical attraction to women should never be in question, as part of his bisexuality. But with Cas... I don’t personally feel we have a scene of his where we can unequivocally say the same. There are always story elements at play that indicate complex motivation, or when a woman (or woman-shaped being? lol) may be interested in him there doesn’t seem to be genuine reciprocal interest on his part. The absence of a clear scene establishing he’s unequivocally attracted to women doesn’t mean he couldn’t hypothetically be… but there are no significant moments that convince me that that’s the case in canon. Instead, I think the picture these layered moments paint of Cas and his sexuality is solidified as the story progress–as part of how his sense of self solidifies and emerges story-wide in kind. By that I mean: the shades of how he reacts to Hannah are there in his reactions to Meg’s interest years prior, but in season 10 they feel more clear because by that point he understands himself better (especially after his time as a human) and has formulated his identity as a person more than he had, for example, in season 6.
The secondary part of this though is the queercoding attached to Cas–which is, by and large, gay coding. (There is also more contrast here in comparison to Dean's bi coding in that regard.) By “gay” coding, I mean… Dean describes Cas as having "sensible shoes,” which is gay slang/code, though more commonly used in reference to lesbians. Cas uses female pop artists for his aliases, which is a wink/nod to stereotypes of gay men—a pattern that’s established in later seasons concurrently to the Destiel narrative taking even deeper root. The specific micro-agressions (and outright aggressions) Cas is subjected to by others—as he's clocked as being an outsider who doesn't fit and for being in love with Dean, in ways that are often tangled together—are traditionally gay story devices at play. And I'm also fond of the seeming significance of Cas' conversation with Pastor Joe in 15x15. Cas asks the Pastor what he means by people of "all backgrounds," being welcomed, and the Pastor says, "Connor didn't have to live in fear of who he was. A gay man who believed in a tolerant God." And Cas says, "Well, I imagine not everyone was happy with the change."
In terms of why I say he’s also demi… Cas is seemingly never ~interested~ in anyone but Dean. Now, part of that is of course a byproduct of the storytelling structures he's given. But nonetheless, his singleminded focus on / interest in / devotion to Dean feels unwavering in its totality. Even as Dean stops looking to date other people in later seasons because he knows he’s fallen in love with Cas, there’s still references to or nods to his attraction to men and women as a significant part of who he is. But unless I’m forgetting things, Cas just… doesn’t really seem to have that embedded into his character. He's got an emotional attachment to (and "profound bond" with) Dean, and his attraction to and love for Dean is part of its natural extension. That’s where the demi reading comes in for me, but it’s certainly a side note / asterisk to him being gay, which I think is the prime part of his identity the text deliberately points towards overall.
Regarding Cas' gender and how that may affect any part of this discussion... Is Cas non-binary? Well, in the show overall, angels are obviously considered ~celestial wavelengths of intent~. We see the fluidity of angels in different gendered vessels, and one could say the angels' primary gender is sort of "genderless" as default. Sure. But... at minimum, I feel it's implied that Cas comes to feel at home in a male vessel's body, and in what has legitimately become his body. As Dean says, "It's not an 'it,' Sam. It's Cas." And ultimately, I feel the gender question is not really a huge part of the point in regards to how canon presents this queer story to us.
To the question of if Cas would still be "gay" if he was in a female vessel and fell in love with Dean–or even to a question of "what if Dean was a woman" I've seen plenty of other people pose in various contexts–I think it's almost like... a moot point. The homoeroticism of Dean and Cas' dynamic is significant in a multilayered way, and that was true from day one. Their dynamic is very much affected by and built on them being 2 masculine men (or Cas being perceived as a "man" if you want to go that route), both in story and out of it, particularly in Dean's reactions to Cas. And the romance, tension, push-and-pull, miscommunication, coding, and censorship–the latter being a thing that shaped story choices over the years–all exist in a specific way because their relationship is undeniably, visibly queer. Destiel as we know it could not and would not be the same if one of them was in a perceived woman's body. Their interactions would have been vastly different, and thus in my head it's impossible to conceptualize.
Supernatural is also very much a story about the deconstruction of toxic masculinity while maintaining masculinity through a queer lens. This is its own separate topic that I actually have been wanting to make a post about for awhile now (in part because over-feminization of their characters in fandom, especially in ways that lead to apply ill-fitting repression narratives to Dean's canon, can miss several points about this). Those masculinity themes are so centralized because of Dean and Cas' romance and the fact that they are two men. There is significance there, both historically and culturally.
So while maybe Cas would or could identify as non-binary... It doesn't seem like a viewpoint he is particularly aligned with, and it also doesn't feel like a significant element at play in this queer love story. That makes me tip towards saying it's not a huge factor in discussions of exact readings or terminology for Cas' canonical sexuality/identity.
As a side note: to a certain extent, I also find it interesting to contemplate how some of their miscommunication in-narrative maybe extends into the idea that Dean is attracted to women and Cas seems not to be. More than once, Dean tries to bond with Cas through ~typical male~ interests, such as when he takes him to a strip club. Dean being bi doesn't mean he avoids having heteronormativity on the brain lol, and that sort of thing in his experience is usually quick-and-easy guy bonding time, especially in hunting culture. But while Cas learns how to be human in a metaphorical sense from the Winchesters' examples in several ways (both the good and the bad habits/lessons), something he can't/doesn't pick up is attraction to women or how to act on or express that sort of attraction, because it just doesn't seem innate to him. So while Dean and Cas are certainly both queer, to me they exhibit different forms of queer experiences (bi and gay) in characteristics and in story and in coding that add a layer to their dynamic. It's a little bit of a difference between them that they maybe don't know how to awkwardly address with each other, because they often don't fucking communicate, and I can see it contributing to Dean wondering if / how much Cas has capacity to "feel that way"... making him think Cas maybe doesn't reciprocate his desire. Because they're both stupid.
Anyway! Anyway.
Back to the main points:
Let me summarize.
I personally don't think Cas is attracted to women, and that the story points to him going through a journey of learning that about himself as he grows into himself over time. The queercoding in connection to him, such as it is, also rings of being gay coding. Considering we see him primarily or solely so strongly interested in Dean, an argument/hypothesis for him being demi doesn't feel off the mark. And I don't think the question of angelic gender is super relevant to what canon points to in this discussion for Cas specifically, because I do think the m/m nature of Destiel is relevant to their story and dynamic with each other, and by later seasons at minimum Cas is seemingly comfortably "a man" (perhaps even more so than an ambiguously gendered Being).
Is there a stronger or more persuasive argument to be made about the specifics of Cas' sexuality in canon? I'd be open to hearing it, of course, but I just kind of doubt any other argument would be convincing enough to change my mind when factoring in all of the story elements at play.
However. All of this being said:
I would certainly not call an umbrella use of the word "queer" wrong for Cas. I think it is, in fact, very applicable! For one thing, the word "queer" in this instance effectively encompasses a combined gay and demi reading, as an example. For another thing, it's an understandable hat tip that simplifies his various complexities as an angel. It works.
I'm also not die-on-this-hill militant about the use of the word "gay" for Cas because I'm cognizant of how things are not 100% clearcut with him. I do not say this to negate my own analysis, but rather because I can acknowledge the truth of this particular situation. While I do think the above full picture kind of adds up to him being specifically gay, this is an instance where there is room for nuance within it and giving grace to–dare I say it–"interpretations." I personally don't really agree with or particularly feel comfortable considering him bi or pan specifically, given all the factors at play; but it doesn't overtly upset me that others do. For example, he did indeed have sex with April as a human, and I find I can't get mad at people who choose to take his interest in that moment 100% at face value, especially considering the fact that what I view to be his overall "gay arc" certainly has subtlety and room for subjectivity in it.
In conclusion,
I don't know if this post answers all your questions, anon. I don't know if it will help you or make you feel bad for some reason, though I certainly hope it's the former rather than the later! And I apologize for the length, but you touched on a lot of different branches in your message, and I'm nothing if not someone who maps out a whole fucking tree when asked to lmfaaaoooo.
Thank you for your patience as this post took me WAY too long to complete smh. Like what the hell, truly. You're a star, I love ya, and for what little it's worth I do infer that lots of people in fandom (perhaps even Misha) use "gay" as an umbrella word in reference to Cas. (I am sympathetic to your plight if that makes you feel weird though; it's not the same situation by any means, but I will share that I'm suspicious of people who call Dean "gay" even flippantly at this point, because nowadays I don't trust that shit lmao)
Send me thoughts and prayers because the "e" key on my laptop's keyboard has started periodically sticking and it's been driving me insane while working on writing this.
#castiel#supernatural#castiel meta#gay cas#?¿?#this is long enough it warrants tags. fuck it#anonymous#asks#char writes things#spn meta#destiel
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Galar’s Ultimate Showman and Attempted Saviour: A Partial Rewrite of Chairman Rose
Like most people, I’m not exactly crazy about how Chairman Rose was handled, and I thought I’d take a shot at making him a better villain by giving him a more comprehensible motive and more early signs of being an overzealous and single-minded, albeit well-meaning person. In summary, Galar’s economy depends on its sports tourism, and Chairman Rose will do anything to keep the show rolling. Anything.
Thank you very much to @standardizedbogey and @deerdeardarling for helping me to flesh out these ideas!
Here’s how I would write his story in the game:
-imply that Dynamax energy is already on its downturn. In addition to having it be mentioned by a random NPC or two, it could be demonstrated by having one of the gym challenges experience a partial breakdown in energy, resulting in Dynamaxxing only lasting two turns. Afterwards, Chairman Rose apologizes to the crowd and announces that, towards the end of the championship, he will unveil a solution that will ensure that nothing like this will happen again.
-Have some NPCs discuss how Galar isn’t a resource-rich nation, but it doesn’t have to be because it’s so rich in tourism. Of course, that doesn’t serve the towns without Dynamax spots very well. A good candidate for this would be Piers, Marnie, or even a Team Yell grunt after the Spikemuth gym has been completed.
-While Piers never used Dynamaxxing, his gym used to be able to let his opponents Dynamax, and it was more popular back then. Piers’ reason for never Dynamaxxing? Spikemuth has been experiencing buffers in energy since before Piers took over as gym leader, so he believes that the whole region should be preparing to give up the gimmick and find ways to make traditional battles more entertaining instead.
-Chairman Rose acts as Leon’s mentor/manager and isolated him from a young age to mold him into not only a great trainer but a great showman. Have there be a few hints that Leon was isolated earlier on, and have Leon take the player aside before the final match and admit, with uncharacteristic somberness, that being the champion before you’re grown isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, and that he will fight tooth and nail in the finals to protect the player from it. Chairman Rose then pops in and says something overbearing to Leon about him being Galar’s hero, and they step out onto the field.
-Chairman Rose’s reasons for adopting Bede were that, now that Leon is grown up, he can no longer be controlled and is taking the show in a direction Rose dislikes. He wants to start fresh with a new champion of his choosing. This would explain why he outright disowns Bede after the Stow-n-Side event, instead of just revoking his endorsement and punishing him: he wasn’t useful anymore. This is something Opal or someone else close to Bede could mention in the post-game.
-Have some Marco Cosmos NPC mention that most of the mining for power that Rose’s company is responsible for occurs outside of the region, both because Galar doesn’t have many resources to mine and because Rose believes that Galar shouldn’t have to deal with the dangers and environmental degradation that come with mining. He wants to keep the place beautiful for Galarians and tourists alike.
-Rose’s reason for starting the darkest day? He’s known for a while that Dynamax energy is fading. If he doesn’t do this, one day all of Galar could share Spikemuth’s fate. If he does, well, Galar would practically be a utopia! Not only would this give Galar enough Dynamax energy to last a thousand years, it would be enough energy to power everything! They would have cheap, pollution-free, limitless energy for centuries. And summoning Eternatus will allow him to put on, as he calls it in the announcement before the final match, “the ultimate show.”
-His reason doing it on the day of the championship match? He wanted Leon, who he still loves as a performer even though he’s losing control of him, to be the one to get Eternatus into a usable and safe state: the star of his ultimate show. Leon might not be the champion tomorrow. He didn’t think the protagonist could do it, or at least, didn’t think that they’d make as impressive a show as the man who’d been Galar’s hero for a decade, or that as many spectators would stick around if he were to summon Eternatus after the championship.
-Leon actually agreed to catch Eternatus (he’s a dumbass, your honour), but not with an audience: they could end up getting hurt. Rose summoned Eternatus during the championship to try and force Leon’s hand, and when that failed, he had his staff straight-up kidnap Leon and force him to do it. It’s only after Leon tries and fails to catch Eternatus that the protagonist, Hop, and the legendary wolves are able to step in.
-Rose turns himself in willingly as he does in canon, because he realizes that his attempts to bring glory to Galar have given it nothing but grief. He also passes the league onto someone more pleasant. Thankfully, though, Eternatus has averted the Dynamax energy crisis, allowing even Spikemuth to Dynamax. Piers is still going to stick to traditional battles, however, just in case.
#pokemon#chairman rose#champion leon#gym leader piers#bede#eternatus#my fanfiction#pokemon sword and shield
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Requesting fic recs for quiet tragedies and intimate character studies. Preferably minimal focus on romance. I quite enjoy studies of mechanics as they correlate to narrative.
(send me a vibe and i’ll give you a blaseball fic reading list!)
all right. so i spent quite a bit of time on this one, but it is in no way comprehensive. there are tons of character studies in this fandom, and heaps of tragedies. also not usually a huge focus on romance in blaseball, especially post-discipline, although it’s certainly out there.
i tried to keep the characters varied and limit it to just one per author, but with most of these, if you like the one i’ve linked i can vouch for there being many more from the same person worth checking out. let’s get going.
“Agency” by kfrunt is what I would call quiet, although less of a tragedy or game mechanics. This is a Fall Ball-era fic looking at Wyatt Mason IV (Ivy) and Conditional Yuniesky, both of whom are struggling with their new worlds in different ways. It’s a good introduction to Conditional Yuniesky, and Ivy is a good introduction to the Wyatts as a whole, if you’re into that. They’re a whole little pocket of Blaseball fic that has plenty to comb through.
“dead mans party” by impernia is a look at how players mourn their lost teammates, particularly the Seattle Garages. It’s also a good look at the kind of person Arturo Huerta is, and from there, impern has a number of fics about both the Garages and their dead that hit this same vibe.
“F. All of the Above” by QueenEevee is certainly a tragic character study, looking at Hiroto Wilcox following Ruby Tuesday. It’s noteworthy less because of subject matter — if you want Ruby Tuesday content, there’s no shortage — but more because of the formatting. The way this fic approaches the loss knocks the wind out of me. A quick read, but a memorable one.
“the first dream” by swordfall is a look at Lottie Ceilingfan’s meteoric rise to fame and subsequent Ego status. If you don’t know Lottie, it’s a great introduction to her. It’s also a great introduction to what it was like on the Hades Tigers during the Expansion Era. A little less on the tragedy side, but there’s some mechanics and some creeping horror at the awareness of what’s to come.
“for agony i’d rather know” by novelsinourheads is a fantastic example of a character study that leans into the inherent weirdness of blaseball without getting too wacky with it. I’m a known Gerund Pantheocide liker and supporter, so it’s unsurprising to me that this one sticks in my brain, but Stara has dozens more character studies — many of which have an interesting and haunting approach to loss and tragedy, and all of which are well worth looking at.
“forever in a day” by paopuleaf is another Wyatt fic, but it’s also about the Vault, but it’s also about hauntings and ghosts and what it means to exist when you shouldn’t anymore. Atti is excellent at writing fics with a melancholy and lost sort of air, and this one is no exception.
“growing pains” by waveridden is a personal favorite of mine. it’s a little longer than a lot of the options on this list, but it’s worth the time and the effort. The fic as a whole is about a lot of things, mainly Gloria Bugsnax and xyr attempt to learn both humanity and family, and it makes me cry every time. There’s some game mechanics, because Hayden always includes those, but mostly it’s a look at Gloria and all the people xe loves.
“I thought i heard your laughter” by cedardivine is a fun one, honestly. Megan Ito exists in a lot of variations and I think everyone has a different take on them and who and how they are, but I like the idea that New Megan is just lurking around behind them. A character study with tragedy and game mechanics just off to the side, and a quick read besides.
“A Quick Guide to Unscattering in 8 Easy Steps” by Moondragon8 hits, I think, just about every note you’ve asked for. An interesting take on scattered players and their recovery, a look at Schneider Bendie as a character and what happens when you’re traded to a new team, and a creeping awareness that things aren’t as they should be. If you can’t tell, I love this one dearly.
“sequels” by waltztangocache similarly approaches a mechanic by way of an impacted player. I love the way Hen writes about the Ambush, and this look at Tom Kirby and what his life is like after revival. There’s a series of fics connected to this one, so if you like it, there’s more. I will admit I like Kirby best — but everything here is a great time.
“The Short (But Not Insignificant) ILB Career of Kiki Familia” by cyndakip is one that I think gets passed around a ton? But that’s because it’s good. Kiki wasn’t here for long at all, but you can tell from this that she was immediately loved by her team and the fans of said team, and her death is in fact a tragedy by its very nature. This is Discipline Era lore, so you know it hurts (positive).
“spend my days in gray” by birdlord5000 is like. THE Donia Bailey fic, to me? I didn’t know much about the player lore beforehand, but this fic cemented Donia as a deeply beloved of mine. It’s quiet, it’s a character study, it’s about what it’s like to be shadowed for years and years before being stolen by a Thieves Guild, and it’s honestly a lot of fun. Not a tragedy, but damn good.
“strange to be shaped by such strange men” by baliset is… agh. Remember when York Silk was incinerated, and the entire fandom ground to a halt as we tried to grapple with that? I do! It was a lot! And Marn captured the feelings of the moment to a T. It’s set in the Hall and features a lot of beloved dead guys, and I love how York is characterized here. Marn has tons of great fics worth reading; this is up there as one of my favorite ones, though.
“the sun selecting targets” by indigostohelit is the only Jaylen and Mike fic i am going to recommend to you. But. There are so many. It’s just that the narration in this one is incredible, and I think about it often. It’s got a lot about the original necromancy and the shadowing of Mike Townsend, which I know we’ve all heard about by now and et cetera, but. God it’s so good.
“there beneath” by haunthouse! Another Wyatt fic! This one is about Wyatt Mason VI, or Violet. I will admit to being biased toward this one because it includes the Boston Flowers, my team of choice for almost the entirety of Blaseball’s run. But like. If you want tragedy, and you want game mechanics, the Wyatts tend to be a good starting place. They often die at the end.
“there’s no weather at all” by mantisqueer is a sleeper fave that I was delighted to rediscover today. Nothing like a Neerie McCloud fic to make you sad about players doomed from the very start. Moth does a really good job here at characterizing being Elsewhere; it’s one of my favorite interps, although I would encourage you to mind the CWs.
and that’s what I have! there are plenty more I would direct you to, but most of them are by someone(s) already listed here. so if one of the ones i’ve listed stands out, i would encourage you to check the author’s page and see what else they have. have fun!!!
#tam.ask#blaseball#blaseball fic rec#fic recs#sierne#I hope at least some of these are what you were looking for! there’s a lot of variety lol
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