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genericpuff · 5 months

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zoo wee mama, the new Hbomberguy video is a RIDE and it's absolutely relevant to everything going on in webcomics. let's talk about it.

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I'm sure a lot of you have heard about this video going around already (it's gotten 2+ million views in just a little over 24 hours) but if you haven't, I highly recommend you set aside time to watch it yourself, I was surprised to see how much he had dug up especially regarding Youtubers that I never suspected were plagiarizing. He also says some very on-point stuff about how we view content creators and plagiarizing in this "do it yourself" industry that really resonated with me because it's stuff I've been saying for years in the webcomic sphere.

I won't spoil the video much because I think it's best experienced watching it for yourself (especially because he's putting all the money he earns off this video towards compensating the people who had their work plagiarized by one Youtuber in particular who's especially guilty... I'm not even gonna mince words, it's James Somerton) but this passage in particular just felt so validating to hear from someone who clearly holds themselves to the standards that more Youtubers - and creators in general - should be holding themselves to:

"I think a lot of people are inclined to protect creators they like on the grounds that plagiarism is a very academic-sounding problem, like something that happens in research papers or journalism, not something that you can do in a silly video made for entertainment purposes. Why are we holding Youtubers to standards? That would be like expecting accurate history from someone whose name has 'historian' in it! Because Youtubers often project a sense of being scrappy, do-it-yourself amateurs, it feels almost wrong to expect them to be professional... but a lot of them are professionals, regardless how authentic their persona may be. Youtubers are now among the most recognizable faces on the planet, and have become immensely wealthy doing this. Some are so influential we literally call them influencers. Maybe it's a good idea to have some standards for not stealing. Maybe." - Hbomberguy, "Plagiarism and You(tube)" timestamp: 3:35:32

Obviously this has nothing to directly do with webcomics but I do think it's something that reflects very similar behavior within the webcomic community that's, frankly, worth discussing. Many people justifiably want to make a living off their work, want webcomics as a whole to be taken more seriously in the mainstream next to traditional publishing, and for webcomic creators to be taken more seriously as professionals.

But at the same time, I still see a lot of infantilizing of the people in this industry, done by both their fans and the people within it, the idea that being a professional (noun) isn't mutually inclusive of being professional (adjective). It's how we've gotten creators in the past like Snailords, mongie, and yes, Rachel Smythe, who are often shielded by their fanbase on the basis of, "they're just indie comic creators doing what they love, leave them alone!" when they're very much not that, at least not anymore. At least two of those three creators have TV deals (though whether or not they'll make it to the screen is debatable), and all three of them have or have had Webtoons seemingly wrapped around their finger more so than any other creator (though mongie has argued she left Webtoons over unfair treatment, it really doesn't seem like that to the people who know how much mongie was intentionally pushing the rules of what she was allowed to post on the platform, particularly with her Sam x Charles smut).

They are not 'indie creators' anymore and they are not exempt from criticism just because their younger fanbase mistakenly assumes them to be the same age as them. Rachel, mongie, and Snailords are all in their mid-to-late 30's. They all have merchandising deals and either have TV deals or want to have TV deals. They've all been given priority advertising by Webtoons even at the cost of undercutting all the other creators and series on the platform that need it more. They are not "scrappy" creators, they're contractual professionals now and they all do not act like it. Whether it's reacting poorly to criticism or using their characters as a mouthpiece for their own egos or even just using their comics as a poorly disguised fetish, they're all contractual professionals who do not act professional. And they're not the only webcomic creators who do this.

And again, I've talked about this before on here and in the discussions on reddit concerning LO and other webtoons, so it's incredibly validating and refreshing to see Hbomberguy put those feelings into words (albeit about Youtubers, but let's be real, Webtoons is definitely trying to be the "Youtube of webcomics", as is Tapas and other competing webtoon platforms) because that sentiment rings true for a lot of the webtoon creators who have practically failed upwards and only forgo their advertised "professional status" when they're under fire for their actions and writing. Rachel is an "award winning creator" and "self-proclaimed folklorist" until her comic is criticized for its blatant misrepresentation and disrespect towards an entire culture, then all of a sudden "it's just fanfiction". Mongie is the creator of the bestselling series Let's Play until she's called out for racist depictions of Asians and Hispanic people in her work, then all of a sudden she's "just trying to make a fun comic" that's not meant to be taken that seriously. And of course, their audience of teens and young adults who don't know any better keep forgiving them and vehemently defending them because they wrongfully assume that these creators are scrappy teens just like themselves who just started making webcomics for fun and then achieved fame and glory overnight (which they're not!)

We should be having bigger discussions about what awaits the webcomic and "content creator" industry as a whole in the future and what standards we should be holding creators and their work to. We can't possibly expect these mediums to be taken seriously as a professional industry if we don't set better expectations for the quality of the work that's being created and the creators who are building these platforms for themselves.

"In current discourse, Youtubers simultaneously present as the forefront of a new medium, creative voices that need to be taken seriously as part of the 'next generation of media'... and also 'uwu smol beans little babies who shouldn't be taken seriously when they rip someone off and make tens of thousands of dollars doing it." - Hbomberguy, "Plagiarism and You(tube)" timestamp: 3:36:18

#hbomberguy #webtoon critical #anti lore olympus #lore olympus critical #lo critical #let's play critical #Youtube

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dr-donogood · 5 months

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Hey! Idk if this still interests you or not but I saw your post saying Richtofen isn’t a n@zi

I also believe this and have done a lot of research but I think I have trouble with finding sources as I haven’t been able to find anything that shows that he is against fascism + hates it, which makes it difficult to argue that he isn’t one when talking to others about it.

Do you have proof or some sort of instance that either states or hints towards this that could help with the argument that he is against n@zis?

I’d appreciate any info you give!

Hello anon! Oh wow It has been a hot second since I've Codsed my Zombies. I'm not sure how much you know already. So I'll just go down the list of things I remeber! And i'll make this a bit beginner freindly, just in case anyone needs to show this to someone.

Also feel free to add to it!!! Or feel free to point out if I misspoke it HAS been a bit...

1) For starters, although the lore reason for Richtofen's outfit is unknown (most anything i could say here would be pure speculation and HC), we do know that he was originally just a re-used asset from the main game. He comes from the villian character Heinrich Amsel. When COD Zombies (previously Nazi Zombies) first started out, all the characters were blank slate re-used and slightly recolored assets. They ofc later gave them all names and stories (although testing the waters at first, a lot of early story got ret-conned. Such as Richtofen being a back ally surgeon.) But they unfortunately never re-designed him outside of removing the swastika :( but I also belive it's important beacuse I feel like it's one of the only things ppl bring up when the try and say Richtofen is a nazi, and I feel like it holds no weight beacuse of these things.

(Here is Heinrich Amsel. As u can see, clearly where Richtofen's original model comes from.)

2) lore stuff is dificult to pile evidance for due to how the lore in the game itself is presented. If you want the freshest and best sources (aside from meticulously beating every easter egg and finding all the secrets) YouTube videos with the quotes/Easter eggs/secrets are your best bet aside from going in game and grabbing them yourself. I can't particularly remeber what exsact maps may be able to help you. Aside from Classified!

It's just generally a real important part of the basic lore that Richtofen isn't a Nazi and hates them. It's kinda what kicks off....everything that happend. Im sure anyone could get this information from any reliable Cod Zombies lore video (i uhhh don't know which ones are reliable i haven't watched any! Probably check out Mr.RoflWaffles?). For starters, Richtofen was always a spy. He worked for the Illuminati before Maxis asked him to join Group 935, and Richtofen only joined so he could feed information back to the Illuminati. It's also important to note that Group 935 was not originally associated with Nazis. Maxis made a deal with the nazis without anyone's permission (funding and test subjects in exchange for weapons and super soldiers.) And that was one of many things that pissed Richtofen off so badly that he gathered everyone up to make a secret section of Group 935, that both worked with the allies, and planned on killing off Maxis. (Ofc his goal was later shifted and corupted by the Apothicons. But this is about how Richtofen isn't a Nazi, not questioning him as a dubious person. There was also all of the moon shit, Maxis not caring about Richtofen's experiments, a whole boat load of resons that Richtofen wanted that man dead.)

(Also. Richtofen never fought in ww2 and ww2 is already over by the time the zombie breakout happens.)

Here is a link to the Film Reels in Classified, many of which talk about how Richtofen was working against Maxis (and the nazis) and even has some verbal confirmation from Richtofen about his distaste for nazis.

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Also here is also the Kronorium! As far as I know, it should still be a reliable sorce! (Like i said, it's been a while). And I think it's a bit better than the wiki (which still says his nationality is nazi german...instead of just saying he's german....) there is plenty of stuff in the interactive book that explains

https://kronorium.com/

2) here are some instances of his voice actor, Nolan North, confirming that he isn't a Nazi! (Thank you @jamieaiken919 for digging these up for me!!!)

And did that's kinda all I have for now! Like I said anyone is free to add!

#cod zombies #edward richtofen #tw nazi #nazi tw #man i made that original post when i was 13-14ish that was a while ago #i was also kinda cringe as shit back then but at least i was right about COD Zombies!!!

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 3 months

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By: Ryan Burge

Published: 26 Jan, 2024

One of the most challenging aspects of this job appears simple to those who haven't done it before: crafting survey questions. It’s such an impossible task, especially when you are trying to develop new measures that haven’t been used before in other surveys. To put this in some context, I met with a team of three graduate assistants every other week for an hour for the entire Fall semester just to get a survey in shape to be rolled out to a select group of early reviewers. Sending out that first draft is nerve-wracking because you know that many aspects won't work and will need adjustments or removal. It's akin to typing into a Google Doc, and a collaborator logs in, leaving you feeling vulnerable.

Over Christmas break, I had sent the test link out to some folks that I really trust and I know that they will provide some excellent feedback. I was not disappointed. Our research team met earlier this week to review the feedback and make some changes; we all agreed that this moved us closer to a finished product.

But there’s one comment that I received that I have been thinking about a lot. There's a section of the survey that inquires about spirituality and spiritual practices. Most reviewers had the same critique: they wished for a clear definition of spirituality within the survey. I get that impulse. I really do. But, I don’t think I’m going to be able to do that for a simple reason:

I don’t know that our team could write a definition of spirituality that most people would agree with. It’s very much “in the eye of the beholder.”

However, I may actually understand spirituality a bit better now thanks to some recent data posted on the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) that was funded by the Fetzer Institute. The National Religion and Spirituality Survey, conducted in late 2022 with a total sample size of 3,651, provided valuable insights into how people perceive the words 'religious' and 'spiritual’.

I know it’s a cliche when I write this, but in this case it’s true: I honestly understand the world a little bit better after doing this data work. It absolutely sharpens my understanding of the religious/spiritual world and how the average person relates to both those concepts.

There was a question battery at the beginning of the survey that listed a whole bunch of terms (13 in total) and folks were asked if that word described spirituality to them. Then they were given the same list of terms and asked if those described religion to them. It offers a peek behind the curtain of how these words are understood in the general population.

The general consensus that emerges is that people tend to associate many words with spirituality, but fewer terms describe religion. For example, eight of these terms clearly describe spirituality more than they describe religion: clarity, inspiration, love, peace, purpose, transcendence, transformation, and wonder. And in many cases the percentage difference between religion and spirituality is pretty large. It’s thirteen points for peace (68% vs 53%). It’s eight points for love (55% vs 47%) and seven points for inspiration and clarity. The most chosen terms here are peace, love, and inspiration.

In contrast, there are only a few terms clearly associated with religion: belonging (35% vs. 29%), structure (32% vs. 22%), and values (51% vs. 47%). Eight for spirituality and three for religion. The words that are most likely to be associated with religion are peace, values, and love. Only 17% of folks say that transformation and wonder describe religion, just 12% say that transcendence is a part of religion. I feel like there’s an entire dissertation to be written about that.

But how do religion and spirituality work together? Folks were asked, “How spiritual are you?” and then were asked, “How religious are you?” They were given four response options ranging from “not at all” to “very.” What I think is fascinating is the result when you put those two questions into a heat map.

Just 9% of the population identified as both very religious and very spiritual. The most common response was that they were both moderately spiritual and moderately religious, with 23% in that category. In contrast, 12% of the sample said that they were not at all religious and not at all spiritual. Clearly the diagonal line across the middle of the heat map was where most people found themselves - these four squares represent 56% of the sample.

Only .2% of folks said that they were very religious but not at all spiritual. In contrast, 3.2% were very spiritual but not at all religious. One throughline that I see is that there are lots of people who are not religious but somewhat spiritual, but the opposite is much less prevalent. Almost everyone who says that they are religious also says that they are moderately or very spiritual. It’s almost like spirituality doesn’t need religion but spirituality is an essential part of religion.

One question I had when I started looking through these questions was: are young people more likely to embrace spirituality and reject religion? And are older folks more attracted to religion and less to spirituality? There’s a decent sample size here so I can answer these questions.

Among the youngest adults, slightly less than half claimed to be moderately or very spiritual, while the share for religion was about ten percentage points lower. These trends remained relatively stable from ages 18 to 40, with a persistent ten-point gap. But then both lines began to slowly drift upwards among those in their forties and fifties. The share who say that they are moderately/very spiritual moves up to about 50% around 50 years old. There’s also an upward movement among those who say the same about religion.

But then the lines basically flatten off again - from 55 years old all the way to 75 years old. Even among the oldest Americans, spirituality is embraced more than religion. Among those who are 70 years old about two-thirds say that they are moderately/very spiritual and around 55% say they are moderately/very religious. So, spirituality is clearly more popular across the board. And it’s really fascinating how that gap is basically the same size across the entire age spectrum.

I wanted to end this piece by analyzing a series of questions about whether spirituality or religion has any bearing on how people act in the real world. For instance, folks were asked how much they agreed with this statement, “My <Religion or Spirituality> Impacts My Political Views.” Response options ranged from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

Just 13% of people strongly agreed that religion impacted their political views, while it was 16% for spirituality. Thirty-eight percent agreed that spirituality influenced their political views, compared to 30% for religion. Folks were 21 points more likely to strongly disagree with the statement “religion impacts my political views” than strongly agree. That’s not a small difference. For the spirituality question the difference was only ten points (26% vs 16%).

But, how about their political activity like protesting, attending campaign events, etc? The same kind of gaps emerge here, too.

The most common response for the statement, 'My Religion Impacts My Political Activity,' was strongly disagree at 37%, with only 10% strongly agreeing. In total, people were twice as likely to disagree as to agree (47% vs 24%). Spirituality fares just a bit better. Nearly a third of the sample agreed that their spirituality impacted their political activity while 37% disagreed. But big chunks of the sample neither agreed nor disagreed with each statement. It just doesn’t feel like religion or spirituality are motivating folks to get engaged in the political process.

I wanted to show you all one more question that used this format, but this time it was the impact of spirituality or religion on civic engagement which is activities like volunteering their time for a nonprofit or donating to charity.

Again, a similar pattern emerges, with spirituality driving civic engagement more than religion. In terms of religion, 28% said it drove their civic engagement, while for spirituality, it was 34%. A third of the sample strongly disagreed that religion drove their volunteerism, it was only 25% who said the same thing about their spirituality. Across the board, it’s spirituality that seems to be doing more work than religion.

There’s a belief out there that spirituality tends to be more selfish than religion. For instance, things like meditation and yoga are more individualistic practices. Meanwhile, religious practices (especially corporate worship) are outwardly focused toward engaging not only with the rest of the religious body but also the community at large.

But in a great paper published in 2022, Jaime Kucinskas and Evan Stewart tested this hypothesis and what they found largely comports with what I just showed you in the last three graphs. Spirituality is not necessarily selfish. Instead, they argue for what they call, “substituting spirituality.” They describe it this way, “spiritual practice (works) as a substitute for religious engagement among groups alienated from religious institutions, with the former capable of fostering similar proclivities for political action as the latter.”

I think almost everyone in the United States has heard the term Religious Right, but that seems to be anachronistic given the changing spiritual landscape of the 21st century. It’s not religion that drives political engagement, it’s spirituality.

An obvious question needs to be, "what is the point of religion, then?"

#Ryan Burge #religion #spiritual #spirituality #spiritual not religious #atheism #religion is a mental illness

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atomicpoetrymusic-blog · 10 months

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I've noticed that a lot of people are starting to get a bit frustrated with the way Bridgerton is being handled, lately. Believe me, I've started to feel this way myself, but I think a lot of this is just marketing, and I believe (this is my opinion and NOT a fact, so please don't hate me) that a lot of it is to do with Queen Charlotte (I'll be calling the show QC from now on, just to make my life easier), and the POTENTIALLY polarising effect of Polin.

I'd like to reiterate, I definitely haven't done all the research into this topic I probably should have done, but I do have some idea about the way production and marketing works. This is my own speculation about why Shondaland are being so slow on giving the audience content, and on releasing s3, and in no way reflects what is actually going on behind the scenes - as I have just done here, I will be referring to the whole production team, including marketing, as Shondaland (again, to make my life easier, as I've written a lot). I'll also be incorporating my own opinions into this speculation, so please take everything I say with a mountain of salt. I enjoy this show, and I really want it to do well, so I mean no disrespect to anyone involved, and everything I say comes from a place of love.

I'll start with QC, as it is a little more straightforward, and a little easier for me to get my head around. Basically, I think that Shondaland put so much effort and money into QC, that they want it to have its moment in the sun, without the flagship show taking up the spotlight (forgive my mixed metaphors). I don't know/can't remember if it was delayed at any point, but if it was, then I COMPLETELY understand why the main show is taking so long in its release - they want QC to do well and make its money back.

Personally, I always thought that a show about Queen Charlotte's past was a bit strange, especially with the hype for s3 so palpable right after s2 aired. I understand that this is a massive brand, and they wanted to profit off that, and make all the spin-offs they could think of, but at the same time, I think they should have doubled down on their focus on s3.

Like I've said, within the fanbase, Polin has proved to be a little more of a fraught and contested relationship, unlike Saphne and Kanthony, and instead of drawing out the problem and making the audience wait, they should have had an earlier release date for s3. In fact, I think the QC release date would have been great for s3 - apparently, they had mostly finished post production on s3 in late March. S2 was released in March 2022, and QC was released in May 2023. That alone was already over a year of waiting for new content. And it wasn't even the main show.

In fact, as it turned out, QC was competing with an ACTUAL royal event, the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, on the same weekend. I'm English, a royalist, and I wanted to watch real history taking place. I know that's just me, and definitely doesn't represent the audience as a whole at all, but millions tuned in to watch the coronation - a fictional queen, no matter how based on history she is, just doesn't have the same significance.

Also, a lot of the more casual viewers just would not have been interested - my mum is a casual Bridgerton viewer, but I don't think she even knows about QC. And some fans (unfortunately, me included) just weren't as invested in QC, and didn't watch it. I myself only got halfway through episode 2 - I paused it so I could make dinner, and couldn't bring myself to turn it back on again afterwards.

I think that's why we got all the proper trailers and teasers and just general promotion for QC, while s3 hasn't had that - QC is a spin-off, Bridgerton is the main event, and a popular one at that. Again, they want to make their money back, and exceed it if they can. But now, Shondaland have made the whole Bridgerton audience wait well over a year for a new season of their flagship show - and we still have another 6 months to wait.

This leads me on to the Polin side of things, and why s3's marketing has been so all over the place.

Colin and Penelope's story in the show is going to be DRASTICALLY different from the book, and so the audience, for the first time, truly don't know what is in store. Book fans have some ideas, but the fact is, the context is different; the events leading up to the season are different, their relationship going into the season is different, their relationships with their friends/family are different, and the synopsis of the season that was released is, again, different. Shondaland are playing very close to the chest at the moment, they don't want anything leaked or spoiled. But the fact remains, the audience have waited a long time now, and are starting to either chomp at the bit, or lose interest.

I feel like I've had more information from the cast and the fans than I have from the official sources. TUDUM (which was yesterday, as of writing), was hyped up to be this big event where the fans got a bit of a taste of what is to come, potentially some stills, a quick 30 second scene from the first episode, maybe even a teaser trailer. What we got in reality was disappointing, to say the least. Four stills, all of either Colin or Penelope (one of which we've basically already had because of a leak, which has been floating around the internet for a while now), and nothing else. I'm not complaining about the pictures we got - they look beautiful, and do shed some light on the potential storyline - but there really should have been something more. It was all focused on Pen and Colin, with only a couple of blurry Bridgerton family members in the background of ONE picture (I'll come back to why this particular point could be damaging to the show later).

Now, my next point is rather delicate, and does hit close to home for me, so I'll be as sensitive as I can. But, it has to be said, and I feel that it really could have an impact on the show if it's not handled correctly.

This point is about Penelope's appearance, especially compared to Daphne and Kate. Nicola Coughlan is gorgeous, and the latest stills released definitively prove that, but the fact remains she is not the typical Hollywood slim body type that the previous 2 female leads were. I know that there are differences between Phoebe and Simone as well, but they are both considered 'attractive' by industry standards.

Given that this is a show with sexual content, the physical appearance of an actor/actress is important to the audience. Yes, to many fans it doesn't matter, and are in fact applauding the representation of different shaped and sized actresses, especially given the context, but the casual viewer might not be so interested in watching. And casual viewers tend to make up the majority of any audience, which Shondaland will know, and should be taking into account when promoting the show.

Now, I'm not exactly slim or conventionally attractive, either. It has taken me a long time to come to terms with my weight, and to feel beautiful and comfortable in myself. I have nothing but respect and admiration for Nicola to be a plus-sized actress in such a high-profile way and still seem so confident and happy in herself. But even I don't want this to be a focal point of the story between Penelope and Colin. Yes, this should DEFINITELY be addressed in some capacity, especially as it relates back to Pen's insecurity and part of her character arc, and even Colin's in a way, but I'm anxious about how it will be handled, whether that be that they don't address it at all (which I believe is unlikely), or they address it too much.

I can relate to feeling insecure, feeling trapped, and hiding my emotions because I don't want to be hurt or to hurt anyone else. But I don't want to be told that I will be looked down on in society for being even the slightest bit unattractive, unconventional, or different every 5 seconds. I get that enough on social media. It is victimhood mentality, and I watch this show as a form of escapism, and I'm sure many other people do too.

This is one of the reasons why I think Polin can be so polarising. In the book, they actually bond over feeling insecure about their places in the world, and how they desire responsibility over their own lives - Pen with the creation of Whistledown and what it means to her, and Colin's struggle with his place as the third brother and finding his purpose. It has been touched upon in the past 2 seasons, but now will be front and centre.

These feelings, when not handled or written or even acted correctly, can seem shallow, annoying, or uncomfortable. Especially if you see them either as overly privileged, or perpetual victims. It is a difficult tightrope to walk for a writer, let alone in marketing. Creating promotional content is hard, as the actual context of why the characters might look or behave in a certain way is skewed and can be easily misinterpreted - just watch those videos about changing the genre of movie trailers. Shondaland are probably still trying to find a good fit for what they're promoting, that will satisfy both the diehard fans, and the casual viewers. This doesn't excuse the long time between seasons, but might be why they are being so careful with the content they are providing right now.

Another reason Polin can be polarising is the context of the past 2 seasons. There are fans who dislike the way Colin has treated Pen. There are fans who dislike the way Pen has treated Colin. There are fans who want Pen to treat Colin like dirt and for Colin to grovel at her feet. There are fans who think Colin is being side-lined and mistreated in his own love story in favour of Pen becoming a girlboss. There are fans who think that the 2 characters shouldn't end up together. There are fans who want Colin to get back together with Marina. There are fans who want Pen to be in a romantic relationship with Eloise or Benedict.

These are all real wants I have seen coming from the fanbase. And those are just the ones off the top of my head without research.

Personally, I love Polin. I think they are sweet and lovely friends-to-lovers goodness. That they both understand and connect with each other on a level that goes beyond romance and friendship (despite Colin's obvious obliviousness to her feelings and Pen placing him on a pedestal, only for it to swept out from under him in a matter of moments last season). And, that they also have a darker side to them that creates the story and has lasting consequences for both their relationship and for those around them. This combination creates an interesting dynamic, undercut by a romantic tension and connection that neither character truly understands yet.

However, as I mentioned above, not all fans feel this way, and are being actively vitriolic against the pairing. Shondaland will be very aware of this, and so far have done their best to make it clear to the audience that Penelope and Colin ARE the main couple and main characters in s3. As I said WAY back in the QC section, TUDUM released 4 new stills, all of which feature Colin and Penelope, as their only new promotional material. I think this is a good thing, for the most part, because ultimately, if s3 mainly revolves around them and their relationships (with each other and with the other characters), then that is the product/content they are selling, and those people who don't like it are able to step away if they feel that strongly about it, while at the same time Polin fans are given reassurance that Shondaland won't be deviating too much from the source material and having the couple split up/never get together at all.

However, as a knock-on effect, the casual viewers, and the people who are only middling, and prefer the aspects of the ensemble cast, or want some Kanthony content, are left a little by the wayside, as there is NO new content for ANY of the other characters (I said I'd come back to this point later!), except for the blurry Bridgertons.

We don't know how Eloise is holding up after her fallout with Pen, or what Benedict is up to now he's left the art school, or how Francesca might be doing on the lead up to her first Season (both in the show, and as a cast member :D). We don't know what married Kanthony are doing now that they're together, or what the Featheringtons are up to, or where Violet and the unmarried Bridgertons are even living, as they should have moved out of the house into No. 5 to give Kate and Anthony Bridgerton House as Viscount and Viscountess. There are just so many options for stills they could have added, even if it was just a generic picture of Kate and Anthony stood next to each other holding hands, or Benedict and Eloise sat together on the swings, or Francesca walking around a ballroom accompanied by Violet. These things, yes, give us information about the upcoming season, but are all things the audience are expecting to see anyway. Why not give the fans a little more to work with?

I also don't think it helps that the audience, although finally being given the release date, still have to wait 6 months. The anticipation is already starting to wear a little thin, and it just gives the audience more time to get frustrated by the wait, and to sour on the show. I've seen more and more posts on a variety of platforms getting more and more vitriolic and nasty towards not just the show and its characters, but the production team and the cast, as well.

As I said earlier, I think giving s3 QC's release date would have been preferable for a variety of reasons. Spring and/or Winter are the best times to release Bridgerton's kind of genre, especially in TV. Summer is too hot and sticky and everyone would rather be outside doing stuff, and Autumn (Fall, for any Americans) is when a lot of the network TV shows (at least in the U.S.) are released, and so would have a lot of competition. Bridgerton s1 was released in Winter -where everyone is snuggled up, most workplaces are closed for holidays - and did fantastically, while s2 was released in Spring - not too hot, not too cold, and early enough that teenagers wouldn't have exams/end of year tests to worry about, capitalising on that demographic.

The release of QC kind of ground the release of s3 to a halt, because of the need for that show to not be overshadowed (see my QC section again for detail on why that's important). And, with the above Summer and Autumn reasons not to release, it makes it tricky for s3 to be as successful as it could have been if released then.

As I've said, I haven't finished QC, so I don't know if that show will have any impact on s3, but even if it did, I think I'll stick by what I said; s3 should have replaced QC in the release order. Yes, they finished post production on QC first, but then I would say they should have delayed filming on QC until after they had already got a solid amount of s3 done, if they were worried about it being overshadowed by s3, and have QC be released on s3's release date, if not a little sooner. That way, the audience hopefully wouldn't have such a large gap between seasons of Bridgerton, and they would be able to streamline the production of both a little better. Personally, I think I would have been more interested in QC if it was released in the Winter, but maybe that's just me.

Overall, the marketing for s3 of Bridgerton has just been a bit too lacklustre and drawn out. Most people are probably still just as excited as ever, and I hate to be the cynic who throws water on the fire, but it's just been such a long wait with minimal content, that I'm starting to get tired of the slow arrival. But, I'm still looking forward to s3 when it finally comes, and I hope it doesn't disappoint. The past 2 seasons were really enjoyable.

And, that's all my current thoughts on the recent Bridgerton marketing! This literally took me hours to write, so I hope you liked it.

If you didn't like what I had to say, that's fine. But please, don't be mean about it. I have put a lot of thought and effort into this - despite starting to write this on a whim - and at the end of the day, I'm just a fan who wants to enjoy this show.

If you got this far, thank you so much for reading!

#bridgerton #bridgerton season 3 #colin bridgerton #penelope featherington

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sonosvegliato · 8 months

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what’s ur favorite martial art & also what would you recommend for beginners

Saying mma is my favorite is probably such a cop out...I was introduced to jiujitsu first and liked that the best for a while because I knew more of what I was doing...but before my dojo closed I liked stand-up style stuff more. Judo was fun because!! cool flip!! but karate ended up being my ultimate favorite because there is absolutely no way you can BS it and once you learn the Thing, you really learn the Thing. If I'm standing on moving transportation, I still fall into kiba-dachi (horse rising stance) so I don't get knocked over, lol.

I'm no expert in martial arts and once my dojo closed, I did sort of fight-club style stuff in school where I'd see someone hitting the bag in the gym or doing judo and just sort of. Crash in. See what was up. Don't, like, just flat-out ask to fight somebody, but if you see people in the park or gym doing something that seems interesting, you can always ask what it is (however if you see a barefoot guy with stringy hair in the park and he asks you if you want to see the weapons in his car...no. Just. Not worth it, no). Bjj (Brazilian jiujitsu) has been more accessible to beginners in my own personal experience. There are moves you learn, but in the end if you're fast/big/strong/or wily enough, you can roll or wrestle or strong-arm your way through a spar without actually knowing a gazillion moves. But Bjj is not what I would recommend to someone who does NOT like close contact. There are times where the face and foot meets some pretty unfortunate parts. You get over the awkwardness eventually, but it can take a really long time to get cool with it--and that goes for both, whether you've got the parts down there or up there.

If someone was looking to start for self-defense/just good to know reasons, I haven't done krav maga, but it's been developed precisely for get-in-get-out scenarios. I only did judo for a short time, and voluntarily getting thrown over someone's shoulder to smack your whole rag doll body to the mats is not for the faint of heart, but you do learn how to fall and people don't generally go WWE on you unless they are inexperienced and think they gotta, or you went WWE on them first. Knowing a few throws in general is nice just to have in your back pocket. Street fight or bar fight, you not only will be the coolest person in the room, but you give yourself the upperhand to either a. run (personal recommendation) or b. if the situation is a must, beat the stuffing out of somebody.

So in the end...it depends on what a beginners gonna be comfortable with and what they want out of it. I got lucky and joined a dojo that was more "traditional" (everyone starts kneeling facing the shrine, the moves are in (honestly, butchered) Japanese, we could (though I can not personally verify, there are books) trace our lineage back to Japan, moves are equally spiritual and physical, etc. etc.) and it felt more mature and art-oriented. Some places can feel a little (or a lot) kitschy though, so if someone was thinking about starting classes, I'd do research and try to get a feel of what kind of dojos/gyms are out there. If the instructor wants you to call them Grand Master Dragon, I'd squint, because if they are properly certified, they'll be called sensei (teacher)/senpai (senior)/shihan (teacher of teachers)...if the martial art you're looking at DOESN'T come from Japan, it'll be different, but. Still. My former dojo was a leaky garage behind a sketchy Burger King and I never once called anyone grand master dragon hoo-ha-ha-ha. Also if someone tells you that you can be a black belt in like THREE years, that's sketch, bruh. It took me two years to memorize beginner's kata and perform it somewhat decently. Will it take everyone two years? Absolutely not; I didn't want to compete, I didn't immediately fall in love with karate, I had to do some off-and-on shenanigans. But if Grand Master Hoo-Ha-Ha tells you you can be Grand Champion Hoo-Ha-Ha in three years when people have literally DEDICATED THEIR ENTIRE LIVES TO DEVELOPING OR FURTHERING THEIR EQUALLY SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL ART, be sus, you know?

I'm biased towards Japanese martial arts, but there are tons of styles from around the world and developed throughout history, and if anyone even has a passing interest, no matter what age or background, I say go for it. It's cool, it's useful, it's mental and physical exercise, and I've never met someone who knows capoeira but MAN DO I WANT TO.

Thank you for instigating my TED Talk. Disclaimer, I am again, not an expert, and to be honest, not that highly belted (I'm not sure my belt is even still "good" now that my dojo is closed and I haven't trained in so long). But there are things I know now that I didn't know the first time someone punched me in the face, so that's got to count for something. If there's anything you learn from martial arts, it's that you can learn from anybody, even if they're doing it wrong.

Thank you for asking me something I absolutely have no strong opinions on, enjoy! 💪

#martial arts #karate #bjj #kihon ko mi ni forever yo

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magnetarbeam · 11 months

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A few random chains of thought just came together about the question of how Ship found the Lost Tribe.

First thing is this passage in Abyss:

"If Ship was what the records aboard the Omen indicated he was, he was a servant of the ancient Sith. Everything he had done since finding the Tribe - even the fact that he had researched the Battle of Kirrek and gone to the trouble of tracking them down - certainly supported that assertion."

This could, potentially, be read as meaning that the Omen came directly from the Battle of Kirrek. It is also reasonable - more tempting, to my tastes - to interpret the way it's phrased as meaning that researching the Battle of Kirrek and tracking down the Tribe were separate actions.

The way that the incident at Phaegon III that resulted in the Omen's crash is shown to us in Crosscurrent makes it kind of difficult to believe any logs could have made it out at the time. There were three hyperspace-capable ships there: Omen, its sister ship Harbinger, and the single Jedi Infiltrator (some kind of two-person stealth fighter) that delivered Relin aboard Harbinger. In the perspectives aboard Harbinger, nobody even proposes sending word of the engagement to forces elsewhere. The Infiltrator was destroyed near the end of the battle, and Drev spent about the whole time too busy dodging lasers to report the situation himself.

We don't get a whole lot of detail about events aboard Omen, but they don't even start to realize something's wrong until they pick up weird readings from Harbinger's hyperdrive, less than twenty seconds before the synchronized jump, and Captain Korsin seemingly doesn't have time to move his ship when Harbinger ends up on a collision course due to Drev's kamikaze impact.

That collision, for those of you who haven't read this book, is what knocks Omen off course from its jump, and ultimately sends it to Kesh.

Just knowing about the Battle of Kirrek would not allow anyone to find Kesh. The two dreadnoughts were detached from the primary Sith fleet prior to the battle, and it's very unlikely that any reports of their fate made it out at the time. They weren't even attempting to jump to Kirrek. They wanted to go to Primus Goluud.

However, a whole plot thread in Crosscurrent is that Relin's sabotage meant the Harbinger didn't fully enter the hyperspace tunnel, and instead accelerated to near lightspeed in realspace, in the process experiencing relativistic effects that mean that in a couple minutes aboard the ship, thousands of years passed outside. It comes out of its jump in 41.5 ABY, shortly after the end of the Second Galactic Civil War and in time for Jaden Korr to encounter it while in the process of coping with their experiences in that war.

Also in time for everyone's favorite Sith meditation sphere to have defied the One Sith and gone looking for other Sith.

At that point, the Harbinger is still carrying a shitload of lignan, and I think maybe Ship sensed that in the Force. Harbinger and its diabolical cargo are pretty thoroughly destroyed by the end of the book, but my tentative idea is that there was some kind of log, like the equivalent of a black-box recorder, that still held the sensor data from the incident at Phaegon III. I propose that this was found by Ship, using his knowledge of the time's warships to pick out that particular piece of metal out of the debris field, and he used the data to generate an outbound vector on the Omen's jump, and by following that trail he found Kesh.

I think way too much about this weird little book, the one that did time travel in Star Wars but in a way that makes sense.

#star wars legends #fate of the jedi #crosscurrent #lost tribe of the sith

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storiesofsvu · 2 years

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Choose between Heather or Rita 😈

oh my god how did I miss this?!?!?

hmmmm....

okay. For the sake of the question, we are pretending that Heather was either: never married/no kids, OR, happily separated with kids that have already moved out.

Like... bestie, I'm basically just picking between whether I want to live in NYC or Washington.... Rita would bring the bonus of like, casey, alex, liz, barba, etc as friends, Heather would bring me jackie... i haven't been to either city, but i've done some extensive research on both (obvi)

oh god... i'm still trying to figure it out.

like, theyre so similar...both would come with lots of money, spoiling, doting, treating you like their little princess, fancy galas, car services, expensive clothes, fancy date nights, big/gorgeous houses. obvi heather's more kinky, like, rita can be kinky, but she doesn't have it every time. try to tell me heather has vanilla sex... you CAN'T.'

i think that heather, thanks to the literal millions of dollars, doesn't HAVE to work as much, like, she has way more money than rita. and if she doesn't have to work, she doesn't want to be bored, so she'd be whisking me away to all corners of the world and travelling the world is one of my biggest dreams so.....

we're gonna say Heather.

THIS OBVI ALL WAS ME PICKING MY WIFE.

in general as a character i do think i prefer rita... it's the quips, the sass, the little smirks, the BOMB outfits (not that heather doesnt look amazing, but rita is a whole diff level)

#heather dunbar #rita calhoun

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anyasmcm · 5 months

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November 14th - 20th research

Observational research:

I've been thinking a little more about material in reference to my piece, and Isabelle referenced Anna Mlasowsky's piece "Chorus of One" during my Capstone Update presentation. It's really hard for me to think about material and its meaning because a lot of materials have multiple meanings. It reminds me of Kara Walker's piece "A Subtlety" and her use of sugar. I'd really like my material to have personal meaning, but it's also overwhelming because I don't think I can assign 1 material to encompass the meaning of my piece. I think I will do a lot of material research over winter break so I have time to experiment with a lot of different things.

Active research:

I wanted to think a little about how my work will present in an exhibit/gallery setting.

In this sketch, the people speaking in the foreground are recorded by microphones placed throughout the gallery. What they are saying is then sent to the computer, which then prints what is said onto a receipt-like piece of paper. What is said is continuously printed onto the paper, and I sit at the end of the table and roll up the paper like a scroll. I've been thinking a lot about speech-to-text after playing around with it for pre-recorded audio. I usually watch movies and shows with captions because I struggle to understand what the characters are saying at times, so speech-to-text reminds me of captions. I also want to unpack what my function is in my piece, since I feel like I haven't done that a whole lot or unpacked it as much as I'd like to.

Another idea I had for my piece was a more guerilla approach to interacting with the viewers. I would go around asking people, non-verbally, if I can have their number. Then, I would text the numbers that I do acquire and display our messages on a projection behind me or on a wall in the gallery. I was thinking about the function of phones and how they have changed from exclusively verbal communication devices into these mini computers that can verbally, through texts and words, and also through emotions (emojis). I wanted to think about the difference between flip phones and smart phones, since my generation grew up in the period where the majority of the public was transitioning from a flip phone to a smart phone. How are messages different on the two devices? Flip phones take longer to type on and therefore encouraged a language of short-hands and abbreviations. However, since the messages took longer to send, it was more meaningful or important when someone sent a message because it meant that they wanted that communicated in writing and also wanted the person to be able to read it whenever they want, which shows compassion. On the other hand, smart phones also picked up on abbreviations, but they are no longer as necessary because it doesn't take a whole lot of time out of your day to use the entire word/phrase. Additionally, we can send messages quickly whenever and where-ever, so it seems as though we are desensitized to the marvel of text messaging. I'm not sure if I'll go with this idea, but I do think it has potential.

I also wanted to collect a couple of the questions I have surrounding my presence in my piece. I haven't really attempted to answer any of these questions, but I am keeping them at the back of my mind while I try and narrow my focus on my piece.

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tepikvinxi · 9 months

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i keep forgetting this is tumblr and i can just share whatever

Have my silly little Spiritfarer as TF2 mercs idea thingy that sprouted simply because i was fixating on both in the same time frame.. I have my who's what, along with my reasonings and whatever else under the cut :)

warning, this is scatterbrained and i also have Not done my research this is all mostly based off of vibes

My brain said i would be limiting to two spirits per class, so it's not completly even since there's not enough spirits to fill both teams. I could use some of the off ship characters too tho... haven't been on that

Anyways, to start off, we have:

Stella as a Scout/Ms. Pauling. I kinda had is as a tie since she seems to fit both? She runs around doing athletic feats, wears a hat, and is a general nuciance to the public (at times). She can also double jump, Irrefutable Evidence right there! I also have a much easier time imagining Stella as a scout than whaterer pauling does lol. Plus she gets called scout by Bruce, which is something i love. For the Pauling Arguement, she is the playable character in the game, so it feels kinda weird to mix her in with the other spirits (for whatever reason). She also, more so, does a lot of things (which is part of the game mechanic but still) for the others, an obligation a scout wouldn't have to meet. Especially for both teams! Also that. She would be interacting with both teams, so it'd be tough as a member of one to peacfully interact with the other. I'm thinking it'd be a change from one role to the other. Either she starts as a Pauling/admin's asisstant/whatever, and then one way or another transfers to a scout, or she starts as a scout on the battlefield and somehow ranks up out of it. I think i like the second idea better, but oh well. I probably won't ever fully flesh this out anyways.

Daffodil is still just Stella's cat, no change there

Gwen is a Spy. She's the whole spark of this idea lol. I just saw her and was like: spy tf2 vibes fr, and here we are. What can i say, she smokes, she's posh, she looks like she could most definately stab you. 10/10. I say she's still Stella's childhood friend.

Atul is a Soldier. He hops. That's not all but that's the main reason. He's a very boisturous fella, and a loud one too!

Summer is a Sniper. I dunno, maybe it's cuz she's a snake and a plant, spirituality person. It works for me. She could totally snipe someone.

Astrid would be a Heavy. Strong, dependable, intelligent. I feel like the role of a heavy fits her greatly.

Alice as an Engineer. No matter where i put here i felt awkward since how could i put a sweet old hedgehog lady onto a battlefield?? This felt like my best bet lol. If anything, she would work as a support class with a lower requirement for mobility.

Gustav is a Medic. Look at him.

Giovanni just feels like a Demo. He's got that brash, lively attitude and a compulsive behaviour to match.

Bruce would be a Scout. He's shown at a hummingbird, small and gone with a flash. He also has the personality for sure.

Mickey could be a Heavy. Strong and silent (at least in-game). Bruce and Mickey would still be brothers, as they should be.

Beverly would also be a Medic. Is it because she's a bird? Honestly, probably! Her personality also meshes well with the medic class

Buck is a Soldier. Not sure where i pulled this one from but he's a soldier.

Stanley is a Pyro. Childish and a big imagination. Because he's a literal child but still.

Jackie would be a Demo. He's got that loud, sharp, self-hating vibe that only a demoman could contain.

Daria as a Sniper. Isolated, spiritual. Plus she's a flying critter and higher grounds are good for sniping. I don't really know what else she'd be. It seems like the best option since a sniping spot would be out of the way of a loud battle.

Elena would be a great fit for The Administrator lol. I almost forgot about her. My leftover roles on the list didn't seem like they would work for her minimalist personality anyways.

There is no personality changes or whatever. Just basically these characters in the spots of the others.

I have a lot less then i thought i did, but that makes sense lol. I've had ideas for drawing them but not the motivation :/ I'm also unsure if it would be better to give the spirits human designs or just leave them as their respective animals. Who knows if i'll work on this more... I just wanted to get this idea out! I might add more stuff later

Here's some of the sketches i did when i was still playing spiritfarer

Also this picture I sent to my friend while making references because it's just so silly to me???!?? What??? Swag Deer Lady vs French Man

#this is like a little game to me now #what tf2 class is this character? lets find out!#even if the content is nowhere near the same vibe!#its like taking two figurines from different toysets and making them play together #or making lps toys play war #this was also like a couple months ago so i dont remember all of my reasonings #all i know is that i love gwen and she has spy energy #thank you for coming to my ted talk #itd be fun to make this an actual story methinks #if i had the skill or energy to write #oh well #spiritfarer #tf2 #crossover #misc tep

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vtori73 · 1 year

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Need to make comics... horror comics.

Honestly, for awhile I may have not been willing to admit it but I think I was sort of avoiding trying to come up with a full fledged horror comic and I think I did this because i have higher expectations for what I make in regards to horror. I'm a big horror junkie, sure there are some classics I haven't seen still but I've watched, read & played plenty of horror, it's one of my fav genres.

I do also avoid doing things in general (art related) because I don't want to mess up/high expectations & also executive dysfunction but even more so with horror. I want my comics to be scary, to dig at you, I worried I wouldn't be able to do that because even though I LOVE horror I also... don't really get scared by it often. Video games tend to get to me more but I'm not making a video game, I'm making a comic.

I sort of recently (a few months ago), decided to read a bunch of Junji itos work because while I was aware of him and his stuff I never really read much past a volume or two (not because of disinterest i just have a horrible attention span/memory). I wanted to read more, specifically comics, since it was something I was interested in doing but was a bit afraid to tackle. I read probably all of tomie, some short stories (still haven't read some of his more famous ones, need to find those) & some of that one about fish gaining legs and going on land (don't remember the name) & I also read the Drifting Classroom, I was reminded of it when I remembered my dad owned a copy & seeing it once when I was a young teen (I think I read it too). I also have looked for various webtoons/indie/web comics to read. And while its good research I think what really made me feel more open to making horror/freeing my mind to come up with ideas for horror was finally figuring out how I can use that sentiment I hear a lot of from people who make horror and that is to create from what scares you, to use it, pretty much the "create from what you know" thought process. And look, this was already something I knew AND was applying to my other stories I have created (in my head mostly, but still) but I was having hard time warping my head around this concept FOR horror. Sure I have fears but as adult most of mine are more dull, mundane, common, or a fueled by my anxiety, so I never really felt any of this could make a good story or more specifically I never thought I could make it into a good story and would make something either "preachy" or boring (or WORSE... both). And yeah sure I fear normal things that most normal people do but I don't want to make those into horror stories, honestly those kind of horror stories bore me a bit but mostly it's because they've been done and I don't really want to redo something that has been done over & over and over again but also because those types are hard for me genuinely get scared by like the ones that go off of the whole "stranger danger" philosophy because in reality it's so rare your going to be hurt let alone murdered by strangers & more likely will be someone you know to some extent.

Also considering I'm also very critical of the genre (look, this isn't a sole problem with horror BUT we can't deny horror has some very big issues regarding how it depicts disability, poc, & trans people but also with how it depicts woman & queer people). I also didn't just want to make any old horror story, I want to avoid demonizing anyone marginalized which I feel isn't going to be too to hard, like yes, I still have biases and stuff I may not notice that might creep into my work that I need to be aware of & to look out for BUT... the reason I decided to say it wouldn't be too big of an issue for me to try avoiding is because these marginalized groups don't scare me. I have a general fear of new people but that's my social anxiety. I wouldn't make it a focus because I've done/am doing the work to undo anything that our society has tried to tell me I should fear, distrust, or hate.

So, what I fear, I never thought I personally could translate it into a good horror. I could never wrap my head around making my fears in to something that wasn't completely obvious, but I think I kind of get how to now. Like, I still think I could be less obvious with some of my ideas BUT there is always time to work on that, I have time to improve my craft. I just need to be less afraid to creat and finish my work and just make it all the way through.

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peggyrose19 · 2 years

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An ed related question,,, do you know about any overlaps of ARFID and anorexia behaviors because of emetophobia? My restriction centers around the fear but also body image/control things which makes knowing what classification of ed actually fits best difficult and has caused issues with treatment. Do you know of any resources about this?

okay! i did a bit of research. it was incredibly difficult because i couldn't find much about overlaps nor could i access any full articles cause paywalls. i don't know how much help they would've been either way tbh. i'ma put it below the cut cause it's a lot (i tend to ramble). cw for ed talk, calories, restrictions, etc

i am, to clarify, not an expert by any means. this is all based on personal experience/observations and knowledge i've gathered over the years

my findings: there is very little overlap in the compulsions and thought processes (i can't think of the right word ahh) between arfid and anorexia. they're based on very different goals, so to speak. however i think they both stem from a need to control some aspect of your life. arfid is about controlling what specifically is going in your body, foods and textures and whatnot, and keeping yourself safe from getting sick. anorexia is more about calorie intake: what it will do to your body, how it will affect your appearance, that kind of thing. the compulsions are similar, but not identical.

i think it is possible to have both. i personally do not. i think by the time i became aware of my body in that way, i knew what damage anorexia could do and i just sorta went "i have enough shit to deal with i don't need this too leave me tf alone." and miraculously it worked! so my opinions and views on anorexia are based on people i've known with it and research i've done.

back to having both. because they're so different, it makes quite a lot of sense to have both. and also because society sucks, i know that a lot of people that struggle with body image and anorexic thoughts and compulsions. i don't know how your brain works (i don't even know how mine works lol) so i can't say for sure how intertwined these types of thoughts are. i do know that body image is pointedly not a part of arfid, so that kind of thing would be considered outside an arfid diagnosis. if you wanted to, and haven't already, you could do a sort of self-diagnosis with the dsm-5 (universal diagnostic manual). just google search it with anorexia or arfid and it'll show up. that'll have the criteria and you can see what fits you.

as for treatment, i simultaneously know a lot and very little. arfid treatment is really hard to find because it's so new. it's not very well understood. and i was diagnosed like the year after it was added to the dsm-5 as a disorder. i have done treatment about 3 different times and it's never worked for me (i'm stubborn). mostly because the treatment i've done was not fully centered around arfid. that being said, i know it has worked for plenty of others. the best place i know of for arfid treatment specifically is the program at mass general.

i truly don't know what would be the best course for treatment. if you should do one at a time, or both at the same time. it doesn't seem possible to focus only on one because i'd bet there's tangled issues there. but i don't know how easy it would be to find someone well-versed in both. you will get tired of hearing this, but because arfid's still so new, we know very little in the grand scheme of things. you may have to try some things before something works.

here's the link for the mass gen site. they're mainly known for arfid treatment, and it doesn't seem like they do a whole lot with anorexia. but if you scroll down further there's a bunch of research links about anorexia and arfid and such. (do yourself a favor, don't look up rumination disorder cause it'll trigger you. it has to do with bulimia and such so not relevant). even if you're not in massachusetts, they have a lot of info available to look over. they even have a book published that my mom recommends. it's also a workbook so theoretically you could work through it yourself or with a therapist.

i hope some of this helps. i have and will talk for literal hours about why you shouldn't believe anorexic thoughts and all that. that of course won't fix everything but believe me i am willing to do it. and then i'll cheer for you after you eat. cause it's always helped me.

lastly, you cannot do this alone! i mean, it's an internal battle really, and it won't work until you are ready and willing to do the work. but having people supporting you and loving you is really super important, whether you seek treatment or not. they'll want to help you. let them. and don't be afraid to tell them what is and isn't helpful. you've got this xx

it is now midnight how tf did that happen so i am going to go to sleep now. as always, feel free to reach out with anything anytime!

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reflections-in-a-critical-eye · 3 years

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Okay so, I came to this blog because I’m an Army and recently have been quite fond of Jikook’s bond. I always used to close myself off the shipping considering how toxic it gets on other platforms but I really love these two together it’s almost painful to resist. I come here in peace, and I’m asking you something. Can we open a topic about what would ACTUALLY happen if two idols of the caliber of Jimin and Jungkook confirmed having a relationship? Because so many Jikookers see the coming out as the final win, when actually it could be the contrary? Some people in the fandom are naive and don’t realize the impact, especially negative, it would have on their career. If you open this discussion I’m sure also other blogs will tune in. I beg you to view it on a much bigger scale than just the fandom shippers, let’s observe it from the point of view of their country, the industry, their reputation as a whole. And also if you were in their shoes, and your aim was to live your days with your loved one ultimately, what marketing procedures do you think would be necessary to take in order to keep your career going as well.

Thank you Anon for the question and I will try to be very careful in navigating such a topic. I've mentioned before that I will not talk about Jimin and Jungkook in regards to their private personal life, but what I can do is to focus on what is written in shipping spaces, as it's part of the fandom discourse. I will start by saying that you are asking some questions which are impossible for me to respond. I cannot put myself in their shoes as I am first of all a woman and second of all, not famous. My answer will be divided into two parts: how shippers talk about identity and more general, about sexual identity in SK, for which I will provide extensive references and I hope they can be useful in understanding the social context. I want this to be an open discussion, especially if there are people in this space who know more, who have more knowledge on this particular subject.

It seems that in general, those who ship Jimin and Jungkook do see a coming out, in the possibility that there's an actual romantic relationship, as the ultimate ''win'', just as you said. To me, that's complete ignorance and I can only situate it in the realms of problematic fantasy. As I've said before, I don't have any problems with the idea of shipping. Of course, I've noticed that a lot of jikookers call themselves supporters in order to differentiate themselves from your run of the mill shipping practice. ''You say tomato, I say tomato''. They say they will support Jimin and Jungkook no matter what, but anyone who becomes part of a community, makes connections or develops some emotional attachments towards their ship or subjects of the ship, will definitely have some strong feelings if they will encounter some ''evidence'' at some point that would disregard the way they see those people. I'm of course generalizing here, but I'm not saying this only in order to criticize them, but because it would be a normal reaction, something to be expected and each person has their own way in which they deal with those feelings. Just as I talked in my shipping post, there are positive outcomes here, such as people who gather more extensive knowledge on LGBTQ+ issues, in case they haven't done that before. But there's a shtick and of course I can only talk about what I see in international shipping spaces, which is the fact that despite doing research on this topic and trying to understand the SK political landscape, they still use a Western filter. What do I mean by that? Their understanding of sexual identity is in most cases Western and they apply that mindset when it comes to situations in countries that have a history that doesn't match the American one, which is the more prevalent. Sexual orientation has become part of someone's entire identity. It has developed over the course of the 20th century (Michel Foucault and Jeffrey Weeks have written about this) and today it's the norm. We do live in an era of globalization, but to take this idea and apply it to a context that not many of us actually know, results in a discourse that can have some colonization elements to it and leaves no room for specific Asian Queerness. It's unfortunate because all shippers could do is read more about it, if they actually call themselves supporters. Not to focus just on their ship but to actually try and understand how alternative meanings of identities work. If they had done it, in a bit more detail, perhaps they would know that one's sexual orientation does not become someone's entire identity everywhere. It's a difference between something that ''I am'' and ''I do''. The SK situation, when it comes to LGBTQ+, is influenced by Confucian values, the military service, the huge influence a family can have, but it's also about finding a community. Not everyone is the same and in this case generalization is dangerous. People can use western terminology, even fully embrace a ''coming out'' as we understand it and some of them don't, or they only do it with themselves or close friends while some engage in activism just as any part of this world. You can find more about this in a thesis written by Matthew David Arnold called Queer Korea: Identity, Tradition and Activism (2016) in which he interviewed 49 LGBTQ+ individuals over a period of time while he lived there. These are people who became his friends, acquaintances, and artists and each and every one of them has a story of their experience which has its own particularities. Arnold talks about the Social Compact which consists of the established communities in which these people live and the most important one is the family and the huge influence it can have. It also bothers me the fact that when shippers engage in such a topic, a lot of the times they are alienating, othering this entire culture and using their own Western frame as a system of reference.

To go back to your initial ask, about the jikook ship and coming out, it is ludicrous. How can shippers talk about such a thing when it comes to people whom they don't know? They observe a pattern of behavior and draw some conclusions, sometimes they have a more educated guess and other times not. But they should stick to that. They say they care about their biases, but by having this request and considering it as a win is disrespectful because a coming out is no one's business and especially not of some strangers on the internet.

I'm aware that I probably haven't given a specific response to your questions, but these are the limits in which I situate myself, but as I said in the beginning, I encourage other people to chime in.

For more insight into LGTBQ+ topics in South Korea from an academic perspective, I will leave some references here:

Song Pae Cho, Faceless Things: South Korean Gay Men, Internet, and Sexual Citizenship, 2011

Elias Alexander, Seoul's Gay Districts: Space, Place, and Identity, 2017

Joe Phillips, Joseph Yi, ''Queer Communities and Activism in South Korea: Periphery-Center Currents'', Journal of Homosexuality, 2019

Joseph Yi, Joe Phillips, ''Paths of Integration for Sexual Minorities in Korea'', Pacific Affairs, 2015

Todd A. Henry, Queer Korea, 2020

Thomas Chase, ''Problems of Publicity: Online Activism and Discussion of Same-Sex Sexuality in South Korea and China'', Asian Studies Review, 2012

Youngshik D. Bong, ''The Gay Rights Movement in Democratizing Korea'', Korean Studies, 2009

Robert Hamilton, ''Gaytrification and the re-orienting of Sexual Peripheries. The Displacement of Space and Place in South Korea's Queer Underground'', Contemporary Society and Multiculture, 2016

Tari Young-Jung Na, Ju Hui Judy and Se-Woong Koo, ''The South Korean Gender System: LGBTI in the Contexts of Family, Legal Identity and the Military'', The Journal of Korean Studies, 2014

Timothy Gitzen, The Promise of Gayness: Queers and Kin in South Korea, 2012

Jungmin Kwon, Spectacularizing the Homosexual Body: The Secret Rendezvous Among Global Gay Media, Local Straight Women, and the Media Industry in South Korea, 2014

#fandom discourse #shipping discourse #jikook #asks

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fics-n-stuff · 3 years

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Home

Pairing: Kaz Brekker × Reader

Summary: Y/N and Kaz were once childhood friends, later reunited in the Barrel. After a business dealing went awry, Y/N has been in hiding for almost a year and the time apart has brought up a lot of feelings for Kaz.

Word Count: 4.2k

Warnings: touch aversion, alcohol consumption

A/N: I haven't actually read SoC yet but I have done my research so I really hope I wrote Kaz accurately enough 🤞🏽 Let me know!! I left the reader gender neutral so all parties can enjoy 😁

Update: Pt 2 here!

You stared out of the window, watching the nightlife of the Barrel in full swing below you. It had been almost a year since you had been able to be a part of it all and, even though you had lived in Ketterdam all your life, you felt like an outsider now.

There was a knock on the door and you froze, head tilting to listen out for any threat. After a moment there was another knock, loud and heavy – certainly not the result of somebody’s knuckle hitting the wood. With a sigh, you stood up from the window ledge and crossed the room to the door.

Kaz was waiting on the other side, looking unamused as ever, and you waved him inside quickly and hurriedly shut the door behind him.

“I am one of three people that knock on your door, Y/N.” He said flatly, removing his hat and placing it atop your desk.

“I can’t be too careful, never know when someone might come sniffing around here.” You replied with a shrug. Kaz hummed shortly in acknowledgment before producing a small stack of envelopes from his coat. You snatched them from him eagerly, but careful to ensure that your fingers made no contact with his gloved ones.

“I’m getting tired of being your courier.”

“Well, I’m getting tired of being in hiding.” You huffed, leafing through your letters. “But I’d rather not walk around in a city where I’m actively being hunted.”

“You shouldn’t have gotten caught then.” Your head snapped towards Kaz at that, and you raised your eyebrows challengingly.

“I should slap you for that.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” Kaz’s face remained largely unchanged but you could see the shine of amusement in his eyes.

You had first met Kaz as a child, while visiting family in the village where his family lived. He was a sweet child, and you had struck up a fast friendship in the few months you spent there. You had even written letters back and forth for a couple of years until one time you never got a reply.

When you met again years later, entirely by chance, Kaz was a changed person. Your family’s fortune had taken a steep downturn and you found yourself alone, living in a tiny room in a boarding house in the Barrel, when Kaz came across you pickpocketing outside the Crow Club. He had recognised you, but you hadn’t recognised him at first. Everything about him was so departed from the sweet boy that you had known as a child.

He refused to tell you what had happened to change him in this way. He never gave you a cause for the ruthless person he had become to climb the ranks of the Dregs and earn the name Dirtyhands, never even told you what had brought him to Ketterdam at all other than that his father had died. He never pushed you away though. Kept you at arms length, yes, but he never tried to dissuade you from sticking around.

The longer you knew him the more you realised that he wasn’t as cold as his demeanour portrayed. He was fiercely loyal, you could see it in the way that he was with his Crows, and you were certain that he would do anything to protect those he cared about most. You admired that about him.

“You don’t have to come, you know. You could send Inej with my letters, she already delivers me food.” You said, turning away at the realisation that you had been looking at each other in silence for a few seconds too long. You went to sit down, picking up the envelope from the top of the pile and pulling up the wax seal. Kaz didn’t respond for a long while. You tried to read your letter but found yourself distracted with anticipation of what he would say, if he said anything at all.

“I commend your commitment to your business.” He said finally, and you smiled at the compliment. “Eleven months trapped in this apartment and you’re still keeping up with it all.”

“Being in hiding is no excuse to get lazy. If anything, it gives me more of a reason to keep on top of things. Work keeps me sane and keeps coin in my pocket.”

“And how long do you intend to keep conducting your business through letters and underlings?”

“For as long as I have to, Kaz. You know that.” You answered with a quiet sigh, setting down the letter that you definitely hadn’t been reading and turning your head to face him again. You saw his jaw tense and the grip on his cane tighten, but you didn’t know what it meant. You were worried that somehow you had done or said something to upset him.

You had learned, in the few years since your reunion, that sometimes even the most seemingly innocuous things could put Kaz in a black mood. You had caught on quickly to the way that he avoided touch at all costs, and adapted your behaviour accordingly. He had still never told you why being touched triggered such a strong reaction in him, but he knew that you would always respect that fact.

It didn’t matter to you what traumas Kaz had suffered to create these traits in him, only that you knew how to navigate being in his space without violating his boundaries, because deep down you knew that Kaz was the most important person in your life. He took you in and offered you support when you needed it, given you structure and taught you skills to survive without even necessitating that you use those skills to serve his gang, all because of the friendship that you had shared as children. It didn’t matter how heartless people said the Bastard of the Barrel was, you knew that Kaz cared; perhaps not in the same way that you had come to care for him, but he did care.

“Maybe you should go, I’m sure you have work of your own to do.” You mumbled, your eyes drifting downwards anxiously. “And anyway, I have letters to read.”

“I could protect you.” He blurted. His voice was a little louder than usual, his tone less flat, and your brow furrowed in confusion and curiosity. “We could. The Crows, and the Dregs.”

“I don’t need your protection.”

“But you’d have it.”

You turned fully in your chair, straddling it with one leg either side of the backrest, and leant your forearms on the top of it. There was something in Kaz’s eyes that you’d never seen before and, although you prided yourself on being able to tell how Kaz was feeling and what he might be thinking about, you couldn’t figure out what it was.

“Do you know something that I don’t?” You questioned.

“Of course not.”

“Do you suddenly not trust my ability to keep myself safe?”

“Nothing like that, Y/N.”

“Then what?” You rested your chin on your arms, looking up at him expectantly. He held your gaze, but you could see the cogs turning in his brain as he calculated his next sentence. You were preparing for an argument to start, so you certainly didn’t expect the words that came from him next.

“I’m concerned about how long you’ve been alone here.” He answered. You blinked.

“Concerned?” Your voice cracked a little with your surprise, and Kaz clenched his jaw as he averted his eyes from you.

“I just thought that maybe all this time on your own might have had some affect on you. And I... hold a certain sense of responsibility.” His voice never wavered or faltered, other than the one pause there was no suggestion in his speech that the words held any significance to him, but you could see the tension in his shoulders and the tight grip that he maintained on his cane.

You narrowed your eyes, taking a moment to examine his face and his demeanour. Everything about him was wound tight, like he was making a particularly tricky deal rather than talking to a friend – you hoped that he considered you a friend – and though he was looking in your general direction you noted his avoidance of eye contact.

“If I didn’t know better I’d think you were saying that you miss me, Mr Brekker.” You said, your mouth turning in a small smirk. You saw Kaz’s chest tighten as he silently took in a sharp breath, and you chuckled lightly. “I’m fine, Kaz. Inej visits often enough, and I’m happy to see you when you deliver my letters. I will say though, I miss drinking with your Crows.”

Truthfully, you did feel rather trapped in your tiny apartment. For almost a whole year your entire world had consisted of only three rooms, and even if you didn’t admit it you were going slightly mad. Not being able to leave was frustrating, and living your whole life in one room (because really, who spends that much of their day in the bathroom or kitchen?) made you feel like a caged animal.

He didn’t reply. He also didn’t move. You watched him, standing straight and stiff as ever in the middle of the room, for a few moments. Usually he would have said something or made a move to leave, so you knew that he was deep in thought about something. You slouched further down against the backrest of your chair.

“If you’re planning on sticking around then you should at least sit down.” You sighed. “I have some kvas, or whisky if you’d prefer.” Kaz shook his head no to the drink but made a move towards the window seat. You watched him cross the room and sit down, his grip remaining on his cane as he placed it between his knees. “What’s on your mind, Kaz?”

“It’s not important.”

“That can’t be true.”

“And why is that?” He questioned dully.

“Because you’re still here, with me, staring into space like you’re waiting for the wind to tell you a secret.” He looked at you then, and you could see a conflict swirling behind his eyes. You resisted the urge to furrow your brow in worry. He still didn’t say anything, and that didn’t do anything to ease your concern because Kaz Brekker was not often one to be at a loss for words. “Is something wrong?”

“Yes.” He murmured, his head nodding slightly.

“Do you want to tell me about it?” You asked softly. He looked into your eyes for a few seconds before turning his head away, clearly deciding not to answer. You were almost expecting him to get up and leave the apartment right then, remove himself from the uncomfortable situation like he had been known to do before, but he made no move to stand.

You stood instead, abruptly moving through to the tiny kitchen and pouring a glass of whisky for yourself. You took a long sip as you came back out into the living space, picking up a wooden staff on your way. You kept up your combat training while in hiding, though it wasn’t often that you got an opponent.

“Humour me, will you?” You smiled, spinning the staff in your hand and setting your drink down.

“There’s not much space in here.” Kaz commented.

“Then we’ll be careful. Get up and fight me, coward.” You goaded. He gave you an incredulous look but stood anyway, tossing his cane up and grabbing it at it’s middle as he came towards you. Your grin broadened, and you waited just until the was in your range before you swung at him.

Your staff collided with his cane, moved up just in time to block your attack, and he watched you with challenging amusement. You let him make the next attack, knocking his cane away when he swung it towards you.

You exchanged blows, each of you managing to block all of the other’s attacks but you were starting to corner him. It seemed like you were about to get the upper hand when he swiped his cane towards your middle, making you jump back, and before you could move to swing on him he had pushed the crow’s head handle into your chest, not so hard that it was painful but with enough force to knock you backwards.

You landed on the edge of your bed with a groan, letting the staff drop from your hand in defeat.

“No fair, your cane is basically an extension of your arm.” You grumbled. Kaz let out a short breath, the closest thing to a laugh that anyone could get from him.

“You picked the fight.” He shrugged, lowering his cane and righting it at his hip. “I could have told you that you wouldn’t win it.”

“Mean!” You exclaimed in exaggerated offense, sitting up. When you looked at Kaz his expression was soft, the worry behind his eyes seemingly eased, and you smiled. “I could beat you if it was hand to hand.”

“I don’t doubt that.” He replied, the almost compliment catching you by surprise once again.

It had been a while since you and Kaz had spent any significant amount of time together. He was a busy man, particularly so over the last few months it seemed, so other than his brief drop-ins to deliver your letters you hadn’t seen him. It was nice to have his company again, even if he was a little off.

“Do you remember those drawings of Ketterdam that I used to send you with my letters?” You questioned softly, tucking your knees up to your chest. “I used to walk around the city looking for spots to sketch. I’d spend hours sitting on the street with my pencils trying to get the picture perfect to show you what it was like. I think, now, you probably know the city better than I do.” You smiled wistfully, resting your head on your knees as you looked up at Kaz. You saw his Adam’s apple bob with a swallow.

“You miss it, don’t you?” He asked.

“Of course.”

“You could go out there, stop hiding. You know I would look out for you.”

“I can’t put that burden on you, Kaz.” You chuckled lightly. “Enough people want you dead already, you don’t need to be looking after me while I’m being actively hunted.”

“How long do you plan on staying locked in here then?”

“As long as it takes, we went through this earlier. I have a big deal coming up, with the money from that I’d be able to smooth over some edges and maybe I could come out of hiding in a few months.” You theorised. “I’d still have to watch over my shoulder all the time but it would be an improvement.” Kaz’s jaw tightened again, and he bristled with agitation.

You hugged your knees tighter, doubt and worry overcoming you. Was Kaz not okay with coming to see you here anymore? Was he trying to get you out of hiding to lighten the burden it had put on him, getting your letters delivered to the Crow Club and having to bring them to you? The thought of not being able to rely on his short visits was enough to fill your chest with a mixture of dread and guilt.

“Like I said before, you don’t have to keep coming if that’s the problem.” You added, hiding the dejection in your voice. “Inej can-"

“No.” He interrupted bluntly. You blinked, pressing your lips together in contemplation. Was he upset that Inej was bringing supplies for you? Or worse, had something happened to her? Was that what was bothering him so much tonight?

“Why not?”

“Because I-" He cut himself off. He took a step back as if regaining his balance, his gaze falling to the floor, and you watched him flex his fingers around his cane as he organised his words. “Do you remember how you got sick while you were visiting your family?”

“Kaz.” You murmured tentatively, craning your neck to try and get a better look at his face that was turned away from you. Kaz didn’t like to talk about the past. Even bringing up the letters that you sent each other had been pushing it, but for him to choose to talk about your childhood was something he had never done before. Still now, it looked like the mention of the past was making him nauseous as he moved to sit down in the window once again. Your curiosity was growing by the second.

“You got sick and you could hardly get out of bed for almost a fortnight.” He continued, dismissing your concern. “I went to visit you every day. I picked flowers for you to make you feel better, and your mother baked oatmeal cookies but I refused to have any unless you did because you weren’t eating enough.”

“I remember.” You nodded. “You never let my glass of water get empty. It was sweet. But why does it matter now?”

“I can’t... I can’t stop worrying about you. But unlike when we were kids, I can’t just walk up the street and check on you every day.”

You felt as if all the air had been knocked out of your lungs and for a second you genuinely wondered if you had made that up in your head. Kaz very rarely expressed any emotion – the mask he wore hardly ever slipped – but here he was telling you that he worried about you. For Kaz, that was practically him baring his soul for you to see.

“You don’t have to worry about me.” You said shakily. “I’ve been fine so far, haven’t I?”

“But what if you’re not fine for much longer? As long as you’re holed up here I can’t keep you safe, and I can’t come to check on you because if I come here too often people might notice. Honestly, it’s a miracle that they haven’t already.”

“I didn’t think you believed in miracles.” You mumbled. Kaz glanced up at you, and the vulnerability on his face was unlike anything you’d seen before. It struck you in the heart and made you feel a need to comfort him, to put him at ease. “I can take care of myself, Kaz. I promise."

He was silent for a moment, his gaze downcast once again, then he took a deep breath and spoke.

“I think I’ll take that drink now.”

You watched him for just a second before you got up, crossing over to your desk and picking up the glass of whiskey that you had left there. The glass was half full since you had admittedly poured a little too generously.

You held it out to Kaz, who reached for it without looking. Although you were careful to hold the glass at the very top, his gloved fingers still brushed slightly over yours as he took a hold of it. He immediately stiffened, and you were quick to pull your hand away, taking a step back to give him space. He downed the drink in one, his face scrunching just slightly at the burn it left in his throat as he set the glass down by his feet.

“I just want to be able to watch over you.” He said, his voice barely more than a whisper, and you could practically see how difficult it was for him to verbalise his feelings.

“I think... I understand what you mean, Kaz. But I’m safer staying here than being out there, even with the Dregs protecting me. You have to know that, right?”

Kaz pushed a peice of hair out of his face, his gloved hand smoothing over his head as he let out a long and quiet sigh. Finally, he looked up at you.

“I know.” He answered.

“I appreciate your concern though.” You smiled. “Honestly, I didn’t think you cared about me that much. Or, well, I knew you cared but I just didn’t think... nevermind.”

“You didn’t think what?” Kaz’s question made you pause, anxiety pooling in your chest as you contemplated coming clean about your feelings. You thought about lying, about keeping your secrets to yourself, but Kaz had been so sincere it only felt right to return his honesty. With a deep breath, you worked up the courage to finally tell him the truth.

“I didn’t think that you cared as much as I do.” You replied. The sentence hung in the air for a moment as you moved back to sit in your desk chair, heart pounding in your chest. “I’ve kind of found myself caring a lot, actually. I think it’s only fair, really. I mean, I kind of owe you my life and all so it makes sense that I care. That’s not to say that it’s sensible but it is at least understandable, I guess.”

You bit your lip to stop your rambling, dropping your head so that you didn’t have to look at Kaz. There was a long stretch of silence.

“I care more than I might show.” He spoke softly, much more softly than you think you’d ever heard his voice. When you looked up Kaz was gazing right back at you, your eyes locking and his stare going deep into your soul. He didn’t need to say more, that simple sentence and the look in his eyes were enough to tell you what he was confessing. A smile pulled at your lips.

“Be careful what you admit, Brekker, or I might think that you’re going soft.” You joked, and he shook his head lightly in amusement. You leaned forward with your elbows on your knees, letting go of the anxiety that had been coursing through you.

“I'm serious, Y/N."

“I know. You don’t make a habit of saying things that you don’t mean.” You nodded. You glanced up at the clock on your wall with a sigh. “You really should get going, it’s dangerous for us both for you to stay too long.”

“Yes, I suppose so.” He muttered.

He stood after a moment, his hand flexing over the crow’s head handle of his cane. You reached back to pick his hat up from the desk, and he held a hand out for it, but instead of passing it to him you placed atop your own head. It was too big, and you had to push it back on your head so it didn’t slide over your face.

“You know, I rather like you without the hat.” You smiled.

“Is that so?”

“Yep. I can see your face better this way so I can tell when your emotions manage to break through.” Kaz’s lips quirked upwards a little as he took the hat from your head and put it on his own. You jutted your lip out in an exaggerated pout and he let out a huff that seemed suspiciously close to a laugh.

“Do you have any letters you need me to send out?”

“No, not this time.”

“Alright, then I’ll be on my way.” He gave a quick nod and turned towards the door. He had only taken a couple of steps when you twisted in your chair and called after him .

“Kaz.” He stopped and turned back to you. “I’m doing what I can to get out of this apartment, I promise.”

“That’s not something that you owe me, Y/N. It’s your freedom and your safety. But I await the day that you come waltzing into the Crow Club ready to make Jesper lose all the coin in his pocket.” He replied lightly, making you smile. “And if you need anything then I’m here, all you have to do is ask.”

“Thank you, not just for this but for everything. Everything that you’ve given me since that night outside the Crow Club. I might be dead if it weren’t for you.” You let sentiment out freely, finally feeling able to show your heart to Kaz now that you knew that your affections weren’t one sided. His expression softened, and he seemed to contemplate something deeply, before he took a single step back towards you and held out one gloved hand.

You hesitated, unsure if he was initiating what you were thinking, but he maintained eye contact. He gave a small nod, a mix of permission and encouragement, and you tentatively reached for his outstretched hand.

Kaz took in a deep breath when your hand made contact with his, and you watched him carefully ready to pull your hand away. After a moment he released the breath, wrapping his fingers lightly around yours and running his thumb over your knuckles.

“You’re the closest thing to home that I have.” He croaked. “I didn’t want to lose that.”

“You won’t.” You affirmed. Kaz released your hand, and you found yourself missing the feeling of the leather glove. He took a small step back, trying to hide the shake in his breathing.

“I’ll come back soon, as soon as it’s safe to.”

“Okay.” You smiled. “I’ll see you then.”

Kaz left the apartment without another word between you, he paused before closing the door after himself just to look at you for a moment longer. You watched out of the window to see him leave the building and start off through the street, a broad smile on your face.

#shadow and bone #six of crows #shadow and bone netflix #sab #sab netflix #soc #kaz brekker #kaz brekker x reader #kaz brekker fanfic #kaz brekker fic #kaz brekker oneshot #grishaverse #leigh bardugo #crooked kingdom #jesper fahey #inej ghafa #dirtyhands #bastard of the barrel

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your-brilliant-lady-m · 3 years

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Part 5 - Basic Concepts of Miraculous Ladybug: Guardians

Helloooo! Did you think I was done? No!

My PhD thesis chapters were approved last week, so have some celebratory meta. I haven't seen the latest Season 4 episodes, so do forgive me for not being up to date.

Welcome to the next part of my analysis of the basic concepts of Miraculous Ladybug. Today we are talking about Master Fu, Order of the Guardians and how little everything here makes sense. I highly recommend reading previous parts to fully understand this one, but I'll try to quote most parts of earlier posts.

Order of the Guardians

Order is an international and ancient organisation (New York Special showed us the guardian from North America and he was dressed like Su Han). Presumably, Miraculous jewels were created by these people. Guardians are responsible for the preservation of jewels and knowledge about them. They also distribute Miraculouses to worthy people around the world to combat mostly magical threats, but sometimes jewels are used against normal threats too. It's implied that Master Fu used Miraculouses during WW2 when he was in Paris. Perhaps he performed some spywork with Marianne, but the magical nature of his interferences was discovered and he was forced to flee, before returning to France many decades later.

Why does the Order need so many people to take care of a 3 Miracle Boxes? If its only purpose is to preserve knowledge, keep magical secrets and distribute Miraculous jewels then wouldn't it be more logical to have Master-Apprentice system? It's much easier to keep magic knowledge a secret and train a few people in martial arts than doing the same in the self-sufficient temple full of people, keeping in mind that a good part of them are teenagers and children, who are bad at keeping secrets. Also a single person can travel around the world much easier to give out Miraculouses. Imagine that we have a few active guardians traveling the world with Boxes. What do other people at the temple do in the meantime? They teach the next generation about the powers of each Miraculous and Mirakung Fu, but besides that?

Master-Apprentice system gives us more personal conflict between Fu and his mentor and makes his relationship with Marinette and Adrien more nuanced. In this scenario Fu accidentally caused the death of his Master at 14 because he wasn't careful. It makes sense for him to take on only 1 or 2 students if this is how things were done with Miraculous Guardians. This Wang Fu is very cautious and protective, he spent the majority of his life afraid of hurting someone else and never took an apprentice as a result. But now he is ready to try again, since he is not getting any younger and he likes these 2 kids. He wants them to succeed. Maybe Master Fu, becomes the father figure for Adrien in this situation and a guide for Marinette. Just think about it. This way writers avoid the need to develop all these extra characters (Su Han) and traditions related to the Order. All inconsistencies I mentioned before and later in this post are gone now! Hell, even memory loss and the changing of the Miracle Box shape could make more sense. We also raise the stakes post-amnesia, if it happens of course (the whole Season 3 finale didn't make sense, so stay tuned for my next meta). Marinette and Adrien are on their own now, there's no one who can give them answers. It's very fun scenario, which has potential to be brilliant. Any thoughts on that?

The existence of Order of the Guardians is not quite a secret, at least it wasn't in XIX century China. Master Fu in "Feast" says that guardianship was considered "a great honor". It implies that people who lived close to the temple of the Order knew about Miraculouses and what exactly guardians did for the greater good.

The existence of other Miracle Boxes around the world makes sense from a real-life perspective. Writers have the ability to create many stories set in the same universe and use them for merchandise and an almost unlimited amount of content. Judging by the unholy amount of specials in production, this is exactly what the creators are going to do. It probably won't go down well, but who knows?

However, it doesn't work in our main story. The main conflict is Paris-centred. Gabriel's motivations revolve around Emilie's resurrection and Season 4 gives us more reasons to suspect that Adrien's mom wasn't as wonderful as everyone says. Hawkmoth still remains the main villain of the show and most likely it's going to stay that way. There's no point in moving the main story to different places for the sake of introducing more Miracle Boxes from around the world. Ladybug and Chat Noir aren't needed to fight something halfway across the world unless Hawkmoth also changes locations.

LB and CN are centrepieces of this franchise. They brought success and money to ZAG. Creators constantly need to remind the audience that this new piece of media with new characters who will never be mentioned again is connected to Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir. Writers have to come up with reasons to include our heroic duo into the story even if makes no sense.

New York Special had to introduce American Heroes whose names rarely come up in the fandom because people stopped caring about them or their stories shortly after the release of the Special. I barely saw any content dedicated to them. In order to bring LB and CN into the story, you have to include Hawkmoth too. Gabriel suddenly needs to get his hands on the Eagle Miraculous and goes to USA. Marinette and Adrien suddenly have a class trip to New York. Unfortunately, their presence in this story is required only to expand the world of Miraculous and attract fans of the show, so that they could keep an eye on new content related to newly introduced characters.

In the end, it's not their story. Events of the special don't affect main story of the show and the development of the love square is merely an illusion, because Adrien and Marinette are no closer than before. In season 4 LB and CN are growing apart and their test of trust in NY Special doesn't matter. Perhaps, some people don't see it that way and it's their right, but I find it hard to see NYS as a valid contribution to canon. I mean, even people in large portion of the fandom state in the tags on AO3 that "specials are not canon", "specials didn't happen" or "ignores both specials". It speaks volumes about continuity and preferences of your fandom.

Shanghai Special didn't give us more information about the Order, which is located in China, history of Miraculous jewels. We still don't know much about how Gabriel and Emilie found Peacock and Butterfly. Maybe, Marinette's family had connections to Miraculous jewels. Maybe, Adrien does some snooping and discovers research his parents made while Gabriel is away. All of these are relevant to the main story. However, we got something much different in the end.

Marinette chases Adrien across the globe and they make new friends. Fey becomes Ladydragon and now has a direct contact with Marinette through her uncle. Gabriel's desire to get his hands on the Prodigious comes out of nowhere. Apparently, he had been planning this trip for years, presumably even before Adrien was born. It probably happened at the same time as Agrestes found 2 Miraculouses. He bought bracelet-key (which is also a Miraculous apparently, but its Kwami is a Guardian of the Prodigious and they existed separately for a very long time - and let us not dwell on this mess) from some shady mafia boss, who can easily find out just who Gabriel really is (fashion designer billionaire) and use this information to blackmail him. This Special didn't answer important questions, but it gave us a new superhero character.

The real question is whether Miraculous as a project will survive long enough for writers to create content for every minor character they introduced in all specials. This is only a beginning after all.

Miraculous is not a global show and it can't be globalised in a way that makes sense, at least with Ladybug and Chat Noir in the centre of action. Case closed.

Mirakung Fu

I liked the idea of Mirakung Fu introduced in "Furious Fu". It makes sense and things rarely do in this show. Miraculous grants its holder superhuman strength, stamina, endurance and ability to fight. This means that essentially transformed heroes are guided by magic in combat. There's nothing personal in the way Miraculous holders fight. You can predict their moves and learn how to fight this magic guidance, which is what Su Han does.

However, if the holder has any special training, skills or knows any martial art in their civilian life then they become more dangerous opponents during transformation because now their fighting is a mix of magical moves and their personal knowledge, tricks and style. Therefore, Adrien and Kagami as skilful fencers have more chances of winning against someone who knows Mirakung Fu than Marinette, for example.

Memory loss

At the end of season 3, we find out several things:

apparently, now Miracle Box can change appearance to suit its guardian;

when Guardian passes down the Miracle Box to someone else, they lose memories not only about everything related to Miraculous, but also about pretty much everything in their life (Fu doesn't recognise Marianne, instead he experiences the love at first sight)

Master Fu trains Marinette to be the proper holder and next Guardian off-screen. He says that her training as the holder is complete in "Feast" and wants her to become the next Guardian. Fu told her lots of things, and yet, he never mentioned the fact that he would lose his memory after relinquishing the box, nor the fact that Marinette would lose her memory afterwards. She finds out about this from Wayzz after the battle with Miracle Queen and the letter that Master Fu gave her. That's not proper training! How on Earth do you forget to mention this memory loss? How?

Master Fu's amnesia is a convenient plot device that removes him from the narrative almost completely. That's mostly all there is to it. Why? Because it doesn't make sense.

Fu was around 7 or 8 when he started his training. The disaster at the temple happened when he was 14. He stated that his training was never complete, which means that he never passed any magical ritual, never swore an oath or was bound by some kind of spell that made him subjected to the rule of memory loss.

Miracle Boxes belonged to the order, not Fu. Their design reflected their country of origin because these Miraculous were made and kept in China. They were just standing there on the shelves not magically bound to anyone in particular. When Feast attacked, monks just tossed Wang Fu the miracle box and grimoire. No one at the temple lost their memory after Fu took the box with him (Su Han is the proof). Su Han not only remembers Fu and his mistake but everything that happened that fateful day as well. In "Furious Fu" Marinette explains Su Han that Master Fu lost his memory in the very first conversation they have. However, after Ladybug and Chat Noir fight Su Han on the roof and escape with the Miracle Box, the latter searches for Fu and attempts to take his staff from him. In this scene, Su Han acts like Fu knows very well what is going on and who he is.

Su Han should be aware of the memory loss rule as the Celestial Guardian. He remarks on the different shape of the Mother Miracle Box and calls her "incorrect", which means that Su Han should have been able to easily tell that previous Guardian lost his memory and the Miracle Box is now bound to someone else. But he doesn't say anything. Moreover, since Su Han is supposed to know about amnesia, he seemed awfully chill about forcing this 14-year-old girl in front of him to give up the box and her memories. Hell, Chat Noir wasn't on board with this. But we get zero reaction from Su Han.

During the first conversation between Marinette and Su Han, he doesn't ignore what she is trying to say, instead he actively comments on every word. Even if Su Han didn't listen when Marinette told him about Fu's memory loss, than he still should be able to understand that Fu doesn't recognise him, because of common sense and the "incorrect" shape of the box. But nothing of the sort happens. Because writers apparently forgot that "memory loss" is supposed to be known to everyone in the Order. On-screen it looks like Su Han is not aware of the "amnesia rule".

"Furious Fu" makes the concept of memory loss a plothole no matter how you look at it. Just like "Timetagger" and "Chat Blanc", as well as "Kwamibuster" this episode is not consistent within itself. It does not surprise me, however.

Grimoire and Guardian Staffs

Let's talk about the Miraculous Grimoire. Good things first.

There are no illustrations of Miraculouses in camouflage. Kwami can't read its contents, only guardians can. Certain elements are written in riddles as an additional precaution. The book contains only the information people have learned so far, which means that Miraculouses have more unexplored potential ("Mr. Pigeon 72"). It describes powers of each Miraculous, provides information about weapons, has instructions for potions that don't make sense (see previous parts).

Unfortunately, everything is about to go downhill from here.

Guardians are taught how to read the writing in this book. They can read it just like people learn to read texts in a different language. This means that one can read Grimoire like any other book (you don't need to consult some guide to decode each letter or word). Master Fu proclaimed Marinette an almost fully trained Guardian. He should have taught her how to read the Grimoire then (he doesn't know the code very well, but he knew enough to understand the general meaning and content of the book according to "Collector"). He didn't. We don't know why. He shows her powers of every Miraculous but doesn't teach her the code.

Master Fu knows that Grimoire now belongs to Gabriel Agreste. He knows that it's dangerous for someone else to have it. If they knew how to read the Grimoire, they could discover all secrets of Miraculouses and harm Ladybug, Chat Noir and other heroes. It's very important to keep the information about the code top secret because Fu is not the only one with the source material.

What does he do then? Master Fu proceeds to write a French translation of Grimoire for Marinette, a translation that he doesn't even need. He carries it with him at all times on a tablet (without any precautions) just like the Miracle box after "Feast". Naturally, it means that in "Miracle Queen", Gabriel and Nathalie easily managed to get their hands on the tablet and Miracle Box. It allows the plot to happen, sure. But it doesn't make any sense.

"Furious Fu" created another curious plot hole. It will probably be ignored, of course. Su Han has a staff with a magical compass that allows him to find any Miracle box, but not the Miraculous jewels for some reason. How does the staff work? Can it locate the box without the Miraculous? If yes, then it seems useless. What's the point in the ability to locate an empty box? If it can locate the box only with the Miraculous jewels inside, it implies that the staff can track the location of every Miraculous too. So, Su Han could just locate the Butterfly and Peacock without any problem. But he talks about reassigning Ladybug and Black Cat to adults and defeating Hawkmoth like locating the Butterfly is not possible. This situation makes the Guardian Staff a simple plot device that creates plot holes and its only purpose is to explain how Su Han found Marinette.

Also, I have a few more words to say about this. Master Fu had a Guardian Staff that was never mentioned before. I wonder why? That's because the staff didn't exist before "Furious Fu" was written. Writers just went: "Do you know what would be cool? If Fu's cane was really a secret Guardian Staff with a compass all along that he decided to keep even after he lost his memory? It would make people wonder whether Master Fu is faking amnesia, and everyone will definitely call him an awful mentor after this even though we kind of tried to make him a good and responsible person."

Fu didn't give it to Marinette and didn't mention it to her. Why? When he gave up his memory, he should have written about this in his letter at least. Why did he decide to keep it? He can't use it anyway now.

Please note how in the flashbacks Fu didn't take any staff with him when he escaped the temple. Su Han seemed to know how Fu's staff looked like. It means that Master Fu didn't make this staff himself, because it belonged to the Order.

Su Han wasn't even surprised that Marinette didn't have the staff as the current Guardian. Was she not supposed to have it? He never questioned the fact that the former Guardian without memories has the staff. Su Han actually returns this staff to Fu after he is deakumatized and Fu acts like they have never met before. Why did Su Han gave the staff back when he knows what it is and to whom it should belong (to him or to Marinette as the current Guardian)? The staff is useless in the hands of the civilian. Does Marianne know about its secret? We'll probably never find out, unfortunately.

Guardian Staff of Master Fu has a compass too and therefore this also makes it a plot device, just like Su Han's staff.

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