#in that one paragraph. that you and i probably were thinking about 2 different influencers

[inkskinned]

im gonna start a fight; and, at the same time, i need you to take this in the most good-faith way possible, but:

videos that involve body-checking and intentionally (and uncritically) show a mealplan of an unhealthy number of calories are just a revamped version of pro-ana food diaries.

and yeah, i know there's arguments. i address some of them under the cut. but at the end of the day, we're just coming back to romanticizing mental illness; we've just found a better platform for it.

this is already something we've done. we knew it was wrong and tried to stop it. and tbh. it just wasn't enough.

there are people who argue "well, what if you have an eating disorder, you can't help it if you don't eat!" except that as someone with an ED; we are not infants. we know what we're doing. part of having an ED is that you are like, maybe too self-aware. even if we can't help our own food choices, we don't need to fucking romanticize the disorder - something we've been warning you about since 2013. there are hours of setup, filming, and editing that go into these videos. they do not happen to fall into place randomly. there is a reason they are pieced together to be beautiful, bright, inspiring.

there's this woman who pretty much only posts daily plans under a normal amount of calories, and everyone defends her saying but it's better than nothing! and i'm like. except she opens those with images of her showing off her body and provides no context in the video or caption that suggests that she believes what she's doing is unhealthy. she has hundreds of thousands of followers on a platform designed for young kids and teens. i refuse to believe that by accident her content just happens to be cheery advice on "healthy" versions of starving.

for any other symptom of mental illness, we would be incredibly enraged by this kind of placid acceptance of a "tips and tricks" fast-start guide. imagine if people posted pink & pretty videos saying "best places to cut yourself" as if it was a fucking storytime. we, as a society, are so fucking fatphobic that we would rather accept blatantly harmful displays of self harm than admit that we are obsessed with a hyper-thin body type.

i am not suggesting someone never talks about their disorder. i talk about mine. actually, it's a plot point in my book.

here's the difference: i recognize it's a fucking mental illness. i am very careful to never mention a specific weight, eating pattern, or calorie plan. i always make sure to position it as something that ruined my fucking life. i do not put cheery music in the background and hearts and sparkles over my worst moments. i do not film it in bright light. i do not start each passage with an image of a thin body followed by "here's how to look like her."

eating disorders should not be framed as aspirational. and the problem is that society worships the "after" image, so long as you don't get too sick. there is a reason so many people who quit being "influencers" will later admit - i wasn't eating well that whole time; an obsession with food was completely destroying my life.

we let any uncredited, uncertified person write the most backwards, fucked up shit about how to get the body you desire! because the underlying, secret belief is: well, at least they're thin! and the real thing that fucking gets me each time - they make fucking money off of it. their irresponsibility and societal harm literally pays off for them.

"why do you care so much." "don't like it don't look." "so what if people experiment with new ways of thinking of food?"

thank you for asking. we're about to get extremely personal. it's because when i was 18 i discovered "thinspiration"/"thinspo." and it absolutely influenced, shaped, and codified my pre-existing eating disorder. i went from having some troubling habits and traits to being incredibly unwell within what felt like a matter of days. there were actual pages designed to train me on how to have an ED correctly. it was all so suddenly easy. i was sick; and the nature of the illness meant - i wanted to be sicker.

it takes an average of 7 years for a person to fully recover. i know this personally - even now, 10 years from the worst of it, i still fucking struggle. i am so much happier now and i eat what i want and i literally don't think about food at all (19 year old me would shudder) and yet - i still fucking know the calories of plain toast with butter.

an eating disorder is one of the deadliest types of mental illness. over 1 in 4 people with an ED will attempt suicide.

and i'm sorry. i just do not see the exchange rate of "high rate of engagement" versus "the value of a human life."

#and there's something else in there about like .... #tbh once i got over something like 1k followers #i stopped being specific about my ED for a REASON. #yes on ur personal locked blog that u use like a diary go ahead etc #but we are OBVIOUSLY not talking about that. we're talking about the sheer NUMBER of people i could be talking about #in that one paragraph. that you and i probably were thinking about 2 different influencers #bc they get to say that they're just posting FITNESS and if it's FITNESS it's OKAY and im like #jesus christ lord almighty #every person in recovery from an ED: this is incredibly dangerous holy shit do you know how much this would have triggered me #each of these ppl: how dare you!!!!!!!!! i am only harming those who WANT to engage with my content!!!!! #their followers: leave them alone !!! they can't help that they make an hours-long choice to frame their disorder as if it was #fucking cottagecore !!!! #like girlie this person needs THERAPY #again! i didn't even have that large of a following before i IMMEDIATELY deleted any specific mention of calories food etc #bc i recognize responsibility and i didnt EVER want to even ACCIDENTALLY encourage this #and im not even GETTING PAID FOR THIS!!! #aND THEY ARE!!! #something something something they know this content makes them money #they don't give a SHIT about u babe

[lesbicona]

why is season 6 of community your favourite /genq im just curious !! :]

the short answer is frankie

the long answer is: im very particular about endings, not in that i need them to have specific qualities (like sad or happy or epilogue-esque or what have you) but in that i need them to have narrative intent. we came close to living in a universe where basic story and basic sandwich closed community's story, and as much as i do genuinely like those episodes (mostly for comedy reasons), i only like them in the context of the full show we have now. i was not old enough to appreciate the show as it aired, but looking back i can see opinions at the time of the ending were divided. season 5 in general, honestly, seems close to season 4 in people's minds- in the post you're referencing where i expressed this opinion, season 5 received literally 0 votes. season 4 is controversial, but season 5 commits a worse sin- it's forgettable. (and i do like it, i really liked prof hickey which is truly a take on this webbed site, but this is my impression of the public opinion of it).

so in just existing, season 6 elevates my personal opinion of the show, but i mentioned public opinion in the paragraph prior because season 6 often gets lumped in with 4 and 5 as 'bad'. now while i have my own set of takes about even just season 4 (really guys, it's fine, it's just an ok season of tv in an excellent show, but it's not BAD) i will try very hard not to get into here, it is an objective divide between the widely acclaimed seasons 1 through 3 and the more controversial rest. my opinions of season 6 are very influenced by this, because it's like my little meow meow i must protect from the haters.

i feel season 6 closes up the themes of community, as evolved and changed as they are, in a satisfying way, and gives the characters themselves a logical narrative end. i especially enjoyed the themes of growing up continued from season 5, which are very pressing in a show about college. of course i realize this is a silly sitcom we're talking about, so i'm not saying that it put forward anything groundbreakingly subtle or even new, but any long-running show (especially one which could not keep the entirety of its main cast) that can wrap up so satisfyingly deserves praise.

and yet, because of the season 4 hurdle, which leaves many people with a bad taste in their mouth for the rest of the entire show, it is not as acclaimed as i think it deserves to be. i don't think people realize how much the show was probably going to change in season 4 even without dan harmon's departure. the idealized season 4 in people's minds seems to be season 3 part 2, which could not have happened for a successful season of television. seasons 1 through 3 are all already very different from each other despite being clumped together. yet people despise every single change to the show from season 4 onward indiscriminately. so of course season 6, with its many, many changes, is so far from season 3 that people blinded by the latter's glory cannot even see the former.

but most if not all of the changes season 6 brings are purely beneficial in my perspective. frankie and elroy are excellent additions to the cast; they are great comedic forces, with a strong role in relation to the others. they both play the almost-straight man jeff used to be, normal in reaction to most of the shenanigans of the original cast while bringing in their own insanity. they also represent the aging of the show. by bringing them in instead of, for example, freshmen students, the new, more grown perspective of the show is reinstated. the bits of their lives outside the committee that we get to see are interesting, funny, and bring them depth.

of course in particular im fond of frankie, who's normal to the point of pathology, whose line deliveries have a 90% chance of obliterating me on the spot, and who is just like me fr fr (a lesbian). she does not budge in her responsibilities, leading to her fluctuating role in the eyes of the cast, antagonist in some episodes and co-lead in others. her presence adds something new for each character to compare themselves to, for the better. in particular, annie, jeff and the dean are all improved because of her.

britta also receives some focus she hadn't since a few seasons past, and while i do not agree with the narrative framing of all of it (as clearly the show itself does not side with her in disliking her parents, as much as she, as a character, has proper reason to), the contents are extremely enjoyable to me. getting a chance to analyze the wannabe-therapist's relationship with her parents is perfectly ironic just as a concept.

season 6 offers some of my favorite comedy of the whole show. while my favorite line forever remains "i need help reacting to this" (which i saw you also enjoy <3), i was in tears of laughter at the end of a majority of season 6 episodes on my first watch. elroy's addiction to encouraging white people is absolutely unforgettable.

sorry for the Whole Fucking Essay! the medium answer, which you unlocked by reading the long answer, is: though perhaps not the objective best community has to offer, i love season 6 twice as fiercely to protect it from its undeserving haters. stan frankie, bring me 6 cans of olives, goodbye.

#thank you for the ask <3 #i think this is the most original words ive written on this blog ever #fun fact: wikipedia doesnt count s4 finale as a paintball ep LMAO

[ot3]

Hello! I was watching the PLvsAA stream yesterday, and you said to ask after the stream to elaborate on your thoughts on Phoenix having, I think it was attachment issues vs abandonment issues? Would you be able to explain your thoughts on that? I'm very curious, and I figured Tumblr was a decent place to ask. Only if you want to, of course!

ok i just Scoured shu takumi's interviews on gyakuten saiban library to try and find the quote i was looking for and could not find it. which is disappointing to me personally because now i feel insane because i know it exists somewhere, i don't believe I imagined this one because it stuck with me very immediately and very specifically. but at the end of the day the specific quote doesn't really provide any too necessary context.

at the end of the day 'attachment issues' vs 'abandonment issues' is probably really granular and nitpicky, but i mean. well. i love being granular and nitpicky about characterization. i definitely thought of phoenix as having abandonment issues for a long time but flipping the script to 'attachment issues' cleared up a lot about my interpretation of his character for me, so im going to type some paragraphs at you now

like to me the critical differences between the two are that 1. when you think of someone who has 'abandonment issues' you probably assume a certain amount of baggage regarding past experiences contributing to those feelings. or at least, i do. but as i've said plenty in the past i really don't think phoenix has any significant shit going on in his backstory. i don't think he has ever Been abandoned by anyone, really. and 2. you can be attached to things that aren't people, but abandonment is a purely interpersonal phenomenon.

here's this other takumi quote about phoenix that everyone is probably familiar with by this point:

Interviewer: It’s surprising to learn he wanted to become an actor. Perhaps he’s actually really susceptible to fads and things like that?

Takumi: I think he’s just the type who’ll go straight for something and stick to it once he’s convinced of something. Like the type of person he falls for (laugh).

obviously everyone focuses on this for being pretty gay. and like it is. lets make no mistakes about that but it's also just a generally really interesting little tidbit. when phoenix stumbles upon something or someone he likes or wants he will pretty much pursue it unquestioningly and then maintain that emotional attachment to it. and that's really the only place any of his drive comes from. when phoenix doesn't have, like someone or something to be providing this external motivation he just sort of stops doing things. not because he doesn't feel capable of doing anything, or feels unsafe or scared, like how you might feel if you were abandoned, but because he just doesnt Want to do anything

like. with abandonment issues theres a sort of reciprocal nature to that kind of interpersonal dynamic. the other party's behavior has a lot of influence over the feelings of the character in question, for better or worse. but phoenix's attachment issues are at the end of the day kind of an inherently one-sided thing. phoenix is the one bringing any and all emotional baggage into these situations. it's on him. he's obsessive about stuff, and he doesn't really need to be getting anything back from the other side to maintain that. probably indicated most clearly with just everything about his relationship to edgeworth in aa1. dude was truly insane for that shit. i love it for him specifically because it was such a wild and bizarre thing to do.

so like as much as phoenix was obsessed with/attached to edgeworth he was also super attached to doing it in one very specific way. he HAD to become a lawyer. and his attachment to that idea of being a lawyer and what specifically that means for him is a pretty significant throughline for the rest of the series. i think it would also be reasonable to extrapolate that indulging in these obsessive tendencies is how phoenix was able to work on the jurist system. doing that kind of slow, tedious, academic work is pretty atypical of phoenix who by his own admission wont even read any law books. but we know with the right motivation and investment phoenix was able to go from ditzy law student to practicing attorney in just a few years.

imo something else thats super interesting with this lens on his behavior is his relationship with kristoph. theres a lot of different takes on this character dynamic but i think we can all agree that theyre obsessed with each other. whereas you Could read the way phoenix interacts with edgeworth or maya or trucy or even iris as relating to a desire for companionship and a fear of losing that, resulting in a willingness to go out on a limb for people and believe in people, that all falls apart with kristoph. it doesnt make sense to view phoenix's attachment to kristoph as being rooted in a fear of abandonment in a way you could argue for the other characters. it kind of only makes sense if you view phoenix's attachment to kristoph as sort of arbitrarily intense and existing for its own sake, rather than related to any specific desires or outcomes.

a scene i constantly find myself rereading because i'm so obsessed with it is the bit in turnabout succession where phoenix visits kristoph in solitary. kristoph has already admitted to and been convicted of zak's murder, after trying to frame phoenix to it and ruining his reputation. their business is pretty much concluded. everything is already in place for phoenix to get his name cleared. but phoenix still isn't willing to let it go. he is desperate to understand kristoph's motivations on a personal level just because of the investment he has in this relationship regardless of the fact that its a fucked up and bad relationship. he's decided this is something important to him and there's not much of a way for any outside factors to change that.

so. yeah. thats it. kind of. i genuinely dont know if anyone else is going to vibe with this particular interpretation but this is how i see phoenix at the very least.

#ace attorney #this is a little bit disjointed sorry. im having a hard time getting across what i mean #i also keep getting interrupted by insane family drama. #my cousin got my sister banned from the local punk scene because she hates her ex boyfriend who lied about being divorced

[owmylasagna-blog]

Hi!!! About eddeddy n.n: 1,2,6,10,11,17,22,25

Thank you for reaching out!! It was fun to think about some of these!

1.) When did they realize that they were interested in their partner?

I think pretty soon after BPS, if not the literal scene where they make very mushy goo-goo eyes at each other while holding hands. They don’t exactly know that it is a romantic love at the time, but that it is a sort of soft, unconditional love that they didn’t know they had for one another before. Edd can forgive Eddy at his worst and lift him at his lowest point and that just makes Eddy melt. Unfortunately I think while Eddy sort of has the realization first, he would also have the hardest time working through years of familial homophobia (my guess is from his dad and then brother, less so his mom) and internalized homophobia.

I think it will take a bit more time for them to really realize that the friendship is starting to shift into something more than that, likely in high school as they figure out their sexualities. Like “hmm I sure do like my best friend and I also might dig boys and they are sorta cute”. I think they know something is amiss because suddenly they get really awkward with one another in a way they never were before. That boyish touchy feely playfulness they had as kids starts to feel a little different.

2.) Who confessed? How?

My running headcanon is that Edd confesses first. Edd is highly driven by guilt and shame (poverino) and he tries to bottle it up until he just can't take it anymore. And it’s not his feelings for Eddy that he feels guilty about, or that he is bi, but that he is being disingenuous by not revealing his feelings. He just hates having to lie to his best friend! I think what exactly those feelings are is a bit viscous so Edd also holds back because he isn’t exactly a fan of how messy it all is. He’s a weepy and snotty mess when he finally just lets it all out. He is terrified Eddy won’t take it well.

I think Eddy would have a harder time articulating his budding feelings even if he is probably the first to have them. Eddy has the courage to stick up for his friends but generally is pretty wimpy and cowardly when it comes to sticking up for or expressing himself. When Edd does confess it gives Eddy permission to just give into it because he can’t deny that he also might want to like hold hands and kiss.

7.) Who cooks? Describe their cooking.

They split the cooking, though Eddy cooks more. Edd can put together pretty basic and nutritious meals. He is fairly reliant on following recipes and tends to gravitate towards similar, predictable dish. Edd becomes a vegetarian starting in highschool so he doesn't know how to cook meat. He isn’t squeamish of it, just doesn’t have a good sense for preparing it. Eddy on the other hand works various jobs in the food industry as a teen/adult and also grew up cooking at home, learning mostly from his Italian American mom. Unlike Edd he rarely follows a recipe and has good intuition for cook times, techniques, and seasoning. I imagine that as adults, the more they date and perhaps live together, Eddy influences Edd to start eating meat again mostly because he cooks a mean steak and whips up an irresistible carbonara. I think I need a whole other paragraph to go into how that all goes down, their differing ethics and such 🙄

10.) What is their sexual dynamic like?

I think because they are friends the dynamic is rather playful. They both switch positions pretty regularly. Of the two, I imagine Eddy having pretty straightforward and vanilla tastes while Edd has a somewhat repressed kinkier side that they gradually explore over the span of the relationship. Witty banter as foreplay and during sex is a real turn on for both of them. I imagine they have bouts of laughter right in the middle of the act, Eddy cracking jokes, Edd getting carried away, whatever it might be.

11.) How do they express their love?

I wrote once that Eddy’s love language is being mean and I stand by that. Only slightly facetious. And not mean as mean spirited but in that sort of hard-to-get, teasing way. I could also see him being hot and cold when it comes to physical affection because of the whole being physically abused as a child. I think he expresses his love through acts of service and gifts. He very much is receptive to words of affirmation and gifts (Eddy is sentimental like that). Edd on the other hand would show love through words of affirmation and acts of service and really crave physical touch and quality time. So they don’t necessarily have much in the way of overlap, but they make it work. I imagine a big thing for Edd is Eddy taking some responsibility for things, being a team player, learning to trust sometime to help and not be so hyper independent. And Eddy is happy to drop everything so long as Edd knows to ask for it.

17.) What is each person’s type? Does their partner meet this, or are they an atypical match for them?

I see Eddy as being gay and exclusively attracted to men/mascs. I imagine l outside of a relationship with Edd he seeks partners who are fun and charismatic but not necessarily very healthy for him. Deep down there is a part of him that seeks approval from others and I think that lends itself to being with folks that say all the right things but are actually kind of shitty.

Edd is bi and as the series bible suggests has a tendency to crush pretty easily, especially with close acquaintances and friends. I can imagine he is attracted to people who are slightly more outgoing than himself, intelligent, and driven. I think outside of Eddy he would take into consideration more the logistical aspects of being with a partner: compatibility of life goals, career, home life.

It’s sort of a toss up of whether they are a good match based on their types! I think the things that go against their expectations in a partner also challenge them in ways that expand their lives but are also frustrating. But also they are so familiar and have known each other so long that I think they have grown to be each other’s type. Corny.

22.) Describe their wedding.

I don’t see them marrying, perhaps becoming domestic partners depending on where they are living for some of the visitation rights/ health care related benefits. If they got married, they would probably elope.

"Will you marry us?"

"I'm not registered for that."

"Then we'll elope!"

25.) Assuming they have children, what is their parenting like?

I also don’t imagine them having kids (except for forcing a cat onto them) so I think we can agree on them being the eccentric gay uncles to Ed’s kids (I do think Ed would have kids). I honestly think they would both be good with kids without the added pressure of having to raise them and make them turn out just right, and also I think they would feel like they are just part of Ed’s extended family. Sally @specktoons now @bonkerbuster69 had some really cute interpretations of this, where Edd would entertain and explore the innate curiosity of the kids while Eddy would be the fun uncle that tells them outlandish stories that he probably shouldn't.

#eddeddy #yap yap dribble dribble

[yume-x-hanabi]

I thought of simply copy/pasting my twitter thread but you know what, we’re on Tumblr, we’re allowed proper paragraphs, so let me just ramble like in the good old days :p

Assorted B²TSM Headcanons pt.1: Worldbuilding

Honestly the funniest thing about this fandom is that the entire canon consists in four skits, two music videos, and a song. That is to say, BARELY FUCKING ANYTHING. Guys, I’m used to a video game with extensive lore developed over several games, eight guidebooks, thirteen Drama CDs, five short story series, and some manga. I cannot begin to tell you how different this experience has been 😂 Anyway, as frustrating it can be to have barely anything concrete to go with, it also means… it’s free real estate, baby 😎

A. The Time Machine

So, I’ve been thinking about the mechanics of the whole time-travelling thing for a bit longer than is healthy, and I’ve developed some potential ways it could go that could be fun to play with.

But first, a crack theory I’ve become very fond of: the "time machine" gave them new young & healthy bodies, but the creation of those bodies was influenced by whoever was operating the machine at the time. That's why they all look vaguely like Brett or Eddy—I mean, Bang YG and his assistant. That would also explain the fact they can all speak modern English (+ the accents).

Now let’s look at a couple ways they could have been brought to the future:

1. Actual, full-fledged time-travel

They were plucked from some point of their lives and dragged to the future with no warning. That opens up a few possibilities:

1.a. Continuity errors. Plucking them from their past lives will alter the timeline, and probably change the world of classical music irrevocably. Basically Bang YG u done goof. You’re gonna need forty Ling Ling stones to fix that mess. Oh boy.

1.b. The timeline is not affected, which means they’re fated to go back to their own time at some point, probably with some very convenient memory loss (this was a common plot in HP time-travel fics when I used to be into it /tangent). This one comes with high angst potential: knowing their time here is limited, having to make the most of it, and the worst is that they won’t even be able to use future knowledge to make their past lives better when they go back. Oh the drama, oh the angst.

1.c. The timeline is not affected, because this basically creates a parallel universe, in which history up to the use of the time machine remains unaffected.

Whichever scenario you go with in this category, this means they were brought over when they were still relatively young, and likely haven’t yet composed some of the great hits they’re known for. Imagine Tchaik and Shosty talking about Beethoven’s 9th symphony, meanwhile he’s like “huh, I have no memory of this piece”. That can lead to some complex feelings, knowing such-and-such famous piece is yours but in a way it’s not (not yet). Or, worse, learning about facts from their personal lives that haven’t happened yet. Momo realizing he’s got about five years left to live when he goes back to his era (in scenario 1.b.)

2. Kind of a reincarnation AU

So this summer I watched Paripi Koumei, which is a very fun and light-hearted anime (highly recommended), and I bring it up here because I really like the concept and think it could apply here. The premise of the anime is that famous strategist Zhuge Liang (Kongming) from the Three Kingdoms is reborn in modern-day Tokyo after he dies. He basically spawns in modern Shibuya with a youthful appearance and all his memories. So, I thought this could be a way to go with how the “time machine” works here: it brings the guys’ consciousness from the point of their deaths and gives them a younger body (a copy of their own, or *see crack theory above*).

That means they know exactly what they did in their past lives. That also means that they remember their own deaths. Very trauma, much angst.

On a brighter note, that means they’re here to stay. They’re basically given a second chance at life, in a world that’s hopefully a bit easier to live in than their past one.

B. The Band’s Concept

I can’t imagine the public being told they’re the real deal. I mean, imagine if people learned that there was a time machine out there that could bring loved ones back to life. That would cause unending chaos. And that’s if they’re believed to begin with—the most likely reaction would be to dismiss it as a prank.

So, the “official” version they’re going with is that it’s simply the band’s concept, that they’re roleplaying the composers (like I think there’s a kpop group whose concept is that the members represent the zodiac signs). So, in essence, they’re pretending to be random guys who’re pretending to be their actual selves XD

Regarding roles, there is much debate about who the maknae is. Is it Shosty, because his birth date is the most recent? Or is it Mozart, who’s the youngest in terms of actual years lived in his previous life? I like to think that the company never confirms either ways and lets the fans argue about it to their hearts’ contents. It’s part of the mystery~

(In truth, the actual members don’t give a damn about “roles”, they’re just there to make music.)

(Maybe that’s part of their unconventional side that makes them popular among some people.)

Also, Pag wasn’t meant to be brought to the future, it’s a result of a time machine mishap. He basically barged his way into their debut because “How dare they form a band without me, greatest violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini?! Mamma mia…” and now he’s hanging around. Not quite an official member, but often heavily involved (whether they want it or not). Mozart says he’s their mascot. No one is sure how to feel about that statement.

Lastly, since so far they’ve either been using their last names or nicknames to address each other, I’ve developed some headcanon that their last names are their stage names, but also simply the names they go by now in their day-to-day lives. Like they’ve shed their first names, it’s a thing of the past, an identity they can’t truly assume anymore. Maybe that’s why they’re so fond of nicknames, because it gives them a more personal touch (Mozart started the trend, and it caught on very fast after that). They do still use full names from time to time in certain circumstances, and that’s what’s on official documents, but… it’s complicated. I like to think they eventually start reclaiming their full identity between themselves as time passes and they grow more comfortable in their new circumstances and their bond grows closer. (Names as a sign of intimacy, in my fandoms? It’s more likely than you think!)

Anyway that’s it for the worldbuilding side. I have a few more posts planned about different aspects of this universe and their characters.

Feel free to share your thoughts on this, and your own headcanons if you have some!

#in which i subject my whole follow list to my new obsession #feel free to mute the tags if you're only here for Tales lol #anyway i have way too many feelings about this dumb fictional band #b2tsm #b²tsm #b²tsm headcanons #if we're not careful i'll have a ship manifesto ready by the end of the year #that's how deep i am atm #long post

[latinopercy]

hi!!! i just finished episode 3 of monster donut and i have a few thoughts/questions (i wrote this all out and then got distracted and accidentally closed the page, so I’m gonna do my best to rewrite it from memory):

1) thalia’s faith in her father vs luke’s lack of faith in his father is mentioned, and how signs from zeus are enough for thalia but luke wants more than a sign from hermes. do you think it’s possible that this is partly just because of their experiences with the gods so far / how the gods have influenced their lives thus far? bc luke’s life was heavily influenced by the gods bc of his mom’s curse. on the other hand, we don’t really know if thalia’s life has been influenced by the gods so far (aside from learning in HoO that her mom traded jason’s life away to a goddess, though I wonder if she blames her mom for that more than the gods), since she believes zeus helped her meet luke and so far that’s been a good thing

2) i think the question of how long luke kept the diary is really interesting. at one point it was mentioned that maybe he kept the diary for as long as he still believed he could change fate, so i wonder if maybe he kept it until thalia’s death. but also, the idea that he kept it up until right before he left CHB is sooo intriguing, especially with the idea y’all mentioned of him intentionally leaving the diary in the hermes cabin for someone like him to find

anyway yeah those are my thoughts, i might have missed something i wrote in the original message but c’est la vie ig

THANK YOU FOR THESE

1) yes!! i think that's absolutely part of it. emily actually mentioned something like this outside the podcast but neither of us could fully remember how often zeus was supposedly around in thalia's life before she ran so we figured we'd talk about it when it comes up in the reread, but my thought right now before rereading is yes, i think thalia probably blames her mom more for sacrificing jason than she blames the gods and being raised in an environment where zeus is in and out of her life and her mother is constantly searching for signs from zeus could easily have rubbed off on her, while luke is only living with the consequences of hermes' actions and so has never had any reason to yearn for more of his influence in his life. we'll see if that changes once we actually get to thalia & jason's backstory though

2) ok this is where emily's and my thought differs, because i actually think these ideas can co-exist. i don't think luke gave up on the idea he could change fate when he saw thalia turn into a tree, i think he blamed the gods/fates for it but believes his choices can still change the trajectory of his life even after he leaves camp. in this scenario, leaving the diary behind was a strategic decision rather than a declaration of his loss of faith in his ability to change fate though (HOWEVER in a way this version IS giving into fate bc he knows the diary is meant to help him work his way through a world-changing choice and likely feels he's made it when he leaves camp, though considering the choice is to challenge the gods idk if he wants to think of it that way). or maybe he kept it up through botl. though i think he probably feels fate bearing down on him around ttc/botl and starts to give up that hope that he has any choice in any of this.... actually i think we just need a full version of luke's diary with handwritten notes and doodles and interludes where annabeth found it while they were on the run and made a little page for herself and also torn out pages and scratched out paragraphs that make you go Hm.

#and thank you for listening!!!!! messages like this mean everything to me lol

[halloweenrazorcandii]

I mean if you know me by now you should also know that I'm not in the best headspace either, therefore I've been getting over it whilst still being upset about it if this paragraph makes sense

i knew it was going to happen eventually I just never wanted to say anything,, I've known since the Eli era baby (a little less but I've still had suspicions)

what upset me was the "I wish I never met you guys" but honestly at the same time i was just "sure whatever you say" in an I honestly don't have time to entertain whatever this is so I don't care right now way.. and I didn't really care after for a bit

the couple of times me and Kevin talked after I didn't bother asking about you because, well if you wish you never met me then why would I //neu but by that point I was kind of over it and way overdue for a therapy appointment so

i talked to myself a lot about it after and I know I'm self aware, so yeah I guess I still cared about it even after.. it just baffled me how you said that knowing wasn't in a good headspace and I had to think back like. did I ever say that to you at one point when you spiralled (nono, genuinely I'm still thinking about it, because what prompted that)

I'm STILL not in a good headspace which is why this is lengthy and it's a thought-spill because I don't have the energy to sugar anything

all of this isn't in //neg btw,, like even after then I didn't have any //neg feelings towards you but more of my usual "it's whatever" things

I do not mind talking to you after this or whatever, and I apologize in advance if I seem a little more callous than I normally would

but if you still wish you hadn't met me we don't have to talk we can just keep doing whatever we were doing before //gen

most of this is rushed because I'm being pressured to do chores jfc

im dizzy and awaiting a trip to the hospital in questioned time and i didnt know if i should respond to this yet because it wouldnt seem serious but i want you to know that i am im just not in a physical or mental state to sound as genuine as posisble though i am geuine so i apologize for spelling mistakes and or questionable sentences that dont make sense whatever i say i dont mean to self cneter or try to justify i have half a mind for what im saying rn /srs/gen i dont know where to start i know youn arent in the best head place or place at all and i dnt know or remember what this happened for but it did happen gradualy so i guess itwas building up i physically nor mentally more than 85% of the time cannot control what ido when i outburst especially with influence i have a disorder it will not be helped and i cannot say that i will not outburst because i literally yk cannot help it because i am a different person when i outburst hence cause - bpd n bipolar / insensity - other things and im being so serious when i say this and i am so sorry for saying that or saying that i wish i never met you guys thats what i was feeling so i said it and i shouldnt have and i am sorry and words cannot describe how confused i am on how to apologize correctly but i did not mean it for the most part i will be honest sometimes i have sour feelings when i am ghosted or ignored - this attatchments built up over the course of many years and if its being taken away then i am irrational and that is mostly explanation for why im so frequently upset - more than 2 weeks later it is still object of outbursts this explanation is not meant to feel guilt it isjto give reason because maybe its needed i give warning not to speak to me if it will be an issue i give warningthat if my issues will be problem like they have been then js dont try because you dont haveto do that to yourself though probably all too scaredto admit im a backgrounder now and i shouldve left yuou all alone long ago and im so glad you have newer and better friends and seem to be making a good place here from my perspective it seems your better off if we branch off but thats not my choice i do hope you and the rest of whatever is left of that old group continue to grow and i again apologize about all of this and i have reason for shame andm i hope your a ltleast doin g better and having fun with everyone i still warn that js do whats bets fro yourself we arent close anymore nor related if you consider so it doesnt really matter abt my show i js wanted to make a point to poorly and breielfy i do recognize apologize and tell you you deserve good and all great and youve done so much for everyone and i hope you get better from here yeah idk what to say im kind of dizzy in the head rn but i do mean it wehn i say you deserve better and im sorry ijsdont know how to show it i wish i couldve made this better but mi blank i appreciate your codnsideration

[crehador]

2 18 25 ! 🪱

combining these!

2) what work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?

all of them no in all seriousness uhhh maybe the one that necessitated these tags

of my three appare-ranman fics two were so uwu and then there was this old man bastard yaoi lol

9) what, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

i feel like i rarely actively seek out inspiration these days, it comes from everywhere! there's too much of it in fact!! my problem has always been too many ideas and not enough time/creative ability to write them all

for icsm especially it comes from all over the place, everything reminds me of them lmao like i'll just be watching haruki play totk and my no thoughts head empty icsm only brain will be like "oh oh oh samatoki plays totk"

12) your weaknesses as an author

oh so so many and i don't even say that as a bad thing, it is always good to know you have room to improve!

i think one of my biggest weaknesses is descriptive writing. not all writing has to be Very descriptive to be good, but it is something i would like to improve on in my own work

another is... earnestness, maybe? like sometimes i worry i pull away from meaningful moments when i should be leaning in to them

also action scenes/fight scenes! i don't write them very often and would love more practice with those

13) your strengths as an author

i hope it's dialogue and comedy lol because i am always writing those a lot and they are very fun to write! lovely commenters have also said on some occasions that i am good at characterization which feels almost too generous but would be neat if true

like personally i don't think my characters (in fanfic) are necessarily always the most in-character, but i do think one of my strengths is keeping characterization consistent and believable within a fic. so even if it's maybe a bit off from canon, within an isolated fic it more or less tracks and ends up feeling (i hope) like 'good' characterization

18) were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? what were they?

many!! i don't think i have enough self-awareness to know exactly what affected me in what way, but i was one of those book-a-day kids growing up (oh to read that regularly again) and i'm sure many of those works influenced me greatly

i was also a memory-issues kid so i would struggle to remember what was most impactful though lmao

while it doesn't answer this question directly one thing i do remember is always struggling with like reading something great and thinking "this is good writing! and i don't write like this! therefore i must be a shit writer!" which is a way of thinking that is very important to unlearn lol (good writing can be good in different ways!)

so my recent journey has been more about not deliberately trying to emulate other writers too much, though i had a disastrously long phase of my youth in which i read way too many old white guys so tbh i probably write like an old white guy rn

25) copy/paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of

the first thing that came to mind was a moment in pride (tg!au) but it's like the moment that i kind of don't want to pull out of context lol (the "i like you weird" conversation)

so i will go with a bit from stay gold that i skimmed again and don't hate:

"I would have rather had your bite," Usui admitted candidly, palming the gold coin and making it disappear into his sleeve once more. "I would have rather known you were capable of mourning your own life, of believing its loss would be worth avenging. But when you wouldn't bite down, even when I forced the coin between your teeth, even as your life bled away from you, I came to a realization. "It didn't matter if it was your bite or mine, if it was your choice or mine. There was a time when I believed the choice to live could only be made by you and you alone, and I must confess I still long for the day you'll be able to choose to live for yourself once more. "But until that day arrives, until you are prepared to make that choice, the others and I will choose for you. Because what matters to us, Taishin-sensei, is that you live."

#asks #ask games #hi worm! #dang i kind of want to rewatch revenger now #i'm still so so so feral about the thing they pulled with the names a;sldkjfa;lskdfj #WHICH IIRC WAS NOT LIKE #EXPLAINED IN THE SUBS AT ALL #U EITHER KNOW THE KANJI OR U COMPLETELY MISS THIS INCREDIBLY SIGNIFICANT CHARACTER MOMENT A;SDLKFJ;LK

[georgiamay-grad604]

Week 1 SDL

Week 1 reflection, writing in paragraphs:

-Your understanding of the brief -Complete first draft of what you ‘know’ -Critically reflect on what the tutorial discussion caused you to add or extend your thinking

Task 1 - Understanding the Brief

I don't 

Task 2 - What I know

About myself/background

Had a bit of a chaotic childhood, attended approximately 10 + schools starting from primary all the way to high school

Lived in double the amount of houses, if not more

Come from a family of artists (on my mothers side), have always been creative at heart but only started drawing and taking art seriously since the start of 202. Before then I was, (and still am) obsessed with reading books. I have a very vivid imagination and have spent a lot of my time buried in books, and that is probably where I get a lot of my inspiration and ideas from. When coming up with something to create, I tend to think “what is the most bizarre or whimsical thing I can think of” and just go from there. 

The only art subject I took in school was photography, something I don’t have much interest in now

All the artists in my family specialise in some form of painting however I started with digital drawing which was a first for the family and then progressed from that to hand drawing, stippling to be exact. I can't seem to get the hang of any other kind of drawing. I can’t paint to save my life. 

I originally decided to study communication design because my brother recently graduated from digital design and suggested I might enjoy it shortly after I took up digital drawing. Prior to enrolling in 2021, I didn’t know what communication design was!

In school I excelled in English, Classical Studies and Science

After I graduated high school, I was living independently at the age of 18 and trained and worked as a barber for about 3 years. I was managing barber shops by the age of 19.

When I was 20 years old, I studied Creative Writing at Massey University for a year, excelled at the core papers and failed miserably at my minors. Didn’t go back because I didn’t like to feel and environment of the Albany campus. 

Due to constantly moving schools and houses, I have never really developed that sense of belonging to communities nor did I gain many social skills so as a social person I am quite independent and tend to stick to myself as making friends can be a bit daunting. This shows a lot in my art, more so my digital art than my hand drawn work. 

My digital drawings contrast a lot with my hand drawings, I am unsure why. When seeing them side by side you would think they were done by two different people. 

I don’t understand politics all that much, I only keep up to date with the major events going on, most of which I never tend to agree with. 

I’ve never been one for religion, however Buddhism has always interested me. When it comes to my religious views and views on life itself, my views are easy for me personally to understand, yet hard to explain to others. I have one tattoo that says “knock on the sky and listen to the sound” - don't ask me to explain it because I can't, I read it somewhere when I was 16 and it just made sense. And another tattoo that says “I can do anything, and I will never die”. Yes, I believe every word of it. 

When it comes to design, the weirder and more bizarre, no matter the context, I'm interested. 

Where I stand in relation to my practice

I’m not entirely sure how to answer this question because design is something that is still so new to me, however in the short time that I have been doing it, I have felt a great sense of relief to be able to express myself and empty my ideas in the form of art and design so if I were to take any specific stance on it, I would say that my own private work is personal to me and my form of self expression, however while creating in the business world, I want to do my best to deliver what is asked of me, while still managing to have my own personal touch threaded through.

Values and influences

A lot of my values I get from my mum, she is a very strong headed woman and her and I are the same. My dad is very private and minds his business and I am also just like him. Also due to a bit of a rough childhood, I’ve grown thick skin over the years and matured at a very young age so I hold myself high when it comes to everything I do and I take pride in things I do and who I am as a person.

[towntip00]

Ten Tips For Creating A Memorial As Soon As The Funeral Or Life Celebration

funeral programs funeral programs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fApRszBlT0&list=PLK2xSmHW52SSut-nKUnMWGMkEnd5RKYio https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cXuI6u5bkyCt5WySj0bzdgXCXOzYKLda Anyway, there at the Montgomery County Public Library was an elderly librarian named Laura. The some tips i remember about Laura were 1. She was a heavy, heavy smoker (yes, this was in the days when no one seemed to have trouble with smoking in the library) and one or two. she seemed to know EVERYTHING about works of fiction! It was Laura who first introduced me to J.R.R. Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings trilogy-some 15 years before the movies made "Hobbitt" a family group word! Write couple of short paragraphs, one everyone professional achievement that you'll be known over. What difference have you made via your work? What did you create, influence, implement, prevent, stop? I got a newspaper instead. Presently there it was on the obituaries page: "Died this week, Sidney Sheldon: grand master of commercial fiction". Which was put rather delicately, Believed. The obituary was quite useful. More so than the Sheldon novel I had taken a crack every. To exploration . business autopsy find a quiet place that you can sit and reflect at the life of your business. With pen and paper at hand (or laptop on lap) write down everything that you can think of it went right with small business and alternatively, everything that went screwy. Your goal is to create a "Success" versus "Failure" spreadsheet that will help you better understand exactly why the business went southern. Check the address properly: You are not looking for to send the funeral flower several wrong space. So, it is vital to check the name and address of this grieving home properly. If you're are no longer that sure, present you with a call to the funeral home and ensure the address right gone.

Treatments of Eczema for Sister #3. Sister #3 from birth grew through exactly the same as Sister #2 until age of 40. She possessed a similar characteristics as Sister #2. Same inferior health issues which included Eczema and Asthma and same bad emotional and mental angle. One of the ways that we add more meaning to our own life in our moment through using write our own obituary. A summation among the legacy that people will leave behind, may perhaps direct an intense course for the way we live our life now. Needing to be written at some time, they might be as well take control button of technique and purchase it reflect who we desire to be when we're still everyday living.

If you're fully cognizant which funeral home you just want to work with, then learn about do is call them and make an scheduled appointment. They will be happy to help you with every piece of information of planning your funeral. Once you have made all the arrangements, then all you need to is let your family know that you have taken good care of your own funeral. You may even convince in order to do the same thing. None of us know the family will have to have a funeral, but we do all understand that we probably will die could be. This may seem a little eerie nevertheless it's important. Is actually usually such a relief for all your family to be aware what you wanted at your final celebration of life.

#funeral programs

[icebluecyanide]

For the author commentary:

As weeks passed, he found himself picturing running into Yassen. It was nothing like the hallucinations, he hadn’t had one of those since Air Force One. It was just idle musings.

Maybe he’d be in an airport terminal somewhere and see Yassen sitting at another gate wearing a fake moustache. Or he’d go on holiday and encounter Yassen somewhere in France or Italy, or even Russia. Where did injured assassins go to recover? Alex didn’t know, but he had to imagine it was probably far away from here.

There was another thought too, although he didn’t like to consider it, that he’d somehow end up involved in another mission for MI6, and he’d arrive somewhere to find Yassen waiting in the shadows, working for yet another morally bankrupt employer.

For the fic commentary meme. Thanks for the ask! :D

So this is from Until Next Time, which was actually my very first (published) AR fanfic, written for spyfest, and it's set after the season 2 finale. I really enjoyed writing it, although there's a few bits that I might do differently now, but that's what you get with first fics!

Some line-by-line/paragraph-by-paragraph commentary below the cut:

As weeks passed, he found himself picturing running into Yassen. It was nothing like the hallucinations, he hadn’t had one of those since Air Force One. It was just idle musings.

I don't know if it's actually supported by canon, but I don't think Alex has hallucinations any more? At least not to the extent that the seemed to in 2x01, but then perhaps some of those really were Yassen all along. I think in a way getting to hear more about Yassen and finding out that he really was behind Ian's murder sort of allowed him to come to terms with some of the lingering feelings of unease. Like, I imagine that meeting at Point Blanc kind of haunted him and now he at least understands it a bit more. And he's not got new things to be traumatised about, yay!

At the same time, I don't think Alex would quite be able to stop thinking about what Yassen said, and the fact that he seemed to be dying but then disappeared.

Maybe he’d be in an airport terminal somewhere and see Yassen sitting at another gate wearing a fake moustache. Or he’d go on holiday and encounter Yassen somewhere in France or Italy, or even Russia. Where did injured assassins go to recover? Alex didn’t know, but he had to imagine it was probably far away from here.

The image of Yassen wearing a fake moustache just cracks me up, sorry ahsldfhds. But really this fic veered strangely between serious angst and low-key crack and this is leaning towards the crack end of the spectrum. I like the idea that Alex thinks about meeting Yassen again, though, and wonders what became of him.

There was another thought too, although he didn’t like to consider it, that he’d somehow end up involved in another mission for MI6, and he’d arrive somewhere to find Yassen waiting in the shadows, working for yet another morally bankrupt employer.

This is one of the bits where in retrospect, I'm a bit iffy about, because would Alex really think he'll end up working for the Department/MI6 again in the show? I imagine it's a bit different from the books because here he had the one mission and then he investigated on his own, but there's not really that established history of getting sent out on missions as there is in the book. So this might be a bit influenced by book!Alex, but at the same time I could see some cynical part Alex doesn't like to think about believing that he's already caught up in this world and he won't really be able to go back to normal.

And despite his fascination with Yassen and Yassen shooting Cray, the man is still an assassin and not a good person. I imagine that would also be on Alex's mind as he tries to process the fact that Yassen claimed that Alex's dad was his friend.

#kelkblr #alex rider for ts #fic commentary meme #fic: until next time

[lwt28brave]

LT2 masterpost

If it was up to me, we would get an autumn or winter EP. Since it’s not up to me at all, here, enjoy this post with everything we know so far of LT2, which is to say, not much at all. Everything here is hypothetical. I’ll be updating every time I see something relevant. A little disclaimer that while this is a masterpost (kinda), it could be read as discourse (duh, it’s also a theory), AND it’s also by me, and you shouldn’t expect me to be serious at this point.

Due to me restraining myself, there’s no reference to any of the times he’s mentioned his guitar skills and him improving but I hope you know I cried every single time.

I’m also linking my old pinned here. It was written before AFHF and around the free merch thing that didn’t lead to much, but I still think I made some good points.

Possible tracks:

Copy of a Copy of a Copy

Change

Faith in the future??

369??

Possible names:

369

Faith in the future

When is the album coming out?

Your guess is as good as mine

Friday 28th of January 2022. Almost two years after Walls. It’s a Friday. It’s a 28th. What else can I say?

Here you can find @want-to-be-loved timelines for every month.

Here you can find @berlinini’s timeline of what Louis has been up to this year (2021).

The rest is under the cut. And here you can find a PDF version where Tumblr can't tell me how many pictures I can add.

2020

He said back on May 2th 2020 he wasn’t writing anything new yet.

(x)(x)(x)

Interestingly enough, he’s said many times after that that the album’s not ready cause he has no new experiences to drawn from. I won’t call him out because he does it himself.

May 4th. He liked a tweet from DMA’s Johnny Took saying they had to go write together again. Louis has been credited as an influence for them and (kind of) participated in their previous record, so I’m assuming he meant for their music and not his, but you never know.

Nothing(literally nothing??? how did we survive) until 11th of July. We all know what happened that day. We all celebrated it. Nonetheless, that’s not what I’m talking about here.

(x) So, by the beginning of July 2020 he was working on concepts and ideas for the new album. That was fifteen months ago. I know perfection takes time but…

Brief summary of important things that happened from then until the next mention of new music:

Louis left Syco!!!! 10 days later he rescheduled the tour for the first time. He followed Matt Vines on Twitter, probably so we could publicly shame him into doing something. Also, the 10thanniversary. He followed more people I wish he hadn’t.

Then more nothing until September. Not even a single tweet. The first merch drop was on the 28th of August but he just RT’ed the tweet. He first mentioned Free my Meal on the 25th of September. Then on October 1st Walls hit #1 on a lot of countries and Louis was incredibly happy and excited about it ^^

And then, that same day, October 1st, 2020, he dropped this bomb:

(x)

He also said it was too soon to be sharing new lyrics with us (x)

And, obviously, this tweet which is actually what made me start this whole post. I would hope you know mate.

(x)

He also told us he was cooking "banger after banger" and that he was incorporating more social themes into his music (x)(x) (I believe any social issue is a political issue but that’s not the point rn).

COPY OF A COPY OF A COPY?!?!

These next paragraphs are brought to you by my mind not remembering things and me not having any links. I’m assuming COACOAC came from those writing sessions that supposedly happened in October. Or in LA but I have no idea if he actually was in LA at any point other than a Daily Mail article putting him there on December which would have been too late, but I do remember that someone said he was in the studio in LA last autumn???? A rumor. Maybe. IDK. Did I mention already all of this is very hypothetical?? Well, this is it. I can’t even remember if this was October or November or what. So, take this with a grain of salt.

I’m also… taking the liberty to assume, if you must, that Copy wasn’t meant to be a Walls reject because it sounds more mature and darker and it has a vastly different tone that Walls songs. I know he’s said that song probably isn’t getting into the album, but I want to have faith (in the future) that I’m getting a studio version. (But also, Louis, if you’re reading this, first of all GET OUT OF MY BLOG second of all, please don’t ever feel pressured again to add a song to the album because we have already heard it before. It’s your art and it should always be under your own terms).

So yeah, I believe that Copy is either one of those four songs (then imagine the other three??!!) or was written around the 1st of October date.

---End of the Intermission---

Then not much important (other than sharing more about Marcus Rashford fight against food poverty and the 2nd merch drop) until he announced the livestream on the 24th of November. (x)

It wasn’t until a few days before the livestream date we even thought again about new music (jk, I know we’re always thinking about new Louis’ music). So, December 9th/10th, 2020. Nine months ago. We got our first taste of new music!

He made sure we knew Copy of a Copy of a Copy isn't a cover! (x) (x)

(x)

Ok, so that’s it for 2020. (I feel like I’m missing something from September 17th because tweet was deleted but maybe he was still talking about cucumbers. We might never know. Unless I understand how Tumblr tags work). Expected, cause Walls was released in 2020. We needed to let it sit for a while.

2021

Another Summary: Louis third tweet of the year was telling the UK government off. So was the fifth. What a good beginning. On the 26th of January, he said he prefers pancakes over waffles. I hope he meant pancakes other than his own. More importantly, he tweeted the infamous “you lot read into things too much”. Don’t get me started, Tomlinson. Don’t. Then the 31st came around and Walls was one. He tweeted this. How wise. And Project Defenceless happened!!

15th of February!! Who cares about Valentine Day when the next day we got this? ♥

(x)

(x)

So…AN EP?? AN EP?? PLEASE RELEASE AN EP.

“I’m sure I will have something out this year but unlikely that will be the album”. Unlikely but not impossible. Also. A single would be good. This is the second time he mentions releasing something in 2021 and he sounds surer about it than the first time around.

He also said that he isn’t sure we will get a studio version of Copy. And that the best bridges from Walls to LT2 are Walls, OTB, KMM and Copy. Can’t wait!

Then we jump to March 6th when he announced he was going to create his own management company. “Sometimes action is needed first to encourage the motivation and belief”. As we can tell he was already manifesting some stuff which will lead us to the numerology stuff/Tesla… kidding. Or not. We might never know.

On the 22nd of March he answered some questions:

He told us music was still his main focus ♥ mwha. (x) I included this tweet to guilt-trip him into giving us music in case he’s reading this even after I told him to leave. ILY.

(x) I’d love to get a visual EP this autumn. Just saying. It sounds like a lovely concept.

(x)

…next (I will get into it, I promise. I’m just mad).

On the 25th he left for Mexico until April 10th. You could assume it was just for the documentary where we got ten seconds of footage or admit the obvious: LT2 its a Mexican baby!!

On the 26th (so, not so far apart from that first 369) we got the first Faith in the Future mention: (x)

Back then we were innocent people who had no idea what was coming upon us. We still have no idea because what the fuck does he mean with these. Please explain. I have one braincell and I don’t use it enough for this. I’m linking some theories.

On the 30th of March he confirmed he was already working on the documentary. So AFHF was already on the works. Will it take this long for us to get the Veeps numbers? We also got this tweet: "Got a decent chorus idea down" (x).

Same person that got the “something out this year” exclusive. If you know something share with the class. Also. Is this Change? I feel like this could be Change but I also assume he wrote Change after hanging out with his friends or being in Doncaster. But who knows.

(x) And the second mention to 369.

(x) 15th of April. The second "Faith in the future".

On the 19th of April he announced that he had something BIG for us later on the year which turned out to be the Away From Home Festival ♥♥ (x) I love him so much.

Then on the 28th he announced the 369 merch drop (which it’s probably the Walls drop? Except that the TOU and KMM ones were “drop 1 and drop 2” and this was drop 369 which, again, makes no sense) but we still don’t know what 369 means.

Into May’ 21 we go.

He rescheduled tour again. And dropped another bomb (x).

He announced he has signed with BMG as an independent artist by RTing this tweet on May 10th. The article also says that he’s already working on writing and recording LT2. The timing… we don’t know. What this deal involves… we don’t know either. Bear with me here because I have a lot to say about this.

I think the deal is only a distribution one, but that BMG are interested in Louis and what he (us) could bring to the table. They were either present at the festival or watching it, but officially they had no involvement at all with it (everything is credited either to Louis own company, 78 Productions, or Charlie Lightening’s company). That’s the case for both giveaways too; the vinyl one and the tickets for the festival.

I think it would be an unbelievably bad move not to test the waters with BMG now or soon-ish. At least a single, to see how it performs. Due to the circumstances, it’s obvious there’re certain limitations on place but I want to see how they push it, whether the radio play exist this time around and if the song is playlisted and promoted and all that… I would also love to know, since it says he signed with BMG UK, but it also states it’s a global deal, how things are going to go on the US and other countries.

Yes, yes. I know those are all questions and no answers. But I know the same as you, sadly. If any of you know more than you’re letting on… again, share with the class.

Where was I? Yes, on the 25th of May Louis had a great day writing (x). Since the first time he had mentioned he was officially writing to this date there’s almost eight months. And I believe he was writing before October’ 20.

He followed Robert Harvey that day and, on the 28th of May (why is it always the 28th???) he was spotted at the studio for the first time.

June was an interesting month for the fandom ♥. Lots of LHL content which I will love and cherish for the rest of times. On June 4th, June 9th, and June 10th he was spotted at the studio, but I believe he was there more days.

(x)

This was posted on June 6th and captioned Studio. Charlie also shared it with “Mega tunes being put down, can’t wait for this @louist91 #louistomlinson #LT2” as the caption. This gives me 2019 (Elton-Joint) vibes. I like it. Feels like we’re getting closer to something.

He added the Milano date on the 9th too which I’m mentioning because I’m going alone. Anyone wanna go with me please? I’m nice and I never eat anything before a concert so you can have my food. On other news. It didn’t come home.

During July he was at the studio at least three days too. Probably more. Feels like more with all the fan pictures we got. Or was that June? Anyway, July 1st and 9th we got some videos from Robert Harvey and wearesuperhi, which is who Louis has been working with the most, that we know of. I don’t know for sure they’re from that day. And on July 5th we got an article and lots of pictures of Louis looking really good outside the studio.

On the 12th of July the first fans started getting the free, 369 bucket hat and print. We still don’t know what the purpose was other than to thanks fans. Maybe that was it. I want answers and I still think it relates to a future project (see theories above), but it could also just be a bridge with the Walls breaking.

He didn’t tweet about anything interesting for a while, mostly because he lost his phone (he either throwed it in the air or smashed it who knows). Then on the 29th of July he announced the festival!

I’m glossing over it because there’s already been a lot of talk about it (rightfully) and while it was a wonderful thing, it doesn’t have much to do with LT2.

Let’s talk Change!

On August 3rd he tweeted this about the setlist.

(x)

And this (x) on the 28th! I can’t stand him.

We didn’t get it, obviously. Because who was going to get that. But we read too much into things. Alright.

On the 16thof August Dave Gibson shared this post tagged #LT2 with the eyes emojis 👀👀👀. I believe this has to do both with Change but also with whatever else came out of that Mexico trip.

(x) Last relevant tweet related to LT2 is this one.

So, on the 30th of August we got Change and we cried, and we know that Change is going in the new album. He said it. With those exact words. He also said he was “getting a feeling for it”. This has to meant he already has a general idea of the vibe of the new album and what’s going in it!!!!!! (Right? RIGHT?).

Anyway, let’s go back a few weeks because some other things happened on August. He was at the studio a few more times. Or it was suggested that he was there. On the 17th and the 18th. (Why was it so time-pressing to be at the studio instead of rehearsing for the festival? There was no studio at all on the documentary. Which makes sense, but again, then why?).

On the day of the festival we got another mention of Faith in The Future that made me feel part of a cult ngl. The words were flashing on the screen for less than a second. Okay.

And then he tweeted those words again after watching the livestream/documentary on the 4th of September (x). This is what makes me suspect it's either the name of the album or of the single.

On the same day, we got some interesting quotes about LT2 on the documentary.

“Soon I’ll have to think about me second album, which in my head I’ll get the tour out of the way and then I’ll address that. So, I hadn’t really given it much thought, to be honest”.

“When every day is the same is hard to feel creative and it’s hard to have any kind of proper inspiration”.

“As season started to come back, I started writing again and it was great and some of these songs turned out alright”.

And I think this is it. I might be overlooking some important details but that’s what we know and what we don’t know.

So. Conclusions. That’s what you missed on Glee. I do believe the album is, if not mostly done, partially there. And yes, this post is pointless and never-ending but it’s all in here if you need to tell Louis “Hey, you said this, mate”.

#LT2 #Louis Tomlinson #Faith in The future #369 #Louis #LT #new music #idk what this is #but it's long #pinned

[kindness-ricochets]

I’ve been seeing a lot of thoughts and hc of autistic wylan lately and you seem to also be a fan of the concept. May I ask why? Exactly? I could definitely kinda see it but wanna hear you thoughts you’re always so eloquent

Hey there anon! Sorry for the delay—I’m guessing you already found an answer to this elsewhere while I was off Tumblr for a bit, but just in case, here are my thoughts. This will be heavily personal, but… well, you can’t very well ask an autistic person about autism and expect neutrality!

Autism is different for everyone and can be difficult to pin down, so while Wylan is arguably autistic, he misses several beats that for me would have made him definitively and undeniably autistic. For example, when the bells start to ring, triggering black protocol—I work in a place with a lot of bells and am frequently caught too close to one and normally press my hands over my ears until it’s over because that sound is like shrapnel raking across my insides. All of them. Not just the ear and brain parts. Wylan doesn’t have that sort of visceral reaction, but that may just mean he doesn’t have the same sensitivities that I do, or to the same level. He also never, that I recall, eats meat—as weird as that might sound, eating meat is incredibly complicated with heightened sensitivities to taste and texture. I’m not sure how old I was when I realized it was strange to get up from the table to spit out my food because it viscerally repulsed me. So it might be that Wylan is autistic and has different experiences than I do. Those are things I would include in a story as major indicators of a character being autistic. This might also mean that his father’s way of raising him taught him to hide unusual reactions and stimming behaviors. It’s not that much of a reach to assume a man who tried to abuse the dyslexia out of his son would take the same approach to autism. (More on autism and abuse later.)

So while I’m going to lay out why I read Wylan as autistic, that’s why I think it’s valid to read him as not being autistic as well. Both are valid.

A final caveat, I am well overdue for a reread of the books, so I likely left something out or could have found better examples. Take this as a few of my reasons for a personal headcanon. Anyone who feels differently, that's fine! We can each read things our own way :)

1 - Hyperfixation: The way Wylan loves music

Most of the Crows’ backgrounds color how they see the world: Kaz’s shrewdness, Matthias’s tactical thinking and superstition, Inej’s faith and Suli wisdom, etc. That’s a sign of good character writing. But very little of Wylan’s upbringing seems to have influenced how he sees the world. It comes closest when he thinks about how his father would scorn his new friends, but we never see that scorn from Wylan.

The way a hyperfixation feels, it’s like you’ve always lived in a close parallel world, never fully been a part of the other one where it seems like everyone else lives, but suddenly there’s this bright shining piece of your soul laced through the other world. It lets you connect, it lets you exist in their realm, and you can’t help but filter everything new through that lens because it’s the brightest, most wonderful thing. (I had been between hyperfixations for a while when I started a new job; six months into that work, I read Crooked Kingdom. One of my coworkers thought I had fallen in love, it was that marked a difference.)

So, combining these: Wylan never really acts like he was part of his father’s world, and indeed is in some ways separate from the other Crows, but he parses everything through music, his hyperfixation. He sets words to music to remember them, like he does with the contract. Even his own anxiety is made sense of through music, when in his first narrated chapter, he sets it to music: what am I doing here what am I doing here…. When he’s overwhelmed, his thoughts are “a jangle of misplayed chords”. The Crows have backgrounds that influence how they react to the world, but Wylan’s hyperfixation is his means of experiencing and understanding the world.

2 - Literal thinking: Wylan responds to exact words

In this post, I went into detail on the line where Wylan suggested waking up men to kill them. Wylan is generally unsupportive of killing people—Oomen, Smeet’s clerk, his father… he advocates not-murder in each of these situations. Accepting his aversion to murder, his suggestion to wake men up and kill them seems like a genuine reaction to Jesper saying he doesn’t want to kill unconscious men. Wylan takes things literally.

This happens the most with Jesper, probably because Jesper talks to Wylan the most. Nina and Matthias don’t really register him past how he might be useful, Inej is usually quite direct, and Kaz is very deliberate when he speaks with Wylan. This really interests me because Kaz tends to vary his speech more than the others do, he adapts more to being around other people. He jokes a little with Jesper, spars with Nina, speaks more openly and more sharply with Inej, and he’s precise with Wylan. Kaz may not know what autism is, but he recognizes what’s effective with Wylan.

Another example is when Wylan is sketching the Ice Court plans and Jesper says it looks like a cake. There are plenty of valid responses here: pointing out that concentric circles look like lots of things, that it’s just a sketch, telling Jesper to stop looking over his shoulder. Instead, Wylan says that the Ice Court is sort of like a cake. That… doesn’t sound like something Wylan would normally say. He’s not addressing the whole situation, he’s addressing the specific words Jesper said.

One of the most heartbreaking examples of this (to me, anyway) is with Marya. Wylan does the same thing with his mother, when she asks if he’s there for her money and says she hasn’t got any, and his response is, “I don’t either.” We understand as readers that what Marya is communicating here is that she is so accustomed to being utterly ignored unless she is being used, and if she told Wylan that no one visited but to take advantage and she assumed he was here for the same reason, he would say it wasn’t the case. But he just responds to the immediate statement.

There are a lot of examples of this.

3 — 0% perception, 100% creativity

Wylan can identify things that don’t make sense or that he doesn’t understand, but at the beginning of the series he can’t make leaps, only ask questions. On the Ferolind, he wonders about the source of water at the Ice Court; though Kaz doesn’t say as much, he was clearly wondering, too, because he eventually figured out the underground river. There’s an interesting parallel here where, in the beginning of Crooked Kingdom, Wylan asks a question about how they’ll break into Smeet’s and Kaz tells him to use his eyes instead of running his mouth—at which point Wylan is able to figure it out. I don’t think this is because he never tried before, though, but because no one ever bothered to teach him. Kaz can be harsh but he gives harsh corrections rather than harsh rejections and Wylan learns from him.

It’s hard to understand the world for people with autism. The world is designed and run by and for people whose minds are fundamentally different from ours, whose thoughts and experiences are unlike ours. Imagine trying to learn English or Spanish or Mandarin or any other spoken language if your first language was olfactory. That’s sort of what it’s like for someone with autism to just get dropped into the world and expected to figure this out.

This can be attributed to Wylan’s upbringing, but I disagree with that because none of the others were brought up in the Barrel, either, and Wylan doesn’t understand trade or politics with any special skill. Kaz wasn’t born in the Barrel, but he managed to go from “stealing is wrong” to “wrong isn’t my concern” real quick; Colm Fahey didn’t raise his son on gambling and firefights; the Ghafas never expected their daughter to be away from the family. Only Nina has relevant training—and even that’s precious little, she left school way too early. The others figured it out; Wylan needed a bit more help. He also seems surprised by the way his father conducts business. Wylan takes things on face value—like the time he’s surprised someone would do something, simply because it’s unlawful. This is something he expresses to a group of gangsters. He’s never been taught the way of any world and these things are not intuitive to him.

But Wylan isn’t stupid.

He doesn’t know how to understand the world, but he does understand how things go together. Given a pointy diamond, a handle, and a screw, he cut through Grisha glass. He carries flashbangs and magic napalm, he recreates military hardware—Wylan understands how to make things interact for a specific result. But to me the most telling thing isn’t just that he puts together chemical pieces, it’s that he figured out Jesper controlled bullets. He saw the pieces and put them together.

Wylan can understand when things don’t make sense, but he can’t make sense of them—yet when he understands things at their basic level, he understands them without preconception, for what they are. This is a very autistic way of thinking about things, it goes back to the literalism. He can’t make the leaps of logic other people can, but he also doesn’t make the assumptions they do—“I’ve never heard of a bullet Grisha, so that’s not a thing” vs “Well Jesper’s an almost impossibly good shot and he controls metal and bullets are metal, so why not?”

4 - Broken brain/body connection

Wylan’s great at chemistry and drawing and playing flute or piano—but he’s something of a disaster other times. This is in particular contrast to the other characters, all of whom are physically adept. Meanwhile it’s a challenge for Wylan to climb a rope ladder and he spends a full paragraph trying to figure out what to do with his hands. It’s easy to say, well, he’s used to a sedentary lifestyle, but at this point he’s not. He’s worked in the tannery for months. He’s just physically awkward.

I have less to say on this point only because it’s about something I don’t fully understand myself. I don’t really understand what it would be like to have a body that just… does things? Like normal stuff? Without tics and stims. No idea. Only that Wylan’s discomfort in and seeming lack of mastery of his own body feels very relatable to me.

5 - Abuse

One of the most familiar things about Wylan is how he has been so thoroughly abused and broken down that he’s afraid to do or say much of anything. Again, this is a place his background can be an obscuring factor. Of course Wylan didn’t think to blow up the walls when the first met the parem-juiced jurda and got trapped, he’s a spoiled rich kid! Except, he also startled when Jesper said his name later. Wylan didn’t hesitate because he was spoiled, he hesitated because he had no confidence.

He also thinks Kaz would laugh at him for playing music at his mother’s grave. Now, personally, I can’t see Kaz laughing at Wylan—being indifferent, thinking it’s pointless sentimentality, shaking his head, maybe commenting sharply that they need to go if they don’t have the time. But not laughing. Kaz is a snarky, sharp-edged jerk sometimes, but he doesn’t go out of his way to criticize, he just lets people know when they inconvenience him.

Wylan has been trained to identify attention as negative by an overbearing abusive father who literally saw him as less favorable than a demon. Now, that may have been hyperbole, but Jan criticized everything he could about Wylan—art, music, emotion—and made clear that he was worthless and competent to nothing. (Jan Van Eck can suck a rotten donkey dick but that’s neither here nor there.)

A lot of people with autism experience levels of bullying that have similar impacts. Or as the kids these days are calling it: we go to school. We go to school where we are weird. Where we look weird and move weird and talk about weird things and there’s a whole little bevy of asswipes to makes sure we know it. I got teased more for playing Pokemon and sitting alone reading than the kid who pissed himself onstage at assembly. (This was before Pokemon was cool. I’m old.) And that is not unusual for autistic kids. It’s also not unusual for this to be compounded by relatives or even parents who may be trying to help but don’t understand and can make things even harder.

So we can’t read social cues and we’re taught at a vicious age that everything that comes naturally to us is wrong. Imagine trying to interact in society with that background. There is no guide and most advice from neurotypical people isn’t actually what they mean. It breaks you down.

Wylan’s anxiety isn’t definitive of autism, but isn’t something that was incredibly familiar as someone whose neurodivergent experiences created a strong level of anxiety.

6 — High Compassion, Low Social Competence

Wylan isn’t very good at making friends. In fact, none of the Crows likes him much in the beginning, and only some of them soften toward him by the end. (Matthias and Nina come to respect his skills as a chemist but neither seems to particularly like him.) But you can see throughout the books that Wylan wants to connect with them and be one of them, he just… isn’t. He’s off-beat. He’s weird. He asks questions and mimics behaviors (trying to be cool and tough like Jesper, saying “mission” like Matthias does, imitating Kaz’s scheming face) but he doesn’t quite get how to adapt.

But he still cares about people. Not just them. Everyone. He cares about the people they leave in the ditch outside the prison wagon, he cares about Hanna Smeet, he cares about Alys. He cares about the people who’ll take a hit from Kaz’s sugar caper.

Wylan’s awkward social skills have undeniable big autism energy. I posit his compassion does as well. This is simply who Wylan is, and that means being someone who cares about everyone. I have nothing to back up that this is related to autism. I can say that it’s like me. (Not to brag.) I can’t turn off the part of my brain that says everyone matters. Individuals can opt out of that compassion, but they have it by default. There’s a certain agony in feeling a pull toward and love for just about everyone and yet an inability to develop meaningful connections with them, and that keen loneliness… it just burns.

Again, it’s not definitive of autism, but it’s very similar to an autistic experience.

I said in the beginning that I didn’t think Wylan certainly had autism and I stand by that, but he is a powerfully honest reflection of many people who do. So he can be understood to have autism, and that’s part of the reason some people have that headcanon.

#six of crows #wylan van eck #autism #actually autistic

[myimaginarywonderland]

So, for anyone wondering what is happening with Germany, here's a quick summary.

Yesterday we had to elect a new chancellor since Angela Merkel has been in that position for 16 years.

Now, the German parliament might be different than some other countries. We basically have 6 big parties there but from those 2 or three always form a Koalition. Koalitionen are formed so that a chancellor can be elected since we only vote for a party who chooses someone of them as that person. Since a party never has a big enough majority to elect them, multiple parties go together to make that majority.

However, there were basically only three parties who were likely to form a Koalition like this. One party was the CDU, a Christian conservative party that has basically been in a Koalition for as long as I can remember. They were also the party Angela Merkel is from. To replace her they choose Armin Lachet. Now, he is one of the worst choices they could have done because he a.) failed to fold his ballot correctly so that everyone could see who he has voted for which technically is seen as voting fraud since he might influence others with his choice but we just looked over that. B.) He literally can't form a sentence that makes sense or not contradict himself. There have been multiple talks or interviews where he downright was rude and interrupted others and denied statements that he had mad prior to this year.

Another party was the SPD, a social democratic union who wanted to elect Olaf Scholz. Now, he was involved in a financial scandal but other than that, he also just seemed a bit disrespectful or lacking in manners.

The third one was the Green Party with Annalena Baerbock. This party is mainly focused on climate change, making a green future and making it digital. She has been the best choice out of these three since she had clear ambition and was always able to answer questions.

Now, we have three other main parties who are in our parliament.

We have the AfD which has been questioned many times for being extremely right but they somehow always passed. They are homophobic, racist, anti maskers who basically were formed a few years ago and got popular because a lot of people where unhappy with Merkel during the immigrant crisis and voted this party out of protest.

We also have the FDP which claims to be liberal, yet is the textbook example of rich capitalist who just don't really do anything? Sure, they have never really been in power but they also just make empty promises.

And lastly we have Die Linke which is basically the party that is always seen as extremely left because they talk about topics like Gender etc. Many people don't vote for them as they see them as "too progressive."

Now, we have many other smaller parties but sadly none of them have really been able to reach 5% so they don't get a seat in our parliament. However there's great options here and much more fleshed out ones then the people 6 ones but since the main 6 are so established, especially with elder people, we won't see them change anytime soon.

So, yesterday's results showed that the SPD had the most votes overall, very closely followed by the CDU.

Now, both parties wouldn't have enough votes for a majority so they would need to get 1 or two other parties for a Koalition.

The SPD has made it quiet clear that their ideals are too different from the CDU to form one with them, so that leaves them out of the equation.

The AfD is disliked by every party and all have refused to cooperate with them which also means they aren't an option.

Die Linke sadly didn't reach the 5% mark. However they still got in since you need 3 Direktmandate or 5%. For anyone wondering what a Direktmandat is, this basically means that a Candidate of that party won in a certain region (they got the most votes and would be elected as a representative of that region.) Since they scored so low and barely got in, they also aren't an option which you guessed it only leaves the FDP and the Green party.

Now, before I continue I want to explain a bit more and what I touched upon in the last paragraph. When we have a federal election, you get two votes. The first is directly for a representative of a party from your region and doesn't influence the general vote as much. However this vote can secure certain people of parties a place in the parliament. The second vote is the important one since with that you vote for a party which will then elect the chancellor. So, there will be different vote results because there's two votes.

Going back to the original point, we know now that only 4 parties could form a Koalition. And it needs three of those to form a majority.

The options for that Koalition would be the SPD, the Green Party and the FDP (which is also known as Ampel Koalition which basically means traffic light Koalition since the SPD is red, the Green Party green and the FDP yellow.) This would not be ideal however it would be what the majority of votes represent and would want (this is more left than the last Koalition and would mean that the people who voted based on climate change would hopefully be listened to.) When forming a Koalition it is important to note that certain goals of the parties will be compromised since they all tend to aim for different things which means you should form a Koalition with the parties that least make you compromise your goals. This coalition would mean that Olaf Scholz becomes chancellor which would not be ideal but the Green and SPD would mean that climate politics might actually become serious and they also have more similarities. We would still have the FDP which sucks but at least two other better/good parties.

The second option would be the CDU, the Green Party and the FDP, also known as Jamaica Koalition because the CDU is black. Now, this is what a lot of us don't want because a.) We dislike the CDU and know they won't do shit and b.) We know the FDP also won't do shit. Furthermore this would mean that Armin Lachet becomes chancellor which is bad. Additionally, the Green Party would completely lose credibility since they only gained so many votes because of their climate ideals which would all not be meet should this happen (the CDU doesn't care and the FDP is capitalist, so they wouldn't do some of the major changes the Green Party wants to do.)

For now, we don't know who will be chancellor or which of these options will happen since the FDP and the Green Party want to talk with each other first and then approach the SPD/CDU. Since they are smaller but still know that there decision is the decided, they want to first look which party most likely fits them. However, Christian Lindner, who is the head of the FDP had already said that they think the SPD is too far left which is why a lot of us are worried. (I would also like to point out that that statement is complete bullshit but you probably already got that from my tone. The SPD is left but in reality probably more centre than anything else. The only actual left parties of the big 6 are Die Linke and Die Grünen in my eyes and even the last one is more leaning for me. Might also be because I am very heavily left but yeah.)

We are currently just waiting for the decision and disaster to happen.

#bundestagswahl #german politics

[bellatrixobsessed1]

What do you consider demonizing Azula vs objectively describing her less flattering traits and harmful actions?

Honestly, it all comes down to word choice and language at the end of the day imo. If someone’s character analysis is presented with a certain tone I’m more inclined to say that they are demonizing her. For example saying that “ as a child Azula demonstrated red flags for mental illness and should have been helped” is a lot less antagonizing than “Azula was born evil, she liked to tease and bully Zuko from the start.” One of these statements addresses the complexities of her situation (a broken home and several poor adult influences/examples) while the other basically places full blame on a child. Things like that. I really, really do believe that it’s all about the tone an Azula analysis is presented in. 

Personally I would agree that some of her childhood behaviors, like setting Zuko’s pants on fire and burning some of the bushes in the place garden were huge red flags. They are harmful actions. BUT a lot of those could be 1. attention getting antics because her mother usually paid more attention to her when she misbehaved. 2. Her emulating Ozai and his attitude. And stuff like, “dad’s going to kill you.” Is very much Azula mimicking what her father demonstrated as well as her father actively rewarding her for behaviors like that. These are definitely harmful actions that started getting worse as she got older. An analysis like that is fair and not demonizing imo, because it recognizes that Azula is still a kid and it doesn’t write off the possibility for her to unlearn some of these behaviors later in life with the right help. 

While something like, “even child Azula is a insane, look what she did to Zuko! What kind of sociopath sings-songs about someone’s dad killing them!?” Here is an example of using buzzwords and implying that mental illness as something that automatically makes someone evil. It puts all blame on Azula while factoring out the adults in her life that either sat passive or actively taught her these behaviors. This, imo, is demonizing. 

One of my biggest peeves at the moment is when they say that fucking Ozai and Zhao are more redeemable. Zhao was literally seen in the Avatar universe version of Hell. It is canon that he did not get redemption. So by extension it is canon that he is NOT more redeemable than Azula whose fate is still ambiguous. And there is not one argument that can convince me that the grown ass man who burned his own son’s face off while tearing apart his self-worth is more redeemable than a fourteen year old girl. There is not one argument that can convince me that a man who made a weapon out of his daughter and (heavily implied) abused his wife (at least emotionally) is more redeemable than a fourteen year old girl. Usually I try to keep an open mind and be nice about my opinions in these discourses but I just can’t with this one; I think that this particular statement is stupid as hell. Ozai and (especially in canon and in Hell) Zhao are NOT more redeemable than Azula. Bye, miss me with that dumb shit. 

Some more specific examples that come to mind are;

 When people make Azula out to be a murderer and/or a sadist

The turtle duck thing

Baby Azula.  

The murder thing drives me nuts because, first of all, she’s a solider. She’s at war. Her one kill was a combat kill, he came back to life, and he was entering the Avatar state. Now correct me if I’m wrong but Aang killed Zhao in the Avatar state. You can’t tell me that no one died or was seriously injured in the episode ‘The Avatar State’. So of course she’s gonna shoot him down; he could have killed her just as well. He had no control over the Avatar state at the time. 

Furthermore she has the least amount of collateral damage. And one of the smallest body counts. Aang has killed so many background characters via the Avatar state. Sokka killed Combustion man. Sokka, Suki, and Toph killed several soldiers by crashing those war blimps in the finale. I think that you get the point. But none of them get called murders like Azula does. Everyone seems to be well aware that all of those were combat kills. The reason they get called soldiers instead of murders is because they are protagonists. 

Azula is not a murder. She is a solider. Combat kills are different than murder. They are horrible and unfortunate all the same but it isn’t murder. 

And then there’s the sadist claim. At best I think that that’s a misinterpretation of character. At least from my personal POV. I've seen it argued that she’s not a sadist but only because it’s more coinvent not to be; that she would be one if  she had time for it. But I think that a true sadist wouldn’t give a shit if it’s not convenient. If she were a sadist I feel like she would go out of her way to hurt people like Chit Sang even if it’s not necessary. Azula does only what’s necessary and that’s it. I do think that Azula is merciful. Perhaps not conventionally so but she isn’t cruel. She takes prisoners and as far as we’ve seen on screen those prisoners aren’t treated particularly bad (by Azula anyhow). She doesn’t torture her prisoners and she doesn’t kill them. 

Now, I will give more of an open mind to people who say that she is an EMOTIONAL sadist of sorts. I do think that she gets a kick out of scaring people and bullying people. I’m on the fence with this argument though because how much of her getting a kick out of Zuko’s suffering is her also being relieved that it is not her. And how much of it is more run of the mill teenage bullying? This is one thing where I’m more than willing to hear from the other side. 

I think that the murderer and sadism thing is very much an attempt to demonize her. I think that it can be an exaggeration of her unflattering behaviors. I’m not saying that the things she did aren’t harmful but I do think that some people over exaggerate them or make up stuff that isn’t there; I’ve seen people state that she ‘probably killed so many soldiers off screen’. There is no canon evidence to support this? Likewise these are generally the same people who tell Azula fans that they can’t say Azula was abused off screen. 

The other big one is the turtleduck one. Zuko demonstrates how Azula feeds turtleducks. He throws a piece of bread. I don’t know where the rock thing came from. Furthermore I very much think that Azula chucking a loaf of bread at a turtleduck is just a small child being a little shit. When I was like five or six I yeeted a good half a loaf at a duck because, “the more food they get the happier they are, right????” To me that just seems more like a small child who has not learned impulse control than a child who likes hurting animals. This whole argument, at least imo, is actively demonizing a child for actions that aren’t exactly uncommon for children. The problem is when the child doesn’t learn that yeeting whole loafs at turtleducks is a bad thing. THIS is where I see a fair argument forming because (as of late) Azula didn’t seem to have unlearned this behavior. This is an example of one of those red flags I mentioned in the first paragraph. Which is where some nuance and critical thinking needs to come in. The complexities that I mentioned above about how the child isn’t 100% to blame here. The adults in her life should have tried to teach her better and/or Ozai need to fuck on off and stop teaching her to do wrong. 

And finally baby Azula. I’ll just drop a link here because I already talked about this. But the tone of The Search literally tried to demonize a whole baby. The way the narrative decided frame her was really unnecessary. I really don’t see how this scene contributed to the story other than to remind readers that ‘Azula was always evil, see!’ Nevermind that she’s sleeping in a whole crib. Because that’s a literal infant. 

Anyhow I might come back to this later to add more or clarify but I’m about to make lunch so I’ll end this here for now. Feel free to discuss further. I definitely don’t mind hearing from the other side so long as arguments are respectful and open minded.

#Avatar The Last Airbender #Azula #Azula Discourse #Azula Analysis #Demonizing Azula #Fandom

[guynamedultimax]

What if Kirby had a traditional fighting game?

Listen, I know I should’ve done more “FNF fighting game characters” but i doubt anyone cared for that, and even then I lost a bit of interest, so if you actually cared sorry about that, you can still come up with whatever you want for the characters I didn’t talk about!

That being said, I think all Kirby fans here know Kirby Fighters 2. Personally speaking most of it was just the same as Kirby Fighters Deluxe BUT there were five playable Dream Friends. FIVE. Priority to the Copy Abilities a bit too high, isn’t it HAL? Sometimes it feels a bit barebones if you ask me. So I’m here to discuss what would a non-platform Kirby fighting game be.

THE GAMEPLAY

It’s the same as any basic fighting game, there isn’t really that much that the Kirby franchise can offer to make the genre a bit more varied, and that’s mostly due to the fact that Kirby makes friends wherever he goes and combat is pretty much straightforward in these platforming games, the crazy stuff comes from learning specific moves with each copy ability/character in the games and that’s also true for this game.

THE PLOT

I have quite a few ideas for how this can go:

-It’s a “what if” re-telling of Kirby Star Allies where Hyness’ ritual (somehow) also causes space-time rifts across the entire universe to be generated, pulling in Kirby villains from previous games but also allies, which would ALSO explain Dream Friends in the game’s canon a bit more properly.

-It happens in an AU. Plot would basically be Kirby Battle Royale’s but instead of shooting a loadshit of Kirbies onto Kirby, Dedede would just call upon all of their friends to fight for that cake before things escalate and Dedede loses control of the tournament to greater evils, forcing him to work with Kirby to stop the threat, be it old or new.

-Another AU idea but this time it’s original/based on Milky Way Wishes. Galactic NOVA appears every thousand years above Pop Star’s skies, and everyone tries to fight for the right to get the wish. Villain wouldn’t necessarily be ONLY Marx though, most of the Kirby villains could easily win against him if they get to NOVA and get their wish granted. Which means yes, all plots happen at once and Kirby has to deal with everyone at once.

-The least interesting idea: it’s Kirby Fighters 2′s plot but without tag team duos and with all Kirbies replaced with the roster.

THE ROSTER

Now we’re about to have some fun.

RETURNING CHARACTERS: The Dream Friends (and Kirby, of course)

-First up, all Dream Friends are coming back. You don’t even need to change their movesets that much, just add/tweak things, but just for funsies (and for a specific reason too) we’ll also give them specific copy abilities or more than one to categorize them.

-Kirby is the specific reason. He has the same moveset as his Smash Bros incarnation, although he incorporates more copy abilities (and also super powerful stuff like the Star Rod that he usually uses in endgame fights) in it now due to being a traditional fighting game. And yes, he still has his inhale. Using it will have the inhale be replaced by another move in-game, the closest one to a “neutral special” in the opponent’s arsenal. His copy ability is therefore, Smash Bros. And since the game has multiple super moves, we can make his gimmicks from the Kumazaki games the super moves: his level 1 would be a random Super Copy Ability from Return to Dreamland (cutscene is random everytime but damage is always the same), his level 2 would be using the Robobot Armor to stomp foes around, ending with a giant ground pound/fist to the ground and his level 3 is Hypernova Kirby due to the inhale being one of his most unique properties.

-Meta Knight and Dedede will also have heavy Smash influences but they’ll also use techniques from most of their boss fights, such as Meta Knight splitting himself in four clones temporarily for an attack or Dedede actually pulling out an axe instead of his hammer for some attacks based on his Triple Deluxe incarnation. Their copy abilities would formally be Sword and Hammer but with heavy Smash Bros inspiration. Meta can also call in for the Meta Knights to help him in one of his unique super moves. They’d all be there except for Sailor Dee and Captain Vul (one’s an alternate costume and the other is never seen outside of dialogue text).

-Bandana Waddle Dee’s moveset incorporates both Spear and Parasol, but due to the Spear being his most used tool he’ll be categorized with that.

-Marx is the first character with Unique as its own copy ability due to his arsenal being entirely based on his boss fight. Inhaling Unique characters doesn’t always allow Kirby to get copy abilities but when it happens he usually has their most basic move replacing the inhale. Gooey is in the same situation, but i have no idea what would Kirby get from him as an ability since he’s technically player 2 in the Dark Matter trilogy’s first 2 games. Rick, Kine and Coo would technically be categorized as Unique only because they have Fire, Water and Wind in their moveset. You could say they’d be stance characters while Marx is a zoner and Gooey a rushdown character.

-Dark Meta Knight is categorized as Mirror, and Adeleine (with Ribbon as an assist of course) is Artist. Daroach would be Animal, which is missing since its debut in Squeak Squad, as far as I can remember, but he naturally still retains his moveset of calling the Squeaks to help him.

-It’s pretty easy to categorize Magolor as ESP, and Taranza as Spider, while I have no idea what would Susie’s ability be even. Spark? She is mostly around in the Robobot Armor to be fair. The Three Mage-Sisters would be treated equally to the Animal Friends

THE NEWCOMERS

-NAGO, CHUCHU & PITCH: The other set of Animal Friends. I theorize a moveset revolving around the Cleaning ability like in Star Allies would be easy to make, although it can also incorporate moves from other abilities that have been in Dream Land 3.

-CHEF KAWASAKI: I think it’s safe to say this one is pretty easy to do just like the returning Dream Friends. He has a unique moveset in comparison to Chef Kirby that also has him use Kirby’s Final Smash from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

-LOLOLO & LALALA: Aside from pushing boxes and Gordos they can be the Ice Climbers of the game, and most importantly one of their super moves could have them fuse into their original form in the anime to reference that further.

-SHADOW KIRBY: A clone (in terms of moveset) for Kirby that lacks the inhale ability and has more attacks based on his appearances in Amazing Mirror (and also on Kirby’s unique ability to split in four in these games) and the Kirby Fighters spinoffs. Simple as it is.

-THE MIDBOSSES: They all play the same as their fights too, so doing a paragraph for each of them would be a bit redundant. I chose to add minibosses in because most of them are pretty iconic among Kirby enemies and some of them are also technically friends of Kirby’s. I picked Bonkers (whose coconut throwing and some special moves could make him different enough from Dedede if you ask me), Mr. Frosty (also because we don’t have an Ice-based character in the game), Buggzy (which I can see being the ultimate grappler), King Doo (because we don’t actually have a Waddle Doo in the roster and he’s technically not only their king but also the most unique of them) and Grand Wheelie (look, I like Wheel as an ability ok? it’s like playing as Sonic in a Kirby game)

-KNUCKLE JOE: Taking stuff from both his Star Allies moveset and his Assist Trophy from Ultimate PLUS a few references to the anime and you have the ultimate Shoto character in the Kirby franchise. Ryu mains, this is the character for you.

-GIM: Look, my three favorite abilities are Yo-Yo, Wheel and ESP, in no particular order, so I HAD to include him and the Grand Wheelie. Magolor covers for ESP enough. This lil fella looks more unique than most of the generic Kirby enemies and even among the copy ability ones he’s always been a bit of an oddball due to being a robot. The trickshots you can do with this copy ability make Gim perfect to camp, so he’d be a pretty good zoner as well.

-TAC: He’s been a Helper in Super Star where he also has an unique moveset. Expanding on it and on Tac being generally a copy ability thief could mean more copy abilities can be implemented in a moveset, probably even more than what Kirby can do. Also his design just screams potential to me.

DLC FIGHTERS

WAVE 1: Spinoff Dream Friends

Cuz these guys have been done dirty by Star Allies’ devs. Elline would be the other Artist character in the game and call for Claycia’s assistance in specific attacks. Prince Fluff would play mostly just like Kirby himself did in Kirby’s Epic Yarn and implement specific transformations in some attacks, ending with the tank one from the end of that game. Then we have Gryll. If you know how to make a Tetris/Puyo Puyo based character in a fighting game then good for you, I absolutely don’t know how. What I KNOW however is that she has a float like Peach’s in Smash Bros and I-No’s in Guilty Gear.

WAVE 2: Dream Villains

These guys would all play exactly like their boss fights. Hyness and Sectonia would remain mostly unchanged while Haltmann in terms of moveset is the same as Susie, just without every non-Robobot move that she has.

WAVE 3: Clash of Blades

THAT’S RIGHT, IT’S ALL ANIME SWORDFIGHTERS. They all pull from their boss fights, but Morpho Knight is gonna be a bit more unique compared to Galacta, Dark Meta and Meta Knight, having in the swordfighter equivalent of Akuma’s Raging Demon. Meanwhile, Dark Matter Swordsman and Galacta Knight are completely faithful to the source material, but they’d probably be a bit nerfed due to Galacta’s universe-breaking powers. (you can bet that if we get the remaining legendary heroes who sealed Void Termina in future games they’d be their own separate Wave 5 DLC pack)

WAVE 4: Revival of Old Faces

Nightmare and Drawcia are back and they’re here to stay! Their movesets don’t really need that much changes. Void however is an entirely different beast. He’d be a mix of Kirby, both Zero incarnations and Dark Matter. His design wouldn’t just be giant orb that switches between Kirby and Dark Matter faces, he’d be Kirby-sized and with legs and stubby lil arms like the pink puffball. And you can bet your ass he’d be broken as fuck.

SKINS

If a character’s appearance changed across the series’ history (like Marx Soul, Girl Blob Gooey, Shoppe Magolor, Mecha Knight, Dark Taranza/Taranza in the Super Kirby Clash games, Masked/Shadow Dedede, Anime!Knuckle Joe, Parallel/Pres. Parallel Susie, EX versions and so on) they’d just be an alternate skin/palette swap for the specific character. Multiple characters of the same species with little changes (like a normal Waddle Dee or Sailor Dee, or literally all Kirby colors including Keeby) are the same. I’m also debating on how Dark Mind would be a skin for Nightmare or if there’d be a skin inspired by him for the Dark Matter Swordsman. Zero and Zero Two would probably be turned into palette swaps/outfits for Void (imagine a white Kirby cosplaying as Zero Two that’d be so cute lol).

ATTACKING ASSIST CHARACTERS

Characters who appear in other characters’ attacks. Like the aforementioned Squeaks, Meta Knights and Claycia. Normal Dark Matter would appear in DM Swordsman’s attacks in some capacity outside of the eye laser and the Gordo Throw would return from Dedede’s previous Smash incarnations alongside the Waddle Dee Throw from Brawl. And naturally Magolor can call in the Lor Starcutter for one of his super moves. I am actually considering giving Tac the ability to throw random items/enemies at opponents, with the Bomber being one of these. It’d be a very RNG attack with the Bomber being the best outcome, blowing on the opponent’s face.

HELPERS

All characters in the game can be called on for an Helper attack, that can help you in some form against the opponent by either damaging or tampering with the opponent or by having you get healed or with some buff. Outside from the playable roster enemies that give you copy abilities would also be Helpers, but the specific ones I’m not so sure on.

BOSSES

Characters you can fight in Arcade mode, in Story mode or in a specific Boss mode. There’d also be a Ganon’s Fury (Hyrule Warriors) inspired mode where you’d play as the bosses pitting them against each other. I specifically picked Dyna Blade, Whispy Woods, Landia, Star Dream, Kracko, Great Edge, Pyribbit, Ice Dragon, Fire Lion, Masher, Grand Mam, Metal General, Kibble Blade and Pon & Con.

STAGES

There’d be quite a lot of stages, but I haven’t thought out specific ones except for Green Greens, Butter Building, a Ripple Star stage, one for Dedede’s castle with stage cameos by Tiff, Tuff and Escargoon from the anime and every final boss’s fighting arena.

THE MUSIC

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is gonna be nothing compared to this one. We’re getting all the important music from all pre-Kumazaki games, all music from Kumazaki games and spinoffs, and online arrangements with focus on orchestral (Desolo Zantas), metal (GaMetal, of course) and EDM (Acid Notation, Qumu and various others), including stuff like Itoki Hana’s vocal arrangements. We’re going all out on this one.

Aaaaand that’s it. Thanks for coming to my TED talk. Stay hydrated.

#kirby #fighting game #meta knight #king dedede #game idea #bandana waddle dee #Kirby Star Allies #dream friends #kirby battle royale #queen sectonia #max profitt haltmann #void termina #nightmare kirby #drawcia #WHEN IS THE NEXT KIRBY COMING OUT FOR FUCK'S SAKE