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cripplecharacters · 1 day

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hey, that ask about vitligo reminded me - i used to date someone with vitiligo (who struggled with it) and they'd see representation AS fetishisation, since in their mind the recent "widespread acceptance" of vitiligo (eg. in ads) was just some people's "sad attempt to convince others they're more tolerant than they really are". What do you think about that?

Hi, I do get the sentiment, but I don't fully agree with it. [Disclosure, I have a facial difference but not vitiligo specifically].

The recent "boom" in vitiligo representation is largely shallow marketing and often a poor attempt at being inclusive of people with disabilities and facial differences. The media just found the one facial difference that able-bodied people are "fascinated" by and exoticized it to death in order to make them look better. It's not for us. It's a way to seem accepting while cherry-picking the most acceptable representation, because god forbid there was also someone that read as more "obviously disabled/deformed" in their make-up ad or whatever. The way that vitiligo is usually presented is often obviously objectifying; it's like models who have it ARE their vitiligo and don't have anything else to offer, media will often just result to calling them "model with vitiligo does xyz" rather than, IDK, by their own name. They're not treating the people as actual human beings, so the whole basis of "being inclusive" falls comically flat.

TLDR; vitiligo representation is just the marketing's world hilariously exclusive attempt at checking off the disability inclusion box while still making sure it's the abled audience that's comfortable and aesthetically pleased (because god forbid they weren't). Like, sure, I am glad that they're showing vitiligo as something that shouldn't be hidden, but they're also sending the opposite message to all the other visibly disabled people whose disabilities aren't as "fascinating" to the mainstream, despite the fact that we are all in a similar position and form a community together. It's all about them and none about us.

There's a reason you're not seeing people with neurofibromatosis or severe burns in these mainstream "body positivity! show yourself!" campaigns. They're too much, and the able-bodied audience doesn't like that. People who boast about how "inclusive and accepting they are" don't extend that to everyone, it's only for those that they deem attractive and exotic, as close to an able-bodied, conventionally beautiful person as possible but with something "new" so that they feel good and inspired. It's othering on the very basis of it, and it's a sentiment hardly unique to disability acceptance.

With that said, I don't agree that all representation is fetishization. Huge chunk of it is, sure, I just wrote a mini essay on that. But I think that saying that as a general statement is doing a disservice to both models who are trying to pave the way for other disabled models in the industry and spreading awareness, as well as creators with vitiligo who just want to see themselves in their own work.

Those are my thoughts on this, I'm very much not an expert. Just what I observed in my own life and what I have previously read from FD community members who do have vitiligo

mod Sasza

#mod sasza #anonymous #not writing advice #fetishization of disability #vitiligo representation

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murfpersonalblog · 20 hours

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IWTV S2 Ep3 Musings - Daniel & the Talamasca (SPOILERS)

I can see what the reviewers meant when they complained about the Talamasca & Daniel.

We start off with Daniel nervous AF, tryna keep tabs on all the mindscrewy shenanigans (at the sushi restaurant on his lunchbreak or whatever).

Today's... etcetc Cell phones, google -- Daniel, your handwriting effing sucks. San Francisco. Polynesian Mary's Playboy magazines as a doorstop? doorstep? |CLAUDIA| Mary's cab. Coke...etcetc. Alice. They'll come for me and Kate next--you bet your arse they will! XD THIS TIME I WON'T SAVE YOUR LIFE

He draws an arrow from Save Your Life up to Playboy--I assume cuz those are two incidents with Armand that took place in SanFran?

I really like the Omakase bit--

About how many risks Daniel's subjecting himself to under the whims of these vampires--but also about Daniel's hubris/arrogance breaking the rules of engagement by thinking he has any say over what they do and what he gets out of it, by stepping onto their turf. If you can't take the heat, GTFO their kitchen.

I'm only just now noticing the foreshadowed titles of Dan's books. 🤦 Burning & Blood--AMC swears they're hilarious.

OK, Raglan's been stalking Daniel's career just like Louis did. So my early suspicion about Daniel breaking the NDA was right.

Which is SO EFFING STUPID OF HIM. They're gonna find out! Loumand's literally drawing out this giant tragedy about what happens when vampires--Armand, specifically--are LIED to, and you're gonna pull this mess on them!? You're not even being SUBTLE!

AGREEMENT.pdf--Daniel, you in danger girl.

Raglan, stop tryna gas Dan up b4 they put him off commission permanently. He's no body-snatching psychic CROOK like you.

Get this nosey bish offa my dang screen.

Oof, right in the Devil's Minion feels. U_U

O__O WOAH!? OK, so aside from Dan (played by EB, a white Jew, along with JK) throwing shade at Caucasian European Israelis (which we been knew), he's implying that Armand & Louis might be persons of interest in the UAE by the Israeli gov't & assassins, esp. cuz of their ties to powerful people. But it's funny cuz that's the exact same thing Lou asked about him.

So Dan's telling the sushi patrons there's Israeli spies/assassins crawling around Dubai--STOP, b4 you get that place John Wick'd! XD

Not MI6. 😭 I said JOHN WICK, not JAMES BOND. XD

Raglan's gone full rogue then--if he was still working for the Talamasca he'd have darn near unlimited funds--they got that dirty TEMPLAR money. 💰💰💰

Yeah, and they don't actually call the Talamasca by name in the ep itself--only in the Insider interviews the producers give.

Daniel, why TF are you talking SO EFFING LOUD, when Raglan's whispering, tryna act like he's on the phone NOT talking to you in case y'all ARE being bugged. 🤦 SUBTLETY, my guy. What kinda investigative journalist are you?

I'm starting to suspect they're not gonna do the rockstar!Lestat, and instead this stupid Great Conversion's gonna be what wakes up Akasha/Amel, when their blood/consciousness gets stretched way too thin with all these new vamps being made.

To attempt an interview...? I believe that. We already know Marius & Lestat stalked Talamasca members for decades upon decades. Ain't no way NO vampire ever tried getting close to humans & talk about their lives to someone out of loneliness or something. Esp. the ones not attached to the European covens & all their stupid Great Laws.

Rest in Preternaturalism, Raymond Gallant.

BLENDERS! XD But this is THE most Anne Ricean answer imaginable, cuz everyone lost their ish when she had her vamps flying around with GPS-trackable cellphones in their pockets as they KILLED people. Rookie mistake. 😂

Armand was on a cellphone in S01E07, and he is LITERALLY married to his iPad, so PLEASE, sir. 🙄

There's Santiago's COMPLICIT speech coming back. Ain't no moral high-ground here!

And I figured Armand/AMC was gonna pin it on AMC!Lestat, and his jaded version the Savage Garden.

Armand says technology distracts humans from vampire crimes, but what's distracting vampires from psychic/Talamasca crimes, huh?

ISTG these are the laziest vamps I've ever seen; they care so much about their privacy & security, but aren't reading Dan's mind at all? I hope one of them just casually name-drops Raglan or catches Daniel in the act or something.

Raglan said Daniel's laptop was "comically vulnerable," and uploads a bunch of data files on it from the Bibliotheca Talamasca bestiary/archives--WHY? To help show Daniel he's helpful & trustworthy?

RJ: Omakase? Louis: The conversation was easy and flirtatious.... Armand: And combative. Louis: And combative, yes. Daniel: Arguing as foreplay. RJ: Peruse at your leisure.

I hate this effing show. 🙇🙇🙇

#interview with the vampire #iwtv season 2 spoilers #the vampire chronicles #iwtv tvc metas #the hype is real #must see tv

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skinnypaleangryperson · 6 months

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I'm literally cackling like a hyena alone in my living room right now because I've genuinely almost committed unalive in the past 24 hours just because a sitcom came out with a casual joking episode that was so innocent initially that it could have been aired on PBS and 24 hours later the end result has been as someone with autism on the verge of unaliving (before judging, consider the fact that there has been a lot of events that have occurred since then in real life that would justify these intense emotions)

#I'm genuinely finding this amusing because this is my kind of sense of humor #mainly because of how ridiculously true it is #it's like one of those common threads that starts out with someone posting something incredibly innocent #and 500 comments later someone is threatening the other person's life #it's hilarious how humanity works like that #The bottom line is the more popular something is the more likely it is #that there's going to be an entire subculture of people with issues and the bigger the ripple effect is going to be no matter what the media #puts out even if it is literally the most innocent thing alive #it's not about the TV show it's about the freaks that consume it which unfortunately is the majority of people including myself #LMFAo #lmfao #it doesn't come across as funny when I post about it on Tumblr but it's hilarious in real life if you knew the details

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yardsards · 1 year

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clint mcelroy creating a dnd character: oh yeah, this bad boy can fit so much simple zest for life in him

#eliot posts #taz #the adventure zone #merle highchurch #zoox anthellae #ive not listened to graduation yet (and idk if i ever will) so idk if this applies to argo or not #i remember so little of amnesty and am only 10 eps into steeplechase so i can't speak for the non dnd campaigns either #it's funny how a lot of people's ttrpg characters often have common themes in them #me and my friend john from our irl dnd group were talking about that and it's like #alicia plays the most Friend Shaped girls imaginable. caleb's Cause Problems On Purpose. julia's are sassy and tend to do their own thing #john's are edgy in theory but extremely friend shaped and caring in practice. and i tend to play The Mom Friend.#not ALWAYS but pretty often. and basically always they're just really looking for human connection (whether they know/accept it or not)#even my goddamned PISS WIZARD is quickly careening towards mom friend territory??? somehow???#very few people tolerate him so he's protective of those who do. even if it's mostly just a coworkers situation in the party #and most of the party is So Fucking Stupid #it's a very hilarious party composition overall. just 5 guys all thinking ''wow. what a bunch of freaks. good thing i'm normal :)''#and the only one who is REMOTELY accurate in that assessment is the cleric whose catchphrase has quickly become #''hey. don't look at me. i just work with them.''

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tswwwit · 1 year

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Did Bill not come to terms with his feelings for Dipper until he was forced to in Confessing It, or was it earlier in the series (even if he would never admit it)? Sorry if this is sorta implied, I’m not amazing with subtext. Rereading atm and I was curious lol

Actually, Bill (sort of) came to terms with having fallen for Dipper well before Dipper got his feelings sorted.

It's in Faking It chapter 15:

[Bill] glances up at Dipper. “You…. are the single worst thing that has ever happened to me. And I don’t say that lightly, you got no idea how old I am."

#answers #Bill still had a lot of struggling to do after that #But if you're looking for him accepting his feelings *this* was the moment #When Bill realized he'd fallen pretty far even though he couldn't make himself say or think the proper word yet #His thoughts on the matter are addressed in more detail in Chapter 9 of Hating It #Dipper liked Bill. Even when he was trapped and nearly powerless and in a shitty situation - Dip *still* respected and lusted after him #Not after position or power or wanting him to be different. Even knowing he wasn't remotely human!! He just wanted *Bill*.#And it goes BOTH ways #Dipper was most of the way there too but also trying REALLY HARD not to care about a demon at that point #Then a minute or so later Bill's cheering up attempt did the rest of the work #Dipper had stayed so strong. Fighting against this horrible yet compelling demonic force. No feelings here no sir it's a bad idea #And in the one moment he got weak. When he teared up. Bill got awkward and tried to perk *him* up #Both hilarious and relatable AND a moment where Dipper realized Bill actually in his own way cared about him #These idiots were never going to be able to resist someone who could see them at a truly low point and like them anyway #Confessing It is basically: Them Trying To Actually Talk: The Fic #They both already knew how the other felt #But actually Communicating about it like a functional couple was hard #All the very kinky smuts are canon btw #I like my absurd smut to have character development #And believe it or not #Amazingly they communicate well when both of them have the same fun goal in mind

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laugtherhyena · 3 months

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Got back into reading dungeon meshi today

#i had stopped after the little succubus arc #MAN #I'm gonna become the canaries number one apologists fr #which is hilarious because i really hate elves as a fantasy creature #since in terms of design they're just humans with long ears which is really boring and uncreative #so i am kinda pissed that my absolute favorites of this shit so far are all elves #but what can i do about that #also i REALLY like the lore on how the dungeons work #with them having a demon behind them that feeds off someone's desire until they're big enough to fuck shit up #awesome #also i really like the demon's designs #they look majestic yet unsettling. don't give off the impressions of a malicious being right away #which is how they're able to manipulate their next victims #cool stuff #dungeon meshi #dungeon meshi spoilers #hyena ramblings

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angorwhosebabyisthis · 2 months

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so recently i decided to roll the 'what will my human!pericles look like This Time' roulette again, only this time in color for once! it's always itched at me how his design looks like a totally different person before and after the timeskip, having been through the wringer aside, so i thought i'd take a shot at combining my interpretation of the two. (the creators pretty obviously took cues from his voice actor for his present-day design, and it's been fun to draw on that too while still keeping the design my own.)

i mostly like how it's turned out, as far into it as i managed to get before i had to take a break and my executive function stalled out; i kept putting off posting it, meaning to come back and finish it later, but i finally decided to go ah fuck it i'd rather it be out there unfinished than disappear into my sketch folder forever. or get fucked up by my trying to continue it while Not in the Groove, especially given how difficult the painting tools i've got available are to wrangle with. Sometimes You Just Gotta Call It

there's a lot of things i'm eyeing to hammer out more next time--i can never seem to figure out what the hell to do with his hair, for one; for another they did a great job at getting across 'babyface that has become aged/haggard' with his designs, and that balance can be difficult to nail when the art app i use really brings out the Everyone is Soft and Babyface in my artstyle. it's a real bastard, but i liked drawing him with this brush a lot and i'm looking forward to working it out more if i can.

the upshot of this is Lo, Cunty Grandpa Be Upon Ye

bonus flats, including an early-to-mid-twenties edit, as well as a couple speed doodles from the same page:

#sdmi #scooby doo: mystery incorporated #professor pericles #ricky owens #humanizations #god i really do need to sit down and Actually Properly Work Out my design for his semi-humanoid-but-still-a-furry form #it's what i'm thinking of 90% of the time i write/talk/etc about him and it's frustrating how hard it is to actually translate it to paper #the story behind why this one is in color for once is hilarious and an accident #but then i rolled with it because i liked the resulting color palette and figured it was a good opportunity to practice darker skin tones #which is annoying to wrangle in this app; because once again the painting tools are terrible #and it is incredibly easy to make dark complexions look Grungy #but fuck it might as well practice to the extent i can for now #also as far as i'm concerned this gay bitch 100% wears makeup he was just a bit subtler about it before the asylum #afterward he just went Full Edgy Messy Goth and in this and this alone he is valid #me seeing a homosexual bird furry with a beak darker than the rest of their face: oh lipstick?#SDMItag #whosebaby makes things #whosebaby draws

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randomnameless · 9 months

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Thinking about Supreme Bullshit and how convoluted was Supreme Leader's reason for declaring War on the CoS, by appointing Grégoire as a sham and puppet Bishop no one gives a fig about -

I was thinking at first more in lines of Supreme Leader herself, claiming - as House Hresvelg does - lineage from Saint Seiros herself (she knows it's a lie!!!!! but that beast made up that lie and stupid people believe it!) - so Supreme Leader claims higher "authority" on the Church than "Rhea", the Archbishop, and wants her seat to unify Adrestia and the Central Church under one banner.

If the Archbishop refuses, then Supreme Leader, claiming descent from the Goddess (iirc in one prayer it is mentionned Seiros is one of the Goddess's children!) herself is denied authority over Her Church, and has a (completely made up) legitimate claim and reason to get rid of the CoS, without needing to pretend Varley is a the new Southern Bishop.

But then I thought about something else...

Still using the lie that House Hresvelg descends from Seiros herself...

What if Supreme Leader, now besties with the CoS who helped her get rid of evil people who manipulated Adrestia (at least that's the official version) makes an official statement about wanting to claim Saint Seiros's remains, to put them in, idk, the Imperial mausoleum with all former Emperors and important people to Adrestia - under the guise of Seiros being one of the founders of Adrestia (as she supported Willy?) and the (supposed!!!) matriarch of the Imperial line?

Of course, the CoS can't "return" Seiros's remains to Adrestia, and thus a new casus belli is born.

Granted, in those two situations, it puts Supreme Leader in a difficult position - because if the CoS/Rhea/Seiros are outed as inhuman creatures who should not rule over the people, if Supreme Leader pushes her claim that she descends from those creatures, then maybe someone will tell her she's part beast, thus should not rule over the people too?

(she still could have Hubert silence any opposition, but at this point, why needing to make plans and create a real cause of war, if Hubert can do his thing on his own?).

#fodlan nonsense #adrestia stuff #i still find it hilarious how #Supreme Leader's family is supposed to descend from Jesus and no one ever says a thing about this in her war against the Church #TFW Rhea's Willy favoritism has much more consequences in the long term #like she managed to kept neutral information about the Elites and their crests and the 4 saint's crests #but Willy was a special case and what was done at first without any ill intent to celebrate her friendship #becomes the key to her downfall #it'd be even more depressing though...#FE16 #3 Nopes #sort of #but those situation would only work if Supreme Leader can accept lying about her being a non-human #given her mindset in FE16 about Nabateans I'd say that's the main issue against those plans

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opens-up-4-nobody · 1 year

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the good thing about asperger's no longer being a diagnosis is that it's just called level 1 autism spectrum disorder now. i know i probably shouldn't be poking around in the mental health of strangers online, but as an autistic person myself, your struggles resonated with me. ever since i've been able to accept, understand, and begin to provide myself accommodations for my autism, my mental health has improved tremendously. autism is also co-morbid with oodles of other conditions, so it is definitely possible to have autism and other conditions that may have overlapping symptoms

It's funny, I was diagnosed, accepted it, over analyzed and rejected it, subsequently forgot about it entirely, then when the only helpful counselor I ever had brought up the idea I was like: Oh yeah! That makes sense. And went through the same process over again. I will say, having someone point out that something might be inhibiting my ability to interact with people was extremely helpful. Because I just thought I was really bad at it and processed it as a point of failure (which was intolerable). At one point she said "You don't have to do things you don't want to just because you feel like you should" and I think about that a lot. That should have been obvious but it was like she slapped me with a fish

#i used to pretend to be a person a lot more. now im just like im too fucking tired to not be anything but myself #ill wear whatever weird patterns i want. ill avoid all eye contact and say whatevers in my head. bc usually its nothing #harmful. perhaps a bit blunt but usually in a way thst makes ppl laugh. with me or at me idk but whatever #ill be as weird as i want. i wear fucking white moon boots around everywhere lol. ay now im just being defensive bc #these r the things my sister would make fun of me for lol. point is im probably autistic and overthinking it #but in the past few yeas when the obsessive compulsive behavior started to become a more and more obvious problem i was like hm maybe its #something else and my brain restricts even the words i use in the context i use them so i became no longer allowed to say oh yea im #autistic. which is annoying. thr malignant force that is my obsessive compulsive tendencies. which again im not allowed to name bc its not #allowed without an official diagnosis bc thats how my brain work 👍#level 1 autism sounds Hilarious tho. the teired heavens of autism. ive only ascended to level 1. allegedly.#god. my brain. y do i have to plausible deniability myself. its like im waiting for someone to collect evidance and make an arrest bc of #messy liguistics. ay ay ay. there r 2 wolfs inside me. one is trying to drown the other lol #unrelated #me when i have to b around ppl: actually im an insect person. an alien studying humans. watch them go #but no no im not one of them. im simply an observer

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toastedsmoreo · 2 months

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not to be negative on main but jjk is pissing me off, man

#jjk spoilers #not to be a hater but I got into the series bc I cared about the characters #and now they’re all dropping like flies in a terribly paced fight scene #sukuna’s honestly less interesting the more screen time he gets bc it’s clear the dude’s just a lazy bum with nothing better going on #like yeah I get that’s the point n the theme of the series is having stuff to live for but like #it’s not fun to watch #you can make a lazy villain fun to watch #but when they keep saying he’s not even trying???#first of all:bullshit #he was on the ropes the entire gojo fight and had to resort to MEGUMI’s technique to win #second of all: why the FUCK should I care if everyone can’t individually beat him?????#this boring ass boss rush bettter be building up to something along the lines of like #the heroes all getting healed by shoko and revealing that they were intentionally distracting Sukuna #so they can all face him as a group #bc u just know Sukuna would be FUMING if he lost to the collective efforts of a bunch of weaker sorcerers with lives outside of jujutsu #instead of someone he saw as equal to him #that’d be hilarious and work perfectly within the themes of the series #but no #gege at this point feels like an edgelord who thinks that it’s stupid how other manga have stuff like #friendship #and faith in humanity #and good pacing and writing—what who said that last part #also where tf are nobara and todo #u brought MIGUEL back first and not the INTERESTING characters?#death of a thousand paper cuts

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gingerbreadmonsters · 6 months

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gahhhh. im sure it doesn't sound like it most of the time, but wow my degree is so cool and fun 🥰🥰

#yes it is painful sometimes and yes it is lots of hard work and frustration #but like....... isnt it so cool to find out why the world became the way it is #how people in the past were like us and also so totally different #through the right lens human history is both the ultimate tragedy of a self-obsessed power hungry cannibalistic species #and also the greatest funniest soap opera of all time #stories upon stories #i will be very honest with u i was kind of scared when i started that i had chosen the wrong degree #what if its not as fun at uni as it was at school - what if its actually way too difficult and i end up hating it #but ykw?? im so glad i chose this #(for those who may not know i am a history student)#idk man i just wish more people knew how cool and funny history is sometimes #plus the sorts of ways this degree encourages u to think are VERY useful (esp nowadays)#'always question everything' is the motto and wow it is very enlightening to live like this #where has this info come from - can i trust them? why are they telling me this? what do they want? is it even true? how do they know this?#does this info fit with what i already know? why? what do other people say abt this? does this imply something about the wider context here #look me in the eye and tell me thats not the most important ingredient for being online nowadays #(except for block and move on. that one is supreme we all know that)#if u are not so into history i would encourage u to have a little look at some of the cool stories that are there i think u will like them #one of the funny (and very gory) ones that i would recommend is the life and especially death of maximilian robespierre #he was alive during the french revolution in the late 1700s and the way he dies is fucking hilarious when u know whats going on #i have actually talked abt this a lot on discord bc i think its funny - much to the annoyance of everyone else in the server lol #another one from that time is napoleon's coup and the removal to saint-cloud #the power struggles of the GMD and CCP in china in the early-mid 20th century are also v interesting if u like that sort of thing #this has all come about bc i was reading an account today of the marriage of alfonso vi of leon and castile and princess zaida of seville #and wow i have a lot of thoughts about it #theres no way to tell if they were really in love or not and if so how much #but idk something about it is very sweet and very sad to me #she the daughter in law of the muslim king of seville and supposedly falls in love with the christian king alfonso - she converts #to christianity so she can marry him but they are only together for a short time - she dies a few years later in 1093 giving birth to their #son sancho alfonsez (who is killed in 1108 at age 15) and she's buried at alfonso's favourite church (technically an abbey but ykwim)

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blackbutler-readerinsertsandjunk · 9 months

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feeling the doki dokis for Sascha tonight

they are my most precious lil humanfucker <3

#mod post #still laughing at Rudger calling them “humanfucker” in the same patronizing tone humans use for “monsterfucker”#(and I say this as an official monsterfucker myself)#I just think it's so funny like Rudger is so exasperated with his field partner's fascination with humans #why can't they settle down with a nice Reaper #“BECAUSE IT'S MY LIFE /MOM/!!!!”#I love these two they're hilarious they're besties and besties make fun of each other uwu #also crying about the fact that I have no Wolfram or Bravat requests left how rude #my requests are under 90 so I'm whittling it down!!#fingers crossed I can reopen things in a month aaaaaa #I'm working toward that goal!!!#we'll have things open just in time for the spooky month to be upon us =)

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jrueships · 1 year

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still thinking about jaren on podcast p

#ive only seen it abt like halfway thru and then i went to do smthing else LMAO #but i think the funniest thing abt that whole d*llon debacle was #.. jaren was having a goodass time there 😭#pg doesnt rlly do as well interviewing the younger guys (jalen as example..) BUT since jaren is a basketball baby to a basketball family #they kinda got that older understanding a lil more. more material to work with that both get #it was goin GREAT!! ..until jaren brought up d*llon all proud-like LMAO #they were talkin how they are humbled themselves into immediate separate positions specific to their skills on the floor #which a lot of young core dont do as well in the beginning bcs they all wanna show out n score (..rockets)#so jaren was goin off like 'd*llon guards the best players 😊😌! how was d*llon guarding you ? 😏😌'#expecting pg to be like 'UGHH hes so FRUSTRATING hes so COOL i see him in my NIIIIGHTMARESSS etcetc'#so jaren can bob his head n grin with his chest all puffed n arms crossed.. nose smugly up. like mhmmhm! that's my HUSBAND!!💪🏿😤🩵#and pg DID start off with a lil compliment... that Could turn into a weakness tho... n then brought up the antics #and jarens ENTIRE MOOD shifted ON THE DOT. his voice dropped.. his energy got irritated instead of that relaxed confidence #it was hilarious. and then he spent the rest of that segment trying to defend d*llon with his LIFE from the haters LMAO #'can u shed some light on d*llon as someone whos not looking outside in' 'We play spades. uh... hes Human so.' JAREN PLEASE #he thinks hes dillons self appointed attorney but rlly hes just his gay twink bf that follows the bully around like a dog like.#i think the therapist hes goin to (as the only grizz that does) is too scared to pick at that iceberg of jarens poor lil murderous meowmeows #Just yet... hell. id be too i dont blame them LMAO thatll be a LOONG session jarebear... we gotta bear down fr

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marginal-notes · 2 years

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Would you mind sharing your thoughts about mha’s world building? I never put much thought into it positive or negative. Where do you think there was wasted potential? I am curious

OH BOY, OKAY. BUCKLE UP. This isn’t really a cohesive essay covering all my thoughts, just some bigger points immediately coming to mind.

First things first, some context.

I have yet to run into any other fandom that lives off its own fanon the same way as the MHA fandom does. It’s not even like how the HP fandom did it, where they completely threw out the burning dredges of canon they didn’t like. Reading MHA fanfiction, there’s a lot of broadly accepted fanon that still gets treated like it could be canon. Idk, it’s weird and fascinating.

As you’ve probably figured out from my ramblings here and the random details I like stuffing into my writing, I care a lot about how fictional narratives can convey and explore societal institutions and conventions. Form should drive function, and everything should have consequences.

I am absolutely aware that MHA’s a mainstream shonen primarily functioning off the rule of cool, and thus isn’t supposed to operate at the level I keep trying to bully it onto.

Anyways, short story of my love/hate relationship with this series boils down to: it keeps bringing up tiny details that implies that SOMEONE on that writing/editing team is trying to make this series deeper than an almost dried out puddle, and then abandoning all thought for more of the same old “who can punch hardest” boring shonen tropes.

Also, I’m an American reading this without the full Japanese cultural context.

Here’s the long story.

Inherently, My Hero Academia is telling a story of a society reaching its breaking point under the strain of its social politics, through the lens of a highly influential and powerful industry associated with law enforcement. From the beginning, the series introduces the concept of a social hierarchy constructed on the basis of having a quirk and its raw talent. It’s a story of blind veneration and a country still not fully ready to accept a world of superpowers.

And to me, it’s extremely important to understand that for all that professional heroes are technically public servants, professional heroics is first and foremost an industry.

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Okay, let’s just start with quirks themselves.

To this day, I’m still a much bigger fan of the spinoff manga than the main manga itself. I like the cast better, I love their interactions with each other, the plot makes sense, and it still has spent more actual panels discussing the impact of trying to accommodate quirks in universe than the main series has. Sure, Hori put in tidbits into the end of chapter extras, but that’s it.

Vigilantes actually takes the time to discuss how people with non-humanoid quirk mutations can run into difficulty finding affordable housing and the inadequate government assistance on that front. This piece of worldbuilding actually has consequences on characters and as the plot progresses, the consequences actually have influence on locations that appear as settings.

The main manga just doesn’t have this level of thought.

How do highways and mass transportation handle very large individuals and very small individuals? What changes to building codes and architecture has there been? What changes had to come to product design to accommodate different quirks? How do you as a society deal with individuals whose biology aren’t close to the old quirkless standard? What happened to food production and distribution? How well are government agencies addressing concerns brought up among the citizens due to their quirks? What impact has quirks had on the medical system?

(Minor pet peeve, and this is more directed towards fanon. I personally hate healing quirks, from a logistical and ethical standpoint. Canon proves that repeated use and high stress causes quirks to evolve and change over time. If you’re medical personnel and you’re using your quirk on your job, that quirk’s going to change its effects and abilities over time. Hello? Do you have any idea what the short- and long-term side effects of your quirk fully are? How did you figure out its full benefits and drawbacks? Are you taking a risk with each new patient that something completely unexpected could occur? Do you know how annoying it is when you can’t replicate or standardize procedures in a field like medicine where you need to carefully evaluate safety through scientific investigations? Do you know what using healing quirks sound like to me? Dangerous human experimentation, on both the patient and the doctor. AAAAUGH.)

I really want to know the political history behind the rise of quirks. What rate did it spread across the world and through generations? How did the politics around quirk rights shift over time? When did society stop using language like “meta-humans” or “quirked individuals” and started assuming having a quirk should be the default for describing humans? When did quirks first appear in the Imperial family? What shifts happened in rhetoric across the political spectrum over time in relation to quirks? How did that influence legislation and law enforcement? How does that influence employment statistics and population demographics? How did what was considered “desirable” change with each generation and decade? What influence did quirks have on the international scene? What really happened during the period of chaos and violence in the earlier quirk years? What pressured the system to finally hitting its boiling point? What were all the influences that finally calmed that period down?

Hori, for the love of god, shut up about daddy issues and fuck you for turning AFO into a stupid, boring cartoon villain.

~~~

If you’re going to introduce a corrupt government institution that has no problems abusing its power to order assassinations and partake in child trafficking, go all in. And I don’t mean go all in the way the “HPSC Bashing” tag on AO3 tends to. I mean stop treating the HPSC like some kind of singular monolith that didn’t derive its power through its connections and influence.

If you have corruption in the HPSC, that means you have corruption in the Ministry of Justice. You have influence and competition with the police force. You have relationships with the courts and the judges ruling cases. You have the ears of politicians in the National Diet writing laws on criminal justice and prison infrastructure. You have sway through your own regulations and oversight on heroes and their agencies. You can steer the industry towards addressing one kind of crime over the other by dangling the secret ranking algorithm over the heroes’ heads.

You can create a society where the shiny surface covers over the reality of letting violent offenders go on light sentences, if they’re prosecuted at all, so you can have enough repeat offenders to feed and inflate the apprehension and arrest performance metrics of heroes. You can create a society where powerful businesses can lobby with their money to influence patrol routes. You can create a society where the insular press clubs dutifully spread your party message across the country. You can actively craft a society that forces large portions of your population into crimes of desperation in order to feed the gaping maw of an oversaturated hero industry.

This is just run of the mill politics and dealmaking, folks. You don’t need to turn towards torture and more cartoonishly evil entities to create conflict. Freaking – god, I hate whump. (EDIT: it occurred to me after posting that this is a great place for me to wax poetic about how much I LOVE, ADORE, APPRECIATE “may death never stop you” by slex on AO3 for addressing some of my points in a witty and engaging way. Superb writing.)

Of course, MHA also doesn’t go into goddamn ANY OF THIS even in the background as flavoring that can color the plot in interesting ways. Hori, it’s not enough to just have Aizawa point out that his students are being drafted as child soldiers, and then move on. HELLO? HELLO?

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MHA, I swear, is your technology more advanced or not? You can’t just throw in “Detnerat makes support tech and now it’s moving to hero gear” and then bail. And the way it’s portrayed? As making all this custom gear? Tailored to each customers’ quirk? MAKES NO SENSE FOR A LARGE CORPORATION? How did you scale that?? How are your logistical supply chains not a profit killing mess? What on earth is your manufacturing and fabrication process like? How inefficient are your operations that no one freaks out or notices your prototypes being intentionally leaked to the black market? How did you even make those connections, you’re a bunch of –

Using the excuse that they’re the arc’s villains is such lazy worldbuilding. Sure it’s in-line with the series LITERALLY going “UA’s Sports Festival has replaced the Olympics in importance” (w h a t, no, bullshit, get back here, STOP MOVING ON, HOW DOES THAT MAKE SENSE), but still it’s frustrating and it’s lazy.

Smartphones and vehicles?? Still look the same?? Even though chapter one implies it’s been around a couple centuries since roughly modern times?? Are holographs cheap tricks or not?? If they are, why aren’t they more widespread? Why are there still plenty of normal monitors and TVs? If they’re not, then why is UA able to jam them into their acceptance letters and it’s able to be some kind of bonus item among Kirishima’s merch?

I swear there was no thought put into tech beyond pure rule of cool. Which creates completely arbitrary hijinks and aesthetics without a lot of internal consistency, for something that really should be extremely important in universe across society, not just with heroes.

Like at least ATLA’s consistent and there’s logic going on with its tech. They’ve pulled off some things that also raise a ton of question marks with me (again, putting all that fire right next to the airship fleets is a recipe for disaster), but there’s at least an internal logic. Take Sokka’s submarines for example. The thought behind their design makes sense in a world with waterbending.

MHA’s just like, “And now UA’s a flying fortress.” WHAT??

(Disclaimer: Like how I don’t consider material outside the original shows canon for ATLA, I don’t really treat the movies as canon to MHA either. If people try bringing up I-Island at me, they’re just going to get a different giant but WHY rant.)

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Uuuugh, the Todoroki family situation.

This response is already clocking in over two thousand words, so I’ll save my giant rant about Hori’s and Japan’s stand on abusers for another day. Suffice it to say, I’m extremely cynical about the various redemption arcs and why they occur the ways they do. I believe the driving force behind those arcs is highly motivated by real world profits and massaging the series’ messaging to conform to an easy to digest black and white mentality.

But, it always makes me. so frustrated. how fic proves again and again how the Todoroki plot can be an excellent lens into the trappings and failings of elite pro hero society. It can be a really engaging lens into the corrupting influence of power and the dangers of blind hero worship. It can discuss people’s choices when the system fails them and their different decisions on how to take matters into their own hand. It can show the dangerous and corrosive effects vigilantism has on a society (ugh, more personal beef from me against some fandom tropes, ANYWAYS) through some of vigilantism’s more extreme manifestations.

The implications and consequences involved here are pure Navi bait. And Hori and his team just.

The things going on right now in canon always, guaranteed, makes me so angry.

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Also, as a final insult to injury, Hori’s self-insert is basically Mineta, whose main character trait is being a repeatedly aggressive sexual harasser. Dude.

~~~

Idk if you really got anything out of this, I’ve been obsessively thinking about different parts and facets of the MHA universe for over a year now. My thoughts are just all over the place.

I still haven’t gone into the whole AFO situation from an organized crime perspective. Nor have I addressed the full impact of the ranking system on the hero industry as a whole, when you split heroes into a pyramid of the top elites, mid-tier, and bottom-tier groupings. Nor have I gone into all the wild potential and shenanigans of an elite, exclusive, and wealthy place like UA (that’s a whole fic in progress right now). Or about what kinds of social insecurities and concerns craft the look and feel of each generation of heroes.

There is just so much that can be explored in MHA, and since it’s a mainstream shonen, all it cares about is punching people real hard.

#the blah blahs #navi stirring up shit #MORE THINGS I DIDN'T TALK ABOUT #how does forensic evidence work here??#why does the CRC's attitudes seem to have no greater impact on the plot and world as a whole?#wouldn't it be ironic and hilarious if heroes #defenders of the innocent and protectors of the public #have the majority of their mass produced merchandise made through basically slave labor in foreign countries because thanks capitalism?#why aren't more people talking about money laundering #what's the attitude on criminal rehabilitation really like in bnha canon?#like shut up about protecting your favs in fic #is the hero industry really going to allow effective community support and rehabilitation to happen?#on an individual level they all have SO LITTLE incentive to actually support rehabilitation?#that's their KPIs on the line folks that's their salaries #WHYYYY is this world so cool with the human rights abuse going on left and right #just look at tartarus MASSIVE HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE RIGHT THERE FOLKS #it will never stop being hilarious to me how frequently this fandom forgets that quirk canceling technology DOESN'T EXIST #IT'S NOT CANON #the closest thing to quirk canceling technology in canon is overkill via physical restraints #where using your quirk will actively harm you #this is just all my beef with canon lmao #we haven't even covered my shit stirring urges in regards to popular fandom tropes

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