#my major and my life story etc are all abt. so there’s that too

[knightsickness]

For the saints ask, maybe the Blacks from the Dance era. Though I feel it would be more of a folk-saint type deal where it can be very controversial. I’ve wanted to do an ASOIAF book of saints as well, so I’ve thought about it quite a bit😄! The only one I could see being a canonized saint would be Jacaerys since he’s still fondly remembered and possibly Baela or Rhaena (though we don’t know much else about them). From the same era I can definitely see Helaena being canonized since she was probably the most beloved of Alicent’s children according to Fire and Blood. While I also picture Addam Velaryon being canonized too! Another more controversial one would probably be Daemon Blackfyre. I could picture him maybe being a folk-saint since he was described as ‘…he was the Warrior himself.’ Bloodraven as well, though due to how the common people viewed him, I’d say as another folk-saint (even more so since he seems much closer to the Old Gods than the Seven). Then finally (just to cut my rant short😅) I’d say Naerys, Aemon the Dargonknight, and Baelor the Blessed for obvious reasons😄. I could also see some saints being more ‘taboo’ in some regions of Westeros than others, even if canonized. I have a lot more but I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks about possible ASOIAF saints!

i think abt asoiaf saints a lot (i have a bunch of asoiaf/hotd saint posts from a while ago) + am happy other ppl r interested in them too ! saint cults and the canonisation process r part of my degree however i do think we disagree on some of the candidates

under a cut bc this is super long

my main criteria for identifying a potential saint are a) proximity to the seven (in the same way as proximity to life of christ - mostly seven pointed star + pre conquest semi-mythical figures, so hugor and his 44 children or ser galladon) and/or performance of miracles (e.g. baelor and the snakes) b) violent death preferably for the faith in some way (or martyrdom through self-denial or holy self-harm e.g. maegelle dying from the sickness she was tending or baelor’s fasting) c) pious enough for it to be noted in canon if a guy is remembered as ‘the devout’ he’s in d) noted for embodying one of the seven a famous mother a famous maiden a famous warrior e) opponent/victim of some major enemy of the faith because -> f) someone there is a political or economic benefit (especially to oldtown or the faith) to canonising. thomas becket was not spectacularly popular or saintly in life but died violently in a church because of a king the church already didn’t like his impossibly quick three year canonisation (usually took a decade at least) was incredibly politically charged. no candidate has to fit all of these one is enough to go on my maybe list and the more they fit the better

i also have a few things i think broadly exclude from formal canonisation so a) public affiliation with one of the other faiths (old gods rhollor etc) b) affiliation with witches/use of blood magic c) enjoying/having a lot of sex (esp if a woman) and d) this ones kicky and headcanon (but this is all headcanon) but formal brother-sister marriage. the faith never liked targ incest but puts up w it mainly bc of physical dragon intimidation i think they would still be twitchy about canonising incest saints. not saying there’s no targ saints but saying the ones i see for that mainly the ones that actively don’t do the targ incest thing baelor volcel-aemon septa rhaena magaelle. naerys an exception bc it was an established point in medieval virgin saint stories that rape did not count against your virtue + she was obviously a victim of an enemy of the faith famously super pious etc she ticks boxes

imo even though team black were broadly nicer and the kids remembered more fondly if you can give team green anything it’s that they branded themselves as the godly team against the godless team black heathens down to the ground they had that locked. even the green council debates pointedly moralising through a faith lens and esp considering its the firmly greenie oldtown making these calls i think its all easily spun that actually anything bad they ever did was in the name of the seven and trying to maintain andal tradition and keeping the realm out of rhaenyra’s sinful hands etc etc its all bullshit obviously. if the faith is feeling kicky enough to canonise people from the dance its not nice and liked but not especially pious jace its alicent saint of the mother struggling against godless incestuous targ traditions or gwayne hightower with a clear vested hightower interest or criston pious warrior died violently in a religiously charged conflict

baela and rhaena to me both also nice and well remembered they are generally popular political figures they just don’t have much to do with the faith i don’t think anyone’s attributing them theological significance. jace most likely of the strong boys to be a folk saint just bc he did more + still had the violent death but he just isn’t pointedly pious he’s in no way noted for faith which is fairly important even in small local cults. you don’t start to think this guy’s blood might do miracles bc he personally has god’s ear just on a whim

daemon blackfyre superr interesting candidate i think semi-canon folk saint considering we know people were taking pilgrimages to his death site to leave flowers. the fought like the warrior thing is fun bc its often restated clearly part of the narrative + v explicit seven link but maybe not formally canonised as the hightowers backed daeron. would like f&b2 to pass clearer judgement but folk saint daemon blackfyre really good. however do not see saint bloodraven even slightly sorry .. people did not love that guy they were scared of him he was infamously fucking a witch and is arguably the most famous old gods evil wizard westeros ever had. i’d buy saint aemond before saint brynden and aemond is NOT canonised

i think ur completely right abt the faith’s canon saints being controversial and not venerated everywhere - popularity of saints fluctuated based on usefulness of their patronage but also proximity to their major shrine points (usually birthplace or death site) bc being near a pilgrimage site was huge for the local economy, but also notable most medieval saints were from the classical world and so too far in the past to be very controversial. there is certainly a divide in real life between the historical life and the saint life of thomas becket, the standout new medieval saint, and the church could v much tell selectively

#asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #hotd #house of the dragon

[lunar-serpentinite]

i want to talk abt my headcanons and my au so bad but i have nowhere to talk abt it with outside of my friends' discord server 🥹👍 like hi hello would u like to hear abt my au that has :

tamil james who grew up wholly immersed in his culture and telugu lily who was adopted by a white british family, lived in a small and majority white town and never had any connection to her culture until she met james and sharanya (my name for the patil twins' mum) at hogwarts

swana black family who are older than the statute of secrecy— hell even britain itself as we know it— and who are literally out of the grasp of the ministry itself, are quite literally above everyone and everything else . theyre not impressed w voldy in any way at all cz theyve literally seen and survived worse than him .

jegulily happened bc jily offered asylum for regulus after he realised voldy is batshit insane and regulus needed to rethink all of his life choices including unlearning the blood supremacy bullshit he walked himself into

actually regulus who couldnt go back to his family out of humiliation after he apparently "lowered himself" for a "measly half-blood with a god complex" so he had to grit his teeth and shatter his pride a little more to turn to sirius for help

harry who only became the boy who lived at age five bc ancient potter magic let them hide from voldy better than a fidelius charm and no one dies but lily does get the reputation of being the one who landed the final blow on voldy

more lore on the other families like the lovegoods (greek, with ties to the og ancient greek oracles as well as the cults for demeter and persephone), malfoys (french, deeply intertwined w the french court / parliament what have you and a mysterious connection to the rhine), weasleys (scottish, protectors of ancient magical scottish groves who were driven away from their home), parkinsons (korean, hides their stories in the garment they create and may or may not have a past w gumihos) etc.

idk if u wanna hear more just ,,, hmu i guess ? idk 😭😭😭 the hyperfixation is just too strong i need to let it out

#harry potter #harry potter au #mine : au #mine : au headcanons #mine : nandhinis legacy au

[rpfisfine]

11, 38 and 40 😁

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ksenia thank you so much and im sorry for answering this almost a month late!!!

11. favorite game genre?

honestly im gonna be honest the most precise definition of it would be like a third person action-adventure type thing.....i like survival horror games a lot too but in general i only play them very occasionally because they stress me out too much (although i am going to start re4 any day now) i need a game to have like an actual full-fledged storyline so most storyless fps games wouldn't be for me and i do enjoy a good rpg or in the very least being able to approach missions in a variety of different ways (which is pretty much impossible with games made by rockstar for example) but i get anxiety when there's too many choices or features like an overwhelmingly large & extensive skill tree i know that ppl always view that as a perk but it genuinely took me 2 playthroughs to not be scared of the cp77 skill menu im sorry i will kill myself......i like to think i have expanded my gaming palate over the past couple of years and obvs i love life simulation games as well & stuff like stardew valley etc but i could not survive on them alone so i think action adventure things like gta & rdr & far cry are what i enjoy the most thumbs up

38. an unpopular gaming opinion that you have

THATS SO HARD.....do i even have one wait omg....generally i think most of my gaming opinions align with the majority but one i had no idea was controversial before i stepped foot into the rdr2 tag is that i think sadie & charles are literally the blandest and most uninteresting characters in rdr2.....its not that i hate them at all i enjoy their respective contributions to the story but its so fucking annoying that any criticism of them immediately gets you labeled as some kind of sexist and a racist bc just bc sadie is a woman and charles is black for me it was mostly just abt the disappointment of opening up the game tag and being like ohhhh...so you guys think These are the most interesting characters in the game...OK.... like i just find both of them rly flat and one-dimensional (although each in a completely different way) and not as fleshed out as the other characters and would honestly be pissed as fuck if rockstar gave into the demands of everyone asking for a spin-off or god forbid a standalone game featuring them as opposed to any other characters like...give me dutch & hosea or give me death

40. best game cover art

i think its gotta be ori and the blind forest bc like come on.....lets be serious for a moment...how can you compete against this

gaming asks

#THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! also sorry if this is too long there are too many dope words inside me #asks

[beepboop358]

hi i read all your byler slides and they’re awesome :)

i just wanted to mention something (byler proof) that ppl aren’t talking abt enough imo and i honestly didn’t know who better to tell than u

it’s the fact that stranger things is not the show to back away from having a queer romance at its forefront for sooo many reasons:

- queer coding from the v start of season 1 (this is something u talk abt but often ppl wash over the significance, especially knowing that the duffers are planners)

- shawn levy and dan cohen (producers) also produced ‘i’m not okay with this’ (cannon lesbian main who was gonna date her best friend/crush in later seasons) <- sounds familiar, and also proves that the producers are all for happy-in-love queer mains

i really don’t know why people don’t talk about this one ^

- considering how much duffers care about this show and how far they plan ahead, they don’t seem like the fan-service type. i trust them to stick with their guts and fight for the story they wanna tell.

- there’s already a lesbian main character on the show (who is developing a crush/love life and not just being funny!) and seems like the majority of viewers don’t hate it, considering the st4 v1 viewer numbers. so seems like losing viewers isn’t gonna happen (or not drastically at least)

and lastly

- netflix seems to be trynna step up the queer representation, especially in TV shows (heartstopper, young royals, bi casey in atypical, first kill, etc. coming out in the last couple of years) so i feel like they’d be chill with it too for diversity brownie-points

sorry this is so long. i just think it would be cool if u could idk get ppl emphasising this stuff more, bc i believe in byler optimism! :) also sorry to put this on u, i just don’t think that there’s a more influential byler than u. i would try but i have practically no followers and don’t rlly know how to reach ppl lmao.

anyways thanks again for the slides, u are very appreciated, and thanks for reading my ramble

have a good day/night

Hey anon!

aw thank you!! Also, I agree with everything you said! Couldn't have said it better myself :) and I loved reading this :))

Hope you're well! xx

#byler #byler s4 #byler is canon #byler proof

[godza]

small list of fave itch.io games (mostly dating sims bc those are silly) ALL FREE!

1. heart á la mode. you play as an office worker who is obsessed with a certain mascot character. only one route is available, but its so good. will make you squeal into a pillow. its very funny, thats one of the best parts. just play it and lament the lack of other routes.

2. who is the red queen? an alice in wonderland based yuri dating sim. very dark, you play as alice, who has been tasked with finding the missing body parts of the red queen strewn across wonderland. major tws for blood, suicide, gore, animal cruelty, etc. accessibility options too, you can turn on image descriptions and more. the mad hatter ending genuinely made me cry. just play this game. three endings, two love interests. and plenty of bad ends.

3. our life: beginnings and always. ok so i havent finished the game bc my computer hates me but its sooo cute. you grow up from childhood to adulthood with the boy next door. customizable character, you can pick pronouns, name, the whole shebang. you can customize the boy a bit too! the whole story molds around your choices. its a very pretty game, from the ui to the characters to the music, its a wonderful experience. i miss this game so bad. bunch of dlc if youre into that.

4. witches x warlocks. a fun halloween themed game where your raise your own stats and can find romance in the process! customizable protag with choosable pronouns! 4 love interests, 2 male (one dlc), 1 female, and 1 nonbinary (theyre my fave). quick (abt 1 hour) and cute! a little frustrating at times with resource management and the final obstacle, but all in all a cute game.

5. kim dokja’s budget adventure. one of these games is not like the others. not a dating sim, you just play as kim dokja and manage kimcom’s budget by making choices. silly and fun with no spoilers. playable in-browser!

#elises list #t #save #i just needed five games. also recc me games anytime

[spikeinthepunch]

spierverse 2 spoilers. but also a long post diving into Villains in recent (animated) movies

i dont rly plan to make any super long posts about all of this movie bc theres just SO much to think abt and a lot of people are saying what i would say. but i have thought a lot about the villain, The Spot. mostly in relation to my last fave animated movie's villains- Puss in Boots 2

PIB got a lot compliments for its villain(s). You had Goldilocks who was an antag but a character you can see some reason to sympathize with, but she isnt the big bad. You have Death who is a conflict to hinder Puss' progress, and then you Jack Horner who is a villain that you have no reason to feel bad for, as its shown many times how he is just a privileged ass. It was a movie that finally really had a bad villain you werent gonna see redeemed, and had no reason to see redeemed. Goldilocks was an antag as she was Puss' enemy but we had no reason to hate her, and her siding with them eventually made sense. Death's conclusion with Puss was less so any end for the Villain's arc but for a personal Arc Puss was facing that drove the main plot.

Many people saw this movie and were pointing out how bad Disney/Pixar's movies have been with villains. I cant even think of any villain in their last movies, theyre all so samey. and a lot are trying to be the same "oh well now you can feel a little bad for them because we showed some sad backstory!". its nice to have some times where theres a complicated grey antagonist that explores the divide in interests and pushes boundaries but thats not what Disney is doing.

Often times, Superhero movies have cut and dried villains. Not bad- its just that there is a formula. You have a guy with a name and a gimmick and they bad, they must be defeated. Even in comics where things get expanded on for backstories, sometimes with troubled pasts etc, it still doesnt change it? They don't get reformed and stop being the villain.

So lets look at the first Spiderverse before 2. Kingpin was the first (major) villain (along with some on the side) and they were established villains. The thing thats important with Kingpin is that while we were given information about why he is doing what hes doing, no one ever finds it as "okay". no one thinks they should just deal with it by fixing him or feeling bad for him, because Kingpin wouldnt take that. He IS awful, hes selfish and terrible. and Nothing he does outside of those personal feelings actually reflects that. Nothing else he normally does as a criminal is related to his family that he lost. These kinds of superhero villains are often already criminals with an intense violent history, and theyll keep being a criminal.

Going to Spiderverse 2, we get a villain thats a bit different, The Spot. Its interesting because he starts goofy- he actually is trying to be a criminal too actually. He decides because of his circumstances, he needs to rob and do things like that and its makes sense, he has no where to go. But hes so confident and normal about it, cocky etc, that you dont feel bad for him. hes not desperate or sad or begging with the weight of his sad backstory. Hes annoying, goofy, and no ones will take him as a serious criminal at first. And then he starts to explain more seriously what happened. And it STILL doesnt come across like a "woe is me" kind of story. He *still* annoying and cocky. he wants to be bad. he wants to destroy everything. Does it suck what happened to him? Yeah. Does it suck that it ruined his life?" of course. Do you want to redeem him? i mean no, i wouldnt. hes still a jerk. and thats the key thing.

you can have a villain who is relatable and grey but its not The Spot. Its not Kingpin. They had some kind of "tragedy" but they arent ever going to be good and you shouldnt use them as aan example and soften them up to be easily digested and garner sympathy with. thats just not the kind of story you can have all the time. you NEED to remind people, mostly kids, who the bad guys are. and the samey bland villains of disney havent stuck in my heads at all in recent years. its not to say their movies were all bad- i liked a lot of them (Encanto, Turning Red). But i can hardly recall any clear "villain" plot lines. Theres a time and place for those vague instances, and many times they just dont work because it makes the whole story so vague and directionless. It makes it hard to remember the key points when its not strong enough from its other elements.

I just feel like we are losing classic villains because people for some reason started to think it was boring and we needed more "nuance" but this "nuance" isnt.....that. its bland written media by big studios that cant actually have morally grey characters because it would actually be too sensitive for people.

[scattered-winter]

also for your oc ask game: !! i am very curious about your creatures/monsters!

I'll tell u abt some things from a vague fantasy concept I have !! I actually originally came up with these creature concepts to fit in with a fantasy au from an existing fandom + characters but I ended up liking them so much that I've started developing the worldbuilding itself separate from the au so I can eventually fit it into one of my oc stories <3 as of right now I don't actually have any ocs for this particular story setting BUT I have the world ready for ocs pretty much at any time so as soon as I think of them I'll have a whole story pretty much ready <33

so first: the cats <3

they're like. large cats (lions, leopards, tigers, etc) except they're BIG. like. tryna think of a good comparison but if you've seen the legend of korra, they're about as big as naga, the polar bear dog

speaking technically, there are breeds of giant cat that are pretty much really, really big housecats that civilians have in their households (usually to pull wagons or lift things, or sometimes they're just pets) but the cats I like to talk about are the slightly wild ones (lions, tigers, etc). they're the oldest species of giant cat, and all the domesticated ones are their descendants (like a wolf + dog situation) and they're the biggest and most dangerous. additionally, they're intrinsically linked to knights because as part of their training, a knight will choose a kitten (about the size of a small golden retriever <3) to become his battle companion for life. he will raise the cat and train it, and they will have a mystical bond that ties them together in ways most people can't even imagine. they can sense each other's emotions, and it's like. a tether . sorta tying them together. if a knight has a partner or kids or anyone he's particularly close to, the cat will sort of psuedo-bond with them (there isn't really an actual Bond but the cat will protect them like they were the knight himself) and if either the knight or the cat dies, the tether snaps, and losing a cat is considered one of the absolute worst tragedies that could happen because it's like losing a part of yourself. if a knight loses a cat he is able to get a new one, but a lot of knights don't do it because it's too painful to reopen the bond. and if a cat loses his knight, usually the pain of the severed bond drives them completely feral and they need to be taken down, or released into the wild unless the knight had family who could take care of it instead.

royal families also traditionally have cats, but they're more of a sign of status than an actual battle companion/steed. but since I love knights so much (not a secret to anyone who's been here for a while) I figured this worldbuilding would probably be centered around knights and their cats because <333333333

and I'll also talk about the hound!!! I've touched on it before on my blog but couldn't find the posts alas, so I'll try to sum everything up:

basically, the hound is an ancient eldritch horror that haunts the darkest corners of the world. it's passed into legend and so stories have spread, and so people will say it's a giant wolf, or a dragon dog, or a bunch of other things, but none of them are actually right. it isn't even organic matter!! it's basically a cocktail of dark spells and curses and black magic all compressed together like a neutron star and it takes the form of a giant shadowy dog. it has huge teeth and claws that can retract like a cat, and their full length is about a foot and a half long, and its claws and teeth also infect anyone who is bitten/scratched with death magic that slowly leeches away at their life force until they basically become a husk. like a zombie except it answers only to the hound. the husks are relatively easy to kill, but they can also spread the death magic infection to others, so if left unchecked it could be a major fucking problem. however if the hound kills its prey, they won't like. resurrect as a husk or anything. they have to be alive to be infected. back in the day the hound's handlers (the wizards who created it) would send it after their enemies, and the hound would track them all the way across the continent, and probably even across oceans too. it's manifested by shadows so it only shows up at night, but it will constantly track its prey until its dead. nowadays though, the hound has been around for thousands of years (long enough that it's more legend than anything else) and its handlers (the successors of the creators) don't really have a lot of information about what that thing really is. a lot of it was lost over the ages in what's basically a game of telephone, and each new generation of handler had less of an idea of what the hound is, so by now, the handlers have NO idea what theyre really dealing with.

the hound's ONLY weakness is light (life) magic. one of the most fundamental laws of the magic system is that Everything Has An Equal Opposing Force. no matter how powerful the spell is, there will ALWAYS be something equally powerful that can counter it. and each class of magic has an opposite class that can cancel it out. and because the hound is pure dark (death) magic, light magic is the natural opposite, and the only thing that can really stop the hound. unfortunately, light magic is practically extinct, and so if you're being hunted by the hound your only real chance at survival is rediscovering a magic discipline that hasn't been around for centuries <3

(the magic system has a LOT more moving parts but these are the ones that apply to the hound so. <3)

also, the hound has been EVOLVING all this time, so it's even MORE of an unknown. it's literally pure fucking evil, because it's made entirely of evil spells, and it's been programmed to be pure evil, but as time goes on, it starts gaining a bit of sentience. it was created to only follow the orders of its handlers, but as it learns and grows, the hound starts developing free will, and it starts hunting and killing because it loves the thrill of the hunt, not because it was ordered to. and eventually, down the line, it turns on its handlers and is unleashed without anyone holding it back or controlling it. and I figure Plot would happen when the main characters (whoever they are) go out to stop the hound and the potential husk zombie apocalypse but this fantasy story doesn't have any characters yet lmao. I have the worldbuilding and the setting, but it's not populated yet 😔

I've done a shitty little sketch of the thing also:

when it moves it has a sort of. anime flower petal effect except its with little particles of shadow floating off its body <3 also it can stand on its hind legs and when it does, its movements are super stilted and jerky and horror movie-esque, but when it's down on all fours it moves so smoothly and gracefully that it's terrifying in the OTHER direction because it moves like a Peak Predator. <3

ask me abt my original stuff !!

#the hound is one of my fav creations tbh. #i loove the giant cats too but thats just because i want a cat soo badly and im living vicariously by imagining a cat #big enough to ride #but i am first and foremost a lover of fucked up beasts and so the hound is DELIGHTFUL to me <3 #rattle-em-spooky-jones 🦴 #ty for asking i was giggling and twirling my hair this entire time <333 teehee

[kinosternon]

same person who asked abt ur opinion on the movie! i think you made good points; i again didnt actually watch it mostly bc idk how to access it so i cant really gauge the flow of it, for lack of a better word, but from the plot of it i felt like it was too many things pushed together. notably i feel like kinjou’s involvement was unecessary, i dont understand why theyd add another character to the ensemble in the movie closing off the series when we have SO many characters at play already.

i know albert and specifically haru and albert’s rivalry/rship drives a lot of the swimming plot but similarly to kinjou i dont think it was necessary to get into a whole other backstory and angst about another character to achieve the same themes message conclusion etc.

you’re right that expectations probably play a big role in how you receive the movie - personally i think more could have been done to actually tie off the major conflicts amongst characters, but i guess free! has always dealt with conflict through swimming so i cant actually complain. i do wish that we could have seen hiyori and ikuya’s rship (ie their conflicts and development) a little bit more bc thats one of the most unresolved plot points from past seasons imo.

anyway thank you for responding to my question! your insight was rlly interesting :)

These are very good points, honestly, and they reflect a lot of the more...unconventional storytelling decisions KyoAni made with Free! So I hope you're ready for another short essay about them :D

But I'd argue that the "let's add new characters instead of solving old problems" thing has been showing up from the beginning. Like, I agree it's weird! But they did it in season 2, with the addition of Sousuke, and again in s3 with Hiyori and Ikuya. (And as they're officially my favorite, I feel like I've somewhat lost the right to complain about it lmao)

And speaking more broadly...it's kind of like life, isn't it? Especially for young adults. The biggest problems are not easily solved (or even easily recognized), and new people keep coming into our lives, recontextualizing those old problems in new ways. That and the decision to build the story backwards as intensely as they did forwards were some pretty innovative-feeling storytelling choices, at least from my perspective.

As for adding Kinjou and Albert, and HiyoIku development: (more spoilery stuff below)

Kinjou's arc really didn't make sense till this finale, even though it was really started off in the Road to the World movie (which was mostly a Dive to the Future rehash) where he randomly threatens Hiyori at the end. The setup seems to have started from (roughly) there, so this direction had to have been planned from at least that far back. (..."Road to the World" indeed. Huh.) And by the end, his role felt absolutely essential to me given the direction Haruka's arc went in.

Basically, Kaede acts as a really direct foil for Haruka's arc in the final film.

Most importantly, he has secondhand (but intense) familiarity with the risks Haruka seems to be taking for granted, and it's his choices more than anyone's that lead to Haruka making it to and winning the final race STRIKEalive and relatively unharmed.

Moreover, his relationship with swimming is so interesting to compare to Haruka's. It's not that Kaede was always a talented swimmer! He actually got started pretty late, and for reasons that didn't have to do with the water at all! Instead, it's implied that he started swimming seeking a place to belong, because he couldn't find one outside of it. And when he lost the person he was closest to and was rejected by Hiyori others, he became even more dedicated to swimming, seemingly at least a little out of spite.

This isn't Haruka's relationship with swimming at all! And yet, a lot of the underlying factors keeping them focused are similar—they're just more explicit in Kaede's case. (More than once in the film, via flashback, Kiyofumi tells him things like "swimming will become something that accepts you," which between that and his extremely ND vibes as a kid? Implies to me that he faced a lot of rejection growing up.) And yet he still is more aware than anyone else of the very real risks Haruka is taking, when the people around him are intentionally letting them slide.

Because—this is important—who else was going to tell Haruka to stop literally risking his life, just to win against Albert? Ryuuji tries, but ultimately, can only do so much. Almost everyone else looks up to Haruka too much to tell him to stop, and know him just well enough to believe that he wouldn't listen if they tried.

The only real options, to me, would've been Sousuke, Hiyori, Rin, or Makoto:

Sousuke does actually try in the movie, but he just isn't close enough to Haruka to be able to make much impact.

Hiyori already went through all this with Ikuya once, more or less, and deserves a break. Actually, I kind of wonder whether on a creative level Kaede was introduced as closest to him because he didn't really turn out to be dickish enough to get this job done.

Rin could've been quite interesting! And he seems relatively well-positioned to do this, especially with his very visible concern for Haruka throughout the movie. But even though he's finally making real steps to repair some of the interpersonal issues he's had with Haruka from the beginning...he's still really inspired by him and wants him to compete. Plus there's the problem that everyone who knows Haruka well comes up against—knowing how deep his passion goes, and not wanting to fight him on it.

Makoto...see, this would have been another place where the movie could've happened very differently, I feel. What if Ryuuji had pushed Makoto, not Rin, to try to reach Haruka? What if Haruka's well-being had ended up depending directly on Makoto finally managing to drill it into Haruka's head that he cares about him himself—not as an abnormal person and not as a prodigy? But instead, by this point Makoto's so worried about hurting Haruka's chances or their relationship (possibly remembering their s2 argument that was never fully resolved??) that he's actually more willing than Rin (or at least agrees first) to let Haruka keep hurting himself in the name of his dream.

(Actually, one weird dark-horse option would be Albert himself? But the timing doesn't really work on that.)

But with Ryuuji's tragic backstory (of Kiyofumi) already added in and everything, Kaede was really uniquely positioned to do the job he does regarding Haruka.

And speaking of Albert: I'd actually agree that a lot of his stuff felt shoehorned in, but I get why they did it—it adds an "international" level to the rivalries that's pretty necessary, given that the world championships are the final setting. Then as far as backstory goes, Free! has always been about coming to understand people's situations/perspectives better to overcome conflict with them. Haruka's journey with Albert (or vice-versa) is about him coming not to hate Albert's swimming, and showing Albert's issues to the audience helps make him relatable as that happens.

I enjoy that they tried to make a character like Albert work (even though his English lines made me cringe a little bit, especially this time around). I just...don't think they quite got there.

Then there's Hiyori and Ikuya. So. I say this with absolute love for them and their dynamic, but like—drama was never going to be the main fix for HiyoIku, because they're both predisposed to being dramatic in a way that is frankly part of the problem. Instead, Hiyori's development seems to come from both settling into a healthier role supporting Ikuya, and also learning to lighten up a bit and think about people other than him. Kaede plays a surprisingly important role here, as do Kisumi and Ikuya's friends. Even littler moments like his exposure to the disaster (at least on the surface) that Rin and Haruka's interactions often are probably had an impact. Ikuya's development, OTOH, mostly comes in the form of getting to know Rin and realizing that he isn't the only person in Haruka's orbit, while also making friends in general after years of acting like a loner. (Sousuke is a particularly good influence on both Hiyori and Ikuya, I think.)

So overall, getting away from the drama of everything after basically being the center of the drama for Dive to the Future is probably a welcome reprieve where they're concerned. And we did get to see them have a very pleasant convo pre-Ikuya's final race that hints that they're much better adjusted than they were, so for me it was an exercise in faith that they've worked on their shit more behind the scenes.

#free! the final stroke second part #free! spoilers #haruka nanase #kaede kinjou #albert volandel #hiyori toono #ikuya kirishima #sousuke yamazaki #if you're wondering if I'm aware of the irony in my position on HiyoIku drama: the answer is yes. #I am and I'm having a good time anyways (lol) #meta rant #disclaimer that I am not an expert and am just having fun here #after watching the movies a bunch to figure out what was happening #in conclusion though: it WAS a lot and there are SO MANY BOYS #thanks for coming to my ted talk lol

[kae-karo]

i hope this doesn't come across as rude or bothersome but you mentioned in another ask that you use your discord server for fic planning/writing/taking notes, and i was wondering whether you'd like to show or give some insight on it? like what channels and how it's built up essentially? it sounds pretty convenient and i was wondering what it looks like! (maybe it'd be something for me who keeps notes scattered in different docs and note apps and analog on grocery receipts.......)

hi dear!! oh my gosh not rude or bothersome at all lmao i'm more than happy to talk abt it! (i'm gonna put it below the cut tho cause it's a long boi)

ya so basically i have a personal discord which tbh i use for a LOT of stuff (beyond just fic planning) and i honestly can't recommend it enough??? generally apart from fic specific stuff i use it as a cache for links to art i really like or share often, random thoughts on genshin lore or other things, poetry, gift ideas for ppl in my life, to-do lists, cosplay concepts when i was more into cos, etc lmao

as for fic planning specifically!! the vast majority of my thoughts fall into a 'other projects' channel, which is my catchall for oneshot ideas, vague fic concepts, quotes, etc. fics end up with their own specific channel usually if they're longfic/chaptered or if i end up with just an overwhelming amount of ideas/thoughts about them lmao

one actually good diverse example of a channel i had was for chosen (x) where i had a TON of reference images for various zhongli imagery and symbols & i detailed out a lot of the thoughts i had on where those images should be carved on childe. i had a variety of scene ideas laid out although not all of them had a ton of detail, and i had dialogue snippets that i really wanted to use. i also wrote in a lot of the lore to make sure i had a coherent place to reference or adjust if needed, including some stuff that really didn't make it into the fic itself but needed to make sense in the background so that i could pull on it as required. notes as well for things i wanted to be sure to mention, cause they were relevant to the story but didn't come up right away or were part of the foreshadowing or i thought they needed clarifying somewhere.

i'm sure there are ways to be more efficient or organized about a fic, but this works well for me since i have discord on my phone and it's far less effort to pop into a channel and write some stuff down rather than navigate gdocs and look for a planning doc and make notes there. PLUS i only ever had planning docs usually for a fic i knew would be chaptered/long from the start, and didn't really have anywhere to put short ideas or random thoughts lmao

basically, here's my writing category in discord:

although looking at this i could probably hide the kathb fic channel now that i'm done writing it lmao (i usually hide channels when the fic is finished, just so i don't overcrowd anything but don't lose stuff either lmao)

notes in these channels can manifest in a lot of ways but USUALLY it's dialogue or scene ideas that come to me when i'm busy with other stuff and i want to put down, or when it's something that won't happen for a while but idw forget (i am very forgetful). or just generally when i sit up at 3am with the perfect string of prose for a scene and i have to write it down RIGHT NOW or i'll lose it. this happens often enough that i keep my phone on my other projects discord channel when i go to bed so that if i do indeed wake up with an idea, i can just unlock my phone and start typing lmao

occasionally, i have actual research on certain things in those channels, or a timeline if things start to get messy (if you followed me in my bnha days, i had a channel for my fantasy dabihawks au that spiraled into a whole series and i really needed a coherent timeline for that) but for the most part it's scene and dialogue ideas! oh, and sometimes if there's art or smth that inspired the idea, i'll toss it in there too so i can reference it or be sure that i link to it when i post the fic. ah, and sometimes it's just stuff like this with minimal context lmao

one of the bigger things for me that works really well is my other projects channel tho? that allows me to string stuff together and pin ideas and reply to other messages so i know what the heck i'm referring to when i just slap a line of dialogue or smth in there lmao. cause it used to be super hard for me to feel like a fic was gonna warrant its own planning gdoc, and something about putting a ton of notes directly into the fic doc below where i'm writing just never worked all that well for me lmao

it also serves as a great place for me to dump ideas and refer back to them easily, or expand upon them without having an actual fic doc somewhere? like, i have ideas i haven't actually started writing but i've added lots of notes and thoughts and stuff for, so it's great to have that somewhere easily accessible and searchable and all in one spot lmao

i'd say if ur standard modus operandi has been scattered notes everywhere, this is a huge upgrade in terms of being able to not only keep everything in one place but separate it out in an efficient way (you could probably get more efficient than i am, too, like having a category for specific ships/fandoms or even for a specific fic with channels for more specific purposes like research or dialogue or character notes, etc) - like, the whole thing is searchable, too, so if you misplace something or can't find it, you can still search for it in one single location. overall, cannot rec enough lmao

hope this helped a bit!!

#ask #anon

[lucifers-writing]

Original blog (pls check this one out too): @coven-of-cards

Hey, this is a writing blog for the host of the Coven of Cards System, I encourage you to read all of this before requesting or checking out the blog please!!

Fandoms I will write for

- Miyagi-Verse (all movies + cobra Kai)

- Star Wars

- The Outsiders

- Original pieces (own stories off the top of my head or book ideas I have planned out)

- Pokémon (I’ll try my best lol)

- Marvel/DC (not as much but I’ll try)

———————————————

Boundaries

Things I will, won’t, and will maybe write (This is for all my fics in general)

👍

- Fluff. OMG I LIVE FOR FLUFF. I LOVE JUST READING WHOLESOME STUFF ITS SO CUTE AND MAKES ME SO HAPPY. If u have a fluff request PLEASE drop a comment or send ur requests in my ask box! I love hearing your ideas!

- Angst. I love angst just as much as I love fluff! We gotta make the readers cry sometimes, that’s life. Just like with fluff, if u have an angst request, please drop a comment! Remember, this includes violence, major/minor character death, etc

- DIVERSITY. LIVE LAUGH LOVE DIVERSITY!!! POC characters? Bet, just don’t change the characters ethnicity or race! I will never make a character a different race than they actually are (example I won’t make a black character white or vise versa) but if a character doesn’t have a canon race and their race isn’t obvious, I will do my research! Queer characters? OMG YES!! Again, I won’t change a character’s canon sexuality. But if a character doesn’t have a canon sexuality, I’m willing to experiment! I have no problem headcanoning a character as bisexual. But (example) I won’t make a lesbian character bisexual for a story just bc someone asked me to. I find that to be disrespectful. I also will definitely have characters that are neurodivergent. As someone who is neurodivergent, I find it hard to find stories with a Y/N who rlly shows what anxiety feels like, or any mental disorder for that matter. So if you want to request a character who is neurodivergent, I’m all for it! I’ve always headcanoned Tommy (karate kid) to have ADHD and Jimmy (karate kid) to have social anxiety. If you request a certain mental disorder I don’t know much about, I will research the disorder first so it may take a little longer than usual! Anyways, I’m all for diversity and will have lots of diverse OCs and if requested, Y/N stories too!

- Ships!! Both platonic and romantic. I will not ship real people like actors though. I’m also all for writing abt ships that aren’t my own, again, love diversity! I personally don’t ship Lawrusso(karate kid) that much but I think they’re hella adorable and would love to write a Lawrusso fic in the future. Also, again, just bc I love diversity doesn’t mean I won’t write about heterosexual couples too. You ship Tommy and Susan and are struggling to find a fic abt them? I gotchu! It’s not a crime to like a ship that is not queer!

- A lil bit of spice. A little make out session will always be okay with me. I will only write the kissing, anything beyond that is considered smut in my eyes. So if u want a lil kissing then that’s alr. Kissing in general will always be okay with me, kissing in general falls under the fluff section. Making out has its own section.

- Crack fics. Another type of writing I love is comedy. I’ll write stories purely just about a group chat of people doing stupid shit. Or incorrect quotes bc you have to love those.

- Alcohol/drugs/smoking. News flash, most of my stories are gonna be karate kid/cobra Kai/the outsiders themed. Or just 80s movies and general. And guess what? During those movies everyone is smoking and drinking and having a whiff of cocaine once in a while. I’m not uncomfortable with writing about this type of stuff, but if you are remember I will always read back and add trigger warnings.

- Other alternate universes. Uhm, we need these! I love doing the occasional soulmate AU or a fantasy realm AU! It’s just such a fun way to add a little twist to the stories. If you want a crossover, it depends on if I’ve seen the movies or not but I’ll try my best.

- Gore. There are times I will write it and times I won’t. If it’s gore to get off, absolutely not. If it’s gore for angst, yes. If it’s gore for a horror story, yes. If it’s gore because I’m writing a fanfic/ one shot of a fandom that involves a lot of violence (examples are movies Star Wars), yes. Fantasy, yes. I will not write gore for you to get your rocks off or just to take pleasure in because that makes me uncomfortable. If gore is written, it is strictly for angst, horror, fantasy, etc.

- Headcanons for characters. I’ll do headcanons for characters, readers (as long as the request has enough info about the specific reader to do so), and same with OCs. Also, if requesting headcanons for a certain reader and your boundaries are different than mine (example not okay with kissing, PDA, etc) then tell me, and don’t be ashamed to tell me.

———————————————

Maybes

- Smut. This is definitely more on the no side. I’ve never written smut but like, it’s whatever the reader wants. I’ll try my best. Lists of things I won’t write in smut will be in the ‘no’ section. Anything on smut that’s a maybe will be on here, obviously. Also the smut will not be detailed, and will most likely just hint at it so pls don’t get your hopes up.

- Requests. It sounds bad at first but let me explain. If you comment a request once and wait, I will try my best to do it! Keep in mind I am busy and have a life outside of social media. But I won’t accept a request if it breaks my boundaries or you spam my comments with a certain request. If you do the first one, I’ll remind you to read my boundaries before requesting and if you continue to disrespect my boundaries, I’ll block you and you can’t read my stories. As for the second one, I’ll simply ignore you and if that doesn’t work I’ll block you. So don’t do those two things please.

- x female reader. I’m sorry to say this (truth hurts) but female readers have 50x the amount of writing content than male readers have. I can’t find a single Star Wars x male reader fic, can’t find a single Karate kid x male reader fic without smut that I haven’t written myself, and it sucks. And if it is a male reader, it’s usually a heterosexual couple. Nothing wrong with heterosexual couples, but queer male readers exist too. So I will only rarely write content for female readers. If it’s a WLW ship, then of course I’ll write than for you. But heterosexual ships are simply not my specialty.

———————————————

🚫

- Pro-shipping. Any pro-shippers are not allowed on any of my blogs. If I find out you’re a pro-shipper, you’re getting blocked.

- Zoophilia. Y’all are weird.

- Rape, dub-con, and non-con. All of these make me very uncomfortable and will simply never be written. Call me boring, call me rude, but I don’t think it’s healthy to get off to rape. This is a safe space page and will stay that way.

- Pedophilia or large age gaps. I think this explains itself. No minor x adult, no large age gaps (4-5 years is my limit. Nothing over that. And 4-5 is still on thin ice.)

- Omegaverse. It simply makes me uncomfortable. Anything to do with breeding makes me uncomfortable. So I’m sorry but if you’re into that, you won’t be getting it here.

- Kinks I will never write: CNC, scat, piss, spit, extreme choking, slapping/spanking, any form of hitting basically, pet play, age play (age regression does not count), whipping, rimming (I know a lot of people r gonna get annoyed at that but I just hate it. Any form of eating someone out makes me very uncomfortable.) These all make me uncomfortable and there are no ways to wiggle around them.

- Kinks I will add trigger warnings for: Extreme BDSM, any form of gags or covering the mouth, slight choking (even just a hand resting over the neck. This does not include someone lovingly holding the side of the neck), finger sucking, religious kinks as long as it’s respectful, (and usually I’ll add a warning for just the smut itself but these are specific kinks I will point out), degrading, uses of the safe word, inappropriate use of the force. And after smut I will ALWAYS WRITE AFTERCARE BC AFTERCARE IS SEXY ASF.

- Full on smut. The closest thing to smut you’re ever going to get on this page are hints that it happened, suggestive language, making out, and skipping the action but knowing that’s what happened. I’m leaving the smut to your imagination but I will never write it full on.

I am begging you on my hands and knees to KEEP YOUR REQUESTS INSIDE MY BOUNDARIES.

———————————————

Characters I will write for

Star Wars:

Also note, the reason a lot of Luke and Leia’s stories will be kinda tied together is because they are twins, we don’t do incest on this blog

- Luke Skywalker (PLEASE HE’S MY FAVORITE PLS REQUEST FOR HIM I LOVE HIM)

- Sith!Luke Skywalker (unpopular opinion but Sith Luke is such a cool idea)

- Farmboy!Luke Skywalker (can you tell I like Luke Skywalker?)

- Mechanic!Luke Skywalker (you can can’t you?)

- Literally any other AU!Luke Skywalker (send requests NOW /nf)

- Leia Organa (she was my bi awakening)

- Farmer!Leia Organa (ESPECIALLY if it’s Luke being a prince instead of a farmer, but I’ll make them both farmers too because both are cool ideas)

- Sith!Leia Organa (especially if Luke is also a Sith, but him as a Jedi instead is also accepted)

- Royal AU!Leia Organa (where both her and Luke are royals/political figures, but Luke can just be a regular farmer too if you want)

- Literally any other AU!Leia Organa (send requests within my boundaries)

- Han Solo (I thought he was kinda mean when I was 4 but like, 🤷)

- Request AU’s for Han Solo bc I don’t have much for him

- Chewie, Yoda, etc and all must be platonic/family

- Poe Dameron, request AUs

- Finn (FN-2187)

- Stormtrooper!Finn (omg imagine if the reader is a general or a rebel?! I’m giving you guys ideas)

- Actually rebel!Finn (where he was actually a rebel and didn’t lie about it lol)

- Just gonna say now if you have any other AU’S about characters besides ones I’ve listed just request

- Din Djarin (I think that’s how you spell it?)

- Sith!Din (read a fic like this once)

- Regular dude!Din Djarin (where he’s not a mandolorian)

- Kylo Ren (I want to boop his nose)

- Jedi!Kylo Ren (this was a cool concept in my head)

- Padawan!Kylo Ren (could be training under Luke still, training under the reader, just giving ideas)

- Ben Solo (yes they will be different, Ben Solo will be used if he’s just a regular guy and Kylo Ren is for any Jedi or Sith AUs)

- OCs x reader (OC must belong to the reader or have permission from the person owning the OC)

- General Hux

- Anything else, send requests

The Outsiders

(For this I’ll be more strict because most of these characters are minors)

- Ponyboy Curtis (ONLY MINORS AND NO SMUT)

- Johnny Cade (ONLY MINORS AND NO SMUT)

- Dallas Winston (I think he’s 17 so 16+ only and no smut)

- Two-Bit Matthews

- Darry Curtis

- Sodapop Curtis (16-17 only and no smut)

- Bob Sheldon (I think he is 18?)

- Cherry (16 and no smut)

- Marcia

- Randy

Request AUs

———————————————

Any other fandoms, I’ll write for any character and rules still apply. No proshipping here.

#the outsiders #karate kid #kk1 #kk #Star Wars

[vzyee]

gonna collect my thoughts on on earth we're briefly gorgeous since i finally read it after four years of it being the biggest thing in every sphere. preface is that i know this was like landmark literature & i can acknowledge that while also you know griping.

so first of all i thought this was straight up memoir when i read it due to assuming it was an extension of his more autobiographical poetry.

i made a joke abt how it reminded me of barry s3 but its like, the comparison is nearly there. turning from just depthless ancient sadness to like, extremely contemporaneous colloquial language and stylings. which isn't to say that the depictions of generational trauma in gorgeous (ancient sadness) are necessarily more remote/removed of course & in a lot of ways the early aughts details are alienating when you'd expect them to be grounding.

i also noticed how neatly this fits into the like goldfinch genre which im always going on about. obviously it borrows quite a bit thematically from the big gay dark academia epics (art trauma and memory) although crucially the academia element is sort of plucked out of the story. he goes to college this seems like it would have major implications in the narrative of americanness and yet it's barely factored in. and further barbara kingsolver totally did the whole first day on the tobacco farm thing in demon copperhead down to the gloves being too big. i'm calling dc a big etc gay novel even though it barely is because it also to me derives from that same tradition. However. and the point is. it disrupts that genre primarily by not being an epic. Like the prose is actually very efficient. a lot of the scenes are precisely what they are. to my taste i actually like a very long unwinding of every mood and development from one stage of life & being to the next & i do think. gorgeous accomplishes a lot of that even if nonlinearly. but for instance in the "sometimes being offered tenderness" scene, that felt to me like a moment that could have been more thoroughly arrived at as something that fundamentally changed the terms of little dog & trevor's relationship and their understanding of their place in their own & each other's lives. but instead it is so distilled. which is interesting. in a lot of other ways obviously it doesnt seem like theres a ton of disruption as with the dramatization of violence, drugs, intense angst etc and the very knowing floaty tone of the narration. which i did not appreciate as much.

last big point had to do with like, maturity of voice. to me this still seemed absolutely like . well a debut novel. an early work. i've read some of night sky with exit wounds and i have some familiarity otherwise with vuong but i don't think i've read anything more recent than gorgeous. i really like ocean vuong in interviews and i think he's immensely quotable which is a gift some writers have whether due to insight & reflection or just composure both of which are very impressive. vuong i think has both. however i think the impression i got over and over in gorgeous was that his voice either hasn't fully developed or he's still coming to terms with how to use it in practice. i think about this a lot, like what the metric is for a "mature" and "developed" individual voice vision style whatever in writing. basically it's when your conviction matches the level of your ambition & i did not see true conviction here. which is not a bad thing in and of itself in a novel of fragmentation disorientation and resistance. but amid the confusion and the immense efforts of the narrator to preserve recollect and reassemble there are still these grand poetic gestures of generalization summary and aphorism. once again "sometimes being offered tenderness feels like the very proof that we've been ruined" (one of the most successful attempts at generalization i think).

also he says somewhere in an interview that he's working against legibility which i'm not entirely sure he does. he mentions genre bending and the inclusion of for instance butterfly and opioid trivia, he mentions nonlinearity. all of this though is honestly more or less digestible, and the novel is actually fairly rigidly structured. Especially with the amount of im gonna call them tropes maybe cliches. that dictate the general plot progression. quite legible. & i feel even stronger abt that now that i realize those actually were conscious authorial placements and not like, real life experiences that just happened to follow a highly exaggerated narrative arc. which genuinely confused me when i was reading i thought he had to be at least embellishing. and he was

[munamania]

16, 23, 25

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc.)

this'll quickly get into petty territory ok let's see. well so i think in general the cookie cutter fandom trope tendencies suck absolute ass and take all the fun out of actually playing with character dynamics and like. analyzing them idk!!! like it's BORING not everyone fits into. golden retriever/black cat dumb/smart fucking. idk you get it. you're taking away what's compelling and unique abt individual people and stories and writing. i think people did that to robin and nancy a bit and it made me want to scream and turned me away from the fandom quicker cause they were the last part of s4 i found myself caring abt. and let me just say this. it's like people are so goddamn annoying in general about gay ships and i wont pretend like ppl are just cool and great about gay male ships but like. at least SO many people get into them that you're bound to get some actually interesting content. it's fucking bleak out here for the lesbians when people just immediately try to slot them into top/bottom etc dynamics. and don't engage with them as separate characters at all. defining women by their relationships except theyre both women(ish) so you're just making them uninteresting overall. sorry ik it's not that serious esp when the majority of the fans of lesbian ships are queer girls. anyway then they dont even engage with het relationships or the people that do are ppl are like. genuinely cishet and i'd not... interact w them on here idk lol. also i ended up getting pissy about bi steve bc ppl were so anti nancy being anything but hyperheterosexual when to ME, formerly dykenance, she had the markings of a lesbian. she had a very clearly sorta close tense jealous etc friendship and she gets NONE of the love. idc actually abt bi steve like it's fine wider fandom just pissed me off. we all know this.

23. ship you've unwillingly come around to

ummm i dont think i've been super anti anything personally let me think. ummmm. idk why i can only think of st this is absurd i dont even engage with that much anymore. like i guess jonathan and steve i used to not care about but now im like yeah sure kings. why not. oh also faberry lol. cause rachel used to annoy me too much but now im like well in her own committed dream annoying teen girl way she was kinda hilarious... and i think they were in weird lesbian love and that was lost along the way but in my heart they rekindled after high school maybe. at some point. like quinn came to one of her big shows... idc

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

i think b*lers need to just have fun with their ship and not care about canon that much. like yes yeah gay rep etc whatever but u dont even seem like you're having fun u just want to be right. anyway. GENERALLY it's fucking hilarious to me when people bring up idk media literacy and -coding and etc but it's very evident that they have not ever ever taken a film class in their life or. engaged with media analysis outside of fandom contexts. babes dont try to just use words to sound smart. also again generally stop just advertising or criticizing a show based on Gay Representation. also don't complain about female characters not being well written when u dont engage with them regardless over any possible man that you can. sorry just complaining abt the same shit over and over. ME hi im the problem it's me. jk im not wrong

let me be a haterrrr <3

#certifiedhaterdyke era #asks #long post

[berryunho]

LOL sorry omg i really died. like am still dying. i spent all day yesterday crying over my coursework and shit but i talked to that guy and he really knocked some sense into me and told me to not be so hard on myself... so now im crying internally and not externally 😭

ive been thinking about it now and i think i might switch majors for the sake of my sanity bc real talk the amount of work is insane and i cant properly function it's crazy out here idk how people do this... i was thinking maybe health sci since i already have most of the credits for the degree and ive always wanted to be involved in the healthcare field... im gonna see my academic advisor on monday and see what they say because holy guacamole i want to be able to enjoy school w/o crying every time i think about it

omg that got long but those have been my thoughts for the past few days BUT ANYWAY that's so good!!!! im so happy for you big brain energy we love to see it!! ive got a biochem midterm this week (which is the cause of my mental breakdowns BUT KLSJFRG) and ochem is in 2 weeks but as i said might change majors and ochem is not necessary... so i'll prob drop it haha

the last season was so good. i found it a bit slow in the beginning but once it picks up it's going like i could not stop watching it!! i havent watched bcs but i heard it gets better near the end again?? ive watched el camino tho

that's how i felt abt crocheting at first like im the type of person to try something for a little bit and then give up right after but honestly!!! it's so fun because you can make all kinds of different things like clothing, bags, accessories and it's so fun!! i've been picking up knitting too and i've made some socks and i'm working on a sweater rn

WOIEFJWE that man is so wonderful like i feel like he really understands me and !!!!!!!!!!! i feel like he really balances out the "negative" parts/thoughts of me and is so reassuring IM WHIPPED LOL

omg yes i had a bad cold too like a week ago (no covid as well) and i think i might be good now knock on wood!! what a slay im glad your classes are going so well for you! i dont follow hockey (gasp) but i can see the thrill of it!! hopefully they can win the next game!

highly enjoyed the break. have a great weekend too!! <3

-mightychondria

no no no worries lol i totally get being busy and everything <33

but omg :[[ im sorry that school has been so overwhelming and stressful for you aaaaa yeah if its at the point where you're upset everyday and completely overwhelmed and don't like school then i definitely agree w changing your major.... you don't want the rest of your life to be like this lol health science would be interesting for sure !! there are so many ways to be involved in health care and the health system without being a doctor/nurse/etc so im sure you'll be able to find something that works !!

?!*%*$???($*@)? you're taking ochem AND biochem at the same time ?!!?($*@)@ i understand the breakdowns wtf id lose it fr but lol fingers crossed changing your major works out so that you don't have to take that ochem exam

fr i definitely understand why breaking bad is considered like one of the best shows of all time ... the writing was so good and the story was so compelling and even when it got to the point where you were like 'wtf thats sick and messed up' you couldnt stop watching bc you were in so deep lol but !! ive yet to watch el camino ... hmmm

oooo man thats so cool !! you're so right like i always see crochet tutorials on tiktok for like the most random things ever and you can make like. anything. its amazing. hehe maybe ill try it out once i have more free time :]

YAAAYYY FOR THE MAN!! im glad that he's good for you :] its very nice that he's sticking w you through all of your stress and helping you out!! hehe have yall gone on any fun dates or are you just ~talking~ ?

tis the time of year for colds lol this one i think is just about done ... my cough is significantly better today but i can't decide if its actually better or if its just bc i havent been talking today .... lol ig ill see tomorrow! KFLJDSKFJ [gasp] a canadian that doesn't follow hockey ... an incredible find ... hehehe im joking but yes fr hockey is so crazy compared to other sports like even though its kinda like soccer its still so different and sooooo entertaining to me lol ty for the support for my team they definitely need it [muffled through fake coughing] they're bad [more fake coughing]

yay! i hope this week of classes goes better! tyyyy <3 <3 <3

#mightychondria anon #answered

[aronarchy]

ok so I finished watching The Fall a few months (you can find my earlier ramble abt it somewhere on my blog, also tagged #the fall tv) tho I’ve been too low on spoons to finish writing this out properly until now

I’m remembering better now about how I first got into it--the Hannibal subreddit or the Killing Eve subreddit where TF was recommended as ~same genre fascinating serial killer + detective very obsessed with each other deep psychological things~ and at the time I was still very much into a terminally-shipping-brained phrase so I think for the first half of the show while I was watching I just mostly turned off analysis in favor of thinking “this is interesting/hot”/“the main characters are attracted to each other”/“when will get together” (which looking back I can’t really relate to at all anymore but idk)

I’m much more comfortable now in identifying the overall political leaning of the show as radical feminist. It’s not even about the somewhat-possibly-slightly-creator-endorsed misandrist personal feelings of the main character (Stella) which are mentioned/implied a few times, or the few bioessentialist jokes(?) made once or twice, but the overall plot itself. Radfems don’t like hearing this, but radical feminism has major parallels/overlaps with mainstream liberal feminism in their ideas & logical flow & philosophical roots (i.e. both offshoots & enablers of conservative patriarchy, relying on immaterialism/essentialism). Here it was mainly the complete utter lack of intersectionality, the iffy depiction of some misogynistic violence (particularly the attribution to essential traits), and the lack of solutions to misogynistic violence that would involve actually changing currently existing power structures.

The Fall does extremely well in introducing multiple feminist points (impacts of patriarchal culture in the workplace, mostly refusing to validate victim-blaming, etc.; does well showing the institutional barriers Stella faces in her job, how she cannot have control of her own work decisions because of how the power is structured, regardless of what she does, and injustices she experiences are baked into how it was built). It also does well in portraying assaults and murders with sexual motives which did not contain sexual acts (as in acts which are sexual in and of themselves by mechanical components) as no less severe/“actually bad” than outright more obviously sexual assaults. But when getting to the more difficult bits, it falters. (I wouldn’t say its perspective is bad per se, just limited.)

Had some disconnected thoughts wrt its depictions of patriarchal power imbalances and abuse stemming from there (i.e. Paul being a therapist and exploiting that to take advantage of his sexual assault victim without her knowing, arguably an antipsych point if you have a lot of faith in the show directors’ scope of knowledge/background).

As the show progresses, we learn more and more about Paul’s Fascinatingly Abnormal Unique Dark Psychology and his Tragic Backstory. His assaults are always presented as ritualistic, mysterious, incomprehensible, so far out of the norm that they could not actually occur in real life, deviant, thrilling, a spectacle. Because The Fall, while trying to introduce progressive political feminist messages in an area which hasn’t had much like it before, also at the same time still tries to cater to the crime-drama fandom (and, like all serial-killer stories before it, to satisfy the audience’s hunger for drama and bloodlust and fascinating monsters to analyze and pick apart).

So on one hand you see it promoting the concept that all acts of misogynistic violence exist on an escalating continuum, all attributable to various cultural factors of the patriarchy; how normal cis male entitlement/culturally ingrained beliefs about men’s right to women’s autonomy (i.e. James Tyler), domestic violence (i.e. Liz’s story), casual(-but-still-severe-and-should-be-taken-seriously) sexual harassment (i.e. Jim @ Stella), and general misogynistic biases and discrimination (i.e. the constant hurdles Stella has to go through in a very male-dominated workplace) are. Arguably it even touches on the therapist-patient power imbalance leading to abuse. That any man (of the privileged demographics the show chose to depict) is capable of such beliefs and actions, including the drastic ones usually deemed “abnormal” and “would never happen to me/come from someone like him” (i.e. Stella telling Anderson about how many women she knew were afraid of men because they might kill them whereas men told her they were afraid of women because they might laugh at them), including normal everyday men you know. That to fight sexual violence we have to fight patriarchal culture.

Yet The Fall abandons this principle when it comes to Paul, and general discussions and speculations about the possible perpetrator of his crimes before they knew his identity. A man who commits the Actually Severe Extreme murders must have fascinating abnormalities in order to be capable of wanting to do so/doing so. Must have a laundry list of kinks and paraphilias and fictional/artistic/pornographic interests, must fantasize hard about it 24/7 since the age of twelve, must have overpowering ✨urges✨ to do it that he finally acts on only because he failed to resist their temptation, much have a tragic childhood backstory of extreme trauma that led to him developing such feelings and dramatically nihilistic misanthropic views, a Very Fascinating Mysterious Philosophy that surrounding women become closer to him with by learning. Must select his victims based on how sexually attractive they are to him, how well they fit his preferred physical “type” because of course it has to all be pretty and palatable (and white).  He must be “sociopathic” and “narcissistic” and “lack empathy/love/caring for women” and overall inhuman, impossible to understand. Stella might’ve made one comment to Jim about Paul’s actions fitting the expected results of patriarchal socialization and material conditions, sure, but that doesn’t particularly match up with the rest of the show’s attempted depiction.

We know there are harmful stereotypes about male CSA survivors supposedly being so much more likely to “continue the cycle of abuse” and CSA perpetrators only being able to want to commit CSA because they must’ve been abused themselves too. This, as per the rest of normative society’s view on CSA, once again, flattens the issue of sexual violence prevention into “uwu let’s ~help~ these poor uwu sad pitiful abused lost souls so they don’t Repeat The Cycle society failed perpetrators by not helping them before they did it because CSA perpetration is just a mental health issue uwu.” Constant complaints even from MC & everyone endorsed by MC about Paul’s “deviance,” that his acts and thoughts and feelings are bad because they’re “deviant” and “abnormal,” implying they were right to call kink practices Wrong because they’re Weird and everyone opposing was just manipulated into believing sexual assault is ok and holds mystical value (i.e. Katie). Iffy conclusions to be drawn from his replies during Stella’s interrogation regarding Olivia (is he a Real Misogynist or not? he’s certainly an adultist--see how he treated Katie and what he constantly said to her about her age and “immaturity” to pressure her into doing what he wanted--fundamentals of his beliefs remain the same even if it’s someone he would personally care about, IRL they don’t tend to be able to compartmentalize as well. Were his femicides motivated by misogyny or were they just coincidental results of his biology which just happened to give him a sex drive oriented toward women?)

I do admit it hit a bit hard when the psych essentially offered Paul the familiar para therapy (practicing distinguishing thought from intent/action, we can treat you & reduce your impulses & offending etc). But unfortunately it also plays into the whole narrative of “all biastophiles experience horrible uncontrollable urges and need help to not offend all offenders just needed ‘biasto therapy’ help to prevent them from offending.” And that several points of his character were Very Relatable (to me), but so were several points of Stella’s, and I know many real people who do not fit any of the show’s predicted profiles of biastophiles or rapists/sexual abusers. And (I’m not sure if this was intentional or not), but the arc of the show from there shows precisely what is wrong with that proposal: he can simply choose to not use those offered tools if he doesn’t feel like it; even if he knows “how” to not be violent, he just doesn’t want to.

No one’s dissecting the possible neurotypes or paraphilias or even sexual attractions at all of James Tyler, or Jim Burns, or any of the other misogynistic harassers/assaulters/abusers (or misogynists in general) depicted in the show, no, reserve the ~fascination~ just for the man who was a walking stranger-danger archetype, trying to built a cohesive “profile” of A Sexual Predator in the way all cops & adjacents/extensions thereof do, that Profile always leaving out themselves as possible violent actors, or just in general people the predator has direct legitimized authority over as possible victims (in this case, his wife and kids).

I’m also unsure if audience was intended to view the psych ward’s practices as violent/abusive, the police’s interrogations & prisons’ practices as violent/abusive (I read them that way, but given how much libs internalize shit I wouldn’t be surprised if the directors and/or most viewers genuinely thought all of that was okay). In particular the treatment of women who weren’t even perpetrators of much in particular experienced the worst violence from the cops (Sally Ann being held for an extended period of time and aggressively interrogated on flimsy pretexts but it was totally fine because the cops used the information to win in the end /s; and particularly, the treatment of Katie).

Katie’s horrendous treatment rhymed w/how general misogyny and adultism and the criminalization of survivors operate broadly: the erasing of any possible nuance, villainizing her, cops stalking her for days/weeks on end while she was at home doing her business (but it was justified because it led to them winning in the end!!! /s), being interrogated harshly & aggressively, being forced to live with a parent she was uncomfortable with by the court, being locked up for her actions which resulted from years of mental health difficulties as she had a shit home life and being continuously manipulated, threatened, and assaulted by a violent serial sexual predator for months on end.

Instead of simply cutting off her incentive by getting rid of her abuser, they go for her, arrest her, and Anderson has the audacity to say she’s “right to kick out at authority [because she’s At That Age]” while being a literal fucking cop interrogating her and clearly not holding to that principle in any meaningful material way, then she gets locked up and still with no one to help her deconstruct what Paul indoctrinated her with or just teach her a general idea of consent and ability to feel self-worth which she needed and didn’t get (because locking up the dangerous juvenile crazies is just so much easier and less risky, right? /s), and the story ends with Stella’s selfishness & need for a Fascinating Chase and Closure (though she wasn’t even a victim of his) in the form of Official Proceedings Which Must Occur Because [essentialism + I’m white so I say so] (which led to further murders & assaults which could’ve otherwise been prevented and much more pain for Katie, policing is incredibly inefficient and does very little for survivors in practice) and Katie remaining trapped in a fucking prison without any way out or any possibility of getting out in the foreseeable future or any aid. Once again adultist paternalism & misogyny centering her as the one to lay blame/fault on, the horrific and detrimental consequences of grooming being exploited to push further state authoritarian agendas instead of the other way around.

The show was excellent, sure, but also if it attempted to decenter ~fascination~ and ~psychological tension~ in favor of less establishment-shilling and more realistic views of misogynistic violence and particularly showed more than one nonwhite person throughout the entire show, particularly the misogynistic violence faced by women and girls on the margins, then it would be forced to acknowledge that in real life the most horrific and Severe and Extreme and frequent and hidden and unaddressed sexual assaults & abuses & femicides are perpetrated by the cishet white men with the most social/political/economic power (i.e. politicians & the rich (none of whose existences were even hinted at throughout the entire story), the very cops the story holds up as worthy moral well-intentioned winners enacting justice, etc) and that the vast majority of victims are not strangers to the perpetrators but the women and girls in their lives whom they have direct legitimized authority over i.e. wives, children, patients, suspects, prisoners, that the brunt of the violence happens by them to them first and decreasing in scale and severity (on average) as you go down the chain (rather than the other way around, stranger danger being the worst and most violent/likely to result in death and acquaintance/authorities’ assault being the mildest thus we can reasonably maintain the cops’ authority to combat the stranger danger Where It’s Actually Needed).

#OP #recently viewed #media review #media critique #the fall tv #misogyny #feminism #radfeminism #white cisfeminism #adultism #victim-blaming #femicide #ramble

[pepprs]

what would the recursion tag mean for u?

i was saving this one in the hope that id have the Thpoon’s to answer it and i don’t think im gonna get there but i also don’t wanna leave this ask sitting here and forget abt it again 😖 but it is SUCH a good ask and i really sincerely appreciate the question and what it’s going to do for me to answer it. i had kinda like an epiphany kinda thing over the summer abt my existential situation in my job and my job’s existential situation at my school and my school’s existential situation which is less a situation and more like… a brand and a way of seeing itself (ourselves?)…. Basically it’s the idea that ummmmm (cringe) everything is very up and coming and scrappy and whatever. and as it applies more to me within my work and to my work within our school / institution (cringe) / whatever and the politics of that it’s like… actually struggling to be seen and having to work against forces that are actively (though perhaps unintentionally and DEFINITELY unintentionally when it comes to me -> my work) trying to make u small and keep u hidden… idk it was just a helpful and empowering way to think abt how all of those struggles are connected by a same thread and also to see my own story in the story of the entity that is [insert name of work tag 2] which is rly starting to be less up and coming and more… Up. hope that makes sense lol

#purrs #i always feel weird talking openly abt work stuff on here but it really is 😵‍💫🥰🤪🤩🥸🤬🤐🤯😳🥳🤣🤠🤑🤗😎😍 u know? #work tag 2 #recursion #asks #ALSO to add onto that i think thinking recursively and seeing ur own struggles mirrored in the struggles of a collective is like. not only #cool but an important skill for being in communities and buildijg a better world together or ouat ever… which is litchrullywwhat my job and #my major and my life story etc are all abt. so there’s that too