#no offense to the op of the original post! I’m sure they didn’t do the cropping and didn’t realise!

[bookofmirth]

I saw your recent response to an anon where you mentioned the drama that occurred the other day based around bookprofessor’s post. Obviously you don’t have to respond to this or publish it if you do not wish but I just wanted to bring up that while it is important to focus on the real life issues at hand, the OP was hypocritical in her post which is why people were getting upset. She was preaching against ableism while simultaneously flaunting her IQ and degree which is a form of ableism. She was speaking out against racism while ending her post using the racial slur “cracker” when talking about the possibly Caucasian Twitter elriels.

Obviously she had some important points but it was completely overshadowed by her participation in the hate speech and prejudice that she was speaking out against.

This does not in any way justify the nasty messages she received but on the same hand, I do not blame anyone that called her out for her hypocrisy. I hope you can understand why her post was so negatively received and how flawed it was. My hope is that one day everyone can just ignore the negativity, report those who are being racist/prejudiced in any way, and block those who are just being loud and who you don’t wish to see content from. But unfortunately I do not see that happening any time soon.

There are a few things I want to address in this because I think it's a good moment for the fandom to step back and reflect on how we treat one another, how we react to such issues, and how we behave moving forward.

First off, thanks for explaining your point of view without being antagonistic. I do think that everyone's emotional reactions to the post were valid. I do NOT think their responses, in terms of words and actions, were valid. Now before I move forward, I want to clarify that when I use the word "you", I am referring to anyone who may have had the response I am describing - not you personally, anon. Also please don’t freak out about how long this is, as a majority of it is a response to the fandom in general, not you in particular.

What was - and wasn’t - said in the original post

In this post, there were completely valid criticisms of the way that people in this fandom behave, and it wasn’t “generalizing” a certain group, it was literal, actual proof of things that had been said, by multiple people. I’m not going to get too into what Alyssa argued because her critiques of those tweets was flawless. The original post had very valid criticisms of what was happening on Twitter. Alyssa exposed the actually racist, homophobic, and imperialistic underpinnings of those tweets.

However, a lot of people are stuck on the bits before and after those critiques. @bookprofessor apologized for different aspects of her post in a few different asks. There were perhaps better ways that some of those things could have been phrased, some things that could have been left out. And she apologized. People can accept that apology or not but we can’t act like it didn’t happen. Like she didn’t reflect and learn to do better.

However, the people she was calling out have not done the same thing, and if anything, comments that focus more on Alyssa’s tone than why she wrote the post in the first place lets those people off the hook.

On cracker - Using the word "cracker" is not racist in the same way that using racial slurs against POC is. Is it prejudiced? Yes. But you cannot say that it is the same thing when that is demonstrably untrue, given centuries of oppressive history. No one has been oppressed for being white. Those are not the same. Reverse racism is not a thing because a white person punching down on POC is NOT AT ALL the same thing as a POC punching up at white people. The actions look the same, but the impact is so unequal it’s not even funny.

Racism is a systemic, institutionalized problem. It is not defined by individual actions, though those actions can either support or challenge racism. When someone calls a white person a cracker, there isn’t centuries of oppression giving power to and reinforcing that statement. That is not a “gotcha” moment.

Saying “I have x IQ” or “I have X degrees” is not ableist. I’m sorry to whoever told you it was ableist (again, not you specifically anon but people who had read the “aw shucks guys” vagueblogs about it), but it’s not. Those are facts. I have no idea what my IQ is, but I have five degrees from institutions of higher education. Me saying that is in no way ableist. 

Often, people mention those things to be elitist, yes. Sometimes, they can be used to say “hey I know more about this than you”. They can be used in a way that tries to make themselves feel superior. I suspect that this is the impression that a lot of people got of the post. However, there is a fine line between saying “hey that’s elitist” and professing anti intellectualism. Which is perhaps a side issue so I’ll let that go for now.

Another reason that people mention their degrees or qualifications is to establish their background knowledge and credibility. If I were to say “hey y’all I have two MA degrees” (which is true) I am not being ableist! It is a fact! It is factual! And I worked my ass off for those, I will be in student loan debt until I die for those, I have every right to mention them if I want to, and often I do so in order to establish my credibility, to explain the position I am coming from. And my prior knowledge of these topics is relevant when we are talking about literature since that’s what my degrees were on - literature and linguistics. That is why Alyssa mentioned her background, though she did pair it with comments about other people, for which she has apologized.

My final point about this is that I 1000% understand feeling insecure or less than because of educational attainment. I dropped out of high school. I had a complex about that for a long, long time. But I also know that if I took offense at someone else saying they had a PhD, then that offense is about me, not them. Someone else’s inferiority complex is not reason for people to pretend to be less than they are.

If those two comments are what overshadowed the bigger, more important issue for a lot of the readers of that post, then y’all allowed them to overshadow those more important issues. I am 99% sure that someone right now is reading this and thinking “but Leslie, it was the way that she said it!” Boy have I got some news for you!

How we react

This next section is not specific to this ask; instead, it is a discussion of how the fandom responded. If it were only one person who had said “but her tone” then I wouldn’t need to make this point. The fact that multiple people are exhibiting the behavior explained below is what makes this a cultural problem within the acotar fandom.

The main argument I saw on the post itself, and indeed any time I see people bring up how nasty Twitter can be, is that “it was a joke” and “that’s how stan Twitter works”.

No.

Those responses were quite useful for this post, though! So buckle up everyone, because I am going to talk about gaslighting, racism, respectability politics, and tone policing. While I understand that some people might have taken personal offense to what was said, there is a much bigger issue at stake that has nothing to do with individual feelings, and everything to do with ensuring that POC stay silenced and white supremacy is upheld. 

Back to the “but it’s a joke” thing. Thanks for gaslighting! Great example of that, person I’m not going to tag! Gaslighting is when you make someone question their experiences, when you try to make them think “wait, did I really feel that way? Is my feeling about that valid? Do I need to re-evaluate my response to this?? Am I blowing this out of proportion???” And saying “it’s just a joke” is a perfect way to do that. Did I say something accidentally sexist? It’s just a joke, nbd! Now you’re the problem, because you didn’t understand my joke and laugh!!! 

Saying “it’s a joke” or “oh they are old/young/ignorant, they will learn” is not a good response to... anything. It takes the responsibility off the people who are doing the harm, and putting it onto the people who were hurt. And in this case, anyone who read those tweets and found them harmful (which should be everyone?) is completely valid. You aren’t lesser for being angry or emotional or for seeing a problem where other people saw a joke. The people who see those things as acceptable jokes are the ones in the wrong.

This is a tactic that is used against women all the time. Any time a woman is sexually harassed at work or online, for example, and she gets upset about it, and someone chimes in with “oh they weren’t serious, can’t you take a joke?” So you can imagine what this is like for women of color.

It is a very, very common tactic for people of color to be silenced via tone policing and respectability politics. Tone policing and respectability politics are very closely related, especially in this context. The idea is that if Alyssa had just written that post in just the right way, it would have been more palatable to white people, and therefore okay to write. The idea that if she had tried to be “understanding” or “see it from their perspective” or understand that it’s “just a joke” are all ways to silence and de-legitimize any accurate, valid criticisms that were made of those tweets. It effectively re-routes the conversation away from the real issues, and to the person trying to bring them up. It’s essentially an ad hominem attack in disguise. 

We see respectability politics in media when people of color who act or dress or speak like white people are afforded more respect. Or any time that a person of color is pulled over and people say, “well if they had just done what the police officer asked...” There is a pervasive idea that if people just “act” properly, aka if you act white, then the police won’t feel antagonized and try to kill arrest you. If we are nice enough, meek enough, smile enough, etc. then we will be accepted.

When we tone police, we refuse to allow marginalized people the right to be angry. We say that "hey, we can only have this discussion if you leave emotion, which you rightfully feel, at the door, and we can only continue this discussion if you behave in a way that makes me feel comfortable." But guess what? It isn’t about you! These discussions are often highly uncomfortable. There is no nice way to tell someone they are being racist. And yet somehow, that is the ever-moving goalpost. It seems reasonable, right? “Just be civil, be nice, don’t insult each other!” And there is that. But those criteria change constantly, to the point where anyone (white) at any time can say “WHOA WHOA THIS IS MAKE ME UNCOMFORTABLE???” Then we find ourselves at zero, and suddenly the focus of attention has shifted away from the actual problem.

Before we go further, I want to say this: people have a right to be angry. They do not need to make their anger palatable or tasteful for the consumption of others (read: white people). 

We saw this last summer, and I’m not sure how the message didn’t get across. But people are rightfully angry about racism. They are angry about the murder of people of color by police, they are angry about lack of quality education, or clean water, of centuries of oppression that have led to this very moment when all of that ceases to matter because a white woman’s feelings got hurt one time. 

And that is what pisses me off so much. There is no way in this world that we could criticize tweets like those that everyone would agree with, and that everyone would “approve” of, that would be “nice” enough and yet still be impactful and make the authors of those tweets understand the gravity of what they have done. 

The least we can do is allow one another to express our anger, our outrage, because it’s highly likely that those people know exactly what the fuck they are doing, and they do not fucking care. By criticizing a woman of color for the way in which she chose to engage with this topic, we are avoiding the issue and letting the people in those tweets off the hook. 

There were many responses to that post that were positive, that agreed with Alyssa. There are a ton of people who disagree with those tweets, who find them disgusting, who understand exactly how and why they are problematic. That should be what we are talking about. Getting to the core of the argument, on that post or any about racism or other problematic behavior in fandom, requires getting past our own egos. It requires us to be able to step back, say “hm this thing is frustrating but there is a bigger picture here”. It’s not easy, and I recognize that. 

The fact that it is a common tactic though? To say “hey this hurt me personally and so I’m going to ignore any valid points you made?” That feeds directly into centuries of white supremacy because it, once again, silences POC and makes them try to play a losing game. And they will always lose, because no matter how hard they try to play the white game, the goalposts are constantly shifting. So you know what? Fuck the game, and fuck respectability politics, and fuck tone policing and “uwu be nice guys” because when it comes to things like racism and sexism, I don’t expect the people who deserve to be criticized to be nice. In fact, trying to be nice only serves to fuck POC over in the end.

Indeed, in response to that post, certain blogs have taken the opportunity to position themselves as “the nice ones” or “the ones who would never” or “uwu let’s be nice guys” while completely ignoring the fact that a woman of color was attacked for calling out racism. And yes - that was the point of her post. People getting hung up on mentions of her degree are (intentionally or not, it doesn’t matter) completely obfuscating the fact that that is not what her post was about, which was to call out disgusting behavior. idk how many words the post actually was, but essentially, people are focusing on 5% of it to the detriment of the 95% that was actually really important shit. These types of vagueblog posts about the issue fall into exactly what I am talking about - these are people who have decided to look at this issue, see how Alyssa (and anyone else who dares speak up) has approached it, and intentionally try to act like they are “better” because they can be “rational” and “kind”. Newsflash, if you don’t have something to be angry about, then being “nice” about racism isn’t that much of a flex. If it didn’t bother you, then congratulations. That doesn’t make you better than people it did bother. You just got lucky this time, and decided to use that to your advantage to look like the good guy.

I am not saying that all calls for peace are doing this. Obviously it’s what we all want. This is the worst I have seen this fandom in the 4+ years I’ve been here. But we cannot have that by ignoring the real problems and pretending that if we are all just nice to each other, then we will solve racism and sexism and all bullying in the fandom will stop. 

So combining all of this - the gaslighting, the tone policing, and what do you get? You get a fandom that refuses to actually engage critically with its own problems and take accountability for them. You get a fandom that decides that it’s easier to be distracted by this one mean comment over here than it is to engage in the fact that you know what, the culture in this fandom has actually turned incredibly disgusting and a lot of people are just okay with it. You’ve got a fandom that is using the tools of white supremacy to avoid the discussions that should actually be taking place. Maybe people don’t realize that that’s what they are doing. But if someone still thinks that after reading this post, then godspeed my friend, I hope you enjoy Twitter.

Okay so my last thing I want to say is that I didn’t come to all of this knowledge fresh from the womb. I do a lot of work, in my personal life and my professional life, to be better. So here is a list of books that I have found particularly helpful:

How to Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America also by Ibram X. Kendi

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo (side note, I was kinda meh about this one but the chapter “White Women’s Tears” is particularly helpful)

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment by Patricia Hill Collins

I’m not going to talk specifically about Alyssa’s post anymore, but if anyone wants to continue talking about these broader issues going on in the fandom, I am game. (I really should be grading papers though, so it might take a bit.)

#cw racism #acotar #acosf #acotar fandom #fandom wank #fandom things #this is the long post i mentioned earlier #i will link it in my meta post

[tea-and-la]

i saw this earlier and i didn’t wanna start discourse (or be perceived as mean) so i decided to make my own post.

if we’re being technical, aang didn’t ask katara to forgive yon rha. the first time forgiveness is mentioned is in this line: 

aang: katara you do have a choice, forgiveness. 

this line is part of the overarching false dichotomy for the episode, that there are two choices: forgiveness or revenge. in the end, as we hear katara say herself, she chooses neither. and that’s the really beautiful thing about it. 

of course, i agree with the op that aang did have good intentions and wanted forgiveness for her because he didn’t want her to be consumed by it. he cares about her, so naturally it’s not hard to imagine that he wouldn’t want her to suffer. but regardless of whether or not he intended for the forgiveness to be for her benefit, she herself did not feel that way. forgiving is hard, and it’s what aang saw as the only way to heal. it worked for him. but him and katara are different people, and after katara very literally expresses that “forgiveness is not just hard, it’s impossible.” the subject should’ve been dropped. 

i personally dislike this type of rhetoric (no offense to op) because forgiveness isn’t the only way to heal or move forward. katara shows us that. it’s one of the reasons i find forgiveness culture to be a bit problematic because it’s okay to say that some people don’t deserve forgiveness, and it doesn’t mean that the person who chooses not to won’t be able to move on from it. we see that katara is in a better mental space once she returns and that’s because the act of confronting yon rha was in and of itself, the start of the healing process for her. 

there are plenty of aang lines in this episode that make me cringe, but one of them is the scene after katara and zuko were going to sneak away with aang: 

“i forgive you. does that give you any ideas?” 

it just seemed too jovial for the seriousness of the moment, especially after aang himself just said that “it’s hard to forgive.” so then why was there this light-hearted line thrown in there drawing a comparison between her stealing appa and her not forgiving her mother’s murderer? and this is ... after katara says forgiveness is impossible, for her. and then it’s brought up another time before she leaves. 

and when they come back he says: 

aang: You did the right thing. Forgiveness is the first step you have to take to begin healing.

this is an incorrect assumption based again on that false dichotomy that since she didn’t kill yon rha, she must have forgiven him. and she tells him, with a pretty understandably miffed expression that she DIDN’T forgive him, she never will. 

the episode, even beyond katara forgiving zuko, is about katara forgiving herself. for her survivor’s guilt. which katara has a lot of. this started with the day of her mother’s death when she was told to run away. although katara was young at the time, knowing the kind of character that katara is, she likely blames herself. for one, because her mother died for her, but i also can see katara as having these “what if i had ran faster to get dad?” type of thoughts that consume her. she probably imagines how she could’ve done the situation differently.

on a semi-unrelated note, i imagine she feels the same way about aang’s death. before she was unsure if he would come back to life, i’m sure she was running through the things she could’ve done differently or to protect him. and that’s why when zuko joins, she gives him that conditional threat that if he hurts aang, she won’t hesitate. because she won’t let another person she cares about die when she can now do something about it. but part of that scene conveys that she also blames herself, in part, for what happened in ba sing se (and if she knew that he originally gave up the A.S. for her, i’m sure she’d feel even worse about it.) this resolves in the southern raiders when she is able to address and forgive herself for her survivor’s guilt in both situations. 

#i don't like forgiveness culture #we do not have to forgive abusers or those who wronged us in order to heal #and people have different healing paths #some of these don't involve forgiveness and that's okay #katara lives with the pain of losing her mother for the rest of her life #that hole is not magically filled by forgiving yon rha #and idc that man doesnt deserve forgiveness #that's pretty clear to me as an adult tbh #i understand loving a.ang because i do too #but can we admit that the lines bryke wrote for him were not it for this episode #like place yourself in katara's shoes #imagine your friend asked what will this accomplish? or compared you to someone who deeply hurt you #do you know not once ... ONCE did he ask what it was that she wanted to do when she confronted him? #it was just assumed that it was for revenge #and the conversation clearly upset her ... idk why people dont see that? #and he didnt expect her to still go after their 1st talk #it's why when he approaches he says 'so you were just gonna talk appa anyway?'

[ohnobjyx]

What are some of the biggest moments/clues/hints that bjyx have something going on?

Part 1

Hi, anon! I have three asks from different anons with related questions, and I think it’s something many are curious about, so let’s get into it! I’m going to make this into a three-post series, with the next two answers linked to this one. I think they are all necessary to get the full picture.

Links:

Part 2 here

Part 3 here

It’s gonna get long (and I’m just starting), so sit tight and get a cup of coffee. Nothing to see under the cut unless b/jyxszd.

Disclaimer: everything is fake fake fake, don’t take it seriously.

Wow. Where to start? There are many things in the bxg group that are going to be counted as “moments” (or candies), but here are the ones I believe the most. Of course, other bxg will offer other “hints” but these are all quite acepted in the fandom from my point of view.

Asking for “the biggest” is quite subjected to personal interpretation, since there’s no regulated consensus of which moments are true and which are not. That’s why I can offer what I think it’s widely accepted among bxg and that, of course, I think are “true”.

1) Interviews + bts videos

In almost any interview, since they started filming CQL, be it solo interviews or interviews they both participated in, you’ll be able to find “candies”. These of course, are much more subjected to personal interpretation and your views on their relationship.

To me, the interviews show that they are much closer to each other (even when they were just filming cql!) than they are to other people. They also gave a strong deja vu, but that’s for a following post.

Some of the best moments from their interviews:

In a solo interview (160 minute special, from 30:08-46:37, here with eng subs), in questions completely unrelated to dd, gg brought up dd in his answers at least six times (I think I lost count somewhere in the middle). If you compare them, when gg is asked about dd or prompted to add more details to his answer about dd, he’d end up rambling on and on, whereas in other questions he’s more concise. In his 16-minute interview, more than half the time (questions actually related to dd + questions unrelated to dd) gg is talking about dd.

There are several instances where both, when asked about “the most beautiful/handsome/looks good in costumes” person of the cast, they answered with lightning speed the name of the other.

“Wear kneepads”. The 9 minute boat video is also a treasure. Candies aside, I think it’s quite telling that they can have a conversation about everything and anything without stopping (especially dd, who was known for only talking about his interests). About the “wear kneepads” phrase, I talked in this post about how Chinese people express their love “differently” (love is love). It doesn’t imply romantic love per se, but... gg cares.

In the sina interview (190714, here with eng subs): they lied so much in this interview that even when I was just watching this interview for the first time I thought their answers were strange.

“Is she clingy?”, dd asks. “She’s not, you are”, gg mumbles (but it has been picked up by the mic). Dd’s face goes blank, but then he brokes into a small smile and says “I am...” (here the post with the video).

There’s a moment in an interview however, that belongs to a whole another category that’s the second greatest hint for me:

2) The “you have a bf” moment

For those who don’t know what happened: in an interview from one of their fanmeetings, the interviewer asked about one of gg’s old phrases (”if I enter in a relationship now, I’ll lose my job”). However, he didn’t remember it and both react very strongly to it. Here is a post with an analysis and a link to the video.

3) The informality

This is a pretty tricky one... but once you watch a few videos of gg with dd and gg with other people, it becames apparent very quickly. They’re so comfortable with each other that hitting and swearing (”are you sick/insane?”) is never taken with offense. 

I think there’s an analysis somewhere, about gg and dd hitting each other. Gg hits, but with no real force behind them, and dd either hit him with his long sleeves (when filming) or with great force and speed, but not landing the blows. The few times he actually hit gg by accident, he always apologized profusely, pouring over gg (”where have I hit?”). It left no room to mistake about the good nature of their teasing and hitting.

4) The necklace

There are rivers of ink written about this one. I’ll leave a link to the best analysis I’ve seen here (both the OP and the response make a lot of sense to me).

In summary: mtjj and cp fans started to argue about the origins of the necklace. The company stated that dd had bought the necklace himself (this is the version most of the solo fans believe), but of course cp fans wouldn’t be appeased with such a weak denial, so mtjj started to say that dd should either stop wearing it or explain how he got the necklace.

It’s curious how dd escaped this situation by choosing a third option: he wears it hidden under his clothes. He wears it almost every time he appears anywhere. He even wears it to the sea.

So he can’t explain where the necklace came from, but he won’t stop wearing it either. That, at the very least, points to a romantic gift (from my point of view).

Once you start seeing the necklace, you can’t unsee it. The picture on the left is an older one, when he still wore the necklace openly, but he was still wearing the necklace in a recent photo (yes, both gg and dd has been nominated to the TOP 100 most handsome faces of 2020).

5) The kadian

I was introduced to this concept in tumblr, to be honest. I didn’t pay much attention to it, but when you see a bulk of posts next to each other... there’s a reasonable limit to these kind of things being coincidental.

But then, dd’s post on the 200529, the one about the smile with the colgate ad... that was very much on purpose. And his post on the 200521. Or gg’s posts in recent June: 200605 13:28 and 200612 13:45.

I have an ask about kadian sitting in my inbox, I’ll explain it in more detail in that one.

6) The clothes

Again, I thought at first that this was a coincidence. But then, there’s a limit for coincidences. They have a lot of clothes they either plan to buy the same one in different colours or it’s just the 23rd coincidence that with all of the clothes available in the world, they chose the same one in different colours or just plainly the same. (Here’s a good post with a compilation).

Another fact that convinced me is that many of them are “private” clothes they own, not clothes that stylists choose for them (in which case it’s most likely to be a coincidence, I don’t think they choose the clothes for a photoshoot, for instance). For example, the two sets down below were from photoshoots, so I think they were coincidences.

Going back to clothes they do share, it’s also the fact that gg wouldn’t have access or interest in certain brands and clothes, unless someone with certain interests recommended them to him or got them for him. So coincidental (again) that the only person around him like that is dd.

Or the fact that if one of them is wearing a certain piece the other has worn before (ie the coat), the other one doesn’t appear with it again. Moreover, the coat (left pictures) has been confirmed by the fans to be the same one. They asked the brand about it, and both gg and dd are wearing the same one (since it was discontinued) unless gg bought it 2 years ago and has just decided to wear it (unlikely).

Or the fact that when they appear with the same shirt/trousers, they fit them differently. Trousers are longer on dd, and the line for the shoulders are lower on gg.

Or the fact that sometimes they each wear the upper piece or the trousers of a set respectively (left). Another coincidence, I’m sure.

(Credit of the pictures in the picture).

7) Gg’s songs and his drawings

Gg hides it better, but he still has this kind of gestures. He never fails to remember the lyrics (I don’t know whether you’ve noticed, but at the far back of every stage there’s a gigantic screen displaying the lyrics), but if he does “mix them up” it’s just another coincidence that it can get interpreted as a message for dd.

And last, but not least, we have this drawing:

Gg drew this in a program last year. It’s his “ideal life”. So, let’s see what’s in it:

Gg is the figure on the left, with his cat at his feet.

For someone who doesn’t know how to ride a bike, he included one at the right. Curiously, if you observe the shadow it leaves on the sand, the shadow doesn’t match the bike, resembling a motorbike instead.

So, why is a motorbike in his ideal life? It’s maybe related to the person who approaches from the other end of the beach? Does it look familiar?

He could have drawn a clear, tranquil sea. But instead, there are quite a few waves, which resemble greatly something bxg see written quite often (the last one is the first radical that forms the “bo” character in dd’s name).

So many coincidences in this post.

#ask #my post #bjyszd #coincidences #coincidences everywhere

[rpbetter]

Reblog Etiquette (and ships)

At this point, we all know about “reblog karma” and “reblogging from source.” Though, I say that...and am questioning it. You should fucking know this by now, but in the event you don’t, let me define that shit for you.

Reblog Karma: the RPC’s oldest attempt at keeping people from clogging notifications and using others as meme resources. Essentially, don’t reblog a meme from a mutual unless you are sending them something from that meme first. Not all blogs practice it, or practice it the same way, please see their rules.

Reblogging from Source: another effort to stop being used as a meme/aesthetics resource. Many RPers would like you to reblog quotes, aesthetics, and memes from their source (original post location or the meme/aesthetics/quotes resource blog they got it from), even if you are sending them a meme. This is especially applicable when not interacting with the RPer.

Okay, that’s out of the way.

There is more to Reblog Etiquette than this!

And, when that etiquette is nonexistent, it almost always deals with a RPer’s ship. Mentioning ship partners and/or tagging ships on a reblog from another RPer, not removing that RPer’s mentions or tags, and even dropping a mention or outright RPing in the comments of another RPer’s reblog.

Don’t reblog from another mun and tag your ship or mention (@) your ship partner(s).

Don’t reblog a post with someone else’s mention still stuck to it.

Don’t reblog a post and leave the previous mun’s tags still in the tags.

Don’t go into the comments on someone’s post and mention your ship partner(s).

Don’t roleplay in the comments of someone else’s post.

None of this is alright, I have no idea what would make anyone think this is appropriate reblog etiquette, but it very much is not. It’s incredibly rude and lazy. Because I know that many people have similar ship aesthetics and so on, I’m not saying you shouldn’t reblog something for your own ships that a mutual has for theirs. (That’s a whole other in depth conversation we’ll have later.)

I’m saying that this is how you should be going about it:

Reblog from the source.

-What if there is no source because it’s deactivated, or there is another reason why I can’t access it? 

Go into the post’s notes. At some point, damn near every post that could be used as an aesthetic, quote, or prompt for a ship (and RP in general) has been reblogged by at least one source blog. Look for RP meme, aesthetic, help, and other resource blog urls. If you cannot find one of those, look for urls that are general resource-style blogs. Personal blogs reblog aesthetics etc. as well, and there are many such resource blogs out there. -If you’re uncomfortable reblogging from a personal, that’s tough shit; I hate to break it to you, but most of your resources came from personal blogs. Deal with it, or don’t reblog anything you can’t find filtered through a RP specific resource.

-- “But this takes time/effort lol I just want to use it for my ship.” Again, tough shit. Sometimes, it does take energy not to be rude and do the right the thing. In all honesty, it’s fairly rare that doing the right thing is effortless, even when it’s something as simple as RP. Grow up.

--- You went through the notes, but there’s no appropriate blog to reblog from, now what?

Just because it’s a rare occurrence doesn’t mean it’s impossible. I know this one isn’t, I’ve had it happen too! My choice was to not reblog it at all, I just sent the link to my ship partner privately instead. If you don’t have that kind of friendship, you really wanted it on the dash, or another reason, you are now left with one option, and you’re not going to like it. Message the mutual you want to reblog from. Politely, explain that you’d like to reblog the post for your ship, and ask if they’re comfortable with it. No guilting, begging, or general, weird ass rudeness. If they decline, accept it just as politely, thank them for their response. If they accept, thank them, and especially if this isn’t a mutual you interact with much, be sure you’re showing them continued support on the dash by reading and liking/commenting on their headcanon posts and other appropriate material. (You should be anyway.)

Remove any mentions present (@’s)

Seriously, this is incredibly rude! Yet, with the typical lack of self-reflection and awareness of others in the RPC here, I see it multiple times a day on my dash. Not just with RP-blog-to-RP-blog interaction either, I also see RPers reblogging from personals and leaving their mentions attached. (I see it the other way around too, but I’m not here to school personal blogs.) For all the excessive emphasis RPers put on appearance, you’d think they’d want to get rid of something that looks this sloppy, but no. Not if it takes one extra second of effort!

-I know that xkit’s editable reblogs tends to break whenever tumblr gives us a new, exciting, hideous, insulting, limitation, I mean update, but come the fuck on. It is also one of the quickest things to regain functionality, so, maybe you should save the reblog to drafts, be following xkit’s blog for updates, and edit it once there has been a patch. If it’s worth it to you, it’s worth a short wait. When it’s working, you can easily remove that mention with editable reblogs.

--If you’re going to use being mobile as an excuse, or if you don’t want to wait on it/don’t use xkit, again, go to the source. And, also again, if that isn’t an option, you can find where it has been reblogged by an appropriate blog at some point in its history, sans mentions. Reblog from there.

Do not reblog someone else’s tags (#)

Some people have their xkit set up to reblog automatically with the previous poster’s tags. While that can be useful in some situations, I can think of, very literally, no situation this is appropriate for an RPer to use. If you have this set up on your personal/resource blog/wtfe and your RP blog is a sideblog (or you are using certain methods of having your browser open to two separate blog accounts where your xkit settings are transferring over), it’s up to you to delete the tags on these posts.

-It takes maybe one full second to click in the tag field and hit your delete button a few times to clear it. Do that. It’s never, ever, appropriate to keep someone’s ship, muse, verse, or other personalized tags attached to a reblog.

--If you are a personal blog reading this somehow, maybe you’re wanting to get into RP, please take note of this. This is one of the many reasons why most RPers will not interact with personals. We don’t like you reblogging an aesthetic post and keeping our tags on it.

In the case of both situations, not only is it rude and lazy, it’s fucking with someone else’s tags and privacy. Most RPers don’t want their content showing up in generally searchable tags, it’s one of the reasons that personalizing tags came about. Furthermore, if I’m on my dash and click a mutual’s custom tag for aesthetics, verses, ships, and so on, it’s now going to come up with instances of those tags on someone else’s blog as well.

Delete the fucking tags if they auto-populate. Don’t use someone else’s custom tags of your own volition either.

“Subverting” reblogs to mention in comments is a hard no, too

-So, you don’t want to reblog the post, but do want to @ your ship partner(s) in it? There’s no way to do that without being rude and strange. To be honest, this is even worse than just reblogging and tagging your ship.

I may not be the OP, but you came onto a post on my blog, one very likely tagged for my ships and/or having my ship partners mentioned on it, and commented on it mentioning your ship partner. It’s every bit as offensive and more so than someone reblogging from me and using it for a ship I’m not a part of. I don’t know what’s worse, when that other mun is a ship partner, casual mutual who doesn’t interact, or a writing partner but not ship partner. It’s all deeply fucked up. No one’s RP blog is here for your use like this!

--You’re also not subverting anything. I think the idea is to be polite or go unnoticed. People seem to lack a basic grasp on how tumblr works; you get notifications on reblogged posts you are not the OP of when someone comments on them just like you get a notif when someone likes it. The only way to genuinely be secretive about this would be to comment on it from the source or a resource blog. They will get the notification.

If you are commenting on, liking, or reblogging a post you see on the dash, the person having reblogged it, putting it there for you to encounter, will be notified of your interaction with it.

---What I’m saying, just in case it isn’t abundantly clear, for the third time now: you’re not being slick. Your mutuals will see that you weirdly @’ed someone in a comment on their reblog. They know.

----The appropriate behavior is to do just as advised in the above points: GO TO THE SOURCE. If no source exists, find an appropriate resource blog in the notes. You may then, and only then, give that mention in a comment.

Frankly, it’s still weird, and I would recommend you just reblog it from the source to interact with it. There is always the option of sending it to the intended party by way of tumblr’s messenger or linking the post in an off tumblr messenger like discord.

I say this because it hasn’t escaped my attention that the only time I have this issue on my own RP blog is when the imagery or text is fucking filthy. As in, Other Mun didn’t want something that sexual, kinky, violent, and so on to be posted to their own blog. You need to grow up if that’s your deal. Like writing smut or violence, if you need to do it in private only, you’re obviously not adult enough to handle the topic.

Keep your roleplay where it belongs; in your inbox and threads

-It’s not appropriate to start up RP in the comments of another RPer’s reblogged ship aesthetic. (Or anything else, this just happens to be the most common.) It’s incredibly odd and offensive to look in your notifications and see that a mutual and their ship partner are flirting, or outright fucking, in the comments of a post you reblogged for your ship.

It’s just as awkward feeling and offensive when someone reblogs the post and begins full-blown RP on it. It’s one thing when it’s a post originating from an RP resource blog, or when it’s kept to something like a mention and a short line that your writing partner can start their original post in inspiration of. But...

--You know how I said above that auto-copying tags thing is one of the reasons why RPers are iffy about personal blogs? Well, this is one of the reasons why personal blogs think RPers are exceedingly weird members of fandom that need to be excluded and devalued. It’s odd, especially if you’ve never encountered RP, to see someone reblogging your quote, moodboard, or other original post and RPing on it.

Listen, we all need to RP some crack and commentary sometimes, but it’s best left in the tags or put into a new post.

---Instead of RPing (not sorry, especially if it is smut) on that post, link the image to show in a new post, and go from there.

Please remember to be polite about artists, including photographers and gifers, when you do this! Tumblr automatically gives the source of imagery when you use a link to display the picture, that’s why I recommended doing that instead of saving, then re-uploading the image as though it is your own. If you’re going to do that, even if it’s just silliness going on, give mention of the artist, photographer’s blog/site, or gifer’s blog in the tag or below the image.

Tumblr is deeply unfriendly to artists of all sorts, don’t be fuel that. When you upload artwork for the sake of RP, again, even if it’s just crack, that’s literally violating what artists ask people not to do; you’re reposting their art without permission and credit.

#rp better #reblog etiquette #rp advice #rp help #psa #rp psa #mun behavior #ships #tumblr rpc

[linklethehistorian]

New Working Link to DarkestJay’s English Translation of Fifteen & Commentary on the Discrepancies Therein (PLEASE READ)

Information below the cut for length, as well as spoiler information relating to my article.

If recently you’ve tried to access DarkestJay8686’s English Translation of Fifteen on WattPad through the link I provided at the beginning of my article, you’ve probably already noticed that that link is, unfortunately, very dead; the reason that this has happened is because, sadly, as of late, they — and other translators in the fandom who also post their works to WattPad — have been facing a struggle with their works constantly being flagged on the site and forcibly removed for copyright reasons multiple times over, forcing them to eventually give up and move their content somewhere else where it would be safe from harm.

Upon learning of their arrival on a new, safer platform, I had considered simply exchanging the old link out for the new one at the beginning of my article, where it was before, and altering my notes to reflect this, and I’m sure that I still will as soon as I can find the time to rework everything properly, but in the meanwhile, there’s something I’ve also badly needed to discuss with you all about these translations for some time, and what better time and way, I thought, than to do it in this post where I provide you with the new link?

I’m sure that many of you reading both my article and their translation have noticed that back in the Arcade scene, there was something I had mentioned happening in the novel that didn’t quite match up with DarkestJay’s presentation of those events — namely, Sheep being the first to leave the building, instead of Dazai and Chuuya; well, that difference is actually quite important as one of the main reasons why, while their work may overall be excellent and I do encourage everyone to read it regardless, I still personally would never recommend making it the only thing you read if you want to truly understand Fifteen and all of its events 100% correctly.

Yes, I am saying exactly what you think I’m saying: my information within my article was NOT incorrect — Jay’s translation of the scene, however, was, and if you don’t believe me, you can go read Lea’s translation of the scene and see it for yourself.

Now, before I say anything else, I want to make this 100% clear: I in no way am intending to imply that Jay’s work on the whole is anything but exceptional, nor am I even remotely saying that you shouldn’t read at all; in fact, I highly recommend you do read it in its entirety, because despite a few small mis-steps, as someone who owns two copies of the original Japanese light novel, has read many an English translation, and knows this story extensively well, I will be the first to very enthusiastically say that this translation is actually quite good and very, very helpful overall — an absolutely essential resource for anyone who does not speak the original language but still wants to read, experience and understand Fifteen as if they could. I am extremely, extremely grateful and appreciative of their hard work in making that possible for all English speakers, and I don’t ever want to come across as anything else or make it seem like any of that is any less than true.

That being said, though, it nevertheless absolutely cannot and should not be your only resource on the matter, because if it is, you will unavoidably end up being misled on some matters — unintentionally, of course, but still misled all the same.

Because this was translated well after the anime came out — unlike Lea’s partial but nonetheless equally wonderful translation, which came into existence very shortly after the novel was first handed out in theaters alongside DEAD APPLE, a whole year before the animated adaption was even a concept — DarkestJay’s translation does have some points where it is extremely clear that said television show’s rather poorly handled and highly inaccurate interpretation very heavily affected the OP’s perception of things, and thus caused the OP, Jay, to incorrectly interpret and translate certain parts of some scenes and/or dialogue that otherwise might not have been super clear to someone not fully, extensively familiar with the language.

Specifically, as I mentioned above, there is the one particular instance among the many that I can easily point out: due to the pre-knowledge of the anime’s awful take on the story, there is a point in this translation where Jay simply assumes it to be true that Dazai and Chuuya were the ones to leave the Arcade, with Sheep calling out to their retreating backs, and thus incorrectly translates it as such, when in fact it unfolds in exactly the opposite manner in the original version of the tale; likewise, there are also many bits of dialogue throughout the entirety of the book where the perceived “understanding” of the characters’ nature’s as the show wrongly presented them caused Jay to take the liberty of wording things in certain different ways, or make certain alterations to the type of punctuation used that Jay believed suited them, rather than leaving them in their unaltered states, as they were intended to be read.

This is the major issue with going into a project like this with this kind of confirmation bias; no matter how good your intentions may be, because you expect that you already understand something or know what’s going to happen, you’re much more likely to think it’s safe to cut corners, and rather than carefully researching the context, tone, and other specifics and particulars of every line before you write it out and post it — the way you would if you started with a completely blank slate and no idea of what would happen in it — you will more often than not just assume that it plays out in the way you expect it to if it seems close enough, and quickly go with that presumption as if it is fact without bothering to make 100% sure of it.

Again, no offense to OP, because translation work is very hard, and as I said, overall, it is a wonderful translation and I do think it’s well worth the read, but problems like this are why I personally recommend anyone reading this to also check out Lea’s translated summary with excerpts and translation of the bonus chapter in conjunction with Jay’s, as Lea’s came out long before a Fifteen anime was even a concept and, as such, was completely unbiased — therefore being an excellent source to check facts against where possible.

Of course, there are definitely also some points where both translations are different but neither is actually wrong — as while Lea’s is less literal about every phrasing so it’s not super awkward sounding in English and flows better to read, Jay’s is almost always more literal instead, and thus differences in personal preference for wording can easily diverge while still getting the point across fine in both — but these instances are much different from the ones where it is clear Jay actually slipped up, so I’m sure you won’t have trouble defining them. As much as I would like to be of help in this regard, I must sadly inform you that I will not personally be pointing out all of these slip-ups here at this time, nor do I have any plan to do so at any time in the foreseeable future. for I have neither the time nor the desire to go about critiquing a fellow fan’s work when I’m already dedicating enough time and energy just to writing about the mountain of mistakes that the anime made without also adding more difficult and unnecessary extra work onto that.

If you have any questions about a particular line in the translation and if it indeed is correct, you can absolutely feel free to send me an ask about it and I will try to help you with it to the best of my ability, but beyond that, I will not be engaging with the matter much farther than I already have.

(However, on one last note, I will, for now, add that — as I expect this might become a point of much contention and is something that will come up in my article later on, anyway — the “it must be because I love you” scene that you will find in Jay’s translation is actually not exactly one such instance where a mistake was made, at least in regards to the “‘I love you” bit; if you’re curious about the exact details of how that all works, you can read about it in my post here. So yes, that does indeed exist, and you are free to take it in whatever way you want. I’m not personally an SKK shipper myself, but if that’s your thing, then good for you — go for it and enjoy it; it can be canon support for your ship if you want it to be.)

Thank you for reading, and, as promised, here is the link to Jay’s new account, as well as their Twitter, and where you can currently access their translation of Fifteen. Enjoy.

[See the recent related addendum]

[View the masterlist of my article]

#linklethehistorian #bungou stray dogs #bsd #bsd spoilers #spoilers #bsd season 3 #bsd novels #fifteen #Arthur Rimbaud #bsd arthur rimbaud #Randou #justiceforrandou2k19 #justiceforrandou2k20 #justiceforrandou2k21 #fifteen article #Randou and the Sins of Season 3’s Fifteen Adaption #Disclaimer and Notes #writing #My writing #Episode 27 — The God of Fire #my thoughts #New Working Link to DarkestJay’s English Translation of Fifteen & Commentary on the Discrepancies Therein (PLEASE READ)

[cblgblog]

Peggy who apparently also is a nazi because she gave people a second chance???>> hmm I don't think she's a Nazi, but watch your words because, as a Jew, you don't give Nazis a second chance. This is offensive. They chase us and they killed us. I know they were recruited, but they are still Nazis, as an intelligent woman, with a moral compass, she would have refused to work with them. At least Steve would have.

Okay, first of all, I didn’t write the portion of the post you’re talking about, so, I’m just clarifying that. You’re telling me to watch words I didn’t write, that came from a reblog on a post of mine, not my words. Second of all, I’m not a Jew so I’m not coming at it from the same personal angle, but I’m going to say this anyway.

I don’t agree with using Steve to villainize Peggy. Especially not for something the entire US government was doing irl, that she wouldn’t have had control over.

“Yeah, we compromised. Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so people could be free.”

Steve’s words. Peggy is an insomniac, we know this. I’ve said before, I’m sure she did, directly or indirectly, a lifetime of awful things while doing and trying to do good ones. And you know what? Maybe Steve wouldn’t have worked with Nazis, but let’s not pretend that Cap is this black and white, I will never do this thing character, if he thinks the alternative is worse. I hate CBR, but here, let’s talk about the time he teamed up with the Red Skull, as did Sharon.

And yeah, I have things to say, but I’m also gonna leave this post here, because frankly, it’s better in scope and wording than I could do, and says most of what I want to say.

Sometimes there are no good choices, just bad and worse. You can live a highly principled life, never compromise, and ultimately do very little good for anyone. Would it really be better if Peggy had taken all her skills and just walked away? And then what? She’s not going to work in any other intelligence agency again because Operation Paperclip was real, and every single law enforcement agency of any kind makes immunity deals with shitty people for a plethora of reasons, some better than others. If Peggy refused to work with every pos person now working for the US, she’d get nothing done.

If this was going to happen anyway, which it was, with or without her, then what’s preferable? Walking away to do…I don’t even know what she would do outside of intelligence work honestly, or keeping a hand in the situation so you at least have some idea what’s going on? Hydra got in either way, but Project Insight didn’t show up until long after Peggy, Howard and Phillips were all retired or dead. If Peggy just leaves, who’s to say Hydra doesn’t make much bigger plays much sooner, when there’s no Cap or Avengers to counter?

Operation Paperclip was what it was. Peggy storming out in protest wasn’t going to stop that. All it would do is put someone else in charge, and leave Peggy without even one hand on the wheel to steer, as Nat would say.

Hydra infiltrated and that was a clusterfuck of epic proportions, but none of that boiled over until decades after those original nazis brought over after the war had died. And, this is my opinion and nothing else, but I refuse to believe that Peggy’s presence, along with Phillips’s, and Howard’s, to a lesser extent, didn’t force Hydra to move slower than they otherwise would have.

So, I’m sorry, but I don’t believe that Peggy walking away would have been the better option, and even if Steve had chosen to leave SHIELD altogether over this, which I think is a big if anyway if Peggy were running things, I don’t believe he would’ve shamed Peggy for staying. Would he be uneasy? Yes, just like I’m sure Peggy was, but he wouldn’t shame her for it or imply she’s a fundamentally lesser person than him because of it

Contrary to Tumblr belief, Peggy did not personally come up with Operation Paperclip. Contrary also to Tumblr belief, the world is not a simple, black and white place. Do Nazis deserve new lives because hey, it’s all fine, let’s forgive the nazis? No, but the government considered these people assets for whatever reason. It wasn’t about forgiving nazis, it was about the government thinking they’d gain something by having these people here. Whether that was justified or not. the op was happening regardless. Peggy quitting to be the housewife Tumblr also wants her to be since EG for some reason, wasn’t going to do anything to stop that.

#pro peggy carter #peggy carter

[jyndor]

lol i got mad about a thing reylos said. shocking. (tw: nazism, fascism)

just saw a ridiculous post about how people who talk about the first order as being nazis are ignoring history and disrespecting jewish people and let me tell you

that the only reason I didn’t write this on that post is because I think the op is probably jewish and also a kyle ron/reylo fan and lol well. I don’t need to be told I can’t have an opinion on this or that I am attacking them. this is nothing personal, except that reylos have a history of being racist and dismissive about fascism, and so I am honestly shook that someone could be so disingenuous. lol oop that was personal.

if you know anything about film history, you know that george lucas got his inspiration for the empire’s look, and also for certain shots of the rebels, from nazi propaganda made by leni riefenstahl, specifically triumph of the will. (guys don’t go looking it up if you haven’t seen it unless you have a strong stomach because it is really, really disgusting). now, that is more or less what happens when you have a guy who is a student of film history make a movie about, you guessed it, a band of rebels fighting an imperial force but in space. george lucas also put a lot of politics into star wars, specifically anti-fascist messaging. this is like the most basic argument people make when dealing with right-wing fans of sw. this is what we’ve all said to some dumbass white guy who got mad about rey or finn or poe. I would bet that some reylos have also had that conversation, since they care about rey (I guess, although that might be too strong a word; they certainly don’t care about shipping her with a guy who tortured her lol but I digress).

jj abrams took what was already overt fascist imagery from the empire and turned it up to eleven for the first order. this is actually why I found the inclusion of POC as first order OFFICERS (not low level workers Bodhi or stolen baby stormtroopers like Finn) to be kind of fucked up, because it diluted the narrative. do not come at me with some idiotic YESS MORE BLACK IMPERIALS YESS because I am just not here for that brand of idiot representational pinkwashing(? this is a term we use for putting gay shit on monstrous corporate/imperial shit to seem more progressive but it might not be the right term for this).

if you look at the og trilogy, every single imperial officer is a posh white british man, and while I am sure that was partly because diversity was not really something george seemed mindful of, it was also a deliberate thing. like, they clearly wanted to evoke an image of imperialist, and yes FASCIST, rule. this is not that hard to understand so don’t be fucking obtuse just because you like kyle ron or reylo. not that I believe that the intent of the creator is the end all, be all, but in this case it does matter.

yes the anti-alien biases were mainly a product of legends, but I am pretty sure it is also implicit in the original movies because there are no aliens to be found in imperial ranks, and they are everywhere in the rebellion. and yes, I can understand why this might be offensive because you don’t need metaphors to understand why the nazis were bad, and yet. maybe, sometimes, you do need to give people a metaphorical understanding of things they haven’t experienced. and humans have a notoriously difficult time understanding large numbers - so maybe, a visual example of what the fuck genocide might seem like is... idk, helpful for kids? alderaan being death star’d might not be actual history, and it might not represent what jewish/romani/etc victims of the nazis experienced, but it IS chilling. personally I think that tfa did a better job with its death star knock-off because we actually saw people in their last moments. alderaan’s destruction can be rightfully criticized as too distant, since we only see leia’s response, and not what it felt like on the ground. but undoubtedly this is a fictional representation of fascist, imperial might - and all the destruction that comes with it.

it isn’t just visual, and of course the star war isn’t real and no real alderaanians were harmed in the making of the movies. duh. it’s a metaphor, an allegory. like idk who these reylos are kidding, acting like people who criticize you guys for stanning a fascist fuckboy don’t understand that these are just fiction.

the REASON I get mad about reylo and about kyle ron stans, is because nothing exists in a vacuum. NOTHING. not a damn thing. the dumbing down of stormtroopers and imperial ideology (vague though it might be) is actually how Disney gets away with marketing t-shirts with stormtrooper helmets on them to little kids, or like idk how people have convinced themselves that ben solo is just misunderstood and damaged, and not a thirty-year-old man who has made a deliberate choice to commit genocide. his so-called abuse (which we only get to see in a comic? like I’m sorry do better with your sob story) is no excuse for at best being silently complicit in genocide, and at worst actively campaigning for it.

I think there are good critiques that people make about saying the empire is nazism, because obviously this is fiction. you cannot have it both ways. you cannot say that it is anti-fascist when you are arguing with right-wingers who didn’t get that message, and then turn around when people say your fave is at best neutral on genocide (lol) and say we can’t talk about how he is a fascist.

I saw someone say something like, no one calls darth vader a fascist. LMAO yes we fucking do. now I will be the first to admit that anakin gets a lot more empathy, and part of that is because he is a more beloved character with more nuance than kyle ron. and decades of lore. but also because he didn’t grow up a privileged son of a princess, he grew up enslaved and because of his traumas he went right-wing. which does in fact happen. but yeah, darth vader had to die at the end of rotj for a reason - because no one would forgive him for the crimes he committed against the galaxy. it’s tragic because he had the potential to do great, and he redeems himself by killing the emperor, but approximately no critic of kyle ron would ever say that anakin skywalker deserved to go free and live without consequences for his actions.

if I have more sympathy for him, it is because the movies gave me reason. not because he’s hot. or idk a bad boy.

and after the racist abuse that john boyega got from KYLE RON AND REYLO stans specifically, if I were them I would shut the fuck up about how offended you guys are about calling him a fascist or a nazi. you can like your bad boy wet dream if you want, and you don’t have to even like that people think he is a fascist, and you can deny all you want all of that OVERT FASCIST IMAGERY that jj abrams put into tfa, but it’s there, and we don’t live in a vacuum, and I am not here for people dumbing down cultural phenomenon.

redemptions arcs are great! I believe in rehabilitative justice, and I agree that there is a bit of gatekeeping on who gets to be redeemed in stories. but rehabilitative justice isn’t just like you let people who do bad shit get away with it, it is a long process wherein offenders have to do some serious work on themselves. it is not easy. it is not fun, doesn’t end in sex with daisy ridley. and in many ways, it might be harder than doing hard time.

but I also don’t think we get to just... rehabilitate the lead officers who are complicit in war crimes without dealing with what they’ve done, that is how I feel about george bush, and yes, that is how I feel about kylo ren, no matter how much you try to woobify him. because that is what society already does - we let the monsters at the top of the system get away with war crimes and murder and rape, so maybe we should fight that kind of narrative in fiction, too.

we don’t live in a vacuum.

#i have jewish family members and i am not here for this bullshit #like who you like if you must #but that was some cognitive dissonant shit #fascism tw #nazism tw #war crimes tw #i mean these are pretty vaguely mentioned but still #cait got mad #shocking

[steadytigerobject]

Elgin Baylor wasn't going to be the beginning of anything. He certainly didn't set out to be the beginning of everything: the superstar who saved the Lakers and brought them to the NBA, L. A.; the transcendent athlete who "reinvented everything but the rim game" and changed the geometry of the sport; the avant-garde innovator who was, in the words of legendary Hoops writer Bob Ryan, “the most influential offensive lineman of the last 60 years.” He was fair ... Let's go. Trying to use the tools at his disposal to put the ball in the hole, in any way he can.

“The way I played the game was just natural, " Baylor told Bleacher Report's Dave Schilling in 2018 . "I never sat down and thought about what I was going to do. I was just reacting to the situation, to the way the guys were guarding me. I've done things that people have probably never done before. I just instinctively did it.”

These instincts, combined with a considerable amount of skill, strength, and athleticism, have produced one of the greatest and most important players in the history of basketball. They sketched out a plan that generations of super-sports wing scorers would follow-and, in fact, still do.

They propelled Baylor, who died Monday of natural causes at age 86, through a remarkable Hall of Fame career that helped lay the groundwork for the NBA’s transformation into a nightly highlight factory but that, for several reasons, has never quite seemed to get its proper respect.

These days, Baylor is most often discussed in the language of ancestry and lineage. In the NBA’s creation myth, he’s a Promethean figure—an early skywalker who, in the years before frequent nationally televised games and widely distributed video footage, helped pave a path toward the sort of eye-popping feats we now see every night.

“He just might be the best player I ever saw,” legendary Lakers play-by-play man Chick Hearn once said. “He was doing things that Dr. Julius Erving made famous 20 years later, the hang time and so forth. But Elgin didn’t have the TV exposure. Nobody did in those days.”

Those who did see him, though, never forgot it—and learned from the experience.

“In basketball, you watch and emulate the things other players do,” Michael Goldberg, former head of the National Basketball Coaches Association, said in Basketball: A Love Story. “Once one player can do a ‘wow’ move, then every kid in every school yard tries to do that themselves. Those that can refine it take it to the next level, and so on down the line. I would say that Elgin Baylor begat Connie Hawkins, and Hawkins begat Earl Monroe, and Monroe begat Dr. J, and Dr. J begat David Thompson, and Thompson begat Michael Jordan, and Jordan begat Kobe Bryant, and there’s more begats going on.”

Off the court, he was a fearless trailblazer who fought against the racist, segregationist policies of the Jim Crow era. On it, he was a groundbreaking slasher who, as Ryan wrote in the foreword to Bijan C. Bayne’s 2015 biography of Baylor, took “a game that was essentially horizontal and occasionally vertical and [made] it diagonal.” He was a tradition-flouting talent, an improvisational creator constantly unlocking new possibilities.

“His ballhandling ability at 6-foot-5, 220 pounds made him a one-man revolution,” Bayne wrote. “He had all the fakes and a sure handle, and some of his spectacular plays culminated in twisting, hanging, or gliding near or past the basket. Yet, it was the combination of those elements—the yo-yo dribbling, the subtle feints, the knifing reverse layups between taller defenders—that set Baylor apart from his predecessors and peers. Where such players as Hawkins, Erving, and, of course, Jordan became known for their trademark dunks, Baylor scored on one-hand push shots, banks, floaters, and fallaways.”

Baylor had the deepest off-the-dribble bag of his era, and he used every trick in it to score a ton. He totaled 23,149 points over 14 seasons—all after entering the NBA at age 24, all compiled without a 3-point line—which made him the third-leading scorer in NBA history behind Wilt and Oscar when he retired in 1972. (He now ranks 36th on the all-time NBA/ABA leaderboard.) He averaged 38.3 points per game during the 1961-62 season, the fourth-highest single-season average in NBA history, while spending a large chunk of it as an active-duty Army reservist who could play only on weekends and when given special clearance.

There was a bitter irony in that: Baylor performing at an all-time-superstar level while on leave from serving a country that continued to treat him and people who looked like him as second-class citizens.

Two years earlier, on January 16, 1959, the Lakers were scheduled to play the Cincinnati Royals in Charleston, West Virginia. When they arrived at the Kanawha Hotel, the desk clerk took one look at them—specifically Baylor, Boo Ellis, and Ed Fleming—and told team captain Vern Mikkelsen, “The three colored boys will have to go somewhere else. This is a nice, respectable hotel. We can’t take the colored boys.”

Rather than submit to the discriminatory policy, the entire Lakers team left, staying instead in a motel that welcomed Black guests. Later, Baylor went out with his teammates to get something to eat, only to be denied service at a restaurant, too. An incensed Baylor decided not to play in the game, boycotting to call attention to the inequality and mistreatment he and other Black people faced in the town.

“I'm human, " he told his friend and teammate Hot Rod Hundley, who was white. "All I want is to be treated like a human being. I am not an animal that is put in a cage and released on the show. They won't treat me like an animal.”

The NBA and the Lakers stood by Baylor. From then on, the Lakers will require that there be no segregation clauses in their contracts when organizing games. Soon after, then-NBA Commissioner Maurice Podoloff " promised to make sure that such treatment of black players in hotels is a thing of the past when they represent the League.”

” Of course, I don't regret doing it, " Baylor said in a March 1963 sports magazine op - ed. "I'm not a trailblazer or anything, but I'm interested in my people and progress. My name is Elgin Baylor, and I don't want anything more than I have a right to.”

That perseverance is evident again at the 1964 NBA All-Star Game in Boston, when Baylor, Robertson, Jerry West, and other star players “barricaded themselves in the locker room and announced that they would not play unless they were guaranteed benefits originally directed by the commissioner last summer”—namely , improved playing conditions, athletic coaches on all teams, and a retirement plan.

“[Lakers owner Bob Short] said to an Irish cop that guarded the door, ‘Tell Elgin Baylor if he doesn’t get out there, he’s through,’” Celtics All-Star Tommy Heinsohn told Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times in 2011. Baylor didn’t budge. The stoppage worked.

“For Elgin, in particular, the Black athletes, they had to be crusaders in this league and in many cases were vilified for it,” West told Sam Smith in his 2017 book Hard Labor: The Battle That Birthed the Billion-Dollar NBA. “That day has always resonated with me as one of the seminal points of this league. … That day in Boston probably was the beginning of something that few could comprehend.”

Baylor represented an inflection point on the court, too. In the early years of the NBA, the run of play was dominated by towering post players like George Mikan and Dolph Schayes, or sweet-shooting perimeter playmakers like “Jumpin’” Joe Fulks, Paul Arizin, and Bob Cousy. Baylor split the difference, combining the bulldozing strength and rebounding of the league’s best bigs with the speed, quickness, passing, and shotmaking of its top guards, all in a bruising 6-foot-5, 225-pound package. You know how James Harden is sometimes described as being built like a tank? Baylor was the same size and, in his day, just as tough to stop; Knicks forward Richie Guerin, a Hall of Famer in his own right, once said defending Baylor was “like guarding a flood.”

The way Baylor moved could move people. Stylistic successor Julius Erving described it as “just ballet in basketball.” To Hall of Fame guard Charlie Scott, watching Baylor was “like watching poetry.” They weren’t alone in their hosannas; Baylor’s play inspired some delightfully creative and high-minded descriptions from the ink-stained wretches tasked with capturing his brilliance. One favorite: “When Baylor gets the ball, the opposition scatters like quail at the sight of the hunter.”

You can only earn prose that purple with pure production. Baylor is one of only four players to average more than 25 points and 10 rebounds per game in his career, joined by Chamberlain, Karl Malone, and Bob Pettit. Of that group, only Wilt delivered as many assists per game as Baylor, a heady passer who still ranks 20th on the all-time triple-double list:

Baylor is one of only 10 players ever to have at least 10 appearances on an NBA first team; only LeBron James, Bryant and Malone have more. Nearly 50 years after his retirement, his career scoring average of 27.4 points per game still ranks third, behind only Wilt and Jordan. He still ranks 11th in rebounds per game, and in the top 30 in player efficiency, field goals, free throws, and total rebounds.

[kingjasnah]

Is there the full list of brandersons favourite games reposted somewhere?

i dont think so? or not that ive seen. u can literally just sign up for the newsletter on his website but screw it ill just post them for u. it sure was a TRIP scrolling past these to get to the interlude though. undertale is on this list.....im shakign at the thought that adolin was based off ff10 tidus but i cant get it out of my head now

#10: Katamari Damaci

I love things that make me look at the world in a new way. Katamari did this in spades. It is an imaginative, bizarre vision with unique gameplay. It is like nothing else in the world and I love it for all its strangeness and occasional lack of gameplay polish.

I was transfixed the first time I played it, and have looked forward to it being remade and rereleased on multiple different consoles. I love the cute—and somehow creepy at the same time—storyline. It feels like a fever dream more than a game sometimes, and is probably the closest I’ll ever get to understanding what it’s like to do drugs.

#9: Undertale

This is an oddball on this list because I think it’s the only game that is not a franchise from a major studio—but is instead an indie game, which I believe was originally funded on Kickstarter.I loved how this felt like a novel as much as a game. It was one person’s vision; a single story told really well, with a huge amount of personality. The humor was just my kind of wonderful/terrible, and I was instantly enamored with the characters.That probably would have been enough, but it is a nice deconstruction of video games as a medium—and has not one, but multiple innovative gameplay mechanics. Together, the package left me enamored. This is a work of genius that I feel everyone should at least try, even if it ends up not being for them.

#8: Fallout: New Vegas

I have played all of the core Fallout games, and I was one of the (it seems few) who was really excited when it moved from turn-based tactics to first-person shooter. While Fallout 3 was good, it didn’t have the charm of the first two.New Vegas delivered on everything I was hoping to see. The charm was back, the writing sharp, the quests imaginative. The gameplay was engaging and branched in a variety of directions, the gunplay was solid, and the atmosphere immersive. I of course love the first two games in the series—but New Vegas combines everything I like in gaming into one package. (As a note, I own the Outer Worlds, and am looking forward to digging into it. Consider this item on the list a recommendation of other Obsidian games—like Knights of the Old Republic Two—regardless of genre, as I’ve found them universally to be superior to their contemporaries.)

#7 Super Mario World

When I was eleven, I flew (alone, which was very exciting to me) from Nebraska to visit my uncle Devon in Salt Lake City. Before I left, my father gave me $200 and told me to pay for my own meals while on the trip—but of course, my uncle didn’t allow this. At the end of the trip, I tried to give him the money, which he wouldn’t take.I mentioned my dad would take the money back when I got home, but that was okay. Well, my uncle would have none of that, and drove me to the local mall and made me spend it on a Nintendo Entertainment System. (This uncle, you might guess, is an awesome human being.)Since that day of first plugging it in and experiencing Mario for the first time, I was hooked. This is the only platformer on the list, as I don’t love those. But one makes an exception for Mario. There’s just so much polish, so much elegance to the control schemes, that even a guy who prefers an FPS or an RPG like me has to admit these are great games. I picked World as my favorite as it’s the one I’ve gone back to and played the most.

#7: The Curse of Monkey Island (Monkey Island 3)

I kind of miss the golden age of adventure gaming, and I don’t know that anyone ever got it as right as they did with this game. It is the pinnacle of the genre, in my opinion—no offense to Grim Fandango fans.This game came out right before gaming’s awkward teenage phase where everything moved to 3-d polygons. For a while after, games looked pretty bad, though they could do more because of the swap. But if you want to go see what life was like before that change, play Monkey Island 3. Composed of beautiful art pieces that look like cells from Disney movies, with streamlined controls (the genre had come a long way from “Get yon torch”) and fantastic voice acting, this game still plays really well.This is one of the few games I’ve been able to get my non-gamer wife to play through with me, and it worked really well as a co-op game with the two of us trying to talk through problems. It’s a lovingly crafted time capsule of a previous era of gaming, and if you missed it, it’s really worth trying all these years later. (The first and second games hold up surprisingly well too, as a note, particularly with the redone art that came out a decade or so ago.)Also, again, this one has my kind of humor.

#6: Breath of the Wild

I never thought a Zelda game would unseat A Link to the Past as my favorite Zelda, but Breath of the Wild managed it. It combined the magic of classic gameplay with modern design aesthetic, and I loved this game.There’s not a lot to say about it that others haven’t said before, but I particularly liked how it took the elements of the previous games in the series (giving you specific tools to beat specific challenges) and let you have them all at once. I like how the dungeons became little mini puzzles to beat, instead of (sometimes seemingly endless) slogs to get through. I liked the exploration, the fluidity of the controls, and the use of a non-linear narrative in flashbacks. It’s worth buying a Switch just to play this one and Mario—but in case you want, you can also play Dark Souls on Switch... (That’s foreshadowing.)

#5: Halo 2

Telling stories about Halo Two on stream is what made me think of writing this list.I’m sometimes surprised that this game isn’t talked about as much as I think it should be. Granted, the franchise is very popular—but people tend to love either Reach or games 1 or 3 more than two. Two, however, is the only one I ever wanted to replay—and I’ve done so three or four times at this point. (It’s also the only one I ever beat on Legendary.)It’s made me think on why I love this one, while so many others seem to just consider it one of many in a strong—but in many ways unexceptional—series of games. I think part of this is because I focus primarily on the single-player aspects of a game (which is why there aren’t any MMOs on this list.) Others prefer Halo games with more balanced/polished multiplayer. But I like to game by myself, and don’t really look for a multiplayer experience. (Though this is changing as I game with my sons more and more.)I really like good writing—which I suppose you’d expect. But in games, I specifically prefer writing that enhances the style of game I’m playing. Just dumping a bunch of story on me isn’t enough; it has to be suited to the gameplay and the feel of the game. In that context, I’ve rarely encountered writing as good as Halo 2. From the opening—with the intercutting and juxtaposition of the two narratives—to the quotes barked out by the marines, the writing in this game is great. It stands out starkly against other Halo games, to the point that I wonder what the difference is.Yes, Halo Two is a bombastic hero fantasy about a super soldier stomping aliens. But it has subtle, yet powerful worldbuilding sprinkled all through it—and the music...it does things with the story that I envy. It’s kind of cheating that games and films get to have powerful scores to help with mood.The guns in Two feel so much better than Halo One, and the vehicles drive far better. The only complaint I have is that it’s only half a story—as in, Halo 2 and 3 seem like they were one game broken in two pieces. And while 3 is good (and Reach does something different, which I approve of in general) neither did it for me the way Two did, and continues to do.

#3: Final Fantasy X

You probably knew Final Fantasy was coming. People often ask if the way these games handle magic was an influence upon me. All I can say is that I’ve played them since the first one, and so they’re bound to have had an influence.On one hand, these games are really strange. I mean, I don’t think we gamers stop quite often enough to note how downright bizarre this series gets. Final Fantasy doesn’t always make the most sense—but the games are always ambitious.Ten is my favorite for a couple of reasons. I felt like the worldbuilding was among the strongest, and I really connected with the characters. That’s strange, because this is one of the FF games without an angst-filled teen as the protagonist. Instead, it has a kind of stable happy-go-lucky jock as the protagonist.But that’s what I needed, right then. A game that didn’t give me the same old protagonist, but instead gave me someone new and showed me I could bond to them just as well. Ten was the first with full voice acting, and that jump added a lot for me. It has my favorite music of the series, and all together is what I consider the perfect final fantasy game. (Though admittedly, I find it more and more difficult to get into turn-based battle mechanics as I grow older.)

#2: Bloodborne

Those who follow my streams, or who read other interviews I’ve done, probably expected this series to be at or near the top. The question wasn’t whether Souls would be here, but which one to pick as my favorite.I went with Bloodborne, though it could have been any of them. (Even Dark Souls 2—which I really like, despite its reputation in the fandom.) I’ve been following FromSoftware’s games since the King’s Field games, and Demon’s Souls was a huge triumph—with the director Hidetaka Miyazaki deserving much of the praise for its design, and Dark Souls (which is really just a more polished version of Demon’s Souls).As I am a fan of cosmic horror, Bloodborne is probably my favorite overall. It really hit the mix of cosmic and gothic horror perfectly. It forced me to change up my gameplay from the other Souls games, and I loved the beautiful visuals.I am a fan of hard games—but I like hard games that are what I consider “fair.” (For example, I don’t love those impossible fan-made Mario levels, or many of the super-crazy “bullet hell”-style games.) Dark Souls is a different kind of hard. Difficult like a stern instructor, expecting you to learn—but giving you the tools to do so. It presents a challenge, rather than being hard just to be hard.If I have a problem with Final Fantasy, it’s that the games sometimes feel like the gameplay is an afterthought to telling the story. But in the Souls games, story and gameplay are intermixed in a way I’d never seen done before. You have to construct the story like an archeologist, using dialogue and lore from descriptions of in-game objects. I find this fascinating; the series tells stories in a way a book never could. I’m always glad when a game series can show off the specific strengths of the medium.In fact, this series would be #1 except for the little fact that I have way too much time on Steam logged playing...

#1: Civilization VI

This series had to take #1 by sheer weight of gameplay time. I discovered the first on a friend’s computer in the dorms my freshman year—and I can still remember the feeling of the birds chirping outside, realizing I’d been playing all night and really should get back to my own dorm room.That still happens, and has happened, with every game in the series. I have a lot of thoughts on this series, many of them granular and too specific for this list. (Like, it’s obvious AI technology isn’t up to the task of playing a game this complex—so could we instead get a roguelike set of modifiers, game modes, etc. to liven up the games, rather than just having a difficulty slider that changes a few simple aspects of the game?)I’ll try not to rant, because I really do love this game series. A lot of people consider IV to be the pinnacle of the series, but after V unstacked units—and VI unstacked cities—there was no way I could ever go back. If for some reason, you’ve never played this grand patriarch of the 4X game genre, it’s about starting with a single stone-age settler who can found a city—then playing through eras of a civilization, growing your empire, to try to eventually get offworld with a space program. (Or, if you prefer, conquering the world.)It’s a load of fun in the way I like to have fun, and I feel like the series has only gotten better over the years. My hat is off to the developers, who keep reinventing the series, rather than making the exact same game over and over.Now, about that request for difficulty modes...

there are runner ups but for the sake of anyone whos on mobile and cant get past a read more (first of all omg im SO sorry) ill refrain. anyway he thought WHAT loz game was the best before botw?

#mix between HARDCORE judgement and like. yea. yea ff10 was pretty good wasnt it #but i dont think its anywhere near the best of them #long post #im read mores dont work imm so fucking sorry this is so long #MOST of these games are good its just so wild its so wild its SO wild #asks #Anonymous

[geekgirles]

Lila is not a sociopath. Stop spreading false information

Are you sure about that, though?

It's true a character's sociopathy will not be openly discussed or addressed in a kids show, the same way it doesn't outright mention the several issues Adrien's developing as a side effect of his father's neglecting parenting. But those are things that can be sensed, and that's when fans who enjoy analyses, such as myself, step in to help.

Leaving aside that I find your accusation of me spreading false information uncalled for, I feel obliged to tell you, in the most respectful way possible, that this is an opinion shared by many and backed by many others through throughout observation.

There is one particular post that explores the possibility of Lila being a sociopath in depth, however, I won't share it nor tag its origins because I don't want to put its OP in a difficult position. But I assure you, if you just type in the search bar something like "ML Lila is a sociopath", it should appear.

With your permission, I'm going to explain why I agree Lila Rossi is indeed a sociopath. This is an analysis on a character, so I won't tag it as hate, please, forgive me if it does look like it at any moment.

The first thing that should be addressed is Lila's knack for lying; very common in sociopaths.

Ever since Volpina, the ML team has made it clear that Lila's most distinctive trait is her compulsive lying. Her possible sociopathy is heavily hinted on this; in every single episode she's been in, she's lied about her past: 

Every single famous person she claims to have met.

 All her travels.

The various selfless actions she's done (such as saving Jagged Stone's kitten).

Being saved and best friends with Ladybug.

Living in Japan (supposedly).

Creating "Freestyle Clash 2".

If that weren't enough, not only does Lila lie with every breath, but she fiercely defends each lie. Proof of this are her reactions whenever one of her lies has been exposed or she meets someone who's aware of her tendencies.

In Volpina, after Ladybug exposed her, her second highest priority besides introducing her alter ego and trying to get rid of Ladybug was going to Adrien as her akumatised self to convince him she wasn't lying.

Then, in Chameleon, she covered up the lie about her wrist saying she'd only caught the napkin because it could've hurt Max, and later, when no one who doesn't know the truth was around to force her to act friendly, she coldly refused Adrien's request of her being more honest and furiously exclaimed the liar was Ladybug, not her. 

And before it's pointed out, she only calmly dismissed Marinette's attempt at exposing her with another lie in Catalyst because, as I implied before, there were too many people present to let her façade drop.

Not to mention the great lengths she goes to to make her lies more believable or avoid getting caught in said lie. In her debut, it was the necklace she bought to convince Adrien of her false superhero heritage. In Catalyst, she took the phone from her mother to prevent her from finding out the truth and talk with Mr. Damocles, as well as claiming he was akumatised too. In Oni-chan, she used every single piece of information Adrien had shared in the car to make her lies convincing enough to be allowed inside the mansion.

Another trait shared by sociopaths that Lila has demonstrated as well is her incapability to acknowledge her own faults, something that can be linked to her being immature.

This particular trait was shown again in Volpina, Catalyst and Chameleon: 

In Volpina, she blamed Ladybug for ruining her chances with Adrien. And while the superheroine played an important part in that, we must remember it'd also been Lila's fault for lying in the first place.

In Catalyst, while Lila was watching the news on her laptop right before Gabriel threw the bomb, she was, ironically, accusing the superhero of everything she had done both as herself and Volpina; lying, cowardice (she used her illusions to do her dirty job for her, instead of actually facing the heroes) and treason (her whole plan as Volpina was gaining their trust to betray them later, so…).

In Chameleon, she still blamed Ladybug for what'd happened at the park, claiming the superheroine had been the one who lied, not her.

Another thing linked to immaturity and sociopathy is not learning from one's mistakes, which, considering Lila keeps getting akumatised (now willingly), lying with every breath and has made no attempt at being more honest of a better person in general, I would honestly associate to her as well.

There's also the fact that sociopaths tend to display a violent behaviour; in Lila's case, although she keeps her mask around many people, whenever she has the chance to show her true colours, she takes advantage of it to the fullest. For starters, as Volpina, though they were actually illusions, she threatened Ladybug a total of three times with very aggressive scenarios; she "trapped" her under the threat of missiles, she pretended to blow down a building and to kidnap and endanger Adrien's life. As herself, though, she cornered Marinette in the bathroom and gave her an ultimatum, she tends to throw away her stuff whenever she's angry, she let her disdain towards  Kagami, Ladybug, Marinette, Chloé and Nino show and, as Chameleon she went and publicly tainted Adrien's reputation as well as proceed and furiously fight Ladybug.

Another aspect of Lila's character that backs this up is the way she reacts to minor offenses; again, Chameleon is the perfect example for this type of behaviour; especially the way she tries to get even from Adrien as Chameleon when the most harm he's done is nicely requesting her to stop lying, something he's in his right to do since Lila's the one trying to become a part of his life, not the other way around.

I also want to take the opportunity to point out something that I've discussed several times before; Lila declared war at Marinette even when she hadn't actually picked a side herself. Just by watching the last minutes of the episode it's easy to notice there's nothing that could be taken as a declaration of war from Marinette's part, she even let Lila's slip up about which one of her ears had the tinnitus slide and didn't interact with her again until the very last minute; when Lila herself made her her arch-rival. So why does Lila hate her with a passion now when she was previously willing to give her a second chance? Easy, because she was jealous Adrien had chosen Marinette over her; again, a minor offense. Especially because it was Adrien's decision, not Marinette's doing.

On the other hand, there's the thing with Lila's belief of being better than everyone else. She clearly says, when comparing Marinette to the others, that she thinks they're dumb. Just like she thinks herself as the best option to become the one closest to Adrien; deeming Chloé of tacky, Marinette of being "a dummy" and even badmouthing Nino; when two of the three aforementioned teens hadn't done anything to her, they hadn't even doubted her claims (in Chloé's case, at least not until she talked about her secret formula to call Ladybug). This is something she also shows when akumatised, she considered Volpina to be the best hero of Paris (going as far as saying she was the only hero the city needed), when Gabriel was putting her persona down compared to Ladybug she reacted strongly (even if Volpina was, indeed, a bad copy of a superhero) and as Chameleon she kept on underestimating Ladybug.

Lila has a knack for isolating people, both personally and using other means to do so. She's done it herself when she went after Marinette when she was in the toilet (I won't disregard the possibility that she might've offered to go instead of Alya or any other classmate in an attempt to win her over as well), she always talks to Adrien when the two are alone, even going as far as looking for a place where it can be just the two of them (the library in Volpina, the locker room in Chameleon, which she used to lock him and get a kiss to transform, or his house in Oni-chan) and she talked to Chloé when only Sabrina was present, who, unfortunately, doesn't have that much of a presence.

And as for the other means, if you think about it that's exactly her goal regarding her issues with Marinette and Adrien; she wants to isolate Marinette to get rid of her, and thus, the only person capable of making her web of lies crumble, and she wants to isolate Adrien to have him all for herself. And on a side note, when she straight up isolates people she does so in a way that the other won't have a chance to escape; she becomes unpredictable.

Something else that should be discussed is her façade itself.

Many sociopaths are known for appearing caring, kind and generous; things Lila pretends to be to win people over, such as promising Nino she'd talk to Steven Spielberg/Besielberg about him, her role in the environmental conference that took place in the Kingdom of Achu or promising Marinette she would help her get closer to Adrien. All the which make her look like an exceptional role model to others, like Caline's amazement on her numerous "feats."

I'd also like to mention that Lila shares another similarity to your average sociopath; she knows how to read people and tells them what they want to hear; something she even admitted herself.

In her debut, she complimented Chat Noir and agreed to Ladybug's change of her plan to defeat Hawk Moth to reduce suspicions on her and make the super heroine look paranoid and jealous. In Chameleon she didn't hesitate to entertain her classmates with more stories about her travels, the celebrities she'd met or her friendship with Ladybug, just like she complimented them all as well for being so kind as to "remember her hearing problem", to bring her her food and the like. In Oni-chan, she even played, or at least tried to, this card with Gabriel, telling him everything he wanted to hear about Adrien's protection and his parenting.

One more thing that I honestly believe Lila possesses is a very aggressive and intimidating, yet cold and distant stare. If you look at her closely, it's easy to notice most of Lila's character is reflected on her eyes and eyebrows, after all, the eyes are the mirror of the soul. She actually has two different types of glare:

Her coldest, most manipulating and most intense stare is one she reserves to people she despises, mainly Ladybug/Marinette.

The other, is less hostile, however, it still gives the impression of a predator watching its prey; of course, this kind of glare is the one she uses on Adrien.

And, lastly but not least, sociopaths are known for guilt-tripping others.

Lila herself has done this while pretending injuries and diseases to get what she wanted from others; the seat next to Adrien, her food…, to make Marinette look bad about not wanting to move to the back, to manipulate Nino into convincing Adrien to study with her, etc.

Lastly, I would like to point out that her possible sociopathy is not what makes her a villain; that's her ability to tell from right or wrong and, still, ignoring the right path. And I must let you know, anon, that I never spread false information. The one time I referred to her as a sociopath that I can think of, I was actually explaining another anon who'd seen that term being used to describe her in Wikipedia that I'd seen it myself on TV Tropes. And just like that, I wasn't the first to think of her as such, I only read some very good, in depth analyses that presented that option and found myself agreeing with them. That's all I did.

May I give you a piece of advice? Try voicing your concerns a bit more nicely, something like "I don't see why Lila is a sociopath. Could you please share your views on the matter?" It'll save you a lot of trouble :)

#miraculous ladybug #ml #mlb #ml season 3 #ml season 3 spoilers #ml spoilers #ml leaks #lila rossi #ml analysis #volpina #heroes' day #catalyst #chameleon #oni-chan #timetagger #miraculer #ask&answer #sociopathy #sociopath lila #no hate

[prorevenge]

Bully Creates His Own Revenge

This ones a bit long but please stick with me because it's a good one...

So here's the basics, when I was a kid my dad was in the service, U.S. Navy, and so we moved around a lot. Because of this I was always the new kid over and over again, meaning I was constantly the target of would be bullies and this made me fairly introverted and distrusting of other people by nature. In the waning years of my father's military career he decided he would take his family back to his home town and do some recruiting until he retired. So away we went to the family farm built by my great grandfather.

If anyone has ever found themselves moving to a small town suddenly then you are well aware of what I mean when I say that the locals were very small town minded. For those of you who don't know, the small town mentality is basically thus, "if you're not from there, born and raised, then you don't belong there." A lot of small town citizens are closed off and want nothing to do with outsiders.

So there I was, not only the new kid but introverted and an outsider....bully magnet. For the most part I tried not to let it get to me but I did have some bad days and got into a few fights, always in self defense though. And eventually as people grew up most of the other kids matured out of trying to be a bully and began to just leave me alone. Especially once they found out who my great grandfather was...something about one of the four founding families...I don't know...I never really cared that much and besides those people had shown their true colors by treating me like crap for years by that point...but that's a different story. This story is about a kid we'll call Mike.

You see Mike was the only one who never seemed to grow out of trying to be a bully. He would daily track me down and tell me how worthless I was. That I was just some dumb farm boy who would never amount to anything and would always be a loser. He would walk up to me randomly and say things like "I know you're going to be the one who shoots up the school someday, and when it ends with your suicide I'll be the one cheering". He had some issues. At one point I arrived to school to find he had painted the combination on my locker with toothpaste. A lot of weird stuff like that.

Anyways we get into our senior year of high school and I've long since been doing my best to ignore him. His not being able to get a reaction out of me seemed to really upset him and even his friends started saying his seeming need to find me everyday to simply be a jerk was bordering on the creepy and obsessive. And then all of a sudden the verbal abuse stopped one day a couple months from graduation. I assumed he had finally just given up but that wasn't the case.

A couple weeks later I walked to the end of of our LONG driveway to catch the bus and found that our mailbox had been run over. I didn't think anything of it at the time other than that it must have been some drunk. I get home later that after noon, take some photos of the damage just in case and then fix the mailbox, new wooden post buried onto the ground. I finish my other chores and homework and relax the rest of the evening. Next morning I go to catch the school bus and the mailbox has again been run over. I get home, photos, repair it, chores, homework, relax. It happened again the next day and again the day after that...this went on for two weeks only stopping on the weekend. My parents had reported the smashing of the mailbox but there was no evidence as to who the culprit even was so nothing was done about it.

I finally have enough of digging out broken post and replacing them and so...The Revenge

I get up early on a Saturday and head to the end of the driveway. I dig a 2 feet by two feet wide hole 6 feet straight down and filled the hole with fresh cement and in the center placed a ten foot section of the old farm house' original cast iron water pipes, sunk 6 feet into the concrete. I filled the rest of the 10ft cast iron pipe with concrete as well and mounted the mailbox on the top. Mind you I looked into how far from the road the mailbox needed to be for safety reasons and attached ample amounts of reflectors.

Monday morning comes and I notice the mailbox post has all sorts of scratches on it but otherwise it's fine. I get to my final class of the day, creative writing, and am in the middle of a story outline for that week's project when a friend of Mike's comes in, we'll call him Steve.

Steve sees me and freaks out.

Steve: Do you have any idea what you did to Mike's car?! OP: I didn't do anything to Mike's car?? I don't even know what it looks like. Steve: Your little stunt with the mailbox totaled it! He had to get it towed into town at 5AM this morning! (small town. Auto garage is DEFINITELY closed at 5AM) Steve: He's gonna sue the [FRONK] out of you! (Censored for RSlash, just in case) OP: OK but you are aware that deliberately hitting and/or damaging a mailbox is a federal offense right? Steve: What are you talking about? OP: You don't actually own your mailbox. Legally it belongs to the Post Office so destroying a mailbox is destroying government property making it a federal offense. Steve: So what? He'll get a little fine, but your gonna pay! OP: Oh No...hahaha..It's actually a $250,000.00 Fine or up to 3 years in prison per offense for vandalizing a mailbox, and since it's happened 10 times in the last two weeks that translates to either a 2.5 million dollar fine or up to 30 years in prison.

Steve just stares at me for a moment and storms out. At that point I pull up the federal statute on the computer I was working on and Mike comes in insisting that I'm making that who thing up. So I show him the law and he freezes.

OP: You can take me to court and I might have to pay a small fine and maybe even tear down the mailbox...but your life would be over. Mike: Maybe but you can't prove I did it ten times! OP:Actually I took photos of the damages so I can prove it was at least ten times... But even if I couldn't $250,000.00 is till A LOT of money...much more then your car is worth I'm sure. Would you really bankrupt yourself or even get yourself sent to prison to force me to pay you a grand or two for the car?

Mike stormed out of the classroom and never bothered me again.

The Best part was actually the domino effect this created. You see Mike didn't have enough credits to graduate on time. Wasted to much time trying to be a Dr Phil case I guess. I heard through that small town grapevine that he was eventually shunted over to adult programs by the school. Without his car, which was totaled, and unable to afford another (his mother bought the 1st one and refused to buy a second when she found out how he totaled it) he couldn't get to his classes and was eventually tossed out of school due to attendance problems. Without a diploma or GED he couldn't get into even a community college nor find proper work. Not having access to gainful employment left him living with his mother in a trailer, living off her and the occasional odd job he gets.

Meanwhile I'm now married with a child and living in beautiful subtropical Algarve in the south of Portugal in Europe.

Mike if your out there reading this I only have one real question....Just how did that Mailbox taste?

(source) story by (/u/ThorsHammer0999)

#prorevenge #by /u/ThorsHammer0999 #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10

[celluloidbroomcloset]

I’m putting this under a cut.

A few things. The drama yesterday was stupid and pointless, not least because no one was attempting to stop anyone else from headcanoning anything they damn well please. Two things set me off: first, the accusation that disagreeing with the assertion “Steed is gay” is homophobic, and second, the OP and her friends mocking me and several others for having a more in-depth conversation than “lolz.” 

First: saying a character who is not canonically gay is not canonically gay is...well, it’s not homophobic. It’s simply a statement of fact in terms of the way the show CANONICALLY presents the character. No one said that the headcanon was wrong; I did say that I wanted to know WHY the OP had this interpretation. I did say that I didn’t agree with the headcanon. But that is not the same thing as saying that they’re not allowed to have that headcanon. Headcanon whatever the hell you want to. I’m not sure why “huh, that’s interesting, but I don’t agree and here’s why” is so fucking offensive. 

Second: Yes, myself and several other fans began discussing this issue more in depth. At a certain point, the OP decided to opt out of the discussion. Fair enough. What wasn’t fair enough was that, in the responses both on the original post and what the OP and her friends continued to post on their own blogs, it was obvious that they found any sort of investment in this conversation to be stupid, mocking me for “writing an essay” (yep, I like doing that, because I like this show), deriding others for continuing to talk, and making broad generalizations and assumptions about motives and sexuality. THIS, yes, did piss me the fuck off, because it denigrates fans for wanting to talk about their fandom, and ignores interpretations that might have more thought behind them.

I’m a fucking academic film critic. I LIKE THIS SHIT. No one else has to. But mocking me for giving a shit about a show I like and wanting to discuss it with other people is just fucking mean.

So. Yeah, I’m still a bit mad. That anger is gonna come out until I’ve decided not to be mad anymore. If you don’t like that, you just want me to post cute images without discussion...well, you can unfollow me, and that’s fine. But don’t presume to dictate what I can and cannot do on my own blog. 

FIN.

[crqstalite]

SHADOW OF THE SITH, Ch. 12

TRI’AMA._ZIOST.

Today was already shaping up to be a bad day, Tri'ama knew that before she even left her private quarters for the forseeable future. And with her oh-so optimistic look on things, that just made this entire excursion more bleak than it really needed to be. Ziost had never been particularily off-limits for her before, but she'd received plenty of transmissions in the past days of travel advisories to the 'Gateway of the Empire'. Had Lana not been a close acquaintance of hers, she would've sent Jaesa or Scorvs off to deal with the situation and heeded the warnings to stay far away from the planet. But the way the blonde Sith had seemed so panicked over the situation, so much more different than her typical and calm disposition, Tri'ama couldn't help but feel obligated to help the new Minister of Sith Intelligence with the mission (also maybe not send her apprentice out to her premature death either; Scorvs could get himself killed for all she cared).

Given, there was also a multitude of other things that she could be getting up to, like properly being on leave for the first time in years, but left idle and without any work to busy her, her mind would continue drifting elsewhere. Or awkwardly try to reinsert herself into the Amarillis family, and with the current climate of the estate, it was best she stay out of the issues entirely. Returning to her old apartment, which she still hadn't cleaned out post-divorce, was a no-go emotion-wise. Staying on the Fury would only remind her more of Theron, leaving her yet again idle and more likely to do something stupid. Getting caught up in yet another conspiracy, apparently, was the best choice out of all the options.

"Going in without backup? This still has to be one of her worse ideas." Tri'ama considers a lot of things to say to the Captain before she hears a sarcastic quip from the Black Ops soldier over the holo, and blocks out Quinn's next response before she can't, turning the corner from her room and remaining quiet as she leans against a door frame, pushing her hood up and around her head while intending to watch the rest of the conversation. Prim and proper as always, standing at a perpetual attention at the holocommunicator in the commons of the Fury, Malavai Quinn had unfortunately returned to her service at the firm request of Raegia (the woman wouldn't budge on her argument) so here he was, apparently fighting an losing unnecessary battle for her safety once again, "Even so, it's blasted Ziost! Alongside already being undesirable to someone such as a Sith Lord herself, it's been overrun by this new issue that's arisen. Every incoming ship has been either directed to its orbital station or deterred entirely. No one quite knows what is going on either, risking her safety is not part of my servitude, lest I remind you for the last time, Lieutenant. Married or otherwise, she is still my charge and I personally believe we're risking quite a lot for this Dark Lord, and our lives is not something I am willing to part with. Talk her out of this insanity, wouldn't you?"

Clearly bored with the entire exchange, Pierce's eyes flicker from the man to her with a smirk on his expression as she nods to him to continue, before quickly returning to his original attention, "I say that's somethin' you take up with her, Quinn, I ain't got any control over what she chooses to do. I've got just about as much pull as you do. I do suggest treadin' real lightly in your next few conversations with her though, Cap'n." And with that, Pierce sarcastically bows. He then very smartly disconnects from the terminal with a wink thrown in her direction, and Quinn runs a hand through his hair, clearly frustrated with the now dark holocommunicator as he focuses on a spot on the ground. A sigh of annoyance, maybe anger as he lifts his head again to shut off the static of the disconnected terminal. He whispers something under his breath, and picking himself up again, he swivels to see her standing only a few feet away. He jumps, but regains his composure rather quickly as he straightens his uniform top while she approaches. There's a new pin on his uniform that she takes notice of, and she supposes either Darth Amarillis or Darth Aghdani had promoted him at some point or another. She wouldn't put it past either of them, Raegia couldn't even be bothered to meet with him before shoving him back onto the Fury.

"My lord, I'm assuming you're ready to depart to the surface?" He asks, as she raises an eyebrow. She tries not to roll her eyes, reminding herself she has yet to slide the goggles on and her expressions do matter. To people she actually cares about, but she holds her metaphorical tongue anyways, "I must warn you, the reports from the planet's defense system have not improved since Lord Beniko hailed us. I still recommend reacquiring both Jaesa and Pierce for this mission to avoid any unnecessary injury." Quinn reminds her like a broken holorecorder.

"To yourself, you mean?" She asks, glad she has she her respirator on to remind her not to say anything too horrible underneath her breath, "Jaesa, Pierce and Vette are all people. I gave them leave because they've been aboard the Fury for years and deserve the break. I can deal with Ziost and its troubles on my own, I only require your assistance until I can find a competent medic to replace you so Darth Amarillis doesn't ground me and the rest of my crew on Dromound Kaas for the forseeable future."

He's taken aback, clearly, as his expression changes but he covers it up very quickly and rather skillfully if he was surprised by her admittance to the real reason he was still in her service, "If that's how it must be, my lord. I'm sure you're entirely capable of what you intend to accomplish, I meant no offense." An odd glint off his cerulean  eyes bring her back to a simpler time, when he grovelled at her feet like little more than an akk dog hoping for scraps. Yet again, he'd be by her side as she faced down inevitable death. Tri'ama had felt just a tad too bad about pulling her other four crewmembers from leave early (though what Jaesa and Broonmark got up to without her supervising their activities was a mystery and a half; Pierce and Vette on the other hand were with the Amarillis' to keep them from hunting her down), but the time was well-earned. Raegia, once hearing that she would be leaving again without her crew in tow, had requested a reassignment of Quinn back to her service. The premise of the request was motherly, but the forcing to take him or have the Fury grounded until she found another medic was daunting. Finding one wasn't difficult, one she trusted with her body was another story. One that she could acquire on such short notice was even worse, so she was forced to reboard the Fury with the Captain in tow. At least this time, he kept his distance, "I'm sure Minister Beniko is waiting on us, shall I set course?"

She nods offhandedly, and he disappears off back towards the cockpit. Course set as the ship lurches softly in lightspeed, she leans most of her weight against the holocommunicator. He returns back from the small room as the ship stabilizes, and he then flicks it back on as she moves to sit further away in the lounge seats. He's plotting, as she can begin to recognize the map of the Landing Zone, and as he flickers away from that, the heart of New Adasta. Plotting for what, she isn't sure. but she has noticed the change to bulkier armor instead of only his officer's uniform. What adversaries they'd face on the surface had yet to be seen, but it does comfort her  a bit that Quinn can become a battle medic if required.

Lana would surely let her go when this all died down in the next few days, but she'd equipped heavier armor like Quinn anyways simply due to necessity. And fear. Mostly necessity with all the unknowns so far, but also fear of losing her life to a stray blaster shot. Or whatever the hell was down there.

Or Quinn.

She's beginning to consider this may have been another one of Raegia's plays to get her married off again, forcing her to keep her ex-husband around in the hope they'd 'fix their issues' and Tri'ama would 'get back into the right mindset'. It didn't matter that Tri'ama was still facing the demons that he'd brought back upon the Fury, only that Raegia and Yusaits wanted a legacy that would outlive them. No matter the cost. Righting Kadasha off all the military men she'd become infatuated with somehow had been a small win until Pierce had arrived, then the obsession (that the Lieutenant still didn't know about; Kadasha overtaken by the girlish crush and had yet to say anything) had been reignited, getting Typarnk settle down had been unsucessful and Scorvs...Raegia and Yusaits had surely seen the man as a lost cause after this long. After thirty one years, it was fair for her to assume her eldest brother would become little more than a hermit in the Sanctum until he died from unnatural causes.

But now, Quinn knew the rules, he knew what she would tolerate and what would get him thrown out the airlock. He kept his gaze averted from her when it was evident she no longer needed his input on anything, though it lingered just a tad too long to be a look of acknowledgement or respect. There was no need to make a mountain out of a selosian tunnel though, so she sighs and pulls out her own holocom, effectively ignoring any further interaction he may have wanted from her. Even taking her eyes off of him for just a moment makes a cold shiver run down her back as he moves away from her, surely packing up his own things on the opposite end of the ship. It still terrifies her to have him as the only one to defend her if things went inevitably wrong. She'd much rather have a blasted Jedi protecting her rather than him at this point. Most weapons she knew about were in the armory, but she wouldn't put it past him not to have a handblaster or holdout blaster on him somewhere. She wasn't that daft to assume he'd ever be unarmed, and she knew Captain Quinn like the back of her own hand.

The nightmares of being shot in the back had returned in full force when she'd seen him again, bag in hand at the foot of the ramp leading into the Fury. Having blood gush out of her with a vibroblade stabbed through her gut, all with those cold, calculating blue eyes on her the entire time while doing the deed. Baras may have been dead and gone, forgotten quickly by those of the top Sith, and Quinn may have promised to never attempt such a thing again, but her trust would never be regained that easily. And chances are, he would never have it again. Why Vette couldn't be her primary healer was beyond her, the small Twi'lek was rather good at finding injuries and treating them to the best of her abilities. Even Pierce had managed some field healing that had been rather sufficient. Broonmark had never truly been able to, and due to the many unknowns of Jaesa's powers, Tri'ama found it better to simply let her be good at what she was good at.

But apparently, Raegia could not be bothered to find one herself. She didn't trust Pierce as he was apparently little more than a military lackey with rocks for brains nor Vette due her being little more than a prized and glorified slave who didn't know any better (Raegia's words, not her's). But because she was her legal guardian and 'doting mother' she had the right to ground her on Dromound Kaas. So here they were, walking down from the Fury together, Quinn a few paces behind her as she tries to grasp the situation. Evidently, this was horribly unideal, and she was more than glad that she'd acquired all the armor plating that she had for this mission specifically. One could never be too careful, especially around traitors.

Thanks, mother, She thinks sarcastically as they pass by a transparisteel viewport, and she glances at their reflections passing in the reflective surface, Thanks for nothing.

Most of the mission was like running around in circles, she found as she went over the mission report for the third time that morning. None of it seemed like it should be even sort of possible, with people running around as somewhat possessed. It had yet to be updated by anyone from Intelligence, and attempting to get a call in to Lana as they walked through the spaceport, she found it continued routing her to little more than just static instead of the Minister herself. The last communication she'd received from the woman had been hours ago, and were coordinates to somewhere arbitrary on the surface. After that, there was virtually nothing for her to go off of. Hadn't been the first time she'd ever flown into an operation blind (and probably would be far from the last), but she often tried to keep the list to a minimum.

Tri'ama had admittedly only been to the planet once before, and that was assisting Sith Intelligence hunting down an SIS infiltrator. Really, she was only overseeing and paying for the operation without the support of the rest of the Council. Still, she never knew whether they found the Cathar or otherwise, the rogue agent was a cunning strategist apparently and had managed avoiding being found out for whole years on end. She was going in blind to this entire operation, and while not unusual, it wasn't a situation she wanted to be playing fate with either.

She almost runs into Quinn's back before she looks up from her holocom, sliding it back into its designated holder on her belt. Frustrated because of the hold up at first, she quickly realizes that Ziost's situation is much more dire than even she'd first assumed after looking out over the orbital station, people of all races being attended to by medical workers. There was clearly not enough personnel, the few that weren't as injured attempting to help alongside them. Holocoms were beeping incessantly, the arrival board was glitching every few moments with ominous lighting. There were ships scheduled to be coming in every few minutes, but every few glitches appeared for them to be cancelled before being righted again. What was going on was anyone's guess, but anyone that was trapped down there...chances were that they wouldn't be returning before Vitiate took ahold of them, turning them into his vicious puppets.

Her heart picks up the pace at the thought.

What was keeping Vitiate from taking her? Or possibly less worse, taking Quinn? Why were some unaffected, and others driven to their wit's end?

What was he after, all these months after the events of Yavin IV? The Hero of Tython maybe, for weakening him so severely? In that case, wouldn't Lana and the rest of Sith Intelligence be searching for him instead of wandering aimlessly on-planet? It couldn't have been Lana herself (as rude as it sounded, she doubted Vitiate would be after little more than a Lord, tied to Arkous or otherwise), and it shouldn't have been her. Other than defeating Revan and attempting to keep him dormant for many more years, they hadn't be directly responsible for anything he'd suffered in the past months. And she was his Wrath, as far as she was still concerned. Killing her would surely be a break of some protocol, and the Empire and Vitiate himself would suffer from the loss of their precious Wrath.

She hoped.

"Oi! 'Less you're here to help, I suggest gettin' lost." A scruffy black and white Cathar male says in a deep and thick Ziosti accent, buff arms crossed across his chest with loose pieces of armor over the undersuit that matches his fur tone,  "Last transports came in a few hours ago. Results were less than stellar, as you can see." He answers, gesturing to those lying about on the ground and groans the sound from them. Tri'ama tries not flinch as she catches a glimpse of someone -- no a corpse on a stretcher, their face pale and body unmoving as other assistants cover them, "Hate to see that happen to you, girlie."

Ziost wasn't just a battle against an unknown force. It was an entire massacre of the Ziosti people. As much as she didn't feel bad for them, she still was curious if people were taking advantage of the chaos and maiming others to survive, or if this was the product of Vitiate's reign over the planet. The people who had to fight their family members and their loved ones to even have a chance at evacuation, those who'd been possessed themselves. She quivers at the thought of having someone in her head. Someone controlling her thoughts, her every action.

"Do you know who you're talking to?" Quinn asks before Tri'ama can even open her mouth, and she groans inwardly at the overly defensive tone in his voice. The Cathar man chuckles darkly, raising an eyebrow.

"Nope. And don't care much either, I'm gettin' paid to treat folks and keep people off the station 'till all this dies down, not to deal with little Imperial pricks." He answers, his white canines evident over his smirk. He looks shocked for a moment after he catches a glimpse of her, a hand over his mouth, "Oh no, what are you going to do to me Lieutenant? Arrest me? Like to see you try, I don't live under Imperial jurisdiction as of now." He responds with a laugh, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Quinn is speechless at the nonsensical taunt, still trying to formulate a response, an eye twitching at the mis-read assignment, "I suggest you show the Wrath of the Empire some respect." He answers after a moment, not bothering to correct him.

The Cathar's green eyes move from him to her, analyzing her up and down before scoffing, "Right. And I'm the Hero of Tython. I ain't risking any of these pilots to go back down to that hellscape. Barely made it off myself, and as much as I'm considering sending you right back out that airlock without your fancy ship, I'm still morally obligated to make you stay far away from this planet."

Rolling her eyes, Tri'ama pushes past Quinn to stand directly in front of the man, sizing him up herself. He doesn't budge in the change of position, so spying a Nautolon with a bottle of water a few feet behind, she shatters their glass with a quick explosion of the Force, a shriek erupting from the patient and medical worker, water splashing to the ground. He whips his head around to witness, the back of clothes entirely soaked before growling, "Hey! We needed that!"

"And I need to get down the surface. I suggest you don't continue to deny me that." Tri'ama answers, a look of disbelief on the Cathar's face, "There are other, much pricier things I'd suggest you wouldn't want to lose should you do so, yes?"

His argumentative state is diminishing, and she knows that she's won now. He throws down his hands to his side in defeat, a sigh escaping him, "Fine, you win Sith. Head down to the surface all you want, but I ain't sending any of our pilots with you. Too much of a risk to the system."

"Perfectly fine. I can pilot the transport down myself." Tri'ama answers. As if that'd keep her from going anywhere, he was dead wrong. Still, she picks up another matter that passes through her consciousness as she eyes one of the smaller transport ships aboard the orbital station out of the corner of her eye, "A certain Sith Lord Beniko, has she passed through this station as of late?"

"Lord Beniko?" The Cathar considers for a moment, still wary of her but willing to comply as he genuinely thinks on the matter, "Blonde woman, travelling with a Twi'lek that was way too upbeat for where she was going and a human woman I think was with Intelligence?"

The others, she couldn't vouch for, but the description matched the Minister's. She'd have to do some other digging on the Twi'lek, though she figured Lana wouldn't have gone without someone else from her new division. The backup was evidently necessary for any excursion to the planet, so she nods, "Yes. I'm assuming that means she passed through onto the surface a few hours ago?"

"She did, yes. A couple hours after that, actually about an hour before you another force user passed through, 'long with another Twi'lek. Also blonde under some white hood like your's." The Cathar shakes his head as he recollects the meeting, "Dunno why ya'll want to go down there instead of stay up here, but apparently I ain't in the right for questioning it.Well, that's all I can tell you about anyone of note in here, Wrath. Have fun down there, hope I see you again." His tone clearly makes it sound like he could not care less if she and Quinn actually returned or not, and she can kind of understand with the state of medical procedures occurring around them. Not that she does excuse his behavior towards her, but she digresses. There are more important matters to attend to. This ill-mannered Cathar happened not to be one of them.

Tri'ama doesn't bother bidding him a farewell as they walk away from him, boarding the shuttle. She allows Quinn to work his magic at the controls as she takes her dutiful place next to him, scanning the skyline at the off-white planet on the horizon. His vision flickers to her every few moments, eyes full of apprehension, before finally focusing on the task at hand.

Surely he wonders how things would've been, had Baras not been a deciding factor. Flexing her hand, she's sure her finger would still be heavy with a ring. She'd have learned to fly by now, at least.

She steels her eyes forward. To reminisce was one thing, to lust after something one no longer needed or wanted, was another.

-

The first thing that Tri'ama notices about the plagued planet once they touch down is just how quiet it is on Ziost when she opens the doors out into the landscape. With how the reports painted things, she thought she'd at least hear offhanded screams and shouts of violence and whatnot, but not even a blaster shot paints the sky as the pair departs the transport vessel. Holding out a hand to stop Quinn and make him wait before he continues on into the hellscape, she pulls her holocom from her belt and rereads over the coordinates Lana had sent her for what feels like the the thousandth time today. Not far away, but it's eerily empty around where they've landed. It makes her uneasy. No one is milling about, and somehow that scarier than running into someone out here. She doesn't immediately want to leave the faux safety of the ship, fearing someone is simply hiding in the shadows.

Trudging her way through the snow with Quinn's light footsteps behind her toward the bunker, Tri'ama feels her signature buzzing with force energy, bouncing off of her and everything around her. She's hypersensitive to everything, feeling where cloth meets skin, even the microscopic prickles of cold against her exposed face. As if the force is living about her, making her more aware, more powerful. The wind picks up at this thought, throwing her hood off her head entirely and her hair whipping around in a whirlwind of it's own. Ziost is in it's winter cycle, Life Day is rapidly approaching, as the expensive decorations in the heart of Kaas City reminded it's citizens annually. Her heart clenches, these people are supposed to be celebrating with family, not running for their lives from their family. Poor or not, they were still Imperial citizens, and she had a duty to them.

Poor timing, but she remembers just then that she has taken the holiday for granted and hasn't acquired anyone anything just yet. The situation is a dark reminder for her to hold what she has dear, lest she and her crew, her family become victims of this mass murder. Whether the Emperor will become dissatisfied here and become bored of Ziost, has to be seen. She's worried he may jump to other planets, to start the entire thing over again somewhere else, more populated. More important to her, that is.

Pushing her gold tinted goggles up and off her eyes onto her forehead, she peers inside the bunker's open blast doors, both lightsabers lit with a crimson red. A dark light above her sparks, and if her anxiety couldn't jump any further, it did in that moment as she took in her surroundings. Someone else was here, or had been here recently. Feeling out in the Force, she can feel whispers of something familiar -- but it isn't as sharp as she remembers Lana's being. Softer...but more mysterious. That of someone who didn't want to be found, or known. Another lingers behind it, one she had definitely felt before. Sharp, regretful. But also angry, frightened. Not force-sensitive, yet one who made themselves known.

The question was, who was it? It couldn't have been Nox, she had some sort of Life Day party planned for later today in the City, and Aghdani wouldn't have set foot here. She remembers the mention of the two others who'd be travelling with Lana, but then she would've felt her here as well. The mention of the other Force user who'd touched down shortly before Tri'ama and Quinn had arrived reminds her to be leery. The Cathar hadn't mentioned whether they were Sith or Jedi. Not to mention the possibility they may have been mind controlled. A further look, the bunker is completely ransacked. The light isn't the only fixture that has suffered, including racks that looked like they had been used as training dummies. Crates with the with the Imperial insignia have toppled over, some broken open in a corner. How the Empire would recover, if the Empire recovered, it would take a lot of money. What supplies had been lost, what manufacturers and other important people had been lost in the siege, would never be recovered. At least not in the way they had been before everything had happened. The economy here, at the very least, would be disrupted for months, if not years. Chances are people were thinking about relocating to Dromound Kaas. If not there, then somewhere else under Imperial jurisdiction. The rulings would take months, the Fleet would see so many in limbo, so many waiting to be placed somewhere else.

If they made it off, that was.

Quietly stalking her way to the stairs, she follows it up slowly. Thoughts of murdererous force users, dark and light, soldiers or worse, civillians fill her mind as she reaches the landing, before she pauses entirely. A voice, two voices as the other responds to a question. Her eyes widen at the tone, clenching her teeth together. One sounded feminine, the other a gritty masculine voice. They quiet down as she gets closer to the top, and if she's correct, one of them has drawn a long-range weapon from the sound of the strap hitting their hand and the cocking of it in rapid succession.

She prepares herself for whatever she may find, tightening her grip on her hilts. Tri'ama and Quinn share a look, and he nods in understanding.

A shot from the weapon just as she gets a look at the messy overlook and she spirals out of the way, Quinn audibly drawing his blaster and ducking. It just narrowly misses her head, and she sends her lightsaber back towards wherever it had originated from. It hits an arc, slicing the wall behind the dark holoterminal without making contact with it's intended target. Tri'ama just barely gets a glance at the pale yellow Twi'lek with the rifle (who'd dodged the saber expertly, still firing off shots at Quinn, who returned them with his own well-placed shots) before rushing forward, targeting the person she could feel in the Force nearby with her single saber, attempting a Force leap as the other returns to her left hand and slashing at the presence. They couldn't be seen, but the signature was so familiar it was nearly painful when she focuses on it. Even so, they throw her backwards with a well-placed Force push and she skids backward on her haunches. Raising her head, she's confused for a moment. It isn't immediately obvious where they are at first, though slowly, golden tinted light reveals their form, a green doublesaber being lit at their side and blonde hair hanging in a ponytail at the base of their neck.

Their face is exposed though, and true to the Cathar's words, they were in mostly white. Something she'd tune to the Jedi with, though decked out with battle mods and plating. Squinting gently as she yanks herself back up off the ground and pulls her saber hilts back to her hands with the Force, she pauses before leaping again toward them. Tri'ama recognizes that face, and they grey eyes that reminded her of storms. The silver orbs glint with familiarity as well, and her eyes widen her stance relaxing and saber lowering, "Wrath? What in the blazes are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Barsen'thor." She deadpans, getting to her feet and disgniting her saber. The Twi'lek lowers his rifle, and Quinn's shots stop as well as he quickly returns to her side. He keeps his weapon drawn, as expected, "All other moral questions aside, how did you manage to get onto Imperial soil? We don't exactly hand out boarding passes like candy."

"I managed to receive clearance in my own way, to no concern of yours. I'm here to rescue Theron." The Barsen'thor responds after a moment of consideration, doing the same to her own doublesaber and hanging it back on her belt. Tri'ama tries to keep a straight face, but shock runs through her system. First at the thought of Theron being back on the same planet that she was, closer than she thought. Then one of panic, Theron was on Ziost for some reason, and someone had sent the Jedi's warden after him to bring him back to the Republic. What reasons did he have to be here in the first place, and why now? Why did he require a Jedi's rescue, if not one from his precious SIS?

"I heard that the Republic was here. Sixth Line, if my intel remains correct correct." Tri'ama muses, keeping her voice steady. Theron would of course get involved in some of the Jedi's business, his mother probably at the helm. As 'her agent' she's sure there's some responsibility he has there, "I can't imagine why. Your faction always did have the oddest responses to situations, I assume this would be no different."

"Because the Empire has such a grasp on the situation at hand, Wrath. I'm sure you weren't even aware there were Jedi here until now." Naji snaps back, setting her lips in a grimaced line.

"And I'm sure you weren't even aware your darling Jedi Order was causing trouble until now either, we're you? They've done little more than add to the issue." Tri'ama says, raising an eyebrow as she crosses her arms, "But I assume you didn't know that, did you?"

Naji recoils at the veiled insult, turning to her companion. She opens her mouth to say something else when they hear a blast door on the opposite side of the room slide open. Her heart rate rises again, drawing her sabers rapidly and rushing to stand at the edge of the overlook. Naji hesitates, but follows after her quickly, also drawing the hilt of her doublesaber. The Twi'lek holds back, curious but not afraid.

"I had foreseen your arrival, but I didn't believe it." A chilling voice says loudly, and a dimly glowing soldier clad in red and black steps out of the shadows. Tri'ama hears His voice through the man, the voice that has haunted her for no less than years. Naji's face is contorted into one of confusion, surprise maybe. Has she also heard His voice before? Is it as unfamiliar to her as it is to her companion, or to Quinn?

Has she faced Him before?

"I thought, after bearing witness to my rebirth on the Yavin moon, why? Why would you stand in the face of certain death?" Another arrives, this time in the form of a woman in Black Ops soldier armor. Her heart drops, it's nearly identical to Pierce's set. Had she not put him on leave, would he also be here? Serving his faction to his very last breath?

Tri'ama decides she doesn't want to think about that. Doesn't want to think about how easy it would be to lose everyone if she didn't do what she'd done, "You both are far from stupid. The Wrath and Barsen'thor, I know that much. Overly ambitious, perhaps. Well, regardless, I do hope you find your time on Ziost enlightening." Naji gasps, a gloved hand over her mouth as her eyes widen.

"Master Garault...no...how could they have done this to him?" Naji whisper asks, her grip tightening on her hilt. Perhaps an acquaintance of hers, yet Tri'ama can't find it in her to feel any sort of bad about it. Everyone knew the cost of war, everyone knew that no one was guranteed a life sentence. Though, had a member of the Council been in Garault's place, she could feel an inkling of emotion there. Her companion gently touches her shoulder in solidarity before he draws his rifle again.

"You'll bear witness to a world's end if you survive long enough." The Jedi answers darkly, the three people below also drawing their weapons. Green lights her vision, Naji taking a battle stance. The Jedi has a gold saber, and soon they're being shot at as Tri'ama leaps off the overlook, the force radiating off of her.

It isn't a long fight, as Tri'ama expects it to be should these really be the Emperor's pawns. She thought they would've been as strong as how they'd been when they'd been possessed initially, but both of the soldiers fall quite easily to her sabers, any former training falling away with the loss of self-control. The Master is being pelted with debris and blaster shots from above as she duels with the pair of Imperial soldiers. She doesn't feel particularily bad about it, but shoving a saber through the Imperial insignia still feels weird. It simply feels wrong. The light leaves their eyes, but so does the light red on their bodies. Their eyes are no longer pure white, instead returning to their typical colors as they loll back into their heads, blood pooling out from their wounds. Kicking the bodies with the toe of her combat boots, they remain motionless, the color returned to them properly. Death seemed to be the only escape from the Emperor's control.

Zenith, as she learns (or rather remembers, his name had been escaping her since they'd arrived) later takes the killing shot while Garault is distracted with Naji and Tri'ama's saber fighting. He topples over in a heap when it happens, both women jumping out of the way in surprise, and hitting the ground with his back as Tri'ama just barely moves out of the way. Had she not been in immediate danger, she would've had some very choice words for the Barsen'thor's sharpshooter and his choice of timing. Hopefully her sharp glance back towards the Twi'lek gets her point across sufficiently.

Right in the middle of his forehead is the entrance and exit wound, a gory sight. The same happens with this corpse, the crimson color leaving his body and his eyes returning to normal. He whispers something that Tri'ama can't make out, heaving out his words, before he takes his final breath. Naji bends down, hesitating for a moment before lowering his eyelids over his lifeless eyes. As Naji does whatever she intends to do with the dead man, Tri'ama finds that her once white robes have already had parts of it dyed an ominous red. Blood has already seeped onto them, and she pushes Quinn away, wordlessly letting him know that she hasn't actually been injured badly, that she isn't wounded enough to warrant healing. That it isn't her blood. Zenith arrives from his perch shortly after, helping the Barsen'thor stand from her kneeling position. They speak quietly for a moment, though Tri'ama isn't privy to the details of their conversation.

The clacking of more boots on the duracrete behind them at the main entrance sends Tri'ama back onto high alert, taking a protective stance over those in her charge. At the very least, these soldiers have helmets on. It keeps her conscience from reminding her that these are people, that they have stories and families and things to return to. Things they'd never see again. They begin shooting at them, and she does her best to deflect and fire back at them before someone else leaps onto the scene, a crimson lightsaber cutting through them in a flurry. One sniper can also be seen, clad in black and finishing the last soldier that had been part of their party.

When the last of them fall, Tri'ama once again disignites her sabers. Naji stands next to her, supposedly done with whatever respects she was paying. Lana Beniko had finally arrived.

"So you've arrived. Good. There's much to be done." Lana says, barely breathing hard from her last altercation. She didn't look too different from the last time that Tri'ama had seen her, though the bags under her eyes pointed her to believing her sleep had suffered since Ziost broke out. The woman behind her seems to have fared the same, simply sliding her own rifle, Imperial-issues of course, back onto her back and brushing a loose hair back into her blonde bun without another thought. A quick glance over the uniform reveals she's Imperial Intelligence, which clears up who was brought down with her. Still, it doesn't answer who the Twi'lek was, but her tone says she wouldn't appreciate questions right then, so Tri'ama buries the question for another time.

"It's good to see you again, Minister, but the Jedi are on Ziost, an Imperial homeworld no less. Odd, isn't it?." Tri'ama responds. Naji's force presence smothers her with apprehensiveness and mild annoyance as she says this, which is frustrating in itself. Another planet worth of this oddity invading her senses, overloading her conscience, she was going to die before the Emperor even got his hands around her mind.

"Yes. You don't belong here, Jedi. You shouldn't have come." Lana turns her attention to Naji, her tone hardening as Zenith crosses his arms at the accusation.

"I'm not about to start backing down from the Emperor now. And from the look of things since I touched down, I'm starting to think you could use the help." Naji responds in a tone she hadn't heard from the Consular before, "Jedi or otherwise, I don't think you're in any place to complain, Minister."

Lana isn't taken aback, or hides it very well, "Well, you're not wrong about that. As you can see, things are already out of hand." She answers, shrugging almost nonchalantly before turning back to Tri'ama, "The Jedi you fought belonged to the Sixth Line. SIS commandos who follow their own addendum to the Jedi Code, hence the name."

"'There is no contemplation, there is only duty.'" Naji says, almost breathlessly if she knew it by heart. Another time, she would have to ask what made the Sixth Line so different from the Jedi they typically met (and in her case, fought), and why so much was at stake if the Republic lost them.

"Right. Great point of view--so long as they're working for you." Another agent. Not a Twi'lek, but how many had Lana brought down with her?, "Pardon the interruption. I sent a probe droid to look into that crashed shuttle, Minister Beniko. It's empty."

Lana gives him a nod of acknowledgement at the information, "Agent Rane Kovach and Cipher Nine of Sith Intelligence. Agent Kovach has been somewhat of a rising star in Sith Intelligence here on Ziost."

"We do know Theron Shan was on that shuttle. And we know he's responsible for the Sixth Line being on Ziost in the first place." Cipher Nine says, a crisp Imperial accent accompanying the information. To be expected, of course, but again her heart jumps at the mention of his name. So he was here, but with a botched Line of Jedi who'd been unknowingly mind controlled. Tri'ama prays that he's still okay, unharmed for the time being. If not, she's not sure she wants to see him in his current state, or what she would do if she found his corpse. Cipher Nine shakes her head, perhaps in annoyance, "So far, this 'Theron' fellow has only added to our troubles. I do hope he's not here to cause more."

"Theron's here to stop the Emperor, same as me." Naji speaks up again, "Sadly, I doubt that he's just your problem anymore."

"Vitiate is not our Emperor. Not anymore." Lana responds, and Tri'ama shares the sentiment, "As you've witnessed, Vitiate is taking hold of an increasing number of soldiers and Sith. His goal continues to be the accumulation of power, Agent?"

"The dark side is strong on Ziost. Using the outpost's resources, our former Emperor can massacre the defenseless to fuel him." He sounds just as tired as his companions, if not moreso. She can imagine why, she would be too if she were working under Lana for this entire operation, already more than a week old by Intelligence standards, "The more powerful he becomes, the more people he can control. He will keep on killing until nothing is left."

A pause, as Lana receives a message a moment later, the information sinking in, "Yes, I'm on my way." An audibly frustrated sigh as she returns her attentions to the people at hand, "I'm needed everywhere, all at once. I've already lingered too long. Agent Kovach and Nine have a plan to stem the bloodshed."

The Cipher agent finishes her own listening, turning her head to Lana, "They found the shuttle, Minister. Destroyed, no body inside. It may be safe to say she's become one of them and wandered off. I told you the Emperor would target you first, I believe it's time to give up the search."

Lana's expression drops entirely now, anxiety taking over her features as she doesn't even attempt to hide or stem her real emotions anymore, "I will do no such thing. I know she's out there, she wouldn't just die like that, Nine." Both hands form a fist at her sides before she takes another breath, and bids them all a hurried if not also stressed goodbye, a finger still pressed to her ear a muttering under her breath into it. Whoever 'she' was must've been extremely important to Lana.

Kovach and Nine turn back to them, Kovach beginning, "It's an honor, my lord, for us both. Here's what we have in mind. The outpost armory is wide open right now. It's where the possessed have been getting their firepower."

"It needs to be placed on lockdown, is what the agent means." Nine finishes, a bored look on her face.

"That won't be enough to stop him, Agent." Tri'ama responds, flabbergasted at the lackluster idea. The Emperor wouldn't be stopped by some petty lockdown system, hell he had the whole planet underneath his thumb already, "You're trying to stop the flood of an ocean with only a river dam. You need to think bigger."

"It won't stop him, you're right. But we have to start somewhere." Kovach says, lowering his voice and softening his tone at the mild scolding, "Cipher Nine will stay with you to escort you there. I'll go out ahead, I'll be your eyes and ears."

Kovach leaves them with the new agent, and she draws her rifle once he's gone. She's devoid of emotion, and Naji and Tri'ama share a look, one of confusion. Her presence is empty, as if they're being sucked into a void of nothingness when she prodded at her mind, "It's an ugly hellscape out there, my lord. If you're looking for fight, you've found one. You're just in time for a showdown right in the middle of the end of a world."

"Lead the way then, Cipher." Tri'ama says, Quinn muttering under his breath before the small party steps back out into the cold. The smell of blood stings her nose from her robes and the bodies before them, even the respirator not doing enough to filter it entirely. Now staring out over the small landing zone, she can see the apocalyptic ending that everyone else did. Ships flying out, people milling about that are't even really...people. She was really facing death head on by the side of a Barsen'thor, her sniper, a Cipher agent and her ex-husband.

The galaxy always had it out of her. If it was waiting for her to snap in two and fall apart, it had another thing coming.

#swtor #star wars the old republic #star wars #lana beniko #female sith warrior #mellena shan #mellena wryen #mellena cadera #tri'ama shan #tri'ama amarillis-quinn #darth tri'ama amarillis-quinn #mivonie wryen #mivonie cadera #mivonie iresso #naji iresso #zenith #malavai quinn #swtor fanfic #swtor oc #oc #original character #khelan hyllus #shadow of the sith

[squirrelstone]

Do you mind if I ask why you had such a quick turnaround on sadlesbeandisaster? It was, like, super sudden.

Yeah it was, and I can provide you my thought process for all of it.

For starters, their flag is used largely by exclusionists. there are aphobes everywhere writing about how it’s lesbophobic to use flags other than the pink and orange one and shouting down anyone who disagrees. Including me. A lesbian. So the flag itself has a bad taste in my mouth already along with a few other factors, but as i’ve learned, the op is trying to be better and how people use her flag is not in her control (there are other issues at play here- including the fact that I would be much more comfortable seeing the flag if she was a bit more active in disavowing the exclusionists using it- but I’ll get into that later).

Next, I made this post talking about the a-spec perspective on all this and how we’re afraid of being betrayed as we have been in the past. About half an hour later, I was shown a series of posts from the originator of that flag calling cisgender heteroromantic aces and cisgender heterosexual aros “cishet.” After the post I made, it felt like I was just being proven right, like I was watching a repeat of all the times a-specs have welcomed in an ex-exclusionist only to find out they were storing away all the urls that suddenly followed them to post on an aphobic discord for their friends to mock. Moreover, someone linked me to their twitter where they talked with someone who mocked mogai identities and used the word “kweer.”

A lot of my posts came from anger and sadness that I was just seeing the same thing happen over and over again. And from my point of view, I was. She was using the same language that all these other aphobes used, and it hurt. Someone else messaged me saying they’d talked to her and she just genuinely didn’t understand why her words and actions were so offensive, but I was too angry and hurt to listen at first.

I took some time to calm down and figured “why the fuck not, I’ll send her an ask.” What I said in that ask and what she replied with are between her and me, but it convinced me that she is genuine in her efforts to not be aphobic. Then I slept on it (it’s probably worth noting this entire thing occurred between midnight and four am for me), and in the morning, I decided to write my thoughts on it here.

Now I really want to get one thing straight (ba dum tss): I stand by what I said in both the posts I linked. I’ve got a mental list of things I think she could do to fix a lot of the problems a-specs have with her (see the end of paragraph one), and she knows she’s welcome to come to me with any questions she has. But I’m not gonna force my solutions on her.

I’ve got some things I’m ready to forgive her for and some things I’m not, and I’m sure she feels the same about me. But I am ready to accept that she’s trying to become someone who, as it happens, I am ready to forgive.

#squirrel answers #long post #lesbian flag #aphobia mention #aphobic language #Anonymous #this is the last thing i'm saying on it unless she contacts me

[lia-nikiforov]

Spring 2018 Anime Watchlist

THERE IS TOO MUCH ANIME THIS SEASON I HAD TO BINGE 37 EPISODES IN THREE DAYS TO CATCH UP

Dropped

Mahou Shoujo Site: Although I originally intended to irony watch this one, expecting something like MahoIku or King’s Game, its sadistic reveling in the main character’s suffering was impossible to stomach. I felt physically ill at the end of it. I’m not, in principle, opposed to gory stuff, y’all know I sat through the whole stupidity that was King’s Game, but MahoSite doesn’t even reach the level of ridiculous over the topness to make it funny, it’s just a cascade of misery porn with not a single moment of levity or triumph for the heroine. I think I was done the moment that gratuitous “if you punch my stomach my period won’t come” line, because apparently some dudes get off on the idea of a woman being so brutalized she stops menstruating??????

Kakuriyo Yadomeshi: I was willing to give this one the three-episode trial after the first episode in spite of the godawful main love interest and the fact that the grandfather sold the MC into literal slavery wtf, because the main girl seems proactive and independent buuuuuuut fuck I hated episode 2. Not only does she seem to quickly forgive her grandfather for SELLING HER OFF, the men around her keep speaking over her and making decisions for her and she turns out to be just independent enough to not be a complete doormat, but not enough to appear defiant and I hate it. Thanks but no thanks, I ain’t here to see a romantization of being literally sold into an arranged marriage.

YOU THINK?!

Cutie Honey Universe: Before this, I’d had zero interaction with any other iteration of Cutie Honey, so I wasn’t sure of what to expect beyond knowing this was from the creator of Devilman. Certainly blatant homophobic jokes and jokes about physical abuse wasn’t in my list of thigs I expected to see, yet here we are. I ain’t here for “hyuk hyuk look at these fat/butch/ugly lesbians, aren’t they ridiculous” jokes either.

Butlers x Battlers: I completely forgot I watched this one. I don’t remember anything about it except being confused

GeGeGe no Kitaro: This one didn’t do anything wrong, but I was never gonna watch it. I just checked out episode 1 because I heard it made a dig at Logan Paul. I wish they’d gone all the way through and killed that character, but I guess you can’t have it all. It was actually a pretty decent episode, and in a weaker season I’d probably keep watching it, but there’s just too much stuff coming out. And I have watched previous Kitaro anime and it’s sometimes too meanspirited for me.

Uma Musume: I didn’t expect much from this show and was pleasantly surprised by the double-length first episode. Special Week was a nice, fun protagonist to root for and although the world-building was weird as heck, it was fun and positive. So I’m not exactly sure of what happened with episode 2/3 that it left me feeling completely dry. The pacing was super rushed, the characters all felt horribly flat, and the races weren’t super exciting because rather than any strategy or strong emotional realization, Special Week just has to start running even faster and faster in the final leg. It was also kind of implied she had gained weight? But then never brought up? And it’s not made very clear why she lost in the end? Was she supposed to learn humility and not getting too complacent? Seems too early for her to learn that when she’s supposed to be an underdog. I don’t know, it didn’t really work for me and I don’t feel like I care to watch more of it.

Because this post is long af and has a lot of gifs some folks were having trouble loading it on mobile, so you’ll have to read under the cut to know which are the shows I’m actually watching oops

Chopping Block: 

There is too much anime and I’m near the end of the semester so I’m gonna have to cut at least one -preferably two- of these shows

Sword Art Online Alternative: This was another one I intended to hatewatch? But rather than offensive or idiotic it’s so far been pretty boring. Episode one was a slog. The first half of episode two was a horrendous spectacle of hating your own body. The only think I liked was the friendship between LLENN and Pito (btw Pito meand ‘dick’ in Spanish and every time she says “call me Pito” I die). Then episode 3 was more boring exposition. FPS games are the least interesting I could think of, and I’ve never been into Let’s Play, so this show is hitting all the right notes to make me bored out of my mind. I also don’t appreciate the big dude not telling Llenn the plan and just kind of being condescending to her. If next episode is just 20 more minutes of the dude explaining things to Llenn, I’m out. (Also, Pito is 100% Elsa Kanzaki)

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Not feeling this reboot at all. It’s all very dry and just dudes expositioning strategy at each other. Also there are 30 characters in the Ending and only 2 of them are women???? I’ll give it one more episode, but tbh I’ve had problems even paying attention to 2 and 3, it just doesn’t grab me.

Libra of Nil Admirari: Although I like the heroine and she might be one of the strongest reverse harem heroines I’ve seen, the plot itself is very... eh. The guys are also very uninteresting so far. There’s also the fact that Tsumugi claims to have no interest in men or love, but this being a reverse harem with a bevy of men starved for her attention makes me worry this’ll end with her being “fixed” by an actual nice guy who is worthy of her or something. But the OP is very cute!

Hatewatch

Darling in the Franxx: Boy oh boy, the otaku have been creaming their pants and tearing their clothes off for the last three weeks, but “Don’t call it Fucking, It’s Making Love” in the Franxx’s greatest achievement in my eyes is going for idiotically offensive to just bland and clichéd. A recent AMA on reddit with the producer seems to imply that none of the themes of sex, gender and heterosexism that have been at the core of the show were even properly thought out, nor were their implications even remotely considered. I don’t know if the show’s heterosexism would be worse if it was active propaganda rather than what it seems to be: a bunch of ideas the producers thought would be “cool” and “titillating” with no particular meaning to them. Also we’re 15 episodes in and all we’ve achieved is Palurdo has finally tamed his beast waifu who is Not Like Other Girls. Oh, and I guess the monsters actually had humans in there, what a shocker, never seen that before, never expected such a clever twizzzzzzzz....

Mid Priority

Tokyo Ghoul: Re : I thought I was done with Tokyo Ghoul after trying to read the manga and being bored shitless by all the unnecessary exposition, but this one, while not quite excellent, managed to pique my interest. The conceit of Kaneki losing his memories and joining the Doves and helping in exterminating ghouls I’m super not interested in, but his encounter with Nishio has made me curious enough about what has happened with the rest of the characters to keep watching for now.

Rokuhodou Biyori: The iyashikei show of the season I guess. The guys’ personalities are a little bland, so I might bump it down to the chopping block, but it’s only been two episodes, so I want to give it a fair chance

Persona 5: My history with Persona has never been good. Episode 1 of P4 made me sleep, and I watched the first P3 movie THREE TIMES and never managed to parse wtf it was about. This show shares some of the same problems in making me struggle to pay attention, but at least so far the plot seems interesting, the visuals are creative and striking, and I really like the main character’s design. I’m also more inclined to keep watching because Sayokan directed the OP for the videogame.

Hisone to Masotan: There’s a cynical part of me that watches this show and feels like I’m watching a commercial for the JSDF. Yvan eht nioJ, come join us, we have cool dragons!!! I also don’t love the fact that the dragon turns into a plane :/ BUT the characters have a lot of heart, the dynamics so far between Hisone and Masotan and Hisone and Kanzaki have been very touching. A part of me though, wishes Hisone had stuck with Otofu because it’s such a cute name and she sounded really funny yelling “OTOFU!!!”

Safe Sequels

Although some of these sequels would go in higher categories, I was unsure about how to rank them -especially the 2-cour ones- compared to some of my top premieres of the season, so I’m just putting them all together because there are A LOT of sequels.

Yowapeda Glory Line: FINALLY SOMETHING POSITIVE HAPPENED FOR SOHOKU. I was starting to feel exhausted with all the gloominess, especially for seeing Teshima punished, HE DESERVES EVERY GOOD THING. Now we can get back on track and hopefully have a fun race without Teshima brooding all the way through the episode. ALSO THANK YOU FOR THE EXCELLENT TESHIAO CONTENT

Nanatsu no Taizai: FINALLY ESCANOR SHOWED UP. It’s felt like the first half of the show dragged a lot compared to the manga, so I’m happy we’ve reached one of the coolest parts. Though if memory serves, the rest of the season will be spent floundering around, but damn, the Escanor vs Galand battle is very satisfying to watch.

Lupin III Part V: So this time around they’ve added the social media factor into Lupin’s adventures, and so far the result has been quite interesting. I don’t have a lot to say, the artstyle looks closer to classic versions of the franchise and has lost some of the edge from part IV, but the comedy and Lupin’s plans are still creative and fun to watch, even adding a unique spin to the social media component, so I’m excited to see where they take this. But we need more Fujiko yesterday pls

Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boueibu Happy Kiss: A soft reboot of this magical girl parody franchise, with frillier costumes and even more ridiculous attacks and transformations, and I’m here for it. I do wish we’d get at least some cameos from the original gang. I also feel that so far, apart from the Red guy (Kyotaro?) the others don’t seem to have much of a distinctive personality. It’s only episode three, so hopefully that’s something we’ll see developed as the show goes on.

Hozuki no Reitetsu: It’s the same as it’s always been, a brilliantly dry workplace comedy. If you haven’t watched the previous seasons, you’re missing out on one of the best comedies of this decade.

Boku no Hero Academia 3: After the recap first episode, the series has gone back full gear ahead into the next story arc and so far it looks pretty cool. Although I’m never a fan of “regular MC activity gets interrupted by villains”. Idk why it bothers me a lot -a prime example being the S Class exam getting cut short in Fairy Tail and the concept of S Class mages completely ditched thereon after. But anyway, I have faith in the writing that they’ll make this villain interruption cool and worth it. I do however wish they’d let us meet the Class B guys better.

Steins;Gate 0: You know, I was 100% ready to be disappointed and abandon this one right away, but damn, damn have these first two episodes been brilliant. The nuances in Okabe’s characterization, the portrayal of his grief, and his more mature attitude seem like a mirror of the watcher who has grown all the same in the seven years since the show’s original season. I’m hoping the teases about Maho as a potential love interest are a red herring, but other than that, I’m blown away by how good it has been so far. Just delete Daru please.

Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card: Things have started happening! We’re starting to see that Akiho’s mysterious book is somehow having an effect over the events of Sakura’s life. The episode with the animals was particularly strong, with a new card that had a nice renovated design, and a really emotionally effective scene of Sakura and Syaoran embracing to help Sakura regain confidence to save her friends. It’s one of the strongest episodes of the series so far, so hopefully we’ll have more of those and less of the “finding a card that only minimally makes 10 cm from a bookshelf disappear” type. As a sidenote, I find Akiho’s obsession with Sakura’s play a bit offputting.

High Priority

Mahou Shojo Ore: Given how little I knew about this series going in and how excited I was about it in spite of it, I’m pleased to report the show has lived up to my expectations in one way or another. The weird comedy is on point and also everyone is fucking gay. I’m rooting for you Blue Girl! Easily the superior show with Mahou Shoujo in its title.

Hinamatsuri: You know, I didn’t have super high expectations for this one, but it’s turned out to be a very nice surprise. It has that charming paternal relationship between Nitta and Hina that is cute and hilarious. I have to say I’m not super into the classmate-forced-to-become-a-bartender storyline and I’m not sure how that even fits with the rest of the show, so I hope there won’t be a lot of vignettes about it.

Piano no Mori: Wonky CGI and occassionally questionable character design choices (Ajino was so BEAUTIFUL in his youth, why does he look so ridiculous in the present?!!!) aside, this has been one of the strongest premieres of the season. I know fans of the manga have criticized it, but as someone unfamiliar with the original, I’m definitely intrigued by this story.

BESTEST

Megalobox: This one wasn’t on my radar at all. It’s one of those numerous cases of me seeing a title that sounds stupid and deciding to ignore the show based on that alone. I’m glad I stumbled on all the praise the premiere episode received because damn is it good. The story behind the cameras is that this is a 50th anniversary project for Ashita no Joe, and it was meant to be a reboot, but the director couldn’t find a way to make it work, so he created something entirely new, and aren’t we glad about that. It has a unique retro look and although the plot beats do call back to Ashita no Joe, our Joe feels like his own person alright. I think my only nitpick is that I’m not entirely sure of what is even the point of the additional gear. Also, I know how Ashita no Joe ends and I hope this show won’t end like that too :’D

Golden Kamuy: How long has it been since the last time a multi-awarded manga not only wasn’t disappointing but ended up being one of the most promising anime adaptations of the season? Yes, everyone’s seen the ugly CGI bear, moving on, this is a captivating and unique historical show with a so far excellent portrayal of Ainu culture and a kickass lady coprotagonist.  I am really excited to see where this one will go. Also, it was really exciting to hear characters actually speaking ainu language. I’ve done some research on Ainu history (and kickass Ainu women) for school, so I’m very pumped about this one.

Otaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii: By far my favorite premiere of the season. So far, two episodes in, it’s all I ever hoped it would be and more. The characters are charming, Narumi and Hirotaka’s relationship feels natural and effortless -both the romantic aspect of it, and the way they easily become comfortable with one another-. Narumi is delightful and very well-rounded, being as cheerful and optimistic as she can be cynical, and her quick-developing friendship with Hanako is so violently relatable I was screaming. I really love this show. ALSO THE OP IS SUPER CUTE

I FINALLY FINISHED WRITING THIS IT TOOK FOREVER BECAUSE THERE IS TOO MUCH ANIME

#spring 2018 anime #anime watchlist #wotaku ni koi wa muzukashii #golden kamuy #megalobox #darling in the franxx #piano no mori #card captor sakura #steins;gate 0 #boku no hero academia #hinamatsuri #mahou shoujo ore #yowapeda glory line #hozuki no reitetsu #binan koukou chikyuu boueibu happy kiss #nanatsu no taizai #legend of the galactic hero #sao alternative #libra of nil admirari #hisone to masotan #persona 5 #rokuhoudou yotsuiro biyori #tokyo ghoul: re #mahou shoujo site #cutie honey universe #uma musume #gegege no kitaro #kakuriyo yadomeshi #butlers chitose momotose monogatari #100

[torinomonty]

hey so an update on the situation last night. It turned out that was a real person contacting me. The accusatory message was so vague and inflammatory that I honestly didn’t believe it could be at first and so assumed it was a way to get me to ask for a link. But someone really was that angry at hateful to me and I’m now more confused than ever and honestly pretty hurt.

Someone claiming to have been ‘following me since you were in japan in 2007 or whatever ’ (which was actually 4 years after that but whatever) started tearing me about how they had no idea they were following such ‘disgusting transphobic cis scum’ and they ‘cant believe I’d reblog something like that’ and were going to ‘make sure no one in the lgbtaq community ever follows you again’. They went on to say how they thought I was a good person but I’m clearly not - they then got absolutely livid that I referenced their reading comprehension in my previous post, and then promptly blocked me. All without once explaining what the FUCK they were talking about, what the post was, who they even were, or why they found it appropriate to talk to someone like that for no reason.

I am absolutely winded how anyone could be following me that long and somehow decide that I am ‘transphobic cis scum’ from a single post, let alone not even tell me what the post was. And not even one I made, one I reblogged. Are we really at the point on tumblr where we can just accuse people of hating communities they are -literally in- because they inadvertently reblog something that originated from someone who is shitty, whether we know it or not, because who the fuck actually takes the time to look through OP’s blog for every post they reblog..? And just...cancel them without even considering that they’ve spectacularly misinterpreted something? That’s literally the only conclusion I can reach from this because I spent ages on my blog last night looking for something that they could possibly be referring to and the only things that even have anything to do with trans issues are very clearly not transphobic (and...very obviously written by trans people??) unless you somehow read them completely wrong.

Because they blocked me I have absolutely no way to ask them wtf that was all about and I still have no idea what the post is. But on the chance they actually see this post: at least tell me wtf I actually did before you accuse me of something that anyone who actually -had- been following me that long would know was completely and utterly false and almost laughable to an actually offensive degree *before* you decide I must be the worst person in the world. I shouldn’t have to actually -apologize- for being screamed at for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

#?????? #im tired