#thus leading me to combining the images to make them fit

[danpuff-ao3]

The Making of: Orange Blossoms

HP Flowers, Spring Round, 2022. A prompt event with weekly prompt choices inspired by the language of flowers. Of course, I was intrigued! After all: I really love Harry Potter. And I really love flowers. And symbolism. Not to mention this would take place in May, my birth month!! This fandom event seemed tailor made just for me!

Sadly, when I get excited, I get really excited.

And this was all happening in a time period when I was busy. And thus: stressed. And I do not work well under stress.

May 2022 was not only HP Flowers, but also Snarry-a-Thon. Leading up to May, I was pulling out my hair to finish my Snarry-a-Thon fic, Contempt. Not only was I bound and determined to participate in Thon at least once, brilliant me decided it was the perfect time to write the story of my soul. But that's another story (which you can read about here.)

I so had my heart set on writing for HP Flowers. Not just a story in May for HP Flowers, but I had my heart set on posting a Snarry fic for Flowers on my birthday. Which is earlier in the month (the 8th, to be exact.) I was losing hope I'd be able to finish Thon and pop out another fic in time for my birthday. Thon was driving me batty as it was! Surely when I was done I would need a nice, long break from writing.

Fun fact, but I did sneak some of the HP Flowers prompts into Contempt. Week 1, option 4 gave:

4. Ivy- Fidelity or Attachment

If paired with: >> Dahlia- honours a long-lasting relationship OR >> Hellebore- says nothing will ever come between you and your partner

Which directly inspired:

Harry doesn't know exactly where Snape's quarters are, but Snape's name on the map leads him down to the dungeons and a door with no handle. Engravings in the stone, of serpents entwined with ivy and dahlias. No lilies, Harry is pleased to note. A speech bubble appears on the map, helpfully suggesting "hellebore" as a password.

If I couldn't properly write for HP Flowers, I thought that would have to be good enough!

But you're not here to listen to me babble about Contempt yet again. You're here for Orange Blossoms.

Well, I finished and submitted Contempt and there was time left before my birthday. I kept a notebook where I scribbled various ideas. There was plenty I wanted to write for HP Flowers. I had the whole month's prompts written down, going over various combinations and ships and ideas. Above all else, I needed a Snarry, and I needed to write it for May 8.

For Snarry, I was mostly drawn to the Week 1 prompts, though my birthday fell at the start of Week 2. The "ivy" prompt drew me in more than anything, though I dabbled with others. What to do, what to do. I had too many options and too many paths available to me. Few concrete plans.

It was frustrating, not to be swarmed with actual ideas. I'm forever plagued by story ideas, but having to form ideas on command, to fit within a framework? Not my usual style. Only for love of Snarry + flowers was I wracking my brain for any workable idea. C'mon, brain, you can do it! You do this all the time, popping out story ideas!!

It's hard to really lay out a step by step of how it all came together. I made list after list. Threw down Merlin knows how many random thoughts. I stared at the prompt lists. I did Google Image searches for all the flowers. And bit by bit it came together.

It was the language of flowers, after all. How perfectly that lends itself to courtship! And the Week 1 prompt list had an option for: "Use all of the flowers/plants listed above to either celebrate Beltane or to incorporate them in a magical garden." Beltane was too tempting not to include, but it also gave me the idea of looking to the other sabbats, and how to entwine paganism with the Wizarding World.

That birthed The Old Ways; an idea that various pagan traditions began with magical folk, and is part of Wizarding history. And how history and traditions can be sources of structure and comfort. Wartime drove people to marry. (Bill and Fleur, Arthur and Molly; Molly's comments about people eloping "left, right, and center.")

How would it feel to be away from your family, living at school while war rages on outside? A strange sense of safety (being at Hogwarts) while aware of how dark and dangerous the real world (outside of Hogwarts) is. Think of how hard it would be on children and teenagers. Think of how people turn to faith in difficult times; or even find faith in difficult times.

All of this sort of inspired the trend at Hogwarts, of learning about and following The Old Ways.

All of that was background, of course, and my very convenient excuse for love confessions via flowers.

At some point, I had to decide who would be courting who via flowers. If Severus sent them, Harry would need an outsider source (probably Hermione) to point out that "hey, flowers have meaning!" If Harry sent them, well, I can see Severus having floriography knowledge, but Harry would need a valid excuse to start it in the first place (hence the trend.)

There was also a need for secrecy, I think, if Harry was going to do this. He's our bold Gryffindor, remember? In ideal circumstances, he would make his move in other ways. (Though, in fairness, getting through Severus' thick skull is no easy task, whichever way you go.) And isn't it fun for a student/teacher romance, exchanging intimate confessions in whatever method possible? And this is the language of flowers. No letters to be found and studied and traced back to the sender.

I always love a good student/teacher, I won't lie. And there's something quite sweet about Severus being courted. And by a student, no less!

And I do love Severus. And he deserves nice things. Let the man be wooed, dang it!

So, the jumbled mess in my head more or less sorted itself out along the way. "Floriography...courtship...who courts who?...what reason would each have for sending flowers?...Beltane, the Old Ways, traditions and trends...wartime, student/teacher..." At last, I was getting there!

Elsewhere in my notes, I'd had vague ideas of handfasting at Beltane.

And looking at my more solid plan, it occurred to me. The taboo nature of their love, the darkness of the war around them...but the light of their love, and the sweetness in the method...

I often rely on sex to get Snarry together. There is so much explosive passion between them, and so much baggage, so much of who they are as individuals, how others see them, and their complicated and antagonistic history...It takes a lot, I think, for them to see their connection for what it is. To accept it in themselves, let alone revealing it to the other. All of that aggression and intensity unleashing itself in a physical manner. And all of my headcanons about each of them, and their loneliness, and their trauma, and the desire for affection and physical touch. And how much easier it is to communicate via touch. How difficult words can be, how difficult thoughts can be. All this to say, there is a reason for it.

But here, I had a perfectly constructed a scenario excluding touch almost altogether. A time of war, a time of desperation. People being driven by fear, and clinging to what they can. Two men who found love in the most unlikely of places, in an unfortunate time.

It seemed wasteful to bring sex into a situation where it wasn't needed.

So: it's rated T. And I indulged in my more romantic side for this. It's still easier for these two to communicate without actual words, but instead of physical touch, I relied on gift giving. It was a fun change of pace. And I leaned into the language of flowers a lot. I used the HP Flowers prompts, yes, but I also went outside of it, too.

A whole courtship without sex, and hardly talking at all. A whole courtship under the noses of all of Hogwarts. A secret they dared not breathe aloud, even to each other.

I have a lot of feelings about Snarry as a ship. The incredible power of their connection, and their love. How it bleeds into everything. And being able to express that in a whole new way was such a beautiful experience.

So with my plan more or less in place, I began. I used two prompts: Hawthorn (hope) and Ivy (fidelity.) So I opened with flowers.

1. Hawthorn- Hope

If paired with: >> Orange blossom- shows hope that the recipient will return your affection

When I began, I was content to have any Snarry + flowers story. I figured I'd get a drabble out of it, if nothing else. I didn't expect a love story that would bring me to tears. I ended up with a story that was so dear to me. The best birthday gift I could have given myself, truly!

#writing #meta #danpuf writes #orange blossoms #snarry

[armarketing]

What is Augmented Reality Product Visualization?

Augmented reality (AR) product visualization is a technology that helps users to feel 3D models of products in a real-world environment. This can be done through the use of a smartphone or tablet, or through special AR headsets. AR product visualization can be used to help users visualize how a product will look in their home or to try on clothes or accessories before they buy them.

Pros of Augmented Reality Product Visualization

There are many benefits to using Augmented Reality product visualization, including:

Increased customer engagement: AR product visualization can help to increase customer engagement by allowing them to interact with products in a more immersive way. this will get you more sales and satisfied customers.

Reduced returns: AR product visualization can help to reduce returns by allowing customers to see how a product will look in their home before they buy it. This can help to ensure that customers are happy with their purchases.

Improved decision-making: AR product visualization can help customers to make better decisions about their purchases by allowing them to see how a product will look in their home or on their body. This will win customer loyalty and make them more satisfied.

Which betterment in online shopping made your life amazingly easy?

The advancement in online shopping that has made my life easier is the ability to use AR product visualization. This allows me to see how a product will look in my home before I buy it, which has helped me to make better decisions about my purchases.

So, what actually Augmented Reality is?

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology is one step ahead of computer-created images on a user's view of the real world, thus giving a combined view. AR can be used to enhance the user's experience of a real-world environment, such as by providing additional information about the environment or by allowing the user to interact with the environment in new ways.

How Augmented Reality Visualization is Smooth and Easy the way we shop

AR visualization is simplifying the way we shop by allowing us to see products in a more realistic and interactive way. This can be done through the use of AR headsets or through special apps that can be used on smartphones and tablets. AR visualization can help us to visualize how a product will look in our home, how it will fit on our body, or how it will work. This can help us to make more informed decisions about our purchases and to avoid making returns.

Notable Benefits of AR Visualization

Some of the specific advantages of AR visualization: Increased customer engagement: AR visualization can help to increase customer engagement by allowing them to interact with products in a more immersive way. With the help of this technology, we can get more client satisfaction.

Reduced returns: AR visualization can help to reduce returns by allowing customers to see how a product will look in their home before they buy it. This can help to ensure that customers are happy with their purchases.

Improved decision-making: AR visualization can help customers to make better decisions about their purchases by allowing them to see how a product will look in their home or on their body. This can help you to get more customers and engage them in the long term.

The rise of AR among Internet consumers

The rise of AR among internet consumers is a trend that is expected to continue in the years to come. As AR technology becomes more affordable and accessible, more and more consumers will be able to experience the benefits of AR visualization. This can lead to increased sales for businesses that adopt AR, and it can also lead to improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The promising outcome of applying AR in your business or daily life.

The promising outcome of implementing AR in your business, such as BlitzAR, is that it can help you increase sales, improve customer satisfaction, and build customer loyalty. AR can also differentiate your business from competitors and create a more immersive and engaging shopping experience for customers. With BlitzAR, you can leverage AR technology to enhance your business's performance and stay ahead in the market.

[chibimyumi]

Redesign Prompt RESULTS!

Alright, thank you everyone who has voted, the results are now in! Overwhelmingly our winner is Ranmao 🐈!

First of all, I need to insert a few caveats here. Unlike with Victorian fashion, I do not have years and years of studying of Qing dynasty-fashion behind me. So whatever results I show here are the product of a fortnight of reading up and meticulous studying of contemporary photographs. a.k.a. I am merely scraping the surface here. But! I do promise that everything shown here is done to the best of my ability to be responsible as a content provider.

Now without further ado, let us dive into Ranmao’s current design, the blatantly obvious inaccuracies, and how I propose to redes...ign... her outfit while keeping the original intact as much.... as possible????  Heck, this is not even worthy of being called a ‘redesign’, this is straight up designing from scratch!

Hair

Let us start with her bangs. Her bangs are in fact surprisingly accurate, as late Qing dynasty women would wear their bangs in a variety of Bettie bangs trimmed well above the eyebrows. Having sides of the bangs growing longer framing the face was usual too, though they would be cut slightly thicker than Ranmao’s. Though, we don’t know how much hair Ranmao has, so I see no reason to alter it.

Twin braids are very much associated with the “China doll look”, but they seem to have been branded into our image of the “Chinese Girl” because it was the go-to look for unmarried women in Republic China (which is many years later than Ranmao’s time, and also has more surviving images.)

In Ranmao’s time, unmarried girls would either wear the bottom part of their hair down, or have everything tied into a single braid behind them. Girls who preferred a more feminine look would often decorate the sides or the top with flowers or other ornaments depending on their wealth.

Yana’s notes say that the flower in Ranmao’s hair is a Chinese peony, which is also called the Empress of Flowers in Chinese as well as Japanese culture. I could find sources on how the peony was the symbol of the Empress of China, and how one better avoid wearing any type of peonies around the Empress herself for fear of being suspected of disrespect. But I could not find any evidence of such flowers being banned for other people, so presumably it was more an ‘unwritten code of politeness’ rather than fashion law.

Hence, I kept the pink peony design for Ranmao, and decorated them in the way Qing women would have.

Neckline

By far the most interesting thing I learned from this redesign attempt was that the “mandarin collar” - the thing that pops up first in most people’s minds when thinking about Chinese fashion - was in fact not at all common.

In this academic work on Chinese fashion history, Finnane writes that the ‘high collar’ was “not a common feature of costume before the twentieth century.” Instead, most costumes would have had a round neckline.

Finnane, Antonia. Changing Clothes in China : Fashion, History, Nation. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. p. 93

The ‘high collar’ gained popularity in early 1900s in China after the Europeans brought with them the beauty standard for high collars, as well as slim-fitted silhouettes. The Chinese increasingly adopted this type of collar and the slim silhouette (the well known ‘china dress/qipao/cheongsam’), and the relatively many early photos that survived helped engrave this stereotype into our minds.

Sleeves

I do not think it requires any mention, but 19th century Chinese fashion did not include boleros... For many of the original designs of Ranmao I can sort of see where Yana got that image from, but this bolero-look truly beats me.

The sleeves worn in the late Qing period were relatively wide, though they were starting to slim down over time. Late Qing women enjoyed much more flexible clothing rules than earlier Qing women, and the width of the sleeves was in great part determined by personal preference, season, but mostly one’s wealth.

Needless to say, the larger the sleeves the more fabric and embroidery it would require, and thus more expensive. Also, the wider the more it would get into the wearer’s way.

I don’t know how much thought Yana put into Ranmao’s original design in relation to her function as elite bodyguard, but considering how the original has zero practicality and only serves to maximise Ranmao’s attractiveness, I have no qualms about giving Ranmao fairly large sleeves too. Besides, let us assume that Lau is responsible for providing Ranmao with clothes. Illegal money tends to fill the pockets quite deeply, I don’t think he can’t spare a few pounds for big sleeves.

Wider sleeves would expose much of ‘a lady’s precious skin’, as such a more fitted layer would have been worn underneath. (The sleeves under the wider sleeves obviously did not have to be orange-ish. This was merely coincidence that both my redesign and the visual source have this colour.)

Silhouette

The figure hugging silhouette x Chinese clothes was - as mentioned above - not at all a thing in Ranmao’s time. In fact, the accentuation of the “female curves” was considered very inappropriate if not downright ugly in the Qing dynasty.

Finnane, Antonia. Changing Clothes in China : Fashion, History, Nation. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. p. 94

Yana’s notes mention that the thing Ranmao wears is just an European corset and that that is the only thing ‘English’ about her attire.

Well... I don’t know where the idea that Victorians wore corsets on the outside comes from, but I myself admittedly was fooled by this a few years ago too... I promise you all now however, Victorians decidedly did not wear their ‘bras’ on the outside. I think even now this look is considered rather ‘questionable’ by most people.

Instead, Qing dynasty clothes were mostly cut wide and straight, loosely dangling around their bodies offering maximum comfort and space. You feared Ranmao killing you in her corset? Now tremble before her now blessed with maximised agility.

Trousers

Well... I considered ‘translating’ Ranmao’s attire to 2020 standard like I did for O!Ciel, but that would not be Tumblr-filter approved. Skirts so short they could be mistaken for a belt are nothing too surprising today, but wearing one with a split that deep is probably a bit too revealing even by today’s standards.

By the late Qing dynasty, men and women, rich and poor alike predominantly wore trousers. Long robes (skirts) were definitely in fashion too, but they were reserved for those who could afford to not have much agility. If you were a farmer, robes would not have been your first option. Perhaps the way long skirts were viewed by the Qing Chinese was not unlike the way we see them now; ‘more classy’ ‘more feminine’ and ‘less convenient’, but not the only way to express femininity.

In these pictures below we can see relatively rich women, married and unmarried alike, all wearing trousers.

Ranmao is predominantly a fighter, and as trousers are plenty feminine in Chinese fashion culture, I don’t see why she would not choose to wear trousers instead of a restricting long skirt. Hence I gave her a pair of trousers.

Shoes

Like I said before, “the shoes are correct...” But the anklets definitely are not!

Golden or silver anklets are something that are worn by very, VERY young children in China. Even to this day it is customary among many Chinese people to gift newborn children at least one piece of pendant, bracelet or anklet, for it is believed to bring the child luck. More practically, this piece of jewellery will become the child’s first piece of property then, which can be sold later SHOULD they ever run into a financially difficult situation.

These anklets or bracelets would not be removed from the child unless they have outgrown them, which happens fairly quick. Ranmao who is probably full grown should have outgrown them at least ten years ago. Hence, seeing these things on Ranmao would probably make it look like she is still wearing diapers or bibs.

Chinese people would likewise not have worn shoes barefoot. Instead, they would have worn cotton socks which were mostly white.

DOUBLE HAMMERS

HERE COME THE WEAPONS! Luckily Yana wrote the following note or I would never have guessed what they are for my knowledge about Chinese weapons is next to nothing.

“These are【SUPER】heavy. They are weapons called 双錘 (double hammers) and they in fact exist. I heard these were used by power-type warriors.”

So, I googled 双錘 and it turns out that the type Ranmao is holding do indeed exist! But... only in fiction and theatre.

The hammers that were used in actual combat were either very thin and long, or short and plump. Such hammers were one of the most primitive metal weapons in China, and quickly fell out of favour among Chinese warriors when more practical weapons such as the metal spear, sword and bows were invented. The hammers mostly retained their value because of their weight in heroic tales and myths about legendary warriors and deities.

I don’t have the full details, but apparently according to some legends or myths, one of such big-ass hammers could deal a force of 200kg, and thus 400kg combined. Regardless of this being realistic or not, it sure does sound very cool! It is therefore no wonder this primitive weapon retains its popularity even today.

Nowadays when these hammers are used, they are either the blown up theatrical versions, or the smaller versions for the sake of preserving martial arts.

I had a bit of a dilemma as to which version to give Ranmao, but in the end I settled with the short and heavy ones because I wanted to keep the idea of this small and innocent looking girl wielding solid metal balls. Two cheer-leading sticks would simply not have the same weight, figuratively and literally.

Alright everyone! Did you enjoy my response to your votes? I hope you did ^^ Non-European fashion history really is not my strong suit, so my deepest apologies if I messed anything up.

Pray tell if I did, I am always happy to learn ^^

#Ran mao #ranmao #ran-mao #redesign #redesign prompt #art #my art #fan art #fanart #fan-art #Chinese clothes #UGGHGHHGHG non-European fashion REALLY is not my strong suit #BUT I learned a lot and I had fun!

[seeuonadarknite]

picture perfect — yandere kuroo tetsuro x f. reader

warnings: toxic relationship, abuse, spitting/saliva, noncon, breeding kink, light asphyxiation

You were sick and tired of your boyfriend's relationship with your family members. Your siblings thought he was admirable for being Nekoma's captain, and your parents not only admired his position, but trusted him in full as well.

He was just this nerdy volleyball captain and respected your parents more than any of your previous exes. He was just such a nice guy, why would you want to leave him?

"(y/n), you've gotta be pulling my leg. He's a keeper! Why would you wanna break up with him?" You had pulled your mother aside to talk to her in private, not wanting to attract any of your siblings' attention, but she didn't seem to pay any mind to her volume.

If only she knew how fucking psychotic your boyfriend was. He kept tabs on your phone, monitored who you hung out with and when you went out, and gave out unethical punishments whenever you upset him. Which was quite frequently.

But you didn't wanna tarnish your boyfriend's image like that. Sure, he was absolutely horrible to you, but a part of you didn't want to expose him like that. Maybe it was a form of Stockholm Syndrome. Maybe it was fear of not being believed.

Nonetheless, you always kept things vague in order to protect your prince charming's reputation. "It's just.. things are rough between us. It's not as nice as it seems behind closed doors." And it was true. Your words may have been vague, but they were completely correct.

Unfortunately, they were too vague for your mother to comprehend and she just shrugged them off, like always. "Honey, that's how relationships work. You're gonna have your fights and it's gonna be ugly— you're young! You're both just seniors in high school, so of course it's not gonna be perfect." She sent you a warm smile, placing a hand onto your shoulder.

"Just talk things out with him, okay? Try not to make haste decisions just yet." Removing her hand from your shoulder, your mother walked away from the scene with a soft laugh.

If only you had noticed the pair of eyes peeking behind the corner the whole time. The eyes that belonged to your nosy, loudmouthed brother.

—

It had been a few days since you had the talk with your mother. Since then, you had attempted to rekindle things with Kuroo. Of course trying to be nice to him didn't fix a damn thing. If anything, it just gave him the OK to be an even shittier boyfriend. His possessiveness had only gotten worse.

You were currently sat next to him on his couch, watching some cheesy romance movie. “Oi, babe, c’mere.” He called you over with his arms stretched out. If he wasn’t such a manipulative bastard, you’d find the sight in itself cute. He was like a kid making grabby hands.

To which you obliged with ease, sliding into his arms to lean your head against his torso with your legs tangling with his. His hand made its way over to your head as he tangled his fingers through your hair, humming quietly at your compliance. It was nice; it felt like the two of you were just a normal, happy couple.

However, every good moment had to come to an end. “So.. your little brother was real eager to talk to me the other day.” Uh oh. The words that fell from his mouth were seemingly innocent, but his tone was what scared you. It was a tone you knew all too well. You were in deep shit.

Tilting your head upwards to peek at him from your spot on his torso, your eyes made contact, only to realize that he had been looking down at you the whole time. “Yeah, he sounded worried. Told me about a little chat you had with ma.” His gaze had darkened within seconds as he spoke. You were really starting to regret accepting his offer to cuddle.

“Babe, he’s a kid. You can’t trust everything he sa—“ Slap. Placing a hand on your stinging cheek, you looked up at the narrowed eyes of your boyfriend. He had slapped you right across the face. How he had managed to put so much power into a slap with the position you two had been in was a mystery to you.

That wasn’t important. What was important was his hand roughly gripping your chin, nails digging into your soft skin. “Do you think that I’m that fucking stupid? Are you really trying to ruin a picture perfect family? Our picture perfect family? (y/n), I can’t have you telling everyone that I’m ‘bad.’ It’s about time that I put you in your place.”

And with that, his hand that had previously gripped your jaw was now forcefully prying it open. Furrowing your eyebrows, you looked up at your boyfriend with tears brimming your eyes. Before you could even start to retaliate, a sticky string of saliva gradually fell down from his mouth. God, he was spitting in your mouth and you couldn’t do anything about it. His hand was too damn strong.

“If you wanna properly own up to your actions, go on and swallow it.” It was absolutely sickening how he believed he was teaching you some sort of lesson. You wanted to call him disgusting and hit him in the face, but you were driven by fear, thus leading to your regretful actions.

Your pride wasn’t the only thing you swallowed, as the sticky substance of Kuroo’s saliva cascaded down your throat. Giving your face a few light slaps, he sent you his cheshire grin. “Good girl.” Without another word, he slipped up from under you.

For a second, you actually believed that he was laying off, and deciding that maybe spitting in your mouth was enough of a punishment. But no, as soon as you even thought about getting off of the couch, he forcefully flipped your body over and shoved your face into the couch cushion.

“Did ya really think I was done with you? Let me show you how much of a good boyfriend I am.” His fingers wrapped around the waistband of your shorts and panties, wasting no time in shoving them down to your ankles. “T-Tetsu! Wait!” Your cries and pleads went unheard as he pulled his flaccid cock from his boxers. Bringing your hips up to his, he began rubbing the length of his cock up against your folds.

Not only was the feeling of his gradually hardening cock rubbing against your folds turning you on, but it was making him moan like a pornstar. He paid absolutely no mind to his volume; you felt kinda bad for his neighbors.

The friction in itself was enough to create a pool between your legs. “Fuck, baby, I’m gonna put it in.” Of course he didn’t even consider putting on a condom. It almost felt as if he wanted to knock you up. If he did that, you really wouldn’t be able to leave him, right?

With both of his hands on your ass and his thumbs on your folds, spreading them open from behind, he pushed the head of his cock inside of you. “Tets—Tetsu, it’s not gonna fit..!” Your head was shoved up against the couch cushion by his right hand, whilst his left was holding onto your waist, giving him something to grip as he sheathed himself inside of you. His cock had so much girth; it practically felt like he was tearing you apart.

Kuroo tilted his head back with a loud, dragged out moan, as his eyes rolled to the back of his head. No matter how many times he fucked you, he always felt a sense of euphoria at the feeling of your tight hole clenching around his cock. Hell, his moans were probably louder than your own.

Once he calmed down from his high, he began thrusting into you at a furious pace. You were lucky you even got a chance to adjust to his size, because he sure as hell wasn’t going to start out at a gradual pace. Gripping onto the edge of the cushion, your jaw dropped as a moan erupted from your throat. God, your moans sounded like music to Kuroo’s ears. He could feel his cock twitch inside of you at the sound.

It really sucked having such an athletic lover, because his stamina and speed was just too much for you to handle. His pace was borderline animalistic as he pounded into you. The grip he had on your hips was absolutely bruising, and his nails dug into your scalp as he pushed your head further into the couch.

“Maybe I should cum inside..! Heh, you’d be real hot with big, swelling tits.” His hand pushed you further down, gradually making it more difficult to breath as he reared his hips back. Slamming back into you, he grabbed a fistful of your hair and dragged you up, pulling your back against his chest. This position was beyond uncomfortable for you. He kept one hand on your side, but the hand that was previously digging into your scalp was now wrapped around your throat, all of this happening from behind.

It amazed you how much lower body strength this man had as he continued thrusting into you at a speedy pace. You were beginning to reach your limit, and he was as well. This became obvious to you as soon as you felt his cock begin to twitch inside of you. “Even if your parents.. ugh.. fucking hate me..” He trailed off, moving his head towards your ear as he licked the shell of it. A low growl emitted from his throat as he removed his hand from your side, soon placing it onto your stomach as it slowly trailed down to your sensitive parts.

“..Once I knock you up, they’ll have no choice but to see me as a part of their family.” His fingers began mercilessly rubbing at your nub, urging you to hurry up and release. His words were fucking horrifying, but the way his cock hit your cervix and his fingers rubbed at your clit, you couldn’t even comprehend what he was telling you. Suddenly, your body tensed, as you reached your climax and lubricated Kuroo’s cock with your cum. With the clench of your hole, Kuroo followed shortly after you, pumping his thick, sticky semen inside of you.

Loud panting and heavy breaths sounded throughout the room as Kuroo reluctantly slid his cock out from your hole, watching your combined fluids begin to drip down from your hole to your leg. Once Kuroo released his grip on you, you collapsed onto his couch. You couldn’t care less about the cum covering your lower half and probably staining his furniture. You were exhausted.

The sight of you panting heavily with cum splattered all over your lower half was enough to make Kuroo’s cock begin to twitch again. Towering over your collapsed body, Kuroo placed his head into the crook of your neck and smirked.

“Now, who said that we were done here?”

#yandere #yandere x reader #yandere x you #xreader #yandere drabble #tw noncon #kuroo #tetsuro #tetsuro kuroo #kuroo tetsuro #kuroo x reader #tetsuro x reader #kuroo tetsuro x reader #tetsuro kuroo x reader #yandere kuroo #yandere tetsuro #yandere kuroo tetsuro #yandere tetsuro kuroo #yandere kuroo x reader #yandere tetsuro x reader #yandere kuroo tetsuro x reader #yandere tetsuro kuroo x reader #yandere haikyuu #haikyuu #hq #yandere hq #yandere haikyuu x reader #haikyuu x reader

[feanorianethicsdepartment]

more of tauriel’s hellfamily adventures! there’s still a couple of gaps in my conception of this au, which is why these are bullet points and not an actual fic, but i think i’ve got enough to progress the plot, such as it is. certainly got a bunch of anecdotes i think are funny

i’m not even going to bother explaining how tauriel ended up in one of the fëanorians’ boltholes being treated for mild injuries

nothing super serious, but enough that she’s out of action for the rest of the night. the palace is on fire

the bolthole opens, and celegorm (who’s doing first aid) turns his head. his preemptive scowl melts away instantly. ‘hi elrond!’

the former lord of imladris just sighs. ‘please tell me you idiots haven’t abducted tauriel’

legolas has concerns, apparently. he saw celegorm vanish into an alleyway with her slung over his shoulder and immediately started panicking

‘i've talked him into delaying his rescue mission until i had the chance to check that she was safe’ elrond finishes, sounding absolutely exhausted

tauriel confirms that she is doing fine, as much as she can through the concussion. celegorm’s like ‘if he’s so worried about her why doesn’t he just come up here’

elrond disappears, and a few minutes later legolas scrambles inside

he’s glaring at celegorm. celegorm tells him where the first aid kit is, punches him on the arm, compliments his tracking skills in a vaguely threatening manner, and jumps back out to assist with the chaos

legolas collapses by tauriel’s bedside, still clutching his bow. tauriel pats him on the thigh reassuringly

neither of them are surprised elrond knows the fëanorians - they stayed in his place in tol eressëa for a while, dude knows literally everyone - but they don’t really know why

closer to dawn, elrond’s voice drifts up into the hideout. he’s going on this long irritated rant that climaxes in an extremely exasperated ‘valardamnit dad!’

maglor cackles. tauriel’s like ‘huh didn’t know that.’ legolas makes a face like he accidentally swallowed a spider

by this point, tauriel’s known the brothers hellspawn for long enough legolas has been unnervingly close to a kinslayer way more times than he’d like

this is the longest he’s spent in proximity to them by far, but it’s not the only time he’s interacted with them. they seem to like tauriel, and he knows she can take care of herself

but like still

it keeps happening, though. as tauriel further ingratiates herself with these awful awful elves, her two separate social circles keep bleeding into each other

take the time legolas and co visited the aulendili

before they left middle-earth, gimli whipped round every dwarf they knew and assembled several volumes of complaints. they refuse to confirm or deny whether aulë is the maker, but they are determined someone’s gonna hear their grievances

and thus a small wagon train of wood elves head up into the mountains. including tauriel

tauriel offhandedly mentioned the upcoming trip to the twins, and amras was like ‘hey we’ve got family up there!’ a few messages went up and down the funicular, and now gimli and crew have a place to crash up there

they’re put up by some of the fëanorians’ less murderous (if equally loud) relatives. it’s a pretty interesting trip

half the town is redheads. several people still mistake tauriel for a fëanorian. it’s been happening a lot in the wider noldorin territory lately, it’s weird

caranthir stumbles up into town about halfway through their visit. he gets into an extremely long philosophical argument with gimli that somehow ends with a mutual dwarven nod of respect

he also ends up fighting back-to-back with tauriel in one of those debatebrawls so common among the noldor. neither of them is quite sure how it happens

that’s the way it goes, isn’t it. there’s no big official moment when tauriel becomes part of the family

she just grows closer to them over her time in valinor, as they do to her

she merges into their social world. she develops a rapport with maglor’s wife - a first age mountain sinda and a third age forest avar don’t have that much in common, but they are both looking at noldorin culture from the outside. they have so many injokes about ridiculous bling

(it goes the other way too. this childhood friend oc of hers i’m developing - pretty sweet guy, the token sane man in the legolas-tauriel-him trinity - gets along really well with celebrimbor)

this one time tauriel punches a guy out for calling elrond a traitor. it doesn’t matter that he’s like three times her age, he is babey

she gets chewed out by maedhros and tests out new devices for curufin and drops in on nerdanel for tea. even though she doesn’t permanently live in the definitely-not-fëanorian quarter, she has her own personal space in its innermost warren

she’s one of them long before anyone consciously realises it

what causes that realisation is, admittedly, partially the conspiracy theories. if you say something often enough, you’ll start to believe it, and while the tauriel origin stories circulating through the noldorin rumour mill vary a lot in the details they all agree she is a fëanorian

but that’s a gradual long-term thing. it’s one more thread that leads to the moment

because there has to be an inflection point, i think. the fëanorians have plenty of family friends within the ranks of their definitely-not-minions. some are even as close to them as tauriel’s become

something has to happen to show she’s something more. fortunately, as demonstrated by the darkening and the númenorian invasion, no matter how peaceful it seems, history never stops

shit goes down. the exact details i’ll admit i don’t know yet, but at some point some sort of massive crisis rocks all of valinor. it’s during that crisis that tauriel does stuff that makes it blindingly obvious she’s not just on her side, but one of them

what stuff? again, i don’t know yet. i have this mental image of her leading a strike team that’s half definitely-not-minions and half legolas’ people through a burning city to do... something badass, but that’s as specific as i can get atm

what i am certain about, is that throughout the unfolding of the crisis, tauriel is permanently on the fëanorians’ side, just like they’re on hers

it’s one thing to be someone’s friend in bright happy days. it’s another thing to stick by them when everything’s falling to pieces and the whole world is against them. it’s in the depths of this crisis that both parties have the chance to fully prove their worth to each other

that probably wouldn’t be enough on its own, but combined with the friendship and the conspiracy theories and just the general way she is, once the dust settles it’s blazingly clear that tauriel is a daughter of the house of fëanor

there’s a little debate about where exactly she fits on the family tree, but not much. our sample size is admittedly small, but third generation fëanorians tend to have the slightest modicum of common sense? elrond and celebrimbor both have a fair degree of self-awareness and at least a few brain cells

tauriel does not. tauriel is mad, bad, and dangerous to know, just smart enough to understand that her sheer chaoticness is something she can channel but not nearly close to regularly thinking through the consequences of her actions. she’s loud and violent and does whatever she wants whenever she wants without a single thought towards what people will think of her

and more than that, she doesn’t relate to the second generation fëanorians the way the third generation does. she’s their friend and partner-in-crime, not one of their precious perfect must-protect children. she gets jerked around and bullied and does all that stuff right back, and while she doesn’t have a solid place in the second generation’s internal hierarchy yet she would easily slot in

no, tauriel’s a second generation fëanorian, one of fëanor and nerdanel’s horrible children. the fact that fëanor is currently indisposed and unable to provide an opinion on the matter doesn’t seem to bother anyone

she gets inducted into the family in a massive group hug, and from then on out the brothers hellspawn are the siblings hellspawn

her new family doesn’t replace her old one, of course, she has a long talk with elrond wherein she hashes this out. she’s still a silvan of the greenwood

she’s just also the little sister of the most bloodthirsty elves in history

(that sound in the background is legolas screaming)

#silmarillion #tauriel #feanorians #house of feanor #the feanorian tauriel saga #my terrible fic #this is late because i needed to sleep last night #extremely panicky background legolas #the worst part is he can't even deny it #current plan is looking like one more main entry and a couple of errata #there's a scene i don't think i'll be able to fit in and a little minific about why tauriel doesn't believe in maedhros

[impalementation]

Who are your favorite and least favorite Big Bads of Buffy?

This might sound like a cop-out, but honestly I like all of the big bads. I think they each serve their purpose in their own way, and fit with what the season was going for. As I wrote in this post on the Trio, they’re probably the villain that gets under my skin the most. With Angelus and Glory as runners-up. Angelus because of what a strong personal, emotional angle he adds to the season’s conflict. And Glory partly because she does the same—not because she has a personal relationship to Buffy, but because she threatens Dawn. But also partly because she’s so gleefully indifferent to Buffy. I love Glory as a metaphor (in part) for the terror of the inexorable march towards adulthood, death, etc, because those things don’t give a shit about you. Fighting Glory feels like fighting a force of nature. Something impersonal, and impossible. And it feels all the more cruel and maddening that something impersonal like that would threaten someone as important to Buffy as Dawn is. The same way it’s fundamentally cruel that Joyce, or anyone, would die.

At any rate, I think this sort of personal connection to the driving storyline will almost always give it more emotional impact and lend itself towards narrative tightness. To the extent that I like the Trio as villains so much despite the fact that they don’t result in the same sort of tight arc that Angelus and Glory do, it’s because the lack of tight arc is basically the point. Early adulthood as a period that defies the desire for big romantic villains, and tidy narrative arcs. Seasons two and five are classics, while season six is a bit more post-modern, a bit more baroque. And that sort of subversion is always going to get to me a little more, even though I love classics too.

But like I said, I think that the Master, the Mayor and Faith, Adam and the Initiative, and the First (and the other villains) all reflect their season’s themes in their own way. (I talked in this post about how each big bad parallels Buffy, and will probably repeat myself a bit). The Master is a grotesque figure of tradition, and when Buffy beats him, she beats the idea of being trapped by that. Angelus is the awful underbelly of pretty stories, the dark side of Romance, and when Buffy sends Angel to hell, she metaphorically accepts the painful but necessary disillusionment about certain things that accompanies maturity. The Mayor is the idea that adult power and leadership means corruption, and Faith is the idea that youthful power and rebellion can only be destructive (or identity-less in a way that lends itself towards being owned and corrupted by adult power). And so when Buffy beats them, and leads her classmates in rebellion, she embodies the positive versions of both leadership and rebellion—both adult and teenage power. Adam and the Initiative are the idea that institutions want to define your identity for you, remake you in their image. And so when Buffy and the Scoobies join their power to beat them, it’s a celebration of both their individual identities, and their ability to willingly combine those identities, and be stronger for it. Instead of the forced identity-grafting that Adam and the Initiative engage in. The fact that the season is ultimately about self-discovery and definition is demonstrated by the fact that the final episode is about the characters, instead of the Initiative plot. Having beaten The Institutional, the show is freed to explore The Individual.

Glory, like I said, is the embodiment of impersonal forces that you can’t control, and how growing up means finding a way to deal with them. By embracing her own death to beat Glory and save her sister, Buffy metaphorically accepts the onward march of life—including adulthood, and eventual death—unlike someone like Ben, who is so afraid of death that he’s willing to let people suffer for his sake. The Trio are the idea of irresponsibility and the petty, mundane realities of living. Warren specifically is the end result of repeated, unrepentant moral delinquency. (And of course, the way this inability to be responsible for oneself leads to blaming other people for your problems and trying to control them…the way the Trio treats women). Dark Willow is the sheer destructive grief at the idea that nothing can really be controlled, nothing is really fair—death, pain, work—the idea that it’s better to end oneself, or even the world, if life can be so relentless and cruel. The fact that Buffy doesn’t actually beat any of them fits with the fact that you can’t really beat adulthood, or responsibility, or “life.” Some kinds of control are impossible. Not without killing yourself. Thus the triumph of the season is not that Buffy kills some supernatural entity, or even three stupid boys, but that she chooses to live. Lastly the First is the invisible, intangible, impotent, yet somehow also invulnerable, omnipotent nature of systemic problems. The First is everywhere, but the idea of being able to fight it feels ludicrous, because how would you even begin? What do you fight? It’s a problem that lives in people’s hearts, and makes them its avatars. Its isolation echoes and explains Buffy’s. But in the end it’s a thing that actually can be beaten, by changing the nature of the game.

#gen #i could criticize but got to the end of the post and realized i hadn't yet #and gave up #so have it as it is ha

[maxwell-grant]

Your Top Five Pulp Heroes that you wish were better known? By Pulp Hero fans, I mean. Since pretty much all of them except Conan and Tarzan are fairly unknown.

It’s actually quite hard for me to narrow it down to just five, because I’m having to choose between characters that are my favorites that I wish were more well-known and appreciated (which is all of them), and characters that aren’t quite my favorites but I very much think should have achieved great popularity for a myriad of reasons. So instead I’m going to pick some of each. These are not necessarily ranked by their importance or my personal taste, just 5 characters I felt like highlighting in particular. 

Honorable mentions goes to characters I already talked about prior and don’t want to repeat myself on. These aren’t “lesser” picks, just ones that I already talked about: Imaro (who in particular definitely feels like he could, and should be, a pop culture superstar if he was only more well-known), Kapitan Mors (who’s got a lot in common with one of my favorite fictional characters, Captain Nemo, but also has a lot of interesting things going on for him as his own character). Sar Dubnotal (a character that appeals a lot to me and I think should be included much more often in pulp hero team-ups). The Golden Amazon (again, definitely a character that feels like it’s just begging to have a pop culture breakout, even comic books rarely if ever have female supervillains this ruthless and over-the-top), The Mexican Fantomas (who absolutely deserves a better name than what I’m calling him here, because he’s incredibly awesome and leagues ahead of just being a knock-off). And of course my homeboy, The Grey Claw, whom I would consider Number One of the list if it wasn’t for the fact that his obscurity has left him untouched by copyright and I got plans of my own for the character that wouldn’t be possible if he was more well-known, so I guess I’m ultimately glad he’s obscure (even if I’m still bothered by how little he’s known). 

Allright let’s go:

Number 5: Sheridan Doome

Sheridan Doome appeared in fifty-four stories and three novels from 1935 to 1943. As chief detective for U.S. Naval Intelligence, Lieutenant Commander Sheridan Doome’s job was a grim one. Whenever an extraordinary mystery or crime occurred in the fleet, on a naval base, or anywhere the navy worked to protect American interests, Doome was immediately dispatched to investigate it. Fear and dread would always precede Doome’s arrival in his special black airplane. For, in an explosion during WWI, he had been monstrously disfigured. 

He was six feet two inches tall; had a chalk-white face and head. It appeared as though it had once been seared or burned. For eyes, he had only black blotches; glittering optics, that looked like small chunks of coal. His nose was long, the end of it squared off rudely. He had no lips, just a slit that was his mouth. His neck was long, as white and as bony as his face…. Sheridan Doome looked more like a robot than a human being. He was tall and ghastly; his uniform fitted him in a loose manner. Long arms hung at his sides; his face was a perfect blank. He had no control of his facial muscles; consequently, his countenance was always without expression, chalky and bony.

But behind the ugliness was a brilliant mind. Sheridan Doome always got his man. Before Sheridan Doome became a staple in the pages of The Shadow magazine, two Doome hardcover mysteries were written in the mid-1930’s by acclaimed hard-boiled author Steve Fisher (I Wake Up Screaming) and edited by his wife Edythe Seims (Dime Detective, G-8 and His Battle Aces). Age of Aces now brings you both books in one huge double novel, presented in a retro “flip book” style. This book is currently Out of Print.

I sadly don’t have any more information on the character other than this. The book is unavailable for me to acquire in any capacity, and the text above is taken from the Age of Aces website as well as Jess Nevins’s personal profile for the character. I’m not even sure if any of those 54 stories even exist anymore, since although he was published as a backup in Shadow Magazine, there doesn’t seem to be reprints of them anywhere, at least as far as I can find, and the original Shadow magazines have largely turned to dust by now. 

A character who combines aspects of The Phantom of the Opera and The Shadow, whose adventures are set in a backdrop that can easily lead to ocean adventures? That’s like, what, three of my favorite things in the world combined. I really, really wish I could at least read the stories this character stars in, but as is, this description is all I can provide. Again, time really has been cruel to the pulp heroes. 

Number 4: Harlan Dyce

This is another character I’ve only been able to learn about through Jess Nevins’s archives and have not been able to attain any further information on, which is sadly the case with a lot of pulp heroes that nowadays only seem to exist as footnotes in his Encyclopedia or records in libraries. I don’t post more about these characters because I really would just be copying the stuff he wrote without much to justify me quoting him verbatim, and I hate the idea of doing that.

I especially hate that in Harlan Dyce’s case though. Here’s his description

“Dyce had brains, taste, money, ambition, and a total lack of physical or spiritual fear. But—

“Dyce was thirty-three inches tall and weighed sixty pounds.

“That was all the world could ever hold against him. That was what had made the world, most of it, in all the countries of the world, stare at Harlan Dyce, billed in the big show as “General Midge.””

Harlan Dyce is a misanthropic and venomous private detective. He has an “amazingly handsome face,” and the aforementioned brains. But all anyone sees is his stature, and he hates that and turns his cold eyes and acid tongue on them. 

The only person Dyce likes and gets along with (besides his dwarf wife, a former client) is his assistant, Nick Melchem, a six-foot tall former p.i.’s assistant with bleak eyes and a strong body. Melchem ignores Dyce’s stature and treats Dyce normally, which Dyce responds warmly to.

Dwarfs may be the single most maligned group of people depicted in pulp magazines, even more so than the Japanese in the war years or the Chinese during the peak of the Yellow Peril’s popularity. Evil dwarfs, murderous dwarfs, sexually depraved dwarfs, they are all loathsome, ugly cliches that are, sadly, the only instances you see of dwarf characters being represented at all, with the only ones who are awarded any measure of sympathy are doomed henchmen or tragic villains.  Even outside of the pulps, the only other examples of heroic, protagonist dwarfs I can think off the top of my head are Puck from Marvel Comics and Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones.

I’m not gonna say Harlan Dyce is great representation because I’m not a little person and can never make that kind of claim for a group I’m not a part of, but Harlan Dyce may be the first time I’ve ever seen a dwarf character in pulp fiction who was not a villain or a murderous goon or a victim, but an actual person and a heroic protagonist, and that definitely counts for something. I’m not sure how popular this character was or could be if someone picked up the concept and ran with it (and I’m pretty sure he’s public domain), but I definitely think this is a character that should exist and should be popular. 

Hell, this character has Peter Dinklage written all over it, give it to him. Maybe then he will get to play a smart, fearless, cynical, misanthropic but good-natured and heroic character in something where he actually gets to keep these traits until the show ends.

Number 3: Audaz, O Demolidor

Audaz is a Brazilian character who was created and published by Gazetinha, the same publishers of Grey Claw as well as properties exported from elsewhere like Superman and Popeye, and much like The Grey Claw, he is also completely unknown even here. I’ll get to Audaz more in-depth sometime but here I’m going to provide a quick summary: 

Audaz, The Demolisher is a gigantic crime-fighting robot controlled and piloted by the brilliant scientist Dr. Blum, his close friend Gregor and the child prodigy Jacques Ennes, who pilot the giant robot from a massive laboratory inside it's head rather than a cockpit. He takes on a variety of ordinary human criminals, mad scientists, supervillains and invading armies, towering over skyscrapers and grappling with jets.

Audaz was created in 1939 by illustrator Messias de Melo, a year before Quality Comics's Bozo the Iron Man and 5 years before Ryuichi Yokoyama's Kagaku Senshi, and decades before the debut of Mazinger Z. Although he is not the first giant robot of science fiction, he is the first heroic giant robot piloted by human pilots, and thus the first true example of "mecha" fiction.

Number 2: Emilia the Ragdoll

This is another Brazilian character, although nowhere near as obscure as Audaz as even a cursory Google search can show. Although Brazil did not have a “pulp era” in the same way the US had, we’ve long gotten past the point of sticking to it as a definitive rule, and I’m including Emilia as a pulp hero because she’s a 1920s fantasy literature character who was created under a publishing company that released pulp stories, because she doesn’t quite belong in the mold of fantasy literature characters she takes after, and because I like her and if I was putting a bunch of pulp heroes together in the same story, I would definitely include Emilia in it. It’s not like she really has anywhere else to go, now that she’s public domain and she’s outlasted her franchise.

As you can tell by the above image, Emilia’s had a lot of variations over the years and that’s because the work she was created for, Sítio do Picapau Amarelo (Yellow Woodpecker Ranch/Farm), has become a major bedrock of Brazilian fantasy literature, one of the only works created here that you can find substantial information about in English if you go looking for it. Here’s some descriptions of Emilia’s character:

Emília is a rag doll described as "clumsy" or "ugly", resembling a "witch" that was handmade by Aunt Nastácia, the ranch's cook, for the little girl Lúcia, out of an old skirt. After Lucia takes her on an adventure and the doll is given a dose of magic pills, Emília suddenly started talking, and would never stop henceforth.

Emilia has a rough, antagonistic personality, and an independent, free-spirited and anarchist behaviour. She is rogue, rebellious, stubborn, rough and intensely determined at anything she sets her mind on, eager to take off on just about any adventure. She is often immature and behaves like a curious and arrogant child, always wanting to be the center of attention.

She is extremely opinionated even when she constantly and confidently mispronounces words and expressions. Her attitude often gets her into trouble, and she very often has to fight against the villains who attack her home on the Yellow Woodpecker Farm and mistreat her friends.

In the stories, Emilia often takes the role of a heroine who travels through different realms and dimensions, as the books include not only figures from Brazilian and worldwide folklore, but also several characters both real and fictional, such as Hercules, King Arthur, Don Quixote, Thumbelina, Da Vinci, Shirley Temple, Captain Hook, Santos Dumont and Baron von Munchausen.

She's fought scorpions and martians and nymph hordes, her arch-enemy is an alligator witch, she rescued an angel from the Milky Way and tried to teach it how to become a human, and once shrunk the entire population of Earth to try and talk the president of the United States into ending war forever.

To little surprise, she has become the most popular character and the series’s mascot.

It’s a little strange to consider Emilia underrated considering she is one of the most famous original characters of Brazilian literature, but hardly anyone outside of Brazil even knows who she is, and regardless of the quality of the original stories (and Monteiro Lobato’s views on race that tar much of his reputation), Emilia definitely feels to me like a character that should be a lot more popular globally. 

She is the only character from Yellow Woodpecker Ranch that has transcended the original stories, since she was always the most popular character and there’s been a couple of stories written about her that usually separate her from the ranch and just set her out on the world by herself. The latest story about this character has been a series called The Return of Emilia, that’s about her stepping out of the books in 2050 and discovering a Brazil that’s been ruined by social and ecological devastation, and traveling back in time via a flying scooter in order to try and prevent this calamity. 

Now that she’s public domain, I definitely think there’s some great stories that can be told with the character that just about anyone could get to, and I definitely think she’s a character that deserves more appreciation. Anything goes in stories starring her and it’s that kind of free-for-all freedom that I think can benefit future takes on pulp heroes. I would be very happy to place Emilia among them.

Oh yeah, and there was one time she kicked Popeye's ass by tricking him with a can of mouldy cabbage instead of spinach, making him sick and then beating him, which possibly puts her as one of the all-time badasses of fiction, except she would be pissed at not being number one and likely embark on a quest to beat everyone else just to prove she could, because that’s how Emilia rolls.

Number 1: Luna Bartendale, from The Undying Monster (1922)

Not necessarily my favorite of the bunch, but one who sort of epitomizes what you asked, a character who is both incredibly obscure and incredibly underrated in every sense. Despite the book being somewhat known, mainly thanks to the movie, the character is so obscure that I don’t even have an illustration of her to display here, not even fan art, just one of the book’s covers that I think best conveys it. Luckily, the book is also available freely online, so you can all go check it out here. The movie adaptation does not feature the character of Luna Bartendale which makes it pointless to talk about.

To not spoil it too much, The Undying Monster is a very fascinating book, ahead of it’s time in quite a few ways. You expect it to just be a detective story centered around a werewolf cursed, except the subtitle of the book is “The Fifth Dimension” and then it goes to talk about dimensions of thought and post-WWI trauma and love and hypnotic regression that travels through time and ancient runes and Norse mythology. It’s not exactly an easy book to get through in one setting, but I’d recommend it much the same if only because it’s got supersensitive psychic sleuth Luna Bartendale, literature’s first female occult detective, and she’s an incredible character who absolutely feels like she should have become a literary icon. 

She lives in London but is world-renowned for her many good deeds. She is a small, pretty woman, with curly blonde hair, dark eyebrows and a high-bridged nose, and a slight build. She has a voice described as a light soprano that "does not make much noise but carries a long way". 

Petite, bedimpled and golden curled, Luna is completely in charge of events, dominating every scene that she appears in with her welcoming disposition and cleverness. 

Bartendale has various psychic powers, including mind reading. She is well-versed in psychic and occult lore, is a “supersensitive” psychic, and has a “Sixth Sense” which allows her to trace things and people through both the Fourth and the Fifth Dimension. (The Fifth Dimension is “the Dimension that surrounds and pervades the Fourth–known as the Supernatural���).

Her extensive knowledge of occult rites and practices puts John Silence, Carnacki and Miles Pennoyer to shame, and she beats them all with her "super-sensitive" gift of being able to psychically connect with troubled souls and hypnotize them.

She uses a divining rod for various tasks, including psychic detection and tracking, and distinguishing between benevolent and malevolent forces. She has various (undefined) powerful psychic defenses, can carry on seances, and can even cure a person of “wehrwolfism.” And she can always rely on her massive, intelligent dog Roska for help.

Luna sadly doesn’t show up in the book as often as I’d hoped, but everything about this character is so delightful. In a lot od ways she hardly feels like a pulp hero, at least the ones I usually talk about. She feels like a lost protagonist from an incredibly successful kid’s adventure series where a kind and eccentric detective witch and her giant dog go around solving occult mysteries and encountering all sorts of weird supernatural beings while counseling and helping people, like Ms Frizzle meets Hilda. Like this character is just waiting for Cartoon Saloon to make a film about her.

Its not so much “this character should/could be popular but it’s clear why that didn’t pan out”, it’s more me being confused as “why the hell isn’t she super popular? This character should have had a franchise ages ago, holy shit put her in everything””

#pulp heroes #pulp fiction #answer tag #sheridan doome #harlan dyce #audaz #boneca emilia #luna bartendale

[sacrificim]

huge thank you to @asterites for plotting this out with me!! and by which i mean she was the mastermind and i’m so grateful if your heart breaks blame her <3

     once upon a time there was a boy and a girl, two twins who hailed from the nation governed by the eyes of eternity. orphaned and all alone in the world, with not but one another for company. even when hunger stuck, or the winds blew harsh, as long as the children had each other there was hope that all would be okay.

     yet this was no fairy tale, and there was no happily ever after.

     the twins, oh how they loathed the orphanage that was meant to be their home. oh how they fled at the slightest opportunity. it was on one such eve that the duo took off. "we can live in the woods!” the boy thus cried, the more frivolous of the pair. “there will be berries and apples to keep our bellies full, and we can make shelter from sticks!" the girl agreed, and so did they run. far from their village, far into the wilderness. to frolic and play and build their lives anew.

     alas, their dream came crashing down with a scream.

     halua? where had she gone? down, emil discovered. down between a crack in what was the very earth itself. small, easy to miss, and even easier to devour a child small as them.

     halua! he had only meant to reach his hand in, only meant to grab and pull for surely she could not be far. till he, too, slipped between the cracks. the dirt beneath his hands giving way, and plummeting the boy into blinding darkness.

     down, down did they fall. into a world he never knew existed. never could have imagined, even with the eyes of a child. dark, terrifying, thrumming with a primordial power he could not explain yet was alive all around him. but, where was his sister? where did she go? where were they?

     all those and more probed the child's head, but no answer would ever come.

     emil and halua, what unfortunate children. they both fell into the abyss, but halua? she was never found. no one was, the boy all alone for the first time in his short life.

     his time in the abyss is but a faded memory for him, time having become a meaningless construct in the land below. surrounded by beasts the likes of which he'd never seen. how did he survive, and for how long? how did he escape? not even he knows, but the boy that emerged from its depths was not the same one who fell in. not physically. for emil's body? it was corrupted. flesh rendered from bone; one arm now skeletal in nature, as was the entirety of his form from the mid-torso down. tainted in ways he had yet to understand.

     he tried to hide it, tried to ignore his plight ( for despite the grisly sight it was painless, a problem for another day ) in favor of seeking the sister he could never find. but he could not keep it hidden forever, and one day his luck ran out.

     enter the fatui. snezhnaya. a doctor he'd come to know uncomfortably well. out of the frying pan and into the fire, as they say, except he had simply traded one fire for another.

     corrupted by the abyss, he was a fascinating case. despite his protests. despite prayer after prayer to seven gods who never came. what was left of his body became an experiment to study - to test the limits of. a little of this, a little of that. infused with something he learned to be dubbed archon residue, but what precisely it was mattered little compared to how it made him feel.

     geo. cryo. a volatile combination swirled within. he became a walking bomb of unstable energy, ticking on, waiting to self-destruct. not if, but when. who had caused his share of destruction, but was always kept in check.

     that is, until he escaped.

                                                             extra below the cut

in this verse emil is a ten year old that is similar to collei from the manga, injected with archon residue and now a deadly force of raw power. two elements, fused into one unstable source. it is not killing him, as it was her, thanks to his corrupted form. but the two powers are liable to expand, and be set off. corrupted even further by the abyssal thrum within him. he is dangerous, and he fears that. fears his abilities, and will thus refuse to use them if he can help it. and he can't always help it.

though volatile, there is something keeping his power in check. a suit of armor, and a "mask" of stone. the one thing he is grateful for and took with him during his escape. the armor fills out his skeletal limbs, making then appear fuller, human. and, thankfully, are easy enough to hide beneath loose fitting clothes. the mask, on the other hand… the sight of it unsettles him, but he keeps it near. wearing it when away from villages, where the public might see. or when his power flares and craves release.

the premise is also inspired by the image shown below. and, if the opportunity arose, this au does have the possibility of leading emil to take on a fully abyssal form - mostly comparable to the floating, entirely skeletal emil we know from canon. just an extra touch of angst to keep on the backburner for when the time comes.

he has harmed people, unwillingly. accidentally. leaving behind petrified innocents that he wishes he knew how to save, but does not know if they are even still alive inside.

emil travels. on one hand to look for his missing sister, and on the other hand for the safety of himself and others. staying in one place for too long scares him, feeling as if he might put people at risk - or risk himself being found by either fatui or someone who has seen his handiwork. even so, emil can't help venturing into towns every now and then… to continue his search, yes, but he is also a young child who has never been on his own like this before. the life of a recluse not one he knows how to live.

he is still the same optimistic emil of canon, who delights in making others happy, and wishes ever so to not be alone.

and finally, where is halua? well...  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#genshin tag pending #long post #( me: man i sure wish emil had a happy verse #also me side-eying all this angst like: oh yes happy... happy... uh huh.... #AKJDHAKJDH #he WILL have a happy one... but genshin is not that verse #ohmygod ailli what did we do kjASHAKJASKJH )

[sepublic]

Is the Boiling Isles still Alive?

For a while I’ve been staring at Bonesborough (as well as other locations, such as Hexside) and noticed that there seems to be the presence of giant rib cages scattered around the area, even if they’re not the same colossal ribs we see on the Boiling Isles Titan, and located away from its torso anyway;

This, combined with the arms flanking the Bonesborough palace, and I’ve wondered if perhaps there were smaller giants who’ve died and had their corpses used as settlements. But then @anistarrose brought up a brilliant observation, suggesting that the Boiling Isles Titan was once a demon, and like demons, it had large amounts of sulfur making up its body. Naturally, this leads to the idea, what if demons were born of the titan’s remains?

And that gets me to the topic- What if the Boiling Isles was still alive, not in the most traditional sense, but that the individual cells and flesh were still breathing and growing and creating life?

What if demons were literally being born from the earth, grown out of the soil of the Boiling Isles like plants? After all, soil is basically just decayed organic matter, right? And we know that the Boiling Isles is literally the remains of the titan...

What if demons are specifically creatures who were born of the soil of the Boiling Isles, which is actually the titan’s decomposed flesh? If the Isles have sulfur deposits, this could be where the sulfur of demons comes from! Perhaps the dirt itself is transmuting into actual flesh and body parts, and that’s why we see giant rib-cages and even arms emerging from the earth; The Boiling Isles is still growing and forming new bodies and demons! And we know from Episode 1 that one of those arms is still alive, because it reaches out to grab a flying dragon!

This could also explain why one of the arms has houses built into it... If demons and their bodies are born from the earth, then perhaps the foundations some buildings were laid upon grew into the giant arm we see today? Likewise, the ‘corpse’ we see in Bonesborough hasn’t been dead, because it hasn’t even been alive yet to begin with- It’s still in the process of forming!

And in the intro, it looks like the earth is turning and twisting into the Caterpillar-Monster, rather than it just emerging from underground;

This does beg the question, why is the earth forming into demon bodies? Since the earth is the titan’s decayed flesh, is this its body’s failed attempts to regenerate, to reform? Is this just a natural process of rebirth, the cycle of life? Perhaps the titan’s healing properties have begun to ‘run wild’, resulting in the creation of various separate organisms?

I wonder if this has anything to do with the living room’s walls breathing in the Owl House? If they’re made of materials from the Isles, could this have something to do with why there are so many eyes and living fixtures in buildings?

How do Witches relate to this- Are they also of the Boiling Isles? And if so, why do they have magic bile sacs? I’ve speculated before that the Titan could’ve had its own Bile Sac... While Adventures in the Elements hints that it was also versed in glyph magic (which is not isolated to the titan, being present in the stars above it), perhaps the Titan’s own bile reformed into the Witches we see today! Hence, why they have bile sacs, literally recycle from the decayed corpse!

And what about other organs? I’ve speculated that perhaps King is the reborn Titan, how would this fit into the idea of demons being born from the Isles? Was King born from a major body part of the Titan, perhaps its heart or brain? And with that in mind...

@fermented-writers-block suggested this to me, but if some organs can yield specific creatures, such as the bile sac becoming Witches, and regular flesh yielding beasts and demons... What about the lungs?

I’ve analyzed Emperor Bellows’ name before, pointing out that he shares the name with a device that is basically a bag of air. Then @ramblesanddragons humorously pointed out that this means Bellows is full of ‘hot air’. What if Bellows was born from the lungs?

It’d re-contextualize his namesake being a bag of air- Likewise, to bellow involves great usage of one’s lungs! And of course, being full of hot air involves thinking you’re more than what you actually are, and thus speaking a great deal about how important you are... And you need lungs to talk big about yourself!

Again, this is all speculation, and some of it IS a stretch. Maybe the Boiling Isles residents are just taking giant remains and decorating their settlements with them, we see massive bones laid out this way in the Bonesborough image. But it’s definitely fascinating and kind of beautiful to think about, the idea of decay and death paving the road for new life... Likewise, it’s a neat implementation of body horror into the very setting itself, with the implication that many of the living creatures we see in the show are reincarnated organs, their abilities and nature reflected by the specific body parts they came from!

Dang- I know I joked about it before by comparing King to Mata Nui... but this really IS like Bionicle!

#the owl house #owl house #speculation #theory #demons #boiling isles #emperor bellows

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Yzma

I feel like there’s no sense in introducing this one. You know her. I’ve seen all the gif sets, the quotes, the images, the memes… it’s safe to say most every person on the internet is intimately acquainted with The Emperor’s New Groove’s geriatric villainess, Yzma. So, let’s just cut to the chase and talk about why Yzma is a fantastic villain, shall we?

Motivation/Goals: Yzma’s goal is pretty simple and yet also infinitely understandable. She wants to take over the kingdom from Kuzco because, after years of being treated like garbage by the snotty little emperor she likely helped raise, he’s just firing her because she’s old and ugly. Like, it is TRUE, but it’s still incredibly tacky and rude. It’s not hard to empathize with her at least a little bit as she goes to poison the snotty, miserable emperor, though it really does become harder to side with her as the movie goes on and she continues to berate her poor manservant Kronk.

Performance: The legendary Eartha Kitt of Adam West’s Batman and My Life as a Teenage Robot fame gave Yzma exactly the voice she needed to instantly ingrain herself in your memory forever. Kitt was absolutely not afraid to ham it up, and combined with the character design and animation, it makes Yzma a delightfully over-the-top figure that is easy to love to hate. Even better, she has insanely good chemistry with Patrick Warburton as Kronk, and the two play off each other extremely well, leading to Yzma being part of a good 95% of the movie’s funniest scenes. It helps that, while she is definitely very funny, she is more often the straight man reacting to the insanity her compatriot brings to the table, a dark mirror to Kuzco and Pacha’s relationship… well, comparatively dark. These two are a couple of goobers after all. What I think really helps is that, despite being the straight man in a general sense, Yzma is still probably one of the most insane villains in Disney’s filmography, as in literally unhinged, so she is as able to generate laughs as anyone else.

Final Fate: Yzma’s attempts to kill Kuzco backfire spectacularly, and instead of succeeding in any way, shape, or form, she ends up turning herself into a cute little kitty. It’s a marked improvement, honestly. How she changed back to normal for the TV series, who can say? By all accounts it doesn’t make sense. Just don’t think too hard about it, it’s a comedy after all.

Best Scene: Considering how the entire climax of the film is an absolute cavalcade of comedy, we could go with that. Or we could go with her attempts to poison Kuzco at dinner. Or we could go with her interactions with Pacha’s family. The “problem” with Yzma that every scene with her is so great that it’s hard to single out any single one moment as outstanding, because all of them are pretty much on the same level. She’s remarkably consistent with how great she is.

Best Quote: It’s really hard for me to pick just one line (which is something I tend to say a lot, but I mostly talk about good villains on here, so cut me some slack), but I think the combination of the delivery and just how great Kitt’s voice was really helps make her brainstorming ways to kill Kuzco a legendary moment:

“Ah, how should I do it? Oh, I know. I'll turn him into a flea. A harmless little flea. And then I'll put that flea in a box, and then I'll put that box inside of another box, and then I'll mail that box to myself! And when it arrives, AH HA HA HA! I'LL SMASH IT WITH A HAMMER!!! It's brilliant, brilliant, BRILLIANT, I tell you! Genius, I say!”

The laugh is really what sells it, honestly.

Final Thoughts & Score: Yzma is probably the single greatest Disney villain who doesn’t totally follow the Renaissance villain format post-Renaissance, with only Turbo really being a contender for the crown. What I mean is this: the Renaissance set a serious precedent for animated movie villains going forward. They had to be hammy, have huge personalities, and get their own song. Ratigan was something of a prototype, and then Ursula went and set the standard. Sure, there were exceptions in the Renaissance – Hades is great but got no song, and Ratcliffe is… Ratcliffe, and he has a song – but for the most part the best Disney villains had a clear style. Ursula, Gaston, Frollo, Scar, all of them are some of Disney’s best and all of them stick to these rules.

Yzma came early in the post-Renaissance era so it would make sense for her to fit the bill entirely while they were still experimenting with new styles, but because of the tumultuous production of The Emperor’s New Groove, she ended up keeping the ham while having her villain song cut. And yes, this is a damn shame, since Eartha Kitt was a fantastic singer and the song’s not half bad, but I think the movie as a whole and Yzma herself work better without music. She’s just so funny with how she reacts to and interacts with things throughout the movie, I just don’t think she really NEEDS music to really push her over the top in terms of quality. Like, let me put it this way: I think, without “Be Prepared,” Scar would probably not be quite as impressive. I think with a villain song, Jafar would have been even cooler. Yzma? She’s pretty much perfect the way she is.

I debated a long time on what score to give her, but I frankly think she does deserve a 10/10. I almost gave her a 9 on the basis that she didn’t have a song, but her overall performance combined with my realization she didn’t need her song to be great made me decide to reward her with the highest marks. However, there is one criticism I have that I think stands: she would not nearly be s funny if not for the presence of her faithful lackey. So let’s talk about him, shall we?

Psycho Analysis: Kronk

I put this one to a vote, and it turns out that a lot of people consider Kronk a villain. I guess if we’re being technical he is an antagonist, but a villain? Kronk is pretty much the least evil villain out there. Still, it’s pretty impossible to deny that he’s not exactly a good guy when he’s complicit in an assassination attempt. Kronk’s a bit of a morally gray figure for much of the film.

He’s also, without a doubt, the funniest character in the film.

Motivation/Goals: See Yzma above. He’s just her lackey, so he doesn’t have much in terms of goals of his own. He does, however, have a conscience, as well as numerous skills including some serious culinary skills, including knowledge of fry cook lingo.

Performance: This is one of the roles that really put Patrick Warburton on the map, alongside Joe Swanson in Family Guy. And if I’m being honest, this is the definitive Patrick Warburton role in animation. Kronk is just an absolute delight to watch, since he’s basically the lovable idiot character perfected. He’s a ditz, but he does have a lot of skill in some interesting niche areas, he’s not truly good or evil and has a moral code, he’s very quotable and funny in a pretty natural way… Kronk has got it all! And it’s all thanks to Warburton injecting that Patrick Warbuton-ness we’ve all come to love from his performances. 

Final Fate: Of course Kronk gets redeemed in the end. The dude is the biggest softie on the planet. Maybe Yzma should have thought twice before insulting his spinach puffs.

Best Scene: Kronk has a similar problem to Yzma, where every single scene he’s in is incredibly perfect, but unlike Yzma, there is one scene that really narrows things down and gives you the perfect summation of Kronk as a character: the scene where he is attempting to dispose of Kuzco’s body, does his own theme music, argues with his shoulder angel and shoulder devil, and then ends up saving Kuzco, thus allowing the rest of the plot to happen.

Best Quote: Unlike Yzma, there is no way I could possibly narrow down Kronk’s best quote. Whichever one is your favorite, you’re right. That’s the best one. Everything out of his mouth is gold.

Final Thoughts & Score: Kronk is a very interesting lesson when it comes to Psycho Analysis because, while he is certainly antagonistic, and certainly is a great character, he’s not a great villain, which is what these reviews are for. Like, he is easily the best part of the movie, he is hilarious, his chemistry with Yzma is undeniable, and this is Warburton’s definitive vocal performance in animation… but it doesn’t make Kronk a good villain so much as it makes him a good character. Like there’s no way I can give him below an 8/10, because again, still an antagonistic role, but he can’t score much higher because his personality is just so legitimately NICE that calling him a villain seems really weird (which is why I put it to a vote in the first place).

I really can’t stress enough how much I love Kronk; he’s like in my top 10 favorite Disney characters. But when it comes to villains, I really don’t think he’d make the cut, because even when he is doing something bad it comes off more as misguided loyalty to Yzma than an actual desire to do bad. It’s really telling that it’s the most petty of things that makes him drop Yzma like a hot potato: Kronk was never really a villain, he was a good guy who made poor life choices and had a toxic friend influence. He didn’t really have a character arc where he became a better person like Kuzco did, although Kronk’s ultimate turn to the side of good does somewhat mirror Kuzco’s; he simply realized that the friend in his life he devoted his time to was an awful person and decided to leave her behind, and when all is said and done, that just leaves a big, buff nice guy who likes to cook. And that makes Kronk a truly great, funny, and lovable character.

It just doesn’t make him a great villain.

#Psycho Analysis #Yzma #Kronk #Eartha Kitt #Patrick Warburton #The Emperor's New Groove #Disney

[eelsfeelgross]

Conclusions: Trans Activism v. Radical Feminism, a first-hand account

This is current stance after a lot of direct investigation on both radfems online and trans activists online. No group is judged based on the observations, rhetoric, or propaganda of any outside group, but from my own first-hand observations in combination with objective knowable facts such as actions known to be committed in public record by the likes of criminals or celebrities. However, the bulk of this is based on what I have seen, what I know to be true because it’s been done before my own eyes. While my conclusion may lack information on the more nitpicked aspects of things, I believe their overall impressions still hold true with the amount of experience I’ve had. Keep in mind: this is not my only account. I have dipped into the radfem community before, each time from a different perspective, at a different time, and with open eyes ready to receive whatever I was given. The same is true of the trans community.

Trans Activism

I want to make clear that these conclusions were mainly drawn from my direct experience with the trans community from within. I am not relying on critics of the trans ideology to tell me any of this, though they often echo the same concerns and observations.

The trans community has a serious problem with misogyny, homophobia, and sex denial. They employ magical thinking and emotional pleas to justify their conclusions and commit to arguments of definition that are ultimately lacking substance. However, while lacking rational, they are abundant with emotional reasoning and can be incredibly powerful rhetorical tools in convincing others to believe them without the necessary evidence of anything claimed.

This is especially prevalent when discussing sexual biology and sexual orientation. They consider self-harm to be the fault of other people, even in adults, and use this as a manipulation tactic to make it seem as if they’re being killed at higher rates than their general demographics. This plays hand in hand with the appropriation of statistics around things like racial violence or violence against sex workers to make it appear trans people, particularly white heterosexual (attracted to the opposite sex) trans women from the middle class of Amerca who aren’t victims of prostitution, are under much more persecution than their lived experiences actually reflects.

This has grown into a political ideology not dissimilar to a religion, but without the usual trappings we associate with a religious group. It requires blind faith in the concept of gender and the “life saving” virtues of expensive hormone treatments and plastic surgeries without proper regard for the risks and consequences of these procedures. Challenging the dogma or asking critical questions is considered a sin itself, even when done with excessive caution for other’s feelings. Violence towards known dissenting groups is considered not just ok, but admirable. Expressions of this desire for violence against the out-group is seen as virtuous to the point that doing it too much will be taken as virtue signalling rather than a sign of deep-seeded anger issues as it would for any other situation. Self-identity is their belief system, and public shame are their tools of punishment to control those within the belief system. Due to sex denial, females suffer especially in this paradigm no matter how they identify or what presentations they choose.

However,

Radical Feminism

Once again, I want to make clear that these conclusions were mainly drawn from my direct experience with the radfem community from within. I am not relying on critics of the radical feminist ideology to tell me any of this, though they may echo similar observations.

Radical feminism, as it exists today in action and not in theories from the 1990s, has a huge problem with transphobia, homophobia, and racism. The focus has shifted almost entirely from protecting women to attacking trans women, understandable on some level but counter-productive to all but the individual ego. There is a preoccupation with what women are “allowed” to do, rather than whether their actions and the consequences of those actions actually benefit the cause of anti-sexism. People feel entitled to be nasty, hurtful and even downright transphobic and homophobic if it means hurting their “enemies” somehow. I’m not sure if they fail to see the big picture or have just given up on caring, but it makes all their pleas for compassion and an end to the trans community’s homophobia seem pretty disingenuous.

This focus on “women deserve more as reparations”, when self-applied to the individual, does nothing to combat sexism as these self serving actions often do little to stop sexism and everything to benefit the individual currently existing within a sexist system. It totally ignores the vital role women play in perpetrating sexism through the generations, from mother to daughter or sister or sister or peer to peer through an intricate web of social pressures.Its not totally ignored mind you, but it is conveniently unaddressed whenever addressing it would prevent them from acting aggressive and toxic toward someone else. However others in the community who aren’t personally benefitting from this at the time will notice, thus leading to endless pointless arguments as the egos clash.

This hypocrisy undermines all attempts at broadening their reach to a new generation of women. Similarly, this toxic attitude undermines all opportunity for organization and real activism which requires a certain level of tolerance and the ability to give basic respect to those you don’t like or agree with. All those who do not tolerate such behavior will simply assume radical feminism must be a hate movement because all they see is vitriol and toxicity, no matter how justified the perpetrator feels about it or the underlying motivators. They will not take the time to read theory because they’ve already seen the practice and they have the sense to know it’s bad. Then when these newcomers see this bad behavior for what it is, they’re belittled or deprived of their agency for their decision to turn away from your movement, called things like “handmaidens” and accused of being either selfishly misogynistic or plainly brainwashed, driving them ever further away. The refusal to take responsibility for your own image and the consequences of your behavior under some false impression of ideological purity justifying it only further cements this takeaway outsiders have.

The most egregious example that comes to mind is the “queers” issue. Radfems are adamant about queer being slur, and they’re right. I myself grew up having queer flung at me by violent straight men and I’m not even that old. I feel no joy in the sanitation and generalization of the term. That is not reclamation, that is erasure and appropriation of pain. Most radfems agree on this wholeheartedly. That is, until you decide to spell it “kweer” and start flinging it at trans people who fit a particular homophobic stereotype: strange appearances, unorthodox body modifications like piercing and colored hair, unwashed, perverted to the point of being predatory, self important children who are just playing pretend to be different. All these qualities call back to the stereotype of queers, gays, and it is deeply intrenched in homophobia going back generations. And yet, while radfems would condemn the trans community for the appropriation of queer and its homophobic implications, they have no problem employing it as a slur when it suits their own toxic impulses.

Some even seem to believe that misspelling the word or being homosexual themselves absolves this. It does not. Anybody without the blinders of radfem internal rhetoric will quickly see past this nonsense. If the trans community came back and started calling radfems “diques” and associating the term with severely lesbophobic stereotypes like being unwashed or too ugly to get a man or any of the other countless stereotypes around the slur “dyke”, radfems would be rightly livid. Making a point to only target straight radfems with this insult would not make it any different. But addressing these kinds of hypocritical positions has become a taboo within the radfem community, yet another spark to relight the fires of senseless infighting.

This is the worst example I’ve personally seen, but it is not the only one. There’s also the tendency for radfems, desperate for others who are gender critical to connect with, to make alliances with right wing conservatives despite their racism and homophobia simply because they’re also transphobic but for completely different reasons. And also a tendency to be much more forgiving of misogyny coming from these new “allies” that will glady destroy you too once trans people are out of the way. But I will not labor my point any further by bringing up everything all at once. Regardless, for those who harp on and on about getting to the root of the problem, the moment anyone suggests you try getting to the root of your own problems, taking accountability and making changes, all that self-righteous posturing seems to go out the window just like it does in the trans community. You’ve become a reflection of what you hate in an attempt to combat it, and it will be the death of your movement if you don’t make a serious effort to reform these behaviors and distance yourself from those who employ these forms of rhetoric.

It’s a harsh fact, but the world at large does not care what you deserve, just like sexual biology doesn’t care about your personal feelings about your sex. It just doesn’t. That’s why patriarchy exists in the first place. It is your job as a social movement to use your words and actions to convince them to care. That is what the trans community has managed to do successfully, in my opinion often for the wrong reasons but successfully nonetheless, but such things do not stroke the ego of the individual radfem and therefore simply doesn’t happen in an organized, ideology-wide manner. Small islands of rational stand isolated in a sea of this pointless vitriol, and alone they are hopeless against the attacks against radical feminism born from the trans community and their sex denial that leads to egregious misogyny.

Conclusion

When it comes to the underlying theory, the ideological core, I find that radical feminism has the best chance of growing to become a social movement for genuinely good change in the world, particularly for women and women-loving-women specifically. Trans ideology, in my opinion, is inherently flawed as its core tenants require faith in what one cannot prove and a rejection of science that doesn’t support said faith.

Trans ideology as it exists in 2020 is more akin to religion than science, and has proven its capability to do harm through its use of magical thinking and distorted points of view that constantly shift and change to make space for the core trans ideology to be “correct”. Core ideas such as: sex is either fake or less relevant than gender, that gender is an objective fact of the human psyche, that others failing to fix your own poor mental health are responsible for your harm or death, that transition is always a good idea if someone wants it and no gatekeeping should be performed regarding using plastic surgery to treat mental discomforts, and so on. Remove all these ideas, and the whole thing falls apart.

Meanwhile, removing the toxicity of the radfem community as it exists now will not destroy its underlying core beliefs. Its just that the current people who advertise themselves as radfems and take up that mantle do not actually follow the core ideology of their own movement when it doesn’t benefit them. It has been infiltrated and run amok with bad faith actors who abuse the movement for personal gain, whether they are aware of it or not. And with their combination of being excessively vocal and lacking any shame for their misdeeds, more and more are drawn into their toxic games to the point that the ones who actually speak to the spirit of the core theory get drowned out or attacked to the point none will associate with them openly. The ones who actually know the theory and practice it end up effectively shunned from a community that widely hasn’t even read the theory and thinks hating trans people and thinking pussy = superior makes them a radfem. And thus, by allowing this, that is what radical feminism has become in practice. No amount of appealing to that core philosophy will matter if the actual people don’t apply that theory properly.

So my conclusion? Radical feminism has the greatest potential for good, but it is grossly unrealized and will remain that way without radical internal changes. However, if anyone is equipped to get to the root of the problem and make a radical change it should be radfems. Or at least, the good faith radfems who aren’t abusing the movement, of which I’m convinced have become the minority of radfems in the present day. Perhaps it is time for feminism to once again branch off, not to try returning to the 2nd wave but to set the stage for a true 4th wave as many have talked about. A 4th wave that is based on the foundations set by 2nd wave feminist thinkers, but forward thinking, self-critiquing, and not limited by the hangups of the last wave. I guess only time will tell what radfems value more: their egos in attachment to the idea of identifying as a radfem, or the effective dis-empowerment of patriarchy through organized effort at the expense of satisfying your personal vendettas against all men.

#radfem #radical feminism #trans activism #terf safe #terfs do touch #guilt tripping or baseless accusations = ignored #who am i kidding nobody is going to read this #nuance is dead and im wasting my time #RIP feminism i guess

[ask-ds-and-dbd]

DS: Well first off....hello! It’s been a while since I’ve done anything on here. There’s quite a bit to explain, so I’ll just start before things went silent.

DS: Before this place went quite, Vigo wasn’t feeling too well, which is...a relatively common issue for him that can easily turn deadly if things aren’t handled with upmost precaution. It has to do with...personal issues that I don’t think I’m fit to explain since I’m not him.

DS: But needless to say...things got quite a bit out of hand, which made me have to focus a lot of my time on keeping Vigo...out of trouble. The issue itself was actually resolved quite a bit back, but Vigo didn’t exactly want to keep up with the blog after the occurrence happened, thus leading to a hiatus until he felt safe enough to really start talking again.

DS: I’m sure if you asked him politely, he would explain what the issue was, but I’m not going to explain it myself out of respect towards his image as explaining it wrongly can make him come off as someone you should stay away from.

DS: Anyways...yes! We are back! I’ll be trying to catch up on past conversations at some point...so be ready for that!

((Hi yes hello. I’m back again. Expect a shitpost drawing compilation at some point this week with a pile of some of the stuff I’ve been drawing for a few months now. As for my excuse....well, there really isn’t one other than confidence and shyness making me want to dip out of the FS rp community for a while. Stuff got overwhelming and I was being a perfectionist, which isn’t a good combination for mental health. I’m still open for rp and asks, in fact my ask box is completely empty, so go ham! Ask about aus, other fandoms and if these two have met them, etc.!))

#mun talks #fandomstuck #fandombound #fandomstuck ask blog

[eserveofficial]

🎋When the British Banned Imports, India’s Largest Paint Company was Born🎋

👉🏻Whether it was coming up with its first-ever TV commercial in 1984 or establishing call centre operations and a website as early as 1998-99, Asian Paints has always stayed ahead of time by anticipating the future trends.

In 1942, when thousands of Indians were writing a glorious chapter in India’s freedom struggle through the civil disobedience movement, four friends in Bombay (now Mumbai) were setting up a paints manufacturing company in a tiny garage.

The idea was born after the British placed a temporary ban on importing paints, which left the country with very limited options — it was either Shalimar Paints or expensive foreign brands. So, Champaklal Choksey, Chimanlal Choksi, Suryakant Dani, and Arvind Vakil decided to enter a less explored territory and translate their ambitions into reality with ‘Asian Oil and Paint Company Private Limited’.

Today, this 78-year-old company with a random name that was derived from a telephone directory, has captured a 53 per cent market share in India and is Asia’s third-largest paint company. It is known as Asian Paints and operates in 16 countries, across the world.

The ‘Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Kehta Hai’ catchphrase (that has a strong nostalgic appeal) reiterates their philosophy of providing thousands of colour shades, themes, textures and patterns to its entire customer range, from middle-class households, corporates and even NGOs. There is paint for all kinds of budgets and the website even selects a suitable paint according to a user’s budget.

Here’s an insight into the spectacular journey of Asian Paints.

There is an unwritten rule that aspiring entrepreneurs and startups diligently aim to follow — to make inroads in every corner possible with their product or service. Many old-school companies also believe that the success of a product is defined when there is no specific target audience so that it caters to every type of individual.

This strategy was a major reason behind Asian Paints massive popularity three years later in 1945. That year, the company invented tiny paint packets as opposed to the giant tins to simplify and speed up the distribution process across the country. It tied up with small distributors in every corner.

Did it work?

Some would label the result as ‘passing with flying colours’ as the desi company had clocked a revenue of Rs 3.5 lakh in the same year with just five colour choices — black, white, red, blue and yellow. This strategy helped them pick a steady pace and by 1952, the annual turnover of Asian Paints was Rs 23 crore, a sum that was considered to be huge back in the day.

In 1954, the paint giant decided to go all out and initiate a marketing campaign that would reflect their philosophy. This strategy was also a way to ensure the existing customers remained loyal.

And thus was born the notorious kid with a paint bucket and brush in his hand, Gattu (a common nickname in north India) created by legendary illustrator, RK Laxman.

As per reports, Asian Paints had launched a contest inviting people to name the figure RK Laxman had created and the winner would get Rs 500. This was truly a masterstroke that served the dual purpose of igniting curiosity in people’s minds about this mysterious kid and letting them know that it was their revered cartoonist’s creation. Coincidently, of the 47,000 entries, two people from Bombay had sent ‘Gattu’ (a paint mascot equivalent of Nirma girl), that has now become a nostalgic figure for the kids growing up between the 50s-80s.

Gattu became the face of an affordable Tractor Distemper and generated a large audience in middle-class households. The tagline “Don’t lose your temper, use Tractor Distemper” changed people’s perspective that one does not need to wait for the peel to come off. It is a lifestyle choice.

Once again, the plan worked and the sales increased tenfold over the next four years. The rapid growth gave them their first plant in Bhandup.

Between 1957 and 1966, Asian Paints worked on building a more professional image by pocketing big clients like British firm, Balmer Lawrie. However, the turning point for the company came in 1967 when it emerged as India’s leading paints manufacturer ahead of any international competition, and a decade later, they established their first venture in Fiji.

There has been no looking back since.

Key to Success

Being consistent in quality but adapting to current market trends and developments is one of the biggest reasons for the company’s exponential growth.

Whether it was its first-ever TV commercial in 1984, a premium product in the early 90s or establishing call-centre operations and a website as early as 1998-99, Asian Paints has always stayed ahead of time by anticipating the future trends. The company has also not shied away from exploiting social media fervour, and has millions of followers over Facebook, Twitter and YouTube combined.

In fact, innovative and socially relevant campaigns have always been a strong point for the company. Remember when Deepika Padukone highlighted the issue of indoor pollution and promoted the non-pollutant colour ‘ Royale Atmos’? It garnered a great deal of attention and reestablished the trust in the company paints that are safe for everyone.

Another reason that contributes to its impressive strides is how they are unafraid to enter related segments. For example, over the years, they have made inroads into other segments in the same industry like interior and exterior wall finishes, wood finishes and enamel finishes and industrial paintings. Bath fittings and kitchen are other noteworthy mentions.

Needless to say, accolades and recognitions followed. In 2004, Asian Paints made it to the list of Forbes Best Under a Billion companies in the world and was even conferred With ‘Sword of Honour’ By the British Safety Council.

Of the few companies that began before independence, Asian Paints has managed to stay relevant to this day. Not just that, it has also become one of the most sought-after companies across the world.

Collected by :-

[vczxcxx]

Dwangela

When I watched the office I expect myself to fall in love with Pam/Jim dynamic but I fell in love with Dwight/ Angela dynamic.

I don’t know it’s just something in their chemistry, the slow-burn, the angst and the frustration made me root for them till the end. Kudos to Rainn Wilson and Angela Kinsey for playing them so well. I mean Angela is the complete opposite of Angela( if you listen to podcast of her and Jenna and interviews). With Rainn, he gives a bit of Dwight vibes but still different from him. Overall, Dwight and Angela is so different and the same time fits so well together. They are both miserable without each other but wouldn’t admit it. I am also a sucker for smol-tol couples. I mean Angela’s height barely reach Dwight’s shoulder and that’s with shoes.

Season 2- I presume that’s when their relationship starts? I love their little long glances here and there. And the sexual tension🔥kudos to Rainn and Angela for playing it so well. I really love the moment where Angela gave the bobble head to Dwight and you could see the genuine bliss from his face, and him asking Pam for gifts ideas is just so adorable. I love from here on you could see that Dwight is such an odd character with weird personalities but he treat Angela like a gentleman, respects her and clearly adore her. I also love how Angela is so supportive of her boyfriend especially the episode where Dwight was the best sales man.

Season 3- This season we get to see more of their relationship. I personally love the Christmas episode where Dwight was comforting Angela after the day she had: that little handholding again proves that Dwight is a loving and supportive boyfriend and also we got to hear their nickname to each other. I love how Dwight called her monkey and how Angela called him D so affectionately. I have a little theory of where the nickname derived from; maybe it’s like a code name for each other cause in a deleted scene in the episode where they go meet Jim in the convention, Dwight was calling Angela in front of Michael; and he was using her nickname. Or maybe when she was staying over, there was a high shelf that she could not reach so she climbed around since she did not want to ask for help, and Dwight was witnessing it quietly, thus decided to call her that. Of course, at first Angela would not agree to be call an animal but secretly she likes it because it’s their little secret. Then the convict episode, they decided to sit together as most of the episode prior to this episode you never seen them sitting together just glances here and there. I also liked Dwight’s iconic smirk, that lil smirk they he puts whenever it involves his lady friend. There are so many more that I love.

Season 4&5- for me these 2 season is filled with angst and made me feel sorry for Dwight. The first episode of season 4 started well with their secret gate away place with Angela asking Dwight to take care of sprinkles but Dwight has to mercy kill sprinkles: it’s cruel and inhuman, I understand and feel sad for Angela, it’s one of her first cat that she adopted and it meant a lot to her. She thought Dwight would understand but he went and kill her cat and the part where he wanted to compensate her with garbage; that was so cute but was hoping Dwight would understand that no cat will fill sprinkles gap but still the image of Dwight and the cat; just cute. I think they would gotten back together much faster if they communicate sooner. My heart breaks for both of them but my heart breaks more when Angela started to date Andy. Personally, they are the weirdest couple combination(even worse than jan/ Michael). Dwight proving that he could win against the computer is so Dwight if winning back your lady friend; and Angela not having any of it makes my heart ache for Dwight. And the part where Angela agrees on going out with him:( I just feel like Rainn did such a good job portraying. I feel like the whole season 4 is the phase where Dwight tried to move on but fail( again foreshadowing that they belong together). But they eventually got back together I guess during the episode where nobody was in the office except them. Again their sexual tension filled up the whole office and you can literally feel it( foreshadowing that they are going to get it on in the finale of season 4(?)) in season 5 we open with them getting it on in the warehouse( indication been going on since the summer). Now Cheating is bad and immoral, it would be better that would have communicate, and again I think it’s both their fault. I think Dwight was desperate in any means to be together with Angela because of how he loves her. His love for her burns with a passion so much that he would do anything just to be with her. And I feel like Angela was just meh just contemplating if she wants to take the risk( of being with the one she loves) or some one more safe and stable( Andy). She’s conflicted and at the same time has a lot of pride. Personally, at this point I hated how she handled the situation leading them on. During the duel episode I am kinda glad they both left her. I think at that point she realised how she should have thought it through with the men in her life; being greedy and holding on will make you lose both of them. And I guess they didn’t talk for the rest of the season after that. But we didn’t see Angela’s side of the relationship but it was disclosed in the deleted scenes with the volleyball episode where Dwight defended her; you can see that she has remorse and regret with what she did; clearly she still has feelings for him.

Season 6&7- with season 6, Dwight’s love for Angela is still there but this time he is more guarded and not as reckless as season 4-5 because this woman that he loves hurt him and he’s not sure if he’s willing to go through it again. The episode where he wanted a baby; he asked Angela of all the people indicate that he still thinks highly of her. Of course with how their dynamic is, they have a Contract to go with it; and Angela was hoping that Dwight would fall in love with her again in the baby making process. And Dwight got reluctant as they got through the baby making process. He feel more guarded and reluctant but Angela refused to let it go( her way of wanting to get back in any means(?)) so she found a loophole in the contract and wanted them to procreate for 5 more times expecting Dwight to fall in love with her again. Of course that didn’t work because Dwight seem uninterested to get back to her; so eventually she tries to move on with the senator. I think Dwight wanted to be more alert and not throw himself to love unguarded and with passion. I understand that from what he experienced he wanted to love more cautiously.

Season 8-season 8( we are nearly there), Angela is engaged to the senator. Still she cheated the senator with Dwight. Again they always seem to finds way to get back in any means. Again, Dwight is willing to let this affair happen because he still loves her but not like how he used to love her but regardless still love her so he decided to sleep with her. When Philip was born, you can see the elation in Dwight’s face and how he is certain the boy is his and how he still believed till the end of the season. I don’t understand why Angela still wanted kept the truth from him ( maybe to stretch out their relationship( writers idea?)) maybe of her pride and that she did not want to be an embarrassment?

Season 9- the season starts with the paternity test being negative dun dun dun. But I am still convince that Philip is his( as a Viewer anyway). And we get to the episode where the senator is revealed as being gay and Oscar is cheating with the senator. I love how the first person she seeks is Dwight and how Dwight misunderstand the situation😂. He still wants to help her despite everything, and comforted her. The end part of the episode just sends me when they ask tony about homosexuals. I think at this point you can see their relationship continues to heal and reconcile by means of being a proper friendship. I personally love it when during the Christmas episode, Dwight decided to just whip Oscar dying the bershnike part and he did a little glance to Angela . In 9x16, when they were both taking care of his aunt; I guess that is the only time we get to see glimpses on how Angela was when he was dating him( when she was staying over in the farm). And we could see Dwight’s love for her rekindle more; and with the timing and everything with the senator he jumped the opportunity by kissing her and declare that he wanted her back in her life, how they were meant together( that was the sweetest part). Interestingly the slaughter house turns them on😂. I love at this point Dwight put everything on the table and lay out his love for her, but as stubborn and prideful Angela is, she rejected him( i want to make more in-depth writing in this with the what ifs if Angela does swallow her pride and decided to get back to him). And we get to the few episode where Angela’s life when downhill when the senator reveal himself and also apparently cheated on Oscar; it takes a crisis in her life to become a better person like appreciating things around her, the thing she lost( I.e Dwight). I really love the part where Oscar and Angela supported each other, and the hand holding is just shows their evolved friendship. I also love the part where Angela pour her heart out infornt of Oscar. I think the Esther and Dwight dynamic; is a way that Dwight wanting to move on but can’t( with Esther being perfect on paper). Lastly the episode where Philip was in( he’s so cute and he’s look just like Dwight), the inner dilemma that he faces to propose to esther; and the speech that Jim gave to Dwight is just shows even they are frenemies they still have the utmost respect between them. The proposal scene is one of my fav scene in season 9. It’s just so them( I mean even with their last season ended with a car chase) it’s just so dramatic and them. I can imagine what Philip and their other kids would have to face with their parents. That was my finally moment, where I was like finally they admit their feelings🥺. I was literally cheering and screaming. I love the pure elation with Dwight’s face when Angela Said I love you; I always liked the little smile and the smiles where she’s around Dwight. She so beautiful when she smiles. The part with Philip is so I just was so happy. In the finale, the wedding is just so then weird but perfect. I wish they include the part where Dwight made Oscar the godfather.

Overall, I just love them so much; they were such a rollercoaster and I am glad they lived happily ever after with Schrute babies running around. They were also one of my otp who got together after a long time( most of my OTP didn’t make it :,(). I just wished we see more of it after the proposal scene with that 1 year time skip and personally I think we would see more of their relationship if they got back together in 9x16. Really bravo to Angela and Rainn for playing them so well.

#dwight x angela #dwangela #rainn wilson #angela kinsey #long post #my thoughts #just finished #the office

[nomanwalksalone]

TIME CAPSULES

by Réginald-Jérôme de Mans

We can find inspiration in everything, as Paul Smith wrote. During these times of sheltering in place, we may have to. The mind has limits, though. A colleague recommended Xavier de Maistre’s Voyage autour de ma chambre (Voyage Around My Room), a travelogue of staying at home.  I bought it a decade ago after reading about it in the memoirs of self-styled gentleman pornographer Maurice Girodias and never finished it, so clearly that voyage tired me. On the other hand, I’ve been rereading Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year, and while its narrator’s unscathed wanderings around plague-stricken 1665 London constitute another sort of epic, I can’t say I’d recommend it to other readers right now.

Instead, I’ve been inspired to turn to The Sartorial Travel Guide by the inimitable Simon Crompton for a glimpse of what already seems like a very different time, one where we were free to move around without fear of killing or being killed, one where brick-and-mortar retail existed and was worth the journey. In truth, physical shopfronts, retail that required the buyer to come to it, have been steadily disappearing for years, even before our modern age of contagion threatened to make them collateral damage by shuttering their doors, trapping staff in employment oblivion, and laying clear economic faults so great they may lead to a depression.  When times finally change, what may be left of the stations in this literary pilgrimage? Some of them may be only memories.

I do not mind travelling along the highways of memory. Those nostalgic epics are, in fact, my favorite clothing books, those that describe what was, and what made those phantoms interesting. My own book, to emerge one year or another, is precisely about Parisian places of wonder whose luxury today is that neither money nor social media influence can conjure them, only knowledge and the ability to turn back the clock, an ability we only have with our pens and our words.

20 years ago the Internet levelled physical retail. Those of us seeking a particular brand of English shoes, for example, no longer needed to wait for a glossy catalog from South Carolina to arrive with its American-market prices, but could search the world and import them ourselves for far less from a small shop in a Malaysian mall.  Brands which had built their reputations on expensive, exclusive aloofness, dismissing unwelcome casual visitors to their few stores, suddenly sprinted to set up websites, webstores and social media accounts, along with fruitful relationships with well-chosen influencers.

I love the travelogue of international tailors, bootmakers and haberdashers in Alan Flusser’s 1981 book Making the Man far more than the basic clothing advice it contains, and which Flusser has republished multiples times in various forms. In fact, I return to that listing time and again as I find other pieces that fit with the puzzles he set out. With Flusser’s Making the Man and Style and the Man as its clear antecedents, The Sartorial Travel Guide is a similar time capsule, this one from a very recent, yet very distant, past. It rewrites the map Flusser had created, charting new capitals – a far more far-flung, dispersed, heterogenous set where Flusser sometimes had come across as telling the reader where, all over the world, to buy British and American clothes.

30 years after Flusser, however, stores need more than merchandise to stay open, let alone make them of international note to Crompton’s sartorial traveler.  They need alchemy: a nearly mystical, wholly unscientific combination of incongruous elements: pedigree, as with the handful of Savile Row tailors in his London chapter; heritage, as with so many of the small traditional artisans he names all over the world; novelty, evident in the oddities of so many small shops; and above all, curation, the vision to juxtapose unexpected items memorably.

Even as #menswear physical retail has thinned, the ranks of #menswear enthusiasts have swelled. Thus, The Sartorial Travel Guide is dedicated to shopping without the pretense of providing dressing advice, something that Flusser included with all of his books so that earlier readers could justify their consumption of clothing porn. Instead, The Sartorial Travel Guide includes interviews about shopping with various figures in the #menswear-industrial complex like Anderson & Sheppard’s Anda Rowland and The Rake’s Wei Koh, lists of various figures’ favorite shops around the world, and plenty of colorful pretty pictures, a far cry from the handful of murky greyscale images of Flusser’s books.  Crompton recognizes that today clothes themselves can be a hobby.  In our ever-busier age, as capitalism sucks up every drop of our free time and personal moments, the middle class embraces hobbies in items and activities that earlier generations took for granted: food, cocktails, clothing, coffee…

Today of all times we can allow ourselves the indulgence of reading and fantasizing about former commonplaces, because they, and their wares, are exotic now if they were not already so a year ago.  A book worth the trip.

#rjman #reginaldjeromedemans #nomanwalksalone #bookreview #simoncrompton

[stay4stray]

Map for Broken Compass and the Stray Kids Timeline

Recently, Stray Kids have been displaying a lot of performances with literary and/or cinematic themes - often 2 in one (Dead Poet’s society, Game of Thrones).  In the Intro to Levanter video, Chan mentioned inspiration from a book and also a poem, and of course we have the Road Not Taken, referencing Frost’s poem (oh and of course Kung Fu Panda!).  I think these are hints for us, that their MVs have similar allusions - namely, they allude quite a bit to Maze Runner.  After realizing this I did some more research and found that someone else had reached this conclusion long before I did, so watch their video here!  This really makes me want to reread the whole Maze Runner series ‘cause it’s been a while but that’s irrelevant.  Obviously I’m slow catching onto this so I’m not really gonna argue for this as its argument is already established, lucky me!  But understanding this allusion does help with how I’ve come to understand the SKZ storyline through the Map for Broken Compass that was recently released.

The main connections to Maze Runner that I’m concerned with:

dystopia

man vs. society; themes of manipulation

the plot set up as a series of trials, hidden one illusion inside of another (maaaaAAtryoshka? 👀 I kid I think)

the very beginning of the Maze Runner movie has extremely strong parallels to the Hellevator MV)

Note: This isn’t to say that the SKZ storyline is the same as Maze Runner!  It very obviously isn’t, in my opinion.  The villains seem completely different and the overall conflict is likely different (in MR if I remember correctly the overall issue was that the world had suffered from solar flares so it ended up being an environmental conflict?).  I don’t know what the overall conflict of the SKZ storyline is just yet but from Miroh they seem to be setting up a rich vs. poor conflict... Though that might not be the overall issue, just like how MR has multiple layers.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Let’s go back to the Map.  At 3 am two nights ago, I made a super chaotic post about how I think it’s meant to be read, so check that out for details if need be but the main idea is that the motifs from different MVs and the way they reappear in different eras and places on the map is how we can find our chronology.

So in the map image above I’ve labeled various things.  The numbers are the motifs, in no real order, but vaguely in order of their visual placement on the map.  Some have letters, a and b, which are when motifs repeat on the map.  The circles draw attention to some things that I think are likely important but am personally still very confused about.  And then I’ve added some translated lyrics that I think are important to the storyline.

I don’t think Hellevator is the start of the timeline.  I think, like MR, it’s the start of the timeline the boys’ remember.  At that point, I think they’ve already entered their first “trial” or “illusion” - that being, they’ve been given a place to live “happily,” but they’re isolated from anyone except themselves.  The reason they haven’t left is because their way out is labeled Hellevator - in other words, they’re convinced to stay through a combination of contentedness and fear.  However, when they eventually leave, they end up in a field of flowers, which doesn’t exactly scream “Hell,” does it?

In my opinion, My Pace and I am YOU are directly connected and in that order - they almost have to be, based on the MVs, I think.  I believe My Pace is the start of the timeline as we know it - I think it is where the conflict between the boys and society starts, as the boys decide to do their own thing, go their own speed.  This is further confirmed when Jisung takes down the camera in I am YOU, which may be the significance fo the broken camera that I’ve circled in red on the map - even though it’s by the My Pace tunnel, it’s not actually broken until I am YOU!

Similarly, Miroh seems to lead to Side Effects/Yellow Wood based on the MVs.  What’s confusing is there’s a possibility that Side Effects actually happened more than once - that the part where the kids get on the bus did actually happen, but somehow they eventually ended up at the same crossroads and took the other path.  On the map, the elevator connects the two of them, which leads me to believe that Hellevator leads directly to I am NOT/District 9.  

Based on motifs, namely the shopping cart and the couch (both of which are in both IAY and the Hellevator MVs btw), Hellevator is up next.  Notably, the Hellevator motifs are placed near the District 9 bus, so we could reasonably say that I am NOT comes next, based on that as well as the elevator.  I mentioned before that their hideout in Hellevator is a place meant to make them complacent, which is supported by the fact that some of their things, the shopping cart and the couch, were taken from their initial I am YOU hideout.  It reminds me of when you move a pet from one place to another and keep their toys with them so that the new place still feels like home.

Based on the 1.5 moon motif, though, Yellow Wood is up next!  Either that, or Yellow Wood came before I am YOU, which I don’t think is the case.  My thought is, Side Effects represents choosing to blend with society or choosing to rebel, so perhaps at one point they chose to go with society, but they eventually realized they were unable to fit in and rebelled, ending up at Hellevator in the end either way.  That’s also why I think the I am NOT part of the map has the Side Effects drone - it’s another point at which they had to make that choice between society and freedom.

From Hellevator, as I’ve mentioned, we go to I am NOT, video-wise this means the I am NOT trailer and the District 9 MV.  From there, we have the bottle of flowers and the field of purple flowers from Hellevator replicated near Levanter... which we can’t say too much about until tomorrow!  But it should lead to Miroh based on the eagle motif and the walkie talkie motif there-- which, people have probably said this already, but the eagle itself likely represents SKZ while the lion represents society (think Young Wings for the eagle and for the lion, it’s attached to things like the City Jungle and the bus driven by the Miroh dude so that checks out imo for more than one reason).  My suspicion is that the use of so many previous motifs in Astronaut represents Hyunjin getting lost and having to remember the way back to where the rest of the group is... This could mean literally having lost his memory or it could be a more figurative form of losing his way.

Anyway, from Miroh we end up at Yellow Wood, based on the elevator on the map as well as the MVs, and this time it’s more literal than the previous encounters with YW - this time they chose a path and throw away the key, never looking back.  They won’t go back to Yellow Wood again because they’ve made their final decision to truly rebel, there’s no going back (which I think may be why Hyunjin was so stressed in SE).

We find ourselves once again at the Levanter part of the map, with the eagle representing running from Miroh’s City Jungle.  And that’s pretty much all I’ve got, at least until tomorrow!

I will say that I think it’s possible that SKZ infiltrates society a few times before fully rebelling, in order to free more people like themselves and build up their forces.  I think something similar happened in Maze Runner as well.  A part of me wonders if SKZ plays themselves, but also other like them in a sort of metaphorical way (if that makes sense?).

It’s also possible that someone else helped them escape from District 9 - the drone that broke in that Chan found, for example.  Where did it come from?  It could have been their past selves, who anticipated their being stuck with wiped memories!  It could also have been other “stray kids” who’ve already escaped.  Maybe it’s I.N’s “twin?”

Okay yeah I think I’m really going off the rails here so I’m gonna wrap up really quick with one final section here!

Things I don’t know what to do with:

keys - my suspicion is that they are part of yet another illusion set up by society (meaning, society wants them to think that the keys will help them escape but it’s all just another trick/trial), and that’s why SKZ has discarded some of them - for example, taking down Miroh will probably not grant full freedom, because freedom is outside of the map, so maybe they discarded the key to return there.

marbles - I’m guessing they have to do with memories somehow but thus far they have only showed up in Astronaut so it’s really hard to see patterns with these just yet.

elevators - I mentioned that they might show direct connections between MVs, but I’m very uncertain about this, actually.

“ghost” I.N who stayed behind in Astronaut - though I will note that he seemed to have a clone or a twin or something in District 9 so that could explain how one I.N went with SKZ and another stayed behind?

#stray kids #skz #stray kids theories #levanter #clé: levanter #hellevator #district 9 #my pace #i am not #i am you #i am who #miroh #clé 1: miroh #clé 2: yellow wood #side effects #the road not taken #yellow wood #kpop theory #kpop #bang chan #lee minho #kim woojin #lee know #han jisung #han #seo changbin #i.n #yang jeongin #hwang hyunjin #kim seungmin