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anzulvr · 2 years

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˖˚₊ ★ KARMA AKABANE CHARACTER ANALYSIS by anzulvr hehe ★₊ ˚ ₊

SPOILERS AHEAD ! ! <3 ALSO SORRY ITS LONG

“SADISTIC” 01

People oftentimes interpret Karma as violent and even delinquent-like which isn’t completely true, he does get into fights and sure he shoves spices up peoples noses LMFAO BUT he doesn’t do anything like that unprovoked, firstly why did he get sent to 3-E in the first place? He got into a fight with a bully from main campus, he beat him up because he believed he was doing the right thing, keep that in mind because it’s a reoccurring theme.

He wants to kill Korosensei because he doesn’t want the hard work of his classmates to go to waste, he doesn’t want his own to go to waste and most of all he didn’t want Korosensei’s lessons and efforts to go to waste, He thinks wanting to save him is selfish. Karma isn’t heartless we know he cares about his classmates and even though he cares about Korosensei as much as anyone else in 3-E he has to kill him because In his eyes it’s the right thing to do. He’s willing to sacrifice ANYTHING to follow his moral compass, he was willing to risk his life for an attempt (his final solo attempt on Korosensei) and his relationships when it was time to make the decision.

CC: “There will never be another place like this, not ever. No one else is going to let me be honest about how I feel, but I will kill him, ‘cause like it or not it’s the right thing to do”

JEALOUSY 02

After not getting first place on Midterm exams (aaandd with the help of Korosensei embarrassing him) Karma realizes he needs to try harder at both assassination and his academics (he won’t admit it as we see in the festival episode he hides the fact he’s studying and pretend he was playing video games the entire time.) Karma is known to be one of the most well rounded students (probably the most?) when it comes to assassination because he works his ass off, he’s also doing extremely well academically SOO that brings us to the topic; Who could he possibly be jealous of? NAGISAAA! As we know Karma and Nagisa we’re friends a while before Karma joined E-class but they stopped hanging out for a while.. why?

Karma mentioned Nagisa seemed very non threatening, he wouldn’t get into fights and he wasn’t the type to argue much, he was very easy to be around, Karma said he could keep his gaurd down when he was with Nagisa.. till a simple tap on this back sent him an existential crisisss lmfao

He realized Nagisa isn’t the non threatening guy he thought he was. Nagisa had a very natural and kinda scary bloodlust, for the first time someone caught him off guard and so he decided to distance himself from Nagisa. Karma at some point tells Okuda he’s afraid to not be afraid, When he realized Nagisa wasn’t who he thought he was he decided to push him away in fear. (The cave episode FORGOT THE NAME LOL)

SOO lemme put this simpler bcz IM RAMBLING NOW LOL

BASICALLY Karma is Jealous and feels kind of threatened by Nagisa since Nagisa has Natural Assassination skills that Karma has to work for (not saying Nagisa doesn’t work hard too, of course he does it’s just something’s come naturally to him) and what scares him the most is the fact he would never see it coming because of how sweet Nagisas demeanor is usually!

FEELINGS 03

Honestly this could just be me looking wayyy too into stuff but I feel like Karma tends to hide what he really feels way more than he should, He tries to seem like he does everything easily without trying when it’s really not the case, he definitely doesn’t go out of his way to hide anger or anything like that but I feel like he hides any emotions that make him seem weak , even during the last episode he’s one of the characters who least cries, (kinda like Karasuma) he’s very obviously trying to hold his tears innn. IN CONCLUSION he’s not a heartless freak who sets people on fire for fun (he probably could be if Terasaka pushes enough buttons 😍)

Anyways I love karma so much bye {>*#%

thanks if anyone actually read this tehe.

#ansatsu kyoushitsu #karma akabane #karma akabane headcannons #assasination classroom #karma character analysis #rambles #i love karma so much #characters analysis #comfort character #akabane #akabane karma

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viarayy01-blog · 5 months

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random asks? can i ask how u see each of the mci kids? like if u have headcanons for their ages/personalities or anything? im just curious bc they r so silly

did NOT wanna type this all out so i used voice memos (pls ignore any grammar mistakes)

OK so the way I interpret the missing children is kind of weird and it’s all kind of muddled up in my head and I’m not really sure exactly how to describe it, but we’re going to give it a try. Let’s start with Susie because I tend to have an easier time describing her. Susie to me seems like an energetic, kinda Lizzielike sort of character and she’s good with people. She’s good with adults. Basically she’s just friends with everybody. She’s like Elizabeth without the sass if that makes sense. age wise I would say she’s kind of in the middle between all the missing kids but I’m imagining her being like second or third grade so probably 6-8, somewhere in there. I like to keep the way that she died very close to canon, but I would say that she was probably really good friends with Fritz and Jeremy.

OK now onto Fritz because I actually have a lot to say about him. Fritz is your cliché class clown. He's energetically, outgoing, kind of loud, sort of the opposite of how I picture cc. He is good friends with Susie and Gabriel. I think I’ve already talked about how I pictured him dying but I can’t remember off the top of my head but I do know how all of the kids he’s friends with would react like I already have it in mind. Obviously, Susie is the first,, but then I think Fritz would be the next one and he would be trying to avoid thinking about Susie going missing. He doesn’t even know that she was last in the diner. He just thought that she ran away from home. So he’s at the arcade and stuff, trying to avoid confrontation with those feelings of having his good friend dead, and he’s cashing out his tickets and he goes to the back room and that’s that. he was never really good with emotions in my mind, so I’m picturing him at the diner, kind of to like get away from everything and he’s trying to get away from his friends who he had a fight with before because they didn’t understand that Susie was really close to him, and they just get into an argument. he dies angry at gabriel

but next to my list is Gabriel. Gabriel and Jeremy are really good friends and they’re always hanging out. They both really love music and they often perform recitals together. Gabriel loves to sing and play piano and Jeremy loves to play the violin. Gabriel is heartbroken when fritz dies after their fight. when fritz’s funeral rolls around, gabriel decides that he wants to sing at the funeral in memory of him. He asks jeremy to do it with him because he doesn’t think he can handle it by himself. Jeremy didn’t really know Fritz but because Gabriel was such good friends with him, he decides he will do it. so they play at the funeral and then afterwards they decide to go to the diner just to take a breather because Gabriel had been having a really rough time at the funeral.

Continuing here with Cassidy because she and Gabriel kind of connect. Cassidy had a fight with her mom. She ran into the back room where William had just killed Gabriel after Loring him. She watches him die, and then gets killed herself. I don’t really think Cassidy would’ve been super close with any of the kids but if she would be close with any of them. I feel like she would enjoy hanging out with Jeremy because they’re both kind of older compared to everybody else. also, I’ve talked about Cassidy a lot already, so I’m just gonna stop here.

and that leaves Jeremy alone for a little bit until he, too, has a fight with his parents over his violin, because once Gabriel died, he had no one to play music with so he destroyed his violin and ran off to the diner very similar to Cassidy. He hid behind the diner, just as William was pulling up. William saw him, broke his arms, and killed him inside. I think Jeremy would’ve been more quiet and would’ve had a darker sense of humor. He’s a year older than Gabriel, and he’s in the same grade as Cassidy (5th) I think he would’ve been quiet around people he didn’t know, but if you started talking about music with him or about video games, he would’ve just never stopped talking

#vchatter #vasks #mci

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ex-furry · 3 years

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admitting too much about this past friendship in the tags 🙈

#imo she does think she is better than everyone because of her music but also like. her politics in a way?#it's hard to explain but the way she talked about it + things like mending clothes #maybe my interpretation of her behavior in this regard is muddied because in general i just do not like her anymore #but it did have that vibe. idk #but anyway!#she neverrrrr listened to me. everything was always about her #one time i texted her and i was like hey i've had the worst morning of my fucking life #that was before the Really bad morning i had i think #and she just did! not! care!#she did not even acknowledge what i'd said #and that seems small because it is but it was just the last straw because she'd done that so many times #and i remember i was walking through the parking lot of my cc when i got that text back from her and i was like. oh.#things just kinda clicked. i realized that she no longer cared about me #and sat in my history of music class and wondered if she ever had cared about me #which sucked! because i'd known her for like 2 1/2 years #and then from there i just never really wanted to talk to her #but she would text me every morning #and i don't mind that at all i really don't #but with her she was very clearly doing it just to get her foot in the door for the day #so she could talk about herself some more #one time she texted me something that was really ominous and then she was like oh nevermind #and sent me a sc of a conversation w someone else #and this sounds so bitchy and awful but my only thought was. why should i care #why should i care what you're texting these people when you could not care less about me #one time she realized that she never asked about me so she asked me a bunch of questions at once #and it really just hammered the point home for me #another time i was like actually enjoying a conversation with her after i'd realized she was just really self-centered #and just as i was starting to enjoy talking to her she was like anyway. let's talk about me #and i just put my phone down and rolled my eyes out of my skull #tumblr has a tag limit. i blocked her once she got other friends and dropped me. she didn't notice

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razberry-jam · 3 years

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Also!!! Idk if this would help people here??? But I’ve noticed a lot of people having discourse on whether Techno is meant to be interpreted, on a narrative level, if he is in the right or in the wrong!

I just wanted to share, as someone with a big nerd feelings about storytelling, plot structure, etc- that not every narrative is about showing characters who are in the right, react appropriately, have correct beliefs etc. Most aren’t, actually!

This is a strange trend I’ve noticed recently!!! I think it’s because a lot of us grew up idolizing fictional characters that we shouldn't have, and so who actually turned out to be assholes?? So I think people have somehow got it stuck in their heads that the main purpose of a character, or a story, is to be a role model, to be an example, send a message etc etc!

A side effect of storytelling is that we draw meaning- a “message” or a “theme” from it. Which is hella cool!! But it’s not what storytelling IS. Storytelling is the process by which you explain the change of state of one thing to another. Saying “The ballon was floating. Then I popped it.” Is a story! Saying “The ballon was a good person. Good things will happen to it.” Is not necessarily, because the ballon is not changing on any fundamental level. Even saying “bad things will happen to it” is not a story, because the ballon is still remaining exactly the same. (more underneath)

A story MIGHT say both. “A boy say a drowning cat. The boy saved the cat. The town threw him a party to thank him!” Is a story. It can be interpreted to send the message, “this boy is good, and because of that good things happen to him. Maybe we should be good too!” But even without the interpretation, the story still stands.

Because the story does not require a message to be itself, storytelling doesn’t require messages. So the main point of stories can’t be sending messages if they don't require them. A story DOES require that a thing change from one state to another. So, if that’s true, describing change is the point of storytelling.

It’s sort of like painting. A painting IS paint on canvas. Gogh’s Starry Night is paint on canvas, arranged to look like a night sky. People can pull different interpretations of it- but a good artist rarely goes in with their message fully formed in their mind. An artist represents something else, and by doing so, a message will often come out subconsciously through the artists’s subject combined with their own (often conflicting) beliefs, feelings, and desires.

How do most authors decide to induce change? They use conflict! Conflict: to be incompatible or at variance. Conflict, by its nature, creates change because incompatible things can’t share the same space. These two things will continue to push and fight against each other until they find a place where both of them can come to a rest. Think water and oil! Or a cat and a mouse.

This is something that is fairly often brought up in English classes! If you’ve listen to some of Technoblade’s early streams, he even brings it up during his first two Pogtopia streams!! He mentions that he’s a little worried because everyone on the server is “too nice” so there's “not enough conflict.” He’s not saying that cause he doesn’t want people to be nice- he’s saying that because when someone is not pushing against you, its harder to know what to do. You ever done improv? It’s much easier to improv a funny argument than to improv two people who are completely on the same page in every way.

So! Taking the dream smp for example cause thats where we’re at!

I saw some people were a bit upset that Techno said he was glad Tommy died. Yeah, not a nice thing to say about c!Tommy!! BUT cc!Techno choosing to say that is a wonderful thing to do for cc!Tommy!! Why? It creates conflict.

If Technoblade had a “good” opinion on Tommy’s death, there would not be sufficient conflict between them, which essentially means there is no story left to tell there. That’s not good for cc!Techno or cc!Tommy.

IF Technoblade had a “neutral” opinion on Tommy’s death (as he initially tried to have) there's still technically not a conflict there. A neutral opinion is still neutral- it does not force Techno to actually confront his mixed feelings about Tommy, or Tommy to come to a bigger awareness of those feelings, either on his or Techno’s side.

A “bad” opinion on Tommy’s death IS the most conflict inducing choice we have here. Though small, in this moment it immediately brings him into conflict with both Ranboo and Phil (Phil!!! Which is hella interesting!!).

A “bad” opinion also continues to heighten the conflict between Tommy and Techno, which again, is a good thing. If Techno had openly admitted he was sad that Tommy was dead, then there isn’t really anything new for us to learn about Techno or Tommy when Tommy comes back. It is redundant- which is something you wanna HELLA avoid in storytelling.

As well as brings Techno into conflict with himself! I’m of the opinion that, while Techno believes what he said, it is not necessarily true. We can see both from Phil’s reaction “I swear he has a heart guys.” We can see this in how he talks about other people we know he cares deeply about ie my “acquaintance” Ranboo who he was willing to murder someone over. And we see this even in his brief interactions with Tommy- when Tommy came over before seeing Dream to steal out of Techno’s chests, Techno was upset, but also incredibly lenient. Which you know, is coming from a guy who hoards things religiously, towards someone whose guts he’s supposed to hate. Techno’s inability to properly regulate his attachments- keeping a cold facade while bouncing between incredibly polarizing apathy or absolute ride-and-die devotion, is literally one of Techno’s most reoccurring struggles and character flaws. A character flaw, which if Techno did not have, he would cease to be a character with any sort of dynamic struggle within him.

And finally it brings the audience into conflict with Techno, which is actually a good thing. We loose interest in characters we completely understand, and we loose interest in characters when we know exactly the direction they are going in. People who are saying “How could Techno say that when early he’d said he’d have given the world for Tommy??” Is EXACTLY the question the writers want you to be asking.

Anyway !! To sum up!!! For technoblade, as a writer (not a character!! as a writer!!) his main concern is not portraying a character who is in the right, has the correct beliefs, or is justified in his actions. I’d argue its also NOT portraying a character who is in the wrong, has wrong beliefs, or is completely unjust.His main goal is portraying an interesting character. Through which cc!Techno’s main tool is almost always conflict!

The narrative’s goal is usually not to portray good people, or to punish people for what they deserve. It’s main purpose is not to teach us what’s right and wrong (though that is an incredibly interesting side of effect of some stories!) The main goal of most stories is to be interesting, create conflict, and explore hypothetical scenarios.

(Which, if you notice- is true of a lot of the CCs who come from a storytelling background! IE Wilbur, Tommy, etc).

I mean, the dude’s into Greek mythology. Greek mythology is like the absolute king of “maybe heroic but mostly asshole” main characters lol.

Anyway!! That got a bit long! But that’s the idea : ) of course, anyone’s welcome to interpret or enjoy the story in anyway they like! And feelings are feelings. But the fandom idea that a character’s purpose is to be a role model misses the point (and often, a lot of the enjoyment) of writing.

#tommy and technoblade both having mixed feelings towards eachother and hurting each others feelings #is a FEATURE not a BUG #as is Technoblade having the emotional intelligence and self awareness of a bag of rocks #conflict is a feature not a bug y'all!!!!!#true fluff can only exist where conflict has been bred #like you don't see anyone writing any fluff of like teletubbies cause the teletubbies have never had any sort of tension between them #that would make the fact that they actually care for eachother on a deep emotional level #actually rewarding #ok im going outside #dream smp #dsmp #technoblade #tommy dream smp #tommyinnit #me pointing at them but i love them youre honor love to see them get along some day #technos dynamic with tommy is a variation of jacks but a instead of 1000% over the top cartoonish its like 500% over the top cartoonish #and a slightly different flavor #c!tommy #c!techno #cc!tommy #cc!techno #writing #story #dream smp tommy #dream smp techno #im sorry this is big got hyper fixation #anyway hope that ends well lmao

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forbidding-souda · 4 years

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Deaf S/O with characters I headcanon knowing ASL

ASL specifically, though ASL and sign language go interchangeably with this headcanon, this post specifies things to ASL.

And this S/O is deaf AND signs ASL, doesn’t specify anything else otherwise I’d be specific about it :)

(gender neutral S/O ofc ofc)

-Mod Souda

Rantaro Amami

Something he noticed about you quickly is how loud you were.

You two moved in together, and it was never something he would have predicted.

You’ll go to get food at midnight and slam the cupboard close, scaring him awake.

You always eat at midnight too, it’s unusual to him.

He will wake up with you absent in the bed and be like oh no.

He’s a very calm, quiet person.

He will never tell you about your volume, though, in fear he’ll embarrass you.

When you first met, after learning you were deaf, he definitely watched a lot of videos on deaf culture.

He also developed a crush on Nyle DiMarco.

I mean what.

If you ask he doesn’t know who that is.

He’s very educated on the manor, and often corrects people when they refer to you incorrectly.

But the way he signs is very textbook-y.

He signs 16 like ten-six, which bothers you.

Does NOT keep up with sign language slang.

You signed see you later to him and it blew his mind.

You tried to show him the sign for emoji and he went ???

The sign name you give him is ‘beautiful’, and then it ends with an R.

Kirumi Toujou

You often have to ask her to repeat herself to get the message of her words across, since she hardly uses facial expressions.

She learned ASL for a job once and forget a lot of it.

You enjoy teaching her, definitely.

Because teaching her means she’ll sign like you.

One time she signed Sunday a different way than you and you went ???

“Where did you learn that.”

“... signing saavy.”

“Nice.”

The best part about her is that she is actually good at the grammar structure.

It’s actually quite surprising that you don’t have to simplify your sentences.

Going shopping is fun with her, too.

That’s where she specializes; in food.

She can name almost everything in the food aisle.

Can easily understand your excited rambling but can’t seem to sign fast herself.

Slow and delicate, it’s cute.

Worst part for her is how loud you have the TV.

She likes doing laundry in silence, but that’s hard when she can hear the conversations of characters all the way from the living room.

She asks you to turn it down.

“Sorry.”

You don’t.

She is always working hard as the SHSL Maid, so you hardly get to see her.

But whenever she returns she always brings you a small gift.

Sometimes foreign coins or keychains.

Her sign name is ‘business’ with a T, because you met her while she was working and she was very focused!

Peko Pekoyama

Hid the fact that she knew ASL from you.

It was because she’s bad at it.

You assure her that to the Deaf community, it’s the effort that matters.

She has met a lot of deaf people because of you and gets scared to sign to them.

She even blushes in embarrassment.

But if you ask for help in public than she’ll be happy to assist.

That’s rare, though, since you almost always find a way to communicate with hearing people who don’t sign.

Something she enjoys is the stillness of your house.

The Kuzuryuu household always has some type of noise going on.

Yours is almost always quiet.

She isn’t afraid to sign to you when you’re home alone.

You like teaching her signs like “wow.”

Seeing her sign them in a neutral face is funny to you.

“Facial expressions matter to my language, Peko!”

She gets flustered when you correct her.

Her sign name is a motion that signifies her braids, with a P handshape.

You always love playing with her hair.

She thinks it’s annoying.

“I want another name sign.”

“No.”

She’ll crawl into bed next to you and then feel you messing with her hair.

She huffs, “I thought you were sleeping.”

“I know.”

Sonia Nevermind

Different types of sign language was always her favorite thing to learn.

She loves Deaf culture and always tries to involve herself in it.

Meeting you made her even more excited once she learned you were deaf.

You thought it was really weird until she explained that she studied the culture.

You were impressed, especially since she had never talked to one in person before.

She even started signing slang and it blew your mind.

You gave her a sign name the first day you met her, and she almost passed out in joy.

Princess with an S, and she thought it was awesome, even though it was basic.

She told all of her classmates she got a sign name.

When a bunch of Ultimates came up to you asking for a sign name you went ???

Well now you have to bring her to a Deaf convention.

When she attends ballroom dances, she always brings you along so you can meet people of her culture as well.

She keeps you by her side, holding your hand the entire time and explaining what is happening and why.

She secretly wants to be an interpreter.

Dating her is really fun, of course, because she really wants to learn.

Makes a law that says interpreters are a necessity in her countries broadcasts.

Whenever she travels, she always sends you selfies with the ILY sign.

It’s her favorite.

She never stops thinking about you.

She works hard to make laws to the Deaf community in her country feels welcome.

Gundham Tanaka

Originally learned sign language to teach to his pets.

Never knew he would have to use it to talk to someone.

Until Sonia introduced you to him and he busted out in ASL

Sonia and you going ?? OH UH HI YEs

Signs as dramatic as you think he would.

Sign name is literally devil.

Asked specifically for that sign name.

When you both cuddle he’ll smother his face against you - often your chest or your neck - and mutter how much he loves you.

If you still have some of your hearing you’ll be like “I swear to god if you don’t stop using your voice.”

If you’re stone deaf you’ll just roll your eyes and enjoy the vibrations against your skin.

Gundham would also definitely hum against you.

His voice is deep and it rumbles so yes.

You can also talk to a lot of his animals, since they understand sign language.

It’s awesome being able to communicate with animals.

You like taking baths with him, too.

He likes talking a lot so it would be easier to talk to him.

If he ever needs help with the big cats, he’ll call you, because their scary roars don’t bother you.

The fact that they have claws does though.

Whenever he gets anxious he talks behind his scarf, which drives you crazy.

“Sign, damnit, or I will literally kill you!”

Mikan Tsumiki

Has helped a lot of deaf students.

But barely knows any words outside of the medical field.

Gets emberassed whenever you correct her on something she signs wrong.

Signs mostly PSE, but you help her switch into ASL.

She’s a big hugger, always holding you close and having you cradle her.

You gave her the sign name “shaky princess.”

“P-Princes???”

She takes awhile to get used to how blunt ASL is.

Stutters a lot still, even in ASL.

Whenever you sign to her while she has something in her hand she’ll start freaking out and crying about not being able to respond.

Until one day you sign to her with one hand and she’s like ??? you can do that?

Showers with you a lot.

Her brain doesn’t process signing in the shower, though.

So it’s mostly just the two of you standing together.

She definitely prefers sign language over talking.

Sometimes she finds herself signing while talking, too.

Shinguuji Korekiyo

100% you cannot convince me this man doesn’t know ASL.

He is obsessed with culture, so he’s definitely very knowledgable in Deaf culture and history as well.

Though understanding his signs is very hard because of his mask.

Sometimes he’ll take off his hat so you can easily see the upper half of his face.

(Okay but can we talk about if deaf S/O is a girl how he wouldn’t kill her because Miyadera doesn’t know sign language so they wouldn’t be friends)

An amazing signer, though, since he talks to a lot of Deaf people.

I mean you almost can’t tell he’s hearing.

It’s just the facial expressions and body movement.

Boy is stiff.

Makes you uncomfortable when he signs things like chubby face and skinny.

He just... stands there with his blank eyes.

He scares you all the time, too.

Like he’ll just walk up behind you and touch you.

Not even a shoulder nudge either he’ll just grab you and hug you.

You let out a noise of surprise each time.

If you’re nonverbal, that’s probably why he does it.

You really wanted his sign name to be something like mystery man.

Discussed it with your deaf friends.

Settled on anthropology just because of the hat he wears.

Really wanted it to be less obvious though.

You like to have tea with him.

Because everytime he changes into his eating mask, you are like-

“Why don’t you have a signing mask?”

“The point of the mask is to hide my mouth.”

Kiibo

Doesn’t remember learning ASL

Just??? Knew it.

When he saw you signing to your friend he knew what you were saying without realizing.

Hands move in language hello???

You had to explain to him that you are deaf and it’s how you communicate.

He thinks it’s incredible how you have your own language.

He’s also grateful that he knows it so he could learn more about what being Deaf is.

If you’re verbal than one day you’ll speak while signing and he’ll ???

YOU CAN TALK????

“Yes Kiibo I can talk.”

You show him stereotypical Deaf movies.

He’s happy you’re deaf because that means he can sing around you.

You clap every time he does.

Likes watching anime with you because the CC comes naturally.

Even though he obvi knows Japanese.

Definitely owns clothes from Deaf conventions.

Isn’t scared to sign to people at all, by the way.

And doesn’t mind living in a household with a deaf person, the slamming of cabinets and doors doesn’t bother him.

Very happy to be apart of Deaf culture.

He’s very prideful in being a robot so of course that’s his sign name.

Kaito Momota

Chaotic.

Knows ASL because he took classes one time.

When he learns you’re deaf he will force you to watch every movie he watched in his ASL class.

Will try to sneak up on you.

But he stomps when he walks so it doesn’t always work.

Though, just to bother you, when he walks by he’ll pull your hair.

Replaced shoulder nudges with pulling your hair.

When you sign a word he doesn’t know he’ll pretend to understand.

You can tell when he doesn’t.

He is very prideful in his signing abilities.

He’s just happy to be able to communicate you.

Shhh don’t tell S/O but he loves them very much and tries his best.

He literally started taking ASL classes again just to catch up on new signs.

Didn’t tell you, of course.

Begs you to make his sign name astronaut.

You thought about it.

Egotistical with K’s :)

He’s like akdkskfkekffk NO

He’s says something like “Oh yeah well your sign name is UGLY!!”

“Stay mad stay mad.”

He tries to white knight situations in like restaurants.

“You’re not my interpreter.”

“Yeah but they don’t know ASL.”

“Neither does the rest of the world but I’ve made it so far.”

He literally like gets nervous about you going places alone.

What if they can’t communicate???

“Kaito.”

“What.”

“Shut up.”

He always brags to you because he’s quadlingual though.

You learn curse words in Russian to sticky note to the bathroom mirror.

His signing is cute though.

For someone like Kaito.

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arofili · 4 years

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how’d u get into writing? like, writing fic and being part of the silm community, being Known, that stuff? i’m really new to being a silm cc and i’d love to know ur advice! also: how’d u build up the confidence to start posting meta/hcs? bc i have a Lot of hcs and meta ideas but also i’m really anxious abt posting them bc yknow anxiety is like that

these are some great questions, anon! I’m gonna go through them one by one :)

how’d u get into writing?

not to be like, super cliche, but I’ve...kind of always been a writer? as long as I can remember I’ve been telling stories, and when I was too young to read or write I would dictate them to my mom, who would type them up for me and help me choose clipart illustrations to accompany them. when I got old enough I would always be writing; I attempted my first novel at age 9, and while that never really went anywhere I did finish the darn thing and it had some pretty sophisticated plot twists for a 9-year-old!

like, writing fic

around the same time I got into fandom! I was deep into Warrior cats (like. really deep) and I believe I started writing my first fics when I was like? 10 or 11? my memory is kind of fuzzy on the order of things, but I know I got an account on the Warriors forums when I was 9, and that I was already posting my fic there when I made my FFN account. I believe I was 12 when that happened, but who knows. I haven’t the faintest idea of what happened with those forums, but uhhh pretty much all of my Warriors fic is still up on FFN lmao. you could probably find that if you want to but um...maybe don’t?

my first Big Fic was a self-insert of...my entire 5th/6th grade class into the then-current timeline of the Warriors books...well. I honestly think that might still be my most popular fic of all time l m a o though I try not to think about it because Hashtag Cringe. though as much as I look back on that time with a “yikes,” I am very grateful for the Warriors fandom in a way? that place was so accepting and encouraging of OCs, of AUs, of completely disregarding canon, of worldbuilding that is completely alien from canon - it was a fantastic sandbox to begin with, there were so many ways to write stories and practically all of them were accepted and had fellow fans invested in them!

and being part of the silm community,

soooo I wrote Warriors fic until my freshman year of high school (wow sdjfhkdsjfh), which was when BOTFA came out, and I was absolutely wrecked by the ending and immediately started writing my own fixit fic. I was also super hooked on Kiliel! so that was my intro to the Tolkien fandom; and simultaneously, I joined tumblr, and, well, the rest is history tbh.

I honestly do not remember when I first read the Silm, but I kind of got into the more obscure parts of the Tolkien fandom through fandom osmosis, and I do have a vague memory of doodling the Finwean family tree in geometry class so it might have been later on in freshman year? that was also the same time I was having my Queer Awakening, and Russingon definitely contributed to me unlearning my internalized queerphobia, so probably around then.

anyway - queer awakening, tumblr, Tolkien, transitioning from FFN to AO3 - all of that was happening around the same time. I know I dipped my toes in the Silm fandom then, but I was still primarily a Hobbit fic writer focusing on Kiliel. toward the end of high school I kind of shifted to LOTR and (qp) Gigolas...but somehow the Silm fandom is the most active of the Big Three within the Tolkien fandom, and I was getting dragged further and further in.

it wasn’t until @backtomiddleearthmonth 2019, my freshman year of college, that I really dove into writing Silm fic! I picked some Silm-specific bingo cards and never looked back :D that was really not all that long ago but I am obsessed in a way I don’t really remember being even with TH/LOTR, I obviously cannot see the future but I anticipate hanging out here for a long time. the Silm fandom is great overall and there’s just so much material to work with!! <3

being Known, that stuff?

so I don’t really have a whole lot of context on how “well known” I am in the fandom?? definitely within the past year and a half or so I’ve noticed that I like, get asks like this, and get a significant amount of notes on my posts, and I’ve made a lot of fandom friends especially since I joined some Silm servers on Discord (hmu if you want invites; I’m on the SWG server and 2 general Silm servers and the Russingon server) this past year. and I have 3,000 followers as of this month - and while ever since I hit 1k I don’t particularly pay attention to my follower count I can definitely say that I have more engagement now than I used to! but it took me a long time to build this “audience,” I suppose; I’ve been around the Tolkien fandom since late 2014, so nearly 6 years of this, lol.

really the best way to build a following, in my experience, is to just post a lot of stuff. when I started making edits I got a lot more engagement, because for a long time I would post one every day! (I made them in batches and queued them; I didn’t actually make one every day lol...and now I’m too busy to do that, so I just make edits for events and whenever I feel like it) And I have [checks ao3] 145 works in the Silm fandom as of today - I’m fairly prolific! I’ve come to generally expect 3-10 comments on most of my oneshots, which is a lot more than I used to have back in the day. consistency and quantity are more likely to attract people to your work - and quality, of course.

also: how’d u build up the confidence to start posting meta/hcs?

I’ve been writing since I was very young, and I’ve been writing fic for like...11 years? I think? in that time I’ve produced a lot of garbage, but imo most of that was in my Warrior cats phase, so I came into the Tolkien fandom with confidence in myself and my writing. I’m also working on original fiction on the side (I hope to eventually become a published fantasy author, but right now school takes up most of my time that I don’t devote to fandom, which gives me more immediate gratification and also is just Very Fun) and I know I’m a good writer.

basically, I’ve been doing this for like...half my life, and I’m still fairly young, so I’ve had time to build up my skill and confidence and I know I’m only going to get better with time. you will get better with practice. like I said, I’ve written a lot of terrible stuff, and it’s only through sucking for a long time that I’ve gotten to the point I am now. and I am far from perfect; I know I still have lots of room to grow!

for meta and headcanons specifically, I started with writing fic, and then when I didn’t think I could stretch something into an entire fic I would just make a hc post. I have a vivid memory of writing my first meta in a notebook during driver’s ed because it was so goddamn boring and I had Thoughts about Tauriel and Thranduil!

in my experience, meta comes from having Opinions and wanting to share them and most importantly to back them up - you need to have sources! you need to have reasons! you need to have justification! otherwise it’s not meta, it’s a headcanon or an AU. which is fine!! I love hc/AU!!! but they are not the same as meta, and I’m a stickler for being accurate when it comes to meta. if you have sources and shit to back you up, that will help you build the confidence to share your meta.

sharing disinformation and passing it off as meta instead of just coming out and saying this is a headcanon/baseless theory/AU or whatever is such a fandom pet peeve of mine; it’s not bad for something to not be Accurate! you just have to have that disclaimer - and even when you’re writing meta, you’re offering an interpretation of the text, and you need to acknowledge that other interpretations also exist and are valid.

um. I hope this answers your questions? and sorry for basically word-vomiting my entire life story, lol. this post got long; the main reason I’ve written so much fic is because I really just cannot shut up for the life of me. sooo if you can tear of that filter of being shy and just. say shit. you can go so far~!

OH and one more thing - I can’t believe I almost forgot this - but part of being a writer is participating in the community. this is code for LEAVE A DAMN COMMENT IF YOU LIKE A FIC. that’s how I made most of my fandom friends before Discord! I follow @ao3feed-silmarillion and stalk that blog for new Silm fics; I read the ones that interest me and comment on them.

I know this is not really the most common way for folks to find fic but it’s so rewarding to interact with new fic, new writers, new commentors, new stories - you can find gems that don’t rise to the top of the kudos/bookmark lists; you become friends with your fellow writers; you can watch people grow and change; you support smaller content creators. yeah, you might not be getting Just The Best Stuff, but it’s so so so worth it!!

and if you make friends in the comment section of other people’s fic - I guarantee you some of them will go to your AO3 profile and check out your fic, too! and they’ll leave comments! this is a fic community, and that’s what I cherish about fandom most of all, tbh.

anyway - again - sorry for rambling so much, but I hoped this helped! feel free to send in another ask, or to come talk to me off anon if you’d like! and definitely send me your stuff if/when you decide to share it; I would love to support you!!! <3

#silm #silm fandom #silmarillion #fan culture #tmi anna #(for real this time sjdfhdkfh)#tefain nin #long post #anon #answers

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partnersatfazbear · 3 years

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Analysis of The Real Jake (SPOILERS)

I can't decide whether to make this post a stream-of-consciousness style or group it into evidence for x... but since it's easier, I'll just write my thoughts as I go. Although a lot of this is factual ties to, say, FNAF 4, things like relating Margie to Henry are just my own headcanon and you can do with that what you will AKA don't take this all too seriously, but have fun with it. There’s also specific notes about Michael Afton, for those that just want to know what was said regarding him (presumably).

Before I start, please note I've had three hours of sleep in the last... 28 hours? IDK I can't math, especially not on this little sleep. So, there may be errors. I tried to make a note on things I was unsure about, too.

Note: I wrote this before the Evan=CC theory was all but confirmed. Although I believe this theory from the logbook, I think a lot of these notes are still valid.

Read my notes under the cut:

Margie shares similar physical appearance to Henry: Pg 84 “The window fan blew a lock of her shoulder-length brown hair across her upper lip so it looked like she had a mustache.”

“Mrs. Afton” stand in is mentioned: Pg 86 “...it had been four years since his Mom had died...” (Jake is 9 in the story)

I notice when Scott mentions plaid. Pg 87 “...a green-and-blue plaid plush chair...” I mostly wanted to note this since canonically, Henry had a green plaid shirt.

“William” stand in is mentioned. Pg 89 “And you know he thinks about you [Jake] all the time?” “So, he has to concentrate on what he's doing... ...I don't want him thinking about me and end up shooting himself in the foot or something.” Pg 102 “Yeah, I did. [I spilled some chocolate ice cream] Right on my shirt!” Pg 122 “I did that today! [While playing a DDR like game, breaking a shoelace.]” (Admittedly, I only counted these because I headcanon William is much more of a bumbling fool than he appears. It comes up very often as you can see... although you could write it off as Evan just trying to relate to his kid.)

“William” stand in is mentioned. Pg 92 “...Margie was pretty sure Evan couldn't afford to replace a washer and dryer” and “...Evan, at his rank, could barely afford her” Pg 110 “Gillian's house shared stlying with Evan's, but hers was probably four times bigger.” (Again, I headcanon William and his family is on the low end of middle class, if not lower, in terms of income. Particularly, the house is cramped.)

“Mrs. Afton” stand in is mentioned. Pg 93 “First, Jake's Mom was killed.” Pg 139 “The mom's dead.” (You could infer that she died via something akin to a car crash in the context of the story, however if you reflect it to the games given the commonalities, I like to think of this as confirmation that William murdered her, given the word 'killed' is used.)

Margie records herself on her cell phone. Pg 93 (and on other pages) (Again referencing my headcanon for Henry, in which he records ideas/diaries often. At minimum, Henry is referred to as “Cassette Man” in PizzaSim so... I just thought it could make for an interesting comparison.)

Jake mentions his “friends”. Pg 99 “Patty and Davey... Vic... and the twins... Ellie and Evie... Kyle, Clay, and Garrett” (Also, he isn't mentioned until later, but there's his best friend Brandon, too. I noted these in reference to CC talking about his 'friends', either IRL or the plushies. I assume his IRL friends are the MCI victims. The number doesn't add up though. I really, really wanted to make a connection about the twins, considering Charlie and Sammy are twins, but there wasn't enough evidence to write it off as anything other than a coincidence. Also... Clay, really? We need another double name in this series? Ugh.)

What's your favorite flavor? Chocolate Pg. 102 “What flavor did you get?” “Chocolate. Duh.” (This is a stretch, but it did remind me of Help Wanted's final level in the main game, where you're asked to choose your favorite cake flavor. Although, they're discussing ice cream here.)

Maybe some insight into William's personality? Pg. 103 “You ever do that, Evan?” “What?” “Let off steam.” “Me? No. Steam is pretty much what keeps me going.” (Just more evidence that William is obsessed with his work. You could imply “steam” implies he runs like a machine, but that's stretching a bit.)

Pg. 113 -118 (Jake climbs out of his window to run off to play at the arcade with his friend. Obvious parallel to the child in Midnight Motorist, although it's daytime and no animatronics/fursuits luring him.) There is this, on Pg 121 also. Jake says, “We played all the racing games. I love racing games.”

PURPLE Pg 121 “...did you get a slushie at the arcade? I got one. I got grape. It turned my tongue purple.” “My tongue's purple, too!” “Purple power!” (Uh, do I really need to explain this? I should note that Evan is the one mentioning “grape”. I guess William likes grape flavor and purple.)

'Michael' is mentioned. Sort of a stand in for Michael Afton, but it should be noted that Michael and Evan are brothers in this universe. Pg 126, 127 “Michael...lived in Europe for a few years...” “Michael's a serious dude. He's, well, a little different. He's intense about making money...the way he is about it... can make him seem like he's not human.” “So, he's like a cyborg with bad programming?” Michael has some dialogue: “You must excersize caution. You could get chocolate on my suit, and that would be bad. Very, very bad.” (The very very bad thing is a running joke in the family, which is why this comes up. I don't have a lot to say about it, though. I think Michael [Afton] being obsessed with money seems a bit counter intuitive to how we know him, but who knows? I also want to note that Evan doesn't seem antagonistic towards Michael; in fact, he “hate[s] to ask him for favors”.)

Also, Pg 141 “His [Michael's] flat, gruff voice was unmistakable.” Michael is also the first one to hear his father is dead and informs Margie about it. “I have been notified that Evan's dead.” Pg 142 “She had only met Michael the one time, and she knew the way he processed the world was very different from what was “normal”” Michael also states to Margie: “I've got Evan's will... you're Jake's guardian and he left you the house and some savings. I'm the executor.” Margie also says: “He[Michael]'s a numbers genius, manages money for the wealthy people and has made a killing doing it.” “He's not a bad guy. He just doesn't know how to connect. He doesn't feel the way we do.” (Just more Michael characterization.)

Direct FNAF 4 easter egg references: Pg 128 “...the IV stand lurking in the corner of the room” Pg 129 “...and the line of perscription medication bottles marching across the top of the chest of drawers”

Margie is more than a nanny and possibly in love with Evan: Pg. 139 “She'd come to love Evan, too... like a brother.” Pg 140 “...she was included in the outings, movie nights, game nights, and storytelling time...” Pg 149 “...she wanted Evan to be more than just a boss, and being in his room when he was gone made her feel like a lovelorn stalker.” “Love him like a brother... She snorted. Boy, had she been lying to herself.” Pg 158 “What she was feeling called for a screaming fit or a total mental breakdown.” (Yeah, this is just me reading too much into this for Willry content, haha... But still. I am determined that Margie is a Henry stand-in.)

'I will put you back together' Pg 140 “I'm trying to bring you home whole.” (Evan is discussing “no man left behind” with his son, Jake. I think this is obvious.)

William's home office? Pg. 149 “When he was home, she'd go in and vacuum or put away laundry... ...when he was gone...coming in here felt like an invasion of privacy.” “Evan's room would be her room.” “...I'd feel like I was sleeping in your bed, she thought.” “...the room felt discretely masculine.” “The walls were covered in family photos.” “The shelves were stuffed with fiction... mysteries to classics, nonfiction... how-to books...from rebuilding a car engine to planting a garden.”

FNAF 4 reference. Pg 152 “Outside, a dog barked.” (You can hear a dog barking as ambient noise during nights when playing FNAF 4.)

Other notes:

It happens a lot, but one of the main things in the book is the doll Simon and how Jake talks to it. This is very blatantly a reference to the Golden Freddy Plush (“Psychic Friend Fredbear”). The story confirms it's Jake's father, Evan, talking through it. Although it makes the one scene in FNAF 4 a little wonky (the only scene where we see Purple Guy), I think it's pretty much confirmed that it's William talking to CC now. Obviously, we already suspected this due to Sister Location's “Secret Room”. In this story, Evan says he did it because he wanted to give Jake some hope he would live. Combined with both the IV/medicine bottle easter eggs (in the story and FNAF 4) I think it's plausible to assume that CC was taken home after the Bite of '83 for a period of time before he passed away. I will admit, also, that Evan definetly comes off as a very caring father (in comparison to how we presume William is based on what we've seen of him as a person; although I argued this before on this blog, I don't think William hates his kids. I think he's neglectful, moreso as the story goes on. I think he resents Michael for many reasons but I won't go into that here. I just don't think he's the abusive monster the fanbase interprets him to be—at least not early on.)

The cabinet reminds me a lot of the closets in the novel series. A built in shelf with a doll in it. A doll that represents a child. Considering Margie tends to this doll (see Pg. 130-135), I have to draw more parallels between her and Henry.

The fan is mentioned A LOT. I don't really know why, but I guess we can't help but think of every single FNAF office when it's brought up. Specifically, on Pg. 106, Margie mentions the fan in her room is as loud as a jet engine and the sound made her nervous. Once again, I'm reminded of PizzaSim. Seriously, screw you fan.

The heat is mentioned a lot, too. I know the story takes place in summer, but this did remind me of Pizza Sim.

Pg. 93 “Margie sat down in the faded blue webbed lawn chair that was set up, for reasons she never understood, in front of the shelves by the stairs.” (I noted this because it's specifically called out and I don't know why.)

Margie talks about why she's working for Evan: Pg. 95 “I didn't get the internship I applied for.” I like to think her and Mia (from 1280) were after the same internship. (I may be misremembering, but I'm pretty sure Mia mentioned an internship at the hospital.)

Jake is mentioned to have brown hair, green eyes. His favorite color is green. He also wears green often. I couldn't find anything really interesting about it. It would make more sense as a Puppet reference, tbh (because of the green bracelet (and eyes? I may be remembering wrong) I guess it's also worth noting that Elizabeth has green eyes.

Pg 135 “Are you afraid people will think you're murdering me?” “...I could end you so quickly you'd never make a sound.” (Just an odd conversation between Jake and Margie. Margie is joking here, obviously.) Also, Pg. 136 “I just figured your [Jake's] wires got crossed or your circuits were frying.” (Admittedly, I don't know what to make of this. Could be a reference to Robot-CC, if you believe that or MikeBot [I don't], but more likely just ironic dialogue. It could also reference Jake's future in the Stichwraith?)

Pg 139 “Sometimes, Margie wished she was like one of the robots Jake liked so much.” (Although I can't really compare this to Henry, I did write William with this mindset and thought it was worth mentioning.)

Pg 141+ So, Evan dies overseas (he's a soldier). (I think this could be hinting that William has been springlocked around the time CC passes away. Jake has been home for some time after his diagnosis so we can infer based on that and the easter eggs that CC was brought home to die in peace. At the very least, William's probably very absent during this time. Possibly brought in for questioning but not arrested. I don't know. I feel like there's something to this.)

Pg 154 “Dave's at work.” (Why? Can we not use established names? Aghhh)

Pg 155 “The ambulance arrived at 11:32.” (I don't know why this is stated so outright. I couldn't find a reason, except that a few paragraphs earlier they say it will arrive by noon. I don't know why it's so specific, but I felt like noting it anyway.)

Pg 159 “Five people. Five sets of eyes. And none of them noticed...” (Yeah. We all know how important 5 is in FNAF.)

Three medical personel are mentioned. One at the end is named Nancy [No Last Name Given], but I like to think its a reference to Man in 1280 and we're dealing with Heracles Hospital once more, although it's never said in this story. Speaking of, the only thing that really stood out to me in 1280's story was that a billionare funded the restoration of the hospital. I like to headcanon that was Henry's doing—I imagine him obscessing over overcompensating for his mistakes by giving back in every way possible, even if it isn't directly related to him.

So, this post only took two hours of my life. I hope someone gets some use out of it, be it for my intended Willry purposes or maybe those Michael fans that are curious about it. If you enjoyed this post, let me know. I'd love to write up more of these if I have the time.

I have other write-ups on this blog, too. Just search fnaf theories on my blog page!

#fazbear frights #spoilers #blackbird #the real jake #michael afton #william afton #henry emily #crying child #willry #helliam #fnaf 4 #five nights at freddy's #fnaf #fan theory #fnaf theories #fnaf theory

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creamypudding · 3 years

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I love your interpretation of Zack’s character and especially how he guards his emotions and always prioritize others over himself, my issue is with how most readers and writers (who’re more familiar with ff7 and not cc) paint zack as the clueless, shallow himbo while they see cloud as the intellectual who’s a deep thinker and reads a lot of books. I think as zack grew up and after all the difficulties he been through and how he thinks that he’s responsible for everyone, he’s become much wiser and I think he has a great understanding of other people’s emotions and thoughts and that’s a lot of people trust him and warm up to him fast. I’m sorry if I sounded mad, but after reading the wonderful chapter I’ve seen a comment calling zack a himbo and it kinda got on my nerves (cuz I see it used a lot to describe him)

I suppose I wonder how you’ve come to the conclusion that people who have certain views of Zack aren’t familiar with CC. Did you hold a poll? Do you know these people personally? Do be careful of generalisations and over-simplifications. I don’t want to dismiss what you said. You may very well have a point. If you’re right then a way to possibly explain this phenomenon would be to look at Fanon. - Fan lore. Fanon is pervasive stereotypes that get adopted into fandom even if these things aren’t true and weren’t there in canon. You just have to look at the misquote of ‘Luke, I am your father’ when it’s actually ‘No, I am your father,’ as a ‘sort of’ example of this. It’s known as the Mandela Effect and you can watch a cool video about it here -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXi0UnvlwnQ Granted, how things become fanon might not be 100% explainable with the Mandela Effect, but I think it could go partway in showing us why we think of characters a certain way or remember something happening when it didn’t - simply because a lot of other people adopt the same thought process. So maybe this is why (if your opinion is correct and indeed a fact) people who don’t know CC still class Zack in the CC way: because of the fanon, and a large part the canon surrounding him. Two things you mention strike me as important. You say ‘my issue’ and ‘got on my nerves’. I mean this in the nicest, most gentlest way possible when I say, ‘yes, this is your issue’. People will interpret characters however they will and want. No one can and no one should police that. Zack is a himbo and in the context of the comment I believe it was meant in an endearing and slightly (or maybe a lot as this is slow-burn hell) exasperated way. The important thing to remember is that Zack isn’t just a himbo. He isn’t just a happy-go-lucky guy. He is smart. He is thoughtful. He carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he carries it so well. He is multi-faceted and layered like a beautiful cake (and don’t we all want to eat a piece of his cake 🤤 🤤 🤤 ?) I would assume a lot of fans know this and love Zack because of his layers and versatility. Don’t assume that every person who writes puppy Zack only sees him as a puppy. And likewise, not every comment on the internet can/should/will reflect people’s deeper understanding and personal beliefs of things. Comments are gut reactions a lot of the time and I appreciate being privy to people’s gut reactions to my stories. I hope you can make peace with fandom interpretations. They are rooted in canon, but also fanon. They are rooted in fun and joy and an appreciation of the character. Find yourself writers and stories you agree with. Drown out all the other noise. Being angry about stuff only hurts yourself, and not the target of the frustrations. There are so many things to be frustrated about. Let fandom be a place to unwind and relax in and tailor your experience of it. I wish you well and thank you so much for reaching out to me 🙏❤️ Also a quick edit add on - just want to mention that how you see Zack is completely valid. Just how other people’s interpretations are also completely valid! Peace! ✌️

#ask #zack fair #anonymous

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dramionediscussion · 3 years

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The issue whether the HP series has adequate POC representation has been brought up quite often at this blog. The basic assumption usually is that the Wizarding World's POC population should represent that of United Kingdom's. Also, it's sometimes followed by a claim that HP fails at this, and the series is whiter than the real life UK is or has been in the past. I got curious about this, as to me it seemed like something that might be true, but also that might not be (I am interested about population history in general, and the UK and its history, and to me the claim didn't strike as something that was intuitively absolutely wrong, but not something that was absolutely right either. So, I decided to sate my curiosity and see how the matter is, to best of my abilities. I thought other people might be interested as well, and once I did the research for myself, I might as well share it). One of the moderators (Elle) made an excellent and informative dig about the subject sometime ago, but it mostly concentrated on the 2010s data, and not that of 1990s, which is when the original HP series primarily takes place in. I thought I could perhaps try to expand that to the period and also weight how the HP series fares. This strictly just a quantitative analysis. It's simply beyond my capabilities to try to answer, whether the representation is good or authentic, or anything like that. Or trying to judge it in any other dimensions, like their importance or impact (as in, are they in relevantly presented in the world and narrative or just relegated background set-pieces). This is only about the original book series, which is primary set between 1991-98, so this is not relevant for CC or Fantastic Beasts or Marauder or any other era beyond 1990s. This is because the POC population in the UK is not some static number, which is constant through the history. Like any other population it changes between decades and centuries both in absolute and relative terms (as in their total number and what is their proportion of the overall population), and the situation would be quite different between 2020s, 1990s and 1970s or 1930s. For the sake of readability, in this posting I am only showing final results and conclusions. In case anybody is interested in the process, like how and where I got the stats and I how I interpret them, about terminology and all the rest, I've added separate links at the bottom. First, if we are to determinate whether HP series reflects the UK's POC population accurately or not, we have to know what the UK's POC population was during that era. Precisely at 1991-98, but for a sake of convenience I am using data from only years 1991 and 2001. Not doing year by year, and then comparing to each individual book. Rather I establish one score for the entire book series (91-98), and then compare it against the real life score, for which I use the mean between 1991 and 2001. However, because the Irish magical population is eligible to attend Hogwarts, and it's heavily implied that the magical Ireland is tied into rest of British Isles in some way (e.g. at Quidditch World Cup we don't see separate political delegation or presence for the Irish nation, but we see one for Bulgaria. So, apparently there's no taoiseach of magic and it's said that Wales, England and Scotland all have their own separate national Quidditch teams, despite being one polity otherwise). Also, because of the HP series being so tied into Hogwarts specifically, so I am going to offer two numbers here, one for the UK proper and another for the UK, which includes the entire Ireland. The UK had the total population of 57 813 821, and 61 339 821 including Ireland at 1991. Of this, the white population of UK was 54 682 062 (94,58%), and UK+I was 58 162 880 (94,82%). The POC population of the UK was 3 131 760 (5,42%), and UK+I was 3 176 942 (5,18%). For the sake of simplicity I am going to use 94,5 % for the white population and 5,5 % for the POC population. During 2001 the total population of the UK was 58 789 187, and UK+I 62 636 187. Of this, the white population of UK was 54 152 188 (92,11%), and UK+I was 57 861 664 (92,38%). The POC population of the UK was 4 637 006 (7,89%), and UK+I was 4 725 271 (7,54%). For the sake of simplicity I am going to use 92% for the white population and 8% for the POC population. The mean and median for the white population between 1991-2001 was 93.25 %, and for the POC population 6.75 %. Let's round those up and down, so we get 93 % for the white pop. and 7% for the POC pop.. So, now the question is that does the Harry Potter series fulfill this 7% POC representation or not, which would authentic for the time period of 1990s. Overall, the POC population is statistically slightly younger, thus we would expect to have more POC representation among younger people, and less with the old, though the total averages for the entire population are as stated. I've used 3 different sets for the HP series. The only exhaustive and complete cohort of people we have is Hogwarts starting class of 1991, from which we have at least names for everyone, and descriptions for most of them. Then second set is all people at Hogwarts during the time (including both the staff and students). Then the rest of the world, including Muggle and Wizarding worlds. Differing sources are bit problematic, but I compiled one set from the book descriptions, then one which adds book descriptions to other canonical material, such as JKR's notes and interviews, Pottermore portraits, book illustrations, and so on. Then finally the movies. Also, I didn't include people who were only mentioned or seen in visions, memories, dreams. Only those who were corporeally present at 1990s, and seen at the events books depict (except that starting class of 91, from which 11 are mentioned in JKR's notes, but never make an appearance at books nor movies). First, the 43 people who start their education at Hogwarts 1991. Books (32 persons in total) When ethnicity is known: -White: 9 (69,23%) -POC: 4 (30,77%) Of all characters: -White 9 (28,13%) -POC: 4 (12,50%) -Ambiguous: 19 (59,38%) -If White normativity (assumption that all ambiguous characters are white): 28 (87,50%) Books + Additional Canon Material (43) When ethnicity is known: -White 14 (73,68%) -POC 5 (26,32%) Of all characters: -White:14 (32,56%) -POC: 5 (11,63%) -Ambiguous: 24 (55,81%) -White normativity 38 (88,37%) Movies (26) -White: 20 (76,92%) -POC: 6 (23,08%) -Ambiguous: 0 All Hogwarts residents, min. 157 max. 214 Books (157 persons in total) When ethnicity is known: -White: 34 (82,93%) -POC: 7 (17,07%) Of all characters: -White 34 (21,66%) -POC: 7 (4,46%) -Ambiguous: 116 (73,89%) -White normativity: 150 (95,54 %%) Books + Additional Canon Material (168) When ethnicity is known: -White: 56 (84,85%) -POC: 10 (15,15%) Of all characters: White: 56 (33,33%) POC: 10 (5,95%) -Ambiguous: 102 (60,71%) -White normativity: 158 (94,05%) Movies (214) -White: 180 (84,11%) -POC: 34 (15,89%) Every character min. 302 max. 323. Books (312 persons in total) When ethnicity is known -White: 74 (90,24%) -POC: 8 (9,76%) Of all characters: -White: 74 (23,72%) -POC: 8 (2,56%) -Ambiguous: 230 (73,72%) -White normativity: 304 (97,44%) Books + Additional Canon Material (323) When ethnicity is known: -White: 110 (90,16%) -POC: 12 (9,84%) Of all characters: -White: 110 (34,06%) -POC: 12 (3,72%) -Ambiguous: 201 (62,23%) -White normativity: 311 (96,28%) Movies (302) -White: 267 (88,41%) -POC: 35 (11,59%) As a conclusion, it's a quite weird situation overall. As in it's not factual to say that HP whitewashes the period, or that POC are underrepresented for the proportion of their population (I mean, technically they are, but so are whites, because the majority of characters cannot be categorized clearly to either groups in books). Yet, there should've been numerically more clear and visible POC characters in the series. What we have is not enough for that period, despite not exactly being underrepresented. This is because ambiguity isn't a neutral position or descriptor in a society with so clear and overwhelming super-majority. The ambiguity works against POC minorities in a way that it doesn't with the white majority in that time and place (there's nothing inherent to either groups in this regard. If HP was based in let's say 1990s Japan, then the situation would be reversed. The dynamic is due majority / minority relations, not essential characteristics of any group). This is simply, because people will fall down to popular heuristics and rational statistical assumptions, when there's no exhaustive evidence to either direction. In the UK of 90s, that means white normativity pretty much. So, if you have ten visible POC characters and ten visible white characters, and 280 ambiguous ones, in the UK at 1990s for most readers with even a cursory knowledge of that place and time, that often equals 290 white characters and 10 POCs. Because individually, without any identifiers, it's more rational to assume each individual is part of the reigning supermajority. Sure, if you do so, you would make the wrong judgement for 11 individuals, but you would right 269 times. People will do this unconsciously, unless they are very conscious that statistically every fourteenth non-descripted person should be part of the minority. Ofc, this relies heavily on what assumptions people have about the UK in 1990s, and if someone has no prior knowledge about it, then this could be different. But who writes a book about the UK of all places, and would rely that readers have no apriori conceptions or images about the place. If someone wants to establish a truthful and accurate minority presence, it should be totally clear and unambiguous. Otherwise it might well not even be there, because in this matter basic assumptions and pattern recognition about normality work against minorities by just the definition of them being a minority. It's an asymmetrical imbalance between minorities and majorities.This teetering and noncommittal eye of the beholder diversity "they can be POC, or whatever you want them to be, if you personally want to read them as such, but they also might not be, if you so decide"-approach is not doing any favors to anybody. It totally trivializes the entire issue to basically something totally meaningless, and doesn't even deliver what it intends to accomplish. With movies there isn't similar ambiguity problems, and purely by the numbers they are overrepresented by 4,5% (movies would closer to current demographics of the UK and Ireland). However, problems are more of qualitative than quantitative nature. Movies are quite odd in this regard, because quite often they don't interpret these +200 named and canonical book characters, which are ethnically ambiguous as POCs (except for couple characters like Alicia Spinnet and Romilda Vane). Instead of using the richness of more established book canon characters, they added new POC characters, which are not found in books (like Bem, Kellah and Gwendoline Hedgeflower). I had no idea those even existed before researching this, little alone their names or what they did. Ofc, if we are modeling it after reality, 7% is not going be a huge group regardless (little over 20 people out of 300. Even 10% would be 30), but they could've done it better. Although, in this analysis I didn't take any account or weight in their relevance or screen-time or lines or anything like that, but intuitively while looking at these numbers they probably are not far off from that 5,5-8% what it is was back then. I'd say pretty good overall, but they should've added POCs by casting people like Trelawney or Alastor Moody as ones, and not via new non-book characters with very little relevance. Here are links to sources and detailed explanations of how I gathered and used them. UK data https://justpaste.me/OoVX Harry Potter data https://justpaste.me/OogL

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tetriminoe · 4 years

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Sims pride challenge

So i’m incredibly new to “simblr” and the whole sims community ( I just learned what maxis match and alpha cc were like last month skjldfj,m ) but I have followed some amazing simblrs and they seem to have a recurring theme and it’s one i’m noticing. Not enough people are making sims of color! So with the current climate, and pride month being *looks and watch and sweats* now I thought it would be a nice thing to make a challenge that brought the two together! I’m just gonna call it world challenge.

The challenge is simply, for each word on the prompt list, make an lgbt+ sim of color that coincides with that prompt. Give them a story! That’s not a requirement but it would be nice

If you get inspired you can build a family or a group of friends as well! Or even their home if inspiration really strikes! ( It might go without saying but just in case please feel free to give them pets as well )

please tag it #simsworldchallenge so I and other interested parties will see it and try and reblog this post please so it can spread!

Rules

Any cc is allowed maxis match, mix, or alpha we welcome all kinds

Put in some effort, do not just give a white sim a tan

Avoid making their stories entirely about how hard it is being their race ( especially if you are not ) or all dower and bleak. Let’s try to go for some more positive stories if we can ( You don’t have to avoid negative elements but there is also nothing wrong with making a happy black lesbian who’s a fashion design student who likes pink, ya kno? )

Don’t feel like you have to do every single prompt and get every single day out! It’s all just fun to encourage people to make sims of color and celebrate pride

Your sims don’t have to be a binary gender! They can be genderfluid, demi girl, agender, gender non conforming, non binary the whole gender and sexuality spectrum you’re only limited by your imagination

I know to some it make seem like not a big deal, but when you cannot put people of color and lgbt+ people in your escapist fantasy it tells those people your fantasy is a world without them. @savvysweet @crypticsim @simnouveau are just three amazing simmers i follow that are an amazing source for custom content and references if you are struggling. They're more on the maxis match and maxis mix side but i’m sure if you’re on the alpha side you can find plenty of cc and references as well if you simply ask or look around especially in the notes of this post ( If you’re interested in being listed as someone who’s willing to help just reply here to this post )

So yeah!! The prompts will be under the cut, you can be as literal or as crazy as you want with them i tried going a bit vague, and here’s a little glimpse at my attempt at the first prompt ! ! I hope you guys participate in this and have fun in making your sims world a bit more human

1: A sunny day in a grassy field

2: Bubble gum, candy and everything sweet and delicious

3: Apples plucked fresh from a tree

4: Beach life baby

5: A dark and cold walk through a graveyard on Halloween night

6: A warrior not to be trifled with

7: A celebration of culture

8: Heels clicking on the linoleum of an office floor

9: Sparkles, lights, cameras, everything glitz and glamour

10: Opulence, class, sophistication, a pair of shoes that cost more than your house

11: A big old dogpile of animals and fluff and fur

12: Something new and unique and maybe a little scary? ( Try your hand at an occult sim!! There really are not enough black vampires )

13: Parenthood, tired, running after little ones through a minefield of toys

14: Wedded bliss, lace and dappling, veils and suits of sleek silk

15: Dirty broken fingernails, the smell of herbs and soil, and colorful blooming flowers everywhere

16: When did you arrive in strangerville? What’s your name and how long have you been here?

17: Magic and spells and wonder, look around at the lights and feel the pure magic of the world surrounding you

18: Free space! Make whatever works for you just make sure they’re a sim of color!

19: Open the nearest book to a random page and a random line. Try your VERY BEST to create a sim based on that sentence ( pssst if you get a bad one, you can try again I won’t judge you )

20: Find your very favorite song, with powerful words and lines that speak to you and then make a sim based around your favorite powerful line

21: Black fabric, black nails, black hearts show your interpretation and spin of goth

22: Was that a mermaid?! Hah, no i’m being silly, must have just been ... a manatee or something .. yeah - with, florescent skin . .

23: Boiling water, aromatic spices, flavors that never cease to make you close your eyes and go “Mmmm”

24: Pages turning, the dusky smell of old books, someone awkwardly clears their throat in the silence as pens scribble across paper and keyboards click

25: Sweat, blood, tears, hard work and strong bodies the smell of a adrenaline and people with something to prove

26: Healing, soft, gentle, kind eyes and kinder touch

27: neon lights, late night snack runs, loitering in the parking lot of the seven 11 at two am, passing smell of cigarette smoke, a sense of floaty unreality at the witching hour

28: Seasonal bliss, the time of year that brings the most joy and calm and general delight

29: Off the grid, water filtration, wind and rain a true green warrior

#sims 4 #the sims 4 #ts4 #simblr #ts4 challenge #the sims 4 challenge #the sims four #the sims four challenge #simsworldchallenge #IM SO SCARED POSTING THIS RIP #1st #June #2020 #June 1st 2020

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sshakespeare · 4 years

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Cursed Child: Joey!Albus (feat. Lauren!Delphi)

I treated myself to CC this Wednesday to see Joey (and got Lauren!Delphi out of the deal too!) and I wanted to share some of my thoughts/observations below!

PART I

Joey sounds exactly like Daniel Radcliffe. It’s actually a little disconcerting.

Joey’s Albus has HUGE Harry Potter energy circa Books 5 & 6. His single minded determination to save Cedric reminded me a lot of Harry’s obsession with Draco in 6. He also just channels that same dry and edging-on-sassy delivery that Daniel had with Harry’s funnier lines

He carries himself with more confidence than Nick!Albus at the top of the show. He’s definitely nervous about being sorted into Slytherin and going to Hogwarts, but he asserts himself more when Rose is hitting him and he’s more defiant with the other students - Nick’s “I didn’t choose to be his son” is always like a plea. Joey’s reading has a lot more resentment for both the students and Harry

Speaking of - the bedroom scene made me really see the direct connection between Albus’s eavesdropping and the fight. A lot of what Albus throws at Harry about the wizarding world being grateful clearly comes right from Amos. I love Joey’s barely concealed fury in this scene. You can tell it’s been building up for so long and he feels he finally has a reason to let it out

Lauren!Delphi - such a different interpretation from Sara! Lauren’s Delphini Diggory persona kept reminding me of a Derry girl if that makes sense? She had small-town-working-class-up-for-mischief energy and you could see Joey!Albus’s attraction to her right away. She did a lot of voices (she did an American cowboy accent when she was pretending to rob Albus and a little old lady voice when talking about St. Oswald’s). She also pretended to disembowel herself when Amos kept calling for her. It was really dark and fit her Delphi perfectly. Not all her jokes landed with my audience but I appreciate how much she makes Delphi her own and I’m so excited more people get to see her now!

Scorpius suggestively growled at Rose after saying “Good bread! BREAD” and immediately clapped his hand over his mouth all the while Joey!Albus snickered in the background. Joey!Albus in general laughs more than Nick!Albus. He definitely has Harry’s sense of humor

Joey!Albus is tactile for sure. He swatted Scorpius when he said “Do we?!” And he kept putting his hands on Scorpius’s shoulders to steady him on top of the train and while they were watching Delphi transform into Hermione

Also during the train scene Albus kept saying “it’s just like the stairs at school” when trying to get Scorpius to climb up. Super noncomforting but super funny!

When Scorpius and Albus arrive at St Oswald’s, Delphi almost hugs Albus but stops when she sees Scorpius. That tiny moment made it click with me just how much Scorpius’s involvement ruins everything Delphi has so carefully planned over years and years. It really is friendship that saves Albus and the whole world in the end.

Matt!Ron kept rubbing his mouth after kissing Hermione during the polyjuice scene which I honestly don’t remember him doing before. He probably has and I haven’t noticed but I still love it

Scorpius’s “good to know” after Delphi tells him polyjuice is painful was very aggressive tonight.

When Scorpius makes his engorg-impressed joke, Albus made a “so-so” hand gesture, implying he’s rated Scorpius Jokes before and that’s adorable

I’m always intrigued by how Bubba delivers “pale and red at the same time” because sometimes he’s in on his own joke and knows why Albus is blushing and sometimes he’s just baffled by it. Tonight he was very much baffled

Ugh and Joey’s Albus bounces on his toes and holds his cheek and looks so damn happy Delphi kissed him. All I want is his Albus happy but not because of this

Bubba = flirtiest Scorpius. He blew Polly Chapman the most exaggerated kiss while hiding Delphi.

The fight is INTENSE because Joey is one angry Albus. At the start of the Scorpius monologue, Albus looks offended that Scorpius suggests he doesn’t care but you can see him coming to realize how selfish he’s been. When he’s telling Scorpius how kind he is, it is So Soft.

Sarita!Myrtle looks at Albus on the “and boys” line but Joey just made a little “hmm didn’t know that” face. Nick will sometimes look a little flustered so the implications are there

PART II

Not Joey!Albus related, but the Dark World Department of Magic Law Enforcement scene is the best scene in the play. This is a hill I will die on.

Scorpius falters forward right after Draco says “murky” almost like he wants his dad to give him a hug and it never comes. My heart ached for him because Scorpius is truly feeling the loneliness his father felt all throughout his childhood - love and loyalty that has to be kept obscured lest it be viewed as “sloppy” or a weakness

Joey’s Albus is spoiling for a fight when Harry meets him in the Slytherin dorms. His “green is a soothing color” and “not meaning to cast aspersions” delivery is brutal - it’s clearly meant to bait Harry. Nick plays his Albus as very defeated in this scene, as if he’s realized he can never win in the fight against his father’s shadow. Joey plays it like he’s still got one last fight in him and both he and James are near angry tears by the end.

When Bubba does his “Malfoy the Unanxious” he always puts his hands on his hips like some kind of brave knight in a bad musical and Joey!Albus mimics him when he says “I don’t think being fearless is going to be good for your health”

Back on my tactile Albus bullshit: Joey!Albus swats Scorpius again when he says “I had something to prove” (though I do miss how Bubba and Nick practically hold hands during that moment where they’re both on Albus’s bed)

Albus gives a thumbs up to Scorpius’s “it’s time time turning was a thing of the past” joke. Albus joke ranking system confirmed

Lauren!Delphi doesn’t have as clear of a delineation between her Delphini Diggory persona and her Delphi persona (Sara’s voice is always much higher when she’s pretending to be a Diggory), but she’s still terrifying. After she killed Craig and said “these are not childish games we are playing” I got chills. She clearly has no regard for human life

Joey’s Albus can’t watch Craig die. He completely shields his face from it when he realizes what’s about to happen. Bubba’s Scorpius watches the entire thing.

Albus screams when Scorpius is being tortured just like Harry does in Order of the Phoenix when Sirius dies. It’s agonizing

His Albus also screams Scorpius’s name and then whispers it a second time when Delphi uses Crucio for the final time on him.

I love when any Albus screams “HELP” just like Scorpius does. Nick doesn’t do it as much, but Joey went for it

James’s Harry was going through it tonight. He was crying so hard after his conversation with Dumbledore in Act IV that Draco had to ask “You okay?”

He was crying even harder during his scene with Ginny in Albus’s room. The progression of how James plays that scene since his early shows and now is amazing. We’re so lucky he’s sticking around for another year

I don’t even know how to describe the way Joey’s whole face lit up when he sees Ginny for the first time in Godric’s Hollow. It’s like he’s eleven years old again and he gives her the most crushing hug.

Joey’s Albus is the real rock for Harry as they all watch his parents die. Usually James’s Harry leans more on Ginny for support, but this time it was Albus.

Bubba and Joey’s last hug was...weird? When Scorpius hugged him, Joey was more playful with “Scorpius? What is this?” It almost had this undercurrent of “have I finally cracked you? Are you going to start hugging me now?” Nick usually plays it with more happy confusion. Then Joey said the “You better ask Rose...” line while Bubba was still hugging him. Bubba pulled away and lingered for a beat before snapping back to life (like he does with Nick). But while Nick will often look off wistfully as Scorpius leaves, Joey’s Albus has a more happy go lucky look, like he’s looking forward to a good day with his dad. I think Joey’s version is more in line with what the playwrights want, but I do miss all the intense subtext Bubba and Nick have managed to infuse into that hug

That being said, weirdly no Scorbus pair have looked closer to kissing than Bubba and Joey right before Bubba runs down the stairs. They were standing so damn close to each other.

Right before the lights went out, James and Joey hugged!! It’s all I ever needed and more.

I went into the Part I thinking Joey!Albus would be an interesting mix between Sam’s Albus and Nick’s Albus, but I really found he’s entirely an Albus of his own. This is the one Albus where I didn’t quite believe Harry’s “You’re actually more like your mum.” He certainly still had Ginny’s boldness and humor, but I felt like Joey’s Albus was the beginnings of the version of Harry who had been sorted into Slytherin, who hadn’t initially found adapting to Hogwarts so easy, and who had trouble not letting his loneliness overwhelm him. It hit home one of my favorite Draco lines: “People saying parenting is the hardest job in the world. They’re wrong. Growing up is. We all just forget how hard it was.” Harry’s forgotten and it prevents him from seeing how he could have taken the exact same road Albus started down.

To try and summarize all this: gigantic, enormous shout out to Joey and to all understudies who make such massive roles their own and shed completely new light on certain moments and scenes and characters!

#cursed child #ccsquad #albus potter #this is a Mess #much like my favorite scorpius lol

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khalilhumam · 3 years

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Can secularism be compatible with Islam?

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/can-secularism-be-compatible-with-islam/

Can secularism be compatible with Islam?

World of confusion between secularism, free speech, and civil liberties

Anti-terror demonstration in Vienna, Austria, on November 6, 2020. Photo by Michael Gubi/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

< p class="p1">This article by Samee Alhwash was originally published on The Battleground and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.

Whether in the boycott-French-products campaign on social media or through conversations with friends, Muslims I know feel conflicted about the recent terrorist attacks in Vienna and Nice.

While they condemn violence, there is also a sense that it is to be expected. Their conflict gets expressed like this:

“We don't condone killing, and those who kill have nothing to do with Islam. But when provocation is disguised as free speech, (for example, Charlie Hebdo), a reaction should be expected.”

Or this:

“Why is it that it's only attacks by Muslims which are branded “terrorist?” Why is French secularism, ‘Laïcité’, applied only to Muslims? Why is it illegal to question the Holocaust but okay to criticize the most sacred elements in Islam?”

Of course, some clear Muslim voices do denounce this confusion between secularism, free speech, and civil liberties. But this conflict is widespread. It seems to come from feelings of disenfranchisement framed in the language of contemporary political Islam.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY6Mux1NKvc?feature=oembed&w=650&h=366]

Where does this rationalization of violence come from? Is it really something innate to Islam, dooming the religion to be incompatible with key components of democracy, particularly freedom of speech and secularism?

These are important questions as terrorist attacks produce trauma that brings out equally reactionary arguments within European societies, raising questions about cultural diversity, integration, and assimilation.

Anything sounding like an apology for terrorism risks handing political victories to far-right groups, wrongly stereotyping Islam as backward and violent.

We have been here before. In 2005 I watched something that seemed beyond imagination on TV in my small living room in Syria: mass protests across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) against offensive depictions of Prophet Muhammad by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

The protests were tolerated by oppressive regimes that would otherwise crack down on any form of protest. The demonstrations were the only ones of their kind until the Arab Spring in 2010.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOiKQ7rnHSU?feature=oembed&w=650&h=366]

Thinking about them now, I cannot help but question why other incidents didn’t spark the same outcry from Muslims.

The killing of Rohingya Muslims was condemned but it didn't produce the same public outrage. Nor have the Uyghur camps in China.

There was even a widely circulated YouTube video in 2012, one of many to come, of Syrian government thugs forcing an anti-government demonstrator at gunpoint to kneel on a portrait of Bashar Al Assad, in the place of a sajjāda (Muslim prayer rug).

One thug shouted at him, “Pray to your god, Bashar!” True, the actions of the Syrian regime attracted jihadists from all over the world. But this didn’t spark public protests at Syrian embassies like the Danish cartoons did.

This duplicity was intriguing. It tells us something about the nationalistic nature of political Islam today.

It's not a matter of incompatibility between Islam and free speech. Rather, Islam has become an insecure identity that is always undermined by criticism from the Christian or godless, but always colonial, West.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL5P_sB_6Ug?feature=oembed&w=650&h=366]

Muslims adhering to moderate schools of thought, and non-practising Muslims, share this sentiment with conservative elements within Islam. Even secular nationalists view Western criticisms of Islam as an attack on their own culture.

Whether they are Muslim or nationalist, most people in MENA countries are poor, uneducated, and have no political representation. Prolonged stagnation makes them more susceptible to destructive narratives that fuel identity politics and exacerbate social issues. The success of Europe is not viewed as a result of humanist philosophy and a bloody fight against nationalism, such as WWII. To many Muslims, secularism is just a Western colonial scheme to strip away Islamic identity and culture.

Many people in the Middle East and North Africa only see Christian imperial Europe and become slaves to their own inherited colonial traumas. Demagogues, kings, and dictators across the Islamic world reinforce this narrative to legitimize their existence. This feeds into a divisive, nationalistic identity politics that negates any positive intercultural relations with Europe.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkn6R4tUzl0?feature=oembed&w=650&h=366]

The problem gets even more complex inside Europe, as immigrant communities find themselves in an alien and often racist environment. They cope by embracing shallow and dogmatic versions of political Islam.

Colonialism exacerbated social problems that Muslim societies already had. It didn't create them. We were unequal, hierarchical, and sectarian even before European colonisation and the Ottoman Empire. European colonialism simply reinforced existing hierarchical political structures and used sectarianism to divide and rule. The dictatorships we suffer under today are a continuation of those structures. That means it’s up to us to lead an intellectual revolution that blocks demagogues from using our worst instincts against ourselves. That involves being self-critical about everything, including fundamental reform of our identity and religion.

I’m not saying communities who suffered under colonialism should just forget about the past and move on. On the contrary, we need to see the legacy of colonialism as a big part of the problem, but not the only one. Colonialism inflicted profound scars on the psychology and politics of MENA cultures, which were not healed The racism that immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa experience only reinforces that.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnkqCyyy72g?feature=oembed&w=650&h=366]

This is why the legitimate sense of being victimised by colonialism must not be applied to every social ailment.

On the other hand, because of the history of colonialism, Europe has the responsibility to create a politically correct public discourse, respectful of Muslims, aimed at facilitating their integration, as equals. This must coincide with supportive initiatives abroad, in international development and security policy. And in turn, it’s the responsibility of Muslim communities to understand that there is no alternative to reform in today's political Islamic discourse.

Moderate voices within Islam have to make it clear that nothing is sacred in a democracy, and that we must reject political violence without fail.

To initiate this reform, Muslim communities need to look nowhere else but their own history for messages of tolerance, reason, and most importantly shared values with Europe.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWFrQx29NB0?feature=oembed&w=650&h=366]

There have been many scholars, philosophers, and even military leaders in our history who testify to the rich potential of Islamic culture, and its tolerance of free speech.

One example is the medieval Arab philosopher and poet Al-Ma'arri. In one of his roughly translated poems, he writes “There's a commotion in Latakia between Ahmed and Issa. One rings the bell and the other shouts from a minaret. Each glorifies their religion. Oh my poetry, who is right?”

In Risalat al-Gufran, Al-Ma’arri adds, “There is but one Imam, the mind,” and “Two inhabit the earth: one with brains but no religion and another with religion but no brains.”

This is a philosopher who lived during the Abbasid Caliphate over 1,000 years ago. He was neither beheaded nor prosecuted. On the contrary, he was praised as one of the great Arabic philosophers and poets.

A statue commemorating Al-Ma'arri stood in his hometown in Syria till 2013, only to be destroyed by Al Nusra Front, an offshoot of Al-Qaeda.

On the issue of incompatibility with secularism, the development of the Muʿtazila school of thought brings out similarities with renaissance humanism from which secular humanism emerged.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3qA6hJYZGI?feature=oembed&w=650&h=366]

The Muʿtazila movement came into being following the translation and interpretation of Aristotelian metaphysics and neo-Platonism. It rejected the idea that the Quran is “uncreated,” which dominated mainstream Sunni and Shia doctrines, arguing that the world can be explained through rational thought alongside scripture. It’s not quite secularism as we understand it today, as it doesn’t separate state and religion. But it opens the door for critical and scientific thought, potentially paving the way for secularism.

Secularism is compatible with Islam. It is just incompatible with the current version of political Islam.

Secularism needs reform as well, as it was often used to discriminate against minorities, whose religiosity is far different from the faith it was supposed to restrain.

Written by The Battleground

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tigerkirby215 · 4 years

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5e Zed the Master of Shadows build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Riot Games)

Well; I did promise it. I’ll be honest the only reason for this build is that it’s the most obvious build to make with the new Echo Knight from Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, and it would be an injustice not to do so. I honestly don’t care much about Zed as I feel like his popularity has sort of died down as his meta relevance has waned. Regardless this build isn’t just a straightforward “lol Echo Knight 20″ so I hope those of you who want to play the edgy shadow ninja boy are pleased.

GOALS

Living Shadow - Of course the core of Zed’s kit is his shadow clones. Man I wonder how we’re going to recreate that?

Shadow Slash - Both Zed and his shadows need an arsenal of weapons that are always on-hand and are ready to both slash and throw.

Contempt for the Weak - Zed passive is what makes him an assassin, quickly killing anyone who’s already hurt.

RACE

Zed is a Human but due to my continued determination to avoid using the Variant Human race (and also because we really don’t need a Feat in this build except maybe Skulker) we’ll be grabbing Flash from Mark of Passage from Eberron. Your Dexterity increases by 2 and you can increase one stat of your choice by 1: choose Wisdom for some later Feat investment. You can also choose one language on top of Common: if Ionian is a language choose that, but Elvish is pretty close I suppose?

You get Courier's Speed for 5 feet of extra movement from your Zeal, and Intuitive Motion lets you add a d4 to any Acrobatics check you make or check involving land vehicles, because of all your training with the Kinkou apparently taught you how to drive a cart as well as do back-flips? But of course the main reason I said to take this race was for Magical Passage, giving you a one-time cast of Misty Step per Long Rest. Flash is a powerful summoner spell: use it to make some stylish plays.

ABILITY SCORES

15; DEXTERITY - Being a ninja is about swiftness and precision, and doing sick backflips and parkour. Wait this isn’t a Talon build?

14; WISDOM - To be a master you need to be wise; wise enough to know you enemy and how to exploit their weakness. It’s also a requirement to multiclass after all.

13; CONSTITUTION - Just because Zed isn’t a tank in-game doesn’t mean some extra tenacity (not the CC reduction type) isn’t appreciated. CON is also tied to some of our clone abilities.

12; INTELLIGENCE - The art of war is a game of intelligence. If fighting is sure to result in victory then you must fight!

10; CHARISMA - Zed runs around in Shredder cosplay and half his voice lines are literally just him grunting. He has his own order but he isn’t getting any free beers.

8; STRENGTH - Again you’re not a tank, and Strength simply isn’t needed for this build. The only thing we’d ever really use Strength for is Athletics, and we can get proficiency in the skill to remedy that.

BACKGROUND

Much like the Kayn build we’ll be going with the Faction Agent background, only this time you’re the faction head! Much like your protegee you get Insight proficiency as well as Intimidation since you’re a spooky shadow man. And of course your Shadow Order can provide you with a Safe Haven if needed, giving you a safe place to hide if your half-brother is looking for you. As for your two languages again it doesn’t matter, so pick something fun.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - ROGUE 1

Starting off as a Rogue for the extra proficencies, also because no shit you’re a ninja. Regardless Rogues get proficiency in 4 skills from the Rogue list: choose Stealth, Perception, Acrobatics, and Athletics so you can keep to the shadows and strike at the perfect time. You also get Expertise in two skills that you know: I’d opt for Stealth as well as Intimidation from your background, so you can sneak up on someone and go “boo!” before cutting out their throat.

Of course the main appeal of Rogues is their Sneak Attack, letting them add a d6 of damage against any enemy who’s close to another ally, or you have advantage on by attacking them from the shadows.

Finally your Shadow Order is well-versed in Thieves’ Cant, a secret code that neither the Noxians nor the Kinkou understand.

LEVEL 2 - ROGUE 2

Second level Rogues get Cunning Action, letting them Dash, Disengage, or Hide as a Bonus Action. The key to playing Zed well is much like the key to playing Rogue well in 5e: keep mobile and be everywhere at once. Don’t give your enemy a moment to hit you.

LEVEL 3 - ROGUE 3

You can choose your Roguish Archetype at level 3 and of course the Master of Shadows needs shadowy blades. Or should I say psychic blades? The Soul Knife subclass from the Psionics UA can create weapons as a Bonus Action with their Psychic Blade feature: these are finesse weapons that you can dual-wield, and throw 30 feet normally and up to 60 feet with disadvantage. These weapons deal a d6 of psychic damage and disappear after they hit the target you throw them at, when you dismiss them for free, or after you let go of them.

You can also choose through a variety of Psionic Enhancements. You can either give yourself 30 feet of telepathy, 5 feet of extra movement speed, or health equal to your Rogue level plus your Intelligence. You may notice that in total that would add up to a 4 currently, but that isn’t likely to go higher so I’d recommend either the telepathy or the movement speed. (5 feet of movement combined with the 5 feet from your race means you’re moving at Barbarian speed!)

WHY LOW INTELLIGENCE? - The Soul Knife, despite being a psionic class, doesn’t need Intelligence to function. A +5 in Intelligence would only mean a total of 8 extra health because we’re not going to be taking any more levels in Rogue. You need both Dexterity and Constitution more in this build, so it’s not worth investing in Intelligence just for one skill. But if you can get your Intelligence high go right ahead.

And finally your Sneak Attack increases to 2d6 now.

LEVEL 4 - FIGHTER 1

Now that you have your shuriken it’s time to get your clones. Level 1 Fighters get a Fighting Style and there’s a lot of options to choose from:

Two-Weapon Fighting is the obvious pick, letting you squeeze a bit of extra damage into your second weapon attack if you decide to opt for two-weapon fighting with your Bonus Action.

Thrown Weapon Fighting from the Class Feature Variants UA will vary in utility depending on your DM’s interpretation of “drawing a weapon.” If they let you summon your knives for free with this fighting style (as long as you throw them instantly) take this fighting style. If not Archery could also perhaps increase your ranged accuracy if your DM is cool with the rules.

When all else fails Defense provides a flat +1 to AC.

Why not Dueling? - Dueling is good in it’s own right to increase damage output but it technically only works if you have one Psiblade out. This means that you’ll be gimping yourself by only summoning one knife at a time, which means you can’t have two ranged shots before needing to “reload.” If you have a cool DM Dueling can still work for more damage.

You also get Second Wind, so you can pop a Refillable Potion to heal for 1d10 plus your fighter level once per short rest as a Bonus Action. Even at this late level that can equal up to a third of your health bar!

LEVEL 5 - FIGHTER 2

Second level Fighters get Action Surge, allowing them to take an additional action once per Short Rest. Man I love Fighters; so simple to explain.

LEVEL 6 - FIGHTER 3

HA HA FUCK ME AM I RIGHT?! Echo Knight from Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount suddenly becomes a hundred times more complex! For the sake of brevity I’m literally going to copy-paste the Echo Knight’s ability description from my Skullgirls Isaac build:

The echo (or Living Shadow, if you will) has an AC of 14 plus your proficiency bonus, 1 hit point, and immunity to all conditions. If it has to make a saving throw it uses your saving throw bonus for the roll. It’s the same size as you and occupies a space. On your turn you can make the echo to move up to 30 feet in any direction without using an action but if your echo is more than 30 feet from you at the end of your turn it is destroyed.

You have several things you can do with your echo:

* You can swap places with your echo with 15 feet of your movement, regardless of the distance between the two of you.

* Any attack you make with the Attack action can originate from the echo’s space if you choose to do so.

* When a creature that you can see within 5 feet of your echo moves away from it, you can use your reaction to make an opportunity attack against that creature as if you were in the echo’s space.

* You can use Unleash Incarnation to make one additional attack from your Echo’s location when you take the attack action, adding up to 3 attacks total. You can use Unleash Incarnation a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier.

In short: Living Shadow can attack for you. We good?

(Artwork by Riot Games)

LEVEL 7 - RANGER 1

We’ve got our Q, we’ve got our W, now it’s time for our... passive? Building characters in D&D is weird. Regardless Rangers get another skill proficiency: I’d recommend the Survival skill to survive if you decide to go into the jungle.

You also get a Favored Enemy and Favored Terrain from Natural Explorer. As per usual whenever I use the Ranger class (which I seem to do a lot) I recommend talking to your DM to find out what enemies and terrain you’ll need, or alternatively use Unearthed Arcana rules. This build is rather separate from Unearthed Arcana but regardless it’s much better than baseline Ranger so I suggest looking at it.

LEVEL 8 - RANGER 2

Second level Rangers get a Fighting Style so I’d recommend one you didn’t take from Fighter 1 (since Fighting Styles don’t stack.) But notably you get access to Spellcasting and learn two spells from the Ranger list: Detect Magic will let you check if your opponent has their ultimate up before fighting, and Hunter’s Mark will let you mark an enemy for death and do an extra d6 of damage every time you hit them.

LEVEL 9 - RANGER 3

Speaking of damage: third level Rangers can choose a conclave archetype, and the Hunter archetype is as useful to assassins as it is to hunters. You get the Hunter’s Prey feature which lets you choose from three different ways to do extra damage, but Colossus Slayer will let you show your contempt for the weak by doing an extra d8 of damage to anyone who’s injured.

You also get Primeval Awareness, letting you spend a spell slot to detect enemies that are near. (Read the ability for a better understanding of how it works.) And speaking of spells how about a smoke bomb? Fog Cloud will let you create a... cloud... of fog. The area is heavily obscured for the duration unless you lose concentration or a strong wind blows it away so you can use it to block enemy vision and get into position to hide and strike!

LEVEL 10 - FIGHTER 4

Man we skipped over our Ability Score Improvements for awhile huhn? Well thankfully there’s no more multiclassing anymore as it’s just straight down Fighter now. But we’ll first be taking a Feat to even out some of our uneven ability scores, and the Observant feat is perfect for a ninja, getting an increase to passive perception to spot assassins in the dark and being able to read the lips of an enemy so you can relay the message to your allies.

LEVEL 11 - FIGHTER 5

5th level Fighters get an Extra Attack good lord finally! The thing is that more attacks means that you’ll have to “reload” your Psychic Blades with a Bonus Action more often, which is why we opted for Colossus Slayer first. So just remember that your knives are limited.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

LEVEL 12 - FIGHTER 6

6th level Fighters get another Ability Score Improvement: increase your Dexterity and Constitution to finally get rid of those awful uneven Ability Scores.

LEVEL 13 - FIGHTER 7

7th level Echo Knights get Echo Avatar: You can see and hear through your Living Shadow, deafening and blinding yourself while you do this. You can keep it up for 10 minutes max and can end it at any time without an action. While your echo is being used this way it can be up to 1000 feet away from you without being destroyed, meaning that you can theoretically teleport to it if you so desire. One of Zed’s biggest strengths is his ability to be practically everywhere at once.

LEVEL 14 - FIGHTER 8

8th level Fighters get another Ability Score Improvement: you can finally cap off your Dexterity for maximum damage with your knives and your shurikens.

LEVEL 15 - FIGHTER 9

At level 9 in Fighter you get Indomitable, letting you reroll a saving throw once per Long Rest. You must use the new roll so be sure to only pop your QSS on an important stun you know you won’t get hit by again 3 seconds later.

LEVEL 16 - FIGHTER 10

10th level Echo Knights get Shadow Martyr. Hey it has “shadow” in the name! Regardless once per short rest you can use a reaction to have your Living Shadow defend an ally (or yourself) when being attacked, forcing the attack to hit the echo instead of you. People can’t shoot Zed’s shadows in League but that doesn’t mean he can’t block a skillshot for an ally.

LEVEL 17 - FIGHTER 11

11th level Fighters get three attacks per round thanks to an improvement to Extra Attack. Again remember that you can only throw two of your Psychic Blades before needing to reload, meaning that if you decide to throw them you can only do so twice before needing to spend a bonus action, and will run out of daggers if you decide to Action Surge. But since your echo can attack with melee it should be fine, right?

LEVEL 18 - FIGHTER 12

12th level Fighters get another Ability Score Improvement: increase your Constitution for more health and more uses of Unleash Incarnation, adding up to you dying less and your enemies dying more.

LEVEL 19 - FIGHTER 13

13th level Fighters get another use of Indomitable. Isn’t cool-down reduction a great stat?

LEVEL 20 - FIGHTER 14

Our capstone is an Ability Score Improvement from the 14th level of Fighter: 2 points in Constitution will give you a 20 HP boost and one extra use of Unleash Incarnation.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

The merest shade of me... - You have a huge array of options in combat which are almost always available for use. You can always be armed with both a melee and ranged weapon and have insane mobility with Misty Step and the ability to swap places with your Echo, not to mention that a 40 foot movement speed puts you above the average movement for humanoids and on-par with most mid-to-high level enemies, letting you easily chase them and keep up.

Our blades crave battle - You have incredibly high damage output. Three attacks with your psychic blades is good in its own right but combined with Sneak Attack, Colossus Slayer, and Hunter’s Mark you can do a grand total of 3d6 + 1d8 extra damage with one of your three strikes. Extra attacks are a great contingency for on-hit damage boosts.

Only the worthy survive - While Zed is squishy in League of Legends this build is much tankier than average. Actually being able to invest in Constitution without losing out on abilities and most of your levels being in Fighter means that your health can easily reach up to 200. Add in Second Wind and Indomitable and you have more than a Guardian Angel to protect you.

CONS

Secrets kept are weapons wasted - You have a lot of set up time to get all your abilities up. A bonus action to draw your weapons and then another bonus action to summon your Echo, plus extra bonus actions to create more blades or more echoes, which will take away from Cunning Action or your mobility abilities.

Only time can judge us - Many of your abilities are limited: limited spells, limited protection with Indomitable and Shadow Martyr, limited damage with Unleash Incarnation and Action Surge, and most notably limited ranged attacks per turn since you can only summon two Psychic Blades per turn.

Balance is weakness - The three levels of Ranger really don’t provide much. More damage is swell and all but taking 3 more Fighter levels instead of 3 Ranger levels would give you more sustainability with Reclaim Potential, another Ability Score Improvement, and most notably a third use of Indomitable and a second use of Action Surge. Ranger makes your average damage output higher but removes your ability to quickly assassinate a target, or keep alive. And it of course forces you to invest somewhat in Wisdom, which might not be possible if you didn’t roll well for stats during character creation.

But I honestly struggled to find many points of weakness in this build; I’m actually impressed with how strong it is overall. You have the tools to take on any fight that may come your way, moving around the battlefield at lightning speeds and dropping any enemy with a flurry of blows. It’s only up to you to use those tools, less you prove yourself a Faker.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

#DnD 5e #dnd #dnd build #dnd fighter #dnd rogue #League of Legends #League of Legends Zed

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ms31x129 · 5 years

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MSR/other/long winded responses

@likos064

This is from another blog discussion @likos064 responses in italics and then my thoughts. The other thread was getting long and the tumblr kept timing out for me.

‘Personally, I have no interest in Mulder or Scully/Other. Regardless of whether it is before they met, during the show pre or post relationship, though I ignore any breakup because I find it redundant, even though I understand the limitations of a TV show and Drama 101. What I cannot ignore, however, are double standards when it comes to writing these Other-relationships. Generally, when its Mulder/Other, regardless of whether he and Scully are involved or not, Mulder is portrayed as the bad guy. Excepting pre-X-files, but even that might be a stretch.

Conversely when it is Scully/Other she is portrayed to be in the right, a woman who is simply being true to her desires and taking what she deserves. It doesn’t matter whether she is involved with Mulder, at the cusp or committed she is still entitled to have sex with whoever she wants. But this only applies to her. Even in fics portraying a breakup she is allowed to move on while he has to wait for her to come back, if he wants companionship. And at that point, I don’t want them together any longer.

Retrograde as mentioned above is a good example. I don’t want her anywhere near him and I find it preposterous that he is completely alone so that she can prey on him in his weakness. People can write, like and headcanon what they want. But I am disturbed by the abuse that is so often encouraged towards him. Why make her as damaging as Phoebe and Diana?’

I agree with pretty much everything you said above and perhaps that’s why the ‘break-up’ eps have bothered me, I have trouble with getting into Scully’s mind – perhaps that’s a result of male writers? And no ‘show bible?’ I am a Mulderist through and through and I try not (I might not always succeed) to ‘cut’ Scully down in order to praise Mulder.

Through the seasons I think there have been hints as to Scully wanting a relationship/family – at some point, and it’s actually hard for me to pinpoint when she really chose Mulder – although running away with him in the Truth was a pretty good statement. Jersey Devil, Revelations (her instinct with Kevin,) Home are 3 right of the top of my head. (What’s wrong with a woman who doesn’t want children?) In the back of my mind I think I could always see Scully as being the one to move on and be just another person who left Mulder.

Mulder I think does want a family, I just don’t know if he thinks he deserves it? He really is so good with children in the eps – is that due to his psychology background – maybe? He didn’t ‘bond’ with Kevin in Revelations partly I think due to the Religion aspect although he doesn’t naysay Scully when she wants to keep Kevin with them either. In Home Mulder is telling Scully a happy memory of being a kid, baseball his sister – that dialogue stood out to me as well as the remarks about the kind of home he’d like to settle down in. Cliché it is, but I think he’s was searching for the family he lost the day Samantha disappeared. Even if he hadn’t believed it was Aliens I think Mulder would have kept searching regardless.

‘You’re right she did want to be with him. However, I don’t view the desire to be the same as action though there is definitely emotional cheating on Daniel’s part. A Platonic Romance can be just as threatening to marriage as one with a sexual component. Nevertheless, the fandom interpretation takes the relationship in a direction far different from the one that Gillian intended and that’s what I thought of when you complained about Scully’s involvement with a married man.’

Hmm… I could be wrong, but I thought GA said in several interviews that she intended for it to be obvious Scully and Daniel had been lovers. Even though she knows Scully’s character is Catholic and had been brought up to respect marriage it was one of Scully’s rebellion’s? GA doesn’t have a strict religious view point, so I thought this part of AT was more GA than Scully especially since she seemed to scoff at her sister Melissa’s more open / nature new age beliefs. At the same time within the ep I could view it as did knowing Mulder allow her to open up to other religions? Ideas? IMO it would have been nice to let Mulder know that occasionally.

I will confess that I too have some reservations over her behavior in all things. According to Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter, Mulder and Scully are already involved in all things. The scene at the beginning with Mulder in bed was to indicate an ongoing sexual relationship not the start of one. Gillian knew this and still wrote Scully as deciding to leave Mulder, per the original script, only to change her mind again.

Well unfortunately we can’t take what FS or CC says for granted. I would love to read those statements though the only one I can recall is Frank S. reminding fans that AT wasn’t the first time M&S were in each others apartments overnight. How many times were we told William is Mulder’s son. For me that rankles as just another way to hurt Mulder, regardless all those years he thought he had a son out there.

‘My issue lies more in that this confirms Mulder’s fears, something that I see him being mocked over consistently; primarily when he runs away from her in Detour. I see numerous complaints about how he waited too long, but I always interpreted it, beyond TV show limitations and the patterns that existed in the 90s, as her not being ready for a relationship. Nor did I see an invitation of wine and cheese as a guaranteed sexual offer.’

I agree with this, I also wonder how much the whole experience with Scully almost dying affected him and wanting to be more, and of course Bill’s reaction I’m sure dug a little spot in his mind too. What is dying but another form of abandonment in a sense. I didn’t like ‘3’ either, but that was much earlier in their partnership so it was a little (very little) more palatable.

‘Nevertheless, I’m curious about your aversion to Scully’s attraction to older authoritative men. I don’t understand why you think she’s too smart for this. I always saw it as a father complex, an extension of the affection and more importantly approval she so desperately wanted from her father. Similarly, I viewed Mulder’s attraction to older women as a mother complex rooted in the affection his mother deprived him of following Samantha’s abduction.’

I know my aversion is mainly from a life experience and a friend’s story. I only took one college class and you could just see the professor eyeing up every girl that walked in until it landed on my friend. She was a straight A student, she wasn’t shy or outgoing we all thought her feet were planted firmly on the ground. He praised her, but you could also see subtle ‘put downs’ – you shouldn’t do it that way only an infant would things like that some worse. And all of us were shocked when she started a relationship with the professor who was 17 yrs older I think. Long story short he was married had 3 or 4 kids, she got pregnant he dropped her like a hot potato, she got an abortion and tried to commit suicide. We ended up finding out she’d been sexually abused as a child by her father or step-father. She moved and I haven’t seen or heard from her in over 30 yrs.

I know there wasn’t any hint of that in Scully and her father’s relationship, but the whole older-man/daddy issue has just always made me angry/disgusted in general.

’I see Daniel as an authority figure as well as a teacher who values her intelligence and makes her feel as though she matters. While Jack has a more obsessive quality towards his work, like her father who prioritized the navy over her. Both would have given her approval because they were teachers and she did her assignments. She mostly met their expectations. Until she didn’t.’

I agree with some of that. Mulder is different than those two men, I don’t see that many similarities. In NA when people say Mulder was treating Scully like her boss – jerk is the term I see most. Well technically he is the dept. head and he could assign her things. When they jointly investigate cases it makes sense to split up when their particular skills are better utilized – he thinks outside the box and she provides the facts/science when possible.

I always saw it as how much trust had formed that Mulder knew Scully would handle things. When he sort of scoffs at Scully handing off the case, I don’t take it as him not trusting/believing her – I think he was looking for any excuse to come back – I could be wrong.

And as I recall Scully has made jokes about Mulder’s dating or ala Jersey Devil Mulder’s “I have a life” reply to Scully. It seems okay when she does it but when he does it’s wrong.

‘Phoebe was manipulative but her mind games could still lead to rewards.’

I’m curious what rewards do you mean?

‘Diana I see as terribly accommodating but just as manipulative as Phoebe.’

Groan – I just hate the character of Diana for so many reasons. I hate when shows just drop in a character for shock value. I can’t believe in almost 5yrs of working together Diana’s name never once came up. That Scully never saw her name in a case file. That the LG never mentioned her before either you’d think there’d have been a comparison of the two, unless DF wasn’t a ‘work’ partner.

This is the man who opens up to Scully on their 1st case together and tells her about his sister in a very intimate way - even though he initially thinks she’s sent to spy on him. Yet when DF appears – initially its just generic basics about her, she gets shot and FTF come out with the whole ‘almost kiss’ scene. I’m sure DF would be too confusing for the ‘new’ fans Fox/CC were hoping to entice.

Then the Beginning – no mention of a kiss – Mulder appears so frustrated with Scully, but he trusts her completely with Gibson and it makes sense she’s the doctor. In the other eps with DF we never see Mulder seeking her out, yet he doesn’t seem to be sharing with Scully why he trusts Diana or the audience. To me that whole season (6) was Mulder making a choice to be with Scully at work and after work on cases like Dreamland.

I think the perfect time to introduce a new set of agents would have been right after FTF, are we to believe scientists worldwide wouldn’t have gotten notice of seismographs going off - tremors in Antartica they wouldn’t be down there investigating the cause.

Maybe that’s one of the problems with XFiles trying to straddle that line Aliens – but also real world cases happening in real time?

‘In both cases, Mulder’s need to please and be acknowledged would’ve been satisfied. I feel that Mulder and Scully partly satisfy these complexes in each other. Mulder is in a supervising role and Scully does want his acknowledgment and unless the script says otherwise, see Never Again, she gets it. Likewise, Scully acknowledges Mulder and appreciates him, unless the script calls for otherwise, like in all things. And if you decide to acknowledge the season 10-11 breakup.’

Quite the difference in DD and GA’s script(s), especially in the Unnatural it’s all about learning, a connection to someone, something even though neither M or S are in the ep, but for 7-8 minutes. I know some still get mad for the ‘ticking of her biological clock’ reference, but that is a common saying and Mulder was using it in that light-hearted way. Hollywood AD was a quirky ep and one of the ones that it’s hard to put in the XF ‘case’ universe, but even it had some poingnant moments and again M & S spending time outside of work together enjoying each other’s company.

And then AT – all about Scully, more of a character study. Mulder is flirty with his projector in the beginning and she’s stabbing her salad and snapping at him. I definitely didn’t care for snarky Scully. In the whole ep the only section I like is their conversation on the couch, the way DD plays Mulder and the way he looks at her – that man is in love, period.

S10-11 Breakup = stupid. As per the ratings immediate drop from week 1 to week 2 and kept on going. The idea that Mulder had to choose Scully over going back to work for the FBI – if that’s what he wanted to do is just wrong. And Scully just happening to work for a hospital and one or more of the patrons/dr.’s happening to experiment on his own children. There would have been the perfect ‘case’ to draw Scully back to working on the X-Files with Mulder and if they’d set up those other agents in S6 who knows how the series would have ended.

One other thing that bothered me as the show progressed is what I call the dumbing down of Mulder. In Deep Throat Mulder has the line about his hotshot pilot friend and asks a technical flight question in other eps he also would pull facts both unusual and technical out in dialogue. Then it seemed that slowly faded. Was it to prop Scully up as being smarter? I don’t know I just missed those little moments of Mulder’s brilliance.

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so-shiny-so-chrome · 5 years

Text

Witness: Jaetion

Creator name (AO3): Jaetion

Creator name (Tumblr): Jaesauce

Link to creator works: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaetion/works

Creator name (other platform- please specify): Pillowfort: Jaetrix

Q: Why the Mad Max Fandom?

A: MMFR movie was incredible! It hit all of my sweet spots. And the fandom is great: really supportive people, creative fanworks, and great discussions. I've been playing around with fandoms online for a long time and I've met some awesome people, but the MMFR fandom is just chocked full of interesting fans and ideas (like this spotlight!).

Q: What do you think are some defining aspects of your work? Do you have a style? Recurrent themes?

A: Oof, I'm not sure. I think my style is a lot of conversation, and very little and very poorly written action? As far as themes go, I love referencing music. Music is important to me, so it usually influences my writing. I identify as a feminist and try to put progressive messages into my stuff. I try to write women who form relationships, live their lives, and drive the plot without having to play second banana to men. On a similar, I like writing/reading sex scenes that are fun and funny for the people involved - enthusiastic yes from both/all parties. (Unless I'm filling a fic request that specifies something else, of course.)

Q: Which of your works was the most fun to create? The most difficult? Which is your most popular? Most successful? Your favourite overall?

A: “Take the A Train" was fun because I love writing about NYC. But the stories in "Citadel City Serenade" have definitely been the most rewarding. I really like trying to fit plots and characters together, and it feels awesome when things snap into place. "Six-String Soldier" is my most popular fic, probably because I started writing it right around the release of the movie and it's shippy. Overall... hm, I think my favorite MMFR thing I've written might be "Metal Bars." I think I did a pretty decent mix of kid naivety and shitty oppression.

Q: How do you like your wasteland? Gritty? Hopeful? Campy? Soft? Why?

A: Hopeful, but realistic, I think. With everything that's going on in politics, both in America and internationally, and the unbearably awful reports on climate change, I need to cling to some remnants of hope or else I'll just lie on the floor and never get up. I love solarpunk! Reclaiming/recreating the world is what interests me.

Q: Walk us through your creative process from idea to finished product. What's your prefered environment for creating? How do you get through rough patches?

A: I write drafts, either as notes on paper or outlines in Google docs. I have a bunch of notebooks full of fragments. I do a lot of editing - I have a hard time articulating things, so it takes a number of attempts until I get it right (or at least close to right). When I get stuck, I read fic. There are so many talented authors who've produced so many amazing stories that it's pretty easy to find something inspiring.

Q: What (if any) music do you listen to for help getting those creative juices flowing?

A: Folk music! I have a couple of playlists on Spotify specifically for writing Mad Max fic.

Q: What is your biggest challenge as a creator?

A: Writing! Specifically writing something good! I'm not sure if this counts as a challenge, but I also struggle with self doubt; posting something that gets no attention really sucks and it's hard not to take poor reviews/no reviews as a personal affront.

Q: How have you grown as a creator through your participation in the Mad Max Fandom? How has your work changed? Have you learned anything about yourself?

A: I've never attempted to write something as long as "Six-String Soldier," or the whole series of "Citadel City Serenade," really. Trying to manage a couple of different timelines at once with different POVs has been complicated and fun. Because of this fandom, I've also been writing more articles for the Fanlore wiki and tracking down references/resources for preservation. I'm an archivist and being able to use some of my professional skills in fandom and even develop them has been sort of neat.

Q: Which character do you relate to the most, and how does that affect your approach to that character? Is someone else your favourite to portray? How has your understanding of these characters grown through portraying them?

A: I probably relate most to Max: tired, wants to be alone, many grunts. But I prefer to write the Wives. They're so fascinating, each in their own way. I love how distinct they are and yet how well they work as a team. The first few times I saw the movie, I focused on Furiosa as the feminist hero that we all needed, but the more I watched and the more I read, the more I realized just how courageous, intelligent, and yes, feminist the Wives are. Victory doesn't require fighting and heroes don't need to be killers. The Wives achieve so much over the span of the story without physically fighting.

Q: How do you translate various elements from the film, such as the theme of the importance of bodily autonomy and critiques of an oppressive ruling class, into a modern setting?

A: This is an amazing question, thank you for asking! MMFR portrays a reality that is uncannily close to our own - In fact, it might as well be a peek into our future. In my mind, there's not even much of a need to translate those elements/themes because oh god we're dealing with them right now. What I was trying to translate with "Citadel City Serenade" is the victory of the characters over those adversities. In MMFR, the characters participate in violent, bloody battle; in CCS, they start social movements. Which is something we can do in the real world! Marches, protests, grassroots activism in general are tools we can use - Music, art, hell even gardening can be parts of a revolution.

Q: Do you ever self-insert, even accidentally?

A: Nope! I'm far too pathetic to survive in the wasteland. Hopefully I'll just die in the initial blast.

Q: Do you have any favourite relationships to portray? What interests you about them?

A: Yes! I'm a shipper at heart, so I am all about the couples. My two favorites are Capable/Nux and Toast/Slit. I love having the women be the ones leading the relationships - not only setting the boundaries but also expanding the War Boys world into completely new territory. I'm also totally into male characters who are sexually inexperienced. Alpha male dudes are meh in my opinion - Give me someone sweet and enthusiastic, someone whose love is based on respect, someone whose enthusiastic about learning. I think Nux is firmly in the category of awesome boyfriend, and I like trying to figure out how to lead Slit in that direction. There's also the idea of redemption in their relationships that I find fascinating.

Q: How does your work for the fandom change how you look at the source material?

A: Hm, I think that I definitely view the film through a feminist gaze. It's entirely possible that MMFR is just an action film but that's not my take on it!

Q: Do you prefer to create in one defined chronology or do your works stand alone?

A: Why or why not?Bit of both! I just want to read, read, read - As long as the fics are well written, it doesn't matter to me if the settings are consistent. As far as my own writing goes, I get so many ideas for fics that it's not really possible to have them all exist in a single chronology.

Q: To break or not to break canon? Why?

A: The great thing about fanfiction is that it's transformative. To me, canon is the foundation, but you can build whatever you want on it. Hopefully I keep the characters close to their canon portrayals, but other than that, I like to mix things up. Also, a modern AU setting just fits so damn well in the Mad Max world. I think also that canon itself can be flexible. Death of the author and all that. Once media is out in the world, it'll be interpreted by the audience - and sometimes those interpretations are vastly different from one another.

Q: Share some headcanons.

A: I don't really have any! Since most of my stuff is AU, the headcanons are limited to those settings.

Q If you work with OCs walk us through your process for creating them. Who are some of your favourites?

A: I have a smatterings of OCs who populate the world as background characters: Vuvalini, milking mothers, and War Boys. I played a MMFR tabletop RPG a couple of years ago, and my character from that and an NPC she saved both ended up in 6-String. That particular War Boy (Stacks) now has a couple of fans and so I've been giving him more screentime, as it were. He's sort of interesting as a foil to Nux and Slit: those two have girlfriends to learn from, but Stacks is on his own as he tries to escape from the WB life.

Q: If you create original works, how do those compare to your fan works?

A: I do! I participate in NaNo every year. I think my fanfiction is better than my original stuff since I write, since the fanfic is intended to be shared and thus I have to write decently enough to get readers. However my stuff tends to be in the speculative fiction genre, so that's something my fanfic and original fic share.

Q: What are some works by other creators inside and outside of the fandom that have influenced your work?

A: There are so many! In Mad Max, @supergirrll, @redcandle17, pbp (@primarybufferpanel), @bonehandledknife, Tyellas (@thebyrchentwigges), and hell all of the Boltcutters are all really important; the early writers of Nux/Capable fics also really influenced and inspired my love of the characters and the ships. Spicyshimmy, an author in the Dragon Age fandom, has also been one of my favorite authors for years, and I return to her stuff regularly to see how awesome writing can be.

Q: What advice can you give someone who is struggling to make their own works more interesting, compelling, cohesive, etc.?

A: I struggle with this myself, so I don't think I really have an answer unfortunately other than read everything you can get your hands on, write everything you can think of. I write basically what I want to read; if I can make the reader!me happy, then at least I've satisfied one person. However, what I consider interesting, compelling, etc, isn't always what other people want. Maybe my advice is to try not to take it personally when your hard work isn't rewarded. Which again, I'm not always able to do.

Q: Have you visited or do you plan to visit Australia, Wasteland Weekend, or other Mad Max place?

A: Yes, Wasteland Weekend! It was a lot of fun and I'm hoping to go again. Being able to immerse myself in the world was a great experience - A totally new way for me to engage with fandom.

Q: Tell us about a current WIP or planned project.

A: Still chugging along with "Citadel City Serenade!" The two main stories in that series are going to intersect in a meaningful way soon. In fact, they're going to crash. Looking forward to getting that out there (and getting it done!).

Thank you @jaesauce

#Mad Max Fandom Spotlight #Mad Max fandom #mad max fandom creator spotlight #fury road fandom #fanfic author spotlight #mad max fanfic author spotlight #Jaetion

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