#Sorry for the wall of text

[polarity-disturbed]

Guys, guys, please—I can't do this. This episode isn't about painting UNIT as some flawless institution under unfair attack. It’s about a deeply flawed system. One that, on little to no evidence of an actual alien threat, invades a small town in full SWAT gear. That’s not meant to be a good thing.

It’s a story where the person in charge literally releases a dangerous creature to prove a point—and that same institution is being targeted by a misinformation campaign. And yet, despite those serious flaws, they do ultimately act to protect people. That’s the tension. That’s the point.

Let me be clear: this is an allegory for COVID and the online grifters and influencers who took advantage of the pandemic to spread hate and gain popularity—and who continue to do so now.

It’s about how institutions—even when compromised, bureaucratic, or short-sighted—still have the capacity to do good. They’re made of people, many of whom are trying to hold the line, trying to save lives, trying to do the right thing while the ground shifts under them.

But those imperfections? They make it easy for grifters to walk in and sell a fantasy. People like Conrad don’t actually want to protect anyone—they want control. And they know how to dress up that pursuit of power in the language of liberation. He says he’s standing up for you, for “truth,” for “the people,” but really he’s weaponizing frustration, anger, and distrust for his own gain.

Conrad always knew aliens were real. He wasn’t trying to expose lies. He was trying to punish UNIT for not recruiting him. That’s it. His whole crusade is built on a personal grudge. He rejects the Doctor’s reality not because it’s implausible, but because he wasn’t chosen.

That’s the core danger here: villains who tell you exactly what you want to hear. Who appeal to your cause, your values, your righteous anger. They frame themselves as underdogs, rebels, visionaries. But when you look closer, their plans are hollow. Destruction for destruction’s sake, dressed up in whatever narrative gets clicks and followers. People saw what they wanted to see in Conrad. Whatever oppressive system they hate, he claimed to be fighting it. He let you project your beliefs onto him—just like grifters do in real life. He made destruction feel like justice.

Ruby drank the vial, Conrad didn’t. That vial was the only thing that negated the Shreek’s vomit-based marking system, and by refusing to drink it, Conrad didn’t just risk his own life—he put everyone else in danger. Just like those that refused to take the vaccine.

And Kate, in releasing the monster, represents those who, during the pandemic, felt frustration and helplessness. She symbolizes the moment some threw up their hands and said, “If they won’t take the vaccine, let them die.” But that mindset didn’t solve the problem; it only escalated it. The monster had already shown it could mark more than one person, and there was no guarantee it wouldn’t strike again. The monster, like the virus, didn’t distinguish between those who made bad choices and those who couldn’t protect themselves. And she released it anyway.

By surrendering to that frustration, she was putting the vulnerable at greater risk, the very people who needed protection the most.

This mirrors the situation with COVID: surrendering to misinformation or personal pride jeopardizes the lives of the vulnerable, children, the immunocompromised, and those without the same choices or protections.

It was only because of Ruby that those consequences didn’t spiral out of control. Ruby didn’t just save lives—she prevented Kate’s breakdown in judgment from becoming a catastrophe.

So no, this isn’t “UNIT good, Conrad bad.” It’s a story about nuance. About how flawed systems can still serve the public good, and how those flaws are exploited by bad-faith actors who don’t care about truth or safety. It’s a warning: be careful who you believe, and why. Just because someone says what you’re thinking doesn’t mean they’re right. And just because a system needs fixing doesn’t mean you burn it all down.

The episode holds up a mirror to us and asks: what do you do when the systems meant to protect you fall short? Do you give up? Do you burn down the establishment, ignoring that it would put people at great danger? Or do you recognize that while the system is flawed, it still has the capacity to do good, and that dismantling it without a plan and without care for who gets caught in the fallout can cause more harm than reforming it ever would? It challenges us to sit with discomfort, to hold more than one truth at once.

Conrad had valid grievances, but his actions still endangered lives. UNIT made mistakes, but it still stood between humanity and annihilation. Rejecting nuance in favor of easy answers may feel righteous, but it often leaves the most vulnerable to pay the price.

That said, I do think the episode would’ve been stronger had the Shreek actually attacked or marked someone else during that final confrontation. Even just one more target could have underscored the point that the threat was indiscriminate—that Kate’s decision risked more than just Conrad. It would’ve made the stakes more immediate, and made Ruby’s choice feel even more necessary.

And yeah—I really hope we get an episode someday that digs into the tightrope UNIT has to walk. How do you hold them accountable without exposing the dangerous technology and classified knowledge they safeguard? But that's not what this episode was targeting.

[kdpartworks]

A few updates...

So, where do I even start? 😂

Since my bike got stolen, it’s been all downhill from there. Every single day something new. After the bike drama, I had another lovely little disaster (which I won’t go into—those who know, know 👀). Let’s just say it really knocked the wind out of me. I mean, I’m a grown woman, but wow… it hit hard and left me feeling like 💩.

Then my phone—because of the heat AND because it was basically ancient—decided to give up on life. So I had to rush out and get a new one. At that point I thought, “Okay, surely the bad luck streak is over now?”

…WRONG. 🙃

I managed to transfer (almost) everything onto the new phone. Got back into my socials (Instagram was being its usual dramatic self, of course 🙄). Everything seemed fine…

Except Discord. Discord took one look at my new phone and said: “Nu-huh”

Long story short: Discord and Google refused to cooperate, and poof—my account was gone. Along with all my friendships, gifs, memories (some of them awkward but hey, memories are memories), and the draft of my server I’d been slowly putting together for the future. I was too scared to launch it because I didn’t feel ready… well, guess what? Now i am.

Moral of the story? I had to start over. From scratch. 😅

Maybe it’s the universe giving me a little push to clean house and start fresh? I like to think so. It’s like when I lose hours of work on a drawing because I forgot to save—at first I scream internally, but then I redo it and… it usually turns out better. So maybe this will too? Fingers crossed. 🤞✨

Anyway… I rebuilt the server! 🎉 But I’m not opening it officially just yet because I have zero moderators and, let’s be real, it would turn into chaos faster than you can say “@everyone” 🤣

When it is ready, I hope you’ll come hang out!

Oh, and side note: today is my son Nicola’s birthday! 🥹 After all this streak of bad luck, I really hope today is a good one.

So yeah… if you don’t see me posting much, now you know why. That and the heat. It’s absolutely draining me—I swear I’m working, but I’m slower and tired. Please be patient with me 💕

Thanks for reading this far—you’re a lovely friend. 🥹❤️

[sadtrainnoises]

Random superbat idea I had at work today!

A middle school pen pal, au thing

The private middle school in Gotham is conducting an Agriculture unit in science and has teamed up with a school in Smallville, Kansas, to pair students with pen pals to discuss the topic. Bruce and Clark end up pen pals. Bruce isn’t entirely into the idea of writing to some random kid about agriculture, but eventually the kindness of Clark charms him. Somehow, after they realise how much they enjoy communicating, they exchange actual addresses. They spend the rest of the school year writing to each other about their classes and extracurriculars. One day, in Clark’s letter to Bruce, he tells him how one of their cows is pregnant with twins and how excited he is. In Bruce’s response, he says how cool that is and how he’s never seen a live cow. In the next letter, Clark asks if Bruce would want to visit the farm and see the cows. To Alfred's surprise, Bruce excitedly asks Alfred if there is any way they could visit the Kents’ farm. After getting the phone number of the Kents and talking to Ma and Pa, Alfred lets Bruce visit the farm. One month after deciding they visit the farm, Clark sends Bruce a letter telling him that the cow gave birth to the twins and that they are healthy. Bruce is immediately ready to visit the farm and see the cows. They get to the farm two days after the letter is sent. Alfred accompanies Bruce on his visit, bringing the Kents some baked pastries. The boys are excited to finally be meeting each other in real life; they had sent photos in their letters, but actually meeting was something different. The boys run off to find the twin calves as the adults talk. They find them with their mom in the barn. Bruce cautiously approaches one of the calves. It licks him along the side of his face, and Clark burst out laughing after seeing how Bruce's hair is now standing tall on that side of his head. The other calf does the same to Clark, and then it is Bruce's turn to laugh. The two spend the rest of the afternoon hand feeding some of the cows, and Clark shows Bruce some of the farming stuff and talks about how their usual day goes. After some time, they are called back for refreshments. Ma Kent makes an off comment about how beautiful the sky is out here. Bruce gets excited and begs Alfred to stay to see the stars come out. And Clark also asks his parents if Bruce can stay to see the stars. Everyone agrees that the boys can go star-gazing. Once the sun starts to set, they go out with a blanket and head over to a small hill on the Kents' property. They spend an hour pointing out different constellations and talking about the stars and space. Eventually, Alfred calls out for Bruce as they have an afternoon plane to take the next day. The boys sit for a moment, Bruce reaches over to Clark and kisses his cheek, before getting up and running to Alfred. Clark, a little dazed and flustered, calls after Bruce, “I’ll write you when you get home!”

[pirateprincessjess]

Hey you openly trans person, we know you are trans!! Somehow i think this is an insult!!

Honestly, it’s because they assume we are ashamed of being trans, and in my experience this misconception has actually been one of the best starting points for convincing someone to change their mind about transgender people, and to start to accept us.

Shortly after I came out a cis friend of mine told me that he thought being trans was a sin. He said that people are ashamed of being trans and that meant transness was a sin because we are instinctively ashamed of things that are sinful.

Now obviously this is complete bullshit. Shame is a learned behavior. We learn shame early in life. It’s a thing that we develop by experiencing rejection, disapproval, or criticism from the people around us. When our parents or peers make us feel unworthy or flawed then we develop a sense of shame.

I was seven years old when I told a therapist that I felt like a girl, and that I hated being a boy. I was seven years old when that therapist told me that this was a bad thing, and that I needed to keep it a secret. I was seven years old when I learned to be ashamed of my transness. There was nothing instinctual about my shame.

It took me along time, but I eventually managed to work past some of that shame, and at 25 years old I came out to a small group of people and started HRT. By the time I was 26 I was out to the world.

And there I was, nineteen years years after learning to be ashamed of my transness, listening to a friend tell me that my shame was a natural instinct.

Nineteen years after learning to be ashamed of being trans, I was able to say, honestly, that I was not ashamed.

This didn’t immediately change my friend’s mind, but it was the first time he stopped to reconsider his views. This conversation was the turning point that lead to him asking me questions in good faith, instead of asking me gotcha questions to try and convince me to stop being transgender.

Five years later we are still good friends, and he is one of my staunchest cisgender allies.

[expertfool]

i can’t really get over douglas adams rewriting adam and eve as ford and arthur. there are many things about it that blow my mind. that they are both men. that it was the 80s. that arthur is presented as eve. that it is all intentional. that trillian—who is the other last human being along with arthur—could’ve been there instead of ford, more accurately portraying the adam and eve story, and there is literally no good reason for her not being there as zaphod, ford, arthur, and trillian had all been in that time machine and yet douglas adams pairs ford and arthur off instead of the last two humans (and notably male and female). the only reason trillian is not there in place of ford is because douglas adams specifically did not want her to be. she continues to be a part of the plot in the book, although it is not critical to the plot (in the restaurant at the end of the universe) that she be there with zaphod instead of with arthur (though it’s better for her character), so the choice of who is paired with who is very purposefully based on relationship and not plot requirements.

i think this point is even furthered by mostly harmless—arthur and trillian do end up conceiving a child together, but arthur is not even there at the conception of his own child. he is completely without any romantic or sexual desire or intentions towards trillian. donating sperm is the most sexless way of conceiving a child, and douglas adams chooses to do this after intentionally pairing ford and arthur as adam and eve. when arthur finds out he has a child, he doesn’t think of himself as missing out on a relationship with trillian, instead asks “what about zaphod?” without jealousy or frustration. despite the sexless-ness and detachment of the act of donating sperm that was never even intended for child conception, arthur loves his daughter unconditionally and without reserve.

these points paired with the scene where arthur is given a prayer tailored to him in mostly harmless, “protect me from knowing what i don’t need to know. protect me from even knowing that there are things to know that i don’t know. protect me from knowing that i decided not to know about the things that i decided not to know about…it’s what you pray silently inside yourself anyway, so you may as well have it out in the open…there’s another prayer that goes with it…protect me from the consequences of the above prayer.” just really lend itself a lot to the idea that arthur was maybe possibly intended to be read as gay. or at least makes it very easy to read arthur as gay.

i’m also fascinated with the contrast of ford and arthur portrayed as adam and eve eating the apple which would give them the knowledge of good and evil and allow them to understand the consequences—obviously these characters are adults and already know these things, making this metaphor a euphemism for something else—against the prayer arthur receives for himself in mostly harmless. it is like a reversal of what eating the apple in eden achieves. eat the apple, receive awareness of something, three books later receive a prayer for the exact opposite. these things also existing at contrasting times in ford and arthur’s relationship—that ford and arthur had been isolated on a beautiful planet together during the apple in eden bit but had not seen each other in years and had a bad argument in mostly harmless during the time arthur received the prayer. i do think the prayer means something else for arthur in the plot (though actually, douglas adams almost always uses events in his books to have more than one meaning in the series so..), but these things being so intentionally written always makes me wonder if douglas adams meant something about arthur’s sexuality and his relationship with ford.

[spamton-weekly]

i loveee the stuff youve been doing with tenna lately like the fragmented and hidden images of him. really good

I put this blog on hold a couple of months ago mainly because I felt like I was running out of ideas and the spamton brainworms were slowly dying, but when Chapter 3+4 released and I managed to play them right away they came back [[BIGGER AND BETTER THAN EVER]]. It's amazing how Tenna and his relationship with Spamton managed to give even more depth to his character without even showing him on screen. Toby gives you little to nothing to work with yet you can somewhat imagine what his life working with Tenna was like. I like to think he's actively suppressing him from his memories

[theartofsimpatry]

Imagine March 7th having a crush on you! You would probably be her best friend at first but after seeing you protect her in battle or against an insult, she felt her heart start beating more and more around you. Despite her normally bubbly and loving personality, around you, she would get quiet. Around you she suddenly became shy and quiet. With a slightly tinted red face, she would greet you then say she needed to be somewhere else! Everyone could see the sudden change of personality and was worried.

One of the first people she told was Dan Heng, he had absolutely nothing of useful advice for her (in March’s opinion). The second was Himeko, she hoped Himeko will provide her with older sisterly advice and she got exactly that. Himeko told her to invite you over and have her tell you her feelings.

March 7th finally got up the courage to invite you over to her room for a “girl’s night” (doesn’t matter your gender). You’d find yourself awkwardly sitting down on her bed, with some sweet tea in hand as March tries her best to procrastinate doing what she set out to do. After playing some games with her and talking, you knew there was something else she wanted to say but she wouldn’t spit it out. You’d fling yourself on her bed in frustration and tell her how weird she’s been acting! She no longer hangs out with you! She never talks to you anymore! It’s frustrating! Does she not even want to be friends anymore?! You keep your back to her on the bed, every time she tries to see your face, you roll to the other side. Till she finally gathers the bravery to crawl on her bed next to you. She wraps her arms around you, her knees under yours and she presses her chest into your back.

“I-I like you y/n…” she finally confesses.

[waywardwhispersblaze]

the story of Vi and Jinx

(This was originally written as a comment on reddit about the imbalance of Jinx's and Vi's arcs so it's a little rough. But I figured I could post it here, especially since I've complained a lot on this blog and have really changed my mind on a lot of things)

Vi and Jinx's stories were written pretty equally, IMO. (On paper. On screen, they were executed in such different ways that you've got a part of the audience convinced Vi didn't have an arc at all, which is just… huh. Simply not true).

But you can't separate Vi's arc from Jinx's. They're the reverse of each other.

Vi's about a letting go of the feelings of responsibility placed on her as a child, Jinx's is about taking that mantle and owning up for her actions. Vi needs to overcome her trauma by learning to think about herself and her own needs for once, Jinx needs to overcome hers by (re)learning empathy for others. Vi needs to unlearn Vander's lessons, Jinx needs to unlearn Silco's. Both have an arc of learning who they are without each other and taking control of their lives. Both feel like they've terribly messed up their own lives, for wildly different reasons, and it affects them in opposite ways. Vi turns the blame inward. Jinx turns the blame outward. Both need to break out of that big sister / little sister dynamic they're trapped in. Vi gets to see Jinx as an adult, Jinx gets to see Vi be broken and vulnerable. Etc. etc.

Episode 8 is where it all comes together. Vi has already come to see Jinx as someone who can take care of herself, she's relied on her before in act II and is no longer thinking of her as just Powder, but she can't let her go to prison, because she loves her and wants the best for her, and believes in her potential. Vi still won't think of herself first - she makes the decision to free Jinx thinking she's stabbing Caitlyn in the back and will lose her love for it (or rather, she's not thinking at all, she's acting on pure instinct and is completely unraveling). It's the wrong decision for the right reason: she is right not to give up on Jinx! But she needs to slow tf down and think of her own needs too.

Jinx decides she needs to get out of Vi's life and let her be happy - a decision coming from a place of empathy for what Vi had been through and a way to make up for her previous actions (you know, that time when she actively and cruelly tried to sabotage Vi and Caitlyn's relationship? Caitlyn's not the only one who apologizes through actions this episode). It's the right decision for the wrong reason: at this point Jinx also thinks there's no good version of her and that she needs to dip out of life permanently, but she's obviously very wrong in that.

Jinx's departure is the last straw for Vi who is left alone for hours and comes to terms with the fact that she "chose wrong", and losing Caitlyn wasn't worth it. This is where the dialogue is sparse and a little more would have really really helped, but Vi would have never, ever thrown herself at Caitlyn with such an uncharacteristic lack of restraint if she hadn't made the decision to 1) go for it all the way 2) stop making Jinx come first and 3) there's no turning back after this. Scene direction, framing and body language, y'all. This is the right decision for the right reason, at last.

Then we get to episode 9 and Jinx comes out of her suicidal bout ready to move on and kick ass. She, too, has finally made the right decision for the right reason: to build a new life for herself, on her terms. All season people have wanted her to be the hero of Zaun, the perfect revolutionary leader. But she's no revolutionary leader. Not who she is, not what she wants. She's an inventor, a free spirit, someone whose ideas "change the world" but not someone who will busy herself with leading others. So she decides to use this image that has been pushed on her, in order to honor the wishes of both Vi and Ekko, who ironically have both strong reasons to wish for peace rather than revolution now. And then she plans to dip out of that particular conflict, so she can go explore the world and discover herself without the burden of that image. By doing this, she is taking back control of her own life, all the while knowing Vi will always love her no matter what.

And remember when she says "even when we're worlds apart"? Vi has a reaction to that. Up to interpretation, but I think she understands Jinx's implied goodbye here. They're finally understanding each other! They're ready to say goodbye…

But this is the part where it gets tricky: unlike Jinx, Vi has been looking like she's getting panic attacks left and right during the whole battle. Gert's death is reminiscent of Felicia's, and I think (need to check) Loris' death is reminiscent of Mylo's or Claggor's. Then we get to Vander and it's no longer implied, we are shown that flashback, that scene from S1E3. Vi is having a PTSD episode and can't do anything about it. Why now? It's her trauma coming out, coming out now because she can't hide it behind her guilt and need to play the protector anymore. She's not focusing on Jinx anymore. Jinx tries to talk to her but she doesn't listen. Jinx fades in the background. The lid is off.

For the first time, Vi's walls are not just down, they're shattered and scattered on the floor, leaving her with raw, pure, agonizing pain. And for the first time, Jinx is in a position to protect her. It's her turn to take care of her sister, to catch her at the most vulnerable moment of her life. And she does.

Vi has been everyone's support system her whole life (Vander was hers before he died, which makes his death all the more significant). In act 3, it's Caitlyn and Jinx's turn. And it's about time.

Skip to the ending and you've got Caitlyn casually checking on Jinx's odds while Vi is humming a song from her past, thinking of her mother and holding Vander's glass in her hand - that glass! Remember episode 5? That scene in the mines, before they read the letter, where Jinx was having a #moment with Vander's jacket and Vi was just standing there closed off like none of it meant anything? That glass was just something for Vi to move aside then. But now it has become an object worth keeping.

There is no plausible interpretation of this scene where Vi and Caitlyn haven't talked about Jinx already. Plenty of reasons, and I've yapped about it enough, but the simplest one boils down to: Caitlyn wouldn't hide something like that from Vi, it would be a terrible place for them to end as a couple if she did, and we know wasn't the writers' intentions. If we can read between the lines regarding Jinx's true fate, we can read between the lines about Caitlyn and Vi's unseen conversation.

So Vi isn't wearing any protection, no jacket, no wraps, she's just sitting there and remembering. For the first time she's not trying to be strong for someone else's sake. She knows Jinx is out there starting a new life and she knows she can finally start doing the same. But she's got something like seven years of trauma to heal from. It'll be hard, but she'll get there.

Meanwhile, Jinx probably expected her to go look for her body and figure it out. Jinx gets to go out with a bang. She gets to build something new for herself, knows how much she is loved, and is free realize her true potential and become the best version of herself. The one both Vi and Ekko believe she can be.

That's truly the best and most meaningful ending they both could possibly get.

[normal-posts-4-normal-people]

“”Devil”” spec bio

Devils spec bio, I wanted to add some lore

[fiadoesart]

Sketch dump page for my new, super traumatized, OC.

High ranking gray warden, kidnapped and tortured by venatori for weeks ( his life partner sold him out and then disappeared ) on the brink of death he made a pact with a spirit of hope and are now one and the same ( kinda like Cole but with the host soul still present and coexisting ) once he was saved he stayed in a coma for a month. When he woke up and learned of his lover’s betrayal, he retreated in himself and stopped talking, the fact that he now feels the hopes and struggles of others people, especially if they touch him, make him touch adversed and with a constant headache. Nobody knows about the spirit pact and he justifies his fucked up eyes and white hair as a consequence of the torture. ( originally had black hair and green eyes )

The spirit of Hope will push him to join the veilguard ( just after the minrathos/treviso quest ). He and Lucanis will trauma bond and very slowly fall in love

[myreygn]

something something akaza and douma are such a haunting set of characters because douma feels nothing and he's so detached from not only his own but humanity in general due to his upbringing and the way he embraces his monstrosity but feels nothing in the process makes for a very dark take on the deeply unsettling nature of faking joy and gleefulness in the face of cruelty and violence instead of even making an effort to fake a more appropriate emotion like grief or disgust vs akaza who is so emotional and so incapable of not wearing his heart on his sleeve and chases the humanity he lost but craves because even though he can't remember what it is there's a strong feeling tying him to his mortal existence and the way he tries to capture that humanity by regulating his monstrosity with a pointless moral code and him searching for humans that are on par with him in terms of strength in order to subconsciously prove to himself that it's not a waste of time to hold onto humanity and that there's purpose to be found in it even if his monstrosity tells him otherwise to then regain a smidge of his humanity in the end only by succumbing to weakness makes for an equally dark take on the tragedy of doing everything right but ultimately losing to the circumstances that pushed and pushed and pushed you until you were too far gone to find any other way out than death.

something something douma faking grief about akaza's passing for a moment before coming to the conclusion that upholding this facade of humanity is not worth it makes my heart clench.

[zeroducks-2]

People hating evil characters is weird to me. I guess the only characters I actually hate are annoying ones cause usually that’s not a point of their character in the story, they just happen to be infuriating. Like Slade being a bad guy is cause he’s a bad guy, that’s like his whole point as a character. Yeah he can be nuanced and worse at times but he exists to be an antagonist. It completely makes sense to me that the Tara thing makes people uncomfortable but he’s still a fictional antagonist, it’s not really a moral failing on the part of the creators.

Tbh if you've experienced these characters in any way (read TJC or watched the more recent animated movie or read Deathstroke 2016 or watched Teen Titans 2003, or whatever else features their interaction) and you don't like Slade, that's fair enough.

Loving and hating characters (and every other emotion) happens all the time and it's part of the experience. HOWEVER, I do take issues when it's people who do not know the character, who have barely ever seen them and just heard "stuff" from other fandom people, who go on crusades against said character because "they did bad stuff".

You see it in people who hate Tarantula "because she raped Dick" and they have not read one single comic in which she appears - they have no idea what she even looks like or what's her real name, but they "hate her" because they read a post in which the sexual assault was mentioned and since she "did a bad thing" they "hate her now". This has to be the most shallow fucking thing, but it's convenient because if you hate on the "bad guy" it must mean you're morally pure and upstanding and you're one of the good ones.

Back to your point, hating on a character without any kind of reasoning or nuance only because they did "bad things" is the death of critical thinking. But people out there act like characters who do shit that's even vaguely considered unethical or morally reprehensible irl need to be hated, and like their existence is some sort of moral failing from the writer's part, and it's so fucking annoying and childish.

Which leads me to my second point which is a tad more controversial, but hey I'm a bitch with insufferable opinions so here we go I guess.

I'm bothered by people who pick a character and use them as their scapegoat, and I mean collectively as a fandom. It kind of is the case with Slade but he isn't the perfect example, however the principle is the same: hating on the villain, especially when the villain is very human and makes very human mistakes, using them as the only person who is capable of doing evil and therefore acquitting every other character of anything they ever did.

With Slade it becomes that Slade is the only bad guy of his story, who hurt Grant and hurt Adeline and hurt Joseph and raped Tara and killed and maimed and tortured, and therefore Grant has no blame in what he did to himself, and Adeline is just a poor innocent woman who was hurt by her unfaithful husband, and Joey did nothing wrong and everything that happened to him is solely Slade's fault, and Tara wasn't already a mercenary hitwoman for hire who lied and cheated and killed - rather she was just a poor innocent girl who was manipulated and corrupted by the Big Bad Guy.

I don't know if you see what I mean with this, but it's very much a thing in a lot of fandoms, especially when it comes to horror media where there is a cast of controversial, "imperfect" characters. One example of this is Mouthwashing, in which (spoilers ahead of course) there is a cast composed of people who range from being downright horrible to having very human but very noticeable flaws - every single one of them is "guilty" of something, and the protagonist in particular is also the one with the most prominent antisocial behaviors. But he's not benefiting from them - Jimmy isn't someone whose life is made better by his piece of shit behavior, rather this is a person with issues and who struggles with mental health (he's suicidal and has very strong delusions), giving him a very hard time keeping his life in order. Which of course doesn't make any of the horrible shit he does less horrible, but I think it's interesting how he's (mostly) not acting out of convenience, rather he's acting out his own demons. And what the fandom did was deciding that this guy is the only one to blame, and that his shitty behavior absolves everyone else of their sins. He's effectively the scapegoat and everyone else - it doesn't matter if they act selfishly, childishly, violently, cowardly or anything really - is guileless and has never done anything wrong in their lives. Jimmy is the only one who's to blame, and the rest of the cast is made of pure perfect angels.

I've seen this happen in many many cases. And it sort of turns into a mob of people whose only fandom personality is to hate on this one guy and gather Upstanding Morality Points, and of course the natural consequence of this is bothering or even outright harassing people who instead are fans of such flawed characters.

I hate it. I'm not saying anyone should have to like a character in particular, but the way people hate on the "easy to hate" guy instead of trying to understand them, especially when it's a complex character whose action make them suffer as much as the people they're hurting, distances me from fandom spaces. People will see a feral beast of a character with their leg caught in a bear trap hissing and growling while in the process of chewing their own limb off, and will toss stones at them and call them disgusting and weird. It's so unkind and I hate it so much.

[wayshendery]

okay you know it’s not great when i decide to start posting bc wtf was that. That can’t be it. I dunno this is probably just cope because i can’t that literally didn’t make any sense

Like where to even fucking begin. Belinda? Needed more Belinda. BADLY. And okay, sweet baby Poppy from space babies we all love the sweet baby but it’s just so random? Making Belinda just be A Mother and literally doing nothing else? I put up with it in the first part bc I thought she was just gonna like, come to her senses but she just stays stuck like that. And what about Conrad’s reference to her, literally made it sound like there was going to be a build up to a betrayal, a death or some other tragedy but then like? Nothing happened?

I think I get it. The Doctor has shifted to a different reality so Poppy exists as Belinda’s child and all those references she made to her happened in this reality which the Doctor doesn’t remember because he’s from a different reality. But the whole ‘different realities’ thing wasn’t really built up it wasn’t explored as like a major plot point even tho it seems quite integral. So now we just have different realities… what does that mean for everything else… were we in the ‘fake’ reality to begin with and now we’re back in the real one or are there multiple realities (separate from parallel worlds) but like where was this mentioned. Harks back to 73 yards I guess; maybe it began when the Doctor did the thing with the salt? But like why am i speculating here why was it not in the show.

And what’s Ruby’s role in all this, why is it important that she was the only one who remembers the details. Does it centre around her? Who knows! Her story still doesn’t look finished. But there was no wrap on that. she’s just like, gone. No proper goodbye he didn’t even make time for her lol. She was his first companion!! And typically, each companion’s story finishes with their Doctor. They become part of each other in that way, but this time 15 is gone.

And oh Ncuti. I love you I love your Doctor, my favourite after 10 finally a Doctor I really loved. His energy his queerness his joy oh my god I loved every second of you as the Doctor. I am not ready to see you go honestly I’m coping so hard you’re gonna come back right say sike? Please? I mean your performance was exquisite given the overall quality of the past two seasons it was good because of you, you built those muscles carrying this show on your back. 15’s story CANNOT be over yet i mean literally it cannot which is why you’re not really gone right we’ll see you at Christmas

Finally… Billie. I love Billie. I love Rose Tyler. I love Billie as Rose Tyler. But the Doctor? Idk it feels cheap and we need new actors we need new faces. I’d love more Rose mentions but that’s it. Like she’s gone forever that’s the point. BUT it didn’t introduce her as the Doctor so… that means she’s not right (and we still have Ncuti). Anyway.

[whorejolras]

this has been sitting in my drafts for months and i'm finally posting it.

it's adding on from this post about Fantine and sex work in les mis. this post ended up being long and more about sex work than Fantine but it does come around i swear.

the way we discuss Fantine is very important, but why?

the way that we talk about Fantine and sex work in les mis - on tumblr, with our friends, in the brick club chat, in articles and in scholarly analysis - directly correlates with the way we treat modern day sex workers and the struggles we face today. notably, the fight for decriminalisation.

i'd argue that Fantine is the most famous of the "dead sex worker" trope. i'd argue she's one of the most famous fictional sex workers. she was just name dropped in the new mean girls movie. everyone knows the story of Fantine the "Miserable Dead Prostitute".

to many people, the book or musical is their first and often only point of reference for sex work, and informs how they treat real life sex workers. many of us interacting in fandom are or will soon be adults with jobs, you could be a childcare worker or a doctor or therapist or any role that makes you a mandatory reporter. and if you hold biases towards sex workers and your patient or the parent of the kid in your class is one, then what.

(you know i had a therapist tell me once that if i had any kids she would "be forced" to report me to the police for "child abuse" on the grounds of my job. that was discrimination and was illegal as i live in one of the four locations in the world with sex work both decriminalised and a protected attribute under discrimination law, but it still happened.)

how people think informs how they vote, and public opinion in turn impacts legislation that actively damages sex workers and puts them in real danger. (criminalisation, the nordic model, "legalisation" also known as licensing, instead of full decriminalisation).

here is a resource put together by NSWP, the Global Network of Sex Work Projects that covers terminology and legal frameworks. I recommend giving the whole thing a read, but if you just want to learn about the difference between the different legal models I'm talking about read from pages 12-14.

full decriminalisation is the safest best practice option for all sex workers. not the nordic model, not select legalisation, full decriminalisation for all workers including those who aren't "legal" citizens.

bringing this back to Fantine. when i search analysis of sex work/"prostitution" in les mis, this is the shit i find.

link 1 | link 2

i don't even know where to start on rebranding "oldest profession" to "oldest form of oppression" and "trafficked and forced into the industry" - the trafficking conflation is a common one. the majority of labour trafficking occurs in industries completely unrelated to sex work, with sex trafficking numbers being grossly overestimated. there are no true numbers because under criminalisation victim/survivors of sex trafficking can't safely seek help for fear of being criminalised. decriminalisation helps everyone.

I will also say that the trafficking narrative is a racist xenophobic one used to target migrant workers, making them more vulnerable to higher rates of police violence, detention and deportation. if you want to get deeper into this I recommend reading Migrant sex workers and trafficking - Insider research for and by migrant sex workers.

yet here we see the idea that most of (if not all) sex workers are trafficked or forced, a narrative that removes the agency of sex workers and obscures the reality of labour trafficking. in short, lies which serve to sensationalise and erase real lived experiences, provide publicly-sanctioned excuses for the heavy policing of marginalised communities, and helping no one.

i will quickly say here that you'll never meet anyone who fights as hard for sex trafficking survivors than sex workers and sex worker peer led organisations.

and in the second example, you see how even though they're saying sex work, (so they listened enough to know not to say "prostitute" anymore), but they're still sharing anti-sw beliefs like "selling the body/selling yourself", violent phrasing that denies us not only agency but connection to our bodies, autonomy, and consent.

this is something i'll talk about a lot more in the chapter analysis that i'll get around to finishing and posting one day: but fantine doesn't sell her body to sex work any more than she sells it to the textile factory. how is one form of physical labour "selling your body/yourself" and another isn't? at the end of the day, she still owns her body, just like when i leave a booking i still own my body, just like when i clocked out of my past civilian jobs i still owned my body. we sell labour, we sell services. not ourselves.

noting here that even when discussing exploitation and trafficking, phrasing it as "selling your body" is also gross, still removes the survivors agency and connection to their body, and shows that you're not really a safe ally to survivors at all.

these ideas, that i pulled from the first paragraphs of two of the first analyses of fantine i stumbled across, are the same ones that sex workers around the world argue against when lobbying for full decriminalisation. it's the arguments we have with law makers and councils and saviour organisations and our own families and friends.

i'll talk about this more later but look at how anne hathaway finished playing Fantine and then signed off on a letter and petition against full decriminalisation of sex work and advocated for the nordic model - ensuring that sex workers and trafficking victims alike would be more vulnerable to violent clients and policing.

ironically, the same thing Fantine faces.

so my whole roundabout point is it matters. the way we talk about characters like Fantine matter. this directly impacts how real people treat real sex workers. this directly impacts legislation that directly impacts the lives and safety of sex workers AND survivors of sex trafficking.

just in case i haven't said it enough the safest option for both parties is always complete and full decriminalisation btw 🫶🏻

all links in case they break (sorry for making it longer but i don't trust tumblr with links lol)

tumblr post:

NSWP terminology and legal models source:

screenshot 1:

screenshot 2:

Migrant sex workers and trafficking - Insider research for and by migrant sex workers:

anne hathaway article:

[expertfool]

that scene in s2ep1 when malcolm pats ollie’s cheek and says, “good lad,” changed ollie’s life for sure. even in his disapproval about using hugh and disappointment in himself for going along with it, that little pat on the cheek and “good lad” was the last axe against ollie’s moral backbone before it crumbled down and the first damning moment he realized he really would roll over and take it. it had always been a hypothetical before, but now here it is right in front of him. all the evidence ollie needs to know who he really is, and the shame and disappointment and sheer gratitude for that little pat and “good lad” wash over him. all that just to get a half-decent look from malcolm, and there’s a dark, warm, wet part of ollie curled up somewhere between his lower intestines that emanates disappointment through his whole being like cancer that he should even feel gratitude for malcolm’s flippant appreciation that’ll disappear the moment malcolm turns away like he never cared to begin with. ollie’d probably let him get away with a quick pat on the cheek and “good lad” after a blowjob, turning away before ollie could even fumble in his pants; the shock of malcolm’s touch and “good lad” dead in his ears is all ollie needs to hang his head and let malcolm walk away and be grateful for the blithe praise.

[chibi-celesti]

You said in tags your scared to post art of your yume ship but i say go for it!! People (me) would love to see it :)))

I'm a bit anxious since explaining my Yume and her background would feel like small potatoes compared to what I've seen from others...

But for you(and anyone else curious), I'll talk about her!

This is Saga Oscuro:

(Yes the initial basis for her was born from a Picrew before I could finalise some small details to make her my own ;-;)

Saga I made during the time I was rekindling my attempt at playing Twst since my original attempt I was thrown off by the levelup/ grinding system(I got better when I tried again when Endless Soireé and GloMas dropped on both servers). She obviously represented my love for drawing hence why she carries her signature red sketchbook. And while it may seem cliche, Saga is the Yuusona Yume for Twst.

She's 17 y.o. and the youngest child of two. While she tends to keep to herself at times, when she's with her older brother, Siegfried, her dry humor and sass are pretty obvious. She has an amicable relationship with said older brother, her mom, and late father; the latter whom shaped her into the creative spirit she is today.(There's more OC lore stuff about him I'll go into another time).

Where is she from? Earth. Her family live in a cozy(ficitious) town in New York, which is not too far from Coney Island.

How'd she wound up in Twst? She was wandering near the path of Coney Island's beaches, when, on her way back, the Dark Carriage encountered her and whisked her away. Her mother and brother both freaked out when she vanished since that day was also the anniversary of her father's passing.

Her Fav. Hobby? Art(lol), but she also likes to sing sometimes. And is also a decent cook, able to make meals that she and Grim can enjoy for themselves.

Fav. Class? Surprisingly History of Magic. She is observant of every detail in their textbooks, and get invested in the tales connected to each lesson. Ironically, she ends up being in the top 3 of getting good grades in that one. (She's Rank 2, just under a certain Rose Tyrant).

Club? None, but she has been eyeballing a few odd ones in particular(ie. Gargoyle Research and Mountain Lovers. With Equestrian being an iffy.)

Fav. Food? Potato candies. Her parents collected vintage cookbooks over the years, and Potato Candies were ones she loved the most.

Handness? Right.

Any Crushes? Two: Riddle and Malleus. Both were kind of unexpected since her first run with Riddle in Book 01 was...not that great. Post overblot, the both of them surprisingly clicked given their love for snacks, and how happy she was at Riddle trying to not go into Tyrant Overkill mode again. Malleus was thanks to the overnight visits and walks. Given their love for their parents(or in Mal-Mal's case, parental figure), she enjoyed his company alot. That AND she can relate to losing a love one alot.

People she despises/ keeps at arms length? Crowley: he's easy of a punching bag no thanks to his procrastination of sending her home, but there are times when she gives him the benefit of the doubt(his mannerisms remind her too much of her family at times). As for actual people she has problems with...it's mostly Fellow Honest due to the fact he nearly human trafficked her and her classmates, and Rollo due to how, to her, he felt like a dark reflection of her grief when she lost her dad. These two end up being cordial, but not enough for Saga to completely trust him again. Leona and Azul too no thanks to her disliking the former for thinking that endangering other peoples' lives over a school sport warrants no form of change(as far as she knows), and the latter for stealing her Dorm.(I know the highlight for twst is the fact the cast are all morally questionable, but you can't blame her for feeling she wants to either commit a felony herself to get away from them, or break the law and drink illegally).

Unique Magic/ Signature Spell? None. I've been debating on her developing one of her own, but odds are she might not get it.

Other fun facts about her?

Her favourite flowers are marigolds.

One time, when she first heard of Malleus' Birthday coming(the Year One cycle), she worked hard in Alchemy to make a red gem embued with a marigold in it and made it into a necklace. When she gave it to him, he loved it so much he made one for her, only it was green with a black rose inside it.

She's about ~ 7 years younger than Siegfried.

Despite her preferred brown dress, she admittedly liked how Vil helped her find her a clothing style that matched her well. He even did her hair in pigtails during the VDC training camp.

Anytime Ace and Grim pull stunts that get her in trouble, she does the 'Saga Chop'; uses her sketchbook to mollywop them in the head. She did this to Jamil once after his Overblot.