#also I didn't think anyone would be interested in reading my complaints... but if anyone's interested lmk and I'll elaborate...

[frostfires-blog]

Me watching the Solo Leveling and Frieren fandoms argue about which one of the two is going to win "Anime of the Year" when I want The Apothecary Diaries to win:

[letteredlettered]

Went to a panel about slash fanfic at a con. Moderator said, "Welcome to the panel about erotica." The words "slash" and "erotica" were used interchangeably throughout. Panel was great.

There was a Q&A at the end so I raised my hand and said these terms seemed conflated. Moderator explained she'd run this panel for 10 years and it started out being about slash but drifted into erotica and she never changed the name. (She also said she was glad I brought it up and would keep it in mind for the future of the panel.) The guy on the panel who writes original m/f erotica said that slash and what he writes are basically the same thing. I said I had no complaints about the name of the panel or the panelists, I was just curious about what slash meant to them, and whether slash by necessity had to include sex scenes to be considered slash.

Two panelists answered that slash was romance between men but usually had sex. Eventually one of them did make clear that slash didn't have to have sex but that it was what they wanted to read. Another panelist said that to them slash really just meant dude romance but people wouldn't read their fic unless there was sex so they felt they had to put sex scenes in.

Person came up to me after the panel. Said they felt I didn't get my question answered. Then they explained that since the 70s, 'slash' has been used to mean m slash m romance, meaning explicit and sexual. Then they said it sounded like what I wanted to ask about was shipping. They explained to me that shipping is just wanting the characters to be together but slash meant sex. They explained that since the invention of AO3, people had begun to use the ampersand to mean the fic had two characters who were friends and that the slash was used to denote ships, but even though that punctuation just meant romance, the word "slash" in the last twenty years had become synonymous with explicit fic. I explained I had been in fandom longer than twenty years and this was not necessarily my experience. They said, "Bye!"

Though they seemed confused as to whether what they personally defined as slash had been mainstream since the 70s or since the last twenty years (the person was 24), they were well-meaning. The panel was great. I'd recommend it to anyone, though I'm not stating the name of the con here because I don't want anyone involved to feel this is really a critique of the panel itself. The moderator in particular was superb.

I think that this conversation just brought up a whole lot of feelings for me. I think it bothers me that people still think that all fanfic is smutty, that all slash requires porn, and that all fic must have porn in order to be read. I am familiar with this conflation and feel perfectly fine going to a panel that I think is about slash fic and finding out it's about erotic lit, some of which is fanfic. After all, I like both, and I recognize that fandom mushes these things together and teasing them out into separate strands isn't something everyone--or possibly even most fans--have any interest in. I recognize that I am pedantic to a degree that most people find uninteresting.

I have a little bit more of a problem with the idea that slash is "basically the same" as het, but this was said by only one of the panelists. If your panel is actually about straight up erotica and not slash, then the problem is just the name of the panel.

What I found the most frustrating, however, is that whenever I have this conversation, I feel like the default assumption most of my interlocutors begin AND end with is this: smut is why we're here. And I just don't understand that. Away Childish Things has 44,800 kudos, and it has no smut in it. My next most kudosed fic has almost 15,000 kudos and tons of smut. My next most kudosed fic has almost 14,000 kudos and it doesn't even have a kiss.

I'm not talking about kudos to show off how many I have, or because I think kudos make a point about quality of a fic. They have nothing to do with quality. But they do have to do with popularity, and the truth is, sex doesn't sell. It's something else. It's not good writing. It's not a great plot. It's not in-character characterization. IT'S SOMETHING ELSE. What is it?

I've had people say to me, "Well, you're lettered; it works differently for you." DOES IT??? Maybe they meant that because enough people know me as fic author, people will read my fic anyway, but let me tell you, it's always been this way for me, long before my fic was really popular. The ones with smut did not get more praise and attention. The ones that PEOPLE LIKED got more praise and attention. Do people like fic that has smut in it more than fic without smut? Some of the time! Does there have to be smut for people to like it? NO.

Have I had people tell me they didn't want to read something I wrote because it didn't have smut? YES. But the point I'm trying to make is, there are people who want to read fic that doesn't have smut in it. THEY are your audience for the fic you want to write that doesn't have smut in it. Fic does not have to have smut to be fic; it doesn't have to have smut to be read.

I think part of the reason I get so upset about it is that slash as we know it today didn't just emerge because some people weren't getting to read smut and they wanted to. It emerged because women and queer people and other marginalized communities were not getting to see what they wanted to in mainstream media. They weren't getting sex scenes, but they also weren't getting queer content, they weren't getting stories about sensitive men that defied patriarchal stereotypes of male toxicity; they weren't getting stories about disabled folks and people of color and folks who are into kink and folks who have different lifestyles. To reduce fanfic to porn is to remove the rich history of why it exists and who it exists for.

I asked earlier what makes a fic popular, and to me, it's exactly this. It's when you read a thing and you feel, "this is really satisfying to my id in a way that I am not getting from mainstream media." And sometimes what is satisfying to your id is very horny anal sex. Other times what is satisfying to your id is Bucky Barnes getting a blanket and facing his trauma. Sometimes it's Harry Potter being trans. Sometimes it's Naruto and Sasuke getting to just hold hands as the sun sets. I have no idea who those two people are but boy howdy do I know they just fucking need to hold hands.

But the other reason I get so upset about it is I'm so fucking tired of reading a great fic that devolves into mediocre mechanical porn that is there due to the collective brainwashing that states that this is the ONLY reason ALL of us are here.

Discuss.

[geo-rosey]

Cold in my professions letter but I translated it into Gen Z language

Note that because of my intense lams brainrot I have done a bit of research into historical phrases and language although I am not an expert

kind of like hamilton at the end of this letter, I have just reread this and.... what the fuck is this. It's the most cringe thing I have ever put into this world. Enjoy, I guess.

To Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens,

I know I'm like super serious with my work and stuff but you know with my friends I get all sappy bro, I don't even know how to prove to you how much I love you. I didn't even realise how down bad I was until you left. I am crashing out. You know that I never want to attach myself to people, they're way too fragile. But you snuck into my weak little heart anyway, you traitor. But I still love you and we forgive people we love so I'll let you off this time, as long as you keep matching my freak too.

I hope all your success is foreshadowing you being appointed to the assembly. I really do hope there aren't any bri'ish people in Georgia when you arrive and that you can come back and be with me and the bros. It was right of Congress to give you the rank of Lietenant Colonel, you were basically one anyway when you were Washington's aide de camp, and you're going to command a battalion so obviously you needed it. My only complaint is that they seem to think giving you this is some kind of mark of honour that they refuse to give to the rest of us. I mean, you're perfect, of course, we love you very much, you're a great soldier, but it still feels a little unfair. It's not your fault, of course. You did everything right.

Literally nothing is happening here. Very boring.

I thought you might find it... interesting to find the other letters that I've sent along with this one. I think they're pretty recent. They were brought to me from New York Thompson, who got them from a woman called Mrs. Moore, who claims to be a friend of your wife??? You have a wife??? She also says you have a daughter?? wh <------->

Well, talking about wives, I guess since you have one you should try to find me one while you're down in South Carolina. Obviously it will be very difficult to find a wife fitting of a man like me, but if you do, I will be very impressed. My type: young, handsome (I am a butt guy), not too dumb (no dropouts), rich family (BUT NOT NOBLE 🤮) romantic (But I'm not a fan of PDA), she's got to be a decent person, and generous (she can't be obsessed with money and she can't be mean to me because god knows my ego is huge but fragile as fuck) I don't really care what her political beliefs are because mine are the best and I can just prove that to her. I don't really care about religion as long as she isn't Catholic. With money... well, you know I'm broke as hell, and in this late-stage-capitalism there isn't any kind of class mobility so a rich girl would be nice. At least rich enough that she can pay for her own stuff because I definitely don't have enough money for all those woman things. I guess I'm not that opposed to women so I'll struggle through dating one if you can find one that fits my criteria.

And if you can't find anyone who fits you can just post something and I'm sure they'll all come running to earn the prize that is my epic face. Of course, to get them excited, you have to tell them how smoking hot I am. Be generous. Talk about my heavenly body, height, my achievements, make sure to really emphasise my weapon ;) ;) And remember <----->

I've just read over what I wrote and... Yeah what the fuck am I on. I don't even want a wife. Life is hard enough without having to worry about women. Even if I did, I wouldn't act like a horny frat boy when talking about it. Was I aiming to be stupid? Probably, and I definitely did that. Was I just fucking with you? Sure. But I'm pretty sure it was just so that I could have more to ramble about to you, so that I can talk to you for longer, because I cant have any other kinds of intercourse with you anymore.

Byee

Hornylton

[prism-mirror-lens]

I wanted to try and counter common claims I see about Hanush! I don't want to stop anyone being a Hanush hater or say anyone is outright wrong though, there is room for all things in fandom. If you are a Hanush hater then maybe you can use these bits to enhance your hatred and make it stronger 💪

Hanush deliberately raised Hans to be unfit to rule, so Hanush could continue ruling.

Hanush gave Hans a better education than Hanush himself had. Hans can read (Hanush can't), he can speak Latin and Italian, he can fight well, and he's been given education in sieges/defence (as we see when riding to Nebakov).

Hanush does want Hans to attend events which prepare him for ruling Rattay. Hans blows them off. Hans himself says most of his time is spent learning from Hanush (though clearly he's not engaging as much as he pretends, since once a week isn't much...): "Now I spend most of my time trying to learn from Sir Hanush. Governing is no joke, at least most of the time. Only last week I had to listen to complaints from subjects." But he finds dealing with his future subjects boring: "Like a flock of sheep, bleating all the time. Even study is more interesting." When Henry is assigned as his page on the hunting trip, the thing Hans is avoiding is this: "Tomorrow you will go with me to a hearing. Some landowners have asked me to settle a dispute. It will be an excellent lesson for you."

It seems unlikely that Hanush would scold Hans for chasing girls and brawling with subjects if he wanted Hans to act that way.

Hanush and Radzig seem to be friends, and they're both chivalrous enough to do things like letting Istvan go. Even if Hanush were corrupt enough to raise Hans badly on purpose, I don't think Radzig would let this go without comment.

Hans has clearly been instilled with some noble, even idealistic, values. Underneath his youthful laziness and hedonism, he genuinely thinks the nobility has a duty to the peasantry, and talks about it when passing burned Mesoles with Brabant. Hanush is mostly likely the one who raised Hans to think this way.

Hans is a twenty-year-old. Of course he's immature and stupid and impulsive and horny and not very good at anything. He's only twenty. You don't need to do anything wrong deliberately to make a young person act this way!

Hanush wants Hans dead/captured, so Hanush can continue ruling.

Why would Hanush bother rescuing Hans at all? I guess you can say that he has to do this for the sake of appearances, but if he didn't care, I don't think he would be riding to Kuttenberg region himself with Radzig.

I've seen an interpretation of the game over message "In the end, Capon was released and unceremoniously returned home" to mean that nobody paid the ransom and Hans was just released when he was no longer useful. I'm not sure about this; it could equally mean that Hans was ransomed and returned home in disgrace.

Overall I'm just not sure what in the text supports this idea. If anyone thinks this and has a text-supported reason to do so, let me know!

Hanush is forcing Hans into marriage.

This is obviously true, BUT...

Although the arranged marriage is clearly meant to be a negative to the player, all the ingame characters except Hans react positively to it. Devil suggests it, Radzig agrees, and Hanush is clearly both legally able to do this and morally encouraged to do so. This is seen as a good parenting action in context by pretty much everyone. Hanush, Radzig and Devil are trying to do what they think is good for Hans in the long run. Devil says that Hans will be "happy" once he's "sire(d) a few brats".

Even Henry isn't particularly bothered by it. He says it had to happen one day. Arranged marriages are clearly par for the course in the game context. Arranging a marriage is not seen as an evil/abusive act.

I've also seen a couple of claims that Hanush gloats over upsetting Hans with the marriage. I don't think this actually happens in the game. If anyone thinks it does, please let me know what line you're referring to!

I do acknowledge that for a fair number of players, Hanush doing this is over the line and unacceptable. I think that's coming from a very modern and culturally specific perspective, but the game puts you in Hans' perspective at that moment, so it's still something that the game does want you to feel!

Hanush is generally cruel and abusive to Hans.

I'm not sure how Hanush can win here. If he does nothing about Hans' foolish behaviour, then haters will believe that Hanush wants Hans to be unfit to rule. If he punishes Hans, haters will believe he's cruel and abusive.

Personally I think Hanush usually has good reason to scold Hans, and we really have to divorce ourselves from Hans'/Henry's viewpoint here. From Hans' perspective, you guys were just having a bit of fun at the baths and then someone attacked you. From Hanush's perspective, Hans was off whoring again and then got into yet another fistfight with a subject. Whatever Hans says about Hanush is massively biased because Hans is the one being told off. Whether Hans likes Hanush or not is not a good indication of whether Hanush is doing the right thing.

Hans clearly thinks Hanush is more judgemental and harsh than he actually is. Hans doesn't want to return to Rattay in KCD2 because he believes Hanush will let him have it; when Hanush and Radzig do turn up before Raborsch, no such thing happens. (It's actually Henry who can throw Hans under the bus, and Hanush scolds both of them for being childish if Henry does so. He clearly doesn't like Henry playing up Hans' failings and finds it beneath him. If Hanush did like scolding Hans, why wouldn't he enjoy Henry encouraging him to do so?)

I've seen a few people point out that Hans complains: "The only thing I have to read is the Bible and Hanush won't let anyone near me but the priest." This must be either an exaggeration or only describes his specific situation while he's healing from the Cuman ambush, since Hans normally wanders around Rattay and spends time in the taverns and baths and is drinking with others in the tavern closing/fistfight scene. Hanush isn't actually severely restricting Hans' activities (or if he is, he's not doing a good job of it). Hans does seem to be very lonely and socially inept (his 0 speech skill) and is disliked by the Rattay townsfolk, but I don't see much evidence that Hanush is the cause of this (in fact Hanush wants him to develop a better relationship with his people and better social skills by attending hearings, it's Hans who won't do it!)

Hanush purposely humiliates Henry.

This is people talking about the ending, when Hanush wants you to sharpen his sword. Personally I interpreted this the exact opposite way: Hanush doesn't want to humiliate you in front of all your friends by saying "Hey, we both know you're going to try and eavesdrop even though I told you not to and I don't trust you" so instead he emphasises that you're a skilled craftsman and gives you a distracting task to do, to try and encourage you to stay away. Both of you (hopefully) understand what the conversation means, but it doesn't embarrass Henry as much. I think Hanush is actually trying to spare you here.

OK that's my effortpost, if you read this far then you think about this game too much xx

[the-music-maniac]

Why will I not finish watching Naruto not that anyone asked but I wanna ramble? Because since Sasuke and Naruto ended up in marriages to different people (and from what little I've seen, are pretty horrid fathers and also not very good husbands for that matter), I literally Do Not think Naruto Shippuden has a happy ending. Naruto spent the entire anime chasing after Sasuke desperately. He was willing to give up his dream and die by Sasuke's side. Sasuke has never exhibited a single shred of interest in women. And Naruto is one of the few people that has ever kept his interest. They're arguably the most narratively significant to each other, and before Shippuden the show kept saying over and over they might've been good friends if only if only etc. paralleling the two against each other. I GET that they wanted to make Boruto, but literally it would've made more sense to me for Sasuke to have paid someone to carry his bloodline over believing that fruit basket actually fell for someone other than Naruto. And him marrying Sakura specifically was weird to me because I fully believe she deserves better. Not in an "I hate Sasuke he doesn't deserve her" kind of way but because I like them both and I think they're ill matched. Sakura got character development and I feel like making her get together with a childhood crush that never gave her the time of day before isn't progress, it's a setback.

This story ending doesn't read to me as "I got my best friend back and ended up fulfilling my dream and settling down and getting married with the love of my life". It reads to me as, "I'm in love with my best friend and I got him back, but not in the way I wanted. I settled and married because it was expected of me and sure I love her but it's still not the same." And on Sasuke's end, it reads to me as "I've hurt this person too much to warrant staying in his life for too long, he has given up too much for me already. I settled and married because I need to pass on my bloodline gifts but I don't truly love her". There is nothing worse in my books than missed opportunities, ESPECIALLY not for two people who I believe would have a love story FOR THE AGES. You can say Naruto loves Hinata but I think it pales in comparison to what he feels for Sasuke. And I don't wanna hear any fucking complaints about "wahhh they're not gay" - I don't give a shit about sexuality, this is about how narratively, a love story between these two would be so much more interesting than any of the canon couples. If they were a man and woman they WOULD have been canon. Their love would've been something people write epics about and it DIDN'T. WORK. OUT.

They should've ended up together. Naruto Shippuden doesn't have a happy ending. I'm never going to finish watching it.

[quinnsanitywriting]

secret admirer was SO GOOD DUDE!!!!!! you have no idea how much it takes to find a good male reader/non female reader fic in this economy.... the part 2 with jimmy and the oblivious asf reader going back and forth until jimmy breaks would keep me alive i think

obviously no pressure though just keep up the good work!!

- @superawesomeshot

TYSM!!!!! ask and ye shall receive, my friend, here is part 2!!

A Secret Admirer, Perhaps (Jimmy Olsen x Reader), part 2/2

You can read part one here!

Warnings: none!

Masc reader

~ 1.6k words

(A/N: I do try to keep my readers as vague as possible outside of gender, however, a funny convo about dnd with one of my friends prompted a reference in here. Sorry if you don't play it, it should be decently ez to ignore tho!)

Some days there were only notes. Like the first, they were always carefully addressed and printed to avoid recognizability, and chock full of praise and charm. 

Often, though, there were gifts, too. 

There were times it was just little trinkets, like shiny rocks (though that definitely wasn't a complaint. You liked the rocks plenty, and kept them all on your desk). Sometimes it was a bit more personal, like one of your favorite flowers on your desk, or a new piece of stationary in your favorite color (you were quite enjoying the restock of sticky notes. They had a cute pattern on the corner, too). 

But all of this, while cute, was unhelpful. The only things that were solidified about the culprit were that they knew who you were and what you liked, which anyone who paid attention to you enough could figure out. You didn't exactly keep your interests and favorites a secret. 

You considered checking one of the notes for fingerprints, even, before realizing you wouldn't have many samples to compare them with. That is, unless the culprit was in the criminal database, but… That wasn't exactly ideal, or realistic. 

Every day, you tried to piece what you could together, but it was always back to the drawing board. 

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

Jimmy Olsen tended to come in a lot earlier than you- at least, as of recently. 

Mostly, to place notes and little things on your desk for you to find.

It was easy enough to do without being spotted by anyone, anyways. Your desk was between his and the building’s front entrance, so it was no problem to just slip notes out of his pocket when passing. When it came to gifts, he took a bit more time to set them on your desk carefully, but it was still quick. 

All that meaning he was quite surprised when, right as he had put a note on your desk, Lois Lane snuck up on him. 

“So you're behind all his theorizing.” 

Hearing her made Jimmy jump, turning on his heel to face her and nearly tripping in the process. 

“Ah- Lois! Hi! Fancy seeing you here, I was just-”

“I'm not going to tell him, Jimmy. I knew it was you anyways, I just wanted to be sure.” Lois assured him, heading back over to her own desk. “I'd suggest being a little clearer, though. He's a great journalist, but outside of the news, he can be a bit…”

“Oblivious?” Jimmy suggested.

“Among other things, yes. Just be upfront with him, I'm sure he'd be happy to go out with you.”

While Jimmy was aware that Lois was probably right, he just couldn't do that. Beyond simply being nervous to ask a guy out for the first time in his life, he also didn't want to come across as simply wanting you for another date that wouldn't go anywhere. You were more important to him than that. 

He didn't say all that to Lois, though. Instead, he finally made his way to his own desk, and booted up his computer.

While he waited for the screen to actually come on, he figured he should ask Lois for some different advice.

“What sort of things does he like? I'm starting to run out of gift ideas.”

“He seems to like the rocks you've been giving him just fine.” Lois laughed a bit just thinking about it, and it was true, it was a bit of a silly gift. “You know him way better than I do. What sort of hobbies does he have?”

“I've heard he plays dungeons and dragons? That's why he always takes a short day on Thursdays.”

“Then get him some dice. I feel like that should be obvious.”

“He already has dice!”

“If I know anything about tabletop game people, they always want more dice, Jimmy.” 

Once again, Lois was right. She usually was, Jimmy should honestly expect it by now, but-

Then, more people started coming in to start the work day, including you, which meant Jimmy switched his focus over to you. It was probably a very obvious switch of focus, considering the snicker he heard from Lois. Whatever, this was none of her business anyways. 

Aside from trying to properly get you to like him, Jimmy also had an alternative reason for always leaving things on your desk. He had noticed it after the first couple of times, when your confusion had turned into excited curiosity.

He loved to see that emotion on your face, it was adorable. In a way, you reminded him of a cat that was interested in something, when you'd look your entire desk over before opening the note and tilting your head just a bit in interest as you read it. 

Jimmy doubted you even knew you did that. It was a detail he took and kept for himself, keeping it in his mind to never let go of. 

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

You absolutely had to find out who your secret admirer was.

Probably in order to marry them immediately. 

A set of shiny dice that matched your most recent character sat on your desk, along with a note, and you were pretty sure you wanted to kiss whoever got them for you on the lips. 

But also, this was a much bigger hint than anything else had been so far. Dungeons and dragons wasn't an interest of yours that you actually talked about at work, at least not as often as most other things.

Of course, all your party and the game master would know. But none of them were very likely, considering they would have no way of knowing the desserts or flowers you liked.

The only coworker you had told was-

Jimmy. 

Your heart maybe exploded at that moment, you weren't quite sure. There was a tug in the back of your mind to go over immediately and ask him, but you shut it down. What you needed was more evidence. 

And you didn't want to seem… Presumptuous. Jimmy could get pretty much anybody he wanted, so the chances that he was going with… His nerdy journalist coworker…? Slim. Probably. It would be better to wait.

For what, you weren't quite sure, but you needed another sign. 

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

On the walk to the subway home, Jimmy noticed how happy you looked. The dice set was securely in your bag, and you seemed excited to use them at your next game. 

“I really want to know who got these for me. Seriously, I’d love to go out with them.” 

Jimmy nearly tripped over his own feet. 

“Is- really?” He stuttered for just a moment, clearly trying and failing to sound casual. “And you… still don’t know who it is?” 

He could’ve sworn your eyes were pointedly on him when you responded “I have a few ideas. But nothing solid. My only real lead right now… I don’t know if he likes guys.” 

Jimmy’s voice died in his throat. 

Oh. 

Of course you wouldn’t think it was him, he had never said anything that would suggest he was into anyone other than the girls he went out with. 

“Well, er, maybe you could… ask? I think, usually, your ideas are more spot on than you think.” 

You gave him an odd smile, though the subway announcement signaled that your train would be there soon, and you had to get to the platform. Before you could leave, though, Jimmy cleared his throat. 

“I mean, I don’t talk about it much, but I also like guys. Just saying. Maybe the odds aren’t as low as you thi-” 

He didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence before you had grabbed one of his hands with both of yours. 

“So, I’m right in suspecting you, aren’t I?” 

It took a lot for Jimmy to simply nod. 

“Good. I like you too, Jimmy. No need to be so mysterious.” You let his hands go, turning and beginning to walk to your subway platform. 

Then, of course, you realized there could be a lot more to this moment. You turned once more, running back up to Jimmy and grabbing his face in your hands. 

You could feel the heat of his blush under your fingers, which made you laugh a little bit. 

“... Sorry. That was a bit sudden. Er, may I…?” You trailed off, waiting for him to say something. 

Jimmy finally seemed to catch up to the situation in his mind, eyes widening, and he nodded.

“Finally. I was beginning to think I’d have to say something.” 

Whatever he might’ve added to that to be more snarky died when you pulled him just a bit closer, and kissed him. It was brief, but it was good. Jimmy’s lips were soft, and he was clearly flustered by how much he was blushing. 

You pulled away before you really wanted to, but you also seriously didn’t want to miss your train. 

“Bye, Jimmy! See you tomorrow!” You darted off, leaving him to process what had just happened, placing his hand hesitantly where your lips had just been as if to assure himself it was real. 

But it was. And it was wonderful.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

“No notes today, Jimmy?” Lois asked, as she had noticed him come in without placing something on your desk. “Don’t give up on him just yet! I’m sure he’s-”

“Not to worry, Lois!” Your voice startled both of them, neither having noticed you slipping into the building. “I’ve figured it out.” 

With an overly teasing and silly flourish, you took Jimmy’s hand, placing a kiss on the top of it overdramatically before giggling and going to your own desk to start the day. 

“... Congrats, Olsen.” Was all that Lois had to say, while Jimmy was left to look like a bright red deer in headlights. 

Not that he could ever mind something like that.

[bambi-kinos]

people’s arguments about why john has to be a bottom and not paul tend to regurgitate the same critique these people have about paul (“you say he’s a bottom just because he’s feminine!”) by bringing up john’s appearance and more femme attitude after ‘68 and then saying how paul is more masc because of his body / facial hair. i also feel like a lot of people still conflate dom/sub with top/bottom when it comes to mclennon. though i haven’t thought about the societal perception of receiving / giving, i had an ohhh moment when i read that in your post. i personally will always be a fan of service top john paired with a power bottom paul, but john being servicy to me doesn’t mean he’s “submissive” in the typical way. i think he can be dominant and aggressive with paul but that’s because paul allows him to be. like what you said about paul enjoying being john’s second and being put in his place by more domineering and strong men. there’s a lot of power play that goes on in their sexual relationship and it deeply fascinates me!

people’s arguments about why john has to be a bottom and not paul tend to regurgitate the same critique these people have about paul (“you say he’s a bottom just because he’s feminine!”) by bringing up john’s appearance and more femme attitude after ‘68 and then saying how paul is more masc because of his body / facial hair.

Yes, it gets very transparent for exactly those reasons. What makes me roll my eyes about the “you say he’s a bottom just because he’s feminine!” thing is that anyone who bitches about this can only imagine switching the roles and having Paul by a hypermasculine stoic (which breaks characterization) and having John be a hyperfeminine bottom (which is also OOC). I don't think that the original complaints are necessarily a bad thing, there is an iteration problem in McLennon fandom where Paul can sometimes be reduced to a weepy princess, though I haven't heard of any fics coming out in the past 5 years that actually made this mistake. But it does annoy me that fandom can only imagine flipping the script and having John be the weepy bottom princess. It never leads to something more creative or interesting being produced where John and Paul's roles, both self assigned and imposed on them, are discussed especially for the effect it had their relationship.

It would be interesting to explore John's femme qualities but I think that fans are hesitant about going there because they would have to admit that John's passivity in 1968 was induced by his heroin addiction which destroyed his life and his relationships. There's never any appreciating John's femininity when he wasn't on heroin even though 1965 is arguably when John was at the most soft spoken and open minded. I find it a little sad that John's feminine qualities are only appreciated when he was at the peak of his hatefulness and addiction.

i also feel like a lot of people still conflate dom/sub with top/bottom when it comes to mclennon.

A lot of that is wish fulfillment IMO. Especially since Paul fans are usually the ones driving it and it's pretty universal that we want to see him get railed, not really the other way around. We like him because he's so poundable. So it's nice that he has a built in boyfriend who's willing to fuck him until he cries, you know. And it's easy to classify that as top/bottom::dom/sub.

McLennon is very subtle in some ways because of the give and take between John and Paul was so weird and it's just really difficult for us as outsiders to grasp. John and Paul themselves are baffled and confused by it. It makes me wonder if part of their dissolution was the fact that they didn't understand how much power they held over the other one which meant that they couldn't understand why their decisions were having such profound effects on the other person. They seem profoundly frustrated and bewildered by the undercurrents of their relationship where they perfectly fulfill each other in all ways except one, and how deeply unsatisfying their other relationships have been in comparison.

I think @amoralto damaged the fandom for this in some ways because she ended up having a popular blog which meant that her interpretations of John in particular were xeroxed over and over. The problem with this being that I don't think amoralto fully appreciated the power dynamic between John and Paul and her bias against John crept into her opinions which means that they screwed up the fandom discourse. If you go purely by her public posts then amoralto appears to be under the impression that John was a hysteric that was perpetually shitting himself about Paul one upping him. There is some truth to that but it's also not the whole story because Paul's ability to pull the rug out from under John was always a source of pride, fascination, love, and eroticism for John. Yesterday rocked John's world but he was also proud of Paul for being such an incredible artist and he was always pleased about being the one who discovered Paul. He was always aware that Paul had a lot of power over him and John both reveled and despaired in that.

This relates to the top/bottom::dom/sub thing because this dynamic would naturally play out in an erotic relationship between John and Paul. There's the surface layer where John is railing Paul but then there's the additional layer where Paul is the one enticing John to do it by showing his ass off (like really, who do you think those tight cut trousers are for?) and inviting John to put his cock inside Paul. And then there's the part where John's butch attitude and even some of his violence was egged on and encouraged by Paul who was most likely turned on by John punching people out. Paul was not the slightest bit put off by John being a violent person or else he would have bailed within a year of knowing him. When Julia died, Paul is the only one who had patience with John who was getting drunk and getting into fights…meanwhile there's a femmeboi in the background making soothing noises and cleaning him up so that he's fit for company. Really makes the your mind run wild with possibilities huh? Who is to say Paul didn't say "c'mon Johnny, just put it in me mouth and I'll fix you up." Or something!

The point is Paul is ultimately in control of the situation. This is supposed to be what dom/sub set ups are supposed to be anyway, subs are the ones who dictate the conditions in the bedroom. But considering how John built Paul up in his mind, it seems clear that Paul had a lot of overt power over John too. They don't fit neatly into the dom/sub set up either.

They switched power positions constantly and they got a lot of pleasure out of dominating but also being dominated. Paul liked being on top and being on bottom and John liked it when he got to be on top of Paul and when Paul crushed him. The pleasure was in the struggle itself, not necessarily the positions in of themselves.

though i haven’t thought about the societal perception of receiving / giving, i had an ohhh moment when i read that in your post.

It's not nearly as prevelent now though it still lingers. But heteronormativity really dictated the nature of a lot of relationships in the past.

i personally will always be a fan of service top john paired with a power bottom paul, but john being servicy to me doesn’t mean he’s “submissive” in the typical way. i think he can be dominant and aggressive with paul but that’s because paul allows him to be.

IMO there's a lot of truth to this! @zilabee has a really nice post about how John and Paul could afford to be gentle with one another and wrote love songs together. I think that a service top john/power bottom paul really fits this dynamic because it allowed John and Paul to express themselves to each other which solidified their mutual trust and their bond.

In a lot of ways Paul was an ideal partner for John in that he was someone John could have sex with that didn't have consequences (such as pregnancy) while Paul also had the feminine beauty that John really loved. (There's a quote from Yoko I think that John claimed if he fell in love with another man then that man would have to be extremely beautiful. Handsome is not enough.) John could probably be a lot rougher with Paul who could stand up to being tossed around a bit if needed but was beautiful enough for John to fuck tenderly too. Paul wasn't afraid of John's rough side and even encouraged it and decided to love it. In some ways John being a service top lets him express that roughness sexually with someone who won't break in half from being treated like a sack of potatoes. And there wouldn't be judgment from Paul either because he is still a man and experienced the same puberty and testosterone that John did including the same struggles with temper, the bodily changes, etc. He knows where John is coming from whereas a 1960s woman would not. (The transwomen, crossdressers, and homosexuals in Hamburg may have been John's first explicit taste of this. People who were familiar with what growing up as a male would be like so they didn't judge John for his proclivities and interests.)

In other words, John could express himself sexually with Paul in a way that he probably couldn't with women. Paul was fine with it judging from that photo of John's nutsack against his back and it fulfilled his needs as well!

like what you said about paul enjoying being john’s second and being put in his place by more domineering and strong men. there’s a lot of power play that goes on in their sexual relationship and it deeply fascinates me!

Yes! John overwhelms and dominates Paul but it's because Paul wants it to happen. He relied on John's intuition and discernment and ultimately his trust in John to carry it through. John has a partner who can't get pregnant when he climaxes inside him and then can take it on the chin when John is rough and/or degrading. All while he's sharply aware of how much Paul likes it which itself feeds into John's eros, and so on and on…

[fiddleyoumust]

I just finished The Boyfriend reunion (there are subs on it now!), and I, of course, have feelings about it.

I'm so happy that Taeheon was able to come out successfully to his parents and that he is trying to be more open to dating different types of people after his experiences getting to know the other boyfriend cast members. He's such a lovely man, and I really hope he finds a great partner.

I am now about 95% convinced that Kazuto had a thing for Dai that he never pursued because Dai was so set on Shun from day one. His comment in the episode watch that Netflix put up on YouTube a few days ago where he said he thought Dai liked him definitely makes me think he was thinking about Dai in the early days. Especially when I remembered Kazuto was one of the 3 people who wrote Dai a letter on day 1.

I'm also convinced Dai would have been the Kazuto of the season if he had been open to anyone but Shun. He got a letter from Ginsei, Kazuto, and Ryota on day one. Alan had already hit it 😂. He wooed Shun into falling in love with him, and Ikuo wanted him too. Boy had mad game and only played for Shun 💖.

On the Shun and Dai front, they seem like they are doing great. I've seen some concern over Dai letting Shun do most of the talking about their relationship. I find that so funny because all the complaints during the show were that Shun wasn't expressing how he felt about Dai, and now that he is talking about it, Dai is being stifled! Just say yall don't like them and go. It's fine to just not vibe with a couple's energy. I personally loved seeing Shun be excited to talk about them. He looked very happy.

I've also seen people concern trolling over the "we fight everyday" comment from Dai. I think that was 50% joke, but if yall didn't know Shun and Dai's dramatic asses were going to be the type of couple who ruins a rug over a fight about sashimi idk what to tell you. Some couples like drama. Sometimes fighting is foreplay. Their kinks are okay.

I really love Dai's comment about opening himself up to being hurt by Shun. I don't at all think he was saying Shun has a license to hurt him whenever he wants. I think he was saying he ran scared from love before because he feared being hurt, but meeting Shun made him brave enough to risk being hurt. Like, even if this person does end up hurting me, our love is worth the risk.

I think Shun and Dai actually have a pretty healthy relationship because they communicate well. Neither one of them is scared to say, "I don't like that," and they don't seem like they avoid conflict. Shun being a "princess" is not concerning to me. Sometimes people are divas, and sometimes other people are gagged for divas. MFEO! I also think it took a person like Shun to make Dai want a relationship. He said he was focused on education and career, and to me, that reads as a man who hadn't found anyone interesting enough to move his focus to romance. Shun being beautiful AND challenging was exactly what Dai needed to move his focus.

I'll end by saying that relationships are hard. All relationships, and I hope everyone who watched or watches the show will remember these are real people. They are on social media. They are seeing what you say about them. I hope everyone leads with kindness and treats the cast like they would the people in their actual lives. They made my summer so lovely by letting me into their lives, and I hope they all go on to be incredibly happy.

[kingwuko]

i havent been able to read the mako comic yet :^(((( i would love to hear ur general thoughts on it!! ie would you recommend it to a normie is it for hardcore lok fans, did it feel necessary? is wu ever mentioned like even peripherally?

AAAH the Mako comic. I have so many thoughts about it and I do plan on making a post going into way too much detail specifically about the police in the story.

Now please take my opinion with a grain of salt because I consider myself an enjoyer of media and I tend to not be super critical. I just try to have a good time lol!!!

I REALLY enjoyed the Mako comic. Was it perfect? Of course not that's impossible. It's a pretty short comic, so the pacing is quick. My main complaint is Mako's scar is gone ☹️

I would definitely recommend it to a normie fan and to hardcore fans alike. It's very removed from the rest of the Avatar media, so you don't need to have all of ATLA and LOK committed to memory to enjoy it. but has lots of lovely little Easter eggs and details for the hardcore fans as well. The main thing to know is the basics of Mako's backstory, that he and Bolin were orphaned as children when their parents were killed by a fire bender in a mugging, that their father was from the Earth Kingdom while that their mother was from the Fire Nation.

My opinion is that it gives us just enough information about their mother's history without overdoing it. It also gives us some delicious character growth for mako—not drastic, but there's really nice moments where his role as a protector is deconstructed. It was really satisfying for me. There's also some really interesting moments that touch on Mako and Bolin having multi cultural heritage, and some of the difficulties that comes with that!

The art is GORGEOUS. I can't praise it enough. The artist, Alex Monik, also draws for the TTRPG books and all the art is AMAZING. Mako and Bolin look incredible, and there's even this incredible detail that Bolin's skin tone is different than Mako's, which is just such a wonderful detail!!!

I also enjoy it more and more each time I read it. Little details and dialogue jump out at me with each reread that I didn't notice or appreciate the first time, in a good way!

Was it necessary??? I mean, yes!!!! I need more Mako!!! It's not a want, it's a need lol!!! And we've really been waiting for this for so long, and it was really important I think for us and the bros to get some info and closure about their mother, and a little character growth for both the boys.

Did they mention Wu? No 😭. Not even a little. I've scoured it for even vague references and nothing. BUT they do go out of the way to say Mako's not dating anyone. And I was kinda worried that the female character they introduced would get shoehorned in as a love interest but she was not!!!! (Honestly we were talking about it in discord and we decided Bolin had more chemistry with the female character than Mako did 🤫) So no Wu, but also nothing that contradicts Wuko. And if you're delusional like me you can just pretend Mako's already dating Wu but can't tell anyone.

I'd reccomend this comic. It's not a huge time or financial commitment, and I feel like if we want more LOK stuff we have to support the stuff they give us!!!

[cuephrase]

Of the DC comics you've read so far, what would be your top recommendations for people to check out/what have you enjoyed the most?

when i tell you i have been thinking about this all day- i have been thinking about this. all. day.

so disclaimer, as of writing this, i have only read 31 runs from start to finish and 18 arcs/events outside of those runs. on top of, everything i've read so far has been strictly robin-centric, so dick, jason, tim, and damian. (i have read all of steph's robin appearances lol, but i haven't gotten to reading material for her, like say batgirl 2009, yet.) i've also decided not to rec from any run i'm currently reading, so for example, you won't see any batman: gotham knights recs here. because i'm most well-read on the robins, i'm only going to rec for them.

also, i'm going to operate under the following assumption: you've got a basic knowledge of the robins. none of these are where i would necessarily recommend anyone start reading about the boys, but i do think they'd be pretty interesting if you're already somewhat familiar with them and don't want to commit to reading whole character backlogs. does that make sense? i hope that makes sense.

alright, let's do this!

DICK GRAYSON

oh god. this one is actually so hard because he has so much great stuff, but then also i have like a love/frustrate relationship with so much of it. like for instance, i really enjoyed The New Teen Titans, but also lowkey can't stand space adventures so whenever that went down i was like 😀👍. but okay. hmmmm.

i have two preboot recs, with explanations + caveats.

devin grayson's mob!dick arc, so Nightwing 1996 #99-100, 107-117. caveats: it doesn't really get to finish playing out/wraps up weird because of editorial changes/infinite crisis. but!! it's a super interesting look at how dick handles...failure. how he values himself in light of that failure.

tomasi's run, but specifically #147-153. (listen, i love the dick and tim moments in 'freefall' but the whole eternally pregnant lady thing was too weird.) this is classic, hyper-competent dick, okay? he's such a bad-ass. and an idiot- bro literally flops his severely injured ass over the bars of his glider and rides it UNCONSCIOUS back to the batcave. i can't with him. poor alfred. anyways, he deals with two-face, always a good time. and then at the end, as a treat, he cries because bruce is dead. so fun!! what was my caveat here? oh yeah, he has a girlfriend. i don't remember her name, she serves like...very little purpose, the whole relationship is very minor/background okay, but like it was so unnecessary. he can be single, dc, it's okay.

for post re-boot, just read tom taylor's run!! it's the best thing ever!! zero complaints!!

HA. yeah, just kidding. that run is very like/frustrate for me lol. oh man i'm struggling here. it's not all bad okay, i'm just really picky, and i haven't re-read any nightwing n52 and onwards since my first foray into comics (8 months ago) so my memories of these are the foggiest and i'm not sure how i feel about all of it in light of what i've read now. yk what, i'm just going to...not rec anything. sorry!!

JASON TODD

his comics either go so hard or they're absolute ass, why is there no in between. istg, i can't figure out why writers struggle with him so much?? well. i mean, i do have theories. but you didn't ask for those!

pre-boot:

detective comics #569-574. robin!jason in the hands of writers who like him is so much fun. which, don't get me wrong, i don't flat-out hate how starlin writes him, but i think you get a more well-rounded view of jason as robin when you also see him in 'tec. jason and bruce tangle with the joker, scarecrow, + mad hatter, and all of those adventures are...idk if they were intentional foreshadowing okay, but reading those and knowing where the story goes? oof. especialllllly #574. caveat: #572 is pretty light on jason, but he is great when he's on panel!

reboot:

probably a very basic answer but rhato rebirth (2016) #1-13, annual #1. i abhorred n52 rhato so i almost skipped rhato rebirth since it was still written by lobdell, but i'm really glad i didn't. i really enjoy jason's relationship with bizarro + artemis, but especially with bizarro because i think jason struggles a lot with feeling like a doomed creation, so yk, parallels. i want to say more but i know i'll get too wrapped up in discussing jason so i'm just going to stop myself.

i actually really enjoyed task force z, too. i think about tfz #8 so much, jason is such a manipulative little shit and i love it. he's so- i can't. i can't get into this rn, it deserves its own post(s).

overall for jay, i need people to read something other than utrh/lost days/b:ul 1-6. i love those, i do, but they aren't the only good pieces of jason content!!

TIM DRAKE

MY BELOVED!!!!!!!!!! in my heart of hearts, i just want to rec his whole robin run lmao. dick was my intro, okay, he is why i decided to start reading comics, but tim, specifically his robin solo is why i'm still reading comics. hooked me fr. and young justice 1998, ugh love. but it has been a minute since i read these as well, so hmm. okay okay okay

pre-boot:

batman: prodigal. short version, tim is robin to dick's batman. super fun. there's a solid amount of dick and bruce angsting too, which, love. tim is honestly just thrilled that jpv is out of the batsuit and even happier to working with dick. very cute.

robin #46. listen. they're all superheroes okay, they all feel pressure to save people. but tim...losses get to him. the amount of times that he gets shoved to a breaking point and then...gets back up. keeps going. *screams*. anyways!! this is not tim getting back up, okay? this is him being shoved way, way down. it's so good.

teen titans 2003 #20. tim's dad has died. he shows up for his weekend at the tower anyways. he is not okay. that's it, that's the pitch. i did not like...mmm at least 80% of this run okay, but a few of the issues HIT and this was one imo.

reboot:

*deep sigh*. look. tim is not tim for like basically all of n52, although there are moments here and there were he feels like himself. i did not like his 2023 solo, the best parts of young justice 2019 imo are the character designs, (except for his drake costume, what was that omg), and i haven't read any rebirth batman/'tec yet. except for zdarsky's run. which. tim is good there! but yeah, not really a whole lot of material to work with + very limited reading experience atm.

DAMIAN WAYNE

god, i love this kid. nature vs. nurture fascinates me, and so much of his story digs into that on top of trying to figure out who he is apart from all of that. i will say, i'm not a huge talia fan and by that i mean, i have no idea who she is "supposed" to be, like i have no frame of reference for that atm, so if you are a huge talia fan these recs might not hit for you because from what i've observed from her fans she is not well portrayed a whole lot since becoming his mother? i think one of the things that is normal is dick absolutely disliking her though, which cracks me up. there's this older batman story (batman #322-335) where bruce works with talia and dick goes running to selina and i was so entertained. what were we talking about? oh! damian!

preboot:

batman and robin 2009 #10-12. damian is struggling, with a lot of things. the fact that bruce might be alive, what that means for him and dick, and his mother's puppeteering. there's this line that kills me: "can't you just love me for who i am? not what you want me to be?" and the thing that gets me, is the use of who vs. what. because he could have said, "not who you want me to be", but he doesn't

reboot:

batman: shadow war. this is post-alfred's death, and honestly, most damian stuff post city of bane is pretty juicy, but there's this specific moment in shadow war: alpha #1 that had me speechless. just like 😧 i love bruce, but that man has some of the most chronic foot-in-mouth disease. oh but fair warning, for whatever reason they don't draw dami's mask connecting?? it's so- it drives me nuts.

JUST FOR FUN

these are just two issues that i enjoy for the brother content!

nightwing 1996 #25. dick and tim's relationship makes me ILL. *ahem*. this issue is mostly just super cute and fun, (there's like 0.2 seconds of angst when tim asks dick if he ever thinks about jason 😭) and i adore it sm. fun fact, it's actually one of the first comics i ever bought!

batman 2016 #16. unfortunately, tim is not here for this, but duke is! jason and damian's interactions in the background of bruce's Very Serious Speech are excellent. bruce is so dramatic and his kids are so unserious.

what i've most enjoyed

i've enjoyed the majority of what i've read, even titles/events i wasn't particularly looking forward to but had on my tbr for whichever character. i'm going to break down most enjoyed into two catergories, arcs that i loved top to bottom and then the guilty pleasures. this is not an exhaustive list, just what immediately came to mind.

top to bottom

bruce wayne: murderer?/fugitive. shocker, ik. but it's just, it's just so frickin good. i've said before, and i'll say it again, gotham war could NEVER. this right here is peak batfamily drama. the tension? the mystery? the angst? i knew nothing going into this okay, and truth be told, when i started it i was like "oh joy. another event." because i was just trying to read the 1996 nightwing run, but i'd committed to reading in full all the events it crossed over with. but i was invested so quickly. and like, i loved how the narrative supported the possibility that bruce was the murderer, because like, you know there's no way, but the more that comes out the more damning it is, and so you're like really dying to know what actually happened and i feel like the reveal was satisfying.

batman: city of bane. i'm going to cautiously put this here, because there might have been something i didn't like but i cannot recall it for the life of me right now. something about me is i love when the heroes lose. infinity war, empire strikes back? love. and ik bruce takes back gotham, but they lose alfred, okay, they lost. i also didn't expect to like this arc, i decided to read it because i wanted to know how alfred died. and first of all, i was shocked, even though i knew it was coming because i expected it to like happen towards the end. but nope. just *snap*. and then later when bruce is back in the manor and is confronted with alfred's body and his good-bye message? oh. my. god. i was bawling. despite my penchant for sad narratives, i don't tend to cry that much, but this got to me so bad. like i had to pause because i couldn't see. amazing.

red robin. his cowl is so ugly, but i really do love the run. i see a lot of discourse about it and also a lot of...interesting fanfic takes, so i don't really talk about it a lot here because it feels like most people are kind of tired of hearing about this run, which fair. i really enjoyed it as a sequel to his solo robin run. tbh, i almost put this in the guilty pleasure catergory, because there are a couple things i don't totally love, but like if the others are 10/10, this is 9/10.

young justice 1998. i love this comic so, so much. i don't even know what to say, i get so overwhelmed with joy when i think about this comic. nothing has hit the same way with this group since either, which is a crime. i need a title with this team so badly.

guilty pleasures

these are all runs/events i know some/most? people cannot stand and i totally get why, and i have problems with them, so i'm probably never going to rec them in good conscience but also like i can't lie and say i don't like them. these are not recs, okay? okay.

robin war. is it a hot mess? yes. but there is not a whole lot of canon content out there with all the boys working together, okay? so much of that event had me banging my head into a wall, but for me, there were a handful of pearls in there. i mean honestly, if i listed out pros and cons the cons list would be way longer but those pros are very precious to me.

batman and robin: eternal. very similar reasoning overall to robin war. plus cass finally came back!! i missed her. i love robin!dick and batman content, and the kids working together. this is probably my least favorite guilty pleasure though, okay, it's on thin ice.

grayson. listen, i love janin's art sm. i'm pretty neutral about spy stuff, so like i don't engage with it a whole lot. meaning, although i've heard it's tropey af in regards to the genre, i'm not familiar enough with the genre to be like trying to dig my eyeballs out with blunt spoons at the cliche of it all. the constant sexualization of dick got old super fast, and her name may have been helena but she wasn't- my list of dislikes is lengthy. but idk, i had fun with it. and imo it does have some genuinely great moments, i love dick in the desert with the baby, the ache i felt when dick wanted to come home and couldn't get a hold of bruce, issue #12 stabs me in the heart- the dick and dami reunion? stoppppp. i feel like this run and the ric grayson era are dick's most out there lmao

so yeah!! thank you so much for this ask, i had sm fun answering it. if you have any recs for me, feel free to drop them :)

[allwormdiet]

Hive 5.9

Don't worry everyone, dragons are notoriously easy to defeat with little harm done, right?

Taylor's attempt at bravado is very humorous, if dramatically misplaced

Also Sundancer I'm so sorry you have to catch up so fast on Skitter stuff, but this is what you deal with in Brockton Bay

I dunno Taylor, I get that the objective here is that the ABB gets taken down, but are you sure the correct answer here doesn't involve Kaiser getting his stupid pointy ass cooked inside that armor?

Snark aside, this isn't a fully incorrect complaint to have about a teammate who's like. Not fighting. On a mission where you kinda all gotta fight. Like I know why Sundancer's not doing it, but that didn't get explained in much detail to anyone else

Skipping the part where Kaiser does his thing because he's a fucking Nazi and he doesn't get called "cool" or "interesting" he gets called a fucking Nazi

What I'd give for the shoe to be on the other foot here, but alas

Taylor, I love the noble intentions thing, your dedication remains as admirable as ever, however: he's a fucking Nazi. You're not spinning the "it's bad to murder people" idea this time.

Yeah yeah yeah! There we go! Use the friendly fire power while the Nazis are in the blast zone! Perfect! Sundancer I forgive everything, you're great

please don't make me eat those words later

Jesus fucking Christ that is hot

Guess that's proof Lung isn't totally immune to fire though

Yeah that

Fucking Nazi scumbag idiot.

Kaiser dies, right? There's no way he comes out of this story in one piece. I hope it's undignified. I hope his own spikes pin him in the Family Guy death pose.

What a great fucking sell on this moment, Jesus Christ

Oh no.

Ohhh no.

Taylor you are so fucking brave and that is a problem

Ho-ho-holy fuck this is so dire, it's great but also horrific.

See, yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the mistake that's gonna keep getting made here, and I'm pretty sure Lung's not even gonna get the worst of that. He's, y'know, still alive by the end of this.

Totally forgot about Newter's hallucinogen the first time I was reading this fight. So fucking cool as a detail.

So I joked back in Arc fucking 1 that either Lung was going to keep getting his eyes fucked up or Taylor was going to keep going for the eyes. I didn't expect to get more data for those at the same fucking time, but here we are I guess

God that's nasty, also incidentally not how eyeballs would come out, learned that by hanging around discussions of Naruto's plug-and-play magic eyes

(Short version is that the eye tissue would give up before the optic nerve would, so any eyes you yanked out would be. Less than whole.)

Oh thank God, I'd wondered about that actually

Nazi capes fuck off!! You tell em Taylor

If this isn't the vibe of Taylor interacting with other capes outside the team, I'll eat my hat.

Current Thoughts

Hoooooooly shit what a fucking chapter

What a fight, what a display, what an interwoven dance of stupid and clever and desperate and resolute

Taylor is only getting more brutal over time and I think she's gonna notice the blood on her hands (literal or otherwise) even less as she goes

Leaving it here for tonight, finish the arc tomorrow and keep this train a-rolling.

[tyetknot]

I thought you were joking when you said that the Farrar's books were outdated but holy shittt, even for 1970s wicca/witchcraft those guys were like full gender heterosexual white magic ye harm none thing, I was also seeing their interview were christian kids interview them, and boy it is hard to watch, but on to my question kskk, do you know if they changed later down?,like Janet seems to be okay sometimes,I can't find anything of them on their "controversial views" except their later polyamorous relationship (wich come to think of it I would love to hear their gender rationale on that), and also, how do you personally (if you do so) reconcile this type of author?, like there is no doubt that they are important in craft history, but now they kinda do more harm than good.

Hi Anon! I'm sorry if you've been waiting for a bit, you know how Tumblr is.

So one thing it's important to remember is: back in the 1970s and 80s a religion where women run the show was very progressive. Feminism got bolted onto Wicca pretty quickly once it hit the American West Coast and Starhawk wrote The Spiral Dance. Things like worshipping a goddess who didn't need a man around to tell her what to do were really unusual for the time. All this hippie-dippy shit like being naked in your rituals and such was far out, man, not like those totally square and boring Christians.

The problem is that, like many older people who were once cool and progressive, they just kind of stopped where they were in the 70s and 80s and didn't really......well, progress past that point. This leads to things like statements like that one in A Witches' Bible where they think that actually gay people are perfectly OK in ritual (this was a bit of a controversial point at the time) as long as they act like their biological gender, which is hilarious to us in 2024 because they obviously conflate being gay with being trans in some bizarre fashion. This was progressive for the time. It comes across as incredibly ignorant today. And of course, if their ideas did change, well, the book is already out there, people are reading it, and you can't go back in time and change something that's already been published. You can add notes or amendments to further editions, but I don't believe they ever did that, and Stewart Farrar died in the early aughts.

I find the polyamory thing to be pretty cringe, NGL, because I am a judgmental and suspicious piece of shit and think that an awful lot of the time polyamory is a tool used to make younger women sexually available to older men - good Lord, the age difference between Stewart and Janet - and that's very distasteful.

In my opinion the Farrars are probably the stodgiest and most conservatively-written books you'll find from that time period, and they're a good example of what coven-based Alexandrian Wicca looked like at that time, but there were a lot of more relaxed writers out there at the time and LOTS more a few years later. My primary complaint with A Witches' Bible is rather specifically that asinine Oak King / Holly King thing which they made up entirely and then ineptly shoehorned into the Wheel of the Year, where it just doesn't fucking work, and then everyone else just kind of went with it. No! It sucks and is bad, don't do it!

Do I think they do more harm than good? No, I don't. I think that anyone fairly new to Wicca shouldn't read this book first thing out the gate because it sets a lot of very unrealistic expectations, and because it's pretty old - Eight Sabbats for Witches was published in 1981, which makes it a few years older than me, and The Witches' Way in 1984, which makes it a year younger than me, and TBH there's much newer and fresher material being published every year. I would much sooner recommend someone like Thorn Mooney to new person interested in traditional Wicca.

[imagionationstation]

Hi IS!! I seriously hope you're actually taking a break from Tumblr and social media instead of reading this haha, but I've been a follower for a few months now and couldn't help but send in a little post after seeing your rant. As someone who grew up with 2012 and adores it, and also as someone who respects Rise for what it is, I understand. 2012 is a huge comfort show to me and I've definitely gotten upset when all people do is go out of their way to tell you how horrible the show is without reason. 2012 is by no means perfect!! I am extremely aware of its flaws, but I don't believe that gives anyone permission to go out of their way just to ruin it for you. To target the one criticism that drives me a bit nuts, the "real brothers" thing. Rise has a very valid interpretation of brothers! But as someone with 3 other siblings, it is not sunshine and rainbows all the time. My older siblings would make me cry, we would fight and get hurt and hurt each other all of the time, my younger sibling would tattle on me, etc etc. But we also look out for each other, and have grown out of many of those things since then. I see a lot of my own sibling situations in 2012. Sure, it doesn't get everything right (and can be purposefully exaggerated because it is a cartoon!!), but it isn't wrong either. Everyone has different family experiences, and believing that Rise is the only correct interpretation of siblings would just be a bit narrow minded. I have many, many more points I could make in regards to the sibling ordeal (and other criticisms you mentioned!) but I'll leave it here for now. Overall, just enjoy what you want to enjoy! This goes for everyone. Someone is always going to want to rain on your parade, don't give them the power to do it. It's so much easier and less tiring to spend your time enjoying something you love over dunking on something you hate. :)

Thank you <3

As I mention over here, not really in a place to drop it yet, but I may sometime in the future. Your support is greatly appreciated!

As someone who grew up with 2012 and adores it, and also as someone who respects Rise for what it is, I understand. 2012 is a huge comfort show to me and I've definitely gotten upset when all people do is go out of their way to tell you how horrible the show is without reason.

Exactly! I have nothing against rottmnt. RISE is a great addition to the TMNT fandom. It has its highs and lows like anything else. It didn't deserve the dislike that many fans gave it in the beginning.

So why does 2012 deserve the exact same treatment after its time is over? Why doesn't it deserve the same respect for its diversity?

They experimented with some awesome and iffy things.

Some things worked and others didn't. Why can't we leave it at that?

I try and read the opinions that say "I like this, this, and this, but-" and ignore anything that is pure hate or comes from an account that has never said a single nice thing about the show.

But even then, it's often always the same old list of complaints.

And, like, Donnie is downright awful with his comebacks but sometimes I find myself doing the daily quote thing to the screen when I come across someone who is being supremely unreasonable.

(Not that I'd ever actually say that to anyone. It's my stress vice.

But. I definitely think it. Very hard.)

To target the one criticism that drives me a bit nuts, the "real brothers" thing.

EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH BRINGS ME AN UNNAMABLE JOY.

You hit the nail right on the head!!

My family dynamic is so similar to these boys. One of my siblings very seriously told me a few days ago that I am not at all attractive, but a few weeks ago, the same sibling also reassured me that I deserved a love interest so much better than any person the world has handed me. Freakin' Raph impersonator over here.

Literally, I have siblings who interact like Leo and Raph. Constantly trying to be the superior in the relationship and hating when the other bosses them around. But you'd almost never find them apart because they are the other's shoulder to lean on.

I'm not anyone innocent either. I've said lots of things that I didn't mean in the past and I still slip up from time to time. I'm the type of person to be annoyed with a sibling and smack/shove them. My siblings do the exact same! Teasing and mocking and crude words aren't anything crazy. It's just how our fam do family.

I have a sibling who is just as insane and annoying as Mikey, but it's so frustrating because he's either purposefully stirring chaos and then laughing when we get upset, or so innocent and confused when I'm getting mad at him for doing something similar a while later.

We get so tired of it. But it's not his fault. He's untreated ADHD and lives his life to the fullest. What you gonna do? Stifle that? Please.

We get so tired of each other.

But we're always the first to have each others' backs.

Overall, just enjoy what you want to enjoy! This goes for everyone. Someone is always going to want to rain on your parade, don't give them the power to do it. It's so much easier and less tiring to spend your time enjoying something you love over dunking on something you hate. :)

Thank you so much. I always try to remind myself of that, but some days it can be hard. I really appreciate your kind words! I hope anyone reading this is also making note of them.

I don't ever want to be a hater.

Going giddly over the boys being themselves is so much more fun.

[nerd4music]

I think overall there’s one of two „big“ problems happening for people who have a problem with TOWL (racists and the likes aside… 🙄).

1- The misunderstanding that this was truly much more a Rick and Michonne story than a TWD one. This was not TWD S12. It was about telling the story of these 2 characters and being able to put a dot at the end (or a dot dot dot). And you’ve laid all of that out perfectly. Like yes, in TWD, Beale (& the CRM) would have been draaaaagged out. But this was much more of a Terminus approach than a Saviors one if we will…

2- TWD was never the most ..subtle show. They tended to hit the audience over the head with stuff. And I’m not sure I would go as far as calling TOWL subtle outright either (idk, didn’t think about this until right this moment lol -obviously elements of it are, sure -just as elements on TWD could be on the subtler side) but compared to TWD, it certainly is lol. And there has been a very big „media literacy“ and „basic comprehension skills“ problem happening for a minute now. And I really don’t say this to be mean or make fun of people or anything but these are just facts. Some people really struggle with getting the information when they are not being hit over the head with it, over and over and over again. After the finale I saw several posts on my tl of people wondering why this, that or the other was not addressed or how/why this, that or the other did happen… and I was utterly confused because those things they claimed were missing were very much shown? I was like, there was literally a scene dealing with all of this? And it didn’t require any reading between the lines to be honest, no subtext, it was very much the text of the scene?! So it seems like some people just didn’t get a lot of things that were happening 🫤

(BTW I don’t mean that even if someone didn’t have these specific problems with the show, they MUST love it then. Likes and dislikes etc etc. As much as I really loved the show as a whole, if I decided to put down the Richonne-colored glasses I wanted to and did watch to the show with.. I’d definitely have a few complaints lol, though still very much enjoyed the show even then)

That's definitely what happened. And to some extent, I get why, considering Rick and Michonne are 2/3 of the main show's Big Three. But when the press and promos started, and people were still talking about some Marvel-style meet-up, I was like...oh they're definitely not listening to what's being said, because it's six damn episodes, and also The Richonne story, not the Team Family jamboree. And then acting as if it's somehow 'insulting' to the rest of the characters if Rick and Michonne didn't talk about them. The man had PTSD so bad, he couldn't remember his own son's face. Why would you think it would be good time for him to pause in the middle of his wife telling him about a traumatic moment during her pregnancy to ask about anyone else? Please be fr.

I feel you on the comprehension thing, which is nothing new for this fandom. The fact that so many people legit thought Rick didn't know how to drive stick and questioned the 'realism' of it but never stopped to think that it was because he only has one damn hand. Y'all were fine with every silly ass moment that happened in the main show, that was either sheer dumb luck or handwaved away, but now we need a complete breakdown from experts on how Rick managed to fight off walkers one-handed. Now y'all want the realism, when you've been so giddy for weeks because you need one of them to die for the show to be 'interesting'.

I'm really not listening to people who need the narrative to hold their hand through everything, or need to see every piece of the plot onscreen for it to be considered 'legitimate'. (I'm officially banning the phrase 'plot armor' for the foreseeable future).

People didn't get things, because they don't take a minute to sit with the damn material anymore. From live reactions videos to live tweeting/blogging, people are just watching TV to make content and have an online moment, not for what's actually being shown. And yeah, TOWL isn't perfect, but the minor criticisms I have for it doesn't take away from the fact that it is very enjoyable and easily the best material from the TWD landscape in a long time.

(sidenote: I will say one of my favorite things from these past six weeks is everyone struggling to figure out the overall TWD timeline, lmao.)

[saintnoname2]

I thought some more about this during my shift at work (as a cook at a restaurant lol), so here are some ideas for a 911 restaurant au:

The 118 is a restaurant that's part of a restaurant group (meaning the owners also own multiple other restaurants that are all part of the same company). I envision it as either a steakhouse or a seafood restaurant or both. Chef Gerrard was the original Executive Chef when the restaurant first opened. He created a space that was unsafe for POC and LGBT people and left willingly after HR received complaints.

Henrietta was hired on as the morning prep Sous Chef. Despite years of experience, knowledge, and skills, she wasn't taken seriously as a chef and wasn't allowed any input on the menu. She suspected it had something to do with her being a queer black woman, but it took time for her to get the courage to defend herself.

When Bobby took over as Executive Chef, he recognized Henrietta's potential and how she'd been held back and he let her start having input on the menu. She finally felt like she was being treated like a real chef instead of just a prep cook.

Tommy started out as a line cook at The 118. He didn't feel safe being out as gay because of the toxic environment Chef Gerrard fostered. Tommy eventually transferred to one of the other restaurants in the group and began living as his true self.

Howie also started out as a line cook under Chef Gerrard. Like with Henrietta, Chef Bobby also recognized the potential in Howie, and eventually promoted him to Sous Chef. He worked every station as a line cook and now functions mostly as a tournat: not having a set station and instead going wherever he's needed.

Buck, Eddie, and Ravi are line cooks.

Buck's main station is garde manger (appetizers, salads, and desserts). He's been cooking for years and desperately wants to move up and become a Sous Chef, but Bobby knows he isn't ready yet.

Eddie works on saute and grill. He's the best damn line cook Bobby's ever seen, but he's very happy right where he is and has no interest in management.

Ravi works mainly on fry. He's the new guy with no prior restaurant experience, so some of the more undesirable tasks (like helping out in the dish pit if they're short staffed) fall on him.

Maddie is an expeditor, but at a different restaurant. She and Howie know better than to work at the same restaurant.

I haven't quite figured out how Athena fits into this au. Maybe she's in HR, or maybe she's a General Manager at a different restaurant?

Anyway, they end up having a big event at the restaurant, like a buyout for a wedding reception or something, and they need extra hands. Howie remembers what a beast in the kitchen Tommy is and asks if he can come in for the day to help. Tommy ends up becoming friends with Eddie after, Buck develops a crush and asks if it would be possible for him to spend a shift at the restaurant Tommy works at, Tommy asks if he's thinking of transferring, Tommy wishes this was what the restaurant had been like when he worked there, Buck has a bisexual awakening, etc.

Anyway, if anyone wants to use these ideas for a fic, just tag me, cause I'd sure love to read it.

[conceptuma]

ohh i watched that video, i was wondering if you watched it. and if so what are ur opinions on their findings/data?

I hadn't watched it when I posted that

but since you asked, I will have put all my thoughts in this post while I watched it:

My thoughts before watching

okay, one big personal preference of mine, that I believe could very easily change, or simply become more subjective: I currently don't have a problem with artists who enjoy focusing on men.

Sometimes, someone likes something for a very personal reason, maybe a deeply psychological one. But sometimes... It Means Nothing. Or at least, it doesn't mean anything bad or incriminating. I've met countless people who could easily be incriminated and characterized as someone they're not, if you only looked at one of their interests or artstyles and none of their actual personality traits. Hell, even you and me could be EASILY falsely incriminated. I saw a mutual of mine (also a markiplier ego fanartist) get incriminated by one of my other random friends out of nowhere... simply because they were judged on the surface level based on a single artwork. This kind of thing is infuriating and can be genuinely dangerous when it extends to harassment, so I do care to be critical of any behaviors resembling this. (I'm also glad you asked about what I thought about this, it's nice to know someone would willingly prompt my yapping)

... But what do I mean by me not having a problem? Well, as I just explained, I never want to participate or condone harassment. Of anyone, mostly... but especially of an artist of this small scale, and even moreso when incriminated of a social crime of this ambiguous scale and uncertainty. So that's what I mean by not having a problem.

What I can have, however, is a hunch that they wouldn't enjoy my tastes in female OCs, or maybe an impression that me and another artist aren't compatible. I can appreciate many artstyles, and I do like male OCs. I might even become a huge fan of someone who only, or mostly, has male OCs. But I also might think "well, this artist has a lot of OCs that are similar, and it doesn't quite overlap with my own taste anymore..." and I'd leave it at that.

Unless they literally said "I HATE WOMEN!!!" ... then I'd be like, Oh! They hate women, that's not cool. Or something like that.

Gonna watch the video now. I'll edit this post with more of my thoughts as I watch.

"i will not attack/revenge if all your OCs are men."

Honestly, slay. I like it when people are honest about their preferences.

It doesn't surprise me that it pissed people off and led to some users blocking OP. I'm assuming that OP didn't instigate anything further and just simply stated their preference on their profile, nothing more. People just get upset way too easily about others' preferences.

However, sometimes I do read something like this on a profile that irks me. Not exactly this, but similar, just harder to understand, and also laced with a curious aggression, instead of how ^ this was stated so plainly. What I usually do in those cases:

Nothing

Research more about it so that I can grow in knowledge and come to understand this better (Succeeded at this many times, so I do recommend it. But if it doesn't click, sometimes you have to accept that it may just be an odd or incompatible individual)

Block them if it's actually upsetting me, or if I don't want them to find my profile, which is usually out of respect for their boundary

On rare occasions, I respectfully ask to learn more about what they meant

What I Never do:

Start drama

Argue with the person

which seems to be what OP may have meant by "friction" ... It's very common to see this behavior online, but I personally believe it's a pointless waste of time to endeavour.

The Data

13 minute mark. OP is explaining the means of collecting data, and then providing the first pie chart.

I have no complaints about the data collection methods. Doing both a strict and expansive collection was considerate. I don't know much about data collection to actually criticize this.

30% women and 60% men, with 10% stated as otherwise. (rounded to closest tenth)

Does it surprise me? It shouldn't, but having the proof now kinda does surprise me a little. But that's just because I enjoy creating female characters, so it's a bit hard for me to imagine having only male characters right now. If you asked me at some other point in my life, maybe I would've leaned towards having more male characters, but I think I've always leaned towards an even mix, or more feminine than masculine. I also consider making all my OCs non-gendered, or maybe all-female like Touhou. This video is inspiring me even moreso to commit to that. It's kind of a funny way to spite misogyny. But alas, I enjoy having a diverse cast of experiences...

Ok, here's something I have wanted to say... And I already read one comment that explained this better than I could:

Media-messaging. Art reflects reality.

I think the misogyny is REAL, but the majority of it is not intentioned, it's subconscious and internalized (I mean, duh, bigotry always starts that way, and it doesn't make it any less bad)

So far, I fully believe OP making this video was a good move. It shook things up in the AF/OC community and gave an opportunity for artists to become aware of this issue and be more critical about their own habits, as well as discuss this topic together due to the relevancy initiated by the video. At least, that's the purpose I imagine it serves.

"That's on them to unpack." is a fine way to say it.

Other Metrics

Bro... the "Percent of characters that are nonwhite" being only 9% is insane. Not to mention the metrics that came before this, but the statistics and implications of this is the most shocking one.

Ah, the caveat about Japanese (Anime) characters not being counted as non-white if their ethnicity isn't actually considered as something real outside of the generic setting of anime. I can understand that, yeah.

"Most of the non-white characters had an ambiguous racial identity"

Okay, NGL. this is the first time I've been called out in the video. I'm gonna talk about this in a separate post, because it doesn't relate to the video anymore, and is more of a heavy/personal topic that I usually cover in #vent or otherwise on this blog.

The Challenge

Ok, this is the last part of the video and my favorite part of the video.

I wonder when exactly it was that I started reframing how I saw female characters. I think it came in waves numerous times in the past years, occasionally receding when I started to focus on male characters or even question my sexual orientation (since currently I identify as a lesbian and it does admittedly play a lot into my OCs since I like to create what appeals to me) ... and eventually, I made breakthroughs that lead me to the comfort and understanding I have now for what I like and how I feel about women (both real and fictional)

The "Challenge" in question is essentially genderbending your favorite male character/OC. I love this idea. I have done this numerous times in the past couple years. And the past decade, actually.

That's the main practice that helped me reach this point of view about my OCs (and about gender & attraction IRL as well) ... It's a good creative exercise. Very good, actually.

Anytime anyone criticizes genderbending is when the genderbending appears to be Bad— when it changes the design to fit the stereotype of what a woman is.

Bishoujo figurines do this. The majority of genderbends do this. I actually still like those. But I like non-conforming designs even more, because they're much more interesting and believable.

That's where I started to develop using this practice on my favorite characters as a kid. It was more often female-to-male than male-to-female, but that still worked at teaching me non-conformity, and it was a pretty even mix, as well. Genderbending was the toy starter kit to gender theory and deconstruction of gender roles for me.