#brambles and tag rambles

[bramblebrushbellies]

Haven't posted a prompt in way too long but whatever-

Preds who need a sip of water in order to swallow their prey

Bonus points if it's a super experienced Pred. They just can't swallow prey dry, even though they're a pred to their friends all the time. They just need a little sip of water to help the little guy down

Inspired by me struggling to swallow an Advil bc my uterus is trying to kill me (period cramps)

[gemini-queen42]

Batb: Other Than Human - Themes stuff (& why I Called It That)

That's right folks, the self-indulgent "throwing any concept I like at the wall and haphazardly mixing together what sticks" au rewrite Thing has Actual Themes! That kind of happened accidentally but they are so real for that so let's get into it.

The Main Narratives Themes Trio of the story now all also embody expanded themes about being an "Other", when being a person is not enough to be properly considered human- more specifically of a neurodivergent/queer girlhood type flavor.

Summary is that it's called "Other Than Human" because the prominent theming is about being considered something other than human due to not fitting the mold of the 'norm'.

[This is a long one so details & specific character stuff are under the cut<3]

Amalure has the greatest departure from her original counterparts thematic placing, so we'll start with her. Amalure retains Gaston's social standing, reputation, etc. But it's of course not quite the same- because she is a woman, and she is not revered for being the picture of ideal womanhood/femininity. Instead, she excels in masculinity, but remains firm that she is and always will be a woman. So, to justify the desire & awe people have for her, they dehumanize her: She doesn't need to follow the Rules because she is outside of them. Amalure is not a person: she is a symbol, a figure, an object. A legend, a folksong, a modern myth. Her skills are not skills they are blessings, inherent, a mundane magic or supernatural. Despite having grown up in Villeneuve for her entire life, she is considered exotic, and is practically, if not actually, fetishized. And through all of this, the status quo and social order gets to be retained without question, and she gets to exist as the exception that proves the rule, rather than the Undesirable that she'd be marked as otherwise.

Amalure is fine with this, because this dehumanization is her status quo: She doesn't really view herself as a person either, she is defined by her relationship to other people, by who she is to them. Amalure has never been a person to anybody: Growing up she was never just a girl, never just Amalure: She was a girl with a mans brain, an embodiment of her fathers greatest achievements, an embodiment of her mothers worst mistakes, she is her fathers daughter or her mothers daughter, but not her own. (and she never both, it is either or, mother or father, never both, never parents.)

Princess Eve/The Beast is the other end of this, of operating through her dehumanization. Upon being cursed, she adheres to what societies have oft wanted to happen to their Undesirables: Hide away and never be seen by the public again. It is entirely self-inflicted, as most of her suffering truly is. She operates not through others dehumanizing view of her, but her dehumanizing view of herself and its warping of how she believes others view her. Because, well, the servants still view her as a person. I mean, they're still human- under the new object forms. And the separation of humanity that is easy to slip into on matters of royalty is awfully minimal as well; they watched her grow up, and she grew up among them.

The girl's bratty, spoiled, temperamental, and is a ball of horrid consequences of the shallow views and ideals learned from surrounding nobility. But she's also the girl that fell asleep listening to Cogsworth explain the many technicalities to managing servants; because she was stubborn in asserting her authority as the mistress of the castle, and thus she Must have say over its goings ons. But the majordomo's voice can be awfully soothing when he's not high-strung on anxiety, and it's hard to pay attention when you don't understand what's being discussed, so its all going in one ear and out the other. And She's Lumiere's 'Evie', who was so amused when Lumiere would draw on a little mustache when dancing the male roles so the princess could learn some duo dances, or because she didn't look very "waiter-like" (because Eve wasn't entirely sure what a maître d' did, but it seemed to have something to do with waiters), and who got annoyed every time the dance teacher/maître d' would warn her not to hurt her body in her pursuits, because it seemed so silly, why would anyone do that? And she's the girl who dragged Mrs. Potts to have tea with her, because she made the best tea and as princess she would have only the best; and if you're going to have tea you may as well have a tea party, and you can't really have a party of one, but two isn't much of a party either so she's going to drag Babette away from her duties too, since the maid was so elegant and thus would be perfect.

Honestly, the girl probably would've turned out fine if she was raised by just the servants. But they weren't the only forces in her life: she's a princess, so she's got to host and interact with important people and learn how to Be noble which isn't something any of the servants can teach her. And it is under the pressures and eyes of nobility, is in mixing and learning their social rules, that learns the lessons that will lead to her curse: That to be considered human and treated as such, one must look human. And to be such as a woman meant to look beautiful, like the ideal. As a woman, to be worthy is to be beautiful and vice versa. And even if she does not, she must have some way to serve men. Otherwise, she is nothing. Eve met these requirements well, and where she did not yet her authority as princess covered. So when a beggar woman is at her doorstep, the princess turns her away: because she is old, ugly, so long past her 'prime'- there is no worth to her anymore. There is no point caring for her future.

Helene stands as both the middle ground and inverse to the other two. She is an Other by virtue of her mind, she is Objectifiable by virtue of her beauty. She sits on the precipice between Undesirable and Desired, seeming nearly apathetic to where she lands despite popular encouragement to embrace or smother aspects of herself. Helene is quite sure she's a person like anyone else, thank you, and is frankly frustrated and a bit weirded out that others seem to have a hard time getting the memo- she doesn't like or want to assume the worst, though, so maybe she just missed another confusing untold social rule or something. I mean, the local triplets really do seem to be advising in good faith- they really do think of her as one of them to an extent (for reasons Helene is yet to know); they just don't understand her.

When Amalure pursues her, there's an unspoken aspect to the deal of marriage she proposes: Helene will get a secured place on the in of the community, a secure standing the promises people no longer questioning or trying to encourage her to no longer be herself. But Helene just isn't interested in Amalure like that, and she also sees what the real trade-off of that security is; that uncomfortable dehumanization that is exactly what Helene doesn't want to deal with anymore. If Amalure is fine living with it than she is free to do as she pleases, but the huntress doesn't seem to understand what Helene could possibly have a problem with- and it's not like they can discuss it, because it's unspoken, and you're not supposed to speak the unspoken things, because they're unspoken for a reason- even if you don't know what that reason is. Helene knows that rule, at least.

When Helene meets the Beast, she regards her as she does any other. It's plain as day that the Beast has a humanity to her, whether she's really "human" or not- she thinks and she feels, and that's enough for Helene.

Because Helene grew up raised by a single dad who she got most of her brain workings from, and he is a man of compassion and science. Off he'd send his beloved daughter to go and question and figure out the world for herself, to experiment and learn and become whatever she desires. Off to bed he'd send her to tell her fairy tales and have their lessons of love and compassion and humanity understood as she drifted off to sleep. Helene was never Odd with her father, never Other, in fact they were so easily two of a kind. It was so jarring, hearing people imply Tyndare less than sane; his logic paths were so easy to follow- but apparently his voice gruffs enough that others have a hard time understanding what he's saying sometimes, so that's where things seem to get lost in translation she guesses. People became jarring in other ways as she grew up too, because suddenly there seemed to be lots of social things she was supposed to know or be but didn't and wasn't, and it became very apparent very quickly that she was an Other among her village.

Overall: Eve & Helene get to go through these themes through the main plot, and post curse-breaking is when Eve gets to properly deal with the internalized issues and whatnot. Like she's learned beauty doesn't matter when it comes to love, and shouldn't decide whether or not someone should be cared about, and Helene loves her despite her having been beastly and despite her being a failure of a woman- (because she no longer fits the feminine ideal after the curse is broken, and frankly she never will again.) But she's still a Failure Of A Woman and Helene deserves Better Than That! So there's still work to do.

Amalure remains static on this aspect of the narrative until after the battle at the castle, where she does survive! .. barely. and it's later, in an argument with her mother that same night, bleeding out on the kitchen floor, when she asserts that she's her daughter too, not just her fathers. she has always been her daughter, always will be, she is the daughter of both of them, because that's not something that just switches or turns on and off- and it's an entire rant that I will not recite here, but the important part is the assertion that she is, always has been, always will be, the daughter of both her parents at once- that's the first little step for her arc of recognizing her own individual personhood and whatnot.

[bramblewhisker]

Nettlepelt kneaded the earth beneath his feet. His heart felt like it was still racing from the battle with ThunderClan, and whatever remained of his left ear still stung badly beneath the poultice.

"Cats of ShadowClan!" Tornstar yowled, and the buzz in the clearing hushed. "You fought bravely today to defend our territory. StarClan honors you all this day, and I would commend one cat in particular."

The assembled cats turned to a flurry of hushed whispers, but they were silenced by a wave of their leader's tail. Even the twinkling of the StarClan warriors above seemed to calm as they listened.

"Nettlepelt!" she called, and he nearly jumped out of his fur. "You demonstrated exceptional valor today. You faced a larger and more experienced warrior without fear and may well have saved Conefoot's life."

"Nettlepelt!" some of the gathered cats cheered, and more voices soon joined them. "Nettlepelt!" He felt his cheeks grow hot, so much so that it almost distracted him from the pain in his ear. He thought he'd only done what any warrior would do; the knowledge that Conefoot would live to hunt another day was enough for him.

Tornstar silenced the crowd again. "For this selfless act you have earned a noble scar, and should you accept it, I would re-introduce you to our warrior ancestors with a new name in honor of your valiant deed."

Nettlepelt's heart swelled with pride. He'd heard these words before - most ShadowClan cats had at least once - but he'd never dreamed they'd be spoken to him. Several heartbeats of silence passed, and he realized that the gathered cats were staring at him, awaiting a response.

"O-of course, I accept, Tornstar!" he meowed, remembering the words. "I'm honored to."

Tornstar looked down at him and blinked reassuringly. "Nettlepelt, in honor of the sacrifices you have made for ShadowClan, I bestow upon you a new name under the watchful eyes of our warrior ancestors. Nettlepelt, from this day you shall be known as Shreddedear. StarClan will forever remember your courage."

"Shreddedear! Shreddedear!" The clearing erupted in cheers. Shreddedear held his head high.

[gr3yyyyy]

pirate bram sitting and brushing pirate birdies hair, humming that one song from steven universe

[reunioninn]

if youre wondering why i took down one of my 4komas its because (white) people have been completely missing the joke wrt zato treating venom like a dog and are calling it "cute" and being like "hes such a puppyboy frfr" so i decided that youre all fucking idiots

the context of the joke was based on one of eddies actual lines to venom, claiming that zato treats him like an animal and jokes that he'd do anything to be pet like one AS AN INSULT, and the joke for the comic was that venom took it literally.

but ive been seeing people, including a particular individual in my notifs who have been treating this like its good and cute and being like "UGH i love when venom is called a dog" like ho-ly fucking shit do you hear how racist you sound. genuine question. why are you obsessed with the concept of dehumanizing a black man so he can serve a white man? why do you think his belief of lack of purpose or direction is "cute"? what, do you have art of him in a collar and leash too?

all im saying as a blk person myself is be normal. and please for the love of god remember that hes not white and there are negative connotations with assigning poc animalistic traits.

[iliketomatosauce]

this has probably been one of the only things i remembered from my 2022

[elfroot-and-laurels]

This research trip has been good for my mental health but horrible for my sleep schedule. I’m about to go into major dissertation prep and outlining while I’m used to existing five hours ahead and i still have classes to teach and assignments to grade 😵‍💫

[pixies-and-poets]

Wow, I haven't really followed the paper mario fandom, although I loved the games. But that sounds really bad. If it's not too personal, what sort of things happened? (if it is i totally understand if you'd rather not talk about it)

Wheeew! Let me tell you a sad story. At least what I experienced from my perspective.

So, I first got into the Paper Mario fandom not long before Super Paper Mario's release. This was back on deviantArt, mostly. I adored the first two games, and when I heard about SPM, I was skeptical at first. It was more like a platformer? Why was the art style so strange? ...But when it came out, it ended up being my favorite! I knew that as soon as I finished it.

Of course, not everyone felt that way, and there were already people who didn't like SPM because of how different it was, or the story didn't resonate with them. But to be honest, I didn't interact with those people very much. I was mostly friends with other SPM fans, and at the time, if they liked that game they probably had played and liked the first two as well, or at least one. It was a happy time as far as I was concerned. Most people, even if they didn't like SPM, seemed to think it was just going to be some kind of weird spinoff and they'd get back to the traditional gameplay soon enough.

....And then years later, Sticker Star came out and its complete blankness of story and personality hit us all like a speeding truck. This is when things fell apart pretty quickly. Pretty much EVERYONE in the existing PM fandom hated it, for good reason in my opinion. This is also where I became more sharply aware that certain people had a resentment towards SPM, since it was either seen as the "beginning of the end" as far as the gameplay starting to go off the rails, OR people outright blamed the story for being too out-there and emotionally charged which caused Nintendo to put the brakes on all that and go in the complete opposite direction (which was backed up by dev comments that came out around the time).

So from here on out I started to feel more and more like a weirdo for maintaining that SPM was my favorite, and a game that means a great deal to me personally. But after Sticker Star, the PM fandom just became an irreparably damaged and bitter place. Initially, the blame was put on Miyamoto because the understanding at first was that he had mandated the PM series 1) put less emphasis on story and 2) no longer be a typical RPG, really, since the Mario & Luigi series also existed to fill that niche. There were a lot of ageist comments made about Miyamoto in particular. Over time, as more info came out, the blame largely shifted to Kensuke Tanabe.

Things only got worse when Color Splash was announced and it looked like more of the same. People said the worst things about the devs, especially the people in charge, and looked for any reason to hate the new game and wish for it to fail. Even though Sticker Star and the soon-to-be-released Color Splash didn't have many defenders of their own, a lot of the larger Mario/Nintendo fanbase began to grow tired of old-school Paper Mario fans, as they... we... started to develop a bad reputation. And with good reason! Looking back, the complaints were understandable but the behavior was often unacceptable. And you know what? I got caught up in it too. I'm not gonna pretend I was above it all. Those were easily my worst days as a fan of anything. I didn't go out of my way to be vocal or mean about it in Nintendo's replies or anything, but whenever I did bring it up personally or on my own stream or discord or whatever, I was bitter. In the past few years I've sometimes come across old comments I made that I'd cringe at now. You might think of me as someone who is largely positive and tries to focus on spreading joy and dwelling on what I love, not what I hate. But the PM fandom at that time was bad for me. Between the Sticker Star and Color Splash days, I was definitely not the kind of person I try to be now.

When Color Splash came out, I didn't even play it for a couple years. But in that time, I largely stepped away from keeping up with the fandom, and I mellowed out a lot, and continued to grow into the person I strive to be today. And then when I finally did play Color Splash in 2018..... I liked it!!! The writing, the scenarios, the general creativity and even the gameplay are just SO FAR above Sticker Star and I think most people didn't even give it a chance, and because so few people own a Wii U, it might be forever doomed for people to just assume it's a slightly better Sticker Star unless Nintendo ever ports it.

And by the time Origami King came out, I was soooo done talking about the series and debating it. I had just totally burnt out. But I was at least tentatively looking forward to the game itself. And whlie I don't love every choice made for Origami King, I liked the experience as much as Color Splash, if not more. It's a nonstop interesting game with utterly fantastic graphics and music, and further steps back in the right direction as far as characters and lore go.

And that brings us to today. There are people, sometimes people that I myself have known for years, who NEVER stepped away, who never stopped acutely feeling the pain of the Sticker Star days, and wage a campaign of complaining to Nintendo to this very day. Meanwhile, Origami King (and to a smaller extent CS and even SS- what I'd call the Real Paper Trilogy) has a sizeable fanbase of its own, especially among younger players. Oldschool PM fans tend to see fans of the newer games as simpletons who have no taste, and fans of the new games often write off people who miss the old style of PM as boomers who can't accept change and are forever bitter and annoying. And then SPM fans just kinda feel like our own thing sometimes, the black sheep of the family. But as someone who likes (almost) all the PM games, I've had people be rude to me just for talking about any side of the issue. One time I was talking about how much I liked Profesor Toad from Origami King only to have some stranger, unprompted, reply to me about how ALL OF TOK'S CHARACTERS WERE SHIT AND THEY ALL SUCKED AND HAD NO PERSONALITY and I'm like no??!!?!? That's not true!!! That's not true AT ALL! I didn't stream TOK when it came out, I wouldn't fucking dare, because when I did play Color Splash for the first time it was on stream and I had to deal with at least one person coming in and being like "why are you playing a terrible game?" despite my repeated warnings that I didn't want to get into a debate on the game's merits. And on the other side of things, I've seen people come up with the most specious arguments to claim that TTYD is actually a Bad Game because it has some backtracking or whatever and that PM as a series was never actually good. There's just... so so many frustrating things I've encountered in the fandom that I'd have to double the size of this answer, which is already a novella, to enumerate them all.

But yeah. I kinda want nothing to do with it anymore. I'm just going to keep appreciating Flavio in my own time.

[amethyst-cave]

ahhh thanks @ugneet143 for tagging me!! These are my five most listened to songs recently:

Ich steh auf Frauen ich schwöre - K.I.Z a satire german song about a homophobic gay guy. Very fun to listen to! I've been working through K.I.Z's discography in the last week and there are so many interesting songs, so much satire and criticism of society and also fun beats and swear words hehe

Creatures in heaven - Glass animals New glass animals song!!! there'll be a new album in a few months!!! i cannot wait!!! it's such a fun spacey song

HOOLIGAN - Joey Valance & Brae a friend recommended the album and I've been listening to it every now and then. This is definitely my favourite track from it. so fun and engergetic

Talking like you (two tall mountains) - Connie Conves Connie converse my beloved. I dont think i've ever stopped listening to this song since i found out about it. It's just so good. Something about the old recording and her soft voice and the lyrics. I heard somewhere that this can be interpreted as a allegory for queerness and i've not stopped thinking about it since. Also fun fact it's the only song i can sort of play on the guitar

Old ocean - Cosmo Sheldrake i am in love with basically everything cosmo sheldrake creates but this especially. Something about the melody and the vocals makes it feel comfy? idk i just really love this song

i'm tagging @ghostgirlhaunting @ghostbusterscantcatchme @atomicraft and everyone else who wants to join in (without any pressure ofc)

[rotdecaydraw]

my thoughts and prayers go out to all palestinians, may the horrors end soon and the next generation never experience the same pain & fear amen 🙏🙏🙏

[gemini-queen42]

Girl help I can't stop borrowing grief from the future

[bramblewhisker]

To each their own I suppose, but the "Shadowsight should've died instead of Bristlefrost" take (which I've seen from several different sources) is so strange to me.

Shadowsight's whole arc was about learning to love himself and to feel like he deserved to live after "causing" so much trouble for the clans. I don't see what having that character die really accomplishes; the whole point is that he finds life on the other side of Ashfur's abuse/manipulation. For Shadowsight to die in the end feels so one-dimensional: he wants to die, he tries to die, he dies. Just a victim that Ashfur took down with him.

Bristlefrost on the other hand had the "what does it mean to truly be loyal" storyline. She was constantly trying to balance her drive to be a True ThunderClan Warrior with her personal wants, and ultimately she is able to decisively show that she values her clan and her society above all else by literally sacrificing everything, moreso than any other living cat has ever sacrificed in the series. It feels like a shallow reading, to me, to view the sacrifice at the conclusion of her arc as simply a vehicle for Rootspring's grief. Rootspring's arc wasn't even really so much about Bristlefrost imo; it was about embracing being "different". I see their relationship way more as an element of her story - another desire she needs to balance and, ultimately, give up - than of his.

Idk, to me it felt like a very fitting (if very sad) conclusion to her character arc. She selflessly gives up everything, her life and her love, to defeat Ashfur, a cat whose main character element is his absolute refusal to give up anything.

[reunioninn]

SO I DIDNT KNOW THE 10TH MEMORIAL BOOK ACTUALLY HAD THOSE VENOM WEAPON CONCEPTS. also his concept design too?????? why was he white btw