#division discourse

[fukuokanodivision]

Division Discourse [KryPtos Edition] 3rd times a charm, let’s unravel the case study about KryPtos…Shall we?

Early Creative Process [See “Individual Character Development”]

Etymology The term KryPtos is a reiteration of the Ancient Greek word for hidden or unknown. Originally backed by Shu and Zaria [who’s MC names are based off of Ancient Greek translations], the team grew to include Yuno and Itsuki to establish the family aspect of the gang. Speaking of family…The P is the most symbolic giveaway to the background that created the gang aside from being capitalized—The letter standing for “Phantom”, a fancy phrase for a ghost. Catch? Yes, Itsuki is the reason behind it. After his arrest, the Kamora’s went under the radar because of his departure. The red and gold colours are representative of Yuno, Shu and Zaria, inching up beside the P as a sign of making him visible again, both figuratively and literally.

Symbolism No official symbols have been released as of late, including on the logo. This may change when the team’s unit stories are published and added to their iceberg of lore…

Group Character Development Unlike Terminus, KryPtos contains “indirect” character information in their debut song [I AM THE BEST] and from mentions by the members appearing in OverDrive’s stories. While the former is more delved into, it atleast stands that KryPtos has a basic outline for both the group and its singular characters.

— Individual Character Development — After the creation of OverDrive and Terminus, I was dry on new releases to keep my posts fresh and interesting. With surfing the many blogs on this community, the topic of criminal activity crossed my mind. I had most likely just finished The Kamora Files when I decided to include a justified type of group [which is just code word for gang], so I had my eyes right on Shu and Zaria when this came about. Fast forward to the 2s birthday mixtape, which turned out to be a duet tape under the for mentioned name, placing in the aspect of fighting for Itsuki forced me to piece together the latter and —of course— Yuno.

Jinn On par with his criminal hatred era in OverDrive’s debut season, Yuno’s KryPtos identity is malicious and a 180 turn around for his usual personality others have known. As Jinn, his words become enticing to the point of absolute luring. He forces his oppressors to think about what society could be dangerously hiding instead of enlightening them, nodding towards the Hypnosis Microphone and Chuohku as prime examples. Even if he does not convince anyone, thoughts of questioning themselves pack punches in the minds of those who cross him every time.

Shaitan Originally between the lines of his goal setting presence, Shu’s KryPtos identity is leaning on fixation and getting his hands dirty into the criminal underground more than his usual job. As Shaitan, he prefers physical contact over words or logic. Giving his oppressors a good rustle and tussle, he rolls with the punches unless the answers he desires are told. While his force is strong, he does not murder his targets and keeps them alive either for questioning or apology for undeserving battery.

Quareen Easily perceived through her appearance as THEMIS in Death By Microphone, Zaria’s KryPtos identity is almost completely reminiscent of her role as a justified advocate. As Quareen, she unsheathes her sword with confidence and harbours the smarts of the gang. Upholding difficult choices to his oppressors, she accepts their fate either as an ally, adversary or anonymous if an alternative decision is reached. Whatever is uttered, her action is ruled as a protective offer or deadly punishment.

PHANTOM-11 First displayed as his imprisoned background and limited hope on the mortal realm, Itsuki’s KryPtos identity is carved out of his wrongful destiny and resentment/call to a tip to be set freely into the world. As PHANTOM-11, his demeanour is eerie along with his astral projected self. Not exactly viewing others as oppressors, he instead fills the lost sheep’s heads with warnings and precautions to avoid Chuohku and fight for what is truly righteous. He engages with his children about his situation often, utilizing his Hypnosis Canceller to further cause problems for the captors holding him. ———————————————————————————————————— [HYPNOSIS MICROPHONE belongs to KING RECORDS]

[personal-blog243]

If any conservative/republican leaning people see this:

What is one policy or one thing about the “other side” that you actually like or agree with???

[speaking-riddlish]

Hey, can we not bring real world politics into our fandom? Like, not as a dividing factor at least? Like it's fine to bring it up in our analysis of the source material, but to cut each other out over "this user is on the wrong side of the political isle" is kinda shallow. We can agree to disagree. We can hold dramatically opposing views on real world things and still come together over love of this wonderful children's franchise. Based off the demographic overlap, there are probably a ton of ppl in this fandom who want me and everyone of my ethnicity dead (i know of at least a few), but you don't see me cutting off friendships and blocking people over it. Each side of the political isle is an umbrella term that encompasses a large variety of beliefs anyway. Just because you know what side someone is on doesn't mean you know who they do or don't hate, or if they hate anyone at all. You may have valid reasons to not want to associate with extremists of the other side, but most people on both sides are not extremists.

I hope we can all take a lesson from this episode:

[Video Description: A gif of the scene in the foodfight episode where Raven and Apple are trying to stop the fight. The gif has audio and captions as Raven says "I know things have been hard recently, and Apple and I don't exactly see eye to eye" and Apple finishes her sentence with "but that doesn't mean we want our friends to fight about it" /EndVD]

(Yes, I know they continued the foodfight right after this clip, but that's not the point. Everyone here continues to be friends after this episode. They may have thrown food at each other, but they took these words to heart.)

[ineffablecabbage]

Nothing is ever new under the fandom sun, but it's still weird to me when people proclaim, proudly with their whole chest that they just don't give a fuck about one half of whatever they are shipping.

like first of all, we can tell?

second of all... ? imagine thinking your favorite barbie doll/ken/thundercat doesn't deserve a barbie doll/ken/thundercat as equally great to give them orgasms. wild.

[fjordfolk]

Mother and I have a few major disagreements when it comes to how we keep dogs, one of the main current ones being this:

When giving the dogs eggs (which we do because we have chickens and therefore many eggs) I split an egg in two and toss one half into each of their food bowls. I think eggshell cronch is a beautiful sound.

My mother insists on carefully peeling the egg and then gently crushes it with a fork, stirring it into the dogs' dinner. She thinks eggshell cronch is a terrible sound that should never be made in her house.

We are at a stalemate in this argument.

[sentimentalslut]

occasionally seeing recommended polls/community posts from teens in the total drama fandom like watching the dark shadow of a shark pass beneath the water

[fukuokanodivision]

Division Discourse [Terminus Edition] Welcome back to another issue of Division Discourse! [It’s been so long since I’ve done this]

Next on our list? Let’s find out the origins of OverDrive’s assistive and sibling team, Terminus! [WARNING — Like the previous edition, be warned in terms of an insane word count…This also applies to future versions.] ——————————————————————————————————————

Early Creative Process

At this point, I was pretty immersed with OverDrive’s development after 10 months of being in the community. Everything seemed pretty stable and I was getting the hang of things. Not only that, the topic of side characters or other team outside the DRB also peaked my interest…You can guess where this went. I thought to myself “What if I made another rap team outside of the DRB? An unofficial one that deals with my already established team…?” The cogs were already turning and a new idea was up on the table! After less than 10 months of pondering, Terminus was finally born, though not on the same level as OverDrive yet.

Etymology

Terminus comes from it’s Latin origin of the same name, which is defined as either “a final point in space or time; an end or extremity” or “the end of a railroad or other transportation route”. The best modern example of this would be the word “Terminal”, something that can also mean being close to death for an incurable disease… The pattern? All of these point at the end of a scenario. However, this is basically the opposite of what the team thinks, considering their goal of assisting OverDrive and preventing an “end” to their lifetime as a group as much as possible. Symbolism

No official symbols have been released for this team currently, but a presumed one would be a long grey X present in their logo, hinting at transportation or minor Roman god Terminus while the X easily represents opposition [See above] and the colour grey motions toward the phenomenon of “grey areas” that the team are trying to find around their world. Group Character Development

Due to the lack of interaction around the community so far, there hasn’t been much development surrounding the group as a whole. The best pieces of information would have to be stories that the members have appeared in or birthday event asks… — Individual Character Development —

It’s October of 2024 and the team has somewhat been established, all that was left were its members. I was stuck at this point. I didn’t have much motivation to create any new characters and I wasn’t sure which old OC’S to make use of…That was until I rechecked OverDrive’s family profiles. Sure, the siblings of the main trio were nothing special at the time and only made just to have some sort of family connection. None of them could possibly have any sort of story or lore that contributes to OverDrive already, right? Right!? Kairi Seishin

What’s not to like when you have an adorable sister that carries on your former legacy? If there isn’t another juicy sentence that would describe her, then what even is a true description about…? In the early days, Kairi was rendered as a positive upbeat sister when making her first appearance in OverDrive Drama Track 1. This trope continued up until Terminus was finally created. An interesting detail is her choice of career in the music industry, which turns out to be a DJ similarly to when Eko’s character was just developed. In Terminus’s debut season, Kairi was almost considered to be a female version of her brother, though slightly more lax and calculative. Having learned about Traffic Light becoming Chuohku hostages and manipulating Hypnosis Microphones, she easily jumped on the bandwagon and perfected her skills in under a month with the help of her musical skills along the way. Now, she goes beyond what others see of her. Though she may have doubts on her abilities or fearing the future ahead, her allies will always support her just as she does vice versa. Deciding to rise through her profession to enhance her skills, she’ll stop at nothing to get to the top and let her former scars fade into the past completely.

Shu Kamora [His quote under SONO is no joke, all the Scooby-Doo references aside]. Taking a closer look at Yuno’s siblings, I ended up splitting them into halves considering they match pieces of his personality. Let’s take a look at the 1st half, shall we? In the early days, Shu was displayed as the older brother on his family profile. This era possesses the least amount of character development aside from his own creation. His career in criminology points at Yuno’s obsessive desire to avenge his father, which is a factor the 2 siblings share together. In Terminus’s debut season, Shu was unexpectedly childish upon his arrival as a character. Loving to tease his sister and sometimes dote on Kairi, his protective nature began to stem after figuring out Mai’s sexual harassment surrounding NSDS Studio. Overtime, this increased to calling them a younger sibling figure. Now, his behaviour takes a different approach. Becoming an expert criminologist and keeping tabs around Fukuoka, he’s quite determined alongside his siblings to set his father free and go as far as to expose his captor to prevent any further incidents. As a side job, he doesn’t mind tossing a few rogue rap teams around, having known OverDrive beat them in a landslide…

Zaria Kamora [If you want to understand her somewhat better, just search up figures of justice and you’ll receive a chunk of her personality already] The other half of Yuno’s character, what will this one unfold for us? In the early days, Zaria was displayed as the older sister on his family profile. This era possesses the least amount of character development aside from her own creation. Unlike Shu, her career in advocacy points instead at exploiting Chuohku and avenging her father at a different angle. In Terminus’s debut season, Zaria appeared to be a slight grown up version of her youngest brother. Both carrying more commonalities, even Itsuki has difficulty telling the 2 siblings apart. Figuring out Yuno’s writing identity, she instead encouraged it and calls it another source to get the answers they truly need. Now, she takes life in stride despite its rough upbringing. Though her siblings are more focused on their current careers, Zaria tends to reminisce on her father more often and takes more time in showing other rap teams who’s the boss in her life. It all boils down to her everlasting love for both her family and given the opportunity of walking the very earth. ———————————————————————————————————— [HYPNOSIS MICROPHONE belongs to KING RECORDS]

[archivlibrarianist]

Necessary reading, here, from the digital director of EveryLibrary. From the article:

"THIS IS NOT A GOOD-FAITH DISCUSSION

"The first thing we need to understand when we’re messaging about book bans is that we are not operating in a good-faith discussion, and we need to stop acting as if we were. In a good-faith discussion, both parties agree to an honest, respectful dialogue with the willingness to change their view if facts and data are presented. However, book banners are neither acting honestly nor respectfully. They will not consume new information and change their minds once educated on the issue. The individuals and organizations banning books are not looking to be educated. They don’t care about learning about the Miller Test for pornography, they are not interested in reading the books to put their propagandist images of a handful of pages into proper context, and they aren’t going to change their minds about books being banned. We have to stop acting as they will do any of these things.

"...Pro–book banning messaging and propaganda is used as a tool to build political power and influence for people and organizations to elect or appoint individuals to positions that allow them to govern and control Americans." [emphasis added]

They don't ban books because they care about books. They ban books because they are bullies, and they want to control people.

Don't let them.

[nailgunstigmata]

if frank was more conventionally attractive i think that the charfrank yaoi would have soared early seasons and people would have had breakdowns when it was revealed frank might have been charlies dad and when shelly was revealed in s15 there would have been a charfrank rennaissance

[starlightseraph]

God will appreciate your charity.🙏❤️

I am kindly asking your kindness to donate to help my family (23 persons) to survive living.

Thank you and God bless you.❤️🍉

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-restore-a-home-filled-with-memories?

hey everyone, i got this ask a few days ago and i believe it to be genuine, so please donate if you can! this family is made up of 2 grandparents and 3 couples, each with 5 children. necessities are expensive, and evacuation costs even more. they deserve life.

there are so many things to take into account regarding how we’ll put a stop to this genocide, and it will be complicated because people and their emotions are complicated. unfortunately we can’t just flip a switch to have those in charge voluntarily stop killing others. implementing lasting change won’t be easy and will require institutional overhaul around the world. i don’t know exactly what the answer is, but i do know what it’s not. what’s happening now will not bring peace or happiness to anyone.

this isn’t on my usual posting brand, so it may not get as much exposure, but anything that we can do will be helpful.

to the asker: i wish you safety and security. know that people around the world see your suffering and want nothing more than to help you and others in your situation. we hear you, we won’t let this happen quietly. safety and peace for all!

so much love, k. 🍉

[fatehbaz]

[D]omesticated attack dogs [...] hunted those who defied the profitable Caribbean sugar regimes and North America’s later Cotton Kingdom, [...] enforced plantation regimens [...], and closed off fugitive landscapes with acute adaptability to the varied [...] terrains of sugar, cotton, coffee or tobacco plantations that they patrolled. [...] [I]n the Age of Revolutions the Cuban bloodhound spread across imperial boundaries to protect white power and suppress black ambitions in Haiti and Jamaica. [...] [Then] dog violence in the Caribbean spurred planters in the American South to import and breed slave dogs [...].

---

Spanish landowners often used dogs to execute indigenous labourers simply for disobedience. [...] Bartolomé de las Casas [...] documented attacks against Taino populations, telling of Spaniards who ‘hunted them with their hounds [...]. These dogs shed much human blood’. Many later abolitionists made comparisons with these brutal [Spanish] precedents to criticize canine violence against slaves on these same Caribbean islands. [...] Spanish officials in Santo Domingo were licensing packs of dogs to comb the forests for [...] fugitives [...]. Dogs in Panama, for instance, tracked, attacked, captured and publicly executed maroons. [...] In the 1650s [...] [o]ne [English] observer noted, ‘There is nothing in [Barbados] so useful as … Liam Hounds, to find out these Thieves’. The term ‘liam’ likely came from the French limier, meaning ‘bloodhound’. [...] In 1659 English planters in Jamaica ‘procured some blood-hounds, and hunted these blacks like wild-beasts’ [...]. By the mid eighteenth century, French planters in Martinique were also relying upon dogs to hunt fugitive slaves. [...] In French Saint-Domingue [Haiti] dogs were used against the maroon Macandal [...] and he was burned alive in 1758. [...]

Although slave hounds existed throughout the Caribbean, it was common knowledge that Cuba bred and trained the best attack dogs, and when insurrections began to challenge plantocratic interests across the Americas, two rival empires, Britain and France, begged Spain to sell these notorious Cuban bloodhounds to suppress black ambitions and protect shared white power. [...] [I]n the 1790s and early 1800s [...] [i]n the Age of Revolutions a new canine breed gained widespread popularity in suppressing black populations across the Caribbean and eventually North America. Slave hounds were usually descended from more typical mastiffs or bloodhounds [...].

---

Spanish and Cuban slave hunters not only bred the Cuban bloodhound, but were midwives to an era of international anti-black co-ordination as the breed’s reputation spread rapidly among enslavers during the seven decades between the beginning of the Haitian Revolution in 1791 and the conclusion of the American Civil War in 1865. [...]

Despite the legends of Spanish cruelty, British officials bought Cuban bloodhounds when unrest erupted in Jamaica in 1795 after learning that Spanish officials in Cuba had recently sent dogs to hunt runaways and the indigenous Miskitos in Central America. [...] The island’s governor, Balcarres, later wrote that ‘Soon after the maroon rebellion broke out’ he had sent representatives ‘to Cuba in order to procure a number of large dogs of the bloodhound breed which are used to hunt down runaway negroes’ [...]. In 1803, during the final independence struggle of the Haitian Revolution, Cuban breeders again sold hundreds of hounds to the French to aid their fight against the black revolutionaries. [...] In 1819 Henri Christophe, a later leader of Haiti, told Tsar Alexander that hounds were a hallmark of French cruelty. [...]

---

The most extensively documented deployment of slave hounds [...] occurred in the antebellum American South and built upon Caribbean foundations. [...] The use of dogs increased during that decade [1830s], especially with the Second Seminole War in Florida (1835–42). The first recorded sale of Cuban dogs into the United States came with this conflict, when the US military apparently purchased three such dogs for $151.72 each [...]. [F]ierce bloodhounds reputed to be from Cuba appeared in the Mississippi valley as early as 1841 [...].

The importation of these dogs changed the business of slave catching in the region, as their deployment and reputation grew rapidly throughout the 1840s and, as in Cuba, specialized dog handlers became professionalized. Newspapers advertised slave hunters who claimed to possess the ‘Finest dogs for catching negroes’ [...]. [S]lave hunting intensified [from the 1840s until the Civil War] [...]. Indeed, tactics in the American South closely mirrored those of their Cuban predecessors as local slave catchers became suppliers of biopower indispensable to slavery’s profitability. [...] [P]rice [...] was left largely to the discretion of slave hunters, who, ‘Charging by the day and mile [...] could earn what was for them a sizeable amount - ten to fifty dollars [...]'. William Craft added that the ‘business’ of slave catching was ‘openly carried on, assisted by advertisements’. [...] The Louisiana slave owner [B.B.] portrayed his own pursuits as if he were hunting wild game [...]. The relationship between trackers and slaves became intricately systematized [...]. The short-lived republic of Texas (1836–46) even enacted specific compensation and laws for slave trackers, provisions that persisted after annexation by the United States.

---

All text above by: Tyler D. Parry and Charlton W. Yingling. "Slave Hounds and Abolition in the Americas". Past & Present, Volume 246, Issue 1, February 2020, pages 69-108. Published February 2020. At: doi dot org/10.1093/pastj/gtz020. February 2020. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[monstersinthecosmos]

As a fellow Marius lover, I always find it kind of disheartening how most of the content/fandom talk about him (meta, fic, fanart, etc.) revolves around m/m ships (Marius/Armand in particular but I’d even go as far to include Marius/Daniel here) when, in my opinion, Marius is like the one male character in the VC universe whose relationships with women are far more interesting than his relationships with other men (the only other character might be Lestat but even then it’s pretty 50/50). They’re so monumental and so full of complexities and pain and so much love and they define him and inform his character in ways that I think, his relationships with men simply do not. Interesting/hot under the right circumstances? Sure but like ARE YOU GUYS SEEING THIS MAN??? AND HOW HE RELATES TO WOMEN??? It’s one of the best things Anne ever wrote and I can never get enough of it and it makes me sad how little content there is of it and I feel I can never say this out loud because I would never want to make people feel bad about what they ship (truly not my intention here) but ugh SO MUCH potential there for life changing discourse and meta about Marius and the women he’s loved and lost and have shaped who he is and there’s like… nothing.

Tl;dr the reason I’m sending this ask is because I’m a firm believer that you must be the change you want to see in this world and because YOU get it! And every time you post or write about Marius/Pandora (or Marius/Akasha! Or talk about Marius/Bianca) an angel gets its (black) wings. You are seen, you are loved and appreciated tysm <3

OKAY FIRST OF ALL THIS WAS SUCH A DELIGHT TO GET IN MY INBOX, SECOND IM GOING TO BE COMPLETELY HONEST AND ADMIT I FEEL TOO INCOHERENT TO TACKLE THIS TOPIC HAHA. I don’t feel articulate enough to do it justice. And I don’t say that to be obnoxious and self deprecating but like in all honesty idk how to synthesize it neatly but I think you’re sharing some GREAT IDEAS. 

I have to say this in bullet points because I don’t feel equipped to string this into a cohesive post:

Marius was based on Anne’s husband, and Marius/Pandora was based on their marriage!!!!! And I think it explains a lot about why their relationship feels so fuckin POTENT to me, like it’s so genuine!!!!!!! And like knowing that I think it makes sense why she wrote him so HOT lol. Like she’s just writing thirsty stuff about her husband right? LOL

Also like insofar as there’s a lot of genderfluidity in VC there’s also something vaguely misogynist about it at times. And Anne Rice was a mega feminist and her work had so much womens lib in it!!!!! So I don’t think it’s intended as misogyny at all vs. Anne having conversations about gender and maybe her own relationship to gender. I think enough characters have said vaguely misogynist stuff that it makes me think it’s an Anne Problem vs being Watsonian. (This is also a historical/time period issue and we can discuss another time if and when vampires are supposed to break out of that when they transcend humanity and social constructs even when they’re still saying weird sexist shit at their big ages.) But I say that to say all VC characters are a tad sexist, even if perhaps she was writing with the intention of her own male power fantasy/male superiority/penis envy. AND THAT MAKES MARIUS VERY INTERESTING. 

Cause like really the three main ladies in his life (Akasha, Pandora, Bianca) DO define him so much! And we don’t see him pine for Armand the way he did for any of them! Why!!!

Like there’s that aspect of sexism where women can be infantilized by men who don’t think they’re being unkind and it makes me wonder, especially when the author is a boomer, like where is that line between condescension and respect? I don’t have an answer here, this is too big-brained for me LOL but like he is SO devoted to the women in his life and I just wonder like if he sees them as creatures unlike himself, you know? 

This is headcanon territory but I bet he’s such a fucking sub to Pandora lol and it just thrills me that he spent 2000 years begging Akasha for affection and she ignored him the whole damn time wow. And he continued to simp!

AND ALSO LIKE, I think people DO NOT DISCUSS THIS OFTEN ENOUGH, but did we forget that he chose Armand because he needed a Bianca rebound? He was absolutely TORTURED by his love for Bianca and picked Armand because he didn’t want to kill her oh my god. Oh my god!!! HE KEPT HER LETTER IN HIS POCKET OVER HIS HEART OKAY??? HE DIDN’T WANT TO DRAG HER INTO HIS COLD AND FATAL DOMAIN????? Fuck lol

It’s so fucked up that he didn’t go after Armand but spent like actual fucking millennia trying to find Pandora. HE KNEW EXACTLY WHERE ARMAND WAS AND LEFT HIM THERE LOL BUT PANDORA HAUNTED HIM EVERY NIGHT OF HIS LIFE FOR CENTURIES.

After everything he wound up spending like 200 years with Bianca or something and ?????? CORRECT because Bianca was the fledgling he actually wanted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But it’s odd, I know I’ve said this 337589235 times, but Marius like. Has an idea of the person he wants to be and he tries SO HARD to live by logic & reason and he just can’t reconcile with the fact that he has EMOTIONS. And so like part of the person he wants to be like, open/empathetic/wise and he begs his lovers/students/fledglings to CHALLENGE HIM when he’s not actually healed enough to be challenged? And to me there’s something kinda like, extra spicy about it when you’re in Rice World and you’re a lil sexist; how much that burns EXTRA when it’s Pandora or Bianca sticking up to you or AKASHA FUCKIN IGNORING YOU. 

Just really incredible that this person who is like the epitome of a patriarch has such fucked up relationships with all the women in his life. And like he underestimates these women, like the way he tries to manipulate Bianca and she leaves him! PANDORA AND AKASHA ARE UNAVAILABLE TO HIM AND BIANCA FUCKIN LEAVES.

akasSHA JUST IGNROING HIM!! JUST STRAIGHT UP FUCKIN IGNORING HIM FOR 2,000 YEARS!!!! HE'S OBSESSED WITH HER!

Anyway Enkil is ignoring him too but he doesn’t give a shit about that guy tbh lol 

Also the amount of space he gives Eudoxia and Zenobia in his book like there’s more here too but tbh it’s midnight and I can’t start unpacking. I just think like, in 2000 years it’s interesting how Eudoxia wound up having such a lasting impact on his life. 

I did just peek at the Eudoxia part and I’m dying, he goes “Her face was small, oval, and as close to perfection as anything I've ever beheld, even though she bore no resemblance to Pandora who was for me perfection itself.” CERTIFIED WIFE GUY.

What kinda mommy issues are we dealing with here? HIS MOTHER WAS A SLAVE THAT DIED IN CHILDBIRTH AND HE INHERITED HER GENES AND LOOKED LIKE HER AND DIDN’T LOOK LIKE HIS FATHER & BROTHERS? AND HE’S SORT OF AN OUTCAST AS A HUMAN LIKE ? THE STIGMA HERE? AND THEN HE SPENDS 2000 YEARS WORSHIPPING HIS NEW MOTHER??? PERHAPS YOU COULD SAY ENSLAVED TO HER? IDK MAN. 

IS THIS ALSO WHY HE WAS SO OBSESSED WITH LOSING PANDORA?

The irony too, and something I think a lot of people miss, is that he DIDN’T WANT TO MARRY PANDORA LOL. He wanted to be betrothed to a child so that he could FUCK OFF and NOT get married because she wasn’t old enough to get married! He fucked off! He went exploring! He said this is not for me! 

AND TO GO OUT INTO THE WORLD AND BE MURDERED BY HIS MOTHERS PEOPLE???? IDK. 

I’m not sure how these last two points tie into anything but I just wanted to mention his complicated relationship with Pandora and his own heritage lol. And then Akasha like DELIVERS Pandora to him because she’s like “wow this guy needs somebody lol and I am not emotionally available” — Akasha who was famously a violent genocidal radfem and who would not approve of his relationship with Armand but explicitly allowed him to have Pandora and Bianca. IDK WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN! 

Did Akasha approve of these women because she knew Marius was completely pussywhipped and would worship them and she wanted to see someone mommydom the fuck out of him and she knew that Armand would never be that person? 🫢

And again I want to say like, taking the author into consideration!! Anne Rice had a HORRIFIC relationship with her mom so you see these themes pop up occasionally in her work. DESPITE ALL OF THAT SHE IS STILL A FEMINIST AND WRITES ABOUT MATRILINEAR FAMILIES like The Great Family or the Mayfairs. But thinking about Mothers in Anne Rice Works makes me think a lot about this like, the damage they can do and the voids they can leave even when you’re a feminist and love women! You see a TON of this with Gabrielle and I always think that Lestat & Marius are such similar characters that you can do a lot of extrapolating or backwards engineering to ask questions about them and how they work, since we get SO MUCH Lestat POV in this series to work with and how we can zoom out sometimes and ask like, what is common across her entire body of work and what is more specifically common between Lestat & Marius and WHAT EVEN MORE INTERESTINGLY is a result that they were both based on her husband in their inceptions. 

Like how much of this has to do with Marius’s actual feelings towards men vs women on purpose, or how much was subconscious author bias, how much was simply that Anne Rice based him on her husband and she was THIRSTY, idk. It’s always hard to say in VC because Anne was such an intuitive and self-indulgent author and the stories are so weird!!! So your mileage may vary!

But I agree with you that these are FASCINATING relationships!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I like Marius/Armand too (I recently made a post about how I didn’t “””””ship”””” them but then I spent 2 months working on a M/A fic every day and now I think I’ve corrupted and converted myself LMAO) but yeah like. There’s such a lack of substance between them in the end. He treats Armand like he’s temporary, fucks up and moves on, and it’s such a departure from how DEVOTED he was with all his other partners. 

Wow I didn’t think I had a lot to say, sorry about that. !!! EVERY TIME I BROUGHT A POINT UP I THOUGHT OF 5 MORE POINTS GOSH I COULD TALK ABOUT MARIUS ALL DAY.

[breadandcircusandallthatjazz]

Look I’ve only been into wrestling for a month so I probably don’t know my shit all, including what makes a heel a good heel. But I don’t think it’s a good thing that I dislike Liv Morgan’s promos so much that I want to skip entire segments of each show just to not have to sit through her shtick.

No hate to Liv irl/outside kayfabe, and she may have been a really compelling wrestler before now! It’s just that every time I think they’ll have her feud with Rhea refocus on being about their baggage with each other and the belt, «daddy Dom» is dragged back into the center of the feud and always by Liv. Making so much of her current character about having this guy as her boyfriend — the constantly bringing him out, the «Daddy»-nickname, frequently referring to «getting her man» and stealing/winning the boyfriend, her damn Dom-themed tshirts — just feels demeaning. And as if that wasn’t enough new feuds (hi Tiffy, praying you escape this plot) are hinting that they’ll revolve around wanting Liv’s boyfriend as much as her championship title too.

I’d say this was more of a Dom problem than Liv problem if it wasn’t for how her character and writing is given so many opportunities to be expanded upon or her for her threat level to increase, but nothing happens. Raquel came back only to be a silent non-questioning bodyguard who does all the heavy lifting wrestling-wise. Liv hasn’t won a single match/fight in months without interference. So much of her merch and general aesthetic right now directly ties into Dominik and Rhea. This could be decent heel work but alas it prevents anyone else from getting a stab at the title and keeping the real contest between Liv and Rhea — which is still doomed to be about some guy. And even with Rhea on injury-leave and the opportunity to create new feuds for Liv they tease bringing the damn dude into it again.

Whoever is in charge of this storyline I am begging you to keep Dominik’s existence out of at least one full Liv-centered in-ring segment, and to please let Liv win one fight on her own so she at least feels like a capable foe to whoever dethrones her.

[lacewise]

Any understanding of class that derives from mid-20th century Britain, United States, or Canada is probably wrong. And that’s a problem because that’s where most people get their ideas about class.

If you look further back, middle housing (townhomes, condos, apartments, triplexes, quadplexes, etc) are where the middle class historically found themselves living (usually, there are exceptions). Suburbs are mostly new and they are extremely wasteful. The idea that people lived in single family homes or even semi-detached housing with large green outdoor spaces (as opposed to shared courtyards) just strikes me as very, very silly and very, very American.

A better, more honest, more accurate description of the decline of the middle class is not just the disappearance of middle housing—it’s how much middle housing has deteriorated qualitatively. We no longer consider that apartments can be big enough to raise families in. Nor do we consider that they should be well-made enough to hold up to decades of uninterrupted housing.

“Luxury” condos have nothing on early-20th brownstones of the working class. And that’s the problem.

I am having trouble reconciling the same people who rightly said that density over space are now claiming that the birthright of the middle class is the ownership of implied single family homes, presumably with spacious yards. No.

There is no class worth establishing that pines for the trappings of the rich. And there’s no need to establish it anyway, it already exists. That’s the upper middle class.

I cannot believe people are saying that waste is the only sign of being middle class that matters again. But, what’s worse, I can believe people are buying it.

Anyone who says that is no better than the TikTokers who insist that $500 Shein hauls are a necessity and excess clothing (to the point of never wearing the same outfit twice) is a human right.

[ronanceautistic]

i feel like a pet peeve of mine applies to a lot of different things but i cannot stand when someone complains about their lack of representation in media by blaming it on something else getting represented.

like different types of asexuality, or autism, bi v gay, mlm v wlw. literally 80% of the time i see someone wishing for more representation they throw in random “but that one always gets represented 🙄”

like babe we’re all suffering here ur focusing on the wrong people to be annoyed at