#iirc in the ending he discusses turning them and

[thatswhatsushesaid]

re: my tags about jgy and qin su in my reblog of that "does your blorbo have ptsd" tumblr poll, can we revisit that excruciating conversation in the jinlintai treasure room in cql? because one of my least favourite reads on jgy's expression and body language here is that he's being "creepy." and to be clear, i'm not trying to say you're wrong to draw those inferences here, because his behaviour is deeply, deeply unsettling, and i also find this scene hard to watch and to read in the novel. but i think if that's where your examination of him begins and ends here, you're doing yourself--and zhu zanjin's exquisite performance--a disservice.

so the 'creepy' bit is preceded by what jgy says to qin su while she has her back turned, and i find his words heartbreakingly sincere and very reflective of a man who has spent his life forced to feel shame and embarrassment over his mother, who he loves dearly and who he watched suffer right up until the moment of her death:

there are a few more very poignant lines in there about his mother and the depth of his gratitude to qin su (these show up in the novel, too), but i think the above encapsulates the same message. then the atmosphere shifts, and so does jgy's expression when he talks about jin rusong and how his death would have been inevitable--essential, even. this is also where i most often see him described as acting like a creep, and i have two separate responses to this that i don't really have the time to get into right now, but which have both doylist and watsonian components to them so 👀 you can probably make some guesses about what my arguments would be. if there's enough interest, i might come back to this later and put together a separate post about it, idk. anyway, i'm not going to get into the 'is he a creep' argument here because tl;dr no, i don't think he is, and also--

i find jgy's expressions here to be more indicative of a man who is, shall we say, Not His Best Self At The Moment 🫠 rather than a man who is intentionally trying to make a wife who, by her own admission, he has treated very well for the entirety of their marriage, uncomfortable. his attention isn't even on qin su or the hell that she is experiencing right now--because he is re-experiencing his own hell. because he, too, is traumatized by this knowledge! he's just had a decade and change to develop some deeply unhealthy coping mechanisms and masking techniques to hide it.

at this point qin su whips around and slaps him, which i know everyone likes to gif and fistbump and holler about in a positive way, but given there is no one in this scene who isn't enduring profound trauma in this moment, i, uh. you know. won't be doing that. i will focus on his face journey in the expressions that follow because they are just so

dissociating

dissociating

dissociating

/executive function switch is flipped in his superbly wrinkly brain, and then "qin su :) we still have so many guests to attend at the discussion conference :)"

a-yao? sir?? hello??? also i do not have the quote from the novel directly in front of me, but iirc he says something very similar here to what he does in the novel, which i'll have to paraphrase: that this revelation is only bothering qin su so much because she is actively thinking about it! it's only thoughts, you see! just don't think about it! haven't they actually been very happy all this time, while only one of them had to live with this knowledge and could not share it with anyone?

to which i can only respond with abject, horrified shock because, like. have you, jin guangyao? been happy and unperturbed by this devastating knowledge? because i think the answer is a pretty definitive no.

anyway i just wanted to quickly keymash my thoughts on this before they fled my brain completely but tl;dr yes, while jgy would not use this language to describe himself, he's absolutely got ptsd specifically around his marriage to his own half-sister, and their son.

---

this post has been added to my dreamwidth meta archive here: https://thatswhatsushewrote.dreamwidth.org/10607.html

[cheriemariii]

hello today I'm gonna rate the sihjr couples by how likely it is for them to get married as of right now 👍

9: Sentiment: they barely started dating so ofc not 😭 with how intense Ijuuin is tho I wouldn't be surprised if he had already started planning it in his mind xd

8: Nostalgia: despite what Takano would like to believe, they still got a long way to go :"D with how long they've been in each other's lives tho, I can't help but feel that once things with Ritsu's parents settle, they wouldn't last long before starting to think on a wedding.....

7: Terrorist: ideally Shinobu would first need to graduate college and find a stable job of his own, which shouldn't be so hard. The explaining to his family the whole situation tho... Might be a eenie weenie harder to achieve, maybe xp (BUT they might be getting there!!! I haven't forgotten the last terrorist update i saw nakamuraaaaaaa)

6: Eroitca: I think their situation is somewhat similar to terrorist, but significantly less worse. iirc Yukina already has had some sort of economic stability of his own (leaving the library job aside, I suppose the illustrations for Usagi's book must have opened some doors for him?), and I feel the coming out part will be way gentler on both sides. So perhaps is just a matter of time :)

5: Trifecta: they're already married actually, all they need is the certificate jdhshshshsg they virtually live together and raise Hiyori together, and hell, the fact that there is a part in the Yokozawa novels where he so naturally thinks that if he or Kirishima were a woman they could just get married like it's the easiest thing in the world makes me feel that all they actually need is getting the family thing solved before actually doing this :)

4: Romantica: the fact that I haven't seen it fully discussed already is truly wild to me. Like they've lived together for so long, both their families already know (ok Usagi's doesn't fully accept but do we think he cares?????), they've been through so much together and even vowed to stay with each other like WHAT ELSE DO WE NEEEEEEEED. The only reason why I feel they haven't done it yet (and why they aren't first spot) is bc nakamura really needs to have a killer finale for jr and I don't see that happening any time soon ...

3: Domestica: wdym they aren't already engaged???????? Like Chiaki practically proposes to Hatori at the end of Vol.4 (HE SAYS HE DREAMS TO BUY A HUGE HOUSE WHERE HE CAN RELAX AND READ MANGA AND IT WOULD BE PERFECT IF TORI COULD BE THERE, AND THEN TORI SAYS "that sounds like a marriage proposal lol" AND CHIAKI DOESN'T DENY IT LIKE HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO), and then in the first Hatori novel Chiaki discusses the idea of getting a ring for Tori to keep other people from falling for him, and then the propose hen thing, and then in this very obscure booklet that I think came with the movie dvd Chiaki looks disappointed when Hatori talks about marrying him and it turns out to be a joke and come ooooooon CHIAKI NEEDS TO MARRY THIS MAN SO BAD IT MAKES HIM LOOK STUPID, AND HATORI WANTS THAT TOO BUT KEEPS IT TO HIMSELF BC OFC HE DOES AND DKGSJFGDIGJSSH?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! (maybe the one obstacle they have other than the family thing is that they have never really lived in the same house 24/7 but they've been with each other virtually all their lives, they would be fine xd)

2: Mistake: Given how long they've been together as a couple, I just know it could easily happen the moment they come out to their families :) Like they might not even need gay marriage becoming legal in Japan, Isaka has more than enough money to travel to wherever it is legal, have something small and maybe secret given the implications it would have for them if they went public (hence why they are not 1st spot...), and continue with their lives, having gone from acting like a married couple to actually being one <3

1: Egoist: They discussed getting wedding rings together, so as far as I'm concerned they are canonically engaged!!!!! Similarly to these last spots, they have been with each other for so long, have been through so much together and just have everything perfectly laid out for them, it's just a matter of becoming public (and ok in this case also gay marriage being legal, but I mean, if I phones can exist in this weird version of early 2000s, why can't gay marriage???????) At this point I can't help but feel that Nakamura doesn't update them as much bc she KNOWS that she'd end up having them marry in no time xd

[knightotoc]

Trying to wrap my head around Fight Club 1996 vs American Psycho 1991. Both written by gay men making fun of "straight" men during the AIDS epidemic, but I'm having some trouble finding discussions of the stories through this lens.

They're making me think of how people idealize the 90s, considering them the peaceful "end of history" before 9/11 restarted it. These books are about men who have more than they need and are absolutely miserable, even thinking that a "Great War" would give them more purpose. But the authors themselves were living through a historic plague that the average person was ignoring and continues to downplay.

I think one huge difference between the books is Fight Club is genuinely funny and hot, and American Psycho will absolutely kill your libido. FC has edge, and AP is a smooth slide into hell. This might be because "Tyler" is middle class and Patrick is rich. Or because "Tyler" does at least appear to be making human connections, even if they are fucked up or just in his head, while Patrick is unable to connect with anyone, even himself.

Both of the movies deserve their great reputations, but there were a few passages in these books that made me think the stories would be better suited to a more abstract adaptation, even an animation or hybrid rotoscope project.

There's a huge motif in AP about all the men looking the same, and this turns out to be key to the ambiguity of Paul Owen's death, that is iirc lost in the film. It's such an big detail that the film gives me the impression that Patrick didn't do it, and the book gives me the impression that he did. In a similar way, in FC, I pictured the narrator and Tyler looking much more similar than they do in the movie. I'm pretty good at faces (though I did totally mix up Elijah Wood and Daniel Radcliffe yesterday LOL) so the live-action casting loses a lot of the effect from the writing.

I was also reminded of these books while I was reading, parodies with unreliable narrators in ridiculously horrible situations: It Happened In Boston?, Candide, Don Quixote, The Quest for the Holy Grail, The Knight of the Cart, The Song of Roland sorta (lots of medieval literature is like this imo)

[anithemonsterlover]

hmm call me an Erik apologist all you want, but after thinking it well, i think the complaints people have about "sexy phantoms" and how "adaptations never adapt POTO well, they romanticize the story too much, it's a horror story not a romance" are kinda...unfounded?

Yeah you can make a potential argument about adaptations missing the mark, removing the deformity from Erik (which shapes Erik's whole character), and that...But also...how much is this true, and how much this has been exaggerated by really one or modern interpretations?

And i wonder...is it really? Phantom has had such a number of different adaptations all over the years, from different creative minds, and each of them presented a different view on Erik. Do most of them not adapt the book? Yes (as in no birth deformity, no Daroga, no scorpion or grasshopper, etc etc). Do they really change the main themes and mood presented in the novel, turning it more erotic? Are really all adaptations with a "sexy Erik and cucked Raoul!", as critics state? Heem, let's take a look.

We'll mostly analyze the big film adaptations, since Phantom has been told over and over again in different books, comics, videogames, tv shows, and it would take us A LOT to go through every one (also let's be realistic...we have to analyze the most "well known" Phantom adaptations so to see if the critics' words hold some water. I don't think it would make much sense to point out a Phantom adaptation that has these elements but like...only four people know of it lol)

Lon Chaney...Nope. Erik was still deformed, and the few sympathetic traits he has were erased to give him a boring clichéd "kill the monster" ending, going against what the book stated, where Erik dies of a broken heart and not lynched (curiously, how the same people that go "we must portray the book accurately, not show him sympathetically" don't mind this change, huh)

Claude Rains...Nope. Still ugly, dies by the end. No sexuality. Even the "love triangle" element is changed so that it focuses on Christine and her being annoyed by the two Raouls.

Herbert Lom...Still ugly and dies. This adaptation even cuts his attraction to Christine yet keeps his obsession with music, even cuts down his biggest crimes to lay it on the hands of his sidekick (imo this is probably the most "sympathetic" Phantom, imo, since he's interpreted as an artist who had his art stolen, only wanting to "get back" at the thieves; but nobody talks of him when discussing sympathetic Phantoms)

Phantom of the Paradise...Still ugly, loses, but like Herbert Lom, redeems himself through death.

Maximillian Schell...Ugly, dies by the end.

Cartoon - Ugly, dies, Christine doesn't go with him. This is the most book accurate novel but in another angle, haha (Daroga is here, death's head, abusive mother...not exactly what the smart ass critics want ;)).

Robert Englund...Ugly, loses, doesn't get Christine...In fact I'd claim this is probably the most villainous version of Erik, turning him into more of a Freddy Krueger clone than the complicated character Erik truly is. Really amps up the horror for all those "IT'S A HORROR STORY" smart-ass critics if they're so desperate for an "accurate" version (Erik didn't flay people in the novel, iirc, so, so much for "being accurate to the novel"!)

ALW-verse / the musical / Gerard Butler film / Love Never Dies / Phantom of Manhattan (i'm placing all of this in the same venue because basically, it's really the same universe / canon, ergo we're really talking about the same intrepretation / the same creator). Ugliness is there, but sorta downplayed...This verse often ends with Erik and Christine getting together...yup, this is the one version where the criticism is legit.

Charles Dance / Yeston Kopit musical / Takarazuka (again, same universe, same creator, same interpretation). Possibly the nicest Erik yet, but he's still deformed, and he still doesn't get Christine. He's sympathetic, a little romantic, but I don't think it's on the same league as the sexuality present in Point of no Return's lyrics or Gerard Butler's open puffy shirts.

Susan Kay's novel - This one is interesting because it takes a lot from the musical (i'd argue even more from that than the novel), and then influenced the musical and future iterations of it (this novel amps up the sexy angle A LOT), so I'm not sure to categorize it as its own thing or added to the musical verse. But, still...it follows the plot points from ALW (and elements we see in future installments of ALW's POTO, like the secret child, first appeared in Kay, i think, based on publication dates), yet Erik is still hideous, but his sexuality is present in the novel...as well as his murderous tendencies. This is the one version that combines elements of both horror and sex, imo.

Dario Argento - for fuck's sakes, nobody likes this version, lol, and even the normies don't know of it. BUT ANYWAY, IF WE'RE GONNA MAKE THE COMPARISON....Not deformed, "gets Christine", in a way, but woof this version also amps up the horror and has the most unlikable Erik of them all imo.

And everything else...Do people really care or know about those versions? Wishbone's or the other musicals, or the ass long number of books? Not really...

So really...the number of Phantom adaptations that have a "sexy, romantic" Erik can be chalked up to 2-3...against all the other adaptations that keep the horror elements or have Erik still looking horrible. And the great majority of them keep it in canon with the original ending- ea Erik dies and Christine goes with Raoul (it's really only Kay's novel and LND that have the "sexy Erik cucks Raoul" interpretation...and LND has always always always been mocked and rejected by the fans)

So it's people really throwing a tantrum over the ALW version being popular, really. (And i'm really curious how they don't mind when Erik is turned more villainous, like in Lon Chaney or Robert Englund's version, even though those are also inaccurate to the novel. (Erik wasn't a sexy doomed hero, no, but he also wasn't this Freddy Krueger bastard.) Funny that).

[1000sunnygo]

hello sunny

I’ve always liked your analysis and I’d like your opinion on this’s matter.

Im a firm believer that Kidd isn’t actually died, Oda barely kills anyone actually. But I’ve read some folks say Kidd coming back would considered a “bad writing”?

He doesn’t seem to have any relevance to the plot at the moment other than wanting to be the next PK, but again he cant be in the final race because lost his Poneglyph to shanks. (Only if Oda decides he is a D/ witch is a meh to me, i don’t imagine him hiding it and him having one is kind of out character(?) ).

there are many theories and speculations about the three captains forming an alliance again in Elbaf witch I dread haha, mainly because I feel like him forming an alliance again is unfair to his presence& development in the story and feels repetitive, that goes to Law too.

If this isn’t something you don’t want to discuss by all means ignore this message. Thank you.

I was contemplating about watching the last episode but decided to give it a go after receiving the ask...

God was it bone-chilling. Really felt like a farewell.

Have to admit that it was a great episode. Namikawa san (Kidd VA) posted a tweet on Sunday: "One Piece's sakuga is absurdly incredible. I remember wringing out my soul and pouring everything into my voice while recording. Shanks is too strong. Kidd deserves all the love." (x)

But, no, I don't think Kidd is dead. All three Captains were hyped until only few chapters prior to this. The Elbaf incident might've been in Oda's drafts when this came out.

Yet, we're supposed to believe that Luffy and Law will have plot relevance, while Kidd just dies? I wouldn't call it good writing, it's a cop-out. The series is reaching the final arc with packed developments, IMO it makes no sense to equip a character with advanced combative power like conqueror's haki just to kill him off in his next appearance.

The chance of Kidd being a D is very slim because the theme of inherited will isn't in his character thus far. And two major arcs with similar alliances is unlikely (Personally, I don't want Law anywhere near Elbaf). Kidd's character arc doesn't seem to have a strong motif in relation to the overarching plot progression.

If that's the case, I wonder what "importance" Oda had in mind for Kidd when he created him.

I've seen some theories floating online, my personal speculations pretty much reach a similar conclusion.

For some reason, Oda has been continuously shoving Kidd towards Shanks' direction since the timeskip. Shanks is a core character, his concept and conclusion has to be decided from the start. It's possible that Oda wanted (and still wants) to involve Kidd in Shanks's (very likely) demise.

Returning to the episode, this was the scene that felt like a farewell.

Unlike Heart pirates, Kidd pirates received an ominous end note implying that they're completely decimated. If Kidd's crews, particularly Killer - die from this, it would push Kidd to focus solely on avenging them. He may ally himself with Blackbeard. IIRC, Blackbeard pirates don't have an engineer onboard. Kidd's power and skills may come in handy in the handling of an ancient weapon or a similar power source if Blackbeard manages to nab one; there's been some convincing theories about Kidd and Vegapunk sharing some connection too. Oda has been writing Kidd as a sympathetic character, so if he's involved in Shanks's death in such scenario, his action will be somewhat understandable.

Even if it doesn't take a dark turn, Kidd can still aid in the final battle, there are many enemies to defeat. We haven't been disappointed by Luffy's choice of friends so it's possible that Kidd would eventually back track from the revenge plan and reflect on his own actions.

Many readers have a mindset that Kidd deserves a bad end because he's not a "fundamentally good person" as Luffy, or even Law. Arrogance sure, but I don't think Oda would punish Kidd for his violent track record. Oda's initial concept distinguished adventure loving pirates from regular ones, but he corrected it and blurred the boundaries. Luffy is a pirate and pirates aren't supposed to be nice people. He finds his allies from within.

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Propaganda:

For Vanoe: "vanitas promised his canon love interest, as a romantic gesture, that if she started to become a monster, he would kill her so she wouldn't have to suffer. and then later when discussing how vanitas will eventually turn into a monster himself, he said he wants noe to kill him when that time comes. pretty yuri. also i'm a lesbian and i like them"

"Idk they have such a homoerotic shoujo manga dynamic but they're guys. Or maybe not that much but you gotta admit this would be exquisite yuri if they were girls. Noé the gothic romance heroine etc etc"

For Wenzhou: "Basically in their family unit Wen Kexing is the wife but Zhou Zishu is the mom. Also there are lots of genderbends of them around but the best ones are those where Wen Kexing goes super hard on femme but Zhou Zishu deadass has the same personality and appearance - like shoutout to those artists/writers u r the real ones. Also lesbian Zishu still being called "husband" by Wen Kexing, mwah chef's kiss! He would SO be a butch."

"Wen Kexing is compared to a wife twice in the show and at least once in the book iirc. Canon malewife + wears red eyeshadow and rocks a red robe in his Ghost Valley Master getup + his husband is an emo assassin, they are so incredibly yuri even if they're guys"

For Ineffable Husbands: "Well due to neil mentioning that they was plans for a fem presenting 1960s scene of the two of them that never ended up happening, there's a lot of fanart of that. Plus, they are an angel and a demon, and both technically don't follow the gender rules of humans and many other species on earth, so while they do present very masculine throughout the show, they could be any gender and therefore they seem very fitting for this.(I do apologize as I don't quite understand what guy Yuri is despite your definition so I am guessing and have no clue if they count."

"Looks like m/m on first glance but they don't actually really have gender and Crowley dresses as a woman for a good few years canonically"

"theyre male presenting in the show but they dont really have gender so they could be wlw if they wanted to"

"While both characters spend most of their time presenting as male, they are supernatural beings without any real sex or gender. Crowley appears as a woman multiple times, and one scrapped scene included both Aziriphale and Crowley as women in the 1960s. Additionally, it’s very common to find “Ineffable Wives” fanworks, with both characters appearing as women. As well as having been an immensely popular fandom ship for many years, it has been confirmed that Aziriphale and Crowley are canonically in love with each other."

"Regularly turned into women in fanart. Both Aziraphale and Crowley are incredibly gender. They have been together in some sort of way for 6000 years. Heavy yearning. Cringefail. Divorced and married at the same time. Literally an angel and a demon. What more could you want?"

"theyre literally genderless and can be anything ever!!!"

"Their genders are ineffable and they have hopelessly pined for centuries"

[autisticlalna]

How many duplicates do you think Olm goes after? Like, he’s got a monopoly on Avids sure but, this is the second Viking we’ve seen him messing with (maybe first from a chronological point) and with how he’s hanging around as Volm that also means interacting with Marm and Leon again (as they’re the same as the ones that show up in AA) and Fool (I’m not up on Fool Lore, I don’t know if this is the same or a different on than was in AA). Is he going after versions of Avid’s friends specifically? Why is he interacting with multiple versions at all? There’s too many questions augh!

this is a different Fool, although the line dividing them seems to be pretty vague-- Gold Fool isnt Purple Fool, but the Fools have some awareness of what happens to their alternates so there seems to be lingering resentment. hard to say for sure.

AS FOR EVERYTHING ELSE, THOUGH......

Marm showing up in AA appears to be under her own power (or, at least, the Void's), so i doubt Olm wants her there but shes manage to slide under the radar. iirc the only quest she's done was 100 Traps, which is self-contained and Olm has no known ties to.

Leon did help build the Haunted Castle at the End of Time, and lives near the Frozen Keep. like Marm, though, he hasnt had any (known) contact with Olm on AA yet. him and Marm discussed having an Avid Watch Duty, so Leon is probably also there On Purpose on his end, rather than Olm's. (if anything i doubt olm wants anything to do with him lmao)

Viking is the weird part here. Olm and his influence was completely absent from Gilded, but depending on where in the timeline Gilded falls that couldve been Avid's first contact with a Viking. then we have Skyblock Kingdoms, where Summertime sidestepped the OSSHA arc but has ended up in Volm's sights due to Yellow being Yellow. (and, while most of it is off-video, we do have that bit in ep13 where Yellow and Avid talk about him and Summertime being besties at minimum.)

actually no hold on i need to loop back to Fool for a sec. we have Gold Fool as one of the new heads of OSSHA, but if im gonna bring up Gilded as a potential link then i need to bring up the Fool in Gilded. the original Fool. the one that made the god / that is the god that caused Olm to turn on Purple Fool and try to wipe him out of existence out of jealousy.

that connection could be part of why Olm specifically singled them out in Avid Adventures. Wanderer and Purple Fool are both variants of people with previous ties to Avid that could be manipulated-- each Fool is a blank slate that adapts to the world he ends up in (hence the different colors - theyre based off the primary emotion that version of Fool feels), and Wanderer is isolated and was left unattended long enough for Olm to grab him. Avid was apologetic towards Wanderer about it, so "these are Avid's friends and Avid is being pressured into putting them through the horrors" is definitely notable.

i dont know if this makes sense lmao. there is no thesis here this is just words

[joculatrixster]

"ill admit i dont watch sos nor raft streams but im calling out ppl who r calling scott specifically abusive and ive literally never seen anyone as vilinized as scott in fics i can think off the top of my head 3 fics ive seen where scott is the vilian and portrayed as jimmys abuser which is NOT true for anyone u mentioned." You can't say Scott is the only one villainized in the same breath as admitting you haven't seen content where other CCs get villainized by the audience.

Many of the *exact same people* who criticize Scott have also come out with posts talking about how uncomfortable Sausage makes them, some of them specifically citing his behavior toward Jimmy in SOS. Of course, I can't say that's true for everyone in fandom who criticizes Scott, but in my experience people critical of Scott are critical of others, too, regardless of their sexuality. Saying the criticism is fueled by homophobia doesn't track when the people criticizing Scott are also criticizing straight CCs/characters for very similar things.

Everyone has a different fandom experience based on what circles/fan archives/discussion boards they're on, and even on the same site people can have different experiences because of stuff like algorithms and who you're following. IIRC I have seen a fic where Grian, Jimmy, Joel and Lizzie were all siblings and Lizzie called out Grian and Joel for not being good brothers to Jimmy, while the only fic I've seen with Scott being "villainized" was a short ficlet where he did something small out of jealousy that didn't have any long term effects. I have actually gone *looking* for toxic FH fanfic and not found any. (I like complicated messy relationship story lines, so I feel like toxic FH in fic form would be fun to read.) Obviously this has not been your experience, but you seem to be treating your fandom experience as if it's the same for everyone else, which it's not.

its nnot just my experience when multiple multiple ppl have spoken out about how prominent it is specifically for scott again if its just a small issue id understand but the normalization is insane, ive seen a fic where scott turns jimmy into his pet doll and he needs to be saved from his clutches. ive read a gic where scott kills pearl and wants to destroy the entire world and has jimmy as his pet who he promised to keep as long as he stayed uner his thumb. ive read a fic where scott just leaves jimmy at the alter and pearl hunts him down and lashes out violently at him and we r meant to side w pearl for attacking him bc he didnt feel bad for poor jimmy. these were not obscure fics or small fics. u seem to assume an issue others r clearly pointing out theyve seen way more than others is only something some fridnge guy is complaining about instead of perhaps something UVE missed hm? uve seen 1 fic where joel and grian r kinda shitty to jimmy and get called out ive read multiple fics where scott breaks down jimmy as a person and needs to be saved from him, ive seen multiple posts calling irl scott smajor am abuser bc of one clip, ive seen pll say jimmy deadass is uncomfortable w FH and doesnt like scott which is just weird ass behavior. yes sausage gets flack i belive this but i haven't seen a shit ton of fics making sausage break jimmy soan mentally then get killed or punished in the end for being an irredeemable abuser. ive seen multiple of that for scott or just seeing scott in general in a veryyy negative light which is clearly due to an unfavorable interpretation of his character. which is fine, but name three fics where grian is intpreted that unfavorably w over 100 kueos. no seriously show me the fics where grian dies in the 3nd and its a thing everyone is happy about in the ficand they do not mourn him at all bc they hated him. go on!

its funny how ur orignal anon nitpicked my post and ur reply again nitpicks one part of a wider post as if the point i said was even what ur replyin to, im talking fandom space but even if i wasnt im talking life series fandom while i do mention oli thats just to ponnt out that One scott clip is not Just a scott thing, girl. vilinized in life series aka what i tagged, dont be stupid here its literally just making u look stupid 😭i used grian as an example bc hes someone who acts similar in the space i was criticizing and not sausage bc i am aware things may be different in a DIFFERENT context. ur majorlyyyy derialing and not rlly proving me wrong ur just proving that u dont rlly get what im saying which is fine but also all ur points r just...not disproving anything l. ur example is 1 grian and joel being criticized in one(1) fic(which is not what vilianized even means dude but hey ill give u this u did find one somewhat grian neg fic!) and 2 a guy not even in the fandom i tagged. girl...

[if-loki-was-a-fox]

i'm kinda new here what are the watchers (life series)

-🦴

I'm not super deep into the Watcher Lore, so I can't give the most indepth and accuracy guaranteed explanation, but here's the main points from what I've gathered:

- The Watchers originated on Evolution SMP, an old server, I think role-playing heavy, that included a few of the Lifers on it's cast. Namely Grian, Martyn, Jimmy, BigB, and Pearl, iirc. They were maybe the antagonists? I think Evo SMP ended with Grian being turned into one, maybe

- Martyn InTheLittleWood, in his own Life Series videos, roleplays and includes lore for his own plotline / AU, I believe called "Eyes and Ears". It's not in anyone else's videos / is not canon to anyone else, but he has a whole storyline and world building going on and does separate streams discussing it. Idk, I don't really watch him

- In popular and generalized fanon I believe Watcher Lore tends to deviate a fair bit from both of the above Watcher Canons. It's a far more vague thing that any individual will take their own artistic liberties with and borrow more or less heavily from different sources.

The basic beats of Watcher Lore is "eldritch godlike beings that watch the suffering of players." They may or may not be able to influence players and luck in subtle ways, and within the context of the Life Series they are often considered to be the ones who trapped the Lifers there and/or keep them coming back. Grian is also often considered a(n unwilling) Watcher himself, or something of the sort

Also, purple eye imagery. And angel wings. Those are pretty common

[gellavonhamster]

near dark (1987) but make it asoue

@carnivorous-horses-lover first of all, thank you for enabling me

Secondly, imagine, if you will, a small-town young man who works at his stepfather's farm. The young man's name is Fernald, and his life is pretty miserable - his attempt at an acting career in the City failed, forcing him to return to his hometown, and now he's stuck in a routine he doesn't enjoy. His relationship with his stepfather Widdershins isn't great - in part, probably, because his stepfather is a pretty miserable man too, a former sea captain now bound to live on land after sustaining injuries that made him unfit for life at sea. Nearly the only bright spot for Fernald is his teenage sister, Fiona - she's talented and smart, and surely won't become a failure like him.

One evening, as Fernald is getting drunk at the bar after a particularly angry row with his stepfather, he meets a cute and charming person called Orlando (I think this name would fit in fine in this AU - iirc, Sunny refers to the Henchperson like that at some point either in the books or in the series, and Virginia Woolf's Orlando is able to live for centuries without growing old). They hit it off right away, and damn, this might be the drink talking, but Fernald feels like he's falling in love. At the end of the night, just before sunrise, as Orlando is about to leave, he kisses them.

And then Orlando bites him. Bites him and sucks his blood.

After that, Orlando runs away without explanation, so at first, Fernald doesn't understand what has happened to him. But then the rising sun starts burning his flesh. As he's trying to hide in the shade, an RV drives up, and Orlando pulls him in. Inside, he finds a group of people all screaming at Orlando that they should kill Fernald, but then Orlando tells them that they've already turned him, and, after some discussion, the strangers inform him that they'll let him live - for now. Fernald learns that his new acquaintances are a band of vampires who roam the Land of Districts under the guise of a travelling acting troupe. The band is led by Count Olaf, a man claiming to have been an 18th century nobleman. Apart from him and Orlando, there's Olaf's girlfriend Esme, a Bald Man, two White-Faced Women, and Carmelita, a tween girl recently turned by Esme when the latter decided she wanted a daughter. They travel from town to town, kill people to feed, and occasionally steal a new vehicle and burn the old one to cover up their tracks.

The Count and the others tell Fernald that they're going to give him a probational period of sorts - he gets a week to learn to hunt, and if he doesn't, they're going to get rid of him. The problem is, Fernald can't make himself kill people. His thirst is strong and he can feel his organism starting to reject human food, but he cannot overcome his fear and disgust. Orlando helps him by hunting for him and feeding him their blood after they have fed themselves, but they tell him this cannot go on, and Fernald knows that eventually he has either to become a murderer or be murdered. In the Village of Fowl Devotees, where the vampires attack a bar, he fails to kill a local handyman and lets him escape. Everyone but Orlando is furious and wants to kill him, but then the police arrive, and Fernald risks his life to help the rest of the group escape. This pacifies the vampires, and they decide to give him more time to adjust.

Meanwhile, Widdershins and Fiona follow the trail of the vampires' rampage from town to town, hoping to catch up with Fernald and see if he can still be saved. They meet the handyman, Hector, who has seen which direction the vampires drove off to. After driving all day, they decide to stay at a motel, not knowing that Olaf's troupe is also staying there. At some point, while Widdershins isn't present, Fiona goes out of their room and runs into Carmelita. They strike a conversation, and Carmelita, happy to finally have someone her age to talk to, invites Fiona to their room. When Fiona sees her brother, she is overjoyed, but he immediately gets worried and tells her to leave. It is, however, too late: Carmelita wants a friend, and even though Olaf hates the idea, Esme is still fond enough of her toy - pardon, her child - to indulge her whims.

Luckily, Widdershins arrives and threatens the vampires with a gun. A scuffle ensures, and the whole family, including Fernald, manages to escape. For some reason, Widdershins is sure that a blood transfusion might help Fernald revert to human state. They try it, and it works.

The family returns home and wards the house against vampires ("but Stepfather, how do you even know all these things?" - "don't worry about it"), yet it turns out they've been followed. At night, Orlando comes and persuades Fernald to go out and talk to them. They try to convince Fernald to let them bite him again and go back with them, but eventually, unable to lie anymore, they break down and reveal that the other vampires made them distract him. Turns out that while they were talking, Olaf's troupe somehow broke through the protection of the house. Fernald discovers that his stepfather is grievously wounded and his sister is gone. Widdershins tells him that the vampires took Fiona away and urges Fernald to follow them. Fernald calls the ambulance for his stepfather and leaves to chase the troupe, who have by then picked up Orlando and driven away. He is attacked by the Bald Man and the White-Faced Women, but manages to defeat them.

Orlando, who is genuinely in love with Fernald, decides to risk incurring Olaf and Esme's wrath and help Fiona escape. Together they break out of the car and run towards Fernald. The sun is rising, and Orlando has to cover themselves with a jacket, because the sun keeps burning them. Furious Olaf and Esme, with Carmelita in the backseat, pursue them and attempt to run them over with their car. Fernald manages to push Fiona and Orlando away, but the car crashes into him, and he passes out.

He regains consciousness in the same small - and, honestly, shady-looking - hospital where his blood transfusion was performed. He is aching all over, and one of his hands has been amputated, but he's alive. Fiona is there, and so is his father, bruised but still standing - and Orlando, who has also been cured by a blood transfusion. Another person present, strangely, is the handyman from the Village of Fowl Devotees. He tells them that the car with the vampires exploded in the crash, but no human remains were found when the fire was extinguished. Perhaps they burned to ashes completely. Perhaps not.

Okay, says Fernald, what the hell. Why are you here? How did Stepfather know that the blood transfusions would help? What kind of hospital is this?

Widdershins and Hector share an awkward glance.

There used to be an... organization some years ago, they tell him. An organization created to battle supernatural threats. It was founded long ago by people privy to the secrets of the world. But it has been dying out for decades, and their generation was the last. Too many died, too many quit out of fear (Hector looks away, embarrassed), too many were seduced by the occult and joined the other side. But the few still remain - the ones who don't seek out the enemy actively, but still remember how to fight against it.

They call themselves volunteers.

And it seems no one can hide from what one is forever.

[closedrop]

Okay now that I’ve thoroughly processed the ending of Crisis Core, I have some thoughts

- I’m kinda upset that I was wrong about what was gonna go down because honestly I would’ve found it really interesting to see like the mako reactor blow up(?) is that what happened in Gongaga? And then Zack have to see that happen or something. It’s alright though I can deal without it ig…

- I didn’t actually realize Genesis liked poetry (cough cough LOVELESS) when I got my first impression of him and said “he seems like he’s into poetry so that’s a plus” and then when I realized I was right that was really funny.

-Speaking of Genesis liking LOVELESS he HAS to have read that book more times than anyone else imaginable. It’s just not possible for anyone to have read LOVELESS more than he has. Simply impossible. You can’t do it.

- I am still a big fan of all the little details that cause the future in Crisis Core, like Aerith’s bow and her dress too, Zack’s limit break, Zack helping name 7th heaven. And even foreshadowing like LOVELESS, because especially in Act I where it says “Three friends go into battle. One gets captured, one flies away, and the one that is left becomes a hero.” (Even though the game touches on this a little where Rothy and Genny discuss it) it can clearly reflect onto the fates of Angeal, Genesis, and Sephiroth. Although Sephiroth in his and Genesis’ discussion of Act I says that Genesis is welcome to have the role of hero it is actually he who becomes the hero I believe? That or he’s the one who flies away. It’s unclear to me because there can be multiple interpretations but here’s my take basically. *Ahem*

Scenario 1: Rothy is the Hero because he’s the only one from the AGS that appears in FFVII so hence “the one that is left” and he’s known AS A HERO before he kinda goes mad and kills a bunch of people. And that makes Genesis the one who flies away, this could be evidenced by how he is a deserter who worked with Hollander to try and stop the degradation orrr something like that but yeah.

Scenario 2: Genny is the Hero because of how Sephiroth and Angeal both died technically (idk the lore is weird there, Sephiroth like died but then he came back to life in FFVII because he was preserved or something?? I forgot- anyways-) this makes him the one remaining though, and Rothy flies away, as in he dies I guess. And also in the cutscene where he gets thrown with the masamune or something I guess he kinda like willingly throws himself down there using his singular wing (iirc) so that could be interpreted as flying away.

And Angeal… ehh let’s not dwell on it and say “being captured” just means he like kinda was killed by Zack or something. Sorry this kinda turned into my interpretation of LOVELESS mb

- IIRC Genesis basically created the idea for Banora white apple juice? Which is insane to me because how did nobody think of this before him?? Like, what’s with this child inventing apple juice? Let’s go?? I guess??? Good on him???

- I literally watched Zack go through the stages of grief throughout the whole game like at first iirc was like whaaat? SOLDIER and Shinra wouldn’t do this, naaaaah. Then it was how could they do this??! And just cover it up too!?? For why! And after that it was, him like (iirc) begging Cissnei to let him and Cloud go on since they didn’t do nothing but escape from testing that Hojo was putting them through in those test tube thingies. After this Zack is all depressed (not like he wasn’t before but he is super depressed now) because he feels like one, he can’t save anyone, and two, like he’s just been living a lie (especially after finding out about Lazard’s betraying Shinra), after that he continues to be tested on what he believes in choosing to in the end not to back to Shinra and instead protect Cloud then finally accepting his fate and knowing that the price of freedom is steep (haha reference TvT) and goes in to fight that whole army I guess which he most likely knows is going to get him killed, but he fights anyway for his freedom. And yeah that’s the stages of grief. You got Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, “testing” apparently according to Google, and then acceptance.

- This game made me like Sephiroth “Rothy” Sephiroth a little bit more than FFVII did because I got to see the side of him that shows before he’s lost to the madness. It’s interesting especially when you realize he is how he is in FFVII because he’s found out what made him. Poor guy 😔

- The probability of the “Silver elite” Sephiroth fan club being run by any of Angeal, Sephiroth, or Genesis is really high, especially when you consider the fact that they have information that nobody outside of those people would have. And the “never before seen” photos of Sephiroth/“photos that only not your average fan” could see. That information being though, the part about the training room and how apparently they’d like shoot an apple off the head of one of em. (Thin k it was Rothy slicing an apple offa Genny’s head? IIRC?) if I recall, it was said that they would SNEAK to be in the training room. Implying that nobody else knew about it other than them. It’s either that or they were really bad at sneaking. But the mail from Silver Elite said something along the lines of them sneaking to the training room to use as their personal playground, and if I recall Sephiroth says something similar in his flashback, saying they’d like sneak to use it when the seconds are out. (Sorry repetitive but yeah) so either it’s run by one of them OR that chairperson is very good at getting interviews with them.

Yes I joined all the fan clubs what about it? I’m a dedicated fan of all of them. Or something like that.

Idk I probably have more thoughts but it’s late and I’m tired soooo that’s all I have for now

[sabtoonz]

so i just remembered that a frw years ago i used to do rps in robloxian highschool by just creatin a random ass character and approaching random ass people to see if they qould start an rp or not. here are some of my favorite characters

- The Pool Hydra (tm) which was just a fucking egg body with a hydra head. id be in the school pool waiting for people to see me and freak tf out but understandably people just thoight it was ridiculous and started throwing insults at me in a classic 8 yr old fashion

- hot dog maker who would go to the cafeteria and ask people who were sitting there if they wanted a hot dog and if they said yes id briefly leave the room to change to a character which was a hot female doge with long flowy hair. ha. get it. hot do

- giant dragon whose character was demanding to be treated as king by everyone he approached but akin to the Pool hydra (tm) nobody took it seriously and i proceeded to get obliterated at dodgeball

- the world's shittiest and probably unintentionally scariest bowser cosplay who would approach people asking if they saw a red plumber walking around and two kids got pretty in character and were like "HEY YOURE BOWSER AND WERE NOT LETTING YOU KILL MARIO"and chased me around the map at full speeds like gremlins that was so much fun

and obviously lets not forget my best charscter. Dog. i saw a tutorial on how to make a dog charscter on robloxian highschool and once i learned i was a fucking rp machine because people thought i was cute. again i would approach random people but this time they would adopt me, here are some of my favorite rp moments

- my first ever rp with this dog character was when i approached this girl in the school cafeteria and fed me bananas so she named me Banny. anyways by the end i decided it was getting boring so i spiced it up by turning banny into a fucking mutant werewolf cyborg who qould wreqk havoc killing and deatroying rverything on sight and my owner did not say a word as i was doing that and just left the server im almost sure she cried

- i taught someone how to make a dog avatar and we became siblings in rp. our owner took us camping and there was a lake and i proceeded to get eaten by a Swamp Monster whole we were swimming but convinently the other dog had a SCALPEL and saved me

- got flung off a truck while my owners were discussing marvel and the endgame and saying they wanted to me watch it with them while eating popcorn out of a thanos gauntlet popcorn bowl

- almost drowned to death and somehow got the ability to speak in my last moments

- stealing some rich girl's house. thst was also my last rp iirc

and probably much more which i dont remember LOL

[friends-to-lovers-tournament]

Y’all accepting propaganda? Cause I got PLENTY for Fitzsimmons:

They met at sixteen in college. They are, to this day, collectively referred to as top of their class (though iirc, Fitz claims Simmons is smarter because she likes homework more than life itself)

During said time in college, they somehow turned plants into explosives. Simmons rambles about how happy she is with this result right in front of a superior officer (Phil Coulson), as Fitz tries to shush her so they don’t get in trouble.

They do not get in trouble. They get recruited to fieldwork. Fitz sees this as marginally worse. Simmons keeps trying to get him to like it

Simmons gets infected with an alien virus. They spend an entire episode on opposite sides of a glass wall, trying to cure it before it’s too late for her.

Fitz eventually says “screw it” and goes in with her, because damn it if she tries to cure this alone

She throws herself out a plane so she doesn’t infect him. He almost jumps out after her without a parachute

They get trapped at the bottom of the ocean together. They discuss death. She says she’s glad she’s with him. He confesses while sacrificing himself to save her.

He’s so devoted to her. She kisses him on the cheek once, and you can literally see the moment he decides he loves her. He nearly drowns so that she can breathe. She goes missing on the other side of the universe—he jumps through a portal, and drags her back by the tips of his fingers.

It’s mutual. She can’t bear to watch him suffer. She runs into his arms any chance she gets. She risked mind and body to drag him out of a world where he didn’t belong. She would rather have let him kill her than imagine a life without him. She searches space for him for a year on just a feeling that he might be out there—and she was right

Their proposal is so funny. He makes this heartfelt speech about how time, space, and even death can’t stop them, and then it turns out she can’t hear him.

I say it was funny, but it was gut-wrenching at first

That same episode, she proposes in the middle of a gunfight. They bicker over who proposed first while dragging their concussed friend to safety

The wedding? Rushed. Coulson claims that any hesitation is playing with fire. He’s absolutely right.

They have an episode located entirely in a shared mindspace. Their darker halves end this episode tearing each other’s clothes off

Multiple superior officers, upon hearing their name, thought they were a singular person. They later named their daughter after a binary star—two stars that shine so bright, they look like one

yes we're accepting propaganda via asks and submissions! forgot to mention this before but let us know if you'd like us to use your propaganda for the next round of polls if your ship makes it through :)

also this is really cute i especially love that their superiors thought they're one person lmao thank you for submitting!

[acoraxia]

My knowledge of fyss!Kui Mulang is not the best because since the fyss version is in English and the book is extra dense with many characters with different names, it has not been easy for me. I know more about Jttw!Kui Mulang. Jttw is easier for me because there is a version in my native language. But about Kui Mulang and his wife, Kui Mulang kidnapped his wife against her will. He also does not hesitate to hurt her If she does something agaisnt him. Furthermore, the moment Kui Mulang is caught, he betrays his wife and tries to put all the blame on her, saying that she was the one who seduced him.

Many fsyy characters have different names. So I think that's why not many recognize Azure Lion. He was part of the Jie Sect but is later turned into a mount when he loses. I think lmk is not taking fsyy as a prequel to Jttw like New gods. However, I feel like it gives more depth to his character? You know, imagine fighting on the side that accepts you because the other side doesn't really like your kind (from what I understand, there may be good reasons as well as discrimination against the Yaoguai) and then you're humiliated into being the mount of an immortal. And many centuries pass, and you gain respect and connections, but they still don't see you anymore than that. He also becomes very angry when he is not invited to Xiwangmu's peach banquet. I'm not saying this to defend him, but the topic of the Yaoguai and how they are perceived is interesting.

this person is answering questions about fsyy. It's the only blog I've found, so they might be able to give you the info you want to know about fsyy!Kui Mulang. I hope it helps you a lot if you ever need it! :)

https://www.tumblr.com/ryin-silverfish

I'm sorry if I send a lot of asks to reply. I tried to send a response to my ask but apparently my reply is too long??? I'm still not very familiar with Tumblr

Checked my inbox after me and my sib discussed media and honestly it made my mood go from “aw” to “OOOH” so quickly haha

Fyss!Kui Mulang will remain a mystery for a while… we gotta accept this fate my friends. At least until I do a little digging and end up launching him on top of my faves like I did with Erlang and Red Son— AHEM anyways!

I did not know he tried to victim blame his wife.. what the HECK dude… what is wrong with you… my guy.. my dude! What the heck!

Also Yaoguai were always very interesting imo… like at some point it makes you wonder if the hate and judgement they get is justified or not. Yes there are yao that eat people or kill them and do things that aren’t great but what of the ones that are just living? The ones who fight on the side of “good”? Makes you wonder about it. (I did learn that yaoguai stands for creatures that stand outside the natural order/cannot be explained. Which is fun!) Kind of interesting how he was turned into a mount… hm. That’s.. certainly something! Especially for a sentient being capable of thought and speech as eloquent as any other immortal he comes across!

I kind of wish they’d taken fyss as an inspiration ngl.. they did show the Nezha and Ao Bing fight scene but it was obviously shown as more aggressive (in the book, Nezha just smacked him while Ao Bing was the one who launched the first attack—meant to he comedic but also horrifying moment for the Ao family) and it’s funny how they introduced Nü Wa.. because they’ll have to address which version of her it is (in some myths she is the Jade Emperor’s daughter (fyss iirc), in other’s she marries her brother—options!) —but! Anyways, this was a fun read

Definitely makes me think about Azure Lion and Kui Mulang’s characterizations… hm hm hm

[vonkarma2]

why I don't like pokemon rocketshipping

james pokemon is gay whereas jessie pokemon is bisexual to this day i think shipping them sucks. it's like this ↓

this post was meant to be the above minus the title and nothing else but then I went insane. so now i will articulate my feelings, which i have had in mind since i got really into team rocket for a few months in 2020 because of lockdown induced susceptibility.

i can also see straight or lesbian for jessie and james can be bisexual so long as you acknowledge they are both theater people. which ordinarily i dislike as a hc because i dislike theater people usually but in this case it is objective fact. this brief clip here will help demonstrate my vision

for example in sun and moon anime they crashed a group of children's school play because jessie was jealous of not being in the spot light. which brings me to my next point that due to being a cartoon for young children this material is obviously very silly, to the point where mapping any of it onto anything based in reality or taking it remotely seriously is very ridiculous. which is why i am moving into just make an oc territory at this point. but I think the huge part of the charm is that these characters are preexisting, and came into the world naturally, because some childrens cartoon execs thought it would be funny for one of the recurring villains to be kind of gay. the crossdressing, the moltres outfit.. we lost so much when they turned the homophobia down over time 😔. that's a joke.

(and don't get me wrong, it is kind of homophobic, given these are the villains and the characters you're supposed to laugh at and think are ridiculous, including because of the gay shit. i don't want to not take it seriously at all like even vague homophobia (and transphobia of course) in a kids' cartoon is insane. but they aren't evil per se and are more silly and sympathetic than anything, and iirc correctly they don't draw attention to the cross dressing? it just kinda happens rather than like ash and misty are like ewww a guy in a dress or whatever. but I could be wrong about this. there's also a discussion to be had about japanese vs american attitudes to this kind of thing especially in the 90s but we are getting off track enough as it is. did you know meowth was originally voiced by a trans woman isn't that cool :))

anyone can make a flamboyant guy and girl pair of ocs, and many have, but there isn't the same sense of unexpectedness or sincerity that makes the pleasantly surprisingly plausible gay jokes as fun to make. there is external, light hearted validation for this kind of hc in pop culture because of pokeani, and these specific characters' popularity.

similarly, i also think the ridiculousness of the source material makes adding even a little more grounding in reality very charming. highlighted in yellow is some evidence for this point. (the orange is highlighted because it's relevant to my next point and the blue is highlighted because it's hilarious).

in my opinion, the yellow text here is pretty funny, notably with regards to how it considers age as a legitimate factor. as a cartoon character in a long running show, james emphatically cannot age, and yet this writing proposes that he does, and attributes changing writing decisions to this process. the author paints a somewhat stereotypical image of someone exhausted by a dead end job. that person being a saturday morning cartoon villain. it's cute. i think this kind of portrayal whether in fan art, fan fics, or just posts like this, that treats an exaggerated fictional world with not serious emotional gravitas but mere realism, is very charming. especially when you consider he's also being portrayed as a gay man specifically, and yet still meant to be sympathized with by a presumably heterosexual audience. i know it's stereotypical, but i think the inclusion of those details makes the ties to reality more endearing through being more culturally specific and sympathetic to an outgroup.

like the writers of pokeani, the author of this 2006-looking neocities page was likely not gay themself, which makes it interesting they were such a fervent james is gay truther, dedicated enough to the point where they probably see it as a positive more interesting than ignoring the subtext. definitely not saying they went about it in the best way (this excerpt is pretty harmless , but some other parts of their page haven't aged as well, and it's clear they aren't actively trying to be progressive), but it's an interesting perspective thinking about internet culture at that time. predating broader movements of both progressivism and homophobia, and the formation of internet-based subcultures we know today. that was mostly a tangent but i included the link to my source yayyy <3

so now we have seen that adding reality, including specific cultural details that one can relate to or appreciate in some way, is fun, and i think it can be pretty charming as well. and in this case i think we have the potential to compare the characters to dynamics underrepresented in popular media. ok stay with me on this part. remember how the orange said jessie is a huge bitch.

here i am disrespecting this completely serious and kind of beautiful substack essay by comparing it to pokemon characters. but we can clearly see this exact kind of relationship depicted between the jessie and james in their lifelong, codependent friendship. (we can also compare these figures' status as outsiders to jessie and james being career criminals in universe and perenially misfortunate saturday morning cartoon villains on a meta level).

i am not saying this because i take team rocket seriously as characters in the fandom angst sense, or the sense that the show has good writing. i mean it in the sense that it's fun when there is something in pop culture that you have the ability to claim as part of your/a subculture, even if that wasn't the intention. an unintentional reflection of reality in something that was meant to be purely mainstream, and is clearly a joke, but you can joke about it as someone who is genuinely familiar with that kind of relationship in reality, or at least more respectful of it than before. unlike the essay, but much like the chris fleming clip above.

i really want to draw attention to the gender roles here as well. as stated in the essay, this is what the gay guy/hag (sorry. i feel kinda bad saying it myself on here lol) relationship can be predicated on.

many people have pointed out that in couples' disguises, james dresses as a girl and jessie dresses as a man, with james tending to cross dress significantly more often. this, as well as jessie's bullying personality vs james' relatively much more laid back nature. but I think it's interesting how it's taken for granted and not drawn attention to; or rather, not an incidental situation, but rather part of the fundamental nature of their characters. low key kind of feminist. I think it's also important to note that jessie and james are close friends, so he is clearly drawn to her in some way, but james hates her kind of personality in the context of romantic relationships, evidenced both here in this joking scenario, and in the episode where he has to escape an arranged marriage to a girl who looks and acts exactly like jessie, except she is in love with him. we can see the jessebelle episode as emblematic of the rejection of the heterosexual life paths and the pursuit of an existence outside the mainstream [i get shot in the head by a sniper]

i included this picture of mac and dennis move to the suburbs because i think the sitcom structures make them similar. they can't leave because of the concept of the show. metanarratively doomed to be together. an eternal relationship between people who make each other miserable but can never bear to leave, and can also both be compared to and is fundamentally incompatible with a stable, married, heterosexual relationship. one who is aggressive and one who is usually powerless. and is this all portrayed in the show? absolutely not LOL. but we are talking about fan culture here overall, which for better and worse (much worse) is oftentimes about seeing the potential in a source material and iterating on it in some way. it's there for those with eyes to see. i think the codependent friends + gay/hag relationship both has more canon evidence, is truer to the heart and soul of the source material (as seen through its endless cyclical structure), and is more unique and interesting.

This quote is here because jessie is definitely NOT "fully-actualized" as this describes. as stated earlier she is frequently insecure and childish, especially with regards to femininity. (perhaps we can trace this back to her backstory of an unstable childhood with her mom dying and her almost straight up starving to death as a result.) she wants to find love and be percieved as beautiful, but due to her mean and evil personality she can't, and is stuck being an outsider with this cat and this gay man. there is an obvious insecurity at the heart of these characters, and within the show's narrative they are cursed to remain as they are. if we as fans are trying to take this a step further and create some kind of tension or arc, we can say it's because of their mutual failure to self actualize (especially factoring in the gender/lgbt stuff) that they are drawn together.

i don't think people shipping these two is like, remotely a serious societal issue. it's literally fine. i don't care that much these are differing interpretations of a mediocre anime meant to sell toys cards and video games. but i dislike it personally because i feel like in both practice and inherently, it means ignoring a lot of what makes the relationship itself unique, fun to interpret, and grounded in some nonserious form of reality. people are always like wow.. 2 gnc bisexuals that commit crimes together and also kiss.. but i think that's at best a way of resolving or explaining an underlying tension that's better left existent and at worst based on purely surface level observations. big city greens didn't even let them have meowth they are nothing without meowth

overall thesis if you're a fan reinrerpreting kids show characters for fun do it in style

disclaimers:

i'm not a cis gay man or transfem and so i dont have that perspective

joke portrayals of super flamboyant feminine and cross dressing gay men can contribute a lot to transmisogyny as well as homophobia, and the two are often conflated, especially in older media

i can see why someone would dislike this kind of character and view the portrayal as more mean spirited than i did, like even though the character of james himself is meant to be likeable you can see this aspect itself as demeaning

you know that thing where it's like the tme nb or trans masc is like omg theyre so gender but it's just transmisogyny. I obviously don't want to repeat that myself. there is some gray area of course and generally I think this specific example has room for interpretation, but I'm not the expert on this topic over all

I also haven't seen the whole show. there's like 600 episodes plus movies and it's not even good

there are like 40 separate essays you could write about that in general (gay coded villains in childrens' media and overlap of homophobia/transmisogyny therein in both the media itself and audiences' reactions). and i'm not doing that. but just know i'm aware it's a nuanced topic at least

[redeemedbytheking]

sorry if this isn't something you're interested in discussing/getting asks about but i just saw a poll about "most disappointing moments in disney movies" and "the super cool beast turning into a boring human" was one of the most chosen options and i just hate when people complain about the BATB ending adsjkfsg 😭 like this is a fairy tale, metaphorically it's about the transformative power of learning to selflessly love another, and literally it's about the fact that adam did not choose to become a beast, he was cursed and forcibly ostracized from society, of course he wants to be human again?? i'd get if it was just people not liking his design, as iirc even the directors of the original animated film admitted to not putting a lot of effort into it, but i never see people do redesigns of a human version they'd like better, i just see them complain and say he should've stayed a beast because he was cooler that way or whatever. and i never felt that way even as a little kid so yeah i guess i just wanted to vent about it a bit lol. anyway i love your blog!!

AMEN BROTHER!!!!!! i am always interested in discussing this. adam is my favorite character in the universe and the way people treat him drives me insane!

i FULLY agree with you and i am appalled at that poll option. genuinely how is it so hard to understand?? if y’all want a movie about a beast guy learning to love his beast self, i believe the movie you’re looking for is dreamwork’s SHREK, lmao. the point of adam’s story is that he was learning a lesson in vanity and cruelty. he was being punished. the enchantress saw how much of a monster he had become so she made him look like one and took away his beautiful appearance — the thing he prided himself on the most. it’s a PUNISHMENT! he’s in BODY JAIL! why on EARTH would he want to stay that way!!!!

i say this every time but: no matter how comfortable belle makes him feel in his own skin, that is NOT the way he wants to live the rest of his life. it’s not who he is! he was born a human and he lived a human life for a while before this curse happened! and now he’s got this second chance… he’s learning how to love… obviously he’d become even more desperate to be human again! he wants a normal life with belle now! *shaking violently* why must we strip him of his humanity!!!!!!!