#im ok with missing a little bit of context if it means not having a somatic flashback

[c0rpseductor]

im okay. but hoooly shit. being a star wars fan with a really bad choking trigger is a bit like your favorite hobby is touching the stove with no gloves on palms fully flat

[derschleierfallt]

my elisabeth song ranking

ok guys. i’ve been thinking abt doing smth like this FOREVER and i wanna go at least kinda in depth so very long post ahead.

this ranking is based only off of the original vienna/essen revival prods unless otherwise mentioned, and im also only ranking songs that appear in those versions. ranking is based on music, the scenes in action, and how much it just works for me in general :) ok time to type

40. schon euch alle zu sehn

- like. whatever. it just doesn’t do much for me and is like a little buffer between two good numbers before it and the ones afterwards. not much to say abt it!

39. jedem gibt er das seine

- meh. this song and the number itself are a bit of a bore to me. i like how it sets up franz and sophie’s relationship, but the song itself is pretty repetitive and i just don’t really listen to it much. however, i LOVE the set design and blocking. tod and the todesengels looming in the back and taking the pleading mother away… it’s great! but otherwise it’s the same as the previous ranking to me, a buffer

38. wir oder sie

- i’ve come to appreciate this one a liiitttle more, but unfortunately it falls into the same category as the others before it. i do find the little horsies very amusing though! and if the sophie is good then im much more amused as well

37. bellaria

- i think the song itself sounds very nice, and it’s not so long that it overstays its welcome, but… eh? in essen, where other numbers i enjoy more are cut for no reason (ELJEN) i just miss it when i get to these less than 2 minute additions to the score. i like that it humanizes sophie, but im not as compelled by her, and these additional historical context numbers added in essen that don’t have anything to do with elisabeth are a bit iffy for me. does this accomplish more for the story of elisabeth herself than the line in die rastlosen jahre about sophie’s death? im not sure. it’s just not particularly memorable to me either way

36. hass

- so, i do appreciate this number, and i guess to an extent you could say i like it for what it does in the narrative. however, it’s very uncomfortable to both listen and watch, so i can’t really rank it much higher. it definitely succeeds at what it aims to do—make you uncomfortable—but yeah. can’t say it’s enjoyable

35. irrenhaus / nichts nichts gar nichts (vienna, 92-94)

- i did not understand the insane asylum disco instrumental break for a LONG TIME. and by a long time i mean until about 3 days ago, and even then im still a littttlleeeee perplexed? it sticks out like a sore thumb musically, which i suppose could be the point, but i definitely can see why this song was phased out so soon. i like the shorter version of nichts, there’s less time to convey the emotions needed than the current version, so i like the intensity of it. piasisi is MAD AS FUCK!

34. eine kaiserin muss glanzen

- from this point on these are all numbers i ENJOY but… someone must come last in the ranking. to be fair, this comes right after der letzte tanz, so a very high bar is set. it’s a little unfair. i like the emotional rollercoaster this one is, it also makes me feel like im being picked and pulled apart just like elisabeth! can’t say i enjoy that but its ok. and that one note in essen… that pia sings… elevates the fuck out of this… pia essen vocals can save anything

33. mein neues sortiment

- it’s mini kitsch sandwiched in between two songs that murder ur heart… i need lucheni to LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE so i can mourn. i like the lyrics here though��� and in the vienna 05 proshot when he and tod just look at each other as the song starts…. ooooohh that’s cinema right there let me tell you!

32. schonheitspflege

- the only thing i really enjoy abt this one over eine kaiserin muss glanzen is the ladies in waiting in the chorus. looooveeee how they sound

31. sie passt nicht

- important distinction: this DOES NOT include the intro to der letzte tanz. im not sure if its technically part of sie passt nicht, but im deciding its not. i love the choreography for this! and the spinning mirrors! it’s a great little number

30. die frohliche apokalypse

- don’t have much to say about this one? i like it, it does a good job at telling us the events of the past few years, but i just like other numbers more. the bumper cars are soooo fun

29. die ersten vier jahre

- i love what they do with the stage and the blocking! i love the projector framing device, these little moments of time in action. i particularly love how they do it in the 2012 korean production, where it’s a puppet show manned by lucheni with the picture book cutouts. otherwise i feel the same about it as apokalypse, i just prefer this over the bumper cars and the cafe a liiiittle more

28. mama, wo bist du?

- idk if this is maybe a criminally low ranking to some but to be very clear… my only gripe with this number is just that i don’t really like listening to kids singing 😭 which isn’t a knock on any of the talented kids who play rudolf, i just skip this track. it’s EXCELLENT in terms of narrative and i absolutely adore the parallels to die schatten, but alas, i do not listen to this one often, so i don’t wanna rank it much higher. it also makes me very sad

27. nur kein genieren

- these beautiful bright colorful lights… im entranced. perhaps i should’ve ranked this one a bit higher, but the audio i listened to for this ranking didn’t do much in favor of this song. i dunno who the performers were, but i found it a bit obnoxious and over the top (more than necessary), so maybe that soured the ranking a bit

26. “the conspiracy”

- im not sure what this one is actually called? its the song immediately after die schatten reprise in essen. its another one of those ones where im not really sure if it adds much to the story in the grand scheme of things, but this one works more for me than bellaria because rudolfs struggles are a little more closely intertwined with elisabeth. and i also like him more. i LOVE this scene, i especially love the end where franz finds him out. the rage is SO good (shoutout to andre bauer and michael shawn lewis…). i also think tod sounds hawt as hell during his part. ANYWAYS

25. so wie man plant und denkt

- this one is so fun! i love the family drama, it’s super catchy, and there’s a good bit of humor which is nice. not a fan of franz’s metaphors for elisabeth, but at least there isn’t any relating of sex to ships in harbors here

24. die schatten werden langer (act 1)

- bitch…. sorry this is another one that has tod sounding sexy privilege. which is maybe fucked up because he just killed a kid but i have to be honest with y’all. real talk though this one hurts me! i love it for that! it’s so short but they fit in so much despair… it’s impressive. this is one of those songs where it doesn’t work for me so much if the tod and sisi actors are kinda lacking, especially sisi, but i am pretty loyal to pia boots so this one usually works. the NEEEEEIIIIINNNNN is so chilling seriously. the sobbing afterwards… dhmu. shaking her head and breaking down while tod tells her she loves him, needs him, and will only bring ruin? guys. guys.

23. milch

- OKKAAAYY PUMP IT UP! this one has another sort of privilege, which is serkan lucheni privilege. unfortunately, i did not listen to serkan lucheni for this song, so maybe a lower ranking than if he had. however, the stars of this song is def the ensemble for me, so it doesn’t suck too bad if the lucheni isn’t as great. i like the simplicity of it, like the peasantry isn’t even afforded a little bit of set dressing. very powerful!

22. kitsch

- SUPERB opening number for act 2, especially considering how much act 2 sends me into an emotional breakdown. yes it’s all kitsch… kitsch…. kiiiiitttssschhh…..!!!! so here is a bunch of shit that’s gonna make u HURT. thanks. the audience interaction is really cool and i would kill for literally anything that lucheni throws into the audience… which is perhaps kitschy of me… dang! give me a shitty elisabeth plate idgaf! But I Also Understand The Message Of This Song And I Appreciate It And Also Find It Very Important And Interesting.

21. die rastlosen jahre

- this one just feels sooooo…… like… idk like THIS is the point in the musical where im like okay everything is about to get soooo much worse. it’s hard to explain what i love so much about the song itself, but it has a very specific mood that i just totally love. the is she still young/is she still beautiful question is one of my favorite lines in the musical as well

20. wie du

- oooohhhh… happy sisi 😭😭😭😭😭 it’s a cute song, and i like the back and forth between sisi and the governess at the end. very cheeky and adorbs. interestingly, this song sounds so much more somber in the 92 cast recording, even compared to the 92 performances. i really like that take on the song, to me it highlights her wanting and her frustrations a bit more. regardless of the tone, i like this one a lot! i also wish i could balance on a tightrope or play in the meadow or climb a tree. I Understand

19. nichts nichts gar nichts

- song is great, but like some others, this one REALLY hinges on how good the performance is from elisabeth. if the emotional weight is lacking, it can turn into a bit of a bore, considering that there isn’t much else going on to carry the number. when it’s good though, it’s really good

18. die maladie

- oh my GOD. the DRAMA. i just love love love love it. when the elisabeth and tod are locked in… oh my god. any song where there’s a power struggle between them… you best believe i’m watching very closely. similar to die rastlosen jahre, it has a very specific tone that i can’t quite describe, but it works so well. the only way i can really describe it is like… it’s kind of noir? in the beginning? if you know what i mean? and just so like…. creepy. like tod is a little freak bitch. i hate him. i love it

17. boote in der nacht

- beautiful song beautiful number. so simple yet effective, never truly crossing paths, just floating on by each other. perfect really!

16. nichts ist schwer

- honestly, you can switch boote in der nacht and this song in terms of ranking and itd be fine and still true. i don’t know which one i like more, and its a reeeeaallly close race, i just like this one more at the moment. i end up listening to it more, and the number is absolutely gorgeous in vienna. i love the synths more than anything, and sisi’s costume definitely bumps it up a bit LOL

15. totenklage

- DEPRWSSIGN AS FUCK…. I CANT….!!! i don’t think i like this one musically as much as some of the songs ranked before it, but it hits me so hard emotionally and i love the staging. when tod appears and he’s just out of reach and barely even looks at her… ugh im in pain. and shoutout to maté for some of his Acting Moments in this too. unfortunately cannot attach a gif without fucking up the list but trust me on this

14. schwarzer prinz

- there really isn’t much going on in this number but that’s alright. the song is gorgeous (i’ve yet to post the clip, i technically have posted it before in the essen proshot compilation, but jesus the orchestra sounds great), and i love tod silently listening to and mirroring sisi. it opens up a lot of interpretations… is he truly just a reflection, is he just doing what she wants to see, or does he really understand? i love the complexity of their relationship so much, and this song is so vital to it

13. eljen

- one of essen’s greatest crimes, as mentioned, is removing this song. i don’t want every entry in here to get all repetitive with I LOVE IT over and over, but yeah. i absolutely love and adore this song and every one after that, so i will try to hold off on mentioning it from here on. highlight for me is tod on top of the carriage, laughing maniacally as the celebration concludes. soooo foreboding… incredible shit tbh. and that skeleton suit? ALSO INCREDIBLE! i highly recommend you all find as many different videos as you can of serkan singing this song and trying to match the trumpet(?)’s note at the end. you will not be disappointed!

12. ich will dir nur sagen

- CHILLS every time the portrait is revealed, whether or not the audience goes crazy. it’s such an iconic moment i really cannot rank it any lower. and i do love me an ich gehor nur mir reprise/callback (more on that later….🤭)

11. ich gehor nur mir

- to me, this is THE song that matters the most for elisabeth acting. it’s the bridge between the ‘before’ sisi and the one we begin to see forming for the rest of the musical, and you really have to nail it so it doesn’t just come out of nowhere. i hateeee when sisi just magically grows up in ich will dir nur sagen… cut that out! anyways… perfect ‘i want’ song. not to get all freaky on y’all but i Deeply feel these lyrics too 😭😭 it hits 😭😭😭😭 and another case of the simplicity just being so perfect! she’s alone and isolated and afraid, but then again, she’s here with herself, with nobody else to see or judge. She belongs to herself for real….

10. elisabeth, mach auf mein engel

- we’re in the big leagues now. is this insane? i don’t know. the drama songs in elisabeth just really really work for me, and the set design is beautiful here. of course though, the highlight of this one to me is tod’s part and afterwards. his words are so obviously manipulative and falsely secure, but the vulnerability she’s feeling is so easy to take advantage of that the song ends up sounding so romantic. it’s a gorgeous piece of music and an great scene of the two of them, and it makes her defiance so much BETTER. the specifics of why i love it really depend on the actors so that’s a bigger discussion for another time (coughcoughPIASISIUWETODcoughcough)

9. wie du (reprise)

- 😢 tragic. TRAGIC. UGH. i think i went over it pretty well already in the tags of that poll abt wenn ich dein spiegel war so im just gonna be treading old ground again. the eternal struggle elisabeth faces is portrayed so well here, she’s trapped by her own ideas. maybe a victim of circumstance as well, but ultimately, her conversation with her father is all deflections until the end, where she once again resigns to the fact that she’s alone. despite this realization, she continues to shut out others… The evil fucked up reprise of happy song ever. and another addition to the Unfortunately I Relate pile

8. alle fragen sind gestellt

- i think… in terms of vibes… and that sort of thing… this is my fav number? like OMG i just love that bright red carpet projected onto the screen that cuts this super bright light through the stage. the song is obviously gorgeous as well but i love the visuals. and i love the fuck out of an ominous bell toll. the ensemble stumbling away from elisabeth while tod rings the bells and the lights go dim is one of my favorite visual moments by far

7. prolog

- insane opening number to be honest. when i first got into elisabeth i’d seen some clips of a few songs without subtitles, so i was pretty lost. i could gather some info from the comments but it was not nearly enough. this song got me HOOKED instantly. i can’t imagine hearing and seeing this and not being hooked? very big fan of the ensemble in this btw. the choreography is sooo freaky and those torn veils draped over them is MAGNIFICENT! and DO NOT get me fucking started on tod’s sparkly skull jacket

6. am deck der sinkenden welt

- soooo… i mentioned before how much i love the drama songs in elisabeth. this is peak drama song. i love the funky shit the stage does in the vienna version. whole number is completely overwhelming in the best way possible. like, holy cow, this is the breaking point… strap the fuck in! the back-and-forth between franz and tod is my fav thing ever. SIE GEHORT MIR! sie liebt MICH🙅🙅🙅!!! liek okay. beautiful. elisabeth and lucheni locking eyes and just STOPPING is a highly underrated moment as well

5. wenn ich dein spiegel war / mayerling

- technically i guess these are two separate numbers, but personally i cannot separate them from each other for the maximum emotional damage. also, it’s kind of hard to rank a 60 second instrumental among everything else? so this felt fair. it’s hard to truly articulate how this song makes me feel, so to put it bluntly (AND NOT SERIOSULY THIS ISNT SERIOUS) this song makes me want to KMS. it rips my heart apart. this is another one where i can’t fully talk about it without going into specifics and also without going on insane heartbroken ramblings, so again, that’s for another time. there’s this shot they go with like three times in the og 1992 vienna proshots, where elisabeth and rudolf’s reflections in the mirror come apart and distance themselves until they’re both out of frame and… yeah, that about sums it up. mayerling is a beautiful continuation of this. it’s even more desperate, and it’s so frantic, and this isn’t even me just being todolfpilled but that kiss fr makes it. insane laughing, tod just diving right in for the kiss without a moment to waste, or just extra desperation added on top of what’s already there… Yeah. duck smoking gif. give it all to me

4. der letzte tanz

- let me tell you all a story. gather around… for it will be told for many generations… by me… 🙂 i was browsing musical videos on youtube as i do every so often, and what do i spy in my recommended? 1992 der letzte tanz clip. do i know what the hell it is…..??? NO! but do i see beautiful uwe in the thumbnail and am i VERY intrigued??? YES YES YE AYEA TES YEA YES YES YES YES YES YES YEA YE SYES YES YE SYES🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂 so i watch it and i have no idea what the fuck just happened but i LOVE IT. a few days later i watch elisabeth for the first time… and then it’s all over for me. that aside, i love this song so much! the last we hear from tod before this song is the prolog, that he loved her. so the whiplash between that and him being so cruel to her in der letzte tanz is…. GENIUS dare i say! there is no love to be found in his words! maybe this is his idea of love, its obsessive and unrelenting, but…. is it love? UGH and the ensemble kicking in at the end… uggghhhhhh😘😘😘🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰😍😍😍😛😛😛😛😛😛😛😛😋😋😋😋😚😚😚😚😚

3. wenn ich tanzen will

- a few things i’ve mentioned previously: i love a power struggle, and i don’t know if i love some essen additions. this is another one where i think ultimately it doesn’t add a lot to the narrative, rather just reenforces what we hear in eljen, but i can’t complain about this song. i simply cannot. the blocking in the essen version is exactly what i need from elisabeth and tod. they’re equals, they’re inseparable, and it’s horrible, because neither of them can really win now. elisabeth can shut him out, but he will always be inevitable. tod can try as much as he wants, but she cannot be swayed. IIIII LOOOOVEEEE ITTTTTT!!!!!! ONE MILLION LINES OF WENN ICH TANZEN WILL COCAINE PLEASE!!!!!!! the power of puwe chemistry

2. die schatten werden langer (act 2)

- gosh. oh gosh. ohhhh golly gosh. do not get me started. i have many thoughts about this song but its kind of weird. i cant verbalize it necessarily. for my eternally ongoing elisabeth animation project (that will hopefully be put to digital paper one day) i have very specific ideas that are very connected to my thoughts here. so you’ll have to wait like 10 years for the full take. the harsh lighting of the 92 prod has never been better than in this song. absolutely gorgeous scene and PERFECT music. MORE SYNTHS PLEASE MR LEVAY!!! ALL THE SYNTHS!

1. der schleier fallt

- who’s surprised raise ur hand…. nobody is surprised ohhhh darn it. this song is Me. like my online identity is this song. i am not ashamed of how much this is my shit. changed my fucking life not even joking that much. i hesitate to call it bittersweet but… that’s sorta how i feel? like, ultimately, it’s not a good ending, she’s dead and i think there’s some sort of implication that she’s immortalized as the young version of herself that’s everywhere in pop culture. but at the same time, there is some semblance of peace, or at least comfort. the fight between them has been forcibly put to an end, so what else is left? once again… i love the complexity of their relationship. and it is very close to my heart and my being lowkey. is that cringe?!?! IDK this is my tumblr and i make the rules and the rules are that i have to think abt this song at least twice per day. per hour maybe? UGGGHHH FUCKKKK I LOVE THIS SONG I LOVE THIS MUSICAL UHGGGGHHHHHHHH 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 best song ever. best username ever

the end. would maybe switch some rankings around in hindsight but i’ve spent way too fucking long on this. i got sick for a few hours so that allowed me some time to think about this. and i Thought hard.

[mrstsung]

I love how in one vid people say mk11 shang tsungs dialogue is kinda flirty. And im like only if you see it that way. -_-

Because to me the only flirty pre battle dialogue that i noticed was with skarlet. Maybe sindel. Jacquis was pointing out how rare female characters show up in the game despite being staples. And it's kinda crap we only get a few from earthrealm.

Sonyas was just a stupid nod nostalgia bait for the 95 movie which is grossly (Emphasis on GROSS) misinterpreted. As he only said that crap to get her to fight him so he can take her soul. There's no actual feelings let alone anything remotely of interest other than a means to and end. And anyone with HALF A BRAIN can see that.

What could come off as flirting is just shangs natural charisma and charm. But it's just a means to an end. Honestly irl guys who are like that,if they honestly like like you,from my personal experience. Tend to be dorks in love. They stumble,cringefail (i mean this lovingly ok?),kinda shyish ,and are more subtle. Like shang i hc is bold but he's not stupid. He cautious in love. So his ACTUAL flirting would be the same. Reserved,cautious,courtly and gentleman like. But CONTEXT SENSITIVE PEOPLE! if this is mortal kombat,and it's a tournament,and people are dying. More likely that man isn't here for a date. He's here to hunt. For souls. Your on the menu. DUH!

Again im not saying there aren't exceptions. (Reader is the exception. I dont make the rules! Im non share but like hell im gonna have him be done dirty and wrongfuly characterized canon and fanon alike in a love situation. Because we haven't seen that in canon and honestly i feel its due to racism but that's just me. But yeah sorry not sorry my sorcerer hubby in love isn't some horndog with no sense or a callous evil man. He treats his honey right! Bute me nrs and bite me misinterpreting fans. )

I feel for the most part the signs that shang likes likes you,is into you,is interested in a romantic sense is so subtle and based on context and environment. That it's a blink and you miss it. But here's MY PERSONAL OPINIONS ON HOW MY HUBBY ACTUALLY FLIRTS!:

He makes a B line out of everyone else,even his enemies. To talk to you. All of raidens warriors are chopped liver compared to you my dear.

He dresses up a certain way. He always dresses good,and smells good. But he smells a certain way,and is dressed up a certain way. That you take notice. It seems to be catered to your taste a bit. How does he know?....well....thats a secret. (Surprise he read your soul or just read you. He people watches for sport so he doesn't necessarily need soul magic for that hun)

His conversations with you are extra polite but not in a condescending way. His manners are top notch. He's a gentleman. He means what he says,and says what he means. But unless you catch on this one is tricky. Only people like raiden would know him for sure if he's for real in that. (And if he is,which he would be,raidens poggers shocked bout it. not in a bad way but in a "holy shit he's in love?! Bout fucking time!")

He starts to trust you. And how do you know he trusts you? Well he puts you through little "tests" to see if you're worth his time. They are simple. Tests of loyalty,interest,etc. But nothing to invasive,nothing to grand. He doesn't wanna scare you off. One big test is helping putting on his armor/clothes and or helping with his hair. Anything in close proximity to this man done in a respectful manner. Helping him bathe or something like that,is also a way.

When he flirts he's like gomez. But he has a certain shang tsung(tm) way of expressing himself. But he'd only flirt with you if he WASN'T in a tournament or fighting. Down time is another story,but come on y'all. Shang tsung wouldn't send his goons after someone he's ACTUALLY interested in. So that boat scene in the 95 movie? Yeah bullshit,he was only getting a soul and a means to an end. Because he knew this made sonya uncomfortable and when she is,shes violent,and he knew that's a way to get her to attack and entice raidens warriors to attack him. Plus in the 90s they made every villain sleazy. Ugh it's worse when its poc/moc ugh. But ya know. Anyways. Yeah he's not stupid,he knows what he's doing. If he actually was interested he wouldn't be sending sub n scorp. He wouldn't be fighting YOU. He doesn't want to fight you he wants to disarm you. He wouldn't poke n prode to piss you off if he's actually in love or interested romantically. Not on purpose at least.

Lavish gifts. Both anonymous and upfront. Expect to get those. Gift giving is a surefire way to know. But not just tye act. No it's the type of items,it's the way the items are arranged,it's the quality. Like it's subtle differences between that tell you if shang is using flattery to a means or actually flirting.

If all else fails. Shang tsung is not afraid to be straight up forward and say. "I like you my dear. I've taken interest in you. Would you like to join me for dinner?" Like damn man. Shang tsung i just feel is that kinda guy that if GENUINE flirting doesn't work. He'll straight up ask you out or tell you how he feels. Because he's not the one to play around in love and with feelings towards his lover. Im sorry,not sorry. My mans got integrity.

Im not saying he doesn't play mind games,as he would at least in the beginning of his courting you(im saphosexual and very much into an intellectual person and conversations so im in trouble with him. Lol) . But it's very specific,context sensitive like i said. That you actually have to use your deduction skills. Plus if all else fails. Just asks him and it's dealers/writers choice. At that point you're at the mercy of plot. So i wouldn't have a problem with that. But if you're gonna play lovers games honey,ACTUALLY PLAY THEM! dont half ass that shit to me. Full ass all of it! Give me romance,give me actually a chase. Bruh wtaf. it's SHANG MOTHERFUCKIN TSUNG!

But yeah most of this pre battle dialogue intros for shang being so called "flirty" wasn't really flirting. More so backsass or sarcasm if anything. So yeah.

Like i have more but i think that gives y'all a good idea.

Look again im a non sharer but god forbid i will tolerate people getting my dude wrong and misinterpreting his tone and context of dialogue.

Like he hates raidens warriors. All of them. As defult. So....im just sayin y'all.

Anyways. Shang tsung,he deserves better. On god.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

aita for telling on a classmate??

(tw for homophobia and antisemitism)

🪻

(emoji so i can recognise it)

this is like really long, im sorry, i tend to ramble.

also my native language isnt english so i translated a few words i didnt really know with google translate which may be unreliable (talking specifically abt supervising teacher here, but i explained what it means just in case)

also i use all pronouns, listed my gender here as 'idk', so putting this here to clear it up

ok so this might sound really dumb but listen, in my (15idk) class there is this one guy, lets call him wit (15m) and ever since we started high school he's been really troublesome for other people. for further context hes very strongly catholic and frequently talks about his political opinions.

many students of our scholl agree that this would not be much of a problem if he kept at least some respect for others while doing it. wit is infamous in our school for making extremely homophobic and antisemetic comments, ranging from usage of derogatory language and insulting a guy in our class because he's partially ethnically jewish, to stating that homosexuality and transgenderism is mental illness, to saying gays should get shot, making up crazy statistics about pedophilia in the lgbtq+ community and taking a photo of himself doing the nazi salute while holding the flag of the third reich (we live in a country very heavily affected by the holocaust to this day. jesus christ dude). (note that our school has a quite large number of queer people so making these comments in such a public space is already a bit iffy imo.) he also states his opinions as fact, and when somebody tries to debate him on these things (he claims he's up for it) he keeps interrupting them, and in some cases calls them an idiot.

wit actually was in another class before, he switched to ours because his classmates and supervising teacher (translation might be wrong, went off google translate - i mean the teacher held responsible for what the kids in their class do) couldn't stand him (there are rumors that he tried to sue her actually?). our supervising teacher (29m) is well aware of this.

today, he was grading us on our behavior (idk if american schools do this?? it has to end up on our report cards at the end of the year here, we're graded once per semester) and the topic of wit's behavior came up. the day before this, he had gotten into an argument with this one girl, let's call her gabby (15f), because she had 'taken his seat' in our physics class (we don't have assigned seats, and the teacher invited a few kids from another class to write some missed assignments, so there were more students than chairs). wit started off calm, when gabby told him she was there first, he got mad and started shouting at her, and when she didn't want to give up her seat for him (she was calm about this!), he started to attempt to physically get her off the seat by pulling or pushing her off. as far as i know, three people in our class recorded this exchange.

wit got graded 5/6 for his behavior (very good) after our teacher vowed to lower it because of the amount of complaints he was getting about his behavior. this was before our teacher found out about yesterday's situation. today we had two classes with him and he was going to dedicate both to talking about our behavior grades, so we told him about how wit acted yesterday. our teacher was reasonably a little pissed at wit for getting physical, as well as shouting at a classmate. wit tried to defens himself saying he was calmly telling 'this unruly, undeserving of such respect girl' to piss off, but as i said, several people in our class had video evidence of what he did.

the conversation quickly shifted from just the fight in physics to wit's respect for others (or, more appropriately, the lackthereof). this is when his rampant homophobia was brought up. several people in our class voiced their concerns about how most of us feel really uncomfortable when this dude's out there wishing death on all queers. our teacher was really mad at him for continuing making his homophobia this public when he was already repeatedly told that he makes people uncomfortable with it. we also brought up him calling people who dare not have the same beliefs as him idiots and left-wingers (as an?? insult??).

wit's behavior grade was changed to 4/6 (good)

after class, our class president (15f) and i went up to our teacher to show him screenshots of wit being transphobic, not to humiliate him further, but to provide proof of the claims about him still openly hating the lgbtq.

wit seemed to notice this because a few hours after school he texted me to talk about this situation. it started with him being frustrated about getting a 4, then saying he believes he should get at LEAST a 5 (note: he cited 'i respect others' as a reason, lol) and then it very quickly spiraled into him shit-talking gabby and our class president (he called gabby 'wild' and our prez toxic). i told him that he should be happy hes only being graded based on two months (our teacher said he's only taking the time wit was in our class into account, imo this isnt fair at all but ok), when his behavior was somehow better here than previously and that the girls deserved their grades (gabby got a 5, prez got a 6, both are very helpful and in my experience very kind people) and that the reason his grade was lowered was because of the lack of respect for others he was demonstrating right in that moment. he then said i was fake and called me a kabel (polish slang for snitch basically)

i talked to my parents about today, and they said wit is a bad person, but is in the right in my conversation with him. i disagree tbh but im also not entirely convinced im right either because i might have taken it a bit far, but idk, aita??

also im so so so sorry this ended up being ao long, i didn't realize how chaotic this story is until i wrote it all down lol

What are these acronyms?

[ganondoodle]

fuck it, elden ring DLC rant (spoilers) (long post ... oh dear)

so, to start this- this is a very emotional reaction, so take everything with a ton of salT (i need to get this out of my system bc i need to go and do stuff today, i literally couldnt get much more than 3 hours of sleep bc my mind was racing) i only know two screenshots and what others have told me (thank you) so i might be missing more context and havent seen or read it myself

(more details and spoilers for the DLC below the read more thingy)

also, just to explain a bit, i dont usually get this upset about things i like, i like alot of things, but its RARE as fuck that i care, like actually care care about something, and that just kinda happens, i dont choose it or can decide to not care, i just do, and when something like this happens its like ... a sort of grief? i cant help but care about it but it messes with me emotionally, i have no control over it and cant change anything about it when it gets bad or done dirty, leavign me to just have to watch it be real even when i dont want to accept it-- i wouldnt say so much that i 'expect' somethign specific and cant handle when its not like that (common accusation about disliking totk)- and no i dont have somethign specific in mind, i just dont want it to be bad OR things that seem done and closed off suddendly out of nowhere be revealed to 'actually' have been like this, new stuff that either makes no sense or invalidates alot about what i valued about it, what i thought was the point

(i remember two .. my only two other intersts before- see what i mean RARE- that also went down simiarly like this; transformers (bay movies and mainly prime series, listen i didnt choose it either) with each movie it got more messy and stupid, primes second(?) season had an end i hated and the following movie was the final nail in the coffin- and one piece after that, which i slowly fell out of love with bc every chapter seemed to go more into a direction i didnt like, then the reveal that luffy is a god actually was my final ok i hate that moment)

i knew demise for a long time but wasnt obsessed about him at all, it took me learning about how hylia was depicted in a non canon (?) manga (which made me annoyed me bc i didnt like it and made a design for her to counter demises instead) and then reading his few lines of dialog about her again that it suddendly HIT me, like cupids arrow into my head-- i liked but wasnt that super interested into elden ring until radahn showed up, instantly his design made me go owo and then learning his (base game) lore it HIT me (i love sort of tragic side characters that might have been powerful or heroic at some point but now arent anymore- not saying he is that elden rings lore i messy and no ones good tm- and especially so if that character is widely hated for no good reason, dismissed or forgotten, has little lore etc)

i have things i like but dont care this much about, like okami or bloodborne, i like it alot, theres characters i really like (oki) but im not like, fixated on them?- and to have two at the same time, while not equally strong, i dont think i had before, and then have both be damaged or potentially lose it in a similar way within barely a year hurts so damn much--- anyway, getting into the actual rant now lol

so, to sum things up (that i know), in the elden ring DLC later on

miquella is actually a master manipulator and brainwasher (even to his sister???? which means alot of impactful things about his relationship to people is kinda invalidated or made meaningless, shitty)

he wanted to become a god by marrying radahn (his half? brother, same father) of all people that has never been mentioned before until now somehow?? ) you can argue it was hinted to but i find it completely out of left field

miquella sent malenia after radahn to kill him so he could be put into the realm of shadow so miquella could marry him (there were better candidates for that??)- its unclear (to me) if radahn ever actually accepted when sound of mind or even knew about it at all, but failed and he was isntead inflicted with rot to slowly waste away but not die (like he is in base game)

which also means that, what i found really impactful in base game, the festival of radahn, that i thought was a tragic sort of last wish/effort for of radahn to grant him an honorable death as a respected general after being made into mindless people eating zombie, organized by his soldiers/friends- might have been just yet another attempt to kill him and get him over there to miquella (and even if not, it still makes it way less impactful and now i feel like letting him continue to roam as a zombie is more of a favor than killing him bc hes just gonna a puppet again! which turns the whole tradgedy of the stuff in base game on its head imo)

you need to kill him to get into the DLC (and i was even sus of that but shrugged it off when i heard it ..) bc that way miquella could take whatever was left of his soul and stitch it into mohgs corpse?? (which is why hes so small in that DLC fight) bc his body was rotten by that point, which also allowed miquella to control radahn and make him agree, force him to do whatever miq wanted (which ALSO might mean mohg 'kidnapping' miquella wasnt that actually but mohg too was manipulated so oud kill him and make his remains usable)

radahn in DLC is a voiceless meat puppet essentially ... like a mindless rotting zombie eating friends and fow alike wasnt enough- also means that we never ACTUALLY GET OT KNOW RADAHN HIMSELF bc hes eithe a zombie or a literal puppet (if you are gonna do him dirty at least let us meet actual real him *cries*)

his fight is super hard apparently (though i have been hearing people complain about the entire DLC being too hard, while the -casual player- streamer i watched is beating main bosses so fast they dont even get to start their second phase) when his fight in base game, and him by extentsion, was also hated bc of that ALREADY, which means more people are gonna hate his guts (he doesnt deserve that!!) AND most people probably wont get or care that its not actually HIM him so its like a repeat boss that everyone hates

it feels weirldy forced in for it to be radahn (like miquella was already said to be one of the strongest gods out there .. why hed want radahn so badly when his goal seemed to be rather .. combat less?? if you get what i mean, and radahn also rejected him??? and the tarnished is right there too????) bc theres plenty others it would have worked with that are barely used- it feels like someone jsut wanting him to be tha main guy not matter what (when he worked so much better as a side character!!!!)

a tragic but well rounded off side character (imo) was made into the main guy this is all about actually tm (i generally dont like main guys and this jsut feels so .... it just hurts, it didnt feel foreshadowed at all, and its not even truly HIM that is reveal to be a creepy asshat but hes just manipulated and controlled with the whole time, be it by rot or miquella)

and for miquella its like, no theres no even mildly good people there, hes brainwashed and manipulated everyone actually tm, a giant plan all to force his half brother into marrying him by making him into a corpse puppet bc he rejected miquella- inlcuding potentially manipulating his own twin sister, which goes agaisnt what you learn of what hes done for her in the base game i think?? (not that much into that part but yeah ... it feels unfair to her too)

it also kinda just leaves other lore from the base game in the dust? like the whole haligtree plan, how miquella cared for the rejected (i guess he didnt then??? and it was just more manipulation tm??) that castle with the eclipse stuff

(is the gloom eyes queen, marika, and or st trina even .. important at all to any of this??)

ok from reading tweets from people talkign about it, miquella says radahn agreed apparently but whether thats true remains uncertain and given the circumstances i do not think radahn did- others said that it kinda sounds he agreed to something that he didnt think would involve him marrying miquella

everything feels like its in shambles for every fan of every involved chaarcter

yes i know you can argue that it was all planned from the start and meant to be a twist and everything and that people having a different idea of characters isnt the fault of the creators .... only to some degree bc why then build up make so much lore and story about stuff that turns out to be like saying 'actually it was all a lie' like its not valid to feel betrayed then, you can plan things out all you want but that doesnt mean it cant be bad oder underwhelming

(i wished to be able to meet or know more about radahn but like in a non rot way or like past flashback whatever kind of way and then not like this anyway, like i was interested into his relationship with jerren and just .. more about him i suppose the monkey paw has curled hasnt it -or however you say that-)

and there i was like two days ago going "omg radahn mention!!!" when that one .. feyja? NPC says she fought alongside him at some point ............................................................

leonard isnt there in the DLC to my knowledge, you know it cant be truly radahn if his horse isnt there (the sole reason he learned gravitiy magic for and it stayed with him even after the rot!!! i know people have started to hate it bc people love that but i love that, it made him so endearing to me, like a character i already found cool omg has a confirmed softer spot??? in MY fromsoftware title??)

sorry for the long post of rambling, i am a mess, barely slept 3 hours, yes i am weird to care, autisms or whatever .. i need to go somewhere in an hour and havent prepared as all bc i needed my thoughts out of my head- might have forgotten stuff, idk if i will add it later or just kinda .. stew in it for a while

(and yes a big point why i feel so strongly is both bc its just gonna make more people hate him even more AND feels so invalidating of alot of other stuff- pulls other characters down with it- the entire time i was watching the streams i and trailers i thought i was like, its onw thing, with miquellas littel adventure and more background info on marika mostly on its own from the base game BUT NO I GUESS)

(read all this in the sense of an utteraly disoriented confused and drunken seagull yelling around pls i am not in serious mental distress ..)

[dazed-and-defeated]

BVAH HELLO!!! I apologize if IM LATE FOR THIS (😭) BUT IF YOUR STILL TAKING ASKS FOR THAT ASK GAME🏃: could I get 1, 3 and 19? :D thank you!!!

It is never too late to send ask questions >:))))

1: 6 of the songs you listen to most?

Ok so I’m bad at like keeping track of which songs I listen to the most, so I’m kinda going based off of what Spotify says I’ve been listening to sdpjfdps

So three of them are “Dystant”, “Watch Me Struggle”, and “You Missed a Doozy” all by Toxins (these are all from the same album and are extremely Ronny-coded so of course I’ve been listening to them psdjfsp). Then I’ve got “STAR-CROSSED” by Ethan Bander, “Cotard’s Solution (Anatta​/​Dukkha​/​Anicca)” by Will Wood and the Tapeworms (I love their extremely long song titles lol), and “SCAPEG♾AT” by Ghost and Pals.

I really also wanted to include “Appetite of a People Pleaser” by Ghost and Pals, but apparently that’s like 10th on the list so 😔. I think I just have the song playing in my head more than I listen to it psdjfps

3: Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 23, give me line 17.

OK SO I bought this book when I was like a sophomore in high school called “One of Us is Lying”, and I was like zooming through that book so quickly and got too scared that it would be over before I knew it, so I stopped reading it to try to slow it down to hyperfixate on it more. But then I just never picked it up again and I still gotta finish it psdjfps. So that is like the first book I think of that I have, and it’s also like in the next room over

“Bronwyn gets a little red and pulls her hand back, but rolls”

Ngl I have no idea what the context for this is spdjfps. I was like “oh let me read a bit earlier on the page to figure out what’s going on” and that did not help dsfjdspf. I was not willing to turn to a previous page so your guess is as good as mine lol

19: What does your URL mean?

Gonna be honest I’m not that sure myself 👀💦 spdjfpsd. I kinda just thought it sounded cool lol. When I was making this blog, I was going to call it rainy-daze as a play on words to “rainy days”, but every variation of that name that I could come up with was already taken lol. I still wanted to keep the “daze” part though because I thought it was kinda cool. This was also gonna be more of a self-insert blog but I am still so so embarrassed to talk about my F/Os psdjfps, and ngl my SI is like insanely pathetic lol, so I thought dazed-and-defeated would also kinda fit them. There's no real meaning behind the name other than "oh this sounds kinda sick, this sounds kinda cool" pdsjfsp

[tenaciouschronicler]

May 21-22 2025 2010

Ok so we're just taking a romantic sight tour on a boat that Im fairly certain has to be a modified battleship? Thats fine. I wonder where theyre going. Also Dad has really been keeping that scarf in his wallet this entire time? But thats not important right now, what is is everything Carcino is saying.

Hes absolutely right that he 'PAINTED [HIMSELF] INTO A CORNER' with his choice of trolling because it just adds questions like what the heck is is 'THE RIFT' and at the end of what?? At least we get to know more about the ultimate riddle and these clones. Lets go through the two convos. Carcino talks alot and jumps around a bit so Ive moved parts around to make more sense.

CG: I WAS SCROLLING BACK AND NOTICED YOU WERE IN THE VEIL

EB: whoa, i am?

CG: YEAH DUMBDUMB, YOU'RE TUMBLING AROUND ON A BIG GODDAMN METEOR

CG: AND YOU JUST CREATED YOUNGER VERSIONS OF YOURSELVES AND YOUR GUARDIANS. [...]

EB: so they are like cloned copies of us?

CG: NO

CG: THEY ARE LITERALLY YOU AND YOUR GUARDIANS

CG: PARADOX CLONES

John, for his part, has very little knowledge about any of this right down to the fact hes in the Veil. He hasnt even looked close enough to realize these babies hes created look similar to the people he just saw on screen or even himself. I wont hound him too much though. When I look at baby pictures of my sister and myself sometimes I need to use context clues to tell which one is which if theres no date or other people around. On top of that, I look very similar to my maternal grandma when she was younger if I do my hair a certain way Plus, I have a younger maternal male cousin who also looked like me in memory when he had longer hair. Im sure he sees similarities in baby!Nanna, baby!John and baby!grandpa but didnt take the leap to "this obviously has to BE us".

[...] CG: A PARADOX CLONE IS BY DEFINITION A CORRECTLY CLONED DUPLICATE THAT WILL INEVITABLY GO BACK IN TIME AND BECOME THE ORIGINAL TARGET THAT WAS CLONED.

CG: IF IT'S A MALFORMED CLONE, IT'S JUST A MEANINGLESS MUTANT THAT HAS NO BEARING ON THE STABLE LOOP CONTINUUM

CG: I DON'T SEE ANY TENTACLES OR EXTRA EYEBALLS OR WARPED BONE BULGES, SO THOSE GROSS LITTLE THINGS THERE ARE ALL YOU GUYS, WAITING TO GO TO EARTH AND GROW UP AND BECOME THE INSIPID BUNCH OF GRUBFISTED DOUCHEBAGS YOU ALL ARE NOW.

With each update the title of this act makes more and more sense. The babies are exact clones making them their own selves. In a way its similar to Dave and his time powers. Dead Dave and Davesprite fit closely into the definition Carcino has given us. The biggest difference is they dont become the current Dave so I guess they are just regular clones? Mutini is an attempt Mom did to do the same in the labs. However, she was missing something to properly process the cloning function since she never succeeded in cloning Jaspers. I think part of it is the going back in time portion. If a paradox clone inevitably goes back and becomes themself, Jaspers would have to return to their birth and avoid death to keep being Roses cat. Which I think was Moms goal but the cloning process doesnt always go smoothly.

EB: what do you mean they are literally us?

EB: do they go back in time?

CG: YEAH, OBVIOUSLY GREAT GUESS BRAIN HERO

CG: BUT TECHNICALLY THEY AREN 'T EVEN SENT BACK IN TIME BECAUSE WITH RESPECT TO THE MEDIUM YOUR UNIVERSE'S TIMELINE IS MEANINGLESS. [...]

CG : YEAH, SO WHEN THE RECKONING STARTS HAPPENING, ALL THESE PARADOX CLONES GET SHIPPED OFF TO METEORS, FLUNG THROUGH SKAIAN DEFENSE PORTALS, AND SENT BACK TO EARTH

Carcino confirms that the meteors we saw did indeed contain the babies we now know and that the portals of Skaian defense send the meteors to Earth. It was already semi-confirmed during Carcinos last lore drop but now theres an added layer. All of the meteors that happened during the game come from the Reckoning. Likely one of the goals is to create these paradox clones to send back and start these events. It also acts as a failsafe for Skaia in the event that players fail to win the game.

CG: BECAUSE IF IT DIDN'T GO DOWN THIS WAY THEN HOW WERE YOU EVEN BORN, GET IT.

CG: WHICH IS ESPECIALLY PATHETIC SINCE PARADOX SPACE APPARENTLY WENT TO ALL THIS TROUBLE TO MAKE YOU JUST TO HAVE YOU FAIL AND DIE

CG: REALLY THERE'S NOTHING MORE TRAGIC THAN THESE NULL SESSIONS FULL OF KIDS ENTERING THE GAME AND FULFILLING SOME COSMIC DESTINY SHIT JUST TO GET WIPED OUT AND LEAVE BEHIND AN EMPTY POINTLESS INCIPISPHERE FOR ALL ETERNITY [...]

And here we find what happens in that event, NULL SESSIONS. Sessions where everything goes wrong and Skaia has to try again with another set of these kids. Why? WHAT IS ITS GOAL!? Why torment these kids who have no way of knowing what went wrong and how to change it when the next go around its back to square one? Is that where Davesprite comes from? Has this event happened before?

EB: what is the riddle anyway?

CG: IT'S NOT EVEN THAT GREAT,

CG: OR EVEN MUCH OF A RIDDLE AT ALL

CG: IN THE COURSE OF YOUR ADVENTURE YOU WOULD HAVE ENCOUNTERED ALL THESE FRAGMENTS OF LIKE WEIRD POEMS AND SHIT

CG: YOU FIND THEM ALONG YOUR QUESTS, WITH CLUES AND STUFF BURIED IN THEM TO HELP YOU SOLVE PUZZLES AND MOVE HUGE STONE COLUMNS AND MAKE STAIRCASES APPEAR AND LOTS OF NONSENSE LIKE THAT

CG: AND IT'S ALL MASKED IN THIS FLOWERY SORT OF FROTHY POETIC JACKASSERY THAT NOBODY REALLY CARESABOUT

CG: AND I SURE AS HELL DON'T CARE ABOUT SPOILING IT FOR YOU

CG: BUT WHAT ALL THESE LOFTY SYMBOLIC ALLUSIONS BOIL DOWN TO IS SOME GRANDER STATEMENT ABOUT WHAT YOU SEE HAPPENING HERE.

CG: THAT YOU WERE ALWAYS THE KEY TO SEEDING YOUR OWN EXISTENCE THROUGH THIS GAME

CG: AND ANY HOPE THAT IT COULD HAVE PLAYED OUT DIFFERENTLY OR THAT YOU COULD HAVE AVOIDED THIS WHOLE MESS WAS ALWAYS JUST A RUSE [...]

CG: BUT ANYWAY, THERE'S A LOT MORE TO THE RIDDLE THAN JUST THAT, LIKE WHAT WE WERE JUST TALKING ABOUT LAST TIME WE TALKED

CG: BUT THAT'S SORT OF THE GIST OF THE THEMES IT DEALS WITH.

Spoil it please, Carcino, I beg you. Dont make me wait for that future conversation.

I wonder how long theyve been playing. How did they come to this conclusion? It goes back to the question I ask time and again, what is the goal? There just has to be something deeper thats being missed if no one has beat the game yet. There has to be some reason they are tolling the kids if they are trying to change it even with the knowledge its inevitable.

EB: so this is the same kind of thing you went through?

EB: with, like, being your own paradox clones and creating your own parents and stuff?

CG: YEAH

EB: how did that even work, with 12 of you?

CG: IT WAS REALLY FUCKING COMPLICATED AND I'M NOT GOING TO GET INTO IT

CG : OUR FAMILY STRUCTURES ARE ALREADY WAY MORE COMPLICATED THAN YOURS WITHOUT EVEN GETTING SPOOKY TIME SLIME INVOLVED

We only get a small bit about what Carcino did paralleling Johns current roll. And the family situation is not as straight forward regardless of 'SPOOKY TIME SLIME'. In other parts of the logs we learn the trolling kids hatch as larva(?) which is weird but makes sense being an alien species. John also manages to troll Carcino much better than Carcino could ever dream. Somehow he also gets Carcino to follow the timeline a smidge to keep talking about all of this, much to his annoyance. Why Carcino listens is anybodies guess but I think hes happy someone is listening to his rants even if that someone is John. Its almost adorable.

There is a break between the two logs where John checks up on the babies. The few we see have taken a liking for certain things which helps cement the idea of inevitable personality. Nanna is in Dads hat while baby John is all over that Sassacres book. Bro is napping on that hideous Cal puppet while Dave rides the pony. Concerningly, Grandpa has got his hands on some pistols which makes sense but is very dangerous. Johns trying his best but caring for eight little ones is not easy.

[inact-ice]

Ok episode 5,

- ooh arranged wedding moment. Hey guys, if it goes bad at least the wedding was gorgeous. Ope. My fault everyone sorry

- is bobby ever gonna apologize for like pushing buck against that wall bc that really scared me. I know it was a manifestation of trauma but damn

- love how black women across the world use the word wicked. It’s probably bc of like colonialism and specifically Christianity, but it’s a nice connection

- Athena you still have a job?? You weren’t even like suspended, you definitely have stuff to do other than running background checks on your friends bosses

- oh. Oh no… not the hen and Karen cheating arc, I haven’t even met Karen yet please no

- BUCKS FAMOUS ROOMATES! So these are the people everyone hates so much in fanfics

- Oh yeah Abby’s mom is missing

- hen your ex girl friend is in braids, back out slowly before she starts calling you gurl OMG, it’s too late

- what am I watching

- these aren’t even like real braids im so funny

- Carla’s little crush on buck is so fucking great, maybe they should get together

- aw wait this is buck and Abby meeting face to face for the first day time

- HOT PRIEST, hey girl

- bobby have you ever considered going to like real therapy, I don’t think the hot priest is a licensed psychologist

- HELP BOBBY DONT SCARE THE HOT PRIEST LIKE THAT HE ISNT LEGALLY REQUIRED TO TELL THE COPS AND HES ALL ALONE WITH YOU

- Bobby’s wife who’s name I never heard, I am so sorry. Is Bobby gonna cheat??? Oh. We’re pulling out ye old lantern to drink I see. Does he just come here to like nap, NO BOBBY YE OLD LANTERN

- the actor who plays Bobby has like a permanent bemused grin so while he’s breaking down to his wife about his addiction he kinda just seems confused and it’s a little funny

- checkovs ye old lantern

- oh damn bobby that was your fault wow. Oh he made the hot priest cry.

- yeah idk if the priest can handle this, maybe you should consider trauma therapy

- the priest: “god forgives you” Bobby: “gods forgiveness actually means nothing to me in this case” the priest: “well that is the entirety of my expertise”

- I don’t like when Bobby cries, it always seems to be ripped out of him😭 the actor is doing a great job

- Karen you are being very forgiving of your wife meeting her ex gf in prison, I fear you are too good for her

- aw buck calling Athena sergeant, love it

- buck being so astounded that Abby hasn’t had sex in a year is hilarious, meeting me would kill this man

- Abby you’re so cool omg, it’s like she can’t help but want to help others even when she’s going through so much. I feel like that’s the theme of her character

- Abby looks so cute in her little dungarees omg

- I can’t believe that manny’s just like dead rip I guess

- who the hell are these firefighters?? How does buck know them? Are they at the 118? I wonder what their lives are like

- Abby is calm cool and collected fr. What do jedis have to do with still hands? Anyways

- Abby’s mom! Thank you tattooed men, in my head you stay in contact with Abby forever and are good friends of hers

- aw Abby’s mom, even when she can’t remember stuff she still remembers that she wants her daughter to be happy. Gang I love Abby’s mom so much

- did not appreciate the fucking Abby’s mom joke, thanks writers but it was a little weird

- if we’re gonna keep talking about bucks sex addiction can we take it seriously at some point or what

- the “what are you high” scene in context is kinda dark bc bobby might’ve been actually scared he was high bc he sees himself in buck a bit

- aw I miss chimney

- girl he didn’t even laugh that much. Which is kinda dark. Bobby is like if Sayaka and Kyouka from Madoka Magica had a child and he was a white middle aged man. Like maybe they adopted him and just projected all their trauma onto him and now he’s repeating all their mistakes

- if they have phone sex I’m gonna freakout

- I’d like to personally thank the 911 tv show directors for cutting away from that bc I do not like bucks phone sex voice

[softness-and-shattering]

@roses-garden-of-villainy

the critique was never that dropout doesn't validate trans women's identities as women, so the notion that they included a trans woman on the girly girl episode of a show doesn't refute it. the critique is that it makes me and many other transfems uncomfortable to watch their most popular shows (the ones that constantly get clips shared online: make some noise, game changer, d20) and never see any transfems. on a platform that advertises/prides itself on inclusion and diverse casting.

wewe 've preferred to keep this discussion under comments but I got verbose so here we are. If anyone else wants to join in, please assume good faith, listen, and dont be an asshole. I will delete and block anyone trolling or just looking for a fight. Im not here to Debate You TM.

Hi!

I have a couple of thoughts in response, given that we're strangers talking in text only on a touchy subject, I guess Im going to give you the benefit of the doubt and hope that you will do the same, otherwise there's sort of nothing to discuss. General DiscourseTM tredipation/disclaimer, you know?

In no particular order:

Honestly, from what I personally saw of the general discussion, it seemed like there was something of a jealousy re Ally so publically transitioning as transmasc and being so beloved - on screen at least, but with Dropout it always does seem genuine, but you never really know - and a desire for a like, equal and opposite representation for transfemmes. Which honestly is a very understandable desire, its just not reasonable to raise critique about imo because its not predictable nor even necessarily desirable of a public process to go through. Thats my personal sense of whats at the heart of this. But I could very well be wrong about that so let's talk about the surrounding stuff as well.

The critique that I heard was that there arent any trans women/transfemmes (tbh I dont know which term is the preferred umbrella term if there even is one) on Dropout at all, but there are so many transmascs and thats weird. And that it was about seeing representation of people who share ones oppression specifically, which I find strange and also quite worrying as a uniting factor of identity - it can be one obviously, but centering ones identity around suffering is not super healthy, and is a issue basically all queers are dealing with atm. Thats a sidenote, my brain likes to takes detours, its just how I organise information no matter how structured I try to be. Different kind of structure. Ok. And some people said "what are you talking about, Sephie was on some shows years ago" and like ok but that was years ago, its a bit tokenising. So the fact that she's in the most recent season of Um, Actually is significant to me, that she's ongoingly part of the team rather than someone who guested years ago and hasn't been seen since and is therefore convenient to bring up as A Dropout Trans Woman for the sake of discourse without taking ongoing inclusion into account. That Sephie was on the "girly girl" episode, I didn't really mean as a point to be made in the Discourse. Im just saying that her specific inclusion there, and the fact that - as they say in the episode - the concept of doing a "girly girl" episode came from twitter feedback about general nerd sexism and what counts as nerdery to begin with, and I think thats all-round good ally behaviour. Do an episode of largely childhood girl experiences and include the person who might've missed out on some of that particular camaraderie and also reaffirm by doing so that she's a woman who had a girlhood, even though it was a little different than standard. Especially given the context in the US right now, though idk when this was scheduled and filmed, I think its a good move. And relevantly as a whole, evidence that theres probably no particular transmisogyny going on, or if so its not widespread. Some people seemed to be painting Dropout as this terrible organisation for claiming and failing to be super inclusive and I think its more likely an unfortunate coincidence that while quite a few out trans people work there and are the talent on screen, as far as we know only one of them, Sephie, is transfemme. Though we never know for sure until and unless someone says so, and Im honestly not sure if Ally considers themself to be transmasc, and I have no idea what identity labels people like Erika Ishi'i or Vic Michaelis use to describe themselves, we basically just have pronouns to go off of.

Re not seeing transfemmes specifically in the shows that are popular and clipped the most - firstly Um, Actually is one of their flagship shows, it has 9 or 10 seasons, and I have seen it clipped. Listing all the other popular and much-clipped shows but not qualifying Um, Actually amongst them feels to me the slightest bit disingenuous, but like I said I cannot know your intentions so I am assuming benefit of the doubt. And I get it, popular-in-queer-nerd-circles shows with queer nerds, of course you want to see people like you in there having a good time being funny. Thats super normal and reasonable to want. Zooming out slightly though, it starts to seem a little unreasonable to me. Because anyone who's a member of any minority in any kind of public, filmed situation is already being seen as representative for all the good and all the bad of that minority (and more so re overlapping identities but thats a different can of worms). It seems like Dropout is a good friendly place to be trans, so thats at least a little less pressure, but theres still pressure. Plus all the regular pressure to perform, to create good improv, to make people laugh, to say things that can be used in the final cut of the show that I imagine everyone who goes on those stages feels regardless of their own identity. And then you're also asking that not only do they nail all of this, they need to also be part of a perfectly clippable viral moment. Its just a lot to ask of any one person imo. If it all lines up thats absolutely fantastic, but Im just thinking about filming an episode - I think in a recent Make Some Noise someone made a comment about 30% maybe ending up on the cutting room floor? And then what percentage of an episode, or of all episodes in a season, get clipped and how many go viral? And personally to me, the viral clips are basically advertising, and I think its reasonable to watch the actual show for the parts you want to see, and not expect it to come in the what, one minute clips that get shared around? Like yes of course you want to see a reflection of yourself in the media you engage with, thats very normal, and we all want trans creators to have good opportunities.

There's also a general phenomenon where people hold smaller creators to account in ways they do not treat larger creators. In particular in idk 2015 or so there was this author who had I believe a three book deal. She's Asian-American, and the first book ARCs were sent out, and in the book she dealt with the topic of slavery. And people really didn't like this, and trashed her online, which turned into a whole cancel culture hullabaloo, which incidentally is the only time I know of that someone being "cancelled" actually worked because her book deal was pulled and her debut was never published, because of a lot of strong reactions from people who hadn't even read the book. Because she was on twitter, and she was a new author, she was accessible and vulnerable in ways that other creators aren't. If there was like a James Patterson book with distasteful or badly handled themes, he's "too big to fail", he's literally a large team of ghost writers in a trenchcoat, people are still buying fricking harry potter, because when people, or organisations, have power theyre more untouchable and people dont bother and dont hold them to as high standards. people look at Disney+'s list of queer shows every year and dont know or dont consider that the creators had to fight the execs every step of the way for every scrap of queerness. My point being, Dropout is a pretty small studio. I dont know finances and that kind of thing to pull statistics and such, and theres obviously a lot of behind the scenes work that isn't seen by us, but theyre no Disney or Hulu or whoever, and theyre way more diverse than these much bigger studios. And I think theres that inclination to demand so much more from smaller creatives because theyre more accessible, they seem more like people you can talk to than a giant monolith surrounded by a moat of lawyers with an untouchable writers room who do whatever they like. Which isn't to say that its wrong to hold people to standards, I certainly wish we could hold big orgs to higher standards on pretty much everything. But I think its also important to recognise scale and think about what seems reasonable to want, and ask for. Like "hey girly interests are just as nerdy, can we have at least just one girl-focused episode of Um, Actually please" is fully reasonable and they followed through on that one. "Hey we'd love to see more out trans women on screen, is that something you can focus on please" is super reasonable. I was just seeing a bunch of essentially 'Dropout hates trans women and we need to shun and cancel them because they hate us" and I think thats not a reasonable course of action based on available evidence. i cant tell anyone what to feel because feelings are facts of reality and not judgements or moral statements. Feelings are also not always based in reality, if that makes sense. Or rather, based in generally objective reality. Someone can feel rejected and hurt without an active rejection taking place, because feelings are so personal and based on our experiences. Which is why in general I think its important to listen to ones feelings, but also look at what facts and evidence can be observed and talk to other people about their perspective and try come to a more wholistic understanding of a situation, rather than acting on emotion alone.

This got really long, I hope it makes sense to you. Feel free to think about it and not respond immediately. If I wandered too far off and haven't properly responded to what you said, just say so and Ill try course correct back to relevance. Also disclaimer, I dont think dropout are perfect amazing faultless flawless etc. They are people. Everyone fucks up. They do seem to me like decent people who treat each other well and thats important to me. I will be sad if I am wrong about them, and I hope that Im not, but I recognise its always a possibility. Im not affiliated with them or anything. etc.

.

[bentosandbox]

don't block me for this bento lol but while yes i get that her being Huge is hyperbole, i just can't suspend my disbelief that her being tall for a typical IRL asian woman jives with her in-game quote about having trouble getting through doors. she's the only op (outside mudrock i guess) who even has such a line, while men bigger than her have no problems or worries about banging their heads off the supposed tiny doorframe. i'm just being nitpicky about environmental implications i guess lol like why does she have this problem that no one else seems to have. gacha be gacha c'est la vie

also, what was the right line hoshi said to bagpipe? this is the first i've heard of it being mistranslated? :o (thank you for your TL work btw you're one of the few bastions of sense in this wasteland)

you're welcome + all good dw i have a pretty high block threshold for better or worse

Yeah i get it! BUT here is my copium reasoning

184cm + horn height (if as long as her face + average face length = 20cm) + boot heel height (about 3cm) = 207cm which is just very slightly over average door height (here?) which is 205cm and my view is that just slightly missing a few cm is way more troublesome than going through a door that's obviously smaller than your height since you'll definitely know when to duck than having a perceived illusion that you can make it through without bending down a little and then BANG the rhodes door frame has a little hole or something

I mentioned it here in a little rant i did last july but i'll explain it more in detail below (i thought i did before somewhere. probably twitter but i can't find it so i'll just do another one here)

I'll do a more literal TL first

风笛: 那个......我的钱包和护照都丢在莱塔尼亚了。 Bagpipe: Um...I lost both my wallet and passport while I was in Leithanien. 星熊: ......我是不是该佩服你？ Hoshiguma: ...Should I be admiring you? 风笛: ——被炸得一点不剩了。 Bagpipe: ——They got blown up with not even a shred left. 星熊: 我确实该佩服你。 Hoshiguma: Indeed, I should be admiring you.

And 佩服 really does mean admire

'what's wrong then' But admire has like 2 main definitions

And whoever translated it went with the second definition instead of the first; it's not admire in the 'oooo you have an admirer' (someone who fancies you) way, it's admire in the 'wow i admire your tenacity to make your way all the way from Londinium to Lungmen even after almost getting blown to bits otw'

'what makes you so sure its that reading over the other' just read the context of the conversation + I'm well aware of my bias for the JP loc but like. it's because their TL track record is pretty good (esp with characterisation) so I sometimes check it to double confirm my readings, and they use 褒める here which is homeru for you weebs and for everyone else

So back to the lines, admire sounds strange in context, but the idea is that hoshi is so impressed by her tenacity that she goes 'wow should i praise you?' so I would use 'impress' here

Bagpipe: Um...I lost both my wallet and passport while I was in Leithanien. Hoshiguma: ...Should I be impressed? Bagpipe: ——They got blown up with not even a shred left. Hoshiguma: Yeah, I should be. (Or 'Yeah, that's pretty impressive.' to flow better but it loses the 'should' which I prefer because Hoshi has a tendency to be very passive in her speech)

also also sorry i need to get this out lol i know they want swire to be as bratty as possible or whatever but :\ aghdgfhfgffff as someone who also calls their dad 爸爸 with cantonese tones and not mandarin im just really fucking bummed ok the rep would have been cool it, also has the slightly childish vibe to it that 'daddy' has so (without the discord kitten vibes even /shrug) Yuxia calls her dad 爸 if anyone was wondering

bonus since i mentioned chen's op rec in that og post

insane that swire's oprec was the last of her batch and chen is the first of the batch after so theyre next to each other in the medal list

TL is fine for the most part but man this is some 'parents making you call them by their first name' level of americanization (they took out most of the 警司 especially the one in their 'first' meeting??naur way...)

[beardisable]

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD okay.

so i watched the 8 hour jack stream(jesus) aka watched genloss top to bottom again and listened to his theories and stuff(i really vibe with the "kidnapped as kids" angle more now) and started thinking about some theories he and chat mentioned and.

now im thinking with like. ok its probably a pretty common theory, this post was what prompted this additional idea of mine actually, but ill explain it a bit: the theory that, since sneeg and charlie can come back over and over again, and they have referenced like, refusing to do the cooking challenge in ep 1, and how charlie was playing the mouse trap but ate the cage, they have obviously done the same kind of scenes we saw ranboo do, right. and then in the Announcement video we see the same kind of "missing poster" type headshots of them, with the caption "Found them!"

i dont remember exactly where it was confirmed that showfall made the missing person posters, but like. yeah. these images are for missing posters like ranboo had. and with sneeg being caught by the security in ep 3, he had tried to escape, just like ranboo and charlie. and i feel like this wasnt the first or last time they have tried this!

also, during that screenshot the announcer says "our hero will meet a cast of crazy characters, who you may recognize", aka the audience has seen these "actors" before in other things! this is their first live show but what have they made before...?

then, with one of the Very first lines Ranboo says in the first episode, "it wasn't supposed to be like this"... showfall/hetch made it seem like this is ranboos first show and he's being tested for how well he does as The Hero.

I dont think what we saw is Ranboos first time starring in a showfall production.

its the first live thing like the announcement video said but i think hetch lied when he talked about how its a test, i think Ranboo's been here at least a few go arounds, if not tens/hundreds/thousands of times. WHICH MEANS in the end when he gets his memories back... theres an infinite amount of possibility of things they could remember for what they have been made to do in the past :) Bc remember, while this is comedy->horror, it was still relatively tame and non-explicit (at least by my personal standards?) so it is quite possible they have been in more R rated horror stuff, slashers, gore, actual saw, some kind of even worse psychological horror things, but also that they might have had incredibly good experiences like love and joy and community and anything positive too, and to remember all that in a rush... oh boy so i believe it is a circular reproduction, maybe they run through scenes repeatedly over and over while perfecting every little detail and getting different takes of genuine emotion but every time Real and a First experience... some kind of purgatory(omg christian hell reference) or endless torture or such...

ok that got really maybe unneccessarily angsty so heres my other thought:

i love me a fucking colour theory and colour symbolism! it bothered me a bit how like. in the promo game we get ranboo, then green friend/the villain(obviously charlie, tho the villain part still confuses me a Bit since its not quite true?), the blue friend/the taken(obvs sneeg) and then the red stranger/the saviour. and like it would logically follow that the red is hetch right?

jack when theorising said the titles are self descriptive, which i buy into, at least for the first episode context, charlie is the villain role, sneeg was taken(put in a cage and later snatched by the sharkciclester), and hetch was trying to help and save ranboo from this situation! but then in the second ep we also have red puzzler, and red niki? i WISH niki had. any kind of bigger role to build a Saviour type off of her but i dont think she does :( the puzzler is an option, since they make it seem like the puzzler tries to save ranboo? and thats actually a whole other thought like. since we know hetch was not actually helping ranboo, was the puzzler Genuinely helping them, and somehow showfall found out and killed him?? idk ANYWAYS that colour coding falling apart a bit made me think about how ranboo is also red!! rgb trio yknow??

if the titles are self descriptive... well i dont think Ranboo really felt like The Hero much, especcially not in the end...

I think Ranboo is actually meant to be the Saviour.

Esp with the jesus coding! I believe this kind of thing has happened many times before, with sneeg/charlie/ranboo/others realizing that shits fucked, and trying to escape, only to be caught and put back in the production. I think Ranboo(main character syndrome) was in a previous iteration the Saviour, who tried to help sneeg and charlie and others get out of there, to save them, save everyone. but they failed. got captured. once again waking up again with a "it wasn't supposed to be like this..."

and so the cycle continues, and the content wheel keeps spinning.

(ive only been in tumblr tags so feel free to link me any other ppl who arrived at the same conclusion)

[valdotpng]

What were the nuances in revali’s character in botw? He just seemed like an asshole to me, I’m wondering what I missed.

hi hello so since i like him a normal amount (<lie) i have decided to just go ahead and analyze his whole character under the cut bc i have a Lot of thoughts abt him. hope thats ok w/ u!

ok so. where to even start. i guess lets start at the beginning? one of the things that kind of differentiates revali from the other champions is the fact that he wasnt born nor elected into a position of power. he isnt royalty, nor is he some sort of chief, meaning that there have never been any societal expectations or responsibilities hes been tied to-- every expectation for himself was set By himself, and boy howdy did he raise the bar high. every victory, every single accomplishment, the title of 'master revali' he owes to himself and himself alone. hes a self-made man! (or uh. bird guy) which is fascinating in the context of the games narrative, because it seems to almost always favor 'heroes of legend' or 'chosen ones' of sorts

which brings us to the next interesting fact about him

im pretty sure its canon that revalis gale is the only champion ability entirely Created by the champion using it. think about it for a second. daruks protection, urbosas fury and miphas grace all seem to be blessings somehow bestowed upon them since god knows how long. with revali though, we get to actually see him develop the thing. we see him struggle, time and time again, to accomplish something thats never been done before. ("...As you know, us Rito use our wings to fly forward. The wind lifts us up into the glorious sky above. However, we cannot ascend on our own.") all because he wants to and kind of has to prove himself to the world

"... I am close. So close to mastering my new move and showing everyone what I'm capable of."

"Not enough. I must stay in the eye of the whirlwind... must push myself harder..."

usually hes sooo high and mighty, but in the dlc memory, we get to witness the game show another, hidden side of him. it.. really did something to me, the first time we were allowed to see him vulnerable like this. hes so hard on himself... and its clear that all of this business takes a great toll on revali, both physically and mentally, yet he pushes on. that is, in my opinion, very admirable. and all of that is why i think he has every right to be proud of himself, just... *gestures vaguely @ how much of a prick he can be* Not Like This, lol

i think its no secret that revali has some self-esteem issues. ...a lot of them, actually. if you couldnt tell by now, he is very dependent on how the public sees him. imo pretty much all of his self-worth is tied straight to it + the things hes achieved so far. so when beloved 'master revali' ends up being 'a sidekick' to a seemingly random hylian knight, he IS going to get upset

this gives some context to his disdain for link. from revalis perspective, the hero of hyrule is someone who didnt earn his title, but instead obtained it by mere chance, by simply pulling out some sword out of a rock. we, of course, know that isnt true, and that link has his own share of struggles, but we arent revali. his negative feelings are understandable in that context, but i most definitely do not condone how he acts upon them

good thing hes like, the one champion that undergoes a noticeable change of attitude/a character arc of sorts during the base game !! a much-needed one, at that. thats right, it is now time to overthink every bit of dialogue he says during the vah medoh mission LOL

"Well I'll be plucked... You've defeated him, eh? Who would've thought. Well done. [...] I do suppose you've proven your value as a warrior. A warrior worthy of my unique ability."

at first, when we enter vah medoh, we're greeted by his usual snark and sarcasm, but his tone gradually evolves into something at least a Little bit warmer as link progresses. with every terminal, every little victory the surprise in his voice rises-- hes finally starting to see what our hero is capable of ("There are two terminals remaining. You're almost there (..!)" "Just one terminal remaining! [Huh] What do you know?"),

and it all culminates when...

"I can't believe I'm actually saying this... But you must avenge me, Link!"

there, he swallows his pride and admits that hes in a desperate need of links help. and, by defeating windblight ganon, link gets a chance to prove himself before revali.

then, once hes left alone with his thoughts, we get to see it:

"After all these years, I simply must admit the truth... [...] [Link] accomplished something that even I could not... Guess I was wrong about... how lucky he would be."

even though he doesnt fully allow himself to admit it out loud, i think the overall tone and subtext of the scene gets the point across: revali has finally realised that he was wrong about link.

hell, at one point he even considers the possibility of actually Losing to the hylian in a duel ("Win or lose, I would have liked a chance to settle the score with you.") which, in my opinion, is also very significant.

these little bits of extra dialogue you can hear after challenging the blights again give us more insight into his character. one of the most notable ones imo being the one where revali asks about his hometown ("...I cant fathom that it's been 100 years... There's no one left who would even know me. But even so, it will always be my home.") revali IS a jerk, but he isnt a selfish one. he is capable of caring for other people, and hes capable of growth and self-reflection

theres more to be said about him (i could ramble on and on about all the OSTs associated with him, about the flight range, about how the conflict he brings into the narrative is refreshing, about how he cares that there are children looking up to him etc etc etc), but i feel like this post is long enough already. TLDR: revali is undoubtedly an asshole, but i believe that theres more to him than that; in my eyes, he is one of the most interesting characters out of the cast, and its a shame that one has to do so much digging in order to find all of this... well. depth.

but anyways. thank u so much for reading if youve made it this far! i hope this was an at least somewhat comprehensible and interesting look into his character. uh. um. dont forget to like and subscribe and-- [REVALIS GALE IS NOW READY.mp3]

[butchladymaria]

not sure if you’re referring to my analysis essay, but at the risk of nudging into “make your own post” territory i do want to address your points here just for fun! this got long, so under the cut it goes —

Firstly, I do agree with the interpretation that he wouldn’t dress Doll in hunting attire. The thing is, there’s a vast ocean of nuance between “dressing doll in hunting clothes” and “dressing doll in hyperfeminine gender conforming clothes”, and Maria’s taste isn’t as mysterious as many make it out to be if you look closer at her attire. Maria’s homeland of Cainhurst allowed its citizens to be knights regardless of gender, but gave visually distinct uniforms for men and women. As you can see below, despite of the fact that she could have modeled her attire on either a masculine or feminine outfit, Maria’s hunting clothes far more closely resemble the masculine knight’s set.

I can’t speak for everyone, but when I point out how Gerhman feminizes Maria through Doll, it doesn’t really have anything to do with hunting attire vs civilian attire. I’m talking about how Maria’s garb shows that she was gender nonconforming by her own cultural standards, yet Gerhman omitted that in making Doll. Regardless of his presumed motivations, it’s inaccurate to just ignore that completely. In any case — just because we only see her hunting attire in-game, why should we assume that her masculine taste in fashion was solely the result of the hunt? I don’t think most folks imagine that other characters who dress masculine such as Gascoigne would be dolled up in a dress if not for the hunt (although it’s a great concept lol, good for him if true). It’s also not as if masculine civilian clothing doesn’t exist — plenty of corpses wear button-up shirts, waistcoats, and coats that fit the bill.

I don’t know how much canonical basis there is to prove that Gerhman “did love/care for Maria because of who she was and not what she looked like”, as in all my research there was nothing which points to that decisively one way or another. If that’s your headcanon, that’s totally cool! However, I will say this: people, especially parental/guardian figures as Gerhman was, as far as we know, to Maria, can care about a deceased loved one and still erase their GNC identities after death — and for a whole host of reasons. The specifics are a very complex issue for another day, but suffice it to say that those things aren’t mutually exclusive. The existence and memory of gnc people is complicated by a society that doesn’t want their memories preserved accurately — just look at any lgbt+ historical figure for that one.

On your point of mourning dolls — if you do look them up, you’ll actually find that they were only made for very small children, usually infants or toddlers at the oldest, and Maria was obviously well out of that age range. What’s more, other forms of mourning art were used for adults. post-mortem photography, hair art, etc were all common (and its actually a super interesting rabbit hole to go down, highly recommend). If you’re still going to claim that Doll was made as a mourning doll, it implies that Gerhman saw Maria as his daughter (which is decently in line with canon), but it also brings a whole lot of somewhat unsavory baggage along with it. To summarize: the mourning doll represents the culmination of the Victorian obsession with the inherent innocence of white children, and their emphasis on those children as paragons of untainted purity. I highly recommend you check out Eternal Innocence: the Victorian Cult of the Dead Child if you’re interested in learning more — you’ll see what I mean about that baggage being unsavory.

Either way, it directly implies that Gerhman was trying to make Maria in effigy as pure, innocent, and untainted. Maybe that’s okay on paper when it’s a baby we’re talking about, but Maria was a grown adult. Unlike an infant, she did have thoughts and opinions. It also puts the attire he chose for her in even more unflattering light — possibly implying he saw her gender nonconformity as impurity to be expunged…? Rather historically accurate, if nothing else. It gets even more uncomfortable when you consider that purity was heavily connected with obedience, dependence, and lack of personhood in this time period. The obsession with preserving purity seem in mourning dolls was the same variety that argued women did not belong in politics or the workplace lest they become “tainted” by the outside world (and protest being considered the wards and property of their husbands the same way children were of their fathers, among many other things). In other words, the infantilization of women was a key part of Victorian era misogyny that equated their “purity” to that of children — which must be preserved at any cost, even after death. Making a mourning doll of Maria would have been out of place even in Victorian times, but it only gets worse if you do follow that line of reasoning to its logical conclusion in the historical context mourning dolls come from.

To conclude, my larger point that I develop more in the essay is that it’s a bit of a lapse in logic to point to the historical existence of, for example, mourning dolls while overlooking the historical context of possession when it came to women and children that contributed immensely to their existence in the first place, and the deep prejudice that existed against GNC people at that time period as well. It isn’t accurate or logical to take a cultural and historical artifact like mourning dolls and completely remove the complex web of contextual meanings they were bound up in. I’m 100% in favor of acknowledging the historical influences of the Victorian Era on Bloodborne — in fact, I think it’s crucial to a complete understanding — but that’s a lot more complex than face-value comparisons. More broadly, I think we do Bloodborne a disservice by ignoring that broader historical context and womanhood, especially given how the themes of the game focuses on women, motherhood, and childbirth.

I saw this post the other day that I can't seem to refind, but it mentioned that when Gehrman created the doll, he makes her in the image of Maria but strips her of a lot of her non-gender conforming appearance. But if you think about it for a while, it makes a lot of sense why Gehrman wouldn't put the Doll in a hunter outfit. Because Maria being a hunter is what led to her experiencing the awful Fishing Hamlet, and eventually dying. Gehrman probably regrets ever teaching her, or letting her come along on that mission. It's also worth mentioning that he did love/care for Maria because of who she was and not what she looked like. When the Moon Presence brought the Doll to life, it didn't act or think like Maria because the Moon Presence can't just take her out of the Nightmare (or doesn't want to, but trying to analyse the actions of Great Ones will give you a headache). Also the whole Mourning Doll thing. Seriously, just look them up.

TLDR: Gehrman was a Personality man.

[fappellmoan]

so like. i'm super curious. how do YOU think the friendship between robin and nancy is gonna start in s4?

ahaha hey i appreciate you wanting my thoughts on this. so keep in mind i really haven't explored the st4 story/theories beyond watching the trailers like once and sorta skimming thru what people say on here. so there's quite a bit of context i could be missing.

very short answer in case you dont actually want my whole rambly thought process about their characters and whatnot (sorry idk how this happened.) i generally agree with the fandom's understanding of them being somewhat bitchy/standoffish at first, but i do think some ppl take it to... an absurd extent... like it comes across like 'women can't interact without fighting/having a rivalry!’ like. they’ve now been described as a ‘dream team,’ there have been enough little moments (mostly from robin) that planted the seeds for them to interact later on, as well as their mutual friendship with barb. so like, this idea that they’re gonna entirely fail to mesh doesn’t work for me lol.

ok i realized i didnt fully answer your actual question till later in this rant so tldr: i think theres a good chance nancy realizes she doesn’t have anyone her age in hawkins that really gets her/what she’s been through once jonathan leaves and kinda awkwardly reaches out to steve and robin in some way. or, she gets pulled into the investigation of the creel house/asylum and she and robin just kinda. pair up. whether by choice or not, really idk which to expect.

generally what i gather from them is they're both leaders. they're very intelligent. we've seen how bright and clever robin is, and nancy is dedicated and similarly smart. a lot of people think they might butt heads, and i think that's possible, but i think it could absolutely be in a way that motivates each other? like i think they could challenge each other’s thoughts and push each other. which would be really advantageous in investigations and whatnot.

i mean, something people overlook in considering them is how theyre...... i don't want to say foils, but like right we have these lines of robin assuming nancy's a priss. she's not like your other friends, and not like nancy wheeler. i think there's a more vulnerable side to robin that we see in that coming out scene, and she might feel insecure in how she relates to other girls/her peers in general? particularly in the 80s. and especially seeing nancy as this pinnacle of a high school cliche, i could see it being a point of discomfort.

meanwhile nancy. well, nancy kinda wants to reject traditional suburban ideals and all, while still absolutely living in the comfort of it (hence the whole jancy fight in s3). i think she needs someone that challenges her and makes her sort of uncomfortable in this. LIKE. im not explaining this well. i don't think robin's throwaway 'priss' line is totally accurate and it'll be really interesting to see that explored outside of the mall battle; at the same time, i think if robin brings that witty/sarcastic humor she had at the beginning with steve to the table, even a little bit, nancy would be thrown off by someone not immediately agreeing and going along with her plans/thoughts.

and that's a good thing imo! for the type of person she is, it obviously is good to have someone willing to collaborate and listen, since she cares so much about what she's doing and does the work to deserve to be heard. but i think a lot of growth could come from her being challenged by robin not always bending to her will. and i also think, given the time to collaborate, they’d both learn to appreciate and respect the others’ intelligence and perspective. that’s just my take.

so. the vibe i have in mind ignoring the plot for a sec. like. i think it'll be very awkward at first. what's interesting is they have a lot of assumptions about each other to break down. like, robin went from the whole priss line to witnessing nancy in the mall fight in one night. and while we don't have a huge indication of where robin is on nancy's radar, im willing to go with the popular fandom belief that she'd be a little confused about her relationship with steve at first. but wouldn't want to ask right away. or maybe she would. idk. point being, she's probably at least sort of on her mind. particularly with jonathan leaving. she seemed to only really be close to barb, and then steve (tho she had some walls up). she hung around tommy h and carol, and ig there's a throwaway line abt a girl named ally, but she doesn't really seem to have a lot of close friends. so like. it could be that she approaches robin at school, or even at her and steve at family video, bc she doesn't really have anyone else in hawkins that gets what she's been through. if not that, and she just floats along with acquaintances, then whenever they're introduced i think it'll be like something ive already mentioned.

rq im gonna dig into something i think a lot of ppl overlook which is what we got from rebel robin. i think she's supposed to be like 15 in it, so obviously she's matured a bit in current canon, but she's this very inquisitive and excitable and passionate kid. she seems to want a lot of answers that she can't always get. naturally likes a challenge. we know who else is like this. ANYWAY nancy also pops up in rebel robin! it sorta throws a wrench in the 'who are you?' line, bc as far as i remember, they acknowledge each other.

and a big one. barb was robin's best friend up until like 6th grade!!!!!!! robin absolutely remembers the girl who replaced her as a best friend (maybe that’s where some of the resentment lies? though it was a long time ago), and nancy was likely aware of robin as well, as unless they had some big falling out, im sure barb and robin were still friendly. there's a good chance they played together as young kids - it's a small town. anyway, they’re connected through barb. in theory at least, it’ll probably be nice for both of them to have someone who understands the grief of losing her.

um another thing about barb. im pretty sure she was gay. right. first of all, queer kids flock together somehow far before that realization, and like, the sulking after the fight with nancy? the fashion? idk. anyway, i really don't think nancy would've been totally thrown by barb if she ever had the chance to come out. it might've been something she had to learn about and sit with, but i personally think ultimately it would've been fine. i know some people even ship them or at least suspect a one-sided crush. so, this idea that she'd be a total dick to robin abt it just doesn't line up with me. also, like, if it's a popular fandom belief that mike is bi/gay, and it's essentially canon that will is, we've seen how much she loves them! im not saying a equals b, im just saying dont rush to say she couldn't ever get it. but also i think some of the thoughts of her being very clumsily supportive/taking time to get used to gay people could be very accurate lol. part of my reading of her does come from noticing some repression, as is natural with the wheelers in general.

we know one way or another they wind up exploring the asylum together. idk if this comes before or after the group goes to the creel house, but. at some point they must either realize they both have the same questions and team up, or are forced together after the group starts investigating. i think this will follow some sort of flow of what ive said before.

this is my understanding of the show and characters and dynamics and all, obviously some people read the characters in very different ways. im just doing my best with my perspective. can’t wait to see how right or wrong i am lol <3 thanks for asking if u read this far

[wackywheel]

Hi what does time coded and thief coded mean they sound interesting. I get time is like bc time traveler connor (? Maybe) but i dont know what they mean

oh my god anon ilysm /p you have no idea how much youre enabling me to talk about my boys in hs words rn <3

context for anon’s question! also i will readmore this because. i will probably get very wordy.

a bit of broader context- when a character is described as an (x) of (y), (ei- page of time, thief of rage, mage of space, etc,) that’s their classpect! classpect is a portmanteau of class and aspect, a sort of character role?? assignment system from the video game sburb from homestuck.

when a character participates in an sburb session, they’re assigned a classpect, which is a title that essentially sort of embodies who they are as a person, from their behavior and reactions to things, to how they view the world around them! (/rp from here on out im not classpecting the ccs lmao)

i’ll start off with connor, since you listed him first: youre half right about my choice of the time aspect being tied to his time traveler-ness, but it extends a bit deeper than that i’d argue. as an aspect, time very much embodies not just the concept of the passage of time, but what time does to things and what changes come of it. time is fate, it’s both the journey AND the destination, never staying still or the same as it was moments ago, but also being malleable enough that a miracle or little alteration could send it careening the other direction. now, when it comes to classes, i specifically read connor as a page of time. especially. the page part. like jesus christ he is a Textbook Fucking Page. pages are characterized as people who start out with very very little of their aspect, and must learn to hone and master it along their journey. which is why they’re called pages; they’re named after a knight’s apprentice from the medieval era! once they have mastered their aspect though, holy shit they are powerful. often described as one of the most powerful classes, in fact.

ok ive said plenty of nonsense words that have nothing to do with him. so, how does this apply to connor?

well, a page of time is someone who will start out on their journey lacking in time, but as they grow more, they will gain much, much more of it. a lack of time could be described as possibly... impatience? a pretend-air of acceptance and understanding when it comes to acknowledging change around them, whether it be in people or places present and past. sound familiar to how connor outwardly treats the idea of schlatt being dead by acting as though he’s moved on entirely? even when he absolutely hasn’t and explicitly states that he misses him in his diary? smells like a page just starting out on their

now, i could also go into how classpect inversion also plays a part in how connor acts in relation to his classpect, but that would take like 3 more paragraphs to even explain and i’ve already typed a ton, so i’ll move on to schlatt now lmao (also to preface this section, i’m a bit rusty on season 1/manberg era, so a LOT of this will be me going off of smplive knowledge more than anything lmao)

starting off with his class this time, i’ve come to the conclusion that schlatt would probably be a thief if anything! thieves are people that uses their aspect to steal things, or steals their aspect outright. thieves are often well meaning, but a bit self-centered as well. they’re naturally very confident and proficient when handling their aspect as a weapon, but often also have insecurities or weaknesses that they refuse to let others witness, for fear of seeming less competent than they really are. their journey will usually culminate in them learning to allow others to use/have their aspect as well, or the thief dying in the process of it being taken from them. so, schlatt is a thief of rage specifically. how does rage as an aspect work? well, while the obvious answer to that is obviously negative emotion and power, rage also manifests itself as chaos, doubt, and the concept of the truth sometimes being an ugly, unhappy type of thing. rage is causing unrest and destruction, if only to prove a point to those who have lied before that they can’t get away with it forever. it is stubborn, unrelenting, and cutthroat; in both the best and worst of ways.

with all of that said, here’s the million dollar question; how does this apply to schlatt?

well, at his core, schlatt’s a con artist that keeps the people in mind. he undermines markets with his own currency, teaching people not to trust every shop they throw their diamonds into at the cost of him growing wildly popular and wealthy. he bends the rules and darts through loopholes to sneak into elections, snatching the victory out from under the noses of those who believed they had omission-of-truth’d their way out of having to play the game fair and square like everyone else. he takes the chance for retaliation, for an equal attack back on him, away from those that are at odds with him, and uses his own wrath to gain more and more of an upper hand. that and hes loud. very. very loud. schlatt is an absolute show stopper. even on his deathbed, he took all of the fighting spirit from not only his enemies, but those allied with him as well, in order to give one last hurrah of a ‘fuck you lol’ to everyone around him.

again, i could go into even more detail about how thieves and pages are natural opposites, and how poetically hilarious that is considering how schlatt and connor are a fucking walking comedy routine, but i will spare your eyes of even more reading just this once

(....unless yall wanna hear about that.... bc if so please ask away i love classpecting so fucking much <333)

[bluewinnerangel]

I always got the sense that in their fetus days all of the boys would use the 'thumbs up' sign to mean that they were happy. I may recall seeing Zayn doing the sign in some of their interviews. Then clearly Larry started using it more and more.

One Direction secret language ramble with Liam/Niall/Zayn sign language examples incoming:

Ok instead of just going "you're right" like a normal person I just rambled on again. I didn't really emphasize it much in the masterpost although you can see it in some of the gifs, they were clearly all in on it. And the thumbs up is the most clear example, because I think it's the safest sign to do in broad daylight (or spotlight) that might mean whatever to them but their audience can just automatically interpret as well just a thumbs up. And maybe it is, and maybe it just means I'm happy, maybe it just means "you good?" and that's it. But they totally had some secret language, all of them together that includes code words and some subtle behaviors and signs. I have answered something similar before here. If you really pay close attention there's loads of very subtle signing to each other during interviews and on stage and what not, you just gotta find the patterns but they're really good at it. So good, it makes me feel insane to point it out. Because of course I'm just reading into things. On one hand I don't really wanna claim they do certain things and that it means more than just a random nose wipe beard touch whatever hand movement or a thumbs up or some self-firstbump means more than just some I don't know what to do with my hands because I don't know that, but I do notice there's definitely *something* going on sometimes because there's just a bit too much of a pattern. I think they even said it in the first couple of years, that it was a known fact they had a secret language and it was even brought up in interviews and stuff but don't quote me on that. And the thumbs up was definitely one of those things. Sorry to say but I also think it's not a sweetheart/look im declaring my love for you in public in secret or a I'm happy but rather them huehueing at something remotely phallic shaped. That it's penis joke number 28369. But feel free to not accept that thought whatsoever hahaha I think it's mainly Louis (or the one clump of a single braincell that is Louis and Harry, if only there was a name for them together) being the lil shit chaotic menace that he is that got the rest to go along with it, but I have noticed all of them doing wait what was that and why did the other one know how to respond like that behaviors here and there. Maybe as some inside joke and just having fun doing that kinda crap in front of everyone knowing nobody gets what it means, maybe other times to tell eachother to mind certain things, like mind your words, watch the other person, be ready to take over the interview, whatever some shit like that. But yaknow we only have two eyes and my eyes are already going that spongebob looking into a book meme between Harry and Louis and I just miss the rest most of the time to be really honest. But still I could think of a couple of examples so:

Exhibit A: early bird gets the wood on - Liam

Their dirty signing? After a while it seems that Liam and Zayn are in on that shit lol. During little things on stage for one. But the nasty trying to walk / shamewalk shit????

Where Liam just responds like Louis is the no 1 comedian in the world? That one?

Did you ever notice Liam and Harry's hands when Louis says "early bird get's the wood on / worm" ....

Some weird trying to be subtle / being too chicken shit to actually sign anything but still trying to sign shit and then just kinda... both weirdly moving their hands while trying to make eyecontact and looking mischievous ok.

Looks familiar too but Louis has less shame lol:

anyway full thing for context (trying to walk @ 3:08, early bird @ 7:00) :

Also THEY JUST KEEP GOING in this one, there's another "secret code word" right after (3:26) (not so much a secret, just the replay game), which "whoppa" or "whopper" or I don't know wtf they're saying, and Liam is telling Louis to replay it and vice versa. Then Liam tells Harry "whoppa" and Harry starts lying, and right after Liam makes Zayn play the replay game and its so fking hilarious, thanks @wishingicouldfly for pointing out they're playing it here too! (it's also in "exhibit C") and look at Louis' face after "yeah what about it" aslkdjaslkdj. None of them even flinch istg.

Exhibit B: loved you since i was 16 - Niall

This is already in the sign language masterpost, but here is Niall signing as a response to Louis' "pour me a drink" which in turn might be a response to Harry's LOVED YOU SINCE I WAS 16 LONDON (lot of IFs there):

Exhibit C: we like bottoms - Zayn

Everytime Liam says "bottoms" in this interview, Zayn does the same sign? And Niall seems to get it? Seriously there is SO MUCH shit going on in this video like who is alerted to what and who is trying to get whos attention (plus the replay game right in the middle of it which is included in the whole code words thing I'm talking about here too) and it just sends me off every time I can't tell you how many times I've stared at this it all goes so fast but the bottoms thing happens in the first few seconds so:

And Zayn does that fking sign a LOT. A LOT.

He also does other signs a lot alotalot, like this one (first pic is that^ uh.. bottoms sign asdlkjaslkd, the rest is holding his right tumb on his left palm, that he also does in the video above a bit later on):

(also thats not mine i found it through some repost on twitter so ie no source but thankyou whoever put that together <3)

Which is basically the equivalent of Louis doing the lil handwipe, this one.

CaN't PeOpLe nOt hAvE mAnNeRiSmS fOr gOd SaKeS wHy dO ZioUeS mAkE EvErYtHiNg aBoUt ZiOuS

I really do think these two examples and probably a whole bunch of other ones somewhere in an unopened cupboard that'll explode in your face with tupperware signs once you try to go there are all from their time together when they were close and doing these kinda stupid signs to each other that nobody knows what it means but them. That they're still doing these things not just because they're some mannerism or it just looks cool for a photo/video but that they do it knowing there are 4 other boys and 4 other boys only out there that know it holds some kinda meaning (aaaaand im emo again).

Just wanna end with saying that they mostly didn't sign in BSL back in 1D times either, they didn't sign in any way clear enough for the viewers to recognize unless it was directly to a deaf fan (Harry mostly), which does give away they -or just Harry that was in their midst- did know some basic BSL and perhaps took things from it and modified it for their own whatever the hell this band is kinda things they did. God I'm tired but intrigued but TIRED like these boys won't leave my brain alone why are they like this??? I love theemm. But they drive me inssaaaane. Make me feel insaaaaane. Reading into hand movemeeeeeeehnts. Wehehehaaaaaaa. Me @ Moi:

(related: the sign language masterpost)