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nabi-unveiled · 3 months ago

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Heavenly Happenings in Heesu in Class 2 (Ep 2)

Ep 1

We left episode 1 of Heesu in Class 2 with this fantastic frame. For the record, I am assuming Seung Won is end game here. I don't know for certain, but that's what my spidey senses and years of drama watching tell me.

I loved this frame so much. There's so much meaning conveyed. Hee Su is in the middle between Chan Young and Seung Won. Chan Young is behind him just like his crush for Chan Young will eventually be. He's really at a turning point in his life, and he's turning towards Seung Won. However, Hee Su doesn't know that yet. He doesn't realize Seung Won is going to steal into his heart just like we can't see Seung Won's face clearly in this frame either.

So where did we go from here? To my personal heaven. It is going to be incredibly difficult to keep within the image limit. Because there is science. There is great dialogue. There are multi-faceted characters. There is a solid narrative structure and set-up. There are themes that look like they may actually be properly explored. There is tension that feels natural, and I'm already emotionally involved with more than one character. Did I say I'm in heaven? 🫠

So what heavenly happenings occurred during Episode 2?

#1 - The universe references didn't get dropped!

Hee Su may claim he doesn't know what he likes, but he definitely likes science and poetry. He thinks in poetic science metaphors all the time. I can relate. We start the episode on the cusp of confessing and believing in the possibilities.

But Chan Young flashes a new couple's ring, and Hee Su crashes back to Earth and his reality. His "I'm not the main character anyway." about broke my heart. You can tell that Hee Su has built his life around Chan Young in a lot of different ways often at the expense of himself. He deserves to be his own person and not just the person who films and holds stuff for Chan Young. But for someone like Hee Su, it will take something external to make him realize that his own interests have value. Unfortunately, this is true in real life for a lot of people that hold the "counselor" role in their circle.

We also have a universe reference regarding Ho-sik (our friend on the fringe) getting a confession. For now, I've decided that these negative comments about Ho-sik aren't something to be worried about on his behalf. He gives as good as he gets, and it's really just giving friend energy instead of mean girl energy.

I do particularly love that this line happens right before Hee Su literally falls into Seung Won's arms. The universe is giving you a sign.

#2 - We've now added even MORE science to our dialogue, and it's used both literally AND figuratively.

This episode was all about the supermoon, and I couldn't be happier. Because they actually TALKED about the science. At perigee (when the moon is closest to Earth), it does have an impact on tides. And people DO tend to have a misconception about it being associated with earthquakes. It's like the misconception about toilets flushing in different directions due to the Earth's rotation. Somehow it's seeped into people's collective consciousness even thought it's not accurate.

I also love that Hee Su was apparently the cause of the misinformation. It happens more often than you'd think that the science friend is actually the one that spreads the falsehoods. Sometimes it gets spread intentionally. For example, Hee Su may have said this when he was younger and didn't know it was false yet. Teachers tell you a LOT of incorrect stuff in science class. But sometimes it's unintentional as well. It's quite possible that Hee Su explained it accurately, but that Chan Young and his sister didn't understand the nuance of what he was explaining. Yeah, I've been there. I've had that face Hee Su gave his sister when he asked who told her that. "I did?" This chance goes up if he was mixing it with metaphors.

My only qualm - this line of dialogue isn't accurate.

Supermoons are very predictable. You can look them up and know when they'll be years into the future.

#3a - The confirmation that confession is particularly risky because this universe isn't a Thai BL bubble.

I grappled with a bit of the dialogue in episode 1. But episode 2 pretty much confirms that @daemondamian and @watchthisqqq were right in that the show was trying to convey the difficulty of confessing in a heteronormative world. I still disagree with the implications of the original dialogue, and I hope they address moving on after rejection (sister maybe?). But it is VERY true that this universe is not the bubble of our Thai BLs.

Seung Won thought that Hee Su couldn't have been getting ready to confess when he realized Hee Su was talking to Chan Young.

Hee Su automatically assumes that Seung Won's crush is a girl.

We had also had the conversation between Hee Su and the girl in the skatepark during Episode 1. There is an additional risk in confessing when you're queer. Especially in a conservative society.

We saw a lot of the confession theme build in general. Hee Su repeats the dialogue from his sister showing again where he's learned his facts about dating.

The dialogue is also building on this idea that being confessed to feels good. We see Ho-Sik's reaction to his gangster girl's love box. And Hee Su calls it feeling like he's been "upgraded" when he reads the messages on the anon message board. After all, he's normally only approached as a way to get to Chan Young 😞. A sentiment and feeling that Chan Young actually reinforces in both episode 1 and 2. I just haven't decided if it's purposeful or being an unaware teenager on Chan Young's part.

#3b - We've now started exploring that the risk isn't only in the confession.

Beyond confessing, we're now building in new threads. There is always the threat of a break-up. Hee Su has actually advised people to break up. He knows it's true. Isn't it better to just stay by their side rather than risk a rift?

Once he considers the possibility of breaking up, Hee Su becomes much more reticent about confessing.

After all, is dating really worth it?

(Side note - It's interesting that the physical heights of the three boys align with their "social status" at school. Hee Su sees himself as below Chan Young in a lot of ways, but you can tell he thinks he's above Ho Sik. It's not malicious. It's a teenager's mind at work.)

#4 - There's a thread starting about what is actually required in relationships.

There is discussion about what attracts people in the first place. I agree with Noona. Looks are important...to some of us at least. It's not the only thing and it's not everyone's thing, but it'd be a lie to say it didn't matter to me.

But more importantly, we're now exploring what it means to be in a relationship. If you can't disagree. If you always go along with the other person. If you always do what they want. Is that really a relationship?

Noona says "that's an acquaintance". I may not have loved the fact that noona is playing break-up games with her man to straighten him out, but this line does ring true to me. It's really true for any type of relationship - friendship or romance. If you can't express your thoughts, then the other person doesn't really know you. Relationships are a two way street. It's a lesson I learned the hard way. It's also a lesson that Hee Su will need to learn. While I do think Chan Young knows some things about and responds to Hee Su, that relationship definitely has energy flowing primarily one way.

#5 - There are parallels that add meaning and depth.

Hee Su implies that Seung Won must be close to our musical mystery girl if he lends her a book. He's practically sitting on top of Seung Won while he says it which is an interesting play on physical vs. emotional closeness.

And later on, our musical mystery girl does indeed lend a book...to Chan Young. A book that holds a lot of personal meaning to her.

I looked the book up. The reviews are mixed, but the plotline may have some parallels to this couple.

There are also a TON of parallels used to display how actions that are used to convey someone likes you may not mean anything of the sort.

The carrot juice gets mysteriously left on Hee Su's desk to indicate someone likes him. But it also gets given by Chan Young just because he doesn't like carrot juice. It gets given by Ho Sik as a thank you.

The girls may want to hold Chan-Young's belongings while he plays sports, but he gives his shirt to Hee Su. However, Ho Sik ALSO gives his stuff to Hee Su to watch. BOTH Chan Young and Ho Sik feed Hee Su/share food in the cafeteria. After all, sharing is caring. So just like what Seung Won is really asking Hee Su outside the convenience store, what comes after the gift? There's got to be more than just buying the drink to demonstrate romantic feelings.

Now, there IS a different feel when the two friends do these things with Hee Su. It's part of what fueled my initial dislike of Chan Young. I initially felt he probably knew Hee Su's feelings and was playing him to a degree. And he still might be doing that. However, after this episode, I'm beginning to think that the difference in feeling is because we're experiencing it from Hee Su's perspective rather than an actual difference. Hee Su feels different about these actions when they come from Chan Young compared to someone else. And if that's the case, then Chan Young is at least an oblivious jerk instead of a manipulative one.

I also really liked the tteokbokki parallel. Seung Won asks Hee Su what he ate yesterday. But Hee Su makes his choices based on Chan Young. It's not what HE actually wants.

Which makes it interesting that he immediately says he doesn't want to eat tteokbokki with Seung Won. Because I don't think that it's just that he didn't want to hang out with Seung Won. He says he's busy, but I doubt comforting his sister would've stopped him from going out with Chan Young. The supermoon would have been later that night and not impeded tteokbokki time either.

Furthermore, Hee Su offers to do it at a different time when he realizes that Seung Won may like tteokbokki. I just think it's a sign that he thinks of himself when he's around Seung Won. He doesn't see Seung Won as above him. Is it possible that he doesn't actually like tteokbokki? That would be a fun detail if it came true.

That said, I felt bad for Seung Won here. This reaction would have felt like a soft rejection which brings us to another running theme in this show...unintentionally hurting others.

#6 - The theme of unintentional hurt is explored in more nuanced ways.

Episode 1 started exploring this idea with the comments about Chan Young's thoughtless comments. And Ho-Sik doubles down on that this time by pointing out that what Chan Young does "is a crime" and that he gives all the girls false hope.

But Chan Young wasn't the only one hurting people's feelings this episode.

Ho-sik hurt our Gangster Girl's feelings in the cafeteria by thinking her gift came from someone else and talking loudly about another girl.

And in his interactions with Seung Won, Hee Su is actually doing a lot of the thoughtless things that Chan Young is accused of doing. For example, he touches Seung Won a lot. As a person who isn't touched much, Seung Won is going to notice every time it happens. It's going to cause all kinds of emotion every time Hee Su is thoughtlessly doing it.

And you know that it's got to pain Seung Won when Hee Su offers to help him get a girlfriend.

We can easily hurt others even if we don't mean to do so.

#7 - Chan Young gained a few layers this episode.

To be clear, I still think Chan Young is a jerk. A teenage jerk who likes indie music. But a jerk nonetheless. He's annoyed that a girl he agreed to go out with wants to wear a ring. (Note: It's not about the ring which was a bit much. It's about how he's talking about her.) He antagonizes Ho-Sik by asking if he was sure the gift was really for him.

And the moment that clenched it for me - he threw my boy Ho-Sik's knitting project right after Ho-Sik said to be careful with it. Grrrr.

I don't think he's malicious. I think he's a teenager. One who frequently seems to do things that he doesn't actually WANT to do for reasons that are worth exploring. Regardless, he inadvertently hurts a lot of people.

I'm still debating where he stands in his relationship with Hee Su. I do think he might be a bit possessive with comments like thinking Seung Won was meddling by reminding Hee Su of a club meeting. If nothing else, it's apparent that he relies a lot on Hee Su (ex. wanting him to join the same club). But based on his reaction to our musical goddess, it's not romantic feelings.

The feelings I do know he has? Insecurity. Feeling second-best to his brother is eating away at him. I'm the older sibling, and my brother was always very up front with me that it sucked to be compared to me all the time (by teachers/community; not by our parents). The brother seems to recognize that feeling is in play.

With that in mind, I do wish the brother had just put his own medals away. If you know it's a problem, then take care of it. Why make Chan Young do it? Even if it's Chan Young's room, it's your medals. That said - I did get the impression that a lot of the problem stems from issues with their parents rather than the brother himself.

I also found it interesting that Chan Young's bedroom is noticeably smaller and more cramped than the other bedrooms we see. I first noticed it, because I was jealously eyeballing the bookshelves in Hee Su, Seung Won, and music girl's rooms. But if you look back, there's a lot of stuff/junk cramped into a space behind Chan Young's desk. Knowing that he moved from where Seung Won lives now to here makes me wonder....are financial issues in play too?

And then we saw his reaction to our musical goddess. I found their interaction hilariously funny. Why? He says he doesn't know her name, but she is wearing a nametag. So that means one of three things - either he really IS a very oblivious person, he was trying to "look chill" after her stalker comment earlier, or he was using it as a way to get her to open up to him. Maybe a combination of all three.

I should also admit that this interaction is probably more amusing to me than most, because it is very much how I introduced myself to my husband. I decided not to wait on the formal introductions, walked up to him and said "Hi! I don't know you. What's your name?" We were wearing nametags. He pointed down at it and slowly enunciated his name like I was an idiot. Was it socially awkward? Yes. Did it work though? Also yes. Just like it seems to have worked for Chan Young. Difference being, Ji Yu definitely knew Chan Young's name already. I get her. This jerk's going to grow on me probably as we see new sides of him.

#8 - Families are an integrated fixture.

Chan Young's brother wasn't the only new family member to our mix. We also met Seung Won's mom. It's obvious that she cares but isn't really there. I get the feeling that she works a lot. However, I did find it interesting that she talked about "college isn't everything".

It's actually something that has come up a lot about Seung Won in the first two episodes. The other students talk about Seung Won valuing college. Hee Su says he's the "AI of college admissions". But you know who HASN'T mentioned it? Seung Won. He actually asks Hee Su who says that. Does he actually care about college? Or is this just another area where he's misunderstood?

And we continued highlighting our fabulous sibling relationship between Hee Su and his sisters. Their relationship is everything to me at this point. Much like Babe and Teerak in Your Sky, a strong sibling bond is going to get me every time.

I particularly loved how - even though Hee Su thought his sister was "embarrassing" with her panda eyes in the street - he immediately jumped up to put his arm around her and walk her home. I also love that, while Hee Su is often shown taking care of his older siblings and doing things like washing the dishes, these interactions don't read like they forced him to grow up or he was required to be the responsible one. It really just feels like part of his personality.

#9 - Seung Won may be the actual "stalker", but I will defend him with my last breath.

They described Ho-Sik's actions as being a stalker in the last episode and Chan Young's actions were described that way in this episode.

But our real "stalker" is Seung Won. You know that he was waiting to leave the house until Hee Su left. That's why he was late too. But I approve, and I will defend any stalker tendencies he may have. I already said in episode 1 that I was adopting him. Hee Su may talk science and get my mind, but Seung Won has my heart.

The "stalker" term is used a LOT in dramaland discussions, but most of the time we don't mean the characters are stalking literally (excluding SCOY and SCOY: Mame Edition). In a lot of ways our use of the term echoes the theme that was started last time - how do you approach someone? How do you build a relationship? Because steps must be taken to "approach someone naturally" as Hee Su advises.

Seung Won knows this. Asking the boy you like to go to a hip-hop concert with you isn't easy. You can't just jump straight to it. The show has already told us this too. This is particularly true if you are often misunderstood. Get ready for self-projection here. Introverts who are not shy, observe people, and are confident in their skills are often misunderstood. Particularly if they come across as more "robotic" or tend to maintain direct eye contact (Seung Won does both). Notice how everyone seems to be a little scared or intimidated by Seung Won. Has he done anything to deserve that? No. Not that we've seen at least.

Muenfah suffers a bit of the same issue in Your Sky, but I feel like the show forgot he was supposed to have that personality fairly early on. It was a bait and switch for him in some ways (that's a whole different post though). It'll be interesting to see how Heesu in Class 2 handles the "softening" or opening up of Seung Won. I'm really hoping he gets to keep a lot of his personality like Sang Woo did in Semantic Error. Because us introverted but not shy, unintentionally intimidating robots...we exist. But many shows try to erase a lot of those traits as the narrative progresses in the name of "growth" or "being fixed" by love. (Note: I'm not talking about tsundere characters here.)

#10 - There are natural triggers to motivate actions.

There have been a lot of things I've loved in this show so far. But I'll end with the fact that the writing is solid (so far). Many times in dramaland characters do things for the sake of the plot. We go into empty basements with someone who is mentally unstable to advance the plot. We randomly decide to go on a trip because we need to stumble across a plot point. Plot armor is a thing. But so far, all of the actions in Heesu have developed from natural triggers.

For example, Hee Su goes to find Chan Young at the academy. And it makes sense that he might have taken this action. He's been pondering his science metaphors as he looks at the supermoon. It's very similar to him running to confess in episode 1. He's someone who takes action when his heart bubbles over with emotion. So far that has always seen him running towards Chan Young.

But then he sees something he can't ignore. A side of Chan Young he didn't know. He KNOWS how Chan Young normally responds to girls, and this isn't it. That smile was his earthquake. It destroyed his world and the possibility of hope far more than the couple ring at the beginning of the episode. Which leads us to one of the most selfish actions Hee Su has taken so far, he decides to try and eliminate his competition by trying to pair her up with Seung Won.

Throughout the first two episodes, he kept telling people to let things happen naturally or to approach people naturally. Most of his "advice" hasn't really fallen into matchmaking territory. But now...he's decided he will be the supermoon. He's going to make things happen. Because what's happening naturally, he can't allow that to happen.

#this got sooooo long #and there was still so much more #many things left unsaid #i'm glad I held off on this show #I would not have had time last week #i need to think about the best way to post about this show #as it looks like it will have a lot of meat to it #korean bl #heesu in class 2

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incorrectmahabharatquotes · 1 year ago

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i love the incorrect quotes, but i dont agree with your political views. if its not much, could you explain why ur so anti bjp?(thats what i assume anyway)

You know, I actually think that the memes and the quotes are sort of a natural extension of our political views. I'll explain but it might get a little long. Stay with me here.

Firstly, I want to say that I think this way of perceiving politics is so fundamentally wrong.

"Anti-BJP", "Pro-BJP", "Anti-Congress", "pro-congress" etc etc. This isn't a cricket match where you're rooting for your favourite team. Politicians, as a general rule, are a bunch of liars. They lie to gain power and control. It's OUR duty, as CITIZENS, to keep them accountable and in their lane so they actually do their goddamn jobs. That's how the democracy is supposed to work. If they don't do their job properly, you vote them out of the seat. They work for us, and not the other way around.

In India, we grow up with this idea of not questioning your elders. Papa ne keh diya, bas keh diya. As children our natural instinct of curiosity and inquisitiveness is stifled. We go to schools and the same pattern follows. Don't question the authority. Keep your head down and colour inside the lines. We internalise this lesson to colossal degrees. Is it any wonder that we all struggle with critical thinking? If you're spoonfed "the correct answer" your entire life, you never learn to find if what you were told is correct or not. This exact thing is used by all politicians across the entire political spectrum. They use our learned behaviour of deferring to authority and never questioning power against us. The leader of the country becomes the patriarch. Papa ne keh diya, bas keh diya.

I have various issues with various political parties in India, in fact. I have no love lost for any of them. I don't exactly believe in unconditional loyalty to politicians.

Since you brought up the BJP, let's talk about that. My biggest issue with them is their politics of communal hatred. All they keep yapping about is hindu-muslim this and hindu-muslim that. For what? They could spend their time talking about actual issues but the low-hanging fruit of stoking communal hatred is easier to grab onto. Remember when the British did the same thing? It was bad then and it's bad now. All this unrest just to get votes. Imagine fucking up the mind of an entire nation like this and then demanding to be praised for it.

Their foundational roots are from the RSS and that entire organisation's existence is just insane to me. It's even more insane that they managed to go from a fringe ideology to becoming mainstream. "Hindu rashtra", it seems. Who even wants that? WHY do they want that? Is it such a bad fate to live in peace and harmony with other religions? A lot of their talking points are about how much they hate the islamic nations and how those are horrible and then they want to turn around and do the same thing?!? Is the hypocrisy not clear? So what if other countries are religious states? Why can't we try to be different? Maybe I'M the stupid one for thinking all humans are the same that we should treat everyone the same. Who knows.

There are also a bunch of other issues that the BJP has racked up during their rule. The demonetisation disaster, mismanagement of government funds to create public infrastructure, letting the interests of billionaire business ruin PROTECTED FOREST AREAS for mining coal that they didn't even need, introducing and passing HORRIBLE bills through the parliament without any thought or discussion, literally ignoring the plight of people dying in riots, CORRUPTION, destroying the public sector and letting for-profit capitalists free reign in a country which has practically no proper labour laws, aiding in creating a historical record of INCOME INEQUALITY that is higher than it was during the fucking colonial era, fucking up the press even more somehow to the point where they control all of the media houses.

This is not even scratching the surface. I could keep going.

My issue is not whether people vote for the BJP or not. Even if you like the BJP, my issue is that people seem willing to turn a blind eye to all the issues with the government and not even hold them accountable for it.

Vote for whoever you want. My only request is to keep your government accountable. Keep the power in check. The politicians should be SCARED of the citizens fury if they do something wrong. They shouldn't be free to do whatever and get off scot free.

That's our political stance, really. It's Pro-Exercise-Your-Democratic-Rights-As-Citizen.

We will always encourage others to be wary of people with too much power.

Now coming back to why I said the memes reflect our political stance, it's because it's obvious to see why we happen to be willing to risk being a little critical of a literary text. You have to be a little transgressive, in a sense. Perfect obedience and perfect reverence stifles people from engaging with something to their full potential.

I'm sorry to say that if you enjoy the memes and the quotes, you are also being a little transgressive like us. You're also questioning the authority of a religion to an extent. Perhaps our political leanings aren't as different as you might believe.

-Mod S

#asks #ask reply #mod replies #mod: s #indpol #indian politics

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curiouscrux · 2 years ago

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Tunic Weaving Process

Marking my second project on a rigid heddle loom, I finally got around to finishing my not-a-cosplay-I-swear tunic to be linked (heh) in the future.

(Edit: Final product here!)

This tunic splits the difference between the original reference image here, and the comic pages. The only noticeable factors are that the hem's curve is somewhat shallow, and that the sleeve details are three parts (as versus five).

The tunic shaping is also modified to be more... Tunic-y. That is to say, made of rectangles and straight seams—so no set-in sleeves, and a bit of a wider shape to account for the woven fabric type.

It will be accompanied by a linen under-tunic and hemp-amber necklace. Made because they all look nice together, but also separately.

[ALL IDs IN ALT TEXT]

Starting out, I calculated how much yarn would be needed for the body (incorrectly), and set up all of my warp threads.

After my first project's hiccups, the warp threads were individually tied so as to minimize risk of uneven tension.

For whatever reason, I decided to curve the hem as part of the piece, rather than enforcing, trimming, and hemming to a curve. (This was also incorrect—or at least a bad move.)

The full, finished back piece is pictured above, and is a little more loosely woven than the front panel, but is still absolutely warm enough to justify material costs.

The neckline for the front was made in two parts starting at the split. The widest part of the neckline was essentially cut away. All fringe was woven in on the neckline (and the hem), and the shoulder seams were bound together with this method as well. Side seams were just back-stitched.

The neckline was crocheted with a lighter yarn as a border, and a faux closure was attached to match the reference.

As mentioned, the smart move would have been to curve the bottom of the tunic through enforcement, trimming, and hemming, so to make the front more even with the back, this is what I ended up doing, despite that it was... Already curved.

The sleeves deserved a gusset, especially because those aid a place that would normally be a weak point on regular fabric, and would be extra prone to pulling on something handwoven like this.

Finally, sleeve decorations were chain-stitched in the accent color to match the neckline.

It took several months of intermittent work to finish, but could have probably been less had the tall task of weaving in several hundred loose threads not daunted me so much.

It was made from alpaca, which I justify via my intention to wear this as it gets colder in the northern hemisphere, but also because I could not get my hands on hemp yarn (which would have made more sense in the context of the setting).

#id in alt text #weaving #long post #craftblr #yarn #alpaca #loom #rigid heddle loom #bonus loft #bonus links #yarnblr #artistic shenanigans #tunic #fashion #cosplay #(but not actually)

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thecoolerliauditore · 8 months ago

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Hello! I've seen a mutual reblog your posts for a while, and everything I've seen you say about Flower Husbands having a bad taste associated with it is something I've felt since 3rd Life, and although I am on anon, I wanted to connect your thoughts with mine.

I'm one of those people who made posts about toxic flower husbands in the past, but I privated them after rapidly receiving tense, uncomfortable response from others who found those posts (despite me not using the flower husbands tag, placing it under a Keep Reading, and very clearly saying I would discuss toxicity). Even with those warnings, within the hour I was facing multiple angry people telling me they hated the interpretation and that it was unfair, etc.

Current me regrets that I caved in and hid those posts, but I felt so overwhelmed that it seemed easy and safe to shut my mouth, no longer gushing over how much I enjoyed them as a way to explore relationship toxicity. In my other fandoms I regularly and openly discuss toxicity, so it was such a shock to see it pushed against in a new fandom and I think that's why I caved so fast. I felt like I'd stumbled across a place with new social norms or that I'd genuinely said something super politically incorrect, and I haven't posted about them since.

I looked through some of your posts and I've seen other anons tell you the same thing about feeling like flower husbands came across as toxic, but holding their tongues to avoid upsetting people. It's a very unfortunate situation, especially since the toxicity is so interesting to explore.

Really, I wanted to say that I've enjoyed reading your thoughts. It makes me feel hopeful that views might be changing. Not in an "I want flower husbands shippers to have a hard time" way (I wish no ill) but in a "Hey, maybe I can find my people out there and maybe I can write posts or fics that will be well-received this time."

I really liked the comment from the anon who said "It's rare to be able to get stories where people have problems and break up and move on to new relationships and grow from them." I absolutely feel that way and these are my favorite relationships to study. Seeing it play out in canon is such a rare and beautiful thing, and it's something I was very excited to write about before I fell into a nervous spiral thanks to the pushback my mere analysis post got, let alone an actual fic. I hope someday soon, I can write something beautifully toxic for them that I'm proud of.

Thank you for your posts, which are very interesting and informative. For those of us like the past me who wanted to avoid stepping on toes, certain relationships in this fandom can be tricky. I'm someone who liked to brainstorm about Scott and Pearl being arranged in marriage due to the soulmate bond, only to immediately be bombarded with comments that it was inappropriate and I should change the story (or that I needed to explicitly tell readers that Scott felt no attraction towards Pearl)... the usual rhetoric. How interesting that I don't get comments about sexuality when I write aroace characters in arranged marriages (and boy, isn't that a whole convo in itself?)

Scott and Pearl are a very interesting duo that I won't delve into here, but I've enjoyed reading your posts about their dynamic as well.

I want to end my comment by rotating one of your other remarks: "I love that we essentially watch them both have to live on after their mutually life-changing marriage." To me, that right there is prime fic exploration and character study material, and I think it's very cool to view Scott and Jimmy through the lens of pulling apart and picking up their splintered pieces.

Once more, thank you for speaking up about your thoughts about Flower Husbands and Scott/Pearl, signed by the past me who was scared to do so once upon a time. I'll probably lurk in the fandom fringes for a while longer until I'm ready to return and stand firm in my toxic interpretations, but until then, it's awesome to know I'm not the only one who sees them through a very specific lens.

Goddamn man. Sorry I don't like getting sappy and shit but like. Goddamn okay this ask kinda hit me like a truck that my posts made someone's day a bit brighter or whatever and that's. Really cool. Really cool that that happened. I read this ask and then had to stare at a wall.

Saying this is the stuff I post for isn't true because I post for no discernable reason whatsoever and I'm endlessly confused at people following this blog. But I really have been more open about my thoughts on the series recently and a big part of that was because I used to fish around for people who were okay with certain things through essentially communicating in symbols. And I hate policing fandom stuff alot alot. So I kind of decided to stop being a hypocrite and stop policing myself too.

Idk I think part of me might've hoped someone like fandom newbie me would happen upon my blog and see that it's Okay, Actually to post about FH as an abuse narrative or Scott/Pearl as a ship or Joel/Jimmy as a ship or Lizzie as comphet or literally any other thing that's deemed too illegal for the maintags and see that not only will everyone not hate you theres actually others who see the same things and are just as passionate.

I think my breaking point was just. Seeing my mutuals get blasted by complete strangers for completely harmless stuff? The Joel/Jimmy kiss in RL and the Joelshipping war that ensued from it comes to mind.

There was this one post I really liked that was like. A social group that makes you feel scared to say the wrong thing constantly isn't a group that loves you. And that's so true.

Idk I just like. I don't post because I hope people agree with me (although I do like it when I'm correct and God and whatever), I post because I hope someone can look at this and see it as a sign they can also post their bad takes and not fear divine retribution.

Anyway if it makes you feel any more hopeful -- things ARE actually changing culturally, at least from what I can tell. Someone mentioned majormoon in the tags of my art that wasn't even shipping the other day, and while the Scott tag itself is still very attached to his wholesomeness, I actually found the sheer number of people being open about reading Scott as toxic at the start of WL quite surprising?? It seems like the Pearl and Ranchers fans especially are very keen to pick him apart, as are the Ethubs fans for some unknown reason I haven't quite figured out yet. It's not quite hit the stage of that discussion being about Scott himself but it's very much acknowledged now when it comes to other narratives.

It's not all just weirdos with rambling text posts like me btw!! My buddy Tubby of the Tarchia variety made a really awesome music video that got fairly popular depicting Jimmy's abuse, albeit in a mostly symbolic way but still fairly blunt with its message imo.

youtube

i have also absolutely seen toxic FH in fics, and would be really curious about reading some of the ones I've seen get complained about in the Scott tag lol.

Scott/Pearl fics are a little rarer and especially so ones that arent plastered with PLATONIC THIS IS PLATONIC all over them but I think it's saying something that they semi recently got runners up in a Scott ship bracket (losing to FH ironically enough) and the mod actually removed the "QPR" specificity after a few rounds. That being said you can still find very shippy fics of them if you know where to look.

Anyway, obviously no pressure eitherway, just giving you the run down of what the view looks like from here. Whoa I made someone's day a bit better. Messing me up.

No stress obviously but I would LOVE to read that arranged marriage AU btw, it's more or less what DL was to me thematics wise. (I've pondered something very similar before but it's more or less just a collection of tropes I like. LL is represented by them being childhood friends)

#asks #punching my pillow

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