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wesleysniperking · 1 month ago

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if i could write well i’d write a fanfic about usopp somehow getting separated from the strawhats and landing on a island where there’s a ton of other black people there.

if he were to stay there for a few days, maybe a week, how much damage could that fix? probably a little bit. but a few people to help him with his hair, to connect him to new sides of blackness, to open up to him and let him indulge in their culture could be sooo good. especially if the culture is based in stuff like inner peace, meditation, spirit cleansing, etc etc. if he could find a sense of inner peace, a way to breathe when he’s scared, a way to stabilize it could help him with his anxiety AND his observation haki. my boy need a week of silence and saging fr. i haven’t quite figured out how the crew would react to a changed/changing usopp yet tho. and i’m totally projecting half of my trip into re-connecting with my blackness onto him(i grew up around black people during but when i was forced to move i was suddenly the only black person in my whole grade. at 16. lowk damaging stuff but my family was still black so i held strong) but everyone projects a little so it’s okay!

tips from black people, being around black people (who in usopp’s case are not trying to kill him) could be sooo goood for him

Okay but now you’ve got me spiraling in the best way. I love your idea of Usopp getting separated from the crew and ending up on an island full of Black people. Just… what that would do for him. Even if it’s just a few days or a week, that could be huge. Not just in helping him feel seen—but in letting him rest, decompress, and connect with a side of himself that he’s never been able to fully explore. Imagine him getting tips on how to care for his hair, finding people who understand him without judgment, and being welcomed into a culture that’s rooted in things like inner peace, meditation, and spirit healing? That alone could help with his anxiety and strengthen his Observation Haki. A week of silence, saging, and soft head pats—please. My boy deserves that badly.

And yeah, I definitely feel you on projecting—it’s not even projection at that point, it’s just relatability. I grew up with my Blackness reinforced by my family too, but when you're suddenly the only one in the room, that shift hits hard. That kind of isolation changes how you move, how you speak, even how you brace yourself. I think that’s exactly why Usopp, out of everyone, would be so in tune with microaggressions and subtle bias—without even trying. Because he lives with that sort of inner radar. He’s been the odd one out from day one.

And honestly, the Straw Hat crew’s reaction to a spiritually recharged Usopp would be hilarious. Nami would probably feel left out. Luffy would be like “Whoa, what’s this vibe? I like it,” but also get weirdly (adorably) jealous. Sanji and Zoro would start beefing over whether or not Usopp’s about to dip and start a new pirate crew. Meanwhile, Robin would casually drop a full dissertation on diasporic identity and Black cultural preservation, and Brook would probably start writing a song about it.

But yeah—being around Black people who aren’t trying to kill him would be such a gift for Usopp. Just safe, affirming energy. People who could say, “Yeah, brotha—you belong here.” I’d read the hell out of that fic if you ever wrote it. Or I might just have to write one with that as the blueprint! You really got me thinking, Anon.

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thebreakfastgenie · 5 months ago

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tbqh I never know what's a standard part of history curriculum in the US because from about 5th grade through 8th grade I was homeschooled for social studies only. The person responsible for my social studies education was my father, a licensed secondary history teacher with a masters degree and all but dissertation PhD in history. This wasn't some fly-by-night Christian thing or weird political agenda. The problem is that my father and I both have ADHD and we ended up doing very informal history education that consisted of going to museums, watching movies, reading books, and stuff like that. We did a couple projects that were more formal like you'd get in school but that was the minority. All of the museums and movies were accompanied by discussion because that was just how my family worked anyway and my father the history teacher with a masters degree in history provided background information and context. The result was that I got a better education than most American kids do in some areas, but other areas just kinda got missed. For example the only thing we ever did related to geography was playing a National Geographic board game incorrectly for fun one time. My dad is the type of neurodivergent finds geography very intuitive so he figured I would learn it organically and didn't think he had to formally teach it to me. Unfortunately I am the kind of neurodivergent who is actually deficient in that type of reasoning and the only way for me to learn it is regular formal practice. With historical topics it's more a matter of what happened to come up and what didn't.

I took formal history classes in high school but because of how my school offered them, two of the three years were US history and the third was European history (the second year of US history and European history were both also taught by my father) so I never had a formal world history class and as a result I'm familiar with some things that get glossed over in your standard world history survey course and a little clueless about some things that are standard topics in that kind of course. I can educate myself about history as an adult but it does leave me kind of like "I don't know enough about standard American history education to dispute that."

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softantlers · 2 months ago

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Seen one too many people on that clock app say Lottie is "white passing" & I need a palate cleanser. If you're comfortable sharing, do you have any headcanons about Lottie dealing with casual racism from her dad, classmates, doctors, rich white people society, etc?

oh white-passing rhetoric -takes a smoke with a thousand yard stare-

tbh i'll put this under a cut because it's a vulnerable topic and i would want it to be interacted with intentionally, more than most of my headcanons/metas wahhhhhh. also honestly because this became an absolute DISSERTATION on how i understand lottie as a character lmaoooo.

yeah so to start, i feel like it's important to mention i speak from a place of being korean/white or white/korean or mostly just tired lol. what that means is that i can relate to lottie's mixed identity in a general sense, as in i understand the baseline dynamics of having a white dad and a mom who isn't white. what i don't feel comfortable (and probably shouldn't be) talking about is lottie's relationship to being māori, only because i'm not native/indigenous & can't speak to that experience + i understand that there can be much different dynamics with being multiracial in a context that's inseparable from ongoing cultural genocide.

what i can speak to though is the experience of not looking "right" -- not looking correctly korean and not looking correctly white & perhaps not looking discernibly "this or that" to anyone about being fucking anything.

i think the weirdness of that might be something lottie would experience, alongside how whack it can feel to have a mixed identity when everyone wants you so desperately to be "this or that" but declaring either side of your identity to appease people feels inauthentic & dysphoric, like cutting off your own arm.

OKAY. that's my spiel. a bit goth of me lol. those are my disclaimers. but otherwise, let's fucking go!

first of all, i suppose there might be a context in the world SOMEWHERE with much different race relations and perspectives on colorism than the US/canada where lottie could (i guess?) be mistaken as only being white. BUT that's genuinely so profoundly out of the context of fuckin' new jersey or yellowjackets, so i think people on that shit are kinda being delusional. people (especially monoracial white people who tend to jump into this discourse like goddamn piranhas and should honestly stfu) need to understand that whiteness is not only a construct but a *moving target*, and within the realm of the white supremacist & western environment we are discussing, lottie would absolutely not experience the world as a white person.

sidebar: thanks for asking me if i was comfortable with this ask btw! one thing i hope you don't mind me pushing back on is that racism is often used as the defining metric of how people experience being "not white." while it's a huge part of it, i also like to think about the good stuff. <3

for one, i am so curious about lottie's relationship with her mom. it might be a complicated one, given that her mom apparently failed to protect her from the trauma of institutionalization but at the same time, my own mom is my absolute north star. i learn so much from her & appreciate her so profoundly, and i see lottie reaching for that relationship just the same. i imagine them having moments apart from her father that are really special, questions about their shared culture that lottie gets to ask. stories about her grandmother that her mom shares with a fond smile. looking at pictures of her mom's family, reconvening with that side of the family & maybe feeling strange and out of place but still a touch closer to being integrated. we don't get any details on this whatsoever in the show, but i also don't think we should assume lottie *isn't* integrated just because the writers don't explore this aspect of her experience.

beyond all this, i also think being mixed would give lottie a much different perspective on being rich than most assume. idk in a lot of fanon i see her characterized as being sort of head-in-the-clouds & not able to relate beyond her experience of wealth, and while that might genuinely be the case in some aspects, i don't really think it's that simple.

when you aren't white or you're mixed, wealth is a different experience imo bc you fundamentally have to face the fact that white people think you don't deserve what you have BECAUSE you aren't white. rather, they think you got where you are through some kind of backdoor and they are fucking pissed about it. (in my experience, while i am not wealthy lmao, i have received opportunities--some of them honestly exploiting my background--which have been written off as diversity tricks by jealous white people.) so like, having something is a bit different & makes you think of yourself differently when you get the message from white people that, actually, YOU--the you YOU are--shouldn't have it.

here's an excerpt from my longfic with what i sort of imagine being the dynamic here (it's a lottienat fic in s2 so more lucid!lottie but it captures how i think she might experience this):

Sensing she wasn’t doing a great job explaining, Lottie shrugged. “I don’t know if I have better words… Not having to worry was a big part of it. But I guess that’s not true either. It’s not like my life is perfect.” She bit her lip, wondering if Natalie would accept that. Or if the chasm between their experiences was too wide. “My dad’s kept a list of colleges and programs for me since I was a kid. You know, pre-law, pre-med, business. If I wanted to… I don’t know? Be a veterinarian or a teacher or an—” Lottie smiled sadly, “—art therapist? It wouldn’t be okay. It wouldn’t happen. I mean, if it did, he’d never talk to me again.”

[...]

Lottie hesitated, cutting a glance to Natalie before forging on with the same gritty determination that kept her trudging through the snow. She wasn’t sure why she was confessing all this… Maybe it was because no one had ever wanted to talk to her about it before. “And people have been… God, they’ve been so fucking racist to my mom. Ever since I was little, people would say the bitchiest things right to her face. Right in front of me.” At this, she avoided looking at Natalie. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to see the probable flicker, the innate defensiveness, that sometimes came to a white person’s face when these topics were touched.

“Then, I got older, and they started saying the same things about me… My mom’s a lawyer. I mean, she didn’t have to marry Malcolm Matthews for a comfortable life.” Lottie grimaced, a familiar frustration turning in her stomach. “Maybe this is all bullshit, you know? Why do we have things other people don’t? I think about that. But the way we look? It’s not a good reason to have less. People just see what they want to see.”

“That fucking sucks, Lot.” When she turned to Natalie, she saw that the hunter’s eyes were downcast. Her jaw had tightened, and there was a familiar expression on her face. Lottie had last seen it when that bitch from the neighboring county hip-checked Nat right off the field during a game last year. Taissa and Shauna had sprung into action, holding the winger back as she hissed and spat so vehemently her opponent was startled all the way back to her own goal post. It was an expression Lottie had come to associate with seething rage. Honestly, she kind of liked seeing it now.

okay now i suppose to get into racism specifically?

there's the mixed staple of "what are you?" followed by people going "what's that?" or "oh, i wouldn't have guessed" or "oh, you actually look like [...]" or "wait, no, let me guess!" which i can't imagine lottie doesn't experience.

there's also the strangeness of having a parent and relatives who, in the grand scheme of colorism and white supremacy, may experience racism a lot differently than you. for my part, i get a lot of the "wasian" weirdness, sort of preferential (but also in the grand scheme, racist) comments that get across exoticism, being fetishized, but that also are jabs at your fucking family and where you come from that make you feel so fucking gross because--on the one hand, is this a privilege? yeah. on the other? you don't fucking want it. (my first tattoo person was a white lady gushing that i looked pretty, like "asian watercolor" whatever the FUCK that means lmaooo with my mom, darker than me, right there... uh, fuck you bitch.)

so i can see lottie experiencing some of that and feeling awful about it. another aspect to this is that when your family experiences racism differently than you, you can sometimes gaslight yourself into believing that you don't experience racism at all. there have been times in my own life where my partner has had to be like... "that sounds like racism" and my ass is like "huhhh? meeee????" but in the end, yeah. so i can see some imposter syndrome coming into play with lottie, maybe discounting how weird comments feel and overlooking her own experience when people say outright malicious shit

there's another aspect to being mixed (specifically with also being white) that could be touched on here i guess. all mixed people deal with the fact that our bodies are sort of public domain--open to be commented on, discussed, and debated by monoracial people. there's not use being bitter about it imo because it's a reflection of different layers of power, privilege, and colorism that needs to be talked about somehow. specific to the experience of also being white is that you often become a sort of confessional booth for white people, who see just enough of themselves in you to offload the weirdest fuckshit you've ever heard in your life. you're not quite enough of one race for them to be totally alienated about confessing their stupid racist thoughts & stereotypes to you. like you're this whispering well for them. it's weird, but it's a consistent dynamic when i talk to people with similar experiences to me...

i don't think i'll go into nastier headcanons on this because idk. we all basically know what racism is and how violent and confrontational and inhumane it is, so i'm sure we can imagine the more explicit stuff. but i do think it's interesting to consider the hopefully more nuanced above & again, this is honestly just my two cents and a healthy degree of projection. i don't claim to be the expert on how lottie might experience race, but i think it's a rich topic and i try to consider these concepts/headcanons/whatever when i'm writing her.

thanks for the ask! it helped me solidify some stuff i've been thinking about

#inbox 🦌#yellowjackets meta #lottie meta

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transthadymacdermot · 1 month ago

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Completely didn't see this until just now so. um. just getting round to it. but story base idea tag from @kudzucataclysm

Rules: share the original base ideas for your WIPs

My main historical fiction project grew out of a different story I was working on last year, but I think that the base idea of the current story was twofold. I've been really into irish history for a while, so much so that I'm planning to specialise in it as an historian, and I've always liked historical fiction, but I've also noticed that while there's a lot of historical fiction about ireland most of it is set in one of about three places during one of about five historical events. so I wanted to make something that explored a topic that I find extremely interesting -- conflict in mid-ulster in the late georgian era -- but which I've seen very little if any fiction about. historical fiction set in what is modern "northern ireland" also tends to focus on, ah, only one very recent period of history and I wanted to show people how interesting the rest of n. irish history can be, since I think a lot of people are more likely to pick up a novel than someone's dissertation.

The plot and the characters are related to this. ig the original idea was to write a story about the IRA -- or to borrow tropes and plot devices from a lot of stories about the IRA -- but set in the 1800s to make some kind of arcane point about how it sucked just as bad to get shot in 1805 as it did in 1975, since a weird number of people seem to consider what would have been the paramilitaries of the 19th century 'better' than the paramilitaries of the 20th or 21st centuries because, idk, the ribbonmen aren't a personal threat to them? a lot of historical fiction suffers from a terminal lack of remembering that people really lived this stuff so I wanted to write a story where the characters do extremely morally questionable things for their cause(s) in a way that is firmly grounded in their period but is also basically relatable to modern readers. like it has always sucked ass to be alive. hello. it did not suck less ass to get a punishment beating in the 1800s because it was the 1800s.

& on that note I could also say that many people's idea of the georgian era is weirdly rose-tinted and I wanted to write a story refuting that. many people look at the early nineteenth century as though it was nothing but a jane austen film irl and they weren't still gibbeting people and I don't like that. and people also rarely ever think about places outside of england or how they lived during the period and I don't like that either. so obviously I'm using a seven billion word long story as a trojan horse to trick people into reading my manifesto against it. lol

Tagging @amielbjacobs @radioregine @chiropteracupola @ganymedian @flock-from-the-void @talesofsorrowandofruin @goldfinchwrites & anyone else who wants to do it 👁️👁️

#basically my story is about being a hater. and history. sigh #peasantsverse #jory.txt #tag game

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the-power-of-stuff · 1 year ago

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The Live-Action Sukka Manifesto that I Just Couldn't Keep in My Head

So I've been marinating in my live-action Sukka thoughts for the past three days, and when someone sent me an anon asking if I had any thoughts about the changes, at first I went, "DO I EVER?!" and proceeded to dump my entire brain on the page.

But then I worried maybe the anon wouldn't want to see my entire brain and figured I'd make my own post with my Many, Many Thoughts, and reel it in a bit when I answer the ask. And then link here if they're interested in the dissertation.

I'll put all the excessive details and spoilery stuff under a cut, but I'll start by saying, I didn't hate it! And I was afraid that I would.

There were things that I was bummed or had mixed feelings about, but there was also a lot that I genuinely enjoyed. All the Sukka interactions were cute and still had some decent character development, and I had fun with the episode overall (I've watched it thrice mind you, and definitely have not given the rest of the series that kind of attention). And I didn't necessarily dislike the differences from the original; I think I've just taken more of a "that was an interesting interpretation" approach.

But I better start that cut now, because I'm about to go on and on about this. I'd love to know what others think, though!! Even if the opinions aren't the same as mine! Please feel free to comment, reblog, shoot me an ask. If nothing else, I'm excited that the LA has gotten people talking about ATLA again.

So, I want to start with Suki’s characterization, which overall I found to be delightful, even if it was a bit of a watered-down version of her animated self.

In the original show, Suki is confident, sassy, and doesn’t take shit from anybody. She’s proud to the point of almost being arrogant, and even a little mean. What we get in the LA is someone who’s still confident in terms of her status and her skills, and still proud of her heritage and her role in her community, but with significantly less sass. And while LA Suki still seems like someone who wouldn’t take anyone’s shit, we don’t actually see LA Suki deal with that much shit from anyone (because Sokka isn’t really giving her any).

There is one moment in the show where her interaction with Sokka is a little contentious, which is when he tries to relate to her as a fellow guardian of his people. I think Suki’s question to Sokka about how is he protecting his village if he’s not there is meant to be a challenge to his swagger. However, the line is delivered with a softness that makes it seem as though Suki is, at least in part, genuinely curious. (This curiosity makes even more sense when we consider the fact that Suki’s eventually going to leave Kyoshi Island so she and her Warriors can take part in the war effort, and that she will have to contend with the question of “how do you do that without abandoning your people?” when coming to that decision. The LA lays a lot more of this groundwork than the animated show did: Suki outwardly expressing her desire to see the world, her mother’s secretive looks every time Suki gazes longingly at Sokka the possibilities…)

Compare these two moments, for example. These are both scenes where Suki expresses disbelief at Sokka's claims about his warrior-hood. But in the LA, Suki speaks rather quietly and mildly, in contrast to the brash sarcasm of her animated counterpart. LA Suki is also tilting her head down and away, looking at Sokka indirectly. OG Suki is leaning in close, getting in his face, smirking derisively with her hands on her hips.

I think there’s something to be said about the LA in general smoothing away certain personality traits that could be seen as negatives but that are actually strengths that are so narratively well-developed they occasionally show up as flaws (for instance, Katara’s fury, or lack thereof). Animated Suki is prideful and stubborn; she berates Sokka until he gives her sad puppy-dog eyes and has zero hesitation about making an example of him in front of her whole class. It’s a little ruthless, but these traits are also 1) what gets through Sokka’s thick skull (he, too, is prideful and stubborn), and 2) what makes her such a dedicated ambassador of Kyoshi and such a strong leader of the island’s Warriors at such a young age. I feel like the LA writers were afraid of making any of the protagonists seem too abrasive—everyone in the LA has had their edges sanded down, including Zuko, including Aang—and in general this tends to lead to less realistic representations of humanity and conflict, less satisfying character development arcs, and fewer opportunities for reflection and learning.

That being said! I went into watching the LA with negative expectations about what we would see in terms of character development, and thus was pleasantly surprised.

The LA removed the need for Suki to be as ruthlessly stubborn as she is in the animated show because LA Sokka’s skull is not so thick (and I'll get into that a bit more later). So what we get instead is a sheltered Suki with a helicopter mom who is so hilariously awkward that she has no idea how to interact with other humans. And, to be honest, I enjoyed this version of her so much that I even thought to myself, “I wish I’d thought of that!”

Suki is a straight-up weirdo in the LA and I love that for her. The way she puts Sokka in a chokehold and then looks at him after she sets him free like, “That was good flirting, yes? Would you like to be my boyfriend now?” And then her disappointment when Sokka walks away as if she’s thinking, “Why didn’t that go well, I thought boys loved getting put in chokeholds?” She is so precious, I just want to put her in my pocket. And this characterization might even be more broadly relatable than a super-confident Suki brimming with sass. Who among us hasn’t made a complete fool of ourselves in front of a crush by coming on way too strong and having no idea how to flirt? I mean…real.

And because Sokka is also mostly just making a fool of himself trying to impress a pretty and talented peer (instead of covering up his insecurities by wrapping himself in misogyny) this leaves room for the two of them to be attracted to each other right off the bat and for their interactions to be more overtly romantic throughout the entire episode. Which, avid shipper that I am, I have to admit I have been gobbling up for the past three days straight. This episode was an IV drip of romantic tropes hooked straight to every Sukka shipper’s veins.

Shy glances from across the room? Check.

Walking in on the other person half-naked? Check. (Y’all, Suki looks Sokka up and down for a FULL TWENTY SECONDS yes I timed it from the moment she appears in the background, yes you should count it to see how long that really is. Talk about awkward.)

Tripping so they end up falling into each other’s arms? Check.

Wide-eyed shock that turns into surprise thirst after being pinned to the ground? Check.

Shooting each other satisfied smirks as they kick ass side-by-side? Check.

Jumping in front of literal fire for each other? Check and check!

Like, I could live off this for the rest of the year.

But look, there’s a lot that I love about the way Sokka and Suki’s relationship is portrayed in this episode besides those romantically indulgent tension-creating moments, and it has to do with Suki’s admiration and validation of Sokka.

Suki really looked at this boy with his mouth stuffed half-full of steamed bun and went, “Must have.”

With the removal of overt sexism from this episode (for better or worse), the story focused much more heavily on Sokka’s development as a leader. He still has that sort of posturing display of self-confidence that comes from inexperience and trying too hard to prove oneself (“Ferociously…deadly tiger whales…”), and while at first Suki seems put off by this and his attempts to liken himself to her (“I’m not just a warrior, I’m a Kyoshi warrior”) it doesn’t take her long to decide (*cough*after seeing him shirtless*cough*) that she doesn’t actually mind this behavior (and in fact maybe she kind of likes it because maybe it means he likes her and maybe it means she can show him how much she likes him by slicing the tops off all those melons with her fan). She seems genuinely interested in his boomerang and impressed that he hunts, and then later, she immediately takes interest in training him in the Kyoshi Warrior style.

After they spar, she casually refers back to the fact that he’s his village’s protector, and this time, she does it without the disbelief and defensiveness. Because he’s finally stopped posturing. He opened himself up and gave himself over to Suki’s expertise, and in that way he proved that he has the will and desire—the heart—of a warrior. And Suki tells him so while touching him gently and gazing at him longingly in the soft golden glow of the late-afternoon sun. And as a die-hard Sokka stan, I love seeing him loved and appreciated like this. Adamantly. Ardently. The Sokka cheerleader in my head is going wild. “YEESSSS!! Our boy deserves this!!” Because we know that, in the animated show, he goes through a lot more struggle and self-doubt before he receives this kind of external validation. And while we also know that this makes for an incredibly satisfying growth arc, I gotta admit that it’s a fun bit of indulgence to watch Suki talk Sokka up directly to his face and then want to kiss him really bad. Y’know. As a treat.

That said, I'm very attached to and appreciative of the way their relationship is framed in the animated series. I love that their respect and affection for each other grows even after the disaster that is their first few interactions. In the LA, they are drawn to each other immediately, and the only barrier seems to be a bit of awkward stepping-in-it-ness. In the original, they have legitimate conflict, and they both have to give a little—Sokka becomes more humble, Suki becomes more tender—before they get to that point of potential romantic interest. And I think it says a lot about Sokka’s character and his desire to learn and grow that he is willing to humble himself in front of someone who, as far as he’s seen, has very little regard for him (slash has a good deal of animosity towards him). Giving himself over to Suki’s expertise costs him more in the animated show. But once he does, he and Suki learn and grow together. He shows Suki who he really is, shows her how dedicated and determined (and fun and a quick learner) he is, to the point that, by the end of the episode, she can allow herself to be vulnerable with him. And she does validate him in the original Kyoshi Warriors episode, just less directly than the LA. Her kiss on his cheek and “...but I’m a girl, too” is about forgiveness and acceptance and acknowledgement and respect, as much as or even more than it is about affection. There’s a little bit of romance, too, but it’s just little baby seeds of it, and it feels very natural to let those seeds germinate over time until we see Suki again later in the series.

Which brings me to the live-action kiss.

I’ll be honest, I was a little on the fence about the kiss. I want Sokka and Suki to kiss as much as possible in every conceivable universe. So there’s a part of me that was banging on the table and whistling with obscene joy. But the other part of me thought it was too much too soon. However, my hesitance pre-supposes some things about the second season (not least of which that there will be one), namely that it will handle the reunion with Suki and crossing the Serpent’s Pass anything like how it was done in the original. (Of course, one thing we now know for certain can't happen in a hypothetical LA season 2 is Suki pranking Sokka at the ferry station because he doesn't recognize her without her makeup. Do I love the expression on LA Sokka's face the first time he sees Suki's? Yes. Am I sad that this completely ruins their whole "You don't remember me? Maybe you'll remember this!" game? Also yes. But truthfully, I don't know if LA Suki would've been up to the prank, anyway. Not sassy enough. ;))

The Serpent’s Pass is one of my favorite episodes of all time, and that moment on the bluffs when Sokka and Suki are talking around Sokka’s loss, with the moon shining down on them all the while, and they almost kiss with the moon hanging between them in the background, and then Sokka pulls away without any other explanation besides, “I can’t”? That scene is so absurdly powerful and beautiful and an amazing moment of character development for them both, and I feel like it loses a lot of impact if they’ve already made out once. The fact that they kiss for the first time after that moonlit moment, when Sokka realizes that Suki doesn’t need protecting the way he thought she did, and in fact she was there to protect him, and he can finally just let go of this burden that he’s been carrying with him since Suki first mentioned she was joining them (slash since his dad put him in charge of an entire village at 13), and then and only then can he open his heart to what he feels for Suki, and in fact opens it so wide that he just cannot help but jam his mouth onto hers before she’s even finished talking…? I mean. C’mon. That’s poetry. But, again…loses impact if they’ve already had a first kiss.

But who knows what, if anything, they’ll actually do with that storyline. So for now, I’ll just enjoy my live-action Sukka kiss because, honestly, dream come true.

Or almost a dream come true. Because there's a huge camelephant in the room that I haven't addressed yet, isn't there? The lack of Sokka in the Kyoshi Warrior uniform...

And I don’t think we can talk about the omission of Sokka’s Kyoshi Warrior uniform without talking about the omission of Sokka’s sexism. Because if Sokka isn’t sexist, then why do you have to put him in the dress and makeup of traditionally female warriors to make a point about how women are strong and capable, too? So here’s what I’ll say about that (and I know there’s a lot that people have said already, so I’ll try not to belabor the point.) I don’t think leaving out Sokka’s sexism was necessarily a detriment to his character arc. I do think, however, that leaving out Sokka’s sexism was a detriment to the message the show was trying to convey about sexism.

Now, in the Northern Water Tribe episodes, the LA still gives us a message about fighting against the kind of systemic, institutionalized sexism that you might not be surprised to encounter within a very old-fashioned society or from a very old-fashioned gray-haired man. But what about the off-the-cuff, everyday kind of sexism that you might experience from an otherwise good person who is close to you? A person who loves you and would do anything for you but who gets carried away teasing you about “girly” things because of intrinsically-held biases that they’re not even that conscious of having?

I think it’s important and meaningful for male and female audiences alike, and everyone in between, to see these different forms of sexism and misogyny—to see them, to recognize those behaviors in others and in ourselves, to be able to name them, and to have examples of fighting against them. We see the former kind—institutionalized, systemic—in Pakku. And we did see the latter kind—familiar, personal—in Sokka. And now that’s lost.

Not only that, but there’s the form of sexism that says boys aren’t allowed to do feminine things lest they relinquish their maleness. And in the animated show, we got to see Sokka combating this form of sexism, too. Not only does Suki show him that girls can be fierce warriors as well as boys, but he learns that wearing makeup and a dress does not make him any less of a young man.

So, yes, I think the lack of Sokka in Kyoshi Warrior garb was a missed opportunity. And not just because Sokka looked really good in uniform and we all should have had the chance to see that, including and especially Suki.

Alright, this is more than long enough, so I'll leave off with a moment from the LA that gave me great pleasure.

I needed this moment, y'all. And I was so afraid it wouldn't happen. I needed Sokka being protective, I needed him using his newfound Kyoshi Warrior skills to fight, and I needed him jumping in front of fire for the girl who'd taught him. If we couldn't have Sokka in the Kyoshi Warrior uniform, at least we had this.

#natla #natla spoilers #sukka #live action atla #netflix atla #spoilers #sokka x suki #suki x sokka #gifs #my gifs #sukka gifs #meta #sukka meta #analysis

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crescencestudio · 10 months ago

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Is there anything non-spoilery you can tell us about the fae worldbuilding you have? I had an idea for a fic with a faerie oc but I have no idea what kinda lore to give them sdjfvbsjkd

if not thats totally okay i'll just make something up LOL congratulations on (almost) graduating by the way! I know your break won't be for resting but I hope you're still able to find the time to relax a little and can come back refreshed. Good luck!!

this is so late anon im so sorry KDSOOS the queue is backed up w all the messages yall have been sending (i am thankful for them it just takes me a while to get to ppl's messages now). hopefully this still helps u!!!

also thank u for the congrats and everything 🥲 i have Not had any time to relax since ive been trying to desperate crank this thing out..... for context ppl usually write their dissertation over the span of a couple months and i am trying to do it in the span of a couple weeks if that tells yall anything about how close to the sun i am trying to fly LDLOSOS but im hoping after i finish everything, ill be able to enjoy the Greatest Break to ever enter this plane of existence

anyways....

✨ Fae Lore

there are two courts to the fae! one is called the dawn court and the other is called the dusk court. the dawn court draws its magic from the sun and other related elements. i often associate it with warm and/or yang elements (like yin and yang). so fire and air elements.... spring and summer seasons.... even colors like red and orange and yellow and stuff.... things like that!

dusk court draws its magic from the moon and other related elements. so i associate with with colder and/or yin elements. so water and earth elements..... fall and winter seasons..... and colors like blue, purple, and other darker cool colors.

i think that's all i can rly tell u before i start diving into spoiler territory. ik it's not much KDKSKA but literally everything else i a spoiler LSLSLA

#alaris #asks #anon

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sout999 · 11 months ago

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adhd talk

the third truly unsung project alongside my film and dissertation was the weird amount of targeted effort i had to put into Completing Anything Big As A Neurodivergent Person Whose Brain Is A Crazy Off The Rails Train Staffed and Patronised Entirely By Multiple Exact Copies Of The Squirrel From Ice Age

which is a description like 99/100 people reading this can relate to, but i think a sentiment i see less often and therefore feel kind of stupid and stubborn and lonesome about is "adhd is innate but is also exasperated by hectic lifestyle/modern instant gratification machines so if i fix my habits around those i can cure myself forever". which is silly and wrong but also i feel abit disconnected from adhd social media culture and cant cope just relating to it (which is all it seems to be sometimes) but learning to harness or tame it to do the things that are really important to me

i felt really cringe tbh having to look up youtube videos of HARVARD STUDENT REVEALS PRO STUDY TRICK and then narrowing it down to specifically adhd-focused study videos and keeping a planner and setting aside specific time to study studying and practising anti-academic meltdown journaling techniques and reading fucking atomic habits but i really didn't want to contribute to my abhorrent academic record following me all through undergrad. in fact i wish i had done this sooner but i was not self aware enough to consider the fact

probably the best change i made was severely cutting down or being mindful of social media time, i don't backread my tl anymore and have more moments of awareness when i find myself dumbly scrolling and realize i dont want to be doing this, and then wondering what i actually Do want to be doing. i keep a book nearby to read, and have also swapped a lot of social media time to sketching-off-pinterest time. reading about the psychology behind social media apps is also super interesting, although i always feel like a paranoid wacko conspiracy theorist talking about it. stuff like how negativity and judgemental behaviour is good for engagement (and therefore ad revenue), and how if all posts on your tl were interesting you wouldn't be as addicted to social media as you are, therefore microblogging employs a slot machine/gacha system where you "roll" for posts by logging on and hope to get a good one. it's a little full on but the more i think of it as a revolting and evil machine the more incentive i have to do something else with my time ^q^

a harder thing to do was, in the late stages of the project, the real crunch time month, avoid everything that could become a huge hyperfixation, and then eventually even minor distractions or fixations. because i know if i got super obsessed with something i'd just be up posting about it or drawing fanart. i had to bar myself from persona 3 remake and elden ring dlc and all these other shiny new releases, and the mobile games i was playing... i look forward to catching up on them now. i took up reading books a lot more because unfortunately thats just not as exciting. in the last month of film work i stopped listening to music on my computer so i wouldnt get drawing or animation ideas to distract me from film work. as of writing this i havent listened to music in like 40 days guys 😱 at the same time i am the kind of person who needs background noise to work, so i have:

watched novum's four hour hereditary video essay three times

watched novum's seven hour midsomar video essay three times

watched that one five hour bojack horseman retrospective twice

listened to audiobooks of the Britney Spears biography, Jennette McCurdy biography, three Playboy Bunny biographies (i was on some sort of lady bopgraphy kick i guess), and a few fiction books

rewatched all of bojack horseman

started on House MD and got a few seasons in before i finished the project, amazingly the perfect show to look away from bc of all the medical stuff, how many lumbar punctures do you need to show like seriously

honorable mention to the learned skill of communication and being honest and picking your battles and killing your darlings which is a larger part of managing mental illness than i cared to admit but one of the hardest ones because it involved confronting things and making big painful drastic changes and then having to tell the faculty about them. sometimes i'd be stuck on a piece of animation work for weeks/months, then go back and change the underlying idea to one i'm actually passionate about, and do the animation work in one day using newly found magical hyperfocus passion power. it's crazy! but being able to be confident about taking those steps rather than keeping on with what you're "supposed" to do went a long way.

i very much look forward to listening to a music and playing some video games properly now and being pulverized like a small victorian child from the sheer amount of fun i'm having. i'd say it was all worth it and a fun experiment in channeling the magical humours of passion and boredom and i hope it will help me with future projects too. i Am super burnt out though x__ x thanks for reading and for all your support up until now!

#pppepep

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yamayuandadu · 10 months ago

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I realized I forgot to post my second critical evaluation of Touhou-adjacent Matarajin hot takes meant to be a followup to this ask response a few months ago. Sorry. Time to remedy that.

My current lack of enthusiasm for Okina = Hata no Kawakatsu fan material comes from a somewhat similar place as my disdain for the reddit hot takes about Okina being Okuninushi (though it is obviously less severe). However, I’ll stress that this idea actually goes back to ZUN, instead of being a weird fanon invention - Kawakatsu comes up in the interview.

More under the cut.

ZUN calls Kawakatsu “part of her [Okina’s] true nature” (as a side note, 0 idea what the interviewer means by claiming Kawakatsu has some special connection to komainu; I guess everything at least vaguely Korean is interchangeable?). The fact he refers to Okina “a god of silkworm breeding” in her bio and the dupion spell card seem like Kawakatsu nods, too - Matarajin has nothing to do with sericulture. ZUN’s statements, and the references to the tokoyo no kami episode in the game itself, led to a common fan idea that Okina is Kawakatsu outright - I’ve even seen weird theories about Okina being deified Kawakatsu.

In reality there is no source presenting Matarajin as a deification of a real or at least legendary person; he might be a yaksha, a dakini, a “regular” Buddhist deity, even a fox (in a single relatively late source, but hey) but evidently not a deified human (the closest you can get is the speculation about Matarajin being perceived as a tengu). There is also no source directly equating Matarajin and Kawakatsu with each other save for one specific oddity. Konparu Zenchiku in Meishuku Shū identifies Kawakatsu as one of the manifestations of an universal deity he refers to as shukujin, a label which is sometimes applied to Matarajin elsewhere. However, he at no point mentions Matarajin. His disciple Zeami then went further, equating Matarajin with Daikōjin, who is in turn identified as Kawakatsu, but, once again, we are dealing with fundamentally supernatural Kawakatsu, not with the deification of a person. The references are essentially implicit, and we’re dealing with “both might be aspects of a single person’s highly personalized idea of an universal deity”, not “it’s widely agreed figure a is figure b”. For what it’s worth, much more recently Sujung Kim did suggest a network encompassing Matarajin, various Silla-related deities (like Shinra Myōjin), the okina mask, the Hata clan and Kawakatsu specifically in her dissertation (Transcending Locality, Creating Identity: Shinra Myōjin, a Korean Deity in Japan; p. 204-205) but I haven’t really seen other authors bring this up, and she didn’t include a similar section in her subsequent Shinra Myōjin monograph if my memory serves me well. In her case it’s also not as straightforward as “Kawakatsu = Matarajin”, and crucially Shinra Myōjin, Matarajin’s actual Korean connection, is acknowledged; ZUN never brings him up and neither do any fan theories.

My other problem is that most of the Kawakatsu stuff is, frankly, boring. This is a bigger issue I have with the Asuka period Touhou aus though, tbh; nobody is adapting the stuff with immortal monks with laser eyes, immortality elixirs and Mononobe no Moriya being Devadatta, even though THAT’S the core of Shotoku legends. The equation with Kawakatsu essentially takes the complexity of Matarajin away since nobody interprets him the way Zenchiku and Zeami did, he’s consistently just a guy in Touhou hcs as far as I can tell. And that’s a bit boring. Especially when it effectively overshadows entire networks with liver-eating demons, underworld clerks, star deities, and Susanoo on top.

There’s also the question whether there is all that much Kawakatsu material to adapt in the first place. Can’t really do anything with the menreiki origin legend because it’s been done already, without Okina (I do think that was a mistake, but I doubt ZUN has even a slight idea that Okina will exist some day when he wrote Kokoro’s arc). The popular Edo period legend casting him as a reincarnation of Qin Shi Huang, while really fun, is not exactly easy to reconcile with any Matarajin background. There’s more promising material like legends considering him a manifestation of Bishamonten or Kōjin (under the name Ōsake Daimyōjin) but these require acknowledging the Matarajin connection is basically nonexistent.

#japanese miscellanea

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funishment-time · 11 months ago

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For the ask game I'm asking several questions ^^

15 through 18, 31, 63, 74, and 99

(from this ask game...i assume!)

15.) Favorite Research Lab?

i want to cozy up in Shuichi's. but in terms of pure Jesus Christness it's probably Rantaro's. all the stuff to look at, man...

16.) Favorite Game End?

UDG takes the top spot. it's wonderful that Toko is the only character in the entire franchise that gets an unequivocally happy ending. DR1 is a close second, because nothing can beat the Intense Energy of Junko in the last 2 hours of her life, and the Super-Duper High School Level Despair-inducing Punishment

17.) Least Favorite Game End?

my Basic Bitch Answer is v3. just didn't sit right with me

18.) Favorite In-Game Moment?

ough! this is hard to choose. but if i had to choose just one...

31.) Hated Murder Plan?

love Celeste, hate that she lied about Taka assaulting her to bring out Hifumi's misguided sense of chivalry and cause The Whole Shebang

63.) A Character You Relate To But Hate Anyways?

i don't have a character that i truly hate. however, there are certainly characters to whom i relate...and i hate that i relate. Hajime is one. love Hajime, hate that i totally get where he's coming from all the time, despise that at his age i probably would have happily skipped right into the Kamukura Machine too

74.) Unpopular Opinion?

UDG is Kodaka's masterpiece. (i think that's the only unpopular opinion i can share that won't get 30 dissertations sent to me about it)

99.) An Overrated Ship Which Is Your NOTP

ooh, i don't think i have one that's overrated and a NOTP. i think plenty are one or the other, but not both, i don't think

#danganronpa #ultra despair girls #danganronpa 1 #trigger happy havoc #toko fukawa #shuichi saihara #rantaro amami #hajime hinata #junko enoshima #celestia ludenberg

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castlebyersafterdark · 4 months ago

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What do you make of claims where people say that "girls"/"women" only ship m/m pairings / or say, Byler, because they fetishize gay pairings/people?

Do you personally care about this sort of issue in fandoms, Vinny? Or does it fall in line with puritan culture that we've discussed? (I'm a woman who ships all kinds of things, but I do ship a lot of m/m ships, and not "wholesomely," I enjoy smut and the sexual intimacy we herald here haha. It makes me question why I do, but at the end of the day, Byler is just such a good ship. Why wouldn't I enjoy reading and fantasizing about them?)

Idk where I was going with this, but yeah! I love your blog Vinny, thank you for holding this wonderful space where we can kiki about our boys and other fun stuff 💖🥹👉🏼👈🏼

First off for a little light-hearted humor - in all my years in fandom, lesbians have written some of theeeee hottest m/m fanfics in existence, so I always put respect on our diverse make-up of fans in fandom heeehee (one day I hope to return the favor but I keep chickening out!! One day!). We also must always thank the Star Trek fans in the 60s who kickstarted a lot of things. They just wanted those spacemen to bang in their glittery polyester uniforms and we love them for that. Respect our mothers.

That out of the way - this is a nuanced, somewhat complicated subject and one that's interesting to dive into. Since I've been in fandom for a while, since I'm a gay man in a hobby that some view as one that is predominantly female leaning - definitely queer leaning in this sort of fandom environment at least, I'm always wary of strictly adhering to fandom statistics when I'm unsure of realistic numbers. What makes a fandom? Varies from social media to social media, from creative work to work. But - looking at at least one source kind of supports these statistics.

I'll admit I googled this and only skimmed this page but it at least was a conversation in depth between fandom women about the appeal of M/M pairings so maybe that's insightful??

I think... there's mostly genuine interests and intentions in fandom shipping. I like that a wide variety and demographic are supportive towards all sorts of love stories. Is there a fetishization angle? Perhaps, sometimes. But is there not the same when someone like me is reading/writing smut of these same characters to an extent? There's nuance there, too. How are you treating REAL LIFE gay men is the issue. How are you treating sexuality and sexual interests of authentic, real gay men? It's like when straight men watch "lesbian" porn. That's not realistic to real lesbians. Ok, so they like women, they are attracted to women, they like the thought of women having sex with each other. But what about women NOT catered to the straight male interest in a studio adult film? Are you normal about them, do they have agency, are you advocating for them to live their lives and have whatever type of sex THEY want?? Hmmm? This is simplifying the issue but I don't have time to write a real dissertation.

The part that gives me pause is definitely related to the current trends in the sanitized mindset and what we call "purity culture" so often. It removed the reality of real gay relationship and sands everything down to the point where I feel - why do you care to ship these two men if you are denying them the reality of what their sexuality affords them? Not everyone has to read or write hardcore smut and that's fine, maybe you're only there for the romance of it all - but to DENY and scold and judge those who have that interest, who try to police everyone, who think it's dirty and inappropriate and all of that - THAT'S the problem and I have to say - it stings coming from non-gay men. Because it gives people like me pause and realize that if they have this mindset for fictional characters, then this has to also be how they view real life gay men. It's not a huge leap.

It does veer into weird territory - sometimes feeling like the veneer of progressiveness as if fandom was activism (it so rarely is) and I do wonder WHY these people care about a ship at all if it's just about cutesy wholesome stuff and that alone while demonizing the reality of sexuality. I'm starting to repeat myself. Unfortunately, I don't think there's an easy answer and it's a "you know it when you see it" situation, person to person. Because then there's the thing I also see in fandom, not unique to this fandom, where for all intents and purposes, the fan is all in on M/M ships and even supports and enjoys explicit content. Ok. But then... oh, something is off. We can all like what we like but vocally being very hmm kind of kink-shamey? About things that are very integral and common in gay sex? I've seen that with certain sex acts being called gross or that they hate when fics include certain elements and it ends up honestly disrespectful and that's where I also take pause like... ok you could have just not posted and harped on this again, because now you're reminding me of the straight men who watch the really unrealistic and negatively fetishy lesbian porn. If that at all makes sense.

This was kind of all over the place but I hope it makes sense!!! At the end of the day - I love all the variety in fandom and I recognize that there's a lot of women and queer people here, and that's a cool thing. I love when I meet fellow guys as well because we're all out here!! I think so many of us are just nerds, and nerds who love love and have imaginations bigger than the source material can satisfy - and that's ultimately what brings us together across gender and age and location and sexuality. A desire to explore the human condition.

Thank you for hanging out and the kind words!!

❤️🫶

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morvantmortuary · 5 months ago

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hi! I'm relatively alive

my brain's been a little preoccupied bc we're back in louisiana, but my brother's been dealing with the fires out in LA (he and his fiancee are fine, they had to evacuate for two days but their place is unburnt) so I've been a bit distracted.

but I started physical therapy today for some internal stuff, which I'd been putting off for a long time (both for insurance reasons and for. just. anxiety bc it's related to a bit of totally accidental medical trauma from my childhood that my brain totally acknowledges was an accident but my body still goes "!!!!!" under certain circumstances in contexts even outside a medical setting, and it's really not ideal).

and it went okay!! my therapist is really nice (and was wearing a pride flag on their lanyard, which made me feel loads better being, y'know, Down Here) and it didn't totally suck pain-wise. tiny!Maxi was kind enough to join me in the actual evaluation room while the others waited in my bag, which was helpful.

today was the first day of the new semester, so I'm back to work in earnest tomorrow. I'm actually in a weekly seminar this semester that's dedicated to dissertation writing, so I'm hoping that'll help me speed things along and like, actually fucking finish soon. :'D forced deadlines + body doubling with my equally miserable comrades = success!

...but also. the emerging voices fellowship I applied for last year w/ a sample of the mortuary and didn't get is open again. and I know I was really discouraged last time when I didn't...

but they say that people are welcome to apply again.

and what's the worst they could do? tell me 'no?' which they already did? 👀

Idk. it's not due until the end of the month, and I have until then to think about it. but it is tempting.

anyway! that's all from here. here's hoping everyone else is hanging in there too :'D 🖤

#and then rarae says

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lurking-latinist · 1 year ago

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re: these tags

THAT'S SO COOL AHHHH!! good for you aubreyad community stays winning

[introducing this with a disclaimer in case i'm wrong about everything: i am only halfway through the series rn (just about to finish 10) and also am but a mere undergrad classics major who has yet to even declare said major and I probably don't have the right to be yapping about propertius. nevertheless i shall.]

anyway i have been growing persistently more insane about diana's proximity to a Lot of classical imagery, like how her first appearance in post captain is literally during a fox hunt + all the gender stuff she has going, obviously linking her to mythological diana (and artemis if we're going to conflate the two) but your take has sent me in a whole new direction with that-- because she doesn't actually really embody the artemis archetype all too much overall (an emphasized character trait being that she's notably Not Chaste) EXCEPT in relation to stephen, w/ whom her relationship is much more brotherly than it is sensual i guess?

which would align very well with your idea of diana as elegiac puella-- sort of in a way being mythologized by stephen-- resulting in the reader actually being able to see two different manifestations of her character (one through the eyes of an omniscient prosaic narrator and one through the perspective of stephen as a "poet" figure). and i just think that's neat.

my latin class has also been looking at a few of propertius' love elegies and, at least to me, they read a lot like if stephen 1.) hated himself significantly less and 2.) were less indecisive in writing about his Feelings?? 1.8 (and all of the poems concerning cynthia moving/traveling away and propertius being all moody about it) is very reminiscent of the arc from post captain to the surgeon's mate imo. 1.12 is also Literally Him-- "cynthia prima fuit cynthia finis erit" can be compared to stephen's poetic catastrophizing about how his life is Literally Over and Love Is Dead when he believes to have fallen out of love with diana!?!? i'm going to lose my mind.

sorry for dumping all of this on you unprompted and also sorry for the fact that it probably does not make sense. peace and love

if undergrad classicists don't talk about propertius literally WHO WILL. (genuinely my currently-being-written phd dissertation chapter is based on an idea I had in the class I read propertius in freshman year. never feel like you're not a 'real scholar' or something yet, because you honestly never do become something different, you just keep reading and talking and this is what we do! there's nothing realer than this!)

oh wow that's really well put--we kind of get to see her from an omniscient-narrator perspective and through the eyes of her lover who is Not Being Normal About Her. very nice!

yeah I keep reading bits of propertius and being like "hmm is po'b going to quote this one I wonder." (he doesn't mostly but I keep thinking he should. because I want the aubreyad to be denser and less accessible I guess? :P) there's a lot of catullus woven in too of course - I associate Catullus 72 with the 'falling out of love' arc (my dude that is not what falling out of love looks like).

oh gosh yes 1.8 -- that was one of the things I was trying to describe to Distinguished Classicist, the way she's so -- what's the word I want? not volatile... she disappears. she's constantly Gone. you turn around and oops, she's eloped to Sweden. (honestly though if Cynthia and Propertius could manage to have *fake* revenge affairs that would actually be *great*, for them that would be an improvement.) Gareth Williams (in a chapter called, amazingly, "From Grave to Rave") describes Cynthia as "ever only elusively visible in the narratological mist" and I feel like that's a bit what's going on with Diana. For her there's a genre element as well--she's a woman in the Men Going to Sea books, and even though the Aubreyad gives way more time to women than the average Men Going to Sea book, the fact is the camera frequently simply isn't on her. We see far more of Stephen thinking about her, hearing rumors, etc. than we do of her actually being on the page. Now in elegy nobody seems to be quite fully on the page, we only get "fragments of story" as Genevieve Liveley and Patricia Salzmann-Mitchell say (excellent collection by that name btw, I recommend checking it out if you're at all interested in narrative and lyric/elegy). But Diana manages this while being in a novel, which is impressive to me.

yeah stephen as a character is a lot more... self-reflective? than propertius' speaker. for one thing he's in a novel, I think, so he can actually... have a series of contiguous experiences. he's also a compulsive diarist which is helpful for self-reflection I guess. and more mature, like, as a human being, than propertius' speaker, who apparently does nothing with his life except be in love and write poetry, he doesn't exist outside of as a poetic voice whereas, again, stephen benefits from a third-person narrator and has medicine and spying to do and so on. also he's Catholic.

I love the "Catullus-and-water" line, it's like O'Brian just put in a little wink to those of us who would notice this, like, "yes I am doing this on purpose." All in all I've pretty much defaulted to assuming that O'Brian is doing things on purpose. although he did forget Babbington's first name that one time and retconned it very awkwardly

#aubreyad #aubrey-maturin #dissertationblogging

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