#or oftentimes

[monocordum]

As a fellow Italian, I could tell LONG stories about politicians who were misunderstood by EVIL media and who reduced journalism to a juxtaposition of quotes, because interpretation is hard, yo. And the Ghost of Berlusconi Past can't stop me is still among us :-(

what do you mean elon musk did a nazi salute on live tv at the united states presidential inauguration twice and is now erasing the evidence off the internet by replacing the footage with the crowd cheering instead?

would be a shame if people reblogged this, wouldn’t it?

[maerhiya]

i firmly believe that A LOT of people are actually under the aromantic and/or asexual spectrum and they just don't know it yet

[artbyblastweave]

To be a cynical bastard for a minute- I like Terry Pratchett, I think Terry Pratchett was a good writer, and I think that Terry Pratchett can rightfully be claimed to have been deliberately pursuing empathetic and progressive messaging in a way that sometimes reads like straw-grasping cope when the claim is applied to other writers. But lets be real; the reason he's almost universally beloved on here, and the reason his corpus has dodged getting scrutinized to pieces in the same way as so many other nerd tentpole IPS, is that he died about a decade ago when many of us were children or teenagers, and the dead can't sully their own reputation. The Dead have whatever opinion you need them to have regarding recent developments. The Dead Can't Write and the Dead Can't Tweet Shit That Makes You Go Back And Re-Evaluate Their Other Shit

[khattikeri]

another specific thing i love about mxtx's books is that they all have scenes that EASILY could've been romanticized rape if written by someone else, but she purposely avoids playing it straight.

we have the land of the tenders, a classic "aphrodisiac flowers" scenario. hua cheng (as hong'er) could've forced himself on xie lian in the name of "serving his prince." xie lian could've simply succumbed and forced himself on hong'er, or reluctantly asked him to "help." xie lian instead stabs himself and fights through the agonizing pain without touching hong'er at all, because hong'er was a teenage boy.

we have phoenix mountain, where wei wuxian is blindfolded and alone in a relatively deserted area, weakened unbeknownst to anyone else because he no longer has a golden core. and true enough, lan wangji pins wei wuxian down and forces a kiss on him. but lan wangji also immediately, viscerally regrets it. he runs away so furious with himself he starts punching trees. he never once does anything like it again until wei wuxian is resurrected and purposely, consensually provokes him into things like that.

finally, we have scum villain, and all its intricately twisted, overlapping power dynamics. i truly do mean the vast majority of the novel. there are SO many times where either shen qingqiu or luo binghe could've forced themselves on the other. and unlike mxtx's other books, scum villain does have a mutually nonconsensual sex scene where luo binghe is under the influence of dark, corrupt magic and shen qingqiu is unable to fight back because of system transmigration sci-fi shit.

however, unlike many other nonconsensual danmei sex scenes, this one is intentionally written to be extremely unsexy. the narration bluntly says it hurt for shen qingqiu. luo binghe, a fairly manipulative person, is sincerely distraught and in tears when he regains his senses. they both hated it equally and the story doesn't handwave that away. neither of them get horny over it. luo binghe especially loathes remembering it. after they get together, whenever shen qingqiu so much as furrows his brows during sex, luo binghe canonically stops.

the way mxtx plays around with and toes the line of consent tropes may not be comfortable for everyone to read, but i enjoyed her stories even more for it.

[aceissomunster]

discowing + jaybin ! press for quality

txtless + ref under the cut

ignore my horrible art please i drew this on ibis paint x with my finger and the soft felt tip pen brush. and my crappy penmanship.

[mjec]

whatever purpose i have in life, divine or fated, considered or chaotic, i can promise you my purpose is not to be fucking economically productive

[flowerbloom-arts]

Change is a two-way street.

(Is my favoritism towards the Damsel obvious enough, or?)

note: TLQ [aka my sona Bloombird] is a butch sapphic and this is yuri

[kindofabastard]

"all trans men have to do to pass is-"

I started smoking way too young because I heard another trans guy mention it in a "passing tips" video as something that might make your voice more masculine sounding (it didn't work)

[carbscartoons]

Thought I'd just post all the parts together!

Featuring: Jon realizing this man actually knows what the fuck he's doing. The obvious course of action after realizing this is to immediately think he's going to kill him.

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

When the mysterious and powerful creature is referred to with he/him pronouns: Yeah, alright! That's nice.

When the mysterious and powerful creature is referred to with she/her pronouns: OHOHOHO!!!! YES!!!!! YES YES INDEED!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!

[casmick-consequences]

I don't care how the rest of the season goes, I don't care how awful the fights are gonna be, I don't even care how relationships are gonna evolve and devolve from here; this will always be a forever feel-good rewatch moment for me.

It's just SUCH a genuine feeling of "hey we're all in this together and even though we all have our different styles of drag it doesn't mean we can't celebrate and enjoy each others art bc that's what drag is all about"

I love this. I love Suzie. I'm SO glad she got to have this moment.

[littencloud9]

“top/bottom dynamics matter extremely to me because the sex dynamic changes the regular dynamic of the characters to fit into traditional BL roles and i only believe in one” i don’t know how to explain how much of a skill issue that is on your part

[auradastler]

My one problem with "Humanity Fuck Yea" and "Humans are Space Orcs" is that in order to make humans the most specialest guys in the known universe all other aliens are either dumbed down or have literally zero culture/personality.

Like... what do you mean not a single species/culture other than humans tried cooking and clothing?? The things that let humans develop sapience in the first place (cooking) and made it possible for them to spread to every corner of our planet (clothing). Am I supposed to believe that all other planets have no different climate zones? Or that noone thought to season their food, ever?

Like... have aliens be weirded out by actual weird stuff that would realistically vary wildly between species instead of stuff that is almost fundamental if you want me to believe the other aliens to actually have some sort of cultural identity. Or even better: Have humans be weirded out by some cultural norms of the aliens!

Basically: Please flesh out your aliens beyond "is basically a computer programm designed to do every biological function as efficiently as possible"

[fisheito]

what sort of twisted powerplay is this

[mamawasatesttube]

tbh as much as i also dislike sanitization and therapy speak in my fiction of choice, i do think it's very possible to make healthy relationships that are deeply compelling. it's just down to the skill of the writer when it comes to engaging characterization. unhealthy or generally fucked up dynamics do not always make something interesting, and by that same token, healthy doesn't always equal boring. just look at clois, or howl and sophie movingcastle (specifically book edition). it's totally possible for a positive and stable dynamic to be fascinating! the trick is that the characters generally just need to have Something Else wrong with them <3

[bvckbiter]

smth crucial to how i like interpreting ethan's character is that ethan is actually a late straggler to joining the army. demigods were joining the titan army as early as sea of monsters (so presumably luke had been recruiting since he left camp in tlt) so why the delay on ethan's part? hesitance?

it's also implied that he left chb years ago, so he must've spent time in the mortal world before the fateful meeting with his mother where she took his eye. makes you wonder how that journey of deciding to offer his life to the titan army's cause went. i have a few ideas and it involves OUR DEAR MR. NAKAMURA

all in all, i think he's always been suspicious/dubious of institutions in general. just because he disliked chb doesn't mean he was gung-ho to immediately join the revolution, much less out of loyalty to one particular figure (luke, as some might interpret); in tlo, ethan has a very matter-of-fact "no one is righteous" view on the war. if there's a particular individual ethan is truly loyal to on the level of ideals, it's his mother; his fealty to anyone else (kronos) is more out of fearful necessity than genuine subservience.