#relevant;musing

[lucabyte]

even dogs pass the mirror test

[buggachat]

Sometimes I think about how Adrien, throughout the series, constantly grapples with his fear of abandonment. Gabriel conditioned him to believe that any love he receives is purely transactional, and that to earn affection he has to prove his utility. Adrien is constantly trying to prove his worth to his father for scraps of affection, and Chat Noir infamously crumbles on-screen any time he feels as though he is replaceable to Ladybug. It's a constant insecurity of his, like everyone will just dump him like a sack of potatoes the moment they find out how useless he is.

Meanwhile, all Marinette wants to is ensure that Adrien is happy. Because she loves him. She doesn't give two shits about how """useful""" he is. She holds him and tells him that she will never abandon him (both as Ladynoir and as Adrienette), and her fantasies are about saving him, not about him being "useful" to her. Throughout their relationship, Adrien is forced to disappoint Marinette constantly for reasons outside of his control (amok commands), and yet Marinette is still there for him.

At Adrien's lowest point, when he is forcibly torn away from everyone who had ever showed him genuine care, locked away in an all-white room and at his most "useless", right after disappointing Marinette and unable to even join the final battle or contribute in any way, she still saves him. She still loves him. Because he doesn't have to prove anything to her. Because he is loved and cherished for who he is, not for what he does, and that love is not conditional. Adrien's "happy ending" at the end of the first arc wasn't about him finally proving how useful he can be, because he never actually cared about being useful — he just saw it as the only means to feel loved and needed. Instead, in the end, he found out that he was loved and needed no matter what.

[madamemiz]

"how do you smooch a robot with a flat face lol what do you get out of it they can't kiss you back"

LISTEN

it's not about whether they can kiss you back! it's about the intent!! it's about the passion!!! this being that shouldn't be able to feel love or want or desire does, and they feel it for YOU! and they're expressing that in the clearest way they're able! for you!!!

and trust me, when your stomach is fluttery with feelings, and your heart clenches painfully with need, and something deep in your gut burns and yearns, it won't matter that they can't mechanically copy the sensation of a kiss; all that matters is that little point of connection where figurative or even literal sparks fly!

[marigoldbaker]

finally. the ads understand what we want

[nothatsmi]

"A hundred and one. Going on a hundred and two." "You're a terrible liar."

He lived,,

I'm beyond the point where I can use words to describe them anymore.

Just know that I drew this instead of working and I'll probably keep drawing them more even tho the work's piling up-

I'm not even kidding, it's terrible how much they invade my brain, like I'm always either thinking about them or drawing about them or saving pins on Pinterst about them (the board is getting pretty stuffed), everything i see is ORANGE at this point (it's my favorite color fortunately so I don't mind).

Still not done with the third book btw. I try to make it last as long as I can but I constantly want to read so the end is getting dangerously near...

Next I'll probably draw Dan and/or the other foxes, cause let's be honest they're all so cool...

[droplct]

𝐙𝐔𝐊𝐎 : How’s the book ?

𝐊𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐀 : Riveting .

𝐙𝐔𝐊𝐎 : Sure seems that way .

𝐙𝐔𝐊𝐎 : By the way , Ambassador , the book is upside down .

[originalartblog]

opinion on t4t skk

I haven't had an idea for a scenario/joke that requires it yet but 👍✨

[aria-greenhoodie]

Week 2 - Muse

Click for Quality!

Thanks to @localcanadiancreature62 for the prompts!

[mythuzalasheir3]

Did someone say IWTV Mamma Mia AU?

No? Ok.

THIS IS COMPLETELY CRACK AND CHAOS AND VIBES

Ok so cast:

Sophie: Claudia

Sky: Madeleine

Donna: Louis

Sam: Lestat

Bill: Daniel

Harry: Armand

Rosie and Tanya: Grace and Paul.

Basically, Claudia has always felt like a second, and sometimes third choice for Louis, even though they both love each other dearly, as Louis is Vampire Pining™️ over his maker and ex, Lestat.

As Claudia prepares for her upcoming wedding to Madeleine, she decides she wants her other parent there, as maybe they’ll actually choose her first, rather than stormy whirlwind romances.

Unfortunately for her, she’s out of luck, as she finds not one, but three, possible other fathers. Lestat, Armand, and the reporter Daniel Molloy. She invites them all, and they all like her but also they’re involved with their own bs. Daniel and Armand are having a thing and Lestat is pining after Louis, who doesn’t want any of his maker’s bullshit anymore (he’s not over lestat. at all).

Featuring songs such as:

CLAUDIA HONEY HONEY

LOUIS MONEY MONEY MONEY

LOUIS MAMMA MIA

DU LAC SIBLINGS CHIQUITITA AND DANCING QUEEN

DANLESMANS OUR LAST SUMMER FT CLAUDIA

CLAUDELEINE LAY ALL YOUR LOVE ON ME

LOUSTAT SOS

DEVILS MINION DOES YOUR MOTHER KNOW

LOUIS SLIPPING THROUGH MY FINGERS AND WINNER TAKES IT ALL

LOUSTAT I DO I DO I DO I DO I DO

DEVILS MINION TAKE A CHANCE ON ME

[coloringthebanner]

sometimes i just wanna draw pretty clothes i find on pinterest & unfortunately eddie is my muse

[autisticlalna]

recently in the sbk community discord: leon, is the moon big?

its been a while since ive done one of these, whoops. im still pretty tired, but something pretty interesting is going on i wanna make sure everybody's caught up on.

it starts a little bit before Leon's episode 17, "Something is VERY WRONG on the Skyblock Kingdoms SMP..." when we got a sudden teaser:

uh oh, gamers.

the discord jumps on checking Leon's namemc and get a better look at his tattered skin:

(^ courtesy of Aces! also this, which is not relevant but makes me laugh):

what with the end of the season on the horizon, the telescope, and Leon's physical state, we jumped straight to Moon Big jokes. then, another teaser:

what's it?

oh, frig, the Stronghold book. remember that thing?

fun fact: in an Avid stream i don't have energy to track down the clip of (7/18/24), he mentioned he was the one that wrote it OOC. i don't remember what else he said about it, but it's still around and is being kept at spawn. neat.

then Leon's premiere goes up and Rex notices something in the description.

out-of-body experience?

finally, the premiere itself.

One chilly, rainy evening. I had just finished admiring my pile of diamond tools. Before calling it a night, I decided to head upstairs and sit by the fire for a while. Rest the bones, warm the feathers, yaknow. When all of a sudden... A gust of wind, a burst of flame! Then, nothing. I blacked out.

[phantom screech] One quick thing before I go--

This wasn't like with the chorus fruit. This was very, very different. When I came to, I had this feeling of dread, of- of fear and- and paranoia, that I just couldn't shake. Constantly in my mind, constantly, I couldn't stop thinking: Something out there is.. watching.

and then his speech at the end.

I know you're out there. Fool me twice, shame on me, I'm not falling for this again! You got me before, but this time I'm standing my ground. I love this world and the people in it, and I swear on every fiber of my being you are not going to take this from me! He's out there, and I know it.

so.. not only is Leon being watched, but it's something he has history with.

[legundo voice] WELL THAT'S OMINOUS.

wait, hey, that's a fun transition. speaking of Legundo...

let's take a quick detour into the series Leon was in before SBK, UHC Generations. the core concept is that you're in ultra hardcore (so no natural regeneration), but when you die you pass the world on to someone else. Leon was the third generation, and after over half a year of owning the world he decided to end the series on his own terms, intentionally fell to his death, and passed it on to Josh CodeNeon. Josh later died himself and passed it onto Legundo, but not before building a little spot around a campfire where he was able to summon the ghosts of previous generations to talk to them.

cut to last month and Legundo's episode 5, "I Need To Fix This...", where he decides he needs to build a gold farm. one of Leon's big contribution to UHCG was redstone farms, so Legundo summoned his spirit for a quick chat as he showed off his idea on how to get the farm to work. there's some fun things from their conversation, though:

Legundo: How’s unexistence? Leon: Aw man, it’s a lot of void. I’ve missed this place Legundo: Some firm ground underneath your feet, nice memory Leon: It’s lovely, I haven’t felt the warmth of a campfire in a while, yeah

[Leon gets attacked by phantoms.] Legundo: Oh no, they don’t like that you're back Leon: Oh no, oh no, my ghost body is being eaten by phantoms Phantoms: [screech]

and, most importantly...

Leon: Ok, ok, well, you know on that note, one quick thing before I go, just uh, wanted to let you know. Legundo: Yea [zooms in on Leon’s face.] Leon: Will is coming.

(transcription by ComposerNicholas, just edited for formatting)

an out-of-body experience, huh?

One quick thing before I go.

Legundo called Leon back to UHC Generations while Leon was on Skyblock Kingdoms. Leon passed out on SBK, helped Legs out on UHCG, gave Legs a warning, and then woke up on SBK with sudden paranoia.

and we're still not done! because at the end of Leon's SBK episode, we get this:

(image brightened for visibility, sorry about the artifacting)

and ComposerNicholas pointed out that Leon's first UHCG episode has this in the intro:

in his UHCG finale, Leon describes the flashes of alternate realities and glitches he's been subjected to as the world nudging him to move on. it's tired of him, it needs new blood and to grow and change with fresh faces and new ideas. so it's time for Leon to go. Legundo himself later mentions "the will of the world"-- the world is as alive as the people that make it.

Legundo's episode ends on him giving himself a timer. either he dies before the timer ends, or he follows in Leon's footsteps and dies on his own terms to pass the world on. after all, he'd pretty much found a way to eliminate all risk of ultra hardcore, and Leon had reminded him what the true point of UHCG was. he can't stay here forever. as the generations say: death is inevitable.

..in ultra hardcore, anyway. not so much in Skyblock Kingdoms, no matter what the thing watching Leon wants him to think.

You got me before, but this time I'm standing my ground. I love this world and the people in it, and I swear on every fiber of my being you are not going to take this from me!

to try and wrap this up, here's some more words from Leon as we go further into insanity:

anyway, this is what i've been able to scrape together so far. as usual, im just able to collect the pieces and maybe tape some of them together. we got a very brief Nukeri in Viking's episode the same day as Leon's, and now we've.. i dunno, got hints about Legundo? but the more focal thing seems to be that the UHCG world may have convinced Leon to pass it on, but that doesn't mean he's free of it. part of him is always going to be there, in the memorials and by the campfire.

oh yeah also quillbee did a video where he rebuilt founder's town from memory and invited leon on to help

[lemurious]

la terreur et la vertu, pt II

[a.k.a. when a 60-year old movie reduces one to a sobbing mess. Or rather, when the 200+ year old events do.] With eternal gratitude to the folks who have painstakingly translated and annotated it and put it on youtube; it is from 1964 and the quality is not the best but... go no further if you want to see a take on Thermidor that may make you cry, and will make you think.

[image dump below the cut]

"Terror without virtue is murderous, virtue without terror is powerless"

...

Saint-Just writing his speech for the Convention...the ideals of the republic. The exhaustion and the light on his face.

(Not sure if it is the scriptwriter, or Denis Manuel, but Saint-Just is incredible in this movie)

The denunciation - after Robespierre has been compared to Catilina!

(...an excerpt of Catilina's last speech from Sallust: "We are battling for country, for freedom, for life; theirs is a futile

contest, to uphold the power of a few men. March on, therefore,

with the greater courage, mindful of your former valour." The irony that Catilina is mostly known from Cicero, his own denunciator...)

Pulling a Socrates here...so does Couthon.

The intensity of the feelings between them, throughout the entire movie...

...followed by one of the most breathtaking scenes, of Saint-Just explaining exactly how they could've been saved, by the army, but he has not ordered it, because they would not be military dictators, Consuls of the Republic - and what republic would it be?

The goosebumps at the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen at the end.

[psychopomp-namine]

the thing about venti is that he doesn't embody freedom so much as he nurtures it. venti is who he is today because the people taught him to love and he returned that tenfold. the people were the first to teach him autonomy and freedom, and his response is to protect that ideal

I just really love mondstadt's relationship with their "absentee" archon a lot. there's something almost poetic about how just by being themselves, they sort of "created" their own god. a wind wisp became their archon by observing and living with them (ofc I'm oversimplifying it)

as described in freedom sworn, it's the anemo archon who actually takes on his region's characteristics, not the other way around. it is not that mondstadt is the nation of freedom because of venti, but that venti is the god of freedom because of mondstadt. and now you have that same archon asking what I will argue is actually the best quote of genshin, "what is freedom when demanded of you by a god?"

[casie-mod]

For me, Disco Elysium and Severance are among the very few pieces of media that really get how truly weird/ridiculous/stupid reality can be.

[outofangband]

It’s very important to me that the fear people have towards Morwen is as existential as it is physical. I think that’s in some ways supported by the text and even perhaps in my beloved “Morwen he had seen once” paragraph. But either way, certainly people believe she can enact direct physical harm to them but it’s more than that. The danger she poses is existential, to a way of life, to identity as much as it is to bodies. I know I’ve talked about this before but it’s been on my mind tonight

This is especially true when it comes to the ways that Aerin is involved

Also this was going to be a longer post for my birthday because I wanted to Morwen post then but as you all know, I had a sudden loss the night before so I wasn’t able to finish it yet but I will soon!

[got-that-d-in-my-name]

Why I Ship Dofcora: an essay

I've been wanting to write this for a while since dofcora is an understandably controversial ship, and it's one of the ships I'm most interested in currently, and I want something I can point people to in order to explain why I ship them and why I don't think it's morally wrong to do so.

The thing that got me started shipping dofcora was my obsession with Doflamingo. He's a stinky little bastard man, but I am deeply fascinated with him, and I love putting him in Situations. From my point of view, if Doflamingo had any romantic or sexual interest in his brother he absolutely would do his best to seduce/coerce Rosi into a relationship.

Oda has written the Celestial Dragons in a way that strongly alludes to historical European monarchs - Charlos even looks like a Habsburg, to me. The glorification of their pure blood adds to my belief that incest would at the very least be much less taboo in Celestial Dragon culture. I don't know that it would be more than marrying one's cousins, but I believe an element of inbreeding would make perfect sense given how they are written. Doflamingo's relationship to his prior status and belief in his own perfection would make him particularly susceptible to the idea that only someone else of his blood was worthy of his love.

Doflamingo gets what he wants, no matter the cost. Even when Caesar Clown is getting his ass beat during Punk Hazard, Doffy isn't worried, because it's unthinkable that someone could pluck one of his prizes out of his web. He's always in control, he's always achieving what he wants. He truly does gaslight-gatekeep-girlboss his way into anything his twisted heart desires.

Speaking of desires, do you really think Doffy wouldn't want Rosi? Now, sometimes I like to imagine that Doflamingo is an entirely straight man. I think it's unlikely (because I need him to be at least gay enough to consider liking me), but it's a slightly different read of his character that I find fun to mentally parse through. Still, though. Even if Doffy was completely heterosexual, do you think he could resist those warm eyes peeking up through a mop of fluffy blond hair? I think not! Donquixote Rosinante is one of the most beautiful men to ever exist, and I find it very easy to imagine that Doflamingo would want him - and as we've already established, from Doffy’s perspective there's no valid reason for him to ignore that impulse, and what Joker wants, Joker gets.

I know this has been very Doflamingo-centric, and I'm afraid it's going to stay that way, but my approach to dofcora tends to be centered on Doflamingo wanting Cora, and varying levels of interest coming from Cora depending on how dark I want it to be (I like a bit of dead dove with my toxic yaoi sometimes, sue me - or read my fucked up forcefem dofcora fic, maybe??).

Doflamingo is a bad person. He's a criminal, he's a murderer, he's a rapist (there is debate about this, but in what world was him having sex with Viola genuinely consensual?), he has committed so many crimes.

I love watching Doffy be a silly little guy. I find him fascinating, and I spend a great deal of time just rotating him in my brain.

I will never say he is a good person. I will never excuse what he's done or say that it was justified.

Incest isn't all that different from everything else he's done. If it's morally wrong to ship dofcora (which I don't think it is, but we're getting to that in a bit) then it's morally wrong to like Doflamingo at all. He's a bad guy, and frankly I don't think fucking his brother could make him worse. You don't have to ship dofcora or like Doflamingo, but if you're judging dofcora more or differently from Doflamingo's other various crimes, that's a deeply flawed approach. Either morality in fiction matters or it doesn't.

Morality in fiction doesn't matter as much as we think it does.

I will not deny that there are times engaging in certain types of art can have a negative effect on your life. I believe there's a necessary level of self-awareness to safely engage with dark media. If a piece of fiction is negatively impacting your real life, you're either interacting with it in a way that doesn't work for you, or it's simply not something you should be interacting with at all.

Fictional characters cannot be harmed. They inherently don't exist, so they cannot be damaged (note: I'm talking about the characters in the media, not any fictionkins or fictives etc, that's a whole different scenario and I'd argue that's more a matter of what the fictive/fictionkin themselves is comfortable with interacting with, and I'd say it's their job to navigate fandom spaces accordingly - but I'm not very educated on that topic so actually don't listen to me).

If my forcefem dofcora fic made me go around manipulating people into nonconsensually transitioning, that would be inherently bad. If my forcefem dofcora fic made me get in an obsessive cycle of wanting to manipulate people into a nonconsensual transition, that would also be bad, even if I didn't act on those urges, because it would damage my mental stability.

My forcefem dofcora fic has done none of those things to me, and I warned and tagged it as best I could to avoid other people being harmed by it. No Doflamingo or Rosinante was harmed in the making of that fic because they are not real and physically cannot be harmed by a work of fiction.

No one has to like any ship. Hell, you don't even have to ship Morticia and Gomez Addams. No ship is required, but I think fandom needs a good strong dose of "Don't Like, Don't Read." Don't harm yourself or others when possible but acknowledge that you have no real way to tell if someone else is getting harmed, and yelling at them about a ship they like will never help regardless.

A last caveat for this section:

Real life incest is almost always bad because it is almost always abuse. That is simply the fact of it. Real life incest is bad because it's abuse (there are some grey areas, but those are really rare).

Alright, so those are my reasons for why I think shipping dofcora is morally permissible and relatively canon-compliant, but why do I ship them?

It's just plain fun. They're two tall hot men with a complicated bond, and the dynamic possibilities are endless, which is unfortunately not the case for every ship - as a zosan fan I think I can say that zosan can often fall into the same dynamic across most fics (including my own, I know I do this, too) and it's hard to feel like there's a truly unique and not watered-down vibe between them because there's so much content and so much of it is similar. Obviously there are stellar zosan fics that capture a canonical dynamic that's still unique, but those can be hard to find.

Dofcora doesn't have that problem. There's not nearly as much content, and there are so many different ways their relationship can be approached. From my own fics alone I have a few examples of "they really are just brothers but there's something a bit weird and obsessive about how they treat each other," as well as a "Doflamingo only realizes he loved Cora after Minion Island and is a wreck about it," and my forcefem "Doflamingo decides the only way to have an heir with blood as pure as his own is to manipulate and abuse his younger brother into carrying it." Like I said earlier, sometimes I enjoy a bit of dead dove.

I've read dofcora fics that are so soft and sweet and loving that they make me feel warm and fuzzy (despite my severe case of aromanticism) while still keeping them in character. I've read some hot smut where they're the only ones truly made to fit each other. I've read as many stories as I can find where Rosi falls so in love he gives up on his mission just to stay by Doffy's side. They can be cute, they can be toxic, they're devoted because only they understand what their shared childhood was like, they're deeply similar and diametrically opposed... even while staying within canon personalities the dynamics are so, so flexible.

Someday I'll move on to a different ship (maybe even a different fandom) and I'll leave this era behind me. I don't think I'll regret it, though, because my shenanigans in the dofcora fandom have been some of the most silly and joyful and fun interactions I've had in a fandom space.

Like I said, you don't have to ship it. You don't need to. But so long as you're being smart and reasonable about your own limits, you are allowed to ship them, and you don't have to be ashamed about it.

As a final note, if you're going to disagree with me please be as fair and logical as I've tried to be in this essay, I don't come to tumblr to shout at people and I will block people who don't debate reasonably and respectfully <3