#still not here for your discourse :^)

[cherrypikkins]

after 10+ years of watching unmitigated aphobia in the dragon age fandom it really does feel -chef's kiss- to know that is lucanis confirmed canonically as ace-spec with a demon named spite of all things

its delicious poetry and i am eating it

[thund3randrain]

“It’s fine to ship Yelena with people bc aroace people can also have sex and be in relationships-”

I am putting you in a meat grinder and making you into spaghetti bolognese, which I will share happily with my aroace moots who are also tired of this shit

[basket-of-radiants]

Why were you so disappointed by Rhythm of War?

This has been sitting in my askbox for years. I've taken several cracks at answering, only to get frustrated with the subject matter and burn myself out every time. I didn't like Rhythm of War. More than that, I didn't like it in a way that tainted my enjoyment of the entire series. And despite what it may seem, I don't actually enjoy discussing things which I don't like. I always want to talk from a place of good faith. Which is why now that my feelings towards the series are a little more positive, I think I can finally answer this.

I'm going to try to stay away from specific plotpoints and story beats for this post, because my goal isn't to nitpick (if for no other reason than it would take a week to write this post), I'm just looking to talk about my overall impressions. I think that might mean the only spoilers here will be structural? idk, if you haven't read Rhythm of War yourself then you should probably do that before looking for other people's opinions anyway. 

I liked Way of Kings when I first read it. I didn't love it at the time, but I liked it. Certainly enough to keep reading once I'd finished. One thing that made me a bit uncomfy, however, was the war against the Parshendi. They were this unknowable enemy which the book was not interested in knowing. An inhuman army. Their main purpose was to kill Kaladin's friends, or else be killed by Dalinar's armies. And yet the Parshendi, and the parshmen in the form of Shen, did show hints of personhood. And so it bothered me how Dalinar spoke so casually about how the Alethi had decimated their numbers, how the others used the war as a means to amass wealth and power. (It didn't bother me in a "this is a bad book" way but in a "these characters are bad people" way.)

One of my foibles as a reader is that when a book is very clearly treating one side of a conflict with more humanity, I tend to be a bit predisposed towards the other to account for that. And with the Alethi clearly being the invading party and superior military force, there was also some underdog favoritism. I didn't really like how the book treated the Parshendi. This is to say that going forward, the singers would be more important to me than any other through line.

So imagine my delight at reading Words of Radiance and meeting Eshonai, one of the Parshendi, who even gets her own point of view sections! They were no longer being treated as a faceless mass, we were getting to see things from their perspective as well. And it became plain to see the damage the Alethi had done to them. I couldn't really bring myself to root for Dalinar or really any of the humans against the listeners. I couldn't even bring myself to like most of these characters. I still enjoyed the book but once it became clear there wouldn't be a peaceful conclusion, let's just say that I wouldn't have wept for Dalinar and Adolin if Szeth had managed to off them. Like everyone in the book, I assumed that going forward all the parshmen would be turned into evil voidbringers in the everstorm and that the listeners were mostly dead. Except for Rlain, and Eshonai because I'd read or been told that book 4 would be Eshonai's book and thus had assumed she was fine. (Oathbringer spoilers, she was not fine.) So ultimately it was still a bit of a downer way to end the book. 

So imagine my delight at reading Oathbringer, where for the first time singers were being treated as people, full and real people, and where the human characters could no longer ignore or dismiss them. We met Khen and the others, common singers who were sympathetic and just wanted freedom from bondage. We see Venli grapple with the loss of her home. We see Leshwi and Moash connecting with and understanding one another. We learn of a history where singers were the original inhabitants of the planet. Parallel to this, Dalinar is having a truly excellent character arc about confronting one's past actions and acknowledging them to move forward and do better. I loved Oathbringer, for some years it was my favorite book, and I was excited as hell to see what came next. At the time, it seemed to me that there is a clear direction the story is going. Two books about needless war, and then a third where the main cast is forced to acknowledge the personhood of their enemies. This was so cool, all of my feelings from the previous installments were being validated, the characters were going to have to face what they've done in the past and outgrow their militaristic mindsets, I was so sure of that.

Imagine my disappointment when that does not even remotely resemble the direction the story went in Rhythm of War. RoW presented a clear, straightforward “us vs. them" narrative, where every character was totally fine with killing singers. Characters aligned with the singers were either flattened into wholly evil versions of themselves (Moash) or were expected to turn on their side in favor of the humans (Venli.) Because clearly there was no reason good people would be on the side that's all former slaves trying to stay free. Maybe there's some sort of accord or understanding between Navani and Raboniel that I might have found meaningful if the seeds of mutual understanding weren't already there in Oathbringer and then apparently ignored for a year by all the characters.

I have a lot of issues with how the listeners are handled in these books. (Here's some elaboration.) Following OB, I had thought that all my concerns were going to be addressed. Following RoW, I knew they never would be. 

Which is my main complaint, because that's the thread that matters most to me in this series.

I have a lot of other Things as well. Gonna just talk about a few big ones. 

One outsized source of disappointment that may seem a little petty, and which probably is, is that I felt mislead by the premise of the book. It had been announced that this book would center Venli and Eshonai, and I was unbelievably hyped for that. That did not really turn out to be the case. The purpose for their backstory chapters felt less about exploring them as people and contextualizing their arcs, and more about filling in gaps of world history. In the main plot, Venli was a POV character and she certainly played a role, but honestly not a very important one overall. To me she felt like a side character in her own book. I don't think it's controversial to say that the main character of RoW was Navani. A lot of people really like Navani and are happy about that. Unfortunately I'm not one of those people, and I found it all the more difficult to enjoy her when it felt like it was coming at the expense of some of my favorite characters. 

This particular gripe somewhat comes down to preference, obviously everyone prefers to read about characters they like more than those they don't, and it can go both ways. (For instance, on a craft/technical level RoW is probably the superior book to W&T, but I liked the latter a lot more because of my stupidly outsized attachment to Szeth and Nale.) But I do think there's something of a real criticism in how the book would rather focus on the feelings of a queen rather than those of a genocide survivor, and how the former's are given significantly more weight and import. It ties in with my main criticism, I think. 

And then there's how human/human racism had also been wholly cast aside as a plot point. Jasnah fixed slavery so that's resolved, and the only person who still cares about structural racism is the evil bad bad evil villain Moash/Vyre, who is now wholly irredeemable and who you're allowed to totally write off because he's sold his soul to Odium. I've already talked a lot about this. Other people have already talked about this, probably better than me. The writing was actually on the wall for me in OB, but again, RoW was when I fully accepted that this was never going to be addressed. 

There's something else that probably deserves its own discussion rather than being quickly tacked on at the end here, but here we are. This book changed how the series approaches war. 

In WoK, war was very clearly portrayed as a bad and inglorious thing. It was brutal, it was painful, those at the bottom died cruelly and unceremoniously and pointlessly while those at the top turned a profit. Every day was a new horror. The enemy were never evil, they were always just more people forced to go through the same thing. Through the next couple books, it felt to me that even if the characters had accepted war as necessary, there was still a tragedy to it. Conversely, in RoW (and W&T) war is basically a series of boss battles, in between which our protagonists can kill dozens of footsoldiers with barely a thought in the same way WoK had criticized.

Final note on all this, it sucks how we have no perspectives from the former-slaves-singers demographic. Those guys are really thrown under the bus, and seemingly get no self-determination now or ever. It was a glaring problem to me in RoW. Conscripted and enslaved humans and singers probably have just as much ground to form mutual understanding as a fused and a queen. (In fact they already had. In Oathbringer.)

In essence, RoW disappointed me because it left me with the distinct impression that none of the series's most important through lines (well, most important to me) were going to be resolved well. I liked W&T, but I haven't revised my opinion very much about the overall handling of these topics across the series. Maybe one of the reasons I was able to enjoy W&T so much more was because I no longer had such high expectations.

[fuubee]

another drawing meme but violet has BEEF

[spitblaze]

Transfems are not 'privileged' for being forced to live in hostile panopticons and transmascs are not 'privileged' for being forced to live at the bottom of isolated wells and any 'benefits' that either incidentally incurs are canceled out if not outweighed by the drawbacks. Are we done here. Can we all please just go home

[scarefox]

whatever is going on in here, glad I am distracted with renovating my flat

The only thing I say is that Spare Me Your Mercy was amazing, one of the best shows for me.

I don't care that the romance plot isn't standard / regular / normal / linear. These guys are a bit weird, love can be weird and have layers and a spectrum. Humans are irrational, contradicting sometimes, feelings over logic. So can be fictional characters. Just flow with it. Accept them as they are with their flaws, instead of being mad they don't fit in regular romance plot boxes. Instead of saying "that is impossible" say "crazy that it is possible for them, i wonder what different corners and paths they went in their brain to land there".

And yes I get that they didn't want to add too much horny in a show that is constantly about death, dying, killing, euthanasia, one being an on-off murder suspect. That's not censorship, That's respect for the topic. Despite that they did kiss and had sex at the end when the pressure of the investigation was gone. The investigation + grief was the reason for Tiu to hold back the whole time. I also get why he started to love Kan between all of that. First of all he's adorable and smart and an open communicator when he doesn't try to hide his illegal side service. He is an ideal partner for him if they weren't on the opposite sides of the law.

[ingravinoveritas]

This weekend, I went to a pop culture/comic convention in my area to see a few friends, and had an interesting experience. When I was first walking from the parking lot to the convention hotel, a man I'd never met or spoken to before came up to me just before I got to the doors. I was initially wary, as I've encountered more than a few creepy/pervy men at this convention in the past. But what he said to me, very politely, was: "Excuse me. Are you one of the movie stars?"

I can't emphasize enough how much this came out of nowhere. I also don't know what gave him the idea that I was a movie star, maybe other than what I was wearing (a purple sequined dress, a silver cross necklace, and blue/white/red slingback peep toe heels). But the question pleasantly took me aback, and after I said that I wasn't one, he added, "You're dressed so nice. You look beautiful." Which also was unexpected, and after I thanked him for his very kind words, he wished me a good night as I continued on in to the hotel.

My point in mentioning this is that there tends to be a very specific idea of what/who a "movie star" is or looks like, and not in a thousand years would I categorize myself in that way. But I think maybe looks/external beauty are only one part of it, and the rest is confidence--surety of self, and how you move through the world. I have more confidence now than I have had any previous point in my life. I know who I am, and I think I'm finally understanding how that affects people's perception of me.

So yes, that was just an interesting little moment and probably one of the highlights of the weekend. (The other was running into a David cosplayer who had on David's purple-green fuzzy sweater and purple Doc Martens (see below), a kilt for a character in Sandman, and a face tattoo and snakey eyes for Crowley--three cosplays in one!) Good Omens really is everywhere...

[butwhatifidothis]

You know, I find it so interesting that you say that Raxy. Not just because the post you pulled this from was in fact talking about people saying this about Flayn, but specifically because of the date of your tweets here.

July 12? You mean a day after I posted more of Shandale's disgusting shit they've said?

Which includes this

And further digging shows these aren't the only times they've said this either!

Did you mean to say that you aren't talking about Flayn, Raxy boy? Because trust me, this mod of the biggest Edelgard discord certainly is, and has made that a very clear thing for quite a while now. Something you would have to know, given that you would've had to scroll past this post in order to get to the one your screencapping.

Wonder why you left that out, in your tweety tweet tweet tweeter post? Is it because you recognize that trying to make Flayn out to be this evil boogeyman would get you either laughed out or tossed out the room and make you look stupid and/or insane? And so you just conveniently look over your buddy doing that thing you say never happens?

You know Raxy boy, the effort it takes for you to go around my block of you and lie about me and what's been going on in your circle of the fandom would be far better spent trying to talk to this shit stain stinking up the discord you're in into cleaning their act up some so this wouldn't keep happening. After all, you did that for ol' Dolphin! You were super willing to cut her out cuz of what she'd been doing! Why won't you do the same here? That's mighty strange, wouldn't ya say?

[randomnameless]

Typing that Mercie related reply made me wonder a bit about an usual devoted assertion that apparently, Fodlan BaD bcs Church BaD bcs Crusts BaD bcs something "divine right of kings" -

But take Adrestia, Ionius basically claims descent from Fodlan's Jesus and was still ousted by his followers, especially by Vestra Sr and Volkhard who, as far as we know, had no crests.

And apparently, no one was really bothered about this, or at least bothered enough to start some sort of revolt to put a Hresvelg back on the throne because they are blessed by the Goddess or whatnot.

Mercie and her mom (and her bro, once he's born!) have crusts... and are still adopted and abused by the Bartels who have none, Papa Bartels wears the pants in the family, even when Mercie's mom has a crust and thus, would have more "divine right" than him.

Same with Hanneman's sister, who was married to a random who had the last say on "let's get heirs even if it kills you" matter.

I know I've been laughing and dissecting this game since release, but damn if even in 2025, I still can't really get where the "divine right" + "crust system" comes from, if you take the background of several characters into account.

Pour one for Best Dad, even with his illustrous lineage, people dared to rebel against him :(

[guzhufuren]

oh Joss following trans women! one of whom he filmed a queer drama with, where she had one of the best trans themed storylines in all of thai qls and where he played a sex worker! and then he was a guest in one of episodes of her own show! what could that mean

oh Joss following out gay men!! what could THAT mean

[tinyfantasminha]

Hi I’m not sure if you’re aware put people are going around screenshotting your tumblr and sharing it on callout and adult yume hate tweets. I felt so weird messaging that’s why anon but I wanted to let you know about it, with the harassment and doxxing that has happened recently! I’m a fellow Jack yume and adore your art so this is sad to see.

This is one of the occurrences.

x(DOT)com/riddlehoe_/status/1729650574541406714?s=46&t=kTkdN9P14joudjwCx7-lhQ

So called ''normal people'' when they got nothing to do

Yeah I'm aware of the rabid anti-yume swarm in twitter..... I've seen plenty of moots getting hate campaigns and being doxxed to the point where I'm almost desensitized to it. What's the point of persecuting yumeshippers?? Especially the adult ones who quite literally keep the game alive and running for consuming and making content and buying merch? So they can feel entitled to the non-existent anime boy and feel morally superior for not having ''disGusTInG THOUGHTS'' about an imaginary little guy despite literally commiting a cybercrime and thinking they've just did a favor society?? Truly a priviledged chronically online teenager moment™

I was already expecting to get hate at some point but thankfully I've been focusing on my academic and social life lately so discourses online just seem more and more insignificant and irrelevant (as they always should be) going outside and touching grass is really healing and important to make you realize that there are greater irl problems to worry about than protecting fictional characters and harassing strangers on the internet, everybody should do that methinks 🧡

I might be a target of doxxing one day and honestly??:? I don't care. It's gonna be funny as hell. Cause it's probably some american teenager who thinks that doxxing an user in another country is gonna make the FBI arrest me for kissing my fictional blorbo in my head and that I'll be beaten up on the streets lol. Mini Karen, I assure you no one in south america cares about fictional character discourses to the point of making threats as much as people in the US do (and u guys somehow think that's normal behaviour) much LESS in my city, it's gonna do nothing 😭

Anyway, thanks for the heads up!!! I hope you thrive with your yume with Jack, he needs more love, don't let gatekeeper losers ruin your vibe 💗💗💗💗

[qiu-yan]

jiang cheng mdzs and sayaka pmmm have almost nothing in common, but somehow being a fan of both feels very familiar

let's see:

childhood friends with the morally outstanding protagonist

rather ugly reactions to life-altering trauma, does NOT just walk that shit off like a good woobie should

disliked by the stoic love interest of the protagonist

bodies nonconsensually altered

not as op as the protagonist

let's see:

disliked by large swathes of the fandom

accused of being entitled

canonically complex and thematically-relevant reasons for questionable behavior flattened into more easily recognizable story tropes

blamed for being tricked

accused of being selfish

why does this keep happening

[moonchild-in-blue]

Happy to see yall are enjoying that TNDNBTG x Euclid post. That was written in a fit of madness after being plagued with FTRB feelings all night. Feels good to put my writing muscles to good use again - let's hope this continues 👍

[mars-ipan]

i KNOW that saying it is just gonna attract them to my blog but idc. if you are genuinely a harry potter fan in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty-five you have GOT to move on. read a better book. i do not care how much you love it. i do not care if you “don’t give jkr money.” there is way better shit out there and despite what people say jkr’s beliefs bleed through into her writing hardcore. do not put a single book series over the safety of trans people, for fuck’s sake

[clawsextended]

in my perfect world everyone makes so many lesbian muses the men then have to deal with the exact same behavior when every single post ever written isn’t about dick.

[sunbunnyyy]

i know i just got here, but seeing all of the laughably bad takes from both sides of the spectrum is convincing me that no, i don’t actually need to be on social media again.