#the whites are consistent and so are the blacks

[elodieunderglass]

Got two questions about beak colour - Here are some baby crows at the fledgling stage. they are often typified by having blue-ish eyes and pinkish "lips", like baby crows, which have pinkish beaks. They are pretty uniformly coloured.

Grownup Carrion Crow is a big bird, and solid iridescent black. Black eyes, black beak, black body.

Baby EurasianJackdaw starts off with a yellow beak and will grow up to have a black beak, and in the transitional stages, the beak is sort of greyish.

In addition to knowing that the baby Jackdaw in my picture is a Jackdaw, it was part of a distressed flock of adult jackdaws, which are not in the photo; and even without knowing the size of my hand, it is detectably smaller and lighter in build than a Carrion Crow, with a shorter beak. Adult Eurasian Jackdaw is a smallish, jaunty, expressive bird that has a distinctive white eye, black mask, and grey nape. The upper and lower body read as matte black, but the grey nape instantly sets it apart.

A jackdaw can easily be grasped in your hands. A crow is larger and would be harder to contain so neatly. The bird in the OP is definitely an adult jackdaw. You can see the matte black feathers at the top of the head and the matte grey feathers of the nape against the person's fingers. The white eye, giving the same expression of outrage. The size in a person's hands. (Crow / rook / jackdaw)

Behaviour also provides a context for the bird in your hand. Jackdaws are famed for nesting in chimneys. They are social birds that really like buildings, roofs, and especially chimney pots. Their similarity to crows but fondness for human architecture is even in a William Cowper poem:

There is a bird who, by his coat And by the hoarseness of his note, Might be supposed a crow; A great frequenter of the church, Where, bishop-like, he finds a perch, And dormitory too.

Dropping sticks down a chimney indicates their efforts to build a nest in your chimney, which is something jackdaws are extremely well-known for. They're always standing on chimneys. Crows, meanwhile, are more likely to choose the top of a tree, if they can get one (and crows can get most things they like!) for good visibility. In the 1800s, the viewing platform at the top of a sailing mast was called a crow's nest because of this habit - being at the top of a tree. That's not to say that crows won't play with your chimney, but of the expected behaviours of both birds, it makes sense for a jackdaw to be interested.

and dropping sticks down a chimney for "weeks" is not the expected behaviour of a baby or teenaged wild bird, even a clever one, like a crow. "Weeks" would take it from fledging to adulthood, at which point you would be holding an adult crow; and dropping sticks for no reason for weeks isn't very consistent with the behaviour patterns of fledgling baby crows, who do play with things, but have other things to occupy their time. It's very consistent with believable behaviour for an adult jackdaw practicing nesting activity, who is building/repairing/using a nest at the top of a chimney and dropping the sticks incidentally. Adults are the ones who build nests. this is an extremely believable adult jackdaw story and a less believable baby crow story.

it doesn't matter and will make no difference. the point is how the picture looks like my own picture of a baby jackdaw and I think that is GREAT

[cy-cyborg-draws]

My disability doesn't need to be hidden

Two weeks ago, I made a batch of videos for Tik Tok that were supposed to be going up over the next month or so. However, out of the 5 uploaded and queued, 3 were flagged as needing manual review for potentially breaking community guidelines. The only thing about these videos that was any different from the other content I'd made in the past, or the two new videos that didn't get flagged, was that they featured either images of myself where my legs and wheelchair were visible, or images of my fursona Nix (who has the same disability) where their legs and wheelchair were visible. I took all the videos down, since the later ones wouldn't have made much sense in isolation and made a quick crop to the earlier ones so my/Nix's legs were out-of-frame and low-and-behold, they didn't get flagged. This isn't new. In the past, Tik Tok has removed or hidden my videos (meaning they were stuck on 0 views and people visiting my page couldn't see them) when my legs and scars weren't entirely covered. I kind of expected it to happen to the video that used IRL footage of me and I had a backup plan, but censoring Nix in particular just felt... petty and uncalled for. It's bad enough to do this to real disabled people's bodies and that I even had to have a backup plan for it at all, but the other videos? They were stylised drawings of a purple dragon with simplified scars. A drawing I've used on other platforms with no issue by the way; I've uploaded videos with those same images to both Youtube (shorts and youtube proper) and Red Note. It's only Tik Tok that has an issue with it consistently. Despite the vent I had about it all on Tumblr when it first happened, I will eventually re-upload the videos, as well as upload them to other platforms, but I have to figure out how to get around whatever is flagging them first. I won't be hiding or censoring my/nix's stumps or scars if I can avoid it. I know it seems petty and it's going to make things harder in the long run, but I started my tik tok account to share my art, the vast majority of which has disability as a central theme in some way, shape or form, and to educate about disability, and I can't do that If I have to hide mine. My body and my disability (whether depicted on me or on my characters) isn't gore and it doesn't need to be censored. [ID: An image of a purple dragon with yellow wings and a yellow underbelly, flying in front of the 2021 disability pride flag. The dragon is missing most of it's tail and it's hind legs, with the right leg gone from above the knee, the left from just below it. Both the tail and legs are covered in very visible scarring, and there are a few smaller scars on the arms. There is white text with a black outline on the image which reads "Disability just being visible isn't "Graphic and Disturbing Imagery"". /End ID]

[lushthemagicdragon]

I am absolutely obsessed with how Sammie is shot in this scene in comparison to his father. It's directly tied into a tl;dr I have about both how Christianity is treated in this film and how the magic system works in this story and so, while at some point I might write a whole ass blog post (or even an academic paper) in the future, here's the cliffnote word vomit version of why I think this is so fucking cool:

So basically, this film frames Christianity as one of the villains of the story (along with the white-liberalism-culture-vampires and the Klan), and heavily implies that what Sammie's dad wants from him is the same as what Remmick wants from him: to be used for the power of his music and subsumed into a soulless, cultureless whole. Where Sammie is lit in warm tones and dressed in warm colors, backdropped by green nature, his dad is lit in very stark cool tones with minimal contrast so he's almost in monochrome, surrounded only by the empty whiteness of the chapel. This film very clearly delivers a thesis that Christianity is a real-world culture-vampire that white people inflicted on the Black community, from the way Sammie's dad is shot and lit to look like the vampires do in this film, from Delta Slim's clear delineation that the blues isn't like that "religion they forced on us", to the way that Sammie's return to the chapel at the start and finish is intercut with scenes of Remmick. These flashes of Remmick and the horrors of that night that are cut into Sammie's dad telling him to repent and drop the guitar are the catalyst for Sammie leaving, because he figures it out. And in part he figured it out BECAUSE of the second thing that is fascinating, and that is basically the consistency of the magic system.

Basically, the magic system in this movie is antithetical to Christianity as a whole.

I'm going to preface this by saying that when I talk about Annie's hoodoo I'm NOT talking about real world hoodoo, which I know nothing about. I'm just talking about how the film presents hoodoo, and how the film presents the fae, and how these things all function within the same cohesive magic system.

Annie's Hoodoo, Sammie's music, and the Vampires are all diametrically opposed to Christianity, and are all within the realm of Faërie magic.

So when I say Faerie I don't mean specifically the sidhe, though the sidhe are part of Faerie. By Faerie magic I mean specifically the magic of the natural world, which is often ancestral, and often associated with an Otherworld that is still part of the World itself but is greater than humans. This is as opposed to sorcery (man-made magic) or heavenly/satanic (abrahamic/usually christian magic). When I say the entire magic system is Faërie it is because the Vampires are very CLEARLY laid out as Faërie, while Sammie's magic and Annie's Hoodoo are all part of the same consistent system of magic, laid out right at the start.

So basically right from the very first scene the film puts West African magic, Choctaw magic and ancient Irish magic as existing within the same frame of reality. All three have a concept of the magical singer, and all three (we later find out) know about vampires. It establishes that these all function in the same magic system, which is the Reality of this Secondary World. What is real for one group in this magic system is real for all of them. They may use different language to talk about the same thing, but the concepts are the same across the board in this universe. We're just talking about fictional secondary world magic system building here, and consistent storytelling, not real world understandings of these things.

the vampires are the most clearly Fae creatures (and by this I don't mean Fairies, but creatures associated with Faërie--imo they're like Changelings in that they were once human and then become Fae). Remmick is ancient Irish, out here singing Irish folk songs and handing gold coins to people at a crossroads, saying that the gold comes from an ancient place but it's no use to Mary while she's "alive" (human and not of the fae). It's super on-the-nose almost to the point of being irish stereotype caricature. I'll come back to him.

Annie's Hoodoo is never outright put in opposition to Christianity, but it's significant that she is not a mixed practitioner. There are no clear icons or crosses in her home. The grave marker for their dead child is not a cross but a carved African figure, which is very significant in 1930s Mississippi. She is solely a hoodoo practitioner, who lives in a ramshackle cottage in the words selling magical/natural cures. She's very witch-in-the-wood coded, but is never ever presented as wicked or evil. She's also the only spiritual figure in the film that can be trusted, and she is trusted implicitly. She is also the one who understands the consistency of the magic systems, as the teller of the intro tale and as the one who knows how to fight the vampires. This includes throwing NOT holy water on them, but garlic pickling juice. Crosses are also never used in her instructions on how to push them away (a very common vampire trope), just garlic, silver, fire, and stakes. I would also argue that Smoke's death scene with her and the baby is NOT heavenly, it's just afterlife coded (because white is generally the afterlife color code for visual media). Again, no angels, no heavenly coding, just afterlife coding. You COULD argue that she's virgin mary coded in this scene because she's breastfeeding, but we did see her actively have sex on screen earlier so that's tenuous at best. It's also shot with that same warped camera affect that happens whenever the mojo bag is in-use.

Then there is the Music. Music in general is a very common magical device in Faërie magic, and Tolkien is like the king of this: music holds power than the spoken word does not, music is the truest art of creating enchantment, this secondary world that the fae can produce, a fully realized enchanted art form. tl;dr there's a lot here but that's the cliffnotes version. Delta Slim outright says that the music is brought with them from home, rather than being forced upon them like Christianity. Sammie's music is what Sammie's dad wants to stamp out of him, or at least use to his limited means. It's Sammie's connection to the music that makes him a sinner in his father's eyes. But this is really hammered home in the final scene between Remmick and Sammie and then Sammie and his dad.

So I don't actually think Remmick's final monologue is supposed to be a final villain monologue so much as a final exposition monologue. I think the final villain monologue is Sammie's dad trying to compel him with the power of Christ, based on story structure. Generally speaking, a final villain monologue is supposed to be the peak of their evil plan, which is then foiled and shown to be wrong by the actions of the heroes. That's not exactly what Remmick's final speech does. In the final speech, Remmick explains that Christianity is the reason his culture is dead (and so the reason for the culture vampire void that needs to be filled), but he also says the following:

"They told stories of a heaven above and a devil below, and lies about the dominion of man over heaven and earth. We are earth and beast and God. We are woman and man. We are connected, you and I, to everything."

*if* this was a classic villain finale monologue, the response to this would have been "oh look this weird anti-christian pagan creature is monologuing, so he's evil, and the church is good and correct and the Truth", but that isn't how the film ends. Instead, the Remmick looks into the sunrise and hears the call of the Otherworld and his people (rather than say, heaven, because it's given that same Faerie irish lilt) but instead the music turns and he goes up in horrible flames for his crimes. UP in flames, up into the sky, which is NOT Christian for a "demon" to do in death (because he's not a demon, he's fae, Sammie calls him the devil repeatedly because he hasn't figured this out yet). The film "ends" (prior to the epilogue) with Sammie remembering the torment he went through from these vampires, after hearing this monologue, while at the church with his father trying to compel him to join *his* coven/clan/flock, and Sammie realizing that what his father is doing to him is this same repeated cycle of violence that happened to Remmick and that Remmick was trying to repeat onto him, and LEAVES.

Because of this, I think those lines above are not the typical final villain monologue, but the final bit of exposition that tells the audience the truth: that Sammie's magic and Remmick's magic (and Annie's magic as the one spiritual figure of the bunch) are all connected, you and I, to everything, with no dominion of man over heaven and earth. It establishes the magic system as consistent, and diametrically opposed to Christianlity

Faerie is morally neutral, it is the magic-of-the-World rather than of a moral dichotomy. It can be revelatory and healing, and it can be seductive and destructive. Annie and Sammie's magic is Good, and the Vampires are Evil, but they are all together diametrically opposed to the Church.

This is why the framing of Sammie and his dad in that opening scene is so fascinating, because behind Sammie is the natural world, warm and vibrant and welcoming, and behind his dad is man-made emptiness and shadow. Title of the film says it all, this film is ABOUT the so-called Sinners, the un-Christians. And that's not presented as a bad thing to be at all, but a truly magical thing, and that being a Sinner is joyous activity.

[spidersinsalem]

Stressed out about stuff going on right now so here's a rant about Jekyll and hyde

Saying that Henry was just as "evil" and "bad" as Hyde is a weird statement to make in my opinion, even when we talk about the book. Jekyll is a morally gray character who definitely has a big issue with repression and intrusive/impulsive thoughts. Hyde embodies those repressed thoughts and urges and unlike Jekyll, who has a moral compass and doesn't act on intrusive thoughts (like most people), Hyde acts on those thoughts and feelings and whether their good or bad is the duality that comes with intrusive and impulsive thoughts.

Saying Jekyll was this irredeemable monster is flat out wrong and thinking that is a very black and white way of thinking in my opinion. Obviously this differs from adaptation to adaptation, but the consistency is that Jekyll is good, Hyde is bad. (Which isn't entirely correct either but that's a talk for another time.)

In short, No, Jekyll was not just as bad as Hyde because Jekyll had a moral compass and never acted on his intrusive or impulsive thoughts. He felt shame for those thoughts and separated his soul as a way to further repress those feelings and separate those thoughts from himself. (Not to mention Jekyll is hinted at being religious in the book so that's a whole other can of worms)

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[whenmemorydies]

THIS REBLOG! YESSSS @freedelusionshere!

Syd and Carmy are definitely the parents, nurturing their own branch of their culinary family tree - the same tree emerging from Syd as she "meets" Carmy (via his food) for the first time in 3x01. And so they're presented with the opportunity to do that quiet, consistent caring mentorship work for their culinary descendants (i.e. Tina, Marcus and Sweeps).

You and I have talked about this heaps on here but yes, Syd showcases what I mean when I describe that "quiet, consistent" caregiving/mentoring work perhaps more than any other character on this show. She does this in both her professional and personal lives. It goes into overdrive during and after season 2 as she does all of that additional work on herself (with Coach K's help) to be a better leader for her team.

I think its VERY evident from these choices what Storer and Calo are saying about effective, impactful leadership. That its not the vitriolic, strong man, samurai-sword wielding bombast of Ball Breaker (literally Drumpf and his ghouls look like they could be avatars in that fucking game lmao). Its actually the quiet, small gestures rooted in care - its in acts often attributed (and as such, pathologised) to mothering. Of course the show doesn't explicitly say this. Instead, the messaging comes to us through Coach K (which we hear him literally narrate in 2x07 Forks):

The other thing is that you're not gonna get there alone. You know, be on a team. You know, surround yourself with good people and learn how to listen.

You're not gonna learn with you just talking.

And when you do talk, converse. Don't make excuses. Figure out the solution. And you don't have to figure it out yourself.

I always wanted to be part of a team and obviously I wanted to lead that team. You know, [...] what an interesting life it is to be a leader.

Other folks on the show say words to these effect as well - see Luca in 2x04 Honeydew and Jess in 3x10 Forever.

...which may also be the showrunners hoodwinking the incel, QAnon, 4chan, Snyder-cut crowd in the same way they're doing with Sydcarmy (we hope). Keep them appeased about quiet, caring, collaborative mentorship cos its white folks like the former Duke basketball coach saying it instead of a Black chef named Sydney actually showing us how this is done in practice.

"I would like to see someone recognize and take care of Syd so much. To see her let someone in instead of letting her be drained dry like Mikey (who had to be the "man of the house" when his father left)."

^this part!!! As much as I love Sydcarmy, I would be happy with season 4 if we get this for Sydney no matter who is doing it. It should be Carmy because that man needs to do some serious repair work on his relationship with Syd but in truth, so many at The Bear should be doing this with her.

"What I really want is for her to see in Carmy the things she wanted from her mother and for Carmy to see in Syd the things he wanted from his father, and then they just decide to do life together. And to slow things down and do what they agreed to do in S1.

Because time allows you perspective and the ability not only to provide care, but also to receive it. Also, fuck you, Money Clock, I already hate you!"

^and this - truer words were never spoken.

If we do have to be subjected to more Faks this season, please let one of them be useful and break that fucking money clock or something.

I just wanna feed my kid: inspiration, creativity and dreams on The Bear

As much as The Bear is about inspiration and pushing professional limits, one of the things I truly love about this show is its gentle celebration of the quieter, less sexy, often invisible work that has to take place in order for inspiration, creativity and dreams to have the space to occur.

You'd be forgiven for wanting to know when this is ever dealt with in the show because like most things, its not explicit in the dialogue. Thats ok though because you've got folks like myself who have a tendency to hyperfixate that can help you navigate the vision! Lets dive in shall we...

Consistency over chaos

I've written here about how Carmy's chaotic upbringing likely influenced his decision to become a chef. In that meta, I suggest that Carmy uses cooking as a means of mastering chaos, particularly given the chaotic and inconsistent upbringing that he and his siblings were subjected to as a result of their absent father and abusive mother. If you have the time, I'd recommend reading that meta before jumping into this one as it sets out some important background, particularly on the importance of consistency in childhood.

The TLDR is: consistency in raising children occurs primarily through routine and predictability. These things create a sense of safety for children which in turn gives them the space to learn and to push boundaries. There are many examples of consistent parenting throughout seasons 1-3 of The Bear which I'll get into below:

Recall 3x06 Napkins and the conversation that Tina has with Mikey about her frustrations looking for new work after being fired from her job of 15 years:

Tina. Oh, shit. Its comedic how hard its been for me to find anything, man. I'll clean a dish. I'll wash a floor. I'll sell some bullshit, you know? I gotta cover this ass, right? I don't need to be inspired. I don't need to be impassioned. I don't need to make magic. I don't need to save the world, you know? I just- I just wanna feed my kid, you know?

Mikey: Amen.

Tina: Just give me a routine. I'm in.

Earlier in 3x06, prior to Tina and Mikey's conversation, we see Tina going about her daily routine. That routine featured so many aspects that point to Tina's desire to look after her family, in particular her son Louie (whom we first meet in 1x07 The Review). We see Tina's care in the pictures of Louie stuck to the Marrero fridge and her work space, in the food she prepares (lunch sandwiches and slowcooker meals), and in the notes she writes for her son:

Whats important to note in 3x06 is that Tina is seen doing all of the above before she loses her job AND afterwards. After she is fired, Tina continues to wake up just after 6am every weekday morning to prepare lunches and cook hot, hearty meals for her family and then dives into the job hunt like that is her new job. Tina keeps things moving, despite her own stress and anxiety about being able to pay her rent in order to keep her home so that she doesn't have to move Louie to a new school where he'll have to make new friends (because as Tina tells her husband, Louie has not had a good track record at making and keeping friends). Her concern always comes back to her son and making sure he is alright. Tina is never shown unloading her worries onto her son (aside from repeatedly telling Louie to turn the TV down lol). Instead, she writes him notes saying "I love you!"

In her disclosures to Mikey and her diligent routine in 3x06, we see that Tina's approach to raising her son - indeed her approach to life - echoes that of Marcus' mother, Angela, as evidenced in Marcus' eulogy for Angela in 3x03 Doors:

Marcus: She never let me be scared, like worried. She kept things moving. Always kept things running. [...] I always felt loved. It didn't matter what was going on or if I was in trouble or whatever.

Angela, like Tina, was committed to creating as safe, panic-less and anxiety-free a space as she could for her child to grow up in. These two women did what they needed to in order to keep their families going, while also giving their children the space in which to thrive.

This approach is echoed by a pregnant Nat in conversation with Richie in 3x04 Violet:

Richie: What? Hey, what was that? Tell me.

Natalie: I'm just, um, I'm thinking about how to not let what's- what's in here *motions to her head* how to not let that get to her.

Richie: Yeah, I think about that all the time.

Natalie: You do?

Richie: I got nothing though. You have any luck?

Natalie: I have nothing.

Despite telling Nat that he doesn't have an answer for how to keep his worries from getting to his daughter, Richie is shown navigating this aspect of parenting with Eva repeatedly through seasons 1-3 of The Bear. We see it in 3x04 when he reassures his daughter that he's good (after she says that his ex-wife, Tiff, thinks he's alone). In the same scene, Richie also checks to make sure Eva likes Tiff's fiance Frank, despite his own feelings towards his ex-wife's impending remarriage. Richie also tells Tiff in 3x09 that he doesn't want their daughter worrying about him.

In fact, the first time I realised that there may be more to cousin beyond the trash he was throwing at Sydney and Carmy in season 1 was in episode 2 of the show during his phone call with Eva where he reassures his daughter of how much he loves her after hearing from Tiff that she's having a hard time at her new school:

In the scene from 1x02 above, we see Richie jump in the course of a few minutes from blasting Sydney with his own white male insecurities ("...I think you should pause and take a breath before you start driving. Man or woman, I'm not discriminating. Its dangerous to get behind the wheel when you're hyserical" rofl this asshole), telling Tiff that he's not surprised Eva's crying because the kids at her new school are a bunch of "fuckfaces" to then sweetly, gently asking Eva how she's doing. Yes, season 1 Richie was a dickhead, but I give the above example to illustrate how good he is at switching tack when it comes to engaging with his child and shielding her from his own troubles: keeping it moving, doing what he can to make sure his kid doesn't feel scared or worried and making sure his child knows that she is loved.

Consistent parenting is also modelled by Emmanuel Adamu with his daughter Sydney throughout seasons 2-3. For example, in 3x04 Violet, Emmanuel tells Sydney his concerns about the apartment she's chosen ("I don't know whats flimsier, these walls or the partnership promises" lol), but as soon as Sydney says she's already signed the apartment's lease, Emmanuel sighs deeply, clicks his tongue in disapproval and says,

Emmanuel: We better go find you a couch.

This is unconditional, consistent love in action. Its how Marcus described his mother's approach to parenting: it didn't matter if he was in trouble, he always felt loved. Just like I'm sure Sydney felt loved in the above moment as her father huddled her off to a secondhand store to buy a couch for an apartment she knew that he didn't want her to move into.

So what does all of this talk about parenting have to do with inspiration, creativity, and magic? Well, its about creating an environment where these things are safe to emerge. It is very hard to let your mind roam where it needs to for creativity and inspiration to take hold when you are under threat, frightened or anxious. When a child's mind is in these states, it is worried about one thing: survival. And as we know, surviving is not thriving.

A dream deferred is a dream denied

The most obvious example of how parenting can impact on a child's ability to feel inspired, to be creative and to dream is shown to us through Mikey's story, as told to Tina in 3x06 Napkins:

Tina: This a family business?

Mikey: Yeah. You know, my- my old man, he opened it. He also ran it into the ground. He just, like, has a giant stack of unpaid bills. He took one look and he split, you know? He hightailed it. Ran for the hills, never came back.

Tina: Mmm. They'll do that.

Mikey: What, bills?

Tina: Dads.

Mikey: Yeah. Amen to that.

[...]

Mikey: I remember when I was a kid, I went on this field trip. I don't remember what it was fucking for, but I remember we went into this old building, you know? Like, beautiful. Like, proper art deco. And on every single floor it was, like, a different business, you know? It was all official. You know, people working in suits and dresses and, like, doing their thing. And I remember thinking like, this building, its like a building of dreams, you know?

Tina: What kind of dreams?

Mikey: Well, if- if you think about, like, every single one of those people, they had, like, one dream, right? And that led them to that building and then to that floor and then to that job. And it was just, like- you know?

Tina: Mmm. So it was inspiring?

Mikey: No, I mean, dude. It was totally fucking depressing. I mean, it killed me.

Tina: How come?

Mikey: I just- I don't know. I mean, I'm a kid, and I'm there, and I'm like, "Well that shit ain't happening to me." You know, I knew- I knew I was gonna get, like, skipped, you know? Like, I had shit to do, you know? I had people to take care of. And I knew that, like- I don't know. Like, that dream shit- pfft, you know, just- you know, wasn't gonna happen to me.

As I talk about in my previous Chaos and Consistency meta, the Berzatto children grew up in a home where chaos ruled. This was a result of their erratic, absent father and their erratic, abusive mother, Donna. Mikey, as the eldest child, bore the brunt of that inconsistency and chaos to such an extent that he felt like he never even had the option to dream. He was too busy looking after his family, too busy surviving, to even contemplate inspiration or creativity. We know that a life without inspiration, creativity or dreams is a life without hope. This is no way to live and we know that ultimately, that lack of hope leads Mikey to a point where he takes his own life. I imagine that this is every parent's worst nightmare. I know its mine.

Changing the world

There's only one thing that I've told my kid I need him to do for me: leave this world a better place than when he arrived in it. Ultimately, I want him to be a good ancestor. As a parent, its my job to create the conditions in which he is able to do that, in whatever way he chooses to go about that task. Others may disagree and want different things for their kids. I share this only because its one of the main reasons The Bear resonates so strongly with me.

In this show, I see a bunch of folks trying their hardest to be good ancestors, despite and because of their own backgrounds and upbringings. This may not be readily apparent when folks watch the show because as we know, The Bear is often described in legacy media as being about a stressful workplace, wunderkind chef Carmy and the restaurant industry. These are very superficial descriptions.

The Bear is many things. I've talked about its critique of late stage capitalism, its resistance to fascism (interpersonally and more broadly), its gorgeous take on a predestined love, its portrayal of intergenerational trauma, its tackling of the white gaze (which I argue here it needs to further rise to the challenge of in season 4), and its dissection of masculinity, to name a few. Others on this platform have also produced beautiful, incisive meta about various aspects of this show (normally I would link to a bunch but in the interest of time, I'll hold off. Hopefully the Media References in The Bear table will help in this regard).

But something I've not yet discussed and haven't seen tackled at length here is how the show raises up the quiet, consistent work that allows a wunderkind chef like Carmy to exist. Carmy is talented and he rose up through the ranks despite his chaotic childhood. But I would argue that one of the main reasons he had the space to pursue his dream, was because of the quiet, thankless work that his brother and his sister and others (like cousin Michelle) likely did to get him there. Certainly, one of the only reasons Carmy is able to run The Bear in season 3 is because of the quiet, consistent work that Sydney has undertaken from season 1 to ensure that he has a team working with him.

By having a parent like Angela, Marcus had the space to imagine, to be impassioned, to seek out magic. And once he's given the environment in which he can pursue his imagination, his passion? He fucking SOARS. We're talking orange chocolate layer cake, "Mom's Honey Bun", "Sydney's Donut (After Carm Destroyed It Like a Little Bitch)", "Copenhagen Sundae", "The Michael", that delicate white violet on a fence. As Carmy says, Marcus can absolutely throw down.

And if the above examples weren't enough, we also get the point driven home by Uncle Jimmy in 3x09 Apologies during his alleyway chat with Carmy:

Uncle Jimmy: Anyway, so I'm in this lecture, and its called "The Day Tomorrow Began," right? Its all about these breakthroughs in, like, science and fucking culture and whatever. And, um, actually how they're all born from people of the U of Chicago, right here in Illinois, you know?

[Note: the use of the word "born" here is important and reiterates the role of parents and other mentor figures - like our teachers, for example - in fostering an environment where creativity can bloom.]

Crazy fucking shit, let me tell you. Like carbon dating. You know what that is?

Carmy: I don't think so.

Uncle Jimmy: So when anything is alive - anything - like plants, animals, human beings, whatever, we absorb carbon 14 atoms into our tissue, all right? So then when we die, those atoms start to get released back out in the atmosphere. This one motherfucker, right? He figures out how to measure how long something's been dead by counting the remaining carbon 14 atoms. Who the fuck thinks of that, right?

Carmy: I don't know.

Uncle Jimmy: Another one? First nuclear reactor. That's right. University of fucking Chicago, baby.

Carmy: Huh.

Uncle Jimmy: Yeah. Its inspiring really, cause its kind of like, if you really nurture these dreams, these goals, no matter how batshit crazy they sound, and trust me, there are like 15 more of these breakthroughs, positively fucking idiotic, alright? But you can make an impact, right? You can actually change the fucking world, as long as you have a place like the university to take care of you, to let you do your thing. Let you drive, right?

Uncle Jimmy's observations to Carmy are interesting because they challenge Tina's thoughts on parenting. Recall in 3x06, Tina says:

I'll clean a dish. I'll wash a floor. I'll sell some bullshit, you know? I gotta cover this ass, right? I don't need to be inspired. I don't need to be impassioned. I don't need to make magic. I don't need to save the world, you know? I just- I just wanna feed my kid, you know?

But what Uncle Jimmy notes, and what I'm trying to say in this meta (hopefully lol, you tell me if this makes sense) is whether she likes it or not, Tina is changing the world. She is making magic. Consistent, loving parents, caregivers, and mentors are impactful and world changing because of the space they create for those they care for. For the possibilities they engender.

Many who watch The Bear know that this show has its roots in the family history of its creator, Chris Storer. Chris and his sister, Courtney grew up in a context that, by their own admission, had a lot of addiction, chaos, and trauma. I think its pretty special that they were able to work together on this show and in doing so, process those struggles on a path towards healing. How often do we get the chance to make things right for our younger selves? Some would say we never do, that��s the past. Many parents would tell you, it’s every day that we have with our kids and are given the chance to be the parent we needed when we were younger.

But you don't need to be a parent, caregiver or mentor to make things right for your younger self, to create safe spaces for others. If anything, The Bear shows us how a group of disparate folks who happen to work together create that space between themselves.

I think Joanna Calo and Chris Storer might argue, that we get the chance to be caring and consistent in every interaction we have with others. Where if given the choice, you give grace and in doing so, space. So that inspiration, creativity and dreams can flourish, wherever you go.

[respectthepetty]

Hi,

I saw promo for the new Gmmtv merch calendar for EarthMix and I immediately thought of your theory. Do you think this means anything for Ossan's Love Thailand?

(For context most other pairs both wear (mostly) black. Only a few have one in black one in white (aside from EarthMix also JoongDunk, FirstKhaotung, WinnySatang, GreatInn, OhmLeng, and MarkOhm).

Of those EarthMix are the only ones where the colors don't match up with the order of their names in the ship name.)

Anon, regarding my Wild Ass Theory about the blacks and whites and EarthMix, the calendar and the colors are on brand for the couple.

I've featured them before because they have consistently stated that Mix is black (dark) and Earth is white (light).

There have been times when they "switch" but even then Mix isn't full white.

So I think they have been telling us exactly what they wanted to say, but people aren't listening.

It's MixEarth.

And it always has been.

[quimser]

trying a linocut-leaning style (best viewed on desktop, mobile crushes the quality massively)

[sysig]

How far did you get? (Patreon)

[respectthepetty]

Thanks for tagging me @ranchthoughts!

To kinda answer your question @sisaloofafump, I track color coding in BLs, but the colors depend on the story being told. However, Thailand likes the red x blue and Korea likes green x blue. I have a small collection of some color-coded pairs:

Country Color Coding

Red x Blue

Green x Blue

Green x Yellow (Friends)

Black x White

But to answer your question in an odd way . . .

Seme = Black; Uke = White

It's an odd answer to your question because this is common in BL shows AND in promo images that include the BL actors. I am convoluting the terms a bit, so by Seme, I mean the activo/top character and by Uke, I mean the pasivo/bottom character. I don't like this, but in the last four months, I have collected over 100 images that keep telling this story.

In 2023, the majority of color-coded pairs were black x white.

But in promo pics and magazine covers, actors who were implied in their shows to be the seme character wore black, and the actors who were implied to be the uke character in the show wore white.

Which also leans into the angel and devil (good x bad) aspect of bottom vs top.

Even if the show suggested vers was an option, the promo material said otherwise.

The girls are in it too.

And it's just not Thailand.

It's bananas!

But even more wild is how these colors are used by the actors and companies to send a message to the audience. For example, War was the uke and Yin was the seme in Love Mechanics, and Bible was a seme in his previous pair.

Yet outside of their Love Mechanics era, War is consistently colored in black, and Yin is in white. Consistently. And in the promo material for Bible's upcoming series 4 Minutes, where he is partnered with someone else, he is now in white. He has already gone on record telling people "not to think too much about [the sex positions]"

Another example is Pit Babe. In the series, Pavel IS a confirmed bottom, yet people tried to make him the top. Promo images reinforced his position during the airing of the show, but since the show has ended, more images of the pair have returned them to their stereotypical dynamic.

Even KinnPorsche did this. During the show's run, Mile, whose character was the confirmed top in the show, would wear black in promo images, but since then Apo mainly wears the black.

Once again, I don't like it, but the images are telling a story, and the evidence just keeps building. Every single day I add at least two more pictures. The inventory is growing.

So . . . yeah.

Tagging @poetry-protest-pornography, @benkaaoi, @mousydentist, @supanuts, and @italianpersonwithashippersheart because I finally said the quiet part out loud.

Hi! I'm working on a large stats project about the colour coding of superheros in a/b/o fics, and someone pointed me in the direction of BL as a possible similarity. You've written a Iot of cool stuff about BL symbolisms before, so I thought I'd reach out in case you have any insight.

I admit, I know next to nothing about BL, and while I do know the terms seme/uke have gone out of fashion, have you noticed any particular colour coding of characters in similar dynamics? In superhero a/b/o, for example, those in yellow, orange, or metalics are more likely to be alphas, where as those in brown, purple, and pink, are more likely to be omegas.

No pressure to reply, but if you have any thoughts (or know where to find some), I'd love to hear it!

Hi!

While I love data and analysis, I am not the person to come to for colour coding dynamics. You want @respectthepetty, BL Tumblr's premier colour coding expert and the true master when it comes to anything colour related.

What a fascinating question!

[jaybirdwest]

i love this look an unbelievable amount. jason wearing a beanie with the curls peeking out underneath and the white streak is there??? it’s so good

Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War - Red Hood #1

[gale-dekarios]

im not saying all of my posts are bangers, but its hard not to notice that posts i make about other companions easily break 100 notes no sweat, with the upper limit breaching 1k, to outliers of well over 4k, but whenever it's about wyll, it's crickets. i dunno, youre allowed to interact with anything you want to, and this isnt a call to reblog from me, specifically, this is the same for a lot of wyll orientated posts ive seen, but its just odd. and by odd i mean racist.

[respectthepetty]

I have a Wild Ass Theory, so I think this is a good place to leave these:

YinWar will be switching in Jack & Joker, and we all cheered!

I'm not even exaggerating when I say these two have been going against industry standards since the very beggining, when they took the piss out of fanservice so hard that they became known for capsizing their own ship, and now they'll further deviate from the BL fixed pair norm and reverse roles as a way to tackle certain queer topics. Just last year @poetry-protest-pornography and I were talking about YinWar having both the willingness and the range to pull off something like this since they weren't held back by any company, and of course these men will deliver given that they have the luxury of doing whatever the hell they want as independent artists and producers of their own series. Dreams do come true!

[Eng trans.] Yin: I mean, people, let's say fans, will focus on "YinWar". By definition, "Yin" is the top in terms of roles, right? Y: So, I listened to the writers' ideas. They said that they intentionally reflected this issue, and that, in reality, it's not something fixed that way. Yin/Seoul: It switches. Y: Right. S: So it can be WarYin or YinWar. Y: Right. War: They wanted to convey that it's a matter of preference, and that it's much broader than that. It's broader than we think. The fact that two men should have fixed [sex] roles, only that way, or that people can only have one specific preference, it's not true. It's very flexible. It's something normal. Y: If people intend to be open-minded, we really have to be open-minded in the sense that they wanted to convey. After listening to it, it's brilliant. It's right. It feels like how it should be.

[skitskatdacat63]

All white fit, hello??

[respectthepetty]

Yin Yang was GeminiFourth on The Mask Singer Soulmate!

My black and white theory is science!

Bonus:

Previous posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Bonus, Future Pair?

[lilyoffandoms]

Reese Verner

[cathalbravecog]

i'm gonna be brave and post all the high rollers i've drawn on ibis to fight my current inability to draw on my computer. i love this goober. this thing owns 95% of my brain currently. cathal artist becomes high roller artist and is very cool about it