#this is not meant to be discourse just a reflection lol

[maxdibert]

So Im currently playing Hogwarts legacy and came across the discourse about "at least James doesnt use dark arts u_u" and Im like.... My character just used a diffindo (a LIGHT spell, taught by a teacher) to cut someone in half and no one blinks an eye??? But If I use an AK, which is a painless death, then sudenly Im the bad guy??

There's no magical lore in the HP universe that makes sense, its broken by default. If the Dark arts are bad bc of the intent to harm, then every spell can be dark. I could leviosa someone out of the window and kill the person, or I could engorgio someone's heart until It explode in their chest. I could use a tripping jinx on someone at the top of a stairs and watch they fall and break their neck. Why is sectumsempra considered a Dark spell? "Oh It bc Its meant to cause irreparable damage!!! It intends to kill!!!" so did my diffindo bitch.

In the very game thats not a discussion that happens, bc it lacks groundwork from the source material. The only magic we can say for certain its dark its the horcruxes, that literally breaks someone's souls. Everything is seems dictated by morals. By that line of thought the marauders were pretty much Dark Wizards too LOL

Ugh, the whole magic system and worldbuilding around it in Harry Potter is absolute garbage. I’m not a fantasy purist to the point where you have to be like Tolkien and literally write me the entire history of that world—not just the origins but everything that happened over millennia—but I do expect some coherence.

Like, Rowling just throws out nonsense like “Muggle-borns are descendants of Squibs or people with magic genes in their blood” and calls it a day. She says dark magic is terrible, but she never specifies what dark magic is. Is it just the kind that’s meant to cause harm or kill? Because literally any spell can cause harm depending on how you use it. Does that mean that if a spell that’s classified as a dark curse is used without bad intentions, it’s suddenly not dark magic? Or that if a spell can’t kill you, then it’s not dark? And what if a “non-dark” spell kills someone, then what?

It makes no sense. It can’t be that what counts is simply the intent or malice when casting the spell, that logic doesn’t hold up. Same with that ridiculous idea that Death Eaters can’t cast a Patronus, as if their souls are forever corrupted. What the hell does that even mean? The Malfoys are a family that clearly love each other, you’re telling me they still couldn’t conjure a Patronus? How the hell does that even work?

In the end, how magic works in Rowling’s universe is just a reflection of her black-and-white view of morality: if you’re “good,” then all your magic is good, even if you use dark spells; if you’re “bad,” you could cast Expelliarmus and it’d still count as dark magic. Why? Because she says so. All of her worldbuilding boils down to a giant deus ex machina so that everything works the way she wants and her favorite characters can stay perfectly good little heroes. The end.

[aroceu]

i think one of the things that's really Gets Me (in a bad way) about the predominant value of "moral purity" in any sort of narrative especially among young people these days is that many if not most narratives outside of children's media are about extremely flawed human beings in a way that explores those flaws within the nature of being human. like, so many fictional characters are fucked up. that's their whole thing. that's the reason why those stories are written. because once you're no longer a child, the stories you read or watch or consume aren't to teach you right from wrong, they're to show you the nuances and messiness and moral complications that come from being a human in this world. but the people obsessed with purity still expect some sort of explicit "so this is the moral of the story :)" and "the good guys win and live happily ever after" and "any character with a notable flaw is irredeemably Bad" because they still expect everyone to have the neural development of a five year old

[a-kinda-boring-writer]

hi i’m new here and i would like to know what you like about brightfire! never seen that ship before and i love hearing about peoples beloved niche ships

Hi, hello! 👋 Welcome to the kitty corner of The Hellsite(tm)

I'm quite sorry for taking two whole day to organize my thoughts 😔. I'm really bad at discussing ships I like. Or ships in general tbh.

Anyways, not surprised at all lol. Brightheart fanships are kinda rare as is, I feel (the fandom loves BrightCloud way too much lol. The most experimental they ever get is adding Swiftpaw or Daisy into the mix). BrightFire must be the nichest thing ever. More of a crackship tbh. There are like three people in the universe who ship BrightFire, we all used to be in the same discord server, and each of us had a different, mutually incompatible interpretation of their dynamic lmao.

Last time someone asked me about one of my fav ships, I couldn't really give them a good answer, and I felt really shit about it. So I'll do my best and I hope it's at least amusing to hear my thought process?

This is probably going to be long and I'm going to explain myself like ass, because I always end up rambling unnecessarily 😔.

Alright:

To be honest, for me, it originally came about as a joke, while writing my PoT-AU rewrite. The main premise of that is that Holly, Jay, and Lion are FeatherCrow kits born in RiverClan, but a fun... gimmick, I guess you'd call it, of that AU is that I strive to research and implement community-wide headcanons and jokes new and old (or just wc fandom practices in general) taken seriously to craft the world-building, plot and characterization of some cats. For example, Leafpool in the AU started as a warrior but was forced to become a med cat by Sandstorm (old fandom rumor based on jack and shit afaik) and she's very pro-life (very strange fandom discourse turned into shitposts gallore from 2019... also, yeah, abortions are a thing that exist in that AU).

Here in Tumblr, Firestar x Everyone is rather popular, so that's part of his character in the AU. That's to say, he's a disaster, with 2 mates, 12 lovers, like 100 flings and 24 litters of kits fathered and counting! (don't worry, the large majority of them died young, so despite his best efforts, he didn't nuked the clans' genetic diversity.... yet).

Anyways, the joke (and pre-phrasing this by saying that I think infidelity in fiction is funny to begin with, and that I don't like Cloudtail. At all). I thought that it'd be hilarious if Firestar, considering his new behaviors, got so annoyed at his nephew one day that he just goes and cucks him. That's it. Incredibly stupid, I know.

Then I started thinking about the ship a bit more, outside of the context of that AU. And I kinda ended up really liking the idea of BrightFire? Firestar is just really easy to ship lol. And as I said, I do not like Cloudtail. So pairing Brightheart up with someone else was an intriguing proposition.

I haven't had the time to sit and write down about it properly, so the following is very tenuous at best. I'm aware this is more of a crackship, so I'm under no illusion that it makes perfect sense within canon or anything like that. Also, this is only ONE scenario I have for BrightFire, the one I've put the most thought, and it takes place on the second part of TNP.

Pre-phrasing this by saying that I don't write my romances as entirely healthy, so if anything sounds lowkey 🤨 then yeah, it's probably meant to be.

The way I see it, Brightheart derives way too much of her self-worth from other cats' feelings and opinions about her. In canon, it's mainly Cloudtail's. One of the guides states something along the lines of "she still remembers what she looked like before the dog attack, and it breaks her heart every time she sees her reflection, she just puts up a brave front and avoids going near water". Bright herself adds that "He gave me another destiny, and I knew that no matter what I looked like, I would be all right. As long as Cloudtail loved me, I was no longer Lostface, but Brightheart". Which I'm sure most people would interpret that as something cute, that's what it was meant as probably, but I'm not most people lol. (bad faith interpretations strike again 🫠)

There are other examples of that stuff within the main books themselves, but those 👆 illustrate the idea already. I don't feel like hunting for screenshots right now.

So, with that in mind, when Cloudtail started neglecting her, favoring spending time with Daisy instead of her... not to mention that Bright had recently lost her home and also had to leave her mother behind to an unknown fate, so she might have been in a vulnerable state as is... I'd imagine she took it really hard.

And to clarify, I'm NOT saying that Cloud was being neglectful on purpose or that he had feelings for Daisy and wanted to replace his wife or anything like that (I think he was just being well-meaning but clueless... and a little dumb perhaps), just that to Bright, it certainly seemed that way.

So in an alternative universe in which Leafpool doesn't step in and chew out Cloudtail to get it together, it's Firestar who intervenes in this situation. But he doesn't go to Cloud, his nephew never listens to him anyways. He goes to Brightheart instead. He doesn't understand what's going on at first, he only knows that she's been moping around in the med cat den a little too much, and he really needs all warriors locked in. They just moved to the lake and there's a lot of work to be done.

He learns what's going on and feels sympathy towards her. He too knows what's like to feel alone even when surrounded by clanmates, and to be neglected by those who you hold dear, those who you thought you had a special connection with (he's still not over his situationship with Graystripe and getting dumped for Silverstream lmaooo)

Firestar cuts her some slack and lets her skip her duties until she feels better. He also starts periodically visiting her, to spend time with her and cheer her up, just like he did with Cinderpelt. He feels responsible in a way, because Cloud is his kin and he (unintentionally) caused this mess.

Brightheart is apathetic at first. But she ends up latching onto him, because she has no one else (Cinderpelt is too busy to spend time with her, dealing with Leafpool's shenanigans and, well, her own upcoming doom. And her brothers... sorry, who?) Over time, Brightheart sort of inadvertently starts getting from Firestar's company and kinds gestures the same validation she used to derive from Cloudtail's.

Eventually, Bright fells well enough to return to her duties, and though things are better, she tries to avoid going on patrols with Cloud. She really doesn't want to know how awesome Daisy is doing in her training or how great her kits are 🙄. And that's all Cloud seems to think about these days. She feels like he compliments her far less nowadays, and even when he does, it sounds kinda hollow.

Instead, she often ends up going on patrols that, coincidentally, Firestar is in (Fire also thinks that Cloud is annoying, so he doesn't put him in his patrols lmao). And they just keep hanging out, as clanmates. Soon they do as friends. And it's his jokes that make her laugh now, and his compliments that causes her to trip over her words.

And when she realizes what's happening, it startles her, causes her to feel really guilty... but it causes her to reevaluate some things. She needs to be loved to be Brightheart, to not be Lostface, to not be dead-weight. And she simply doesn't anymore with Cloudtail. She thought their bond unbreakable, but as soon as someone prettier showed up, he seemed more than ready to drop her. And that sucks because she has a family with him, and so many plans, and so much of her life and future plans were build around him. She doesn't want to throw all that away.

But she feels loved around Firestar. And she needs to feel loved. She's been doing so much better since they've began hanging out. He makes her feel strong, like Cloud used to do. And she's rebuilt her life once. She could do it again...

Firestar has no fucking clue that he's essentially driving a wedge between Cloud and Bright.

(We're going with the fanon-ish funny characterization of Firestar, in which he's handsome, charismatic and very charming, but incredibly clueless. You know, needing Cinderpelt to spell it out for him when Sandstorm wanted to put a ring on it, and all that)

He just sees that Brightheart responds well to what he does, so he keeps doing it. He invites her to share some fresh-kill with him and Sandstorm, and while they eat, he slips in that her fur looks lovely today. Then he pats himself on the back when Bright smiles, and offers to go on another patrol with him. Man, he's just so great at supporting his clanmates! 😌

(In a "Sandstorm is ok with it" scenario, I like to think that Firestar wouldn't understand what's going on until his wife quite literally asks him 'So are you going to invite that woman you've been courting to our nest already, or do you expect me to do it?', with him replying something like "the woman I've been WHAT?")

From that set up, you can take it anywhere, really. Bright keeps quiet and continues with her marriage, for the sake of her daughter. She tries to pursue an affair with Fire and is rejected. She tries to pursue an affair with Fire and he agrees for [insert reason here]. Bright just divorces Cloud publicly and goes for Fire, either getting rejected or not. Or from this event, Bright learns to love herself, without needing others for validation, and it doesn't matter with who she ends up with anymore... or she should yolo it and just marry Daisy, fuck it.

Happy endings are kinda few and far between in my stories lol, but I have a soft spot for BrightFire. I wanna see them happy-ish in the end (Sandstorm too!). Need time to actually think about it, though.

Anyways, yeah. Hope you got something interesting out of this?

<3

[maletofujoshi]

i think i am going to miss femboy presentation a bit. like okay i’m Not that bombshell cute nor am i thin enough to have the full fairy look but i think it is actually weighed more towards *affect* than people think, rather than image alone (though. that helps.)

like. i think a lot of people are sorta charmed by a “male” person (and i’m talking about majority culture here. on god one day society will be reshaped such that tmasc femboys will have their day. maybe one will be president.) who is disaffected from masculine performance. like okay that style obviously comes with flak but it’s like also easy to clock when people appreciate it, when they make sort of odd gestures, or are quick in trying to get comfortable. white girls who avoided indian boys generally would switch energy completely between like, seeing me, and hearing me speak. moving a lot meant i saw this very often i’m not talking about like one girl i met. some guys also get immediately bizarre when you are Just nice to them, one time while working food service this young dude who was picking up a catering order for his mom switched from “running an errand” to “very pleased” during like basic customer interaction. he left a big tip on the order- not normal with catering- and then separately gave me a cash tip i’d be able to keep personally when we were alone. who does that.

but like. i think that social lube disappears in like basically all other forms of gender transgression. like, it’s not that there’s a difference in the base curiosities people have, it’s that like. a trans person has lower value in the minds of curious straight(*) people (generally. shoutout chaser nation?) there was this very viral (to me. and my heart.) screenshot of tags on Finnster discourse, where someone essentially straightforwardly said a trans woman/person presenting femininely was less interesting to them than a man doing it. i wonder if that’s because- if you view gender/sex as particularly defining of character, men are from mars, women are from venus, cross-dressing expands the meaning of what “men” are, but suddenly if that person is trans, then that behaviour lacks novelty to those people because people in the trans box *would* act deviantly. also not to mention just like basic misogyny and transphobia, lol, that being the vision behind these bizarre value systems.

also i’m not arguing that like “femboy privilege” exists beyond like, extant forms of male privilege, or anything lol. it’s not really a great asset on a job hunt. i’m just kinda reflecting on odd gender-y experiences i’ve had. i don’t really know how presenting openly trans or as just a woman will go for me, because shit takes time or whatever. i want to remember the kinds of things people thought of me, and how they treat me, and i want to observe for any changes in that. i think a lot of otherwise normal people are kinda also exhausted with gender and particularly how gender makes like basic human interaction terrible. which then results in odd projections here and there. which i think evidences that some level of queerness is appealing to a wide-ish group of people.

[neyafromfrance95]

so re: my favorite new delusion that the kiss will somehow be adar kissing galadriel to bait sauron, I remembered this scene happens at some point, either ep 6 or 7.

So Sauron is indeed reacting to stuff happening down on the battlefield during the day. Granted, a lot happens he could be reacting (slightly smirking) about. But the possibility is there. Maybe we're due for another controlled fury moment like he had when those numenoreans told him he wasn't good enough for her lol.

Honestly it's like... Based on story momentum, if Galadriel kisses someone romantically it either has to be Sauron or it's a kiss that's somehow still *about* them (which an Adar kiss would be if he's trying to taunt Sauron in a quick moment on the battlefield).

Or it's simply not a romantic kiss and just a cheek, forehead or hand kiss and this was all just a rumor that spiraled simply because Morfydd teased it.

There can't be other romantic kisses unless Celeborn appears out of thin air. Elrond planting one on her and revealing surprise romantic feeling that ultimately can't go anywhere would be a jarring, momentum killing story turn when the season is meant to be about a "collision course" between Galadriel and Sauron in the finale. If it happens in ep 7 as they're insisting, then the audience is suddenly confused and wondering what that was about instead of focused on the suspense building to Galadriel and Sauron's meeting.

Also notably, they never paired up Rob and Morfydd for the press tour, despite how much screen time Elrond and Galadriel shared this season.

(I truly think this wouldn't even be a conversation if the incel lorebores didn't have a habit of badly interpreting scenes like the face touch in the trailer)

oh nooo, don't feed my delusions even more, they will grow! (please do feed my delusions)

his reaction to the numenoreans joking that maybe one of them is more suitable for gal needs to be talked about more! bc it was the first and only time his mask slipped off and he was about to lose it! bro saw her ankle on that raft and it was jover! suddenly, a mere suggestion that she might in theory be with smn else made this ancient being skilled in deceit almost reveal his true nature! like, when i saw his reaction for the first time, i thought it was so weird and uncharacteristic! then he beat those same dudes to a pulp!

sooo, what i'm trying to say is that, if sauron were to see his warrior queen caged and then kissed by the orc that they both blame their misfortunes on, ohhh boy. it'd be jover for the middle-earth.

and listen, so far the writers haven't given me a single reason to doubt them. even if galadriel is married to celeborn, a sudden switch to their romance would be a poor writing, since the show was about sauron x galadriel relationship from the very start (literally, finrod's speech alluded to it and then celebrimnor's one about silmarils)! same goes with elrond.

also, the whole "the light reflecting your hair reminded me of the love of my life who is lady galadriel, of course" thing was so bold??? i can't believe they did that. so, i'm 90% sure they aren't chickening out after pulling something so sick and obsessive on his part.

so yeah, either it has to do with sauron, or it's a platonic peck that was overblown by the fandom.

and agreed, we wouldn't be wasting our energies on the half of the discourse happening rn if it wasn't for the incel lorebros forcing these conversations to divert the attention from sauron x galadriel.

[hyewka]

sub!txt just makes so much more sense than dom especially beomgyu hyuka and soobin like lets be fr theyre not domming anyone 😭 yeonjun and tyun give off dom/switch vibes but txt is a sub group and i dont want ANYONE telling me otherwise...

ouuu i always love when this discourse comes up lol i also do not see any of them as mean/hard doms, especially kai like i know fics arent meant to reflect these idols at all but its so hard to get into it unless the characterizations done really well & at that point id have to trust the writer enough to even get that far into the fic

switch/sub is what i love all the wayyyy and thats honestly besides the fact that its txt. i really just cant read dom idol fics unless its too good not to check out, gives me flashbacks of back in the day wattpad one direction smut & i cannot let go of that stigma for the life of me

[gaypolls]

Submission Guidelines/Disclaimers

First, things to keep in mind when you submit:

there is a limit of 12 answers for polls, and on this blog one of those answers will always be 'show results,' to allow for people that the poll doesn't apply to to see without skewing data. so in reality you have a maximum of 11.

there's also an 80-character limit on the options

SO, if you go over those limits, know that I will take it into my own hands to decide which answers to omit and/or how to re-word it to fit the limit.

even otherwise, expect that the wording of your submission may be slightly altered in order to be more inclusive (when it doesn't affect the data), or because i think you missed an option that you probably meant to include, or just to make it sound less clunky. if you have an issue with any changes upon posting, i'm happy to hear you out.

currently there is no wait time, but if things go as expected, soon enough it'll likely be about a 4-5 day wait between the time you submit and the time it gets posted

if your poll is addressing a very small group, don't be surprised or angry when the 'see results' poll is the biggest. that needs to be there to keep data from being skewed by anyone's curiosity.

Base Guidelines For Submitting:

poll must be related to gayness in some way. it doesn't have to be directed exclusively at gay people, but it should center same-gender attraction. if you have a poll in mind to direct specifically at bisexuals, there's @mspecpolls

it CAN be a general LGBT poll, but if it's specific to something that has nothing to do with gay attraction, you're better off submitting to another blog. there's @transgenderpolls for trans stuff and @aspecpolls for ace/aro stuff.

it CAN be directed at a specific type of gay person, such as gay men, lesbians, specifically trans lesbians, nonbinary mlm, gay poc, disabled wlw, etc - literally you can address any specific gay group you want, just make sure to say so.

...this DOES include 'cis gay men/women/people' but tbqh you're gonna have to provide a good reason to be excluding trans people from the poll

in general if you want to explicitly exclude people who have a nonconforming relationship with gender, you better explicitly say so AND have a good reason. otherwise it'll be assumed that all sorts are included and if your options don't reflect that, i will change them or reject the poll.

it CAN relate to sex (i expect many polls here will be), just try to be tasteful about it. like, as long as it sounds like you're trying to collect data rather than arouse people lol

What would make me NOT post a submission:

as mentioned previously, if it's excluding subgroups without a good reason

if it's an opinion poll about the validity of any particular type of gay person. "validity" is a moot topic and i'm not going to encourage it, and in any case i'd like the focus of this blog to be about recording experiences (real, undeniable, forever in stone) rather than opinions (always changing, meaningless)

pride discourse polls, lol

anything that tries to pit issues against each other. no "which intercommunity issue is more important to you? ableism? racism?" like cmon

if it's just way too niche and would make a pointless poll. if a poll is "who's your favorite lgbt character" and then you've got 11 options from different TV shows, you gotta know that most of the ppl who see that poll will NOT have seen ALL those shows, so they'll really just be voting for the show that they know. it's just dumb.

if it's something like "gay people: do you like pineapple on pizza?" or some other question that doesn't actually have anything to do with being gay. if you wanna send something like this, make your case for why it's relevant that the poll is directed at gay people.

if it's some other obviously offensive shit, obviously. no racism or whatnot here.

FAQ:

Who counts as gay?

Like most of these guidelines I'll continue the same sentiment from the trans polls blog: We self-define here. But I will stress answering in good faith and understanding what any given poll is asking and what definitions they're using. If you're, say, nonbinary and bisexual in a way that makes all your attraction gay, or you're gay in a very specific way (like nb4nb), or you call yourself gay bc you're mostly gay but you're technically bisexual, or you're definitely homosexual but don't actually like to call yourself gay, etc, it'll likely just depend on the poll. It's totally up to you to decide if it includes you or not, or you can always ask if you want to be sure.

Though if it's not explicitly stated that the poll excludes transmasc lesbians or transfem gays, or other trans/nonbinary gay people, you should still for sure assume it includes you.

Why isn't there an option for X?/You missed an option.

Sometimes I may genuinely miss an option, but 9 times out of 10 the lack of the option is either due to the poll limits on tumblr, or because it goes against the point of the poll. For example, if the question begins with "If you're in a relationship," then "i'm not in a relationship" isn't going to be an option. If the prerequisite of the poll doesn't apply to you, then what you click is "see results." If it's something a little less concrete, polls will usually include some kind of "other" option anyway.

Can you make more polls for X type of gay person?

*I* make polls based off what I'm personally curious about. If you're curious about something, submit it!

Do you know that some people are gay in very unconventional ways that your polls aren't accounting for?

Yes, I know. When there's room on the poll, I try to be inclusive, but often there's not, and that's really the main thing there. However, I will admit that a secondary reason is that when a poll is addressing exclusively gay people, the fact that they're only attracted to one gender is relevant, regardless of whether or not it would still be gay of them to be attracted to more.

Can you get rid of the 'see results' button? Or can you not include it on this particular poll? I only want X people to respond. This poll is ONLY for X people.

If a poll is on this blog, it's for everyone, questioning and simply curious people included. It's also not going to stop curious people from clicking if there's no 'see results' button. It ensures that the data doesn't get skewed, and gathering data is what polls are for. It doesn't hurt you to see a big see results bar. The data is still there. If the bar does wind up obscuring more significant data, that means the poll was addressing too small of a group to begin with. And that's NOT the end of the world. This blog is far from the only place where you can get information about other gay people's experiences.

[centrally-unplanned]

Something I struggle a bit with a sort of disconnect with the current leaders of "professional-quality anime discourse". We live in the sakuga era, where groups like Sakugabooru & Full Frontal Moe are doing really stellar work on peering behind the curtain at the realities of anime productions. They aim to give you the "animators look" at how it all happens, what people are thinking, what studio conditions are, the works. They command the heights from a respect standpoint in my opinion right now, and sort of "drive" analytical discourse.

But they aren't really what I find interesting. I love and need a ton of their work, but in the end the sakuga era is the animator's era; it centers anime-as-art, the people who create, their techniques, etc. That isn't actually my thing! I care about cultural history & casual history, "otaku studies", and consumers of media always outnumber producers of media a hundred to one. They of course exist symbiotically with each other, but the creators side is only ever going to be a part of that. And its not the load-bearing part of questions around why this or that media product succeeded, what it meant to audiences, how it reflects people's relationship with individual media & wider identity norms, etc.

And ironically I think the "peak" of this discourse in western spaces is coinciding with its decline in relevance in Japanese spaces. This is a whole other topic but in earlier eras the telos of technological progress, its intensity and directionality, created a parallel momentum in cultural identity - "new, better anime" seemed always around the corner and people responded to that via identity formation around the momentum. But now, even though technical improvements occur, from an audience perspective the telos is gone. Audiences would actually get a bit wrapped up in things like the digital revolution back then - now its more like trivia, it doesn't shape as much.

There is of course people out there who touch on the cultural & historical topics, I'm no island or anything. But its very diffuse, and other sections of the discourse space are struggling. Great YouTubers exist but imo overall this is not a great time for AniTube, the intensification & legibility of financial success has not inspired that kind of work. Obviously the blogosphere is bleeding heavily. Academic works have gems in there but media studies as a discipline is shackled with awful theoretical concepts and compositional norms, its like pulling teeth with their output every time. And also are generally interested in western fandoms as befitting western academics (and while I do use Japanese academic papers sometimes, the legibility barrier is...its tough).

Beyond just "feeling alone" its an issue because right now I am quite demotivated on this area; I feel in-between ideas, with any potential project seeming dim in its payoff. The default source of inspiration normally is the works of others! Every time I get politics-burned at some point someone else puts out a really good analysis, or even just a good question. Proposing good questions is underrated, its the fuel that powers research. Not to mention "shit keeps happening", you know? Fukuyama may hold an iron grip on the ruleset still but within his bounds the game keeps on playing, which results in flurries of activity that are inspiring. I really lack that for media discourse stuff right now. I can't remember the last time I read a work that I loved. Liked, yes, sure. But you don't get out of ruts with a like.

80% of this is explained by "I am going through a depression episode" lol don't worry I'm not an idiot. But hey, what is Tumblr for if not to rant...

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

I just think about the refences to Illicit Affairs in the "A Million Times" on both IA and LOM; is a very intersting choice of Taylor to make.

"It's born from just one single glance But it dies, and it dies, and it dies A million little times"

and "You said I'm the love of your life About a million times"

and

"They show their truth one single time But they lie, and they lie, and they lie A million little times"

or maybe it's nothing.

Tbh I’d be more inclined to think it’s not intentional. Or rather, a reflection of repeated patterns of behaviour among lovers in her songs. One thing that was clear in TTPD is that there are certain lies she’s been told repeatedly. Plus, Taylor does re-use certain turns of phrase when she likes them, or when they’re just common terms. E.g. famously “casually cruel” in both Mr. Perfectly Fine and All Too Well. I think the common thread between those two sets of lyrics is the feeling of being conned by a lover; having these big feelings for someone only for them to abandon you in one way or another. “A million times” is very common hyperbole.

Also, getting into the weeds a little: The two lines are a little different in intent. In loml, the message is, you kept love-bombing me into believing you meant it. In Illicit Affairs, the fuck of it all is that there’s one moment where everything feels real, but that brief moment keeps you going forever when you know the situation is untenable.

(If we’re going by ~muse discourse~ I’m of the opinion that the loose inspiration behind them are different anyway. It may be selective reasoning on my part but just the way I feel on my blog and in my brain lol. Idk I think it’s just clear when she’s using a repeated motif or turn of phrase to denote a same source of inspiration and when it’s just because it’s a common enough term or something that stuck with her. I’m not saying I’m right, I’m just saying this is how I see things and will continue to do so.)

[seriousbrat]

what do you think of the way that JKR wrote gender in general in her books (especially the discourse floating around about how she supposedly thinks feminine = bad? people usually cite fleur, umbridge, lavender and parvati for this for some reason).

Interesting question... first of all I will state that I think JKR is a writer who was pretty aware of gender at the time of writing HP. I think she's stated numerous times that Hermione is a reflection of herself when she was younger, and to me objectively Hermione is a great female character-- she's more intelligent and more powerful than her male peers, but is also realistically flawed. Others may differ in this, but to me Hermione as a character feels VERY realistic and very well constructed. Honestly, just being objective but I think JKR's main strength as a writer lies in her character work because all of her characters, no matter how minor, seem so solid.

Let me make it clear that I'm just speaking to the strengths of HP as a series and not JKR personally because lol, but personally I never got the sense that Fleur, Lavender, and Parvati were supposed to be viewed negatively. I think Parvati and Lavender were just meant to be classmates that Harry didn't really understand mostly because he is a boy, but overall good people. Both of them are part of the DA and both participate in the Battle of Hogwarts. Lavender is portrayed as extremely annoying to the trio during HBP but then dies for their cause in DH, and ultimately this is more important. Harry isn't meant to be a perfect narrator, he very much views people through the lens of a teenage boy, but overall has a positive opinion of, particularly Parvati, but also Lavender. That Harry, a teenage boy, wouldn't bond as much with Parvati and Lavender as he would Seamus and Dean is pretty normal imo. I don't think it's an indictment on the fact that they're more feminine than Hermione.

As for Fleur-- personally I don't love the fact that she came last in the Triwizard Tournament and later became basically a housewife, I will say that. (also I hate the phonetic French accent and refuse to replicate it.) I think there are a few moments where Fleur's strength, talent, and bravery come through, personally I love her as a character and again I don't think she was supposed to be viewed negatively (nor do I think that Harry ever viewed her negatively.) While, yes it is a little catty for Hermione, Molly, and Ginny to hate her I also think it's pretty realistic tbh. Molly is proved wrong about Fleur pretty spectacularly at the end of HBP and Harry defends her against Ginny and Hermione's criticism.

I do think there's an element of JKR projecting her own insecurities onto these characters, in that she identifies much more with a Hermione than with a Fleur. But that's not necessarily a criticism of feminine women as a whole, because I think overall these three characters are meant to be viewed positively. And Hermione isn't not feminine, even though she perhaps isn't as stereotypically feminine as Fleur or Lavender.

Onto Umbridge-- JKR has stated that she based Umbridge on, I believe, two people that she'd encountered in real life. I'm not sure it's much deeper than that, and there's no denying that the juxtaposition between Umbridge's sickly sweet twee-ness and her awful, violent personality isn't incredibly effective. Like I'd be hard pressed to think of a more hateable character in literature right now. Personally I think that juxtaposition that makes Umbridge so detestable was more the intention, rather than an indictment on femininity in general.

Idk though, maybe others have more thoughts on this!

[nightcolorz]

Just want to say I enjoyed Millenia Gate tremendously and can’t wait for the next update. Appreciate if I could hear your thoughts on its themes too!

omg thank u so much 😭😭😭 shakes and sobs. every time someone tells me this I ascend to heaven. U r playing a bold game asking me this bcus u r unleashing a beast rn. Ty ty for sending the ask lol even tho I said I’m always itching for some one to ask me about this I had no idea someone actually would 😭 bless u ur my favorite guy. I am going to go on a whole essay rant analysis of my own fic now praise god. I am going to give u not only my thematic thoughts but my millennia gate backstory cuz they r very tired together lol at least to me.

(for outsiders millennia gate is my tvc au about tvc characters getting cancelled for being problematic influencers. Armand makes an expose video about marius Lestat gets involved and everyone finds out he’s insane it becomes like a mystery daniel is there it’s a great time)

so millennia gate truly was initially intended to be a straight up comedy. A dark comedy inherently cuz the subject matter is so dark, but still a crack fic with little substance that I was doing for pure goofs. I literally decided to write it as a stupid inside joke with my then friend now boyfriend @the-vagabond-angel bcus we had a joke about marius making a Colleen ballinger style “apology video” where he plays the lute instead of the ukulele. We even wrote marius version lyrics it was really funny 😭 I wish I remembered what they were cuz they were top tier truly. But yeah that prompted vagabond angel to be like wow wouldn’t it be so funny if tvc characters were influencers who get cancelled, and that prompt alone caused me to start spamming paragraphs of ideas about what the tvc characters would do to get cancelled and how they would play into each other drama wise, all centered around the initial idea of marius grooming Colleen balligner none apology. Angel was like “wait have u thought of this before??” And I was like no I am literally just now coming up with this u unlocked smth within me. This was in the middle of the night so I went to sleep and then right away the next morning I woke up and wrote over 7,000 words in the day. I was literally none stop writing, with my silly jester the vagabond angel in my ear like the devil on my soldier live reacting as he followed along on our shared Google doc. I think my manic writing was what prompted this uncontrollable meaning to emerge, that I wasn’t truly aware of until I was at the end of the first chapter.

I was surprised at myself by how serious it gets 😭 bcus I earnestly intended it to be purely light hearted. I think while I was writing I, consciously or otherwise, registered that I took these characters and these topics very seriously and it would have to take some disingenuous effort to not do so in my writing. I started reflecting on the cognitive dissonance of internet drama as a culture, bcus it was rlly reflective in my writing in a way that I couldn’t ignore. I spent an entire day writing about grooming and abuse, and I barely registered that until I wrote Armand’s video, which felt like being possessed by this tragic spirit almost, and I realized huh. This is what online discourse is like. The first chapter of millennia gate ended up being really unintentionally impactful, I’ve been told, bcus it’s so funny and then u just get hit by the reality at the end like a train.I’ve always been very involved and personally affected by online drama and cancelling and all those things, I find it very entertaining and sometimes very triggering and upsetting, and I think I fully was able to conceptualize my relationship with that through writing this fic. It was meant to be funny, but it turned into sort of grotesquely funny and sort of seriously upsetting at times. There’s this constant tonal whiplash in millennia gate of the internet users engaging with the drama and the perspective of the people involved that always feels sort of cruel while I write. I am always thinking when I write the little tweets and the tumblr posts YouTube comments etc, “these people don’t care about armand, these people don’t care about Lestat, this is not real to them, this is a hypothetical scenario that they can leverage to make a point, or this is a reality show or an absurd soap opera they watch for guilty pleasure entertainment, this isn’t real to them, they don’t care.” Whether it be me writing a joke post or me writing a sensitive discourse posts, they rlly do not care.

and that’s just how the internet works really, it doesn’t make anyone who engages with discourse or drama online an unempathetic person, etc. The way influencer culture and internet culture in general works requires this distance, were we as the consumers see everything, wether it be a tiktok or a person having a mental health breakdown before our eyes, or talking about there abuse, as entertainment. Even if u aren’t making it a joke, even if u r posting about how concerned u r for Gabbie Hanna or someone or watching commentary videos analyzing the weight of the situation and making intellectual conversation about the broader cultural and societal implications of whatever moral argument is taking place through the lens of someone’s life—-it’s still entertainment. I know! I love video commentary about online drama, my most watched genre of video dead ass. It’s not anything wrong with us, our brains our hardwired. We go online to be entertained like we turn on the tv, but these are not actors being paid, these are just people without any workplace safety percussions making sure they aren’t being hurt, who are given the sort of social responsibility and weight an actor would be given, a professional. These are not professionals! 😭 and I don’t mean like Jeffery Star, someone with wealth and a career, I mean the guy on tiktok who went viral unexpectedly or that animator on YouTube who got cancelled for making vent art as a teenager. This results in this trivialization of real events, true crime told like spooky stories while the teller does her make up. A memeing of someone’s grooming, a trend of making jokes about an abuse scenario. Analyzing real ppl like they r characters in a book, dissecting motives, arguing over who is the better person. I intended there to be this rlly whiplash-y tonal shift from the end of chapter 1 to the beginning of chapter 2. We go from armand talking very graphically about his own abuse instantly to girls on tiktok arguing over whether or not it’s offensive to find armand hot. It’s almost absurdly funny 😭 these girls do not care about Armand’s abuse, they rlly don’t, even if they think they do. They don’t know him! He’s a character to them!

then with this culture u get scenarios of children who were raised on the internet growing into young adults who’s perception of how socialization and validation works is through the lens of marketing urself like a product and shaping ur own identity for entertainment. We have 10 year olds making glow up videos on tiktok, 12 year olds who barely hit puberty making sure that there fandom opinions are non problematic and the music they listen to isn’t made by assholes so that they aren’t bad people. There’s a constant prevailing set of eyes when u use the internet that it’s almost Catholic, and it’s fucked up the generation raised in this environment in such a new way that no one knows how to react to it. Things just aren’t real anymore to the internet generation. We have people filming each other and posting them online to laugh at. And even if ur not doing that specifically u still kind of have that mindset if you’re on the internet long enough, of everything I do is to be consumed or for me to consume, everyone is a celebrity and a public figure and everyone is responsible for there image.

for armand, a character who in canon is conditioned through his whole life to believe that he is meant to be used by others for a greater purpose or a god, this makes sense. Millenia gate Armand’s god is social media, he was groomed and manipulated ofc online, but then shaped into a public figure when he was too young to know if that was even what he wanted. He lived on the internet as a kid bcus it’s the only place where he had validation or love, and it’s created this way of being that centers devotion to a brand that is ur identity rather then a healthy sense of self perception. Then he finds his community of friends online who he changes his name for, rebuilds himself, rebrands, bcus that’s rlly what identity is to him, a username and a profile. To me Armand’s cult shit is almost like aesthetic trends for modern teens, the reworking of ur personality and ways of dressing and behaving for the sake of conforming to an established identity and aligning urslef with a crowd just like u. Armand is like those people who r always reworking themselves to fit a new aesthetic, just so much more overtly sad, lmao. In modern day Armand is on the road to healing by condemning his abuser etc, but the only way he knows how to do this is publicly for an audience, that’s literally how he was raised, like a performer always preforming. Lestat is this but worse, while armand resents the culture but can’t escape it bcus it’s so inherent to him, Lestat is addicted to it. His only validation and primary comfort source is having fans who love him, and preforming his own self in a way that is entertaining for people. Without that he wouldn’t know if he was even lovable at all. That’s why Lestat is always posting when he claims to be taking a break, he has no way of taking a break, he doesn’t know what he is without his social media presence. He doesn’t know if he is capable of being loved if he’s not being praised by strangers online!

I could talk about Louis but I don’t want to spoil 😭 but to a degree every characters story follows this theme of an always performer. Even so, louis is a bit of an outlier. Louis is mentally unwell in a different way, not to give too much away. He is a performer yes, but more so in the sense that he is scared of back lash to the point of neuroticism. He obsessively needs to be perceived as a good person, or a normal person, probably the type of guy to make lists of writers you shouldn’t support bcus there books are problematic. Not because he is empathetic, or cares for social justice, but bcus he wants to be considered someone who has these traits, he wants to be respected as someone who isn’t bad. Louis didn’t grow up on the internet like most of the cast so he’s a bit of a different beast, I’m so excited to officially introduce him in chapter 6. We r going to get into rpf, it’ll be wild.

In conclusion uh, millennia gate started out as a crack fic and ended up as a pretty serious dark comedy about the inherent dissonance of online drama and the exploitation and the trauma of existing in a digital age, ppl who grow up with there validation coming from strangers, etc. remember! Do not trust anyone in this fic no one is good <3 no one is more right than the other person. I had a cameo in chapter 5 (my private Instagram account did at least) and my actual self insert doesn’t even reflect my opinions 😭

thank u sm for sending this ask I love u to bits. I’m sure I could say more but I don’t wanna disintegrate all ur brain cells lol. Millennia gate readers I love u guys sm and if ur ever anxious about me not updating in a while fear not, this shit is my passion project, I will never abandon it. I just have life to tend to unfortunately 😭 and currently have to tend to other things im writing. Read millennia gate here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48408403/chapters/122098564 it is so good u guys.

also fun bit of rlly embarrassing trivia, I have been misspelling millennia wrong this entire time. There r two n’s. It’s not millenia. It’s too far to go back now so everyone just pretend that my misspelling is a comedic reference to the online realism misspellings in my fic and be done with it plz sobs and explodes

[noddytheornithopod]

Got mixed feelings about the Ahsoka finale. Liked some stuff, but other stuff I'm not so sure on. Spoilers under cut

Okay first thing... the episode felt kinda cheap? Like, I could tell this was on a TV budget, lol. Some episodes have looked pretty good, but for whatever reason this just wasn't working for me?

Maybe I also just am still getting used to seeing animated stuff in live-action. Seeing the green flames finally show up is a relief, but it still felt kind of strange.

My other thing is, I'm not exactly sure I understand what block Sabine has overcome to be able to use the Force properly now? It was kind of jarring to suddenly see her do all this stuff.

Oh yeah, and a lot of this is down to unfortunate circumstances but... Baylan only got one scene? And we only get a slight tease of what he might be after (something Mortis related :v)? Was surprised we barely got any Shin, too.

I did like the zombie troopers even if the action scenes looked a bit cheap. Morgan dying I'm indifferent on, also hey "blade of Talzin." Thrawn explicitly mentions he knew Anakin, and clearly hints he knows of the Vader connection.

Still not sure how I feel about Ahsoka's place in everything, we got Morai finally but Filoni's really teasing the mystery box with her here (and now Baylan, lol). Also, hi Anakin.

I admit I do find the irony of Ezra being the only one to make it back quite amusing. Him making the new lightsabre inspired by Kanan's is pretty cool, too.

It is kind of weird that Sabine only talked about her decision with Ahsoka, though. That conversation resolved that aspect for them thankfully, but to know that Ezra's not gonna know anything until whenever they're together next is... yeah. Who even knows when that will be? If there's a Season 2, I feel like that's gonna not happen for a while, lol.

Oh yeah, some more clarification of the timeline with Mandalore and the Purge. It sounds like it happened at the end of the war, so at least they got to have like 4-5 years of having the upper hand before Gideon and co bombed the fuck out of them.

Maybe it's just me but they felt kind of vague on how much Ezra knew about Thrawn and the Nightsisters? This episode clarified it, but it was hard to tell in his previous appearances.

Am curious as to the specifics of what Morgan went through, and what the sacrifice those Night Troopers made was. It seems like they're not dead, but they do something that renders them subservient to her and makes them undead. IDK how similar Marrok is, he seems kinda different.

Am sure the Thrawn book discourse will continue, but everything's lining up and playing as I expected. He's all in on the Empire, but he's genuine when he says he believes it's for the security of the galaxy. For those of you worried about the Grysk, there's a bone for you. :P

Not sure when "long live the Empire" developed though, cuz if it was post-Endor then wonder how Thrawn got it, maybe it's something they prepared to say if things went to shit, or more weird dream shit is happening, lol.

So... yeah, that's the end of Ahsoka, presumably the first season of at least another. Kind of average in the end for me, I guess. I like more than I don't, but I do have a bit of Filoni fatigue at this point, especially with the amount of mystery boxes, lol.

Okay with Sabine and the Force, upon reflection I realise it's meant to be because Ahsoka showed she trusted her and had faith in her. Definitely think it could've landed better, but I guess I at least get it now.

Also, RIP to learning about where Ahsoka was between Malachor and the end of the Galactic Civil War. IDK what Mr Filoni think, but I personally think it's a pretty important detail to acknowledge, because why wasn't she with the Rebellion then?

[neosaidwhoa]

This reminds me of how the founders era sub fandom is the Naruto equivalent of the marauders sub fandom LMAOOO i love the collective creative power of fanon.

I really don’t think fanon is bad and I really don’t think death of the fandom is necessary though? And this is coming from someone who gets personally annoyed by some mainstream fandom mischaracterizations sometimes. Fandom and fanon is usually just a reflection of the kind of people who are in it. But I agree with your recommendation to not limit yourself to popular fanon trends.

I disagree with the statement that “the most authentic enjoyment of media comes from liking it for what it is and not what it *could* be”. I actually think imagining things beyond canon for “what it could be” is inherently an extremely authentic way to enjoy media. Transformative fan work that adds to or strays from canon is very important and meaningful for a lot of different reasons.

Also, I think context matters a lot for this conversation, maybe if I knew where you were coming from with these frustrations I would agree haha. I think for me, current mainstream Naruto fanon is very warped from the source material but I know that and enjoy some of it anyways, and I really enjoy the parts of fandom that think and write critically about both the source material and the fanon. Most of the people I choose to interact with also seem to enjoy both?

Ah, maybe my disagreement just comes from what I was thinking the definition of fanon is. I was thinking of fanon to mean “non-canon elements that are popularly accepted and used by fandom”, so it’s a given that fanon is not actually what happened. I realized maybe you were thinking of fanon to mean “non-canon elements that fandom popularly believes/insists is canon”? I would agree that I’d advise against trying to assert that fanon is canon. I’d recommend people not take fanon as truth and to study the source material itself if you’re interested in knowing what’s canon. I think this is what you were saying in your post, so I’m guessing you meant the second definition and I misunderstood you.

Anyways, all this makes me think of the Achilles and Patroclus top/bottom discourse that’s been spanning millennia (more specially discourse about their place in the erastes/eromenos dynamic) lol. The idea that they had sex or had this dynamic at all is fanon since it’s never said outright in the canon text they were referencing. But I’m glad all that fanon existed and exists and so much of the fandom activity around that particular element of fanon has been preserved for us to read about today.

death of the author yeah whatever but death of the fandom is so integral to enjoying legitimately anything like that is just a necessary step to take in ur head always. do not let them affect the text in any way exterminate them all with ur death ray. they r not real and cannot hurt u

[smellslikeonedirection]

i'm going to regret even dipping a toe into this discourse i know it might delete later but - my personal two cents on HL coming out is that, for them, every option is high risk high reward. it's a terrible position and i don't envy them or their teams.

upfront disclaimer, of course each of them should only come out if and when they feel safe, comfortable, and enthusiastic about doing so, and like they can do so in a way that's consistent with their values. but honestly, we don't know their values and i'd imagine they likely have a lot of values that, as applied to this particular situation, are in conflict. so, it's the most important thing, it's also the thing we know least about and will always know least about because harry and louis are real people with complex inner lives and we don't actually know them. it's a very important black box we're just putting to the side for now.

that said, i think in a lot of ways they're each in a very difficult position. i think coming out could cause a lot of damage to their careers and difficulty in their personal lives. i also think coming out could do really good things for their careers and personal lives. i personally am a big believer in the idea that the answer to most either/or questions is both. for example: i think young people underestimate the amount of homophobia that exists, both within the industry at the level of its power brokers but also in the general public. i live in san francisco, my family continues to live in kentucky, being a queer person is very different in one place compared to the other. but that's not meant to be dismissive of young people who believe that! because young people are a huge portion of both harry and louis' audiences, and so they have to navigate a fan base that contains a large number of fans who do believe that. i think an obvious illustration of this issue is the increasing perception in queer spaces that harry is queerbaiting.

there's also the constant tension between a mass audience (which tends to be more conservative) and the most interesting, leading edges of pop culture (which have always been significantly more diverse than the mass audience). every artist has to walk the line between continuing to push the boundaries enough to seem innovative and interesting and relevant without isolating a mass audience, and coming out is right on the line of that. in my personal opinion, publicly out queer artists are basically only just now hitting that middle ground (i'm looking at fletcher performing with miley cyrus for her nye special, and i find it fascinating that when emrata had to re-start her career post-divorce, one of the earliest things she did to establish the image she wanted was "come out" as bisexual via tiktok trend. like... it's emrata. she wants to be relevant but hardly revolutionary.) which does, in fact, reflect that h&l are lagging! and have missed the chance to be part of that leading edge push, which is an especially wild missed opportunity to me on harry's part. again... if emrata beats you out... lol.

i think coming out for either of them is both made more possible and more risky by larry as a fandom. more possible, because it derisks some of the coming out process if a significant portion of your fans already see you as queer and already believe in a narrative that squares some of the contradictions in your past behavior. more risky because all of the very well-known speculation means that they each have to have a narrative that squares some of their past contradictory behavior. they really can't just pull a miley or an emrata and say "oh i'm bi" and let that cover their past public relationships with women. the speculation will lead non-larrie fans to feel like they were inauthentic, and i think as the social media landscape has shifted, fans now prioritize authenticity over access. so, celebrities are allowed to be much more private about the day to day of their personal lives than they were in the '00s and early '10s, but fans want to feel like what they do see is authentic, especially where there's a parasocial relationship established. that's why fans pushed kit connor to out himself - it wasn't really about knowing more about his personal life, it was about wanting to know that he wasn't being inauthentic (with lots of other issues tangled up in there but). so, larry is big enough that any coming out would have to include a narrative that navigates all those years of not coming out, and, if larry as a fandom has proved anything, it's that neither harry nor louis have as strong of an ability to control the online narrative about them and their lives as they'd wish. so they run the risk of losing control of that story, which could be seriously problematic. my very personal opinion is that the easiest way to handle that complication is to turn simon cowell into a public scapegoat, he's largely past the point of relevancy and has a pretty dumpster fire reputation as it is, but truly i don't have enough info to know how possible that is.

for harry in particular, i think coming out is complicated by the fact that some of his past pr relationships have been with women about whom there is also a lot of speculation about their sexualities (taylor swift and kendall jenner), to the extent that his coming out could risk outing them if they are queer (especially, again, if in part because of larry people believe that harry has been lying about his past relationships anyway). and more than that, it's complicated by his gender identity. he's been much more open about it than i would have ever expected him to be years ago (pink and blue forever indeed) but i think that particular conversation is much further away from the leading edge/mass market middle ground in pop culture than sexuality is, and so becomes much riskier and much more complicated and in some ways a much more personal story he'd be expected to tell if he wanted to be more open about it. and with louis obviously the mere existence of bbg as a phenomenon is a massive complication on a number of different levels.

but to me, it really seems like for both of them, maintaining the status quo is also very risky - for harry, he's beginning to read as inauthentic, and i think as much as in a perfect world he could just keep his sexuality private, in the world we live in he'll face the assumption that he's straight and queerbaiting so long as he continues to publicly date only women, and he'll become less unique and interesting as an artist the more other artists are telling similar stories in a more open way (i think it's interesting that you often hear in queer spaces that people should be listening to artists who are out, there's an undertone there of out = actually queer vs not out = queerbaiting that's unfair and problematic but again, world we live in). for louis, i think he'll continue to find it difficult to have a compelling story to tell about himself as an artist. based only on the data we can observe (public socials data, public sales/streams data), fitf promo didn't significantly expand his audience beyond the fanbase he already had, and i don't see how you hook more fans or even keep existing fans this dedicated long-term if you just continue to do the same things over and over.

idk, i could talk around this in circles for hours, i'm sure harry and louis and their teams have done just that, in much more depth and specificity. i think it's thorny no matter what. my (personal) opinion is that at some point they just have to take the leap, let the chips fall where they will, and deal with it moving forward, but until they come and ask me, it's literally just my opinion.

[piosplayhouse]

i don't know if this is discourse but i recently saw someone make the argument that shen yuan is shen qingqiu's dead name and anyone who writes it as shen yuan in fanfiction is disrespecting mxtx herself and is writing ooc. huh.

Haha omg I actually think oomfie was the one who posted this. I dont really think they meant it that strongly and they do raise some good points with how Shen Yuan's development throughout the story is heavily intertwined with him growing into his role as "Shen Qingqiu", but I can see how comparing it to a dead name and tying in authorial intent could step on some people's toes.

I think it's also significant to note that the narration in sv is 3rd person limited, not 1st person, and there is a specific turning point very early in the story where the narration deliberately stops referring to Shen Yuan as Shen Yuan and refers to him as Shen Qingqiu (and it's not immediately after his transmigration) which very much feels like the narration is just prioritizing clarity in the story. I saw some discussion of comparing it to mdzs's treatment of courtesy names vs birth names and such but I also think it should probably be noted in that the names in SV are. Well airplane named most of the characters LMFAO. Mobei Jun, Tianlang Jun, Linguang Jun never even get actual names they just have titles, Luo Binghe's name is icy river, there's not a huge amount to be said about the names imo.

as for my personal opinion uhh I just don't really think sqq gives a shit LMFAO. He doesn't really care what body he's in, he doesn't really care where he ended up, he doesn't really care what he's called. He just kind of adapts as he goes and hits the ground running. He's already not really a deep reflections guy and this esp comes into play with his identity (cough cough sexuality and gender). I highly doubt mxtx cares at all either and she definitely wouldn't be able to complain because she calls wangxian wifi and bluetooth and hua cheng fafa LOL.

Overall it's just someone's personal analysis and I respect it even though I disagree!! Pls don't send hate to anyone about it for sure, it's all a light-hearted discussion after all ^^

[unproduciblesmackdown]

My priorities might be skewed, but my first thought after seeing that post addressing crazy musical disk-horse was, 'oh no, i'm gonna have to stop going in the Great Comet tag for a while.' I simply refuse to perceive discourse, i will make it wash over my brain like water off a ducks back.

My second thought was that ppl really gloss over 2020 as thee tony's musical snub year. the percy jackson musical probably wasn't good (haven't listened), but like. they refused to nominate it for leading role even though it was one of two musicals that qualified that year, giving it to the other by default. They changed the definition of best original score just so they could avoid nominating it. legitimately hilarious levels of haterism.

it's Unserious to approach some media analysis (like that one musical of an awards season was the objective worthiest one for any given category, much less Best overall, the vaguest) as though one theory is the Definitively Correct one. versus that it's an argument that could be backed up and hold up to figurative peer review, and even then, it'll always have limits and not be like "objectively" all-encompassingly accurate

it's also Unserious to say some shit like "great comet should've won best musical or gotten as many awards or swept or something....because dear / evan hansen is basically trump"

imo thee tony awards? are pretty much Unserious too. it Is enjoyable when any awards institutions recognize anyone or anything in ways that seem to reflect some actual value, and that would always be arguable / subjective / up for debate, but the major awards groups especially do not seem "good" at doing this, or "trying" to be. as a deh enjoyer and deh [head in hands wishing it was different b/c xyz criticisms &/or disagreements with concepts they were trying to execute, and executions of concepts....but i'm doing it better & differently than like "deh is bad, evan is evil" or "pretty much any of the movie criticism"]er, i'm not like, mad that it was tony-acclaimed. i also would not be mad if they hadn't really won stuff, i also wasn't following the show at that time lol. i also believe great comet had to close not long afterward, didn't it? after some kind of casting shakeups that many people did not really see as It? i don't know about the show; i don't like, disagree with anyone who likes it more than deh, and/or thinks it was Better, b/c i have no info of my own, and i would not have Serious arguments in saying "no, deh is better, factually, nobody should think otherwise"

like, first of all like you're saying, to have Lost to deh in the tonys is to have been nominated at all. nothing got tlt's treatment, ever, and that was just more ridiculously out in the open than any snub in any other season could have been....but second of all, i also have to imagine some of the beef w/deh winning so many tonys instead is that the main thing the tonys do is give featured / awarded shows boosts; it's always talked about as that important Commercial event for broadway, when getting to broadway & staying on broadway is incredibly difficult, incredibly complex, incredibly expensive....reminded of it in that it seems the televised tonys getting a waiver so they could happen at all was at all for the sake of supporting the performers' careers by extension of the tonys being that commercial for broadway & a potential box office boost. probably having your show close not long after the tonys were largely about deh was unfortunate for said show & fans of it. but it's also not like winning even Best Musical has meant that that show will remain open for even another full year; afaik deh was also really buzzy Before the tonys, even if that solidified that further / was indeed another boost. and it's like....deh didn't make them make them win lol. much less did the material in deh....somehow result in a tonys win in Any Way comparable to a US presidential election candidate??? It's Fully Unserious

the only time i paid attention to a tony season while it was happening was in 2019, as a bmc enjoyer, so that was a real illuminating crash course, and ofc i have that Unamused Emoticon perspective about like. a situation in which it's very evident that that wasn't just like oh this one other musical which is its Nemesis (fr i don't even remember what all won / was nominated instead) but rather deliberately being shut out. the One nomination was, aptly, nominal, like "well you see, you've been acknowledged at all;" the off the shits unasked unwarned mitb parody that didn't give credit while the show couldn't actually do any performance is like....idk what that was, or who it was for, Everyone Hated That. again, the show having to close not long after was also not fun for anyone; even if in retrospect it's somewhat tempered by like, that was august of 2019, so they only could've had so many more months of it anyways, but that doesn't change things At The Time. i also don't need to believe bmc was inarguably thee best most successful show of the season, i can't do that, nobody can. i think it's a way stronger piece than deh, i like it more, i like the concepts & execution more. i don't need it to have won awards, i don't even need to think any given show "deserved" more than any others to have a longer run when it's all so expensive and difficult and precarious at the best of times. like, here we are, after bway phantom of the opera had to close.

which, i never saw beetlejuice in any iteration, much less the musical. i may not ever, b/c i have never been interested in other iterations lol. but it was like, nodding respectfully re: it being another show that season that the nyt (also a vastly Unserious realm of critical media analysis) hated, that evidently the tonys also barely wanted to acknowledge....that then had the added layer of like, what do you mean hugh jackman music man. great for them that they got to reopen anyways, i do not need to love the show myself or think that this is all Art Meritocracy out here re: who gets to stay open for how long, or close. i don't know anything about the lightning thief, i don't need to think "well it wasn't that good" nor "well it was amazing so this is an Objective outrage," i think that the tonys are Unserious for evidently being unwilling to ""consider"" (for as much as i think that the Consideration of various awards voting bodies is, itself, that Serious either (i don't)), much less platform, the show, even if i thought it was Bad or Disliked it. there were like 0.8 damn musicals that season. aaron tveit default win. no original scores nominated thusly. tony voters/producers and nyt criticasters going "idk i don't think i personally liked it, might've assumed going in what it was Like or About and didn't engage with it, maybe didn't bother seeing it or paying attention while i did" and that gets to be a cue for who gets money; it's about their institutional power transferring their Arbitrary stances into material impacts, versus their Supposed efforts of Arbiters Of "Taste"....while also like, broken clocks and [only so many musicals any given year], many people will Like many of the musicals up for nominations lol and be mad or glad at any winners/losers/completely ignored eligible shows

oh have to shoutout another instance of the tonys Unseriousness: bitching and moaning about how they just caaan't change their rules rn to make All categories nongendered. great stuff.

anyways just like, nothing new in people trying to posit their preferences as Objectively Superior based on an argument of morality? and it's like, i'm sure there are people who are like "wow yeah uh evan hansen is as bad as a fascist politician. he's lying and manipulating, and that is close enough" and earnest about it but like, is it close enough, and is that an Serious analysis of the actual material? No....and like, sure, have opinions and preferences based on an Ethical Stance, god i hope you do, but like, you have to be able to communicate that stance in a way that actually is based on shit and holds up at all, versus just vibes or making shit up to obfuscate what you Really think. which can just be "i'm mad that this show closed and didn't win tonys and didn't become this hypey breakout cultural phenomenon in ways that many broadway shows generally Do Not anyways" without like, legitimizing anger and even show grief by making it a stance like "and deh is basically trump >:(" lmfao like, it's already legitimate to have a preference or emotional investment in something you enjoy / has significance for you

i am not here for / don't seek out or absorb any & all rando Takes anyways, but in being here alongside [bmc bway is happening] like even peripherally i was aware of people also having preferences / feelings that had a shit basis lol like. that basically they're pissed that will roland was cast and this is because of thinking that in various ways his body was Worse than will connolly's (i honestly forget if it's one or two L's in his last name....yeah two right) and really what made this very clear is that nobody was actually willing to Say That, and instead would make up stuff about how this was a Serious And Objective Stance they were taking based on Artistic Merit. suddenly it was an urgent issue of newly saying that will roland is bad at singing (or the backhanded constant comments like "wow will r's so much better at singing now" on videos and Only re: will like, yeah his skill levels are only giving more cunt as time goes on, that's effort, increased experience, etc, applies to any & everyone else generally too...?) or suddenly bmc was stuntcasting b/c will roland was in deh (lol) or like this is the only time a role has been recast between productions, or even During....god knows that "someone who originated the role didn't stay with it forever," as is especially & often relevant w/indefinitely-running (over)demanding bway productions, is an eternal source of people who have preemptively decided that whoever replaces them is Objectively Worse, and will just make up whatever story serves that purpose. some anon once tried to hate on sky lakota-lynch to me, presumably as a will roland aficionado, b/c he was the next jared kleinman principal actor....like, what, you want Nobody in that role?? as, after Years as jared, an actor chooses to leave to be a lead in another show (that they personally like more as an audience member / preexisting fan lol)....also, they were racist about it. like absolutely you can prefer Whatever. you can be like "haha yeah i'm just always going to prefer This and it's not necessarily about like making sure i couldn't Possibly like another version as much or more" like, you don't have to. better for anyone to embrace that they just think [xyz] is neatest to them personally. i have no reason to think will connolly was "bad" as jeremy, i hear it was a different approach too in being a bit more fragile(tm) / Sad, great if you like that, i'm sure he can sing well, i heard a few pre obcr tracks, etc etc, i'm not interested lol like i've showed up via this one actor for these couple productions and That Is My Domain. i think it's shitty to be fatphobic & biased against people's bodies which does include their voices, and it's bullshitting to make up some narrative to cover for it where oh suddenly this person is just unskilled or an Unworthy Stuntcast. it's Unserious, it's also like just some real life shittiness, whereas fictional character evan hansen is not affected by "lying? an extremely broad phenomenon that is actually All 'being a lil too fashy for my tastes imo...'" and it is more difficult to imagine such a stance being relevant in ppl's lives in other applications, but that is also Unserious. if people have a serious thought out idea, they should be able to express that rather than expressing some deflection about "deh should've lost b/c that was like the 2016 US presidential election" or "will connolly should be jeremy in all iterations b/c this other guy i'm seething at now has only existed as: in deh"

anyways like point is that yeah like sure entirely possible great comet was the best musical on broadway that season (even though i don't think there can be any Definitive conclusion thusly. how do we assess that....and do we want to have to like, pit all shows in a medium/genre together? with inevitable limitations &/or restrictions on who gets to choose winners?) but you don't even have to be mad at deh or make it about being mad about something else entirely for no reason. can be mad that the tonys get to make or break shows, that putting on shows is so expensive, that [capitalism], can even just be mad b/c you really liked it and you don't have to put on some more ""legitimate"" argument; it's its own argument lol, it's also an outright subjective & individual one and we can be individuals with preferences and likes even without having studied every other possibly comparable work to make sure it's superior, and Not be like "actually any & everyone else could Also only possibly think / feel the same, so really my having a fave musical lately Transcends being the opinion of one person." we can indeed even pick any two shows or whatever else and compare them, or have a critical lens and do anything but believe something is so univerally Perfect that there's not even anything to say or even question. meanwhile it's also definitely rough that live theatre is all Ephemeral and limited in distribution, but if there's enough out there about a show to be the basis of knowing that you like it, you still have that. bmc trt loyalists can stick with the ocr / relevant boots lol.

and yeah the realest Most Wronged show is the lightning thief lol truly. not even b/c you have to feel You love it or it Deserved to run for years or make it to Broadway in the first place, but like, just evidently the tonys are some nonsense, let's make That argument together, as well as the nyt, and in my Onion the overall format of "one individual critic expounding" is also not our best most serious effort at thorough consideration of some material, nor what makes it most useful for people who want to know about that material Through you....it's mostly entertainment, and it's also bad at being entertainment. we can all enjoy a good Disrespecting The Tonys B/c They Earned That together, wherein if they really don't want to recognize your show they Will just refuse to give it nominations no matter what. you can go "i think great comet > deh" or "i think great comet's awards-worthiness in comparison to all other shows that season > deh's" and not go "deh <<<< because when characters lie that makes them like an irl fascist" b/c what?? and no it does not lol

like gotta shoutout that i definitely disagree on points w/other Deh Likers and Deh Haters b/c of course i would. i have no inherent disagreement w/great comet likers b/c of course i wouldn't. and even if i'm sure by now "can you believe that (the 2017 tonys)" is a bit old, it's like, how is that gonna be Enriching to hear discussed some more if it's not saying (a) anything at all or (b) essentially not saying anything b/c saying "characters shouldn't lie, and if they do, it's like being authoritarian in real life" is truly too Unserious to bother entertaining as a [this is why i think this other show should've won] stance here, much less absorbing