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Words from Antigonick (Sophokles) translated by Anne Carson

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i have rule i semi-adhere to for media criticism which is to ideologically meet shit where it's at (or where it's presented to me). i like to call it the "i didn't make you market it that way" rule--like, if lancer's union was just presented as a sci-fi setting, that would be fine. i don't expect all sci-fi settings to be communist utopias! but when the creators of lancer use the word utopia like 20 times & bandy around words like 'mutual aid' and 'post-scarcity' and 'anticapitalist' when describing it, then to me that becomes absolutely fair game. similarly if someone says 'stardew valley is fun i like farming :)' then i'm not gonna reply with a long post about how it's ideologically petty-bourgeois--but if they say 'stardew valley is anticapitalist', then they've opened up that can of worms and it's fair for me to point out that the worms exist.

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Scum Villain concept where Qiu Jianluo survived being stabbed and almost lit on fire.

So let's say Shen Jiu, in his murderous disoriented baby criminal haste to kill every guy in his path and escape the hellhole he'd been enslaved in, didn't exactly verify that Qiu Jianluo was dead and also didn't start lighting shit on fire until he was at least halfway out. He deposited Haitang on the side of the road and headed off with Wu Yanzi to his next round of trauma, while on the other end of the estate, Qiu Jianluo dragged himself out of the range of the smoke and eventually got rescued.

He didn't immediately put together that Shen Jiu and later on Shen Qingqiu had any connection, but much like with Haitang, eventually the information came his way. However, by then Shen Qingqiu was a peak lord of Cang Qiong and thoroughly beyond his reach, insulated against anything Qiu Jianluo could think to do because he'd reached a higher rung on the social ladder. In that situation, Qiu Jianluo's best bet was just to hope Shen Jiu never figured out that he'd survived, because otherwise he'd probably got stabbed again and this time it was doubtful the guy would miss his vital organs.

But, then rumors start to spread that Shen Qingqiu has lost his memories. Qiu Jianluo is skeptical. Perhaps it's a trap. But it's also the best opportunity he's ever gotten, so he has to know if it's true. If Shen Qingqiu might not be on guard against him, might not remember him? Well then he's got a chance to finally get revenge. Not even to simply sabotage or kill him, but to potentially get him back into his grasp and take his time with it. He could actually lay a trap that might work.

Qiu Jianluo dons a disguise, fashions himself as a wealthy patron interested in paying top dollar for some specially made commissions courtesy of Qing Jing Peak, and finagles a meeting with the peak lord.

Lo and behold, the rumors are true. Qiu Jianluo doesn't doubt it. While he's cautious at first, by the end of the meeting he's let Shen Qingqiu get a good look at his face, and the total lack of reaction has no other explanation except that Shen Qingqiu really doesn't remember him. On the one hand, that bothers Qiu Jianluo a lot. He was definitely trying to leave an impression on Xiao Jiu, a mark that should have been impossible to erase.

But that's a petty concern in the face of opportunity.

Anyway, cue Qiu Jianluo trying to attic-wife SY!Shen Qingqiu while disciple Luo Binghe tries to covertly arrange his death, and even ends up conscripting Ming Fan and Ning Yingying's assistance (creepy guys hanging around Shizun are an evergreen problem, but this guy is especially unsettling), Shen Qingqiu struggling to figure out what kind of subplot is going on here (clearly something is afoot), and everyone tripping all over their traps and counter-traps until one day Yue Qingyuan stops by for a visit at the exact same time Qiu Jianluo is leaving.

Qiu Jianluo had no idea that some other street urchin he barely remembered encountering had also joined Cang Qiong and somehow become the sect leader. His last thought in this life is a niggling sense that he's seen this guy somewhere before.

Yue Qingyuan has never forgotten Qiu Jianluo's face, on the other hand. The sect leader just on the spot going from zero to murderous and drawing his sword to fucking SMITE some seemingly-random rich guy on the spot is a story that will be going around the peaks for decades.

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"They were a good person with good intentions and strong convictions and belief in doing the right thing. And because of that they deeply hurt people including people they were trying to protect" - is fantastic characterisation that too many people reduce to only one half of the equation

"They were a good person and people still died because they didn't put trust in anyone else" ← is so fucking good but people don't fucking appreciate it

"They were a good person and they failed. Over and over again. They failed." ← DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND HOW DELICIOUS THAT IS!?!?

I am on my hands and knees begging people to allow characters to be complex and flawed and not reduced down to "The Good Guy" and "The Bad Guy"

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I think it's a kind of important aspect to Dick's character that he sees Bruce (and people in Bruce's age group) as closer to being his peers than any of the younger members of the Batclan, and that his relationship with Bruce is closer and has existed longer, and this is partly why all attempts to reduce his age difference with the younger Bats end up feeling like they're robbing something from him.

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i think the thing about batman's no kill rule is that its essentially bruce saying "guilty people don't deserve to be murdered on the street either, actually." and he's not wrong.

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and are you still pretty sad tho???

Okay so…do black water sinking ships and this water tyrant ever interact, because if they don’t I will be pretty sad

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thinking david corenswet is hot is the most embarrassing reputation ruining annoying thing I could have done tbh like ohhh my god really? tall big muscles dark hair and blue eyes kind man is hot? god fucking really. are you fucking stupid I hate myself. oh you think superman is hot? fucking superman? groundbreaking type shit going on here oh my god he’s tall should we tell everyone he’s tall and his jaw is nice wow she thinks the attractive man is attractive. you and everyone else. is pizza your favorite food too. fuck you. everyone look at her she thinks SUPERMAN is hot boundaries are really being pushed over here should we get her a medal because she thinks Mr Smile is easy on the eyes. “hear me out” and it’s a fucking marching band. should we call people magazine. vanilla. I DISGUST myself. summer blockbuster. I should be killed

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we did it! just you, me, a couple of of our best friends, the memories we've made and shared, and the overwhelming martial power of that state apparatus we've been wielding!

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PSA: AO3 HAS BEEN INFECTED WITH AI BOT COMMENTS.

Have you seen one of these dipshits? If you post regularly on ao3, chances are YES, but more likely you didn't notice nor suspect it was a bot. Sometimes they start off nice, or even praise you before getting nasty out of nowhere, like so:

But much like Grok, their newest obsession is nazism.

I don't know where they come from, or what purpose this could possibly serve other than suicidebaiting random people in the internet, I guess; but apparently they've started parroting names from real users to send these comments and shifting their general length to go by undetected. Maybe those are scrappers trying to train 'reviewbots' to be sold as part of some scam service promising to give feedback for newbie writers, who the fuck knows.

Here are more examples of the tone and backhanded compliments you can find in these:

If you regularly post on AO3 or interact with writers in it, please pass this along so they don't feel insane receiving bombs in their inbox. This is ridiculous.

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rip dr. mensah. imagine you're a middle aged woman who ends up taking in this person with no clear chronological age but the undeniable aura of a lost baby animal, and you don't really know what they get up to when they leave home for months at a time but they always come back and hey, this time they even brought someone home for you to meet!

but it's kind of a weird meeting because their partner did technically pull up and shove them into a white van while they were standing on the side of the street with your teenage daughter.

and then they took off from the cops with them both in the backseat.

and none of this is really their partner's fault because they were technically being held at gunpoint the entire time (the people responsible for that are buried in a ditch on the side of the interstate now for unrelated reasons).

and then all 3 of them roll up to your house with the van clearly having just gone through the car wash and had its interior cleaned, and it's as if they are trying to give you the impression that they Are Indeed A Normal Person For Your Lost Baby Animal To Be With and you know they most certainly are not but hey, you love your Lost Baby Animal and you are happy if they're happy. and the whole abduction of your loved ones isn't even the weirdest part because, I should also mention, their partner IS the van.

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SQQ: Ok that's it! *pulls out paper and a brush*

SQQ, narrating his letter out loud: Dear Liu Qingge, please accept Ming Fan into Bai Zhan Peak-

Ming Fan: Shizun no!!

SQQ: As he has decided he knows better than this master he must continue his cultivation elsewhere.

Ming Fan: I'm sorry Shizun!

SQQ: I trust you will be able to handle any further uncouth-

Ming Fan: *gasps*

SQQ: and unfilial -

Ming Fan: *starts crying*

SQQ: behavior. He is good at organizing things perhaps you can put him in charge of the armory.

Ming Fan: *falls to his knees* This disciple was wrong Shizun! Please don't send me away!

SQQ: *folds and seals letter dramatically*

SQQ: *hands it to Ming Fan* take that to the kitchens and burn it- then I don't want to see you again today!

Ming Fan: *sniffling* Yes Shizun. Thank you Shizun! *leaves*

SQQ: Oh hello Shidi I didn't see you there.

LQG, who is just here to show SQQ the weird bug he found on his last mission: Shixiong has such an interesting relationship with his disciples.

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speaking of unhinged stupid shit I've read recently

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Fandoms stopped being a fun escape from reality when people started spreading the belief that you should prioritize purity over pleasure and the art you create must be a reflection of your moral standards at all times.

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welp! I can’t believe it happened, but apparently, ao3 did a mass deletion of a ship tag. Idk if it’s the supposed 1 person, but seeing how the community is reacting, it’s looking like more than 1 author got their fics deleted with no warning. I’m so disappointed it happened in ao3 and I’m just waiting for response about it because the jump of fic numbers was too extreme to not be noticed. 8k to 5k man. Ship war might be a reason for it, but again, I’m just waiting to see if my support ticket gets response. Also has this happened before? Like on ao3 in particular?

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What ship tag?

AO3 periodically puts its foot down with serial offenders who refuse to stop using AO3 to funnel people to their kofis, and non-fanwork spam gets deleted. It's unlikely that they just deleted a bunch of fanworks for no reason though.

ETA: Oh for fuck sake. Is this fucking Genshin wank?

Stop spamming the archive just so your shitty ship can "win" some war.

And/or stop believing the people who cry that PAC came after them ~out of nowhere~ when they know perfectly well what they did.

Because people still think that worthless methodology on the Top 100 Ships means something, some fuckface posted three thousand spam works just to force their ship on there. No, not the AI fics of the show for toddlers. Machine translated repeat upload drabbles for one of the ten kajillion Genshin ships. Then they orphaned half of them or made them anon or something to try to pretend that the lurkers support them in e-mail other authors posted this flood too.

Now that AO3 has gotten around to deleting their spam, they're apparently wailing about it somewhere on social media and trying to paint AO3 as censors. This is resulting in a flood of lackeys whining to AO3 about how Concerned™ they are.

You're a sucker, anon.

Either that, or you're trying to use my tumblr to spread panic.

You can tell AO3 doesn't actually believe in deletions because Genshin Impact fandom hasn't been booted off the archive for being fucking annoying.