#<- incredibly relevant

[allgremlinart]

hm... Lieutenant is the most homoerotic military ranking isnt it...

[tearlessrain]

please help me- i used to be pretty smart but i’m having so much trouble grasping the concept of diegetic vs non-diegetic bdsm!

gfkjldghfd okay first of all I'm sorry for the confusion, if you're not finding anything on the phrase it's because I made it up and absolutely nobody but me ever uses it, but I haven't found a better way to express what I'm trying to say so I keep using it. but now you've given me an excuse to ramble on about some shit that is only relevant to me and my deeply inefficient way of talking and by god I'm going to take it.

SO. the way diegetic and non-diegetic are normally used is to talk about music and sound design in movies/tv shows. in case you aren't familiar with that concept, here's a rundown:

diegetic sound is sound that happens within the world of the movie/show and can be acknowledged by the characters, like a song playing on the stereo during a driving scene, or sung on stage in Phantom of the Opera. it's also most other sounds that happen in a movie, like the sounds of traffic in a city scene, or a thunderclap, or a marching band passing by. or one of the three stock horse sounds they use in every movie with a horse in it even though horses don't really vocalize much in real life, but that's beside the point, the horse is supposed to be actually making that noise within the movie's world and the characters can hear it whinnying.

non-diegetic sound is any sound that doesn't exist in the world of the movie/show and can't be perceived by the characters. this includes things like laugh tracks and most soundtrack music. when Duel of Fates plays in Star Wars during the lightsaber fight for dramatic effect, that's non-diegetic. it exists to the audience, but the characters don't know their fight is being backed by sick ass music and, sadly, can't hear it.

the lines can get blurry between the two, you've probably seen the film trope where the clearly non-diegetic music in the title sequence fades out to the same music, now diegetic and playing from the character's car stereo. and then there are things like Phantom of the Opera as mentioned above, where the soundtrack is also part of the plot, but Phantom of the Opera does also have segments of non-diegetic music: the Phantom probably does not have an entire orchestra and some guy with an electric guitar hiding down in his sewer just waiting for someone to break into song, but both of those show up in the songs they sing down there.

now, on to how I apply this to bdsm in fiction.

if I'm referring to diegetic bdsm what I mean is that the bdsm is acknowledged for what it is in-world. the characters themselves are roleplaying whatever scenarios their scenes involve and are operating with knowledge of real life rules/safety practices. if there's cnc depicted, it will be apparent at some point, usually right away, that both characters actually are fully consenting and it's all just a planned scene, and you'll often see on-screen negotiation and aftercare, and elements of the story may involve the kink community wherever the characters are. Love and Leashes is a great example of this, 50 Shades and Bonding are terrible examples of this, but they all feature characters that know they're doing bdsm and are intentional about it.

if I'm talking about non-diegetic bdsm, I'm referring to a story that portrays certain kinks without the direct acknowledgement that the characters are doing bdsm. this would be something like Captive Prince, or Phantom of the Opera again, or the vast majority of bodice ripper type stories where an innocent woman is kidnapped by a pirate king or something and totally doesn't want to be ravished but then it turns out he's so cool and sexy and good at ravishing that she decides she's into it and becomes his pirate consort or whatever it is that happens at the end of those books. the characters don't know they're playing out a cnc or D/s fantasy, and in-universe it's often straight up noncon or dubcon rather than cnc at all. the thing about entirely non-diegetic bdsm is that it's almost always Problematic™ in some way if you're not willing to meet the story where it's at, but as long as you're not judging it by the standards of diegetic bdsm, it's just providing the reader the same thing that a partner in a scene would: the illusion of whatever risk or taboo floats your boat, sometimes to extremes that can't be replicated in real life due to safety, practicality, physics, the law, vampires not being real, etc. it's consensual by default because it's already pretend; the characters are vehicles for the story and not actually people who can be hurt, and the reader chose to pick up the book and is aware that nothing in it is real, so it's all good.

this difference is where people tend to get hung up in the discourse, from what I've observed. which is why I started using this phrasing, because I think it's very crucial to be able to differentiate which one you're talking about if you try to have a conversation with someone about the portrayal of bdsm in media. it would also, frankly, be useful for tagging, because sometimes when you're in the mood for non-diegetic bodice ripper shit you'd call the police over in real life, it can get really annoying to read paragraphs of negotiation and check-ins that break the illusion of the scene and so on, and the opposite can be jarring too.

it's very possible to blur these together the same way Phantom of the Opera blurs its diegetic and non-diegetic music as well. this leaves you even more open to being misunderstood by people reading in bad faith, but it can also be really fun to play with. @not-poignant writes fantastic fanfic, novels, and original serials on ao3 that pull this off really well, if you're okay with some dark shit in your fiction I would highly recommend their work. some of it does get really fucking dark in places though, just like. be advised. read the tags and all that.

but yeah, spontaneous writer plug aside, that's what I mean.

[egophiliac]

CROWLEY SSR THOUGHTS

there is zero basis for this, but I can't get this thought of my head

I don't know why I decided to draw it this way

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

these stupid shows won't let me rest

[bratprincedyke]

Roman Manfredi We/Us

Butches and Studs from working class backgrounds within the British landscape

Co-curated by Ingrid Pollard

Exhibition: 9 March – 3 June 2023 at Space station 65, Kennington, London

Opening hours: 12 – 6PM, Wednesday – Saturdays

Free to visit. Accessible. All welcome.

We/Us is an intergenerational photography and oral history project that celebrates the presence of butches and studs from working-class backgrounds within the British landscape. The project explores the experience of female masculinity through the structures of class and race all over the UK, capturing our diversity as well as our commonality.

When searching for images of butches and studs online, most that come up are from a bygone era, or from the US. Conversations around gender and identity today are often academic and London-centric, sometimes forgetting that our identities are informed by our every day lived experiences.

Our history and our lived experience is our gift to the world.

– Joan Nestle, Restricted Country

Exhibition audio - Participants were interviews about their lives and experiences,

Instagram

Vice uk feature

[saintarmand]

the power of this scene cannot be captured in gif form. sound ON

[vigilskeep]

i am highly intrigued by single mother hawke...

“single parent hawke who, perhaps blinded by their parents’ love story, fell for someone who would not or could not do what leandra did and give up everything to be on the run with a mage family, so hawke was left to raise a child on their own” is a concept that’s been in my heart for ages. on top of all the fun you can have just with them being a single parent during the game, i think knowing for a fact that people really do give up everything for true love, but that it wasn’t done for you, provides the perfect abandonment issues seasoning to flavour any da2 romance. and in a way that’s deeply linked to the main plot conflict! chef’s kiss. gives a really useful firm example of what mage hawke has lost out on by being a mage or what non-mage hawke has lost out on by sticking with their family

in general it adds to hawke’s natural older sibling vibes and sense of being responsible for everyone, i think them defaulting to acting like everyone’s tired parent is good for both funnies and feelings. (or single parent hawkes who maybe actively don’t act like that because they’re sick of the responsibility or they laugh things off instead.) and it’s just cool for a single parent character especially a single mother to be the heroic champion of kirkwall protagonist

there’s room in all that for big new plot beats like, obvious example, the kid manifesting magic during the course of the game, but also little scenes that i think rlly land, like idk the first time varric meets the kid in act 1 and truly registers what the stakes are for hawke

[five-and-dimes]

Sad thought; what if Dream doesn’t immediately give Hob any sort of explanation for why he was late and so Hob just assumes it’s because Dream was still mad at him? He’s scared to bring it up in case it scares Dream away again and things seem to be going so well between them.

Then one night, he gets drunk and asks Dream, “So, what made you decide to forgive me?”

“What?”

“What made you forgive me 133 years after I put my foot in my mouth and called you a friend – sorry about that, I know I had no right – but why now? Don’t get me wrong, I’m so happy you've forgiven me. But I’d sort of figured, if I did ever see you again, it would be in 2089 to make sure I really got the message.”

(wow I am The Worst™ I just straight up forgot to answer this my b)

Tbh that would be SO in character for Dream. Like, especially cause he's so bad at fucking communicating, I think Dream would do his whole "It seems I owe you an apology, I've always heard it impolite to keep one's friends waiting" and in his head is like "nailed it. Hob 100% understands that that sentence was me apologizing for 1889 and explaining I didn't miss our meeting on purpose. Could not be any clearer. I am So Good at this."

I honestly think, especially if Hob is drunk when he brings it up, the conversation would mostly be just. Just confusion. Dream like "What are you talking about I apologized for that?" and Hob like "yeah but why then like why 133 years?" and Dream is like "because that's the soonest I could see you?" and Hob "yeah but what changed why were you suddenly able to forgive me enough to face me?" just back and forth for like. half an hour. Just two idiots on completely different pages.

Eventually they'd get to the angsty part of Hob "I'm terrified of saying the wrong thing and scaring you off again" and Dream "oh did I not mention the cage? yeah there was a cage this one time"

They cry and hug obvs.

[lucalicatteart]

 sculpted a strange shimmery two headed snail, speckled with wild flowers on it's shell~

[paxny]

I put off getting into Star Trek for years because I knew I would be unhealthily obsessed with it and I don’t have the time for that much content.

Welp.

I watched One. Movie. and *instant brainrot* I guess I’m making time now!!

[guardian-angle22]

Brian Michael Smith (with Ronen Rubinstein & Rafael Silva) receiving the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2023 for 911: Lone Star

[ollyollyaxe]

it's probably for the best that john never introduced them,, nothing would have gotten done in that warehouse

[magicandmundane]

I don’t have the screencaps, but the tiny details of the climax are sending me.

The way Hunter glanced at Crosshair because he knew Omega had one last trick up her sleeve when she smacked Hemlock’s arm.

The way Omega waited until she saw Crosshair give her the tiniest of nods, showing her he was ready.

The way Hunter looked over at Crosshair again when Omega ran up to them, proud of his brother and quietly telling their kid, “Yeah, he needs this one more than I do.” before she went in for the hug.

It’s so good.

[spinetacks]

darby appearance at tcw this week !

[rox-of-iu]

i have found myself with a moment of peace, so I binged the last 4 chapters of cultivate that I missed, blacked out, and woke up with this done so here hhh !spoilers

as usual the fic cultivate is by the ever so talented @neonghostcat

[adragonsfriend]

The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good, Dooku Style

Finally reading Supreme Chancellor Obi-Wan Kenobi by @stonefreeak and it got me thinking about what Dooku could’ve chosen to do with his position on Serenno.

Instead of delivering hundreds of worlds into the power of corporate interests to accumulate the power necessary to start a galactic war, he could’ve set about unionising those dissatisfied worlds for greater voting power in the Senate. Attempted to organise a peaceful exodus from the Republic. He could’ve just focused on helping out Serenno. He could’ve used Serenno as a platform for advocacy or as a humanitarian (sentiantarian?) outpost in the outer rim—in maybe conjunction with the Jedi or with other charitable groups, whichever.

Nobody cries over Sidious doing bad things, because he’s not narratively presented as a person (in the movies at least)—he’s more symbolic than anything. But Dooku shares Anakin’s fate. He’s a person, a good person with values, relationships to other people, and a desire to help others, who does unspeakable things because he becomes attached to his own ideas of perfection. It’s not an individual he can’t face grieving (well. it is a little bit about Qui-Gon too), but his inability to build a perfect society (anakin has some of this too) that makes him unable to accept his own limitations or ask for help.

All the suggestions above—unions, allies, charities, etc—they all require working with others, trusting that other people want what you want, that hope and compassion are not relics of a dying age, but powerful things which persist regardless of whatever victories which cruelty thinks it has achieved (through Power I gain Victory).

Dooku’s perfectionism—with a little help from Sidious—convinces him he is alone in wanting to change things (Peace is a lie, there is only Passion), and that suffering, his own and others, is the only way to make the rest of the world understand how it needs to act (through Passion I gain Strength). It is an incredibly individualist, not to mention lonely, set of beliefs (through Victory my chains are Broken, the Force shall free me).

It all leads neatly to the propositions:

If i can just tear down enough of society, then i will finally have enough control I need—and deserve—to build something perfect in its place;

I—or the decisive, pragmatic leader i put all my faith in—am the only person who can exercise this power to fix everything;

Any goal less than fixing everything is unworthy, and people who claim otherwise are unworthy of being included in the perfection I will create.

He’s (parts of) both Anakin and the Republic Senate’s arcs a decade early and in a single character. Fascism in a bottle.

In conclusion, a show about Dooku’s radicalisation over time could say some incredibly insightful things about US politics—by which I mean the Republican Party in general, Trumpism, the struggle of Democrats to unify, etc. Such a show probably shouldn’t be made because it would get twisted into a “and that’s why poor baby Dooku is sad and deserves everyone’s bowing-and-scraping-sympathy,” thing (which is not to say radicalized people do not deserve compassion—in fact they require it, lest we circle back to make our own little fascism), but if it was made it should feature Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan narrating and heckling Dooku as time traveling force ghosts (in between seeking genuine understanding of the past through Dooku’s decisions) because calling him weird would I think have the about the same effect as calling US republicans weird is having right now.