#[ lots of great questions! ]

[lesbianshepard]

these are the questions about history that the people really need to ask

[lucabyte]

i feel like people are sleeping on the occam's razor situation of how buckwild it is to outright accuse a guy of being a clone of your friend even if you DO have a lot of circumstantial evidence. there's other options is what im saying. they could just be like. a guy. that's a sensible deduction. you should explore that deduction. ignore my shirt that reads I <3 RED HERRINGS.

i still think odile has the correct theory on lock but she's smart enough to know it needs like... a real smoking gun to be able to bring it up without sounding insane.

anyway. (mirabelle voice) i know its rude to speculate but has anyone else noticed the grieving? they seem to be grieving. does anyone have any thoughts on the grieving? i have some thoughts on the grieving.

[setacin]

"she's dead scar.... you won."

my cosplay of scar's secret life red life skin!

[scribefindegil]

As much as I adore conlangs, I really like how the Imperial Radch books handle language. The book is entirely in English but you're constantly aware that you're reading a "translation," both of the Radchaai language Breq speaks as default, and also the various other languages she encounters. We don't hear the words but we hear her fretting about terms of address (the beloathed gendering on Nilt) and concepts that do or don't translate (Awn switching out of Radchaai when she needs a language where "citizen," "civilized," and "Radchaai person" aren't all the same word) and noting people's registers and accents. The snatches of lyrics we hear don't scan or rhyme--even, and this is what sells it to me, the real-world songs with English lyrics, which get the same "literal translation" style as everything else--because we aren't hearing the actual words, we're hearing Breq's understanding of what they mean. I think it's a cool way to acknowledge linguistic complexity and some of the difficulties of multilingual/multicultural communication, which of course becomes a larger theme when we get to the plot with the Presgar Translators.

[turtletoads]

jortana.... 🚬💨

[starcurtain]

Sometimes I think about Aventurine in the moment he first discovered his Pathstrider abilities. The moment he first realized he could shield not only himself but also others. The very first moment he realized he could be a source of safety, rather than a burden--than a curse.

Sometimes I think about the hatred he must have felt for himself in that instant.

Where was this power when their camps were burned to the ground with every last one of their meager possessions? Where was this power when his mother died begging as he cowered, playing dead in a bath of the blood of everyone he knew?

Where was this power when his sister stood tall, a silhouette against the lightning, and used her body as the shield? Where was this power in the maze, when it could have spared the screaming child who was the first to die?

You could have saved them. You could have saved them. You could have saved them.

[tea-cat-arts]

I simply think this fandom doesn't give Wei Wuxian enough credit for the various ways in which he saved Lan Wangji

[callisteios]

I have a new uquiz for you, go on a pilgrimage with me. discover who you are.

[frownyalfred]

Nonsense Anon Time: out of the whole Batfam, who do you think snores the loudest?

(Hint: not Ace )

Jason, only because he gets his nose broken most frequently after Bruce, but unlike Bruce, he doesn’t opt for reconstructive surgery every single time. So he’s got a horribly deviated septum and snores like a freight train. 

[cherubchoirs]

the first and lowest sphere of paradise manifests the inconstant in faith, just as the moon is inconstant in its phases.

[mispelled]

Scary dog privilege

[sskk-manifesto]

Bungou Stray Dogs: Dead Apple and how “ability users” (opposite to “normal people”) learning to accept themselves through the acceptance of their own abilities is a queer metaphor of acceptance of own's sexual orientation and gender: an essay by me

[divorcedfiddleford]

You made a post saying “it has been zero days since our last alex hirsch hates ford so much bullshit” and i know it was mostly hyperbole, but you have some really good takes that I would love to be elaborated on in terms of how ford is written

it really wasn't hyperbolic. over the years he's just really shown a lot of hatred towards this one character.

content warning: discussion of abuse

i want to start with this clip from the commentary which i think of as a microcosm for how the writers and especially alex think about ford.

transcript:

rob renzetti: i mean he [mcgucket] should've basically knocked ford out, and... and destroyed the... you know, tied him up, and, destroyed... and... alex hirsch, speaking over him: yeah he should've beat ford with a wrench and taken this thing apart piece by piece! he's the one who understood how to built [sic] it, but...

... so that seems like a pretty violent course of action. shall we unpack that?

ford is a character who's pretty explicitly written as a victim of abuse, and who now has c-ptsd as a direct result of the abuse he experienced. alex hirsch believes that ford deserved everything bad that happened to him, that it's ford's own fault, and that he also deserved worse things to happen to him. this is why, given every narrative chance, alex hirsch has piled more suffering onto ford's plate. the biggest example of this i can think of is in the journal, when he wrote that fiddleford was actively erasing ford's memory (despite this being a massive timeline contradiction which i still refuse to accept). because god forbid ford even have one remotely healthy relationship with somebody. that would be too good for him. ford was manipulated and lied to by bill, but alex repeatedly compares him to icarus, a teenager whose demise was the result of his own ignorance. this comparison is still so fucking offensive to me. the sun did not lie to icarus, did not guarantee icarus all of the happiness and success and sense of belonging which he had been denied all his life, did not actively shut out the voices of those around him who would try to help him.

alex in general has a very strange relationship with abuse. he seems to get really upset when people read his characters as victims of abuse. the strongest instance of this is actually not with ford, it's with pacifica - especially in the nwmm episode commentary. the episode says "pacifica's parents have conditioned her to respond to a bell" and alex says people got "the wrong idea" about it. like. dude. what the fuck. you wrote abuse. even if you didn't mean to, that's what you wrote. you can't say people got "the wrong idea" just because you didn't think about the subtext of what you were writing. anyway, back to ford: i believe this extends to him as well. alex wanted to write a character who's a foil to stan and who was a selfish unlikable victim of his own arrogance. however that's not what he wrote. he somehow seemingly accidentally wrote a really compelling and relatable awesome autistic guy who had to fight for every good thing he he ever had in his life only for it to be taken from him every single time. but alex can't let go of seeing ford as just "the opposite of stan". when he talks about "how someone as smart as ford could fall for bill's tricks", he refuses to realize he wrote a situation in which a man was being psychologically manipulated and tortured.

it goes back further, too. people repeatedly theorized that filbrick was... not a very good father, to say the least. on top of the very explicit and canon fact that he threw one of his children out on the street (seriously, there is no defense for this), people pointed out that stan would flinch at filbrick, that ford seemed upset by things filbrick said but dared not talk back, that filbrick was mad at stan not for hurting his brother, but for "costing the family potential millions". but alex can't have people seeing ford as sympathetic. ford can't have it bad like stan did. ford had to have everything and he lost it all because he sucks so much. so he wrote the graphic novel story where ford is filbrick's favorite child and filbrick also is not even a bad parent you guys he's just stoic. ignore the whole thing in dreamscaperers where stan perpetuates the abuse that filbrick did to him. ignore the fact that ford was shouting at stan and then completely shut up as soon as filbrick entered the room and did not say another word for the rest of the night. ignore all that because i just made up this story where he cries at a present from stan. filbrick loved his boys for sure you guys!!!

i'm not even touching on how alex repeatedly villainizes traits commonly associated with mental illness and neurodivergence. ford's hypervigilance becomes arrogance. his passion for knowledge means he's a know-it-all. his difficulty socializing and making friends means he's a misanthrope. his lingering resentment for the way he was raised means he hates his brother and is the worst human being to ever have lived. i could go on, go even further into how the finale reaffirms this, but i feel weird talking about this too much.

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

Expand more on sugurus selfishness pls 💕💕

So it’s a need for him to take care and love you? <3 also how would he pick his lover and how to love them 👀

Would he never ever leave you even if it’s healthy for you and you’d be happier that way? (Tbh I don’t ever wanna leave him either 🥺❤️)

AHHH WELL…. it’s tough anon….. i feel like calling him selfish almost paints him in a bad light but i truly don’t see his selfishness as a bad thing 😭 suguru’s love is very very tender, but it’s kind of… rooted in his own need for devotion. if that makes sense. suguru craves to care for you, y’know? it’s all about you, yes, but it’s all about you because that’s what he wants… what he needs… he feels complete when you let him love you. he feels happy when you’re happy. so really it’s all about him, but all that’s running through his mind is you you you…. if that? makes sense???

like. at the end of the day. all suguru wants is to be the one who stands at your side. and he will fight for that position, as opposed to someone like gojo who i think would slink into the shadows if he thought it was best for you….. if your relationship was making you miserable then obviously suguru wouldn’t want you to stay, but. the thing is that he does make you happy. he sees it as his duty and it’s not a duty he’d ever give away to someone else, even if they could love you in ways he couldn’t... suguru is determined to be worthy of you!!!! he needs you and he needs to love you, to make you happier than anyone else. it’s a strong, selfish desire but that doesn’t make it bad!!!

this is a gross oversimplification really but in my brain it’s kinda like….. gojo wants you to be happy. and suguru wants to make you happy. you know??

[yesterdayiwrote]

Greg James (Radio 1 DJ/Fast & The Curious host) was on the Sky Sports podcast a few months back and he made a really lovely and important comment about Fandom in F1 that I think more people need to hear...

"They are popstars, that is the closest comparison. They are popstars but I don't look at that as a negative. People like these people for a reason and you're a snob or you're shortsighted if you think it's fluff, because the people that love... I'll just do a comparison. People that love Harry Styles, if you're 14, 15, 16 and you're a girl...for example my niece, 15 years old, incredibly smart, worldly, has got big dreams, big ambitions, she is obsessed with Harry Styles, and it's dangerous and shortsighted to dismiss people that are obsessed with things... that are passionate about things, because those people will grow up and those things are really important to a human. Those first touch points of 'That's my favourite Formula One driver', or 'That's my favourite popstar', you never forget that sort of thing, they shape who you are, they help you shape what you like, and I know that sounds a bit grand but how amazing to have Lando Norris as your favourite celebrity, what a great person because that's an incredibly talented person. That's a person who's worked hard and is so great at their job.

So there's a lot of 'Oh, you only like Formula One because you fancy the drivers.' Great! Whatever your way in is, that's fantastic. My niece, told me the other day 'I want to marry a Formula one driver' and she's joking with me, but how fantastic, this thing that, to a 15 year old is mad to dive into the data of a Formula One car, but just kind of likes it... I don't know how you could not find that charming and sort of sweet. You can like any bit of sport that you like. Noone is supposed to be gatekeeping this thing.

I'd also like to say, not to generalise, there will be many 14, 15 year olds who want to get into the sport and they love the granular detail of the sport and they will become the next generation of engineers. Whatever your doorway into the sport is... Amazing. You've sort of won. If you're Lando Norris you've got people who know who you are and you're brilliant at your job and that's how sport can make a difference in people's lives because these characters have to transcend the sport"

The full video is HERE - the fandom section is at 47:00 and if anyone can rip it that would be awesome because you can really see and hear the sincerity in his voice as he talks (my transcribing skills don't do it justice!) But it's so great to finally hear a guy say this out loud.

[messier51]

"have you seen this tv show" i was born in the 80s. we did not just Watch Entire Shows back in the day, they were just On TV sometimes. please be more explicit in your polls

do you mean - have you seen at least one episode? - have you seen a few episodes? maybe randomly. maybe not full episodes because you were flipping thru channels and missed the first 10 minutes or didn't change back fast enough after an ad break - have you seen enough episodes to know what's going on with the show but maybe not all consecutive or in order (did you watch a marathon on tnt? did you catch episodes whenever it was on but didn't go back and binge watch the rest?) - have you seen at least one full season in entirety (you binge watched it on a streaming service/own the season ie on dvd) - have you watched most of the show in its entirety but rage quit or got distracted before the final season(s)? - have you watched the entire show episode 1 thru the finale all seasons (streaming service/own the show on ie dvd) - so many other possibilities???? - also did i have to be paying enough attention to write a response essay or can it just be On while I was doing other stuff and I sorta know what happened what even counts as "watching" a show anyway