#(also this post is the epitome of tl;dr)

[godtier]

so i wasn't gonna make a separate post about this but @sapphire-weapon had a post (that i reblogged a few days ago) in which someone mentioned that they think it was a missed opportunity in RE6 for jake to not have spoken to wesker. i had a p long conversation with sirea about it and my thoughts about that sentiment, but it was also nearly 3 AM my time when that happened so i dunno if i was even articulating my thoughts properly lmao

and yes... this is technically a meta post and i know i said i was gonna do the mmx meta post first... but this one isn't gonna be nearly as long (i hope) and i gotta get the brainworms out before i die

(quick edit note: i reworded the list item below from saying he was "likely a drug addict" to "likely a recreational drug user" because i feel like that better encompasses what i'm trying to get across

(another edit note: i made another post regarding jake's usage of drugs that stemmed from this post! it's marked as mature bc of drug usage, so it won't show up in tag search. if you're interested in that, look here!)

so the idea that wesker being alive in OG RE6 would have brought an opportunity for jake's character is kinda, imo, antithetical to the purpose of jake's character in the first place.

when we meet jake, we know a few things about him, right off the bat:

he's a mercenary

he's likely a recreational drug user or at least heavy/risk-taking user

he doesn't give a fuck about anything but making money

his whole character journey is going from this selfish, money-focused dickhead to someone who actually cares about doing something good, just because it's the right thing to do. at the start, jake refuses to simply give his blood away when sherry mentions needing it for a vaccine. no, he wants a cash payout. 50 million dollery-doos for a pint of his blood. by the end, he lowers the price to a mere 50 dollars. one could argue that was symbolic and he actually didn't care if he was paid or not, but that's neither here nor there.

but why was he like this? because his childhood was shite; his mother was sickly, he had no father figure, and by 15-ish, jake had to learn how to hustle to keep food on the table. and by "hustle" i mean "do a bunch of mercenary work and killing people." and when shit went south with his little group of mercenaries (their entire group was sold out by a heel-turner), jake basically went "fuck alla y'all" and lost all sense of conviction or morals.

during the game, he expresses his bitterness for his father, wesker, pretty clearly. even though his mother still loved wesker, tried to raise jake to respect him despite never knowing him, it didn't matter to jake. he hated that guy. well, really, who doesn't?

we're not gonna talk about excella rn ok

jake's entire character arc is built up around this hatred as well as a subconscious fear of becoming his father. the fear part doesn't show up until later in the story, after he and sherry were captured by the Big Bad's organization. they were both experimented on for several months, during which jake overheard the researchers talking about his father, wesker. this gives jake a sort of "explanation" as to why he is the way he is; he takes the "nature" side of the nature vs nurture argument.

ofc sherry scolds his ass and basically tells him "grow up and take responsibility for your actions."

and here's the thing... this fear, narratively, works just fine without wesker being there.

(since this got obscenely long, pls continue below for the actual explanation lmao)

jake eventually comes to the conclusion that yeah no it's definitely up to him to not become wesker, not his genetics. he does this without wesker being there. that's the entire point of his character journey. in order for an interaction with wesker to even matter or have any sort of impact on jake's character arc, his character arc as a whole would need to change.

see, imo, wesker being there diminishes a lot of the power of that journey. in the game, he isn't there for jake to scream at, to question. all those thoughts in his head that might be circulating around, like why he left his mother, why he did what he did, etc, cannot be answered. this is not a bad thing in a character arc as this is shit that happens to people all the time. people don't always get the answers they may want from family members because those family members are dead. they have to learn to move on without those answers or they have to rely on people who knew that person to fill in the blanks. this is what jake already does in game. he has to rely on sherry, and by a smaller extent, chris, to fill in those blanks for him.

but we as players, observers of the narrative, already know the answers to some of those questions. why wesker did what he did, primarily. anything else is only pertinent to jake and him knowing those answers doesn't change anything for his character arc as it is.

if wesker was there in the game, what would that even add to jake's narrative? a scene where jake yells at his dad? asks him "why did you leave?" when wesker wasn't even aware that he had a kid in the first place? remember: wesker had no fucking idea that he had a child. there would be no reason for wesker to even believe jake in the first place. sure, there could be a scene where he goes "well i'll be damned, ig he really is my misfired chromosome," but... then what? what does that add?

you could argue that wesker could use jake, maybe try to manipulate him into doing shit for his plans, but... that wouldn't work with the way jake's characterization is mapped out. his entire characterization would have to change for this to work in a satisfying way.

jake already hates wesker without ever meeting him. he would not willingly participate in anything wesker offered to him. he already knows that wesker nearly destroyed the world multiple times and had a hand in destroying an entire city. even if jake has no moral compass at the start of the game, by the time he learns about what wesker really did, who he really was, he's already showing that he does have one, it was just dormant up until that point. he's clearly disgusted by what wesker did. what foothold would wesker have that wouldn't immediately result in it just falling flat?

given how wesker is, i could see him perhaps belittling jake, maybe saying "wow you suck for being my spawn," or something during a fight with the intent to rile him up. would that work? no, not narratively nor not in the way jake is characterized. again, jake doesn't want to be like wesker. why would insulting him and saying he's not "as good" as wesker expected him to be motivate jake or even anger him? it shouldn't, because jake doesn't want to be anything like wesker. if anything, it may annoy him, but that's kind of a lame reaction, right?

if anything, the most i could see culminating out of this would be jake standing over wesker after he's defeated again (because it's resident evil and obviously wesker can't win) and having a "wow idk what i was worried about" moment. that's it.

but he doesn't need that. having a scene like that cheapens the weight of him figuring that out himself, without wesker there as "proof."

because the point of his story, of his character arc, is that he figures that out on his own (and with the help of sherry and the events he witnesses) because he has to. he doesn't need wesker there to spoon-feed that to him. he figures that out by working with sherry, by seeing the effects of the C-Virus on everything that it infects. wesker being an abstract entity in his life is enough, because the frustration of not seeing him, not being able to put a bullet in his skull himself, fuels the rest of his journey.

this is where i think that people who make these observations or criticisms (primarily those who think that jake's character would have been improved if wesker was there) need to understand the difference between what's good for a character as a person and what's good for their arc.

interacting with wesker would be good for jake as a person, in that he would no longer need to wonder about it. the answers would be spelled out for him, and he wouldn't have to do any wondering about the what-if. he wouldn't have any doubts left that he'd need to untangle.

but in doing that, it cheapens his arc; it would do more of a disservice to it, imo, than anything else. it would make his journey more formulaic and boring.

it would also clutter up the already cluttered narrative of that game. you have him not only struggling with his heritage, struggling with the fear of becoming his father, struggling with needing to be the "savior" by giving his blood, struggling with his moral compass, but now also struggling with seeing his father for the first time in person?

it makes his arc top-heavy. in that scenario, you could easily replace him with another, completely new character who has zero ties to wesker and the story wouldn't change in any meaningful way. the reason why it works the way to does now is because wesker is already dead. it creates that internal conflict, that internal frustration, that jake has to learn how to deal with since he cannot take that frustration out on his father in-person. he has to make peace with that struggle in other ways.

now, that's not to say there aren't ways that adding wesker into the story of RE6 that don't disrupt that balance. primarily, when it comes to a potential RE6 remake, the writing team can (and hopefully will) rework aspects of the entire game to make the plot more streamlined. this could include adding wesker in and redoing jake's characterization and character arc entirely.

this would be the only way i could see it working out. if jake's entire motivation was changed, his entire backstory was tweaked, then wesker being around could probably work! an interaction between them could be made to make sense and not bog down the rest of the plot as a result.

sirea also mentioned to me in our conversation that adding wesker in to RE6 remake could actually help streamline the plot and i do agree with that. she mentioned that all of the main characters have a tie to wesker in some way, which is absolutely true. having him there would neatly tie their campaigns together in the plotline and make the game as a whole feel less disjointed and messy.

this is especially true when we consider there are 4 fuckin campaigns that all run alongside one another and intersect at random points. it gets so fucking difficult to page through and figure out when certain things happen in the plot. you'll see them happen in order in chris's campaign, for example, then you go start leon's campaign and have to start over again and try to remember what happened at the same time during chris's campaign and so on.

now imagine that not with just two campaigns but four. it gets gross quick. sure, there are parts where the characters run into each other and that helps ground a general timeline in your head, but as far as time elapsed... it's so fuckin hard u guise

there's a reason why it's so hard to summarize the plot of RE6. it's because there is just so much going on in that fucking game.

anyway, that's my rant/sort of meta analysis about why i think wesker didn't need to be in OG RE6 and probably would have made jake's entire arc stupider than it already was

[iisthings]

WOLVERINE'S BISEXUALITY!

In response to @justatallstick who left a comment on my other post

So the thing is, it's complicated

While Marvel comics have never explicitly confirmed or denied his sexuality, authors and artists have been experimenting with it from time to time

From my current knowledge regarding the main line comics, Logan's bisexuality was never canonically confirmed or denied

However he did date Hercules in the au

And in the 616 universe Logan, Scott and Jean are canonically a throuple, though it is unclear whether or not Logan and Scott are dating too

HOWEVER Scott asked Logan to come with him, Jean and their kids on a family vacation (not a very platonic offer imo), as well as authors alluding to their relationship in shared dialogue

As for the Deadpool and Wolverine movie

We've all watched the Honda Odyssey fight scene, need I say more

This movie was the gayest thing I've seen all summer and I watched it after going to a pride parade

Also there's this iconic cover

~~~

Here are some articles if you don't wanna dig through any and all x-men and wolverine comics:

date: 2020

date: 2020

Tl;dr Wolverine is a little bi and poly

[pluckyredhead]

Can you please say more about the Lanterns' politics?

I am so glad you asked me about this because I've been thinking about it since I reblogged that post but also I'm definitely about to get yelled at lol. ANYWAY THIS IS GOING TO BE LONG.

Tl;dr: John is the only one with a coherent political position or an up-to-date voter registration.

Hal:

So something interesting about Hal is that his stories are often very political but his character is not. With one extremely obvious exception, he rarely talks about politics; rather, he serves as a means through which to tell political stories, usually unintentionally.

What do I mean by that? Well, for example, in the Silver Age, his love interest would occasionally be possessed by a misandrist space jewel that would force her to attack him, but always lose because women are inherently inferior to men and prefer to be subjugated by them anyway. That's the original Star Sapphire concept. It's wildly misogynistic, but it doesn't mean Hal the character is misogynistic. But it's also a very political story, even if I don't think the writer was deliberately trying to make a point so much as...being an average, thoughtlessly sexist guy living in the 60s. (Carol continues to be the subject of mindbogglingly sexist writing and art well into the 2000s. Fucking comics.)

And so you have Hal Jordan, whose love life was ruined by his girlfriend getting promoted above him and who called his best friend by a racist nickname for decades; Hal Jordan, poster boy for chest-thumping post-9/11 kneejerk patriotism; Hal Jordan, lightning rod for a certain kind of regressive bigoted fanboyism. Choosing Hal as the Lantern for a particular story over John or Kyle has come to signify something very specific, but none of that is necessarily reflective of what Hal himself believes.

So what about Hal himself? Well, when we first meet him, he's the epitome of privilege: a white, straight, cis, Christian (I know he's canonically half-Jewish now but that's only as of the past decade or so), ablebodied, upper middle class (Geoff Johns retconned him to have a working class background, but in the Silver Age, he had one uncle who was a millionaire, another who was a judge, and a successful politician brother) man with a flashy job. Privilege tends to lean Republican; even if he is from California, I suspect Hal voted for Eisenhower in 1956.

In GL/GA, the word "Republican" isn't used to my recollection, but Hal is definitely presented as...I'm going to say conservative by I mean lower-case C. He doesn't have deeply held political beliefs, but he's traditional. He doesn't question the system, because he's never had to. He resists things that challenge the way he's always understood the world works, and that's very relatable - most people do! And he will absolutely argue with Ollie, who certainly isn't always right about everything. But he's also willing to listen, and have his mind changed, and certainly reachable via appeals to compassion and fairness.

Once the "relevance" trend of the late 60s-early 70s was over, Hal's stories default back to ostensibly politically neutral, although obviously nothing is actually politically neutral. In the late 80s and early 90s he's the most unpleasant version of himself, and that has political manifestations, like when he allows John to be imprisoned in apartheid South Africa for a ridiculous and unnecessary crime Hal himself committed. It's extremely fucked up, but again, it's less because of Hal's actual opinions and more because Christopher Priest wanted to write about apartheid, even if it does make Hal look incredibly, horrifically racist.

Then jump to the mid-2000s and Green Lantern: Rebirth, and you might imagine that losing his hometown, getting possessed by a giant space bug, becoming a supervillain, dying, and becoming the embodiment of God's vengeance might have some effect on Hal's politics, but that is not what Geoff Johns is here to write. Johns is writing a Hal who teleported in from, like, 1967 - no nuance allowed. He's a summer blockbuster that walks like a man. He's a Baja Blast. He's never had a coherent political thought in his life. In his defense, he has had more and goofier concussions than any superhero I can think of and his brain is smooth like an egg. Still.

Anyway, all of this is to say that I think Hal tends to default to center right positions but can be easily coaxed over to center left. That said, he has never not once in his life had his shit together enough to vote in a single election, not even for his own brother.

Guy:

So Guy's deal is a little bit complicated because his most vocally political era was also in part due to severe and personality-altering brain damage.

When Guy was originally introduced in the 1960s, he had the pleasantly bland personality of all superheroes. Many years later, he suffered a series of major injuries, torture, and a lengthy coma, and he emerged from the coma in 1985 with the aggressive, abrasive personality he's best known for today. Justice League International took that even further, using him to parody the jingoistic, red-blooded American action hero of the 80s.

This version of Guy is a vocal fan of Ronald Reagan and despises the USSR. He's pro-war, proudly xenophobic, and treats women badly enough that it crosses the line into repeated sexual harassment, both physical and verbal. (To be fair...ish, this last also applies to Wally West and arguably a number of other men, and was always played for laughs. It was gross all around.)

Again, this is partially a manifestation of his brain damage. There's also a running gag in JLI where if he gets hit on the head, his personality changes to this cloying, timid, gentle one, sort of halfway between a child and a flamboyant gay stereotype. Hit him again and he goes back to Asshole Guy. I'm not going to pretend I don't find some of the gags funny, but it's obviously all highly problematic, and not just from a medical standpoint.

That said, I don't think we can dismiss Guy's politics or his usual personality as simply a manifestation of brain damage. We see in later flashbacks that he developed the abrasiveness as a defense mechanism from growing up in an abusive home, and as he matures through the 90s, he doesn't actually become a significantly different person, even after his Vuldarian healing factor kicks in and heals his brain. (It's a thing.) I think it's more accurate to say that the brain damage probably affected his impulse control, his filter, and arguably even his paranoia levels.

All of which is to say that as much as I would love to go "Guy's better now, so he's not a Republican!"...that dog won't hunt. I think a really good canon writer could make the case that Guy is pro-union-style working class and also a former teacher so he's at least center left, but as of now canon evidence is pretty firmly on the red side. It doesn't help that the GLC has been written as fetishistically pro-cop and pro-military since Johns got his grubby hands all over it. I will happily ignore the New 52 retcon that Guy was a cop, and you could even try to argue that he dislikes cops because his brother was a corrupt cop who became a supervillain, but I think it's much more likely that he identifies with cops as a Corps member. Although I don't think he would have any patience for killer cops. ("You were afraid for your life even though you were the only one with a weapon? Then fucking quit, coward.")

All of that said, I think Guy is similar to Hal: defaults to center right, can be talked into center left on certain issues but he's more stubborn about it. (They would also both be enraged by Jan 6 and disgusted by the current Republican party - I can't quite argue that Guy Gardner is a Democrat but Green Lanterns don't have any patience for traitors or cowards.) It's also kind of a moot point because he never knows what is happening on Earth and hasn't voted since his pre-coma days.

John:

Oh John Stewart, thank god for you.

John was introduced as an explicitly political character in an explicitly political story. The first time we see him, he's stepping in to defend Black men from a white cop, citing his own knowledge of the law to do so. He shows a much more perceptive and informed perspective on the issue's main plot (a racist senator running for president) than Hal does. Even in the little moment above, we see that he's sensitive to exactly what it means for him, a Black man, to be taking on this role.

None of this is a surprise, since we'll later learn that John's parents were civil rights activists. Not only would he not have had the privilege Hal and Guy did to assume his existence was politically neutral, he was explicitly educated about political realities and progressive advocacy from childhood. He's well-informed, he's passionate, and he's going to tell you when you are being fucking stupid.

John isn't immune from the GL cop/military...thing, although I can't blame Johns for that - it was the cartoon that made him a Marine, and the comics followed suit. But that's never outweighed his origin or his upbringing. Like, he's friends with the DCU's fictional version of Nelson Mandela.

This one is straightforward: John is a staunch progressive. He is, however, in outer space 90% of the time, so he's always at least a little bit out of date. I imagine every time he comes back to Earth he spends the first 24 hours watching the news in abject horror.

Kyle:

Kyle doesn't talk about politics a lot, but when he does, he lands pretty much where you'd expect a young California-born artist living in New York City to land: to the left. My read on Kyle is that he hasn't really thought any of his politics through, which makes sense - he's a character who is led by emotion over reason every time. He doesn't have John's carefully thought-through arguments or knowledge of the law behind him. I feel like when something political upsets him, he's more likely to splutter angrily than make a coherent argument (which: same). When he's given the time to think things through and speak from the heart, though, he can be very eloquent, like in his speech to Terry after Terry accidentally comes out to him.

It's also worth pointing out that his solo appearances were mostly in the 90s, which were prone to avoiding politics or only addressing them in a halfhearted both sides-y way like the story above.

That said, I don't think he ever actually does anything about his political opinions. He never votes in midterm or primary elections, and probably only voted in a presidential one because Alex dragged him along one time. I feel like Donna tried to do the same when they were dating and that was when Kyle realized he'd forgotten to change his voter registration from California to New York. Jennie wasn't responsible enough to Mom him into doing his civic duty, and he's been in space pretty much nonstop ever since, so...

Simon:

In that other post, I said Simon's experiences should have radicalized him, but instead he was created by Geoff Johns. Simon is a Muslim, Lebanese-American man who came of age in the post-9/11 era, and was wrongfully convicted of terrorism and waterboarded at Guantanamo Bay. His reaction to this was...to put on a ski mask and wave a gun around. Like, it's been a while since I've read these issues, but aside from the "ripped from the headlines!!!" of it all, I feel like Simon's experiences largely don't inform his actions or perspective except that he's super angry (fair enough).

The thing about Simon (and Jessica) is that he hasn't been around very long, and most comics don't have characters directly expressing political opinions. It's not a coincidence that these characters are in chronological order and each write-up is shorter than the last. I can think of about three times where Kyle has ever said anything I can interpret as political, and he's been around for 30 years. Simon only has a third of that history. So while one could certainly extrapolate what Simon's opinions are likely to be, I can't think of any canon where he actually says them.

Jessica:

Jessica has even less to go on in terms of explicitly political comics. You'd think she wouldn't like guns because of what happened to her friends, but she has one of her own and doesn't seem bothered by Simon's. I'd imagine she has opinions on immigration as someone whose family is from Mexico and Honduras, but it never comes up. If I were writing for DC, I'd make both Simon and Jess leftists, but as for actual canon proof? I got nothing.

I will say that she probably avoids political discussions because anxiety, and I bet she got really good at voting by mail during her years not leaving the house. She probably votes by mail from space. Maybe John's not the only one with an up-to-date voter registration.

Kilowog:

[in-restless-walks]

okay i don't know sorry if this is a weird ask but right now im high and watching a youtube video of simon and garfunkel singin the boxer in the concert in central park and idk i got like a vibe from them so my question is are you a simon and garfunkel historian? do you know the context of their relationship during that moment? i don't know you i just searched simon and garfunkel and ended up in your blog so forgive me if you are not that kind of fan or something idk. i know that simon and garfunkel is big on tumblr but idk sometimes is like in a yaoi kind of way sometimes is like an ironic meme i dont know what im saying tbh im sorry for this. anyway if you don't know could you give me some blogs recomendations so i can ask them? is this a weird thing to ask? do i sound crazy? again im really high and this is taking too much to write because i don't know if i make sense sometimes i forget what word i put before the word i'm writing. anyway. can you help me with my issue? thanks a lot! oh for context i don't really know simon and garfunkel lore so just in case i need context i just know their relationship was like weird like sometimes they got along and then they missed each other or something? okay thanks! <3

Wow, okay, thanks for sending this, and first of all, I hope you enjoyed getting high, LOL. I guess there's nothing like getting high and starting to wonder about the yaoi side of Simon & Garfunkel.

I am not a Simon & Garfunkel historian, so to speak, but I have been a fan for quite some time and I have read all the biographies there are to read, I have done my fair share of research into them, so I do think I know a bit about the S&G "lore". Ever since the first time I saw the Concert in Central Park and seeing the same "vibe" you did during The Boxer, I've also 'shipped' them. That is to say, while I do not think that they were ever in a romantic relationship and everything that that entails, I don't rule out at all that anything of a sexual nature happened between them. Other people seem to think that too, hence the 'yaoi' posts you see on tumblr.

Their relationship was/is a really complicated one and I'm not sure any of us know exactly what happened to make them where they are now - supposedly on no speaking terms. I mean, Paul said in his recent documentary that Art turned from someone who 'got it for him" into someone he hopes never to see again, which...ouch x 1000.

For you and for everyone else getting into Simon & Garfunkel, here's a little crash course.

TL;DR they're both idiots who got along reasonably well if it wasn't about their professional business. Their creative differences re: music (and personal grievances) were always so large (as were their egos) that they followed a pattern of getting together to try (again), fought, were on no speaking terms for a decade, thought to give it another try, and repeat, ad infinitum. In fanfic terms, they are the epitome of strangers to friends to lovers to enemies to friends to lovers to enemies to...

1950s

Paul and Art are childhood friends. They lived a few streets away from each other in Queens, NY, and they went to the same school. They're the same age, born three weeks apart. They formally met when they were eleven, at the school play for Alice in Wonderland (Paul was the White Rabbit, Art the Cheshire Cat). Soon after, they started recording songs in their basements, trying to copy their heroes, the Everly Brothers. They got signed by Big Records by someone called Sid Prosen, called themselves Tom (Art) and Jerry (Paul) and released a fairly successful single called 'Hey Schoolgirl' when they were 16, which even made them go on Dick Clark's American Bandstand show (footage sadly does not survive). Paul recorded a song by himself, without telling Art, while he called himself True Taylor, and Art found out, 'shattering' the friendship with Paul for the first time. (It seems to have never recovered to how it was before). I coin this the True Taylor Incident™️. Alledgedly they didn't speak to each other for a couple of years after graduating high school (1958-1962-ish). During that time, Art recorded a few songs as Artie Garr, and Paul did as well, as Jerry Landis.

1960s

Paul went to study in Queens College, NY, and Art went to Columbia University (there he met his blind roommate Sanford, which is a whole other interesting side story). Paul and Art got reacquainted with each other, performed as a duo again and managed to get signed to Columbia records to record an album in March 1964, which was to be released in October 1964.

Meanwhile, Paul often went to England and mainland Europe (France, Denmark, the Netherlands...) and there he met Kathy who became his girlfriend (Hence, Kathy's Song, and "Kathy I'm lost, I said" from America). He also recorded a solo album while in the UK, called The Paul Simon Songbook. Art went to visit him a few times.

Their first album, Wednesday Morning 3AM, flopped; Art stayed in school and Paul went back to the UK. The album did contain the song The Sound of Silence (acoustic version) and a really interesting thing happened in late 1965 when someone decided to put electric guitars to the track and suddenly it got airplay. Paul was in Denmark when the song was really starting to do well on the charts, and he had to rush home to NYC when the song became number one.

Then, Paul and Artie were suddenly famous! They quickly recorded another album with several songs that were on The Paul Simon Songbook, but now Art's harmonies were on there. They did a lot of tv performances in 1966 and 1967 and toured mainly in the college and university circuits. (I will link some tv peformances and so on later, in another post).

I'm skipping over some things now, but in my opinion, trouble for their relationship really began again when they started recording their album Bookends and Paul had been writing music for The Graduate (Mrs. Robinson) (1968). The director of The Graduate, Mike Nichols, had asked Art and Paul to act in his next movie, Catch-22, but Paul's scenes got cut, and Art went to Mexico on his own for the better part of the first half of 1969, just when they were supposed to record their next album, Bridge Over Troubled Water. Tensions ran super high at that time. Plus, Paul had written the song Bridge Over Troubled Water for Art to sing, but he later said that Art first refused to sing it (Art said that he wanted Paul to sing it in a lovely falsetto voice) and later, during concerts, Art took standing ovations while finishing the song, while Paul was jealous that he didn't get songwriting credits on stage. Paul also said that Art was leaving him to do movies...not long after Catch-22, Art got invited to play a role in Mike Nichols' next movie, Carnal Knowledge. (see also: Why Don't You Write Me...."if it's only to say that you're leaving me"). The whole Bridge Over Troubled Water album is one big breakup album.

Meanwhile, Paul had gotten married to Simon & Garfunkel's manager's ex-wife (I still can't fathom this) and Peggy also kind of encouraged him to go solo. Paul also claimed that his musical interests and Art's were drifting apart, so eventually, they split in 1970. Artie thought they were only taking a break, and allegedly he didn't realize they were really done.

1970s

Both starting solo careers, they reunited a few times as well, such as for the McGovern benefit concert in 1972, and most notably in the second Saturday Night Live episode in 1975 (tell me they're not flirting the whole time). Paul had even written a song, My Little Town, that the both of them performed for the reunion and was featured on both of their (solo) albums There was also a reunion for Paul's The Paul Simon Special (1977), the Brittania Awards (1977) and some other benefit concerts.

1980s

Paul was approached by a concert producer about playing in Central Park and maybe doing a few songs with Art, and Paul was like, I can't very well play support to Simon & Garfunkel, so it was decided that the whole concert was supposed to be the both of them. And time it was, what a time it was! Safe to say the concert was a success, even though they were fighting again (Art wanted to stay as close to the accoustic sets they used to do in the college performances, and Paul wanted a big band on stage). The interviews before the performance are awkward as usual, but it seems that for the performance itself they kind of set their differences aside, and they seem to be having a good time on stage, as good as it gets with these two. The back rub during The Boxer is...I can't explain it, but that was a lovely gesture by Art.

Because the concert in Central Park had been so successful, they were going to bank on that success and do a whole reunion tour AND a reunion album in 1982-1983, but that seems to have been a very miserable experience for them both. Their body language in interviews says it all. It culminated in Paul wiping Art's vocals from what was supposed to be their reunion album and releasing it as a solo album. Safe to say they were on no speaking terms again for a while, lmao, especially when their professional endeavours were concerned. They did hang out sometimes in private, because Paul had married Carrie Fisher and Art was seeing Carrie's friend Penny. Then Paul got famous with Graceland and Artie was once again, forgotten.

1990s

They got inducted in the Hall of Fame (another miserable experience), Paul did another concert in Central Park (without any sign of Art this time) and they did a few reunion concerts in NYC and so, but neither of them looked very happy about that, if you ask me. In fact, the less they had to look at each other, the better. There was apparently one instance where they were fighting and someone had to stand in between them, or they would have physically started attacking each other? Sounds like a lot of fun, huh? Start of another decade of not speaking to each other.

2000s

After getting a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, they thought it was a good idea to get together again and do a reunion your, and that seemed to work, for a while. They toured the United States (2003-2004), Europe (2004), Australia/NZ and Japan (2009) and were about to embark on yet some more shows in the fall of 2010, but then Art Lost His Voice (you can see this happening right in front of your salad at the April 2010 Jazz Fest, but they were still very chummy then).

What happened in 2010...no idea, but it wasn't good. And then Art made things much, much worse when he did an interview in 2015, called Paul a Monster, and idiot and a jerk, and how could he leave a successful formula like Simon & Garfunkel behind and no amount of groveling that Art has done since (like begging Paul to call him in an interview) has helped. They are still on no speaking terms.

Now all we can do is wait and hope they come to their senses and kind of make up before they die. Under no circumstances do I still want them to sing together, but damn, if all of us don't want them to just both sit on the edge of a park bench, like bookends, I don't know anymore.

My take on the whole thing: they were good friends as kids, Art never got over the True Tailor Incident and that stayed with him forever; he always saw Paul as someone who could betray him in the blink of an eye. Paul was envious of Art's looks (and height); meanwhile Art wasn't a songwriter, so Paul had that advantage over him. It's not a good balance to be in such a close partnership. Perhaps at one point something did happen between them, complicating things even more, because can you really hate someone that much if you don't have strong feelings for them either? In later years, it seems to be mainly the "creative differences" about the music that was causing a rift, but maybe after all is said and done, perhaps Carrie Fisher said it best "not only do I not like you, but I don't like you personally." Paul 'cheated' on Art with True Taylor and, like any other one half of a (married) couple, he tried to get over it, but never could. (and maybe Paul is a jerk lmao. But Art was no angel either).

I've skipped over a lot of things, so if you have more questions, shoot. There are quite a few of us who are posting regularly about them, and who know about everything I've written above. In fact, there's a Tumblr community on S&G now (see my pinned post) but so far there haven't been many people interested in joining, lol, so if you want in, let me know. People could do a lot more theorizing there, haha.

[thecoolerliauditore]

Look I know you said it’s funnier without explanation but if you’re up for it, can you please share your thoughts on the freudian vibes post? I’m guessing that it’s Scott treating Cleo like a mom and Jimmy treating Martyn like a dad?

anon IDK why I felt the need to like. write an essay regarding this. You've basically got it down pact that's literally the whole joke everything else is stupid. but I made you wait so like. whatever man.

under the cut is the horrors but tl;dr:

martyn/jimmy: martyn needs to be someone's husband/dad to feel like he deserves to be loved and jimmy feels comfort in being cared for but is ultimately frustrated with being infantilized.

cleo/scott: much much muddier but cleo gives scott the privilege of being The Mature One who gets her (when scott is not this) while scott gets an illusion of unconditional stability (which cleo can only sometimes provide)

Martyn/Jimmy is the more cut and dry one, mostly sourcing from their Evo relationship and their interactions in traffic smp.

Martyn is someone who feels the need to be a provider/protector and feels frustrated when he is denied that role (e.g. look at his bridge conversation with Cleo in DL or his reaction to jimmy half-rejecting his offer to run away with him in 3L and acting spitefully towards jimmy at least verbally for the rest of the season).

In my head he is someone who feels as if he is undeserving of a certain level of emotional intimacy (often associated with romantic relationships) if he doesn't perform well enough in said role(s) since the people he strives to "protect"/"rescue" are often the same he acts romantically towards (Ren, Cleo, Jimmy).

This isn't a fully sound point since the southlanders and especially mumbo kind of contradict this but I think the southlanders were kind of a messy specific instance of the worst traits of every member all combining together to form an alliance from hell but that's for another post methinks. Grian is also an outlier but I'd argue that could be seen as him misdirecting his need to rescue jimmy onto the next guy he saw.

Jimmy, on the other hand, is often put into roles where he is assumed incapable of taking responsibility and thus denied of his agencies and thus he ends up in this weird position where, depending on who he is with, he is either someone's tradwife or everyone's youngest brother. What responsibilities he does get are often whatever is deemed most unimportant by the other party he's with, regardless of whether those things are actually important (e.g. him taking care of Martyn emotionally when he spirals in Evo during the election arc).

I'm not actually a massive jimmy guy so I can't say for sure what his feelings towards Martyn are, but whatever they are they seem to be heavily conflicting. Jimmy is more abrasive towards Martyn and seems to be more comfortable teasing him and making jokes at his expense, but at the same time becomes cold to him very easily, such as in 3L when he began shooting specifically at Martyn right before his final death or in SL when he tries to kill Martyn and then runs away stating that he "can't go home now". To me, it is as if Jimmy is frustrated with the "incapable" role he gets put into which his relationship with Martyn epitomizes both the romantic and caretaker aspects of, but at the same time Martyn brings him a level of nostalgic comfort.

TL;DR jimmy reminds me of this:

(from: "my lesbian experience with loneliness")

one final note regarding jimmy/martyn: this could go the other way around as well, with the aforementioned emotional care jimmy gives martyn in evo as well as one throwaway line near the end of the series where martyn says something to the effect of "thank god you're back, I don't know how to cook or anything". However I don't think this point is too important since the big point of this is jimmy and martyn wanting to feel loved and cared for by eachother with the conflicting feelings attached.

I'm having a lot of trouble putting the Scott/Cleo section into words rn but I'll reblog this with that added later when I'm processing information in a more digestible manner 👍

[risingfire17-the-weeb-trash]

40 Day Anime Challenge Day 7- Character you want to marry: Victor Frankenstein (Fran) from Code:Realize (2017) based on the otome game of the same name from 2014. **Spoiler Alert**

Synopsis (from fandom.com): "Lonely Cardia is isolated from the world because her body carries a deadly poison that rots or melts anything her skin touches. Her last conversation with her father before he disappeared two years ago is the furthest back she can remember. One day, the Royal Guards break in to capture her. Arsene Lupin, a chivalrous thief, helps her escape the soldiers’ clutches. She soon finds herself on a journey with Lupin and his gang to locate her father, who holds the answers to her mysterious condition."

Tl;dr: I found a good guy that I love even more than all the bad boys I love. This will be a long Fran appreciation post lol

Alright, it finally happened after 14 years, someone knocked Fai out of my “character I want to marry slot” (@sailorstarr-chan4 read and be shocked) because FRAN IS SO SWEET AND KIND AND PURE AND TBH HE IS MARRIAGE GOALS!!!!!!

His smile is so precious- and not a hint of teasing or malice or anything I usually go for in my anime smiles, but just pure kindness!

He is the epitome of shy boy omg precious bean UwU

And he is sooooooooo pure! For context, he’s a doctor trying to help Cardia (the MC) and he’s being teased about “examining her body” and it broke his poor innocent brain lmao

Boy has no self esteem- also a departure from the swaggering smooth talkers I typically go for. He kind of hates himself for something that isn’t even his fault. But it’s okay things get better!

He definitely does not see himself as good enough for Cardia despite the fact that he is the most healthy and respectful character in the franchise! (Total departure from the typical possessive borderline creepy otome boy)

While the other boys fight with guns and knives, he fights with chemicals, which I give massive style points for!

He can be the bad guy when he needs to be, like when he threatened to blow up the queen to remove a bounty placed on Cardia and the others’ heads because of the queen’s grudge against him. To be fair, he tried to bluff her first but she called it.

He starts off seeing Cardia as someone he needs to protect, but as she becomes more able to handle herself in a fight, he starts to see her as an equal and a partner. Look at that smile after she saves him! (About 12 hours prior she saved him and he lectured her for risking himself for him but she makes it clear she will take no shit, then they need to save each other several times because they’re being hunted, and now look at him! Nothing but respect, awe, and trust!)

He will 100% sacrifice his life for her tho

It’s even sadder in the anime because we all know Lupin will be canon and Fran knows it too so he never confesses his feelings but does everything he can to ensure she survives so she can be happy with Lupin. HE HELPS HER BECAUSE HE CARES NOT BECAUSE HE EXPECTS ANYTHING IN RETURN OMFG

This precious baby trying to be possessive in the Christmas game lol (Come on Fran, we know that's not you!)

And while we're on the subject of the Christmas game, look how he manages to reassure Cardia while ice skating and proclaim his undying devotion to her AT THE SAME TIME OMG!!!

And finally, to quote @blueeyesgirl "he's a 5'11", 25 y/o doctor ffs!"

[alica-tech]

Tutorial Hell : A brief thoughtdump

tl;dr

Focus on learning and practicing, not just the completion of courses

Don't be afraid to skip parts of a course if it's too easy, don't be afraid to challenge yourself with extra research if a course isn't giving enough explanation, don't be afraid of dropping a resource when it's no longer relevant or helpful to you

Build small atomic projects to test new concepts you're learning

Use it or lose it! This goes with getting practice on new topics, and remembering to revisit your saved bookmarks! 🔖

thoughtdump

There's a big pitfall for consuming lots of tutorials and courses without building or practicing it. Nowadays, if I’m bored with the sludge of a tutorial, I just move on from it or skip around as I please. Don’t worry about 100% completing it. What’s the point?

(Disclaimer: It's still an amazing achievement to complete courses, it takes dedication, perseverance, and consistency! Personally, I've found myself beaten down by the expectation to complete things. So I find it helpful to let go of this kind of perfection)

Sometimes I find the best explanations on a stackoverflow post, in the source documentation, or on a niche developer’s blog. 

The benefit of courses is the structure and the guaranteed coverage of topics in a field. So there’s that. Just gotta be intentional with it, and always connect what you’re learning with what you already know to make it sticky to your brain. Also, before buying any course, there's likely a free resource online that will do the trick! I find free courses in the most unexpected places, from youtube playlists, to github repos.

It’s much more engaging to learn something relevant to a problem you’re trying to solve as well, which leads to the epitome advice regarding tutorial hell.. 

"Quite Simply.. Build Projects"

The advice of simply “building projects” is thrown around a lot, but I think it’s important to build small, atomic, projects. Very small demos that test out just one concept you’re trying to hone down.

Sources of Inspiration 

I recently got inspired by a collective named, SokPop. They are a game development studio that recently accomplished their goal of releasing 1 game a month for 100 months. That’s 100 games. Insane!  I can only imagine how much you can learn from incrementally figuring out how to build different game mechanics. On a similar note, Jennifer Dewalt’s 100 websites in 100 days inspired me to build silly little websites to learn different web dev topics.

[mioreviews]

A Sign Of Affection

↑The manga covers

Recently, I’ve been reading a lot of manga, and <A Sign of Affection> is definitely worth a post! This manga is the most shoujo thing in the world, and I loveeee it (/▽＼*)｡o○♡

In short, it’s a story about a guy and girl pursuing each other and eventually becomes a story about their relationship. The guy is someone who grew up traveling and learning different languages all his life and the girl is deaf. It’s an interesting combination, and they’re absolutely adorable together.

The characters sell the entire manga. This manga was definitely a manga written by a woman author. You can tell after reading it lol. Their chemistry is very cute and adorable. Like I said before, it’s literally the epitome of shoujo, and it’s addicting! Each chapter is also pretty long. So even though there’s only 30+ chapters, it feels pretty long with plenty of content to read.

The main downside is that it’s still ongoing. It gets you hooked and then it has the audacity to not be finished lol! But at the same time, I’m so glad it’s not over yet so we have more to look forward to. Another small downside (because why not add it) is that their relationship flows kind of slowly. I think the slow flowing is perfect, but it depends on your taste I guess.

TL;DR

Need a new shoujo manga? I highly highly recommend <A Sign of Affection>! It’s an adorable story with interesting characters that is filled to the brim with heart warming moments. An anime is actually coming out in January 2024, so this is the best time to read it in preparation for the anime! If you already read this manga, let me know what you think! Let’s fangirl/boy together (´꒳`)♡

[monmuses]

🔥 + Any about Kyle from South Park? Such as ships with him or a fandom interpretation that you disagree with/wish more people noticed?

Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion.

Bonus points if you include a topic. ( IE. shipping, roleplaying, ect. )

// *i have A MAJOR FUCKING PROBLEM with one single ship involving him - Kyman. i am somebody who is very carefree with ships and i literally DO NOT CARE what kind of ships you enjoy. if its toxic, stable, whatever the fuck - enjoy it! its YOUR interests. however, when its an obvious ship that is ONLY made because “aw, theres cute romantic tension! they just love each other!”

// *NO THE FUCK THEY DONT?????????

// *the concept of Kyman (Kyle x Cartman) even existing in the first place fucking disgusts me. Cartman is the epitome of how awful a human being with no empathy can be. he is a racist and shits on Kyle’s ENTIRE FAMILY during the entire show. he makes fun of Kyle for being a Jew and calls him racist names in response. he also nearly KILLED KYLE MULTIPLE FUCKING TIMES. i despise ships that are only there for the “romance” when its VERY OBVIOUS there isnt any romance to begin with. or any cute shit. it doesnt fucking exist when it comes to those two.

// *may i also emphasize: in the Post-Covid episodes, Kyle still fucking hates Cartman. after what, 40 fucking years? of being shit on for SO LONG? he DOES NOT TRUST Cartman in the slightest. he even begrudingly let Cartman stay at his house during the quarantine, and they WOKE HIM UP TWICE BECAUSE THEY WERE LOUD DURING SEX. he also was deceiving his own fucking friends behind his back to stop Kyle from going into the past. he even manipulated Clyde to fight him and his friends because of it. HE IS NOT A ROMANTIC PARTNER TO KYLE IN THE SLIGHTEST.

// *tl;dr - any kind of toxic ships with Kyle i hate because he WOULD NOT allow himself to be walked on. he is not a people pleaser. he is very stubborn and hardheaded. thats how he has ALWAYS BEEN. he is prone to piss off really quickly and only has so much patience for stupidity. people forget his personality and think hes soft. where as i know he has a soft spot for people like Stan, Ike, his mom, SPECIFIC people he cares for? he is NOT always soft.

[kob131]

https://www.reddit.com/r/RWBYcritics/comments/tq1z44/ruby_rose_as_a_protagonist_is_antithetical_to_the/

Tl;Dr- “I have no understanding of the complexities of themes in stories.”

Ironwood is betrayed and in turn becomes a crazy genocidal dictator, therefore making it impossible for Team RWBY to TRY to get through to him and make him see the error of his ways. Atlas and Mantle are completely distroyed, killing millions and only saving thousands when Team RWBY'S initial goal was to save everyone.

Okay stop right there-

Where are these ‘millions’?

No really, the Relic of Creation specifically made portals for EVERYONE in Atlas. You people keep claiming that millions have died in Atlas when not only does that NOT make sense given the info we have...but where the FUCK ARE THERE MILLIONS? Neither Atlas NOR Mantle NOR them combined seem to have enough space for ONE Million. Mantle looks like it’s smaller than my town and Atlas looks like a smaller version of my state capitial...which together total about 300,000.

This is such bullshit.

And those thousands in turn, are now homeless refugees in a kingdom that hates them and are frequently attacked by Grimm and whose only protection are a handful of huntsmen and one maiden. There was no unity here, and there was no hope. Just four entitled brats having the universe simultaneously twist in their favor and making them lose. It's insane.

Yes it is. Because your statement makes no sense with or without context.

Out of context, how does the world both twist in one’s favor...and twist against that same’s favor? If it happens one after another-...That’s basic story telling based on the natural ebb and flow of life.

In context, how is there not hope in that situation. The Atlas military would also be there and Winter is a flying, portable nuke. Things are not as hopeless as you think.

In my last post, I made note that it's ok that the world of remnant has as many problems as it does, even if Grimm are attracted to negativity, so long as that contradiction has a point to it. Salem could have worked as an antagonist if the story took these themes and ideas to heart. Instead of having the story revolve around her and Ozma, she should just be a very old Grimm that has begun to command the other Grimm by virtue of her own intelligence. She should be focused more on splitting humanity apart so that he can divide and conquer.

...Why? You haven’t established what that would mean for the themes of hope and unity. You don’t explain why people gravitate towards these themes, what they represent, what people want from these themes and what they mean to people. You haven’t explained how themes are represented in conflicts into the show or how to explore said themes through the conflict. You’ve...done nothing to support this. For someone who said in that previous post that RWBY’s themes are surface level, you sure are surface level yourself.

Her very existence should be antithetical to the themes of the story. And she should be Ruby Rose's primary antagonist because of that.

And she is.

Thing is, there are more themes in RWBY than just ‘Hope and unity’. What about perseverance AKA ‘Keep moving forward’? How Salem doesn’t persist but rather the moment a true problem arose for her (losing Ozma) she immediately feel into despair and never moved on whereas Ruby keeps pushing herself forward despite the pain and suffering? Or hell, even with the themes you give, Salem’s whole issue started because she couldn’t hold onto hope after Ozma died? Or that she actively causes conflict and creates division?

This is incredibly blatant to the point of the show commenting on it, you have no excuse.

Ruby Rose, as a main character in the show, is awful. She was initially presented as a simple, honest soul. The epitome of hope and unity, the one who's going to save the world because she wants to make it better.

And then she starts telling her uncle she doesn't need him when he's at the lowest point of his life... Starting fights with the military and summoning a massive grimm because Weiss's comfort was more important than helping to save the world... And lying to Ironwood, a moment that should not have happened and if it apsolutly needed to, it should NOT have been RUBY doing it! As her actions become more morally grey, Ruby becomes less of a good main character.

That's not to say that good stories can't have morally grey main characters, but it just doesn't work with this one. At least it's not compellingly done. If the story was about a morally grey person becoming a good person and overcoming evil to complete that arch, or even if they were a good person and became more morally grey over time and either failed because of it or got a redemption arch and did better, the story could have worked.

... Oh boy

A. Qrow was actively shooting down any and all plans while doing nothing but drinking himself to death. To say nothing of how Ruby saying she doesn’t need him is the exact opposite of the end of that speech.

Qrow: Okay, stop. Just... stop! Look, if this thing goes south, it's not something we can just fight our way out of. This is the Atlas Military we're talking about. (sighs) For your sake, just drop this.

Everyone looks down with discouraged looks on their faces. Ruby notices this and turns back to Qrow with a determined look on her face.

Ruby: I want to hear him out.

Qrow: Ruby...

Ruby: I want to hear him out! I know you're trying to protect us, that you're afraid we can't do it, but right now, I don't really care what you think!

Qrow gains a shocked expression upon hearing this.

Ruby: Just because you don't have an idea, doesn't mean we're out of options! Oz hasn't been here to tell us what to do, but we still managed to get this far anyway. We've been in bad situations before, and we don't need an adult to come save us or tell us what to do. We just did it our way! And I say we do it our way. (everyone smiles) And if you think you can keep up with us "kids"... we'd be happy to have you.

B. Gee, kind of like taking important time in a disaster situation to get verbal consent while the enemy is on it’s way?

Ozpin: Are you ready?

Pyrrha looks at him and gives a slow nod.

Ozpin: I... I need to hear you say it.

Pyrrha: Yes. (She lays her head back, staring ahead)

Ozpin: Thank you, Miss Nikos.

Ozpin presses a few more buttons on the screen, and Amber's pod raises up. Amber begins glowing orange, and her eyelids begin fluttering. The orange glow travels along the pipes connecting the two pods - first up to the ceiling, then down to Pyrrha's pod. An orange glow surrounds Pyrrha, who begins screaming out in agony.

Jaune: (Turns around, surprised) Pyrrha!

Jaune runs over to Pyrrha's pod, moving his gaze back and forth between Pyrrha and Amber's pod. While Jaune panics, trying to understand what's going on, Ozpin looks away.

Ozpin: I'm... so sorry.

Like that?

Reminder that they never said that Ozpin’s beliefs or motivations were wrong, just his lying.

C. Gee, I wonder if it has anything to do with the group calling Ozpin out for lying the previous Volume only to be shown that things aren’t so simple.

Oscar: If you all wouldn’t mind, I really think Ozpin would like to say something.

Everyone silently looks at Ruby.

Ruby: Go ahead.

Oscar's eyes briefly flash gold, and Ozpin walks forward.

Ozpin: I was recently reminded of an old fairy tale. A young girl flees the consequences of a choice, to a magical place. But, having never learned from her initial failure, she only succeeds in spreading it. I failed all of you. I should have trusted you with the truth and should never have run the day you discovered it.

Yang: It was rough, but…

Blake: I think after everything that’s happened here, we understand. Trust is..

Weiss: Trust is a risk.

Ozpin: And I hope it’s a risk you can take on me again.

Ruby silently nods her head at Ozpin.

Oh wait...

And D. Or you know, bring depth to a theme by showcasing that the ideal the heroes believe in isn’t easily attainable, reflecting real world struggles with ideals?

Because there is a multitude of ways to deal with a theme?

But the story doesn't realize that Ruby's actions are incredibly morally grey as of late and most likely will not end in a tragedy brought on by Ruby losing herself and that's... really bad thematically.

*looks up at the previous example*

We may need to implement a basic competency test for critics. Because this has been too stupid for years now...

Instead that happened with Ironwood, but his fall in of itself doesn't make sense thematically anyway.

Ruby lied to him and betrayed him. Ironwood trusted her and helped her. Ruby didn't fall and remained a hero, Ironwood fell so hard he could never get back up and now is hated by way too many people despite the insidious and manipulative writing behind his fall.

...

Ironwood: You fought for your school and your friends at Beacon. You fought for the world and the innocent at Haven Academy and beyond. You faced down terrors people can't even fathom. That's not the behavior of students. It's the behavior… of Huntsmen and Huntresses.

Ironwood outright rewarded them for standing and fighting against impossible odds. The same shit he assigned Penny for with Mantle. The same shit Ozpin, the man James Ironwood swore HIS loyalty towards, believed. All of which he betrayed.

On every level, James Ironwood betrayed who he was.

The themes of Hope and Unity can't make sense in a narrative where someone who was being hopeful and trying to unite the world, even at the expense of his own people, is treated as a villain. But a character who didn't even give a person who has been nothing but kind and hopeful a chance and actively turns the entire world against that character, gets to be a hero?

You wanna know what’s so ironic here?

This is exactly how the show portrayed them before the climax of Volume 7. No really, James was portrayed as innocent, noble and trusting while Ruby was portrayed as guilty and hypocritical. To the point of Oscar being more consistent than her and Yang sticking to her morals more than Ruby. But then James jumped off the deep end and lost his moral high ground. Because just like how Ozpin failing to live up to his moral doesn’t excuse Team RWBY, them failing doesn’t excuse James.

And here you are, demanding special treatment. Whose the hypocrite again?

Salem isn't the main antagonist of this story, because she doesn't do anything, she's a glorified murder mugguffin akin to the "Nothing" from the Never Ending Story, but without any of the clever thematic writing and imagery

Ironwood: (anger slowly returning to his voice) Well, that was before you lied to me about the Lamp. Before you lied to us about Robyn, before Salem was right on our doorstep.

You know it’s bad when the show is debunking you.

The main antagonist of this story about hope and unity is ... Ruby Rose herself.

And that's bad writing because she's not supposed to be.

No.

We call it ‘bad criticism’. 

Because at several points, all I needed was to quote the fucking show to debunk you. And when you hit that point- You’ve lost all right to be a critic.

[commander-minkowski]

I feel like we don’t talk enough about how FUCKING SMART Juno is. 

season 1 Juno really is the epitome of “god had to nerf me [with mental illness and trauma] because I was too powerful” -- he’s smart in the sense that he has the ability to think on his feet and is good at putting together the pieces of a problem to arrive at a creative solution; it’s what makes him a good detective. but self-destructive impulses, combined with the apathy that depression produces, frequently (and sometimes disastrously) override his better judgement.

season 2 Juno, now, if I had to pick a quote for that lady, it would be “sometimes things get worse before they get better.” but beside the point: season 2 hammers home the idea that Juno is good at problem solving, good at exploiting loopholes, good at talking people into giving away the game. But in addition to the problems we already saw him facing in s1, now he’s also hamstrung by a) old scars and traumas from his past ripping open (thanks for less than nothing Jack Takano), b) the consequences of pushing the people he loves away, and c), not as big but still crucial, the knowledge that he is no longer a sharpshooting prodigy. (honestly I could write a whole other meta post about Juno and his relationship with sharpshooting but this is already way too long)

season 3 Juno, now .... he has emotional intelligence. he knows everything he knew before, except now he knows how to apologize and take accountability; when to talk and when to listen; how to talk to and make friends with people he previously would have run away from or picked a fight with; how to collaborate with multiple people on long-term shared goals. jesus it sounds like I’m writing his resume

and bless the writers of this podcast for giving their audience the message that THIS is when Juno goes beyond being clever and becomes brilliant. he pulls one over on sasha in what lies beyond not because he’s good at solving puzzles and mysteries (though that didn’t hurt) but because he truly KNOWS the people he loves and TRUSTS them and plays to their STRENGTHS and that takes not only a big heart but BRAINS!!

tl;dr Juno has many, many braincells and I think that’s incredibly sexy of him

[atlantis-scribe]

idk the bit about Rodney being misogynistic bc he got taken advantage of by an older woman feels kinda uncomfy. like it veers too close to a justification for his misogyny. (ik in a real person this wouldn't like excuse his actions but since he's a fictional character it's like kinda trying to paint his worse actions in a more positive light, yk?) and like in real life people don't become misogynist/etc for like. a particular reason like that. seems kinda iffy idk

don't mean that as an attack on you or op or anything, sorry if I came off to harsh or anything! just kinda made me a lil uncomfortable (bc like I have seen similar things with other characters in the past and it always seems a lil sketchy to me)

first of all, you don't have to apologize. I get harsh anons sometimes, and they don't often feel the need to explain themselves lmao. also, I love getting asks like this; they make me all thinky :)

and you're absolutely entitled to your feelings of discomfort! while we're talking about fictional characters (which are vehicles for all the nasty or complicated thoughts & feelings that would get us shunned in polite society), discourse surrounding them still reflect a lot of things outside fandom (i.e. in the 'real' world). there is still that responsibility to be careful with the beliefs and ideas we promote.

having said all that, Rodney McKay is definitely the epitome of a 'problematic fave'. while he is a protagonist in the narrative sense, some of his more obvious flaws can make him a difficult character to like (or in my case, to justify liking heh).

as for the whole backstory headcanon, I can understand why it wouldn't sit well with many people. it does seem a bit shoe-horned and, having seen the same kind of justification for other Favorite White Male Characters' terrible behavior in other fandoms, I can definitely see where you're coming from.

(btw, I can't speak for OP but I'm glad you sent this ask, so at least I'm afforded the opportunity to reclaim my honor explain myself haha)

any kind of abuse should never justify horrible actions or behavior that one has been given a chance to change or rectify. in this case, if Rodney had been a victim of an older, female sexual predator in his youth, then that still doesn't excuse his misogynistic tendencies (and outright sexist comments & actions). it can certainly explain it, though, which is what I find so compelling about the idea.

the thing about Rodney ( & Stargate + all its characters) is that he's very much a product of his time. while today's media still exhibit a lot of backward tropes and tasteless stereotyping, we've started to find more and more artists & creators who are willing to apply nuance and care to their writing / art. though I'm sure pioneer Stargate fans have made their metas and criticism of Rodney already, his flaws as a character are even more easily brought into sharp relief now because he is not the kind of character that ages well.

if you've been following me for quite some time now, you probably have an idea why I like him. it's not the easiest thing to be, a Rodney fan, but I always make it a point to not excuse any of his bad traits. however, it's also no fun if all I do is bend over backwards to justify why I enjoy his character so much, which is why (since his writing is so inconsistent and there are so many gaps to his backstory) fans like OP and I, whenever we're given the opportunity, try to come up with bits of headcanon to tie a few loose ends together.

I certainly won't fight anyone about it, and I'm very much welcome to arguments that would debunk these ideas, but I'm acknowledging it to be a pretty neat concept. do I think real people (or even fictional characters) who are as terrible with women as Rodney is must have been abused by women when they were younger? hell no. does the headcanon make some kind of sense for why he is the way he is (which, again, is more a product of bad writing than any deliberate characterization)? I think it does.

so it's really more, 'if Rodney had been sexually abused by an older woman when he was younger, then that contributed to his misogyny,' and less, "if Rodney is misogynistic, then he must have been sexually abused by an older woman when he was younger'. there's an important difference that (I'm not even gonna euphemize this because it is rampant) so many fans defending their faves often miss.

I love Rodney for all the bits that I love about him, and I try to appropriately handle all the rest that I don't. what I wouldn't give for Rodney to have had better and consistent writing (one that, while not necessarily erased, at least properly addressed his flaws). that's why I like Trinity a lot even though he messed up so much in that episode. it had been an opportunity for growth.

[ tl;dr check second to the last paragraph lol ]

.

for reference: this is the post anon's talking about.

also tagging @frankthesnek in case she has something to say :)

[you-are-my-neverland]

[ id: a header with a warm yellow background. in a centered square is a picture of a girl with dark hair looking at the camera in front of a projection, cast in yellows. in cursive orange-ish text reads ‘the metamorphosis of the lost’ on top, and then beneath in the same text ‘act iv: revolution / end id ]

the metamorphosis of the lost >> act iv: revolution >> summer round up

what a summer it’s been! i’m back once again with a terribly disorganized update style post about my beloved wip, the metamorphosis of the lost. as i’ve mentioned before, i had a goal of 200k for this summer (writing about 80k in total), which i surpassed, and am very pleased about. i hope to continue this success into the fall, though it’s not looking likely with how my schedule will be (i’ve sold my soul this semester and trying to make my peace with it before i have no more time left to do so). in terms of plot, i finished act iv and am now 2/3 of the way into act v, so the end is approaching. at a glacial pace, but a pace all the same. 

so, tl;dr, in honor of all that i decided to post some excerpts from act iv that i positively adore.

i. emrys & mika in the aftermath of the fall gala

(things could have gone better for both of them, so they’re not feeling great. like many relationships in tmotl, emrys and mika go in circles, taking one step forward for every two steps backwards. this is both a product of bad writing and also how relationships work. the lead up to this conversation is also good, but i cut a bit to include only what i really liked.)

Mika cracked a smile, turning away, but there was nothing humorous in his stare when he looked back at her.

“Fuck off,” he said, enunciating the words clearly. “I don’t fail, Flint. The Black Saint? I’ll kill him. The Bowman? She’s not my business. The Dragon? He doesn’t matter to me. I don’t need to be invincible, I just need to be faster and cleverer. My mother taught me that.”

“You’re not your mother,” Emrys shot back, realizing a second too late that it was the worst possible thing she could have said. Somehow, her emotions had crept into her tongue, and she had ended up spitting out one of the most hurtful things she could think of. 

The effect was instantaneous. Mika didn’t reel back, but he did go perfectly still, statuesque in the light. The sunlight caught on the ends of his hair, sparking in his eyes. His face was bloodless, stare absolute and unmoving.

“Mika—” Emrys started.

“No,” Mika cut in. “Go ahead. Say what you want to about my parents. I’m sure you’ve been holding back.”

Silence descended upon them. Emrys swallowed. There wasn’t much of a height difference between the two of them, but their shadows seemed to loom, threatening to overcome them. 

“You might worship the ground they walked on,” she finally found the courage to say. “But they weren’t gods, Mika.”

“And what would you know about it?” Mika spat out viciously. 

“Nothing!” Emrys cried, quickly steadying her voice and meeting steel with steel. “I never met them, Mika, but I’ve met you. I know how you grew up. Sure, your mother was a hero, but she raised you to be—to be a fucking martyr!”

Mika’s face went through several expressions, before finally hardening.

“You don’t know anything about her,” he hissed. “Or me. All my parents wanted was for me to be great.”

“Yeah, sure.” Emrys laughed jaggedly. “That’s the epitome of parenting right there. I’m sure that’s what all the training was for. There’s a reason that you’re so…you’re so you, you know.”

Mika’s face flattened out. “Just because my parents didn’t love each other like yours did, or raise me like yours did, doesn’t make them bad parents,” he said. “And, really, who are you to judge me? Your parents are fucking dead too.”

Emrys blanched, angry tears rising in her eyes. “This isn’t about my parents,” she said. “So don’t you dare bring them into this.”

Mika scoffed. “Quid pro quo,” he retorted. “Don’t taunt the beast if you don’t want to be bitten.”

ii. belladonna, nightshade & crow in a back alley

(love love love when june (and rhys) have the chance to interact with the other vigilantes, which is very rare. two parallel paths converging, if you catch my drift. in this instance, crow has approached them during one of their outings, and helped them fight off a number of men from the organization. also vin is so often written from other people’s eyes, so i like to play with that perspective.)

“You said that you can recognize our cause,” she echoed, feeling that old, familiar fire rise in her veins, the one that always came right before she made a kill that rid the world of another Snatcher, Surgeon, or Sponsor. The one that said The Organization was coming apart at the seams, and June was the one tearing through it with scissors, cutting it to pieces.

“Then why haven’t you done anything? Why won’t you?”

“We would have done something if we were aware of its existence,” Crow said tensely. June had the feeling she had struck a nerve, but it was impossible to tell; all she had was her own intuition, as Crow gave nothing away to the eye. 

“You’re blind if you didn’t,” June retorted, even though she knew that no one knew of The Organization. It was why it was her duty to take it down. Because it lived in the shadows, in the deepest, darkest parts of the city. Kevla swallowed it whole, and June had never understood why, why The Organization was almost protected by a city that should have despised it.

Although now it was like Kevla was giving it back to her, piece by piece, stone by stone, child by child. 

Crow smiled. It was devoid of any feeling, a simple movement of lips. 

“Children vanishing or being trafficked is nothing new in Kevla,” he said. “Which I’m sure you are aware of. I’m regretful that we were unaware of this organization, as you call it. You cannot fathom the regrets I have.”

June stared at him, unsure if she was being mocked or confided in. Both seemed equally impossible.

“However,” Crow continued, voice deadly soft. “You wanted to do this alone. I know you’re in our network. I can tell you’re intelligent and deadly. You have a hacker on your side, someone on the other end of that comm.” June resisted the urge to touch her comm, as if she could bring Kit to safety with it, even though she knew he was on another line, following the path of the children. “You could have come to us for help at any time. You didn’t. I know.”

June bit back whatever response she could have said. I know. What did he know? I know you. I know what you are. I know how you operate. 

She had been read, June realized, read and analyzed and understood, at least to some degree. The thought made her skin crawl. It made her think of the gazes she had felt on her every single time she had been brought before another masked Sponsor, the looks of the Surgeons before she had faded into the haze of anesthetic, the times she had been given it at all. The looks that said they recognized her, looking at her with that warped shade of love, the way a god might look at their creations. 

June did not want to be understood. It was better to be a force of nature, incomprehensible. 

“You don’t know,” June said, because it was the only thing she could ever say to someone who thought they knew anything at all.

iii. vin, anele, and four a.m. nights

(i was torn on what to include from this chapter because it is all anele pov and i love it SO MUCH! but i really loved the interactions between them especially, so i had to showcase this in the end. i was so far from normal about them before they even existed, and i cannot do them justice in a novel as big as this, but i try my best to.)

“About earlier tonight,” Anele started, and then hesitated. Vin was looking at her, eyes dark and expressionless. The warm light of the lamp made his eyes seem darker, pupils pooling into irises. Anele took a breath and steeled herself, wondering why she suddenly felt nervous.

“I didn’t mean to upset you,” she managed to say quietly. “That wasn’t my intention.”

Vin’s eyes flickered, shuttering a little bit, and then he turned away so that she was looking at his profile and he was looking at the wall, unadorned in front of them. They had started painting some of them, a long time ago, but never got around to finishing, because of the lack of time, but also due to the fact that they hadn’t been able to agree on a color as a group.

“You didn’t upset me,” he said, voice just as quiet.

“Yeah,” Anele said. “I did.” After a long pause, she quickly added, “No offense.”

She saw his lips twitch, as if a smile had caught him by surprise. 

“I know I did,” she amended. “Even if you won’t admit it.” Silence. Sighing, Anele pushed forward. “But I don’t think I was wrong. I know you don’t ever want to talk about yourself, Vin, and I know that you think differently about, well, everything, but you do care. I know you do. I see it. I saw it. Even if you can’t see it yourself, why can’t you accept that I can?”

Vin was silent. It was a heavy silence, the words sitting unheard in the air between them, bearing heavy shadows. Anele worried her lip between her teeth, instantly feeling as though she had spoken too much, but also somewhat relieved to have gotten it out there. Her feelings, usually a ball in her chest, a weight in her heart, now left her, making it easier to breathe.

“You don’t,” Vin said after a long moment. 

“Don’t what?” Anele shot back, suddenly unwilling to let her mind finish the sentence. “See you? Know you?”

Vin paused, as if taken aback by her sudden words.

“You are the only person who has ever come close to understanding me,” he said. It wasn’t a direct answer, but Anele knew it was the only answer he would give her that wouldn’t undeniably hurt. A kindness, then. 

“And you,” she said quietly. Vin turned to her questioningly, and Anele rephrased, “You understand me. Even when I wish you didn’t.”

Vin smiled. It was a small, delicate thing, a private little half smile that only made their interaction—in the hushed darkness of night, with only the lamp, couch stretching between them both an ocean and a crack—seem more intimate.

taglist (scream to be added or removed!):  @cannivalisms   @sunshineomeara @thepixiediaries @muddshadow  

[makeste]

my long boring post about chapter 293 and Kacchan’s hero name

lmao I think that’s all of them. anyways, so I said I was gonna do a post on this, and so here goes.

first off, I just want to say that people are allowed to not like the name! it’s a completely subjective thing, there’s no right or wrong “it’s good” or “it’s bad.” or rather, there is a right or wrong, and it’s whichever one you think it is. if you think it’s good, you’re right. if you think it’s bad, you’re also right. it’s an opinion, it doesn’t need to be backed up by peer review lol.

that said, here is my own completely subjective opinion: I think “Dynamight” (though please not with the capital “m”, I beg you lol) is a terrific name for him honestly. it’s clever wordplay, it’s a subtle callback/tribute to his favorite hero who is also his inspiration for becoming a hero, and it’s a perfect fit for his chosen aesthetic. it’s honestly great.

and what makes it even better is that at the same time, it is also stupid as fuck lmao. this is a name that encapsulates the duality of man. it’s the perfect metaphor for this boy who think he’s the hottest shit god ever invented, and has no idea that the number of people who take him seriously after interacting with him for more than ten seconds is actually in the single digits. this hero name is the equivalent of an excited puppy ferociously bounding towards a squirrel only to trip over its own feet and fall flat on its face. it thinks it is scary as fuck, and has no idea that 30,000 people on TikTok think it’s the most adorable thing they’ve ever seen. I unabashedly love it, and will also ceaselessly roast the everloving shit out of it without the slightest remorse, just like I roast the beloved boy attached to it. that’s just how it is lol.

so that’s how I feel about the name! however, this next part I need to emphasize: my opinion of the name, and my opinion of whether or not I actually think this will be his name, are two different things. I like the name Dynamight. I really do. and I also think there is next to no chance that this will actually be his hero name.

here’s the thing. this would have been a perfect name for him if it had been his chosen name back in chapter 45 when everyone else picked their aliases. it would have fit in seamlessly with the rest of his class. Red Riot, Chargebolt, Earphone Jack, Sugarman, Uravity; those are all names that stick in your mind and look great on official merch. those are names that sell action figures, but they also do a great job of representing the individuals behind the names. they have personality. and so does “Dynamight”, for sure.

but the thing is, for whatever reason, Horikoshi didn’t have him pick this name back in chapter 45. he went with a running gag instead. “King Explosion Murder”, “Lord Explosion Murder”, and so forth. and in the end, we never got a hero name at all. he could have had him pick Dynamight after we’d had our laughs. hell, he could have used it as an early easter egg hinting at Kacchan’s admiration for All Might, which wouldn’t be officially revealed until the final exam arc about twenty chapters later. “Dynamight” in Japanese is written out in katakana -- ダイナマイト (“dainamaito”). this is the word that’s used in Japan for actual dynamite. there is no inherent indicator that it’s a pun; it just so happens that the “mite” in dynamite is spelled out phonetically in Japanese the exact same way that “might” is. so the pun isn’t obvious unless you know to look for it. Horikoshi could have left us all thinking that “Dynamite” was his name until chapter 62 or thereabouts when he revealed that Katsuki looked up to All Might, at which point Horikoshi could finally reveal the official English spelling and it would be like a second name reveal. which would have been pretty sweet, actually.

but my point being, for some reason he instead chose not to do this. instead he chose to drag it all out for 250 chapters, content to let us all languish. this man had not a shred of mercy for the thousands of Bakugou fans who were all “please, sir, the fic,” before eventually giving up and adopting Ground Zero as the official-unofficial name until we either got a real reveal or died of old age. he dragged it out, and kept it as a gag, and eventually it was just like, fine, whatever.

and then this happened.

and it changed everything.

because you see, all of a sudden “Bakugou’s Hero Name” wasn’t just a running joke gag plot anymore. in the span of three sentences, Horikoshi changed the entire meaning of it. “your hero name represents your desires. the embodiment of how you wish to be. your ideal self.”

just like that, the whole mystery of “what will Bakugou’s hero name be” goes from being a funny little ongoing thing to an existential question, with the implication being that the choice he finally makes, whatever it may be, will in essence reveal the very core of his character. “your ideal self.” in other words this will really be almost the pinnacle of his entire character arc. his hero name, when he finally picks it, will show us just how far he’s come. it will show us his answer to “what kind of person do you want to be.”

that is an insane amount of meaning to suddenly dump onto something that up until this point had just been a funny little running gag. “lol Bakugou loves murder and death.” “lol at this rate Bakugou will graduate while still not having an actual hero name.” from that, to suddenly out of the blue, “Bakugou’s hero name will show us who he is as a person.” like, holy shit though. and mind you, this isn’t something that’s been done for any other character. this is very Bakugou-specific. all this build-up and significance has been ascribed to his hero name specifically. at this point his name is basically its own fucking plot. it’s literally its own individual little arc. all of that build-up. all of that meaning and importance given to it.

and then Horikoshi goes and gives us this.

so. like... okay, I guess??

like, just some quick things of note here though:

he is still doing the whole “explosive destruction murder” thing on top of the “Dynamight” part. indicating that there has not been the slightest bit of thoughtful consideration actually given on his part. literally the one thing that everyone and their mom was trying to explain to him not to do, and all of it went in one ear and out the other. which is fine!! he is adorable here and I want to ruffle his hair, honestly. but it’s clear to me that he still hasn’t grasped what Jeanist was trying to explain to him before, if this is really his answer to “what would you consider to be your ideal self” lol.

the name is INSTANTLY panned by every single person in the surrounding vicinity, villains included. hell, Mirio might as well have stabbed him all over again. obviously this is intentionally being used as a lighthearted moment to briefly give the audience a breather before we wade back into the Todoroki drama; but at the same time it indicates that this name isn’t exactly going to be taken seriously by anyone who hears it in-universe. they are literally wincing upon hearing it skjlklhkgf.

lastly, none of the people closest to him -- Deku, All Might, Kirishima, or Shouto -- are even there to hear it. all of that build-up, all of that “Kacchan’s hero name will show us how far he’s come in his character development”, and then when it finally happens, the people who have had the most impact aren’t even there to partake in the moment. Shouto and Deku are busy dealing with an entirely separate plot and trying very hard not to be set on fire while Kacchan is out here providing comic relief.

because that’s really what this is, though. this is a joke. like, I don’t mean that in a pejorative sense; I mean that it is literally a joke. and so what you’re telling me is, if this really is his hero name, we waited 250 chapters and Horikoshi built up an entire character arc around it, only to have the end result be a joke panel that in the end was arguably not even the biggest thing that happened in the chapter.

like, idk, maybe there’ll be a flashback about it later after all’s said and done which will imbue it with more meaning as some have suggested. maybe Horikoshi will explain how it’s a childhood throwback name that Deku once picked for him, like that theory that’s been making the rounds. I’m not saying it won’t be possible to build on this after the fact. but it will be after the fact, all the same. as far as the initial reveal goes... this is it. the epitome of anticlimactic. a brief joke reveal mid-fight where everyone immediately goes “are you fucking serious” and he’s all “I WAS FUCKING SERIOUS” and falls down out of comedy lmao.

and so, to wrap this post up finally, basically the way I see it is that there are two possibilities here. either (1) I have been way overthinking this from day one and it was never really that deep and Horikoshi thought this would be an appropriate and funny conclusion to a plotline which in his mind was always meant to be mostly lighthearted, with the Jeanist stuff mostly just thrown in there to push Bakugou into picking an at least halfway-decent name in spite of himself.

or, (2) this isn’t going to be his final hero name either. this is instead the last hurrah of the “Lord Explosion Murder” part of that plotline, and after he’s laughed out of the room yet again he will mope and cross out this one as well, and Horikoshi will sit on it for another 500 chapters until he finally reveals it at the very fucking end of the series. like at this point I wouldn’t put it past him to wait until the very last page. I s2g, this man. but the flipside of it is that when that moment finally does happen, I fully believe it will be a moment that actually feels earned. it will feel right. it will feel like the moment we spent all that time waiting for. or at least that’s what I hope.

so anyway, those are my thoughts on it! tl;dr, while I like Dynamight as a hero name in and of itself, I don’t think it’s going to be endgame, mostly because nothing about that reveal moment actually felt right to me. and of course, it’s very possible that I’m completely wrong about this; it wouldn’t be the first time (Kacchan’s quirk says hello). but on the other hand fandom isn’t totally batting a thousand either (Ground Zero says what up), so hey. we’ll see!

[permets-2]

Your tag that says why do we have to say this, I get it's a hypothetical question but JFC this is the most racist fandom I've ever been in. I can't conceptualize why, but it is. It's the epitome of white queerness and feminism, and is just tiring.

Okay I’m so sorry this is probably a longer response than you wanted but I’ve been thinking about this for a while now and yeah. Let’s talk. 

Why is the Les Mis fandom so racist?  

(Disclaimer that this is based on my own experiences in this fandom, I don’t speak for all Les Mis fans of color, obviously. Also that this is not a post to “prove” the Les Mis fandom is racist. If you need that before you wanna know why, you’re part of the problem.) (There’s a tl;dr at the end)

It’s because at the end of the day, anon, no matter how many Black Grantaires are drawn and no matter how many Asian Cosettes we get, Les Mis is media primarily by, for, and about white people. I mean, on a factual level, Hugo was white, and let’s not forget he had some wild thoughts on race - saying that white people were “the highest type which the human race has so far reached” and talking about the “inferior races,” saying that Europeans would “civilize and cultivate” Africa in the letter he wrote to The London News regarding slavery in America and John Brown. Also, obviously, all the characters are canonically white. That’s part of why content of the Amis as involved in BLM protests is so harmful imo - no matter the surface story you’re depicting, no matter how you draw them or write them, these are characters who are rooted in and steeped in whiteness, and The Black Lives Matter movement is not for or about them as white people. And, however you rewrite this story, it doesn't change the fact that you'd be imposing a narrative created by a white supremacist on a movement against white supremacy. This is not to say headcanoning/drawing/writing characters as whatever race you want is wrong, or that there isn’t power in artists of color reclaiming stories that have excluded or erased us for so many years! Lord knows I live and breathe for Amis of color, especially when they’re culturally well-represented. But it would not only be naive but also factually inaccurate to pretend that Les Mis is a story for People of Color, or a story that contains acute discussions of racial dynamics, let alone actively dismantles white supremacy.

 Also, anon, the culture surrounding Les Mis source material is steeped in whiteness and exclusion. Musical Theatre is one of the most financially exclusive forms of art - tickets are often upwards of $100 each especially for a big name show like Les Mis. I could talk forever about the ways theatre is used as a tool of classism and racism, but in this instance, it boils down to People of Color are directly and indirectly denied access to the world of musical theatre, as audience, writers, directors, performers, etc. We basically see only white people playing the characters of Les Mis in professional (and non-professional) theatre, which is another less tangible barrier to communities of color. You’d think the brick would be more accessible, and on a factual level, sure, most people can find a copy for $9 at Barnes and Noble or get it from the library. But by God, the amount of academic elitism in high school essays to tumblr posts about the brick is off the charts - classic lit has a long history of pushing out People of Color. Why is Hugo one of the most well-known names in all of literature and not Hurston? Baldwin? Du Bois? (This is rhetorical. We know why.) There’s a lot of reasons why the brick and musical alike have been kept away from people of color (that i could get into, starting in 1619, but honestly we’d be here a while)- making this, once again, a piece of media by, for, and about white people.

 Which is not to say there aren’t people of color in this fandom, or that we don’t belong here. I know so many Les Mis fans of color in our online community (myself included) who love it here and are so grateful for this space. It’s just harder - we have to write things off all the time. Why is almost 100% of cosplay white people? Why are most all the most popular creators white? Why, when characters are drawn/headcanoned/written as POC, does it play into stereotypes- why are Joly and Combeferre (the doctors) and Cosette (the woman who does not get much agency) the ones depicted as Asian, why are Eponine and Grantaire (the characters who Hugo explicitly calls ugly) the ones depicted as Black? (My broski @everydayatleast as a great post about that here) Why are we so set on blond Enjolras, no matter what ethnicity he’s depicted as?

And here’s the kicker: because of the plotline of Les Mis, we tend to ignore any issues of injustice in our own fandom. We think that because Les Mis is about equality and revolution, we’re automatically culturally and politically progressive. We think that because “Enjolras says Eat The Rich” and “books like these will never be useless”, we have achieved Wokeness. We think that when we stan these activist characters, we’re checking our activism box. We think that because we’ve got a diversity of genders and sexualities we’ve checked the box of representation but that’s another can of worms I will not get into. And this is almost always unconscious, I don’t think any of us are actively and maliciously trying to be racist! There is nothing wrong with having a background of whiteness! There is nothing wrong with being factually or culturally white as a piece of media (or, like, a person)! It is when we fail to be critical of the ways this whiteness affects others that we create racist spaces. (Which, as you said, anon, is how we get White/Non-intersectional Feminism.)

This is not directed at anyone in particular in the slightest, and this is in no way intended as a callout - I have so much love for this online community. And no, I don’t mean every single one of you is actively and aggressively being racist on Tumblr every single day. But yes I do mean the collective us as a fandom contributes towards a culture of racism every day, myself included. We as a fandom can do so much better. As Moose said when we yelled about LM racism for a hawt couple hours today, “In a fandom that purports to be about equality and social justice, we have to live up to our own ideals”.

(tl;dr - the Les Mis fandom is racist because it is a piece of white culture and writen by/for/about white people, Broadway and classic lit is rooted in exclusionism and there’s a lot of forces keeping people of color out of our original source materials, and because of the narrative of Les Mis being about revolution and social progress, we feel like we’ve achieved that and aren’t critical of our own shortcomings)

(phat thanks to my bro moose @everydayatleast for editing and contributing and Yelling with me!!)

[massively-multiplayer-cereal]

I have no idea if you're still taking asks for the gender/sexuality/opinions character thing you reblogged a while back but if you are, could I request Sylvanas and/or Flynn and/or Wrathion? (I hope it's okay to excavate old posts! Either way I hope you have a good evening!)

i definitely still am, especially considering no one else sent an ask for it lmaoo ,,

also sorry this took until the next day! the post is very long ,, and you have a good day too ^-^

(also i LOVE when people excavate my posts because it means they liked my commentary on things enough to actually scroll through my whole blog so thank you for being an excavator XD)

anyways:

wrathion:

sexuality headcanon: Gay As Hell

gender headcanon: usually i see him as and write him as a cis male, but I mean.. trans male wrathion kinda hits different 👀

A ship I have with said character: WRANDUIN. W. R. A. N. D. U. I. N.

a brotp I have with said character: him and flynn just have this Vibe like they'd be really good friends if they met. i feel like they'd cause trouble together while anduin and shaw just sigh in the distance about their respective mischievous boyfriends. flynn x wrathion is mischief brotp.

a notp I have with said character: apparently some people ship him with alexstrazsa, so yeah alexstrazsa x wrathion is my notp for him. not that. never that. why?

a random headcanon: this makes no sense outside of my own brain but i like to think that wrathion somehow invented and/or popularized the use of the word 'gay' to mean homosexual on azeroth. it makes sense in my very specific au (that I haven't shared anywhere yet skdndsn), and doesn't work outside it, but hey, i like it lol

general opinion over said character: he is a little bastard and i love him so, so much. if anyone hurts him i will murder them with my bare hands. wrathion is the epitome of that 'i will now cause problems on purpose' meme. it is a wonderful day on azeroth and he is a horrible, horrible dragon.

flynn:

sexuality headcanon: he is the ULTIMATE bisexual disaster

gender headcanon: cis male

a ship i have with said character: FAIRSHAW. F. A. I. R. S. H. A. W.

a brotp i have with said character: flynn and taelia is the ultimate brotp ever, because they are just best friends with no romantic feelings whatsoever, and honestly it's SO refreshing to see a man and woman be super close friends in media without romantic hints. also i project my relationship with my (male) best friend onto them and my best friend is basically my brother so yeah. I love taelia and flynn just Being best friends.

a notp i have with said character: flynn x taelia romantically,, like,, i just.. mm it is very squicky for me.. I do Not Like. them romantically is just No Thank You. like morally there isn’t anything wrong with it but i just Do Not Enjoy romantic taelia x flynn. 

a random headcanon: he has the azerothian equivalent of a tramp stamp. it’s has two dolphins and an anchor. do not ask why i have this headcanon, because i have no idea why either ,,

general opinion over said character: i love flynn so much dude it's not even funny how much i love him. he is my emotional support imaginary himbo best friend.

sylvanas:

sexuality headcanon: lesbian because i project onto fictional characters i love too much

gender headcanon: similar to wrathion, usually i see her as and write her as a cis woman, but I mean.. trans woman sylvanas is really good ,,

a ship i have with said character: sylvaina, sort of? in canon, i have no actual sylvanas ships, but in aus i really really like sylvaina sjdbfdjsnnd

a brotp i have with said character: i feel like her and kael'thas would be crazy good friends if she had survived the purge of quel'thalas, so sylvanas x kael'thas brotp I guess XD

a notp I have with said character: sylvanduin. it is way too common (luckily, not on tumblr, but on other platforms,) for being a ship that under ANY circumstances would be insanely toxic. no matter what au it is, it's a ridiculous age gap to the point of being gross, and if someone ships it in canon, i hate it even more. sylvanduin is just so insanely toxic..

a random headcanon: she literally doesn’t even LIKE GUYS but she pretended to have the hots for nathanos to get him to do what she wanted him to. that's what you call an epic gamer move.

general opinion over said character: i actually like her even though a ton of people hate her. honestly, like, she was always kinda evil. there was always a lot of hints that she was bad, so that wasn't out of nowhere. but, also, blizz took it too far too quickly. personally, i think the undercity thing still should've happened just like it did, but she should've been more chill during the start of bfa. she should've been slowly ramping up in her intensity and brutality over the course of the war, and teldrassil's burning should've happened at the end of the first patch of bfa, when she was finally at 'her full evilness.' it's after teldrassil when the whole 'oh no baine in jail, chase away the evil lady' thing should've happened. WOWEE i went on a tangent, but tl;dr i love sylvanas even tho she’s really evil and think teldrassil should’ve happened later. also in the new cinematic sylvanas is HOT she has FANGS