#*marines & heteronormativity

[bedupolker]

When two crabs are in love the male will hold the female and carry her around (like/comment/subscribe if you agree)

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

Why did Oden called Buggy second son? And does that mean he also confirms them as brothers like marines did? First son, second son, sound brotherly to me but I am not fluent in English and know nothing on Japanese names. And is buggy younger? By month me he is, If so why he angry at that?

oden gives a number of characters nicknames of a sort, where he combines their name with a syllable or two of a typical japanese personal name. white-kichi, buggy-jiro, red-taro… the strawhats do something similar to blend in while they’re hiding out in wano, but as far as i can tell the endings they pick are fairly random, while i think oden assigns his with intention.

吉, kichi, means good luck or fortune—and i think that first meeting with whitebeard is something oden looks back on as being very fortunate. it changed his life, in several very big, very meaningful ways!

太郎 and 次郎, tarou and jirou, taken literally mean eldest son and next son. surrounded by grown men, two boys, and his own family, is it any wonder oden gives these kids nicknames that emphasize their youth and position them in roles similar to those of his own children? i don’t think it means anything more than that, though.

we don’t get confirmation of who is older or younger of shanks and buggy in the text… we’re told in extracanonical places like data books and sbs answers that shanks and buggy are the same age, and they were given birthdays by goroawase rules, which puts shanks’ birthday in march and buggy’s in august. so i guess buggy is younger by five months or so?

and i can’t say for sure why buggy is mad about being assigned second son when he is, in fact, the younger of the two of them—though you have to remember, buggy’s temper is rarely a logical beast—but i do have my pet theory.

i may have mentioned it before, idk, but i think buggy was a pretty competitive kid. if you’ve spent much time around that kind of kid, you’ll know they can turn anything and everything into a competition, even stuff they have no control over. who’s fastest? who’s tallest? who’s oldest? who got the biggest piece of meat at dinner? who got the biggest piece of cake for dessert? any way they can make themselves out to be the winner, the best, they’ll take it. and any way they appear to come in last, or even in second, will make them miserable.

now, i’m not here to get into the psychological underpinnings of why such kids are so competitive… but i’m given to understand there’s usually a bit of an inferiority complex involved, which certainly feels appropriate for buggy.

[sarasade]

The Dragon Prince & Queer Subtext - Fandom and Media Analysis of Sort

Lately I’ve been pondering about the ins and outs of Viren and Aaravos’s relationship and why they give off such a queer vibe. So I ended up writing this 2 and half Word document pages long little breakdown because why not.

I think what’s going on here is about the underlying elements of the story- subtext and how their relationship could be perceived through a queer lens. Note: my brain has marinated in queer subtext juices my whole life and I have no intent trying to prove my reading is the only right one.

That Sweet Sweet Gay Shit- A Fandom Perspective

There is a lot of queer subtext between them. Homoerotic subtext even. Their scenes together definitely activated the search function in my brain’s queer coded villain trope lexicon. 

You know- mutual penetration with a phallic object (knife), sharing some kind of mysterious bond through blood magic, so, you know, bodily fluids are indeed involved, the classic slash fiction trope “we are close but we cannot touch” -gay pining because the mirror separates them. When Aaravos is shown for the first time in the mirror the camera does this Laura Mulvey Male Gaze 101 up-down pan shot of him from Viren’s POV. Something that’s usually reserved for female characters when male characters “check them out” in a movie. And then my personal favourite: Something that comes out of Aaravos enters Viren, comes out and then transforms into a creature with a toddler level intelligence- they made a freaky little metaphor baby together! Awwww!

And let's not even talk about the possession and Aaravos slowly taking over Viren’s body. The aesthetics of a toxic queer romance are all over their interactions.

No, Viren! Don’t express vulnerability as an intimidating male figure! Tumblr will babygirlify you!

Storytelling

So what about their interactions makes me perceive them in a queer way? By “queer“ I mean the broader concept of queer here; does the way the characters are depicted come across non-heteronormative and disruptive to gender norms.

I’m mostly talking about the season 2 here since they share their most intimate scenes together in that season.

1 Story Function

Aaravos and Viren’s interactions are supposed to have multiple purposes in the story: They move the plot forward, characterise both Viren and Aaravos, create emotional conflict and intrigue in the viewer etc. Viren observing Aaravos through the mirror is supposed to create mystery and spark the audience’s curiosity. Viren is a device through which Aaravos’s allure gets demonstrated to the viewer so of course their interactions come across pretty, hm, charged. Anyway there are layers of meaning here the audience can interpret in multiple ways both intuitively and through an analytic lens. The meaning naturally changes the more context we get. There are still three more seasons to come.

2 Gendered Tropes

There is a certain element of seduction present: Viren gives Aaravos more access to himself and his body little by little in exchange for Aaravos fulfilling his desires (for power). This could be read as having sexual undertones. Some of Aaravos’s first words to Viren are clearly something Viren wants to hear “How may I serve you?” Weaponising manipulation and seduction, where a character poses as submissive while having alternative motives, is something female characters traditionally do in stories. I don’t know about you but Aaravos’s character has a bit of a femme fatale thing going on if you ask me (haha!) There is something about him that defies gender roles that’s not just about his androgynous looks.

A traditional Femme fatale is often a tragic figure trapped in unfortunate circumstances. They are shrouded in mystery which prevents the audience from empathising with them or understanding their motives. The character often uses coercion to make their victim do what they want. And yes there definitely is an element of coercion and even a threat of violence present in Aaravos and Viren’s relationship. Their goals are aligned for now but what happens if/ when Viren decides to defy Aaravos? TDP makes me wonder (with horror) what it is that Viren has really agreed to.

3 How the Show’s “Camera” Portrays Aaravos

Even the camera emphasises him as an object of desire. Something he is from the story point of view as well. Viren desires access to Aaravos’s power after all. When the camera puts Aaravos on display in an objectified manner in the beginning of the season 2 it’s supposed to, in my opinion, heighten the feeling of Aaravos seeming harmless at the first glance. And by “objectified” I mean he’s portrayed without agency.

I joked earlier about male gaze and Laura Mulvey but I do actually think there is some truth to that. One of the biggest reasons behind me thinking Aaravos was a pretty pretty lady at first was how he was introduced in such a feminised way. And I wasn’t the only one. Just look at the comments under his TDP Wiki article. (Lots of het men being confused about their sexuality. Also shout-out to that one lesbian). This makes him appear less threatening so the story can build suspense around his true motives. It’s not evident that Aaravos is a completely sinister figure at first, at least compared to Viren who seems more like the main villain of the story prior to the seasons 3-4. Little did we know back then that Aaravos was the true alpha male of this whole sordid affair.

Aaravos in the mirror from Viren’s point of view, season 2, episode 3.

Why I’m not mentioning anything about Viren’s gender performance is because his story conflict is all about struggling with traditionally masculine gender expectations. Understanding how his character relates to hegemonic/ toxic masculinity/ emotional struggles men face in real life is a core part of understanding his character as a whole. That’s a broad topic and this post is long enough as it is so I’m going to leave it at that. (Maybe someone else has written about that already?)

4 The Audience Is Also at Aaravos’s Mercy

Aaravos’s submissive façade is supposed to fool both Viren AND the audience. The show plays rather cleverly with the audience’s expectations here. Slowly the roles are starting to flip until it’s clear that Aaravos is the one in control. Given Aaravos narrates the opening of the first story arc it raises even more questions: Is his control over Viren supposed to parallel his control over the whole world of the show? This circles back to the show’s themes of freedom vs destiny. It feels almost meta in a way how the story’s villain tries to gain control over the whole narrative.

5 Horror and Fantasy

The powerplay between the characters naturally creates a plenty of tension and it’s not unusual that this translates into something sexually charged in the audience’s minds. While this is the perspective I’m the most interested in, there are other layers to Aaravos and Viren’s scenes together.

For example this kind of breaking of bodily boundaries is common in horror as well. Aaravos is beautiful and mysterious but is also associated with repulsive things like larvae and blood and there is something very eerie about him in general. These kinds of emotional reactions of repulsion and attraction are essential to horror. The audience sees that everything isn’t definitely quite right about him but it’s also understandable that the audience (and Viren) find him fascinating. I think the key word for these scenes in the season 2 is “ambiguity“. Even if you aren’t invested in these characters this show would be much less fun without all the nuance their interactions have.

In a good story everything isn’t just literal. Especially since TDP is a fantasy story- A genre that’s traditionally been all about symbolism and intertextual references. I could go on and on about the genre traditions with similar flavour to what Aaravos and Viren have. Michael Moorcock’s classic sword and sorcery antihero Elric of Melniboné and his pact with the demon Arioch comes to mind.

Something Something Fandom

Viravos as a ship lives in the subtext but the subtext isn’t always black and white. Fiction uses metaphor and other storytelling methods to create meaning- To give a narrative experience. The queer subtext in TDP feels very elaborate to me and while I’m dissecting these scenes more analytically here my emotional reactions are the original source of that interest. No matter how much time passes I’m still a morbid teenage goth at heart and that part of me loves the dark fairytale aesthetics akin to TDP season 2.

I didn’t even touch on the element of Viren giving into a “forbidden desire” (literally his desire for power but- you know- multiple readings etc.) when making a deal with Aaravos. Something very typical to the horror genre as well. It’s a “deal with the devil” -sort of situation and those stories often paint the agreement as something corruptive and sinful and therefore transgressive. This post by Tiredsunrisesmeta got you covered on that. Also queer coded villains something something- Anyway, read Tiredsunrisesmeta’s blog for more.

Pictured: Yours truly

Last and Least

I remember when I saw a post here saying that “Viravos couldn’t be canon because it’d be too sexy.” and that’s just the funniest way to put it in my opinion. Their relationship feels a bit too, I dunno, mature? for this show. But what does “canon” even mean? Is a gay ship canon when two characters of the same gender kiss and declare their love? Get married? Have kids? Personally, I don’t want to see LGBT+ characters’ stories just copy straight romance tropes beat by beat all the time. I want something that feels authentic and what’s more authentic than Viren being a cringefail bisexual getting rejected by men and women and then getting his life ruined by the sexy femboy elf satan? Kinda iconic honestly.

[toomanyopinionss]

My thoughts while watching…

It was a ✨trainwreck✨.

But… I didn’t mind it.

I’ve read the book, but i knew going into this that I had to separate the two works because then i’d end up pissed and irritated. I think it was a good call? the movie definitely leaves out a lot of the good juicy stuff from the books, but it’s got its own strengths.

Let’s get into it:

Agatha’s a good character. I think they might have missed the mark with her personality a bit though, cause she was the pettiest b!tch in the books. But i guess it works better with the movie’s vibe. and sofia wylie is actually gorgeous, i love her

Sophie was freaking perfect. i loved her character, miss sophia anne acted her ass off, and it paid off. Her character was better in the movie, imo. Don’t get me wrong, i loved sophie in the books, but they basically removed everything i didn’t like about her in the books out. so yes, love it.

Tedros was better than the book Tedros, but the bar was so low. it’s not that i didn’t like him, it’s just that the only times i really enjoyed him on screen was when he was with sophie or agatha. he had chemistry with both, i guess but his personality needed work. wanting “a girl that’s different from the rest” is not a personality trait netflix.

JUSTICE FOR GREGOR. that shit pissed me off!!! that man made me laugh more than everyone else, and they just killed him off for what 🤨

rafal is hot. his motivations were kind of confusing, but he fine so i gave him a pass

Lesso, Dovey, and Anemone were the best characters in the movie. there i said it. i guess getting older (i’m like 19 but whatever) means enjoying the adults in these movies more than them ratchet kids.

Ok, now the movie itself. If u had read the books before hand, it was maybe a lil disappointing, but over all it was pretty ok. if not, it was a little confusing.

that reverse uno ms. sophie served with the prom at the end of the movie was such a SERVE in the books. in the movie, i felt it was less impactful, which sucked.

The movie was over two hours long, but it still felt like it was missing so much of the story. I think this type of story requires a show. It needed more time to marinate.

I liked the relationship between agatha and sophie here. it didn’t feel forced, which was nice. the changes they made to the beginning of the story did wanders for their relationship, i think.

the side characters were good. unsurprisingly the ones at the school of evil were better by far. but i needed more of them. i loved hester, anadil, dot, and hort in the books. i feel like i barely got to see them :(

Lastly, am i the only one who thought the movie was a lil… heteronormative? Although Sophie and Agatha aren’t a couple in the books, there was always a… romantic undertone when it came to them. Maybe it’s just me, maybe i’m grasping here, but I needed a bit more gay 🤷🏾‍♀️

overall: 7/10. maybe 7.5 if u squint

P.S. Netflix needs to stop using these, quite frankly tired tracks for these movies. who else is lowkey sick of hearing olivia rodrigo or billie eilish every time a character decides to be a girl boss??? there are so many other perfectly good songs to use.

P.P.S. charlize come home the kids miss you.

[dogmasquerade]

random mshenko thoughts-

i like to think a good reason my Shepard didn't go for Kaidan in ME1 is rank. Paragon Shepard is through and through an army boy- he's been military since he could join. Protocol, rank and file are second nature to him (to the point where he straight up applies real-world military tactics to

*chess* with Traynor (unbelievably cute btw)). To him, Staff Lieutenant Kaiden was as off-limits as could be (plus a healthy dose of forced heteronormativity and a little bit of internalised homophobia).

By ME3, though, Kaidan's a Major. While the Alliance has... weird rankings (Shepard seems to be in a Navy equivalent, while Kaidan is definitely in the Marines), a Major is either equal to (or according to the ME1 codex, outranks) Commander. On top of that, Shepard doesn't actually cement the romance until after Kaidan becomes a Spectre, which basically puts him out of the range of normal rankings anyway.

IDK, I just feel like ethically/morally in terms of power dynamics Kaidan makes the most sense for Shepard to romance, compared to Cortez who Shepard outranks and who actually admits to feeling pressured a bit by Shepard, where the power dynamics are massively skewed. And to a Pure Paragon Shepard, shit like that matters.

[cryingatships]

3/4 in today's ep 6, and I feel like crying already.

Tw- homophobia

There's been a lot of dislike towards Lom, but his situation, his story, is a sad, sad reality in many parts of the world. Even today. In some families, people just never come out because there's so much to lose. You can lose your parents, your family (who, by the way, are considered the main support and identity providers in many cultures) and you hate how they can not accept you, but you can not cut them off either. Perhaps you need them, or you love them even after everything. Sometimes, in some parts, there's the chance of losing your life should you ever disclose your non normative sexual identity or orientation. Even if it doesn't turn mortally dangerous, heteronormativity can be so prominent that publicly disclosing your orientation, openly having a same sex relationship is not possible for many in face of social ostracization.

Lavender marriages happen a lot. Sometimes, it's the only way out, like for Yiwa. (For Lom, too? He won't be harassed by his mother's nagging about marriage anymore.) And sometimes, you can not tell your secret to anyone, not even to your friends. That's just painful. Knowing you're attraction and/or love isn't like "everyone else" as a teen, being told "that doesn't fit in our culture, it's ok, but it's for the western coutries", "it's a phase/fling" for years, it gets too much sometimes.

(Suddenly remembering Badhaai Do....)

Idk, it just speaks to me personally. The pain of knowing that some people you love and care about would never accept you wholly, the fact that you may have to play a hide-and seek game... Cause Yiwa, Marine, Lom—we may come across actual people like these characters any day. It might be one of my queer friends. It might be me. Lavender marriages are still a reality. when are we gonna get equal rights in marriage and everything else

ANyway, gonna go finish watching the rest now. And because this is fiction, can I hope that Yiwa's and Marine's, and Lom's and Nuea's story would have a happy resolution? (And their mums would get some repercussions? Maybe a few slaps? Some scratches from Marine? This is fiction after all!)

[quasitsqueeries]

Decadence, Degeneration & the Drukhari

I think the Eldar are really interesting. While other Xenos in 40K, like Orks and Tyranids, represent a sort of general external threat, Eldar bring some other ideas along with them. I’m afraid we’re going to have to talk about Fascism again, but there’s some other fun stuff too.

So Eldar represent two things that Fascists don’t like (see my previous post if you want evidence that the Imperium is a Fascist state). The first is intellectualism. Fascism demands an uncritical adherence to national myths, and intellectual movements tend to question things like that, so Fascists are by necessity suspicious of intellectual “elites”. Eldar are depicted as more psychic and more cultured than humans of the Imperium, and they’ve been around longer, so they have greater knowledge of things. It’s the Eldar who maintain the big repository of information about the galaxy, in the form of the Black Library. (Maybe someday we can look at the weird relationship the Inquisition has with the Eldar, and how that organisation seems to simultaneously seek out knowledge and supress knowledge) The second thing is that Eldar, shall we say, fail to live up to the Imperium’s heteronormative models of gender. The Imperium, like all Fascist states, venerates hyper-masculinity, I’m not sure I need to argue this one when I can just point at a Space Marine. The Eldar, by contrast, are represented as somewhat efette; elegant and graceful, but physically weak. Orks used to refer to Eldar as “pansies”, GW seem to have realised that maybe getting rid of that bit is a good idea in the 21st Century and so it seems to have been retired. The fact remains, though, that Eldar’s relationship with gender is a bit queer. From the start Eldar have been depicted as androgynous, they’re slight of build, wear form-fitting clothes and tend to wear their hair long. In 1998 GW first released Dark Eldar, which complicated things. Dark Eldar are kinky, but they’re also much less androgynous than Craftworld Eldar or Harlequins. Wyches in particular are really interesting. They’re the first genuinely mixed-gender unit I remember GW releasing, (there were also some Craftworld and Dark Eldar plastic kits around the same time that included a single chest piece with boobs) the miniatures were explicitly gendered, and they were really kinky, there was a lot of skin, a lot of spikes, and a lot of whips. Basically Craftworld Eldar are sort of gender neutral and Dark Eldar are chaotically genderqueer. All of this is the kind of thing that Fascists hate. Fascism centers the role of the heteronormative family unit, which has the role of making more “racially pure” babies (the Nazis called in the Lebensborn program), queer people who reject the gender roles that that unit relies on are therefore instantly suspicious to Fascists. So, to the Imperium, the threat of the Eldar is not just that they’re Xenos, they also present an ideological threat. The Eldar’s intellectualism and knowledge about the galaxy is a threat to the Imperium’s narrative and myths about itself and the universe it’s up against. Their queerness is a threat to the heteronormative gender roles that the Imperium is structured on.

At this point maybe some people are thinking “but aliens and daemons and cults and unsanctioned psykers are a real threat and the Imperium does need to keep throwing bodies into wars to stop them.” The thing is, Warhammer 40,000 is a fantasy about what would happen if all those threats really did exist out there, it’s the aesthetics and ideas that are important. In the real world Fascism is never justifiable, its arguments are never coherent, it only makes sense in 40K because 40K is fantasy.

So, decadence and degeneration, the things I put in the title. If you’ve ever been called a degenerate by some keyboard Fascist, just know that you’re being interpolated into a long tradition. Around the Fin de Siecle (the end of the 19th and start of the 20th centuries) there were some ideas about decadence and degeneration doing the rounds in Europe. Now I’m probably going to mess this up a bit, but the theme is that due to the rationality of Men, civilisation generally advances on an upward trajectory. I assume this idea came out of the enlightenment, reason leads to progress and makes society better (obviously there are some Colonialist ideas that come out of there). Maybe it’s useful to call this process generation (idk, I’m really winging it here), but anyway, these men are distractable, and if they allow themselves to be distracted by aesthetic things, like the colour yellow, or the taste of absinthe, or the feel of high quality brocades, or the skin of other men, they might become... decadent. Decadence is supposed to be when you give up rationality and hard work to focus on a life of sensation. Obviously there’s an implication here about sexuality. Oscar Wilde was regarded as a decadent. Too much decadence, it was thought, could lead to the reversal of a civilisation’s progress, degeneration, in other words. Versions of this idea pop up all over the place, certain Conservatives regard Western Civilisation as having fallen from the ideal state embodied by the Ancient Greeks (and I don’t doubt these people would blame decadence), and it’s also really common in fantasy. In the Lord of the Rings, the state of the world has fallen from the Númenorean and Elvish civilisations of the distant past, and Elric of Melniboné describes a previous civilisation brought low by decadence.

But, Eldar. So the story of the Eldar is they had this big galaxy-spanning civilisation before humanity reached the stars. As their civilisation became more advanced and the automation of their physical needs freed up their time they started to become decadent, and as they pursued various pleasures and became more and more jaded, the decadence gave way to sadism.

The descriptions of the dying days of the Eldar civilisation sound like being at the worst kink club you’ve ever seen, where nobody’s heard of consent and everyone’s really into knives and medical role-play. Various groups of Eldar began to leave their empire. First the Exodites, who went to live a sort of monastic existence riding dinosaurs about on idyllic worlds as far away from the Eldar empire as possible (it’s a travesy that GW have never made models of them because they’re the coolest thing in 40K).

Then the Craftworld Eldar fled. All the bad and horny psychic energy released by this debauchery built up in the warp (because Eldar are very psychic) and gave birth to Slaanesh, the Chaos god of excess and decadence, exploding all the heads of the decadent Eldar and ending their civilisation. Those Eldar left are supposed to be fallen from civilisation. There’s a sense that they’ll never be able to regain their old empire and their only role now is to become extinct with as much dignity as they can.

The fall of the Eldar is exactly the kind of thing that the Imperium would use as a cautionary tale to frighten its citizens. “Get too curious, or too decadent, or fail to uphold the family model, and your civilisation might collapse.” I wonder sometimes if the whole story was originally just meant to be Imperial propaganda, but these days the game certainly treats it as real. Now, I’m not sure there’s a heap of evidence to suggest that 20th Century Fascists were particularly interested in the concept of degeneracy (although the Nazis thought it relevant as regards art). 21st Century Fascists seem to love the concept. I think it’s fair to say that ideas of degeneration formed part of the cultural millieu of the early 20th Century that fed into Fascism. In any case the ideas that some cultures are more civilised than others, and that decadence can cause a culture to fall into a less civilised state, are consistent with Fascism.

So, again, we’re talking about a piece of fantasy media here. Saying “the Eldar were decadent and degenerate” or “the Imperium’s rejection of the Eldar’s degeneracy makes sense because they did give birth to Slaanesh” is meaningless. The Eldar are a piece of media that express an idea, they play with the concepts of degeneracy and and decadence to tell a story.

[sovaghoul]

Elements

For my Ghesties, some of this will sound familiar. But one of the reasons I connect with Ghost so strongly is because of this.

🕯🌒🌕🌘🕯

Wiccans call upon the powers of the Elements in ritual and other Magickal work. Across the board, the four classical Western Elements are included, those being Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, usually placed in the North, East, South, and West, respectively (though Mike Nichols at Witches Sabbats makes an interesting argument for Air in the North). The Elements as a group are sometimes called the Quarters, as the space between each is one quarter of the ritual space. Other terms can include "the Corners" or simply "Directions."

Each Element has many common associations, although some may differ between individual, Coven, and Tradition.

⛰️ Earth - North - Physical, material, financial, and also sometimes spiritual concerns. Tarot Suit of Pentacles. Represented in ritual by salt and the pentacle. Associated with Winter, transitions, and a pause in activity. Often assigned the color green. Magickally tied to land animals (generally mammals), herbs, and stones/crystals.

💨 Air - East - Mental, intellectual, communication, and travel concerns. Tarot Suit of Swords (usually). Represented in ritual by incense and the athame. Associated with Spring, beginnings, and birth. Often assigned the color yellow. Magickally tied to incense, birds, and feathers.

🔥 Fire - South - Passionate, ambitious, dynamic, and at times lustful concerns. Tarot Suit of Wands (usually). Represented in ritual by candles and the wand. Associated with Summer, action, and life. Often assigned the color red. Magickally tied to lizards and other reptiles, candles, and other flame sources.

🌊 Water - West - Emotional and spiritual concerns. Tarot Suit of Cups. Represented in ritual by water, the cup and the cauldron. Associated with Autumn, endings, and death. Often assigned the color blue. Magickally tied to marine life, water in any form it can take, and bodies of water in Nature.

Some of the time, a fifth Element is included:

🔮 Spirit - Center - Sometimes also called Akasha or the Æther. Any spiritual and Otherworldly concerns. Sometimes associated with the Major Arcana in Tarot. Can be expressed by the adage from Hermes Trismegistus, "As Above so Below, As Without so Within, As the Universe so the Soul."

The most common color association for Spirit is purple, but I personally prefer silver. It is said by some that Spirit is the combination and perfect balance and harmony of all the other Elements. If that is so, then what are all colors mixed together? Well, first we must decide if we’re talking about light, or pigment. If light, then the answer is white. If pigment, it is black. This is yet another duality, and as discussed before, Wicca is non-dualistic. So, if we combine black and white, the result is grey, or perhaps silver. This makes more sense to me than purple, which is red and blue, and while it can be said to be a blend of masculine and feminine energies, to me it then excludes the other colors in the spectrum, not to mention the other dualities (light/dark, life/death, etc.) that the Divine encompasses, and additionally reinforces the gender binary and heteronormativity.

🕯🌒🌕🌘🕯

In ritual, the Elements are each called in turn to watch over and lend strength to the workings that will be performed (it should be noted that the most common places to begin calling the Elements are North and East, and there are compelling reasons for both). Often, physical representations of the Elements are present on the altar or at the edges of the ritual space in the appropriate direction. It is also very important to directly dismiss or banish the Elements at the end of ritual. A phrase sometimes used is, “Stay if you will, go if you must,” but that can invite distaster; imagine the unchecked power of Fire hanging about!

There is a bit more to discuss in relation to the Elements, but as that relates more directly to Tools and Ritual, I am saving it for those posts.

Next post: Roles

[historyhermann]

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 Spoiler-Filled Review

Star Trek: Lower Decks is a mature animation which combines elements of the adventure, comedy, and sci-fi genres. Series creator Mike McMahan is known as a co-creator of Solar Opposites, a producer on Rick and Morty and as a consulting producer on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. This is the ninth series in the Star Trek franchise and second Star Trek animated series after Star Trek: The Animated Series ended in 1974.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Maniacs and Wayback Machine. This was the fifty-sixth article I wrote for Pop Culture Maniacs. This post was originally published on November 30, 2023. PCM editor Jean Henegan she said she added some content "since I'm a massive Trek nerd/fan, I added a bit of context around some of the things you pointed out...and cleaned up a couple of things that weren't quite accurate...Nice piece, overall." I have incorporated those additions here. Most of the text is the same as what I submitted on November 28th.

This animated series, which has aired for three seasons, takes a different tact than previous Star Trek series. It focuses on lower-ranked officers who engage in menial labor, known as lower deckers. Others are supporting characters. Star Trek: Lower Decks focuses on Starfleet, the military and exploration division of the United Federation of Planets, in the 24th century. It is tasked with establishing contact with races across the galaxy using a ship no one cares about: the USS Cerritos.

Four lower deckers are protagonists: Beckett Mariner, Brad Boimler, D’Vana Tendi, and Sam Rutherford. They are voiced by Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, and Eugene Cordero. Four others are recurring characters: captain of the Cerritos (Carol Freeman), first officer Jack Ransom, tactical officer Shaxs, and head medical doctor T’Ana. Dawnn Lewis, Jerry O’Connell, Fred Tatasciore, and Gillian Vigman voice these characters. All are well-known voice actors.

This series stands out because of its animation style, comedy, plot, and characters. Mariner is a big part of this. Her romantic relationships became a big part of the series, especially in the third season, when she is dating Jennifer Sh'reyan (voiced by Lauren Lapkus). Like actual relationships, they don't stay together, partially because Jennifer does not stand by her. She abandons Mariner when many on the Cerritos incorrectly think she is a traitor. Mariner is bisexual or pansexual. Previously, she dated Steve Levy. She tells Tendi, in a season two episode, that she dated "bad boys, bad girls, bad gender non-binary babes, [and] ruthless alien masterminds." She dated Amina Ramsey (voiced by Toks Olagundoye) while at Starfleet Academy. McMahan stated that "every Starfleet officer is probably at the baseline bisexual" and that there was no intention for "anybody to be strictly heteronormative or straight or cis."

Unfortunately, this is rarely explored in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4. There are some romantic vibes between Mariner and T’Lyn (voiced by Gabrielle Ruiz), a fellow crewmember on the Cerritos (who also happens to be Vulcan), in the fourth episode. They care for each other (as much as a Vulcan can care, with their repressed emotions), especially after knives keep stabbing Mariner during the episode. In the episode after, T’Lyn calms down Mariner’s emotions after her fever causes everyone’s emotions on the Cerritos to go out of control. In another episode, Mariner enjoys being kissed by a guy. Otherwise, her development during the season revolves around her promotion to a higher rank and ramifications of that decision. Although she is still part of “lower decks,” she is now a junior grade lieutenant, which makes her uneasy.

Boimler and Rutherford get closer, especially after the fourth episode. They even solve a disagreement by dressing up as Mark Twain and talking on a simulated steamboat. Both struggle with their promotions, although in different ways than Mariner. For instance, Boimler gets his first mission as commander and attempts to do everything himself. With some prodding from T’Lyn, he ends up sacrificing himself to save everyone and is later brought back to life. Rutherford also tries to find his place on the ship following his promotion. The closeness between Boimler and Rutherford has led some to ship them together. After all, in the eighth episode, Boimler doesn’t mind taking off his pants when Rutherford asks. Presently, there are less than 20 fics shipping them. Comparably, there’s over 120 fics for the Marinler ship (Mariner and Boimler). The latter has a small chance of canonization as compared to the Rutherford/Boimler ship.

Otherwise, there are wild plotlines, whether about Betazoid “diplomats” (actually undercover intelligence officers) with a hidden agenda who almost bring the Cerritos into the neutral zone where Romulans await battle, a fake marriage between Tendi and Rutherford, or megalomaniacal A.I. – known as Badgey – trying to get revenge. In the case of the latter, the A.I. comes out of the Daystrom Institute on Earth, returning following its initial appearance in season two. In the time between the seasons, it was imprisoned in a penitentiary holding other A.I. of a similar nature.  His plans are foiled when he realizes that ultimate power is too much. The plans of two A.I., Peanut Hamper and Aegus, also fail after they realize that killing others isn’t worth it. Both commit to reforming their selves, so they aren’t evil anymore.

The depiction of A.I. in Star Trek: Lower Decks is somewhat similar to the rogue A.I. in Futurama's Season 8 Part One, or near-planet-destroyer Light Hope in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. It differs from the mixed representation in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur and Cleopatra in Space, or more positive depictions in My Dad the Bounty Hunter, Kizuna no Allele, and Supa Team 4. This matters considering social media rumblings that some actors will not vote for the recent contract between SAG-AFTRA and the Hollywood studios due to reportedly subpar A.I. provisions [Note: The previous line was removed from the PCM version.]

Throuhgout the season, there are also scenes with spoken poetry, a bar fight (started by Mariner, naturally), and an instance of Boimler getting addicted to a Ferengi television series. There’s even a funny episode where everyone recounts their experiences about being stuck in a cave with different Starfleet officers. However, it’s the journey that Mariner takes over the course of the season that truly hits home as the season comes to a close. Following her promotion Mariner struggles to be a leader, desperate to keep bucking command. How can you be rebellious against the command structure when you are part of it? She asks herself this question, trying to determine what her purpose within Starfleet is. It isn’t until the close of the season that she truly understands who she is and why she is so hesitant to take on more responsibility.

In that episode, Captain Freeman is worried about Mariner. She’s unsure why Mariner is taking risks and trying to get herself killed. She orders Mariner’s friends to distract her. This backfires. Mariner, along with T’Lyn, Tendi, and Boimler, all teleport to a planet surface before their ship is destroyed. When they admit they are worried about her, and reveal the Captain’s order, she is unhappy. She agrees to stay with them until she slips out during the night. In the process, she bonds with a Klingon, who tells her what no one has stated directly: she’s at war with herself.

This is only part of Mariner’s attempted self-examination. It is akin to Yor Forger asking herself why she is an assassin in episode 33 of Spy x Family, lingering doubts of Teru Momijiyama / Shy in Shy about her reasons for being a hero, or Sora Harewata-ru / Cure Sky wondering why she hesitates to fight the Undergu empire in episode 42 of Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure. Mariner reveals she is partially in Starfleet to honor Sito, a friend from her time at Starfleet Academy who died a senseless death several years earlier, which makes her continue to question Starfleet’s mission. She admits that while she doesn’t hate Starfleet, she tried to get out of a promotion. She believes Starfleet should solve the puzzles of life, not start wars (which could violate the Prime Directive). As she tells the Klingon, she doesn’t want to send her friends off to die. She wants to be an ensign and nothing more.

Ma’ah (voiced by Jon Curry), the Klingon, suggests that she honor her friend, slay her enemies, and study to be better. In response, she hugs him, rather than fighting him, and says they should work together. The episode hints at her future leadership, possibly in Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5. She rallies everyone together in a rousing speech. Unfortunately, she is kidnapped by “Nicholas” Nick Locarno (who, like Sito, previously appeared in live action in Star Trek: The Next Generation and were once again portrayed – in voice over – by their live action actors Robert Duncan McNeil – who also starred on Star Trek: Voyager – and Shannon Fill), who beams her up into a mysterious ship – a ship that has been “destroying” various species’ ships throughout the season. Thanks to her efforts, Boimler, T’Lyn, and Tendi, along with new allies, destroy a Klingon warbird. They are disappointed that Mariner isn’t aboard.

The Season 4 finale ends with a bang, as it turns out that ships “destroyed” across the galaxy have joined the renegade Nova Fleet/Squadron. It resembles the rag-tag rebel fleet in Star Wars Rebels. There’s a major difference: Nick is willing to engage in terrorism, i.e., threat or use of violence to cause panic or intimidate, especially as a method to affect political conduct, as defined in the Third Pocket Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary. Mariner easily stops this. She calls out Nick as selfish and brainless, then steals a genesis device, which can destroy planets.

Captain Freeman shows her dedication to her daughter, and to the well-being of her crew. She goes to extreme lengths to rescue Mariner. After a failed contest on her homeworld of Orion, Tendi agrees to work for her pirate sister, D’Erika (voiced by Ariel Winter), so they can get a battleship. They use the decrepit warship to smash through the barrier. It creates a hole big enough for the captain’s yacht to enter. In the process, they save Mariner. Nick is left on her ship after he tries to kill her and activates the genesis device. In a moment of clever dark humor, Nick is destroyed by the device since he can’t pay the money needed to deactivate it (since it is a Ferengi model, of course).

The episode ends with Captain Freeman not court-martialed, T’Lyn refusing to return to her previous ship, and the four protagonists come together for a party in the mess hall. While they party for a short bit, this soon ends, as Tendi feels obligated to fulfill her end of the bargain she made with D’Erika: she must return to a life of piracy alongside D’Erika. Although this depresses Rutherford, neither he, Boimler nor Mariner, stop her from leaving. Tendi prepares herself for what comes next. Undoubtedly, her story will be expanded in Star Trek: Lower Decks fifth season, which was in production as of March.

As noted earlier, queer representation was lacking in this season, as opposed to previous ones. In the past, I’ve written that the ship engineer, Andy Billups (voiced by Paul Scheer), was possibly asexual. A recent post on treksphere makes the same claims. It argues that Tendi is aromantic, Billups is an asexual icon, and points to possible asexual vibes from Spock, Data, and Odo in the Star Trek franchise – although all three characters have relationships with women at various points in their stories. Such claims are only headcanons, similar to those who believed that Page in Tron: Uprising was asexual. There are no asexual characters in the Star Trek universe, to my knowledge. As such, having a canon asexual character in Star Trek: Lower Decks, outward in their identity like Todd Chavez in Bojack Horseman, would be great.

Asexual representation in animation, and in popular culture, is slim. While Alastor in Hazbin Hotel, Lilith Clawthorne in The Owl House, Peridot in Steven Universe, or Perry the Platypus in Phineas and Ferb, are asexual, they were confirmed off-screen. The same is the case for Spongebob Squarepants and Percival "Percy" King in Epithet Erased. Some have stated that Seiji Maki in Bloom Into You and Shōko Tanimoto in The Case Files of Jeweler Richard are asexual. In a previous review, I noted this was the case for Hime Shiraki in Yuri is My Job!. I've seen social media chatter about the manga which comes to a similar conclusion.

Hopefully, Star Trek: Lower Decks fifth season expands on Mariner‘s personal relationships and her identity, and that of the other protagonists. Undoubtedly, it will retain its mature comedy and quirkiness. All the while the characters will be thrown into conflict-prone situations, a breeding ground for trauma. This is not unique. There are multiple series airing this fall featuring characters in tense and stressful situations, sometimes involving murder of human beings. This includes certain The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess and Spy x Family episodes.

Otherwise, people anonymously described their conditions at Titmouse in a largely-circulated spreadsheet about animation studios. In the spreadsheet, which has 11 entries for the aforementioned animation studio, people praise Titmouse for good pay, flexible and healthy working hours, opportunities for rapid advancement, and good management. Others criticize Titmouse for disorganization, overwork, low pay, and say it is only good for those entering the industry. Clearly, it’s a mixed bag. There are different experiences, depending on each production, if I’m understanding these entries correctly.

In my previous review of Star Trek: Lower Decks, I noted that LGBTQ+ representation is at the heart of the show. I pointed to myriad examples of such representation (and in the franchise), and note that many fan fictions for Mariner are skewed toward men. As such, I still see the interactions between Mariner and Boimler as platonic rather than romantic. I understand how people see them as the latter, shipping them as Marinler, but I see them as good friends, rather than good lovers.

In the past, this series had some of best queer representation in mature animation. Other examples include RWBY, Disenchantment, Final Space, Bojack Horseman, and Harley Quinn. In season 4 of Star Trek: Lower Decks, this was less emphasized. Even so, the series is still moving in an inclusive direction. It isn't like Star Wars: The Bad Batch. That series had "four White men and one person of color, in the main cast," as I wrote in January.

This direction is clear from the cast and crew. Tawny Newsome and Dawnn Lewis, who voice Mariner and Captain Freeman, are both Black women, like their characters. Noël Wells (voice of Tendi) is of Tunisian and Mexican descent. Eugene Cordero (voice of Rutherford) is of Filipino descent. Gabrielle Ruiz is of Mexican descent. Carlos Alazraqui is Latine. Black men such as Marcus Henderson, Phil LaMarr, and Carl Tart also voice characters. There are some White male voice actors, such as Jack Quaid, Jack McBrayer, Jerry O'Connell, Fred Tatasciore, Paul Scheer, and Paul F. Tompkins. White women like Gillian Vigman, Lauren Lapkus, Georgia King, and Jessica McKenna voice characters too. Although, they are not the majority of the main cast, they comprise much of the recurring cast.

Many of these names were familiar. For one, Newsome voiced Jessica Williams in Craig of the Creek, Quaid voiced Clark Kent / Superman in My Adventures with Superman, and Cordero voiced Jamie in Steven Universe. Lewis voiced LaBarbara Conrad in Futurama, Professor Klabrax V in Cleopatra in Space, The Chief/Tamara Fraser in Carmen Sandiego, and Fannie Granger in Spirit Riding Free. LaMarr is best known for voicing Hermes Conrad in Futurama, Virgil Hawkins / Static in Static Shock, and John Stewart / Green Lantern in Justice League, along with Sky Gunderson in Disenchantment.

Alazraquiprominently voiced Puff in The Proud Family (in the reboot/revival) and Skylar in Elena of Avalor. Winter voiced Princess Sofia Cordova for the entire Sofia the First series, in the Elena of Avalor series finale, and in Elena and the Secret of Avalor, a backdoor pilot for Elena of Avalor. Wells, O'Connell, Tataiscore, Scheer, McKenna, McBrayer, Lapkus, Tart, and Tompkins, had assorted voice roles, as well. However, this isn't counting anyone in the guest cast.

In terms of the show's music, the opening and closing themes were good, and it fits with the action. I don't recall any tracks there were necessarily memorable (apart from the opening and closing tracks). So, I'm downgrading the music score for this review. Even so, Chris Westlake did an excellent job as the series composer. The music echoes Star Trek scores in other parts of the franchise. Those who directed, wrote, storyboarded, and animated each episode, including some well-known names like Jamie Loftus, McMahan, and Grace Parra Janney, deserve plaudits for their hard work as well.

I look forward to the fifth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks. I hope that the personal identities of the main cast are explored more in the next season. I'm optimistic that Paramount executives realize the series' value. It would be devastating to have the series cancelled unceremoniously like Star Trek: Prodigy. Netflix recently nabbed that series as part of the streaming wars.

Star Trek: Lower Decks is currently streaming on Paramount+ or for purchase on PrimeVideo.

© 2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[usaigi]

🏳️‍🌈💎 for whatever hyperfixiation you want

💎 are there any fun facts or trivia that you would like to share?

Jessica Henwick, the actress who plays Colleen, was invited to audition for Xu Xialing in Shang Chi but turned it down because she has hope they're bring back Colleen. I personally really hope they do, I'd love to see her as Iron Fist

🏳‍🌈 do you have any headcanons (lgbt, race, neuro, etc) that are important to you? (I got this one twice so I'm going to split up my response, here's the other half)

Misty - She keeps not showing up in the comics arcs I'm reading so atm all I got is lesbian for Colleen. Misty ily bb I'll be back

Luke - Bi King 💪 It's not weird to cuddle your bros, man. You've just been brainwash by the patriarchy 😒 (But for real, growing up in Georgia in a religious community and going to marines, then the police academy and the prison, Luke spend a lot of time having to unlearning toxic masculinity and still struggles with being vulnerable with his friends. As the group's protector, he often struggles with feeling like he has to suppress and hide his emotions to be their rock) PTSD & OCD

Elektra - Half Cambodian half French, raised Greek. BPD/NPD with murderer tendencies but she's working on it

Layla - Coptic ✌️ Bi 🌈 "oh cool, we finally have a muslim on the team. yay diversity." "I'm actually coptic orthodox" "Shucks. Are we sure we shouldn't hire Ms Marvel?

MK - Sephardic Jewish + Cuban + Guatemalan & PTSD DID BPD Autism. "Wow that's a lot of labels" "Yeah, it was buy one mental illness get 3 free. The alters sale was steal too." In general the system's identities as cishet partly because of Marc but also because of heteronormativity and the fact they're happily married to a woman but some part identity differently (Dani as a lesbian, Mr Knight as AroAce. etc etc). & I think it would be super funny if this was not canon in the AU, this is just what Jake thinks is going on and how he explains the H4H relationship to his system and Layla. Layla, of course, is confused at first b/c.... Wow....Americans. And then she meets Claire and realizes she's bi too

Felicia - colombiana mami 🇨🇴 "Hey isn't it kinda of stereotypical of you to be Colombian and a narco[the King Pin]?" "Mami, if I were a narco's wife, maybe. But this is just feminism. Why should a gringo make all the money?"

send me a ask about my media hyperfixation

[urboymutual]

unfollowed you again because i wanted to ask about your favorite buddie headcanons please good sir i'm starving

hiiiiii seeing u refollow me like 🔎 ahh goat has come to ask me a question heheh

but ok literally ive been marinating on this ask for the whole day bc like my buddie thoughts r soooo messy and im def gonna forget a few hcs but

im sorry to give into heteronormativity bullshit or whatever but i WOULD LOVE for buck to take eddies last name i know most ppl like to hyphenate bc gay rights and stuff but mr. and mr. diaz PLEASE

also speaking of that, more of an eddie hc but i like the idea they go to LA pride every year and like eddie gives out "free dad hugs" bc i saw this one latina mother giving out free mom hugs and it brokeee me like sobbing on my hands and knees 😭 but also id love for them to be affectionate (they'd def be more lowkey about it bc eddie's more of a . "silent keep it in" type) and just like queer latine kid at pride being like "wow so love does exist for people like us?" and eddie just looks at buck with a soft smile like "yeah."

expanding a little bit on the diaz last name thing tho like i read this one fic where buck wore a jersey (cant remember what sport) with eddie's last name on it and it was sooooo 😳😵‍💫 idk just sharing clothes is so cute and i think they would basically have like One singular wardrobe bc they just mix their clothes so much

ALSO WHEN THEY MOVE IN TOGETHER THEY BUY A LIKE BROKEN DOWN HOUSE AND REBUILD IT TOGETHER BC POWER OF GAY LOVE AND THEY JUST 😭😭🫶🫶 also idk if this is a popular opinion or not but i think they would have more kids not necessarily like adopting or even surrogacy but maybe like how hen and karen foster kids bc like they work so WELL together as fathers and it be so nice for chris to have a little sibling 😭 (also latino urge to have a big family)

i really really like the hc that like they are literally in love with each other and everyones aware but THEY DONT KNOW IT. like obviousness to the max like buck discovers that he's been hiding in the closet for too long or smthin true happiness stuff and hes like "Let me date men now" and they all throw him a coming out party and like him and eddie have plans r something and hes like "oh sorry eddie :( i have a date with. Glen (idk) rain check?" and eddies like "yeah thats chill..." but later "hmm my tummy hurts when i think about buck going on dates with men oh my god am i homophobic?!?!?" (that one reddit post straight guy thinks hes being homophobic to his gay roommate... turns out hes in love with him) but like eddie mistaking his jealousy for homophobia basically . and idk i want them to be two oblivious motherfuckers until someone knocks some sense into them. (idk whether im pro one of them gets in danger and the other confesses their love or it's literally Mundane thing like buck teaching chris a task and eddies watching them and gets an "oh shit"  ephinany )

also for their wedding im stuck between maddie being buck's best man or walking him down the aisle but also bobby walking him down the aisle 😭😭 chris would be THEE ring bearer (probably a little grumpy abt it as a preteen) and jee would be such a cute flower girl 😭😭 idk but i do know eddie's tia and abuela are stealing the wedding table center pieces! (flashbacks to hispanic weddings and parties ive been to where my moms made me steal the table centerpieces 😭 that shit was so embarrassing) also carla is DEF invited to the wedding luv her <33 also they'd probably do padrinos and madrinas stuff (basically someone is the madrinas of the cake and is in charge of the cake and stuff its a mexican wedding/party (?) thing bc they do it for quinceañeras too)

HC. They r gay

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

One day I will cry long enough to make you feel so sorry for me you will write that meta about heteronormativity of marines

aw, you don’t have to cry! asking nicely is all it takes.

so, when i say the marines are a rigid, heteronormative institution, what do i mean by that?

they work in the service of a heteronormative government and society—the world government, and the world nobles, who consider themselves superior to the rest of the world because of their bloodlines

they have heteronormative values—among them strictly defined gender roles and prioritizing relationships based in blood/deprioritizing all others

they use those values to dictate how the ‘civilized’ world should behave and assume that everyone shares those values, marking those who do not as uncivilized, criminal, and rebellious

more details below the cut.

any kind of royalty or nobility that defines itself as superior to the masses because of their bloodline, ancestors, etc. is going to be particular about having proof of that blood connection. if you think your blood makes you better, you better have documentation of it, family trees going back eight hundred years so no latecomers can doubt your importance.

they’re also going to care deeply about the “sanctity of marriage”—not because it’s actually sacred, but because if wives are cheating on their husbands then you can’t trust your family tree. and if your family tree is a lie, then maybe you aren’t actually superior to all of those dirty, common masses. the horror!

lastly, they have to care deeply about children. because, until someone develops some kind of immortality elixir, the only way to keep your very important family going (and it has to keep going, or what’s the point of any of this?) is to have children. and you’re going to prioritize biological children over any other, because if the child doesn’t have your blood, they aren’t really superior to the masses.

(the exception: note that the child sabo’s parents adopt when he runs away is chosen for his aptitude in school and his higher status biological family. bringing fresh blood into your family that improves your status is always beneficial, whether it’s through marriage or adoption.)

so. special bloodlines, preserved by marriages that produce biological children. until someone develops alternate methods of reproduction—which is not out of the question in one piece—all of that requires heterosexual relationships. they have to be the priority, in order for the superior bloodlines to persist.

thus, the prioritization and normalization of heterosexuality by the world nobles—and therefore the world government that serves them—and therefore the marines that serve them.

.

what about those heteronormative values?

well, look at female marines. there aren’t many of them; even if you’re only thinking about named marines, women are outnumbered nearly ten to one. and the unnamed background guys are always guys, so actually it’s an even greater disparity. why? because a woman’s place is in the home. she should be a homemaker and mother, because continuing the family line is the point of a woman, according to the nobility’s heteronormative view of the world. going against that is to set yourself up for a struggle. and a number of these ladies do struggle.

bell-mère had to leave the marines to keep her kids, taking on a job with a highly variable income that left her nearly starving at times; men in the marines have no such trouble, though whether that’s because of narratively invisible wives or these men not caring if they raise their children well is unclear.

tashigi has an enormous complex over being treated differently because she’s a woman, and it’s not a complex that comes out of nowhere—she is treated differently. most of her opponents beat her easily and then let her live for no good reason; as a captain she’s idolized, not respected, by her crew.

then there’s characters like hina and tsuru, whose presence high up in the military structure is acceptable because they have powers that put their opponents into submissive, humiliating positions. you don’t see a female marine with one of those elemental devil fruits; no, they have to have a fruit with a power play component to it. because god forbid women hold positions of power if they don’t have a bit of a dominatrix energy to them. (actually it’s because they’re being subversive in service to the state and the status quo, which makes them acceptably quirky rather than rebellious, not unlike members of SWORD, or our single female warlord.)

.

and then there’s the prioritization of bloodlines.

we see that value most clearly in the paramount war, where ace is executed not because he’s the second division commander of the whitebeard pirates, not because of any crimes he’s committed, but because of who his father is. a man who died long before ace was born, a man ace hates because of the awful opinion the civilized world has of him (and therefore his kin), a man who had no influence on ace in any way but blood. that’s enough reason to kill a man, by the marines’ logic.

and the man ace does call father, who embraced ace and gave him a loving family? well, that man, as far as the marines are concerned, only took ace in to put him on the throne of the pirate king, making himself the power behind the throne. (because naturally a king’s son should inherit his throne! never mind that whitebeard’s power far outstrips ace’s—surely pirates would only bow down before their king’s rightful, blood heir—and the marines can’t allow for the pirates to unify under one man’s leadership like that.) to the marines, ace only has value as roger’s heir, and so they expect that to be all the value he has to anyone.

and this backfires on them. the betrayal from within the whitebeard fleet (which the marines orchestrated) operates on the assumption that whitebeard will prioritize ace over the rest of his fleet. but all of the whitebeard pirates are his children, and he makes that clear when he gives them an out, allowing them to abandon him to his death if they so choose. the marines wanted to show the world that even this benevolent father figure of a pirate captain was a monster deep down, but they couldn’t pull it off. they don’t believe whitebeard is sincere in his affections for his ‘sons,’ and that costs them the narrative they wanted for the paramount war.

.

there’s also this one-off line that i rediscovered while rereading impel down/marineford to prep for this post, which in retrospect explains garp’s manic insistence on his grandson becoming a marine.

in chapter 530, hearing that luffy’s broken into impel down, sengoku shouts, “if you weren’t called ‘the navy’s hero,’ i’d make you pay for the sins of your entire family, garp!” as a counterpart to it being just and lawful to kill people for the crime of being related to a sufficiently dangerous criminal, garp and others like him believe that if you serve the state well enough, you can be forgiven for the crime of being related to a criminal.

if luffy (and ace) had just become a marine, garp thinks, then the identity of luffy’s father wouldn’t matter.

which strikes me as very naive. of course it would still matter; blood is the only thing that matters to these people.

[trans-wojak]

The way people treat autistic women vs autistic men is really weird cause I swear part of it is misogynistic.

Autistic women: awww so cute and quirky!

Autistic men: creepy and annoying

Not to say that autistic women don’t get a ton of crap and heavily misdiagnosed as some other mental health issue but geez the difference in the way some people treat me as an autistic dude vs an autistic girl is odd. I’m creepy when I talk to kids now but I was cute/nice as a girl. The mistakes or awkwardness in my social interactions are seen as indicative of some kind of ulterior motive instead of just being autistic.

me, to my niece after she tells me facts about marine animals: you’re so smart! You must have all the boys at school wanting to be your boyfriend huh.

niece: noooo icky boys you’re silly uncle Mike

me: awww am I icky too then?

niece: yes but it’s okay I still love you even if you’re old and an icky boy (now) cause you play with me

me: thanks I love you too sweetie

I’ve been told being playful like this is inappropriate. But when I made these same silly comments as a girl it was never questioned at all. Now I realise it’s kinda heteronormative but I’m mostly just trying to tease in a silly way. I’m not very knowledgeable about how to interact with children. I struggle to understand what’s appropriate besides the most obvious things. I’m mostly mirroring how adults interacted with me as a kid and I knew they were joking. One thing I don’t do is force physical affection cause I hated that as a kid. When people tell my niece to hug me goodbye and if she ever hesitates I just say it’s okay, high five instead? And she’s always happy to do that. She hugs me when she wants to but I don’t like to force it.

[kunosoura]

what musicals do you like

Hi anon sorry I just saw this I'm only now getting around to going through my inbox. Here's an incomplete list with no particular order or organization.

Falsettos is heartrending, I love the music, and it manages to actually be kinda good with its politics (a musical theatre miracle, believe me)

Ragtime is a problematic fav because its ostensibly progressive politics are actually worse than that of your average "apolitical" show when you look at them too long but it's got some of my favorite music in the whole genre. New Music still makes me cry every time I hear it.

The Sound of Music is also one with very bad politics when you look at it closely, but I love the movie too much and have done so for too long to abandon it now.

A Chorus Line is just an incredibly great musical by all measures. Usually shows about showbusiness don't rank highly in my regard (they tend to be SO self involved) but ACL manages to get you to care about its characters on a very fundamental level. It's also full of great music.

If I wasn't restraining myself, I'd list just about every Sondheim musical, but I don't want this post to be pages long so I'll do two. Into the Woods is, in my opinion, his most absolutely perfect; no wasted songs or dialogue, thematically rich, but not inaccessible or pretentious.

Company is the other Sondheim musical I'll recommend; it's a little higher concept, strung together less by a narrative than by characters and themes, but a lot of Sondheim's works are meditations on relationships, heteronormative ones especially, and this is maybe the biggest example of that.

Honestly, I still like Heathers. Even with the west end rework it's still lowbrow, but it's a lot of fun and has a compelling edge to it. Amelie is in a similar book where a not so good original work (terrible in Amelie's case) got redeemed by a west end rework that completely remade it.

Do you have the patience for a three hour musical? Watch Fiddler on the Roof. Gorgeous, melancholy music, and my favorite love song from any musical in Do You Love Me.

Cabaret is one of the most thematically dense works ever to hit the big stages in regards to how it uses (and abuses) the medium of theater. Definitely not a first watch, but there's so much to unpack there. It's so uncomfortably aware of the emotional voyeurism inherent in theater.

Obligatory modern musical reference - Hadestown is GREAT. It deserved every drop of its success. I also group Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 with Hadestown in my head as two recent musicals that got very experimental with their instrumentation and storytelling, even though Great Comet wasn't as successful.

Carrie the Musical's original run was such a notorious flop that it became synonymous with flop in the theater world. The revival with Marin Mazzie and Christie Altomare a decade or so ago is stunning with how much good they managed to carve out of the original's rotten husk

Okay, that isn't all, but I'm stopping myself there.

[ask-mortarion-the-death-lord]

@stormlion1 i wasn't even talking about a sex drive in that post, but if ya really wanna go there then i would note that its never been stated in canon or not whether astartes have a sex drive or not. now, given that the process to create a space marine involves hypno indoctrination, its not an unreasonable assumption to make all things considered. but, its also an assertion i dont actually buy when we take into consideration how marines generally act

NAUGHTY TALK ABOUT DONGS BELOW

marines are just regular humans suped up with additional organs and growth hormones at the end of the day, assuming that their penises still worked theres nothing to actually suggest that a marine and a lady fucking wouldn't just produce a regular baseline human [again, assuming that the penis still works on the space marine, and assuming they still produce fertile sperm]. in that context yes it makes sense that a sex drive would be considered secondary and probably weeded out through hypno indoctrination and forms of training and induction.

that doesnt change the fact that as canon demonstrates, space marines do in fact experience a sex drive.

emperors children and slaanesh for one, they derive sadomasochistic pleasure from combat, humiliation and all manner of stimuli, often described in euphoric or sublime contexts.

to bring that concept further, space marines as a whole are often described or depicted as deriving euphoric or exhilarating sensations from successful missions, combat, pain received in combat or extermination of xeno species. The white scars derive pleasure from defeating powerful foes or traveling at high speeds for instance, members of the marines malevolent or minotaurs chapters will display pleasure from expressing sadistic tendencies, many marine chapters are described as relishing the sensation of close combat as justification as to why they insist on melee combat from a cultural stand point.

the point being that, on almost all occasions marines are depicted as deriving pleasure or satisfaction from activities they partake in. even if they dont partake in the act of sex itself, examples of behavior that would suggest to me that space marines still have a sex drive just of different sorts then the "heteronormative standard" to use a word i see batted around in acadamia.

[pashterlengkap]

Stereotypes & media about Black masculinity made it harder to come out as asexual

I am an asexual man. Just saying that makes me sound so countercultural. Being an asexual man in a culture that depicts men as sex-crazed creatures often makes me feel like an alien outcast. It is countercultural being an asexual man, to say the least. From movies like American Pie and Revenge of the Nerds to television shows like The Big Bang Theory, That ’70s Show, and Friends, Hollywood has depicted men as being sex-crazed hound dogs who would do anything for sex. The types of men may be diverse, such as Don Draper from Mad Men to Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother. However, the one trope of men that has remained a constant in Hollywood and media is the idea that all men are sex-addicted roués. Related: I am sex-repulsed & sex-positive. The two are not contradictory. I respect your choice to have sex. What about respecting my choice to never have sex? Many statements about men also reinforce these tropes: “Men only think with their genitals!” “Men think about sex every 7 seconds!” “Men only have one thing on their minds!” “Men are dogs in heat!” Time and time again, we hear these tropes repeated about men with little pushback. Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you: Subscribe to our Newsletter Yet, for asexual men, these tropes can lead to traumatic effects, such as partners demanding sex and expecting it simply due to being born a male. One year ago, I participated in a panel discussion at Ace Con in Australia. In the discussion, I and some fellow aces discussed the challenges and struggles of being male-identifying and asexual in a culture that frames men as being sex-obsessed creatures who would do anything for sex. Each one of us in the panel discussed the struggles of being asexual and masculine in a culture where sexual expectations are placed upon you for your gender. Each of us spoke about how sexual stereotypes regarding men hurt our personal development when we were young. Each of us shared how sexual stereotypes surrounding masculinity really put pressure on us to be something we could never be, as well as feeling alienated for being men who just didn’t fit the culture trope of the “wild and crazy guy” men are told they have to be.  One of the fellow panelists talked about the immense pressure to have to “put notches” in their bedposts by sleeping with different partners (heteronormatively speaking, of course). He then shared a story about how, when he was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps, a superior who was a woman offered to buy him a sex worker after she found out he was a virgin. Another panelist shared how it’s difficult for him, as a romantic asexual, to find relationships without feeling pressured into sex and how so many of his partners grew frustrated because he didn’t fit the stereotype of men always wanting sex. He also shared how he became a victim of coercion in a previous relationship because his partner wanted him to, in his words, “stop being asexual” and start wanting sex like a “normal guy.” Those are a few of the negative stories that were shared in the discussion panel discussing asexuality and masculinity. I wish I could say I was exempt from such stories. But alas! I cannot. In one instance, back in my senior year of high school, my classmates started talking about sex and all the things they like to do sexually. I had an encounter with one girl who, when I mentioned I hadn’t had sex, kept running her leg up my thigh. Though I kept pushing her hand away and off my leg, she kept doing it despite my objections. After one instance of emphatically telling her to stop, she attempted to gaslight me by saying that I was the one with the problem and she “was just trying to help me.” Yeah. However, my story not only deals with masculinity but with race also. I am a Black asexual man.  Being an asexual Black man, I have personal accounts of being typecast as some sexually perilous human being, solely due to my… http://dlvr.it/Sy2GRj