#I cannot explain how deeply I hate posting about it this much

[edenfenixblogs]

If you’re annoyed or upset by how much I post about antisemitism…

Imagine how I feel!!!

[aromantic-pantyanarchy]

It's me. I'm the cis, heterosexual, aromantic man. I will never marry, I will never be married, I will grow into middle age and elder age and I will die unmarried. I will be forced to support a household of myself on only my wages alone for the rest of my life. I will be asked about women and marriage and children by my family for the rest of my life (or men, the progressive ones might say). I may not ever come out to them. I feel like I burned my coming out on something stupid. I don't want to explain it. I don't want to run them through the definitions and intricacies. I don't want the acceptance without understanding, placating me with ceased questions and poor explanations to other, drunk adults.

I like my hair to be long, I spent a year with it dyed a golden blonde with dark roots because I like the trashy party girl aesthetic. I want to dye it again with pink tips. I like painting my nails, black and blue are my favorite colors. I like wearing chokers. I also like wearing baggy jeans and ratty hoodies. I like having stubble. I like having chest hair. I like having a square jaw and broad shoulders. I wish I had a flatter stomach and a thinner profile frame. I don't know what this makes me, perhaps this is something no more GNC than Machine Gun Kelly. I think about this a lot, how queer my appearance truly is. I should think about it less. I have thought long and hard about if I could be trans or if I could be non-binary or if I could be genderqueer and the conclusion I ultimately came to is that I most enjoy being a man open to whatever self-expression I want.

I don't date, but I've thought about it. I would like to meet people, and I would like to have sex with them. But I don't want to hurt them. I fear if I explain what I am beforehand it'll scare them away. I fear if I explain after they'll feel manipulated or abused. I don't know how many people in the dating scene want what I want. I fear my own lack of experience will make me a bad lay, an embarrassing story to tell to confidants in hindsight. I fear my own virginity, a boundary to those I wish to be like. All of these fears are baseless, as I've not been able to even begin a single relationship in my life. Despite this I still heavily identify with terms like "slut" and "manwhore" and "thot" because my interests lay so deeply within casual sex, sex without great intimacy or emotion. This may be some form of stolen valor. I hope the true sluts are not too mad at me.

I made this blog several years ago because a mutual of mine reblogged memes making fun of aro and ace people, making fun of the concept of aphobia, and in addition well known aphobes. I didn't feel comfortable talking about aro stuff on my main blog, for as little as I talk about it. Living through the ace discourse of the 2016 era has largely caused me to cringe in embarrassment any time I am forced to discuss my orientation with people who aren't aro or ace themselves. I no longer follow this person. I unfollowed many people I was mutuals with from that time, most of them because they posted too often about how much they hated men and I didn't want to see that, some because our interests simply drifted too far apart, only one for explicit aphobia reasons. (Also one because they became a "both sides are bad, any vote is wasted" libertarian, but that's unrelated.)

I guess at this point I don't care deeply about what strangers on the internet think of me. If a trusted friend told me that they don't think I'm truly queer that may hurt. But I am going to continue to use the word for myself. I take up no resources. I go to events that are open to me. If an event was not open to me, I think I'd not want to go anyways. I am not a hypothetical, I am not a strawman, I am a person with lived experiences both within and exterior to the queer community. If you hate me, I will permit you to continue to do so. But ultimately, I am who I am, I cannot change these facts, and I would not choose to do so even if I could.

[frostbitedoesstuff]

I wanted to make this post not to address anyone in particular, but just for the sake of getting it off my mind.

I absolutely hate it when people in the Honkai fandom say that Welt is a terrible father and/or abandoned his family. The truth is, Welt loves his family so, so much, and still cares about them deeply even though he’s far away. There is clear and irrefutable evidence of this.

When you talk to Welt on the Express, you have the option to ask him about his friends. This is his response.

Here, he acknowledges that there are people waiting for him back home, and says that at some point prior to the game’s events, he asked Herta to send a signal to his home in hopes of being able to tell his family that he’s safe, and perhaps even tell them of his whereabouts (though that’s just an assumption on my end.)

When the Express is about to leave for the Xianzhou Loufu, if you talk to Welt, you can ask him what planet he would like to go to. This is his response.

Notice how his immediate answer to where he wants to go is home, as well as the word he uses to describe the fact that he cannot do so: sadly. He really could have said anywhere else, especially because he likely knew that probably wasn’t what the Trailblazer meant when they asked that question, but no. He answers honestly, and his honest answer is that he wants to go home.

This next section will have spoilers for the Penacony quest line, so proceed with caution.

For this next example, we’ll need some background information. What exactly is Ena’s Dream? Well, to explain in simple terms, Ena’s Dream is an escapist dream state meant to simulate what someone would view to be an ideal reality. The specifics of the dream varies from person to person, because each person has different desires, different ideals, different wants, different needs. But Ena’s Dream is meant to simulate what the individual TRULY desires, no matter how unrealistic or outlandish it may be.

In 2.3, if you talk to Welt, you can ask him what he saw in Ena’s Dream. This is his response.

In Ena’s dream, he goes home and reunites with his family. Do you understand what that means?

What Welt truly desires, more than anything else, is to find a way back home. What he saw in Ena’s Dream is blatant proof.

Another thing I’d like to draw attention to is how he says that realizing it was a dream was a “bitter truth.” The fact that he still had the Astral Express wasn’t enough for him to describe it as “bittersweet.” It was just bitter.

(No more Penacony spoilers from here on out)

Speaking of the Astral Express, I’d like to bring up something regarding not only Welt’s relationship with them, but the entirety of Star Rail’s world as a whole.

Something about Welt’s character that I really love is his ability to embrace the world around him and the people in it, DESPITE the fact that he also misses his home.

He’s engrossed himself deeply in the history and general ins and outs of Star Rail’s universe, to the point where whenever the Trailblazer finds something they don’t recognize, they ask Welt, and he can always provide a detailed answer.

Additionally, Welt has formed a strong familial relationship with the members of the Astral Express, and has a strong desire to keep them safe. For example, during the Jarilo-VI quest line, Welt expresses a clear desire to intervene when he sees the intensity of the situation Trailblazer, March, and Dan Heng are in, and when they return, Welt outright admits that there were more than a few times where he felt legitimate distress, making an off handed comment about having to “stop worrying so much.”

This is something that I feel like some people don’t understand; Welt can love this world and his home world simultaneously, and he does. Just because he isn’t constantly stressing out about going home and refusing to make connections out of fear of getting attached doesn’t mean that he isn’t thinking about his home or doesn’t want to find a way to go back.

I believe that the solution Welt wants is to have the best of both worlds, not to completely abandon one for the other. This is why his desired reality of finding a way home and him hoping that his journey with the Astral Express never ends can exist side by side. He truly does want both, and in the ideal ending to his story, he should be able to have both (at least in my opinion.)

I’ve never even played HI3, but I know of Welt’s lore and he is my favorite character in HSR, so I hate it when people mischaracterize him, ESPECIALLY when it comes to this. I hope that by writing this character analysis, this will help people understand him better, and show the people that think he doesn’t love his family that they are blatantly wrong. If you know someone who thinks that, please consider showing them this post.

(One last thing! If you read this entire analysis, then clearly you must like Star Rail. If you’re looking for more content, I’d like to make you aware that as of posting this, I have a Sampard and Astral Express chatfic, as well as a blog where I post Star Rail fanart (frostbitedoesfanart)! Please check them out if you have the time, and thanks for listening to me ramble <3)

[k9emote]

My final response to every accusation made about me.

Hi. As basically, the entirety of emoteblr knows, I have had a lot of hatred, misinformation, and vague angry paragraphs thrown towards my community and me. Barely anyone has communicated what they're so mad about, but I'll try to stitch it all together from a few people who've spoken to me and answer the best I can. "You spread misinformation about number names! Not all number name trauma is RAMCOA!"

You're right! I misworded that because I hadn't known that RAMCOA wasn't the only source of number-name trauma. Because no one told me. I am a RAMCOA victim and have only heard of number-names related to RAMCOA. I didn't know other forms of abuse used number-names. I know that now thanks to a kind person who opened a ticket in my server, and I will edit my server rules accordingly. My opinion stays the same; people who haven't been abused/tortured etc with number names should not use them. I have met countless other victims who agree with me. You can call that an opinion of mine, sure! If you disagree, kindly block me. I am sorry to anyone I said "You can only use number names if you're a RAMCOA victim." to, I had meant that only people with number name trauma can use them to reclaim the name, I assumed RAMCOA was a broad enough term that it covered all types of number-name trauma, but I was mistaken. I'm sorry. That's all I will say on that matter.

"There was a misinformative carrd in your server that didn't explain RAMCOA correctly!" It's been spread that the carrd was mine! that is not true AT ALL. It was taken down a long time ago and replaced with a much better resource. I hadn't personally looked at the carrd because topics of RAMCOA often trigger me, my partner was the one to send the carrd. My partner had seen the carrd sent elsewhere and had no idea it had misinformation. It was used as a quick resource for someone to know what RAMCOA was, and as soon as a kind server member pointed out it wasn't a good resource literally minutes after it was posted, it was taken down and replaced. People make mistakes, and my partner fixed his almost immediately. If you are angry at that, then I'm sorry but you are REACHING for things to hate me for. "The guillotine (public ban) channel you have in your server encourages hate and death threats!"

I am deeply sorry to anyone who recieved any threats/hate/harassment from my public bans. I have always stated to never contact the people I ban , and it was listed in the channel description as well.

No one had EVER told me that they were receiving hate or threats after being banned, otherwise, I would've taken this channel down much sooner. I have yet to receive any proof of these claims or even speak to the victims themselves. I have only heard this passed around from outside people. When I have asked, I am refused evidence for the "sake of anonymity" which I respect but unfortunately cannot ban any individuals without user IDs or genuine reasons. The only thing I could do in response to this is take the channel down, which I have done.

On the topic of death threats, people have claimed that one of my mods was sending them... but refused to show any evidence or tell me who it was. I have spoken to my mods and all of them have said they would never, so I genuinely have no idea what to do. If anyone has further evidence, please contact me. Most of my mods don't even have an active account on tumblr.

A trend I am seeing with the people who are typing up long paragraphs on how I am toxic and immature are people I've banned for going against my boundaries, reposting hate towards me even after said hate was asked to be taken down by both me and the person I had wronged, and other vile behavior in my server. I have not been given descriptions or details on who feels wronged, so I can not apologize for any actions because I genuinely have no idea what I did. I have not come out to say anything not because I am hiding, but because I am lacking SO MUCH evidence or even witness testimony on what I've done wrong. I have no issue apologizing to people I might've hurt, but I cannot do so without a proper conversation with said people. The one person who offered to tell me things refused on multiple occasions to give me evidence, screenshots, direct conversations or any other sources of people explaining why they hate me. I was only given vague reasons and "maybes" To some individuals I know are spreading the hate about me; To Proxy. You were banned from my server because you were creating a story incredibly similar to RAMCOA experiences while not being a victim of any sort of torture yourself (which you stated.) You said you were allowed to have an OC with a number name because it was based off a media that did the same, and that it was a "lab rat character" and therefore didn't count. When I, a victim of the torture you were using for roleplay, tried to educate you on why it was still wrong no matter your intent, you threw a tantrum and refused to listen. You were clearly uneducated on all forms of numbername trauma and refused to understand when not only I, but multiple other victims were trying to explain why it was wrong. Your roleplay OC was more important to you than a victim asking you to stop. The way you spoke to me was vile, invalidating, belittling and triggering. I am not sorry for the anger I displayed when I was spoken to like my own abuser would speak to me. I had a right to be angry and I started off extrememly understanding and polite despite your actions. Your OC was also affiliated with Nazis and the holocaust, which is fucking disgusting. I don't care what comic/media/etc it's based off of. I don't care if it's fiction or if you don't intend to base it on real life matters. Fictionalizing things that are rooted from real trauma and genocides as someone who has not experienced either is a horrible thing to do. I hope you realize how sickening you've acted.

Proxies messages were accidentally deleted when we banned them, but heres a screenshot my partner took during the arguement. Oh and before I forget, Proxy claimed to be "proshipper neutral" because it was "just fiction." despite knowing what it entailed. They have since been educated, but I wanted to share that their opinion on "fiction does not equal reality" mind set is extremely harmful.

Their reasoning on why they thought it was fine! (both is proxy) ^ Proxy also sent something in my inbox that I responded to publicly, ignoring all that they had done and completely going against my DNI of them. You can see that on my blog. To Alexfroppy. You were banned because my mod pointed out to me that you had reposted a tumblr post promoting the hatred towards me and my community, between an issue I had with another creator who has since forgiven me. Both me and Lemon (the creator) asked the Original Poster to take it down. You still reposted, directly supporting something going against the boundaries of both creators involved. You say "well I also posted something against the threats." Great! That's the bare minimum and resposting something that got me threats in the first place completely contradicts and cancels out you discouraging it. We pulled you into a ticket and tried to politely explain what you did wrong, to which you replied carelessly and with an incredibly dry tone. It was clear to me you didn't care when you stated "I'm only here for the emojis" and never apologized. That is why you were banned.

This is the entire ticket conversation. They were not banned for "just liking and reblogging a post". They were banned for purposely reblogging something that went against both creators boundaries which inherently encourages threats and hate towards me no matter your intent. People say "Hey your guillotine/public ban channel is getting people threatened!" and I apologize and quickly take down the channel. I say "Hey your reblogs are getting me threatened" and I don't get an apology, nor did they take down the reblog and ended up joining the hate train and calling me immature and toxic for being terrified for my safety. To FleurDeMort / Pierce. I don't know if you're directly involved in any of this, but with how open you are about hating me and claiming I ban unfairly, I think It's safe to assume you are. You were originally banned for being involved in a drama that was making me break down and shut down as quickly as I could. I apologize for acting quickly out of fear, that is my fault, and I would've been more than happy to apologize to you directly just like I did the other person involved. However. I, after calming down, apologized for my passive agression and panicked actions a day or two afterwards. I unbanned the person I had directly spoke harmfully to, and apologized as did they. You typed out a message for the other person fighting me to send. It was filled with misinformation, was invalidating, ignored all my points in the debate, and was disrespectful.

If anyone wants more information on my view of this, I made a post here stating all the points that I made in this ticket that they completely ignored. You are an adult. You can be mad at me for being immature, but what does that make you? You , afterwards in anger, claimed that my ADULT MOD was "Jacking me off" for defending me.

That is fucking disgusting NO MATTER YOUR INTENT. I could give less of a fuck if that's an expression. I am an AMAB 16 year old and commenting that an adult who defended me was "jacking me off" at your grown ass age is fucking vile. There were a MILLION different expressions you could've used, but you chose that one. You have not apologized, you've only defended yourself in my friends servers and claimed that I am taking things out of proportion. Instead of apologizing and realizing that your angry statement was weird and sexual no matter your intent, you've chosen to defend yourself and throw a tantrum in partnered servers of mine about how you did no wrong.

Here's them opening a ticket in another server and defending themselves, so that people don't claim I'm not showing the full story. I acknowledge me and my mods didn't handle the situation correctly, I was dealing with a lot of stress and made bad decisions. That's my fault, and I am sorry. I have been forgiven by the person I hurt ( V ). They have forgiven me and are a happy active member in my server, and one of my main defenders. Here is all context provided to the "jacking k9 off" statement, just incase anyone wants to claim im not giving """Full context""" like Pierce has claimed.

This conversation wasn't even about me. They brought me up in a single sentence to say that my mod was "jacking me off" for not siding with them. I don't care what emotional state you were in, you're 19 saying that about an 18 and 16 year old. You should be ashamed. "It's an expression" does not give you an excuse to say that about a child just because you're angry. I am an AMAB 16 year old. Imagine if the roles were reversed and you were to say "They'er fingering k9!", you would get a lot more hate. My body as a male should be held to the same standard, expression or not. I make mistakes and apologize for them. You make mistakes and defend yourself. That is the line of difference.

Here's them being manipulative to V after V had forgiven me, and trying to excuse saying sexual things about a child because it was "taken out of context". Saying sexual things about an adult and minor is pedophilic. I know that's a heavy word. I mean it. Your intent doesn't matter. Think before you speak.

For my final message about this drama; The amount of hypocrisy in the accusations about me is hilariously pathetic. I am not here to defend myself, I am here to state the facts of what happened, to share my story with these banned members, and to state that still even after all the hate sent to me, I do not understand what I've done wrong besides ban people who have wronged me without remorse and make a few accidents in my communitcation. I have not ever used my age or mental state as an excuse for my actions. There is a huge difference between "I'm not sorry, It's not my fault, I'm a child and I'm mentally ill" And "I'm really sorry. I never meant to hurt anyone, I am still growing and not in a good place mentally. My actions have been influenced my by current mental health and I've made mistakes. I have apologized and will try my best to grow" which is my statement and what I've stated in the past. If anyone who I have wronged wants to DM me on tumblr or discord to explain their side of the story and be apologized to, I am completely open for that. I want nothing more than to fix my mistakes and make people happy. That has been my wish from the start. I never act on malicious intent, I've never encouraged threats towards those who have hurt me, and I will never do either of those things. I have over 1,000 members in my server who are constantly telling me how safe they feel in my community, how it's the only place they've actively spoken, how much they love my art and me, and I love them back. To all that have treated me like human and been unbiased in your view of the drama thrown at me, thank you. I love you all. You uplift my life and I couldn't possibly express my gratitude in words. I will continue making emojis for verbal accessability and I will continue to grow, be better, and mature in my responses to threatening or scary situations. You say I'm toxic for being confused and angry, for not reacting well to proofless accusations of my character as a person, of ignoring people who have no evidence or who wont even mention what I've directly done wrong. Yet you chase after my every mistake, you grab at my flaws that I work on every day to improve, and you use FORGIVEN ISSUES against me. This community is toxic because of people like you.

How hard was it for a single one of you to politely DM me and inform me on what I was doing wrong? How hard was it to maturely speak to me about what you think isn't okay? You call me immature yet you spread lies about me like a childrens game of telephone. I am sorry for anyone who I've hurt. I am not sorry for being human. Do not harass anyone I have mentioned in this. I do not condone hatred, even if they have encouraged it towards me. I am sorry if anyone takes what I've said as hostile. I am tired and angry of people demonizing me with little to no proof of what they claim. I am tired of sleepless nights wondering if someone is going to send me more threats or dox me. I am tired. /nav Thank you for reading.

[bubbipond]

As promised (because I genuinely didn't do my analysis phases justice for tldhlb since it's airing) here is my companion analysis of the KluerXOab stand-off. As well as all Oab's actions specifically. To read Kluer's click here. Remember, if you have not watched the show or the finale don't read this! Spoilers ahead! a/n: anything with ** and an exponent are notes at the end where I explain something further. Mainly because I do not want that paragraph to get off-topic. Enjoy...this is a long one!

As I discussed in Kluer's post, Kluer's last dish is a means to an end for our fave foodie couple. In his post, I highlighted the significance of Kluer forfeiting the competition and why that was important. What I did not speak about is how important it was for Oab and Wan too. So let's get into Oab's feelings and actions.

I am not going to lie, I watch so many dramas that I do not remember if they added this bit into the series but; Oab does not like long beans in the novel. Kua Suay being allergic is a major reason for the restaurant but he also does not enjoy them. That is an important aspect of the story because Oab doesn't like them, KS is allergic to them, and *¹*Wan likes his basil dish without them as well. That is, quite literally, how the show begins and plays a significant role in Wan meeting Oab and Kluer. As I said in the Kluer post, Kluer has been working with Oab for years and they have always had a great rapport with each other. They do not fight and it's pretty obvious that outside of Wan, Kluer gets the best treatment in the competition. He rarely gets yelled at and yes, a part of that is his skill, but it's also because Oab and Kluer respect each other. That's why last week Oab was worried about Kluer being upset with him. Logically, if he did not want Kluer to be in his life he could say who cares because he is giving up the restaurant but, he deeply cares about him so this is uncharted territory for the pair.

This circles me back to Kluer's final proverbial act, giving Oab long beans. I'll say it once, and I'll say it again, you cannot get me to hate Kluer, at least not in this aspect. He knows exactly what is happening and now, he sees there is truly nothing worth fighting for. Not Wan, not his friendship, and now not even the restaurant. Oab was obviously shocked but not because Kluer pretty much forfeited the competition, but that he was harsh doing it. Not only that, but, he did it knowing it was humiliating. A quiet stand-off between them that has been building for months.

That being said, Oab's reasoning for everything he does is not as black and white as Kluer see's it. I want to start off by reminding everyone that Oab has lost his love and passion for cooking. It was a mixture of many things. KS had left him and she was the only reason for the shop to exist. She not only helped pay for it but also helped run it and gave Oab a deeper passion for cooking. But now all that is gone and even with the return of KS, nothing changed. Except one thing did change and that was with the help of Wan. Unbeknownst to him he was reviving the love of cooking in Oab and creating a resurgence of passion in Oab (Oab was also doing this for Wan but I will speak on that when I talk about what I did not enjoy about novel vs show Wan). Oab knew that on some level Wan was lying to him. But like I said in one of my original posts, why would a billionaire plant someone who burns eggs on a cooking show? Right? For this reason and many others, Oab let his guard down. Whatever Wan was keeping from him, Oab gave chances to spill.

The thing is, him being a Methas plant is not the biggest problem here. It is his lack of full accountability for what all of that means to Oab. Two things are obvious during the last competition, both boys throw it. But for different reasons. In Wan's mind, throwing the competition resolves all their issues (it doesn't but that is one of the main things JJ berates him about, not being realistic). The issue isn't working for Methas. Anyone in that situation would understand that Wan, at the time of taking the deal, had no relationship with Oab or the restaurant. What is the problem for both Oab and Kluer is now you do and you can't forfeit your way out of still lying to them all. Losing on purpose does not resolve your sins; because that does not answer the most important question, was any of the attention, love, and care for Oab, Kluer, the other boys, and the restaurant real?

It's truly the only thing Oab wants to know. If all this was about money then, here, the restaurant is yours. But if you love me, tell me. Make me believe you weren't using my feelings for you to get what you wanted. But he doesn't and loses everything in return. He brought back Oab's passion and love for cooking but now he has to wonder if any of it was real. When the world he loved was slowly pulling him back in, Wan was at the center of it. But now he's back where he started. He's lost the person he loves in the shop they built (kua suay) and hopefully would *² *rebuild (Wan) together, but his passion is gone. There is nothing left to do. He is not thinking about Kluer or the integrity of the restaurant because now, what's the point? He tried so hard to keep it and give it to someone who would love and care for it. But the winner of all of that, and his heart, is also the one plotting to drag it down. Where Kluer thinks they should squash everything and tell Wan they know, Oab sees no point in any of it. If all he wants is money, he can have the shop. Nothing matters now because everything he thought he knew was a lie. So what exactly is the point of keeping the shop? Who cares if it becomes an apartment?

Everyone he has made food for, run this shop for, and given his all for, has let him down. He has made many choices in his life for other people, constantly putting others first. And both times it has bitten him in the ass. If the money means that much to him, enough to brutally break Oab's heart, take it. Because now, the shop really doesn't have a point. The shop's first great love left him and now his greatest love broke him. So what is the point of fighting for any of it?

Final Notes: ¹ Wan not liking long beans is an important thing to remember because it brings meaning back to the shop. Initially, KS's allergy is the main reason for its name and menu but now Oab has another reason to keep long beans off. It's both literal and theoretical. He literally has his greatest passion in the name and on the menu. So now, his passion (KS) is gone but a new one (Wan) arrives. It gave new meaning to the restaurant and even gave Oab a new lease on life. Which just added to the blow in the end. ² This is debatable because Oab did ask him to just lose so they could move on. As I said in Kleur's post, he does not believe Wan can run the shop or (at least) be the chef of it. It's nothing personal because Wan has a lot of business sense but he is not a chef, that much is obvious.

a/n: Anyway...I am sad the show is over. I loved their chaos! Guess I will just have to wait for PB2 for more SailubPon! I miss ALanJeff so come onnnnn (I say knowing it won't air til 2025 and it will inevitably give me anxiety).

[amagnificentobsession]

Seems like a war has been waged.

Someone threw their halo.

I’m seeing more and more venomous posts about the shipping of Michael and David. Aziraphale and Crowley have left the building for now it appears in this argument.

What is written here is MY opinion, no one else’s.

Choose to read it or not, it’s fine. But be respectful.

Not just of me, but of anyone.

The recent explosion of interactions between Michael and David completely and utterly enthralled us.

After the Twitter(X) debacle and the absolute HATE that Michael received for “not choosing a side”, his then attempt at explaining his thoughts (that he didn’t owe to anyone) for wanting it all to end, and civilian casualties to stop. Nope, not good enough Michael, you HAVE to pick a side. He was done. He didn’t want to do it anymore.

He’s working, has a family, came to (X) for a bit of fun and silliness. That was now gone. So he left. Probably in sheer and utter disgust. How can anyone blame him?

Now we have David Tennant, blooming like the most beautiful orchid, petals wide, labellum in its full GLORIOUS expansion, the likes of which we’ve never seen before.

Good Omens, Staged, Litvinenko, Dr. Who, Macbeth, being a DILF (3 goes into 6 twice Michael 🤭) it just continues.

From his choice in clothing, the dignity and eminence with which he carries himself. This comes from a deep self-assurance and self-worth.

Seeing the reviews for Macbeth, his stance onstage, the PURE divination on his face as he looked out and saw Michael. The LOVE in that moment would steal the last remnants of air from an exploding supernova.

No one can tell me there isn’t a pure, abiding LOVE between them. PURE. In whatever way THEY choose to categorize it.

Michael Sheen, we can all agree, holds NOTHING back. If he felt in anyway infringed upon with these ideas, can you imagine him saying nothing? Can you imagine him allowing his BEST FRIEND, someone he deeply LOVES, to be accosted with lies and misinformation?

I certainly cannot.

Michael Sheen has always been a powerhouse. Barreling through on whatever chosen path he decided.

David Tennant has been a softly caressing wave on the beach. Doing as he desired, quietly, without much fanfare. Happy to be low profile.

That has all changed with the adjoining of these two humans.

As others have stated many, many times, “the biggest shippers of these two, are Michael and David.”

Does this keep them in the public eye?

Absolutely.

Does this keep them trending and on topic?

Absolutely.

Do I think they would continue to be this same way with each other if the world looked the other way and didn’t care?

ABSOLUTELY.

[ceruleanwhore]

As someone who has never liked Jin since I first started ikepri, I recently was convinced to attempt to make my way through his romantic route after reading @randonauticrap’s wonderful and very compelling fanfic about him and now, as I finish his story, I wanted to take a very long minute to talk about it. I’d like to start with a bit of context before really getting into things, though. (Major spoilers for Luke and Jin’s routes below the cut.)

A few months ago, I saw a post somewhere on here that mentioned what, for me at the time, was a massive spoiler, that Jin killed Luke’s sister. At the time, I was in the middle of another route so I immediately took to YouTube to find a playlist of Jin’s route because my thought at the time was that I wanted to read it. However, I very quickly decided that I hated it, and then I kind of just flipped through some of the following chapters, kind of scanning for the stuff with Luke’s sister and not finding it, so then I just ended up skipping to the last 8 chapters and slogging through those. It is also worth mentioning that the only ending on YouTube was his dramatic ending.

Now, that whole experience sucked beyond belief and I came out of it deeply, passionately hating Jin because really all I saw was his awful, disrespectful behavior at the very beginning and that horrid shit he pulls both in ch 19 and then in the actual ending. A while after this whole ordeal, I did get around to reading Luke’s route, which made me hate Jin even more because, in the part where Jin is finally explaining what happened on Bloodstained Rose Day and we get his own flashback, there’s no dialogue, like he pulls this injured little girl from the rubble and then just slices her throat without her ever saying anything. Between that and what sure seemed like sexism from what bits and pieces of Jin’s route I’d seen, it gave me this idea that Leyla was straight up unconscious and he just decided to slice her throat like that because, in truth, he just wanted her out of the way and didn’t want to have to deal with her during the fighting but obviously he’d tell himself that it was for her sake or some shit. There’s still a bunch I’m missing with that but I’m about to get way more into this shit so I’m not concerned, but tldr I fucking hated this guy and I thought he was the worst kind of scum coming out of Luke’s route, especially since so many other people in the fandom have talked about how much he gives them the ick.

So now, at the end of his romantic route, I still don’t like him and I really think I was just bewitched by the beautiful things that @randonauticrap has written about him, but I don’t truly hate him anymore. I think I’m going to just list off my issues with his character as quickly as possible to just really show how much there is that I take issue with here without going on about it for an eternity.

First is the way he talks about women (i.e. comments about how he’s never seen such an impressive “rack” before.) More importantly, there’s how he’s sexualizing women in totally inappropriate contexts where there really aren’t any women present, like when he’s training his troops or when he goes to deal with that issue on the border and is addressing those kids from Obsidian. This particularly is disturbing to me because there’s already a longstanding history of men conflating sexual violence with the violence of war and for Jin to, however unintentionally, draw that direct of a connection between fighting in war and having sex with women is something I cannot abide by.

Also with his lack of respect of women is how he demands and abuses Emma’s time at the start of his route. It’s bad enough to put her in that god-awful position in the first place with Sariel and all that, but to then drag her away from the hard work she has to put in because of him just to make her spend an entire day watching him go around hitting on other women is beyond disrespectful. The other thing that really irks me is how he continues to hit on Emma after she’s made it super clear that, unlike the women he has relations with, she truly believes that such relations exclusively accompany real feelings. He acknowledges that she’s a true romantic and then is out here like “where’s my hug” and it makes me feel violent. I originally wasn’t totally against how he talks to women, since in canon all those faceless nameless side characters he fucks seem to be into it and I thought he was a consent king who stops if the woman clearly isn’t interested and only ever pursues women who are really into what he’s offering but apparently not.

Then there’s everything with Clause 99. First off, him putting in the clause basically reflects that his biggest fear is history repeating itself with his parents’ relationship and Clause 99 puts ALL of that responsibility on the women who will serve as Belle in the future. Secondly, this is backed by his hypocritical behavior throughout the different routes. In Luke’s route, he outright encourages Luke to pursue Emma in spite of making this clause and he easily yields to his other brothers when, in their own routes, they decide they want to revoke the clause, and yet Emma herself gets Clause 99 looming over her head throughout all of the routes. The conclusion which I believe is actually meant to be canon with this is that women are fragile little flowers who need extra special protection from the big, bad men and they need a fucking man to provide that protection. Rather than putting in any amount of effort at all whatsoever to make himself and his brothers and future generations of their family better, he’s putting all this serious, overwhelming pressure on the women. Also, the clause does jack shit to help mitigate the development of such emotions, so it literally just serves to put pressure and responsibility on women about things beyond their control while accomplishing nothing other than turning them into scapegoats.

Okay so then I really need to talk about Luke’s sister. So, as I started to talk about before, I now know that the flashback in Luke’s route was incomplete and that Leyla did actually beg for death, but even with that being the case there are still some major ethical issues here. For example, can a ~8 year old child have the bodily autonomy to actually request assisted suicide and should they? Does said child have enough knowledge of pain and injury to know when they’re actually about to die or not? Should a grown ass man actually heed a child’s request for death without even so much as having a doctor spare said child a glance first? But then after he killed her, he went and stole her body to go bury her in the woods, clearly just deciding that her dead body should go to him to use to try and make himself feel better. Those graves that are hidden where only he can find them do nothing for Leyla or for Luke; they exclusively exist for Jin. They are there solely for him to use to try and alleviate his guilt over time, like props. 

Then, there’s the part in Luke’s route where he discovers the truth about Jin, so Jin takes him on a walk to those graves and tells the story of how he killed Leyla before he then tries to get Luke to kill him. Once again, this has nothing at all to do with trying to give Luke justice or closure and it has everything to do with Jin making everything about himself. There’s even a bit in there where Jin basically phrases it like he’s asking Luke to do him a favor and hear him out, making it clear that this is not at all for Luke’s benefit. Likewise, if he really cared about Luke getting real, meaningful justice and closure, he wouldn’t be trying to get Luke to murder him, putting all that blood directly on his hands, giving him further pain and trauma, and also ensuring that Chevalier would then kill Luke because of course he would.

Another thing I want to add, going off of that, is how very badly Jin sucks at conflict resolution, which we see multiple times between his route and Luke’s, whether it’s his conflict with Luke or how he handles shit so utterly fucking terribly with Emma or even that bullshit at the border with Obsidian at the end of his route. This man isn’t just shit at conflict resolution, he’s thoroughly proven that all attempts he makes at it are just variations of the same shit: self sacrifice fueled by ego dressed up to look like it’s heroic and really meant for the benefit of others that only actually harms those it’s supposedly meant to protect.

So I think my final takeaway with his character is that he is inherently very selfish but he has no self awareness about that selfishness and genuinely believes everything he’s doing is for other people. Another thing I want to talk about is that I saw a video the other day that also has softened my overall feelings about Jin, and that video was talking about the lack of self awareness of male feminists. This video talke about how some of these men who are out here making online content around ‘educating’ other men about feminism and respecting women will sometimes share this sentiment like “women have all been traumatized by the bad men out there so you just need to be patient with them” and how condescending it is. The issue here is that, when men say this, they are refusing to acknowledge that even as a good ol feminist ally, their own behavior can come across as sexist and they themselves can give us the ick or make us feel unsafe. 

I bring this up because, with Jin, I originally thought he was a sexist dick hiding behind a very thin facade of “but I love women,” but now I think it really is just a complete lack of self awareness where, like the men that video talked about, he sees himself as a feminist who loves women, so he doesn’t see how his words and actions can make it seem as though he’s violently sexist. So, to sum everything up, when I first found @randonauticrap’s stuff and then subsequently decided to read Jin’s story, I genuinely hated him because I saw him as dangerously sexist and selfish but now, as I finish his route, I don’t like him but I no longer hate him the way I did. Now I see him as capable of change and I think that like after the end of the story, a good person like the one he’s in a relationship with could successfully help him grow and change into a better person.

[dont-blame-it-on-the-kids]

I could not find where I posted it so Here it Is

Captured (this is all I got so far)

“Lin, why do you call me Rohan but Amon calls me Yuka?” The young boy asked as he sat in her lap and played with a stuffed doll. He looked up and his dark green eyes met hers.

Lin felt her chest tighten and she gently brushed some of the hair from his face.

“Well, little man, I call you Rohan because that’s what your mother and father named you.” She said simply, smiling sadly at the five year old in her arms. So much time had passed since she last looked out over the air bending family on the back of that skybison. She didn’t even know if they had escaped Amon unscathed. He had her and Rohan, and it’s been so long, five years… she couldn’t imagine they were still looking for them, if they were ever even alive after being captured by the bloodbender.

“Oh,” he looked back to his toy, thinking, Lin could tell by the way his little mouth worked almost as if his thoughts were nearly escaping just like Tenzin used to when he was focused and almost muttering to himself.

“And mommy and daddy… are they nice?” He asked after a minute, wanting to know more about them, wanting to feel close to his parents despite never knowing them.

“Yes, they are very nice.” She said her voice softening some. “They love you very much.”

~Some Time Later~

Lin quickly grabbed the boys hands and stopped the air bending before Amon could notice anything was going on.

“Not now.” She hissed quietly.

Rohan looked up his eyes wide with shock.

“But Lin-“

“I said not now, later.” She insisted her voice low enough Amon couldn’t hear.

Rohan frowned but nodded and moved to dry the dishes with the cloth instead. Soon the dinner dishes were clean and Lin got Rohan to bed. The six year old sniffled as he lay down.

“I’m sorry, Lin.” He said not knowing why she was suddenly upset about his air bending.

“You don’t have to apologize. I’ll come get you once Amon leaves for the night.” Lin tucked him in and gently traced the bridge of his nose down to his lip, the path she had gently traced over his face since he was an infant. “I’ll explain everything okay, just pretended to sleep for now.” She assured him. He nodded and calmed at the familiar touch and closed his eyes, then peeked one eye open to see her. He sat up quickly and hugged her tightly, arms wrapping around her neck. She held him back, her hand gently patting his shoulders.

“Lay down little man, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” She smiled gently and tucked him back into bed again after the hug.

Rohan waited in the dark as he heard the muffled sounds of Amon and Lin talking through the walls.

The shower ran for a few minutes then Lin stepped back into his room. Her hair damp from the shower and long sleeved soft pajamas on. She came to kneel by the bed.

“I’m awake.” Rohan said softly he poked his head from under the covers and frowned deeply seeing the new bruise on her cheek and across the front of her neck.

“Amon hurt you again?” He asked worried then angry. He hated when Amon hurt Lin. She was mean sometimes but it was wrong to hit people!

“I’m fine little man, but I need you to listen to me, okay? I know it’s confusing but you *cannot ever* show your element around Amon or anyone other than me.” She said firmly, showing him how serious this was.

“But you said daddy was an air bender! And it’s something I can be proud of.” Rohan frowned.

“I now Rohan, and that’s true. But if Amon knows you have an element he will hurt you.”

His eyes fell to the bruise on her face and went wide.

“Do you bend too?” He asked shocked.

Lin eyes saddened as a grief passed her features.

“I used to be an earthbender. But Amon hurt me very badly and took my element away from me. I don’t want that to happen to you so he can *never* know you can airbend okay? You have to keep that a secret.” Tears filled her eyes as her chest tightened and she cupped his little face. He was so young, looking so much like his mother and father, reminding her at times of Avatar Aang.

“I don’t understand, Amon loves me, he says I’m going to take over the city when I’m older.” Rohan frowned deeply.

Lin shook her head.

“He will hurt you Rohan. He will take your air bending away from you.” she said sternly. “Promise me Rohan, you will not air bend around anyone but me and me alone.” She held out her pinky, the small symbol she knew the child could understand as important. A bonded word to someone as young as Rohan.

Rohan eyed her hand then scanned her face seeing the concern and seriousness of her features, the tears in her eyes. He reached up and locked his small pinky around hers.

“I promise Lin, I won’t airbend around Amon, or anyone else.” He added the last part quickly.

Lin nodded and used her hold on his finger to gently kiss the back of his hand before kissing his forehead.

“You’re a good kid Rohan.” She praised gently. “You are kind, and smart, and so brave.” She repeated the small mantra she’s been saying to him since they came to this place.

Since Amon started raising him to be a little Equalist Prince.

“I am kind and smart and very brave.” He smiled as he repeated and squared his shoulders.

“Good job.” Lin ruffled his hair before tucking him in again. “Get to sleep now. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Rohan nodded and closed his eyes. Dreams of Amon hitting Lin and now himself had him toss and turn over night, the worry encroaching that Amon would find out.

~Some Time Later~

Rohan watched in shock as Amons anger flared and Lin was suddenly lifted by her blood, a shocked cry of pain pulled from her involuntarily as she shook with the effort to free herself. Her limbs started to twist under Amons power. Tears filled her eyes as she tried to breathe.

“You have forgotten you are mine!” Amon snapped angrily. “The spirits *promised* you to me!”

Rohan felt tears of fear fill his eyes as he watched the agony Amon was putting Lin through. “Stop!” He begged as he ran up and clung to Amons jacket tightly. “Please! Please stop! Don’t hurt her!” He looked up at the masked man with tears streaming down his face.

Amon looked down at the boy.

“go to- your room-“ Lin tried not wanting the boy to be witness to this.

“Please Amon, stop hurting her.” He pressed with wide green eyes staring up at the bloodbender in terror.

Amons stance softened and Lin collapsed to the floor gasping for breath as she pushed herself to her hands and knees.

Amon knelt down and cupped Rohans face.

“My little Yuka, you don’t need to fear me.” Amon said softly.

“Why do you hurt her? Th-that’s not kind.” Rohan whispered now, tears falling from his eyes. He watched Amons eyes through the mask as another feeling bubbled up under the fear in his little chest.

Anger.

This man hurt Lin, he always had, and Rohan felt the fear step back as a rage entered his young heart.

“You always hurt her! It’s not fair!” He shouted now tears falling from his eyes. Suddenly Lin was at his side, blood trailing from her mouth down her chin as she pulled the child away from Amon. A hand intended to come across his face landed a harsh blow to Lin’s instead.

“He’s just a child.” Lin argued sternly as she, on her knees and still reeling from the bloodbending, squared up to Amon. Her cheek growing red in the stinging shape of a hand.

“You did this.” Amons voice was dangerous.

“I didn’t do anything.” Lin bit back. “You got too angry, too close.”

[ljf613]

Alright, been a while since I said anything really Problematiqué on here and I'm bored, so I'm going to stick my hand in the hornet's nest and say that this so-called Barbie/Oscars "controversy" is dumb and contrived and incredibly absurd.

For those of you who've been living under a rock for the past couple of days (or just avoid listening to anything about Barbie and/or the Oscars, which is very sensible of you), here's a Twitter post that summed up the situation:

In other words, the very fact that Ryan Gosling was nominated for Best Supporting Actor while Margo Robbie was passed over for Best Leading Actress and Greta Gerwig was passed over for Best Director is Terrible and Misogynistic and entirely the fault of the Patriarchy.

This has got to be the most absurd take I have seen this year. (Granted, "this year" has only been about four weeks, but the point stands.)

Let me explain some things to y'all:

Barbie received EIGHT Oscar nominations. (That is, in fact, a fairly impressive showing for a glorified toy commercial.)

One of those nominations was for America Ferrera as Best Supporting Actress.

Are you guys following? Eight nominations, and apparently none of it matters because the movie didn't happen to get the two specific nominations certain people wanted it to get. And not only that, but y'all want to tear down an actor who was nominated for an award that neither Greta nor Margo was even eligible for. Seriously? Don't you people have lives?

Now, I've heard that Ryan Gosling has come out and basically said that Margo should have gotten the nomination instead of him. (I haven't looked too deeply into this because I just Don't Really Care Enough.) If that's true, it's pathetic and nonsensical.

Ryan didn't take the nomination away from either of them. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. It's not like Margo or Greta would have been nominated for that award if not for him, and I am almost certain that nobody on the nomination committee (or whoever decides these things) was sitting there saying, "Well, we gave Ryan Gosling a nomination, and therefore we shouldn't give one to Margo Robbie or Greta Gerwig." (I am so tired of the "someone else has something I don't and that's Not Fair and therefore they must be oppressing me" narrative.)

(As someone who didn't actually watch the movie or follow it all that closely, I can tell you this much: I saw lots of people talking about how hard Ryan Gosling was working to get this part right, and how well he did. I don't remember a single post saying the same thing about Margo Robbie. Maybe, just maybe, he got a nomination because he did an above-and-beyond spectacular job and deserved it-- and she didn't? Just possibly?)

Also, an actress getting passed over for a Best Leading Actress nomination CAN'T be misogynistic. You know why? Because who gets that nomination instead? That's right-- some other woman. And as for Best Director, there is a woman who's been nominated for that award (Justine Triet for "Anatomy of a Fall"), so it's not like they were deliberately trying to make sure no woman got the award-- they just didn't feel that Greta Gerwig made the cut.

And even if you pretend we're living in some imaginary universe where the nomination committee deliberately snubbed Margo and Greta while nominating Ryan for Sexist Reasons, why would they have given a nomination to America Ferrera?

In short, whatever the reasons Margo Robbie didn't get nominated for Best Leading Actress and Greta Gerwig didn't get a Best Director nomination, they do not and cannot include:

The committee hated "Barbie" for unspecified Patriarchy Reasons.

Ryan Gosling stole the nomination away from them.

The committee liked "Barbie" but hated all of the women involved (for Patriarchy Reasons).

[sereves]

My thoughts on Ophelia

Bare with me, this is long.

Okayyy so I might get a lot of hate for this and this is my very first post so here we go.

I’m really sick of the fandom shipping Lawless x Ophelia, and it seems no one really touches on the gravity of their relationship and just blindly ships it because it's cute and matches the princess x knight aesthetic. I’ll be the first one to say it, although I love Ophelia’s character I really hated her relationship with Lawless. 

First off, she treated Lawless like shit. No one ever mentions this, but she only used him whenever she wanted to. Lawless being a servamp and all that, and not to mention it is heavily implied that Ophelia knew of Lawless’s feelings towards her which makes it extra hurtful. I mean, just look at this panel:

Is no one really going to say anything about this panel? Lawless even canonically says he felt used in their situation, and he’s not wrong to feel this way. Granted, again I love Ophelia’s character being based on Hamlet and her ambitions to keep peace within her kingdom, but man…She really used Lawless whenever she felt fit. 

Another thing I’d like to note is that whenever a character is talking about someone they love dearly, Strike intentionally makes the surrounding background of the character shine like they are an angel. Misano’s mom is an example of this. Seriously the fandom-loving Misano’s mom who intentionally homewrecked was weird and now that we’ve gotten her real backstory it feels as if Strike who made Misano’s mom look angelic and innocent has been shattered. It’s the same way how I feel about Lawless looking at Ophelia. It’s almost like rose-tinted glasses are being put on whenever the guys see someone they care for deeply. They cannot see their flaws.

Moving on, here is another panel I want to talk about.

Yall, I am upset with this panel a lot, and again, no one ever seemed to talk about it, but here Ophelia literally tells him not to cry and calls him a fool. AND she says he has no dignity as a servamp?? Guys, do you not see the toxic masculinity here 😭 No wonder Lawless is such a crybaby in the future, Ophelia literally told him to stop crying in the past and basically called him a big baby, when she is literally going to die. Like Lawless, is literally having a full-blown panic attack right now and Ophelia literally tells him to stop crying- I- WH Y- YOU ARE ABOUT TO DIE. HE LOVES YOU. YOU KNOW THAT. AND YOU TELL HIM TO STOP CRYING AND SAYS HE HAS NO DIGNITY. I’m sorry, I’m trying not to be too emotional but this panel really had me upset, because it really does explain later why Lawless cries so much when he lost djinn later on, and is noted as a “cry baby”. Gee, I wonder why, maybe cause in the past the person he loved used him, emotionally abused him, and told him to stop crying 💀

Moving on, theres this,

yALL, SHE CUCKED HIM FOR REAL 💀 😭Like my mans did not deserve this 😭I get it she had to do it for peace for her country but damn, did she really brush off Lawless when she KNEW he had feelings for her. When she said she was getting married she and during the actual marriage she fr had that smile on her face as if she wasnt breaking Lawless’ heart into a million pieces 💀

MY NEXT AND BIGGEST POINT:

She. Was. A. Child. When thye met. Guys, please tell me I’m not insane for not shipping them, but Lawless met Ophelia as a child and basically raised her. I cannot get over it, it’s weird??? Bro basically prordered her 💀I love Lawless, I really do. He’s been my favorite character for the past like 6 years, but the Ophelia x Lawless ship really gives off weird vibes. Like I really dislike how they met when Lawless was a full on adult and Ophelia was literally like 10 in this panel, and then she grew up. Like thank god they didn’t get together cause that’s basically gr00ming since he kinda raised her💀I’m going to move on from this, and let you guys process this, but yeah…

Alright those are my main points for now, sorry if this is rushed, I’ve been having these thoughts ever since I met Ophelia not gonna lie and this is way overdue, but I’ve had my suspicions for awhile that Strike frames loved ones in rose-tinted glasses for a reason, and then later on reveals who they are actually. Not saying this matches with Ophelia, but after seeing the reveal on Misano’s mom being a whole hoe I figured I’d finally get the balls to make this post. I know I’m going to get chastised for this, but honestly, someone needs to say it. Happy Thanksgiving yall, and my inbox is open if you wanna talk about this, but please be gentle, I’m not here to fight anyone, just give my opinions.

(Edited: typos and grammar)

[aknolan]

ok so can you explain how nnd have more buildup then other ships (not a rant)

Is the "not a rant" like, an instruction for me? Because I am very bad at not going off on a rant but the good news is I'm not currently interested in giving the full overview anyways so I'll stick to the main points of their buildup.

This is going backwards a little but looking at volume 9, I mean, it's pretty clear? Penny's death is a big part of Ruby's current breakdown and it's because Penny is so deeply important to Ruby. And when you consider how different parts of the scene with Neo's constructs are framed? When not!Penny starts talking, everything goes quiet. No fighting, no running, just not!Penny talking to Ruby, and Ruby listening. This is where you put the love interest in a scene all about an antagonist using the protagonist's emotional weak spots!

Neo was trying so hard to hit Ruby where it hurts, and all the other attempts include physical violence, but this? This just just emotional. This is what Neo thinks will hit the hardest, and from a meta-perspective it's what the writers think is the most meaningful part.

Going back though, I feel like it's a little bit obvious to tell how important Ruby is to Penny, right? Like, we all know that? First friend, first to treat her like a person, etc. etc.

The other way around, up to v3 there's not that much for how important Penny is to Ruby, really. I'll accept that. There's nothing necessarily distinguishing Ruby's grief over being too late to save Penny from her grief over being too late to save Pyrrha later either. But v7 is when Penny returns, and it's interesting! Really interesting!

This is where Penny starts getting consistently framed as Ruby's love interest. It's like that one post about her return in v7e1, "goddamn anime love interest framed by the fucking moon", if I'm quoting it right. And the v7 intro showing an image of a very happy Penny at the end of the phrase "in time you'll find through love your power just shines" is also some love interest framing. Then of course the election night episode pairs up a couple of characters, Ren and Nora of course, Blake and Yang going dancing, and then... Ruby and Penny hanging out. And of course the repeated important conversations happening, and the thing where Ruby almost fell asleep on Penny's shoulder which is just like, such a ship tease moment.

But v7 isn't that clear about it, so I get if that's not very convincing. I think it's more than any other ship has but the really big stuff gets there in v8.

The volume where they really Cannot Stop Hugging, and where Ruby promises they'll see eachother again soon, and Ruby's silver eyes are (not for the first time!) suddenly able to activate when Penny's in danger, and Ruby holds onto Penny so tightly - so afraid to let go because something is wrong and she can't lose Penny, and they all use the relic of creation to save Penny before they do anything else (and yeah I hate that scene but it's meaningful and I won't deny that it's meaningful), and yeah saving Penny is the theme of the volume because she was the winter maiden but for Ruby it's not about that. She can't lose Penny.

And then she loses Penny and she literally passes out the moment she finds out.

To bring it all back down to something simple, when the antagonist torments the protagonist with someone close to her saying the words "can you imagine what that's like? To be completely and utterly failed, time and again, by someone who meant the world to you?" after which the protagonist is more distraught then we've seen her all volume, in a volume all about how distraught she is all the time? That person meant the world to the protagonist too.

So yeah, I'm inclined to say they've got more buildup than any noncanon ships, you are free to point something out to me if there's a ship with a ton of buildup that I'm somehow missing but like... I'd be shocked.

[leo-fie]

News from the Twilight Zone, Berlinale Edition

After a forced break from Mastodon, I'm back on there and back in German language social media. And it seems like nothing has changed, the levels of zionism are still absurdly high.

I'll explain it with an example, this article by publicly funded news show Tagesschau from today (26th February 2024):

The headline reads: Allegations after Berlinale gala - "Antisemitic and anti-israeli rhetorik"

What happened? I asked myself the same thing this morning (read: noon) after falling out of bed. Berlinale is a film festival in Berlin, and a sad attempt at a pun. It's a big deal for the Feuilleton and not much else. But apparently someone said something antisemitic. Who? What? In what context?

Nah, the subheader is not helpful and the first two paragraphs are about how the israeli ambassador is mad, saying the german art scene only rolls out the red carpet for israel's deligitimization. Apparently there was applause for the antisemitic remarks.

The Berlinale was very political this year (just like the last, and the one before that, and the one before that, imagine that!), and a lot of the artists had called for a ceasefire. Very reasonable, one would assume.

Then the article literally does the "do you condemn hamas?" meme. Can't make this shit up:

It goes on how our chancellor Olaf Scholz (soc-dems) critiqued the "one-sidedness" and how federal minister of culture Claudia Roth (greens) wants to do an investigation together with Berlin's mayor and senate. All are very shocked! Berlinale is a place for variety, different perspectives and dialogue, not for hate, agitation, antisemitism, racism, islamophobia, and all kinds of misanthrophy.

The satements of, according to the article, "ceasefire now" is deeply one-sided and israel-hating.

Berlin's mayor Wegner then says that it's all in Hamas' hands, they just have to let the hostages go.

Then finally, we get something concrete. Apparently a filmmaker named Ben Russel has spoken of the gaza war as a genocide, which prompted some green MP to accuse him of victim-blaming on Twitter. Two other politicians say similar things, again stating that art is for a variety of poltiical opinions, just not that one.

The organizers of the Berlinale say some nothing, then the last two paragraphs are where it gets interesting. Because some hero posted this on the Berlinale Instagram:

The post has since been deleted, the Berlinale team distanced themselves from it, say they were hacked and filed a police report for "antisemitic agitation". Calling for a ceasefire and naming the genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians by name is a criminal offence in Germany now.

I personally think that Germany is one of the most zionist places right now, because here exists no distinction between Judaism and Israel. Whereas other western countries have protest movement in solidarity with the palestinians, and the media machinery has to work hard to manufacture consent for the ongoing genocide, where being an antizionist is normal for a leftist, we here in the country of "never again" don't even have the idea of critiquing Israel. We, in a very Orwellian sense, cannot think it, because we don't have the words for it.

[labyrinthhofmymind]

ok these are my final thoughts on the tortured poets department for the night (this is probably a lie, i genuinely can’t stop thinking about it):

1. the tortured poets department THE SONG is so amazing i’m deeply obsessed it tears at my heart in such a specific way it so makes sense it’s the title of the album

2. what if i said my boy only breaks his favourite toys is remus talking about sirius….

3. so long, london GIVES MAJOR TOLERATE VIBES SONICALLY WISE, you can tell aaron denser helped make it AND I LOVE IT

4. but daddy i love him is jaw dropping, ground breaking, so perfect, absolutely heart wrenching, THE BEST DAMN SONG CREATED TAYLOR HOW DO YOU DO IT

5. fresh out the slammer = wolfstar post azkaban. next

6. FLORIDA!!!!!! ULTIMATE FLORENCE SONG THANK YOU TAYLOR FOR LETTING HER SHINE!!!!!! THIS SHOULD BE A SINGLE!!!!!!

7. who’s afraid of little old me? is actually life altering. LIFE ALTERING

8. I CAN DO IT WITH A BROKEN HEART???? THE BACKGROUND SOUNDS???? THE WAY ITS HER LITERALLY PERFORMING THROUGHOUT THE SONG AND BEING ALL HAPPY EVEN WHILST SHES HEARTBROKEN?????? TAYLOR YOU HAVE DONE IT AGAIN

9. again i could most definitely relate wolfstar to the smallest man who ever lived but i don’t think that’s wise for my mental health….

10. the name drops in clara bow GAGGED ME

11. THE BLACK DOG. THE BLACK DOG SKFNNSNFNSNFNNDNFNDNNFNDNF GOODBYE

12. imgonnagetyouback is marauders vibes I CAN FEEL IT JUST GIVE ME A MOMENT

13. so high school = jily

14. i’m convinced taylor read my journal when she wrote i hate it here. I RELATE TO THAT SHIT OH GOD

14. the prophecy is lily evans and harry potters song no i won’t be explaining that next question

15. cassandra dorcas

16. peter. PETER. PETERRRRERR. taylor knows guys….. SHE KNOWS

17. THE BOLTER IS MY SONG! it scratches my brain in such a specific way i cannot cope it means so much to me it’s perfect and i claim it as mine no one loves that song like i love it ALSO ITS MARYS ANTHEM!!!!!

18. manuscript is genuinely the most perfect album closer to any taylor album ever, it gives me chills and makes me think we’re witnessing the end of a major era of taylor and the way she creates music/performs

sorry not sorry for how long this is I JUST HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS GUYS. also the anthology is truly hitting in a way i didn’t think possible, all 31 songs are absolutely perfect taylor has outperformed yet again maybe my fav album IDK IM FEELING SO MUCH YOU GUYS PLS LEMME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS

[velvet-vox]

WD N/V to MD N/V is like Nori/Yeva to Doll/Uzi.

Ahi. This is gonna hurt a lot.

So, let's start by saying that you are right.

Now, I don't think the comparison is as direct and precise as other comparisons like, N X Uzi and V x Doll. Plus, I'm not 100% sure Liam intended for us to make this comparison in the first place; don't get me wrong, the guy has great attention for details, but some of his writing decisions regarding the characters that are not Uzi, N, or Cyn, leaves me to question whether he thought this deeply about these possible connections between characters and their relationships.

The main problem with episode 5 is that Liam decided to focus on Uzi and N when the episode would have greatly benefitted from having N and V as our P.O.V. characters. I get that he didn't want Tessa as the main character because he was just going to reveal her dead a few episodes later, and still needed to do some extra work on Nuzi to make Uzi's sacrifice hit harder, but that's why we needed more time and episodes (please stop with the 8 episodes season format I hate it) to build up to this season finale; regardless of budget, he should have known that the plot should be in service of the characters and not viceversa.

But back to your question: to answer it, I'll better start talking about my personal relationship with N x V. You see, the first time I watched Murder Drones, right after the pilot, I've written off N's crush for V from the story, especially since I didn't like the way N info dumped us on his affection.

A couple of episodes of Murder Drones had already been released at that point, so I just assumed after the Pilot, the whole thing was retcon since N didn't really bring up his crush after that episode and V didn't seem to have feelings for N aside from a desire to protect him. (Of course, that's only at first glance; I said it once and I'll say it again, to do an analysis on one of the Murder Drones characters you need to be specialised on that character).

Naturally, as I rewatched the episodes and interacted more with the community, I gained a better understanding of Envy as platonic and romantic.

Onto your point; the thing is that fundamentally Worker Drone N and Worker Drone V are the same character as Disassembly Drone N and Disassembly Drone V, while Nori and Yeva are completely different characters from Uzi and Doll; so in the first case, we're talking about a relationship between two characters that changed over time and trauma, while in the second case, it's a relationship between two characters that we don't know enough about and their children.

And this is the main problem discussing Nori x Yeva: we do not know enough about them. Like, on the surface, from the way Yeva extended her hand to Nori in the flashbacks of episode 7, we can draw parallels between that and butler N reading maiden V facts about golden retrievers; then we can assume Nori and Yeva had a fallout similar to N and V, which is so far the only way we can explain Yeva never trying to forge a relationship between Uzi and Doll (which, if we're being honest, would have saved the both of them and the show. I guess, much like her daughter, Yeva couldn't girlboss forever), but after that, the rest of their story is still murky; I honestly think there's gonna be a plot twist regarding Yeva, because, otherwise, I cannot see the reason why we've got that backstory in episode 7; I guess Nori just wanted to let N (and the audience) know how things went down, but there had to be a quicker/better way to do that, Liam rarely puts in a scene that he deems unnecessary.

Lastly, Uzi and Doll didn't get the chance to recover that they should have had, but if they did, I can only imagine that their dynamic would have been much healthier than the current N x V dynamic. As I stated in my V and Doll; trauma, mental disorder and low empathy post, Doll actually tried to connect with people throughout the events of the series in her sociopathic not neurotypical kind of way, it's just that she was extremely cloudy in her decision making; so, if Uzi and Doll got a chance to connect in one of events of the show, they would have rekindled their nonexistent spark much quicker than V and N, since, out of the two, I unironically think that Uzi is the one with the bigger walls surrounding her.

I have an on/off relationship with Doll's death and her possible resurrection. At times, I really believe that this is the ending for her; but if she were to survive in any way, for sure she would get that dreaded redemption arc and go to Uzi's side, the trauma from Cyn Tessa should have been enough for her to decide to join the main gang without any second thoughts.

Want more?

[creekfiend]

Just wanted to say thanks for "people from culturally Christian backgrounds" because that seems like a good way to phrase it, and I'm going to try to remember to use it when I'm talking about this sort of thing. (I try to not be a dick to people, when possible, and trauma's messy and complicated.) I'm sorry that some people are being horrible in this whole discussion, and I hope you are doing okay.

I'm doing fine! I really sympathize with most of the people involved in this tbh (except the outright antisemites of course lol) bc like I HAVE seen a lot of reactive and reductive and unkind blanket statements about this by some jumblr people in which they are condescendingly explaining other people's realities to them. Which is my LEAST favorite thing. Jumblr can also be really... umm, dog pile-y in a way that I find frustrating and unproductive. However. I think it's also fairly obvious that most of these reactions are trauma responses, and while that isn't an excuse it is an explanation and provides additional context that I do not feel is irrelevant. For jews we have constantly been told 'well simply stop being jewish' like all the time by everybody, often at gunpoint. So like, when I see nonjewish atheists assert that stuff jews are TELLING you they have gone through "literally never happens" that ALSO REALLY SUCKS. like so so bad. Cannot overstate how much that sucks. Cannot overstate how much it sucks to see ppl I sympathize with deeply wrt their mistrust and hatred of like, organized religious authority, align themselves with people who refer to jewish atheists as "religious nationalists" for refusing to divorce themselves from their ethnic backgrounds/culture/community/traditions. That rhetoric is Just antisemitism in a form that has been used to cause real and violent harm to us in living memory.

Also really alienated by the idea that one must be This Vitriolically Angry About Religion to "count" as an atheist. Like what? That is bonkers. I do not understand why the people making seemingly reasonable posts about "actually here's some interesting writings by people from Islamic cultures or majority Hindu cultures or orthodox jewish cultures outlining the ways that the authorities in these societies have used religion to cause harm on a systemic level" (objectively true) seem to be aligning themselves with people who are doing the SAME THING TO JEWS that they resent being done to them -- e.g. condescendingly explaining to us that our negative experiences with a certain type of atheists Don't Exist or Don't Count or cannot possibly be rooted in antisemitism.

I find the whole thing depressing and troubling. I don't tend to follow jumblr because of the aforementioned issues I have w it but this backlash seems to me to be disproportionate and really hateful in a way that... combines poorly with the increased antisemitic sentiments being lobbed at jews from all ideological sides recently. I wish we could all be more congizent of 1. the role trauma is playing here for everyone and 2. the inherent lack of productive discussion that can be had when two parties are simply Trauma Responsing at each other back and forth endlessly.

Then there's the people who just get super aggressive about people "believing fake things" but I'm not sure there's any help for them. Sure wish that the nonjewish atheists who are not like that would disavow them though! I certainly am more than happy to say "acknowledging a cultural/societal dynamic that privileges one religion and culture as default and that existing in thay culture might cause people to have unexamined assumptions about other religions and cultures" should not be weaponized against individual people in order to bully them by insisting they are a thing that they manifestly are not (atheists aren't Christians. The fact that atheists from Jewish backgrounds will have Jewishness shackled to them regardless of their degree of identification with Being A Jew is actually bad and a function of antisemitism; it is not an aspirational dynamic we should be applying to other people simply because their cultural background is privileged over our own in our society.)

Like can we stop talking past each other and try to understand where people are coming from

People are expressing a lot of hurt and anger about atrocities and systems of oppression that I ultimately feel are totally interconnected. Because of this hurt and anger most people are not being precise in their language or prioritizing connecting or actual dialogue about this and instead focusing on dogpiling and gotchas. It's discouraging.

I'm a secular humanist jew with complex feelings towards both jewishness and atheism as concepts and movements. I want to understand and connect with people based on our common ground.

This is I guess all me being a big baby who is unsuited to internet fights but this one specifically feels really hurtful to me because I feel like my reality is being ignored and denied. I suspect a lot of people are also feeling that way. Which might be a good place to START the discussion to be honest.

[garden-variety-jumo]

Someone asked me about it but they were a TERF so I had to block them. But I wanna ramble about it anyway so voila my post:

Alien Cultural Differences I Love (in Doctor Who, anyway)* :

Disclaimer: forgive my knowledge of Doctor Who being a little spotty, a lot of it I learned purely through the fandom

(Skipping over regeneration because that is a huge one)

NAMES: I cannot emphasise enough how much I adore their naming conventions/them not revealing their "real" names. Like, naturally, there's the inherent trans-ness of choosing your own name, but I also love the idea of choosing it after what you want to emulate. (And if I may mention, the outright insanity that the Master, who HATES humans, used a human term. Which. Hmm. Yeah. The implications. (To me))

There are also academy names, which I think are Super interesting, because from what I can see, they still aren't their real names, but they're never mentioned supposedly after their academy days. So, they have an element of the superstition that their real names have, But they are still like,, placeholder names.

I think I once read a fic where there was a superstition/fairytale about speaking your real name out loud and being stolen by toclofane because of it- which I think is Brilliant!!

Language: First of all. We must applaud whoever designed Gallifreyan writing because it Fucks Severely. What an absolutely beautiful form of writing. Additionally, I don't Believe we've ever heard it in the show, which means it's fully up to interpretation. Something that makes me deeply sad to think about is, at least in RTD's initial era, how the Doctor is the only one left to speak a dead language. I like the headcannons that it's very difficult for other species to learn (while they would never be able to properly re-create it, that doesn't mean they can't learn a form or version to it  though!!) This could be due to vocal differences or even, potentially, psychic elements to it- which leads onto my next point:

Psychic Abilities: I'm going insane what do you MEAN Gallifreyans are a psychic race I'm going to loose my mind. If you take that into consideration, it has to have influenced their society or how they socialise somewhat. What must their perception of the world feel like? What are the social conventions/ethics of it all? I feel like they only scratch the surface of this topic in the show and long story short I would like a handbook that explains all of this in depth.

Imagine, then, going from a society that Could, if they wanted, connect to each other psychically, then having it all taken away. How empty that must feel??

The society: While my memory on Gallifreyan culture is a little muddied, it's been made Pretty clear the culture and socialisation is very different to, at the very least, humans. For one, the hubris Time Lords are taught to believe in. (At the very least, Time Lords being Gallifreyan but Gallifreyans not necessarily being Time Lords)

What other subtle differences might there be from there? I imagine they would be taught cultural norms/habits of other species in order to blend in or better communicate ((for example, the story the Doctor was telling about aliens who communicated largely with their eyebrows)). Time Lords in the show are vaguely "human" with certain landmarks to prove them as a different species, two hearts as the most prominent example. They are also implied to have three brainstems, and I'm sure, other internal differences (isn't it mentioned they have orange/rust coloured blood?) Therefore, what forms of socialising did they evolve differently, that they must adjust for speaking to humans? It's just cool to think about!!!

Biology: Largely touched upon in the previous point but their Blood is Orange. That's pretty neat!!!!!! WOAH ALSO. Their body temperatures being naturally lower!!!! That's an absolutely fascinating detail. I wonder if the Doctor ever discloses these medical details to their companions in case of emergency? Almost definitely not...

Aspirin: It's fatal to Gallifreyans? Insane. And has the Doctor ever mentioned this to their companions, just in case? Probably not.

THE GOD DAMN FOBWATCHES: Insane to me that they can just. Do that. As a lover of Tensimm, I regularly think about the set up of series 3 and how insane fans must have felt watching it live. Fobwatched Ten largely sucks though, my love goes out to Martha always. (But also... does that imply Ten's memories and experiences made the Doctor kind? Or being a Time Lord in itself, though that seems to align less with what we know)

Aaaand that's all I can think of for now!!

*((Special shout out to Mandolorian culture also, though. I am entranced and fascinated by it))