#I hope this explains my thoughts on this whole discourse!

[myfairkatiecat]

nightfall was crazy, but I'm also kind of confused??? It went by sooo fast I was like WHAT? WAIT, WHAT? WAIT WAIT WAIT-

Love the fact that they went on with keefes whole "I'm not worth it, but you are, so I'm going to take over decisions we need to make (as a team) and screw them over so that they cause harm to me and not you!" Kinda vibe, honestly thought that after he came back from the neverseen in lodestar they were just going to forget about it, yk??

Only thing I really didn't like is that like...everyone has a slight distrust to keefe (at least in the start, till he apologized ) but Sophie, the person who was (in my opinion) most affected by his 'betrayal' never once had a doubt???? Like, if someone betrayed me, right? Yk they're my friend whatever whatever, ID STILL HAVE SOME KIND OF LIKE ISSUES WITH THEM???

I feel like her distrusting keefe and then slowly learning to trust him would have made the book MUUUCH better!!

Also, I'm still not getting where the Fitz discourse is coming from, like, his sibling just betrayed him, fell unconscious and WOKE UP WITH NO MEMORY OF ANYTHING?? I can see where the anger issues come from

Holy shit this was long, sorry!

-- @localburntoutkid

Had a blast reading this!

You’re so right about Keefe. That definitely doesn’t get dropped after lodestar, or even nightfall—it’s one of his character’s main flaws, and while it does shift and evolve as the series moves on, it’s kind of there, you know? And I’m really hoping it resolves in some way by the end of the series, because his arc is just… so interesting to me. Because it is NOT arc-shaped. At all.

I get what you mean about Sophie being the only one who doesn’t distrust Keefe when he comes back. I really like that too acknowledge that it’s a Sophie-specific thing, though! Too many people forget that this is a third person limited story told by an unreliable narrator, and act like Shannon Messenger herself is telling us Keefe deserves to be fully trusted. Sophie Foster decides, at the end of Neverseen, not to hate him, and Lodestar is where she has her moments of doubt and distrust, but even in Lodestar, she always believes in Keefe’s good intentions. There’s even a scene where she says something like “Yes, Keefe’s plan is horrible and I hate it, but his heart is in the right place. I have to believe that.” The part about keefe’s plan is paraphrased, but she did say she needs to believe his heart was in the right place, in that wording, and it’s fascinating to me. She’s very attatched to Keefe (obviously) and I think it’s mostly for her own sanity that she chooses over and over to believe that there’s something right about what he’s doing, because letting him go sounds excruciating, even by his own fault.

I actually have no issue with this being Sophie’s perspective, and I actually find it interesting especially in the context of sokeefe, but I wish we got to see this portion through another character’s eyes. For example, Fitz. Someone who does distrust him afterwards, and rightfully so.

As far as Fitz discourse goes, that stuff stemmed less from nightfall and more from flashback and legacy. I don’t hate Fitz in either of those books, but you’ll probably notice the moments that made people kind of go nuts about hating him and ran away with his character (personally, I think Fitz is fully understandable in both books, but don’t fully condone the way he acts in a few scenes, particularly in legacy. I’ll explain later after you’ve read it)

Don’t apologize for length, I’m literally Katie, have you met me? Everything I write is longer than I intend

I’m glad you’re having fun with the KOTLC series. Keep me updated!!!

[lorephobic]

so should we bring all the dead guys that fought nazis back and ask their ghosts to talk about their hot takes on the us military in 2024 before we decide what jokes can and can’t be made at their expense? a great fuck ton of them didn’t live to see a post 9/11 world or even the vietnam war.

i don’t consider myself up the U.S. armed forces ass and think it’s an immoral organization in its current form. but bringing the current palestine bombardment into wanting people to not bash in the 100th bomb group members over being upset about a tv show is ridiculous. that’s a whole lot of projecting to cope with getting pushback over some distasteful jokes. you said insensitive shit and got pushback on it. the world still spins, no one is helping themselves by digging the hole here.

why r u people so obsessed with the real life soldiers. we are talking about the impact of a tv show that is being released in 2024. it does not matter that the events of the show take place in the past and it does not matter that these soldiers were the good guys. it is crazy that u are all sticking ur neck out for an apple-produced war show that insofar only pushes the narrative that it is noble to die for your country so long as we're in pursuit of destroying the bad guys. (the bad guys being whoever ur officers tell u to kill). if you don't see how that kind of messaging could be problematic in the present day then idk what to tell you.

i don't think it's projecting to point out and criticize military propaganda and i don't think it's deflecting to call attention to the lengths that people will go to defend that military propaganda.

[nobodysdaydreams]

Explaining fandoms I’m not in, but I have seen on my dash from the mutuals (to the best of my knowledge based on their posts):

Why? Because I thought it would be fun and entertaining and I hope I’m not wrong.

The Magnus Archives (TMA)- a group of people document creepy and supernatural events while they slowly one by one discover either that they are the monsters/possessed by them, or that they are being taken in by the monsters, or that their coworkers are the monsters, or that they themselves are possibly friends with or dating the monsters, or that they have been working for the monsters (or bad guys) the entire time. Many of the villains seem to be demented or possessed life sized toys and clowns or eyeballs. This podcast has so many episodes, and I see so many posts about it, but these seem to be the common themes.

Miraculous Ladybug- actually haven’t seen this one on my dash in a long time, but when I first did, despite appearing like a straightforward kids fandom, the shipping discourse confused the heck out of me. But if I have this right, based on the posts from my younger followers, two teenagers are animal themed superheroes who are dating each other and also have crushes on each other, but they don’t know they are dating each other, because they don’t know each others secret identities, because… okay, I still honestly have no idea why. There are ~5K posts about this apparently very central and specific plot line, but not one explains why they don’t just tell each other who they are??? Anything for the plot, I guess. Apparently this has been going on for a long time to the point where even the show’s target audience of children is confused as to how these teenagers and grown adults haven’t put the pieces together as to who everyone’s secret identity is.

Keeper of the Lost Cities (KOTLC)- there’s a girl named Sophie. She is an elf in a love triangle with Keefe and some other guy (I think his name is Fritz). Keefe’s parents are terrible, especially his mom. Sophie has horse DNA (I don’t know if that post was a joke or not sorry if that’s wrong). There’s an elf with fire powers. Elves read minds. There’s a group called the black swan who are the good guys, I think. Also I think the elves and humans are at war. I know Keefe’s parents are trash, does Sophie have parents? From what I can tell, she grows up believing she’s a human but then surprise! She’s an elf and the chosen one, and elves are possibly immortal? Wait, maybe Sophie’s a half elf. Is that a thing?

Spy x Family - two people are fake dating each other for spy reasons but eventually fall in love for real. The twist is, they each think the other is a normal civilian who doesn’t know about the fake relationship (which is kinda messed up to make someone fall in love with you for a fake cover but if they’re also doing the same to you that’s karma I guess) but I think it might end up ok, because they fall in love for real (Aw) but possibly also not okay, because I also think it might be revealed that they’ve been working for enemy sides this whole time (drama). Also the adopted daughter is a mind reader who knows everything but chooses to keep what she knows secret for the plot. Respect. And I recently saw something about the family having a super powered dog? Is he real?

The Murderbot Diaries - a bunch of robots are created for one purpose: murder. But when their murder programming goes haywire, they discover that they might have more in common with the humans they’ve been assigned to kill than they originally thought. Or that they have more humanity inside themselves than they thought… or maybe that the people who created them have more evil intentions than… well in hindsight, “the people who build the murder robots are evil!” seems like an obvious plot twist, but maybe they’re more morally complex or had decent intentions and just never intended for it to go this far… or maybe the robots get hacked or decide maybe they don’t want to be murder bots anymore which brings us back to free will. Interesting philosophical questions, but I think the robots might be getting into some wacky shenanigans as well. Also they apparently have diaries. I get that a diary is just like… a log of what they’re doing, but that won’t stop me from imaging a big scary robot with a little pink glitter pen writing “Dear Diary, I killed three people today. I still see their faces when I try to power off at night. When I go into sleep mode, I dream of their faces. I begin to wonder things, like whether they had families, dreams, or ambitions. I also wonder what they felt in their final moments. I fear this means I am developing a conscience and desire to turn against my programming and the creators. But probably nothing a little update and restart can’t fix. I’ll keep you updated, dairy. XOXO, Murderbot 💕” So. How did I do? Scale of 1-10, with 10 being “you nailed it!” and 1 being “None of this is remotely close. What posts have you been looking at?”

[stonegoldsxcrxt]

Okay so I honestly haven’t been active on tumblr in forever. But if I’m ever thinking of star wars, I like to take a peek at your blog because I feel like you are one of the few who loves Luke as much as I do. But what I want rn is to give my two cents on this whole acolyte thing. And I hope you don’t think I am trying to come at/attack you or anything of the sort. This is just my (somewhat complicated?) take on things. Sorry if this gets super long. I have many thoughts. And I hope I don’t confuse at all while trying to explain! Unfortunately, I’m not very eloquent lol. Anyway:

Personally? I’m kinda intrigued by the Osha/Qimir dynamic. And this is coming from someone who honestly severely disliked the sequels—especially kylo and reylo (but a lot of it was due to fandom bs as well). I mean, I’ll admit some of it is due to my own bias because this time around I’m glad both of the actors are hot and they are both absolutely acting their asses off. And maybe there hasn’t been enough for you in the show (I get it tbh, the episodes are short and there’s only so much you can do with 8 episodes and this is honestly a problem with D+ and a lot of streaming services now), but I can see what Leslye was aiming for with the dynamic. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is one of my fave movies so I definitely see the influence. But Headland did also point out that a lot of enemies to lovers is about one character going “I know there’s good in you!” or what the hell ever—and Osha didn’t do that. That’s something I can appreciate whereas in TLJ it seemed like Rey was all about freaking Kylo and was convinced there was still good in him even though the literal day before he had nearly killed both her and Finn.

I do disagree about there being no manipulation, though. Qimir IS being honest and vulnerable, but clearly he hopes to gain something with Osha from that. But whereas I didn’t buy any of it with Rey and Kylo, I can see how and why Osha might fall to the dark side. She is clearly conflicted about everything from her emotions to her very own identity. But Qimir is offering her a sense of clarity about that AND on her past. Osha loves and admires Sol deeply of course, but he has obviously been keeping something huge from her. And if it turns out he was majorly involved with whatever happened to her coven, it makes sense that Osha would then embrace whatever negative emotions that are brewing within her (even if Sol was slightly less involved the fact that he knew and never told her should rightfully make her angry). It will obviously destroy whatever faith she had left in the Jedi, but imo she might begin to question how it makes the Jedi any different from Qimir.

And now that I’ve explained that, I also wanted to say how I felt about some of the discourse. Fandom feuds are always annoying, but now that I’m essentially on the other side...? I’ve gotta say I am low-key offended and high-key pissed over it. I mean, if ppl don’t like Qimir or the relationship between him and Osha—fine. But I’ve seen some absolutely disgusting comments over this. Like someone on twitter (who ss a post of yours too) who was calling Leslye Headland’s lesbianism into question. Like idc if you don’t like the ship but there is literally no need for discussing her sexuality like that just because she likes a problematic ship you hate (which she literally created so idk what ppl expected anyways)!!! And then there are the “fans” (I use that term lightly) insulting Manny Jacinto’s looks (which is ridiculous cause the man is hot idgaf). And I honestly think that shit is hypocritical af since a lot of these ppl are fans who were rightfully upset at reylo/kylo stans for saying similar disgusting things about actual people.

I like quite a few villains in multiple fandoms, so to me it seems like the same ridiculous arguments. There’s nothing wrong with liking a fictional character who happens to be a villain. As long as no one’s trying to make excuses for their heinous actions (jokes are another thing) I don’t think it matters. It’s literally not that deep imo. And liking said problematic characters does not have anything to do with people’s real life morals. That’s just bullshit.

And again, it’s actually INCREDIBLY fucking hypocritical, ESPECIALLY coming from star wars fans who have been sexualizing villains like Darth Maul, Thrawn, and a young freaking Darth Vader for YEARS. But now it’s a problem with Qimir????? Not to mention the romanticization of other literal problematic ships like anidala or reylo. And I’ll be honest—as a Filipina????? I do feel like some of this is racially motivated because literally WHAT is the difference with Qimir and Osha/Qimir versus all of these other characters and ships?????? I think that’s what gets me heated is the hypocrisy of it all. And of course the fact that it’s all fictional anyway so I don’t know why it should fucking matter to some people if fans like a character or ship that they don’t.

Anyways...I think this is essentially all of my thoughts on the matter. Again, I hope I didn’t come across as rude or like I was attacking you. Like I said, it IS a bit complicated for me. Because as someone who hardly liked anything from the sequels, I was definitely cringing at the multiple mentions of reylo and kylo in Leslye’s recent interview. And yet....I see the vision.

hey!! so, there's a lot here and I do actually want to talk about all of it! I really appreciate you approaching this with nuance and being open to have a conversation. I'm gonna number my responses just so I know I covered everything I wanted to talk about and everything you mentioned.

One: I don't think there's anything wrong with being intrigued by a character dynamic like Osha and Qimir's, in fact I actually do find it very interesting from a psychological standpoint myself. I also don't think there's anything wrong with depicting a character dynamic like Osha and Qimir's, with one caveat, which is that you have to recognize it for what it is. I truly would LOVE star wars to approach it with the angle of "hey, this is how people can weaponize your own emotions against you, especially how a man may try (and even succeed) in manipulating a woman this way," and particularly what that looks like with the Force, because a LOT of Jedi and Sith principles are based around the acceptance (or aggravation!) of emotions. I think that's a totally interesting plot line that would actually be super fascinating to see. I also find it believable that Osha could, theoretically, be convinced by Qimir and turn (in fact I think your entire third paragraph is a very valid interpretation of what has happened so far). It's not that I don't think these are fascinating possibilities to explore. It's not that I don't think Osha joining the dark side is out of the question or even unreasonable, whatever the reason.

In fact, pre-interview, almost all of my criticism was pointed at the way the fandom immediately jumps to believing everything Qimir is saying without thinking critically about how he could be lying to Osha to get her to act the way that he wants her to. This comes from an intense place of frustration dealing with fandom in general who excuse the violent actions of men towards women (which is the reason why that one post doesn't actually even name Qimir or Osha, even though I did tag their names, since it applies to like a half dozen ships I can think of off the top of my head). In fact, I praised the writing of the acolyte in my breakdown post, assuming that Headland was purposefully creating all the cunning ways Qimir talks to Osha and all the tactics he appears to be using to manipulate her, and that this would be plot relevant. Whether Osha realized she was being manipulated and snapped out of it, or whether she never realized it, and fell to the dark side, and what that would mean for her, etc.

However, post-interview, things are different. No more am I simply dealing with a fandom that is willfully misinterpreting a toxic relationship as romantic, I am now dealing with the showrunner herself saying lots of things that disturb me. I can give her credit for not pulling the "there's good in him" card, but that's about as good as I can do. Headland may say that she does not intend the relationship to be manipulative, that she intends for Osha and Qimir to be equals, but if what she has presented to us onscreen does not read that way, then she has failed to accurately convey her message as the showrunner. You and I agree that Qimir is manipulating Osha, yet Headland says the opposite. I now have a showrunner for Star Wars, a massive franchise viewed by thousands, giving interviews saying that there is nothing wrong with this man's relationship with this young woman, but continuing to show the opposite. She can't have it both ways. The statement "Osha and Qimir are equals," is simply so far removed from the reality of what Headland has presented Qimir to be (a conniving man who is strong enough in the Force to eliminate a dozen Jedi at a time, and is so callus that he calls a girl an "it" after he's murdered her) that it's such an unbelievable statement I actually can't even believe people are buying it. I'm not saying that to be mean; what makes Qimir and Osha equals? Genuinely? That he cooks soup sometimes? That he disrobed in front of her? What about this relationship is equal?

Here's my bottom line when it comes to this discourse: I am sick of seeing young women getting treated like shit by men, and it getting romanticized as hot and desirable instead of what it is. I am sick of it whether the fandom does it, I am sick of it whether the showrunner does it, I am sick of it whether people in real life or in fiction do it, and I am allowed to feel that way.

Two: I won't be insulting Manny Jacinto in any capacity. He's doing a good job as an actor. I have acknowledged in past posts that he is obviously an attractive man.

If you think Qimir is hot, please, by all means, feel free to sexualize him in the manner that others sexualize Thrawn or Maul or anyone else. I'm an advocate of self insert fanfiction and of course (within reason), would find nothing wrong with that.

I am generally not a villain-lover, but there is nothing wrong with finding villains attractive or compelling! I haven't said there is. I have said that there's a problem within fandom and now literally within the media itself, with recognizing when a young woman is being mistreated by someone, sometimes because a lot of you are far more lenient on attractive men. The reylo fandom took this about twenty steps too far from 2015-2019 to the point where if you ask some of them, they still don't think Kylo even WAS the villain, and Headland is rapidly encouraging fans to take that angle with Qimir though I have given evidence to the contrary in spades.

There is a lot to be said about whether or not fiction affects reality. I believe it does, but I obviously do not believe that liking an evil character makes you evil. That being said, while not all fiction has a moral, all fiction has a theme, and you as the audience do take lessons from themes, whether you realize it or not; it sticks with you and may help you form your opinion on a similar set of circumstances you may come face-to-face with later. Fiction affects our feelings on a situation. A disturbing theme I'm seeing a LOT of in Star Wars lately is men being cruel to women in one way or another and the women finding it attractive and acceptable. Of course, depiction is not automatically endorsement... until we have now literally seen this type of relationship fully endorsed by Lucasfilm showrunners and directors twice in a row. Tweens and teenage girls *will* watch the sequel trilogy and the acolyte... what are they taking away from it? From what the director or showrunner has said about it? Honestly, this is much less about fandom to me now, and more about how official creators are treating these dynamics.

Three and finally and most important: I'm sorry that you've been seeing things like that being said about Headland, I think that's bizarre, rude, and uncalled for. I often do not go looking in fandom spaces anymore so I have not seen this, but that doesn't mean it's not out there. I generally do not trust Headland's creative input anymore, nor do I necessarily even like her, HOWEVER, I have not and will not make any such comment on her sexuality as it has nothing to do with any of this. I don't know which post of mine they screenshot, and I'd like more information actually, if they are using my post to say I think those things too, but regardless, I would not say this about her, or about anyone, and I don't condone it.

This is absolutely not racially motivated from me and I want to make that absolutely clear. I have been vehemently anti-reylo since the day I learned it existed, so I hope that you do not feel as though I am speaking out against the way that the Osha and Qimir storyline has been handled out of such a place, and I would never want anything to come across that way in any of my analysis or critiques. You will find I usually have less to say about anidala, seeing as the majority of the fandom does not depict Anakin as "doing nothing wrong" in that relationship, nor does the source material, so I feel I do not have to explain as much as I do with reylo and now Osha/Qimir. I want to make that absolutely clear that this type of relationship being presented in this type of way is a huge red flag for me regardless of the races of the characters involved. If you refer to the fandom at large, I don't want to invalidate your experiences, and don't know what other people are saying or what their reasons are. Unfortunately the acolyte fandom has been riddled with homophobia and racism since before the first episode even aired, and I want to make it clear that I think all of that is entirely unacceptable and that my critiques have nothing to do with either of those hateful ideologies.

[phxntomhives]

Pandora hearts thoughts

Spoiler for everything.

I finished the serie. A couple of hours ago. I am writing now because I had to mentally recover. Especially since I binge read from after chapter 70 in 2 days.

Did I understood everything? Absolutely not and I am still devastated. I still have several questions (that I am too dumb to understand on my own) but it was definitely intense.

I'll be honest, until chapter 60 more or less I was like: sure it's a nice story. It has its moment but it's nothing special.

Then the flashbacks happened. And everything just spiraled in darkness and plottwists and I was just. Speechless. I have been lied for all the time and it was so beautiful to see this being wonderfully executed. Everything became distorted, without being clear of what was actually true and what was false. And they just kept on coming and as soon as I was confident I understood how it worked it changed again, but it made sense. And that's what makes me amazed by this serie, it is not a bunch plottwist after the others just for shock factor. They make sense, they make you reflect on the self, on loyalty, on whether what you are seeing is the truth or not. And you sit at the edge of the chair hoping to understand even a little bit and find out if you were correct or not.

The 1st page of the chapters were honestly godsent because they helped still making you laugh and release some of the angst in which as a reader you are bathing in during the end.

All of the characters were beautiful but damn, my favourite are definitely Gil and Break. But they are all so complex that I will probably keep on changing them. Their despair, their love, their conflicts, their passions and obsessions are so well explained and represented that they felt my own. My heart ached for them, especially at the whole different reactions everyone had at each other's action. I loved how well everyone mixed together, how each character influenced the others becoming part of the others they met. How deep down all of them wanted to live and be forgiven for their sins but were never able to really say it out loud, but their action spoke for them and slowly the others understood and helped them. How they all loved each other, in different ways, but it's just a story full of love. Sometimes cute and adorable and other times obsessive and dark. But with so much love and desire to be understood and accepted that you can't help loving every second of this torture.

I bawled my eyes out at the final chapter because it was just too much. Every trope I love together and it just hurt so much but it is also the only possible ending for this tale.

Ah yes and all the tale discourse. They basically becoming aware that they are fictional character and just decide that even if they are just words on a page, they deserve to live. And take all they can get because that's what they want. To be themselves, with their good and bad sides and live their life as best as they can. "I don't want to deny the story in which you existed" was so painful and beautiful to read. Because yes I am crying and I am very sad about this story. And yet... I don't want to these feelings. If I were to go back to some weeks ago, I would still open that first chapter, even knowing it will cause pain. Because it's beautiful and even if it is over, it was everything I could have asked for and more. And I don't want to lose this. The pain, the tears would be gone but so would be so many nice moments. Alice biting everyone to show affection. Break teasing everyone. Elliot petting cats. Everyone meeting each other and be friends. I want it all, the good and the bad. And they wanted it all too.

I guess in the end, everyone is a self-sacrifing hero, in the story. Elliot would need to hate everyone smh, himself first.

I am feeling very empty now that I binged everything. Or maybe I am feeling so much that I don't know how to deal with it. I'll probably just bath myself in fanarts and fanfic to try to heal.

Honestly, the fact that all of them will technically be canon is somewhat comforting. Like, we witnessed ONE of the MANY tales out there. That still involves them. And it's canon there are endless endings. So everything can be canon, everytime someone is taking a brush, a pensil, a pen, or is writing something on paper, on the laptop everywhere. You are giving life to one of the many tales. And the characters are probably loving it too. Witnessing their fate in your hands. Mochizuki created something so big and it's outstanding. We are allowed the power of being canon, no one can come and say "no actually it's not like that". She gave us so much power, I love it. She entrusted us her characters. It's overwhelming.

Anyway, see you all under that tree in a fic or in an art. Idk how many people are active in the fandom but I can't wait to see everything you created and what you will create.

I don't know if this makes sense, I'm just having a chat with this post and writing stuff as they come to me. There are likely spelling mistakes, I am sorry, but I don't want to fix them, you take this as it is. Just my brain on free mode.

[zalrb]

People on twitter are criticizing Brad Pitt's portrayal of Louis in IWTV and saying the show's Louis is way better and Brad's performance was lifeless and basically he was a cardboard cut-out. I mean I hate Brad Pitt but I feel like people are being extremely obtuse. Like maybe I'm just biased because I definitely prefer the movie, but I think every actor embodied their character extremely well, especially since Louis is meant to come off as like Godric in true blood; just completely done with life. And people are saying Tom and Brad had no chemistry which is just ridiculous? I feel like since the homoerotic elements are done way more subtly in the movie (which is better IMO), people are confusing chemistry for dynamic, since the show is way more overt. Anyway sorry for the long rambling, I would really just love to know your thoughts on Louis's character in the movie vs the TV show. BTW I do think the show has great actors and Jacob Anderson is amazing, I just don't get why people always have to hate on the movie. :)

Yeah, I saw that too and last season I saw the whole "the movie isn't even that good anyway" discourse and it made me roll my eyes because I agree with you, people are being obtuse about this.. Brad Pitt's acting isn't good in the movie, like it isn't particularly nuanced, it's not like he elevates anything, and yet he does manage to capture Louis being conflicted, melancholic and maudlin

but that's also because the movie doesn't rely on voiceover so I'm seeing Louis in the sewers

I'm seeing him just done

I'm getting the sense of what his relationship with Lestat is like with scenes of them just sitting at a dinner table and Lestat throwing grapes at him because Louis is such a downer and he's also just half a second away from just ending it all

and it pairs well with Tom Cruise's Lestat who dances with corpses

and has witticisms when killing people

so we get things like this

and it works. Brad's acting actually ends up lending itself to the campiness of the movie? The scene that twitter chose to rip him apart

Lestat's amused response to "YOU CONDEMNED ME TO HELL" and Brad's "ARRRGGGH" adds a level of irony and fun because it makes it over the top in the way it should be.

The movie's Louis is anguished over his own existence and having the dark gift.

With AMC's IWTV, I know Jacob can act, when they give him the room to let loose, he does it and definitely gives insight into Louis' anguish

but my issue has always been the in between moments, particularly in season 1 because of what the showrunners/creators said they wanted to deliver and what I thought we got

so while the show wanted to dig deeper and add layers and expand him in ways that the movie didn't, because I don't feel like the show really goes there constantly while the movie did and pulled no punches, when I think of IWTV outside of the books, my mind still goes straight to the movie and not to the show, my mind still goes to that Louis because it's not dialogue.

In terms of the different Loustats, yeah the movie is subtext

and Brad and Tom had the chemistry for that, it's eroticism, it's simulating sex through how they feed etc.

and I understand wanting something more direct and overt but so much of the directness in the show is through dialogue anyway, so many times I have yelled, I want to SEE this, so that when we get to season 2 and Louis is hallucinating Lestat and in such a state that he accidentally kills a human, I'm more invested in it because there were scenes of their relationship/seduction etc. that really makes it hit home.

[halliescomut]

Rant in defense(?) of Step by Step

Okay, so I watched episode 5 of Step by Step yesterday, and then helped my sister deep clean our kitchen so I missed basically all of the online discourse about it. So now I'm waking up to people being mad and Dee Hup and Mandee releasing statements. And like...I wanna talk about it.

So if you're not up to speed, general breakdown is that in the show they are producing a series (*correction it's a marketing campaign, see new comments at the end), some of the characters are business side and some are production/acting side. At a meeting they discuss possible BL acting pairs that they could cast and they show a couple of well known ones. It's not clear to me if the fake series in the show is going to be a BL or if they are just hoping to use a BL pair because they have pretty committed fanbases.

Most memorably they show Zee and Nunew. Because the creatives are dealing with executives there's a moment where they have to explain fanservice to one of them, and they do explain in very basically.

A lot of people thought or read this as a direct attack on Zee and Nunew specifically, an assumption that all of their behavior is fanservice. I personally think that they chose Zee and Nunew to allow for this sort of inside baseball joke that they are very expensive and very busy. I honestly thought that was the only direct comment that applied to them, and it was made in response to Jaab being asked who he thought best suited the project.

One of the other options, they make a point of saying they aren't really being shipped, which if the series they are working on is not a BL, could be a selling point because peripheral or surface level knowledge of them wouldn't be directly related to their ship. So you wouldn't have people who see them cast in the show and only know them as BL actors and write off the show as a whole because they are not BL fans or are actively homophobic. *See edit/correction at end.

The final comment many people seem to have the most issue with (for a couple different reasons) is this one:

The reason for the issue differs, some people are saying this is a direct attack on Zee and Nunew and how they present themselves at appearances and on social media. Now whether everything fans see of Zee and Nunew is fanservice or not, IDK and IDC. It's not my business. If it is fanservice and they feel comfortable doing it, I have no problem. If it's not fanservice and they are essentially using that belief as a cover to be able to be affectionate publicly in a country where that can be dangerous and also would likely damage their career opportunities...I also have no problem there. You gotta do what you gotta do sometimes.

The second reason that people are upset about this comment is that this is literally a BL show profiting off of the LGBTQ community, so isn't it hypocritical?? And I just didn't read it that way. Watching the show, Pat is a gay man, he's at the very least out in his personal life, at work there's not much that we see that would confirm one way or the other, but I would imagine his level of out-ness at work is at the very least a case-by-case basis. Pat, as someone in a country where his identity is not protected or validated, could be understandably frustrated by the BL industry and the fanservice that is a very prevalent part of it. Seeing the 'performance' of gayness being accepted and even rewarded when, like most gay people, he's probably encountered more than one homophobic person, or had to second guess holding his partners hand in public would be so frustrating.

IDK...I just feel like it's meant to be a statement showing that they are aware of the sentiment. And the reaction of complete silence is it's own condemnation of the system, because you can see that the executives in the room are stunned by the comment, and that the creatives are all kind of thinking 'Pat you said the quiet part out loud'.

Is it a situation that is handled perfectly in the show? Not necessarily. But I do think it's valid commentary of the BL industry. It's literally commentary that you see repeated over and over again on the internet. Like, we're coming up on Pride month and seeing Pride collections released by almost every major company. And the number one thing that any queer person will tell you is to actively look into what those companies are doing to support the queer community before you hand them any of your hard-earned dollarbucks. Are they donating to charities that actively support queer people? Are they employing queer people at all levels? Are they using queer people in their advertising? Are they seeking out queer artists to help design some of the items and paying them appropriately for that work?

You can use that same energy and process with BL companies. Are they actively supporting their openly out creatives? Are they type casting openly queer actors? If they are a company that also produces mainstream (i.e. not gay) content, are BL actors also present in that content? Is there queer representation in their mainstream content at all? Are you asking these questions when you are looking into BL shows? Are you actively looking into shows at all or are you just watching stuff based on how hot the actors are? There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, as long as you aren't then proceeding to actively attack actors, companies, or shows for perceived wrongdoings, if you've done no research at all.

*Correction: What they are doing is a marketing campaign, so commercials, print ads, social media campaigns, etc. Since it's going to be likely similar to what we see IRL, maybe sponsored posts or appearances as well. This does bring different context to the scene as it actively emphasises the profit part. Because BLs/fanservice do profit off of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, but that can be more abstract/peripheral. Like queer people watch a queer show and they pay the subscription fee to a service, and maybe they buy a product being advertised, but the money that makes into the hands of the production company or the actors would be small in comparison to using BL acting pairs in a marketing campaign, where the company would very directly profit from appearances or purchases of that product.

This does however strengthen my previously made point about rainbow capitalism, which in addition to pride merch is something in the western world we've seen more recently addressed with situations like the Bud Light-Dylan Mulvaney ad, as well as regular outrages for Nike using queer athletes, or Starbucks creating a commercial based around a trans customer, or period products being market to include transmen, mother's day and father's day ads that feature same sex couples... there's a whole list. It's nice to see that representation in ads, but if those companies are not also actively working to minimize discrimination inside their company, or actively working with and donating to non-profits that help support different people int he queer community... then that representation is merely performative activism and nothing else.

[papaue00]

confession but i have an inkling arthur and abigail were exes, bbuuut please bear with me as i explain (and honestly feel free to fact-check anything i say here)

but first of all, let me be clear that i hate the whole “who’s jack’s father?” discourse. imo it’s pointless and frankly a boring topic, considering many characters have already affirmingly said john is jacks father. so i’m not here to make a case that arthur is jack’s father actually.

what i wanna draw attention to is the period where john left the gang for a year (which is after jack had already been born), because something roger clark said in this panel (the question starts at 41:43 and roger answers a bit later) caught my interest. basically he said there were cut dialogue that alluded to arthur and abigail’s romance, and by rhetorically asking “who knows what happened [during the 1 year john left]?” it’s hard for me not to think it’s his way of suggesting that’s when the relationship happened.

granted, roger also explicitly said those lines/content were cut, but he seemed to also say rockstar conveyed to the two actors that they (rockstar themselves) weren’t doing away with the “attraction undertone”. and that is very much felt, given how they never actually walk back on the things they let arthur write in his journal when it comes to abigail: conflicted thoughts of wanting to marry her, thinking how she’s “the finest woman” he’s known, saving john from prison “for abigail, of course”.

there’s just this really strangely intimate and possessive undercurrent in many things he’s written about her, in a way that would feel very creepy and ooc if she weren’t his at some point.

and it makes me think perhaps when rockstar decided to cut their content, they only did so out of a desire to avoid being overt and unbecoming (probably bc they figured it could be off-putting for fans and subtlety/ambiguity can be more palatable here?), but this shared past about arthur and abigail wasn’t meant to be erased. basically rockstar themselves actually never fully committed to ditching the idea, just decided to be coy about it, handling it in a way so that there’s room for deniability.

and from a story stand point, i think it does make sense? as a bereaved dad (and let’s face it, somewhat of a deadbeat one, too), arthur would definitely take pity on abigail and jack’s situation. if anything, i think arthur’s attempt (be it a conscious or unwitting one) to integrate with them was initially driven by guilt, then probably morphed into actual appreciation/attraction for abigail. for abigail’s side, well, she was abandoned by her true love who (iirc?) denied paternity to their son, that’s gotta enrage her to no end, but also hurt a whole lot. she would definitely appreciate arthur for stepping up and come to care deeply for him in return, but i don’t think she quite shares his level of appreciation.

though by stating this, i’m not in any way trying to frame her as an “ungrateful bitch” who didn’t properly return arthur’s favor— she doesn’t owe arthur love, and i don’t think arthur showed kindness to her with the expectation of winning her over anyway— it’s fair to say arthur did all this simply because he is, well, a good man. so once john eventually returned to the gang and abigail parted ways with arthur, she would be well within her rights to do so, and imo arthur would never in any way berate him or her about this, bc he would know what he had signed up for. that being said, i also don’t think arthur and abigail’s situation was all or nothing. they might never have progressed into true love, but it’s also not unrealistic to think they started being intimate at some point, if only to cope with their problems or try to move on from their pasts (this is assuming abigail gave up hope of john coming back.)

as a bottom line, i guess i wanna say i wrote all of this to sort out my cognitive dissonance. the idea of arthur/abigail is alienating to me and i used to try to pretend it didn’t exist, but the intent is so undeniably there that i kind of started getting frustrated whenever i see people tiptoe around it, coming up with multiple unsatisfactory explanations and never getting into the meat of it, to the point i think it’s just more sincere and liberating? to just confront it lmao. now i’ve come to regard it as an interesting aspect about arthur.

[radio-charlie]

Hilarious new male brain/female brain discourse on malaysian twitter:

married woman talks about how one time her husband took her out to her favorite place to eat, she's really thrilled. however, he doesn't want to order anything for himself. she bursts into tears. appeals to woman twitter for sympathy (which is fine lol, not judging that)

says most women will get it, most men probably won't

people do not argue in the replies, because there are a bunch of women saying they do indeed understand, and some guys going "whaet???"/"sorry, can someone please explain"/"lol"

some replies explaining that it's because "women" "like people to share in their experiences of joy" and that op might have felt sad because she thought her husband had just dragged his feet along and didn't really want to be there

Idek man.

I dunno OP's personality or life even though seeing this sort of stupid shit paired with a bio that says 'digital nomad' gives me a bad impression already. So this is not about her specifically. But growing up being lumped in with the stereotype of females as selfish, whiny, idiotic, hysterical babies who are shittier at everything than men, whose feelings need to be anticipated and attended to with kid gloves, all of which amounts to them using men and then going with some hottie who treats them like garbage regardless - it has given me a blood feud. With every single woman who sees this shit and says "oh yes yes, that is just how women are. haha. women and our so-called rationality. heehee". Even if you mean well, you really make "women" as a whole look like shit. You lend ammo to the increasingly powerful arguments of misogynists who make my life, and the lives of other vagina ppl who do try to keep it together and act like functional adults, painful. You don't even know. How many men out there think women cannot do shit, do not go through shit, and therefore do not deserve to hope for shit.

I cannot relate to you. But even when i was still a woman i couldn't relate to this either. This is so lame. If you want men to all look like oppa and cradle you to and from your WFH deskstation then ok la. Let it be a you thing. Not an us thing. Thanks

[itashiro-hitsuchiha]

My thoughts on the shutdown of RT by Warner and on RWBY

Read on if you wish.

Ok so there's a good bit of things for me to say on this matter. Normally I don't do personal posts a whole lot like this but I want to express my thoughts on the matter. I will disclaim that this is a matter of opinion based on my understanding of the situation and I will explain more on certain subjects when I get to it. This is more of my inclination towards RWBY as a series than anything else.

So let's start with the short and simple part of my thoughts on it. It does suck that the company is shutting down mostly for the workers involved. As I understand from secondhand knowledge and statements by other onlookers that the company leadership has made very poor decisions with their franchises, both in writing direction and with treatment of the staff and also consumers. I can't say much more on that front as I will admit I haven't looked into it much and I haven't delved into that matter too much either so that's about all I have to say with that.

Onto the thoughts/feelings on RWBY. Now I enjoy RWBY as a franchise and series to a degree. I know lots of people have issues with how the show's writing became after some points in the series, myself included, but I remain hopeful. Warner still tried to do stuff with RWBY by aligning it with DC comics for crossovers. I haven't watched the two crossover films but I do intend to check them out despite what others say. I am more driven by curiosity with the show than much else. I won't sing it's praises nor will I bash the hell out of it. I get my initial impressions then I gauge what others think and adjust based on what I may or may not agree with after giving much thought on it.

My opinions on things can change drastically. One example which I will use as a somewhat loose comparison, is with Star Wars. I love the world of Star Wars and I always have since I was a kid. I was excited for the sequel trilogy and gave it a go. Force Awakens was an ok start, nothing spectacular, but its problems were showing but they still had time to pivot and correct these errors with the next two movies. The Last Jedi came out. I watched it and was at least entertained on the first watch. Then I saw the discourse erupt in the fandom. So I was curious to what made people so mad. I looked at a lot of writing critiques of the movie by fans of the series. Then I saw the behind the scenes things going on and it changed my view. At first I liked TLJ but that opinion quickly fell into greatly disliking it. I didn't even want to see Rise of Skywalker based on rumors of the plot of the movie. Mostly the ending. But I still watched it just to finish what I started. Even though I disliked it heavily and never touched that trilogy again.

What's this have to do with RWBY? Well it's the same thing for me. I started watching with a friend who was into it. I got into it. And for the most part I enjoyed it. After the fiasco with Star Wars I refrained from giving full opinions until after viewing the show or movie and thinking about it after. I also look into viewpoints of others to see what people liked and didn't like and see if I agreed or not. I seek to understand what turned people away and what made others stay. While I don't agree with everything others list I at least understand why they think about it the way they do. But in the end even if I agree with them I still want to see where it ends. I want to finish what I started. I can understand other people leaving the show after a certain point and not coming back out of outrage or disinterest. But I enjoyed the show at first and even if the ending is dog shit, much like with the Sequel trilogy, I will stay on this ride until it ends.

Now onto extra thoughts. So I did read the article explaining the closing of RT and based on my understanding, Warner may still be looking to complete the series they have, even if its just to milk what they can out of it, at the very least the final season of Red vs Blue is confirmed to happen. I haven't seen anything regarding the state of RWBY but I remain optimistic and hope they will keep most of the hardworking team (the ones that make the show happen and not the dumbasses who mistreat them) and treat them fairly so they can end the series on at least a decent note. There's no undoing what they've done at this point and it's naive to expect one or possibly two final season(s) to fix it. But they can at least try to give it a respectful ending. It is optimistic and it may be a long shot or very unlikely but even so I want to see what they do.

Hopefully this is clear enough in my thoughts and opinions on this matter. I haven't stated anything specific to the series in terms of writing but I don't feel it necessary to do so at the moment. Especially since I still need to catch up on it. You may not agree with my viewpoints or reasons for things but that's ok. I just wanted to get my voice out there.

[songmingisthighs]

Personally I don't take the topic of cp as something light, or 'just anime' if it were to be portrayed in Mia, which I also have no idea if it does

From what I've read, the anime could be heavily sensored in Korea, all the while it has received awards and just being really popular in general (? And about the Manga, there's also this discourse about it being super sensored as well, while other people say it is 10x worse than the anime, so I really don't know what to believe

Regardless of that, it is difficult for me to be certain of what mingi was trying to say, I'm pretty sure the video was muted right before and after the anime was mentioned, so there are a lot of possibilities, whether he actually liked it or not, if he gave that warning about it having sensitive issues, if he actually recommended watching it or avoiding it, I have no idea

So yeah, the level of sensorship is a great deal for me, idk to what extent it has been 'proved' that he's innocent and all that, so I'm gonna trust that he didn't actually recommend it, but the thought alone of him consuming/recommending something related to cp is most definitely a deal breaker, not 'just anime' for me, obviously nothing has been confirmed, I really really don't imagine him as that type of person, and I'm not as stupid or immature to go around sending hate to him or directly unstan him without having proof or a clear sense of what really happened.

I just hope things get cleared up, for the people that go around sending hate and death threats to get a grip of reality, and for anyone that could have been affected by this topic (or the possibility of mingi being involved in it) to feel better and at peace

Also English Is not my first language, so bear with me while I try to see if this is actually understandable

this is gonna be long and somewhat controversial and mean, so if you (people in general) are a snowflake, pls skip

i get what you mean, really and i don't think anyone should take cp lightly as well. but i also think you shouldn't open a discussion about a topic you are not familiar about when you already decide to form a negative opinion on it. It's a whole other story had you come to me or anyone to actually ask for opinion in a way that is neutral. this is kinda hard for me to explain with words but there is a difference between "hey what's your opinion about this?" and "hey what's your opinion about this? also i think it supports cp and no one should take that lightly" bc it sets bias and when you want to make a painting of a fruit bowl, you wouldn't use a canvas with a big red splotch anywhere on it

from my perspective, you claim to not have animosity towards the anime but the way you describe it, it seems like you do so i guess it would've been better for you to accept that you're leaning more towards rejecting the anime because of what you found out about online and not because you do have personal experience wirh it when you come to ask for someone's opinion. bc it kinda comes off as "what do you think of this? fyi, i have the answer" and i just don't vibe with that. "from what i read online" is also not something anyone should use to justify their stance because if you don't have what i loosely say "personal experience" with it (i.e. you forming your own opinion based on your own interaction), this kind of discussion seem to be counterproductive.

and i find it odd that people are so surprised that anime is so sexual in either ends of the good and bad spectrum as if japan is not known for its main commodity which is porn (again, i'm using this sentence loosely). like i just found out earlier that japan's age of consent was 13 before it was changed to 16 so the sexualization of a western-standardized "minor" is part of a culture there (as bad as this sound). so to use a western standard on a culture that didn't ask for it seem mighty hoity-toity. we're allowed to form an opinion about a culture or an aspect of the culture but what we shouldn't do is act as if that culture is so personal to us when we are not a part of the culture. like i think the bride kidnapping practice is so weird and borderline a test run for a human trafficking ploy but i have yet to see any criminal activities that happen and the people who are involved are well aware of this practice so i can say it's weird but i won't put up a petition to abolish the practice. now i do realize that this is a rather controversial take and i would elaborate here but alas that's a whole other ted talk

in regards of mingi, if you (not you personally, i'm using 'you' in general) think your favourite idols can wear whatever the fuck they want, do whatever the fuck they want, i suggest you make peace that they can interact with any kinds of art or artist and form whatever opinion they want. because if you believe they're their own person, you better mean it and not make exceptions on situations or aspects that you don't agree with. if you can't support the person, support the art, if this makes you uncomfortable, fucking leave the fandom g0rl no one should readjust their whole life, personality, choices, and preferences to accommodate you. you're not the damn law and he doesn't even know you. and to the people who are somehow "affected" by mingi's life choices or preferences, literally get yourself out of the possibility of interacting with the topic and to those who made this issue about them, remember that the world doesn't revolve around you so mingi didn't do this to hurt you, you're hurt because you have personal feelings over this issue and it's not wrong but if you make it your life's mission to end this man's career, literally get off social media and get a hobby

[a-picrew-a-day]

im kinda new here to this blog, and im sorry if this annoys you but im a harry potter fan and (assuming you dont like it because of jk rowling being transphobic) im not transphobic or anything of the sort, i have lots of trans friends who i love and support. just because we like the franchise doesnt mean WE'RE transphobic too. and in your dni part in your pinned post saying that harry potter fans cant interact i feel like thats not really fair to us potterheads that are decent and fun people that also enjoy the franchise.

again, really if this is an inconvenience, i just wanted to share why i thought that part of your pinned post wasnt really fair, i hope you have an awesome rest of your day

hey anon! rising from the dead to post this lol. I have a whole list of reasons why I have that DNI (listed below) however the short answer is, as an ex-fan myself, I don’t feel safe around fans excusing her actions for the sake of nostalgia, so feel free to simply not follow me! <3

I understand your intent with this. Harry Potter was my first ever form of comfort media growing up, and it’s held a place in my heart for years.

however, looking back, Harry Potter included racism and antisemitism (one of the few canonically black characters being named ‘Shacklebolt,’ Cho Chang, those two Indian girls I forget the names off, pretty much everything about the gringotts goblins and the arc with the house elves that enjoy being slaves, which is literally the excuse enslavers used during civil war here in America), which is reason enough to not want it’s fans to interact.

JK herself is also a terrible person, which you seem to already be aware of, supporting businesses made by people who identify with the terms TERF and feminazi. again, I get that you find enjoyment and maybe even comfort in the stories. but many minorities, not just trans people, have asked for people to stop showing support of her or her series. I don’t have Twitter so I can’t back up this future claim, but I have also been told that jk takes any support of her media, even if those people who like it don’t align with her beliefs, as support of her beliefs as well

I have also been told that JK is using her money to basically be the main financial funder of transphobia in the UK (I am American so feel free to correct me on that, UK followers :])

but overall, here’s the important part: if your allyship (or inter-community support) of black, Jewish, trans, Asian, etc. people (<- at least those are the main four I see asking for people to stop supporting jk or hp) stops when you enjoy something, you are not an ally. you seem to be using your trans friends as an excuse but that does not blind me from the fact you are actively engaging in media made by someone who has harmed many minorities and refuses to acknowledge or change her ways.

I, too, have friends in the minorities effected by JK’s bigotry. I have Jewish friends and black friends and Asian friends and pretty much my entire friend group is trans. plus, I’m trans myself. and all of them that I’ve talked to about this have said pretty much the same thing: we do not feel safe around you guys, and will not feel safe as long as you continue to side with Harry Potter or JK in any way

your fandom allows racist, anti-jew, transphobic people to thrive. don’t blame me for wanting to avoid that (‘not all Harry Potter fans’ and ‘not all men’ are pretty much the same, except you have to choose to be a fan of Harry Potter)

anyways I’m not gonna talk about this anymore, I’m not really made for the discourse side of the internet. I just wanted to share my perspective, as a trans person and someone who used to be a fan since childhood, in the hopes that maybe you were just ignorant (as younger me was) to this stuff. there are a million other posts on this site and others explaining (and explaining better than I probably did) why supporting Harry Potter is supporting jk, and why even if it wasn’t, it’s still a red flag to many minorities. I hope you continue to educate yourself and put your money where your mouth is in terms of supporting trans people

(also literally what was the point of this ask? what were you expecting to happen? /gen)

[sukehiroselei]

BLACK CLOVER SPOILERS

Been a while since I've fully written out my thoughts on the recent BC chapters. (I think May was the last time I did?) Anywho, these are my opinions—and I stress, MY OPINIONS!—on the recent chapters. I have to admit that my feelings about them are mixed, and I'll get into why. (Probably gonna get cancelled over this but yolo I guess loool)

First, I'd like to address the difference between Tumblr & Twitter discourse regarding Black Clover. From my personal experience, I find that Twitter discourse is more focused on the fights & power-ranking system—which, of course, is absolutely essential to the genre. Power-ups are a tangible way of measuring character growth, after all.

On the other hand, Tumblr discourse is more focused on the relationships between the characters & the overarching narrative of the work. Now, I'm not saying that one is better than the other, because all of these elements are important. I had to talk about the distinction because my criticisms of the recent chapters might be better explained with this context in mind.

As someone who enjoys BC specifically because of the relationships between the characters and the world-building, I've found that the story post-Elf arc has been really... flat. I know Twitter folks will say that BC's pacing has always been quick, but I've been missing some moments where the characters just have room to breathe, you know? Like when Spade Raid ended, we had half a chapter of fun before immediately jumping into the next arc, and I feel like it would have been nice to get a little more exposition on how Spade changed character dynamics. Like, they could have given us a little Greyche moment so their current state in the manga would hit that much harder. Or more bonding time between Nacht and the Bulls, so we appreciate their determination to find Asta together a little more? Does this make any sense? Lmao

Adding to that, I think the quick pacing is detrimental to BC's strengths. A lot of people like the story because there are so many characters with very interesting backstories and motivations, but the nature of the storytelling doesn't leave a lot of room to explore the depths of these characters. Tbh, the Black Bulls' stories are just as important to tell as Asta's journey to becoming WK. Side characters enrich the world, so I'm not a huge fan of glossing over what could have been really impactful moments for characters other than Asta/Yuno/Yami to shine.

For example, someone brought up a great point that the BB fight against Damnatio was symbolic of the uprooting of Clover's caste system. You have this group of outcasts, some who were personally victimized by the corruption of the kingdom as represented by Damnatio, fighting to save the people who shunned them. It would have been nice to get flashbacks of the way that the kingdom has affronted them: Zora grappling with his dad's death and what it meant to be a Magic Knight, Gauche's history of being a convict and being separated from his only family, etc.

I'm glad that we at least had that moment with Nero, and we got to see how Asta specifically changed the trajectory of her life; how she sees Lumiere's vision of the world in Asta's ideal vision when he becomes WK. But I wish they had done the same for the other Bulls or even non-Bulls too, especially since Lucius mentioned that this whole timeline was affected by Asta. That's why I'm sort of disappointed that Asta came back right away to end things. I feel like it would have been more significant if Damnatio had been heavily injured and Asta were to deal the last blow than an unharmed Damnatio and Asta landing a fatal blow only once.

I'm still holding out hope that we'll get more of the Bulls in this arc, though there are currently a lot of loose ends and Asta's already back in the picture. I hope we get followups on Noelle/Acier, YamiChar/Morgen, and Mereo/Morris before Asta ends the battle, but idk what I'm talking about as usual 🤷🏻‍♀️

[mewly]

"Her stubbornness and drive rivals Aloy’s which isn’t something she’s really faced with a companion before" ikrie and talanah are laughing somewhere

I don’t even personally ship Seyloy if that’s what you’re mad about 😂

Anyway you’ve missed the point of what I said there entirely. So allow me explain!

Tl;dr: Seyka’s stubbornness and drive is harsh like Aloy’s, Talanah’s isn’t (and Ikrie isn’t a companion so she didn’t have the same impact), they are different, and I thought narratively that Seyka’s would have had a bigger impact than it did.

This is what I said in literally the next line: “Aloy got to see what it’s like to be on the receiving end of that instead of the perpetrator.”

I said at first I thought Seyka’s character was created to act as a mirror of Aloy, (with the similar personality traits, both mission driven, finding a focus and younger sister rescue) so that Aloy could experience firsthand how she has previously acted towards others with her own drive and stubbornness making her leave them behind and letting her know how that felt from an outside perspective. Let’s be honest, Aloy can he harsh at times because of her mission and weight of it and that comes across in her drive, we’ve seen companions like Varl and Erend comment on this before. Seyka was written to be the same way. She’s quite mean and rude at times towards Aloy, whereas no other companion has been to that extent before. She’s not afraid to snap at Aloy. I believed as the dlc went on that Aloy would have an epiphany moment - since Varl isn’t there to explain these things to her anymore - like “oh damn this is how they all felt”, further pushing Aloy towards letting people in and changing her mentality to be more open, and in turn helping Seyka open up too. It was her whole character arc in HFW so I assumed it would continue into the dlc. BUT, that isn’t what happened sadly. It was romance coded.

As the DLC went on, I clicked that Seyka was written to be our first love interest, and not her own character like all the other companions. And I’ll stand by that conclusion. People can all argue until the cows come home that Seyka’s her own character, but this is my opinion and I don’t think she is right now, 90% of her character is Aloy recycled and just not as good. Which is why the character mirror theme would’ve made more sense to me. (It’s also why I can’t ship it, I think they’d clash long term. Too similar. Anyway, I’m off topic.)

Aloy is pushed into the supporting role at times with Seyka, which is jarring to us as the players. (That might also account for why I felt like a major third wheel the entire main plot of the dlc lol, but I digress).

In regards to Talanah and Ikrie, Talanah is a huge positive force from the get go in HZD, and willingly helps Aloy and there’s no real pushback in HFW after a brief conversation (eg. Talanah agrees to go back when she’s hurt, whereas Aloy tries to push onward until she’s physically forced to stop by her wounds after the Hades proving lab), Talanah’s stubbornness and drive is admirable but it is different from Aloy’s and that’s just fact. Ikrie is a DLC side character (not a companion ergo she won’t have the same impact on the story) that I genuinely don’t remember much of so I can’t comment there, but I know even she didn’t act like Seyka does towards Aloy, (which as I said before, comes across a little mean at times).

I genuinely hope that clears things up for you about what I meant from that line.

I was trying to be positive in my wording in that review, so that anons, such as yourself, didn’t jump down my throat for “not liking Seyka or Seyloy” since discourse was rampant then. But as always people find something to be mad at! 😂

But a word of advice if I may? Clearly you prefer Talanah and Ikrie for Aloy, or as characters in general, which is fine. Ships ahoy! But ships aren’t the be all and end all of fandoms nor should they be, and this game is so much more than ship discourse and I’d hate to see it reduced to such now that romance has been confirmed in whatever extent that may be, it’s a phenomenal game series and I could write about the themes and narrative behind it (or potential themes lol) until my fingers bleed. I didn’t like Seyloy because it didn’t make sense to me narratively, not because “omg a new girl kissed Aloy and my ship is now dead nooo wahhh”. Some people like Seyka and/or Seyloy, some people don’t, and I’m indifferent to it all mostly. And that is ALL okay (as long as you’re not like, one of those homophobes who tanked the reviews of course because of it).

Anyways all the best nonny.

[mihai-florescu]

i'm sorry for bringing the discourse back, i hope this ask doesn't come across as inflammatory because i would like clarification about something that you haven't touched on yet.

when you say "real autism" is it parroting the famous copypasta or is it something you genuinely believe in? that there's "fake autism" and "real autism"?

this ask is on anon because i think you shouldn't avoid talking about it publicly, but i can resend it off anon if you'd prefer. thank you, feel free to delete this or redirect me to another post where you've talked about it.

Hi, yes I will reply to this question

My post, for context for everyone else.^

I wrote it like this because i found the sentence meme template funny personally, not to insinuate there is a fake autism. I then explained, or try to in parentheses, what i was referring to. Enstars is a special interest for me and analysing the story is part of it. It is what i get joy out of. It was not my intention to question other people's autism, but whether they are even fans of the media (which i tried to show by only using quotation marks around the word fans)

I think there's a misunderstanding as to All of my posts targeting a single person. They were not, I would like this to be clear, this along with others was about fandom as a whole, especially on twitter. I think the screenshots going around are devoid of context and cherry picked, but I haven't looked at what's going on there to be honest. This post was a response to the "it's not that serious" comments from people in general, I was upset at how earnest engagement with the story is dismissed in a fandom i thought was for people who enjoy this story.

A lot of my posts are made with the intent of being inside jokes with my followers as well, which is why they lack nuance and are snappier than what I'd like to say to actual strangers if we were to discuss the topic of fandoms. Tumblr is like my equivalent of private twitter, if it makes you understand the setting better. I'm sorry if the phrasing caused you or anyone else distress, I really am. I hope my explanation helped clarify my intentions.

[uhgood-girl]

people are having a lot of interpretations on the line jk used in his apple music interview my views were different but messed not clear when he said I will never cross the lines with armys which a singer or artist should maintain everyone taken it as he is saying he will not use them for his benefit, sexual desires, hook up nd all crap they assumed but I don't think he want to say that can u please explain ur point of view not share it please.

hi anon, i hope you can forgive that i'm not sure how to answer this without sharing it? maybe i was supposed to post about it unprompted but to be perfectly honest, the quote in question didn't stick out to me at all before this.

i personally haven't seen any discourse over it either and am confused as to why there would be any as it seems within the lines of the normal boundary setting most of the members have done at some point or another to me.

but to be fair to you and this ask, i went back and watched it again just to make sure i didn't miss anything. the section being discussed starts around 26:13 and ends around 27:40 and in summary the interviewer asks jk about the special relationship bts have with army, how unique and symbiotic it is and what is jk's favorite part about this dynamic. jk answers that he agrees it's very special and how it's important to him personally to continue to try and have "authentic and comfortable" convos with army that show a real version of him. he adds the disclaimer that he knows that there's a line that shouldn't be crossed between performer and audience and he won't cross it but he wants to be our "friend" as much as he can.

so, do i think the "line" he has no intention of crossing here refers to not using army for his benefit/sexual desires/hook ups? uh, no, i'm with you anon, i don't think that's what he meant at all. but not because that line doesn't exist for him, i think it does, but like, that goes without saying, right? assuming jk is a decent human being who would never use his fame or money to unfairly take advantage of anyone, which is something i hope we're all on the same page about here as i don't know why anyone would ever willingly be a fan of someone they thought with high probability would do such a thing, would that not be saying the quiet part out loud? is there some group of genuinely delusional y/n's in a foxhole some where needing this spelled out still? (rhetorical, please don't make me think about saesangs today)

i put quotations around the word "friend" up there because at the end of the day, there will always be a (needed) barrier between idol/artist/performer and fan and jk can't really be our friend in the true sense of the word, which he's aware of. the nature of this type of relationship as a whole already maintains a weird, fluctuating power imbalance between both parties as one cannot exist without the other and you won't get very far, on the artist side of things especially, without understanding this.

but jk has kind of, sort of already crossed some "lines" with us in how willing he has been to show and share so much of himself with us, over the last year, in particular. in case you just fell off the turnip truck yesterday, as my very southern grandmother would say, getting to witness someone as famous and untouchable as jk chilling in real time in their home and bed even, is highly unusual. most celebrities with that level of status wouldn't be caught dead sharing something like that and understandably so, tbh, as most fans couldn't handle that level of intimacy with their idol. hell, a lot of people who consider themselves fans these days apparently can't handle it either, which makes me very sad and tbh how dare you potentially ruin the trust so many of us have spent years building up with them. rude. taking things for granted is how you lose them and the special relationship bts and army share only stays special with effort, but i digress.

i think jk's disclaimer here was an assurance that he's very aware of what he has chosen to share could be perceived by some as having already gone too far but that his boundaries are still firmly in place. "authentic and comfortable" are a priority to him but he's not going to exceed our shared comfort zone. he may be a lot more candid than some, say seokjin, who may as well be an international man of mystery for as much as he's willing to show off the clock in comparison, but jk knows what he's doing. and considering how young he started and how long he's been in the spotlight, he seems exceptionally well adjusted and savvy overall at navigating these extremely tumultuous waters, imo.

anyway, respect your artists as human beings and know your own fan boundaries, folks. there's always some nuance to be had, especially on a site like this where it's a mostly contained bubble for us, the audience, to throw around our fiction and theories and odes to how beautiful they all are but when you leave this space with any of that (minus the odes, maybe) and put it in front of these very real people in question, you've gone too far. don't be that asshole. everyone despises that asshole. (including said artists! they're never going to say it that frankly but i will ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)