#I know this isn’t Reddit

[brunhielda]

Looking for some validation or explanation here from fellow theater peeps. 🎭

The Situation:

It is about 3 rehearsals from Dress.

I have been learning lines, blocking scenes, doing back ground research and in all the other little ways DEVELOPING a character for about 3 months.

The costume designer only really started doing anything last week. No one knows why but we are afraid to ask in case it just blows up in our face. We have been asking about her for at least 6 weeks now.

I know this woman. I sing in church choir with this woman. I will probably have to work with her on a show again. She is the mother of my best friend from HS and still occasionally sees me as a child. Ah the joys of small towns and thier community theater.

I have been in enough shows in this town to know the break down of late costuming. It goes “I have to find 15 1920esq dresses and matching household staff outfits and make five avitator outfits. You are the only modern character. You got pants from home that might work?”

I prepared. I knew who my character was and bought online options of things I didn’t have. I showed up to rehearsals with the pieces I had as they came in and talked to the director about what was coming. To her credit, she said “I think it’s good, but (Costumes) has final say, so talk to her.”

So I talk to (Costumes). I tell her what we have been thinking. She has noises about a skirt and a chain for my glasses, I express why a skirt doesn’t work practically. She says “Bring the stuff in as soon as it arrives so I can see it.” I do so. She doesn’t see it til a rehearsal later.

Again THREE DAYS BEFORE DRESS this woman has the gall to look at what I put together and say “This isn’t what I envisioned for the character at all. My vision for the character is ______” and proceeds to list an outfit I could pull from my wardrobe.

Like- she KNOWS me. She KNOWS what I wear. She has been in theater for YEARS. She should know if she puts me in MY clothing I will be “the character as me,” and both she and the director on separate occasions have mentioned that I shouldn’t play the character as me.

And it would be fine if she went “let’s bend this a little” and added a scarf or a top, but by the time we are to DRESS, she sends me a text to say she wants to scrap everything I am in and go with her “vision.”

So I have a minor panic attack over breakfast, and call the director and ask- “Do you like what I am doing on stage? Because if you put me in that costume I will end up going in an entirely different direction.”

My director, for her part, seemed to want to placate me and was like “No, if you’re uncomfortable in a skirt we’ll go with pants-“ and I try to say “It’s not about that, it’s about changing the whole look this late in the game-

Yeah… they basically decided they didn’t want me to have a melt down, and changed my top to be more colorful (I was going with an elegant black on black, which was labeled boring) while being happy I at least found palazzo pants to go with over the yoga pants from earlier.

(The sweater doesn’t go past your butt. And?!?!?)

There is still a general vibe that this actor (me) is just too stressed right now so we are going to humor her even though clearly our option was better, and why can’t she be more flexible?

I mean… am I crazy???? I created a whole character without any input and then was told she should look entirely different, but your acting is fine, as if costume has ZERO effect on character.

Like… I should be mad about that, right?

[symptomofgout]

the narrative of kaveh being an idiot is so baffling to me because he is, quite literally, canonically considered a genius…? why is the popular consensus “6000 IQ alhaitham and his lovably stupid roommate kaveh” when every npc commenting on kaveh refers to his intellect & talent, the literal god of wisdom says kaveh has an “almost-perfect grasp of what it truly means for sumeru to be a nation of wisdom” (whereas she questions alhaitham’s wisdom in her line about him), and alhaitham’s own story profile calls kaveh a genius multiple times??? like the whole point is that he’s alhaitham’s intellectual equal despite having entirely separate worldviews and demeanors, which frustrates alhaitham to no end — ‘how can someone so smart do all of these things that, to me, are so evidently stupid?’ the takeaway from their dynamic should NOT be kaveh is dumb, but rather that empathy and emotion aren’t actually the opposites of logic and intelligence, but sadly both alhaitham and the realm of academia as a whole are too blinded by their own definitions of logic to fully realize that.

tl;dr kaveh is not dumb by any standards and i will prove it

(under the cut: quotes/screenshots/etc proving this + more. please spread the gospel and dispel ignorance. amen)

some npc voicelines (there are more but i’m lazy):

these are pretty self-explanatory — kaveh is a widely-renowned scholar, architect, and engineer throughout sumeru. he graduated from the akademiya with flying colors, students were desperate to take his classes, etc.

nahida’s voicelines:

both are intelligent but only one is wise: kaveh. alhaitham is too restricted by his narrow definition of wisdom (read: what he deems ‘logical’) to look beyond himself and grasp that there’s more to intellect and knowledge than pure cold rationality. he can’t comprehend that empathy and intellect aren’t fundamentally incompatible — in fact, they’re best when put hand in hand. kaveh is one of the few scholars capable of valuing emotions, empathy, and artistic endeavors, while the rest of the akademiya closes themselves off to that entire realm of knowledge from the get-go. this is what makes kaveh uniquely wise, and what alhaitham lacks. until you understand that emotions and logic can and should coexist, you won’t be successful in the true pursuit of knowledge.

last but not least:

alhaitham’s profile (worth noting that profile stories are pretty much the most reliable source of information on characters’ true beliefs and opinions — their voicelines are still them putting on acts in front of the traveler, but these stories are told from the perspective of an omniscient narrator and are likely closer to the truth):

“two geniuses.” and even after their falling out, “neither of them will deny the other party’s exceptional brilliance” — meaning alhaitham considers kaveh to be exceptionally brilliant. point blank. in the text bro

hilarious line — it’s basically alhaitham saying he doesn’t understand how someone with kaveh’s talent and intellect could have a personality/worldview so different from haitham’s. ‘how can someone that smart be so annoying!!!!!’ and ofc by values we know it’s referring to kaveh’s idealism, empathy, and affinity for the arts

alhaitham considers kaveh to be “another genius,” someone who is so much his intellectual equal that he’s “an excellent mirror” for alhaitham. it’s like an experiment for him — the initial question is “how can someone as smart as me care about all of these things i’ve always believed to be worthless,” the subjects are kaveh and alhaitham, the controlled variable is their intellect. because their intellect is the same, alhaitham is able to study their differences (can’t attribute said differences to varying intellect). alhaitham would never say it out loud — and luckily he doesn’t need to bc his character story tells us — but he’s deeply fascinated by kaveh bc kaveh’s very existence is a threat to haitham’s worldview, & he’s letting kaveh stay with him bc through kaveh, alhaitham learns about not just himself but the outside world and humanity as a whole, and as a scholar, there’s nothing more valuable. (also because he feels comfortable with kaveh [“he’s a familiar face”] and they’re both lonely [“similarly lacks familial attachments”] lol these two are never beating the We Know You Don’t Actually Hate Each Other allegations but that’s a different point so i digress)

IN CONCLUSION:

this is all just the TEXTUAL evidence — people saying “kaveh is smart” — and doesn’t even include all of the obvious implicit signs of kaveh’s intellect (no one who graduates from the akademiya w honors and teaches classes there could be anything other than incredibly intelligent, al “i don’t do anything that i don’t want to do” “i’m not going to bother explaining it to you because you won’t understand” haitham not only puts up with but actively seeks out debates with kaveh which he absolutely would not do if he didn’t respect him or consider him to be of roughly equal intellect, look at the debates he has w alhaitham on sumeru messageboards and TELL ME those messages sound like they were written by an idiot or itto or something [you cant], etc etc etc).

and also this is all from 3.3 (+ 3.4 alhaitham leaks)! we don’t even know kaveh’s rarity yet, that’s how far he is from being playable, but there’s already this much information on just how smart he is! it’s the main thing we know about him — 1) he’s smart, 2) he’s passionate/driven by what he feels is right! why does that keep turning into “LOL HOTHEADED HIMBO”??!

okay look. this is all so extra i know. BUT. i must set the record straight now (god knows it’ll only get worse the closer we get to kaveh’s release) because this sudden-onset mass illiteracy within genshin players is going to send me to an early grave. feel free to use as a resource and educate the ignorant so kaveh does not end up reduced to a one-note meme dumb guy when literally that’s just… not even in the game. i mean at least other annoying OOC fandom interpretations have basis in the game but genshin literally tells u every time it gets the opportunity that Kaveh Is Just As Smart As Alhaitham Because Cold Rationality Does Not Equal Wisdom/Intelligence and losing that would be such a crime because it is by far the most interesting n promising thing hoyo has done with new characters in ages! like, not only are they funny and entertaining, not only are they fascinating incredible foils for one another, but they’re used to make a much-needed argument against the prevalent hegemony of mindless rationality and our “logical” society’s illogical fear of emotion/empathy. but yeah sure, theyre just itto & ayato 2.0, i guess. god. the lack of reading comprehension among genshin players is literally an epidemic

[nightswatchdisbandmentera]

I really don’t think we should be treating morality as a linear thing in ASOIAF because what often happens is that we start to stray from the actual conversations that we need to be having regarding the depths of making a moral choice and even the circumstances involved. To try and blankly paint any one character as the “most morally good” isn’t really taking us anywhere. And it certainly isn’t helpful when people in this fandom want to try and prove that characters are “grey” but not moral (what does that even mean??) because they did one “bad” thing. If ASOIAF stans were to have their way, then:

Jon is not a morally good person because he threatened Gilly

Dany cannot be considered to be compassionate because she sanctioned torture against the wine seller’s daughters

Arya cant be good because she has killed people

and so on, and so on….

But this is such a draining, and oft times frustrating, conversation to have because you see just how shallow the above listed examples are? Readers are listing only singular instances across a narrative that spans thousand and thousands of pages, and there’s absolutely no context involved. Why did Jon threaten Gilly? Why did Dany resort to torture and at one point did she do it? Who did Arya kill and why? And why do those singular instances negate everything else in their arcs?

What usually happens when we have the 12847647282th unnecessary conversation about who is the “most good” character in ASOIAF is that we start getting blanket statements with no elaboration. And the only people ever considered are Ned, Brienne, and Davos, and sometimes the children like Shireen or Tommen. Mind you, Ned and Davos are not perfect or without their own faults either; much has been said about Ned’s abilities as a father and it’s implied that Davos was not entirely faithful to his wife. And based on her current arc, Brienne will surely have to make morally tough choices regarding oaths and knightly honor. Plus theres the irony of including literal children when they have not been put in situations where they actually have to make morally difficult choices and live with the consequences.

ASOIAF shows us that people who are capable of incredible kindness and compassion are also capable of doing unpleasant things.

Jon threatened Gilly….because he was trying to save another child whom he believed to be at risk of human sacrifice(!!) and was stuck between a rock and a hard place. But why does that singular instance negate the fact that his arc has been about him standing up for the “lesser than”? Why does that negate the fact that he stood up for Sam against a superior when there was nothing to gain for him? Why does it negate the fact that he went out of his way to equip Arya in a way that society would have deemed inappropriate? Why does it negate the fact that he dedicated the entirety of his time as Lord Commander to fight an institution that had upheld racism/xenophobia for millennia? Why should we filter out all those moments of kindness, compassion, and deep empathy that Jon has even without him thinking?

Dany sanctioned torture….but she was trying to solve the murder of an innocent victim AND this brought her no joy. But why does that negate the fact that when she gained unimaginable power, she could’ve high tailed to Westeros to use it to her benefit and become queen, but instead chose to stay in Essos where she has no personal responsibility just so she could fight the institutional evil that is slavery? Why does it negate Dany who went to personally treat plague victims at great risk to herself?

Arya has killed some….but it’s in self defense or in defense of others who are disenfranchised. But why does this negate that she is one of the few people in the series how goes out of her way to show kindness and friendship to those who are not as economically or politically advantaged as she is (e.g., Mycah)? Why does it negate that she took fellow slaves under her protection when she herself had little power to fight for her own survival at Harrenhall? Why does it negate that when she saw those caged soldiers whom she was angry with for their actions, instead of leaving them to die instead offered them the only kindness she could at the moment: a drink of water?

Trying to have arguments about morality but stripping everything down to ‘x character did y bad thing (regardless of context) and that’s why they can’t be good’ is, to be blunt, ridiculous. And it isn’t a particularly interesting way to engage with the text. Character journeys, especially well written ones, are rarely ever in a straight line. There’s amazing highs and terrible lows. GRRM gives us so many characters like Jon, Dany, Arya, Sansa, Ned, etc. who even in their lows, have gleams of compassion and exceptional kindness. It doesn’t do anyone any good to filter those moments out to make the books more digestible; and I’m being a little generous here, because so many readers have a very shallow level of engagement with the series and it shows in conversation. And we also shouldn’t pit these characters unfairly against those who have never been in similarly difficult situations that required them to make hard choices. Because when we do, we start to completely miss the point all together.

[rosenlied]

People playing Ensekai vs people playing JPSekai

[emblazons]

Thinking about how people who only (or primarily) understand Mike’s arc through a “hes queer and coming to accept it / struggling with heteronormativity/will get his happy ending when he gets with Will” lens are missing at least half of what defines his arc in the wider context / themes of the show.

Forewarning: long post (& also maybe an unpopular opinion)

Even as a queer person myself, I know that his arc isn’t solely about embracing his queerness (though it’s inherently interlinked). In Mike, you have a character who is being radically challenged by both external circumstances and his own decisions through a journey away from all kinds of forced conformity (social, familial, romantic & heteronormative) and into someone self actualized enough to live how they want…while also being strong enough to accept that they made mistakes along the way. Someone who is learning to be brave enough to say “this is who I am, what I enjoy, and what/who I love…and while it took me a lot of time to figure it out, now I can exist in the world embracing that even though it will take consistently resisting the tendency to accommodate people who think it’s unacceptable.”

Like. Even from a time before puberty (see: S3) Mike wants a life that stands apart from what’s expected of him in every area, not just in choosing a romantic relationship with another guy. He wants to continue to be a nerd and “child at heart” even though something else is repeatedly demanded of him by everyone from his parents to El in his romantic relationship. He wants to be a writer and someone who takes those nerdy interests into his adult life (cue aggressive gesturing toward the duffers themselves) and grates against all that’s been constructed for him even when he’s not (yet) brave enough to challenge it directly. Mike liking boys/loving Will is just “the final nail in the coffin” of his social and societal nonconformity—not the first (or the last) aspect of what makes him different from Hawkins or the life he was made to believe would suit him best.

Even the fact that Mike has a desire to be “normal” comes from an insecurity and fear that choosing what he truly wants will lead to him being outcasted and losing the people he cares for entirely—which is partially motivated by his queerness yes, but that also has a basis in his general interests and personality…which becomes especially obvious when you realize we are repeatedly shown that he is punished/has his wishes ignored in all areas he doesn’t conform, even long before we get into a plot where it’s clearer he likes boys.

We see it in how his parents have already started to demand he put boundaries on the time he spends playing his “childhood games” the very first scene of season one, how they demand social acceptable emotions from him when Will is missing, and how Karen & Ted want him to give up toys in S2 when he’s showing signs of depression (because they think the issue is him growing up, not that he’s struggling with loss or guilt for what happened to El).

We see it in how his own father comments about taking his CA trip away from him after calling Hellfire being a group for “dropouts” in S4 (implying that he is failing on an academic and social level that matters to wheelers—and that Nancy is good at).

We even see it in the way everyone from his bullies to his own girlfriend threaten and take things away from him when he doesn’t conform to social expectations...from Troy telling him to jump off the cliff to save Dustin in S1 (as punishment for the one time Mike stands up for himself in the gymnasium) to El jumping straight into breaking up with him and spying on him when he doesn’t do exactly what she wants him to in Season 3.

All of these moments are critical to understanding Mike as a person because they show us that, even without addressing his queerness, Mike’s desire to conform to socialized expectations involves but is not solely about him moving out of heteronormativity—it’s about him moving against everything that WASP, patriarchal, heteronormative and capitalistic and performative “wholesome American” values…and how he is learning to move past the fear of what will happen if he steps outside the lines in general, even though he already knows he hates those standards.

Mike’s “coming of age” arc is about finding the strength to choose the “path less traveled” in all areas of his life—even when it means (potentially) losing the support of the people he cares about. It’s about starting from a place of privilege and becoming okay with being outcasted from it in a way your insecurities never let you be before (which is inherently different than Will, who has always been shown to have some kind of support not just for his queerness but his artistic endeavors as well). Mike’s lack of support is why he starts from a place of deep insecurity, yes—but it’s also why him learning power of choosing to be himself, even if it means “losing” people when he’s honest about who (& what) he is will be universally powerful.

You don’t need to be queer to understand the power of what it means to know you will be okay even if people leave you. You don’t need to be queer to understand the power of stepping outside social expectations or your family’s way of raising you. You don’t even need to be queer to understand the weight of breaking up with someone you were only with to satisfy what you thought you should do, rather than be with who you want to.

The power of being strong enough to overcome your insecurities in order to “step out of line” and live and love as you want to is universal, and a stunningly brave choice no matter what or why you chose to do so. The fact that Will will be there waiting to love him in that honesty with himself is beautiful, yes—but it’s not the only lesson to be learned for Mike’s character.

Mike starting out with everything the world (or, at least America) tells would make you happy, realizing he is not happy with those things and rejecting them knowing it might have consequences is what makes his arc powerful, because he is learning (exactly like his sister Nancy) to be brave enough to accept those consequences (which for him are getting dumped, and feeling like he’s being left behind by some of his friends) to follow his own heart.

Even though The Duffers aren’t writing this into a tragic ending (aka: he’s not going to die or be left alone, because the duffers writing is inherently designed ro champion the outcast), these are the things that have (and will) make him relatable even to an audience that doesn’t know queerness. Erasing the fact that his lesson is the bravery it takes to follow your heart solely to talk about him liking guys (even Will) is to undermine his humanity, and the lessons to be learned from him by even the most general an audience.

TL:DR - the heteronormative aspect of Mike’s character is not the sole or even inherent issue within Mike, though heteronormativity is inherently built into his struggle.

There are deep dives on how his arc is also about a war against toxic patriarchy, toxic masculinity, emphasis on capitalistic and academic accomplishments over artistic ones, and even conformist relationships (whether they’re queer or not) that should be explored for his character—and I for one like him too much not to move out of just “this boy is queer because xyz” and into “let’s talk about Mike in terms of the wider scope of his cultural context and upbringing.” 🤷🏽‍♀️😂

[island-ofthelost]

does anyone know the context behind this? /gen

what context/conversation was twisted? What does him being Jewish have to do with that? WHAT RUMOR? who is teddynthecoolkidz?!

[chanceofwhat]

Some helpful tumblr jargon/references for our new friends:

Blorbo is a word you might hear a lot. Idk who uses this outside of tumblr, I know some people do, so I’m just gonna leave the urban dictionary definition here and move along.

Again, I think Spiders Georg is pretty well known, but I’m leaving this here anyways because it’s referenced fairly often in the way that the “free real estate” used to be where the guy’s face would just be slapped down somewhere out of context with no words and we’d all know.

Miette is… everything. We have all agreed that cats are little Victorian children. Miette is referenced often too, so… love her.

Ea-Nasir is the weirdest one, and the one it took me the longest to figure out. This is the transcript of a 3800 year old complaint tablet in cuneiform about Ea-Nasir the terrible copper salesman. This is the oldest recorded customer complaint in the world. People quote this one often without directly stating what it is, so if you didn’t know about it, you may not even realize there’s a reference there, or you’d skate on by and ignore it. It’s much funnier when you know the context, so… you’re welcome.

If you have any tumblr questions, ask me, and I’ll answer the best I can. Don’t be scared to ask. You’re welcome here. Hellsite is for everyone.

[shsl-roomba]

the dr fandom cant handle wlw ships in any other context than background fluff with no depth

i like sakuraoi and tsumioda ect but they always get woobified and mellowed out like did they SEE 1-4??? aoi did not pull all that to get sidelined as a supportive background lesbian in your ishimondo fanfic

and don’t get me wrong. my girls need a break sometimes fluff is great i don’t have a problem with it. but it’s the constant sidelining of wlw ships in favour of het/mlm ships in pretty much any fandom that gets to me.

and how wlw ships are only acceptable in the community when they don’t have any dysfunction or toxicity, and if the ship does have even the slightest hint of the above qualities it is either mellowed out to the point of being unrecognisable or dumped on with thinly veiled misogyny and homophobia and when i say slightest hint i mean the literally slightest hint. like the girls will argue once and the fandom will label the ship toxic while shipping. fucking kuzupeko or something.

wlw ships are seen almost entirely as a way to get female characters out of the way of mlm ships. in het ships the female character is a tool to develop the male character. they show significantly less depth and probably dies to forward the male character’s development (sound familiar?)

in any situation female characters are characterised by their relations to male characters. a female character’s (usually romantic, or at least interpreted as such) relationship with a male character is their defining characteristic. if said female character is in a wlw relationship they are reduced to their most basic traits while male characters are explored and given depth, and exist in the story only to offer support to the male characters.

i haven’t even mentioned how female characters must be in a relationship to be even remotely relevant in a story, but that’s a rant for another time.

grrah the way that female characters mirrors how wlw ships are treated by the community, and that characters/ships that aren’t completely perfect and deemed acceptable by the community are dumped on by the larger dr community while worse ships or characters are welcomed because they happen to contain a male character is gonna be my 13th reason istg.

anyways this rant is getting long but in summary danganronpa fans hate women and they hate wlw relationships that they can’t jerk off to.

[notexactlyrocketscience]

No you guys don’t understand, I went into TMA completely blind with only a faint idea halfway through season 1 that Martin might develop vague feelings for Jon by the end of the series. That was it. I thought it was just going to be just Season 1 format for five seasons. (Puts on creepy clown makeup.)

Then I got to the Season 1 Q&A, and I was astonished by Jonny and Alex’s chemistry. No, really. I watch a lot of sapphic YouTube, and they finished each other’s sentences and laughed at each other’s jokes like long-term wives. They agreed on just about everything—especially for the more complex questions—and their disagreements were playful and adorable.

(I was like, if these two aren’t dating yet, then they should. They should do it for the gays.)

Well, I was completely and utterly wrong. (Jonny is married to Sasha Sienna, Georgie’s VA, and Alex is married to Hannah Brankin, Rosie’s VA. The former is actually quite narratively satisfying.) Both through personal experiences and disappointment in other media, I’ve been so primed to be skeptical of cishet-passing white men who write speculative fiction. And yet, Jonny and Alex turned out to be just two people who genuinely care about representing diverse identities, respecting the audience’s investments in the characters, and leaning into the plot’s natural progression instead of resisting. They’re just wholesome men.

ngl, it kind of reminded me there is still hope in the world.

They are incredible writers, and honestly? You probably should co-write with people that are as compatible with your vibe and wavelength as a romantic or queer-platonic partner would be.

[secretagentsagainstwhatever]

who’s your “they could never make me hate you” doctor who character, my mine is forever Adric 🫶🏻

[riacte]

[on four hours of sleep] i should be used to it after four years but idk it gets frustrating seeing the trending stuff from the hc fandom to almost always be about the same things / same group of people (and i thought i mained fairly popular hermits until i looked at outside of my sphere on reddit/twitter and was like. oh.) and there’s generally a gap between the notes/engagement

which is why i will always be annoying and spread my propaganda 🔥 be the annoyance you want to see in the world 💫

[clueless1995]

self care has been so twisted into serving capitalism and the patriarchy it makes me sick actually

[gen4grl]

i’m interested to know what mainline pkmn games yall have or haven’t played? dosent matter how you played via an actual console or rom!

❌rby

❌gsc

✅rse - only emerald! on a emulator

✅frlg - on a emulator :3

✅dpp - both diamond and platinum

✅hgss

✅bw & ✅bw 2

❌xy

❌oras

❌sm & ❌usum

✅lgpe

✅swsh

✅legends

✅sv

and for my top 5 games… (so far)

1️⃣ legends arceus!!! 2️⃣ scarlet/violet 3️⃣ heartgold/soulsilver 4️⃣ black/white 5️⃣ firered & leafgreen

i have all the ds + switch games as physical copies (i am very lucky and grateful) but haven’t gotten around to playing the 3ds titles yet… definitely need to before the new legends game comes out… maybe shocking to most but i haven’t touched a mega in my LIFE…

[m4ndysk4nkovich]

i hate it when people have no media literacy and can’t form their own opinions… i don’t understand how you can’t form your own opinions and need to just copy and paste them from other people and if you wanna come on my blog and talk about shit you clearly know nothing about don’t even bother like pls just go back to reddit and leave me alone

[a-dotrivenitupontop]

i think currently my sexuality depends on if we’re talking like wildest fantasies or realistic goals. because ideal scenario? zach woods probably. or at least ‘decent preferably-trans men who i get along with’. but if we’re talking like Actually Dating Someone In Real Life i’d prefer woman purely because the amount of guys in my shitty english town who aren’t complete dicks is absolutely minuscule. and if you filter that through ‘i share interests with’ and ‘actually available’ it basically becomes nothing. pretty sure if you add ‘trans’ in there the list goes into the negatives. so. ya. 🙃

[tuulikki]