#I literally was not online for two days. At this point we're more like a bot game d:

[qqueenofhades]

I really really REALLY need to see more people makimg the connection between trump and his russian handlers tbh.......like i know we've somehow gone through the looking glass of putin apologia but that piece abt the NYT you just posted, the bots, the interference: in the bag for trump? Yes. But i dont believe its due to his or even republican power or popularity or forcefulness.......this is a man with so much debt and kompromat thats only getting worse!! Not to sound kwazy BUT WE ARE BEING FULLY INFLITRATED and at the risk of conspiracizing i think the russians are ALSO behind the Times's demise along with so many other information centers etc. Like i KNOW these leftists love him but like. Wouldnt they care a LITTLE abt being manipulated like this???

Trump is 100% an active, willing, and eager Russian agent. That's not even paranoid conspiracy theory, that's just the only reasonable interpretation of the facts:

NOT TO MENTION that in the next two years after the Helsinki conference where Trump kowtowed to Putin in every way, the CIA admitted to losing huge and unusually high numbers of classified informants around the world (not CIA agents, but people secretly working for the American government in often-hostile countries):

Once again, this all happened when Trump was in office, when he was actively handing over CIA intel to the Kremlin against the wishes of the entire national security establishment, and which other experts have suggested was directly as a result of Trump handing over the identities of American informants to Russia, including those stationed in Russia itself:

Now, I could go on, but you get the point. Not to mention that Trump just lost a major UK-based lawsuit against Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent who was the first to provide documents linking Trump to Russia in the controversial "Steele dossier":

And now: Trump is deeply in hock for hundreds of millions in legal fees and punitive judgments that are only increasing by the day, he somehow just came up with $90 million to appeal the judgment against E. Jean Carroll (nobody knows where he got this money either), and Russian state TV spends all their time openly salivating for Trump's return to the presidency (so he can hand over Ukraine and the rest of NATO and, as he literally said, "let Russia do whatever the hell they want.") I know we're largely numb to all the awful treasonous shit that Trump does, but like. This isn't a conspiracy theory, this is just what's going on in plain sight, and while the Online Leftists have recently become so stupid that I honestly can't tell if it's just terminal brainworms or active Russian psyops, it's strongly indicated that it is in fact a mix of both:

So, like. Just some food for thought.

[eowyntheavenger]

Hi! I saw your post on telling Americans to vote, and I was wondering what you think of posts from people from other parts of the world who are calling Americans evil for voting for Biden because of his support for Israel. I've seen a few already. They seem to be completely convinced that Americans deliberately voted for Biden specifically to side against Palestine and no other reason, and spread the general (pretty ignorant and hateful) message of "Americans are evil because of the actions of their government and because they collectively refuse to vote for a president who is good and not simply 'the lesser of two evils'". It frustrates me because they seem to think they're experts on US politics, culture, and society and have all the answers, but it also makes me concerned because it reminds me of the whole Russian bot thing from last time. Like, I'm 99% sure the people reblogging these posts aren't Russian bots (don't know about the OPs though), and they unquestioningly believe this. What do you think of this and how would you go about addressing this issue? Do you think it's possible to get them to understand how little they actually know about the US and how they're actually promoting a message that makes things worse for everyone? I've also seen less scathing posts that are just disheartened and don't seem to believe the democrats are truly better to vote for than the republicans and so it's just two sides of the same coin. To be fair, I think that sort of feeling is only further encouraged because there didn't really seem to be much if any progress made with Biden, not even back to square one after Trump moved the country so far backwards. I think most Americans really wish the elections actually had good candidates and they could pick the best of two goods, but are frustrated and stuck with the current system and don't know how to actually get to the point where there are good candidates. (Though personally I think voting for the one who isn't actively trying to make themselves a king with unlimited terms is a decent start. I can understand the frustration though.)

Hi! Thanks for the ask. This stuff worries me too. I've gotten comments on my posts like that too, telling me/other Americans that we're evil for voting for Biden.

But I've seen a much larger number of comments and posts from people outside the United States BEGGING us to vote for Biden. I literally get tags like that on my posts EVERY DAY urging Americans to vote blue. So I think that's valuable context, even if it doesn't solve the problem of the "I hate everybody who votes for Biden" crowd.

And yes, it's definitely a shitty argument on their part to claim that people voting for Biden are specifically siding against Palestine. Literally every single person I know in real life and online who plans to vote for Biden has been criticizing and protesting his policies on Palestine.

In terms of convincing the anti-voters that they're wrong, honestly, I don't know. They don't listen to reason and they seem intent on spreading despair. Some of Biden's policies have been terrible (Willow oil-drilling project), some of them have been downright evil (military aid to Israel), but I'm a rational person and I know that Trump is worse in every respect.

I've tried debating them. It's been pointless every time. They genuinely don't know how the government works, which scares me. Common takes include: 1) a genuine lack of awareness of how pro-Israel Trump and the right wing are, combined with magical thinking that a virtually unknown third party candidate can win the presidential election, 2) truly impressive mental gymnastics blaming Biden for the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and 3) continuing the mental gymnastics to blame Biden and the Democrats for anti-trans policies...

I guess my advice is to either ignore them and move on, or debunk things when you have time/energy? It's easier said than done, I know. There's nothing more annoying than someone being stupid on the internet, especially when they accuse you of stuff that just isn't true, and especially when they're spreading dangerous misinformation or voter-suppression rhetoric.

Like you, I'm highly suspicious of anyone who advocates AGAINST voting, or against voting blue. And I agree, many of these people are not bots, like you said, but I call them useful idiots, because they're doing the bots' work for them.

The one thing you said that I'm going to push back on is "there didn't really seem to be much if any progress made with Biden." Biden's actually made lots of progress on a variety of issues, and reversed some of Trump’s damage, it just doesn't get a lot of fanfare and it’s unfortunately happening at the same time as Republican gains in state legislatures and while they control the Supreme Court. But Biden and his administration have:

• invested billions in green architecture and clean energy, including making sure federal investments benefit low-income communities

• introduced new fines for companies' methane emissions

• introduced a plan to cut the federal government's greenhouse gas emissions by 65% by 2030 (that includes the military, which is a huge emitter)

• passed a huge bill for improving the country's infrastructure, including bridges, roads, broadband and more

• introduced first-ever national strategy on gender equality and equity and pushed Congress to pass the Equal Rights Amendment

• fought for women's reproductive rights after the overturn of Roe v. Wade

• put more women, people of color, and women of color on the federal bench than any of his predecessors combined

• nominated Kentaji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court

• boosted funding to historically Black colleges

• ordered the DOJ to end the use of private prisons by the federal government

• pardoned thousands of people convicted on federal marijuana charges

• created a White House office of gun violence prevention

• passed the Respect for Marriage Act, guaranteeing federal rights and benefits for same-sex couples

• rolled out a series of actions to protect the rights and safety of the LGBTQ+ community, including protecting queer and trans foster youth, improving access to mental health services, and addressing the rise in hate crimes

• challenged discriminatory state bans against gender-affirming care and trans athletes

• called to support trans youth in State of the Union address and restored the White House tradition of recognizing Pride Month

• changed passport rules so that people can obtain a passport with no gender marker

• examined efforts by each federal agency to advance LGBTQ+ rights around the world

• reversed Trump's transgender military ban

• protected the rights of incarcerated trans people

• forgave billions in student debt, repeatedly, and introduced penalties for college programs that trap students in debt

• slashed bank overdraft fees

• expanded guaranteed overtime pay for millions of people

• made union-busting harder

• prevented discriminatory mortgage lending

• made efforts to expand the child tax credit, which could lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty

• cracked down on agriculture monopolies to support farmers and small businesses

• made it so the government is going to start taking drug companies' patents away if they don't make affordable drugs

• made over-the-counter birth control pills available for the first time

• lowered the cost of hearing aids and expanded access to them

• spent millions of dollars on students' mental health

• reversed discriminatory healthcare rules

• reinvigorated cancer research

• announced plans to replace all leaded pipes in the next ten years as well as combatting lead exposure abroad

• changed rules for how people can get aid after disasters so they can get more protection and immediate payments more easily

• introduced new data privacy rules protecting people from tech companies

• pushed the federal government to monitor AI risks

• maintained steadfast support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression

• maintained steadfast support for Taiwan in the face of Chinese intimidation

• strengthened ties with allies in Asia and the Pacific Islands

• pledged climate change assistance to low-lying Pacific Island countries

• literally IMMEDIATELY after being elected, Biden fortified DACA, rejoined the Paris Agreement, and ended Trump's discriminatory "Muslim ban", ended the Keystone XL Pipeline and fossil duel development in wildlife monuments, (same as last link) rejoined the WHO, strengthened COVID-19 response measures on a variety of fronts, re-included non-citizens in the U.S. census, and passed executives orders on racial equity in the federal government

And I'm sure there's more I left out.

There are also things Biden does that literally don’t make the news, but matter a lot, like funding the Postal Service, and continuing to have a State Department so we can conduct overseas diplomacy (Trump tried to defund the USPS and wants to purge the State Department and fill it with loyalists).

[kromeihl]

New Target 🎯 UNLOCKED

╰┈➤ Jax x Female!Reader

WARNING(s): Not Proofread

Headphones on.

They're on all right. But, this was odd.

"Sir...Why am I feeling a bit dizzy..? Is this part of the online interview with the client?"

Silence, just silence.

"S-Sir..?"

I couldn't move my head, my body, literally. Why was everything in the room blurry and getting doubled? The room was spinning, and the only thing I could focus on was the bright screen of the monitor placed in front of me.

The monitor looked old, dirty in fact. There was rust on the side and it was only visible due to the fact that it was white.

I closed my eyes for a few seconds, thinking it was right to do so. Just so the dizziness would disappear.

But— Why was everything so... colorful all of a sudden?

I could hear voices behind me, but all I could think of was my colorful surroundings.

I felt lighter than usual.

"Caine, is this one of your NPCs? Or is this a new sucker?"

I hear someone spoke up, I turned around to notice all different kinds of...What are they..? Characters?

I stared in shock, unable to speak.

"Cause if it's a new character.. We're gonna have to redo this whole theme song!"

It says, somehow frustrated. "I'm not doing that again." Another one spoke.

"What the $%#!?"

Everyone turned their heads to me. Seriously, this is how it feels when all eyes are on you?!

I stood in pure silence, feeling a bit embarrassed. I shouldn't have spoken too soon.

"There's two of 'em?" The rabbit spoke again.

"There's two of me?" I ask, feeling weirded out. "He meant the two of you." A red head spoke, pointing at me and another character that dressed up as a jester.

I nod once before observing each one of them, this one is gonna be some weird day.

...

"No. I don't think I want a tour." I wave my hands in front of the teeth man.

"Come on, it'll be fun! You wouldn't be able to have an adventure if you're not aware of your surroundings—" He proceeds to convince.

"No thanks. I'd like to explore more...By myself?" I laugh awkwardly. If I were a "new human" in this place, I would not like to have a tour at all.

"Oh well." He shrugs, flying to the poor female jester and disappearing into thin air.

"Hi there new one, you feelin' okay?" The red head approached me, putting her soft doll hand on my shoulder.

"I feel funny. Are you sure this is real?" I look at her with desperation. I'm not insane but I'm desperate to find out the truth. What if the jester girl was right? What if this is a dream?

"Sorry, but it is. Oh, and don't try to pull out your body parts like that weirdo a while ago. Or you could, I see those headsets on ya." The purple rabbit spoke with a sly smirk.

I put my hands on my head, trying to find the headset but it wasn't on. "Haha! Just kiddin'! You really believed me?" He grins. I sigh in frustration, the red head arguing with the rabbit.

"Quit trying to play with her, Jax! Leave her alone, instead of welcoming her, you're making her want to leave more!" The doll argues meanwhile the purple rabbit just rolls his eyes.

"It's all right. I don't mind." I smile awkwardly. The red head faces me, offering her hand to shake.

"I'm Ragatha." She introduces herself. I smile, taking her hand. Before I could reply, the teeth man and jester girl came back.

I stare as the jester girl vomits. The rest of the characters staring as well. A bubble popped up and started licking the vomit..

Weird.

"Wait.. Wait! Was that an exit door I saw out there? Is that a way to leave?" The jester girl spoke up.

"What exit?" Jax spoke up, taking the other character's hand and using it as a back scratcher.

"If there was a way to leave, I'm pretty sure we all would've left by now." The hand gets out of Jax's grasp, starting to strangle him in the process.

"Yeah..What are you talking about?" The other character furrows her brows.

The teeth man starts talking about how the jester girl was just experiencing "Digital Hallucinations." While denying the fact, he still believes she is experiencing them.

He switches the topic by asking her name. She starts panicking not knowing her name..Not REMEMBERING her name.

Hold on, if she doesn't remember her name..It means..I don't remember mine as well.

"My name.." I mumble, earning a hum from beside me. "You forgot your name, too, didn't you?" Ragatha smiled softly. "I did." I admitted. No way, how coulf I forget my own name!

The teeth man suddenly makes a giant machine appear, helping out the jester girl pick out a new name. "What do you think of XDDCC?"

"I don't—" She gets caught off. "Right! Terrible! Let's try that again!" He let's the machine spin again.

"What do you think of Pomni?"

She agrees to the name awkwardly. Poor Pomni, she still looks so troubled. "Hey Caine, what about this one over here." Jax says with his arms crossed.

"Right! What about you? What do you want?" So..His name was Caine.

"Uhh, you can pi—"

"Okay! Let's pick again!"

I narrow my eyebrows, he cuts people off so easily!

"Oooh, candy! What do you think?" He floats closer to me. By closer, literally in front of my face.

"S-sure?" I forcefully smile. "Great!" He flies over to Pomni who was trying to walk away.

"Candy suits you!" Ragatha smiles. "Nah, she doesn't even look sweet." Jax clears his throat. "Gosh, and your name is Jax! You look like your name would be Sadism." I argue back.

"Ohoho, I can throw you away like candy wrapper. Don't fuel up the fire." Jax smirks as he raises his brow. "But I think I'm starting to want to ruin your days here. Or years." He shrugs.

"I'll make yours even worst."

"Oh look Zooble, new target unlocked. I got some competition." Jax nudges Zooble's side. "Great, so your $%!# wouldn't be around ours any longer." She replies, not wanting to be a part of the conversation.

"I'll be on your tail, Candy. If you don't mind." Jax crosses his arm, standing tall. "Oh, and I'll be on yours, you rabbit." I narrow my eyebrows. "That wasn't really an insult. I could throw you away like Candy wrapper." He argues.

"Oho, but you can get a taste of this sweet Candy first." I argue back. His face shifts to surprise before another demeanor. "Whatever you say, remember, Caine said to keep it child friendly."

"Whatever rabbit."

"All right, sour candy."

"Now good luck and have fun my little superstars!" Caine says, before disappearing into thin air.

Pomni stares at all of us in silence before speaking up.

"What did any of that mean?"

I look over at Ragatha, then Jax.

"I didn't listen."

The rabbit roles his eyes. "You're doing bad on your first day."

"And you're annoying me pretty much on my first day."

"Good to know."

[meraki-yao]

RWRB: The Awardist Podcast Interview Thoughts

Alright after listening to the podcast giddily while aggressively stomping on the cross-ramp machine to work out my extreme happiness and excitement to the point that I burnt through twice as many calories than usual and soaked through my shirt, I'm here with thoughts

Pippin @pippin-katz, who sent me a voice message at 3 am my time to tell me to brace myself and be prepared for what's happening and what I'm going to wake up it, did their own version of a summary+thoughts with timestamps here, go check that one out

So my list of thoughts is gonna be a little more all over the place

Immediately burst out laughing with the "mouthful" joke, even more so when the boys both caught it lmao

"I am not happy to see Taylor's face" and "I have a Post-it I'll stick it over your face now" that is peak bestie behaviour

Nick honey I love you but I... do not believe you don't look through online stuff lmao we literally caught you likely fan content and edits you posted two Henry edits and referenced another one

I love how unintentionally in sync they are??? For the first question they started talking at the same time, and for the second they both started nodding and stayed silent forgetting this was an audio interview

"mate, mate, mate, MATE" and the last one being said in sync oh my god this is so much fun

The whole comment on the signing wars: what Pippin said, we were literally calling Taylor "that little fucker" yesterday when he started taunting us with more BTS (EVERYONE KEEP VOTING PLEASE)

"What possessed you? What have you got against me?", the same energy as "Why do you dislike me?"

Taylor's explanation of signing on Nick's face and how it started made me laugh and scoff a little because I translated that fucking moment: the first time it happened, Taylor was in China, it was the firstprince PR photo not the GQ magazine, he was on a boat, and he was the one to ask for the photos to sign lmao

Again, need to see them sign stuff in the same time and space: FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!! :D

"Take it Nick" Nick's little snicker in response

A little heavy and personal but I wish I could talk to them and tell them how much the book, the movie, the characters and the boys mean to me and how it kept me somewhat afloat last October when I was drowning every single day, and how this story made me want to change myself and break out of my status quo

I know I've been saying Taylor knows Casey's pronouns and he gets them wrong when he's nervous, and I stand by that, but God the sigh of relief I let out when he used they/them

"Right Nick?" is so oddly comforting?

Oh my fucking God the "Top to Bottom" joke was a low-hanging fruit but it made me laugh

Also even the order was right! "Top to Bottom", "Taylor and I" (jkjk lmao) 😜

I really fucking hope that the "that's what I'm known for now, doing intimacy work on screen" is an offhand joke and that people don't genuinely label Nick as that

"Why don't you speak for this, Taylor" again, unexplainably comforting

"Seeing my mate at all these awards shows" made me remember a Chinese phrase "頂峰相見·", literally "meeting again at the peak", meaning "I'll see you when we're both at our best"

Nick's burst of laughter at the "who's a better kisser" comment

Taylor I swear to God 🤣 he combined the "is nick a good kisser" and the "who has your heart joey or Nick" questions together and said "I don't know, I don't know how to answer that question, I have no idea" DUDE YOU LITERALLY ANSWERED THE GOOD KISSER QUESTION WITH "YOU KNOW WHAT HE IS A GOOD KISSER WE HAD TO PRACTICE A LOT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT" WITH ZERO HESITATION (that answer, on that day, was first thing in the morning for me, and I lost my sanity for the next two hours)

I'm so fucking happy and Matthew comes from a theatre too, speaking as a theatre person and someone who has been dissecting this film since its release

I really think there's gotta be more improvised scenes? Or at the very least stuff like the morning after V&A that was a last-minute decision to add in and wasn't in the script, or maybe scenes where there wasn't specific lines written and they just reacted and spoke based on the scenario? Or even little moments, the shoulder kiss or something?

"Tay" OH MY HEART

Ok I can make an argument on both how Nick is like and not like Henry, but Taylor is so ACD that he basically fell out of the book? How does he not see that? (personally think Taylor's very similar to Alex with a bit of Marco?)

Oh my god the whole segment of the DNC/getting caught scene and Taylor's ass

"I will take this one" "yeah"

"I love working with her, we both love working with her" That's sweet- hang on Nick you just have this one scene with her

I have so many more questions about this scene: Was Nick actually in the closet for that one shot? How many takes did it take?

Taylor referencing a detail in Bottoms from like a 30-second scene in the movie!!! Yes!!! We love seeing friends being supportive of each other (suddenly want to hear Taylor's opinions on M&G lmfao)

"And I'm not even going to get into M&G"

The text question is kind of the only question that made me think "Why would you ask that?" because that was definitely more of a directing/editing thing

Nick really freaking loves the cake scene, he mentioned that as his favourite scene three times at this point, all times on audio, twice on video

Aw Taylor's story about Jack... 🥺

But somehow everyone knowing it lmao, and Taylor's fucking awful British accent

And at this point Nick starts swearing lmao

Awww Nick's compliment to Taylor

Tangent: what the fuck is a fuel museum?

Oh I just love hearing them finishing each other's sentences when one of them forgets the word

Lmao imagine just recovering from Covid and then needing to make out for two hours

"Next to a witchcraft shop" What the fuck lmao

Tangent again but I could write a sociology essay on what Taylor said about architecture and history

I swear to God, Nick's "go on Taylor" somehow being softer, you can fucking hear that that little shit is smirking

Taylor saying that he wants a second book from Casey and me immediately going "BOTH OF YOU QUIT YOUR FUCKING JOBS" (I have complicated feelings about the bonus chapter)

"What-if world" exactly!

Taylor pulling out the stats about the queer population: did he fucking calculate that on the spot or he just casually have that information in his head?

the little wrap-up by the hosts was so sweet but somehow talking about Taylor's ass again oh my god (his body hair being digitally edited, it was minx right?)

"it's so sweet and nice and we need more of this in our lives right now" YES WE DO, WE FUCKING DO

"he's gonna be second-guessing his booty" is not a sentence I thought I'd ever hear but here we are

Culture shock moment: the number to call the podcast/American phone numbers is 3-3-4 which caught me off guard for a second cuz here it's 4-4

And that's it for now! God, I need so much more of this, like, if this is what we get out of a half-an-hour podcast interview what would press and promo be like?

Now that we're back for awards I really freaking hope these new RWRB content will be coming back, maybe like once a week or something

WE'RE BACK WE'RE FUCKING BACK WE'RE FUCKING WINNING

EVERYONE GO VOTE GO VOTE GO VOTE

[drdemonprince]

This is prompted by your most recent substack about fame, because my point is extremely tangential, I'm putting it here.

It's interesting to have seen the internet go through many stages. From the newsgroups/BBS era, to internet forums, to blogs, to social media, and how the respective environments shaped things.

In the early days, it's very much a group thing, some people became Big Name posters, pseudonymous, but still a group thing. The blog era was more personal, but still something made by someone who's just a person, even if not literally pseudonymous. Also, still text based, a lot of it even often. Social media changed that, with it's focus on follower counts on one hand and to snippets of text (twitter) or images (insta), and even though it's social media-ness is debatable, video (insta, youtube). The semi-anonymous nature however, was completely lost by now.

The doing it because you enjoyed it, or whatever, also recedes into the background because this is where monetization really takes off. The deleterious effects of the interaction between monetization and follower counts (notability) need no introduction, but painting with broad strokes, make something appeal as broad as possible deepens the flattening effect a medium like video already has, the visual aspects often being more important than the messages. It also has a much higher barrier to entry. Spinning up your own blog is cheap, text takes only a tiny amount data. Video is not. It's expensive to make (especially if you want slick videos), expensive to serve, so it's predisposed to big, single platforms that can leverage economies of scale.

The natural result is that you have a few people with big audiences, instead of many people with small audiences. If audiences is even the right word for that. If I'm talking about say, some TV show on my blog, and someone responds, it's a fairly equal conversation. More between peers, of sorts, just two people talking about something they share. As opposed to a Youtuber who makes a video about it with 100,000s of viewers. Because there are so many fewer voices, you lose the breadth of conversation too, narrowing to a small range of popular topics, and the distinction between You, and You as Your Brand gets eroded.

It's kinda notable in the autism sphere. Blogs where people talk about their experiences, how they dealt or didn't deal with things, have fallen off. Twitter came and went, and now there's Youtube and insta, where everything gets simplified down to a few slides or a 10 minute video about only the most basic aspects. Which is just... sad. I wouldn't have known that autistic burnout is a Thing many people struggle with if not for a blog post a friend came across and shared one day.

There was a comment from someone, a while ago, about how they used to have ASMR videos on, until they were able to get out into nature, and their desire for those videos completely disappeared. We're all very deprived. Of social contact, foremost. The pandemic poured gasoline on an already smoldering fire I feel. Latching onto someone 'famous' in a surrogate of social contact & context, like that person with their ASMR videos, feels like an understandable (though not good) outcome of that, which brings with it very regrettable excesses.

I think this is all pretty much a correct analysis, thank you! Though I would qualify that we have shifted away from the period of the Youtube mega content creator a social media ecosystem of intimate-seeming connections with smaller influencers, these days. Think of your Twitch streamers with a dedicated base of like 50-200 viewers per stream (and a Discord and a Patreon that supports them), the fitness Instagrams that sell meal plans online, the tarot witches and activist influencers offering one on one sessions, etc. Those communities can be more niche, but they still offer the illusion of a connection -- and if anything, that illusion is more strong because the creator is a "micro" famous person, and can take time to interact closely with fans here and there. We might already be heading out of that period of social media, though, especially with the disintegration of Twitter and the slow death of Meta's apps, too. I don't know what comes next but I hope we are due for a reappraisal of all of this, and the norms surrounding it.

[peachyloveswriting]

Hiii loved your Kyle story <333 could you plsss do one where there’s a new girl and both Kyle and Cartman try and get her and what they’d do to get her to fall for them??

Eric VS Kyle

SUMMARY: Both Eric and Kyle like you but you're so unsure with the many choices you have.

⸝⸝⸝⸝⸝

I stand awkwardly between the two, each one looking at me expectant on my answer. Kyle blinks at me. "Well which one, New Kid?" A glare is shot to Eric who stands beside him. Both teenagers are in a stand off of sorts and it's all over me. That's unbelievable in and of itself but for this to happen, gosh. I only moved in about a month or so ago, South Park was our final destination. After, we go nowhere, that's what my parents discussed. Once they settled on South Park that was it. Stories had been heard online about the shit that's happened here but no one believes it, I was the same way, but now I'm not. I can see how what they said was true and the two boys I became closest with in that group were part of most of it.

On my first day of high school here, I was welcomed by a rather sweet, country sounding blonde. Butters was his name. He showed me around, even introducing me to his friends. All of us seemed to click together rather fast, Kyle and Eric becoming the two I found myself around the most soon enough. At the very beginning I realized there was already this animosity between the two, constant bickering and yelling back and forth. As time went on though, it only seemed to get worse. The two would pull one another into a separate room just to have it out, and about what I'm not sure.

Soon enough I realized that it started escalating into a challenge of who could one up the other in anything. Kyle would spend time with me outside of school and then Eric would try to stay the night. It was a never ending cycle. The two just kept going. First Eric bought me a phone, then Kyle took me to dinner, Eric asked me to homecoming which is months away, and Kyle threatened Eric in front of me. He was all in Eric's face, a scowl covering his features. Insults were thrown up in the air and at one another eventually leading to where I am now.

Both Kyle and Cartman stand in front of me watching me intensely. They expect me to pick which one I like the most between the two.

KYLE

-> If you pick Kyle he's so happy. Literally jumping up and down and tackling you into a hug. He swears to be there for you anytime you need him and he kinda rubs it in Eric's face. Between the two he tried the hardest to make you like him so he feels he deserves this.

-> the things he did to get you though we're rather sweet. Kyle would help you with school work after school, he would let you copy his notes, he always spent time with you. At some point he bought you a gift and took you shopping just because he felt like it. You helped him a lot with his younger brother Ike, watching him when he was too busy. He fought Cartman physically and won, no one knows how since Eric just throws his weight around and usually wins but Kyle knows how to actually fight. He rightly has the upper hand.

-> Cartman was super disappointed by your choice and forever decided to hate both you and Kyle. He constantly made fun of you all the time which resulted in mostly everyone ignoring him for a long time. Eventually he left and you never saw him again.

CARTMAN

-> Cartman played dirty to get your attention. He slashed your tires so he could help you buy new ones, broke your bedroom window then blamed it on a tree limb so he could help you replace it, he stole Kyle's phone and pretended to be him asking you on a date and then stood you up. He did a lot of dirty shit you don't know about just to get your attention. And even though he lost the fight with Kyle you still picked him.

-> He seems excited but the longer he hangs out with you the more bored it gets. He soon realizes that all he wanted to do was beat the competition and win it had nothing to do with emotions. He's too far in to back out now and just doesn't really try. That is until you show him just how good of a partner you are. He appreciates you deeply though he has a hard time showing it. He does acts of service and gives you gifts to appreciate what you do for him

-> Kyle tries to get you to see the bad in Eric but you just can't seem to see it. Eventually Kyle gives up. You've changed Eric a lot and you did him more good than anything. He needed someone like you and Kyle is happy you're happy with Eric.

NEITHER

-> Both stop talking to you, they continue their normal lives just without you in it. And as much as it hurts Kyle to see all that effort go to waste He will eventually move on.

BOTH?

-> It's so much of a accomodation but both boys are extremely happy. Though the competition may continue in various ways they love you all the same. Although the animosity between them never left and jealousy still lies somewhere between them. Though Kyle can be quite possessive at times.

[gallifreyriver]

You may or may not have already heard about Blockout2024, and either way, here are some suggestions to make sure your activism here isn't being performative.

First, what it is for those unfamiliar: Blockout2024 is a movement to block celebs/influencers not using their platforms to speak up for Palestine, and it all started with this year's Met Gala- more specifically Hayley Bayley's "Let them eat cake" Met Gala tiktok, which was (rightfully) not well received by anyone considering everything going on right now, most of all the genocide in Palestine.

Now that that is out of the way, what do I mean by "make sure your activism here isn't being performative," ?

The blockout started with very good intentions, but in just a couple days it turned from "Let's send a message by blocking this handful of ultra wealthy celebs who aren't using their massive influence to speak up for Palestine" (I believe it started with Taylor Swift, the Kardashians, Lizzo and maybe a couple others?)

And now it's largely become "Now we're blocking ALL celebs and influencers! Even if they start speaking up- because it's too little too late!"

Now don't get me wrong! It seemed to be working famously at first. Kim Kardashian lost 3 million followers in like a day on Insta, and all this commotion made Lizzo and Brittany Broski finally make posts speaking out about Palestine (even if they did give off the energy of "Here! Damn...")

But I think a lot of us saw that, and got too excited for our own good. People started expanding the block list with no organization, or research, or any real plan whatsoever.

I can't tell you how many posts I've seen where someone posted a new block list, only to apologize and have to remove names because they were informed that said person either had spoken up, was donating money, or were just focusing their time on other equally important causes (like Sudan and Congo) right now.

I saw people even started putting Bella and Gigi Hadid on the block list, whose father is literally a Palestinian refugee, because Gigi went to the Met Gala. Bella has been so outspoken about Palestine this whole time, and Gigi -while not as vocal as her sister- has spoken up in support of Palestine as well.

I've also seen people just putting names on lists just to put names on the list, it seems. Corpse Husband was on one list for not speaking up, but apparently he hasn't even been active online in two years due to health issues. And while writing this I also found out that people have been putting Alan Rickman on the blocklist.

I'll say that again- Alan... Rickman. A man who has been dead for EIGHT YEARS, and who also very much showed his support for Palestine while he was alive.

It's time to admit that we've lost the plot.

At point break speed this movement went from something with great potential to performative action. It's all just performative action anymore and people policing others for not performing said activism in the way they personally want to see.

Now, if you want to block a celeb/influencer, I'm not going to stop you. You have the power to give - or not give - your attention to whomever you please. I will say though that if you want this blockout to work we can't keep going about it like this. There's a reason you've seen it losing momentum in such a short amount of time.

Consider this a call-in.

If we're going to do this we need to keep it organized. I think we had the right idea at first with blocking the Kardashians, Swift, and Lizzo to put pressure on them to use their highly influential platforms to speak up for Palestine. I'm sure a couple others could be added to this list, but honestly I don't really keep up with celeb culture enough to be able to name more names right now.

In addition, if anybody else, we should be outright blocking those who have outright refused to speak up and/or sides with Israel. I'm talking people like Bret Gelman, Gal Gadot, Dr. Phil, etc. People heavily outspoken in favor of Israel who constantly double down, spread misinformation, and just do not care about Palestinian lives. These are the people who aren't going to listen to any opposition, and don't deserve a platform because they are complicit with genocide.

With that said, I don't think we should automatically be blocking anyone who hasn't spoken up yet. Those are the people we need to be putting pressure on. Make them show us exactly who they are. No more keeping quiet, or trying to play both sides. Let them know we need to know where they stand, and if they can't stand against genocide, we won't stand with them- and they can fall to the same digitine. ("Digital guillotine," for those unaware) And as for those who may have posted in support back in October but are silent now, my suggestion is that we need to put pressure on them to speak up again. Show them that one post from months ago doesn't get them a free pass forever- if they aren't continuing to speak up, or helping in other ways like transferring some of their massive wealth into helping families evacuate, we don't need them. But the point very much is to put pressure on them first and give them time to show us they will. If we outright block them it does nothing to help accomplish our goal- which is to get more of them to speak up.

Also on that note, I also suggest we make it clear that we do not want posts about Palestinian GoFundMe's from multimillionaire celebs unless it's a post about how they paid it off themselves. When they can pay off the balance and not feel a thing, there's no reason why they should be asking us, the poors, to donate. It's simply performative on their part. (Did they learn nothing from the Oprah/The Rock Maui incident?) If anything, they need to be asking their other rich celeb friends to donate, not us.

Perhaps it could be a weekly culling. Pick a list of five to ten celebs/influencers to put pressure on for a week, then block whoever refuses to speak up and start up with a new list the following week, and so on, until they all start getting the message.

We also need to abandon the whole "It's too little, too late!" way of thinking.

We need to remember that this is about helping Palestine, not about our own feelings.

It doesn't matter if we feel like they should have spoken up months ago- we cannot punish the behavior we want to see, and the behavior we want to see is these celebs/influencers using their influence for good. Yes, they should have spoken up from the start, but we still need them to speak up now. If we send the message that they're damned if they don't and still damned if they do, it actually incentivizes them to just... not- because they're damned either way.

And finally, we need to start promoting the celebs who have been doing the work, both new and especially those who have been speaking up all along. This will also send a message to the rest. I'm talking Mark Ruffallo, Bella Hadid, Pedro Pascal, Emma Watson, and so many others. We need to be giving them our attention over those who refuse to speak up.

In summary:

For this to work we need to be organized and targeted about it. Have a small block list of ultra wealthy/ultra influential celebs/influencers to block first. This will send a message to the rest, who we'll be putting pressure on at the same time. Call them in, tell them they need to tell us where they stand and that they need to use their influence to do good and speak up against the genocide. Tell the multimillionaires to transfer some of that wealth into helping families escape. If they won't, then we will no longer give them the attention that makes them so much of that money. And we need to be giving a larger platform not just to those celebs who are taking the time to do the work, so that their influence can reach further than it already does, but also more importantly Palestinian voices because they are the ones who are going to tell us what they need right now. Voices like Bisan Owda, Plestia Alaqad, Hind Khoudary, and Motaz Azaiza.

You might recognize this as similar to the model of the BDS movement, and that's because it is. Because they absolutely know what they're doing with the targeted action, and that's why it works.

And again, the moment we start with "It's too little too late!" is the moment we have centered our own feelings over Palestine. We need these celebs' influence, and there is such a thing as 'better late than never' when so many lives are still at stake.

Please don't let your ego get ahead of your common sense.

Ok, call-in over. I hope someone who needs to hear this takes this to heart.

[yeetspace]

Thought of another fucking beautiful way to deconstruct the whole myopic lens of all or nothing type voters who want to vote third party cuz the two main ones they know will win aren't ones they like 100%, hence why they're giving their third party vote. They know that not voting is bad they just don't want to not vote cuz they don't personally like the options given and so choose as though they should just be allowed to throw away lives for it.

There should not be a need for expansion on the idea in the first place let alone more that a single sentence that is just " I as a victim of this problem wants you to NOT directly contribute to it" And yet somehow that in itself is a hot take. Individuals who are currently being victimized by the systems at hand are in fact according to a lot of people I've seen here online, You know as a disabled queer person who literally cannot physically or safely leave my home cuz again it's a toss-up between either A: passing or B: breathing,at fault for that accordingly because they just chose to or cuz They haven't picked themselves up by their bootstraps but this weird stupid online left is rebranding of that phrase which is basically just that but trying to admonish the person for daring to not protest because they physically can't I've seen it seriously just dead up people actually getting mad at like wheelchair batting people for not doing shit it's literally just what's going on in the government being rebranded. Everything at the end of the day that is telling you that you shouldn't vote for the option of the two that can be chosen that will actively not make things worse is purity culture. You cannot have perfection if you can't have anything at all let alone should you try to choose the actively worst possible option because the other options, which by comparison are still intensely more good than that one worst option simply because none of the options are inherently perfect and fit every single concept and purview you personally want. One of these people wants more death the other third party group of people agree with that guy and then the other other two people don't she actively doesn't because she doesn't you know blindly hate things that look different from her for the sake of things looking different from her she's very much not good she needs to very much fix things immediately but hey wild fucking concept you should not have the perfect thing because that's not a real thing and blindly deciding against no choice at all because you don't have exactly what you want is the most childish fucking thing you could ever do it's such a weird thing to say but it's true it's fucking childish.

Cuz everyone knows that you only choose to be marginialised apparently. Like every single fucking argument against each way or whatever the fuck because that's what these arguments for a third party are are just AGAINST mutual aid at this point. we can say that objectively these arguments against mutual aid are actively just admonishing the people who are directly at only victims for the sake of " You're not capable of contributing to what I feel is important right now so that means you should just sit by the wayside and die while I posture about this without actually doing any of the options that you, a person also directly affected by these problems who I will pretend to care about yet actively tell you you aren't a part of it and shouldn't have a say and it cuz your inconveniently an example of how my "stalwart, perfect attempt saving of you" was not that which means YOU'RE bad. how dare YOU. only because I choose as such did they tell you how I'm an ally but I'm not going to do anything to help you but I'm your Ally definitely, But I'm just going to need you to sit and actually tell me anything of what to do because how dare you you don't have the ability to do these things you shouldn't have a say in that that's how that works and also I need you to keep staying there and we're going to point this giant fucking laser at your head and we're not going to move it no matter what it's going to sit there and if you get too uppity about not wanting to die we'll just let you die anyway".

Because you personally feel outside of the literal fact of the situation around you that you don't have power so just throw away the power you DO have to the people who want that power for the sake of doing the things you feel your powerless against to begin with.

Not being too mean I'm not being uncaring I'm being scared and angry at the people who had the ability to do fucking anything to help the communities have a part of who did nothing and are now sitting here daring to tell us about how dare we didn't do anything with our time? Because online leftists only care about looking right not beating right as it's turning out. Crazily enough one option is really bad the other option once bad things do but doesn't want the literal worst adject possible thing to Adam. I know it's fucking crazy but like when one thing is less than the other even though they are both bad things one being less than the other means that that thing is less than the other thing. I don't know how the fuck that gotness too but weirdly enough no. Just because both things are bad does not mean that one of them is not objectively worse is not in a way that is incomparable to the other objectively worse.

All of this is basically just an idiotic, myopic, self-destructive concept that just is " Well I mean we don't have the end result right now at the middle of the process so we might as well just throw the fucking pottery out the window right"

[jadewing-realms]

disclaimer: written pre-release

i've had this sitting in my drafts for a bit since i started playing BG3, I kept seeing a particular kind of post regarding Astarion and it really started to frustrate me soooooo. here's a vaguely coherent rant nobody asked for pff

As I got into the game, following Astarion's romance subplot, doing research on the game and characters thus far, I encountered the schism between those who love Astarion and by extension, characters like him, and those that consider said characters as little more than toxic creatures, narcissists best dealt with swiftly and harshly. The latter tends, in the posts I've found at least, to view the former as poor unfortunate souls with the dreaded "i can fix him" mentality.

Now, I'm not here to say either is entirely wrong. I think to take a side here is to do the exploration a disservice and to forget the depth of nuance in art and media interpretation.

And that's just it. Because at the end of the day, interpretation is one of the key elements involved in this discourse. In the case of Astarion, especially with the game having been in early access for so long and no complete, guaranteed details of his past or arc made public yet, with so much up in the air as the full release drops, there are worlds of interpretations that can be made regarding our infamous vampire rogue.

Is one of those interpretations that he's both emotional and literal vampire who's every action is a trap for the protagonist in order to use them, and that he's irredeemable? Yes. Is another that he's simply trying to survive in a situation he's never been in after spending two centuries living like an animal? Also yes.

The error here, I think, is to treat one interpretation like it's more "right" than another. Which is what I've seen a lot of online threads do... Insisting one perspective is superior to the other. Which is bad faith even on a good day when either perspective is based in concrete, unchangeable fact. Even moreso in this case, until there's complete canon material to bank on, and even then that will have so much variety to it since most of it will depend on the actions of the player. It's a choice-based game. There is so much space for varied experiences, and none of them will be "right" or "wrong."

I feel like in modern media discussion, when considering whether a character is actively harmful or just flawed, it can be easy to forget that some of our most popular stories are ones in which someone is deemed beyond hope or redemption, a danger to all they encountered, only for their arc to raise them from their Pit of Dickishness and set them on pedestals as some of the most memorable, inspiring characters we know.

The timeless story of the Christmas Carol gives us an absolutely despicable old geezer who literally spells out the horror he'd inflict upon the poor if he could, simply for the sin of poverty. But in an effort to fixate only on how problematic he (very much intentionally) is, we might lose sight of how the whole point of the story is to watch him be forced to confront his ways, unpack all his crap, and become better for it in the end.

Characters like Prince Zuko, Edmund Pevensie, Greedling, Steve Harrington, Boromir, James Ford, friggin Darth Vader, we wouldn't have any of them if we only read them at surface level as toxic assholes and then left it at that. But through learning the nuances of these characters and watching them confront their actions and consequences and learn from them, they not only grow and change into better people, but we love them because they hold pieces of ourselves in them, despite their sharp edges. We can understand why they are the way they are, and maybe, if we're honest with ourselves, we can acknowledge that we might have done similarly awful things under their circumstances. It makes them relatable, admirable, and cautionary all at once. It makes them human.

None of that is to say that there are never characters built purely and solely to fear and loath, not at all. True scumbags can and do exist, both in fiction and reality. To try to enforce the idea of finding empathy for a true monster is often a tactic used in reality to gaslight people into excusing said monsters' behavior.

Which leads into the "i can fix him" argument. When applied to situations dealing with real dangerous and horrid people who can't or won't change? Absolutely Not Great (though that's not to say it can't be included in a story, there are valuable themes in that on its own). Condoning this dynamic as something good is what leads to abusive relationships and innocent people staying in unhealthy situations for far too long. I'm among those who can attest to that personally.

That said, when it comes to Astarion, no one can rightly say going through his romance arc or not is condoning anything. Because it once more comes down almost entirely to perspective and interpretation, because he's a video game character comprised of pixels and a well-written script and there are limitless ways he can be interpreted and interacted with.

Like, personally, yes, there are some dynamics I'd feel uncomfy pairing him with, even with the empathy I feel for his character. Platonic or romantic, doesn't matter. Does that mean I'm going to apply my interpretation and personal boundaries to the next person playing the Astarion romance? No. That would be assuming I've somehow discovered the "correct" way to interpret the game, which I have not and can never do because RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 are such personalized experiences. People are 100% free to play a fictional game however the hell they so please, because stories are not inherently 1-to-1 reflections of reality.

Especially when it comes to the narcissism accusation, it sparks an extra layer of discomfort for me when it seems like characters who act selfishly or spin lies get called "narcissistic" when that's kinda severely over-generalizing what narcissism actually is??

Narcissism is inherently selfish, but not all selfishness is narcissism. Gaslighting is built on lies, but not all lies are gaslighting. This separation was literally bugging me so much, I talked with my therapist about it last week. And she agreed.

Some folks seem to forget is actual NPD isn't just about selfishness and manipulating. It's fragile ego and delusions of grandeur and the mind games, dysregulating highs and humiliating lows that they will weave in a web around you so that you, as a victim, can never get your mental and emotional footing. Usually for the purposes of then swooping in to offer themselves as your only source of stability. The whole "rely on me because your judgment is clearly faulty and you need to be protected from yourself" shtick.

You know. Kinda like Cazador.

The way I see Astarion, by contrast, is that he has an honesty to him that lacks such delusions. As much as he desperately tries to maintain this veneer of poise and sass and devil-may-care out of self-preservation, it's paper thin and crumples under the barest pressure. Like, the equivalent of a thematic sneeze and down he goes. Then you see him as he is. Which is just... frightened. Sad. Kinda pathetic, really. And absolutely, positively lost. All things he knows, but he legit believes he will be killed if he lets any of it show.

Comparing that to, say, Wyll, who's blissfully ignorant bluster reminds me painfully of self-aggrandizing family members that I love but can't interact with honestly because of the forest of self-delusion around them... well, it's not much of a contest.

If somebody interprets Astarion as a slimy, manipulating power-monger and gets rid of him the first chance they have, that's their story to tell and power to them for it. But the same must be said for the opposite. I don't appreciate the thought that there's a whole sect of the BG3 fandom that probably genuinely considers me "less than" or "unhealthy" or "problematic" in some way for being among those who like this character or others like him and their potential thematically and narratively. But if my interpretation is that he’s a frightened man who just wants to feel safe and free, that is also its own story and it's mine to tell if I wish. And both can be good or even powerful stories!

Is all of this based on my own personal nuances, biases, and priorities? Absolutely. And that's kinda the whole point... There's not a wrong answer with this, really. I experience these games and these characters through a lens that is mine and mine only, and I give meaning to the worlds I enter based on what makes the story feel most interesting and satisfying for me. And at the end of the day, what else is art for but to help us explore ourselves and learn a little bit more about what it means to be human. In all its glory and ugliness.

And that's a wholly personal journey nobody deserves to have micromanaged or belittled. I'm certainly not gonna go around looking down on anyone for having a different reading than mine. You do you, boo. But let me do me too.

[brian-in-finance]

Video 📹 from YouTube photo shoot BTS forJuly 2018 Irish Tatler

Instagram cover and contents video 📹

Facebook Watch fun Q&A video 📹

Outlander-Online Instagram Story screenshot 📸

Screenshots: Caitríona Balfe Fan

time for more

Caitríona Balfe talks to Shauna O'Halloran about time-travel, wedding plans and why women have had enough of Hollywood's shitty behaviour (her words, not ours).

A pair of stonewashed Levi's 501s, flat white converse and a little white T-shirt are all that Caitríona Balfe needs to rock up to a day's shooting in North London, and still have a full crew comment on how beautiful she is in real life. It's never something I like to lead with in interviews - we're here to discover the person, after all - but I do feel that to not mention it would be a shame, because she is quite stunning, even when off-duty. It's not that much of a surprise of course. The Monaghan native was once one of the most sought after runway models in the world, having been spotted by a Ford Models scout in Dublin. At 18, she was opening and closing shows in Paris for Chanel, Moschino, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton, to name a few. And this humble glossy is just one of many she's graced the cover of - with Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Elle magazines all having starred Caitriona over the years. So no wonder there was literally not one bad shot to be found in the photographer's edit.

Today however, Caitríona Balfe is known best to most of the world as Claire Beauchamp Randall - Outlander's time travelling 1950s nurse who falls for a dashing highland warrior by the name of Jamie Fraser, played by her costar Sam Heughan. The show, now on series four, is based on a series of novels by Diana Gabaldon and to say it has mega fandom is an understatement. Having taken up acting after her modelling career, Outlander was Caitriona's first major role and has propelled her into a stratosphere with over five million viewers per episode. How, I wonder, is that?

"It's been such a wild ride!" She tells me as we sit down to interview. She's back filming in Scotland for her fourth season and we already know that seasons five and six are a go, so Claire is going to be part of Caitriona's life for some time to come. "I was cast late into the proceedings. I got cast on the 11th of September and I was in Scotland [for fittings and filming] on the 15th of September 2013. I guess I knew about two days before they announced it!" She says of the whirlwind entry into Outlander. It didn't take long, however, for Caitríona to realise the scope her new role was going to have.

"After we filmed about four episodes Sam and I were taken to LA and we did a fan event. Nobody had seen anything and there was over two thousand people at this fan event...having not seen one minute of footage. We came out on stage and everyone was just screaming!"

The core fan base has stuck with them as the seasons have gone on and Outlander has won multiple awards. Caitríona, too, has been widely recognised for her role with 20 plus nominations and a host of Best Actress wins from institutions like the People's Choice Awards, the Golden Globes, the Saturn Awards, IFTA and BAFTA.

One of the notable points of the drama series is the sparky on-screen chemistry between her and Heughan during their many steamy scenes together. So much so that people have had a hard time believing that they're not a couple in real life. No matter how much the actors insist.

"It's nice that people kind of see something in that, but you know, we've always just been friends. And I said it from the beginning but people didn't want to hear it!"

Even so, it must be hard after four years of filming sexy scenes with someone to not get embroiled in a romance of some description.

"We went for a walk," Caitríona explains on how the deal was cut early on. "Both of us had to go to London right before we had to start filming, I was getting my second perm of the week and he was getting his hair dyed, probably for the 15th time that month and we met down in Kensington and went on a big long walk in the park. I was there with my poodle perm and he was there with some kind of terrible ginger-red version of his hair and we were like, You know what, who knows what this is going to be but we're going to be in this together and we gotta have each other's backs.' And from that time on we always have." A sweet moment that has led to a lasting friendship and has probably been key to Outlander's success.

"The shows that have been successful - I think you always see that they stick together. The minute you let ego or your pride or all of that kind of stuff get in the way, I think that it can really sour things," she says with honesty. It has to be said, there is no ego about Caitríona Balfe and as the lead role in the show, it's easy to imagine that she sets the tone for all involved.

The atmosphere on set, she says is supportive and tight, although she's painfully aware that not all hit shows and Hollywood sets are so lucky.

"Our work is really tough and we're in tough conditions, like when you're out in the pissing rain or sideways snow, which happens! To have people be supportive of each other and care about each other, that makes such a huge difference.

"I know somebody who worked on a show as the lead male and he and the lead female never spoke, literally didn't speak to each other unless they were in a scene. I can't imagine ever wanting to be in a situation like that, I can't imagine waking up in the morning and feeling like I have to go to work with someone who won't even speak to me. That's horrible."

But the stories are rife; even before #MeToo broke, celebrities and bad behaviour on set seemed to go hand in hand. And it makes for great, salacious tabloid fodder. And women, notoriously, seem to get the raw end of the deal, in everything from respect standards to salaries.

"I think everybody's waking up to the fact that they can't get away with that stuff," Caitríona chips in. "I obviously came to this point of my life a bit later so I've always felt very comfortable about standing up for myself or speaking up for myself but there can be a bit of a double standard. But I don't think, I mean I will stress this, it's not always men enforcing that. We've had male directors or male producers who are so much more sensitive and supportive than sometimes the females can be. I don't necessarily think that it's a split line down the middle about sex; it's not all women supporting women because that's not my experience. I think it's really about people." And does it hurt more, when it's a woman being the unsupportive one?

"Yeah, I think you expect better. And I think sometimes they think because they're women they don't think they're being discriminatory, but if what you're asking is completely out of line..."

In the hierarchical worlds of modelling and acting, people entering the careers at the bottom rungs are more vulnerable to mistreatment.

Caitríona notes that she did experience it in particular as a young model and her first career left her with some healing to do.

"I remember one of my first ever photoshoots in Dublin. I was so young and I remember coming back from it and my sister was like 'Where have you been all day?' I was just being sent off with a strange photographer who was older and with no kind of knowledge about where I was going, what was expected, just sort of thrown out to the wolves at 18."

It was that age that she first began travelling too, to Paris and Milan, and with little to no support structure. "It's just incredible when I look back now at how I navigated all of that because you literally are just sent off on your own, traipsing around strange cities where you don't know the language. You are just expected to fend for yourself.

"It was the wild west and you were lucky if you had a job. There was a discrepancy of power - the agency was really supposed to be there protecting you, but it was almost like you needed to please them to get the jobs.

"I think that's why so many girls who have gone through that experience are as tough as nails," she adds, also referring to herself, although that toughness hasn't come without cost.

"When I left the business, I moved to LA and I am so grateful that I was able to take a year...a lot of that was just dismantling a lot of the mental issues I had taken from the business because your confidence and your self-esteem is in the toilet after you've been in that business for so long. Most models I know have terrible self-esteem which is the most crazy thing."

Thankfully, in both modelling and acting, the industries are changing.

As someone who is in the Hollywood stratosphere and has been in the company of the likes of Weinstein and more, Caitríona has first-hand experience of being with the people at the very centre of the #MeToo storm.

"A lot of my year in LA was just dismantling a lot of the mental issues I had taken from the business"

"A lot of the names that have come forward, it's strange because you kind of go 'Oh yeah, that's not surprising.' With someone like Morgan Freeman; I grew up watching him and he's been that voice that calms everyone. But I had previously heard rumours. Nobody is above the law and what I do hope is that all of these things go through a process because I think the worst thing is that we get into this situation where there is like a mob mentality and we start being judge, jury and executioner on social media because that's never the right way of doing things.

"But I think there has been a real shift and I think people aren't going to put up with shitty behaviour anymore. And they shouldn't."

The one thing that high profile and influence does afford people is the ability to shine a light on situations that deserve more attention. It's something that Caitríona’s very aware of and since her Outlander fans have always asked 'who can we support on your behalf', she went out of her way to discover a charity that she could be an ambassador for. As a result, she is now a patron of Wold Child Cancer and travelled to Ghana last year to see two of the hospitals the charity works at. "It's very humbling when you see the different kinds of care you can expect if anything ever goes wrong in your life just because of where you are born," she says of the experience but is equally quick to downplay her role as a patron versus that of the people working on the ground, despite using her own time and profile to raise awareness and funds for the charity. "I feel so grateful that I can, the people in the trenches are the people who do work day-to-day and it's super impressive because they don't get a lot of credit for it."

Check Caitríona’s Twitter and you'll see how impassioned she is about this, as well as being a big supporter of other issues: she was vocal on repeal, supports ethical fashion choices and promotes a meat and dairy-free lifestyle.

"I believe that no matter what you do you should be a responsible citizen of the world," she says, "I think a lot of my social media is promoting issues I believe in and causes that I believe in.

“As for my more private life, frankly I'm not interesting so I don't like doing selfies, my partner is super private so he isn't on any social media and doesn't want to be so nothing is said about him. So yeah, that's naturally how I am!"

It's clear as the conversation goes on how grounded Caitríona is. She's fiercely proud of her Irishness and uses it as a conversation starter worldwide (*We command goodwill - people genuinely like us!") and while she laments how badly her name gets 'butchered' she misses the fada which she dropped for ease some years ago. "I'm devastated about it!" she says, before also confessing that technology had some part to play in its demise.

"In the early days of computers I didn't know how to put it on! I just learnt a couple of months ago, like ohhh it's that button there. So I might bring the fada back."

And she hasn't ruled out an upcoming wedding in Ireland - the actress is recently engaged to intensely private music producer Tony McGill, but plans for the nuptials are still undecided. Would she consider coming back to Ireland to tie the knot?

"If you put a sun lamp over it, yeah I'd love to!" She laughs. Wedding planning is not really her thing however, and doesn't garner giddy chats and wishlists.

"I would just love to have all of my friends and family and have a great party," she clarifies when coming across as less than enthusiastic about planning her perfect day. "I think the production side of it is just too much like work!"

And finding time that suits both their schedules is also proving challenging, with Caitríona lined up to film in LA with Matt Damon and Christian Bale. It's a biopic of mechanic and driver Ken Miles (Bale) and the conflict between Ford and Ferrari during the 1960s. "I play Christian Bale's wife and James Mangold [Walk the Line, Logan, The Wolverine) is directing. It's set in the sixties, it's all about Le Mans, the 24-hour race so it's a lot of fast cars, hot men and me!" She laughs. "I've been watching loads of documentaries on Le Mans which is really cool."

And this is Caitríona: totally unfazed, seemingly, by the prospect of working with some of Hollywood's most famous actors and directors and yet, nerdily researching so she can be prepared on the day. Oh, and consciously enjoying it too. With more projects in the pipeline, that demand is only going to get higher, but of one thing I can be sure: to her own self, Caitríona Balfe will always be true.

Remember… we command goodwill - people genuinely like us! ☘️ — Caitríona Balfe

[archivalofsins]

Seeing discussions around headcanons in the Milgram fandom is such a mixed bag. Especially when the conversation turns to mischaracterization, flanderization, and how out of character a headcanon may be.

Becuase I'm just here like this is the fandom that thinks characters into existence and out of existence while calling it theory.

Just fucking appreciate this is being called a headcanon and not being treated as canon.

Like I'd love to sit around and be like,

"Hey, isn't it a bit of a stretch to separate a character into neat little tropes for one's own personal convenience and entertainment?"

"These characters wouldn't be that nice to each other in canon."

And I definitely love going to the three alter theory, something that is presented as fact,

"That character just actually doesn't exist in canon. This is a wild fanonization and bastardization of how this disorder works that focuses on a vocal minority of those who have it. This interpretation is rooted in so much projection that I think people will be personally offended if it's shown to be incorrect or left 'unconfirmed'. Because they literally threw a fit at the implication, it was wrong previously and doubled down. At that point, it's just a headcanon and preferred way to interpret the events laid out to us. I don't argue subjective truths if they're having fun, good for them."

Because honestly when something is presented as a headcanon who the fuck is it hurting?

Not me, I can tell anyone that for certain. Why the fuck should I care? It's not my head it's not my canon.

Something being labeled as a headcanon isn't presenting itself as the facts of the situation. It's not claiming to be a good faith unbiased reading of the media. Even if it was presented as that I know on a core level, some people can just be wrong or can't be bothered to read even if they say they are reading.

People can wind up cherry-picking information, having too much personal investment in the situation, or certain interpretation to remain neutral. Sometimes, I'm like that. At the end of the day we're all only human and fans of this media. There's no exactly right way to be a fan of a media and what that looks like will vary from person to person.

Now some may think,

All that really matters is if that person is having fun with the piece of fiction that they are a fan of. Fiction is here for the personal entertainment of the one viewing it. If a certain way of viewing the work is entertaining to someone else, then more power to them.

"Well, that's just your personal feelings on the matter. Yet, if their headcanon doesn't align with canon then they're just flanderizing the characters. This is dismissive of all the work the author put in to create such an enriching world brimming with great characterization. Plus it's unfair to people who really like and accept the character as they are."

Firstly, no one needs a justification to dislike someone else's headcanons or theories. We all have our own likes and dislikes. Not everything online is going to be tailor-made for every person. Free yourself from this commitment to giving takes you dislike that much energy.

Because from first hand experience no one in this fandom or any fandom really gives a fuck about what the source material is saying. Fans will make any stretch that allows them to get to their favored conclusion. Regardless of what canon or even the creator may say to contradict that conclusion.

A prime example of this in the Milgram fandom is the three alter theory. Something at this point people may think I'm being unnecessarily harsh on, but it truly is just a case of it being the most blatant example of the point I'm trying to make.

Because Deco literally one of the creators of this series came on mic and said there were two Mikoto's and look where we still are,

Maristelina Translation

Please don't let people pretend they're canon compliant and unbiased now. Because Mikoto is a great example of that being false. It didn't matter how many times this was spelled out to the fandom or blatantly said.

From the second trial CD cover,

To lyrics of within his second trial song,

"Just the two of us, relieved, aren’t you? I’ll protect you (us)."

Right back to one of the people who created and worked on it spelling it out for everyone to see.

Some individuals disliked the writer's statement on this matter so much they started to push forth the idea that the creator was autistic and just didn't know. All in order to support their interpretation of the text. Even though she had just stated it was not her intent to write an autistic coded character and whether she herself is autistic does not change that lack of intent.

Here's an example not related to Milgram as well. Recently, the creator of Dungeon Meshi was asked if she intentionally wrote Laois as autistic. She stated that she hadn't written him with that intent. Needless to say, some people were not happy with that answer. Because it ruined their headcanon of the character and directly contradicted their interpretation of the text.

Anime News Network

So, let's not play games this isn't just a Milgram fandom issue.

Everyone is capable of taking things too far in this regard no matter what fandom they're in.

People can take their interpretations of media way too far at times regardless of the media itself. What's happening with Ryoko Kui isn't new. I've personally heard people speculating about if Deco or Yamanaka have dissociative identity disorder along with other diagnoses simply based on the things they create. People have speculated about creators based on what they create so often there's a whole game about it,

The Beginner's Guide (made by the same guy that made The Stanely Parable)

This is something that has been going on since long before even I was born. That's how common this is and exactly why I find it interesting to note where some people's suspension of disbelief rigidly ends. What breaks the immersion. How willing people are to assume about another human being but downright hostile to the idea that people would have opinions on a piece of media that don't alogn with their own.

What's a viewers line? The thing that will be too much for them. That one facet that will make them go no this is too out of character for me. Regardless of if the information is coming from another fan or the creator themselves.

"Well actually Yuno says in her second voice drama that,

To keep on our main example,

To some assuming/theorizing there are more alters in Mikoto's case despite what has been publicly stated is fine because in their subjective opinion it adds more nuance and is truer to life. However, the same person may respond to someone else headcanoning Yuno and Kotoko as friends poorly with a response like this,

"Really? If you ask me, Kotoko is someone I would never want to make my friend, though. She's the type to pick a conclusion from the very beginning and won't actually talk with you."

So, they'd never be friends. The canon has made that super clear. Did you even watch the source material. Clearly not. It's just too much of a stretch and it's breaking my immersion... I mean she'd never be friends with her she said so herself! It is that simple! The source material spelled it out- Jeez, does anyone even care about canon as much as I do?"

Again I'm only using Yuno and Kotoko as an example because it's an easy reach. It can be any completely platonic, mundane headcanon, that has no impact on the source material and causes no harm to anyone.

To use another example the theory that Futa was becoming wrapped up in Amane's religion. Despite having an abundance of canon foreshadowing as evidence it was treated more as a silly headcanon. It was pushed against and viewed as just a silly leap of logic comparable to that of headcanon with no basis in the source material. Except on top of that some people were very consistently harrassed for presenting this as a possibility at all.

Meanwhile dudes who aren't joining cults be like (this is sarcasm and being used to again highlight how little canon matters to people),

22/04/19 (Futa’s Birthday)

Futa: Ahh…… I’m not wrong…… I wasn’t doing anything wrong...... Shut up, why are you going on an on about something so minor…… It has nothing to do with you…… Aaahhh……

Amane: Oh, were you talking to yourself, Futa-san? Or maybe there’s something there you’re able to see?

Futa: ……! O-oh, it’s just you. It’s nothing. ……but well, on that note. Hey. Don’t you have anything happening too? Since being in here, just suddenly getting anxious. Feeling as though loads of people are all there condemning you, telling you you were wrong.

Amane: ……I’m fine. I don’t know what you’ve done or what it is you’re worried about, but I think if there’s something you believe in, you should stay true to it. It’s not something that should waver just because other people said something. I personally don’t plan on changing my own beliefs even if I’m told I’m wrong either…… ……today is your birthday, correct? I’ll pray for God to keep you under his care.

November 23, 2022

"Bless me, please, with one more chance."

23/04/19 (Futa’s Birthday)

Futa: ……! Oi, is it just you. Don’t scare me like that. You shouldn’t just stand there saying nothing. Hah, what? Did you just come to laugh at me for being weak? Dumb brat.

Amane: No. I just came to observe. To see what people are thinking. To see who is being corrupted. What about you, Kajiyama Futa?

Amane: It goes without saying. Because there’s something far more important than the voices of people we can’t even see. People are able to get back up again. As long as there’s something to guide them. Kajiyama Futa, by coincidence today happens to be your birthday, correct? Don’t you think it’s a good opportunity to be reborn? If, right now, you could shake off those around you trying to drag you down to depravity, and could change––

Futa: I understand even less of what you’re saying than I did before.

Brat, you’re on the side who weren’t forgiven too, right? ……so why can you still stand. Don’t you can hear it too? The voices blaming us. ……I don’t have the energy to do anything like this.

23/07/05 (Mu’s Birthday)

Futa: Oi, you. Is he ok? He’s not even left his room lately.

Mu: You mean Haruka-kun? Hmm. Yeah, probably. I’ve been bringing all his meals to him so he should be fine. Isn’t that great of me?

Futa: Hah? Who the hell says that sort of thing about themself. ……ah, no, well, right now I understand a bit. When you’re feeling down, it’s nice to have someone who relies on you and accepts you. The rest of us can’t really understand you from where we’re standing. But well, if you’re Haruka’s “salvation” then I guess it really is great.

Mu: Salvation……? I don’t know what you mean. Futa-kun, you don’t sound like yourself. Did you hit your head or something? Oh, wait, you actually did, didn’t you. Ahaha. Ah, putting that aside though, did you know it’s my birthday today?

23/01/17 (Mahiru’s Birthday)

Amane: Happy birthday. Mahiru-san. How is your body feeling?

Mahiru: ……ah, Amane-chan. Thank you. Yeah, I’m fine. Now I can move around if I use a wheelchair…… It’s all thanks to Shidou-san looking after me……

Amane: I’ll give you one warning. The two of you are dabbling in something tabooed. If you continue to go against the way of nature like this, you’ll just bring an early death upon yourself. Think hard about this.

Mahiru: Amane-chan……? Are you really Amane-chan……?

Futa-kun, you don’t sound like yourself.

24/04/19 (Futa’s Birthday)

Futa: ––Hey, are you really ok with this? If you come with me, there’s a chance you can be saved too…… Haruka.

Haruka: Yeah…… I’ve made my mind up. I have, something, that I have to do.

Futa: Ah, is that right…… Haruka, you know, you’re an idiot. There’s no way…… that will save you……

Haruka: Yeah, thank you. I’m glad you came to talk to me, Futa. Um, thank you, for being so kind. Really. But, I’m sorry. This is all I’m able to do……

I believe all this shows that it really doesn't matter if the way one chooses to interpret the media complies with what's stated within canon or suppirted by the people who made it. At least from my perspective it's never really seemed to matter that much to the people grandstanding as though it does. I'm a rigidly canon compliant person, especially when it comes to analysis and fan works. Still even I just come up with stuff for fun sometimes that's only natural. I do this while fully understanding it won't ever be canon and I'm fine with it not being canon. Some things can just be for me and me alone.

Now I personally believe being canon compliant is fun because it shows a person ways to break canon if they want to. I'm the type of person who reread the source material to write fan fiction or goes out of their way to get a light novel just for the purpose of better understanding tge characterization. Because that's how I personally enjoy myself.

However, I've recognized from personal experience that's not how many people enjoy themselves. Based on those experiences I can say fandom spaces are generally a do as I say not as I do type of area when it comes to discussions around canon. Where the only take away can be sometimes it matters sometimes it doesn't. Yet when boiled down to it- This is just another bias where people can say I can see it because I like it then go it can't be that because I don't like that.

This isn't always a bad thing either as long as it's not taken to some extreme like assuming the diagnoses and experiences of the people who wrote the thing.

For me it's easier to come to that conclusion and not put so much attention on the sometimes brash opinions of others when I just go,

Outside of doing that this is just how people engage with media generally. Yes, from my perspective it seems as though some believe canon only exists when they need it to dismiss interpretations they personally don't like and support the ones they do. Yet from someone else's perspective that would just be them having fun and taking their interests seriously. I would be taking things too seriously and in bad faith by looking into that more deeply. Because no one has the right to tell someone else how they should enjoy things.

It's fine for people to have preferences in how they engage with things or choose not to engage with them.

"No one cares about canon. Outside of using it as an excuse to prop up what they like and bash what they don't canon does not matter."

I feel this is a fair conclusion to come to based on my personal experiences with fandom generally. In instances I've been told the writer of the thing wrote it wrong, canon should be ignored, this is why death of the author exists,

Canon and the authorial intent doesn't matter especially when it contradicts the things that the person viewing the work wants to believe. It's no longer about what the work is saying but about what one thinks it's saying. Despite both of these things being important to having a clear understanding of what one is being presented with.

Someone can write a paper starting with,

"I believe everyone should be happy and able to pursue their dreams."

But if you find out the intent behind that paper a few paragraphs in is supporting segregation the author's intent begins to really matter.

Like if a few sentences in the paper goes,

"This is why I believe we should respect the publics stated preference to keep our schools segregated. So, that everyone can get the appropriate and safest education."

The intent ceases to be ignorable in that instance. However, not everyone is just going to go on the record and say that. Not everything is always going to present itself in such an overtly bias way. This is why knowing the authors intent and beliefs can only give readers a better understanding of what they may possibly be internalizing.

A better example of this is the Harry Potter book series. Death of the author doesn't change who wrote that series. It just gives people the right to interpret the series however they want. Death of the Author says go headcanon! Go ham if you want to take the unambiguous sexism, classism, antisemitism, and racism out of this book franchise in order to allow yourself to take away a positive lesson from it then do that if that's what's helpful to you. Hell, do that with every book you ever read if you see fit. Once it's published it's out of the authors hands you can do anything with it.

Yet that doesn't stop those implications from existing in the framework of the text or other people who read the same thing from wanting to unpack and discuss those implications. Or even just discuss the shortcomings of the author themselves.

Death of the author does allow people to dissociate the author, their background, and intent from the text they've written. Yet, that's not a good thing because those biases that are sometimes deeply intrenched in bigotry will still remain in the text and may go unquestioned by the people reading it.

When a book describes a black child as looking adult for their age Death of the Author goes don't question why the writer may have said that and the biases this may imply. Just know this black child being described looks like an adult. This is a reference to a real description of a black thirteen year old I read in a children's book by the way. Like black children and children of color are generally described as looking mature for their age in not only fiction but in the news.

However, Death of the Author would tell you that background information isn't that important for understanding what you've been presented with. That you can just take the story as it is without needing any outside information. Death of the author leaves it to the one viewing the works at that time to either go oh I guess black children just look adult for their age or hey I don't look twenty at twelve or thirteen what the fuck.

Something that is completely subjective to the viewers proximity to the thing being discussed.

Yet, knowing the authors background would give context to descriptive choices such as these when it comes to describing black and other people of color in their work. Especially if it's a consistent pattern in said work. Death of the author says fuck that interpret the page however you want if you think certain sorts of children look older than they are or adult for their age take it as it is if not question it a little.

I don't believe I have to explain how this mindset exacerbates many of the arguments surrounding media in this day and age. I feel like this one is very self-explanatory. This is why while not difficult to separate a work from it's author it is irresponsible to do so. Simply because those are the people who made it. They shaped and created it without them the thing quite simply would not exist for better or worse and their biases can be seen throughout it.

Do you have to know every detail about the creator of everything you ever watch, read, or enjoy? No. Yet when the intent is told to the audience over and over if one cares about canon then they should at least take the intent into consideration as well. Because authorial intent shapes the canon. To those who believe that canon matters that much which I truly believe is no one but if there are people who seriously do-

Then look at canon analyze it, ask questions about it- Ask things like why would the author frame it this way, or say x here. People shouldn't just reach for canon when they need to kick down someone else's headcanon in order to feel validated in their own interpretation of the work.

Especially when in cases where the shoe is on the other foot and canon doesn't support our own beliefs we all have a habit of going some variation of,

"Well the author and the text did say x but this is my personal headcanon and how I like to the view it."

"I mean authors can be wrong sometimes too guys. Death of the author and all that. The writer just fumbled my interpretation is way better. Check out my fix it fic."

"I mean I like it still but they just did my fave so dirty. It's like people can't just write [insert sort of person here] well anymore."

Yet when it's someone else's headcanon this sort of talk suddenly becomes-

"Why can't the fandom stop flanderizing [insert character here]."

"Why does everyone treat [insert character here] as ignorant and naïve?"

"Why does everyone have this hyperviolent interpretation of [insert brown character here] regardless of how kind they're presented being in canon?"

Okay now I'm just putting very unsubtle jabs at fandom interpretations I've seen and personally disliked. Try to guess the fandom? Spoiler alert you can't because this behavior is simply that common.

Or to get back on track-

"This headcanon friendship and this au scenario are so out of character."

Man I wonder why it's like these are headcanons or something? Things that aren't trying to present themselves as fact but instead are creating a scenario where someone else's favorite characters can interact with each other. Because that person may not feel they get enough of that in canon.

It's not an in depth character study or a analysis of the series as a whole with cited instances of these characters saying, "Hey you're not that bad actually. I think we could be friends."

Unlike whatever the fuck was going on with Mikoto where they created a new guy and then consistently ignored authorial intent wherever it was contradictory to that guys existence. That was actually presented as fact and what the author was intending by some which is kind of different from going this is my headcanon. Plus given my continued wretched experiences with Mikoto's fans I feel like I have every right to be petty about this.

This is me being petty I could take this part out but no that was bullshit. What I had to go through in fandom in general was bullshit. How people have treated people for interpreting things differently from them is bullshit. The only thing it can come off as is entitlement plain and simple. So, yeah to me discussions around that were a stretch but a headcanon is a headcanon.

It's not presenting itself as a fact and it can be so easily ignored. No one needs evidence to make one because it's not a theory. It's in the name. It's a canon the person viewing the thing has made up in their own head. Headcanons do not and have never had to be canon compliant. These are something completely independent from canon.

But what about the three alter theory you just dragged aren't those people just having fun too- That is a theory being presented as fact- Widely so. Despite everything implying or downright stating it is not the case. Nothing can hurt that idea because it's the idea people want to be true. They'll keep believing it because it's helpful to their personal enjoyment. Which I guess at that point makes it fall under being a headcanon but it hasn't been presented as such.

Even still I've made it clear on numerous occasions that I have no issue with people who just like this interpretation for their personal enjoyment. Outside of the one instance of me being overtly petty the only reason I brought that up in this case was because I was trying to highlight how little canon and authorial intent matters and it happened to the best example of that.

Yet outside of this situation I rarely think of this concept unless it is brought up to me. Personally I wouldn't say this is a bad thing to believe or tell people to stop believing it. Unless they're treating dissociative identity disorder like a monolith and saying it can only present one way. However, if that's not happening I don't tend to care because how other people enjoy themselves and the things they like is their business.

If viewing it that way makes someone else happy then I'm happy for them.

The point of this post is literally just me going it's fine to believe what you want especially if it enhances your enjoyment of the media. Yet, respecting that other people have the right to believe whatever they want too is just as important. Like don't be hypocrite about it.

Plus it's far easier to just say I don't like this headcanon or when the relationshio between these characters are explored in this way without labeling the thing being discussed as contradictory to canon.

We all know it's a headcanon, it's an exploration of characters, it's not canon compliant. It's in the name.

"Buh-but, Gunsli some people might only see fanon and thinks that's the characters canon relationship or how the character is in general."

However, I'm certain that to many others how I interpret canon is fanon and I've got no doubt that to some people the views other fans hold are just fanon as well. I can't help just thinking of this whenever I hear someone complaining about another person's interpretation being to out of character or a stretch,

Oh, I know. I have first hand experience with that from the three alter theory. People will see that theory parroted over and over in theory videos, art, analysis etc and think this character exists. So, welcome to my reality.

See something in fanon you don't like- Just ignore it. Let the people have their fun. It's not that big of a deal or if it's really so bothersome do what fans have been doing for years and make some here's why x fandom reads x character wrong content. Because chances are if the interpretation provided annoys yiu it does annoys someone else. Yet there is no reason.to just tell someone having fun that you think they're wrong. Even though it's tempting and people can be really wrong.

Because in Milgram we seriously don't have enough information about these characters to say that this is the case.

Even when I make complaints like that (such as this post) it just feels like,

I have too much self-awareness to not go well if this isn't the pot calling the kettle black. Like come on it's fucking funny! This is the interpretation show what the fuck else am I supposed to feel other than how runny this is. Like if someone is in the interpretation fandom and they hate interpretations- How did they like survive this long?

Certainly, it doesn't feel that good when it's an idea one doesn't agree with themselves. I know trust me I know. Yet it doesn't feel much better when someone is just openly being an ass about your genuine interests either.

Even when some person feels that what the other is saying is so obviously not canon that they view it as diminishing to the narrative and the characterization it provides. It's not a fun feeling to have characters you like flanderized but it's not fun to have the characterization you like to view a character under labeled as fladerization either. This is a lose-lose situation where the only real solution is to try to be kind to one another.

Because at the end of the day if no one is being hurt by someone else's interpretation, if someone isn't spreading misinformation, or diminishing the lived experiences of others then just let them have their fun.

This is just how fandom works. People are free to believe whatever they want regardless of what the text says. If I wanted to fucking I don't know say that the guy Kotoko jumped and Mikoto were friends. I could do that I'm well within my right and I wouldn't have to explain why. I can just headcanon them as college classmates now. Fuck it they're around the same age.

But that's- Exactly how it fucking works.

If I wanted to fucking I don't know say that Kotoko's dad was also Mikoto's father who left his family for a new one and they are actually half siblings. I could do that too. No one can stop me. I could just say that's my headcanon and that would be the end of that.

There's not a discussion to be had. I'm using my imagination. My imagination isn't rooted in fact like my theories. I do what the fuck I want with my imagination- It's mine.

Be free from canon. That is why headcanons exist. If you're not writing an analysis or theory fuck being canon compliant. Hell some people aren't canon compliant even when they're writing stuff that one would hope people were being faithful and aware of the canon while writing.

I like canon. I find joy in dissecting canon and seeing how it ticks. That is enjoyable to me. Yet some people can just write theories solely because they would like something to be the case then cherry pick around the point they want to make. No one is immune to bias and I don't think I am.

Go off.

Do it make that headcanon. No one here can stop you. Because no one in this fandom has any high ground. None whatsoever. Not even me. I make it abundantly clear that I'm bias and if I'm not writing an in depth theory I'm not adhering to canon as rigidly.

I try to separate my biases from what I write but I do have them. I'm not infallible even theory to an extension is a form of fan work that can be riddled with bias and drenched in justifications. Still it's important to let others have their own opinions and space to express them.

Again unless they are blatantly spreading misinformation or bigotry that's harmful to others I really can't stress this enough. This is not what any of the things listed here do on their own that's something individuals choose to do completely outside of these things. At their core these interpretations are all just others ways for people to enjoy the thing they care about.

"But do they really care about it if they have to change so much just to enjoy it?"

"Is it selfish to make a favorite shape and love it."

That's subjective. It's perfectly fine for anyone to do what Kazui sings in Neo-Neon and,

Which yes is a selfish thing to do. Because a person is not letting the thing just be what it is. Instead one is just making it into what they want it to be. However it's not as though this is being done to a real person or causing someone real harm. It's fine to just enjoy things how one finds most enjoyable to them as long as we can all respect that not everyone is going to enjoy things the same way.

Just try not to rain on other people's parade.

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

I've just fallen down this rabbit hole and I mean this question genuinely, but in your opinion, do you think people took this seriously as a 24/7 lifestyle or more as a roleplay scenario? I'm curious because I do a lot of online RP and while I see a lot of parallels between the two, I've never considered it anything more than brief escapism. Did these participants feel the same or was it more than that?

Hello there! This is a complicated answer because a lot of people were drawn to Aristasia, and Aristasia actually had many different incarnations. So please bear with my as I type up far far more words than you were expecting me to.

I believe that in the 70s and early 80s, when it was an ancient matriarchal paganism sect known as Lux Madriana they believed in the religious aspects of it as fully as anyone does any religion. Even when they were actively inventing their own history. They attempted to live this lifestyle as closely as possible, and you can read an account of a woman who lived with them until the mid 1980s here who admits there was a fair amount of apathy among the flock, as it were. They lived "without electricity", but they published computer games during this time, so clearly they had electricity somewhere in the big house in Donegal. But, still, they dressed up every day in shawls and aprons or bonnets and crinolines and seemed to genuinely believe in the religion they were selling (literally, they sold magazine subscriptions and mail-order courses, I am not being facetious). I believe that in the late 80s and early 90s when they were involved with Romantia, and laid the groundworks for what would later become Aristasia, they fully believed in seceding from the modern life as much as possible. Although I, perhaps, believe that this was almost exclusively limited to the goings on in the house in Donegal, as it seems like some actually lived elsewhere and seemed to live mundane lives outside of the house, but there is certainly (very unfortuate) evidence that the house in Donegal was run 24/7 as a Romantia house. Now that we're getting up to the Classical Era of Aristasia in the 1990s, and they moved to the infamous house on Eagle Lane that would later appear within the pages of Children of the Void and the BBC documentary, I do believe that those who lived in that house lived the lifestyle 24/7, but perhaps by that point the only two living there were Miss Martindale and Miss Priscilla Langridge. And perhaps this is the crux of the matter. The only 2 who really, truly, believed were Miss Martindale and Miss Langridge. And it seems evident that Miss Martindale was just a persona, and the woman behind the persona eventually went on to live a (on the surface at least) mundane life.

In their later years, sometime after Operation Bridgehead, when the embassies all but closed and they moved to virtualia, I believe it became much more acceptable for it to be just a roleplay for girls who dropped in, so long as they stayed in character. After all, they never met in the flesh, just in Second Life. And the trend continued when Aristasia became Chelouranya and Second Life was replaced with web forums.

I do think that, through all those decades, the only one who was able to live the life 24/7 was the mysterious Miss Priscilla Langridge, the "most seceded Aristasian". To quote a previously linked article:

"The founder was a remarkable person but was leading a fantasy life - we were living in someone else’s fantasy"

I believe that the truth lies here, that nearly all of this was Miss Priscilla Langridge's fantasy world, and she has had Miss Martindale as her biggest supporter over the years, to help make it a reality, for her at least. I do believe that they were true believers who believed that they were (to put it fairly simply) reincarnated souls from another plane of existence. This isn't even too strange of an idea, it's something fairly wildly believed by a lot of different types of people. To add onto this, I do believe that they believed the world was in a state of moral decay that was heralded by the pronounced change in pop culture in the early 1960s, another not so uncommon belief. But I believe it was real for Miss Priscilla Langridge, and she had people who believed with her, and wanted to make it real.

[salora-rainriver]

We're talking about Ads Again

Context for those followers of mine who weren't there: I made a post about tumblr ads being weird back in 2016 and it's literally still getting notes to this day. People responded GREAT to it. honestly, despite being like. ass old at this point and written by a literal high schooler, it's still pretty good! I thank my dad being in advertising helped significantly. I had an expert witness.

Tonight, I'm writing the sequel to that post. the sequel is this post.

let's just fucking dive into it or whatever.

why am I doing this?

okay for starters I made that post in goddamn 2016 and I refuse to believe my insights into the marketing world have not improved since then.

Also, the marketing world has CHANGED. Huge swaths of my old post are no longer relevant. What we saw with tumblr ads in 2016 was in some parts a passing fad, and in other parts the harbinger of a new wave of influencer marketing and corporate parasociality (I coined that term just now).

Honestly I've been thinking for a while that I should make an update post, but what with, yanno, adulthood, that's been kinda hard!

Well, I've missed a train, and it's Christmas, so I've finally found the time to do that.

What has Changed?

in my personal life... dad got fired! yeah it fucking sucks. the good news is he and his wife are working towards their retirement now, shifting away from the industry overall. Good news as far as life is concerned, but it does mean I no longer have as clean a connection to the Industry as I used to.

but more importantly, why he got fired. The fact is, dad's old! I know, shocker. More than just being old, though, his field (and my stepmom's field - they both did the same work) represents an older paradigm of advertisement. he did TV spots and posters, not ad reads for Raid Shadow Legends. He was great at his work, but we're in an era of data-driven, maximalist, google adsense, low-barrier-to-entry, super-fast and super-cheap digital advertisement.

Well, more specifically,

We're on the cusp of an extinction event poised to bring said era crashing to the ground.

Pictured: the current vibes in the ad world

Siberia is on Fire and Everything is Dying

So given that my typical source on stuff like this is currently unemployed, I decided to hit good ol google (well, google and duckduckgo. fitting given what we're talking about) to see if I could get any insights into what the current state of advertising is.

and the short of it is that everyone says the end is nigh. check this out:

Digital is dead, and so is TV. God fucking damn. BY THE WAY, I loved these two articles. Chris Gadek, a man I only learned about today, is clearly an excellent writer and his professional insights are probably gonna be way better than my amateur synthesis of the half-dozen different articles I read today, including his.

blatant shilling for random article writers aside, let's get on to my half-baked synthesis, starting with:

What Set Siberia on Fire

In small part, it's the same issues facing most major companies and industries in our late capitalist world: Hubris.

As this New York Times article points out, we've got a low barrier of entry into a gargantuan industry that's increasingly pumping out slop to follow a strategy of 'more is more'. And we've all seen the bizarre mobile game ads and shady scams that have resulted from THAT.

On top of that, we've also got the fucking digital privacy issue shaking up the entire world as consumers increasingly don't like being spied on (imagine that), and the EU starts rolling out heavy restrictions on the data harvesting that was fueling a bunch of this advertisement bubble.

There's also the ad fraud. Oh, you didn't hear about that? Well, it's nothing much, just that lots of bots are clicking ads to falsify click metrics, artificially inflating the effectiveness of said ads. look, it even has a wikipedia article

oh and Facebook did it. Facebook did ad fraud. :)

and I'm not even getting into everything that works to shake up or demolish basically every advertisement channel out there - the decline of cable tv and print newspapers, the increasing use of ad blockers, the crisis of consumer trust, etc etc.

In short we are looking at a multitude of micro-crises all working together to make the environment unlivable for most current forms of advertisement.

in other words: an extinction event!

Who's Gonna Survive

And just like in a real extinction event, whether or not you survive depends on how good you can adapt to the brave new world you've found yourself in. Old school advertising needs to drastically rethink their everything if they're gonna stay afloat, and every field of the industry needs to recreate itself. As my new favorite writer Chris Gadek says,

"These crises show that there are no safe havens. You can’t substitute one advertising medium for another. Rather than pivot, the advertising industry must adapt and learn to effectively use the channels at their disposal (TV included), factoring in the seismic societal and technological changes that have occurred over the past decade and beyond."

and what is that going to look like? what's going to be the new face of advertising?

The field seems torn, at first... but also aligned, at least when it comes to the core principles:

privacy is a big issue. Seems like a lot of advertisers are seeing an end to wanton consumer surveillance, and looking into less invasive ways to gather important and meaningful data

companies that rely on selling ad space and propping up their engagement metrics are going to be relied on less, probably, because the metrics themselves are being seen as less reliable (for good freaking reason)

regaining consumer trust is going to be a massive priority in the future.

overall, we're probably going to look at a massive downturn in ads, as people turn to a quality-over-quantity strategy in an attempt to stop flooding the attention marketplace.

that's the gist I'm getting from reading oh so many different articles of varying quality from so many different sources.

So, yanno, there may be some hope out there. If smart people start leading this industry (lol), we may get to actually enjoy ads.

Yeah. Enjoy ads.

Unironically.

I know, it's crazy.

PS: if you start seeing affiliate links on mainstream TV ads, thank our lord of excellent business analysis Chris Gadek for calling it early. God, that's such a crazy left-field idea and I really want it to actually happen.

[no-psi-nan]

🥺🥺🥺 not 2 be sappy on main but omg I actually started off in Deviantart ages ago, that was the closest thing to social media for me until the tumblr migration lol. But I never really interacted with people on there, and even upon moving to tumblr, never really interacted with people here too often either. At first I had my main blog which was meant to be more professional since I was selling art to get a little college income, so I didn't really make too many irrelevant posts. Then I decided that I wanted to be able to reblog art and support other artists, so I made a side blog where I carefully curated and tagged the posts I reblogged. I made a few original posts but no one ever interacted, and eventually I realized that people only ever sent me asks there if I tagged anything wrong. Also I found out that adding stuff like series and character tags to a reblog on tumblr is basically useless because the op will pretty much always tag those things which makes it searchable on your own blog even if you don't tag it yourself. And if op DIDN'T tag it those things, your tags will make the post searchable on your blog but NOT in the general search, so it doesn't give op any more of a boost than just reblogging it tagless. So I made another sideblog, which I still have today, and I just rapidfire reblog literally anything I find shareworthy lol. Not any interaction there but at least I'm not wasting my time meticulously tagging strangers posts hsfjdlshfks. Since I was best friends with a big name fan in my main fandom (we became friends when I left a long emotional comment on their fanfic btw <3), I helped run some small fandom events and met more people as well. When I switched fandoms, it was a fandom event that gave me a new friend too, my posts never got any traction. Large fandom discords didn't really work for me either. But on this blog I was lucky, and for the first time people started like actually responding to my comments and posts, and get conversations going! And genuinely that's what's kept my brain rot so powerful I think, because bouncing ideas off each other and joking around and shitposting is genuinely the most fun I've ever had online!! I have to thank desta and oatmeal for the fun times especially, and hillbilly---man left really nice comments on my first few fics that really encouraged me, and I always have fun trading ideas with alienn, saikikthoughts, and crookedlyinnernightmare, plus everyone else who's on here, that's too many people to type out. AND I TYPED UP A BUNCH MORE STUFF BUT TUMBLR FUCKING DELETED IT!! Are you shitting me.... Well I think I remember saying that even if it's been getting kinda quiet and boring lately so my attention is starting to wander (I've pretty much posted all of the meta that's not deep fanfic hc at this point and my drawings take me a long time to make), I'll never delete this blog and I'll still be putzing around online until the day I die probably. And I'll always remember these days fondly and hope to find another great community like this one. And also I highly encourage everyone to post, reply, interact, and play with fellow fans! I've made lifelong friendships over blorbos and even if we don't have the same blorbos any more, we're still friends. Obviously stay safe online, never send money to strangers, probably wait like a year to start shipping each other stuff but still, reach out because you never know who you might meet! I've been lonely irl for most of my life for various reasons, and my online friends have been a lifeline honestly, they're all really important to me. Two of my best friends today come from fanfic comment sections!! Also I need to get around to archiving my meta on AO3 lol (yup, it's for meta too!) but that's gonna be a lot of work so -_-U).

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

really happy I'm not American. your country sucks more dicks than a kicked-out teenager forced to do prostitution to survive. also, you guys are so fucking fat and prude while we Danes and Swedes have nude beaches with children are allowed and you literally have to search to see fatties.

This seems like one of your first attempts at trolling, so I'm gonna be nice and give you some helpful tips.

Don't try to be witty. "your country sucks more dicks than a kicked-out teenager forced to do prostitution to survive" is much too long and comes off as you desperately trying to imitate the kind of quippy dialogue you saw in a Joss Whedon or Quinten Tarantino movie. If you really want to get somebody mad, stick to the basics. "Your country sucks" gets the point across clearly and has a much higher chance of provoking an emotional response.

You need a tighter focus on the specific thing I'm supposed to get mad at. In your ask, you mention two American stereotypes, that we're all fat, and that we're all prudes. Two stereotypes is probably the limit you can fit into one troll ask without seeming like you're just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks, but I'd still recommend sticking to one.

Don't give your target the ammo they need to drag your ass in your troll attempt. Right after you get into the fat and prude stereotypes, you mention your country has nude beaches with children as a positive, and right there I have at least three different ways I can turn this back around on you. And that's without going for the low hanging fruit and just calling you a pedo. Which brings me to

Don't troll on main. I know you think you're being brave by not going anon, but really you're just giving your target the opportunity to amplify your mistakes. Just a quick glance through your blog shows that you probably hang around at least a few people who are very judgmental and unforgiving of mistakes. Also that you like Hackers, which is a point in your favor. Your post style indicates you write with emotion and then send, instead of taking a moment to reread what you wrote and see if it will give the impact you're looking for. I've seen this lead to many unforced errors from people on social media. Usually in the form of a slur or seven, or suicide bait, or similar things. All of these things are, of course, expected from anons, but you might not like what happens if you slip up with your actual account. Callout posts and ostracizing from friends or mutuals who want to get back at you for some real or imagined slighty may just be the tip of that iceberg. If nothing else, it makes it much easier for some nefarious individual to mass report your blog and get it taken down when you troll openly. And finally,

Put some effort in. I know I already mentioned low hanging fruit, but I never explained why avoiding it is beneficial. Chances are, anyone outside your own age group (assuming the 1995 in your blog name is your birth year, which if it is, probably not the best thing to share online with how easy doxxing is these days) has been around long enough to get a few troll asks in their day. Especially if they're right wing political blogs. The "Americans are fat and prudish" stereotypes are old and played out. We don't particularly care what a bunch of Europeans who can't even handle mild summer weather think about our eating or bedroom habits. Hell, on the right, you're more likely to find people who take prude as a compliment. If you really want to bother us, you should pounce on the issues of the day. Take the dumbest possible position on a political issue and then earnestly act like it's what you truly believe. As a European, this should come naturally. It's your best shot at actually getting us mad. Though, we are pretty used to European lefties showing their whole ass when trying to comment on American politics, so your mileage may vary on that one. (Oh, a "mile" is a unit of distance measurement. Sort of like a kilometer, but bigger and better.)

I really do hope this helped. Good luck on your next trolling attempt!

[fkinavocado]

I just wanted some genuine suggestions for losing weight without burning out my body and harming it. Since you are one of the most mature Tumblrina I know, I thought of asking you. You don't have to answer if you aren't comfortable.

thank you for your trust hun❤️ and for the tentative approach to a sensitive subject.

i learned a lot when i was on my own weight loss journey and i can genuinely give some sound advice on how to approach it in a healthy way.

depending on your starting point, i would suggest skipping working out entirely in the beginning. you can walk, 10k steps a day i still swear by, and that's cardio almost everyone can do. again, i don't know your starting point so if we're talking severely overweight start off slow, don't force your joints. just regular walking, no sprinting, running etc.

working out, even cardio stuff believe it or not is more for toning towards the end of weight loss journey and afterwards. everyone thinks hitting the gym is gonna help them lose weight when in fact it can do you a lot more harm than good especially at the beginning. you burn very little calories with an extreme amount of effort, making you even more hungry and prone to overeat, you're gonna end up bulking up your muscle mass and not really getting rid of the fat, plus, again, it can be extremely taxing on your joints and overall health if you push yourself too much too fast.

nutrition is the key with weight loss and i'm tired of ppl trying to sell working out to those who are desperate to make a change.

however it's not as easy as "just don't eat as much", unfortunately. and if you're like me and have other things hindering your process, in my case, insulin resistence, then it's really not simple at all.

you gotta try and see what works best for you but there are some things that benefit everyone regardless of their specific needs.

first of all, you gotta be in a caloric deficit. there are a lot of online calculators where you enter your current weight, age, gender, height and your weight goal, and it calculates what your daily caloric intake should be for you to get there as realistically as possible while still mentaining a healthy dose of nutrients.

which leads me to number two on the list, macros (those calculators will tell you what your daily macros should be too). you wanna look up meals that are high protein low cal. you'll be amazed how some easy changes to your diet can make such a big difference! download myfitnesspal (an app) where you can track everything you eat, buy a food scale so you can weigh everything and this way you can ensure you reach your macros for the day (protein, fats, fibers and carbs) while staying within your daily caloric deficit. which btw, should never go bellow 1100-1200 no matter how fast you're trying to lose weight! there's no way you can reach your macros if you do that and you'll be malnourished, you'll lose muscle mass not just fat and you'll also end up with lose skin if you starve yourself.

which leads me to number three, don't starve yourself!!! you won't be able to sustain it for a long period of time and you'll end up binge eating every several days, which will erase all the "progress" anyway. trust me.

allow yourself a lil cheat meal every once in a while so you don't grow frustrated(careful to remain within your daily calorie intake, carbs and fats will probably skyrocket but at least try and get smth high protein)

drink lots and lots of water at least 3-4 liters daily (not all at once!!! this is very dangerous and i just wanted to clarify!) it makes a world of a difference!

try and get your 10k steps in if you can but even without that if you're in a defiict you WILL lose weight

you can also try intermittent fasting. i wouldn't recommend one meal a day. try at least two. the way it works is you try and not eat at all for as long as possible and then only eat in the ramaining timeframe. most ppl do 16-8 or 18-6. meaning you fast 16/18 hours and only eat in the remaining consecutive 8/6 hours. this eliminates snacking. which is important in terms of glicemic spikes. your body needs downtime between meals, if you keep feeding it and snacking however little every few hrs you keep getting spikes in your blood sugar and you won't lose weight. sometimes even if you're in a significant deficit. skipping breakfast is easiest, but you could skip dinner if it makes more sense for you. but make sure you hit your macros in the remaining timeframe. if you can't manage that, intermittent fasting is not for you

this is, in very rough lines, what i consider essential. keep at it for a month and you'll see results and will be motivated to continue! i hope it helps ❤️