#I miss you Lindsay Ellis

[kolbisneat]

MONTHLY MEDIA: July 2024

I read a lot more than I was expecting this month but I ain't complaining. Here's how I spent the month of July!

……….FILM……….

Evil Dead II (1987) Didn't love Evil Dead (not that it's not good, I just get too spooked by straight horror) but had no idea that this would be what it is. Puppets and stop motion! Looney Tune antics! Magic with rules! This is my kinda movie and I'm baffled the modern films in the franchise don't try for this sort of energy.

Poor Things (2003) It took a while for me to settle into this, but around the time Dafoe's Godwin explains Bella's condition, I was all in. It's a dreamlike movie with dreamlike logic so despite some of the discourse I tried not to take too much of it literally. Beautiful and far funnier than I expected.

……….TELEVISION……….

Columbo (Episode 1.04 to 1.07) Gosh I love the era of television where each episode was self-contained. Episode 7 features Columbo smoking in a doctor's office and I was not at all expecting him to comment on the dangers of tobacco, but he did! I notice this first season only had a handful of episodes with the classic "oh one more thing" schtick so I'm curious if that pops up more in later seasons.

Scavenger's Reign (Episode 1.01 to 1.12) This is a show where I sit down, turn it on, and while the beautiful opening credits play, think, "I wonder what horrifying imagery is gonna f*** me up this episode?" The animation and design are sooooooo good that it made up for the occasionally baffling writing. Please go watch it so a second season can get greenlit.

Bridgerton (Episode 3.05 to 3.08) I missed a few eps there in the middle but it all worked. That final party, and all that went with it (the speech, the bugs, the reveal of who paid for it) was 10/10. Good stuff.

……….YOUTUBE……….

Yoko and The Beatles by Lindsay Ellis Yoko Ono didn't break up the Beatles. And while this video essay expands on the factors that DID split up the band, it's also a really great dive into the weight of fame and the weight of fame on women. VIDEO

Was starting a product business a mistake? by Simone Giertz An honest and detailed insight into the dream vs. reality of small business and internet fame. Looks like it's going to be a full series and I'm looking forward to more. VIDEO

……….READING……….

N or M by Agatha Christie (Complete) Spy Thriller set during the Second World War? With a husband/wife spy duo? Oh heck yeah. Sometimes I find the clues to be a little convoluted/unnecessarily obscure but this one struck a great balance of visible but easily forgettable.

The Knight of the Swords by Michael Moorcock (Complete) Having first read the comic adaptation (penciled by Mike Mignola!) I now realize some of my issues (pacing, understanding the abstract) work better in novel form. An elevated pulp adventure that has some great ironic twists.

Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula or The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count by Loren D. Estleman (Complete) Thrift find purchased based on the premise alone. Exactly what you'd expect but not much beyond that. It's at its best when you get Dracula directly interacting with Holmes and/or Watson.

Spider-Verse by Dan Slott, Christos N. Gage, Mike Costa, Dennis Hopeless, and many many more (Complete) Really enjoyed reading this but am baffled by its production. Why the issues aren't collected in chronological order, I'll never know. I know the book is over ten years old now but the writing (especially all of the Spider-Women) really stands out as...not great. All but the Superior Spider-Man essentially sound the same (perhaps the point?) but Gwen and Jess and Cindy mostly talk about things like body image and pheromones and it's glaring. I'm curious what I'll think upon a second readthrough (reading in order, and after the first wave of nostalgia has completely rinsed off) but I definitely think this story walked so the movies could break the speed of sound.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Universe! by Ryan North and Erica Henderson (Complete) North's writing and Henderson's artwork are the perfect blend for such a bright and enthusiastic character. Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is such a great series (which I gotta go back and finish) and this is an equally great introduction to the character.

Superior Foes of Spider-Man Vol 1 by by Nick Spencer, Marcos Martin, and Steve Leiber (Complete) I was really excited for this series (the premise! the cover art!) but the pacing, humour, and art just didn't connect. Honestly really bummed that I didn't like this more.

……….AUDIO……….

3D6 Down the Line (Podcast) A nice change of pace from the modern D&D games I play in. They use Old School Essentials for their system (more akin to 2nd Edition D&D) and play with a mindset similar to the 70s style of play (treasure for experience, everything is lethal). I'm still having trouble distinguishing some of the voices from each other, but it's a great listen.

……….GAMING……….

Oz: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) Tuesday crew watched a peaceful inauguration and gained notoriety for saving a neighbourhood from roaming monsters (you can read all about it here!) and the Mof1 crew is dabbling in dangerous contracts with dangerous people (all for a cap that controls the winged monkeys).

And that's it. See you in August!

[weaselbeaselpants]

kind of related but not- I'm genuinely sorry to be posting so much or about Lily Orchard, guys. Prior to Courtney coming on and telling us her story I was mostly just taken aback and angry with Lily as "one of those critic types" in my circle of vision.

It sucks -and yeah I know other critics don't want to hear this+Lily will use this fact as an excuse to discredit ppl's complaints abt her. but I think a lot of us were initially exposed to Lily because they knew of andor were fans of her cartoon criticism content. In my case I knew Lily from her days of Bronydom and have watched her make more and more meanMEAN material even w it's not about internal fandom dramacallouts. Back in those days and up to last year I could say of Lilly the same thing I'd say for a lot of people who annoy me online: I think she's a bully. Which is still bad, it's just not 'criminal', inherent. Comparing her to Rebecca Sugar, Lindsay Ellis, Contrapoints or VivziePop would be stupid as she really doesn't have even half the portfolio or wherewithall as any of those people -or even Zena and Poppy, not that they're angels. Lily was/is annoying because she'd use other people's genuine concerns and talking points. There's a certain takenupbyaltlight-term that I begrudginly would love to use for Lily that REALLY hits the nail on the head with her, be it as a fan, a critic or an activist. But I won't use it. Not because it's untrue, but because it's used by the same people who write her kiwifarm pages and misgender her and clearly couldn't give a crap about her if she didn't make them "lol"

But then, I actually looked at some of Britt's receipts and skimmed bits and pieces of what remains of Stockholm (I think you all already know this but @britts-galaxy-brain the links are missing now). For years, I'd known and listened to others honestly harp on Lily as some kind of counter-initiative for her going after their fav foalcon people. I assumed it was more of the same. It's not. Lily 100% wrote cp and is trying to hide it. No not fiction abt young adults that delves into erotic and sexisms; not stuff with aged-up child characters being big boobied of themselves thru the gaze or r34 artists. She wrote cp.

Essense of Thought's and that one hour long video talking about Stockholm were the first real horrifying revelation. Then I read through Brittney's saved messages from Lily and 'Tara'. Then I saw Patch's video.

THEN, Courtney came out and told everyone on here and her server everything we needed to know. I don't abide by everything Courtney says, especially about her abusers but I mean they're her abusers and please stop asking her to like the children who're valued more than her in the lives of her abusers, or at least maybe vent openly not to Courtney directly about your fear for those kids Cameron has. Yeah, I'm also concerned but idk there's got to be a better way to handle this. Anyway, as previously stated, I believe Courtney, Britt, and Patch. There's no way that those people have faked that stuff. I've heard kind of stretched explanations being true, but there's no way Stockholm was "edited by pedos" like Lily's saying it was I know I'm missing a few folks in there but I believe a lot of people have been genuinely victimized by LO and aren't just acting out of transphobia, bigotry.

Of what I can attest based on what I've seen, I KNOW that Lily Orchard wrote 'fluffy' foalcon and is saying she didn't, and also that the woman hates the word "queer".

Of what has been shown to me, I fully BELIEVE Lily Orchard is an abusive, sockpuppeting predator. Not only that, she's hiding behind other predator's existence to lie to her audience of other abused people to convince both them and herself that she couldn't possibly be a predator.

In 2013, what was 10 years from now, there was a controversy in the MLP fandom where a minor rose a (not undeserved) stink abt the askblog Princess Molestia and how it was making light of r*pe, intentionally or not. To counter this, a bunch of mouthbreathing bronies took it upon themselves to prove they weren't creeps by threatening the underrage sa victim, making r*pe porn of her while other mouthbreathers basically said "yeah put she's [the minor] annoying so it's the same kind of evil we're doing, really". Centrists.

Why this matters to me is (CW. CW. CW) you can find a post from Tara Callie, who was almost certainly one of Lily's alts at the time, admitting she found the r*pe art of Pinkiepony "hot", all the while Lily herself was publicly denouncing Pinkie's treatment by the fandom.

Lily Orchard is an awful human being. She does not have intrusive thoughts or fears of acting on those intrusive thoughts sometimes, like me and other people do. She has sexual and violent urges that she hides enough form the public to not make her followers suspect anything. She's twofaced and takes out her probable self-hate by attacking other predators. She's all deflection and lies. I can not believe a thing that vile woman says. Neither should you.

The biggest means of fighting her I think we all can do of is refusing to use her critical tag w we talk about her. Spam her "own tag". Enough hiding and denying who this terrible bigoted abusive woman really is.

Because really, her thoughts on glubshitto or whoever from Owl House are HARDLY the worst of it. Not even.

[thefloatingstone]

Small correction for Anthony. He hasn't defended Lily Orchard in fact he criticized a few if her videos and she tried to copyright strike him, as well as shame him for not responding well to death threats. His video was shit but I wanted to give that clarification.

Ah ok I see I see. Thanks for correcting me! 👍

Some of his topics look interesting, but having heard what he had to say in that video, I'm not sure whether I can trust his opinion on a broader scale, you know? But maybe he's like Lindsay Ellis where his videos are hit or miss.

[balkanradfem]

Lindsay Ellis actively disavows and dislikes radfems. Re-evaluate yourself.

Any female public figure who cares about her physical safety will disavow radfems (with few very brave exceptions! you know who they are and what they're going thru), if I picked who I like based on who is approving of radical feminism, I'd be left with 3 women I'm allowed to like. I would absolutely hate for all female public figures to be harassed, doxxed, threatened and smear campaigned because they let out they're accepting of a group who puts women before m*n.

That being said, being a radfem is not why I love Lindsay Ellis, I loved her way before I started up my radfem beliefs. I love her because she is incredibly intelligent, witty, insightful, brave, reckless and passionate, I love her because she made media that was so iconic and educative, I watched her videos in awe even without being specifically interested in the subject! She made me interested in things I would never even bother to learn about, because she spoke of them with so much insight and knowledge, it was invigorating and irresistible! She taught me about storytelling, about how movies are made, about 3 act structure of an animated film, why film and musical directors make the kind of choices they do and what they're trying to convey. These are things I would otherwise never seek out in my life!

The thing about Lindsay is that she speaks about these subject with so much confidence and knowledge, it was easily observable that she is better equipped and better fit to speak on it than any m*n who was also trying to speak on the subject. She also has better sense of humor than any m*n on youtube. I sometimes still think of some of her one-liners in real life and burst out laughing.

She is one of the very rare women who dared to speak confidently, passionately, on a topic that is male-dominated, that is highly valued and supports a rich industry that m*n usually bank on - she dared to out-do them in every aspect of it, and be a woman online, who makes jokes, has fun, and doesn't back down when being stepped on. She presented not only a strong inspiration to any other woman wanting to speak on academic, Hollywood, movie-producing and video-essay making topic, but a threat to any m*n she proved to do it better than. For the crime of doing that, she had to be erased from youtube, and it's a loss for women above all. This does not happen to prominent m*n who make jokes on the internet - not even if they go as far as admit they're rapists and pedophiles, not even if there's a recorded history of racism, fascism, bestiality, violence. She got cancelled for a tweet that compared one movie to another, with zero ill intent or malice. The same sentence made by any m*n, would be supported and extremely well liked - and she found this to be the case too, when m*n made the same comparison, they were very well liked for it.

Cancelling Lindsay Ellis was a message to all of us, to what will happen if we relax a little and speak confidently and make money while making jokes and educative, incredible useful and passionate content online. She was one of the best on youtube and they're showing us what will happen to rest of us if we dare to be so good we pose a threat to them, and inspiration to other women.

I miss her so much. One final reason I love her is her hair. Her hair looks like a normal human hair and every single time I saw her, I felt so much better about my hair looking exactly the same. I wish every woman just came online on video with hair like that!!!! That is how it should be.

Lindsay Ellis did not deserve what she was put thru, and no woman who was put thru any of that deserved it either. I don't care if those women are in support or opposed to radical feminism, I love all women. Lindsay made me laugh and made me learn and get interested and inspired like few other women did. Her way of storytelling and putting together an essay was unique and so highly enjoyable, she was the first to do it! With her segments she did like news reports, it made me think of the old times and television and it felt so good. I am already seeing it stolen by the male youtubers. They're the only ones that benefited from the situation.

I don't want to lose any more prominent women, I want us all to defend them with all our might when they're attacked by the mob. Let's make cancelling women prohibited. Only m*n should be cancelled - and all of them should be.

[animebw]

Your review of ONK made me wonder: If a show tries to convey a message and the viewer fails to get it, how much blame can be placed on the author and how much on the people? A person may try to explain something as clearly as possible, but there will always be someone who won't understand, so who can be blamed?

I want to clarify that this is not an attempt at a last minute defense of Aka or the series, but a genuine question that has been on my mind since reading the review.

And I apologize if the question is unclear, I'm not a native English speaker.

Oh, it's a very valid question. And not one exclusive to anime; Fight Club is a perfect example of that question. So many of its fans see it as an aspirational tale of Manly Men Rejecting Modern Society And Embracing The Masculine Tradition Of Violence, but the movie's whole point is that its characters are a bunch of loser incels turning to violence and terrorism to cope with their emasculation complex and the whole masculine glorification of violence is Bad, Actually. Is it th4e audience's fault for missing the message so profoundly because it conflicted with their preconceptions and biases? Or did the movie just not do a good enough job communicating that message and accidentally made the concept of fight club itself seem way cooler than it meant to? Genuinely hard to say.

That said, one bit of analysis I've always found really handy comes from Lindsay Ellis' video series on the Transformers movies: "Framing and aesthetics supercede the rest of the text, always, always, always." When you're working with a visual medium, what's communicated visually will always register more strongly than what's simply part of the story and dialogue (hence why "show don't tell" is such a big rule). In the case of Fight Club, you could argue that the cinematography and editing do such a good job selling the illusion of fight club as something cool and fun and desirable that the intended subversion where the movie then goes "Psych! These people are all losers" in the final act doesn't register as strongly. In the case of anime, it's why your standard fanservice package does such a disservice to female characters; no matter how well written or interesting they might be, if they're constantly framed tits and ass first, that's how the audience will primarily remember them.

And don't get me started on Attack on Titan, which is basically Fight Club's issue stretched across almost a hundred episodes. You spend the first half of the series basically force-fed in-universe fascist propaganda that gives you a biased perspective on what's really going on, only for the curtain to pull back in the second half and force you to confront the grim reality the first half purposefully hid from you. It puts you in the same place as the characters, forced to re-evaluate everything you though you knew and realize just how easily you were taken in by lies and genocidal rhetoric spread by this world's version of the Nazis. But because the first half of the series was so effective at selling you on that rhetoric with its orgasmically violent action and rousing speeches set to epic music, a bunch of fans never grew out of it and continued beating the drums of fascism even as the series turned around and started ripping apart the very ideals it was once holding up. Which is how you end up with a bunch of unironic Eren Yeager stans cheering for him to literally destroy the world because they think he's some kind of based uberchad instead of a fundamentally broken shell of a man running on hate-fueled exhaust fumes until he burns himself down to nothing in his inability to escape the cycle of violence he's become ensnared in. Because that was the story they were trained to expect, and they refused to budge when the other shoes started dropping.

Now, that doesn't really apply to Oshi no Ko since its issues are all primarily text-based, not visual-based. But it's a useful bit of critical thinking that informs a lot of the way I look at media. In a visual medium, visuals always hit harder and leave a stronger impact than words alone, for better or worse.

[bulbabutt]

say what you will about bay april (and trust me, megan fox deserves so much better) at least she's proactive about looking into things and does things without the boys-hell she's the reason they're even alive in the first place, she saved splinter and the turts as a kid

doesn't erase vernon and mikey being constantly horny on main for her or that weird technique they force her to do to get info out of stockman in oots's opening segments but still, give her credit, she's strong-willed and has a sense of justice and tries to do what's right

hmmmmmmm ok. theres a lot to say about bayverse april. and i specifically avoided talking about movie aprils cuz it was going to get repetitive and long (like 1990 april is very similar to 87 and 07 april is basically 03 april)

but with bayverse, you're right, she is the central character in that movie who drives the plot. but thats because of the megan fox of it all, being that shes the biggest star there and also because bay had an obsession with her (to her detriment bad vibes all over the fucking place holy shit leave this woman alone) we're still framing aprils ass in the shot, still being creepy about her, despite the fact this movie is trying to be from her perspective (for more info on that aspect i think you just gotta watch lindsay ellis' "the framing of megan fox" video about transformers, because its the same shit here)

and just because its like 87 april (because this movie is pandering to 87 fans) doesnt mean theyre really add anything or even understand the concept of what makes 87 april good in the first place. like i said in my post about 87 april, what makes her great is that the turtles fall into her story, and that we are centred on the news room politics of it all. the human world the turtles interact with is her life.

(this got kinda long so its under a cut)

in this movie, we change the misogynistic boss burne thompson into: whoopi goldburgs burnadette thompson. which. hm, color and gender blind casting for burne thompson is. a way to do it i guess. (i do know whoopi is in this movie because she wanted to be in a turtles movie, no disrespect there) but it removes that core element of reporter april fighting her shitty boss. in this she's now just a regular reporter working at a normal news station, but also we're still giving her the girly aerobics story. so, who's decided that if her boss is a black woman? thats kind of fundamentally changing the implications of why shes stuck doing that job, its no longer because shes the woman reporter, and is now just because thats what shes been assigned. now its not her fighting sexism, its her just not wanting to do her job. a shitty one, but its no longer because of a sexist work place.

and then her story of being a reporter is she gets FIRED for being a BAD reporter, because shes crazily rambling about turtles to her boss with no real sources. which...87 april didnt do that, her point wasnt to find the turtles, it was to use her job to help them. the turtles are the secret, not the story. for a movie that likes pandering to 87 and nothing else, they missed this concept entirely

(side note that isnt important, when shes rambling to the roommate about them.... this movie panders enough to 87, why is the roommate not just named irma. shes only in that scene. seriously, it should have just been irma.)

and then. the vernon fenwick of it all........ why the fuck. did you do this. why make him the only character who believes her? oh sorry, not even believes her, simply THINKS SHES HOT. SO GOES ALONG WITH IT. i know they wanted to put casey jones in this movie, but then went NOOO that would be SILLY if the guy hanging out with her is casey (we want to save him for the seqeul) so lets make it another reporter. uh vernon. hes from the original! and thus we change vernon from being the rival reporter who hates her because shes a woman whos better at his job than him, into just: her creepy co reporter who has a crush on her. and since he's the co star here, she has to not tell him off for his bad behaviour. maybe he'll even get a date out of it!

(again, if she needed a sidekick, irma is right there, you put the other two here, why not irma)

and the choice to make her a part of the turtles origin story is, in my perspective, very much like my issue with 12 april's destined to be part of the story thing. shes part of this story because her dad created the turtles. yes, she saved the turtles and splinter, but its less of her own choice in the matter, its because she was the daughter of the man who made them. its the opposite of what i think makes her a good character in the franchise, someone who is hunting for a story and gets in too deep, and happens to be near enough by the turtles that they get her out.

like lets compare her to the april closest to her, 1990 april. thats an april who gets into the plot via going hunting for a story on her own. there's some kind of gang up to no good and she wants to get to the bottom of it. she does get to the bottom of it all on her own, she learns via interviewing immigrants that the foot is the organization behind it. shes doing something no one wants her to do, shes going against what her boss, and what cops think she should be doing, and the foot literally try to kill her because SHE is hunting for THEM. she ends up in turtle plot because raphael HAPPENS to be around when the foot find her. its HER story. the foot is after HER. the turtles in that movie end up losing splinter and then fighting the foot BECAUSE april was looking for them. THATS what makes her have agency in the story.

i do think a lot of you guys are missing my point here though (no offence!) so let me try to explain it better.

its not just about if we see april be a self sufficient character who's central to the plot, or even what her personality is like, its whether she exists in a real way outside of the men around her. its if her choices are important to the story. she doesnt need to have saved the turtles, know how to fight, kicked the shredder, or have been right about whatever story is going on. the question is: is she in the story because she did something on her own to get to it? is she a character who matters without the men in her life? can she stand on her own? do you care about her life? what are her aspirations, how is she trying to achieve them?

based on all that, i think 2014 april is in fact the weakest april. they're only making her seem like 1987 april because, and i dont know if ive said this anywhere yet, men who watched 87 when they were kids think shes hot. that is the only value a lot of people have placed on her. thats her legacy to a lot of people. its fucked up, and this movie doesnt do anything to dissuade you from thinking that.

sorry to go off on your ask, but bayverse (specifically the first one) really got no aspect of any tmnt thing correct. not april, not shredder, not splinter, not casey, and not the aspect of how these turtles are even ninja (i think everyone involved shouldn't be allowed to make another piece of media for putting that fucking ninjitsu book in the fucking sewer)

[librarycards]

i hope im not too late for book recommendations! here's some of my favourite books:

Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt, Dune by Frank Herbert, Body After Body by Briar Ripley Page, Truth of the Divine by Lindsay Ellis, and Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters. (I'm also currently on a mission to read all Ursula le Guin's novels. and another side note, I sadly dislike Gretchen Felker-Martin's writing. I have people recommend her all the time, but it has never clicked with me :( )

book recs are ongoing! love the @flameswallower shoutout + that you know your likes and dislikes. here are a few recs:

Megan Milks, Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body

Davey Davis, X

Rivers Solomon, Sorrowland

Casey Plett, A Dream of a Woman.

Mira Grant, Into the Drowning Deep

[you also might like my book, which is not out yet, but I can send you an ARC if you'd like.]

[opinated-user]

If Lily were remotely interested in actually combating fandom racism she'd focus on other characters in TOH and not just the white one she hates. If you're complaining about a white guy all the time, that's not progressive, because you're still discussing a white character and making him the center of attention instead of celebrating the stories of POC in the cast.

The only time Lily ever made a video that was start-to-finish praise of any POC was when it was Kuvira, a dictator who ran reeducation camps, created a weapon of mass destruction and threatened to murder everyone who disagreed with her. That was years ago.

It took her ten years to write one black main character.

Until her video on The Princess and the Frog this year, she had never talked about a piece of media focused on black people, even though she claims to be left-leaning. Being willing to watch things centered on black people is such a low bar even most conservatives clear it by accident.

In her infamous writing tips thread, she said that you should only have one cishet white character and a really good writer will have only one cis, one het, and one white character. (This rule is ridiculous for large casts, but I will acknowledge for the core main cast it's a perfectly applicable idea.) She has never written anything that doesn't have a majority white cast. Regularly her writing writes out existing POC rather than center them.

She claims to be Native not even based on blood quantum, a practice the Cherokee people and many others do not believe in, but based upon having thick black hair. She isn't recognized by the tribe. She does not educate anyone on anything pertaining to indigenous issues and didn't even mention Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women until she talked about how if she was murdered she'd be one of them. She has never written a Native character or talked about Native characters in media.

When movies that have a majority black cast come out, she disses on them.

When anything is made by Asians, she will dismiss it, not acknowledge that different Asian cultures exist, and center whiteness (such as only ever talking about Raya and the Last Dragon in terms of Lindsay Ellis, a white woman (who she then straightwashes on top of centering)).

When a POC such as Luz is anything other than cheerful and joyous, they are, to her, totally devoid of worth and ridiculous.

If Hunter were black Lily would focus on Amity instead, because she always, always devalues POC and redirects her attention onto a white person. When she made a black OC, it was in order to beat up some white people, romance a white person, and adopt white kids. She cannot, under any circumstances, create anything that focuses entirely on POC with the sole exception of focusing on a light-skinned WOC dictator whose war crimes and crimes against humanity she not only excused but viewed as cool.

She does not fight fandom racism.

She partakes in and upholds it.

Even if her fans can convince themselves all the people she's abused are liars, even if they're not aware of her past, I genuinely do not know how anyone can look at her work and not see how blatantly racist this woman is. Her only black characters are all tied to slavery, with white characters being the victims of slavery and black people benefiting. I grew up in a racist family and I am doing a lot of work to deprogram myself. It's not easy and I have a lot I haven't learned. But even I, even as a preteen writing stories, never wrote something that messed up, because it simply never would have crossed my mind to reverse victim and offender in the context of slavery.

Watching Stitch is her "I have a black content creator I watch/friend" moment the way many people in fandom/the real world use that as their get-out-racism-accusations-free card, but it's insufficient.

If she doesn't want to be seen as racist she needs to stop being so blatantly racist. It's not hard.

but it's hard for her, because that means admitting that she needs to do work on herself to get ride of all the biases she has and she alreay barely puts any work on her channel.

[is-it-mungojerry-or-rumpelteazer]

Why I dislike the LotR movies

A few weeks months ago @acaseofsilverspoons​ asked me why I say I hate the Lord of the Rings movies, and I promised I would try to give an explanation. Sorry for the delay, I have a lot of thoughts and it has taken a bit of time to order them in my head and then I forgot about this draft.

Movie people following the newsletter: stop reading now. I am going to spoil the hell out of it. And even if you don’t care about spoilers, if you like the movies you’re probably going to get defensive and enjoy the novels less because of it. I don’t want to be the reason you enjoy Tolkien less. Come back once you’re done reading, I’ll be happy to discuss then!! ^^

Disclaimer: I haven’t watched the movies. I have a very weak visual imagination and I hated the design of the elves on sight, so I decided to avoid getting them as my default elves; and I react very badly to peer pressure, which means the more people tell me I need to watch them the least I want to. I still think I have enough information to base my opinions, but well. There you go. Can't tell me I lied to you.

The first, and main reason, I “hate” the LotR movies is very well summarized by this strip of the webcomic Weregeek.

The movies are good enough, and good enough adaptations, and enough of a cultural milestone, that people talk of them as if the movies and the novels were interchangeable. Tolkien was never exactly obscure, and it’s not like people are at risk of forgetting the novels exist, but a lot of people have seen the movies but will never read the books, and even people who are into the genre will read the novel after seeing the movies. So you have people who have only experienced the movies thinking they know all that there is to know, and people who have experienced both getting to the novel with the preconceptions of the movies (see all the people analyzing Frodo’s actions as effects of the Ring from day 1 in the newsletter, or people immediately assuming book!Denethor is an abusive parent... we’ll come back to that). I’ve heard people say “don’t worry about reading the novels, the movies are enough”. And they are NOT. They are very much NOT. Even if you think every single choice in the movies is justified and good, there were a lot of choices made. They’re not equivalent.

Let me expand on that under a Read More because believe me, this is going to get long.

Let’s start with the themes.

First of all: Lord of the Rings is not an action story. If anything, it is an anti-war novel. Even though most characters admit that violence is sometimes necessary, almost universally it is considered a necessary evil. We have Faramir, the closest to a Moral Compass Man we have, literally spelling that he doesn’t like war for itself, but only for what it defends. And the narration mirrors this: except for the Battle of Helm’s Deep, every battle is either skipped over (the Black Gate), told in retrospect (Isengard) or interspersed with sections about the grief it brings (Pelennor). And in all cases, we end them with lengthy descriptions of the people that died and the grief they caused. It’s hard to finish the novel going “oh, the battle of Pelennor was awesome! I wish there were more!” when the last thing you hear about it is three pages of obituaries. In contrast, the movies fall into the trap of wanting to utilize their shiny new technology and their great visuals for battle scenes, and end up making battles cool. I have lost count of the dudebros whose take on the LotR movies was “weren’t the battles awesome???”. And before you come for me with “but the text says”, to quote Lindsay Ellis, movies are a visual medium. If you make the battles the most visually appealing and fun part of your movie to watch, you can have characters have unending monologues about how bad war is, that’s not the message people are going to get from it. And if you make a LotR adaptation whose message is “war is cool and fun”, you’ve missed the mark by a mile.

Secondly, another big theme about Lord of the Rings is that in the end, it’s the small people that make the difference, and that noone wins alone. To quote Elrond, “you may find friends upon your way when you least look for it”. But the movies, in their (reasonable) quest to streamline the story to fit a movie runtime, choose to prioritize the more classically heroic characters and arcs, sacrificing the small people for the big flashy kings and warriors. Pippin and Merry’s contributions get pushed to the side, while Aragorn not only retains all his original plotpoints, but even gets a shiny new subplot that was only in the appendixes in the novel. And also everyone who isn’t a member of the Fellowship (and not even that.. we’ll get back to Gimli) gets their role changed to make the actions of our heroes more necessary. Théoden is under a literal spell that needs to be lifted by Gandalf, and has to be told how to do war by Aragorn; the Ents decide not to attack Isengard and have to be reminded of the stakes by the hobbits; Denethor is such an incompetent nutjob that Gandalf can hit him in front of his guards and nobody cares. I understand the urge to make the main characters more important,, but LotR has a very strong feel of people in the same danger uniting to fight together instead of fending for themselves; this way, the secondary characters feel less like allies and more like sidequests.

And that gives me a nice segue into another, less important but more annoying issue: the characters.

Noone who follows my tumblr will be surprised to discover that Pippin and Merry, especially Pippin, are my favourite characters. If you asked me to tell you what are my favourite scenes in the book, which parts I’ve re-read the most often, they would be A Conspiracy Unmasked, P&M’s meeting with Treebeard, Éowyn’s monologue, the passage with Pippin and Bergil, and The Scouring of the Shire. Do I need to explain more? Except for Treebeard and Éowyn, none of these scenes made it into the movie. Which is a crime against me, personally. But apart from being annoying to me because I like them, it also means that their entire character arcs (again, especially Pippin’s) completely disappear. Pippin has the most traditional coming-of-age story in the novel: he’s a teenager dragged in an adventure bigger than he expected who has to grow up and learn that the world is bigger than he ever imagined and some things are important, and who then comes back home all grown up and ready to fend for himself. By cutting both A Conspiracy Unmasked and The Scouring of the Shire, you cut both the setup and the payoff of his arc, and by aging up the actor playing the character, you turn him from a learning teenager to a bumbling adult. Is it important in the grand scheme of things? Not really; but every time I see a meme about how Pippin is an idiot I feel like punching a wall.

Denethor. I didn’t know it was possible to be this offended on behalf of a character I don’t even particularly like. When I first looked up Denethor meta I thought I had slipped into a parallel dimension for a while, until I discovered it was just that Peter Jackson had performed a little character assassination of his own. Book!Denethor is not a nice or an endearing character, but he’s not an easily hateable one either. He’s the leader of a country in perpetual war against an enemy way stronger than they are (he has probably been born already under the Shadow of Mordor, knowing he would have to lead his people against it since he was a kid). He is cold, and calculating, and shrewd, and he has sacrificed his humanity (and his family) in order to make the decisions he thinks need to be made. To put it bluntly, he’s a character type who would be a good (and successful!) guy in Game of Thrones. But because he is in a story whose core themes are empathy and friendship and compassion, he’s a tragic figure: when the grief of the sacrifices he was willing to make hits him, he has nothing and noone to lean on, and he breaks. From everything I’ve seen, Peter Jackson has decided to take his character in a more “abusive father” direction. And look, I’m not going to say book!Denethor was a good parent. He was not. But he didn’t just “love Boromir and hate Faramir”. It’s more complicated than that. He was sure of Boromir’s loyalty, while he feared that in a conflict situation, Faramir would side with Gandalf and not him. And as a general, that is a big concern. Also, from everything I’ve read, movie!Denethor’s military tactics are whack from day one, which kind of diminishes his characterization as a cold but effective general. But that might just be a question of filmmakers not understanding medieval military methods, which... fair, I guess. On a related note, what’s that about a scene of him eating a tomato?? Did they really give him a scene explicitly designed to be disgusting and unrelatable?? The quest to make Denethor more hateable, though, is not only a problem because of his character. His character choices bleed onto others. In particular, Boromir, Faramir and Pippin. If Denethor is an abusive nutjob, why is Pippin drawn to swear loyalty to him? Is he an idiot?? Boromir comes off as the favoured child in an abusive household. But the worst is Faramir. A few weeks ago someone who is movie-only described him to me as “Faramir is the brother of Boromir that is hated by his dad, right?”. And I don’t think I can explain my reaction to Faramir, fucking Faramir, being reduced to a wet blanket who looks very sad and does nothing while his dad walks all over him. Just give me that gif of a guy screaming into a pillow.

And lastly on the “character assassination” column, Gimli. I think I’ll leave @carlandrea​ take the mic on this one, they can say more than I could possibly, and better. All I’m going to say is that, from everything I’ve seen, the movies take one of the more well-spoken, dignified characters, and made him into a bumbling, crass comic relief who fits closer to a D&D parody dwarf than anything Tolkien ever wrote.

And now, let me end with some quick-fire complaints that wouldn’t be important if the ones above hadn’t happened.

What happened with the male elves’ design?? I understand holding a casting for “otherworldly beautiful men” is not doable, but why do they look like that?? And it’s not that they can’t do elves, Galadriel and Arwen look good! Were they scared to make them “look gay” if they were too pretty?? If that’s the case, why didn’t they lean into the “otherwordly” part of it and made them alien-looking? WoW elves look more interesting than that!!

Also, I need to have a serious talk with the wig department. Why do the elves’ wigs have no volume?? Why do they look limp and dead? Why is Elrond balding? What’s going on here??

While we’re on the topic of character designs, it’s a pet peeve of mine that the hobbits only have hair on the top of their feet. It looks more decorative than anything and I don’t like it.

Last complaint about the character designs, I promise: this is not a criticism of Elijah Wood’s acting. I have never seen him act, I couldn’t say. But Frodo is supposed to be a middle-aged gentlehobbit. Why is he played by a 20 year old skinny guy who looked like a teenager?? Why is Frodo not fat?? On that note, why is Sam the only fat hobbit? They are hobbits! They are defined by ruddy cheeks and round bellies!! Did the producers think a middle-aged fat protagonist would be too much for an audience to swallow??

I’m not sure if I got this right, but I think in the movies Arwen’s life is tied to Aragorn taking his throne?? Because if that’s true, wow, way to make her into a more active character in the beginning only to tie her entire existence to a male character’s story arc!

And while we’re on the subject of stuff I suspect but I’m not sure of, I’ve seen enough Éowyn takes with the same uncanny valley feel as Denethor’s to suspect they did something to her character. And if they turned her into a Hollywood Strong Female Character Who Don’t Need No Man (TM) I will bite someone.

Lastly on this category, I am very confused about the elves from Lórien who apparently appear randomly at Helm’s Deep. Is Lórien not being attacked in this version of events (again, reinforcing the idea that everything revolves around the main characters)? Where do they go after the battle? Did they come for two days and then go back to Lórien? That sounds like a stupid plan... And also, you are aware the Rohirrim are super fucking distrustful of elves, right, PJ? How the hell did Aragorn convince Théoden and Éomer to let a battalion of elves into the Helm??

If you’ve gotten all the way here, thank you so much! It got longer than I expected, which was already very long, so thank you for bearing with me! I am willing to discuss and debate all of these, as long as it is civil.

[more-than-a-princess]

Hi! Love your sonia characterisation and from your ooc posting, I see your tastes are great~ Can I ask the mun: do you have any recommendations for books or TV series? c:

Hi anon! Thank you so much for your kind words regarding my IC content and OOC ramblings, that's really nice of you to say. I'm happy to recommend some things (I admit I did a 'Stitch laughing maniacally on a pile of wreckage' when I got this ask because anon, I am not sure you know what you have asked to unleash!).

However, I wasn't sure if you were asking for recommendations for books/TV series that have directly inspired my Sonia portrayal, or recommendations of things I enjoy in general. With that in mind, I'm going to be sharing a long list of books, TV series, manga/webtoons, and story-based video games that I just happen to like.

If you're looking for media that has directly inspired my portrayal though, please send another ask and I'd be happy to narrow it down for you!

In order not to keep the dash tidy, everything is under a cut, with notes (some important, some just me making jokes) beside a few of them. I hope you find a new favorite book/series to enjoy!

Books: 

General Notes: For book series where the first book title isn't the series name, I've indicated which book to start with, save for the historical romances because that's easier to find online and there's a lot of them. I hope that helps! Additionally, for all romance series, assume that there is some mention of sexual content in various degrees of description, aka. "spice." Depending on your comfort level of literary sex, I highly recommend checking out each title on https://www.romance.io/ for their spice level rating, at the very least. The site will also show you tropes found in each book as well as reviews.

Contemporary Romance:

The Time-Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

American Royals series by Katharine McGee

Crazy Rich Asians series by Kevin Kwan (way, way better than the movie! It's a trilogy, followed by China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems. I'd highly recommend this if you are writing a modern wealthy character of East Asian descent. Yes it's romance, humor, and contemporary family drama, but it gives what's apparently a very accurate look at high society)

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade (if you are looking for contemporary romance with plus size heroines, you want to check out Olivia Dade! Also Mary Warren and for young adult romance, Kelsie Stelting)

Modern Royals series by Aven Ellis (start with A Royal Shade of Blue)

The Royal Runaway by Lindsay Emory

The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan (and its sequel, The Heir Affair)

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston (this was better than Red, White, and Royal Blue, IMO)

Fantasy Romance:

Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas

Crescent City series by Sarah J. Maas

A note about SJM series: I highly suggest reading TOG or ACOTAR first, with the understanding the first three or so TOG books and the first ACOTAR books have a slower pace and are more about worldbuilding than anything else. Read Crescent City after these two (CC 1 is also a big, long worldbuilding book). You must read ACOTAR to read CC, but you do not need to read TOG to read CC (though you'll miss some of the references/easter eggs!). 

The Empyrean series by Rebecca Yarros (Start with Fourth Wing)

The Shepherd King duology by Rachel Gillig (Start with One Dark Window)

The All-Souls Trilogy/series by Deborah Harkness (Start with A Discovery of Witches)

Historical Romance:

Don't Want You Like a Best Friend by Emma Alban

Love by Numbers series by Sarah MacLean (start with Nine Rules to Break While Romancing a Rake. If you finish this series and like her writing, move on to the Bareknuckle Bastards series and the Rules of Scoundrels series)

Spindle Cove series by Tessa Dare (start with A Night to Surrender. If you liked this series, move on to the Castles Ever After series and the Girl Meets Duke series)

pretty much anything by Lisa Kleypas (Bridgerton fans? This is how you get over your hangover/wait between finishing the books and/or Season 3. start with the Wallflowers or the Hathaways series, then move onto the Ravenels and the Bow Street Runners series. This is mostly historically the chronological order with crossover characters between the Wallflowers and Hathaways. Bow Street Runners is chronologically before Wallflowers but it's disappointing if you read it first, trust me!)

everything by Jane Austen. Just everything. 

Series/books I'm in the middle of/currently on my TBR list so I can't recommend them fully yet but I'm actively reading them:

The Folk of the Air series by Holly Black (start with The Cruel Prince)

Letters of Enchantment duology by Rebecca Ross (start with Divine Rivals)

Crowns of Nyaxia series by Carissa Broadbent (Start with The Serpent and the Wings of Night)

Hades x Persephone saga by Scarlett St. Clair (Start with A Touch of Darkness)

The Shadow and Bone trilogy by Leigh Bardugo (and Six of Crows. And everything else: I've yet to dive into Bardugo's series) 

A League of Extraordinary Women series by Evie Dunmore (Start with Bringing Down the Duke)

Royals series by Rachel Hawkins (start with Prince Charming)

Infamous by Lex Croucher

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

Deliciously Dark Fairytales series by K.F. Greene (Start with A Ruin of Roses)

TV series:

Downton Abbey (my love for this show runs deep. It changed my life!)

The Gilded Age (Carrie Coon deserves an Emmy for this at some point I s2g)

The Crown (Claire Foy is the best QEII, Elizabeth Debicki is the best Diana, Josh O'Connor is the best Charles)

Gossip Girl (original 2007 series, not the remake)

The Royals (the E! show)

Succession (Come for Brian Cox emotionally and verbally harass his children, stay for Kieran Culkin, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Matthew MacFayden, Conheads, and a Ludicrously Capacious Bag.)

The White Lotus (Tanya is ICONIC.)

Miss Scarlet and the Duke

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (If you like Miss Scarlet, I can almost guarantee you will like Miss Fisher. And vice-versa.)

All Creatures Great and Small (the remake)

Sanditon

Black Mirror

Skins (UK series only)

Sex Education

The IT Crowd (the creator is an ass. The show is eternal.)

The Great

The Sopranos

The Empress

The Fall of the House of Usher

Midnight Mass (arguably the best Flanagan series. Fight me.)

Marie Antoinette (2022 TV series)

Dickinson

Euphoria

Stranger Things

The Tudors

Versailles

Unforgotten

Endeavour (you don't need to have seen Inspector Morse beforehand but it helps contextualize where some of this cast ends up in the future! Endeavour is the best murder mystery show ever written, IMO. Unforgotten is a close contender for second place.)

Outlander

Sherlock

Mad Men

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

American Horror Story (earlier seasons are way better than the later ones)

Gentleman Jack

Ted Lasso

Emily in Paris

Pride and Prejudice (the 1995 miniseries with Colin Firth)

Books and TV (that is, read and watch both!):

Bridgerton (books by Julia Quinn)

Magpie Murders (books by Anthony Horowitz. One of my few book recs that isn't a romance! Horowitz is a wonderful contemporary mystery writer)

Webtoons/manga:

(Because some people prefer manga/webtoons to novels! I have read all of these on MangaKatana. Mostly fantasy romance and contemporary romance, several have been made into J or K-dramas)

Under The Oak Tree

See You In My 19th Life

What's Wrong With Secretary Kim?

Like Wind on a Dry Branch

Marriage of Convenience

Father, I Don't Want to Get Married!

We Are Not Ourselves Today

An Hour of Romance

Innocent (The sole historical drama over here. Every sex and violence trigger warning you can imagine applies to this manga. It is also one of the most beautifully-drawn and intriguing stories I've ever read. Rose of Versailles fans, this is for you: this is your fave but darker.)

Marry My Husband

Video games with excellent storytelling:

(mostly. These are primarily otome games, mystery visual novels, and horror visual novels):

Zero Escape: The Nonary Games (there are three games in this series: 999, Virtue's Last Reward, and Zero Time Dilemma)

AI: The Somnium Files (There are currently two games in this series, AITSF and AITSF: Nirvana Initiative. Zero Escape and Somnium Files are basically required to play after Danganronpa. I said what I said: the storytelling is better)

Code: Realize (The best storytelling of all otome games, hands down. Do not watch the anime: it sucks. The first game is the best and really the only one you need to play. The other two games have okay side stories and are mostly romantic continuations of the first game's routes)

Collar x Malice

Cupid Parasite (mostly for the last two routes, though: if you're using a walkthrough guide. Generally much lighter than your usual otome...save for the last two routes that serve to break you.)

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (you could watch both seasons of the original anime if you really want to, but the games are better)

Umineko no Naku Koro ni (Note: please keep in mind this was written 10+ years ago in Japan, especially when you get to the Big Reveals in the final game. There are Some Takes that would go over poorly today. Like Code: Realize, do not watch the anime: IT SUCKS.)

Spirit Hunter: Death Mark

Spirit Hunter: NG (You don't technically have to play Death Mark first but it makes one of the endings far more impactful if you do!)

Honorable mentions:

Hakuoki (so many routes, so very long! But if you like Japanese history around this time, you may like this)

Olympia Soiree (good on the more mature content, bad on some of the LIs giving me pause like 'this is not a good romance idea')

Amnesia: Memories (I'm not a fan of the female main character or two of the LIs. At all.)

Piofiore (Similar complaints as Amnesia.)

[autisticempathydaemon]

Hi there! If you were still accepting these and had the time, I wanted to join in on the redacted match ups!! Please and thank you <3

About me:

A song I'm fixated on right now is Read Your Mind by Sabrina Carpenter. Specific lyrics are

"Decompressin', tryna ease the tension But you got me stressin', feelin' like I need to call when You sneak up on me, tell me that you miss me in your life

I can't read your mind You say that you need to be alone But night and day, want me at your beck and call"

I think I've just been really drawn to this song lately because I'm at a place where things are going really well for me, and I have a full assurance that I know who my friends are right now and I just compare that to a previous time where I didn't have those certainties and thinking about people who were kind of two-faced and would make me relate to this song.

Not sure if this tidbit is relevant, but I hadn't even taken any enneagram test before going down your list of questions. I'm a 4 apparently! (The test I took showed me a pie chart that was like, all 9 numbers, the other two biggest pieces were 7 and 2, if that matters at all. Idk, as said hadn't done a test for this kind of thing until just now)

I do love YouTube video essays, but I always watch them intently rather than as background noise. My go-to favorite would be the Lindsay Ellis Omegaverse Lawsuit video (does that count as a video essay? I'm pretty sure it does). On the surface, it sounds like such a ridiculous topic to take so seriously, but the actual case was very dramatic and fascinating to me.

I didn't really have a childhood imaginary friend. I would either play by myself or pretend I was playing with cartoon characters (I specifically remember on multiple occasions pretending to be going on adventures with Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach).

My go-to way to fall asleep would be taking my medication (I am an insomniac, and melatonin supplements don't work for me, so we got prescribed sleep medication), and then either putting on an asmr audio roleplay video or just laying in silence depending on how tired I am. I can never fall asleep to sleep aid audios, I prefer listening to just rambling nonsense about a specific thing like video games or something like that.

My favorite Redacted audio would be Confronting Your Technician. I really like that one for multiple reasons. First off, Project Meridian was the first series I had actually listened to when I first found the channel and I really liked the concept of an android listener. I think the series as a whole is really interesting because it really makes me think about how we treat technology, especially as you get into the territory of making devices seem more "human" (that's the brief version, but I have many ramblings about this series in my notes on my phone). Secondly, I really relate to being taken advantage of by someone who would know I wouldn't know any better or any different, and to have that audio as the turning point for not just confronting Marcus for what he did, but also having James be there to help the asset face him was just really nice. I didn't have that same kind of support when I had to face people who were bad to me, and listening to that audio is almost healing in that sense for me. I have it saved on a comfort audios playlist even though it's not labeled as a comfort audio.

The redacted boy that holds no appeal to me is one Asher Talbot. He's sweet, and he's lovable, but when I first found the channel, his audios just felt kind of boring and repetitive. Not that I don't like the occasional sweet and domestic fluffy stuff, but I just didn't see that much in him tbh. I understand the appeal, but he's just not for me.

One movie I know all the words to is Burlesque (2010). I'm not a huge movie person, but I ended up watching that at a sleepover I went to, and I just really loved the movie. I like musicals, I like sexual humor, and I liked the story of the movie (even if it was a little cheesy and predictable at times). Plus, it features Christina Aguilera, and her vocals are PHENOMENAL!!

A redacted boy that I love platonically and would love to be friends with is Huxley. He's in my top 5 favorite redacted characters, but I think ultimately I do like him more as a friend than a romantic partner. He's just so chill and supportive and I tend to be very fast-paced and anxious and excited a lot of the time, so I think he would be a good friend to have to sort of balance that out.

My go-to thing to ramble about always relates to animation. Specifically, I am such a nerd about breaking down the process of how something was animated and either theorizing or looking up certain choices that were made behind the scenes. For a long time, I wanted to pursue animation as a career, and I still kind of do, so that has become a topic I am very passionate to ramble about at any given moment, not specific to when I'm tired.

When I was a kid and we stopped at a gas station, I either got a Dr.Pepper and cheese puffs, or a cherry icee and a plain glazed donut. Nowadays, if I stop at the gas station for a snack, I'll get a diet Dr.Pepper and nacho cheese Doritos.

My current favorite playlist is this playlist I made for me to start my day playing. Noise helps me wake up, and so I made a playlist with songs that inspire me to think confidently of myself. I'm not going to share the entire playlist, but the first three songs are all from Barbie movies (You Can Tell She's A Princess and On Top Of The World from the Princess Charm School movie, and Life Is A Fairytale from the Fashion Fairytale movie). The rest is what I can describe as generic uplifting pop music. It feels very cheesy and fake to have a playlist like this, but it genuinely does make me feel happy and energetic and confident in the morning and I think it helps me start my day just a little bit on a good note.

My guilty pleasure media is the show Mr.Pickles. It's a cartoon about this demon dog who kills people. The show is very violent, and the writing is morally questionable, but overall it is a show I like to just binge every once and a while because I do consider myself to have a somewhat sadistic sense of humor. I never actively wish bad on any real people, but I will laugh at a cartoon dog ripping someone's legs off.

I feel like I've already said a lot (definitely way more than I was anticipating lol) so I think I'll leave it here

Please and thanks again!! Have a good time zone!!!

Thank the lord for you, because this is the moment I’ve been waiting for. 44 match-ups, and I finally get to pair someone with that sweet, lovable boy, Geordi.

The basis is definitely there for a deep emotional connection and supportive relationship. Geordi has this history of insecurity and not being properly appreciated or treated which resonates, to me, with your song choice and why you relate to it. That makes me think the two of you would really understand each other and be able to connect, to communicate clearly in a relationship and set boundaries, to build something good and cohesive right out the get-go.

On a lighter, funner note, I think the two of you would have a lovely, comfortable, domestic life together! Geordi would love pop music with you (so far, the only Redacted boi I headcanon as a Swiftie) and would love listening to you ramble about animation. Even the things you don't have in common would mesh well- I can see you loving watching Star Trek with him or, at least, listening to ramble about Star Trek. Likewise, I’m not sure he loves Mr. Pickles, but he loves you and spending time with you engaging in the things that make you happy.

Song:

Oh, you're the one I want/ I want to drive away with you/ I want your complications too/ I want your dreary Mondays/ Wrap your arms around me, baby boy

Like I said, Swiftie! This song is so cheerful and sweet and is just a fun love song that works for y’all. Also, Geordi knows all the words, and you’ll catch him belting it out when he doesn’t know you’re home. He’ll be embarrassed, and it’ll be so, so cute.

Runner-Ups:

I like David as a runner-up because of his similarities to James, the way he’s a solid, reliable authority figure but more protective and warm than the telepath. He, if necessary, would be the perfect man to make sure you were never taken advantage of again. Elliott is a runner-up because I just love pairing that dreamwalking boy with creatives; like, imagine him building dreamscapes full of adjustable models and features, your own life-size animation models. He’s an artist’s dream come true!

note: this didn’t officially factor into it but your song being named “Read your mind” was a very serendipitous coincidence

Read this post and send me an ask if you’d like a match-up of your own! 💌

[ryssabrin]

people missing obvious themes in stories always reminds of a twitter exchange i saw once of lindsay ellis (pre-raya drama lol), where she was complaining about the shallow messaging of captain marvel. most of the replies were pointing out that they didn't agree with her take (the movie's feminism is very 'written by a man', carol has to close off her emotions and relationships to be powerful, etc.) and thought the movie was saying the exact opposite. i think she vaguely conceded the replies had a point but then to get the last word she said something like "well if i can't tell what the theme is then it's bad writing."

i always thought that was so silly. like girl all of these replies are from pretty average moviegoers and people who actually watch marvel movies because they like them not because they have a job as a media critic with a film degree. they were able to figure it out. like she clearly went in to the movie with a lot of biases about mcu movies and pop feminism (very understandably so!) and it made her unable to actually read the story as intended. and tbh i think a more interesting thing to examine is how often we're unable to meet stories where they're at because we go in with certain genre expectations and pre-judgements. but hey. quippy tweet.

so when i see "well i shouldn't have to go online and have discussions and rewatch/reread the story to figure it out" kinda statements it just makes me sad. like first of all if you want media to be simple and spoon-feed you everything that's fine, but part of the fun of enjoying a piece of media is having those discussions. like how can a genre (esp something like shounen battle manga) evolve and grow if your main audience base refuses to think that hard about it.

[weaselbeaselpants]

How and why Lily is a bad fan and an even worse critic

I want to get this rant thing over and done with as it's not about Lily Orchard being an actual depolorable person, just more rants about her bad takes and bad criticisms;

In case you didn't know, Poppy and Zena of TransGirlTherapy have interviewed Lily's sibling Courtney and a few other victims; I saw someone in their chat for the stream of it try and post about Lily's infamous writing tips and I just really REALLY want to put a big divider up right now between mine and other people's comparatively lowstakes beef w her and these very serious allegations. I'd be horrified by them even if they were of a creator I loved; these are not funny and ranting ontop of Lily's rants should be a few steps down from the really important stuff that needs to be addressed w her. So with all that being said:

I think her outdated "SU is Garbage and here’s Why" video is a great encapsulation of everything wrong with Lily Orchard’s critical theory, attitude, and brand. 

The whole video lacks a real thesis statement for an essaybreakdown. It feels really just like a woman having a giant fan rant at a show she used to like but now doesn’t-- because, that is what it is. BUT, that isn’t easy to listen to. Lefttuber or not, other essayist/watchalongs/media analysis-channels who talk about a thing for five hours will at least try and make their feelings actually collected. Hbomberguy’s Sherlock vid, YMS’s Kimbaspiracy debacle, Lindsay Ellis’ Hobbit three parter; all these vids are glorified fan rants extended to hours long and flowered with essay reasoning and research. They work because they're self-aware that they're taking the thing they are looking at too seriously but are committing anyway and preferably having some kind of fun or skill doing so, which is why I love to watch these kinds of videos. Lily Orchard’s thoughts all feel way too sporadic and focused on being spicy rather than coming together, and that hurts her point because it makes even her most serious call out against SU feel petty. 

She gets stuff wrong. Concrete was designed by black artist Lamar Abrams, not Rebecca Sugar who is white. Ftr I’m not pointing that out as some kind of “got you/can’t complain/Sugar never did anything wrong”-clap back; It’s just a fact. AND a missed oppertunity on Lily's part bcuz she could have pointed out how, even if Concrete wasn’t designed by Sugar, it was her in control of the artbook+ Rebecca’s drawn questionable depictions of black people before w she herself is not black and doesn’t get a ‘my friend is-’ clearance just because, and finally just the fact that +the white SU fandom dismissing this problem because they don’t want to be critical about their show.

That Lily doesn’t go into this counter-counter argument whatsoever tells me Lily’s true intentions: and that’s not to point out potential racism in the show, but to dunk on Sugar even more. Lily’s entire point about Concrete, as well as her handling of the poorly handled subjects in the show like the Human Zoo, which other critics, fans and critical fans have done a much better job at breaking down, all of it feels less like a beatdown of how problematic something is but her trying to spin Sugar into the worst fucking person because she wants to hate her. Nowhere is that more clear than in her now infamous ending shade abt Sugar being a fascist.

No, Lily did not literally call Sugar an actual Nazi. Her exact words on screen were a joking “do I think she is one, nah; would I think she is one w/o context? Yeah”.

In an alt timeline I wouldn’t think anything of this take. I get that Lily was trying to hyperbolic and relishing in her self aware pettiness -kinda like how Hbomber is with his over-the-top hatred of Steven Moffat- The issue is we don’t live in an alt timeline. Lily didn’t see how people were taking her too seriously and/or acting like Sugar was a nezi on her behalf +care that her edgy joke at the end of her rant could do some real damage, or even care that it just didn’t look good on her. She didn’t reupload the vid with a disclaimer tacked on, she didn’t tack on a pinned comment; she didn't write down a longer video disc to explain herself.

Instead she threw everyone who might have gotten perturbed by this comment under the bus, said it was all our own faults, and made it very clear she was not going to apologize for it.

Do u dislike ppl treating Sugar like she’s a Nazi and want to discourage that behavior, even in small ways? Fuck you. You’re a stan cuz Lily said so.

Are you Jewish and maybe think implying those exact words are uncalled for? Eat shit! Lily knows better than you and can talk about your life and issues better than you can because other gentiles who aren’t her have failed to do so….which means she’s actually speaking truth????

Lily Orchard could never eat a slice of humble pie and admit that she made a mistake because the only people who’ve ever criticized her and gotten real attention for it are part of the problem (i.e. 4chan, ED). Vaush type commentary bros who keep fucking misgendering her and taking more issue w her leftism that her authoritarianism.

'If obviously she has nothing to apologize for and she is totally over the accusations or her making accusations…which is why she keeps alluding to SU being fascist as a “joke”. The 'joke is on Sugar and all the people who could possibly be offended by Lily’s coining of what’s fascist so…it’s not really a self aware joke at all. She’s still going “harr harr, it’s YOUR fault that you read my comment that way and also who cares it’s not serious. RSugar is tumblr famous which means she’s a millionaire and can’t face harassment.” Tl;dr : Lily got flaq for going too far with a point and rather than just apologizing like a grown up, doubled down.

The reason Natalie (who doesn’t even cover media why is Lily so invested in Contrapoints???wv) and Lindsay will always be better yts than Lily is because they at least try to take some ownership of what they say. Does that always excuse them? No. Are they maybe still a little too apologetic of those on their side? Maybe. But all that is leagues above what Lily doesn't even attempt to do.

Fandoms, people, creators, ships and characters are punching bags to Lily Orchard. She can’t just dislike Rebecca Sugar because for the valid reasons ppl have w Sugar, which there are a LOT of- Lily has to make Sugar, and anyone who doesn’t find her joke at Sugar’s expense, into the worst possible thing. 

Lily can not make a joke or a real criticism to save her life. She is only venom and she has to double down on her points until they have no meaning. Lily Orchard’s activism and analysis aren’t about the things she says she’s fighting against; they’re about her and how everyone who dislikes her is the same kind of awful person and deserving of scorn for disagreeing with her. Lily’s the kind of person who abuses selfcare that good people get from watching Monica Lewinski’s Tedtalk, and basically came out the other end with an “I’m right and shouldn’t apologize for anything EVER”.

[h-f-k]

I looveee watching long form content on youtube and agree with a lot of the already recommended ones, but I haven’t seen anyone mention mikes mic yet he’s the only one who can keep my adhd brain interested while talking for hours about a tv show I have never watched

also if I remember correctly you studied in germany for a bit so in case you want to watch some german videos I’d recommend calcio berlin, they’re a football channel and every sunday they upload an episode of Wahlkrampf where they each prepare an answer to whatever football/bundesliga topic they want (last week was who was the best spanish player in the bundesliga) and then they have to debate on who’s right it’s pretty entertaining if you like football

MIKES MIC!! i love him BUT i will have to say that him just... talking makes me lose my concentration, like i need video footage or images cause like i love him but sometimes i'm like show me footageeeee, but i LOVED his pll video, that was so much fun to watch and he's so funny as well. I think i should probably watch his videos and listen to him while i design or do other stuff in my laptop, maybe that could help lmao. I truly miss my one and only Lindsay Ellis tho u.u

I will check out the calcio berlin videos! it's been AGES since i touched my german notes and since i talked/read/anything in german but i love the language so i'll probably just enjoy listening to them speak lmao, thank you for the recommendations love!

[nayvienoir]

You know what I will never miss about the internet? Cancel culture. 

You fuck up once? Canceled.

You marry someone who fucked up once? Canceled.

You follow someone on Instagram who’s married to someone who fucked up once? Canceled. 

(god i wish I’d screenshotted the post that incited that last example because no one is going to believe me otherwise)

I’m not saying people shouldn’t be held accountable. But if they show genuine regret and are making effort to learn and grow, is there harm in showing them grace? Or do we have to forever crucify someone for something they apologized for 10 years ago? 

And don’t even get me started on how everyone in that person’s orbit is now canceled by association. It’s not enough to crucify a person, let’s make them social poison too. 

Lindsay Ellis did a better job talking about this than I ever could. 

[hotchs-second-wife]

DON'T BLAME ME || 6 || Jay Halstead x Teddy Rhodes

Chapter Synopsis: When a fire scene causes the power to go out in the area, Jay worries about Thea's safety while Thea worries about everyone else's.

Chapter Warnings: Mentions of attempted murder; mention of a beating; brief description of a vehicular accident; spousal worries/concern for partner's life; split-second allusion to suicidal ideation; Elli's speech STILL fluctuates. Read ahead at your own risk.

Author's Note: I forgot to change up the chapter warnings for chapter five upon posting, so you can see what was planned for that chapter and later scrapped.

Jay

Usually when we finished with a case, we'd all go home. I'd give Brooke a lift home while she called her roommate to let her know she was on her way, and to see if she wanted something to eat. Usually I'd be planning to get comfortable in sweats and a tank, or just sweats sometimes, and call Thea when I got home. Elizabeth would stay at Brooke's until Kelly finished his shift and picked her up.

Usually, I wouldn't be in the bullpen by now and wanting to be throwing my computer over Hawkins' and Lindsay's heads and out the window.

"Someone's missing his wife," Ruzek teased, a knowing smirk on his face.

Brooke laughed beside me. "She's probably thinking he's dead." I looked at her, and she shoved her phone into my hand. She knew my phone died half an hour ago, but I didn't think to bring my charger to work this morning and I had to let it die. "Call her, Halstead. She might not be losing her mind, but she'd still be expecting a phone call. Even if you're not shirtless."

"You've been calling your wife shirtless while she's in shift?" Ruzek teased, as I slipped into the break room to call my wife. Zero-three-two-one. Elizabeth's birthday was easy to remember when it was her aunt and your best friend's pin for her phone.

"Theodosia Rhodes; I can't come to the phone, so just leave a message. If it's CFD related, call Firehouse 51. If it's Dolan Rhodes related, call my store manager." Given she likely wouldn't check her voicemail for a week anyway, I sent her a text to call me on Brooke's number when she got the chance.

As soon as I hit send, the lights started to flicker and everything turned off.

"Ruzek, what did you touch?"

"Nothing!"

"Uh huh."

I gave Brooke back her phone as I sat back at my desk. I felt everyone but Brooke and Dawson were staring at me weirdly and I knew what it was about. My lack of reaction to the power outage. "First off, I've been in worse conditions. Second, my wife has to have all the lights off at our apartment or she can't sleep straight."

"Is that why she looks half asleep when she comes in during her shifts?" Lindsay asked with a frown.

Brooke reasoned, "they can't exactly turn off all the lights in the bullpen at 51 while there's people filling out paperwork."

Thea mentioned she was getting different blinds for her office windows to block out a good portion of the light from bullpen, but it was on her own dollar and the CFD wouldn't cover it, so it was taking a while to get to the firehouse even on express delivery.

"I might be rich, but that doesn't improve delivery times and traffic."

The backup generators kicked in and the lights flickered to a start, as the computers rebooted themselves and I noticed the file I hadn't saved was blank again. I internally groaned as Brooke answered her phone.

"Yeah, we're good...no, I'm still at work...of course, Jay's here. He's my way home...yeah, I can tell him...are you okay?...alright, I'll come see you guys soon...tell her I said hi!" She held her phone to her neck as she leaned to me. "51 was on a call; Teddy's okay, her phone was in the truck; she said she'll call back soon; and she's picking up my grandparents and Elli to have them at 51 with her and Kelly. Oh, and when we're done here, you can meet my sister."

"Thought you only had a brother," Olinsky, frightening us a little, piped in front him secluded desk.

Brooke hummed. "As it turns out, my dad got a woman he cheated on my mom with pregnant and I have a 21-year-old chef as a half-sister."

"Do you like her?" Lindsay asked, and suddenly we were all about Brooke's family issues. She didn't blame Katie, as her sister's name was, since it was Katie's mom that slept with a married man and their dad that slept with another woman while married.

While they talked about the Severides, I got to texting Thea. The first message was just a 'be careful' one, knowing the dark can make people lose their minds. When she sent a 'you too', I stopped myself from liking the message since I was still on Brooke's phone. I passed it back, and I turned to Ruzek for a charger. I wanted to talk to her on my phone.

#

Thea

Once Elli was settled with Katie, watching her cook in the kitchen, I checked on Kelly's grandparents and made sure they were comfortable in my office.

"Thank you, Thea." Kent shook my hand in both of his. "My grandson's got a good woman looking out for him."

I smiled, knowing that Kelly cherished their support with Elli. "Always, Kent. You're family."

"You too, kiddo." His attention was back on Agatha, and I left them to each other's company. Kent knew he just had to call out to Connie if they needed me, or Kelly for that matter.

As I walked around the firehouse, keeping an eye on the civilians, I noticed Boden talking to one of the women from a building fire some days ago. I sent him a simple nod with a knowing smile before checking in on Elli and Katie. Surely Katie was getting a little overwhelmed with how many people she and Cruz were cooking for.

"How's Auntie Katie doing, Principessa?" I hugged Elli's little body as I stopped behind her to watch the cooking over her head.

"Her cooking is better than Daddy's," Elli waved her sticky hands in my face to prove her point.

Katie smiled guiltily beside the stove. "She stuck her fingers into the sauce before I even noticed."

I shook my head, making sure Elli knew she couldn't do that, before I turned my attention back to Katie. "She gets it from Kelly, he can't help sticking his grimy hands into food either, and Brooke's the same. Might be the Severide genes."

"I can guarantee I will use a spoon," Katie laughed. I went to add something about her family's genetics, chalking up to the fingers-in-food thing to being Kelly's mother as we walked around to the bigger dining table, when a crashed and bang interrupted me.

A man was slamming a younger guy into the table, and Kelly and Boden rushed to separate them. I passed Elli to Katie, who held her niece closer to her shoulder. The man, after being shoved into the metal counter by Kelly, stole a knife from Cruz and waved it at everyone.

Kelly raised his hands in front of him. "Put the knife down, and get out."

"That guy's drunk brother put my niece in a coma!" The man shouted, pointing the knife at the kid he was beating up, before moving it on Kelly.

"We're not going to say it again," I pointed a finger at him I doubted it would do anything, but it was worth a shot. "Put the damn knife down and get out."

The man didn't move for a moment, staring at me, before he moved to rush Kelly and jump the kid again. Before he reached Kelly, I threw my head into his torso and pushed him into the round table as civilians previously sitting there fled. As I got my arms around him, the man slashed at me and I backed off instinctively.

My self-defence trainer had stopped training me since I started in the CFD when I was 18, so I knew I was a little rusty but the ache in my shoulder really shouldn't have felt as bad as it did.

The man swiped the knife at my face, the tip grazing my cheek and causing me to back up even more. Kelly rushed him, shoving the man into the counter again and making him drop the knife. Once the weapon was gone, Kelly grabbed the guy by the back of his neck and dragged him outside. Boden followed, silently telling me to stay put with the civilians.

I checked on Elli, who was crying from watching her parents get in a fight, and made sure Katie wasn't too panicked. When the guys came back inside, Kelly did the same and wiped the blood from my face.

Boden talked to the on-looking civilians, reassuring their safety, before he turned to us. A couple of my guys had appeared during the fight, and stood nearby. "Keep a look out for anyone wanting a fight; you do what Kelly just did and throw them out in the snow."

The guys and I nodded, knowing Boden was meaning us mostly, given our training. I patched up the cut on my face in the bathroom, as Gabby poked her head inside. "Jay's looking for you."

He was waiting in my office by the time I found him, and as soon as he saw the bandage on my face, Jay lifted his hand for his finger to lightly graze the plastic cover. "Shay called Brooke and said you'd been scratched. She didn't say anything about a knife until we got here though."

"I'm okay." I didn't even believe myself so much that my voice was shaky.

The frown he gave me was a dead giveaway he didn't believe me either. "Thea..."

Thank god Kent and Agatha weren't in my office, because as soon as my nose felt tight and my shoulders started shaking, I started crying and holding onto Jay's shirt.

I was terrified. Mortified that I could've been stabbed, and Elli would've seen her mom get stabbed. She saw her mom fighting. The only thing worse than that was seeing her mom get stabbed. I was doing everything I could to make sure Elli didn't have the same childhood as me, and I let my teenage self take over.

As soon as I met Herrmann and I knew I wanted to be a firefighter, I was going to put my fighting instincts behind me and I'd be a better person than teenage me was. When Elli was born, and I knew she needed a mother, I promised little newborn her that I would do everything I could to make sure she didn't see that version of me.

The version of me that punched first and asked questions later. The version of me that ignored how much her grief affected her that she hurt everyone around her.

But as scared as I was that my toddler saw me any differently, I was scared I was going to die. I didn't want to die. Sometimes I did, but in that moment? No way. I had people to live for now.

I had a husband, who I might not have married because I was in love with him, but I was in love with the time I spent in his company. I had a little girl who needed a mother. I had a best friend who needed my help raising his baby girl, because he was scared he'd end up being another version of his father.

I had a husband. We would have kids eventually. He would need their mother around as they grew up. Those kids needed their mother around. They needed their mother around. They needed their mother around.

"Theodosia, look at me." Jay's voice came through all the voices in my head, and I realised he had been holding my face for at least a few minutes. One thumb grazed over the bandage, and the other wiped the tears from the left side of my face. "You're okay, now. The bastard comes back to get you, I'll kick his ass before he comes in the door. I'm not letting him hurt you."

I bit my lip to stop the tears, just staring at Jay's face. Counting his freckles to calm myself down; his eyes were a really pretty shade of blue. They were so much prettier with the freckles all over his face too. "What did I do to deserve you?"

"You didn't need to do anything to deserve someone caring about you, Thea. It's about time someone makes sure you know that. You're amazing, Thea, and I know Elizabeth looks up to you more than anyone."

"Teddy." I murmured, receiving a confused frown. "You can call me Teddy. We've been together long enough now."

Jay smiled. "Great. I was starting to get jealous of Brooke being able to call you that."

"Oh, ha ha. Very funny."

"I am very funny, aren't I?" He grinned, looking a little too prideful.

We didn't get any more alone time, as Brooklyn threw open my office door. I was sure she was more worried about me than her brother, and she was ready to shoved Jay out of her way so she could take care of me.

"I'm okay, B. You two can head back to the district, I'm sure you're needed more there." I squeezed her hands with a little smile. As much as I liked Brooklyn, I felt bad taking any sympathy from her. She was younger than me, and she really didn't need to worry about me; her brother did that enough. "As long as Katie and Elli are okay, you need to get back."

Brooklyn gave Jay a look, before she nodded and she bid goodbye. Jay squeezed my hand before following after her. The sweetheart that Gabby told me about was starting to show, or maybe he always was one and I just didn't notice.