#and how i think their environment has shaped them into the characters we've seen

[randomjreader]

Homeschool finally dropped in my country (or it did a few days ago) and wow, did not disappoint at all. I was right to have been anticipating this series and what they have given us so far gave what needed to be given. I absolutely love the complexities of all the characters and seeing them handle the fucked up ways they're being taught important life lessons. Next episode drop soon!!

[aleksanderscult]

What do you think are fundamental differences between Aleksander and Kaz? On an even playing field i.e. comparing a young Aleksander to a young Kaz and the very old Aleksander to your interpretation of what a very old Kaz would be like.

I haven't read the SoC duology but from the few things I know about Kaz, the most important difference between them is the matter of selfishness. Aleksander is selfless in comparison to Kaz and has a more important goal than gaining money. He tried to save a group of people and a country from various enemies for hundreds of years while Kaz always is on the look out for the next job that will fill his wallet.

Both of them had a childhood that shaped them to the men that they eventually became. Kaz lost the only family he got while Aleksander was living on the run with his mother (and Baghra was not a pleasant, immortal companion to have). The environment they grew up in formed their future plans but in different ways:

- Kaz grew up among thieves, street magicians and crookers and ever since his brother died he had nothing left to lose. His feud with Pekka Rollins gave him a lifelong grudge that became an essential part of his character.

- Aleksander grew up with his mother travelling from place to place, never safe because of their powers. Just like Kaz, his incident with Annika shaped him to the man we came to know in the trilogy but unlike the former, he decided to act on a larger scale because he was a witness to the Grisha persecution.

So even though both were scarred because of their childhood they decided to take different actions in the future.

Now, as we've seen with Aleksander in his later years, he was still fixed on his goal but he had grown bitter with life and more apathetic in comparison to his younger self. He was a pragmatic and action-oriented person that craved companionship and when he had his chance to have that he behaved with panic at first and then with gestures that showed that he no longer had an idea how to go for it in a normal way.

With Kaz we see the opposite. In the beginning he's distant and cold with his friends, behaving in a business-like manner but as his own story progresses he tries to become more open, especially with Inej. He tries to find his footing in being more empathetic for her sake and I believe in the future he will succeed. He won't be as closed off as he was the first time he was introduced to us. But he has a long way until then (it's the trauma he has to get past you know).

[individuality-as-sin]

Influence

It's crazy how much movies influence us. What is considered normal and cool seems to be found in movies with characters we look up to. What we find cringe or ridiculous are traits that are shown to be the ones of the loser of the story. Simple things such as how long to keep eye contact or how to walk or how to laugh. We all saw them somewhere and picked them up from someone.

"I'm an empty shell filled with people's interests and opinions." is what I first wrote down when I realized this. I found it absolutely heartbreaking to only be the result of my environment. To realize I couldn't exist as me on my own, that I'm inevitably influenced, shaped and forced into a certain someone.

I am guilty of being influenced by media. What I find cute or scary are all things I have received from my parents, my brothers or friends, which they picked up from media or 'powerful' people. People with influence. People who have ideas and make those into projects, into plans and finally into products. People who create scenarios how they play in their head and make them a reality - movies, classics. A way to perceive something put into an ad. A subtle, almost innocent kind of propaganda.

The short words we use in our conversation to sound unbothered. The winks, the smirks in situations they're not necessarily needed. Did you ever wonder why we associate red cheeks with cuteness? It comes from shyness, a natural reaction of the body. But from where does that association come from? Why is shyness seen as cute? Why do I think people will think I'm that kind of person if I do this? Or if I try this or if I say this?

Sometimes, we've all seen it before. We want to replicate a scene from a movie - how stupid it may be - or we want to avoid making a situation into such a scene to avoid discomfort. Because life has no bottom, no 'basics guide', it's a bottomless happening, we search for our own bottom. Role models to act, think or speak like. Situations to replicate. We all have that same knowledge of cinema classics also known as clichés which we also have a clear understanding of. Our repertoire.

We don't want to distance ourselves too much of what is 'normal'. Once you choose your own things to find normal, you have a much higher risk of being seen as the black sheep and being criticized or mocked when actually, nobody knows what the fuck they're doing. People that are normal are only following footsteps of other people because that's safe. And when I say normal people, I mean people pretending to be normal. Those who stay still as a rock in transport, who do not bop their head when listening to a bop when really, they'd want nothing more. People who are ashamed of eating in public like they do at home. People who dress the same as everyone in the fear of being different, when they'd want nothing less than to dress like those models wearing pants with skirts and still looking good. People who feel self-conscious sneezing, yawning, blowing their nose. People who want to fade into the background to avoid discomfort or confrontation.

In short, we are filled with other's aspirations and desires until we realize norms don't mean anything and we can define our own notion of 'normal'.

[chainreh]

rambling about the fell xenologue royals bc i can ↓ spoilers for the entire dlc

okay first off im gonna say its a missed opportunity to not give them alternative designs bc then even if someone didnt like the story they could be like well at least i got to see goth alfred or something. im not a character designer nor am i good at fashion but id say firene have a more muted colour pallette, with like navy blues and grey rather than the bright blue of their coat of arms. brodia less flashy. i love the armour of brodia its very cool but doesnt super suit their ideals in this au. ivy in purple and golds contrasted to hortensia in just like. white idk. make her look like a commoner. and solm also less flashy. maybe like mustard yellow colours. idfk. someone can probably do this better than me.

anyway i am firene biased but i really liked the idea of alfred being more of a figurehead whilst céline is actually the one in control. yes this isnt outright said but i think its kinda implied from how alfred seems kinda nervous and depressed and is like "i have no idea how to be a king" whilst céline is like "alfred if you dont approve this invasion im just going to do it myself". even at the end where theyre "redeemed" céline says "i am here to support you, alfred. lets head back so you can rest, hm?" which just seems like our céline right? when alfred was dying she studied and prepared herself to be the new heir in case he passed away and she had to inherit the throne, but after his recovery she instead dedicated herself to supporting him the best she can, as well as focusing herself on taking care of the more unsavoury parts of ruling. but i think from everything we've seen about céline in this world, she's still just taking charge. céline is proud and angry, alfred is unconfident and depressed. and céline loves alfred so much that she's basically controlling him. she's not the opposite of our céline, she's just gone to the extreme.

contrasting this with the relationship of alcryst and diamant. like Alfred and céline, diamant is not confident and alcryst is proud and thinks himself more suited to leading. i dont think its ever said why their personalities are like this (other than rafal like controlling them and stuff) but its my headcanon ever since the trailer came out that perhaps morion died much earlier in this universe, where alcryst was too young to remember. so diamant grew up with one of his biggest fears being true, and i dont imagine bereavement counselling would be too realised in fire emblem universe, so it kinda manifested into extreme anxiety maybe causing the people around him to give up on him becoming a strong king, instead resorting to grooming alcryst to be the way he is. and alcryst seems to be planning to kill diamant and take the throne himself (i think diamant even has fears about this if u fight him with alcryst). alcryst instead of having a inferiority complex has a superiority complex bc everyone in this universe is like "diamant is so useless as a king, you 'd be much more suited alcryst" really showing how your environment can shape you.

for ivy first off i have to say, her and zelkov being besties in the alternate universe is literally so fucking funny. more importantly i've seen some people saying "oh she's like how we all thought she'd be before the game came out!" which i dont really agree with? bc everyone thought she'd a camilla clone right? but i'd argue the most important part of camilla's character is that she loves her siblings and will protect them no matter what which alt ivy is Definitely not doing. this ivy also hates poor people and values her devotion to the fell dragon above all else. like ofc a big part of our ivy is her devotion to the divine dragon, but it's also very important to her character that she prioritises her subjects above all else (i think the givre port chapter highlights this, wanting to hurry to help people who are alive rather than clear the port of the corrupted), but alt ivy is too busy trying to revive sombron and slaughtering the solm army to care about who dies. and hortensia. oh my dear sweet baby girl i fucking CRIED at alt hortensia vs ivy oh my godddddddddssdd. it seems ivy inherited at lot of her mother's beliefs in this universe and hates hortensia and has also killed all of her other half siblings hahaha :'). anyway hortensias abuse from her sister seems to have really impacted her self worth. and i think "parents died much earlier" should also be taken for the elusians as well bc hortensia got a lot of her confidence learning from her mother right? one thing that sorta sucks is hortensia vs. goldmary being like "the three of us wanted to stand out" whilst shes standing there in her fucking silly little clown outfit and decked out pegasus, so once again, alt designs would have really elevated the dlc imo. anyway alt hortensia i am giving u a big hug my baby i love you🫂

and onto solm. okay im sorry but timerra was so lame. they could have really done something cool with her being serious, stoic, and essentially robotic in her rule but its literally just "merrin what are you talking about you hate animals! and im a vegetarian and i hate singing! and panette you hate ghosts!" and like that is the extent of it. they didnt even bother to explain what solm was like in this universe and feels like they just added her into the elusia chapter to be like "look three way battle! just like three houses!!! you guys loved three houses right???" im sorry timerra they did u so dirty :/. fogado on the other hand. ough its so good. so fogado is dead (theyre all dead technically but fogado is dead dead and aware it) and instead of travelling the country to aid timerra he's instead working directly for rafal as assassin, and is implied to hate timerra (he says something like "i always wished i would be the one to kill my sister but i guess i'll to settle for killing her lookalike" in his vs. timerra dialogue). and i dont this this dislike is mutual (alt timerra says she wants to hug fogado in her vs. him dialogue iirc). this fogado seems to be more... bloodthirsty ig and less into the like. sneaky fighting he does in our universe. he mentions in his conversation with bunet that bunet is a brute on the battlefield (alt!bunet neurotypical confirmation where?) and fogado seems really fixated on how bunet looked covered in his own blood. we know that our fogado is actually very scared about the war underneath his friendly persona from his supports with pandreo, but alt fogado seems much more emotionless about it. in fact this might tie into solm in this universe thinking about it, instead of being free they all repress their emotions or something, bc even though alt fogado still talks in a sorta lighthearted candace, if a little more intense sounding and sounds Especially off whilst reminiscing on bunet and pandreo's deaths. his final death quote being "im not scares. ive died twice now... whats one more time?" sure okay buddy i believe you.

thats about it for my thoughts. tbh i wish we got more screentime with these guys. nel and rafal and the winds are great dont get me wrong but i wish they had focused a bit more on the royals and how they are different to how they are in our universe (even tho there are a lot of unique boss convos with them most of the ones I've seen were not super interesting or insightful :/and you definitely cant get all of them in a single playthrough im pretty sure). sorry for the long post ty if u read this far🫶

[amomentwiser]

We may look at someone's manners or moods, ignorance or prejudice, and think, how could anyone be like that?

It may be uncomfortable to think about, but all of us have the potential for as much anger and cruelty as the people we despise.

All it takes, sometimes, is a series of crucial little moments where we don't get the love or support we desparately need, to turn us into angry humans who can't pour love out into the world because their own cups are parched to the last drop.

.

Yes, you choose the kind of person you want to be. Yes, it takes sheer force of will to be good in a world that might not have always been good to you. Yes, it is the desire to heal that makes us better people. You might be who you are today because of your own strength, effort and sincerity.

But — the person you are is also a culmination of hundreds of little events that went right. Lessons you learned that some people, for whatever reason, did not. Kindness you received that they didn't; paths they traversed that you didn't. Circumstances they had no control over, or opinions that were passed on to them before they could think for themselves.

.

(Keep in mind, though, that having a difficult past does not give someone the right to mistreat you. Understanding the root of someone's despair and hurt does not mean you owe them forgiveness.)

My point is — we're all taught to fear different things, and that fear makes us act in strange ways. Our environment shapes our fears, and the fear shapes our beliefs. We cannot control our environment, only what we unlearn once we're old enough to know better, or once we've left it and meet new people, who offer new perspectives that challenge or reshape our worldview.

.

I say this because it helps to be mindful of how little moments, throughout your life, have shaped the person you've become. How your relationships have shaped the person you are. The people around you affect your character and influence your opinions, until you consciously make the decision to change them.

Everyone is on different stages of the unlearning process. Some are at the beginning, just discovering the way their upbringing has shaped who they are. Some may have already let go of beliefs that did not serve them. Some have not yet started, and some never will.

.

Make sure you spend your time with people who fill you with love, not deprive you of it. People who are safe spaces, who accept you for who you are and make you feel seen. Being alone is better than being with people who drain you, because you can only give out the love you have.

How soft you are with the world — how kindly you show up in it, how open you are to what it has to offer, and how gently you handle it — depends on your heart having enough love for itself, and then a surplus to give.

[animehouse-moe]

Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective Episode 3: The Case of the Benizome Hot Spring Murder (Part 1)

This show is really proving that it was made for me, and it sort of blows my mind that I wasn't really all over it before it aired. Regardless, I'm all over this episode and what Diomeda brings with it, so there's a mountain of stuff I want to talk about!

First of all, Ibata's storyboarding is even better than his work on the first episode for the series. Their focus on objects and using sharp perspective and depth of field to highlight them is sublime for series like this. It just draws you into the scenes so much as you pour over the details in the various scenes.

Also this piece. I love this part, and you can see it in the first episode as well where Ibata shows a few cuts from the leg down. What I love about it here though is that it's used to signal the entrance of Spitz into the scene, which is a lot of fun.

Anyways, I think the point of Ibata being a good storyboarder and being incredibly well suited to Ron is apparent, let's talk story. We get more info on Ron this episode as they show us that it's not a tattoo on his neck, but rather a scar leftover from his BLUE days. Despite that though, Ron claims that the scar has special meaning due to the sixes that appear in it.

This all thanks to a precursor cold open with BLUE, where we get a very tense exchange. Here, we find out that Spitz (the character I mentioned earlier) is tasked with finding out if Ron is doing any detective work. The principal of BLUE gives Spitz some very specific rules, which he delightfully ignores as he effectively sets up the mystery for Toto and Ron in this episode.

I just think it's great fun. We have a formula that's appeared to us. Someone dies, Ron gets involved and the mystery gets solved.

However, in three episodes we've seen consistent changes to these rules.

The second episode saw Ron pass the sleuthing off to Toto so that he could solve the mystery.

And this episode has placed a culprit in front of the people involved right away. Even further, the mystery isn't solved within the span of a single episode.

It's so so great how they're able to change the shape of this series without altering its form. It keeps things so incredibly fresh and creative while providing a theme and feel to follow loosely.

And it's able to integrate the comedy with that so effortlessly. In the second episode, Ron donned a humorous disguise and played into it to provide both humor and hints for viewers.

In this episode we shift the focus of the humor to Spitz, where his intense desire to challenge Ron provides a bit of comedy, as well as potential tips for the viewers. I mean, just imagine that Spitz orchestrated this whole thing just to try and expose Ron. The potential for humor alongside the mystery is truly impressive, I can't begin to wonder how the author's able to come up with ideas like these that marry both sides of the show so well.

Anyways, back into the episode. There's some surprisingly well done cuts! A lot are just super detailed still drawings, but I still think they look very very good.

Also, the environment art for this episode? Super pretty. I love the look of it so much, and it matching with the weather outside is great.

And then there's the visual storytelling. Man oh man I loved this reveal, and for two reasons.

First of all, only Amamiya and Ron dare wade into the water where the dead body floats. This part's just a fun little detail that shows that this pair are involved and interested in the murder, while Toto is more external/distant to it. Also, faceless characters are very apparent in this episode, nd I'm really a sucker for this style of direction. When done with intent it can be a really fun piece.

Anyways, this second layout is far more important. Before a claim can even be made about who killed the woman, the scene betrays the answer. Spitz intended to single out Amamiya, and the layout conveys that by how it separates here, keeping her in the water next to the body while everyone else remains outside. It's almost as if they're framing it like they caught Amamiya in the act.

And I love that they show it from both sides, where it's the group looking out at Amamiya as the suspect, and Amamiya trying to justify herself against the group of people that looms over her.

The whole episode is just as detailed as this. There's all sorts of little bits and pieces, odds and ends and fun little references that do things like make the viewer believe that Spitz is orchestrating the mystery and hand-feeding it to Ron so that he can't resist. There's solid, and even once or twice, great animation in the episode and comedy that reverses roles (Amamiya accidentally wanders into the Men's bath while drunk). It's just a world of content that screams fun and engaging. The dynamics are energetic and well defined, the mysteries are well thought out and provide a great deal of hints and context, and the overall style and execution is really good. I don't know if I could ask for more from Diomeda, truthfully. Well, maybe I'd ask for the episodes to come out quicker so I could get my fix for this series.

[shortpplfedup]

It was just burning my brain. Clown theory below the cut. Let's agree to never mention this again if it doesn't happen, because I will delete it so fast...lol.

For Pat and Pran to ever be together, Ming has to atone and Dissaya has to forgive, and there has to be reconciliation between the two families. Those themes of atonement, forgiveness and reconciliation also resonate for me around the character of Wai.

The outing, the shooting, Wai's crush on Paa and Wai's newfound friendship with Korn have all struck me as plot threads that felt out of place in the story, and that don't feel like they were satisfactorily dealt with. And that's why I think Wai will be instrumental in bringing Pat and Pran back together, and THAT will be his true redemption, not the red herring of the CCTV.

Let's look at motive, means, and opportunity.

Motive: Pran is his best friend and Pat defended his ass and got shot and nearly arrested for his trouble. And he's the one who outed them, starting the cascade that ended in their breaking up. And he has not really atoned (we've all noted that Wai never apologised for outing them), although he has been forgiven and there has been reconciliation. He has known Pran longer than anybody except Pat, Paa and Ink, and most importantly he is the only one who knows what Pran was like in boarding school, after the transfer, and can attest to how much happier Pran is with Pat in his life. We've also seen that Wai is aware that Pran's family is 'complicated'.

Means: We've been told that Dissaya knows, likes and trusts Wai. She lets Wai in the house, invites him to dinner, nobody else is allowed but him. Wai has also interacted with Paa because of his crush, and she knows who he is and how close he is to Pran. Paa is the connection to Ming, is someone who can make him feel shame, and is holding the long-held card that Pran SAVED HER LIFE when they were just children. Thirdly, with Pat and Pran broken up, Korn becomes Wai's connection to Pat/Paa rather than Pran.

Opportunity: We see in the preview that Pran tells his friends that the relationship is over. Maybe he will even say that it's because of an unresolvable feud between their parents. And here comes an opportunity for Wai to redeem himself. So idk how it would go exactly, what exactly would prompt him or whether it would unfold in the present or in the future, but I imagine it going a little something like this:

Pat transfers (it would have to be him this time, right?)

Pat and Pran are changed, sadder.

Wai reaches out to Paa via Korn. Maybe it's a hail mary, but maybe she could talk to her parents and Wai could talk to Pran's?

Paa finally tells her parents about Pran saving her life.

Wai tells Pran's parents about the shape Pran was in after the transfer and how much he's changed being with Pat, and the things Pat has done for Pran.

Ming is finally compelled by Paa's revelation to realise that Dissaya's actions were a response to his, but she still saved his face despite what he did to her, she never told what he did until it threatened her relationship with her son. He apologises to Dissaya and to atone he will allow Pat to be with Pran, if she will allow Pran to be with Pat.

Dissaya is compelled to forgive Ming, for the sake of her son's happiness. She only ever wanted to protect Pran, but she now knows she doesn't have to protect him from Pat.

They reconcile enough to be cordial, for the sake of their children.

The friends orchestrate a reunion. If it's in the short term/present, I can see something like a redux of the opening of episode 1, with a 'fight'. and them seeing each other again after a separation. If it's in the long term/future, Ink would be the one to make sure Pat and Pran are both at the high school reunion.

The future scenes in the preview are either time-skipping over their separation, or a fakeout/epilogue.

Basically, after everything Pat and Pran did for their friends and family, and after the toxic environment the friends and family created being what eventually led to them having to give up their relationship, I want their friends and family to be the ones to sacrifice and do something for THEM this time.

[nightswithkookmin]

Jimin is a pretty bOY

This is a continuation of our discussion on my last post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me, I think I agree with all of it.

Not sure how I feel about the calling eachother out bit or near scolding of others in the comments. Please let's be welcoming and respectful of others's thoughts regardless of whether or not we agree with it. It's ok to hold diverse views. We do after all come from different backgrounds and have accumulated different experiences and I think it plays out in how we see things. Everyone's opinion is valid. Plus, I purple yall.

Now, do I think he is trying to pack on muscles........? Yes. He said so himself in Festa when he said he would rush to the mirror when he thought he had gained some muscle only to find out his biceps looks like a muscled kindergartner.

He also said lately he's into exercising and staying in shape which is true because for quite sometime now since early this year he has been talking about how "weak" he is in their Vlives and have even given instances of him not being able to do certain things- certian simple and easy tasks- which is typical of him I'd say. He's always talking about how "weak" he is especially around JK and juxtaposing that with "but JK is so strong" which I'm sorry but I have to smirk at right now cos it's such a typical gay pick me simp thing to do. We've all been there.

Do I think he's trying to be a muscle bunny or revert back to his body shape around debut? Absolutely not. But I do think he is straddling the line of toxic masculinity which is what the conversation is about.

I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to stay in shape or even enjoying work outs. Last night I ran downstairs because I had left my stew on the stove and now this morning I called renew my gym membership because I discovered running can be actually fun to do... No. No it's not. The gym instructor would have to come for me kicking and screaming.

RM have said even though JM looks skinny and fragile he is one of the strongest within the group. Besides, this is not the first time he's expressed interest in working out and building his body- hello, on Era?

I remember people complaining he looked too buffed up in that period on SNS and PJMs quickly jumping in to clear the searches for it. The choreo for On required agility and endurance and required the members- not just JM build up some definition in their muscles.

We've seen them go through all that. So it's not simply a matter of black and white staying in shape or doing it because he feels pressured to do so. Especially, when you consider that he's undertaken some pretty unhealthy measures in the past in attempts to lose weight or soften out his body post these muscle building, weight gaining periods and we've always chalked it up to his dance and how as a contemporary dancer he has to look a certain way or this or that to try to justify and make sense of it. Next you, know there are six chapters of break the silence of him talking about all the dark places he's been, the pressures to look his best for his fans or for his job and all these other painful stories he's shared with us over the years. And it's like, but why? Why do this to yourself?

I'll never forget the look he gave JK when JK was talking about wanting to build muscles in one of the interviews for the promotion of Be- I think I made a post on it. When JK noticed JMs disapproving glare he backtracked saying he would want to stay skinny after gaining all that muscles.

I mean if I'm to be honest, he was bound to crack at one point. The signs were there being surrounded by all these men who adhere to the traditional aesthetics of a masculine body- from Namjoon to Taehyung.

I wish y'all will steer the conversation in this direction and make it more about gender norms and expressions and breaking stereotypes and diversity in the body aesthetics of men.

Jimin is a man too. He just isn't what people traditionally will label masculine. Androgynous is more an apt word in my opinion. How many times have I said, I think Jungkook hetero passes because his body aesthetics is quintessentially what most associates with a masculine man?

Breaking gender barriers is not just about embracing feminine apparels- that teeters on cross dressing quite frankly and can be a bit performative and baity. Then you have to consider their culture in itself has an inherent pro gender diversity feel to it.

Now, let me explain my problem with the Klout ad campaign a little bit.

Do you see how Tae stands out? And I'm not saying this to fuel the "Tae was their fav" debacle. It's the 007 feel... I'll explain in a bit.

Most often, alcohol advertisers as well as most advertisements intended to sell to men often try to appeal to men's internalized ideals of masculinity or try to shape and define what a man or masculinity should look like. These ideals are so often toxic and detrimental to men and mostly women too.

Take a look at these ads for example. All I had to do was google search ads for men.

Real men drink milk and look at the image they present as real men. This blatantly implies if you don't look like this, if you are not a strong cliff climbing man with abs you are not a real man.

The second image is subtle. I call it the 007 slash Kingsmen-esque ideals of masculinity. It portrays men as sexy cool badass- works out but isn't too buff, filthy rich or middle class, wears Rolex, designer clothes, is kind but has a mean exterior and is every 13 year old wattpad girls's dream of a man. In fiction, you see this kind of masculinity in characters such as Edward cullens to Christian Grey. And a lot of ads for men alternate between these two ideals of masculinity.

Do you see how they modeled Taehyung in these ads after this kind of masctheme? Tae looks the same in almost all the ads. 007 sexy cool badass.

Now, I may not be a makeup beauty guru or MUA or whatever, but one thing I've picked up on especially when it comes to makeup for men- BTS and Kpop idols mostly is that, they soften out the harsh features on their faces and make them appear more androgynous or effeminate to suit the Kpop look and they ditch it entirely in different settings.

So for instance, Tae and Kookie's natural hawkish eyebrows tend to get softened around the arch and edges- don't know how the fuck they do that- but it appears less in your face intense most times when they wear make up in kpop related contents.

However, in certain other contents that lean towards a certain gender theme those features are emphasized. Not to say hawkish features are masculine features. Just saying in men, Kpop idols, my observation is they soften those features out with makeup or surgery.

Now, take a look at JM in these ads and look at everything from his posture, make up, hairstyle and brows. It's as if someone took an eraser to his androgynousity and erased his feminine side. Take a look at his photo above and compare it to the ads.

I am not a man. But I feel the gender look they went for, intended to appeal to men, tapped into a rather outdated stereotype of what man and masculinity should look like.

What is a man?

What should a man look like?

What aesthetics of masculinity is Jimin gravitating towards now? And I'm not talking clothes, I'm talking the expression of his gender. Time and again, he's talked about how looking a certain way made him uncomfortable in the past because he was constantly fighting his feminine side. He is androgynous. Sometimes he leans more into his feminine side. Other times he leans more into his masculine side but this is the only time he's leaning into his masculinity that makes me uncomfortable to watch because like I said it bothers on toxic masculinity.

He's said whoever he was, the version fighting to look masculine, that wasn't him. So forgive me if I worry whenever i see him suppressing his feminine side and acting like 'one of the boys.' Him staying in shape is not synonymous with him erasing a valid part of himself or suppressing it. He can stay in shape, celebrate his masculinity and still be FILTER.

What I'm saying is, this not a conversation about him exercising. This is a conversation about an ad erasing his feminine side and boxing him into a narrow expression of his gender and how that might be affecting his view of himself especially in the way he's been gravitating towards a certain masculine aesthetics and how that could be toxic.

Tae has said the same thing and BTS have agreed the JM as of 2019 was the real JM according to them.They said he was that way- suppressing his feminine side, because there weren't much songs and choreos that suited him and so he had had to bend himself to fit with the others.

And so when I see him leaning a certain way I tend to wonder if his exterior environment is playing a role in that. I hope you can understand that.

He is a contemporary dancer and strength and flexibility are prerequisites for his craft. The company go out of their way to incorporate contemporary dance in their choreos for JM's sake which helps solve that problem of him trying too hard to look a certain way.

May be I'm projecting. May be my little brother is effeminate and I've always recommended Jimin as a role for him to tell him not to try to look different just because other boys look different. May be I've seen him try one too many times to kill himself in the gym trying to build on muscles and getting frustrated with himself because he ends up looking like someone else. You can't gym the queerness away. Society will never let you be who you want to be so you might as well flip it the middle finger.

These boys are being shaped by their environment. I hate to say this but the environment they are in isn't exactly progressive and the longer they stay in there cut off from the outside world...

Flying out helps. Meeting different people and being exposed to different cultures and conversations on gender expression helps.

Anywho, these are just concerns I have. Will have them till I see that's not where he is headed towards. But let's not act like these ad campaigns do not and can not psychologically impact these boys especially as these advertisers are not looking to tap into their own definition of gender and masculinity but shape it and redefine it to appeal to the demographic they intend to market to.

I think this is just a grey area for me. Rather than try to change JM to look a certain way in order to sell alcohol. I think the ground breaking thing would be to have a man who looks like JM show us how someone like him would sell a can of drink. I think that would be revolutionary.

Signed,

GOLDY

[red-the-dragon-writes]

Today's post is not on the usual "writer blog fare" side. Instead I am going to introduce you to several fun facts about various animals on our planet and then talk about worldbuilding.

1. Lampreys are a kind of "living fossil"- a not-really-so-scientific term for a creature that has lived unchanged for a very long time, so long that we have fossils of them looking the same way they do now. They don't have proper jaws, just a circular sucking mouth with teeth set into it and a tongue designed to strip flesh off of what it touches. They're finless fish, look quite a bit like eels, and have this really alien, uncanny vibe to them.

[id: a long, slender bluish-silver lamprey sitting among rocks. It has a long snout, an eye, and then six small perforations in its side arranged at an even interval sitting behind the eye. The environment it is sitting in is very yellow and green in comparison. end id]

[id: an image of a lamprey from below. The snout ends in a round, flat mouth which is studded with teeth in four concentric circles. The teeth are smallest near the outer edge and largest in the middle, and look like very sharp round points. In the center of this ring is another, smaller circle, where the pointed, tooth-like tongue can be seen, as well as a hole for the lamprey to actually ingest food with. Its eye is visible, as are some of the perforations on its side. This one is a more mottled gray than the first one was, and less shiny. end id]

Sea lampreys, which are the kind i've sort of not really kinda researched, are a major pest in the Great Lakes, where they regularly attack fish. They can get up to two feet in length. Despite this, they are not particularly dangerous towards humans.

2. Horseshoe crabs are also "living fossils." They've been around and virtually unchanged for millions of years. They're not true crabs, and are more closely related to chelicerata species, like spiders and scorpions (and many more). There are a lot of cool features of horseshoe crabs, but one of their most extremely cool, to me, is their blood.

I'm not going to post any images of what I consider to be animal cruelty, so you'll have to take me at my word here, but this is a bottle of horseshoe crab blood. If you're sensitive to images of animal cruelty, I don't recommend looking for proof, but if you aren't, there are plenty of images of the blood coming out of the creature for you to verify this with.

E[id: a bottle of slightly frothy, opaque blue liquid. It is sitting in a row with several other bottles of the same material. end id]

I am a sucker for blue blood, I just think it's neat, so that's all I'd need as an excuse to slam some horseshoe-crab-inspired nonsense in my exceptionally gory and fucked up wips, and if you've been reading along with WiB you may have noticed that blue blood does come into play at some point! But that's not all that's neat about horseshoe crab blood. Unfortunately for the horseshoe crabs, but fortunately for us, their blood is literally the only source of an important compound used for detecting the presence of dangerous bacteria in certain pharmaceutical drugs. (Fortunately, there are replacements that will hopefully become more popular in coming years.)

Now that we've gone over all that, onto the worldbuilding!

I worldbuild by Rule of Cool. Let's just get that out of the way. Every so often people will ask me how my worlds get so expansive (not WiB, WiB i made up on the fly by cribbing from fanfic and like... BBC Merlin. Assume very little of this holds true for WiB) and the answer is largely that I take every interest I have ever had in anything and smash it all together and throw it at my wip to see what sticks. and then I just... like... reasonably attempt to figure out what the natural conclusions will be.

So: we have lampreys. We have blue-blooded ancient sea creatures with spectacularly important and valueable blood. We are writing this into a story that takes place on land, somehow.

- The first option, and the one I'm going to talk about most because I did it, is just to rule-of-cool it into a character. (Or a place, or an item, or whatever, but largely I do rule-of-cool on living creatures and think harder about the world around them.) If you've been keeping up with WiB, you may have noticed that (spoilers) Zero Point is some kind of fucked up magician with a lamprey mouth in their hand who shapeshifts and bleeds blue. This is where I got those inspirations from (along with, like, some other stuff. I promise there are no lamprey assassins, but- continuing in the trend of stealing from sea creatures- the bobbin worm is a spectacularly beautiful, spectacularly deadly creature if you're within its weight range. which is like, goldfish size, but. And cuttlefish are known to disguise themselves as other animals, and can change sexes if the male:female ratio where they are isn't ideal.)

So you can take the elements you like, and just kind of slam them together haphazardly, which is what I did with Zero Point. The trick to this kind of worldbuilding is just to avoid looking too closely at it. The magical assassin has a fucked up mouth in their hand? Yeah, okay, that seems kind of fucked up and creepy. What do they do at all times? They hide it under a glove. So the protags Just Straight Up Never Ask. And voila; it never gets explained, and it never has to.

Same with the blue blood. It shows up, it functions as a plot device because only Zero Point has blue blood; it is never explained or even delved into with much detail. And if it were, it would fall apart instantly, because the justification is literally just "i thought it was neat. No, no one else is like that. I don't even know why they are. i just felt like it"

- The second option is to consider the effects of the things that you're working with, and then work off of that.

Let's take Zero Point again. Strip them of their context (weird assassin with magical powers) and just like, consider the fact that this is a creature with blood that regularly retails for over $10,000 USD, is intelligent as fuck, shapeshifts, has a mouth in their hand that may or may not be their actual mouth, and can exist on land so long as they have suitable access to water. What does that mean for our setting? Surely they're not the only person like that; so you have a whole species of people who are sort of but not really amphibious, shapeshift, and maybe have magical powers, who knows. They can't shapeshift their fucked up lamprey mouths, maybe. That seems like a reasonable limit. So their blood is highly valuable- what does that mean for their relations with other people, or their culture? What kind of foods do they eat? How do they create a sense of culture as shapeshifters; is there even a way that they represent themselves in art? How do they interact with the world? Do they have a "true form" or not? Every one of these questions will spawn new questions. If you answer all of them you'll lose your mind, but if you answer at least ten you'll spawn a much more background-heavy world that can help to shape your story much more effectively than trying to just craft a narrative will. Sometimes it works very well for a story. Sometimes it gets you lost in the weeds.

- The third option is to reference something else, and build off that. Again, let's use Zero Point as the example.

In the original story that the WiB ensemble is from, Closerverse, which may have some mentions on this blog but honestly I have no idea, there is a city that I've done quite a bit of worldbuilding on. This city is called Hudson, and one of the major important features of it is that it is partially underground. (This is a reference to the DFZ of Rachel Aaron's Heartstrikers series). Hudson is intentionally run to be the worst, most unpleasant city in the world, and one of its features are its wildly intelligent, dangerous forms of aquatic life. The lowest level of this city is partially submerged, and all of these creatures plague the people who live down there.

Closerverse was also set during a period of early industrialization, and Hudson heavily referenced US history, especially 1900s-1920s labor history. Tenements, pollution, zero protections for workers, et cetera. Hudson is a nasty, miserable place, and everyone who lives there can feel the jaws closing in on them.

Anyway, in Closerverse you got these fucked up massive eel-like creatures (lampreys, but with extra features) that due to some rather significant meddling wound up growing legs and then got really massive and started eating people. They have blue blood, glow in the dark, and make fairly decent eating as long as they aren't eating you. And they're intelligent. Given the whole "mutual eating each other" thing, the eels and the people of Hudson have some pretty major animosity going on.

Most of Zero Point's stuff is really just me referencing the Hudson Eels, because I fucking love those. They're some of my favorite worldbuilding elements ever. But given that no one else in WiB has ever seen a Hudson Eel, let alone seen their blood get dry on things, or whatever, everything about Zero Point is wildly out of context. And that almost makes it better, because the whole deal with them is that they're mysterious and weird, and having them be a mysterious and weird reference to something no one but I know about most likely is like, fun and neat.

There are, of course, other modes of worldbuilding as well, but I typically aim to stick to the first two as much as possible. The cooler you make something, the more possible questions it raises; the more questions something raises, the deeper your world gets.

Although, a word of advice: sometimes animals just do things. Sometimes bodies just have features. Who would invent fingernails? But having them is mighty convenient, isn't it? For that matter, who would come up with a deeply logical and reasoned explanation for eyebrows- but not having those would be very strange, to us. You can get away with doing a lot by just having that be how it is, and not having the characters comment on it.

Also, the more "shaped" a thing should be, the more you'll want to take the second approach. For house design, something intentionally built, you'll want to know why it was built, and what purpose is this and that room, and why is it painted such and such colors. But if you're talking about adding a second moon, like... fuck dude, who needs to know why there's a second moon? Maybe if you have sailors you have to know what it'll do to your oceans, but that's the kind of thing you can kind of just say exists and move on. You'll figure it out; it gets pretty intuitive.

Anyway, happy worldbuilding!