#and so when i saw this post on my dash (because why wouldn't i be wasting time on tumblr) i was like... might as well cheer myself up with

[answermywearyquery]

eoin flirting with paddy, again

[txttletale]

its so incredible how being a trans woman gives people full license to just boldfacedly and confidently lie about you. like look at this:

apparently i was "literally mutuals" with someone who i never followed and who never (as far as i know) followed me, despite the fact that i reblogged his post from someone else who in turn reblogged it from someone else who in turn reblogged it with someone else. 3+ layers of online interaction away from his blog magically turns into "LITERALLY mutuals" as soon as someone is in the mood to call a tranny a pedophile.

also, dipshit, if he was an 'open' pedophile then why did he have a whole private website to talk about being a pedophile? could it be that he was not in fact 'open' and that you in fact only know about it because people put together a lengthy google doc of screenshots from his private website to out him as a child abuser? (months after i reblogged that post btw). guess i should have used my epic oracle vision to simply see into the future on this one, my bad

the post already had hundreds of notes at least when i saw it, by the way -- that's how it got onto my dash via reblog chain of 3+ users! so it's pretty rich to accuse me of 'boosting' it, and even richer to say 'posts' as though there was more than one!

through an incredible rhetorical technique known as 'lying', miss situation has transformed me reblogging a post on my dash by an OP i didn't know and knew nothing about into me being "literal mutuals" and "boosting [his] posts". this is what transmisogyny looks like lol it is happening in real time, trans women don't matter so you can make up whatever shit you like about them that best suits your narrative.

& you know if 'seeing the posts' is so utterly damning for me, miss situation, you'd think you wouldn't have to make a bunch of shit up! if you're soooo obviously right that any request for nuance is clearly in bad faith, you'd think you would't have to lie about it! but i guess maybe then it would be too obvious that your first reaction to some guy being a pedophile is to look for random trans women to unperson, huh.

[highlandwhackamole]

A Grand(ish) Theory of What the Heck

I love the utterly unhinged, super detailed theories about what's going on in Good Omens, especially in season 2. I hope one or more of them turn out to be true, as some kind of glorious puzzle-box-hidden-code monstrosity. And also I think that there has to be a simpler explanation for things, for the people who are at least Somewhat Normal (tm) about this show. (... I assume such people do exist somewhere...) This is what I have been pondering recently.

The thing that started me thinking about this was this post, containing some promotional materials for season 2 that feature main characters with scenes in their heads. Like this:

Seeing this created a very similar situation in my own head, but with a nice shiny lightbulb.

All the weirdness: the car, the sideburns, the clock, the behavior of the folks of Soho, the vanishing storefront signs. The absence of God. I think this is all because everything we see is in their heads.

I don't mean it's made up. At least not entirely. Memory is already a plot point. Why not explore it on a deeper level? I've read theories emphasizing the minisodes' stories being retold by Aziraphale and Crowley. I think the whole season is like that.

You know that sort of conventional-wisdom-fact-concept that you can only dream faces of people you've seen before (or variations therein), because your brain can't make new faces up? So it just fills in what it thinks is close enough? I think that idea, applied to remembering or recollecting things, could explain so many things that are wonky in this show.

Wonky Things

Crowley parking in an impossible London location? He definitely remembers it was in London, so his brain just stuck some obvious London landmarks in there.

Awkward clattering happening when Crowley throws the stacks of books he's inexplicably carrying around the bookshop? He wouldn't actually throw Aziraphale's books! But he'd like to think he's cool and nonchalant enough to do that, and if he did it would definitely make Some Kind of Noise.

Jim walking toward the bookshop from somewhere mysterious? Maggie and Nina saw him first, and he came from that direction, so he must've walked all that way. They don't know about the elevator in the Donkey.

Aziraphale remembers tartan hills and the Loch Ness monster because he was having a jolly time driving through Scotland, so obviously the scenery must've been whimsical Scottish things.

Nina put the Honolulu roast sign up, so she remembers its presence, but perhaps the occult/ethereal visitors to her shop do not.

Maggie really did text Aziraphale about the rent, but a note through the mail slot is a much more dignified way for a scholarly angel to imagine he received a message.

On the Fallibility of Recall

This season is loaded with unrealistic inclusions. The colors are turned up to 11. Some of the scenes are more caricature than believable interaction. Remembering things never copies or reproduces them with what one might call high fidelity.

Scenes recalled by separate memories will inherently vary. One person's hefty jigger might be another person's dash. Who knows for sure where the sun was that day? You and I might recall an event having different lighting or a different color palette, sort of like viewing something with different lens filters.

According to Neil, Crowley is an unreliable narrator of the story of his Fall. He labels the variations in clock times as a continuity error in a show where Everything Is Meant, but he doesn't say whose continuity error it is. He insists that the Bentley is the same through the whole season; maybe it was the same, but remembered differently. Maybe this is part of why there's more CGI but it's harder to spot.

So What?

Is this all there is to it? I sure hope not. I like my Good Omens with enough layers to put to shame an onion wrapped in a cake and covered in a parfait.

Is this possibly the fancy footwork that's distracting from the real magic trick? I wouldn't put it past Our Gaiman. There are a lot of things one could hide in the narrative of unreliable memory.

Is this going to stop me from rewatching and repondering and remaking theories for the next couple years? Not even at gunpoint.

[91vaults]

Ok so here's the thing: I totally get where the Fallout New Vegas crowd are coming from

(Note: I haven't watched the show yet I'm only going off what's come across my dash so keep that in mind)

Fallout New Vegas is and always will be my favorite fallout game. But I also love Fallout 4. I'm a member of both camps.

I'm also weird in that I love Fallout but absolutely will not touch anything else in the post-apocalyptic genre because...I kinda hate it.

Fallout is Post apocalyptic, but not in the same way something like "The Last of Us" is. It's not grounded in reality for one, and whilst society isn't necessarily moving "forward"...it does exist in one form or another...and it is moving.

And then you have Fallout New Vegas which is very much post-post apocalyptic. It's not just about the wasteland and survival and fighting: Society is moving forward What direction do we want it to go? (oh that and Casinos! you have to admin the casinos were fun)

People are absolutely correct in that the games still exist. Nothing is stopping you from playing them It's not erasing the whole game from canon (I think?) and in a game series like Fallout canon isn't the most important thing anyway.

But here's the thing: By wiping out all that stuff on the west coast, the NCR etc. It shows us how Bethesda see's the series. You know that thing you don't see as much nowadays: when a movie had a sequel they would just undo everything that happens in the first one off screen?

It's like that: We have to maintain the status quo: . Because it seems to Bethesda, fallout is about pew pew chaos in the wasteland! it's why it still looks like the bombs dropped last week even though it's been like (200 years?). It's all wasteland rubble and shanty towns! Because it's fallout, that's the brand. Thats what people expect. The FNV fans are frustrated because it's Bethesda sending a clear message that their vision for the series is very much "stuck in one place perpetually" as is often the case with the genre. forever looking back, never looking forward.

But it doesn't have to be like that! the series can move forward whilst still being Fallout. In fact it would be super cool to see a setting where society has started to built more. Like we saw in F:NV . It opens up new story opportunities. New factions, all kind of cool new shit.

This isn't about who likes what games or why or even about the show (I've heard good things, so honestly I hope I like it) . I don't care. I just think I can see the argument that Bethesds wouldn't really want to take the series in any particular new direction because they've settled into "the brand"

[xythlia]

hey this aot "writer" stole your one levi fic word for word they've been caught for stealing before too

https://www.tumblr.com/hvnlydemon/737643010532179968/hi-i-wanted-to-celebrate-returning-to-writing

tysm for bringing this to my attention, and im sorry to be putting this on everyones dashes esp on a holiday but it looks like ppl will act mad weird whether it's a holiday or a regular ass day bc why wouldn't they

anyways this writer @hvnlydemon decided to copy word for word a leviathan fic I posted from last year.

you can see by the dates this is blatantly stolen, she just changed the name to make it fit a character in the aot fandom.

after getting this anon I decided to msg her privately, just to see if we could have a grown up civil convo about it without all this. but turns out we can't

she had the balls to lie to my face & call her post "similar". similar is something like using the same premise as someone else, or maybe the same title but nothing else is the same. it doesn't mean "I just steal a fic word for word, change the name, and lie when I get caught". I wanted to scream when she blocked me because I HATE doing things like this I don't like it but atp she forced my hand so I really don't have a choice (she also blocked a moot who rb'd the stolen fic calling her out on it).

before being blocked I saw other pieces of writing on her blog & to my fellow writers that follow me you should 100% check to make sure she hasn't stolen from you bc I would bet money every single fic is stolen. also please please please report this fic because I doubt she'll take it down on her own

[vro0m]

As usual I don't read your F1 post but as usual when I see a word coming often enough in my peripheral vision I get curious. What is Antonelli

Oh god. Okay. (Also why do you still follow my F1 account babe it's flooding your dash with posts you don't have an interest in 😭)

This is Antonelli

As you can tell he's a baby. He turned 18 like 5 seconds ago.

Anyway, he's gonna start F1 next year in Mercedes.

Why does it cause so much discourse that even you have to ask what's going on?

Somewhat long post :

So Mercedes has a free seat because 7 time world champion and overall GOAT of the sport Lewis Hamilton decided to leave for Ferrari in 2025. Now this caused an f1blr meltdown in February because no one saw it coming as he's been with them for over a decade and they've won so many world titles together and he spent the previous year saying he wouldn't leave, but since 2021 Mercedes hasn't been doing so good.

There was a lot of discussion as to who could join Mercedes next but the rumours rapidly pointed to Antonelli.

What's crazy is Antonelli is 1) very young 2) very inexperienced. Usually, drivers will do local competitions (F4) then F3 then F2 then maybe F1. If they are thought to be good enough for F1 while they are in F2 they tend to be hired as "reserve drivers" for F1 teams meaning they work closely with the team, train on the simulator, take part in test drives sometimes, overall learn the ropes, and if a driver is for some reason unable to take part in a race, they will replace him.

But Antonelli has only done F4, entirely bypassed F3, was brought into F2 this year and is now gonna join F1 after just one season there. He's not been a reserve driver. He's done his first session in a normal F1 race weekend alongside other F1 driver this weekend and it went like this : lap 1 he's the fastest of them all, lap 2 he crashes in a wall at high speed, end of his session.

So why choose him? Well Toto Wolff the Mercedes team principal has been very annoyed that he let another such very young very unprepared rookie slip his fingers ten years ago : current 3 time world champion, racing prodigy Max Verstappen. Max joined before he was even old enough to have a normal driving license. He too had skipped some steps to F1 although not as many as Antonelli. And although he had a bit of a rocky first few season clearly due to his inexperience, he turned out to be one of the best drivers we have ever seen so far. Some have the feeling that Toto Wolff is trying to forcefully recreate the phenomenon. Even though Max Verstappen is a clear outlier, an exception to the rule rather than an example that bringing young drivers in very fast is a good idea.

Note that Antonelli is said to be extremely talented and that's also why he's been fasttracked to F1 this way. BUT he's underprepared, again very young and facing a huge amount of pressure.

First of all rookies who join F1 are always under pressure because they have very little time to show that they are up to the challenge even though they have barely any experience driving in F1 with cars that are very different from F2 or anything else they've driven up until then. This week, another young driver, Logan Sargeant, was fired mid season in only his second year in F1 because he didn't progress enough. It's over for him and he'll never be back even though those who raced with him in previous formulas say he had more potential than what he was able to show. Many such cases.

Second of all people have been mounting this narrative around Antonelli. Toto wolff, but also journalists. They're acting like he's the next champion. They're calling him Lewis Hamilton's heir for some reason. He has driven 1.5 laps in the current cars so far. It's insane. A generally well respected f1 journalist said yesterday that he hasn't seen f1 this excited about a rookie since fucking Michael Schumacher himself.

So yeah. That's the narrative : the best driver in history leaves his historic team after an unprecedented successful partnership by surprise. The team principal decides he needs another prodigy to replace him and bring his somewhat struggling team back to his former title winning glory. Can't persuade the current prodigy Max Verstappen to leave his own title winning team to join them. Not now, not 10 years ago. Decides to pluck a baby from his cradle to become the next shiny thing. Everybody holds their breath while they wait to see if he'll sink or swim.

[arealtrashact]

What is the appeal/what do you like about Saw? I enjoy horror as a genre and have seen people post about saw a lot on here and had the opportunity to watch it so I did. But. I'm kind of confused? what I enjoy about horror is (a lot of different things, some of which are:) the anticipation, the contrast of good, pleasant times and the deeply horrific things which then happen, a plot that is unpredictable even if it's clear it will only end badly, I enjoy not knowing how exactly it will be bad and then the film slowly revealing that to me. Saw did very few of these things. Maybe it's just not a film for me, (I haven't watched many slashers and I can imagine they might be similar and it's just a subgenre I don't understand/am destined not to like?) but even so I just cannot understand what people enjoy about it??? from the get go it's grim and horrific, which means that when things get worse, they never really feel that bad because you have no example of goodness in that universe to compare it to? The characters are. Pretty two dimensional and also not necessarily likeable. Idk I could go on but I don't want to sound like a dickhead who loves the sound of their own voice writing a really critical review of something I don't understand. I feel like with the fanbase it has on this website, I must be missing something. Please enlighten me!!! And if you can't explain it I would love any articles/analyses of the franchise that go some way to explain why people like it if you know of any. Sorry for littering your inbox with this mini essay lol but I watched it last week and I'm still just like. Disappointed and confused and you're the first person on my dash to post something related to it so lucky you, you get to be the receiver of this ask !!! Thank you in advance if you even read this far lol, I'd really appreciate if you could point me in the direction of some kind of explanation !!! No worries if not tho, have a good rest of your week 🌻🧡

I think you had it when you said, 'Maybe it's just not a film for me'. It really is as simple as that.

There isn't always a deeper meaning or some secret detail everyone else who does enjoy it is privy to. There is no magic answer that will enlighten you into the appeal that something holds for certain people.

That being said, you shouldn't feel confused or left out by being perturbed by something as polarizing as Saw lol.

I can't answer for everybody who likes this franchise because I'm sure everyone has different reasons but speaking solely for myself : I like these movies for all the reasons you listed that you don't.

These films are like chicken soup for my soul, and have been since I was about ten years old. They make me laugh, they provide me with catharsis, and ( contrary to your statement) I find the characters very charming. I could wax on about what these movies did for me at that tender age but I am not in the habit of analyzing why I love the things that I do ( I think I'd find some patterns I wouldn't want to acknowledge /coughs/ ). All I know is that when Hello Zepp starts playing at the end of every installment, my heart swells with uncomplicated joy.

[hellsirenqueen-moved]

Hi! I've been a bit absent from the dash, and while I know it started with that one God account.. what IS the unholy crusade? What's happening here? :0

{Hello hello there friend! Come, take a seat. Xixi is going to give her story time! This is going to be a long one so I'll be placing the recap under a read more here.

So for those unaware of what's going on, things started to get..uh..interesting when a Big G (God) account (hxly-fxther) came around. They had made a post that basically challenged everyone to have one(1) chance to land a hit on them.

When most people attacked him, he would rate their hits. Unfortunately for Lilith, when she made her hit, she wasn't rated at all. But..she was given some information that startled her. She wasn't exactly happen to learn the info he had for her. I'll place the ask and the reply down below. There's going to be more than one image because, well, Lilith is dramatic. So the screen shot takes more than one pic.

Sadly, that was the end of that thread. There was one more thread that sort of..sparked things to get chaotic.

Reacting to that thread, Lilith did something that she normally never does - physically letting her anger out on furniture. She had a brief encounter with God, as he had mocked her rage and offered her wine to relax; but she basically told him to pound salt and declined his wine.

She didn't calm down until she was approached by Adam ( @dick-meister ) to figure out why she was having such a rage fit. It was then she broke the news of what their true purpose was to him.

He seemed to take the news better than her, but it opened a bridge for them to make amends for the eons of bad blood between them. They would try to be friends, maybe more, if time and their egos allowed.

Lilith later informed Lucifer ( @hells-greatestdad) of the news as well. She was a little more emotional with breaking the news to him, as their true purpose affected their daily lives. Thankfully Lucifer was an understanding partner and told Lilith that loved her, be it a part of God's plan or not.

Now, while all this was happening, God was still taking shots from various characters. Adam (@/dick-meister) tried hitting him twice. His first "hit" was more or less a light tap to God's face. Not gonna lie, my Rosie poked fun at him for that. His second attempt had him taken to Purgatory, where he spent a day (But an hour in Purgatory time) in, fighting off the creatures that live there. Lilith still had questions for God about what he told her, so she made her way to visit him. However, what she encountered both shocked and angered her. The screen shots below will explain why.

I have a personal hc that Lilith took a picture of God's planning board before she said anything to him in the situation below. She knew that many wouldn't believe her word alone, so she does have solid proof of what she saw.

That was more or less the end of that thread. It was shortly after this thread that the God account deactivated. So we had a little problem. Adam was stuck in Purgatory.

If it wasn't for Lucifer ( @/hells-greatestdad ) getting him out of there, he would still be in Purgatory. Upon hearing that he was back, Lilith went to visit him and yes, Lucifer knew. He approved of her outfit before heading out and she promised to be back before dawn.

Waiting in Adam's room with her snake familiar, Penelope, she spoke to Adam in the privacy of his room. She told him God's plans for Heaven and Hell. As she went into detail, she started to crack a bit, panic showing for the future. Adam managed to calm Even though the plan itself sounded outlandish, Lilith was glad that he believed her. Adam agreed that he would try to talk to Sera to see if a meeting between Heaven and Hell could happen. They then exchanged numbers and she sent him the picture she took of God's planning board. Their conversation ended there, but she did sing Adam to sleep, creating lyrics on the spot to help ease his mind from the constant battles he was involved in when he was in Purgatory.

Lilith later returned to Lucifer as she promised. She didn't have the heart to tell him God's plan when he was half awake in her arms. So she just softly sang the first song she performed when she first met Lucifer to help him go back to sleep.

It wasn't until the next day that she told him everything she told Adam. He was, as one would imagine, disturbed by the information, but he agreed with her that they needed to do something about the situation. They are debating on whether or not to tell Charlie. At the moment, they are leaning towards telling her, as this war will affect all souls on either side of the afterlife. It wouldn't make sense if she redeemed souls that would be attacked anyway in Heaven. (This is a planned rp that will be happening soon with the Lucifer mentioned, Charlie ( @hellsdisneyprincess ) and myself. So be on the look out for that if you want to see the tea for that aspect of the plot.) After having that conversation, Lilith figures that she needs to have a conversation with her Overlords and confront those she has a contract with. The first she spoke with was Alastor ( @radioiaci ) He has agreed to come when called when there is a meeting. Though he gave her the answer she was hoping for, she knew he didn't trust him. There was also the possibility of him being controlled by another through the puppet marking she had placed on him during Rosie's Blood Rose Ball as a way of controlling his physical actions. She was hoping to use it as a way to keep him obedient; but with her control over him placed in jeopardy, she has decided to release him of that particular constraint. She is currently testing Alastor, seeing if he can get a hit on her - extending the challenge that God offered everyone else. Lilith wants to see whether he is ready to fight against rejected creations of God. It will give her an idea as to how strong he is and his battle tactics to hit a moving target. She's not going to make it easy for him, which she knows will frustrate him, but is a necessary evil - though she would admit that making him frustrated is a bit amusing. Still concerned about what is to come, Lilith created a collar for Adam. Designed for his particular taste (image will be posted on his relationship post later today), she made it so that he was protected against demonic and elemental magic. To prove a point, she had him step into a garden while he wore it, casting lightning and an orb of anti matter mixed with dark magic at him. A protective shield went around him and a 5 foot crater was left all around him.

To her surprise, he also had a gift for her. (Image will be posted later today)

A ring that will allow Lilith to transverse between Heaven and Hell without being detected. She quite proudly wears it on her right hand, as her left is reserved only for her ring with Lucifer.

Though the God blog is deactivated, Lucifer and Lilith have been both been given a message by God via anon.

Lucifer was told that he is doing well, playing his part - to which greatly upset him. Lilith and Adam comforted him, knowing how much his presence alone rattled Lucifer. With it being Lucililith Week, Lucifer and Lilith were going to take the week to celebrate their marriage and reign over Hell. Taking a week to basically relax and take time for themselves before diving into the headache that was the war God had planned for them. Unfortunately, that pleasant idea flew out the window when Lilith was visited. You can see that interaction HERE! Both Adam and Lucifer are doing their best to help calm Lilith down because hoo boy..this woman is NOT happy. You can see the interactions for Adam HERE and HERE ll interactions for Lucifer HERE and HERE.

So yeah. . .That's the story so far!

It's a lot..but I am still looking for others to be involved! Like, I do want to involve other Overlords and any nobles who want to get in on the plot. Lilith can use all the support she can get here.

[respectthepetty]

Be my favorite has got me. I’m down the rabbit hole as it were. I didn’t mean to be here, I fell and I refuse to get out of said hole.

Also….. Is this the first time I am seeing a characters growth and story through self realisation without the love interest?

Like Peesaang went on this journey from seeing the two men kissing in the club, going to the bar, going to see Max, and really taking the time with his feelings. I loved it!!!!!!

Not the ‘ I don’t like men, I just like you’ like….. A to the Men (amen) am I right?!

I'm going to be honest with myself - I've been in this hole since 2021. The initial 2021 trailer (with MIKE!) told me Be My Favorite was either gonna be a mess or a masterpiece, but I prayed it wouldn't be mediocre, so I am THRILLED that My Strange and Obnoxious Fixation™ has paid off. If the second half hurts us, y'all are going to witness a full grown adult have a meltdown on your dash that could rival one of those badass kids in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, but, so far, IT'S A WIN for me!

And the biggest reason is because of the characters. I am truly invested in JittiRain's evolution here because this is not her norm. I was very prepared for miscommunication, manipulation, and misdeeds, but instead we are getting MAGIC!

I'm sure other shows have done the self-realization journey without it being directly tied to the love interest, but what I'm liking about it here is it just isn't Pisaeng. Usually, the dynamic is one of the leads is pretty solid while the other has to find his way, but both of these guys are figuring it out, and we get to see that evolution. In fact, all the characters are working through their issues.

I read a few posts today of people stating they are feeling better about Kawi now after he showed growth from his initial behavior in the first few episodes. Same with Not. I still dislike that little jerk, but him sending a message to Kawi wishing him good luck was nice to see after he roasted Kawi for trying to find a talent.

Also, Kawi still helped Pisaeng on this journey of self-discovery, but Pisaeng didn't go on this journey to get Kawi. Kawi wasn't treated like the pot of gold at the end of the queer rainbow. Kawi questioned Pisaeng in episode four. He asked Pisaeng why he hadn't been direct about his feelings with Pear. Kawi asked Pisaeng what he was doing when he went in for the kiss. He told Pisaeng to be honest, with himself.

Pisaeng, a guy who believed he was being honest and open, having his actions questioned made him haul ass out of there. Kawi jump-started that reflection.

But Pisaeng is honest and open. He spoke to Pear the next day. He saw the men kissing, and although hesitant, he went to that gay bar. He spoke to Max and decided to confess to Kawi. Then, he returned to the bar.

I hope, and feel, that we are getting the same story from Kawi. He hasn't been honest with himself for a long time, and this statement isn't about queerness. This is about his life in general. However, he doesn't react the same way as Pisaeng. Kawi needs more support. He needs a bigger push. He needs people to guide him. Because for over a decade, Kawi has had nobody and feels like he has nothing.

Pisaeng has known something was wrong with what others believed to be his perfect life, so he was quick to adjust. Kawi has dreamed about what he believed would be his perfect life for at least twelve years, so he is very reluctant to reevaluate the choices he believes will get him that perfect life.

Kawi is doing everything under the guise of getting Pear and more money, but just like Pisaeng, he will have to be honest with himself and realize he is doing all of this because he is extremely lonely. Kawi doesn't need to get laid and get paid; he needs friends.

Both Pisaeng and Kawi need a friend.

And that's what I love about this. You're right! We aren't seeing a story of growth that involves the love interest.

Instead we are seeing stories about change that involve friends.

Because if we are being honest with ourselves, we all need a little help from our friends.

[signoraviolettavalery]

What moment made you see Bojan ❤️ Kris ? You can list as many as you want (the evidence is in abundance, I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner) Also, them two together is honestly the most beautiful thing I have ever seen thank you very much I’m gonna go cry my eyes out in a corner bye

you know, the funny thing is, idk if there was 'evidence' so much as, there were fanfics on my dash (probably by @reserved-fruit ) and they made me start thinking about how they've been best friends for more than a decade and wouldn't it be poetic and beautiful if Kris had been secretly in love for years and pining but hiding it and then I was like "hmm interesting concept" and read more fics and *then* I went into the tag and saw all the posts and was like "you know what you have a point"

which is probably not the answer you were looking for

but if I had to point to memorable moments that like, "convinced" me even though kris is outwardly a hater most of the time, it's that pre-eurovision interview where Bojan confessed that he was scared he'd sing it badly and Kris knew exactly what to say to him: "well have you ever sung it badly before? no. so you won't at eurovision." He was the support Bojan needed when it was important.

and then I saw some of the concert videos from after the Thailand trip (was it in Croatia? Vienna? I can't keep track anymore) where they were Like That (you know what I mean) and my brain went "ok hmmmmm"

and then I saw a post that was like "Kris might be a hater but then he literally just casually drops bombs like, I learned to play guitar because of Bojan and I dropped my old band to join him because I saw what he could be" and just, like, Kris honey I see why you have to call him the douchebag from TikTok because if you didn't your mouth would accidentally let bombshells like this fall constantly

[bl-bracket]

4, 8, 16, 24 for ask game

4. Favorite Side Character

Okay this is so hard cause I love side characters so much. I think in terms of who has given me the most brain rot, I gotta go with my son Sound from My School President. Like angsty lonely gay teenager being adopted against his will by a group of weirdos (affectionate)? It's like they made a character specifically for me to project onto. I'm constantly torn between wanting to shake him around in my teeth and wanting to give him every good thing in the world. He's just so!!!!

8. First BL

So way back when (like 2017), I somehow discovered 2 Moons (the original one). Now I had never seen or heard of bls before beyond like yaoi manga, so like a full length live action tv show was so revolutionary to me and I could watch the whole thing on youtube? wow! I was obsessed (especially the ming/kit story line). Now, I wouldn't rec the drama nowadays but like little old me was shook and told all of my friends at school about it. BUT somehow I never watched another bl or show from Thailand until 2022 when I saw people posting about Not Me on the dash/trending tab and decided to watch and then from there I got into the BL fandom proper. Anyways when I saw people posting about Triage I was like so shook because I knew those guys!!!! I, for the record, have not seen 2 Moons 2 nor rewatched the original in so many years.

16. Favorite Trope

Ok so there are many tropes that I love a lot, but nothing gets me more excited then some good ol classic identity porn (side note: I really wish that it was called something else because telling my irl friends that I'm into identity porn is the worst). But yes I love it when characters have a secret identity and then when they interact with the same person in both identities? ooo that's the stuff. Guardian is my favorite example of this. Like all the work Shen Wei put into keeping Yunlan from realizing he was the Black Cloak Envoy? The quick identity switches? Zhao Yunlan putting the pieces together slowly? Ugh it's just so good, especially in romance stuff where like the character is falling for both identities and doesn't know what to do. I also love a good character reveal, particularly when they're revealing that the character who seemed very ordinary and normal is actually very powerful and cool. (another reason why I love it in Guardian). It can definitely be dragged out too long (I have not watched Miraculous Ladybug other than a couple episodes in my French class when I was younger but I have heard much about the infamous love square that is two people), but like it's definitely something that needs to last for a considerable amount of time in order to really scratch that itch in me. 23.5 kinda did this with the Earth/Ongsa thing, but while I did love that, I wouldn't label it was being the same as Shen Wei/Black Cloak Envoy. Like with Ongsa it was more of a mistaken identity/miscommunication thing while I like it when the character already has an established alter ego thing that they don't intend the LI to get close to, if that makes sense? Anyways this is a quite long of saying I like when characters are revealed to be more than they seem.

24. Dream Actor Pairing

Look I'm not breaking new ground here when I say that I want Jeff and Bible to do a drama together. It's so evil that Kim and Vegas didn't have any interactions. I think they would kill it (no pun intended) playing a couple in a drama. Other than that, I'm not too sure? There's a lot of actors I really like and want to see more of or think could act well with another, but I don't have many other I need these two to play lovers that haven't already? Like I would absolutely love to get Gawin/First again (Danyok was not enough for me) or for Tor and Gun to actually get to play lovers some time.

[nururu]

Hi. So I saw your posts about the x reader stuff, and I'm sorry that your having your time on Tumblr ruined by a community you aren't apart of. I know the tag feature has been an issue with a lot of people in tons of different communities.

But I am genuinely curious, because shouldn't this be something your more mad at the Tumblr tag function or just Tumblr in general for? Like I checked the posts you showed in the video, and both seem to be tagged fairly normally, and neither seemed spammed with tags. So wouldn't it be more productive to submit reports to Tumblr about the lack of the tag function reflecting your blocked/muted tags and creators?

As someone from the x reader side, I can assure you that we aren't doing this stuff maliciously, and I know I can speak for a lot of people on here when I say that we just want everyone to enjoy their time on the site. But taking the anger out on the creator when the fault really is with the site's tagging feature itself doesn't really solve anything.

Especially since this is an issue much bigger than just fanfiction side, as I know many artists try their best to tag their art with phobias that may trigger people in a particular piece, and how the tagging system is now, it's not really able to help as effectively as it should.

But anyways, again I'm sorry this is having a negative impact on your time here. I really do hope they get this stuff sorted out soon. And I highly recommend that you submit a report to possibly further help the push for a better tagging system.

I hope you have a wonderful day. ❤

Since 2012 when I started using Tumblr, it's always had issues with how it's functioned and how the tagging system has functioned. That's why it's userbase came together as a whole to do a damn good job at making sure things were tagged properly so people wouldn't have these issues with the tagging system (that has never once been perfect since the beginning of Tumblr and most likely never will be.) I'm specifically mad at x reader writers because they are the ONLY people who do not tag properly.

Example: don't tag x reader stuff with main fandom tags. Like instead of tagging it [character name] AND [ character name x reader], tag it with JUST [Character name x reader] instead of tagging it with [show name] AND [Show name x reader] tag it with JUST [Show name x reader]

That way, when I mute "show/character name x reader", it will actually mute it. The I can properly avoid it. But when you tag it with all the main fandom tags as well, it gets unmuted and I can no longer avoid it.

Also x reader writers will tag it with EVERY main fandom tags. Not just the characters they've wrote about, but every single strawhat. So I'm seeing usopp x reader in the Luffy tag.

Truly, this is less of "Tumblr tag system not working" and moreso "people not using the tag system properly and ruining its purpose". If I tagged every single dog I saw with cat tags, it would show up in all the cat tags. So when people search cats, all they'll get is dogs. Not that they hate dogs, but it's NOT what they're looking for. And just because I want everyone to see dogs, doesn't mean I should force them to.

Tumblr doesn't use an AI to auto tag things and sort them properly. It uses it's userbase to do that. If it's userbase isn't using it right, it doesn't work.

I am 1000000% blaming x reader writers. Every single fandom has this issue. Ive seen multiple viral posts complaining about this NOT just from the one piece fandom. It's inconsiderate, and rude, and ruins many peoples tag pages, fyps, AND dashes.

It's not my responsibility to fix an issue I didn't create. All it would take is for this one group of people to stop accosting everyone and start using the tag system as it was intended. This is the first time in my 12yrs on this site where it's been an issue. And it's because none of these writers tag correctly. Simple as that. Tumblr can't stop "dog" from being sorted into the "cat" tag if everyone is tagging dogs as cats.

Also it's not an accident or simply forgetting. It's intentional. And it shouldn't be bc it ruins everyone else's experience.

[velvetvexations]

Okay okay this happened like months ago but it's been stuck in my brain ever since and I GOTTA complain about it to someone: remember back when that one youtube video about HRT came out and while other kinds of trans were on the writing team there was a lack of trans women and so they were kind of wrong about estrogen? And there was massive backlash about how transmisogynistic the whole thing was and how dangerous it was and how it misinforms people about HRT.

A post I saw a lot of on here at the time went something like, "this is the same as if they were writing about pregnancy and only had cis men on the writing team and completely ignored women speaking out". Which. Like. Girl,,,,, there were other genders of trans person on the writing staff. I'm not gonna excuse the being wrong about estrogen part but this is really seriously Not The Same and making that comparison really uh. Really. Shows your whole ass.

I have not been able to get over it I have puzzled over this bullshit post and malded whenever it got put on my dash I have had this stupid thing living in my OCD rent free for months now what do you MEAN it's like cis men were writing about pregnancy with no female voices are you ignoring the rest of the HRT information included or does that just not matter? Why is an imperfect attempt to explain HRT to the layperson that does not adequately cover the breadth of the trans experience comparable to a room full of cis men writing about pregnancy.

Yes there should have been a trans woman in the writing team that was an egregious mistake but frankly comparing other trans people writing about their HRT and inadequately covering estrogen is not the same as Cis! Men! Mansplaining pregnancy! and the comparison really reads to me like the only HRT that matters to the poster is estrogen. Because cis men (other genders of trans people) don't understand pregnancy (HRT) and can't understand pregnancy (HRT) and thus have the true knowledge of it, so not including (trans) women in your discussion of pregnancy (HRT) is fundamentally misrepresenting what pregnancy (HRT) is.

Also I am mildly skeeved by the pregnancy comparison to begin with because. Y'know. Trans Men can get pregnant. Trans men CAN speak on pregnancy. Being denied from spaces for pregnancy care is a major problem for pregnant trans men. Not being able to speak about our pregnancies and the struggles they cause is in fact a huge issue.

(As an aside I really wonder what the people who say transandrophobia doesn't exist would call corrective impregnation to force a detransition. Regular transphobia? But that's fundamentally not an experience perisex trans women are capable of having. Is regular transphobia just All Transphobia Ever or is it the transphobia that all trans people experience? If regular transphobia is All Transphobia Ever then why would there be a need to distinguish the intersection of transphobia and misogyny to identify the types of transphobia unique to trans women? If regular transphobia is instead the forms of transphobia experienced by all trans people, why is there pushback against other genders putting labels to their own intersectional overlap with transphobia to distinguish marginalizations that other trans people don't experience?)

Yeah, like. It's ideal to have people with as much experience possible but I don't think people realize how weird and complicated it would be if no one could ever educate people about things they don't have direct, first-hand experience with. In this case, someone made a massive error that a trans woman in the same position probably wouldn't have, but to act like a trans person talking about estrogen is as removed from the issue as cis men are from pregnancy is wild.

[killerfrostisme]

That last line in TEG absolutely KILLED me. So I decided to write a series of Locklyle one-shots, to heal my poor broken unsatisfied heart.This one takes place somewhere between TCS and TEG. Enjoy!:) I posted this on Fanfiction.net as well, so you can check it out. It's called Moments in Time and by username is MissPotts01.

Lucy Carlyle was having a really hard time not falling in love with Anthony Lockwood.

It wasn't his good looks that did her in, (though they certainly were an added bonus). She pretended not to notice her heart do backflips everytime a lock of his dark hair would fall into his eyes, or the way he'd flash his special smile at her, successfully making her forget all logic. Or the way he threw back his head and laughed at something George said/did, making her wish she could bottle the sound and listen to it whenever she wanted.

It wasn't even because of the suave, confident disposition that was his leadership. Or the quiet, calm way he inspired his team's confidence and gave them the strength to believe in themselves. Or the way he'd congratulate everyone individually on a job well done after a case was closed. His charm, his witty remarks, his charismatic smile were all trademarks of just him being Lockwood and were all enough on their own to give her butterflies.

But they weren't the reason why she was having a hard time preventing him from living rent-free in her head.

No. That was because of a very simple reason:-

Lockwood saw her as a person first and an agent second.

Ever since she was a little girl, her abilities as an agent had always been given top priority. Especially by her family. According to her mother, Lucy's primary existence revolved around solving the best cases, bringing in lots of money and generally being the best agent there ever was.

Even at the cost of her own safety.

It's not that she had ever resented her Talent, (she wouldn't know who she was without it) but sometimes she really wished her mother would try to have a conversation with Lucy Carlyle her daughter, rather than Lucy Carlyle, the agent. Her sisters weren't so bad, but there was such a wide chasm between her and them, that it seemed impossible and completely useless to try and cross it. Packing her bags and coming to London, had probably been the best decision she'd ever made. Here, she found a family.

And Lockwood.

She scowled. It was eleven thirty in the morning, (early by her standards) and she just couldn't get him out of her head. For crying out loud, the day had only just begun!

"Something wrong, Luce?" asked Lockwood, peering over the top of his newspaper. They were sitting at the breakfast table, rested from a night's sleep after a particularly gruelling case. George, was scribbling something in his research notes, and inhaling one jelly doughnut after the other, Holly was looking at him with mild disdain, as she daintily sipped her cup of tea.

And Lockwood?

Ah, Lockwood. Well, he was looking right at her.

"Luce?" He asked, his eyes probing, "Are you okay?"

Belatedly, Lucy realized Lockwood had asked her a question. Flushing bright red, she gulped down her scalding hot tea.

"Just fine." she said, sneaking a glance at Holly and George, to see if they were paying attention to the conversation. (They weren't. Holly was delicately broaching the topic of civilized eating with George, who was clearly not listening to a word she was saying.)

Lockwood raised his eyebrows. "Is that why you're scowling at your breakfast?"

She flushed a deep, beet root red. Ah. So he had caught that.

"Oh, just thinking about things." she said flippantly. Getting out of here would probably be a good idea. She could never think logically when Lockwood was shooting her one of his 'searching' looks.

She grabbed her plate and cup, rinsed them in the sink and all but dashed out of the kitchen, all while feeling the intensity of Lockwood's gaze on her.

The warm afternoon sunshine was making her sleepy. She was sitting out in the garden, drawing soft, languid strokes across her sketchbook. First came the strong, defined jawline, the angular cheekbones, the megawatt smile, tousled hair, there was no mistake:- she was drawing Lockwood.

"Is that supposed to be me?" asked a voice behind her.

She jumped a foot in the air, and whirled around. Lockwood was standing there, no tie, shirt sleeves rolled up, looking more relaxed than she'd ever seen him.

"Yes," she said, suddenly remembering that he'd asked her a question.

"It's really good." He smiled at her, soft, slow and hesitant, the one he reserved just for her. "You're really good, Luce."

She flushed as red as a tomato at his praise. (Was she doomed to forever resembling a tomato when he was around?)

"If it's okay with you," (he rubbed the back of his neck) "I would-" (now he was messing with his hair) "-really love to see more of your sketches."

Oh.

It's not that she didn't want to show him. She did! He was the first person she would have shown all her work to if...he weren't the centre of nearly every artwork she'd done.

She opened her mouth, prepared to decline and make up some excuse which he'd never believe, when suddenly-

"Yes."

Had she actually said that? No, she hadn't. The wind was messing with her hearing.

Except, there was no wind.

Which meant...she'd just agreed to letting Lockwood see her sketches.

Lockwood on the other hand, seemed unaware of the inner turmoil in Lucy's head, because he was already stretching out a long quick fingered hand for her sketchbook-

-and wordlessly, Lucy seemed to be handing it to him.

She watched him flip through the pages, and felt something akin to a very strong and intense feeling blooming in her chest. What that feeling was she had no idea. Well, she had some idea but she was trying not to think about that. All she knew was she felt extreme happiness when he was around, felt joy when he noticed little things about her and felt pleasantly surprised when he wanted to know more about her, the person rather than her agent persona. She felt special when he chose to confide in her, and while their experience on The Other Side had severely scarred them, she wouldn't change a thing about it. It had forged an irrefutable bond between them which she'd rather kiss a Raw-bones than break.

Love.

The unfamiliarity of the word struck her as odd, since the person who it was associated with felt like home.

She was incomparably, irrevevocably, completely and utterly in love with him.

The realization wasn't as jarring as she thought it would be. Instead, it brought with it a sense of peace, a sense of belonging and a feeling of familiarity.

Like coming home after a long day of work. She felt at ease, as if everything was just right.

As she looked at him, still thumbing through the pages of her sketchbook, she was still having a hard time not falling in love with him. But she found she didn't care. She was tired of ignoring her feelings and keeping them locked up in a box. She knew he felt something towards her, and was going to wait however long it took, to make him realize that she was going nowhere.

She looked at him and smiled:- I am going to allow myself to fall head over heels in love with Anthony Lockwood.

[m00nj3w3l]

Well here I am (ONS chapter 128)

Ok I'm finally writing out my thoughts about ONS' 128. Idk how long it'll come out (extremely long as I'm writing it it seems...) and also as always I want to hear others' opinions on this, but as a warning it will be mostly negative. I actually did a similar post back at the start of the year with BSD, but BSD at least managed to bounce back full force and do what it needed to do while ONS shows no signs of that.

I'll break it down into the following points:

>I'm also getting tired of the flashbacks (as many already did)

>I miss the Shinoa squad (will touch upon Mitsuba specifically and y'all probably know why)

>The belief that MikaYuu fans are getting much better content and why I think that's bs (will probably mention my theorem of "Mika, along with literally all the women of the franchise, got hit with the mysoginy stick")

So let's go I guess, under the cut so I don't clutter my non-ONS followers' dash.

>The flashbacks: I... Did not mind them up unti now, if I've got to be honest. Let's be serious here everyone probably expected a batshit crazy backstory for the characters, ESPECIALLY Yuu and Mika, and that's what made me not really complain. Now it has been like? 8 chapters of ONLY flashbacks??? Only things of the past with NO break and NO POV switches to at least let us know wtf is going on in the outside world. Christ. The fact that irritates me the most is that all of this adds nothing to the plot either!!! What are the MCs supposed to do now that they've seen one of them (WHO HAS BEEN 4 DIFFERENT SPECIES TOO SINCE THE START OF THE SERIES???) sacrifice for the 3rd time!!!! AND IN THE PAST AT THAT!!!! HOW IS THIS USEFUL FOR THEM OR ANY OF US AGHHFHGHHG. We got other gays going at it tho and that's just funny to me. This is just a BL masked as a battle shonen lmaoooo.

>The Shinoa squad: I feel like this is obvious. Where tf are they? They obviously are looking out for where Mika and Yuu are, how did we not see them again yet??? Some progress in their hunt (let's call it that) for those two??? Shinoa literally threatened to kill Mika (and, for a number of reasons, let me say this: ew.) I'd at least like to see her and how she's doing. And didn't Kagami promise us Mitsuba would get more screentime soon? THIS IS LITERALLY A PERFECT SETTING. SHOW ME HER AND SHINOA BEING IN CONFLICT CUS SHE WORRIES ABOUT HER FRIEND AND WANTS HER TO COME TO HER SENSES!!! SHOW ME HOW THEE LITERAL KIDS ARE DOING AFTER BEING ASKED BY A FULL ON 24 Y.O TO CHOOSE THEIR FAMILIES OR THE WORLD LIKE BE SO SERIOUS THE SETTING WAS *DECENT* (wouldn't say perfect cus I'm not the biggest fan of the "bring everyone back" plot but ok) FOR IT ALL I'M *explodes*

>MikaYuu: Oh boy ok here we go. So since I came back after my rewatch and catch up to this manga which resulted in hyperfixation again I noticed that the narrative of MikaYuu shippers getting better content cus a lot of the chapters now focus on them is... common. And for a while I just thought "ok" and moved on but now I'm fully on convinced it's just. Not true. Not because the content isn't there, I would be lying if I said that, but because it's... Not good. Good content, for me (as someone who clearly loves these two if you scroll for even 2 minutes down my fucking tag), would be seeing actual growth between them, some actual substance in what they are doing as of rn, and we are not getting any of that. Since when did we see them actually DO something? Last time we saw Yuu in his actual body and actually saying something was last chapter and he was EATING. Then we went back to them just passively staring at everything that went on. And to add onto this, I dislike demon Mika as a plot IN GENERAL because it recessed any development both for HIM and for Yuu himself. Yuu acts stupid (wtf happened to him after Nagoya I'm being so serious Nagoya Yuu I miss you so much) as shit cus anyway Mika IS strong enough to let him get away with it but not enough to oppose Yuu at some point and this was addressed as a problem for like 2 seconds and then nothing. Oh my God. And not only that but this fucking thing also shows that Mika did, indeed, also get hit with a mysoginy beam, but that's another topic I want to talk about in another post if anyone even really cares about it.

So... Yeah. I'm not tired (I only started catching up in March after my rewatch, so I'm still curios about how this will go), but I AM sad. I really miss the earlier arcs and the potential they all had that now seems like a long lost memory. Can we all collectevely just go back to the Nagoya one like if the series stuck to that path I would be able to excuse its flaws up until a point because GOD. The eyeball with its Seraph shit or whatever the hell it was doing was cool tho.

As always y'all can tell me what y'all think, but I'm mostly expecting this to get lost in the void given how dead the fandom is. So yeah, see ya.

[anghraine]

firinnish replied to this post [a poll about headcanons for the in-story reasons that the Stewards were not in Gondor's line of succession despite being descendants of Elendil]:

for practical reasons. Gondor's late kings were BAD KINGS. That is a vital part of the text. There is even a part of the history where a 100% legitimate claimant comes along and Gondor is just like "nah". These are people who hold kings to a high fucking standard because they want their noble fantasy kings of old back & don't want to risk another shitty king It is explicit in the text that Aragorn is the rightful heir to everything, like, five ways from Sunday, but he does NOT just stroll in and be like "what's up yall take orders from me now". He first wins a battle for Gondor, goes among them as a stranger with healing hands (fulfilling a prophecy/legend), and rides to battle against Sauron before he dares actually assert that these people should ACCEPT HIM AS ABSOLUTE DICTATOR. His lineage isn't the thing that matters [...]

You left a ... lot of replies on my poll, so for the convenience of my dash, I'm putting the rest of your response below my reply, in italics, so people can see it and/or respond if they want.

I disagree at some level with almost everything you said. I'm not going to go into exhaustive detail about every point of disagreement, but Arvedui is very much not a 100% legitimate claimant in my view.

His argument that his wife Fíriel's birthright would make him king of Gondor under Númenórean law is simply false (Fíriel herself would have been ruling queen under Númenórean law and Arvedui no more than her consort; the only men who ruled Númenor through the birthrights of their wives were usurpers of those wives and/or of their children). The claim of the heirs of Isildur is debatable, in-story—the characters cannot know Isildur's intentions when "he forsook the South Kingdom", as The Silmarillion describes it—but Arvedui was not even heir of Isildur at the time that he made the claim. His father was still alive; Arvedui made the claim at the time he did simply because his wife's father and brothers had just died and he saw the chance (if a low chance) to seize power in Gondor.

Gondor's late kings made significant mistakes (as did many of the kings in Arnor and Arthedain) but were not, IMO, as bad as you're representing them. Eärnil especially seems to have been quite a solid character. In any case, I'm unsure what this, or your personal willingness to accept Aragorn over Denethor as absolute dictator has to do with my poll. I do prefer Denethor to Aragorn in general and think the Stewards historically have been better rulers than the kings of either Arnor/Arthedain or Gondor, so we're basically at "I would kneel to Aragorn and not Denethor" "well I wouldn't", which leads nowhere. But again, I actually don't know what Aragorn has to do with my post.

I also don't know why you're quoting movie Boromir in the course of lecturing me about Tolkien. This is all just kind of puzzling on my end.

The rest of the replies:

His lineage is what makes HIM certain that that is his destiny & causes people around him to react to him but they are also reacting to the obvious training/care/investment that has been made in him by people like FUCKING ELROND, his NOT SIGNIFICANT foster father, and to his deeds. any time he claims his lineage Tolkien writes about how he almost shines with confidence and the glory of the old days. He is the myth of a good king reawakened

You could be a completely legit ancestor of the most legit proven heritage & the people of Gondor could STILL JUST SAY NO. Heck Boromir reacts like that at first - "Gondor doesn't need a king". The people do not WANT a shitty king with a famous dad, they want to believe again, they want to be made to hope again, they want someone who inspires them to believe in the IDEA of a king again. Otherwise they could literally just say no lol

And this ties in a vitally important way into Tolkien's politics. Man was a monarchist and an anarchist at the same time. You can't put him in either box. The hereditary kingship in Tolkien's politics is only acceptable BECAUSE it is the freely chosen will of the people to be ruled by an absolute dictator who, for the most part, leaves them alone. The king gets his hereditary power from familiarity & belonging, just as much as from tradition

*not insignificant. Elrond is very significant

It really hinges on this idea that a good king can exist - like, a good family can raise some good kids and everyone in the area will be happy to accept them as the new rulers because they've known that family for generations and they know they're a good family and they are happy with the way things are and don't want to rock the boat & they really believe in these ideals of nobility and loyalty. That's part of the fantasy. The idea that that can work if you're good.

The return of the king isn't "the return of the guy with the right genes", it's "the return of the guy who can make us believe again in the idea that a good king can work, that the world can be as noble and loyal as it was in the elder days of myth and glory, that we could swear loyalty to someone who is absolutely worth it"

You cannot extricate the inability of the Stewards to be Kings from the decline of Gondor's self-image, the crumbling ruins of Tolkien's world, the rising threat of Mordor and the end of the Third Age. The stewards cannot be kings because Gondor cannot be a kingdom. Aragorn can be King because he is the man that made Gondor a Kingdom again. He freaking REUNITED THE KINGDOM AND USHERED IN THE AGE OF MEN.

I'd kneel before Aragorn. I'd fucking walk away if Denethor asked me to kneel before him. It has nothing to do with these strict legalistic ideas of who inherited what and much more to do with who actually has power. Same as in the real world - people got overthrown all the time by others who could command more troops/money. But in Tolkien's world it's about who deserves it more, rather than about who has money/force, and that's the fantasy he is selling us

The part of this fantasy that is deeply problematic is that Tolkien just doesn't really reflect on his ideas about how coming from a noble lineage and a good family makes you better, more deserving, or more honourable. It's a natural idea to him, and it isn't to us and that's why it's harder to understand. He thinks goodness is heritable, like height or intelligence or sporting ability is heritable, because he can't disconnect those things

To him, "Aragorn is descended from xyz" is saying the same things as "well Aragorn just deserves the crown more because he's a better person". Aragorn inherited more strength, grace, wisdom etc. And the modern world does NOT like talking about the idea that any of those things could be heritable because, well, that's usually used to defend racism and horrible inexcusable shit

But I think you CANNOT engage with Tolkien without grappling with that (except on a very shallow level)

I may have written too much in the replies but I got carried away. Sorry I like over analysing Aragorn

If Tolkien was ever actually asked "do you believe some races are better than others" he would have told you to fuck off. He was vehemently against the Nazis. But then he writes this book in which elves are very clearly better than orcs. ie. you cannot simplify him to a liberal icon or to an evil racist. He's fucking complicated. I think on some level he WANTS there to be this fantasy world in which race is that simple but he understands that in the real world it isn't

In Tolkien's head, it's NEITHER "Aragorn was entitled to the kingship due to his descent and didn't need to do good deeds" NOR "Aragorn earned the kingship thru good deeds and his lineage didn't matter". He proved his heritage through good deeds because only someone who INHERITED tons of awesome qualities would be able to do the stuff Aragorn did

The modern reader simply does not consider the idea that awesomeness is heritable so we don't engage with the idea that you could prove you're descended from kings simply by being really really awesome

He uses the ideas of the blood of old kings running strong in some people and being weaker in others to talk about the amount of awesomeness you inherited. The technical legality of the stewards' family tree does not matter. The stewards did not inherit enough awesomeness and are therefore insufficiently awesome to defeat Mordor and restore the kingdom

It is not a simple or a coherent ideology either. Compare how Tolkien's hobbits are "small unimportant people who can become heroes" yet we do NOT see small unimportant Men becoming kings. It's like a special exemption is carved out for hobbits, for a modern "anyone can achieve anything" philosophy, and the rest of the world runs on the older rules of "you can't rise above your destined station"

It's very comparable to works in the 90s which were trying to be feminist by showing a super awesome badass female heroine…. yet every background character beyond Token Badass Woman was still running on the old rules of "men are default characters, women only exist to be wives or damsels in distress" because they had not actually gotten to the point of questioning that underlying background ideology yet

like the half elves. He's trying to be a progressive person by being like "oh biracial characters exist and are awesome" but everyone ELSE in his world still fits neatly into the boxes of "you're either x or y". We have heroic half elves. We do not have masses of half dwarf quarter orc quarter elf characters chilling in diverse multiracial cities.

someday people will see us this way btw. at least I hope so. they will see our bravest progressive statements as the stumbling half steps towards truths that have become obvious to them, while in the background of our stories they can still see our limiting old ideologies showing through. I am not yelling at Tolkien I have so much empathy for this man who tried so hard in such a darker world