#and there are some plot points you cannot unlearn

[bookwyrminspiration]

convince me to read a chorus of dragons ?

(falling to me knees) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

It's about corruption, the things people (and gods) will justify when they start seeing people as numbers. It's about how we carry the past with us always, and that means both the pain and the people we've loved. It's about brothers. It's about disillusionment. It's about breaking cycles.

It's queer high fantasy, genuinely some of the most complex worldbuilding I've encountered, following Kihrin and Co. It follows 3 points in time in the first book, detailing his backstory.

Raised in the lower circles in the capital of Quur, the biggest empire in the world, 15yo Kihrin is working as a thief--but he robs the wrong house at the wrong time, and crosses paths with a pair up to no good. When they send their demon after him, its commotion brings him into the path of the Royal Houses, who his adoptive father has kept him far away from.

Kihrin realizes why when it turns out he's a bastard son of a royal, and he's forced to leave his life behind to survive in the Upper Circle's cruel pomp and circus--but not for long, when he's kidnapped and sold into slavery.

Bought by a mysterious death cult, Kihrin learns being a royal bastard is the least important thing about him, not when a stranger calling him brother wants him dead. Not when the fate of the universe is in his hands and he doesn't even remember choosing to save it. Not when a corrupted god calls to him.

Not when everyone, including himself, is terrified he's going to destroy the world.

The series is dense and complex, with a large cast of uniquely fleshed out characters. I've barely made a dent into everything going on, and the confusion and relationships and morals the story presents have absolutely enchanted me. It's not for everyone, but I adore it, and if it sounds interesting, I'd highly recommend giving it a chance.

[ryukiethebored]

what do you mean, in-ho, that you’ve got to slip in how alike you and gi-hun could possibly be for any meaningful scrap of interaction with him 🙂

tl;dr over this gd milk, i now cannot unlearn that either in-ho or gi-hun is a likely son that il-nam was always talking about, but truthfully i'd rather imagine it's what i stated my first, instinctual thought was (below). this way, it's far more hilarious to imagine in-ho going out of his way to do. i do enjoy going with instinct

my first instinctual thought was that in-ho is riding the 'let's imitate gi-hun in as many ways that i can' train as part of his ploy to subtly earn gi-hun's trust and a sense of sameness and camaraderie with him, like when he mirrors gi-hun's passionate urging of the players to vote to leave or his general positive encouragements that were common during gi-hun’s first stint in the squid game, or even simply done for his own amusement like when he brings up the dalgona/umbrella.

however, while i was minding my own business looking for the milk scene in season 1 that semi-paralleled with in-ho's, il-nam's passing commentary happened after the fact (playfully noting how he spanked his son for being sensitive about milk) and well you'll never guess the rabbit hole i threw myself into next…….

those cursed son of il-nam theories

i immediately thought.. wait, is this really a revelation that is more than just in-ho's subtle manipulation, and is foreshadowing of a plot twist? because after looking into it, there are more small hints throughout the show that it seems impossible to be purely coincidence… right?

after deciding to internet deep dive to see what everyone else noticed of this in particular, i feel there’s truly little question his son would be in-ho (by the milk comment alone [which feels absurd, tbh], but why the focus on all the milk preferences in this show if not), granted in-ho is being genuine and the moment is no way related to his 'mimic and/or get gi-hun to trust me' act, which doesnt play that way because he doesn't glance at gi-hun or read the room after doing so, and neither does the camera cut to reactions

does a possible son surprise matter either way? (to me, not really) but i imagine it would bridge some gaps as to why in-ho ended up in the position he is

saw there's also the idea it could be gi-hun (who has a lot more substantial hints that could point toward it, yet at the same time has the ironic feel of being too huge of a jump because il-nam didn't give off the vibes his son would be gi-hun even when deep into morally testing him - and neither did gi-hun seem to experience any recognition)

at a point i threw up hands in ‘hey, maybe they're BOTH his sons’ - because in one instance il-nam does speak about kids in the plural (imagine how that'd get awkward if it were made true ahahah).

tho if any of this son business is true in the slightest, i do believe it would be only one of them, and likely the one who made a casual one-off comment about plain milk while no one was paying attention

could these be innocuous and irrelevant coincidences and simply a few random, milk-related interactions that could have more to do with a higher rate of milk sensitivity in their home country and said rabbit hole is merely everyone going stir-crazy? absolutely

[daubigny-stan]

If you used to be a fan of HP, please read Witch Hat Atelier

I am so serious. I think everyone who's read WHA will tell you this, it is a more refined and perfected flavor of HP's lore and worldbuilding. Moreover, the mangaka of WHA isn't a complete bigot unlike someone else who wrote a witch based story. It's so good even, that I think it's an insult that I'm comparing the two, however HP is the most familiar reference I have and in this post I'll be comparing and breaking the down.

HP feels like a 'chosen one' story whose world was haphazardly built around it, meanwhile WHA's story feels like one that is naturally developed from its well executed worldbuilding

Ok, this is not an elegant title, so allow me to explain. The HP method of worldbuilding which puts the ideas first and makes the world bend to the ideas is apparent in two concepts: how Harry is the chosen one and the separation of wizards and non-wizarding folk.

How is Harry positioned by the writer to be the chosen one? Because of the prophecy! And that's marked with him surviving the death curse which is an impossible thing to do lore-wise, so here's the complicated bad magic which explains why Harry did the impossible thing! See, it's like they thought of a cool design for a boat, but the boat wasn't able to float on water, so they just kept adding patches to the plot holes. And this isn't necessarily a bad thing in my opinion, the horcruxes were an interesting bit to the lore and does bring up the idea "oh killing someone splits the soul in half" which is a fine metaphor, I guess. But it feels like the world revolves around Harry and Voldemort rather than Harry and Voldemort living in it.

Meanwhile, Witch Hat Atelier? Airtight. Coco doesn't feel like a chosen one for the sake of being the protagonist. The ongoing battle after against the current magic policy of secrecy and limitation and the goals of exposing magic and unleashing its potential has existed long before Coco was around. Coco feels like just one of the Brimhats' many attempts to expose the witches' secrets to the Unlearned. At the moment we don't know if Coco was deliberately chosen because she has some special property or not, but even if she doesn't it just feels more special. Coco's protaganism is not defined by being special or powerful, she is birthed from the current circumstances and worldbuilding.

And Shirahama sensei's explanation for the separation of witches and the Unlearned don't feel arbitrary and contribute to the plot. Witches aren't special, they are just this group of people that were deemed worthy of learning magic. And magic is still shown to non-magic folk, it is not void from their world. This feels like the mangaka actually took from how real-world politics, it doesn't matter who is at the top actually, there is just an inherent injustice from the fact that some people can wield magic and some cannot. And this message is echoed with almost every story arc thus far. Coustas as a character is an incredibly example of how magic is also analogous for privilege or power. He is underprivileged for both being Unlearned and coming from the slums.

On the other hand, HP's idea of magical folk feeds back into how there are ideas for people first and then the world revolves around it poorly. This is not a novel complaint about HP but if magical babies are born randomly and can even be born to non wizard folk... how have they been concealed all this time? Like, I get it, magic and achieve amazing things including concealment and memory erasure but there is not concrete argument to keep concealing. The story and characters accept that rule without questioning it which really paints them as shallow. And also since magic is something you are born with, the idea that some people are born special and some are not? Really rubs you the wrong way.

HP's concept of morality is just... bleugh

A lot of the points I make here and in the previous point I think I'm echoing from Shaun's video on Harry Potter which you should go watch. The point I'm taking here is how arbitrarily good and evil is decided in the HP world, if you are the snake house or the snake KKK, you are evil. I didn't know you could strawman people in prose but there you go. Meanwhile, in WHA there is not necessarily an evil. People have different goals and those goals contradict with each other. That is the definition of conflict in this manga. It is also possible that characters have the same values but different goals so it makes for so many interesting foils.

Voldemort and the Death Eaters, I feel like their status as a bad guy with bad values is poorly rooted in the world. The wizards already have this pure world void of non-wizards and non-human wizards and they keep their magic to themselves, they're already plenty fascist against non-wizard folk. The Death Eaters don't really have a reason for existing. They feel evil for the sake of having a bad guy with fascist aesthetics, not because they are the consequence of the rules of the world or because they have goals that make sense. They don't really need to rid the world of non-magic folk, they already have a world to themselves. They don't need to rule the entire earth for its resources, they're already not sharing magic. They don't need nuclear weapons or oil or whatever. And it's not like the good guys are going against magic separatism either. They're just protecting the status quo and maybe asking "could we be a bit nicer to magic kids born out of non-magic families pwease?"

Meanwhile, the Brimhats, the antagonists of the WHA world, they make so much sense both the readers and the main characters are in this constant state of questioning who is right or wrong. Heck Coco, the main character, is the embodiment of the story's moral conflict. We are first introduced to Brimhats who are more hungry for power or unlimited magic that they will harm children so we accept with little hesitation that they will be the bad guys, but then we are introduced to Ininia. Ininia is also a little girl, much like the main gang, with the same values. Magic brings people happiness and can heal. Forbidden magic can do that much better so why not use it? And so far, even the protagonists don't have the answer! We are only shown the consequences of using forbidden magic. But throughout the story we are also shown the flaws of the current system.

There's so much more I could say, like about how WHA's characters are so well written, to the ACTUAL representation of gay people, disabled people, and class in the manga; but those are the two main points of why the story of WHA is so much better. Shirahama sensei does not treat her readers like dumb idiots. She trusts us to be intelligent and shows us scenarios that will leave us thinking for hours. GO READ WITCH HAT ATELIER

[itsthenovelteafactor]

lucy & holly in the show

contains spoilers for season one of lockwood and co and the hollow boy

i’m curious how a second season of lockwood and co would develop lucy and holly’s dynamic given the differences in lucy’s character in the show and how she interacts with other women - a bunch of musings/rambling incoming.

(i adore both versions with my whole heart)

in the books a lot of lucy’s arc is unlearning her internalized misogyny (specifically the idea that girls cannot be both feminine and strong and her nlog tendencies). it’s done in a way i think is very thoughtful - her judgement of other woman is clearly born from an insecurity in her own femininity brought on by starting work very young and constantly being told being an effective agent is the only thing that should matter to her (i believe it’s her mother that tells her ���pretty is not your profession”). she has a knee jerk resentment of holly and kat because of this, because if they *can* succeed in both being effective agents and traditionally feminine, that means that it is possible and she, lucy, is in some way lacking. all this coupled with a burgeoning attraction to lockwood and she’s suddenly hyper aware of and sensitive about all the ways she isn’t elegant or refined or graceful (and completely unaware of that fact that lockwood likes her because she’s lucy, and because she’s brave and kind and challenges him). it’s a really well done arc, and if i hadn’t known going in, i would’ve assumed the series was written by a woman based on how nuanced and empathetically its written (honestly major props and kudos to j stroud for that one).

this isn’t, however, an aspect of lucy’s personality in the show. she’s still judgmental, prickly, and very much *lucy*, but it isn’t pointed specifically at the other female characters in the same way (she snipes at flo, but not in a way that is different from how she snipes at kipps or george, and doesn’t single kat out at all). this change actually makes sense to me, largely because lucy in the show is supposed to be 16, as opposed to her book counterpart, who is 13/14 at the beginning of the series. the same arc would be harder to pull off, because so much of it is tied to the particular moment we meet her in the books, and would have made show lucy look immature in a way that is less understandable (not to mention that while lucy as a narrator only really describes herself through the lens of her insecurities, the shows audience can see that ruby stokes is quite conventionally attractive). they also spend more time in the beginning establishing a meaningful friendship between her and norrie, and her having an important female friend prior to holly would change their dynamic. however, for the plot of the hollow boy to work properly, we still need that conflict between holly and lucy, and while it could just be a case of there being resentment about lucy feeling replaced, i had a few thoughts of other ways it could be developed that might be interesting to explore with these versions of the characters.

lucy is hostile to holly because she is still dealing with what happened to norrie and on some level feels like making another female friend would be disloyal or replacing her in some way. in this scenario, they could tie in those voice recordings she’s been sending to norrie, and use the moment at the end when holly and lucy realize they had similar trauma to resolve the conflict. holly’s been in a similar situation and she can finally talk about norrie in a way she hasn’t been able to with lockwood and george. you could have moments where lucy and holly are getting along and lucy is somehow reminded of norrie and instantly shuts down/goes back to being very businesslike. i think this would make sense and feel true to lucy of the show while also fitting into the hollow boy really well.

lucy’s mother in the show is more explicitly abusive than in the books, and she could be hostile to holly because she thinks she’s trying to “mother” her in some way. book lucy has a decent if strained relationship with her family, and sisters she’s close to. show lucy, however, was both verbally and physically abused and forced to run away (side note: i can’t see show lucy visiting her family like in the book, but think it’d be really touching to have her go visit norrie in the hospital, which could also make her a lot more vulnerable emotionally when she and holly first meet). this one could play out in a similar way to the books, with the final resolution being a moment of lucy realizing holly is just a scared kid like her (maybe a nice callback to her line in season one about being scared all the time). i also like this one because it could get more into the trauma of the kids who are forced into leadership/parentified positions too young, and maybe also echo some of kipps’ arc as well.

the show’s characterization of joplin is a bit different than in the books, and given the guilt lucy harbors for how everything with george went down at the end of season one, she could be very touchy about anyone new joining the group and knowing anything about what they are doing. i could totally see her watching holly and george get along and getting very protective, in the process unintentionally making george feel like she doesn’t trust his judgement anymore (which could set up some of the same protective feelings that lead her to leave at the end of the hollow boy).

anyway these are just my ideas and i’d be curious to hear other people’s thoughts!

[asfearlessasamango]

here i ammmmm i hope this isnt the longest ask ever lol but i cannot overstate how GORGEOUS i find your prose. the phrase “tiredness curls up in each joint like old cats in old corners” is so absolutely evocative and paints such a melancholic, beautiful, rich picture in my mind every time i remember it. i could actually get it tattooed thats how seriously beautiful i find it. most of all i loooooooove the amount of social norms, architectural details, cultural differences etc etc you infused in the story to fill in the gaps of the canon universe. the choice of using of rice paper vs. glass and all the reasoning behind it is the example that comes to mind, but im sure that if i knew more about east asian cultures, i could identify more and more details you scattered throughout the plot to turn this make believe world into a truthful parallel of the real one we have. i can only say bravo. and if you have any recommended reading for homework, i’d love to know more about these references! now back to your writing! one of thee strongest points of the story, for me, is how believable these characters are as people. they feel so fully fleshed out that sometimes it was like intruding on someone’s most private thoughts - even a little painful to keep going, and i mean that in the best way possible! i especially loved the subtle addition of zuko’s ingrained sexism and prejudice against other nations, things that ofc he’s never had reason to unlearn in this universe. he is compassionate, but can be very unkind - seems like a delicate balance, but in your story, it just flows naturally. you inhabit their heads, strengths, flaws and life experiences so well, like sokka’s blind defensiveness when he thinks of himself as helpless, his brashness and ingenuity when he sees zuko more as a puzzle to solve than a person. that goes even people who haven't gotten that much plot attention yet - like azula wearing blue lipstick (!!!!) foaming at the mouth from the thought. OFC she would!!! shes bold, shes confident and shes here to shine + now she allows herself to have fun! do “ugly” and “imperfect” things for fun! and all the parallels between this redeemed azula and the canon zuko we know. your oc who is zuko's guardian, who he calls grandma, hasn't even shown up yet and i already love and miss her. uncle iroh!!!! zuko assuming malice from uncle iroh who only wants the best for him - but ofc he doesnt know that! but we do, and it hurtssss katara and aang!!! the bath scene with aang, zuko’s forced vulnerability, their honesty, aang’s absolute grace towards zuko. suki and the kyoshi warriors! i trust they will get their turn to kick some ignorant prince ass. and the thing that draws me the most to this genre: the exploration of trauma in its aftermath. your storytelling is wonderfully brutal here. like… you draw a white picture by filling in all its shadowy contours…. if that makes sense. all the ways zuko’s life was affected by his father add up to the shape of his hurt. him not eating fatty foods to stay fit and "bend better". recognizing azula in his own reflection instead of himself. wearing his mom’s night clothes. im going feral feral feral whew! in my heart all this would’ve been a very pretty glittery letter sent to your author p.o. box. i love your story and it lives constantly in my imagination - thank you so much for sharing it with the world!!!

ohhhmg.... thank you for this!! i sat on it for a whole minute to respond right! i'm so glad you like it!! i love that you love all these characters' new lives <3 <3

there are so many Very Careful Lines to Walk in doing an ATLA au bc the original characters and cultural stories are really so complex. and i am FAR from an expert on east asian history / cultures but here are a few sources that I found helpful / interesting:

jinian qian's writing for The Millions, especially the articles "The Moon Is Beautiful Tonight: On East Asian Narratives" and "Light in the West and Shadows in the East"

chaoyang trap, which is not at all about ancient china but about very modern chinese cultural existence, especially on the Internet / social media / fandom. I can't say this has directly provided me with a lot of relevant info but it does help me figure out attitude / approaches / how things "translate" into western contexts

and of course there are so many A:TLA blogs that really keep the analytical conversations going and make ao3 as vibrant as it is-- @atlaculture, @boybff, @volkswagonblues, @azularedemptionarcwhen, @chitsangenthusiast, @azulasnailtech, @visit-ba-sing-se, @marriedzukka, @bleekay, @ash-and-starlight, @sokkagatekeeper, @azulapropaganda, @zukkababey, @comradekatara, @ofherlionheart, @chaoticsandstorm

okay i will stop blasting this post into all of atla tumblr's notifs but the above blogs are total Gs, 10/10, would not be as deep into my MFA in a:tla without these trailblazing scholars who went before me

have a lovely vintage kermit meme, mwah

[safifonhasstrel]

what's your thoughts on sd's newsletter on witchshadow and ppl's reaction to it? art's meant to be analyzed and adored AND criticized and imo it's reasonable to express frustration when the book we paid for with our hard earned money doesn't live up to what's promised

Yeah honestly I am with you on this, anon. I think she's taking the criticism a bit too personally, which she really shouldn't. It's hard, I know that all too well. I am on my way to unlearn that too, so i know its easier said than done.

Every piece of media can, should, and will be criticised. That's just how it works. It's also very valid for the people who payed for said piece of media, not just with their money but also with their time, to be upset about things. I feel very bad for her and I know she went through a lot. I am glad everything worked out fine for her. But if I want to truthfully review something, I cannot think about what the creator might have went through. Then I wouldn't be able to give my honest opinion and we would have a whole bunch of 5 star rated books and reviews would no longer be valuable.

I myself have tried my best to be respectful in my review and give valid examples. I cannot speak for everyone though, and that people have contacted her personally is nuts. But people should be able to post freely on their own social media. I think, or I hope, that she knows that.

I am a bit annoyed about the bit saying it's fine if the book is confusing at first and readers will be able to catch up. It wasn't just confusing at first. Witchshadow genuinely made me feel stupid. Because some plot points were never mentioned before! Like the paladin who has taken over Aeduan, whose name I have already forgotten because that felt so random, and the hellbard loom. I did an entire reread of the series before starting Witchshadow, and non of these things were mentioned before. I even went back and checked again. That was one of my main complaint. Things that have never been mentioned before suddenly being more important than what we already know, and we as reader are just supposed to roll with it. Same with retconning relationships, and focusing on the wrong things/characters. Why was Iseult's book, a book she's been most excited for, centred around the Hellbards??? I genuinely couldn't care less about them, but I know a portion of the fandom loves them, but really? I was expecting to learn so must about nomatsi culture but we got so little. It didn't really feel like Iseult's book at all. I think that's incredibly valid criticism. I am not sure if she would agree with this, but it is what it is. Again, not to be taken personally please. We are all adults.

Also, taking advice from someone about a series you are writing, who hasn't read said series, even if they are your friend, is a CHOICE. While I loath time jumps in general, they CAN work for some stories. But the Witchlands is simply too complex for that.

And oh boy, that got way too long. But valid criticism is supposed to help you grow. And as my boss told me when I was facing a lot of difficulties and hard choices, that, too, is incredibly valuable for you to grow as a person. It sounds harsh at first, but it's true.

Anyway, I hope no one is going to come after me or any person who has criticised the book. I really don't want Susan to feel bad, but readers negative feelings are valid too.

Now I am gonna shut up.

[legionofpotatoes]

extremely bad faith mandalorian takes, do not engage please i cannot stop hysterically laughing at this season and thus am incapable of level-headed discourse. these are just words I want to write down to see if they look as unbelievable as they sound in my head

my favorite telltale sign of the embarrassing s3 story optics is their like. genuinely hilarious ostrich-neck-in-the-sand rehash of past story arcs down to the aesthetic fucking beats. that's the shit sandwich that really gets me in this whole stank buffet. It is astonishing. Like there was genuinely nothing else they could come up with as to not upset the status quo of their fickle, marketable story limbo, and so they, and I cannot stress this part enough, ignored established character progression beats and just did them again. they just did them again. from the top, using shockingly similar payoffs, right in front of our own eyes. and I just sat there and ate it!!

din has to re-love his toxic death cult after clearly progressing away from their value systems cause he's cooler with that helmet always on. gotta keep the limbo going. his main north star, set up as his way out of said cult, gets recruited into it instead, completely defanging the possibility of interrogating the entire bedrock of trauma and insecurity that kept uncomfortably clashing with his expressions of love and humanity in the past. now they're all one big happy gel of a Cool Dude With Gun and Kid. gotta keep the limbo going.

at some point he also has to re-learn his droid prejudices to then re-unlearn them again, a couple of times even, for no discernible thematic reason other than to make him act like an ass to some type of botched working class allegories (??? the fuck is going on with droids this season in general??). gotta keep the limbo going.

grogu, meanwhile, has to re-earn a mandalorian piece of armor to re-reinforce his allegiance (and here I was thinking the rond would be a pulpy setup for some shot-dead-fake-out but how can chekov's anything exist in this mangled mess), cause mandalorian culture is a live service videogame of tiered ranks now, so the potential upgrades are conveniently endless. gotta keep the limbo going. speaking of their culture, he also, hilariously, has to then be re-adopted by din to re-reveal their paternal bond and re-dramatize their love. cause he's not a foundling anymore, see; he's an apprentice now! the words are different. that makes the emotional meaning reset also. I know this from film school. audiences have no object permanence, right? they're all fish? we're writing this show for fucking fish, right? like in the aquariums? gotta keep the limbo going.

and they just keep doing this. they will dress it all up with technicalities and loud Plot Noise but it is all emotionally the same exact shit that has already happened and it is making me feel insane. same exact payoffs for backpedaled setups that were already, for all storytelling purposes, finished and done away with. it is comical. they're telling nothing. non-stories and recursive sisyphean plotlines that reset primitive character arcs every five episodes like it's the most unmoored bermuda triangle-ass time loop in space. you cannot even really twist it into some type of harmless expression in lieu of episodic TV, or even something more campy, cause like. it does have a rapidly progressing plotline about big and overarching stuff, stuff that is holistic, linear, and goal-oriented, like retaking homeworlds and reforging their broken nation and fighting mr gideon man. it's not a weekly detective romp with B plots galore, not anymore at least. but the characters somehow start and end in the same spots they always were. like the big ole smoking fucking gun that that is.

it feels like the most clear-cut example of plot moving forward - at breakneck speed sometimes - while characters progress either backwards or just. like. sideways and then back again?? almost like dropping a teabag into an empty mug and calling it a beverage. I see the pretty taste-making ingredient sitting sadly at the bottom there, but where's the substance? what is this all for? to wank it to how cool mandalorians look when they fly? I mean they can be pretty cool, no argument there. but some of them could be cooler if they felt things deeply and that changed them, fundamentally. you know, how A-to-B storytelling does sometimes.

and I am achingly aware that I am aging out of this show's target audience, I know that. but the death by comparison within the same bloody show's adjacent seasons is just as harrowing. what happened. it just worked too good is what. a corporation responsible for telling a myth will never allow it to finish if it suddenly starts hemorrhaging this much money. grogu and din can't progress, even aesthetically, past their season 1 selves, no matter how much that same season's story was setting them up to. cause inscrutable sad dad and cute doll baby combo. we'll either throw away those story hooks or keep resetting them. keep the limbo going.

groundhog day-ass show. it's hysterical. I can't be normal about how mask-off blatant this all is now.

and to follow this up to andor of all things. really clinches it, you know. no notes. just no notes, disney. tens across the board

[heretherebedork]

The main leads of Never Let Me Go simply cannot act. I'm not big on amazing acting in BLs. That is, what I'm trying to say is, I don't watch BLs for tasteful or even Oscar worthy acting, however even I can't sit through the terrible emoting of the main actors in NLMG. Only one episode left and through it all I, kept hoping they get better, but the series just kept going south, especially after episode 5. And the plot literally makes zero sense! Like I don't need supremely deep or meaningful plots, but it should at least be something. I feel like a lot BLs now are just becoming about hot kisses and steam quotient(I'm not complaining), but the story should make SOME sense at least!! The only reason I am still holding on is for Chopper. He deserves the world and the actor Perth also out-acts everyone in the series even with only 5mins of screentime/episode.

Welp, we can agree to disagree! I fully respect and enjoy the main two actors and consider this to be their redemption arc after Fish Upon the Sky.

So it's hard for me to comment much on this. I think Pond and Phuwin are quite talented actors and I'm enjoying their story. Is it perfect? No. But it makes more sense than the other mafia/bodyguard BL we got last time so no complaints here! (No, I will not name nor discuss this more, okay y'all?)

I really like them. I like Nueng and I see his growth and how he's matured and changed and learned about the strength he can take from other people and the bravery to admit his own sexuality but also the distrust that has grown in his that has lead to the way he's hurt my boy Chopper and I love how Palm has gone from forced into the job and thinking his boss was cute to mixing love and duty into one rather unhealthy mix that hopefully Nueng can take the time to help him unlearn from his father.

Chopper is absolutely my favorite character but that's also about how I like my characters. I still hope he gets shot instead of shooting his dad.

Anyway, everyone watches shows differently and I cannot judge acting ability because I am totally oblivious to a lot of the things that go into good acting and/or good acting chemistry. That's not my wheelhouse. But I like Pond and Phuwin and I'm very glad that they've gotten this chance to show us what they could do after FUTS showed us... nothing good.

I am worried for the finale because you are right that Chopper has had very little and I'm not sure they can give him a satisfying ending especially with Ben at this point. But they can try, I guess.

I mean, I'd again like to repeat that NLMG is absolutely my favorite bodyguard/mafia type BL to release at this point. 100% my top favorite and I am so happy.

[writingwithcolor]

What Does Our "Motivations” PSA Mean?

@luminalalumini said:

I've been on your blog a lot and it has a lot of really insightful information, but I notice a theme with some of your answers where you ask the writer reaching out what their 'motivation for making a character a certain [race/religion/ethnicity/nationality] is' and it's discouraging to see, because it seems like you're automatically assigning the writer some sort of ulterior motive that must be sniffed out and identified before the writer can get any tips or guidance for their question. Can't the 'motive' simply be having/wanting to have diversity in one's work? Must there be an 'ulterior motive'? I can understand that there's a lot of stigma and stereotypes and bad influence that might lead to someone trynna add marginalized groups into their stories for wrong reasons, but people that have those bad intentions certainly won't be asking for advice on how to write good representation in the first place. Idk its just been something that seemed really discouraging to me to reach out myself, knowing i'll automatically be assigned ulterior motives that i don't have and will probably have to justify why i want to add diversity to my story as if i'm comitting some sort of crime. I don't expect you guys to change your blog or respond to this or even care all that much, I'm probably just ranting into a void. I'm just curious if theres any reason to this that I haven't realized exists I suppose. I don't want y'all to take this the wrong way because I do actually love and enjoy your blog's advice in spite of my dumb griping. Cheers :))

We assume this is in reference to the following PSA:

PSA to all of our users - Motivation Matters: This lack of clarity w/r to intent has been a general issue with many recent questions. Please remember that if you don’t explain your motivations and what you intend to communicate to your audience with your plot choices, character attributes, world-building etc., we cannot effectively advise you beyond the information you provide. We Are Not Mind Readers. If, when drafting these questions, you realize you can’t explain your motivations, that is likely a hint that you need to think more on the rationales for your narrative decisions. My recommendation is to read our archives and articles on similar topics for inspiration while you think. I will be attaching this PSA to all asks with similar issues until the volume of such questions declines. 

We have answered this in three parts.

1. Of Paved Roads and Good Intentions

Allow me to give you a personal story, in solidarity towards your feelings:

When I began writing in South Asia as an outsider, specifically in the Kashmir and Lahore areas, I was doing it out of respect for the cultures I had grown up around. I did kathak dance, I grew up on immigrant-cooked North Indian food, my babysitters were Indian. I loved Mughal society, and every detail of learning about it just made me want more. The minute you told me fantasy could be outside of Europe, I hopped into the Mughal world with two feet. I was 13. I am now 28.

And had you asked me, as a teenager, what my motives were in giving my characters’ love interests blue or green eyes, one of them blond hair, my MC having red-tinted brown hair that was very emphasized, and a whole bunch of paler skinned people, I would have told you my motives were “to represent the diversity of the region.” 

I’m sure readers of the blog will spot the really, really toxic and colourist tropes present in my choices. If you’re new here, then the summary is: giving brown people “unique” coloured eyes and hair that lines up with Eurocentric beauty standards is an orientalist trope that needs to be interrogated in your writing. And favouring pale skinned people is colourist, full stop.

Did that make me a bad person with super sneaky ulterior motives who wanted to write bad representation? No.

It made me an ignorant kid from the mostly-white suburbs who grew up with media that said brown people had to “look unique” (read: look as European as possible) to be considered valuable.

And this is where it is important to remember that motives can be pure as you want, but you were still taught all of the terrible stuff that is present in society. Which means you’re going to perpetuate it unless you stop and actually question what is under your conscious motive, and work to unlearn it. Work that will never be complete.

I know it sounds scary and judgemental (and it’s one of the reasons we allow people to ask to be anonymous, for people who are afraid). Honestly, I would’ve reacted much the same as a younger writer, had you told me I was perpetuating bad things. I was trying to do good and my motives were pure, after all! But after a few years, I realized that I had fallen short, and I had a lot more to learn in order for my motives to match my impact. Part of our job at WWC is to attempt to close that gap.

We aren’t giving judgement, when we ask questions about why you want to do certain things. We are asking you to look at the structural underpinnings of your mind and question why those traits felt natural together, and, more specifically, why those traits felt natural to give to a protagonist or other major character.

I still have blond, blue-eyed characters with sandy coloured skin. I still have green-eyed characters. Because teenage me was right, that is part of the region. But by interrogating my motive, I was able to devalue those traits within the narrative, and I stopped making those traits shorthand for “this is the person you should root for.” 

It opened up room for me to be messier with my characters of colour, even the ones who my teenage self would have deemed “extra special.” Because the European-associated traits (pale hair, not-brown-eyes) stopped being special. After years of questioning, they started lining up with my motive of just being part of the diversity of the region.

Motive is important, both in the conscious and the subconscious. It’s not a judgement and it’s not assumed to be evil. It’s simply assumed to be unquestioned, so we ask that you question it and really examine your own biases.

~Mod Lesya

2. Motivations Aren't Always "Ulterior"

You can have a positive motivation or a neutral one or a negative one. Just wanting to have diversity only means your characters aren't all white and straight and cis and able-bodied -- it doesn't explain why you decided to make this specific character specifically bi and specifically Jewish (it me). Yes, sometimes it might be completely random! But it also might be "well, my crush is Costa Rican, so I gave the love interest the same background", or "I set it in X City where the predominant marginalized ethnicity is Y, so they are Y". Neither of these count as ulterior motives. But let's say for a second that you did accidentally catch yourself doing an "ulterior." Isn't that the point of the blog, to help you find those spots and clean them up?

Try thinking of it as “finding things that need adjusting” rather than “things that are bad” and it might get less scary to realize that we all do them, subconsciously. Representation that could use some work is often the product of subconscious bias, not deliberate misrepresentation, so there's every possibility that someone who wants to improve and do better didn't do it perfectly the first time. 

--Shira

3. Dress-Making as a Metaphor

I want to echo Lesya’s sentiments here but also provide a more logistical perspective. If you check the rubber stamp guide here and the “Motivation matters” PSA above, you’ll notice that concerns with respect to asker motivation are for the purposes of providing the most relevant answer possible.

It is a lot like if someone walks into a dressmaker’s shop and asks for a blue dress/ suit (Back when getting custom-made clothes was more of a thing) . The seamstress/ tailor is likely to ask a wide variety of questions:

What material do you want the outfit to be made of?

Where do you plan to wear it?

What do you want to highlight?

How do you want to feel when you wear it?

Let’s say our theoretical customer is in England during the 1920s. A tartan walking dress/ flannel suit for the winter is not the same as a periwinkle, beaded, organza ensemble/ navy pinstripe for formal dress in the summer. When we ask for motivations, we are often asking for exactly that: the specific reasons for your inquiry so we may pinpoint the most pertinent information.

The consistent problem for many of the askers who receive the PSA is they haven’t even done the level of research necessary to know what they want to ask of us. It would be like if our English customer in the 1920s responded, “IDK, some kind of blue thing.” Even worse,  WWC doesn’t have the luxury of the back-and-forth between a dressmaker and their clientele. If our asker doesn’t communicate all the information they need in mind at the time of submission, we can only say, “Well, I’m not sure if this is right, but here’s something. I hope it works, but if you had told us more, we could have done a more thorough job.”

Answering questions without context is hard, and asking for motivations, by which I mean the narratives, themes, character arcs and other literary devices that you are looking to incorporate, is the best way for us to help you, while also helping you to determine if your understanding of the problem will benefit from outside input. Because these asks are published with the goal of helping individuals with similar questions, the PSA also serves to prompt other users.

I note that asking questions is a skill, and we all start by asking the most basic questions (Not stupid questions, because to quote a dear professor, “There are no stupid questions.”). Unfortunately, WWC is not suited for the most basic questions. To this effect, we have a very helpful FAQ and archive as a starting point. Once you have used our website to answer the more basic questions, you are more ready to approach writing with diversity and decide when we can actually be of service. This is why we are so adamant that people read the FAQ. Yes, it helps us, but it also is there to save you time and spare you the ambiguity of not even knowing where to start.

The anxiety in your ask conveys to me a fear of being judged for asking questions. That fear is not something we can help you with, other than to wholeheartedly reassure you that we do not spend our unpaid, free time answering these questions in order to assume motives we can’t confirm or sit in judgment of our users who, as you say, are just trying to do better.

Yes, I am often frustrated when an asker’s question makes it clear they haven’t read the FAQ or archives. I’ve also been upset when uncivil commenters have indicated that my efforts and contributions are not worth their consideration. However, even the most tactless question has never made me think, “Ooh this person is such a naughty racist. Let me laugh at them for being a naughty racist. Let me shame them for being a naughty racist. Mwahaha.”

What kind of sad person has time for that?*

Racism is structural. It takes time to unlearn, especially if you’re in an environment that doesn’t facilitate that process to begin with. Our first priority is to help while also preserving our own boundaries and well-being. Though I am well aware of the levels of toxic gas-lighting and virtue signaling that can be found in various corners of online writing communities in the name of “progressivism*”, WWC is not that kind of space. This space is for discussions held in good faith: for us to understand each other better, rather than for one of us to “win” and another to “lose.”

Just as we have good faith that you are doing your best, we ask that you have faith that we are trying to do our best by you and the BIPOC communities we represent.

- Marika.

*If you are in any writing or social media circles that feed these anxieties or demonstrate these behaviors, I advise you to curtail your time with them and focus on your own growth. You will find, over time, that it is easier to think clearly when you are worrying less about trying to appease people who set the bar of approval so high just for the enjoyment of watching you jump. “Internet hygiene”, as I like to call it, begins with you and the boundaries you set with those you interact with online.

[itsclydebitches]

I am briefly pausing my normal RWBY content to talk about something completely different: Kang Soo-Jin. 

I binged True Beauty recently. As in, “I haven’t managed to watch anything new in half a year, discovered this drama, and promptly marathoned 14+ hours of content,” so to say I’m enjoying it is an understatement. I might do another post sometime about why I think the show works so well, but for now, like many (drama only) viewers, I’m specifically grappling with Soo-Jin’s descent into antagonist territory. At first I was just as shocked and disappointed as others seem to be, but upon reflection I don’t think this is badly written in the way many fans are claiming. To frame this as, “I can’t believe they would make wonderful Soo-Jin suddenly OOC and bully Ju-Kyung over a guy!” is ignoring core parts of her character. I’m as sick of the girl-hates-girl-over-guy plotline as the next viewer, but in the interest of acknowledging that there are exceptions to every rule, I think this is one of the times where that choice makes perfect sense. 

Soo-Jin has been abused throughout her life and I’m not simply talking about the fact that her father hits her. Though that’s obviously horrific, what I think is more pertinent to this conversation is the intense competitiveness her parents have instilled in her. The physical abuse comes about because Soo-Jin fails (in their eyes) to be the best, which is where Ju-Kyung comes in. The Soo-Jin we knew in earlier episodes wasn’t faking. She isn’t an inherently evil person who was just waiting for the right time to show her true colors. Rather, at the start of the story Ju-Kyung—crucially—was not in competition with Soo-Jin. Or rather, Soo-Jin did not perceive her as competition. She’s after the best grades in the school and Ju-Kyung is notoriously at the bottom of the class. All she has going for her are her (new) looks and her easy-going personality that makes her popular, two things that Soo-Jin isn’t interested in. Even if she were, those things already come naturally to her too. She’s already friends with Soo-A and, as is commented on multiple times, naturally beautiful without any makeup on. Soo-Jin has been taught—literally had it beaten into her—that she must be the best and in the beginning of the show she pretty much is: popular, mature, confident, smart… just not the smartest in her class. Ju-Kyung doesn’t threaten any of that, so friendship initially comes easily for Soo-Jin, the sort of friendship that allows her to chase perverts off busses or hide her friend’s real face. 

This changes once Soo-Jin’s “perfect” mask begins to slip. They’re heading towards college, she’s running out of time, and she still hasn’t managed to take the top spot in the class. Worse, she drops out of the top ten. This exacerbates the abuse to the point where, as we see, she’s constantly in the bathroom trying to cope by washing her hands. Any tiny deviation from that “perfection”  — like, say, leaving your tutoring session when you realize your lifelong friend just got devastating news — results in the sort of yelling/physical abuse she can only escape from via a locked door. While things get worse on her end, they get better on Ju-Jyung’s. Her grades go up some and she becomes even more popular, attracting not only school-wide attention, but the attention of the two hottest guys too, including Soo-Ho. For a while this is still fine from Soo-Jin’s perspective, but things really take a turn when Ju-Kyung changes Soo-Ho. Meaning, she helps him come out of his shell and teaches him how to be a kinder person… which includes being a better friend to Soo-Jin. The Soo-Ho who suddenly lies and announces that they have to go study just to get Soo-Jin away from her father’s insults, all of it stemming from a small tick he paid attention to, or comforting her while she sobs over the abuse… that Soo-Ho didn’t exist at the story’s start. He was too wrapped up in his own grief and has been that way for a long time. They may have known each other since childhood, but Soo-Jin and Soo-Ho don’t appear to be particularly close in the past—all Soo-Ho’s flashbacks are with Seo-Joon and Se-Yeon. But that starts to change once Soo-Ho himself changes. Soo-Jin’s ability to keep it together is unraveling, Soo-Ho is opening up and becoming more emotionally available (something Soo-Jin even comments on), then her whole class starts eagerly talking up how good they would be as a couple… so Soo-Jin sees a lifeline. Soo-Ho will care for her even when no one else will. Of course he will. She’s already seen him be that person multiple times. 

The problem is that Soo-Ho has his own life and his own problems to grapple with. Between grief over See-Yeon, panic over telling Ju-Kyung how he feels, and the initial rush of dating—what couple doesn’t want to spend all their time together at the start?—he doesn’t have much energy for Soo-Jin. Which from his perspective is fine. They don’t normally hang out together outside of study groups, so yeah, he can put off a conversation with her… not realizing that Soo-Jin is now putting all her emotional eggs in his basket. By the time her feelings are coming to light, Soo-Jin is actively sabotaging her own attempts to get attention and compassion from Soo-Jin. By manipulating them—here’s a new scrunchy to remind you that you’re my best friend and you can’t ever betray me, here I am showing up unannounced at your apartment and guilting you into not spending more time with me, etc.—Soo-Jin has put Soo-Ho (rightfully) on his guard. He’s wary of having a private conversation with her about something she won’t name when he knows Ju-Kyung has been a mess over losing her friendship. He has no desire to listen to her confession of love after she’s just tossed Ju-Kyung’s beloved necklace into the fire. In her efforts to ensure that Soo-Ho pays attention to her, she only succeeds in driving him away. 

All of which makes Ju-Kyung the enemy in her eyes. The new competition. To her mind, friendship and love cannot co-exist because Ju-Kyung stands in the way of that love, therefore one has got to go. (In contrast Seo-Joon, coming from a loving family, is in time better able to accept that he can be friends with Soo-Ho even though he likes Ju-Kyung. We can discuss the problems inherent in giving one plot to the girl and the other to the guy, but as they are, these characters have concrete, in-world reasons for their different reactions to what’s essentially the same situation.) And why does love (“love”) win out over friendship? Because Soo-Jin has latched onto Soo-Ho being her boyfriend as the way to finally “win” at life and fix all her problems. It’s fine if she’s not the best provided she’s dating the best, just look at how much Dad fawned over him. Second place academically is suddenly an option provided the top student is on her team, so to speak. The fact that Soo-Ho is also one of the most handsome, a great athlete, super rich, and one of the few people to provide her with feelings of safety certainly doesn’t hurt matters. And the only thing that stands in her way of securing this life-saving “win” is Ju-Kyung. Who is she? No one compared to Soo-Jin. Her grades are terrible. She’s not wealthy. She’s pretty… but oh, only with her makeup on. 

Soo-Jin doesn’t need makeup, so why not win this competition by showing the whole school—showing Soo-Ho—what a fraud Ju-Kyung is? 

From Soo-Jin’s perspective she’s done the math and come out on top. Everything that (supposedly) matters she either has equal to Ju-Kyung, or is superior, therefore it’s obvious that Soo-Ho would choose her in the end. She says at much: If I had confessed first you would have loved me first, so now that I have confessed you’ll break up with her. Hell, even Ju-Kyung believes this. She has the nightmare about Soo-Ho learning that Soo-Jin has feelings for him and immediately, publicly breaking up with her. After all, if he suddenly has both as an option the winner is obvious, right? It’s all about competition, what they’ve been taught to believe is a competition: Ju-Kyung through her bullying and Soo-Jin through her abuse. The difference is that Ju-Kyung has had the whole series with Soo-Ho (and others) helping her slowly unlearn this mentality. Soo-Jin had the rug pulled out from under her in an instant. 

Soo-Ho says no, I wouldn’t have loved you if you had confessed first and I’m not going to date you now. It’s important to realize that this shatters Soo-Jin’s entire world. It’s not about a girl being upset that she can’t get the guy — not even about Soo-Ho as an individual, really —  it’s about an abused girl not knowing how to grapple with the fact that she finally did everything “right” and still couldn’t “win,” coupled with losing the last bit of security she had. Soo-Ho broke the unspoken rules Soo-Jin’s father beat into her and she doesn’t know where to go from there. She literally has no one else to turn to. So she falls back on the only way she does know how to handle a situation like this: by still trying to win. If Soo-Ho won’t admit that she’s better, she’ll force him to realize that by plastering Ju-Kyung’s “ugly” face all over social media. Which, to be clear, isn’t an excuse. This isn’t meant to be a way of absolving Soo-Jin of her absolutely horrific actions, only a means of explaining them. Her descent, while shocking to those of us who loved her initial character, is well written because it’s a nuanced look at what can happen when you abuse a kid her whole life and teach her that competition is everything. Oddly enough, she’ll apply a competitive outlook to everything and deal with her stress in unhealthy ways. Ju-Kyung is a victim of Soo-Jin now, but Soo-Jin is a victim too. Her home life has ensured that she does not know how to accept failure—or what true failure even means—so it was inevitable that when things got bad, she’d  try to fix it in ways that hurt both her and those around her. It’s all she knows how to do. 

So far less “Perfect girl goes ooc and abandons her friend over a boy” and far more “Abused girl falls into a terrible, but predictable cycle that the other stressed high schoolers around her are not equipped to break.” Soo-Jin’s story isn’t bad writing, it’s tragic. Thanks for coming to my three page TED talk ✌️

***

2/4/21 FINALE UPDATE! 

[fedonciadale]

I stumbled upon your blog whilst scrolling through the anti Romione tag and I’ve really found your Hp analysis to be not only interesting but I agree with a lot of it even though I’m more of a Harmony shipper. (Esp. pointing out that Draco is smart and could be redeemed as I had been disappointed that Jkr wrote him so seemingly two dimensional and that post really turned my opinion around about the whole thing)

I’d be really curious to hear your reasons for shipping Dramione bc while I’m mostly neutral on the pairing myself I’m interested in what drew you to Dramione as your preferred ship.

Hi there!

Thanks! Glad you like my takes!

What drew me to Dramione?

The short answer would be : It's about the angst. All my ships have a heavy dose of angst. And enemies to lovers is an easy way to create angst.

Another answer would be that shipping is an easy label under which I can put my 'fix-canon fixation'. You've read my posts, so you know what I dislike about HP and in a way Dramione is a way for me to fix canon and to keep what I like. I basically wrote a long ass fic to fix the elves - The Phoenix Potion has also some implied one sided Harmony but I doubt you would appreciate how I ran with Harry's canon flaws. I love Harry flawed as he is and I thoroughly enjoyed writing him being in absolute denial about his real motives for trying to prevent Dramione. Lol.

So for me it is about giving Draco a sort of easy motive to change. Of course you could write him learning about muggles, unlearning his prejudices without him falling for Hermione. But it's so much easier that way. Hermione is muggleborn and canonically challenges all the prejudices just by existing. So to make her a major plot point for his change is actually a huge chance and I don't know why JKR skipped that glorious opportunity.

Also I think there are some things that would make Dramione a good couple. Draco is smart and he can also be witty - even if he's never nice about his insults he has some very funny lines. So I think that Draco and Hermione would bicker but not because they are annoyed with each other (like Ron and Hermione are) but because of the challenge. It would mostly be about who would come up with a better clap back. I also headcanon them trying to top each other with witty descriptions of other people.

In addition I think that falling for Draco could curb some of Hermione's vengefulness. If she falls for an enemy it wouldn't be just her and her friends agsinst the rest of the world. I think it would broaden her emotional perspective. Often people see Hermione as this nice sweet girl, but she is not and I think Draco would accept this side of her but their story as enemies would make them both be more cautious about actually acting against others because of animosity - but they would absolutely drag the people they dislike to their hearts' content in the safety of their own home.

I also think that Draco would understand Hermione's ambition. She is not necessarily after money but after influence to change things. I see her as a campaigner and I can absolutely headcanon Draco pulling strings to help her. I don't really see her working her way up in the ministry because she is too antagonistic and too passionate. She would rather be a lawyer fighting for minorities I think. I cannot see her falling in line at the ministry. And politics means compromising - something she is not good at, although she might get better at it as she grows older and more realistic.

So, I think once Draco's prejudices are dismantled (for me a major point that needs to be met in Dramione fics or I don't read them) they are actually a good fit. And I hate that people say they could never happen because of how he treated her at school. He was in the enemy gang at that time. Honestly, Hermione's friends say some pretty awful things as well and they are her friends! And she might be vengeful but she can also forgive if the person asks for it. Just remember how Hermione immediately helped Harry in third year at the end even though they had fought about the fire bolt. Teenagers can be pretty rough!

I think Draco and Hermione compliment each other, they would have so much fun with intellectual sparring and they could make each other better. Not to mention that they could be a power couple.

And the angst of course. Draco has been in love with her forever (and in deep denial about it) is my fav headcanon. That scene at the Yule Ball really got me!

And to explore Hermione being challenged by emotions that do not fit her world view is also a nice aspect of it. I hate it when the just feel attracted because of looks. To me it's essential that the attraction is about their mind. Sapiosexuals both of them.... I dislike it when they just fall because of 'He/She's so hot'.

I've known from book four that JKR was going for R0mione but I never liked it and the following books cemented my opinions. Between book 6 and 7 I thought that Snape being on the good side and Draco getting a bit of a redemption was where JKR would go.

I was right about Snape (and unfortunately about R0mione) and wrong about Draco. I still think that Draco not identifying Harry at the Manor is an underrated act of resistance and redemption but JKR obviously did not think so. I think Draco not killing Dumbledore and not identifying Harry are the bravest things he ever did and that JKR has labelled them as cowardice - when it is just as easily explained as Draco having a conscience and acting on it in the best way possible - will always anger me.

I've seen R0mione shippers say that Ron telling Bellatrix to take him instead of Hermione shows that he loves her so much and pointing out that Draco did nothing. Draco did what he could do under the circumstances : Identifying Harry would have brought Voldemort and even more torture and death. Saying it was not Harry would have meant Draco's and possibly his family's death later when Harry got his normal face again. Buying time was the only option he had if he wanted to help or even if he just did not want to watch Harry and Co die. Protesting against Hermione's torture would probably have meant death as well. So unlike R0n, Draco did not have that option.

So, tldr : It's about the angst!

Thanks for the ask!

P.S. Harry and Hermione dancing in TDH lives rent free in my head and I don't even ship them.

[shinygoku]

gordon gordon gordon gordon

Gordon Gordon Gordon Gordon!!

He's been sneaking into these asks by proxy, so it's finally time for his dedicated session, hehe~

First impression

WUAAAGH what's up with this WEIRD LONG NOT-THOMAS and his FACE?!

Impression now

His face is still pretty weird! But you know what else it is? Part of an Absolute Legend ✨

Like, man, Gordon is such a big presence and interesting character, the entire premise leans heavily on him. I'm inclined to go as far as to say that the Blue Boys of 1, 2 and 4 here are the three most important characters for the franchise (not at all to knock everyone else lmao) and they slot nicely into a Triforce of Courage, Wisdom and Power, and Gordon has Power in spades!

Gordon is The Vain One (not James!). He's legit very strong and the fastest on Sodor (which isn't just being a big fish in a small pond because that island has some crazy cool engines!) but unfortunately he lacks humility. His success seems to have been lodged in his head before the series even begins and this Pride is the source of pretty much every single conflict he's involved in.

But when it isn't his self satisfaction in his actions, it's being smug about being such a grand, magnificent Tender Engine and he is snooty as hell about it. He seems to look at smaller engines [pretty much everyone compared to him lol] as a lesser class, particularly if they're small and cheeky and Tank Engines. This may not be the case exactly, but his way of talking to them and some other things he says are very condescending.

However... as much as a gigantic jerk he is at several points, with Gordon I kinda feel like he plain ass doesn't conceive of his words being out of line. That and having to Unlearn things... he's not innately better than everyone else. He sees things in black and white. There are Useful Engines, and those who should be scrapped. There are Noble Tender Engines and Lesser Tank Engines who exist to do the tedious chores on behalf of the Superior ones. Edward doing shunting is seen as Demeaning and contradicts Gordon’s world view that Tender Engines Don't Stunt™, and he doesn't like that one bit! (Also Edward was crossing the picket line but that wasn't Awdry's concern lmao)

Related is Gordon does seem oddly dense at times, like assuming that Tenders are in of themselves a Status Symbol rather than a large lunchbox of sorts lol, or that Tender Engines like him being too heavy for Branch Lines being because something about Branch Lines are degrading. This might be all Elitist Brainwashing influence. But still, that he just takes these as The Truth means I get to affectionately call him an idiot. And there is no other way to explain how he genuinely believes Bill and Ben were going to murder him if he wasn't missing a few brain bolts in there.

Fortunately, he does eventually start to learn the important lessons.... very gradually, but the Early Gordon is a pretty different beast to Later Gordon, and it's wonderful~

Also, I gotta give credit to him for having some moments of utter brilliance and actual grasp of reality and more complex matters, like culture. (Yeah, I'm rolling with his geniune Opera Knowledge from s6 of all things. It's good!) As much as Awdry himself may have disagreed, Gordon was in the right to want a Station Pilot and the Strike was called for (not bullying Edward for it, but myeah) ...but this leads to my next point: He seems to have a mental block when it comes to Emotions.

Certainly, he's as emotional as the others are, it's not just a scale of Snooty, Arrogant, Condescending, Prideful ....well, it is, but ALSO the more mixed and varied feelings: Shame, Sadness, Fear, Ambivilance, Irritation, Anger, Passion, Amused, Delight and so on. However, Gordon is seemingly unaware of how his words may make the others feel, and even at his cruellest it doesn't look like he's aware he's twisting a knife in. To Gordon, he's being honest, but his verbose manner ends up twisting and wriggling away from any valid point like an overgrown vine that somehow links back to how [Other Engine] is disgracing him, Gordon, by association.

Examples include: Being offended by Henry's new shape (??? Gordon dude he nearly died and this is an improvement, a good thing!), saying that Edward's age and difficulty starting a heavy ass packed load of passengers is grounds to be Retired or even Scrapped, other little insulting things like calling the likes of Thomas and James Little insistently (it seems to vary if he's trying to put them down or actually be affectionate), and many more when in the hands of inept writers who have to wheel out the same Gordon Learns A Lesson Plot every other season.

Like I said in the James post, I also think he kinda poisoned the Red guy with his snooty attitude... but I maintain that I think Gordon was unaware of this. He may know he has Influence, and enjoy that, but he really truly doesn't appear to mean to mould James into a smaller, redder version of himself. He's oblivious and from his own point of view, benevolent. Which is in fact a dangerous combo indeed!

It's... a lot o7;;

Again though, if you're looking at the books and s1-s5 of TVS you can see him grow and change. He does take a while to learn the lessons, but as time goes on he moves 2 steps forward and 1 step back, then eventually less steps back entirely. It's great! And so is Gordon. A big dumb meathead with not entirely uncalled for delusions of granduer. A dramatic so-and-so who is the best engine for his job.

I love this sophisticated jock who grows more kindness~ 💙

Favourite moment

Hm! This isn't as easy to decide lol. We all like Gordon Goes Foreign... but you know what sticks in my mind more?

hOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH

Look, I’m not 100% objective, here! But Ringo’s read of this line is fantastic (and keeps making me expect him to finish saying OOOHH SHIT) and it’s also a well deserved bolt of divine retribution for how rude he was being earlier. (As long as my essay already was, he very much needed the knocking down of some pegs here!)

Idea for a story

While both my fics with him thus far have been variations of Pre-Canon, Full-Arrogance and Snobbish Gordon (and both were a lot of fun!) ...but I cannot bear the same expired horse being beaten more when the story is set waaay later but he’s still up his own ass. Please, PLEASE writers, let him hold what growth he’s managed to gain!

I think it’d be good to accept that he’s gonna be outdated sooner or later, so have him help train another High Speed Engine and take them under his wing. The Christopher Awdry books kinda have something similar with Pip and Emma, but I think a better way of having Gordon be involved would be if he was actively doing some mentoring himself, as well as being a neat parallel with Edward, whose type was once Express only but got outclassed by A1s, and so the same can happen to this big A1 -> A3 lad and he can form a healthy relationship with some bright eyed newbie (and maybe have some self awareness and try to stop their head getting too large, lol).

Unpopular opinion

I know I just said him mentoring would be a cool story idea, but in canon? He is NOT a resident Dad type!! He’s a hotshot young man but he’s also a hot mess. He’s physically large but he’s not got the Energy of someone who dispenses sage advice and a shoulder to cry on. At best, he’s a weird uncle! One who means well but you shouldn’t take his life advice to heart because he’s actually just as, if not more clueless than you!

Favourite relationship

I feel inclined to say Thomas here. Emphatically not because Gordon is ‘old’ and Thomas is ‘young’, but because they’re so damn alike and actually make an excellent, albeit unconventional type of Rivalry.

Both are self important with genuine finesse in their respective talents, both are honest to a fault, both have redeeming qualities to offset their initial abrasiveness, and the first TVS episode is centred on the both of them and sets the tone for the series as a whole. There’s more parallels, of course, but I also wanna point out they’re effectively the mascots of North Western Rail in universe too, and I absolutely love this picture:

I also have immense fondness for the Down the Mine paradigm shift! Thomas gives Gordon grief over the ditch incident and later when it emerges the Fat Controller is gonna send for Gordon to pull him out, Thomas is filled with dread. But Gordon isn’t using the chance to lord over Thomas, he’s actually so amused by Thomas’ mishap and it coming at a time where he’s been significantly humbled, they instead become Comrades and I love it. I eat it up! Paint Pots and Queens isn’t anywhere near as good but I adore the little bit where they’re appealing for the other, equals and watching each other’s back~

But yeah, as Friendly Rivals they both feel very authentic and yet, in a daft way, sweet ;3

Favourite headcanon

He still says “Hurry, hurry, hurry!” when pulling the Express. That’s a HC as I think the show phased it out, but I like it lol. I feel like my essay on him contains most of the headcanon stuff, but it’s all based on what’s shown, baybee!

[theballadoffinchesandsaints]

Let’s talk about the Vaincre trade:

(As I am writing this, only the first full chapter, July, has been published)

I’ve said before that I’m fairly certain it’s going to be Leo, but I want to walk through the thought process that got me there (this is long and unedited. You’ve been warned).

First, since this is going to be such a major plot point, I think it’s going to be a character who’s inner circle had at least a minor spotlight in the first chapter. These were Coops, O’knutzy, O’darwin, Thomas & Noelle (do they have a ship name???), Regulus (tho he’s obviously disqualified for not being a pro player rn), and Cole (with a bit of Dumo).

Additionally, I think a key component of this plotline will be developing characters so that they can stand on their own once separated from a crucial relationship (thematically, it makes the most sense to me).

With that in mind, let’s do some quick (yeah lol prob not quick) disqualifications from the list:

Remus: I know this is a more common theory (and god would it hurt) but Remus’ storyline is already jampacked with living up to the standards of the league, team, and public, as well as adjust to a new relationship dynamic with Sirius. On a more heavy note, Remus will have to navigate how playing hockey will interact with the trauma of Greyback’s attack and the resulting injury. I’m sure most of us inferred that this would be a plot point, but the idea was solidified in a snippet of Remus and the team discussing predictions for the top teams of the season.

Sirius: while narratively, I actually think it would be fascinating to see the lions learn to be a team without their leader and to see Sirius have to learn that there are other parts of the world he can trust, this one falls apart in both logistics and clues Hazel has already given us. Truly, I cannot imagine a trade in which it would make sense for the Lions to give up their beloved, talented, effective captain and first line center, especially after he just led them to Stanley Cup. And when someone asked Hazel about (I believe) what relationships would be highlighted in Vaincre, Coops made the list with the qualification that their storyline would largely center around Remus’s adjustment to the team. A Sirius trade requires long-distance Coops angst which, while possible, would be both difficult and against the spirit of the statement.

O’Darwin and Thomas & Noelle already have long-distance angst happening in July, so trading either Kasey or Thomas would miss some of the emotional punch we know Hazel is going to give us.

Cole: I mean, the kid’s a rookie. It doesn’t really make sense. Threads seem to be being set up with the Dumais’ baby sitter and maybe one of the new PTs? (I don’t remember exactly where I’m getting this from, but I’m near certain it was from Hazel’s tumblr). It seems like physical encounters are going to be a big thing with both of these relationships, plus all the obvious great storylines of a new rookie getting comfortable in the team, make it unlikely Cole will be the trade. Not to mention, there are no guts to punch with Cole. We love him already, but he isn’t close with anyone on the team yet. We’d feel disappointed, not devastated, if he got traded. We all know Hazel’s going for devastation.

Dumo: this one approaches probability for me. Dumo would be heartbreaking for every member of the team, but especially Sirius and Logan. It would also sort of follow through on a previous idea from a rough draft of SW where Dumo has a career-ending injury. All the players would have to learn to navigate life without a father figure, and it would break down the system of where many Lions rookies live. But this one’s all speculation, at least as far as I know. It’s not hinted at in July, and I can’t think of any snippets that suggest Dumo. Plus, it feels like all of the main POVs have been set up in July, and we know from the dreaded “of being a lion” snippet (in which said player gets called about the trade) that we do get POV chapters from the player who’s traded.

We’ll get back to O’knutzy later. First, some people who aren’t on the list that I feel are worth discussing briefly (tho these are unlikely for the reasons at the end of Dumo’s):

Kuny & Nado: Now, I remember Kuny’s “no trades, no trades” thing from Hazel’s tumblr. It hurts. It feels like foreshadowing. But, remember, Hazel has also said that these boys will both play a more secondary role in Vaincre. They’re both safe.

James: I go back and forth on this one all the time. Thematically, separating Sirius and James would be both heartbreaking and deeply interesting. James was a major force in bringing Sirius out of his shell, and Sirius would have to learn to maintain that without his best friend always by his side. James and Lily are also suspiciously absent from July. I know Hazel said they’re on their honeymoon, and I’m not disputing that in any way, shape, or form. However, it does provide ample excuse to become a new POV in August. However, I can’t find any snippets to really support it. And, just, in general, James as a character in Hazel’s fics (or at least in Solntse and SW) provides a stable backbone for the other characters. He’a developed as a character but stable and happy. This could be the thing that changes that, but, at the very least, it doesn’t fit the narrative role he serves in SW, and I think it would change the feel and character dynamic of the fic as a whole (not just of the team) too much for that to be the choice.

And then there’s O’knutzy:

Going into Vaincre, I asked myself: what are everyone’s plotlines going to be? Remus will adjust to the team and playing Greyback. Sirius will largely be his support system, tho some stuff may be done with his relationship with Regulus and/or moving on from any semblance of his parents’ influence. Dumo will welcome rookie Cole onto the team. James will be a new father. Thomas and Noelle will have long-distance relationship feels. Kasey will adjust to O’darwin, and probably also deal with his reoccurring injury.

And the cubs? Are in a happy, stable relationship with everything they’ve ever wanted. The seeds to a storyline regarding whether or not they choose to come out was definitely hinted at in July, but I don’t think it will be their sole focus. Thankfully, there is nothing pressuring them to come out currently. They think about it. They long to do it. But nothing has changed since the end of SW/CtC. If one of them was long-distance, that would change the dynamic. When you can always go home to your two loving boyfriends, it doesn’t hurt quite as bad when you can’t be affectionate when out with them in public. When you’re only in the same city for a day or two roughly every month (depending on which team the trade is with), every second you could spend holding them and don’t hurts more and more. Whether I think they choose to come out or not, I really don’t know. I think so, but I’m definitely not sure. But the real question is, which cub goes away and prompts this?

If it’s a cub, it’s definitely Leo. Hazel posted a snippet that just...says so much.

Do I even need to explain? She practically told us. I’ve spent over an hour analyzing nearly every prominent Lion when Hazel practically told us Leo was going to be the trade with this right here.

But I do have more to say. I don’t think either Finn or Logan would work well as the trade. The plot of them being separated was well explored in CtC, and I honestly just don’t think it needs more examination. They learned to cherish each other, talk to each other, love each other freely and honestly. Them being separated again would just hurt. It wouldn’t serve a narrative purpose.

On the other hand, I do think Leo’s character could actually benefit from some time alone. He had barely a few months as a full-blown adult, working in the NHL, before he entered a committed relationship with his two lovely boyfriends, both of whom had had years more time to live with and explore themselves (tho it’s not as if they were doing that freely). A couple of months or even years dating long-distance could force Leo to have some more adventures on his own and come into himself more. Then, he can fully return to his boys, his “long-lost lover[s],” and be more stable in his love.

In a similar vein, Logan and Finn have only had short amounts of time to make their leg of the relationship stable and happy in comparison to the time they spent yearning or heartbroken. Even in CtC, their reflex is to go to Leo first, which is, of course, perfectly fine and lovely and adorable, but I think they need to spend some time unlearning that knee jerk reaction.

Then, when Leo comes back (because one way or another, in canon or in my head, he will), all three are confident in themselves as individuals and in each leg of the relationship as well as the three of them as group. No one and no couple n e e d s anything, but they come back together because they all love each other, more than anything.

That’s what I think will see in Vaincre. At the very least, it’s what I want.

Vaincre is by the one and only @lumosinlove

[bilgisticallykosher]

Okay, so. Janus at the end. Sitting in a tree, eating an apple. I had a literal fridge brilliance moment at work when I was in the fridge. That's. That's a biblical thing.

More under the cut; very Jewish perspective on it.

Okay, so first of all, I didn't even realize what it was supposed to represent, because apple. And I'm going to make another post at some point or another comparing the Catholicism in DWIT to the same topics in Judaism, so I'll talk more about the apple thing there. But for now I'll just leave it at "we don't know what grew on the tree in Eden, it's highly debated, but everyone agrees it's not an apple."

Anyway. Onto the point. Janus, snake side, is in a tree eating an apple. And then I was like. Okay. Apple, snake. Makes sense because the snake tempted Adam and Chava (Eve's name in Hebrew) with the fruit of the tree- he was in a tree.

So, the tree in the Garden of Eden. The tree of knowledge. The tree when, upon eating from its fruit, you cannot unlearn what you've realized. In Judaism, it's referred to the Tree of Knowledge Between Good and Evil, which might be me looking too much into it, but hasn't that been a huge plot point between the "dark" and "light" sides?

And Janus has been the one holding the knowledge of the other sides back. Including himself, that's his job. So to see him sitting there, eating an apple. Tempting us, taunting us with the knowledge that we know is there, that he knows.

Like. Dang. That's some good imagery.

[visit-ba-sing-se]

How do you think the story would change if lu ten survived? His death seemed to be the starting point of a lot of major events in the series, so I'm curious as to how they might've changed (for worse or better, if they even happened at all) if he didn't die

Okay so I thought about this a lot and basically came up with 2 alternative universes. Starting point for both is the assumption that if you Ten had not died, Iroh would have continued the siege and emerged victorious, returning to the fire nation as the conqueror of Ba Sing Se (it is very important here that we have to keep in mind that this is not grand master of the white Lotus Iroh. This is “You should visit Ba Sing Se before I burn it to the ground Iroh.) Ozai, on the other hand, sees his chances to become fire lord being vaporised and decides to take action (in the from of poison in Iroh’s tea). From here, there are two alternatives:

1.) Ozai succeeds and becomes fire lord as planned. He still banished Zuko, who only now is accompanied by Lu Ten who refuses to believe the official story behind his fathers death (which was that Iroh had accidentally killed himself by making tea from a poisonous plant)

Zuko is hell bent on finding the avatar, Lu Ten the the older one and experienced soldier kind of acts as his impulse control

Lu Ten gets more and more suspicious about the circumstances of his fathers death, especially after meeting Zhao who drops some hints (since he is Zhao who you really should not entrust with things. Not even if you are fire lord. Especially not if you are fire lord)

It all falls into place for him when Zhao tries to have Zuko killed

This is in fact his “damn maybe the fire nation is not so great” moment

He has another of those moments during the siege on the north, where he sees Zuko who he sees as his little brother nearly killing himself just to please his cruel father

Also during this siege he is able to see all the pain and destruction meanwhile during the Siege on Ba Sing Se he basically just saw the glory for him, his father and his nation

Book 2 would  of course be already more different due to the fact that Ba Sing Se already is fire nation territory but the sub plot for Lu Ten and Zuko would still be two royal fire nation kids learn that imperialism is bad

Lu Ten actually struggles a lot with the image of himself and his father which he has to completely revise but end of book 2 is ready and willing to make up for what he did and all the harm he caused (even though he knows that he never fully could)

He decides to fight the fire nation now openly and asks Zuko to side with him, but Zuko decides to return home with Azula instead

Book three kind of stays the same, Lu Ten escapes to find the masters of the white lotus who he had picked something up about during his travels now more then determined than ever to fight

He eventually helps to free Ba Sing Se (”I cannot make up for what I did here in the past, but I can fight to give these people back their future)

2.) Ozai fails and is found out. He is either executed for his crimes or dies after a dramatic Agni Kai against Iroh. Iroh shows the rest of his family mercy, but of course the kids, especially the fire bending prodigy Azula, are a burden. So he offers them a way to restore their and there fathers honour: bringing him the Avatar 

Of course both would be determined to do so (Zuko also probably still has a scar from when Lu Ten mockingly challenged Azula to an Agni over the same matter. Zuko stepped in for her, not because he did not trust in his sisters skills, but because he knew that Lu Ten had always had a tendency to cheat. His instincts proved to be right)

It would take them a while but they would actually grow closer to each other during their search since Ozai would not be there to push them against each other anymore 

Zuko still tries to protect his younger sister as well as he can (from the knowledge of what their mission truly means, from the people they encounter and the hopelessness that just increases more and more. Prodigy or not, she is his little sister, and some things are bad and can’t be fought with bending, not even lightning) 

Azula on the other hand has sworn to end this mission successfully and afterwards make Zuko the next fire lord instead of Lu Ten 

I feel like under this circumstances their tipping point for “maybe the fire nation sucks” would come quite early, for Zuko it would probably be Zhao blowing up their ship with Azula still on it (”they say we are without honour and they are the honourable ones, but how much honour can a man have who can’t even look the girl he wants to murder in the eye when he does?). For Azula it is when Zuko nearly dies during the siege on the north (he had held onto the mission despite not believing in it any more until then since he knew how much it meant to her and how important it was to have a goal to focus on and a hope to kling to)

Which leads to a very awkward “yeah we were chasing you before but we are just unlearning everything we got indoctrinated with and want to be good now so...can we join your team maybe?” either of the end of book 1 or beginning of book 2 (I feel like they would probably fight everyone before making that announcement. Azula bends lightning into a tree just to use the moment of surprise to talk)

After some back and forth, the gaang accepts them in 

Iroh might not be planning to use Sozin’ comet the way Ozai did but someone still had to kick the fire nation out of the earth kingdom so the quest goes on but I am really unsure on how expect for that Mai and Ty Lee should be involved 

Maybe Iroh can be reasoned with after meeting the actual avatar?Or after seeing his own niece and nephew turning against their own nation so fiercely? Or maybe he just becomes the fire lord he was meant to be after his father and loses all traces of good qualities he had along the way 

 Of course way more theories are of course possible but I found those two quite interesting and I hope you did, too, lovely anon! 

[chibimyumi]

(p 1) good day, I hope you are well! if it's alright, may I ask something regarding the latest post you have made on ciel and lizzies relationship? focusing on lizzy, you have mentioned twice that lizzy tends to jump to conclusions EXTREMELY. I am wondering if there was any possibility that this could be due to something lizzy has expericed (maybe considering her relationship with r!ciel, since he seemed to put his brother above all others, which may have possibly caused some-

【Response to post: Lizzie’s feelings for O!Ciel】

Dear Anon,

Of course you may! It is an interesting question ^ω^

I think more than anything, it’s Lizzie’s upbringing that absolutely contributed to her jumping to conclusions. Jumping to conclusions is something that is in our DNA, and then later facilitated, after all.

From an incredibly young age Frances already trained her to be a fighter, and she must therefore have internalised all such fighter intuitions. What makes a good fighter is not just skill, but reflex; when you sense attack or danger, you immediately respond. Instead of negotiating yourself out of a situation, you try to gain the upper hand through aggression.

What absolutely facilitates - or exacerbates, if you will - this type of jumping to conclusions is also gender inequality since the olden ages. And sadly, the remnants are still omnipresent today.

Guarding livelihood and socialisation

Women have long been socialised to be dependent on men, especially in a marriage. In Lizzie’s time, a husband was 99% of the time the expected bread winner and a woman could often not even get a job no matter how qualified she was. So to a woman, securing a man and his faithfulness was basically the same as securing livelihood.

When the power balance is entirely off, a man could choose to stop providing for the woman, and a woman would therefore have to make sure the man will not stop see reason to discontinue providing for her. In a monogamous society, when a man likes another woman (read, rather provides for another woman than for his wife), the wife is basically doomed if she does not have enough leverage.

The best way to keep your husband’s affection is to stay ‘agreeable’. If your husband has already decided that no matter what you do is not ‘agreeable’ because you’re YOU, however, then you need to change your strategies. Women too have realised how fear can bind people. You can assert yourself through aggression (physical or otherwise) to deter your husband from leaving you, or in most cases, deter anybody from approaching your husband. That is where the classic: “demonisation of the vixen” or more concretely, “be nasty to the love rival rather than your unfaithful partner” has its roots.

When your livelihood depends on a man, a woman can understandably become possessive of her source of livelihood. When a man is socialised to see women as their property because that’s what they “owe him” for being taken care of, you also become possessive. When you’re so possessive, you cannot stand anybody making a (perceived) move on your possession. This is where jealousy comes in. Loyalty is something that is celebrated, and ‘jealousy’ has come to be a key signifier of this ‘desire for loyalty’.

Romanticisation of Marriage

This may sound weird, but the romanticisation of ‘romantic love’ is something that did not happen on wide scale until the 19th century. Before, humans did not really engage in openly romantic activities other than practical courting; you come of age and you marry for practical reasons. Marriage was entirely functional. After the trend of romanticisation and wide-spread fiction, the survivalist habits in such (pre-)marital bonds were given a romantic twist, and treated as ‘cute’. Sickening justifications like: “possessiveness is an expression of great love” or “so cute when she’s jealous. She’s jealous because she loves you”, “you belong to ME” are remnants of this romanticisation.

This trend has bled into our current day, and is exacerbated because romance is glorified. When romance is glorified, being ‘faithful’ is good, and ‘protecting what is good’ is applauded, why would anybody unlearn how jumping to conclusions because “what’s yours is infringed” is bad?

I mean... in real life, some people only need to so much as see their romantic partner TALKING with somebody else who is sexuality-wise compatible and they already go crazy. Though I would like to ask all of them why they’re like that, I think it’s just because society teaches people that when it comes to romance you need to be territorial and possessive. In real life it is bad enough, but in fiction ESPECIALLY it seems to be an obligatory plot point.

So yes, even though Lizzie’s upbringing is most probably the reason for her reaction IN story, out of story the reason is exactly what you said: ☆writing☆

I love Yana, but she is not immune to such trends in culture.