#antagonism and decides it’s bad actually. which is more interesting to me!!)

[devilsskettle]

fright night 2011 remake 🤝 heathers musical adaptation

changing the characterization of the protagonist to recently have fallen in with the mean “popular” crowd at school abandoning their “uncool” childhood best friend for social clout only to realize that they were wrong after their friend almost dies, presumably to make the protagonist more relatable/likable because they are the audience-insert character while still aligning them with a group of characters that the audience is supposed to hate for plot reasons

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

apologies for being callous in asking this, but seeing as so many aegon-centric (or those who had tagged him) blogs, no matter how good their dissertion and dissection of aegon is, gets called/is assumed to be a rapist defender/apologist, have you ever received an ask/comment calling you that? if so, i hope it never bothered you at all. apologies for bringing it up but i feel like getting called that would probably stopped those from actually enjoying/talking about him and his other qualities (such as his alcoholism, his bond with his dragon, his actions during the dance, his desperate survival.) because it actually stopped me from enjoying his character (because i initially felt so bad liking a character like that), going through his tag as well as looking for fics because of the vitriol. well that was until i stumbled upon your AKAB and OFCiR, which gave me so much perspective on aegon. and your opinion on the dyanna scene (which is oh boy, such a hot topic) was so beautiful.

No worries anon! So actually, I've never received an ask or comment with the rape defender/rape apologist accusations (and now that I've said this, I'm sure I'm sure someone will want to break that streak lol). I've participated in discussions in general in which those sorts of attacks were tossed around, but I've never had them aimed at me directly.

I'm honestly pretty surprised it hasn't happened, but I sort of chalk it up to two things. 1) I block prodigiously and pre-emptively and 2) I tag my discourse posts judiciously and try not to antagonize other fans by posting critical things in the main tags. And although I know opinions vary on this, using anti tags and team tags is also another way of making sure that people who have certain tags blocked will not see my posts, so I do use those when I feel it's appropriate. Beyond those two things, I think I also have a habit of writing pretty detailed responses and providing evidence to back up my assertions, which probably discourages people who are just looking to get a rise out of someone and don't want to read a five paragraph essay about why they're wrong.

I'm really sorry that those sorts of accusations have stopped you from enjoying Aegon's character in the past, and I'm glad my fics helped you to enjoy him again. Obviously I think he's an interesting guy with a compelling, tragic story! I will say this: I've been in the greater asoiaf fandom for well over a decade now, and characters who are far more morally dubious than Aegon have always had fans. Ramsay has fans. Euron Greyjoy has fans. I don't know if you were watching GoT when the show first aired, but so many show only people hated Jaime at first, not knowing his arc, and by the end he was one of the more beloved characters on the show. And by the end of the Dance, no one's hands are clean. Rhaenyra herself allows Dalton Greyjoy to reave along the coast of the Westerlands, which results in hundreds of women being taken as salt wives (and we know what that entails!). If we can only enjoy the most morally correct characters, our choices for the Dance era are pretty slim, and mostly limited to literal children.

I doubt most people throwing out those accusations could even spot actual rape apologia in a fandom context, considering all of the other types of apologia I see flying around unchecked. Rape apologia is not the existence of rapist characters, enjoying those characters, or even analyzing why those characters did what they did. Rape apologia is not questioning why the show decided to make Aegon a rapist, or hoping he might get more character development in the future. Rape apologia is making excuses for rape, or outright denying that it happened. So, saying "Dyana was probably lying" or "Dyana was probably into it" or "Dyana was scamming the royal family," or even what Aegon himself said in the scene, "it was just a bit of harmless fun," that's clear cut rape apologia. And here's the thing, when something is wrong, it's usually because it causes harm, and unlike simply enjoying a character, actual rape apologia does cause harm. Making excuses for or denying even fictional rapes perpetuates rape culture in ways that make it harder for women to speak up against assault, and harder for rapists to be prosecuted effectively. But again, I have never seen actual rape apologia among the team green fans I know.

Finally, I'll just say that while fandom in general can be a fun, positive thing that helps people connect with each other based on shared interests, that drives people to think and to create and to do, on the other hand, fandom can also feed some pretty shitty modern impulses. It creates cliques, empowers bullies, and worst of all, it encourages a kind of brand driven consumption that in turn perpetuates this idea of fandom as activism. Activism is getting involved in your community, volunteering, fundraising, protesting, labor organizing, boycotting, etc. Activism is not scolding people online for enjoying media the wrong way. People who think this way need to reconnect with the outside world, and anon, I hope you continue to enjoy whichever characters fascinate you, including Aegon.

[zaritarazi]

i miss behrad so bad actually

AND I DO TOO! I MISS BEHRAD SO BAD! You have actually activated my trap card which is "organic reason to talk about behrad in constantine" which is branching off of this post i made about zari

so the thing about me is, i love behrad and i think he and zari should've fought more. i think we were denied crucial aspects of their characters because they made up so quickly and indefinitely. i think two characters who love each other and sacrifice for each other but also have a really hard time getting along is infinitely more interesting and dynamic than them just kind of hanging out.

so as i've discussed, the tarazis, minor characters in nbc's constantine season 3 he's allowed to be bi in this one, are there to represent the dark marvel fam, to help john against felix faust, he's alive again part 6/?, and to, sometimes, be antagonists. i think that's sexy of them! i won't apologize! it doesn't mean they're the bad guys, antagonizing john constantine is always morally correct

behrad is someone in this universe who appears as more honest and genuine than zari, and maybe sometimes he is! but john also immediately misreads this vibe based on his own patent-pending Constantine Bias and is like oh well obviously zari keeps him under her thumb and he doesn't really want to be involved in this he's just like me in a lot of ways, actually, if i were cool. and handsome. and likable. and tall

but then, twist, behrad is just as cunning as john himself or as zari is! he's fully capable of making his own decisions! once again john was like "this person needs saving" and the person is like, that is my purse, i do not know you!

now that being said, i think behrad is the "nicer" one. i've described minor character in constantine zari tarazi to people as someone who loves humanity but is tired of being around people and who understands the explotative nature of humanity and is very resentful of it. behrad loves humanity without the caveat, and he also, i think, does actually really worry for zari because like sure. teth-adam loves her.

but he is also, fundamentally, not behrad's family. and he doesn't appreciate teth-adam assuming he is, or that he's part of a larger picture. his powers are his. his magic is his. and no one, not john, not teth-adam, not zari, can tell him what's right or wrong. he's behrad, first and foremost. then he's zari's brother. then he's behrad again, but this time with a cool all-black outfit

he doesn't have zari's knack for bargaining for rare items but he does give off extreme "my big sister is zari tarazi i can decide who lives and who dies" vibes sometimes. and we stan

[quetzalpapalotl]

tell me about arcee + her relationship to optimus 👀👀 i looove their dynamic in the end of exrid and the optimus prime ongoing

Omg yes!! They're so good!!

Arcee's first notable interaction with Optimus is after Dark Cybertron where she asks to tag in on the mission to Earth and asks about Hardhead. Optimus apologizes for forgetting that she and Hardhead were friends and neglecting to tell her about his death, to which Arcee responds with a defeated smile, saying that everyone forgets about those things.

The thing to keep in mind is that at this point everyone still sees Arcee like some crazy murder lady, even the people Arcee thought she had a connection with don't believe her capable of things like friendship (even Arcee doesn't think herself capable of that), so Optimus acknowledging her relationship and apologizing is sort of the best Arcee has gotten at this point. I am aware that this is setting the bar on the floor, but still, Optimus agrees to let Arcee come with him and seems to not pay mind to her reputation.

It makes sense, Optimus is someone that wants to believe in the good in people and that they can change more than he actually does. He doesn't seem to have much experience with Arcee, but she approaches him with no malice so she takes her in good faith. Arcee has been struggling to try to change herself and find a way to help create a better world and I think Optimus appreciates that.

Optimus, it seems, likes Arcee a lot. He tasks her with keeping an eye on Prowl while he's absent from Earth and then seems to take her as a sort of right-hand-woman. After Prowl, Arcee becomes the de-facto Autobot leader when Optimus is not there, over the other Autobots that had been there from the beginning. This is a lot of trust to put on someone of her reputation that Optimus barely knows and who became an Autobot a couple months ago by way of deciding she was one and no one having the gal to deny her.

But Optimus justs seems to like people who aren't impressed by him (Windblade, Pyra Magna, Ratchet in a way, etc) and of course Arcee isn't impressed. She's older than the primacy, she met the original 13. Arcee doesn't idolize Optimus and neither does she antagonize him which are usually the only two camps in relation to him. She follows him because she wants to do good and there's not much she can do on her own, Optimus thing is supposed to be doing good and knows more about leading than her. She's willing to trust him that he means good, but she will also do her own thing when it seems fit and she's also keeping an eye on him because she's seen enough charismatic leaders to not how how easily they can sour. To her following Optimus is just a matter of practicality.

So they end up with this very interesting dynamic where they're both jaded people that don't know how to be vulnerable and can't really fulfill each other's emotional needs, but that nevertheless have an unspoken understanding as people who are trying their damn best in a good with no simple answers, so they can be honest with each other. Optimus takes Arcee by her word and doesn't see her through her reputation and Arcee doesn't expect of Optimus to be anything more than a mech. The mix of awkwarness, stoicism, trust and Arcee not taking any of OP's bullshit can result in touching moment as well as hilarous ones.

God, I wish so bad that Barber had given us more moments of them just talking to each other because everytime they do is gold. I want more of Arcee telling OP plainly to stop being full of himself, but also a more direct talk between them about the Cybertronian legacy and the place they have in it.

They are the key actors of Optimus Prime, the themes of their arcs compliment each other, the narrative would be incomplete if you took one out. Arcee has lived through all of Cybertron's bloody history. Optimus choose to embody that history. If Optimus' cause is "the future worth fighting for" he needs change to be possible or else everything he's ever done has been pointless. Arcee gives Optimus' struggle meaning because she is someone who despite everything managed to change with the force of nothing but the belief that a better world must be possible. Optimus takes on the Cybertronian sins and dies, killing the Primacy with him, so that everyone else can move on, and on a lower level, he directly tells Arcee to go an let him be the one that sacrifices himself so that Arcee can go back to Aileron and live the life that she didn't even thought she deserved.

Arcee doesn't go to Optimus funeral. Everyone else is trying to come to terms with teh complex, contradictory figure that was Optimus Prime, but Arcee doesn't need to. She has always seen Optimus as who he was, the good and the bad, and she knows what to do with his legacy, so instead she goes and tells the children a story. Optimus' final speech is delivered to us by way of Arcee as something that she knows he would have said because they understood each other through their shared hopes.

I think they could have been good friends had Optimus lived, but things couldn't be that way. Regardless, their relationship was a bit rough, but meaningful.

[turbobyakuren]

@cerastes oh no worries!! i'm actually OK to answer this because maybe the key is that i'm doing something wrong and knowing how to fix it might make it enjoyable for me again.

More of a "circumstances" cause than what i was expressing in the post, but right now is more a problem of space and time. I live with my parents and I have a problem with the volume of my voice and since i tend to prefer streaming late at night i find it impossible to be comfortable unless i'm guaranteed to be home alone. I could have streamed more when I was in my apartment in Paris, but it is what it is. So, if i ever change my mind, it would be after i solve this problem!

Maintaining a schedule is a difficult, especially since i tend to be more of a "fuck around and decide what to do on instant T". I could be more of a "guerilla streamer" where I don't stick to a schedule (like i did in the past) and stream whatever i want, whenever i want.

I don't really know if I can bring a community and it impacts my self esteem to not really know how to draw people in because (continued in next point)

Overall, I do not consider myself to be an interesting person to watch. I have a bit of an "identity crisis" where I try to perform but also want to be myself and I overall feel very uncomfortable. I know my bit is my Antagonizing Relationship With Chat (which i do love and appreciate because, despite having a bit of paradoxical issues with "joke trashtalking", i am conscious that this is The Bit like pro wrestling. i actually love it haha), but I also feel there's eyes watching my every action and that if i don't do something Funny, people will lose interest. And the paradox is that this fear just manifests in me... not speaking, being confused, having trouble finding my words and thinking "god, i'm making a fool out of myself" and just thinking of excuses i can make to end the stream to stop embarrassing myself. My last streaming experiences last year was just that all the time. I really wish I could fix this.

Maybe the problem is that I haven't found my niche as a streamer, since it takes time and effort + trial and error, and that i need to actually find out what i like.

And there's also the fact that, in the end, video games are a hobby for me and streaming them brings a totally different experience. There's good and bad aspects of this. The Super Castlevania IV streams were my ultimate favourite experience because everyone made it so fun, whereas i ended up disliking streaming a certain game i used to like a lot because i kept getting backseated. I don't know how to express it, maybe "i don't like the pressure of monetizing my hobby" (without the monetizing aspect and more of the "dedicate to the bit" aspect of it). But that's a non-problem in the end because the pros outweighs the cons, so Perish the Thought.

Writing all that down was actually a good idea, because i externalized the struggle i felt about streaming (whenever i feel like i want to stream something i always kill the thought thinking "you're not interesting. don't do that. remember your last streams?"). I actually wrote this vent post after someone asked me enthusiastically if i'd be streaming the new Pizza Tower update, which made me kind of bummed because i would love to do it if there wasn't all this struggle i just listed (+ the time constraint because "you have to stream the hot new game NOW" although i have made it clear in the past that i do not vibe with that school of thought), and in that i feel like i've let down the few people who do appreciate me streaming...

So in the end, it's all that. But writing this made me a bit more hopeful I can enjoy this again...! If i make the effort, I can do this!

[cruelfeline]

One of my favorite villain types is the sort that appears to be in control of the situation at hand - totally autonomous and acting of their own free will and whatnot - only to be revealed as being part of a more powerful entity's plot. And, in being a part of that plot, actually having little to no agency in what they're doing. Hordak falls under this, obviously. And now, Cuff appears to, too.

Which makes me think about the whole thing with him and Athia and Rheddah and Frey.

Frey constantly asks, during the final battle, why he's doing this. Why he doesn't just stop. Why they can't settle down and talk about it, instead of beating each other's heads in. And like, Cuff is very fixed on the idea that he has a duty to fulfill and cannot stray from that for apparently emotional/mental reasons, but it's also relevant to consider the... practicality? of it.

Say Cuff stopped. Say the great Susurrus decided that he didn't want to fight anymore. He was going to instead settle down and. I dunno. Learn to knit, or whatever.

Ultimately, this might not mean much.

Cuff acts as the Big Bad in Forspoken, but within the overarching lore, he's not the conflict's instigator. He's a weapon, sent by a master, and his declining to participate in the fight doesn't suddenly mean that the fight's foundations are dealt with and resolved. His personal desire to fight is not the cause; Rheddah's is, and Cuff's potential surrender doesn't nullify that desire.

Susurrus is a threat, but he's not the main threat. He's a symptom, not a diagnosis, and his aggression being addressed doesn't actually save Athia from what's threatening it.

It's totally logical to assume that, should Cuff (Plan A) not work, Rheddah can very well come up with a Plan B. Perhaps another metal-magic bird demon. Or something worse.

Furthermore, Cuff diverting from Rheddah's orders - personal sense of duty aside - may prove personally dangerous. I mean... if I were making a weapon of mass destruction to send out to annihilate my enemies, I would strive to put in a failsafe or ten to ensure that that weapon could not turn on me.

It's not farfetched to think that the Rheddig may have a way to "turn Susurrus off," so to speak, should he go rogue.

Which... really makes Frey's behavior toward Cuff so interesting to me because she very much behaves as if he is fully in control of his own decisions and his own life. And that may legitmately not be true, not just in terms of his emotional ties to duty, but in terms of potential controls Rheddah may have put in place to keep him loyal to them.

I'm reminded of this little bit of dialogue that plays in one of the labyrinths if you visit during Chapter 11, when Frey is Cuffless. She speaks as if the Rheddig soldiers sacrificed themselves for Cuff, failing to understand that they performed that sacrifice for Rheddah, against Athia. Cuff had nothing to do with it because, like these soldiers, he is a means to an end. The actual enemy - the actual source of conflict - is Rheddah.

I feel that, if the game had financially performed better and we actually got a sequel continuing the story, this is something Frey would have had to understand and come to terms with: that Susurrus was an incredibly destructive foe, but his actions were dictated and dreamt up by a completely separate faction. A faction that, unless it is somehow dealt with, will continue to antagonize her and her home whether Cuff is fulfilling his duty or not. She would have to realize that despite initial appearances, Cuff is not the Main Villain of the story.

I wonder how she would have dealt with that.

[aajjks]

omgg he’s the father 😭!!!!!!! prepare for the drama y’all also OMG I NEVER KNEW SO MANY WERE INTERESTED LIKE AAAAHHHHH! 🥹

TPOL!JK

“The baby and Mr Jeons DNA results match. He is the father, Congratulations.”

you can’t believe this. you don’t want to believe this. you want it all to be a crazy nightmare you’re having. just a fever dream.

jungkook falls to the ground in tears, chaeyoung is laughing her ass off, and you exit the room. “I TOLD YOU SO!! hahahahaha, now you’re stuck with me for life” smirks chaeyoung who is enjoying herself watching jungkook scramble to run after you. “checkmate, bitch. that’s for tina” she says out loud to herself before throwing her hands behind her back and relaxing. she’s sure you’re going to leave jungkook and chaeyoung hopes you do for good this tome because she’s not gonna stop antagonizing the both of you until her and jungkook are living in a home of their own.

you think you can waltz back in his life and have jungkook for yourself? hell no. she’ll ruin the both of you so bad that you might just date her instead. “c’mon min, you’re probably hungry” says chaeyoung who slowly rises to breastfeed the adorable infant while you are crying in the elevator with jungkook barely managing to catch up to you.

“I KNEW IT!!” you yell at jungkook “I FUCKING KNEW IT!! the baby even LOOKS like you jungkook! he looks just. like. YOU!”

once the elevator opens, you’re walking to where you parked the car and you notice jungkook is still following you asking you to slow up. he’s spitting out so many apologies to you but part of you feels like he doesn’t have to apologize because he got her pregnant before the two of you got back together. you just wish he wasn’t so careless but it doesn’t come out that way when you finally turn around to face jungkook.

“what? what? what, jungkook? WHAAAT!!! what do you want?? there’s nothing to talk about. the baby is yours so whatever you decide to do with chaeyoung, from now on, leave me out of it” you say before getting inside the car and slamming the door shut. “c’mon, let’s go to your mom’s house to tell her the great news, jungkook. actually, YOU’RE going to tell her the news” you argue with the urge to slap him across his face, i mean, SERIOUSLY?!!

his first child, the mother of his first born isn’t you yet you two have always…..

you got him to feel comfortable with the topic of children and this is how he repays you? what did you do to deserve this? you’re so angry at jungkook that you every look you give him is filled with anger and betrayal because you feel betrayed.

so much for soulmates.

“i shouldn’t even be mad because the conception was before we got together but how could you be reckless, jungkook? drinking to the point where you aren’t aware of your surroundings is reckless, jungkook! and it’s dangerous because what if she hurt you?” you say as your eyes fill with tears when you turn to look at jungkook who is ashamed of his actions. when he looks at you, he only hates himself more because you’re crying because of him. it’s always because of him.

you’re pretty sure jaekuk is turning in his grave.

he always gets the last laugh.

“we need to buy stuff for the baby. his name is jaemin” you wipe your tears away. “we need to baby proof our home and decide which room will be his” you say and it breaks your heart to say those things because you aren’t talking about YOUR baby, you’re talking about hers. his and hers.

not yours.

“N-No yn… p-please no.” He whispers, still crying so loudly as you curse at him, he’s even scared to look at you because he’s never seen you so broken- only one time when your mother passed away.

You’re sitting behind the wheel this time and you start the car before demanding for him to shut up. He just helplessly cries because you are correct.

His alcohol problems did this to him, if only he hadn’t drink so much that night, maybe you’d have a child of your own today.

The drive to busan is so depressing, he’s still crying while you are sniffling too, you lost your job, your life almost because of him. And now he’s made you the other woman in his life.

Your silence is like torture.

And he knows damn well that he won’t be able to pick the pieces up, that child is his, no doubt. “Y-Yn… I-I can’t tell her please!” He’s begging you, helpless while you both finally arrive at his mother’s house.

“I-I love you yn I love you so much. I DONT WANT TO LOSE YOU PLEASE!”

You pull up in the garage and you get out of the car, without uttering another word. His apologies of course are fruitless. He wonders what he would’ve done if you were in his place.

He would have killed your baby daddy without hesitation. But you’re so kind, you were kind enough to… oh he’s so cruel for doing this to you.

You’re going straight ahead and you ring the bell and he closes his eyes, his mother and you must think that he’s actually worse than his own father.

He is.

He finally sucks it up and gets out to bear the consequences of his actions. And he’s walking with shaky legs towards your direction.

He’s standing next to you, but you don’t acknowledge him.

That is until his mother finally opens the door.

And as soon as he sees her face, he starts sobbing.

“I-It’s my son.. mother…”

[terastalungrad]

BB20: Sunday 22 October

I'm done sulking about the second eviction. Let's watch more Big Brother.

Matty's eviction night outfit is so wonderful.

Jordan's surprised by the "get Kerry out" chant. Only Olivia heard "get Olivia out" (though I have no doubt she's right).

Jordan reckons he should be wary of Kerry. If they public don't like her, he suspects he's missed something.

I bet he expected the chanting to be about Hallie or Olivia - they were the focus of drama in the house this week. Kerry's been under the radar.

Real antagonism between Trish and Dylan. Step by step:

Dylan starts cooking for the whole house - measuring a portion of chicken per person.

Trish starts cooking a sausage sandwich for herself.

Dylan is surprised by this, and comments on him. If she's going to eat now, he won't make her any chicken in that case.

Trish becomes defensive and annoyed. She doesn't like receiving commentary on her behaviour.

(Trish regularly cooks expensive food for herself whenever she feels like it - this has been an occasional issue in the house.)

Dylan is annoyed by Trish's bad mood. He's sad that he's lost a friend to eviction, and feels like he has more of a right to be annoyed.

Trish is annoyed by this too - she was also friends with Zak!

Dylan claims he's just trying to maintain the normal banter they have.

Trish didn't take this as banter.

Now. At the start of this argument, I'm on Dylan's side. But by the end, he raises his voice and talks over Trish. He may have had a point at the start, but he didn't manage his anger well.

Jenkin and Tom speculate about the anti-Kerry chanting. Tom reckons Kerry exaggerates her reactions because she's a Big Brother superfan. He also thinks she's too protective of Hallie.

I doubt these things matter much. Kerry's relationship with Hallie is my favourite thing about her. Kerry's exaggerated reactions can sometimes cross over from funny to annoying, but I suspect it's her negativity in tasks that's got people's goats.

Dylan apologises nicely to Trish. They hug, all friends again.

Matty jokingly tells Jordan he's the "Paul to my Olivia", a fun reference to the two flirty relationships in the house.

A superstition has formed around the screen that displays the 16 housemates - that they will be evicted from the bottom row up. Zak and Farida were both in the bottom row. This means the winner will be in the top row - a row that includes Jordan and Yinrun, so this is plausible.

Yinrun and Matty bond - both lost a grandfather who'd develop Parkinson's. This friendship is important to me.

I think Henry had definitely decided he'd be going. He's not entirely emotionally prepared to have stayed.

The queer men of the house explain cottaging to Tom.

"Oh, like dogging in a lavatory?" says Tom. "Mint."

Interesting task. Big Brother provides a tea party for a house meeting, to discuss issues in the house.

Certain issues - chores, food, and maybe gossiping - have formed cracks in the house. Enforcing a house meeting actually seems very useful. I wonder if this is a conscious attempt to keep the house a relatively happy space?

Kerry suggests giving everyone in the house £5 each from the budget to spend on themselves - that way, people can have a bar of chocolate to keep in their own bedroom drawer. Trish shoots this down. Too complicated.

Trish also states that they should not be doing any food monitoring. Everyone has a different relationship to food.

On the one hand, she's spot-on here - at least one housemate has suggested a history of disordered eating. But also, Trish cooks a lot of meat just for herself, which doesn't seem especially social. But nobody calls her on this.

There are three items on the agenda, chosen by Trish. After food, it's True Authentic Selves.

Jordan takes the time to express that he doesn't smile, so when people tell him to smile, they're asking him to be inauthentic. The group takes this in good humour.

Cute moment in the tea party where Hallie and Henry enjoy drinking their tea with a little finger extended - a bit of private silliness they do without verbal communication.

Third topic: consideration. At bedtime, Trish wants no silly running around.

Paul feels attacked by this, because he likes a bit of silly running around at bedtime. He's happy to change his behaviour if asked politely, but doesn't enjoy someone laying down the law like this.

Hallie raises toilet etiquette - why are people not flushing the toilet? Olivia concurs. She didn't mind cleaning the toilet, but, "The poo touching my hand was a harrowing experience."

Later, Tom, Chanelle and Jenkin complain about others hogging food and booze.

Jenkin: I've said it from day one, I'm starving in a house full of food. I am wasting away. It's getting beyond a joke, I can nearly see my willy like.

Yinrun gets in the hot tub - her first time ever in a jacuzzi!

Jordan and Trish discuss the groups into which the house is split. They reckon Noky and Dylan float between these groups.

Although the correct choice was to evict Henry rather than Zak, I can't pretend it isn't fun forcing Henry to live in a house watching his crush fall for another man.

Earlier, Noky teared up while discussing Zak. This seems to have surprised the house as much as it surprised me.

Jordan doubts her sincerity. He reckons this was a performance, using the skills she developed to win Miss Universe 2022.

Matty's picked up on the complexity of Jordan's emotions. He tells Jordan that the option is always there for a serious conversation.

[pridelessdaydreamer]

PLOTTER / SHIPPER

taken from: nat's linoan!

tagging: flutters my lashes like a funny lil guy :eye::sparkles:

1. CONNECTIONS

write about how our muses could connect with each other! ex. what does your muse like to do that other people would be involved in? do they have interests that other people might share?

Linhardt is a Black Eagle, and one native to Fódlan. Any who decide to study the politics of the continent would easily stumble upon his house, and connections can be drawn from there (accurate or otherwise).

She is a frequenter of the library though, even if she's most often found there late at night. Aside from her chronic reading, she also likes to fish! Not competitively though. She's not that competitive.

If you can't find them in class, the library, or at the Fishing Grounds though, just wander around the monastery a bit—they're probably asleep underneath a tree somewhere. Or in their room asleep, in which case, good luck finding them.

2. PLATONIC

write about your muse and their concept of friendship. ex. how is your muse like with friends? do they make friends easily or do they find it difficult to connect with others?

Friendship for Lin is... interesting, to say the least. They'll regard you much the same as they would any other person, but perhaps with slightly less rudeness/sass (unless you're really close, then it's worse *cough cough* CASPAR *cough cough*). The chance of summoning them with the click of your heels increases by 0.5%, so that's also a neat bonus! Really, the big thing is that they'll consciously worry about you now (when they think it's necessary to worry, otherwise, you're on your own).

The thing is, once you actually manage to pin him down, so long as you aren't asking him to do work all the time, you'd be pretty alright in his book! The threshold for 'friendship' though is rather hard to pin down—one day you're acquaintances and the next you're friends. It's not really easy to draw the line.

I can't say she makes friends easily considering she... doesn't exactly try, to be quite frank (it's part of the reason the previous bullet is so nebulous). She'd be completely content being alone forever (minus that one hamster), and she doesn't really rely on others that much except to do work she'd rather not do! Actively seeking out a friend isn't really something she does. I can't say she struggles either though—there is simply no effort made at all. Alas.

3. ANTAGONISTIC

write about your muse and the conflicts they have with other people. ex: who are they on bad terms with? what kind of people do they not get along well with? how do they act around people they don’t like?

Hubert. Also Ferdinand. Edelgard to an extent. Caspar sometimes (it's a best friends thing) /j. Yeah. Yeah.

To elaborate, anybody who expects her to put in more than the minimum amount of effort gotta be joking fr! It's not that bad if it's a misunderstanding, but if you try to force it? Yikes. (Edelgard ain't that bad fr cuz she knows when to quit! Also when to appeal. She's cool ong)

Admittedly, antagonism for Linhardt is basically the same as their normal behavior, just snarkier. More witty rebuttals and sharp comments—this man can never be anything but blunt! They're already very likely to just walk away from a conversation, but if they don't like you? Ohoho!

Won't lose sleep over it though. That's a bit too much.

4. ROMANTIC

write about your muse and their relationship with romance. ex. are they searching for love or not interested in it in the slightest? what’s their dating history like? how do they act around crushes? how would they treat their partner if they were in a relationship?

Okay 'cause this is hilarious when the muse is aromantic gwahaha!

This is an aroace lil guy—completely disinterested in romance for romance's sake (because someone tell me how he tells how many different girls they're gonna have kids together in his A-supports? Also in basically every instance it's got something to do with crests and studying them. He's a bit insane).

Their dating history is completely blank. There is actually nothing to see here.

Similarly, there are no crushes for her to act different around! This one is fairly normal (<- this post was brought to you by the Aspec Gang)

As for how he'd treat his partner if he was dating—the same way he would act if they were friends? lol? Literally nothing has changed in his mind except that there might be kisses or something. (Is there a book he can read somewhere on this? Probably.)

Oh well she's probably gonna get married off for political purposes anyway. (This post was brought to you by the Noble Clique.)

[thegeminisage]

hey! i checked your writing masterpost and didn't see anything about this, so i thought i'd ask-a friend of mine and i are interested in writing a fic together, but both of us have previously only wrote stuff by ourselves. do you have any tips on writing collaborative work?

HIIII this is such a good question wow <3 i hope u don’t mind if i just throw out a bullet-point list as stuff comes to me instead of putting it in a more organized order!! obviously everyone is different especially wrt creative stuff so take it with a grain of salt but cowriting @cambionverse 11 yrs (holy shit) with my beloved @callowyn leads me to give u the following advice:

USE GOOGLE DOCS. like yeah fuck google or whatever always keep personal backups yadda yadda but i cannot stress enough how helpful it is to literally be able to see each other cursor’s in real time when you’re speaking about a particular section. it’s also fun to watch each other work, sometimes lovingly, sometimes lovingly but also with loving antagonism. there have been times when i’ve written faster bc i knew cally was watching and if i stopped typing she’d get bored or type dick emojis into the paragraph or something because she is <3 a menace

write down everything. the older and busier you get the truer this is. i can’t tell you how many times cally and i have decided on a plan of action only to forget it by next week’s writing meetup, and then be RELIEVED to discover a set of notes (or baffled when it turns out the notes were too vague to be useful). google helps with this bc you can leave notes all over the place. make as many notes as you can. no much thing as too many. make outlines. make an entirely new doc to take notes on what you talked about. save chat logs, if you’re not using something that saves them automatically. you will thank yourselves later.

the triangle my beloved. if you’ve been through the writing masterpost you may have seen this bad boy. i did not invent this, but i do live by it! idk it seems like really great advice. the nice thing about cowriting is that sometimes you can shore each other up on the “knowledge” point (knowing what you’re doing) because you can brainstorm together, but your projects can stall if you’re not matching each other in “enthusiasm” (commonly misinterpreted as “inspiration,” blegh, don’t get me started) and “time” (time to work separately AND TOGETHER, which busy adults sadly do not often have ASK HOW I KNOW or maybe don’t actually it’s so tragic that we’re always so busy). (”time” can sometimes also mean “spoons” or “energy” for people who are mentally ill or work demanding jobs.) some people write better solo and trading things back and forth some people write better when they hang out in the doc together so they can’t goof off but if one of you doesn’t want to work on it because they aren’t excited or can’t work on it due to time constraints the other one of you can’t pick up all the slack by themself. like with any collaboration you will sometimes need to be very patient with each other and very honest with each other (in a nice way!) so nobody is stringing anybody else along. if you can’t or don’t feel like doing something, just say so, and be nice about it when your friend can’t or doesn’t feel like doing something either. remember, you’re friends before you’re cowriters.

decide on who gets what workload. cally and i are very lucky to have complementing skillsets - i’m pretty good at laying down a first draft quickly, but i absolutely despise editing. she’s slower on the first draft, but she edits wonderfully and likes doing it much better. everyone will be different. sometimes she drafts scenes i’m not really excited about and i edit scenes she’s tired of looking at. maybe you’re better at porn but your friend is better at angst. maybe you’re good at dialogue but your friend likes to write action scenes. it’s good at have a rough plan going in, but don’t feel weird or bad about altering it as you see fit. especially if there’s like, only stuff left that one of you is “supposed” to do - the other can jump in and help finish up. on that note...

keep a checklist? this sounds weird but it’s been very helpful for cally and i when we unfortunately go a long time between writing sessions. at the top of the doc is just a little bullet pointed list like this one full of things like “fix the plothole in this particular scene” or “take a character out of that scene” or “rewrite this part” or “make that part sexier” or whatever. it helps keep track of where you are and what you’re doing because it can get chaotic with even just two people in the doc.

WRITE IN ORDER (or something). speaking of chaos!! so, a fun story that will haunt me until the end of my days is how in envesseled there’s this guy aaron birch who we introduced in i think the second chapter. but because we wrote some of the scenes before we actually GOT to the second chapter and because both of us were doing things separately, we wrote every time he came up in the narrative like it was the first one. “aaron birch, who claire and ben had met in the grand canyon on an angel hunt” was an explanation that showed up not once, not twice, but SIX TIMES. ironing out those mentions to make them consistent was a nightmare, because we had to read through like 50k to find them all, highlight them, and then edit the scenes around them to make sure what we got was the mostly-final product. i know not everybody CAN write in order, not everybody likes to, but when you’re cowriting, ESPECIALLY for longer fics, you need to do SOMETHING to check for consistency and make sure you don’t have two totally separate ideas about where the exposition’s supposed to go, even if it’s just a chronological readthru now & then. the sooner you catch errors such at plotholes and exposition snafus the less horrific they will be to fix.

decide on a process. so, this is my process, which you don’t need to read, but in general it goes brainstorming, outlining, reoutlining, blocking, drafting, editing. some people start with writing, some people start with inspiration boards, whatever. if you two have a different process from each other, deciding which order to do things in might be tricky - maybe you can get on voice chat and work on the inspiration board while your more outline-loving friend takes down notes for the brainstorming file or something. but you won’t start without a plan. if you’re like me you may even find satisfaction in writing it down step by step so you can cross it off. first inspiration pictures. then an outline. then doing this bit, while my friend does that one. you get the idea. don’t go overboard or anything, though - the point is to help you get started, not just put it off with productive procrastination forever because you aren’t sure how to do it. 

just fuckin go for it & have fun!! as with anything, the more you cowrite with your friend the better you will get at it. there may be kinks (hah) at first and mistakes will be made but eventually you will settle into a pattern. (the longer the fic is, the more time you have to get this down pat.) and of course, fic writing is done for free, for fun, and so is hanging out with friends. so make sure you’re having a blast doing both cuz that’s the entire point!!!!!

this is pretty unorganized but i HOPE IT HELPED. good luck to both of you, i bet you’re gonna ace it <3

[fic advice masterpost]

[paradoxicalcurio]

Okay, let's break some shit down! I recommend just skipping over this post unless you're one of the three dozen or so people with enough personality issues to create callout blogs.

Okay, let's take this apart bit by bit.

>cries about getting blocked, calls it "selfish"

It is selfish. I don't know what the fuck happened to the concepts of communication and respect, but it seems like a lot of people don't follow them anymore in favor of completely avoiding anything that makes them even a little uncomfortable. All I want is the chance to clear up misunderstandings before they explode into situations that draw uninvolved people in. I try to give that to people, after all!

>antagonizes people in IMs people who reblog callout posts instead of unfollowing them

Related to the above point. I definitely wasn't 'antagonizing' or 'harassing' anyone, I was politely pointing out the corruption inherent in callout culture, which so far you have failed to convince me is fake. And if you happen to see this, Soy, just know that it's only a matter of time before someone tries to cancel you.

>brings up neurodivergence for no reason

Bitch, we both know that mentally ill people make prime bullying targets. Don't try to pretend otherwise.

Maybe if you actually read the callouts or followed what you preached you wouldn't be on your 10th block evasion blog.

Why would I want to read a bunch of uninformed accusations based on misunderstandings, exaggerations, carefully cropped screenshots taken out of context, and outright falsehoods? I've seen enough to know the basic formula. And it's quite bold of you to accuse me of trying so hard to block evade, when there was only ONE incident that only occurred because I didn't realize the person, who was following my Nerissa blog, had my OC blog blocked until AFTER the fact, and tried to bring that up only to have the door slammed in my face. There are plenty of other reasons to delete and remake blogs, such as wanting a fresh start, or in my case, because of DEPRESSION. So this accusation only proves my point about misunderstandings and falsehoods.

Maybe don't gloat about following someone who was outed for being manipulative and turn around acting like the people mad at you for going "all callouts bad".

This brings me to another issue I have with callouts: I can decide for myself whether someone is bad or not. I don't need someone who's already biased against the person trying to convince me that they're Satan. And also, you remember that dumpster fire with all the trans women being targeted, reported, and harassed, just a few weeks ago? Yeah, that was callout culture. Even if I believed you people had everyone's best interests at heart, it is way too easy for bigots to use this tool to turn public opinion against marginalized people.

at this rate you're going to defend someone who actually did something akin to sexually assaulting someone with concrete proof-

I highly fucking doubt that. Especially since you people don't care about concrete evidence.

-and then double down while acting smug before deleting your blog and coming back again so all the people who blocked you before need to re-block you.

See my above point, re: more likely reasons for deleting and remaking. And if that does happen, those people won't need to worry, as I'll have already done my part and re-blocked them first.

[perpetual-fool]

-

Starting serious work on my conlang, and got swindled into watching a show.

I've worked out that fundamental meaning has to be a function between observations. I think I can abstract that to 'arguments' and 'premises', but I need to work out data types, what sort of things there are which could be premises. It shouldn't be that complicated, but I'm finding it hard to wrap my brain around it for some reason. I think that's because I'm trying to sort out my existing understanding, and much of that has been corrupted.

I kept seeing clips of the show online, it suggested something interesting was happening. Problem is, it's not, nothing's happening. Like, I would have to start with how things are, then see what develops from that. Instead, it's like characters are sort of vaguely pantomiming a plot, except the plot doesn't fit the circumstances or the characters. Like for instance, the character known for wantonly killing decided to spare the main antagonist for no reason, so that the antagonist can come back and antagonize later. And also there's no justification for the antagonist to antagonize, and everyone is trying to kill each other despite the fact that all of them are trying to achieve the same thing. Or, character makes a heartfelt plea to convince someone of something, but say nothing specific and make literally no argument about it. That is, there is no causal relationship between how the world is supposed to work and what's happening in the plot.

And I'm wondering if this is just a sloppy version of what actual people do. It does mirror a lot of their behavior. Ya' know, the truth is true whether or not it's valid, or whether it happened, or whether it even could happen. And the equation isn't that complex. If they're not starting from the premises then they must be starting from the argument. Oh! say, arguing over whether the ends justify the means. an argument without its premises. I have wasted so much fucking time trying to make myself understood. Last attempt, I had this whole thing about multiple phrasings, examples, counter-examples. But none of that will fix communication if the other party is actively trying to destroy it. Ambiguity for instance, I'm pretty sure that's a feature and not a bug. Like, off the top of my head I know three different versions of "argument", and they'd would decide which one(s) I meant here to justify imposing what they want onto me. That was actually the thing that tipped me off to the fact that it's them and not me. I'd clarify 'I mean term(a), not term(b)' and then they responded as though I meant term(b).

Honestly the most disappointing thing for me about season 2 is that they still refer to the timelines as 'sacred' or 'branched'. So like, (spoilers for Loki S1) the deal with 'the sacred timeline' was that it's the one He Who Remains came from, what was or was not a 'branch' and who was or was not a 'variant' was defined by HWR. But now HWR is dead, the terms no longer have any meaning. Every timeline is a branch, everyone is a variant. So it's like the writers don't even have the most basic grasp on their worldbuilding. Somehow that feels more significant to me than bad setups or nonsense plot. I guess maybe it was the most engaging thing they had going. Like, what's most interesting for me is when I have to reframe how I think about things. I'd love to hear a take on time travel that's not just 'the past rewrites the future' or 'there are parallel timelines'. Say, the scene where Loki is talking to OB in the past, and as it's happening in the past he remembers it in the future: if they'd actually justified that somehow that'd be cool. (Aside, variations of "you can't actually change anything" are cop-outs.) It makes sens that they wouldn't, you'd need to come up with an alternative causality, which would be difficult to impossible. But it'd be fun.

[idkimdepressed]

I hate to say it but I really dislike how the comics resolved Azula’a arc.

I understand her “going crazy”, she essentially had a mental breakdown in the season finale and portraying her as okay after that would be unsettling. But all it cumulates in is Azula running away, which gives off this vibe that there’s not happy ending for her. Which feels stupid, because she’s even younger than Zuko. What, because she did the same sort of stuff as Zuko before his redemption but scarier and more efficiently she’s not deserving of a second chance?

I think it’s because they kind of didn’t know how. Like most people would say “redemption arc”, because there’s no way she could still actively antagonize the main cast in the same way as she used to (she can’t bring her father back to the throne. the world is changing. what she she going to do, coup? Again, she’s fresh off dealing with mental issues). But I think that even with how crazy people are going with redemption arcs these days, people know Azula enough to get a (typical) arc like that wouldn’t work. Redemption arcs often go bad because 1 the character feels unredeemable and the only way the writers can try and fix it is give them a weak sad backstory that doesn’t justify anything/and you feel bad for them AT ALL, 2 they’re extremely boring to watch and don’t take anything unique about the character’s personalities into account, 3 all of their interesting traits come from them being antagonists and now that you’ve made them “good” they’re boring characters.

I think the best redemption method for Azula would’ve been to give her a friend she bonds with because they’re similar. Maybe they’re a noble kid that was raised with the Fire Nation’s conquering ideology, they hate all the change happening in their home, they’re never lived in a time where the world isn’t at war, etc. They can even start seeing her because they view her as the “true” Fire Lord, the last dying ember of the old world. Then, because they have support Azula didn’t in her life, they start to change. They get used to the new normal. And as they slowly show more and more of this, Azula repeatedly gets angry with them, but realizes that if she wants to keep her only friend she’ll have to put up with it. She’s already attached oh no.

And then over a very LONG time she starts to truly change.

At first you can tell she’s just tolerating it. She’s still mean, still psychologically manipulates people. But she’s kind of aimless. This is very Regina George of me, but I actually think she would do great in sports? We saw her dominate at volleyball, and she’s love ordering around a team. An example of her slowly changing would be her becoming captain, treating everyone like she used to do to her old friends (habit) but they realize she can’t execute them or whatever if they tell her to stop being an ass, so they do, and Azula’s livid. They argue back and forth to the point it’s exhausting, and Azula eventually concedes because she realizes it’s easier and if they don’t get back together soon they’re going to lose an upcoming game. It’s not real progress. But they she kind of gets into the habit of being a little more decent to people; she’s shitty and snide about it, but it’s a tweak, and that’s basically the whole thing. She tries to boss around people at home, but since she doesn’t want to be under Zuko’s watch “home” is her friend she’s crashing with, and again, no one’s catering to her every whim anymore. It’s not even defiant. People just have things to do, and since she’s not truly royal anymore she’s just not a priority. So she has to get used to not filling her time “at home” playing mind games with servant or getting ready to enact some highly strategical war plan or training for battle. Maybe she picks up another hobby. She doesn’t think it’s wrong to act as she once did exactly, she just falls out of it. Maybe she decided to learn other fighting styles from the other nations as a hobby, that’s another thing she can compete in. Etc, etc.

In the end, you’d have an Azula that doesn’t mentally torture those she’s close to or complete strangers anymore, but is still pretty verbally brutal to people she hates. Maybe she finds small ways to ruin their days behind the scenes — petty. She’s still intense with a dominant personality. She still loves to win, loves to be in charge. She still loves to fight. She’s snide whenever she sees any of the old characters from the series but it’s slightly less bitter. She keeps all of the traits that made her fun to watch without her still being the “villain”. But we see more of what we saw in The Beach episode; she goes after people when they’re upset to check in and attempts to get them to feel better, she psychoanalyzes their issues, and she helps formulate plans to help her friends get what they want. She’s whatever Riverdale and every other show that tries to make a “good Blair Waldorf” is actually trying to achieve.

I’d imagine on top of her new hobbies, professionally she’d be a sorta-socialite or a psychiatrist. Azula still has a a lot of tactical/diplomatic training and being someone whose just well off and socializes with powerful people sounds like it would fit her as long as it wasn’t shallow. She gets her money from being the head of committees or or having stakes in organizations or leading community initiatives or whatever. She’s always the most intense when it comes to meetings. Her passion isn’t really there but it gives her excuses to mess with people so there’s that. She gets along well with old politicians that are still grumbly about all the radical changes. Azula being sort of a bored well off power broker sounds like it would be really funny and would present a bunch of chances for her to socialize like she did in the beach episode when she was trying to be normal. It would also neuter her in a way. She’d come up with these intense plans to accomplish goals for her job she barely cares about only to discover she’s like 10x more hyper competent than everyone around her and it’s not even really necessary. Azula can put forward a sort-of-average effort and still get anything she wants without any real contest because she’s just that good.

The psychiatrist idea is almost entirely a joke on my part. Like she can still use the socialite thing I suggested for character development. But this is 1000% gag fodder. Since she’s so used to psycho analyzing people in the series, it turns out she’s also really good at pinpointing people’s issues and telling them what do do about it — even if she ends up being a little harsh and her plans for improvement are a tad too intense.

At the end of the day, she ends up forging a new life. She still runs into the cast a lot, but I can’t imagine her ever pulling them into her life the same way eventually Zuko eventually did. I can see her apologizing to Mai and Ty Lee, but I actually don’t like them being friends again? Even if she’s better, it feels like putting two people back into an abusive relationship. It’s not like they never suffered from her either, but I can only see her forging a deeper bond with Zuko (he asserts in the comics he’s willing to be there for her, so it feels less like he’s being forced to do it and more like he acknowledges the risks) and Iroh (which I feel would be incredibly interesting. I have my own thoughts about their relationship in the series that has to do a lot with the way Azula’s mom seems to have treated her but this is getting long). Overall:

Azula’s redemption arc wouldn’t be about her “becoming a good guy”. It’d be about her moving on.

[the-lone-witch-and-secret-room]

The Blight children and toxic behaviors

Some poor soul on Instagram made the mistake to ask me a couple of questions on the Blight siblings that got me to finally write out what’s been on my mind for a very long time about the Blight children and their relationships and behaviors.

The Wrong Antagonist

Up until she meets Luz, Amity tries her best to be the “ideal” child their parents want all of them to be, gets amazing grades, spends her free time studying, picks the friends her parents want her to have.

She does this because she wants her parents to love them, but in doing so, by being everything their parents want her to be, the twins think she raises the expectations for everyone. She even gets the twins in trouble by telling on them for skipping to look better, because she’s so frustrated of them getting away with things, with being told it’s a shame she doesn’t have her siblings’ magical skills, while they don’t have the same insane expectations to meet.

Thing is, this actually isn’t true. They’re under the same amount of pressure, they just handle it differently, and their parents are INTENTIONALLY making it seem like the other siblings have it easier to serve their purposes.

Their parents tell the twins they want them to be more like Amity, and Amity she should be more like the twins. No matter what they do, it’s never good enough, because their sibling is better.

This achieves exactly what it’s supposed to: provide “motivation” to improve by making the kids try to one-up each other with their skills, and point out each others flaws to their parents. This way, they learn of things the kids are doing that they’re not supposed to, while also getting them to target each other, rather than having each others backs and teaming up to call their parents out on their bullshit.

They resent how much “easier” their siblings have it, and this prevents them from finding comfort in each other and figuring out how messed up this situation is as a whole. It’s not difficult “because the others make it more difficult for me by being better than me”, it’s a shitty situation because their parents treat all of them as not good enough. Even “ideal” child Amity isn’t enough for them.

This isn’t a competition they are ever meant to win.

The only way out is seeing through it, rebuilding bridged with each other and continuing to play by their own rules—but that’s exactly what their parents are trying to prevent.

Once the Blight siblings start communicating with and supporting each other rather than antagonize each other, the whole system falls apart.

“Tough love”

During Lost In Language, the exact wording the twins use in reference to their diary revenge plan is “Amity NEEDS this” “It's for her own good” rather than “Amity DESERVES this”, which is very interesting.

To an extent, this is just them trying to get out of responsibility for what they’re doing... but they also genuinely think this is right. That they’re doing what’s best for Amity by embarrassing her and revealing her most private thoughts to the entire school. This is of course utter bs, but lets get into why they’re doing this.

That it’s not genuinely malicious actually makes it so, SO much worse. They’re trying to get Amity to “loosen up” because how she’s behaving currently is, as previously stated, making all of their lives more difficult, and also just isn’t good for her. But posting her diary all over school IS, because it will get her to finally see things their way.

They just decide what’s best for Amity without taking her feelings into consideration, and without realizing how hurtful this is, because that’s how they’ve been raised to believe these things work.

Their parents probably did similar things, framing severe punishments as “necessary evils” to help them grow more responsible, etc.

Even when Ed and Em think they’re being rebellious (and deciding Amity would be happier if she was, too), they’re still stuck in their parents mindset.

What’s interesting about this is that to an extent, Amity actually does this, too, but with Willow.

Her patronizing words of encouragement in I Was A Teenage Abomination are more than just that��Amity isn’t just needlessly cruel, at the same time she’s telling herself she’s “helping” an old friend get better grades. It’s tough love, yes, but tough love works, right? Ultimately this will be GOOD for Willow. She’s also “helping” Willow by putting her down in Hooty’s Moving Hassle—“it’s not her fault she was born without talent” gets the others to move along and not bother Willow anymore in that scene. But coming from Amity, it also hurts a million times worse than it could coming from Boscha or Skara.

Amity genuinely still thinks what she’s doing is what’s “best” for Willow—but without ever actually taking Willow’s feelings into consideration.

She can’t actually encourage her, so instead she does it in a way that really hurts Willow, but at least she’s still encouraging her and telling her she believes in her! She can’t actually stand up for Willow, but at least she’s “protecting” her by making a jab that renders her so worthless the others don’t even bother teasing her anymore! That’s so much better than it would be without her intervention!

Except it isn’t.

Amity isn’t helping Willow. The twins aren’t helping Amity. They’re executing the same “though love will motivate you/make you happier” and “I know what’s best for you” bs their parents are pulling on them.

That’s how they were raised to believe the world works.

Others know what’s best for you, and you know what’s best for others, and if they don’t see it your way, you make them see it your way.

I also have a bunch of theories concerning Edric’s and Emira’s relationship, but that’s for another post.

The message here is that I really, really want to kidnap the Blight kids and remove them from the environment that taught them these behaviors.

Also, to be very, very clear here, in case that for some reason is misunderstood: Edric, Emira and Amity aren’t terrible people, and they’re in no way to blame for thinking this is appropriate behavior. They’re abused kids that were raised to think this way and are only slowly being confronted with different mindsets. Amity was intentionally removed from a healthy environment (Willow), and from what we’ve seen of the twins, they don’t seem to have many friends, either.

They are in no way to blame for the beliefs their parents taught them, and fighting your way out of toxic behaviors you’ve been raised to see as right all your life can be really, really difficult.

Also, since this is something that apparently needs to be said… please stop hoping for redemption arcs/giving the benefit of the doubt to abusive parents of all people. “The abusive parents were actually just terribly misunderstood/didn’t realize their behavior was bad the entire time” is not a story anyone ever needs to hear.

[jennycalendar]

also -- in years past i have occasionally seen the argument put forward by fans of giles who do not appreciate jenny that jenny and giles are fundamentally incompatible long-term, based on the fact that she took him on multiple dates that he clearly would not be interested in. while i definitely agree that if we’re ascribing to the notion of jenny genuinely thinking giles would be interested in monster trucks, that statement holds water, and while my philosophy these days will always be that any reading of jenny must be treated as fair and reasonable given the limited amount of data that we have, this reading is simply so lackluster to me for the simple reason that it does not seem willing to give jenny very much credit.

like this is a smart, capable woman! writing her off as too self-centered and disinterested to notice that giles isn’t comfortable is more than a little bit lazy, at least in my book. because by doing this, one just side-steps the EXTREMELY FUNNY TAKE that

jenny is smart enough to understand what this is doing to giles and is repeatedly running this relationship into walls trying to get giles to break

GILES ISN’T BREAKING BECAUSE HE IS IN LOVE WITH HER

the fact that jenny decides to get back together with giles after a DEMON possesses her, despite perpetually antagonizing the shit out of him, suggests that all of her toying was actually idiotic posturing + the jenny calendar equivalent of pulling a girl’s pigtail on the schoolyard because you like her & don’t know how to express it (which we all know is a bad idea) and she is just as in love with him as he is with her

the notion of instead choosing “jenny just doesn’t Get Giles” over “jenny absolutely gets giles and is doing this on purpose” ......... why. this is so much better.

[crisis-on-infinite-batblogs]

Okay wait, is Brothers in Blood actually.... good?

I mean, we all know how wacky that story is, but I've just been thinking about it a lot, and I'd like you to come on another journey with me while I over-analyze and give this arc way too much credit.

((Warning: we will be discussing Jason's canonical tentacles below the cut.))

Part One: Context. It's not just for the birds.

Brothers in Blood happens roughly a year and a half after Dick lets Tarantula kill Blockbuster. He's real fucked up about it, and feels responsible for that death, and sort of hates himself for allowing it to happen. The fucking BATMAN calls him out and tells him to get his shit together. That's how you know it's bad.

Nightwing #117

"You know the difference between shooting a bullet and failing to step in front of one."

Batman's being all angry and imposing, but he's really just telling Dick to forgive himself and admonishing his son for putting himself in danger because of a stupid mistake. Bruce knows all about letting grief ruin your life; he doesn't want Dick to go down the same path.

So Dick takes a year off. He puts away the suit and just tries to live a normal life. He leaves the ashes of Blüdhaven behind and moves back to New York. Things are going pretty good until they're not. Dick is in the process of finding a new place and reconnecting with old friends, when his sabbatical is suddenly (and murderously) cut short.

Part Two: Imitation is the severest form of flattery.

This is a Nightwing comic, so clearly Dick is our hero. Jason is celebrating the one year anniversary of stuffing a duffel bag full of human heads, so it's a pretty safe bet to say he'll be playing a villain. But it's a little more nuanced than that.

While Dick was away, Jason saw a bird-shaped void and opted to fill it the only way he knows how: by stealing Dick's costume and doing what Nightwing won't.

Nightwing #118

"Only one person whose attention I'm interested in..."

The true villains of this arc are the Pierce brothers. They own and operate multiple nightclubs, as well as a human trafficking ring, and plenty of other nefarious ventures. They also happen to employ all of the scumbags that Jason hunts down and kills. However, the Pierce brothers are notably two people, not one; ergo, it is not their attention Jason is interested in.

The person he's trying to get to is Dick, and boy, is he really getting to him. Dick is absolutely furious, but more on that later. Suffice it to say: Jason has his attention now.

Nightwing #119

Jason teases that they should share the mantle and keeps calling Dick "partner". He even taunts him about (big air quotes) "killing Blockbuster." By antagonizing him thusly, Jason is pulling Dick back into the life. He's forcing Dick to end his hiatus and be the hero he knows his brother to be.

Obviously, Jason's motives aren't entirely selfless. My guess is that he's only half-way joking about partnering up. The past year has been extremely lonely for him. He had his big show down with Bruce which quite literally blew up in his face, and we don't really know what he did after that. It was probably just a lot of bed rest and self loathing.

After Jason stops being useful as a plot device, Dick just leaves him behind to face the bad guy alone in an altered physical state (if you know what I mean). Dick tells his companion Cheyenne that the building is going to blow up, and she immediately says "What about Jason?", to which Dick responds "Jason'll have to take care of Jason this time." AND THEN HE JUST FUCKIN' DIPS.

That's literally the last time we see Jay in this story. For some reason they decide to tie that loose end up with a letter which reads:

"Dear Dick-bird. I survived and I'm all back to normal in case you're interested. Leaving town to find my own way. Thanks for coming for me, brother. I know we don't agree on much. I just wanted to believe we could be family again."

It's sort of difficult to read tone from a telegram, but if we assume that Jason is being genuine, this is just incredibly sad. The only reason why he was in New York was to try and rebuild his relationship with his brother, who just ended up abandoning him all over again.

Part Three: The best offense is a good defense mechanism.

It is a well-known fact that when it comes to killing, Batman is a sanctimonious asshole (Jason's words, not mine). While Dick tries his best not to murder people, he's not nearly as anal about it as his mentor. So I guess my question is: why is he being such a dick to Jason about it?

The answer is a little something psychologists like to call PROJECTION. Dick is gathering up all the things he doesn't like about himself and projecting those traits onto Jason. So much so that he literally sees him as a demon with horns and fangs.

Nightwing #119

Let it never be said that Brothers in Blood is subtle.

When Jason shows up wearing his colors and slaughtering people, Dick's secret shame is all the sudden front page news. Now all of New York City knows that Nightwing is a killer... but Dick's known that for a while-- and he still hates himself for it.

So all of this vitriol and hostility is only partly directed at Jason, but that doesn't make it hurt any less when he accuses his brother of being on drugs.

Nightwing #119

...way harsh. Like, I know it's 2006. It was still cool back then to joke about being on crack, but considering how Jason's mom died, this feels like Dick is just poking the homicidal bear.

I already mentioned in Part Two how he leaves Jason to fight the bad guy alone in a building that's about to blow up, but really I think the shittiest thing Dick does here is when he says this:

Nightwing #119

My jaw dropped when I read that. On the next page, he says he'll put Jason at the bottom of the East River. I was so tempted to just write this off as an OOC piece of shit story, but if we're jumping through all these hoops to redeem it anyway, I'll just say this:

Dick is experiencing a lot of anger (something that's actually very much in character for him) and in his anger, he says and thinks some things that he doesn't actually mean.

We could also chalk this up to projection again, and say that Dick is really wishing he himself had died. It's still not great, but it's a little more palatable to me if you want to think about it that way.

Part Four: Tentatodd's not real, it can't hurt you.

It's time to address the giant tentacle monster in the room... and by "address" I mean "completely retcon out of existence".

While we're on the subject of projection and skewed perspectives, I'd like to posit that the mind-reading insectoid creature-feature known as "Jakob"-- was really just a dude.

Nightwing #120

He's a meta-human with psychic powers, but a dude nonetheless.

Sure, he looks like a eldritch Lovecraftian nightmare, but what if this was just what he WANTED the heroes to see him as? What is this was just a scary image that he conjured up in the minds of others to make himself seem more intimidating? What if it's nothing more than an illusion?

So, the totally normal looking meta-human dude uses his powers to capture Jason, and proceeds to more or less fuck with his mind while they wait for Nightwing to come to the rescue.

The beginning of #121 takes place inside Jason's head, and we get to see how miserable and wretched he really is. Jason doesn't believe that any one is coming to save him. He doesn't believe that he's worth saving.

And then this nonsense happens:

Nightwing #122

We already know that Dick is more than willing to see Jason as a monster, and now we know that Jason feels the same way about himself. It's not too much of a stretch to say that Tentatodd is nothing more than a shared delusion brought on by adrenaline, low self-esteem, and residual psychic delusion.

If you really like Jason's canonical tentacles, that's between you and your gods. For me, I have to believe that it was all some sort of hallucination. I just can't live in a world where that really happened, but to each their own ig.

In conclusion:

Honestly, I'm still a little fuzzy on this time period in the comics. There was a one year time leap and I'm still trying to fill in some of the blanks. If you've got any luminary insights feel free to message me or send an ask or w/e.

Thanks for coming to my bat-shit TED talk.