#anti canon purists

[maya-the-skaven]

Much Ado About Rats: Speculative Skavenology

CW: there will be a couple of paragraphs discussing topics related to pregnancy, rape and sexual violence

Greetings everyone and welcome to the second post of my series of posts that will talk about my head canon about the Skaven and the worldbuilding behind the fan fic I am writing about them in the Warhammer: Age of Sigmar setting. In the previous post I have talked about some of my motivations for writing a Skaven story and complained about their near absent characterization. The story is about a small band of Skaven, who essentially tread the line between being villain and anti-hero protagonists, while exploring what would change if you’d yank them out of their society without a clear way inside.

However, before going onto the more social, world and character related tangents, I would like to talk about some of my head canon about Skaven biological and psychological function that is essentially aimed to diversify the range of their base characterisation. Without establishing this diversity and possibilities it’d be a chore having to explain and argue with everyone who’d read further information why the Skaven in my fic do not necessarily conform to the very generalistic description of Skaven from some of the very few sources we have about them. I will try to argue for expanding possibilities for the Skaven characters, without necessarily breaking the character of the Skaven faction on the wider average too much. True, my ideas are purely head canon, but in absence of any real nuance is it really that bad to treat it as incomplete information that could be expanded upon, rather an end-all of their lore? My fic is not for the extreme lore purists, but by their standards many Black Library writers would be egregious lore heretics as well, if only they didn’t have the GW stamp of approval.

The established lore on Skaven bodily and mental functions is actually incredibly limited. While we have an established description that portrays them as nearly universally extremely short-lived and deranged there is very little in the way of both nuance and diversity. This is also connected to my gripe from the previous post - that the Skaven are multiple, chaotic, diverse on societal level, but individually nearly always very homogeneous on every other level, to a point where it doesn’t make sense, statistically if for any other reason. In any case, this limitation makes it very hard to write compelling stories and compelling characters that aren’t entirely focused on the current situation, emotions and characters at hand. A story that has a continuity, longevity and is intertwined with the larger world, where we explore the questions of change, escape, relationships and minds, would probably not be very compelling if we knew that, with an extremely high probability, all our characters are just fated die without having lived or changed in a few years, only because that is our fundamental biological constraint. Similar is the notion of being ontologically/genetically evil, it’s a constraint that by design precludes interesting stories, unless you want to focus on the situation and not the characters. This is why I want to discuss how more nuance could be introduced for Skaven biology/psychology, without necessarily dismantling their character at large as species, which are certainly a part of their charm, but also give us the opportunity to use this newly established diversity to write more about them.

So, for one, I want to talk about their lifespan. 

They are described to have the lifespan of literal real life rats, without any real nuance as to underlying reasons, with only exceptions reserved for those most powerful using warpstone alchemy to prolong their lives. My head canon and my fic’s worldbuilding makes a very fundamental assumption about Skaven lifespans to expand on this. This fundamental assumption to the question of Skaven life expectancy is actually very basic - that it is mainly informed by environmental factors, rather than genetics. It is basic, yet it changes so much for what you can do with your characters now that they don’t have to worry about their immediate natural limits to life expectancy if they don’t have access to warpstone alchemy. It is now perfectly possible to say that their short lifespan is an average across millions rather than an actual biologically informed upper limit, kind of like how human average life expectancy was much shorter in the ancient times (but, of course, Skaven lives are even shorter and for different reasons). At the same time it doesn't really break the general characterisation of Skaven en masse having short and miserable lives. I will also explain why this assumption makes much more sense than their lifespan being enforced by some kind of genetic limit.

First of all, it is quite obvious that Skaven aren’t literal real life rats, they are described to be very humanoid in most aspects, much closer to actual humans in terms of anatomy, physiology and internal functions than they are to rats. 

Very close, in fact. That, together with the fact that larger animals and close human relatives just generally exhibit a very strong trend to having longer lifespans, makes me think that lives lasting a couple of years for most Skaven could not be primarily genetic. Additionally, while metabolism, growth rate and gestation periods correlate with lifespan, this is mostly due to mediation of a whole variety of additional biological factors and is very often additionally informed by evolutionary strategy, so you have quite a lot of exceptions to the trends. For Skaven no exact information is present apart from it being fast, but, again, Skaven are by large humanoid and those metrics by themselves mean little.

In the end, there is also not really any information related to Skaven lifespan genetics. Magic also complicates things, like elves having near infinite lifespans. But we shouldn’t treat the absence of evidence as evidence of absence for anything relating to Skaven biology, especially when their environmental conditions actually explain very well the reasons for short lives. I’ve always been a fan of speculative biology and evolution and I think it definitely has a place in fantasy settings, even when we generally have much more flexibility with realism. In the end genetic explanations are absent and don’t make sense on reflection without relying too much on magic (even for a fantasy setting), while the environment provides a good explanation for the state of things.

So what about the environment? Well, being a Hive World/Forge World Manufactorum serf would probably be a paradise compared to what the majority of Skaven laborers endure, especially the slaves. Truly, at least corpse starch supply is usually stable, your supervisors don’t usually execute you if you keep your head down and meet quotas, you can sleep your 2-4 allocated hours of sleep without an overwhelming fear that someone will slit your throat, your working environment was at least initially built not to fall apart from every malfunction and your co-workers aren’t looking at you thinking of devouring your corpse raw. Compare that to Skaven, where even regular clan rats exist in a situation of rampants starvation and disease, barely ever getting any sleep at all, constantly performing extremely hard labor in extremely unsafe conditions and have to constantly watch their back not to become someone else’s meal, with slaves just always indiscriminately utilized to complete exhaustion and death even when preserving labor would’ve made more sense. 

Other Skaven are used as extremely expendable soldiers that are put to near constant warfare with much of the same conditions, like disease and starvation (just remember how big of a proportion of casualties humans used to have due to disease rather than direct combat prior to industrial revolution). Most often they are used as both simultaneously. Skaven barely ever produce any food, at least not in quantities necessary to feed their population, they have an entire clan that just intentionally spreads disease and their socio-economics are anchored around an extremely carcinogenic and reactive material that they use as a drug, facilitate reproduction with  and indiscriminately add into every piece of technology. I highly doubt anyone would survive more than a few years in such an environment, the lowest rungs of Skaven society where coincidentally most Skaven reside are structured akin to some of the worst penal labor camps and slave industries in human history. So you have beings that are forced to immediately perform hard manual labor or conduct warfare after just a brief period of infancy with no effort at all to create any livable conditions, if anything effort is put into making those conditions lethally insufferable, intentionally or not. You could say that the Skaven are #1 employer for child labour in all of the Mortal Realms.

The main thesis of this line of thought is: take a Skaven that wasn’t born out of some warpstone-mutated flesh blob, feed and clothe them, give them medicine and a healthy work-life balance and they *might* live much much longer, if not up to a human’s lifespan then perhaps at least a few dozen years. Of course we know this thought experiment would pretty much never happen, however the redefinition of this constraint from genetic to environmental gives us lots of possibilities for variety among Skaven. If anything, we already know that cases of long-living Skaven, that do not have the same kind of access to life-prolonging magic that the leadership does, exist.

Similarly, I would say the environment primarily informs the supposed incredible metabolism of Skaven. The Black Hunger, their propensity for devouring everything that can be eaten, their general twitchiness. The biggest red flag here should be that, despite their twitchiness and extreme behaviors towards diet, they actually don’t exhibit many indicators of stable fast metabolism found in other animals when compared to humans, such as very fast reflexes, increased physiological activity, healing rate, specific organ functions or having to maintain high temperatures. In fact their high metabolism resembles less animals with actual fast metabolism and is more akin to humans whose metabolism is faster due to conditions such as starvation and lack of sleep, something that nearly all Skaven are exposed to at an extreme level. Some of their behavior is also easily explained by the environment, as humans consistently exhibit extreme behaviors when exposed to extreme prolonged hunger and starvation, while constant extreme exhaustion, lack of sleep and stress very often leads to very real and very strong psychoses. Thus, I don’t really think that a Skaven in a nutshell would have a lot of behavioral and physiological differences from a human in a nutshell in relation to bodily functions.

This is where CW from the beginning comes in as I am talking about some of the reproduction/gender related stuff. If you are not interested, skip to below the meme with Garak and Odo.

Something related I want to talk about and also something that never sat quite right with me for multiple reasons is Skaven reproduction and gender. This is an extremely uncomfortable topic for many and that includes me, but I thought it’d be a bit disingenuous to completely ignore it. There is not a lot of lore about it, except the breeders, an old and rather rarely mentioned piece of Skaven lore that leads to more conjecture than anything really specific. I should probably immediately state that I regard Skaven at large to consist of both sexes in an equal distribution and be largely genderless and not very dimorphic, while (if we are to decide to keep them at all) breeders generally being Moulder monstrosities designed for mass breeding. Additionally Moulder technology is so beyond the realms of realism that I honestly believe that the breeders are custom monstrosities mass produced out of any biological material that is resilient and stable when mutated with warpstone, rather than Skaven of female sex. Otherwise, the Skaven are capable of and have all the parts needed for normal reproduction. It happens and is largely unnoticed due to the sheer scale of Skaven society, and doesn’t hold a lot of consequences regarding gender roles, facilitated by faster gestation periods and growth. 

All in all, my personal head canon and something I write into my fic is that sex and gender is just not really a thing that matters a lot to Skaven, neither are breeders (which I'd honestly rather not keep at all as something universal) really tied into it, nor are they necessarily a specific and universal thing opposed to general Moulder chicanery tied to reproduction, this is something that in my opinion is much more in tune with the Skaven society of mass numbers, social indifference, general ignorance and universal misery. Basically classical patriarchy is at the same time both not evil enough, too restrictive for strength in numbers conquerors and too complex for a society that doesn’t care for any of its members, while being capable of applying both extreme cruelty and mutagenic magic to any Skaven regardless of anything. This is my head canon and it has minor but still important implications for the characters that I will talk about in the next posts.

This is, again, a very uncomfortable topic, basically my attempt at detaching the Skaven from the very flimsy and bad-tasting lore that implies patriarchal rape factories as the only possibility, while at the same time keeping Skaven just as alien in their capabilities for similar evils. In the end, we have trillions of Skaven and thousands of clans, so there ought to be variability in how they approach reproduction and gender, especially since not all might be able to afford Moulder creations and hoards of warpstone and it never made sense that reproduction could be handled by just a couple dozen breeders, while every other Skaven was exclusively of male sex. Additionally, those reproduction and gender practices could be one of the elements that determines longevity for Skaven, how these determine gestation, growth, how mutated they are from their very birth, how unstable and vulnerable to cancers their genes are. This head canon, in my opinion, doesn’t take away from Skaven, but yet again gives us much more possibilities, while keeping things more comfortable, but at the same time preserving their general capacity for alienation and evil. I personally find the whole matter of breeders distasteful and ignore it as a bit of very poorly aged lore, however it wouldn’t be completely fair to pretend this is some kind of evil Skaven are incapable of doing, I merely just offer a framework where this ceases being a keystone issue and thus makes Skaven more varied in the vibes that authors want to get from them. And not wanting to work with very graphic rape-patriarchal themes is completely fair.

Lastly, I will talk briefly about Skaven “nature”. I will again be very forthcoming and say that I don’t believe that beings as sapient, intelligent and free willed as humans can be “naturally” evil or represent a homogeneous mentality as an entire species. Skaven are not daemons, are not mind controlled, nor incapable of any non-malicious emotions. Yet again, I believe their psychology is a product of their environment, just like their Black Hunger, destructive behavior, twitchiness, and at least part of their general insanity can be very well explained by psychosis and mental instability induced by living in a horrible environment, starving, being diseased and having extreme stress. Yet again, we have seen a wide range of human behaviors, that at several points in history defined entire cultures, events and societies, but we could never say that those humans somehow bred themselves to exhibit those mentalities (rather than reproduced those behaviors socially, generation after generation) without looking like idiotic racists. A society that literally puts you into a position where you must murder and devour corpses for the very basic survival, while danger to your life lurks literally around every single corner to the point that you can’t even have a moment of sleep or work without expecting to die every single day, would never produce mentally stable, healthy individuals and would not select any traits that we, humans, would consider “good”. It’s rat eat rat society through and through and it reproduces itself just like human societies reproduced bigotry, superstition and abusive traditions for thousands of years in some instances. 

One final point to this question comes from the argument that the Skaven are inherently touched by Chaos. While this is ostensibly true since, we never see any Skaven that were somehow detached from the Great Horned Rat or actively sought any kind of redemption or cleansing, “tainted/touched by Chaos” by itself just doesn’t mean anything, it can result in a whole plethora of symptoms both physical or mental while at the same time not really at all resulting in you being inherently evil or enslaved by Chaos powers. We never know what exact role Chaos plays for Skaven, other than them being universally worshippers of the Great Horned Rat and some inexact mythology, it can mean anything and nothing, can be minor and major. Skaven are not daemons, they have relatively stable societies and physiology, unlike the usual Chaos mutants, they do not draw that much from Chaos itself rather drawing from products of it such as warpstone and winds of magic, their “aspects” are arguably socially constructed rather than born out of Chaos, they have souls that belong to them until they die. So we don’t know their Chaos “grade”, it also doesn’t mean much out of context and they are not at all daemonic, while being stable species unlike Beastmen and Chaos mutants. In absence of nuance to this question and general inconsistency and indifference of Great Horned Rat towards his own followers (unlike other Chaos Gods that will influence their followers in rather certain ways), it’s natural to assume a very plausible, simpler and creativity-inducing alternative explanation for their behavior as the ground truth.

Yet again, I present you with an environment that presents behavioral patterns as distributions and varieties, very heavily biased towards self-preservation, antagonism, avarice, betrayal and extreme power-seeking. Nevertheless their psyches are not set in stone and not completely incapable of “good” traits, it’s just that nothing ever cultivates or reproduces those traits, as having them usually just leads to dying sooner than the others for not having the same tenacity for survival and power. This framework again gives us much more leeway to create different characters with different emotions and motivations, while presenting an explanation that both is much more plausible and interesting than “they all have evil in their genes”, while not taking or majorly changing the Skaven at large.

So, what role do these assumptions play in my fiction? Without expanding too much into the world building that I will perhaps write about in the later posts, two groups of Skaven figure in my story.

One is where the main characters come from, those are Skaven inhabiting a part of Blight City that is isolated from the rest of it by a mix of toxic wasteland and realm of chaos bursting through the cracks of reality. This area is a part of an ancient junkyard for failed Skryre technology, which is the only source of warpstone that area has, being otherwise very poor in it. The Skaven inhabiting it are the renegade clans, clans that lost in warfare, fell out of power, were proscribed by the Council, etc. These renegade clans, while very resourceful in their own regard, do not readily have the same access to many of the technologies that are commonly produced in the industrial centers of the Blight City. However, this lack of warpstone and having to procreate mostly naturally resulted in the Skaven of this area growing up a little bit slower and having the lifespans that often exceed a decade, more if extremely lucky.

Much much later the characters would also encounter a clan of Skaven inside of the Mortal Realms, abandoned to its fate hundreds of years ago in a location that magically makes it very hard to maintain stable gnawholes. This led to the clan having to rely on the local realmstone instead of warpstone, while gradually losing a lot of technological advancements and social structures present for the overall Skaven. When the characters find them, they have completely regressed into a neolithic primal state. While they still continue a lot of the traditions we find evil, the Great Horned Rat worship, sacrifices, warrior culture-related violence, etc, they at the same time are depicted to be much more physically healthy and survivable, living longer lives and procreating slower, while additionally being generally much more cooperative, even if hierarchy is still being upheld with violence, kratocracy-like.

[darklinaforever]

"The canonically purist blood woman" girl where? the blood purists are daemon and rhaenyra. the targtowers and hightowers are not "pureblood targs" as you TB LOVE to remind us.

alicent never gave a sh*t about house targ, blood purity or any of that bs. that's team black. book!alicent wanted the throne and power - and never gave a f*ck about rhaenyra. and why should she? y'all just hate alicent because she's advocating for herself and her children instead of your lame favs.

but sure, keep defending your racist qween - we'll just keep calling you out on your bs.

Alicent has never been primarily interested in the safety of its children. Otherwise she would never have prepared a coup d'état to usurp the legitimate heir, putting them all in mortal danger, or even ask her last descendant to try to assassinate Aegon III.

She literally harassed Rhaenyra since she was little to try to take her down, simply because she was the heir. An adult woman against a child.

She literally told Rhaenyra that her children were nothing more than the blood of unimportant bastards shed in war... All while trying to negotiate the survival of her own children whom she considered superior ! How stupid do you have to be ?!

That's just for the book.

Just caring about bastards is a ridiculous issue of blood purity. Which Team Blacks never actually had (and no, contrary to what a lot of people say, Daemon had nothing against the Velaryon boys). But obviously, Alicent is not a blood purist, even if she cares about the so-called bastards... Not to mention Aemond openly spewing his hatred for bastards. But the Hightowers don't care about blood purity, obviously... Let me laugh.

A little consistency.

And in the show's version, his remarks about Rhaenyra's children are more than revealing on this subject. She compares them to animals and simple beings for not coming from marriage. For not being what she judges to be true Targaryens, because she doesn't understand that their eggs hatched. She literally married off her two children to reinforce / give more weight to her son's so-called baseless legitimization, while she criticized Rhaenyra a few episodes before for having had an affair with Daemon. A hypocrite who did not hesitate to use Targaryen traditions when it benefited her. But anyway...

Yes, the Alicent of the book is ambitious and power hungry above all else. That's the only thing I like about her.

But stop pretending that she was worried about the safety of her children or her children at all. If that had been the case, she wouldn't have done everything I mentioned above.

And don't come and tell me the excuse that his children were in danger and that it was his only option because that's bullshit.

Anyway, I'm going to stop responding to the demands of the antis. I'm tired of you harassing me since yesterday. It's almost the new year, go find other things to do.

[undeadsourpatchkid]

assorted papa headcanons

Secondo and Copia are two different types of theater kids: anti-Hamilton theater purist vs. gleek

Primo was really into DnD when it got popular in the 80s (he always played as a wizard)

Terzo loves helping new ghouls adjust to the human realm - he was the first papa to become fluent in ghoulish (thanks to Omega)

They didn't need to learn, as "Papa" is lead singer and band/church figurehead, but each has a preferred instrument they like to play: drums for Primo, bass guitar for Secondo, guitar for Terzo, and piano for Copia

fuck their canon ages, Primo and Secondo were born mid-to-late 50s (i feel like them having the same mom would make sense, maybe irish twins?), Terzo between '62 and '65, and Copia somewhere in '69 or '70 (shortly after the release of seven inches)

Terzo for sure would be addicted to shopping on etsy

Secondo and Primo did a double drag routine for a short stint in their 20s - Secondo learned how to strut in pleasers when they gained popularity in the late 90s because of this

Copia is the resident history nerd - loves talking about the Roman empire, triangle shirtwaist factory incident, the radium girls, etc

Copia has his rats and Secondo has his snakes, but the closest Primo got to a pet was a huge, black, furry "dog" that would only visit him in the gardens after the sun set. Terzo nearly pissed his pants when he saw it for the first time and the ghouls said it was a hellhound, but to Primo that's just Beelzebubba (who eats anything but is particularly fond of the carbonara leftovers from dinner)

Primo smokes weed, not much of a drinker. Copia is the opposite (he greened out during a midnight mass when he was a bishop) and loves red wine. Terzo uses a bowl that looks like a kitty paw and Secondo drinks vodka like water/is very fond of cuban cigars

Primo would have the most insane dad lore. he's the type of guy to casually drop the fact that he got arrested in '78 for running from the cops in a foreign country and pretend like it isn't a big deal

Primo, Secondo, Terzo, and Copia are the names they received when they ascended to cardinal - I think their names would be something like Basilio, Fausto, Antonio, and Remigio

Copia didn't want to get plastic surgery after becoming Papa - Sister Imp. was only able to convince him of it after killing his brothers the others died because he saw too much of them when he looked in the mirror :(

and one more thing about that -> Copia had nothing to do with the killings of the previous Papas. Sister orchestrated it herself and passed it off as something beneficial to the new papacy, which he couldn't stop due to him being a mama's boy

[therealvinelle]

What's your opinion on the fandom's obsession with Smeyers mormonism? I'd just recently discovered your metas(and they're so interesting btw they brilliantly expand upon the almost kinda psychological horror esque feel of the characters and story). But then I go into your replies and tags expecting everyone to marvel at your genius exploration of what's eluded to in the canon text or just the likelihood or natural outcomes of certain scenarios and decisions that have/may have not happened in the context of the overall story. Instead it's most of the time just a bunch of people going, "Aha. Confirmed it! That's so because Meyers a Mormon" or "See, that insert literally anything happened because of the Mormom themes, characterizations and ...idolization??? of insert literally any character/aspect of the lore. "

It would be a lie to say it isn't irritating even speaking as an atheist because it literally stifles any actual exploration of nuance within the books. Any theory, character analysis, or legitimate in/out of universe explanation in regard to canon can be boiled down to such an archaic supposition. And it's not just your blog. I see it everywhere here on tumblr when discussing anything twilight. Even people indifferent to twilight and twilight antis alike are of such strong conviction that they erase any character's belief or motivation or really anything Meyer has said in regards to that matter

Seeing as I'm running a doylism purist blog I obviously agree with you. The author's religious belief are a non-issue to me when I read Meyer's works, or anyone else's for that matter.

I say that, but there are exceptions - there's something strikingly Calvinist permeating the world of Harry Potter in that people are born good or bad and the juxtaposition between Tom Riddle and Harry Potter seems to boil down to Tom being a bad person who will make bad choices while Harry is a good person who will make good choices, and this extends to the rest of the cast and the Hogwarts houses as well. However, these are children's books with Good Guys and Bad Guys and I won't pretend to understand what's happening in JKR's brain, and so you won't see me saying that Harry Potter is Calvinist: merely that there are parallels that can be drawn.

Similarly, taking a step outside the YA genre I find that Victor Hugo's own political and religious personal journeys are reflected in Jean Valjean and Marius Pontmercy, but while it adds to the reading experience it doesn't make me see the characters any differently. They stand on their own.

I bring up these examples for a reason - sometimes, no matter how Doylist you want to be, you read a book and you can tell that, "oh this is an allegory for apartheid", or "I can tell the author is writing about personal experiences with trauma" or the plain old "you know, this feels like the author was projecting a lot" (frequently found on Ao3).

Twilight, for me, is not one such work. My thoughts on Mormonism and Twilight are summed up here, but one point I feel I should make is that although Twilight never read as Mormon to me, I also straight up know very little about Mormonism, so who knows, maybe I would be picking things up if I was more into it. As it is, however, the analyses of Mormonism in Meyer I've seen have been consistently reductive and superficial, where things like "Carlisle is a young blond leader -> Joseph Smith, the Cullens are a perfect family -> they're mormons, nobody in this YA series drinks alcohol -> they're mormons" are presented as compelling evidence, so I've yet to be convinced of it.

To actually answer your question though, I would just block "Mormonism", "LDS", and "Joseph Smith" on tumblr saviour and smile blissfully at my Mormon free dash. In fact I would do that anyway, regardless of what the Twilight fandom is posting.

[greenerteacups]

How do you feel about the fact that Bellatrix was Voldemort’s concubine/lover?

This ask prompted a real coleslaw of emotions.

Top level, I can't take the Cursed Child seriously as canon. I'm a purist about text to begin with — no word of God or adaptation can change what you put in the original books, and if the author wanted the text to be different, they had their shot — but, even if not, the Cursed Child is bad. Like, it's My Immortal type bad. It's the kind of bad that makes you glad it didn't come out closer to the original books + movies, or it could have had a Game of Thrones-type cratering effect on discussion and fandom. The Albus/Scorpius dynamic is cute — everything else about it sucks. It is a no-fly zone for good ideas. The Golden Trio are all twisted into funhouse mirrors, Voldemort has a daughter, and most perversely, the absolutely horrific mutilation of Cedric Diggory's character (in no world did that boy become a Death Eater! he was KIND AND DECENT! and he DIED ANYWAY! that was THE FUCKING POINT!!!!!!!).

Second layer: let's say that Bellatrix/Voldemort is canon and explored beyond the writers going "whoops gotta find a working womb for Voldemort's kid." That's a really interesting dynamic. It's a horrible dynamic! It's a motherfucker of an age gap to begin with, and it would have started when she was in her late teens to early twenties! Plus, she was married. To another man. So that would have to be explained? Because she obviously wasn't always so mindlessly devoted to Voldemort that she couldn't entertain connections with others? But that's not to say that I'm against it as a narrative decision. Tom Riddle is (captain obvious moment incoming) a Bad, Bad Man, and the idea of him seducing a younger woman is actually an understandable extension of his connection with his followers that's not explored in the books. Because, like: the Death Eaters are a cult! Riddle runs a death cult. Cults use sex to manipulate members. One of the oldest tricks in the book.

Third layer: this could be a kind of interesting move for Riddle, who as a villain is never developed all that much, and doesn't have much in the way of humanizing qualities. Because Riddle is anti-love as such. He doesn't believe in it, and if you believe Dumbledore, he's not capable of it. (I don't really love this take on the character, but I think that Riddle thinks this is the case, and Dumbledore is so grizzled and jaded by the years that he believes him. Dumbledore's great failure with Tom was never seeing past the person Tom wanted him to see — or, rather, looking at Tom and seeing Grindlewald when he should have seen Harry.) So for him to harbor enough affection for Bellatrix to take her as his (only?) lover, when he doesn't seem to need it to convince her to join him (and he doesn't really need her support, anyway) creates a wrinkle in the Story of Voldemort as we're told. It suggests that either Tom or Dumbledore (or both) is lying about his capacity for love— or at least his capacity for human attachment. And that Tom isn't so unique as either of them would like to believe.

Also, it adds a wrinkle to Bellatrix's character, too: even if they met when she was an adult, there's manipulation happening there that's clearly one-sided and unequal. or at least, there probably is. and if it's consensual, or if she aggressively pursued him— that's interesting, too. my point being: this isn't a bad idea, necessarily. it's a bad idea because i don't think the writers of the Cursed Child thought about any of that when they were trying to find a womb for the Voldebaby.

[digglesgiggless]

Firstly, thank you I really appreciate it, I try to rely on my instincts as much as possible and while it's saved me from a LOT of bad situations, lots of people truly despise me for being so outward lol. Can't win em all. Plus yeah, while I indulge in "problematic" content I would never post NSFW to this tumblr, this is a SFW tumblr blog and always will be. I'm doing okay, things could be better but things could also be like, worse n stuff. As for the JOKU drama, thankfully my partner got a wayback machine link to the original post, it takes a bit to load, but it's all there. Thankfully!

And yeah, as for antis I have a hard time sympahtizing with their mindset, I know I USED to be like that, and maybe that's why my distaste for the way they are is so.. big? But I can just never justify harassing someone over things that aren't real. Purist culture has honest to god, NEVER been this bad, and it's partly why I've moved back HERE to tumblr, because this community if anything scoffs upon purist culture for the most part. Not a lot of social medias can say the same right now. I kinda hate to say it doesn't surprise me to hear that a bunch of NEW adults wanted to doxx a bunch of little kids, they're still basically teenagers (I was still JUST as immature at 18 as I was at 17. I don't know why people thinking turning eighteen makes themselves better then minors it's like some weird canon event lmao). The thing is if antis really got their way they wouldn't be able to consume like 90% of the media they normally do, because ANYTHING can be considered offensive/problematic in terms of what's being used. (gore lover antis really need a fuckin wake up call. they're just as "bad") I fully believe antis are super immature for constantly going to war with EVERY person they see, and that can EXCLUDE proshippers! Because they're generally just terrible, argumentative and toxic people to anyone that doesn't see things the way they do. But my ass WILL go to war with antis when they harass my friends, that's for sure.

[halenhusky309]

MDZS twt are filled with genocidal apologists even though they have Palestinian flag in their bio.

Fuck the bitches bullshiting that anti-JC or canon purists "dehumanize" or didn't view the Jiangs disciples from the destruction of Lotus Pier as people. You c*nts literally compared Wens Renmants to Nazis and basically dehimanized the Wens Renmants because they weren't the perfect victims like the Jiangs disciples.

And if you think that we calling out JC and Cultivation World for stooping low to the level of Wens committing genocide acts as "dehumanizing the victims of the destruction of Lotus Pier, please feed your brain to brain-eater amoeba and let them starve, because that brain of yours are worthless and toxic.

[olderthannetfic]

Oh man, magical girl fandoms are a dumpster fire for antis. I was shocked at how many are in Sailor Moon. You know, the anime where a 14 year old's true love is a dude in college. Yes they are closer in age in the manga but many of these are anime fans. A lot of UsaMamo fans will go after anyone who ships Seiya X Usagi because he's supposedly a stalker who doesn't respect her boundaries, a fact that is WAY over blown and exaggerated in the fandom. Keep in mind these same people stan a ship between a 14 year old girl and a dude in college. Now I don't care if they ship it just let me ship my non canon ship in peace and don't write an essay on how my ship is problematic. (Yes even the Diamond/Usagi ship, I am fully aware that the stalkery rapey prince is in fact a bad dude, that's not stopping me from writing my kink fic).

And there is so much wank in the fandom. It feels like you can't do a damn thing without upsetting someone. You like one thing about the DiC American dub? You just have nostalgia goggles on and think it was way better than it was. Uh no I just like it in a so bad its good sort of way and for all the 90s cheese. That and what's wrong with nostalgia goggles for a cartoon? Some fans go as far as calling anyone who uses any of the Americans disrespectful to the creator. Even for like a very minor character.

There are also manga purists who will come at you for preferring anything in the anime.

The other annoying thing. In the manga, Naoko drew a picture of the four Sailor Soldiers paired up romantically with each of the four main bad guy minions. In their past lives they were good guys that were brainwashed to work for evil or something like that. In the Crystal anime (that follows the manga more closely than the 90s anime) they even confirm the romantic relationships between them. (It lasts for like five seconds because the guys are quickly killed off because they all do die in the anime and manga). So people want to ship the Sailor Soldiers with their respective Dark Kingdom general.

So why does the fandom have an issue with this? Well in the 90s anime, there were no such relationships hinted. Instead two of the Dark Kingdom generals were in a gay relationship. (The 90s anime turned one into a woman to censor it.) Instead of just seeing the manga and anime taking place in separate universes, people will call you homophobic for shipping Sailors/Generals. They will say that you are erasing two gay characters even though the creator of the original manga never intended for them to be in a relationship with each other. Of course, the word heteronormative gets thrown around to try to discourage people from shipping them.

I guess at the very least, Haruka/Michiru is still a very beloved ship and my experience with them in the fandom has been very pleasant. But since Sailor Moon is an older fandom I was hoping it would be very ship and let ship. This unfortunately does seem to be common in magical girl anime fandoms. So much purity culture!

--

[buffyfan145]

I still find it sad that Anti-Haladriel fans claim our ship is non-existent, when it's Tolkien Canon that despite how powerful Galadriel became, Sauron still could have conquered Lotherien, but only if he did it himself. And what did the power-hungry Dark Lord do instead? He built a castle beside Lotherien and kept trying to convince Gal to let him back into her mind. How does that even make sense from a tactical standpoint when she was supposedly his greatest adversary? It doesn't: The only logical thing is Sauron's feelings for Galadriel caused him to want her to accept him willingly. He couldn't use force against her without losing her entirely.

I know and it's not just anti-Haladriel fans but still those purists who hate everything about the show and all involved with it. I've had to block so many on here, Twitter, and other sites but thankfully I rarely see it now so I think I got most of the main ones. LOL They're just going to have to get used to it now as this show is out there and always will be for the rest of our lives and beyond. They don't have to consider it cannon but there a lot of us, including me, that do and will. And like we've all been saying this show just adds to things, especially for Sauron and Galadriel. That whole thing of him being that close to her for a good chuck of the 3rd Age does come off real stalkery or obsessive ex-boyfriend like. LOL Also for the theory of him being Celebrían's real dad that fits too as it was also much closer to Rivendell too and I've witnessed things like this with my cousins, aunt, and uncles when they split up and kids are involved. And neither of them attacked each other while he was there like you said. It just makes so much more sense this way.

Do wonder if we'll ever live to see LOTR actually become public domain as then there will be so many different adaptations and things just like how it is for "Sherlock Holmes", Jane Austen's novels, and so many other classic stories. Then they'll for sure have to get used to it. LOL

ETA: As of now the LOTR books will start going into the public domain in most countries including here in the US in 2044 so got about 21 years. :)

[horizon-verizon]

I hate it when people compare Aemond to Visenya and Daemon to Maegor the cruel ?! It's supposed to be the other way around ! Daemon is Visenya and Aemond is Maegor ! Fucking hell ! (At least if we want to compare I mean. Book or series)

Also, this delirium of saying that Aemond is an anti-hero... So these people certainly haven't read the books, but even in the series, Aemond does not tick any of the anti-hero boxes.

Aemond is a villain. That's all. Having him kill Lucerys by accident on the show doesn't change that fact, it just makes him look like a jerk.

In episode 8, we see him literally enjoying the decapitation of Vaemond, when we have never seen such an expression (of pleasure, let's not lie) on Daemon's face when he was killing people. Simply because Daemon doesn't find it funny to kill people, nor does he kill them for fun.

Also, Aemond remains, series or book, a misogine and blood purist. What Daemon, book or series is not.

So, I'd like to know how people's brains work to call Aemond an anti-hero...

This post is EDITED.

There's nothing really "good" about this guy except his mother (so arguable and only if you stan or approve of her) and the fact that he rides Vhagar. And before others crow about how this is supposed to make him thematically paralleled to Visenya, may I point out that it is Daemon who has Visenya's sword, Dark Sister. Given to him when he became a knight at 16 by Jaehaerys I (yes, that misogynist prick of a King). You know....the sword that is more symbolic of familial protection than a dragon that only owes its allegiance to whoever rides it (not a bad or inferior thing, just need to point out how swords have the symbolism of political and emotional loyalty that accentuate familial love and bonds when we note their signifier of royalty and feudal protections, whilst dragons have a broader, more varied character).

And Dark Sister has a long history of loyal, loving supporters of Targ heirs and rulers: Daemon, Brynden Rivers, Baelon (after Aemond dies, in revenge mission), Visenya....come on now! Jaehaerys I even wields it when he is reclaiming his birthright. Plus, swords culturally carry so much history

Aemond is like Visenya in that he enables the wrong candidate to be/maintain being the King, but Daemon is like Visenya in that he has done and will do whatever it takes to support their person above all, through extreme violence. Daemon takes after most of the best or admirable of Visenya. (The brutality unfortunately is also inherited and shared with Aemond)

Do we remember how Visenya told Aenys I to burn down the Holy Sept? How she definitely reveled in burning Dorne after Rhaenys' death? What sort of passion for a relative/lives does Aemond canonically display? How she made a point to Aegon I about him needing a personal guard by being quick with her sword and cutting his cheek after he wouldn't listen? The same guy who didn't go to King's Landing to rescue his mother and sister after Rhaenyra took it despite saying he would?

But by being raised by Alicent (who would have despised Visenya and her "witchery" and just by being a confident, proactive woman) how the hell would Aemond care for Visenya, the figure, at all?

As for Daemon being Maegor....Maegor openly killed people who did not deserve it.

Vaemond? Deserved.

The "criminals" of KL? Dicier, admittedly. It's not like Daemon would care to take a breath to discern who is merely accused and who actually did those crimes. Mirrors how Visenya was willing to murder anyone in the Sept along with that High Septon.

Rhea Royce's death? Plausible deniability (but for me, it didn't happen at all): she took 9 days to die (not his MO of quick deaths) and he was at the Stepstones for all of it. Horse riding is dangerous as hell, Rhea would be surrounded by people in her hunting retinue, servants, etc so there were witnesses, Daemon could've had her killed long ago when they were still married and even had it done through an assassin when Rhaenyra had her first period and was marriageable but didn't (instead marrying Laena, too), and if he did send an assassin why did this person leave Rhea to linger at all? Why would a good assassin just let Rhea longer for 9 days (why would Daemon not hire a good one if he were going down that route? Even if he didn't have the funds to hire a VERY good killer, if he was dedicated to having her killed, it'd have to be a proper job or he'd be accused easily, so again, he'd like to find one of the better skilled assassins, which is expensive)? And why wouldn't Daemon hire a good killer?!

Laenor? If not Corlys (and why not, but that's a separate discussion), then Rhaenys, who has known Daemon and lived close to him for years, thinks he didn't do it he didn't. Neither stupid nor unobservant, this one. Passionate about her family as well. She would have never let Daemon get away with it.

[darklinaforever]

At least, Alicent (both in HOTD and F&B) isn’t a canonically anti-Black character unlike Rhaenyra, but sure keep trying to whitewash a privileged white woman who tries to commit a racially motivated hate crime against a Black girl. But hey, nobody’s perfect. Girl power!

All right. Let us repeat then :

"I think there are three options on this, either there was indeed racial bias in Rhaenyra (and even that doesn't take away from all the tragedy she suffered and that Team Blacks was better than Team Blacks Greens). Either she said it. from a point of view completely biased by jealousy mixed with her psychosis having developed in the meantime. Although I don't like to compare Rhaenyra to Cersei, I have to say that the Rhaenyra's dialogue on Nettles is very similar to that of Cersei on Brienne which... therefore has nothing to do with racism. Or perhaps Eustace, a supporter of the Greens, simply invented or distorted what she said. We can't really be sure."

So, there's no exact canon in there. Rhaenyra may have racial prejudices due to the context in which she evolved / grew up, or her dialogue about Nettles has everything to do with jealousy and psychoticism, or finally Eustace lied or transformed what she said. Once again, there is no certainty in this. Especially since outside of this scene, there has never been any insinuation as to any particular intolerance coming from Rhaenyra.

Next... wow an Alicent defender. Am I supposed to take you seriously ? The canonically purist blood woman, without any possible debate on the subject, unlike Rhaenyra for Nettles, would surely not have problems with racism, of course... All this is very realistic to think about. Girl power ! Long live Queen Alicent Hightower ! (What Joke...)

No, but how am I supposed to take seriously someone who was trying to defend Alicent while defaming Rhaenyra ? Alicent is scum, pure and simple. There is no nuance about her. And we're not even going to talk about the entire Greens team, because you'll be humiliated.

Also... Since you antis loved mixing the book and the series... Forget a racist Rhaenyra in the series. The Velaryons are black, and Rhaenyra has shown no racism towards them.

I don't know what your problem is with believing that we love Rhaenyra, Daemon and the Blacks team because they would be angels. Most of them are gray characters... So based on having a bad and / or ambiguous appearance. So it will always bug me when I see people complaining that gray characters are capable of bad things and worse trying to make them out to be pure villains because of it. Like there is a huge paradox that must be in your head.

[bcbdrums]

Why are there so many Drakgo-antis and KimxRon-antis lately?

bruh all i can think is people aren't watching the show.

maybe they're pulling opinions out of memory, out of fanfic/fanart, headcanon... the things i've been hearing don't make sense to me if you actually put the show on and watch it. so generally i'll say...ppl are relying on their decade-old memories instead of actually watching the show.

like, i even asked one anti person to cite examples of things and they just spout the same generic rhetoric without hard evidence. and their rhetoric sounds like interpretation more than fact.

however, another point, people can like/dislike whatever they want. what's bugging me more is the seeming...insistence of some folks that "my opinion is the only correct opinion." and then they defend that point of view by saying their interpretation is canon.

well... kinda yes, but also kinda no? i'll give an example. Shego says she has a teaching credential. this is canon. meanwhile, my very dear friend's headcanon is that Shego's credential is a fake. which, for a villain...totally plausible! there's literally no reason a person couldn't choose to interpret that. but there's folks who would cry foul because it's not "canon." well imo it could fit into canon, but...even if it can't, who cares!?

there's things one can't argue. like, Kim and Ron kiss at prom and begin dating after So the Drama. these are irrefutable, stated canon facts. no room for interpretation around these events occurring. but in fanfic/headcanon, people can extrapolate Kim's and Ron's feelings/emotions/thoughts about the entire sitch...however the heck they want. feelings of twitterpated teens, or feelings of awkward uncertainty about shifting from friendship into romance...as two possibilities. some ideas are more readily believable than others based on how closely they adhere to canon, imo. regardless, a good writer will convince a reader of their viewpoint, whatever it may be.

but, to get mad and say that a person's view is invalid cuz someone doesn't agree with it.... no. and, and! a person has a right to dislike something! that's equally fine. going out of their way to bash a viewpoint though, i see no productive purpose in that. and i think Anon that's what you're referring to... i've seen it too, where ppl seem to be going out of their way to leave negative comments cuz they disagree with someone's pov.

like, ultimately i'm a canon purist. canon adherence makes my brain happy. but seriously, let people interpret how they wanna interpret... it's fandom. why do folks gotta insist on their way being the only way?

[kajaono]

Holmes & Watson

Actually it should be common knowledge that Sherlock Holmes stories can not work without John Watson. Because without John Watson Sherlock Holmes would just be a weird nerdy crow solving cases. It is John Watson who makes him famous, who tells his story, who gets him away from drugs eventually.

Nevertheless we still get adaptations where John Watson is erased because he is... boring? I don’t really know to be honest. One of the most recent adaptations who also erases John Watson is ENOLA. In the Enola movies Sherlocks cases are always discussed in the press, he is a superstar... even though he has no partner who writers down his cases for him. Weird plot hole, but thats not my point today

But - even though the movies erase John Watson - they still drop a really interesting line why a Sherlock Holmes story without John Watson can never work. Sherlock offers to work together with Enola and says:

Enola rejects the offer and responds with:

But why does she rejects the offer, even though she also admits that it would be her dream to work alongside Sherlock? Yes she says “I would be always in your shadow”. But thats only half of the truth. For Enola a Holmes&Holmes relationship wouldn’t be good because she would always be in Sherlocks shadow. But what about Sherlock? Why would a Holmes&Holmes relationship bad for him? Would he really be lonley if he would work together with his sister? Sadly the show never really gives an answer to that and “only” uses this scene as a set up to introduce Watson.

Good for us CBS Elementary my beloved also had an episode with the same topic and digged a lot deeper into the question why Holmes on his own (aka Holmes&Holmes) is super hurtful for Sherlock. The episode is season 3x19 and has the glorious title “One Holmes, One Watson”

Short summary: To cope with a trauma Joan tries to turn herself into a second Holmes, to get rid of friends and emotions that can potential hurt her again: Holmes&Holmes. Sherlock realizes that this isn’t a good idea and give a beautiful and very on point summary why a Sherlock Holmes story can never work without a Watson:

But why doesn’t it work? Whats so problematic about Holmes on his own aka Holmes&Holmes? Enola sadly didn’t gave us an answer to that. But Elementary did a few scenes later:

This is why every Sherlock Holmes story needs a John Watson. Because Sherlock Holmes on his own is not complete. Sure, he is a brilliant problem solver, a lover of dogs, a chemist. But he is also anti-social, has a drug problem, has a little EQ and a fucked up night&day rythm.

John on the other hand is emphatic, nice, friendly, makes friends easily, enjoys his sleep. But he is also traumatized from the war, struggles to get back on his feets and to face his trauma.

You know the theory in greek mytholgy about the spherical humans? The spherical humans contains of two humans, fitting together perfectly, forming a round body. The gods were jealous at the humans because together the spherical humans had a really strong power. So the gods cut the spherical humans in two parts and placed the parts all over the world so they would have problems finding their fitting part again. And now every human is searching for their missing part, so they can eventually form the spherical human again and become stronger together.

John and Sherlock are a spherical human. Sure, one half can work without the other, but they are weak like this. And so is the story: weak.

You always need both of them.

This is not something I made up. It was also already written down in the ACD canon:

“It is both, or none," said he. "You may say before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." - A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA

Of course I do not expected the Enola Holmes writers to be familar with ALL Sherlock Holmes stories (of course I do but if I say that out loud I sound like a purist again), because it is about Enola but you should at least be familar with some basic concepts/rules for the original ACD canon characters. That includes the scene above... and of course The Three Garridebs and the CAM case. Hand holding behind closed curtains!

And I honestly fear that the writers of the Enola movies have not understood yet that it is always “both or none” and only introduced John Watson because he necessary for the next storyline to come. I fear that they only know what to do with John Watson as a character when he is relevant for the story, and do not know what else to do with him... On the other hand: Sherlocks lonliness is mentioned around three times in Enola 2, so the writers do seem to be aware that Sherlock needs his Watson? But why wait until the end of Enola 2 to introduce him? Didn’t they knew where he fits into the storyline of the second movies?

Anyways: I hope that when writing the script for the third movie they slowly will become familiar with Watson as a character and slowly find out where his place is in the Enola movies. (At least I hope so, movies where they are just cold distant friends, is the most unpleasant thing to watch imo... IF we get Enola 3).

TL:DR: Don’t seperate Sherlock Holmes from John Watson

[nymphoheretic]

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I was @/kxkyuu, so when I repost my fics please don't be alarmed its me! Please use my new pseudo on tumblr.(discord/moots can still call me by old pseudo).

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[goteique]

byf + dni.

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DO NOT INTERACT if you're a minor, racist or don't have age indicator in your blog. if you fit the basic dni criteria, if you’re a character anti. if you’re a canon character-age purist

[carewyncromwell]

“So prepare for the coup of the century... Be prepared for the murkiest scam!”

~“Be Prepared (cover)” by Man on the Internet

x~x~x~x

So I thought it was high time I tried drawing Carewyn’s grandfather Charles Cromwell again, so as to practice drawing older characters...and in doing so, I decided to make a proper comparison post pitting Charles up against his game-canon counterpart: the “Leader” of R as imagined by Jam City, Peregrine.

Yeah, uh...I think you can see why I was a little disappointed by the direction Jam City went with.

In case the text isn’t easy to read, here’s a transcript copy --

Charles Cromwell VS Peregrine

Evil Patriarch // Dead-beat Dad

“Mob Boss” type // “Darth Vader” wannabe

Works in the Wizengamot // Works as a “tracker”

Powerful Legilimens // ...Yeah, no

Rich AF // ...Also no

Social connections galore // ...Still no

Gaslighter Extraordinaire // LOL, he *wishes*

Has competent underlings // *SNORT*

Emotionally abusive // Neglectful

Runs R with an iron fist // Can’t control his subordinates??

Torture and death // Wampus Cats and cursed CD’s

Dark Empath // Charmer (?)

Widower // Divorcee

Obsessed with control // Obsessed with revenge

Would hurt a child // (Does too but denies doing it)

Blood Purist // Anti-Death Eater Extremist

Commands 50+ people // ...Five? Ten, maybe?

In my personal headcanon, I see Peregrine as the original leader of R when Charles first discovered it, only for his supposed right-hand man and mentor figure Charles to backstab him and get him assassinated by a younger and much more trusting Patricia Rakepick so that the head of the Cromwell Clan could take full control of the Cabal, its members, and its activities. According to Rakepick’s account of the event, as told to Carewyn in the still unfinished, grah Good!Rakepick AU --

“I immediately went to Charles Cromwell and told him [about how R had ordered my cohorts and me to attack you]. I had thought that he, being your grandfather, would be furious, regardless of his bad blood with your mother. And, at first, it seemed like I was right. Charles was very displeased when I told him that R had ordered me to attack you. He confided to me that he was concerned about the direction R’s leadership was taking – pointing out that, since I’d joined the Cabal, its members had been using more and more violence to get their way – and he asked for my support in helping him supplant the current leader and put an end to the way he did things. I stupidly accepted. In an attempt to right the sinking ship that I’d joined, I helped Charles assassinate R’s previous leader. I didn’t even know his name. It was only after Charles took over…that I realized what a big mistake I’d made. The violence R had been using wasn’t even planned by the man in charge – it had been Charles who had advised him to use force, to begin with. Charles hadn’t wanted any harm to come to you…but he was more than willing to make Jacob think that he would harm you – and that you, eventually, would also think he would harm Jacob. That way he could keep both of you as his pawns – using your love for each other to keep you in line. And worst of all…he was less upset that R had been willing to hurt a child…than he was that I had told him about it with the intent to try to stop it.”

With this cult of followers now fully at his disposal, Charles had a valuable new tool he could use to re-exert control over the family members who had tried to escape from him...namely, his daughter Lane and her children, Jacob and Carewyn.

Have a magical day, everyone! Much love! 🖤

(LOL, adding the individual frames of the GIF here, for those who want a better look at them. 😏)