#anyways: you gotta let out those negative emotions sometimes though. i'd love to be a happy-go-lucky guy but it's not meant to be sadly

[sth-lgbtq]

in your opinion, what becomes of sonic the hedgehog in his adult years? (or just later in life?)

(cw for talks for mortality and such)

I've adopted a lot of my adult Sonic headcanons from @sonicaspeed123, mostly the fact that... well, y'know what they say, live fast & die young. Sonic is very much a mortal, and considering the kinda life he leads he certainly gets a serious injury in his 20s, and I'd be stunned if he makes it to 30 (yet considering the crazy feats he's accomplished, there's a chance he'd push 40). Regardless, he knows for a fact Eggman will live longer than him, or at least has a successor prepared in the event he kicks the bucket (Metal Sonic?), so he considers Tails his own successor. He works hard to prepare the kid for a future of world saving while still letting him be a kid, something he himself didn't get - preparation or a normal childhood.

Sonic's always been disabled (chronic pain) but he's ignored it his whole life, until it gets too bad to ignore in his early adulthood, and/or he makes it way worse through his recklessness. When that time comes, he starts using mobility aids - he's initially very depressed about losing some mobility, but he gradually becomes completely accepting of and accustomed to it, though he still pushes himself too far sometimes; walking without crutches on his worst days, literally jumping out of his wheelchair at the first sign of a Badnik, I mean he's Sonic, middle name Goes Fast, he'd run on a broken leg - and he probably has! Depressingly, he doesn't care about the long term negatives of pushing himself like that because even he knows he'd never see the big five-oh without a miracle.

Because of how aware he is of his mortality, I'd bet he'd hate the idea of long term committed relationships. There's some he absolutely couldn't avoid, like taking Tails under his wing, but when it comes to romantic relationships... He's on the aro spectrum to begin with, but even then, he'd never subject the people he does feel a connection with to his lifestyle. Especially Shadow. Sonic loves Shadow's company, and his softness, and his smile, his morals, the way the moonlight sparkles off his eyes, the infinite sweetness in his ever-rare laugh... but the longer he thinks about living life with him, the more depressed he gets. He refuses to be another Maria, he cares about Shadow too much to let that happen. Sometimes he feels guilt for allowing himself to be such a close friend in the first place - hell, during depressive episodes he considers himself a greedy asshole for befriending anyone to begin with. He's the kinda guy who refuses to even cry around his friends, but he knows for a fact he'll eventually die around them.

I don't know how exactly he gets over those feelings. Probably by reminding himself that, for what it's worth, he's a great friend in the moment; he's the best father- I mean, brother, that Tails has ever had, he's gotten Amy and Knuckles out of their own emotional pickles from time to time, and he's really cracked Shadow's shell. The list goes on, but when he's gone, he knows that that's what they'll all remember. That's what everyone will remember. And they'll appreciate that, even if it hurts to lose him.

He doesn't want to die, but in his mind it's a balancing act: He has to be as good of a friend as possible to counteract the pain of losing someone so close, but paradoxically, in becoming so close, he only makes that pain worse. That's how the depression spirals start.

He probably goes on a year long journey of self discovery at some point during his mid-life crisis at 20, learns to process all this stuff and recognize that there's only the moment, and you never go anywhere if you always dwell on the past or worry about the future. Every world has its end. I know that's kinda sad, but that's why we gotta live life to the fullest in the time we have. At least, that's what he figures.

Anyways thanks for coming to my "Sonic dies young" TED Talk.

[muffinswritingstuff]

Just wanted to add a complete side note to the Turning Red conversation. Well, more like "share an opinion" inspired by it. An opinion that's not an opinion at all, more like a thought.

(A positive one, don't you worry. I absolutely adore that movie.)

Animation, being the magnificent form of visual media that it is, is great for a lot of things. Obviously.

But I only now realize how good it is for implementing subtle, yet meaningful details into your work.

(Realizations come to me once in a blue moon, don't judge me.)

Again, duh. And, considering how much time, effort and money goes into creating a single frame, of course they (The Art Gods) wouldn't want to waste it.

It's neat, though. You can do so much with just background elements, y'know? Just think of how many people got excited and genuinely happy thanks to those two characters with diabetes patches. And there was that one character in a wheelchair at the 4Town concert. (Sigh... Living the dream).

*

So, the reason I bring this up is, you could say, selfish.

It's just that I, as an ✨aspiring writer✨ , really struggle with that sort of stuff. I always feel that I'm boring the reader with too many words. I'm constantly afraid of actually writing out a main character's appearance, because, to me, it feels unnatural and "oh, look, look! this character has red hair, did you know that? you need to know that, because i said so!"

Y'know?

I know I shouldn't, I know every writer must face this beast of a task. But damn if they aren't eye-rolling – not in a mean way, in a Pavlov's Dog kinda way; especially in first person POVS.

How do I... justify my weird little feelings...

When you actually put stuff (be that appearances, descriptions, or even movements) into words – they take up space, they stay on that page/screen. It is therefore required of the reader to get to the end of this and that word pile if they want to continue with the story.

It puts the flow of the piece on pause. On such an awkward, "this is painful for the both of us, but it'll be worth it, i promise" pause, and it makes me squeezy.

But there's no such pause in movies! And that's so cool, I'm so jealous!

The viewer's brain processes what it sees so quickly, it requires absolutely no effort. You look at the main characters in Turning Red, and you know immediately what they're all about. The essence of that knowledge is thanks to *chef's kiss* character design, but the speed at which that knowledge plants itself in your brain mass is due to a single glance. In short: monkey brain need not wait and read if it can see.

And you don't need to describe every background detail... Or outfits... Or "the upturn of their lips"...

Again, I feel the need to state: I know how much goes into animation, or a single piece of art, or character design.

But (and here I'm being disgustingly selfish) it seems so much easier to put a description on paper using a pencil than it is a pen.

*

(We need to invent straight-from-brain projections. Capture those waves, code them, and make them real. Monkey brain's getting lazy.)

*

Recently, I've come to terms with the fact that I'm desperately trying to, like , imitate visual media with my writing.

(Which is physically impossible, it's a completely different medium, and I really should keep that in mind and use the advantages of said medium instead of poorly mimicing another... But l'm dying on this hill, it seems.)

Still. I meticulously describe movements and expressions exactly the way I picture them un my head – and the way they play in my head, you guessed it, flows like a cartoon.

Like, I'm a bad writer. I can't wax poetic about expressions or surroundings, I can't let a character go on a beautiful internal monologue about how they've been feeling for the past few days or something along those lines.

I just. Describe stuff. And I love describing stuff! But I cannot do it in a literary way, the pretty way.

And that inability comes not only from the lack of skill or experience, but from a certain sense of self-deprecation.

(Yay.)

I love reading and immersing myself in a world or a character's feelings.

Also, it really helps me when I understand who, when, where and how is speaking/acting. When I can't picture the people's faces or the room they're in, if they are having emotional conversations in a white void, it kinda takes you out, man. Doesn't it?

Then can I please stop freaking out every time I try to do that!

I feel great writing dialogues, they are fun and come more-or-less easy to me. But then I go, "Wait, the theoretical person reading this won't have this epic movie I have in my head right now to rely on to picture how exactly this conversation is flowing..." So of course I then try to add the necessary descriptions , but 😐. They take up so much space...

I shouldn't mention every twitch and blink, but oh how I want to.

But then it feels hollow - because I focused too much on the movement itself, not it's, like, meaning; empty - because l've neglected to describe those gosh darn surroundings; and meaningless - because, no matter how much I want to, those little twitches and blinks don't do anything. Yeah, they might provide characterisation (at least, I'd hope so), but they take up so much space...

*

That doesn't happen in animation, or comics, or movies. The surroundings, the expressions and the movements all fit in a couple of frames.

*

Yeah, I shouldn't complare them. But I might as well finish what I started.

(Dramatic.)

If I don't put in "meaningless details", if I weigh every word and sentence... I'll crumble under pressure, bestie. I'm already struggling, I don't wanna struggle some more... Apparently, I choose jealous suffering.

*

I'm treating my hypothetical readers as arrogant babies with short attention spans.

But, as probably Jesus once said, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".

With this probably-Jesus quote I am bearing my soul before you and admit that I am, in fact, an arrogant baby with a short attention span.

If there are no long words, complex emotions and beautiful literary devices, I turn into an annoying snob.

At the same time, on a completely different side of the spectrum, there are ✨chatfics✨. I love them. I eat that shit up. There's literally nothing, and it's so fun. Their humor carries them so hard, the jokes are essential to that particular genre of modern literature.

And guess who doesn't have neither the words and devices nor the jokes?

This aspiring writer.

P.S. Go do yourself a favor and watch Turning Red if you haven't, yet. It's a gem of comfort, it's totally worth it.

[argueably-pretty-rad]

My Opinion: Feminism

Now, before anyone takes a good hard look at this post, know that I am a girl. I am not speaking about people I don't understand. If you take offense to this, that's perfectly fine; block me and leave my page forever, I really don't care. I'm just voicing my thoughts in a nonviolent way, and don't need any negative feedback. With that said, read if you'd like.

I got the idea to make this post when I watched a YouTube video a little while ago. Many have probably seen it as it came out back in 2016. I'd watched the video before, but seeing it again made me so mad that I just had to talk about it. It's called "36 Stupid Feminist Questions Answered," and it's by the user Dr Shaym. If you haven't seen it already, I suggest you do so now.

Now, I already hate BuzzFeed with a burning passion, but this is their worst video yet. They really give feminists such a bad name. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a feminist. In fact, I used to hate feminists, mainly because people like the women in the video are the ones who get talked about the most. Now they are truly feminists. They seem to want nothing more than to be above men. They generalize constantly, looking at a few bad people that happen to have dicks, and decide that everybody that ever had a dick except maybe their dad or a gay best friend is a shitface. All men are assholes, men think they're so much better than us, my boyfriend doesn't understand me, blah blah blah.

No, I consider myself to be a gender equalist. Anybody can do anything, whether that's good or bad. A girl can beat the shit out of a guy and force him to have sex with her, just the same as a guy can be understanding of women and love rom-coms. You've gotta understand that, while it may not be as likely, things go both ways.

Let me bring up a scenario that shows how many holes and contradictions are in those feminists' questions in the video. A few of the sexist questions these women brought up were along the lines of:

Why do men feel like they can't show their emotions?

Why do you feel the need to prove your masculinity to women?

Why are women seen as the weaker sex?

Why is it your first instinct to doubt women who claim to have been raped?

Now, before I build this scenario, let me bring up a great point that Dr Shaym brought up:

"Men are socially conditioned from the day we learn to talk to not express our feelings. We are brought up constantly being told to man up and that boys don't cry. We don't have the privilege of showing our emotions because if we do, it is seen as a sign of weakness. To put it simply, us men are programmed to believe our own feelings are invalid, and so we hide them and we lie about them. We are raised to expect that if we tell you our feelings, you will shoot them down. You will tell us we're wrong for feeling the way we do, and even if you don't, we still don't want to tell you our feelings because we fear you will use them against us."

Now imagine this: You, as a boy, are forced to do something sexual with a girl you don't want to be with. You cry about it, as anyone would, alone and afraid. When you try to tell someone, perhaps your best friend, you're laughed at. "Dude, how did you let a girl pin you down? How weak can you be?" You, believing you should conform with your friends like every other person, decide to "man up" and swallow all of your feelings. The girl, seeing that she hasn't suffered any repercussions, goes after you again. You, being scared and frustrated, attempt to push her off. When she doesn't relent, you have no choice but to use self defense. She's angry and has a bruise on her face, and now has very good evidence that you have raped her and hit her in the process. She accuses you as such, and you are sent to prison. Your friends and family are disgusted, no one believes you, you have charges for things you never did. Your rapist roams free, likely doing the same to other men. You cry, as anyone would when their life is ruined.

Now tell me what you've learned from this scenario, because we all know for a fact that the women in that video would've supported the rapist without question. No one questioned that this girl might've done wrong. There was evidence, but no one tried to rearrange the story to fit it properly. This scenario, or something very similar to it, has likely happened already. If it hasn't, then it surely will soon.

The next order of business is one of the most popular things I've heard come out of a feminist's mouth, and every time I hear it I absolutely want to strangle whoever said it: WhY Do MEn tHinK ThEy'RE tHe StRoNGeR GeNDeR?

Because lady, whether you like it or not, men scientifically are proven to be stronger than women. Please take a good hard look at these statistics and educate yourself.

In case you didn't have common sense like the feminists in the video, muscle is what gives you strength. There are obviously exceptions, but ON AVERAGE, men are stronger than women, and that goes for every section on that table.

Onto the very much talked about wages gap. As mentioned in the video, it's not as though the gap doesn't exist. The thing is though, it's technically woman's fault it exists. Allow me the bring up another very valid quote from Dr Shaym:

"The observed wage Gap is based on comparing the average income of men to the average income of women without considering any variables. Sometimes when the wage Gap is brought up they add in that women get paid less for the same jobs, but that's horseshit. Asking why women get paid less than men is like asking why why men are more likely to die in the workplace than women: it's because men and women tend to work different jobs, and just like some jobs are more dangerous than others, some jobs pay more than others, and since men tend to work higher-paying jobs, such as those in STEM fields, men tend to make more money. And even when you are comparing men and women working the same jobs, there are things which factor into why men get paid more such as the fact that men are more likely to work overtime, are more likely to ask for raises or promotions, are less likely to take time off, are more competitive, are more likely to take risks, prioritize earnings more than women, retire at a later age, and all these other things which studies have found."

Dr Shaym goes on to make more reasonable points as to why the wage gap exists, but this excerpt from the video is more than enough to prove that this point that many feminists bring up is unreasonable and uneducated.

Final thoughts: I'm all for equal rights and such, but the way feminists antagonize men is not okay, and I wanted to voice that. I know this is a pretty controversial rant for a first post, but I just wrote what came to me.

Anyway, I'm pretty positive you can gauge my views on feminism by now, and I think I've done well enough for the post. I highly recommend watching Dr Shaym's video, and thank you for reading if you've gotten this far. I mean no harm in this post, and only wish to state an opinion.