#at the point where they’re on my mind constantly I’m just putting off the actual writing I want to do later

[loverboydotcom]

in an alternate modern day universe where everything is okay and nobody dies this is the perfect representation of beau and bobby’s friendship dynamic

[butchspace]

I guess I kind of just use this account for PSAs now, and this has been on my mind a lot lately.

I figured out that I have OCD a few years ago, and recently I’ve seen a lot of bad advice around dealing with intrusive thoughts and obsessions.

There’s that post that goes around occasionally about “taking pictures of your oven knobs before you leave” or other things I’ve seen that say to “make a weird face when you lock your door.” THESE ARE COMPULSIONS. If you have/suspect you have OCD or you often struggle with things like that, please do not follow this advice. Instead, try to accept your intrusive thoughts and move on, not argue with them. Over time, they will get easier and easier to deal with. Ruminating, stressing, or arguing with them just makes them worse in the long run.

If you think you might have OCD and want to seek a specialist, the IOCDF’s home page has a lot of resources under the “find help” tab, including a locator.

I’m going to put the rest under a read-more because I’m going to talk a bit more in depth about intrusive thoughts and compulsions. This mostly because good OCD info is so sparse on line, and I’ve spent many hours compulsively researching OCD lmao.

Content warning:

discussion of unreality/doubting one’s own perception

discussion of specific compulsions

I’m not going to push this point too hard or shame anyone who doesn’t want to follow it, because OCD doesn’t really just go away. It’s a constant struggle. I give in to compulsions regularly, even though I am medicated and have seen a specialist to learn actual coping skills. It’s hard to resist sometimes and you don’t always have the energy, the awareness, or the power to ignore them. You do what you have to do to get through your day. The main difference is that the right medication and the right therapist make it easier to stay out of the spiral and to leave a spiral when you’re in one. They still happen. You still kind of have to play everything by ear.

Similarly, it is super fucking hard to get help or even get diagnosed. No regular therapist actually knows what the fuck it looks like, and specialists are few and far between and often don’t take insurance. It’s not fair or easy or necessarily productive to try and do exposure response prevention on yourself. Your “good coping skills” can even turn into an obsession or compulsion, where you’re constantly worried about what is an intrusive thought and what is not, or if you’re responding to them properly.

What I want to do is try to give at least some useful advice to people who are struggling with intrusive thoughts.

The best way to respond to them is not at all. This is especially true with OCD, because the response to them is sort of the root of this disorder. Sometimes, it’s recommended that with depression or anxiety you challenge your thoughts. In OCD, it’s the opposite. Challenging them can so easily lead you down a compulsion spiral. (More about that cycle from a professional.)

Compulsions can be entirely mental, but I’ll use a common behavioral one to look at how engaging with compulsions can go:

You start by taking a picture of the your stove knobs to make sure they’re all off. That works for a few hours or days, but then you start wondering if the knob is ever-so-slightly in the “on” position. You wonder if the picture proves they’re off enough. You forget to take the picture at all, and have to go back in to check anyways. You check your phone a few times before leaving to ensure that the picture is still there. You take several pictures because you can’t tell if you actually took any at all. You start to wonder if you can even trust what you see before your very eyes. What if you’re just imagining that the knobs are set to off? What if you’re just imagining the whole picture to begin with? The picture allows you to engage with your checking compulsion throughout the day, strengthening the connection between the intrusive thought and the urgency to do something about it. That means it gets worse. That means you find new ways to doubt your perception or your memory or whatever.

It can eventually get really bad. It’s hard and awful to try and deal with this on your own, but sometimes you have to.

It’s so shit. It’s so fucking shit how long many people suffer with mental illness without even knowing what’s going on. I didn’t know that my constant, overwhelming guilt over almost everything I’d ever thought or said or done or maybe did and couldn’t remember was the result of a disorder. It was so freeing to realize there was actually something that might help me, and I could learn to just live with myself and my weird ass thoughts that don’t necessarily mean anything at all. It’s so shit that OCD-awareness is so low among therapists. I was never going to get diagnosed until I found an OCD SPECIALIST (bold, italicized, all caps. Don’t trust people on psychology today who just put OCD in the list of what they treat.) and went over the Y-BOCS with her. It’s all so shit that several therapists I came to with textbook examples of OCD either ignored me or didn’t have the tools to help. I told one of them I “didn’t feel connected to reality” and he kind just went 🤷.

I just want everyone who is in that/a similar situation to at least have this information available to them.

If you want to learn more, these blogs from Sheppard Pratt were the best discussion of OCD I found online that really described what I was going through. They’re written by licensed therapists, several (all?) of whom live with OCD. They’re very healing to read if this is something you’re struggling with, or something you think you might be struggling with, and great in general if you want to learn more about OCD.

Whatever’s going on, OCD or not, have some grace with yourself. Take a few minutes today and do something kind for yourself, even just think one nice thing about yourself. You’re doing the best you can.

[katsu28]

hi my lovely kait!

i saw your requests were open and i actually was thinking about if ive ever requested smth from you before (i think maybe once but im not sure)

i was wondering if i could get ‘Kissing away their tears’ with charles but i wouldn’t mind if you wanted to do it with anyone else as well! i’ve been craving some hurt/comfort.

love you and have an amazing day <33

hali!!! love u love u thank u for being so sweet <3 here's some hurt and (hopefully) some comfort for u!

charles leclerc x reader, 1.4k. request something from here!

You can tell that Charles is dejected the moment he climbs out of the car. He doesn’t have that spring in his step he usually gets after an exhilarating race, and his feet drag on the asphalt as he trudges over to the weighing station with the rest of the grid, barring the podium goers. 

Carlos finished high up in the points, which is a win for Ferrari and you know Charles is happy for him, but you can’t imagine what it must feel like to constantly miss out on points and positions while his teammate consistently comes out in the top five every time. 

Formula One is a different breed of competition—your teammate might be your friend, but they’re also one of your biggest rivals. You fight to keep your seat, race after race, season after season, and this downhill spiral Charles has been in ever since his home win has been disheartening to say the least. 

You don’t know much about the strategy of it all, but you know Ferrari’s hasn’t been working out for him. He’s had a rough go of it lately, and your heart hurts for him. 

Charles looks up to where he knows you are, lifting his hand in a haphazard wave at you before being ushered away to the media pen. You’ll wait for him where you always meet him after races.

Somehow, he looks even more defeated than before as he trudges into his driver room after post race interviews conclude. He throws his paddock pass off to the side. You’re sitting up on the countertop, legs swinging mindlessly, only stilling when Charles shuts the door behind him. 

“Hey,” You say softly, gently. 

“Hi. Thank you for coming.” He tries his attempt at a smile, but it doesn't reach his eyes. You hold out your arms, and immediately, Charles steps forward, folding himself into your embrace. You know Charles well enough to know that he won't believe you if you compliment him right now, so you don’t. You sit with him in the heavy silence instead, waiting for him to make the first move. “I’m sorry I could not do better.” 

“You did the best you could with what you were given, Charles,” You say assuringly, rubbing a hand over his shoulders. He sighs long and hard, like you’re just telling him what he wants to hear. “I’m proud of you.” 

“Can we just go back to the hotel now?” He asks quietly, muffled because of how his face is buried into your neck. “I’m done for today. Anything else can wait until tomorrow.” 

“Of course,” You hum, carding a gentle hand through his hair one more time before releasing him. Before he can get too far, you kiss him, short and sweet. He smiles then too, a little bigger than before, but still quite sad. 

Charles puts on a pleasant facade as you make your way through the paddock back to the car park, taking pictures with waiting fans, signing things for them if he can reach them like most drivers do whilst leaving the track. Most of them are sweet to him. They tell him to keep his head up and believe, that a few bad races don’t discredit how talented of a driver he is. 

There’s a few hecklers as usual, upset fans who’d made bets on Charles’ performance and lost that money, people who say he could be doing so much better—as if them telling him that would magically make everything alright again. You give your own deadpan stare to that lot from where you hover a good distance away from him, not caring that they can definitely see you. 

Charles may be media trained, but you’re not. You have no problems with shutting up a few twats with your expertly crafted death glare. Fred Vasseur might call you in for a meeting with the PR team if he sees the photos on social media, but you don’t care. 

The car ride back to the hotel is understandably silent, but Charles still holds your hand tightly, rubbing absentminded circles along your skin because it soothes him, every so often lifting it to press a kiss to your knuckles. You don’t push him to talk, and you don’t think you need to. You know him well enough to know he’ll let you in when he’s ready. 

Dinner is room service and holds a little more conversation, though you can tell Charles is still off in his own world, thinking about everything that’s gone wrong these past few races, wondering if he could’ve done anything to get a better outcome. 

You come out of the bathroom after brushing your teeth, well and ready to go to sleep and forget this day, but instead you find your boyfriend sitting at the end of the bed, hunched over with his head in his hands. At the sound of the door opening, he looks up, and you can tell he’s been trying hard not to cry. 

Glassy eyes stare back at you, the beautiful green eyes that you adore filled with so much pain and sadness it makes you want to cry too. His teeth dig hard into his bottom lip, but it still wobbles just the slightest. 

It isn’t until you’re across the room, sliding on your knees to hug him against you that the final string holding Charles up snaps, and he leans into you heavily, pressing his face against your shoulder with a shuddering breath. He cries and cries, and you let him, holding him as tight as you can just so he knows you’ve got him. 

You’ve always got him. 

His body shakes with silent sobs, hot tears soaking into your shirt, and all you can do is murmur quiet reassurances into his ear, even if the feeling of wet cotton against your skin makes you want to peel yourself out of it. Charles needs this, needs to let it all out so he can focus on what lies ahead without being dragged down by the past. 

Eventually, his sobs come to a hiccupping stop. He lifts his head, red rimmed eyes meeting your own tearful ones. His nose is even running a little bit, and if it were anyone else you’d push them away, but it’s Charles. “I’m sorry. I don’t—I don’t know why…” He trails off without finishing his sentence, seemingly at a loss for words. 

“Oh, my love,” You sigh, stroking both thumbs over the apples of his cheeks. You press your lips against his, hoping it can convey just how much you love him without you having to even utter the words, wiping away his tears gently before drawing back to look at him. As much as you hate it when Charles cries, he’s pretty like this. Tears cling to long, dark lashes, mussed hair a soft tornado of brown from how your fingers had been running through it. “You have nothing to be sorry for. And you never have to explain anything to me, yes? I’m here for you, always, no matter what.”

“Thank you,” He murmurs, leaning back in with his forehead against yours. “Thank you, mon amour. Your support, your love, it means everything to me. You are why I can keep doing this. ” 

You shake your head. “No I’m not.” Charles cocks his head, and you poke his chest, right over his heart. “That is why you can keep doing this.” 

One more poke, this one softer and on his forehead. “And this. Your mind and your heart, your determination, your strength, that is why you keep going. You are the most hard working, talented, brilliant driver I’ve ever seen. You can bounce back from whatever this is, and you will. But not because of me, because that’s the kind of person you are.” 

Charles pats the spot next to him and you oblige, looping your arm through his once you’re there, leaning against his shoulder now. He lays a lingering kiss to the top of your head, a silent gesture of appreciation towards you. He appreciates you more than he can put into words sometimes, a fact that hasn’t and will never change.  

Even though he’s still frustrated and sad and upset, this silence seems considerably lighter as you sit with him. You hope for brighter days ahead, and you’ll always try your best to be his strongest support system, no matter what the future holds.

follow @katsu-library to be notified when i post new fics :)

[stardewrotsession]

Note: I definitely stayed a little too close to some of their heart events, but I still think they’re cute.

When the Bachelors realize they have a crush on you:

Sam

- You two definitely were friends for a while until he realized his feelings for you.

- And honestly, he seems like the oblivious type to me, to the point where if someone flirted with him, he’d take it as a compliment and move on.

- With you however, it’s different.

- Any kind of flirt, tease, or joke would put a slight blush on his face.

- At first he didn’t really know why, you were his friend, and just his friend. Right?

- He just felt really comfortable with you, like he could talk about anything and you would just continue the conversation without any hesitation.

- In my opinion, he would start realizing his feelings for you once you started trying some of his hobbies. Like skateboarding.

- “Sam! You did a kick flip!”

- He’d have a huge grin on his face.

- “Yeah! I did!” He turns to you, his excitement taking over. “Do you wanna try?”

- Whether you knew how to skateboard or not, it wouldn’t matter to him. He’d teach you, skate with you, and try to impress you with his killer moves.

- Bonus points if you end up singing or playing an instrument with him. He would literally swoon.

- Whatever you wanted to do with him didn’t necessarily matter though. What really mattered to him was that you wanted to do it with him.

Sebastian

- When you two first met, he honestly didn’t think much of it.

- Like “Oh, a new farmer, cool.” And would shrug it off.

- But once you started visiting him, bringing him food and talking to him, he eventually warmed up to you.

- I think the moment you two really clicked, was when you would talk about your personal lives in front of the mountain lake.

- Although Demetrius wasn’t the worst dad, he definitely wasn’t the best. Constantly showing favoritism towards Maru, ignoring Sebastian, and bashing his work ethic.

- It was too much for Sebastian.

- He went to go out to smoke near the lake and there you were.

- “Hey Seb.”

- “Oh. Sorry. Didn’t realize you were here.”

- His eyes are still a bit red and puffy.

- “Are you okay…?”

- He wouldn’t respond at first, shoving his hands into his hoodie pockets.

- “It’s fine. I was just leaving anyways I-“

- He stops when you sit down on the grass and pat the spot next to you.

- “Come sit with me.”

- He ended up venting the entire night, finally opening up about himself to you. Once he realized, he was deathly afraid of your response. What you’d think. What you’d say.

- But when you comforted him, actually listened and sat down with him, a huge weight he didn’t know he had was lifted off of his back.

- It was refreshing to him, to have someone who’d listen and sit in silence with him.

- He wouldn’t mind having you around as much anymore. Hell, after that night, he’d sometimes go out of his way to see you more. To show his thanks and appreciation. And maybe even more.

Harvey

- I think we all know Harvey is very, very shy when it comes to love or romance.

- In fact he’s shy around the town in general.

- When you first come to town, you can see that he clearly separates himself from the community unless he’s either working or exercising. But even when he’s exercising he doesn’t really socialize.

- Once you start helping him open up, going at his comfortable pace of expressing himself and socializing a little more, he’ll realize you’re not like the rest of the townsfolk.

- He’s not the type to go out of his way to talk to everyone, and in response not many people go out of their way to talk to him.

- But when you come by, coffee in hand, he doesn’t freeze up or feel uncomfortable around you.

- He does eventually start freezing up around you when he becomes self conscious and anxious about his own feelings.

- But you bring the best out of him after all. Why should he be afraid of that?

Alex

- I’m a little split on this boy.

- Because George isn’t exactly accepting of gay marriage at first, I think Alex might think similarly at first. It’s just the way he was raised.

- So if you are a girl, he would definitely throw out harmless flirts and pick up lines.

- If you are a boy however, I think he’d just hang out with you and spend time with you without the flirts/sexism.

- Regardless of gender, I think he’d start realizing his feelings later on.

- Opening up about his mom and his dad, talking about sports, thinking more and more about farming.

- Your support towards him becoming pro, you being there for him when others weren’t, and sunshine energy is probably what draws him to you more than anyone else (cough cough Haley).

- After your support, your comfort, just your presence. I’m sure that’s when he starts thinking more about the future, and how you’d play a part in it.

- Also side note, I think he starts reading and exercising his because because of you and I think that’s adorable.

Shane

- Honestly, I think it would have to be during his six heart scene, or at least the aftermath of it.

- What can I say, I’m unoriginal.

- All I can imagine is after Harvey pumps his stomach and he’s awake, he’s staring up at the ceiling, wondering to himself, “Why did they stop me?”

- He would eventually come to the conclusion that you, the farmer, cares about him.

- Like, actually cares about him.

- Ouch.

- But seriously, he would not be able to wrap his head about why you would stick by him, even at his lowest.

- It would take him a couple of weeks to really accept it.

- But after he does, he starts to fully embrace it and begins to change for the better. To finally quit drinking once and for all.

- Everytime he sees you, you’d be able to see his face light up a little.

- “Hey farmer. I just wanted to thank you for everything. I really needed that wake up call.”

Elliot

- As much as he loves romance stories with huge revelations and dramatic gestures, the way he realized he liked you wasn’t exactly huge.

- It was just how much you’d come over to support him, to talk to him and to make sure he wasn’t too lonely on the beach.

- Sure, he’d go to town to visit Leah, or to go to the saloon for a drink or two, but no one really came to him.

- It was such a nice surprise to see someone making their way to him, especially if their farm is across the town.

- Your support was what made him swoon.

- “Elliot! This draft is so good!”

- “The way you wrote this out was so beautiful and detailed, I felt like I was within the book.”

- “You’re an amazing writer Elliot.”

- He’s never had this kind of support back in the city. So to hear someone else, also from the city, talk so positively about him and his book?

- Let’s just say he had a lot more romantic book ideas in mind for the next few weeks.

[electricbathsalt]

I saw a recent post on r/bokunoheroacademia about “how can you possibly feel bad for Chisaki” and like…it’s not the “how can you feel bad for child abuser” itself that boggs me, but rather how people in comments repeat over and over “oh boss was so kind to him tried to guide him but he still became a poss he was evil from birth” and I’m like where are people who can look above the “what text says” level of understanding

Oh my lords, that’s my least favorite type of Chisaki hater. Like fuck dude you can dislike a character, but 1: do you have to police everyone who does like them, and 2: you clearly didn’t care enough to actually understand his character and story before you decided that there’s no reason to like him/have empathy for him.

What I hate most is not people disliking Chisaki. I don’t really care about that. I hate people who clearly don’t understand the character they’re slandering. If you’re going to publicly complain about a character, please do it while having an actual clue of what the fuck you’re talking about.

“Pops was so kind to him and constantly tried to steer him down the right path!!” Pops was a fucking Yakuza leader who never called Chisaki by his given name once in his life. Meanwhile, we don’t even know Pops’ real name because Chisaki never failed to call him either “Pops” or “Boss”. The “constant steering down the right path” was just “hey, don’t do that violence, only the violence I want you to. Im gonna scold you”. Idk man, but if I had a kid who I picked up off the streets, I’d probably get them into therapy literally as soon as they’d had a drink of water, a good meal, and a full night’s rest. But Pops decided that wasn’t worthwhile even when the child started exhibiting blatantly concerning behavior. He decided slapping Chisaki on the wrist was the most effective method to get him mentally stable. Ah, yes, reprimanding; the best way to get rid of violent tendencies, self-worth issues, and attachment/abandonment issues in your traumatized child, who you are raising in the mafia. Flawless.

Saying Chisaki was “born evil” is actually so absurd that it kinda makes me wanna laugh. It goes completely against what the entire point of MHA is, or supposedly is. Just because his entire childhood wasn’t spoon-fed to you does not mean it was a good one that didn’t at all influence him into being the way he is. Even the absolute crumbs we get from canon don’t imply he had a “good” childhood. “Pops was so good to him, though—“ he was a yakuza leader who integrated the child he took off the streets into his gang, without ever doing anything to help resolve any of the trauma he went through (and inherently gave him more via being in the yakuza). He was disowned by his daughter, who he called a fool for having a rash reaction to her child killing her husband, and never bothered to reach out further to her. He put Eri in Chisaki’s care, knowing of Chisaki’s violent behavior. The only “positive” flashback we ever get of Chisaki & Pops’ relationship is when Chisaki got scolded, and then told “thank you for protecting the Hassaikai’s honor”. And something tells me that any “praise” Chisaki ever got from Pops was to do with the Hassaikai, esp considering Chisaki’s unnaturally-strong dedication to it. I’m tired of people pretending that Chisaki’s pure evil that prevailed over a sweet, innocent man. Chisaki wasn’t even the only one who experienced ill-treatment from Pops—his entire fucking family did.

The other thing is—Chisaki was literally doomed from the start. The only two people we get to know he was ever in the care of were both people who would inevitably turn Chisaki into a criminal/villain. Him being anything else was something that was never even allowed to grace his mind.

[lestappenforever]

As surely as Charles and Max will always have a post-race debrief, I will return here to dump my social-psychological thoughts after any minor interaction. As always thank you so much Mona for having such an amazing space for anons like me to do these sorts of things 🫶 ✨

Firstly, I love the video of Max apologising because not only is Max Verstappen apologising immediately after the race about something but you actually see Charles go “mate” in that sort of “why did you do that come on” way but whilst he says that he still goes for a handshake with the other hand coming to above Maxs elbow. I’m defo no body language expert (will leave that to @little-racing-driver 🤭) but it’s a very basic tenante that formal handshakes never go above an elbow and it has lots to do with upholding boundaries and “social decorum” but an elbow handshake (where ones non-shaking hand goes to the other elbow) conveys a sense of familiarity however when that hand is above the elbow it stops being a handshake used in formal setting and becomes a show of camaraderie and intimacy. It’s also different than for example the hand going to the shoulder or just below the shoulder which is typically used for aggressive posturing to show that you are ready to fight and subconsciously puts your own body in a fighting stance whilst “asserting dominance” over the other person by pressing downwards on their shoulder. (Keep in mind this is usually in a formal setting like politicians business men or business events however, especially for those who are constantly surrounded by this, these gestures become subconscious because you become so used to expressing yourself through your body) even more it isn’t just a single tap he keeps his hand there whilst Max goes for the waist tap which conveys the same thing -a strong sense of familiarity and an attempt to bring the other closer (maybe not physically but by establishing a point of contact is also a way of doing this). And keep in mind that at this point Max hasn’t had the chance to explain he had no grip. Which I think shows so much about how much they have matured especially Charles and not just maturing but also how much their relationship has grown that he doesn’t automatically get angry, if anything he looks to be dejected and slightly betrayed that Max would run him off the track like that. Consider for example how he could have just shook Max’s hand and called it a day but he is the one who reaches out to Max first and then follows it up with that extra gesture of putting his hand on Max’s upper arm that essentially says “I may be mad but I value you” and it is very endearing and super sweet. Also If you contrast that with how they usually greet/congratulate eachother, it is with a typical sportsman hand clasp (where neither person’s palms are facing downward which would indicate attempting to dominate or play mind games, instead both parties hold their hands level and facing the other as a show of “middle ground” and equalling respect which is symbolic of sportsmanship and usually used between competitors) but in this case they both go that extra mile, Max by apologising with his body with the waist tap in that way bringing Charles closer (also I believe he goes for a double hand handshake which in this context looks to me like Max is showing extra affection with this type of handshake which is used to show trustworthiness and make the other person feel valued though it’s hard to see because of Checo) and Charles by initiating the contact and establishing a supportive point of contact that essentially reassures Max that they’re good.

Max as well is very notable with how he immediately goes for Charles and opens with an apology instead of congratulating him (or checo for that matter) which really shows what was at the forefront of his mind and is very indicative of the fact that Max does not want to have any issues or any misunderstandings and he does not want Charles to think that he intentionally pulled that move on him.

I love the cool-down car too like that’s such a fun thing by forcing these three together and actually showing us what they talk about during the debrief but I couldn’t help but think that it was just slightly uncomfortable and Charles and Max didn’t feel fully comfortable to do their proper de brief- whether that is because they were in close quarters, Checo was too close or most likely because of the huge ass camera pointed right at their faces whereas usually we see their de brief from further away, giving them a greater sense of privacy and I am 100% running with that because the moment they get out of the car and checo is having his interview you can see that they have fully launched themselves into their de brief with Max gesticulating about what looks to be running Charles wide into turn 1 and maxplaining again what happened (second time so there is defo no chance of misunderstanding). And then by the time we get to the podium all is right in the world and Charles is feeling comfortable enough to spray Max playfully and obviously Max’s huge smile followed by the press con where they are ONCE AGAIN reminiscing and talking about how “very very” well Charles knows Max as a driver and how much history they have with their de briefing tradition having started very early on and it really makes sense why the lestappen briefings hit so different; they bring the same energy and the same eagerness and over a decade worth of familiarity with this borderline ritualistic coming together post-race to discuss. Max and Charles’ comments on the de brief make it explicit that it is their specific ritual and they both see it as being a different/special type of debriefing that comes “naturally”. As we know from the heaps of Max podcast memes that Max will always maxplain to whomever and generally all drivers will have their de brief but it is a completely different beast when it is a de briefing with Max and Charles because they have placed eachother in a special place where the others opinions, thoughts and experiences are just held at a higher standard which is why they have a tendency to just go into their own little world and ignore the third person- they are just that engrossed. And the third person usually looks like they don’t want to interrupt them, they know that their sessions specifically are special and they just have to be left alone to have their moment rather than trying to get a word in. Like if you have the likes of Lewis Hamilton and your own teammates third wheeling your de briefs then you know something is up.

There are other things to say as we defo had an eventful race week and tbh most of the things we are seeing really speak for themselves- I don’t even want to start about the inchident making a full circle because I may not stop. Can’t believe that we are actually seeing these things because as everyone keeps saying, tell 2019 Charles/Max that they would be cool and act so fondly with one another after an incident like that they may shrivel up from disbelief. So seeing this is truly great stuff and if Ferrari gives Charles the car he needs so that the boys can do what they want to do.

Social-psychological anon, how your presence in my ask box has lit up my entire morning. ❤️

Once again you are bringing such wonderful insights that I will never get tired of reading, and your insights are especially appreciated after the weekend we've had. Thank you so, so much once again for blessing me and everyone else who reads this with your beautiful mind, and putting your stunning thoughts into words for us all to enjoy.

I'm so happy you feel comfortable sharing your thoughts in my ask box, and I truly hope that won't change because you have no idea how much joy it brings me. And I truly do want my blog to be a happy, comfortable place for anyone who loves Lestappen, so it's such an honor that you seem to think it is just that.

Just as a final note: "don’t even want to start about the inchident making a full circle because I may not stop." <<<< Should you ever do decide to start, please feel free to do so because I, for one, would love to read it.

I love you, my wonderful social-psychological anon, and I hope you're having the best day/night. 💕

[cowpokeomens]

Ayfuckingo, who’s stealing work👀👀👀 (Who thinks stealing someone’s hard ass work is fun? Wtf)

Yknow I thought abt deleting this ask and my post but I’m feeling feisty and fed up today, actually! This is not directly specifically at you anon 🫶 anyways read at your own risk lol

I’m not dropping names because I’m not a gossip blog, but I think the tendency of certain celebrated “authors” to dip into other people’s creative endeavors for their own work is gross and completely diminishes the whole point of fandoms. Like, this is supposed to be a community. Instead it’s turned into a competition that literally no one wants to be a part of where people say “oh yay, another _____ AU!” Instead of “wow, that’s awfully hyper specific and pretty flagrantly rips off of soemthing I’ve seen before?”

I think we, as members of fandom, have become soooooo wrapped up in the culture of needing to “consume content” that we disregard artistic integrity. We don’t care that the idea is stolen because we love the idea so much. I’m not talking about tropes (ie; enemies to lovers, grumpy!character x sunshine!character, fake dating) I’m talking about the actual creative thought that goes into making a fic. I understand loving someone’s creativity; I’m an artist, and I am constantly absorbing and thinking about art from other people. It’s inevitable that some ideas will trickle into your own work. But there comes a point where there is a clear difference between “inspired” and stolen.

I’m not trying to say this as some kind of writing authority - there are SO MANY talented and hardworking writers on this platform who make beautiful work leagues better than my stupid horny rambles. And like I said, I’m not naming names- the plagiarizers are fully aware of what they’re doing. But the way in which y’all treat fic is really disappointing sometimes. It’s not all about the next update, y’all. This is someone’s art. It’s not just a “good idea” in public domain for you to pluck and use in your own work as you please. It is someone’s art.

I just can’t help but feel like it circles back to a deeply ingrained need to devalue artists. If there was any respect for author’s and their work, this wouldn’t even need to be a conversation. Don’t fucking steal from people. Why do you value the work of an author so little that you feel it’s okay to take something they’ve worked incredibly hard on? Obviously you like it enough to try and pass it off as your own, so why steal at all? There’s a reblog button, you can add comments to let them know how much you love it. What are you gaining?

I’m coming from the position of an artist, not just a fic writer. This has nothing to do with my writing personally (as far as I’m aware, no one is trying to pass off my ideas as their own.) But as an artist, I cannot put into words how saddening and downright violating it is to have someone look at a thing you made, something you put your experiences and thoughts and emotions into, and think “it’s completely fine for me to take this idea and run with it.” That is insurmountably shitty.

Y’all are too damn smart to not notice. I think too highly of y’all as readers and creators to chalk it up to misunderstanding. You probably already had a fic in mind as you were reading this! I think we, as a community, really need to work on our intentionality and integrity with regards to art making. Stealing ideas is not conducive to making art or maintaining any semblance of community in fandom. Anyways this was long, I apologize for nothing, byeeeeeeeeee

[keef-a-corn]

Dat’s right, People, it’s time for ‘Keef watches TFP and you just get the notes!’

This is for season 1, episode 14: Out of His Head

I write down the timestamps, but I watch Transformers Prime on Stan (an Australian streaming service) so they may be slightly off.

ALSO! I try my best to note points for every character, but tend to get a little caught up by Bee (although I think I do a pretty good job with the notes regardless) so do be warned.

~~~~Transition~~~~

~recap~

00:48 - I’m pretty sure that’s what pupils actually do when you shine light in them.

00:52 - Ratchet’s using a torch fr.

00:58 - *sigh* here we have an example of TFP skipping over recovery arcs, although there probably wasn’t much to Optimus’s.

01:05 - ‘OlD fRiEnD’ tryin to convince us they ain’t married.

01:07 - Ratchet making sure Bee got credit, aww

01:08 - They’re so proud of him.

01:12 - Tryin to be modest as if he didn’t do that.

01:15 - with confidence ‘did you just say that?.’

01:18 - gotta bring focus back to husbands recovery.

01:24 - ‘Megatron shouldn’t be a problem, Arcee probably killed him.’ Not too confident with that one though.

01:28 - they looking at Arcee. How would they not have noticed something was up with Bee?

01:36 - these shots would be useful if you needed a reference for Bee’s hands.

01:39 - It’s annoying that Optimus doesn’t notice something’s wrong sooner.

01:46 - Megatron chilling in the dark could mean one of two things. 1. Bots that are awake don’t have a mind scape or 2. Bee doesn’t have a safe place to imagine himself if that he can rely on.

~intro~

03:08 - Bulkhead’s just chilling watching Bee as if he couldn’t go defend.

03:19 - I know someone who passes like that. It would constantly jar my fingers while trying to catch her pass.

03:29 - not even slightly concerned about Bee pegging the ball at your head?.

03:42 - oh no! Babee!

03:51 - one would thank that for closeups of Megatron’s face they’d make sure he was looking forward.

04:24 - really entertaining himself, huh? Also this plot is only here to get the boys out of the building.

04:33 - where has he been keeping that? …up his as-

04:48 - Starscream’s so entertaining to watch.

04:53 - so… Megatron’s child?

04:57 - I recommend watching that scene on loop while playing ‘bet on it’

05:01 - why he gotta lean like that?

05:13 - Robots bowing gotta be(e) one of my favourite genders fr

05:17 - Huh…

05:20 - H OL UP Raf has parents, right?? Can’t he go to them to drop him off? Do they know that an expensive ass car is driving their son to school?

05:41 - What exactly is Megatron doing? If he was smart he would’ve been snooping in on the bots or is he seriously just waiting?

05:45 - The camera’s very fair away from Bee and there’s a loud noise. How haven’t the other bots noticed something’s wrong?

05:50 - this is much uncomfortable. Between Megatron being able to control Bee to the tone he uses when encouraging him.

05:59 - the transition from Megatron to Bee is so smooth I can’t breathe. + Ratchet calling out his name causing Bee to regain control is beautiful.

06:02 - Look at hiiiimmmmm awwww

06:03 - RATCHET’S SO HEAVILY ANIMATED I CAAAAN’T it’s almost like the animators forgot they are metal.

06:05 - with confidence ‘what?’ Also this is how my dogs look when I put their food in their bowls.

06:07 - I don’t understand why or how, but Ratchet looks stunning here.

06:11 - Bee proving that if he was bitten during an apocalypse he would tell the people around him.

06:14 - so remember before when I said that Megatron chilling in the darkness means one of two things?. Will the first one couldn’t be true, otherwise this line wouldn’t make sense.

06:17 - There’s something so interesting about the way Bee powers down.

06:19 - This shot just looks cool.

06:21 - Optimus looks so concerned. + Heavily animated Ratchet.

06:25 - Heavily animated Raf, huh.

06:25 - Optimus just silently standing their looking between Bee and Ratchet. It’s slightly upsetting to realise that he doesn’t say a word during this scene as if he wouldn’t have something to say.

06:33 - Man, I wish I could get that.

06:47 - that ‘why?’ is so done with Fowler.

07:01 - LOOK AT THAT SIZE DIFFERENCE.

07:13 - good thing.

07:40 - I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t. We are talking about the Arctic, right? As in the place that is sheets of ice floating on top of water? If it was the Antarctic, sure, but I’m pretty sure ice that melts without land underneath just melts, rather than increases water levels. I could be wrong though.

07:42 - my face when I realised that they added in this stupid B plot so that the A plot could focus on Bee, Ratchet, Raf and Megatron, but that came with the price of Bee struggling with something and the rest of team Prime choosing not to get involved or say a word on the matter, including Optimus.

08:28 - this means that Power down mode is not like a coma. Raf’s honestly wasting his breath because he’ll have to repeat the story later.

08:49 - 👁👄👁

08:52 - That’s how it feels when someone shows me a photo of a baby and goes on about them, while I try my hardest not to tell them that the baby looks kickable.

08:57 - Honestly, most realistic reaction. There’s probably something here that could be used as a parent Ratchet & child Bee fic prompt.

09:02 - The way Ratchet dismisses Raf until he links it back to Bee + the subtlety of Ratchet’s eyes widening + the cue of the music coming in.

09:03 - THE SMILE CAUGHT ME SO OFF GUARD I CRIED. YOU KNOW THAT HE’S FRAGGIN PROUD OF BEE- MY HEARRRRRT. (Fun fact, I was showing my friend this shot later and they got very worried because I started crying in class)

09:09 - ngl, kinda forgot his was standing their unconscious.

09:13 - BOOOOOOO! M’kay, Imma stop hating on the subplot now. Just hope I’ve made it clear that I don’t like why it’s there.

09:21 - This is so amusing to see because it’s such a Scooby Doo sorta thing.

09:27 - Optimus flexes his hand just to ball it up again.

09:38 - Here we have a time when Prime is not a good start off show (that and because your standards get raised really high and you get thoroughly disappointed when other medias aren’t the exact same) because they don’t explain wtf ‘the end run on Polyhex’ was.

09:39 - Bee’s wings, when he’s powered down, rests at a lower angle, but when he’s awake we know that they point up. One idea could be that when he’s awake, they rest at a higher up state (cue fanfic prompt where a bot realises Bee’s awake because of the wings).

09:47 - ya’ll seeing what I’m seeing?

09:48 - That’s the opposite way to how he powered down. Literally. The angles, the movement. It the exact same, just in reverse. This ain’t a bad thing by any means.

10:06 - I highly recommend watching the way Bee’s pedes/feet work. It’s interesting.

10:30 - why doesn’t Ratchet think to a) call Optimus or b[ee]) FOLLOW BEE?? Why is he just standing there??

10:50 - why are so many bots blind in this episode?? HOW DID YOU MISS THAT?!

10:56 - from this you can tell that Megatron’s not used to controlling Bee’s hands/servos because he kinda fumbles when originally trying to pick it up.

11:14 - YES. YOU SHOULD!

11:17 - I get it. I do. But here’s the thing.. Bumblebee had just gone into Megatron’s mind, then later mentions that he’s seeing Megatron’s face, he’s now gone to the location that he doesn’t know after waking up from a forced power down! YOU COULD AT LEAST LET OPTIMUS KNOW

11:27 - HE SOUNDS LIKE A MUM! I C A N ‘ T

11:30 - *grabs child’s wrist*

11:31 - *child immediately opens hand to show what he’s holding* it’s a muscle memory.

If anyone tries to deny that Ratchet is a parental figure to Bumblebee, I’m going to bite them.

11:34 - It was this moment we got to find out what it would look like getting punched by Bumblebee.

11:35 - RATCHET NO!

11:36 - Okay but that pose- damn Bee.

11:38 - Why is he whispering?

11:42 - I get this is menacing and all but he looks like he’s doing this: Ò^Ó

12:02 - now we watch as he DOESN’T CALL OPTIMUS.

12:07 - ‘I’m fine. More importantly is Bumblebee?’ Making me tear up.

12:26 - when you mess with the wrong medics child:

12:41 - … to be fair… yeah.. Ratchet did his research, he should’ve known.

12:54 - This episode could’ve gone differently if THE HAD CALLED OPTIMUS. THIS ONE I AIN’T LETTIN GO.

12:59 - Raf, listen buddy… someone needs to man the ground bridge while all bots are in the Arctic. Also you’re gonna get hurt, ya dip.

13:05 - *cri*

13:09 - I’m like 90% sure this is men in the bathroom.

13:29 - Starscream’s worse than Megatron.

13:33 - YES! MY ‘TRANSFORMERS BOWING’ COLLECTION EXPANDS!!

13:36 - BREAKDOWN! I CHOOSE YOU!

13:43 - love that ‘evil’ laugh for ya, king

14:32 - When characters believe a character that’s being mind controlled can ‘fight it’ is so incredibly frustrating. It’s mind control, not a physical fight, there’s so much more to it.

14:55 - RAF. WHY THE FRAG WOULD YOU YELL THAT WHIKE RATCHET’S TRYING TO SNEAK IN??

14:57 - Once he knew it wasn’t his child, all bets were off. Ratchet attaccs.

15:01 - ya know who would be really useful if this sort of situation? OPTIM-

15:09 - Reminder this is not a memory issue, this is a warlord CONTROLLING BUMBLEBEE FROM THE INSIDE OF HIS HEAD. Raf is an idiot.

15:13 - it’s the listening part that got him, not the ‘remember me’ part.

15:14 - Aww.. the babies trying his hardest. Watching the way Bee’s eyes shift is genuinely heartbreaking.

15:17 - he looks adorable.

15:21 - the way Bee’s wings are so high up-

15:27 - NO! He’s obviously in pain.. I can’t!!

15:44 - YES! (But imagine how much easier it would’ve been with opt-)

15:50 - Raf’s genuinely making me mad. WHEN HAS THAT WORKED THIS WHOLE EPISODE??

06:00 - … H o w D o e s T h a t W o r k ? Is he actually beeping? Is that actually Megatron’s voice? Is he beeping but it sounds like Megatron’s voice??

16:05 - FOR FRAGS SAKE RAF-

16:27 - weirdly pretty.

16:31 - oooh~ love me some height difference and from Megatron’s perspective.

16:51 - I was kinda expecting ‘daddy’s home’

17:02 - Man, I had the Mandela affect on this. I always thought the Megatron said ‘I outta thank you for your hospitality, Scout. Deceptions, finish these pests.’ Might’ve been from a fanfiction but I swear I’ve seen it. + this shots remind me of the scenes that Megatron was talking to Bee in Sick Mind.

17:17 - dunno how I’m supposed to feel about Ratchet leaving Bee in open fire.

17:35 - HE CAN FLY

17:37 - that was cool ngl

17:39 - if he kept his legs closed he would’ve had a gymnastics technique going there while he mounted the spike. If you know you know.

17:53 - Sorry Arcee, you don’t got those strong legs like Bee.

18:04 - Transformers on ice. (Decided to see if it’s real and omg)

18:23 - that’s rich, ain’t it?

18:27 - I love that so much.

18:41 - So light em up up up, light em up up up-

18:49 - If I had a dollar for every time the screen went white in this episode, I’d have two dollars.

19:29 - and you’ll never believe who brought him back

20:45 - oh I see, so the guilt of failing to fight off Megatron’s control and bringing him back is gonna come later, got it!

20:52 - On the scan Bee’s head and chest are red.

20:58 - ignore me, that’s normal.

21:04 - Why is Optimus wearing his battle mask? Wait why is everyone so excited?

21:28 - AHHHHHHHHH

———————

So that was Out of His Head!

I really enjoy the episode, but wish they had done a bit more with Bee being controlled by Megatron, especially if they had touched on the group noticing the little things more.

I mentioned at that start that TFP skips recovery arcs and that is certainly the case for Bumblebee, especially considering that for a bot loyal to Optimus, bringing back Megatron could be viewed as traitorous. Not by Optimus, but by Bee himself.

I also thought that Raf’s role was pretty weak. He didn’t actually do anything for the plot.

Then you have the very apparent part of Optimus not being as involved with the A plot as he should’ve been.

But I thought the animation was beautiful, the dynamic between Ratchet and Bumblebee was enjoyable and Bee being common ground for the dynamic between Raf and Ratchet.

Despite all the negatives, when you’re just watching the episode and not deconstructing it the way I do for the notes, it’s very much an enjoyable watch and I sincerely hope I haven’t ruined the episode.

[redd-byrd]

AAAAAAAAAAA I LOVED IT SO MUCH

MY DAD WENT WITH ME AND HE ALSO LIKED IT

I’m so glad the theatre was almost empty, I was so excited that I was doing full-on hand-flapping, which I almost never do, and squeaking and giggling like a crazy person, I was stimming like crazy cuz I was so happy to be there

MASSIVE FNAF MOVIE SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT

And friendly reminder that this is my ✨OPINION✨

This will be long and very ramble-y so bear with me

OK SO FIRST OFF THE ANIMATRONICS

- I loved how they acted like kids??? Like you tend to forget the ghosts are actual children when looking at the games since they’re constantly all “murder monster-y” so I love that they got to act so childlike

- Kids’ drawings being a massive plot point was so cute, I actually didn’t mind how sudden Afton’s defeat was since like,,, they were only on his side in the first place bc the drawing showed that he was their friend, so it suddenly switching around made a little more sense. Probably could’ve been executed better but for what it was I think it was fine

- And of course THE DESIGNS!!!! Holy shit I loved how they looked!!! The prop team did an AMAZING job with both the animatronics and the background props!!!

- The interactions with Abby were adorable, I loved the fort scene because of how goofy it was to watch giant machines dressed like animals put that together

- Also I know we were all skeptical when the red glowing eyes were shown, but honestly the scenes where they DID glow would probably have looked good even if they didn’t change it, though I will say that the final look is really nice by itself

NEXT IS THE MAIN CAST

- Matthew Lillard did an INCREDIBLE JOB as William Afton, when my dad and I came out of the theatre he said that he had a feeling that Lillard would be the antagonist (mind you my dad knew nothing about the games or the movie), which really shows how well he does at playing horror villains and playing up that gut instinct

- I loved how creepy he was in the final fight scene, just creeping out of the shadows with those two glowing pinpricks was SO cool

- Also Afton being retconned to not be British anymore is so funny to me askdjhsjjdhdj

- Abby didn’t annoy me at all, I actually thought she was super cute!! Which is surprising bc I usually find kids annoying but I’d die for Abby

- When I say that I got WHIPLASH from the animatronics being nice to her and later Mike after she introduced them, I MEAN IT (in a good way)

- Mike taking Abby seriously and believing her when she said her “imaginary friends” are actually ghosts was a nice change of pace

- The group that broke in honestly didn’t need that much characterization since the main thing the plot needed was Max, so that was fine

- I am confused about why people aren’t more concerned about the murders that took place throughout the movie??? Like a missing poster in the background would’ve been fine, or maybe Mike reacting to Max being missing?? They don’t give much context on their relationship, I have no idea if they’re friends or if she’s just someone he hired and doesn’t have much emotional investment in, so maybe that wouldn’t work

- VANESSA MY BELOVED

- Vanessa was great, I love her character so much, but idk if I love her by herself or it it’s cuz she didn’t get much characterization in the game,,,, doesn’t really matter ig

ABOUT THE STORY

- Story was really fun, I love the unexpectedness of some of the scenes (dance scene, fort building, Freddy blade mask, etc) I thought it was so funky

- Afton using a separate identity to lure people to Freddy’s was cool, though I have no idea why he’d do that to other people. I can understand Mike, he likely knew about his brother through the last name, but why other people???

- I am a bit sad about Henry n Charlie Emily being left out, considering how big of a part they both play in the game lore, but idk if it’s explicitly said whether they exist within the movie universe or not, so we’ll see in the next movie ig

- THE SPRINGLOCK SCENE!!!!!!!! I loved it <3 idk how they didn’t go off after Afton was bouncing around in it earlier but when they did go off it was SO COOL!!!

- “I always come back” YES HE DOES!!!! LETS GOOOOOOOOOOO

- End scene of him bleeding out in the storage room hinting towards the full Springtrap character??? Loved it

- Also HELLO FREDBEAR??? GOLDEN FREDDY?? YELLOW BEAR???? WHAT

Extra info:

- No Markiplier was not in it, he was too busy with his own movie

- WAITER MATPAT?????

- Corey was awesome, I thought he was so funny for his short time on screen, esp the post credits scene

- THE FNAF 1 SONG MADE IT IN OH MY GOOOOOOOOD CONGRATS TO THELIVINGTOMBSTONE

Random plot holes or inconsistencies I found:

- Foxy had a scene where they forgot to switch the red eyes to the new glowing ones

- Despite the animatronics killing the group that broke in, spilling plenty of blood, they’re perfectly clean afterwards

- My dad found it weird that they didn’t show any part of the kids’ bodies in the suits, since it’s apparently known that they were stuffed inside (or maybe only Vanessa knew??). He thought an arm or a leg poking out would’ve worked. I said I think it’s either cuz the bodies were removed, are kinda mangled and pretzel-twisted to only be in the torso, or it’s just bc they didn’t think to do that lmao

- He was also confused on how Afton was able to jump around and move so easily in the springlock suit when the suit in the back snapped off the broom handle after a single jab. I said I think it’s bc it’s meant to be used to move around in and not harshly screwed with, or maybe it’s another plot reason

All in all, 8.5/10 movie. There were a few times when I was confused on why something happened or why someone behaved a certain way, but none of it was outright bad or boring. There also could’ve been more to the gore, definitely could’ve pushed the boundaries of the PG-13 rating, but it was good for what it was. It was fun, cute, and knew when to be serious :P

[bugtransport]

Kamen Rider Amazon finished March 7th, 2023

#hongoposting

Pictured: just a little guy

Okay. I really liked Amazon. It’s short and sweet and to the point. I cried multiple times while watching it but also it made me feel considerably less insane than X made me feel. That typically would leave me with less to talk about (the show was pretty tight and while I could go gushing about all the things that I thought were cool, that isn’t really as fun as going completely off the deep end) except actually no I do have something that I want to talk about really badly. Amazon is pretty different. He’s not a borg, first off, and while sure okay, Riderman was mostly human, he still was part borg and I count him as one because he had identity issues about it. Amazon hardly even seems to realize he’s transforming for the first few episodes; it feels completely instinctual. He’s scared of bikes the first time he encounters them. They actually dyed the foam red (among other colors) this time and it got my livetweets flagged on Twitter for violence? He doesn’t really know Japanese for the first half of the series. Sure, Tachibana’s there, but none of the other riders make an appearance like they’ve done up until this point. The guy who helps Amazon is a reformed monster. It’s really different as a series than anything that came before it… but also it was mentioned to me that Amazon was an attempt to bring Kamen Rider back to its roots post X and I have to say, I kinda get it? Forgive me for taking this one here but if you’ve watched the series you’ll probably get where I’m coming from. I think I have just one question left on my mind that I really, really need to ask: 

Ishinomori, buddy? Personal fucking question to ask of a guy I know but like. Do you have sensory issues? Is that what’s going on here? 

This isn’t me being rude here because like, me too my good man; this question comes not with ill will but to see if we’re wearing the same hat here and if that hat is like, a little itchy and is it bothering you as well? Do you think we can take it off soon?? I know the whole matching thing is fun but I feel like I’m going to explode. I’m just looking at what you and the gang have made here, 4 series and 6 riders in, and I really can’t help but see that this is a concept you keep coming back to. Especially now that we have a guy who came into being a Rider completely removed from Hongo and – I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s take a step back here. I cannot for the life of me remember what all I’ve said about Hongo where so I’m just going to start in:

Hongo. Uh. Hongo. Just, like, take a look at the way that he interacts with the world.* My brain short circuits when I try to talk about him sometimes and I think that’s happening right now. I have so many feelings about why he is the way that he is and it’s something that’s just constantly on my mind. Hongo’s the kind of self-sacrificial guy who will put everything on the line to better the world but when it comes to himself, he doesn’t really extend the same courtesy. You can see through the series that things just get to be too much for him and while I think sure it’s most apparent in his first stint on the show when things are fresh and they’re introducing what it means to be borged and he’s trying his damnedest to understand his new strength and enhanced senses… there are still points throughout the series where you can tell it’s just too much for him. There’s not really any one thing I can point to as an example even, it’s just the way that he’ll be comfortable in dark places or bite the side of his thumb when he’s focusing on things or feel pain in the wrong way and muscle through it. It’s like discomfort is part of his daily life and has been for a while, it’s just ramped up now to the point where he can’t really ignore it like he used to be able to sometimes. That probably doesn’t help with the whole struggle with his humanity thing that he’s dealing with constantly; the world should be something that he can handle and he’s not able to and that’s just rough.

Hayato I think I kind of covered a while ago with this post but my feelings for his borg senses are kind of the same as my feelings on Kazami’s: Hongo obviously had the chance to be there for the two of them and while my thoughts that he helped finish up the work on Hayato are totally headcanon he was explicitly borging (haha) Kazami so yeah, I think given the fact that Hongo obviously has so many issues with how he experiences the world, and also the fact that this feature ended up malfunctioning in canon later on, I totally think that him putting a limiter/regulator on Kazami’s nervous system was his way of making sure that he wouldn’t be inflicting the same kind of pain on someone else, and you know what fuck it maybe he adjusted Hayato too to make things easier for him. It’s such a genuine act of care for someone else and fits his personality; he doesn’t want to have more borgs in the world but if he has to if he really has no choice but to do he’d still feel damn bad about it but he’d at least be able to do that for them. 

(Riderman doesn’t get a spot here because he doesn’t seem to have Issues in this arena, but I wouldn’t really expect him to seeing as he’s only got one arm borged up. I do totally think that him and Kazami should umm, calibrate that thing together because I’m sure the input from it is whacked compared to his other arm and maybe he could use an extra person to help him test the sensation but that’s uh that’s not what this space is for. I just thought I would mention it x) 

Then we move to X and oh jeez, I don’t want to give Jin Keisuke’s dad any credit here, but if he did want his son to take over his shitty fight for him I guess I can see that maybe he wouldn’t have made the extra sensory input so overwhelming. Jin Keisuke clearly still has it: there’s that one part in X when he’s meeting Tachibana who’s listening to the radio on headphones and Keisuke pops in like “damn boss I could hear that all the way from outside what’s going on with the news” and Tachibana clocks him as a borg, but it’s not shown to be upsetting to him, it’s just shown to be like he is. Which I think is good. Jin Keisuke has enough to deal with without that additional issue. Fuck his dad but at least he didn’t screw him over in that way. 

Pictured: lonely little guy, don't worry, you'll find your people soon.

I know that Amazon isn’t a borg. But… he has the same issues that Hongo does. There’s always the possibility (probability even, I mean, again, look at the guy) that Hongo was predisposed to this kind of thing before and that being borged and having his senses enhanced just pushed him past the point where he could reasonably cope with it. He’s also had to function in society; as I think anyone who’s had to deal with shit like that can attest to there’s a certain level of day-to-day discomfort that you’re just expected to put up with so you learn to. Amazon hasn’t had to do that and lived in a place where him being able to sense things in a way that other people couldn’t likely helped him quite a bit; it’s no wonder that suddenly having to deal with the sounds of the city and the sensitivity no longer being a boon would push him over the edge. 

Pictured: Aren't you tired of being nice? Don't you want to go apeshitt?

It feels good to watch him jump out a window and run away from reporters and try and make his way through the subway when the lights are too bright and the conversations are overlapping and everything feels claustrophobic and trapped. It feels good to watch him get scared by the noise that motorcycles make and so when Tachibana gives him one when he’s not acclimated to or prepared for the gift he gets so overwhelmed that he lashes out and throws it in the ocean and says that he hates it. It’s even fine watching him get frustrated because people blatantly misunderstand his intentions because he’s not operating according to the rules they’re used to people following and getting pegged as a bad guy when he’s trying to help but not being able to articulate how they’re wrong in that moment because he lacks the vocabulary or the ability to use that vocabulary. 

Pictured: NO I DON'T WANT IT YOU CAN'T MAKE ME

Pictured: ACAB

It feels good to watch those things because they suck and I get where he’s coming from and I feel that way too sometimes, but he’s able to act on those impulses and be frustrated and get mad about it in a way that Hongo wasn’t? It’s a little cathartic to see it and be like “oh yeah, he’s not having a good time and neither would I be in this situation.” The “damn he’s just like me fr” effect. This is not the representation I came into Kamen Rider looking for but it’s something I’m glad I encountered?? I think it makes the sudden change to being able to speak Japanese and fit in better in society less… if you catch the vibes, less like the same thing that happened with X when they changed his fighting style and made him more Classic Rider towards the very end of the show. Amazon didn’t meet any other riders, and while I’m sure that Tachibana told him about those that came before him, he wasn’t trying to fit into a mold that was created for him. I don’t think it’s bad that Keisuke wanted to fit in that mold either, this isn’t me retroactively shitting on X, because it kind of works for him; I think he needed an identity after his father kept stripping his from him. Amazon didn’t, though. He already had a pretty strong sense of self. They managed to make it feel like he was just learning how to adapt a bit better. 

That doesn’t mean that they completely got rid of everything that made him unique, either. He still prefers to do his little friendship hand symbol instead of shaking hands. He still wears the same clothes, just with a shirt as well. He still makes his own medicine and is the only one so far to hit the thigh wound trope but not the one for collapsing through the doors of the Tachibana Rider Base beat to shit only to get a stern talking to about getting back on that horse and fighting. He still talks to people at awkward distances, both too close and too far away without seeming to realize what he’s doing. He still rides the Jungler which, can I just take a minute to gush, never once made the rider bike noise. You know the one. Tachibana introduced Amazon to the bike after he rejected it at the start by showing him how everything worked and showing him how it would be useful and then letting him take it for a spin when he was ready to make the decision himself. He realized that the thing that was bothering him the most was the noise and so he built him Jungler, a nice quiet bike with a friendly face, and that solved that issue. He does take a lot of missteps and there's of course that whole classic Tachibana masculinity pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps-soldier stuff thrown in there occasionally and sure, he doesn’t really get the guy, but that was honestly a surprisingly good way for him to handle things. I was impressed? Amazon’s never framed as being wrong for being the way that he is, he’s just different. He’s still the hero! His fighting changes a bit and he seems to gain more control over himself but I mean, he’s still out here biting people. It warms my little heart to see.

Pictured: Jungler my good friend Jungler!

Yeah, I totally get it being “back to Rider basics” if we take “Rider basics” to mean a guy navigating a world that’s not really right for him, but instead of Hongo style internalizing everything and having two boys and an uncle propping him up when he needs it, it gets a little easier by the end. That’s the main thing that stuck out to me and I think it was something I needed to see? Thanks, buddy. It helps. 

Pictured: real friends don't judge you for shit like that

The rest of Amazon? That’s just a fun show! That’s just a funky little guy running around and biting people and protecting both his home and Japan! There’s so much joy to be had there. The rainbow foam blood and how it splatters Amazon’s little white scarf and he just waves his arms around and chirps in it. The shockingly good suits especially in the first half of the series; good lord these people were pulling the weirdest animals out of their hats to make monsters out of and the way that they were designed and acted just really pulled things together cohesively for me. I would have never thought that they’d be able to make a snake work? Or a crocodile? Those aren’t really human shaped but damn if they didn’t end up working. Sure there were some duds (like that owl? That was sure a choice) but on the whole they were pretty damn good. Just my onion. Masahiko was very cute and honestly a great addition to the show, especially for how young he was. I liked everything with Mole which… is a treat I’m going to leave for you to experience on your own if you watch Amazon because I think he’s best experienced that way. Nothing really seemed to drag, but it’s also so short that there wasn’t really any space for it to do so. 

Pictured: an "owl"

I’m gonna be so bold as to say: if you’re interested in Showa Rider and you haven’t dipped your toes in before and you don’t want to watch ZO (which is a banger, and my first, and still my ULTIMATE intro recommendation) you might want to give Amazon a shot. Yeah okay it’s definitely different than the other ones but that makes it really simple to watch on its own without having to get into a whole “oh right, that guy’s from a different series, here’s his whole deal” or “ohhh yeah okay so here’s how these organizations work” kind of a discussion. It’s not a huge commitment like ‘71 Rider, which is of course another wonderful place to start, but is also 98 whole episodes long. I don’t really think that there’s anyone I’d warn off Amazon. 

Watch it! Do it!

--------------

*I feel like I use the phrase “the way [he] interacts with the world” to point to the intangible things about characters as sort of a catch-all for the demeanor and caution (or lack thereof) in which they don’t just approach situations themselves necessarily but in which they generally tackle the circumstances of their everyday life. Which does include situations but also includes: how they dress, how they talk, how they pick up an object, where they begin to explore said object, how they sit, how they stand, the mindless habits they have, what they do when they need to withdraw from a situation, how they calm themselves, their level of presence at a given moment, etc. I think I mostly use the phrase because it helps communicate a sense of presentness regardless of intentionality that usually is the kind of stuff that I’m pointing out. Haven’t found a word that properly conveys that same feeling and didn’t want the specific nuance to be lost, and I feel like a lot of the character building in Showa Rider is done through those casual and immaterial moments.

OKAY DONE FOR REAL NOW!

[simons-twsted-children]

Hihi! Here with some character dynamic!! ❤️♦️♣️♠️🌹 for Klaus please? Thank you!

My bunny boy!

So I’ve actually only really thought about his relationship with Riddle, and even that was through the lens of his friendship with Fiamma, so this will be an interesting series of dynamics to explore?

Feel like I should also say before all of this that Klaus has some pretty high walls before he considers someone a friend at this point, bc he’s been bullied pretty badly for quite a while. So if it seems like a lot of this is him being antagonistic or uncharitable, it’s more of a defense mechanism than anything?

Preemptively tagging @inmateofthemind because a good chunk of this will be pertinent to our musing with him and Fia? (Especially the last bit)

I feel like he probably has a rocky start with Ace, generally jumping off with the assumption that Ace’s brash nature means he tends towards bullying (something that Klaus has had to deal with for far too long and has 0 tolerance for). Which probably causes some unnecessary tension between the two of them until something corrects Klaus’ perception, and he realizes that Ace is a bro, actually, even if he is a bit of a loud slacker? (Which. To be fair. Klaus is the king of doing things last-minute, so—) I think they actually end up having a decent bit in common, especially the tendency to call out injustice where they see it and pick fights with mages far stronger than them, so they probably end up being decent friends by the end of the first exchange, at least?

Cater is an interesting one, because I wonder if Cater wouldn’t see Klaus as a cute magical opportunity, because of his bunny features? I don’t think he’d -mean- anything by it, or even suggest it in anything less than a friendly way, but I don’t think Klaus would react well to being approached for his cuteness alone. I think he’d probably generally steer clear from Cater, especially once the generally hands-off nature of Cater’s friendships becomes clearer? Klaus isn’t one to put in effort with someone who doesn’t reciprocate a friendship in kind, even if Cater REALLY needs someone to put in that effort, for his own sake as much as anything. (Lookin at you, @ramshacklerumble)

Klaus would probably initially write Trey off as a pushover, always doing damage control for Riddle and seeming to let the other students walk all over him. But once he realizes that Trey has a mischievous and prideful streak a mile long, Klaus’ respect for him would grow. I don’t think they’re friends, persay, but I think Klaus probably sees something kindred in Trey, not necessarily in how he -presents- himself, but in what he actually -does-? (Specifically referencing Trey’s dorm uniform vignette here, in the context of what would cause Klaus to change his opinion on Trey. The sort of, “you think you can do this better? Alright. I’d like to see you try.” And then him preparing a contingency plan in the background anyway bc he knows the freshmen are gonna totally fail, etc.)

I actually think Klaus probably warms up to Deuce faster than Ace? If only because he basically looks at this boy and goes “oh bless your heart, you’re trying.” Deuce might be a dumbass, but he makes a point of trying to be a good dude, whereas Ace just kinda speaks his mind constantly even if what he says isn’t always. Complementary? Basically I think he’d respect the obvious effort Deuce us putting in to be someone his mom can be proud of, even if Klaus generally doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him. (If this is incomprehensible I’m so sorry, I’m very sleepy but wanted to get this out before I forgot BEJEJCJDJF)

And Riddle! His best friend’s beau! I actually think Klaus probably VERY MUCH DOES NOT LIKE HIM, at first? Because I think Riddle probably gives him shit early on for “misusing his signature spell” (which is a time displacement sort of thing?) Klaus absolutely would not take kindly to even the threat of having his magic sealed, especially noting that it is also his main defense against Penny and Ruby, his and Fiamma’s major bullies. Also to note that Klaus would not have been around for Riddle’s Overblot, so he would have NO IDEA about his trauma or Why He’s Like That until he’s directly told by Riddle, Fia, or someone else. Once he finds out, and especially once Fia makes clear her interest in Riddle, his attitude towards him mellows out substantially, and he eventually grows to call Riddle one of his best friends as well, I think. (Even if he does still, lovingly, joke about how stuffy Riddle’s adherence to rules can be, it’s in a much more endearing tone than annoyed)

If you would like clarification on any of this, I’d be more than happy to give it btw!!!

[iminthetunnels]

i mean this respectfully! How do you provide for yourself + your son w/ no income? Do you have help? My job keeps us financially comfortable but it is sucking the life out of me ignoring and (what feels like) emotionally neglecting my child for a meaningless office job 40+ hrs/wk. IDK if it's worth it anymore but i am terrified of not being able to provide. TY if you answer ❤️❤️❤️

i really like this question bc i constantly want to speak about it on my blog LMAO

i struggle hard. i get about $240 in child support a month, and if u total everything together, my car, my car insurance, gas, diapers, wipes, food after my food stamps run out, it doesn’t last long and i basically have no savings. while saying all this, before anyone attacks me for being poor and having children despite being poor, i wasn’t poor before domestic violence, and i chose my child over everything. i have always taken care of myself and my family, and now i can’t. many such cases. nothing is ever as black and white.

i will say i but my wipes and diapers from target, with a target account, so i earn money back, and whenever i earn enough back, i pick out small little toys. like he has a gardening set from target and a little car, bought entirely with points from buying diapers.

also, i have amazing friends. a little while ago, when my house flooded, a mutual sent me a large sum of money, with that money i was able to shop secondhand and purchase a lot of 2-4t clothes, meat, and things like oats, fruit i can freeze, and i’m still living off that. i do take advantage of the churches food banks (but i only take whole, real foods, never in cans or packages unless they’re like plain no seed oil raisins) not too long ago, i was able to pick out free clothes from a ministry, so i was able to get clothes that actually fit me:)

i relied on my tax return a lot for extra stuff like getting clothes, more activity sets that i don’t have to makeshift (i don’t mind doing this, like using cardboard for a little hands on activity set) but i have been “randomly selected for screening” by the IRS. LOL many such cases. i haven’t gotten my taxes at all.

basically, i struggle, and some times i get scared bc my car is old. i have amazing friends, lin, rayce, my mom LMFAOOO she’ll buy my child’s milk some times and some snacks that she knows i approve of. most importantly, i pray. and i put lots of faith in god to take care of us. i have a water dispenser, where i fill up water for around $5, three 5 gallon water containers last me around a month or so. i make my own laundry detergent, i have a costco card where i buy bulk toilet paper, use flour sacs as paper towels. i literally just try my best and it always ends up working out. i have debt for sure, like i have my car debt. but i don’t worry too much about it. i’m almost finished paying it off. i should really get into selling my precious moments figurines because i have hundreds.

thank u for such a good question. at the end of the day, i know we go without a LOT of things. but i know that gods earth is totally free, we can walk around the park and run for hours, and that’s our entertainment. i would much rather be with my child than put him in some state funded daycare and work for a dead end job that actually doesn’t care about me. i don’t pay attention to what we don’t have, but rather appreciate what we do have and love my sweet baby with all my being. i just want to be present for him. i don’t know if i’m making sense LOL. i’m sorry. but if i had to be honest, i would say, fuck a job, i’d rather be here with my son. i have been looking at farming positions, and maybe helping someone on their farm in the early mornings, i’d want to bring my child with. and at home positions (as crazy as this sounds) aren’t that much better. constantly in front of a computer would drive me absolutely batshit insane… and would still take time away from my baby. i’m just letting go and letting god. i hope this isn’t too crazy sounding :( i could rly ramble on about this topic!!!

[strawberry-plant]

Sometimes the sadness feels unbearable.It’s like a heavy weight pulling me down and I don’t have the energy to even try to stand up.

I need something to pull me out of this because I can’t do it myself.I always seems to need something or someone worth getting up for.I always look for something out of myself because I don’t feel like I’m worth the effort on my own.That’s why I buy things or put all my energy into other people,because I don’t see the point in trying just for me.

I found someone who is worth getting out of bed for,the problem is,I’m so far away from that person and that in itself,is depressing.If they were here.

Sometimes I wonder I’m even worth it anyway.Why would anyone want to be with a mess like me?How can you love a person who is just a shell of what they’re supposed to be?All I want is to get back to myself.A couple of months ago it felt like I was coming back to life,even my eyes looked different.They had this light in them that I hadn’t seen for years and I started actually smiling instead of fake smiling in photos.Now I’m back to being that dead,empty shell again.I don’t know what happened.

I feel so overwhelmed by everything,I just try to block everything out.I just want this to go away.I don’t want to give up.I don’t want to let everything slip away from me and to always be left regretting that I didn’t try hard enough to make everything that I dream about a reality.

Sometimes I feel like I should delete every single app on my phone or lock myself out of them with a password.I use my phone to distract myself from how miserable I am but the thing is,I think I need to be miserable.I think I need to look around and let reality hit me hard in the face.I think I need to sit on the floor and have a complete breakdown because I don’t know what to do.I think I need to consider suicide and write a letter explaining why I couldn’t handle life anymore and how everyone is better off with out me anyways,and then I need to get up off of the floor,find a lighter and burn that letter.Then I need to run a bath,wash the sadness off of my skin and out of my hair and find something to eat and drink and go to bed with the moon shining in through my window and I’ll look at it and know that I’m going to survive another night.I’ll make it until the sun comes up and I’ll try again.

I think that being constantly distracted by devices stops a lot of that necessary process.Sometimes you need to go insane to get yourself out of it.Bottling things up doesn’t work.It just makes you turn numb or resort to self harm.I can’t say that I don’t think of it every day because I do.It’s been almost 8 months now.The urges get worse until I eventually relapse,it happens every single time since I was 11.It doesn’t make me feel the way it used to though.I try to remember that.It’s like a drug that in the end,no amount is even enough so it’s never really worth the trouble and stress and pain that it causes.I saw something triggering in one of my accounts the other day that made me think of it more.I’m trying to get those thoughts out of my head.

I don’t want to be that person anymore anyways,but I do miss the version of me that would go through all the pain and come out of the other side of it and no one even knew what I had been through,not even my own parents.I wondered how that was even possible.I’d spent all night fighting with my mind and not one person ever looked at me and noticed that I wasn’t okay.I didn’t even have anybody to tell that I wasn’t because I knew that wouldn’t understand why I felt the way I did.They made me feel crazy every time I tried to explain so I just stopped even trying and told my notes or this app about it instead.

My point is,since around 2017,when I got a phone that wasn’t as slow as fuck,I turned to it as a distraction even more than I did in the past and I lost myself in it.Even when I deleted TikTok,I found this other app where I met my favourite human and I’ve filled up my time on there so I don’t have to think or feel and so I can pretend that my life is less of a mess than it actually is.When do I ever actually face reality?When do I ever stop hiding?Why am I doing the same thing right now?When the fuck am I going to learn my damn lesson?The real world is out there,not on a fucking screen.

The progress I’m making is so painfully slow.I need things to speed up.I need to become unrecognisable from the person I was this time last year.I don’t want to spend another year like this.I’d sooner admit myself into a mental hospital than carry on with this life any longer.

I don’t know what to do right now exactly.Have a nap and see if I feel better afterwards?Listen to songs on YouTube that remind me of the worst times of my life so I can have a full on mental breakdown and get it out of my system and move on?Go have a bath just so I can feel some warmth to forget how painfully alone I am?make some food because maybe not eating a proper meal all day isn’t helping with the mood swings?or maybe I should just lay here in the dark,switching from one app to the other,numbing and distracting myself until I fall asleep hungry,still needing to pee,still needing a shower,surrounded by mess that I should have sorted out and I’ll wake up at 2am feeling guilty and alone and I’ll get up and feed the cats and just wish I hadn’t have woken up at all.Yeah,that sounds about right.

[firstkanaphans]

hi! if you don't mind me asking, i was wondering if i could ask you about how you're able to write at the speed/output that you are able? i'm always so impressed with the rate at which you're able to update and was hoping to ask for advice 😅

because one of the hardest things for me is speed...i write soooo slowly, and so as much as i want to write multichapter fics, i feel like it would take me months between updates because of how slow i write. i think one of the reasons is that i am also constantly live editing as i write maybe? which really does slow me down, but i'm not sure how to bypass that.

i was curious if you had any tips/advice for how to write at a steady pace? do you set aside time every day to write regularly, or only when the mood "hits"? and how do you tackle those scenes where you just have no idea what to write (if that's something if you've experienced?)

of course no need to answer any of these questions - i hope i didn't overwhelm! i'm just always so impressed with your writing output that i'd love to hear any advice if you had any. thank you and can't wait for the next update of BLP 🫶

This probably isn’t the answer you want to hear, but the honest truth is that I just have a very easy day job. There are probably only about three days a month where I have to put in an eight-hour work day. The rest of the time, I use any excess work time I have to write.

It wasn’t always like this for me, though, so I understand the frustration of working a full-time job and then coming home exhausted. The last thing you want to do is write because as much as we try to pretend like it’s fun, it’s still work. It’s not mind-numbing. You can’t do it if your tank is already empty. The main reason I’m able to write quickly is simply that I have the time and the mental energy to do so.

Like you said, one of the biggest tips I can give you when trying to write faster is to turn off your inner editor while writing your first draft. It took me a long time to learn how to do this, but it has been immensely helpful. I will obviously correct typos while I’m writing, but other than that, I really don’t go back and edit anything until the whole first draft is complete. The only exception would be if I get halfway through a chapter and just know something’s not working. At that point I will stop and at least figure out what the problem is so that I don’t waste time writing scenes that may need to be cut depending on what I have to change. But other than that, I largely ignore correct grammar and even good writing in favor of just getting words down on the page.

If you’re a perfectionist like me and the thought of doing that is just completely off-putting, I’ll sometimes trick myself by pretending I’m not writing anything important. In all of my documents, I put the word START where I’m meant to start writing for the day. If I know I’m going to be writing really rough, I just don’t move the START from where it is and that tricks my brain into letting me write bad because I know the next day I’ll start from that same place. So essentially, I’m writing very badly one day and then going back to edit it into something readable the next. I cannot stress enough how much difference even just a day makes in your ability to edit more objectively. I never post chapters on the same day I finish them because I want to give my brain at least 24-hours to mull it over before I start editing.

As for writer’s block, I have pretty much eradicated that from my life simply because I outline everything so thoroughly beforehand. For instance, today I’ve been going through my outline for Chapter 4 of Best Laid Plans so that I can start writing it. One of the bullet points says, “Akk, Aye, Kan, Wat, and Thua eat lunch together.” My job today is to figure out what they’re going to talk about during that lunch so that when I get to that scene, I won’t draw a blank and spend days trying to figure it out instead of actually writing.

Now, that’s not to say that there aren’t days where I just don’t want to write, but for me, those days are few and far between. I don’t, however, believe in forcing yourself to write even when you don’t want to because your output is going to show your frustration with the task. I would never encourage someone to set a goal to write every day because I believe that’s just setting them up for failure. In the end, this really is just a hobby and you should work at your own pace and comfort level. If you’re bored with a multi-chapter fic you’re writing, take a break to write a one-shot. Or add something to your outline to spice up the next scene so that it re-energizes you.

It’s funny because I think output numbers get wildly skewed in fandom because some of us are actually insane. It’s not odd to see 20K-word chapter updates or fics literally longer than the Bible (773K words). If you write 1000 words a week (less than 150 words a day), that’s 52K words in a year, which is very nearly novel-length—and longer than any multi-chapter fic I’ve written. You would never expect a published author to write more than one novel a year, so don’t expect that from yourself either.

[ask-artsy-oncie]

It’s really easy to write-off the Disney Renaissance nowadays, since A) it’s been so long since it happened, and B) formulated nostalgia for these films is being forced down our throats so constantly now that we really are encouraged to associate these films purely with childhood (and therefore something either only children can love, or otherwise one can only love through the lens of being nostalgic for their childhood)

But I think that’s a pretty reductive way at looking at these films. So a lot of times I like to go back and watch them from the perspective of the context they premiered in, especially since animation wasn’t seen as a medium specifically for children when the Renaissance started. And even though I don’t always like these films, retrospectively, I can respect them a hell of a lot more than I ever could as a kid.

Specifically, I think about the context through which The Little Mermaid came out a lot. My mother was born in the 60′s and therefore basically grew up during Disney’s dark ages. She would describe to me how impactful this movie was, how it brought the magic back to Disney. That’s a big deal for a company basically known for imparting magic onto the public, like this movie is one credited with starting the Renaissance.

And I’m able to look at it like. Sure, it’s not much, now. It’s undoubtedly beautiful for the most part, but rather basic, and even kind of visually flat at times. The writing isn’t the most inventive thing, and the songs have been so played to death that I don’t find myself listening to the soundtrack outside of when Mama’s playing it in her car. It’s not a bad movie, it’s just a basic one, given the entire rest of the Renaissance to compare it to.

But looking at it from the point of view of someone who had barely a pinch of movies that could be described as true “Disney Classics” between the death of Walt and the release of The Little Mermaid... Yeah. This shit would have blown my tits clean off if I still had them. With the amount of thought and effort that went into the presentation of this movie, despite the fact that it was as much of a gamble as it was, I genuinely think this movie can be called brave despite how basic it is. Because you can see how much care was put into it, how it compares to the Dark Ages - which weren’t bad, and which I don’t actually dislike (and neither does Mama), but don’t carry quite the same level of ambitious presentation. It’s awe-inspiring with that context in mind.

I don’t really know where, exactly, I’m going with this. Just, I dunno, go pirate a Disney Renaissance movie, or preferably try to get an early DVD release second-hand, because as far as I can tell, most piracy sites use the Blu-Ray rips that may have changes from the original theatrical/early home video releases. Buy a VHS or a laserdisc if you have the means to play one, just for the love of god, don’t subscribe to Disney+ just to watch these movies, since it’s not even the best way to watch them (they’re also Blu-Ray rips).

But anyways, do watch these movies, and try to consider them through the context of which they were released. I even think looking up the theatrical posters is a good idea if you haven’t actually seen them, yet. They were genuinely trying to hook general audiences, not just children, with these movies. They’re worth revisiting, and hopefully gaining a round of newfound respect.

[secretgamergirl]

So this is why I’ve never liked the term “TERF.”

Earlier today someone linked me to an interview someone did with a well-known terrorist who was planning to host some hate rallies in New Zealand. I’m not going to link to it, because it does have a genocidal monster shouting hate speech, and I really don’t like putting that sort of thing in front of people (I feel bad enough with the above link for context). I will say though that the interviewer was someone who knew what she was talking about and was constantly calling her out on her utter BS, and the tour itself was cancelled when the very first stop on the tour had people throwing stuff at her on stage and she just kinda ran off. Nicely done New Zealand!

At one point in the interview though, the interviewer started to press her on just why she thinks it is that full on card-carrying neo-nazis keep showing up to her events and supporting her, which is, you know, a factual thing that happens, because she shares 100% of their ideology and all, and along with a lot of other random BS and denial that this is even a (very well documented) thing that happens, she blurted out a true statement to my surprise- “nazis would never support feminism!” This is true, as is the fact that they support the hell out of her, and everyone else in their movement, and a lot of people really do need to stop and solve that logic problem.

Now, I don’t like to bring this up, there’s a lot of other hats I wear that I’d much rather be seen with, but I’m an actual expert on modern fascism. Like, I’ve done tons of research and had findings published by recognized anti-fascist organizations and written about this for multiple publications, prepped materials for proposals to major corporations, the U.S. Congress, and the U.N. so what I’m going to get into here isn’t “random person on the internet has a hot take” it’s “this is what I’ve learned doing serious research on the subject.”

So, this woman who was going to speak in New Zealand is part of this... cult, frankly, which people refer to as the “TERFs.” They keep rebranding what they actually call themselves, but I’d like to focus on “TERF” because it’s an accronym, for “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists” and that’s worth breaking down a little. The “Radical” is in there because, well, they’re a weird cult who spends every waking moment of every day whipping each other into a frenzied desire to enact plans to bring about the death of every trans person in the world. This also covers why “Trans-Exclusionary” is in there, but the actual noun modified by those adjectives is “Feminists” and like... not a single one of these people is a feminist.

I’m not painting with a broad brush here. It’s honestly a shockingly small group of people. You could fit them all in one room, people have done so several times, and new faces aren’t ever present at their meet-ups. It’s not especially hard if you’re so inclined to look into them one by one and get a handle on their beliefs and yeah, I do mean every single one of these people. I’m also not doing some kind of “no true Scotsman” thing here and saying they don’t qualify as feminists because they’re hateful monsters.

I’m saying they don’t qualify as feminists because they are actively opposed to every single agreed-upon tenet of feminism I’m aware of. Now granted, I don’t think there’s a specific list of bullet points everyone, or even like 95% of everyone are going to fully agree with, so here’s what comes immediately to my mind:

The most fundamental concept with feminism is the idea that people aren’t defined and limited by gender and should not be discriminated against along those lines. TERFs are constantly ranting and raving about how women are inferior to men when it comes to strength, endurance, speed, tests of skill, the ability to win trivia contests, and any other situation where they can claim women to be lesser in order to scaremonger.

I’m not going to give the time of day to any “feminist” who isn’t an intersectional feminist, extending this general ethos to all forms of discrimination. TERF discussion groups are a shocking hotbed of just absolutely shocking racism, classism, harping on people’s appearances, and general xenophobia. In particular they routinely come up with conspiracy theories about non-white women being “secretly men,” but they also regularly engage in full-blown “Jews control the banks and media!” conspiracy nonsense, your standard garden variety racism, and come out in vocal opposition to things like programs to give people free access to tampons/pads.

Surely though these people have a “my body my choice” sort of stance on abortion though, right? Why no! TERFs quite famously came out in force to oppose Ireland’s recent decriminalization of abortion.

OK, but what about de-stigmatizing sex-work? Yeah people also often refer to them as “SWERFs.” They all spout of baffling nonsense about “selling bodies” and “prostituted women” and crap like that.

Treating women as actual people and not just vessels for the birthing of new humans? Yeah no. This is like their ENTIRE thing. They define womanhood in terms of motherhood so dogmatically they’d cling to arguments that mean you stop being a woman when you hit menopause and a pregnant child is “a woman.”

How about queer rights in an explicitly cis context? We all generally associate lesbians with feminism, right? Well, funny thing about that. One of the many other terms TERFs use to refer to themselves is “political lesbians.” But they define that not in a way that has anything to do with women, but with “hating men” where of course “men” is acting as a code-word for trans women. They’re plenty fond of actual men, with most “political lesbians” having husbands and all, and they are, you guessed it, broadly repulsed by thoughts of two women being in love with each other.

OK, how about this. Just as a last ditch bare-minimum standard- the basic notion of being kind to women and supporting women’s success. Oh no, absolutely not. These people absolutely go for the throat of any woman who isn’t a member of the cult. Hell even internally they keep tabs on each other with spreadsheets policing language and such. They regularly refer to cis women who don’t actively hate trans people as “handmaidens.” Like as a reference to The Handmaid’s Tale. Specifically the women in it forced into sex slavery. Who they apparently see as the villains because, well, see the above bit on being called SWERFs.

Now as all of the above positions also line up neatly with the politics of Nazis, like the ones who work security when some of these people do public speaking gigs, or the husband of one of them who set up their personal social media site, piggybacking off the one set up for out and out neo-nazis, is it fair to refer to them as Nazis? I mean... it fits close enough that in most practical situations yeah, go right ahead with that. There IS the distinction though that even though they are anti-feminist as all hell, the majority of TERFs are themselves women, therefore your average Nazi thinks of them as sub-human and doesn’t really want to give them a seat at the table. There’s also the friction that Nazis are very much anti-intellectual, and while TERFs are all about denial of basic science, into fake journalism, and all-around disconnected from reality, they’re way way into presenting themselves as intellectuals, which is another big wedge there.