#beyond the obvious 'men suck and blame women for everything'

[politedemon]

just went to see men (the film) and it certainly sets the record for most times i've said 'what the fuck' out loud in a cinema

[acourtofsnakes]

Kyr’am - Rogue Chapter 5| The Mandalorian x Force Sensitive! Reader (f)

Summary: Sick of the countless failures, Moff Gideon decides to call in the big guns. 

Warnings: Not many in this one, but mentions of violence(brief), brief mention of suicide, (literally barely touching on it), does another cliffhanger count as a warning?

AN: Ooooooo, new people 👀

As always, credit to whoever owns the gif. I usually find them on Google or Pinterest, so message me if it’s yours ♥︎

Wordcount: About 2184, a short one this time for introduction purposes

Rogue Taglist: @snipskixandbeskar   @weirdowithnobeardo 

Rogue Masterlist | Introduction| 1: Solus| 2: Arir | 3: Tor | 4: Gaa'tayl | 5: Kyr’am | 

Mando’a translation: Kyr’am - Death 

The atmosphere in the light cruiser was… tense. Beyond tense, actually. The tension as almost a living thing, vibrating throughout the room and threatening to explode into destruction if someone said but one thing wrong. 

Moff Gideon stood at the head of the huge table, staring at the holo-image in the middle of it with a look of distinct distaste. His hands were clasped behind his back as he surveyed the image, a young woman wearing a cloak, fire in her eyes and a ridiculously high bounty above her head. His anger and disappointment were evident, obvious to the men and women seated around the table before him. 

There was a break in the air, and then a young woman, Gideon’s Comms Officer and assistant, decked out in the dark grey green uniform walked in. Her even, regimented steps echoed on the floor and she stopped a little way away, offering a quick salute, “Sir, I have just received the report you requested from our spies in the field.”

The air tightened in the room, the people seated around the table holding their breath, hoping it was good. Hoping it wasn’t what had been rumoured. 

Gideon looked away from the table, seeing what his people were holding out for. He turned to his assistant, nodded for her to continue. 

The woman looked across the table, a glint in her eye and a faint smirk dancing across her lips fleetingly. “They got in touch with the contact who was representing you. Apparently, the hunter succeeded in finding the target.”

The collection of people around the table sagged in relief, one even going so far as to rub his eyes as he let out a sigh. 

The assistant couldn’t hide her smirk this time, allowing it for a few seconds, “And then he went rogue.”

Gideon knew this already, but this is a punishment for the people that promised him he’d get what he wanted “Rogue? What do you mean by that, officer?”

“He found the target and began to bring her back as requested. They got into an altercation at another planet, some witnesses said there was a fight in a back alley and the last they saw was the target dragging the hunter back to his ship.”

The table was still, dread beginning to curl around the room like a snake, twining around feet and legs and flicking out a tongue to taste the danger that lingered on the horizon. 

“And then?”

The assistant’s voice came out clear, almost disinterested, “And the next thing that we have, is the tracker and puck being destroyed. As of half an hour ago, no one knows where they are.”

Gideon dismissed her then turned to the table. He sighed, looking at the man who had recommended the Hunter this time, “’The best there is.’ That is what you told me, captain. ‘He’ll have her within a week and be back here to collect his reward.’ Well, captain, it’s been a week.” He spread his hands, his eyebrows raising in a mock expression of wonder. He looked around the room, then back at the captain, “Where is she? Are you hiding her under your seat?” 

The captain swallowed harshly, a sheen of sweat crawling over his skin. He kept his hands under the table because they were shaking, “N-no, sir.”

Gideon shrugged, that false wonder still in his voice too, “Then where is she? I took a great risk in following your advice. And it hasn’t paid off.”

“Sir, please! I didn’t know this would happen. I thought the bounty on her would be enough to keep him straight. My sources said he was running out of money, that he was exchanging favours instead of credits for the repair of his ship. He couldn’t have turned that money down. I don’t know what happened, maybe she tricked him. Used her power to-“

Gideon’s hands slammed onto the table, echoed only by his snarl, “Enough.”  

The captain cut off, unable to stop the pitiful whimper. No one moved, no one looked at him. They all knew what was inevitably coming. 

Gideon pointed at the pain, “Don’t you dare try to make a fool of me. It’s on your authority that this has gone wrong again.” He straightened up, “Every single one of you is to blame. Each one of you let me down. You will be punished. As it is, I have found other means. Expensive means.”

A lady lifted her hand, trembling. 

Gideon’s eyes slipped to her, his eyebrows raising just slightly. 

The lady swallowed, “Everyone knows she hasn’t used that power since she was a child. As far as we know, it doesn’t even exist in her anymore. I.. what’s the point?” 

Gideon looked at her, his dark eyes simmering but he said nothing. 

Only for a man across from the captain to speak up, “She’s right. They say if one of those types doesn’t use their power, they forget how to wield it. The Child repressed his powers for decades.”

Gideon was impatient now, waved his hand dismissively, “And then used it repeatedly in presence of the Mandalorian. It can come back. I have proof that it has. She used her power to heal him.”

“But, sir, we don’t know that-“

The atmosphere in the room noticeably shifted again. This time, the danger became something so much more. 

It became a truly living thing that pressed against the traitors around the table. It licked down their bones, caressed their minds but it sung a song of death and destruction. 

The door slid open, and then a figure walked into the room. 

He was clad head to toe in black, a black so dark it seemed to suck the light of the room. 

His tall, lithe body was armed with weapons of every variety, everything one could possibly imagine and more that were only rumoured, weapons that had been made just for him. 

He stalked into the room with all the ease of a predator walking into the den of some small, helpless animals. And relished in the sheer power he had without even trying. 

The harsh lighting of the room glinted off the blade sheathed down his back. The scabbard was engraved with symbols, symbols that had long since been used. The hilt was as black as his outfit, and intricately carved. If he had unsheathed it, the blade would have been as deep as obsidian, and so sharp it could have sliced off someone’s hand with a mere whisper. 

He stopped at the opposite end of the table to Gideon, shoulders back, posture tall and at ease, but coiled beneath the surface, waiting to strike. 

A hood covered his face, gold embroidery picked out by the lights and snaking around the edges of the hood. 

No light pierced the shadow that fell over his face, keeping him anonymous.  

Clearly the captain realised he wasn’t getting off this ship, because he suddenly broke the deathly silence by laughing. “Seriously? Is it dress up day or something?” He looked around the room at the horrified expressions looking back at him, “What? Are we supposed to be scared or something?” His arrogance was barred by the sweat pooling into the neckline of his uniform, the frantic pulse at his throat.

The night-clad figure said nothing. Merely rested his gloved hands on the table. A simple act. 

But the air in the room vibrated, a warning. 

Gideon inclined his head toward the figure, “Thank you for coming. You understand that I would have left your services be if these fools hadn’t failed me.”

The cloaked man nodded once, a slow incline of his head that somehow said everything he needed to. That he wouldn’t even have paid attention otherwise. 

Another woman at the table, a general, inquired quietly, “His services, sir? Does this mean-“

“Yes, General. It does. Never in my life have I been so spectacularly let down by a group of people before. You were supposed to the best in your fields, yet you couldn’t give me one tiny little girl.”

The woman swallowed, nodded and looked at the table in submission. 

Again, the Captain added another nail to his coffin, “You’re giving this freak the job? If we couldn’t find her, if even Trandoshans and Troopers and two Mandalorian’s can’t get her, what makes you think he’s qualified?” He stabbed a finger toward the figure, who remained silent, a predator watching their next mean. 

Gideon glared at him, losing his patience with this captain, “Because he is the best there is.” 

A snort from the foolish captain, “Oh? And why would you bring him in just now? Why not before?” 

Gideon’s glare could have cut through metal, his words clipped, “Because he has a very unique skill set that I would rather not be associated with using. However, because of this situation and the necessity of obtaining her, it makes him the most qualified.”

“Skill set? Like what? Is he going to bed the girl and then drag her in? Or does he have a-“

The captain’s words were cut off with a gurgle, and his eyes went wide. His chair pushed back and then he was rising from his seat, as if pulled up by strings. Every limb of his body was frozen, rigid. Like he was no longer in control. 

The figure had finally moved, lifting one of those gloved hands in a gesture that was almost casual. He tilted his head within his cloak, and a voice like silk slipped out, far too soft, far too seductive to belong to anyone good, “Perhaps you’ve been living under a rock and you’ve simply never heard of me.” His voice was crooning, desirable. It belonged to the deepest pits, full of monsters and creatures. It was the very darkness that plagued you, seduced you in a voice like honey – and then devoured you. 

Undiluted terror dawned on the captain’s face. He flinched, twitching, trying to claw at the invisible hold on his throat that was slowly crushing his windpipe. 

The cloaked figure lifted his head, like he was scenting the fear oozing from the captain. 

This man was a dark legend. A rumour that you had to be crazy to whisper, for fear of unleashing his dark wrath upon the speaker. Many, many people had heard the rumours of a hunter so precise, so ruthless that he left no trace. People went missing, and then showed up days later completely unrecognisable, bodies so destroyed that even the most advanced robots couldn’t extract enough DNA to give the victims a name. 

His work wasn’t messy though, that’s what made him so terrifying. 

It wasn’t just clean and efficient. It was beautiful. This was a man that relished in his skillset, lived for the hunt and the kill. Breathed it. It ran through his veins, worked the muscles of his heart. 

The fiercest warriors had dropped to their knees and wept for their lives before him. Mere mortals had died just from the sight of him.

As soon as he got the scent of someone, they may as well have ended their own lives to spare the pain. 

Many had. And it still didn’t stop him from finding the bodies and playing.  

The rumours also whispered that he wasn’t human. That he had sold his soul but even the vilest of monsters hadn’t wanted it. They’d taken one look and given it back. He wasn’t born by the Maker; he was something else entirely. He had no trace of soul in him aside from the Force, which he had twisted and utilised for his formidable beauty and indescribable actions.  

Gideon watched him play with the Captain, “You will receive the payment on her head and more. We know your prices and are grateful for your services, you may have whatever you need to assist you.”

The man flicked a finger and the Captain dropped to the ground, some guards dragging him away, “Just stay out of my way. You can keep the kid and the Mandalorian, but the girl is mine when you’re done with her.” The possession in his voice when said the word, “mine” sent a chill down the spines of everyone in the room. There was no room for disagreement, for challenge. They would finish what they needed to do with you, and then you would be given to him. Probably wrapped in a bow. 

Then he was gone, walking out of the room in a preternatural silence. 

This man… he didn’t just exude fear. He was fear. His were the eyes in the dark that watched you walk home.  He was the voice that whispered when no-one else could hear. His breath was the kiss of ice that licked down your spine when you were alone, making you lock the doors, pull the bed covers up higher. But he was like smoke, he seeped through the cracks, through carefully built defences and invaded, slumbering like a beast within, without his host even realising. 

He was death. 

And he was coming for you. 

Previous chapter| Next chapter

[aerltarg]

Maybe this is a stupid question, buuuuut:

I just can't imagine a world that Rhaegar comes back from the Trident, wins the war and becomes king. No, I'm not a anti Rhaegar, matter of fact I like him very much, I'm just can imagine how would Lya, little Jon, this whole affair, would settle in the capital. The norm that fics (at least those I read) tend to follow is to make Rhaegar:

1. A douche, paranoid and destiny-obessed king.

2. Completely incompetent, aloof monarch, that deep down has a heart of gold, but can't really be understood.

I mean, isn't he supposed to be a scholar since he was a kid? What's are your thoughts about it?

oh, yeah, i can totally understand this! it's is the whole point in canon actually, "the wrong man came back from the trident". you would expect a hero win against his antagonist and have a happy ending w his lady love but it doesn't happen. instead the subversion happens to them with rhaegar being killed by robert who becomes obviously a shitty king and lyanna dying after him. they were never supposed to have happy ending, they were created as tragic and doomed and dead from the beginning for the whole plot to start, jon to have his parentage mystery and dany to take the passed baton as the last dragon, prophesied savoir and the heir who has to carry entire house on her back now.

as for the realistic rhaegar wins aus that's the difficult question. tbh we just don't know enough abt their situation, plans and wishes. you see, e.g. in agot we can be right in ned's head and see his motivations, what he was thinking abt, what he was planning, what he was hoping to do. but if his story was told the way rhaegar's was i bet he would have his own crowd of haters and ~intellectuals~ jumping out every two seconds w their "hot takes" how actually all hints abt what rlly happened (ned being a good man w his own sense of honour, justice and experiences affecting him and the deal w cersei's children) doesn't matter and he was an ambitious prick, planned to grasp the power by being joffrey's regent and make his daughter sansa queen. (you can actually insert there any bullshit and still don't reach the level of stupidity of such "hot takes" this fandom loves so much lmao). also he would be blamed to the hell and beyond for being too stupid and not foreseeing the future and actions of other ppl bc ofc after everything happened it's so easy to say what was so obvious to notice. also they would say that the deaths of his men and horrible fates of his kids are 100% his fault and even straight up say he killed them lmao. i can rant abt it for hours so yeah. this is a situation w too many unknown variables bc it depends too much on actions of too many characters we don't know enough abt. the only thing it's possible to tell for sure is the fact that there couldn't be any perfect solutions since things got too complicated at this point.

such fics as you've mentioned tho are just a part of this dumb fanon where rhaegar is "too prophecy obsessed"/"incapable of love"/shrodinger's rhaegar both smart and stupid at the same time/whatever/all of this combined lmfao. the man was notably intelligent from the early age as you've absolutely rightly mentioned, his guesses abt himself being tptwp have nothing to do w egocentrism as some parts of the fandom would want us all to believe unless he wouldn't be so reasonable abt it and later on, after so many years, wouldn't have changed his mind and thought his son could be tptwp.

and literally fuck all antis that think you shouldn't consider prophecies that hold real power in this fantasy world lol. you know, aegon the conqueror was said to be motivated (or at least partly) to unify westeros by the prophecy and still got the treatment of perfect/maximum close to perfect figure of a leader everyone should look up to from the narrative and grrm. prophecy obsessed much, huh? i don't even talk abt all these parallels between him and rhaegar grrm put there not for bitches to ignore them completely! and i will never get tired of reminding that dismissing prophecies is UNWISE for targaryens of all people. the house whose story is built on the dream of young daenys and her father aenar that listened to her despite common sense (or what local "anti magic"/"anti prophecies" clowns consider to be common sense). targs would be as dead as the rest of dragonlords if not for daenys the dreamer. who else in the world has as many reasons to take prophecies seriously as them?

yet antis out there act as if rhaegar is one dimensional weirdo whose every character trait is abt mf ~prophecy obsession~. like how can they miss one of the main points so badly?? the game of thrones distracts ppl from the real danger beyond the wall, yk, the one rhaegar was aware of and meant to deal with. there wouldn't be such a problem if he became king and had as many years of head start before ice zombies apocalypse as ignorant bobby b did. rhaegar had to die just for westeros to sink in shit and our main heroes to save everyone to make this story more epic LMAO

so yeah, too many ppl portray rhaegar as this one dimensional robotic creature without any knowledge of what feelings are idk even for what reason. it seems these ppl can't read for real bc rhaegar was not only intelligent af as well as dutiful ("it seems i must be a warrior" but "he loved his harp more than his lance") but also. ugh emotional?? my boy had constant emo sessions w brooding at ruins of summerhall, sleeping out there beneath the stars all alone and writing songs that made all women cry. does it sound as someone who "isn't capable of love" lol? folks act as if he was completely heartless from the day he was born (bc he didnt play w other kids ig??) but in reality their emotional range is less than the one of a spoon in comparison to rhaegar's lol. i'm not even gonna address the horrible attitude of demonizing him for his implied depression, vile clowns never listen to themselves when they talk abt targaryens and their "madness".

tldr; these fics are mostly lame af and suck at characterization if they're making rhaegar like that lol. anyway his character isn't abt being a good or a bad king, it's abt being a would-be-king for characters in books and readers in reality to sigh over his tragic aura and pretty aesthetic abt how it could've been. however, grrm clearly doesn't write rhaegar as evil or incapable as some parts of the fandom would want to try to persuade others. realistically speaking in the scenario where he wins there couldn't be any perfect decisions but it's a territory of speculations on thin air and lit nothing more since canon doesn't provide us with enough information to rlly theorize anything instead of building biased headcanons some ppl call "analysis".

but remember what barristan said about rhaegar while practically watching him all his life, from a literal baby to the man grown:

“I know little of Rhaegar. Only the tales Viserys told, and he was a little boy when our brother died. What was he truly like?”

The old man considered a moment. “Able. That above all. Determined, deliberate, dutiful, single-minded.” (ASOS, Daenerys I)

“Prince Rhaegar’s prowess was unquestioned, but he seldom entered the lists. He never loved the song of swords the way that Robert did, or Jaime Lannister. It was something he had to do, a task the world had set him. He did it well, for he did everything well. That was his nature. But he took no joy in it. Men said that he loved his harp much better than his lance.” (ASOS, Daenerys IV)

[rwbyconversations]

The Scarlet Letter: Let’s talk about RWBY’s male LGBT rep

I have been sitting on this post for nearly four weeks waiting until the 15th due to the Before the Dawn spoiler rules.

So let's start with a blunt statement: RWBY's male LGBT representation has not been good. If the series' handling of female LGBT rep is good (which... well there's worse shows) and the general standard for how you write LGBT characters in a show like this, its handling of male rep has been... how not to. And Before the Dawn kinda solidified the idea in my head that the show's handling of its male LGBT cast just isn't good enough, either by the standards of when RWBY began in 2013, or today in 2020 when compatively massive steps have been taken over the past decade to show a more diverse list of characters... or at least a more diverse list of female characters.

I don't wanna make this a pissing match over how over-or-under-represented male or female LGBT characters are, but I feel like it's safe to say that the majority of the trend-setters for modern romances, especially in western animation, have been between women. Korra and Asami from Korra, Chloe and Max from Life is Strange, Marceline and Bubblegum in Adventure Time, (insert the relevant Steven Universe characters here, never watched it), and more recently, Adora and Catra in She-Ra and Luz in Owl House.

Compatively, while studies have shown that in general male LGBT characters get more appearances on a purely numerical level, in general they're more one-off characters there to pad a roster, or played more for comedy (see Josh Gad in the Beauty and the Beast remake or the gay guy in Avengers Endgame that was more notable for how hard China and Russia snapped him out of existance). The only big male-LGBT focused media I can think of from the last decade would be Yuri On Ice, Moonlight, IDW's Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye (Chromedome/Rewind best pairing fuck you Roberts for issue 16) Love Simon, and the anime adaptation of Banana Fish.

So it's no surprise that RWBY basically follows these ideas. It's big romance is (unless the writers are very stupid) going to be between Blake and Yang, their first out character was Ilia, Coco got sent to the Book Dimension where she confirmed "I use my sunglasses to perv on women without their knowledge" which uh... yeah you can definitely tell RWBY is written by men... and Volume 6 had Saph and Terra being a good example of an LGBT couple without any real drama. In the last three years alone, the show has drastically increased its lesbian and bisexual characters, alongside even including its first out trans character in May Marigold (albeit only revealed on Twitter). In general, these depictions of sexuality have been pretty OK. Would have liked it if Ilia wasn't immediately written out of the show after Volume 5 as it made her feel a bit more disposable than intended but whatever, subject for another day.

RWBY's male rep though is a bit spottier. There's the plant bois in Volume 5's premiere, we nearly had Pilot Boi until some last-minute revisions, and... Scarlet.

Why Scarlet's a bad launchpad for male LGBT rep

I don't like Scarlet or how his sexuality has been handled. Scarlet's homosexuality wasn't revealed in the show, or by the writers, or even in anything that's actually canon. He's confirmed gay in his sole of dialogue in a non-canon fan anthology, where the manga's Twitter team had to say that Miles suggested the idea and approved of it.

In short, Scarlet is Dumbledore'd, where his sexuality is revealed in out-of-show material and in a way that doesn't make it supremely obvious (Miles himself never commented to confirm this so this news was limited in how far it could spread. I'm genuinely curious how many people still don't know Scarlet's gay), and Scarlet himself is a nothing character who was written out of the show after Volume 3 and only reappeared in Before The Dawn, half a decade after he vanished. Compared to Ilia, as this came out after Ilia's entire arc in Volume 5, it's not a great starting point for mlm rep. But things would have been forgiven if it had gotten better, if the show did have more male LGBT characters introduced, even just on the Saphron/Terra level of just being around for a few episodes before leaving. Then it would have been a misfire but then we could all say "Things got better."

It... didn't. Which is why when Before the Dawn released in 2020, a full two years after Scarlet was first confirmed gay, while the franchise had more than doubled its wlw rep, Scarlet remained the one male character in the entire franchise who had a name and liked men. I remember vividly a fake leak for After The Fall which claimed Yatsuhashi would come out to Velvet and admit to having a crush on Fox. And I remember as well how many people were disappointed when it was said to be false, because it would have been nice for Yatsuhashi's character, especially after the fleshing out he gets in the CFVY books. If Yatsu had come out as gay in the books I'd like his writing enough to say he's a good case for rep, albeit with the caveat of "This is all in side material." But in reality, the leak was fake and Coco was confirmed gay instead.

Unfortunately, Before the Dawn proceeded to ruin Scarlet and made me at times feel genuinely uncomfortable as a queer man! Let's talk about that.

Before The Dawn is crap and Scarlet's writing is borderline offensive

I hate Before the Dawn. It's... bad. I read it while on a vacation and the only solace I had about the entire thing was that I'd bought an M&M chocolate bar. The bar was finished before the book. That bummed me out. It's not a very well written book, the prose is very Early 2010s YA Writer, none of the characters are memorable and there's various Fun Incidents like "NGDO using children as bait for Grimm," and "Neptune's hydrophpobia being used as a threat to torture him and the scene is played for comedy."

Theo was cool. I can't wait to see him as written by good writers, he should be a highlight of the Vacuo arc.

I had two hopes for Before the Dawn- "Don't be bad," and "Let Scarlet and Sage be well written." I'd liked how After The Fall had handled some of its characters (barring, y'know, Coco perving on women), especially Fox and Yatsu who were surprising in how much I liked them. I was looking forward to seeing Myers give Sage and Scarlet similar treatment- two relatively nothing characters meant he'd have a blank slate to write them however he wanted, he could give them unique personalties and if nothing else it could be cool to see their Semblances.

And then I read the book. (Sage fans I am so sorry for you, you got baited harder than Johnlock fans)

Scarlet's a giant dickhead in the book. It's his sole character trait and his inner monologues go on, and on, and on about how much he hates Sun, how he revels in mocking him. Most of his dialogue is sarcastic put-downs about Sun and how lame he is, and Sun is never properly allowed to defend himself or point out how going with Blake meant he was able to help save Haven Academy.

(hey remember when Sun in Volume 6 expressly says to Blake "I was a bad leader for ditching Neptune and the others, and I need to work on that" only for Before the Dawn to have him staunchly refuse to accept that he let the team down? I don't think Myers did but I do)

Scarlet being a ratty bitch would be one thing if, again, the franchise had done more rep. He'd still be a badly written character, but it wouldn't sting as much. But because Scarlet is still the only expressly confirmed male LGBT character in canon (the book teases that Nolan is gay but there's never confirmation either way beyond him smiling at Scarlet), it means that he has to represent that entire ideal. So when the one gay man in Remnant is being an asshole and a snide loser, that means that by extension, this is how the franchise sees gay men. And that fucking sucks! I wanted to come out of Before The Dawn singing its praises, I wanted to like the book, but it was a massive letdown, especially coming off of the other big 2020 RWBY controversy involving gay characters.

Yeah. We're doing this.

Clover and Fair Game: Technically not queerbaiting. BUT:

Let's pre-empt this: Clover wasn't queerbaiting, and Fair Game, while cool and I dig it, kudos to them for becoming one of the top 5 RWBY pairings on AO3 in one year that's fucking impressive (I say with mild malice as an IronQrow main), never had a chance. The writing never seriously boosted it barring one interaction which was flirty (them talking in the lobby of the Schnee Manor), and everything else was out of show boosting through the social media teams and CRWBY hyping it themselves by saying they liked it. If you wanna blame people, blame the animators who went off-script with stuff like Kim Newman adding the wink as a deliberate nod to the Volume 4 waitress, or the social media team deliberately using the same policies for Fair Game as they do for Renora and Bumblebee.

It wasn't Eddy's fault that things escalated, and he himself has said that in retrospect, he should have warned people that this never had a shot.

But I can't blame the Fair Game fanbase. Because Fair Game took off like wildfire. It came right as the fanbase began seriously asking for more male rep, Qrow's pretty hot, and the Clover wink came right after the Great IronQrow Reawakening of November 9th, 2019. The rocket was primed, and they rode it to the moon. Finally, to these people, after seven years RWBY seemed to be doing something with mlm rep in show. People started getting into RWBY just for Clover and Qrow's interactions. And if heroes were boring, Watts and Tyrian also had a fantastic dynamic that made Nuts and Volts one of the more popular villain ships overnight. Things seemed to be turning around! RWBY was remembering that gay men existed! You could hear the choir sing!

... And for those people, that meant that episode 12 hit like Truck-Kun.

People got pissed. People were horrified. And it didn't help that some members of CRWBY had said in the build-up that episode 12 would have some shots that made them nauseous (probably the Tyrian thumb thing) Out of context, it looked to these fans like CRWBY were basically laughing at their suffering, like they were saying "Lol, you thought you had a chance, get fucked, I hope your vomit burns on the way up."

Yeah, Fair Game was never gonna be canon, and I think some people ran too far with it. But in the wider context of how desperate RWBY's mlm community had gotten for basic crumbs of content? I can see why they'd run with what they had. The writers aren't at fault for what happened, but CRWBY didn't help matters. And that desperate mix of what felt like official backing from the crew, jokes about how cute the ship was, and the hope that finally the show would have onscreen rep? I can see why people ran with it.

So why is the show more lackluster in depicting mlm characters?

Money. Let's be honest, most RWBY fans don't care if the show doesn't have good male rep. I'm willing to bet some of you reading this won't care and just dismiss it as not being that big a problem. I don't think the writers care if the show doesn't have good mlm rep because they're not poaching that market. They're after what they see as a bigger, more lucrative market, which in this case is female LGBT rep. That gets people buying games, watching shows, raising awareness and boosting awareness of your property, which means you make more money. In short: Two women kissing hits more markets and generates more attention than two men.

Am I saying that Miles, Monty and Kerry deliberately sat down seven years ago and said "We're not doing gay men because it won't generate enough ad revenue and traffic to be worth the loss in revenue from homophobes?" No, that's silly. But I'm saying that it's less important for them, and it shows in the things that are small and add up. Things like Miles not verifying Scarlet's sexuality or retweeting the manga account's confirmation to spread the message (compared to how he enthusiastically confirmed Ilia being a lesbian himself during the Reddit AMA). It shows in how Pilot Boi would have been the first mlm character only to die in his second full episode until M&K were told about the Bury Your Gays trope. It shows in how Shannon believes that Ozma is "megaqueer" and Miles jokingly laughs it off instead of confirming it, leaving it to just be Shannon's headcanon. It shows in how actor shipping is compared between the mlm and wlw ships, where Arryn and Barbara's frequent pushes for Bumblebee are seen as "official confirmation that it's endgame" while Michael and Kerry saying they enjoy Seamonkeys is treated as "well it would be cute if they did it, but they're never going to."

I'm not gonna say anything like "CRWBY are gonna have Qrow end up with a woman like Robyn out of spite against the bad apples of the Fair Game crowd." I'm not gonna say that I don't think CRWBY cares about male representation in the series. It is, however, definitely a low priority for them, and because that leads to gaffes like Scarlet's writing in Before The Dawn being offensive in his depiction, it only makes the contrast between the sexes all the more painfully apparent.

I'm kinda tired of waiting for Rooster Teeth to show that they do care about mlm. I'm kinda tired of RWBY's male rep being written like it came from a 1993 time capsule where I have to enhance the screen to see a guy holding a sign of Sun's abs or be content with the only onscreen rep still being the plant bois in Volume 5. I'm tired of how often the crew dances around answering basic questions about sexuality (and age, and birthdays, and heights, and so on) by treating it as a spoiler question, as if just wanting to know what way people swing would ever be a spoiler. I'm just... tired of all this. When the best mlm rep in Rooster Teeth's history remains the two dads in Camp Camp who show up in a few episodes, that should say something really bad about your company and your biases (To say nothing of the recent Red vs Blue seasons and their blatant queerbaiting for Grif and Simmons and the whole can of worms that is Donut).

I'd like to not feel like I'm borderline unwelcome because I'd like to see two men in this show kiss, and that the sole thing that represents people like me in this show is some British twat who complains about sand.

I'd just like to feel like my sexuality isn't a joke to Rooster Teeth (or at the very least, be like Donut and have it be a funny one). But at this point after the last few years? I feel like a very uncomfortable punchline to them. And it just sucks.

[michelles-garden-of-evil]

Episode 10 Review: The Stowaway

{ YouTube: 1 | 2 | 3 }

{ Synopses: Debby Graham | Bryan Gruszka }

{ Screencaps }

After my long archiving project followed by a week of preparing for the holidays, I have finally found the time to review the next episode of Strange Paradise. After what feels like long last, I finally return to what I created this blog for: reviewing this fun, often baffling show and posting too many pictures of Colin Fox.

In our last episode, eccentric billionaire Jean Paul Desmond and zombie servant Quito sailed to the French Leave Café to visit boring artist Tim Stanton--but only after Tim got to flirt with 20-year-old teenage heiress Holly Marshall and Jean Paul and Quito waste half an episode searching for Raxl for no reason except filler. At the very end, though, Holly stands up and comes face-to-face with the very man she’s been trying to escape: the Reverend Matt Dawson himself, aka Reverend Stalker.

Holly: “If you flew down here to play the good padre to show me the error of my ways, you can just rev up your wings and fly right back again!”

This episode, like the last one, is mostly Holly-centric, focusing on the love triangle between her, Matt, and Tim. Some recap: Matt loves Holly, but Holly doesn’t love him back because she blames him for her mother’s decision to send her to Westley House, his group home for wayward girls. (Mrs. Marshall did all of this with the hopes of keeping the fortune that Holly will soon inherit for herself.) In Episode 7, Holly escaped Westley House and made her way to the French Leave Café, where she began a cliché Hollywood rom-com romance with Tim. Like all healthy relationships in the real world that last and aren’t at all dysfunctional, this romance consists mainly of petty bickering. (I don’t like this subplot much, if you haven’t already figured that out.) Now we get to see the stalker and the boring guy fight over her--or, rather, not fight over her because neither one feels like fighting or even holding a shouting match. Instead, they just have a calm chat about Holly and then Matt leaves.

He’s embarrassed to be playing such a dull character on this show. In a few months, in fact, after he passes out on the sound stage and wakes up in darkness, he will believe that he has died and been sent to Hell as a punishment for bad acting. (Link contains spoilers for the end of the Maljardin arc.) I’m sure that Bruce Gray was most likely kidding, but it’s still a funny story and it still shows that he didn’t think highly of the show or his character.

Vangie of all people advises him to persuade Holly to return with Matt to Westley House just as Holly herself returns after a few minutes of hiding. Tim tells her that Matt “seems like a pretty regular guy” and then adds this, which is probably exactly what Reverend Stalker believes about her:

Stalker logic.

He looks so confused when Holly stomps away from him, obviously not pleased. He follows her, she tells him off, and they bicker some more, him being just as patronizing to her as everyone else so far with his advice to just suck it up, return to Westley House, and wait until her twenty-first birthday to leave. When even Vangie Abbott says patronizing things to you, there’s a problem. God, Holly is almost 21 and everyone so far treats her like she’s 15, even Tim who is probably supposed to be only a few years older. I feel bad for her, not to mention grateful to live in a time when twentysomething women are taken more seriously than in the 1960s.

I promised better screencaps of Jean Paul’s suit in this episode. Not too fond of this one because he looks angry, but still a good, relatively clear shot.

Here he is, doing drugs. ;) No, it’s probably just a sedative.

Jean Paul arrives for Tim, who leaves to put his things on the boat while he goes to the bar to take a pill (not clear what kind, but most likely a sedative like people on the other, more famous Gothic soap take for everything). “I used to read your cards,” Vangie says when she finds him there, “but now I’m afraid to.” (Because of all the death she foresees in the fortunes of everyone connected to him?) Then they chat about her father the Conjure Man, who Jean Paul says “taught [him] a lot about the beyond.” Exactly what he taught him is never explained, making this another unexplored plot point. He also starts to tell her about how he should renew something to do with the Conjure Man (some blessing, maybe?), but is stopped by...

It’s Jacques time!

Why, hello there, Jacquet.

...Jacques Eloi des Mondes! The handsome devil with the huge garnet ring comes out to play once more, because...why not? There isn’t any reason for him to possess Jean Paul at this particular moment (unless it’s Ian Martin’s way of keeping whatever he was about to say a mystery), but, for me, Jacques is always welcome to liven up any scene; I don’t need a reason and perhaps he doesn’t either. Both Vangie and Tim are taken aback by the sudden change in Jean Paul’s demeanor, but it doesn’t stop Tim from boarding the ship to go paint Erica’s portrait.

Jacques talking to Vangie and looking cute.

Such a lovely outfit he’s wearing. Why are none of the men I see in real life this dashing? (Also, look at that huge, clear mike shadow in the top right corner and whatever that string thing is in the top left.)

Tim kisses Vangie goodbye (I kid you not) and leaves her to fear for his safety. When they have arrived on Maljardin, we see them leaving the boat, but the boat is not empty. Someone else stowed away on it, too, and I think you can guess who...

It’s Holly!

She sees Quito and flips out, screaming and trying to fight back when he grabs her. But then he shakes his head as though trying to say, “I don’t want to hurt you or send you back” and gently rubs her hand, then picks up her bags and leads her towards the château. If any of the male characters so far deserve Holly, it’s Quito who is only ever kind and never says or does anything patronizing to her.

Quito rubbing Holly’s hand...

...and leading her towards the château.

Meanwhile back on the mainland, Matt and Vangie discuss, of all things, tarot cards. Matt, you see, is interested in the tarot and other matters of the occult. “A minister should have an interest in all spiritual phenomena,” he explains. "The tarot is the soul's way to God. Any path that leads to God should have a minister's approval." Clearly Matt is not a Christian fundamentalist with their strong disapproval of the occult, and possibly not even a mainline denomination given that he approves--or at least claims to approve--of the tarot. If I had to guess, he is from a very liberal denomination that accepts all religious and spiritual paths as valid. I find it interesting that a character who on the surface seems so much like the Dark Shadows character Gregory Trask (the voice, the Catholic priest outfit he wears in Episode 3, the interest in young women that extends beyond the spiritual) is otherwise so unlike him both in personality and what he professes to believe (the Trask men being outwardly very conservative, crazy fundamentalist types).

He questions her about Holly and she responds that she left, but doesn’t know where, and we cut back to Maljardin, where Quito leads Holly inside. She introduces herself and Jean Paul agrees to let her stay.

Jean Paul, you're so proper. If this were Jacques, he would have said something like, "It's obvious you would like to know the young lady in the Biblical sense.”

Tim makes the obligatory comment about how the portrait of Jacques looks exactly like Jean Paul, so the latter sends him upstairs. When he sits down to rest and rub his head, the handsome devil starts to mock him through the portrait. “Tired?” Jacques coos, feigning sympathy. “Awwww. It’s been a very trying day.”

“No, please,” says Jean Paul. “Not tonight.”

“Now, why do I have to watch you every minute? Bring us no more guests. We have enough”--he snickers--”to resolve our destiny and theirs.”

Jean Paul falls asleep--or at least tries to--in the armchair facing the portrait. The credits to this episode are in a slightly different font than the one used in most episodes.

With this episode, we have the end of the second week of Strange Paradise. Stay tuned for the second Bad Subtitles Special on Friday and my review of Episode 11 next week. Coming in the next episode: Jean Paul and Holly get to know each other, Raxl returns from wherever she was hiding, and that “real swinger” Jacques has a little fun. Stay tuned.

{ <-- Previous: Episode 9   ||   Next: Episode 11 --> }

[trishgibsontx]

why your business is really failing: from a real-time intuitive vantage point

photo by Babita Patel

my work continues to evolve. in a nutshell: I see truth. period. when I treat serious medical cases, with someone who has visited many doctors on the planet with no successful outcome, I don’t see or feel opinions — I see and feel something that comes from beyond that, and something that I would call truth. let me explain exactly how and why it is different from OPINION:

first of all, my requirement for working with others is clear and simple: I do not want to know anything about them before meeting them. I do not want to know their full name, what they do for work, where they are from, why they are reaching out to me, or any other details that would interfere with the fact that I am human and have a discerning ego like everyone else. this requirement allows me to feel what IS, not what I THINK IS. when I work with public figures, I mandate that they do not leave me a message with their real/full name. I am working with their energy and being, not their trending image. this helps to keep any potential opinion at bay.

second of all, I generally don’t have opinions about people — I feel truth about them, if that makes any sense. it did NOT serve me well as a child. if I could have changed what I saw, I would have. but I couldn’t. in addition, with where I come from inside of myself, I still think the BEST of others first (a byproduct of my being, not my intuition). I learn over — and over — and over again, that where my being comes from is not reality. I have walked a tightrope in life, often overlooking many ugly truths — even in my private holistic practice. letting some of the wrong people in. I have, as a byproduct of difficult personal experiences, learned more than ever how to experience truth versus any wishful thinking or otherwise OPINION.

truth versus opinion: truth = gut knowing. opinion = experience. the two are NOT THE SAME THING.

so to my original post point: when I enter businesses of any sort, I see IMMEDIATELY what is working or not working, and why. this boils down FIRST to one thing, and one thing only, that seems to evade the general human population: individual human energy. it is absolutely true that one rotten apple can dismantle an entire company. an entire production. an entire office space. while “higher” and more positive frequencies absolutely transmute thousands of lower frequencies, the fact is that in smaller companies especially, the spore of a defunct energy/person can not only infiltrate otherwise well-meaning and hardworking individuals, but it can destroy the entire business.

the second thing a failing business boils down to is UNCONSCIOUS wounds in the higher-ups. especially in men. women are more open, are more likely to attend therapy, and more easily made vulnerable. men, not so much. it takes a special character to become vulnerable and run an operation by power versus force. when we have unconscious wounds that we cover up by blaming others, our business suffers. if we are repeating the same pattern over and over and over again and we keep firing and hiring people, we are the problem. no amount of trending life coaching or group seminars can fix this.

so there it is: 2 strong reasons your business is failing. 1) the individual energy of the people you have working for you 2) your unconscious wounding. so, what to do about it? that is an egg you will have to crack at your own speed, as your situation starts to override your ego. as for me, where my work has emerged is within the CEO or small executive team dynamic. I started treating C-suites, and then I was asked to treat their closest circles to enable team efficacy. my model of working on a strictly individual basis has shifted a bit, but still only on a limited case by case basis. it is exciting though, because to see a large company (especially one that contributes positively to society) do well and know that I can tangibly help support that holds endless possibilities as we collectively move from “fact” to “flow” (my words). and again, when it comes to working with large companies, obviously C-suites are the first who have either something to actually lose or actually gain within their infrastructure. everyone else is pretty much just along for the ride, or waiting to C-level their own enterprise one day.

I want to share with you what I see in some random and mixed examples as far as how energy travels in company dynamics. 1) designer label clothing stores. what actually inspired my T.E.P. program is the following: one day I was walking past a clothing store of a designer variety. everything in my mind wanted to enter that store; everything in my body wanted to run from it. it was a store I had been in several times in years prior, and I saw the SAME people working there, still. this brand has a lot of money, so it can afford to pay for basically empty retail space where hardly any sales are made (as the CEO/shareholders are too removed to truly know why they are losing thousands per month, and possibly close to 7+ figures per year). not only is it empty of client traffic, but the feeling I have each time I walk by — to this day — is dark and dismal. there is no doubt a low energy in there (please read other parts of my blog to support understanding what low energy is), sucking away at energy that would otherwise be bringing in revenue. there is a cloudy troll, somewhere in that store location, eating up something that does not belong to them. sitting at a computer waiting for the day to end, so that they can collect their check. with employee participants around them, doing the same (I guess some brands do not offer commission). so I don’t go in. there is another store, of a similar style, also high end designer, just 2 blocks north of the one I just described. for a year, I had the same feeling about THAT STORE — I would not go in. however one day last year, something in my body felt like it wanted to be in there. I walked in and whatever had been preventing me from being in there the year prior was gone. I immediately asked the staff: did you just fire someone who had been here for quite some time? they were bowled over not only with shock, but relief. they didn’t say much aside from confirming that my feeling was correct, but I could tell that whoever was no longer there was a real drain on sales. these people cost businesses unconscionable amounts of money! needless to say, they earned my new business, because I no longer picked up on something that turned my core away — despite their beautiful ad campaigns. 2) a fortune 500 financial sales institution: let’s just say that not only have I worked at a couple (over 10 years ago), but I have advised some of them — from an intuitive perspective. I recall one in particular, which felt almost like an Italian restaurant cover — you know, when restaurants are a front for…something else. anyhow, I walked into this place and immediately felt that the director of the main department was…corrupt or off. his mouth said one thing, and his energy said another. I knew that the CEO had no idea, because they had worked together for so long. this director reminded me of a bartender at an off-the-books bar — who pocketed most of the cash without ringing up drinks. it took me some time to understand what he was actually doing — which was actually not really my concern — but most importantly why…so that he could be shifted around within the company or eliminated from it altogether in order to benefit the bottom line. within the why explained how he was able to fly beneath the radar for so long, and who he had taken with him (he was running a full bottom-to-top system). he was ultimately demoted (not fired, likely there were lawsuit or other concerns), and the company seemed to rebound. in these set-ups, there is often so much money floating around that no one notices or cares — until it ultimately (and that can take some time!) makes it to the top of the food chain — to the CEO. the CEO is the one who will ultimately feel the burn monetarily, but on the way to that is the energetic burn that co-workers and general employees feel as they go to work each day — it is not a happy place when something like this is so off, but no one can pinpoint it. ultimately those with above-board energy and pure being will leave — creating the decline in overall business. 3) a yoga studio I used to go to: this studio I was a member at for nearly 10 years. in the last year or so of time, something changed — they hired some horrid, God-awful energy. immediately, within months, sales went down. I watched it right in front of my eyes. people disappeared from the studio. staff confided in me that the person they had brought it was a black hole of toxicity. the owners could not hear or see beyond “logic” to fix this. I could not bear to walk in there any longer, despite loving the practice. I dropped my membership which cost them over 1500 per year. other members did the same. the wrong person in your office, store or boardroom can and will cost you thousands, millions, or trillions of dollars — because it is costing your staff peace of mind.

when I am hired to perform my T.E.P. duties, I will give the C-suite full disclosure on who and what is driving or killing their business. and let me be so super clear here: it is ALWAYS a person. it is NEVER a marketing strategy, labeling, branding, or something tangible. it is ALWAYS a human being. clearly, what is driving or killing a business is not always obvious to everyone. often, it is not obvious to MOST people. heavy and bottom-feeding energy can and does hide in plain sight (and this is where I come in). a heavy or bottom-feeding energy that is killing your business, will ALWAYS pair either with YOUR, or your subordinates’, unconscious wounding that is engaging this dance for a reason. because we are human. this is what we do. until we don’t do it anymore — until our business is suffering, and we can not figure out why, and now we are willing to.

The post why your business is really failing: from a real-time intuitive vantage point appeared first on © The Medical Intuitive Blog: Healing Elaine ®.

from Trisha Gibson http://www.themedicalintuitiveblog.com/2018/03/09/business-really-failing-real-time-intuitive-vantage-point/