#but like. it would be problematic if her base form was in the same element as her summer variant

[tastycitrus]

who knew all horus had to do to become strong was put on a swimsuit

[dailyadventureprompts]

Can we get a reimagining for golems pleas? They’re somewhat problematic in their current portrayal when you consider the mythological origins

Monsters Reimagined: Golems

For those not in the know, there was a discourse a little while ago about how golems and how their use in pop fantasy diverged from their origins as a part of Jewish folklore. While there’s different arguments to be made about whether you should use creatures from the folklore of other cultures (verging onto appropriation) most of the discussion I saw revolved around the fact that golems in d&d (and the fantasy genre that imitated it) bear little resemblance to their mythological roots, flattening a creature with rich cultural connections into just another brainless monster to be flattened by adventurers.

That said, humans have been imagining stories about artificial people for as long as we’ve been building things with our own hands, and just because we don’t use the name “golem” doesn’t mean we have to abandon the concept entirely.  TLDR:  While you could just default to calling them “constructs” as many have, I like to use the term “Malgam” for my artificially constructed servitor monsters. Not only does it relate to their nature as an amalgamation of particular elements, it also has the same mouthfeel as the original monster. This also lets you use “golem” in the specific context for the creature it was intended: An artificial creature given life through the working of holy scholars, in imitation of the way that the creator gave life to them.

There have always been stories of artificial beings: and in many ways the origin myths of most cultures have humans crafted by the gods out of something inanimate, which could theoretically classify all humans as something given form by the hands of another.

As someone with a childhood fascination with both robots and greek mythology, it blew my mind that accounts of the god Hephaestus had him assisted by mechanical beings. Despite the fact that the ancient greeks were living in the bronze age, they still had enough of an understanding of machinery to think “ yep, get good enough at this sorta thing and you could make people”

Golems are part of this tradition, but take on a particularly religious aspect in that it’s animation echoes gods own creation of humans, imperfect as all mortal attempts must be in comparison with their creator. Many golem myths likewise get into power hierarchies, as those golems that were not built for defence are often built to perform labour for their creators, growing rebellious and subverting the divine hierarchy

Logically then, if we’re going to write adventures ABOUT golems, we should do so through the examination of the creator gods, worshippers, and the things they both make, as well as how the relationships between them can reveal about our philosophy as an audience:

Through careful study of the teachings of his creation goddess, a sage has created a golem to act as his apprentice, seeking a blank and willing vessel to fill up with the purest form of her faith and knowledge without all the base humanity getting in the way. The golem turns out to be a prodigy, but over years of instruction the sage comes to care for them as one might a child, believing them to be just as ensouled as a person. The golem, pious to a fault, knows that it would be blasphamy for their instructor to claim powers equal to that of the goddess and denies the claim, causing a rift to form between them. Now the two wander the great temples and libraries of the land, searching for the proof that will

Brought to life by a miracle of Moradin, a tremendously strong golem has guarded a particular village for generations, dispatching monsters and raiders, throwing itself into danger to rescue those who dwell within the town, drawn to where it can help best by a divinely gifted sixth sense. The party just so happen to be in town when it rises from it’s traditional seat of honor before the steps of the village temple, takes seven long strides, and brings its fist down on a stupefied merchant, who’d just arrived in town. The townsfolk are divided, did their protector go mad, or did its orders to kill come directly from the allhammer himself? The merchants travelling companions are demanding retribution, while the golem returns to its seat and merely shrugs. Its role is not to question what it does, only to protect the village when it is called to do so.

on the trail of a diabolist who’s tortured priests and robbed monasteries, the party has finally realized that their foe intends to scorn the gods by creating a more perfect form of being than they ever could, and has been extracting the secrets of lifeweaving over many bloody years. Catching up to the villain in his lair, the party is aghast to discover that he has succeeded: using foul magic to birth a “perfect” specimen who quickly concluded that her creator was unfit for his position of power over her and tore him limb from limb. Now the party is faced with a very different sort of challenge: a superhuman entity who wishes to understand her place in the world but who has yet to be taught any reason why she should care about other beings beyond their usefulness to her.  

Refocusing goelms in this way as a type of construct rather than the brand-name for lumbering animated statues lets us pay proper respect to their folkloric roots, while also giving us a new tool in our narrative toolbox in order to tell more diverse and insightful stories.

Art

[mccoyyy]

moving this to my new blog so I can pin it again lol

@stregoni-benefici you are completely correct but I just wanted to expand on this a little bit - also i’m putting this under a read more cause this got a lot longer than i originally thought it would be

sexism: smeyers treatment of female characters throughout the entire series is extremely problematic. like you don’t even need to read deep into the books to see that. the backstories of all her female characters all involve some form of trauma and are significantly more violent than the male vampires (Rosalie and Esme enduring physical/sexual assault meanwhile Edward dies of the flu and Emmett gets vibe checked by a bear).

she also creates the idea that a woman isn’t complete without children/being a mother. every female vampire in the series is desperate for children yet can’t, its mentioned in pretty much every book and extreme emphasis is placed on how tragic this is. a female character wanting children isn’t wrong or sexist at all but the way its written in twilight makes it seem like its something a woman has to do in order to be happy and smeyer pretty much cements this idea by making Bella suddenly desperate to have Renesmee despite showing no interest in children/audibly voicing her thoughts against having children in eclipse and the start of breaking dawn (i’m pretty sure Bella has a line of dialogue in the books where she says something like she didn’t realise it was something she wanted/needed until it happened bit I’m not sure I try not to read/think about breaking dawn)

there’s also the way she writes female characters, specifically Rosalie. its mentioned throughout the series that Rosalie has extreme mechanical skills and multiple degrees in STEM fields but its barely ever shown, and instead her characterisation focuses on being obsessed with her looks (first couple pages of this, written by smeyer for new moon), and being a ‘stereotypical bitch’. for the first three books most of her character/dialogue is based on being cold and rude to Bella. She is unnecessarily painted as the villain for having different views on Bella (quite literally) giving up her life and future to be with a man (which is a whole other can of worms). the same is done to the character of Leah in eclipse/breaking dawn. Leah is a woman in the Quileute Tribe, she has been severely affected by the Cullen’s presence in the area and is painted as a character that the reader is supposed to dislike simply because she doesn’t like Bella/the Cullen’s despite having extremely valid reasons not to

anti-Native - smeyers treatment of native tribes is horrendous. she has profited fr years off of of native american culture for years and has done so without any acknowledgements. furthermore, she also demonises native american teens (especially in new moon) by calling them wild, violent, dangerous and out of control and then uses these stereotypes to create a contrast between the self control and patience of the Cullen’s and make them seem more like the good guys, and the wolf pack being lesser. She does this again with the treatment of Jacobs character in new moon and especially eclipse.

Jacob starts off in new moon as Bella’s best friend. he helps Bella come out of a severe depression caused when Edward left at the start of the book. however in eclipse his character makes a complete flip and he becomes moody, temperamental, argumentative and disrespectful of Bella’s boundaries. his character becomes unrecognisable and despite smeyers claims of a love triangle, it is obvious what the outcome will be. I have seen countless instances of people on this site claiming they hate Jacob because he is a dick/disrespectful/just as unhealthy as Edward. this was done on purpose by smeyer as she uses Jacob to make Edward seem like the obvious and correct choice for Bella. if you need more proof of this, take the scene where Jacob kisses Bella without her consent and she breaks her hand when punching him, Edward swoops in and almost gets into a fight with Jacob for touching Bella without her consent. this is an obvious attempt to make Jacob seem like the villain and Edward the white saviour

there’s also the treatment of the native characters by the white characters in the books. multiple times in the series, the native characters are called/compared to dogs/brutes and have a distinct unpleasant smell. I don’t think I need to explain how this is racist. the pack also helps the Cullen’s/saves Bella’s lives and never receive any acknowledgement/are treated any better by the Cullen’s/anyone really. the pack are only ever used as a way to make the Cullen’s look better.

there’s also some pretty obvious similarities to colonisation with the Cullen’s entering Quiluete lands which then forces them to start phasing into wolves (and I’m pretty sure none of the pack actually want to start phasing). also, remember Leah? the only female member of the wolf pack? because of the change she effectively can’t have children? that has implications.

and to top it all off, after doing all that, smeyer has never once addressed this or even acknowledged the Quileute Tribe.

pedophilic - I mean even without mentioning breaking dawn its pretty awful. first of all you’ve got the blatant sexualisation of minors throughout the entire series. Edward is 17 throughout the series and smeyer is writing literal paragraphs about his chiselled abs. Jacob is 16/17 when she has him running about forks topless with a 6 pack. this is way more apparent in the movies but its still a huge issue in the books and lead to Taylor Lautner being confronted by adult fans trying to get him to sign their underwear, and being forced into being shirtless for most of the movies which made him extremely uncomfortable (Elizabeth Reaser (Esme) briefly talks about this in the ID10T podcast on spotify). and just as a reminder, Taylor was 16 when the first one was filmed and 17 for the second.

Breaking Dawn is a whole other can of worms. the glaringly obvious issue is Jacob imprinting on a literal newborn baby. now the concept of imprinting itself has racist elements to it, but its heavily implied in the series that imprinting will inevitably lead to a romantic relationship. Jacob imprinting on Renesmee and waiting until she is old enough to enter into a romantic relationship (never mind the fact that shes ‘old enough’ she will still technically be 5) is pretty much grooming. The same happens with Quil and his imprint, Claire (a two year old) where I’m pretty sure there’s a scene in breaking dawn where Jacob and Leah are watching Quil play with Claire and talking about how Quil isn’t going to date anyone because he and Claire are ‘pretty much inevitable’ (i might be wrong though, like I said I try not to read/think about breaking dawn)

smeyer has also written a spin off book (its like 250 odd pages) called the short second life of Bree Tanner (Bree is that newborn vampire killed after the battle in eclipse by the Volturi btw). In this book, Bree is 15 almost 16, and another character Diego is 18 which is definitely pushing the boundaries of ok. (also as a side note, funny how Bree and Jacob are literally the same age and smeyer states multiple times how Bree deserved better and is only a child (who straight up kills people), yet when it comes to Jacob he has to be a responsible adult and is vilified for every mistake he makes)

racist - smeyer refused to let Catherine Hardwicke (director of the first twilight) have a diverse cast because she ‘imagined them a certain way’ (white) and it was a fight to get Edi Gathegi cast as Laurent and had to compromise with smeyer to make Bella’s friend group more diverse. this woman straight up refused to hire more diverse actors and only agreed to when they were side characters/villains.

Also in the official companion book/guide to twilight, smeyer literally writes that vampire venom makes you white

‘the venom leeches all pigmentation from the skin into a more indestructable vampire form…regardless of original ethnicity a vampires skin will be exceptionally pale’ (official illustrated guide pg.69)

this is a whole lot of bullshit cause she is literally whitewashing characters, but when you pair this with the idea that vampires possess inhuman levels of beauty it becomes extremely problematic and implies that being pale/white is more beautiful than darker skin tones.

also, if we go back to Laurent’s character for a second. so Laurent is one of the only characters who isn’t described as white (in the books he is described as having a pale olive skin tone) and in the first book he comes across as pretty reasonable (warning carlisle about James/Victoria, travels up to Denali and tries out the veggie lifestyle) but in new moon, his characterisation pulls a 180° (sensing a theme here) and is suddenly trying to kill Bella as a favour to Victoria and is Evil™ despite in the first book he literally says to Carlisle he didn’t particularly like travelling with James/Victoria and was only really doing it for convenience. where did this undying loyalty come from? yet again, smeyer is completely disregarding established characterisation in POC characters specifically to villainise them.

and finally, we have Jasper. for some reason (that reason being that she is racist) smeyer decides to make Jasper a confederate soldier in his human life. if you don’t have a lot of knowledge on the american civil war, the confederacy were the side of the US that seceded from the union in order to keep their slaves. Jasper was a confederate soldier, and not just any soldier, but a major. Jasper was a major in an army that fought for 4 years to keep the existence of slavery (and don’t even try to say that slavery wasn’t the root cause of the civil war. states rights aye? states rights to do what). now there’s an argument out there made by certain fans that a lot of people joined the confederate army out of pride/were forced into it cause of conscription to try and head canon the racism away but like that doesn’t matter. there was literally no need to make jasper a confederate in the first place. if she was so desperate to have a civil war vampire then she could have made him a member of the union. its been common knowledge that the confederacy was racist for a long time now, smeyer has absolutely no excuses here.

a lot of these issues overlap and I have probably missed heaps of issues (so feel free to add on) but hope this helps explain why smeyer can *ahem* get tae absolute fuck

[gimme-mor]

ACOTAR THINK PIECE: VISIBLE TO INVISIBLE

*DISCLAIMER*

Please take the time to read this post in its entirety and truly reflect on the message I am trying to send before commenting. My goal is to use my background in Gender and Women’s Studies to deconstruct the comments I have seen on social media, bring awareness to the ACOTAR fandom, and encourage critical thinking and self-reflection. I WILL NOT tolerate anyone who tries to twist my words and say I am attacking real life people. In fact, I AM CRITIQUING THE ARGUMENTS THEMSELVES NOT THE PEOPLE USING THE ARGUMENTS.

It’s no secret that SJM struggles with diversity, often opting for ambiguous words like “tan” or “golden skin” to describe her characters. But over the course of her writing career, she has made efforts to write inclusively; and though her representation falls on the side of bad representation at times, she has made it clear in the text if characters are non-white, describing them with varying shades of brown skin or having dark skin in general. As it stands, the ACOTAR world has a limited number of characters of color, so it’s confusing to see them whitewashed in fanart, fancasts, and fan edits. When whitewashing accusations are brought up in the fandom, they are dismissed with statements like:

It doesn’t matter

Don’t like it? Ignore it and move on

This is art and it’s open to interpretation

As a person of color, you don’t see me complaining

This is just how I imagined the character

The text doesn’t say the characters have ethnic facial features

Fans can cast whoever they want to portray fictional characters the way they imagined them

It’s just fancasting, it’s not that deep

Not everything is about race

If you want people of color to be depicted in the books, go read books specifically about characters of color

Fancasting characters of color as white is not erasing anyone’s race because they’re not real

They’re fictional characters regardless of the book’s description, so who cares if people imagine characters of color differently

Western society has grown so accustomed to the media being dominated by white representations that envisioning a character as white becomes the norm, even when faced with evidence to the contrary. Although nearly all of the characters of color in the ACOTAR series have been subjected to whitewashing, only a handful of illustrations accurately depict Vassa as a woman of color. It can be assumed that because Vassa has features society deems as inherently white (i.e. having red hair, blue eyes, and freckled skin), it is acceptable for the fandom to imagine her character as white despite her having golden-brown skin. This mentality is harmful because it suggests that naturally colored hair, light colored eyes, and freckles are exclusively white features and that people of color with these features don’t exist. The act of whitewashing characters of color in the ACOTAR series marginalizes fans of color in a space that is inherently rooted in white-centeredness, and downplays the impact whitewashing has on fans of color. The continued erasure of characters of color in the series not only normalizes the belief that fandom is a space for white people primarily and people of color secondarily, but it perpetuates the notion that whiteness is better and more palatable in visual media.

From employment to education to healthcare to media, race and discussions about race are inescapable because racism affects everything in society. The media has a history of prioritizing whiteness and white narratives often at the expense of people of color. Racebending, which can be understood as changing the race of a character, occurs not only in fanworks such as fanart, fancasts, and fanfiction, but even in visual media. It allows characters that have been traditionally white to be reinterpreted as people of color in an effort to diversify casts and counter whiteness as the default in both visual media and fanworks. Unfortunately, racebending itself gives way for problematic justifications and assumptions. Whitewashing is a form of racebending that erases characters of color from media and replaces them with white actors. The act of whitewashing characters of color is commonly excused with declarations of artistic or personal interpretations of characters despite the text stating they are not white, which ultimately diminishes the impact whitewashing has on people of color. Aside from that, racebending traditionally white characters as people of color has been framed as an issue that is just as offensive and bad as whitewashing characters of color. In the article “8 Things White Fans Can Do to Make Fandom More Inclusive”, it states:

“. . .You could argue that people often reimagine white characters as characters of color (popularly known as ‘racebending’), so why not do the opposite? The short answer is this: When people racebend a character, they create more diversity. If they’re fans of color, they do so to see themselves in the fictional media they love. When people whitewash a character, they decrease diversity. They’re erasing a character of color and, whether consciously or unconsciously, sending the message that they’d relate more to the character if the character was white. . .” (https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/08/making-fandom-more-inclusive/).

The belief that racebending traditionally white characters as people of color carries the same racist implications as whitewashing characters of color is equivalent to arguments that proclaim the existence of reverse racism. Racism and prejudice have often been used interchangeably in society, causing racism to be simplified as one group not liking another. Racism involves the marginalization and oppression of racial groups based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy and it combines with socialized power to carry out systematic discrimination through institutional policies and practices. White people can be victims of prejudice but never victims of racism because, unlike people of color, prejudice against white people doesn’t lead to structural, systemic, and lasting disadvantages in education, healthcare, career prospects, and other societal structures. When the element of power is removed from discussions about racism, the definition of racism becomes overly simplified and ignores the real and damaging impact it has on the lives of marginalized people. The impulse behind reverse racism proponents and arguments against racebending traditionally white characters as people of color are motivated, consciously or unconsciously, by the desire to center whiteness in the media while marginalizing people of color in the process. Whitewashing characters of color is incomparable to racebending traditionally white characters as people of color because whitewashing contributes to the continued erasure of people of color in the media. Moreover, racebending traditionally white characters as people of color would only have the same societal effect as whitewashing characters of color if white people faced the same systematic and institutionalized mistreatment experienced by people of color. 

It’s important to be aware of the ramifications of whitewashing and to not view it as insignificant because whitewashing characters of color is rooted in racist ideals and is a method of preserving white dominance in the media. Whitewashing characters of color in a society that favors whiteness is extremely problematic because: it implies that characters of color are inferior to white characters and aren’t as relatable as them; reinforces colorist views that deem brown and dark skin as unattractive; and feeds into the notion that eurocentric standards of beauty are superior to ethnic features. SJM isn’t always clear with her character descriptions in relation to skin tone but when she is, the ACOTAR fandom should take notice because when characters are described as not white then they’re not white.

[paperstarwriters]

The arcana crew as beast-kin

Why? Because I wanna :P

General notes:

Everyone is based off of the card they’re associated with

Beast-kin tend to have magic that lets them look human (three forms; 1: anthropomorphic beast, 2: human with animal ears/wings and tails, and them as a normal human—I’ll be focusing on the animal aspects)

Just because they can do glamour magic doesn’t mean they can do other types of magic.

They still have their familiars, don’t worry.

If you wanna reference for the first form, just watch Beastars. The design is pretty similar (mainly thinking about the birds)

If you wanna reference for beast-kin in general check out the manga “Milady Just Wants to Relax” it’s what I’ve based the abilities off of and just beast-kin in general.

Asra

This sly fox :)

It’s probably because of my ties with anime but I imagine him like a multi-tailed fox

It’s purely so that you have more tails to cuddle and snuggle with.

You know how when foxes are in the snow they leap into the air then get their whole upper half stuck in the snow?

Well, when Asra hears something they want to catch, or they’re playing with Faust, they sometimes just... well....

It’s funny to see honestly.

Lowkey acts like a dog sometimes. They Loves the pats and chin scratches he can get and will whine until you give him more.

Sometimes you wake up to their tail(s) in your face. Good or bad, you decide.

In most folklore that have them, foxes aren’t exactly trusted, so often, Asra uses his glamour to make himself look like a human. However, when a customer runs unsavoury or maybe there’s just some mean brat that he wants to scare, his shadow still shows off his ears and tail(s)

Cuddles??? Cuddles!!!! Foxes are just so fluffy... Asra is no different. (In fact he might just be even fluffier)

Hate to delve a little into angst territory, but as a child since he was an orphan and all, Asra probably learned to basically act like a dog or a cat depending on the person to get more food, or to convince them that they’re a harmless beast-kin.

Nadia

Design wise, I love humanoid bird designs with their wings doubling as their arms and hands. Don’t ask me how this works logically right now we’re talking about crazy fantasy elements anyways, let me have this.

One thing I cannot get out of my mind is:

Nadia has her back to Lucio and he’s just talking and chattering nonsense. Then Lucio says something insanely stupid or offensive and whoever is talking to Lucio can see Nadia behind him just—

Whips her freaking head around 180°

It’s worse if she’s somewhere dark cause then you just see two red eyes coming into view as she slowly turns to glare at you.

Our queen is proud of her pretty talons, honestly probably spends a day sharpening them with Portia.

Goes out flying with Chandra at dusk if she has the time, and if you can fly (via spells, wings, a broomstick, etc.) you’re welcome to come along

Super accurate hearing. Honestly. It’s hard to hide an injury from Nadia even without her being an owl but she hears you Yelp in pain on the other side of the palace and she’s there in minutes.

Pretty problematic when she has headaches though :(

Preen feathers with her!! She’ll love having you card your fingers though her feathers making them less itchy. You’ll often help her preen after a bath, but honestly she’ll appreciate the sentiment anywhere but during an important meeting. It’s hard to concentrate when you’re providing her such wonderful affection.

Please don’t make owl jokes. She doesn’t like them. Sometimes she just avoids saying “who” so people don’t make that annoying joke. (It’s Natiqa’s favorite joke to make please spare Nadia the pain.)

“...and to whom will I be sending this?” “don’t you mean to “who” Dia?” *glare*

Julian

This is a happy raven ok? HAPPY. no birdie in a cage, ok?

The look we all know is probably his second form leaning to the first. Nadia’s would look somewhat similar

Crows & ravens are pretty dramatic birds. Reminds you of someone doesn’t it?

Idk if Edger Allan Poe even exists in this world, or any variant of it, but if it does... ooohhh if it does... this guy is totally gonna recite the poem in a dramatic flourish, and when he’s drunk you can sometimes find him chanting “ever more” same applies to any and all raven/crow themed media.

Screams. A lot. “Caw, caw b**ch” or “quoth the raven: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

Once convinced a bunch of birds to just go n take a dump on Lucio & his statue. He helped the servants clean when the work was dumped on them but they all agreed the bleat he made was hilarious(more on that later)

Shiny thing collector. Portia tried to get him to clean his stuff up but he has since bribed her out of it with a ball of yarn.

He and Portia make an odd pair of siblings, they’re still pretty much the same though. Crows are kinda just cats with wings.

“One day Illia, I’m probably just gonna eat you.”

*overly dramatic offended gasp*

All in good humor lol

Speaking of, their familiars are the same animal as they are!

So sometimes Julian scoops up Malak and says in a dramatic fashion (because however else would he say it) “I’ve found you my long lost brother! Oh how I’ve missed you!”

Portia does the same (more on that later)

Because his sister is a cat, Julian sometimes does a lot of cat-like things. (Case in point, he bleps. Tongue just kinda left out after yawning or something.)

Flies around with Malak often, like Nadia does, and sometimes carries Portia around with him. Will do the same for you if you want him to, sometimes if you don’t want him to as well. Expect to be grabbed from the ground and flown up into the sky at some point.

Bread. Boy loves his lobster claws but bread is a close second. “Aww yisss motha freaking bread crumbs”

Sometimes on a bad day, he just walks in dragging Pepi behind him who has her mouth latched on his tail

Portia

(If this were modern times) “you know, like, nya~!”

Look. Portia is so sweet to be around. But take that plus PURRING? And a soft as all frick FUR?

Honestly I think that sometimes when with Nadia has a bad headache, Portia purring is a great way to calm her down. You—you lucky MC, get to fall asleep to that.

She falls asleep on your lap and you are stuck there. Bound by a rule that transcends time and space. Her purring does little to aid the fact that YOU NEED TO PEE. The universe does not care of your internal tides, for your lover, who is also a cat, rests in your lap.

When she’s chasing down Julian for something stupid he often yells about being hunted. All in good fun!

“Mazelinka!!! Portia’s hunting me again!!!” “I wouldn’t be chasing you if you’d just clean your stuff!!!!”

Small boxes are her jam! Julian hates them, and like other birds doesn’t like closed spaces, but Portia loves em.

Good at squeezing into and out of tight places. Which is really helpful for sneaking around, curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

Swishy swishy tail.

Cast a little light spell for her to case down. She loves it, you love it, Pepi loves it— everyone wins! (Except for the furniture she crashes into)

Yes, she has picked up Pepi before and yelled very loudly for Julian to hear (often after he’s made the joke of his long lost brother Malak) “Oh Pepi, you’re my favorite sister!!!”

On a bad day, Malak may be found in Portia’s mouth. He’s completely unharmed if only a little ruffled, but it’s gotta be a pretty bad day to find her doing that.

If Camio is in her mouth it’s same business as always. She won’t kill hem either but if Mr. Sh**bird doesn’t shut up she’ll make him shut up. You don’t even know why he keeps coming back.

Not all cats like cuddling, but like Pepi, Portia LOVES it. So long as you’re the right person and not someone unpleasant.

Please don’t step on the tail.

As much as she doesn’t like baths she still does properly was herself. She just really doesn’t like it when her fur is all wet and clings to her body. Do you have a spell to dry her off quickly? Please use it. Save her the misery.

Muriel

pretty sure he’s even bigger as a bear. Like, it’s probably because of the added fur but— woah... Big. Bear.

Big arse bear with scars is SUPER intimidating buuuuut you saw him sitting in the sunlight with Inanna once, just napping in the sun. He looked so peaceful and so dang fluffy!!

He enjoys headpats and gets very flustered at belly rubs. He’s seen you do so to Inanna many times probably kinda wanting you to do the same to him though he would never willingly admit it.

When you two get closer expect to spend some time with his head in your lap. Pat his head rub his ears, Inanna may get jealous if you don’t also provide her attention

Just don’t let him fall asleep there, he’s gonna have a sore back later and you’re going to have numb legs.

Hunting, swimming, carrying you, this boy can do it all.

Unlike his usual(cannon) self, Muriel probably doesn’t carve any bear statures. The only one he’d have was probably a gift from Asra. Carves birds, bunnies, foxes, and wolves instead. Does NOT carve goats. Never have never will.

Again I hate to go int angst but Muriel probably wants to get his claws removed somehow. It’d hurt and it probably insanely unsafe, but they were used as weapons before and its one of the things on him that everyone is afraid of. If he could he’d probably try to change his teeth too.

Show him that claws aren’t something to be feared. They don’t have to be a weapon. They help him climb and hunt food and sometimes to even carve wood. Like humans and knives, his claws aren’t bad or inherently evil, and neither is he.

Giant. Teddy Bear. You will be getting hugs and falling asleep with a Giant Teddy Bear.

He probably keeps in his mostly human form though, because he stands out less that way and he looks a little less intimidating.

Short little bear tail on his butt. Plz don’t touch, he’s going to be blushing so hard if you do (let’s be honest, that’s all the more reason to do so)

In “Milady Just Wants to Relax” Beast-kin are feared as monsters and I don’t think it’d do Muriel any good to have to live with that kind of fear from everyone. However, when you come around un afraid and eager to provide head-pats, but patient enough to let him get comfortable with it, Muriel will probably start using less energy to try and glamour himself.

Sometimes he’s so caught up with you that when you go to the market together he forgets to cast a glamour. While some do get scared off most of the people who you buy from are only a little surprised and take things in stride. They still treat him like he’s human, and he’s forever grateful for that.

If I could write a beast-kin version of his route, the moment you and Muriel meet Morga is probably when you first realize he isn’t human. And it’s because Morga pointed it out.

“Why didn’t you fight? As a beast you’re stronger than them.”

He knows you’ve spent time with Asra but he probably assumed they kept it hidden from you most of the time.

Just love him please. Platonic or romantic doesn’t matter, just give him headpats and belly rubs and boop his nose. Keep him assured that you aren’t afraid of this giant teddy bear.

Lucio

We know of both first and second forms. They’re pretty much cannon, but just not a ghost.

Which means you finally get to pet the fluffy white fur.

This also means his horns can do an irritating amount of damage.

Also he’s so much more noisier now

*loud stupid goat noises*

It’s fun to make him bleat a lot. He tends to bleat when embarrassed. If you’re topping him expect a bleat every time you pin him to the wall.

Tries to butt heads with EVERYONE. Please stop him, Lucio is the only prey animal in the lineup!

Seriously, how has he survived this long?? Muriel is a bear! he could just.... chomp.

not that he would obviously, but I don’t think Asra would hesitate after what he’s done to you and his parents...

Portia too for that matter, if she realized that Lucio had forcefully given Julian the plague, Lucio would be forever running from a feral cat.

I know he’s probably skilled in fighting or whatever, enough to take down various fantastical beasts, but stiiiiiiilllll.....

Is it obvious I dislike Lucio?

Grouchy bias aside, Lucio is really good at climbing. Like I’m pretty sure he’s a sword fighter so just imagine him leaping onto ledges in order to get the high ground.

Still uses eyeliner. I don’t know how since he has fur sometimes, but yeah, he still somehow uses eyeliner.

Honestly he probably keeps in a mostly human form or just entirely human form for that reason exactly. It’s just easier to look good when he’s more human.

But if you wanna pet his luxurious fur then he is all but willing to take on his goat form. In fact, if he turns into his goat form around you (which is always) he pretty much expects you to brush his fur or just run your hands through his fur. He will whine very loudly if you don’t.

Spare everyone else’s ears (especially Nadia’s) and just give him the head pats.

[gravedangerahead]

I would like to talk about the adultification of marginalized teenagers (and even children), and why you shouldn't claim that having being oppressed, abused, traumatized and/or having had adult responsibilities pushed onto them at a young age makes someone more mature, making it okay for adults in their lives to treat them like they're full adults too.

Preface: There's no such a thing as unproblematic media, something having problematic elements doesn't mean it should be yeeted into a trashcan and has nothing of value to offer. Liking a thing in fiction doesn't mean endorsing it in reality. Fiction can affect reality, and media aimed at young audiences will logically be held to different standards, but no single piece of media is gonna come into your home and brainwash you all by itself. It's more a matter of the work reflecting and then amplifying things that are already part of the culture. Real people are always more important than fictional people and you should treat them accordingly when discussing these things.

However, when arguments used to defend an aspect of a fictional work can be copy-pasted wholesale to defend real situations (and are in fact used for that already), that does bother me. What I'm addressing here is a specific argument I'd like to see retired, because I believe it causes real harm. This is not an attempt to condemn people's tastes, or use real life tragedies as ammunition in fandom drama.

Tw: sexual abuse, racism

Fantastic racism and fictional systems of oppression never have a one-to-one correspondence to real life, but authors necessarily draw from the society they're in and reflect that, consciously or not. If you ever heard that "dystopia is white people saying what if that stuff happened to us" that's why. That means that both the way it's treated in the work and the way we discuss it can have real life implications.

So, what is adultification?

Adultification Can Take Two Essential Forms:

1. A process of socialization, in which children function at a more mature developmental stage because of situational context and necessity, especially in low-resource community environments; and

2. A social or cultural stereotype that is based on how adults perceive children “in the absence of knowledge of children’s behavior and verbalizations. This latter form of adultification, which is based in part on race, is the subject of this report.

Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood by REBECCA EPSTEIN, JAMILIA J. BLAKE and THALIA GONZÁLEZ- Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality. Available online for free.

If you haven't read it or need a refresher, Vampire Academy is a YA series where the protagonist, Rose Hathaway, is a half-vampire, being trained to be a Guardian. As a dhampir, her society imposes on her the duty of protecting mortal vampires, the Moroi, against the undead evil vampires, the Strigoi. Rose's best friend, Lissa, is a Moroi princess and she very much wants to be her Guardian and protect her, but throughout the series it is made clear that the treatment of dhampirs is highly unfair. Rose is 17 for a large chunk of the series, and she's forced into a lot of tragic situations, she's an excellent fighter and kills a lot of Strigoi, but not without losing people and suffering trauma.

At a young age, Dhampirs take on immense responsibility, are taught to put their charges' lives ahead of their own, giving up their youth and autonomy. Dhampir girls and women are hypersexualized, exotified and disrespected, being mostly responsible for keeping their species going and looked down on for doing that at the same time.

Of course that specific system of fantasy oppression does not exist. But as you can see in the study quoted above, the phenomenon of adultification is not something that's exclusive to the VA universe. While it might seem very far removed from the reality of teens who have some level of privilege, particularly if they're first worlders, being forced to shoulder adult responsibilities, being denied the formative experiences of a carefree youth, being exposed to extreme violence and even forced to perpetrate it, having to leave home and take care of themselves, and many other traumas and oppressions are the lived reality of a lot of young people.

When those young people are perceived as more adult than they actually are, they are often denied the protection and nourishment they need and deserve due to the adult-like stereotypes assigned to them.

These stereotypical characteristics include sexual maturity, possession of agency to make important life decisions and the ability to be criminally responsible for their conduct.

(E)racing Childhood: Examining the Racialized Construction of Childhood and Innocence in the Treatment of Sexually Exploited Minors by Priscilla A. Ocen,also available online.

Minors who went through extreme circumstances are no less deserving of nurturing and protection than others, and neither are minors belonging to groups who have expectations of maturity pushed onto them, but they are often perceived differently. Trauma can come with a pseudo-maturity, but it doesn't rush you through developmental stages.

Adultification is a form of dehumanization that has very harmful consequences to real people.

One of the most dramatic ways that dhampirs were adultified in the books is the age law, an attempt to lower the age in which they become Guardians to 16, essentially hoping to use teens as living shields and cutting their youth short. Rose's experiences holding her own in fights against Strigoi at age 17 are used to defend the validity of this idea, even though she's horrified by it herself. Rose believes they should have a right to those last years of teenhood, both to prepare and to live.

The discussion around that law never seemed like a far-fetched idea completely detached from the real world to me personally, because around the same time there was an attempt to lower the age of criminal responsibility in my country to 16, which of course involveld a lot of biases around race and class. In fact much of what I expressed in this post comes from being exposed to a decade of debates against reactionaries while I was in school and later studying law, in which experts tried to convince the public that minors are a protected category for a reason, since they are at a different developmental stage, and that the extreme circunstances they might be placed in don't make them adults.

Another big way in which this type of bias harms minors is the perception of sexual maturity.

In the context of the commercial sexual exploitation of children, gendered and racialized biases against Black girls cast them as more mature and thus as possessing more agency over their sexuality than their white counterparts. They are viewed as “street smart,” less dependent on adults, and less vulnerable to adult manipulation or abuse. (Ocen)

While the fandom seems to mostly understand that the age law was wrong, there are some arguments that Rose's circunstances gave her the capacity to consent to a sexual and romantic relationship with her adult instructor that I've seen used by several people now.

I find that very troubling due to the real life implications of these arguments. I'm sure these people are very well meaning, and obviously I don't think anybody was defending all of this, but I don't think there's any way to say "she's mature for her age because she went through a lot" or "her society makes girls like her shoulder a lot of responsibility, and therefore she has a higher ability to consent to sex than other girls her age" that doesn't validate these harmful biases in some way.

Compared to white girls of the same age, survey participants perceive that • Black girls need less nurturing • Black girls need less protection • Black girls need to be supported less • Black girls need to be comforted less • Black girls are more independent • Black girls know more about adult topics • Black girls know more about sex (From the Georgetown Law study)

Some of the people making this argument seem to think that the fantasy racism, adult responsibility and exposure to violence that this character suffers are very far removed from reality, created wholesale for the sake of world building. As exposed above, that isn't the case, there are very real counterparts. And in fact, some other people were directly making the argument using real life examples.

Marginalized or abused people are aways forced to grow up faster and shoulder too much responsibility for their age, and that in no way makes them adults. It makes them more vulnerable to manipulation not less. They not only don't require any less protection, they are the ones who are most likely to be victimized.

Perpetuating the idea that those kids who are in the most vulnerable positions in society, and are forced to somewhat give up their childhood, are more mature and therefore it's okay for grown adults to take advantage of them is a problem.

If anybody actually read all this, thank you very much, and I hope I didn't sound aggressive. It's just a subject I find very important. And I truly don't think shipping something means you endorse it in real life, I just don't like to see that argument spread. Ship what you ship.

Of course fantasy racism isn't the only type that is pertinent to analysis of Rose's character, the word exotic is used to describe her and directly linked to her Turkish heritage quite a lot, but that's a whole other can of worms.

For English language sources those articles I cited are quite good, and there are some good videos I could rec.

[travllingbunny]

Tribes of Europa, season 1 - thoughts

I finished season 1 of German post-apocalyptic Netflix drama Tribes of Europa a couple of days ago, and I have... lots of thoughts and mixed feelings.

It's a standard post-apocalyptic show with all the usual tropes, but mostly well done, and has potential. I ended up liking it better than I expected, mostly because one of the storylines (Kiano’s) turned out to be pretty good/interesting.

The main problem of the show is that most characters, so far, don't have a lot of depth. An exception is a female villain who has proven to be quite complex and interesting. On the other hand, while  I loved seeing Oliver Masucci, in a role completely different from Ulrich Nielsen, and he's great and charismatic, I feel like I've seen the exact same lovable rogue-turned-mentor character a dozen times in various shows and movies. The main trio of young protagonists have the potential for interesting character development, but it remains to be seen what saason 2 does with it.

At least there's one thing that makes the show different than most post-apocalyptic shows I'm aware of - I can't think of any others that take place on the European continent? Usually it's North America, Australia, or UK. So, that's interesting... But then, after I finished it, I started thinking a bit more about some of the elements of the worldbuilding, which are a bit... questionable? I'm reserving judgment till these things are explained.

Spoilers under the cut.

In the first episode, the show did the GoT thing of introducing us to a likable family and then having siblings separated by fate and trying to get back together, while having different storylines. But they should've spent a bit more time with them together and explaining their history.

The show also does that thing where the siblings look nothing like each other and are played by actors of different ethnic origins, so I was waiting to hear they were half-siblings or some other explanation, but there was none. Well, OK then.

One thing I wasn't crazy about is that Kiano had a girlfriend we saw for about 20 seconds and then she apparently got killed for no particular reason. I can't say it's even fridging, since he never even mentions her afterwards and he has a lot of other reasons to hate the Crows.

But Kiano's storyline turned out to be the most interesting , and most disturbing, the kind that can make or break the show, depending on how it deals with issues like slavery, rape, trauma. So far, the show has dealt with it well, which made me like the show more than I thought. (It definitely beats The 100 - a show it was the 100 in the Netflix promo campaign - in that respect. I was already scared it would do something similar to The 100, which really dropped the ball when it touched on such issues in a really clumsy way in season 3.)

Lord Varvara has turned out to be the most interesting and compelling character, and excellently played by Melika Foroutan. (I wish I could say the same about the Crows’ big boss, Yvar - but whether it is mostly due to the OTT costume and makeup or the similarly OTT acting, I had a hard time taking this guy seriously.) She is not exactly morally grey - she is definitely a villain, slaver rapist and murderer, but her role as a former slave - a victim of abuse turned abuser, and someone who upholds the ideas of Social Darwinism - makes her role very interesting and ambiguous. I think that (especially based on some hints) that she used to be a sex slave, too, and if she was also made to be a Crow by her former slave master, that would probably mean Yvar used to be her master. That could lead to some interesting tension and conflicts, as she probably hates this guy deep inside, but still has to vie for his approval, even now that she has “made it”.  And she sees to see something in Kiano that makes her think they are similar, that he is 'strong' like she thinks she is (on the other hand, she despised her other slave who had a huge Stockholm Syndrome for her).

I'm curious how they deal with Kiano's character development next season, and how far into moral greyness or darkness it will be willing to go with him. Varvara is a blueprint of what he could become.  He didn't exactly show much concern for the lives of other slaves, except his father.  

Liv's storyline was also pretty interesting. with her navigating the political issues of the Crimsons. I liked that the Crimsons as a whole turned out to be more morally grey than I initially expected - with their strict military discipline to the point of authorianism and lack of tolerance for dissent. 

I don't know if the show expected me to side with the general (aka "Father") or think his views were right, as Liv did? I did not.. "Let's make peace and unity with slavers"? No, dude. But I’ll go with the idea that we are not necessarily supposed to side with him rather than David just because Liv did; or that a third option may be found (such as causing a rebellion among the Crows themselves, which would be my preferred direction of that storyline). 

(I also rolled my eyes whenever he started going on about "old European dream" or whatever he called it. No, my dude, you need to brush up on your history. Your plan is nothing like the EU, unless your plan is to go and deliver a bunch of demands to the Crows:  "Unless you guys: abolish slavery; ensure human rights for everyone; install a viable non-slavery based economy etc.. - we're not letting you into our new unified Europe!" He also may needed to be reminded EU was formed after Axis powers were defeated.)

I've heard that a lot of people didn't like Elja's storyline because they found it the least interesting, and sure, it wasn't very emotional and didn't have much character development, but I'm very curious about the mystery of the Black December, the Atlantians etc. so I liked it.  And I liked the fact that Elja wasn't a naive kid and could deceive people and keep secrets when he needed to.

But there are certain problems I have with the show’s world-building... which, at its worse, may end up being just as problematic as The 100′s was.

While I like the idea of a post-apocalyptic show set in continental Europe, and with languages other than English - almost all of the characters are only speaking German or English (the latter, I guess, for the same reason it's widespread today - people speak it as a second language and use it to communicate). We should really see more people who speak other languages. So far, that’s only happened sporadically - but my problem is more with the fact that the most villainous tribe, Crows (murderous, slave-owning Eurotrash-like villains with very Social Darwinist views) -  even though they speak German or English 99% of the time - very notably use certain words from Slavic languages - and only for specific terms like "lubovnik" ('lover' - actually sex slave), "boi" (fight/battle), "svobodnik" (free man?). These were very recognizable. I have no idea what "Bozie" means, but I read somewhere it comes from Russian. What's supposed to be the backtory behind that? Sure, I am for more language diversity, but did a German show have to give the kind of barbaric-version-of-fascist villains these questionable Slavic references?  That would be uncomfortable in so many ways.... It's not just Slavs, because another notable Crow character, Grieta at some point used Romanian (and the actress is Romanian), but I hope they're not going with the Evil Barbaric Eastern Europeans here. To be fair, many Crows were clearly slaves at the beginning, which complicates things... but Varvara says her real name - slave name - was Sophia, which could be anything - while her Crow names is Varvara - which definitely sounds Russian or Bulgarian (or, I guess, it could be Greek).

On the other side, opposed to the Crows, we have the more “civilized” tribe/army of former Eurocorps, whose members have so far only been heard speaking English, German and, at one point, Dutch - curiously called Red Crimson Army (!), I have so many questions...

Another questionable thing, pointed by the host of the Culture Cave YouTube podcast, who did an overall favorable review of the show, howeverpointed out that the Crows - the villains - are the only ones who don't conform to gender roles? And the males who are the most 'effeminate' looking are baddies. I didn’t even think of that initially, but thinking about it... yes, it has been like that so far, hasn’t it?

I’m reserving judgment till next season, but I only used to give The 100 the benefit of doubt with its questionable world-building, and we know how that turned out.

[kamalahkhan]

I’m going to say some stuff that’s been on my mind for sometime: I’m scared to produce content the way I want to. 

I’m scared of how people will view what I put out there, afraid that they will misunderstand and my writing and misjudge me based on the content I produce.

The words: Abusive, toxic, abuse apologist, and a few others have been frequently tossed around as of late. While these are valid criticisms to make of any content I find that these criticisms are (more now than ever), being placed on content that is disliked by the person critiquing it and not, instead, used for any actual critiquing. Meaning that there is no criticism happening at all, no constructive way of breaking down harmful content. Instead it is slapping on the word abuse and walking away because you didn’t like how an author portrayed a specific character.

You may disagree with the choices a character made and that is fine. However your disagreement does not make the piece of media you’re consuming ultimately bad and ready to be written off entirely as ‘problematic’. You are not the creator of the content you are critiquing (unless you actually are but that’s another argument). A creator may have a reason in mind for the actions of a character, your disapproval is seen but this is the creators work and ultimately their decision for how the story and the characters arc, should progress.

Disagreements with the actions of a character do not equal problematic/harmful content. Something written to romanticize or stereotype a certain group of people, is harmful content worthy of criticism but disliking a character’s actions is not reason enough to write off an entire piece of media as 'wrong’.

For example, a woman, who is a lesbian, has to choose between saving her wife, who is bisexual, and their adopted son. She chooses to save her son.

Her choosing to save her son over her wife does not make her biphobic, it does not make the creator biphobic. This is a plot point, her choosing her son is a plot point and not a reason to label the creator as biphobic.

Now could this be labeled as biphobic if the character was killed off not for a plot point and without reason, or perhaps because the other wanted to say something against bisexuals. Absolutely, and in those cases your criticisms would be valid. But if it is just a plot point, if it is just a way to make the character experience a sense of loss or make a difficult choice, then that is what it is. You may look deeper, you may analyze why that specific choice was made and why it was the son over her wife, but that choice does not automatically brand someone a biphobe.

If a movie depicts a toxic and/or abusive relationship between lgbtq+ characters, can you criticize it? Yes you can when the abuse or a power imbalance or both, is being romanticized. Abuse exists in lgbtq+ relationships and honest portrayals can be powerful to watch or to read. An honest portrayal without a romanticism aspect to it, is simply a story about abusive relationships and you can criticize how the relationship was written and how the abuse was portrayed (all valid things to criticize) but you shouldn’t write everything off as romanticization. Not every relationship has a happy ending.

If a child gets to know that their parent is actually a rapist and is unable to deal with the reality or denies the reality, then that child is not a rape apologist. They are experiencing grief, they are going through trauma, and they are struggling to understand that the person they have cared for and who has cared for them, has an entirely different side to them than previously known. A person of any age can go through such similar form of trauma and can try and block out traumatic experiences. Of course there are ways that this could be written that would make the character a rape apologist and again, the criticism of this would be understandable. But you have to look past the plot point and at the story as a whole to understand the difference.

This post is not about ableist horror movies like Split, for example, in which DID is painted as the reason the character is a villain or a film like. This post is also not about movies that romanticize abuse/disguise it as BDSM such as the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise or 365 Days. If you watched or read Fifty Shades of Grey or 365 Days and liked it, thats okay. But you try to formulate your view of the real world through such content then that is absolutely not okay.

What this post is about is the careful consumption and criticism of content. It is looking at the elements as a whole rather than focusing on a singular detail without seeing it as a part of a plot.

Critiquing content for romanticizing certain topics vs portraying them in a realistic way that sheds light on the subject are two different things and should be treated as such. People should be more aware of what/how they are criticizing content because whether or not they like something is not the same as - this topic was written/shown in a poor way and elevates/perpetuates stereotypes.

If I have misspoken in any way feel free to add on and educate me. My word should not be taken at face value and I know that there will always be more to learn. This is simply my perspective at this time.

[Additions provided + edited by @locke-writes]

[thewooreview]

how to smoke clear (aka smudge...)

Smoke has long been used as a form of alchemy to amplify your intentions. Incense burns and lifts prayers on altars in temples, mosques and churches everywhere. Burning sage has become so en vogue that you can buy bundles next to cell phone cases in large chain retailers.

Smoke clearing is often referred to as smudging by Westerns, but they’re not the same thing.

smoke clearing is not the same as smudging

While smoke clearing is ancient and universal, it’s not the same as smudging, a traditional Aboriginal practice. Calling your practice smudging if you are not Aboriginal is disrespectful.

Smudging involves a specific ceremony and treatment of the plant medicine, including keeping it away from alcohol and intoxicated people as well as menstruating women, who overpower the medicine while embodying their ability to bring life into the world. My close Metis friend of Cree heritage explained that she would never buy this medicine from a store, because she wouldn’t know how it had been treated or by who and was taught to give an offering to receive it (suck it consumerism).

On a visit to local spiritual shop the Good Spirit which sells sage and sweet grass, I was lucky to have a passing conversation with shop owner and 2013 National Aboriginal Entrepreneur of the Year Savannah Olsen when I asked for her perspective on the cultural appropriation of smudging. She mentioned that she’s First Nations and that the cultural appropriating of ‘smudging’, which Aboriginal people’s have been persecuted for and evicted from apartments for practicing, is comparable to white women wearing braids after a history of marginalizing black women for theirs. (Solange sings ‘Don’t touch my hair’.)

Savannah also referenced the difference between smoke clearing and smudging illustration, which I had serendipitously found shared in the comments of a post about DIY smudge bundles (again, problematic naming convention but is that only depending on who creates the bundle?)

ethical harvesting of white buffalo sage

I’ve also read contradicting arguments that white buffalo sage is over harvested and now endangered. There was an excellent Strange Magic podcast episode on creating an inclusive tarot practice in which Many Moons author Sarah Faith Gottesdiener discussed why she no longer uses sage in her practice.

Cultural smoke clearing practices use herbs native to their regions. The commercialization of sage for global consumption has caused problems of over harvesting due to the demand for it. I’ve also read that Aboriginal peoples had free access to the plant medicines which were abundant to their regions, so threatening its livelihood due to unethical harvesting is also an issue.

Honestly, I burn sage in my practice and intend on selling it at a flea market next year; however, I burn one leaf instead of an entire bundle. This is all you need (and thank you to Betsy Lafae for teaching me this through her always uplifting Instagram account.) You’d be surprised how much smoke one leaf creates and how long it will take you to use a small amount if you practice this way.

when to smoke clear

Here are some recommended time to smoke clear:

when moving into a new home/space

when starting a new job or venture

before / after guests are in your space (home and office)

before / after a yoga or healing session (I burn it before I go into a float pod)

before meditation (my goal is to do this every morning, starting with a sage leaf makes it extra special)

post argument or any illness

when coming home from crowded spaces

free your mind first

If you’re going to send your hopes and dreams out into the universe, you want to clear out your own energy and the vibes in the space around you to prevent anything unwelcome from creeping in.

Be sure to smoke clear with intent. Decide why you're taking this ritual time to be present with yourself. Are you clearing your space of energy or giving yourself a reset, focussing on your intentions and goals for the future, or simply enjoying a meditative moment?

Before you begin, take some deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth, clear your mind of any worries, and imagine connecting yourself to the earth with roots growing from your feet or the base of your spine before beginning. You can also meditate before the ritual.

tools you'll need

At the very least, you'll need some dried plants or herbs to burn and a way to light them on fire. Some people use a shell bowl to hold the lit element, and a feather wand to fan the smoke around into all of the corners, closets and crannies. These tools represent all four elements - earth (plant matter), air (feather), fire (lit ember), water (shell).

herbs to burn

Choose an herb that has properties to support your intention, you can also combine to amplify specific intentions.

sage - clearing energy (remember: one leaf will do it, you don't need a bundle)

palo santo - blessing, healing, calling in guides

cedar - evergreen and strong, use for security, structure and support

juniper - clarification, protection and purification

mugwort - to signal arrivals and departures, or to create movement

lavender - to clear and uplift, or to relax

rose - for love, luck, grief or healing intentions

sweet grass - for peace and healing

If you want to do a thorough clear and protection of your space, start at the front door and work counter clockwise through the space, moving the smudge smoke counter clockwise at any doors. Focus on clearing energy in this direction. Repeat going clockwise around the space and again at each doorway to welcome in new energy and intentions. You can also say this cleansing prayer, either in thought or out loud.

enjoy the vibes you’ve created

I made the realization today that almost everyone I'm close with in my life at this point is spiritual in some way. The link between happiness and connection to something greater has been scientifically studied. I like to give a podcast a listen for inspo after a smoke clearing session. It's a great way to fill your space with positive vibes and intentions.

My fave podcasts to listen to for good vibes include:

Dream Freedom Beauty by Natalie Ross

Strange Magic by Sarah Faith Gottesdiener, Amanda Yates Garcia, + Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs

Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations, featuring a huge range of talented people talking about their connection to spirit

Tarot for the Wild Soul with Lindsay Mack

Photo by Brit Gill

[ginmo]

this discussion about jaime and consent makes me worried about the jb bang scene (if we ever get one lol.) like, what if it's written the grrm way? what if one of them forces it and the other is like "no no" but then they're enthusiastically saying "yes yes"? I hate GRRM.

Before I respond to this I want to firmly establish that I’m speaking from what I believe to be GRRM’s perspective and his intent based on pattern recognition in the text. I’m stepping into his shoes and explaining it from the writer’s side. My opinions about the style itself aren't relevant and aren't included.

K. Moving on. 

He doesn’t write all sex scenes like that, and he already established that Jaime isn’t one-dimensional when it comes to sex. We have a hint that points to how he’d treat her during their first sex scene: 

“If you bed her, though, be kind to her.” 

“Kind, my lord? How … how would I …?”

 “Sweet words. Gentle touches. You don’t want to wed her, but so long as you’re abed treat her as you would your bride.” - ADWD

If later on in his relationship with Brienne he tries that type of play and she doesn’t like it, he’d get that it isn’t her thing. 

“There’s no harm in him bedding her, I suppose, so long as she’s willing.” -AFFC 

Jaime isn’t going to be pushing for sex with Brienne… He wouldn’t assume it’s her kink… And yes, GRRM writes it as a sex play kink. Jaime and Cersei engaged in it, because that was what they liked together. It played into their intoxicating forbidden love narrative. The trope has an element of feeling power through being sexually irresistible to the men they want to bed. “You just had to have me” is a turn on. “No we’ll get caught” is a turn on. “No, no” -guides his hand to touch her- -hits chest with feeble fists- -weakly protests- “hurry yes do me now yes yes” It’s written as a game of Hard to Get that the lover is clued in on. It could be debated whether that kind of sex play is problematic or not, but for the narrative it’s written as sex play, not rape or dubious consent for either character.

If we ever see that dynamic with Jaime and Brienne, the intent would be consenting sex play. A kink. And if it isn’t her thing, either GRRM just… won’t write it, or he’ll have Brienne strongly get the message across that it isn’t her type of play, he’ll get the hint, he’ll learn what works for her and what doesn’t, and... that’ll end that. 

When enabling pattern recognition though, we see the no/yes more applied to forbidden love couples when the forbidden aspects are heavy on the woman. Ex: 

Asha and Qarl ([x]) 

Taena and her secret lover

Jaime and Cersei (they have it forbidden on three accounts: Kingsguard, twins, and Cersei is married. But most of the Exciting Forbidden Scare factor was placed on Cersei, because she’s the Queen and it’s way more socially unacceptable for women to engage in affairs)

(I’m not listing Dany and Drogo because he asked her and she said yes and there was no Faux Resistance, so it’s a bit different. And I probably missed other examples that weren’t forbidden love, but my point is that he tends to go heavy on the trope more for those who do fit into that category)

The type of forbidden love I’m referring to ties into an element of literal danger. That’s... not Brienne, and that isn’t the Jaime and Brienne dynamic. 

I’m convinced by the time Jaime and Brienne bone, they’ll either be married or he’ll be removed from the Kingsguard. There wouldn’t be a forbidden situation for them at any point in their relationship, so going off pattern recognition, if GRRM were to write that sex play dynamic with Jaime and Brienne, to the extent he did with those listed above, it would be Forbidden Love. 

But that won’t happen for several reasons: 

1. To be forbidden, Jaime would have to still be in the Kingsguard when they bone. The genders would be reversed in their situation, so Brienne would be the one pushing while he’s still in the Kingsguard to get the, “no no I can’t,” considering where he currently is in his character development with sticking to vows. And I mean… do I really have to explain how ooc that would be for the Maid of Tarth?)

2. Jon/Ygritte and Sam/Gilly are technically forbidden love dynamics as well since Jon and Sam made oaths. But it’s more socially acceptable for sworn men to take a woman, so there isn’t the No We Can’t We’ll Be Caught excitement there as there is for a woman. The sex play dynamic is a bit different… There's a very small protest with Sam, saying “we can’t,” but that stems from his actual dilemma with making oaths and isn’t sex play. Jaime already had been sleeping with a woman throughout his years as a member of the Kingsguard, and it’s not unusual or looked down upon for Kingsguard men to sleep with women. Again, the Exciting Scare factor isn’t the same, so GRRM won’t use it the same way. If he were to write a scene between Jaime and Brienne after they’ve already boned many times, it would probably be structured more like Sam’s. With one person saying, “not now” or “I can’t,” because they’re busy or whatever reason. The other kisses them, and it’s consenting from then on. It’s not really a form of sex play.

3. Most of the JC Forbidden thrill wasn’t because he was breaking Kingsguard oaths, but because they were twins and it was an affair and in their eyes they were meant to be together but were kept apart. That’s not Jaime and Brienne. At all. Jaime will be experiencing an entirely different kind of love with different sex dynamics with a very different woman who will have different kinks and who he’ll have different sex play with. That would be intentional. It’s not saying one type is better than the other, but Brienne is literally written to be the opposite of Cersei, so I’m assuming the author will write contrasting sex scene(s). 

[paradife-loft]

1&2 for general, ships, characters & story

General

1. If you had to join a sect, which would you join?

Ahahaha oh, oh no, the difficult question!!! *covers face*

Tbh I would. join the Lan sect and then be like, the most problematic Lan ever to Lan XD (”But James, don’t you have a reflexive fight me!!! response to rules and authority....?” yes maybe so shush now that’s why I said problematic.)

Like the thing is. I DO like being a nerd, and I DO like the idea of cultivating with music certainly moreso than with swords look I do not enjoy physical exertion a lot of the time, and I semi-regularly become full of emotion and start wailing to whoever’s nearby about wanting to live in somewhere as beautiful as the Cloud Recesses??? It is SO lovely there. Also the only other option I was considering, the Jiang, tbh gives me the impression that I would die miserably of humidity in Yunmeng sooooo :/

But also for real I am... a lot more chill with following rules when I agree with them about their purpose being to better you ethically and also to form a cohesive community, and I’ve chosen to adhere to them by my own will? Uhh, demonstrably lmao. But yeah I’d definitely still be Arguing about things and eating hot peppers in Caiyi town and playing the “it’s not really drinking if you neutralise the alcohol” game ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

2. Your three favorite characters?

*lies dramatically on the ground* How am I supposed to pick just threeeeee???

But ok, so, Jin Guangyao, and then *spins the roulette wheel for today’s picks* probably Lan Xichen and Wei Wuxian, averaged out?? But I have a lot of feelings about Everyone ;u;

Ships

1. What’s your OTP?

*chinhands* Surely we all know this by now :P

2. What’s your NOTP? Or any other ship you hate?

Uhhhhh hhhhhhh hahaha ngl I usually feel guilty talking about notps in public??? Probably bc often as not it’s more about “90% of the content I see in the fandom is relatively fluffy and/or mundane and/or lacking in meaty conflict and therefore bores me to tears” oops.

But I will say tbh that I have a pretty visceral unhappy NOPE reaction to LXC/NHS in. Probably 95% of contexts ever. Unless I feel particularly into reading, like, sex-as-self-harm fic on any given day, lmao.

Characters

1. If you could date any character from MDZS, who would you pick?

Lol, none of them.

2. If you had to kill a character, who would you kill?

Save a sex worker or POW, toss JGS off a cliff :) (predictable answer but hey) (I mean, this is distinct from an answer to “who would I kill at a point in the story prior to their actual death,” but. I would be remiss at existing if I didn’t take the opportunity to say I would kill JGS given the slightest excuse.)

Story

1. If you could make one major story change, what change would you make? Why?

Ahhhh, hell. Actually, you know what? I would slightly revamp Qin Su’s character to have her be aware of her parentage since roughly the same time as JGY is, and have them both separately keeping that a secret from one another for roughly the same reasons. She’s disturbed by the letter from Bicao simply because of the implications around someone wanting to make this knowledge public. (On the other hand: she DOES still ask JGY about how Rusong died, and IS still angry and horrified by the attitude he takes to that question and the implication that he was the one who orchestrated that death, because wtf just because his parents were siblings doesn’t mean he should have been anything other than a happy, perfectly loved, alive child??? Get a fucking grip!)

...And then I think. if she does still end up dying* then it’s probably gonna be directly NHS’s fault, in this context? Because “oh okay I was not expecting her to be chill with that, that’s an unpleasant surprise; well I still gotta ruin JGY’s marriage somehow SHRUG”. But on the other hand I really really don’t love all the women dying, so maybe instead he just reveals her complicity publicly and destroys her reputation and turns her into a pariah? :/ Which is still unpleasant but at least isn’t. death.

Anyway the reason why is like. Partially just aesthetic preferences!! I like “morally questionable power couple” much better than I like “evil dude and morally pure innocent victim wife”. (I in fact very much dislike the latter. Looking @ u, late Numenor.) And also partially - I very much like the additional resonance of “JGY underestimates he sweet and kind people around him and doesn’t notice that they can also have sneaky ruthless streaks” that this would add re: Huaisang? While also for that matter foreshadowing the Huaisang reveal?

And, yeah, a lot of other changes I would “like” to make, honestly fall more into the genre of “things I would like as fix-it fics” rather than changes I want to make to the base story, because so many of the pieces I’ve gone “augh but what if that were different!” are just. structurally important to MDZS’s tragic and other thematic elements. Messing with this aspect to Qin Su’s story doesn’t have to make the base plot non-tragic, but does improve on a few issues I have with e.g. morally polarised female characters who all die anyway.

2. Which character would you bring back to life?

!!???!!? when are we talking, here! in what fashion?

....okay, so for the sake of not making my head explode with potential options, I’m going to limit this to cases of characters who are 100% confirmed dead, being brought back either as a fierce corpse or via sacrifice-summon, generally within the main timeline of the story (i.e. not several decades post-canon).

And of that set under those conditions, I’m gonna pick Jiang Yanli. Look. I LOVE the possibilities of fierce corpse!Jiang Yanli. As a scenario it’s both incredibly fucked up but also the possibilities for really emotional reconciliation between all three Yunmeng siblings in the present timeline??? Logistically I think this would have to take place in a bookverse-style “LWJ carries WWX off to the burial mounds post-Nightless City battle” situation... so like, in a fit of practically qi-deviating rage-grief, WWX reanimates JYL’s corpse right as she dies, a la Wen Ning? and then part of what he’s doing, half out of his mind, during the missing time in the Burial Mounds is working on bringing her spiritual consciousness to put back in there.

........there’s definitely more logistics to be worked out, most notably “where is she during the intervening decade?” but. I love the idea of Jiang Cheng’s anger being not only “you killed my sister” but also “YOU TURNED MY SISTER INTO A FUCKING ZOMBIE”. I love the idea of, eventually, her being ACTUALLY PRESENT to express some of her own opinions and feelings on how WWX & JC fighting over her death (& fierce corpse status) is rly fucked up. make them deal with her as an actual person who’s inconvenient in her wants and needs and willingness to always extend a hand to others, not just a place to hang all their messy emotions on! give her eventually a chance to bond with Jin Ling, and the awkwardness and grief about how much of his life she missed, interspersed with “!!!!! I get to have this back! feelings!”

Because also just in general, I’d really love to have her around to interact with all the characters in their fucked-up “one timeskip later” iterations, and her perma-dying really just robs us of that chance and it’s very rude!

Bonus: holy fuck what would it be like for all her talents and skills and weaknesses to suddenly be completely reversed? Extremely physically strong and capable now! But more likely to scare people than charm them. Can she still, like, taste food properly? Who knows. But wouldn’t THAT be a juicy situation to explore for her! :O

[ravenbell-exchange]

Here come the prompts!

These are for all of us to use, so please feel free to peruse, reblog, explore, comment, and be generally delightful. Everyone will be receiving their assigned prompts later today, but remember that we are writing two stories each: one from the assigned prompts, and one from this list. You are free to pick anything apart from stuff you yourself prompted. There haven’t been any Dear Author letters I’ve spotted so far, so I’ve included some additional crossover prompts from people here, just for ease of reference. You absolutely don’t have to pick them - there’s just there in case you want them!

If you didn’t sign up for this challenge, but want to use any of the prompts below to write a fic – go for it! As long as you make sure to credit where you got the prompt from, you are very welcome to play with us.

Now, without further ado:

1.

Url: @autobot

Prompt 1: Sports AU: Bellamy and Raven flirt while their respective teams yell at them to get their head in the game.

Prompt 2: Delinquent Winter: It's snowing, so the delinquents decide to start a snowball fight. Raven and Bellamy really go at each other. Bellamy ends up getting a cut on his lip from an icy snowball, and Raven decides to remedy that with a kiss.

Prompt 3: Season 7: This is pretty vague but just anything with the relationship Bellamy/Raven/Doucette, with Bellamy having had separate relationships with the other two in the past.

Prompt 4 (optional variation on 1): HP AU: Bellamy and Raven flirt while their respective Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Quidditch teams yell at them to get their head in the game.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Momma didn't raise no wussy "N/A"

Also: Have seen all 7 seasons.

2.

Url: @growlereish

Prompt 1: post mount weather road trip. monty, miller, lincoln, gina, octavia, harper welcome to come too. maybe they find a bunch of cars and the delinquents take off into the sunset together. maybe it's just bellamy and raven exploring the world together.

Prompt 2: au where they're on a sports team together. any sport, the sport is not important, it's about the Team As Family and the Narratives

Prompt 3: fantasy au or canon + fantasy elements

Prompt 4: relationship negotiation / exploration

Prompt 5: anything from the expansive list of likes on my dear creator letter: https://growlery.dreamwidth.org/11097.html

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: somnophilia; humiliation, especially as a kink; d/s that's about punishment; discussion of diets/nutrition plans/exercise regimens/body maintenance/weight management/etc

Also: Have seen up to + including 3x08

3.

Url: @kinetic-elaboration​

Prompt 1: High school AU: Bellamy and Raven are exes, but Raven is still good friends with Octavia, so they still see each other all the time

Prompt 2: Bellamy/Raven/Gina negotiating/figuring out a poly relationship in Arkadia pre-S3

Prompt 3: Braven + First real, heavy snow on the ground (canon or canon-divergent AU)

Prompt 4: Librarian!Bellamy and Mechanic!Raven

Prompt 5: Modern AU: Bellamy, Raven, and author's choice other delinquents living in a cramped apartment together; Raven and Bellamy are either struggling with UST or in a secret relationship or FWB arrangement

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: pregnancy/kid fic of any sort; side/background Minty, Marper, or Clexa; explicit sex (implied/fade to black/generically described is ok); character bashing of any kind

Also: Have seen season 1-4 (really do not want to write/read anything related to the timeskip on, please!).  I'm not really into the Grounders generally; I love the delinquents; I headcanon Raven as bisexual but Bellamy as straight.

4.

Url: @justbecauseyoubelievesomething​

Prompt 1: Sci-fi/Space AU where Bellamy and Raven serve on the same ship; (fr)enemies to lovers with lots of angst along the way! Time loop/travel or interdimensional travel shenanigans would be appreciated as well!

Prompt 2: Dark Fairytale/Fantasy AU; very dark, stormy, foresty vibes; one of them is some sort of mythical creature, maybe even ruler of other mythical creatures; dark forbidden romance; for lots of bonus angst, one of them can be a magical creature hunter and reveal themselves at the end!

Prompt 3: Canonverse Ark AU; Bellamy and Raven meet as adults on the Ark because they both join the same secret revolutionary group planning to overthrow Alpha Station; other Delinquents can definitely make appearances!

Prompt 4: Modern AU; one of the two is driving through a small town trying to get home for Christmas when their car breaks down and they are forced to take it to the town's only mechanic; they snark at each other before the mechanic invites the stranded party to Christmas dinner; found family; fluff; basically you're typical Hallmark-esque set-up.

Prompt 5: Any setting! Bellamy and Raven are rivals in some sort of extreme sport (or if set in canonverse can be something like spacewalking). They're constantly pushing each other to their limits trying to beat each other, until Raven permanently injures her leg. She becomes very bitter during her recovery until she realizes that Bellamy isn't competing anymore and confronts him. Maybe feelings come out right away or maybe it takes them a while to get around to realizing it, but lots of angst and hurt/comfort during the build-up!

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Explicit smut; pregnancy/kid fic; incest; student/teacher; character bashing of any other characters

Also: Have seen seasons 1-6 and the first half of season 7.

5.

Url: @ravenbells

Prompt 1: Raven discovering and enjoying the fact that Bellamy is a huge history nerd (can be canon, modern or some kind of fantasy/sci-fi setting).

Prompt 2: Modern AU. Raven is sharing a flat with friends, but one of them has to move out because of Reasons, and Bellamy rents the freed up room. Doesn’t have to be set in the US if you don’t want to, I don’t care that it’s an American show.

Prompt 3: Grounder AU, but set in the past. Bellamy and Raven were children when the nukes that caused the Ark to stay in space for generations went off. Now they are they first generation of survivors who have to build a life in a world without technology.

Prompt 4: Steampunk AU. Can be traditional Victorian-aesthetic steampunk, but if you want to lift your visuals from any other time period, be my guest. I’m going to love anything you do.

Prompt 5: Bellamy and Raven are exes who get back together (can be canon or any AU setting you can imagine).

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Graphic violence

Also: Have only seen the first 2 seasons, please have mercy. If you want to incorporate the characters playing DnD into any of the stories, be my guest - just putting this in here because I know some people in the group love it (Bellamy would play a paladin, fight me), but if you’re not into this stuff, absolutely don’t feel obliged.

6.

Url: shortitude @ AO3

Prompt 1: Modern coffee-shop AU where they meet because both of them has a Specific Table they like to sit at and usually their schedules do not coincide, but then because of fate (someone's wi-fi broke, there's plumbing work happening at home, etc) they have to go to the coffee shop and their table is taken, as are all the others. Luckily, the traitor who took their Specific Table is willing to share it, just for today. (And then every day after.) Friends to Lovers is preferred over Instant Attraction in this one. Even open-ended works. (Please, no pandemic.)

Prompt 2: Canon-based AU: Give me cottagecore survival to replace the weird plots that happened to this show after s2. The idea of the Delinquents settling in a village, life moving on, peace being brokered, etc etc. In the middle of it all, Bellamy and Raven rely on each other to rebuild, and fall in love. A lot.

Prompt 3: Five times Bellamy tried to show his love for Raven and failed, and one time she finally got the point. Oblivious That People Might Love Her!Raven is my tragic and problematic fave. A bonus: competence kink. Acceptable: any form of AU; I am not a stickler for canon.

Prompt 4 (optional): Pacific Rim AU; veteran Jaeger pilot gets pulled back into action because of a need to pull off a last fight against the apocalypse/alien invasion, drifts unexpectedly with the supermouthy, supersmart, very capable engineer/mechanic. Add as many characters from The 100 as you'd like into this, but I am very much more into the wholesome survival of all of them than I am about everyone except Braven dying.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Bellarke content if the Braven content is just a way for Bellamy to "get over" Clarke, be it failed relationship or unrequited one.

Also: Have seen season 1 and Season 2 in full; vaguely familiar with STUFF about how they ended up in space, and nothing beyond that because I literally don't care.

[yurimother]

A Late Night Ramble on Death of the Author and Queerness in Yuri

I was sleepless, so I decided to do some reading late night reading and perused Kastel’s article on Barthes’ Death of the Author. A fantastic piece of writing, although one I somewhat disagree with, mainly in their statements on how separating authorial intent from a work depoliticizes it:

When conservatives apply [death of the author], they assume that this ultimately means divorcing the intentions of the author from the artwork. This means if, say, an artist may have fascist beliefs that it is possible to focus on the art itself and not the author. This depoliticizes the artwork and thus the death of the author.

I consider this to be an “excuse” by conservatives to not critically engage with the work. It assumes that the ideologies inherent in the work are normal and that an apolitical criticism is the only way to go.

This passage refers to how conservatives use death of the author in a malicious attempt to remove politics from art and literature, a futile task, in my opinion, as all work is political. They are correct in this point that some justify, nonexistent, normalcy in art by removing the author and their intentions, and thus their politics, from it. However, Kastel creates a false absolution in observing how these conservatives use the concept, a statement that separating the intent of the creator from the work is always in an impossible attempt to destroy politics.

There is great value in separating a creator from their creation. Removing an author and their intent from art does not remove politics from the work; instead it creates space for it and its politics to be interpreted outside of the author. Thereby the reader can analyze the creation and determine its politics based on its content and presentation, not the transcendent “author” figure idolized behind it. To use the bluntest of examples, Mein Kampf is not fascist garbage because Hitler was fascist garbage, but because Mein Kampf is fascist garbage. Even when separating the author from the work, it does not remove the politics present withing. Still, they can now be seen and interpreted by the reader’s perspective without being distorted by the clouded lens of the authorial figure.

There are certainly times when using death of the author in such a manner is inappropriate. Take my job for example. In reporting, it is not only tricky but irresponsible to detached the creator from their work. My responsibility is to inform consumers of the goings-on with various works in the yuri genre, and developments within the genre as a whole. To deny the information about those creating within this genre is one, lousy journalism (if one can truly call what I do that) and two, robs the consumer of their choice to interact with work with or without the presence of the author.

In my own personal time reading or when I incorporate a work into my analytical writings, I make a choice to separate the author from it (or not). There are times when I do not, such as when exploring work from a familiar creator, “I suspect The Rain and the Other Side of You will make me uncomfortable because Moto Momono’s creations always do,” or “I am reading this because Morinaga Milk wrote it and I like her stuff.” However, the majority of the time, I separate the two, to the extent that it is possible.

Vampeerz is a perfect example of yuri that I treat differently in reporting and reading. It is a yuri vampire manga, but the author, Higashiyama Shou, is, from my, and I believe prevailing wisdom’s, point of view problematic. He has been accused of tracing artwork in Prism and creates ped*philic manga. If I so choose, I can read Vampeerz for myself, or I could use it in an article analyzing vampires in current yuri manga without thinking of the creator or his “politics.” However, when I seek to teach and inform others, usually this occurs within reporting and occasionally reviews, I have to acknowledge both Higashiyama Shou’s action and how my bias colors my perspective and reporting on him negatively. 

Even when I am not considering the author’s actions, the work does not become apolitical. Vampires, like every piece of literature, has politics, actions, and statements. In my view, they are not the same as those of the creator described previously. If they were to become so, if Vampeerz began advocating ped*philia, then I would have to comment on them even in my own reading (outside of reporting) as even with the author separated, ped*philic “politics” (using that word loosely here) exist within it.

In short, removing the author from their art does not remove politics from it, it is just a state of mind for readers to critique what is present within the work, including its politics, without outside influence.

Now then, to tie this all into yuri, I shall replace politics with queerness. I have mentioned this briefly before, but to remind everyone, yuri does not necessarily equate to LGBTQ. In fact, yuri historically and continuously often robs characters from queer expression or identity. However, if we use death of the author to divorce the creator’s identity and their intentions about making a queer work (or not) from it, queerness moves to the eye of the beholder. A manga or anime series is not a yuri or gay, because the creator said so or because Seven Seas has labeled it as “Yuri” on their website. It is because the content of the work is queer. Of course, this works both ways, and often products not created nor advertised as queer become so in the reader’s eye.

Princess Principal provides us with the perfect framework for examining these ideas. Many people, myself included, notice romantic actions between Ange and Charlotte in the anime. However, the creators have gone on record saying they did not intend for their relationship to be sapphic. Ultimately, their statements are irrelevant, as the readers’ interpretation based on what is present in the book holds the same weight. In fact, before yuri became its own genre in the past decade or two, it exists primarily as a feature of text in the reader’s mind. Here is where I can incorporate aspects of death of the author into my reporting. Even though Princess Principal was not intended to be queer and Journey of Elaina is not labeled as yuri, I still report on them because, in my mind, there are.

Just as using death of the author to separate the creator from art is situational, it only works for certain people. Take the writings of another yuri critic, Erica Friedman. Take the following with a grain of salt, as this is merely my perspective on another human. Friedman has an uncanny ability when consuming media to detect the creator's queerness and intention. In other words, they can watch an anime or read something and know if it was made by or for queer people. This is an essential factor for them in their critique and enjoyment of media, and rightfully so. It is how their mind works, it is how they consume and love yuri.

I suspect that Friedman’s incorporation of outside queerness in the form of the author or intent is one of the critical ways we, two people who share some tastes in the genre, disagree on many works. I am more lenient of problematic elements in works, a fact I believe we both recognize, then them. In effect, they hold works and creators to higher standards than I because the ways we look for and identify queerness are different. It is the reason that we can look at the same work, Citrus, and I can say “here are some problematic elements, but it has a lot of great stuff and some queer elements” whereas they say “this is unrealistic and unacceptable.” Note that I believe both our interpretations and methods are valuable and valid.

Just so, whether one removes the “creator,” or the concept of the creator, from a work or not is entirely a matter of choice and a legitimate method of examination and reading. However, no action can add or remove politics or queerness intrinsically present or absent in a work which are interpreted and filtered through our individual and collective experiences and perspective. However, because it is the interpretation of the text is what matters, there can be no one absolute truth or politic in a work of art.

If you do not already go read Erica Freidman’s amazing work on Oakzu and check out Kastel’s essay on their blog.

[uraharashouten]

Anonymous said:

What is the long game Urahara aims to play? o:

I’ve been wondering that myself for awhile, Anon. But I think two places we can look to find clues as to his motives and end goals are his research and his chosen champions.

His Research

First, consider where he’s been directing his research efforts over the past century and change: Blurring boundaries. The Hougyoku was an avenue he used to explore erasing the boundaries between Hollow and Shinigami, before he deemed it too dangerous. After that, he turned his attention to blurring the lines between Human and Shinigami. And to that end -- creating artificial life.

Exhibit A: Isshin’s gigai. Isn’t it interesting that, when Isshin wanted to save Masaki, Kisuke already had this human-shell gigai for him to step into? No doubt it was an upgrade from the reiatsu-blocking ones he had designed for himself and the Visored on exile. But this was a new and improved model, capable of all human biological functions including reproduction, so he must have kept working on it.

Exhibit B: Ichigo.  Let’s not forget Kisuke was directly responsible for Ichigo’s conception, the product of a Quincy human and a human-locked shinigami. But that alone wasn’t enough. When events conspired -- or he conspired events -- to land Ichigo in the position of needing to get his shinigami powers back, Kisuke’s solution was to sever his chain of fate. This effectively ended Ichigo’s life as a normal Human, for good. In some sense, being the child of a dead man and now being technically dead himself, Ichigo is a functional prototype of a natural-born Human that is able to fluidly travel between the worlds of the living and the dead. Now we’re definitely blurring lines.

Exhibit C: Rukia’s gigai. It was remarkably well-made, as stated by Twelfth-Division; practically indistinguishable from Human -- and in fact, had the added feature of actively sapping her reiatsu to turn her Human, given enough time. Presumably this would represent a further revision to Isshin’s gigai. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest he might have continued his Human-Shinigami breeding program using her, if things had worked out differently.

Exhibit D: Nemu Kurotsuchi. No, she is not Kisuke’s creation. But since Mayuri is obsessed with surpassing his predecessor, doesn’t it stand to reason that his own research would be along the same lines, no doubt informed by the direction of Kisuke’s research, but striving to one-up him? Mayuri developed an artificial soul, capable of growth. That’s half the battle, right there. Which brings me to...

Exhibit E: Ururu and Jinta. We don’t know exactly what they are when we meet them, but it becomes clear that they have the capabilities of mod souls. Project Spearhead, which was about installing mod souls in recently-deceased human corpses, was retired because (at least according to the party line) it was deemed unethical. But what if you installed an artificial soul, capable of development, in an artificial human body, capable of development? Something like Isshin’s Human shell, only in child form, and with the possibility to grow...  Sorry, Mayuri, he’s still one up on you.

Why, though? Why is he so interested in artificial reproduction? Well, perhaps we can find a clue to his motives by looking at his champions.

His Chosen Champions

Kurosaki Ichigo and Kuchiki Rukia are not only the co-protagonists of Bleach, they’re Urahara’s co-champions. This is easier to see with Ichigo -- we get training montages and missions -- but a little harder to see with Rukia. Nevertheless, Rukia is important to Kisuke. At first she seems to be merely his pawn and secure Hougyoku lock-box, but as that fails to work out and both Ichigo’s and her powers develop, he seems to have something different in mind for the team -- as revealed on his ‘deathbed’, when he dramatically states he is leaving everything to those two.

And what do they have in common? Compassion. Ichigo is fiercely protective to those who can’t protect themselves, and even wants to reform Soul Society.* Rukia believes it is a shinigami’s duty to protect every conscious soul.  Now, considering that would include Pluses, recall Mayuri liquidating 28,000 of them in order to maintain the Balance during the Thousand Year Blood War. As one-time captain of Twelfth Division, that would have been Urahara’s responsibility. I have to believe that a man whose bankai is based on a Bodhisattva of Compassion would be looking for a system overhaul that would not necessitate the destruction of conscious souls, wouldn’t you? 

Kisuke wants to disrupt the Soul Economy

If you think about where souls come from and who is capable of producing new ones, you begin to see a problem. It’s apparent from canon that Shinigami reproduction only happens among those with high reiryoku, and most likely the purview of nobles. The human population of earth has grown exponentially in the last century, resulting in a high demand for souls. A number of these can be recycled from Hollows like Menos Grande that are high-capacity soul pinatas, but it still puts a strain on the system. And Quincies present a particular problem and an additional strain in that they destroy souls entirely.

Soul Society as an afterlife is already problematic, forcing Pluses with little reiatsu to live in squalor, basically waiting for their turn to be recycled. It’s not a great time for them. The ruling class actively disrupts any attempt to organize; Souls in Rukongai live in makeshift families because they can’t find their own. Anyone who exhibits any “talent” insofar as exhibiting reiryoku is either recruited to the Academy or, if they refuse to serve the Seretei, considered a dangerous element and sidelined in the Maggot’s Nest. The entire system is in place to serve the Soul aristocracy. 

Urahara was fine with serving the System as long as they left him alone to do Science -- but I believe that being railroaded by the System and sent into wrongful exile came as something of a wake-up call to him. He was always subversive; lately he has channeled his subversion into upsetting the established order in new and creative ways. He had some plan with Ichigo and Rukia that we must presume did not pan out, because -- well look at the Bleach ending. There was no climactic event requiring their cooperation. And in the aftermath, status quo upheld. Ichigo’s dream of reforming Soul Society unrealized. Mission failed, Plan B in place: Human-Shinigami breeding program continues with Kazui; procreation on the part of non-Noble-blooded Rukongai-hailing folks implemented in Ichika. But it’s hardly the best he could do...

So: imagine if, by pioneering research into an alternate means of new soul production, he could eliminate the resource constraints that lead to conflict and aristocratic control? And imagine if all Pluses could have some degree of reiryoku and a little more self-determination, rather than stuck in limbo, at the mercy of the ruling class? Imagine, if you will, that the afterlife didn’t suck so much? Wouldn’t that be nice?

...He’s working on it.

[[ shout-out to @nightbeat-cat​ for helping me hash out my thoughts, and no doubt having significant influence on them! ]]

[scripttorture]

This is probably too big a question but how do I reasonably do torture when fantasy elements are involved. What things can I say ok let's do this because it's fantasy and I can make up the rules, and what would still be wrong to do because whatever reason.

It’s not too big a question and it’s an important question.

The thing is I don’t believe there are many hard rules in writing and the advice I’d give for writing torture in a fantasy setting is broadly the same as the advice I’d give for writing torture generally.

There’s a post over here that covers the most common torture apologia tropes.

Whatever the genre and story I think we should avoid echoing torture apologia.

But what this essentially boils down to is not creating a story that shows torture as harmless, justified or ‘good’.

Once you’re familiar with the tropes and why they’re wrong avoiding torture apologia becomes a lot easier.

I’m keeping that short (and hoping/assuming you’ll read the Masterpost) because I think it’s worth talking about how this effects fantasy in particular. I’m also focusing on themes related to fantastic worlds or cultures rather then characters.

One of the biggest genre specific things to watch out for is whether you’ve built a justification for torture or abuse into the world itself.

As a common example let me take the truth spell. Torture does not work as a method of interrogation, you can read more about that here. But the idea that it does and that people ‘always talk’ under torture pervades fiction. And fantasy authors sometimes take these same ideas and end up creating a ‘truth spell’ that always works because it causes terrible pain.

Now I want to stress that most authors are not doing this because they personally support torture. They’re doing it because accurate information about torture is really hard to find and these tropes are so common in fiction that a lot of people assume they’re true.

And because those assumptions are so common it can be really easy to build torture apologia into a fantasy world.

This does not mean that I think you should avoid using dark magic, magic that causes pain, mind control or any of the other classic ‘bad’ magic in fantasy stories. It just means taking a bit more time to think about what it does and how it works.

So for instance one of my fantasy stories has magic that can be powered by the bodies of living creatures. One of the decisions I made when I thought about how it functions was that this magic was a lot more powerful when this use is consensual.

This means that there are powerful characters who got to the top by abusing and sacrificing other people. But their magic power is dwarfed by a woman who used consensual non-lethal ‘sacrifices’ to get her power. The world and the magic isn’t providing a ‘good reason’ for the bad guys to abuse people.

And I got to make the genocidal maniacs quake in fear because a middle aged housewife was in their general vicinity and did Not Approve of the mess they’d made.

Think about the way your magic system is structured. Think about the implications involved in it.

And think really carefully about whether any of those implications, those follow-throughs create a situation where torture becomes justified.

That doesn’t mean you can’t have villainous characters, or characters using magic for awful things. It means making sure you haven’t structured the world to encourage them to do so.

As an example; I read the online comic Freakangels several years ago. The titular group are a collection of teenagers who all have psychic powers to varying degrees. Most of them are living in a sort of post-apocalypse London with a small community they protect and help.

One of the characters sets herself up as the police-figure. Part way through the story the other Freakangels find that she’s built a pit where she tortures people. They call her out on this and they also point out it’s ‘unnecessary’ because she can read minds.

She responds by saying that taking specific information from a mind is complicated and it’s easier to ‘see’ the answer if you ask people questions. The torture provides a handy ‘excuse’ for how she inevitably comes to know the answer.

And that’s using a magic system to provide a rational, consistent in-world justification for torture. Even if torture wouldn’t ‘work’ ordinarily.

The other big thing I see in fantasy settings is structuring racial or cultural groups in such a way that makes violence and torture the inevitable and ‘right’ response.

I think there are… issues with the idea of writing groups of people as innately and irredeemably evil. Not all of those issues are to do with torture and I’m not an expert on racism. I know that from a personal perspective stories that characterise any group as automatically evil make me deeply uncomfortable.

From the point of view of this subject area- I accept that we’re stepping into territory where my personal biases are at play. Painting violence as the inevitable and ‘right’ response is a mainstay of a lot of popular fiction and as a pacifist I don’t believe violence is ever right. An enjoyable addition to fiction sometimes yes, but never right. An awful lot of people disagree with that opinion and I’m not here to demand you change that. Which makes it difficult for me to think of a way to express this point.

I suppose that once again it comes down to how the world is built up. It’s all very well to have a character say 'These people only understand violence!’ or 'War is our only option!’ it’s another thing to create a group of people for whom that is literally true.

I’m thinking of orcs, drow, gnolls, trollocs and the like. Creatures that we are told by the narrative behave in more or less human ways, think (although they are usually portrayed as stupid), use tools and language. But also, somehow, are only interested in fighting, take joy in killing or torturing others and…. don’t actually seem to have a culture around anything but violence.

They also don’t seem to devote any time to farming, herding, making shelters, healing each other or making the tools they use. Which raises the issue of how the hell they manage to march anywhere without starving to death, collapsing from exhaustion or having their trousers fall off.

I understand the imagery and at least some of where it comes from. It’s the Mongols appearing suddenly on the horizon. It’s the Vikings bringing their shallow bottomed ships further inland then people thought possible.

But people are not relentless killing machines. We’re pack animals that are geared to bond with each other, to cooperate. We are also, like any self respecting mammal, smart enough to bugger off when there isn’t any food on offer.

I feel like the way fantasy tries to tac on this drive to kill fundamentally can’t fit with a human-like mentality. I also don’t see how it can fit with a pack animal of any kind. Because this particular fictional structure puts the 'killer’ part first, to the detriment of cooperation and basic survival.

Essentially I see these sorts of fantasy races as the author trying to have their cake and eat it too: they want an armed monstrous threat but they can’t be bothered to make them behave in ways that are internally consistent.

They want long term societies and cultures of torturers, standing armies that are always fighting/abusing others. Which on a really basic level is unsustainable. The creatures they describe would not be a long term threat. Because they’d starve to death.

The fantasy stories surrounding these cultures generally use some form of torture apologia. Backstories explaining these creatures sometimes say they started off as people 'corrupted’ or 'broken’ by torture, which is essentially another way of saying that torture survivors are dangerous.

I won’t stand here and say that torturers are never torture survivors themselves but my instinct is that this is a lot lot rarer then fiction would have us believe. Survivors are no more or less dangerous then everybody else.

And I personally feel that using monsters as the only torturers in the story is a disappointing cop-out to many of the philosophical questions torture raises in a narrative.

We are all interesting in why people behave in monstrous ways. Answering this with ‘they’re just monsters’ feels dismissive and it sidesteps any attempt at genuine self examination.

Some of these fantasy races use slavery. But their slavery is 100% effective because captives 'break’ under torture and become absolutely obedient to their masters. Which is another false, problematic fiction surrounding torture.

The use of slavery in fantasy stories generally bears little resemblance to slavery in reality.

There’s no- fear of uprisings or attacks, which characterised slavery-based society in the New World. There’s no culture or comradery among the enslaved peoples. There are no small acts of resistance. These people wait patiently in suffering for someone to come and rescue them.

I feel like fantasy often treats enslaved people as if they lose their personhood. Their personalities, beliefs, hopes, fears no longer seem to effect their actions.

In much the same way that badly written female characters could be replaced by a ‘sexy lamp’ with little difference to a plot; enslaved characters in fantasy can often be replaced by- well anything that acts as a cheap sympathy grab.

They’re characters who are more defined by their over-the-top suffering in the story then by any sort of humanity.

I suppose if monstrous fantasy races are ‘torture survivors as dangerous threats’ then slaves in fantasy are ‘torture survivors as passive objects’.

Conversely fantasy is also one of the few genres where I still see the idea of ‘happy slaves’.

Fantasy has a tendency to present atrocities without having much real investment in the fallout or even an acknowledgement of what it’s describing.

The clearing of hundreds of villages is ethnic cleansing. The mass enslavement of a population is a war crime.

Perhaps one of the most ubiquitous mistakes in fantasy is presenting someone else’s lived reality as if it’s purely a fictional or historical thing.

Villages are being wiped out and cleared today in Myanmar.

Religious minorities are being subjected to mass incarceration in China.

Slavery is alive in every country in the world. And so is torture.

I think the most jarring thing I regularly see in fantasy stories is authors (especially Western authors) treating these topics as if they’re just fictional tropes.

There are probably more tropes and cliches particular to fantasy then I’ve listed here. These seem to me like the main ones.

In the end though, whatever the genre, it boils down to something simple: is the story set up in a way that respects survivors’ experiences or a way that belittles them?

Edit: To clarify I am not in any way against authors writing torture scenes. If a detailed description; fits your story, serves the narrative, treats victims as people and treats torture as a serious crime, then your story might benefit from that description. 

To paraphrase TV tropes: sometimes the anvil needs to be dropped.

But don’t think you are obliged to write these sorts of scenes. Instead consider whether they benefit your story or whether the story is more powerful without them. 

Availableon Wordpress.

Disclaimer

[cute-st]

TW: Sexual Abuse

The story about Chrystul Kizer has been floating around for some time, regarding a young black girl who is facing life for killing a white man who abused and trafficked her and many other black girls to other men.

There is clearly a racial element considering all the girls were black which emboldens the same narrative black women are fed about white men. However, it made me think how do things like this occur?

I recall listening to a podcast of an African American woman who was very much against black women dating outside their race and she made the statement that “black women have the power to tell white men no, unlike our ancestors” & continuing to do so was honouring them. To me as soon as I heard that, as someone who did a paper on sex tourism, I felt some type of way & I knew that her statement was complete bullshit due to poverty and the environments some black girls grow up in (the very same environments black men grown up in but it’s not looked at the same way in terms of the damage it can do). Her opinion came from a very privileged position. A lot of us know that many black girls are thrown to the wolves and if not our own perseverance, many of us would be in very problematic situations. I think these women should push for black women to find wealth and safety wherever it is (as we are in no way shape or form only exploited by white men) instead of pushing them to make decisions for others which oftentimes leads to poverty and hardship where just like our ancestors, they themselves or their daughters will end up being exploited.

My second thought is that I think how vulnerable black women are in this society is not really truly acknowledged and I’m not just talking about society as a whole but even ourselves as black women based on some of the choices we make. I don’t think we are fully aware of the things some other black women go through because maybe we’d think twice about some of the choices we make. These are difficult things to swallow as a black woman because we already have so many stressors, so we don’t want to dwell on painful things but I think having at least a small idea of some of the things we face can be eye opening and enable us to live a life that’s less lukewarm. You won’t loose sleep over trivial things like a tweet or be concerned with someone saying they prefer another race of woman.

I think as an African woman, my whole life I’ve heard of women at their lowest point so when it comes to my own life, as a black woman I make sure (by any means) to make choices that will improve my life and lives of women like me. Since people oftentimes try to break the self esteem of black women, we’ve looked to positive narratives of us being some of the most educated women and us being business owners to give us a boost but maybe we have to look at some of the not so nice stats about DV and exploitation so we have more eagerness in our quest for seeking better for ourselves.

(Feel free to engage / retweet)