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psychotakublabs · 3 years

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“Through the Looking Glass Ruins” definitely gave us more Lumity than we all expected and the B-plot of Amity and Luz’s story in this episode was written very well. Their awkward interactions and new found feelings for each other pave a way for LGBTQ young love in animation. It also gives us Luz and Amity character development, small hints at insecurities and conflicting emotions, and normalizing queer teen romances. I have seen multiple interpretations and analyses of their plot and I wanna analyze Luz and Amity from the three important scenes: Inside the Library, Outside the Library, and Blight Manor.

Inside the Library

First we have Luz knocking on Gus’s door to use Gus’s library card. It seems this is not the first time as she admits she isn’t hiding her crush very well and Gus agrees. Although she is going to the library to find Philip’s journal on the portal, she does get sidetracked with her crush on Amity. Even the twins notice both have a crush on each other but instead of teasing them about it, they just leave them alone. It seems everyone knows Luz and Amity have feelings for each other except those two and not because they are oblivious about it. It’s because Amity is still trying to figure out her own feelings and Luz isn’t sure if Amity likes her back or is afraid of losing her friendship because of these feelings.

Amity and Luz’s interactions are awkward and anxious because they have a crush on each other. That is completely normal in young love and it’s done very well here. They become flustered and weird when seeing each other and once in close contact with each other immediately separate. This is very well written and boarded becaused it normalizes queer crushes. Usually it's either the two characters fall in love immediately with no development or it's one sided. Not with Amity and Luz as they are confused lovestruck teenagers who are navigating these new found feelings for each other. Like a lot of teens, having a crush is confusing and awkward and having two queer characters (Luz is bisexual and Amity is lesbian) having developing feelings and normlazing those interactions shows queer teens and kids it's normal and okay to have these feelings.

Most interesting in their adventures in the library is the Amity and Luz character development.

First off Luz becomes less impulsive of her actions because she worries about Amity losing her job. While at the doorway to the Forbidden Stacks, Luz reassures herself and says she will find another way. After her conversation with Amity in the Forbidden Stacks, she says they should head back and doesn't want to push Amity. Usually Luz is impulsive in her actions. In the Human Realm, she does things without thinking first and that's caused a lot of trouble for others. Because she knows Amity could lose her job if caught, Luz thinks before diving into danger so she doesn't hurt Amity. This is development for Luz because it shows her thinking about her actions before doing so and how it might affect others. This isn't the first time either she has shown this development but it's very prominent in this episode and shows how much she cares about Amity.

Amity has become more impulsive in her actions lately. Despite knowing she could lose her job in the library, she still helps Luz in getting into the Forbidden Stacks. This irrational behavior is because of Amity's feelings towards Luz. When Luz mentions a possible date with Amity to the Human Realm, she ignores Luz's hesitation to go further and rushes to get the diary, dragging Luz with her. Amity is worried about losing her job but pushes through because she knows how important this diary is to Luz and her feelings for her cloud her rational judgment (not ignoring her development throughout the series that has also impacted her but just focusing on the episode).

Outside the Library

After Amity is fired, Luz immediately apologizes but Amity stops her. Both have become upset from the incident but for different reasons. (This analysis/interpretation mostly comes from halcyonhyacinth on Twitter and Tumblr. I highly recommend following her. Awesome writer!) (https://psychotakublabs.tumblr.com/post/656478634193928192/all-of-this-this-scene-was-so-powerful-and-well)

Amity is upset because she did lose her job but also because of her conflicting emotions and actions. "Being around you makes me do stupid things and I wish it didn't." Amity was raised in a family environment that emphasised high standards and perfection. Before Luz showed up, she had to be perfect to live up to her parent's expectations and had to think about her actions as well as control her emotions. However, Luz has changed her perspectives on life and Amity's new found feelings for Luz makes her become more impulsive to help Luz. Because Luz is her first crush, she is still navigating these feelings that make her do the opposite of what she normally does. Amity has every right to be upset because she lost her job and somewhat blames Luz for it because of her new found feelings. It's not till she sees Luz cry and hears her say she does the same does she realize her feelings may not be strange and one sided. Now lots have interpreted this interaction as a confession which is a part of it. But it is more of a confession of vulnerability and confusion than love, but that doesn’t mean it could have come out as having feelings for one another as well. Another part of Amity’s reactions is how Amity has affected Luz to the point she is upset as well (maybe even thinking her words hurt Luz) and that her feelings and actions are similar. Instead of taking her frustration out on Luz, she decides to go home to calm down and think more about her feelings. Amity is still dealing with her budding feelings towards Luz and it's understandable why she is so upset both from being fired and her conflicting emotions.

Luz is afraid she will lose Amity because she got her fired. After Amity says she does stupid things when around Luz and wish she didn’t do them, Luz is so upset she cries. This is probably related to her experiences in the Human Realm. In the Human Realm, Luz’s impulsive actions have freaked out others and is used to others pushing her away. Luz is starting to develop feelings for Amity and she is scared she has pushed her away because of her reckless behavior. This is different from the Human Realm because Luz truly cares for Amity and doesn’t want to lose her as a friend. Luz tries to reassure Amity she is not the only one who acts rash. When Amity leaves, Luz pushes her insecurities and sadness aside to get Amity’s job back. We are seeing more of Luz’s insecurities from the Human Realm throughout Season 2. For example, Luz feels guilty about Eda losing her powers and goes on a life threatening journey to make it up to her in “Separate Tides”. This probably stemmed from her experiences with her mom in the Human Realm whenever she got in trouble and burdened her mother. In “Through the Looking Glass Ruins”, fear of losing Amity comes from her experience of others pushing her away and is afraid it will happen with Amity. Luz has a lot of self-blame because of her prolonged experiences in the Human Realm. However, Luz pushes those feelings down to make it up to Amity by getting her job back. Although Luz did mess up and cost Amity her job, she is willing to amend her mistakes not only to make Amity happy but because she truly cares for her even if she loses her as a friend.

Blight Manor

Amity and Emira have a heart to heart conversation about Amity’s feelings towards Luz. She confesses that these new feelings towards Luz are confusing and scare her because she has never had these thoughts and emotions before. Emira reassures her it’s okay to have these feelings since it makes her happier. After brushing her hair, Emira notices Amity is still conflicted and brings up her roots showing and offering to re-dye her hair. Amity decides to cut and dye her hair purple. This is important in Amity’s development because she wants to be independent from her mother’s control and become the person she wants to be by doing something she wants. Even if she will get in trouble or others don’t like it, she is willing to have a fresh start as the person she wants to be. In fiction and real life, changing hair styles can be symbolic of changing one’s self and a powerful message of being who you want to be. What may seem like a small step is actually a huge achievement for Amity because changing her hair, that was once being forced to dye green for color coordination by her mother, to a shorter cut and purple color is her way of acting on her own and being the person she wants to be.

Luz was ready to face rejection from Amity but was willing to at least give her job back. Luz has shown time and time again how far she will go to help her friends. She even understood why Amity would want to push her away and was prepared for it. What she was not prepared for was seeing Amity’s new look. After explaining how she got Amity’s job back, Amity notices the echo mouse and Luz catches the little pest. After seeing the echo mouse shows Philip’s first diary entry, Luz thanks the mouse and hopes they can be friends. It’s great to see how far Luz will go to help her friends, even if she is the one who caused the mistake.

After Amity notices Luz’s kindness (looking at her library card), she decides to be bold and give Luz a kiss on the cheek. Both are shocked at what just happened. Amity becomes flustered, bids Luz farewell “forever”, and wonders why she kissed Luz on the cheek. Again, Amity is still confused with her crush on Luz and needs time to sort those feelings out. Luz becomes more smitten with Amity and falls to the ground. She probably never thought Amity would reciprocate her feelings or think Amity may have the same feelings. In the Human Realm, Luz is used to being pushed away and Amity kissing her on the cheek is so shocking, she goes weak and falls on her knees. This is a first for Luz as well as she is navigating her feelings towards Amity. Both may know they have feelings towards each other. However, neither one is going to admit it for a while because these feelings are new to them. For Amity, her crush is entirely new to her and she has to figure out what they are and how she wants to move forward with them. With Luz, her feelings towards Amity are mostly about accepting the fact it’s not one-sided and to figure out how she wants to act on these feelings. Both need to navigate their own feelings first before moving further in their relationship. I am curious as to how they will interact after that scene, because both have to realize that kiss was beyond platonic and it may get more awkward for them later in the series. We will have to wait a while before getting more Lumity progress in “The Owl House”

The Lumity in this episode was written and animated very well and is important for viewers and future animated series. First off, is the fact a Disney animated series shows a main cast progressing as an LGBTQ couple in the middle of a series. LGTBQ couples/soon-to-be couples/characters in children’s animation are usually confirmed at the end of the series, never confirmed at all but hinted (queerbaiting), background characters with little screen time, villains, or killed off. It’s both unbelievable yet wonderful to see an LGBTQ couple, especially with two teen characters, become canon. Not imaginative from fanfiction or made canon in comics but in the series at the beginning of Season 2. This is huge because not many networks, let alone one as big as Disney, have confirmed an LGBTQ character and couple early on in a show. I have hope that it will give inspiration to other major studios to follow suit with more stories with representation like “The Owl House”. One of my favorite aspects of Lumity in the series is it normalizes queer young love. This includes the complexities of newfound feelings of young love and navigation of first love. There is little to no animated series, at least in children’s animation, that have characters like Amity and Luz having feelings for each other and navigating those feelings in the middle of the series. It shows queer children and teens it’s okay to feel this way because it’s normal! Just like how it is normal for heterosexual teens to have the same feelings and actions to young love. To some it may not be a big deal, but as someone who came out as a lesbian at age 13 (2006-2007) and lives off of cartoons, anime, manga, comics, and books, there was basically nothing that felt close to how my high school experiences of young romance were. It is very refreshing and hopeful to see young LGTBQ youth see a Disney show have canon queer characters and the main cast a canon queer couple with normalized and realistic experiences. How it’s confusing but wonderful to have these feelings like everyone else. “The Owl House” continues to push the boundaries of children’s animation and the queer representation is continuing to be phenominal and wonderful!

#the owl house #toh spoilers #through the looking glass ruins #toh gus #toh luz #toh amity #lumity #toh analyse #luz noceda #amity blight #emira blight #toh emira #the owl house season 2 #toh

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klaineownsmysoul · 3 years

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I just can't believe that there are people who still believe every single word a public figure/celebrity says, most of the time they LIE. Did C lie about some fans harassing his bf? I have no clue, but if someone was indeed harassing him, that is just not correct. There are crazy fans in every fandom. If people still believe every post or tweet is posted personally by the celebrity, they are just naive and gullible. I don't believe in CC, but that's just my opinion. I do believe D is closeted and just because he posts something or says something nice about someone doesn't mean he actually thinks that, it is most likely PR, just like the unnecessary refurbishment of RR's house. People should wake up and not believe everything they see on the internet. Side note: I couldn't even get mad at yesterday's show because everything is just so ridiculous and bad-acted that it's funny.

At this point, if you aren't side-eyeing basically everything that comes out of Hollywood, you are just willfully ignorant. Its all calculated to a specific end and they don't think twice about contradicting their past selves if it serves a current narrative. Case in point: C saying towards the end of glee that he had no idea who D was when he joined the show when there's a whole interview of him talking about seeing D in AVPM way back when. Like season 2 back when. That's just a blatantly obvious, easily disproved and stupid lie. With regards to this podcast mess - I haven't listened to it and I wasn't on tumblr for most of glee's run so I wasn't really privy to a lot of the goings on that happened bts. Can I believe that there were people who crossed the line of fandom and behaved like assholes? Yes, definitely because it still happens. That kind of behavior is not exclusive to the glee fandom. You will find people like that everywhere. Whether or not they did exactly what he said they did - only he knows that for sure. Its a weird thing to bring up now 6 years after the show has ended as it effectively (and unfairly) paints a bullseye on a specific group. I'm not sure what he was hoping to achieve with this. The CC people that I've interacted with here are lovely and would never in a million years even think of things that horrible. Keep your thoughts and opinions to your own little blog and you don't tag the person in your post - its as simple as that. Who are these nobodies who have that much power that they think they can get a complete stranger fired? If they did indeed behave this way, then that is appalling, completely batshit crazy, and unacceptable - they need professional help. Its not funny, its scary. There's no need for that ever. At the end of the day, its his life and what he does with it and who he spends it with is his business. There's a pretty simple solution if you don't like the person anymore or don't like what they are doing: you can simply stop following them. You don't need to engage in some sort of bizarre smear campaign that has real world implications. Remember all those toxic twitter teens who were ready to draw and quarter D a few months back over that nearly 10 year old pic of him or a comment just as old? The awful things they said about him, the nonstop tagging of him and the flooding of every one of his SM posts with their bullshit? The "you're dead to me if you choose to remain a fan of his" ultimatums? I do! That's the kind of stuff that drives celebs away from SM and ruins it for the rest of us that know how to behave. You're creating an issue where there wasn't one and that's sort of what C did here with his comments.

From my point of view, the issue with C and D's SOs isn't so much that they are with other people, but more to the kind of people they seem to be. I don't know much frankly about W. He's not shoved in my face 24 hours a day and a hovering annoying presence at everything C does. You'll find more pics of C solo or with AF than you will with W. That's why he bothers me less and why D takes more criticism on this. But from what I've heard about him, he's said and posted some pretty awful things in the past and if people choose to not like him because of that, that seems valid to me. As fans, we can only judge celebs by what they say and do and our perception of them - its all we have. My dislike of M is not because she's with D and I'm a super jealous old spinster. And its not because I'm a self hating misogynist. Its because of the way she clings to D and his career while doing nothing on her own, the way she uses him for her own selfish purposes, and the hypocritical way she claimed to not to want to be in the public eye but yet shadows D at every event he goes to because it means cameras and photos and recognition as his wife. That tacky awful commercialized wedding was the last straw for me because I haven't been able to hold my tongue since. And if you follow someone long enough, you can get a pretty good idea of when they're being genuine and when they're bullshitting you or in D's case, when its him posting something and when its a member of his team. For example: where he supposedly proposed. By lying about it - either then or now - you've created a mess that didn't previously exist. Its a fairly simple straightforward statement that most people get right the first time: where they asked their SO to marry them. D says Japan, RR says D called him saying he wanted to do it when he was outside a bathroom in Miami. So the answer is either a) D b) RR c) none of the above. I'm going to go with c, thanks. Unless RR is going to come back and say that D decided to ask her in Miami but then waited until they were physically in Japan to do the asking, I'm going to go with neither of you are right and the reason D blew off the question every time he was asked about it by saying he didn't want to bore us is that you hadn't come up with a good enough and believable story yet. Much like the engagement ring that hadn't been locked down until RR could find a designer willing to make a ring with a diamond big enough to soothe her ego and give off the pretense of being legit. He probably put more effort into that than anything in D's career in the last 5 years. Do I think that RR did help D at one point when he was starting out with gigs, jobs, things like that? Sure. No problem. And maybe they were friends and liked to hang out and jam together. But do I also think that D has outgrown him personally and professionally at this point? Hell fucking yes. He needs a grown up to take his career to the next level and RR is not that person. He completely failed to capitalize on all the awards and well deserved hype D got from ACS and for that alone, he should have been fired. He needs someone who wants to do the work because they understand the rare find they have in D and that their job is to promote him, not themselves. The IOU ep was nothing but a self serving hour of D trying to make RR look and sound like he's not a complete waste of space on top of getting a cut of his fee as his manager. If you look at D's page on the very sad H/yphenate website, you will see the 3 biggest roles D's had are not listed. No Blaine. No Hedwig. No ACS. But oddly enough, a mention of his record deal with Columbia, which I thought went kaput ages ago and his hosting of the Teen Choice Awards in 2013. You know - the big times. Why? I'm going to assume its because he got those roles without RR's help so he doesn't want them there and what does that tell you? It should tell you everything. This is why your manager should be your manager and your friends should be your friends. Its like a parent who wants to be their

child's friend instead of the authority figure they need.

Too much of D's SM has the look and feel of pr and useless ads and just flat out nonsense and that falls squarely under RR's domain. He's a 34 year old man with an established career, not a 21 year old newbie just starting out but his SM doesn't reflect that in any way, shape, or form. The sooner D can cut his losses and break free, the better off his career will be, the more adult he will sound, and the happier I will be.

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mooshs-crack-headcanons · 2 years

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Thank you for your absolutely correct take about V/Vergil. I've been screaming about this ever since it happened and ever since people got mad. I saw some blog say that they told this story to their grandma and that their grandma said V should've been his own character. And they tried to make this a flex. Trying to make people understand what the story was actually about is so damn exhausting.

Thank you for being correct

Good morning, I just woke up after sleeping like I had my head underwater the entire time but anyway.

Their grandma?? Why their grandma?? 😭 what's grandma going to do?? Drive up to capcom headquarters, demand to speak to itsuno or matt walker to demand dmc 5 to be pulled and immediately rewritten - never mind the long road of development hell it took to follow up dmc 4 - all because their grandchild (and her apparently?) didn't like the outcome and actual interesting story telling purpose a character had?

Like, not to sound disrespectful to new fans who were introduced to the franchise with 5 because I know a lot of new fans aren't like the behavior that's being discussed, but I'm a betting kind of guy and I'm pretty sure those "fans" who sprouted this type of shit at the time were extremely new to the franchise (most likely just coming to it bc they saw pictures of V going around on tumblr or twitter) and not really understand just how much weight the whole conflict that was concluded in 5; Dante and Vergil's relationship, their main conflict, and that outcome of their main conflict (both dmc 3 and dmc 1) that's been at least a point of interest in every game (minus dmc 2, bc dmc 2) not even just chronologically but also like irl since the very beginning of the franchises roots dmc 1.

Like for Vergil to be redeemed, him finally coming to truths with Dante, and him meeting Nero wasn't just a way to close a chapter of the sons of Sparda saga just to close the chapter of the sons of Sparda saga - this shit ended an era for its fans who waited since 2008. ELEVEN YEARS for a follow up on dmc 4. Which means the ending to 5 just doesn't hold as much emotional weight for new fans compared to those (including yours truly) who did wait those elven years and after the living fucking dumpster fire that was dmC and how poorly it did, we never thought dmc 5 would ever happen. Then e3 2018 happened.

Like dmc 5 isn't the perfect game (personally its my second favorite dmc game but mainly because nothing imo can top dmc 3 - both story and gameplay wise) but it pretty much is for exactly what it is and just how special it is to those who waited for almost a decade for it and like having Vergil's character further developed and redeemed on top of that through V? It just made the wait the worth it as someone who was there and had one of his very first video game experiences with devil may cry 3 during its early days and for someone who who was just there for 5 for the - as a previous anon put; "uwu goth boy" Isn't going to get all of this emotional impact that like thousands of people in this fandom had with that first announcement trailer showing Nero, who for a brief few moments scarred the shit out of everyone that he was dmC Dante (😅 good times) new character Nico, who immediately captured everyone's heart, Nero's fucking legendary memed to hell and back theme devil trigger, and that last few seconds showing Dante on riding throughout the ruins of Redgrave had me personally HOWLING.

Like, I just wish I could go back and have my first reaction to that trailer all over again it was literally nothing I've ever experienced before and even with the dmc 4 and 5 SE trailers, which were both Vergil heavy and me of course being the biggest fucking ride or die Vergil fanboy there is and ever will be (sorry woolie, I'll doubt you'll ever see this but you can fight me for it) even though trailers while I was hype as shit and wrecked my voice for an entire week (both instances for both trailers actually lol) even those trailer reactions don't come even close to just the emotional response that was that first dmc 5 trailer and I even doubt unless dmc 6 does carry the even number dmc game curse and development hell pulls another dmc 4 on us and we don't see it for another eleven years (capcom pls I can't do it again) I don't even think a dmc 6 announcement trailer will provoke even as close of a reaction from me, but I still hope it's hype as shit though lol.

Tldr: I really really really like dmc 5 and what it did especially with V - Vergil's development and redemption - Nero's whole finally proving himself and really owning and making himself, and Dante finally getting his brother back. Pre/early launch "just here for uwu goth dick and literally nothing else" ridder V fans wouldn't just understand how far this franchise has come and honestly they're probably not even still here - just moved on with the next "object" of simping when the bandwagoning died out and I'd like to to think the good newer fans stayed and took their place, which I appreciate because this franchise is one closest to my heart and I'm glad it grew the fandom that was once only small and niche that barely had any clue what it was into something more and even if a good portion is toxic as all hell I'm really proud about the goods parts of it :)

#devil may cry #devil may cry 5 #dmc v #vergil sparda #moosh gives his dumb opinions #moosh speaks #moosh answers #non request related

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afishlearningpoetry · 3 years

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Still seeing people call us a cult in 2021 😑 🚬 Is there anything that broke this blogging website's brains more than a 2010s BBC show?

Tbh and I’ll get to why it connects to what you’re saying but what really broke this website’s brains is the crab bucket culture of disposability and cycle of online abuse that it nurtured for years until it spread to the rest of the internet... like the early social justice awakening to the yfip blogs and call out posts and anonymous stalking and commenting (that carried over partially from livejournal/older fandom, tbf) that’s translated into like, faulty, second-hand sourced fanwiki websites tracking the perceived dancing with the devil transgressions of some person, a random stranger essentially, has made in their online life, and for what reason, really? For what purpose? Like I think a lot of us gained some awareness at a certain point that these tactics were thinly veiled guises to harass and take personal shots at basically random people for mostly petty reasons (clearly plenty of people are pretending that’s not what it is and went back to it), but I also wonder what it did to the brains of like the youngest people on here, who started using the website since they were children, not just high school age or close to, but even younger people.

That frame of mind is everywhere now, especially with younger fandoms, not just on here. Twitter is pretty terrible. I was watching the Mask Off video from Lindsay Ellis recently and it’s just horrifying to me the way this website essentially birthed that form of harassment. Every step of the way, the way that she (and Natalie, in her own video) detail how it happened is absolutely identical to how it happens on here, except it’s happening in daylight where public figures are in the same fight-to-the-death arena as the rest of us, which is what makes it easier to articulate. This is not to dismiss anything someone like Lindsay has to go through, considering what she disclosed in the video and that she’s been harassed by the alt-right for years, but she also has enough of an online standing to publicly face those charges and refute the majority of them. Like Natalie also said, but what happens to someone else? Someone with no name, or social or financial security, and that’s basically what I’m getting it. That kind of online abuse happening over and over and over and over again trickles down to everybody else. That’s what broke people’s brains. That’s what ruined this website.

And it isn’t just the reactionary, cringe culture post-fandom nihilism that shifted into online culture in 2016 and onwards (I’ve mentioned this before, like, the constant jokes about bad and infamous moments from tumblr), but harassment that still happens on here. You can accuse people of being a pedophile with no credibility, harass them about their eight year old fandom history, or dox and shame them out of public life without much effort, granted there are enough people willing to hop in the crab bucket with you. It has nothing to do with genuinely caring about anything but being an asshole. So for most of that to be distilled into people hate following tjlc (which was named such as a self-aware joke) for literal years when it was largely one of the most fun, positive, creative and dedicated fan spaces I’ve ever been in, and then finally having the wind at their backs to essentially cut everyone down and collect some heads because series 4 finally got the critical backlash they were waiting for to do so with widespread permission (they tried this with series 3, but it just didn’t take because the quality was too consistent), is severely aggravating.

I’ve had plenty of other, smaller negative experiences on here, whether they be trends or staples, and I’ve certainly contributed, but there’s always been enough good for me to stay. But after series 4 that was no longer the case. I just hit a breaking point where I couldn’t be as personally invested anymore, it got so bad. As much as I still want to come here for specific reasons and contribute what I can, I have a lot of trouble engaging with anything because I’m ready to see any new blog or topic I follow to dip into those same habits all over again, which is inevitably what happens. To watch anti-intellectual post-fandom nihilism — and if you’ve been here at all between end of 2016 to now you know the kind of attitude, posts, rhetoric and style of speech, and blogs I’m talking about — kind of dominate this website, has been a large part of why I only pop up sporadically. After Nov. 5th it’s been ironic watching so many people I’d describe that way unironically get into the paranormal show again. Not because I think that’s bad, I follows blogs that talk about it and think it’s cool, I made an edit at the time, or that anyone should be “above it”, we’re on tumblr after all, but because that kind of venomous behavior is still there underneath, like we’re not all also blogging specifically about superwholock shows.

A few months ago when someone accused me of being part of a q anon-level conspiracy and that we’re all “monsters of your own making”, this being before the capitol riot where dozens of members of the US house were nearly murdered en-masse, one of the things they said was that we couldn’t admit that our show was bad, but it was fine what they were doing with the other show because they were just having fun, and that we couldn’t, I don’t know, do anything or whatever about it until we were ready to admit our show is also bad. Which is a pretty revealing look into how that line of thinking, all the way from the early tumblr days, to other places like twitter, all the way back to here again has evolved despite staying the same. This bizarre blend of ironic detachment, self-deprecation, moralizing over a show’s perceived wrongdoings as perceived personal transgressions, bullying, rumors, fan wikis, and years of witnessing or being in on online harassment rewiring people’s brains to the point where not only is it impossible to do anything without jumping through twenty mental hoops before you do it, it’s essentially a both a constant threat and entry-level trial by fire into having any kind of existence in an online fandom space.

Of course it’s not just the barraging from people on here that’s contributed to that kind of culture, it’s everywhere else, because it spread everywhere. Think pieces by people not involved in the space, summaries of what happened mostly written by people who were hate following it to begin with, academic papers by ex-fans, faux-investigative pieces from wanna-be media critics trying to canonize their version of what happened into definitive internet history after preemptively blocking everyone involved so no one can respond to what they say — it’s extremely exhausting every step of the way. I can’t blame ex-tjlc people for just abandoning this place or any online space completely, because it’s still relentless four years later, and if the initial experience of series 4 wasn’t already distressing enough, whatever you think about it now, everyone’s faced the same challenge of being gradually smothered into relinquishing any ties to it through that cycle of shame that’s been perfected and streamlined right down to quick and recognizable beats on this website for over a decade.

#this was really long but I’ve been thinking about it for a while #and have said similar things before #sherlock bbc #fandom #tumblr #tjlc #YouTube

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spongebob-connoisseur · 3 years

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almost every cartoon youtube channel use to always rubs me the wrong way usually the way they review "modern" spongebob was going to cause the apocalypse and then rob you and then when hillenburg returned people started warming up and being a bit nicer to spunch bop but i really wonder is that they simply picked up spongebob again because of hillenburg and actually saw more modern spongebob episodes instead of cherrypicking the weaker eps hmm

in general about cartoon youtubers usually these days i feel like the early 2010s and some mid 2010s a lot of cartoon reviewers were a lot more negative for some reason but i am glad a lot more seem to have cool down and actually be a bit more positive and give real reviews and criticismm and i like the review more when they say things like "i personally didn't enjoy this but if you did i am glad you liked it!' instead of saying "this is bad because it's bad and the crew for these are horrible people and whoever actually likes these is cringe and that is fact"

You're very right! I've got more to add on this. I remember watching a lot of cartoon reviewers when I was younger. I stopped watching spongebob some time around 2011 because I just wasn't a fan of the episodes. So years later when these cartoon reviewers started popping up swearing they have an explaination as to why spongebob isn't good anymore, I believed it. I was a kid but still. There's a lot of holes in their arguments. They'd put out video after video of the same thing. Spongebob isn't good anymore because the creator left and the people working on the show now is bad. Only like the first 3 seasons otherwise you're a stupid kid.

That's dumb. Hillenburg didn't completely leave the show. He still had some work on the show. Reviewing episode plots and scripts. There's a lot of good moments post season 3. Some people straight up think some moments from post movie episodes are classic episodes and I've caught this often. The newer episodes have a lot of qualities older folks would enjoy. It isn't going to be exactly the same as the classics in tone and its understandable if you're not a fan but gosh these people have no respect.

In the early 2010s I feel like it was clickbait. It was something that can easily to get a microphone and talk about how modern spongebob is ruining the world to get a lot of likes. It appeals to the largest demographic and so why not? Its funny because most of the time they meant 6-8 and even those seasons aren't that bad. They have some weaker episodes for sure and that can be for a multitude of reasons not just "new writers bad". Even I'm wrong since I shat on those seasons before, only to find out recently from some rewatches. They aren't that bad. I mean when there's a bad episode like yeah its not great. But I think my main issue was I just didn't like the tone of the newer episodes. It was purely subjective and I couldn't see that for so long. It makes me laugh how blind I was. They're so creative too and do so much but I couldn't find myself liking them because I didn't like the chubby cheeks design on spongebob, I didn't like how slow some episodes are. Blah blah subjective stuff. And I couldn't see outside my bias. The Hot Shot is a genuinely good episode from season 8, Spongebob's Last Stand is one of my favorite SB episodes of all time, The Sponge Model is so weird, I can't help but laugh.

I'm getting off topic but I really wish it was as easy to say that they're changing now. I mean YouTube cartoon reviewers, the ones who especially shat on spongebob during the early 2010s started to turn around and enjoy the show post movie. I largely assumed it was tone change in the episodes. They started to become more spunky and goofy. Maybe that just appealed to them more. A new feel made them have a bit of change of heart. Especially watching season 9a and season 9b there's a big difference in feel.

But also like you said, they were probably only open to change because Hillenburg was now said to work on the show. Which he's always have been. Just now he's more involved than before. But since his passing, err some people have been pretty rude. I know even before people sent hate messages to the crew on spongebob. Largely fueled by those irresponsible youtube cartoon reviewers who acted like modern spongebob was the root of all evil. But now a days I feel like its too common. Probably because of all the misinformation around kamp koral, Hillenburg's passing, and also some people's dislike with the expressiveness post season 10. It's been fueling a lot of hate.

I get people not liking the expressiveness. Its not for everyone. But gosh it really isn't as bad as people make it out to be. And I hate keep running into the amount of hate people flooded the crew with. I hate even more whrn the movie came out, people acted like it was ruining the integrity of spongebob even though Hillenburg worked on it and pitched what is the main plot of the movie. And actually getting in arguments because people think I was a "movie defender" for stating the facts. They all acted shocked when they found out Hillenburg approved of the movie and Kamp Koral when Vincent Waller officially came out and said it. But for a long time, the facts were there and readily available. I admit I was wrong before since I also fell for the misinformation but even after a while, I just didn't want to fuel the hate because it drove people to do crazy shit.

Its also interesting seeing people's biases. I remember seeing a review where someone was review of sponge out of water and the person's review is essentially "I think its bad and if you like it then you should feel bad about it" someone needs to knock their ego down a bit. They were right earlier in their video that they didn't like it and didn't need to explain to people why they didn't like it. And that's right and I wish more of the internet would accept they don't need an elaborate reason to dislike something. But gosh that was a bad take.

And its funnier when the 3rd movie came out, they made a video acting like the film was hell on earth and remarked that the 2nd movie at least has some qualities and is enjoyable. Like before they weren't telling people they should feel bad for enjoying the 2nd movie.

Or how seasons 4-8 was considered modern spongebob. People shat all over it. Then when seasons 9-12 came out. They act like 4-8 is apart of the classics. Like season 8 is the last good season. It kinda feels like a joke. Or maybe they finally got over their blind hatred for those seasons and now found something new to hate because they can't let go that the classics era is long gone. I remember watching a review where some guy was just acting like seasons 9-12 is hell and was like "look how they massacred my boi" mans really was just drawn with an interesting facial expression. Calm down. And then he later admitted he never watched the modern seasons because he doesn't have the strength. He was just going off a random clip.

It gets frustrating. Tumblr here is very tame but on twitter or wherever else, some people really don't know how to behave and do research for themselves. They act like Hillenburg is some kind of god who will save the show and while shitting on the exact episodes he worked on. His name is literally in the credits before each episode.

They're like "oh I would fire all the current writers and hire the ones who worked on the classic episodes" the ones who worked on the classic episodes are working on the show now. What are you going to do? Fire them and hire them back on??

This turned into a long rant but uhh I just had a lot to share. It just gets on my nerves since the patrick show coming up adds more hate to deal with. I haven't the energy. If you have a problem with Nickelodeon's corporate decisions then deal with the executives themselves ya kno? But it wouldn't matter because people are really biased. Especially with the lasting effects of those early 2010s cartoon reviewers.

#spongebob #spongebob squarepants #sb #spongebon squarepants #the spongebob connoisseur #spongebob meme #Ask

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firelxdykatara · 4 years

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Do you have advice on how to not let the fandoms new hot takes get in your head and ruin the show for you? Such as Iroh is a war criminal that shouldn’t be glorified, Hamma is a racist depiction of natives, shipping Zuko with a water tribe member glorifies colonization, villainizing the Freedom Fighters also does this. I think I managed to get exposed to all these in less than a week and it’s draining me and I’m worried it’ll not let me enjoy the show because these are pretty heavy accusations.

(ok so I rambled a lot in this one, i stuck a tl;dr at the end there if you don’t wanna read the whole thing lmfao)

Honestly, I think the first step is to be able to take a step back from AtLA and realize two things. One: Avatar: the Last Airbender isn’t perfect, no matter how many people will claim it is the be all and end all for Quality Children’s Media. It isn’t, it has it’s faults, and there are aspects to it that simply haven’t aged as well as others, particularly over the last decade.

The second thing? That it’s ok. AtLA can be imperfect and also be an excellent show that did have a lot of quality writing and aspects, for all that it was, ultimately, a pan-asian fantasy epic helmed by two white men with a largely white (largely male) writing staff. There were going to be issues there regardless, and it is absolutely ok to look at this and think “yes, there are issues, the show isn’t perfect, and I still love it anyway.”

There’s a huge difference between acknowledging something has faults and flaws, even occasionally discussing them, and just writing the whole thing off as irredeemable trash because it has problematic elements.

Now, the corollary to that is, of course, that fandom isn’t always right. Particularly whatever latest hot takes are coming out of the depths of tumblr or twitter. Which isn’t to say you should necessarily just disregard everything that is being said, but it is possible for these discussions to have nuance and many of them.....just don’t.

(I’m beginning to think fandom is allergic.)

Calling Iroh a war criminal is just factually inaccurate. War is ugly and it is brutal and he laid siege to Ba Sing Se for nearly two years, but war crimes are an actual classification of behaviors which are inhuman and inexcusable even in times of war. Simply being a general in wartime is not a war crime, and while it’s not impossible that Iroh did things we may classify as war crimes, he did not do them on screen. (Incidentally, though, Azula did. That bit in The Chase where she pretended to surrender in order to get everyone else’s guard down, and then she tried to murder Iroh? That’s technically a war crime.)

People can, of course, talk about the fact that Iroh was a wartime general who was complicit in the Fire Nation’s attempt at expansion and probably oversaw a lot of death and destruction before his heel-face turn, and that because his redemption happened before the series and entirely off-screen, people talk about him as the wise old uncle who could never do anything wrong while ignoring that dark history--but that doesn’t mean he’s a bad character or even a horrible person. He changed, and his is a story that anyone can. Some may not believe his reasons for changing (his son’s death) sufficient, but that’s on them and you don’t have to share that opinion!

It’s also possible to talk about Hama’s and the Freedom Fighters’ (particularly Jet’s) treatments by the narrative, without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I believe that Hama’s and Jet’s endings were remarkably lacking in empathy, but that doesn’t mean I think the whole story should be thrown out--it is, however, a show that ended twelve years ago, and in that time people in the fandom have created transformative works to fix that narrative. The original show is what it is, flaws and all, and it’s ok to enjoy it while also admitting that there were plot points and characters and even episodes that could have been handled better, or even just written better.

I mean, I’ve talked plenty about how I think the canon romances (except sukka) were terribly handled and ultimately harmful for both Zuko and Katara, and that I wish that if they’d had to be endgame, they’d been written better so at least my favorite characters wouldn’t be treated so badly in follow-up material. But I still love the show, because for all its flaws, there’s still something beautiful in the story that it told, and I can enjoy that while also turning to fandom to fix the things that I didn’t like in the original! And I obviously disagree that shipping zutara or zukka ‘glorifies colonization’, but the people who believe that aren’t gonna want to listen to what I have to say, and I have no obligation to listen to them, either! And neither do you.

TL;DR (i rambled so much i’m sorry): At the end of the day, that’s my advice to you--acknowledge that atla wasn’t perfect and even, in the perspective of over a decade of life passing since it ended, could or should have been handled better, and then turn to the corners of fandom you want to engage in. My happy place is the zutara tag, and the people I follow who have takes with which I agree and which I enjoy seeing. If the takes which have been exhausting you are coming from people you follow, maybe it’s time for an unfollowing spree! Try to find the common tags (because “I recognize this thing has flaws but I don’t want to focus on those, I’d rather focus on the things about it that make me happy” is a valid method of engaging with fandom, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise) that are used for those sorts of opinions (’atla critical’ or ‘anti atla’ for a start) and blacklist them, to cut down on the likelihood of seeing them without warning. Ask the people you still follow if they wouldn’t mind using a tag for salt or discourse if you enjoy most of their other content. For the love of the gods, stay away from twitter, it’s a trashpit and as allergic to nuance as fandom already is, that becomes a thousand times worse when you have a platform with such a tiny character limit. There’s literally no room for nuance on twitter.

I’m sorry that 99% of my advice boils down to ‘curate your experience better so you can stop seeing the sorts of posts that are upsetting you’, but that’s really all I can say, other than accepting that some flaws in the show will be dealbreakers for some people, and if they aren’t for you because you still love the source material, that’s ok.

#atla #atla fandom salt #salt for ts #fandoms as a whole are allergic to nuance and atla is worse about this than most i've been in #i completely understand the exhaustion #asked #Anonymous

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kumeko · 3 years

Photo

A/N: For the @personasummerzine exchange, for Nat, who wanted Fuuka. I think she and Shinjiro could have had some fun cooking adventures, if they had the chance.

…

Fuuka knew how to be precise. She was a mechanic to her core and fine-tuning delicate instruments required delicate hands. When she allowed herself a little well-earned praise, she was methodical with a good eye for detail.

Logically, she shouldn’t be as bad at cooking as she was. All she had to do was follow a set of instructions, just like she had the first time she’d learned to put together a radio. Measuring ingredients was an exact science, and she loved chemistry.

And yet.

Fuuka bit her lip as she stared at the two sets of pork cutlets on a white, plastic platter. The first set looked like perfection, the panko coating a perfect shade of brown. Clutching her knife tightly, she cut through the first cutlet, exposing white meat with a pink center. It was still raw, unfortunately, and utterly inedible.

Another failure.

“Not again,” she sighed, turning over to the second set. It looked as black as charcoal, and probably tasted as bad too, but she had to check. Biting her lip, she cut through the thick cutlet and revealed white meat.

“Yes!” She quickly picked it up, wincing a little as the heat burned her fingers. Blowing on it a few times, she took a bite.

Immediately, Fuuka resisted the urge to gag. A bitterness spread across her tongue and down her throat, like she was eating ash or gravel. She’d expected it, but it was so much worse than she’d prepared for. What little she could taste of the meat was drowned out, leaving behind only a strange sense of chewiness.

It was overcooked.

Sidestepping, she filled a glass with water and drank it with a single, long gulp. Even then, the bitter sensation lingered like a bad cough. “Why does this happen every time?” she groaned, resting her forehead on the cool kitchen counter.

The only good thing was that no one else was around to see her failure. It was an unseasonably warn day for September, and since they hadn’t gotten much homework yet, everyone making the best of it and escaped the dorms.

Fuuka, on the other hand, had taken full advantage of the empty kitchen to improve her skills. She eyed her food critically. Well, she had hoped to improve her skills, but she was still stuck at step one.

“What happened?” she murmured, checking the open recipe book on the center island. The steps were simple enough—cut the meat, coat it, fry it. It wasn’t rocket science. It wasn’t even engineering. Just like math, there were rules and all she had to do was obey them to get a delicious meal. “In theory, at least,” she murmured, thinking aloud now. “The oil was warm. The meat’s thin. I coated it all. Did I miss a step?”

Claws clicked on the tiled floor and she looked down to find Koromaru had padded into the room, attracted by the scent of food. He looked at her expectantly and whined.

“Sorry, I don’t think you should eat this.” She smiled apologetically, resisting the urge to scratch his ears with her flour-covered hands. “I don’t think anyone should, actually.”

“Eat what?” Shinjiro asked, shoulders slouched and hands in his pockets as he stepped in the room. His usual beanie was pulled low, his bangs obscuring his eyes and making him hard to read.

Not that Fuuka could tell what he felt otherwise. He was by far the gruffiest member of their group and she had a sinking feeling she’d never fully understand him. If even Mitsuru and Akihiko didn’t seem like they understood him, what chance did she have? Rubbing her neck, she flushed as she gestured at the ruined food. “I was trying to make cook but…it’s not going well. I either overcook or undercook.”

“I see.” His dark eyes scanned the room, before landing on her. Shinjiro’s jaw tightened imperceptibly and he stepped forward and raised his arm.

Fuuka tried not to flinch. They were teammates now. They lived together. He definitely wasn’t going to hurt her and all of those rumours she’d heard were just that and there was absolutely nothing to be scared about, not at all—

He reached past her before she could so much as squeak and turned off the stove with a soft click. “It should be off if you aren’t using it.”

“Oh.” Fuuka tried to calm herself as she nodded. “Right.” She glanced behind her. The oil was still on the stove and she’d heard enough about accidental fires to wince. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” He shrugged, indifferent. “What are you making?”

Those were the most words she’d heard from him outside of the Dark Hour. Trying not to stare, Fuuka gripped the edge of her apron. “Tonkatsu,” she admitted.

Shinjiro frowned. For a second, it looked like he wanted to say something, but after a few minutes he shook his head. “Good luck,” he replied as he left the kitchen.

“Thanks.” With a sigh, Fuuka turned back to the ruined attempts. It was far too late for the overcooked ones; she’d have to toss them. But the other ones…if she could just cook the meat without burning the coating…

“You should bake it.”

Fuuka jumped at the voice right behind her. “What—” A quick glance over her shoulder revealed Shinjiro had returned and for a man who liked walking Koromaru, he was as stealthy as a cat.

“If you keep it at a low temperature, even broil it, you can cook it without overcooking the crust.” Shinjiro scuffed his slippers on the tiles, looking as awkward and out of place as she felt. He’d always kept to himself; pulling words out of him felt like blindly connecting circuits on a board.

“I didn’t know you could cook,” Fuuka blurted out before she could stop herself.

“Kinda.” He shrugged nonchalantly. “Enough to feed myself at least. I can help, if you want.”

Tonkatsu seemed far more complicated than basic cooking, but it wasn’t like Fuuka had room to talk. What did she really know? Humouring him, she smiled. “Really? That would be great.”

It was like a switch flipped. He straightened up slightly, his tall, lanky frame already reaching the upper cupboards for the spare apron. How he knew that was there, she had no clue. Fuuka was certain he’d never been in the kitchen before.

Tying the apron, he gestured with his chin at the stove. “Set the oven to broil.”

“The oven?” Fuuka stared at him blankly, not understanding. “We’re supposed to fry the meat, right?”

“That’s the next batch.” He pointed at her failures. “The good ones just need the meat cooked, right?” There was none of his wry, sarcastic humour for once, instead he spoke with a strange confidence that she couldn’t connect to him. “They’ll still taste fine after.”

“Oh, I see.” Fuuka quickly opened the oven, double checking nothing was in there and the racks were in the right place. After turning the oven on, she pulled out a tray. “I didn’t know we could do that.”

“It’s a simple trick.” And again, just like before, he casually shrugged off her words. She wondered if he really didn’t care, or if it was all just an act. “Your meat isn’t thin enough.”

“It isn’t?” As she spread the aluminum foil over the tray, she glanced at him.

He held up one of her slices of breast meat. It was as thick as a finger. “No, it has to be thinner than this.” With practiced ease, he pulled open a drawer and pulled out a hammer-like tool. “I’ll hit it a few times.”

Fuuka leaned closer, watching as he spread saran wrap and placed the meat on it. Just like with his axe, he swung the hammer, though his opponent was just a piece of meat and not a monster. She glanced at his face and it was a mistake. Nothing about him looked like the Shinjiro she knew—his eyes were soft, his lips curved into a half-smile, his expression relaxed for once. It was like the years just washed right off him and he didn’t look like the lost, angry man she’d mistaken him as. No, now he looked like he was her age, like he really could have been in class with Akihiko and Mitsuru.

“Got it?” he asked, turning to her.

“Y-yeah,” she stuttered, forcing herself to look at the cutting board. The meat looked just like it did in the recipe, and she had no idea how that happened.

“Good.” His expression started to close off again as he set the hammer down. The oven beeped and he stepped around her to the sink. “You don’t have to keep the meat in for too long. And just…lower the temperature or something when you fry.”

He’s going to leave, she realized. His job done, he was going to leave and that would be the end of that. She’d be back to cooking alone.

Fuuka lowered her eyes, her fingers pulling on a thread on her apron. She had never considered herself particularly bold, but if there was one thing she’d realized since she’d come to the dorms, it was that she liked being around other people. She liked having friends, having connections, and that there was a different kind of loneliness that came from isolating after meeting others.

Shinjiro, she was certain, must have felt it too.

“Could you help me fry?” she asked, mustering up her courage.

Natsuki had reached out to her. The others in the dorms had reached out to her. It was time she tried reaching back instead, tried connecting on her own.

Shinjiro blinked, surprised. “What?”

She clenched her jaw and repeated, “Could you help me?”

They could be friends. She was certain of it.

"This work is a part of the Persona Fun in the Sun (Arcana!) Holiday Exchange. Learn more on: Twitter

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Carrd

#persona 3 #fuuka yamagishi #shinjiro aragaki #p3 #koromaru #fanfic

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thomcantsleep · 3 years

Text

My Relationship with Twitter

C/W: R/W Conspiracy Theories

I recently left Twitter for what is probably the tenth time I would’ve said. I also would’ve said that my reasons for leaving each time were the near enough the same.

Simply being on it, through one way or another, drives me up the wall.

This time though, I feel like I’ve properly re-evaluated my relationship with Twitter and come to real conclusions about the reality of the kind of place that it is.

It’s been fairly recent that Twitter has properly blown up into the monster that it is and it coincides with Facebook becoming uncool which I would’ve said to be around 2015 or 2016 at a guesstimate. i’ve been in an on-again/off-again relationship with the blue bird since 2012 when I was thirteen which is not a great age to be on it now. It wasn’t really a problem back then though because no-one used it. If you look at tweets from 2012 from major brands, you’d struggle to find a post that reached 300 likes. Celebrities might not get to 300 retweets whereas now, the likes of BTS easily clock 100k RTs and gobble half a million likes for breakfast.

I’m not one for crowded places for a start. I’m susceptible to a sudden wave of extreme and overwhelming self-consciousness which is otherwise known as a panic attack and only a couple of things activate it. Heterosexual nightclubs or vulnerability in an online space although I’ve been far better in recent years. Essentially, I get too emotionally invested in something publically and I walk in on myself and see all these eyes staring at me so I clam up. That’s one thing about Twitter that frightens me.

Something that I used to thrive on but have since rejected was pointing at conspiracy subscribers and laughing but, living in this current world, it isn’t really something that you can laugh about anymore. It’s just a downer never mind it being a broken record. There’s only so much material you can wring out of them before you find yourself alone in your house being angry at an invisible person with a bunch of numbers in their handle and an egg for a face. Whilst scrolling through Twitter, anything could be delivered to you and often, you don’t have any control over it.

Sometimes, you do have complete control. I have no idea why I have an impulse to open a reply section when I know exactly what will be inside it and that’ll definitely set me off for the rest of the day. If you don’t use Twitter or that you don’t use it that often, you might say “Well, it’s easy to just block or mute words or phrases”

Here’s the funny thing.

Twitter will do it’s best to make sure you see it anyway. It not being the specific post or person but the same sort of thing whether you like it or not because Twitter is supposed to be for everybody. You can not escape.

For context, I muted over 200 words or phrases and blocked over 600 accounts. Twitter encourages you to have arguments with people or come out with controversial hot takes so you can rack up the twat points and that can’t be healthy can it?

I don’t like having arguments and I never have. They almost never go anywhere or lead to any conclusion and just leave me feeling cold. Whenever I get into any slight disagreement on Twitter, I just feel frustrated because it’s no place to be having a nuanced discussion about anything. You start treating debate like firing missiles in a battlefield because you have to pick what bases you want to cover, how you want to make sense of it all and how it is explained clearly for the recipient so you can achieve a victory. The moment you click send, you have to start preparing your rebuttal because the other person is already preparing their counter-strike.

Why? Who gives a fuck? Who are these people? Why do we insist on combative conversation?

It’s the same reason why I don’t bother responding to people on this website messaging me calling me a cunt because I didn’t like Life Is Strange. What’s the best that they are hoping for? It’s the same on Twitter, same anywhere.

The reason why I like Instagram and that I’ve never fallen out with it is that it doesn’t really suggest conversation of any kind. It’s not the primary focus of the app (outside of the gathering of data), the primary focus is for looking at whatever images you like. It definitely does have it’s harmful side if you follow a great gambit of influencers but, unlike Twitter, if you don’t follow them, you won’t know they exist. I just follow my friends to see the serene scenes of their jogs up to Loch Lomond or walking their dogs in the Argyll country. Folk are generally happier on Instagram and they aren’t likely to post paragraphs of their thoughts and opinions on the new Zack Snyder movie. It’s comforting to be on it.

Because Twitter can make you laugh now and again, you want to stick around for the craic so you forget about all the times you’ve seen the same joke repeated. This does have a bit to do with how I’ve became sick of Twitter as well. I find that good jokes on Twitter get ruined immediately with either folk stealing it, rehashing it or repackaging it because, as per discussed, everyone is looking for the high score that’ll get them a pocket pussy sponsorship or whatever. So no meme is safe from being butchered and bastardized by someone who has “Turn Notifications On” in their bio. Not to sound like your grandad but it does feel like you’re living in an echo chamber - an echo chamber of crap patter.

The best part is that you can’t “mute” an image so you can’t see that fucking annoying lord of the rings meme template often enough.

Long story short; that’s why I’ve stopped using Twitter.

I still have a Twitter account though that has been privated for the moment but it’s just so I can post the new Tumblr posts to let folk know what I’m up to. If I have any updates about the books that I’ve got in the cannon then I’ll tweet a wee thing saying what I’m doing. But then I get the fuck out of there because scrolling down is practically an addiction and I need to get to sleep at night.

#twitter #mental health #social media #social media anxiety #social anxiety #anxiety #depression #anger #self-esteem #wellness #mindfulness

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veleno-fiore · 3 years

Text

To the ex-best friend

I write this more for myself than anything, because I blocked you on everything that I ever had you linked to. My tumblr, facebook, twitter, instagram, even in my phone. But sometimes I wonder if you would ever look at my posts to see if I was doing fine if I didn’t have you blocked. I wonder because sometimes I want to do the same for you. But I know it would only bring pain on myself even more and I don’t want to mourn a single thought of you any longer.

I understand now what it means to pretend someone is dead, rather than moved on to something else. Did you do the same for us? Or do you still shove our names in the mud, to better shine on your own? Portray us as the villains in the story, and you the polished white knight in stainless steel armor when really all that means if everyone else’s reflection on you is your own facade?

I can say honestly that I don’t experience a sense of betrayal often. Not since maybe middle school. I learned after being bullied for so long to keep my friends close and few in numbers. I believed after all the hardship I had been through, how my mind and heart began to learn how to sift through the weeds to find the good ones, that I had become a good judgement of character. I’m happy to say most of my friendships never turned into bitter and hateful break ups.

Most. Not all. You were the one that broke the streak of good ones.

See, most of my friends that I no longer speak to before don’t manipulate the way you did. Most just fade, drift to pursue their own passions and careers in their lives. I can understand that because I have done the same and faded away from some of my own best friends. But it’s never a bitterness that I taste on my tongue when their names cross my minds. It’s nostalgic, fondness, and good memories that come to mind.

Your memories have now been tainted, sour and bitter and only make me recoil in disgust and agony like a poisoned polished knife that I lovingly crafted for you was thrust right into my heart the second I placed it in your hands.

Friendship and trust is very much that. You spend years, forging a blade of the finest steel over the hearth. Your hands become calloused, you spend so much time working out all the little bumps and imperfection until it is smooth and brings a smile to your face because for once YES you have made something that you are truly proud of that you put all your heart into it.

Then, you give it away. You lay that beautiful knife in another’s hands, a gift that you put all your soul into creating. I can say I’ve done this with a few people in my life that I would trust them with my darkest of secrets.

I hold their knives in turn, and I protect them with it and wield them in their defense. There are three, and they know who they are.

I gave you one too. I thought, “surely after 10 years of holding this knife, I can trust them with anything.” I believe you may have given me yours as well. You’ve certainly told me things that seemed personal enough that you would never want them told anywhere else. Lord knows I’ve poured enough of my soul into it, I would think you’d have a similar trust in me.

But I’m not so sure. Because after 10 years, things began to change. You grew tarnished, bitter. But it wasn’t a sudden change in that. You’ve always had a rusted edge to you, quick to lash out at anything and anyone. There were no grey areas to you, it was always they were wrong and you were right. And if they were wrong, they deserved to burn.

But this time, it was towards us. To anything we said. It had begun to feel as if even among you, where once I thought it was as easy as walking through a field of soft grass it had turned sharpened like jagged stones in the bottom of a volcano. Each moment hurt and threatened to carve us open. They had begun to grow weary. I can’t blame them. But I’m stubborn, and did my best to walk through the fire and embers that burned away at me.

But it only grew hotter and burned and scorned me with every step.

Do you know the most foolish thing I have ever done? Each time you would erupt and disappear, I would be the one walking through lava to bring the fire back to us again. I pursued you each time, to try to patch this friendship up, even if we weren’t in the wrong. We would stand in the fire, and the fire would never cool.

There were never apologies. You would continue to burn us and I forced us to stand there and endure like nothing was wrong.

And for that, I’m sorry to my two that I forced that onto you. Maybe this could have ended much sooner than it did if I wasn’t so firmly set in my belief that everything could be solved with communication.

I didn’t realize until it was too late that I was slicing my own hands with the dagger I trusted to you.

In the end, what sparked the final crack was something that feels so minor and petty. But, you left. And for once, I did not follow after you. I decided, “if they want to come back, they’ll come back. Let’s leave them be.” Granted, that was after the initial attempt to tell you as you screamed that they hated you that they didn’t. And you told me you didn’t want to talk about it. Not to me, not to anyone.

So, I did as you requested. I left you alone. And I stayed true to that. We all did.

Three. Weeks.

After three weeks, you began to stab at us. Laying vague messages all over, even going so far as to threaten a false lawsuit at us. I wish I could say I was being poetic there, but no that actually happened. You began to stab at our backs that were turned to give you your requested time of silence.

That’s what made the spark turn into an eruption.

My two were done, instantly. They cut ties immediately with you, screaming into the night out of well-deserved frustration and anger over your actions.

I handled my pain differently. I mourned. I sobbed. I cried so hard through the night I hardly slept and felt so much pain in my chest I felt hollow inside. My dagger that I had spent so much of my time and energy and love into making for you was plunged right into my chest by your hand, and it hurt.

Then, we met others. Others that you had hurt in the past. As much as I didn’t want to believe at that moment that you were a bad person--even with the dagger still piercing my chest--they knew things about you that no one else would besides us.

It was the final straw. And where originally the idea was to absolutely ruin you, we stopped. We cooled down. All three of us began to mourn and only wanted to move on. It was clear there was no salvaging anything, but if there was some way just to get some sort of closure on it all, then that would suffice.

So, I took the plunge to contact you. I didn’t want to discuss with you, only tell you to unblock him so HE could talk to you.

And the first thing you say to me?

“Three weeks. Is it for more insults or cussing out? He can save both. As you can.”

No one “cussed you out”. Your definition of cussing someone out is CALLING them out on what they’ve done.

I ask you why you’re getting pissed at me, when I’ve done nothing to you. I have stayed radio silent on this entire matter on every account I own.

You say, “You’ve all had three weeks to talk to me.” And then you proceed to give me a message to relay to everyone else because, “I expect you to.”

And then, at that moment, I was done. I reached up, gripped the dagger you thrust into my chest, and ripped it out and all my frustration and anger from 10 years of silence poured onto you like a tsunami meets a volcanic fire.

I yelled, screamed, and said everything that was on my mind. How YOU had the chance to change everything. How YOU had the ability to message us first. How YOU were the one that blocked us. How YOU were the one that asked for silence. How it was ME that would always try to pick the pieces up again. How it was ME that would try to put all of us back into the same room and try to patch it all like we weren’t just in WWIII. How YOU were the one who was silent too in this entire endeavor.

And then, I was done. I was bleeding as I took the steps I needed to make to heal myself. I blocked you on everything I could think of. I deleted you from my phone contacts.

But, I forgot to block you there for a moment.

And you texted me. “Okay. Sorry it had to come to this. Love you.”

Did you ever really love me?

So at times like this, when my mind comes to you and wonders, “did they ever mourn the loss of me? Of 10 years of friendship that we shared?”

I remind myself that it doesn’t matter. Because this tie was broken a long time ago, with the first scars you laid on me.

I was the one who held out my hands for you to cut.

Now, I am the one taking it back.

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thenamesseven · 4 years

Text

Word count: 3k

Warnings: Angst

A/N: FINALLY! I’m so so sorry for making you all wait so much for an update. Truth was school is taking up most of my free time with homework and by the time I get some free time I’m too tired to do anything. I felt a bit desmotivated about writing but I think I’m back again! Thanks for being patience and I’ll try to update sooner, like I used to do before. Sorry again! Enjoy the chapter ^^

When Park Jinyoung called his employees into his office it was extremely obvious something was very very wrong. Being called by the boss to discuss private manners wasn’t something that brought good news, in fact, it was always related with somebody being fired or somebody getting yelled at for doing something wrong.

Unfortunately, even when they thought they would never go through something like that, the day when Jackson and Jaebum were called by their boss came and none of them knew what could possibly be wrong. Since they had spent the whole afternoon trying to come up with a plan to find you and bring you back home with them, none of them had checked out their social media and realize what was truly going on.

Sitting on some stiff yet pretty uncomfortable chairs, the both of them waited patiently until Park Jinyoung spoke, he only looked at them quietly, trying to think of a way to explain the big problem without getting insanely mad at them.

“What’s this”

Jackson and Jaebum jolted slightly scared when the stack of paper JYP had been holding, landed on the desk situated in front of them pretty hard, hard enough to send some sheets away before one of the boys could read whatever was written on them. By the way they looked some of them seemed to be magazine articles, the ones online pages post and the others were things posted in social media, specially Twitter and Tumblr. None of them dared to reach out and take one of the papers to read them though, whatever was going on was bad enough to have Park Jinyoung fuming in front of them when they were more or less, the favorite group of the company.

But by the looks of it, they have fucked up big time.

Since none of the guys seemed eager to reply to the easy question, JYP sighed, attempting to get some answers once again “I’m going to ask again and this time I expect a reasonable answer” He looked at both of them, leaning back against his chair while he pinched the bridge of his nose. Jackson and Jaebum knew him well enough to know that whatever the problem was, it was stressing him out a lot and that it would only made the issue even worse. “What’s the meaning of this?”

It was Jaebum the one that caught the sheet of paper Park Jinyoung tossed away. With insecure hands, he cleared out his throat and held it far enough for Jackson to read it with him. His eyes scanned the paper nervously, not really focusing on the paragraphs below but on the colorful details that could instantly give him some clues about what was truly happening. The first thing he noticed was the name of one of those gossiping magazines that are always following idols around, they had people hidden with cameras everywhere, ready to snap the perfect picture and manage to ruin their lives and careers by revealing rumours or secrets that shouldn’t have been revealed.

His stomach started turning into tiny notes that made him feel incredibly horrible. Jackson and him were hiding an incredibly big secret after all and it definitely wouldn’t be good if it had been leaked out of nowhere, without them having enough time to prepare for it. It really wasn’t a good time for that kind of drama, specially right after you were kind of missing.

Jackson, who was already fearing the text underneath the name of the magazine, had only managed to read the first sentence before his heart started beating so hard and loudly that he could feel his brain pulsing in synch with it.

The article said:

An anonymous message that has been recently received finally gave some meaning to the pictures we posted earlier! Jackson Wang, mostly known for being a successful rapper and part of the boy band GOT7, was spotted exiting his apartment earlier in an agitated way. The reporter that was there clearly saw how he was crying but also shaking with frustration, impotence for some unknown reasons that now are not so unknown.

Thanks to our anonymous reader we know that apparently Jackson and Jaebum are sharing that same apartment with an old friend who surprisingly is a female. Her name is (Y/N Y/LN) and luckily, our best researcher managed to find her instagram. We won’t post the username here but down there you can see a picture, kind of pretty isn’t she? Who wouldn’t want to date her?

Now get ready my dear ahgases because apparently and trusting the information this anonymous reader passed us, Jackson and Jaebum are in an open relationship with this female. Yeah! The three of them are dating, living together and doing all the heated things you all describe in your fanfics behind doors.

Jackson was seen crying after-

Jaebum crumpled the paper in his hands, making it a small ball before tossing it away. Jackson kept his eyes down on the floor one of his knees had started bouncing nervously, as a reflex of his body to get rid of some stress, shaking his head dissapointed while his fingers fidgeted with the hem of the shirt he was wearing. Honestly, he wasn’t thinking about the consequences this scandal could have for Jaebum and him, Jackson couldn’t help but think about how stressed you were probably feeling after your face, name and some other intimate things had been exposed to the public so suddenly and without any consent.

“What the fuck is this bullshit?” Jaebum suddenly spoke out, frowning as he looked at JYP straight in his eyes. Jackson, who hadn’t been expecting that reaction, turned his head towards his direction slightly surprised.

“J-Jaebum” Jackson slightly worried his language would only make things worse, attempted to warn him, to shut him up but that didn’t stop his boyfriend

“You better start explaining and pray…Fucking pray that there is an explanation that won’t led to the two of you being fired and kicked out from GOT7” Their boss sat back down onto his chair, breathing heavily as he stared at both males waiting for one of them to start explaining.

“Do you really think I’m dating him?” Jaebum pointed at Jackson with his thumb,the latter only raised one of his eyebrows to glance at him. If Jaebum wanted to die and try to save all of their asses, he better start playing his game too.

“Dude, am I that ugly?” Jackson scoffed leaning back against his chair, rolling his eyes

“This is not something that we should laugh about. This freaking article is appearing in every social media, even in some news channels” The two boys quietly gulped at that, you had seen it for sure then and they didn’t even want to think how their families were probably feeling about this scandal.

“I’m sorry but I really do not understand why the company hasn’t deny this rumour yet” Jackson told him, erasing the small smile from his lips to look as serious as he could “Not only are they damaging our image but they’re also putting in danger somebody who we consider our little sister and not a fuck toy that we could share”

Jaebum nodded to Jackson’s words, poker face on as he stared at his boss. He looked really serious and slightly angry on the outside but inside? He was about to cry and start panicking, Jaebum had never been so scared before “(Y/N) has been our friend for years, she’s been living with us for so long too…Don’t you think that if we really had a relationship with her it would have been leaked by now?”

“With the amount of people that knows us? Probably” Jackson added as if the question had been directed to him “Sir, we never lied to you, we never cause any major problems like this one. Why would we do something like this? Ruin our careers, our success for a girl? No thanks”

“Exactly” The words hurt Jackson, he knew you didn’t deserve to be spoken about like that but if it worked, it would probably safe their careers and your reputation, if that was still possible.

“Then why the hell were you crying Jackson? What the hell happened?” He asked, still not completely believing the words that were coming out of their mouths.

“We had a really strong argument in which we said some pretty nasty things to each other” Jackson explained, he wasn’t really lying, things have been rough for the three of them. The male was just omitting some details that would definitely get them in trouble “It got to the point where she left, only leaving a note behind saying goodbye”

The room stayed in silent, Jackson’s broken tone echoing through the room as silence took over it. Park Jinyoung sighed, leaning back against the chair once again as he stared to the ceiling, attempting to go through the entire situation in his mind. He didn’t believe the guys completely but he didn’t have the clues to accuse them of lying either.

If the rumour stayed going through people’s social media the situation would only kept getting worse and worse and it would simply be impossible to deny the news at some point, ruining the reputation of some of the best idols the company had along with the one of an innocent girl.

Sighing, Park Jinyoung, CEO of JYP Entertainment, stood up and looked down at both of them “Get out of here, let me try and sort this out”

-○-

Not too far away from that room, Jinyoung sat by himself in the lobby where they usually hang out during their little breaks in their practice sessions. Mark, Youngjae, Yugyeom and Bambam were there too, having some coffee as they talked about Jackson and Jaebum. Since they whole group knew about their relationship, the guys couldn’t help but be slightly worried about them what honestly surprised Jinyoung. Weren’t they worried about their own future? He didn’t mean to be rude but had they stopped to think what would happen to them if the group disappeared? Honestly, Jinyoung hasn’t fought so much for his dream to be ruined like this. You could say that was the reason he hasn’t said anything about yet, or maybe it was because he knew exactly what was going since he had been the one who sent those pictures to the online magazine.

Leaning back against his chair, with his legs crossed, he kept messing around with his phone, checking out some social media to pass the time when he stumbled onto a couple of tweets that caught his attention. At first, Jinyoung just wanted to read them because of the drama but then when he realized what the issue was, his blood turned cold and his heart stopped beating for a second.

“We all want that bitch out of our lives, why would she try to get involved with our two oppas?”

“Sluts are meant to be ashamed, you can’t let them do whatever they want”

Those were the beginnings of a trail that was full of original threats and insults that you wouldn’t even know existed. Jinyoung knew immediately who they were talking about, after all this was the effect he had expected after the anonymous message he sent to that online magazine started spreading through the internet. Messages like this will be the ones to make Jackson and Jaebum realize how much their fame could hurt you if anything of your relationship went wrong.

What he didn’t expect was the replies underneath where some people were planning to go and look for you, something that was totally crazy and unthinkable for Jinyoung. Were there fans who would go to that extent for two guys that would never know they existed? Even though something in him knew his plan was going the wrong way and that the backlash you were getting was way worse than he had expected, Jinyoung kept reading, eyes widening when he read the things they were planning to do to you if they find you.

Stumbling, the male stood up abruptly almost spilling his hot coffee all over the table. The guys looked at him, noticing how scared and tense their friend was but still none of them asked any questions and just waited for him to explain what was going on. However Jinyoung knew you didn’t have much time and that explaining everything would only make his chances of finding you smaller.

“Where are you going?” Yugyeom finally asked, too curious to hold the question back.

Jinyoung only glanced at his direction, face as pale as a ghost, he grabbed his hoodie from the chair and shook his hair, quietly telling them he didn’t have the time for explanations. “It’s (Y/N)” He simply said, pushing his phone out of his pockets to dial your number “Tell Jackson or Jaebum to call me as soon as they get out”

After saying that Jinyoung simply exited the break room, phone glued to his ear as he desperately prayed that you would answer the phone.

Nobody picked it up though and he could just hope that it wasn’t too late for you.

-○-

You didn’t know how much time had passed since you were dragged back into the alley by this unknown girls, all you knew was the pain in your body indicated something was probably broken after all the kicks and punches they threw. You were confused to say the least, since they seemed to know about your relationship with Jackson and Jaebum but none of the guys had called you to warn you about the situation, honestly, you would have never thought that if the fans ever found out about your relationship some of them would react the way these girls did.

They had walked after getting tired, only saying that a bitch like you would learn her lesson after the pain they inflicted on you. Your eyes were dry, there were no tears left to cry at this point and your throat was sore after all the begging you did. Your eyes were staring to get swollen, your vision was becoming incredibly blurred and unfortunately, your body was too weak to move an inch.

You would have called the police or even an ambulance if your phone hadn’t been stepped on and broken in your face, you could simply lay there on the floor praying to whatever God was up there that somebody would find you.

It was scary yet crazy the things some fans could do for their idols. You didn’t blame your guys though, this wasn’t their fault even though it was their fans were the ones that did it. In fact, you found yourself wishing to be with them, receiving all the love and affection they always gave you when you weren’t feeling well….If only you hadn’t ran away.

“(Y/N)!?”

You tried opening your eyes more, move your head towards the direction of the voice in order to see if you had hit your head so bad that you were now starting to have delusions, it was impossible Jinyoung was in the same alley as you, the guys were probably preparing for their new comeback.

“(Y/N)!?” When his voice sounded closer, you unconsciously frowned. What was he doing here? How did he find you? “Oh my God, what did they do to you?”

Looking down at you made Jinyoung feel like the worst person alive, you were drifting in and out of consciousness probably too weak to open your eyes and look at him. With shaky hands, he kneeled down besides you and rested your bleeding head on his knees not even caring about staining his new sweatpants. You groaned in pain, complaining about the movements as he gently brushed some of your hair out of your forehead, looking around, not really knowing what to do.

He never planned this to happen, the only thing he had wanted to do was scare Jackson and Jaebum to death, separate you from them so when the secret came out you would be far enough to not get hurt like this. You didn’t deserve this, what happened to you was extremely unfair and totally his fault.

“I’m going to get you some help” Jinyoung whispered, trying to dialed an ambulance but his hands were shaking too much and his eyes were full of tears “We’re going to the hospital”

“Where are they?” Jinyoung didn’t need to ask to know who you were asking for, it was normal that in this kind of situation you would want to see Jackson and Jaebum.

“They are okay, JYP needed to talk with them” Jinyoung replied, managing to call an ambulance “You’ll be okay (Y/N), just don’t fall asleep on me alright? You need to stay awake”

Using the last bit of strength you had, you nodded to his words, keeping your blurry vision on his face as he asked for an ambulance to come as fast as they could but tiredness was calling for you, the pain was overwhelming and deep down you knew that as soon as you closed your eyes everything would be gone. Who knows? Maybe all of this was part of a twisted nightmare, those that were too real for your own good.

“Please come as fast as you can, she’s losing consciousness again” Jinyoung pleaded, gently slapping your cheek with his hand to keep you awake.

“(Y/N)?”

You weren’t opening your eyes anymore, you weren’t even moving your head to him when he spoke.

“(Y/N)!? Oh god, (Y/N)?” He asked again

But nobody answered this time.

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lthmath · 4 years

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Recently we have been reorganizing our LThMath Book Club. The whole idea behind it is to read and discuss books with other people. We are happy that the Goodreads Club is steadily growing. We also have a Facebook Group with the same idea as the Goodreads one. Hope you all enjoy the idea. Due to this change, we cannot do just a Goodreads poll for the bi-monthly book. Therefor, we decided to do a survey (created using Google forms). In this way more people can vote for the book. If you want to vote, you need to do it HERE.

“Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension: A Mathematician’s Journey Through Narcissistic Numbers, Optimal Dating Algorithms, at Least Two Kinds of Infinity, and More” by Matt Parker*

In the absorbing and exhilarating Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension, Parker sets out to convince his readers to revisit the very math that put them off the subject as fourteen-year-olds. Starting with the foundations of math familiar from school (numbers, geometry, and algebra), he takes us on a grand tour, from four dimensional shapes, knot theory, the mysteries of prime numbers, optimization algorithms, and the math behind barcodes and iPhone screens to the different kinds of infinity ― and slightly beyond. Both playful and sophisticated, Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension is filled with captivating games and puzzles, a buffet of optional hands-on activities that entice us to take pleasure in mathematics at all levels. Parker invites us to relearn much of what baffled us in school and, this time, to be utterly enthralled by it.

“The Music of the Primes: Why an unsolved problem in mathematics matters” by Marcus du Sautoy*

Prime numbers are the very atoms of arithmetic. They also embody one of the most tantalising enigmas in the pursuit of human knowledge. How can one predict when the next prime number will occur? Is there a formula which could generate primes? These apparently simple questions have confounded mathematicians ever since the Ancient Greeks.

In this breathtaking book, mathematician Marcus du Sautoy tells the story of the eccentric and brilliant men who have struggled to solve one of the biggest mysteries in science. It is a story of strange journeys, last-minute escapes from death and the unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Above all, it is a moving and awe-inspiring evocation of the mathematician’s world and the beauties and mysteries it contains.

“A Brief History of Infinity” by Brian Clegg*

Infinity is a concept that fascinates everyone from a seven-year-old child to a maths professor. An exploration of the most mind-boggling feature of maths and physics, this work examines amazing paradoxes and looks at many features of this fascinating concept.

“Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception” by Charles Seife*

“Proofiness,” as Charles Seife explains in this eye-opening book, is the art of using pure mathematics for impure ends, and he reminds readers that bad mathematics has a dark side. It is used to bring down beloved government officials and to appoint undeserving ones (both Democratic and Republican), to convict the innocent and acquit the guilty, to ruin our economy, and to fix the outcomes of future elections. This penetrating look at the intersection of math and society will appeal to readers of Freakonomics and the books of Malcolm Gladwell.

“The Proof Is in the Pudding: The Changing Nature of Mathematical Proof” by Steven G. Krantz*

This text explores the many transformations that the mathematical proof has undergone from its inception to its versatile, present-day use, considering the advent of high-speed computing machines. Though there are many truths to be discovered in this book, by the end it is clear that there is no formalized approach or standard method of discovery to date. Most of the proofs are discussed in detail with figures and equations accompanying them, allowing both the professional mathematician and those less familiar with mathematics to derive the same joy from reading this book.

“How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking” byJordan Ellenberg*

How Not to Be Wrong presents the surprising revelations behind some interesting questions, using the mathematician’s method of analyzing life and exposing the hard-won insights of the academic community to the layman — minus the jargon. Ellenberg chases mathematical threads through a vast range of time and space, from the everyday to the cosmic, encountering, among other things, baseball, Reaganomics, daring lottery schemes, Voltaire, the replicability crisis in psychology, Italian Renaissance painting, artificial languages, the development of non-Euclidean geometry, the coming obesity apocalypse, Antonin Scalia’s views on crime and punishment, the psychology of slime molds, what Facebook can and can’t figure out about you, and the existence of God.

Ellenberg pulls from history as well as from the latest theoretical developments to provide those not trained in math with the knowledge they need. Math, as Ellenberg says, is “an atomic-powered prosthesis that you attach to your common sense, vastly multiplying its reach and strength.” With the tools of mathematics in hand, you can understand the world in a deeper, more meaningful way. How Not to Be Wrong will show you how.

“Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid” by Douglas R. Hofstadter*

Douglas Hofstadter’s book is concerned directly with the nature of “maps” or links between formal systems. However, according to Hofstadter, the formal system that underlies all mental activity transcends the system that supports it. If life can grow out of the formal chemical substrate of the cell, if consciousness can emerge out of a formal system of firing neurons, then so too will computers attain human intelligence. Gödel, Escher, Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more.

“How to Cut a Cake: And Other Mathematical Conundrums” by Ian Stewart*

Welcome back to Ian Stewart’s magical world of mathematics! Here are twenty more curious puzzles and fantastical mathematical stories from one of the world’s most popular and accessible writers on mathematics. This is a strange world of never-ending chess games, empires on the moon, furious fireflies, and, of course, disputes over how best to cut a cake. Each chapter–with titles such as, “How to Play Poker By Post” and “Repealing the Law of Averages”–presents a fascinating mathematical puzzle that is challenging, fun, and introduces the reader to a significant mathematical problem in an engaging and witty way. Illustrated with clever and quirky cartoons, each tale will delight those who love puzzles and mathematical conundrums.

“The Mathematical Tourist: New & Updated Snapshots of Modern Mathematics” by Ivars Peterson*

In the first edition of The Mathematical Tourist, renowned science journalist Ivars Peterson took readers on an unforgettable tour through the sometimes bizarre, but always fascinating, landscape of modern mathematics. Now the journey continues in a new, updated edition that includes all the latest information on mathematical proofs, fractals, prime numbers, chaos and much more. Blazing a trail through rows of austere symbols and dense lines of formulae, Peterson explores the central ideas behind the work of professional mathematicians– how and where their pieces of the mathematical puzzle fit in, the sources of their ideas, their fountains of inspiration, and the images that carry them from one discovery to another.

We hope this helped you decide what book you would like to read in August – September with us. Hope you liked this post. Have a great day. You can find us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram. We will try to post there as often as possible.

Lots of love and don’t forget that maths is everywhere! Enjoy!

*This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

February – March Book Choice Recently we have been reorganizing our LThMath Book Club. The whole idea behind it is to read and discuss books with other people.

#book #book club #book of puzzles #Books #math book #math facts #math fun #mathematics #maths

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kittyotakunoir666 · 5 years

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2WAYMIRROR: Broken Girls

Ok so haven't posted in a while but I started Listening to Gabbie Hanna’s 2WAYMIRROR album and I just had to do a fic for each song cause I was struck by inspiration. Here is the first one, note they might all be one-shots so I think, I’m not sure yet. We will have to see. All the songs will be Adrinette angst because I just feel that way. Oh, by the way, I have not seen the episodes beyond Chameleon only bits and pieces from Tumblr so this will be Chamelon salt in a way but not fully. I know, later on, he does basically trade his soul to the devil for Marinette and that's sweet of him but remember I haven't seen the episodes so be gentle with me being misinformed beyond that of the first episode of Season 3 Episode 1.

Adrien will be OOC and so will Marinette.

Oh, personal opinion this fic will be crap but eh. Bring in the criticism. I will also post the other songs later cause after I finish doing the songs on the 2WAYMIRROR album I will be doing other songs so you might look forward to that.

Broken girls Butterflies Perfect day

Goodbye Medicate Pillowcase

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Broken Girls by Gabbie Hanna

Don't really care about your sweet talk

At the time, I really was keeping quiet since Adrien promised me we would be in this together. That it was gonna be him and me against the reign of Lila. It made me happy that he promised this. That he was going to be there for me.

I only wanna hear your dark thoughts baby

But then I started seeing the real him. On the occasion that I did try to out Liela Rossi and got grief for it, he just stood back and said nothing. He ignored the situation completely. And it wasn’t the only time either. Whenever the others would start calling her names, ruining her sketches, or just plain on bullying me, he did nothing and said nothing.

You really like the way I'm fucked up

And all you wanna do is come and save me

Adrien would always check on me afterward. After the class was done with me. The first time I thought it was sweet that he would make sure I was ok. But then, after a while, I wanted nothing more than for him to leave me alone. To continue ignoring me as he has been doing. He only wanted to be my knight in shining armor after the conflict. If he really was my knight he would have intervened during the conflicts.

But when I ask the same questions

You always gotta go and change the subject

With all these one-way conversations

You got me wondering about the things left unsaid

Each and every single time I ask him why he doesn’t help me he changes the subject. Each and every single time he also blames me for starting it. He always defines the bully and never the victim. He did it with Chloe, so of course, he did it with Lila, because that’s exactly who he is. Thinking people will change if you give them time, though that may be true, it doesn’t apply to everybody. I keep on wondering, every time I speak to him what he really thinks of me. Was he really my friend, were we really in this together?

You love 'em sick, dig up all the ugly shit

Then you offer up your remedy

I’m not the only victim in his line of fire apparently. Because there is also Kagami; beautiful, strong, skilled, Kagami. Turns out Adrien is more than he seems because apparently, he was using her to try and get over his other crush. Of course, Kagami didn’t realize this at first since, like him, she has been sheltered away from social interaction so she really didn’t notice until she and I became friends. We found ourselves becoming friends after crying out apologies and understanding that it was foolish to fight over a guy.

Your tightened lips never let your secrets slip

Your repressed memories aren't impressing me

I get that Adrien was sheltered, that he lost his mom, that his father ignores him, that his father controls him and his schedule, but that does NOT excuse his behavior. His actions are his own just like his thoughts are his own. He can’t use his past to defy his action beyond that of what is reasonable. I should have seen the red flags before letting it get this far.

You like broken girls

Because they make you feel put together

Broken girls, rip it open then you'll kiss it better

He always did like to be the hero, especially when the situations involved me. Now I know why, after all, I am his princess and him my knight.

Won't open up to me

Of course, he’s Chat Noir.

Want you to talk to me

Of course, I find out when he’s venting yet again about how Ladybug should stop pretending she doesn’t love him. And then I vent about Lila and the class.

I want to get to know you

Don't just listen to me baby

Of course, I had to fight back in my honor when he tells me to listen to Adrien. And of course, he doesn’t listen, and he accidentally said something all too familiar. “Hey as long as you and he know, it should be alright, and hey you have me now to so you should do what your friend said and leave it”

Broken girls, because they make you feel put together

I really wanted to scream. The guy I used to like was this mangy cat. Was this person I put my trust in. I really wanted to scream.

No, I'm not in the mood for small talk

I only wanna know your deepest secrets

Oh, come on, let me be your detox

I'll be your diary, I won't repeat it

So I was like, you know what fine, tell me everything, don’t hold back, vent, rant, and speak to me about your “mentally checked out” father, your “in denial of being in love with you” Ladybug, and your “being difficult” Marinette. I’ll listen but don’t think I’m going to sit this one out. I didn’t even tell him I knew who he was because it might make this situation more difficult than it should be.

You love 'em sick, dig up all the ugly shit

Then you offer up your remedy

Your tightened lips never let your secrets slip

Your repressed memories aren't impressing me

A small part of me does feel bad about his past, a very small part of me wants to care for him like she used to but honestly that ship is sailing ad won’t be coming back anytime soon. Then the next Akuma appears and Chat is being difficult again after I rejected him again.

You like broken girls

I’m tired of this. I warned him something bad would happen if he continued this way. He didn’t listen.

Because they make you feel put together

I am so, so, so tired of his tantrums, his harassment, and his “love” for me. I was so tired of Leila and my classmates. I was so tired of Adrien even after I found out his identity.

Broken girls, rip it open then you'll kiss it better

No more, because dearest kitty, you should know better than publicly denying to help since the last two times no one else saw. But this time they saw.

Won't open up to me

I didn’t find out about it from him

Want you to talk to me

I should have though, with how much he complaints to my civilian self. He visited me the night before after all but the tweet didn’t pick up till the next day.

I want to get to know you

Instead, I find out through twitter. Someone from the Culpa enterprises recorded him not wanting to fight until Ladybug confessed to loving him. Ladybug basically begging for his help.

Paris wasn’t happy.

Don't just listen to me baby

I warned him.

Broken girls, because they make you feel put together

He didn’t listen to this Broken girl.

You like them broken

He wanted Ladybug to do damage control by confessing he was in his right. He was not happy when I said no because he was in the wrong. He barely shows up for fights now.

You like broken girls

I became even more broken

Because they make you feel put together

He was happy to see me struggle with a smug face saying “I told you so”

Broken girls, rip it open then you'll kiss it better

When he did show up he again would “sacrifice” himself even if he didn’t need to. Just to end up struggling and fighting him again.

Won't open up to me

Want you to talk to me

I want to get to know you

Don't just listen to me baby

Broken girls, because they make you feel put together

Paris had my back though.

You love 'em sick, dig up all the ugly shit

Master Fu had my back.

Broken girls

I may have been broken

You love 'em sick, dig up all the ugly shit

But I would not go down without a fight

Broken girls

So when a new Chat Noir showed up

You love 'em sick, dig up all the ugly shit

I became a little less broken

Broken girls

A little less stressed

You like broken girls

I welcomed this new Chat Noir

Because they make you feel put together

“Hi I’m Ladybug”

“Hi, I guess I’m the new Chat noir”

“What will your name be?”

“Chat de Nuit”

“Nice to meet you Chat de Nuit”

“I know I just met you but are you ok?”

“yes, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well, your eyes seem sad”

“You don’t have to worry about that”

I’m just a broken girl

#adrinette #felix culpa #marinette dupain cheng #angst #not adrien friendly #i know it's crap trust me i know #song fic #2WAYMIRROR

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lunaneko14 · 5 years

Note

If they're hearing Monica Rial and Chris sabat sabotaging kamehacon, I think I want to hear your thoughts about that

I’ve been waiting a while to address this since the initial allegations have come out, mostly to wait and see how Tumblr reports about this and if they put Monica, Jamie and Chris on blast like they did with Vic but its apparent that its not gonna happen.

Let me say this: These people have harassed, threatened and downright tried to take away the platforms and voice, the very things all these people on Tumblr claimed Vic did and not one person who wasn’t already on Vic’s side has spoken out about what has come out in the spotlight and I can’t say I’m surprised but I’m still disappointed.

With that being said, let me give my followers who may not have been keeping up with the case the rundown:

- Funimation DID NOT do a second investigation on the allegations and the first investigation came up inconclusive and this was BEFORE VIC WAS OFFICIALLY HIRED TO VOICE BROLY IN DBS: BROLY which is why he was greenlit to do it in the first place. But Monica, Chris and perhaps even Sean Schemmel (or whatever) used their influence at Funimation to fire Vic without a second investigation.

- Despite claims, NONE of the allegations against Vic have been proven. No one has gone to the police and there is even evidence that those rumors that you guys have been “hearing about for years” were all from previous attempts by Monica, Chris Sabat, Jamie Marchi and many others (including Monica’s fiance Ron Toye and his flunkie, Shane) to ruin Vic’s career. Yes there have been MANY attempts to ruin his reputation that even predate the #MeToo movement.

- Vic has hired a lawyer, his name is Ty Beard of the Beard & Harris law firm located in Texas where Vic lives, and where companies like Funimation and Rooster Teeth are based and many people have already been served papers (Ron Toye being the only one confirmed but if he got them, the other must’ve got them too, they’re just not saying anything).

- Since Vic hired a lawyer he has made ONE statement and that was to the FANS who kept supporting him through this and this was weeks ago. On the other hand, Monica has threatened people with the FBI, Homeland Security, and Jamie has said she wanted Vic DEAD on Twitter just because people have asked for proof on their claims and allegations.

- Marzgurl is involved, if some of my followers don’t know who that is, she was a former employee of Channel Awesome who actually used to date a proven pedophile (Jewwario) and has even been said to have contributed to him grooming minors and protected him even after allegations (with proof) came out about him among all the other terrible shit that has come out about Channel Awesome. But its been confirmed that she was one of the main one spreading the rumors about Vic sexually assaulting people while she herself has been known to protect a proven pedophile.

- There’s a lawyer named Nick Rekieta on Youtube who has received papers regarding Ron Toye reporting him to the Minnesota bar for his “unlawful conduct” even though all he did was report on the info that he’s gotten on the case. He’s never claimed to be professionally or personally involved in Vic’s case nor is he representing Vic.

- There is suspected evidence through texts, Twitter DMs, calls and emails, Monica, Jamie, and Chris Sabat have been on a blackmail spree with these conventions. Threatening walk outs even speaking for other VAs who have nothing to do with the situation (saying they’ll walk out too even though they never said they would) among other things. This has been going on since the “scandal” came out and gained attention.

- In the past few days, it has come out that specifically Monica Rial, Chris Sabat along with Ron Toye and Shane have been literally threatening the owner of Kameha Con with walk outs and criminal charges if he allowed Vic to come back to the convention. They even went as far as to blow up this man’s phone for 3 HOURS STRAIGHT with various rants and threats. This is ILLEGAL.

Sorry I don’t have links for everything because they are already laid out on Nick Rekeita’s Youtube channel videos about the case among others like YellowFlash, Hero Hei and to a lesser degree, The Quartering.

And to all the people who after knowing ALL of this still defend these people because “uwu victims must be believed!”

And to all the people who think they can just believe and tear down people over allegations and think allegations are enough to ruin people’s lives and livelihood:

YOU. CAN’T. DO. THAT.

Is called a WITCH HUNT and its wrong, it was always WRONG. This is why you’re innocent until PROVEN guilty. Do you know how MORE fucked up this country would be if anyone can make up rumors and shit and get their lives ruined without proof?????

PEOPLE LIE ALL THE FUCKING TIME!!!!!

WOMEN LIE ALL THE TIME

POC LIE ALL THE TIME

LGBTQ LIE ALL THE TIME

EVERY HUMAN BEING CAN LIE.

You don’t get to be on a pedestal dressed in white because you’re a minority because minorities can be wrong too. Minorities can act in evil ways too. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen minorities steal, cheat, lie, and commit several crimes both criminally and morally.

Vic isn’t evil for being religious, I’m religious, I believe in God, am I evil for this,or do I get a pass because I’m a black female??????

Vic isn’t homophobic, he’s supported the LGBTQ community before and he’s not homophobic if he doesn’t agree with your shitty non canon yaoi ships and he doesn’t have to sign your shitty yaoi doujins (in fact I think his contract says he can’t sign or promote non canon material). Even if he was homophobic, THAT’S NOT ILLEGAL. Its called FREEDOM OF RELIGION, EXPRESSION AND SPEECH. And you can’t silence people, as long as he’s not harming anyone physically or inciting violence against someone, he can believe what he wants and you have no legal capacity to do anything about it and if you do try to do anything about it, HE has legal cause of action just like he has with this case.

Vic isn’t automatically evil because he’s a straight white male and Monica/Jamie aren’t angels because they’re women.

YOU CAN’T RUIN SOMEONE’S LIFE WITHOUT PROOF. VIC COULD’VE COMMITTED SUICIDE FROM THIS BULLSHIT. ANYONE COULD’VE KILLED THEMSELVES IF THE CAREER THEY’VE BUILT FOR 20 YEARS WENT UP IN SMOKE BECAUSE SOME BITCHES DIDN’T LIKE THAT THEY COULDN’T MANIPULATE HIM. AND WHEN ALL THAT PROOF TY BEARD HAS BEEN COLLECTING FOR THE PAST FEW WEEKS COMES TO LIGHT YOU BETTER FEEL BAD FOR IMMEDIATELY BLAMING VIC BECAUSE IF HE KILLED HIMSELF, HIS BLOOD WOULD BE ON YOU TOO YOU FUCKING PIECES OF SHIT.

You can’t convince me that they didn’t want Vic DEAD. Jamie fucking admitted it on Twitter!!!! Vic DID apologize to the FANS he made uncomfortable but these harpies STILL dragged him because he didn’t bend to THEM. THAT’S how you know they don’t really care about victims. THEY DON’T CARE.

And to all of those people who jumped on me for standing with Vic from the start:

#long post #vic mignogna #i stand with vic #istandwithvic #funimation #anti monica rial #anti jamie marchi #anti chris sabat #dragon ball super #dragon ball #broly #dragon ball super broly #dbs broly

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nandalorian · 5 years

Text

So. I wasn’t going to post about Roswell, but now I am, so buckle up because this is going to be a long one.

A lot of people on Tumblr, Twitter, and the wider internet have, over the last few days, very intelligently posed criticisms of Roswell’s representation of POCs and queer characters in the context of Malex. While I have to be upfront about the fact that the problematic writing has made me apprehensive of seeing the show through to its next season, I’ve been pretty quiet on that front as I gather my thoughts and figure out what I need to say. As a white woman, I am upset and dismayed by the token and tone-deaf representation, but I feel like that’s not mine to speak to when there are a lot of people of colour in this fandom who can and should take this opportunity to explain, criticize, and educate the rest of us on how the show has failed and how it must do better. In that regard the most worthwhile contribution I can make is to listen and amplify those voices and their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and insights about the negative and at best lazy representation of people of colour on the show.

But as a bisexual woman and a professional writer and editor, I am in a position to criticize the queer representation from a political and social standpoint, but also a creative one. I am going to break this post up into two parts because there’s a lot I want to address about two separate issues, and I think the waters will get muddied if I try to combine it into one post. So let’s talk about Malex first, which is the subject about which, oddly enough, I feel the most calm. Depressed af, but mostly calm.

More under the cut.

A lot of people have already written about Malex or Tweeted Carina and the production team far more eloquently than I can manage, but the thing is, while I do have issues I’ll get into in a sec, I... actually think they have done a good job of writing Michael as a bisexual man and Alex as a gay one. That isn’t a popular opinion at the moment, but hear me out, because I have a lot more to say on the subject of bisexuality that doesn’t concern Michael Guerin. The show’s struggle isn’t entirely that their politics are bad. I do think the intentions are mostly good--mostly--but what I want to speak to is the breakdown between intentions and how those intentions translate to the screen through the medium of writing, direction, and the actors’ performances.

I don’t want to dismiss or disregard anyone who feels differently since that view is also totally valid and a lot of people have raised very fine points to that end. This is just my interpretation, so take it with a grain of salt and feel free to disregard or not. But my take is we can’t boil down the show’s issues to saying oh it’s biphobic or homophobic where Michael and Alex are concerned. I don’t think it is, not inherently.

The show’s struggle is that the writing is often so sloppy, rushed, and disjointed that it’s impossible to tell whether they don’t fully understand what positive queer representation is and what it isn’t, or if they just don’t know how to do it justice on TV. Perhaps it’s a combination of both, and right now I’m not writing off either possibility.

But I’m inclined to think it’s the latter. To be clear: the Malex/Maria triangle is shitty writing because love triangles frequently are, and they’re really, really difficult, if not impossible, to get right. The reason I think so many of us are up in arms about it is because the show rushed and stumbled its way through a 30-second supercut of Alex and Michael’s relationship from the word go, just enough to get us hooked before abandoning it for something else.

We’re pissed because it’s like they got us addicted to black tar heroin and then took away our fix just as the night sweats and shaky hands started to kick in, and at this point my life since episode 1x11 has been like a bad Trainspotting withdrawal montage. I don’t think they have intentionally baited us, although that is what it feels like. It’s taken a lot of angst and going back and forth on my part to arrive at this conclusion, and I will say I still waffle about it some days. But bad writing is bad because it pulls unintentionally negative reactions from people due to being misunderstood, or from creating all these wild implications the writers didn’t necessarily intend or realize were present in the final product.

The fact that Carina has to take to Twitter to explain each episode to viewers shows the quality of the writing or lack thereof. If it were stronger, she wouldn’t have to do that, but the show suffers from chronic exposition, incredibly bad pacing, and an overreliance on plot devices to advance the story rather than gradual and necessary character development. Sorry if that’s harsh, but the editor part of my brain sometimes wants to weep during episodes of Roswell. Oftentimes a bunch of shit will happen in an episode that doesn’t even progress the story, leaving us or the characters at exactly the same place they started off.

In short, everything happens too much. The characters feel like they have no agency because they are always reacting to one thing after another every episode, not even a second for them to breathe and be and let us see who they really are when the world isn’t on fire. And that’s all the characters, not just Alex and Michael, although arguably we have a bit more insight into the primary characters like the Pod Squad and Liz. But really, everything suffers as a result. The characters seem thin or underdeveloped and the sense of urgency, tension, and risk disappears even from theoretically high-stakes scenes like a live shooter at a hospital because we don’t get to see who the characters are in their normal lives. We don’t fully know what’s important to them before the next explosion happens.

Adversity is a helpful writing tool because it can show us who characters are under a certain set of high-pressure circumstances, but boredom and normalcy is just as important for character development. You can’t tear down what we don’t know exists. Star Wars: A New Hope wouldn’t have been half as effective if we hadn’t seen Luke Skywalker in his day-to-day life before that simple life was upended and he got the call to adventure. The first stage of the hero’s journey is necessarily the boring part because we can’t cross from the known to the unknown world without seeing what the known world is.

We never really… get that with Roswell. Not even for a second. So of course we feel cheated of bisexual or gay representation in the show because we never actually get to see Michael and Alex in any kind of sustained relationship, healthy or not. It’s just conflict conflict conflict with a bit of sex and longing gazes thrown in, followed by more conflict and then the relationship ending in favour for a new one. All hat, no cattle. (Literally.)

With Michael we get to see some of his routine and him being himself with his family, etc., and a lot of that has to do with the incredible performances Michael Vlamis delivers week after week, although even then, that suffers. Rather than start us off slow and building relationships from the ground up, the season begins in conflict, so that it has the effect of it seeming like the town of Roswell has been vacant for 10 years and everyone moved back in the same day and started catching up on each other’s lives after a decade apart. You don’t get the sense that anyone really talks to each other, even though most of them have been living in the same place their whole lives. Every single relationship, from Isobel and Michael, Max and Michael, Max and Isobel, even Maria and Michael, could have been strengthened if they’d taken more time to lay that groundwork ahead of the conflict. Especially Maria and Michael! Imagine how much better this season would have worked if they’d had an existing relationship, friendship, or flirtation before Alex got back. By this point we’d be nodding and probably going, “Okay, I get it. I might not like it, but I get it.”

Alex by comparison is a total cypher where his background and his day-to-day life is concerned. We know almost nothing about him outside of his history of abuse, his tragic backstory with Michael, and his role in helping to uncover the mystery about the fourth alien. Yes, we’ve gotten to see that he is blunt and fiercely loyal to his friends, and he has serious issues with needing to be in control, which are all valid from a character development standpoint. I have come to desperately crave any and all scenes with him and Kyle because that seems to be when we get the most significant moments of character insight like that wonderful “I’m talking about a conversation, not a war” moment. But how much else do we know or understand about him that is canon, not fans’ headcanon?

Furthermore, the lack of context and representation around Alex’s disability as a veteran, amputee, and potentially as a PTSD-sufferer is really dangerous and feels like tokenism. The way they’ve written the existence of his injury feels inconsistent, and while showing his residual limb during a love scene was significant, they ruined any goodwill we might have developed toward them for that by simply never engaging with his disability again. Same with the fact that he is of Indigenous heritage, which we know FROM A TWEET but which the show has never actually engaged with explicitly, in a move taken straight from the J.K. Rowling Book of Bogus Representation. We don’t quite have enough information to know yet whether this is tokenism or bad writing, in Alex’s case, although I sincerely hope it isn’t the former. Based on everything I’ve seen so far, though, my hopes aren’t high, because it kind of feels like the writers want credit for representation when they haven’t actually done the legwork (yet?).

Maria suffers a similar lack of character development, and what started off promising when we got great scenes with her, Liz, and Alex and then met Mimi has quickly deteriorated to her being nothing more than Michael’s new love interest. As a woman of colour, that is lazy and shitty on multiple levels, and I just about hit the ceiling in 1x11 when they not only showed a black woman being drugged and her body used against her will--could you be more tone-deaf to those implications?!--but had two white women (Jenna and Isobel) accusing Maria of being a murderer to another WOC (Liz). Maria’s very thin character development in the latter half of the season has had the dual effect of making us feel like we’ve been cheated out of a relationship we have gotten attached to but haven’t been given time to fully appreciate or understand (Malex) and thrust into a new one that feels weak, arbitrary, and rote by comparison.

I actually don’t object to the idea of Michael and Maria as a couple. They have great chemistry. But I do object to the lack of development they’ve given us on either front, either Michael/Maria or doing serious justice to Malex as a ship. To think all of that could’ve been solved if the writers had slowed down the show’s pacing and actually given themselves and the characters time to breathe and get to know each other, and us them.

What I feel a lot of straight/white/cis/able-bodied writers don’t seem to understand is that representation takes care. It’s great to say you’re going to write a diverse show and have lots of representation, but it’s for naught if you don’t also understand that you can’t write diversity in the same way you’d write a character coming from a place of privilege, be it racial, socioeconomic, gender, sexuality, ability, etc. Part of that privilege is having a lot of generally positive understanding and assumptions about those characters already built in, especially from your viewers who share that privilege. Writing diversity takes WORK, a lot of attention to detail, sensitivity, and most of all the ability to listen. It takes a lot of consultation with people who have those experiences and know what they’re talking about, because the experiences, assumptions, and biases of nondiverse writers just can’t fully capture what minorities know and live every day of their lives. To do otherwise is how we arrive at whitesplaining, mansplaining, straightsplaining, etc. If you’re a white/straight/cis/able-bodied person and think you’ve done enough to positively represent your diverse characters, that probably means you need to do more. It’s not for you to judge how much is “enough.” That’s for your consultants and, most importantly, your viewers. And if those people are telling you you’ve missed the mark, the next best thing you can do is stfu and listen to them and try to learn how to do better, not get defensive or start patting yourself on the back for everything else you’ve done.

I think those principles can be applied to all the representation on the show, including that of POCs, the differently abled, and the queer characters. I think the writers have done enough with Michael and Alex as queer characters on their own, but they’ve missed the mark on doing enough with them together. Because--and I know this will come as a shock--part of writing queer characters is also giving us well fleshed-out queer relationships. They started off down that road, but at some point the road abruptly ended and left us as viewers feeling stranded in the middle of a desert. That’s uneven writing that results in a feeling of uneven representation, and as far as viewers are concerned, it amounts to the same thing.

Carina’s attempts to explain why they’ve done nothing wrong to viewers via Twitter and social media is sheer intentional fallacy. And while we’re at it, I’ve spent a lot of this season wanting to take Twitter away from her and throw a copy of “The Death of the Author” at her head instead. It’s not enough, Carina. What you intended isn’t enough if it’s not there on the page or visible to us on the show. As a writer she should understand that, but instead she is getting defensive of her abilities as a screenwriter and showrunner when fans pipe up to say whatever she intended isn’t translating properly. We aren’t seeing that representation, which means the writers need to do more than what they think is “enough.”

Add into that a rushed, arbitrary love triangle with an underdeveloped black female character and an underdeveloped gay POC with a disability, especially when those two characters are also best friends whose relationship is severely threatened as a result, and there’s no wonder why viewers are up in arms about this. I don’t think the love triangle makes Michael seem like an indecisive or promiscuous bisexual--and anyway, since when is being promiscuous a bad thing. It just makes him and Maria seem careless of Alex’s feelings and like Alex is the victim, which they could have avoided by taking their time with the characters/relationships, especially the vulnerable ones, or by avoiding such a lazy and unnecessarily dramatic trope in the first place, or at the very least establishing the characters and their relationships enough that our current situation felt more organic.

So really this kind of leaves us at an impasse, I think, as fans. I think people ought to keep speaking up to Carina if they think that will help, but I think it’s also important for us to be able to separate bad politics from bad writing, or at least be able to engage with them as separate things that occasionally (or frequently) overlap with disastrous consequences. I’m sure there are a lot of people who will disagree with this utterly, and that’s fine. Could be I’m totally wrong, and I am aware that I’m probably giving the writers too much credit about what they may or may not have intended.

But with regards to Alex and Michael, maybe it will help to understand what’s happening from this standpoint and tailor our approach accordingly. We really can’t take it upon ourselves to make demands upon the show in terms of what story they want to tell, but we can certainly complain when they aren’t telling that story effectively or when it alienates viewers, especially on points of diversity and representation.

But I don’t know. It could be the only way to make ourselves heard, to tell the writers when they are and aren’t doing “enough,” is to vote with our time, attention, and viewership, whether that means continuing to watch the show or stopping altogether. And that’s kind of a bummer, because there was a lot of potential. But if the quality of the storytelling is unable to make heard the voices and experiences it ought to, especially with such a receptive, enthusiastic audience, then maybe it’s time we start looking for other shows that do a better job, or better yet, continue to keep telling and creating our own.

Those are just my thoughts. Please feel free to discuss with me in the comments or via DM, because I’m still talking through this stuff and welcome the conversation and any alternate or opposing viewpoints.

I’ll be back in a bit to share a second post with my far less forgiving thoughts about Roswell’s representation of queer female sexuality, because that one’s a doozy and the gloves come off. Sorry not sorry in advance.

#roswell new mexico #malex #alex manes #michael guerin #meta #biphobia #representation

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