#does this metaphor make any sense?

[zeb-z]

thinks about how Feanor was a great fire until he burned up and how his son Maedhros with his fiery hair was a slow burn but went out in flames all the same and how the first silmaril taken from Morgoth’s clutches was taken out of love and ended up in the sky as the brightest star and how the oath sworn by the brothers in the name of the silmarils was first made in the name of love for their father and his craft and how stars always burn and burn until they either burn out or until they cannot bear their own weight and collapse in a spectacular disastrous supernova and how it was never the love or passion that led to the Feanorians fate but possessiveness and pride. blows up a building

[beanghostprincess]

I often use cannibalism as a metaphor for longing and craving because just being next to the one you adore isn't enough. You need to consume them. But I do it in fundamentally different ways with different ships-- Like. Speaking of Zolu, I say Zoro will let himself be eaten out of devotion, wanting to live inside of Luffy, and knowing Luffy worships food as a symbol for life and freedom. Luffy will eat and consume Zoro out of greediness and the selfishness only a pirate can have but also worshipping every part of Zoro. At the same time, he does it because there's just no other way of having him that isn't inside of him forever. He's possessive like that and wants everything Zoro will give him, and Zoro wants to give him everything. While, if I write about Fyolai, I consider cannibalism as power differences and giving up freedom for love. Nikolai views love and sacrifice as some sort of chain that ties him to the world and doesn't let him be free or make decisions of his own, so letting himself be eaten by Fyodor and letting him take over his body is the most romantic and selfless thing he can do, giving up free will for love and the appreciation he has for Fyodor. While Fyodor feels some sort of power and control over Nikolai doing so, it's not only to call himself a god but because it would put Nikolai out of his misery and even if it's a selfish action it is also his way of showing respect and care as he would never let anybody else live in between his ribs. But then again, it could also be the other way around if you stop and think about it. Luffy only being vulnerable and weak around Zoro, realizing he feels safe inside of him and letting his first mate have everything he wants out of his captain. Because Zoro will not take unless Luffy lets him, so Luffy wants him to take and Zoro wants to swallow every bit of Luffy's vulnerability that only exists around him to give him the rest and comfort he needs and act as the anchor that grounds a ship. Fyodor, on the other hand, could let Nikolai consume him as a treat and sign of respect, giving up his superiority to show a bit of vulnerability around the clown but having still power over him. It would not be free will completely but Nikolai would enjoy the freedom inside of the cell he calls love and be free of eating Fyodor as a symbol of worship and almost religious devotion.

[llitchilitchi]

tonight has been such a great show of how the fans see c!Dream. the language surrounding him is dehumanizing, in the story, he is the book, he is kept in a vault, he is a monster - c!Q and c!Sam are seconds from calling him it, and the fandom reflects so many of these views. he is not a person with feelings, he is a monster, a predator stalking its prey, an obssessed beast. not human, never human with his very own motivations and goals and dreams who plans for something more. he never wans things for a reason that could not be seen as selfish desire, he is evil personified.

but the moment the language around him, by others in the story, the people who hold power over him reflect the lack of humanity that he should be granted, suddenly it is impossible to strip him of this human side. no, he cannot be in a vault, vault is for objects (like the revive book that everyone sees him as).

he is granted only as much humanity as people think he deserves to be punished further

[iamthepulta]

The more I read about Babylonia, the more I realize the Romans were essentially copy-pasting a good 80% of their technology, enhanced by coinage and lightweight communication methods.

The Romans also loved stone more than the Babylonians. An abnormal amount. I say that as someone who loves rocks. They loved stonework.

[staticrevelations]

i feel like we've needed some glue to hold BH together and orym has kinda been that in some ways but very quietly/passively and now ashton is really taking charge and starting to connect with everyone and bring everyone into the fold and go from sidelined semi-retired veteran to team captain and it's really beautiful to watch it play out

[the-toxinz-arcade]

ranbicblooded ..!

(ranbic-blooded) NOT FACTKIN NOT FACTKIN!!! LITERALLY CANNOT EXPRESS HOW NOT FACTKIN THIS IS!!! I AM JUST REALLY REALLY NORMAL ABOUT MY HYPERFIXATIONS GUYS!!!

a term for when one has the blood / DNA of Ranboo (METAPHORICALLY!!!) running through their veins.

[sea-buns]

Forgive me if I'm a bit nervous about Gorgug this season. It's just that the last Zac Oyama pc was Colin Provolone, who was arguably one of his greatest D20 performances, if not the greatest.

Zac always does great with every pc he plays, but Colin was something else. He came out swinging with actions and words that were teeming with unspoken emotional baggage. The way Colin's presence affected the other pcs; there was this level of depth that I don't think I've seen in any of his other characters. It was understated and quiet in that signature "just a guy" way that he tends to be, while still captivating everyone instantly with just how raw it was.

Not to say we haven't seen emotional depth in Gorgug. It's just that, compared to the other Bad Kids, Gorgug's journey and progression as a character has been very... impersonal? Like, yes, he found his birth parents, and he found friends who appreciate him, and he faced his insecurities about his intelligence, and he navigated relationship troubles, and his trial through the claustrophobic bug-tunnels was a horrifically-uncanny parallel to how he's spent his entire life trying to make himself as small as possible.

But how much of that has actually changed him from the Gorgug we started with? I would agree that he's definitely happier with his life, given all the loving and supportive people that have been added to it when it used to be just him and his parents. And he's certainly grown into himself and become more self-assured in his abilities, even if he's still, and always will be, our anxious little guy. And there's nothing wrong with that. I've always liked how Gorgug was a representation of all the little things. The subtle acts and kindnesses that don't seem like much to most, but to some are everything.

We don't need another Bad Kid living in fear that their mouth could be shit-in at any moment. We've already got one-too-many.

All that being said, I just feel like Gorgug's personal story beats are much easier to sweep under the rug than everyone else's. He has the same soft and understated quality that Colin held, but they lack that extra oomph that pushed Colin over the edge from being just another guy in a series of dudes, to a character that the vast majority of us could not get out of our heads. He took someone who was anxious and softspoken, who ultimately never wanted to be violent— someone who is remarkably similar to Gorgug in many ways— and maintained that demeanor and core in Colin's character while still hitting us in the feels with character development at max velocity at every turn.

I think Zac gets better and better at this with every season that goes by. With each new character, there is always something that leaves me stunned in awe. And it's been, what, three? Four years since we last saw Gorgug?

I'm just,,, I'm cautiously optimistic but also going into a bit of a worry about what violence this man may inflict upon us

[mwagneto]

my lady jane lgbt but specifically trans allegory was so crazy djnfjefjdnm like i'm like 100% sure that's what they were going for w the whole ethian thing. like that whole scene where they talk about how he can possibly stand constantly being challenged like this and him saying that he doesn't care bc people that matter to him know who he is, plus the narrator literally calling non-ethians cis like it's not subtle

and i really love how the whole narrative was like. people are starving and there's constant riots and a few idiots control the entire country but the person trying to seize power isn't addressing any of those issues because her entire campaign is "when i'm the ruler i'll exterminate every trans person". and it works. feels very relevant right now and i really liked the way all that was handled

[klwl-truck]

Tendou is a fish inside a birdcage and Ushijima is his friend who teaches him about what it’s like to be a bird and see the outside world, what it’s like to move freely.

Throughout the years that they are together, Ushijima’s empathetic voice gives Tendou the best gift he could ever ask for: Indistinguishability. He doesn’t feel like a fish stuck on the floor of a birdcage anymore, he’s a bird and he can fly like one.

[yarrowleef]

guess who finally got ✨✨medicated✨✨

[doppelnatur]

i think maybe we should start talking about victims and survivors as an oppressed group even outside of the context of other marginalizations. I'm thinking especially about victims of domestic violence, bullying and sexual abuse but also refugees and victims of natural disasters and other forms of ongoing stress/trauma, I just have less perspective on that and would welcome other perspectives here.

And yes, being part of a marginalized group, a) is in and of itself an ongoing stress, b) makes it more likely for you to become a victim of both interpersonal power imbalances as well as the effects of the global power imbalances as expressed as war and climate catastrophies, etc and c) makes it harder to receive help. I just think seeing those as intersections might be helpful? Conversations about domestic violence and sexual abuse are very commonly framed as conversations about gender and while I do think gender is an important factor in both, it is unhelpful to deny the doubt, downplaying and scrutiny all survivors regardless of gender face.

I think it would be helpful when building support networks to keep in mind the social bias against victims, whether those support networks help people escape a war zone or an abusive home. My impression is that a lot of the same social mechanisms that apply to marginalized groups, also apply to victims and survivors. It's the downplaying of the impact of the violence/disaster, the dehumanization, the speaking about you and not with you, the being robbed of your agency, there being "good" and "bad" victims, the contradictory and impossible standards you are held to, the way you're expected to bare yourself to display yourself and your wounds and be available for questioning...

I don't know maybe this is a useless concept or already really common framing but like I'd like to have a conversation about it?

[vonkarma2]

writing certain types of disabilities in a fantasy world where magic can do literally anything is very difficult though bc like there's certain things irl (chronic pain chronic illness and such) that can be treated but that you can't actually get rid of, but theoretically within this universe they absolutely should be able to be cured bc if you can bring people back from the dead and heal them and enchant them to not feel pain, can't you cure or at least completely mitigate this? but then sticking to that internal logic makes it a terrible representation of reality bc thats not like how it works yk?

^if this makes it sound like im supporting eugenics or curing all disabilities. i dont. im talking abt like solely negative aspects like chronic pain or whatever obviously there's a lot of gray area + people have many different thoughts on their own personal experiences. this is so funny a post that required a disclaimer..

[cygnusposts]

i think it's really funny when people try to assign batfam characters their own colors or whatever but refuse to use duplicates. could not be me. the inherent tragedy in using red for both jason and tim is something i will never get over

[iamthedukeofurl]

Scott Pilgrim is, I think, the best example I can think of for establishing a setting's Nonsense Limit. The setting's Nonsense Limit isn't quite "How high-fantasy is this". It's mostly a question of presentation, to what degree does the audience feel that they know the rules the world operates by, such that they are primed to accept a random new element being introduced. A setting with a Nonsense Limit of 0 is, like, an everyday story. Something larger than life, but theoretically taking place in our world, like your standard spy thriller action movie has a limit of 1. Some sort of hidden world urban fantasy with wizards and stuff operating in secret has a nonsense limit around 3 or 4. A Superhero setting, presenting an alternate version of our world, is a 5 or 6. High fantasy comes in around a 7 or so, "Oh yeah, Wizards exist and they can do crazy stuff" is pretty commonly accepted. Scott Pilgrim comes in at a 10. If you read the Scott Pilgrim book, it starts off looking like a purely mundane slice of life. The first hint at the fantastical is Ramona appearing repeatedly in Scott's Dreams, and then later showing up in real life. When we finally get an explanation, it's this:

Apparently Subspace Highways are a thing? And they go through people's heads? And Ramona treats this like it's obscure, but not secret knowledge. Ramona doesn't think she's doing anything weird here. At this point, it's not clear if Scott is accepting Ramona's explanation or not, things kind of move on as mundane as ever until their Date, when Ramona takes Scott through subspace, and he doesn't act like his world was just blown open or anything, although I guess that could have been a metaphor. there's a couple other moments, but everything with Ramona could be a metaphor, or Scott not recognizing what's going on. Maybe Ramona is uniquely fantastical in this otherwise normal world. And then, this happens

Suddenly, a fantastical element (A shitty local indie band finishing their set with a song that knocks out most of the audience) is introduced unrelated to Ramona, and undeniably literal. We see the crowd knocked out by Crash and The Boys. but the story doesn't linger on the implications of that, the whole point of that sequence is to raise the Nonsense Level, such that you accept it when This happens

Matthew Patel comes flying down onto the stage, Scott, who until this point is presented as a terrible person and a loser, but otherwise is extremely ordinary, proceeds to flawlessly block and counter him before doing a 64-hit air juggle combo. Scott's friends treat this like Scott is showing off a mildly interesting party trick, like being really good at darts. The establish that Scott is the "Best Fighter in the Province", not only are street-fighter battles a thing, Scott is Very Good at it, but they're so unimportant that being the best fighter in the province doesn't make Scott NOT a loser. So when Matthew Patel shows off his magic powers and then explodes into a pile of coins, we've established "Oh, this is how silly the setting gets". It's not about establishing the RULES of the setting so much as it is about establishing a lack of rules. Scott's skill at street-fighter battles doesn't translate to any sort of social prestige. Ramona can access Subspace Highways and she uses it to do a basic delivery job. It doesn't make sense and it's clear that it's not supposed to. So later on, when Todd Ingram starts throwing around telekinesis, and the explanation we're given is "He's a Vegan" , you're already so primed by the mixture of weirdness and mundanity that rather than trying to incorporate this new knowledge into any sort of coherent setting ruleset, you just go "Ah, yeah, Vegans".

[sharkkweak]

Technically both my kemonomimi OCs are also my furry OCs and vice versa because they exist in what is a version of the exact same universe but slightly to the left

[thedman0310]

Where do Omega Supreme and Astrotrain fit into this?

I mean, they are spaceship dudes

talking about transformers again over the weekend n my friend suggested on Cybertron all machines should be people. no constructed machines just people who turn into different machines.

anyway my proposition is that this is canon but the spaceships and stuff are all lobotomised transformers. the lobotomising is done immediately at birth so its viewed as humane and the whole thing is socially normalised.