#especially when it is something that has zero impact on their lives

[surrowndedbylights]

Now that my country (finally) decided to vote for marriage and adoption equality, I have to share my thoughts because I've been keeping them for too long.

This is going to be a long post so if you want to see more it's under the cut.

This has been such a huge debate for a while now, and I was always so mad about it. If you are lgbtq+ and have been in a similar situation, you probably know how it feels, but if you're not, I'll try to explain. Having literally everyone talking about my life and my rights, when they don't even have the slightest knowledge of what queer people have gone through in order to have equal rights around the world and it seemed so crazy to them that we would want it too. Even the church had an opinion when it has literally NOTHING to do with them. We are talking about political decisions about civil marriage. Your opinion is very much not needed, especially if its aim is to spread hatred towards a community that has suffered so much and the last thing we want is people with zero knowledge going around and preaching that we don't deserve to exist and have our basic human rights. We have the government to decide about laws and stuff, this is not theocracy for fuck's sake. There were also a lot of politicians talking shit about us, as if we are some kind of animals, but since they are part of the parliament, I was prepared for it and sucked it up.

Children adoption has also been on the table in these past months, and of course, everyone would have an opinion about it too. Basically, the only thing they could say to justify their bigotry was "You'll ruin the traditional family." I mean, if their perception of a 'traditional' family is couples who have children just because they can have them, but end up neglecting, abusing or abandoning them, then yes, I would very gladly ruin it. If there are families who abandon their kids in institutions, then there should also be families who are willing to take said kids in, no matter if they are gay or straight. And gay people don't have many choices. They can't reproduce like straight couples do. So, when a couple is relying on adoption to start their own family, then why would they not have that option? "Children need a mother and a father!" Children need someone who can take proper care of them and give them love. There are kids that grew up in such families, and they are no different than kids with straight parents. There are also those who grow up with only one parent, and they still turn out fine. It doesn't have to do with genders. You are just being homophobic. And no, they are not going to become gay because of that. Most of us grew up in straight environments, and yet we are not straight. But even if they do turn out to be queer, then they will know that their parents accept them and they won't have to spend their teenage years pretending to be someone else because they are afraid to be kicked out and whatnot.

I'm tired of everyone having a say in what I do. Queer people are not pawns in some game. To some, it may seem shocking, but we are still humans who have needs and rights. The fact that this was such a huge topic when it should go without saying. There are people who had to move to another country in order to marry their partners. We watched for so long, happy married couples in other countries. We were anxiously waiting for this decision to be made because we want to have equality. But, of course, according to some people, we are just sick and entitled and want to take over the world and destroy it. If you really believe this, then I'm sorry you're sad since yesterday. Learn how to get over it now 😘

[aizawaz]

Task Force 141 headcanons ; ass or tits

Trying to post somewhat consistently, so have this!!

Warnings: afab!reader , butt stuff (oral , fingering , plugs) , impact play , praise & degradation , brief mommy kink (I’m not sorry) , dirty talk , all the good stuff!

! NSFW under the cut !

Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley - Tits

Simon is a man that definitely enjoys larger breasts, but ultimately he’s a ‘boobs are boobs’ guy. He’s addicted to the way your plush flesh spills over the cups of your bra (he bought it for you) that fits just a little too small for your taste (he did that on purpose).

Low-cut shirts are Simon’s favourite, he takes them almost as a challenge to see how long he can stare before his dick is hard and he’s all over you. He can never last more than a few minutes, eventually shoving his large and cold hands beneath your shirt to paw at your “perfect fuckin’ tits, dovey. Can’t help but touch ‘em.”

Titty slapper. 100%. Does it as a form of punishment if you were being particularly bratty that day, starting with firm taps to get you riled up before fully administering the punishment. He’s not entirely gentle with it either, slapping until your tits are red and you’re looking all sorry ‘n teary-eyed at him. Even then, Simon doesn’t budge. If anything, he gets crueler, now pinching and pulling on your sore nipples. “C’mon, y’can take it like a big girl, can’t ya?”

Cpt. John Price - Ass

Has a thing for buttplugs, especially if they can vibrate. The first time John turned it on while deep in your pussy, he felt his entire spine tingle and was emptying his balls into you in seconds. Was hooked ever since but never uses it often. Likes to press down on the base with his thumb when it’s buried in your ass, gruffly chuckling when your hips jerk away.

John is a simple man, he sees you with a skirt on and he’s sauntering over to slip his rugged hands beneath the flimsy fabric and grab a handful. Not wearing any panties underneath? Even better, makes everything easier for him. He fondles your ass like it’s nothing but putty, looking over your shoulder to observe how malleable you are and groaning in your ear the whole time. “Hope you weren’t goin’ anywhere looking like this, love. Can’t have anyone lookin’ at what’s mine.”

Similar to Simon, John uses spanking as a punishment. However, he’s not easing you into it like Simon. As soon as his patience is tested, he’s bending you over his knee to teach you a lesson. Don’t expect to leave his lap until his handprint is welted in your skin, angry and red and just the way John likes it. “Maybe next time you’ll be obedient and listen to your Captain, yeah?”

Johnny ‘Soap’ MacTavish - Ass

Johnny’s an ass eater, I gotta say it. He adores the soft squeal you make when his tongue strays from your drenched pussy to instead prod and lick at your asshole. He’s absolutely filthy with it too, slurping and huffing like a starved animal because the taste of you drives Johnny absolutely mad.

He will slip in a finger or thumb while he’s hitting it in doggy, it always makes you clench so much tighter around his cock and Johnny swears he goes dumb for a second when he feels it. “Christ, bonnie. Y’like me playin’ with your li’l ass, huh? Greedy li’l thing.”

Wear yoga pants/shorts around this man and you’re not leaving without him getting a good feel. Comes up behind you and presses his already hard dick into you, grinding against and delivering a sharp slap to your ass. His hands are merciless, groping and squeezing your pliant skin all while murmuring under his breath about how you’re “just askin’ to be fucked, walkin’ around like tha’.”

Kyle ‘Gaz’ Garrick - Tits

Kyle would live between your boobs if he could, no matter the size. As long as he has something to latch his lips to, he has zero complaints. He could spend hours just kissing and sucking your tits if you’d let him, thinks it’s so intimate feeling how your nipple pebbles against his tongue and your heart hammers against his lips.

Push-up bras are Kyle’s bread and butter, they get him so hard and if you pair it with a low-cut shirt he’s cumming in his pants the moment his eyes find your cleavage. He cannot stop staring either, watching every delicious jiggle of your perky boobs as you do mundane tasks around the apartment. “Fuck, babe, you’re drivin’ crazy. I swear you’re doin’ it on purpose.”

Kyle is his most vulnerable when he has your tits in his mouth, and he’s not ashamed to admit that. Having Kyle in your lap, stroking his weeping cock and whispering soft praises into his ear as he sucks one of your nipples into his mouth, gets him closer to heaven than anything else. “You have the prettiest tits, momma. Love you so much.”

© aizawaz on tumblr. all rights reserved. do not cross-post, translate, copy in any way, etc.

[canmom]

Comics mini-Comints: Dungeon Meshi

reread dungeon meshi through to the end. still such a great manga. here are immediate thoughts - if I end up having time and energy I hope I can write something that goes deeper!

ironically i was only a few chapters from the end when I stopped keeping up, but I was struggling to remember all the characters and context, so reading it through in one go was definitely an ideal way to achieve maximum impact there.

ryoko kui does a very elegant job of handling a transition from 'silly antics' to 'big dramatic fantasy' while still keeping the central thematic throughline - eating and being eaten, belonging to an ecosystem, the significance of sacrificing others to achieve your own desires. a lot of setups pay off in a way that feels meticulously planned - and of course the crux of the final showdown revolves around characters attempting to eat each other, of course the big payoff is a huge feast that symbolically unites all the conflicting factions. it is maybe a bit too neat and happy for my taste, but it's undeniably tightly executed - it never loses sight of what it's about. especially compared to something like Frieren, it's an incredibly coherent serialisation, up there with e.g. Fullmetal Alchemist.

kui's art style deserves all kinds of praise - it feels effortlessly simple, but it clearly communicates all sorts of different shapes and body types and it's really fun to see her play around with remixing the different visual elements when she switches the races around. in general Laius's autistic monster loving ways clearly reflect kui's own deeply felt appreciation for all the ways people and animals live (accentuated further by all the extra sketches the scanlators tuck in). in a way you could kinda call it like Parts Unknown the fantasy manga.

the stakes of the final conflict are interesting - there is much to be said about the framing of 'desire' and its fulfilment, of this occult idea of 'the infinite'. lots you could put in relation to other manga, and also buddhism. (in particular I really want to develop a comparison to Made In Abyss, there are so many parallels, it just might be too spicy for tumblr lmao).

one thing I really like about it is how much its fantasy dungeon-exploring setting owes to D&D and other TTRPGs, rather than videogames. monster ecology has been a fascination of that game since the early days of Dragon magazine, and Kui sharply zeroes in on some of the intrinsic conflicts baked in to that fantasy milieu, notably the lifespan thing, while smartly avoiding the traps of 'evil races'. there's some really fun nods to the weirder monster manual entries. and in a story with so many characters and factions, it does a genuinely incredible job of furnishing everyone with understandable, reasonable motivations, conflicts drawn from their context just like the monsters are explained by their ecology.

and one thing that I particularly appreciate is like... how much it is able to simultaneously understand and sympathise with a character and also show us how and why they'd rub others the wrong way. it's impossible not to like our main group, they're all such charming dorks and the manga leads you along with all the crazy rpg party shit they do, but at the same time you definitely find yourself thinking 'guy's got a point' in the kabru chapters lmao. I'm projecting hard bc i don't really know a thing about ryōko kui but laius def feels like the sort of depiction of having an autism that you can only do if you've lived it.

but yeah, it's a fuzzy ending where it all turns out well. but what's the deeper thrust of it all? there's a funny moment where marcille is like 'maybe in the end our journey is about learning to accept death' and the grouchy old gnome guy completely laughs this off as naive, because death doesn't mean anything. and indeed their big plan pays off, and falin does indeed come back just fine. but still, through all of this it asks you to bite the bullet that being a living creature means eating to survive, at the cost of other creatures, with the other side being that one day you too will be eaten. in contrast to this honest way of being is the beguiling fantasy of infinity, where all your desires are immediately fulfilled - this is shown as a dangerous path of corruption that produces madness and manipulability. having limits and rubbing up against the wishes of others, or 'doing things you don't want to do' as izutsumi's arc puts it, becomes necessary for having some kind of definition as a subject. the thing that makes the demon concrete as an entity is a desire, or appetite, that can't immediately be fulfilled.

of course we can connect this to the idea of narrative conflict. a standard advice for putting together a plot is to ask what each character wants and why they can't get it. wanting something implies movement. and indeed over the course of this story, we see that while having too many desires fulfilled too readily leads to incoherence and callousness, equally a character who is left catatonic as their desires have been eaten by the demon must be reawakened to activity by finding a new desire.

it's kinda Buddhist innit. neither the opulence of the palace nor asceticism. desires are what tie you to the world. but mixed with ecology: what a creature does to find the energy to live is what defines its lifestyle, its form.

this is probably where I'd start talking about entropy gradients and shit if i wasn't typing this on a phone at 1:30am lmao.

but yeah - it's a powerful move to go from 'D&D monster recipe show sendup' to 'living with the inherently violent nature of being an organism fated to live in a finite sum game' and yet Dungeon Meshi makes it feel natural and convincing, while remaining tremendously charming and funny throughout. ryōko kui is definitely some kind of genius, and I can't wait to see what her next act is gonna be. it's all definitely making me appreciate the act of eating a lot more.

next story on my plate is probably The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere, which sounds like it will present a very gnarly thematic contrast.

[animezinglife]

Maybe it's my age talking, but I do think the Azriel vs. Lucien thing is blown way out of proportion.

There's a difference between attraction and being in love with someone, and another difference still between having a crush and being in love.

TL/DR: I genuinely think the biggest piece people overlook in this Azriel vs. Lucien puzzle is Elain herself and the layers of her internal conflict. Personally, I suspect it's much bigger than them both.

Here's the thing:

Azriel is gorgeous and is basically described as looking like a dark, fallen angel. He went into Hybern's war camp and got her out of there alongside Feyre, took her in his arms and flew her to safety. He's been kind to her, too. He hasn't pushed her to talk and has a quiet, strong presence that I'm sure is quite comforting to her.

There is zero expectation with him--zero pressure that she would even be able to create in her own mind. There's no "mate" term dangling over them and no friends or family breathing down their necks at every turn, acting like they should be supervised for something they didn't do. They're the only two people in their current circle (exempting Mor, though that's a bit different) who are still single. They both are constantly bombarded with this idea of "mates" and being on the outside of what that means.

I don't think it would be a reach at all to call her and Az friends.

It's not odd or confusing to me at all that she would have a crush on him; be attracted to him, want him to kiss her, or even to sleep with him. It seems completely natural.

I would argue that Az has been a gentleman towards her (and I will stand by the fact that internal frustrations are very different than actions, and that something expressed in confidence to your brother is nowhere near the same as acting out of turn), but I also wonder, too, if there's a part of her that makes her think she doesn't want a gentleman right now.

That while she's handled her trauma very differently than Nesta (thank the Cauldron), there's a part of her that's taken that robbing of life to heart and Graysen's whiny bitch comments/rejection to heart. That it's impacted her self-worth to make her think she is something "other" that's beyond saving or isn't worth the kind of fairytale love she always dreamed of for herself.

If I read into it perhaps a bit too much, I think Az is a little off when he assumes Elain doesn't know about the types of things he's done, whether that be atrocities or something more private. She might even see her involvement in killing Hybern to be some dark thing outside her nature she's having difficulty coming to terms with.

I'm not at all saying Az isn't a good guy who's deserving of love too, but I don't think what Elain's looking for with him in that extra chapter has much of anything to do with love. I think she wants a distraction with someone she thinks understands.

I think there's a chance, too, she's overwhelmed by Lucien being in the same house. Overwhelmed by that strong, involuntary pull she feels towards him and that she doesn't know what to make of him at all.

I will say it until I'm blue in the face, but I genuinely think the only barrier--the only real issue--that prevents her from warming to Lucien in the same or a similar way is that heavy, life-altering M-word that got slapped onto them both on arguably the worst day of her life.

He hasn't had the luxury of being around her as part of her family like Az has. Hasn't had the luxury of Elain seeing him fully through her own eyes without the "mate" label being forced into their lives. Yet it doesn't lessen the pull she has towards him, and that combined with everything she's experienced of mates thus far can't exactly be easy to process, especially after a brutal rejection, lost love, and lost future.

She isn't able right now to see the bond as a choice.

She doesn't even get the chance to evolve naturally into seeing it as a choice with the way her family hovers and breathes down her neck. How suddenly the most un-purity culture people in existence magically start caring a great deal about Elain's choices in that regard and insert themselves into chaperone roles like Elain and Lucien are two teenagers who can't control themselves at a junior high dance.

How confusing and contradictory that must be for Elain, who's been condescended and told by her sisters (namely Nesta) that the Fae don't live by human customs when it comes to sex or anything of the like. How the one time she did take that chance with someone she thought she loved it only got thrown back in her face by both Graysen and Nesta?

And what do we know about Lucien? He's devastatingly beautiful. Elegant yet rakish. An intelligent, educated, trained courtier and the son of a high lord. Even Feyre--a happily mated female--can't go five minutes in her internal monologues without noting how attractive and sexy he is even when he's doing absolutely nothing and minding his own business.

She knows he's Feyre's friend. She's heard some of the stories there. So she is aware, then, of at least some of the qualities her sister sees and admires in him despite their current rocky relationship.

Lucien is, in every way, being respectful of Elain's wishes and giving her space even though her rejection hurts him. He's still warring with the guilt of his own lost love in his mind and with a sense of unworthiness. He's been achingly thoughtful towards her; the epitome of a gentleman.

Elain would know that especially with that bond she doesn't fully understand, he's not someone she could simply have a pleasant distraction with. That he's someone who could see through her in every way she wants to hide and that she would never be able to hide in the mere idea that he simply doesn't press her (in the way Az doesn't press her).

Az feels safe right now and someone still attached to her comfort zone. He's a place she can continue to hide without fully facing her present and future and all Prythian is.

She can't hide her pain or suffering from Lucien in the same way. She can't quietly stare out the window into the sunlight without him knowing and feeling exactly what she needs.

She knows--senses--that she won't be able to separate the most vulnerable fragments of herself from her bond with Lucien. Again, a bond she didn't choose, and doesn't currently see that she still has a choice in.

So, she turns away from it in every way she knows how and looks for new ways to do so.

The way people treat Elain when it comes to her love life is so predictably (to her) unlike how Feyre and Nesta have been treated. Elain has always been different from them both, especially when it comes to love and sex. She's more modest and more reserved; has never been the type to fall into bed with some random man or Fae male. She's more guarded; a bit more protective of her own heart.

Maybe, to some extent, there's something she feels she needs to prove to herself. That she can fit within this more sexually liberated Fae world and that she's not some outsider in need of being treated with kid gloves.

Az, in that capacity, is definitely not someone who will. He's also not someone she can't keep her guard up with and can't keep her vulnerability from.

It would not surprise me either if there's a part of her that wants to deter Luicen (thinking back to Mor's tactic of deterring Azriel when she slept with Helion), but more strongly and importantly, to deter and distract herself from the bond. She doesn't want to allow herself to feel anything towards him.

The fact that she does feel a strong pull and, more likely than not, an overwhelming attraction of some kind makes me think it wasn't fully coincidence that she approached Az on Solstice when Lucien was in the same house.

I think she very much wanted to tie someone else to what she's feeling and try to get Lucien, the bond, and that dreaded M-word out of her mind.

Running the risk of sounding crude, Az could probably achieve that at least temporarily.

But it'd come right back. It's always been interesting to me that everyone seems to note that their bond is strong despite nothing having happened between them yet.

Until Elain acknowledges that bond and Lucien one way or another, that internal conflict she's clearly feeling is never going to change for her.

Two things can be true at once: we can fully acknowledge that neither Elain nor Lucien had a choice in the bond snapping between them, and that until they face it, neither one of them are going to have much choice in anything else at all. Not beyond a meaningless tangle in the sheets with someone else.

I think it would've been worse in the long run for Elain to learn that the hard way.

I also genuinely don't think Elain understands that there's nothing wrong with her for being different than her sisters or being different than the Fae norms. That there's nothing wrong with her for struggling to process this or for being overwhelmed.

She's still healing. She still has wounds she hasn't addressed. She's still hiding and seeking distractions while growing restless about wanting more from her life and being frustrated by her sisters' low expectations.

Feyre and Nesta love her, and it's not the protectiveness from love in itself that's wrong.

But they're suffocating her.

Lucien is, in every way, a person who never could. He's something so different and "other" than what she's used to both as a human and as a Fae while also being a bridge between those worlds. He can function in both. He can thrive in both.

He can see, perhaps too clearly, all sides of her whether she likes it or not.

I think she also very much senses he's the type she could fall in love with. The type she'll never be able to fully distract herself from if she lets herself fall or take that leap.

Her heart's still wounded, and she's not ready to risk opening that again right now.

That doesn't mean she won't be later on, and that doing so won't be incredibly worth it.

She will never find herself or open that chance up to herself, though, if she also keeps hiding in only the channels she knows. The barriers--intentional or otherwise--set around her by her sisters.

I do think that's inevitably going to be the difference between them, though: Elain and Lucien are going to face their reality and find healing together and in each other, and in the process, are going to end up falling in love. Real, true, soulful love.

Lucien's love is the kind that will leave her wondering why she ever thought she'd known what love is in the first place, and what they could find in each other is the kind of love they both deserve.

I cannot wait to see Elain facing her fears when she's fully free to do so. I can't wait to see her getting to know Lucien without the IC watching their every move and making her feel like a caged animal. I can't wait to see her find her strength, her love, and the fullest extent of her freedom.

That's not to say that Az would not have many wonderful qualities he could offer her too, but the person she's going to find more of herself than she every thought possible with is Lucien.

Az, in my humble opinion, is likely going to end up with someone else. An actual mate where he'll find his own healing alongside.

[crossdressingdeath]

You know, thinking about it, I was wrong before. Nico has more reason to trust Hades than Percy does Poseidon at the time of the incident in TLO!

If you think about it, Percy's only evidence that Nico should've known it was a trap is that "[Nico] know[s] what [Hades]'s like", but... Nico's view of Hades would be much different from Percy's. Remember, Nico has a room in the palace at this time; Hades couldn't send him to his room the way he does later if he didn't have a room to be sent to. He's been living there! Hades allows him to live there! At this point Nico doesn't know that Hades used to visit him, Maria and Bianca regularly or that he actively stepped in to protect Nico and Bianca from Zeus and keep them safe until the time of Titan's Curse, but he does know that Hades is letting him live in his palace. Gods don't do that. Percy has to nearly die to even get a brief visit to Poseidon's palace, and he very openly knows that Poseidon wouldn't have claimed him to begin with if he didn't need him. Not to mention Poseidon has that whole thing where he explicitly tells Percy he wishes he didn't exist, which... is the sort of thing that's gonna have a negative impact on how you view your dad.

So when Percy says that Nico knows what Hades is like, what he's saying is basically... "The Underworld is evil and Hades is evil, how could you not know that," which is kind of an incredibly shitty thing to say to the child of Hades living in the Underworld? I mean, it is kind of just "You shouldn't trust your father because I think he's evil and the Underworld is evil", if I was Nico I'd be very concerned about what Percy thought of me when he started spouting that shit. Anyway, while Hades is far from a good father at this point in the series Nico still knows him as the father who is letting him live in his palace because he has nowhere to go, stepping well outside the usual bounds of gods interacting with their kids in the process. Hell, unless I've forgotten something (possible), it's entirely possible that by this point in the timeline Hades has already told Nico about Camp Jupiter (which would show a huge amount of faith in him, again above and beyond any other godly parent). Hades can be kind of a dick because all gods are dicks to their kids, but Nico has no particular reason not to trust him! Especially given Nico has exactly zero other adults in his life offering him any support and at this point in the timeline he doesn't remember his mother, so Hades is basically all he's got and he has no points of comparison other than his also-a-child sister who kinda sorta abandoned him (not going into her reasoning here but it was A Thing that would probably influence the way Nico thought about... caregivers, I guess, for lack of a better term to describe the twelve year old put in charge of her little brother) and Minos (who is... Minos. Enough said). It makes sense that when Hades says "Do this small thing for me and I'll tell you about your mother" Nico believes him, because while Hades has been awful to Nico at times there's no evidence that he's ever lied to him. Why should Nico doubt his father who gave him a place to stay when he had nothing and no one just because that father happens to be Hades and the place to stay happens to be the Underworld?

...Also in hindsight knowing just how much Hades spoils Nico (for a godly parent at least) in the future makes the "You know what Hades is like" thing kind of hilarious. Ah yes, the guy who gives Nico a place to stay when he has nowhere to go despite gods Not Doing That, tells him at least some of the gods' most guarded secrets and essentially takes it on faith that he'll keep his mouth shut, lets him get away with breaking the law that the dead stay dead without even a slap on the wrist, promises him a place in the palace when he eventually dies (which may or may not imply that Hades intends to make Nico a god when he bites it, but it's certainly not normal procedure for Underworld kids), tells him to his face he deserves everything, and backs up that claim by fulfilling his wishes with no payment required or debt accrued just because Nico asked if Hades thinking he deserved everything meant he'd do so (because Nico is a little shit, we love to see it) despite Hades claiming that wasn't actually what he meant. Why would Nico trust that guy? (I know, I know, it's not proof of anything at this point because most of that hasn't happened yet. But it is funny how completely Percy's claim that Nico should distrust his dad is eventually proved wrong by Hades spoiling his kid rotten.)

[ilikekidsshows]

Hey! I’ve been viewing your stuff now and I agree with most of your Miraculous takes. I do have a question for you.

How do you feel about Adriachat’s habit of giving up his ring? A lot of people point to this as a way to criticize/salt on Adrichat about him being unfaithful and reckless. I’d only agree on the front that him leaving his ring out in the open in “Kuro Neko” was absolutely stupid and he should get push back for that. But as for everything else, it’s not so much that the him giving up the ring happens, but it doesn’t have a lasting impact. It really lasts for an episode and it’s used for dramatic effects.

If anything Adrien does didn't have a zero impact on anything there might be something here to analyze. But the thing with Adrien's actions is that they haven't had much if any followup since the early seasons. Like, Copycat is such an outlier as an episode specifically because it revolves around Adrien messing up and having to fix his mistake. I thought the conflict was kinda basic at the time but the latter seasons have made me remember the episode fondly because Adrien got to mess up in a way that had real consequences that he had to deal with, while in the later seasons he isn't even allowed to have feelings on anything, let alone act in any meaningful way.

But, like, let's pretend for a while that Miraculous is a normal superhero cartoon, where Adrien giving up his ring could have consequences. No, I don't think him leaving the ring, even out in the open, is stupid. It would only be stupid if we could reasonably expect Hawk Moth or someone working with him specifically to find it. Any other citizen would be far more likely to join forces with / give it to Ladybug. Hawk Moth doesn't leave his lair often, and Syren didn't want to leave the advantage being underwater gave her. Adrien left or would have left the ring where Ladybug would obviously be a little bit later.

We also have to take into account how Adrien is treated by his teammate and their mentor. Neither of them really listens to him, and Fu refuses to see him or let him know where he lives. He also isn't allowed to know where Ladybug lives. There is no safe, undercover way for Adrien to deliver the ring to Ladybug or Fu unless he wants to break the one rule they have been very adamant he obeys: he must not reveal his secret identity. Like, the level Adrien follows this directive is so absolute that the only time he broke it was when Ladybug, who was his leader at the time, told him to in Ephemereal.

Adrien has no control over anything that happens in their hero team, and he's equipped with the power that is always the biggest burden in superhero media: destruction. Adrien gets no support in this, from anyone. All he gets are orders and stonewalling. Adrien giving up on his ring when he's been told in actions or words that he is 1) not trusted, 2) not appreciated and 3) not wanted around is not a selfish act. He thinks he's doing Ladybug and Fu a favor, because they rarely if ever give the impression that they trust, appreciate or want him. They just want someone to use the Black Cat ring, so he leaves them with what they value the most when he finally self destructs from the pressure. It's not like he can go to them with his mental breakdown.

Giving up the ring is the only form of protest Adrien has in a situation where he has no power. I will not criticize him for using it when it's the only thing that makes Ladybug and Fu listen to him. Especially since it's not the ultimatum salters make it out to be, it's not "do what I say or the world perishes", it's merely "you can hire someone else from your numerous allies to fill my role, I'm done". If your boss mistreats you, everyone will tell you to quit, no matter how essential your job is.

[cripplecharacters]

Hi everyone! I am a teen writer and I'm writing my first novel. I live with a chronic condition and I am thinking about having one of my main characters live with the same condition. It is a rare type of adrenal gland insufficiency and I have to take medication everyday. I want to write my character taking their medication every night in a way that just feels normal. Does anyone have any tips on how to write this sort of stuff? I'm not 100% confident on how to approach this. Thank you:)

Hello beloved asker!

I think when you're writing about your own condition, especially if you have a rare form of something it's a free for all as that experience is personal to you and that character is gaining your experience. With that, depending on your meds or even if you want the character to take the same meds as you (certain regimens change), I would pick and choose parts from your own routine and use that as a makeshift template for the characters routine. Study your routine and why you do the things that you do and how you do them. This can help in describing actions and such to see how stuff you do translates into writing.

When writing I personally like to Sandwich the thing I don't want too much attention to fall on. And essentially you start the thoughts/dialogue/actions, and then you go to the thing you don't want the attentions on, and then you go back to your original thought/action/dialogue. And I'll put an example from one of my writings in case that makes zero sense.

"I'll be at the studio," he said, swallowing back the handful of pills. "Practice is gonna run late, I'll be home after."

This is just a normal sentence honestly but you can do this with a thought or action too though instead of dialogue like I did. The point is you don't want the attention to be on them taking their meds but rather what is actually going on in the story.

Now unless you do want it to stand out for another writing/plot reason or even if your transitioning their thought to their condition, then you can delve into it more. The only thing with delving into it is, its fine if something happens that impacts the character and makes them think about their condition. But otherwise it's not something that is done often or realistically.

About 99.9% I just take my pills and go on with my day. Every so often, especially with taking hydrocortisone which is a med that needs to be stress dosed, I'll really think about it. Like when a death has happened or something traumatic. Another is if you're running low or can't get this very important med, that might be another reason to dwell on the topic longer rather than gloss over it.

That's all the writing tips I have for that hopefully some more people can chip in with theirs. Happy writing!

~ Mod Virus 🌸

[pareidoliasys]

I love ZZZ and I love Hi3, Part 1 and Part 2, can we please stop comparing them and also stop shitting on Part 2 I'm so tired, I have so many thoughts and I'm tired and sleepy and might! Delete this in the morning who knows, maybe my thoughts will change by then. I'm just. So exhausted of this

Positivity at the end regardless. It's not all hurt and doom and gloom

- A story that is life changing and completely stunning with some of my favourite characters of all time

Things Honkai Impact 3rd is:

- An 8 year old game with a structure originally built to run on the mobile devices of the time which does make it stiff to play at times but still makes it an absolute wonder

- Doing it's best building off the clunky original code base of the game

- Continuing to make great stories with Part 2 while trying to make it's own identity as a new Era of Honkai Impact

Things Honkai Impact 3rd is not:

- Failing to live up to its past with the new part, there's been 3 chapters and most of the people I see complaining about it haven't played more than the first chapter and even if they have they look at it with such a clouded and negative lense, the part 2 story is WONDERFUL and it just gets better with each chapter

- The Worse ZZZ, Honkai Impact is and always has been its own thing in comparison to EVERY Hoyoverse game to come after it, even Honkai Star Rail is not like Honkai Impact at all.

- Deserving of being completely shit on constantly, criticism is fine but I've not seen any good cases of that in months, I actually do have my own criticisms of hi3 part two even if it's been my entire life since it came out but nobody approaches it critically nowadays because they're too stuck in part 1

Things Zenless Zone Zero is:

- The best combat I've played in a while for a gacha game

- Full of really fun characters and designs with amazing and fluid character animation

- A game that came out around two days ago and barely has given us enough to make a proper judgement on the quality of the story.

Things Zenless Zone Zero is not:

- A HONKAI IMPACT 3RD REPLACEMENT

- A GAME THAT SHOULD BE COMPARED TO AN 8 YEAR OLD GAME CONSTANTLY JUST TO CLOWN ON THE OLD GAME

Can we please. Judge ZZZ on its own merits without making people feel shit for enjoying Honkai Impact 3rd and especially for liking Part 2. I don't even want ZZZ to be in the same category of games as the other Hoyoverse games, please, let it be it's own thing so we can just enjoy it for what it is, super ultra fun.

I hate continually seeing people I Look Up To in the Honkai Impact 3rd community using part 2 as a punching bag for not immediately having the most engaging first chapter ever when we ALL know how bad Hi3 was before Chapter 9, so many people go out of their way just to explain to newcomers that it gets good by chapter 9 and how the early chapters suck and you have to read several Manga just for anything to make sense.

Give Part 2 the love it deserves, stick with it for longer that one or two chapters, play through the third chapter and wait with the rest of us for chapter 4 through 6 and beyond, if it continues to disappoint you that's fair but please stop thinking of it like Part 1. It's not Part 1, it's not Part 1.5 and definitely not something like Part 1.5 the second, it's a new story that has its own characters and its own dynamics and its own story to tell with characters who have an incredible amount of depth to them, like Thelema and Songque.

I love Honkai Impact Part 1, I love Honkai Impact Part 2 and I love Zenless Zone Zero. Can we just enjoy our own things without constant negativity with all the comparisons. It's so so so tiring. These are amazing worlds that touch the hearts of so many and that.. Is what should be focused on.

We should focus on the lives that these stories change, the people who were made better by the experiences these games gave them. Focus on the amazing artists in these communities that feed everyone amazing works of all kinds and focus on the passion behind both the people working behind the games and the passion of the people playing them. That's what deserves the focus here, not lashing out with negativity when there's good in the world like this.

I wouldn't be where I am in life without Honkai Impact 3rd. And I am forever grateful that I now get to be here to experience ZZZ with the people I love who I met because of Hi3.

That's what's most important to me in the end.

[kandisheek]

FIC REC WEEK 14 – AUTHOR WEEK

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: RayShippouUchiha

There are many amazing things about RayShippouUchiha's writing, but what always stands out to me is the way they write people being enamored with Tony. I have a soft spot for female Tony, and Ray writes some of the best fem!Tony fics I've found in this fandom. Some of their fics read like straight up poetry, and they're a master of both the angsty and the fluffy. I have a lot of their fics lined up to rec them in other weeks, so if you don't see your favorites in this list, don't worry, they're probably coming up at some other point this year.

Here's some of their work that I think you should check out:

Fearful Symmetry

Pairing: Bucky/Tony Rating: T Words: 5,684 Tags: Shapeshifters, Kidnapping, Team as Family

Summary: He’s obviously in the warehouse district near the docks, probably in one of the abandoned packing plants or something of the like. Honestly at this point this kidnapping couldn’t get more cliché if it actively tried. “Service sucks and the wait staff stole my clothes,” Tony whispers, unable to help himself as he slinks down the hall, “Zero stars, would not come again.”

Reasons why I love it: BAMF Tony getting himself out of tough scrapes will never not be an instant win for me. Couple that with a worried-sick team and pining Bucky who just wants to keep Tony safe, and there's a perfect recipe for Kandi-bait. Also, there's shifters, so, you know, what's not to love? Especially when Tony's true nature is revealed - it fits him so well, and I really love the mental images I got from that scene. I love this fic, and I bet you will too!

Grip. Chamber. Sights.

Pairing: Bucky/fem!Tony Rating: T Words: 14,824 Tags: Longing, Awkward Flirting, Recovery

Summary: He thinks maybe he should be unsettled by the impact she’s had on him. Thinks maybe it should chafe. That maybe it should remind him of HYDRA and having his choices, his will, ripped away from him. It doesn’t. She doesn’t. It, she, the memory of her, feels like choice.

Reasons why I love it: God, Bucky's devotion to Toni in this one is so pure and right. Their first meeting is perfect, and I love how Toni is the one to get Bucky to really reflect on his life and the choices he has. Plus, Bucky's attempts at flirting are both hilarious and adorable. This fic is amazing, and I highly encourage you to read it!

The Beat We Drum

Pairing: Bucky/Tony Rating: T Words: 1,510 Tags: Honeymoon, Trans Tony, Comfort No Hurt

Summary: Tony isn’t sure what he wouldn’t be willing to suffer to have this, to have this sun-drenched morning where he feels safe and whole. To have years stretching out in front of him with the possibility of so many more of these mornings yet to come.

Reasons why I love it: Newlywed Winteriron is just - gah, I love it so much. They're both snarky assholes, and they fit together like the imperfect puzzle pieces that they are. I really love the banter in this one, and the promise of future sexytime is really hot. I hope you give this one a shot, because it's fantastic!

Monday In A Cafe (All You Did Was Look My Way)

Pairing: Bucky/Tony Rating: T Words: 6,301 Tags: Meet-cute, Coffee Shop, Love at First Sight

Summary: Then Gorgeous, as Bucky abruptly names him in his head, slides a bit further down the counter and reaches for his wallet. He pulls out what Bucky’s pretty sure is a crisp hundred and stuffs it into the tip jar Clint decorated to look like a bulls-eye. And then he turns and looks directly at Bucky. Staring into big doe eyes from across the way Bucky resists the urge to bring his hand up to grip at his chest. Because that split second is all it takes. One look and Bucky is officially gone.

Reasons why I love it: They're such idiots in love, I live! Bucky is so cute when he fawns over Tony like a lovesick fool, and the exasperation of everyone around him just makes it even funnier. And the identity porn is hilarious, oblivious Bucky is my favorite. This fic is like a cup of hot chocolate with extra marshmallow fluff, so go ahead and enjoy it!

The Straight Path (Until The End Of My Days)

Pairing: Steve/Tony, Steve/Bucky/Tony Rating: T Words: 5,389 Tags: Fix-it, Angst with a Happy Ending, Murder

Summary: “Buck,” Steve whispers then, voice low like a secret, “I don’t … I don’t think I want to live in a world without him. I don’t think I can.” “Ah hell Stevie,” Bucky laughs, soft and fond and just a bit sad. “I always knew that.”

Reasons why I love it: This is such a beautiful fix-it. Ray does a fantastic job of presenting the original timeline in a way that feels viscerally awful, enough so to make Steve want a do-over. And the things he does - even though they're super dark, holy fuck - actually make sense for his character. I love this fic so much, and I really hope you decide to read it for yourself, because it's amazing!

[dirtyoldmanhole]

in defense of revelation

most of y'all know me as a pre-tumblr tellius fan who recently got suckered into fates/(especially revelation) in the past year and how often i've repeatedly stated how very fucking glad i was not around for peak fates fan/hatedom. even living afar from the field in other fandoms for that brief 2015-2021 time period, fates discourse was... special, to say the least.

me being me, i do want to take a step back and consider in good faith... why?

why the outsized hatedom for rev especially?

every FE game has its warts with its strengths. and i feel like i'm in a unique position of seeing from a more macro/neutral standpoint having abruptly fallen in love with fates/rev when it's left in the dust for shinier games, and whose viewpoint was never really colored either which way while also living the historical context of the series. (shoot at one point i was a by-default fates hater/"pre-DS fe" snob; I freely admit to eating my own words).

the odd bit of it all is that revelation is by far my favorite of the routes. yes, gunter's outsized impact on the plot is a large part of it, but I actually think I would still like it over conquest/(certinally over birthright and a good 90% of FE games) even if another character had taken that role, as long as it was handled in a similarly complex way (anankos' cosmic horror shtick was fuckin' rad).

let's start with the common criticisms (a few picked from this halfway reasonable reddit thread that attempts something similar) and others gleaned elsewhere from the interwebs over the year.

the unit balancing

IMO this is the fairest criticism of the list; i can see why a bunch of underleveled units handed out slowly before the cast rolls into valla would be a legitimate annoyance to old hats and newcomers alike.

that said: something about gameplay with Fates that i think was brilliant is there's a massive intentional difference between royals and every other character. royals get special weapons, they're a class unto themselves literally and also in being able to solo entire swaths of levels. (birthright being a literal name of one of the routes, for pete's sake.) i've attempted both a rev run with royals and a rev run without royals (using gunter too lol) back to back and honestly the sheer difficulty spike is genuinely fascinating from a story perspective.

you feel how utterly powerless non-royals feel.

(also given people mostly emotionally got attached to the royals.... in the other two routes they were probably willing to wait a little longer for their blorbo to appear and assuaged by many cutscenes of them.)

also tangent, but gameplay wise: i also kind of want to push back at the redditor in the thread above who mentioned rev as a sandbox experience of Fates; I can see why they would say that as it's perceived as the neutral route, when personally it's better framed as the valla-specific route with a very tight cast focus (ie the characters that actually impact the plot); having almost the whole cast being playable was just a type of newgame+ bonus. like i wouldn't expect a nohrian character to get much limelight in birthright in favor of the hoshidans, so too would I not expect a non valla-related character to get as much focus and decent treatment in rev.

very petty add on: if i can make mister zero stats grandpa OHKO ryoma in rev on my second run, git gud shrub

the story

so here's the thing.

i'm objectively biased by being head over heels for gunter as a character and his outsized impact on lategame rev - but i don't think i'm wrong with saying that people were looking for the wrong thematic beats regarding revelation's story with how it was framed beyond itself.

if you focus on the adults - mikoto, arete, gunter, garon, and the unaffiliated characters that didn't get a chance to shine in the other two nation-specific routes (azura, lilith, anankos, corrin's backstory in the northern fortress) - revelation will blow your socks off with how nuanced and interwoven between the characters mentioned above the story is.

you just need to give it a fair chance.

gimmick maps

this is honestly where i laugh a little and simply gesture to three houses' objectively terrible same-y maps. TH had other strengths; its maps are not one of them. i'd rather take a memorable gimmick in a heartbeat than 4/5ths of a game i straight up do not remember the levels (a criticism that could also go for FE11/12/most of the series pre FE7).

the snow shoveling map in particular draws the most ire (fair lol), but let's take that map out, and.... honestly none of the others feel egregarious? FE's done 'only three characters deployed" before (the cave chapter which is pretty short and not too unbalanced). the moving platforms have been done in FE7. the traps in anankos' lair were honestly pretty fun for instilling more of the horror/claustrophobic vibe and didn't have total buzzkills like powerful ranged magic bosses to ruin your day (FE6/7/16 lookin' at you).

of fates' routes, conquest's maps age a little bit better by being generally emotionally married to the story beats more, but personally i find they're a little overtuned at times. honestly the worst i can say is that conquest's maps overshine the other two routes when the other two routes had pretty decent-to-good map design that age well by their own right.

the babyrealms

sure, and.............? honestly i feel like every FE game has its completely anime whack-ass mechanic from space.

the best part is the children mechanic in fates is completely optional and segregated from the story - if you hate it that much it doesn't even have to exist. god knows i wish the My Unit/time travel of Awakening onwards didn't exist, or the kids of FE13 didn't exist, or the whole "secret space technology" of FE16 didn't exist, or the toothpaste hair of Engage, or the fucking gameplay of FE4/6, and frankly the laguz can be a bit tough to swallow as an idea if you didn't grow up with the anime tropes of cat girls or shapeshifters at the time (and the anvilicious anti-racism themes) -- all of which are way more plot relevant to their respective games.

'just fighting zombies for the latter half'

ironically i'm usually the first person to absolutely despise the 'fighting non-characters/nameless zombies' trope. so i do sympathize.

one: honestly that critique isn't that much different than the FE-bog-standard 'fight twenty maps packed with samey soldiers of the Bad Evil Country' (FE9 with daein alas) - if anything, like FE8, zombies are a nice change of pace and rev even one-ups sacred stones by giving the possessed vallites an extra bit of fridge horror if you give one temporary shit about the vallites.

a better defense though, is much like how i think viewing Final Fantasy 7 as anything but a massive homage to sci-fi horror would be a miss to its story, visual, and emotional beats - i also think it'd be a miss to not recognize that revelation is the cosmic horror of fire emblem.

the slowly-revealed possession of someone very precious to corrin. the needless deaths of named cast members. anankos' entire freaking design. the last four-five chapters of fighting your own parents/parental figures who both plead with you to kill them while also trying to convince you to let them kill you, holy fuck. peak psychological horror here too, and i feel like fates is in a uniquely better position with its focus on incestual family dynamics to drive home the emotional impact to the player (if you've married some specific characters like azura and gunter) as well as pull from classic gothic horror - especially brilliant with the nohrian's constant linkage to vampires, another staple of gothic horror.

oh gunter, gunter gunter.

I can't get around this point since I have heard him specifically mentioned (lol) as a failing of revelation. oh zero stats granpda. what are we going to do with you.

(keep in mind i'm not going to be able to tackle all of these sub-points since this would literally be a 20k essay by itself which this blog kinda frankly covers in various degrees; this is a summary).

but let's start with the more objective bits.

ultimately, i ... think a lot of people were really skeeved the fuck out by gunter's possession plotline in the sense it was a huge bet that the series had never done. there were a handful of gunter fans from conquest who would normally be all over his expanded spotlight that fall into this bucket, in addition to the folks that just did not jive with his type of arc/character and who were never gonna like rev. (that's fine, y'all got two whole other games to play in).

giving its jeigan character actual teeth, actual cold-blooded motivations and hatreds and a betrayal that worked entirely at odds with the royal-simping game (and series) didn't help. he never apologized for it either.

giving its jeigan a spotlight role when youth is valorized, and old age demonized to a questionable degree didn't help. (ya notice the ages of all the heroes and villains? the really squicky visual character consistency of beauty equals goodness in anime / that FE is no better at?) his story almost lowkey requires a little maturity to get, higher than the average age of a fates player.

giving its jeigan a nuanced personality that could be caring and protective as much as deeply manipulative (even and especially to corrin) didn't help. locking behind half of their relationship to CQ supports and half his backstory/chats with the rest of the cast being unlocalized likewise didn't help.

giving its jeigan actual sexual menace didn't help. ( in an already sexually-charged game, there are a few very specific lategame possession scenes where that also bleeds over to his role, nevermind his CQ S-support. and crucially, when that slipping mask jarred directly against the father role that people project on him with corrin).

.... and all of those points is exactly why i think his arc is some of the most brilliant writing in the series.

Fates was especially good with taking tired tropes and twisting them just enough in a fucky/power-tilt-y way that it left the player off kilter while giving the games, ultimately, a bittersweet resolution.

some folks don't like that feeling; but i think it was an injection of real charisma and balls in a series that always draws from its specific time-period in history.

thank you for reading ~

[artist-issues]

Hello, brother/sister (sorry I found out you existed today lol) in Christ! I just started my own blog yesterday, and I wanted to ask you two questions!

how did you come to Christ? (I am a sucker for testimonies, lol)

how can I preach the gospel on Tumblr with gentleness and grace and love for others? (and how do I not get involved in a keyboard smashing session, haha)

thanks for your time, God bless and have a great day! :)

I came to Christ when I was 15. I’m a Pastor’s kid. So the truth in the Bible was about as impactful to me as reciting my ABCs. But when I turned 9 I started to tune in to the parts about Hell and eternal damnation and freak out about it. So I believed God was real, and Hell and heaven were, too, even though I was living for myself. I started asking questions and praying for my salvation around that time, but it was only to “get out of going to Hell.” I had zero interest in the things of God, or submitting to Him. My top priorities were getting everyone to think well of me, especially my family. So I was super good at saying all the right things and doing all the right things, then behind closed doors I did whatever sinful stuff I felt like doing without a shred of thought for God.

Whenever I panicked about verses like “depart from Me, I never knew you,” I’d pray and ask the adults around me how to tell if I was “really saved,” (again, making zero connection between “saved” and anything except “get out of Hell,” in my heart) and they’d try to explain. But I always just latched on to phrases like “it’s not some sparkly feeling,” and quit panicking and went back to living for myself. But that really is what I was missing—a feeling. Specifically, passion about God, and what He loves, and what He wants, and who He is. That, and submission & repentance 😅

So that pattern went on till I was fifteen and old enough to go to this summer camp. And I was finally away from my usual circles, where I only thought about God in the context of “what does everyone here need to see me doing to think well of me?”

At this camp, the counselors and the teachers cut through all that in like 24 hours. They were like, “yeah, you don't have to give me the correct answer; I know what the teacher just said, but what about you? What do you do, in your life, on your own? What is it like when it’s just you and God?” And between that, and the crazy “I don’t care what anyone thinks of me except God” culture of the whole staff and everyone at that summer camp, God started getting ahold of me.

He started making me think about how everyone else wasn’t just “living for God” as part of their social bubble. They actually felt something genuine about Him. And I didn’t feel that. I didn’t feel anything, and I couldn’t *think* or *reason* or *force* myself to feel what they all seemed to be feeling.   They did this skit, and it was all about how broken sin makes us, and feeling the weight of that, and how Christ is the only salvation, and then that was followed up with this no-nonsense authoritative preaching from God’s Word, about how being “saved” isn’t just from your sin. It’s from yourself. It’s from your *lack* of caring about what is good, of caring about God.

I actually finally realized that when everyone else was out of the picture and it’s just me and God, I don’t care about Him. Even though I know what He did for me. And that felt like the most crushing vile sin of all of them, of my whole double-life. And I couldn’t get out from under it. But then it was super clear: He said He’d give me a “new heart.”

So I asked Him to save me and make me care about Him, and I’d live the rest of my life doing what He tells me to do.    He has done that! Not all at once, but gradually. I care more about doing what He wants, even if nobody in my favorite circles comes with me, than I ever thought I would. And there’s no explanation for it, because I had all of the circumstantial and situational reasons to have that kind of motivation for the first 14 years of my life—and I still didn’t. The only explanation for the change is Him. 

As far as how to talk about it here on tumblr...I've never really started a conversation specifically to lead someone to Christ online. I don't think online is the place to try that—but sometimes the topic comes up naturally because it's relevant to what I'm talking about in a post, like values in movies or if an important truth comes to mind and I feel like posting about it.

If you don't want to get into arguments, the best thing to do is not reply. People here tend to intentionally re-phrase everything you say into something they can buck and kick at, even if you choose your words super carefully. It's because they don't want to have a discussion. They either want to be right, or they want to make you look like a fool. It's impossible for them to do either of those things if what they're arguing against is truth—but they tend to just keep trying if you reply.

I only reply if I feel strongly that others might read the interaction and get the wrong idea about God, or truth, because of the word-twisting of my opposition. However, it's up to your personal conviction! 

My main advice is, don't ever stoop to returning insults. If someone calls you stupid, don't call them stupid back. If someone says something that's just a personal attack on you and has nothing to do with what you're arguing about, you can call it out--"what does that have to do with anything?"--and move on, or you can totally ignore it. And if someone just keeps on re-phrasing everything you say, like this:

Me: There's always more to learn, you don't know everything about what all Christians believe.

Them: I can't believe you're telling me you know more than me, lol, I've got forty years of experience

Then just block 'em. They either don't have good reading comprehension, or they don't want to actually debate in order to highlight truth. They want to debate to hear themselves talk, to convince themselves that they're right, to look like they're right in front of their followers, or to make a fool out of you. None of those are good reasons to debate.

They're looking to discredit you by any means necessary—including twisting your words. See how I said nothing about how much more *I* know than the other person? But somehow they took the point of my phrase and twisted it into a personal attack. That sort of thing isn't worth wasting your time on.

My dad likes to say, "nobody wins people to Christ by arguing them into it." I don't know if that's true, but it has been based on my experience. That said, I think truth is worth defending, and I think we're commanded to stand up against what is wrong. However, there comes a point when it's really just falling on deaf ears and continuing is a point of pride instead of humility.

For your questions, I'd see what the Bible says! 

[butmakeitgayblog]

Just to throw in a couple points real quick (because I can never keep an opinion to myself 😔 sorry), I personally kind of dislike the idea of a male and female gaze — not because I disagree with the concept of fetishism and objectification existing, they ABSOLUTELY do, but because of what people, particularly online, have come to accept they mean.

There has recently been discourse surrounding Love Lies Bleeding, a film created almost solely by queer women, “catering to the male gaze” which… I’m sure I don’t need to explain how silly that is lmao. I think this new wave of leftists clutching their pearls over literally any sign of sexual attraction and considering it to be synonymous with objectification has distorted people’s views of what these terms actually mean and have resulted in their gross misuse. Not to make this about me 💅🏻 but I see a lot of this similar discourse about trans people BY CIS PEOPLE whom are trying to be good allies by basically claiming that any sign of sexual attraction towards a trans person’s body is inherently fetishistic which I can’t lie… I kind of consider to be transphobic itself lol? You’re allowed to be sexually attracted to trans people and express that, no matter how their bodies look! The point at which it becomes fetishistic relies primarily on the WAY you express that and the language used — and I think that can apply to queer people in general too. I personally (and others may feel differently!) have zero issue with cis people enjoying trans NSFW content, and I also have no problem with straight women enjoying MLM content; because most of the time, I can tell from the LANGUAGE they use whether or not they are fetishising.

Point being, fetishism and objectification can go ALL ways and I don’t think people need to give excuses as to why they enjoy a certain type of content as long as it isn’t actively harming anyone. But I obviously can’t speak for everyone (especially queer women, I only identified as one for a year or two when I was a preteen lol) and people’s experiences tend to shape their opinions on these things 😅

Right and that's why I firmly stand behind my initial post about how it's no one's job to police people for what kind of content they consume! Because we don't know their motivations for how ot why they personally are interacting/consuming the work. It's incredibly easy to write off all enjoyment of a specific brand of content as fetishizing or sexualization when in reality, for the consumer it isn't that at all. My only point on the last ask was that sometimes, sometimes, it's easy to actually be doing exactly that (fetishizing etc) and not realizing it.

Intentions matter absolutely, but they're not the be-all-end-all of reality. It's like if I as a white person were to say something racist without realizing it was racist. That doesn't negate the racism, and it doesn't absolve me of my culpability, because my ignorance to my actions doesn't supercede my impact. You can be guilty of something without knowing that you are, and that's something you as person have to evaluate and confront on a personal basis. That was my only point in relation to what that anon said.

Again to reiterate, that is NOT saying that everyone who prefers queer work to straight work is guilty of that, because they're not. Full stop. And that alone is why I don't think anyone has or should have the authority to pass judgment on who can and can't consume certain kinds of media. Because, like you said, then you start wading into the murky waters of painting everyone with a broad brush, throwing accusations around that are universally damning despite not actually being universally true. And considering we're living in a period where puritan anti-sex brainrot is on the rise (alongside a deeply unsettling culture of condemnation over every little thing), opening that door can become very dangerous very fast. We're seeing it already.

I will tack on just as a thought regarding the trans character issue, I think that's kind of a perfect example of all these ideas aligning. Just in the most bare bones way of putting it: there is nothing inherently fetishizing about a cis person enjoying work including trans characters. There's nothing inherently fetishizing about a cis person enjoying, specifically, smut involving trans characters. There is nothing inherently fetishizing about a cis person preferring trans character stories over other kinds of media. However, if all they as a cis person consume is extremely sexualized renditions of trans characters, if their only interest in trans characters is porn - generally mostly devoid of complex storylines that create a fully rounded character -, then yeah I do think that's something they on an individual basis need to evaluate about themselves, because it's the difference between having a sexual attraction to a subsection of people versus seeing those same people as purely sexual objects. Does that make sense?

Same can be true for any other queer content being consumed by people that aren't historically the target audience.

But again, it's not really anyone else's place to make that call for anyone else.

[yourdadsghoulfriend]

Is it too late to request your All of Us Strangers rant? How much did you cry when watching it???

I cried 0 (zero) times. I looked like this tbh.

It was a stale, “gay is okay,” storyline a la “Love Simon,” that would’ve made a bigger impact had it released 10 or 15 years ago. To that end, it felt more like a gay movie for a straight audience. Sure there were boundaries pushed, but rather than anything meaningful, it felt like hollow attempts at pandering.

The novel the movie is loosely based on, “Strangers” by Taichi Yamaha, has a similar plot about a lonely writer who visits his childhood home to find residents that look eerily similar to his late parents, who perished in a car accident when he was 12. Convinced they are real, he revisits them often with gifts and offerings. While his parents are free of malicious intent, his girlfriend suggests they may be unintentionally sucking the life force out of him. Despite recognizing that his declining health is a result of the unnatural balance of the living consorting with the dead, he can’t help but continue to return to his parents.

While the novel and movie explore similar themes of grief, the supernatural, and reconciliation, there are little more than those similarities. I don’t mind the change of tone and artistic liberties the movie took from the novel; I lament missed opportunities for critical cultural storytelling.

How many more gay white man coming out or coming of age movies do we need?

Deriving the movie from a novel written by a Japanese man, this could’ve, and I argue it should’ve, been done with an Asian cast. It should’ve explored queer culture from a point of view seldom seen or talked about. It should’ve explored Eastern themes of homophobia, the struggles of family from the Eastern collectivist culture mindset, and what that looked like in the 80s. Especially how embarrassing and messily they shoehorned in with the briefest of mentions of the AIDS crisis, which, low-key key, I thought was offensive.

Speaking of messy, the damn logic of the movie is barely there. Is Adam seeing ghosts, or is it a pocket dimension of the past? We see him pass his house in the beginning, the daughter of the owner staring out the window, but later, his late father comes and takes him back to the house, so it is more like a pocket dimension. Later, Adam and his parents went to a modern restaurant, and the waitress couldn’t see his parents, so were they ghosts? There are so many moments like this where the universe's rules are broken unto themselves.

Oh, Jesus, and that reminds me of the bullshit twist with Harry. So he’s been dead the whole time, yet he can give Adam drugs that Adam physically feels in the club? He can order drinks at the bar so other people can see him, and he can levitate objects? He can interact with other living humans, and no one is the wiser he’s dead? He can see the ghosts of Adam’s parents, and they see him, but neither knows the other is dead? It's dumb and lazy writing. And what? What’s the moral once we discover he died after Adam turned him away? “You never know the battle other people are fighting” or some variation of an empty platitude? I say it again, 👏🏽dumb 👏🏽lazy 👏🏽hollow 👏🏽PAN👏🏽DER👏🏽ING. If you wanted audience sympathy, write your characters better. Write their struggle better. This easy way out of killing a character is so early in the 2000s that I couldn’t believe how utterly devoid it made the final movie feel.

To that end, there were so many more plot holes it was like looking at Swiss cheese. Or so many boring, obvious filler shots of Adam looking pensive as if reflecting on something profound. I think my eyes did a somersault how far they rolled back into my head.

I’ve already spent too much time writing this, but here’s the takeaway. The magic of media and the human experience is that we can consume the same thing and walk away with polar opposite takes. I’m no media expert, just a humble consumer. My opinion is my own just as much as anyone else’s is theirs. If they felt something that pulled at their heartstrings, I love that for them! The human experience is to connect with others, tap into deeper meaning, understanding, and form connections. But no media is above criticism; to me, it doesn’t meet that mark, and that’s okay.

In the dawn of today’s AI age, where studios are fighting to create devoid of creation by using AI images, voice bots and audio, actors’ images, and scripts, I feel it’s more important than ever to develop a sense of literacy and criticism. In our current political climate, it’s crucial to demand more opportunities for marginalized groups to have their voices heard and their stories seen. I believe in demanding better rather than settling for mediocrity. I do not suffer fools, and I pay no time to pander, so personally, I wish I remained a stranger to this movie and all its wasted potential.

[crystallinestars]

Yeah English isn't my mother tongue so thank you for the compliment 🥰 Honestly I saw the way you write (it's scrumptious) and the Argenti header and thought "damn I need to be on my best behaviour!" haha

Also never apologize for going off on a rant, I truly love your input!

Oh I do agree that it must be a mix of multiple things and that virtue signalling is definitely part of it! And the point you make about people creating a safe bubble for themselves and others really does make a lot of sense! I'd even be so bold as to say that this initial sentiment has unfortunately spiralled into having kneejerk reactions against any kind of perceived threat (for their identity, etc.). While I understand the need to be careful about who you let into your circle, it's a shame that instead of meaningful conversations (I'd imagine something like "I enjoy X thing in this story", "oh that's great, I have a different hc / interpretation but I'd love to hear your reasoning!") we're having a lot of passive aggressiveness or even full on pissing contests within the communities.

And if I had to sum up why I dislike, let's say between 60% to 90% of 'fandom culture' depending on whether or not it's a good day, I'd say that it's because of how often I have to see the utter glee and contempt this subsection of the fandom radiates whenever they feel like they've won their one-sided arguments / they can lord a win over someone's head for the dumbest things. It just boggles my mind. What happened to basic courtesy? I feel like people have grown so accustomed to living their 'bad bitch' fantasies on the internet without having to shoulder any responsibility for it (because of anonymity) that they've started to become waaay too comfortable coming into your space and being rude at best.

This is a bit of a digression, but for the sources, an example that comes to mind is a post I saw a while ago about the maple leaves associated with Dan Heng and (no shade to the person, it was an interesting read). However, they presented their argument in such a way that you just KNEW it wasn't just about Dan Hend, but about Blade too. They gave a list of symbolism for maple leaves, and the last point (the one highlighted by the structure) was "they also symbolise lovers!". It's in cases like this one I'd love for the OP to provide a source for their analysis, because the uni student in me just cannot accept claims on specific fields without credible evidence. Like is your analysis based on a discussion you had with a native? A paragrapgh you found on a blog named "sakurasdreamygarden.com"? A book you've read? Please, I'm not here to troll, I want to educate myself 😭 In this case it was also worth noting that someone in the comment added that 'maple leaves' is the literal meaning of Dan Feng's name (丹枫), in which case (this is just me adding my two cents) you could also argue that the maple leaves, specifically on Dan Heng's splash art, could symbolise the shadow of a past he cannot completely get rid of.

I was feeling like sticking my head in a lion's mouth when I wrote the 4th point 😂 And since I still do, I will just say that Mihoyo's pandering extends to hetero relationships too. Remember how I said these games remind me of Kpop? What I meant by that is that what they do is basically "All for the glitter and the aesthetic with zero commitment to the bit". So far in Genshin and HSR, they seem to focus especially on giving players shiny little toys to play with (attractive playable characters). And I say that their pandering extends to hetero relationships because as of now the only playable character with a semi-canon relationship is Welt, who's a Honkai Impact character (at least that's what I've heard, I don't know anything about Honkai Impact). I'm thinking especially about Yukong when I say this, because when she became playable in 1.1 I think, they wasted no time to clarify in 1.2 that actually Qingni is her ADOPTED daughter, which is basically like telling players "don't worry, Yukong hasn't been tainted by any man and is just as much of a shiny little toy freshly out of the box as the others!" Like, what am I supposed to believe with that? That for HSR the censorship this part of the fandom loves to bring up was magically extended to the heteros?

Also, I know nothing about Hi3 but since I love semantics, identify as a relationship fiend and still feel like getting shot by the fandom today, I'd also like to ask people to please explain to me how a kiss (yes, even on the lips) is objectively an undeniable act of romance. I'd argue that it's a sign of intimacy because it involves letting someone else get super close to you in a vulnerable moment, but that does not make it inherently romantic. Truthfully I'm just being facetious here but my sentiment is genuine: I would be eternally grateful if we stopped taking certain things for granted "because it's obvious" or whatever, and if we truly started to take the argument that many things in relationships are social constructs seriously. (PS: I mean "intimacy" here as "the state of having a close personal relationship with somebody", based on the first definition given by the online version of the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

Oh yes, Childe. I had heard of him before I started playing Genshin and when I arrived in Liyue I was like: "really? Is this the little guy you've decided to call daddy??" Childe's case hurts me less than Aventurine's solely because I decided recently that I would get Arlecchino and then uninstall the game for a while but I also really feel you! For HSR I'm here mostly for the lore and the Aeons and it really doesn't help that while I don't particularly mind shipping, it's something I indulge in sporadically, when a pairing scratches my brain just right. So I'm sitting here on the outskirts of the fandom watching people get mad at fictional corpos (the IPC, especially Topaz) but then jumping through so many hoops and getting up in arms to protect Mihoyo, or acting like the social justice police 😐

Oh and the fanarts you're talking about. I've been lucky enough not to see anything like that but like. Out of all the characters they could rough up they chose Aventurine?? Now it's reminding me of that one slave owner fanfic and I just have to wonder what it is about characters like him that always attracts the most unhinged fans.

They complain about Paimon hogging the spotlight in Genshin but then are taken by surprise whenever they fail to pick up hints, it's lowkey disheartening to see.

Honestly for Kaveh I feel like people had massacred Alhaitham's character even before Kaveh was introduced, to make it fit into any sexual fantasy trope. I just remembered this but whenever I hear about haikaveh or any shoe-horned ship for that matter, I start hearing this post:

https://www.tumblr.com/what-even-is-thiss/739539118572371969/sometimes-someone-just-isnt-into-you?source=share

The answers trying to make the character played by OP admit they've got hidden feelings is really how people with shipping lenses glued to their heads behave 😭

I'm also glad to see people focusing on characters individually and picking up interesting things about them! And I'm going to be honest: I mean this as disrespectfully as I can but if someone is surprised by reveals like that in a story like that, I'm just assuming they've never read anything else in their lives. Like, if your first reaction to anything in a story is to neatly categorize it as a trope (especially a romance trope) I genuinely need for this person to start educating themselves and engage with other media because there's just no way 💀 I can understand making assumptions / theories and then be proven wrong but this just on another level.

I hope I was coherent enough with all of this, and that you have a great day, evening or night too!

🪻

I’m so happy you like my writing 😭💚 I believe you can write amazing things as well. You’re really good at expressing your thoughts. The Argenti header is there because I like him and think there’s not enough of him in fandom haha.

The gleeful attitude some people have when their bullying succeeds is honestly repulsive. I only saw a bit of it, but it’s nasty how they act as if they accomplished a good deed. I daresay they even purposely go after people with differing opinions just to bully them into submission and feel good about it. As you pointed out, basic courtesy went out the window a long time ago due to anonymity of the internet.

Haha the Dan Heng maple leaf bit is proving my point! While people do try to be informative about symbolism and whatnot in character design, it’s also a means of validating their headcanons/ship. If Dan Feng’s name means maple leaves, then it makes perfect sense why maple leaves are a big part of Dan Heng’s design. Not everything about characters is linked to a ship, and I would love for more neutral discussions regarding the symbolism and culture behind their designs 😔

About Welt. I actually played Honkai Impact 3rd and read some of their comics (I was on the hunt for Su and Sumeru lore in preparation for Sumeru’s release). HI3 has a lot of canonical NL and GL pairings. Welt’s love is Frederica Nikola Tesla. There are more moments between them in the comic than the game, but it’s very obvious they’re in love with each other.

But of course, when he was introduced as a playable character in HSR, that part of him was buried. You can see Tesla in his splashart, but that’s about it. Same with Yukong. I was surprised they made her a mother since that’s a very bold move for a gacha game, so I knew there had to be a catch. And sure enough, she’s just an adoptive mother.

Gacha games are notorious for marking their characters single. If playable characters have a confirmed relationship, a lot of players would get very angry and jealous, and the company would lose profit. For example, I heard that back in 1.1 or so, Mihoyo wanted to release a lore book about Zhongli and Guizhong. I haven’t read it, so I can’t say if there was any romantic implication between them in the book, but Zhongli fans threw a fit, so Mihoyo scrapped it. Similarly, before Inazuma released, a leaker falsely said that Thoma was Ayaka’s fiancé, and again, the community got angry and cursed Thoma to hell. Ironically, it seems like players are far more accepting of same-sex relationship between characters than of opposite-sex ones 😅

I think kissing is strongly associated with romance because we have been conditioned to perceive it as such. Movies and other media make kissing a big deal between characters, there’s a lot of emphasis put on it as a turning point in their relationship. It also doesn’t help that practically every aspect of physical intimacy gets relegated to romantic relationships (hand-holding, cuddling, etc).

In our modern era, a lot of people feel isolated. Physical intimacy between an individual and their friends and family is rarer, so they think that if they get a significant other, they’ll receive the physical intimacy (and not only physical) that they crave. It’s a social construct for sure, but it’s very wide-spread and hard to break out of. At any rate, this is all just my conjecture.

Aventurine is a tragic case. I’m glad the amount of abusive fanarts of him has died down, though Childe doesn’t have that luxury 😔 I suppose the fuckboy type makes people think the character is up on a high horse, so they want to knock him down a peg. Some also perceive the trope to be inherently masochistic for whatever reason. I doubt we’ll ever know.

Lmao that post you linked! So true! That’s exactly how they behave! Gaslighting everyone, even the author, to convince them there’s romantic feelings between the characters when there are none. Characters used to be interpreted as friends, enemies, family, etc, but nowadays every character relationship gets seen as romantic. I miss the days when characters could be just friends or found family.

And I agree, Alhaitham was already butchered since the Sumeru Archon quest. People see a hot, muscular guy and focus only on how sexy he looks, and how hot it would be if he was dominant or aggressive, despite it not being his character at all. I get that people are free to imagine whatever they want for the sake of fun, but with how widespread some of those interpretations become, the character gets quickly reduced to tropes, and people forget what they’re actually like in canon.

To this day, there are still people surprised that Alhaitham is actually very nice and kind, even to children. He took in a broke man he didn’t particularly get along with and hasn’t seen in years, so if that isn’t a big fat hint that he’s a nice person, then I don’t know what is. As we have both agreed, a lot of people don’t pick up on the nuance of character writing 😔

Thank you for stopping by 🪻anon! I also hope you have a great day, and take care 💚

[teabreakpancakes]

A Taste Of Life Aesop X GN Reader

Genre: Fluff

Just why were you so bright?

Ever since he's arrived at Oletus Manor, the place has always been oh so glum. But, with your arrival, not only has the manor started to become more lively, it seemed that most of the participants started to become more outgoing.

Did everyone forget that they were in a game where they couldn't trust anyone? why was everyone so happy? Aesop grunted, leaving the room. It wasn't that he hated being happy, it's just that too much is annoying—gee blame it on that will ya?

As much as he wanted to embalm you, he knew that they'd kill him if he did; "how dare he take their sunshine away" blah blah blah, he could practically hear The Will Brothers crying while chasing him.

He tensed up upon hearing footsteps approaching, wondering about who it was. Terror pricked him as he prayed to whatever god existed, please don't be Jack.

Luckily, it seems Lady Luck still smiled down on him, since it wasn't the hunter but their sun instead. "Hey Aesop, I noticed you going out and I was wondering, do you not like parties?" they inquired with a skip in their step as they approached the young man with queerly grey hair. He coughed, shaking his head instead of responding verbally.

They frowned gently, placing a hand on his shoulder. "If you're not feeling well, please rest, but if not, I'll accompany you" you smiled, evoking something within him—just what was this warm feeling?.

Aesop nodded — albeit a bit hesitantly; the embalmer shifted in his black boots, teething on his inner cheek behind his mask. Their eyebrows remained furrowed, eyes zeroing in on the small traces of anxiety on his person. "Do you perhaps not like me mr. Carl?" they asked, seeming a tad bit disappointed—but not so evidently that people gazing from afar would be able to notice.

His eyes widen slightly and he swallows nervously, a small amount of guilt gnawing at him. The man sighs, shaking his head, "No, that's not the case, not at all" he responds, attempting to remain as brief as possible.

He watches them light up, as if never showing any signs of being upset in the first place—it almost makes him wonder if they were ever upset in the first place, were you perhaps only trying to get a certain reaction out of him? he wondered, a bit too reluctant to even think of actually voicing it out.

"That's great! I was worried about whether or not i've done something to dissatisfy you" they replied, smiling their usual smile. Before Aesop can react, they add more, but this part was truly the most astonishing bit of information he's ever known.

"I w, wouldn't really like it if you hated me... especially since I like you so much" they blushed, looking away from the handsome survivor. The embalmer blanked out, mouth hanging agape—how?!. You could almost hear him panicking really.

He gulped, rubbing his wrist with his other hand. "T, Thank you..?" he trailed off, ears tinged red due to his fluster. The other survivor smiles—this time, a genuine one. "Do I perhaps take this as you saying you like me as well?" they inquire, leaning towards him with eager eyes.

Aesop could feel sweat building on the back of his neck due to their increase in proximity. How did everyone deal with you on a daily basis when even your words had impacted him so much—well, that, and you expressions—your oh-so human expressions that exposed everything you felt.

He nods, this time, giving a more firm nod. You open your arms, seemingly acting like you were going to give him one of your signature bear hugs. He prepares himself, knowing it might be a very very tight one, only to be embraced gently. He could feel himself melting into your touch, and slowly but surely, he even reciprocated the hug.

He could feel you whisper into his neck, hearing the words "I love you" before you dug your head into his nape. He takes in your scent, labeling it "home" in his heart. He finally understands why they seek solace in you, the only light the game hasn't squandered from their already lacking lives.

[thisvisionofmyspirit]

​This is the same anon who sent the ask about leather that was longer than I realized! I wanted to thank you for reading all of that and being kind about it, and I hope that it didn't seem judgmental or anything like that. Getting tone to come across correctly with just text can be difficult! Also I really hope it didn't seem like I was suggesting that you blamed poor people for pleather, or that I blame people for that either, because of course income can be a huge barrier for people when they are making purchase choices, and I didn't think that you were trying to fault individuals for that. I don't mean this to seem argumentative either, just sharing some information.

That is absolutely also true that something that happens to be free from animals doesn't automatically mean that it is safe or environmentally friendly, especially looking at something like palm oil and the harm it causes (many vegans also avoid palm oil for that reason actually), and I don't like seeing false or exaggerated claims about that either, it is just that there is also a lot of misinformation about vegan and plant-based products that frames those as bad even when it isn't backed up by evidence, and there are some people who put blame on vegans specifically for failings in those products, when, realistically, it isn't possible for anyone to live in a way that has zero impact on the world, but even though plant-based and vegan lifestyles have significantly less of an environmental impact, they still get a lot of blame for not being able to live perfectly. But I do think it is understandable that people who aren't vegan aren't going to be as exposed to as much information about vegan and plant-based products and the environmental impact of those things simply because they aren't as involved with plant-based products and the research being done.

Also, in your reply to my ask, you brought up plant milks like almond and soy, and I can't send links over ask, but there is a really good article from Our World in Data titled "Dairy vs. plant-based milk: what are the environmental impacts?" that has a chart showing the comparison of land use, greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater use, and eutrophication of different kinds of plant milks versus dairy, and it does show that dairy is shockingly worse than even the most damaging of plant milks, and like with almond milk you mentioned, it does use a concerning amount of freshwater, but the amount of water used is nearly half that of dairy, (though I do still think it is important that people try to lessen their impact even when choosing the less harmful options). That particular article also has information about deforestation in the Amazon and how the soy being grown there is largely used for animal feed for livestock animals, rather than being the soy that is most used for humans. The article includes sources for the information from reputable organizations so a person can do further research on it.  

If you are interested to learn more about the environmental and human impact of leather, here are some studies that you should be able to find easily by searching for the titles :

Pollution and environmental impact of leather production

• "Leather tanning: Life cycle assessment of retanning, fatliquoring and dyeing" Website: Science Direct

•  "Measuring the Environmental Footprint of Leather Processing Technologies" Website: ResearchGate

•  "Treatment of leather industrial effluents by filtration and coagulation processes" Website: Science Direct

Environmental impact of raising animals to slaughter weight before they are skinned

•  "Half of the world’s habitable land is used for agriculture: More than three-quarters of global agricultural land is used for livestock, despite meat and dairy making up a much smaller share of the world's protein and calories." Website: Our World in Data

•  "A Global Assessment of the Water Footprint of Farm Animal Products" Website: Springer Link

•  "Global greenhouse gas emissions from animal-based foods are twice those of plant-based foods" Website: Nature Journal

•  "Livestock – Climate Change’s Forgotten Sector: Global Public Opinion on Meat and Dairy Consumption"  Website: Chatham House

Health hazards to humans in leather tanning

•  "Occupational cancers in leather tanning industries: A short review" Website: National Institutes of Health

•  "Occupational health risks among the workers employed in leather tanneries at Kanpur" Website: National Institutes of Health

Health hazards to humans in slaughterhouses

•  "Workers in the animal slaughtering and processing industry have higher incidence rates of injury or illness than the overall average for private industry workers" Website: United States Bureau of Labor Statistics

•  "The Psychological Impact of Slaughterhouse Employment: A Systematic Literature Review" Website: National Institutes of Health

•  "Respiratory Disorders Among Workers in Slaughterhouses" Website: National Institutes of Health

This really isn't to try to portray pleather as being faultless either though, only showing it in comparison to leather, but using neither or purchasing second-hand is definitely best whenever possible if a person does need something made from leather or pleather. 

Thanks again for all the info and the sources! And sorry if I appeared defensive in my first reply. I didn't feel attacked in any way by your tone. The continued attack on consumers - as opposed to corporations - is a much bigger pet peeve of mine so I wanted to make sure whoever read my reply knew that I agree.

I'll definitely check these out!