#examples of the former:

[arrowlantern]

if i could break into marvel headquarters and ask one question, it would be what the fuck do they tell people about peter and johnny??? like yeah the bromance trope has always existed sure, but 90% of the time i can tell it was done from an extremely straight angle. to have a bromance there has to be nuance, some subtlety — the elephant of the whole thing being a JOKE in the room. when people add spideytorch interactions to games + comics they’re just flirting. full stop. all the time. there’s a difference between “i love you buddy (platonic)” and “haha omg… it’s like we’re on a date right now wouldn’t that be CRAZY. i need you.”

[lokh]

i know i lament about this every so often but losing 8tracks was such a blow

[aalghul]

there's a difference between bruce hitting dick in the wake of jason's death and beating jason senseless. i feel like they get grouped into the same category but they're really not

[armoralor]

"she isn't mean!!!! she just-" shhhh. shhhhhhh. She's Mean. Let women be mean. Sometimes women are unredeemable cunts and that's okay. It doesn't matter if she has trauma or a complicated backstory, if a woman is mean she's mean. You don't have to try and justify it or give it a different name. Being mean isn't the worst thing a woman can be.

[ssruis]

I appreciate that mizu5 portrayed outing as a horrific & violating thing even if you’re accepted by the people you were outed to. I feel like a lot of times the approach taken is “well this character wasn’t going to come out anyways so they’re going to be better off now that someone knows” or “everyone accepted them so it was totally ok and fine in the end” or even “it’s actually a relief to this character because now they don’t need to come out” - where being outed is portrayed as something beneficial in the long run. You’re being robbed of the chance to choose when and where and if this deeply personal information gets shared and who it gets shared with, and that’s awful and damaging in itself regardless of the outcome.

[itz-pandora]

There seems to be a reoccurring theme in my AUs

[team5ds]

the worst part is i can't even say he's wrong. they certainly did figure out how to contribute the city by joining the wrgp. but like. this is one of those things where it literally does not make sense. this is insane levels of logic. "we're not sure how to contribute to the city. we think entering a magic the gathering tournament will help." like. imagine saying that fr when your parents ask what you're going to do after you graduate college. "idk. thought i'd play card games and figure it out, man"

[bookishjules]

i've never understood the point of voting in a way that promotes the ideals of one religion, when those who don't subscribe to said religion have no responsibility to uphold those ideals. a pillar of american ideology is the separation of church and state, and freedom of religion is a large reason why the europeans started migrating here in the first place.

the christian bible literally says "what business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? you are to judge those who belong to the church." (1 cor 5:12, niv). these verses taught me at a young age that how other people chose to live their lives wasn't my problem. the freedom to choose was exactly why the bible claims we were given free will in the first place. and don't we live in a country defined by freedom?

the us is not a religious state, nor should it be, because that kind of control never ends well. and there's an argument to be had that voting in favor of more freedoms is itself voting in line with christian beliefs, without the danger of using religious laws to judge those who don't live according to them.

i'm just so tired of people using their religion to justify taking away freedoms because they themselves choose not to have sex before marriage or engage in homosexual activities or have abortions or what have you. this isn't heaven. it's a world full of free will, and taking that away from people only (a) pushes them away from choosing the way you might wish they would, or (b) cheapens the choice to subscribe to those ideals.

[thevioletscout]

Clay Man lore I love

The commentary on slave labor and racism, the way their bodies work and differ from humans, their culture and the land they come from, them being the result of the tragic fate between two lovers, the fact that being unfinished doesn't automatically make one evil but rather they simply have the ability to think for themselves, the very blurry line between what makes someone unfinished or not and the fact that at any point a clay man can become unfinished if they believe themselves to be.

Clay Man lore we usually get

Clay Men are nice hardworking slaves that are dumb and funny but the deformed ones are evil and can kill you.

[bhaalsdeepbat]

Hellspawn idea that hit me like a religious vision

Astarion can't stop thinking of the color of this flower Karlach found during one of the more idyllic moments of traveling to Baldur's Gate, and it should have been such an inconsequential moment. It was just a flower. But the delight burning in the embers of her mirthful eyes just sticks with him. And it's mostly annoying how happy she is about everything, but he also can't hold it against her when she, too, is adjusting to sudden, newfound freedom, and hers is much more limited than his.

And it isn't even a romantic moment or anything, right? Karlach just sees it on the edge of where the last bit of life was able to grow between the Shadow Curse and the land beyond it. She's STOKED. Bellowing in that way she does about this flower. She just takes a moment to enjoy it, then moves on. Doesn't pick it. Doesn't touch it. Just moves on with her day.

but this moment sticks with him and he thinks about it when they're curled together under the stars that night, his body fitting against the curve of hers, his cold weight soaking up every bit of warmth her overheated body will give him, and her arms are SO strong, but so gentle in the way she holds him.

The immortal forced to reckon with mortality bc this woman, who truly believe deserves a much better lot in life, only has a finite amount of time to appreciate the flowers and the sunrise and just. everything.

He'll still be able to live his life from the shadows and find beauty in the darkness, but Karlach?

He can see her death coming on the horizon and there's so much he actually wants to do, now that they're trying to make things real. and he just. is feeling the pressure bc he did waste time trying to get Karlach into a position to protect him and he'll forever feel bad about it (but not say anything bc that's his burden to carry).

So the immortal keeps thinking about this flower and what Karlach would look like adorned in beautifully crafted items accented in blue: gilded chains and cuffs adorning her hair and horns, sturdy leather dyed and stamped, fine silk embroidered with expensive floss, of all the nice things he wishes she could experience - because he promised her new experiences once they returned - and just.

When everyone's sleeping, he just spends that time sneakily embroidering this doublet he stole from a vendor the moment they entered the city. He's working against time, too, cus this is a gift he HAS to give her before her time is up. So, his skilled fingers move quickly, embroidering this black doublet with the most beautiful embroidery done mostly in blue, but accented with red, orange, and yellow.

He's almost done when Karlach tells him one night that she thinks she doesn't have much longer. Her heart is in overdrive and she can feel her body beginning to give out, to fail her when freedom was so close she could taste it. and it isn't fair. Astarion is SO angry at the world and at the Gods because he FINALLY has someone and. Time is running out. he feels even more powerless here because it really is just up to Karlach and whether she wants to keep going or not. He tries to talk to her about it, but usually they just end up fighting because they're both stubborn.

So, he avoids the conversation, mostly. Just tries to pretend the end isn't peeking over the horizon.

He doesn't give her the doublet right away. He doesn't want that finality, to give it to her and to know this may very well be the last time he gets to give her something he put his time into for her like this. and he has other gifts for her. a new owlbear to go with clive (even if he thinks that's juvenile, but he's not going to judge....well. he will, but not as much as if it were Gale who still had his stuffies). but he just. cannot bring himself give her this doublet bc he knows it's the first and last time she'll be adorned in something that he put together for her. the embroidered doublet is his labor of love, and the man does NOT like to labor.

embroidering isn't even necessarily his favorite thing to do, it's just one of his skills he actually has. he lacks self-confidence when it comes to what qualities he thinks he has that make him worthy of a relationship, but he can make sure his partners' clothes are mended and presentable.

When he finally gives it to her, it's after they take down Gortash. Karlach spends that very night alone, and Astarion cannot take it. He hasn't spent a single night away from Karlach since before they arrived at the Shadow-Cursed Lands, and now they're literally counting the days until they're taken from one another. He's big mad, seething, but very respectful to her bc he understands. he's not mat at HER, he's mad at everyone that took everything they could from her.

That's the first night he actually sits down and starts coming up with a plan. And it's a genuinely good one, but it's the first good one he's had in almost two-centuries. This is when he comes up with how he wants to convince Karlach to let him go to Avernus with her. He's not ready to let go and he is willing to murder his way through the Hells with her if he gets to see her smile about inconsequential things again.

He gives her the doublet the night before they plan to head for the Morphic Pool. They know it may be their last night together, so after a group meal, when everyone is winding down to turn in for the night, they make their way up to the roof of the tavern. They sit beneath the stars, side by side, but they're just sitting and refusing to look at one another.

Karlach is unusually still and silent. She's exhausted. Astarion swears she had his undead heart beating again, but seeing her like that had it stop cold in his chest. He tries to break the silence, to cut off his own thoughts so he doesn't spiral into despair thinking of the unknown, but just ends up reaching out to take her hand.

She's hot to the touch. He can feel that her temperature IS increasing and just. imagining what she's feeling and how she's been pent up this entire trip. like no fucking release from the pressure of this shitty heart that only does its job in the right environment.

She's the one who breaks it first. to thank him for his company. to tell him that he was a little fucking SHIT when she first met him, but she always could see something good behind the veneer of mischief hiding the fear in his piercing eyes. but she loves him and she's so, so happy to have been given a chance to love someone, to touch them freely, to feel loved in return. it was something she was missing in the last 10 years of the loneliness of being simple cannon fodder in an endless war.

and she doesn't want to talk abt this. she had been avoiding it, took him on their date to pretend like he wasn't doomed to be left alone in his eternity. And neither of them even MENTION the elephant in the room. like they're both talking circles around what's going to happen, but they're being honest about the feelings they have for one another. like the only thing they even voice concern for is not being able to take out the Absolute.

Under the stars, accompanied by declarations of love spilling from their lips, Astarion produces the doublet. Karlach is just ecstatic that she received a gift, but when she realizes HE embroidered it, she's just kinda like.

This is. the most beautiful gift i've ever received, fangs.

and her calloused fingers, fingers that had seen more war and death than anyone her age should have to, gently touch the floss, follow the design, and she realizes the particular shades of orange, red, and yellow are in her eyes, in her body, in her chest, all complimented by the blue thread he used as the main color of the design.

It's a design made of the sun, moon, and stars, trailing up the front, across the broad shoulders, and down the back yoke.

she's his sun. She's the gentle warmth of the sun's rays comforting him when he would rather recede to the shadows and fall back on old habits. she's his moon and his stars, his guiding light when everything seems like it may crash down and suffocate him. She's everything good in this world if you look for it. She's proof that you can be put through shit and still come out a decent person.

Karlach does cry, but it's nothing dramatic. It's a few tears, her own stomach and chest twisting with an overwhelming sense of loss and yearning; the loss of time when her light inevitably extinguishes and a deep yearning to stay. it's in direct opposition to her desire to die in the place she loves simply so she can keep living this life with the man she loves.

She puts the doublet on, wearing it that night while he cuddled against her side. They held each other beneath the stars, until it was time for Karlach to get some rest for the upcoming battle. Astarion spends that entire night just watching her, playing with her hair, getting every last touch he can, then makes a vow that he WILL save Karlach, just as she saved him.

[monstermoviedean]

my favorite interpretations of supernatural are always the ones about the power of love. it doesn't matter how many times the show says "love saves the world," it gets me every single time.

[nwentanyl]

i'm not even going to be nice about it, i think some of you don't have an actual opinion on AI and you have just simply regurgitated the "correct" opinion regardless of what side you're actually on and it results in you painting AI and the use of AI as this entirely black and white scenario with literally no critical thought. analyze the fucking opinions you hold

[unopenablebox]

the georgia o'keefe + henry moore exhibit at the mfa is in fact really well curated to give the viewer a couple of really intense RESONATING FORMS moments due to juxtaposed painting and sculpture. also i think it made me understand and therefore like georgia o'keefe more

[ivan-braginski-2001]

Genuinely what in the actual fuck could this possibly mean

[boredlamb-da]

It boggles my mind as a foreigner just how, when talking about the history of the USA (usually in online circles), you'll see things like "oh, this president/movement was objectively bad", and many other things that call certain events/people "bad" and/or any other negative adjectives. Richard Nixon was bad, Ronnie the Gipper was bad, the confederacy is bad, yadda yadda yadda.

But when you talk about people and events past the year 2008 or so, suddenly everything is now subjective and softened and "there's two sides to this argument" no matter how many attacks on human rights and whatnot happen, all in the efforts to not spark current discourse and infighting in whatever public community is in.

"Nixon was dogshit! Nixon was a blight on America!" vs "Ohh but Trump's administration had bad things and good things". Or "Reagan ruined everything for everyone!" vs "Ohh, Biden had some issues but he also did a few good things!". "This page has been soft-locked to prevent further edit wars", shit like that.

Bitch are you really gonna downplay recent, constant genocide just for the sake of keeping your little online space free of "flame wars"? Just to keep that userbase and retention? What happened to telling these whackjobs to fuck off?!

[supercityboys]

Boostle is so blatantly implied by placing them in positions normally occupied by lovers. My favorite instance of this is when they are contrasted against other couples. For example, in Heroes in Crisis, the end panels show Ted and Booster back on their couch, but this time right next to each other laughing their asses off and Harley and Ivy, deeply in love, walking hand in hand.

Edit: I found the screenshot