#finally some decent representation

[exdeputysonso]

Last Kind Words (2012)

[gayvampyr]

im sorry but this shit pisses me off. i don’t care if it’s a joke. where’s the punchline. even in 2022 gays still do not have equal rep in shows. the fact that only in the last couple years have we gotten actually semi-decent queer rep shows how much queer media is still needed. a lot of people still don’t even know what the word “bisexual” means, much less terms like “asexual” or “aromantic” or “nonbinary”. whether you’d like to admit it or not, it matters that a show actually has a bi character and explicitly says the word bisexual— a popular show at that. ik some of you guys have forgotten that the rest of the world isnt as acquainted with queerness as your online lgbt friend group, but a show on a major streaming platform saying “bisexual people exist” is important. it needs to be said, and it needs to keep being said until people stop forgetting and erasing bi people.

and yeah, the line “masculine guys can be gay” might seem like a stupid obvious thing, but a lot of people don’t consider masc guys to be gay at all, just like they don’t expect lesbians to be fem. i’ve been told several times that i don’t “look gay” and that i must be confused because i should like “boy stuff” and dress masculine if i really liked girls. people need to be reminded that anyone can be gay, as ridiculous as it sounds. we need to be seen as more than a stereotype and im sick of you “edgy” gays shitting on every piece of queer media like it’s twilight.

the show that these tags are in response to isn’t even adult media. honestly it’s hardly even YA. this show is for kids and teens who are discovering who they are. growing up, i never had ANY sort of representation. i didn’t grow up thinking it was okay to like girls, or that i could be interested in people other than boys, or that i even had the option to not like boys at all. queer representation is not only important, but it’s crucial. straight people get to see themselves everywhere, and never as comedic relief or the butt of a joke. queer kids grow up thinking that what they are is humiliating, that they should be ashamed of being those people who get laughed and made fun of on tv (and irl). in 99% of media, gay and trans people have been a laughing stock. the most representation a queer could get a decade ago was a white cis fem (but not TOO fem) gay man who was only a side character, was never shown with a partner, and served primarily as a clown, like queerness is a circus and cishets are the audience.

so i don’t CARE if young queer media is cringe. i don’t CARE if you don’t like it or if you think it’s forced or stupid or pointless or even if it’s just for a corporation to profit off our existence. the point isn’t why it was made or how bad you think the writing is, the point is that it exists and that there are now young queer people who can finally see themselves, not as a joke but as real people, on screen and go, “that. that’s what i am.” and im elated for this younger generation to be able to say that when i couldn’t. so i don’t care if you’d rather just be called a faggot again like in the good ol days when we were dropping like flies and everyone hated us. if cringey tv shows and bad writing is the price for queer kids to understand themselves better and for cishet people to get a better understanding of queer people, then it’s a small price to pay. shut the fuck up and let queer media exist

[nikox400x]

Kung Fu Panda 4-All the budget went to the animation (spoilers)

Hey all, its me, the guy who everyday make a tour around this site but almost never talk. How are ya?

Two days ago something arrived to the cinema's screens, something that me and everyone were waiting for since 2018, the fourth film and the begginig of the new kung fu panda triology.

You know? When I sat on that theather seat with my friends to see what Dreamworks had prepared for us, I told myself; "Maybe that post I made a while ago throwing shit at what seemed like Kfp 4 was going to be was a bit hard, I hope I can come out regretting what I said that time"

And as soon as the credits ended, it was clear to me, I dont regret a shit. Maybe it was a little exaggerated, compared to what a megamind fan would think about the terrible sequel they made, but still: the film is crappy and boring most of the time. But why?

I'm going to explain some points.

1- Po? Is that you?

I don't know you guys, but i don't think the panda we knew in the end of the third film is the same as this one. Seriously, he share more comparisons with the Po from the legend of awessonless than the one from the films, maybe its a personal thing but it feels that way. At least in the beggining of the film feel like that.

And I don't know what he was thinking about when he decided to follow a thief he doesn't know at all and who tried to steal in his own palace, and that suspiciously know who is the chameleon, whose were her plans, her past, where she lived, where exacly they had to pass through avoiding all the guard inside her home, why the others thiefs of the city hate her so much... With Po's experience with criminals this is like a chef throwing water on a pan with boiling oil, it's obvious what is going to happen.

2- Zheng- Female Nick Wilde but without charisma or half of his intelligence.

I knew it from the first moment I saw Zheng's desing, the people who know me can corroborate that; her facial expressions, her tone while she talk, her animal race, her position as thief, her final when she is part of the justice same as the protagonist... it's clearer than water I think.

Everyone could say this is forgivable if she's smart, but surprise, she's not. This character is just an absurd try of this company for """"conect with infant audience""""(I don't know in what sense, I supose for the cute design, idk). But the point is, the supposed objective of the hollywood companies is give the new generetions better things than we got at their age, but what I see is laziness for write a decent scrip only for take an advantage of a known IP and make easy money. Even the children have quality standars, this is not the dragon warrior and of course this is not kung fu panda.

And talking about the dragon warrior, having our deep and lovely Tigress with her magnific development or Tai Lung back from the spirit realm... why in the hell this character exists?! Oh yeah, for being trending topic in twitter for three days. Yay...

3- The furious five and Shifu, for us : our pretty boys, and for Dreamworks: living jokes.

What made Kung Fu Panda what it is, is not the fucking panda, it's them. They're the inspiration for Po, their allies, the royale representation of kung fu and the ones which everything started with.

Po's a comic relief, and his mission is show his development in part using his humor, but the humor in this film barely works because of the lazy script. Something that even the talented Jack Black himself can't fix, beacuse his only role there is dublin his character, unlike the rest of the residents of the Jade Palace except Dustin Hoffman.

Seth Rogen (Mantis) himself even said that he wasn't even contact by Dreamworks in the first place, only for make a scream in the credits, that's sad beacause he really wanted to see Mantis on the screen. And I know and I understand that the five are expensive, but cmon, they could just simply change the voice actors and offset it with a good script but that's not the case of course. Their role in the film is being a counter for Po's constant jokes, for not to saturate the spectator with jokes, now that's not in there anymore, thank you Dreamworks.

4-The chameleoooohhn and her "motivation".

I can't say much, basically because out of her design she's nonsense. She says that because of her size, she was reyected for being a kung fu warrior.

Yeah of course but only one little thing, what about Shifu? Viper, a warrior without tips? Mantis, literally a dawn insect? Master Oogway, a TURTLE? The masters goose? C'mon even there's a fucking master chicken! Don't talk shit chameleon!

Her importance for the plot? Its almost a lie, the others villains had links to important characters; Tai Lung (with his link to Shifu's past), Shen (with his link to Po's past) or Kai (with his link to Oogway's past), all of them related to important characters. And her? To zheng's past and present I guess? But again, anyone know this character. She's like a villain from a Disney show, you know the type of villain who say a lot of things but at the end, she don't support nothing to the lore.

And her personality is like a mix of all the previous villains, and this sounds good right? HAHAH nope. Do you remember when as a child you mixed all the plasticines of all the colors to create the final color and you ended up with a color similar to poop? well that's exacly how her personality feels like.

5- Po's dads; the only reason they're there is because they ran out of characters to make the film.

The tittle itself tell everything, they don't do anything for the script in all the film, and their objective could be done since the start.

The script of the film except for the final looks like a draft which they didn't know how to complete, everyone who watch it can see it perfecly. The animation, the music and the backgrounds are the only things notable here.

6- Tai Lung and the cheapness nostalgia.

Fan service is not necesarry bad, above all if is used in a good way, they sold us Tai Lung as a miracle but his importance for the plot feels just like a Stan Lee cameo, I like Tai Lung I can say that. But this is too weak, Shen and Kai are only characters in the background who don't do nothing except being defeated or make facial expressions (I don't even joke that Shen would show respect to Po considering what we saw in the second movie, and Kai wasn't supposed to be destroyed as a spirit, what the hell is he doing here again? *sign* I'll to stop trying to make sense of this).

By the way, anyone else think that the dragon warrior role is understimated? I mean Shifu obligated Po to transfers the role to another one just because yes, i mean he only has been the dragon warrior for less than 5 years and now they want to replace him with a random. Everything just for at the end, he choosed a thief with at least 30 crimes registred and who was a traitor during the 75% of the movie.

7- The """""""""humor"""""""", except they forgot the parts where I must to laugh.

Seeing nonsense hits only beacuse yes stopped of being funny a long time ago, and no, I don't want to talk about the bunnies of the portrait because I would get sick. I had to go to the cinema drunk to endure the filler that the movie had, no joke, it was the only way to laugh at those jokes.

So I think about applying the same method as in any movie with bad jokes, ignoring the jokes. I tried to do the same thing but with the pace that the film managed, such a thing was impossible, the pace of the movie seems to be made for Tiktoker children with attention deficit. From the chaos in the quarry until Po takes the bitc... uhg fox out of prison, only 10 fucking minutes pass, all of that for what? So that you feel like the baseless information and the nonsensical plot that they tell us is of any use? they could simply make a non-canonical short and that's it, but no, yes or they were going to tell us a story written by rotten old men who spend the entire day watching Tik Tok. It's not going to be that the child who sees this doesn't get bored, we know that much today's children don't have many neurons as they say, but even to make movies for them you have to have a certain talent.

In some point at the beguining Po make a joke about the ausence of the furious five saying that at least he had them in cardboard posters, and this would be a good joke. Only if the stupid film could be prove that the franquise can do something memorable without the furious five, but again, that's not the case.

Don't have any respect for this movie, look what it had with you. I understand that it is enjoyable because of the animation but it does not go beyond that line, it destroys important things about the canon and spoils its teaching about the need for change by treating it in a terrible way.

Coclusion: KFP 4 is just another Po's adventure as Shifu says, it won't tell nothing to you or make you feel different, it's a shame but after Megamind 2 I imagined something like this. It's a dark era for film, expecially the animated one so like Scar said; Be prepare, there're worse things waiting for us.

Do you want something with real quality? You don't even need kung fu panda 1,2 or 3, for make it easy to this film let's take this marvelous example; kung fu panda: secrets of the scroll (2016). You'll say; "An animated short, this is not like-" Shhh Just watch it, you won't regret it.

If you think I'm wrong in something, just rewatch the film. And if still you aren't agreed with me, well, I respect you and I'm happy you like it. I wish I could love it as you do, but that doesn't mean that the movie isn't bad, because if you watch it with your brain on or remembering the previous movies it's terrible.

. Me? I've to write a story, I love you all. Except you, Dreamworks, I'm mad with you, expecially when you do this at the same day as Akira Toriyama's death :(

[warsamongthestars]

One of the most interesting things about TCWs Rex's character arc struggles is that, he's constantly put into contrasts.

Rex, as we know him, stands to be the main representation of a Clone Trooper. He's the first major named CT Character, that isn't Commander Cody, who doesn't have any ties to the films (Unlike Commander Cody), and thus can act and be written with far more freedom to explore.

[ You can't write Commander Cody too much by the end of the day, because one, years of expectations weigh, and two, he still has to shoot Kenobi at the end of everything. ]

Rex has two major conflicts in his arc, that represent the three defining points of clone troopers:

Loyalty to their Brothers

Loyalty to the System

Loyalty to themselves

Let's have some examples.

Our first major touch up with this, is the exact Opposite of all three: Sergeant Slick.

He is not loyal to his brothers (And gets a lot of them killed, whilst blaming the Jedi), he is not loyal to the system (He's a traitor), and he's not loyal to himself (He will make a lot of claims... which are unsubstantiated, because he gets a lot of people killed for purposes of greed and perceived slights).

This one is your easy Villain. Its easy to see, via Slick, that Loyalty to Brothers, Systems and Self is very simple.

But TCWs takes it a step further into complication.

Cut Lawquane, a deserter, is not loyal to the system (because it certainly isn't loyal to him), is loyal to himself, but is neutral when comes to brotherly loyalty.

( I say neutral, because he was willing to slay Rex if it meant staying free and his family safe. He did stop, because he's true to himself, and the self he wants to be isn't someone who kills people... Its just that sometimes, what is wanted, and what it is needed, isn't always the same thing. )

This is the first major bang up to Rex's Character Arc, because now we have a decent enough brother who is absolutely Not Loyal To the System that Rex is. And eventually, Rex lets him go, showing that while Rex is Lawful Good--he leans more towards good, whilst still retaining lawful plausibility.

This step slapped Rex, but it was a surprise he could easily, just simply, file away and not think about too hard. Deserting is going to happen when you're in an army of millions, and if they're off to be farmers instead of soldiers, well that's okay and a very nice thought.

The real kicker was Umbara.

One could argue that the Lola Sayu Mission should've hit Rex, but instead of Rex, it hit Fives the hardest (And with good reason). It's probably why there was an implication of a fallout between Lola Sayu and Umbara ("Just like Old times, Rex.")

And Fives becomes a contrasting challenge:

Loyal to Self

Loyal To Brothers

Neutral to Disloyal to System

Fives would bend the system until it breaks if it meant saving his brothers and more. He's the Chaotic Good to Rex's Lawful Good.

Rex is painfully upright and loyal to the system, so when one of his best and closest brothers decides "fuck this", it shakes him up.

Especially when Rex is finally confronted with how rotten the System gets: by General Pong Krell.

To contrast the contrast, on other side of Rex is Dogma, who is Fives' opposite. The Lawful Neutral.

Loyal to the System above all Else.

Neutral to Disloyal to Brothers.

( It does not help that Anakin Skywalker only recognizes Lawful as being Obedient rather than "adherence and or comfort to a code or set of rules" and thus draws more parallels between Rex and Dogma, than Rex and Fives. )

The Umbara Arc throws Rex through the whole loop, with all its conflicts. Especially the challenges it would make to Rex's whole character and showing him how far things can go.

Until finally, Rex finding what lines to draw in the dirt when it comes to "Loyalty to the End".

... But not enough to save anyone.

Then comes the Conspiracy arc, and while we don't know Rex's side, we do have implication of the aftermath.

The coverup of Fives' death (Because it would've had to been), by brother no less (Another big thing), and with the chip arc, which Rex did look into--would've put Rex up against someone he could not and would not possibly be capable of working through or against: Anakin Skywalker.

( Obviously for narrative purposes, Skywalker can't be stopped less TCWs became an AU instead )

Rex finds that his closest and brightest was labeled traitor and terrorist for his attack on the chancellor, via the very same bulletin points that Rex's character lives by, and it would immediately put him up against Skywalker.

The reason being, is that Skywalker is close to the Chancellor, and likely told Rex to drop any investigation.

And through speculation based on aftermath episodes... and What we know by this point...

I bet that Rex did not want to lump Anakin with Krell as a "System Problem". Because Rex worked with Anakin, and Rex's character falls in line with Anakin, and to consider Anakin to be part of the problem would go against Rex's character--thus, it is "unthinkable" and much easier to simply... Believe that Anakin has the best intentions.

( Even if that came at the cost of Fives. )

( Even though it would come at the cost of the 501st in the future--Rex only did enough that it would save his Life, and Ahsoka's, but nobody else's. He pays dearly for that comfort in Anakin at the cost of Fives, and the cost of Everyone. )

Moving to S7... and the Bad Batch.

Rex comes up against his absolute Opposite once more--in Sergeant Hunter, and the various Bad Batchers.

We've hit full circle.

Hunter commands a small squad that he pretty much lets do whatever, whilst Rex hangs on commands and commanding. Hunter is Evasive, Rex is Honest; Hunter gets stressed by Command, Rex does not.

Hunter is endlessly snarky, whilst Rex is straightforward. Hunter loses his faith midway through Mission, and Rex does not. Hunter's appearance is against all regulations, whilst Rex is clean shaven.

Hunter wasn't made for command, he just wasn't the stronger personality in the Batch to cause problems, whilst Rex is trained and made to command.

The one thing they do have in common, is loyalty to brothers, and the difference is--Rex doesn't hang on to anyone in lieu of the bigger picture, but Hunter does, existing in the smaller pictures.

( That's the TCWs implication-- If I went into the TBBshow, Hunter would not be coming out nearly as good. )

With the other batchers, Rex comes up against each one being individually against an aspect of his character.

Tech is disloyal to the system, he's as far from any sort of clone soldier you can get, and he's not even dressed for it. Tech comes in as a research first.

Wrecker is disloyal to self, bolstering about his skills and making light of the situation before it crashes on him. His disloyalty isn't a case of selling out--its a case of simply not considering himself in any measure. He puts others above him.

Crosshair is disloyal to brothers. He makes it a point to start shit in the middle of a mission, question authority, making disparaging remarks, and attacking a sense of self. The difference here is that, instead of accumulating falsehoods (like Slick), or physically attacking--he attacks the comforting falsehoods that a clone trooper would take on out of loyalty to brothers, system and self. If you're a brother, why don't you act it. If you cared so much for this one guy, why did you leave him behind. If you were that good in your little system, why did the specialists get called in. ( Crosshair is also a dick, but one can understand why he does things. )

Each Bad Batcher serves as a challenge to Rex's character. They are as far from Lawful as possible--but they are Good.

And then there was Echo.

But Echo doesn't serve as a challenge to Rex's character. If anything, Echo might serve as the "reward" for Rex's character arc. He saved at least one Brother, and one of his closest.

...

Unfortunately, Rex's full character arc wasn't ever really fully realized, because he is, fundamentally, a satellite character for other characters to bounce off of, even if those characters are other Clone Troopers.

( hell, Rex serves to contrast Cody, and neither of those too really had full Arcs )

Its why Fives took more attention in Umbara than Rex. Its why Ahsoka gets off scott free at the end of the day but Rex doesn't.

Its why when certain points of Jedi pop up, particularly that even our main character Jedi aren't really all that Lawful Good and do fuck up and waste a lot of brothers' lives for it, that Rex does not intervene.

Because, his character was never given that development to step in and tell someone to "Hey, stop, you are going to get people Killed."

A full Arc would've allowed that, and he wasn't afforded one.

A post TCWs Arc for Rex to get that Development, to fully understand all he went through and implement it into a new character arc, was implied with Rebel's Rex... but is currently unfulfilled.

( Don't be shocked that I don't consider TBBshow to count. )

But there ya go, a nice sum Analysis on Rex.

[eltanin0]

Five Pebbles

ramblings below

it's finally done.

i went extra slow on this. i'm not sure what else i can do to make it better without starting over. most of the problems arose from a sloppy base. oh and clearly i dislike and put no effort into the background. anyway, i think it's decent, certainly better than what i've been putting out recently (sorry for that). for my skill level its fine, still not at the level i want to be, but for now it'll do. it's a more accurate representation of what i can currently draw when i have an idea in mind. also i'm quite content with this kind of iterator design. i highly doubt i'm gonna be able to draw anything of this quality for a while, unless i find some sort of random inspiration or idea.

thanks for all the support. i still hope to make something worthy of you all. i need to repay the kindness you have shown me.

[borderlandsresearcher]

I have some things to say...

CW: Rant, bisexual erasure

Mileena x Kenshi shippers are so problematic. No one disagrees that Mileena is bisexual. We all know she is, it's canon. But the issue is that NOBODY in this fandom seems to give a shit about the obvious wlw relationship between Tanya and Mileena in MK1.

People have never had an issue with others shipping Baraka and Rain with Mileena, because Taleena was never fully confirmed. But now that it is, people are finding any excuse to ship Mileena with a man. These people prefer to ship her with people she has zero chemistry with than with a woman. They are pulling ships out of their asses at this point.

Your first reaction to a wlw ship like Taleena should NOT be "this is bisexual erasure" because the writers didn't force a relationship between characters who don't know shit about each other. I can't make a post about Taleena without someone going "ERRRMM she's bisexual FYI 🤓" , as if being with a woman doesn't make her bisexual??? Is she only bisexual if she's with a man because that's what makes you comfortable??? Because that sounds like bi erasure to me...

What's even grosser, is that these are the same people to fetishise Johnny x Kenshi without batting an eye, but SEETHE at the thought of two women being together. It's not at all surprising that a lot of these people are straight women.

Mileena x Kenshi has absolutely taken over this fandom, and it is so fucking heartbreaking to see. Ship whoever you want, I don't care. But clearly something is going on here and it breaks my heart. Acknowledge that Mileena is bisexual, but also celebrate that we FINALLY got a somewhat decent wlw relationship in the media for once. It's already so hard to find this representation, so please do not take it from us!!!!!!

+there's a billion other characters you can be shipping. That's why this ship feels targeted, because it is so specific and strange....

- Yours truly, a fellow queer

[skz-streamer]

Round 3

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 ⋆˚🐾˖°

Paring: Lee Know x fem!reader

Genre: Fluff, hurt/comfort, crack

a/n: fully written chapter! have fun w it :)

please read responsibly, and remember that this work is fiction and meant strictly for imaginative fun. the idols used in fics are more accurately face claims and personality outlines for imaginary characters, and should not be interpreted as factual representations of existing people

Masterlist

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 ⋆˚🐾˖°

You meet Chan at the desk area in fount of the doors and introduce yourself, trying to make a decent first impression. The two of you talk for a little while he explains your hotel situation before saying he had to go but that he hoped to hear back from you soon! You smile and walk through the big doors, entering the stadium and looking for your seat as the crowds are separated by team.

People who were hoping EKG would win were blue and people rooting for SKZ were seated in the red arena. You walk through the seats hoping to find your seat next to Aecha, gladly she waves for you and you sit next to her.

You two talk about random stuff until the game starts and all the members of SKZ are projected on the big screen. you quickly turn your head as the crowd starts cheering wildly.... and you see him. Lee Minho, the Captain of the team.

"Goshhh he really is hot, better in person than all those photos you sent online" you whisper to Aecha. she giggles before replying back.

You can tell Aecha is checking all of them out as the rest of the team walks onto the stage. All of them are equally attractive, even though you only searched up photos of Minho the other members were literally just as captivating.

Soon the game starts as the announcers call out all the character selections. You pay close attention to seeing how they work strategically as a team together to win the first and following rounds. When it comes down to the final round you see that SKZ are in the lead, but with the slip of a hand somewhere in the team they lose their momentum and the other team overtakes them. Your side of the crowd sighs as SKZ loses the competition but you're happy that you at least got to see them play.

You take out your phone texting Chan that you would humbly like to decline his offer because even though you would love to game professionally you feel as if- you stop typing as the stage lights turn on once more. You expect some kind of speech from the other team but no. Instead Felix walks out on stage and officially sentences his resignation from the team, talking about the wonderful memories he's made. The whole crown starts sobbing around you, you start tearing up too as his heartfelt speech really shows all the grit and determination that the team has gone through over the years.

Without a doubt, you delete what you were previously texting to chan.

"Hey! when do I start?"

Taglist: @eee5533@mixtape-racha@weedforthoughtz@ren0325@felixvsp@painstakingly-juno@herarcadewasteland@dabiscrustyfeet@kai-lee08@sungiesoonie@slvtty4channiee@revelaffee @staygirl86 @chlodavids@jinnie-ret@bbygrlhannie@rebecca-johnson-28@tinyelfperson@minhos4thkitty@liknws@aaasia111@sleepyleeji@skzhoe@leonswifesstuff@yamaguchiwestad@nappynapnaps@yangbbokari@kpopmenace143@buckys-pillow , @seo--changbin@kai-jilee@jihanniee @hannie-bee @hyunbae-35@turtledove824@hannahhbahng@gaysontheprince@p0eticjust1c3@minleeeknow@bunchofroses07@splat00z

send an ask/go to taglist section on my page or just comment to be added!!!

[windsweptinred]

So, if we go with Delight/Delierum as the example. One interpretation you could have is when an Endless changes, they don't become the opposite of their nature. Rather a corrupted version of it. I guess meaning they can continue to fulfil their purpose, but it has a far darker impact on, or reflection of, humanity. So anyway, I had a crack at it, like you do. (By the way, keeping these all Ds was a nightmare! )

Destiny Doom

Death Decay

Dream Delusion

Destruction Disorder

Desire Depravity

Despair Deprivation

Delight Delierum

First Destiny, well this one was easy. While one's Destiny can be a bright, positive thing, Doom is the sealed, terrible fate with no escape.

Death and Destruction both symbolise an and end and a beginning. The turn of the wheel. To be born to die. To destroy to in turn create.

Decay is the slow Death, and an apt representation of humanities feelings on Death these days. We endeavour to live longer, fight the natural course of life, even though our bodies fall to age and disrepair.

Disorder is still a form of Destruction, but no new beginnings can come from its chaos. It tears down but cannot rebuild. It is in essence, pointless and leaves beings in a state of continual destructive stagnation.

Dream, well humanity needs dreams and hopes. But to depend too much on them, to the point you cling to false hope, live in willful ignorance and lack of ability to decipher what is Dream and what is reality, to be in a state of Delusion. While just as joyful in some respects can only bring harm.

The Twins were bleedin hard! Desire and Despair both have dark implications so attempting to corrupt them further is difficult. Instead I decided to turn them from inward, personal emotions to more outward social aspects.

For Desire, Depravity. Desire in itself is a double edged sword. It can help or hinder. But it's is a productive, passionate, inspiring force that can accomplish great things. Depravity is self serving, cruel and corrupt. It's grasping and wanting, but with no love to it and surges when humanity becomes more hedonistic.

And finally Despair, who symbolises an absence of hope. Outwordly this would be Deprivation, the lack or denial of something considered to be a necessity, food, sleep etc. Either through personal choice, neglect and at its worst, torture. A reflection of the levels humanity can sink when we stop caring for ourselves or others.

And of course, Delerium, a darker form of Delight, wild excitement or ecstasy. Often chased by means of intoxication, hallucinogens and stimulants with dangerous implications.

Anyway, the right hand collum ended up reading like a wild decent into the appocolypse 😅 I'm sure everyone has their own theories so feel free to bring forth the discussions! This is just my... I probably should be doing something productive rambles.

[absolutebl]

Hi there! I've just returned from a two-week holiday (as I'm writing this I'm actually still driving back home, but I want to get on top of it lmao), so I would like to defer to your knowledge:

could you pretty please provide me with an update on what series ended/started while I was away? I have a vague idea, but I don't want to miss out on the things that didn't get as much promo and are therefore not on my mdl.

if you can, my watchlist will be forever thankful!!

July Report: BL that Stopped & Started & Is worth Your time

Ended July 2023

Step By Step

This was Thailand’s answer to The New Employee, and everything I loved about that show I loved about this one.

This was an office romance between stern boss and sweet subordinate that felt more authentic to an office environment than previous Thai BLs of this ilk. And that authenticity added tension to the narrative and character development (how novel). Now that might be because it has western source material, or it might be because it is actually kind of old-fashioned (it’s been years since I worked as an office grunt). I also really enjoyed the brothers’ relationship, and kinda wished they hadn’t attempted (and failed) to give said brother his own side BL. That one flaw made it a 9/10 for me.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

La Pluie

This BL takes to task the fated mates trope and what it means to have love chained intimately to predestination. It’s about how faith in destiny before choice diminishes the authenticity of emotion, relationships, and connection. This is a high concept to examine through the lens of a BL.

By activating + examining the soulmates trope this show is challenging a foundation of romance: the idea that there is one person meant to be your one romantic partner all your life. This means that we, as viewers, spend much of the show worried about it having a happy ending, and that’s the source of both its brilliance and tension: would the narrative have the strength to truly challenge its own romantic core? But, ultimately, all this elevated complexity was executed in a somewhat shaky manner with the narrative derailing into some serious pacing issues and characters manipulated by miscommunication.

However, with good chemistry and decent acting all around, plus some excellent high heat and representation of consent and a few other rare tropes, this one has to (like it’s sibling show My Ride) earn a 9/10. I enjoyed it even as it made me think, so despite its flaws:

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Started July 2023 & Looking GOOD

Jun & Jun

Korea Thurs Viki 8 eps

THANK YOU BL GODS. It is so good. Like everything I want in the world. I’m incandescently happy with this show.

It’s office set,

it’s an ex idol,

everyone is pretty as peaches,

and it’s all about remembering somebody’s smell!

I could not be more delighted.

Laws of Attraction

Thai Sat iQIYI 8 eps

(Icky picked it up but they are serving it in a complicated way that may require a VPN.)

Stars the pair from To Sir With Love with the same production team. IT’S SO GOOD. A morally corrupted trickster lawyer with a tragic past, sad eyes, and a beautiful smile that he uses like a weapon. Meets paladin martial arts instructor from other side of the tracks (who is out, at least to his baby sister).

Corrupt police.

Spoiled rich kid evil.

Ambitious politician.

Tragic death.

Terrible subs.*

This show is very like Manner of Death but so far it is a much better/tighter story (there's a Devil Judge aura happening). It’s NOT BL but it is fucking phenomenal. And you should watch it. Not wait to binge it. WATCH IT.

On a global scale this might be the best thing currently airing featuring gay romantic leads. Its really fucking good. It’s Lawless Lawyer but more complex character motivation and gay af. Fuck yes please and thank you. FINALLY.

Triggers for violence, beatings, death & torture depicted on screen. Like MoD they are not holding back. 

(* A lot of the familial names they are using are not gendered in Thai but translated as such, like “nephew”. This one is gonna go down a lot easier if you know some Thai.)

ALSO:

Stay By My Side - Taiwan Fri Gaga 10 eps

Hidden Agenda that isn’t hidden - Thailand Sun GMMTV YouTube 12 eps

Low Frequency - Thailand Sat iQIYI 8 eps

Started But You Can Probably Wait IMHO

Dinosaur Love (Sun iQIYI)

Be Mine Super Star (Mon Viki)

Wedding Plan (Weds YT & iQIYI) it's mame so A trash watch is happening! 

Minato Shouji Coin Laundry Season 2 (Japan Thu Gaga)

Hope this is what you wanted.

[misscammiedawn]

Plurality Weekend

Hey all. This post is for anyone discovering my blog for the first time this weekend. My name is Cammie Dawn and I write a lot about DID and Hypnokink. Both of these things will be quite relevant this weekend.

I'm attending The Plurality Positivity World Conference (info in link) this weekend after our therapist sent us to last year's event and it went well. Unrelated to the event, I'm also a panelist for a talk on hypnokink and plurality tomorrow (Saturday 5/18 at 1pm-3pm CST - info in link)

Networking at the PPWC for my Media, Myself and I essays (one kind person has already reached out to us about them which makes me glow with pride and grateful to know my stuff is getting out there) and providing my links to the panel tomorrow, I imagine I may get a few first time visitors to my blog. I thought I'd do a quick "resources and links" post.

For Media Essays:

Recontextualized Memory and Unprocessed Trauma in Umineko - A visual novel about generational trauma goes over how a young woman goes over and over the events of a tragedy in her childhood and how adult knowledge will recontextualize our adult recollections.

Derealization in Night in the Woods and Metal gear Solid 2 - Describing the sensation of derealization where the brain stops connecting associations between the self and the things one perceives in their surroundings. One example displaying how this impacts a person living with DPDR and the other showing an example of a game attempting to make a player share the experience with the player character.

DID and the healing process in Mr. Robot - A run down of the experiences of discovery, exploration, rejection and healing within DID as displayed in each season of Mr. Robot, along with a disappointed rundown of why the final episode fumbled the ball.

Bruce Banner and the roles of his alters - A breakdown of the formation of The Incredible Hulk’s DID and what roles his many alters play.

Romantic relationships with systems - A look at the marriage between Bruce Banner and Betty Talbot-Ross Banner in Hulk comics and a frank discussion between Betty and one of Bruce’s alters about how relationships function in a system.

Personality Play in Penlight - A review of one of the routes for a hypnokink visual novel called Penlight in which the protagonist hypnotizes a woman to have an alter personality, along with some descriptions of how dangerous play like that works in real life and what the consequences could be.

For Hypnokink Resources (more in our Hypnokink Writings tag):

Hypnosis and Dissociative Disorders - A Rebuttal to a recent claim at a hypnosis convention that we shouldn't practice with those who dissociate as part of a mental illness.

Ethical Personality Play - A discussion about the real psychological damage that can and will happen if you play with personality play in hypnokink without setting safeties and grounding as part of your play.

Unreality and Hypnosis - A small note about how derealization symptoms mingle with hypnokink and why grounding and ensuring "reality remains in the scene" is important.

Anyway. Thank you all. For those who follow me normally, I appreciate you indulging the link spam.

[beepboop358]

Hi. I am/was a mileven defender until I saw that scene in the van and Mike's copy pasted monologue that felt like it wasn't even meant for El but for Will.

As a straight person, I don't think I can relate to a queer person's frustration or anger over Season 4 even if I tried.

And I'm sorry but that's why it's hard for me to understand why you guys have given up on your ship when it's obvious that my people are the ones that should be getting prepared for a massive straight bait.

I hate to even think about it and it saddens me to the core but Mike is clearly projecting. He doesn't feel about El the way he feels about Will and it shows. I think El truly loves Mike tho so it's even more frustrating to me.

I wanted mileven to work so badly and I still do but given Mike's strange behavior and the way Will and Mike look at each other and the way they stand side by side between two other canon ships in the final scene and actually all their scenes together, it's hard to not to believe that your ship is the one they're going for.

I guess it's a good thing that they are planning on making the gay ship endgame. I know you guys need some decent representation and I'm sorry about the people that are mocking you for it on Twitter or in real life. All of that doesn't mean I suddenly started shipping them tho. I'm still clinging on to mileven. Probably forever.

I just wanted to acknowledge that I think it's weird that many of you have lost hope. But again, I can't really relate to the things queer people are experiencing and going through on a daily basis so I want to apologize if anything I just said was insensitive.

hello!

This was really interesting to read, thank you so much for sharing, genuinely! I hadn’t thought about it from this perspective before because i’ve mostly seen mike/el fans only celebrating after s4, and i’ve gotten several rude messages since vol. 2’s release over me being delusional and crazy for thinking byler would ever happen. It’s super interesting we are both doubting our ships and convinced the other will now be canon after s4… and I find it really fascinating that as a mileven shipper you thought Mike’s speech to El sounded like it was meant for Will…

I still have faith that byler could happen, and the ending shots really make me think it will, but i’m worried that they won’t be able to fix the damage they did to it in s4 fully, in s5, because I thought the writing in s4 was very different than what we have previously seen in the show, and so many characters didn’t get the development i thought they deserved. Regardless of whose ship ends up being endgame, I just hope that they fix it and actually resolve something in s5 so it ends on a healthy note for the couple. I believe everyone should ship whoever they want, so its totally fine by me if you don’t ship byler. Also, thank you <3 It definitley sucks to be mocked by so many people rn LOL.

I hope you’re well! xx

[silliecentral]

Compet Draculaura hc

as a lesbian i feel like monster high has a great opportunity to include comphet representation. for those who don’t know what comphet is, its essentially a thing a lot of lesbians go through where society pushes heterosexual normatives onto everyone so some lesbians convince themselves subconsciously to apply to those norms, i hope thats a decent explanation, but i think a lot of draculauras character atributes directly connect to comphet. most notably witchcraft, the specific moment im talking about was her witchcraft being a threat to monsters presentation. specifically the moment where clawdeen and frankie ask her about it and she replies “i guess i was just trying to convince myself” when i first watched that it really resonated with me. because when i was first questioning my sexuality i tried very hard to convince myself that i was straight which is why that moment was so important to me. anyway, i think that they have a great opportunity for a comphet arc for draculaura because clawd and clawdeen are brother and sister, they both have a similar nerdy and overprotective type of personality. and i think it would make sense for draculaura falling for clawd as a stand in for her feelings for clawdeen. in my opinion it also makes sense for her character to push herself into thinking she likes a boy because thats what society would want her to do and she literally feeds on validation and applause from other monsters, and even though i dont know how how much heteronorms are pushed in the monster world, i think this would still be natively possible considering draculaura has a lot of queer/supportive friends and adults in her life, but i think that with dracula being PFFT some norms could be pushed where its expected of her to fall in love with a boy. because even though we are growing in a more LGBT respective world socially, heteronormatives are still pushed on people by even supporters, and i think if they decided to go this route (which ik is unlikely especially for a kids show), it would finally mean some comphet representation!! which there is literally none in media that i can think of.

[paper-land]

Just a note: this post started as a discussion of and is going to spend a decent amount of time discussing Yannick Mirko’s firing and replacement in Ride the Cyclone, but I realized I wanted to address my experience with ablism in theatre in general. I can’t force anyone to read this, but if you have the time and you care about representation in theatre, I’d to ask you to try and hear what I have to say

TLDR: Yannick Mirko's speaking out is bringing more attention to ableism in theatre, I added some examples I've seen to emphasize that ableism in the theatre world is really common

Literally I take a break from writing my papers for finals for like 10 minutes and I find out that Arena Stage cast Yannick Mirko’s able-bodied understudy to play Ricky in their production of RtC.

For anyone not caught up, Yannick Mirko is the first disabled person to play Ricky Potts, a canonically disabled character, in the musical Ride The Cyclone. He was unjustly fired from the production he was in (the McCarter atheater) because of their disability. They had one medical emergency and was told that his disability was too unpredictable that he would be replaced by his understudy, who is not disabled.

Now, onto the Arena Stage production. Three of the seven cast members played the roles they are in now in the McCarter Theater production (Jane Doe, Mischa Bachinski, and Noel Gruber). Two are playing their original role from a different production (Constance Blackwood, Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg). One appears to be playing their role for the first time, though I could be wrong on this (The Amazing Karnak). The only cast member of the Arena Stage production who, as far as I can tell, was an understudy for their first production is their Ricky Potts. Ricky is being played by the able bodied understudy who took over the role when Yannick Mirko was fired from the McCarter Theater production. He was also reportedly referred to by his disability aids during the rehearsal process, rather than his name.

This is genuinely disgusting. Theatre is already so discriminatory to disabled people and the McCarter Theater and Arena Stage productions have so far only proved that they can get away with it. Admittedly, I have minimal social media presence so there could be conversations I haven’t seen, but I have seen a maximum of 5 people talk about this.

It’s very much worth noting that most productions I have been in or seen we’re willing to bend over backwards to make sure an able bodied actor could stay onstage. I’ve been in five shows where an understudy was sent out. Three because the actors had Covid and two because the actor was in the hospital and would not be discharged until after the show was over. This may sound like a lot of productions with understudies, but I’ve been in theatre for 11 years. I’ve been in 30 shows. Five shows, especially mid-pandemic, is nothing. I have been in shows where directors have done everything in their power to keep an able bodied actor in a lead role (including many cases of severe illnesses and one with a concussion and staples in his head). I’ve seen an actress onstage while she had broken ribs. I’ve seen a friend perform after slicing her leg and spraining her ankle. Ive seen a different friend come to a three hour rehearsal after spending the morning vomiting. Two different people I know have performed with dislocated joints. I’ve been onstage when I was so sick I couldn’t breathe or speak. I’ve been onstage when my glasses broke and I couldn’t see as far as the people around me. Most actors I know who have left productions only left because they could not physically return or because they were fired for actually valid reasons (skipped nearly half of the rehearsals so they could go on vacation without informing the director).

If these were fine, if I’ve been praised and seen actors praised for doing this, why was Yannick Mirko fired for one medical emergency? Easy answer: Ableism.

One less-than shocking part for me was realizing that I’ve worked with one of the people who was involved in the McCarter production for an awards show. I watched her work with disabled performers in one of the other acts. And, mind you, by “work with,” I mean that she told them their spots and expected them to know where to go. She was absolutely lovely to everyone else (especially leads but I don’t want to get into the treatment of ensemble actors right now, that’ll probably be a different post one day).

I also want to discuss my experiences with ablism in theatre, as someone who has witnessed it and, very recently, started experiencing it (to, admittedly, a significantly lesser degree than many).

The first show I was in with a disabled actor, I was 14. My friend was made to climb multiple set pieces despite her leg not being fully functional. She’d been in a wheelchair for several months at school that year. I didn’t fully realize something was wrong until she started complaining about minor pain to me. She never wanted anyone to go to the director and she never went on her own.

My next is when I was 15. I didn’t realize what was really happening for many years. He had missed several rehearsals with no word to our directors and was made to leave the show. This sounds normal enough, I mentioned someone else who was forced to do the same earlier on. This would be normal if the director hadn’t checked in on and allowed able bodied actors who had done the same thing back into the show. I figured at that point in my life that he’d just missed more shows or assumed that he’d come to the mutual agreement to leave. I don’t have answers, but I’ve started to doubt those beliefs in recent years.

My next show with a disabled actor was when I was still 15. We had one disabled actress, a girl in a wheelchair. The show was set in a high school. She was in onstage twice. The first time, she sat on the side during a group number and sang with us (she was never taught any choreography. The second time, a cast member brought her on, she was crowned prom queen, and then she left the stage and was never seen again until curtain call. Honestly, at the time, I thought it was weird that we were treating her as less capable and not allowing her into any more of the show, but it’s hard to bring that up with anyone. Especially when everyone you try to talk to about it defends the choice. Everyone said that she was less capable or that she’d stick out or that her wheelchair would get in the way. I didn’t feel I could address it, so it was left unsaid. She went to school with me for five years and I never saw her in another production.

It took several years to be in another show with a disabled actor. My school was by all accounts really great about our treatment of disabled people until it came to extracurriculars.

My most recent show that I’m talking about was not technically with a disabled actor, but one who was injured for the entire rehearsal and performance process and was treated similarly from what I could see. It was last year. They were cast in the group that was onstage the least. Nobody in that group was invited to any vocal rehearsals and they were all in one choreography rehearsal. They were also made to stand at the bottom of a set piece on their own because they couldn’t climb it like the rest of their group.

I’d also like to discuss my experiences since finding out that I have a wrist problem that will likely impact me on and off for the rest of my life. For context, I have limited mobility in one of my hands due to a problem with my wrist and thumb. I cannot fully bend my wrist in any direction, nor can I comfortably straighten my thumb all the way or make a fist with the thumb on the inside.

I’d also like to note that I am currently in university taking a creative writing minor, so that sucks because my wrist and thumb do affect my ability to type and write, so it flares up a lot. I also really like to draw and sew for fun and I’ve had to greatly limit my ability to do the things I enjoy. I’ve been in two shows since I went to my doctor because of the pains and four shows since the pain started affecting my abilities to do things.

This first show I was in after my wrist got bad was a very dance heavy production that consisted of two group numbers and a solo or duet for every cast member. The worst part for me was dance warmups, where we were instructed to do many things forced us to put large amounts of pressure on our hands. Primarily different forms of lunges and pushups. I would cry after every day’s warmups. I could barely hold my props.

The next show, I actually worked crew on. I was involved in props, costumes, and makeup, as well as moving sets/props between scenes. I made props with box cutters and scissors I could barely hold. My hands shook so hard when I was trying to melt the edge of a ribbon to keep it from fraying that I dropped a match (thank god I was outside and on pavement). I sewed costumes until I couldn’t do anything for the rest of the day. One of the worst parts was when I hand-sculpted multiple special-effect-makeup prosthetics for one of our actresses. I could hardly hold my makeup brushes or my dummy head that I was sculpting on by the end of every one I made (three sets, for context, every set used two pieces). The other worst was moving sets. I was originally set to move a desk for an office scene that was so heavy that I cried after our first rehearsal and requested to be switched to a new job. I was given a bookshelf that was on wheels. Two of the four wheels were broken and I had to pick up the shelves to get it into the correct position anyway. This show was actually the reason I went to the doctor about the wrist pains.

My next show was actually an improv workshop followed by two performances. I spent the day of the workshop painting for a school activity. I ended up in a wrist brace for the full workshop. I have never seen a group of people so cautious around me, nobody was even willing to touch that arm, which made a certain amount of improv very strange because we were doing a lot of physical stuff with each other. Everyone else was grabbing hands and stuff and they were just awkwardly standing next to me. I ended up taking off my brace for the performances so that I could feel like a part of the show. and hurting myself because I should have been wearing it.

The last show was a recent production where off-and-on through the rehearsal process, I was in the brace. There were many comments made asking about why my wrist was still hurting me, which I assume is a certain amount of ignorance because yes, my wrist still hurts, I haven't been able to move it properly for half a year. However, I was not given a single costume I could wear the brace with and another cast member was instructed to pull my by the arm that was hurt. Luckily, between pain meds and excessively taking care of myself, it didn’t hurt during production week, but I’d still call that some bad treatment.

Basically, theatre sucks for disabled actors. Please, help bring awareness to this. If you’ve seen or experienced ableism, I encourage you to speak out. Yannick Mirko is a wonderful performer and an inspiration to me. He’s been through so much. Also, I’m not fond of cursing, but fuck McCarter Theater and fuck Arena Stage. Cast disabled actors as disabled characters and don’t replace them with an able-bodied understudy.

[qqueenofhades]

Okay – so! Thank you for all that you do for fandom and The History side of tumblr- it’s a LOT.

 I’m struggling with mapping a historical accuracy/fanon vs. canon concept. I hope you can help me untangle my thoughts on this.  Diverse representation in media is very important to me; and I’m also aware of the damage that the ‘colour-blind’ casting can do.  So! I’m trying to reconcile a common fandom perception that Hob Gadling is of South-East Asian decent.   (I know that Ferdie is!- I also have seen zero evidence that he claims Desi Diaspora as part of his identity. It makes me really uncomfortable that fandom might be projecting their desire for ‘Representation’ onto a man who lives outside his ancestral culture.)

What I do know is that Hob is a medieval freeman (?) from the south of England in the 1300s. I wonder at the possibility of his CHARACTER being of mixed race? I know that Briton and Europe and Africa were in trade. I know that People of colour moved freely around the continents!

  I’ve done some research into London population polls from the time, but I’m not certain of their degree of accuracy/usefulness.  They describe immigrants as ‘aliens’.. and most I’ve seen are European. I haven’t even come across evidence of Muslim or ‘Moorish’ people settling in London???!

The written history I’ve read tells me the Europeans didn’t establish trade with India until the mid 1400s. (How it’s possible they didn’t know about each other is Baffling and seems impossible??) Anyway. The crux of the matter is:  would Hob Gadling possibly been of mixed heritage?

I mean yes, technically, he COULD be. The most logical route for that would be to give him some family heritage from somewhere in Spain, or Iberia, which was a fully mixed-race society until well into the 13th/14th century, and was in regular trade and communication with England. The medieval Iberian Christian kingdoms of Castile-León, Aragon, and Navarre particularly were close trading partners and English/Iberian royalty married each other fairly often. It was somewhat less the case by the time Hob was born in the 1350s, but there is certainly enough previous contact to make it feasible. Muslims, Christians, and Jews all lived in Iberia (how much they all co-existed has long been one of the most debated questions in religious/historical studies), and Muslims had a presence in Spain for over 700 years, since the first arrivals in 711 CE following the collapse of the Umayyad dynasty in Baghdad, until their final expulsion under Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492.

The question, however, is if he SHOULD be headcanoned or identified as mixed-race, and while I am the least fandom-policey person ever and respect people's right to enjoy their own ideas in peace, it personally makes me a little uncomfortable. It feels related to the "fandom activism!" mindset where you should ship a more Morally Pure OTP, or your favorite is "better" if they can be somehow identified with a marginalized group, regardless of whether this fits or makes sense for the character. And in this case, Hob’s background as a good-looking white British bloke with an appropriately English-sounding name, as I describe him in AITWW, is central to both his character arc, his major mistakes, and how he has to learn and grow over time. It was absolutely vital to me that in AITWW, he had to explicitly confront the massive amounts of unearned privilege that he enjoyed over the centuries by being born into that body, and how it would be very different for him if he hadn't been. As his friend Julia puts it in their discussion in chapter 13, he had the luck to be born into a body that society automatically privileges and values and places into positions of power whether or not he deserves it, and as a black woman, she thinks immortality sounds absolutely awful. Why would she want to put up with the absolute shit it would be to live 600 years, at least in the Western world/America/Europe, in that embodiment?

Likewise, Hob agrees and admits that of course it's easy for him to want to live forever and maintain enthusiasm for life, because whatever difficulties he has faced, his race and gender have not contributed to them (which is the essence of white privilege in a nutshell). And of course, the urge to make him mixed-race might reflect some discomfort with his actual canon background and involvement in slavery, no matter if he obviously feels terribly guilty and driven to atone for over 200 years after that (as he SHOULD). In some sense, making him mixed-race might seem to mitigate that or give some reason to make him "sympathetic" while he was doing it, and frankly, I don't think 18th-century Hob deserves to get off the hook for being yet another British white man who might have felt bad about what he was doing at times, but continued to do it anyway. I'm not saying this is anyone's motive or intention, but it does trouble me, especially since Hob’s whiteness, the damage of that whiteness, and the way he has to deliberately and extensively unlearn that urge to just live life on easy mode regardless of the damage it does to others is what I find so interesting about his character. In short, if Hob was part of a racially marginalized group already, he might have made different choices, but he didn't, and now he is forced to literally live with that guilt and shame forever. He doesn't get to exonerate himself, and nor do I do it for him.

Lastly, I think this reflects a very modern and somewhat over-simplified way of thinking; to our modern and institutionally-racist-pickled brains, race is the chief category that can be explicitly constructed as Otherness, and doesn't reflect the very unclear way this was perceived and experienced in the 14th century. I.e., you note that immigrants to England "were mostly European" -- which is true, but does not reflect the dizzying array then as now, in which local, national, ethnic, and religious identities were constructed. One unattractive feature of the English national character over many centuries has been their hostility and distrust of foreigners, and this was especially the case in the 14th and especially late-14th, post-Black Plague society. For example, the Flemish were regarded as "morally inferior" since they ran several well-known brothels and red-light districts in Southwark, across the Thames from London (now part of the city), and that meant they were purveying immorality, rather than being there since the English desired their services. Xenophobia was especially rampant against "strangers" of any type, especially against Jews again post-Black Death for sadly predictable anti-Semitic reasons, and even being from continental Europe would not have made someone "English" in their eyes. Even by the Elizabethan era, it was almost impossible for a foreign-born citizen (or "denizen," meaning something akin to "permanent resident") to get licensed as a guildsman in the city of London, and without that license, you could not run a business, practice a trade, or engage in substantial paid work in any way.

Likewise, medieval notions of race were fluid, uncertain, and often linked to religion more than ethnic origin. There are several Arthurian legendarium reworkings, and epic poems such as The King of Tars, where the "happy" ending is that the mixed-race, Muslim, or black hero is converted to Christianity and abandons whatever untrue pagan religion he has been following before. This is often accompanied with a literal physical transformation turning him from black- or dark-skinned (impure) to white (pure). So yes, racial thinking and categories did exist, but it wasn't seen as fixed or unalterable, and again, wasn't really the first or primary way in which Otherness was constructed (compared to say, "Saracen," which functioned throughout almost the entire medieval era as a marker of difference and had varied racial, religious, sexual, and ethnic connotations, but originally came from the term for Muslims).

So anyway: hopefully that all makes sense and provides some context in both my historical and fandom thinking on the matter. Thanks for the question!

[basuralindo]

YHMR chapter 20 finally up!!

Thank you all for being so patient with the updates lately, I've been impatient to get this one finished, but here it is at last! More commentary under the cut

-So, I guess everyone has their own unique approach to consent when it comes to Jamil. Azul, who's both horrified at the idea of unintentionally forcing Jamil into something and so over being the one begging for scraps of attention from people who find him repulsive, has decided to wait stubbornly for Jamil to prove what he wants by coming to him. Floyd, being Floyd, figured "why is everyone playing chess with this when I can just make him tell me what he wants straight up?". And Jade… having taken notes from both of their stories and observations, decided that Jamil couldn't be trusted to give an honest answer and therefore the most efficient and surefire way around it was to push him past his comfort level and see what he acts like when he's lying.

-Joke's on Jade, Jamil is also Very Aware of microexpressions, and can catch his subtle changes in demeanor just as well.

-I know I've mentioned the idea of Jade having sensory issues before, but now I'm adding touch repulsion because I just can't get enough drama (or representation tbh. I've seen like three touch repulsed characters in my entire life).

-believe it or not, I actually try hard to make sure not every character is perfectly capable of raising a single eyebrow. Jamil kinda does it in canon, and also just seems like the type who'd master the art of annihilating people with a single judgy expression since he can't talk back. There's no way Floyd wouldn't figure out how, and no way Jade would let him be the only one capable. So really that just left Azul as the only one in the relationship who can't, and that feels like it'd be exactly his luck.

-Was the oral agreement kiss a happy coincidence, or did Jade introduce the term in the hopes of getting Jamil to say "oral"? That's for him to know

-Jamil at it again with the modified curses for basic household tasks. Maybe I'm reaching but I feel like it makes a decent metaphor for everything he could so easily be, vs everything he's had to put effort into contorting himself to become.

-Alsoooo I know the fish are all good cooks, but considering how different food prep must be on the surface, and the way Jade is shown to be very formulaic with new projects and how Azul just, IS, I imagine they started out approaching surface cuisine through research and carefully following recipes, and there's bound to be a lot of practical tricks that they aren't experienced with yet. Which is to say, watching human cooks break rules and wing it with recipes must be new and interesting for them, because while they probably have some theories on how things could work if they tweaked it (like in Floyd's chef vignette), they probably haven't had much time to experiment as much yet

-I'm picturing Jade making the aprons for everyone, half as a joke. Azul's is designed to be cute enough to be embarrassing, but still fitting his tastes enough that he can tell Jade put real thought into it, and Azul loves it for the gesture despite the teasing. He would never let another soul know it exists, and will die when he finds out Jamil's seen it. Floyd's was something Jade knew he would love the second he saw the fabric (it's inspired by this tourist shirt I found)

[crusader-exodus]

So after several failed attempts to actually get into this series, I finally have seen all the currently released Delicious in Dungeon.

Unpopular opinion ahead trigger warning!

Truthfully, it's been quite a rollercoaster ride, and I don't say that in an entirely complimentary way. As a long-time fan of Studio Trigger, and as a fan of trashy GameLit, I would have thought that this would have been right up my alley. The biggest issue I kept running into when watching the series was the same sort of nebulous feeling that I had when watching Frieren.

It feels like half the show is filler, but it's not simply filler for the sake of filling airtime, rather it being filler is entirely the point of the show. Now, that feeling has subsided some as more than halfway into the season, something interesting started happening.

To make a food allegory meta-commentary joke here, the show has all the ingredients for a dish I'd really like, but it only winds up being decent instead of great.

I won't say that it doesn't have some great moments, because it does! One thing that seems to be buzzing on the intertubes is the representation of atypical character types among the main cast of protagonists. In my own viewing, I have to agree with the general consensus on the two pictured characters.

We have a male hero character who is very firmly on the autism spectrum, and we have one heckin' gay elf. The show lets us draw our own conclusions on these characters for the most part, although, admittedly, the neurodivergence is a bit more subtle than the yuri.

It should also be mentioned that the show is gorgeous. The animation quality and art direction are fantastic.

I'm going to hold off on making any final judgments on the show until S1 wraps. I'll be watching the new releases as they come out, though, so that's a marked improvement in my overall interest level.

Edit: This show is a proshipper's dream, though, so I totally get that aspect of the appeal.