#honestly my job is great but

[egophiliac]

like mother, like son, but less wholesome this time?

(I couldn't decide whether or not to put them together, so have them in all the different ways!)

[myreia]

✦ F F X I V L E V E L 9 0

—compendium

[koko2unite]

[leupagus]

There’s a lot of discourse in fandom about Sansa, Arya, and Cersei’s attitudes toward power and traditional femininity. I’m super curious to see what you think about Sansa and Cersei in particular, especially since we didn’t get a Cersei POV in Gale of Wolves. What does Cersei think of Sansa establishing power in her own right in the North? Does she still crave power for herself? I always thought that Cersei sees her sexuality as a tool or weapon but otherwise is pretty disdainful of women in general. She’s got internalized misogyny in spades.

In Sansa’s case— do you think she still dwells on what she learned from Cersei (either what she was told directly or lessons made indirectly)? I’m thinking about the battle of the black water in the books where Sansa thinks : when I am queen, I will make them love me; in a pretty stark (pun unintended) contrast to Cersei’s rule by fear. I see Sansa choosing to utilize her traditional femininity by wielding soft power that in turn becomes hard power. In your fic, she goes to each of her bannermen, she learns about them, she shows that she cares and probably uses a lot of court/ lady of the house skills she learned. Stannis doesn’t understand it at all, but Sansa has a stronger position in the North than he does anyway.

These are such great questions — I can say that the lack of Cersei POV in A Gale of Wolves was very deliberate, because she gets her own POV chapter in the next section of the story and I wanted her to be a little more opaque at this point. Because you're right, Cersei's going to have a LOT of feelings about Sansa getting control of the North while she's still just the Dowager Queen (even though in this story she's decidedly not going to the Sept's dungeons or enduring the Walk of Shame Atonement). Right now she's so convinced that Sansa murdered Joffrey that everything else kind of simmers under that, but I do think there's a certain degree of envy that Sansa can claim the North for herself and be unchallenged in that, when even her own daughter Myrcella will have some difficulties in laying claim to Casterly Rock (which will get resolved in the next section, but it's still not straightforward because Westeros And Essos Hate Women). There's also a lot of confusion there, because Cersei doesn't have a home the way Sansa does; she grew up in the Westerlands and lived most of her adult life in King's Landing, but what she craves is power and safety, not necessarily a home. So Sansa's motivations themselves are baffling — why fight for the North, a useless great vast nothing? Who could possibly love that place?

The note you make about Cersei using her sexuality is interesting, because I think that's prevalent in the books (I'm not sure since I haven't read them), but really not at all present in the show; in fact I think you can argue that Cersei's whole canonical path in the show is a slow stripping away of her "female-ness," which she hates so much — all that talk about how she should've been the man, how no one could tell her and Jaime apart when they were little, how her appearance and dress grows progressively more masculine. Which I always thought was interesting if you see it as a reaction to trauma: so much of what is done to her is because she's a woman, because she doesn't have power in her own right, and so she reaches for whatever simulacrum she can get. It doesn't work in the end, of course; it never does. But it's a nice dream.

I do agree that Cersei's a misogynist, but...so is everyone in this world, really. Even Dany, even Arya, even Sansa — the world of Westeros is predicated on the inferiority of women, and women themselves have to swim in that water even if they're swimming against the current.

As for Sansa, I think there's a LOT of fascination/repulsion when it comes to Cersei. One of the biggest mistakes the show ever made was never letting Arya or Sansa see Cersei one last time; sure, it's realistic that you don't get closure with your nemesis/abuser, but narratively it would've been so much more satisfying than crushing her with big rocks. Because Sansa's right, in the show where she says she learned a lot from Cersei; in many ways, Cersei was far more her mentor than Littlefinger ever was.

But you're right on the money in re: how Sansa rules, which is not the way a king would rule or the way the wife of a lord would rule, or the way any of the women in power she's met have ruled. It's not feminine so much as Sansa-esque; she is feminine, for sure, but I think a lot of what she does (both in my fic and on the show) is less about gender and more about thoughtfulness. I always think about the comment she makes to Royce about lining the new plate armor with leather when the southern soldiers wouldn't have thought about it, or how she makes Jon the exact replica of their father's cloak just from memory. Sansa is very, VERY good at noticing details and remembering them for later, however irrelevant. Having someone like that in charge of your kingdom is pretty handy.

I think one of the interesting things I'm going to do with the fic is explore some of the lessons that Cersei learns from Sansa — because she'll have time in this fic to see Sansa's method of rule working, and perhaps get enough intel to find out why it does, at least in part. And I don't think Cersei is foolish enough to pass that kind of opportunity up.

[alternautxyz]

yeah ok lmk s5 is pretty great

[elvenferretots]

On one hand, I feel horribly guilty for having a couple weekends where I've committed to absolutely nothing to the point of backing out of volunteering at a local dog show.

On the other hand, I have dog sport events literally every weekend and practice or class at least twice a week throughout the entirety of October and November. I think I get a free pass for a couple weekends.

[yuriyuruandyuraart]

AFTERMARE WEEK: day 2- discovery/lost

lost into those eyes of yours i realized, there was nothing that could be done to still my beating heart

aftermare week is hosted by @bluepallilworld

[faunandfloraas]

i think the funniest skz conspiracies ive run across on twitter are

2. everyone in skz, bar Hyunjin and Seungmin, are under 5 foot 5 and lying that they are taller

Bang Chan is faking being australian

[g0thsoojin]

🐭💣

[unhonestlymirror]

A bit strange feeling of living in Lithuania while looking like... Lithuania

[ambersky0319]

Yknow why im not really that stressed at my new retail job?

Everyone is nice and understanding and patient which is good bc its my first job

Customers are actually quite pleasant. there's been maybe two or three that I've seen be mildly rude, and I was not the one to deal w them lol

Even the managers check in like "hey howre you doing? how you holding up? are you liking the job so far?" which helps me remember what i DO like about the job. Also they will not tell people off for standing out back when doing trash rounds and smoking, just join the conversation

Everyone just jokes around and even during busy hours everyone mostly keeps up a good attitude even when away from the front where customers can see

One of my coworkers is trans and everyones okay w it. He uses they/them pronouns for me when I said I use any whereas people usually assume she/her. When a new hire was there yesterday, coworker introduced himself by saying "[name] he/him" and THE NEW HIRE WITHOUT MISSING A BEAT SAID "[name] also he/him"

Same coworker is also a furry and openly admitted to it. No one raised an eyebrow, another coworker just asked him questions about the beef going on with a particular furry in our city when he was complaining

[aeolianblues]

I'm not an extrovert. At all. In everyday life, I'm a yapper, sure, but I need someone to first assure me I am okay to yap, so I don't start conversations, even when I really want to join in sometimes! It's just the social anxiety acting up. God knows where from and why I lose a lot of my inhibitions when it comes to talking to people about music. I don't know where the confidence has suddenly sprung from. I've made a crazy amount of friends in musical circles, either just talking to people about common music or (since it is after all in music circles) talking to bands about their own music. I let out a sigh of relief any time an interaction goes well, because in truth it's going against my every instinct. I wish I could do that in everyday life

[ottosbigtop]

love wolf 359s character writing so much like it occupies my brain so often but it also makes it even more disappointing when looking at Maxwell. I suppose in the grand scheme of 7 characters you’re bound to end up neglecting some of them, but the sum of her parts really is not as strong as her parts individually.

like she’s a really compelling facet to Jacobi and Hera’s stories specifically, the impact she has on both of them and how they carry on in season 4 is really strong, and she’s got great interactions with other characters, yeah. But removing her from those interactions sort of leaves her free floating. I really don’t have much to say about her if it doesn’t involve the people around her so directly. And yeah characters relationships with each other are important aspects to stories, especially wolf, but you can still view the characters independently and find their separate narrative amidst the rest of the cast. I don’t really!! Feel like she has that!! Even within her relationship with Hera, which is incredibly narratively strong and a fucking great part of the podcast, it’s very much. Hera centric. That much is obvious. Aided by Maxwell and her drive and possibly her ego, sure, but. Idk. There’s not as much outward force that explains her motivations outside of Hera. Hell, we don’t even get as strong of a focus on what being with the SI-5 and under Kepler’s management means to her like we do with Jacobi.

idk. Shaking her around sorry about the events girl.

[goldentigerfestival]

seeing some of y'all talking about/have talked to some of y'all who have said to me how y'all feel like the dub forced (western especially) masculinity into Yuri, and

yeah.

I left that out of the actual posts themselves because it felt too opinionated for the actual posts (even though you know it's my blog I can do what I want, but I don't want people discrediting me over shit like that), but yeah.

it feels a lot to me like they wanted Yuri to be some cool masculine edgy dude instead of a silly, playful, dorky, emotional, caring man. as if his silliness and emotional side is something to shy away from and isn't "cool enough" for a main character.

it's sad to me because he's such a different person between versions - enough that if I'm interacting with someone who only knows dub Yuri, it genuinely just doesn't feel like we're even talking about the same character sometimes. I want to be talking about the same character, but since some people only know the dub, they only know what the dub made him out to be.

I've seen a variety of things - art, writing, memes, whatever - where there are times I'm genuinely able to be like... that's such a dub Yuri specific thing. like, the way he gets portrayed is something I'm able to look at and be like "that's literally something only dub Yuri would say/do". it's not the fault of people who don't know the original context, but that's why it frustrates me so much - because that's all some people can know contextually (listening to the audio alone gives you a pretty clear indication of how much tone isn't the same between versions, but obviously some people will still be missing context), and the dub changed the experience (and went out of its way to do so) completely for those people. again - not the fault of the people who played the game. it's the fault of the people who were in charge of context/tone and took advantage of that and changed things and made him literally behave differently (because there's... take what's in front of you and translate that, and then there's going out of your way to change what's right there so the context/behavior is no longer the same).

it especially shows to me in interactions with Flynn between the western and JP fandom. the way Yuri behaves interacting with him in fan created media is sometimes vastly different from my experience between both fandoms. again, it's not people's faults who don't know Yuri's original personality, but it is the dub's fault for portraying him that way.

for me it's heartbreaking to see how dub Yuri treats Flynn and how the dub itself narratively treats Flynn. I love the relationship they have in JP and I love them both as characters in JP. like I've said, sometimes I want to punch dub Yuri for the shit he says and the way he behaves. I've never felt that way about Yuri in his original context. I've felt worse for dub Flynn than JP Flynn because I feel like JP Flynn is better cared for by the narrative/characters, but god, poor dub Flynn??? jesus.

the thing is, this comes from a place of strong love for Yuri (and Flynn!) so I hate that they changed things. I always stand by media in its original, purest form, no matter where in the world that media came from. localization absolutely should fix things caused by language barriers and tweak oddly sounding things - sometimes there's no choice! but it's not there to create a newly existing piece of media. it's not there to create a new character plastered on the face of an existing character or to fulfill the loc team's opinion of what that character should be.

it can be difficult - usually impossible - for me to be experiencing JP exclusive content and trying to imagine dub Yuri in those situations (think like, the drama CDs or Rays' content). I know I'm not the only person who feels this way and is extremely bothered by it.

obviously I'm not the be all end all - I'm one person with feelings and opinions, but I just feel very strongly about this kind of thing and I want to share how wonderful of a character Yuri is in his original form. a lot of the clips I posted I posted because I love his silly or caring attitude. I could blab to you about him forever. so, I hope more people will give this man a chance and experience him the way I know him.

[imagineagreatadventure]

i don't know how to put this into words exactly but I'm not really happy where i'm at job wise rn. it feels like pulling teeth for me to work right now. and that's kind of the opposite of who i am as a person - i'm an overworker usually. and that's probably a good thing to get a break from that aspect of my personality (bc why overwork for the boss man amirite) but also...... i'm just not happy?

and i can't tell what exactly it's stemming from - if it's the people (tbh doubtful, i like everyone but i also have no super bestie work friend like i've had at prev jobs), or the work itself (which I used to love doing), or the industry (i have been in it a long time), or maybe it is where i work (which tbh is a pretty good place to work so again doubtful?) - or if it's nothing to do with my job and all to do with other stuff going on in my life?

idk i'm just..... I feel kind of bored and over it. like i usually hit this wall when I feel like there's nothing more to learn at where i'm at but that's not quite what's happening. there's still a lot to learn - but I'm just not sure i want to learn it.

and until i know what the hell the exact issue(s) are here i don't feel confident to go looking for the next job. because I would likely end up in a worse place until i know what is up.

anyhow any advice isn't necessary but appreciated because i'm feeling odd about the whole thing.

[rubenesque-as-fuck]

Absolutely hate that the only hair thing I can trust to other people at this point is a bang trim and even that is a huge hit-or-miss experience every. Goddamned. Time. I understand that it is not a big ticket service but sometimes I luck out and get someone who still gives a shit and takes time to make sure the cut is even but sometimes I get someone who is trying to shove me out of the chair as quickly as possible and I end up having to spend a long time at home with scissors afterwards trying to get it to look even mildly presentable (and usually end up fucking it up in some respect)