#i should clarify i mean this as a concept like who he was created to be. it’s boring it’s racist it doesn’t capitalize on the lore etc

[roobylavender]

i don’t really agree with the idea that ra’s can be swapped out for talia in terms of damian’s upbringing and nothing would change about the story bc he’d be near exactly as abusive as morrison wrote talia to be like.. no.. that’s just misunderstanding ra’s as a character which frankly a lot of people do. ra’s is emotionally abusive but there are still specific patterns to that behavior. he wants the people at his side to genuinely believe in his vision and abide by it and act upon it, it’s far more complex than him being a physically abusive person who would brutally train a child with no remorse or regard for that child’s well being. current canon esp in the last year has led to this belief that talia grew up cold and pressured to take upon the role and be the perfect weapon but she didn’t. she and ra’s were implied to have a relatively fine relationship as she grew up and things only began to shift once bruce entered the picture and became an influence on talia and her loyalties

when the idea of losing talia to bruce began to veer into reality, ra’s became more possessive and insistent in what he wanted talia to do to ensure she would remain on his side. but even then when she ultimately left him for good to move to metropolis the retaliation that ra’s took out wasn’t on her, it was on bruce. he respected her attempts to break out and do something on her own terms, and that’s not to absolve him, i’m simply pointing out how he’s capable of respecting the people he cares about so long as they don’t go directly against him. so when you toy with the idea of ra’s killing damian’s adoptive parents (which is something i believe he would do. they’re an obstacle to his family after all) and thereby choosing to raise him on his own you have to remember that damian is ultimately a child who will possess little to no tangible worldview with respect to what ra’s is preaching (unless his parents are conveniently environmentalists and he’s a genius child which personally is a boring cop out)

so damian is this relatively unexposed kid whose parents suddenly die only for a man to present himself as his grandfather. ra’s pulls the strings to let it all show in the paperwork and damian goes home to one of his bases. and i think the first thing ra’s would do is teach damian about the world. about the way he views it but in the simplest terms understandable to a child. and he would pull damian into this world of scholarship and travel and athleticism not out of cruelty but out of love. bc there is genuine love that ra’s has for bruce and talia even if he eventually abused it. he was overjoyed when they were going to have damian. and he can still be overjoyed and engrossed in the idea of having a grandson to call his own and to teach his philosophy to even if ultimately what he would be doing is projecting his own desires onto damian. he can hope for damian to be the one person in his family who stands by him and understands him and follows him and it can be tragic bc we know his worldview is ultimately wrong and what he’s done isn’t right and damian needs to be rescued asap. but it would all be punctuated by love that would frankly be so much more interesting to explore bc the real crux of ra’s as a character is that he is incredibly proud and lonely and loving in all of the most heartbreaking and potentially unforgivable ways possible. he holds onto people too tightly without understanding why they might want to let go. and there’s no better person to explore the breaking point of that behavior through than a completely unaware damian who ends up on his doorstep and genuinely believes he’s going to live with a grandfather who loves him in all of the right ways. and love him ra’s does. just without telling damian all of the ugly truths it took to get him there

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

Rose's Day of Asks

Gorgeous gif central. Past and present. Favourite cuties to gif?

Have a great Day💜

My favorite Rose, hello 🌹 What a beautiful day this Rose's Day of Asks is 😊

I love your ask for me, that had me slightly on the edge of madness because how am I supposed to decide on this? But there is no limit to how many cuties I can choose *insert evil laughter*.

Based on the number of sets I have created for each show, KinnPorsche should be in first place, but I wouldn't consider them "cuties". And as much as I loved giffing this show, they are not in my list of favorites anymore. There are cuties I made just one or two sets for, which are way higher in my list of favorites, like Sing My Crush - Baram x Hantae. I just loved catching their cute moments in my gifs.

Rose's Day of Asks: Past and Present. Favorite Cuties to gif.

Past

The shows may be from the past, but are still present in my heart. And to clarify, the past is everything from 2023 and before. I had to draw a line somewhere😅

Kawi x Pisaeng from Be my Favorite

Those two had me in a chokehold. Kawi's story of becoming the best version he could possible be was so good, emotional, inspiring and relatable. And Pisaeng's journey to love himself and be true to his feelings was so beautiful. I loved all of this show. And those two are just so CUTE!!!! I mean look at them:

Guess it is time for a rewatch...

Dongwook x Dohyun from A Breeze of Love

They have the cutes smiles and yes, the story might not be the most original, but it was one of my favorite shows from 2023. I loved their story and their love and just them. Dongwook was finally ready to be true to himself and his feelings for Dohyun and the latter understood what happend in the past, but that there was a chance for both of them in the present and future And they went for it and finally became happy together and them together is the cutes shit out there! And I loved giffing their moments. It felt like being a part of their journey, even though I made just a few gifs. They are in my heart forever!

Ai Di x Chen Yi from Kiseki

Those are the two biggest and deadliest puppies out there. The fact that they needed this fucking long to finally get together and as soon as they become a couple they are this whole cheesy lovebirds is just the ultimate cuteness. I mean Chen Yi allows Ai Di to die first and then won't be able to live without him for one teeny tiny second. And who wouldn't want to pinch Ai Di's cheeks?

Vice Versa

It is not so much the couple I loved to gif, but the show itself. I was totally amazed by the color concept for each episode and was obsessed with finding the perfect scenes. Talay and Puen were cute, but the show itself was kind of a mess and a little bit lost on its way to the final, and I love JimmySea way more in Last Twilight, but for the whole giffing part, this show was so much fun to work with.

Present (2024 and ongoing series)

I have to admit, I am in a little giffing-slumb for a few weeks now. Nothing serious, but I need to find my rhythm again after my long sickness and the overfilled fridays. On fridays I have a short work day and more time for my hobbies, but since today I am working part-time and hopefully I get more time for myself and my hobbies again. But I digress 😅

Starting this with the same pairing we left the past with:

JimmySea aka Mhok x Day from Last Twilight

I was so in love with this series and them until they fucked up the ending (imo). I am still not very fond of the ending. But I am still very fond of them until episode 9/10. I still love Mhok and think he is the biggest and cutest green flag out there. I loved to gif their journey of how they found each other. I cried with them and I laughed with them, and in the end I cried for them...

Myungha x Yeowoon from Love for Love's Sake

Just them! Them! Them! Them! Them! Them! Them! I love them. They were perfect. This show was perfect. And especially Yeowoon's facial expressions were pure perfection. It was a cuteness overload. Myungha still owns my whole heart and he was cute in his own way. This was, without a doubt, my favorite korean bl ever and one of my most beloved couples ever. My love for them is still as strong as it was when this series aired. I am still kind of obsessed.

I mean... look at them!

Qian x Yuan from Unknown

Okay, perhaps these aren't really cuties on the first look, but let's be honest: The first few episodes Yuan is such a cute puppy, orbiting around Qian. And Kurt is such a handsome young man. And don't get me started on Chris' smile - addicting. Yeah, I am kinda obsessed with them and their story. And this story is everything but cute right now, but for me these two are the cutest and I will gif the shit out of them! And I guess from epsiode 8 on, we will all lose our shit when their relationship change into something really... "cute".

Okay, these are a few of my beloved cuties I enjoyed giffing. There are way more and I could make this list go on forever, but I have to go to bed now 😅

This was such a fun ask! Thank you so very much! 🌹 And I hope you have a great day yourself! 🤍

[andy-wm]

Why Jungkook made an explicit version of SEVEN, and why we should be thanking him for it.

The answer to the first question is short:

Because he wanted to.

THAT'S IT, AND IT'S ENOUGH.

It's his song, his career, his voice, his time. It's his choice. He doesn't need OUR approval and he certainly doesn't need our permission.

I think we should be thanking him frankly.

Not just because he made a sexy song although I think it's more sweet than sexy personally but also because it's started so many conversations that I think we need to have.

And that's what is really on my mind, The conversations we need to have, not just about JK and his artistry and his choices, but also about ARMY. About us as human beings.

Let's start with him...

JK's Adult Life:

First thing for me is that JK is UNQUESTIONALBLY an adult. But he's a (relatively) young adult in an industry that's very judgemental, controlled, and tightly scheduled.

He may have money coming out of his wazzoo and millions of adoring fans, but he has limited personal freedom. It's sure as hell not an exchange I would make. I'd choose an average income and the freedom to walk down the street hand in hand with my guy without making headlines - every day of the week.

The fact that he has any kind of personal life is cause for celebration in my eyes. And like the 19+ version of the song, it should be his choice.

I hope it is what he wants it to be. I hope he does have s3x every day of the week if he wants it (and I'm quietly cheering him on) but I don't need to know. I'm not going looking for any information (gossip, let's be real) about that aspect of his life because it's none of my business.

JK's Artistic and Creative Choices:

The songs he sings, the photos he poses for, the choreo for his dances, the words he speaks... these are his creative expression. To an extent they reflect who he is as a person, but largely they reflect a concept or story he wants to tell with his music. I would really hate it if he started creating work with the aim of pleasing someone else (ARMY, or the media, or any other entity). To me that would mean he had lost his self-belief, and that his spirit was broken. It would be a sign that he was more motivated by fear of rejection than by his own desires and creativity.

Personally I love that he trusts us and shows us so much of himself through his art. If that ever changed, it would be a sad, sad day indeed.

Cool, that was easy

Now let's talk about ARMY - and for the purposes of this discussion, I'm talking about ALL OF ARMY but mostly in relation to JK.

ARMY - Our Diverse Fandom:

The fandom has a beautifully broad demographic. I love that about us. Of course it means we have differences, but if we acknowledge that and we respect each other's right to those differences, we are all good.

And because we are all fabulously unique individuals, it's a given that not everything JK (or BTS) creates will appeal to every one of us.

BUT...

We can support their right to make creative choices without engaging with the things that don't work for us.

If some ARMYs are uncomfortable with explicit lyrics, they can scroll past/skip/block songs that are outside their comfort zone.

If some of ARMYs are minors, their parents can supervise their media consumption (because that's their job as parents).

If some ARMYs feel that songs about making woopie aren't their jam, they can instead listen to other songs that are more to their taste.

Magic! Problem solved!

Not really...

We really do need to talk about S3X

ARMY, we are humans:

Most humans have s3x. As adults (hopefully), when we are ready (hopefully), and if we want to (hopefully).

So what's the big deal about an adult making a choice to sing about that? We were all fine with him singing about 'loving you seven day a week' but when he clarified what that meant, suddenly there was a crisis.

Is it the word F**K? Because if it is, that word is everywhere and it's honestly just a word. He's sung it before. RM sang it, YG sang it, JM sang it. And let's be real, Letto's lyrics were far more explicit and she didn't say that word once.

WARNING: REAL S3X TALK COMING UP.

Is it because he's explicitly telling us that he's sexually active? Did we forget he's an adult? Where do we think he learned to move his hips like that... yoga?

For the ARMYs who are shocked that JK is sexually active, where do you think you came from? We humans don't reproduce like flowers. You were also concieved. Your parents, your grandparents, your great grandparents, have all had s3x... probably many, many times because s3x isn't only about reproduction. It's also about human connection, pleasure, stress relief, and being an adult.

In his live, JK told us that he doesn't consider the explicit lyrics to be 'dirty' and that's awesome.

S3x positivity is healthy both physically and emotionally. Seiously, considering how much of our humanity is linked to this instinctive need, it would be so much better if we weren't conditioned to feel shame about it. If we were instead taught to talk about it comfortably, to express our desires, to understand our bodies, and to protect our rights.

I could go on and on about this (and about control, the patricarchy, and body autonomy) but let's just say that JK is right. It's not dirty, its not immoral. When consenting adults choose to do it with someone they trust it's f**king awesome.

If the term sex positive is new to you and you want to find out more, please do. It could make all the difference in the world to your happiness as an adult. There are many websites you can look at to get more information. This is just one.

Even if nobody else is going to, I am going to say THANK YOU JK for this opportunity to talk about s3x. It's an important part of being human!

*I'm censoring my language so the ratings police don't block this post.

*as always, opinions expressed here are my own.

[redthefortuneteller]

Both Snake and his snakes came from over the hills and far away

Right then, in regards to chapter 208, I'll be now focusing on my theory of Snake being originally a snake and originating in a facility owned by some sort of Dr Moreau type figure.

The flashback starts with Snake saying that since he could "remember" he was in a cage. Now I feel I should mention that from fan's translations it often came up as "when I woke up, I was in a cage." It would be great if someone who understands Japanese could be so kind as to clarify if there can be any double meaning to the word used in the original. Its meaning could change things a little bit. Regardless, he then says he didn't know why he was there nor did he know anything about the outside world.

So, from this I gather that he was born in a cage. In other words, captive bred. Forgive the reptile keeper term. It sounds dehumanizing, because it is. Unless we're talking about a snake. If he was born a snake, in a facility, it makes sense that all he remembers was being in a cage since he remembers.

Regarding the human mother and python father: I don't deem it necessary to waist time on taking what that repulsive charlatan said into consideration, as he's lying through his teeth to sell Snake's image as a product. If Snake says "It's all a lie." then it is so.

Now, another question I have in my mind about the translation is when he follows with "I have no father." because the translation I got, admittedly not through proper means of a human translator, but through google, is that he said "It's all a lie. There is no father." "I have no father." can mean his father died, but "There is no father." can mean that there's no such thing as a father there, meaning it's not specifically that rock python in the cage the charlatan lied about. Regardless, what these two phrases can hypothetically both mean, literally, is that there is no father, end of story.

As a small side note, @abybweisse mentioned that the snake in the image above looked like it could be Wilde. Indeed, this snake is a royal python and Wilde is portrayed as a (albeit impossibly huge) royal in the anime and the in the musicals. If we follow the concept of there being no father, he could have been created in a test tube, properly referred to as in vitro fertilization: taking a mature egg and fertilizing it with a sperm cell in a lab. It is possible to artificially inseminate a female snake too, thus having no father (that one would know of).

But allow me to stretch my ideas a little and ramble on about snakes for a bit. There's a certain phenomenon that very rarely occurs with snakes called parthenogenesis, or virgin birth for those of you more poetically inclined. This means the animal reproduced asexually, without copulating with another of the opposite sex. I won't go too much into the offspring, for the sake of time. Suffice to say that they're usually not as strong or as well developed as the ones produced by two animals of different sexes. There is one species of snake that is an obligatory parthenogenesis breeder though, the Brahminy Blind Snake. But only females are born. They're all girls, always! No boys allowed in their club.

Then there is a more common possibility. This is the retention of sperm during copulation with a male by the female, for later use. So, you go out and acquire a beautiful rainbow boa that had been a breeding female in the past and has retired, you come home with her, set her up nicely, give her a few kisses (don't do this, you'll get salmonella)… and a few months later you open her vivarium and are greeted not only by your baby, but by her, still slimy, 15 brand new wriggling babies! No father (in sight)! Sometimes a female could even have babies from an already deceased father by having stored his sperm for he was oh so worthy. The lovely joys of Nature…

All silliness aside, if Snake was a snake to begin with, there's these three possibilities to explain the lack of a father. The mother could even have been captured from the wild while pregnant for instance. Whichever the case, it's important to note that snakes rarely stay around to care for their young. A few do stick around to protect them but that's the extent of maternal care they provide.

Then he adds "These snakes and I were all brought here from somewhere far away" He ends it with "We have no family." In chapter 202, page 9, Dan says "Snake and us are family", which leads me to assume he's talking about humans this time around, especially since he then says that that's what he thought until he met the circus troupe.

This made me feel hopeful in a way and sad in another. Hopeful because he definitely came from somewhere along with all the snakes as I'd suspected. Sad because I feel as though that's the only information we'll ever get, since now we're already at the circus part of the backstory. I reckon there's no chance of bringing up a flashback about a past older than the freak show. Wherever they came from, it wasn't the wild. He has a wide array of different species with him, and a green anaconda and a black mamba are from completely different types of ecosystems and different continents. These snakes weren't found in the wild all together with him, it's impossible. They all had to have come from a collection, a facility, somewhere that could provide the necessary husbandry to at least keep them alive. So I believe he wasn't in the wild with all the snakes and then they got captured and brought to England. I think they must have either been sold or something happened to the facility they were being held in (as it did with Finnian). The people that got in brought what they found back to England and sold them to a freak show. But then there's the issue of the orphanage… I don't know what to think about that. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. I've run into a wall here because I can't fathom someone placing a snake hybrid with loads of venomous snakes into an orphanage. Not only that but Snake said he'd been inside cages since he remembers and knows nothing of the outside world. Did someone tell him something about an orphanage while at the Noah's Arc? Does it concern one of the troupe members and not him directly?

Since this post is getting too long, I'll briefly mention the other points of interest about Snake: He had no name at all until the circus and Joker named him. The snakes had no names either and Jumbo named them.

So I should scratch what I've written about the names of the snakes in my master post as Jumbo made the kind contribution of dispelling what I'd been contemplating as an explanation for their names. By the way, Wuthering Heights is an absolute favourite of mine as well. Just remembering certain passages sets my heart aflutter. Seems I have found something in common with Jumbo. Never thought he'd read those sorts of gothic works… he struck me as having a more Zen philosophy mind and Wuthering Heights is quite intense.

As always, thank you for reading and forgive my rambling style of writing…

[eff-plays]

can we get more of your feelings about the durge/astarion stuff pretty please?? because i feel SO vindicated after reading your thoughts and am almost resentful of durge/astarion stuff having everyone so "they're made for each other!" and "they're canon!", it feels so invalidating towards tav/astarion. i really don't like durge either; i have one canon character when i play rpgs and dark urge does not fit them in the slightest 😓

if i wanted to put an understanding spin on it, i guess that's the trade off for having your own custom character with a back story you've created, and at least astarion is so incredibly loving towards tav and talks repeatedly about how incredible they are and how much he cares for them. but i do absolutely have SO many created scenarios in my head where my tav breaks down with their own traumas and ptsd, and astarion is there to comfort and help them through it, because god knows we don't get any of that in the actual game 😭 (i hope this made sense omg, i just love your opinions and want to hear them all)

Honestly I am not generally in the business of having too many opinions on things I haven't personally tried or experienced, so what you've seen so far of my opinions on Durge/Astarion is basically the extent of it, and my reasoning for deciding not to try it in the first place.

However, I can offer some further vindication in that I think saying "they're made for each other" or "they're canon" is such a dipshit and factually incorrect take that it's pretty much not worth getting upset over. People can say and think whatever they want, that doesn't always make it true, particularly not when it comes to RPGs that are meant to be played as you want them. People who say this are fundamentally misunderstanding the concept of an RPG, and they're probably stupid, and their opinions aren't worth considering or taking seriously. Or, they're just trying to upset you and they feel smug about their own choices, in which case you should still ignore them.

Like, I hate Ascended Astarion, but I'm not gonna say Spawn Astarion is canon. If I do say it, I will clarify that it's canon for me, because it is, but canon in general? It would be literally, factually untrue. So why would I say that unless I'm wilfully obnoxious and smug about my choices? Or just dumb? Which I am, but not like that.

Iirc Larian encouraged people to play custom origin for their first playthrough, and people did, and most people tried going for Astarion. That means that, statistically, a shitton of people have Tav/Astarion as their main pairing. Why would they encourage this if it's apparently not canon? Why shoot themselves in the foot by offering an apparently inferior experience first?

Also, just because one writer wrote stuff for one character because they had the time to do so, does not make it somehow the definitive answer. It was clearly not intended to be the only romance where Durge gets a specific variation, I doubt Larian would do that, so it's basically an accident, or at least unintentional.

That being said, even if it was intentional, who's to say it's a good thing? Harkening back to my Dragon Age days, I remember people saying that Andrastian human was clearly the intended experience, and the game struggled to accommodate any other race/class. Does that make it canon? Or just bad game design/writing?

Obviously not saying Larian did a bad job, clearly they did a good job if people are going to bat for it this obnoxiously, but the logic is equally flawed.

I do have issues with Durge in general as a concept (mostly cuz I just don't understand the logic behind including it aside from ... previous game fanservice?) but I haven't even graduated from gamer school yet so I won't get into that.

Also, one thing abt Tav I love that Durge misses out on is just the sheer ballsiness and comedy of rocking up to Bhaal's secret temple and killing all his guys and just not even being involved in any of that shit at all. Durge gets all that angst and drama, sure, and Orin is soo important apparently, but she died in two rounds for me. TWO. Imagine being just some fucking guy who fucks up your shit so bad that you have to restart everything. That amuses me to no end.

So ... there's that, lmao.

[spaceorphan18]

Is it true that Chris Colfer really hates klaine?

Well, since I am not Chris Colfer, or someone who worked closely with him on set, or one of his good friends - I cannot really answer that question.

I can tell you my opinion as someone very distantly removed though. I think that Chris had a very complicated relationship with the fact that he was one half of a TV power couple.

I think between his natural inclination to be a very independent person, the fact that as an actor he sometimes wanted more drama to play with, and the fact that there were certain members of a certain fandom who so strongly believed he was dating his costar that his life, his costars life, and the both of their significant others' lives were not only disrupted but sometimes threatened - it sometimes felt like a difficult beast to deal with.

But I also think that removed from it - as a concept - it wasn't a thing he had a problem with, and he was well aware of how much the relationship and story meant to people.

I don't think that he hated Klaine in the way that people weaponize it as an excuse to shit on the ship. I don't think it was about the story lines (even if he did have his opinions) or that he hated Darren or anything. (He and Darren are on good terms, were friends on set, and are cordial now.)

I do think that he greatly disliked the fandom monster that it created. The one that demanded every action and every answer had to be related to Klaine. The one that demanded he sacrifice his individuality at the alter of the cult created by the loudest of the loud shippers. He disliked that his privacy was constantly being invaded. And he disliked that people he loved were being harassed by strangers. All of /that/ is what he hated.

Have you read Stranger Than Fanfiction, Nonny? Because I think how Chris feels about shipping and fandom, in general, is pretty close to how he feels about it. I think that was his book to be therapeutic about his experiences. And... he was pretty kind in it. One thing I really got from it is, while he hilariously has no idea what fandoming really is, he understands enough to separate the crazies from the non-crazies. I recommend you read it - it might clarify things for you.

I'll say this though...

Regardless of how Chris felt about it -- his opinion shouldn't reflect on how /you/ feel about it. Kurt's story and Klaine's story was really good television. And Chris's opinion is so biased from living through it -- that it will always color how he feels. And that should not have any bearing on how /you/ feel about it.

People do weaponize Chris's opinions as a way to prove that enjoying the story is wrong. These people are shitheads - and are trying to use anything to justify their own annoying opinions. Just ignore them.

Chris isn't always right. Look - I love the guy, but there were times when he had opinions or thoughts that I was like -- ooff, bb, no. He'd often refer to all Klaine fans as twelve-year-old girls. And maybe from his vantage point, they were. But eventually (hopefully) a publicist must have jumped in because he did stop saying that. But it took a while, and it was always cringy listening to him talk about the fans. He also would have preferred more drama between Burt and Kurt -- to which I say, no, that's dumb, and I'm glad you didn't write it... Just because he played Kurt doesn't mean that he's /right/.

So, Idk, Nonny - I can't give you a definitive answer. I don't think it's a simple yes or no answer. But I also think you should come to your own conclusions and judge how you want to feel about a thing without needing validation from me, or other loud internet people, or Chris himself.

But that's my two cents. *shrugs*

[mdhwrites]

Are there any characters in toh that you felt they should have never been created?

Or characters that you think would had better the plot, or move the plot forward if they had more focus?

Personally, I think Vee is just there and her existence didn't serve much, her screen time could've been used for smth else.

So the first part of this is… interesting to me. It's incredibly hard to ever say a character should never have been created unless A: them simply existence causes problems with the rest of the canon and the story itself or B: you know their inclusion was doomed from the start. This second one is really hard to be able to clarify though unless you have behind the scenes information and the like because unless they were made to be fridged or be offensive, etc. like that, there are few concepts that are bad from the get go.

With that said, The Collector easily should not have been in the show. There just wasn't time for him or the human realm and S3 has been very clearly struggling with those facts. Since he was also introduced in S2B, it's known that he was made after the shortening was very clear to the crew and they should have cut him and focused on Belos, especially since Belos is the big bad anyways.

The second question just gets responded to with: Raine. Raine and Darius. Honestly, just the coven head rebels in general should have probably gotten an entire episode actually dedicated to them that could have helped sell the threat, give them more personality as an organization rather than feeling like they exist to get around tropes or/and Raeda angst, etc. like that. Then again, quite frankly, with how little they've actually done with Raine outside of "ISN'T IT TRAGIC HOW EDA CAN'T BE WITH HER LONG LOST, TRUE LOVE!?", Raine as a character and their plotline probably could have been cut but it was something Dana wanted from the start of the show and S2A would have mostly not been affected by the shortening so they could have possibly had more of a role. Then again, they were also made to be Eda's long lost love so…

And finally Vee. Vee is… complicated. Honestly, it's hard to talk about Vee without talking about her episode, Yesterday's Lie. After all, maybe there were plans to do more properly with her (and she easily would have had the most interesting part of a season on Earth because of having to give up the identity that made her friends and have a place in the world back to Luz, if that was actually discussed of course) but as is… She's mostly just the one episode and looking cute. Worse yet, almost all the narrative goals are tied to Vee so their triumphs and successes are also tied to her.

Now let me get this out of the way: I like Vee. I think she's incredibly likable, cute, etc. like that. She (and the ClarVee ship) was probably the only reason I wrote anything immediately after Yesterday's Lie's ending left a bad taste in my mouth because it rubbed me the wrong way even on first watch. Her backstory is compelling, explains how she can be shy but also have a backbone when the chips are down and her limited interactions with her friends is incredibly charming, even before the MashVee ship existed.

And I'm not going to argue she shouldn't have existed. Character built for a single episode are fine. TOH actually has a paradox going on that while some characters desperately needed more exploration, like Amity, others very clearly should have been cut sooner rather than later. I mean, what could have been done had they just not spent two episodes of S2 on Gus when Gus isn't important to the narrative in any way and Hexide stopped being relevant to the show after S1? How much did we have to have Huntlow if it meant that Luz, who is one there for Hunter's biggest character moments, literally never speaks to him between Hunting Palisman and Hollow Mind?

But Vee was built for specific narrative purposes and does them well. Quite frankly… Too well. To the point where it creates problems. But that has to do with the narrative goals of Yesterday's Lie rather than Vee herself. The two just interlinked because when you make a character for a single episode, you know their narrative goals and how organically and well they function with those goals is part of evaluating the character.

And the narrative goals of Yesterday's Lie seems to be to have:

A: Given an answer to why no one was freaking out about a child going missing for MONTHS and it does this one quite well just by Vee being a shapeshifter.

B: Criticize Luz and whether or not she actually had any reason to leave which is the one Vee interacts with the most and is also the biggest problem to.

C: To build Camila's character, establish her unending well of understanding since she never judges Vee for even a second, nor Luz's story about the Isles, and then end on a mid-season cliffhanger I have SEVERE issues with but is outside the scope of this blog.

Vee's goals thus are to be able to fill Luz's shoes, which she does naturally, be able to scold Luz about her life and to be able to contrast hard enough against the norm as to make Camila's sympathy shine through. Her slug form and her ability to shapeshift honestly fit two of these three really well by themselves. It was a genuinely elegant and clever concept/implementation that was good for what they wanted.

But then there's Vee's actual character and actions that play into B. And B is… A lot.

Because this is the episode that caused me to turn on Luz in my heart.

It wasn't immediate but there's one line from Luz that really sums up the fact that you have to trust Luz in order to not entirely agree with Vee in this episode. That you have to go off of only Luz's words and not her actions for what her backstory was like. To be able to believe Gus and Willow were the first chances at having friends. That no one ever understood her. That school was always a nightmare for her.

And that line is "Oh no, highschoolers," because that is the second time Luz quite literally ever has that response to ANYONE. In the ENTIRE show. She didn't have any worries about meeting kids in Hexide. She never had worries about trying to hang out with Amity despite Amity clearly hating her. She didn't worry about Amity's siblings, the various villains she met, Eda, King, etc. In general, Luz shows NO signs of social anxiety or any sort of manifestation of trauma in regards to bullying, rejection, etc. like that.

Worse yet is who these people are. They are quickly characterized as atypical people with nerdy interests and chill personalities. They'd be in the anime club or the role playing club or the video game club at school. They are by all intents and purposes, people like Luz. Nerds. Outcasts. Etc. like that. People Luz could have easily befriended. I mean, Vee did and she knows nothing about human society.

Yes, the two also have drastically different personalities but also Masha likes giving tarot readings to her friends. I feel like Luz's passion would just mix and amplify Masha's own passion and the two would literally go hunt monsters together while Vee makes sure they don't do anything stupid. Luz could go on a rant about her philosophies on magic and the faux stoner dude would be enraptured by how wild and imaginative Luz could be.

And this all begs the question of WHY didn't Luz have friends?

Well… Her opening montage, the first real introduction to the character, kind of explains it but not kindle. After all, two of the three events we're shown, and VERY much so her presentations and projects, are about getting attention. About making sure she does something big enough that people consider her contribution the best, regardless of those around her. So she can't match a cheerleader physically? Call that nothing and show a weird trick you know. Wants to make sure people talk about her performance in the play? Opening night, do something that you didn't clear with your director and catches everyone off guard, even if it means going off script and possibly ruining the play.

Even worse is the clubs she IS joining there. After all, why isn't Luz a part of the anime club or something? Or a part of a book club back home? Well… Cheerleaders and actors are more popular. They get more attention. They're special. Nerds, outcasts, etc. I mean… Who wants to interact with those when it means people might look down on you?

And the final nail is that she does finally accept outcasts… So long as they have magic. And the closer she gets to Amity, the less she interacts with Willow or Gus, to the point where they spend close to zero time in Season 2. And why wouldn't Luz want to be with the popular witch instead of people who were only special by having magic in general?

Do I think this interpretation is intentional? No. Vee's friendships were merely to try and add a bit of gray into what was black and white. However, how Luz was introduced wasn't given enough thought to make such pointed questions work. Not when you're forcing the audience to ask these questions with Vee shouting "YOU HAD IT GOOD!"

So how good did Luz have it? Well, there were fellow outcasts in her own town, which appears to be pretty small, so she could have had friends and her mom is a literal saint. S3 would only reinforce this. And she still abandoned it all for three months so she could become a witch.

So… Sorry, but the statement of "If everyone you meet is an asshole, the asshole might be you," does fit sometimes. And it fits for Luz here.

And it's also the worst part of Vee because if Vee didn't exist… I might not have considered these problems. Not so quickly. But Vee being able to contrast Luz, to be successful in the human realm simply because she's willing to actually accept those around her and bend a little, not entirely, to what will make them like her, was one of her narrative goals. One of the reasons she is as she is.

And another time where TOH thinks it's being clever when it's really just shooting itself in the foot because it has never been smart enough to ask the questions it proposes. And it sucks that that's tied to a character who is so wonderfully likable otherwise.

[generalluxun]

You know what’s extremely ironic about Astruc's comments about Miraculous Ladybug being for kids?

Let me tell you a story:

Once upon a time; a man was working on a project for which he was very passionate about, a project that involved a skill that had been perfected for many years by him, his team and many other teams of artists. But he was met with many problems.

This project had cost him a lot of money and unless it was a succes with the people, the man would lose everything he had worked for, as he had feared it would happen eventually if he didn't try to make his idea a reality.

Nobody really expected him to succeed and thought he was just drawing his end ever nearer. A "folly" is what they called it.

Eventually he ran out of money and the only way to get the money needed to even complete his folly was by asking a loan from the bank. Easier said than done, because as nobody believed in him, they would not expect him to pay the loan back.

Undeterred; and despite the fact that if he failed to be a success he would lose his home, he decided to bring some of the paintings, drawings and concepts his team had created, to show the bank's board of directors what they were hoping to do.

One of the directors proclaimed that in the future no one would remember the name of anyone in the room except for the name of the man who indeed got his loan and then completed his project.

The man was Walt Disney, and what he showed was a half-finished Snow White.

That's right, Walt Disney had to charm a group of adults with his first movie before he could charm anyone else with it. And if he hadn't succeeded, then animated movies would have probably not become a thing while animation itself faded into obscurity.

And that's not the end of it either, it's established in the movie that Snow White will be saved in the end like anyone who had heard the fairy tale knew already. And despite that, you know what the people at the premiere of Snow White did back in 1937?

They cried their hearts out during the funeral.

Fully grown adults who had heard of Walt's Folly as it was called and were skeptical of watching such a long "cartoon" were moved to the same tears as the seven dwarfs.

Say what you will about the man himself, but you gotta give Walt Disney this: he knew that if adults weren't moved by his work then entertaining kids would be the least of his worries.

I've head this tale before, and I get your point.

I think the 'It's for Kids' runs deeper than this for ML though, specifically. It's used disingenuously to shop for praise *and* deflect critique.

It's Schrodinger's show. If it gets criticized for bad messaging through oversimplification then 'It's a kids show! what do you expect!'

If it feels it's doing well then 'Look at what they're doing in a kids show!'

We've been told by the creator that kids 'get it' in places where adults have concerns. Conversely we've been told 'Kids won't understand' in other places.

Now, you can make a silly shallow kids show and *that's fine* we have silly shallow adult shows. Kids shouldn't be left out.

You can also make a kids show that punches above it's age range, pushing kids to think and learn. *I personally love these shows* they were doing (modified)Shakespeare on Sesame Street when I was growing up. Disney's Gargoyles is RIFE with all sorts of literary references.

What you can't do is swerve between lanes as suits your desires at any given moment. As a creator you need to establish a framework by which your media can be approached. As the creator you have a very wide latitude in how to build that framework, but it does need to remain consistent.

I should clarify- This doesn't mean the more serious kids shows can't be silly and funny, nor that the shallow shows can't dip their toes into more complex topics, but *how these things are approached* needs to remain consistant.

Example: Dearest Family: We're throwing in an addiction reference, that's pretty intense. We're going to give it to our magical fairy stand-in so it is one step removed, and we're mixing in the serious and laughs along the way. It's not until the end where it falls down. the addiction is solved with.... a pep talk. ML loves pep talks, it's 80's cartoon style to the core. Pep talks work for a *lot* of problems. Just stopping to think matters.

Pep talks don't work for addiction. However, you can imagine they don't want to keep this as a running theme with relapses and struggles. It's a one-off lesson. So what you need to do is make it clear that the one-off solution is *also* magical in nature. Have Plagg cataclysm one of those Galette's making it nasty and gross, so Tikki eats it and YUCK! now she doesn't want Galette ever again. Boom, you've 'solved' it through magic so the one-episode-solution for a complex problem flows more cleanly.

I think the inability to learn/accept critique is the biggest problem in the writing room. There are good things in ML, and *every* show makes mistakes of some kind or another. Someone in the writing room just seems completely unwilling to engage in reflection, or if they do they simply will not admit it.

It's weird.

I'm not someone who 'hates the show' I want it to succeed and prosper, and I want it to have good messaging. S5 Miraculous was paralleling Chloé's descent. you are just watching bad choice after bad choice, hoping there will be a course correction.

At least we still have the movie, and maybe S6 will be a new direction. S5 did feel like a glut of 'We need to finish tis before the end of this season' developments.

[starfall-spirit]

Hate to break it to you, but Feysand has always been a retcon and SJM is a liar who says she’s always had them planned to sound cooler and to cover up the fact that she’s always said 1) she never plans her books and 2) she had to add Rhys in earlier and that she’d originally planned for him to be the villain.

Detailing the actual story of how ACOTAR came to be from her own former newsletter, she wrote two and half ACOTAR books in 2009 (then originally only a trilogy). In 2014, SJM scrapped and rewrote the entirety of that original second and half of a third book and completely started over with them, creating what is now ACOMAF and ACOWAR. She did not change anything in ACOTAR, though, but she did add things in during editing. She’s also said Nesta and Lucien were originally supposed to be mates and that she didn’t even plan for Nessian until she wrote the scene where the IC goes to ask Feyre’s family for help.

If Nesta and Lucien were originally endgame, that would infer that Feyre in the original second book actually spent a majority of her time in the Spring Court because how else would Nesta meet Lucien? He doesn’t live in the NC. He doesn’t live the AC. And if a majority of the plot is taking place in Spring and the story is from Feyre’s pov, it would also imply Feyre was still with Tamlin. 🤷🏼‍♀️ And a quick reminder that the entire series was originally a Beauty and the Beast/Tamlin retelling, not just the first book.

You can love Feysand, no one is telling you not to, but if you’re going to try to debunk what others are saying, then at least find out why they’re saying it in the first place so you can provide a proper counter argument. There’s overwhelming evidence within the first book that anything after it was never planned.

In fact, you could take Rhys out of the first book and the Calanmai scene would still work if Lucien had been the one to find her. The dresser would still work if Feyre and Elain’s drawers were swapped. Amarantha’s whore could be anybody, and the scene where Rhys forces Tamlin and Lucien to beg for Feyre could’ve happened with that anybody, not just Rhys. Maybe you should think about why the first book of a book series, where he’s supposedly been the plan all along, could still play out without him. 😬

Hi, anon.

I would first like to let you know, my inbox is not a place to start ship wars or attack people for their opinions of canon fandom matters. I hope in the future you respect the simple request at the top of my page to leave me polite asks.

But, to clarify a few points you've addressed here, look under the cut

"She never plans her books."

Anon, I'm not sure what precisely you mean when you say plan. There are many types of writers. When you're drafting an original story you may create an outline detailing the step by step plot, conflict, character development, call to action, etc.

Or perhaps you are an author like me, who instead prefers to free write. I won't hesitate to admit I can't stick to an outline beyond points A, B, and C. For example, my Anastasia AU

Chapter 1: The Rumor, The Legend, The Mystery (St. Pete)

Rumors

Plan Con

Meet Elain

Chapter 2: Things My Heart Used To Know (December)

Learning Heritage

Rhys’ 1st appearance

Chapter 3: The High Lord Lies Cold (Neva flows)

Rhys Bonus

Chapter 4: Let Me Say Goodbye (Stay I pray you)

1997 ~For the Magic~

Carriage out of Dusk 

Carriage stopped enroute

Escape

Chapter 5: In a Crowd of Thousands

Nightmare/Talk

Travel on foot to gate to Day

Meet Helion

Chapter 6: Could it Be? (Quartet)

2. "She had to add Rhys in earlier than planned to be a villain."

What exactly is the point of this statement? Maybe Feyre could have stayed inside the manor on Calanmai. Maybe Lucien could have stumbled upon her and the three fae who targeted her. If you think she's the only author to rewrite a story or add characters in an earlier or later position, I'm going to guess you don't have much of a concept of the natural writing process.

3. "Detailing the actual story of how ACOTAR came to be from her own former newsletter, she wrote two and half ACOTAR books in 2009 (then originally only a trilogy). In 2014, SJM scrapped and rewrote the entirety of that original second and half of a third book and completely started over with them, creating what is now ACOMAF and ACOWAR. She did not change anything in ACOTAR, though, but she did add things in during editing."

Again, the natural writing process. Rewriting a hundred times over if it's necessary to get the book published. Editing for the sake of a fluid storyline.

4. Your points on Nesta, Lucien, and Cassian have nothing to do with a Feysand of Feylin endgame. There could have been a dozen different ways SJM planned on Lucien and Nesta meeting outside of Spring that we will never know. The fact is that in the end, SJM decided "Lucien and Nesta would be at each other's throats. And not in a good way". Or something along those lines. In walked Nessian.

5. "You can love Feysand, no one is telling you not to, but if you’re going to try to debunk what others are saying, then at least find out why they’re saying it in the first place so you can provide a proper counter argument."

I am aware I have the freedom of expression in the fandom. I would also like to clarify I was entirely polite in "debunking" the counterargument to defend Tamlin. Did you feel particularly attacked when I told a new fandom member to try the second book and see if it was to their liking when they saw Rhysand's story?

Or was it my assessment of Tamlin's lack of anger management and every marker of an abuser he shows from the second he comes to take Feyre across the wall.

TL;DR

No matter how many rewrites ACOTAR went through, there was no character retcon on Tamlin or Rhys. Book one was an adaptation of Beauty and the Beast and Book two was an adaptation of Hades and Persephone, even if very few elements were taken from the actual tales.

For any others who wish to drop in and give me a polite hello, my inbox is always open and I'm chugging along so I have some lovely Feysand and crack ship snippets to provide you with.

[queenofcats17]

hiii, uh, I guess if you're still up for taking requests, could you maybe do something with the 'Ink Demon Henry' au? it's a concept that I always found interesting (I think Henry should get to be a little fucked up and evil, as a treat) but there's hardly anything for it. The story would probably take place sometime in the cycle but that's all I've got

thank you if you do this :)

I've never heard of that AU, so I apologize if I don't do it justice. I also couldn't find, like, a base AU so I ended up kind of creating one of my own.

This'll take place in BATDR

-----------------------------------------------------------

"You and I are the same..."

Audrey flinched as the Ink Demon's voice rumbled through her mind.

"We're not the same," she said, gripping her pipe tighter as she wove through the strange labyrinthine office space.

"Oh, but we are," the Ink Demon purred, and Audrey could practically feel his breath on the back of her neck, his hands on her shoulders. "We were both made by him. Created only to serve his own selfish desires. Me, a vessel he could enact his pain and anger on. You...created to make him feel he wasn't as much of a monster as he knew he was."

"I don't know what that means!" Audrey tried to ignore the panic rising in her chest. She didn't understand why the Ink Demon's words were making her so upset. She didn't know either of her parents. This couldn't apply to her. There was no way.

"Oh, but you do." She could hear the smug smile in the Ink Demon's voice. "You know exactly what I mean. You've simply chosen to forget. Because you know what he is."

"Shut up! You don't know anything about me!"

Was yelling at something that could kill her a bad idea? Yes, absolutely. Was she going to do it anyway? Also yes. But she needed him to stop talking. He had to stop talking. He was wrong. He had to be.

"Oh, Audrey...." The Ink Demon almost sounded paternal. "You cause yourself so much pain for him, but is it really worth it? What has he done for you?"

"Shut up!" Audrey covered her ears. She could already feel tears welling up in her eyes. Why was she crying?

Suddenly she heard her heart beating in her ears. And before she could hide, the Ink Demon was there before her. He towered over her, so tall his horns would have scraped the ceiling if it hadn't been elevated above the cubicles.

He stood there, seemingly regarding her, his arms folded behind his back. Audrey wanted to run. She needed to run. But she couldn't force herself to move.

"We could conquer this place together, you know," he said, his voice becoming softer. "This world should be ours, not ruled by men who see us only as playthings."

"I don't...I don't want to rule anything," Audrey managed to force out. "I want to go home. I don't want to be here! And I don't want to work with you!"

The Ink Demon tilted his head to the side. "I suppose you wouldn't, would you? Not when I look like this." He gestured to himself. "This form is a manifestation of what he made me into, but I suppose it can be...offputting. Let me make myself more presentable."

As the Ink Demon spoke, his form slowly began to shrink. Ink sloughed off of him, revealing a much more...human form. And as he shrank, the strange guttural tone in his voice faded away until he sounded...normal.

And when it was finished, a man stood before Audrey. He looked utterly ordinary, save for the black sclera in his eyes and the ink tears running down his cheeks.

Audrey couldn't believe what she was seeing. This couldn't be real. The Ink Demon couldn't just be...a man. He looked so normal. Like someone's dad.

"I guess I should reintroduce myself," he said, smiling warmly at Audrey. "My name is Henry Stein."

"Henry...Stein? The...co-founder of Joey Drew Studios?" That couldn't be right. It couldn't be.

"Well, not the real Henry," Henry clarified, his smile becoming more of a snarl. "But a facsimile of him, created for Joey to take all his anger out on."

Audrey stared at him, eyes wide and mouth hanging open.

"You see, this place was originally created as Joey's little torture story," Henry explained, beginning to walk around Audrey. "A story where he could take out all his frustrations on all the people who wronged him. A story where he could make his best friend suffer for leaving him. Again. And again. And again." For a brief moment, horns rose from his hair and his voice dipped back into the Ink Demon register. He quickly reverted to "normal" though, continuing to pace and speak.

"I was forced to go through the same story so many times I lost count," Henry continued, his genial smile returning. "Just because Joey was angry the real Henry left him. And I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that I got tired of it pretty quickly."

"Were you...always the Ink Demon?" Audrey asked. She had so many more questions she wanted to ask, but that was the only one she could ask at the moment.

"Oh, no." Henry shook his head. "The Ink Demon used to be the force Joey used to torment me. There was a way things went. The Ink Demon chased me, and I ran. We were both shackled to our roles, forced to act out Joey's story until he got tired of it. But when Wilson took over..." He paused in front of Audrey, meeting her gaze. "Both the Ink Demon and I had a vested interest in standing against him. And since our roles didn't apply anymore, we decided it would be better to work together."

"But why are you fighting Wilson?"

"Because he's a tyrant," Henry growled, the horns and Ink Demon voice returning. "He's no better than Joey, trying to force his will onto everything and everyone."

"He's not a tyrant!" Audrey insisted.

"How do you know that for sure?" Henry asked, once more looking normal. "How well do you even know him?"

"I..." Audrey faltered. "I just...He can't be bad!"

She didn't even know why she was defending him. Maybe because he was the only person she knew here? He was the only person she could think of who might be able to send her home. He...He had to be good. If he was good, she'd be able to go home. She needed to be able to go home.

"And why's that?" Henry gave a cruel little smile. "He brought you here, didn't he?"

Audrey's mouth abruptly snapped shut. Wilson...had brought her here, hadn't he? He'd been the one to drag her into the ink.

"I don't know why he brought you here," Henry said. "But I guarantee, it isn't for anything good."

"He...He can't be bad." Audrey's voice was small. "He's my only way home..."

Henry's expression softened and he walked forward to cup Audrey's face in his hands.

"What's waiting for you out there?" He asked gently. "What do you have to go back to? There's so much more for you waiting here. We can rule this place together. No one will be able to hurt us ever again!"

Audrey's tears, which had mostly dried by this point, started up again. She was so tired. She hadn't even been here all that long and she was already so tired. She just wanted to go home.

"I don't want to be here," she whimpered.

"I know it seems scary now, but it could be wonderful!" Henry looked so hopeful and earnest. "No one would be able to hurt us again! We could make things better for everyone too!"

"I just want to go home!" Audrey pushed Henry away from her. "I don't want to be here! And stop talking like you know me! You don't know anything about me!"

Henry stumbled back, his back hitting a support beam. He didn't look angry, as Audrey had expected he might. Instead, he looked sad and disappointed.

"I understand," he said, hanging his head. "You're not ready to confront the truth yet."

"There is no truth!" Audrey yelled. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

"Whenever you're ready, I'll be here." Henry stepped back, the ink reforming around him until he was the Ink Demon once more. "We don't have to be enemies."

"Of course we do! You're a monster!"

But the Ink Demon, no, Henry, was already gone, leaving Audrey alone in the office to collect the drawings for the Lost One.

"He doesn't know what he's talking about," Audrey muttered to herself, snatching up a piece of paper.

But deep in her heart...A seed of doubt had been planted. Henry had spoken with such certainty. He'd said that they had both been created by Joey. That they'd both been hurt by Joey. But that couldn't be right.

Could it?

[tepehkwi]

hey, i was wondering if you'd be willing to talk a bit about how you knew you were twospirit? i think i am but i have doubts about claiming the term for myself. did an elder claim you as 2S?

so my tribe has a twospirit concept that is so unacknowledged in literature about our history, even our own, that i only know of one source that mentions it, and in basically every other text it's just the umbrella term "berdashe" which is just the antiquated colonizer term for any native with a "weird" "gender" expression that you'll probably find in most textbooks that even bother to cover the topic. 😑

if you want some context, this is how colonizers described us, i-coo-coo-a, or twospirit meshkwahkihaki, and it should be noted that i-coo-coo-a is not listed anywhere in our own comprehensive language dictionaries to this day:

Later, in the 1830s, non-Native artist George Catlin traveled through western North America, where he witnessed and painted a “Dance to the Berdash.” In his travelogue, Catlin called the central figure “a man dressed in women’s clothes” although the Native term, i-coo-coo-a, loosely translates to “man-woman.” In Catlin’s opinion, the “berdash” performed “the most servile and degrading duties,” although he conceded that the i-coo-coo-a was considered sacred by the Sauk and Fox (Meskwaki) communities. “This is one of the most unaccountable and disgusting customs, that I have ever met in the Indian country,” Catlin fulminated, “where I should wish that it might be extinguished before it be more fully recorded.” Later, anthropologist Mary Owen estimated that the dance—and the traditional role fulfilled by the i-coo-coo-a—did indeed vanish around 1900. [source: from an nyhs blog/article on indigenous genders]

something you should know about my people is that we do not live on a reservation, we have our own sovereign nation within iowa. yes, it's a microscopic fraction of what our actual indigenous lands were, but we experience a level of privilege that rez natives don't. and this is just my own opinion but a lot of other meskwaki/meshkwahkihaki in tama are on the conservative side with both politics and religion, and i think that our comparative or relative lack of a struggle faced by the majority of other natives in this country has created an environment where we're unfortunately no more left-leaning and no less conservative than the rest of rural iowa. so, no, an elder didn't claim me as twospirit... excuse the slight hyperbole but i would be hard-pressed to find more than a couple of elders in my community that aren't literal republicans, let alone inclusive of our own culture's gender diversity.

like i'll be honest with you, i transitioned away from home and i don't really talk about my whole "gender journey" here, since i'm not as active on tumblr as much as i am on my private twitter, but it's been kind of depressing studying in other states and meeting ndns from other tribes who completely understand my identity only to come back home and find out that my uncle's voting for trump again. 😐 we're also in a caucus state and given how the last caucus went, it's just kinda disappointing to think about the fact that we’re essentially making decisions for other natives when a lot of us are literally so willfully out of touch with other tribes.

lol i know you didn't ask for my whole ass political commentary so, sorry for that... 😭

but idk i think it's important context, because twospirit is something that came from the pan-indigenous movement era (well sort of) and it's the closest thing i have as a widely-understood term to describe myself. but thanks for asking, i hope this clarifies some things or answers your question in some way. i don't think we necessarily need to consult with elders about it. many of us straightup can't. by all means, if you think it would be a good thing to seek out elder input about claiming twospirit, go ahead, but in my experience some of us just are. i relate to the insecurity completely... 😔

just know that elder input/approval isn't the end-all-be-all.

[wilted-violets]

I saw an @infamous-if ask that loosely implied that mc and avina could be friends, and that led to this and a better look into how lottie feels about everything that happened with seven. am i creating an unrealistic scenario? yes. is it a fun concept? also yes. am i overthinking this? definitely.

‘I’m not going to be that girl. Like, sure, you’re so pretty it makes me want to drown, and in turn that makes me so insecure that I want to hate you - but I don’t.’ Avina throws her a smirk, complete with a slight raise of their brow. ‘I’m not expecting you to thank me for that ludicrous display,’ Lottie clarifies swiftly, with a wave of her hand. 'I'm just really bad in awkward situations.' ‘So your…point?’ 'Every interview I have, they're twisting what I say. And they're going to make it sound like I think you're an annoying twat. So I’m clarifying before that happens, that I think you’re nice. And eventually I think I could be almost happy for you.’ ‘Happy for me?’ ‘And…you know...him.’  Avina frowns, head tilting to the side. ‘I think you have the wrong idea -’ ‘Please, don’t,’ she holds her hands up. ‘I don’t need this getting back to him and giving him another reason to despise me.’

There’s the ghost of a smirk on Lottie’s lip, but Avina can tell it’s not really a joke. ‘He doesn’t despise you, you know.’ Lottie shrugs as she unconsciously thumbs at the tattoo on her wrist. 'It doesn't really matter, now.' 'Well, for what it’s worth, I think you’re pretty cool. So when something comes out about me thinking you’re an annoying bitch - I don’t mean it, either.' They both grin at each other, a comfortable silence following until Lottie clears her throat. 'I'm...I'm glad he found you. All of you. He deserves it.' ‘I think so, too.’ ‘After everything that happened, I…’ Lottie pauses, pursing her lips. ‘I shouldn’t be saying all this to you, should I?’ She glances at Avina, who shrugs. ‘We’re, strangely, friends. I don’t see why not.’ ‘I was...a mess,’ she admits, chewing at her lip. ‘He paraded all these girls around afterwards like I never mattered. I mean, I get why he did it. I hurt him. But everything was falling apart and I was terrified. I thought voting to keep him would mean something, that he'd at least see that I tried. I was selfish, and I should've put him first. And then it was too late.' ‘Have you two talked about it?’ She snorts. ‘He won't even come near me.' ‘Did you not talk back then?’ ‘He…’ a groan, and Lottie bites at her fingernail. ‘He was drunk, and I thought…I thought when he was sober, we’d talk about it. Then I woke up and he was just gone. We argued, and I hated it, and I tried to push it to the side - maybe if I'd tried harder -' she cuts herself off, a lump forming in her throat. Avina doesn't say anything, and Lottie can practically see the wheels turning in their head, can see the look in their eyes that lets her know exactly what question is coming next. ‘Do you still love him?’ It’s quiet, and she gazes down to her tattoo, his initials marked forever on her wrist in his handwriting. It would be a terrible idea, to admit to Avina, of all people, that she was still so deeply entrenched in her love for him.  That she never got him out of her head, that she cried over him less than a week ago, that she'd kept the shirts he’d left. But she can’t help it. ‘Of course,’ her voice quietly cracks and betrays her. ‘I love him more than anything, more than anyone, and he can’t even look at me.’ ‘He doesn’t hate you, Lottie.’ A humourless laugh is the response. ‘If he’d done what I did…it would have crushed me. All I wanted was for him to be happy again, and he is. Even if he did completely obliterate my heart with all those beautiful girls.’ ‘You wanted him to be happy even then?' She starts nodding before Avina finishes speaking. ‘I’ve never wanted him to be sad. As much as it hurt, I've always wanted the best for him. And I've listened to Soft Violence since you started - but don’t tell him that,' she smirks. Avina smiles. ‘Never.’ ‘If he needs to think I hate him, I can be okay with that,' she gives a resolute nod, her voice getting quieter. 'I’m the villain in his story, which…I never thought I’d be. And I’m sure he thinks I’m out to ruin him, but I just wish he could remember that I’m more than that one moment. That we were more than that. Even if he still hates me.' ‘You sound like you’re writing lyrics,’ Avina smiles, and Lottie laughs softly. ‘The life of a singer, right?’ There’s a shout from inside the bus, and they look over to see Rowan sticking his head out from one of the windows. ‘Lottie! We need you, stop talking to the enemy,’ he says, but winks at Avina. Lottie rolls her eyes with a grin as Avina sticks their middle finger up to Rowan, who laughs so loudly it echoes around the empty car park. They both stand and dust off their jeans, before catching each others' eyes. ‘I…thanks. For this. I know you’re always gonna be Team Seven, but I’m grateful you were willing to listen to me ramble. Even though I’m sure you’ve hated me for the longest time,’ she grins. Avina bumps their shoulder against hers as they walk to the bus. ‘Give yourself more credit. I think I’m maybe 5% Team Lottie.'

[thefloofartist]

Maybe there's a good rewrite out there. If there is, I haven't seen it. Because I've had to walk through a bunch of people who say they're "fixing RWBY" and then throwing out basically everything that makes RWBY RWBY.

And "fixing rwby" is the biggest example of bad fanfiction I've seen.

Canonseeker? In my Ask Me Anything? OwO

Well, what makes "RWBY" RWBY?

I couldn't answer that because over the years, I've run to the conclusion that every version of RWBY is completely different to each individual who watches it. I mean, I'll try explaining why from my viewpoint, but it's because of that, that it won't be satisfying to everyone reading this post. I hope that makes sense.

Some people believe totally different things happened in the show (preferring headcanon or making up things that didn't happen), some people just like various aspects of the show (character design, weapons, fight choreography, visual aesthetic, etc.) while other people such as myself only view the show based on what literally appears on screen and comes out the speakers (focusing on the writing and how it contradicts what's shown on screen, or what's shown on screen contradicting the writing, plot holes, retcons, etc.).

I'd like to clarify that there's nothing wrong with thinking about the show differently, and all the power to you if you imagine scenarios that don't come up in the series proper. If that makes you happy and you find enjoyment in that, that's cool. That's your RWBY and nothing I say should detract from that happiness you've found.

But I have no idea what makes "RWBY" itself RWBY. It's certainly not the setting, which isn't unique. It's not the "each character has a unique superpower gimmick" (Semblances) which isn't unique either. It's not Dust (magic rocks), Maidens (magic), Salem (immortal bad guy), Ozpin (morally gray Isekai protagonist), Teams or Grimm (monster enemies) or anything else that comes up in the story.

Nothing story-wise in RWBY is unique to RWBY. It's because of RWBY's lack of uniqueness that I have trouble thinking about what makes "RWBY" RWBY.

(Please keep in mind that lack of uniqueness isn't a bad thing, what's more important is executing these ideas in a way that IS unique and builds story and character.)

You could take away most of these aspects of the story (maidens/magic, Salem/Ozpin, relics, etc.) and I'd still be unable to tell you the answer. RWBY itself has nothing that clearly, definitively, cements itself as "RWBY", except for one weapon design. That would be Crescent Rose. It's the most unique RWBY related thing. It's the most iconic and recognizable piece of RWBY, you can spot it on T-shirts or from cosplayers carrying it from a thousand feet away. Not even Weiss, Blake, or Yang's weapons come close to the level of fame that Crescent Rose's design has.

But what would happen if that was taken away? What does this story have going on for its characters and setting that makes it definitively "RWBY"?

I have no idea.

This is why you see so many various takes and concepts on RWBY. RWBY has such a prolific fanbase in spite of the main show lacking any core ideas or concepts that clearly embody "RWBY", so that's why you see many fans that churn out content, fanfiction, fanart all with their own interpretation of RWBY. Fanmade content dominates the original series. There's so much of it that without the people who are passionate enough to create these things RWBY would not have lasted as long as it has.

What's troubling is that I've seen Canonseeker here put down other people to push his own view of RWBY by trying to purchase his way into making Taiyang a more prominent character by flooding the fanbase with porn of Taiyang. He believes Taiyang is underutilized in RWBY and needs canon confirmation that Taiyang and Summer are a couple in spite of the writers having confirmed this for years now. This is hypocritical since he's doing the same thing he's complaining about fanmade projects doing, but far, FAR worse since he's doing so with the intent of trying to throw money at RT to change Canon RWBY to suit his own beliefs.

Which is why trying to claim or insist that doing something, anything, different from the main RWBY show makes it "not RWBY" is a ridiculous claim to make. When Canonseeker claims "Rewrites are throwing out basically everything that makes RWBY RWBY", I have to ask, "Well, define what "RWBY" is then." And what is the point of a rewrite if not to come up with different ideas? Does Seeker think a rewrite is to make a word-for-word copy of a show? Why even bother putting in the work to make a copy when RWBY proper already exists? It's redundant.

I would much rather spend my time animating or drawing something else than subject myself to "Canon RWBY". Instead, I'll be continuing environment drawings for FRWBY V6 onwards, and working on an original project that has nothing to do with RWBY which I've finally started storyboards for.

TL;DR: RWBY fans each have an individually unique viewpoint of RWBY, nothing makes "RWBY" RWBY except for Crescent Rose's design, and Canonseeker doesn't understand that fanmade content is allowed to be different from canon content.

[dailyaudiobible]

09/26/2023 DAB Transcript (Part 1)

Isaiah 48:12-50:11, Ephesians 4:17-32, Psalms 69:1-18, Proverbs 24:5-6

Today is the 26th day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it is wonderful to be together with you today. Yeah, every day is a wonderful opportunity to come around the Global Campfire and find a place and take a step forward together. So, let's put one foot in front of the other and take that next step forward, which leads us back into the book of Isaiah. And today we will read chapter 48 verse 12 through 50 verse 11.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the world today there is a premise and it’s a marketing tool and its used and slapped on all kinds of different goods and services with…with a promise. And the promise is, if you have this thing then you can experience like the best iteration of…of who you are, your…your best self. You’ll be your best self if you get this thing. And you begin to realize if you're paying attention, wow, I need a lot of things to have my best self because everything that's being marketed to me is promising me a better self, a better life, a better experience if I just have this thing. So, I guess I need everything. So, Paul’s kinda talking about this best version, like what we’re growing into, the best version of ourself in our reading from today. And he starts out by…by clarifying what it's not. And Paul describes that as “walking in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They've lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. That is not the way you learned Christ.” So, according to Paul, keeping our mind closed and our heart hardened is not the path forward. If we want to become the best version of ourselves Paul says there's an ingredient that's absolutely essential and irreplaceable and that is faith. Faith activates your renewal. Faith is the only path that leads us to God. And…and…and to actually live faith beyond just saying the right words, to actually live into your faith requires that we believe with our whole heart. And that can't be done with a closed mind and a hardened heart. So, that path cannot get us there. It's not who we…we were made to be. So, how do we move toward this best iteration, this best version. And I quote from Paul. “Put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and diluted by its lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds. Clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness's. So, if we’re breaking this down Paul’s saying there is a new nature and new self, created after the likeness of God, that becomes ours through faith. The best version of ourselves would be to become a new creation. And that this is even remotely a possibility should be overwhelming to us, that we could be made new again. But through faith Paul is saying that's what happens. You put on a new nature and it's not just a reset, a reset where you get to just start over and corrupt your new nature. It's the nature of God. It's truly righteous and holy. It makes us new creatures and sets us apart. I mean, I know we…it's so easy if you’ve been in the faith a long time to get into a theological concept, our doctrine and just glaze over and go yeah, great, I believe it. Great. If we'd stop and understand the implications though.

[silverturns-art]

FMP - contextual research / David Bowie Personas

I was looking into other creatives that have used characters as a form or artistry or expression and I came across David Bowie’s different personas. Through out his career David Bowie invented various characters related to his fashion sense and music at the time. He has said that through them he could interpret the feeling in his songs better when he was performing because they would make him feel more confident while on stage. He has also claimed that “he’s always collected personalities”, meaning that all the personas he created were an extension of himself, viewed through a more creative lens. 

Technically, even David Bowie himself is a persona since David Bowie’s real name was David Robert Jones. He was one of the pioneers of relating popular music with a strong visual image as we know it today. He collected pieces of art and culture throughout history and art, as well as through personal experiences and he had a background story (usually expressed through his music) to accompany each character through his career. 

One of his most iconic personas was Ziggy Sartdust (1973), an alienlike rockstar androgynous character with a very distinct appearance. 

In the same year he invented Aladdin Sane (extension of Ziggy Stardust), a persona that emerged during his 6th studio album, and is a word play of “ a lad insane”. David Bowie himself has described the character as “Ziggy Stardust going to America”. Also it is alleged that Aladdin Sane was a reference to his estranged brother who was struggling with mental illness issues. It is interesting to note here that David Bowie not only created his characters for himself but he was aiming for his audience to connect with them too. I want to do this with my project as well since my character is very personal but I want to make the project as relatable as possible to a broader audience that has dealt with similar issues as myself. I want to detach the character from myself at some extent so that I make them open to the audience’s interpretations. 

The next character that Bowie created was yet another extension of Ziggy Stardust but in a more dystopian setting. He was named Halloween Jack (1974) and he was dressed in unisex pirate-inspired clothing and an eyepatch. The album Diamond Dogs was inspired by George Orwell’s 1984 hence the dystopian setting. Again it is interesting to see how Ziggy Stardust was not only one character in the end but three that adapted to different concepts, life struggles and audiences. My character is ever changing too, and while they keep similar facial features when I draw them, their clothes, facial expressions, colour palette and gender change depending on how I am feeling, how I perceive myself and  what kind of music I am into during that period of time. What I want to do with my project is try to incorporate other elements that would affect my characters appearance so that they could be relatable to more people other than myself. I could probably use inspiration from others’ experiences or from other similar artworks.

Another persona of Bowie was the Thin White Duke (1975-1976). Thin White Duke was a far less flamboyant character relater to more funk and soul music. His appearance was toned down relating to the audience that Bowie wanted to attract at this time in America as well as his album Station to Station. The Thin White Duke also acted as a guise for Bowie to express some controversial political opinions, which he later on clarified that what he said was all part of the character as well as his drug addiction and mental state.

Personally, I wouldn’t take my character that far because I think when it comes to aspects like this one shouldn't use a character to voice their views, even if the character provides a net of safety. In matters like this people should be able to voice their opinions as themselves and not through a persona.

The final character of David Bowie was The Blind Prophet, which he appeared in his last album and especially in his music videos Lazarus and Blackstar. Allegedly Bowie knew about his health condition but had decided not to make it public. The Blind Prophet is a collective reflection of all his characters and in the music video of Lazarus one could even say that through the character Bowie “announced” his death in a way since his health had been declining. Many say that the whole album of Blackstar along with the invention of the Blind Prophet was an acknowledgment of his death and his own way to say goodbye.

Overall it is interesting how Bowie made use of his personas to deal with feelings and situations and how he placed them strategically within his art (intentionally or not) in order to put his emotions to the world and speak to a wider audience. I really relate with his use of characters and how he had attached them to entire concepts and stories. 

Similarly with my character I have various imaginary stories that I relate them to. The stories mainly stem from personal experiences and feelings but I think I could modify them in a way that they could become relatable and beneficial for other young people that have struggled with similar issues.

links:

1. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/david-bowie-different-personas-a-complete-guide/

2. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/david-bowie-hitler-rockstar-comments/

3. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/david-bowie-station-to-station-thin-white-duke/

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bowie

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58mnvs-_wLo&t=2s

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZtHxP4EMV0&t=1s

7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofeSZJJ_fxQ

8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiK7s_0tGsg

9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSSf3k4UU64&t=475s

[lets-talk-spirituality]

Sorry, I should have picked my words more wisely. To clarify: never about ownership. Never. That doesn’t serve anyone involved.

Definitely wasn’t trying to allude to expecting celibacy, either. Always align with the energy that makes you feel most liberated and within reach of your goals. Even if it’s not me.

Maybe it’s just a matter of re-evaluating what it means to be spiritually aware of something. I haven’t really had this happen to me like this, I really am sorry if I don’t always know how to navigate it.

No need to post. ✌🏻

Well jealousy is actually about ownership at its core, so any bout of jealousy is actually about ownership. They coincide. Trust me. I struggle with jealousy a lot, bi-product of being repeatedly cheated on in cruel and unusual ways. And ultimately it’s me feeling I own the rights to someone’s attention or love. Love and attention are given freely and aren’t owed or owned. Someone I love loving other people doesn’t take their love of me away. That’s very wounded thinking and some humans also aren’t to a place to really love. When we seek love from a leaking well, we may get lead poisoning.

You were talking about feeling jealousy about who he is connected to publicly. The only way to not feel that is to never see who he is connected to or for him to connect with no one. Or to work through jealousy.

Yes. I do think it’s a matter of redefining what spiritual awareness is. If something is meant for you it will be there and you won’t have to fight for it or protect it or anything like that. You won’t feel jealousy in the end because you feel confident in the power of the connection and the fact that no matter what your energy cannot be replicated or replaced. That’s why I don’t care if people wanna copy me ultimately because they will never be the original. It was a big breakthrough I had recently.

Being aware of something doesn’t make you entitled to anything. Humans as a whole feel entitled a lot because we created systems to make us feel safe, things like the concept of marriage, for example. Where we are headed is to a place where love is freely given to all and we choose to give more of our time and love to those of a similar frequency. Not archaic ideas of “commitment.” The more you love, the more you live. Why would you want to restrict that for yourself or others?

You’re not the only one to feel connected on a soul level to people and not know how to navigate it. Fame doesn’t change that. I did a post explaining why so many people feel connected to famous people and it’s part of our collective redefinition of love. Souls love people and our humans get in the way. Loving someone on a soul level doesn’t mean your humans know how to love each other or that you should or will be together. Feeling a soul connection to someone doesn’t mean they are the one, just that you are connected on a soul level. I’ve talked about this a lot in different posts like how souls work and one about energetic tethering.