#i'm very passionate about this

[wylanslcve]

When will we start acknowledging that Wylan suggesting to wake the unconscious guards up before killing them isn't actually ruthlessness but blunt logic because he's taken Jesper's "I'm not big on killing unconscious men" at face value and responds accordingly since he has a very literal thinking pattern? When will we start acknowledging that this is autism?

[bat-besties]

People often say Cass’ reason for identifying as nonbinary is “not understanding gender” and while it’s often a joke, I do think it’s the complete opposite to Cass’ knowledge. (I’m using she/her for canon, this applies however and whichever way you headcanon Cass’ gender identity)

I feel it’s often coming from a place of her not understanding language, but gender is so much more than language. A lot of sociologists and gender theorists would kill for the ability to perfectly understand body language and then travel across (at least) China, Vietnam, and the US observing people in urban and rural environments, in both peaceful and violent situations. 

 In many ways, her lack of preconceptions about gender or need for language to shape her observances would make her more able to see the reality of gender performance rather than ideals. The idea that women are weak or men are unemotional would be foreign to her. 

As a child she’s isolated, but she still trains with the League of Assassins briefly. Unfortunately, the first time she is heavily gendered is as a disguise and a weapon in the most traumatic event in her lift, which undeniably shapes her attitude to femininity as this post covers. 

But as she runs, her world suddenly expands to, well, the entire world. 

Her gender identity may have come to words and self-expression in America, but the first place she would be able to really observe people is in south China, likely passing through Guangdong and Guangxi over the course of a year or two. That’s a really formative period, and as I personally think Lady Shiva is from south China (specifically Yunnan), is also unintentionally Cass connecting with her heritage. 

She’s a homeless and very traumatised nine year old, so obviously her experience would have been overall awful. However, a teenage Cass still strongly believes in the sanctity of life and the capacity for goodness in people, and I have to think that while she’s seen a lot of darkness, she’s seen a lot of goodness too. Cass isn’t always curious about things she doesn’t understand (as with her reading), but she has to have been observant to keep travelling and keep escaping from Cain. 

She will have seen the wealthy gamblers of Macau, the street vendors of small-town Vietnam, the pickpockets of Gotham. She will have seen different gender norms across cultures, even if she doesn’t know how each language reflects those norms. She would have to adjust to each new place, and refine her body language reading more generally (like how Americans smile way too much), including gendered readings. 

Cass will have seen a million couples, straight and gay. Pairs of women afraid to hold hands but projecting their nervousness on the first date like a signal. Unhappy marriages hidden by false smiles for the neighbours. Elderly couples where the man still walks on the road side of the pavement.

Considering herself an orphan, she will have seen mothers nursing their babies, fathers pushing their daughters on swingsets, sisters yelling at each other one moment and laughing the next. 

Watching unobserved, she would see all kinds of women in the city. Groups of women going from club to club in high heels, schoolgirls copying each other’s homework on the train, business women in neat makeup and a purposeful walk.  

She will have met other homeless girls like herself. Despite being unable to speak with them she might recognise the guarded set to their eyes, the way they are always poised to run - but they might have a smile for her, and a willingness to share a sheltered spot. They might have cut her hair spiky and short, or taught her to play cat’s cradle.  

Unfortunately, she will have seen predatory behaviour, men who leer or talk with deceptively friendly tones to a little girl alone. (I know she’s meant to “discover” men being attracted to her in the comics as a teen but that’s optimistic). When those men approach other girls, she doesn’t hesitate to protect them. 

But she would have seen so much joy too - boys playing football and grown men joining in, old men sitting on plastic chairs and observing the street together, gangly teen boys play-fighting.

On the streets, clustered and sometimes hidden, she would have seen people whose clothing and body language doesn’t match their bodies. Before Cass knows the words transgender and drag and gender nonconforming, she knows that these people are at risk for being different - at risk like she might be, if she couldn’t convince herself she only needs her fighting skills to protect herself. She wouldn’t need words to take each person as they look to her, to have an amorphous and wordless idea of performativity. 

And then of course, she has Barbara, and Batgirl, and finally language. 

So, I think Cass’ gender identity is something she discovers with the background of this huge tapestry of humanity she’s observed over the years. And if she goes “fuck that it makes no sense”, that’s a deeply informed, nuanced Fuck That. 

[wishing-you-would]

i'd lie BELONGS to early penelope and colin

[the-simple-creature]

Note: Some other answer that isn't [PLOT ARMOR DETECTED]

I'm genuinely asking, characters in this show don't just... not die.

She was yeeted by the god virus, force choked by the god virus, and BLOWN THE FUCK UP.

Need I remind you what the god virus can do?

[arctic-hands]

Thirty minutes and 9 paragraphs into an excited list of alternatives to Spotify's monopoly re: music, videos, podcasts, audiobooks, for weenies like me who are nervous about pirating, and my app crashes.

Well now I'm on a laptop and I swear to god if this crashes too I'm calling it a conspiracy.

LEGAL ALTERNATIVES TO SPOTIFY:

Music: There are virtually limitless options here. Buy music directly from the musicians/band! If they don't sell mp3s directly from their site, they almost certainly have CDs for sale, so buy those and rip the mp3s to your computer (if your computer doesn't have a CD slot, you can buy an external one for fairly cheap). Go to a new/used music store, they still exist!, and buy albums there. Buy old albums from ebay! Go to goodwill or other thrift stores and browse there collection of cast-off music for cheap, you never know what you'll find. Hell, browse their cheap vinyl if you prefer their sound and get a vinyl-to-MP3 conversion device if you like. They even have conversion devices for cassette tapes, if you find a treasure that was only ever released on tape. Once upon a time I would have said Bandcamp for MP3 or even physical albums (I once upon a time got an AUTOGRAPHED TO MY NAME CD of Lauren Ruth Ward's Well Hell album), but they recently union busted and a lot of artists pulled their stuff from them. I don't really know anything about 7Digital's business practices, but they are another seller of MP3 music, as well as MP4, FLAC, and WAV.

Music DEVICES: If you just want to manage everything on one device, your phone, get the free VLC app! It's open source and is absolutely wonderful. I only ever used it for music, but it's capable of much more than I realized, and it's open source and ad-free! And the audio files are tiny, even when I was running out of room on my sixteen gig old phone, I still had a substantial music library on it before before I got a dedicated music player.

Which brings me to my next point: MP3 PLAYERS STILL EXIST! I own two! My first one is a twenty-dollar SanDisk Clip Jam (an established and sturdy brand), my current is a thirty-dollar Phinistec Z6 (that just came out of nowhere it seems). Each have their pros and cons, and there are so so so many options out there. Some are smart, some don't even have wifi (neither of mine do). Some have expandable card slots for even more music. Some are extremely basic, some have a plethora of features. Some are cheap but still decent in sound, some are high-end for that true audiophile experience. Some have touch screens, some have buttons, some have no screens at all. Some only use wired earphones, some only use bluetooth, some (like the Z6) can use both! There are so many brands out there even in Twenty Twenty-four. Even the random brands cropping up online are some really good shit, and I bought both of mine used bc I have concerns about the lithium industry. Oh, and some are regular battery powered. And you don't need iTunes or anything, I just use the basic Windows Media Player to rip my CDs or put mp3s music on my player. In fact I've been avoiding Apple players because I'm worried they'd brick older devices, especially ones with wifi. But there are so many options out there, it's impossible to name them all.

Audiobooks: YOU DON'T HAVE TO USE AUDIBLE! Libro.fm has a similar business model (an optional subscription fee with a free credit every month, or the option to buy book without a subscription for a little bit extra price), and you can direct the profits to the indie bookseller of your choice! I have mine set to go to Baltimore's anarcho-feminist bookstore, Red Emma's. How to listen to the audiobooks you buy? Libro has an app you can listen to directly from! AND they have the option to directly download from the site (meaning no program you have to install) the book in non-proprietary mp3/mp4 files so you can listen to it on any device that can use those files! THAT INCLUDES MP3 PLAYERS! Almost every music player on the market now not only plays audiobooks, but has sections on the device specifically for them! Some, like the Clip Jam, are even proprietary audible-compatible if you still use or already have books there (check audible's site, and you'll have to go thru a registration process). I was listening to audiobooks on both my CJ and the Z6 (the Z6 doesn't have a section for them, but still played them), but I recently bought an e-ink/e-paper (meaning no backlit LED screen causing eye strain or insomnia) ereader, a Pocketbook Touch HD 3, and that is mp3/mp4 capable for audiobooks, and is easier to maneuver books with since it's meant for books. ALSO: the library apps Hoopla and Libby also have audiobooks you can listen to via phone or computer/browser, depending on your library's catalog. Some ereaders can even have the apps for them, and if they have audiocapabilities you can use the ereader for that too.

Podcasts: There are so many apps for this. I have Podcast Addict (I don't remember off the top of my head if it's on apple, I use android, but there are still so many apps). Literally I only had to sacrifice one podcast when I stopped using spotify, PodcastAddict has everything else I've ever listened to or want to listen to in the future. You can download them for offline use on your phone, and, you guessed it, MOST MP3 PLAYERS HAVE PODCAST SECTIONS TOO. MINE DO! There are still ads at the beginning and end, but I usually skip over them without care.

Video: This one is a bit trickier as YouTube is also a monopoly, but what I do is just watch yt on my phone's Firefox browser with UBlock Origins adblocker installed. Sometimes yt gets into a hissy fit with adblocker, but UBlock usually gets ahead pretty quickly thus far. And if in the periods Origins is losing, I just find something else to do. I'm sure someone else has recommendations for videos, they're just not a big part of my life right now.

Anyway, don't let the horrid beast that is spotify monopoloize the audio industry OR your time! There are options, and even if you're not a luddite like me that hates having everything on my smartphone bc I'm worried about privacy or companies yoinking their stuff off my devices via wifi (like Amazon did once with their copies of, of all things, Nineteen Eighty-four about a decade ago) at the whim of corporations. You HAVE OPTIONS! YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CONTROL YOUR MEDIA AND REJECT MONOPOLIES!

[teatitty]

Enough with comparing Dandelion to larks and traditionally pretty songbirds what about comparing him to ravens because they have symbiotic friendships with wolves and can imitate people's voices and other sounds. CONSIDER THE FOLKLORIC AND MYTHOLOGICAL THEMES OF IT ALL

[unreadpoppy]

as someone who really genuinly loves the play Oedipus Rex (and Antigone), if I go to hell after I die, I'm beating up Freud for what he did

because everytime someone makes a joke about Oedipus "loving his mom" i die a little cause the point of the story is that he DID NOT KNOW IT WAS HIS MOM

HE DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS HIS MOM BECAUSE HE WAS GIVEN AWAY AT BIRTH AND WAS RAISED BY OTHER PEOPLE

HE NEVER WANTED TO KILL HIS DAD AND FUCK HIS MOM, SO MUCH SO THAT WHEN HE DISCOVERED THE PROFECY, HE EXILED HIMSELF AS TO NOT HURT HIS PARENTS

THE WHOLE POINT IS THAT ONE CANNOT ESCAPE DESTINY

AND JOKASTA (the queen/his mother-wife) LITERALLY OFFS HERSELF WHEN SHE DISCOVERS THE TRUTH

AND OEDIPUS HURTS HIS EYES AND BECOMES BLIND AND THEN HE GOES TO BUTTFUCK NOWHERE DUE TO HIS SHAME AND TO END THE PLAGUE IN TEBES

LIKE FREUD MY MAN WHAT VERSION DID YOU READ CAUSE YOU CLEARLY READ IT WITH YOUR ASSHOLE AND NOT YOUR EYES

[buckttommy]

GOD HELP ME, I was scared when I saw one of the posts on TikTok which assumed that it was Tommy who kidnapped Chim. Gosh please I'm so scared, what if the story is like that? Like.... What if Tommy's been dating Buck all this time just to get close to 118? And want to harm them?

Please I'm scared , help me believe again that Tommy is a good person again. Because after seeing the comments on that post they agreed to think like that. And I can't stop thinking about it

I can't help you believe anything and it's not my responsibility to. Sorry, I know this is a little tough love coming through but you are responsible for your own mind. I can't shape it for you. Do I think that's the story they're going to tell? No. Do I think people on TikTok are idiots? Overwhelmingly yes. But you have to do the rest yourself, babe.

[moonchild-writes]

"Moonie, why are you writing Vergil as a somewhat decent guy???"

because i read a comment from someone where they said that he likely began to realize - while in hell with dante - that his blind pursuit in power made him miss out so much time with his own son. he traveled to fortuna, met nero's unnamed mother, and abandoned her without a second thought because he assumed he wasn't going to get some worshipper of the order pregonant, and in turn lost his chance with his son.

i like the idea of vergil wanting to right his wrongs. especially through his experience as v with nero, learning that nero was stronger than he assumed (and even stronger than dante and vergil but no one's ready for that conversation) and had so much potential in him. i don't want vergil to be the default bad guy of my story because he's a perfect depiction of trauma, just like dante is. vergil should be allowed to grow and learn from his past mistakes, and having power and talent isn't an inherently bad thing either. i don't want vergil to be a hero, i just want him to be a good dad. and pay his fucking child support.

[yakkolicious]

If I get another ad for Kraft mac and cheese, I will EXPLODE. No, Kraft, I don't want to buy any of your pasta shells covered in yellow gooey stuff that is supposedly cheese, go commit bankruptcy. Also, other mac and cheese sellers, don't even THINK about advertising to me. Disgusting.

[lover-of-mine]

I hate the "Eugene didn't have to cut Rapunzel's hair that short" discourse. DUDE THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT. The whole thing with him cutting her hair is that for him she's more than her hair and he wants to give her the chance to be free. hE DiDn't hAvE To cUt iT ThAt sHoRt. I wanna see you do better with a shard of glass and a stab wound. What did you want him to do? Prop her up in a chair and give her long layers with some face framing????? bUt tHe hAiR WoUlD'Ve sToPpEd wOrKiNg nO MaTtEr tHe lEnGtH He cOuLd'vE JuSt cUt tHe eNdS. IT'S ABOUT WHAT THE HAIR REPRESENTS NOT THE ACTUAL POWERS COME ON!!!!!!!

[wyn-n-tonic]

bring back casting normal fellas in disaster movies. i don't wanna be saved by Gerard Butler, that man has two brain cells and i know he could save me with his brute strength. i don't want that. i want a 40 something year old man with a dad bod Doing His Best(TM) with his MacGyver ass boy scout skills against the mountain he said was gonna blow up but nobody listened to him when he said was gonna blow up.

BRING BACK NORMAL DUDES.

[charlesleclerctv]

me coming to defend myself and explain that i'm a marc girlie in the sense that marc grew up watching vale and i also grew up being a vale fan so he's actually just me fr

exactly and would you have done that after growing up with him? no bc you're not clinically insane

[shabbyshoebox]

I kinda want to go on a rant about polysemes because I am Extremely Passionate about them and the fact that they aren't part of our school's curriculum is messed up, actually. It's an extremely useful concept that most people are already aware of, even if they don't have the word for it

A polysemous word is a word with related yet Distinct definitions. Each different use of the word (or each definition) is a polyseme.

It's extremely useful for things like politics, communicating between fields, and how I used to use it, TAing in physics classes

For example, if I say "the car accelerated":

The common, everyday way to interpret that is "the car increased speed".

The physics way is "the car changed its speed or direction".

Kids would understandably get really frustrated when profs told them "that's not what acceleration is" and "there's no such thing as deceleration".

Because in physics that's true. However colloquially speaking, their original definition of acceleration is still a correct definition! It's just a different context, so a different polyseme is needed!

Telling students that they need to treat these familiar words as completely new vocabulary seemed to help the most. Acknowledging that their definition of the word is a correct definition, but not what we need to use in this context, helped with a lot of frustration

Basically: no one definition is the end all be all for a polysemous word. Each definition is fine! Just switch up the polyseme for the context!!!