#is like. being negative or whatever

[donnatroia]

oh my god just saw a truly horrible post. save me competent corner of the dc fandom

[dailygihun]

day 6 || this era lasted like 2 minutes but i love it anyway

[ajwalkerartblog]

them!!! they!!!!!

[butchvamp]

we know EA interfered a lot with veilguard, i definitely do attribute the "sanitization" of the setting directly to EA's meddling, i even think to some extent taash's quest and the corporate representation feel of it all was influenced heavily by EA and not just weekes. and i think a lot of the companions being so shallow and their quests feeling half-baked is also mostly due to time constraints and rewrites/cut content-- the writers genuinely did do the best they could with what they had, and i feel for them and their frustrations. but. there are also just a lot of really bad decisions made elsewhere, too. like i said the racism has always been present in these games and it's always been a problem, it's literally baked into the worldbuilding, though i can definitely agree that some of it was potentially made worse specifically in veilguard due to constant rewrites and the loss of context and cohesion, but like... it was always there to begin with... and it's not "unfair" for players to point this out.

both things can be true-- EA absolutely fucked these people over, and we shouldn't be speculating conspiracy theory-type shit about the writers hating fans or whatever when we know. we know EA interfered, we know there were creative differences, we know they ruthlessly laid off a lot of the people that poured their blood, sweat, and tears into this game! EA is both stupid and actively malicious, they get no sympathy from me. veilguard absolutely is a casualty of the current state of the gaming industry. and i also think there were a lot of poor writing decisions made independently of that as well, that are fair to criticize and question. a lot of these problems are the same problems we've seen in every single DA game, and this consistency makes it clear this is not just an issue with corporate overreach.

but i really feel for everyone involved with making this game, this shit was clearly a very long and tiring fight, i can't even imagine the kind of constant corporate shitstorm they had to deal with for ten fucking years, and personally there is no NDA in the world that would keep me from talking shit. so these guys are stronger than me lol

[uncanny-tranny]

I think it's so relatable to see trans women and transfem and generally people who no longer have a testosterone-dominant system describing what it was like to have a testosterone-dominant system. I find that often, when they talk about being angry, depressed, irate, or just irritable, I relate because that was me before I went on testosterone. I was so fucking angry and irate and genuinely unpleasant to exist around because I didn't have testosterone.

See, I think instead of estrogen or testosterone being the "bad, angry" hormone, it's more like... of course trans people who need hormones are going to be unpleasant before getting hormones - both your body and your brain require that you have a certain level of hormone balance. Of course somebody like me was fucking furious all the time, the brain does weird shit when its needs aren't fulfilled!

This isn't about criticizing any one group of trans people, rather, I encourage people to remember that ascribing inherent qualities to certain traits (e.g., saying "estrogen is such a horrible hormone!") isn't necessarily good. It's absolutely fine to talk about personal experiences with pre-transition, I do that all the time! The only issue is bioessentializing hormones, in essence, ascribing inherentness to traits we often share.

[yonpote]

god lowkey i hate it when ppl "critique" dnp's relationship dynamic like chill out theyve been together for going on 16 years i think they know how to communicate their needs at this point

[ganondoodle]

Hi! I absolutely love your art! I saw a post saying how demons are able to have kids by themselves. How does the whole process & the birthing process work exactly?

hello! thank you so much for this ask!!!

(i made some sketches and wrote down some notes on this but i will explain in more detail below that ... its pretty long again .. sorry qwq)

demons (in my OC story and world) are .. essentially "built" around the idea of what a natural guardian of an ecosystem could look like that is as indestructible as possible while still being very much a living being

their biology is somewhat simplified (if you want to call it that), meaning they dont have nearly as many organs as we have and it works rather 'simplistic' (like they recover their energy passively through the particles of it in the air- which is a reason why they need to breathe (other being to get the blood to the right places) and usually only eat if they had a loss of energy/blood, like a bad injury they needed to heal quickly or spending too much on magic use- and its literally just converted into magic/blood)

(truth be told i havent thought out or designed each and every organ, forgive me :V) but the main things are, four lungs, a demonic heart (the most important thing that keeps everything running), a second red blood heart (like humans have, but very small and a rather useless remnant of their evolution, sorta like the leg bones some whales still have), the reproductive organ (usually somewhat between the lungs, directly below the heart, but it depends on each demon) and a stomach which is also the dead end of their system (they are supposed to be able to digest everything that goes in there, if theres somethign they cant it has to be vomitted)

-having offspring is generally extremely rare, demons dont die of age and are (or are supposed to be) very hard to kill so its purely a deeply personal choice for them to have one- each demon can have them given the organ isnt damaged and they decide to kickstart the process (you cant really force a demon to carry a child)

-their genes work a little differently, a child from one parent isnt really a clone and inbreeding is technically nigh impossible with them in the sense that offspring wouldnt show any negative defects (culturally it would be a death sentence, as a romantic relationship that is, demons being single parents throughout generations isnt considered inbreeding) -if two or more demons are partners and want a child of them both they can exchange genetical information via heartblood (the highly concentrated blood in their hearts, which is the only thing that openly carries genes) deliberately through .. well cutting and transferring blood (alot about demons is really about their blood) which influences how much a child may resemble them for example but also mixes up the gene pool of both the parents as well as the offspring

-(important add on- this sort of blood exchange would need to happen right before kickstarting the process otherwise it would just mix with the general gene pool- a theory to explain, at least in part, why brutal fights are such a common thing in demon culture is to indirectly raise the chances of heartblood mixing in the act of fighting instead, since romantic relationships are so rare among them and most are single parents)

-once the process is started it can only be slowed down but not stopped (unless getting it out prematurely), and at reaching ca. 5% of development a demon is unable to change into humanoid/their smaller form since the fetus cant change form with them, trying it anyway is extremely dangerous

-offspring are considered to be 'full term' when they are born and can produce their own energy/digest food to gain more, though they can be born at about 50% of development without dying, then however need to cling to another demon to feed on their blood in order to reach that dev. stage

-its largely not visible when a demon is carrying a child, though it also depends on the demons 'built' and general condition (for example, Shargon is very slim and has little energy storage, depending on how long he lets it develop it might cause visible changes on top of typical behavioral ones, if Eadrya would do it they could without anything being noticable except the required refusal of changing forms really)

-a demon carrying an offspring will refuse to change form, likely refuses to engage in fights, generally retreat depending on their social status and might show shortness of breath (it puts pressure on the lungs and heart especially in the later stages and with slimmer or smaller demons), rest more and forage for things that are highly convertable to energy/blood if they cannot recover it passively evenly as it is used (a somewhat stable energy/blood/magic -sorry i still dont know what to call it so its not confusing- level is beneficial to the offspring, a lack of it can put both at risk)

-birth is generally initiated by the parent or when it has reached full term, and since its done so via the mouth it has to pass by the lungs and heart, compressing them both immensely for a short time, not being able to breathe and possibly causing the heart to stop temporarily depending on how far along the offspring is/big compared to its parent- Shargon cant carry fully to term since even an appropiately sized one has to pass through his slim body (Jyothi was born at around 90%, Tyura at roughly 56%) and it causes great stress on his system since hes chronically lacking energy in part from being hunted down alot (Tyuras early birth happened bc Shargon was critically injured by Eadrya and hunted by them during the earlier stages as well)

-it IS possible to allow it to grow to full term even when it cant pass by the lungs and heart though it involves bending or breaking bones (if he carried Jyothi the remaining percentage he would have had to do that) or in extreme cases to cut themselves open, given their healing capabilities that might sound not too bad but it is extremely painful, risks dangerous injury to both and permanent damage to the reproductive organ (also their healing is often more of an active thing rather than a passive one, especially with bigger and more dangerous wounds that need quick healing, meaning they have to actively "do" it, which is hard when you are literally dying)

-the offspring is within an translucent egg like bubble (though squishy) of ideally highly charged demonic blood, the outer layer can withstand quite a bit; ones born before reaching full term (in which case it would dissolve right away) either remain within it (if sufficiently charged with energy) or it dissolves/is cut open during or after birth and the child has to cling to another demon to feed on their blood this way

-uniquely, before reaching full term a young demon can convert any elemental type of blood to their own, losing that ability afterwards

-offspring can be of any elemental type from any parent though the likelyhood is slightly higher for ones with the same type, even moreso when it is a single parent (Shargon is thunder, his firstborn is wind, his second also thunder)

I hope this isnt too long and uuh answers that!! <3

[formulanni]

Lance Stroll as the Nine of Cups:

An environment of luxury and emotional stability, where all available comforts await you. Indulging in all the joys that life has to offer you is signaled by this card, though at times there is a sense of smugness that comes from taking your situation for granted.

This card also symbolizes having your wish fulfilled. Achieving what you desire. Obtaining your goal. Getting what you think you want.

The nine of cups is directly related to the Hermit, card 9 of the Major Arcana. It therefore has an element of solitude about it. It's a card of emotional happiness and fulfilment which is enjoyed alone.

Tag list: @st-leclerc @rubywingsracing @saviour-of-lord @three-days-time @the-wall-is-my-goal @albonoooo @ch3rubd0lls

[h4untedsp3ctor]

At this point I feel like Marvel is never going to give Moon Knight an appearance in the MCU ever again. No season 2, no movie, NOTHING SINCE THEY APPARENTLY FORGOT THEY MADE A WHOLE ASS SHOW AND ESTABLISHED A WHOLE ASS CHARACTER(S), LEFT IT ON A CLIFFHANGER AND IT'S BEEN 3 FUCKING YEARSSSSSSS

We can never win

[aspiring--cryptid]

I was going to add this to the post I just reblogged, but it was running away from me so now it's this.

I think there's a specific fandom cultural difference between DC and DP that makes the crossover fandom kind of fascinating.

Because the DP fandom?

Is out here making shit up wholecloth. Ask a dp fan who wes weston is and you'll get generally the same answer: he's a ginger conspiracy theorist who knows Danny is Phantom and is trying to convince people of that, but nobody believes him. The thing is?

HE DOESN'T EXIST

Wesley "Wes" Weston is a character the fandom made up in his entirely. He has a categorized a03 tag! With 726 works! And he's entirely fanon!

That's the sort of thing that the DP fandom is entirely used to. Which makes our (because I'm definitely more of a DP fan than I am a DC one) relationship with canon VERY different from most fandoms.

You take what you want from canon and ignore the rest.

The vast majority of DP fandom tropes like obsessions, the details of ghost cores, the vivisection thing, hell, even the fact that the ghosts ARE GHOSTS, either only have roots in canon or directly fly in the face of canon.

Canon is at best the walls of the sandbox and even then that's debateable. Whereas the DC fandom seems...a bit more attached to canon.

It feels like it's something I see not clicking with DC fans talking about the DPxDC thing, especially when people talk about it from a broader fandom perspective or. You know. Complain about seeing DP stuff.

[ysaefinn]

So overwhelmed like I want to cry but I just can't. Like ugh, let me cry so I won't feel this heavy feeling anymore. Mommy Suguru would help honestly.

-🎱

Omg 🎱 anon same 😭 i think this is a canon event for every member of the unreasonably sexy nonchalant mysterious sigma community <//3

Mommy Suguru will actually immediately fix this tbh, he recognizes when you get this way and wastes no time to scoop you up and press you against his chest. Faint touches and gentle whispers, coaxing you to let it all out and shed a few tears, promises he'll hold you reallyyy close and that you can cling to him in turn too. And when you do finally manage to shed some tears he's there to kiss the crown of your head and tell you how brave and tough you are, and how he understands that keeping ur walls up for so long turns them into second nature, but you can be vulnerable with him, all he wants is to take care of you and nurture you, to love you properly and treat you well <333

[bayetea]

the scene in son of neptune that's like

percy: I feel as close to you guys as I do with anyone from my old life. I hope you trust me

hazel: (kisses percy on his cheek)

hazel: of course we do, we're family now. right frank?

frank (most angry he's ever been in his life): sure

[sheryl-lee]

not breaking any kind of ground here but: people who reblog a gifset SOLELY to shit on the thing being giffed really should like. consider shutting the fuck up

[oceanwithouthermoon]

ive come to realise that i dont actually hate kubokai, i just hate the way people write them

[saltyyetbland]

ngl im fucking terrified of how the fandom will act when the asian ccs get added and they are confronted with asian customs such as honorifics, asian cultural norms, and the language itself (ie words that are common in one language that sounds like a slur in another) and i know most of the fandom will be open and welcoming but idk im probably being way too pessimistic as someone who is asian and has seen the bs that people can spew esp regarding things like stereotypes

[cuddlytogas]

an incomplete list of terrible but extremely popular Our Flag Means Death takes that I would like to never see again please

(and I do mean popular, as in, lots of people seem to think they're canon, to the point where I feel slightly insane and like I was watching a different show to everyone else)

1. Ed's mum was loving and nice and supportive, if hampered by her bad situation

this comes up more in fic than analysis, to be fair, but good god, what show were some of you watching? this isn't to vilify her, because yeah, she's clearly a product of colonialism, white christian supremacy, and domestic abuse, but like. that doesn't make how she raised Ed good. clearly she was trying to keep him safe, but "we don't deserve nice things", and especially "it's not up to us, it's up to god", speaks to me of someone who squashes down any ambition on her son's part, has fully bought into the lies of christian colonialism, and tries to pass them down to her son.

as does happen in colonised communities, particularly among older generations. I know us white people like to think that every indigenous person is a perfect left-wing anti-imperial activist, but that's simply not the case, and Ed's mum is so clearly an example of an older conservative christian indigenous parent who had to believe the lies told by their coloniser in order to survive, but is now passing on that trauma to their children. and I just...

if I read one more fic where Ed's mum is a perfect loving supportive angel who always believed in her kid and always supported and protected him, I'm gonna scream. yes, it's sweet, and it's fun to sometimes veer from canon and give your blorbo nice things, but it's still veering from canon. and yet, I see very few people acknowledge that, or actually talk about the nuances of Ed's mother, and how she definitely tried to protect him, but was far from sweet, doting, and unconditionally supportive.

2. Ed's loving look when Stede is picking food from his beard in 1x07

like most of these things, I enjoyed it as a joke or exaggeration at first, until I realised that people were actually being serious. but every time I watch that scene, I see Ed looking absently-mindedly over Stede's shoulder, because a) that's what you do when someone leans in to pick something off you, and b) surely the point of the scene is that they're so comfortable and easy together that they don't notice the intimacy of what they're doing, but Lucius, an outside observer, thinks it's obvious. right?? I can't be the only one seeing it???

[sigh]

anyway. finally, the really really big one:

3. Ed is a soft uwu babygirl princess femme bottom sub who loves her cat collar and is teaching Stede how to dom him in the "say you're the captain" scene

I mean, there's not much to say except to link to duke's absolutely phenomenal twitter thread about "how the 'babygirlfication' and infantilization of ofmd ed teach is an extension of racist perceptions of indigenous men being inherently violent and thus needing to be emasculated to be considered sympathetic"

but especially That One Fucking Scene, good lord. talk about taking shit out of context. everyone looked at a slowed-down gif of one shot in the trailer and cried "babygirl!! he's such a simp, he just wants to be dommed!!", when actually that scene is about how a) Stede is cringefail and terrible at being a typical harsh, commanding pirate, and b) Ed is lovingly embarrassed by this. he encourages Stede to assert himself (and give Ed something to do during his probation/help him make amends with the crew), but like. normally. he's acting perfectly normal in that scene, and mostly annoyed by the outfit and embarrassed by how badly Stede fails. but just because he's sitting down while Stede is standing, and he happens to take a breath in that one shot (because, you know, people breathe sometimes), everyone's doubled down on their "submissive babygirl" bullshit, and I can't get the fuck away from it.

which - listen, it's fun for me, too! it's fun to explore exaggerated aspects of a character, it's fun to read/write/draw that angle in smut, I get it! but I keep seeing people keep claim it's literally canon, and I cannot stress enough that that is Straight Up False. for the love of god, please just watch the show without your (potentially kinda racist) bias glasses on, and remember to treat the characters with respect instead of projecting onto their every interaction a shallow dom/sub binary just because you find it hot.

Our Flag is a show very specifically about masculinity, and what it means to be a man; how assumptions about that can harm and restrict men; and how men can grow beyond them. it's a nuanced and sympathetic examination of this. the whole point is that Ed is allowed to like nice fabrics and be tired of violent piracy and still be a man. the point is that two men fall in love - equal, honest, sincere love - and are still men, still exactly who they are.

(on that note, insisting that Ed is canonically trans or femme because of these things often ends up just leaning into gendered stereotypes: men are harsh and active and dominant, and women are soft and passive and submissive, and if Ed's not the former, he must be the latter, right? it also tends to hetero-ify the central relationship, casting Stede as "the boy" and Ed as "the girl", needing one to be masc and one femme. not always, and again, I understand and have enjoyed transformative works that take those elements and run with them, and explore what the story could be like if Ed were trans/nb/etc - but it's still a transformative interpretation. it's not canon.)

relatedly: those fucking wedding toppers! it seemed blatantly obvious to me that half the point of those scenes was that Ed is distraught and blaming himself for Stede leaving because he wasn't the ideal partner. it's his entire arc for the first half of season 2! Ed hates himself and believes there's something wrong about him that makes him unlovable. so he keeps and then discards the wedding toppers, painting himself onto one of them, because he's projecting himself onto an image of ideal/successful romantic love that he thinks Stede wants, and in which he doesn't fit. he's trying to mould himself into someone else to make himself lovable, not realising that Stede already loves him for himself.

so it's important to the whole narrative that Ed's yearning for/projection onto the wedding toppers is false, and born from his insecurity. he gets drunk, and play-acts a stereotypical image of romantic happiness into which he doesn't fit, but real love looks nothing like that, because real love isn't found in stifling hegemonic cultural structures, but honest, emotional connections between people allowed to be their whole, vulnerable selves. Stede is not like the groom, and Ed is not like the bride, because they shouldn't have to be. Ed should not (and does not) have to warp himself into a demure bride in order to be worthy of love: he's already lovable and loved exactly as he is! that's the point!! of the scene!!!!!!

like, it's important that the groom figure isn't actually like Stede, either. yes, it's blond and has a nice, peach-coloured suit, but a) Stede was very specifically unhappy in the posh, heterosexual, married state the figures represent, and b) Stede by this point looks nothing like that figurine. it's directly contrasted with the image of him in the rowboat, scruffy and plain and earnestly in love, rather than fancy, cold ceramic.

[EDIT 29/12/24: I ended up writing a whole Twitter essay about the wedding cake toppers that I then gussied up for Tumblr; so if you want a clearer, more substantial, and better supported argument about those, check that out!]

but no, I have to wade through swathes of art and fic and meta about how badly Ed wants to be a sweet little demure kitty princess, how he wants a wedding night and a ring to prove he's Stede's property, and acting as if this is somehow canon, because people on the internet have zero reading comprehension and are scared of brown men.

the whole point of Our Flag is that you don't need to compress yourself into prescribed social roles, and in fact, doing so will only make you miserable; and that racist, patriarchal, colonial institutions should be resisted and dismantled at every opportunity.

so tell me again why the ultimate message is that Ed and Stede should get married under an arch in front of an altar and their lined-up friends, with flowers and rice falling around them, all dressed in white, one in a suit and one in a dress, with rings and a kiss and a honeymoon after, before they move into a detached house with a yard and a fence and re-adopt the kids that Stede abandoned? and this isn't about promises, fidelity, or even monogamy - I'm specifically talking about everyone in this fandom who seems to think that the ultimate goal is the most stereotypical 20th century cisheteropatriarchal christian wedding, but with the name "matelotage" slapped on top, as if that takes away all of the underlying baggage.

just - I know we're all meant to hate men and masculinity and yadda yadda yadda, but actually, to be earnest for a second, men deserve respect too, because all people and all genders do. and two men are allowed to be in a relationship and still both be men - complex men, with their own, layered relationships to their gender - without having to fall into neatly-arranged dom/sub masc/femme roles, or seal the deal with a hegemonically-approved ceremony.

so please, stop reducing an indigenous lead character to a caricature of a femme uwu princess bottom just because he has long hair, wore a robe once, and you're too scared of brown men to imagine him with proper agency. and then please, for the love of god, stop claiming that that interpretation is canon.