#ive come to terms with your existence but be decent about it at least | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

angeloncewas · 3 years

Note

dont wanna make this ask long bc i am tired and dont have the energy to be a well spoken (?) person rn but it probably will be long anyways, so sorry!! but like. as somebody who has hyperfixated on both idubbbz and schlatt (along with a plethora of other problematic content creators, i really know how to fuckn pick em!!) they absolutely foster a dogshit community, at least outside of platforms like tumblr, where like. you cant really avoid fandom culture like you can on twitter or ig, if that makes sense. on here, if you wanna post about your favorite youtuber, whether you tag it or not, other fans will likely see and if you say some bad shit, you will likely get called on it, whereas on ig basically only your followers will see it even if you use a hashtag and on twitter its like if you arent in a subtwt/fandom then you basically dont interact with any subtwt at all unless its an accident, ya know?

so like. i think what im trying to say here is that while ive met a lot of fans of both these creators, especially schlatt, who are great people as far as i can tell, i am also specifically on the fandom side of things and as soon as i step out of that space i realize that a lot of people who watch them are not actually minorities like me and my mutuals who can catch on to satire or who watch their more behind the scenes stuff where you can see them act like a decent person or even call out people for the things they usually joke about which just. fucking sucks. it sucks that, as much as i do believe schlatt is actually a good person (and sort of idubbbz, although i dont really watch him much anymore for a plethora of reasons, mostly related to the fact that i cant stand his jokes anymore even if he is playing a character as he's said before), he also keeps doing terrible fucking things and im really glad his actual friends have been calling him on it recently, especially after that jackbox video (which is a whole other thing on its own bc it literally seemed like nobody wanted to be there basically the entire video?? like as somebody who watched all the jackbox videos before that one, it was really fucking off in that call and the jokes were next level fucking upsetting), but sometimes it's just kinda like. exhausting. bc his community is already fucking bad now, you cant undo accidentally fostering a community of fucking racist homophobes who dont get that you're playing a character, unless you kinda drop off and build a whole new community from that, which would be stupid to do at this point in his career. not really sure where i was going with this tbh, but i thought i would chime in on this discussion as a viewer of mainly schlatt, but also a past idubbbz viewer who is basically a seasoned fucking vet at dealing with shitty fanbases because of him and many other dumb youtube white boys

(also, note on that anisa thing: ian's main fanbase was definitely pissed just bc she does sex work and a lot of them are too fucking young or just too fucking dense i guess to clock the fact that he's putting on an act bc, like i said before, they either dont watch his behind the scenes content, or they do and they kinda just miss those moments between still trying to entertain where he gets genuine. that being said, a lot of people outside of his fanbase were also pissy bc anisa is a less than spectacular lady if you really do your research on her, kind of a bad person but it's not something a lot of people know about, especially since one of the few videos made on it was by fucking creepshow art)

sorry for the rant again, i feel like i do this every other week now and i apologize, you just seem to have the best discourse and i enjoy partaking <3 hope you have a good rest of your day/night/whatever time you're reading this!

—🦷

Thank you for the input (don't mind the rant !) and I hope you have a good rest of your day too <3 For post length, I'll answer under the cut :)

Yeah, I get what you mean (I think ahdsufsd). Fandom as a concept is pretty... I don't even know how to describe it, but it's the kind of thing that I feel like white male Redditors would think of as pussy shit, y'know? Like the Ricegum gang isn't a fucking "fandom" they're a... well, a fandom, but they're not gonna admit to that. So when you step outside of a community like Tumblr (the queerest place on the internet TM) you come into contact with the faces of the fandom you're dealing with and oftentimes they're a lot less like you than you might've thought from the similar interest. It's like going to a Weezer concert and realizing you're surrounded by incels (this is a JOKE).

Satire's a rough topic because some people don't think it should exist at all. Like any words that can be directly interpreted as bigoted or problematic should not be uttered. I disagree with that, I think it's one of the most interesting forms of both social commentary and comedy, but I do see the problem. There are people who watched Filthy Frank (to take an example from that other anon) and didn't know or care what the point of his actions were (I don't know what they were tbh - I never watched him, but it sounds like he's a pretty decent dude) and instead read his jokes as-is. There are thousands upon thousands of people who aren't gonna get satire and that's a problem because if they're already bigoted they're gonna see people like Schlatt and iDubbz and whoever else as truly validating.

(Largely unrelated but yo, is iDubbz still going? Are the views alright? Is the adsense popping? Has he just kept going with Content Cops? I haven't heard about him since the girlfriend thing dropped.)

"you cant undo accidentally fostering a community of fucking racist homophobes who dont get that you're playing a character, unless you kinda drop off and build a whole new community from that"

I think this is what's pertinent when it comes to discussing Schlatt. After the Jackbox video (for me at least, he might've been there before) he put himself at a crossroads. If he'd apologized, said "sorry, I took it too far, that was a mistake" - yeah, plenty of people wouldn't have forgiven him and plenty of bigoted fans of his would've said that the apology was just to placate the snowflakes on Twitter, but to the sort of in-between people it would've shown that he's able to recognize and reconcile his mistakes. He could've transitioned into content that's A) actually good (when I say that the video was bad I don't just mean in terms of racism, I mean it straight up was not entertaining) and B) less "edgy" for the sake of. I wouldn't expect him to go uwu squeaky clean, but he's already reeled in the bad people, so if he really wanted to foster a good, progressive audience, he has to do something significant to show that.

But he didn't.

Maybe for the sake of his career, maybe because he likes those bigoted fans, maybe because he just doesn't get it - I don't know. I don't think we'll ever know. I spoke earlier about doing what is right over what is easy and in the case of Schlatt it just feels like he really did take the easy way out. Whoever he is in his personal life doesn't change how he's perceived online and the kinds of people that are idolizing him for it.

(And yeah I saw the video on Anisa when I Googled her to check if they were still dating, but then I saw who it was made by and I was like oh well whatever avhfdfkj)

#this is kind of rambly but oh well #angel answers #🦷 anon #discourse #negative #cc critical #idk how to tag this stuff just telae jsfkbg #long post

5 notes · View notes

misterbitches · 3 years

Text

Hello! @flootweed replying to the post from before. the long format was killing me. why does tumblr look like this...

I haven’t watched episode 8 yet...or have I? If it’s the most recent one. No.

Is the hornbill a bird? It probably is but I have a terrible memory and I’m dumb so. I skipped the last few weeks because I’m scawwed. How are you liking it? I did see someone say that the hornbill makes sense (without knowing what it is...at all) bc heart transplant patients only live like 5-15 years after but someone in those comments pointed out that he was so young when he got his and that’s pretty rare so he has a higher likelihood of survival. Frankly, this is the only way I will proceed. Since when did shows ever care about the heart transplant health? Never and it needs to stay that way!

What did we think of ep 6? LMAO. I need opinions! And omg it makes me feel special when I can point things out to people because I so...rarely get to LOL. Editing is like one of my favorite things ever so I can be super particular about it but I try to do the thing you do when you’re supposed to see if it works within its context. I’d like to go in with scissors and glue but alas.

THe mic covering....the rustling....it’s like guys...please. Ironically the audio today wasn’t great. I don’t know why. IDK if you watch c-dramas but I am not even sure what’s worse between them because they dub their dramas. But actually no it’s best to have the dubbing because even tho it is painful they have to put a lot of effort into it. LOL.

Right? @ Aey! It’s just weird if they would show us more about what he’s done instead of saying he’s done sth bad and not even explaining that....like you could even do some shitty exposition. I think if he is to be a true villain then we really need to be privvy. All the warnings make it seem like he’s a fuckin’ serial killer so when we get the scene of him at home it’s like....actually this is really serious? Maybe his pain is like...for a reason. Althought you won’t even TELL US WHAT HE’S DONE WRONG BESIDES BE JUST FUCKING WEIRD AND ANNOYING! So from what we have it’s just a realllllllll fucked up sad person lol. god i forgot about the dinner! and i totally agree. he really needs them to succeed. i like your theory because it would make the scene where he like blocks the twitter user make more sense. he also says they dont really know each other etc so it’s realllllyyyyy probable that he just sees it as a way out. if not then we shall pretend u wrote it :)

god yea i wouldnt say it is art but i also guess we technically have to since it is technically. in the way that technically performance artists are artists but mostly i uh technically ignore them. Also one of my fav BLs is called the best twins. If you do not know what it is I will not elaborate further.t

i want to know more abt poli sci majors lmao but they sound DRAMATIC/ hopefully most ppl in ur cohort arent losers!

hahahha i understand. there was just a thing on twitter about DSA and then the day before about reading discourse. the same thiings. over. and over. and over. and over. we are our own worst enemies but also our own best friends? but i hate tankies and that wont change. but hasan’s a decent guy. he said sth abt black ppl during biden’s primaries in GA or whatever and i was like chill. but he’s insecure and has adhd which means ur more open to being wrong and changing otherwise u will suffocate and die.

and totally about hiding fuck ups. i’ve tried really hard bc of organizing IRL to like...be honest, question, etc but also like...approach it naturally? because if you’re trying to be perfect and so worried you’ll fuck up you don’t realize that puts more stress on you, makes you seem like a robot, and could potentially not make you realize the mistkaes you made. also if we’re privileged in certain spaces there is just no possible way we won’t get something wrong. im light and i know that honestly any way to speak up on colorism is going to be difficult and that’s a space where i have power so i just have to figure it out. we should be uncomfortable because we have to sit with unpleasant feelings and sort through our own whatever. that just makes the next time even better and people can trust u more. i think some people sweat it sooo much or maybe they think their personal life and what theyve been through is more the norm? on the other hand people can be sf reactionary in the worst way and idk what their issue is. there was also a user who said sth very inch arresting about tankies which i thoroughly enjoyed (how like violent lefitsts or tankies / ppl who are like ooh a gun whatever just want to be violent in another space so they have shit tendencies from jump and nothing of substance which i think i agree with tbh fo ra lottttt of ppl. like their anger is actually like “no im about to beat that ass” instead of what we actually want to get done)

sort of in the same vein re: taking it easy...we coudl all be more understanding too. to slow it down like you mentioned about not being privvy to fucking eveyrthing and saying anything on our mind. i saw this person talk about y2k which was a huge deal while happening bc it was the turn of the millenium (bruh were u even alive?) but this twitter user grew up in a super super SUPER religious household and was like why do ppl make jokes about Y2K it was insanely traumatizing? though my first instinct was confused ive tried hard to like look more before i judge especially thanks to a friend of mine. turns out that with the further reading the more we found out he was just really traumatized; it was very common in religious households to be afraid of 2000. so we could have come at him with no understanding and he could have thought that everyone had the same experience with that year that he did. his feelings sit precedent though but i think it was just very hard for him to fathom.

i didnt reply bc he didnt need that and what could i have said? he’ll see what the truth is with exposure and unfortunately this was something he really did go through.

and that’s what makes most people think others could be over the top. because it sounded ridiculous but then it was this huge traumatic thing that we could have never known about. so maybe when someone sounds like actually crazy they have an explanation? of course some ppl are just batshit or annoying but that’s anywhere not just leftists it’ just means more i guess when a ~~librul is annoyed~ but it can be easy to want to make fun of ppl too. lmao. basically what i am saying is the internet? especially twitter? for leftists? in this economy? bitch it’s the wild west out here.

i am 29! idk if i said it or not. i am OLD u probably werent even born in the year i was talking about wah. i know not old-old or old at all but compared to you i’m due for a colonoscopy.

omg i hope u can get vaxxed soon! are you wfh rn? i hope ur also not in a bad state as in state state not state as in ur being :| bleh what a fucking time. it sucks that you have to fucking do work. well unless u like school. which i hope u do. i just assume everyone hates it cos i did lmao

was it the lindsay ellis drama? that bitch is dumb. if there was other drama oh wait the drama i was referring to it all happened on the same day. idk book twitter that well but i saw something from someone who was abt that shit and wowie! the american people are not that.....intelligent to put it lightly.

i’ll get better. ppl tell me they miss me and im like aw. i have insanellllyyy bad insomnia and a lot of stuff happened this year HOWEVER I SLEPT FOR TWO DAYS FOR 8 HOURS AT A REASONABLE TIME. im a new woman. anyways you too! i hope ur not too burnt out with school. we just dont know when the burnout is or we just dont know we are burnt out until we are. the panaramiciccici hit and all the things i was ignoring kind of just fell on me and sooo much happened at once. and frankly it’s hard to take care of ourselves. lord.

Like if you aren’t interested in expanding on the issue in a way that hasn’t been done before all you gotta do it like… spread resources and donate if you can. I dont see the point in having to say something about every issue especially if you (not at you specifically just in general) aren’t immediately impacted by the issue. Like is the 14 yr old white marxist named sarah on twitter really gonna have meaningful insight on anti-asian violence ?

this is part of why i cannot telecommunicate. i dont want to do shit on the internet. i am able bodied so i know that this time has been of such ease for other people. but mentally i just can’t. i don’t have a comment on hand like that and i hvae no desire to engage with ppl that way. i am a super super super solitary person but thats bc it’s MY time so when it’s like all this effort with other people i dont ever want to be alone. it’s the same with the way i approach filmmaking. it isnt a sole thing so i hate it not together. that’s part of how u can get so sucked in and repeat doom scrolling. i was in this webinar last may after [redacted] and this black woman prof said “read with a community and talk” because otherwise she said we are torturing ourselves. you can’t carry that weight all on your own. unfortunately i hate zoom, discord, slack, signal, whatsapp, facetime. you name it this panera has made it evi.. L

you make a really excellent point. i think the young young gen zers are really really just interesting because it’s like this whole new world for them with leftist politics and they just can’t grasp the horrors of the world and the kind of freedom being a leftist can bring. and so many people don’t grow out of it. those people so happen to be the “least productive” in terms of how much time they spend IRL withe these issues. naturally, younger kids are gonna have a harder time. they are not as mobile as well so the internet becomes this place. but then it’s this echo chamber. and many times just things posted without sources. and social media NEEDS that to exist.

i think of the irony of leftist kids on tik tok and while i am happy it’s reaching them it’s just....different. very different. the growth of social media is so good but also so fucking sad, it’s too much! i think the point about not writing everything is major. even i have to do this which is part of the disappearing.y ou need to detach and make sure your head is on straight again. but when you think eveyrone has to be privvy to every thought and you can’t just sit back....which twitter and social media doesn’t encourage. you have to join in. that’s often why when i have something to say it is dense because i don’t feel like repeating it. ever. lmao ust ever. i cant pay attn. social media is a fucking minefield for my brain u can get so lost in it and absorb it but once u start talking you may not be able to stop.

i think a big part of that is it not being a leisurely thing but sort of just in our lives always. this sounds like a grandpa rant but ykwim. We dont have to see the same thing over and over again. And eventually it gets sincerely diluted or its diluted bc of capitalism or whatever. Or if theyre very young or maybe they don’t have like the greatest way of sharing the knowledge? then it can be butchered. I hope this is making sense...i’m talking beyoond the boring surface-level milquetoast shit. i see really ahistorical stuff on there from leftists (like this thing about NK + africa and it being a beneficial rship as opposed to a um not beneficial one. and it isn’t. beneficial but this young black girl was talking abt it and noname rtd and i was like it’s just too complex. there’s no good/bad here just bc it’s not america. dont get me started on this.)

but Lol that was kinda off topic but I think what I meant in my last reply about not turning off the voice in my head is about when I consume media, not necessarily when I’m online talking about. Even if I have criticism for something, I’m usually pretty chill when consuming fandom content bc I think being serious online all the time is kinda boring. Like sometimes I’m analyzing theme and shit but really most of the time im memeing.

exactly.........gotta laugh. thats why sometimes im like i cant think lmao. unfrotunately i have been ARGUING with ppl on the internet for rly no reason when i could have replied to ur very nice fun wholesome message. i love torture. i miss memes.

“ i think the people who get the least enjoyment out of that are those so obsessed with getting upset with anyone thinking outside of their lines as if it equates to them “ EXACTLYYYYY

kekekekeke im glad u got it. it’s like with conservatives throwing around snowflake. now im beginning to question who the real complainers are.

LMAO exactlyyyy. i posted a screenshot of this writer from twitter saying that exact thing. Like first of all, I’m...an adult? and if you are as well uh? i’m sorry for you but are we 12? But how is it affecting u this viscerally? And if it does why dont u...do...research? pihgofuaipoajghou but honestly everything u said. we’re trained to go into it with nothing. i was only around ur age when i started to get more serious about this stuff but you’re like lightyears ahead of where i was at 21. did i say this but i’m in iww and literally i can tell u in 2016 i did not think 2019 me would be in a union bc i told my friend in a train station that we don’t need unions. i was 23...but the thing is i didnt know what i was talking about. at all. and i knew i didnt know and she knew i didnt know and now i am the clown.

also yes at critical engagement. i had to learn so much through experience and this is tuff that i coudlnt be shielded from. there’s an empathy you kinda have to develop and this understanding that you move through the world as this person who is “nowhere and everywhere; nothing and everything” so i’ve always had to think about things differently just to survive. that’s also what can drag a lot of people towards it like theres so many black kpop fans bc i think a lot of the pain in SK can be mirrored (sort of) through our history. and theres currently a history now but it had to be forged. uh what was my point oh yea however i wouldnt have been able to move further if i didnt have my background to go off of bc i knew something was off when i started getting into all these things (ill give u a hint) but if i had no prior knowledge and didnt have to think about it then the critical approach is either stale or stupid.

i had to research but i dont understand how ppl are so bold with little to no research and understanding? thhey just inherently know with also like ZERO experience in what they need experience in. engaging critically means “how i see the world” with dashes of trying to be open adn understanding or whatever. actually that’s another thing like being afraid of criticizing things bc theyre foreign to you so u give it a pass (like we discussed) but it doesnt hAVE TO BEEEE JUST REAAAAAD and then take all the info ur teensy brain and apply it. be a normal human being and dont be fucking rude and racist. thats it! u can complain abt literally anything without being a dick.

as we start with LW and end with LW.....what do we think (i asked this already) omg please share wbl thoughts i THINK i know what ur talking about. well it could be two things; their rship when they came back and the physicality and then pei shou yi. i almost dont even want to use my brain to fucking look at that. i think wbl can get away with more bc of visual~*~*~* reasons (like literally, the look of the show. there’s more space to get lost in the frames. many thai dramas are a lot more literal? this isn’t the right word but it’s very heavily character focused particularly bc of $ i think) though good production also underscores flaws so i am also wrong. but like do u know what i mean? u have to kinda focus on it? or maybe it’s just cos like.....ur so used to it in thai bl idek. i’ve seen tw bl ofc.

look i swear i will justify this forever bc there are some things we miss right but if u feel like someone’s a bad actor....theyre bad. it’s about tone movement etc etc etc and since most thai bl productions have 0 interest in that....well. they take these newbies and put them in these situations. we dont understand thai but if we see them and we’re like “wow this is really bad” then they’re bad lmao. IDC i will never be like cos idk what theyre saying NO WHY HE LOOK LIKE A ROBOT???????? DOES HE EMOTE? why is he CRYING WITH NO TEARS? and it’s not even a total requisite to cry with tears(i mean for me it is) but it’s just like what is happening on ur face right now young man????????

painful.

the inflection stuff is very valid ooh good point tho but that’s only a part of the piece. plus we get used to the way they communicate. like the ppl from sotus were prtty bad. i dont like that show but thats an ex of ppl liing the actors and the person i thought was better other ppl dont think that? well apparently hes a shitty guy but. um. so when theres decent acting its so glaring.

although i must say even tho i dont care for 2gether anymore and would never like to be reminded about its existence (only bc i just cringe lol) i honestly....didnt think bright was a bad actor? but people keep saying he is and i am much more inclined to believe them than myself. though i am not often dickmatized that could have been it. until he opened his mouth and ruined it and then i stopped paying attn.

although honestly i’m so much more critical than i could be positive. i have ben stumped for the last day about how i wasnt mad at his acting in the show. is it me? is it him? who’s......the wrong one.....(me)

oh shit they have been denied? i haven’t been paying attn to whats been going on recently. i just got into it on MDL because of snowdrop. sometimes i literally cannot engage bc ill just be like alright well im black so this power button in my head is going off when ppl talk abt that shit. back in the day when kpop jawns were saying some real outta pocket anti black shit (now everyone is slick with it) it’d always be THEY DONT HAVE GOOGLE THEYVE NEVER SEEN A BLACK PERSON but really it’s like no...maybe they are just racist? that’s ok too.

also the past 2 weeks have been um atrocious bc how fucking easily people fell into the pit of white supremacy and started to turn their ire towards black people and making a competition between our groups just like they wanted. it’s not about the women who are dead anymore, who were sex workers, their womanhood, being asian, being poor anymore. it’s about how much black people get attention and why people only pay attn to us. i am not feeling very generous this week for ppl to excuse that hsit.

on a lighter note, ppl say that abt the whole husband and wife thing. i dont know how to explain how angry that shit makes me but maybe it’s because i do not want to think of my body in relation to a fucking penis at all hours of the day. if bls could kindly not do that it would be nice lmao

yes there are a lot of those. who are only there to gawk lmao. and just idk worship bc of the cult of personality thing bc of how weird and open they have to be as actors. some of the others are people who /think/ theyre really smart (i think im asmart but i also think i am very dumb and i have adhd to prove that MEDICALLY!!!) but are actually not? or their observations arent great? or idk if they are they arent interesting? but i think well..........we have more refined palettes :P

jk also theres just different personalities. you and i mesh more bc we have a lot of the same beliefs and are coming from the same place. that makes it easier to understand as well. i really try to remember that but some people are really weird so. again just...the perception of certain things even down to acting skills. but i also dont like.......believe this genre can really do anything at all. on one hand i want them to do it right bc it’s a piece of work so they should. be proud of it. cos most things arent advancing us bc representation and culturalism are a lie bla bla. it’s just that when the depictions are negative or not done well it adds to the problem as opposed to the things that are well done are fairly benign and can’t really pull us back (perf example is the black panther film. i woudl definitely not say it was transgressive as a literal work but visually it’s just stunning. and it’s sad that it’s stunning and surprising but still with basically an all black cast of mostly dark people abd like what it means in the zeitgeist yes. it’s also just a good movie. but it’s still imperialist prop and unfortunately and this is fucking pathetic to say it “opened eyes” in other countries where they hate black ppl and ignore their own racialized minorities HENNYWAYSSSS a better ex is moonlight except moonlight isnt mainstream and is indie tho...still thru a funnel of capital bc a24 but who cares bleed the fuckers dry is my motto. my point is moonlight is both a great work and doesnt bring any failures to the table and its existence helps in ways outside of art but they arent the defining things giving us material advancement sooooo i mean it’s complex (this is my conclusion to everything um guys it’s complex)

er i had one more point in conjunction to above. oh yea so i like dont need all these extra things to make it progressive. like people really want more women in the show and i am honestly like i really dont. i dont want them to actively do this. if they cant do it naturally then let someone else do it. i am not asking for more bc i dont want it from them. when something comes along i embrace it but i do not see why women should be represented when the genre RELIES on patriarchy. there is no complete satisfying existence for the women in these series. i dont want it. i dont ask people to show us~*~* or respect~* like fuck no the people who make it make it and hopefully more will make it in the future but i will not beg bc THEY DONT WANT TO DO IT SO WOULD FORCING IT MAKE IT BETTER? just fucking leave them out entirely. that’s the answer if theyre gonna make nasty female characters then those bitches can geaux. we have other plcaes to be. booked. and. BUSY!

2 notes · View notes

lovelybrittxo · 4 years

Text

where do I even start?

I’m literally only writing this for myself since typing a whole novel out on the computer is way easier than writing this in a physical journal which is what I normally do. I come to Tumblr though when I have way too much to say and don't know how to say it. I just need to get it off my chest before I blow up. so here it goes...

shall we start at the beginning? I grew up in a decently religious household. my mom, sister and I went to church almost every Sunday with all our aunts and uncles. don't get me wrong, I still believe in God and whatnot and I wouldn't change my upbringing in the church for anything. but it may have suppressed my views on the world. something my aunt said to me a few years ago has stuck to brain ever since and I can't seem to shake it. she told me that she actually believes that being gay is a sin and that you can love the sinner but not the sin. so like, she believes if you're gay, you can be gay but don't act upon it/the sin. she believes, for example, that being trans is a mental illness. like, I just can't wrap my head around that. and honestly, she spoke with so much conviction and “sense” that she actually had me fooled to think the same way for a hot second. and then to learn that my other “cool” aunt also believes this... kinda sad. both of those aunts have literally talked down upon family (and our family is very tight knit) and people they love... what would they do if they ever found out about me?

ive felt a lot of feelings ever since I was young. mostly towards males... but also towards females. I just thought the female part was me wanting to be like them or be their friend and just have them like me and accept me as a chill person to be around. but fast forward to a couple years ago. I was bombarded (in a good way) by social media flaunting (in a good way lol) different sexualities and things. its hard to describe but that “world” was just becoming more prominent to me I guess.

I started to try and put my religious upbringing in the background so I could focus on trying to figure out who I really was. ive been doing this for at least a couple years now. and although im still trying to really figure it out, right now half way through 2020, I think im getting closer to an answer. and guess what has helped me the most? tiktok lmao! no but for real, the internet is an amazing place for discovery in any form. after I started to get into real communities online (like kpop and penpaling) i’ve never felt more connected to the internet and it allowed me to try and find real personal help... if that makes any sense. i’ve just tried to put myself out there and not just google my feelings but piece together a map from asking real people over the Internet here and there to try and figure out who I am.

sometime last year (or maybe earlier) I found a YouTube video of a popular creator retelling her coming out story. I just randomly commented on the video about how I had been feeling, not to get a reply but just to comment. but then I actually got a real reply (not from the creator but still a nice person). they said something along the lines of me basically being bicurious. I had never in my life heard of such a word and I had thought that this person was just making it up. one google search later I found out it was a real thing. although at the time of first looking it up I was still very confused about the word... still kinda am? lol. however, just a couple weeks ago I had seen a post somewhere (an ad I think selling pride flags) saying there was an official bicurious flag. I was in shock. I thought it was a scam, but its not, it’s real (I just don't think it’s talked about very often cause it doesn't seem like a solid sexuality that you can claim your entire life). but anyway.

now what i’m gonna say next I don't want to come off in the wrong way (you nonexistent person reading this lol), but I feel like dating a trans person brought me into that “world” a bit more. like, i had literally never met anyone who was trans before him or anyone who was gay or used a they/them pronoun... never. but in his world, all of that was common and normal. and this is where I don't want to come off wrongly... I don't wanna make it seem like because I dated a trans person i’m qualified to be included in the LGBT community now or to talk about LGBT stuff or whatever. I just think because I dated him, it opened up my shallow world a bit. especially because he’s open about it (on a side note I always loved looking at his huge trans flag above his bed. that was the first flag I had really ever memorized because of him. besides the rainbow one obviously lol). like, his best friend uses they/them pronouns, and although i’ve always been aware of that, i’ve only ever seen things about it through YouTube videos and whatnot. I had never had to actually use those pronouns for anyone I knew in real life until I met his best friend. like, everything I knew about that “world” had only been through online researching/consuming. i’d never experienced it in real life before.

I remember one night we talked about it a little. I knew he was bisexual and so I asked him if he’d ever dated a guy. he asked me if I would ever date a girl and i just said that I had always thought about it and that my tinder profile was set to find both genders. then we talked about pride since it was at the beginning of quarantine and we didn't know if parades were still gonna happen or not yet. he said I could always go as an ally because I told him I felt ashamed and like I shouldn't be allowed to attend a pride parade. (of course he reassured me I can go and he wasn't shocked about me liking both genders at all...he just said ‘nice’ lol)

I still have a little inkling in the back of my mind that I still shouldn't be able to attend though. honestly because I don't know what I would be attending as. I feel like an imposter. I don't want people thinking that im doing all this for attention or just because I dated one person in the LGBT community. i’ve been struggling with this for so long... but it just so happens that now at 27 years old im coming to terms with who I am. I just feel like because I didn't figure it out earlier that I’m not “worthy” of being included. I feel like such an outsider because no one’s “invited” me in yet lol because im still trying to figure it out.

and on the same note, I don't feel like i’m worthy because I still really don't have a solid answer. at the moment I just use bicurious because ive never dated a girl before. the trans guy ive been talking about has been the only person i’ve ever been romantically involved with. im serious. I made it 26 years without being with anyone in any type of way. I feel like I don't have the right to call myself bisexual. however, I feel a tiny bit more confident in using that label maybe after I do end up dating a girl in the future and not feel guilty about using it because that same guy calls himself bisexual but told me right out one day that he’s way more attracted to girls than guys and im in the same situation but opposite. the only difference at this point in time is that he’s dated both and I haven't. but thennnn on the other hand, do I even need to label myself at all right now??

even if I did wanna come out, I don't wanna do it until I really have a solid answer about my identity. i just feel like such a fraud or something because im trying to figure it out so late. and like, im going so over the top with my support this year because I feel like I should fit in and maybe im trying too hard? again, I just don't want people thinking its because I dated one trans guy and all of a sudden im huge into the LGBT community. it’s not like that. all of this is just helping me bring out my true self. ugh this is the part where it gets confusing to put into words. i’m aware and I have pure intentions. im just trying to figure out myself after a long time of trying to figure out myself lol

some days the research is overwhelming. there's so many facts and opinions and different people’s stories and labels. as crazy as it sounds I just want someone who’s been gay their whole life to come up and tell me “yup, your bisexual no doubt” lol or something like that. I guess I just want to be validated in my exploration. and i’ve seen random tiktok comments saying stuff like that, that validates me, but the difference is that their comments aren’t directed specifically to me. they don't know me personally. it’s hard to have a random social media comment resonate with me. honestly, and this may sound selfish and not right, but when I was talking to the guy I was seeing, I almost wish he just told me straight out what I was that day. but instead he said I could go to Pride as an ally. and that was probably just him being respectful and not forcing me to be anything, but it almost had the opposite effect on me. by saying I was an ally it felt like he was giving me that permanent label even after telling him I like guys and girls.... ya know?

something recently happened to me that really stuck with me and I was so happy. I have a penpal who is very southern Texas raised religious. she knows the Bible better than I do. I had posted a Pride doodle I did on my Instagram at the beginning of this month and she was the only one who personally responded with an encouraging and supportive dm. if she can support whole heartedly the LGBT community and still love God, then why can't I?? and that's when I trulyyyy knew that I was right and my aunt’s were wrong and I wasn't going insane lol

I wanted to buy a bicurious or pride flag recently. but then was torn when I saw the ally flag (which I also didn't know existed until recently) and the bisexual flag. I know they're just flags but it feels so solid?? like you buy one when you know what you are.... and I don't yet. so I ended up not buying one at all :/

again, there was no purpose to this post because I know no one is going to read it but I just had to type it out into the world so I didn't have to bottle it up anymore.

#lgbt #pride #pride 2020 #lgbt community #bisexual #bi curious #trans #transgender #questioning #sexuality #coming out #me #personal

12 notes · View notes

spidersanctuary · 5 years

Note

Follow up rat questions! Is it okay to house male rats together? And do you have suggestions for affordable/inexpensive housing for about three rats? Im seriously considering adopting three rats from my local humane society but wanna get their housing secure first since i dont make much money (full time student). I think ive seen people make temporary housing with plastic tub/containers and that would be ideal but if a rat mansion is reccomended i dont mind paying up

I will happily answer this but these are definitely also things you should be researching on your own, a lot of research. Here are some things to get you started. If anyone wants to add to this post, you’re welcome.

Emiology - Things you should know before owning rats (give the entire channel a look, for instance I just watched a video by them commenting on online rats for rat adoption and red flags to watch out for

Rat Care Guide

Rat and Mouse Gazette FAQ (and other articles there)

Yes, housing male rats together is okay, per se. Or rather, housing same sex groups in general is okay, and the caveats have more to do with age and the pre-existing relationship than the sex of the animal. In the pages linked above, the articles on rat introduction have a lot of info on this. In a nutshell: If you have juvenile rats who grow up together, they will generally get along just fine later in life. Introducing juveniles to adults is a bit more iffy (though quite doable), and introducing adults to adults is very iffy, and it does not really get less iffy if you have males or females.

You know, I actually made a DIY cage, but looking back on years of using it, I have to say it’s more trouble than it was worth. DIY may be in theory cheaper, but a good store-bought rodent cage should come with all the following benefits: 1) multiple doors in sufficient sizes, both to get the rats in and out and also to reach in and clean or customise, 2) being easy to accessorise, in terms of attaching new platforms/hanging mats/tunnels/etc. 3) being safe, in terms of bar spacing and escape-proof-ness, 4) being easy to disassemble in case you have to move or do a deep cleaning or something.

Maybe if you’re lucky enough to live in an area with these storage cube wire panels in the right mesh size (no larger than 1.5 cm, I’d say (EDIT: Something like this? )) you could give it a try. These plastic bin DIY cages you mention: know some people make these complex cages out of them, interconnected bins, but there are several problems with this. Unmodified bins don’t work because they have shit ventilation (which is important for rats) and are frankly too small. Plus, where do you attach platforms and accessories to? Etc. What some people do is basically turn the plastic tub walls into these cut-out windows covered with hardware cloth/chicken wire, essentially using the plastic bin only for the structural stability, and I suppose that could work, I have not tried this. But I have worked with hardware cloth and it’s an absolute pain. Oh, also: rats will gleefully chew through plastic.I just pictured a determined rat trying to chew on the edge of a plastic ‘window’ and then hurting itself or getting stuck between the plastic and the chicken wire while trying to squeeze out, and it’s not a good image. You do not want this anxiety in your life, and honestly, with ALL the modifications you would have to make to make the DIY cage rat-worthy and safe, you honestly might as well just save up for a decent store-bought one.

As tempting as it is to try to find a cost-effective solution for this, I do recommend to just buy a nice cage made for rats/chinchillas/degus instead. I honestly wish I had done that instead.

This CritterNation is a good example of a cage for like…a couple of rats, provided you use the space well i.e. fill it with interesting stuff for them to explore and hang around in. It looks easy to clean, it’s decently big, it has wheels you can use to move it around, it’s both large in terms of floor area and tall enough so that rats can jump and run around but also climb up, it has decently-sized platforms (and you can always add extra ones). A new one might cost over a hundred bucks, but it’s also pretty common to find people in online ads giving away cages for cheap, just be sure to clean them well. I would call this a rattie starter home. A proper rat ‘mansion’ would be something like twice its size.

The good news is that unlike the cage itself, accessories for the cage can actually get real cheap. (At least notwithstanding the urge to hopelessly spoil your rats constantly..) A lot of things can be repurposed into platforms (for instance I have a ‘fridge shelf’ in my cage, of course you have to cover up the wire, rats need their platforms to be solid and smooth or they can hurt their feet). Dollar store plastic baskets are super cheap and great, just put them everywhere. Fancy pet store hammocks are expensive but you can make basically the same thing out of rags or clean washcloths, I tend to just fold them together and pinch the ends with cable binders and attach that to the cage. Reused cardboard boxes (firm ones) will go a really long way. Accessorising is not a one-time thing, because switching up the cage interior is a good way to keep the ratties engaged (yet another reason why it’s good to have a cage that’s easy to customise, as opposed to me, who made a DIY cage with areas that are extremely uncomfortable to reach if I want to attach a hammock there or something).

I do have to warn you that it’s a good idea to have quite a substantial rat fund in case of an emergency. Namely: Vet bills. Though rats don’t really require regular checkups or the like that you’d get for dogs (for vaccination, for example), the vet costs can stack up really high if something happens. That’s something you need to keep in mind if money is an issue, so it doesn’t catch you off-guard.

#rats #rat care #pet rats #fancy rats

10 notes · View notes

artemis-entreri · 5 years

Photo

[[ This post contains Part 1 of my review/analysis of the Forgotten Realms/Drizzt novel, Boundless, by R. A. Salvatore. As such, the entirety of this post’s content is OOC. ]]

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Generations: Book 2 | Legend of Drizzt #35 (#32 if not counting The Sellswords)

Publisher: Harper Collins (September 10, 2019)

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Additional Information: Artwork for the cover of Boundless and used above is originally done by Aleks Melnik. This post CONTAINS SPOILERS. Furthermore, this discussion concerns topics that I am very passionate about, and as such, at times I do use strong language. Read and expand the cut at your own discretion.

Contents:

Introduction

I. Positives (you are here) I.1 Pure Positives I.2 Muddled Positives

II. Mediocre Writing Style II.1 Bad Descriptions II.2 Salvatorisms II.3 Laborious "Action"

III. Poor Characterization III.1 "Maestro" III.2 Lieutenant III.3 Barbarian III.4 "Hero" III.5 Mother

IV. World Breaks IV.1 Blinders Against the Greater World IV.2 Befuddlement of Earth and Toril IV.3 Self-Inconsistency IV.4 Dungeon Amateur IV.5 Utter Nonsense

V. Ego Stroking V.1 The Ineffable Companions of the Hall V.2 Me, Myself, and I

VI. Problematic Themes VI.1 No Homo VI.2 Disrespect of Women VI.3 Social-normalization VI.4 Eugenics

VII. What's Next VII.1 Drizzt Ascends to Godhood VII.2 Profane Redemption VII.3 Passing the Torch VII.4 Don't Notice Me Senpai

Positives

I've found that the untrammeled positive elements of Boundless exclusively have to do with solid turns of phrase peppered throughout the book. There are also semi-positives in terms of characterizations and literary devices that Salvatore uses, but these are at best mixed.

Pure Positives

Salvatore pulls off some surprisingly good descriptions in Boundless through the usage of a more varied vocabulary than his standard repertoire, evocative imagery, compelling metaphors, and other effective strategies. An example of a good passage is, "The demon responded with a word of its own, a croaking, grating combination of hard syllables that sounded to Regis like a porcupine being rubbed across the flesh of a giant frog." in normal Salvatore tradition, the description would've been left without the metaphor. Heck, I'm not even sure that "croaking" and "grating" would've been employed in regular Salvatore fashion. In addition to speaking to the imagination, the metaphor evokes the fantastical nature of the world, a world where giant frogs exist, ones that wouldn't simply rupture when a porcupine is rubbed against them. Furthermore, the metaphor harmonizes with the adjective earlier in the sentence, for even though the frog is not the thing doing the croaking, "croaking" matches frog, just as grating matches porcupine quills.

Another example of solid writing in Boundless can be found here, "Every syllable hit Rethnorel the way the flowing breath of a speaker might make the flame of a candle blow back." Like the previous example, this one combines the usage of a noun associated with an uncommon adjective and demonstrative imagery to good effect. The metaphor shows us that the character is buffeted in an almost soft manner, for such is the flicker of a candle, but it is a continuous assault. A line that is almost too good to imagine coming from Salvatore is, "...scurrying along like a pair of giant rats fleeing the purring pursuit of a hungry displacer beast." This description is short, concise, and yet contains so many effective elements: "scurrying" instead of "running", the alliteration in "purring pursuit", and of course, alluding to a unique creature specific to the world. Putting all of these elements together paints an expressive image of an earnest and high-speed chase, the predator full of pleased anticipation but the necessity of its hunt not allowing its contentment to tamper its progress.

A passage that I wish every Salvatore paragraph could emulate is this one, "Even the way she talked grated on him, every bitten-off word making him feel like someone was running the bark of an old and gnarly oak tree down the back of his neck. It seemed like this drow woman could barely get the words out of her mouth, so tight was her jaw, and when they did come out, they carried the hissing timbre of an open fire in a downpour." The standard Salvatore version of this would be something along the lines of, "Even the way she talked grated on him. Every word was bitten off tightly", which, granted is more concise than what was published, but falls far from embodying the soul of wit in its brevity. The imagery in the published metaphor more than lets us hear the way the female character talks, it lets us feel it. So, too, can we feel what it'd be like to try to talk while our jaws are locked. "Hissing timbre" is a beautiful description on its own, but combined with inciting a sound that everyone can at least imagine, even if they may not have heard firsthand, results in a punchy and effective description. An example of another effective description, and one that doesn't make use of a metaphor is, "Some time later, they lay beside each other, the soft glow of candlelight catching pinpricks of sparkle in the beads of sweat they both wore." Sweat is not normally an attractive feature, even when it's associated with a sexy scene. The way that this imagery is presented however invokes a sense of soft decadence, as though the characters were covered with a delicate and exotic garment strewn with countless pearls. The many sparkles from this "garment" help to further set the romantic mood far more than the soft candlelight would have done by itself. Although the description, "bag of demonic despair", doesn't look like much when presented by itself, and isn't as strong as the preceding examples, it's worth a mention because of how it adequately serves as a concise summary. The object that it refers to is Entreri enveloped in an unbreakable cocoon that an unknown demon trapped him in. The word "cocoon" shows up many times in relation to this object, and admittedly, is an concise, if a bit bland, way to describe the object from both within and without. Inside the encasement, Entreri is held in a state of perpetual torment, whilst outside Dahlia, and to a much lesser extent, Regis, are worrying about his condition. Perhaps "demonic" could be replaced with another adjective but overall I'm fine with the way it is, for anything referring more to Entreri's suffering might run the risk of sounding melodramatic.

"Running stride" is also worth noting because in a world that doesn't use the same units of measurements that we do, it's always jarring when inches, feet, and miles are cited, especially when readers of the text hail from countries that aren’t the US. Without the known common terms, it is understandably difficult to effectively convey distances in a concise and comprehensible way, so units of measurements like this example are wonderful because they use something that we all understand, and do so without breaking immersion.

Tasteful omission is as important as smart inclusion. I'd criticized Salvatore for trying too hard in Timeless by using "fashioned" in in awkward way, and he's dropped this altogether in Boundless. By the same token, "six hundred pounds of panther" doesn't appear at all. Salvatore's favorite adjectives, "magnificent" and "fine", are both used better in Boundless. The former appears thirteen times in Boundless but unlike in Timeless, the usage of most of them aren't vague and lazy ways of characterizing splendid objects, characters, or actions. Six of those thirteen usages can maybe be improved still, but that is already a huge positive change from the fourteen out of seventeen occurrences in Timeless. Meanwhile, "fine" appears fifty times, but many of that is part of modifiers like finer, finest, etc, and through a cursory scan, by itself, relatively few are used in inane ways.

Muddled Positives

Aside from the examples in diction above, Boundless does contain praiseable elements, specifically even in areas where I usually criticize Salvatore. There are moments of decent, even good, characterization, and some of the negative potential I'd feared Timeless was leading towards are not realized in Boundless. Furthermore, there are improvements to be found in the themes that Salvatore employs, and some descriptors stand up to fact-checking.

One of my biggest criticisms of Salvatore is that he routinely disrespects what I describe as the beautiful tapestry of the Realms, which was woven together by the hands of many creatives who worked in harmony. In Boundless, the amount that Salvatore insensitively scribbles his name in Sharpie over the tapestry is reduced. Ironically, sometimes Salvatore scribbles over the portions of the tapestry that he'd worked with others to create, but in Boundless, he doesn't perpetuate this disservice to both himself and others as much as he has in the past. For better or worse, Salvatore did create a lot of information about drow, though his work is mostly limited to the city of Menzoberranzan. While the Drizzt books contain the most drow content than any other FR novel series, they've done so through their sheer volume, and they mainly portrayed the drow in a one-dimensional fashion. Just as there are many more drow settlements than the fanatic Menzoberranzan, so too, are even Menzoberranzanyr drow capable of qualities other than scheming self-service in the name of dedication to Lolth. In Boundless, we see more dimensions to the drow characters presented. Zaknafein is not the only drow in Menzoberranzan who possesses a moral compass. Loyalties born of motivations other than pride exist beyond the Do'Urden bloodline, with familial concern and the kind of love that'd been described as being unknown to drow inspiring or dissuading murderous deeds. In previous books, the closest that we got to "non-evil" drow were drow who had the potential to be good, perhaps even living for awhile in a goodly way, but eventually and inevitably squandering that potential. For example, Drizzt's sister Vierna was not as cruel as the other Do'Urden females, but ultimately, through trying to seduce her own brother and then turning a different brother into a drider, turned out to be just as bad as the rest of the Lolthites. Another similar example could be found with Tos'un Armgo, whom although having created a family with a surface elf, ultimately participated in the murder of his own family and returning himself and his daughter to the depraved society of Menzoberranzan.

In Boundless, although the priestess Dab'nay Tr'arach follows a course similar to Tos'un, her path is much more nuanced, and although she squanders her morality for station, she does so with great ambivalence and regret. Dab'nay's house is long destroyed, with she and her siblings' surnames changed to reflect this. She stands to gain nothing by preserving members of her bloodline, but nonetheless, she endangers her own life to see that her brother isn't killed, a selfish thought of rebuilding her long-lost house not at all factoring in to her concern for her kin. It is also clear from actions such as Dab'nay running her finger playfully along the top of Zaknafein's nose while telling him that he, not his services, were worth waiting for, that the feelings that she develops for him are more than those a female in a matriarchal society entertains towards a favored pet or sex object. Dab'nay allows her vulnerability to show in Zaknafein's presence and does not conceal the tears she sheds for the way that they must live their lives. She also fears for Zaknafein's safety even though she'd arguably stand to gain from his demise, and feels guilt for implicating him negatively for the sake of her own survival. Before the Generations trilogy, these qualities were not possible in any genuine or long-lasting way in any priestesses of Lolth, not even a disgraced one. Prior, a disgraced priestess who isn't killed or turned into a drider would become even more dangerous, with having nothing to lose by concentrating the proverbial venom in her veins.

Dab'nay isn't the only Menzoberranzanyr drow who demonstrates the capacity for multiple dimensions in Boundless. So, too, does Harbondair Tr'arch and Arathis Hune. Harbondair possesses the same familial loyalty as Dab'nay, and, like his sister, possesses the ability to genuinely overcome past prejudices. Despite Zaknafein having destroyed his house and despite Zaknafein issuing him a death threat should he attempt to harm him again, Harbondair grows to develop a real friendship with Zaknafein. Arathis, while definitively more "evil" than the Tr'arch siblings, is motivated by more than his rank in Bregan D'aerthe to eventually go to a head against Zaknafein. It's never stated that Arathis' rivalry with Zaknafein isn't based solely in Arathis feeling threatened in his second-in-command position. However, from the way that Arathis is described to behave while Zaknafein is absent, Arathis appears to be motivated by jealousy that he's no longer Jarlaxle's favorite and most trusted follower. Jarlaxle makes it abundantly clear on numerous occasions that he considers Zaknafein and Arathis equally valuable, hence why he prohibited either from trying to kill the other, so were Arathis worried about his position in the mercenary band, he needn't have gone so far because he and Zaknafein were equals in that regard but Zaknafein was definitely his better in combat. However, there can only be one favorite, a fact that Arathis couldn't engineer, but because he could ignore it when Zaknafein was away, his mood was noticeably better when he was the only lieutenant by Jarlaxle's side. It's actually quite pleasant that Salvatore didn't spell out the nature of Arathis' motivations, the way that Arathis is successful in that it is shown and not told to us. Unfortunately, Arathis' fate is soon met, which is probably for the best, as this lets him safely fall into the "gets killed off before too many books ruin him" category that I'd previously (and prematurely) populated with Zaknafein.

Although the Boundless version of Jarlaxle continues to be consistent with the Timeless version of Jarlaxle, ergo de-fanged to his current timeline self rather to the much more morally ambiguous character he was in the earlier Drizzt books, there is a comical and memorable scene in Boundless that is true to Jarlaxle's irrepressible humor even whilst in the middle of delivering a solemn ultimatum. While forbidding Zaknafein from going after Arathis Hune, Jarlaxle manages to bring a smile to the very angry weapons master by assuring him that in any other circumstance, "I promise you, if we two were trapped in a cave alone and starving, I would not kill you. But if you died first, I cannot promise that I wouldn't eat you."

There are improvements in Boundless even when it comes to the less morally gray drow of Menzoberranzan. One such individual that gets a more profound treatment is Mez'Barris Del'Armgo, the future Matron Mother of the second house of Menzoberranzan. During Boundless, her mother holds that title, and House Barrison Del'Armgo is far from its destined ranking. High Priestess Mez'Barris, the most promising member of her house, has her position recognized by being the only one allowed to copulate with the strange and giant Uthegentel, a dubious honor that the other priestesses aren't interested in anyway. Other priestesses tease Mez'Barris' preference of Uthegentel because "it was unusual, almost unheard of, for a drow woman to be attracted to a man so physically superior to her". However, "Mez'Barris couldn't deny the thrill she felt when Uthgentel so easily tossed her up upon his hips, holding her aloft while he took her, never tiring. He threw her about as if she were a child, but he knew how to throw her indeed!" Other than the more than slightly disturbing analogy to a child in the context of a sexual setting, which really could've been better done comparing Mez'Barris to anything else, a rag doll maybe, or heck, even an animal, there are a lot of things going on in the description of Mez'Barris and Uthegentel's relationship dynamic that are pretty outstanding for Salvatore. First, it is made clear in no uncertain terms that Uthegentel's size is unusual, which directly addresses the misconception that elves in the Forgotten Realms are larger than humans. Elves are larger than humans in worlds such as Middle-Earth and Azeroth, but this is not generally the case on Toril. Second, Boundless specifically states with regards to Uthegentel, "He was stronger than the women, too -- another anomaly among the drow -- and was easily the strongest dark elf in the city. Even with magical assistance, other men could not match him, and even with Lolth-blessed spells of physical enhancement, other women couldn't, either." An extremely too-oft practice among the many people who love the very popular drow race is to ascribe Earth human characteristics to them: that the males are usually bigger than the females. Drow of the Forgotten Realms, like many animals of our world, are a species in which the females are larger and stronger than the males. The aspect that stands out the most about Mez'Barris and Uthegentel is a message about reversed gender roles and how, by conforming to the norm, one might miss out on some very exciting experiences. I don't really dare hope that this is a message that Salvatore was consciously conveying, but it would be pretty awesome if it was intentional on his part. Taking that message and reversing the genders for our patriarchal world, if Salvatore could encourage the idea that men do not become any less masculine when they break conventional ideologies of what a man should be, I would be willing to consider putting serious effort into building him a pedestal, and even gazing upon it favorably from time to time.

There's one other thing going on with Mez'Barris with relation to Uthegentel, specifically, "as it pertains to the other priestesses' teasing, "'How can you be with a man who is stronger than you?' most women asked, seeming sincerely aghast at the thought. 'It isn't natural! Are you sure that you don't simply prefer the bed company of women?" Mez'Barris was sure." I'd actually completely overlooked this three times: as I was doing my read-through, as I was organizing my notes, and as I was reviewing my notes. It occurred to me, while I was writing the previous paragraph, that Mez'Barris' certainty about her preference of Uthegentel isn't based in anything sapphic, which, added to the fact that Boundless doesn't contain any gratuitous lesbian sex scenes means that Boundless is the first Drizzt book in quite possibly forever in which Salvatore doesn't fetishize female/female non-heterosexuality. This is, if it is what it is, HUGE. One of the things for which I regularly criticize Salvatore is how frustratingly often he drops in a female/female sex scene or has implied female/female sexytimes going on. Specifically its that this happens in a totally non-representative manner because, of course, the same treatment isn't even considered in terms of male/male representation. I've gone into this enough in the past and I'll go into it again later so there's no need to do that here, but seriously, just the fact that not once do we have anything even close to some random priestess whose name we won't remember banging this other random priestess whose name we similarly won't remember is such a large improvement. And with Mez'Barris conveying the reverse gender role ideology with Uthegentel, if Salvatore intentionally did all of this, I would totally consider, yet again, and pardon my french, building that fucking pedestal and putting him on it.

Dab'nay and Mez'Barris are two very different priestesses, but their respective scenes of intimacy are better done than such scenes in previous Drizzt books. The passion in Dab'nay and Zaknafein scenes are marked by affection, whereas in Mez'Barris and Uthegentel they're solely lustful. There is tenderness, even hints of trust, between Dab'nay and Zaknafein, whereas what's between Mez'Barris and Uthegentel is detached and mercenary. One is a silken handkerchief while the other is a stinging riding crop, and though each priestess doesn't feel jealousy that her lover is ridden by others, one willingly rents him out, while the other has thoroughly accepted that she is not entitled to possessive emotions.

The drow aren't the only characters who enjoy improved literary treatment in Boundless. The dramatis personae of the World Above receive some refreshing new dimensions. Wulfgar specifically, who has been hammered flat even prior to his resurrection, becomes more than a plot device that fights as much as he beds. Since his resurrection, the carefree barbarian has been primarily embodying getting the most out of his second life by sleeping with anyone and everyone willing to do so. In Boundless, we're told that Wulfgar has been with Penelope Harpell exclusively, even though she is a much older woman and, as Penelope herself realizes, Wulfgar can get practically any younger woman that he wants so he chooses. However, Wulfgar chooses Penelope and exclusively Penelope, because he's enamored with her confidence and authenticity. One of the things that I criticize Salvatore for is his poor handling of female characters, especially with regards to how the most redeeming features for his female characters are youth and beauty. For instance, Drizzt and Catti-brie's supposed great love has never been tested "on screen", for Catti died in her forties and was returned to Drizzt's side as a hot young thing. We never got to see how the glorious hero would've behaved as his mortal wife grew old and frail while he remained young and hale. Drizzt might've told himself that he'd never think Catti ugly, but he was never tested. Admittedly, Penelope isn't super old, but having the hunk that is young Wulfgar faithfully and exclusively stay by her side goes some distance in making up for the previous treatment and portrayal of women in the Drizzt books. The only downside to Wulfgar and Penelope is that their scenes of intimacy are awkward to the point of cringe-worthy, which suggests to me that Salvatore is writing outside of his comfort zone. Nonetheless, he's giving it an honest effort, and even though it doesn't work out, it looks to be a genuine attempt, for there aren't any contradictory messages in Wulfgar and Penelope's relationship.

Boundless is the first time that we see Dahlia up and about since Night of the Hunter. I'd feared that Salvatore was going to have Kimmuriel fix more than the damage wrought unto her by Methil El-Viddenvelp. It would've been an easy and lazy plot device, along the same lines of Idalia's Flute and the aboleth's influence in "developing" Entreri. Thankfully, Kimmuriel has not undone Dahlia's past traumas, nor even eliminated the more recent ones and the personality flaws that she has as a result of those traumas. What we see in Boundless is that Dahlia is still who she was during the Neverwinter Saga, modified by the experiences of her relationship with Entreri. As we follow Dahlia through a Waterdhavian nobles' ball, in addition to learning more about her through her thoughts, we're able to glean additional information through her physical appearance. Most of those details that are mentioned in the past, but certainly don't hurt to see repeated. For instance, "She was tall for an elf, nearly six feet, with black hair that she dyed with streaks of cardinal red." Specifics like height tend to be vague in Salvatore's writing, for after so many books it's clear that he can't keep track of his own details, so it's good to see Dahlia's, and even better that, once again, Salvatore reminds the readers that elves in Toril tend to be short. It's good to see that Dahlia still wears the diamonds she'd accrued from her years of being a black widow, for even though she's abandoned those practices, she hasn't abandoned her past and who she was. Furthermore, she now wears her hair in the manner that she'd use for her softer guise when she was with Drizzt, except this is presumably neither an illusion nor as a result of trying to manipulate Entreri as she did with it and Drizzt. It's a subtle reminder of how things have changed for her in a lasting way.

In the previous books, we'd only seen Dahlia be angry, vindictive, selfish and petty. Although I'd always liked her more than any of Salvatore's other female characters, my opinion regarding Dahlia is an unpopular one. Dahlia felt very much like a character that Salvatore wrote for readers to hate. In Boundless, he appears to be trying to make her more than that. During the ball, Dahlia is comical, even silly, both of which can begin to endear a reader to a character. Throughout the rest of the book, Dahlia exhibits courage and loyalty so steadfast that it's easy to forget that she was once a villainous character, but she doesn't do so in such a way as to come across as goody two-shoes either. Dahlia is still very much not a goodly character, nor should she be at this point. Unfortunately, there exists a rather large problem with Dahlia, and that is her relationship with Entreri. In just as artificial as a way that it started, so, too, are we told more than that we're shown, namely, that Entreri had overcome his childhood demons and is now helping her overcome hers. The thing is, that whole plot with how Entreri overcame his demons by doing Drizzt-like good deeds doesn't ring true at all, and we're not shown how Entreri has been helping Dahlia overcome her own demons. I doubt we ever will, but I'll discuss the poor handling of Entreri in this book later. For now, I will add that I thought it was a good touch by Salvatore to have the apartment shared by the couple to be located in the Southern Ward of Waterdeep. The Southern Ward is, as of fifth edition D&D and the current timeline (~1490s DR), is no longer the poor ward that it used to be, which is very fitting for Entreri because he wouldn't want to live in the grimy Dock Ward or the destitute Field Ward any more than he'd want to live in the aristocratic Sea Ward, the Watch-infested Castle Ward, or the noble-infested North Ward. The Southern Ward is inhabited by common folk instead of hoity-toity nobles, with a good portion of its population hailing from southern Faerûn. Although Entreri's Calishite heritage is not given much treatment in the Drizzt novels, it would make sense if, even with his rough and austere childhood, that associations of home would bring some degree of comfort or at least familiarity. Waterdeep's Southern Ward is home to some of the best singers of Calishite music and probably the best examples of Calishite cuisine. The location of homes above stables or around inn yards allows us to accept that Entreri would have been able to ensure a good sightline of the goings-on around his domicile, likely a necessity for one of Entreri's nature. The only downside to all of this is that Salvatore calls the Southern Ward the "South Ward", a nomenclature that only fools would use, according to Volo's Waterdeep Enchiridion.

The best-developed member among the resurrected Companions of the Hall is Regis/Spider Parrafin, and this continues to be the case in Boundless. In the past, I'd criticized Salvatore on numerous occasions about how his heroes perform a lot more questionable actions on screen than do his villains. In the travesty of the series, Hero, I'd specifically noted that Regis and Wulfgar kicking people who were already lying down to be decidedly not heroic, even if the victims of said kicking were highwaymen. In Boundless, Regis doesn't do anything of the sort. No, in fact, he actually performs what would be a humbling or even degrading act himself by normal Salvatore standards, and conveys a surprising and important message thereby. Much like how I'm uncertain that the message conveyed by Mez'Barris and Uthegentel is intentional, I'm not sure if this is the case with Regis, but Regis admits to using his looks to get what he wants, which is unfortunately a strategy traditionally attributed to women alone, both inside and outside of Salvatore's books. When Regis states to Dahlia, "Because I do the same thing, as does my lovely wife, Donnola" as he points out that Dahlia knows how to use her looks to gain an advantage in her negotiations, he, in my mind, is performing a much more admirable feat than slaying a hundred rampaging ogres singlehandedly. Humility is a mark of any true hero, and although Drizzt and his companions are supposed to possess tons of humility along with other virtuous qualities, we see so little of those qualities. Instead, much of their actions are full of sanctimony and self-satisfaction. Another thing that was done well with Regis is his reaction to being in Entreri's presence. Despite the significantly de-fanged current nature of Entreri, and Regis' intellectual knowledge that the assassin wouldn't hurt him, Regis struggles to suppress the fear he feels in Entreri's presence. This is one of the few instances in which Salvatore correctly portrays trauma. Regis has more than enough reason to behave the way that he does, Entreri inflicted significant distress in his previous life, and, as Regis notes, "Was there any amount of time and any number of deeds that could fully erase that?" Regis' musing is at the core of many trauma victims' journey to recovery. Furthermore, there is no contrived PTSD in Regis' experiences like was the case with Drizzt in Hero. Accurate, too, is the way that Regis' struggle is focused on the stub of his pinky, with which he fidgets while fighting to hold his voice steady. This shows us rather than telling us that Artemis Entreri is still very much a trigger for Regis, and speaks more to Regis' courage in facing that trigger than had he been the one facing down Demogorgon in Menzoberranzan.

Those are the major positives in terms of characterization and literary devices employed in Boundless. There are also good points dispersed among the descriptions and interactions with lesser characters and incidental elements. While we're not quite sure what the demon possessing the little girl named Sharon is (or if it's a demon at all), Salvatore did a decent job of making Sharon unsettling and creepy under the creature's influence. It's also refreshing to see intrigue in a Drizzt book that isn't confined to Menzoberranzan. Although Salvatore doesn't do the intrigues of Waterdeep justice, he does make an effort to include them, and even if he doesn't show us a great amount of it, I appreciate the nod that he gives to its complexity through indicating that despite months spent in the City of Splendors, one as acute as Entreri hasn't been able to unravel the mysteries he'd been tasked to solve. Unfortunately, there's a total hiatus from the further development of the Neverember plot. The final thing that I wanted to mention for this section is a detail, that, although minor, stood up to fact-checking, which delighted me. A lot of Salvatore's action scenes and descriptions, despite going into overlong detail, are often impractical or simply incorrect. Towards the end of Boundless, we see Drizzt running with everything he's got, "his arms pumping for maximum momentum in the desired direction". I'm not a runner, so I had to research this, but I was ecstatic to find that pumping one's arms does actually help one run faster! Bravo, Salvatore!

That concludes the positive-oriented analysis of Boundless. From this point onward, I'll be performing my brutally critical and honest breakdown of the novel. Fair warning, it's not going to be pretty, because Boundless isn't. Sit tight though, and I'll tell you all the ways that it was bad in excruciating detail, for better or worse.

15 notes · View notes

judgeanon · 6 years

Text

The Way of Masters

(art by Phil Noto)

So with her likely upcoming appearances in Young Justice and maybe Gotham and maybe Birds of Prey, I’ve had Lady Shiva on my mind again. Well... more than usual. And I managed to keep it bottled up so far but now I feel those urges again so let’s at least try to channel them into some hopefully decent comic book analysis. Today’s subject: why I can never get really behind any story that involves Lady Shiva teaching anyone martial arts.

Expect the usual copious amounts of NOT MUH under the jump:

The concept of Lady Shiva as a teacher comes from two main sources: Jim Starlin’s Death in the Family, which established her as a teacher for hire, and Chuck Dixon’s first Robin miniseries, where Tim Drake ran into her and asked her to train him. It was further solidified in Gulacy and Dixon’s Knightsend, where she helped Bruce get his kung fu mojo back after healing from his spine injury. And then there was Gail Simone’s Birds of Prey, where Shiva trained Dinah Lance to try and turn her into her successor. On top of all that, there’s New52 Shiva having trained Jason Todd, and while I have no idea if it’s been confirmed in canon, I’m like 90% sure she must’ve trained Damian at some point too. So it’s pretty much a solidly established fact that Shiva trains people.

And I personally find it to be a fundamental misunderstanding of her character.

(art by Brian Bolland)

Now, first of all, logistics-wise I have a problem with people repeatedly going to train with a known killer when guys like Richard Dragon are just, y’know, there. And while there’s a dozen of possible in-universe explanations that you could possibly wield (It’s faster! It’s harder! It allows you to learn her techniques should you ever have to fight her!), ultimately I think the best explanation is just that it’s more dramatic. To be trained by someone diametrically opposed to your ideology in stuff you want to know but have vowed not to use is an absolute no-brainer in terms of dramatic tension. And that’s exactly why I don’t like it from the start: because every. Single. Story. That involves Shiva training anyone always ends in the exact same place: with Shiva ordering her student to kill and her student refusing to. Or in Bruce’s case, just pretending he killed someone.

This is nothing but a pointless exercise in character reaffirmation that does nobody any favors. Of course Batman/Robin/Black Canary is not going to kill anybody. Tempting them with it is just going through the motions. It was old hat in the 90s, let alone now. And yet, in one form or another, it just keeps happening. And it keeps happening because none of these stories are really concerned with Shiva herself. They are stories about Batman/Robin/Black Canary getting stronger, with Shiva used as a tool whose characterization is based on the most surface-level reading possible of her. The problem is that these stories also feed into each other, just like how Hush establishing Shiva as a member of the League of Shadows snowballed into this hellscape where she’s literally nothing but a member of the League of Shadows. Lack of interest in her actual character creates and perpetuates these misunderstandings until nothing else exists. But now the question becomes, well, what is her actual character? Good question.

So in Denny O’Neil’s Question run, which I am never going to shut up about until everyone who even thinks about writing Lady Shiva reads through at least twice, Shiva physically and metaphorically kills Vic Sage, then saves his life. I’ve talked about this before but the short of it is that not only does she kill his body, but by presenting him with something he can’t understand, she also kills his stoic, narrow-minded idea of a black and white world. But once she’s saved him, she doesn’t stick around to train him. Instead, she gives him the address of the aforementioned Richard Dragon, who takes him in as a pupil. And this is where things start getting a bit floaty.

(art by Denys Cowan)

Because there’s a difference between teaching someone and helping them learn it on their own. Zen Buddhists know this. The idea is not to build a path for someone, or to guide them through it. The path is unique to every person and they have to walk it by themselves. But that doesn’t mean you can’t at least point them towards it. Which is what Richard does. Sure, he teaches Vic how to fight, but way later in the run, Richard explains how unimportant that is:

And make no mistake: Shiva is very similar to Richard in this aspect. Her interest in Vic is not about whether he can become a mighty warrior, but in what motivates him. She’s interested in seeing how Vic develops, and her reasons are, in her own veiled way, pretty much the same as Richard’s:

Right before this page, Richard explained that Shiva thinks Vic is fueled by a lust for combat, while he argues that it’s curiosity that motivates him. And the book never gives a clear-cut answer, showing Vic as an intensely curious creature (in fact, it was his curiosity about Shiva’s motivation that helped tear down his old black-and-white worldview) but also as someone prone to seeking the simplicity of punching dudes in the fucking face when the world gets too complex. Which is part of the genius of this Question run: nobody is ever that simple.

Now, it’s possible to transfer this to the exampled provided below and say that Shiva is similarly interested in Robin/Batman/Black Canary’s development. But only if you don’t really go any deeper than the pure surface. Because the difference here is that at no point through the entire Question run does Shiva demand that Vic take a life. She doesn’t want to prove to him that her way is superior, or that killing people makes you better. She doesn’t want Vic to become like her. She’s just interested in seeing how, once violently stripped of all his preconceived notions and brought back as an almost clean slate, he evolves. And it’s an evolution Shiva has respect for.

And that’s why I can’t get behind any story about Shiva as a teacher. Because just like Richard, she’s not there to try and tempt people to walk her same path of slaughter, sneering smugly at their heroic ideals of the sacredness of life. That’s a dangerously bi-dimensional reading of her that leads to endless rehashes of tired plotlines that go to the same wretchedly familiar places we’ve been to a thousand times before. There’s no deeper insight into the character of Tim Drake or Bruce Wayne to be gained by putting them in a situation where they’re forced to kill but they don’t. There’s no evolution, no characterization, there’s nothing to be gained except for a physical upgrade. And while they may not lose much from just going through the motions over and over again, Shiva gets it so much worse because her character is eroded by these nothing plots.

(art by Ed Benes)

In BoP, Simone tried to give Shiva a new reason to actively seek an apprentice, which at least demonstrates more agency on her part than the usual row of Bat-people knocking at her door. Simone’s Shiva is preoccupied with the future and creating a legacy, but again, that’s an idea I just can’t get behind at all. To have a character as steeped into Zen Buddhism and Taoism as Lady Shiva worry about life after death feels like a betrayal, and wanting to turn Dinah into a new version of herself clashes with everything explained above. And Starlin, Dixon, Gulacy, Loeb, Gabrych and Tynion IV don’t even try. It’s enough to make one wonder, is there any writer who actually paid attention when reading Question?

(art by Damion Scott)

Look, call this a reach, but I think there’s a pretty good reason why Lady Shiva’s first appearance in Kelley Puckett’s Batgirl has her wearing a purple coat that’s basically an update of her design in the very first issue of Question. And considering Puckett actually collaborated with O’Neil on the tail end of that run, it’s not even that far of a reach. More importantly, however, Shiva treats Cassandra pretty much the exact same way as she treats Vic: she tears her apart and then leaves her alone for a year so she can rebuild herself. That’s not to say it’s a 100% perfect callback. She does help Cass get her body-reading skills back, and sadly, some of Shiva’s kill-crazy personality has seeped in, making her give speeches about how Cassandra is a waste because she doesn’t kill and how if they are to fight they must fight to the death and whatnot. Which makes sense for Cassandra’s development since rejecting such notions is a big part of her character, although that doesn’t make it any less tired.

But ultimately, the reason why I bring up Puckett’s Shiva is because he’s pretty much the only one to actually take those aspects of O’Neil’s Shiva and bring them back into the light. In a perfect world, the whole “you must kill” thing wouldn’t exist and Shiva would just be satisfied with seeing Cassandra develop on her own. And as we move further into pure headcanon territory, I think O’Neil’s Shiva would be downright fascinated by the idea of someone becoming stronger than her in their own terms rather than just by trying to be like her in every way. Sadly, Puckett’s Shiva doesn’t stick the landing, since the respect she shows for Vic’s personal growth is nowhere to be seen here. And once Gabrych takes over, we’re right back into caricature mode, where we’ve stayed for over a decade save for that one Blackest Night Question special. Which was co-written by, big surprise here, Denny O’Neil.

I understand why writers go for it. It’s simple, it’s dramatic, it’s familiar, and it gives their characters something to brag about. “Trained by the greatest martial artists in the DCU, including Lady Shiva” is used to describe even people like Cassandra who never actually trained under her. But I think it’s an error. And I find the alternative not just more gripping and compelling but also ripe with possibilities for both characters in the equation. It forces the person writing it to sit down and think what could Shiva find interesting in each character, and how they could be changed by her presence, framing it all as a two-sided journey of self discovery rather than a melodramatic ideological struggle of which we all know the ending. All you have to do is stop treating one of the most interesting characters in modern DC as a tool to make others get better at punching.

#Lady Shiva #DC #Batman #Robin #Batgirl #Denny O'Neil #Kelley Puckett #Comic books #Ramblings #First Shiva Rant of 2019 #Look #I made it to two whole days #That's gotta count for something #Right?

68 notes · View notes

unproduciblesmackdown · 5 years

Text

oh the other day there was this quote “conversations they Thought they were having behind my back” and i was like oh lmao what a mood, Oh the scores and scores of remarks i’ve been aware of that ppl thought i wasn’t....funnily enough sometimes it counts even in terms of things people say to your face, ugh, like, yknow when they make some Joke or say something kind of sarcastically or Sure Jan-ly and you can tell they don’t think you can pick up on it. a joy always

like every other day of my life i think of the stretch of time i was living that Working Homeless life and at the ends of my shifts i’d use my employee discount to get probably my one meal of the day and take it to the corner and sit quietly on my phone so i could use the wifi to talk to buddies & generally taking up one cubic yard of existence, for some reason one or two coworkers would come up with this running joke to be like “you’re still here? go home” lmao and im like, well what would i say to that anyways? mind your own business is what i should have said lol but like. they werent even necessarily trying to be outright Mean but it was still like, the vibe that b/c they didnt think i would Get a joke at my expense just cuz i didnt respond, the Amusement of subtly picking on the weird kid or whatever, etc. and i’d be like well i am getting my calories up so im not fatigued tomorrow and engaging with the outside world the one way i really can and im putting off going outside a little longer because its winter.....not like i can be like “cant go home b/c i dont have that” b/c i didnt know it wouldntve gotten me fired and i wasnt like, embarrassed, but i know v well plenty of people would suddenly take the bar exam and get judgy and i was already dealing with enough weird lowkey contempt from randos, thanks. my only friends were The Other Gays and a couple managers who both transferred and a handful of other people and then on the other end of the spectrum you had the sorts of people like the one who said “wow can’t believe you let him do that” when i was sexually assaulted like 10 min before my shift started so i was all pissed off and stressed when i came in and later called me an idiot like several times way too seriously while i was taking a minute to reverse engineer the entire ice dispensing chute without being able to see what i was doing, or the guy who was weirdly an ass to like, everyone always, who “””accidentally””” called me the wrong name after seeing my legal name One Time months and months into everyone knowing me by my actual name.......i had Such a weird time, jobs are so unnecessarily shitty sometimes with like, none of it hinging on what you actually do.......the piece de resistance was the new gm pulling some real shit with me once and i shouldve walked out right then especially since i had to quit like 3 weeks later lol, i never quit a job rudely enough. always shouldve inconvenienced them even harder one last time. oh man and that one time the gm pulled some extra shit with me was im fairly sure the same day or very close to it when i had like almost $80 in pay they forgot to give me b/c i was the only person doing deliveries for the last like 3 hrs and i even worked up the nerve like a week later to be like “hey....the $74??” but it never happened. oh how i wish i quit more rudely!! all i did was stop going above and beyond for them. legit slowed everything down like 0.5 speed and stopped doing 90% of the shit i’d been doing w/o anyone having to ask. have fun. oh how many memories i have of people being crap to me there.....Alas

another middle of the day long story about Ugh That Was Trash, take notes!!! and my evil parents were not even involved, directly, at that time. unless you count that i was homeless because they were evil. anyways not everyone at work was crap and for as many people who were shitty to me there was probably at least almost as many people who were actually decent and cool. like the gay guy who, i delivered So Much Soup to a house meeting of local buddhists, and the one guy gave me materials and i was like thank you, and the others were like “oh we know your gay guy coworker jonathan!” and i was like oh fuck i love that guy!! and they were like oh my god have some food and i was like absolutely. and one person annoyed me but others did not and i talked to one girl named kyrie after the 80s song and she was like “ive been applying to your store” and i was like “just first things first tell them you have an open schedule thats their #1 thing” and like 2 days later i saw her and she was like yeah just did my interview, and then she was hired and everyone was like “that’s milo’s friend” and we were like we don’t actually know each other we just met the one time!! and anyways everybody pronounced her name wrong like “kī-ree” or just Kī or Kee but i knew to pronounce it keer-ee-ay because my mom was a catholic choir director so if someones name is from a latin hymn i’ve got it, and i’ve also gone to red robin with nuns like four times and baked cookies in the basement with another sister. thats about the most fun i got to have with catholicism, the end

8 notes · View notes

bi-dazai · 5 years

Text

15 yr olds on this site really go around totally unsuspicious of fictional media discussing gayness or including gay characters huh

idk about you but i was born in 2000 and my entire life i dealt with blatantly homophobic media (power puff girls is one example!) and intense queerbaiting coupled with homophobic plotlines (supernatural, the 100). i had to ferret around the internet desperately to find a shitty copy of a somewhat decent film involving gayness that wasnt something like philadelphia or debs or rocky horror. when i was struggling the most with coming to terms with my bisexuality was around the period of 2010-2015. during that time antibisexual sentiment was incredibly high (this was when the post-myspace backlash of bisexuality and the rise of mogai and pansexuality came about). every time a tv character was announced to be gay (extremely rarely) they were killed off or forced into homophobic plotlines and stereotypes within episodes. they were the butt of jokes, fandom and the world made fun of them to hell. our expectations for gay representation were extremely low, to the point that we were happy with the kill your gays trope because at least we got screentime.

korrasami was the breaking point of all this. since then, the media has been much more inclusive and receptive to actual gay criticism and queer theory (as flawed as it is). a children’s show with a massive fanbase made their two female protagonists of colour bisexual and in a romantic relationship. this was huge. this is the best gay representation to date in children’s media. the backlash was still huge, and even more chose to ignore it and pretend it wasnt canon, despite the creators and writers specifying in interviews almost immediately that it was, and that nickelodeon had in fact forced them to cut a kiss scene.

but nothing has really changed. even if there is slightly more gay representation, even though our criticisms are now part of the public conscience, what has changed in western media really? gay representation is white and middle class and vague. it’s liberal, it never depicts any form of the community that is so important to gay film as an establishment, never depicts proper homophobia. it is safe and consumable for homophobes. it’s straight gayness. films such as love, simon and call me by my name depict sanitised, and even homophobic depictions of gayness. it’s hollywood gayness.

queerbaiting still exists - for example, the voltron reboot frequently hinted at lance’s bisexuality and keith’s gayness, constantly foreshadowing a romantic relationship (and yes, there is proof for this. analysing the show and looking at interviews from the time, as well as looking at the complaints about the showrunners from the writing staff in particular who specified that they did not allow the writers to plan a plot and anything that had the potential of upsetting their ratings and upstanding with dreamworks higher-ups were quickly cut - this makes it clear that something was going on there), constantly talking about it with fans, only to have this foreshadowing, the various promises to the community, fall away. shiro was revealed to be gay, a teaser trailer showed him with his boyfriend. in the actual series, the boyfriend got less than a minute of screentime and was killed immediately. shiro, an asian gay man, was made into torture porn. this is queerbaiting and a homophobic trope as well.

ive seen this with innumerous shows as well. gay characters are introduced as a grab for a larger audience and free advertising via people discussing the show on the internet.

so yes. on the surface, it seems that things have changed. younger people are being told that gay media is the norm, that we are living in good times, and they are being taught queer theory criticism of media via a hollywood and social media lens.

but beneath? nothing has changed. i still get twinges of fear when hollywood and netflix try to appeal to gay audiences. i still dont trust the representation they provide. i am still ferreting about the internet to find a copy of an independent film. i am still watching the same four gay films.

it sounds strange when i say that i hate gay representation. but this is what i am referring to - hollywood representation, netflix representation.

i have seen a strange gap in ages and response to gay representation in hollywood and netflix productions. young people who were born after about 2003/04 are the current main targets of most hollywood gay representation. korrasami became canon when they were just 10 years old. this cultural shift happened before they were old enough to truly realise what was happening. and with no one discussing just how big that cultural shift was and has been, there is no consideration for their own past that can take place within their own thoughts. it is normal for a tv show to have a gay character and so long as that character isnt killed off they’re happy. ive seen this sad trend of young teenagers consuming characters and representations of sexuality like this with total happiness. even some of the smartest, most media-critical kids ive ever met still engaged with love,simon with complete and utter praise.

but to those born before, we grew up with something different. shows like the powerpuff girls had transphobic depictions. gayness was reserved for adult, latenight shows like the l-word. homophobic and transphobic punchlines were the norm. lesbian was ugly or a porn category. bisexual was unheard of - our flag was only designed in the very late 1990s. or we were whores. for a moment in the mid-2000s we were celebrated in teenage underground movements such as scene, punk, emo, etc. but by the early 2010s we were being named as affronts to the lgbt community (once again). transgenderness was completely reviled (still is). we were queerbaited and slandered and hated by hollywood

ten years later we are said to be “welcomed” in media. but i feel no difference. i am still suspicious and bitter and disappointed and disgusted. i dont feel welcomed nor celebrated. i still feel disgusted with myself and i still feel hollow and hated - because i am. we are. hollywood is not your friend. it never has been. representation is a cash grab.

#long post #this is rambling but im just bitter

3 notes · View notes

sinrau · 4 years

Link

The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro promise the most dramatic changes to Apple’s flagship phones in years.

While the current iPhone 11 line traces its lineage all the way back to 2017, the iPhone 12 will reportedly drop the existing design for an all-new look, as well as add 5G connectivity across the range, Apple’s highly-anticipated A14 Bionic processor and, for the Pro set specifically, LiDAR cameras. The 120Hz displays for the Pro models are in doubt based on leaks.

iPhone 12: What to expect

• iPhone 12 launch date: Sept. 8 (rumored)

• iPhone 12 release date: October

• Models: iPhone 12 (5.4 inches), iPhone 12 Max (6.1 inches), iPhone 12 Pro (6.1 inches), iPhone 12 Pro Max (6.7 inches)

• Prices: $649 (iPhone 12), $749 (iPhone 12 Max), $999 (iPhone 12 Pro), $1,099 (iPhone 12 Pro Max)

• Processor: A14 Bionic (all models)

• Screens: OLED (all models)

• Other features: 5G, LiDAR on Pro models

While we won’t see the iPhone 12 in September like we typically do with new iPhone releases, rumors and leaks have painted a pretty full picture of what to expect from Apple’s upcoming handsets, including their release dates, prices and specs.

The iPhone 12 is expected to come in four models: the 5.4-inch iPhone 12, 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Max, 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Pro, and 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max. All four are expected to tout a design the hearkens back to the iPhone 5’s flat machined edges, along with a possibly slimmer notch.

Here’s everything we know so far about the new iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro.

iPhone 12 specs (based on leaks)

iPhone 12 iPhone 12 Max iPhone 12 Pro iPhone 12 Pro Max Price $699$799$1049$1149 Display 5.4-inch Super Retina OLED (BOE)6.1-inch Super Retina OLED (BOE)6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED (Samsung)6.7-inch Super Retina XDR OLED (Samsung) Processor A14 BionicA14 BionicA14 BionicA14 Bionic RAM 4GB4GB6GB6GB Storage 64, 128GB, 256GB64GB, 128GB, 256GB128GB, 256GB, 512GB128GB, 256GB, 512GB Cameras Dual rear camerasDual rear camerasTriple rear cameras + LiDARTriple rear cameras + LiDAR 5G Sub-6GHzSub-6GHzSub-6GHz, mmWaveSub-6GHz, mmWave Battery 2,227 mAh2,775 mAh2,775 mAh3,687 mAh Body AluminumAluminumStainless steelStainless steel

A render of the 5.4-inch iPhone 12. (Image credit: EverythingApplePro)

Although new iPhones typically launch in September, multiple reports have pointed to a delayed release date for the iPhone 12. And Apple confirmed as much in a July 30 earnings call with Wall Street analysts. Chief financial officer Luca Maestri noted that last year’s iPhone 11 shipped in September, but added “this year, the supply of the new product will be a few weeks later than that.”

That would seemingly point to an October release — that’s what leaker Jon Prosser has said. (Prosser has also predicted a new iPad at that time.) Some rumors have suggested a November launch or staggered release date for the new iPhones.

When the new iPhones begin shipping and when Apple actually unveils them may very well be two different dates, though. One iPhone 12 launch date rumor claims that Apple will debut the new iPhones at a virtual event on September 8. The handsets would go on sale the following month in October. This is according to leaker @ihacktu on Twitter, who has a decent track record — though, curiously, the tweet has since been deleted.

One report based on an note from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Max could be released before the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max.

iPhone 12 price

A render of the 5.4-inch iPhone 12. (Image credit: EverythingApplePro)

The iPhone 12 price seems to be a moving target. The most recent leak from @komiya_kj on Twitter says that the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 will start at $699 for 64GB. The 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Max have a $799 price for the same amount of storage.

However, it’s possible that the pricing could be cheaper should Apple decide to sell 4G LTE-only versions. The above pricing would be for 5G models of the iPhone 12. In fact, one iPhone 12 price report claims that Apple will release a 4G LTE iPhone 12 in early 2021, according to a research note form Wedbush Securities.

【iPhone 12 Prices】12 5G (5.4”)(64GB $699)128GB $749258GB $84912 Max 5G (6.1”)(64GB $799)128GB $849256GB $94912 Pro (6.1”)128GB $1049256GB $1149512GB $134912 Pro Max (6.7”)128GB $1149256GB $1249512GB $1449Read through all threads: pic.twitter.com/N4AX0JmF3z July 27, 2020

Previously, analyst Jon Prosser said that the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 with two rear cameras will start at $649, which would be quite affordable at $50 less than the iPhone 11. The iPhone 12 Max with a 6.1-inch screen would cost $749.

Yet another report based on a note from analyst Jeff Pu says that the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 will start at $749. This would be $50 more than the iPhone 11 and, presumably, without a charger or wired headphones in the box.

There could be a surprise fifth model of the iPhone 12, according to Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives, which would be even cheaper than the $649 entry-level iPhone 12. However, this more affordable iPhone 12 would miss out on 5G. In fact, one leaker on Twitter says that the 4G-only iPhone 12 could be priced as low as $549.

Been seeing some reports speculating on iPhone 12 prices, so I asked my sources

5.4 iPhone 12 D52GOLED / 5G2 cam$6496.1 iPhone 12 D53GOLED / 5G2 cam $7496.1 iPhone 12 Pro D53POLED / 5G3 cam + LiDAR$9996.7 iPhone 12 Pro Max D54POLED / 5G3 cam + LiDAR$1,099 April 30, 2020

The iPhone 12 Pro, which would have three rear cameras plus a LiDAR sensor, may start at $999 or $1,049. The iPhone 12 Pro could also feature a 120Hz ProMotion display, but that’s not a lock quite yet.

Last but not least, the iPhone 12 Pro Max would feature a 6.7-inch display and cost $1,099 or $1,149 to start.

iPhone 12 models

Since a forecast from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo last year, we’ve known that four different iPhone 12 models are on tap for 2020: one at 5.4 inches, two at 6.1 inches and the largest variant measuring 6.7 inches. All four 2020 iPhones will have 5G, Kuo says.

These four phones are also expected to incorporate OLED displays, which would mark a change for Apple. Like the iPhone XR before it, the iPhone 11 features an LCD display instead of an OLED panel.

Another look at one of the dual-camera iPhone 12 variants. (Image credit: LetsGoDigital/Concept Creator)

Here’s a closer look at what to expect from each iPhone 12 model, as detailed by a report from Display Supply Chain CEO Ross Young.

iPhone 12: Look for the entry-level iPhone 12 to feature a 5.4-inch OLED panel with rumored resolution of 2340×1080. Young expects the display to feature Y-OCTA technology, which means that the touch sensor is integrated directly into the display.

In terms of other hardware, the iPhone 12 is expected to feature an A14 processor, 4GB of RAM and a choice between 128GB and 256GB of storage. Like the iPhone 11, this model will rely on dual rear cameras, losing the telephoto in the Pro variants.

The iOS 14 beta has essentially confirmed the 5.4-inch model of the iPhone 12, as the Display Zoom accessibility feature now supports panels with the iPhone 12’s resolution.

iPhone 12 Max: This 6.1-inch iPhone will feature the same hardware as the standard iPhone 12 — A14 processor, 4GB of RAM, 128GB or 256GB of storage and dual rear cameras. The biggest difference will be the screen and battery size, both of which will see increases. The iPhone 12 Max will have a larger flexible 6.1-inch OLED panel with 2532×1170 resolution.

iPhone 12 Pro: The 6.1-inch flexible OLED on this model could be the first phone to feature 10-bit color support, according to Young. It will feature a 2532×1170 resolution along with Y-OCTA technology. There’s a chance this phone’s screen could support a 120Hz refresh rate, though rumors have gone back and forth on that front over the last several months.

Expect 6GB of RAM in this A14-powered model with storage options ranging from 128GB to 512GB. The Pro series is rumored to feature three rear lenses, highlighted by a 64MP main sensor, plus a LiDAR time-of-flight sensor that will improve performance of iPhone AR apps.

iPhone 12 Pro Max: Expect the same RAM, storage and camera features as the iPhone 12 Pro, only with a bigger 6.7-inch OLED panel. Resolution could be 2778×1824, and a 120Hz refresh rate is a possibility here, too.

Prototyping for iPhone 12 devices is just about finalized!Final details line up pretty well with what Kuo said last year!

Expect to see CAD renders of the devices within the next month or two from your favorite leakers!

Now let’s see if Apple can get them out by EOY! pic.twitter.com/nAfA7JHMx2 April 6, 2020

If you’re wondering how all four rumored iPhone 12 models compare, Jon Prosser shared a graphic on Twitter back in April showing the four models and their key specs.

A better look at how the different sizes compare comes in a YouTube video by iupdate that shows relatively high-quality iPhone 12 dummy units in three different sizes, and compares how they fit in people’s hands.

iPhone 12 design

A dummy of the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 between a first-gen iPhone SE and iPhone 7. (Image credit: iZac via MacRumors)

So what will the new iPhones look like? All four iPhone 12 models are expected to bring back the flat metal-edge design of the iPhone 5, according to Bloomberg. This design change will also bring the iPhone lineup closer to the iPad Pro 2020.

The most interesting variant should be the 5.4-inch iPhone 12, which has been leaked via a purchased dummy unit. It’s even smaller than the 4.7-inch iPhone 7, despite having a larger display. And it’s not significantly larger than the original 4-inch iPhone SE.

(Image credit: MacRumors/YouTube )

Another leak shows the actual display panel for the 5.4-inch iPhone 12, which seems to confirm the new small size for Apple’s lineup. This comes from Weibo user Digital Chat Station (via MyFixGuide ).

(Image credit: Digital Chat Station)

If you’re confused as to why the rear cameras and notches look unchanged from the iPhone 11 range, the simple reason is that these finer design details often aren’t accounted for in dummy units, because they’re usually not important to the construction of accessories.

However, an image by Twitter leaker Komiya shows what could be the final design for the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. This includes a notch up front and a square camera array that tucks in a smaller LiDAR sensor than what’s found on the iPhone 12 Pro.

(Image credit: Komiya/Twitter)

As it happens, it’s been rumored that Apple will downsize the notch by a considerable margin in its upcoming phones; Jon Prosser leaked schematics indicating as much back in April.

Prosser followed up in early August, saying that “the smaller notch is mostly confirmed.” However, Prosser didn’t offer any indication of how much smaller the new notch will be.

Here you go, internet.

pic.twitter.com/REfSw28KSX April 20, 2020

Meanwhile, various designers have tried their hand at creating mockups of what the next iPhones will look like, based on rumors and leaked CAD drawings. The folks at Concept Creator built a render of the 5.4-inch iPhone 12, published in a video by LetsGoDigital. You’ll note that it has flatter sides and a smaller notch, as well as a SIM tray that has been relocated beneath the volume buttons.

This iPhone 12 Pro render highlights the premium variant’s slimmer bezels and notch, as well as its rumored quad-lens camera. (Image credit: Jonas Daehnert)

The above image from designer Jonas Daehnert shows what the iPhone 12 Pro could look like with the flat edges, a smaller notch and a fourth “camera,” which would presumably be a LiDAR sensor for more immersive augmented reality applications. That feature was introduced in the iPad Pro that came out in March.

Another iPhone 12 Pro Max video brings the CAD renderings and leaks to life. This video is from YouTuber EverythingApplePro, who cites reliable leaker Max Weinbach as their source, and it shows Apple’s 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max with flatter sides, a built-in LiDAR scanner, flatter edges and a smaller notch — all wrapped up in a slightly taller-but-thinner design than the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

iPhone 12 colors

We’ve only heard a handful of rumors on the color front, but it’s a safe bet that Apple will likely follow the same pattern of the last couple iPhone launches. That means a greater quantity of colors for the less expensive iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Max, while the iPhone 12 Pro models will adopt darker, more traditional color schemes such as Space Gray and silver with more of a premium-seeming finish to them.

A visual example of just some of the colors we could see for the iPhone 12 Pro, including a new Midnight Blue hue. (Image credit: EverythingApplePro/YouTube)

At least one rumor says that Apple will spice things up by offering a blue color for the iPhone 12. The blue would replace the Midnight Green color offered on the iPhone 11 Pro and may be exclusive to the new Pro models. ConceptsiPhone created a video showing off what a Navy Blue iPhone 12 Pro might look like, and Svetapple has published an even more recent mockup of the iPhone 12 Pro in this new hue.

iPhone 12 and 5G

A report from Nikkei says that all iPhone 12 models will ship with support for 5G networks, but there’s some disagreement as to whether all models will support both types of 5G — sub-6GHz as well as millimeter-wave (mmWave).

While leaker Jon Prosser agrees that all four iPhone 12 models will ship with 5G support, the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 and 6.1-inch iPhone 12 may not employ mmWave technology, which offers the fastest download speeds. Instead, these more affordable devices would feature only sub-6GHz 5G, which reaches much further than mmWave.

5G in this lower band offers longer range but slower data rates than mmWave technology, which can reach up to 2Gbps. The iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max will reportedly offer mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G, giving shoppers the best of both worlds. Verizon 5G is focusing, at least initially, on mmWave, which delivers the fastest speeds but requires line of sight view to a small cell or node for service.

Digitimes had backed up the report that only the iPhone 12 Pro models would offer both mmWave and sub-6GHz, but a new report from the publication claims that all four iPhone 12 models will feature wide 5G support. That means the iPhone 12 and 12 Max would work on mmWave 5G, too.

Given that Apple bought Intel’s modem business last year, it’s expected that Cupertino will eventually stop getting its 5G modems from Qualcomm and design its own modems in house, the same way it does for its A-series processors. That won’t happen in time for the new iPhone 12, though. The earliest we expect to see an iPhone with an Apple-built modem is 2021, though realistically it’s probably more than two years away.

iPhone 12 cameras

A report in Digitimes confirms that the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Max will have two rear cameras, and the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max will have three rear cameras plus a new LiDAR sensor.

Given that the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max featured triple-lens rear cameras for the first time in Apple’s hardware, we expect that to continue for the 2020 versions of the Pro iPhones.

According to a separate report, the iPhone 12 will feature a new 7-part lens for the main camera, which would be an upgrade from the 6-part lens on the iPhone 11 series. The extra lens should result in better photo quality and reduced distortion.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 12 Pro is all but certain to add that aforementioned LiDAR time-of-flight sensor. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo expects it to be included on at least two iPhone 12 models, which would almost assuredly be the Pro versions. Subsequent reports on iPhone 12 specs have backed that claim.

@appleinsider @MacRumors @9to5mac you guys excited about iPhone 12Pro and 12ProMax with Lidar? pic.twitter.com/CQaQcb6hQ5 April 5, 2020

Expect the sensor to more accurately judge the distance between your phone and the object you’re shooting. That will lead to better portrait shots, while also enabling more accurate object tracking and effects in those AR apps Apple is so keen on. One rumored use would let users point their iPhone 12 at items in Apple Stores and Starbucks and see digital information appear on the phone’s display.

DigiTimes has also published claims that the next iPhone will employ “sensor shift.” This is a new kind of stabilization technology that works by detecting how the phone is moving, and then moving the camera sensors in the opposite direction using small actuators to keep your picture steady. Think of it as a more elaborate form of conventional optical image stabilization.

In terms of video, EverythingApplePro reports that the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max will be able to record 4K footage at 120 frames per second or 240 fps. That would be an upgrade from the maximum 60 fps available on the iPhone 11 range.

Based on a patent filing, Apple is also working on a periscope-like telephoto lens that should provide a longer zoom range than previous iPhones. Apple is apparently trying to fit five-lens and three-lens arrays into a smaller space by using a prism to reflect light. However, a subsequent report citing analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that Apple won’t be adopting a periscope zoom until 2022.

iPhone 12 performance

It’s a foregone conclusion the iPhone 12 line will be powered by Apple’s next-generation A14 Bionic chip. According to a report on the new 5nm processor made by TSMC, the CPU should provide a 15% performance boost while being 30% more efficient. And that’s before Apple gets its hands on the chip.

Another iPhone 12 A14 Bionic leak suggests that the iPhone 12 could be a lot more powerful, with tipster @Komiya predicting a whopping 40% improvement in CPU performance and a 50% boost in GPU performance compared to the A13 Bionic.

A14 compared to A13CPU +40%GPU +50% August 10, 2020

A leaked Geekbench 5 score card suggests the upcoming range of iPhones will wipe the floor with competing Android flagships.

(Image credit: ITHome)

Even though Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 chipset has somewhat closed the gap to Apple’s current A13 Bionic CPU, the rumored 5-nanometer A14 Bionic could once again blow Cupertino’s lead wide open. According to the leaked screenshot, the iPhone 12 could reach a peak multi-core score of 4,612 points. If true, that would be roughly 1,500 points higher than Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Ultra.

For context, the faster Snapdragon 865 Plus chip inside the Asus ROG Phone 3 paced that handset to a Geekbench score of 3,393, so it would not even be close to the iPhone 12.

The catch, of course, is that leaked benchmarks are quite easy to fake. So while these purported numbers are very exciting, we recommend you wait for further leaks to corroborate these results before buying the hype.

iPhone 12 display: 120Hz refresh rate

The new iPhone 12 Pro’s display could support a welcome improvement over the screens on many current smartphones. Both the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max have been tipped to feature 120Hz ProMotion displays. The regular iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Max will likely offer 60Hz displays.

Offering an iPhone Pro with a 120Hz refresh rate should mean smoother scrolling as well as more fluid video playback and responsive gameplay. Ice Universe seemingly confirmed this feature with the following tweet.

A reliable source, if there is no accident, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max have basically determined the maximum 120Hz refresh rate.June 26, 2020

But then, in May, one analyst theorized that the 120Hz feature may not make it to the iPhone 12 Pro. Ross Young said only one phone in 2020 is likely to have the LTPO technology needed to balance the faster refresh rate with decent battery life. That device is the Samsung Galaxy Note 20, which Samsung revealed on August 5. However, in mid-June, Young included both iPhone 12 Pro models on a list of 2020 handsets expected to pack 120Hz displays, so he’s seemingly changed his mind about the iPhones’ chances.

What makes the new Note’s 120Hz screen exciting is that it’s actually dynamic. The phone boasts LTPO technology, just like the latest Apple Watch, to dynamically adjust the refresh rate depending on what content is on display. This gives you the best of both worlds — super-smooth visuals when you’re gaming, and a slower, more conventional framerate when you don’t (like when on-screen content is static) to extend battery life. The iPhone 12 could certainly benefit from such a system, though it’s unclear if it’ll be ready in time for Apple’s 2020 flagships.

Here is our list of 120Hz phones for 2020. Are we missing any? pic.twitter.com/Kr0UotSCNC June 15, 2020

The first iOS 14 developer beta also includes an option in the Accessibility menu within the Settings app to limit frame rate. This was shared by leaker Ben Geskin on Twitter, and seemingly confirms that Apple is looking to raise the refresh rate on future iPhone panels. This setting is irrelevant to the current range of iPhones with just 60Hz screens, so the thinking is that it’s a giveaway to the iPhone 12 Pro’s rumored ProMotion technology. It’s worth mentioning that this option also exists on the iPadOS 14 developer beta, for the 120Hz iPad Pro.

iPhone 12 battery life and charging

One detail concerning battery and charging as it relates to the iPhone 12 will surely disappoint most buyers, no matter how you slice it. Multiple rumors — one of which comes courtesy of analyst Ming-Chi Kuo — suggest Apple will forgo including a charging adapter with any iPhone 12 model. Not even a conventional, slow 5-watt charger.

As it turns out, Apple is developing a 20-watt brick to replace the company’s existing 18-watt solution, but it won’t actually ship with any of their new phones. That means buyers will have to shell out cash for a charger if they don’t already have one that is compatible with an iPhone. The current price of an 18-watt first-party Apple charger and Lightning-to-USB-C cable is $48 together.

iPhone 12 series (leaked) iPhone 11 series iPhone 12 (5.4 inches): 2,227 mAhiPhone 11 (6.1 inches): 3,110 mAhiPhone 12 Max (6.1 inches): 2,775 mAhiPhone 11 Pro (5.8 inches): 3,046 mAhiPhone 12 Pro (6.1 inches): 2,775 mAhiPhone 11 Pro Max (6.5 inches): 3,969 mAhiPhone 12 Pro Max (6.7 inches): 3,687 mAh

The silver lining to this decision is that at least it should diminish needless waste, as many customers likely already have a charger available to them, and shipping another with every phone is damaging to the environment. However, it’s reasonable to expect a charger if you’re already spending upwards of four digits on a handset, and so we would have at least hoped Apple would include that 20-watt brick with the Pro models, or give customers the option to add one in for a reduced cost.

As far as iPhone 12 battery capacities, a certification from the 3C points to lower capacities than the iPhone 11. The iPhone 12 (5.4 inches) is said to have a 2,227-mAh battery, and the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Max and iPhone 12 Pro will reportedly feature 2,775-mAh batteries. The iPhone 12 Pro Max would have a 3,687-mAh battery. Another regulatory filing in Korea also points to a 2,775-mAh battery for the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 models.

By comparison, the 6.1-inch iPhone 11 has a 3,110-mAh battery, the 5.8-inch iPhone 11 Pro sports a 3,046-mAh battery and the iPhone 11 Pro Max houses a 3,969-mAh pack.

iPhone 12 Touch ID in display?

Back in April, it was reported by China’s Economic Daily News that at least one iPhone 12 model could offer an under-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, which would bring Touch ID back in a new way.

However, we haven’t heard much to corroborate that. In fact, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has stated that 2021 could be the year to expect Touch ID to make a return, alongside Face ID.

Additionally, an Apple patent that’s been recently unearthed by AppleInsider suggests Cupertino is working on its own approach for an in-display authentication system. While the iPhone 12 is much too soon to see something like this come to fruition, theoretically it could surface by the time the iPhone 13 emerges late next year.

iPhone 12 accessories

The iPhone typically ships with a set of earbuds and a charger. (In the case of the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, that’s a fast 18-watt charger.) But Apple may have different plans for the iPhone 12.

We’ve already mentioned the rumor that Apple could skip including a charger with the iPhone 12. But analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also expects Apple to leave EarPods out of the iPhone 12 box.

That would seem like a curious omission, but Kuo believes that Apple is going to try to get customers to upgrade to its wireless AirPods by shipping its next iPhones without included earbuds for the first time ever. A report from analyst Dan Ives (via 9to5Mac ) weeks following Kuo’s initial note corroborates the lack of EarPods claim.

Could a braided cable be heading to the iPhone 12? (Image credit: @L0vetodream via Twitter)

It may be small consolation to iPhone 12 shoppers, but Apple could upgrade the one accessory that will still come with its phones. A tweet from a phone leaker suggests the iPhone 12 will include a braided USB-C-to-Lightning cable. Theoretically, a braided cable should be more durable than a standard plastic-shrouded charging cable, so that would be an upgrade from what Apple’s used in the past. Pictures of the braided cable have now emerged, lending credence to this rumor.

iPhone 12 and iOS 14

We now know a great deal about the mobile OS that will power the new iPhone 12 models. Apple previewed iOS 14 at its annual developer conference, showcasing new features like a redesigned home screen and updates to Maps and Messages among other highlights.

Both developers and the wider public have access to the iOS 14 beta, and you can read our guide for how to get the iOS 14 beta to download it to your current iPhone. Read our iOS 14 hands-on for a preview on what to expect from the iPhone 12’s software.

The final version of iOS 14 will debut on the iPhone 12 when the software launches this fall, and as we’ve seen from our iOS 14 hands-on with the public beta, there are some big changes to how you interact with your phone.

iOS 14 lets you place widgets on the home screen, and there’s a new App Library to more easily find your software. You can also expect enhancements to existing apps like Voice Memos, Notes and Weather, along with a new Translate app.

Smart Stack widgets in iOS 14 (Image credit: Tom’s Guide)

Those are just the changes we know about, though. There could be AR improvements specifically tied to the iPhone 12 Pro’s anticipated LiDAR sensor that we won’t see in action until the fall. That’s just one of the hints iOS 14 offers about potential iPhone 12 features.

iPhone 12 outlook

Based on the rumors surrounding the iPhone 12, Apple’s 2020 phone update sounds like an exciting one. Now we just need to wait a little bit longer than usual for the new iPhones to arrive.

It seems like the biggest improvements will come in the areas of 5G connectivity and support for augmented reality apps with the time-of-flight sensor slated for the pricier iPhone 12 models. The importance of 5G hinges heavily on how far along wireless carriers are with building out 5G coverage by the time the iPhone 12 ships.

Even with daily iPhone 12 leaks, there’s still so much we don’t know about Apple’s first 5G iPhones. So be sure to keep an eye on this hub over the coming weeks as new information surfaces.

New iPhone 12 release date, price, specs and leaks #web #website #copied #toread #highlight #link #news #read #blog #wordpresspost #posts #breaking news# #Sinrau #Nothiah #Sinrau29 #read #wordpress

#IFTTT #WordPress

0 notes

wallyaxiom · 7 years

Photo

task 04; journey of the featherless

❝ He wasn’t like Wally. He wasn’t this ray of sunshine that turned assholes like Jafar into decent people❞

Describe your character; How do you see your character in your own eyes and not based off the bio. How have you developed this character into your own?

SO A LOT HAS CHANGED SINCE THE LAST TIME I WROTE THIS LMFAO. How do I even describe Wally??? He honestly means so damn much to me for many reasons mostly because he’s the character i‘ve had the longest. I’ve had him for maybe 8 years??? and he’s truly come leaps and bounds from where he once was. Wally is the actual human form of sunshine. He just emits light and love wherever he goes. He has one of the biggest hearts around and sometimes that gets him in trouble. He sees the good in everyone (except maybe auto but you know auto’s a d i c k). Wally has really come into his own these past few years. He’s learned to love himself, like, genuinely love himself. That has always been wally’s biggest struggle. All his life he was told he was nothing and treated like absolute trash by the BNL gang and the axioms. when he first came to walt he was this stuttering insecure mess, basically austin. He was scared of his own shadow and afraid to be loved, even touched. Now that’s not the case at all. He’s genuinely happy. he’s very confident with himself. Now that i’ve played wally long enough i’ve gotten to explore more bits and pieces of him and he’s quite feminine and he’s not ashamed of it he embraces it. He doesn’t feel like he has to hide who he is anymore because he’s married to one of the most understanding, supportive and loving men ever. Wally is a fighter. He’s come so damn far and I am proud of my little bean.

What’s your favorite thing about your character? what’s your least favorite?

There’s so many things about wally that I love, I love how carefree and spirited he is. I really love how fucking sassy he is. like my boy has SASS. But really my favorite thing about Wally is his ability to love just about anything and anyone. Which is one of his down falls as well, because he just sees the good even in the worst of people and Wally just wants to fix the broken. I would say that i don’t like how he still has a lack of faith in himself. He doesn’t hate himself as much as he used to but he doesn’t believe in his capabilities. also he’s a fucking tease like rip oliver spade.

What are some of your favorite relationships your character has formed? (Friendships, relationships, yada ya)

omgomg I love wally and silvermist. she’s the little sister he’s always wanted (before he knew marjoire existed rip me!!) and they’re just so pure and cute. I also love his relationship with Aurora. They’re both hopeless romantics and becca i’m so sorry i’m trash with replying but like their friendship has to flourish even more because they’re very a like and wally adored her. his relationship with donicia is so sweet too like omg they rot my teeth.

i’ll throw in next gen too because do i REALLY want to make more posts than I need to??? the answer is no.

HELLO I LOVE SAD BREAKFAST CLUB THEY ARE MY LIFE. THEIR DIIFERENT PERSONALITIES AND DYNAMICS MAKE MY HEART SO HAPPY LIKE IVE ALWAYS WANTED A SQUAD AND NOW I GOT ONE AND EVERYONE IS JUST SO PERFECT AND WODNERFUL AND FUCK WIL I EVER GET MY OWN SAD BREAKFAST CLUB IRL??

cyrus and austin??? binch I love them

fucking daisy and austin are the cutest, purest ship i’ve had and god i love them so fucking much like when 2gen rolls around i’m always so pumped to have them like I love them that much i miss them when we’re not in next gen world i just love them so fucking much it’s fine i’m fine ya’ll wanna see pics of their kids in the future?? they CUTE

allison and remus oh my gOD they hurt me but i’m so excited to see where they go like allison totally likes this boy and remus, god bless his soul, deserves so fucking good already in his life. they’re gonna hurt me i know this they’re going to kick me in my feels but I am ready for the pain ahead

bee, you already know i’m pumped for nina and nikki. my lil gay heart is thriving. can their ship name be spaqueen??? lmfao. listen it’s hard to come up with a ship name for them lET ME LIVE.

dj and kennedy are silvally 2.0 and i cry about it on the daily.

Do i really need to get into walliver tho? Like we ALL know they’re story. They’re soulmates. I love them. they’re my longest ship. they my first married ship w/ kids. They make me believe in love and i’m pissedt and that I haven’t found my oliver yet. universe wyd !!!

Has your character changed you in any way? Or do you yourself in yourself in your character?

Wally’s changed me a lot. If anything. I’ve played many characters, and my biggest problem rping is that I can never connection with a character. I don’t see a story. There’s only one other character i’ve connected with the way I have with wally, but in all honesty Wally is the character I hold closet to my heart. Because I think there’s a bit of wally in all of us. We want to be loved and give love. We want to have hope in something that’s bigger than ourselves. That there’s this light at the end of the tunnel in whatever we’re searching for. We’re all just dreamers and I guess that’s the best way to sum up wally. He’s a dreamer and a believer. I give Wally a lot of praise, but it’s because he’s the thing i’m most proud of. He’s apart of me, and he’s as weird as it sounds, he’s help me grow as a person. Sometimes I wish I was more like Wally. I wish I could be happy about life and enjoy the little things and just love everything and everyone as much as he does. I’ve been told i’m sunshine before so I guess wally and I are a lot a like. So wally’s a big part of me and always has been. Like I said, wally’s just a good person. He’s the good in me I wish I had more of to be honest. or at least showed more of.

Do you think your character has had a big impact on Walt? Is it a good impact or bad?

I think Wally’s had a good impact. In all honestly, I didn’t think people were going like wally, or like, not really pay attention him. Yet this fucker’s impacted a good chunk of people. I just, sometimes I cry about it that so many people like him and that he does effect so many characters. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside that I finally did something right with a character and it only took years of roleplaying. aye.

Favorite thing your character has done and worst

FALLING IN LOVE WITH OLIVER MY GOD THAT’S THE BEST THING HES DONE. listen to me when I say wally STRUGGLED for years to come to terms with his sexuality. and when he finally fell in love with Oliver oh my god it was the most freeing experience ever for him and he found his best friend and soulmate. The worst thing he’s done?? lmfao the fucking coma. That story arch haunts me to this day.

What is some progress you hope to have with your character in the future?

I want him to finally give acting a chance

What is one thing you would tell your character?

Honestly, i would tell him i’m proud of him and how far he’s come.

What has been YOUR favorite thing about walt?

My favorite thing about Walt is just how much it’s grown. When we started this roleplay, I was so afraid it was going to flop and people would be like 'oh it’s just another Disney school rp big woop’ but I was proven wrong because over the past views year. sure we’ve had or ups and downs. we’ve had drama that we DON’T speak of or speak of whomst but walt’s grown into something that I never imagined it could be. we’ve all became a huge family and that’s just…it’s my favorite knowing that. So thank you guys. Walt wouldn’t be what it is without you.

Has your experience been a positive one? (BE HONEST YO.)

I’ll be real sometimes I get stressed out about everything. I’m always doing a million things at once rp and in real life. but i do love this place and all of you and i want to give you all the best roleplay you could ever be a part of. i’m not a perfect admin or rper for that matter but i’m trying.

Got a favorite memory? Share it!

walliver’s wedding or when they got engaged. I waited fucking YEARS for them to finally be married and now that they are has me shook on the daily. kaitlyn truly left me in the dark and knocked me tf out with their engagement. Like I remember that day so vividly. I was actually crying and screaming because it finally happened. Then I had to wait a damn YEAR for them to get married. a y e a r.

What are you looking forward too in the future?

More bios, more members, more ships, more everything because I love you all.

Have you had a favorite event? Favorite plot? Share it right here

fucking next gen is my jam ya’ll already KNOW. I also really loved the superhero and 50′s event and i’d love to bring them back one day. also 3gen??? i want that. maybe it’ll be a thing but it’s my jam too.

Favorite character that’s not your own and why

i have a lot of characters to praise people on so please don’t freak if you’re not on here bc i’m gonna be biased as fuck as always (since it’s wally and he’s my fave bc again biased) and say Oliver. Ya’ll know how much I love oliver spade. I’ve been kaitlyn’s best friend and ship partner for years so i’ve grown an immense love for Oliver. There’s so many layers to him like I always say. He’s a shit head but he’s such a good person. he cares so much about his family and only wants the best for them. he puts others before himself and often forgets to do something for ollie for once. he’s such a hard worker and uhm ya’ll wally’s mans is hot as fuck. have you seen him lately??? like damn. I just love oliver spade with all my heart. Like i can’t even put into words how much i love him because i’ve said it so many times. Oliver has a special place in my heart.

Ideas, shoutouts, request, dedications, questions? Put ‘em here!

why the fuck am that binch. someone explain.

#watask #did i copy and paste most of my anwsers #maybe you don't know #anyways #also bee I used sulley's quote bc i miss sulley and wally :~((( not to be fake deep but uh

8 notes · View notes

coloursofaparadox · 7 years

Text

Okay I gotta talk about shit for a second because it’s been driving me insane to not be discussing this with anyone purely in the way of the whole ‘validation of existence only because we exist to others’ bullshit but w/e here we go

It’s been a couple weeks now and I’m a lot more clearheaded. A lot of things suck and a fairly decent amount of things are much better, which coincidentally happens to be one of the things that sucks. Realizing how shitty it was for a long time came fairly quickly, because that was literally all I could think about at the time? If it was terrible and it was over then that meant a terrible thing was over and that was a good thing. That got me through until the day they packed up and took their shit and moved out back to another fucking province. Few days after that too. But being in self-perpetuated denial does not help me whatsoever in the long run and eventually I had to slowly try to come to terms with what the past 3 and a half years actually was, good and bad altogether.

So I’ve been doing that. For about 2 and a half weeks now. Trying to think about it clearly while finally being in a position where it’s too late for that to have any repercussions. There’s a lot of stuff I knew, and I knew I knew, but didn’t want to think about too hard. I took shit like that into account when I did things like ‘temporarily’ break up weeks before the breaking down a door like a fuckin horror movie thing went down, but what I’m trying to figure out is how much of what I thought I knew has been me tricking myself into not seeing something for the sake of the three of us. It’s fucking sucked. Forcing myself to acknowledge times that were actually legitimately good has been fucking hard when all I do is make myself sad, and realizing I was right about putting in years of onesided effort and emotional energy that I’m never getting back has felt like I’m waking up after sleeping through some very valuable years of my life haggard and grey and I’m never getting them back.

The conclusion I’ve come to so far is. not much honestly. But what I have realized is how fucking stupid I’ve been!! The easiest bit to sort through has never been the abstract. It’s always the comparison, in this case the direct comparison between two very different people, and I am a fucking fool. I cannot believe I never let myself see it when we were all together, but I do not know for the life of me why I was so scared to see how fucking incredible she was. And this isn’t a case of post-mortem romanticization. We fit, SO much better. Looking back there was no comparison. Literally just shit like basic communication, or conversation and clicking. If we actually put the fucking effort in and at some point along the way decided to stop being scared of each other and playing it safe with the easy option (him), then I don’t know what would’ve happened. I wish I could say I knew for sure but I don’t, and there is a WORLD of incredible potential that I’ll now never fucking know. She is far too good for him. It’s been a force of will not to demonize the past 3 odd years I’ve been with him, and I will never say there wasn’t good about him, but it’s good on top of a foundation of insecurity and denial and someone who never grew up and refuses to see how it harms the people around him. He’s going to keep hurting people and dragging his way through life at an infants pace until he wakes up. And she does not deserve to be one of those people.

Realizing I’ve been devoting myself to someone I thought I had finally, after years found a kindred spirit in and being slapped in the face with the reality that I’d deluded myself has been. Not great. To say the least. It feels a lot like betrayal with a stab of burning shame and existential despair lmfao but yknow. I am not someone who makes real friends easily. I’m not praising that about myself though. Sometimes I wish I could not think about all the things that get in the way of liking people uninhibited because p much everyone else fucking doesn’t and they’re doing just fine apparently. But for me to find someone I really enjoy talking to and trust and actually prefer their companionship to loneliness does not happen often, and I am absolute shit at being lonely. I can still count on one hand the number of people I’ve found in my entire 22 years of life, and while obviously they’re not all romantic connections it still fucking hurts to lose even one of those. The very shitty Venn diagram of the general populace, people I like, people I love and trust, and people I love, trust, and somehow am also in love with is comically disproportionate and transphobia and social anxiety are not on my side for adding to the latter more than once in a blue moon. My plans for the future involve a lot of blank nothingness and stubborn refusal not to date anyone until I’m financially stable and CAN comfortably be completely single without a looming sense of dread and desperation to not be achingly lonely, which are probably not in any danger of being called into question by the appearance of a wildcard I swoon over given my fucking chances.

It would’ve been so easy to sink into a spiral of cynicism and turn on the whole world over him and I definitely did for a while, but I’m not as young as I was 5 years ago. As much as it hurts my pride and my limited (now crumbling) experience of romantic love to admit, I fucked up and I picked wrong. It’s by no means my only goal in life but. it would just. be kinda nice to know if it’s actually possible for me to find someone(s) that. are. good? and. are the kind of love that you see sometimes. not the stupid movie shit but just. people that work with each other, in multiple senses of the word. I got a fucking taste of it and now I can’t even tell if it was real or not and it’s killing me thinking about it. I want it so bad. I don’t want it for free, I want to work for it and towards it and find someone I want to work towards it with. This is not me freeloading and romanticizing some perfect ideal relationship, this is me just. wanting. people. I love doing little things for people to make them happy I love helping and giving and seeing people smile because of it and I love. just. being happy. and other people being happy. I love being genuine and I fucking would do anything for the heady experience of knowing someone else and someone else knowing you thoroughly and completely. and just existing, like that, and making eachother happy while you live your lives. There’s probably some fancy obscure word out there to describe all that but I don’t fucking know I just want. To love someone. It’s not a compulsion I won’t make shit choices just to find the wrong person to throw affection at but despite all my bullshit I genuinely. love. people. more abstractly as a whole but intensely as individuals. and i already miss it.

i have no fucking idea where this is going any more I just have a lot of thoughts that don’t have very much ‘a good addition to a conversation’ vibe going on and like mentioned at great fucking length im generally starved for human connection okay i feed on it like a black hole lmfao. im. more myself lately though. I’ve been missing the bit of me that connects to people as a mass i think. I’m not going to say i’m happier but part of something that has always defined me as an entity of fuckin brainwaves is just doing stuff for people. not really for any reason but barring social anxiety getting in the way ive always done stuff like offered to help or go out on a limb and ask if someone’s okay or little shit like get someone the drink they always get bc they weren’t around to ask and i haven’t been more or more in the last 3 years. I’m doing it now though. I’ve missed it. A big unhealthy chunk of that relationship was we were all so immersed in cynicism and sarcasm and ‘ironic’ morbidity that just being genuinely happy and optimistic was not encouraged nearly enough. and now that im free of that i feel a lot more like me and i’m very glad to know that hasn’t gone anywhere n ill be very sure to foster that part of myself a lot more in the future

i need to go to fucking bed. tldr im happier but lonely and i loved the wrong person and im quietly losing faith that real romantic love actually exists for me at all but yknow whatever. gnight.

#im not tagging this so it can get lost in the massive archives of my blog #i dont really care who reads this it's not emotional any more its just going through the facts as best i can so w/e. probably gonna change #my mind on some of this shit at some point but not because of any input from either of them lmao #fucking end me #i miss having real conversations like this.#thats not to say im not acquainted with people who could but its not something ive. done. with many people.#and its hard to tell who's down. anyways. if you ever have fucking weirdass existential dread gimme a shout i miss the feeling.

2 notes · View notes

davidmann95 · 7 years

Note

Have you watched Brows Held High's video on the 'unrelatable' nature of Superman? I'd link it, but I'm on my phone. It seems like something you'd simultaneously agree and take issue with.

youtube

Yeah, I checked that one awhile back. There’s definitely plenty of aspects I disagree with - the Jesus comparison, the idea that the 50s and 60s titles brought nothing to the table, the assertion that he’s a symbol more than a character (which probably covers the pretty flat characterization of the Clark/Lois/Superman triangle, and the description of his ethics as strictly Kantian). But the central idea of the video - that Superman doesn’t fit the Ubermensch model, and that this is in fact part of why he has trouble appealing to a modern audience - I think has some merit behind it.

Superman certainly isn’t an Ubermensch in any meaningful way: his ideals are very much attuned towards serving the common good, rather than as a means of achieving personal satisfaction (even if that typically comes as a bonus). Lex Luthor��s the one who looks at the world that way. And I don’t know that the Ubermensch as an archetype is one that’s necessarily an attractor in and of itself in terms of global pop culture. But, the idea of a Great Individual determining their moral framework in response to a great personal need and overcoming a hostile world in order to do so? We generally tend to be all about those. Batman isn’t self-centered, but he’s explicitly all about imposing order on a disordered world in response to his own emotional need. Spider-Man works in a large part to assuage his own guilt. Iron Man becomes Iron Man to take back his technology after the fruits of his labor are turned against him. These days, Flash fights crime as a way of dealing with the world after his mother’s murder. There’s a legitimate moral framework behind what they do, they’re altruistic and working in service of what they believe to be a greater good than themselves, but the traditional “something bad has been done to me or someone/something I value, I will battle a world of madness to rectify things and restore order, explicitly by means of turning myself into a symbol and thereby imposing meaning upon my actions” origin story has more than a bit in common with Nietzsche’s ideal, and we keep going back to that because it’s a simple and effective means of garnering sympathy and grounding their motivations in something tangible. Superheroes and Ubermenschen aren’t the same thing, but one does invite the idea of the other.

The problem is that Superman of course isn’t that. There’s no defining moment in his backstory that makes him who he is, no overwhelming self-centered reason for doing what he does - Krypton was when he was too young to remember, and even in versions where Martha and Jonathan die, the narration in the old comics mentions it simply strengthened an existing conviction in his mind to fight for the weak. He’s simply Good, and fights for us because it’s Good. This doesn’t mean he doesn’t have motivation beyond that nebulous sense of Goodness, there’re plenty of personal reasons he does what he does - a need for acceptance and a sense of purpose, an overdeveloped sense of empathy due to both his upbringing and super-senses, a fear that his new home will go the way of his old one, his love for humanity in general and most especially those close to him - but none of it’s rooted in an obvious moment where something happened, so he decided to be an action protagonist. And it’s hard to show the relatively normal process of slowly becoming a decent human being over time in the same way as swearing vengeance because your parents were murdered, or repentance because your uncle was killed.

And because it’s hard to communicate that in a straightforward, effective way, his adaptations have suffered by comparison (along with his comics for that matter, but those aren’t the popular culture). Whatever their quality, The Adventures of Superman, Superman: The Animated Series and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman take his nobility as a given (though for the first two that’s certainly fair game as entertainment for children). Smallville spent 10 years and almost 200 hours trying to slowly tease out that moral arc, and frankly, while I love Superman as much as almost anything, not every aspect of his story has quite that much gas in the tank. The initial Donner movie presents him as almost inhuman in his simple perfection relative to those around him, and the final beat of the movie is meant to show that he really, unambigiously can save everyone and always do the completely right thing; with almost no character to build off of, II and III were built around trying to subvert the morality that was largely the sole aspect of his character, and IV just took it further, because as perfect as Christopher Reeve’s performance was, there are no other stories to tell with him as he’s defined after that first movie. Superman Returns continues to try and subvert his essential morality without really giving a defined reason for his actions, without even banking on the same charm as the previous movies. Man of Steel at least gives him a clear, understandable and articulated purpose in its first act - discover the truth of who he is - but after that he’s just Superman because ghost dad said so, and it’s right back to trying to subvert a character we don’t especially understand, on an even grander scale. Same with Batman V Superman, but without the initial grounding, or much personality on display either.

So yes, I’d say most attempts at capturing him have been pretty bad failures. But it’s not impossible by any means for that kind of character to work.

I could go on for a good long while about how well the Captain America of the MCU works - especially on how the small but important changes to his origin, personality and treatment by the world at large solve a number of issues that have always plagued him in the comics - but I’d say it’s pretty inarguable that he’s at least neck-and-neck with Iron Man at this point as the most popular and significant figure in those movies. He’s Good in the same way Superman is Good, there’s no radical alterations to his motivation or methods, but he’s a pretty universally loved Hollywood icon. Because we know what we wants: in the first movie, his decency is clearly born of an understanding of what it means to be vulnerable, physically and socially, which leads to a purely heroic self-sacrificing desire to protect others from pain and exploitation. In the next, he’s up against individuals whose politics in regards to security, freedom and the value of human life conflict with his own, naturally bringing about a conflict where he’s purely heroically fighting a fascist overthrow of the government. And in the last, he has the purely heroic mission of protecting the wrongfully accused from a state power intending to bring individuals under their direct control, because he wants to save his friend. Every time we get very clearly Who He Is and What He Wants and Why He’s Doing What He’s Doing, and because of that we’re willing to accept and embrace the answer being that he’s a very nice young man.

So it’s hardly an insurmountable obstacle. It’ll continue to be as good as so long as writers assigned to Superman either aren’t good enough or don’t get it or just don’t try, but there is some very concrete evidence that this type of character can work in one of the two biggest franchises in the world right now. The problem isn’t that he isn’t an Ubermensch, it’s that his caretakers don’t know what to do with him when he so clearly doesn’t fit a model even kind of resembling it.

#Superman #Captain America #MCU #Opinion

28 notes · View notes

jumunkrp-blog · 8 years

Photo

RESIDENCY DIRECTORY UPDATING...

LOADING RESIDENT INFORMATION: ❝ — [ JOO SEUNGHOON ] is currently 26 YEARS OLD, a PUREBLOOD (SQUIB), and currently is a FREELANCE ARTIST. Please click here for more information on this resident.

ACCESSING DATA...

— LOADED PERSONALITY:

he could not make fantasy into reality, make it possible and non-fiction—but he could create a fantasy and show it off to people that belonged in reality. he liked to imagine a world where all was well and better—it was his escape. the sceneries he built in his mind became a safe haven for him to go to at times when he needed to think. his creativity became his relief and his life saver, one which he cherished dearly.

towards people and everyone else, he may seem like an amiable, thoughtful and polite man. he smiles and talks and sets lines to maintain a comfortable atmosphere—at least, that was how most would think. the lines he drew, which were thick and high and by then was even more impressive than the great wall of china, was meant for his own defense. and his nature was to make sure that you would know not to be too nosy—an equivalent exchange. yes, he may be friendly in manners but that was because he was being like others and avoiding to be troublesome. you may have him in your contacts and may have talked to each other but you and him will most likely never break down those walls.

the truth is, he’s much more negative than the surface of his personality would show. he is extremely repressive and would force down his feelings of inferiority towards his siblings and more, the negativity that build up towards his family, and anything that would show something bad. he holds back and unleashes all the stress from these emotions in the form of artworks which would never get to be shown in public and boxing practice where he could pummel training equipments to satisfy it.

he forced himself to be ignorant, to be optimistic and naive in order to ignore the vileness of the situation. keep a positive thinking and don’t think otherwise—all because he just did not want to face with how bad his family had been or how alone he was. he truly wanted to feel good for once in any way or form but recalling everything made him feel as if he could never be such. that’s why he forced himself and believed a false light to feel as if all was alright. it’s not a healthy way of thinking but he was stubborn to hold onto it as he did not wish to face the truth.

to sum it up—he was a boy who wanted to stay in a world of fiction to avoid the painful, painful truth.

— LOADED BACKGROUND:

i. he is born with magic in his blood and wizards and witches for parents. majority will say that he would be like them—someone that made fiction a non-fiction—but majority didn’t always result in them being right.

he could not bring fantasy into reality and do what was impossible—for he was a squib and a disgrace to the family’s bloodline.

ii. he is the eldest of the children but the worst of the lot. mother would look at him with disappointment and father would sneer once sighting him. his younger brother and sister followed his parents and they all made him the dark void of the family.

when the younger two did a misdeed, they will point at him as the culprit. then he would find himself locked outside in the cold winter clad in nothing but underwear. they would lock him in closets and always say that it was his fault. they only ever gave him a decent treatment when he proved to be useful—become their servant of sorts and never miss a chore.

they treat him decently despite all the horrid things they’ve done in order to maintain an image. they still tried to find a way to ‘cure’ him of this unfortunate happening. and in the end—instead of hating them and running away or plotting vengeance—he grew to ignore all the horrid events. to pretend that every time he has been punished was merely a nightmare and never happened. his family were great, they were nice and had done good things. they weren’t abusive in any way.

he had forcefully became ignorant, naive and optimistic.

iii. he went to a muggle school, become one with the people who were like him yet not. they told him he could at least be useful by becoming successful, at least be good for something. and so he tried. he tried to get good grades or be amazing in any way or form.

he forces himself to study math and sciences to the best of his ability. tried making himself excel in anything. but he was never first and just above average—not good enough.

he had no talent what-so-ever is the thought that whispered in his mind ever so often, one which he had tried to lock away into a place where he could no longer hear it. yet, every time he failed to exceed or even reach expectations, it comes stronger than before.

until he found out about arts.

he had been given a chance to hold the pencil in his hand and was told to draw his family. and he did—made a rough circle in one stroke, added lines to form the body, the face, the background and…the smiles.

that day he had been punished and locked inside the closet—framed by his brother yet again—and he sobbed as he held the drawing he had done earlier that day, as if it was the only lifesaver he had.

only in these drawing will he ever be close to bringing fantasy into reality.

iv. now he had a notebook for drawing and the grades which he tried so hard to achieve became a tad bit lower than before. lunch became a time to eat as quickly as possible before he started to draw. classmates that were ‘friends’ who knew him enough to be considered as one in their terms had inched closer to inspect his work. the children would be in awe and compliment him—which had shocked him to the core the first time it happened.

art became one of the things which gave him life. it became something that he was talented in and could be proud of.

but it wasn’t something his family approved of.

he had showed it to them, the notebook filled with drawings to showcase that he was good at something—that he could do something at least—instead they scoffed and with a flick of the wand the book was shredded and burned into ashes. just like his soul and heart as he saw it happen.

he was punished again, locked in a room without anything and starved for two days before he was nurtured again to look normal enough so he could return to school without raising suspicions.

it was a blessing that a classmate of his had gifted him with a sketchbook, one which he hid with all his might from everyone. this time he won’t let the only thing which he could pretend to be his only magic disappear.

v. he found out that he didn’t only have a single talent soon enough. as he visited his classmate’s father due to their group project, he ended up growing interested in a sport called boxing.

the man had been a boxer before, retiring since he decided to focus on family more. that day he and a few others had been thought a bit about boxer since they still had a lot of time to spare after their project finished.

the man praised him for his jabs and stance. it was proper and right and for a very brief moment he had wished that the man was his father instead. he would never be praised by his own parents is a fact he knew but tried to ignore vehemently.

he found himself visiting the man more often to learn how to box. he kept a guise of groups studies in front of his parents and made sure to hide anything that may reveal his lies.

he didn’t want this love for an activity to be spat upon again.

vi. it became obvious that the man he grew to call his boxing instructor was more of a family than his actual family.

even after the son of the man who was a classmate of his had died—he still came to learn. but spending more time together had led to the eventual bond that he had never expected to have with how his life had been for all these years. it was refreshing and different—it was the light of his day and he could find himself smiling more and more often.

the man would be the only one able to to get the true him to spill all that he pent up for a very long time. and he would also be the only one he could call a true friend and family.

vii. his siblings were the light of the family and were always gifted with many that he would never be able to gain. they were younger but treated him with no respect. they were taught to see him as a lower being—a different species that was inferior to them.

he stayed home alone every time the rest of his family had to meet others. he stayed in his room as others came to visit them. at times he had followed and he was met with scrutinizing looks. sometimes others pitied him for his lack of magic, or they openly despised him for it, or they may have just been indifferent or decided to not even notice his existence.

he kept his distance at all times and the feelings had been mutual—except his seemed almost non-existent with how thoroughly he hid such thoughts.

viii. when he was old enough—they gave him a place to stay alone. he saw it as them wanting him to be independent but knew what it truly meant. of course, he ignored the harsh truth for the sake of a better fantasy.

when pangs of joy came from the decision his family had made for this separation were to show itself, he would push them all away. it was bad to think such thoughts at such a situation is what he forced himself to realize. but it was because of this that he find himself spending a lot more time with the boxing instructor and find himself not able to care about repressing those emotions.

they pay for his living expenses and gave him a yearly allowance to survive a year with cheap meals. every time he got lower than expected grades they will cut his allowance money bit by bit. during such times, the boxing instructor would help him out and he would thank the man profusely.

and then more years passed by and his life shifted for the worst again.

ix. he had still been in college when the man he greatly attached himself too was diagnosed with dementia. he had been in university when the illness reached it’s middle stage. he had graduated from university when he was asked about his identity.

these moments that were spent with the man had turned from one of his most greatest time to a pain which could not be described. he couldn’t do anything lo stop it no matter what he tried. he tried to cope—but his only coping method was a despicable act for such a scenario.

so he lived in pain and no one knew. because he only showed himself to the man that was the reason behind this agony. he regretted that he could not be able to do any more than what he had done. especially when he saw the tombstone with the name of the man engraved on it—no longer able to hear his problems and give him a comforting hand.

for a long time, he had only been able to paint his feelings and destroy it as soon as he finished it.

x. he is now a freelance artist. after finally being able to return to a somewhat normal state, he had started to try and live. he was jobless no longer and even though he was still financially supported by his family he was scared of them stopping such acts. no matter how much he tried to avoid negative thoughts—he knew this would have to be an exception. plus, he really did not want to eat gimbap and ramyeon for the rest of his life.

the fortress between him and his family had grown to such imposing levels that it would put the great wall of china by then. of course, he ignored it and let his family do what they wanted. his family still wanted to have an image of being nice and he was their tool for it—of course, such way of thinking would only be ignored by him but deep down he knew that was the case.

life had returned to a much more steady pace and that was what he wanted. this time, he hoped it stayed that way.

#jm: acceptances #kang haneul #jm: squib #krp #krp ad #kpop roleplay #kpop roleplay ad #kpop rp #kpop rp ad

1 note · View note