#my opinions babey

[solargeist]

teeth are better left stained, crooked, and sharp, in my humble opinion...

[mercy-misrule]

Which is the worst apple?

Red delicious, flavourless, texture nightmare that lies to you because it looks pretty or

Golden delicious, the most floury, mealy garbage ball of fruit to exist

[domifucker]

my scottish friend wants to become a leafs fan (despite my constant complaining and words of warning) should i make a slideshow crash course about our boys to show her?

[asterdeer]

i deserve financial compensation for every time a radio makes me hear hozier tell a woman “you treat your mouth as if it’s heaven’s gate / the rest of you like you’re the tsa”. i didn’t live through years of baby it’s cold outside discourse just for this shit to be the song of the summer. fuck dude

ETA: rbs turned off because 2 terf rbs is 2 too many jesus christ

[honeysucklethornsandalligtrhorns]

surely some of you people have been playing a different game than the one this fandom is based on. surely.

[crowleysheiress]

The Hazbin Hotel sweep will never cease to be so satisfying to me like. People wanted it to be cringe and unpopular so bad and now look. Largest global debut for a animated show on Prime. Even the normies like it.

[baroness-faron]

Renfield and Souls

There's an aspect of Renfield's death that has really not been addressed in the discussion, at least from what I’ve seen. A lot happened in early October so I know it’s a lot to take in, but Renfield is important to me okay. So, I think it's an important aspect to throw into the discussion! That being: Seward and Renfield’s final dialogue together on Oct. 1st about souls. 

Long essay under the cut:

The discussion that Seward has with Renfield about souls is not just Seward being a malpractice jerk, bullying his patient and making him worry about things that he doesn't need to worry about- which I’ve seen other posts claim. From Seward’s point of view, this is Seward trying to figure Renfield out and understand what he's going through currently, considering the outburst Renfield had about being let out. He wants to know of Dracula’s involvement as well. But from Renfield’s point of view, this discussion turns his entire worldview upside down. In a stressful way, yes, but ultimately a good way- towards his redemption! Seward did say he was being ‘cruel to be kind’ by challenging Renfield’s beliefs about consuming lives- and this ultimately ends up true!

The element of souls is really important to Renfield's eventual character arc. With Lucy, Renfield had washed his hands of her fate in terms of his own personal responsibility. He was not very involved- besides the attempted murder attack on Seward (which I very much believe Dracula instructed of him, to get Seward out of the picture that night, as he definitely did not expect Helsing’s letter to not reach him in time lol). 

Regardless, after he felt that he was not going to get what he wanted from Dracula, he washed his hands of the situation, and went back to his flies and his spiders. For a while, he acts like his old self again, as Seward notes during Lucy’s time as a vampire. 

In this way, it is the same when he meets Mina. He initially starts to regret the way her fate shall go when he meets her. However, he is unable to be set free by Seward and the others, and so he is forced to let Dracula in against his will (His not being let free was also an act done out of fear of Dracula’s control over him, by the way, not out of ableism. Seward says in a ‘dreamy’ (evidently uneasy and emotionally impacted) way, that if Dracula had not been involved, he would have taken the risk of trusting Renfield). But after this event, he decides to wash his hands of it again, and even doubles down on his alliance with Dracula, saying that he will be like Enoch, as he would ‘walk with God (Dracula).’

After this, Seward has his discussion with Renfield about souls, which visibly leads to Renfield starting to think and worry. Renfield begins stressing over the souls of the animals he’s consumed- and the future weight of Mina's soul. He knows he is responsible for her being in danger of the Count, and now that souls are involved, he cannot just disassociate and wash his hands of it as he had wanted to. 

Without Seward talking to him about souls, I do not believe Renfield would have changed his mind. Before, he was willing to accept his lack of agency, and live as best he could with what he had. But now, he is trying to save his eternal soul. What he wants is life, he may even want to live forever- but upon the realization that he could be cursed and doomed forever for having chosen the path that he has, and that he could be haunted by that sweet girl's soul forever, even if he does live- he instead chooses to save Mina. 

He has only known Mina for a few days after all- it is not entirely her kindness that leads him to wanting to save her. It is not simply a situation of "the one person who has ever been nice to me is in danger!" Her kindness is an important element- he cares about her and thus he cares about her death (or damnation) being his responsibility. But there is also the self-serving element- that being the salvation of his own soul. It makes sense then- narratively- that with his death, this heroic act of trying to save Mina from his own wrongdoing, he is able to free himself from his previous "sins.” He is able to redeem himself and absolve himself of guilt.

Relatedly, I think it is quite interesting how a “maniac” was given this treatment in such an old book! For the time period, most of Seward's actions towards him are not uncommon or unexpected (besides his early experimental actions, like letting Renfield escape, letting him eat bugs and collect birds, etc). Despite being a “lunatic”, Renfield is an important sympathetic character, and I think that he has an important role not just in exploring Dracula’s influence over others, but also in a commentary about the value of every human life. 

"The world is full of good men, even if there are monsters in it." A large theme within Dracula (in my opinion) is the focus on humanity vs the devil. Humanity is good, if selfish at times- it can be tempted, of course. But ultimately it is good, and loving, and you can trust and ultimately believe in it. People care, people love, people have value. People are virtuous. And while every single human being is also flawed- this should not mean that any of them should be cast aside. 

I think the inclusion of a "lunatic” and his redemption adds to the thoroughness of this message! He is someone considered lesser- not just by Seward, but also by the audience of the time period. Stoker was writing during a time when people would share in a number of opinions with Seward about the mentally ill, and so did Stoker himself. 

Everyone talks about the line, "You will, I trust, Dr. Seward, do me the justice to bear in mind, later on, that I did what I could to convince you to-night.” and that it ends up coming true. Seward did indeed make the wrong choice- and it was the correct answer to listen to Renfield and to value his input. 

Despite the old-timey beliefs, I find that Dracula aims to show that even those who have 'fallen from grace,' or those who are 'lesser,' are still people. They are human. Seward thinks it strange to introduce Renfield to the others- yet he is introduced. Seward’s (and the assumed reader’s) views are being challenged here. 

Renfield- and those who are “insane”- are not the devil. And so, while they can be flawed, they can make mistakes, they are human. And ultimately good. They have an immortal soul just like everyone else, and those souls deserve redemption, deserve to be viewed in full- as a whole life. Renfield's story is a tragic one, but also one where the audience is asked to care about him, pity him, sympathize with him- when after the entire book you were led to overlook him. 

Despite his “madness”, he is still a man. And he was able to redeem his soul, even after making a deal with the ‘devil’ and falling under Dracula's spell. The mere fact that the book expects you to overlook Renfield or to see him as a villain for most of its runtime- but in the end he ends up being a tragic hero, I think is very compelling! 

He was not a villain after all- he was merely a flawed man! The only villain here is Dracula... and even he should be pitied, because at one time, he too was a man.

[quaranmine]

grian is so dysfunctional in firewatch au on god we're gonna get you a therapist after this bro

[zincbot]

ahh playing switch hurts my hands so much but i'm having so much fun finally playing totk

[alternis]

nurse got mad at me for treating something at home and said i should have come into see them a week ago but then did have to admit i handled it perfectly and it's almost totally healed and my issue now is just an allergic reaction to the glue from the wound dressings i was using. so like,

[adhbabey]

Its laughable that people fakeclaiming or claiming that they have "faked" DID or any complex dissociative disorder.

I've seen people mention that they have struggled with their sense of identity after "intentionally faking" having a system, and I need to reiterate the fact that if you're having identity confusion, disconnection from your body, feeling empty or numb, and have conflicting thoughts, those are symptoms of having a dissociative disorder, and you never "faked" in the first place.

So, it's just really stupid and funny that people claim to understand what's going on in those with CDD's minds, when those with the CDD, don't understand it themselves. Like, the brain has built layers of protection from pain and suffering and people expect it to be all unraveled like a loose piece of thread on a sweater. That's not how it works and it's not at all simple.

I'm gonna be honest, if you never had to go through the immense mental gymnastics that your brain does, denying that anything ever happened, then you can't possibly imagine what it's like to live with this disorder. You don't start learning about things until you're further into recovery, that's the truth. Most systems don't know what's going on for a reason. It's so easy to deny that you were ever hurt, than to accept that you went through something traumatic.

Its the whole point of the disorder, you couldn't run away or fight what you went through, so you chose to lock it away, in hopes to live another day. Most people don't have to learn how to emotionally shut down or repress their memories, so it feels incredulous that anyone would know that by instinct. In fact, to most people, which had to dissociate in order to survive their perils, they don't have any idea of what happened, the story is broken up into pieces, so that you may have hope to see tomorrow. If you don't know how bad it is, then you don't have anything to worry about.

So acting like you're multiple people, without understanding the context of why someone's identity is so fragmented, is honestly kind of funny. No system chose this, and to outright avoid the subject or cherry pick information, is its own cognitive dissonance, and is kind of ironic. The fact that you're denying the existence of something that causes you to deny the existence of your own memories.

You can't fake this disorder with any realism or agency. It's pathetic that attempts have been made to discredit those with unique experiences. It's not about having alters, if you try to say it is, that's missing the point. Complex dissociation is about trying to survive an ongoing situation, in which a child cannot fight back or flee, nor can they rely on a trusted adult, so they must rely on themselves.

If you can't imagine how someone may be able to get through something like that, then that's not very imaginative, is it? What were you saying about how simple it is to fake DID? I thought you thought of reasons and explanations, I thought you experienced what it's like, first hand. People don't go on the internet, and tell lies, that can't be true. It sounds like someone's projecting. It's all a lie, then. No actual argument, no actual reason, just another way to bully or make fun of someone, then. It's a bit childish, if you ask me.

I find it rather pathetic, that people expect this to be a shut and close case, but have no idea what lengths the human psyche will go, in order to survive. It's human instinct. I think we can all agree that we've seen at least one movie, read one book, had one experience, where someone would do anything that they can, as an act of self preservation. So, why is it so hard to believe that a child will create another self to help them go through what they cannot do alone. To create a scenario in which that they can live. It's evolution, isn't it? I think these people know nothing about science, and just are using it as a way to make everything a competition. Grow up.

[pandaemoanium]

finished ffxvi. theres still a huge lump in my throat. yoshi p wasnt lying, that game sure was an emotional roller coaster

[anotherpapercut]

the fucking salami pesto caprese sandwich at Jimmy John's has an absolute chokehold on me. I've gotten it like 7 times in 2 months

[robobrainrot]

✨ I officially have a BetaReader for The Knack! I'll announce who it is with the next update :3c

[asterdeer]

“why does no one tell the musicians they can just write songs about made up things Like They Used To Do” you’re getting angry at one singer’s marketing persona and then acting like that’s how all music is Nowadays as if “singer-songwriter” isn’t an entire genre because most (pop, at least) artists just Acquire their songs and have done for literal decades. tons of singers don’t write their own songs at all. all due respect, what are you talking about

[siiin]

“incorrect quote posts suck!” TO YOU

i on the other hand eat that up every time someone does it with their ocs. like hell yeah let me understand a dynamic of the blorbos from your brain through the lens of an established script. put ‘em in the scenarios