#obviously research where you can and be respectful of certain topics but like. write what you wanna write.

[missbaphomet]

I don't like the phrase "write what you know" because can you imagine how boring literature would be if we all just wrote about our lived experiences. Fantasy as a genre would just not exist. Write what you want actually.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for pretending my original fictional characters are my "friends" for the purpose of asking questions online?

Alright, so hear me out: I'm a writing hobbyist, I run a long-term D&D campaign, I like writing characters a lot and sometimes do it even outside of any stories, you could even say that it's my passion. Whenever I create a character that would have experience with something that I don't, I try to experience that thing myself, or if I can't, I ask others online about their experiences to make sure I can write my character accurately.

Here's the problem: back when I used to ask questions online from a writing/creative perspective, I felt like a lot of them concerning more controversial topics were getting dismissed and I got a lot of unsolicited writing advice unrelated to the original question. The most infuriating were always "You shouldn't write a character like that." or "You should change this integral part of the character to remove the issue that you're having."

Now, you can have whatever opinions you want about writing certain aspects of characters, but I would kindly ask you to shove them up your ass. I firmly believe that you can't judge a character accurately merely by their character traits written down in a vacuum, the execution is what really matters. One trait that could be seen as problematic when written badly can really enhance the character, story and it's themes if incorporated correctly. I'm not going to remove integral story-relevant characteristics of my OCs, and I sure as hell am not gonna delete them entirely just because an internet rando didn't believe that I could do them justice. Literally the entire reason why I'm asking these questions in the first place is because I'm trying to be as respectful/accurate to your culture/ethnicity/sexuality/gender/religion/disability/anything else. I GENUINELY want to learn and understand, so why don't you at least try to give me the benefit of the doubt instead of assuming it'll be done terribly?

Anyway, to give some examples of the questions that I've asked that were met with this kind of response:

"How would you write an autistic character who uses ASL but doesn't like to emote with their face?" (Was told to simply "make" the character like using their face even though it would go against how their other symptoms interact with each other, plus it would change how other characters view them and thus the story itself)

"What kind of slang would a black character raised in Brooklyn use?" (Was told to not write a black character using slang as a white person.)

"How would a Muslim character go about leaving their religion after losing their faith?" (Was told that the mere idea of an ex-muslim person was offensive)

I don't know if other writers also struggle with this, or if I'm just the unluckiest and always attract those kinds of people somehow, but after having to deal with it way too much I simply started lying and pretending that my characters are real so people would stop questioning my writing choices and just focus on answering my actual questions. For example, instead of the three questions above nowadays I would ask:

"Me and my Autistic friend are learning ASL together, but she doesn't like making expressions for sensory reasons. Is there anything else she can do?"

"What are some examples of actual slang used by black people in Brooklyn? My friend is from there but he likes to mess with me by coming up with fake words and pretending like they're slang, at this point idk what to believe."

"My friend lost their faith and is planning on leaving Islam. They don't have access to internet due to their parents so they wanted me to ask about what could be the possible consequences and how go about the process, or even where to start."

Also, obviously, I do way more research than just these questions, but I also really want to know the opinion of people in these communities about these topics and the discussion that develops from it. That's not something that simply reading a book or an article on a topic can give you and I believe that interacting with the community itself is an important part of properly portraying characters that belong to them as well. Still, a few of my friends told me that it's kinda shitty of me to lie in this way, especially when the end goal is to be respectful about certain traits yet me lying to these people is a sign of disrespect in their opinion. Personally I don't see it that way, I simply want people answering my questions to treat them seriously and if presenting them as real scenarios is what gets them to do it I feel like I have no choice, it has nothing to do with the respect I have for the communities in question.

Also, if this matters at all: 90% of my writing is entirely personal and will never be published in any way at all, the other 10% being the writing that I do for my D&D campaign which only my players get to witness.

So, with all of that out of the way, AITA?

What are these acronyms?

[ghostonly]

Disability, Cures, and the Complex Relationship Between Them

So, I've been thinking a lot lately about cures, just in general, as a concept. I've been watching the excellent videos of John Graybill II on Youtube, where he demonstrates his day-to-day movements as someone with Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy 2a, and updates every year to show how it progresses. I'm currently writing a character with LGMD and wanted to be sure I understand exactly how it impacts his daily life and movement limitations, so this has been extremely helpful, because there's only so much you can glean from a list of symptoms.

Quick Background on John Graybill II

John started this series in 2007/8, back when he was about 30 years old. He was diagnosed when he was 17, back in '95, and, when he started this series, he was very much fighting his LGMD, in a constant struggle, and angry with himself and the condition. In this, he directed a lot of toxic positivity at himself and became convinced he could defeat LGMD with positive thinking, healthy diet, etc.

Now, while I respect that there are positives to this (exercise and eating well is rarely a bad thing, and the stretches he does almost certainly have helped him to lengthen his time with mobility), there is also something to be said for accepting a physical disability for what it is. In later videos, he clearly had shifted that mindset toward something a bit more realistic. Where, in the beginning, he had been certain that he would somehow heal himself through positivity and such, he later says that may never happen, and he wants to enjoy doing what he can, while he can, instead of being in a constant battle with himself.

That being said, he does run an organization (I believe he runs it?) that seeks to fund research and find a cure for muscular dystrophy of this particular variety. And, while watching his videos from oldest to newest, I've been grappling with my complicated feelings regarding cures.

Why Are Cures a Complicated Topic?

The reason cures are a complicated topic is because, for a lot of us, cures are unlikely to ever be developed - at least not within our lifetimes and probably not within our children's lifetimes. Many physical disabilities and disorders are just too rare, too unknown, the cause unclear. For us, we have to just accept that this is something we have to live with, for better or for worse.

The other reason is that people are often proponents of seeking cures for things that don't need curing, such as autism. Obviously I haven't polled every autistic person alive, but I have known and read content from countless autistic people. I don't think I've ever found a single autistic person who wanted to be cured of autism. In fact, I would say most of them were pretty vocally oppositional toward the idea, for good reason. 90% of the difficulty that comes with being autistic comes from societal ableism and accessibility issues on a systemic level.

My Thoughts on Cures

I can't speak for everyone with incurable physical disabilities that are unlikely to have a cure developed, nor can I speak for everyone who's autistic, but, speaking for myself, talk of cures can be extremely uncomfortable to me.

I asked myself why. Because, in reality, there shouldn't be anything wrong with researching a cure for something like LGMD. It causes people great difficulty and often great pain. For certain variants, it causes early death.

And, after reflecting on my feelings for a long while, I think I've figured out why the word and the concept bothers me so much.

Cures Are Often Used as a Crutch for Ableism

There are, broadly speaking, two camps of people who want cures:

People who want to improve their quality of life, the quality of life of someone they love, or who want to prevent future generations from the difficulty they or a loved one have been dealt

People who are uncomfortable with disability and want it to go away

This is a venn diagram with a large overlap. The number of people who are purely in camp 1 is much smaller than you might hope.

Why Is Wanting to Get Rid of Disability a Problem?

Okay so here's why camp 2 is a problem. Let's say, for the sake of the argument, that every disability has a possible cure that just has to be found. Why is that a problem? Disability is bad, right?

Wrong! Disability is completely amoral - it has no goodness or badness. It just is. Ideally, some of the more painful disabilities could be cured to prevent pain and early death. However, the problem with viewing disability, in a vacuum, as bad, is that your opinion of the disability will inevitably rub off on the people with the disability.

When you view disability as an adversary, you view disabled people as a problem to solve.

Just as John Graybill II explains in one of his stair-climbing videos a few years into the series, he had spent so long trying to fight the progression of the illness, that he had spent every day in passive anger and frustration. He had forgotten to just enjoy his ability to climb stairs. And he said that he wished he could go back and just enjoy it - stop timing himself on his stopwatch and trying to beat his times. Basically, even as a disabled man himself, he had spent so long looking at his disability as a problem to fix, he hadn't been properly enjoying being a person and just living his life.

When you apply the same fix-it approach to someone who doesn't have a disability, it's equally easy for them to forget the personhood of the people with disabilities. Only, instead of it being directed at themselves, it is directed at others. They push their disabled loved ones to just try harder, just push harder and for longer, eat right, try this, do that, think right, take vitamins - if you just try hard enough, you can beat this!

Except... most of the time, you can't.

The idea that doing everything right will allow you to beat a chronic illness is just ableism in a scientific hat. You're afraid - of being disabled, of the consequences of disability, of someone you love being different, of them looking weird, becoming weird, being seen in public yourself or with someone disabled, of being uncomfortable, of having to put in more energy and effort into helping someone with special needs.

The list of things people are afraid of is endless, and the positive spin on that ableism is simply fighting to fix it.

Make it go away so that you don't have to deal with it anymore.

And then, when you take that approach and apply it to the countless disabilities that don't have cures and may never have cures, you end up with boatloads of people who are seen as problems to solve. They feel like a burden to their family and friends. They're pushed to do what hurts and will actually cause more long-term problems for them by forcing themselves to do things they shouldn't be doing - things that damage their bodies, which aren't meant to do those things anymore.

The Long-Term Consequences of Ableist Pushes for Cures

So back to that argument about all disabilities being curable with time: what's the problem with making some disabled people uncomfortable if, one day, all disability is cured and there are no more disabled people?

Well, the simple answer is this: that's never going to happen, and if you think that way, you're a eugenicist.

Even if every disability is curable with time, the ends do not justify the means - the means being to humiliate and degrade disabled people by treating them like problems.

And it would take decades, maybe even centuries, of those means to even reach the ends. But we'll stop that argument there, because there will never be an end to disability.

Why There Is No End to Disability

So, the thing about disability, is it will never cease to exist. Even if it was a good goal to have, which it isn't, it's never going to happen.

Disability is often caused by gene mutation. At one point, none of the gene mutations for our current physical disabilities existed. They developed. And, just as the current disabilities developed over time and with gene mutations, so will new and different ones. Even if we cured all of the current disabilities, there would always be new ones, likely developing as fast as we can cure the existing ones.

Additionally, a lot of disability is not congenital. People who are in accidents and lose legs will never be able to regrow those legs. Even if eugenicists managed to prevent any "deformed" babies from being born without limbs, people would lose them from accidents and infection, and all kinds of things.

In a world where all congenital disabilities were cured, what quality of life do you expect people in wheelchairs to have?

Because I think I can confidently say that, if everything congenital were cured, a day wouldn't pass before accessibility laws were thrown out the window. We would be returned to the days where disabled people are hidden away and can't leave the house - kept as shameful secrets by families who resent them, or shown off as paragons of strength and virtue when/if they're able to be fitted with a working prosthetic.

Neither of these outcomes is positive.

The Slippery Slope of Cure Ideology

So, on to another argument: there is a lot of danger in letting cure ideology go unchallenged.

I want to clarify again, that I don't think we should never research cures. I'm challenging, specifically, the social movement behind cures that is often driven by eugenicism and ableism.

So, why is it dangerous to let that exist? Well, let's look back at the reason I mentioned that people are in camp 2: they are afraid of being uncomfortable. They are afraid of what's different from them. They view difference as a problem to be solved - a disease or a disorder.

You can see this exact principle in action when people fight for a cure for autism. It's being fought for by the allistics who know people with autism, not usually the autistics themselves. It's being fought for by parents who are angry that their child is different or won't look them in the eyes. They see them as an obstacle to overcome, not as a person who has a different way of socializing. Even in the best case, where they see them as a person more than a problem, they are seen as a person with a wrong and disordered way of socializing.

Imagine, for a moment, that there was an allistic trait that people treated as disordered or wrong the way an ableist might treat hand-flapping or lining up toys. Let's take a direct comparison - something one does when they're happy - like laughing. Imagine, for a moment, that something you do when you're joyful, is treated like a maladaption. Perhaps, in this alternate universe, smiling is normal, but laughing is disturbing to people. You spend your life desperately trying to repress your laughter, hiding your joy, even though it's the most natural thing in the world to you. How would you feel hearing people chanting positively, with smiles, taking donations, running marathons and dancing, all for a cure for laughter?

Really, really, genuinely think about it.

Imagine living your entire life like that.

This doesn't just relate to autism.

The reason this ideology has to be challenged is not just by the concrete example of people trying to cure autism, it's the root of the ideology, that different is bad. That the majority being uncomfortable means the minority is wrong and needs to be fixed.

Is this ringing any other bells for you? Because autism isn't the only thing I desperately hope they don't find a genetic link for.

If fighting for a cure for anything people deem different and weird enough goes unchallenged, people will attempt to cure anything they don't like. Like being gay. Or being trans.

And I'm not talking about conversion camps that try to brainwash you into thinking you're not gay. I'm not talking about the abusive Christian approach, I'm talking about the eugenicist scientist approach.

If a genetic link were found or if there was some kind of actual biological difference, that could mean people trying to test fetuses for the "homosexuality gene" or whatever. It would give a concrete path for eugenicists to try preventing gay and trans people from ever even being born.

And, if that biological connection is found, how long do you think it would take for people to start excitedly pushing for a cure to "homosexuality" or "transgenderism"?

What is the point of this post?

It's food for thought.

I want, not only my abled followers, but my disabled ones as well, to reflect on how they feel about cures - about being cured or about curing others.

I want you all to ask yourself, am I in camp 1 or camp 2?

Your goal in supporting a cure should be to prevent death, to prevent pain that cannot be overcome through systemic support and accessibility, to help people live lives with quality.

Your goal in supporting a cure should never be to remove something that makes you uncomfortable. If you're abled, it should never be to make your life easier or alleviate your feelings of guilt, resentment, or stress. It should never be to make people normal, especially not people you care about.

And, on a final note, remember that the things you see in a disability you know nothing about may not have anything to do with reality. If you see a disability for the first time and you immediately wish for a cure for it, simply because it looks painful, maybe find out if it actually is first. Sometimes we attribute pain and misery to things that are no big deal to the people dealing with them. And, in doing so, we also attribute heroicism and virtue to the people dealing with them - which they did not ask for.

Don't make disabled people into a project. Don't use them as inspiration porn - putting them on a pedestal and using them as proof that "anything is possible."

Treat disabled people with dignity and respect.

Treat disabled people as people, with or without them jumping through every hoop you think will make them better.

Think about how fucking annoying it would be if, every time you got up from a chair in public, everyone stared at you, or even praised you for it. How uncomfortable would you be if no one ever saw you as yourself but as some kind of ambassador for strong, amazing people who are so so so cool because they can tie their shoelaces.

Think about how fucking infuriating it would be if every tenth person you walked past turned to you, looking sad, and said "god bless you."

Think about how old that would get, and how fast.

That's all. Just think about it.

[symptoms-syndrome]

Alters and Race in White-Bodied Systems

I said I was going to write something up, so I’m going to try. I will try to make this as easily understandable as possible, so please let me know if parts are unclear. This will be a little long because it’s a complex topic, but I hope you try to read it if you can. I’ve broken things up into chunks and made the text large for each header so that it is more ADHD-friendly, and tried to use layman’s terms whenever possible.

Things I’m going to be talking about in this post will be:

What is race?

What are the types of racial oppression?

How do people in DID communities/spaces perpetuate racism?

How can I check myself and avoid perpetuating racism?

Final notes

When I can, I will link to sources. For transparency, I am a nonblack/indigenous, Korean-American mixed race person with diagnosed DID. When I use the term “DID” in this post I am referring to both DID and OSDD.

#1: What is Race?

Race is a social construct, created by white people. It is not based in any science, as science has disproven there are significant genetic markers that differ between different races. “Whiteness,“ especially, has been an idea that has changed wildly over time. (A good book to read about this is called How The Irish Became White.)

Socially, people are divided along lines of race, which are blurry at best. Things like “the one drop rule“ make it so that no person of color (POC, a noun not an adjective) can fully claim whiteness. Whiteness is primarily defined by “not being a POC.”

‘Whiteness,’  like ‘colour' and ‘Blackness,' are essentially social constructs  applied to human beings rather than veritable truths that have universal  validity. The power of Whiteness, however, is manifested by the ways in  which racialized Whiteness becomes transformed into social, political,  economic, and cultural behaviour. White culture, norms, and values in  all these areas become normative natural. They become the standard  against which all other cultures, groups, and individuals are measured  and usually found to be inferior (Henry & Tator, 2006, p. 46-47).

(In layman’s terms: Whiteness is created by society, and is now defined as “normal” and “default,” while actively oppressing people of color. People of color, by not being white, are seen as inferior. It’s a catch 22 of not being enough, and when you ARE enough, you’re not considered a person of color anymore, which is exactly what happened to the Irish.)

#2: What is Racial Oppression?

“Oppression” is a word a lot of folks throw around these days, and is commonly defined by what are called the “four Is of oppression.” These four Is are:

Internalized: This is oppression instilled in POC. Thoughts like “if I am more like my white peers, I will be more respected,” “I’m not like those people of color,” and pitting different POC against each other are all examples of internalized racism.

Interpersonal: This is oppression that is between individuals, and the most recognized form of racism. Interpersonal racism can look like calling people slurs, expecting POC to conform to stereotypes, etc.

Institutional: This is oppression built into the society and systems we live in. It can look like schools with higher percentages of POC getting less funding, differing descriptions for the same behavior (hyperactive white children being described as “outgoing” while a child of color is described as “disruptive”,) income inequality, and police brutality.

Ideological: Probably the hardest for people to recognize, ideological racism exists within our very thought processes. White people are told, directly and indirectly, that they are harder working, more deserving, more capable, more advanced, and so on. The inverse is applied to POC. A good example of this is the idea of “welfare queens,” or the idea that someone only got to where they are “by playing the race card.”

All of these interact with each other. Ideological racism is the basis of institutional racism, institutional racism is enforced by interpersonal racism, and progress towards liberation is inhibited by internalized racism, which is instilled in us by all of the above. Oftentimes, these are perpetuated in ways white folks don’t even notice or intend. Offhand comments and other microaggressions (more about those here, in a 2 minute video) can reinforce racism in ways that seem small or insignificant.

Now, onto the part folks are most likely here for:

#3: How Does This Relate to DID?

In DID, alters form for all sorts of reasons, and can look like anything. From demons to angels, fictional characters to animals or objects, the ways parts form can tell someone a lot about that parts beliefs, particularly when they differ from the body. In The Haunted Self, an example is given of a part that believes they are Superman because they cannot be hurt.

When race is involved with this, ideological biases come into play. Though you may not consciously make the decision to have an alter appear a certain way, ultimately, an alter is created by your brain and your brain alone (apart from, of course, the society that your brain/body exist in.) When you are a white person, and your brain creates an alter that appears to be of color, there is a reason. Even “positive” reasons can carry racism, such as splitting an Asian-appearing alter to help with schoolwork. Oftentimes, even without knowing, that reason is due to biases regarding race.

When an alter is created, it does not magically gain the experiences of someone who would actually live in that body. An alter that appears to be a POC has no idea what it’s actually like to be a POC, has no experience with racism, and does not experience any racism. Any racial experiences they may seem to carry with them are a white person’s perception of them, it’s a lot like claiming you know a show because you watched it through a neighbor’s window.

#4: How Can I Check Myself?

So, how do you never do anything racist ever again?

I’m sorry to say, but it just isn’t possible to be 100% non-racist. Even POC cannot be 100% non-racist or anti-racist, because we unfortunately live in a society that is constantly upholding white supremacy and white supremacist beliefs.

However, the next best step is being an anti-racist! Checking yourself for biases you’re upholding or racism you’re perpetuating is an important first step. This is an often uncomfortable and confronting process, and one that never has an end, but an important one. There are a LOT of ways you can do this, but I’ll just list a few that are relevant to DID.

Familiarize yourself with common stereotypes.

The easiest way to find where your internalized biases are with alters that appear to be a different race is familiarizing yourself with common stereotypes and ideas that our society has about POC. These are often tied to things like violence, hypersexualization, drug use, and other negative attributes, but can also be things that on the surface appear to be positive, such as being studious, people-pleasing, or frugal. Regardless of whether the stereotype seems positive or negative, either way it’s still perpetuating racism.

Ask yourself: Is my POC-appearing alter more sexual than others? Are they aggressive? Is my POC-appearing alter a monster (such as a demon or a zombie,) or otherwise less human, like an animal?

Keep an eye on your language

Obviously, if you follow my blog, I don’t support talking negatively about my parts. But in addition to this, when race is involved, it’s even more important. Words like “feral,” “aggressive,“ “sassy,” “soft,” and others can have a more racist impact when used on POC than when used on white folks. Additionally, your POC-appearing alter is not an actual person of color, so avoiding language like “my Asian alter”  and replacing it with (when race is relevant,) “my alter that appears Asian” can be also a helpful change. Lastly, and I would hope this goes without saying, but language like AAVE, slurs, and “broken” English are not yours to use if you have a white body. If you wouldn’t let a white person say it, you should not let an alter in a white body say it.

Ask yourself: Would I use this word if this alter appeared white? If I saw another white person talking like this, would I be okay with that?

Avoid cultural appropriation, be aware of culture

A lot of this may seem obvious, such as not wearing native regalia if you are not native, but other aspects of cultural appropriation may not be as obvious. Asian names, for example, are both incredibly personal, important, and significant in Asian culture, and stigmatized against in white society. I don’t know of any Asian folks who do not have a white name they used in school because teachers literally refuse to try and learn our real names. The issue of cultural appropriation is, at its core, that white people are treated differently for doing the same things that POC do, even when it’s originally something that POC created.

Ask yourself: Would someone of x race be treated differently from me doing this? Is this something that POC have been told they cannot do, even though I can?

#5: Final Notes

As I say whenever I do equity workshops, learning does not end here. I encourage you, if possible, to do more research on your own about racial equity! Clicking the links I’ve included throughout my writing would be a good start, and those links may lead you to others. Getting involved with local activism groups, meeting diverse groups of people with varying ideas, and reading would also be excellent ways to further your learning at your own pace.

Reading this may have made you uncomfortable. You might’ve read something and cringed, thinking to yourself “oh no, I do/did that!” in which case, forgive yourself. Learning is always a process, and no one is ever perfect. As long as you keep in mind what you’ve learned going forward, you are not a bad person for having done something racist in the past. We live in a society that at best doesn’t punish, and at worst rewards upholding the racist beliefs we all live with. Discomfort is a part of learning, and if you were uncomfortable and kept reading, I commend you. That’s hard.

This is all written by one person, with one experience and one life story. You may at some point in time talk to someone with an entirely different experience who may say totally different things than me. Use your best judgement.

If you read all the way through and found something useful, and you can spare any change, my cashapp is $beepollen98. Money would be used to prepare for my upcoming gender surgery! Obviously no pressure, I hope you learned something and feel a little more educated, and maybe even enjoyed reading!

As always, my DMs and asks are open if you found anything confusing, and/or have suggestions/questions.

[etherealxgenie]

Why Lila is Marinette’s Own Fault || Miraculous Why?

(Before I begin, note that this is my opinion over the topic and am no way am bashing anyone’s love for the ship and/or character. I respect who and what you like, therefore expect the same courtesy. However, if this is something you cannot handle, please click the back button as this will be a heavily discussed topic. No flames allowed. Other than that, enjoy.)

So usually in the story, there’s always one or two mean girls who is out to get the main character for some kind of superior reasons to justify. And there’s no reason as to why they act this way just for the sake of being mean.

Like the Ashleys from “Recess”, who tend to pick on kids just for the fun of it sometimes or cause they’re popular.

Same can go for Libby from “Sabrina The Teenage Witch” who was out to get something for what she wants or just to be superior to the other kids in school.

For Miraculous, we already have that kind of character, Chloe Bourgeois, who is the daddy’s girl of the Mayor to get what she wants. And until we had some small character development in season two (which season 3 took it away!!), we had no reason feeling sorry for her and she was just for the convenient plot in the social life for Marinette in the series.

And then… there’s Lila.

Before I get into hand in this, let me note that Lila is not a good person at all in the show. She’s a liar, a manipulator and will do whatever she can to get what she wants. She breaks into homes, steals and molests pretty models. She’s been pretty shown to be just selfish without consequences and unless we get a background story of why she acts this way, she has no excuse. Especially when she teams up with hawkdaddy to now have permission to invade and spy on Adrien whenever she wants? Fuck that.

So in Volpina, Lila is introduced as this pathological liar to get attention in season one. She obviously goes for Adrien cause he’s the famous model after all. Reasonable considering as the new person looking for attention, you seek out the most popular/famous person in the school. That would Adrien.

Though considering with her connections, it would’ve been smarter to try and impress Marinette instead if Lila did her research before she came into the scene. But of course, new person so she wouldn’t know, but whatever.

And we can see Lila easily just says things just to get Adrien’s approval and such.

And so, Marinette follows them around (stalking? really?) because Tikki points out Lila has the book Adrien took from his father’s vault and threw it in the trash.

Now the SMART thing to do would’ve been to see how Adrien would handle the situation and wait for him to leave, if to acknowledge Adrien has a mind of his own and knows when to walk away (which he does). Or at the very least, try to distract them as Marinette while Tikki retrieved the book.

But… no. You transform into Ladybug to lash out at a girl PUBLICALLY, for anyone including Adrien to hear, just to embarrass her and call her out on her lying because she… “hates liars”.

Marinette, you fucking lie ALL the time! Most of those times to Adrien! And I’m not just talking about when in regard to being Ladybug, you hypocritical- (groans)

I can list plenty of episodes: Gamer, Aninmaestro, Ikari Gozen and hell, even Reverser counts! If she hadn’t lied about Marc’s book, Nathaniel wouldn’t have torn it! (sighs)

And before you all start jumping at me saying Lila got what she deserves, I only agree partially. Ladybug, as a public figure and heroine, practically the face of Paris, acted irrationally lashing out at a bystander because of lies which were or were not believable. Lila was broadcasting a post or making the news, she was trying (poorly) to impress a boy. Ladybug gave Lila the Regina George treatment.

Yeah, so you caused an akumatized situation and Lila hates your guts. Hell, I would hate you too. That’s like a celebrity jumping at an innocent bystander when they’re whispering to their friend about a rumor that only the two of them were talking about. You can’t jump to try and stop them and should just let it dispel on its own. At that point, Lila had no real power but you just influenced her.

And… oh boy did things get worse because of this.

Look season 3 was trash (except for moments in certain episodes) and I feel talking about the infamous ‘Chameleon’ physically hurts me but… yeah gotta point out a few things. The whole episode was unrealistic, and it was an obvious ploy to be sympathetic to Marinette with Lila back… but… you’re not fooling me.

So, Lila is still on her lying game, being able to fool the students and the staff?! Okay if you believe a student has so many disabilities without any paperwork proof, you can actually get fired for that for fraud. As someone who worked with education before, that’s just pure incompetence.

So yeah, Marinette comes to school seeing the seats changes to accommodate Lila and upright begins to plot to discredit her for her lies. UM… what happened to trying to start over with Lila after failing to do so the first time?

Oh, that’s right. She gets that way (at least partly) because Lila is sitting next to Adrien. I can understand if it was because they rearranged the seating without her say so but let’s face it. Lila sitting next to Adrien was her real trigger.

So since Marinette failed to acknowledge her mistake the first time, she spends all day trying to prove Lila is lying and in return the class is angry at her. Alya even comes to point out that Marinette is jealous of Lila.

And you know what? Alya is right.

Alya knows at least what Marinette is capable of doing so when it comes to Adrien and how far she’s willing to go. Remember that Alya is the one who encouraged her to break into his locker and steal his phone. So of course, she’s worried Marinette is gonna do something to the new girl.

I don’t blame Alya for doing one of the most competent things in the show: Warning Marinette to NOT go off the handle without proof and not make herself look bad in the process.

And because Marinette failed to do so… she made Lila her enemy AGAIN. It was bad enough you had her as your enemy as Ladybug, but now you get to deal with twice the drama!

Your own fucking fault, Marinette.

Also, the advice Adrien gave? I don’t blame for him for it and neither should you. Yes, his advice is not perfect, but with the options he has on his plate, its hard to do something otherwise.

For every encounter Adrien has had with Lila, it ended up with her being akumatized or a disaster no matter how he tried to handle her. We didn’t get to see how he would resolve in Volpina because of Ladybug’s intervention, but he would try at least in Chameleon and try to get her to see she didn’t need to lie and actually tried to befriend her. At this point, Lila was already triggered by Ladybug and Marinette so she just might have to take Adrien by force instead.

At that point, Adrien just wants to stay away and which he was trying to tell Marinette don’t interact with Lila or confront her cause there’s no way to do so at this point. Maybe he was trying to tell her to wait until her rumors got discredited, but he didn’t say it clear enough for her to understand.

And keep in mind, Adrien is a sheltered child with little to zero social skills taught to him by Nathalie and Gabriel. Hell, we don’t know how his childhood was really like even with Emelie around either and Adrien seems more like the pacifist unless he needs to absolutely step in. And he did by cleaning up Marinette’s mess in ��Ladybug’. So now he’s gotta suffer being around Lila more because of Marinette making Lila her enemy.

But once again, this is bad writing as the writers of the show obviously forgot what it’s like to live in reality. In the real world, Lila would be immediately discredited without any proof the moment she came back. Not to mention, some of the class have their own connections and have more braincells proven in the previous episodes. Google search and such. A 5-year-old wouldn’t believe these lies in these times. Hey, I believe that because I once had a kid in kindergarten during my time as an afterschool art teacher look at one of my books I illustrated before and said they liked the ‘graphics’.

Kids are fucking smarter nowadays than you think.

The only reason anyone would believe Lila’s lies is if she’s magically influenced with some kind of ‘silver tongue’ spell or something and honestly? It looks like that’s the reason.

I dunno if Thomas Astruc or Zag is trying to insult the kids/adults or insult themselves to say Paris people aren’t that smart. If it’s the latter, you should see what you are doing because I don’t want to believe that because that’s disrespectful.

I know it seems I’m trying to stand up for Lila this portion, but I’m just looking things in a  more realistic and logical way. Did Lila take things too far? Yes, waaaayyy too far and should be arrested for it since she works for Hawkmoth. But it could’ve been handled better and that makes Marinette at fault too.

Part of me wonders if she’s done this before because in Zombiezou, she also causes Chloe to ruin her gift for Ms. bustier. If Marinette didn’t antagonize Chloe in the locker in front of the class, maybe she wouldn’t have done anything. Again, I’m not saying Chloe was justified, but if that was the reason, yeah I can see her doing it for payback.

So to all those fics where I’m supposed to be ‘Boo-hoo’ for Marinette because of what Lila did? Fuck you guys because you need to dig deeper into the story to see both sides and not just make it a pity party where Marinette is the innocent victim.

It’s called “Cause and Effect”.

And considering she made Lila her enemy, Marinette is gonna get effected enough because that’s how karma works.

[qqueenofhades]

Hi! I need fic etiquette advice. I've written fic for a long time but only recently started putting it on AO3. I am a scholar, and I write fic to relax, and I often write for corny fandoms, so I don't do research because it's supposed to be fun, and I don't need more stress in my sad life. But is it bad to not research? I love the research that is visible in your fics, but I think I would stop writing if I had to look up, for example, UK dialects for all my fics set in the UK, and it triggers my intense anxiety about fucking it up. I just don't want to be rude, so I put a disclaimer at the beginning about how I'm American. Is that good enough? This is very clearly an anxiety ask lol help

Aha, high five for "scholar/academic who writes fic to relax," since I'm also in that camp. Likewise (sad) high five for "intense anxiety about fucking up by somehow not researching enough," because that's basically our whole life, isn't it? So yes. I feel you. I feel you hard.

As for fic research: I sometimes get lovely comments on my fics about how I must have researched for hours or even weeks/months, and I always feel somewhat bad about being like "well, lol, yes, I did Wikipedia and Google a few things, but it's probably not as nearly much as you think." There are cases where I did do a shit-ton of specific and extensive research, such as my Swan and Crossbones series, which is an OUAT/Black Sails duology set in the historical 18th century/Golden Age of Piracy/Age of Sail. Then I really did spend hours on extremely obscure websites/online historical archives, and likewise for my Timeless All Souls AU trilogy, I did some extra reading on the Elizabethan period. But that's just because I am the kind of person who desperately needs authentic trivia and for my facts/scene-setting/world-building details to be correct (see: intense anxiety about fucking up). And when I am interested enough to write a fic using a particular place/time/scenario as a setting, I usually already know enough about it that it doesn't take long to plug in said details.

Once again, however, I stress that this is just how my personal writing process/brain works, and if it would ruin your enjoyment and escapism to stop for long periods to look these things up, and/or break your writing flow: you're still not obliged to do that. Fanfic is written by amateurs working for free -- and not "amateur" in the disparaging connotation of being "bad," since a lot of fanfic writers blow professional TV writers out of the water, but meaning someone who does it simply for passion, rather than for pay. The modern English word "amateur" comes pretty directly from the Latin "amator," or "lover." When you're an amateur, you're doing something because you love it and not because you expect to get any kind of money or compensation out of it. You are voluntarily spending your own free time to write stories and post them, and you honestly do not owe your readers anything, aside from what you choose to give them. If you're putting a disclaimer at the start of your fics that you're American, and then making at least a decent effort, that's perfectly fine.

Obviously, if you're writing about certain characters or storylines, you have a basic duty to be respectful and produce the kind of fan content you want to see in the world, but -- although it may not feel like it in this hypercritical online environment -- it's better to make a genuine effort, even if you get some minor things wrong, than to be so obsessed with every tiny little detail that you never post at all for fear of being dogpiled by the purity police. Those people do exist, they will target you from time to time, and it absolutely sucks. But as I have said before in answers to other asks, most fanfic writers/readers know that they shouldn't leave the kind of comment they wouldn't want to get themselves, and that unless the author has explicitly asked for constructive criticism, it's a dick move to offer it under the guise of being "helpful." This isn't an MFA writing seminar or other place where you expect to receive technical feedback by the dictates of the structure. We're just writing self-indulgent stories about wanting some fictional idiots to kiss (or whatever we want to do to them, lmao). This is not the forum where you should roll up with your red pen and lists of nitpicks. If you don't like a fic, the back button exists. Use it.

To summarise, since this is getting long: you are under absolutely no obligation to put any more effort into your own fics than you want to, and if you want to write them as escapism from your stressful real life and without having to get bogged down in minutiae: valid! Really valid! Entirely valid! If you won't like your own work without doing at least some research, then do as much as you would like so that you can feel unambiguously proud of the result. (That is, as much as any of us feel proud of our own work, lol.) If you know that you should probably at least skim Wikipedia on a particular topic, that's pretty easy to do, and it can be enjoyable to go down a rabbit hole that is purely from fun and not for academic work. That's easy to do without breaking your flow, and you can pick up new details that can influence your plot or characters in both fun and realistic ways, so hey, bonus!

Anyway. Writing is hard. Real life sucks. Just have fun and do your best. Find the balance that works for you, which absolutely does not have to be like mine or anyone else's, and see how it goes. <3

[lamortexiii]

Cryptic Mystic: What’s Your Sign?

Many of us are fascinated by astrology and all things outer space related. The great unknown that is beyond the stars has been a hot topic for centuries. But, how did the zodiac begin? What makes astrological signs and the alignment of planets and stars so magical? Is it truly prophetic? Does your sign define your personality, past, present, and future? Or is this simply another product of the Barnum Effect?

So I’ll start by asking the obvious: “what’s your sign?” I’m a Leo through and through. While I’m skeptical about the claims of some astrological signs and their relation to my life on a daily basis, I do believe there is some truth here - as is with most things. This topic is one that I have been wanting to write about for some time now. I have always found outer space, stars, planets, etc. to be fascinating. As a child, I remember laying in the grass and watching the stars above me. In my little valley in the forest, I could see so many stars that wouldn’t be visible if I were in the city. I am so thankful I had that childhood experience of growing up somewhere where I could truly connect with nature and the simple things around me that most take for granted on a day-to-day basis. I still stargaze to this day, but I can’t see near as many as I once did in my childhood forest valley home. I’ve seen a plethora of shooting stars throughout my lifetime, two meteor showers, two solar eclipses, and plenty of unidentified objects that were likely satellites… or were they…?

One time when I was driving home from work late one night I saw something that befuddled me. As I drove down the winding 2 lane highway in the darkness of the night I saw what appeared to be a helicopter hovering right above the trees. Now, this area I was driving through was rural. There are few houses in those woods, but there are some. The backroads leading to the site where the “helicopter” was hovering are seldom traveled, especially this late at night. I began processing the event in my mind and questioning if it was a helicopter, why would it be hovering so low and what exactly would it be doing in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. It just didn’t make sense. I thought about logical explanations and could only come up with one. There is the slim possibility that someone driving on one of the many backroads in that area may have got into an accident and was getting airlifted to a hospital. I’ve seen it happen before on backroads near there. Aside from this idea, I had nothing. By this point, I had obviously slowed down so I could get a better look. Hell, there wasn’t any traffic so it’s not like I was worried about causing an accident or anything. As I looked closer I noticed it wasn’t a helicopter at all. There were about 4-6 large bright lights shining down below the area that the craft was hovering over. The circumference of this craft was much wider than a helicopter - more circular. The lights were far too big and far too bright. Whether it was fear, shock, tiredness, or my stomach growling, I continued to drive on and leave the peculiar scene behind. Now, I know this has nothing to do with astrology or zodiac signs, but it is an interesting story nonetheless. 

In reference to zodiac signs, I find that descriptions of a Leo with my particular birthdate are genuinely pretty accurate when describing my personality and conflicts. However, the daily horoscopes are definitely not accurate in my experience. I will say that when I read/listen to them I try to apply something positive from the reading to my daily life. I engage in a deeper thought process and practice mindfulness throughout the day, keeping that positive focus within my mind on the positive message I am supposed to be implementing into my day. I have also found that compatibility readings have been somewhat inaccurate as far as certain zodiac signs getting along or not getting along with other zodiac signs. The biggest obvious red flag for me is how many different sources there are. And guess what? They all say something different on the daily. If zodiac signs and horoscopes are supposed to be accurate, then why don’t all individuals who report them online all say the same thing - or at least something similar?? To play devil's advocate here, I did say earlier that I believe there is some truth to all of this, which is why it interests me so much and also why I believe in this stuff to a degree. There is a lot of magical and wondrous history to unpack in regards to the zodiac and horoscopes. So, let’s jump right in, shall we?

Interesting fact: the word zodiac is derived from Greek terminology meaning “circle of little animals.” We’re a circle of little animals - cute visuals there, eh? Hieroglyphs in Egypt dating as early as the 14th century BC were found to contain a circle of decans (constellations) depicting something that looks a lot like the constellations and zodiac symbols that we know today. In total there were 36 decans found within the temple.

During the first half of the first millennium, Babylonian astronomers created our modern zodiac. They also mapped the previous constellations that were seen in the Egyptian hieroglyphs but continued to add more as they were discovered. In the last half of the 5th century, the Babylonian astronomers divided the many constellations into 12 equal "signs” to represent the 12 months of the year at 30 days per month. Each sign contained 30° of celestial longitude, thus creating the first known celestial coordinate system. According to calculations by modern astrophysics, the zodiac was introduced between 409 and 398 BC and probably within a very few years of 401 BC. Unlike modern astrologers, who place the beginning of the sign of Aries at the place of the Sun at the vernal equinox, Babylonian astronomers fixed the zodiac in relation to stars, placing the beginning of Cancer at the "Rear Twin Star" (β Geminorum) and the beginning of Aquarius at the "Rear Star of the Goat-Fish" (δ Capricorni). Due to the precession of the equinoxes, the time of year the Sun is in a given constellation has changed since Babylonian times, the point of vernal equinox has moved from Aries into Pisces. 

You’ll be pleasantly surprised, intrigued, or disgusted to know that all of this does have some roots within religion. The Hebrew Bible shows knowledge of the Babylonian zodiac. E. W. Bullinger noted that the drawings found in the book of Ezekiel were quite similar to the middle four quarters of the zodiac (Lion/Leo, Bull/Taurus, Man/Aquarius, Eagle/Scorpio). You read that right, Scorpio is noted as being an eagle - not a scorpion. Some say that the twelve tribes of Israel are correlated with the zodiac signs found within the Hebrew 12 month calendar. There is an argument that the position of the Israelic tribes around the Tabernacle from the book of Numbers correlates with the exact order of the zodiac, with Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan representing the middle signs of Leo, Aquarius, Taurus, and Scorpio, respectively. It is shocking how I have heard religious people in modern times talk about how this is all a bunch of garbage, even though some of this is literally correlated with items from the Bible.

To explain daily horoscopes and the connection between the stars, planets, and our zodiac signs, you must engage in a bit of math (yuck). When planets and constellations of the zodiac would align, the Babylonian astronomers of that time would note the experiences that people had and found similarities. These experiences, along with the position of the Earth, Sun, Moon, and constellations and the positions relative to the zodiac signs were stored within a catalogue. This went on for several years and is essentially what began our modern-day daily horoscope. However, it is my personal opinion that a lot of these “professionals” who have their own magical websites where you can get a free daily horoscope, just make shit up to sound interesting. That is obvious by the previously mentioned differentials found within each page. I encourage you to do a quick Google search and you’ll see what I’m talking about. This ties into the belief that the Barnum Effect is in play here. You’ll remember the Barnum Effect from last month's blog. If you haven’t read the June 2021 blog The Imaginarium of Barnum, I suggest you head there next to get a deeper understanding of what I’m talking about before you continue reading. Much of what is broadcasted in daily horoscopes, zodiac sign descriptions, and even within mediumship and tarot readings is full of extremely vague generalities. Because the information is presented in such a vague and generalized way, it then becomes an instance where anyone could apply any of the information to their life in some way. So as you can see, there is some psychological manipulation at play here. Now, I am not saying this is true for all who present the information. I will say that there are A LOT of shams out there. I have seen far more fake sites/readings/etc. than I have seen legit ones. If I had to give a percentage from my personal experience, I’d say about 85% of what I’ve seen is bullshit. But you choose what you believe at the end of the day. I just ask you to keep an open mind and a wise eye about you when scanning the web for horoscopes, zodiac information, tarot, and mediumship. 

All of this information is interesting to stew on within your mind. I hope that you learned something new. I know I did when I was researching this topic for the blog. The religious ties were the most surprising thing to me. What did you find most interesting? Drop a comment under the blog on Tumblr or under the Instagram post for this month’s blog and let me know. Tonight if you are able, take a look at the stars and see if you can find the constellations. The plethora of shapes within the brightest stars are brilliant to gaze upon. Who knows, maybe you will find your zodiac constellation. Maybe you will depict a new constellation on your own by combining different combinations of stars. Or maybe you’ll see something that you can’t explain…

Cryptic Mystic Blog by PsychVVitch @psychvvitch

www.LaMorteXiii.com

[ladyvader23]

The School Play

For @slx99, who inspired me to write this little Dad Vader piece! I also have no idea if walrus’ exist in the Star Wars universe, but THEY DO NOW! 

I also take requests!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vader stared in horror at the announcement slip his children had brought home from preschool. 

Apparently, the children would be putting on a play--or, rather, a presentation, if the description was anything to go by. The school had the children research a topic, and the children would be putting on a dramatic retelling of what they’d learned. It actually sounded terribly boring, but he’d read in that parenting book the children’s pediatrician had given him that supporting their interests, including school activities, helped foster confidence in children. An important quality in the two most important children in the galaxy, even if his presence would terrify everyone else in the room. 

The problem wasn’t the boring play. It was what his son was signed up to be. 

A walrus. 

A walrus. 

Leia had a stormtrooper, which was normal enough. But Luke had a walrus? How in the galaxy had he even had the misfortune of getting such an unfortunate aquatic creature?! 

He looked up at Miss Laena, who’d handed him the announcement slip in the first place. “My son will not play a walrus in front of a crowd of people!” 

The school the children went to was full of senator’s children, as well as other important Imperial figures, such as Grand Moffs, generals, and the like. Vader doubted most of those important figures would actually be at the play; most likely, their partners or nannies would go. But it did not matter. Word would spread fast that the son of Darth Vader had played a walrus. 

“Luke is very excited about the play, my lord.” Miss Laena said carefully. “It’s all he’s been talking about for weeks, now. I even helped him make the costume.” 

His stomach dropped. “There’s a costume?” 

It just got worse and worse. 

“Yes, my lord. I might be able to pull together another one in time, but it will break his heart.” 

Vader gritted his teeth. If this was any other assignment, he’d tell the boy to deal with whatever he chose for him, but he also didn’t need him crying on stage in front of everyone because he was unhappy. 

He would need to convince him. 

“Summon my son. I will speak with him.” 

Miss Laena hurried to do so, and soon the tiny form of his son came running into his office, immediately climbing (uninvited) into his lap. Vader had no change to stop him before his little arms wrapped around his neck with a hug. 

Despite the dire situation, he couldn’t help but melt a little under the embrace. 

“Hi daddy!” Luke said, pulling away after a moment, settling in comfortably on his leg. “Am I in trouble?” 

Perhaps that was the reason for the immediate hug. He would need to discourage such behavior in the future. 

“No, my son.” He reached up and ruffled his hair. “I just wanted to know why you were assigned to be a walrus in this play.” 

Luke brightened. “Oh! I’m going to be a walrus, daddy!” 

“Yes, but why?” Perhaps he hadn’t understood the phrasing of his first question. He struggled to speak on a level the twins would understand, at times. 

“Because I like them.” 

Vader winced. That would make it harder to convince him to change topics. 

“But why?” 

Luke shrugged. “They look funny.” 

And that was precisely why he didn’t want him to play a walrus in the first place. “Why don’t I help you choose something diff--” he cut off as Luke’s expression immediately began to fall, his eyes watering. 

“No, daddy, I wanna be a walrus!” 

Damn. 

Already, just from his presence alone, Vader could tell it would be far more of a fight to force him to choose something else than to just do the walrus. 

“...I will need to have a word with the school. But fine.” 

Immediately the tears were gone, and Luke threw his arms around him again before climbing off and running to find his sister. Vader watched after him, wondering how his children had so thoroughly wrapped him around their fingers, before he pulled up his datapad to send a message to the school principal to order that no footage be allowed at the play. 

If Luke insisted, he could at least make sure the incident was nothing more than a strange, unconfirmed rumor. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The night of the play, he’d debated on pretending his schedule was too full to attend. That way, perhaps no one would notice that the son of Darth Vader was dressed as a walrus. It wasn’t like he didn’t have plenty of things to do instead anyway, but every time he thought about not showing up, the imagined disappointment in his children’s faces when they returned home was enough to guilt him into keeping the time reserved for the play. 

That didn’t mean he didn’t show up at the last possible second before they closed the doors for the performance. 

Naturally, the moment he walked in, a hush fell over the crowd of nannies and parents. He made a face when he recognized a few important officials there who were also apparently trying to be good parents despite their schedules. Normally he could respect that, but today of all days, he wished they’d remained at work. 

The principal, a short, portly man, came rushing over not long after he’d found a corner to stand in. “I have issued a strict no recording policy as you wished, Lord Vader.” 

“Good.” Vader crossed his arms, looking over his head to the curtained stage. “Because if there is any recording of my children distributed, I will personally pay you a visit.” 

The man paled, gulped, and nodded. “Understood, my lord.” Then he turned and rushed off. 

Moments later, the lights dimmed, and an announcement was made over a microphone to remind everyone of the very fact that no recording was allowed. He half expected them to use him as an excuse, but they mentioned nothing of the rule being a direct order from him. 

Hm. He might have mentioned it just to make sure, but if he had to dispose of the principal, he would not lose sleep over it. His children barely knew the man and wouldn’t notice if he disappeared. Perhaps he’d do it anyway just for the fact that someone in his staff showed the boy a picture of the infernal animal in the first place. 

Once the announcement was made, the “play” began. Sure enough, it was less of a play and more of various small children of different species in costumes reciting facts about whatever they’d researched for the parents. This was followed up by polite clapping, which he did not participate in. They were not his children, after all. He did not care, and he thought most of them were terribly boring anyway. 

He was also certain that none of these children had actually done their own research. What a complete waste of time and resources. 

But then came Leia. Somehow, Miss Laena had managed to help her construct an almost perfect replica of a stormtrooper armor set, fit perfectly to her petite size. The only thing that he could tell was real was the helmet, which she carried in her arms as more of a prop than anything else. 

When she walked onto the stage...as he suspected she would, she immediately acted as though the entire room was there for her. She squared her shoulders, looking over the audience with as high and mighty of a look that an almost five year old could muster. 

“Stormtroopers are soldiers who help protect the Empire.” She spoke clearly into the microphone. It was...well, as natural as a four year old could get, and a pang went through his chest at the thought of her suddenly looking very much like a mini version of her mother. “They serve over the whole Empire. They can be foot soldiers, or fly TIE fighters, like my daddy does.” 

He wondered if that was something she was supposed to say, or if she said it just because she was proud of what he did for a living. Not that she knew the full extent of that, but...he offered a rare, unseen smile nonetheless. 

“This is a real stormtrooper helmet. My friend let me use it tonight.” Friend? What friend? “Stormtroopers are not like clone troopers. They’re normal people like you and me.” 

He refrained from snorting at that. In his opinion, Clone Troops were far superior, but the Emperor did not seem to care for that opinion. 

“There’s also lots of types of stormtroopers. You can tell what they are because of their uniform. In conclusion, stormtroopers are pretty cool and I like them. They keep us safe, and are friends to all.” 

That...didn’t really make sense. But she was four, and again, probably had her lines written by someone else. Still, when she finished and did a little curtsy, he clapped proudly for the first time the entire show, then watched as she practically skipped off stage. 

Then...it was Luke’s turn. 

It was an experience to have one child give a basic but Imperial pride-supporting speech, then directly afterwards have another child walk out wearing a walrus costume to talk about an animal he’d never even personally seen before. He was sure that anyone who knew Luke was his son probably had a lot of questions he’d never answer right about now. 

But there Luke was, walking out wearing a well made, but monstrosity of a costume. He wore a dark gray, long-sleeved tunic that reached his knees, except that the sleeves ended well past where he knew Luke’s hands to be, and the end was in the shape of walrus flippers. A tail flopped around with each step Luke took, and his head was almost completely engulfed by a walrus-face hood. The face opening was framed by two giant tusks, what he supposed were whiskers, and at the top of the hood, giant eyes that Vader could swear were staring into his soul. 

And underneath, Luke had obviously painted his face. Probably the same color as the tunic. 

Half of Vader wanted to have the ground open up and swallow him whole. The other half was admittedly impressed with the lengths his son had put his nanny up to in making this costume. He was also dead certain that if Luke looked back on this costume as an adult, he’d be embarrassed beyond all reason. 

“Walruses are water animals who live on water worlds like Mon Cala.” Luke began, just as confidently as Leia. It was also obvious he was very proud of the whole thing; he was bouncing a bit in excitement, causing the tail to flop around constantly. Nearby, Vader heard a few parents coo adoringly at the display. 

He wondered if it would be noticeable if he used the Force to hold his son in place. 

“They can dive deep in the water, but they like to stay near land. They are really, really fat. Also, both the girls and the boy walruses have tusks, like this!” He reached up and tugged on the tusks, earning chuckles from the crowd. 

Well. Both of his children definitely liked to use visual aids. It was interesting to know, at least. 

“They also live for a super long time. Forty years!” Luke lifted his flipper-hands up in excitement. “They also can live in the cold because they’re fat. They like to eat fish. And they make these really funny noises, like--” then Luke proceeded to demonstrate, and more laughter erupted around the room. 

As well as Luke was doing, Vader couldn’t help but curse whoever had even shown the cursed animal to his son. He would definitely be finding a replacement for the principal after he was through with him. 

What had he done to encourage such a fascination with the animal? He was from the desert, so this had to be something from his mother’s side of the family, he was sure of it. 

But Luke seemed pleased by the audience’s reaction. He himself would have to ensure this incident never left this room, but at least his son was happy. 

“So yeah, I like walruses. They’re funny looking, and that’s why I chose to tell you about them.” Then, with that said, Luke made a bow, and the audience erupted in far more clapping than had been heard the entire night. Luke straightened, grinned, then ran off stage, his tail and flippers flapping wildly behind him. 

Well. It was certainly the most interesting part of the night, he thought as he clapped for his son. And despite being a walrus, his son was perfect. Just...had some odd interests that he sincerely hoped he grew out of. 

When the show ended, Vader waited uncomfortably by the doors for his children. Plenty of parents and their costumed kids walked by, all giving him a wide berth. He ignored them all, scanning the crowd for his children. He could sense them coming, but for whatever reason, they kept stopping. 

Finally, he saw the small figures of Luke and Leia pushing their way through their crowd, beaming smiles on their faces when they saw him. 

“Daddy!” Leia crowed, and he quickly reached out to place his hands on their shoulders before they could try to hug him. He had grown used to their hugs in private, but they were still learning that it was not permitted in public. “Did you like my play?” 

“You did well.” He confirmed, patting her head, which caused her to make a face and pull away. 

“Don’t mess up my hair.” She muttered. 

Luke had pulled the hood down and his painted face looked up at him. “What about mine, daddy? Lots of people told me they liked it.” He paused, frowning. “Did you?” 

Vader paused, deciding how to phrase it. He did not like that he was parading around in a ridiculous walrus costume, but the whole point of him coming to this ridiculous excuse for a play was to support his children and build their confidence. He could not ruin it by telling his son that he hated the animal he was portraying. “You played your performance well, my son. I am proud of you both.” 

Yes. That seemed safe. And to his satisfaction, the twins beamed up at him. But the moment was ruined when Luke asked, “Can we go to Mon Cala to see the walruses?” 

“Yeah! Let’s go, daddy!” Leia added. 

He paused for a few breaths of the respirator. “Mon Cala...is not safe for humans.” 

Luke frowned. “But my friend said he went, and--” 

“Why don’t I take you to a zoo, instead?” Then maybe Luke would see a different, less embarrassing animal to portray next time. Or maybe he’d lose interest in animals completely. 

Luke considered for a moment, then nodded. “Okay daddy.” He paused. “Can I be a walrus for Trick Or Treat?” 

Again, he paused, trying to come up with an answer that would not hurt his son’s feelings. “Why don’t you wait until after we go to the zoo?” 

Luke also seemed to accept this answer, and Vader took his children's hands in his own, and led them from the theater. 

Vader made sure to give pointed glares at anyone who dared look their way.

[aelaer]

Compare/contrast Benedict Cumberbatch’s portrayal of Sherlock & Strange?

Ah ha ha anon, you understand my propensity to write essays regarding basically, uh, anything that interests me. And character analysis for my favorite characters is definitely one of those things I can ramble about.

I’m going to assume you specifically want me to compare the two character portrayals with each other as opposed to the source material, so that’s what I’m going to do. This write up assumes all four seasons of Sherlock and all MCU films with Stephen in them as canon.

This topic is something I especially considered when writing the both of them in a crossover as they had to be two distinct souls despite their similarities, beyond their abilities. The two characters are very similar to the point that some folks have difficulty in distinguishing the both of them as separate characters. I saw this a bit when Doctor Strange was first released. Some writers from the Sherlock fandom tried their hand at writing him, and there was a lot of Sherlock bleeding through in a handful of the attempts I read. It wasn’t until I was head-deep in the MCU that I really noticed this myself, which goes to show just how similar they can be.

The similarities are easy: both very intelligent, masters in their chosen fields, arrogant, not always personable, are vain when they’re in a good headspace, and went through large moments of growth that reshaped some of their personality to overall make them better human beings.

It’s the differences that may be harder to figure out, and these differences also vary depending on what point of time in canon you’re looking at the character as they both went through life-changing events. Still, there are some core personality points that remain:

Stephen’s primary drive for knowledge is to achieve a goal. Sherlock’s primary drive for knowledge is for the sake of knowledge. While there is definitely some overlap (such as Stephen’s library of music release albums and dates, and Sherlock’s research into solving a crime), it seems to me that Stephen’s whole learning structure is built upon achieving a goal. Studying for his PhD and MD at the same time was all to enter the field more quickly so he had more time to hone his craft and become the best, and prove it to everyone. Going to Nepal and beginning to learn magic were all for the sake of curing his hands. We haven’t seen much of him after he pivoted his goal into protecting Earth and reality, but all the spellwork we see from him in Ragnarok, IW, and Endgame certainly seem to have been learned with that idea in mind. Sherlock, on the other hand, clearly likes studying things for the sake of knowing things. Unlike Stephen who has an achievement in mind before starting to go for it, Sherlock starts studying things before it necessarily becomes something that he knows for certain he will deal with. Take categorizing the 243 types of tobacco ash. If he came across tobacco ash in a case, I imagine that he’d be more than able to compare ash to the top 20 brands and find a match 99% of the time. While he may claim it is for a future case, you don’t do that unless you genuinely enjoy the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. There is just no guarantee that it will be of any practical use in the future, while we know for certain Stephen’s research for his primary goals is to find solutions to problems both immediate (his hands) and imminent (bad things coming to bother Earth). (And this is one reason I consider Stephen a Slytherin and Sherlock a Ravenclaw, though both could have Ravenclaw and Slytherin as secondaries, respectively.)

Stephen is more interested in the praise, acceptance, and friendship of those he sees as peers and equals. Sherlock is decidedly less interested. This changes a bit through their character arcs, especially Sherlock’s, but let me see if I can explain this clearly. At the beginning of Doctor Strange, we see Stephen performing a surgery in front of residents (or med students, I don’t know), playing a music game with his assistant, and joking with his fellow surgeon. He asks Christine to join him at a dinner conference which is again, about his accolades. He likes getting the respect and admiration of his peers and those he considers friends, like Christine, straight from when we first meet him. When we first meet Sherlock, he doesn’t bother to explain why the ladder being green matters to Greg in the text. He asks for his name to be left out of the papers and definitely doesn’t do his work to impress the police force. If he was looking to get their admiration, he’d act a bit; we know that he can act. But he just doesn’t care what his peers (the police force) think of him at all. It’s not until John enters the picture that Sherlock starts showing off more by explaining his thought processes. Something about John intrigues him, and that grows exponentially when John saves his life at the end of the first episode. I’ve read fics where John’s described Sherlock as a peacock, but he really wasn’t like that until John came around, if the green ladder text and wanting to be kept out of the papers/public eye is any indication. Stephen, however, was most definitely the peacock. Stephen’s interest in acceptance pivots to the Masters of the Mystic Arts when he comes a student by his joking with Wong and Mordo. He’s interested in proving himself to them and gaining their praise and later on (I imagine) their friendship, though sadly we don’t have enough canon film time to see how his relationship with other sorcerers has grown since his first film. He’s likely conceded to the fact that his work is more secretive now, but for those in the know, he wants their acceptance and potential friendships. Sherlock’s bubble expands to wanting the acceptance and praise of maybe five people at most by the end of Season 4, but again, he’s not greatly interested in what his peers amongst the police force think. Wider praise and larger friendships has never been in the books for him. He’s completely content with the small group about him.

Stephen is on the extrovert side of the Myers-Briggs scale,  and Sherlock is on the introvert side. This slightly differs from his comic book self here; comic book Stephen is much more introverted. MCU Stephen isn’t a huge extrovert, but is obviously fully comfortable surrounded by people and being the star of the show, as seen by the beginning of the film. He’s fully content to do activities that are known as more “introverted” such as reading, but a love of reading doesn’t mean one is automatically an introvert. He doesn’t strike me as a personality that would get exhausted when needing to deal with people for longer amounts of time, as I’ve known the introverts in my life to be. Stephen is simply content both alone and with others, and when with others, he likes to show off from time to time. Sherlock, on the other hand, isn’t interested in the attention from the wider world and making friends. All of his preferred activities don’t involve other people and he definitely finds the idea of having to deal with people and societal norms tedious. If he’s showing off, it’s to impress a specific person as opposed to entertain a crowd. And unlike Stephen, I could see Sherlock being exhausted by parties and generally avoiding talking to most people, while Stephen, so long as he’s with a group with similar interests, could definitely talk about it for some time - whether it’s neuroscience or even the same music tastes.

Stephen is more sympathetic than Sherlock. This is not to say that Sherlock lacks sympathy, but as a detective he really has to have a cold detachment to the victims in order for emotions not to override his ability to do his job. This detachment is vital for surgeons as well when operating, and at the beginning of Doctor Strange Stephen could be considered too far in the cold detachment realm in selecting his patients, thinking about his record rather than if a procedure would be in the best interest of the patient due to health risks. This changes immensely with the loss of his career and his new path in life. I think the sympathetic tendencies of both characters can be best seen in how they deliver bad news to strangers:

The Sherlock screencap is from Season 4 Ep 1 (I wanted to select something after the hiatus and Magnusson so I had him after his growth). He’s telling a couple that their son tried to surprise them but ended up suffocating to death by accident. That look isn’t rude, but it’s very by-the-book, delivering the facts with very little emotion. Stephen is from Infinity War, before going through the Time Stone and whatever mess he dealt with in there. He’s telling Tony, not too long after meeting him, that the Time Stone comes above the lives of all of them, he and Peter included. The emotion that comes out on top is a grim determination, but even delivering this news, I would not say that it lacks sympathy. It’s a “this is how it has to happen; I’m sorry” type of emotion. The sympathy in his expression expands exponentially after the Time Stone, but canon hasn’t confirmed just how well he got to know the others. Was he just browsing through and pressing the “forward” button to view futures, or was he living through possible futures? The films haven’t told us yet. Hopefully we get clarification at some point. But that’s why I chose this screencap as opposed to the more obvious Time Stone scene. I think there’s further examples of their levels of sympathy such as Stephen’s reaction to the zealot he killed. One thing they are equal on in sympathy, though, is when it affects someone they care about. Sherlock is incredibly sympathetic to John after his loss, and the care Stephen shows to the Ancient One as she’s dying is very poignant.

Now there are also differences in their physicalities that Benedict does a fantastic job of portraying, such as the subtle shaking in Stephen’s hands in several scenes and Sherlock’s own hand gestures that vary completely from Stephen. They also move differently, and they move differently depending on their moods. He’s done a phenomenal job of distinguishing the two characters through physical motion alone.

Thanks for the interesting ask, anon.

[longitud-de-onda]

hello! could you please do some headcannons with javi and a plus sized reader? Like she has a bit of a crush on him, but she’s obviously not his normal ‘type’ so she doesn’t expect anything in return, but somehow he notices her and something about her interests him and he ends up falling for her?? idk about the ‘falling’ part bc he’s javi and he doesnt do emotion😂 but i mean he can be soft sometimes🥺

okay so very cute idea, however i really can’t bring myself to write a plus-sized reader based on my relationship with bodies/mental health/weight and such, so i’m going to have to drop this hc prompt. writing plus sized means often writing about weight, and i struggle with that because i struggle with my own issues around weight.  

i’m going to take a bit of time to explain how i feel about writing diversity in readers, because it’s an important thing sometimes overlooked.

writing self-inserts is difficult at times because there are so many different types of readers and often, appearances come very much into play with what i might want to write. there’s a lot of stuff that comes naturally to me that i know wouldn’t make sense for readers of color (like some cheeks turning red when you’re embarassed...) and i have been recently working hard to neutralize the appearance of readers in my writing. i don’t include color info for eyes/hair/skin and i try to avoid any sort of actions that wouldn’t make sense if a reader looked one way or another (i’m trying to limit fingers running through hair because as soon as curly hair reaches a certain curliness, that’s not really comfy). hell, i even struggle putting food information, like i wrote the reader eating yogurt and was like “what if this is turning off the lactose intolerant readers????” another big one is body types/sizes, and i do try to avoid writing any information on size which can be especially difficult when writing smut. 

but when i read over things, know that all of this is running through my mind, especially as an author who was once very overweight and struggled reading self-inserts where it was all about ‘thin frames’ and ‘long, skinny legs.’

when it comes to race, i am aware that as a white author, and writing often in historical settings (narcos is all 80s and 90s), the things i write are often specific to white readers and there are certain privileges they experience that may be alienating to non-white, non-able bodied people. as an example, writing a reader of color into un veneno is hard because being a solo female backpacker in the 80s (and even now) was dangerous, and even more so if you weren’t white. 

when i’m writing i’m crafting something that i hope is appealing to as wide an audience as possible without being too generalized and devoid of personality. that being said, i do want to make sure people feel represented, and i do so when i feel that i can represent people in a respectful and researched way, and in a way that doesn’t possibly damage my mental health as i write.

writing plus-size readers, or if someone requested a skinny reader (never seen that before, but who knows) or anyone with an eating disorder, is something i can’t do without the writing process becoming dangerous for me. writing a reader of an explicit race that isn’t white is something i don’t believe i can do correctly, as i feel it takes away the voices of people of color. instead, i try to remove most information that would clue someone in to the weight/size/color of the reader.

i’m wary of writing just about any kind of specific reader types (except maybe tall/short, curly hair???, depressed, anxiety, etc... basically anything i have experienced and can voice respectfully and thoughtfully), because there is a certain amount of research involved in writing someone who has different life experience from you. that’s not to say it can’t be done, because writing is often about writing people who have difference life experience, but the challenge is doing so the right way, and for me that’s a difficult thing that i wrestle with often. i will continue to try to promote diversity in my writing, and i will probably fail at times, and i’m welcoming anyone to come pop into my ask box and tell me if i’m failing them. 

if someone feels alienated from my work because of something, please tell me what it is because i will work hard to remove the language that pushes people away and i want to improve in this aspect.

...okay so exactly the opposite of what you wanted and that was a lot longer than i expected to write about this topic, but i have a lot of feelings when it comes to writing so there’s a lot more where that came from and i hope it’s coherent enough, and provides an explanation enough for why i can’t do this request. 

[probably-voldemort]

Would you mind telling us a bit about studying linguistics? Like what do you like most/least about it? What do kind of classes do you have? What jobs can you have after? I‘m just totally clueless about what to do after finishing school this year and trying to figure out what i could like... I‘m sorry to bother you, feel free to ignore if you don‘t know how to/ want to answer or take your time answering 🙈

Yeah for sure!

(below the line cause this got kinda long lol)

So at my uni you can get either a diploma in applied linguistics, a bachelor of arts in linguistics, or a bachelor of science in linguistics.  The courses you’d take for each different path are different, and I can only really speak for the bachelor of science, since that’s the one I’m doing.

So I needed basic first year science courses (a couple of bio, physics, math, maybe others I’m not 100% sure and I was a science major first year so like I definitely ended up with some sciency courses I don’t actually need for the degree) and then after that it’s basically a lot of linguistics and psychology courses.

From your ask, I’m guessing you’re graduating high school?  Sorry if that ends up not being accurate but that’s what I’m going with for this answer.

So if you think you could be interested in linguistics, I would definitely recommend taking a first year linguistics course as an elective before completely setting yourself up on the path.  First year is pretty basic stuff and pretty general (you learn about sentence structures and what the phonetic alphabet is and how to use it and all the other basics you’d need to know for future courses).  While I personally thought it was super interesting and ended up switching my major to it, there were definitely people in my class who were not into it at all and thought it was dumb.  So like basically what I’m saying is make sure you’re actually into the topic before setting yourself up to get a degree in it.

After that, classes on straight up linguistics are either in phonetics, phonology, morphology, or syntax.  Phonetics and phonology are speech sounds and how they work like physically and within a language and between languages and all that fun stuff.  Morphology is how words work and you learn about like affixes and compounding and that kind of thing.  Syntax is like sentence structure and that kind of thing and is the bane of my existence because it’s generally really prescriptive and that’s not my thing.

So you take a bunch of classes like that, and generally they’re pretty cool.  You can also take classes in like second language acquisition and child language acquisition and sociolinguistics (how language works pertaining to society) and pretty much any other area you can possibly think of.

Some linguistics degrees also make you take a second language to a certain level.  The applied and BA make you do that here but the BSc doesn’t.  I don’t know why.  I’ve taken a lot of ASL courses, though, and some Italian because like I like languages and think they’re cool.  As you can probably tell by the fact that I’m majoring in linguistics.

Also, linguistics is more focused on how languages work than actually learning languages yourself (first question you get asked every single time you say you’re a ling major: how many languages do you speak? like…no).  Like you can definitely take a lot of languages if you want to and that’ll just help you with being a linguist generally but like I have profs who only speak English and they’re still highly respected in the field.

And then for my degree there’s also a lot of psych courses.  As someone not super into psych, that’s tough, but like it is what it is and there are definitely psych courses I do enjoy and like learning the psychology behind speech and everything is important so like I’ll make it.

My least favourite thing about studying linguistics is the amount of research courses you have to do, at least at my uni.  I can 100% say that I do not want to go into research.  I have never wanted to go into research.  And yet every semester I have at least one course focused on either ling or psych research.  It’s rough.  But there are definitely a ton of research opportunities in linguistics since it’s still a relatively recent branch of science so like if you’re into research and enjoy linguistics this is definitely somewhere you can do that.

I also really don’t like syntax classes, as I already mentioned.  So in ling there’s like prescriptivism and descriptivism (both of which may be spelled wrong cause they’ve got a red underline here and I’m too lazy to look up the proper spelling but whatevs).  Prescriptivism is like there is a right way to use language and that is the only way language should be used, while descriptivism is like well no like language is made up and our rules are made up and like as long as I can understand you congrats you’re using language right (obviously this doesn’t apply to a language you don’t know but like within a language).  Me (and most linguists, as far as I can tell) are a lot closer to the descriptivist end.  Your grandma who gets upset when you don’t say something a certain way would be at the prescriptivist end.

Syntax from what I’ve seen is generally pretty prescriptivist, because it focuses more on writing (I think.  I only took like two pretty low level syntax courses because they were required and then was like nope we’re done here so like take all this with a grain of salt) and even though writing is made up there is a general stigma around it and there being a proper way to make your sentences and everything.  So yeah.  But I mean if that’s your thing don’t let me talk you out of doing syntax.

My favourite area would definitely be sociolinguistics in general.  It looks at how languages work with regards to society and like different accents and dialects and basically just from that you can see it’s super descriptivist.  Like no dialect or accent is inherently better than another.  It’s really cool.  I’ve taken classes on like language evolution and variation within communities and it’s honestly just a cool time.  Definitely recommend looking into that.

I also really liked my courses on child language acquisition.  Kids are just super cool and we got to watch a lot of videos of babies learning to talk and it was a super fun time.

So jobs.  I’m gonna link you to this list which I haven’t read through entirely but just looked up for you.

You can go into speech language pathology or audiology.  SLPs work with kids who are having trouble learning to speak properly (if you got speech therapy as a kid you saw an SLP).  They also work with adults who have had a stroke or a brain injury or some other aspect that’s made it so they need help with their speech.  There are definitely other areas, too, but if I get into a masters program I’d want to work with kids so like I don’t really know the other areas.  Oh yeah, this is an area I’m thinking of going into.

Audiologists work on the hearing end of things.  If you need a hearing aid or a cochlear implant or anything like that, this is where you’d go.  I don’t know too much about audiology, but what I’ve heard is pretty cool.

Other areas: teaching your native language as a second language (I’ve got a friend who’s family is from Korea and her plan is to move there after and teach English classes), alternative and augmentative communications (ie working to develop software or non-electronic things for people to use when they can’t use speech), AI developers (if you want your robot to talk, better hire a linguist to help you out), interpreters and translators, you can work in like movies or tv helping coach people on their accents if that’s your thing (personally I think this is super cool but like I have no idea how to get into it), or developing fake languages (like in Lord of the Rings or Arrival.  You need to understand how languages work in order for your made up one to be believable), you can work in publishing, and, like I already mentioned, there are a lot of research opportunities if research is your thing.

There’s a lot of types of jobs with a linguistic degree.  A lot of them also require a masters, though, so like you might be in for a lot of schooling there.

Personally, I’ve been thinking of applying for the SLP masters programs.  Not 100% set on that as a career.  I also think working in publishing would be cool (especially as someone who is also a writer lol) and like I said being an accent coach for tv and movies would be super cool but I have zero idea how you’d go about doing that.

Yeah!  Definitely hit me up again if you want more info.  Hopefully this was helpful, and I wish you the best of luck in figuring out what you want to do!!

[lindsaydoeslanguages]

Why I Love Reality TV for Language Learning (+ how to make the most of it)

Reality TV is my favourite type of TV for language learning. Read on to find out why + learn how to make the most of it.

Your Personal Netflix Language Study Pack

The thing I don’t like about Netflix is how stuff gets lost in my Watchlist and then I end up watching the same stuff.

And when it comes to using it for language learning, sometimes you want to sit down and really use it well to improve my languages. But it’s tricky to know where to begin.

I figured you might have the same problems from time to time. So, I made a printable and digital Netflix Language Study Pack to help you really use Netflix for language learning.

Click below to get your personal Netflix Language Study Pack now.

I grew up in the Big Brother age. I was around 12 when Big Brother first launched in the UK.

At that time, it was tame enough for a 12 year old to watch. They had chickens, they had to budget for their weekly food together, and with the exception of ‘Nasty Nick’, it was all very lovely and calm.

As I grew up, so did Big Brother.

Now it’s gone and here in the UK we have Love Island that seems to have replaced it. Not quite suitable for a 12 year old, I imagine. But I’ve never watched that. I guess I grew up too much. (That said, I do still watch Made In Chelsea…)

So reality TV, at least in its modern guise, has very much been a part of my life from my formative years.

However, when it comes to language learning, it was something I’d never really considered until the arrival of Netflix, and one show in particular: Terrace House.

Terrace House is a Japanese reality TV show that’s more like the Real World than Big Brother. But it’s also not like anything else at all. Here’s a trailer for the latest series at the time of writing: Tokyo 2019-2020.

Cameras film 6 young and aspirational Japanese people (and sometimes ‘half’ Japanese, but more on that later) both in the house and out and about living their daily lives. The daily life stuff often involves modelling shoots, and extreme sports training, or performing gigs. So, you know, typical everyday jobs.

Typical for reality TV it would seem, right? Not exactly.

You see, the beauty of reality TV in different languages is that by default, that involves different cultures.

I’ve learnt more about Japanese customs and etiquette from Terrace House than from any textbook.

Like how you say ‘tadaima’ when you come home and will always get a ‘okaeri’ in response.

And like how it’s totally normal to ask someone who looks a little less Japanese if they are ‘half’ mere minutes after meeting them.

And like how holding hands is a much bigger deal in Japanese dating culture than any Brit on Love Island would have you believe about British culture.

But, spoiler alert, my attitudes to dating were never like Love Island would have you believe to be totally normal for every single Brit. That’s where Terrace House becomes incredibly useful as a cultural resources.

The beauty of Terrace House is that it’s kind of like two shows in one. As well as the main show of the people in the house, there’s also regular cuts to a group of comedians and presenters watching together. This means that when something happens that does seem a little unusual, they’re there to not react or be like “Woah! That was weird!”

This video nicely sums up Terrace House if you’ve never seem the show.

Recently, whilst learning Korean and looking for something to watch that’s not K-drama (I’m sorry, other than Boys Over Flowers, I’ve just struggled multiple times to get into one) I found Hyori’s B&B.

Hyori’s B&B has become my Korean equivalent to Terrace House. It’s giving me the same cultural education that only reality TV can give, it seems.

There’s no second group of people watching to clarify when stuff is “normal in Korea” or not, but there is a slight divide between Hyori and her husband (and to some extent their celebrity staff helpers), and the guests. So sometimes, they discuss each other’s actions in that sense.

Also, differently to Terrace House, Hyori’s B&B has text pop up, obviously added by editors post-filming, which tries to assume how people felt in certain situations.

Here’s a quick intro to Hyori’s B&B if you’re new to that one. This is a random clip but it gives you an idea of how different it is to Terrace House with text and sound effects etc, yet alike in the mundane simplicity of the whole thing.

So with that in mind, how does this really work? Can reality TV really be used for language learning? Let’s dive in…

How to Use Reality TV for Language Learning

Most of the suggestions would work just as well with any type of TV, but I really just wanted to make the case for reality TV as I know, like me, not everyone loves drama shows!

Cultural Insights

Reality TV can be a great in context introduction to many aspects of a culture, giving you some base knowledge to research further and ask your tutors and language exchange partners about.

For example, I knew from the start of learning Korean that honourifics and respect for elders is a big deal in Korean culture. However, with Hyori’s B&B, I saw this in action when an elderly couple visited the house.

It’s also great to see attitudes to food and drink, for example.

Hyori and Sang-Soon make tea in an almost ritualistic way, with a full tea set on a tray that includes a cup for the initial bloom among other things. Of course, this could just be them or a small number of Koreans that do this, but it’s still an insight into something I don’t imagine many people doing at home in the UK.

Key Phrases in Context

The easiest way to use reality TV for language learning is to listen out for those key phrases that you hear again and again.

With Hyori’s B&B, they say ‘yeobuseyo’ when they answer the phone, which contradicts what I’d heard on a YouTube video!

I hear them say ‘kaja’ when they get ready to leave the house or walk the dogs.

With Terrace House, I noticed the words they say upon entering the house, and the response that everyone already there gives.

These things happen a lot in these types of shows. This means there’s plenty of chances for repetition without boring rote learning!

Read interviews or reviews of the show

A great way to expand beyond the show itself is to find interviews or reviews of the show online to read.

You might even find YouTube videos or podcasts here too, which would work well as extra listening practice. This is much more appealing because it’s on a topic you enjoy.

As I mentioned, I’ve noticed as well with Hyori’s B&B, there’s lots of text that comes up on the screen too.

Onomatopoeia type words and also these presumptuous statements about how the cast are feeling, such as “He’s sad because she’s sick.”

How they know for sure he’s sad and that her being sick is the reason why, I don’t know. But anyway, there’s extra text with that show as I watch, which is a nice bonus.

Stimulus for Free Writing

TV, whether it’s an entire series or an episode, or even a scene, can make for a great stimulus for a free writing piece.

Write a summary of what’s happened, what you think will happen next, or what you’d like to happen next. (See those chances for using different tenses there?)

Write an email, a review for a magazine, a script for a play. Get creative with the format and pick one to help give you some direction and structure.

Maybe even write a poem about the show! You’ve got complete creative control here.

If you’re looking for some inspiration for writing, here’s All The Writing Resources for Language Learning That You’ll Ever Need

Record Your Spoken Opinions

What do you think of the show? Record your opinions spoken aloud.

Of course, this works well as a follow-on activity from the free writing because you can simply record what you wrote.

Alternatively, if you’re feeling confident enough in the language to do it, go in with no plan and just start speaking as soon as you hit record!

Related: All The Speaking Resources You’ll Ever Need.

Change Tenses, People, Gender etc to Test Your Grammar

Pick a topic, any topic.

Just been reviewing how a certain tense works in that language? Watch a clip from the show. Pause it. Change the sentences you’ve just heard to that tense.

You can even expand to create further sentences related to the ones you’ve just switched.

Mindmap Vocab

With my current level in Korean, this one’s my favourite.

Simply watch a clip of the show until you catch a word/phrase you want to learn more throughly.

Start to mindmap that word and do some outside research to learn more related words.

Remember those onomatopoeia words I mentioned that always show on screen in Hyori’s B&B? I spotted one that led me to learning many more through this activity.

To show you how this works, I recorded myself doing it for this video too.

To catch more videos like this, be sure to subscribe to my channel on YouTube.

Free Netflix Study Pack

Ready to use TV for language learning? I’ve got a free Netflix Study Pack just for you to help you work through something. You’ll find this especially useful if you’ve never studied with TV. Click the image below to download it now.

How do you use TV for language learning? Do you like watching reality TV or is there another genre that works better for you? Share in the comments!

The post Why I Love Reality TV for Language Learning (+ how to make the most of it) appeared first on Lindsay Does Languages.

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[withinycu-arch]

WARNING: A lot of the characters I write for have either done shitty things or have had shitty things done to them and I’m going to acknowledge those things in terms of their backstory and not erase it. (Within reason, I’ve had people try to push overly negative headcanons or interpretations about characters I write which is a no go). 

This blog will deal with a lot of heavy topics including but not limited too incest, assault, violence, child abuse, etc. I myself have been the victim of emotional abuse for much of my life and will always treat these topics with the weight and respect they deserve. I will also try to tag my posts accordingly if/when these topics come up. If these topics are too much for you please feel free to unfollow/block/ soft block me. Your personal health and comfort are important to me regardless of whether or not we’re mutuals. 

PLEASE NOTE I WILL NOT RP THESE THINGS but will reference and acknowledge the effect of these events on the characters. 

That said I do write several deities on this blog and with them, I do write incest a little differently than say I would Jaime Lannister’s experience with it. As I write the deities as being somewhat different than humans psychologically so how they deal with/treat ‘incest’ is a bit different. In that, it’s not the social/moral/psychological trauma it is for humans and more something that’s an accepted practice as they generally experience attraction based on who balances/compliments their domains. That’s the only one that I write with any kind of frequency/am willing to write and I have been getting in the habit of tagging it.

I also make a lot of OOC posts, it’s more or less apart of my creative process. However, I know that’s a pretty big turn off for a lot of people so it feels fair to forewarn folks that this will be happening regularly. 

This has sorta been an unoffical policy of mine for awhile now. But I don’t/ am not going to be RPing with people who are under 18 just for my own comfort levels and given how much adult content can be on my blog can be at times.

Do not follow me if you are racist, sexist, homophobic or transphobic. If I see anything in rules downplaying or ignoring these subjects or whitewashing I will block you on sight. No exceptions. 

Read my about pages for any muses you want to play with especially given a lot of my muses are heavily headcanon based. I promise to do the same for you. (I am not going to require you read everyone’s page obviously).

I do practice headcanon fluidity. I know all my headcanons can be intimidating but I want my partners to feel free to discuss things with me and know I am willing to compromise certain aspects if they don’t fit with their personal headcanons or comfort levels. 

I’m not a big fan of having starters sent through my ask box especially if we’ve never interacted before. That said you’re welcome to ask questions if I reblog a meme or I give you explicit permission to send something.

I’m okay with making corrections if I made a mistake or you have a problem with one of my responses. Roleplaying is about collaboration so let’s pursue that. 

I would also like to point out here that I am white and several of my muses aren’t. If I ever do or say something in regards to these muses that makes you uncomfortable or feels problematic I would appreciate it if you’d point it out to me as that is never my intention. 

On the subject of Celtic/Greek mythology/History etc. While I try to do what research I can for all my muses I’m also a full-time film student, who works long hours so don’t ever treat me or assume I’m trying to act like any kind of authority on any given subject. If you are curious I will happily provide any of the resources I might use concerning my muses or writing. 

I will do my best to tag things that might be considered triggering. If I miss something or you would like to see something tagged let me know. 

No Forcing of Ships

Don’t approach me for shipping simply based on my FC I ship based on ic/ooc chemistry nothing else.

No God Modding/Meta-Gaming

No Passive Aggressive-ness, if you have a problem just talk to me don’t play games expecting me to guess.

In the unlikely event smexy times happen you really ought to be over 18. Seriously.

MESSAGE ME IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS- I’ve been RPing on Tumblr for years now and there have been times it got really un-fun because of some of the shit that went on. And I really just want to enjoy myself and make sure those I rp with do the same so its best if communication happens sooner rather than later. I promise I don’t bite. <3

Where’s Lee at?

@eynsavalow - Arthurian/Celtic Multimuse

@petroselinon - Gothic Reinterpretation of Rapunzel

@todrinkwithteeth - dhampir/vampire hunter OC

@abspecere - Species Franchise Multimuse

@withinycu - General Multimuse

[studyingatyork]

Realistic things to consider before applying to university 🎓

When I was applying to unis, between navigating the bewildering labyrinth of UCAS and trying to actually get my A Levels, I remember reading a lot of Student Room posts and BuzzFeed articles with titles along the lines of “Things To Consider Before Applying to University”.

These articles were helpful, of course - to an extent. But they were all full of the same, broad points and questions: Do you want to move away from home? Are you going to live on campus? Would you prefer to live in a bigger or smaller city? How important is nightlife - are you able to cope with the local clubs playing slightly outdated music; will you wither away if you’re not able to see live bands every week?

Those kind of questions are, undoubtedly, important. They’re the big questions. But, because they’re the big questions, those are the questions that every single relative has already asked you upon hearing that you’re planning to go to uni. You already know your answers to those questions; you’ve answered them so many times you could probably recite them in your sleep. And there are a lot of other things that I haven’t seen mentioned nearly as many times in online circles - things that I wish I’d been advised to consider, before I sent off my UCAS applications.

So here’s my list of realistic things to consider before applying to university…

Is the train fare home from your Chosen Uni going to bankrupt you?

Picture this: it’s Autumn Term of your first year of university. You have settled into your halls of accommodation, embarrassed yourself a few times in front of your flatmates, and only skipped half of your lectures. Although things were scary to begin with, you really think you’re beginning to find your feet. You’ve located the nearest Morrison’s and done your first food shop; you phoned your mum to tell her, and after you put the phone down, she might have wept a little with pride.

It’s Reading Week. You think: wouldn’t it be nice to go home for a few days? All of your flatmates are planning to do so. You open up your Trainline app, intending to book tickets - and the blood drains from your face. No, you think, when you see the price. No, that can’t be right - £96 for a return home? Even with your railcard?

Don’t end up in that situation. Obviously, it’s not advisable to chose a uni solely based on travel time, distance and expense. If you’re desperate to go to a certain uni but it’s an hour or two further away than a more convenient uni that you’re not really keen on, then that extra travel time is a sacrifice that’s well worth making, in the long run. But there’s a degree to which you also have to consider practicality. How are you planning to move your possessions? Will your parents be able to drive there and back in a day? Are they willing to do so? You have to follow your heart, but 5+ hour train journeys will really start to grate on you, after a few terms.

What does your Chosen Uni’s mental healthcare system look like?

There’s no shame in taking care of your mental health. It’s wise to find out in advance what kind of mental health support is offered by your prospective universities. If you have a pre-existing mental health condition, you can apply for Disabled Student’s Allowance (DSA) as part of your UCAS application. This will enable you to access certain kinds of support: extra exam time, extended coursework deadlines, certain apps and computer extensions to help you in your studies, and regular mentoring (pretty similar to counselling, in my experience), if you need these.

You also might want to ask around on the grapevine, to find out what your Chosen Uni’s mental health system is actually like, from a student’s perspective. You can have a look on The Student Room, ask current students on open days, or send questions to FaceBook confession pages like Yorfess or Durfess. Obviously, everyone’s mental health experiences are subjective, and you should take advice based on personal anecdotes with a pinch of salt. But your university should provide you with the support that you need to complete your studies, and going to uni should be an enriching experience. Don’t settle for less.

Your Chosen Uni might have a good reputation - but does your Chosen Course?

Departments vary. Unlike in school and college, in a large university, each subject department will run internally, with its own administration system and its own way of doing things. As someone who has studied in two different departments, doing a joint honours degree, I’m qualified to tell you that there can be a big difference in how different departments operate and treat their students.

Some departments are research-based, while others are not. Some departments will send you emails every day, telling you about all the events that are happening, offering you support, and telling you who you can contact if you have a problem. Some departments will build cosy study rooms specifically for students of your course, and will frequently bring free cake into said study rooms. Some departments will not do any of these things.

Again, it’s worth asking around, and checking out where your Chosen Course ranks in comparison to the same course, as offered by other universities. The Complete University Guide and The Guardian both have respected league tables which compare things like student satisfaction, grade prospects and employability, across universities as a whole and across specific courses and departments.

Does your Chosen Course have the right modules for you?

Autumn 2015: I walked into an open day lecture for History in a University That Shall Not Be Named. Almost the first thing that the professor said: “Everything we study is 1600 onwards. If you want to study medieval, this university is not for you.” Me, internally, knowing that I have wanted to study the Dark Ages since I was eleven: “Oh no, do I really have to sit here listening to this talk for another hour and a half?” Looking back now, I’m very glad I did attend that open day lecture, because it helped me to rule out one university, and appreciate the fact that every single university offers a different variety of modules.

Every single course will have a breakdown of the available modules across each year, on the university’s website. You might love the location of a uni, you might have heard great things about it from former students, but when you check out the things you’d actually be studying, the modules might seem dull as dishwater to you. If you know that you really want to study Romantic literature, it’s probably best not to apply to a university that doesn’t offer a Romantic module and strongly specialises in post-colonial writing. This is also the kind of thing that admissions tutors will be looking out for when reviewing your person statement - are you actually interested in the kind of teaching that their uni offers, or are you just filling a slot on a UCAS form? Obviously, it’s good to stay open-minded; don’t write off any modules as “boring” simply because you’re unfamiliar with the topic. University is about learning new things! But if a certain course seems to offer modules in things that you really know you wouldn’t be interested in, that may be an indication that this course isn’t for you.

Admittedly, this is probably more applicable to my BA languages/humanities degree, in which I could pretty much take whatever modules I fancied from second year onwards, than a science-based BSc degree in which you have to cover certain areas in order to progress. But regardless of what course you’re applying for, it’s always worth checking out what that degree will actually entail. One of the best things about studying at uni, after the rigid, grade-oriented control of GCSEs and A Levels, is the freedom that you have in choosing your own modules and tailoring your studies to your actual interests for the first time in your life. Make sure that you’re actually able to do that, at the university of your choice.

Will your Chosen Course’s style of teaching and assessment work for you?

If you’re currently studying for your A Levels, then by now you’ll probably already have a good idea of what kind of study works for you. Another thing indicated by online course specifications is the ratio of coursework vs. exams (and labs, if you’re doing a science subject, but don’t ask me about that; I still don’t know what a “lab” actually is). If you would prefer to never do another exam again after A Levels (I don’t blame you) then maybe a coursework-heavy degree would be best for you. On the other hand, if you’re one of those people that prefers to get the assessment aspect over quickly with closed exams, you’d probably prefer a more exam-based course.

One of the reasons I decided not to apply for Oxford is that my course would have been assessed entirely through one week of exams at the end of third year. The thought of undertaking a course like that was extremely anxiety-inducing for me - what if I just had a bad week? I’ve never regretted my choice to study at York instead, where I accumulated credits gradually over three years, and was able to walk into my final exam with that knowledge that I was already averaging a solid mark.

There’s also the matter of teaching style and contact hours. These can also vary drastically across different universities and degrees. If you prefer to be taught directly by tutors, you may want to choose a course that’s heavy on lectures and seminars. But if you know that you’re capable of organising your free time for reading and studying (not just watching Netflix), you could select a course with lower contact hours, where you might spend several days a week in the library doing assigned work without any teaching.

  These are just a few things to consider when applying for university. It goes without saying that this list is very subjective to my own university experience, and these factors might not matter nearly as much to you as other things like sports opportunities or societies. There are definitely other things to consider that weren’t as important to me. For instance, would you like to study abroad or do a placement year? Also, does the university have a reputation for wildlife on campus that regularly try to kill its students? If you have a severe phobia of geese, it’s probably best that you don’t choose York.

Originally posted 20/01/2018

[radiantseraphina]

Do you have any advice for writers who just. Don't have an experiance with important things? Like, if I wrote a story with a plot that followed conflicts I personally deal with, it would be whiny and dull. But I worry if I try to branch out to issues other people face, my lack of experiance on the topic will come across as plastic, or worse that im trying to profit off of other people's problems. But every story needs a conflict of some kind,,, and you get the picture

Hmm… If you feel comfortable with it, send me an ask with maybe some examples of what you’re thinking of, so I can give you some more specific advice. Because, like, writing about racism is quite different from writing, about, say child abuse? Also, I would argue that you shouldn’t so easily discount your own experiences and that there are, well, still plots you can write that wouldn’t fall into these, but that’s another post entirely. But here are my general thoughts in loose categories.

Firstly, do your research, preferably from people who have experienced whatever you want to write about. That’s crucial to approaching experiences that you don’t have. Aside from things like slaying dragons. Literal ones, of course. Metaphorical ones may still require research. But here’s the thing. Simply put, most problems are complicated. So how do you keep, for example, your story about racism/homophobia/sexism/ableist/etc. from sounding like a Very Special Episode™?

Keep in mind that most people know these things are bad. That’s why people always deny being them. Bob the Bigot isn’t homophobic; Bob the Bigot is ‘I don’t have a problem with gay people, BUT–’ So you need to go beyond X is Bad. And I’ll admit that’s something I struggle with. Incidentally, that’s why in DLU Alera’s racism stems from her insecurities (and her desire for money, which comes up later); Alera is constantly afraid of giving up her power, so she tries to make sure she has all of it and constantly tries to claim it’s what Bikaia would have wanted. Do I succeed? I don’t know. Maybe. She’s also loosely based off a certain president, but we won’t go there. So I suppose this boils down to ‘don’t just make someone racist/sexist/homophobic; give them reasons for being racist.’

And I don’t mean, ‘this person hates gay people because a bisexual woman named Seraphina murdered their wife.’ Your readers aren’t going to be fooled by such an obvious ploy for sympathy. Like, I do think you can have a character be whatever because they don’t think they are, and that tells us something other than Don’t Be Racist, Zelda. But do the extra work beyond X Is Bad.

(That being said, if you are looking at writing about racism/ableism/transphobia you would definitely want to ask someone besides me. As much as I’ve learned about these from academia and other places, I am still an able-bodied cisgender white lady.)

So now, you’ve made your plot something besides a Very Special Episode™. At this point, you need to look at your characters. Why? Because characters drive plot. So if you’re writing about sexism/racism/homophobia/ableism, you’re probably going to have characters who are very diverse. You might have a hard time writing about biphobia if you don’t have an bisexual people in your story. So at this point (assuming I’d already done my research about these complicated issues), I would look at TVTropes. I’m not even kidding. It’s a great source for finding all the negative stereotypes associated with any given group of people.

Now, here’s where it gets tricky. Some tropes you very obviously should not use. But you also need to use some judgment here. For example, just because the Dashing Hispanic is a trope…doesn’t mean you should simply go to the complete opposite end of the spectrum and never write a Hispanic swordsman, even when the setting would call for it, and make all your Hispanic characters as un-dashing and unattractive as possible. And really, a lot of things (but definitely not all!) can be fixed if you humanize your characters really well. So keep in mind that your Hispanic swordsman isn’t just a swordsman or defined solely by his swordsmanship. Just like you aren’t also just a student/writer/whatever. Or maybe you take away the dashing bit and turn him into a flustered mess anytime a man/woman/nonbinary pal pops into the room. 

Incidentally, some tropes can also be a good starting point if you notice there is a lack of diversity in them. I’ve been wanting to, for example, write a female Swashbuckler character (and well as a lady Hannibal Lecter) for ages and just haven’t gotten around to it.

(I personally also look up sporkings (chapter by chapter critiques) and/or reviews of relevant books for tips. Right now, I’m following a sporking of Mists of Avalon, once considered the feminist Arthurian adaptation before it was revealed what a horrific person Bradley was. Do I like Mists of Avalon or Marion Zimmerman Bradley? No. But if I want to write a bestselling feminist version of the Arthurian legend revolving around Sir Gawaine, I’m damn sure going to learn all the historical, feminist, homophobic, etc., missteps Bradley made. And I’ll happily recommend some sporkings if you’re trying to avoid certain things.)

So let’s say you don’t want to write about any of that. Let’s say you’re wanting to write about trauma. Depending on what you write, you want to be careful not to romanticize certain things. I’m not going to lie. As someone who was sexually abused as a kid, that is the absolute minimum standard for me. I cannot stand to read massive swaths of the romance and YA genres simply because of the way the Broody, Threatening Love Interest™ is romanticized. And as with anything else, do your research and ask questions. (Incidentally, the National Novel Writing Month forums are great for inquiries like this). Above all, be respectful.

If you can find them, beta readers are always a good option, especially if you can find people who have experienced the things you’re writing about. Or if you just have a couple of questions, you can always anon someone on Tumblr. Yes, some people may blow you off, but some of them won’t, especially if you’re polite and can show that you’ve already put forth effort to research that matter. (And not even kidding, I would answer EVERY bigoted question about the people of Appalachia if I NEVER had to read another nursing paper talking about how we’re “too stupid” to breastfeed and “feed all our babies Mountain Dew” ever again.)

Now, as for this profiting off others business. Let’s say you write your story, and it does actually bring you profit. Then, you use your platform to promote the voices of people who do have those experiences, and you acknowledge the great debt that you owe that community for sharing their experiences with you. And you acknowledge the luck and privilege that got you where you are. Support people working in the same area! You wrote a novel about a man in a terribly abusive relationship, and it becomes a bestseller? Great! Use your spotlight to share resources for abuse victims. You wrote a novel about a young person transitioning, and it garnered some success? Fantastic! Why don’t you point people to that underappreciated transgender writer? 

And sometimes? You’re going to make mistakes, and sometimes, being told that you’ve made mistakes will really hurt because you’ve worked so hard not to make them. I know. I’ve been there a couple of times. When I wrote DLU, I knew I could get some things right. I knew I could write about child abuse and being mistreated by someone you loved and still loving and fearing that person because I’ve been there. And I knew I could write about depression and loneliness and struggling to trust people because I’d been there. I could even say I knew a little bit about classism because I grew up dirt-poor in rural Appalachia, babysitting my brother since I was nine because both of my parents worked multiple jobs.

But I also knew that when I wanted to make Meta Knight a Hispanic man that I was opening myself up to criticism about race. And when I wanted to make Bandanna Dee a trans man, I knew I was opening myself up to criticism about transphobia. And I knew that when I wanted to make one of the primary villains a really racist, evil queen that I was treading on ground that I had no personal experience with. And we haven’t even gotten to Nightmare’s backstory, which basically features the first-hand colonization of Traumwald. So guess what? Sometimes, I’ve gotten it really right. And sometimes, I’ve really screwed it up and had people send me messages saying, ‘Sera, no.’ 

(And this is crucial; what I haven’t gotten is ‘don’t try to write this type of character.’ Generally, people like seeing different characters with different problems, and if you treat those characters and your readers with respect, your readers will treat you with respect).

But if you’re going to take any one thing away from this post, let it be this: do your best and learn to accept criticism with grace. Don’t let your fear of messing up keep you from ever trying. It is far better to try and write an experience, having approached it with respect and nuance, than it is not to. And sometimes, you will mess up, and that’s okay. You apologize, you learn, and you do better. I, personally, would rather see a writer fail, learn, and do better than to never try at all. Because that’s what writing is. It’s a process of continually working to improve yourself.

[npmjs]

JavaScript Usage by Industry

We’re continuing our analysis of the results of last winter’s JavaScript Ecosystem Survey, a survey of over 16,000 developers conducted by npm in collaboration with the Node.JS Foundation and the JS Foundation. Our second topic is How JavaScript is used across industries — and, more specifically, how different industries use certain JavaScript tools, frameworks, and practices. To read more about the methodology behind this survey, click here.

We asked about what industry our respondents worked in. 45% of users answered “tech”, revealing an underlying ambiguity in our question. For instance, if you work at Google, do you work at a tech company or an advertising company? What about at Microsoft, which many consider a tech company, but also has advertising and even hardware manufacturing arms? Next time, we’ll ask for more detailed information about industry concentrations.

“We asked about what industry our respondents worked in. The most common answer was “tech” at 45%”

Despite this, we still gathered some good data about how use of JavaScript varies by industry. The top industries were:

finance: 7%

advertising and marketing: 5%

education: 5%

entertainment: 5%

business support and logistics: 4%

healthcare: 4%

retail: 3%

government: 2%

manufacturing: 2%

There were meaningful differences across industries in how and why people use JavaScript. There were also some clear commonalities, not all of which we’re going to mention. But from a statistician’s point of view, the questions where all the industries answered very similarly are useful because it indicates the differences in other questions are “real” and not just random variation.

With 16,000 responses, even the single-digit groups per industry constituted enough data to make meaningful conclusions. We discarded answers from industries with less than 2% responses (i.e. less than 300 individual responses).

JavaScript tools

First, we asked about common tools: bundlers, linters, testing frameworks, transpilers, CSS preprocessors, and more.

Manufacturing across the board uses less of everything — only 51% of manufacturing respondents say they use a testing framework, compared to 75% in finance.

The explanation for this may lie in the answer to another question; “Where does the JavaScript you write run?” 15% of manufacturing developers say their code runs on embedded devices which is twice as much as any other industry. Embedded platforms often have intrinsic transpilers for JS, so you do not need to use your own and have no need for browser-specific optimizations that most of these tools provide.

“Manufacturing across the board uses less of everything — only 51% of manufacturing respondents say they use a testing framework, compared to 75% in finance.”

Put another way: hardware isn’t a browser. This view of manufacturing respondents is backed up by another question, in which 31% of manufacturing respondents say their code is put to use in IoT (Internet of Things). No other industry gets above double digits for that answer. This makes manufacturing an interesting set of answers across the board, as we’ll see.

Finance, on the other hand, uses everything the most. They are the most likely to use a bundler, second-most likely to use a linter (after healthcare), most likely to test, second-most likely to use a web framework (after retail), most likely to use a transpiler, and second-most likely to use a CSS preprocessor (after advertising). Finance just does all the things.

JavaScript frameworks

We’ve examined the popularity of JavaScript frameworks in the past. Our survey data provides another view into these preferences, and the results are enlightening.

Angular was a fairly popular choice across all industries, but strongest in finance. Developers in entertainment were the least likely to use Angular, their strongest preference being for React (65%).

React was the most popular framework in the survey overall, though with strong variations by industry. As mentioned, 65% of developers in entertainment chose it, but that fell to 46% in government and 38% in manufacturing. Manufacturing’s strongest choice for a framework was jQuery (52%), suggesting the industry is a late adopter. Government also had jQuery as its top pick at 52%.

Around 20% of developers in most industries reported using Vue, though it was notably more popular in advertising, with 34% of developers reporting it there.

“We also asked developers how they made decisions about choosing frameworks. Big majorities (60-90%) in every industry reported things like support, features, and stability being important, with little variation.”

Ember did not get a lot of mention from our respondents, with an average of 4% of developers reporting that they used it. Also in this range were Preact (5%), Hapi (5%), Next.js (5%), and Meteor (5%).

A surprisingly popular choice was Electron, which is obviously not a web framework at all but we included in our options. More than 20% of developers in every industry reported using Electron for some projects.

We also asked developers how they made decisions about choosing frameworks. Big majorities (60-90%) in every industry reported things like support, features, and stability being important, with little variation. Security was the lowest ranked concern for frameworks, averaging only 25%, though finance was most concerned at 30%. We’ll go more into attitudes to security later in this post.

Language choices

Obviously everybody in the survey uses JavaScript, but lots of respondents use another primary language as their back-end choice and there were noticeable variations by category.

Python was the choice of the unemployed. This sounds unflattering, but thanks to a poorly-phrased question on our part, the “unemployed” category includes people in full time education. Their questions (such as what level of schooling the respondent had completed) lend weight to the idea that the unemployed category was full of people who are still in school, so we believe Python is popular in education.

Java was the choice of the finance industry by quite a margin—41% versus 27% for the second most popular language in finance, .NET.

PHP was the choice of the advertising industry, again by a huge margin — 49% to 26% for Python, the second most popular. Why advertising companies choose PHP is unclear to us, but PHP is popular with advertising agencies putting together micro-sites. Furthermore, a question about company size showed that over 50% of advertising respondents worked at small companies (less than 50 people), so this category is probably dominated by small shops putting together these sorts of sites.

Our poorly-chosen “.NET” category (not really a language) was no industry’s first choice. Its strongest showing was in the manufacturing category at 33%, a very close second to Python at 34%. However, because we didn’t pick out C# and F# separately, it’s possible these results are skewed by people who use those languages, but don’t use .NET.

Ruby is a relatively unpopular option across all our respondents, chosen by less than 13% in all cases. Its weakest showing was in manufacturing, where only 3% chose it, and its strongest in education, where 13% did.

C and C++ were unsurprisingly most popular in the hardware-dominated manufacturing industry, at 9% and 18% of respondents respectively. C++ was more popular than C across the board. The retail industry is the least fond of C++, with only 4% of respondents reporting using it.

We also polled on Go, Swift, and Rust. Go was about 10% usage across the board, Swift was 3-5%, and Rust about 3% except in manufacturing, where it hit 7%.

Why do you choose JavaScript?

In general, people are pretty clear why they choose JavaScript: the huge ecosystem of libraries. An academic study of the same topic in 2013, An Empirical Analysis of Programming Language Choices (Meyerovich and Rabkin, 2013) exhaustively researched what makes developers choose programming languages and it reached the same conclusion. It’s not controversial to conclude that the modules in the npm registry are a major reason people choose JavaScript. However, people cited a number of other reasons and there were notable variations by industry.

Respondents who say they work in government were the least likely to report that they chose JavaScript for productivity gains, with only 51% saying so versus 60% in the finance industry, where this belief is strongest. Instead, government was most likely to believe that using JavaScript gave them performance gains: 31% of government respondents cite this, while in most other industries only 20-21% said this.

The advertising industry is the one most likely to say that developer satisfaction is a reason they choose to use JavaScript, with 50% of respondents saying so. This is notable since the advertising industry has a lot of PHP developers, and as we’ll see in a future analysis based on programming language choices, high satisfaction with JavaScript is a characteristic shared by most PHP developers.

“Across every industry, solid majorities (more than 90% in every case) expected to use JavaScript more or about the same amount as they had previously in the next 12 months.”

Cost savings as a reason for choosing JavaScript were most cited by respondents who work in finance (41%). This seems pretty logical, as finance is an industry that presumably can be relied upon to think of the costs of things.

The entertainment industry was the most likely to cite the size of the developer pool (41%) while the retail industry was most likely to say the ease of on-boarding new developers (40%) was their reason for choosing JavaScript. While JavaScript has a big pool of developers and we think on-boarding developers in JavaScript is pretty easy, it’s unclear why these industries in particular would note those advantages.

Finally, some people don’t get to choose what programming language they work in. This number was highest in government, at 21%.

Across every industry, solid majorities (more than 90% in every case) expected to use JavaScript more or about the same amount as they had previously in the next 12 months.

Attitudes to security

npm is making a big push to improve the security of the modules in the registry in 2018, so we asked our users about their attitudes toward security. You can see our previous post for a deeper analysis of attitudes to security, but there are some interesting variations by industry.

Firstly, everyone is concerned about the security of the code they write (87-90%) and of the open source code they use (73-79%). Developers who work in tech were the most likely to be concerned, but there wasn’t a lot of variation.

Majorities in every industry reported that they were dissatisfied with current methods of evaluating the security of code (51-60%). Advertising and entertainment were the most likely to say they were dissatisfied with available methods.

“Firstly, everyone is concerned about the security of the code they write (87-90%) and of the open source code they use (73-79%). Developers who work in tech were the most likely to be concerned, but there wasn’t a lot of variation.”

A whopping 90% of people working in education (non-students) were likely to be concerned about the quality of the code they wrote themselves. This was an interesting result as they were also the industry most likely to say they were doing nothing at all to assess security (33%):

The industry most likely to be actively doing something about security is the finance industry. They were the group most likely to participate in code reviews (81%), most likely to have external audits of their code (30%), and the most likely to be using automated scans of their code (52%). The tech industry was a close second to finance in all of these answers.

Private code

We explored the ways developers use and store private code.

Everybody reports having private code and GitHub is an extremely popular place to store it — 93% of the advertising industry report using it, with most industries in the high 80’s. Manufacturing was an outlier here, with only 75% of developers saying they used GitHub. We thought this was a strange result, but it was consistent; when asked how they discovered packages, developers in manufacturing were also the least likely to report using GitHub (14% versus 20% for other groups).

Developers also store private npm packages. Across all industries, about a third of developers said they had created private npm packages. However, their reasons for doing so varied.

“However, by far the most popular reason for everyone using private packages was the most obvious: the packages contain private IP. Majorities from 65% in education to 91% in manufacturing reported this as a reason for creating private npm packages.”

Developers sometimes use private modules to hold test projects which aren’t ready for release. This practice varies widely across industries, with 23% of developers in education saying they do this but only 8% in retail.

More common was keeping code private for release as open source later. Education was likely to do this, with 27% saying so, and government employees following close behind at 25%. Healthcare developers, who reported less engagement with open source, were the least likely to report this as a reason, at 9%.

A big reason for everyone to keep private packages was re-use by their co-workers — including majorities from 53% in finance and 67% in retail.

However, by far the biggest reason for everyone using private packages was the most obvious: the packages contain private IP. Majorities from 65% in education to 91% in manufacturing reported this as a reason for creating private npm packages.

Testing

Finally, we explored attitudes toward testing across the industries.

In keeping with its answers in every other category, finance was the most likely to report that they use a testing framework (88%). Government and manufacturing developers on the other hand were the least likely to use a testing framework, with only 68% of developers in both industries saying so.

Across every industry, the most popular testing framework choice was Mocha (50%), followed by Jasmine (33%) and Jest (19%). Unlike web framework choices, there was less variation between the popularity of testing frameworks across industries.

Conclusions

There were some fascinating differences across the industries. The advertising and entertainment industries often found themselves paired together in terms of practices. Finance was cautious and security-focused. Government and manufacturing were mostly on the opposite end of that scale, with lower reported use of best practices and modern tooling. Whether you’re in these industries or building products for developers in these industries, we hope these results help you get a better sense of the broader universe of JavaScript developers.

Thanks to everyone who took the survey. We’ll be providing more analysis in the near future, so stay tuned!