#of all those who trusted in hope

[regicidal-optimism]

Meme: Homumado

ask meme: send me a ship; receive my brutally honest opinions

so the short version is: do I ship it? yes. am I happy about it? no.

the long version gets quite long, but the medium version is something like:

so, pmmm does not, in fact, have canon lesbians. it has canon girls who are very close to each other, and girls who are devoted to each other, and girls who say incredibly homoerotic things to each other, but it does not have canon lesbians. I open with this because the show was repeatedly advertised to me as containing canon lesbians, and it just straight up doesn't.

what it does have is a pure, innocent, "good" character in a fluffy dress and angel imagery, who loves a girl in the same chaste way she loves everybody else in the whole world, and a dark wicked "bad" character in a plunging neckline and devil imagery, who is obsessed with a girl to the point of becoming a semi-religious stalker and destroying everything madoka worked for to keep her in a cage-world that homura controls.

and I ship them! I really do! I am fascinated with madoka's love for homura as the love madoka has for all of humanity, and homura's love for madoka as the kind of love that involves keeping a shrine to your crush! I am fascinated by homura's weirdass statues and the way her mental landscape is wrapped around madoka in a way that will never even be close to returned! I love how toxic and awful the scrap of their post-rebellion relationship we get is! it's a really fun dynamic! but I also feel so fucking weird about it.

[lathrine]

when i say hexadecimal would be a smash hit with the queer crowd, this is what im talking about

[bookwyrminspiration]

Despite valiant efforts from the soldiers, we return from the battlefield empty handed and bloody.

Grady beat Brant.

I don't usually like to use strong language, but I am immeasurably disappointed and disheartened by the choices made by select members of this fandom. In the years I've spent within this space, I'd come to think of us as intellectuals, as visionaries, as those with the critical skills necessary to engage with the world around us in a deeper, more meaningful way than others. This space was a beacon of hope, where I knew my peers would engage with the media we found each other over in a productive and incisive manner.

Would there be chaos and fun mixed in with that? Of course. Analysis and academia are not complete without the full spectrum of possibilities, and the joy reaped from our descents into pageantry and madness are critical to our well-being and community. Those denying our intellectual nature in favor of the delights fail to realize they accompany each other, that they aren't exclusive. But I thought when it truly mattered, our efforts would be made with the clarity of a greater purpose. With the truth in mind: that Grady is not, and never will be, a sexyman.

I have been let down by this group of people I only yesterday was so proud to call my friends, my mutuals, my community. I hope the 52% of you who voted incorrectly, letting your hearts and minds be corrupted by biased, wishful thinking can take some time to reflect on your actions. And to do better next time.

Grady is not my sexyman.

(this is 100% not serious and is poking fun)

[feelslikegold]

also why is the ugliest man alive coming for jake like that anyway

[sengenism]

just realised how i usually dislike or feel indifferent about shounen mcs but senku and gon hxh are the only ones who actually manage to enter my top fave characters of their respective fandoms... they're so well written

[axelaxolotll]

hi guys. at the time of writing this i have forty (40) mutuals, and yet, each time im added to a tag game, i tag the same five people. 3 of which do not want to be tagged most likely. guys pls lmk if i can add u to tag games PLS 😭🫶

[i-am-become-a-name]

We've only ever met once. You told me I'd been to your wedding. Oh, I do hope I was suave, and not wearing a cheap suit. I do hate cheap suits, don't you?

[arolesbianism]

So I may or may not have spent a good chunk of my day trying to learn how to look into onis code and while I may not have yet succeeded I will likely keep fucking around with shit tomorrow and if I manage to succeed it'll spell great doom for my sanity as oni becomes the interest I've officially poured the most effort into analyzing

[dmclemblems]

also something I really love about Dimitri telling Rodrigue that his death would destroy him is that’s finally proof that it was Rodrigue dying that made Dimitri almost go out into a suicide battle in AM.

people have been saying (and actually meaning it, not as a joke) that Byleth just “fixed” Dimitri and that they don’t like how Dimtiri was just “magically cured” because of Byleth.

that was never true. both him wanting to die completely and utterly in that moment when he spoke to Byleth was because he lost all sense of hope when he lost Rodrigue; however, it was also because of Rodrigue’s words to him that he could go on living. Byleth was a deterrent from him going out into a suicide battle because he was so overwhelmed, but he also points out, iirc a couple times post Gronder in AM, that Byleth said the same thing Rodrigue did to him.

when Byleth says anything that seems to “change” him, it’s because it’s something he could think back on as “oh, he said the same thing to me so it must have been the truth if someone else can say the same thing and it wasn’t just because he loved myself and Lambert that he said those things”. basically, Byleth could verify the truth of Rodrigue’s words.

Dimitri also says he ISN’T cured and just “okay”. he tells Byleth directly that what is effectively his mental illness is something that he knows he’ll have to live with for the rest of his life, but that he’s no longer going to let it hold him down. he outright admits his understanding of his issue with the voices of the dead. he knows they may always be there and he knows his aggression due to losing so many loved ones in his life will always haunt him.

the sad thing is I feel like people just pick and choose things they want to see for the sake of argument, and I say that because it’s not even nuance in this case that it’s very clear that Dimitri isn’t just “cured” of his illness. it wasn’t ever something that needed to be looked more deeply into. it was said outright multiple times that Dimitri wasn’t just “cured” or “fixed” or any of that, and it’s also very outright that Byleth wasn’t the one who helped him to see things straight again. it was Rodrigue who opened his eyes (no pun intended) and it was Byleth being there to confirm Rodrigue’s words.

mind you, Byleth spoke to Rodrigue in private one night and Rodrigue shared some personal feelings with Byleth, then said he entrusted the future of Faerghus and Dimitri to Byleth. anything from that point on that Byleth did that helped Dimitri see his way again was because Byleth was keeping true to Rodrigue’s words.

prior to that, nothing Byleth ever did could sway Dimitri. the only person, right from the beginning to the end of the battle at Gronder, who could sway Dimitri or make him waver in his feelings was Rodrigue. he would argue with anyone else in a steadfast way, but when Rodrigue finally had enough and told Dimitri he would listen to him, Dimitri did. considering Dimitri has always seen him as a second father, it makes sense that Dimitri would take that as a scolding from his own father. even in the mental state he was in, he didn’t brush it off as “just someone” telling him those things. he took it to heart and he also thanked Rodrigue, calling him a friend despite his behavior up to that point (which was Ailell).

in other words, Byleth never really had much influence at all on Dimitri’s recovery until he lost Rodrigue. it highlights quite well imo that Dimitri truly saw Rodrigue as his own father. if Lambert had been there to speak to him similarly, Dimitri would have reacted similarly. he might have argued, but at the end of the day he was still affected by what he was told.

essentially Byleth was like a proxy for Dimitri after he lost Rodrigue. it was like all of Rodrigue’s wishes were within Byleth now because Rodrigue felt he could trust Byleth, and that got through to Dimitri (and it also helped that Byleth and Rodrigue see things similarly, as highlighted by them saying very similar things to Dimitri but prior to Gronder, Dimitri only listened if Rodrigue was the one to say something). it was not directly Byleth, but because it was like Rodrigue’s feelings for Dimitri were now within Byleth.

I just really feel like people looked right over the head of their relationship in Houses and just how much it meant to Dimitri. their relationship could make or break him and it did both. Hopes helped to emphasize how powerful their bond is and gives you more context into how and why he lost his will to live when Rodrigue died at Gronder. obviously Byleth is important to him, but Rodrigue has been with Dimitri for Dimitri’s entire life and wasn’t someone his age - he was a respected adult and the man who protected Faerghus for five straight years from the Empire when Dimitri had to flee and couldn’t be the one to do that. he respects the other adults in Faerghus, but even in Hopes it’s very clear that he doesn’t view Matthias or Gilbert as a father figure. Gilbert has a bit more on Matthias there, but Rodrigue is extremely special to Dimitri and as much a father to him as Lambert was.

[attollogame]

hi ames! about the latest posts that touch on sysba's aromanticism - how that ties to them being a RO and having a romance path in the game? i'm a little confused to be honest. since aro people don't experience romantic attraction or interest in romantic relationships. /gen

Not all aro people experience no romantic attraction! Like any other sexuality/preference, aromanticism is a spectrum and thus people can experience different things. In Sysbas case, they don't not experience romantic attraction, but they experience it very little—as explained in the prior post. Sysba has had 'romantic' affairs (re Malchus) but they're highly infrequent and they prefer more physically intimate encounters. Sysba, therefore, is more gray-aromantic, or greyromantic, which still falls under the aromantic umbrella.

In complete honesty, I've always been transparent with the reader base about how Sysbas route will be minimal in terms of actual romantic stuff (re holding hands, dates, etc) so this is definitely not a new development. This is also because I need to take into consideration the fact that Sysba is NOT human, and thus does not experience the same emotions/spectrum of emotions we, as humans, do. Sysba's species and personal history dictates an entirely different emotional path.

Sysba still enjoys the company of others, even if the emotional component is different than what people usually expect in these games, and so I still feel that they can work as an RO. It may not be everyones cup of tea, but I feel comfortable with the vision I have in mind for them, and confident that I can make it work!

[gxtzeizm]

oh and on top of everything else you're begging for money on tumblr. wow. pathetic bitch

i'm so sorry if it bothers you a lot i promise i won't do it again :(((((

but guess that you just love to see me dissapointing my parents by dropping out of uni if i'm not able to pay for my uni fee this semester...well okay then

[goldensunset]

> did the thing i’ve been procrastinating for a year and a half

[neverendingford]

,

[lisbonsteresa]

climbing the walls this is so excellent

[thespacesay]

one thing I feel like people miss in the discussions around the ridiculously low pay rates allowed for certain groups of disabled individuals is that in order to effectively change that, we first need to tackle funding for programs that support the types of disabled individuals who receive these pays. while i'm speaking to my personal connections to this, those low pay rates typically are social programs. these programs create jobs that are applied for via social workers assigned to disabled individuals by the state, and not through job applications. they are notoriously underfunded, primarily run by companies or groups who want to be seen as progressive, and typically are shut down rather than given increased funding.

for example: a recent change in a local pay rate for disabled individuals made it so my downs syndrome brother got like... $7 every two weeks (low hours + low pay) instead of $3. cool! for people who need more hours and the money it gives them, that sounds great!

but the thing is, at least for all the programs I know of, these programs are typically designed with people like my brother as the primary goal: adult disabled indiviuals for whom the goal of work is not to have a job, not to make money, but to provide a consistent socialization system. my brother is financially supported by our family, and he's disabled in ways where financial wellbeing is beyond his cognitive abilities. almost no money is put into the programs beyond paying a program manager, and it's generally used as a public "look at us, being so nice to provide for disabled adults!" thing. when my brother's pay went up due to legal changes... the company decided to simply end the program rather than invest in paying more.

again, i'm fully for raising their wages. I think the absolutely pitiful amount of money they're paid for legitimate work is terrible, and i'm well aware that my brother works with others who need what finances they can get through these jobs. but there's more to this than just wages. there's campaigning for better social programs so that there's something for them to fall back on. there's looking into how your local programs for disabled individuals are run, and ensuring they have enough money and equipement to provide a safe working environment for their workers. there's understanding who is paying these wages, what their goals are, and holding them accountable to helping disabled people instead of using people like my brother on an endless stream of advertisements to show how socially progressive they are.

and i'm really not joking about those ads. god, I really, really wish I was. my brother is visibly disabled, adores public attention, and very friendly. he's in like... 3 programs and featured in newsletters or ads probably 3-5 times a year. those programs have also let him wander out the door and not noticed for over an hour, fired program managers for manufactured reasons after they request funding for small but meaningful changes, and... been the local police. guess which group is the only one that never shuts down from a lack of funding?

I honestly can't tell you how best to help disabled people in your area. my needs as a disabled person are vastly different than either of my brothers, and all of us have terrible problems with employment not providing for us in vastly different ways. but if you're just tacking on "disabled people deserve better wages" to a broader "people deserve a living wage" with no nuance, you have got to understand that you can be actively harming the very people you want to support.

[flowerflamestars]

Robin fic snippet

He wasn’t looking at her.   Not those lovely flushed cheeks or furious mouth bitten red- the stark truth of Elle’s face after dark was something Jason couldn’t necessarily handle, much less deserved in this moment.   So it was a surprise, when she said, sudden and fierce right over the thunderous rain. “Can I touch you?” “What?”   “Are you okay with me touching you,” Elle rephrased, easy and clear, “I really want to hold your hand right now, but if this is not a touching moment, that’s fine.”   “Don’t fucking pity me.” Jason said, couldn’t stop himself from saying, “I don’t want it.”   Copper in bloom, a whole fresh wash of anger like Jason’s words had physically drawn blood.   “Christ.” Elle said, soft and razor edged. Pleasant. “Is he still alive?”   “Who?”   “You father,” Elle snapped, like a blow, “Because I’m going to kill him. There’s nowhere on this planet someone can hide from a Warden, and I’m going to light him on fire. Anyone and everything that put that look on your face. It’s not fear, or pity, or”-   Black sweeping, the water pulling him under so easy.   “I thought,” Jason swallowed, “Wardens had to follow the law.”   A huff of a laugh, salt-sting sharp in his mouth. “Witch law. Magic laws. A witches soulmate is a witch. I don’t care if you’re not one of my kids, and you can defend yourself. You’re- you’re my soulmate, and I’ll kill people who hurt you and no one, no witch, would even imagine stopping me. We live forever. It’s no easy love.”   Such a goddamn lie, she was the easiest person in the world to adore.   Jason reach out and pulled both her knotted together hands into his lap. Carefully unwound her grip, pressed her palms flat to his, trying to gauge how deep the cuts across Elle’s knuckles were.   “You can touch me,” Jason said, looking up. Catching, just a second before it shifted, the look of complete surprise on her face. “I never want you to stop.”