#perhaps I am being meanspirited

[sometipsygnostalgic]

Ironically I feel like the worst gore from the latest 2 eps are all stuff that you could also get away with in the original series (vampire victims, the burnt out husk of BMO, Billy Lich); and that the only thing in said eps that's outright "you couldn't do that in the OG show" (simon bleeding from vampireworld PB holding her knife to his throat) seems tame in comparison.

That's an interesting point. The writing and world itself has become a lot more brutal, rather than what sort of violence the characters can perform.

But to a degree I feel like the stuff you list as being possible in the show isn't really. Like, BMO's death felt a lot gorier than his two or three deaths in other episodes? Compared to "BMO" where it's absolutely brutal but it's not really horrifying in the same way with his lil body exploding and... is that a fucking brain? please tell me that's not a brain?

Anyway the reason BMO is such a trigger point for me is because BMO is that little ray of hope in AT, that childish character who survives through everything, and they killed him off in such a meanspirited way. Like, it was for nothing, it was for... a joke??? I think it was supposed to be a joke??? It felt like something from Rick and Morty. It's not something I see CN allowing either, they'd cut the line at BMO powering off, or turning into a clock. I'd have preferred if they just took BMO out of the universe on their adventure (perhaps replacing the clock version). Or, yknow, we only had the clock gag. Not the explosion bit?

And I am so creeped out by that frame of the skeletons. That shit belongs in a horror movie.

But also, the vampire husks are much gorier than what you see in the show. Like you get Billy's corpse but it's still moving and alive and doesn't look very corpse-y. Whereas this one was a scary hollowed husk. I think they'd have asked the team to make them skeletons instead.

I think the previous episode's scene of Simon turning to dust would've been approved without question though.

[the-truest-sentence-i-know]

you don't feel pretty (you just feel used)

Fandom: House of the Dragon

Characters: Rhaenyra Targaryen x Daemon Targaryen (Daemyra)

Rating: T

Summary: Rhaenyra confronts Daemon about leaving her behind in the pleasure house.

Word Count: 1k

ao3 || ff.net || wattpad

When Rhaenyra had left the Valyrian steel necklace on her bedside table that morning, it had not been a deliberate move. She had slept in longer than normal and had had to hurry to appear at breakfast like everything was normal. But now, after her conversations with Alicent and her father, she thought it could perhaps have been a subconscious move.

She wandered through the Red Keep, her anger with Daemon growing with every step until she inevitably ran into him in the gardens.

He still wore the same clothes as he had last night, though considerably worse for wear. She was so used to seeing him always put together, it was a bit disconcerting.

“Good morning, princess,” he said, amiably.

“It is afternoon, uncle,” she said.

“So it is,” he said.

Rhaenyra’s hand involuntarily reached up to touch where the necklace usually rested between her collarbones. Her fingers found no cool metal there and she pretended to be adjusting the neckline of her dress instead. But Daemon’s eyes followed her movement and then looked up at her face, in that way he always looked at her. Like she was fascinating, or amusing, or he was trying to figure her out. She could never quite read him, but always got the feeling that he could read her perfectly.

She cleared her throat. “You look terrible.”

“I may have indulged somewhat heavily in drink last night after we–” He paused almost imperceptibly. “–parted ways.”

Her jaw tightened. “Parting ways is not exactly how I remember it.”

Daemon just looked at her a little longer, then said, “You’re angry with me,” as though he was making an observation about the weather.

“Of course I am angry, you abandoned me!” she burst out, then lowered her voice when she remembered where they were. “And we were seen.”

Rhaenyra thought she saw a flicker of worry in his eyes, but it was gone so quickly she could have imagined it. He shrugged carelessly.

“Does this not concern you?” she asked. “If the wrong person found out, the entirety of King’s Landing could know by the end of the day.”

“Only the most gullible or meanspirited would believe such vile rumours.”

She frowned at his flippancy. “I cannot tell if you are being deliberately naïve or if you are mocking me.”

“I would never mock you, princess,” he said, somewhat sincerely.

“Then what was the purpose of leaving me behind?” she demanded, working hard to keep her voice down. “Of bringing me there in the first place if you weren’t going to follow through?”

He huffed out a frustrated breath through his nose, looking away from her for a moment.

“Unless…” Rhaenyra’s face fell, and she looked up at Daemon with more distrust than before.

This even he found troubling. “What?”

“Unless you are the reason the news reached Lord Hightower so quickly,” she said slowly. “Lord Hightower, who has made no secret of his disapproval of me as the heir.”

“Rhaenyra,” Daemon said, for a moment – for once – at a loss for words. “Lord Hightower does not much care for me as heir either.”

“Yes,” said Rhaenyra. “That’s the part I haven’t quite worked out yet. If you wanted to discredit me in your favour, why not have the news reach my father directly, so you could spin it in such a way to benefit you? Or, even better, to someone sympathetic to your claim to the throne? Although–” She allowed herself a little smile. “–there aren’t that many of those, are there?”

“Then again,” Daemon said, and Rhaenyra got the feeling that he was beginning to enjoy this conversation again. “Being caught with you would sully my reputation too, would it not?”

Rhaenyra rolled her eyes. “Not as much as mine, and we both know why.”

Daemon is quiet again, searching her face. “Perhaps you’re not angry with me.”

She blinked. “Um, no, I am quite certain that I–”

“You’re embarrassed.”

She bit the inside of her cheek, cursing the feelings that rose in her as she remembered. Daemon pulling away from her, his mouth away from her, his hands off of her. Turning away like he didn’t want her anymore. Like he had grown tired of her.

Now, with the fear that he had never actually wanted her in the first place – and knowing that she had let him see how much she had wanted him – the feeling pressed up against the back of her throat. She could even feel tears pricking at her eyes.

But she swallowed hard and then looked her uncle in the eye. “If one of us should be embarrassed, it is you, not me. You took me to that pleasure house, you started it, and then you didn’t finish it. And then you ran.” She took a breath. “And I had to seek my pleasures elsewhere.”

Rhaenyra felt a distinct triumphant rush as she watched the words sink in. His eyes darkened and roamed over her body as though it would reveal its secrets to his gaze.

“Who is he?”

Another rush at the jealousy in his voice. “Who is who?” she asked. “I don’t know what you mean.” She smiled sweetly. “You should take a bath, uncle, you smell dreadful.” And she turned on her heel and walked away, resisting the urge to look back at him.

That night, she found out that Daemon had left for the Vale under her father’s orders and was expected to be gone for some time. As she got ready for bed, she could not decide whether she was happy he was gone. While she no longer had the same blind trust in him that she had had before, she could not deny the pull she felt whenever he was around her.

She heard the latch of the door open and turned to see Cristan’s deep eyes peering into the room. Perhaps it was best Daemon was gone, she decided. Dallying with a knight was one thing, but her uncle? She wasn’t a fool; she knew that was a dangerous desire to even entertain.

[randomwriteronline]

@cantankerouscanuck have at thee

It might seem hard to believe - or perhaps not so much; but between Kokiri and Skull Kids there tends to run bad blood.

There’s curiosity to spare on either side, and peaceful contact might be possible, by all means. But Skull Kids are shy and awfully mischievous, and a bit too scared of what isn’t their own kin: so they lash out in pranks, in meanspirited jabs and attacks; as such the Kokiri, scared and angered, avoid them as much as they can, hiding away in their own forest.

But it is easy to suppose that most children of the Deku tree miss something crucial, in order to get to know these undead souls.

A healthy amount of morbid fascination.

Fado, blond haired and pretty eyed and fair skinned, who loved to hide around the Lost Woods to spy on unfortunate travelers as the flesh corroded upon their bones as they turned into Stalfos, was the best candidate for the otherwise unwanted role of ambassador.

The Skull Kid she met properly was alone.

Or not quite as alone, seeing the two fairies floating around him.

He’d hidden away from her immediately, disappearing into thin air, but it hadn’t taken long before she’d charmed him back on his tree stump with gruesome anecdotes of despairing adults and ghost stories that made Mido anxious to get his hands back on his sword just to feel a little safer for the night.

They became fast friends; which was perhaps one of the worst things that could have befallen anyone living in or passing through the Lost Woods.

 This particular traveler came from outside of Hyrule.

She was a bony woman, barely more than a girl, who’d heard grandiose tales of immensurable powers and riches and fame being granted to those who would find and remove a fabled Blade of Evil’s Bane from its resting place deep within the dark, cursed forest. She wasn’t planning on pulling it out of it, goodness no - that sort of artifact never allowed such an easy victory. She would have simply unhearted it! With her work hammer that could shatter rocks and a spade that could dig through the sturdiest ground, she would have taken the smart way out, and gotten audience with the royal family, and been acclaimed as a hero.

Already she could hear the trumpets, taste the feast in her honor... She grinned, awaiting her inevitable triumph.

And so, under gazes of blue and amber, she made her way into the Woods.

She’d passed a few meadows when she met a little girl all dressed in green, who looked her up and down with a knowing, wiseacre smile that made the woman’s hands itch to teach her a lesson.

“What’s a girlie like you doing here?” she asked the child, strong of her wits, her recently reached maturity, and her predestined fame: “Shouldn’t you be home? This place is too dangerous for a little kid, you know.”

“I’m waiting to see how it goes,” replied Fado.

“How what goes?”

“This,” the Kokiri answered again, cryptically; then she grinned wider, and asked, with a look that was begging to be slapped off her face: “And what’s a girlie like you doing here? Shouldn’t you be home? This place is too dangerous for a little kid, you know.”

Oh, how the traveler’s face reddened with rage!

“I’ll have you know I’m here to claim the Blade of Evil’s Bane!” she unwisely shrieked back. “And that I’m not a little kid!”

“And why is that?”

“Because I’m far too clever to be a tavern maid and far too strong to be a simple farmer!” she replied. “I’m worthy of that sword! And if it doesn’t think I am, then I’ll just have to convince it!”

Fado only smiled and placed her head in her small fair hands: “We’ll see,” she only said; and the traveler left angered beyond belief.

The young woman walked and walked, passing through meadow after meadow, until she almost convinced herself she was lost. But right then, she saw a bright yellow light dancing with a reddish purple one, seeming to beckon her in a certain direction: that must have been a trap! So, proud of herself for having figured it out so quickly, she ran in the opposite direction, and ended up before a small creek.

Fado waved at her from the other side; the travelers’s mood immediately turned sour once more.

“Haven’t I told you to go home?” she hissed angrily.

“You shouldn’t go around alone,” Fado said, ignoring her words.

“I can fend for myself!”

“But can you find your way back without a fairy?”

“Of course I can!”

“Can you?”

“I told you I can!”

“Are you sure you won’t turn into a Stalfos?”

“What nonsense! You’re so young and ignorant. Only the dead turn into Stalfos.”

“So you think you’ll be alive by the end?”

Her words struck the woman with a sudden unease. However, unwilling to be intimdated by some child, she turned her discomfort into even more anger.

“Of course I will!” she shouted as she stomped her foot: “And I know the way back perfectly! In fact, I’ll show you right now!”

With that, she turned to the hollow tree she’d walked through, and returned to the meadow where she’d almost been duped by the two lights into stepping right into their trap.

But once she actually arrived there, it wasn’t the same meadow anymore.

How could that be possible? She retraced her steps back to the creek, but again she found herself in a completely different place.

What devilish illusion was this?

She walked back and forth a couple more times, and over and over she ended up in a clearing or meadow that wasn’t the one she’d come from. She couldn’t make heads or tails of this atrocious mystery, and together with the little girl’s words it stirred in her a horrid antsy fear that stuck her right where she was.

Perhaps she should have asked about the forest’s curse in more detail.

A tinkering laugh made her turn around fulmineously, hand on her hammer to strike any incoming threat; instead, the dancing lights had appeared again.

She squinted a little, thinking perhaps the glimmering around them was a trick of the lighting - but no, no, it was... Wings! Fairies! That weird little brat had mentioned they could help her navigate her way through! She was safe!

Of course, when she ran towards them stomping her feet all over the place like a troglodyte, Tatl and Tael zipped away deeper into the Woods.

The children, hidden between the foliage of the treetops, followed her with their gazes as she carelessly chased the poor things all across the forest, bony sweaty hands outstreatched to greedily squeeze the fairies within them as the kids shamelessly laughed at her as she jumped and jolted at every single thing that seemed to move or make a noise anywhere even just vaguely near her.

But they grew bored of watching her soon enough.

The exhausted woman watched the lights disappear before her very eyes as soon as she entered a small, worthless clearing with only a pair of dead tree stumps and nothing more.

Immediately, she made herself very still: she couldn’t take chances now that she knew how this blasted place worked - or at least, now that she thought as much.

Certainly, those fairies would have returned sooner or later, right? Or maybe a few of their friends would have showed up... Maybe she could have bribed them with something, something... Maybe with the glint of a rupee, or a piece of wood disguised as a pastry...

Something stung her, and she slapped the back of her neck so hard that she felt it sting her hand as well. Damned bugs.

Then it stung her again.

And again and again and again, and the more she tried to catch that viscid little pest by smacking herself over and over the more her hands hurt and the more it kept stinging her, accompanied by a chilling tinkering laugh that she could almost swear she’d heard as she ran through the Woods.

She stopped only at a sudden wetness as she hit her arm; looking at her hand, she found it to her horror to be covered in thin needles, blood trickling in big ruby drops down her palm.

The laugh rang out again. She turned fulmineously, grasping her hammer tight without grace nor the necessary strength to wield it properly in battle: a bird-like face put its beak to what looked like a flute and another projectile lodged itself in her eye, making her shriek and stumble, half blind.

Something caught her fall, something soft, like fresh grass and moss and gentle leaves, like flower petals and mushroom flaps.

Then she screamed and screamed and screamed and then there was silence.

A booming, gentle voice traveled through the Woods.

“Fado...” the Great Deku Tree called to his child: “Cease eating that body... Right this instant..."

“But Dad!” Fado whined as loud as she could through a bloodied mouthful of  various visceras, while Skull Kid briefly stopped tearing through the harsh lean flesh to snicker at her pout from his ivory tower of I-Have-No-Nagging-Parents.

“You don’t know where it’s been...!”

The Kokiri huffed and sourly handed her share of mid-morning snack over to her friend and his companions, who ate it right out of her hand like a pair of trusting glowing bunnies and one very messed up wooden horse.

“Your fairy isn’t here,” noted Tael.

He wanted to share a piece of his portion with her, to be nice, even though all of them knew very well that unlike her Kokiri she did not enjoy neither the taste nor the sight of corpses.

“I bet she’s the one who told on you,” Skull Kid laughed as he chewed with his mouth open, spitting blood and pieces of meat.

She crossed her arms: “Of course she did,” she grumbled. “She never lets me have any fun!”

“As soon as she’s back, we should throw sticks at her!” Tatl proposed.

The poor thing, who had just rushed back to the clearing with the vain hope that her absence wouldn’t have been noticed, shrieked back with great alarm: “You should not!”

[bxttenbound]

@fizzarolli​ asked: ❓

Send ❓  and my muse will answer all questions honestly.

Does my muse trust yours?  

“ No. It takes more than a good joke and a laugh to earn my trust. “

She is not trustful of many people, even her partners she doesn’t 100% trust, not even Duke at times due to her instability. She trusts him to entertain and tell a good joke, that’s about it

Does my muse dislike yours?

“ Not particularly, I have no reason to truly dislike jesters. I am very partial to them if anything. “

Missi truthfully is pretty neutral when it comes to Fizz. She doesn’t dislike him nor does she particularly like him either. He’s a jester to her and as such his playful banter and even meanspirited things she doesn’t take seriously or brushes them off as being what he is. Even then, she knows he wouldn’t step too far.

Would my muse kill someone for yours?

“ As if I need an excuse to kill someone. “

Yeah, depends on who it is? Though it’s less because Fizz would want it and more ‘hey i have an excuse to kill and nothing else better to do.’. Especially if it’s a sinner she would jump on board with it because she *loves* torturing sinners.

Would my muse kill your muse?

“ No. He is valuable to the hiearchy of Hell, and I’d hate to cause a royal issue so early on. If the Price of Lust cares for him so be it, just as I care for my own personal jester. “

Naw, Missi isn’t that heartless. Especially if she knows about Fizz and Ozzy she wouldn’t interfere with seriously injury or maiming them even if they can be rebuilt or fixed. Besides, if she ever wanted to she could just get a Robo-version and it basically be similar enough lol

Would my muse save yours?

“ If it was at no risk to me, and not too out of my way? Sure. As I’ve said, I can relate with the Price of Lust and his little pets. I would hardly want to stand by if it was easy for me to do something of it. Otherwise, I’m sure Asmodeus could handle it themselves. “

Sorta? So if like, they were in trouble and missi *happened* to be by, she might, especially if she thinks it could be used to get in Ozzy’s good graces. But if she has to exert energy or do more to do so, then no. Mostly because she believes if she has to go do effort for something then it’s a big enough issue that Ozzy should or would get involved

Does my muse find your muse attractive?

“ Darling I can’t even tell which parts of you are you to distinguish that. “

This is just a huge question mark???? Knowing he isn’t completely robotic, she isn’t particularly attracted to the mechanical parts, but she doesn’t know or see enough to know what parts of him are him to determine if he’s attractive since she is very much the type of ‘your augmentations are not what makes you beautiful’ kind of person. (yes she is a hypocrite because she will never show people what she really looks like and does think she looked hella ugly as a human)

Is my muse disgusted by yours?

“ Why would I be? He hasn’t given me a reason to be. “

No. As Missi said there’s no reason to be? He hasn’t done anything she’s seen that would make her disgusted by him.

would my muse go on a date with your muse?  

“ Date? Not particularly, but if they are ever curious about Earthly circuses to get some new material from the monsters and creatures that live here I would not be against showing him and Asmodeus the Cirque De Ziac. They have the most entertaining performers and the ringmaster is quite the catch. “

Date? No. Playdate? Sure. Both of them hang out while Ozzy and Duke fuck

would my muse kiss yours?  

“ Perhaps if he’s a good boy he can earn some favor. “

Nothing more than a kiss on the cheek as a reward, and even then that’s pushing it hfkjewhkw.

would my muse betray yours?  

“ Betray what? Our vague acquaintanceship? “

No. She doesn’t see a reason that would benefit her in doing so? Plus they aren’t really friends much less anything so she can’t really “betray” something that doesn’t rlly exist lol

my muse’s favorite thing about yours is their Sense of Humor

the thing my muse dislikes about yours is Being too Judgmental

[tinydooms]

Me, a former mormon, watching the 100% accurate portrayal of the church I grew up with in Under the Banner of Heaven:

[yurimother]

LGBTQ Manga Review — I'm in Love with the Villainess Vol. 1 (Manga)

A New Look on a Compelling and Innovative Series

A manga adaptation of one of the best and queerest Yuri light novels I have ever seen, what is not to love! As a massive proponent of the light novels, I eagerly followed I'm in Love with the Villainess began serialization in Comic Yuri Hime last year. I am thrilled to get my hands on the first English volume, and now that it is finally out (digitally at the time of writing), I am equally delighted to read over the start of Rae and Claire's journey once again. Getting to see my favorite isekai protagonist and her bratty noble crush in full illustrations is terrific. However, it does not make for a completely flawless work.

I'm in Love with the Villainess follows Rei Ohashi, an avid otome gamer who dies and is reincarnated as Rae Taylor in her favorite game, "Revolution." Rather than chase any of the game's handsome bachelors, all students at the Royal Academy in the European-inspired fantasy world, Rae heads straight for her favorite character, the game's villainess! Rae begins to relentlessly tease the bratty and elitist Claire, much to the latter's frustration. Soon a rivalry forms between the two girls, but despite Claire's taunts and coldness, Rae is determined to stay by her side and protect her.

The increased focus provided to Claire and Rae's early relationship will be noticeable to light novel readers. While Inori's writing focuses mainly on world-building in the first several chapters, the manga makes the wise choice to condense much of this information for the sake of reading. Blocks of exposition work poorly in the manga compared to prose. However, establishing a setting is not completely thrown out the window. There are several small conversations and explanations of key aspects of the world. After quickly setting the story, the characters are left with room to explore.

Claire and Rae are the most enjoyable part of this manga. Rae is eager and doting, with a touch of masochistic. On the other hand, Claire is more arrogant, often looking down on peasants like Rae, and is continuously infuriated by her affection. A hilarious rivalry starts to spring up between the two, with Claire pranking or mocking Rae and then getting outraged when she revels in the attention and teases Claire by expressing her undying affection.

These interactions also further the story. They establish the dynamic between our two heroines and add more detail to the political situation and tensions between the commoners and nobility, the series’ main plotline. Interestingly, while Claire may believe commoners inferior, she also sees it as her responsibility to protect and instruct them in her very elitist way. Noticeably none of the torments she subjects Rea could ever cause permanent harm or damage. It is a fascinating insight into this character's mental state, and even in the first volume seeing her start to change and become more aware slowly is fascinating.

Much of the rivalry is comedy and often plays out as such. However, some readers may find it slightly off-putting and understandably see the dynamic as Rae sexually harassing Claire. I strongly encourage you to give this series a chance. This book will undoubtedly be the worst volume of an incredible series. Once I'm in Love with the Villainess breaks into its stride of exploring queer and socioeconomic issues, some point in the next volume based on reading the serialized chapters, I promise it will become a quick favorite. If you know you may not be able to overlook its immediate faults during the wait, consider holding off on the mage until after the second book is out and get them together.

Much of the previously mentioned content is the same or strongly similar to the light novels, perhaps a touch more emphasis on Claire's early hostilities; however, there are some significant points unique to the manga to consider. For one, Aonoshimo's artwork is fantastic! The characters and backgrounds are distinct, with only slight adjustments for the more comedic or dramatic stylistic choices. No matter the panel's tone, though, it is always easy to read without oversimplification. Aonoshimo also relies on very standard square or rectangle panels during most of the manga, but occasionally produces more dynamic boundaries and layouts for action and service scenes. Lastly, all the characters are on full display. It suddenly becomes a lot easier for light novel readers to picture their favorite moments. It is a lovely treat for returning readers as the visuals aid the characters, allowing us to clearly see Rod as the strong-willed if slightly aloof prince and understand how Maximillion Pegasus-cosplayer Thane is the most unpopular character in the fictional otome game when they are displayed visually.

There are some other vital factors to consider when reading the manga. For one, every character's personality was dialed up a few points, with Rae being a touch more physically affectionate and masochistic and Claire more easily exacerbated. However, the manga and the English translation takes many quirks and exaggerates them further, reducing the series’ performance. For example, while Claire's actions show the complicated relationship to commoners described above, her dialogue contains a surprising amount of vitriol and vulgarity that stands out notably.

Additionally, while Rod is usually the perfect if slightly detached prince acting as the occasional voice of reason in early chapters, his dialogue here appears laughable indifferent and meanspirited. As I'm in Love with the Villainess is one of a very few series that I follow the monthly serializations of in magazines, I was surprised to see this dialogue, as it did not stand out to me in the Japanese version (admittedly, the manga did overblow everyone's personality to some extent for comedic effect). I feel it changes the characters for the worse — do not get me wrong here, calls for "literal translation" are as unfavorable as they are uninformed. Still, the work feels careless at times.

Finally, there is the service. While the first volume contains virtually no romantic caresses or sweeping panels of scenery we associate with Yuri, there is a fair amount of salacious content. Of course, there are Rae's desperate and overblown expressions of admiration for Claire and her slight case of masochism. However, towards the end of the volume, Aonoshimo shows some skin. In one scene, Rae helps Claire get dressed and very openly admires her body, accompanied by some close-up panels of her back, stomach, and butt. There is also a very exposed bathing scene, although light covers the most explicate bits. It is obviously garish, though it tonally fits with Inori and Aonoshimo's more comedic manga interpritation and even includes some wholesome interactions with Claire and Rae alongside the sexualized comedy. Reader's millage will vary here, but I enjoyed it.

This first outing of Aonoshimo's I'm in Love with the Villainess manga adaptation is very likely to be the weakest entry in a phenomenal series to follow. The manga does a fantastic job of bringing the original light novels to life in a new visual format. The artwork is excellent, and the story condensed with a slightly different focus that maintains the feel of the original while providing manga audiences with entertainment that does not feel constrained or lacking. However, the gradual pacing of the plot and the main characters' relationship means that the volume leaves off before showcasing the meat of the series and most of its best features. There is a little bit of the stumble out of the gate, and both the publisher and the manga will likely have to course correct in future volumes or else risk destroying the development and voice of the series remarkable characters. I still recommend the series, but unless you are a diehard fan of the original like you, you might wait a year or so until we have the second volume and can enjoy a more complete vision of Inori's intricate and groundbreaking story.

Ratings: Story – 8 Characters – 7 Art – 9 LGBTQ – 9 Sexual Content – 6 Final – 8

Check out I'm in Love with the Villainess (Manga) Vol. 1 today: https://amzn.to/3wTSJ9R

Thanks to Joshua Hardy, Courtney Williams, Peter Adrian Behravesh, and the rest of the team at Seven Seas for their hard work.

Help support future Yuri news and reviews, and get access to exclusive content by subscribing to the YuriMother Patreon

[spiritofjustice]

Something kind of irritates me about how both the writers and fans of Earthbound treat early game Porky.  Like, it feels like people can often be unduly harsh on Porky at the start of the game when I don’t think that is really warranted or intended by the actual writing.  I think the game itself is at times meanspirited towards Porky unnecessarily, but obviously fans themselves will take it further than that.

I feel like when people demonize early game Porky, it undermines his corruption arc in Earthbound and even beyond to his eventual appearance in Mother 3.  He isn’t a bad person at the start of Earthbound, that’s the point.  I feel like early game Porky’s portrayal is very deliberately crafted to be where he is flawed in a very normal way for a 13 year old boy to be; he is annoying (and let’s be real-- we all were at that age), cowardly, and sometimes selfish.

But when people portray him as intentionally malicious, a bully, cruel, so on, it feels very contradictory to what’s actually in the text.  Like, his worst crime is basically that he’s kind of annoying to both characters and, perhaps, the player.  He’s really childish, but overall well-meaning.  I think the flavor text in some fights (such as Porky apologizing profusely to the enemy and/or Ness(?)) along with how he is genuinely unwilling to be nasty to Ness in a rarely seen text if you tell him no twice when he asks for help (being “if you don’t help me, I’ll say something that’ll cut you like a knife... alright, I won’t say anything to hurt you”) indicates his well-meaning nature, even when he tries to be unkind.

I tend to think that a lot of Porky’s flaws pretty distinctly stem from his parents being abusive, self-centered freaks, which isn’t anything ground-breaking to point out, but still.  I won’t dive too much into the conjecture, but I think his parents make it obvious that there’s a reason Porky may be the way he is.  He’s scared of conflict, clearly stemming from the harsh way his father in particular can punish him and Picky, manifesting in both minor and major ways (such as his cowardliness during battles with relatively weak enemies + being afraid of Buzz Buzz’s prophecy and hoping he isn’t part of it) and he has to rely on others to help him get out of messes he’s made.

I just feel like he’s set up as this minorly annoying kid to make it more interesting when he surprisingly, against the odds and his own previously stated fear of being part of the prophecy, joins on the side of Giygas.  The obvious subtext there is that Giygas has taken over his brain in the way he has done to many people and animals across the world.  There is still the question of how much of this is Giygas’s will and how much of it is just Porky once he gets some sort of agency and power in his life, especially considering that he now has a lot of power over adults, along with being able to, to some extent, control his own father with money (or buy his love, depending on your interpretation) now during the Fourside sequence.

I mention that even writers sometimes attack Porky in this way, and I generally am referring to the official Mother novelizations by Saori Kumi.  Her interpretation attacks his character from the very start, portrayed as a stupid, brutish bully that everyone hates because he’s just straight up evil and cruel.  Her entire novel undermines a lot of things about Earthbound, but because it’s official I take especial ire towards it.  This is not the point of Porky’s early game character.  He is there to juxtapose how downright vicious Porky becomes by the time you meet him in the Cave of the Past at end, having become so self-serving and uncaring that he turns on his own boss and inadvertently gets him killed by the Chosen Four.

Porky can’t just be terrible from the start.  That is not the point.  The fact that he comes from such humble, typical flaws that eventually bloom into someone who is genuinely very evil by the time you encounter him as a child slave-owning, animal abusing, kidnapping immortal bastard is part of what makes Porky one of the best written characters in the series.  You can’t just forget that context and write Porky off as inevitably evil like that.  He’s one of the only characters with an actual arc like that, and it has a huge payoff.  I just hate seeing people mess with that.

[bao3bei4]

i have basically covered the material in this post several times on my twitter. but this is, in my opinion, the only s*xy t*mes with w*ngxian take you need. 

(cw transphobia, transphobic slurs, antiblack racism, mentions of csa and bestiality in fiction)

edit 6/10/21: hi! i’m realizing people are still reading this! this was written in response to aja romano’s vox article on the fic that was published in late february of this year. i had been frustrated with how their article seemed to miss the point in many ways, because they never talked about the substance of the fic. which, i mean, fair. i wouldn’t want to read a 1million word fic either.

but i already had, so i thought i’d write about some things that i believed needed to be part of the conversation. namely, that its author wasn’t a harmless troll, but a person i genuinely disliked who i believed should be deplatformed.

i think virtual1979 is a bad person. 

i think a lot of people mainly know about sexy times the phenomenon more than they do sexy times the fic itself. i have the dubious honor of being one of the few people who has actually read large portions of the million word fic, and that’s why i wanted to write this meanspirited hit piece. 

the fic is down right now and the author’s notes and comments have both been deleted, which is why i cannot provide screenshots. however, these are all quotes i have saved from when the fic was online, and i’m happy to talk with anyone if you feel any of these quotes are mischaracterizations of the fic. 

i also want to be clear this is not a “callout post” and i’m not trying to “cancel” them or whatever. i am just explaining why i don’t like them, why i don’t feel bad they’re being harassed, and why i do not find them sympathetic at all, and perhaps why you should also adopt these stances. 

let’s start with transphobia. 

sexy times with wangxian is transphobic. this much is apparent from the tags. virtual1979 tagged the following: F*tanari, d*ckgirl, Sh*male. they use this language in the chapters that include a character with both a vagina and a penis. 

they refer to this character (wei wuxian) with the pronouns “he-she.” the following excerpt is a fair representation of how this wei wuxian is referred to in the chapters where wei wuxian has a vagina and a penis. 

[Lan Zhan] would never be turned on by a female, and he would actually be turned off by a drag queen - but this… this Wei Ying, it’s Wei Ying, and he-she looks [...]

i know these words are common in porn categories, but they are also slurs. virtual1979 also uses hermaphrodite to refer to this set of anatomy, which is not strictly a slur, but definitely a stigmatizing choice of language. 

they have repeatedly made clear they are not open to criticism. they have also since removed the comment section. making an intersex character for the express purpose of using transmisogynistic language towards them in your million word porn fic isn’t annoying the way their tags are, it’s actively fucked up. 

fanfiction has a transphobia problem, and if we’re talking about sexy times with wangxian in any capacity, we must be clear: sexy times with wangxian is part of that problem too. 

secondly, virtual1979 is also complicit in ao3’s racism problem.

i think the way they write about chinese characters and settings is annoying and racist, but they are a malaysian chinese person, so i do have some sympathy for them. i am committed to having some patience for people who are annoying if they themselves are working through the prejudice they have faced. 

they’ve commented as much: 

Not gonna lie, this fic has been a steep learning curve for me despite my roots being Chinese as well, but I have absolutely zero knowledge in some of these aspects!

and i’m happy on some level they can get in touch with their roots. who among us has not been cringe and diaspora. any criticisms i have of their portrayal of chinese people will stay private and be made to other people of color.

i’m going to be clear here i don’t think the actual comment they made makes them super evil or anything. but this essay IS clearly in response to That Article, which did mention racism in fandom. so.

i think we have all seen the infamous karen comment they made, in which they compared people who criticized their tagging with “Karens,” equating antiblack state violence to... mean comments on ao3? and “SJWs,” which, eye roll. no ageism but you’re 41 why the hell are you complaining about sjws

anyway. i am deeply frustrated by the co-option of the word karen. a stand-in for a particular type of racist violence white women specifically can and do inflict has become fused with that reddit-type mommy issue “can i speak to the manager” internecine white resentment. 

so their trivialization of antiblack racism is another reason i don’t like them. again i KNOW it’s petty to point this out here, but this to me shows that virtual is afflicted with the same kind of fandom brainrot that aja is, where everything comes back to that same sort of self-centered bullshit. 

sorry for that jab. julian told me that aja thought that cql was about callout culture and all i could think was “wow! just like virtual thinking that--” because i also have spent too much time on twitter this week. 

this is just like. part of this ongoing pattern i’ve noticed with virtual, where they’re aware enough of real problems to acknowledge they exist (police violence, accessibility issues caused by their tagging) but are determined to double down on their minor relative persecution as king, shittily drawing parallels between like... real problems and fandom problems. equating the two or allowing the second to take priority over the former is like... par for the course for this type of person! 

third, this is just another clarification on more parallels between ao3 discourse and sexy times that went completely unremarked on by That Article. 

i would rather DIE than get into discourse. but why did they write this sentence: 

Lan Zhan’s rational mind finally broke with a tsunami of pedophilic lusts [...]

by the way that is the start of a 430 word sentence. and yes this fic does contain hundreds of thousands of words of aged down wei wuxian. make of that what you will. 

also why would you make wei wuxian teach baby chickens how to sexually pleasure him. do you hate these characters. what’s going on. i think mxtx should be able to sue virtual for that one. 

there’s a very obvious connection between mainstream ao3 discourse and sexy times that went completely unremarked on in That Article. sexy times contains multitudes and some of those multitudes are bestiality and explicit childfucking. 

this is not unrelated to fannish culture, they are not unfamiliar with fannish norms, blah blah blah. this is just normal fandom. they’re not subverting shit, they’re just a normal fan who unlike 99% of fanfiction writers on twitter, spends more time writing than posting. this has taken their fannish tendencies to cartoonish heights. 

finally, they don’t care about mdzs or wangxian. they’re literally just horny and spiteful that’s it. this isn’t a question of like... “ohh they were a good faith participant in fandom until they went joker mode” and the REAL villain is society/ao3. like no they wanted to write shitty porn, and when they found out they were annoying people, they decided to double down because they could be the main character of the mdzs ao3 tag every time they found a spare hour to write. 

here are some select receipts on that topic:

they do not care about canon: 

MDZS has quite a complicated and expansive plot and history, and enough content that one can choose to tune out certain parts and still get to the end of the story in one piece. Also, because of its source, some fans may not fully realize the nuances, cultural aspects (ooh, cultural appropriation is another triggering topic) or the full breadth and depth of the source material, such as a person like me, who is half-baked in terms of knowing what the canon universe is all about. So I end up playing with characters and settings technically borrowed from the story, and make them do things that would otherwise run counter to the original source material - and that draws quite some flak from those opinionated people I mentioned just now. It's part of what makes the fandom toxic. It's like they're the self-appointed guardians of the source material and they act like they own the rights to question such questionble fanworks, and dare I say, try to take down those that cross certain lines too.

they are just horny: 

After that giddines of extra drunken Lan Wang Ji scenes at the beginning, I'm blessed with Lan Wang Ji (Wang Yibo's, actually) fuzzy nips! Bless Bless Bless, and Amen! muahs the nips on the screen

anyway they did get nuked over wishing covid on people. 

so yeah. i want to be really clear. this is my thesis: i do not feel bad for them. you should not either. i do not like them. you should not either. that’s ALL!!!! 

[swiggity-swexual-i-am-asexual]

About Danny's Ice Core: Maybe it's not Danny PHANTOM's core but Danny FENTON's. Like the Fenton family has been entrenched in the supernatural for generations and evolved their own "magic" to counter courses. It wasn't noticeable in most but then Danny gets halfa'd and that core has to deal with a ghost 24/7 and gets stronger and the ghost core gets stronger in response and Danny's stuck in a feedback loop. Which is why he could evenly fight Dan and Vlad after a few months of being a ghost.

I have no idea why it was me specifically this was sent to (I know I’m a fan and I do theories and despite my inactivity I am in the Phandom Slack and—yeah okay starting to see it now) but I am DELIGHTED to see it. Thank you so much!!

I’ve kinda always considered the Fentons to be, in some way, supernatural. Generally I give them more subtle things, mostly Jazz and PARTICULARLY Danny. But I’ll keep it to the basics of this for now:

-Danny has always been a little... cold. Not in the meanspirited way—he literally always felt like a block of ice

-Temperture and him have a WEIRD relationship.

-Sometimes it’s like it doesn’t apply to him. Sometimes it’s maginified. Why? Who knows.

-But Jack’s similar. So they leave it.

-Despite the temperture flux, he’s hardly complained of cold. At least not for long.

-he also had his own assortment of.. party tricks, he supposes. Though he and all the other Fentons tend to talk around just WHAT is going on

-His drinks always end up with condensation

-Ice cubes melting? Not near him they’re not.

-Once, Tucker discovered that sharing a drink with Danny means always sharing a COLD drink

-Amazing snow falls in winter, strangely focused on the Fenton residence. Unless Danny’s not there. Then it’s focused wherever he is.

-He never has to shovel driveways, at least. It literally just doesn’t work.

-He has a tendency to have more frozen puddles behind him than in front of him, so for everyone’s sanity, he’ll walk toward the back of the group. They don’t talk about it

-they doN’T.

-he’s also an exceptional ice skater, for all that he can’t help that he finds the iciest patches (or, perhaps, that the water is freezing just a little, and part of him is reassured that it’s not like the water freezes solid, that would make it LESS slippery, but—ignoring ignoring ignoring)

-sledding with him is also fun. Snowball fights? Not so much. For some reason, his are far less powdery than they should be.

-Ignoring.

-then the accident.

-somehow he got even COLDER

-But, considering the... family history that they sorta just avoid mentioning very often and the less than natural portal in the basement—sorta understandable.

-It’s small, of course. For all that so much changes, it’s basically the same stuff as always as far as the... colder side of things go.

-he’s a boon in the summer, less so in winter, but that would never stop Tucker or Sam or his family. Thus, exclusive summertime AC rights

-even if he still won’t talk about it

-He makes ice ferns frost across windows, although it usually has to be cold anyways

-and he... did make dry ice, a time or two

-Then suddenly he was very aware and VERY annoyed to find out what feeling cold was actually about, and what the fuss was

-the fuss was that he couldn’t focus, and his limbs were slow, and his joints hurt, and and and

-it felt like a jolt through his nerves, a distressing volt he didn’t think about too hard, at all, ever, even when thoughts about how he’s always been a little strange regardless of his ghostly status

-back to the whole Feeling Cold thing

-freezing to near death wasn’t, exactly, what he had in mind

-But the far frozen felt... comfortable, once his inner ice was now *outer* ice

-and he embraced it.

-He never knows why electricity and fire are accessible to him, as a ghost. Klemper makes ice and has an ice core, but while Danny is arguably stronger, it should... still be a thing Klemper should be able to do... right??

-He doesn’t look too hard as to why using his ice feels like a jolt going *out*, which he’s fine with and grown used to, unlike how the Far Frozen describe it

-He can’t explain why, unless he focuses, his ice goes out so _violently_ and, on more than one occasion, like how he’s seen pictures of sand do when struck by lightning.

-He doesn’t get why he *glows*, of all things, when he uses his ice powers.

-((He Definitely doesn’t feel nor understand how there is a slight rift between his natural ice and this seemingly unnatural... voltage within him, why lights get brighter and phones stay charged and why thunderstorms got so wild, so close, so... exciting... and scary. And he certainly isn’t aware how he seems to have an internal arms race between these two sides and how he’s not sure how he’d feel if one ‘won’ or if it’s possible for that to happen and if it’ll go on with no stop until something... happens))

-((And he absolutely never connected that the reason why he’s ‘good’, why he’s not so ghost like, like the other halfa he knows, is because he’s already got a supernatural element he’s used to that fights against him on his worst days and keeps him... tethered, in a way, regardless of the day))

-Danny has always been cold.

[jancys-blue-bayou]

Come on now, how am I supposed to not want every single number on that list for jancy??? Except for the appearance one I guess unless we're talking uh 👀👀👀 things that are less... apparent. (Sorry I'm terrible)

 Holiday headcanon

Answered!

2. Cooking headcanon

Jonathan “Breakfast Boy” Byers is the better cook, having cooked for his family for years. I go a little bit back and forth on Nancy, I don’t think cooking would be something she’s particularly into, her mom is always in the kitchen and maybe she might’ve had a phase when she was little where she liked to help out in the kitchen but think she outgrew that and so isn’t used to cook much at home, though she’s not an idiot of course and knows her way around a kitchen she’s not a spectacular cook. She might like baking more? Since that’s a bit more precise and exact “science”, you can follow a recipe exactly while cooking you generally wing it more, and I can see Nancy liking to do things like that, exact and precise. I think Jonathan likes cooking more than Nancy does and therefore is the one to cook more often, but also Nancy enjoys cooking with Jonathan more than on her own.

3. Sleeping headcanon

Jonathan Byers is the comfiest pillow in the world. That’s what Nancy firmly believes, I believe. We see in s1 Jonathan turn onto his side/tummy when sleeping. My hc for their sleeping position together is not set in stone, I lean towards Jonathan sleeping on his back but kind of turned towards his side and Nancy sleeping with her head tucked into the crook of his neck or on his chest, her arm slung across him holding him and his wrapped around her, I like them nestled close like that, at least in times of comfort. Can also see them both like sleeping on their side, heads turned to each other and like as close together as they can be without actually being on top of one another, and limbs all entangled. Can also see them spooning.

4. Driving headcanon

Jury’s still out on whether Nancy has her license or not. I hc that she does but that she prefers letting Jonathan drive, she feels completely safe with him at the wheel and he’s had more driving experience while she’s a bit unsure perhaps. Kind of feel like driver’s ed could’ve been a thing Nancy struggled with, which I kind of like? Like with her straight A’s in school and studious smart mind can kind of see her having a weak spot like that, and her problem not being to learn traffic rules or anything like that but rather speeding and being to antsy a driver. I hc like with cooking that this is a thing where it’s something they both can do but Jonathan is a bit better at it and also likes to do it more than Nancy does and so she’s happy to let him take the wheel.

5. Bathing/showering headcanon

Answered!

6. Hugging headcanon

Answered! (Mostly for Nancy but Jonathan is just the same, they’re huggy huggy huggy).

7. Kissing headcanon

Headcanon: They’re really really good at it okay? For real though that amazing passionate hungry kiss/makeout/pinnacle of human achievement aside it’s uh…. real nice. They kiss a lot. A lot a lot a lot. Jonathan just finds it really hard not to kiss those lips I mean look at them. And Nancy finds that Jonathan is a natural and is just shook by him kissing her like that I mean jesus christ. Kiss time they see each other in the morning and Nancy will just keep leaving him with little kisses throughout the day. Quick pecks and cheek kisses at school as they’re not super big on serious PDA. Oh and darkroom kisses! You better believe they make out in there all the time. And to Nancy’s pleasure it’s often Jonathan initiating it then.

8. Sex headcanon

Answered!

9. General physical contact headcanon

They’re ALWAYS touching okay. If not kissing or hugging just holding hands or arms around the other or cuddled together on a couch or Nancy plopping herself down in his lap. Look at how even before they got together they always stood like needlessly close together for no real reason at times lmao like all that was missing was the final step of physically touching. Also just feeling Nancy’s hand on him is huge for Jonathan. Her caressing his hand after wrapping his palm in s1. And even more so her comforting, strengthening hand on his shoulder as he’s apologizing to Will’s unconscious body in s2, it’s monumental okay. She can always strengthen him just by putting her hand on him.

10. Physical appearance headcanon

Ahem. He’s got large hands okay. Make of that what you will. That’s all I’ll say about that.

11. Wardrobe headcanon

Kind of moot to answer given we’ve seen both their fall/winter wardrobes and in bts pics of s3 filming their summer wardrobes so not much headcanoning left to do here but I’ll say I am in love with it all okay. I rock a strong sweater game myself if I may say so, so much respect to the Sweater King and Queen of Hawkins. Also Nancy looks amazing in her summerdresses. And I’m glad the bts pics of s3 seem to confirm one headcanon I have: Jonathan Byers does not wear shorts.

12. Jewelry headcanon

Another kind of moot to answer (guess these are more aimed for literary characters) we know of Nancy’s ballet necklace and Jonathan not wearing any. Like I wrote into my Christmas fic I can see Nancy getting Jonathan some cool slightly unusual necklace that’s very much him, like something music related. And thinking he looks super cool in it (like Charlie who wears necklaces very well).

13. Nickname headcanon

Always always always the Thumper headcanon started by the eponymous @iamthethumperanon here and used by me in uh, many fics but for instance here. Otherwise there’s always Nance. I don’t like Jon, he doesn’t feel like a Jon he feels like a Jonathan. And lmao I’m still very pleased with the phone nicknames I gave them in the modern AU sexting fic I did, Nancypants and Jon-Jon aka Thumper. I like him calling her Nancypants sometimes lol and she always lightly smacking him on the arm when he does.

14. Dancing headcanon

Jonathan’s not a dancer. But he’s also not one to say no to Nancy Wheeler. Still mourn we didn’t get more than the iconic look at the Snow Ball come on Nancy could dance with Dustin for one or a few songs but then we needed Jonathan sliding up with “Mind if I cut in?”. Hell I hc that they danced on their own afterwards instead. If Nancy puts on some music in private and beckons for his hand he’s never one to turn her down

15. Singing headcanon

Answered!

16. Anger headcanon

At each other? No. Apart from the fight in the woods and getting huffy over their pent up feelings in the motel room they’re sweetie pies to each other all the time. They have playful banter but it’s not meanspirited in the slightest. I think what would infuriate Nancy the most about Jonathan would be if he kept putting himself and his own needs last, always prioritizing taking care of others above himself. But she wouldn’t get angry at him for it because it’s not something to have anger about, but she’d try to make him see it’s okay to think about himself too. Sure they’d have a fight eventually like all couples but they don’t walk around are meanspirited and angry at each other all the time. And on the other side of the coin, quickest way to poke Nancy or Jonathan’s berserk button is of course to endanger the ones they love. Jonathan beats the shit out of Steve in the alley because of what Steve spews out about Will and Joyce, but with where his and Nancy’s relationship is now, insulting Nancy like that would provoke the same reaction.

17. Soft spot headcanon

Not sure what this one means but uh… Jonathan has a soft spot for everything Nancy does and vice versa? Idk.

18. Favorite possession headcanon

Answered for Nancy here! For Jonathan it’s the camera Nancy gives him in s1.

19. Favorite photograph headcanon

Oh boy. Probably as of yet untaken in canon. Think Jonathan’s favorite photo would definitely be one he takes of Nancy sometime, or one of Nancy together with Will and Joyce.

20. Relationship with/thoughts on _____ headcanon

Music. They overlap more than some might think. We’ve gotten a lot in canon on Jonathan’s music taste (The Clash, Bowie, Joy Division, Television, Talking Heads, The Smiths) gives a pretty clear picture. For Nancy we have the Blondie thing on her wall and Africa by Toto playing in her room in s1 (as I recall it was diegetic music at least? Right?). I hc that Nancy listens to pop, would love Madonna for instance, but also likes new wave and stuff like it and I think Jonathan with his tastes would like new wave too so they’d meet there and I hc Nancy liking Bowie too. She broadens her tastes a little through Jonathan (what did they listen to in the car on the way to Murray?) and she likewise influences him, getting him to open up a bit more to some more poppier stuff (at first tolerating it in his car then discreetly bopping along and finally admitting he likes some of it). And ofc she loves to tease him like she did in the hallway scene and Sassy Boy Byers teases her right back.

[kuuderekun]

The growing Hostility towards Redemption narratives in some circles.

http://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-growing-hostility-towards.html

I already hinted at how this bugs me briefly in my last post about The Last Jedi, called Subverting Expectations is not a substitute for actual Imagination. The "some circles" I mean right now are largely SJW ones, but not all SJWs.  But it's ironic cause long ago, before I started these BlogSpot blogs, it was mainly a Conservative thing to complain about sympathetic villains in fiction.  While people on The Left were arguing we need to reject such superficial classifications as good and evil. So the issue tends to be that redemption narratives are often a Privilege of Cis-Het White Males.  And like my feelings on other subjects, the answer to this should be making more redemption stories for Queer and Non-White characters.  Though those narratives can become problematic when it's primarily white people leading them to the right path.  Or when redemption for a Queer villain requires rejecting their Queerness.   Plenty of these people are not against any redemption narratives.  But feel there are certain lines you can't come back from. My concern is that making people believe there is a certain line you can't come back from, will simply become a self fulfilling prophecy. Actions have consequences.  A redemption story should not mean it's like that character's sins never existed, or that people have to trust them now.  And just as recovering alcoholics need to stay away form alcohol, people who have a history of abusing their significant other should stay out of romantic relationships, especially with the specific people they abused in the past.  Forgiving a lover who wronged you in the past does not mean you should then start a new relationship with them. This subject can kind of be divided into two categories.  1. Villains repenting of their sins and being forgiven by the narrative represented by the protagonist in the end before they die or something else ends their role in the narrative.  Maybe while also doing some heroic redemptive act.  2.  A Villain flat out becoming a Hero.  I'm a supporter of both, the latter is a much more difficult thing to pull off well, which is exactly what makes the former often feel lazy. There are times when Sexism makes it seem easier for female villains to be redeemed, the High-Heel-Face Turn as TVTropes calls it. Plus the endless number of Femme Fatales who changed sides from falling in love with the Hero they were sent to seduce.  The frustrating thing is when the now more virtuous version of the character loses the cunning she had before, like what happens to Ellen Palmure in the Rocambole novels.  Also every Zelda Villianess has been pretty soft compared to the major male ones. On the subject of Star Wars.  Some people feel in The Last Jedi specifically Kylo Ren passed the point of no return.  And I can't call that wrong in the sense that I half way feel like that's what the film was saying.  But logically I don't really buy it.  Kylo (and the First Order as a whole) do not surpass the evilness of what they did in TFA, only in TFA were there attacks on civilians (if anything Rose and Finn's actions on Craite may have endangered civilians).  TFO's actions are wrong in TLJ only in so much as they are on the wrong side of the War.   Kylo certainly hasn't done worse then Vader in either film. Vader also killed his father-figure, and was much more directly involved when a super weapon was used to blow up an entire planet.  And that's going off only Vader's OT Sins, just what audiences were expected to forgive him for in in 1983, not including what was added by the Prequels. And once again I have to talk about Anime.  My love of Anime has a lot to do with how often enemies are forgiven.  Because in Japan the West's simplistic Good vs Evil dichotomy has only recently become an influence. It's frequently been a big part of the Magical Girl genre.  Sailor Moon didn't do it all the time, but Wedding Peach, and PreCure do it frequently, and so do the Darker Ones.  So Rey setting out to try and save Kylo Ren because of the good she senses in him, and then that totally back firing on her.  Feels to me like far more of a Meanspirited deconstructive slap in the face to Magical Girl convention then anything Madoka or it's imitators have done.  And Rian Johnson could have been doing that intentionally, given how I saw a blatant homage to Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha episode 6 right in that very confrontation. It's also a big thing in the Mecha Genre, where the message is often that War itself is the real villain.  And my love of the Prequels has been that I felt it was saying something similar, that The Empire was created because The Republic fought a war it shouldn't have.  When I started watching Mecha shows like Code Geass and Gundam 00, they reminded me of my love of the Prequels from day one.  So the Sequel Trilogy doesn't just bug me that it's staying stuck in the simpler OT formula.  It's the subtext that what happened between episodes VI and VII was that the First Order rose to power because the New Republic was too passive.  As an Anti-War person, that is a very problematic message to me. I consider myself an SJW, (and also a Communist).  Maybe you want to question my status as one simply because I don't agree with TheMarySue 100% of the time.  But I've been banned from Christian Forums and Facebook groups for saying Homosexuality isn't a Sin, when I wasn't the one brought the topic up.  The only stance I take on any major modern political issue that would be classified in modern America as a Conservative one, is not a Social Justice issue directly, it does come up on those websites, but I feel confident in saying it should not be part of the definition of what SJW means.  For the most part when I get into disagreements with other SJWs, from my POV I'm to the left of them. I used to not be as much of an SJW as I am now.  Much of that transition happened before I even started these blogs, but since starting them I've moved to the Left on Abortion and a few other things. It is not really relevant to mention that I'm a Universalist, this topic is about fictional narratives where characters change their moral enlightenment during their mortal life, and what real life lessens they teach.  Some of the people I'm disagreeing with here may not believe in an after life at all.  And probably would prefer Christians who reject Eternal Damnation. The Christian value that is relevant is that you should always forgive those who wrong you, even if they never apologize.  And that you should love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.  For most of my life this seemed to be the most unambiguously Liberal of all Christian Values.  It's the main area where Conservative Christians fail at being Christian, and the main area where Liberals might quote The Bible whether they're believers or not.  It saddens me that this has changed about the Left over the same time period that I moved to the Left. But perhaps even that second Biblical subject may not be directly relevant.  The question is, are there Biblical narratives of villains who become heroes?  Well there is Saul aka Paul, who defined himself as the Chief of all Sinners.  But perhaps a better parallel for saying that yes you can reach even Hitler level villainy and turn back, would be King Manasseh of Judah.  He made the streets of Jerusalem flow red with Blood from one end to the other.  But Second Chronicles records that he did repent and turn things around before the end.  It's interesting that the compilers of II Kings chose to ignore that part of his story.  But in the New Testament I think Matthew is siding with Chronicles here, since Manasseh isn't among the bad kings he skips in his genealogy in chapter 1.

[groundramon]

Hmm decided to make this rant because I wanna make a joke in my next Digimon pride icons batch but its too meanspirited for me to just make without context so here’s the context:

So @5ugarmatsu is watching Digimon and he’s not done with all the seasons yet so don’t spoil him BUT he did finish Tamers and you know the fuck what: Ryo sucks.  Also I’m mentioning him bc a lot of this initial stuff comes from him, I just verified it and wrote it down in this post.

I never hated Ryo growing up because i was beyond numb to the compulsive heterosexuality in Digimon (ps everyone in Digimon is gay or ace/aro or both and that’s just a fact) and I liked his design and I liked Cyberdramon.  In fact my hyperdaydreaming ass reused his design for a character of my own, albeit with a slightly different personality for....obvious reasons.  Yknow he’s a mary sue so.  Not very interesting even to 10 year old me being self indulgent.

Which, there’s the easy explanation for this: Ryo is a mary sue.  That’s it.  He’s the only one besides the core three that gets to biomerge, everyone adores him, he’s got no flaws, stupid perfect hair, stupid perfect teeth...  Also Rika is clearly a lesbian and they use him to imply that she’s not, and that’s simply not acceptable.  SHE DOESNT LIKE HIM YALL

but the reason I decided to make this into its own full-length post is because there’s also a slightly more sinister undertone to Ryo.  Mandatory trigger warning for emotional and potentially physical abuse here; read on at your own discretion.

So in Ryo’s first scene, we see him wrestling with a disobedient Cyberdramon.  We also see him use a whip-like beam of light from his digivice to control his partner.  Immediately, this raised some red flags for Charlie.  Because in the Digimon universe, it’s established that Digimon are essentially equal to Pokemon.  This isn’t a disobedient dog; this is someone being controlled against their will.  I know we joke a lot about pokemon or digimon being slavery, and thats not the route im going down, but it’s definitely not...good.  Also you still shouldn’t whip or restrain a disobedient dog; the whip under any circumstances, and the restrain based on how much of a threat they are to other people.

Which brings me to my next problem - never in any of his displays has Cyberdramon been showcased as a threat.  He has fought Digimon that were endangering the digidestined (Megadramon, Majiramon), growled at takato once, and that’s...it.  At WORST, in his last appearance before Ryo runs away for the first time (he doesn’t use the whip in any other appearance), Ryo claims he “wants to fight more”.  But also, there are a bunch of Digimon behind him that Cyberdramon could fight if he really wanted to.  But does he?  No.  He never once poses a threat to Ryo or the digidestined.  He’s aggressive and cold, but...

The next point - how Ryo talks about Cyberdramon.  Ryo describes Cyberdramon as a guy of few words.  Well guess fucking what, not only is that a symptom of abuse, but it’s also a symptom that someone just isn’t comfortable with you.  I’m not an abuse victim but I still rarely speak until spoken to, and am very quiet about myself and short in my answers until I know where you stand on things.  I’m trying to get better about that but when your only practice is your family, it’s hard because you’re either already comfortable with them or too afraid to make a fool of yourself.  But I digress - my point still stands that if Cyberdramon really IS a mon of few words, there’s a reason for it (I have social anxiety which causes me to be like that) and its not because of aggression.

Is Cyberdramon aggressive?  I’d say so, yes.  But he never points that aggression in the wrong direction.  And, if he did, why is Ryo keeping him under control?  When someone punches you, you may need to restrain them in that moment, but afterwards you get the police involved.  If they’re routinely violent with you, you leave them.  But Ryo doesn’t, because although he isn’t really violent, he IS in control.  Cyberdramon clearly submits to him and not necessarily in a good way, although not necessarily in a bad way either.

There’s also the fact of Monodramon being a silly cinnamon roll in his appearances, IE the exact opposite of Cyberdramon.  People don’t really change like that, so while Ryo is still his partner, idk, it makes me feel like Ryo got stricter with him as he got stronger, or something like that.  Or perhaps Ryo feels less intimidated when Monodramon is a friendly rookie as opposed to a brooding, fight-loving dragon.  Which I would too, but it’s still not an excuse in my personal opinion.

PS this isnt a Ryo-bashing post nor a post bashing anyone who likes him (or RyoxRika) like I said I literally just made this so i could make a joke about him being an incel or chad on my tamers pride icons.  Feel free to debate with me but dont get too offended; I only did this so I could feel less bad about making fun of his stupid face. pls and thanks

[chasseuseartisane-blog]

Fallen heroes || Marie + her Bert

With only one basket of clothes to be delivered, Marie hadn’t bothered to bring Belle with her, she’d just carried it herself. It did get heavy, with a long walk, but she was used to it so it barely registered. She’d started out early, planning on visiting the markets to buy some supplies before going home to finish some pieces that had been commissioned. It was a beautiful day, so that helped. Perhaps she would take some of the work outside, enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. Even with the walk in the morning, she knew when she got home, she’d still prefer to be outside. She always did, given the choice. As she walked, she hummed, half singing the words to a song she had heard at the markets. Or at least, that’s where she thought it came from, she wasn’t entirely certain.

When she saw her path had been blocked by shadow figures, she felt her heart thud against her chest in fear. She hated to be cornered, after what had happened the night of the tournament. Even now, she still felt like she had to hurry when walking alone. Since she had never given into fear, she took a closer look at the men half obscured with shadows and let out a laugh of relief.

“Monsieurs, you startled me.” If her hands weren't full with the basket, she would have brought one to her chest. “Excusez moi.” She smiled at the four Red Guards as she went to walk around them, although one of them was one of the men she’d yelled at the last time she was at the garrison. They weren’t Musketeers, but she was on good enough terms with the others, as far as she was concerned. But they didn’t smile back, just moving back into her path.

Her smile didn’t falter, but it did sharpen. “What is the problem? Is there trouble?” She had to bend her neck look up at them, not at all thinking that she was the one in trouble. Marie was just worried that someone else had been hurt.

“You need to come with us.”

Now, her smile did fall away, swapped for a look of concern. “Who is it? Please, tell me what is wrong?”

“Just shut up.” Marie was shocked at the harshness of the man’s voice. “Come with us, or we’ll make you.”

“I want an explanation for your behaviour first. If something is wrong-” Her words were cut off when another grabbed her arm, tight. “You will let go of me, immediately. Or I’ll take this up with your captain.”

“You’ll see the captain soon enough.” He didn’t let go of her arm, instead wrenching on it hard enough to make her take a step. “Now, are you resisting?” One rested his hand on the hilt of his sword pointedly, making Marie’s heart start pounding again.

Whatever this was, it was serious.

“I am not resisting, so you can stop being so foolish. You could have just said please.” Her complaints were terse, but she started walking, trying to shrug the hand off her arm, but he didn’t release her. His grip was tight, and she knew that if she was more fragile, if her skin paler, it would have left bruises. Still, she didn’t want his hand on her any longer than necessary. Not only did it hurt and leave her terrified, she didn’t want to look as though she was in trouble. Her business reputation could easily be shattered, she knew that. “Please, I’ll come along quietly – I won’t say another word.” Not until she saw Bert, anyway. “Just let go, please. You’re hurting me.” She knew that men often saw women as weaker, and as much as she hated to play that part, she knew it’d guilt them into being kinder, so she softened her voice as she pleaded with him. It worked, but he stayed close to her side, as if he expected trouble.

Marie knew she could be tempermental, but it didn’t explain his behaviour.

As digified as she could manage, she started to walk in the direction of the garrison, but the men made her change paths, and that fear became stronger. Out of the corner of her eyes, she watched them carefully in case they had plans to hurt her, knowing she would likely not move fast enough to drop the basket and go for the knife hidden in a secret pocket, disguised by the folds of her skirt. But she would try. She wouldn’t just let anyone hurt her.

When they gestured for her to enter a holding cell, it was literally the last thing she had expected. She refused silently, just giving them a look that clearly said what she was thinking. Something very unflattering that a reputable woman shouldn’t say, something she would normally only say in front of her brother or close friends, but if these men were serious about this, she would say it out loud.

“Where is your Captain? I agreed to come along only because I thought he would be here, and I could explain to him how I don’t appreciate being-“ The men solved the problem by pushing her, hard enough to make her fall through the open door. The clothes in her basket spilled across the ground, her elbow scraped hard enough to tear the skin.

Marie knew how to take a fall. She had fallen out of trees, or chasing after Marian because he’d teased her. She’d fallen when running while hunting, tripping over a log she’d misjudged the size of. She’d fallen off Belle once, when her meanspirited horse hadn’t decided to like her.

So falling now, despite making her arm sting, despite being afraid, didn’t stop her from quickly pushing herself up, ignoring the basket to rush for the door, but it slammed in her face, quite literally. She’d streteched out her hand to stop it, her fingers almost crushed by the force of it closing, but she pulled it away just in time.

”Let me out!” She banged on the door furiously, practically leaning on it to make her screams heard.

For a small woman, she had a lot of energy, so it would be a while before she subsided her attempts at breaking the door down to pick up the clothes, dusting them off to the best of her abilities and putting them back in the basket.

Bert would be here soon, she prayed. He would sort this out. She couldn’t let herself think of what would happen if he didn’t. 

When the door opened, she fixed her furious gaze on the men. "I demand an explanation. And an apology." One dragged in a chair, gesturing to it. "Oh so now you care about my comfort. Tell me-"

"You'll answer our questions, not the other way around. Now sit down. Talk to us, you aren't in trouble yet."

"About what?" She threw her hands up, exasperated. "You must have me confused with someone else. Get your captain."

"Sit down." The guard in charge grabbed her shoulder and forced her to the chair, pushing her into it. She yelped, more angry than anything else. "Talk. Or we'll make you."

"Talk about what?" She flinched when one raised his hand, but the leader shook his head.

"The captain said no more violence, not without orders." Marie felt cold and confused. What could they possibly want her for?

Hours later, she was just as confused, and she'd started talking through the process of making a shirt, since they wouldn't explain what they wanted. When that was done, she went one step further to explain how she skinned deer. At least one of the men went a little green at the description.

"What is your business in the Court of Miracles?"

"I'm sorry? The c- I'm a seamstress, are you blind? I have customers all over Paris, I don't hold anything against people. Otherwise I might object to Red Guards, after this display."

"Cooperate. You must know something." She pulled a face at them, not bothering to dignify it with an actual response. If they were going to act like imbeciles, she'd treat them accordingly.

"If you're not going to cooperate, you can stay the night. Without food." Marie stood, hoping to protest, but they pushed her back into the chair. Somehow, she knew they were serious, and she was afraid. This couldn’t be happening. Marian would worry, he wouldn't know where she was. No one knew where she was. The men left her, leaving nothing but what she'd had with her. She curled into a corner, watching the door intensely until she fell asleep, the knife in her hand. She slept fitfully, caught in nightmares of the men who had attacked her after the tournament, but with the new addition of odd questions that made no sense.

[schraubd]

You Can't Take "Intent" Out of "Discriminatory Intent"

There is currently a debate regarding whether courts can use President Trump's campaign statements regarding his Muslim ban -- to wit, that it was indeed a "Muslim ban" -- as evidence of its unlawful character. Matthew Segal at Just Security says yes. Jeffery Toobin at The New Yorker says no. I confess I find Toobin's position baffling, verging on incoherent, and resting on fundamental confusion about how "intentions" might or might not matter in legal interpretation (a quick note: Toobin says he is basing his view on a forthcoming article by Cardozo Law Professor Kate Shaw. I haven't been able to locate a copy of Shaw's piece, so my critique is not directed at her or her arguments). Perhaps most alarmingly, Toobin's view continues a trend of making discrimination cases virtually impossible to win even in concept. As we know, many of the judges who struck down Trump's travel ban did so, in part, by relying on statements by Trump and his aides telling us that this ban was designed to target Muslim immigration to the United States -- an unconstitutional motive. Toobin finds this "unsettling", as it implies that "an identical order would be upheld if Barack Obama had issued it, but that this one was invalidated because Trump was the author." As far as Toobin is concerned, either the "Muslim ban is constitutional or it's not" -- Trump's words don't matter; the constitutionality of the same legal text can't depend on extra-textual utterances by whoever happened to be the author. I said that Toobin's argument rests on a fundamental confusion regarding how authorial intent might matter in legal interpretation, so let's parse that out. Consider a rather famous case where a federal statute criminalized the "use" of a firearm "during and in relation to . . . [a] drug trafficking crime." The defendant traded a gun for narcotics, the question was whether this qualified as a "use" under the statute. Imagine two universes, where the statutory text was identical, but had different primary authors:

In Universe A, the author says he is introducing this law because "I want to get as many criminals involved in drug trafficking off the street, for as long as possible. And since I know many drug traffickers carry guns, many drug traffickers will face stiffer penalties under this law."

In Universe B, the author says he is introducing this law because "the use of guns to commit or threaten violence is a scourge on our cities, and it is essential that we differentiate between violent and nonviolent instances of the drug trade."

Legislator-A's statement seems to suggest that he intended for "use" to include use as a means of exchange, Legislator-B's statement may suggest that he did not so intend. But, one might argue, the same legal text (again, recall that the text of the law is the same in both universes) should not have different meanings simply because of extramural utterances by the author that are not contained inside the text itself. The law means what it means; these statements simply have nothing to do with it either way. On this score, Toobin would have many followers (albeit not universal agreement). In the above example, the question is whether stated intentions matter in determining what the law means -- who is included, who is excluded, what acts are allowed, what acts are illicit. But note that's not how intention is being used in the Muslim ban case. Courts are not using Trump's statements to determine whether or not the order does or does not encompass John Q. Muslim -- that is at least somewhat clear (relying on questions like whether he is coming from one of the covered countries). Rather, the question is whether or not the ban is lawful in the first instance -- not about its meaning, but about its legitimacy. I stated that Toobin's argument basically makes discrimination cases impossible to win, and this distinction explains how. Suppose that Zack, an African-American man, has just been told by his boss Andrew "you're fired." Again, divide ourselves into two universes:

In Universe A, Andrea is racist, and she fired Zack because Zack is African-American.

In Universe B, Andrea is not racist, and she fired Zack because she doesn't like the color of Zack's shirt (in an at-will employment context, the reason doesn't have to be a "good" reason).

In both universes, Andrea has taken the same action -- she's fired Zack. Even more clearly than in the "use a firearm" case, the meaning of what Andrea did does not change based on her intentions -- it is unambiguous that she fired Zack. But the legitimacy, the legality, of her action absolutely depends on what her intentions were: in Universe A, Andrea has engaged in unlawful racial discrimination, in Universe B, she hasn't. That's because in American law the intention that motivates the action is what distinguishes discriminatory versus non-discriminatory conduct. And so here we have a clear example of what Toobin derides as absurd: the same action, the same text, is lawful or unlawful based entirely on who did it -- or more properly, based on the licit versus illicit motivations of who did it. In this, discrimination cases are somewhat of an outlier in American law (though not completely so). For the most part, we assess the permissibility of a given law based on its effects, not based on the psychological motives that prompted it. In deciding whether a law imposes an "undue burden on a woman's right to choose" to have an abortion, for example, we're more concerned with the degree to which the law actually obstructs the ability to terminate a pregnancy. Intentions may be correlated -- it stands to reason that someone who wanted to impose such a burden is more likely to have written a law that does impose such a burden -- but they ultimately not dispositive. A law intended to impose a significant burden that, in fact, does not do so will pass constitutional muster; a law that was not intended to seriously burden a woman's right to choice but turns out to be immensely burdensome should fail. One could argue that discrimination law should operate in the same way -- it matters less what is in the headspace of any given actor and more the impact that it has on discrete and marginalized groups. So with respect to the Muslim ban, we might say that it doesn't matter why Trump did it, what matters is whether it has a disparate impact on Muslims (clearly it does), or whether it impedes their equal standing in American society (quite plausibly). But, for better or for worse, that's been firmly rejected by the judiciary. What matters is the intentions, and effects are only relevant insofar as they are probative of intent. In the inverse of the abortion case, we might think that an action that disproportionately and deleteriously impacts Muslims is more likely to have been motivated by anti-Muslim intentions than one which has no such disparate impacts; but ultimately the inquiry is solely about trying to figure out what motivated the action. And so again, it is entirely plausible given how anti-discrimination law operates that the same order, with the same impacts, could be lawful under one author (with neutral intentions) and unlawful under another (with racist intentions). Obviously, lawyers are rarely stupid enough to simply admit that their client harbored a discriminatory motive. So much of discrimination litigation is about trying to suss out the actual motive in situations where the defendant insists that his or her intentions were pure as driven snow. It should go without saying that among the most powerful pieces of evidence one can put forward to establish a discriminatory motive is a declaration by the defendant that "I am doing this because of race/sex/religion". Many people have commented on the emerging American trend of being less "racist" than "anti-anti-racist." Instead of affirmatively preaching racist policies, they instead stand aghast at anything actually being labeled "racist". How uncouth, how vulgar, how meanspirited! This instinct is the only thing that lets me make sense of simultaneously holding (a) that one can't call something discriminatory unless it was motivated by discriminatory intent and (b) that it's dirty pool to actually use someone's own direct statement of motivation as a means of establishing said intent. Talk about heads-I-win-tails-you-lose! If Toobin says we can't consider explicitly stated motives in assessing discrimination claims in a legal world where motive is legally dispositive, it becomes increasingly unclear what sort of evidence could establish an instance of discrimination even in concept. If (as Toobin holds) proper judicial interpretation doesn't incorporate statements of intention that lie outside the formal legal document, and "discrimination" only occurs where there is an illicit intent, then discrimination claims are impossible to win except in the absurdly rare case where the bad intention is somehow written into the document. via The Debate Link http://ift.tt/2o3T7C8

[hannahransom8-blog]

Exactly how Do I Pick My Greatest Automobile Design University?

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