#post MOC in particular

[acesammy]

daily mantra: you can do nothing about peoples rancid takes you can do nothing about peoples rancid takes you can do nothing about peoples rancid takes

[songofwizardry]

finally started Midst over the xmas break and it has become my new commute podcast and it's. so so good the voice acting is incredible my god. truly tragic when i have to turn it off and start work in the mornings now.

[celluloidbroomcloset]

I really don't want to open a can of worms with this, but why would some folks be disinclined to the possibility of Ed being a bottom (say at least once) with Stede?

Oh boy. OK. I think this all comes back to Izzy as representative of a patriarchal and misogynist society that has particular ideas about gender and sexual roles.

I went into a lot of detail on this older post. One of Izzy’s problems with Stede - and also with Ed as he is outside of Blackbeard - is that Stede refuses to fall within the correct position on the masculine hierarchy, and this feeds into Izzy's reaction in the stabbing scene, which is the first intimation both Izzy and the viewer have that Ed would like to be penetrated by Stede. To Izzy, the idea of the soft, effeminate man penetrating the powerful, dominant man is offensive because penetration is about dominance and shaming. To him and to anyone who takes this view, Stede topping Ed would degrade Ed. This concept is deeply misogynist because it assumes that men who “act as women” (are penetrated) are lesser than and are being possessed or humiliated by men who “act as men” (do the penetrating).

So, IF you take Izzy’s (the misogynist and patriarchal) perspective that penetrating is about enacting power/control/possession over another, then Stede (white man) penetrating Ed (moc) could be seen as itself racist. This reading would begin with the assumption that any man who is penetrated is being subdued and degraded, and to have a white man doing that to a MoC is doubly shameful and racist. But you have to make the a patriarchal and misogynist assumption to get there.

I do not at all think this is the assumption the show makes. It is a toxic viewpoint that bases itself in misogyny and strict gender and sexual roles that casts the person being penetrated as being possessed/shamed by the person doing the penetrating.

Something this show does really well is to reveal how very toxic the gender and sexual binary is. The characters are all trapped in these strict roles that are against their desires, and they are free and happy when they shake loose from those roles. Ed wants to be safe with someone; he wants to be penetrated safely and without pain, and Stede is someone with whom he feels safe and who does NOT see penetrating him as staking a claim or as something that gives him CONTROL over Ed’s body or Ed’s emotions. He doesn’t gain pleasure from harming Ed in any way, and he does not see gay sex (regardless of role) as shameful (we see this in the scene between him and CJ).

This is one of the reasons why the stabbing scene is actually so important—Stede does not recognize eroticism in causing Ed harm, and Ed is working towards being able to ask to be held and touched and penetrated without harm, by someone who does not treat it as degrading Ed.

This is all based in the context of the show and the characters. and another show, differently written, could have made all the dynamics very problematic indeed.

We joke about it, but Stede topping Ed does indeed have thematic importance both to the characters and to the show’s overall project in upending patriarchal assumptions about gender and sexuality.

[transgenderpolls]

Submission Guidelines/Disclaimers

First, things to keep in mind when you submit:

there is a limit of 12 answers for polls, and on this blog one of those answers will always be 'show results,' to allow for people that the poll doesn't apply to to see without skewing data. so in reality you have a maximum of 11.

there's also an 80-character limit on the options

SO, if you go over those limits, know that I will take it into my own hands to decide which answers to omit and/or how to re-word it to fit the limit.

even otherwise, expect that the wording of your submission may be slightly altered in order to be more inclusive (when it doesn't affect the data), or because i think you missed an option that you probably meant to include, or just to make it sound less clunky. if you have an issue with any changes upon posting, i'm happy to hear you out.

it'll likely be about a 4-5 day wait between the time you submit and the time it gets posted, with the current number of submissions i have + my own polls

if your poll is addressing a very small group, don't be surprised or angry when the 'see results' poll is the biggest. that needs to be there to keep data from being skewed by anyone's curiosity.

Base Guidelines For Submitting:

poll must be related to being trans. it doesn't have to be exclusively directed at trans people, but if you want cis people to be allowed to answer, please make that clear in your submission. otherwise i'll default to it being a trans-only poll.

it CAN be directed at a specific type of trans person, such as trans men/women, non-binary people, trans lesbians, trans moc, etc - literally you can address any specific trans group you want, just make sure to say so.

it CAN relate to sex, just try to be tasteful about it.

What would make me NOT post a submission:

if it's an opinion poll about the validity of any particular type of trans person. "validity" is a moot topic and i'm not going to encourage it, and in any case i'd like the focus of this blog to be about recording experiences (real, undeniable, forever in stone) rather than opinions (always changing, meaningless)

if it's something like "trans people: do you like pineapple on pizza?" or some other question that doesn't actually have anything to do with being trans. if you wanna send something like this, make your case for why it's relevant that the poll is directed at trans people.

if it's some other obviously offensive shit, obviously. no racism or whatnot here.

FAQ:

Who counts as trans?/Can I vote on a poll for trans people if I'm nonbinary?

We self-define here, so if you consider yourself trans, you're trans. Non-binary is definitionally under the trans umbrella - though you're not obligated to consider yourself trans if you don't relate to a trans experience.

Why isn't there an option for X?/You missed an option.

Sometimes I may genuinely miss an option, but 9 times out of 10 the lack of the option is either due to the poll limits on tumblr, or because it goes against the point of the poll. For example, if the question begins with "If you're on HRT," then "i'm not on HRT" isn't going to be an option. If the prerequisite of the poll doesn't apply to you, then what you click is "see results." If it's something a little less concrete, polls will always include some kind of "other" option anyway.

Can you get rid of the 'see results' button? Or can you not include it on this particular poll? I only want X people to respond. This poll is ONLY for X people.

If a poll is on this blog, it's for everyone, questioning and simply curious people included. It's also not going to stop curious people from clicking if there's no 'see results' button. It ensures that the data doesn't get skewed, and gathering data is what polls are for. It doesn't hurt you to see a big see results bar. The data is still there. If the bar does wind up obscuring more significant data, that means the poll was addressing too small of a group to begin with. And that's NOT the end of the world. This blog is far from the only place where you can get information about other trans people's experiences.

[scoobydoodean]

hey pk I was wondering about something since I saw this analysis post about about the moc storyline, and i realised since you seem to have such a comprehensive understanding of the show AND are currently doing a rewatch AND always without fail have good and fair analysis, I could just ask you! so if it’s alright/if you have time, could you tell me if dean ever says stuff like ‘I wanna punch sth/c’mon let me just [do sth violent]’ before he ever has the mark? does he ever say it aside from that one scene in 10.20 i can remember?

btw love you you’re the best <3 coolest blog badge for you 🎖

Hello Jo! 🩷 Thank you for the badge it is a great honor to receive such an award. 😌

I cannot think of an example of this up to my current rewatch episode (6.06) though admittedly this isn't something I would think to take particular note of. However, perhaps butch—dean's transcript search could be of assistance!

I found Sam and Dean both saying they "want to hit/punch something" in season 12?

Dean in 12.14:

Dean: You know what? You find us a case. 'Cause I need to hit something. Now. Sam: You wanna talk about it?

Sam in 12.21:

Sam Seven Hunters are gone. We can't grab a signal from Mom's phone. Cas has Kelly Kline who knows where. Mick has slipped off the grid. Ketch is lying to us. I-I... I wanna punch something in the face. Dean: Good. Hold on to that, 'cause it looks like we got a hellhound to deal with. Which means…

The phrases "hit something" and "punch something" don't appear anywhere else in the transcripts said by Dean or Sam tho <3 I also tried "kill something", "hunt something", "murder something", "punch", and "to hit".

This isn't the same thing exactly but maybe tangentially relevant:

Dean has said "I need/want to work" before—once during the MoC arc in 10.04 but also in 4.08, but the context of the line in 4.08 is Sam is badgering him to open up about hell when Dean is not ready, so Dean says "I want to work" as a way of proving he is fine and getting Sam off his back and off the subject of Dean's trauma. Sam says the same thing in 7.11, and then in 2.18:

DEAN: Yeah. I just figured that, you know, after everything that happened with ... Madison, y-you could use a little R-and-R, that's all. SAM: Well, maybe I wanna work, Dean. Maybe it keeps my mind off things.

In 1.20, Sam also insist when Dean suggests R&R "we got work to do, and you know that."

[olderthannetfic]

/726901861182996480/ a lot of the Richard Siken response is honestly so homophobic, trying to come up with some sinister reason for why a gay man would be interested in writing or reading sexy fanfic about attractive men in a TV show. There was a viral post going around here by some person with a Stranger Things username (not insinuating that fandom is especially weird or anything, just that I remember this person had one of the characters from that show as their username) that suggested he was a creep or groomer or something because he had not responded well to a teenager basically wanting him to do her homework for her, but “he happily writes fanfic of shows for her age demographic” (or something like that) which is both a truly bizarre description of Supernatural, a show that’s always been aimed at adults even if it also has a fair number of teenage fans, but also is really clearly trying to invoke some sort of Groomer Panic in a time when that’s rising as a form of violent homophobia toward LGBTQ+ people especially those who are AMAB. And it’s just such a bizarre statement: even if we were talking about a drama that was aimed at teenagers, in what ways is it “groomer” for an adult to watch this show (lol, on the website that is full of adults freaking out over kids’ shows) or for that adult to find the adult characters played by adult actors attractive enough to write sexy fanfic about them? It’s just really obviously reaching for an excuse to call a gay man a groomer.

In general, I feel like this website has a serious problem (it’s been the case at the very least since the panic over CMBYN, and before anyone gets pissy, I’m not talking about anyone taking issue with the content of the film itself, but the people making weird insinuations about gay/bi men for liking it or “the gay community” for embracing it or over the bi male novel author’s own sexuality or reasons for writing it, etc.) where a lot of people who are not gay/bi men think it’s okay for them to make weird homophobic assertions about it, and generally not bother to question their homophobic beliefs about gay and bi men, because they themselves are some other kind of LGBTQ+. I’m a cis lesbian and a lot of this particular seems to come from cis lesbians and bi women, often trying to couch it in a general sort of skepticism that women as a marginalized group might have toward men as a privileged group, but then it only ever seems to be directed at men who are also marginalized such as gay/bi men (and also MOC) and specifically for things that are a result of those marginalized identities and that don’t affect women — NOT a situation where a man is using his marginalized identity as an excuse for misogyny or anything like that. Anyway, people need to knock that shit off. Not every person in the LGBTQ+ community has the same experience, and being, say, a cis woman who is queer doesn’t necessarily make you any better of an authority on gay or bi men’s lives than cishet people if you aren’t making an effort to talk to them or read stuff by them or learn about their lives, and certainly doesn’t mean you can’t be homophobic toward them — just like how in turn, queer men can be bigoted toward lesbians and/or bi women. I don’t understand how people can be aware of other kinds of intra-LGBTQ+ bigotry — cis gay or bi people being transphobic, gay people being biphobic, etc. — and not be aware that this is also a thing that can happen from other LGBTQ+ people toward gay men.

And being ANY kind of queer absolutely does not give you a get out of jail free card for buying into and disseminating the moral panics about groomers, “kink at pride,” “drag is problematic and always sexual” etc. which are used by the right wing to hurt all of us. This was bad enough in like 2018 as part of the perennial brain worms people on this website have about Pride (that are because way too many of them don’t leave their houses and actually go to a Pride parade) or when people could plausibly believe that “groomer” was purely about shipping discourse and maybe the occasional actually kind of creepy older adult in fandom spaces who spends a little too much time glomming onto teens specifically. But in 2023 you don’t really have any excuse for not being aware of how those terms have broken containment and are now part of regular right-wing propaganda, and particularly a concerted right-wing campaign to try to re-mainstream homophobia in places where it had become socially taboo. Your discomfort around a real adult gay man just enjoying fanfiction, which does not affect you, is not justified and you need to work through that. Using terms like “groomer” for fucking fandom discourse when it’s come to mean what it does in the broader culture is just completely morally reprehensible. Get a fucking grip

--

[prototype-viro]

Design process: Tilira (2009-2022)

The first version made for my stories at the German Bionicle fanfiction wiki. Second version was never published to any platform and unfortunately as of now the crowded group cutout is the only image remaining of her.

The two distinctly MOCpages versions of her. First step into more custom builds.

The more refinded revamp built for my comic story, Elegy. The tube was meant as a callback to her very first verison.

An unreleased revamp intended to address the stability issues and the use of Nuva shoulders from the previous version. Though as this version still had some stability issues as well as movability problems, she was never posted online.

WIP stage design process, continuing from the unposted revamp. While starting out trying to rebuilt certain sections, the entirety of the MoC was gradually replaced with better techniques. The arms in particular took a long while to get right. During the build progress focus shifted to make an accurate remake of the first ever version instead of a reinterpretation.

The newest version. Remake of the original from 2009. One of my personal favorite builds. More pictures can be seen here.

[shallowrambles]

to the user that messaged me that doesn’t want to be known, you can ask as anon next time and i can answer that way instead. :)

in part i agree with you!!! - i actually do differ from the fandom on these aspects although im super sympathetic to the conversion therapy and “gender policing sam” readings!!!

///

one, on sam policing dean’s grief and emotions - when he’s teasing, i agree that he’s not doing anything more severe than dean calling sam “samantha” or ragging on his long hair…

when he’s shutting down dean’s emotions, i agree that dean also sometimes encourages stoic resilience from sam. example: in season 12 dean tells sam to basically use his grief around eileen’s death to channel into hunting. “use that.”

so on the whole, i actually agree with you that it’s not a uniquely “sam” issue! both of them have expectations of each other that definitely has a gendered dimension, but i think it’s largely due to hunting itself. since they rely on each other in daily work and for safety during battle, they BOTH demand resilience and toughness of each other

DEAN and Bobby INCLUDED

///

two, sam in season 8 - yeah i don’t ascribe to benny situation being wholly about gender either, so we partially agree here too. i do think this situation has stronger support for this particular reading if you wanna go that way. but i tend to agree with you that it feels more “wrong side of the railroad tracks” situation and yes definitely more analogous to ruby-is-a-bad-influence vibe.

benny saved dean’s life but ruby ALSO saved sam’s life. sam’s reason given to trust ruby was the same reason dean gave to trust benny. ruby had personal motivations, but benny also had motivations that weren’t wholly about dean’s wellbeing (escape hatch, revenge on his maker, even the reliance on him as a source of support/food/blood donation/“dealer”).

sam doesn’t have much reason to trust benny besides dean’s word…which if we take the deleted scene about benny “falling off the wagon”, that beautifully complicates the situation. (they should’ve left it in to underline the moral grayness of it all imho; it better demonstrates the push-pull theme of assuming the best vs assuming the worst)

sam can be unlikeable, but like it or not, he is mistrusting benny the same way dean mistrusted ruby…the way dean didn’t cut amy pond any slack for her ethical mistake. if ruby and amy had been handsome men like crowley and benny, i wonder if they’d have seemed less disposable? i don’t know. i think so.

all in all, i think dean and sam both pivot to black-and-white “hunting code” thinking after heavy losses bc they’re struggling for control in the chaos. dean went into white picket fence escapism post losing sam in season 5, and he went hard into hunting re:amy directly post-losing cas. likewise, sam went hard into escapism with amelia and then hard into hunting after losing dean, cas, and bobby. so the coping goes. it’s not one-to-one but certainly has a parallel dynamic. (cas too! he checked out in season 6 and followed it up with going hard in on dubious heaven trials and the “penance” of angelic civil war).

honestly, i reckon it’s tough tits for dean that his past behavior around “teammates from the wrong side of the railroad tracks” set up sam to echo it in season 8. (sorry, dean!!!! it's true!!!) sam also paralleled dean and bobby’s detox stuff during the season 10 demon dean “drug intervention”. …and that’s just my take on it. I feel like it's text.

if crowley is Other and demon dean represents Alternative Lifestyle… then so does Ruby. which is fine. i personally don’t think demonic sam or moc!dean were shown to have healthy endpoints, so I don't view them as super secret "true selves." but if you view those as false worst-case/fictitious fear-driven endpoints or even flat out “true self” endpoints, i think that is fine. so long as there’s acknowledgment that sam’s behavior isn’t so different from dean’s in earlier seasons.

i think the sam hate gets a little black-and-white sometimes, and i agree it can be frustrating.

yeah, in season 8, dean was idealizing a perfect war companion “who never let him down” to replace his brother, who was a flawed war companion that let him down repeatedly. However, the deleted scene implies benny did indeed “fall off the wagon” and fed on humans. even if it were more like amy pond’s necessity and carefulness, it’s certainly a more ethically gray scenario and likely comparable “failure.”

ergo, while sam was very classist and rigid/assuming the worst about the whole situation, dean represented the other idealist extreme. i’ve said a lot about how i view season 8 as being about extreme delusions of perfection/escapism/easy rules/not being let down, and benny is another example of that theme in action - the implication is that the situation is way more gray than it appears at first.

the implication is that sam was partially right about the situation being dangerous, which is a gorgeous dimension imho. like it or not, we as audience saw benny get tempted to kill dean at one point too, so…to ignore sam’s concerns is somewhat of a fandom idealization of dean and dean’s judgment. (season 8 is all about figments and idealization imho)

So yeah i’m with you here too on some points!

the more interesting part lies in the winchester hypocrisy itself, and that humans aren’t executed as rigidly for their mistakes! it’s about how we naturally emphasize with in-groups, even if that manifests as implicit bias. the human condition.

///

point three, demon dean - you’ll be surprised to find that i agree with you here too. demon dean and crowley are often posited by fandom as dean being his “true self” but the series does not present it that way; it presents crowley as frankly predatory and exploitative. dean’s forgiveness of the situation is more analogous to claire forgiving those that wronged her (cas, even randy, dean).

dean explicitly states to Cas, the person he's most up-front with, that he doesn’t view his demonic stint as a good thing. to cas: “I can’t become that thing again.”

i view demon dean as a predatory manipulation of consent during a vulnerable time, analogous to metatron honing in on post-naomi-tortured cas. to me, the text shows an obvious and egregious manipulation, and with demon dean, the loss of inhibitions is underlined again and again…for example, when dean talks about the “jailbait” on the college campus and the blackout kills. I view the issue with the mark as being more centered on the loss of inhibitions and subsequent loss of free will, not the violence itself. dean verbalized his discomfort with this loss of control. sam doesn’t just make the judgment of dean's control on his own internal moral grounds. he listens to dean about his verbalized loss of control. so does cas, for that matter.

in the early eps, demon dean says he “loves the disease” because one of dean's primary modes is running from pain and disappointment. that’s not a “secret true self” imho - it’s more like a junkie who checks out, more analogous to sam’s addiction than not. or to cas's blissed-out, poetic "checkout" in season 7.

///

as i said above, sam treats hopped up demon dean as dean and bobby treated him — with a forced detox!!!! i am sympathetic to the other reading but to me it doesn’t fully match what i see on screen. (in fact parallel detoxes are shown to be overall helpful, even for characters like crowley!!!)

if sam’s detox of dean is about “dean’s true self,” then sam’s detox is about “sam’s true self.” demon blood intake and the burden of the mark are in parallel: they wear down their markers, eradicating their feelings and inhibitions over time, transforming them into black-eyed demons…

even when they initially wield their dark powers in the name of good.

as for sam hating on crowley… despite our love of crowley, sam is working from what he saw out of crowley ; he’s very reasonable to be concerned and distrustful of him…the same way dean was reasonable to be mistrustful of ruby. crowley had a very fresh history of killing and torturing kevin’s loved ones…it was still in sam’s sight lines.

sam is NOT turning against crowley simply because crowley is “queer coded and sam is therefore homophobic" but bc crowley recently did a lot of really bad shit and showed no remorse. plus, he clearly acted in his own interests at dean’s expense. there’s no controversy whether or not crowley manipulated dean in order to getting rid of abbadon, then preying upon him after his inhibitions were destroyed. that’s text.

now, is crowley that black and white? hell no! like meg and ruby, he was also abused by hell and preyed upon by demons. he is in the process of genuinely rediscovering his humanity!!! i will defend crowley and rowena to the death, btw, but a lot of crowley’s shit gets overlooked in season 10 bc fandom (myself included!) can sometimes prefer a cool metaphor over entertaining that sam’s judgment can at times be reasonably founded (sam’s bad behavior notwithstanding).

crowley and metatron are both presented as ppl who target attack dogs in their moments of weakness to gain positional objectives/power.

(both of them also underestimate those attack dogs and bite off more than they can chew/control!!!! crowley HATED when demon dean became beyond his control; and metatron HATED it when "cas was good at war -> "I didn't think he'd be good at it.")

///

summary / main pts

drug detox - on the whole, i find it a conspicuous blind spot that sam’s choice to do “drug intervention” gets layered with all this symbolic "extra shit "extra" when bobby and dean's “drug intervention” is sometimes viewed as justified/ for sam’s own good.

i view instead that they’re both heavy-handed interventions that are mostly about the wellbeing of the person (demon dean included). that's the rub about caretaking and parenting, after all--it inevitably involves a loss of independence in order to protect that person!!! balancing these two things is hard! that's the whole thing with family! security/firm boundaries vs independance!

anyway, detox/human blood is what created a more rejuvenated/jumpstarted Crowley’s humanity in season 8, after all—it dimmed the fog of his demonic non-feeling. it was a GOOD thing.

both choices of “drugs,” sam’s demon blood and dean’s mark, are shown to result in a loss of inhibitions/free will with subsequent demonic transformation.

side note//thats not to say humans don’t also behave in morally reprehensible ways—just that demon-ness is more “numbing” and and the MOC has a whiff of “loss of free will” about it.

2. ruby and metatron’s bad motivations get more emphasized than characters like crowley. but sam was reasonable not to trust him in context of crowley’s season 8-10 actions/egregious ambitions. crowley’s bad behavior can get virtually ignored despite what he freshly did to mrs tran. sam is working from this incredibly recent history!!!

3. lastly, the danger benny textually posed to dean sometimes gets ignored because he’s a nice guy. that doesn’t erase sam’s prejudice and classism; it does however complicate dean’s idealization…which was rather the point of benny and the meat of most of dean’s season 8 arc imho. dean was dealing with his own flavor of perfectionism/unrealistic expectations to avoid disappointment/getting hurt again.

[bookishfeylin]

omg I would lovelovelove an analysis on why u think Feyre was abusive towards Lucien if ur comfy with that!! (ps I hope u have a good weekend and get some rest)

Hi! So my claim here is not that she was abusive per se but that he was still harmed by her actions—specifically in ACOWAR. Feyre attempts to provoke Tamlin and drive a wedge between him and Lucien by implying they’re having sex. White women getting white men to harm MOC on their behalf, often specifically by making a claim about MOC having sex with them and/or sexually harassing them is a very real ISSUE that has and still continues to get MOC killed, and yet a white author still felt comfortable writing that scenario and claiming it was empowerment on the white woman's part. That it was badass and cool and edgy of her to do that to a MOC. THAT is my problem with that scene. Behavior that has gotten MOC killed does not need to be glorified, IMO, and the fact that it is written as a clever, amazing and ~manipulative~ moment for Feyre, something inspiring, truly rubs me the wrong way. Her doing that to a MOC is just… too much for me.

Another mutual of mine said this about it:

***EDITING FOR ADDITIONAL CLARIFICATION

There are three issues here:

1- Sarah is opting to recreate a racially charged real world dynamic between Feyre, Lucien, and Tamlin, and no amount of “there’s no racism in the ACOTAR universe” changes the racial dynamic here because it was written by and intended for people in this world and she has, with a real world audience in mind, still chosen to write this particular plot point

2- Sarah, a white woman in this world, is glorifying said racially charged action as badass and feminist

3- The fandom opts to ignore the power imbalance here and blames Lucien for Feyre's abuse if not labeling him an abuser himself for failing to help Feyre in ACOMAF and ACOWAR, ignoring he himself is being abused by Tamlin and is himself at Feyre's mercy especially in this scene

EDIT #2- please go read @acotardeservesbetter ‘s response to my post. It should be the post right above this ask on my blog, and she explained it perfectly

[tiredspacedragon]

So Happy 810NICLE Day, lads

I planned to post this earlier in the day so typing it out wouldn't be a race against the clock to finish in the last few hours of the day, but it turns out taking pictures and photo editing can take a long time! Who knew?

Anyway, my contribution to this 810 is something I've been working on for a while, and am in fact still working on because they are not done. May I present the still in-progress Default Adaptive Toa Nuva, now as MOCs!

For anyone unfamiliar with the lore of the Adaptive Armour, these six protosteel suits were made by Artakha to be used by the Toa Nuva. They have the power to shapeshift to suit the environment around their wearers, providing them with the equipment necessary to master any terrain. The armour was featured prominently in 2008, where it adapted to the skies and swamps of Karda Nui, allowing the Toa Nuva to fly.

These designs represent the Adaptive Armour in its inactive or default state, where it is not adapting to any particular environment, or is in whatever environment it considers "normal." These default forms are described as looking similar to the Toa's original Nuva armour, but in the Adaptive Armour colours. I decided to interpret that "similar" loosely, for the sake of making post-canon versions of the Nuva that are in-scale with the sets of later years. So here's them, overexplained in exhaustive detail, as is my custom. Enjoy!

This whole project started with a mental image of a Metru Red Tahu Nuva leaning against a tree on Spherus Magna, talking to Jaller in some peaceful time long after the story was over, so it only seems proper to start with him. Whether this is Tahu restored to his Nuva form, or Tahu Mata having gained the Shapeshifting Rahkshi power from the Golden Armour and using it to look like his Nuva self is up to you.

I've opted to go with Metru builds for all the Nuva. I know a fair amount of people are sick of them by now, but I'm not! And I think they're a great way to translate the look of the Toa Nuva into Inika scale.

I also attempted to stick as close to the designs of the Phantoka and Mistika Toa as possible; on Tahu you can see that he retains the limb pieces, feet, thigh armour, and colour layout of his 2008 self. My reason for this is because we saw Lewa and Pohatu's armour take different forms when they piloted the Rockoh and Axalara vahicles, and those pilot forms looked mostly similar to their Phantoka designs. I also personally value recognizability in Bionicle, I just like it when caharacters' designs are consistent and an observer can pick out common elements across a character's various incarnations. The Kanohi, Nuva armour, and silhouette already make them recognizable as the Nuva, so it's up to the rest of the design to hearken back to 2008.

When it came to choosing Toa Tools, I mainly looked to the Toa Mata. This equipment was made by Artakha, who made the Toa Mata in the first place, and gave them tools he thought suited them. It makes sense to me that when he designed the Adaptive Armour, he would base its default Toa Tools, the ones the Nuva would wield most often, mostly on the original tools of the Mata. Maybe he felt slightly annoyed about how different many of the Nuva tools were from his original designs. In Tahu's case, that means he once again carries the legendary Fire Sword, a symbol of hope and courage to Matoran everywhere. I did think about giving him two blades for some good, old-fashioned lavaboard action, but you can't beat a good symbol for people to rally around.

In addition to their tools, each Toa also has something I call a Deployable Feature. The idea behind these is that they are a feature of the Adaptive Armour that can be deployed in any form it takes, a trick the Toa can consistently rely on. These features also help distinguish the Toa from one another by giving them all something unique. Tahu's was the hardest to come up with, because he's often defined by how plain he is. He's iconic, yes, but he's often just the baseline upon which the other five innovate. My initial idea was a pair of flame pieces peeking out from under his armour, which are still present on the MOC, on his shoulders, but they had a number of issues. They're a little too small, and I couldn't figure out a practical purpose for them (signal flares maybe, to communicate with the team over distance?) and a key feature of all the deployables was that they are easily removable, so if these MOCs were official sets, the deployables could be taken off if someone preferred to display the sets without them, and the flame pieces are kind of a hassle to take off and put on. So instead I slapped on his Mistika leg-claws, though to be honest I don't really know what they would be for either. Perhaps they help him balance while he's lava surfing.

Like I said before, none of these guys are done yet, so I still intend to make some changes, mostly painting some pieces. For Tahu, that involves painting his torso silver, and his chestplate and mask Metru Red.

Gali was one of the more challenging Toa to build. I don't have Metru Blue Nuva pauldrons for her, or the right upper arms, so she wound up with a custom arm build, which works out well because it makes her arms slightly longer than those of her brothers, just like her original Nuva form. She also winds up with unique shoulder armour like her Mistika self, the Metru pauldron in this case. I also opted to swap her thigh armour from Inika thighguards to Inika shoulders, as a callback to her Mata self, where her thighs were accentuated compared to the others.

Gali is the only one of the Toa Nuva to not receive an Adaptive Toa Tool from Artakha, receiving only an Adaptive Launcher weapon. I opted to forgo the launchers on the others since they adapt to the Toa's opponents, not their terrain, and it doesn't make much sense to me for the Nuva to be armed with blasters during peacetime, which is when these default forms would see the most use. But because Gali has no other option, she is a special case, and thus she carries the Hook Launcher, a unique form of the Adaptive Launcher that only Gali's weapon can take. It fires hooked, harpoon-like projectiles and grappling lines that help Gali scale seaside cliffs, just like her original Hooks. I also slapped her Mistika laser sight on there because why not?

Gali's deployable feature is the set of rotors that unfold from her wrists. They are of course a callback to the Mizuni Rotors of her Nuva set, which were notably attached to her wrists in the Mask of Light movie, rather than the bottoms of her axes.

Gali is still waiting on having her torso painted silver, and her mask and chestplate painted Metru Blue. Unless I find a Metru Blue Nuva chestplate first, because I know those exist.

I actually like both Pohatu designs from 2008 quite a bit. I think it's a byproduct of really being introduced to the Nuva through Mask of Light, but Pohatu always did strike me as suited to the broad-shouldered, handsome hunk look. That said, I know the character much better now, and I knew I'd be doing it wrong if I didn't give him the classic upside down torso. I did puff out his shoulders a bit though, just so he didn't look too scrawny.

I initially had Pohatu's arm and leg pieces matching, but I recently decided to swap out his arms for Rahkshi legs. This both matches his arms in the Rockoh set, and serves to further accentuate his muscular legs.

While Gali is the only one of the six with no Adaptive Toa Tool, Pohatu is the only one with two (maybe Gali gave him hers?) which means I was free to give Pohatu a pair of Cliff Claws. Pohatu had no handheld Toa Tools as a Toa Mata, and since I already locked in the Feet Additions as Pohatu's deployable (because obviously) I decided to sick with the trend set by the Climbing Claws. These claws are actually smaller than the Climbing Claws, which I think helps better shift the focus to Pohatu's feet.

Pohatu still needs a fair amount of work. His mask and chestplate should be orange, his torso grey, and I want to get him silver Feet Additions. Either by finding them or by painting one of the many, many tan pairs I have, I don't really care which.

I opted to abandon Lewa Phantoka's bulky arms for a lighter, springier look that I think suits Lewa much better. Adding on to that, I know his feet should be grey or silver, but the lime green Hero Factory feet, with molded-in foot rockets, were just too good to pass up for the wind-flying Toa of Air.

Lewa's Adaptive Toa Tool is the Air Cleaver. They're actually a single, double-bladed weapon that Lewa can wield in one hand, but Lewa often carries it split into dual machetes reminiscent of his Air Katana. I know Lewa Mata's weapon was an axe, but I've always felt that blades suited him better, so I went for a compromise. These tools are blades, but they've specifically chopping blades, meant to combine elements of swords and axes into one.

Lewa's deployable feature is the pair of hook-blades that extend over his shoulders like a protective collar. They're taken from his Phantoka form, of course, but they're also intended to call to mind the over-the-shoulder blades of 2015's Lewa Master as well.

The way I've attached the blades might just be the bit of engineering I'm most proud of on these guys. I initially had them attached to Lewa's arms like on the Phantoka set, but they constantly bonked into his head and were just an all-around pain, so I attached them to his back loosely. They don't hit Lewa's head anymore, and they move freely to accommodate the movement of his arms. Also there's a look at how I attached the Toa's heads, if you're interested.

Lewa is still waiting on a grey torso and a lime-coloured mask.

I played a little fast and loose with Kopaka. I matched his set by giving him a gunmetal chestplate, making him the only one of the six whose Nuva armour isn't in his primary colour, but decided to stray from the 08 set with his limbs. I used Metru legs for his arms to make him appear slimmer like his Mata form, and then used Inika legs instead of Piraka legs because I felt like the Piraka limbs clashed with the Metru limbs. I'm happy with the result though, he looks...cool, this way.

Kopaka has only one Adaptive Toa Tool, his shield is actually his deployable. Kopaka's shield is actually what gave me the idea for deployables in the first place. By having them be something the Nuva can call on in any form, Kopaka would never be without his shield. Which means yes, he could use the shield in his Phantoka form too.

Kopaka's actual tool then is the Frost Blade, a long-handled sword that combines the single-bladed sword of his Mata form with the javelin/double blade of his Nuva form. The little red flag tied around it is not part of the Adaptive Armour. It's something Kopaka added himself, as a tribute to a fallen friend.

Kopaka is the only one of the six that I consider to be pretty much done. I may fiddle with him a little, but he's got all the right colours, and I don't think I want to change any pieces either. He's all good.

Finally, we have Onua. It was difficult to balance to slim vibe of Onua Mistika with buff Onua Nuva, but I think I pulled it off well. I stuck with the silver Rahkshi limbs for his legs, albeit beefed up a little, and opted to use Metru arms for his forearms, to make him better match Onua Nuva's stubby little Bohrok arms. His thigh armour is a little too big for him, but I kept it to both match his Mistika form, and because, like Gali, Onua is known for his prodigious thighs.

Sometimes I feel like Onua looks a little too scrawny, but overall I think he sends the right message. All Onua's strength comes from his core, and that's where he's beefiest. Also, as a sidenote, I'm pleasantly surprised by how well the bright red works as an accent colour for him. Makes him pop.

Onua had no Toa Tool of any kind as a Toa Mata, instead relying only on his natural claws, which he lost as a Toa Nuva. Here the claws make a return as Onua's deployable, which also makes him the only one of the Nuva to have thumbs, while I look to his Nuva form for weapon inspiration. Maybe it's a bit lazy to just reuse the Quake Breaker pieces, but I really like how they look combined into the underslung Quake Saw. As a bonus, they can also be wielded to the side as a set of chainsaw claws, which I think is just stupid cool.

I've already painted Onua's chestplate black, though it needs some touching up. Apart from that, all he needs is a grey torso and silver forearms.

And that's a wrap! I'm really proud of these guys, works in progress that they are, so I hope y'all like 'em. I took inspiration from a lot of MOCs and art I've seen around the community, including but not limited to @afanofmanyhats's Nuva revamps, Takhamavahu's Nuva recolours, SomeBionicleFan23's MOCs on the TTV Boards, and @ashilean's work, just to name a few. So this is my thanks to the online Bionicle community. Thank you for being such a welcoming and inviting community of people that continually inspire each other and that makes me feel like I belong every single day.

You may yet see more of these guys, I might post updates if and when they're properly finished, and I might make a follow-up post with these MOCs edited to show what they will look like when they're done. But for now, here's a pic of them with the team's little brother to close things off. Thanks for reading and farewell for now.

[everything-is-crab]

Posts like this are why I don't engage with radblr anymore. Or basically any community dominated by white people.

Look at the notes. It's filled with mostly "sex based oppression is real" as if most misogynists and feminists in India don't already know this. But since some Western feminists or from other countries don't, it's important to them to tokenize our struggles so they gain a point in their political debates. I have said this a hundred times before but it's obvious how they see us as nothing but tokens. They call TRAs racist for preying on the insecurities of woc due to beauty standards imposed on us and for ignoring our oppression as women, but they do the same thing with us. They see some issue unique to a specific community of poc? They try to fit it in their arguments against the libfems. Unlike issues that they face as well, like domestic abuse, prostitution and porn. On which they write very well researched and elaborate posts. But they're completely lazy when it comes to woc especially the ones living in the global south. And that leads to their racist and classist behavior.

As for trans people- they always try to get back at radfems by saying "terfs will look at these women and say they're men" or whatever when they see a woc talk about her own issues or even when she's simply breathing, as if it doesn't cross their own mind how they say the same thing when they go "transphobia is racist" as if woc are some third gender and as if trans poc do not experience any other meaningful oppression that's distinguishable from racism 🙄

Second of all- it's obvious many of them are racist but don't explicitly express it but some on this post did-

It's so obvious that in the second screenshot what that person means by "cultures with such barbaric practices" is "brown savages". This is blatant racism. But when I pointed out on my other post how white radfems are incapable of forming any meaningful solidarity with woc if they only focus on misogyny and not racism (which most of them are guilty of) I received my first racist backlash on here. Even many woc themselves did this. But I already talked about how woc on here are like the kind of woc who take racism seriously but not sexism in order to gain validation by moc, except it's vice verse in this case. You guys can't comprehend and accept that everytime white women try to talk about issues exclusive to any race that's not white, even if it's from a "feminist" pov, then they very likely have a racist mindset behind their words, whether it's intentional or subconscious.

Anyways, nothing about this is "cultural". (And tbh even if it's cultural why do you act like culture is influenced by race itself and not many other economic, political and social factors that white people have and still influence?).

The men who are doing this are not some unique kind of misogynistic relative to white men. Do white men not stigmatize periods? They're doing this (and I clarify I am not ok with this or defending it but I am simply fighting back against the assumption that the cause of this thing is simply cultural) because the women working on those sugarcane fields have to do extremely intensive labor for hours straight. It affects their menstrual health severely. And this is a poor country in the global south affected by economic imperialism, and therefore mostly production based with less mechanization of the agricultural industry, not like the dominant service sector in most Western countries. It's not easy for people this poor to switch to some other job with equal or better pay and better working conditions. And this particular district is especially poor. How is anything about this "cultural" and why do you think we deserve to die out because of it?

Sorry we're not as developed as Spain or some other Western country where the women here could get menstrual leaves or something and it wouldn't affect production (which is already quite low for a population this large involved in agriculture).

Instead of adopting this as a talking point against TRAs or justifying racism why don't you try to criticize both imperialism and capitalism or at least talk about the poverty and lack of resources causing these issues, if you really care for "all" women so much as you claim to. But no, you will pretend the issue is solely intentional misogyny and not involving multiple factors in it.

And btw I don't want any white woman to come in my inbox like they did last time and demand that I apologize for being rude to white women when criticizing their racism. That's never gonna happen. Especially not when most white women and even many woc don't bother with this issue. Get rid of your superiority complex this isn't the colonial era anymore.

As for Indian radfems (most of whom I have come across being bootlickers of white women)- The global south has classes too. And yk this. Just because you're a woc too doesn't mean you don't have any other bias against any other women in this country. Amazing how some of you pretend you give a fuck about the growing nationalist movement just because you're socially liberal. But how nationalists promote imperialism and capitalism in the country doesn't matter to you.

[arttrampbelle]

Some nightwolf/grey cloud self ship art.

A bit spicy. But fluffy.

Under the cut because booty.

Not my best,i tried with the booty but eh. Lol But i love the background. The autumn colored leaves is what makes this pop. It's getting to that season,and fall time is one of my fave times.

And i love how i gave nightwolf a bit of a hooked/big nose/snoot. Unf yes. More big noses plz,we dont see enough of them.

Its fluffy. Its sweet. And honestly its a crime that mk fans here don't actually care about poc/moc characters unless it's a particular canon x canon ship they have. Like people on here are so weird and flip floppy when it comes to moc. Especially asian men but thats for a whoooooole nother post entirely.

I've noticed that. And it makes me sad because nrs actually did something decent with nightwolf. (Granted i feel it was taken back a bit and kinda half assed but they legit were gonna get sued if they didn't change nightwolf up a bit and actually respect native americans a bit more in their games. So yeah. Honestly they probably should have gotten sued imho but eh. ) but i just feel sad that nightwolf doesn't get the proper love he deserves. Solo art,x readers,and even just a proper hcs posts like the other characters. 😔. Like he's always forgotten...again....unless it's shipping him with another character on the roster. It sucks. Like cant i enjoy a character. Self shipping aside. By themselves as they are?!

But anyways. You didn't come here for that.

You came for nightwolf. And the fluff.

Enjoy the peaceful earthrealm warrior,finally having a moments of rest and tenderness.

(Used a base)

New self ship au tag:💙🐺the wolf's den🐺💙 (nightwolf/grey cloud self ship tag. Cuz i haven't really been consistent with that one. So i think this one fits more)

[anaryllis]

the post where i talk about lesbian separatism

this is long and rambley & mostly me admitting to bad prior thinking but. maybe itll be helpful? learn from my mistakes idk. i dont think im anywhere near an authority on this but i think its worth being vocal on this esp for my fellow white sapphic-adjacents

in ye olden 2015 i fell down the rabbithole of political lesbianism & separatism - largely based upon my understanding of "male" and "female" as discrete oppressive categories defined by their power imbalance, wherein the only moral option was to identify out of manhood. i was deeply concerned with finding the best & most virtuous way to identify as a person. i think this was easy to trend toward as someone who is nonbinary and generally perceived as a woman - my lack of attachment to a particular gender & experience of oppression slotted well into that worldview. if being an oppressive party = bad, and that category is one which felt so nebulous to me as identity, why identify as the bad one?

there are a bajillion reasons this is flawed thinking (which i can see now) but part of where this fell apart for me was in unpacking: what do you do when the oppressive identity group is one you cannot identify your way out of (whiteness, ability, etc.)? i couldnt run from the "guilt" of my whiteness (or at least, i could see that that was more harmful than helpful, even in this immature mindset). as a white person i simply need to reckon with what it means to be the best person i can be with my circumstances. so what does that mean for other oppressive groups? are men inherently oppressive and incapable of change? is it actually more moral, or safer, to not be/not be WITH men? (obviously no)

(& then of course the concept which is much better articulated in the last post i rb'd: the position woc end up in in these scenarios, where they end up expected to ally either with white lesbians or with moc, rather than building solidarity as a whole.)

further, i think this essentialist pov honestly lets men off the hook. when we argue that men are inherently cruel and incapable of healthy relationships (with women) - this almost avoids placing the blame of their actions on them. if instead we recognize men as, you know, people - then instead it becomes apparent that plenty of men are kind, compassionate, ethical - and those that arent may be weaponizing manhood, but its not the manhood itself which makes the cruelty.

when all of the separatist thinking fell apart for me, i began more solidly identifying as bi, and more masc on the nb side. my romantic relationship with a man has been incredible for me as a bi and trans person - and i think my 19 year old lesbian separatist self would be shocked. but im glad im here!

last note: i think also, in 2015 the spaces i was in on here were vocally trans(feminine)-inclusive - we were for women after all! but i think it was just a breeding ground for scrutinizing the trans women in these spaces. it meant that anytime a trans woman did something "bad," then therefore she wasnt actually a woman bc women good & men bad. (+ i think any space which discourages trans men transitioning is harmful to all trans people across the board.) & lo & behold, a ton of my former mutuals from that time ultimately fell into TERF social circles. so.

anyway dont be gender essentialist 👍

[nynrahghost]

Furry Frenemies

Recently I got ahold of a first for my collection- some Lego Chima sets! It may seem odd to start off a Bionicle blog with an entirely different line, but I plan to cover sets from all over the world of Constraction, and I felt this would be a fun place to start. Mini-review under the cut:

I'd like to start off by clarifying that, like Hero Factory, I never owned any Chima sets in my late adolescence, when these sets came out. I don't have any nostalgia for Chima, so any posts about them will be my candid opinions.

With that being said, these sets rule! They look great individually, and even better in a group. CCBS had a bit of an awkward start, which I will absolutely be exploring as I go into Hero Factory, but the Chima ultrabuilds are the real deal. They look good from just about every angle. The exposed bones behind the legs (a problem that haunted CCBS from beginning to end) are rather unsightly, but I appreciate the extra back armor.

Cragger got especially good treatment, wirh extra neck bones to give him a longer torso, with an extra torso plate for coverage no less! I love how the plates are angled such that they invoke spines when viewed from the side. It's a very unconventional way to take advantage of the shape of the torso part, and really makes him stand out!

Of course, one of the most important strengths of the models is the variability of their parts. They are lego sets, after all. Not a fan of Cragger's staff? Break it apart and you've got a cutlass and a spear, no extra parts needed. I'm surprised these parts don't make it into more MOCs, they're pretty good looking.

The printed parts aren't half bad either. It would have been easy to just make a handful of "Good guy" chestplates and a handful of "Bad guy" chestplates given how similar they look, so I appreciate the extra effort to give every single figures chestplate some personality, a detail that would be dropped for the later wave's gimmick.

The build under the armor isn't anything unusual. Laval and Worriz use the same generic anthropomorphic build any Hero Factory fan would be all-too familiar with, but it's plenty serviceable. The biggest weakness of the sets IMO is the head pieces, which are a bit of a mixed bag. Laval's head in particular looks atrocious from behind, frankly. Props to Cragger's articulated jaw, though! Our two shield-bearers can use the slots on their backs as storage, which is great to have! I'm big on built-in holsters.

All in all, Cragger, Worriz, and Laval have been a great first taste of Chima! It's kind of a shame the way their parts look a bit more kiddie-toyish compared to the prototypes, but beyond that, these sets really excelled at what Hero Factory's 2.0 wave was trying to accomplish. It's a great example of what the designers were capable of with a few years of experience and a bigger budget.

Having watched a couple episodes of the Chima show (which was very much not for me), it's almost hard to believe these are the same guys playing hide-and-seek and whining about doing chores.

Tune in next time for my first impressions of Eris, Razar, and Gorzan!

[genderisareligion]

I'm reading your recently asks and honestly, I can't help but think how post-modernism was so detrimental to prevent black women from developing their class consciousness around sex and race together. It's pretty clear how what support TRA ideology isn't only homophobia and misogyny but also racism, specially the misogynoir against black women. However, instead of us, black radical women, create tools to fight our erasure and the tokenization of our particular experiences, we just counterattack TRAs bs and that's it!

We need to recover all the knowledge women before us gave us and together with other black women, develop new insights. For example, femininity is often dismissed as a tool of oppression not only because ppl don't actually believe in sexism but also because they misinterpret black women's criticisms towards the prominent white lenses women's oppression are often discussed. So, if Black women and white women have differences, femininity can also be different to both and that's a very wrong way to see the whole thing. Femininity isn't only about look pretty, femininity is the social place of the oppressed, it's not a surprised how effeminate men are targeted of violence and how MOCs deal with their feelings of being “emasculated” trying to replicate the white patriarchal family, the prime example of masculinity and femininity(Some black radical feminists like Celestine Ware made very good analysis of this phenomenon).

Because femininity(instead of female emancipation) is viewed as desirable to black women reclaim their humanity in liberal perspectives(and unfortunately, they're very abundant among black women and I think we don't discuss it enough because we have this established idea that these things are “white women bs”, not a larger liberal tendency that is present in many movements, even socialism), we can't discuss let alone fight against misogynoir and the worst part of this is that now, our experiences have been stolen by upper class white men.

I agree that we need to gather together more somehow. Black radfems could really use another collective like this for example

And you're right about "femininity (instead of female emancipation) being viewed as desirable to black women reclaim their humanity." Unfortunately because of choice feminism/postmodern individualism it can be a self enforced prison sometimes among black women, holding ourselves and each other to impossible beauty standards and calling that liberation. I agree that we don't talk about it enough.

It's hard when these days you can be considered "self hating" or accused of having "internalized misogynoir" if you critique weave/makeup/plastic surgery culture too much (as if those things are inherently "us"). It's hard when a lot of the times the goal of embracing femininity as "praxis" is the for the roundabout or just straight up approval of black men, and heterosexual black women make up the majority of us and of course they feel pressured to keep up the look when the retaliation for not doing so is vicious misogyny and sometimes violence. It's hard when everywhere I look in the media rich and famous (out of touch) black women are encouraging younger women without their privileges and advantages to rely on external validation (often from men) which can be extremely dangerous given our rates of victimization

I don't think it's a hopeless situation though, even if sometimes it feels like I'm in a tiny minority these days because black gender believing liberals are so loud. But I know other black women who are disillusioned by femininity and our lack of sex class consciousness.

And it helps to read these anons of course 🖤 Whoever y'all are dropping these analysis bombs on me please continue lol

[casgape]

I think what's so fun about spn for me is the potential for truly nauseating post-nut clarity. Cas fucking Dean, while also hating himself especially around MoC or after Jack dies, Mary fucking Naomi while hating herself for fucking a woman (she is a Reaganite after all) and in particular hating herself for fucking the woman who lobotomized her son's boyfriend repeatedly, etc. I just think it's fun 😊