#ramble muses

[moonjxsung]

Han Jisung constantly being reduced to some lesser version of himself for struggles with anxiety/mental health, being rampantly feminized because he’s become 1/2 of the face of a popular ship within the fandom and consequently not fairly recognized for the sheer individual GENIUS he is; finally making a personal instagram and casually posting all the song covers he wants to, getting 3 tattoos in one session just because he can. Trusting us enough to share what the tattoos are on a fancall- sharing little tidbits of his personal life when he’s ready, and keeping things sacred to him when he’s still able to. Seeing him have this autonomy over himself and embrace the creative person he is and always has been is so, so refreshing. Maybe we’ll never know him beyond a killer instagram song cover, we’ll never see his baby photos or perhaps even bear witness to his first few tattoos. But we do know he cried 3 times watching the movie “Up”. And the little glimpses we get into his personality and his artistic vision as he walks this fine line between privacy and rawness as an idol are nothing short of endearing. I don’t know what was in those contract renegotiations, but he’s never seemed more like himself.

Han Jisung my multi-faceted muse. Do whatever you want if it means you’ll always be this fulfilled

[owlbelly]

so. i understand where the sentiment "listening to an audiobook is the same thing as reading the book" is coming from - i mean, yes, the bottom line is you are taking in the same words in what is possibly a more accessible (or maybe just more enjoyable) format for you! and i'm 100% in agreement that "book snobs" who say "no you didn't really read it" if you listened to the audiobook are full of shit. ofc you should engage with stories in whatever way works for you, there is no moral or intellectual superiority to reading words off a page vs. listening to them

but it also is different? an audiobook is a performance. choices a narrator makes about line readings can drastically influence the meaning of the lines. even just different voices, accents, etc. - there are creative choices being made by the person delivering the words to you, and that affects your experience of the story in a different way than if you were making those choices in your own head. it might even change the way you visualize what's going on!

this isn't a bad thing it's just An Actual Thing & i think it's worth talking about. it rubs me the wrong way when people act like accommodations (and for many people audiobooks are an accommodation) always result in a completely identical experience, or even that they should, & if you suggest that people accessing media in different ways are having different experiences it's somehow ableist

anyway on rare occasions i really enjoy audiobooks but mostly they are much less accessible to me than words on a page (i need to be able to reread, flip back and forth, go at my own pace) & i also just really strongly prefer to encounter a text on my own before hearing someone else's performance of it, if possible! again i don't think it's "better" to read a physical book i just think it is a Distinct form of experiencing a story & acting like the two things are entirely the same is sort of doing a disservice to both

[st-just]

On average, in general, today is still probably the single best time in history to be alive

Oh my god is that such a low fucking bar you have no idea everything is so fucking awful everywhere

[elexuscal]

the longer i stay in fandom, the longer i think a huge amount of bad takes and discourse come from an... abundance of identifying with a character

to be clear, i don't think it's bad to identify with a character. far from it! i think that's part of what makes fiction so powerful.

and it's only logical people often attach to a blorbo because they're just like me, for real. a person will see some element of themselves-- their race, their gender, their sexuality, their hobbies, their family life, their specific flavour of neurodivergence-- and something just resonates. it gives them a way to explore and name this important part of themselves, a part they maybe didn't even know existed before it.

and everything is well and good until some split between them and the character shows up

because of course, no character, except an explicit self-insert written by yourself, will ever be a perfect 1:1 for your own experiences. so sooner or later-- maybe in canon, maybe in a fanwork-- your blorbo diverges from your lived experience in a huge way.

I think this is why shipping culture in particular gets so toxic. While it is by no means the only way to indulge with shipping, a significant portion is 'if i was in that character's shoes, i would choose X'. the fight becomes for your own self-identity.

but this gets expanded in other ways. a character who is revealed to be black when the majority of the fandom had just assumed they were white. or revealed to be queer, or maybe the 'wrong' flavour of queer. or fuck, even some more innocuous part of their backstory, one that's nonetheless so meaningful for SOMEONE, but now it feels like the story is saying, fuck you, we're doing something else

i don't know. i just feel acknowledging this perceived-attack-on-identity helps me understand why people react it what seems to be such outsized way to canon and fanworks alike.

at the same time, i think it's a really important thing to check in yourself.

it's nice, to see a character who you identify with. who resonates with for being like you. but it's also nice to acknowledge and appreciate the way characters are not like you at All. how great it is to get insight into this totally different lived experience. and to muse on how wonderful that recognition might be for someone who does have that background.

[kaos-incarnate]

I’ve noticed that there seems to be an unfortunately small amount of people talking about my badass queen Ariadne. Please tell me I’m not the only one who cannot wait to see her tell Poseidon to go fuck himself every time he tries to tell her how to run Krete

FUCK THE GODS!

✨except of course for her godly boytoy Dionysus✨

[radioapple-heathen]

As much as I love the "drags Alastor kicking and screaming into a romantic entanglement with Lucifer where he inevitably accepts that he's in love with dear ol' King of Hell", I really need some fics where he's like, 'Hm. Well, alright, you'll do, I guess. I suppose if I am going to be with someone in this way, it's an unfathomably powerful entity/king.'

Just like so aware of himself/his sense of self that he's like, no point in denying the inevitable, sigh. Take me out to dinner then. Somewhere nice in Cannibal Town, only the best for me.

Or even better, he's fucking smitten from the get go -- tail wagging, ears twitching, like, yes I'm gonna make that blinking-one-eye-at-a-time king mine.

I just need HIM to be the pursuer. Desperately.

[nothatsmi]

You are light...

I'm at the chimera ant arc and every episode my heart crushes a bit more tightly. I suspect it will soon explode.

I really want to do more fanart, hope I will find the time (I wanna draw Kurapika sm). I actually have several complete HxH animatics in my head that I cannot do, it's frustrating af (literally the only free time I have I spend it watching this shit, i'm doomed).

Anyway this anime has occupied my entire brain lately. Or maybe 80%, the 20 other being a random book I'm reading (that I will soon do fanart of hopefully).

[the-boy-who-drank-the-stars]

you know "forgive me father i have sinned" and "daddy i've been a bad boy" is kind of on the same level if you think about it

[ghosts-of-the-apocalypse]

FUCK YES!! sorry but I absolutely called it! Lucifer is a silly guy!

Excessive ramble/theory tid bits ahead!~

How can you look at him and think he won't be a silly little guy? People saying he'd be a big intimidating scary king of hell? No way dude just look at him.

And like the way he looks so upset in Ep1 when he lost his ability to create. That's not the face of a guy seeking revenge and filled with anger, that dude is just plain ol' depressed. The way he slowly just walks off screen...

Lilith on the other hand? She is the definition of girlboss.

She's out here inspiring all the demons. Look at that power. She's in control. She's in charge.

While Lucifer's in his depressive state she's out here trying to lead all of hell. She's vengeful, (ik reds are quite a common colour in Hazbin Hotel) but the way it emanates in a glow behind her combined with her pose. It's just shows so much power and malice. You cannot convince me otherwise that she hasn't been pulling the strings since day 1.

I'd even go as far as to say she was the one who had the idea to tell Lucifer to give Eve the apple. Just look at her stance as she stands back to see Lucifer going over to Eve, overlooking the plan. She knows what's up.

(Also just a note but Eve looks so sad here. Girlie is trapped with Adam like she's in her own personal type of Hell. Btw I'd like to throw a theory out there that Eve and Lilith are sisters)

Ngl I do think Lucifer and Lilith split because of this whole power dynamic. Like Lucifer just couldn't keep up with Lilith's ideas or didn't believe in them. Like, Lucifer tells Charlie in Ep5 that Hell and it's people are terrible. This contradicts Lilith's whole thing of wanting to round up all the demons and potentially lead a fight. She THRIVES in Hell. For Lucifer, it's just constant punishment.

I feel like Charlie despite looking up to Lilith, is experiencing quite a bit of miscommunication. They both want to save the demons but in different ways. Charlie's way being through redemption but Lilith's maybe being through a war against Heaven.

Now it's just figuring out where the hell (pun not intended but enjoy) she's been for the past 7 years. (Honestly, I think she's just been off plotting with Eve.)

Another side note, but like the way Alastor just stares at this portrait in the pilot for such a weird prolonged amount of time is not helping my Lilith and Alastor theories calm down. Bro is the radio demon and is broadcasting everything back to Lilith.

He 100% sold his soul to Lilith, tried breaking free, but couldn't.

[capriccio-ffxiv]

/pulls up a chair

what if the real "rejoining" is building bridges between all the shards and opening up trade

and instead of killing these split souls, opening a path for a way that the natural process of a reconnected Lifestream allows for a slow, gentle rejoining, with no sacrifice involved on the part of any of the newly born souls

what if we mend the broken world after all, but instead by building the pieces into something new, rather than trying to force the shape back to how it was

what if we fill our wounds with gold

and become transformed?

[glitchinginthegarden]

fun fact: creatives don't owe you shit

this extends beyond just artists and writers btw this includes modders, virtual photographers, resource/tutorial compilers and creators, web builders, the list goes on

anyone who makes something available to the internet FOR FREE with their own time, skills, and energy does not owe you that thing ever EVER

don't like it? learn the skill you need in order to create what you want trust me, you can it takes work that's how the rest of got where we are to make the things you "consume"

[st-just]

Not to be all 'yet you participate in society!' but I do find the number of people who are as or more online than me posting about how the internet was a mistake and destroying human connection and society peaked in 1999 and etc just very, like, bizarre? Truly cannot relate at all. Like for starters easily half of my most cherished social connections are largely or entirely mediated by Online but also, like - oceans of culture beyond anything you could ever conceive of, available at your fingertips! Compendiums of knowledge more expansive and accurate than the Encyclopediests' wildest dreams, free for the taking! Legions and hosts of awkward maladjusted weirdos, sufficient to support niche communities of every kind compatible with human psychology!

Like sure it has its discontents and pathologies, but overall I'm having a pretty great time. If it's a mistake it's one my life would be immeasurably, unrecognizably poorer without.

[kittydoremi]

Let 👏 Magical 👏 Girls 👏 Keep 👏 Their 👏 Glasses!!!

So often when a girl with glasses transforms into her magical girl form, she loses her glasses. As someone who wears glasses, it bothers me because it's almost like the show is saying you can't be pretty, fashionable or a hero if you're wearing glasses, or it somehow makes you "less cool" or "less beautiful" and I hate it

the only magical girl character i can think of off the top of my head who still keeps her glasses when she transforms is Hazuki Fujiwara from Ojamajo Doremi

(If there are other magical girls who keep their glasses, please let me know 🥺💖)

Also, I know she's not technically a magical girl, but special shoutout to Bayonetta who is fighting against the "glasses are ugly/uncool" trope. She really helped me appreciate my glasses, be more confident with them and embrace them more.

We need more magical girls with glasses 😭 If I ever make a magical girl series, I'm giving the main character glasses, and she WILL keep them after she transforms

[kaos-incarnate]

[ghostcat96]

Is it weird that I feel so much more comfortable 'thirsting' for characters after I've realised I'm aroace? I have no idea if there's like, a psychological reason why realising I'm not actually attracted to the characters makes me more comfortable to talk about finding them attractive

[thesargasmicgoddess]

Adventure Reflections...✈️🌏

I can't quite wrap my head around the fact that I will be overseas again in 3 weeks. How has it been a year since last summer already?

The preparation and anticipatory anxiety for trips are always the worst for me. Nothing ever feels done or prepared, but it's gotten better with time and experience. As someone who suffered from severe agoraphobia in my 20's, I consider every adventure a huge win for me and my mental health.

And not once have I regretted an adventure.

But for now.....I'm just giving myself grace to take in what a crazy, blessed, and full 12 months it's been. But I'm taking downtime in July, finally 🙌🏻 🎉

Happy Wednesday, peeps!