#sees ‘nuke’ trending

[overbearingstruggles]

wow rich white people are so quirky hehe

[pastadoughie]

many people were confused about some of my previous posts, so for the sake of clarity i am condensing everything! tumblr has extremely transphobic moderation practices, often flagging completely innocent posts as explicit, solely for containing trans women in them or mentioning transgenderism. while letting untagged porn in sfw tags (ive literally seen porn tagged as "sfw agere") and blatent hatespeech, especially twards trans people (just look at the "gender critical" tag) go completely unchecked recently the CEO of tumblr had a big public hissyfit about people (rightfully) calling him transmysogenistic, going into random trans womens dms to harrass them, and saying that predstrogen saying she "hopes he explodes with hammers and then explodes again and hammers fly everywhere" is a death threat and saying he is calling the FBI on her (repeatedly misgendering her and calling her "it") and many bloggers, apon speaking out about it or even making harmless jokes (one trans woman posted a picture of a car and a hammer with the caption "reblog to scare matt" and got nuked for it) and many are very very angry (rightfully) about this whole affair and tumblr in general. if you would like to look into it i reccomend scrolling the "predstrogen" tag as she is the case most people are talking about at the moment. So, what can we do? this is clearly an ongoing issue, and, dispite having lost a lawsuit about their transphobic moderation in the past (see : https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21274288-tumblr-nycchr-settlement) its clearly not gonna stop with just user complaints, as staff members are perfectly content to just go scorched earth on users who even so much as lightly poke fun at them well if you want to help you should contact the human rights commision (i will give clear details further down) ! you dont have to be in the US, nor be an adult to file, and it only takes a few minutes. this is the best and most effective method to fix this, because it hits tumblr where it hurts. human rights acencies have a lot of legal and financial power and tumblr CAN NOT just ignore them, and given that this will be the seccond time this is happening, the commisions shouldnt be playing nice anymore eaither. its really important that AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE FILE, and with different examples! while maybe your case might not be enough to prop up a lawsuit on its own, we need to prove a general trend. so every little bit counts! to respond to another question abt this ive gotten, as for what exactly to report, you should a) write about an act of discrimination youve recieved on tumblr that was eaither administered by a staff member OR that staff refused to give adequate moderation action in for example : a terf posted some blatent hatespeech targeted twards you, and you reported them, and staff looked at the issue and refused to persecute it. example 2 : you were unfairly flagged, deleted, or otherwise punished by a staff member and you are queer ( AND the post they banned you for has some kind of tie to your gender, ex : a sfw transition progress photo ) OR b) if you have not personally recieved something like that, please look for other peoples stories (THEY SHOULDNT BE HARD TO FIND, within the last couple of hours trans people have been being banned LEFT AND RIGHT for trying to speak on this. i would reccomend checking some of the tags related to what happened with predstrogen) and you should describe that incident as best as possible (be sure to disclose that you are speaking for someone else, ideally you should tell the story of someone you know, if possible.) you can also mention any reports you have made twards people posting blatent hatespeech that, opon reveiwing tumblr refused to prosecute dispite it being very obviously against terms of service. just so nobody gets confused about the filing process, im laying it out in more plain languadge!!

first you should email the SF HRC (san francisco human rights commision), at hrc.info@sfgov.org and say something along these lines :

Hello, I am [full name] from [country or state] and I am filing a complaint against Tumblr, witch is owned by the parent company Automattic Inc. located at 60 29th St, San Francisco, CA 94110.

Tumblr has had previous issues with the NYC DHR for their moderation being unfairly biased against trans women (see : https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21274288-tumblr-nycchr-settlement).

Despite a legally binding agreement with the NYC DHR, staff members still regularly harrass users based on their gender or sexual orientations. For example : on [date of most recent infraction] [describe incident] (if you are describing an incident that did not happen to you specifically, say something like) This incident involves the user [username] who I am not affiliated with (or/) who I am filing on behalf of.

I can be reached for further inquiries about this incident at [email you want to talk over] or [phone number you want to talk over]. (if you would like to be anonymous) However, In the event of legal prosecution against Automattic I would refer to be kept anonymous, where possible, in court proceedings. alternatively, you can also call the SF HRC at : 415-252-2500, you can use the above text as a starting point for this as well, next you want to fill out the form for the NYC DHR (new york city department of human rights) here : https://www.nyc.gov/site/cchr/about/report-discrimination.page for company you wanna put : Automattic and/or Tumblr for address you wanna put : 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 for phone number you wanna put : (646) 513-4321 and for category of discrimination you can put : Discriminatory harassment and basis of discrimination you can put : Gender; Gender identity you can then use a similar script on the written section of the form. when describing a specific incident, you should attach as many screenshots and links as possible! (for links, include both a live link and an archival link, so take a capture with the internet archive and have that as an alternative, incase a staff member gets petty.) this should only take a few minutes at most, and it helps alot! you can fill this out if you are a minor, and you dont have to be a us resident, please please take the time!!! and, just to clarify because there are many posts going around that are confused about this tumblr moved offices to san francisco recently, so their main HQ is at : 60 29th St, San Francisco, CA 94110 they DO still have an office in new york city, and thats where their PREVIOUS HQ was, the address is : 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003

[maxwell-grant]

There's a trend people have pointed out in superhero stories over the past 20 or so years that is the death of "regular" supporting casts, an increasing absence of un-powered sidekicks or people involved who aren't in the thick of the action or in the hero's secret. Everyone who interacts with superheroes is a couple issues away from becoming one, every story involves a supervillain encounter or several dozen, every hero's gotta have a lunchbox-ready "superhero family" made from these characters, and every side character that doesn't join them is either going to die or become a supervillain.

The defining example people use for this is Spider-Man's supporting cast, with every Spider-Man cast member short of Aunt May and J Jonah Jameson getting some kind of powered upgrade or symbiote, and I'm gonna say Amanda Waller is an excellent case study of how this kind of thing happens, and I think it helps to explain why Amanda Waller has been, Like That, for the past 30 years.

She’s wearing a grey shirt underneath a blue blazer and it’s tucked into a similarly blue skirt that stops at mid calf. She reminds me of the neighbourhood aunties I used to see leaving for church every Sunday morning.

My mom used to say that you are the company you keep. So what kind of person does it take to keep a variety of bruised, battered, and dangerous personalities in check? - Amanda Waller: DC's Most Terrifying Woman

To those of you who haven't read John Ostrander and Kim Yale's Suicide Squad, there once was a time where Amanda Waller was something more than a powerful antagonistic force able to butt heads with the biggest superheroes, and something other than a heartless establishment face out to make superheroes miserable for ill-defined reasons. Structurally speaking, Suicide Squad is a comic about marginal DCU characters forced to deal with actual real life problems, and it's central character is a marginalized person forced to deal with DCU problems and characters. The members of the Squad are a rolling parade of costumed misfits and maniacs assigned to go around the globe to fight and kill and die on dirty missions to deal with dirty laundry and stop war zones from erupting, while Amanda Waller is forced to shuffle around her cadre of D-list supervillains and disgraced superheroes and get into stand-offs with secret spy societies, living nukes, voodoo cartels, and Batman.

Amanda Waller neither looks nor acts like the kind of character that stars in a superhero comic, and she is the central character throughout the 66 issues of the run and we follow her character arc from beginning to end as she's forced to spin plates to accomplish her goals and prevent bad situations from getting worse. She is the most fully realized character in the run and everything rests on her shoulders. We spend a lot of time inside her head, her team, her associates, she is the center holding together an extremely chaotic book with no two characters on the same page. She is, and has to be, an extremely powerful person, someone who stands her ground no matter what, an unbeatable force of will because that is the only way she's going to survive the situations she's in, the only way she can be "The Wall", the kind of person who can repel Batman, command a platoon of monsters, talk her way out of Deadshot's contract, someone who can stare at Darkseid and credibly threaten the President into letting her live.

That's the part that everyone is more or less familiar. But there is, or at least used to be, much more to Amanda Waller than just being The Wall, not in the least because being The Wall is also hampering her effectiveness as well as straight up killing her.

"Amanda's toughness has taken her a long way" "It's taken her as far as it can. But it can't take her no further. It's actually starting to drag her down. I'm scared for my baby sister, rev - scared that the anger in her is congealing into hate." - Suicide Squad #31

We get to know her backstory, her plans, her points of contention with the system, her relationships with people around her, and how deeply she cares about things and people even as she sends them to the meatgrinder. From the start we learn that Waller staffs her team with people she's prone to getting into disagreements with, like Simon LaGrieve and Rick Flag, specifically so they can cover her moral blind spots and pick up the slack in emotional intelligence she's lacking, be the heroes that she can't afford to be. It is unspeakably crucial that the Squad is led by Rick Flag as well as Bronze Tiger, a fallen hero who owes Waller for his recovery who eventually takes Flag's baton. Waller stands up for her team, gets into fights with her superiors when they decide to terminate them, and takes the fall for them when necessary. Waller is a person who does Bad Things - but she is not a Bad Person.

The book in no uncertain terms frames the Suicide Squad's existence as monstrous in a scale Waller doesn't understand until the very end, and it digs deep into the unethical things Waller has to allow for and perpetrate in order to keep it running no matter how many lives it saves, and she spends the first half of the book on a downward spiral. But then there's the 2nd half of the book:

In the first 39 issues, Amanda’s flaws are her undoing. As she pushes away the people she hired to act as a balance, she grasped tighter and tighter to her uncompromised vision of the Suicide Squad despite the constant changes and derailment. Her choices had consequences: the death of Rick Flag, her demotion, employees quitting, and finally, the disbandment of the team.

The last 27 issues have Amanda rising up from the ashes after a year in jail. She’s less in her own way – she communicates, her anger isn’t driving her, she’s more receptive of alternative perspective and recognizes when she’s wrong in real time – but she’s still just as scary.

Waller rebuilds her relationships with the people she drove away, takes a different tack to how the team works, and starts going out into the frontlines with the Squad. She brings Oracle (who actually made her debut in this comic) into the fold, saves her life and plays a big role in Barbara making progress in overcoming her Joker trauma. She genuinely puts in the work to improve as a person and do things a better way than before, even if there is an inescapable immorality to the very existence of the Squad and what they do. That immorality never goes away, and it only further horrifies her when learning how badly her project has gone. In fact, it's that very inescapable immorality that ends her arc.

She learns that the CIA has started using a new Suicide Squad to support a brutal regime in South America, and when faced with the full extent of her complicity in Western imperialism? She decides right then and there to end the Suicide Squad for good after they liberate the population of said regime from said Squad. She is the only person who gives a shit about the country enough to start the assignment for free once she knows about it, force the Squad along, lead the mission in field, and personally (and even gently) usher the villain to his death at the end, to end what began with her.

She does bad things, and she does good things. She cares about people, and she uses people. Her decisions ruin as well as save the world. She spins a million plates to match wills and wits with the strongest, wickedest, most cunning humans and superhumans alike, and she still has superiors to answer to and people close to her she hires to judge her for what she does. She endured racism and misogyny and poverty for decades and rode whatever she could to attain as much power over her own life as someone like her could possibly attain, and to have it, she must be a willing tool of the state and bend the knee to Ronald Reagan, the man she derides for what he did to her community, hating every minute of it.

She lost her family to sexual and racial violence, and now she wrangles a penal battalion comprised of some of the worst people on the planet to inflict violence on her orders. She has saved and redeemed people, and she's haunted by the corpses she's left in her wake. She is oppressed and oppressor, someone who could only escape the ravages of American imperialism by becoming one of it's chief enforcers, and still she rebuilds herself into a better person from it upon confronting and challenging her role in it. She is not a bad person, she is not a good person either, she is just afforded a degree of agency and complexity unpowered characters in superhero books simply don't get.

Okay cool, now what is she up to these days?

That, I guess. That is what a strong but unpowered person who does not allow themselves to be bossed around by superheroes or supervillains looks like now. Everytime there's a call for a military bad guy, Waller gets tagged in to be DC's Henry Gyrich. There was a point where Waller was made to contrast the likes of Sarge Steel and Wade Eiling, someone who butted heads with them because she was a well-meaning person working for and committing evil as often as she attempted to stop it. These days, the most consistent beat with her is that she is the most dangerous person alive and worse than the villains she wrangles into working for her. She is a thing to be overcome, a hypocrite to be exposed, a challenge to the natural order of the universe, and she is too terrific at it to be shuffled off quietly. She is a Bad Person and so everything she says and does is Bad (and thus can be ignored).

Integral to Suicide Squad's structure was the fact that Waller was the center holding everything together, the ultimate third party: spinning plates working with, for and against all of the others so she can bend rules and be bent by them. Bent, but never broken, because The Wall doesn't break, others break first. Waller was a one-of-a-kind character, and that broke her, because beating Sarge Steel and Wade Eiling at their own game means replacing Sarge Steel and Wade Eiling. Waller doesn't look like them, she doesn't look like the superheroes either, and so she can't be one of them. She can't even look like herself a lot of the time, they try to slim her up everytime they think they can get away with it.

Suicide Squad was preoccupied with exploring a perspective from a world outside the superhero worldview, but we no longer have her perspective or that of people around her, we only know her through the superheroes she inherently defies and has had an adversarial relationship against from day one. She is someone with a viewpoint that is charitable to neither superheroes nor institutions, and thus, the universe is increasingly less sympathetic to her, the less utility she has to the grander narrative where everyone has to pick between one of two options. If she wasn't powerful and assertive, she'd be another Leslie Thompkins, another Jiminy Cricket the heroes passively ignore. But because she is powerful and doing morally compromised things without asking Batman's permission, she must have a personal grudge. She must be a government monster. She must attack the superheroes for no reason, no ideology, no motive.

So now she's just The Wall 24/7, the mean icy establishment boot who is strong and clever and cruel and hates superheroes and wants to destroy superheroes and rule the world from the shadows. Everything she does is a fuck-up she refuses to take responsability for, everyone is right to hate and distrust mean old Waller, and now everyone gets to look good by dunking on her. They couldn't make her a superhero, so they made her a generic supervillain instead. And now that she's a bad guy, she no longer has to believe anything, she doesn't really have to mean anything, they don't have to write stories about something other than superheroes and supervillains, and they don't have to let a fat woman of color take up space and screentime they could be giving to Harley Quinn and Slade Wilson instead.

Even by the time of Waller's debut on the tail end of the 80s, her career opportunities were on their way to extinction

Days Of Future Past marks the triumph of the superhero comic that's pretty much concerned with no-one but superheroes. Where Ditko and Lee's Spider-Man featured a single costumed crimefighter in the context of a commonplace existence, the X-Men of the 80s focused on a huge cast of mutants who had little if any lasting involvement in the everyday world.

By the 21st century, the corporate superhero comic would largely - if not exclusively - concern itself with little beyond a large class of superhumans and their fantastical existence. I suspect there's a significant correlation between that and the continuing cultural  peripherilisation of the superhero comic - Colin Smith

Amanda Waller is one of the strongest characters in all of comics, she was as powerful as an non-superpowered character given center stage could possibly be, a perfectly designed character from which an entire corner of a shared universe was developed out of with her as the center making it work, but as the room for civilian casts and unpowered protagonists got smaller and smaller, so did Waller's options. If she was a Spider-Man character and somehow didn't get killed or made into a villain, they would have slimmed her up and given her a symbiote, because you're nobody unless you're web-swinging. Characters didn't look or act like Amanda Waller, and unfortunately, they still don't. It's just instead of making more characters like her, they gutted Waller to be more like the rest. If she couldn't make it, who else even could.

Keep your eyes peeled for this summer when she'll team up with two meaningless robot baddies to burn down the Justice League and I guess the universe for the next reboot or something.

[apas-95]

abt the 'exit strategy for capitalism' thing obviously the natural advantages of socialist states will lead to their uncontested military and economical dominance in the coming decades, at which point they'll have both means and motive to buy out bourgeois interests and their 'possessions' and transition the economical system while there's no easy way for imperial core states to outright end these trends, their policies obviously do affect the economical development of socialist states and there's probably enough variance to shift the timetable on all this happening by a couple years, so y'know exert whatever influence you have on the particular flavor of capitalism that's in vogue if done well (and what I'm seeing rn actually gives me hope for that) the capitalists at no point have an incentive to burn the whole thing down out of spite bc they keep earning right until they don't, you know how the saying abt ropes and hangings goes (and if done poorly and they cling to and suck dry the last scraps of the world's economy they control at least everywhere else should be out of reach by then) and my main concern with a revolution is actually that one will 100% get accused of having foreign backing, at which point you just needlessly raise the odds of some general deciding he (or she #imwithher) might as well let those nukes fly (even if they're losing, especially if they're losing) But it's all w/e, I could be convinced either way, this all just makes a lot more sense to me than a succesful imperial core revolution that doesn't end with the northern hemisphere irradiated

fundamentally the notion of a peaceful transition out of capitalism is simply not in agreement with reality. no class has ever abandoned the world stage without fighting to maintain itself, and the imperial core is already both undertaking massive violence and war against the sections of the global south it already has under its heel, and preparing for high-intensity conflict against the communists that have slipped its shackles. there is no point where the bourgeoisie would simply peacefully allow themselves to be stripped of power.

the point of nukes is exactly *why* there has to be revolution within the imperial core, rather than having the rest of the world do the job for them - there is precisely one place the US has no nuclear deterrent against, which is itself. if the thing we're supposed to fear is that both 'the US military's high command, likely facing severe mutiny, rather than ordering a negotiated surrender during civil war, decides to nuke themselves' as well as 'the US strategic missile forces, upon receiving the order to nuke themselves, carry it out', then so be it - such a fundamental strategic insanity would be just as likely to start a nuclear exchange even if there weren't a revolution - which brings us to the final point.

world war is on the horizon. the economic reasons for world war remain as they did a century and a half ago. the world has been fully carved up, and the profits are drying out. the imperialist blocks, principally the US and EU, are driven to compete against each other for their holdings, first peacefully, then through proxy war, and finally through direct conflict. as it was a hundred years ago, the buildup of war is accepted on all sides with the target of the socialist bloc and the potential for its pillaging, but (as has already started breaking out among larger and larger regional powers) any conflict of this sort would manifest as general war and looting, as desperate, recession-wracked imperialists take opportunity as it presents itself. in inter-imperialist war the most ruthless techniques are used, and a nuclear exchange would not be off the table -- and, fundamentally, the conditions that lead to world war are the same that lead to instability, insurrection, and revolution within individual countries.

war is, at this juncture, an inevitability. the only question is whether revolutionary war will win out over unjust war, will convert the war between nations to a war between classes. we are against war, but we are not afraid of it.

[ofmdrecaps]

07/18-19/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Rhys & Rosie; Samba Schutte; David Jenkins; Taika Waititi; #FirstMateFriday: Con O'Neill; Vico Ortiz; Linds Cantrell; Alex Sherman & Alyssa Lane; Kristian Nairn; Rachel House; Erroll Shand; Jes Tom; WBD Status; ; Fan Spotlight: Cast Cards; Stede & Ed; Our Flag Means Fanfiction; Love Notes ; Daily Darby / Today's Taika;

Hey crew, sorry for the delay. I was going to finish yesterday's recap this morning, and then my draft got nuked again due to my computer crashing, so yeah two day it is!

== Rhys & Rosie ==

Rhys and Rosie are out at the AllBlacks Rubgy game! They're super excited for AoNZ vs Fiji!

Source: Rhys & Rosie's Instagram Stories

== Samba Schutte ==

So some of the news that came out of Florida Supercon last weekend was Samba revealed in a panel that there was supposed to be an official OFMD Podcast and it was in the works until WBD said they "ran out of money". You can read the Full Article here

== David Jenkins ==

Chaos dad came out and had some commentary as well regarding it-- and Samba had more to add.

Source: David Jenkins' Twitter

== Taika Waititi ==

Taika out and about!

Source: Rosie Matheson's Instagram

Annnd Taika just being goofy!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by i Licaoni Digital Studio (@i_licaoni)

Source: i_licaoni's Instagram

The associated Press released another interview with Taika and Jemaine!

and yet ANOTHER interview with Taika and Jemaine, this time with Brad Gilmore!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Brad Gilmore (@bradgilmore)

Source: Brad Gilmore's Instagram

== First Mate Friday: Con O'Neill ==

There's a new trend this week! Folks on twitter have started up #FirstMateFriday in honor of Con O'Neill! There are so very many lovely tributes to him! I was only able to fit a few in, but they're all beautiful, and full of so much heartfelt love, and I'm sure he is out there basking in it all right now! Thank you to everyone who sent him some love today (and thank you to the lovely folks below for letting me share them!) Also, special thanks to RudestFish on twitter for coming up with this love fest for Con!

Source: RudestFish's Twitter

Source: lividturkeys Twitter

Source: wndrngnomad's Twitter

Source: 1chloreen1's Twitter

Source: Tayleafy's Twitter

== Alex Sherman and Alyssa Lane ==

Our beloved writers/co-producers Alex and Alyssa were out in Mexico City! So nice to see them out and having fun again!

Source: Alex Sherman's Instagram

Alex also popped in to appreciate our darling @fidisart on twitter!

Source: Fidisart's Twitter

== Long Post is Long, Lots under the Cut ==

== Vico Ortiz ==

Vico wants to wish everyone a Happy #NonMonogamyVisibility Week! They shared a lot about their history with polyamory and lots of Garlic Soup on their Instagram Stories as well!

Source: Vico's Instagram

== Linds Cantrell ==

Lindsey Cantrell is the biggest sweetheart by the way and she's been so happy to be interacting with everyone in the OFMD community-- it was just nice to see her feeling included and loved (she shared this on her IG Story). If you don't already follow her on IG, please do, she always has super cool stuff to share, even if it's not OFMD related. <3

Source: Linds Cantrell's Instagram

== Rachel House ==

Rachel was out seeing Bob Tidicue!

Source: Rachel House's Instagram Stories

== Erroll Shand ==

New Episode yesterday of The Twelve on Binge!

Source: Binge's Instagram

== Jes Tom ==

Jes was featured on the "GOOD BOYS" Podcast: Episode 2: Model Behavior! Wanna listen in? You can check out their linktree.

Source: For Them's Instagram

Some photos from Jes' recent comedy show with Tessa Skara: Corporate Pride.

Source: TessaFuckinSkara's Instagram

== Kristian Nairn ==

Kristian is the special guest at Van Love Fest in Elvington Airfield, York!

Source: Kristian Nairn's Instagram

== WBD News ==

So many of our crewmates on twitter have been highlighting some big news with WBD. It sounds like they may actually be doing a split in the upcoming future. Lot of articles below with more info.

Warner Bros Discovery drafts break-up plan

Warner Bros. Discovery might split itself into two pieces

Cord Cutting Today Warner Bros. Discovery Selling Max? Here is What We Know

Why Warner Bros. Discovery Stock Jumped 15% This Week

David Zaslav's Come To Jesus Moment

Sources: Meowzawowza, Never Left Podcast, Ashley (seven_sugars), MrButtons294 on Twitter

== Trends ==

Always nice to see!

Source: Never Left Podcast's Twitter

== Fan Spotlight ==

= Cast Cards =

Naureemum S. was another one of the stand-ins in OFMD according to https://ofmd-crew.com/ - Thank you to @melvisik for giving her a spotlight!

Source: @melvisik's Twitter

== Our Flag Means Fanfiction ==

Are you going to be at San Diego Comic Con on July 25-28? Well keep an eye out for these free bookmarks from Our Flag Means Fanfiction!

Source: Our Flag Means Fanfiction Instagram

== Love Notes ==

Hey there lovelies! I hope the end to your week was good to you! A lots happened in the last 48 hrs, and I apologize I'm so late sharing some of it. Please let me know if I missed anything! I love how much people are really stepping up the love for cast members after all the Emmy stuff that went down. I see everyone just aggressively (I say affectionatly) loving so many of them and it's so heart-warming and uplifting. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, but your love and kindness is so incredibly impactful. You may never get to see the fruits of your love (although the cast and crew does tend to show us they hear us) but know that every little bit builds up. Maybe someone was having a bad day, and seeing how much we love them gave them that extra boost to get through it-- you never know! There is an old greek proverb: "A society grows great when [folks] plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in."

That is really true about kindness and support and love too. You are sowing the seeds and roots of a better tomorrow, even if you yourself never get to see the branches and fruit that love produces.

Never let the harshness of the world dim your light lovelies. Your kindness and love moves mountains tiny bits at a time.

I hope you all have a wonderful, fairly uneventful weekend (unless you want it to be eventful!) and get some good rest <3

== Daily Darby / Tonight's Taika ==

There is no theme tonight! Just Rhys being ridiculously hot, and Meow blessing us with this adorable Taika smile. Happy belated Meow Day! Rhys Gif by @ofmd-ann and Taika Gif by @blakbonnet!

[awakefor48hours]

[ID: two panel meme of Eric Andre, labeled "streaming services," shooting Hannibal, labeled "new and popular shows." The second panel is Eric looking at the camera asking "why are we losing money"/End of ID]

I'm getting so tired of seeing streaming services, Netflix especially, nuke their catalogue then blame us for their loss of revenue. I hope with the cancellation of Lockwood and Co some of you guys will finally begin to understand why the WGA strike is so important. So many good shows are getting nuked without a chance to prove that they can be profitable. Other times, shows have been proven to have the chance to be profitable down the line but they're still cancelled.

[ID: four screenshots of Rotten Tomato scores for Inside Job, Dead End Paranormal Park, Warrior Nun, and Lockwood and Co. Inside Job has a 79% average tomatometer and 90% average audience score, Dead End Paranormal Park has 100% average tomatometer and 86% average audience score, Warrior Nun has 84% average tomatometer and 97% average audience score, and Lockwood and Co has 92% average tomatometer and 94% average audience score./End of ID]

As you can see, these shows were all highly rated and had potential to keep bringing in new viewers but they were cancelled because they weren't as popular as other shows like Stranger Things. (In fact, I like to think that Dead End's audience rating is actually higher but was reviewed bombed by Facebook moms who hated the fact that the protagonist was an openly gay trans man).

Overall, I'm tired of getting of seeing writers get screwed over by megacorporations, it feels like no matter how hard you try, streaming services will just nuke your favorite show sooner or later.

But to leave this rant on a somewhat higher note, I do want to remind you all that cancelled shows can come back. The IPs still exist and another corporation can pick up a cancelled show but this part also relies on us, the audience, in that we have to keep the fandom alive.

In this capitalistic hellscape, we need to show other companies that buying these IPs is a smart business decision but if they see that no one is willing to watch it, then they won't pick it up. Cancelled shows can come back (ie Brooklyn Nine, Timeless, Arrested Development, Community, Clone High, Bleach, Futurama, etc) it just takes an active fanbase.

So let your brainrot consume you, make fanart or commission an artist, write your fanfictions, get your friends into the show, watch it legally if you can, make fan edits, get a hashtag #save this show trending on twitter, just anything that you can do.

[hrodvitnon]

Lately, I've been noticing that people are comparing MV Godzilla to Doomguy and a cat. It's funny because there's one thing all three of them got in common: people misunderstanding them as violent and angry jerks who hate everything, when that just isn't the case at all.

It's also an unfortunate trend I've been noticing, and now Godzilla's getting mischaracterized to hell and back as a dumb, angry, and violent brute by these people after GvK and GxK, especially on Twitter. In worst cases, I've even seen them say that Godzilla shouldn't be a sympathetic character at all, and that he doesn't need to be because Kong's already there, and as everyone knows, mammals are supposedly "more" sympathetic and relatable than reptiles are. Even though these are all fictional characters at the end of the day, and if so many works can make you sympathize with dragons, non-humanoid robots, and even a literal talking tree-man, among many other non-human and non-mammalian characters, then what's stopping you from doing the same thing to a big nuke lizard?

Also, they act as if Godzilla has never been sympathetic in any of his previous movies before. As if the original Gojira movie, most Showa era movies, Return of Godzilla and Heisei era as a whole, Kiryu Saga (though that applies more to Kiryu himself), and even MV Godzilla's own solo movies and in Legacy of Monsters magically don't exist to these people.

(Apologies for the sorta rant there, but this is really disheartening to see. Even Matt Frank himself has joined in with saying that MV Godzilla is a jerkface and that's all what he should be.)

As if we need another reason to avoid the Wretched Hive of Media Illiteracy and Bad Takes! But if it's any consolation, this house/blog is a MV Godzilla Support Zone: We know why Godzilla behaves the way he does, and he's just as sympathetic as Kong is. Have I made the Doomguy comparison myself? Yes, but only in jest and in response to a meme that also compares Kong and Suko to Kratos and Atreus. (Y'know, from that franchise about a guy who gets angry and kills gods; the guy who, according to old memes, would see stale bread as grounds for deicide; there's a lot more to the guy than that, but not to anyone who thinks "Kratos having nuance is boring" and are so allergic to water that they won't even touch the surface of an iceberg video.) I know how to make a joke and have the required media literacy to understand there's more to these characters than surface-level dumbfuckery.

Godzilla is like Doomguy in the sense that he loves something soft and fluffy (Daisy/Mothra) and will go through bloody hell to save the world; they both harbor scars physical and mental. He is also like cats in that he may bite and scratch, but he is subtle in showing his trust. His story may not have the found family angle like Kong, but Godzilla is still a big grumpy lizard with soulful emotional eyes who saves the world and loves his moth wife very much. Anyone says otherwise, I've got a bridge to sell them.

(Matt Frank, you better be trolling or I will be very disappointed and not reblog any of your art for a while.)

[wormmpile]

Very unfortunate ugly "drama" (harassment of a chronically ill woman) aside, Lucky is SUCH a good song the more I listen to it. I had it on loop for like 2 hours last night and it's becoming one of my favorite singles of halsey's ever, I think. The instrumental is so pretty and sparkly and nostalgic, it perfectly captures that early 2000s internet nostalgia (reminds me VERY much of Yeule's work who I adore, and also Ayleen Valentine's recent debut album) and the lyrics are so devastating and sharp. One of h's best bridges ever imo. And their vocals are so soft and pretty this era. I loveeee the prominence of guitar on both singles so far.

I'm generally not a fan of the current trend in popular music where artists just wholesale recycle/sample large chunks of other songs, so I was kinda lukewarm toward Lucky in the lead-up and on first listen, but I think h did it with an actual purpose rather than solely nostalgia-fodder (and the nostalgia is part of the purpose too), and managed to adapt the concept of the original song in a very powerful way, which comments on both halsey's personal experiences with fame specifically as a sick person, while also more widely serving as commentary for how women in general are treated like content vending machine dolls and gossip fodder before they're treated as people. It's about halsey but it's also about everyone who's ever been in her position.* And it's also about us as the fans, as the spectators, as the ones demanding her/our idols to be okay so they can keep making us content. It's about everything we don't see and don't care to see. And it's also about how you never get to go back to when you were a little kid when things were simpler and it was all just a song or a daydream or a pretty poster on the wall. Things can never be the same again. Your favorite songs have changed and so did you. And it's beautiful and it hurts man

(*Which is why I genuinely think you have to be stupid if you honestly believe the song/video in any way cheapens or exploits Britney's own story. Like I think stan twitter has to have actively turned your brain into mushy bananas and nuked all critical thinking/media literacy skills if you take it that way. I know Britney said whatever before immediately back-tracking but even if she did genuinely feel that way she was just wrong. Lol)

[armoricaroyalty]

reread this essay and I feel like it applies to simblr as well, although I don't know if I can articulate exactly how. there's not a ton of sex or sensuality out there, and a lot of it is curiously sexless. some of this is due to the limits of tumblr's titty algorithm—i know several people have recently had posts nuked b/c of cleavage—but I just feel like there's a general and pervasive prudishness that's floating around on simblr.

on simblr, people have sex when the plot demands it of them (at least on royal simblr, sex scenes are followed immediately by a positive pregnancy test at least 50% of time). sex with anyone but an end-game romantic partner is usually framed as having been a mistake in one way or another, and someone (usually the woman) is punished for it. no one is having sex simply because it's pleasurable, because they wanted to, because they were curious...it's always for something. sex isn't just an ordinary thing that is a part of people's ordinary lives, it has to be something more in order to justify the weird kid-gloves handling of it.

people are of course, all thin and beautiful. the men are inviolably masculine, the women feminine in the extreme. the men are all roided-out beefcakes with visible muscle definition, the women all are slender goddesses with permanent full-face contour thanks to their skin details. we never get to see their perfect bodies, though, because everyone is apparently fucking through their underwear. there's no pleasure, no sensuality, no comfort, no connection, no playfulness, no personality, nothing.

this isn't to say that everybody needs to have explicit sexual content on their blog (tumblr wouldn't let us, anyway) but I just feel like there's something really weird and puritanical and very detached about the way sexuality is often portrayed on simblr. I'm hedging here b/c I can think of plenty of people who do have healthier depictions of sexuality in their stories, people who've created sex scenes that are actually sexy, etc. etc. I've tried to do those things as well, ymmv on whether I've succeeded or not—but I just think it's worth at least acknowledging that this is a trend and asking ourselves why and what can be done differently.

p much all of the reactionary, puritanical stuff on simblr is downstream of larger cultural trends. it's not any one specific person's fault, but I do think that simblr, by virtue of being a smaller community, has the potential to push back against these. within this community, we all have the freedom to define our own views of sex and sexuality and reshape our thinking, and I think more people should.

maybe that should be the goal for 2024. everyone can be beautiful, everyone can be horny.

[usedtobethelegendcreator]

To follow up on the “Velvette would be in deep shit if she was ever disrespectful to Alastor” thing, I’m going to explain why…with a song analysis!

The most characterization we get for Velvette is her song “Respectless”, so if we put this together with what Alastor tells Husk in “Dad Beat Dad”, it paints a very ugly picture.

So, Velvette starts off the Overlord meeting by calling everyone there “a joke”. Bold words. Now, she spends almost all of her time specifically antagonizing Carmilla, but I think it’s safe to say that she’d do it to anyone, considering how she talks to Vox in “Radio Killed The Video Star”. With this is mind, let’s get going!

“You’ve got it twisted,

I’m not the one who needs a new attitude.

Maybe you missed it, but I’m that #Bitch,

And I will do nothing less than what I please, woo!

I’m the backbone of the Vees.

Mad that I acted respectless?

Well, it’s ‘cause no one could respect this.”

She says, right off the bat, that she doesn’t respect them and what they’re doing…which is taking consequences into consideration. Velvette doesn’t seem to care about common sense at all, and shows a remarkable lack of self-preservation skills. Remember, she’s not saying this to average sinners. These are Overlords, one of which is the Radio Demon—remember that guy?—who could quite easily kill her if they wanted to. I mean, Carmilla has angelic steel on her shoes. There seem to be other angelic weapons on display outside the meeting room. And she’s also falling for the old he-doesn’t-look-powerful-so-he-must-be-weak trick Alastor has been actively using for decades.

And, well, we don’t know how powerful Velvette is. We don’t know what she can do. So far, the only power she’s displayed is being able to change a girl’s clothes and make potions. And if we take Alastor’s line about the Vees in “Stayed Gone” as something that goes for the other Vees…ouch.

She came to this meeting alone. Knowing that the Radio Demon was back and would likely be there. Compared to Zestial, who she calls a “fossil”, Alastor isn’t nearly as ancient. He’s still much older than her, but he died in 1933. Television was around by then. Then again, Vox calls Alastor a fossil too.

“Sorry, group attending,

Since when are Overlords too scared to fight?

You’re long past trending,

Sorry, bae, but I ain’t swiping right!

You lost your relevance!”

Oh, Velvette. You #Bitch. “You lost your relevance”? Alastor fucked Vox’s shit up and casually dropped a diss track just last week. The Radio Demon might not be as politically involved as he used to be, but he is most definitely relevant to you and your safety. The entire pentagram lost power, shocking you so badly that your hair frizzed up and stood on end. And remember, he’s the Radio Demon. He can control radio waves. TV, Wifi, the Internet—they all rely on radio waves. If Alastor wanted to collectively nuke the Vees, he could.

Also, really? A Tinder reference? Are there Overlords on Tinder? Or is it Vinder?

At least she threw out a “Sorry, group attending”. It was probably the only thing that kept her from being eviscerated immediately.

“Ugh, no wonder I’m so respectless!

I could eat you lot for breakfast!”

…Bold words to say in front of two cannibals. One of which—and I cannot stress this enough—is the fucking Radio Demon. For someone who’s so trendy that she keeps changing her hairstyle, she sure is falling for an old trick. People have been dismissing and mocking Alastor since he manifested in Hell. Y’know, until he started broadcasting his victims’ screams. And no one consistently recognizes him as the Radio Demon when he’s in his everyday form, so it’s safe to say the disrespect continues.

And—okay. We haven’t seen any of the other Overlords in Hazbin Hotel (I don’t have a clue about Helluva Boss) transform the way Alastor does. Going off the pilot and Mimzy’s monologue, he seems to have multiple large forms, his most common being this:

…And that isn’t the form we see in “Dad Beat Dad”. The eyes are wrong. There aren’t any tentacles. The Radio Demon has multiple skyscraper-high forms and Velvette is actively saying she could “eat you lot for breakfast”. She’d better have a big fucking mouth and some sturdy ass forks. If she has any hands or arms by the time Alastor is done beating her up.

The rest of her song is directly to Carmilla, so it’s not really applicable to anything else. But with all of this, it’s safe to say that Velvette:

1. Doesn’t respect the other Overlords

2. Doesn’t see the point in considering consequences

3. Is either unaware of how her word choice could get her killed or doesn’t care

4. Sees herself as above the others

5. Sees the other Overlords as “a joke” and calls them irrelevant

6. Has a remarkable lack of self-preservation skills, considering the fucking Radio Demon is right fucking there

7. Is blissfully unaware of how fucked she and the other Vees are if the Radio Demon (who, again, controls radio waves) sees them as a threat

And, lastly…the reason she in particular would be fucked over.

“If you ever say that again, I will tear your soul apart and broadcast your screams for every other disrespectful wretch who dares to question me.

And if anyone had any doubts about Alastor and radio waves…it’s on the Wiki.

[aflyingcontradiction]

I keep seeing this post go around being absolutely aghast that someone's blog description says not to follow them unless you've talked to them before and it's all like "oh no, this is a bad trend. these newcomers don't know how tumblr works". And at first I was like "Yeah, that's some bullshit, that's NOT how tumblr works." But on second and somewhat calmer thought: Literally the only person I've ever seen do that used to be a really big name on tumblr until the tendency of tumblr to interpret every popular post it sees in the least charitable possible manner, combined with that person's OCD, wreaked absolute havoc on their mental health. They ended up nuking their entire presence on here and are now back semi-incognito, trying to still enjoy tumblr by limiting their exposure through soft-blocking everyone they don't already trust not to be an asshole. Which, you know, FAIR! Not fully effective because of how tumblr works, but probably at least somewhat effective.

I'm pretty sure the "don't follow me if we haven't talked before" people aren't some sort of omen of future Facebookification, I think they're probably just a handful of people who've got their reasons for wanting to keep a tight handle on who follows them and, I mean, also, that's kinda their business. I really doubt it's a site-wide trend...

[cringefaecompilation]

I know it wasn't the focus of your misogyny post so if I'm overstepping please ignore me, but it also really makes me mad when people "conveniently forget" that Ashton is nonbinary, especially when it justifies their shitty opinions (ie he's One Of The Boys™ so he's always correct and can do no wrong thanks to his male-based intellect unlike the awful evil women or he's an Evil Manipulative Man™ who's going out of his way to use his male-ness to harm these poor innocent helpless women because he said/did anything negative towards them). Like please y'all, they're not a man PLEASE they said their pronouns IN THE FIRST EPISODE PLEASE. Feel free to like/dislike Ashton all you want cause that's perfectly fair, but for the love of god don't be transphobic (especially to be sexist) when you do it??? Is that too much to ask??? Idk if I'm making sense/getting upset at nothing because I've seen a lot of people dismiss this as being silly or getting mad at nothing, but idk as a masc enby a lot of discussions around Ashton feel so gross? Idk though, once again ignore if I'm overstepping or anything

you are not being silly and you are not getting mad at nothing or overstepping. it's a huge problem.

i've seen way more of the former where he is misgendered as a cis male as a positive trait, so i'll be talking more about that. will be reposting my tags about this trend in fandom because i've already said my piece on it.

ashton is "schrodinger's man" to these people when they're bored with ignoring/erasing orym's respect and care towards the women in his life. they're nonbinary and trans when they're being directly defended against fans who only like the women, and they're a cis male who is a victim of violent misandry when complaining about previous drama or shipping laudmo/ore (willing to give the benefit of the doubt that maybe some of that blending is them including cis male actor taliesin jaffe but then again). the idea that shardgate was Feminism Going Too Far is an actual statement that i've seen going around the fandom, and it's gotten worse now with swordgate.

didja know there are people insisting laudna should have been abandoned by the hells or fearne should have gotten "harsher punishment" when her dad nearly killed her because both women did something selfish/impulsive and ashton was yelled at and punished for doing something selfish/impulsive? the They Only Were Upset With Ashton Because He Is A Man argument is so fucking dumb. bro almost nuked himself without telling anybody else and was the only one not forcing the shard down fearne's throat, of course they'd come to blows. and you wanna know why they didn't scream at fearne or laudna? BECAUSE THEY LEARNED TO NOT DO THAT. THEY HAD A THERAPY SESSION SPECIFICALLY TO AVOID DOING THAT SHIT AGAIN

and it really does make it obnoxious because i like him and orym's dynamic but it's so fucking frustrating seeing people make them into bell's hells leaders and Voices Of Reason just so they can say "orym is always correct because dead husband and imogen is a salty selfish bitch" or "ashton is always correct because tough love & street smarts and imogen is just a salty selfish bitch" that it immediately sets off red flags for me if someone says those guys are their favorite bh characters. and it sucks because i love orym and ashton too!

obligatory "both sides though" mention: yes. there are im/odna shippers that fantasize about "punishing" or murdering ashton. they do that to dorian and orym too. i am aware of them and i have seen them. i have 90% of them blocked lmao

and i have also talked about this before but the amount of people i've seen insisting callowm/oore is a bad homophobic cishet ship that erases fearne's pansexuality is BIZARRE. this argument was used to prop up fearn/iture which makes no fucking sense to me since chetney is, as far as we know, cisgender. we might not know ashton's sexuality proper but it's safe to assume they aren't heterosexual as they've flirted with people of many genders. also there was this genuine debate if as/hrym was a homophobic ship because orym only dates men... and. well. i don't think it'd be the same as shipping keyleth with orym, let's put it that way lol

[elysianfiction]

I think I need to mention everyone should think twice before abusing the anon ask function, seeing as how I'm now allowed to block you without engaging (and apparently anon asks now require you to be logged in, so that's a win against problematic gremlins.)

After the twine release there was an influx of new followers, which thank you so much 💛, but also a renaissance era in terms of uhm peculiar asks. A portion of the IF community has always been demanding, but sometimes people cross lines and uh I'm not going to bother engaging. Not anymore.

Some people also got really talkative about me possibly keeping most of my snippets on kofi or a patreon, saying, and I quote "so you're going to join the trend, too? 🙄"

Without mentioning that I've already said the game will be free, aside from the option to leave in whatever price you think is right, I wish people would stop shaming writers/artist for trying to make a buck or two with their hobbies. It's not like they're forcing you to donate. 💦

Also please, please, stop giving unsolicited advice about how I should focus on the more popular ros and throw the others in a ditch. I remember getting an ask that was like "you should make ana gender switchable" and ???

At the end of the day it's not something strictly IF related, but after seeing similar issues in other blogs I do have to agree that there's a problem with the community. Thankfully it's a small slice, but they can be loud. Tldr; if you cross boundaries, I'll nuke you out.

[citadelofmythoughts]

Fandoms of media long since finished are still thriving. Some grow slow and then pick up speed. Here on tumblr nbc Hannibal still trends despite the show having ended ten years ago. It’s sad. I wanted to cry at work today because despite the bad parts RT was part of my life since I was 15. I had my first relationship because of it. I’ve come across so many talented and passionate fans bc of rwby (you being one of them). So I’m sad. Not just about the state of the show but for all the people who Clearly didn’t know this was going to happen. Like they were just talking about the new camp camp season and rwby beyond and the stinky dragon puppet show. So many people have lost their jobs with no warning and that sucks so bad. But as for us? We have each other. I’ll probably see if I can buy the blue rays of the show bc online media loves to be nuked from the internet. But we are passionate and we have love for the show and crwby and something ending in production doesn’t mean all that we gained and grew and loved goes away.

I’m sad today. But I’m grateful to have been there for it. And I’m wishing so much that everyone finds a job that respects them and treats them fairly.

I’m also wishing for the death of monolithic corporations and for smaller studios in the arts to thrive again so that many more people can work their passions without fear of being swallowed and then discarded again

(Not saying early RT was peefect this last bit is just about big companies in German since RT is far from the last place to do sudden massive layoffs)

I hope all those who are losing their jobs have soft landings and I can't thank CRWBY enough for the magic that is RWBY.

I've seen more than one person say that it's changed their life and I'm no different. It's inspired me, uplifted me. It's been a refuge when the world was horrible. I've become a much better writer because I wanted to play in the sandbox they gave us.

I'm not without hope. Hope sustains us. RWBY is built around the concept. So, someday, hopefully not too far in the distant future it might return.

Until then, I'm still gonna play in the fertile fields that Monty planted for us.

And Warner Brothers can rot in hell. I'm never touching a single one of their properties ever again.

[the-witchs-cafe]

I saw you said Kieran would witch out. What do you think he’d be like as a witch?

Gonna answer this real real quick before a lecture starts- I would be lying if I didn't say that, alongside the Hau essay that is in the works rn, I haven't been gathering resources for Kiki's witch form and have a semi-realized vision of it. His struggles, his grudges, his character development- the potential is there.

So, while I am suffering over the Hau megapost, I can't see why I couldn't share the barebones ideas I got for Kiki's warlock so early!

--

Since his development is most demonstrated by his Dipplin evolving into a Hydrapple, I believe a good base for him is "a hollow beast with a thousand faces"; someone who had abandoned the person he was in order to adopt an identity needed to win. Over time, alas, his original self has faded away; leaving behind a formless husk.

The topic on a monster with multiple faces also paves way for the mention of a certain demon in the Ars Goetia; Bune, one of the dukes of Hell possessing three heads; two dragon faces and the one on the center being a human's. Bune is known to be able to move spirits from their graves, grant wishes, and possessing over 30 legions of demons under his command.

Move the dead from their graves, huh? Sounds a lot like his poisonous grudge reviving the loyal three!

So, a multi-headed monstrosity with a kabuki mask in the middle; concealing a hollow shell where his real face was supposed to be. That is terrifying of a witch concept on its own- but, wait, there is more!

After all, a witch needs a reason to target mankind, whether it is in the form of active grudges or a consequence of them stumbling into their ever-lasting nightmare. In Kieran's case, I think it is definitely the active case; he wants to "win", to become strong- that is the whole reason as to why he had abandoned his old identity. In his search for a more resilient, formidable mask, he targets those who have come this far into his labyrinth; the people and magi who have perished by his own hands. After all, his barrier is difficult enough to traverse through- those who made it this far should be strong/intelligent enough to find the center; his residence.

You can see where I am going to with this; he rips out the faces of his victims, magi or otherwise, and turns them into masks symbolizing the most common trend in every lie they have ever uttered.

His nature would more than likely be "obsessive"; what better word is out there that can describe his one-sided kinship with Ogerpon devolving into the sole desire to defeat the MC? His karmic destiny would be enough to nuke BB Academy off the map if he wanted to. (E x - C h a m p i o n), but, really, that is all there is to his power levels.

Bune, the Warlock of Masks, with an Obsessive nature...that's almost perfect!

--

His barrier, well, this one might be tricky! Seeing that it is the mental landscape of the magi before/as they became a witch, I think Kieran's deep desire to defeat the MC, driven by the desire for vengeance towards them and his family for deceiving him, I doubt it would be a cakewalk to traverse through.

The first thing that came to mind was the phrase "smoke and mirrors"; perhaps a mirror maze is present in the inner-most sanctums of the labyrinth? Half truths slowly devolving into the bitter lies he and the rest of Kitakami just ate up for most of their lives- concealing the weak and pathetic "Kiki" that he used to be, what a fitting cycle of torment this is!

Since one of his fondest memories is reading about the tale of the Loyal Three and sympathizing with the ogre of the tale - seeing that he, too, was an outcast just like her -, elements from the Festival of Masks is also involved; where else would all the other masks he had cast away in favor for the newest one end up? It is a haunting display; seeing the interior of these exaggerated, demonic masks and finding muscles and veins still attached to them...you drop the one that was in your hands almost immediately; the sight was more than sickening.

As for familiars, I think their role is to play as the characters from the tale; re-enact the story time and time again with him as the ogre. The pain is real; he can't ever change the course of destiny even if his heart wished to do so. He'd thrash against them, pin them to the ground, throw them to the wall- but it always ends in the same way, with him fleeing back to his sanctum, looking for more masks to make him stronger. They resemble Carmine, Drayton, and the MC.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading update: june 2023

as promised (to myself) I spent all of gay months reading books by and/or about the gays, no exceptions! (unless you count the heaps of old Batman comics I was reading, but come on. it's all pretty fruity.) the trend will be continuing into July as well because I overshot and still have book I need to finish, so in the immortal words of Janelle Monáe: happy pride forever!

anyway, what have I actually been reading?

Empress of Forever (Max Gladstone, 2019) - man, I've been meaning to read this FOREVER! and I'm glad I finally did. Gladstone's space opera follows ultrawealthy tech genius Vivian Liao, a sort of dykey Lex Luthor who's CERTAIN that she's the good guy. okay, yes, she's trying to get control of the nukes, but she's not going to use them. it's just that the world's a mess and she needs to be in charge. unfortunately our girl Vivian doesn't get far in her master plan before she's transported across the galaxy and finds herself on the run from the all-powerful Empress in the company of a cybernetic monk named Hong and the legendary space pirate Zanj, the Empress' greatest enemy. from there our heroes are off on a slow, messy quest across the galaxy as they make new friends, grow as people, and strive to bring the Empress down. it's a very long book and can feel slow in places, but all of the time devoted to fleshing out the characters ultimately pays off as their stories converge into a resonant narrative about the notion of identity and what it means to be yourself. if you like Becky Chambers' Wayfarer books of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, get on this shit.

also hey listen Max Gladstone is having a bit of a Moment rn; the book he coauthored with Amal El-Mohtar, This Is How You Lose the Time War, is getting a huge boost thanks to the Trigun (????) fandom??? over on Twitter, and you should definitely go check it out

Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men (Jane Ward, 2016) - Ward is a brilliant queer feminist writer; rigorous and insightful while keeping her work imminently readable. while the title may sound facetious, Ward actually takes entirely at face value that there are men having sex with each other an engaging in otherwise homoerotic activities - mutual jerkoffs, hazing rituals that involve anal penetration - that sincerely aren't stemming from a place of gay desire and asks us what the fuck we're supposed to make of that. what results is a fascinating look at masculinity and the intricate rituals that both subvert and maintain it. shockingly thought provoking for a book that contains so many transcribed craigslist posts of men looking for straight guys to have totally normal hetero dudesex with!

The Latinos of Asia: How Filipinos Break the Rules of Race (Anthony Christian Ocampo, 2016) - I was lucky enough to get to see Ocampo (who is gay) speaking at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity this year, and naturally I had to buy one of his books while I was there. I strongly suspect he's about to become one of my new favorite nonfiction writers, because the Latinos of Asia was a brilliant read that I really couldn't put down. Ocampo (who's also Filipino!) delves into the formation of Filipino-Americans' racial identity, and finds that many feel caught between the most conventionally accepted racial categories - feeling alienated from the idea of Asian identity, which is often perceived as pertaining to East Asians like Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans, and instead relating much more firmly to Mexican-Americans and other Latinos. it's a FASCINATING study on race and one (of many!) loopholes that exists in this very large, messy, totally made up construct of race.

A Lady for a Duke (Alexis Hall, 2022) - for my pride month romance novel I wanted to read something that I might actually like. I've previously adored Hall's genre-fucking ultra-queer Sherlock Holmes pastiche, the Affair of the Mysterious Letter, and Lady for a Duke was really well-reviewed, so my hopes were high! and you know what? I fucking loved this. it was like cotton candy, perfectly sweet and made to be inhaled without a second thought. Our Heroine Viola was the heir to an estate who faked her death at Waterloo so that she could run away and be herself - that's right baby, this is a 19th century trans lady romance! she reconnects with her old BFF the Duke of Gracewood, who's been catatonically depressed since losing his best friend in the war, and reader, you will not believe what happens next. just kidding, you totally will: they want to kiss each other so bad! they're yearning so bad and it's great. it's a very silly book and Gracewood is the most unexpectedly forward-thinking 19th century duke EVER who is instantly down to accept Viola entirely as a woman and thinks that having biological children is overrated, and you know what? that rules. I'm not reading this book for historical accuracy I'm reading it to watch a man beg his girlfriend to fuck him tenderly in the ass. and she does!!! if I'm being honest everything after they finally hook up is kind of nonsense and the book probably is too long, but god it's a delightful time.

Chlorine (Jade Song, 2023) - back in the days of twitter I started following Jade Song as soon as they announced selling this book, the story of a competitive high school swimmer succumbing to obsession as she fantasizes about becoming a mermaid. finally getting to pick up the book from the library and actually read it felt crazy after existing in potentia for so long! while Song's novel is a little rough in some places in exactly the way I expect from a debut, it's still gripping and visceral. our protagonist lives in an intense and demanding world, striving to please an overly handsy coach, wanting to please the immigrant parents she can barely speak to, stumbling through sex with boys on her team while longing for her female best friend. through it all she fixates on mermaids, and the story is told in flashbacks building up to a drastic act of self-mutilation at a swim meet. it's definitely not the right book for the faint of heart or anyone looking for feel-good fluff, but it's harrowing in the best way.

Vagabonds! (Eloghosa Osunde, 2022) - gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous! Osunde celebrates queer life - those called vagabonds, society's outliers - in Lagos, Nigeria, slipping between the real world of social stigma, oppressive religion, judgmental family, and dangerous politics, and the world of magic, gods, and the unreal, blending the two together in an effortlessly dizzying effect. the ultrawealthy hide behind layers of flawless masks to conceal their identities, a lonely woman dying of cancer summons up a daughter than only she can see, and a young man channels the devil to raise his murdered lover. while the stories start bleak, firmly establishing the danger of life on the margins, they gather speed with increasing warmth and love as the story progresses, eventually bringing all of our protagonists together in glorious, life-affirming celebration of vagabonds and all who love them. Nigeria, in Osunde's hands, reads much like family - imperfect, sometimes even awful, but also capable of harboring tremendous love, surprising tenderness, and still worth holding out hope for. I think measuring books in terms of relatability is a fool's game, but as an American queer watching more and more legislation and persecution roll out against my people each day, it was hard not to feel a cord being struck. Vagabonds! is a beautiful reminder that queer resilience is eternal, and reader, I did cry.

Quietly Hostile (Samantha Irby, 2023) - I was a ride or die bitch for Sam Irby even before she picked up and moved to my small Michigan city, effectively becoming my neighbor. (not really, but she is married to the mother of a friend of a friend, so.) despite this, I will freely admit that I was a little underwhelmed by her last release, 2020's Wow, No Thank You. it's possible that WNTY was damned by its March 2020 release, putting it in the awkward position of being a humorous essay collection creeping out into the world at a time when everyone was paranoid and nothing was funny; maybe on a reread I would receive it a bit more warmly. Quietly Hostile, on the other hand, is just stupid funny right out of the gate. Sam Irby is old (see: in her early 40s) and going downhill, writing candidly about peeing her pants everywhere, adopting a rancid little dog, getting sent to the hospital with a severe allergic reaction, and jacking off to plot-heavy porn of elderly lesbian nuns. it takes a little bit of work to get me to actually laugh out loud at a book but man, I was chortling. if you don't already know her work, this is a sign from god (me) to check Samantha Irby out now.

what am I reading now?

Black Water Sister (Zen Cho, 2021) - the was one of the oldest queer novels(TM) on my list and I really wanted to knock it out for pride month. the Malaysian setting and culture is a welcome addition to contemporary urban fantasy, but I'm not sure I'm crazy about the story overall. and yet, I'm over 200 pages deep and don't want to give up, so ? I guess I'm persisting.

Giovanni's Room (James Baldwin, 1956) - my local library lost their copy just in time for pride month, so I bought one on ebay for all of nine dollars. haven't started yet, but I'm really excited to finally pop that proverbial Baldwin cherry!