#some of you need to learn critical thinking skills because not everything that happens on screen is what's Actually going on

[mochiwrites]

Life series Grian is cruel because everyone in the life series is cruel. There’s killings and betrayals and thefts. Everyone in the life series is kind, including Grian. There’s jokes and alliances and trades.

ANON YOU ARE OPENING A FLOOD GATE. I AM SO SORRY IN ADVANCE

(also I feel like I should preface that like. I'm not claiming to be c!grian expert and my own interpretation may not even be fully accurate to his character??? aka if anything seems out of character I am Sorry fjgfhgf)

ANYWAYS -- right so when I say the word “cruel” I’m talking about it in an,,,, emotional sense??? like, he doesn't go out of his way to target people and bully them emotionally, I guess??? he isn't cruel with their emotions???? I have no idea if that makes any sense. I'm not gonna go out my way and claim that grian is a "perfect uwu innocent boy" because he's not. no one in the life series is (and that's not even grian's character outside of traffic LMAO). the entire purpose of the game is to be the last man standing, and that means killing. that means betrayal.

but there is a fine line between being cruel to survive and being a villain.

and traffic!grian is not a villain.

traffic!grian is kind, and loyal. he feels guilt for his actions. grian plays to survive, but if you have his loyalty, you have it for the entire game.

I've seen so many people look at grian's actions in the previous session (where he laughs off joel's death and joins up with pearl and bigb) and say that grian was evil for it. but let's actually look at what grian was doing leading up to joel's death, shall we?

he didn't look for other teammates until he was certain that joel wasn't going to survive. they had already lost jimmy, so he knew he was going to be alone. he offered joel an hour. he kept telling joel to take his life so joel could survive just a little longer. he straight up tells pearl and bigb that he has to go check on joel, that he has to say goodbye or else he was going to regret not getting the chance. everything grian did in that final episode was to keep jimmy and joel alive for as long as possible. and when he finally lost joel? there was silence. he stood there and stared. "I didn't even see it." he sounded so remorseful as he said it.

did he laugh off their deaths? yes. but come on people! grian's entire character is downplaying his emotions! he laughs things off and hides his emotions! he gave us, the viewers, plenty of clues to his true feelings! he has to say goodbye to joel or he'll regret it. he makes graves for jimmy and joel. he was more than willing to give them some of his time to keep them alive. he laughs off their deaths but that's just a wall he's putting up between himself and everyone else. when looking at traffic!grian, you can't just look at his words. you need to look at his actions as well.

he makes a joke about keeping joel alive but you need to look deeper than that. you need to look at the "I couldn't do anything more to help him." that's hidden in there. with grian you need to read between the lines!

and if you STILL think that traffic!grian is a villain, don't worry, I have more examples.

let's take a look at the most obvious depiction of grian's tragic character.

third life.

whether you ship them or view them as friends, grian's story with scar is still a tragedy! he spends the entire series following scar around because of his debt, and ends up sticking around after his debt is cleared because he wants to see scar win. he wants to help scar still. he's chaotic and a menace and full of bloodlust, but that doesn't make him a villain. he's playing the game. the same game that everyone else is playing.

look at the final scene of the third life finale. grian wanted to win with scar. he wanted them to win together. they planned to die together. and then the cactus ring happens and grian wins. look me dead in the eyes as grian says "Oh I don't feel so good." before jumping to his death and tell me that grian is a villain. that's one of the cases where grian's guilt is the most clear.

let's also not forget all of the deals he makes in every series? the promises he tries to keep? returning scar's things to him in last life even though he didn't have to? giving skizz a totem? setting an ender porter with him so if skizz needs him he can come help? because he wanted skizz to stay alive for as long as possible?

grian is kind. and he cares about people. neither of these things are the qualities of a villain!

he's playing in a death game, just like everyone else, and he's playing to survive. of course he's going to betray certain people (not his allies though. never his allies), he's going to steal and kill. he's going to laugh as he pulls off a successful kill because yes he may not be a villain but he's chaotic and bloodthirsty just like everyone else.

grian is not cruel because he laughed off jimmy and joel's deaths. he is not evil because he joined pearl and bigb after he lost the bad boys.

this is just a personal frustration but too many people in this fandom are quick to jump on calling grian a villain in the traffic series when every other character is doing the same thing as he is. but yet no one else gets called evil for it??? some people are so quick to make grian out to be an asshole when he's not. can he act like an ass? yes, absolutely. but that doesn't make one. I've seen some absolutely wild characterizations on grian, and some of them are just.... Yikes

some people are so quick to make grian out to be the bad guy that they don't consider the actions that lead up to that moment.

THAT BEING ASIDE.... tldr, grian isn't a villain, he's playing in a death game and the aim is to survive. he's a loyal teammate and is more than willing to fight for his allies. please stop calling him a villain thank you

[narwhalsarefalling]

rey i need ya gen fic bnha recs

congratulations, i have a whole ass collection. but here's some faves. A collection of both oneshot and multichap!

Gauntlet Thrown - pikahlua

Pro hero Katsuki Bakugou has deigned to apply for a teaching position at UA, and the lucky bastard who gets to conduct the job interview is none other than Shouta Aizawa.

Second Chances - amarisllis

Aizawa’s heartbeat is pounding against Katsuki’s ear, so loud and fast that it blocks out everything else. Katsuki’s arms flail, unsure what to do now that he’s being hugged by his teacher who’s never really cracked more than a tiny smile in their presence before. Wha— Oh. Oh, oh shit. Aizawa is crying. “Sensei—” “You were dead.” His voice breaks on the last word. Oh. Shit.

candid - OwlF45

The Commission passes a new requirement for hero licenses: pass a mental simulation. For Izuku, a holder of One For All, this idea ends in catastrophe. A series focused on the simulation, and everything that comes after.

Switchblade - Cacid

"I’m only two minutes late!” Izuku protested. Had he missed the start of an important test? None of the national, standardized tests were supposed to happen this month and even being two minutes late to one of those wouldn’t elicit this sort of reaction. They were discussing their career interest forms today, but that was it. Nothing time-critical was supposed to be happening. “Midoriya, you were reported missing a week ago. No one has seen you for eight days. The police have been combing the city for you.” "I’m sorry. What?” Midoriya Izuku went missing for a week and turned up in a back alleyway with skills he's never even heard of and no memory of how he came by them. He resigns himself to never learning the truth of what happened to him, but he shouldn't waste this chance should he? He could become a hero with reflexes like these. (Russian Translation available)

Razzmatazz - xylophones

Izuku has plans for everything. He plans out what to say to the cashier when ordering coffee, he plans out his homework before even opening his textbook. He has a whole ten-year plan for how he’s going to get into UA’s hero course and get his hero license fully quirkless. He plans for every wild, unlikely scenario he can think of because his anxiety gets so bad if he doesn’t go through every possible outcome, every way his life could landslide into disaster–– but Izuku never planned for this. For once, he doesn’t have a plan and he doesn’t have time to think of one. All he can see is Yagi-san’s lined, kind face looking resigned as he stares down the villain in his shop. Yagi-san, who is the closest thing to a father figure Izuku has ever had. Izuku doesn’t think. He just moves. (Or: Izuku saves the number one hero, gets a hero license way earlier than anyone wanted, realizes that maybe hero society isn’t as great as he thought it was, and everything just kind of falls apart from there.)

third couch is the charm - laurenshappenstobemyhusband

Shouto trained for years to control his ice. Encasing everything in ice whenever he sneezed, got angry or startled, or just whenever he wasn't paying attention always got him into trouble, and he's glad he finally has complete control over his right side. Unfortunately, he can't say the same about his flames. OR: Todoroki sets three couches on fire, which apparently is too many, so now he has to take quirk control classes with Kaminari and they bond over mutual destruction

All's Well - Vexfulfolly

Trigger + Katsuki Bakugou = One hell of a precarious situation OR What it's like to be a walking bomb.

El Manisero - Lila17

"that fic where Sero runs a peanut cartel at UA"

see it all in bloom - aloneintherain

Todoroki said, “It feels like a family reunion.” (Social media fic, counting down the five months to Class 1-A's ten year reunion.)

and i know these don't REALLY count because they're mine, but here's my OWN gen fics that I had a GREAT time writing

And in the forest, I can be free

His prosthetic leg was covered in stickers. Her hands were stained with marker ink in wonderful multicolor. She could color outside the lines. She could color inside the lines. She could color the skin pink or the hair black or whatever color she wished. She could ignore the lines entirely and just draw whatever she wanted. Chiasaki would have never allowed any of this. She doesn’t freeze or feel that horrible feeling in her chest at the thought of him anymore. Instead she only felt... Something else. It was a warmer feeling, one that settled in her gut. It took a few days of this new feeling to be recognized and named- anger. She wasn’t as afraid anymore, that had grown into anger. How could anything in this so-called “sick” place ever be bad? She admires her color-stained hands, the shoes that were allowed to remain dirty, the softness of fresh mud during a rainstorm under her hands. Sand between her fingers, dust wiped away from glass to reveal a view of the forest. Eri doesn’t care if she’s cursed. She doesn’t care if this entire world is covered in little germs that would make her sick. Eri loves it so much. - A look at Eri and her relationship with cleanliness

Within Rime and Reason

1. He reached up to touch the base of his scar. Somehow, without the red hair framing it, it looked almost like a birthmark. Less of a harsh, angry burn scar and more of a memory. He didn’t look like a man with a tragic past, he looked like a boy. If he wasn’t completely blind in that eye, he would almost believe it was one. “You look so manly,” Kirishima breathes. “No,” Todoroki says with a smile. “I look like my mother. I look womanly.” 2. And suddenly so many pieces of the puzzle drop into place. His eye is unseeing. White pupil. Milky iris. With the skin around it poreless and hairless. Easy to cover up with makeup. Oil-less and unmoisturized. Like a scar. Like a burn. “Todoroki,” Mina says softly. The brush she’s holding drops to her lap. “This isn’t a birthmark I’m covering up, is it?” - Todoroki gets a makeover. Emotional conversations happen.

have fun and enjoy!

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hi, are there any recommendations you have for me for my writing process? My process is extremely long because I keep getting stuck. Got an idea for a conflict, okay. Stuck on fleshing that out. Eventually done. Stuck on my characters, who they are, and their roles. Finally get that done. But now I need to figure out backstory. Stuck. Figure out the plotline/solution to the conflict. Stuck. It's MONTHS between these steps of writing a story. I'm on the verge of giving up...

Slow and Clunky Writing Process

Please don't give up. The world needs the stories only you can tell. ♥

There is so much information out there about plot, story structure, conflict, goals, outlining, backstory, plot points, pacing, theme, character arc... blah, blah, blah... it can get incredibly overwhelming, especially if you can't seem to get to point of actually writing the story.

Having said that, I think it's so, soooo important to know that you don't actually have to worry so much about that stuff at the beginning.

The truth of the matter is, your first stories are probably not going to be the stories you publish. That doesn't mean you can't publish them, it's just that most of us will write two or three, maybe four or five stories before we write one that's good enough to share. As a result, what typically happens is you get a little bit better at all of those things (conflict, pacing, character arc, etc.) with every story you write. Keep learning about those things as you go, and try your best to incorporate them into each story, but you shouldn't be looking for a level of perfection that they hold you back.

Think of it like this: if you decided you wanted to build your own home, you wouldn't read a bunch of blog posts and books about home construction, maybe take a workshop or two, and then start building, expecting to build a house you could actually live in. Instead, you'd probably start by building some smaller structures... maybe a dog house, a patio with pergola, maybe help a friend split a big room in their house into two rooms. You'd take on smaller projects to put your budding skills to use and practice them. Then, when you got really good at everything, you might be ready to build your house.

Writing is the same way. You can't take all of that information and pour it into a perfect, flawless story in one go round. It's too hard, too overwhelming, and you never get a chance to actually hone your budding skills.

So, start by just writing the stories you want to write... just for fun... just to practice your skills. Don't worry if your conflict isn't perfectly fleshed out. Don't worry if your pacing is wonky or your character arc is unsatisfactory. Focus first on just writing the story. Then, you can hone your revision skills by trying to improve those things once the first draft is complete. Put the story through two or three revisions, and you're really sharpening those skills. When you go to write and revise the next story, it's going to be a little bit easier.

You'll know when you get to a point where you've written something that's publishable. You'll still need to do two or three revisions to get it where it needs to be, but the whole process will be much easier.

And one last thing: don't worry about backstory unless it's critical for helping the reader understand the world of the story, the conflict, or who the character is/why they do what they do. ♥

Happy writing! I promise it gets easier!!!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[rotdistressxox]

since it was like a week ago but OMG ACTIVE KENGAN BLOG..i legit just got back into the fandom because i was here when it hit it's peak😭 i miss that sm ngl

BUT..can i request Kanoh Agito and characters of your choice with a reader that's around the same size and them and is of equal powerlevel/skill level..

also sidenote because i had a dream about this but how do you think characters would feel if reader that was somewhat like fang (multiple wins) didn't have a style/techniques and just..makes moves up?? LIKE IT WOULD BE SO FUNNY BECAUSE YOUR SO STRONG?? JUST FOR THEM TO FIND OUT YOU DONT EVEN HAVE A..AN ANYTHING

Omg ofcourse Anon, thank you for being my first request! Ah yes, the great Kengan boom of 2020. I'm not gonna do as many characters this time around. Anyways, let's get started!

Headcanons: Kengan Men with an 'Experienced' Fighter S/O

Kanoh Agito

• When the two of you weren't together, he felt a little threatened by you. Not afraid, but threatened. There was only so many people who made he feel that way since he was still high and mighty.

• At first when he saw you fight, he thought they were some sort of forbidden moves or secret techniques.

• After later investigation, he finds out from the other fighters that you have no background in any martial arts. It's just sheer luck, strength, and wit that you have by your side.

• Can such a person exist? You had racked up so many wins just by doing that?

• Things happened, and now the two of you are dating.

• Is still confused by the whole 'winging it' thing that you do when you fight. You're very unpredictable afterall

• Doesn't feel threatened anymore by your prowess. But would rather not spar with you, only analyze.

• Being his size means you have an advantage at A LOT of things when it comes to fighting. You've gotten an earful from Kanoh that you shouldn't take what you have for granted.

• But it's the best when he's there for you after fights or seeing him in a crowd.

Ohma Tokita

• "Hahh? You think you're all that, huh"

• You have more wins than him because he was still wasn't in any Kengan matches at the time.

• Needs to see it to believe it.

• Completely shocks him when you wipe the floor with your opponent doing nothing but fancy kicks and brute strength.

• He challenges you to a fight because that can't be all, can it?

• It can

• He couldn't see any patterns in your movement, redirect your flow of energy. Nothing. He almost uses advance, you break it up before it gets any further since you didn't want to hurt him

• You bond over sparring together. Surprisingly you two make a good match.

• Ohma and you start dating before the Kengan Annihilation tournament. You happily announce that you'll be taking part in it alongside him.

• He trusts your skills, but still doesn't want to see you get hurt.

• He's glad that he's not up against you in the tournament. He also doesn't wanna hurt you, duh.

• If people insult you or your fighting 'style' when he's near, there will be blood.

Raian Kure

• Insults your fighting style despite never seeing it for himself.

• Calls you "Just a brute with no skills, how pathetic!"

• Boy is he wrong. Once you two fight, everything catches him off guard. Just as he's turned on removal, you accidentally knock him out when your leg goes to far from a kick, kneeing him on the side of his head

• "Oopsie"

• After, an unlikely friendship forms. Which soon turns into romance.

• Always has to flex that he's won several more fights than you. But then you bring up how you beat him and he gets flustered.

• Has tried many times to replicate or copy your 'style' but it's too inconsistent besides a few moves you do regularly.

• Supportive as he can be. When he's not assassinating people, he watches your fights or spends time with you.

• "That's my (Reader) assholes! Watch and learn!"

Gaolang Wongsawat

• Didn't figure out you were a fighter until after you started dating.

• Highly critical of how you fight. Even after he started to date you he wasnt 100% supportive of it. Let's say he was 95%

• You always know how to prove him wrong though.

• Tries to teach you boxing, which goes pretty well and you end up adding some to your moveset. Though, you'll still be unpredictable in the end.

• He's well aware that you and him are pretty evenly matched when it comes to power and skill. Though he always considers you lucky that your current skillset has brought you this far.

• Is proud that you've won a lot of fights. Is not ashamed to call you his.

• Gets a little freaked out while seeing you fight sometimes.

• "Did they just...yeah they did"

• Is a worry wart.

• "You sure you're okay?" "Your knuckles are bruised, do you need some ice?" "You need to rest, lay back down"

[befuddledcinnamonroll]

I've just realized something about why I'm enjoying Dangerous Romance so much. It's not the only reason, but it's a big one.

Sailom is one. stubborn. fucker. It's there from the very beginning. At first we're led to see it as a virtue, as he outmaneuvers Kang. But over time, it gets revealed as a critical flaw.

He quits school, not just because of Kang, but because he is going to get the truth out of Saifah and get Saifah out of prison, no matter what it takes. Because he's fucking stubborn! He's going to get the money he needs alone, and fix everything, alone. He is so used to being the smart & capable one, the one responsible for handling things, and sees his problems as his alone. It makes him literally incapable of accepting help from the multitude of people who care for him. You wanna smack him for it - but that is who he is.

Kang is an impulsive asshole. He was at the beginning, and he still is now. He acts on emotion and without thought. He sees what he wants and he goes for it. Something makes him angry and he lashes out. He's been immersed in privilege and emotionally neglected, and his regulation skills suck. And even his closeness with someone like Pimfah can't get that to change. He pushes away the person he loves the most at the absolute worst moment. Because that is who he is.

The only thing that makes an impact, the only way these two break through their flaws, is with each other. Sailom lets himself lean on someone else and accept care. Kang sees how someone else is impacted by his impulsive behavior and learns to put his feelings into a more selfless direction.

Yet these changes don't happen overnight. They take steps backwards. Because that is how real human change works. No one wakes up the next day completely fixed. They have to decide to come back together, and keep working at it. Because a part of them knows they are better when they are together.

And this theme of how the right relationship can help us overcome our deepest flaws extends to the side characters. Guy comes across as assertive, but he fights for other people, not for himself. Nawa reminds him that his dreams are worth fighting for just as hard as he fights to protect his friends. Nawa, on the surface, comes across as cynical and uncaring. The only way he can think of to flirt with his long time crush is to antagonize him. But with Guy, he's able to reveal the vulnerability underneath.

Saifah has had a fairly lackadaisical approach to his (and Sailom's) life. But meeting Name again has given him something to reach for. While Name, who has survived by making himself cold and dangerous, realizes that he wants to be better, and lean towards Saifah's warmth.

I know for some people watching the series, the flaws are too much, and it's too frustrating. But I love it. Real people are flawed. We are all SO flawed. But we can find people in our lives who help make us better. Who encourage our better impulses and call us out on our bullshit.

Maybe in the end it's not all that dangerous. But it's pretty damn important.

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

Deconstructing the "Peggy and Molly Friendship" Narrative

Molly the Australian Magpie had been “reunited” with Peggy and the family that stole him as a fledgling and raised him without any wildlife carer license or experience.

Thanks to the Queensland Premier wanting to score some extra points in an election year, he “made it happen.” And legitimised the collective delusion of the public that genuinely thinks that this was a completely okay and reasonable situation. And believed the notion that Molly, a territorial social species of bird that had compromised development and was taken out of his home range, could simply "fly away".

So I went through their Instagram to see how this madness unfolded. It clearly began as a “Peggy” instagram before the stolen fledgling joined in.

These people are so adamant that there were no parents around but I don’t believe it for a second. Molly was a juvenile when he was taken - you always see fledglings around his size and age on the ground foraging for food. Mum and dad are not always around but they are never far away and are critical to a young magpie's developmental period.

They claim that Molly was sick. Yet they never make any mention of taking him to the vet. Molly makes distinctive fledgling feeding calls, the sounds he would have used to beg for food from his parents. It's tragic to see this after seeing how magpies raise their fledglings in my own backyard.

One of their first posts is feeding him what looks to be mealworms next to their pet dog. Aussie Magpie Fledglings at this age are learning everything about how to survive from their parents. They fed Molly WITH their dog. What does that teach? That dogs are not only safe but also a potential source of food/reinforcement.

As Peggy’s Instagram becomes Peggy and Molly’s Instagram, this happens:

Molly gets attacked by other birds. Because guess what? This is a territorial bird who has been removed from his original territory and away from the protection and guidance of his parents.

So, because these people have no idea what they’re doing, they’re Shocked that this would happen and that the wild bird they’re unwittingly conditioning into their pet can’t defend himself.

But yeah I’m sure teaching Molly tug of war with a dog is exactly the survival skills he needs as a wild bird!!!!!!

(I’m losing my goddamn mind)

Another “release attempt” fails because apparently we did a whoopsie and let him fly out in a storm??? Yet again, this poor bird is having traumatic experiences in the wild that he was not prepared for and is, unsurprisingly, seeking humans - which he has now associated heavily with food and safety.

Meanwhile, as they’re “raising” Molly, this insanity happens:

Yeah because that’s why your staffy is spontaneously lactating. She wants to mother a bird. It couldn’t possibly be that she’s had a bird pecking at her nipples and stimulating them or that she might have a serious medical issue. Interestingly, they do take Peggy to the vet. A luxury that doesn’t seem to be afforded to Molly who was also apparently sick (even though he seems to be pretty bright, alert and feeding in all the videos of when he was “rescued”)

Anyway the saga continues with the clear intention of making content now - the socialisation and habituation continues during Molly’s most critical juvenile years. They talk about how Peggy is helping Molly learn how to find food as if they're still intended for him to be a wild bird. But it's clear this bird isn't going anywhere.

At this time, Molly would be learning how to find food, how to socialise with other magpies and he’d eventually be joining a juvenile or bachelor flock where he’d continue to develop his social skills as a social and intelligent bird, wrestling and playing with his flock mates.

But no, he’s learning to mimic barks and is harassing the hell out of this poor staffy. The family just lets it all happen without any sort of support or advocacy for Peggy.

Haha isn't zoonotic disease vectors and a confused bird with no idea of how to interact appropriately with a dog just hilarious? It’s funny because of the silly caption they made, right?

As their "relationship" progresses, Peggy shows more discomfort.

This dog shows multiple stress behaviours. She is not friends with this bird she is TOLERATING this bird as he pecks at her face. She's rarely relaxed in these "play" interactions. She licks her lips, turns her head, yawns and even bares her teeth. But if it has a cute soundtrack behind it, I guess that means they’re having fun, right?

Even the interactions where Peggy's isn't stressed are still uncomfortable to watch. Molly shows immense frustration and confusion, following and wanting to be involved but being ignored or tolerated.

Molly should be with wild birds, playing how they play and not being merely tolerated:

Molly had a chance to be homed with a qualified wildlife rehabber or even get the chance to get to live with other Australian Magpies. But because people fell for the story and the media regurgitated it without questioning it for a second - he'll never get that chance again.

Molly was failed by the Queensland government for not being seized immediately. There were numerous complaints as soon as their story started to become viral that this was sending a bad message to the public and that this bird was not being given the care he needed.

It's too late, now. Molly will live in a confused limbo, not knowing what he's supposed to be and will never get to live with his own species.

And all the people that sent death threats to wildlife carers (who were trying to fix the damage caused) will pat themselves on the back about what a good job they did.

[many-but-one]

Trauma Informed Biases and TERFs

In light of my ex-best friend being outed as a TERF, I think I want to have a series of discussions. Mainly about the biases that we (community "we") can have and that trauma and biases work hand in hand, and how we cannot allow trauma-informed biases impact our decision making or critical thinking skills, but also a bit about my experiences as a trans man and how being trans yourself doesn't mean you automatically escape transmisogyny. (Spoiler alert: while I'd never say I was transmisogynistic in action, I was in some part biased due to my past traumas, and having a transfemme partner and seeing the way she's treated by others just for existing had to make me rethink everything I understood about what it meant to be a trans woman, which has made me a better person--and I believe a better partner, too.)

First, I'm going to talk a bit about trauma-informed biases. As trauma survivors, we all have them. For example, we were primarily abused by white, Christian men. By all accounts, when we encounter a white, Christian man, we are immediately wary of his intentions. Often without even knowing him or trying to know him, we will already assume he's just like our abusers deep down. While that may sometimes be true, more often than not, a white Christian male who hasn't done much self reflection and growth will mainly just be misogynistic to various degrees and probably not understand the weight of his privilege. That doesn't automatically make him a pedophile who tortures kids like our abusers were.

Branching off from that, and narrowing it down, we get to the meat of the problem, which is men. We have met and known cis men who are by all accounts nothing like our abusers, in fact, the exact opposite. They are sensitive, they are caring, they know their privilege and use it to uplift the voices of their female friends. They are avid supporters of the queer community even if they aren't a part of it. While they are sometimes misguided, they are also always open to learn more and be corrected and change. There are good men out there. However, this doesn't make our bias towards men change. We were hurt by men, we know others who have been hurt by men. People both AFAB and AMAB have been harmed and subjugated by men for centuries, so it's not like it's coming from only our experiences with men.

However, this is where the problem lies. While it's okay to be wary of men for our safety, outright hating ALL men is where it gets dicey. That's where radfem ideology will suck people in, specifically AFAB people. They feel wronged by men, they have been hurt by men, so of course in their mind, men have to pay in some way. Feminism on its own sets to destroy the patriarchy and keep everyone on even ground, whereas radfem ideology often trickles into spaces related to that vengeance aspect of men needing to pay for what they have done in some way. And truly, I can understand. From the bottom of my heart, I can understand. I want the men who hurt me and hurt my friends to pay too. Vengeance (or justice, as many would prefer to call it) is a tantalizing concept, even if only in theory due to how shoddy the justice system is at actually bringing any justice to survivors' lives.

And when an AFAB person enters a radfem space, they will immediately be in danger of developing TERF ideology. This is what happened to the aforementioned friend. Most people will already know who I'm talking about. I think they started in a good place, but the biases that they already held within them were taken advantage of, and they let their trauma-informed biases take root and allow them to follow that TERF path. For the record, they still deny being a TERF, but as everyone has already seen, they most certainly are. TERFs will *rarely* actually self-identify as a TERF, even if they are spouting the most clearly TERF-ridden ideology known to man. The reason for this is because TERF is a "bad word" (rightfully so) and the baby radfems out there who are trying to avoid becoming a TERF are going to start by avoiding anyone who self-identifies as a TERF. Which of course, is not what TERFs want. They want baby radfems to feel welcome and not immediately shun what they teach them, because TERFs do eventually want those anti-TERF baby radfems to eventually become TERFs just like them.

[As a side tangent: I know I sound like I'm calling TERFs predatory in the way I describe their tactics, but I'm going to be completely honest in the way I believe a lot of TERFs utilize cult tactics to find new radfems or radfems who are on the fence between feminism and radical feminism and get them to join their cause. If you examine the BITE model (Behavior, Information, Thought, Emotion)--what is often used to define a cult--it's very clear that TERFs WILL use emotion-based tactics and manipulative tactics to get baby radfems to join their cause, and once their thought processes get changed and they lose their friends who don't jive with those beliefs, they get stuck in the echo chamber. And then they'll get pressured to believe more and more extreme things with the threat of ostracization from the "in-group" for not agreeing. And if someone has already lost all of their friends for joining this in-group in the first place, where else to go but to stay? See what I'm getting at, here? While they may not be as damaging to their own members as some cults, they DO cause a threat to others, namely transfemmes. People in power who share those beliefs make laws that distinctly work to harm transfemmes, e.g. JK Rowling providing massive amounts of funding towards anti-trans legislature.]

So how does this relate to trauma-informed biases? How do we get from disliking or hating men to becoming a TERF? Well, because TERFs utilize bioessentialism as a weapon. They reduce everyone down to the parts that they have (or were observed to have) at birth. While a TERF may not outright say "everyone born with a penis deserves to die" they WILL outright say things like "well, I just think AFAB people ("real women") should be allowed to have spaces that are only for them, you know? They shouldn't be forced to be around women who aren't AFAB" (if they will even acknowledge that trans women are women at all, more often they consider trans women to be men masquerading as women or accuse transfemmes of outright trying to invade women's spaces to hurt them). This is especially apparent in the lesbian side of TERFdom, where they try to use the justification of "not being attracted to penises" to explain that trans women shouldn't be allowed in their spaces. Which, to be completely honest, I do think it's fine to be attracted to certain genitalia and turned off by other people's genitalia, but you also shouldn't let that guide you toward completely excluding trans women from lesbian spaces. You can just choose to not date trans women and call it a day. Is it pretty lame to reduce someone to a set of parts and only date someone based on a set of parts? Yeah, it is, but you're within your rights to date who you want to. You just shouldn't exclude them from the entire space altogether based on your preferences.

For the record, I used to be part of this group of people right here. There was nothing I had against trans women, I was just extremely terrified of the parts they have due to my past traumas, and I didn't want to make a trans woman feel like I was afraid of them for the parts that they have. I didn't want my fear of sexual situations with her to ruin whatever romantic attraction we could have, and I was certain for a long time that this would be true forever.

Until I met my current partner, who is a trans woman.

I'm going to segue into how being a trans man (technically we are genderfluid but we usually present as a trans man to most people) doesn't automatically mean you cannot hold biases against trans women or even be outright transmisogynistic, and that while I do believe trans men have their own slew of issues related to being trans men (such as being perceived as a traitor to your AGAB, or the first time you get clocked as your correct gender but not in the gender affirming way, in the way that the women that you have always held so much community with think you're a cis man and are afraid of you. That's a tough one to come to terms with, personally, and is also why our system tends to lay within the "butch lesbian/faggy trans guy" section of transmasc, so that while we definitely do get clocked more often, it also helps the women we care about so much in our communities know we're not cis. Because no, our goal is not to be to be as cis as cis can be and so our gender ambiguity that we express does us a lot of favors while also opening other doors for trouble, like harassment for appearing as a faggy trans guy or as someone who's clocked as a lesbian) they are a completely different ballgame than what trans women have to deal with on a daily basis just for existing as they do.

Things I've learned about trans women's experiences that I never knew before:

-They may never be able to fully pass and that puts them in danger of harassment or even death for the rest of their lives

-if they come off as too loud or too intense for someone, they will immediately see them as a danger even if the transfemme in question is one of the kindest human beings you've ever had the pleasure of meeting

-if they don't talk in the somewhat-stereotypical "quiet, demure, trans girl" voice or for any reason dress in a more butch or non-hyperfeminine style, they are going to be seen as a threat despite any actions they will have done to prove they are not a threat

-if a trans woman likes to be around kids, some people are going to immediately assume they're a pedophile. This one deeply saddens and disgusts me more than I can even describe

-if they are talkative or ask a lot of questions about something and they come off as a little too pushy or are socially awkward/autistic, people are going to immediately assume they need to be afraid of her despite there being no evidence of that being a conclusion that needs to be jumped to, or they may label her as "creepy"

-if she decides not to opt for sex change surgeries then she's clearly just a man pretending to be a woman, if she opts for sex change surgeries, she's a trap. Same for if she passes well or not. If she passes well, she's a trap, if she doesn't pass well, she's a freak

-people will assume she's always trying to manipulate them in some way, as mentioned above. If she passes well, she's manipulating them and tricked them (usually for sex, but could also happen in a romantic situation). If she tries to disclose that she's trans early on, she might risk out on them leaving her just for being trans and not actually getting to know her as a person

-if she's into sex or hypersexual and comes off strong, at best she might be labeled as pushy or creepy, at worse she may be labeled as a rapist

-additionally, trans women are extremely fetishized, but once she has autonomy and is seen as an actual person and not a fetish object, all of that attraction goes away and she's seen as a trap or gross or whatever other vile concoctions people have come up with to describe trans women in a sexual light.

-many, many more things that I couldn't even begin to list in this post.

All of these affect a trans woman every single day. She's at nearly just as much if not just as much at risk of attack as cis women are. She's much more likely to hear the word tranny in a negative context than a trans guy is. While a trans guy could get called a tranny, sure, they're significantly less likely to be attacked or even killed for being trans. Trans men are often labeled as "confused little girls" which is infantalizing, yes, but trans women are often labeled as creeps, rapists, or manipulative/evil people. Imagine what that does to a person's sense of self? Their self image? Even if she's never done anything remotely that bad, she's going to be labeled that anyway.

And gods forbid she ever does anything that could be seen as kinda "weird" or "bad"--not in the morally reprehensible sense. I mean like she cheated on someone or she does drugs or she says something a little tone deaf ten years ago. Trans women are forced to live life on their tiptoes for fear of being told they are evil monsters. I've seen with my own fucking eyes someone who I thought was an ally to transfemmes (they were dating a transfemme!!!) who immediately demonized another trans girl because she was socially awkward and autistic. Tried to make assumptions that she must be abusive to her partner, tried to claim that because of one interaction with this girl, they already knew that she had antisocial behavior (which I find funny that she says this to us, someone who has significant ASPD traits), which to me alludes that they believe she could be manipulative and hurtful. All because she was a bit awkward in a social gathering! I was appalled and disgusted by this, and it really opened the door beyond what I'd heard from my partner already the types of things that trans girls have to deal with from people that are within their own community that they should be able to trust.

So what does this have to do with not letting our trauma-informed biases rule the way we think about others? I'll keep it as simple as possible with this little flow chart:

Someone (usually AFAB) has trauma with men -> they hate men -> they join the feminism movement -> they veer into radfem spaces because of how vocal radfems are about hating men and they feel they are justified to believe this because of the harm men have caused them personally -> they become a TERF because radfems see people as a set of parts rather than what they actually are -> TERFs spread hatred and vitriol towards trans women in particular -> that hate and vitriol leaks into the LGBTQ+ community because a large number of TERFs are lesbian cis women -> trans women are unable to feel safe even in their own communities

Trans women deserve to feel safe in their own communities. You can be the biggest trans woman supporter ever and still not be a good ally. I thought I was a great ally to trans women before I realized that I was equating trans women's struggles with my struggle as a trans man. And until you really understand what they go through and see it with your own eyes, you may never truly realize just how difficult it is to exist as a trans woman AND you may realize you had biases you didn't even know you had. Existing as a trans man =/= existing as a trans woman. I didn't even realize I had any bias towards trans girls until I realized that I had decided (rather young I might add) that I wouldn't date a trans girl because of the fact that she was AMAB. I didn't realize how much this completely screwed up my view of trans women until I examined it under a microscope, AFTER I fell in love with a trans girl. I don't want y'all to feel like you have to fall in love with a trans girl to understand their struggle and to question your own biases. (though I will say, dating a trans woman has been the best relationship of my life, I love her so much).

Examining your biases and understanding what is trauma-informed and what is an actual issue is paramount. Being wary of cis men is kind of a given, considering the amounts of violence cis men do upon people and have been doing upon people for hundreds upon hundreds of years, but you can't let yourself get into the rut of outright hating cis men just because you've been hurt by cis men in the past.

Interestingly, I've also been abused by cis women, though rarely in as violent of contexts as cis men. I've made myself look at that under a lens too and it made me realize that I greatly distaste old women, and for me, especially if they are 50 and older--though some parts of my system also struggle with any woman older than her mid thirties. I will almost immediately assume an old woman doesn't have my best interests at heart, though it's different than with cis men. While I may assume a cis man might violently assault me in one form or another, I typically have different assumptions with older women and it's definitely something I'm going to have to also examine under a microscope and try to pick apart to really understand if my assumptions are based on verifiable truth ("all old women are bad," like the "all men are bad" assumption) or based on my traumas. My traumas are my own personal truth, but I can't let that affect my relationships I have with men and older women for the rest of my life. Or I could end up a TERF, or like one of those people who were happy that old people were dying of COVID. What a miserable way to live, you know?

-Delphine (she/her)

[focsle]

Once again I am misled by recommendations and rottentomatoes reviews into thinking horrors are going to be Good…and my toxic trait is I think I have objectively good taste. Watched Barbarian last night. Didn’t like most of it. Spoilers below.

I think when I feel most critical of films is when they’re really good in the beginning and then deflate themselves. I thought the first third of Barbarian was SO creepy. It built the tension so well, I was really invested in learning more about Tess and Keith as characters, and had a really good way of balancing the anxiety of the situation. The premise of the house was super disturbing too. But after the first act everything else was a mistake.

Killing Keith, shifting the perspective to making Insufferable-Heavy-Handed-Parody-of-Toxic-Masculinity-Character AJ a main character who’s introduced 1/3rd the way through, and basically making Tess secondary to him was all a mistake.

Keith was a red herring that worked really well in building the opening tension, but was also clearly a red herring. I think it would’ve been more interesting that as the red herring died away, the horrors of the house being discovered together by Tess and Keith (as the film did a good job at building investment in their dynamic) would’ve been just…more engaging from a character standpoint. I think AJ served a function, but he sucked, and overemphasizing him as a main character was trash. I went from telling Tess not to go in rooms, to not giving a shit at all about the scary basement because I did not care about AJ, I didn’t care if he died, I wasn’t scared for him, and he just had like…..no substance. It’s crazy how the premise that I thought was so scary at the beginning literally meant nothing to me when he was the one in the tunnels.

Suddenly shifting the tone for the last 2/3rds to be a horror comedy also did not work for me. I feel like it was trying to replicate the artistry of Peele and his skill in blending horror and comedy seamlessly, but it didn’t know how to do it well. Peele has an understanding of tone, ramping of tension, and diffusal, as well as creating characters that you care about that like…didn’t exist here.

And I love horror as social commentary. I think horror is at its best when it’s a social commentary. But this film literally spoonfed it to you. The script spelled out every second ‘This Is About Toxic Masculinity And The Hypervigilance Women Have To Have Over Stranger Danger In This Society’ in a way that had no subtlety. It was a big eyeroll. It’s like how I more or less quite enjoyed the 2021 Candyman and thought it did some really great things, but also there were times when a character would just…Look at the camera and Define Gentrification. Or at the end of Block Island Sound where there was an unnecessary voiceover of the main character being like THIS IS THE POINT BTW. I feel like it happens a lot lately. Horror as social commentary works best, I think, when you give the viewers some credit to see your thesis statement without having to spell it out. Or are viewers just dumb? Do most people need things spelled out? Have we just become dumber at following narrative themes? IDK MAN it makes me kind of mad.

Anyway. It was so good and then it was so schlocky and disappointing.

[galadrielspeaks]

just thinking about thranduil and how he categorises his life and how the events of his life affects the way he rules his kingdom…. how so much of his development was defined by huge cataclysmic tragedies… thinking about how his youth is defined as before Doriath and his adulthood is defined as After Doriath… how when he became a prince he probably held on to his more idealistic beliefs only to be sternly reminded of the fickleness of life during war….. how the entire kingdom of the woodland realm probably has a Before Dagorlad and an After. how could you not after losing your king and the majority of your people? it is incredibly telling how these events of Thranduil’s past has affected his rule and everything about him down to his parenting. he understands he’s alone. that’s tragic. but he also understands his kingdom is alone. he’s a lonely king. there's no one higher than him, no one to seek advice from. he understands he is the final defender of a kingdom and he is fighting an inherited war, he has first hand witnessed the tragedies of this war and has been directly critically affected by it, he is just as much a victim of Sauron as his people. his nobility offers him zero protection, at any point he could lose everything, and yet he remains empathetic. he remains kind. he remains generous. he obviously sees the worth in fighting, he refuses to give up fully. he is (reasonably!) incredibly cautious which some call him an isolationist or consider him fickle for, during events like his refusal of gandalf’s invitation to the White Council but it becomes incredibly clear why he is like this when it’s put into context of his past. he has trusted allies before, he has seen what has happened. to join an organisation full of ring bearer’s as the sole leader of a nation with no ring to protect his people is almost an insult. they would not and do not understand what it takes to lead in that situation. Thranduil and all of his people are living in the after of the war of the last alliance. why would they join another? Thranduil has put his people first. He recognises that they themselves are the only ones who understand just how at risk they are. and yet with all of this in mind it should noted that he allies himself with men (who historically have experienced and understand the dangerous climate of their respective nations) and creates trade routes with them to provide for his people and also provides aid to them. and it is noted in the text that Legolas has been raised incredibly happily, and he is well-adjusted. throughout fighting a seemingly losing war thranduil found it implicitly important to raise his son with joy and hope. i like to believe he understands the importance of childhood whimsy and enchantment and worked to instill and maintain his child’s innocence. he raised his son as trauma-free as he could (saying this bc we do not know if his mother is dead or sailed or not but either way to be without the mother is traumatic but besides that Legolas appears to be generally mentally healthy). despite knowing first hand just how cruel and painful life is he did not feel the need to raise his child to be prepared and worried about very real threats. rather he raised his child happily, and simply worked to give his son the skills he needed to survive and to defend himself. usually military father's who have expreienced a great deal of trauma and haven't processed it correctly tend to succumb to the urge to raise their children to understand the cruelty of the world, and loathe their children for their innocence. i think that in thranduil not doing this with legolas, we can infer that he has taken time to healthily process his experiences. I believe that Thranduil is an incredibly important figure in the Lord of the Rings because he is truly an incredible example of someone who learns from their mistakes, learns from tradegy, who learns from life. i think that Thranduil never wanted to be a King, it is a responsibility that fell into his lap unwillingly and that is why he is a successful and well-loved ruler.

[defira85]

I have... thoughts about the first episode of the Veilguard podcast and I suppose one could call them critical but I'm having war flashbacks about the DA fandom in the 2010s so. This is going under a cut and I'm not going to tag it. Because I don't want to spoiler people but I also don't want to draw lots of attention

My biggest issue is that I don't necessarily feel like anyone on the writing team has specific experience with writing radio drama

Listen, writing specifically audio only narratives is a skill. It's a difficult one. It's not the same as reading an audiobook out loud, and it's not the same as listening to a recording of a live-play/improv group. It's not the same as a movie script. I've often thought that the closest comparison in terms of narrative structure and performance is live theatre, but even that has limitations to the comparisons

Exposition in radio drama is, by necessity, somewhat overstated. There's a lot of characters stating outright things that are happening, in order to convey that information to the audience, and sometimes that can come across as very... heavy handed. It's really hard to balance in a way that can seem like an organic conversation. They managed it relatively well at the start of the show when Nadia outright states that Elio has given her a ring - in a visual medium like a movie, we'd have a close up shot of the ring and maybe a close up of her shocked face, and they wouldn't need to explain it. But in the radio drama, we get the shock play out and then she confirms it's a ring thats upset her, because we as the audience need that explicit confirmation. It's the nature of the medium.

What isn't great, and this is where I think that it's obvious to me that the writers either aren't familiar with the medium or don't have a ton of experience with it, is the way that everything related to the conspiracy is laid out. Obviously, you don't want to info dump and ruin everything related to the conspiracy in the first episode, but it feels like this conversation happened at least 3 times:

"*gasp* what are you even saying?"

"... I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh, you never want to talk-"

"Now isn't the time!"

"It's never the time for you!!"

What did Neve know about the raid and what did she say to convince Elio? We don't know, it's more important to have five minutes of grunting as Nadia climbs walls. Did we learn some stuff about Nadia as a character through the grunting? I mean, some of her stuff with Vik at the start, I'd say yes, but then it just went on and on. Did Elio talk to Nadia about what Neve told him on the arguably days or weeks long trek from Minrathous south to the Silent Plains? We don't know, they had to have multiple arguments like the one above. Could some of it be solved by the presence of a narrator? Arguable. How did Elio know the chant to follow along with Solas immediately?

"But Defira, they can't drop all of their exposition in the first episode, they need to build narrative tension" I'm not really talking about the story so much as I'm talking about how it's conveyed, how it's presented to us as an audience and what they're choosing to offer as the most important pieces of information and world/character building in the limited time frame. Lots of screaming each other's names dramatically sounds exciting, but it doesn't tell me anything the 15th time around. Lots of grunting as they yell and run and fight over and over again and I start to tune out

What can I tell about this first episode? That they spent a lot of money on sound design, and it sounds crowded. Narratively, I have lore questions (complaints) but that's not the point of the post.

The actors were great. The music was pretty good, but was it really worth it forking out for Hans Zimmer? The sound design was messy and cluttered.

I don't know. I'll keep listening, and maybe the writing will improve. The story concept is exciting but the execution is weak

I did laugh at Solas immediately fucking up again though

[justmenoworries]

Lore Olmypus Episode 271 Spoilers

We're in the endgame now. I guess.

And I feel absolutely nothing. Any tension that could have hyped me up for this moment was squashed by my frustration with every character's lack of thinking skills.

Why exactly are Hera and Persie passed out on the ground? Kronos didn't even do anything yet, all that happened was that he closed the door after Hera and Persie managed to squeeze through at the last moment.

Speaking of, this episode shows us that Kronos is huddled up in (what is presumably) his cell deep down in Tartarus so how exactly did he control the door?

It will never be not funny to me that Kronos, ancient tyrant and titan of time (*rolls eyes*) sounds like a modern-day incel whenever he talks. And then other times RS remembers she's writing the supposed Big Bad and has him switch to more appropriate language on the fly. The whiplash is unreal.

Persephone: "Kronos is powerful but erratic. This makes his behavior hard to anticipate."

Oh, is that RS's in-universe excuse for Kronos switching motivations every time we see him? First he wants to return to the world of the living, then he wants to take revenge on Hades, then he suddenly wants Persephone but actually he wants Hera. And now he wants... Hera again, I guess. Holy constantly shifting goals, Batman!

Kronos: "I will take pleasure in your gradual and painful destruction!"

also Kronos: *proceeds to sit in his cell and do nothing for the entirety of the episode*

If you want to make Kronos actually menacing instead of just annoying, maybe have him do more than an occasional supervillain-laugh RS.

I will admit, the visual of Hera and Persephone slowly descending into Tartarus and past all these human souls reaching out for them from their cells is cool. It makes the whole situation actually feel tense and scary, knowing there's something terrible waiting for the protags down this endless pit but also knowing that they have no choice but slowly climb towards it.

Or it would be if RS didn't ruin it with Persie doing very obvious cover-ups for story flaws a lot of critics pointed out while she's descending.

Like "Oh, I don't talk or think about how the fuck Apollo managed to channel my powers or where Hades actually is because I'm disassociating from it as a defense mechanism."

Persie that would be way more convincing if you'd done literally anything besides sitting on your ass and whining this season.

This constant narrative that everything is just too much for poor girlboss Persie and that's why she's doing fuck all doesn't really work when all that happened is that people rightfully called Persie out for making a mess while Persie hid away in the Underworld. Rather than work on solutions to the problems she caused or at least try to help with the fall-out.

She hasn't tried to learn more about her powers or about her deal. She didn't try to get in contact with Erebus. She hasn't done anything to try and free Melinoe from Kronos. She didn't help with the preparations for the sleep dive, neither did she even offer to take part in it even though it concerns both her and Hades' kingdom. She refused to participate in the meeting between the gods on what to do about the "plague" but still felt the need to make commentary over the phone. She hasn't come forward about Apollo's numerous crimes to keep him from taking over Olympus, even though she has several powerful deities to back up her claims.

Every time Persie could have chosen to become more than a passive bystander, she had some other character step up and do or say something instead.

Hera: "So are the fertility goddess stories real and you are one?"

Is... is that not common knowledge at this point?

The Fertility Goddess Mystery Box is becoming bloated with how much shit RS keeps putting in.

So apparently whatever Apollo did with the help of Ouranos at the broadcast was only "manufactured" and any greenery he managed to create with Persie has presumably died again by now. Okay. Persie knows this how?

The irony of RS making Hades look exactly like Kronos in the flashback to him and Persie accidentally doing the going giant-thing.

Persephone: "I did make [Apollo] bleed from his eyes and ears though, so that's a win."

Huh?

Persephone: "It's something I can do with my new powers; I was sort of able to rot his physical form from the inside."

Huh?

Persephone: "I think I can do some damage to Kronos that way."

HUH???

Hold on, so does Persie know how her powers work or does she not??? What is it with this cloud somersault in logic???? When the fuck did she figure this out????

Hera: "I'm not really one for combat."

Girl you fought in the fucking Titanomachy, what do you mean???

(The way RS repeatedly portrays women as physically helpless and incapable of defending themselves without outside help, I want to throw up all of my organs)

Alright, as much as I hate everything leading up to it I actually like the conversation between Hera and Kronos. Hera using Kronos' victim complex and egocentrism against him is actually really clever. And I like the small glimpse we get into Kronos' past and how Ouranos' abuse helped shape him into the monster we know today.

Kronos justifying his own cruelty by comparing it to Ouranos' allegedly much more evil deeds while completely missing that his actions have made him no better than Ouranos is neat. That's abusers for you. "I know I hurt you but I could've been worse! Also I had it way worse than you! Pity me!"

I did not expect Hera drawing this paralell between her and Kronos, of being deities who did horrible things for the greater good and ended up despised despite the sacrifices they made, but it's cool.

It's bullshit, but it's bullshit Hera knows Kronos will buy because of just how blind he is to his own faults.

Okay, final thoughts.

Someone else pointed this out, but this is literally just the season 3 finale again.

Kronos takes over a large part of the Underworld and controls the bodies of a bunch of powerful deities, Hades among them.

Persephone has to descend to the Underworld.

Another powerful god tags along with Persie and does 80% of the work to set up Persie's #Girlboss victory.

Not RS building up a different villain all season and then just going "Sike! It's Kronos again!"

At this point, I fully expect Ouranos and Apollo to be defeated off-screen.

[jgabi51]

“Home doesn’t exist anymore… because of you!”

Sonic Prime was great and I can’t wait to see what happens next. There are still so many questions that we have unanswered. But listen y’all Sonic is gonna need therapy.

!!!!SPOILERS(sort of)!!!!

And its a lot of reading, like if you are going to read this next part sit down and be ready for bad grammar and to think critically

What Sonic is going through in Prime felt like/reminded me of the metal virus and or lost world. In those stories the basics are: Sonic doesn’t listen, does something impulsive, makes the issue worse, everyone gets on the ‘Sonics fault’ bandwagon sooner or later and yells at him; people expect Sonic to fix everything, forgetting that he is a living being too who needs food, rest, support, to fix the problem. In past games Sonic seemed too happy in the face of the grave situations he was faced with. For the sake of argument, to me this is Sonic putting his ‘hero’ persona on to inspire hope in those around him. And maybe to try and fool himself as well. But in recent stories, and under certain writers, Sonic has matured to show more emotion and vulnerability to better flow with the dark themes his adventures address. Some great examples of this are Unleashed, Frontiers, and of course the metal virus saga. To clarify, I’m speaking in reference to the difference between: Sonic showing genuine emotion of (mostly) any kind [typically when by himself as an internal monologue or when around 1+ of his very close friends] vs. Sonic being exaggeratively bravo, trash talking his opponent(s), overly optimistic, and narcissistic [typically dawned while enemies or someone whom he met recently or doesn’t see often are present or when he his in public/has a lot of eyes on him]. Think Sonic in the Tail’s “am I a burden?” Scene in Frontiers vs. Sonic being allegedly in prison and tortured for 6 months after he gets his behind handed to him yet seeming fine and as confident as before once a complete stranger comes and saves him in Forces. Also to note, if it wasn’t clear, Sonics impulsiveness, impatience, quick-wit, fast learning/adapting nature, creativity, sense of justice, and ‘valuing his friends/family’ mindset is shared and holds strong across the board. They’re skills, traits, and morals that shape the spiky blue speedsters opinions and views; his personality. Those things are just who he is. Woo! That was lengthy but theres more, I bring this all up because in Prime I saw hints of both: the too-happy/‘hero’ persona Sonic who’s sassy, snarky, and a bit of an a-hole and the Sonic who feels the pain, would sacrifice a world/universe (hehe) for his friends, is Tails’ (adoptive and unofficial) big brother. This shows that Prime has a lot of potential and Prime!Sonic has a lot of layers yet to be explored as a person. Which may shed light on what Sonics personal and mental journey might hopefully for me be as the story is told. I just hope either Sonic snaps, breaks down and cries or yells and rants about (not killing anyone or a villain arc, just not yet) or if Sonic is gonna be able to keep it together til the end we see him get his trauma addressed. Either way blue is gonna shed tears and its all I can ask for.

[pumpumdemsugah]

"#something is wrong with younger ppl than just being young." Serious question, but can you elaborate? Are you mainly referring to people in their early 20s today, in this specific day and age, etc. (not combative, this is a legit question because your tags on that one post about the 23-yr-old getting messaged by someone in their early 30s intrigued me).

Hi!!

Well from what I've seen and obviously it doesn't apply to everyone ( tbh I think it's social media brain poisoning) early 20s and younger people have the tendency to filter everything through systematic oppression so much it makes it difficult for criticisms to focus on anything else. All the Interpersonal and normal boundaries get dashed out the window or is a tertiary factor.

It's come to the point I've found myself repeating shit about early 20s people's behaviour that out of context I'm using phrasing conservatives do. I guess context matters but it feels icky when it happens

Generally, I think when people much older than someone in their early-ish 20s goes out their way to have a relationship with them it's a red flag but the fact the person in this story started crying about it like they were some victimised child and not a young adult is the type of insane behaviour I just don't see from anyone older. It's this inability to see anything outside the oppressor oppressed dynamic to the point of abandoning anything else even if it's more relevant and like this young woman, working herself into a frenzy about something that doesn't apply to her

I think covid did a number on a lot of people's skills and now people are too scared or weird to have the necessary re-socialisation needed

I think more than what's usual for that age, some younger people have inappropriate boundaries. Especially if they don't have a job to force them to learn. This could just be a me issue lol but I think because of what's common on social media many are eager to jump to the we're BBF stage regardless of how well you get on or don't have any social skills. All of these make for the prevalence of people much more immature than you'd expect but I'm willing to put on the table that I don't remember my own behaviour when I was younger properly

Sometimes I think this 21yro that joined the bi Les group I used to go to a couple years ago and when she spoke about her sexuality she mentioned how it was inclusive and we all sort of squinted lol I didn't think anyone did that outside social media but more and more I'm wrong because how much behaviour gets dragged off social media into everyday life

My only experience is mostly through friendships and acquaintances. If I ever started a relationship with a 23yro assume I'm having a mental breakdown or I've been possessed by a demon

[generalluxun]

You know what’s extremely ironic about Astruc's comments about Miraculous Ladybug being for kids?

Let me tell you a story:

Once upon a time; a man was working on a project for which he was very passionate about, a project that involved a skill that had been perfected for many years by him, his team and many other teams of artists. But he was met with many problems.

This project had cost him a lot of money and unless it was a succes with the people, the man would lose everything he had worked for, as he had feared it would happen eventually if he didn't try to make his idea a reality.

Nobody really expected him to succeed and thought he was just drawing his end ever nearer. A "folly" is what they called it.

Eventually he ran out of money and the only way to get the money needed to even complete his folly was by asking a loan from the bank. Easier said than done, because as nobody believed in him, they would not expect him to pay the loan back.

Undeterred; and despite the fact that if he failed to be a success he would lose his home, he decided to bring some of the paintings, drawings and concepts his team had created, to show the bank's board of directors what they were hoping to do.

One of the directors proclaimed that in the future no one would remember the name of anyone in the room except for the name of the man who indeed got his loan and then completed his project.

The man was Walt Disney, and what he showed was a half-finished Snow White.

That's right, Walt Disney had to charm a group of adults with his first movie before he could charm anyone else with it. And if he hadn't succeeded, then animated movies would have probably not become a thing while animation itself faded into obscurity.

And that's not the end of it either, it's established in the movie that Snow White will be saved in the end like anyone who had heard the fairy tale knew already. And despite that, you know what the people at the premiere of Snow White did back in 1937?

They cried their hearts out during the funeral.

Fully grown adults who had heard of Walt's Folly as it was called and were skeptical of watching such a long "cartoon" were moved to the same tears as the seven dwarfs.

Say what you will about the man himself, but you gotta give Walt Disney this: he knew that if adults weren't moved by his work then entertaining kids would be the least of his worries.

I've head this tale before, and I get your point.

I think the 'It's for Kids' runs deeper than this for ML though, specifically. It's used disingenuously to shop for praise *and* deflect critique.

It's Schrodinger's show. If it gets criticized for bad messaging through oversimplification then 'It's a kids show! what do you expect!'

If it feels it's doing well then 'Look at what they're doing in a kids show!'

We've been told by the creator that kids 'get it' in places where adults have concerns. Conversely we've been told 'Kids won't understand' in other places.

Now, you can make a silly shallow kids show and *that's fine* we have silly shallow adult shows. Kids shouldn't be left out.

You can also make a kids show that punches above it's age range, pushing kids to think and learn. *I personally love these shows* they were doing (modified)Shakespeare on Sesame Street when I was growing up. Disney's Gargoyles is RIFE with all sorts of literary references.

What you can't do is swerve between lanes as suits your desires at any given moment. As a creator you need to establish a framework by which your media can be approached. As the creator you have a very wide latitude in how to build that framework, but it does need to remain consistent.

I should clarify- This doesn't mean the more serious kids shows can't be silly and funny, nor that the shallow shows can't dip their toes into more complex topics, but *how these things are approached* needs to remain consistant.

Example: Dearest Family: We're throwing in an addiction reference, that's pretty intense. We're going to give it to our magical fairy stand-in so it is one step removed, and we're mixing in the serious and laughs along the way. It's not until the end where it falls down. the addiction is solved with.... a pep talk. ML loves pep talks, it's 80's cartoon style to the core. Pep talks work for a *lot* of problems. Just stopping to think matters.

Pep talks don't work for addiction. However, you can imagine they don't want to keep this as a running theme with relapses and struggles. It's a one-off lesson. So what you need to do is make it clear that the one-off solution is *also* magical in nature. Have Plagg cataclysm one of those Galette's making it nasty and gross, so Tikki eats it and YUCK! now she doesn't want Galette ever again. Boom, you've 'solved' it through magic so the one-episode-solution for a complex problem flows more cleanly.

I think the inability to learn/accept critique is the biggest problem in the writing room. There are good things in ML, and *every* show makes mistakes of some kind or another. Someone in the writing room just seems completely unwilling to engage in reflection, or if they do they simply will not admit it.

It's weird.

I'm not someone who 'hates the show' I want it to succeed and prosper, and I want it to have good messaging. S5 Miraculous was paralleling Chloé's descent. you are just watching bad choice after bad choice, hoping there will be a course correction.

At least we still have the movie, and maybe S6 will be a new direction. S5 did feel like a glut of 'We need to finish tis before the end of this season' developments.

[llycaons]

can I be honest here it's true there's ppl who insist on watching shows like iwtv then wildly misinterpret everything because it's too complicated for them but there's also ppl who will mock you for only watching shows within your intellectual comfort level/for never trying anything new or challenging and ALSO for trying to understand something and getting it wrong. obviously you gotta hear from multiple perspectives and practice critical thinking as a skill and try to learn from ppl who are speaking with authority on their own experiences but that takes time and not everyone you encounter on the internet is gonna be an expert. and obviously outside of bigoted interpretations maybe it's not the end of the world if some people are wrong about a tv show and this is coming from someone who loves to complain about other ppl being wrong about media I mean you know me

like...there are very good reasons why people are so critical of iwtv fans being so so bad at understanding what's happening or being extremely judgemental of some characters over others (racism) but it is also kind of funny to see condescending posts about how 'ugh, everyone on this site only watches kids shows' one day and 'wow, viewerss are SO stupid for not immediately understanding this intentionally complex and confusing situation' the next like I thought we wanted people to challenge themselves! they're not going to immediately understand it perfectly coming from, idk, the hunger games. and if they're not given any grace it's not easy to branch out! again I'm specifically discussing the misreadings of the interview process, the sequence of events, and the structure of the story, and NOT the misreadings of the characters wrt their race. I'm not saying racist viewers who refuse to educate themselves need their hands held by black viewers I want to be clear

imo the 'discussion questions' post was a genuinely fun and accessible way to direct critical engagement over this last episode I'm dead serious I wish we had more of them. I know how annoying it is to see people misread a story and characters you understand, but it's a complicated show and not everyone is going to get it easily or on their own idk. I'm just glad for my mutuals who knows what's going on bc EYE do not <- knows her intellectual limits

THAT BEING SAID the way some of these people are wrong is so goddamn smug and annoying. no further comment. this is the internet. where better to get worked up over poor media literacy shajshfjsjdj

[scorpionatori]

I remember seeing a post talking about how people actually should consume “problematic” media so they can learn to spot certain stuff etc., and I was like yeah! but then they were like “obviously you shouldn’t monetarily support things like aot but-” and it made me roll my eyes so hard cause like, did they listen to their own advice? honestly, another reason you should consume “problematic” media is to decide for yourself if it’s actually as problematic as people say it is. because people will cherry pick “evidence” and start rumors based on nothing and then make long articles and posts about how you’re evil and bigoted if you consume this piece of media and send the creator death threats and it will become such a huge thing that said piece of media becomes the poster child of evil bigoted propaganda and anyone who consumes it is a bigot. this is famously what happened to attack on titan. but if you ACTUALLY consume the series, it is not hard to realize how baseless the controversy is, and how very much it is NOT imperialist military propaganda. the series clearly depicts propaganda and genocide and nationalism and imperialism and fascism in a very negative light, and it really does not take a lot of critical thinking skills to realize these things. even going in with a skeptical mind after everything I’d heard, I quickly changed my mind about attack on titan. I kept thinking “okay, it’s been very heavily demonized, surely there must be some truth to it”, but all I saw was completely warped and twisted interpretations of a series that was trying to tell a story the complete opposite of what people who started and listened to the controversy say it is. the series was so clearly condemning all these things people said it was promoting, that the discourse is now so unbelievably laughable to me. so yes, do consume media that everyone deems problematic, because maybe you’ll find out you don’t agree.

if attack on titan needs to make itself any more clear:

some words from the creator and editor: