#some tags i have blocked include:

[gibbearish]

btw the way you curb the "worlds most enticing button" urge is to give into it by feeding it red herrings. filter a few boring tags and a few tags for things that are dumb/funny so that the button isnt always as enticing, sometimes its just holding some post abt characters you dont care abt. and sometimes it is a fun surprise and that satisfies the beast enough that the actually upsetting ones arent as enticing either

[triangular-static]

look i understand if people just don't like the idea of billford, i think we have a different internal concept of what shipping means (they're not good for each other at all but i need to dissect their dynamic like a bug. you understand. it's fun) but it's fine to avoid things you don't like, good for you genuinely

however people saying they like. don't see it. like. i'm not saying there's no platonic way to read it, i'm aroace spec myself i'm all for reading things in different ways. but i do think saying they weren't partners in any queer sense at all is trying too hard to go against what the narrative is trying to say, or missing it. somehow

anyway media literacy time if a character makes a joke like this

and the previous context of that joke within the show is that it's about an ex wife. what connection do you think the text is trying to get you to make.

and that's just from a writing point of view. not even noting that from an in universe perspective ford likely knows the joke from the same source as stan. and is therefore. placing himself in that role of the joke are you seeing where i'm coming from

(not to mention bill's side of this text which is. extremely manipulative but also does not read very platonic. again, it can technically be read as platonic! bill literally can manipulate ford's feelings. but the specific wording used is very much meant to look like possessive ex partner wording whether the character means it that way or not. it's coding. look again i'm not saying it was good for them i'm just saying there was something there.)

and then there's also the divorce/break up/rock bottom input on the website. like. how else is that supposed to be read. and the corresponding page in the book itself.

the language being used here. like yes he's saying it in a joking way but then there's the other side that isn't joking which is him crying at the bar. it's the both sides (the very coded language on top of the very genuine emotions and dynamic beneath)

i know most of us are on the same page with this i've just seen a couple people saying they don't see it when this is some of the most clear cut coding i've ever seen. and these are just the things that explicitly reference a relationship off the top of my head i'm not even including the general vibes of Everything

tl;dr it's barely even subtext anymore it's all but straight up text. what's not clicking have we forgotten what coding is (lighthearted i just enjoy the phrase what's not clicking. what's not clicking)

[stardust-falling]

fandom psa; there is nothing whatsoever that is inherently "problematic" about shipping characters who are "found family."

Adoption is not found family. A blended family is not found family. A found family or chosen family is a group which, through circumstances or simply mutual affection, hold their relationship to one another with equal care and importance as family members ought to. It's not the same type of relationship.

It's not incest. It's not even pseudo-incest unless you want it to be. I personally don't care what people ship, but I'm absolutely tired of people misusing the term "found family" to just recreate the idea of a nuclear family and force those roles onto the entirety of a fandom. Sure, maybe characters who are found family may view themselves like siblings, or like a parent and child or aunt and niece, but they might also just see each other as friends-- and guess what? romantic partners too! That's technically the most widely-accepted form of found family/chosen family there is!

The whole point of found family/chosen family is to have the importance of "family" on relationships that lie outside the commonly-understood bounds of that relationship. Not to recreate the "mommy-daddy-daughter-son" dynamic with unrelated characters and use that headcanon or fanon dynamic to enforce your own morality or preferences on other fans.

[thirrith]

A guide to Dream of the Red Chamber for English speakers

I've been posting about a book called Dream of the Red Chamber for a while. I'm kinda obsessed with it but the tags here on tumblr are pretty much barren. I want to get more people to be interested in it, so here's something more informative with minimal screaming.

Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢) is a 18th century Chinese novel by Cao Xueqin. It isn't very well-known outside of the Sinophone aka the Chinese-speaking world, whereas where I come from it's considered a masterpiece and classic and is so well-known and holds so much cultural significance even the people who haven't necessarily read the book make references to it - like, basically everybody knows about the book. It certainly deserves to be known and loved by more people - that's why I'm making a post about it. This post is NOT going to be an attempt to cover everything, though, because there is just so, so much to the book; instead, I am creating a guide to make it easier for people to get started if they are interested.

What is Dream of the Red Chamber about? Why do people love it?

The best way to sum it up is calling it a family saga mixed with a bit of fantasy. It tells the story of the rise and fall of a big and powerful family, focusing on the story of the young girls, the maid servants, and the wives that all live together and run the household. The only male main character Jia Baoyu is a young heir of the family, who grew up among these women and girls. He loves and understands them, loves being surrounded by them, and deeply identifies with them. My dad, who is also a fan of the book, loves saying that Baoyu 'has the heart of a maiden'.

The book is funny and full of drama, and at the same time it's also poetic, tragic and profound, and the tragedy of the characters is written in such a kind way, as if the author wants you to love them and remember how wonderful and alive they are despite the fact that a gloomy fate will claim them all.

The book is also so queer in a way that no other Ming/Qing dynasty Chinese novels can compare. Obviously there are no modern queer labels because it was written in imperial China, but there are characters who are interested in both men and women, characters who are interested in no one, and affairs between boys and between girls; many main characters have the kind of relationships with their gender that make my Chinese transgender heart sing with empathy.

If you want to hear from English speakers who fell in love with the book and learn more about the context and literary/cultural value of the book, I recommend starting with 'Why is China’s greatest novel virtually unknown in the west?' by Michael Wood on The Guardian and 'Why you should read China’s vast, 18th century novel, Dream of the Red Chamber' by Josh Stenberg on The Conversation.

Dream of the Red Chamber is a long novel with many different versions and possibly hundreds of adaptations. How should I begin?

There are two translations that I know have received good reviews:

A Dream of Red Mansions translated by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang. My partner is reading this version. It's a very faithful translation with footnotes to make up for the language and cultural barriers. (Note: the Yangs finished their translation in prison in China during the Cultural Revolution.)

The Story of the Stone translated by David Hawkes and John Minford. It's a translation that takes more artistic liberties than the Yangs version. For example it differs in the way it translates character names and its writing style. Hawkes wanted to recreate the experience of reading the novel in Chinese for English speaking readers, but it may also be harder for you to talk to those who read the book in Chinese about certain characters and details.

There is also a public domain translation by H. Bencraft Joly, which was first published in the 19th century, and you can find it on Project Gutenberg.

The 1987 36-episode TV adaptation Dream of the Red Chamber is well-loved and considered by many Chinese people to be the best adaptation of the book. Every later adaptation would be compared with the 1987 one and found lacking. I personally love this adaptation a lot, and I think out of all the adaptations I've seen (including TV series, films and Chinese opera) it has the best interpretations of the book and the characters. It also has the best songs, which were adapted from the poems in the book. You can stream the series with English subtitles on the Internet Archive.

If you want something shorter that covers the main romance plot line and includes a few iconic scenes from the book, I recommend the 1977 film adaptation The Dream of the Red Chamber casting legendary actress Brigitte Lin as Jia Baoyu (she also portrayed an iconic classic wuxia character as a trans woman in another film franchise, but I digress). You can find the film with English subtitles on Youtube.

This is not all, but it's a good start. If you ever decide to give it a go, it doesn't matter if you watch one of the adaptations first or read the book first. Don't stress, take your time, and enjoy the ride!

[jigsawcheeks]

Obsessed with A Glitch in Time. It was an amazing read! :DDDD

[qwuilty]

(worlds most melancholy playing of you cant fight the homestuck)

I havent done sprites in a bit but i had a lot of fun doing these, i tried to stick mostly to the canon style and drew most the sprite parts myself besides using nepeta's coat and editing the god tier sprites (also thank you to my partner for helping me decide some especially p1's <3 <3 <3)

Bonus alternate god tier for p3 cause i feel both are fitting for him

[contagious-watermelon]

if i hear one more person unironically identifying themself as afab or amab I'm gonna start biting

[musashi]

i JUST realized this might be related to one of my other friends in the mvk fandom suddenly hardblocking me so uh

hey y'all! if you frequent the mvk tag, there is a regular blogger there who i will not name, but who has some sort of pathological attachment/obsession with me. they and i were tumblr mutuals but we were not close. we DM'd twice and had scattered interactions here and there.

they are accusing me of:

being abusive toward them

being otherwise cruel to them

being ableist against disabled folks who are high-support???

sending suibait/having my friends send suibait

probably other things.

EDIT: someone's informed me they're accusing me of posting private stuff from their vent account? the only account i know of theirs is the one we were mutuals on

i can't stress enough that none of this is true. there is no proof of it and if you press this person they will have none. all that happened was some time about a year ago when we were mutuals, i feared they might be vagueblogging about me when i was having depressive episodes and i sent them this message about it:

i was being honest here, but they then turned around and said i was spot on--they were vagueblogging about how badly they wanted me to shut the fuck up, stop whining, etc (paraphrasing, but that was the vibe exactly) every time i needed social support. they have since deleted their message admitting to this. i am so sorry i cannot prove it.

since then multiple mutual friends of ours have unfollowed them because they squat on ym blog and, again, pathologically blog about me. they revel and make posts about "justice" and "karma" whenever i am upset on here. they scream and yell and cry whenever i am happy. they have admitted to wanting to convince their mutuals to abandon me:

again, i can't prove this is about me but i have a lot of testimonials from people who noticed this being in both our circles and can vouch for it. initially i was just going to roll my eyes and move on but i think they might be telling other people i'm some horrible fucking abuser who mistreated them when i wasn't even close enough to them to do so.

anyways, sorry to everyone who tracks the tag! i don't know how to prove that i didn't hurt this person. but... like... if they approach you, please do your best to use best judgement and consider the facts in front of you.

again, i will not be naming them. this is not a callout post. this is a preventative measure, because i am a traumatized wreck and i really cannot deal with things of this nature.

[throughpatchesofviolet]

... okay. I have blocked the person who was making me feel the most uncomfortable on all my platforms.

[kaidanalenkosprmanager]

THE BEST OF PRIORITY: SUR'KESH

Featuring: Cmdr. Sophie Shepard, Lt. James Vega, EDI, and Urdnot Wrex With: Lt. Steve Cortez, Dr. Mordin Solus, Major Kirrahe, and Urdnot Bakara And a Special Guest Appearance by: Adm. Steven Hackett Alliance R&D has officially begun construction on the Prothean device. The team has dubbed it: "Project Crucible". We're throwing everybody who knows how to throw a hammer at it. This is gonna be the most ambitious undertaking in human history. I'm not saying it won't be a challenge- but we can do this, Shepard. You can do this. Never doubt that. Mass Effect 3: Legendary Edition (2021)

+BONUS (the smirk™️)

[showsandstuff]

Anon, aro people can be in relationships 😭 I understand your intentions are good, but you’re not helping aro people by insisting that they can only be single. Aros can be in a romantic relationship. Aros can be in a relationship that looks romantic but isn’t (bc a person’s orientation depends on their feelings of attraction, not what it looks like to other people). Aros can be romance-repulsed. Aros can hate shipping. Aro can love shipping, even with aro characters. Attraction, feelings of romantic love, and/or platonic love can be a complicated thing. It’s not always a black and white “either you do or you don’t.” I know Aro erasure is a frustratingly real thing and I’m not gonna pretend some Hazbin fans aren’t doing that, but if we’re gonna fight erasure, we gotta uplift the aro art we like and ignore the fanworks we don’t vibe with instead of arguing that that it isn’t good rep. Because I promise you there are real life aromantic people who do all the kissy sappy stuff with partners they are happily married to but are still aro.

Signed, a romance-repulsed Aro who doesn’t ship Chalastor. Or doesn’t really ship Alastor romantically at all, really 😅

I Know this was intended for the other Anon, but I wanna give my own to cents to this as well!

I agree with the anon here + I also am a romance repulsed aromantic, but there’s one thing that I believe is important to mention, just to be fair to all sides of the argument.

“AroAce people can still date” is a true statement but often feels like an excuse to ship whatever you want to ship regardless, because many times, thats all that it is to the people using that. An excuse. They don’t really care about Aro Ace rep, they just wanna ship something without being deemed problematic.

Now, my argument regarding this matter is: You don’t actually need an excuse.

I already said this on another post but I will say it here again, you don’t have the ability to take away any representation. Ofc its always good to still be respectful about it, but if you ship him you absolutely do not need to feel bad about it! Have fun, enjoy the fandom, literally!

The creators themselves are very clearly in support of shipping, the only people who seem to have a problem are those that don’t understand that it really doesn’t matter for canon if Alastor is shipped in the fandom. Canon Alastor stays aroace, no matter what people do with fanon.

[divinesouldariax]

it doesnt have to hurt more to be love!

it doesnt have to hurt more to be love.

there’s been a lot of very good meta about ashton, taking hits, carrying his friends, carrying heavy things for their friends, doing things that hurt, that make it hurt worse, to protect his friends from pain. because he knows how to carry pain. because they’re used to it. because they know he can keep going. because, because, because it’s what he knows, it’s all he knows.

and it’s true. ashton loves them. ashton is willing to hurt more for them, and it’s because they love their friends.

but, but, but. he shouldnt have to. people with chronic pain shouldnt have to do things that make the pain worse. we might choose to, and that is definitely an act of love, but feeling like they dont have a choice, that taking on more pain, silently, suffering without ever asking for help or saying no, i can’t do that, it hurts too much...

because, listen. for most people, chronic pain is limiting. it says no, we’re not climbing those stairs today. no, we can’t lean down and pick something up off the floor. no, we’re staying in bed with a heating pad and telling our friends sorry, i can’t make it today after all. i know you were looking forward to hanging out, but i can’t do it. maybe there’s some people with chronic pain that never have days bad enough that it limits them, but i’ve never met one.

so when i see ashton, whose friends didn’t figure out that he has chronic pain until they literally felt it in his mind, keep their pain under wraps for over a month, never saying no to carrying something (a heavy statue, fcg up a ladder, orym after he fell, laudna’s dead body for miles), swinging his hammer to defend and protect, literally picking losing battles to see if anybody is watching...to me, that doesn’t read as “look at this strong, empowered person with chronic pain who never lets it limit them”.

to me, that says “this is a person who thinks that love cannot exist without a worsening of pain, who won’t let themself pause or say no or even tell anybody that it hurts because he is deeply, deeply afraid that refusing pain is the same thing as denying his friends love”.

and that’s fucking devastating.

it doesnt have to hurt more to be love.

[navysealt4t]

OFFICIAL #1 JAY UNDERSTANDER!!!!

welcome to my blog! <3

pfp by @/bat-lunn and banner by @/canyourlawnmowerdothis (go check em out <3 amazing art)

i'm blue but i have a variety of names for u to choose from (hestia, elle, jazzy, artemis, bee, abby)! my interests change very rapidly lmao but i am primarily obsessed with jrwi, tloz, dbh, and pjo! dont be surprised to see other stuff tho :)

i use he/she/it + all neos (no they/them!)! my favs probably he/him, she/her, sol/sun, and ey/em!! i like em all tho! PRONOUN PAGE!

i'm a minor!

bigender and (tentatively) afab/honeybee transfem <3 and an arospec lesbian <3

EXCLUSIONISTS FUCK OFF. we support mspec gays and lesbians here.

@thiriumstains - my dbh blog!

@sageoflightning - my loz/botw/totk blog!

@hyacinthstims - my stimboard blog!

i'm a fanfic writer! my ao3 is navysealt4t and i post most of my writing there!! feel free to drop by and leave a comment! they make my day :)

sometimes i open fanfic requests! i usually just reblog and ask game or prompt list and tell ppl to go wild lol. though, warning, there is a less than 50% chance ill end up writing the prompt u send </3 my motivation and energy is so unpredictable so lots of the time im just not feeling it, and the other half i forget the prompt even exists!

another note, im terrible terrible at responding to dms :P i much prefer to chat through asks or just posts. im not totally opposed to dms but they do give me a bit of anxiety and then i tend to pretend they dont exist.

INTERESTS: writing, jrwi, tloz, hunchback of notre dame (movie and musical), choir, musical theatre, ukulele, dbh (mainly connor, markus, hankcon, and rk1k), video games, unpacking (game), drawing, baking/cooking, cats, etc :] PLEASEEE send asks about this stuff if u want :D literally send me asks about random ass things i love asks :3

my discord is @/beelue if u ever wanna chat!! (close mutuals/close friends can ask for my instagram :3)

tagging system! (i barely ever use this :()

#some blue thoughts - my general tag for my original posts!

#blue's headphones - music!! whether its my choir music or music im obsessing over or music i relate to a character :)

#blue's writing - where all my fanfics n writing go!!

#blue's theatre - all my theatre stuff!! this wont have much traction anymore since my show ended recently (:((() but yeah!!

#blue's faves AND #blue's saves - stuff i wanna save for later or stuff that is REALLY COOL

#and the universe said i love you - positivity tag!! scroll through if ur having a bad day <3

#bumbling thoughts - posts about characters!! can be in depth analysis' or just silly 2 sentence headcanons :)

thats about it for now!

NOW THE BLINKIES

[racewinner]

just started tdfu s2 and i know they didn't use the title 'julian's partner' for marion 'women's tdf race director, 2012 french road champion, commentator' rousse

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

PSA: if you ever, ever feel the urge to make assumptions about the abuse history of a real ass person in a discussion about depictions of fictional abuse--in particular, any variation of the words 'you don't know/should learn what real abuse is'--

a) don't

b) you're a piece of shit

c) never ever ever fucking do that

d) step on legos for the rest of your life.

[lieutenantseivarden]

This is so fucking funny