#something to be hated something to be celebrated. also found in her identity as an arcanist

[vasito-de-leche]

Arcana is so trans to me but not the mtf trans but like eldritch horror being realized that she likes to be perceived as a mortal woman

nonnie we are holding hands, we share the same vision, the same dream, the same eldritch transgenderism <3

there was a tweet recently (I think it was a tweet?) about a very specific type of character design--non sexualized, nude humanoids presented as otherwordly and entirely alien, off kilter, merging monstruous characteristics and that's exactly what I love and think about when it comes to the thing Arcana summons, the Guiding One's Creation

Arcana is so transgender to me in a very specific way of using the feminine figure as a way of both luring and keeping everyone at bay <33333

[lucyandalexiafan]

I'm scared | Alexia Putellas x Reader | part 2

summary: first time that Alexia and reader talk about sex (specifically: masturbation) after the walk.

warnings: angst, allusion to past sexual abuses. really light smut moment (r comes home early and sees Alexia have orgasm using a vibrator).

words: 3k

Part 1

When you had spoken to Alexia about your past, about those experiences, you hadn't expected her to be so understanding and engaged in helping you.

Even though you knew she was a sweet person, kind, and in some way you knew she loved you, or was starting to develop strong feelings for you, up until that day you had believed she wouldn't stay with you once she found out what had happened to you.

Alexia is beautiful, charming, loved by hundreds of thousands of people; she's the captain of Spain and Barcelona, which means she's surrounded by beautiful women, a lot of them probably much more predisposed to have sex with her and much less anxious about it. She's famous, so not only fans and other footballers would want something with her, but also other celebrities, like models or actresses or singers.

Alexia doesn't just play football, she's also a football activist, a model and she works with some brands, which means she works in contexts that allow her to meet many (beautiful) women.

All these things had made it difficult for you to think that she would stay after that walk.

She took you home once you had returned to the car because the next day she had to go to Madrid for work with Nike. Before getting out of the car, you had kissed her and, thinking it was the last time, you had tried to imprint the image of Alexia so close to your face in your memory. You thought you wouldn't see her again and that she wouldn't contact you anymore, that she would ghost you or break up with you by message.

You had spent that night sleepless, tears flowing heavily from your eyes and nausea that had forced you to sit on the bathroom floor for a few hours, the retching had painfully contracted your body several times during those hours. Even though you hated yourself every time you did it, you kept checking your phone hoping to see a notification from her, a message, a post sent on Instagram or TikTok, and the more time passed, the more you received no news from her, the more nausea and the tears increased, the more you believed you had lost her forever.

Yet, the next day, the sound of the doorbell had woken you up. You had struggled to get out of bed, the headache was killing you and your back seemed to be broken in two by the pain, the sweat covering your forehead was a symptom of yet another nightmare that had invaded your sleep. 

You looked at the video intercom and saw a delivery man. "Yes, who's there?" you had asked, your voice hoarse, ruined by crying.

"Hello, I'm from Bakery Adele, I was told I have to deliver this order to this address" the delivery guy had replied, his voice annoyingly shrill, before asking for confirmation of identity.

You had told him he could leave it at the concierge and that you would come down later, but he had persuaded you by saying there was a piping hot double espresso cappuccino and a freshly baked cream-filled brioche waiting for you.

You had put on a jacket that was hanging on the coat rack, a jacket of Alexia, and had gone down. The delivery guy handed you the breakfast, a little note attached to the package, and then said goodbye.

Bakery Adele doesn't do deliveries, never.

Once you had entered the house, you had opened the note, and tears had returned when you had read it.

"I thought of ordering your favorite breakfast from your bakery. Whenever you feel like it, if you want, write to me or call me, I'm always here. I miss you, but I'll wait for you to feel ready to talk to me. Alexia <3"

Tears, tears, and more tears.

You had bitten your lip as you grabbed your phone to video call her. You didn't care about the condition of your face or your hair at that moment, you only cared about seeing if it was true, if she was sincere. You had spent the whole night thinking she hadn't written to you because she didn't want to talk to you anymore, only to find out she was waiting for you?

"Amor," her voice, her sweet voice, invaded the deafening silence of your home.

"Ale-" you had replied trying to articulate a sentence, but inevitably ending up crying.

"What's wrong, amor? Are you okay?" she was worried, her eyebrows furrowed and her eyes squinted.

"I thought you didn't want me anymore and now the breakfast has arrived and I don't understand and-" You start speaking quickly, thoughts overlapping in your mind one after another, as you try to express yourself, to tell her how confused you feel right now.

"Take a breath, amor breath with me. Did you think I wouldn't call you? - you shook your head - Amor, I told you I'm in love with you, why would I leave you?"

You hadn't talked much, actually, because she was about to enter the store and there was a lot of confusion, but she had called you back that evening.

And the day after, and the day after that, until she had shown up at your house with takeout Chinese food.

A couple of days after she returned, you had asked if you could talk, if you could talk about what had happened. You knew that the best idea would have been to go to her place, a place from which it would have been easy to run away from her if things didn't go as you hoped, and not to your place, where Alexia could have stayed even against your will; but the emotional comfort you felt being in your own home was crucial to be able to talk to her, to face the situation.

You were at your home, on the couch: you were sitting cross-legged, your hands holding hers, and you had told her that you understood if this thing was bigger than her, if she didn't want to wait for some time to do something sexual, but you had also told her that a part of you would have wanted her to stay because you wanted to face this thing with her, that you truly wanted to face it.

Alexia, hesitant, had told you, after a while of talking, that she thought it was appropriate for you to start a therapy process, maybe also to go to therapy together, because only then could you fully face the trauma. She also made sure to tell you that if you couldn't afford it continuously over time or with the right frequency, she would help you financially because, yes, facing it, but with the right psychologist. Shyly, she had told you that she had done a couple of searches on the best psychologists in Barcelona for this type of trauma and had found one really good, and that she would also be available to do couple therapy.

You had told her you would think about it and a few days later you had contacted one of the psychologists on her list.

The initial doubts about her seriousness in being faithful to you and not seeking anyone else for sexual satisfaction surfaced when she left for a National Team camp, and they exploded when you thought she was cheating on you with Jenni. The endless social media edits you continued to see fueled the doubt that perhaps, while genuinely attempting to complete the therapeutic journey, she was seeking to fulfill her sexual desire with someone else in secret.

At the third couple's therapy session after that camp, you addressed the issue. You had resignedly told her that you wanted to know if she was with other women, that you would understand but needed to know. She was shocked. She had told you multiple times that she only wanted you, that she would wait for you, that she didn't want anyone else, that she didn't want Jenni.

You had discussed it several times in therapy over the next two weeks, and even outside of therapy, but Alexia always said the same thing: I will wait for you, I want you.

The doubts had more or less disappeared when few weeks later you caught her having an orgasm with a vibrator while she thought you were still out. You were on holiday in the Canary Islands, you had gone out to do some shopping and go to an open-air market while she was sleeping, and you had left her a message saying you wouldn't be back in two hours; too bad the open-air market was on Thursday, not Tuesday, so you had returned after a little over half an hour. 

As soon as you entered the house, you heard moans and silently approached the bedroom, only to see her in the middle of the bed, her hand between her legs and a buzzing sound in the background accompanying her moans. 

You froze in place, not knowing what to do, or what to say. 

You didn't even know she had a vibrator. You hadn't really thought about it, actually.

You hadn't even had time to think about how to react because shortly after she reached the peak of pleasure, so you quickly moved towards the door, opened and closed it more loudly, pretending you had just entered. You didn't know why you did it, maybe you thought it would be easy to pretend you hadn't seen her, but you were wrong, especially for two reasons: seeing her climax had made you incredibly horny and you couldn't remove the image of her having an orgasm from your mind, so you couldn't even look her in the eyes.

Alexia had sensed something was wrong and asked you if everything was okay at dinner, when she asked if she had done something wrong. You almost choked on the water you were drinking, your cheeks suddenly burning, as you tried to come up with some excuses, only to give in.

"Amor, I don't know how to say it - you lowered your gaze, embarrassed to admit it, afraid she would get angry - I... today I came home earlier than you think and I-I saw you-"

"Fuck - Alexia exclaimed bluntly - Amor, I'm sorry, I... it shouldn't have happened, I thought you'd be back later," her tone suddenly guilty, as if masturbating were a fault.

"Are you sorry? - you asked, looking her in the eyes, and she nodded, her face red with embarrassment - But... why?"

Her expression became confused. "I-you weren't supposed to see me, I don't want you to think-"

"Since when you do it?" you asked, then realized the stupidity of the question when the older woman tilted her head to the side; you tried to change the subject, but she asked you to talk about it, to ask her, because it was important for her that you talked about it.

"Do you want to know if I've been doing it since we started dating or when I started doing it in general?" her tone was so calm, so relaxed, that you trusted her, trusted that she really just wanted to talk about it.

That was the first time you had talked so specifically about your sexual life, at least hers. 

She had told you she lost her virginity to a girl when she was fifteen, started using sex toys at sixteen, that throughout her relationship with Jenni they had been an integral part of the relationship, but she started using them less when she broke up with her because at that point she was having a lot of casual sex.

"I had sex with other women before I met you, both occasional and steady partners, so I didn't really need to use them to have an orgasm. Then we met, the relationship became serious and we started dating, so I stopped seeing other people, and when I realized we wouldn't have sex, I started using them more often. Since you told me about your past, I've started using them frequently again."

You bit your lip as you listened to her, it was evident that she was hesitant, choosing her words carefully, but at the same time she was so sure, so calm. The calmness with which she spoke about it almost gave you comfort, almost reassured you that she wasn't lying, that what she was saying was true.

"You can ask me anything, amor, none question is stupid."

"Do you do it because we don't have sex?"

She nodded hesitantly. "How does this make you feel? - you raised your eyebrows, confused - I don't want this thing to make you feel bad."

"It makes sense that you do it - you replied, your tone devoid of negative emotions - We don't have sex and you need to... have an orgasm. Why didn't you tell me?"

She took a sip of water in an attempt to stall. "I... I thought you would take it badly, that you would feel guilty or something, and I didn't want that. I told you I want to wait for you, but I was afraid that if I told you you would think that I necessarily need someone to have sex with or for me to tell you to speed things up - she sighed - But as you saw, my sex toys give me great orgasms and I could go on just with them for years" she continued, trying to relax the tension that had been created with her answer.

You chuckled with her, even though you were sorry she did it in secret, that she did it only when you weren't there, that she was afraid you would take it badly.

It was her first orgasm you had seen, and you had never really thought about the fact that she could be satisfied in other ways than having sex with other people.

"I had never thought that you would seek orgasms in other ways than sex - you simply stated - It's a stupid thing, sorry."

"It's not, actually. We've never talked about this, about maybe masturbating or actually wanting to have sex, regardless of whether we do it or not - the reflective tone, the calm voice - For example, when I feel the need to have an orgasm, use a vibrator because the orgasms I have using it are generally more satisfying than when I just use my fingers; but when I want to have sex, as well as an orgasm, I use my fingers because they feel closer to what I could have having sex with you."

You widened your eyes at the revelation, at how calmly she said it. You knew it was normal for her to be calm, you were glad she talked about it freely, but you didn't expect her to be so sincere.

"I've said too much, sorry. Please forget it," she continued, her voice concerned, her gaze now on the plate, her hands quickly grabbing the fork and knife to put them on the plate.

"No! - you replied, scaring her - Sorry, I don't know how to talk about it, but I'd like to, I like that we talk about it."

There was a pause, Alexia was simply smiling at you, perhaps surprised that you were actually having this conversation, perhaps because she didn't know what to say.

"I masturbate thinking about you," you said, a statement.

The woman in front of you widened her eyes, a choked moan escaped her mouth, the dismay obvious.

"When I do it I-I think about the two of us having sex or-or... doing sexual things - you lowered your gaze, a sense of humiliation invading your body when she said nothing - Please don't be mad at me"

You close your eyes, scared at the idea that she might start yelling that it's disrespectful, that it's wrong for you to do it, or, worse, that she might get up to hurt you, or physically punish you for it.

"Get mad? Why should I get mad? - her voice confused - It's normal for you to masturbate, to seek orgasm."

"Even if it's not with you?" she nodded "It's just that we don't have sex but I masturbate and... doesn't it make you mad?"

Your voice sounded more frightened than you wanted, but it was true that you feared she would get angry. You didn't want to have sex with her, you were afraid to have sex with her, but you touched yourself thinking of her; how could she take it?

"I'm glad you can touch yourself, that at least that part of your sexuality hasn't been broken," she moved her hands towards yours, squeezing them between hers "There's nothing wrong, amor, I'd be a selfish insecure person to think otherwise."

You bit your lip as you looked at her, admiring her. How could she always know what to say, always say the right thing?

"So, did you like to watch me while I touch myself?" you coughed embarrassed, not knowing what to say, or how to explain it.

You had enjoyed watching her come, even though it was by chance and for a short time, even though it was an unexpected thing that shouldn't have happened. The image of her coming, of her orgasm, was imprinted in your mind.

"I- you were just so beautiful when you came. I don't know how to say it, I feel stupid, and- it was like, I don't know - you sighed frustrated - it's just that I wish it were me making you come like that, not a vibrator."

"There's time, amor," she told you.

She was right, there was time, but you wanted to be the one instead of that vibrator.

I'm sorry it took me so long to post this, a few bad things happened and I didn't have the mind to write. this is a text that I wrote about two weeks ago but I only translated it last night; I'm not 100/100 satisfied, but I wanted to introduce a moment of discussion about sex before anything sexual could happen. I dealt with the topic of insecurity and jealousy in a very light way (perhaps superficially) but it seemed like the only way to introduce the moment on holiday. the hardest part for me, and what makes me a little dissatisfied, was trying to figure out whether what I wrote about accidentally seeing Alexia have an orgasm was itself a violation of consent, or could be construed as an accident (which it actually is); I chose to interpret it as an accident that Alexia knew could happen and to avoid the parties considering it a violation of consent. If this seems wrong to you, or will trigger a lot of people, I think I'll revisit this chapter. as usual, thanks for reading what I wrote :)

[lillified]

I love your versions of the decepticons but I do have a question! I honestly love tarn and his brooding nature, so I wanted to know what happened to him? Why’s his face absolutely destroyed and why does he hate megatron,,?

hey, that’s a good question! I believe I’ve answered something similar in the past re: Tarn’s deal, but I can rephrase it again+give some additional context below the cut!

Tarn and Megatron have a very similar background. Both come from low-caste professions (Megatron, obviously, a miner, and Tarn a construction hauler) and both became gladiators to an impressive degree of celebrity. Tarn was an artist in his own right, being a musician and composer (which wasn’t as broadly commercially appealing as Megatron’s writer-artist repertoire, but certainly attracted its fans).

On Cybertron, gladiators have their own sort of “stardom.” Regular audiences aren’t just invested in the sport, but the story behind it, and so the performers become “characters” in themselves. Established fighters often have a dedicated fanbase, lore, and even “managers” or “agents” to manage that public persona. These “careers” can be lucrative, but, unsurprisingly, very brief.

In his heyday, Tarn was everything the gladiator celebrity complex favors: young, charismatic, attractive, skilled, and, above all, marketable. The music he made enhanced his character, and, in turn, his gladiatorial feats promoted his music. He found a degree of purpose in his popularity.

Tarn’s era of celebrity ended when, in his closest match, he lost his face. He survived, but this spoiling took away the foremost aspect of his fame—his identity (in the past I’ve talked about the culture around faces and their irreplaceability, which applies here). Having no choice but to wear a pit mask to protect his exposed interior, he gradually faded out of popularity, in favor of the new wave of rising stars. Over time his music lost its audience and he became cemented in the second rate.

When Megatronus came along, she was quick to gain notoriety for the same reasons Tarn had, with a very similar audience. It was almost natural that she would fill the same niche, with a similar backstory, skillset, and audience appeal. Tarn immediately became jealous, but also couldn’t resist the familiar pull of a world he’d been unceremoniously excommunicated from: in Megatron, he found a way to live vicariously, and quickly began to see her as some parallel proxy for his lost ambitions. All gladiator friendships are underscored by a sort of tired acceptance of impending doom, but, in Tarn’s case, he abused their gallows goodwill to be an extremely two-faced fairweather friend.

Though they certainly shared some traits, Megatron and Tarn were notably different. Where Tarn found earnest purpose in his success, Megatron resented her popularity, engaging with her high society pass with cynical disdain. She invited scandal and scorned the whole scheme until she could use it to get what she wanted. Tarn frequently scolded her for her shallowness, but envied her and the attention she received immensely. This resentment only ever festered and grew.

Internally, Tarn’s wish has always been to witness Megatron’s downfall, and to indulge in her suffering. As his proxy, he will only ever be satisfied to know that she is more miserable than him. The only things preventing him from killing or hurting her directly were his deep desire to live her life, and his own utter hollowness and insecurity.

[firstfirerebel]

҉H҉o҉l҉l҉o҉w҉

Sumary: You're the other woman...

Pairing: Vi x fem! Reader, implied Caitlyn x Vi

Warnings: sadness, hurt, broken heart, being the second choice, fear of losing someone > implied abandoment issues, dub-con (it's barley described but there so stay away minors, go watch PawPatrol 😂)

I didn't know much about Violets relationship to Caitlyn Kiramman, but what I knew is that she was the reason for Vi's broken heart.

Violet and I were friends when we were younger, we knew cause our dads were close. Benzo was the only father I knew, even if we weren't related by blood I still saw him and Ekko as family. And I know Vi loved Vander like her own father.

But Zhaun wouldn't be Zhaun if it stayed that way.

The loss of our father, parted me and Ekko. I don't know where he went, but I guess me and Vi share a similar story.

Powder, nowadays Jinx, got adopted by the man that killed Vander, Silco himself. I think she tried to make a new identity to forget about the pain she had to go through as Powder, cause Jinx and Powder only have their sister in common. Like my little brother and Ekko only have me in common, I guess.

I know Vi joined this Caitlyn to get revenge on Jinx. But then I suddenly found Vi, now with black hair, in a random bar completley drunk. She constantly babbled something about loosing her cupcake to me.

I really tried to help her. I made sure that if she drank, noone would put something in her drink or stopped her from drinking too much. When she had enough of the night, I put her to bed, just for her to sometimes cling to me and cuddle me the whole night. Other times she yelled at me and told me to leave her.

But I couldn't.

And some other nights Vi was a mix of both. She couldn't stop clinging to me but also told me to just go away. And then there was that night.

I've never had a relationship before, especially not with another woman (I knew I was attracted to them but that was it) , so I didn't know what this was with Vi.

That night I took her back to her room and as I wanted to leave she pulled me back and cuddled me. I knew the behavior so I just played with her hair and tried to fall asleep. Till she suddenly began to kiss me. The kisses were filled with heat and need. I barely got to breathe and Violet clearly had no intention to stop. She continued with undressing me and threw my top on the ground. This 'make out' session lasted till she ate me out like she would die if she stopped. It wasn't cute or magical like I imagined my first time to be, no Vi was rough and tried to make me or her forget. She didn't even stop when I came, I had to pass out to escape this new side of her.

Everyone I cared about has left me. So I tried to keep Vi close and accepted her and every change I actually hated. I know that when she yelled at me, she was drunk. But it still hurt like hell.

I wanted to help her, but I couldn't help someone that refused any help.

Violet even started to fight in these bars. Which only increased my worry and my work. If she got injured in one of these fights, I was the one who made sure her wounds could heal. But her injuries didn't stop her from wanting me, I had to tell her to go to sleep and rest her body, which only made her sigh in disaproval.

Vi was barley sober anymore and I was growing tired. I wanted an 'us' but not like this.

Not with her constantly drinking or being drunk.

Not when all I had to do was look after her.

Not when I was the only one who could show her feelings.

Not if I was suposed to be someone else...

"Vi, can we talk?", I used the only time I knew she was really sober, after her waking up.

"I have a fight soon, can't that wait? I want to celebrate later",

No, not this again. I knew this. After her fight she'd have so many drinks till she was drunk and then her 'celebrating' would be fucking me.

"Vi don't you want to do something else? We could go out or-",

"No, I don't want to do something else. You can stay here if you don't want to watch the fight",

"The fights aren't the problem! Are you even sober for one day, Violet? You fight, drink, fuck me and sleep. Is that a future you want? What if you lose too many fights at one point? You didn't even stop sleeping with me when you broke your nose, I was the one who had to stop you and make you rest! And then you were already gone when I woke up, guess what you were doing! Drinking and Fighting. What happened to you? Are you still not over this Caitlyn? Vi, you are with me now! Why did you start things with me when you still think about her?!",

"If you have a problem you can leave, you know where the door is", she didn't even look at me and just continued warming her up for the upcoming fight.

"I love you, Vi. And I want to be with you, but not if this is all there ever will be. I won't survive such a life! Please let's just go and start all over. Vi? Vi. Vi, look at me! Or at least awnser me!", she didn't. She didn't even move an inch. There I had my awnser. I packed up the few things I had at this room and went to leave. I wanted to say something but couldn't and just closed the door.

I wasn't enough. If I was Vi would've changed, but I was never her first choice. I was the other woman and other women don't get happy endings. We'll always be the second choice and spend our lifes alone...

[niko-sasaki-dbd]

I'm still thinking about Death's words in Episode 1, and the way I think she was not just talking to Wilfred (the soldier), but indirectly, she was talking to Edwin and Charles too.

Let me explain...

"You've been fighting old battles for too long (...) you died over a hundred years ago"

"I came for you then, but you were so confused, so filled with anger and with hate, you seem a lot better now"

I wonder if they overheard her, if that's even possible, or if it was something purely directed to us, as an audience.

It just makes me think quite a lot, because her words were so on point for the way the boys' arc was going to develop. In one side, Edwin fighting against his own mindset in order to face his own identity and his feelings, and then Charles, facing his trauma, and the frustration and anger that he had been carrying since he died.

Oh, and then there's the poem:

They will come back - come back again, as long as the red Earth rolls.

He never wasted a leaf or a tree. Do you think He would squander souls?

[Source: The Sack of the Gods, Rudyard Kipling]

This is not the whole version, only the last verse that Death recites in that scene. I would like to mention the story behind it too, because I find the connections curious.

The Kipling Society refers that this poem—most probably—was written as a form of celebration, "in lofty cosmic terms" of Kipling’s partnership with his friend Wolcott Balestier, who died unexpectedly in December 1891.

Together, it passionately asserts, the two young comrades had fought to conquer the heights, an endeavour which seems long ago now that Wolcott is dead.

[Source: The Sack of the Gods – Background (notes by Jan Montefiore and John Radcliffe)]

Also, about the lofty cosmic terms, these are found in the following verses of the poem:

Under the stars beyond our stars where the new-forged meteors glow,

(...)

Dust of the stars was under our feet, glitter of stars above—

Wrecks of our wrath dropped reeling down as we fought and we spurned and we strove.

Worlds upon worlds we tossed aside, and scattered them to and fro.

I don't know if the connection between the poem and the song that plays in the background of Charles' memories in Episode 7, was intentional or no.

And it's something quite peculiar,

Something shimmering and white

It leads you here, despite your destination,

Under the Milky Way tonight.

[Source: Under The Milky Way - The Church]

But I think is beautiful, if you take into account that the meaning of that poem revolves around the idea of deja-vu, "hearking back to an experience in an earlier life, based on reincarnation"; and that there's always that possibility.

Is this something? Am I even making sense?

[elicathebunny]

❥ CREATING CELEBRITY ENERGY AND STAR QUALITY.

Have you ever dreamed of being famous or having some sort of influence? (doesn't have to be a very exposed influence like celebrities have, it could just have star quality and inspire/influence the people around you in daily life). Using celebrity energy and understanding how to use it can completely change your life around and open new opportunities for you.

(I found the topic of how stars come up to be stars quite interesting and no I haven't applied any of this to my life. I just think that this is interesting.

These notes are taken from other people and are summarised from videos that they have created. If you tap on the links from titles you can find the OG creators.)

LOA, AUTHENTICITY + CONFIDENCE:

Think about Norma Jeane Mortenson, better known as her persona Marilyn Monroe using what is now called the "Marilyn Effect".

'Whenever Marilyn Monroe walked into a room, she carried an irresistible charisma - a compelling blend of confidence, vulnerability, and charm. That's the Marilyn Monroe Effect. It's the power to captivate and influence others by being authentically you. ' - Eye Mind Spirit

❥ AUTHENTICITY + COFIDENCE

Authenticity means also being polarizing.

polarizing = the general public has mixed feelings about them

Being authentic has a magnetic effect. By being real you will attract people who resonate with that. But you also going to push away people who don't so it creates love-hate.

Being fake creates like, but no one will ever love you. The only way to be loved by everyone is to be fake and be this social chameleon.

You're meant to be you with your "authentic magnet" through humanity and find your tribe and your tribe is not everyone.

Don't introduce yourself as a vibe that you can't maintain.

Own your vibe but also be willing to be judged and tested on it

"You're going to be judged regardless". You're meant to be rejected by people in this world.

Being judged for authenticity hurts but only being accepted when your being fake hurts even more.

The more times you have to affirm that you are confident, the more it reinforces that you are not confident by default.

❥ LAW OF ATTRACTION AND ASSUMPTION

LOA does nothing if deep down you know truly that you don't believe in it. You cannot fool yourself with 20 affirmations that you repeat to yourself in the morning yet still have negative thoughts throughout the day. "Why are you not confident? What is the source." Do the inner work. "What do you actually think is broken in you? Are you truly living or are you trying to justify your existence? Who are you trying to justify it to?"

CELEBRITY ENERGY AND CREATING STAR-QUALITY

❥ CELEBRITY ENERGY

Famous people act famous before they even become famous. You have to create the energy before the fame can come. But there is a difference between being famous and being a celebrity. You can feel the energy of a celebrity even if you're not famous, but not all famous people have celebrity energy. - Think about the fame difference between Charlie Damelio and Marilyn Monroe.

Creating this 'celebrity energy' is something that you will have to create in public which can be embarrassing. But if you want to be famous you have to be okay with putting yourself out there for judgement and you have to believe what you're doing before anyone else can see it.

The people in your life are going to perceive what you're doing as threatening because you are changing your identity and that is triggering for them.

You have to overcome your brain's natural wiring to play small and be willing to be 'cringe'.

Fame is just a resource of people's attention, an exchange of your consciousness and their consciousness. So you consciousness has to be as clear and as authentic as possible. Authentic to you, who you naturally are.

Acquiring fame requires a deeper level of trust: Believing that the people around you and in the world will love and support you.

It amplifies ALL areas of your life so if you're blocked in another area, you won't create it.

Your art doesn't actually have to be that good: The difference between creators and influencers who make it and the ones who don't is how much they believe in what they are selling.

You have to start performing as if people already love you and your art/content.

If you don't believe that you are wanted then you are going to put up walls and won't be able to tap into celebrity energy.

You do not need any more strategy - You are energetically not available for people to perceive you for who you really are.

❥ STAR QUALITY AND MARKETING

Halloween costume/Hollywood hair theory - Memorable and unique features that make you stand out that could possibly be recreated as a costume, for example: Jojo Siwa, Ariana Grande, Melanie Martinez, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Ice Spice, etc.

Learn how to market yourself, and realise you as a person are a brand.

Learn how to sell and market to others but also to yourself

Work on your public speaking, charisma and personality (your vibe)

[theamazingmuse]

The importance of a personal brand

─ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ─

These women have a strong impact on people and this is thanks to their personal brand

How you carry yourself says everything about you. If you aim to have a business it's really important to have a strong personal brand.

When you think of Lana del Rey, what comes up in your mind ? yes.

As someone who likes to analyze these things I'm gonna show you which celebrities have a really good personal brand and those who don't have this anymore or they messed up.

Then I would make a detailed post on how to really have a personal brand otherwise, it's gonna be too long and messy. Read this post so that you can understand

Disclaimer : It's my opinion. This is not about hating someone or idk what. It's about helping you to not make the same mistake as them.

Personal brand -> how people view you, an identity (rough translation by me)

-> it's what people think of you. It's about your physique, you message to the world, the clothes you wear, the hairstyle everything. It's an ecosystem.

Let's start with case studies

Successful personal brand. Women are better idc

Sabrina Carpenter

You saw her everywhere ? That's completely normal. Her branding is immaculate. To her appearance to her Juno positions. That's her brand. Her album is all about being laid. Short and sweet. That's what she has to be. I took this Coachella panel to show you how far it goes. This is communication. She's like a doll and her blond hair is everything. That's how you recognize her.

When you think about her what comes in your mind ? Sexy, doll, pink even Marilyn Monroe kinda. This is her brand.

People might be shocked when they see her Juno positions and at first, me too because I didn't know her album. I only loved nonsense. After that listening, I understood. And be for real, most of people who go to her concert is for doing those Juno positions. Many people try to recreate her hairstyle on tiktok because it's iconic. It's been a long time since we haven't had someone wearing blonde hair like this, like Marilyn Monroe. Thankfully, she did a blowout so it's appears more glamorous , bombshell.

I really love her branding.

Lana Del Rey

The fact that the first pic is an edit but matches her lol

I didn't understand why Lana del rey was known. I think the first song that I heard was West coast and I loved it. Next, it was say yes to heaven sped up. Suddenly, she was everywhere on tikTok. Just her name is something. It's not everybody who has a stage name like this. Her vibe is vintage, moody, witch.

(The fact she's a cancer (like me ) and scorpio rising makes sense. I am a sagittarius rising but at one minute to be scorpio. My chart is almost like her, even my destiny matrix chart lol I found this crazy. Same moon, same mercury same program in the destiny matrix) How she sings is always the same. I don't know how to describe but it's like slooow, enchanting or very airy. Her lyrics are also really relatable. I think that's why so many girls want to be like her. I understand the vibe but that's it. Her songs are good and she has a good brand. Even when she's in her light feminine energy. Her outfit at the met gala was perfect for her. See, you have to follow your brand. She's a vibe and that vibe follows her in everything she does. Even her albums covers.

Kali Uchis

Mother Kali uchis. I love her songs. She's been appearing a lot in my fyp lately. It's not telepatia that brought me to her but Moonlight. She has a delicate voice and she always wears pastels = delicate. She seems to love flowers a lot. I think the fact she became mom plays a lot. When I think of her I think about femininity, delicate, flowers.

She's really a mother even when she wears dark feminine clothes. Maybe because she's also a scorpio rising like Lana (and a cancer too). Yes I blend a lot of astrology here because it's kinda accurate? Her last albums are really into flowers, pastels, feminine. This is not really dark (at the beginning it was)

Kim Kardashian

Hate her or love her she has an amazing personal brand. Her brand skims is well known, she never changed it. She was famous for her curves so she created a brand that sell flattering clothes. Shapewear. She tried everything, even makeup but it's the clothing brand that had success because this why she is known for. She's always wearing fitted clothes, even at the last met gala. She has a diva energy. I can't make a post without her amazing personal brand.

when you think about her you think about shape, diva, black.

Unsuccessful/messy personal brand

Ariana Grande

With this women, you understand how important it is to have an innocent figure. I saw a post on twitter saying that she always has scandals, but always escape them. This is for that. Her era before was more dark feminine especially with the dangerous women album. She then transitioned into the true version of herself (I think) with position. This album eternal sunshine is her true self (maybe). Ariana grande will always have a fanbase because of everything that happened to her, especially the bad things as you may know. She been through a lot. So people are always kind to her, even if she's accused of being a home wrecker. That fragile, petite, innocence figure is what makes her escape these scandals, trust me. She's an amazing singer and everything but you understood. She made a good rebranding but it's kinda messy to me because people always think about that dangerous women era and how good she was even thought she was at the lowest. Well the things that is good is her ponytail.

Kylie Jenner

Her era was finished the day she became pregnant + these scandals. (Astroworld, plastic surgeries, beauty standards). Now she tries to do something with her clothing brand but it's too expensive. She was known for her lips, now what ? That's the problem of being viral. We only know you for one thing, you can't change that much. She changed a lot and her personal brand change with the man she is. For example, when she was with Travis Scott her personal brand was sexy, dark even provocative. Now that she's with Timothée Chalamet, her vibe is more light (so her brand too). She even drop a perfume but...when you think about you think about plastic surgery, lips and Stormi.

Lisa

This girl has to choose who she wants to be. I like versatility but at the end something more prominent has to show up. I already knew that her album wasn't gonna be great. The thing is she always been known for her being a tomboy or badass. It was a great start with money and Rockstar, then New woman. She dropped moonlight floor which wasn't great because it wasn't progressive. Next she drop her alter egos ????? what ? Lisa is a dancer, she doesn't sing in live performance. Even when she rap. So we already know that musically, it's not that great. People found the concept of alter ego embarrassing even in the way she introduced it. Too many scandals about it and the fact she's at event where people don't know her doesn't make sense.

She reminds me that even if you bring famous people into this, if if your identity isn't strong it's over. I saw a tiktok saying that what Jennie dropped was what they expected of Lisa. Ain't no way because Jennie has an identity even thought she's versatile.

Ice spice

I knew she wasn't gonna last. I am sorry. Her music is always the same. It's sad because she was really good at first. The problem was it all happened too fast. She started to make featuring with everybody. And that's the problem when you're viral. You have to be fasttttt but clever. She has to drop bop after bop but some scandals caught her. Her ginger hair was her brand. I think the fact she's was thick also played a lot because when she changed people felt it. Y'all twitter was horrible that day. I also think that she failed because of men judging her everywhere (always them)

─ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ─

The End. I really wanted to make this post. I love to analyze things so I thought it will be good. I looove a good storytelling. Your vibe is everything when you do something creative. And it can be Youtuber, content creator, celebrities, anyone in the public eye. I almost finished the editing of the post about how to have a personal brand so it might be coming soon.

I love you wherever you are

theamazingmuse 🍬

[tharizt]

Oshi no Ko is always at its best when it’s gritty and direct. The series tends to cop out of its arcs by the end to deliver a "happy ending", which was quite the issue in season 1, but so far isn't too bad (tho I guess we'll see). It's certainly the most effective material the show has had because digging into how production scenes work is just something that Akasaka is very good at.

Given that, I'd like to dig into the actual issues I had with season 1. Because, as good friends as I am with many of them, my arguments are often still misinterpreted and oversimplified.

Regarding Akane's arc, I actually found it to be one of the stronger points in season 1. The depiction of Akane's online harassment and suicide attempt was powerful and well-executed. It highlighted the very real and devastating impact of online hate mobs. However, my issue with this arc was how it ultimately failed to provide a systemic critique. Akane's storyline ends with her returning to the very situation that instigated her suicidal thoughts, and she's met with applause and cheers. Instead of challenging the industry and its practices, the show settles for a neat and tidy ending that doesn't address the deeper problems. It's a trick that Oshi no Ko often uses. It focuses on "bad fans" when the actual root issue here is industry practices (especially with a dating show for minors). And I didn't care for liberal platitudes and putting band-aids on the issues which just amounted to "it is bad when fans are means so then they had to try and fix it with their own Twitter revenge plan." This naturally leads to another argument.

That I "blame the issues of the real-life idol industry on the story content and want the characters to abolish it" is not accurate. My criticism isn't just about hating everything related to it and wanting it abolished. It's more about the show's failure to provide a genuine critique. Oshi no Ko touches on the exploitation and corruption within the industry, but it often falls back on blaming "bad fans" rather than addressing the systemic issues at play. The portrayal of Hoshino Ai and other female characters as shallow and one-dimensional for example (for all of Ai's talk about wearing a mask, she acts identical on screen and off screen), also undermines the show's supposed critique and perpetuates harmful gendered stereotypes.

So, while I do have strong negative feelings about how the show handles the idol industry, my criticism is more about the show's lack of depth and its failure to challenge the status quo meaningfully. It's not just about wanting the characters to abolish the industry but wanting the show to offer a more honest and radical examination of its flaws.

If we're gonna talk about my overall issues with season 1, I actually had several. The show suffers from delusions of grandeur. It presents itself as a deep and complex masterpiece that tells hard truths about society, but it ends up perpetuating many of the sins it claims to criticize. The show is essentially a self-indulgent piece of pandering wish fulfillment.

Second, the handling of Hoshino Ai was a problem. She’s portrayed as a perfect, plastic mannequin who never shows real emotions. For a show claiming to reveal the dark reality of the entertainment industry, Ai's character is incredibly shallow and unrealistic and that lack of genuine depth undercuts the show’s supposed critique of the idol industry, making it seem more like an otaku fantasy than a serious examination of the issues.

Third, the reincarnation angle is both weird and unsettling. The protagonist’s reincarnation as his celebrity crush’s baby is creepy and off-putting. And it's not just in the sense of "ooh weird and problematic me don't like" because that's a reactionary, knee-jerk reaction to it. But it muddles it so much that I don't even know how to take Aqua's feelings for Ai.

Fourth, Aqua’s character is a significant issue. He’s a mopey, brooding edgelord who manipulates those around him, especially the female characters. His actions give the show a creepy, paternalistic vibe. The female characters often exist to be saved by Aqua or to fall in love with him, which undermines much meaningful exploration of their struggles within the industry.

Finally, the show fails to offer a genuine systemic critique of the idol industry. While it does point out issues at times, multiple of its arcs boil down to "harassment by fans" which is a fandom issue and not so much an industry issue, shows us how it stops short of addressing the deeper, systemic problems. Why critique the institutions that perpetuate exploitation and abuse when we can just blame bad fans instead?

Season 1 was mostly a shallow, self-indulgent show that failed to live up to its promises of a serious critique of the idol industry. Its handling of characters and themes is problematic, and it ultimately perpetuates many of the issues it claims to criticize. I didn't like how it shied away from the gritty reality of the situation, and often just focused on bad fans or made a really contrived series of events to force an easy happy ending to the situation. Once again, Akane's arc was not about how her situation was bad in the first place, but Akane's fans were bad to her and that's what they had to fix (ignoring any systemic critique), and Aqua managed to convince the Director to help them with one conversation (contrivance to get an easy happy ending). And that's just one example.

Season 2 is still fundamentally the same show. It won't change the core issues. But it just focuses on industry stuff and how it works, and not having anything to do with whether fans are good or bad since it just focuses on the creators, which gives it strong material at the moment. So that's where we are at.

[kabillieu]

Buckle in because this is an insane and meandering mini essay about my feelings of confusion regarding tswift. Cut for courtesy.

I have spent an outsized amount of time thinking about Taylor Swift over the past several weeks. First, the success of her Eras tour caught me off guard. While I understand she's a giant pop star, I had still underestimated how massive her pull and popular appeal is. Then I read a couple of really good essays about her appeal, especially as it regards to girls and girlhood, and the way she positions herself outside the male gaze. One of the essays is by my friend Elizabeth, and it's a letter-based email that I don't know that she would be comfortable with me sharing, so I won't, and the other one is this NYT essay that is hilarious and wonderful that I recommend reading.

I'm loosely a Swift fan in that every time she drops a new record I check it out, and I usually end up liking some of the songs on it. I found Evermore and Folklore largely boring, but I enjoyed big chunks of Reputation, Lover, and Midnights. What I don't understand is the big portion of her fanbase that follows her every move obsessively, and I don't especially get the way it seems she at least partially feeds into that. The current fascination with her new relationship is deeply weird and reminds me, to a degree, of the toxic paparazzi culture of the early and mid-2000s.

But even aside from all that, something about her bothers me, and that's what I'm trying to understand. I'm old enough to have observed her entire career, and I'm old enough to reconsider the way pop culture has negatively positioned many female artists and celebrities, including Swift. I'm also able to question my own internalized misogyny, and I think a lot of my dislike for Swift comes from that misogyny and, if I'm being very honest, jealousy.

Oh man, jealousy is such an ugly emotion. I have a theory most of us try to deny we feel jealousy and envy, even to ourselves. I've started naming that feeling whenever I feel it, and miraculously, it makes me feel 100% better because I'm not trying to deny it or cover it up. I'm just admitting it and then--to the best of my ability--letting it go. So, yeah. I have felt jealous of Swift's privilege, talent, work ethic, and beauty over the years, and that's partly why I haven't liked her very much. But there's something deeper at work, which is that Swift is a woman who has the audacity to be obviously ambitious. She's the most try-hard of try-hards. She cares so much about her success and what you think of it. Our culture hates women who are outwardly ambitious. Even in my very small corner of the art world, I have felt others' distaste for my own ambition, as if it makes my poetry less pure somehow. Men don't suffer from this sort of censure, btw. Men are expected to be ambitious by default.

I also have thought a lot about Swift's bald need for others' approval, and at first I thought I couldn't identify with it at all. I have mostly gone through my life without letting what others think of me change my actions. I do what I want to do, and I have felt proud of that. But then, I reconsidered what I feel to be a foundational value (the fact that I don't seek approval) in context with my identity as a writer, and more specifically a poet, and like DUH I spend nearly all of the time I'm working on publishing (which is different from writing) in search of others' approval. I want approval from literary journals. I want approval from presses. I want approval from gate-keeping literary and academic institutions. I want approval from readers. I want readers period. I constantly work for approval when I try to publish my writing.

This is not a deranged mini essay about how I'm like Taylor Swift. But it is a deranged mini essay about how I understand her better as an artist because I relate to her as an artist (on an obviously much smaller scale). I respect her hustle. I respect her desire for institutional approval. I respect her drive to always write a better song.

But at the end of the day there's this essential Taylorness to nearly everything she does that I find sort of baffling. Like she's stuck in an adolescent gear even though she's a 30-something woman. Part of my confusion is that I'm older than her and have left my girlishness behind most ways. And sometimes I wish I could have that girlishness back. I've been married 19 years. I have children. I have these brutal caretaking responsibilities (that I signed up for!) that cause me to decenter myself from my own life. Swift is a main character, and good for her! But a lot of the time I feel like a supporting character in my own life. And now we're back to jealousy and envy here. Naming these emotions helps!

Anyway, this is all to say that I came across this twitter exchange recently that crystalized my feelings toward Swift. I have mad respect for her, and I'm glad I've done all this deep thinking about creative longevity and female ambition and living an art-centered life, but these are my feelings about Swift boiled down to their essence:

[popculturebuffet]

Mutant Month: House of Claremont: Avengers Annual #10: Rogue Rises, Carol Falls (Patreon Review for Brotoman.exe)

Hello all you happy mutants and welcome back to Mutant Month, my celebration of the X-Men and all things marvel mutant. Today we're taking a step back from the strangest heroes of all themselves: while they do cameo in this story and Charles plays a very imporant roll, the main focus is on the X-Men's sometimes friends, sometimes rivals, and sometimes guys who sit there and do nothing while genocide happened because of editorial not stopping to think how bad this would make them look, the Avengers.. specifically Carol Danvers, at the time Ms Marvel. While Carol is absent most of the story it's her being found half alive and mostly brain dead that kicks off the story, her scathing reason you suck speech to the avengers for the events of Avengers #200, and the writer of this book being so pissed off by the events of said issue he wrote THIS ONE in the first place.

For those who haven't heard of avengers #200... i'm truly sorry i'm about to tell you it exists. But since this story is a direct sequel/fuck you to the story, I have to. Apologizes in advance.

So Avengers #200 was the story of how Carol Danvers got mystically impregnated by Marcus, extradimensional son of avengers foe Immortus... WITH Marcus. Marcus then revealed he'd previously kidnapped Carol, made her fall in love with him with the subtle manipulations of his machines, his EXACT words, and then when he had to go back to his home dimension due to his presence destroying the world, took Carol back with him. The avengers all GLADLY sent her off with her rapist and hoped she'd be okay.

If your curious to view this nightmare for yourself, my review of it's right here`, and it's easily one of the worst things i've reviewed. And that's not in a general group.. i'm still not sure if this monstrosity or the transphobic episode of faimly guy where Brian vomits for 2 minutes straight because he slept with a trans woman is worse. It's a toss up. It's a straight up deadlock of things that PHYSICALY HURT to write about.

So as a sort of apology Brotoman, who comissioned the review of Avengers #200 not having any idea how bad it was, as did I as while I knew what happened reviews only prepare you so much, agreed to eventually have me review the direct response to that, this issue. As for why it's in X-Men Month.. well if you know Carol's history or x-men history.. then you know where Rogue got her powers.. and this is where not only that happens.. but Rogue debuts. So not only does this change avengers history.. but it's also VITALLy important to x-men history, to the point the issue is both int he x-men and marvel masteworks and their respective epic collections. It's simply too vital to both stories to ignore, especially the x-men's as Carol also basically joins the group for a while after this.

As I said this is a direct response from Chris Claremont about Avengers #200. Now any resonable person would hate this story, something i'd rarely say as tastes differ but this is

So I feel confident saying no one likes this and if they do their just being a trollish jackass.

But no one liked this story less than X-Men Maestro Chris Claremont. Chris was deeply attached to Carol and for good reasons: While Carol existed before him, debuting in Captain Marvel and then getting her own solo, the character wasn't exactly defined, first being a kinda sorta but not really love intrest to Captain Mar-Vell, then having this weird split identity gimmick and working at a women's magazine printed by J Jonah Jameson. It was clear while Marvel had the idea of "neat new womens superhero" that was about all they had.

Luckily Chris took on the book and quickly ended the split identity schtick and defined carol as we know her: Tough as nails, badass, miltary referree. He defined her backstory, the son of a sexist jackass who joined the Air Force to get an education after he refused because she was a woman. He defined most of her supporting cast, her skill and genuinely who she was. He even took her archenenemy mystique with him when he started writing x-men and to my shock Rogue was actually intended for an arc in Carol's book.. but the book got cancelled before it happened.

So finding out a character he poured his heart into was raped and her friends were just fine with it while also pouring a thick gravy of sexisim on top of the procedings.. didn't go so well

Shooter.. let Chris right the ship. Which says a lot as normally when editorial is asked to correct a creative mistake they either wait a bit so they can make money off correcting their own bullshit or actively refuse

Granted in this case, Chris Claremont was marvel's #1 writer at the time, with X-Men rising to be their best seller, with Chris having just finished the back to back classics Dark Phoenix Saga and Days of Future Past. It was clear the X-Men needed chris, wouldn't be the same without him and Chris had all the power in this negotation, while all Shooter could do is nod and say sure. While Shooter would ocasoinally flex his power on x-men for both good (shutting down the Colossus and Kitty Pryde thing) and bad (not letting Mystique and Destiny be publicly gay.. or letting Destiny be nightcrawlers mom and Mystique having shapeshifted into a man to make that possible. ), but it was stuff Shooter was willing to fight for where as here the writer of his biggest hit was asking to fix a huge mistake for him. And given jim was busy making mistakes of his own

Someday.... i'll deal with this mess someday.. but for now Chris had the greenlight to fix Shooter's mistake, and thus we got Avengers Annual #10. And as said, since he couldn't do the Rogue story in carol's book, he did it here a way to both set up Rogue as the next big threat for the x-men, and of course swerve it by them being forced to take her in, and Carol joining the team in a supporting role while not having her powers... then giving her a new more powerful set. The latter part was also likely always intended, it simply played out diffrently. It's hard to tell. What won't be is does this issue hold up on it's own and does it help wash the taste of avengers 200 out of our mouths? Let's find out.

Avengers Annual #10 gets right to it as we open with a woman getting pushed off a bridge.. thankfully she's quickly saved by one of the guest stars.. no not storm...We're in san francsico and Chris Claremont is still writing non- mutant books so...

Yup. As a nice bonus to this issue in addition to Carol and the X-Men guest starring, we also get the Startling Spider-Woman. As I mentioned in my review of God Loves, Man Kills, claremont really likes using everything he's worked on or has worked on. I see echoes of that attitude in Al Ewing's work today, finding ways to weave in your other books or tie off loose ends you never got to.

For those less familiar with her, Jessica Drew was experimented on by her dad and the high evolutionary, raised around Animal People, and then became a super heroine, with Claremont turning her into a detective after some hit and miss directions. I'm a fan thanks to Dennis Hopeless breakout run, so it was nice seeing Jess here. When we next see Jess she's waiting at the hospital, where she finds out her Jane Doe is carol.. and whlie not suprising to us given this issues place and history, it was meant to be a suprise at the time with the cover lady easily being any super being the avengers had met.

And before we move on, let's talk about that cover for a second because it's this weird mix of being both really eyecatching and an absolute hot mess. On the one hand the striking red, various panels of all the stuff and nice bit of building intrigue as they don't spell out what out of the brotherhood knocked out cap and iron man. On first look it's not too weird.

But when you really step back and look at it it's saying a lot of nothing. instead of going just with cap being thrown through a window or showing the various things happening to the avengers and then having jess and the x-men on the botttom it tries to showcase EVERYTHING in this issue and cram it all on to one cover, which is never a smart idea. Not helping is the large advertisment for a ten speed giveaway taking up a lot of real estate in an already busy cover. I don't mind covers homaging this, as it's a neat IDEA for a cover, the excecution is just sloppier than I remember and has diminishing returns: it does the job of catching your attention.. but then gets it for all the wrong reasons.

Anyways there's a problem: Carol's mental state is so withdrawn the staff psychologist assumed she'd been insutlationalized since child hood, and they can't really reach her. Thankfully Jess happens to be friends with the x-men.

That's something.. weird that happened with the passage of time. See due to Chris writing her early on Jess was friends with the x-men and her reason for knowing them is not remotely small: on a case she found former member Banshee's lost daughter Siryn, who'd go on to be a major part of X-Force and X-Factor and a faviorite of mine thanks to the latter. It's not the biggest foot note but it's something that almost never gets brought up. She's friendly enough with the x-crowd it's weird it dosen't get brought up apart from her skrull counterpart and wolverine being on good terms due to Jess also having been a close friend of logan's in his series during her powerless days. For instance in the solo I mentioned, none of the uncanny x-men visit her party. They just kinda fell out of touch. I mean Logan was dead at the time but I can't imagine Kurt Wagner would pass up free shrimp and pretty ladies. It's just not who he is.

At any rate Jess calls the professor for help, and we get a little bit of slice of life stuff with the x-men. It's something chris REALLY loved doing and that I honestly miss in modern comics: with how tightly packed the pacing is there isn't time for the x-men to say, be busy rebuilding the danger room after Kitty had to use it to murder an alien, which is the case here. It's fun seeing Kurt and Kitty slowly bond and also fuck up some machinery together trying to fix things. Charles heads down to San Fran, and the avengers have been notififed: Carol's identity isn't public YET , so it's just said their linked "somehow". Charles tells Jess in his mind that not only is her concious mind just.. gone but he was able to find out who did it: Rogue. Who at the time would've gotten a solid reaction out of fans as

As this is her intro. It's a good way to set up a villian though: have her take out a hero at Carol's level.. and a few more. YOu do have to thread this needle carefully: if you go too far, the villian comes off overpowered. Here , Rogue has just enough to be a threat, but not so much she's entirely overpowered, as we find out some drawbacks later.. and much later will find out permenanlty stealing Carol's powers and memories comes with the whopper downside of a whole other person being grafted to her brain.

And we first meet Rogue properly.. as she suprise attacks captain america. Which COULD be seen as cheap.. but Rogue makes a valid point after: she has Carol's memories.. and thus unlike most foes fighting cap , knows how he fights. And Carol being military herself meant she probably thought about how to take him down just in case someone possesed him, turned him into a werewolf or created a nazi clone. You know the usual.

Rogue then does what would become her trademark of taking the power with a kiss. This is also where we find out she stole Carol's powers for keeps, and as long as she dosen't touch someone TOO long can usually not take too much. This part.. is a bit out of sorts with her later deep fear of being touched, but I feel fits: At this point Rogue is a villian and is being encouraged by her moms to be evil. As such the ethics are likely being actively downplayed. Most memroies she's taken fade away and so does the guilt with only her first use of her powers with her childhood friend cody really bothering her. It's a case of her simply not having the downside of her powers HIT HER yet. Without any consequences, she has no reason to fear her power.

While the rest of the avengers minus thor and iron main wait for cap, Rogue leonardos him through a window. This gets them to contact Tony as Iron Man who plans to help.. but turns out the attack on Cap wasn't something random.. it was well planned, with Mystique waiting in hiding as the wasp to trick tony.. and slam some sort of doo dad that depowers the armor and leaves tony stuck inside it.

Finally for the big three, just as Thor turns out of being Donald Blake, Rogue hits him. Granted she docent know he's thor's mortal alter ego... but it still makes sense as he's their doctor. Before she can finish him though Jess shows up, having apparently travled to NYC to follow up on Carol's attempted murder.

We get a neat fight as Rogue really beats the shit out of the avengers, but like I said it's done in a way that dosen't leave her coming off OVERPOWERED. Yes she snatch's thor's powers.. but that's why: She has the combined powers of thor, cap and ms marvel with Steve, Carol and Thor's combined knowledge of their teammates. It makes perfect sense she easily floors them and only dosen't kill them because Mystique has other plans for her daughter. It's also a ncie way to show off her inexperience and deference to mystique: she stole three powers but dosen't know if she can do more, and balks out of a guaranteed win simply becaase it's not in the plan.. which sets up the brotherhood's defeat LATER by not finishing the avengers NOW.

With the avengers on the backfoot for now, Jess reveals that Carol disappeared from new york 6 months ago with avengers 200.. but resurfaced three months later in San Fran, living just fine. It's our first hint that Carol isn't exactly happy to see her friends again. She moved to a city with one other superhero, hasn't picked the mask back up, and didn't call them. And as we'll see later she has every reason not to.

The avengers reacap avengers 200, and after giving me some flashbacks, we get to the main point: This attack was cordinated, the avengers are now down their three strongest and most experienced members. The only good news is Beast, who was an avenger for a while, it's why he wasn't in the Claremont run outside of a few choice guest spots as by the time he wasn't, he got swept into x-factor, meaning beating Rogue won't be easy.

The reason behind hobbling the avengers like this? A prison break. See the brotherhood first appeared a few months before this in the landmark x-men story Days of Future Past, trying to assassinate bigoted senator kelly, our heroes winning.. but Kelly being an ungreatful bastard about it and turning around to be mutantkind's greatest pain in the ass for a while, trying to publish the mutant registration act.

The brotherhood at the time consisted of Mystique, master shapeshifter and Carol's arch enemy at the time turned x-men villian, Destiny, Mystiques wife who can see the futttttttooorrrrrr, the blob, the imovable object, Pyro, Australian arsonist and fire bender, and Avalanche, earthquake machine of the cool costume without a personality to match, with Rogue joining here. They'd keep the lineup minus Rogue for most of the 80's, transitioning from terrorists to being the goverment's go too hired goons

At any rate Misty was the only one to escape last time, so it's her job to break them out, with help from her wife predicting when, and Iron man being used as a blunt instrument. Though really he's more of an object. All that matters is he's blunt, hard and blunt.

So the brotherhood is broken out and costumed up... just in time for the avengers to arrive. Spider-Woman heads to fight iron man while a decent fight ensues: the main gimmick is destiny is tipping off the brotherhood before the avengers each move, allowing them to counter. It's a reminder of just HOW powerful Destiny is: her knowledge of the future isn't 100% , it's more propablities than full info or other wise she'd be invincible and our heroes could never win and it'd be really, really boring. But it's still potent enough and showed off well by chris claremont here: while the rest of the brotherhood get a great showing, their mostly hired goons. Destiny is Mystiques #2 for more reasons than that mouth thing she likes, and this shows it. The avengers are entirely on the backfoot because of her and it's telling the tide turns after Wanda gets a chance to attack her.. and more telling that it was only concidence she got a shot in on her and pure luck, as none of them KNEW destiny was doing this. The X-Men at least later have the advantage of knowing Destiny's the most dangerous piece on the board.

Mystique tries to kill Jessica, mostly because she's pissed Carol lived. Destiny warns her this will be their downfall.. and she's right. Mystique was a terrible choice to send for this as Jessica sees right through her nick fury disguise and Misty barely escapes , with Jessica bringing iron man back

With that the tide has fully turned: Iron Man goes with the genius strategy of hitting Rogue real hard.. and her feeling it tells her she's down to just Carol's power and Mystique tells her to retreat, the two of them feeling. Now.. tha'ts a solid marriage right there. Where you can leave your wife to get captured by the avengers.

We get more of the fight including highlights such as pyro makin ga giant firebird, his trademark and Vision and Jocasta using double laser vision to collapse the ground beneath blob. It's a decent enough fight, I just don't care about it a lot and it's one of the issue's main weaknesses: A lot of it's a fight scene and while there was good setup for it with Misty taking out a lot of their members, the people who did said setup.. have left at this point. IT's down to blob, pyro and avalanche. And while I like all three for their designs and they've had great development in later years... in this case their just three interchangable mooks. Destiny's the one really making them dangerous and with the people who actually personally hurt the avengers gone, it looses any emotional weight. It's just the avengers against some b-list super villians. I've seen this before, i'll see it again and while it's fun enough it just feels like padding. What Chris HAD to do to justify the issue. It would've been more intresting had they actually escaped. The avengers won, the brotherhood just had to retreat. But i'm guessing Chris wanted the actual escape in his own book, and knew it'd also be weird if these guys beat the avengers and the earth's mightest heroes weren't after them.

It's nice ot see the brotherhood in this sort of situation.. but I can see why we only saw them pop up more elsewhere after they became freedom force: it's a lot easier to have the heroes eat the loss or the villians loose when the villians are working for the goverment and thus wont' be going back to jail.

The ending of this annual.. is what we came for though, the big centerpiece. The only thing I can say bad about it is the art. See the avengers come to see Carol, whose staying with the x-men, and will be for the next 20 or so issues of their title. More on that in a moment. For whatever reason artist micheal golden.. decided to have her pool side so this scene of a woman talking about her sexual assault.. is done in a swimsuit.

The art in general is the book's weakpoint: As a critic while i'll point out stuff I dont' like I generally try to be positive. Something bad like Avengers 200 isn't my usual wheelhouse. i'll gladly REVIEW terrible media for money, but even then I try to be fair.

But while the writing is good as any Claremont story of the era... the art from Micheal Golden is just bad. It's bad. At best i'ts inoffensive and at worst we have Rogue's looking like she's a 4 year old who found mommy's make up

Wonder Man looking like he pulled everything , everywhere all at once and cannot move from this pose as a result

Or the blob breifly replaced with a wax statue by the ghost of vincient price

Now credit where it's do there are good shots like this one of wanda

Or beast easily out manuvering pyro and blob

But as you can see their still not the BEST shots, just decent ones. It puts a damper on an otherwise solidly written book.

Speaking of which, it's time for the moment you've been waiting for, the reason we're here. Carol has the x-men and Jessica go inside, she needs to speak with her guests alone. Before she does though there's one small moment.. but an important one

It's a small subtle thing.. but the fact Jess is still here despite this scene taking place weeks later... shows she was there for Carol's recovery. While she found out what happened.. she cared enough to stay by her side and help her.. and it was through that one of the strongest friendships in the marvel universe war born. While it takes Jess becoming relevant again to really take hold, the two have been best friends for most of modern marvel, only briefly having a falling out over civil war II.. and even that didn't last long. Jessica and Carol are each othe'rs ride or die, and that call goes both ways. While we never see these weeks their what built a bond stronger than any on earth.

But this is something Carol has to do alone.

It's an utterly heartbreaking scene, one of the best in Chris Claremont's long career on this reread. The pure PAIN in carol's voice comes through in print, a hard feet but one Chris makes seem easy. And while Golden's artwork still isn't the best... he does a damn fine job of capturing her pain without making it melodramatic: instead we see a person who was horribly violated, has her friends casually assume she was in love with her rapist and even has one loudly tell her "no we saw you you didn't see what you think we saw".. only for Carol to calmly and tearfully explain that no, she did. Marcus violated her, and they LET HIM take her with him. It's only through sheer grace of his instant death far worse didn't happen and by then he'd still done more than enough.

What i love is that while Claremont is very thinly calling out how horrible the writing was.. he dosen't let his understandable outrage hurt his ablility to make a good narrative out of it: many a comic writer can succumb to clumisly fixing what they deem a mistake or even when fixing an actual mistake, fumble the ball. Chris here however turns it into character: Carol calls them out, tearfully, but calmly and lets them know how bad they hurt her, how bad they betrayed her.. but right after also makes it clear theyc an learn from this. They HAVE to learn from this. And if they do maybe all of this will have had SOMETHING good come out of it. But that's their choice.

It gives Carol agency back after an issue that was determined to strip it away, mocking her for not wanting a baby that was forced on her, that left her to a "happy ending" with her rapist." She could wallow in anger, but chooses to move on. She's cutting the avengers out of her life for now.. but after all they've done she can't bare to have them in it, and that panel above, that one right there shows how badly they get that: they came expecting to get some closure.. and instead got the wakeup call that they lost that one. Their friend was in pain, needed help, and they ignored what she wanted, ignored her concerns.. and like marcus ignored her consent. LIke him they didn't care what she wanted or who she was, just waht this whole thing meant to them. And it's clear fromt heir expressions.. that won't happen again.

I also like how it ends: Wanda, the one of them who was the most supportive during this debacle (and was missing during the sendoff with captain rapist, rest in dust you miserable bastard), is the most broken up by it and tells her sorry.. and Carol wipes her tears and accepts it, knowing at least one person tried not to betray her. It's a fitting sendoff for Carol's time in the avengers, a time that wouldn't come again till the 90's, one that dosen't let the avengers off the hook at all and has them utterly raked over the coaals for their henious actions, but allows her to move on

The final scene is in the Quinjet, as most of the avnegers sit in stone silence as the weight of everything hits them.. but it's once again wanda whose the most affected

It's a hell of an ending, one that offers no easy comfort.. simply the promise that maybe there will be a better tommorow. It's not easy making a mistake.. but it's the harder step learning from it. And evne harder to live with what others have inflicted on you.

So yeah while the art is hit and miss.. this issue is still solid. THe last act really steals the show, and is one long callout by chris.. but again it's done perfectly in character, a way to bridge carol leaving the avengers and joining the x-men and to make the Avengers deal with what they did. To make sure #200 isn't just fixed, with Carol back and Marcus a pile of dust, but to make sure it isn't forgotten. It's easier in comics to just.. wipe away a bad decision, and sometims necessary. But it's ofen the better route to take a huge writing mistake and refit it for character.

As for Carol her story would continue: she'd basically join the x-men, helping them on occasion, then get shot up into space with them, with her powers reawakend and reformatted as the even STRONGER binary. But with her emotions attached to most of her memories gonCarol's place on earth was gone and she took to the stars. She'd regain those emotions and rejoin earth of course, rejoining the avnegers, leading them and eventually becoming Captain Marvel.

As for Rogue.. having Carol's Memories would nearly drive her insane, revealing her not as the callous monster seen here.. but as a scared 20 or so year old... and forced to turn to the people who hated her most for help. But that.. my friend sis a story for next year. For now .. we can take comfort that even with lows like Civil War II under her belt.. Carol has never been through something like avengers #200 again.. and god willing never will. Thanks for reading

[blackbird-brewster]

CHAPTER TWENTY - NOW POSTED

For the second time that night JJ was being asked why she was keeping secrets, but unlike Penelope, she knew that Tara would be suspicious of any lie JJ tried to feed her right now. JJ's mind began racing through all of the real reasons she'd failed to tell Penelope about Beck, all the reasons she'd been so distracted lately.

I forgot to tell them because I've spent every waking moment thinking about the fact, surprise, Leo and Elle are the same person. And I have no idea what to do with this knowledge. On top of that, I think I also developed a crush on Elle in the process. Now, I'm absolutely terrified of what that means and I don't know what to do about any of it.

"It just slipped my mind," JJ replied simply.

She hated lying to her partner, they promised they weren't keeping secrets anymore, but JJ was still caught up in whether or not this was her secret to share. The idea of outing Elle, even if it was only to Tara, made her feel like she'd be betraying Elle's privacy in some way.

As expected, Tara could instantly tell her girlfriend was hiding something from her. She gently asked, "Are you sure that's all that's going on? Baby, we face heffalumps together, remember?"

With that reminder JJ felt her resolve fracture, her inner turmoil started seeping outwards by means of tears stinging at the corners of her eyes. As much as she wanted to prevent exposing Elle's other identity, JJ knew she couldn't keep this to herself, not with how quickly it was consuming her from the inside out. Elle's privacy was important to her, but so was her own wellbeing.

JJ blinked tears back as she muttered, "Actually, there is something important I need to tell you. I, um, well, I sort of accidentally found something out, about..." She looked up at her girlfriend and instantly lost her train of thought when her attention was redirected over Tara's shoulder.

From her position, JJ currently had a clear view of the entire bar. She saw Emily come back through the entrance at the same time Beck was leaving the bathroom, the pair of them began making conversation on their way to the table. JJ could also see Penelope returning from the bar with their hands full of drinks, but unlike when they left the table, this time they weren't alone.

After JJ abruptly went silent mid-sentence, Tara turned to follow her partner's line of sight. She instantly saw what, or rather who, had distracted JJ from their conversation, because coming over to the table with Penelope, was none other than Elle.

Tara looked back to girlfriend. She misinterpreted JJ's blank expression as annoyance and gave her a stern warning. "Jen, be nice to her."

"What? No, you don't understand, that's not...Tara, I really need to tell you --" JJ quickly muttered, but it was too late.

[Read the Full Chapter on AO3]

----------------------------------------

Fooled Around (and Fell in Love) is a queer rom-com AU that celebrates coming out at any age or stage, polyamory, found family, and above all else, the love shared between JJ/Emily/Tara.

Read the whole series: [PART 1] || [PART 2] || [PART 3]

Listen to the companion playlist on Spotify: [Fooled Around: Part 3]

[placegrenette]

My fellow Jukeboxer Hannah Jocelyn wrote the best response piece I have found to date on that long New York Times essay that can be summarized as "But what if Taylor Swift really is queer?" This is less of a compliment than I want it to be; the other takes I've found so far have been shallow and awful. But Hannah is a very good writer generally and you should get on the mailing list for her upcoming music newsletter.

One of the things that distinguishes Hannah, as a serious writer, from the bad takes (I'm thinking specifically of this Slate piece) is that she does not try to handwave off the fact that the essay appeared in the Times. Hannah works from the premise that Taylor Swift, the singer-songwriter, has created a character named "Taylor Swift," and has at different times leaned into and run from all the parasocial speculation about her relationship to that character: "Nobody invites parasociality quite like her, and nobody hates it like her either." Over time a lot of people, including queer people of various stripes, have read character-Taylor as queer, and given that actual-Taylor has not worked overtime to draw a sharp line between herself and character-Taylor, when she angrily disavows character-Taylor specifically in the context of a possible queer reading, it hurts. The original essay basically assumes that actual-Taylor and character-Taylor are the same person, and, given that newspapers (at least, newspapers worth the paper they're theoretically printed on) don't usually blow past such distinctions, it feels like a sanctioning of intrusive speculation.

I will say this: no one needs my permission, but as long as you acknowledge that actual-Taylor is something different, you should be able to read character-Taylor however you want. I am middle-aged, which means that when I was being taught to think critically about popular media, the so-called death of the author was still in full swing. Since the odds of getting actual depictions of gay love (much less any other stripe of non-cisheteronormativity) were so low, queering was done sneakily, mostly privately, and sometimes with a thumb of the nose at the original creator. I'm not well versed on the history of fan fiction, so I may be overstating the case, but I'm pretty sure the women originally writing Kirk/Spock slash never believed that they were getting closer to Gene Roddenberry's truth. I want to say, so it goes now, even as audiences have a bit more comfortable with the possibility of a queer Everywoman. Your Taylor is not actual-Taylor; your Taylor is still valid.

The trade-off, though, is leaving actual-Taylor alone. Hannah compares Swift's outspoken disavowal of the "sexualizing" of her female friendships to the classic story of the queer woman whose affection for a friend goes unreciprocated: "They never cared about you like you did about them." But it's also true of any parasocial love. It doesn't matter how you write Taylor Swift, or any other celebrity, in your head; it won't match the real person. It's not fair to the real person to insist on a match.

But we seem to be in an era where the idea of matching has gone from assumed-to-be-nonexistent to incredibly important. Forgive me, for this is something I've had to work out in my own head, but: I am also old enough that the entire Harry Potter phenomenon passed me by (both my kids read the books; I enjoyed the Lego-video-game versions, and that's about it), and then also old enough (and secure enough) to be confused by the depth and breadth of emotion sparked by J. K. Rowling's anti-trans comments. Right now I have a book on loan from the library (With Love, from Cold World) where a character says it's just as well his strict parents prevented him from reading the books, because "I would've been a hardcore Potter fan, and then when the author showed her TERF colors it would've broken my heart." And I thought, not for the first time: I could see being annoyed, disappointed, disgusted, sure; but why heartbroken? If you, for whatever stripe "you" are, found something expansive in those books, J. K. Rowling being unhelpfully defensive and short-sighted doesn't make that connection go away or illegitimize it. That was between you and the books, not her. It makes more sense to me to gleefully yell, "Fuck you, J. K. Rowling," and embrace the books than to heartbrokenly reject them. And again, I'm a product of my time: back in the day there was enough to deal with, and people got more energy from the former approach than the latter.

So why does the prevailing narrative now seem to need a trans-inclusionary J. K. Rowling, or an actually-gay Taylor Swift, so much? Partly because we're all prone to black-and-white thinking, wanting our heroes good and our villains bad, and so on. (Also I like to personally speculate that 12-year-olds contribute a lot more to the prevailing narrative than most of us care to admit, and 12-year-olds are even more inclined to black-and-white thinking than their adult counterparts.) But I think there's another element now: we're all authors. We're all writing; we're all performing publicly; we're all scared of being misunderstood; we none of us want to give up control of our narratives. (Taylor Swift included.) And we're not hypocritical enough to be able to say, "I can do whatever I like with your artistic output, fuck you," and then turn around and say, "Hey! That's not what I meant!"

Aella wrote an essay a while back titled "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Internet Hate." I've read it several times and found it unsettling each time. "I didn’t know how to handle being a symbol to people," she wrote. "Something about it felt off. I wasn’t supposed to be a symbol, and people were wrong in some deep, horrible way when they failed to see my humanity." And eventually: "I’m a microcelebrity, and this means that some people will use me in ways that hurt. Throw a ball, it falls. What the fuck else did I expect to happen? This is the dynamic like the earth beneath my feet is the ground."

I still don't want to accept the dynamic that Aella is in the process of making her peace with, frankly. I can talk a good game about separating the art from the artist, as above, but in truth I'm terrified too of losing control of my own narrative, of being a symbol rather than a person, of being seen as a sliver of myself, less than human. So are you, I suspect. We want to be seen as we see ourselves, and we're scared of failing. We hope that being able to say "I think about X's creative output and therefore understand X" implies "Other people think about my creative output and therefore understand me." The alternative -- that one can write and write and write and fail to be understood -- is hard to make peace with.

@cureforbedbugs (who pointed me to Hannah's essay in the first place; his newsletter's good too) recently wrote a series of essays on Taylor Swift, and in the last one he wonders if her ascension may simply be a side effect of her having gotten big right before the pop scene fractured utterly: once her star falls, no one else's will ever shine as bright, because the way we listen to and purchase and talk about pop music has changed. I wonder, though, if part of what makes Taylor Swift so compelling is how she's been dealing with these questions of narrative control so publicly, self-aggrandizingly, fruitlessly. She's tried encouraging the close readings, and disavowing them, and leaving them alone, and trying to redirect them, and "Anti-Hero" is about how none of those approaches have worked. "It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me," she finally sings, because the one thing she seems unable to do is relax and accept her own inevitable dehumanization. And when I hear "Anti-Hero" and sing along, I recognize something of myself in her words; which is a contribution even if I don't know her and never will.

[papirouge]

Lol the stories about the child sacrifice and abortion parallels plus the boy wanting and mutilating himself to be an animatronic as a trans allegory are pretty based and at least the last one seems quite likely to be based on that if the original creator was the one who came up with the idea. how in hell did people even find out he was a registered republican voter? how do you even register yourself as a voter for a particular party?? in my country, things don't work like that so I'm lost. your vote is completely confidencial so it shouldn't be possible for anyone to know such info unless someone close to him decided to spill the beans.

I think i've heard before something about the creator of fnaf being cancelled but for some reason I had the idea it was for being christian, perhaps i'm confusing him with another game creator...

like i said i only play minecraft and pokeymon, but notch, the creator of minecraft, has also had his heated gamer moments too. he said trans women aren't women, he said people who didnt believe in a straight pride parade deserved to be shot, said feminism was a social disease and called a feminist a cunt, said there was nothing wrong about white pride (then later kinda recanted by saying something like "I didnt know there were only some groups allowed to feel proud of who they are"), and something else about not giving in to mentall illness in reference to transgenderism, though later kinda apologized saying he didnt understand trans identities very well. obviously, references to his name got erased in many products and even the game itself, only visible once after you beat the ender dragon, and microsoft banned him from their events ever since.

pokemon creators havent had these type of controversies which i attribute to having a better pr team and not growing up alongside social media and decide it's a great idea to post any thought that passes through their head. theyve had some though, like with jynx believed to be a racial stereotype (supposedly though she's based on ganguro fashion and the "fat lady" of an opera) so her skin was changed from black to purple. interestingly, ludicolo is a very obvious mexican stereotype yet nobody cares lol.

i do think its kinda funny when these authors get cancelled but they stil keep them/their product around to milk it to death.

and I might or might not watch the video. ive watched some youtube essays before but never that long, so we'll see...

I mean only mentally ill people like me would be dedicated to watch a 9 hours lore video essay, so I don't blame you anon lol

I am too very confused about the registred political alignement thing but I gues that's yet another dystopian US lunacy. In my country this stuff doesn't exist neither. I heard some celebrities/influencer get flack for being Republican (Jaclyn Hill comes to mind) but I have no idea how people/haters manage to get this information. I guess they are available on public record or stuff like that.

Since FNAF has a VERY dedicated fandom, I am not surprised some fans went as far as to sleuth this info out.

That minecraft guy sounds like a legit asshole though and he deserved to be canceled idc I HATE when people make foul out of themselves for the whole world to see, and then act shook when people don't want to have anything to do with them anymore. I hope he didn't have the audacity to whine about "Mh fReeDoM oF sPeeCh" because dude was apparently saying it was ok to kill people for having disagreeing opinions🙃

On the opposite, Scott Cawthon is SUPER lowkey & private and never explicitely said anything rude or insulting. People just started hating him for being Republican and allegedly Christian (which I think nobody found actual evidence of)

And animatronic aren't allegory of trans people, it was only the B-7 story of a boy butchering himself as one. The whole FNAF story is Scott Cawthon creation. He just co-writes the book with a female author, but only him creates the lore. Animatronics are regular robot who are possessed by the spirit of dead children.

I didn't know they changed Jynx color 'o' I never thought anything about this design - I felt like she didn't even have skin, but but more like a void lmao (like these spectre type pokemon)

I roll my eyes at article defending this design à la "oooh but Sugiomori didn't want to offend anyone uwu" ok but Pokémon is now a game with an INTERNATIONAL audience. If Nintendo wants to keep making bucks out of their game, they have to adapt themselves to foreign audience. This sort of "purity complex" when it comes from japanese cultural assets coming into the West is insufferable. No culture is immune to criticism.

Ganguro started around 1996 which is the year when the first Pokémon game came out...so I highly doubt Sugimori would be already aware of this trend during the game development. Japan already had a weird thing with dark/black skin, so Jynx simply might be yet another design celebrating this brand of "quirkiness".

[lolo3h]

OC Bio - Matt

Fandom - Splatoon

Name - Matt Seiyokarashi 

Age - 21

Place of birth - Octarian Domes

Where they live - Splatsville

Ethnicity - Blasian (Black and Japanese)

Race - Octoling

Education - Pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Food and Beverage Management

Occupation - Part Time Student, Grizzco ‘Employee’/Independent Contractor

Gender identity - Cis Male

Orientation - Asexual Homoromantic

Backstory - Matt was the youngest child of his family who lived in the Octarian Domes underground. He went to military school much like his peers, and although he hated the rigid structure and obedience demanded from his classes, he learned many life skills from them. After the battle between Octavio and Agent 3, his older brother Luke who had seen the battle left with Matt and their middle sister Beba. They had heard of another community of Octolings in Splatsville and migrated there, hoping for a better life on the surface. The three of them lived in a tiny, cramped apartment, with Matt’s older siblings having to work in order to support each other, and Matt commonly ran off on his own and made his own fun to try and not bother his siblings. As he grew up, Matt worked many odd jobs and always tried to make the most of his situation. In the aftermath of the Chaos vs Order splatfest and many others traveled to Splatsville, Matt was overjoyed at all the new development and opportunities coming up. So when Grizzco opened a location in Splatsville, Matt was eager to participate. He quickly found that he enjoyed the job and that it paid better than his other part time gigs, as shady as it was. During a job, he met a laid back, inkling named Taylor, who always kept her cool no matter how chaotic things were going. She was also talented at the job, if not more so than Matt himself, so he proposed they should form a team together for better coordination. Taylor agreed, and they formed a fast friendship. 

Personality - Matt is enthusiastic and easily excitable, especially over the things he likes. He’s optimistic and tries his hardest to look on the bright side of things, believing that life is a series of ups and downs. He doesn’t take things too seriously, he just wants to have a good time and live a carefree life. Matt is not afraid to poke fun at others or himself, but he tries to keep it inoffensive and in good humor. He believes that good deeds and victories should be celebrated, no matter how small they are. Though sometimes, there’s an undercurrent of bitterness whenever things don’t go his way or when he feels like he’s not in control of his life. He tends to bury his frustration, bottling up and acting passive aggressive until somebody points it out or he gets set off. But overall, Matt tries to be open to change and positive while cheering others on. 

Hopes and Dreams - Matt’s wish since his childhood was to have a more stable household for him and his siblings. Although he’s had much more freedom and comfort in Splatsville compared to the domes, Matt still realizes the less than ideal situation he and his siblings are in. As the youngest sibling, Matt often felt like a burden for not being able to contribute as much to their household outside of a bright attitude. He dreams of moving out of their cramped apartment and into a home where they can just live comfortably without having to constantly worry about money. In order to achieve this goal, Matt worked many part time gigs alongside his schooling in order to pursue a higher education, in hopes that he may one day support his siblings like they have for him. However, he still wants to pursue a career that he’s passionate about that will also pay enough. That’s why he’s studying food and beverage management, so he can turn his love of cooking into something meaningful. While he wants to create a better life for him and his siblings, he refuses to give up his passions and joy. 

Hobbies - Cooking, Fast Paced Games, Listening to Music

Likes - Street food, holidays and celebrations, good teamwork, trying new recipes, cheering up his friends

Dislikes - Strict rules, price gouging, being dismissed or under appreciated, monotony, letting people down

Appearances:

Player character model from Splatoon 3

Commissioned art from an irl friend (I’m pretty sure they also have a tumblr, but I’m not sure what it is)

Commissioned artwork from @/orkestrell

[lunaprincipessa]

ENTRY 386

The Woman in Me, A Memoir by Britney Spears. We are a year apart in age with her being a year older than me. Not that we ever knew each other personally, but I did grow up hearing virtually everything about her regardless of the music genres I was into around that time.

She's a household name in this country, especially back in the day with all the gossip and negative press.

I tend to stay out of everything. Celebrity worship bores me but when this memoir came out and there was talks of familial abuse, it peaked my interest as the scapegoat in my family.

I wasn't disappointed with the memoir as I realized we had a few things in common as survivors of narcissistic abuse.

One thing I've been coming across is people's hesitancy toward the book because it's Britney Spears. So what I've done is taken note of most of the things she went through. May be a bit lengthy but if any of it sounds familiar to you, the book may be a better read than you think.

Have You Ever:

Felt unsure of yourself, hated yourself, became more passive in people-pleasing due to trauma, lost a huge part of your life and identity to abuse, felt like you were going insane with grief, had breakdowns, felt like you weren't a human being to anyone, been traumatized in childhood then retraumatized in adulthood, felt like there was no one around while your entire world was falling apart, dealt with chronic loneliness, had bouts with feeling emotionally cold, invested in people that were supposed to be in your corner but ended up turning on you instead, felt intense sadness, gotten yourself into something lustful because you were so love-starved and badly needed a lift in spirit, felt like you needed to break free, felt like problems in life are never-ending, felt like you can't mentally or emotionally afford to look back at certain memories because it's just too much, noticed a change in yourself after a bad point in life, felt like the feeling of not being good enough carried from childhood to adulthood, felt yourself mindlessly going along with life because you have no fight or "fire" left sort of like a trauma-induced auto-pilot mode, experienced financial abuse, had freedoms taken away without any justifiable reason, had feelings of helplessness, developed paranoia from people plotting against you so much, been gaslit in conversation, been treated like a bad person and made out to look like a criminal, felt like you were going it alone because no one else seems to understand, been held down or back for so long that you forgot your value or self-worth, had to try things late in life because there was no chance to as a child or teen...

A few more! Have you ever been mad at your parents for not being parents when you needed them to be, felt a lack of support or a sense of betrayal from family, felt like people were actually enjoying seeing you down, felt like you wanted life to get good but felt like it never could and also felt suspicious when it did, or felt like you get caught up in games easily because you're not a player like other people leaving you with trust issues? These are the types of things found in the book and if you ever felt this way, you may have some things in common with her too. It's not a memoir about fashion or lipstick. It's about survival.

As long as that paragraph was, there's so much more that I didn't even touch on. The isolation, issues with socialization, feeling disconnected, wanting to rebel against the status quo, being harassed, dealing with vulnerability, coping with regret, being surrounded by toxic people, and feeling like pain was being dismissed are also present in her story, and in many of ours as well.

This isn't a blog asking people to wear pink and start listening to pop music. It's purpose is to share some of the major points because it was a better read than I thought it would be, that ended up being more relatable than I assumed it would be.

My eyes did tear up a little at the end where she talked about being free. Those of us who have dealt with abusers know the immense relief that comes with this particular type of liberation. Wishing her well. This is long enough so signing off! More thoughts later.

[nixthelapin]

I sort of agree, I agree a lot of “critiques” now are very cinemasins-esc in that they just don’t have answers yet (we have a big problem with wanting immediate gratification). Like the stuff she found out about as Hoaxer, the multiple identities, her being at the mansion to get the Butterfly, and that weird glow that appeared at the very end are all clearly going to be expanded on in s6&7.

HOWEVER- I think a big thing with the Miraculous fandom specifically, in regards to not like Lila as the new villain, in these critiques is a lack of trust in the writing team as a whole, but also more specifically with Lila as a character. (I could bring up general writing issues, but I’ll keep to some of my personal issues with Lila to keep the conversation simple).

As a commenter mentioned, her lies really aren’t that good most of the time. There are definitely cases of her manipulating well, like when she managed to convince Natalie to let her into Adrien’s house, or how she used her and Marinette’s bad relationship to frame her for antagonizing her (and people will believe that because they think she just hates Lila due to their crushes on Adrien). But then there are little lies like meeting or being friends with a bunch of celebrities but never showing evidence- if I or my friends ever met someone famous, I’d show and/or demand pictures (not even in the “pics or it didn’t happen” since, but wanting to see or share a cool thing that happened). Specifically, I feel like Alya, the investigative reporter, should be onto her more. It makes more sense when Lila first appears to believe her, as they just met her and Alya is still learning, but I think some amount of skepticism should’ve come up when claiming to be Ladybug’s bff because of how serious she is about her secret identity and keeping things professional (which Alya has witnessed). Or at the very least, Alya believes her, but then tries to get an interview with Ladybug about it later.

But those smaller lies are small potatoes in comparison to my biggest issue with Lila as a character: the end of s3 into s4.

So as previously mentioned, I think how Lila framed Marinette and turned people against her was decently well done (though I think having her parents not believe their own daughter was a bit far, but I digress). But the second Lila admitted to lying (after Adrien makes her lol), she should’ve been completely discredited. I’m not sure if the rest of the class or school heard her excuse of having a “compulsive lying disorder,” but either way, with or without that, they should never believe her again after such a major event. She almost got their friend, someone they know to be reliable, enough for them to vote her as class rep and call on her for help with their various personal problems, expelled over a lie. She almost ruined Marinette’s life! And nothing? She gets zero consequences and the only ones who are mad are Marinette (the victim) and Adrien (who has witnessed her lies from the beginning and saw her exposed by Ladybug). Even Marinette’s parents aren’t mad about it! S5 even shows Marinette’s mom getting closer to Lila in that art class she teaches! Becoming close with your kid’s bully is something you’d find in those Reddit horror stories to show what a terrible person the parent is, not to show how good of a manipulator the kid is (both can be true, but the parent is still terrible, yet Sabine is not ever called a terrible mother by the narrative for this- just because she’s usually great doesn’t make this a horrible thing to do).

Next- also as mentioned, Lila told Alya she was bffs with Ladybug. Even if I find Alya believing this annoying, I can deal with it somewhat. BUT, what I can’t accept is Alya still believing Lila’s nonsense after learning that Marinette is Ladybug. Marinette hates Lila, therefore that lie cannot be true. Alya is supposed to be smart, she’s shown many times to be smart, yet she trusts this girl over her best friend who is also her favorite superhero. I’m not saying Marinette being Ladybug makes her infallible and that Alya should believe everything she says (because Marinette is fallible, she’s human and still a teenager). But her words should definitely carry more weight, especially since she sees more sides of Lila than at school. Marinette has many examples: that first one about the bff thing, stealing Adrien’s book (since Alya knows about the Grimoire now, saying how she got it shouldn’t be an issue), pretending to be a superhero to get Adrien’s attention (added bonus of how she knew Lila lied about the Fox: the old guardian had it! It obviously couldn’t have been with Lila or her family!!), teaming up with Oni-Chan (akumatized Kagami from s2) just to hurt Ladybug (something Chat Noir would even be able to back up if needed)- and those are just at the top of my head! Not to mention Tikki was with Marinette the whole time, so she can confirm to Alya about some of the things that happened at school (like Lila threatening Marinette in the bathroom).

There’s also that scene in s5 where Adrien finally backs up Marinette about Lila being a liar, but Alya and Nino both disregard him because he’s just “doing it for his girlfriend,” which makes them look both dumb and like bad friends. And just the whole thing of replacing Marinette as class rep in the last week or so of school is just dumb on a logistical level. Just wait until next year! You don’t do elections this late for a position like this unless the current person is incompetent or unavailable. They have no reason to distrust Marinette in the position, they’re shown to trust her deeply, yet they easily get rid of her, just like when Lila framed her in s3 (so they haven’t learned anything). It doesn’t make Lila look like a smart manipulator, it makes everyone else look stupid.

I do think the s5 finale leaves some interesting set ups, and I’ve seen some great fanfic so far taking these ideas in really cool directions. But for me personally, I have a hard time taking Lila/Cerise/Iris/whatever seriously as a villain because of how poorly they’ve handled her in the past. I saw your response comment correcting someone about plot armor being just about the inability to kill a character, which is true, but idk what other term to use here (idk if one exists, I’d love to learn it if there is one). While she’s not in a life or death situation, she’s been often framed as undefeatable, which is close enough to unkillable for me to use the phrase. While she did get exposed as Lila, it’s shown to be pointless almost immediately because she’s still a threat at large. It’s like getting impaled in the stomach but getting up and brushing it off like a scratch. I think the semantics of what “plot armor” means doesn’t take away the fact that Lila isn’t allowed to lose, even when it would make sense for her to (Ladybug also has this to an extent, which annoys me as well, so I’m not just upset with Lila’s character for this).

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to show that while I agree with you on the specific types of critiques about the ending with Lila, I think a lot of is stems from people having larger issues with the character herself and the writing as a whole. I didn’t cover everything you did in your post, just the Lila stuff (I definitely have opinions about the rest, but this is long enough I think…). Sorry if it comes off as angry, it’s not intended that way. Idk what your opinions are on the points I brought up since you only mentioned the s5 ending, but I’d love to hear if you’re willing to :)

The Miraculous Fandom really seems to lack imagination.

I found a video essay calling Lila aimless as a villain but like… maybe they’re going to reveal what her game in Season 6 will be.

Maybe she wants the world kissing her foot?

Maybe she wants to stop living lies and have the perfect life.

Maybe she wants all her lies to be true and have an extraordinary life?

Dunno but it’s fun to speculate.

And I refer to CinemaSins because a common facet of their “critiques” are just questioning things that either are on a need to know basis exposition wise orrrrrr didn’t need much explanation aside from, say, magic exists.

There’s also an unwillingness to look at something for what it is and analyze it appropriately but rather lambast it for something it isn’t.

So many are hung up on being blue balled by a Chloe’s would’ve been redemption arc yet and deeper look into her doubling down on being nasty as well as how she’s an example of some people choosing not to be helped or sabotaging her efforts to turn herself around.

How she demonstrates the banality of evil and, while not super riveting, is a story that feeds into the themes of the masks we wear and what persona we put on.

Adrien wasn’t there to see Gabriel off but how might that serve the story in Season 6 since Lila knows how his father truly died yet so many act like the show’s over. Frankly, they were very economical with this story and made a good call to not overload the Season 5 finale's storyline with something so loaded like Adrien learning true origins.

Imagine how Season 6 and 7 may contend with this, especially when Lila likely knows. She couldn't have asked for a better weapon against Ladybug. And Marinette will have the truth weighing on her mind in lying not just to Chat Noir but also Adrien.

So many claim that the story and plot never process but Season 4 and five have virtually no filler with at least ONE episode having something going on that affects the wider tapestry of the slowburn story.

For god’s sake, guys, can we balance what we what with what the show chooses for itself? People are still uppity about Migration despite Luka coming back under Su-Han’s tutalege. Him knowing how to ward off Akumas sure will come in handy.