#thank you for this very interesting ask btw

[majorbaby]

You might have talked about this before, and I love Hawk crying as much as anyone, but do you think the baby death was… maybe not fridging, but it always bugged me that they never showed the mother again and focused on his grief

oof, i have a lot of angst over what i perceive to be rampant misuse of the term 'fridging' because i come from marvel and dc comics fandoms and so does that word, which at one time had a very specific meaning, which i think you know because of how you wrote your ask.

actually when i first joined MASH fandom i saw a few people allege the 'fridging' of peg hunnicutt by beejhawk stans was a thing and i want to just go on record and say that i really strongly reject that assessment of beejhawk fanfiction in general. this only increased my fridging angst.

there can be genuine parallels between 'fridging' - the act of violently harming or killing a female character for the purpose of advancing a plot centered on a man (or, imo, giving a male character far more agency with which to react to some act of violence against a woman character than the woman herself is afforded) - and acts of violence against other equity-seeking groups (racialized people/BIPOC, neurodivergent people, disabled people, lgbtq+ people).

i would say for example that there are some similarities between the 'fridging' trope and 'the black guy dies first' - the similarities are that (1) some act of violence (violence being the operative word) has taken place (2) the victim or survivor is afforded no agency within the narrative to address what has happened to them and (3) this event is the catalyst for further developments in the narrative which heavily feature a white man and his reaction to the violent act.

so in GFA we have:

A violent act against an unnamed Korean baby

The baby cannot be 'impacted' by its own death (not an absolute statement on fiction in general, see: The Lovely Bones) - the person closest to the baby (the mother) exists only to smother her child and appear in Hawkeye's flashback

We open on Hawkeye in the sanitarium, he's there because the baby died, he only leaves once it's revealed that the baby died, and we see how this event affects him throughout the rest of the episode

So yeah, I'd say it's a fair comparison to make. Actually you could argue that the violent act does happen to the woman, because she's smothered her child to death, she did so at the behest of an American who should not be in Korea, who did that because Americans shouldn't have been in Korea.

I actually did vent about this somewhat on GFA day (though not in any kind of detail) because I saw a couple of dead baby memes on the dash and that made me very uncomfortable. Not because I don't think it's possible to joke or meme about serious subject matter, but because it further decontextualizes the pain and suffering of the Korean people in the Korean war, on top of how GFA (and MASH) already did that.

(I have a longer post in the drafts about multiple degrees of decontextualization and GFA and MASH in general specifically prompted by "chicken-baby" memes but I have no idea when I'll publish it or if it will end up being a text post at all)

i don't really have a solution to offer tho, because i do think it makes sense that the death of a child is the thing that finally breaks Hawkeye, who is otherwise shown to be quite resilient. He survives the death of Tommy on his table in Sometimes You Hear the Bullet, he processes a deep-seated childhood trauma in Bless you Hawkeye, and by GFA in general we can say he's got have grown somewhat used to the constant assault on his senses.

I guess that's why I'm so irked by the 'further decontextualization' bit. Fridge me once, shame on you, fridge me again and again and again and again... and that's continued to happen to women, racialized characters in the larger media landscape, while these events are memed and real-life violence against women is so deeply ingrained in our culture.

It's the larger context of where this stuff happens that bothers me I guess. The Korean character most often referred to by the fandom is a dead baby, and usually as an (unfunny!) punchline, rather than a legitimately harrowing memory that probably haunts Hawkeye for the rest of his life.

[littlecrittereli]

✨️how you draw so well, I'm IN LOVE with the story ✨️✨️✨️ how Chris looks exactly when he's out of control, could you doodle what he looks like :3 I LOVE your drawings <3✨️✨️

Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying it! And ofc, I've been meaning to make some art about this...

In the Jaguar suit of cours, Diego has always been partial to cats.

To the outward gaze, he kinda just seems... zoned out. There are moments of clarity or recognition, but for the most part he almost doesn't react to much besides Diego's commands.

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

childhood friend!sugu vs childhood friend!toru

YOU’VE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE .

thank you for saying this anon i’ve been thinking of it a lot actually. i’m morally and legally binded to choose childhood friend!sugu no matter what because he’s literally……. my favorite Ever. and i think the inherent devotion of the childhood friend trope blends soooo well with his natural devotion. his protective urges. etcetc. i have wayyyy too many thoughts about childhood friend!sugu 😭 but it mostly boils down to him wanting to be by your side forever. he wants to make you happy and he wants to protect you and he knows you so well that he doesn’t trust anyone else to love you like he can. he’s selfish and he wants you to lean on him more than he wants anything for himself.

childhood friend!toru though….. i feel like he would be your estranged childhood friend. that makes most sense to me :3 like, you met when you were really really young, and ended up playing together in an empty park. he was a brat, kind of quiet, and you were just sweet, y’know? you were the closest thing to a friend he had as a child. then you ended up moving away, he never got to say goodbye… and you meet again as adults. you don’t remember him — it was just so, so long ago — but he remembers you. he remembers you a little too well.

so now you just kinda have to deal with this tall, handsome, cheery man who keeps talking to you like you’re best friends even though you literally don’t remember him…. he’s sweet though. a little annoying, but sweet. he has a soft spot for you. i think having anything remotely close to a childhood friend makes him feel human in a way he can’t help but crave.

sooooo. overall!!! both are good :3 i will always be a childhood friend!sugu truther before anything else but childhood friend!toru has sm potential..

[crescentfool]

What are your ryomina headcanons? I've loved these two since I played P3 FES, and I'm so excited to get back into the fandom^^

hi!! thank you so much for the ask, welcome back to the p3 fandom, it's always a delight to see new and old ryomina fans alike! 🥺💛💙

as for headcanons, here's a "few" i that i tend to come back to a lot! my interpretations of them are influenced from both the source material and other's fanworks, so i've linked to them as i saw fit! hcs in no particular order under the cut because oops this got long (900 word bullet point list, mentions of reload content up to 1/1)

minato's hair is dyed blue (hair originally brown, you can see it in his roots!) and he has a beauty mark on under his left eye. i like mirror imagery and there's definitely a few arts i've rb'd that portray them this way :) (e.g. this one by feliichu and this one by marasschino)

as far as i'm concerned the bathhouse scene from the manga where ryoji's hair down = similar shape to minato? that is canon to me. this art from xierru is a fun depiction of hair down ryoji :D

ryoji is homeless. everyone say thank you foxmulder_whereartthou for this awesome fic it's why i have the headcanon! but like seriously. we have no idea where ryoji lives and i could believe this.

minato dying at the end of the game is sad to an outsider's POV BUT!!! ryomina gets to be together in death for the rest of their lives (this illustration from mafuwara is a gorgeous representation of them as nyx avatar + the seal)!

speaking of the seal, they are like telepathically communicating to me in the great seal together. (mymp3 had a comic wip with this. give it a looksie :D)

ryoji likes cuddling with minato because he's warm :) (something something orpheus has fire affinity, minato is warm by extension and ryoji is cold because he's death)

ryoji's camera roll is filled with pictures of minato! ryoji... loves life, to me. and i feel that photography and journaling are perfect ways of expressing gratitude and capturing the moments in life that are most important to you :3

my other favorite activity for these two is stargazing- i feel like it's something they could appreciate either in life or death (looking at the stars from the great seal...)! they do a bit of this in the fic eurydice's vow by crescentmoontea (P5R spoilers, takes place in third sem it's a very fun fic concept).

between ryoji and minato i feel like ryoji was the one who fell in love first- and it doesn't really click in place for minato that he loves ryoji until december hits (appriser reveal + ryoji transforming into thanatos). its about the realization that ryoji was with him for his whole life and that he gets him like no one else does.

ryoji is like a sad and wet puppy who is so scared minato won't like him back. he is so scared of being rejected by minato to me like. this boy straight up deflates after he does his "i know i said i wanted us to be friends, but... i actually want to be something more." / "what about you?" on 12/1 ???

AND SPEAKING of wet puppy ryoji. ryoji is like. every animal in the world to me. he's a bird. he's a cat. etc. and also ryoji knows every language in the world ever and uses it to express his love for minato. see this fic from superheroics to see what i mean.

both of them are lactose intolerant. "this isn't lactose, it's milk!" i definitely think ryoji would make himself sick eating ice cream and milk he doesn't know what lactose is. (i made a silly poll about this once and the tags were very entertaining.)

i see minato as transmasc or nonbinary depending on the day (schrodinger's headcanons babey they're simultaneously true and not true at the same time!!). either way he's not cis to me and ryoji is like. His Gender. anyway go read this fic by nail_gun for t4t ryomina :D !

ryomina are WEIRD GUYS TO ME!!! they are so strange and they understand each other better than anyone else because of the circumstances of their relationship!!! if you asked them to do the "i wonder what i taste like" meme i think they'd start biting each other (affectionate) tbh but that's just me.

after ryoji gives minato the music box in 12/31 on reload, minato listens to the music box every night in january. this boy has insomnia and also chronic illness to me (things that housing death does to you). but i think he finds comfort in the melody and memories he made with ryoji.

in general, i think it's fun to imagine minato taking ryoji to places and show him things he's interested in! i feel that ryoji takes a lot of interest in minato's life, this isn't really a hc because in reload, minato DOES give ryoji a tour of the school (11/9) and possibly port island (11/12). but ITS CUTE OK! (tangentially related fanwork: this series of doodles from vinnigami: 1, 2, and 3)

not a hc but minato's kindness is like the backbone of their relationship and i think we would not have the ryomina we know and love today if minato wasn't such a kind soul. oh minato.... we can learn so much from you... like ryoji did!

anyway! that's all the hcs that i could think of, thank you for the ask! i had a lot of fun answering this, these two mean a lot to me 💛💙

i hope you don't mind the links to the fanart and fanfic as well, the fanwork people have made for ryomina have really made an imprint on me! if you want to see more of them, i definitely recommend looking through my tag for them because oh. i got a lot of them reblogged alright 😂 (<- SOOO NORMAL)

[brown-little-robin]

HI so sorry to barge in here unannounced like this but u seem to have a lot more knowledge about japanese language/culture/social etiquette than i do and i've seen u mention dimple's mannerisms in canon once or twice and like . i'd love to hear more abt that if ur willing to ramble for a bit. i've been Very curious just how far dimple's Rudeness goes, but i know very little about the culture. i'm sure some things he does or says seem fairly normal to me but is considered very rude or disrespectful to the characters. no pressure tho ofc :]

hi Rika!! literally drop in anytime! I,, I appreciate this ask so much and will answer as best as I can, but I'm a very new student of Japanese and Japanese culture, so take what I say with a grain of salt! also I personally am going to tag @russenoire to respectfully invite them to partake in this conversation if they think it would be fun (no pressure of course!). they have been studying this much longer than I have :}

putting my thoughts under a cut because !!! I love to ramble!!! note: all of this is based on Dimple's Japanese voice & mannerisms from the anime. I don't have the manga in Japanese yet 🙏

As a preface: Ekubo's direct/rude/familiar speech style is typical in anime and not unheard-of in real life, but it's definitely worth noticing! Mob Psycho 100, particularly, gets a lot of its unique interest out of taking unrealistic anime expectations and saying "HEY pay attention to this, WHY is this happening, this is immature behavior, why are adults in this universe letting this happen", and making it funny and/or serious. So!!! let's dive in.

So, okay, Dimple's mannerisms. The first thing to know is very general. he usually speaks in the casual register (which has a whole distinct vocabulary from the more polite registers: for instance, he tends to end his sentences with "da" rather than "desu", which are both "is" verbs with the exact same meaning, just a different connotation). the casual register is comparatively... direct. Dimple using casual implies that he thinks of himself as on familiar terms with and/or higher in the social hierarchy than whoever he's speaking to. casual Japanese is par for the course in anime in general, especially for people expressing arrogance, like Ekubo does all the time. But still, that's A Choice. it expresses simultaneous superiority (I am allowed to speak to you in informal terms because I'm above you) and also, possibly, desire for closeness (Ekubo speaks to Shigeo in familiar terms like they're brothers).

(Politeness, respect, and distance are linked in Japanese. Casual language isn't always rude, but in the wrong situation, it can be jarring and disrespectful. Using casual Japanese is a sign of confidence and personal closeness in your relationship with someone—new friends will switch from formal to casual language at some point and typically never go back; siblings use casual language with each other as a matter of course. It's very situational.)

The second thing to know is, there are choices of first person pronouns in Japanese!!! And Ekubo's choice is spectacular. He refers to himself as "ore-sama". "ore" (roughly pronounced "o-ray") is one of two typical Japanese casual male pronouns, ore and boku. (the formal first-person pronoun for men is watashi). To my knowledge, "ore" was originally the only casual male pronoun, and then "boku" entered popular use as a more humble option and changed the meaning of the formerly more neutral-sounding "ore" by competing with it, which is fascinating. but I'm getting distracted. "ore" is the more aggressively masculine pronoun; it's considered rough/direct to the point of being rude in many contexts. And Ekubo doesn't just use "ore" (ore is a widely-used choice!), he adds the honorific -sama to the end. This is extremely macho. SUPER arrogant. It tracks with his desire to become a god: -sama is the honorific for kami as well as the honorific for people who are way higher ranked than you. giving someone the honorific -sama expresses a greater gap between you and them than -san does. this is hilarious to me. Dimple is over here referring to himself as 🔥 ME 👑 every time he uses first-person pronouns. (Mob uses boku, btw.) ore-sama isn't not used irl, but it's, uh. highly highly unusual, from what I can tell. sounds like a biker gang boss kind of thing to me—something someone on the fringes of society would use. no shade to those outside "polite society" from me, btw, I'm just stating the general connotation from a majority cultural perspective.

OH AND SPEAKING OF HONORIFICS. I'm guessing you've seen analysis of this before and/or just Get It from cultural osmosis, but Dimple calls Shigeo "Shige-chan" the second time they meet. -chan is a usually-affectionate diminutive usually given to girls younger than yourself or celebrities people find cute; I think they translate it as "li'l Shige" in the English dub? -chan has cutesy connotations and can be infantilizing if it's not used with permission and/or some kind of... y'know... familiarity and understanding between the person giving the honorific and the person being referred to with -chan. it is super disrespectful of Dimple to call Shigeo Shige-chan having just met him, and having gotten off on a terrible foot with Shigeo, no less. what the heck, Ekubo!!

And then Dimple proceeds to call him just Shigeo with no honorific at all, which is ALSO disrespectful?? given that Dimple doesn't know him, really?? too familiar, too abrupt! As a strange adult, he should be calling him Shigeo-kun! But he's treating Mob like a little brother. (For instance, as the older brother, Shigeo has the right to call Ritsu by the first name and only the first name, whereas Ritsu usually calls Shigeo "Nii-san". To my knowledge, that's not unnatural in Japanese the way it would be in English; it's not Ritsu reiterating their bond every five seconds, it's just the Expected Thing for the younger brother to refer to the older brother as "Nii-san" out of respect. you'll see the Shiratori brothers, Daichi and Kaito, doing the same thing if you pay attention. to each other, they are "Kaito" and "Nii-san". BUT ANYWAY)

Another Dimple regularly does that reads as arrogant/direct to me is sometimes speaking in a Really Low Voice. This is where my knowledge gets hazy—it's more about pronunciation and accent than "behavior" as such, so bear with me, but the general pitch of one's voice is important in Japanese. Girls and women tend to pitch their voices higher than their natural range in Japanese, especially when doing "polite" or "customer service voice". Japanese speaking men often raise their pitches for politeness/to express humility or a conciliatory attitude too, even though it's not as extreme as with women. And men who are performing aggression will often lower their pitch on purpose, creating a growling kind of effect. Dimple does this a lot. Let me see if I can embed a video of him doing it here

YES. OKAY. Listen to the difference between his mental voice and his spoken voice here!! Dimple uses a higher pitch when talking to Mob because he's trying to ingratiate himself with Mob, but then when he's muttering to himself, he reverts back to his evil-spirit, gang-boss, stereotypically-yakuza-sounding kind of... deep growl.

Relatedly, Ekubo rolls his r's. he rolls them hard. That's a really rough way of speaking, definitely not typical in "polite" Japanese. people learning Japanese are told not to roll their r's unless they want to sound like they're yakuza wannabes. (He also, to my ear, tends to kind of roll his vowels?? he puts his voice backwards in his mouth, pronouncing things either near his nose or deep in his throat, and kind of crushes them with his mouth as they emerge. I don't know if there's a word for this, but to my synesthesia it looks like his voice goes spiky. it's a COMPLETELY different sound than the smooth pronunciation of polite Tokyo-style Japanese. I don't actually have a point this is just interesting to me)

That's about all I have for now! I'm fascinated by Dimple's speaking style and what it says about him. Sorry this was more about accent than behavior—as far as behavior goes, I mean, he's weird. he's weird! as a ghost, he's not really a part of society and he just wanders around making fun of people, which would be rude in any culture. I have a whole Other rant about how Dimple improved as a person after Reigen started treating him as an employee and how that adds to MP100's theme of society and connection, but now is not the time. I hope this has been interesting to you!! Thank you for the ask!

[aseuki]

HI for the askgame if i may: 🪐🔮♟️🧋

answer with any/all ocs your heart desires gimme that good oc content >:]

[ask meme]

Omg for sure for sure! Avalanches you with so much OC Lore

🪐 (Saturn) - What planet are they from? Is it in Gamble Galaxy, Another Dimension, the Mirror World, the New World, or somewhere else? Where do they live now?

Currently, Stell drifts through the cosmos with Parhelic Anima, the Nova that they call home!

However, they are originally from Newglow, a planet located in a sister system to the Gamble Galaxy that could be most easily compared to Mekkai from Milky Way Wishes. A technologically forward city, it’s a local major hub for travel and as such is a veritable cultural melting pot. Most travelers and society visit and inhabit the upper hemisphere, while the machinery and maintenance that runs the planet is sequestered underneath.

Despite being primarily an urban setting, it does experience all four seasons within its atmosphere!

Meanwhile, Phemus presently wanders the pocket of Hades between the realms of the dreaming and the dead, enacting her role in ferrying souls.

It’s a vast, lonely place, and she treasures what little conversation she could grab from her work (and from her coworkers)

As for where she’s from…

Who can say!

🔮 (Crystal Ball) - Out of all the treasures in the Great Cave Offensive, Kirby is letting your OC pick one from his stash to keep! Which one do they pick, and why?

Already answered this for Stell (it’s the Machine Parts), but I think Phemus might pick the Star Droplet!

Material goods largely mean little to her—it’s the intent and sentiment that matters, so I think she’d be more inclined to pick something that reminded her of the giftee! I also think a little piece of starstuff can strike the right chords of sentiment for her in general haha.

♟️ (Pawn) - Does your OC get possessed easily, or do they have the willpower to fight back against any possible attempts? Have they been possessed before?

Despite their piss poor wisdom score, Stell is remarkably immune to getting possessed!Then again, it’s tough to try claiming something that’s already been claimed He claims it’s because of his naturally high intellect and willpower 😤😤😤

Phemus is also gifted with high resistance to possession, due to her innate psychic magic tied to the realms of consciousness.Though I imagine if on the rare chance anyone really tried and succeeded, they’d be pretty easily driven out by the absolute hurricane of shitposting that goes on in that noggin of hers asdkfjndskfjn

🧋 (Boba Tea) - Come up with a Kirby Café item themed around your OC! It can be a savoury dish, a drink, a dessert, or something else entirely.

I’ve actually answered for both Stell and Phemus! Stell’s would be a mexican hot chocolate lava cake (with a red velvet twist), and Phemus’s would be a dark chocolate mango mousse!

[chiscribbs]

For the WIP game: SoPMeme (ROTTMNT)

(Sorry I'm asking so late!)

(No worries! I don't think there's a time limit on this, I'll just keep taking requests until I run out of wips to talk about, LOL)

SoP Meme...well, it's beyond late at this point, so I may as well just be frank about it. Back when a certain meme was circulating around the Rise tags, I decided to get in on the action with a Shades of Purple version, for funsies.

However, I got a bit overambitious as I often do and then started getting busy with other stuff right around the time when I was getting close to finishing it... Soooo, it's been on the backburner for about a month or two. I still intend to finish it, though, since I put so much work into it, lol. Here's a snippet:

[katkat030]

I used to watch Grian way back in Hermitcraft S1 so seeing you post about it actually makes me insanely nostalgic lmao. Nice to hear about people I haven’t watched in years :)

I can only imagine the nostalgia you must be feeling, omw - S1 was over a decade ago, from what I gather Hermitcraft has changed soo much since then

Thanks for sharing that nugget of information, my mind is genuinely blown

[skitskatdacat63]

More matador!Fernando! Ferrari this time :D (I can't help myself.....)

- facial hair

+ closeups

I really wanted the vibe of this Nando pic, I think I did pretty well??

[candysharkart]

hey! so! since the bob’s community has been so nice to me, and im still too anxious to interact with the fandom (never really got the hang of them lmao) i wanna draw your bob’s burgers ocs

kinda like this v

will probably use them as warmups for the next ??? and i wanna get to anyone who wants one!! so if u want a scribble of ur bob’s oc pls reply to/reblog this post with a link to your ocs ref!! if its not attached to this post i might lose track of them!!!

(bob ocs only sorry :(!)

[rotisseries]

alright im giving in im finally asking. what in the everloving fuck is narines

HIIIII HELENA honestly I'm so glad you asked I think you'd love them but BASICALLYYYYY one of my mutuals, hella, @tbos-main, has this really cool original fantasy wip, the blood of serpents, which I am OBSESSED with so I do fandom post about it like any other media, and two of the characters are nate and rin. well. naithairan and herines technically but I'm on nickname basis with them. and I can explain tbos in more detail but since you asked about narines specifically, they are two characters who are very much on opposing sides of the central conflict and in a way that IS irreconcilable like. it has to be genuine all consuming hate it's bad. but they're also narrative foils and parallels and whatnot and outside of the main ideological difference in regards to the central conflict, they are very similar people in a very fucked up way, they're both martyr figures with a lot of religious themes, they both have had to learn the language of violence well, they both are willing to go to unfathomably low depths of morality and monstrousness in the pursuit of protecting the people they love, they're both incredibly calculating and callous, and so they have this INSANEEE dynamic that is very much "I see me in you I see everything I hate about myself in you I need to kill you because I need to be killed but yet I cannot kill you because that would be like taking a knife to myself and we recognize each other deeply and intimately in a very specific way no one else can and I HATEE you for it" and so like. they should fuck about that. obviously.

[chamoemileclown]

saw someone else post about this and i really agree i think it just wasnt the right time for purgatory, the stakes were there but the vibe and the point in roleplay development for individual characters just.. wasnt it for me. I dont know what they have planned for the future so i cant say it shouldve happened later, but i think because of all the trips and vidcon the charas had just gotten to a point where they had started healing from their kids going missing only to be thrown into this, which can be a good point narratively but theres also a couple other things that kinda just didnt let it work out for me tbh

a lot of it was just the rules and events were weird? that probably makes no sense. but like from a viewer pov it felt like the characters were beta testers for this and the rules have been constantly changing, so its hard to get comfortable in. Like when theres a set of consistent rules teams are able to more accurately strategize and such and they couldnt really do that? so it just felt like weird improv the whole time which theyre very good at but it was just.. like idk unbalanced? thats a dif point that contributed

like etoiles pointed this out that they balanced the teams (not really imo) in game but not fandom-wise, like certain teams had a very large fanbase and certain others had a very small one, etc etc. And like for example blue team had much less people on consistently but by the time they realized that it was probably too late to change teams without an event like the one recently splitting green. I feel like the admins tried to mix up the players outside of their usual friend groups but it just kinda cut the ints in half? i know cellbit didnt wanna kill roier, bad was very isolated from all his regular friends and therefore nobody wanted to talk to him (he wasnt on their team), tubbo was kinda suffering because he couldnt use create. Red team was overwhelmingly loud, blue was crushingly quiet, green was... tbh not on a lot of the time. Not good to watch from most POVs

i could be wrong about a couple things but like this is my general feeling on it, odd timing and weird balancing combined with toxic fandoms caused by competitiveness within the streams kinda ruined it for me, you can only curate ur experience so much

I really like how you put the first part because it was also something that I had felt about the event but I couldn’t really pinpoint why? I’m sure that a lot of the planning came down to a lot of stuff we can’t see behind the scenes like trying to be mindful of the ccs/ admins schedules but scheduling purgatory so far out from the disappearance really changed a lot. Like I just got used to not having the eggs and being fine with that and a lot of the ccs did sort of move on/ adapt to it. Obviously most people want the eggs back safe but I think some novelty has worn off after being away from them for so long. I think purgatory would’ve had more of an effect if the wound was more fresh when purgatory took place it would’ve made the stakes higher and I don’t think as many people would be saying “oh I don’t care if the eggs die at this point just end purgatory.”

Also the rules changing I noticed too was really jarring from day to day. I feel like a lot of the qsmp is like this and it’s a product of the admins being quick to respond to complaints in general and changing things accordingly. In my ideal world where the admin team could’ve just run the event with a test group to almost like stress test the rules? but i doubt that’s a very viable option. It would’ve been nice to see teams strategize more than play off the cuff in the limited time frame they have I feel like that only really rewards people with spontaneous playstyles

I think a lot of the problems with balancing fanbases revolves around people not knowing how to act online. The qsmp has long stretches where there isn’t much character conflict so that’s attracted a lot of people who feel really attracted to one pov and just don’t know how to handle conflict. We’ve seen this stuff outside of purgatory like during the entirety of the elections arc and when characters have an insignificant argument in rp. I don’t think you could balance viewers while also balancing skill but its definitely a problem that exists and doesn’t really have a clean solution. Also I do think the division of teams was to encourage different people to interact or possibly drive more in rp angst but it did fall flat in ways that were unintended.

Overall I think a lot of purgatory was trying to cater to a lot of people at once but thats just not working. I enjoyed the event from the standpoint that no matter what the admins want a good audience experience and they wouldn’t intentionally let us down. This seems more like a fundamental flaw in the server maybe? That it’s just not structured to be doing competitive game in this format at the very least.

[thenwethrowitonthefire]

when do I get to sing "MY WAY"??

Thank you for putting time and answer these, hopefully I'm not bothering you with them.

"No, no use in taking their time, or in wasting two dimes, on a call to God knows who... When all you feel is the rain, and it's hard to be vain, when no person looks at you -- so just be gracious and wait in the queue."

I think you'll have seen the official music video, so I'll treat you to one of my favourite performances of this song. This was performed at a very special celebratory show with a big orchestra, truly a time of them having gotten to sing "their way". If that doesn't fill the hearts of all of us who can relate with warmth and bring us hope, I don't know what does 💕 It was so beautiful. (I fear the lights in the hall won't come across in the video, but I really loved when the orchestra swelled up and the disco ball started spinning. Covering the entire audience in the tiny specs of light.)

When Do I Get To Sing "My Way" (live in London with the Heritage Orchestra, 2014)

On a somewhat related subject, I don't know if you've found it yet, but have you heard the song Change? If you resonate with When Do I Get To Sing "My Way", I think you might like what Change has to say, too :) There's two versions of it: one from 1985 and one from 1997. I can't tell you which is my favourite, because it's both. I'll give you the 1997 version here as it's orchestral.

[Please don't run away screaming because of the album cover -- there's a good reason they were photoshopped to look like beefy dudes for this cover. But this reply here is just about highlighting a specific song, so perhaps you'll enjoy reading the lyrics while you listen. I've pasted a small part of the lyrics below the video.]

Change (from the album Plagiarism, 1997)

"The rain is pouring down. I feel like a dog that's been kicked out into the street. I know that dogs can't drive cars. But that's about the only difference between us now.

But wait, there's a rainbow across the freeway, and I think I feel the morning sun. Another song is number one. Golden days have just begun.

Change, every dog is gonna have his day. Change, every loser's gonna have his way. Change, I don't care what other people say."

[heavensentofficial]

Hello Lettie,

I've seen you a couple of times at the Hospital. I have heard that you have taken on the role as Temple Leader in Jordan's absence. I hope you aren't overworking yourself on your duties. If you ever feel unwell, please feel free to stop by the Hospital.

On a slightly less professional note, I have visited the Temple Gardens and they are quite lovely. I wonder if I can try to grow some of the plants from there, and if you have any tips on how to take care of them.

Sincerely, @hanshospitality

Hans, right? Hello! c:

Yes, I am quite a frequent patient of Doctor Harper's... We still haven't gotten to the bottom of what is actually wrong with me, but I'm there enough for your name to ring a bell! Um... If I'm to be completely honest, I have been overwhelmed, even with the efforts to limit physical exertion. Jordan's duties paired with my own is quite a lot. However, I generally already know how to deal with my flareups I think and I keep medical supplies in my room - so unless something is severe or out of the ordinary, I probably won't need to burden the good doctor. I hear you are quite understaffed there, after all...

Although I can't help but wonder... Is this you asking, or did he request you do so? ... I suppose it doesn't matter! In any case, I'm thankful for the concern. I'll try to be sure I take care of myself. It would be problematic if I got especially ill at the same time as Jordan, after all.

As for the gardens, hearing you say that made me smile c: I haven't been able to be as hands on as I'd like with the efforts to get them in order (Though I rarely am, really.) I've been trying a combination of rewarding people for helping and telling them about the plants, their symbolism in scripture and what we use them for, in an effort to get everyone to feel more, ah... Attached to the garden I guess? If they better understand the work and care more about it, maybe they'll be more inclined to uh... Do it! I sure hope so. I'd be happy to talk more about some of the plants we have here under the cut! We did have to order these online, though. I don't think most of them are available here very easily. I'll throw in some extra information about how I use them too, just for fun. Even if you happen know a lot of it, maybe other people will find it helpful or entertaining?

Firstly, Lavender ^^

Our main concern currently has been trying to get the lavender we already have under control - it gets so wild and woody when it's left to its own devices, but it's really best to trim lavender in late summer. We just uprooted some of the problematic ones (I could probably give you some to propagate if you would like?) and made sure to cover it in a protective fleece from the frost. I think they sell plastic ones? But I can make fleece winter-covers easily.

Lavender really likes sunny spots and fast draining spoil. When you first plant it, it'll be thirsty and want to be watered plenty - but once it's established you really don't want to unless it's been drought-y (Unless it's in a container I suppose?)

They make a great companion for cabbages and tomatoes. They like similar conditions and repel bugs that would want to eat your food without anything having to be harmed c: At the same time, bees and butterflies love it! You can even put the seeds into a bird feeder. ^^

Oftentimes, we use lavender in purification and healing ceremonies. (It's useful enough to keep on my person most of the time when I'm working! Sprigs of it, lavender-oil, anything really.)

Also it's delicious in tea and soothing for your muscles when you put it in a bath - and inhaling the resulting steam often alleviates my headaches. Applying lavender oil or salve to bandages helps wounds close faster, too! ^^ Accidents happen ahaha...

Uhh... Then there's roses, we have quite a few of those. When I first saw mentions of someone called Briar, I must admit, I thought Jordan was upset about tearing their robes on all the briar bushes. They were so wild before...

This time of year is a fantastic time to plant bare-root roses! As for roses you already have though, they'll be just starting to come out of dormancy right around now, so it's a good time to prune them, so they're nice and prepared for the coming year ^^ When you cut roses, try to make sure you're cutting just a little above a bud at an angle, to encourage new growth.

Roses like similar spots to lavender, but they'll want to be watered more often. Moist, but not wet. Try not to water the leaves, naturally... Roses will also appreciate being fertilised regularly.

Roses don't like much competition and it's important to make sure they have plenty of space to get some air, but with that in mind, alliums, geraniums and marigolds will protect your roses from pests. At the temple, we've been using garlic and onions. (Any opportunity to grow more of our own food is welcome. Some level of self sufficiency is sort of part of the whole... Monastic Lifestyle thing...)

If you want roses that will attract pollinators, go for a single or semi-double bloom so that bees can have easy access. This year, we planted Lady of the Lake roses, which are a pale pink/off white sort of colour with a citrusy scent to them (I'm excited to try eating them ^^) Maybe if we grow enough of these, the lady I sometimes see at the lake will give me a sword? (Kidding~)

In scripture, red roses are symbolic of blood and sacrifice and white of purity. (I'm curious about those two-tone red and white roses... I always have liked them a lot. Maybe I can try growing them, one day, even if only in a pot in my room...) Roses in general also have connotations with the afterlife. I also know Jordan has a rose-based concoction they sometimes use for purification ^^

As for myself, I sometimes use rose water for my skin - and similar to lavender, to make wounds heal faster - and also as a wound wash. (Very helpful to have on hand, especially if an initiate gets hurt while doing their duties! Never good.) I also try to stay stocked up on rosehips. The tea's useful to have while recovering from illnesses and for certain kinds of pain. c:

I think Cyclamen are a pretty common sight in churchyards, but I think that's for good reason

For starters, it's always nice to have flowers that are actually in bloom in the winter! I think these might be the main one you've seen as of late, aside from the rosehips? I also planted some around the general area of the cemetery recently, though that was before I was left in charge. I can't say for sure how much the dead care about having flowers near their bodies, but I don't know that they don't... Maybe I could plant some near the lake, too... Around this time of year, when they're in full bloom, watering them correctly is important, since the roots are so susceptible to rot. You sort of want to wait until the leaves look like they're beginning to droop and the earth feels dry. If it's very rainy, I like to give them some shelter.

Cyclamen like partial shade. We have them mostly near the outskirts of the garden, where the canopy from the forest will sort of protect them from the elements. They're happiest in well-draining, rich, acidic soil, so giving the soil a little snack is sure to be appreciated. c:

They pair well with most woodland plants, really! Snowdrops, primroses and ferns come to mind. Ours are hanging out with primroses. (Lonely plants are kind of sad...)

Like I mentioned with the cemetery thing, cyclamen are super commonly used as memorial flowers! We use them a lot as altar decorations for funerals and certain holy days. They're also used in certain types of incense! (Not all of it. Just some!) They look like they have little bowing heads, so I think they bring kind of a sense of piety to mind for some people? I think they are adorable.

I think there's a way to prepare them that helps with sinus issues, but I don't really bother to. In the past, people ate them to ease menstrual pains and some other stuff, but even if they work, they do also cause a spot of convulsing, vomiting and dying, so... Whether it's worth it, you be the judge! You're the medical practitioner. I just like reading and experimenting. ^^;

It was roughly around this point when I remembered that I'm meant to be responding to somebody's message (and that most of this was completely unasked for ahaha... Oh well...) I think I got a little overexcited at the chance to talk about a thing I'm interested in, my apologies.

Thank you again for reaching out to me ^^ Even if I don't feel great for a bit, I'm likely to be fine ultimately.

[neroushalvaus]

I wanna ask you an important (not really) question, but don't feel like you have to answer.

Javert in epilogue Heaven: yes or no? Is he in hell or purgatory maybe?

Hey, as far as I am concerned, this is an important question ;D This is actually a discussion I have cared enough about to give a whole ted talk about it in my friends' musical theatre podcast (sadly the episode is in Finnish). But yeah, my opinion is a very definitive "yes".

Because I know people have conflicting views about this, I hope you don't mind me explaining myself, I don't want to end up on people's "bad les mis takes" blocklists before I get to justify my case.

So, when we talk about Heaven in the context of Les Mis, we can't ignore the fact that Les Mis as a musical and as a book holds Christian values. If we look at the main theological themes present in the book, it preaches hospitality, grace and forgiveness (and also liberation theology even though it wasn't called that back then but we are keeping it simple). That's why "Javert can't go to Heaven because he was a bad person" doesn't work for me, even though I absolutely agree that he is. If Javert is not in Heaven, I think having Javert's Suicide mirror Valjean's Soliloquy is a bad decision. The bishop shows Valjean kindness, Valjean looks within and Valjean gets a new life; Valjean shows Javert kindness, Javert looks within... And? I think it makes narrative sense that Javert gets a new life, even if it is after death.

Another argument I have seen is "Javert wouldn't want to be in the epilogue, there is a barricade there", and I don't agree with that either. Like. I don't think it's a literal barricade, it is a metaphor for how the equal world the Amis wanted exists after death. I'm not saying it's not a bittersweet ending – I think Karl Marx would absolutely hate it –, but that's what it is. It's not a very revolutionary ending. For what it's worth, I don't think the literal character of Enjolras would actually be comfortable singing about how everyone will be equal once they're dead and that's fine. It only works if the barricade is a metaphor.

Aside from being Heaven, I think the epilogue has two purposes; to gather all the characters on the stage once more, and to give the audience some catharsis. This is why I think Javert should be there, and in fact, I think every character in the show should be there. The book and the show are called Les Misérables for a reason, every character in it is wretched and has been left behind by society. The musical is pretty vague about Javert's wretchedness, but I think he reveals just enough for the audience to see that this is a miserable bastard and if he were to sing in the end with the others, that would bring the audience some catharsis. Especially seeing him together with everyone the society he has served has harmed, and he himself has harmed. I personally would really like that. "We will walk behind the plowshare, we will put away the sword. The chain will be broken and all men will have their reward". I also like how that would prove Javert wrong. As he sings in Stars, he thinks that "those who follow the path of the righteous shall have their reward"; then he, in his own mind, fails to follow that path; and he gets in Heaven, where everyone who has suffered in their life will be rewarded, no matter the bad things they did. Not to quote the book too much, but "This door does not demand of him who enters whether he has a name, but whether he has a grief. You suffer, you are hungry and thirsty; you are welcome".

I think that would be the correct way to end this musical. The ending may not be revolutionary, but at its best it is cathartic, hopeful and gentle. So in my opinion it should be as gentle as possible.

[muppetminge]

May I ask what do radfems think about men wearing makeup? Or alternative subcultures where makeup is considered androgynous? For example goth and emo come to mind as quite common ones?

(I know you can't speak for everyone, but I've seen you post about makeup before)

i don't really have much opinion on men wearing make-up tbh (much as i don't re any individual women). the mechanisms behind it aren't the same, so it's not really comparable. there's no widespread social push for men to wear make-up, they're not being considered unprofessional or nonformal or underdressed for not wearing it. no one's arguing with a guy that he has to wear make-up for this and that occasion. men aren't being marketed it constantly. you don't have to look far and wide to to find a barefaced man in media (or, indeed, on the street). any obstacles a man might face due to wearing make-up is an entirely different (and here largely irrelevant) conversation (though of course still linked to misogyny + homophobia). in theory degendering make-up would be a positive, though i don't see that happening any time soon - and even then it would have to be achieved by more women actively not wearing make-up, not a handful of guys doing it.

i do think there's a certain disctinction to be made between 'everyday'/natural make-up and alt make-up, but not a giant one. it's still not particularly healty. it's also a misnomer to call make-up androgynous in most (if not all) of these subcultures imo - both the extent and styles differ, and it's still more women wearing it than men. the average emo guy is not spending the same amount of effort on make-up as his female counterpart. natural make-up is definitely worse in this regard, but i still think there's something inherently alienating about covering up your own face near-constantly.

it does discern itself slightly in that alt culture is obviously about rejecting social norms (while beauty culture is about following them), but it's naive to act like beauty culture isn't still influencing alt norms to a big degree. nothing exists in a vacuum. just because you're not following the trends doesn't mean you're not taking the ideas behind them in. alt makeup can still be about covering up 'blemishes', trying to achieve the appearance of a certain facial structure, etc - striving after a certain beauty norm, in short. cultural norms in alt spaces are still influenced by general cultural norms (i'd also argue that a lot of the trends aren't actually that different). they're not particularly less mysogynistic. (there's also something to be said about the commodification of alt cultures, but i won't get into that here.)

i'll acknowledge that the expression is different, though, and i do think there's more weight to the self-expression angle here. overall i do actually prefer seeing more 'out-there' as opposed to 'natural' make-up. there's something more active about it, in that you're not just playing along with the expected. no one's being coerced into doing corpse make-up or whatever. it's more conscious. i am a big fan of originality, of breaking norms, of not playing along, and of breaking trends. take that how you will.

tl;dr i don't think either have big enough societal influences to really matter in the big picture. while interesting, all of this is a minority of cosmetics use, and a fringe group of beauty culture as a whole. they're truly a drop in the ocean. thank you for the question.