#the writing doesn't interest me is a valid disagreement.

[nrilliree]

TB: Here is why we think Rhaenyra should be heir, why Daemon was a suitable partner, why her boys' parentage doesn't matter, etc.

*present evidence from the books and show depending on the canon that's being discussed to support their statements*

Team Broccolis: Nah you're wrong.

*go on to present a list of elaborate headcanons and fanon bullshit after cherry picking and mixing details from book and show while ignoring the context*

TB: Refutes their headcanons with well made arguments comprising of solid and reasonable points

Team Broccolis: Why don't TB admit they are wrong and we are right?

Go on to repeat the same headcanons they have memorized by heart

Every argument with the broccolis always ends in circles. There was a time when it was frustrating; now it's just exhausting. It is a pity because discourses - even those that end in disagreements - can be interesting to engage in. But it gets difficult to do so when the opposing side is so deeply entrenched in fanon and denial about their favourites being antagonists in the narrative who lost. This denial manifests itself in many forms. Be it by exaggerating Rhaenyra and Daemon's flaws while brushing whatever the Greens did under the carpet - a tactic the maesters also employed in the book - to wishing for Daenaera to be erased and replaced by Jaehaera to coming up with crack theories that Catelyn is descended from Alysmond's son thus making the Starks TG's descendants and believing that crack.

Visenya is one of my favourite characters; The circumstances that led her to usurp the throne with Maegor are more understandable because the two of them saved their house from utter destruction by dealing with a severe crisis that was caused due to Aenys' stupidity and incompetence. Yet the act of usurpation itself cannot be justified and the wrong that was done to Aenys' rightful heirs was eventually corrected while Maegor died issueless. I rather like Daemon Blackfyre who, by all accounts, was a more capable and better individual than Alicent's sons. It can also be argued that his rebellion was the outcome of his mother Daena being passed over for her uncle. Still, his attempt of usurping his brother - the rightful king - cannot be validated.

But it is only the Greencels who cannot wrap their heads around the role their favourites played in the story when better characters than them weren't immune to the consequences.

My favorite conversation with TG was something like this:

TG: Why do you think TB won the war? Aegon killed Rhaenyra! Me: TB troops won against TG troops, so they won the war. TG: TB troops lost the war, lol. Me: *I write out the last battles in which TB troops won, and also that there were no TG troops left to defend the capital, and that even the council told Aegon II that he should surrender* TG: But TB lost, lol. Aegon killed Rhaenyra.

And so on… I just had these… but how? Just because a leader dies doesn't end the war. Even the death of Aegon II did not end it yet, only the trials of the TG's supporters carried out by Cregan.

And oh yeah, I definitely love these weird fanons and theories that claim TG as their "right". This happens so often that I have developed a habit in which I assume that arguing with TG stans is pointless because it will end the same as always. I know it's wrong, but I can't help it. I just know that I'm about to hear about pedophiles, THE victim, the misunderstood Aegon and all the rest of this complete nonsense that they seem to be repeating like parrots. They just want to believe that in HotD history they are "Starks" and TB are "Lannisters" and they will write the biggest nonsense to prove their point.

[socksandbuttons]

I don't remember the last time Lunar got mad at Moon. Moon has told Ruin that he trusts his family but in today's episode, Lunar told yelled at him to actually trust his family. Trust isn't always about betrayal or hiding something from someone. In Moon's case, he doesn't trust Lunar enough to protect himself. He doesn't trust his capabilities to take care of himself. It made Lunar feel like he was being treated like a kid again which is why he had to reiterate to Solar that he is not a toddler on that episode when Jack broke into his apartment. His anger towards the two is very much valid. And to be honest, I am glad that Lunar told Moon off about trusting his family. I understand that Moon is very protective of them and that in itself is admirable. But continuing to hide things like this, not communicating properly with them aside from Solar, and not trusting their capabilities, all those things will only break them apart.

I'm gonna be honest. Poor communication has always been a problem in our beloved celestial family but for me, it's getting a little tiring at this point. I believe you can write family angst/drama/disagreements without poor communication being the only sole cause of it. Just my two cents on that.

- Unhinged Solar lover

LOOOVE that lunar got to call moon out. Moon is very much 'I can do this without getitng anyone involved' cause like i get he woke up with so much happening. Probably not helping that re-enforcing the idea that HES got to take charge and fix it. Hes got the fresh outlook! (No hes just going back into a cycle) Something he kinda fell back into and got mad at SUN for not communicating. He's getting that thrown right back at him. Absolutely the miscommunication and refusal to tell people is getting wild but this is interesting that they ARE in a way addressing this. So i wonder how well this may go. Lunar im sure wouldve liked an input of whats happening with eclipse rather than moon and sun making the decision without letting anyone KNOW. But yeah its great Moon told him! But its uh... of course Lunars gonna be mad. Of course hes gonna be upset with the news. Moon went ahead with soemthing without much input. Again. Esp with someone they all agreed didnt like for valid reasons. Earth I dont think would be too agreeable of the situation for a few other reasons (a chip in eclipses head yeah a good safe bet but ALSO...) But anyway- casually wondering whats gonna happen cause im just sitting here like Wow. Anything can happen now.

[opinated-user]

The whiplash I get from reading any other Rey pairing and Alirey is wild.

Reylo: Kylo inevitably has to apologize to Rey for his toxicity, betraying her and threatening her before he can even have a shot at befriending her, let alone getting with her romantically. He has to reverse the entire course of his life for her and she is still in control of her own life even in fics where they get married, have their happily ever after and have kids. Reyhux: Hux has to apologize for his active role in fascism and destroy the First Order in order to be with her in virtually every fic I've found. As with Kylo, he has to start working to undo the damage he's done before she'll give him the time of day. Hux arguably has a lot more to undo and atone for, so narratives for this ship have Rey hold him accountable, showing that her opinions and thoughts are valid and matter. Finnrey: Finn has real regret about wanting, even if only initially, to leave and not join the fight against the First Order, and is inspired by Rey's conviction to be his best self. He has trust issues from being in the FO and she has trust issues from being abandoned, requiring them to learn how to navigate romance and interpersonal relationships together at the same time. Reyluke, Reyleia and Reyhan: Even these, the age gap pairings I can't stand, have her love interest treat her like an adult they can converse with, despite the personality clashes and disagreements. They don't call all the shots like Aliana does - the narratives treat Rey like a person, not an accessory someone else can have sex with. Reypoe: Poe's tendency to throw himself into harm's way and lack of ability to follow orders leads to personality clashes and although he and Rey have different methodology for fighting the First Order, they communicate and work side by side as equals towards a common goal, often learning and growing alongside one another along the way. Reyrose: Rose's complete lack of processing her sister's death often leads her in fics to be protective and stifling and this means that often some kind of fight about holding on too tightly to people ensues. This is in and of itself better than Alirey because Rey has the agency to voice an objection.

In every other ship, including the ones that make me deeply uncomfortable, Rey has agency. She talks to people, she makes decisions, she does not cave to their every wish and desire, she doesn't stand back and watch them do everything whilst she tends to the ship and the kids. She has consent. She consents to or refuses things.

In Alirey, she exists entirely to be hot and have sex with Aliana, in addition to tending to the ship. Later, she tends to the kids. She does not inspire anyone to be their best selves, change people's minds, challenge their complacency in their flaws, go against the status quo or seek out justice by herself when others will not.

Alirey reduces Rey to the position of trophy wife. Trying to say he's nonbinary and then switching that to him being a trans man does not make it better. Arguably I'd say it makes it worse, as it gives us a trans man occupying the role of subservient parenting spouse who's super hot that the author stand-in can bang at any time without changing any of that, effectively writing a trans man as the same trophy wife one would expect to see a cis woman written as. And the implication there, that trans men and cis women are the same thing, is deeply gross to me.

I know Lily wants us to talk about her fic and not her habit of looking at 3D, photorealistic images/videos of kids having sex but Lily? Diverting attention from your pedophilia onto transphobia, sexism and transandrophobia is not a good diversion. It's not making people forget the porn, and it's not making you look better, either.

i'm not a person who personally enjoys romance too much, but i'm still positively confused as to how someone who claims to love the genre can be so incompetent at writing just one couple for anyone to want to see together. if you wrote a couple in which i wish any of the parts would get away to do their own life in another galaxy, then i don't know how to manage to do that while pretending that it's a wholesome equal partnership.

[krysmcscience]

Followers, feel free to ignore this, it's not art or writing or even really anything interesting.

If you clicked in, anyway, it is also not aimed at any of my IRL friends or followers (unless one of my followers is not who they claim to be, I guess?). Anyway, it's literally just venting bullshit. Feel free to click back out, there aren't even any details that could lead you back to anyone involved.

It's wild that I spent six months talking on and off with someone who turned out to believe that a few months of miscommunication and poorly set boundaries, followed by some arguments and disagreements about it, all interspersed with private IRL venting is a reason to blow up several friendships and go on a warpath. Like. Bruh. Sometimes people tell white lies to be polite. Sometimes people change their minds about stuff with new information. Sometimes people learn new things about what upsets them. And sometimes people vent in private about things that bother them about someone else (friends included). That doesn't mean they're actively plotting to do harm, or two-faced, or back-stabbing, or the worst thing ever in existence. This is. Literally just how humans socialize??? In reality??? Sometimes you just accidentally hurt one another, accept that mistakes were made, and make up afterward so you don't wind up abysmally lonely!

Loved looking through all their "receipts" of all the "wrong" that was done and being like, dang, most of this just looks like standard boring clashes between friends that could easily be mitigated with healthy communication, actually??? Along with a bunch of words exchanged by two people who blew up on each other and now clearly don't want to talk anymore??? And yet they've posited it like it's some huge "gotcha", with scribbled commentary mixed in on the side, as if their ex friend is a True Monster rather than a normal person who makes mistakes. JFC, it's just demented. (And, in standard form, it's all cherrypicked! No real context aside from their own narrative and warped perception! And no admissions of their own wrongdoing! They even lied about not being into NC/SA despite drawing so much horny shit for it! I mean, I knew it would pan out this way, but good gravy, the lack of awareness there??? Unreal.)

Also apparently they don't realize that constructive conversations about some things they have grievances with can and do happen without them being or needing to be told about it, either, because all of the actual wrongs they had receipts for were genuine mistakes or newly realized hard boundaries that have either already been addressed or are being addressed IRL. Although, them posting those actual wrongs definitely violated a very hard boundary set in place by another person on the sidelines who didn't even want to be involved, so, hmm, that's fun.

Very telling in the end that they couldn't respect all the blocks put in place. But of course, it's only okay if they trample on boundaries. Clearly only their boundaries and desperate need for validation and attention matter. Also very telling that they tried to air all their shit out publicly despite everyone else involved staying almost completely silent about it and otherwise keeping it fully anonymous. But of course, it's only okay if they disrespect other people. Clearly that makes it okay to drag in unrelated parties who never asked or cared to be involved and just wanted to have some nice relaxing internet time. Also very telling that they ignored the very simple fact that they and I were mutuals (up until literally three days ago), and thus their shittalking kept winding up on my dashboard, which I initially tolerated (until they got usernames and then me involved) because people are allowed to be hurt and vent about it even if I disagree with their takes on what happened. But of course, they're not ever allowed to be wrong. Clearly I must be a weird creepy lurker, instead, who never does any self reflection despite having actual diagnosed social anxiety that forces me to question my every last action.

If the person in question happens to be reading, follow your own fucking advice, quit Actually Lurking, and get help. Proper help, because if you're seeing a therapist already, clearly they can't cotton on to how you go to extreme lengths to avoid revealing anything that might reflect negatively on you, which explains why your cherrypicked receipts still have none of the hateful screaming of yours that I personally read, or any of the really callous things you wrote in your tags after the fact. I'm willing to bet you're over there patting yourself on the back thinking your target stepped in it by deleting those comments, too, because that's just how you are, but here's a reality check: You took it too far. You put up your private conversations with their spouse for anyone to see, despite that you definitely did not have permission to do that from said spouse, Your Actual Friend, who would NOT want that shit online under ANY circumstances. I don't even need to ask to be sure about that, either. And you should know exactly why what you chose to do is a problem.

Oh, and here's another fun reality check: If you can't figure out the bare basics of even the simplest character (and you can't, this has been established, I literally had to spell out an obvious homophobic dog whistle for you), what makes you think you're qualified to assess and diagnose an actual living person who is infinitely more complicated than a fictional character? Because if you actually think you are, you are quite literally delusional. You are not living in the same reality as everyone else. You know all of the words, yet none of their substance.

Now go away. I made it very clear that you are not welcome anywhere in my life the moment I blocked you. You've willfully spat in the face of my honest attempts to help you, and successfully burned all bridges with me, so I want nothing more to do with you. Look upon your scorched earth and enjoy the smoke you've gained from it.

[the-almighty-gob-john-langley]

Tinder, but no spark.

Every once in a while I dip into online dating apps. The last once in a while was a couple of days ago, only to discover I'd received these introductory messages in 2020 from two potentials.

Am I particularly bothered, no, not really, as I'm neither desperate nor needy of anyone to date, or partner up with, either long or short-term. I just hang around while leaving my profiles up for reasons of curiosity more than anything else. So, I guess that makes me basically lazy. Plus I'm too damn fussy, very specific and OCD with who I choose to be with and how independent of me they can be.

I don't do all the chat-up stuff, and for someone who has just written a 287-page autobiography, I'm perhaps rather surprisingly hopeless at writing a snazzy, eye-catching enough profile. Added to this I cannot stand selfies, I think it pointless to add images of food I eat, and I don't have exotic holiday pics to show as travelling abroad doesn't interest me. There are no sports images as this I find to be another pointless pursuit, and neither would I pose for pictures of myself in the gym engaging in a sweaty workout as I'm fine and confident in the way I am. I don't have any tattoos to show off for the same reason you wouldn't cover a Ferrari in stickers.

Protracted texts with people are also something my life can do without. After all, why waste an hour in ping-pong messaging when a ten-minute phone call is a far more efficient use of time and will do the job just as well as being more personal. Experience has taught me that messages can be misinterpreted simply because there are no voice inflexions, emotions or tonality that can, on occasion, make texting less human and somehow more brutal. So, give me face-to-face conversation any day over words on a screen. Unless, of course, there's an unavoidable emergency or someone's running late to meet me. Either of which is understandable and wholly acceptable.

Call me old-fashioned, perhaps, but I like to be able to look into someone's eyes when I'm having a conversation. I like to see their facial expressions and their lips move. I enjoy seeing a smile as I do a frown in disagreement, with the former being as equally valid in a conversation. Not some trite bloody emoji that doesn't give any real and meaningful indication of that person's presence, and hopefully the warmth of the personality their actual voice can radiate.

I consider myself to be quick-witted, intelligent (allegedly, at least) modest, and quiet in general. However, having invested almost an entire year writing my book I've noticed that now my ability to write has superseded my ability to speak and actually hold a conversation. Clearly, this is something I can do as I'm not stricken with complete muteness, and yes, I am more than able when someone interests me and can hold an intelligent conversation with me. I guess, it's all the small talk that fills conversations rather than adds any value to them I find myself struggling with.

I think it's now that I'm beginning to understand that when people state their relationships as being 'complicated' I can refer back to myself and who I am as a person.

[sokumotanaka]

Adressing this “Atlas is falling!” nonsense.

Originally I was gonna wait till I was up to try and get a good rest and maybe hash my thoughts out a little more but now I’m wired and want to talk about something people seem to have issues with from perspectives given to me and my own.

So atlas is falling and originally I saw many different takes on it people outright saying they wish they die, people saying that because rich people reside on it they dont care and more oddly nuanced thought processes, now I use the word nuance cause I want to address a elephant in the room; when I say nuance or hell anything it isn’t instantly to try and insult another person, what’s nuanced to me is my own understanding on what level of discussion is brought to the table, as long as it’s interesting it’s nuanced to me. (and I’ll admit I should of explained it better but at the time I wanted to end it and sleep but I have a bad habit of adressing people who continue talking to me on this site cause sometimes I get weirdly invested thinking it’ll lead to something interesting; no that’s not a dig I just like talking about media.) 

Anyway vv Read more vv

Alot of people who know me or know of me will get this but I wanna clarify it for those who dont and this will also be a great post to point to in the future so I dont accidently burn more bridges, but also understand I’m used to dealing with snide assholes so what you view as sarcasm and harmless cause the people using it are either friends of yours so you dont care; or share your viewpoint so you dont care. either or alot of twitter racist idiots like to use this and alot of rwby stans are straight out stupid so dont try to be snide and quipy.

A close friend of mine told me about Atlas falling apparently the upper plate is going to fall on innocent people, honestly I couldn’t bring myself to care, but I asked her why she didn’t care the plate was gonna fall out of curiosity and the recent drama around this; she point out one of the biggest flaws in rwby that I found myself kinda nodding with. “Weather the plate falls or not I can’t find myself to care about the people in atlas because well...RWBY doesn’t make the background civilians feel real, the characters dont care so I start not to care as well.”

I brought up the last time I felt that was SU and Avatar, a show we could both talk about and know exactly what the other was talking about.

“Exactly! not to mention this isn’t like Avatar where you got to see background characters, live thrive and root for them, Beacon fell and we never saw people from there struggling to live or talking about being displaced etc; Team RWBY just walk away from major problems and we just assume their solved, no one mourns Leo? no family? friends? team? There’s never moments in nations that affect the civilians greatly; hell Oscar’s aunt doesn’t even factor in to his mental state or memories or anything.” Honestly she had a point and it kinda bugged me more cause I never thought of it; I quit vol 6 and the last thing I remembered was a town guard being ripped to shreds asking  where cordova was.

To her it was just an artificial number of mannequins, it wasn’t black and white like “kill them” It was just “I dont care, the writing does them a diservice; RWBY doesn’t have so many “I dropped this.” “RWBY is bad.” videos for nothing, even fans can realize that to alot of them this is just emotional manipulation of the audience, and alot of them have better stances beyond “Just die.” “The writing just takes me out of the scene.” is much more interesting!  And when I talked to alot of people about this they agreed, hell I even got some people to swtich their stances. But I’m losing the forest for the trees, back on topic.

Despite people standing outside including jaune’s sister and her wife and child Jaune doesn’t bring them up or worry as far as my friend and many other eagled eyed people have told me. My friend’s stance isn’t as simple as “let them all die” and yeah I can’t predict everyone’s mindset. (Surely some people think that way. But not all and if they conversation ends in “Yeah but some people think that way. Then the intrique and dicussion is fruitless.) I rather challenge a mindset into thinking about different prespectives than just go. “Well I guess we have to agree we have feelings on subject.” Like a robot.

 Some people just dont care. MY theory about that and my personal reasoning for that is maybe people stopped caring cause either or RT is gonna destroy it and faceless people will die for angst but also it’s a poorly crafted narrative; Pyrrha died and people were like “well that was a thing.” Shock value doesn’t work on people anymore so people just roll their eyes and go “sure RT do what you gotta.” yeah maybe alot of people are like “eat the rich.” I can’t blame them, current events are wild man, and yeah they shouldn’t take it out on fictional characters but at the same time, they’re just that...fictional, someone saying “good let it fall.” isn’t a sign of how people’s perceptions of real life are, that’s ridiculous to think over a cartoon.

So that’s my stance and mine was also altered and challenged by talking to a person about it and not having their passive aggressive friends throw snide remarks and be allowed to while their friend preached for your respect.

The TLDR version is there are many nuanced, detailed and vast takes out there, try not to let it bother you, and using atlas citizens as an example doesn’t work if you use the racist;  Be good to yourselves out there and others; don’t let your friends send death threats to anyone on anon.

[irish-urn]

You are most certainly NOT talking out if your ass and I fucking love that you referenced Gilmore Girls because YES, EXACTLY. 90% of the time, Lorelai and Rory get along swimmingly– because they're friends before anything. But as soon as there's even a slight disagreement, Lorelai treats it as if it's WW3. We see this as early as EPISODE ONE. and Rory, rightfully so, does not take well to her mother acting like a mother. And yes, she was a teen mom, and yes she did leave an emotionally abusive situation (I know Emily and Richard got better but BIG yikes early on) and I know she really did grow up with Rory– all of that is valid, BUT by doing all of that, Lorelai needs to face the consequences of her actions which she doesn't do. She just expects Rory to listen to her when she's in Mom Mode.

(There are a crazy amount of parallels between Gilmore Girls and LWD and I'm kinda freaking out because I've never come across someone else who's seen it. Derek really is a mixture between Logan and Jess GAH NO WONDER I LOVE HIM SO MUCH)

But!!!!!! It's so realistic (I'm the same anon who comes from a blended family) I DID have the mom who treated me more like a friend than a daughter. I DID have the mom who got remarried and who's kids were kind of shuffled off to the side because she was too busy with life, and her new marriage, etc. etc. (Not trying to trauma dump here just trying to say how realistic I feel like LWD is 😂) and I WAS the asshole daughter who just raised an eyebrow on the rare occasion that my mom tried to discipline me.

I can go on for hours about how perfectly dysfunctional the McDonald-Venturi's are.

(Let me be clear, I do think everyone is happy and everything worked out. But YIKES, G&N did NOT think through their marriage and their current relationships with their children before they tied the knot.)

YES LET'S CONTINUE YELLING AT EACH OTHER IN EPIC-LONG RESPONSES.

(If these are different anons, that's cool too!!! I'm just laughing at how we're literally writing essays to each other — I love it, but it's funny.)

OKAY, so there are so many things here I want to respond to, and it's gonna be a big ol' mess because now we're talking about two of my favourite TV shows at the same time.

SO. Lorelai Gilmore is a very good mom in many ways, especially in how she almost always puts Rory first. She very obviously considers Rory in almost everything she does (a couple of exceptions being her love life, but Rory's 16 before that happens, and Lorelai is kinda rusty with the dating-thing, and honestly, flaws make characters interesting) and has tried her best to ensure that their life together is as different as possible from HER childhood because, yes, emotional abuse and trauma is there for sure. BUT, in creating a family that is so vastly different from her upbringing, she's gone to the opposite extreme, so that they can be co-dependent on each other, AND, yeah, Lorelai doesn't do well when Rory thinks things very differently than Lorelai (see the whole Jess thing, and her relationship with Emily and Richard). She's not a perfect parent, but she ADORES Rory.

Is the biggest difference between Lorelai and Nora&George that Lorelai was always a single parent, and G&N are divorcees, or is it that Lorelai only had Rory while N&G had multiple children? Maybe both? Either way, all three of them obviously love their kids and are trying to raise them... But, like, there's a lot of letting the kids raise themselves because they're too overwhelmed to give the effort/time needed (and I would argue that Derek needs a lot more raising than Casey; here's another question: is that because of who George and Abby are, because there's 3 kids instead of 2, because there's such an age gap between Marti and Edwin (and therefore, Derek), or because of who Derek is as a person?). And, again, I'm not hating on them for this or calling them terrible people. They're not; they're very human. But it makes for interesting discussions and critical analyses.

NOW. Is Derek a combination of Jess and Logan???? Uh. Wow. Yes. Damn.

Okay, so for all that I'm a MASSIVE Literati shipper, I actually like Logan as a character very much. He amuses me and I think he's interesting. The reason I ship Jess/Rory is because I like who Rory is with Jess more than who she is with Logan. I like that Jess sees Rory's flaws, will call her out on them, and then encourage her to fix her problems, give advice, and try to help her be the best version of herself that she can be (a LOT of this only happens in Season 6 and the Revival, but that's because Jess is finally okay enough to offer that kind of support), all the while working on himself to be the best version of himself that he can be. He wants them to grow together and bloom and thrive. Logan always struck me as seeing Rory's flaws and saying, 'Hey, cool, you're just as flawed as me;' and instead of trying to work on them together, he used it as justification for him to continue on his merry way. If they're both selfish, entitled, ambitious, fun-seeking hotties, then there's no need to improve, because they're in the same boat. He wants them to stay just the way they are, because he's happy with the way things are.

Wow, never done a critical analysis like that before, but here we are.

THEREFORE: Although I realize that high-school Derek is more of a Logan than a Jess (although there is a LOT of Jess traits in there too), I think I write adult!Derek more like Season 6 Jess with the Logan gift of gab and faux-casualness because that's how I see him maturing when he's working on becoming the best version of himself. I am a romantic at heart, I think, and so my college-verse is a bit of a "in a perfect world, Casey and Derek would understand each other and work as a team to grow as they go" (blatantly quoting Ben Platt there, but that song nails a good part of what I think a healthy relationship is). Casey is only a Rory in that they're both nerds and keeners and a little clumsy, but they are very different and I like that. :)

THE OTHER THING is thank you for some insight into the realism of this kind of parent-child relationship. It's fascinating to me, who doesn't think of her mom as her friend at all, even though she is probably one of my best friends, but I would never call her that, because she's first and foremost my mother.

(Dad is def DAD. He's amazing and I'm so lucky to have him and his wisdom and his consideration, but he is not my friend. He's my father.)

FINALLY: I do think that the McTuris are happy and that overall, the family did work out, yes!! But, yeah, like you, the lack of consideration on how to blend the families and how to make it easier on the kids (especially the older ones who aren't as adaptable as the younger ones, and who probably feel entitled to a lot of say in what happens to their family) is, uh... problematic.

[imaginariaextraordinaire]

Episode 8 is one hella packed episode and it is an absolute joy to unpack it, beginning with this:

Clever, clever idea to have Ji-Woo repeat the line that Mi-Joo just said to indicate Ji-Woo is taking charge of things as far as Assemblyman Ki is concerned. It's also a good reminder of how tone and intent can change the meaning of a sentence even if the words are exactly the same (which is why we need good translators).

Seeing Mi-Joo stride across the screen with Seon-Gyeom behind her, it struck me that we've seen a variation of this many times before, beginning with the credit titles. While Seon-Gyeom is the sprinter, the one we see constantly trying to up the pace and charge ahead is Mi-Joo. She's always intent on moving ahead faster — perhaps to outrun the past that she finally makes peace with during the marathon? — while Seon-Gyeom moves at a slower pace, disentangling himself from the constraints of his troubled past and troubling father. The only one time we see him race ahead (in episode 2), we also see him come back and slow down.

What I particularly love about Park Shi-Hyun's writing is that in addition to all the layers and complexity she's written into the scenes and characters, she's also written a very, very funny show.

Both Shin Se-Kyung and Kang Tae-Oh do such a fantastic job with both the physical humour (without being over-the-top) and the timing that's needed to play up the wit in the dialogues. Not that Siwan and Soo-Young do a bad job — the scene in which Dan-Ah proposes to Seon-Gyeom is hilarious. My favourite is still May, who is very funny throughout this episode (the shot in which we learn she sleeps with her eyes open! GOLD).

The transitions in this episode are so well written. The insights from one scene ricochet off the next. For example, Dan-Ah in the scene at the bar — where she tells the bartender she can't risk keeping the book in her own study because she can't risk people guessing she has anxieties — gives us a look at the problems of the privileged. This is followed by a scene in which Yeong-Hwa and Mi-Joo discuss student debts, which is a relatable middle-class problem. This in turn is followed by Tae-Woong saying that he takes selfies because he's addicted to the validation he gets from the likes each of those photos gets him — a Gen Z problem. And so it is that we get a spectrum of problems that people face and hide behind performative façades.

The likes that Tae-Woong talks about pop up with manic frenzy at the end of the heartbreaking scene with Dan-Ah in the parking lot, presenting the viewer with a terrible contrast — driving away from him is the love and acceptance that he yearns for from a sister who (he hopes) knows him. All he has to hold on to is the superficial attention of the love professed by a fandom that doesn't really know him at all. Soo-Young's performance is fantastic in this scene, especially when she asks in a voice tinged with desperation why Tae-Woong keeps coming back to her despite her treating him so badly. For the first time, you realise how much it takes out of her to lash out at this desperately-sad boy. "It takes effort to hate someone," Tae-Woong tells her. My heart!

Another fantastic set of transitions comes later on in the episode, when Mi-Joo and May are unwinding at the end of a long day at the film shoot.

This is such a great example of writing inter-generational female friendships. When May remembers not being paid for working overtime, it's an acknowledgement that things are better for working women (especially in film) than it was before, but as Mi-Joo's experiences show, there's still a lot to be done because women are still driven by a certain insecurity and anxiety to push themselves way too hard (as we see a sick Mi-Joo do later in the episode).

Of course a man tries to break this gathering up — because he wants to go to bed. Superb excuse, particularly because these women are talking how much they have to work — and it is deeply satisfying to watch all three of them shut him down and establish their right to unwind.

This scene of female friendship is followed by one that shows the friendship between the three runners. Then we get to see a fight scene full of male actors. The machismo of that performance is a sharp contrast to the awkward tenderness of Woo-Sik and Yeong-Il's conversation.

While on the subject of toxic masculinity, this is the episode in which we find out Dan-Ah's father forged Myeong-Min's birth certificate to make him legally older than Dan-Ah even though he's actually 10 months younger than her. All to ensure he has a male heir. It's a nice detail that Myeong-Min's mother is the one laying out the memorial service for Dan-Ah's mother because it hints at a sense of solidarity.

Also dismantling traditional notions of masculinity is Seon-Gyeom, whom we see at his most domestic as he cooks and packs meals for May and Mi-Joo, and does chores around the house once they're gone. It's very much an inversion of the standard male-female gender roles with the woman going out to work and the man as the homemaker. To underscore this point, we see Seon-Gyeom consider the leopard-print shirt (that May and Mi-Joo hang to give strangers the impression they've got an alpha in the house) for a second before putting it away.

Speaking of alphas, Mi-Joo's really got a thing for wild cats. In addition to that shirt, her blanket is also a leopard-print and when we see her calling Seon-Gyeom, she's standing in front of a painting of a tiger. All these seem to be digs at her posturing that she's strong and invulnerable and I burst out laughing when Seon-Gyeom folds the leopard-print blanket while muttering, "I'd have guessed this is hers even if she hadn't told me."

As disinterested as Seon-Gyeom may be in films, they play a big role in sustaining him emotionally. In this episode, it's the film set that helps Mi-Joo and him come together after their stupid disagreement. Equally importantly, the film set is where he gets the time and space to reconnect with his mother.

Run On has so much fun being meta with the film bits. The film shoot within a drama is indeed an old fake.

There are two film sets we see in this episode — one with Ji-Woo and the other with Mi-Joo. While Ji-Woo's set feels relaxed, the one Mi-Joo's working in is chaotic and taxing. The two women are also at different ends of the professional spectrum. Ji-Woo is a star while Mi-Joo is not just working behind the scenes, but she's come to fill in for the person who was the juniormost member of the crew.

When pointing out the main players of their film crew to Mi-Joo and May, Hui-Jin describes the cinematographer as "a bit racist, but still a gentleman". (Mi-Joo's response is superb: "Weird.") It's an interesting choice to make the cinematographer racist because that's the crew member who decides how subjects and scenes will be framed. "Racist but a gentleman" feels like a precise summary of the orientalist perspective which (aside from being overwhelmingly masculine) shows the East through stereotypes that are often superficially beautiful, but also reductive and damaging. Not surprisingly, this cinematographer is the reason Mi-Joo flounders while translating on set.

The film set is also the first time that Seon-Gyeom sees Mi-Joo's vulnerable side when she falls ill. It's such a clever choice to have Mi-Joo stop performing in a setting that's all about performances. Not only does Mi-Joo give up the alpha act when she's sick, she admits to Seon-Gyeom that when she's feeling helpless, her instinct is to resort to a performative lie — calling out for mom because that's what she saw other kids do as a child in a sick ward (imagine how isolated and neglected she must have felt to do this. Also, she's felt this way so many times that this performance has become second nature to her).

The anecdote suggests Mi-Joo's mulish championing of her self has its roots in past incidents when she tried to fit and either failed or was rejected. And yet, for all her strength and confidence, she's chasing phantoms and has been doing so since she was a little girl. All because she was alone and didn't have anyone she could reach out to for help. Which is why what Seon-Gyeom tells her at the end of the episode is so relevant. He helps her to reorient.

To which Mi-Joo, bless her leopard-print-loving heart, responds with

But my favourite part of this episode is the conversation that Ji-Woo has with Seon-Gyeom when he visits her set. First of all, Ji-Woo is playing a "vegan murderer", which is brilliant as ideas go and it's adorable how delighted she is about her violent roles.

I love how Run On doesn't punish Ji-Woo for sacrificing her family life for her work. Instead, it holds out the possibility that it is ok if you have that imbalance. In this scene, we see Ji-Woo's family reforming at the film set with Eun-Bi sending the coffee truck and Seon-Gyeom showing up just because Ji-Woo asked him to be there.

The mother-son conversation gives us a glimpse of Seon-Gyeom's bleak childhood and we learn that everything Seon-Gyeom did for his father was actually him doing what his mother had asked him to do. It comes as a surprise to Seon-Gyeom that his mother has noticed what he's suffered and that she understands how he'd hoped silently suffering would keep the family together. It's almost as though he's feeling seen for the first time.

Much like Dan-Ah, Ji-Woo may seem self-centred because of her ambitiousness, but she does notice what's happening beyond the obvious, especially when it comes to people she cares about. Both women are up against the worst of patriarchy. Also, I love that when she's talking about motherhood, Ji-Woo is blood-spattered — after all, being a working woman and a mother in a patriarchal is nothing short of fighting a war.

In previous episodes, it seemed as though Ji-Woo was the 'bad' (or at least not ideal) mother while Director Dong was the ideal, modern mother. Yet in comparison to how Director Dong later reacts to her son coming out, you can't help but feel Ji-Woo, with her unconditional support for her kids, might just be the better parent. What is great about Run On though is that that the script doesn't pit the two older women against each other as competing examples of motherhood or femininity. The point is that everyone's struggling, making mistakes and trying to learn from them. Ji-Woo is doing that and so will Director Dong eventually.

Love that the scene ends with Seon-Gyeom effectively declaring himself his mother's son. Take that, patriarchy.

[itsclydebitches]

A weird defence I've seen of RWBY's conflicts has been that it's good writing simply by the virtue that people can disagree on what's the right thing to do in said conflict. Which doesn't work when one decision is being presented as the only valid choice while every other option is either not addressed or demonized. This isn't a story leaving a nuanced set of stances to explore, it's a guy on stage signalling the crowd to boo whenever someone goes against the Protag's decision.

Real quick, I want to talk about RWBY by not talking about RWBY. I’ve seen this argument a lot too and the tl;dr is that just because your audience debates the right action in a conflict  — something that is inevitable given how subjective media is  — doesn’t mean the story encouraged that reflection in any way. As you say, RWBY pretends that those disagreements don’t exist and that This Is The One (1) Right Answer... which entirely defeats the purpose of a morally nuanced situation in the first place. That lack is bad writing because it demonstrates the author’s inability to provide an accurate picture of the conflict while still ensuring we come out of it liking the parties involved. The conflict was too complex for them to manage alongside equally complex characterization, so they just pretended it was far simpler than it actually was. That’s not something to praise. 

But to get to the not RWBY part. I’ve mentioned this a couple times before, but one of the scenes that I think manages these sorts of conflicts really well is the funeral fight in The Haunting of Hill House, episodes 6, “Two Storms.” So warning from here on out for spoilers. Sometimes, the best way to see what’s not working well in one show is to look at another show that does (basically) the same thing successfully and compare the two. 

Normally I’d include screenshots, but Netflix doesn’t allow that :/ So I’m forced to rely on bullet points. 

The basic premise is that the Crain family has assembled in daughter Shirley’s funeral home, the night before they bury their sister, Nell. A lot of secrets are about to come to light. 

The scene kicks off when their father, Hugh, relays the call he got from the housekeeper the night of Nell’s death. She had committed suicide in the family’s childhood home. 

Though everyone knew how she’d died, son Steven is distraught at hearing the details and reveals that a few weeks prior Nell crashed a book signing of his. This shocks the others given that this was very unusual behavior for Nell. 

Shirley likewise reveals that she got a call from Nell who’d been worried about their brother, Luke, but hadn’t spoken to her the night of her death. The implication is that no one did. They’ll never know what was going through her head the night she died. 

Hugh reveals that she did call him. “I talked to her.” 

Stunned by this news, his children demand to know what was discussed and Hugh is clearly reluctant to continue. However, he eventually says that Nell wasn’t just worried about Luke, but also the “Bent Neck Lady,” a specter from her childhood.

The viewer knows that ghosts are real in this show. The kids don’t. Or rather, they all experienced supernatural occurrences in their childhood, are still experiencing them now, but only some of them are willing to admit they’re real. Steven is the diehard skeptic of the bunch and starts yelling at his father, accusing him of aiding Nell’s delusions and ignoring a family history of mental illness. In particular, he declares that this “makes you culpable [in her death].” 

Steven continues to accuse Hugh of “holding back information” about Nell and Hugh shoots back that “If I held back anything it was to protect you kids.” The viewer understands Hugh’s dilemma: the only reason he keeps things to himself is because Steven and the others refuse to believe the truth, with an added dose of this supernatural stuff being very dangerous. Steven asks, “Why do I need protection from the truth?” 

Before their fight can go any further, Shirley tells Steven, “You might want to check yourself before you start talking about the truth.” He published an autobiographical book about their childhood trauma and notably capitalized on a supernatural angle he doesn’t believe in. Shirley calls it “blood money.” 

As the argument about the ethics of his book rages, Shirley defends herself primarily with how everyone else thinks this is “blood money” too. No one took a cut when Steven offered one, proving how despicable they all think it is. 

Meanwhile, sister Theo has been getting heat for being drunk (a coping mechanism for her own supernatural troubles) and Shirley eventually pushes her far enough that she admits she did take Steven’s money and used it to get her degree. “It’s good, fucking money.” Suddenly, Steven has someone in his corner and Shirley’s main defense has crumbled. 

Shirley is furious that Theo had this secret income but was still living with her and her husband. Theo reminds her that she offered to pay rent, but Shirley isn’t interested in hearing that. She demands that Theo move out immediately and uses this betrayal as the new way to protect herself. She’s the victim here. 

Steven, sensing another secret in the works, cautions Shirley to “get off your high horse before you fall off.” 

Shirley maintains her position until her husband blurts that they also took Steven’s money. Shirley hasn’t been running the funeral home well and they would have sunk without it. 

Despite being the punching bag for the second half of this fight, Shirley is offered both reassurance and dignity. Her husband emphasizes that the only reason they’re struggling is because Shirley is a good person. She does too much work pro bono. Shirley also delivers the line, “Do you have any idea how much you’ve humiliated me?” calling into question the husband’s choice to admit this now, purely as a way to prove her wrong. 

Shirley leaves to get some distance and discovers that someone — something — has put buttons over Nell’s eyes. The shock of this keeps the fight from continuing and, as plot intervenes, gives the characters the space needed to eventually start healing and forgiving one another, notably by sitting with the various truths they all now have to grapple with. 

Phew! A long summary, but I’ve put this much detail in to highlight the nuance of the scene. Obviously RWBY would differ in many ways  — less cursing, for one  — but the core elements of any morally complex scene should be the same. The important takeaways here are that no one in the Crain family are “pure” or “evil” and everyone gets their chance to be both right and wrong. Hugh is right that Steven won’t listen to him and wrong in that he didn’t do enough to help his kids. We get Steven and Hugh’s frustration, their understanding of the world at odds with one another. Steven is wrong to put everything on his father and justified in starting his writing career with their story. We watch the scene move from “Steven is Wrong and everyone agrees” to “Oh shit nm, more and more of the family are revealing that they benefited from his money, complicating how “wrong” he actually is.” Shirley is right to point out that Theo is getting drunk during their sister’s funeral and Theo is right to point out that being drunk doesn’t erase having a good point. Theo is allowed to scream at the group and then immediately be offered help when she falls. Shirley pretends she’s better than all of them and is slowly, horrifyingly proven wrong, but is then still extended compassion and is allowed to point out how horribly they’ve just treated her. The husband is right about the money, wrong about keeping it a secret/revealing it the way he did, right in how he tries to diffuse the other fights, and VERY wrong by getting caught kissing Theo down in the storeroom! 

The scene twists and turns in a way that highlights everyone’s points and their flaws, the moments when their perspective should be upheld and questioned. The end result is a scene that has space for the audience to debate everyone’s choices without imposing the single view of This Person Is Obviously Wrong/Right and If You Think Otherwise You’re Not Watching The Show Correctly. The show itself acknowledges the complexity and nuance of these problems. It asks, “Hugh should have tried harder, but what more can he do when his kids literally don’t believe this stuff exists? Was Steven really justified in writing a book about their collective experiences? What does it mean that something his family sees as capitalizing on their trauma also helped them keep businesses and schooling afloat? Was it okay for Shirley’s husband to keep that money a secret, even if it helped them? How might he have told her in a less cruel manner? What about Shirley’s life has led to her intense need to be on that ‘high horse’?” 

And of course: “Who is really responsible for Nell’s death?” By this point the viewer already knows that there is no “really” here. This is too complicated a tragedy to lay the blame at any one person’s feet. Everyone in this room has moments of justified accusations and moments of chastisement because they’re well written, well rounded characters who are neither saints nor devils. The length of the scene (done in a single shot!) emphasizes that if you just wait long enough, even the most perfect looking person will eventually have a skeleton pulled from their closet. No one is above mistakes. 

RWBY has NONE of that. Zip. Nada. Nothing. RWBY gave us a scenario with many of the same, core themes  — secret keeping, secrets unwillingly revealed, blaming others for your mistakes, hurtful actions with helpful consequences, questioning who is responsible for a tragic death  — and instead of even attempting to give us some of the above nuance, RWBY said only that Ruby was right, Ozpin was wrong, and demanding that the audience ignore the nuance they could already see in order to accept the canon. 

RWBY’s scene asks the audience to play dumb and look at the world as a Black and White place, despite the show simultaneously insisting that “the world isn’t a fairy tale” and is, in fact, filled with shades of gray. 

Just not any shades of gray that mess with that dichotomy that now drives the story.  

That’s not good writing. It’s oblivious and contradictory writing that makes the audience frustrated. Not satisfied, surprised, contemplative, or curious. Just frustrated. 

[ateezgf]

im sorry this is really rubbing me the wrong way. why are you so pressed a rando on the internet doesnt have the same interests as you? how can you expect strangers to 'be quiet' and self censor their blogs and not express opinions unless it validates your hobbies? the consumerism thing is a completely valid critique of stuff going on in the industry and market, it's not targeting fans personally. if you dont like an opinion you dont have to engage, you definitely dont have to invent a clinical diagnosis implying how someone u dont know must feel superior to everyone because... they wrote some blog posts on their own blog directed at no one that you disagreed with. that looks a lot like projection.

im sending this because i wanna point out this is exactly the sort of behavior that drives people (especially well adjusted adults who can tolerate disagreement) out of fandom spaces because no one can express even the most mildly controversial opinion without others acting like they were personally attacked or straight up accusing the opinionhaver of personality disorders. ive seen it happen enough times. in the end you'll have contributed to an environment that is so hostile to normal differences in opinion that all the people capable of critical thought will be driven out and you'll be left with a miserable little mutually policing hivemind clique that laps up anything the artists companies put out regardless of whether its good art or money making garbage.

How did you get all that from the one sentence I posted

Anyway, I'm not upset that someone doesn't want to buy kpop merch. That definitely isn't a requirement ever. It's the fact that they're trying to come off as better than the average fan who does partake in buying merchandise. I could easily flip it around and be like "how can you not buy merch" and go on about all the positives in collecting something too; but I'm able to respect the stance other people have WITHOUT talking down on them. EDIT: People who think they’re better for buying more/stream more/etc. are equally as bad and annoying as someone who speaks on the opposite spectrum and I’ve spoken against those people before too. You’re barking at people who don’t do either.

Also I don't know where you pulled me inventing a clinical diagnosis from..? If you're talking about superiority complexes, that is indeed real. If not, then you can take my Psychology degree away and put me back in school. I don't know what you think I'm projecting because I also never tried to write myself off as better than someone who chooses not to partake in the things I do. Again, I never accused anyone of having a personality disorder? Stop pulling stuff out of thin air.

To call the people annoyed by someone constantly barking about how they're different for not doing the things they do and to insinuate that it's a pointless thing when the very person you're defending has been unnecessarily rude and hostile on multiple accounts to multiple people is contributing more to that type of environment than a couple of people saying they're tired of seeing someone's repeated self-praise for being different than the rest. The very person you're defending going out of their way to comment on content creators things and call it ugly directly to them is the type of behavior that drives people out of fandom spaces and away from hobbies they enjoy.

I saw they brought up lightsticks and that's part of korean concert culture. It's not some pointless cash grab as you for some reason think it is? Why would I spend money on an album if I don't like it too like...? That's exactly the thing a bunch of people were getting annoyed with. I respect the decision to not spend your money on kpop merchandise; but for you to practically call me a brainwashed individual just because I like buying albums with music I like is so unnecessary? Like.. Are you aware that I'm able to spend my money how I want to? Does that upset you? It seems like it does since you sent me this.

You trying to say that I'm incapable of critical thinking while also sending me an anon that is so far off from what I have said is just so..?? Like I had said in my original post, I never said no one can express their opinions; but it's also easier to just be like "I don't get it, but as long as you're having fun!" and move on without going on and on about how your stance is better.

[ill-be-istj-if-no-one-else-is]

About metrics, objectivity and Te: I have typed myself as a Ti dom because my approach to solve problems/understand things seem to fit it, but something has been bothering me. That Mr ENTJ post about Te vs Ti (links aren't accepted) is a good example. Because the Ti way doesn't make nay sense to me. I don't know whether it's really biased and lacks understanding of Ti because the author is a TJ, or whether I'm not a Ti user after all. I'm an aspiring performer and while I'm perfectionist 1/3

and strive to be the best and study/train a lot I do it mainly because of my own standards and my passion. I've always been totally aware that being the best means very little in not only my field, but many others. Networking, nepotism, bribery, charisma, physical appearance, communication skills, titles: all these and more trump plain knowledge and technical talent. I'm mostly ok with that, I can see why those things are valid, can be affected by those as well. I think that whining about 2/4

how "unfair" things are is missing the point, and useless. As technical minded as I am (I spot mistakes a mile away and they bother me) I still judge success solely by numbers and objective impact. How much did it sell, what was the final profit, how many views, what ranking etc, also about how much people commented on it, the influence it had. It doesn't matter how good it is, numbers don't lie and if you don't have those, you flopped. It greatly annoys me when people refuse to accept this. 3/4

I thought it's because I'm a 3, but the more I see Te/Ti comparisons I can never side with Ti and that baffles me. It just mostly sounds divorced from reality or like it undervalues it. I though I preferred Ti because my speculation/theories don't hit a "that's not what science says" wall like Te does, I question the "Te God" statistics and I enjoy analyzing/breaking down things for fun (and I think acquiring understanding give you power). Thoughts? Is that Mr ENTJ post accurate? 4/4

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

I’m assuming this is the relevant post.

Some of this might be sensing (if you typed yourself as an INTP or ENTP...you are almost certainly not one). However, STPs and ESTPs sometimes mistype as STJs because while they love figuring things out for their own sake they also appreciate the realities of the situation and objective evidence. In fact, socionics attributes some things to Se that MBTI groups in Te - there’s a lot of overlap between the two. I think Mr. ENTJ does have a pretty good understanding of Te (he likely has some bias in favor of Te; most high Te users do have a lot of frustrations with Ti, myself included, but that doesn’t mean we don’t understand how it works) but I also think it’s possible that your attitude could come from high Se accepting the reality of the situation. (Also, perhaps I’m idealistic or just in a hard STEM field where your school matters less but while it’s undoubtedly true going to a name-brand school provides people with additional opportunities, in many fields you still need to bring some talent to the table as well).

However, I think your understanding of Te might be limited and you could be a Te user. As mentioned, I’m literally a scientist, and Te doesn’t just end arguments in “that’s not what science says” because science itself is often in disagreement. Te is still open to debate and to learning things for fun - it just is more selective, and more interested in getting things done on time and on budget rather than as elegantly as possible. A healthy high Te user is willing to say “I know this doesn’t handle every contingency, but for our purposes it should be good enough and a method that would handle every contingency would be prohibitively expensive/take too long/require resources we are unlikely to have”. Ti is less willing to do that. I’m also not sure what “ ‘Te God’ statistics” means.

I can’t tell from this question whether you’re a Ti or Te user (although speaking of weird gut feelings and writing style, plus a 3 core, you sound more extroverted to me though a particularly forceful IxTJ is not out of the question), but I’d recommend you first consider ESTP, ENTJ, and ESTJ as possibilities.