#their entire arc and character was one of a kind it was religion it was existential it was brotherly love all at once

[momonokopan]

day 16 + 17: angel + demon

but who is the angel and who is the demon?

finally a chance to reveal to the world how much i love trigun stampede i Need to pick up the old anime later i love these brothers

[roll-for-gaslight]

I'm not sure exactly how to put my thoughts into words so pardon my rambling but I'm thinking about how Kristen, Adaine, and Fig's character growth all stems from growing into a person they always could have been in a better situation. Also, it's interesting the way the bad kids seem to bring out these parts of each other because they're healing!

Like I know it was a kind of jokey moment but Adaine's little "Fabian hit me!!!!!" versus her insistence on being independent to the point of endangering her mental and physical wellbeing! She grew up so independent, unable to ask for help because of the risk of being ridiculed. She never asks for help and holds herself to an incredibly high standard. But that's not how her childhood should have ideally gone! She was supposed to have a big sister to tattle on and fight with, she was supposed to be taken care of! The BKs make her feel safe and cared for in a way her family never did, so her character development very much means slipping into the "little sister" position she was always supposed to occupy.

Fig pushed down her natural and newly-forming personality when the very foundation of her identity changed. She threw herself so wholly and entirely into her new aesthetic and vibe and vehemently denied the version of her that came before. Now she's growing to accept herself at all stages of her life, to a version of herself that brings in the parts of both her childhood and post-tiefling personalities that she likes and forms something new that makes her comfortable.

For Kristen, losing her religion made her lose a sense of identity. Without her parents to take care of her or her brothers for her to take care of, she was suddenly accountable to absolutely no one. She has Jawbone and Sandralynn, technically, but from what we've seen neither of them actually parent her a lot. So, she leaned hard into doing whatever she wanted, living wildly, engaging in all the things she never got to before, living a life as far away from her childhood as possible, and that's reflected in her clerical work. She loves Cassandra and wants her to thrive, but hates that what that means has a lot of overlap with what it meant to be Helio's Chosen. Like the daily prayer, the proselytizing, it reminds her too much of the things she was raised to do for Helio, and the fact that Cassandra needs Kristen to take care of her makes her accountable to someone in a way that she really wasn't for a while. Now that she's in the back half of her character arc, trying to bring Cassandra back and working hard for it, she's growing a little more responsible. There have been a lot of good moments this season where she's tried to help other people outside of combat-necessary healing, such as giving Lydia Barkrock the help action and the way she reacts after Fabian attacks Adaine (which I know is technically "combat-necessary healing" but how it happened came across as very Big Sister, like pulling the crayon out of her brother's nose in the first episode, especially with how it was immediately followed not with a bit like everyone else but with "oh no fabian got possessed I hope he's okay!!!! poor fabian!!!!!"

[khruschevshoe]

You know what really gets me about Eleven’s run? Is that it starts off with an amazing thesis statement in the Beast Below which I think sums up the Doctor as a character more than any other line ever has. "What if you were really old, and really kind, and the last of your kind?...All of that pain and misery and loneliness, and it just made it kind."

Yes, sometimes the Doctor needs to be reminded of that fact, as when Amy has Liz 10 hit the abdication button, but the Doctor is kind. He is the man that cheered that "just this once, everyone lives" and was a "coward not killer anyday" and flung away a gun and even after the Time Lord Victorious arc, died to save a single man from dying from radiation. The Doctor and his companions bring out the worst in each other, yes, but they also bring out the best.

And then comes along The Girl Who Waited and the God Complex, which are just an extension of Let's Kill Hitler and eventually Angels Take Manhattan, which are all about how the Doctor takes people as companions because he needs someone to worship him, that he can't bear to see them age and would rather see them young and beautiful, that he is vain, that he is cruel, that he is a god, and I get that interpretation but at the end of the day, the Doctor has never been about vanity or worship or needing someone to keep him in check.

Because yes, companions have reminded him the importance of being kind as part of what is "necessary." The importance of having hope. But it's just that: a reminder. The Doctor is unlike the Master and unlike the rest of the Time Lords because he is compassionate. Because he hates to see children cry. Because he is a coward who is nonetheless brave enough to keep caring, over and over again, no matter how many people die in front of him, no matter how many times he loses those he loves, because the Doctor is a love story as much as it is a ghost story at the end of the day.

And it kills me that the main themes/character arcs of Eleven’s era boil down the Doctor to someone who is not that. Someone who, as the Power of Three ending/Angels Take Manhattan imply, had to have the Ponds to keep him in check. That he could not let them go, could not respect them and their choices like Ten did with Martha. That an entire religion formed itself, kidnapping a child and making her into an assassin, just to stop him from ruining the universe, because he is a god more than a man. That he is a god just like the minotaur, feeding off of people's faith in him, taking children and companions so that he can be nourished, so that he can feel important.

Because even at the Doctor's worst in the Time Lord Victorious Arc, it has never been about worship. It was about grief and loss and love and compassion, because the Doctor has two hearts because he has too much love to fill just one, because that is the kind of person that the Doctor is.

All of that pain and misery and loneliness, and it just made him kind.

[autolenaphilia]

Sinfest by Tatsuya Ishida is so fascinating to me, like it's one person mental decline over a period of decades in a webcomic form. Like the political evolution over the years is insane. Ishida started out as a fairly normal liberal dude, who reacted to Bush-era christian conservatism with sex-positive edgelording. He depicted Obama as over-the-top cool in a way that felt only half-ironic. Ironically in light of his later politics, he also had some caricatures of man- and sex-hating feminists. It wasn't really a heavily political strip either, there were character-based stories.

And then in the 2010s Ishida had a weird conversion to radical feminism. This took over the comic, and it became extremely political in a strident and unsubtle way.

It started out with a heavy focus on SWERF and anti-porn stuff, and there are some porn addiction arcs that it's easy to read autobiographically. Like you get the impression Ishida thinks he has a porn addiction and feels really bad about it, and radical feminism felt like an easier outlet for his feelings about it than the religion he had mocked so much before. He had drawn man-hating sex negative caricatures of feminists before, and that's ironically the exact kind of feminist he decided to become.

And how it depicts male consumption of porn is telling. Like porn is bad, but men are compelled to consume it and can never stop, because men are all irredeemably horny misogynists. It feels like a expression of self-hatred. Sinfest became a vehicle for unsubtle caustic moralistic invective, but it always seem to spill back on Ishida himself.

Ishida is heavy on the performative man-hating that male radfems usually aren't. And his main mouthpiece character during this phase is a lesbian woman.

Ishida's depiction of porn and sex work also consistently feels off, like the victims of the sex trade are drawn too sexy to really work as anti-porn. The sex workers in the comic are also literally sex robots, but clearly meant to stand in for real life human sex workers. It's very condescending.

It took a few years before Ishida fully revealed his transmisogyny. And since then it has increasingly dominated the comic. Extremely transmisogynist caricatures of transfems everywhere. Like every online transmisogynist, it has become an obsession for Ishida. And it's weird, like he has this obsession with drawing girlbulge on his transmisogynist caricatures that feels downright fetishistic.

Like I'm not usually like "transmisogynists are rotten eggs", but honestly Ishida feels like that might be true. The lesbian author stand-in, the self-hatred that extends to men as a gender, the obsessive transmisogyny. Reading Sinfest there feels like there is something deeply wrong with Ishida. He is not just a bigot, but feels deeply disturbed. And a case of extreme internalized transmisogyny and repression is as good an explanation as any.

Ishida has however gotten worse, and zoomed down the terf-to-fascist pipeline. The comic has evolved from terfy to full-on MAGA fascist. His transmisogyny has guided Ishida to darker and darker territory. There is an comic where his lesbian mouthpiece character abandons the left precisely because the left accepts trans people. He is now an anti-vaxxer and covid denialist of course, and his literal in-comic reason for distrusting vaccines is that medical scientists also favor trans healthcare.

Most recently Ishida has done an anti-immigration arc, where immigrants are depicted as evil alien invaders from pop culture. And that illustrates how self-defeating and ironic his views are. He is literally condemning immigration as an American man named Tatsuya Ishida.

Lesbian radfems beset by porn culture and the tranny menace no longer play a large part in modern Sinfest. His heroes are now redneck magahats, depicted as unfairly prosecuted by far-left cancel culture. And he seems entirely okay with their social conservatism, a right-wing redneck family has a housewife, and its depicted as okay.

By now he has done a full 180 over the last 20 years. The right-wing conservatives who he mocked in the 00s, are now his heroes.

The recurring characters and the storylines based around them are barely there, it's all political commentary at this point. When the old characters appear it's usually as props in his heavy-handed commentary.

Sinfest was never a great comic even at its 00s peak, but it was a normal comic. Now it's just a sad record of one person's mental and political decline.

[kittyoverlord]

This scene really spoke to me as someone who converted to Judaism. To be fair, I wasn't raised religious at all, so I don't know what it's like to leave one faith and move to another, but I still have thoughts!

I connected with Judaism because of it's emphasis on questioning and doubt, and this exchange also illustrates another key aspect of Judaism that I really identify with - following mitzvot/commandments because it does good right now for yourself and others, not due to some fear of eternal damnation. (that kind of philosphy doesn't work as well in a world where Heaven and Hell are confirmed as real planes lol.)

I also recently took a class (shout out to The Unyeshiva) that focused on the history of Jewish converstion. One thing from that class that I've been thinking about specifically in relation to Kristen's journey is different methods of proseletyzing.

The rabbi said we tend to picture xtian missionary groups that are pushy and make people uncomfortable - "Convert or you'll burn in hell." But there are ways to share information and offer one's faith to others as an option without making it a requirement - such as holding an intro to Judaism class or inviting friends to Jewish celebrations - which could still be considered proseletyzing in a way. She said the idea is: there are some people who would be happier practicing Judaism than not, and if we do some outreach those people are more likely to find Judaism, but not everyone will want to be Jewish and that's ok.

I'm not sure how much Ally is intending to work Jewish philosophy into Kristen's character arc, but I love being able to chew on the subtext anyway. Considering Kristen literally needs to convert a bunch of people to her religion ASAP I'm interesting in seeing how she decides to go about that.

I hope Kristen's journey works out and she and Cassandra are able to make amends. I also get angry at G-d, but at least I'm not in danger of destroying my entire religion because of my frustrations...

[moltengoldveins]

so, I am already Adoring the discourse on The Creator, the new sci fi AI film that came out recently, but I’ve yet to see anyone talk about the fascinating religious undertones to the whole movie? Like, I’m Christian. I’ll be the first to admit my bias here: I tend to look for faith and spiritual undertones when consuming media because it’s an integral part of the way I see the world. but this movie was SO COOL?? Like, the Complete Lack of any sort of faith shown in the American characters in contrast with the AI and the Asian characters, a total shift from the modern cultural idea that religion and AI are incompatible. There are monks that are droids and simulants. The kid uses her technology powers by making a “praying” motion. There’s a robot preaching a pretty classic Judeo-Christian Messiah narrative to a bunch of kiddos. There’s only ONE American character given any sort of obvious religious identity and it’s that One Trooper Lady when she mentions Valhalla. This is such an interesting decision and I’m fascinated to know what y’all think of it. NOT TO MENTION (and this is by FAR my favorite part) the fact that the religion and the AI conflict and the treatment of human life are all implicitly bound up together. The Americans believe that the AI are ‘just programming,’ that they aren’t real, that they don’t have souls. The New Asians don’t. And that seems to bleed into the way they treat Humans as well? The kind girl near the beginning of the film, clearing the blast zone with Taylor, panics when she sees an AI online for the first time because she recognizes that he behaves like a person, while Taylor is cold, unresponsive, and insists that it’s just programming. The Americans SAY they value human life because humans are really people and AI aren’t, but they treat civilians and combatants, AI and Humans, Exactly the Same. Almost like, if you reduce one thing with a soul to ‘just programming, not of value’ that starts messing with the way you treat Everything Else. The New Asians, as far as the narrative tells us, don’t plan on retribution for the war. They’re careful with civilians, to a certain extent (I don’t love the van scene with the kiddos tbh :( feel like that was out of place? And the AI lady, the girlfriend of Taylor’s friend who was killed as well, interesting nuances there) and they treat one another like people ought. There’s very little distinction given between the more android and more human AI, which I think is awesome, and the climax of the arc of Taylor’s character happens In A Temple. The end of the story is a message of hope for reunification in heaven AND hope for reunification on earth. That’s. That’s so cool. Like. I think that’s the coolest thing I’ve seen in Ages. I can’t Ever remember seeing that kind of message done in a story that isn’t painfully preachy. One thing that often bothers me about modern film and media is the idea that religion and spirituality has to be handled in one of three ways: entirely unmentioned, preachy to the absurd, or blatantly disrespected. It’s not a universal problem, but it’s pretty widespread. I couldn’t tell what faith the directors ascribed to in this film, but I could tell they were discussing it intelligently and I LIKED THAT. I liked it a lot. I can’t speak for anyone but myself, my tastes, and beliefs: I’m willing to bet a lot of Christians won’t like this movie because they’re hung up on the lack of a blatantly Christian or preachy narrative. I’m willing to bet a lot of other people won’t like it because it tackled spirituality at all. But I liked it, because it looked at the world we live in and spoke of what it saw. It wrestled with the topics of death and life and souls and heaven and national pride and racism and capitalism and love and what it means to be a good person and it did it really well, and I admire that.

please please let me know what y’all thought of the movie? I’m really interested in knowing what people picked up on or thought the movie was saying. God bless y’all, and have an excellent weekend :) 💜

[betterbemeta]

TotK is really ramping up Hyrule's past as pure imperial myth type propaganda.

(criticism beneath the cut)

I really really am not enjoying the explicit text that various civilizations of people in tears of the kingdom exist in the way they do in order to preserve super powers that Link will come to collect. On behalf of his nation's first king.

sure, they frame it as like 'now I can fight by your side whenever, how convenient!' but I can't forget that this first king Rauru gave the original sages their secret stones, and this is a return on that investment. Regardless of what compelling character arcs any of these people have over the course of the game, we are accumulating the agency of entire nations, prepared for us as a proxy of the ruler who defined Hyrule's legitimacy.

Legend of Zelda has leaned in the past few installments into equating 'saving Hyrule' with 'palengenesis of an ancient nation.' I don't have to explain again why this has one foot on either side of line dividing 'imperial throne myth' and 'fascist myth' and TotK so far is only adding more detail to these ideas- positioning the surrounding peoples of Hyrule (Zora, Gorons, Gerudo, Rito) not as 'allies' but as part of its dominion from the beginning.

I've completed the wind and water temples so far and because you can do them in any order, the ancient sages seem to all say basically the same thing to Link in case it's the first time: the destiny of their entire people came to exist for Link, literally King Rauru's right hand man.

Ganondorf may be a very 'fantasy evil' dude but in terms of real-life genre of evil, Hyrule engages in colonialism, imperialism. We're told the story from a point of view that thinks it's good to shape the destiny of other peoples under your dominion-- that it's rightful to assume this sort of power by

giving priceless gifts (to be harvested later), or

sources of prosperity (that can only be fixed by themselves or their agents), or

some kind of unification mythology (spiritual subservience),

as if those are not forms of violence. Empires love giving 'gifts' like religion, government, industries, and trains.

[death-limes]

Say, which characters in HB and HH do you hate the most character wise and then design wise

OHHH MAN i could write an entire video essay about this topic lmao, let me try to be as brief as possible

~~~

Hazbin - Worst Character: This one's hard, there are a few characters who probably suck but I just don't know that much about them. But based on what I know now, honestly…? Charlie. Coinsidering that… I think Faustisse?… confirmed that she's over 200 years old, the sheer level of naivete on her part is just annoying and unbelievable. She's over twice as old as Alastor, she should not be swayed so easily by him. As far as I'm aware she's not in a Disney Princess situation where she was shut inside the castle walls her entire life (PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong on that though) so there's no reason why she shouldn't be at least a little savvy to the ways of sinner demons. She should also have been able to see the VERY OBVIOUS SIGNS that Vaggie used to be an exorcist. Even Carmilla comments that it's super fuckin obvious; the Princess of Hell herself should be knowledgeable enough to pick up on hints that even the fandom picked up on when it was just the pilot. Overall, Charlie just comes across as kinda stupid imo. I don't find myself rooting for her at all.

Hazbin - Worst Design: Alastor. I know he may not necessarily look the worst, and I do in fact simp for him, but his design does absolutely NOTHING that a character design is supposed to do. Namely, it doesn't tell us anything about him & it doesn't help him stand out from the cast. Nothing about his design is uniquely 1930s (nobody wore their hair like that, pinstripe suits started in the 1800s and continue to be popular today, monocles were more of an 1800s thing and were considered old-fashioned by the 30s) or deer-esque (his ears really do not look like dear ears at all, and his "antlers" are just microscopic salad forks that don't even show up on his silhouette). The whole Voodoo thing, aside from being super disrespectful to a literal religion that is still actively practiced, is also so inconsequential to his character that it can be removed entirely and change NOTHING about him. Any of his traits that are in line with the Voodoo thing can still exist without it -- him being a trickster and a dealmaker, mostly. All the blacklight stuff doesn't match his aesthetic at all: in Princess and the Frog where everything was 1920s it gave a magic effect, but in Hazbin where all different time periods comingle it just gives a raver effect, which doesn't fit his anti-modern preferences at all. Also the living-shadow thing is yet another direct ripoff from Dr. Facilier (that might just be in the pilot though I'm not sure), I think the living microphone is a better route to take if you want him to have a spiritual companion type of thing; it's more relevant to his theming and more original. And of course none of this even touches on the "he's half-black" bullshit excuse that only came after V*v received backlash about the Voodoo thing. And it doesn't even solve the issue anyway. A mixed-race man from the 1930s would make for a very interesting character IF that unique experience/identity was actually integrated into his character in any noticeable way, but it's not. It was just slapped on at the last minute. Ugh. I could write an entire essay about Alastor alone tbh.

Helluva - Worst Character: Fizzarolli, but mostly when he was first introduced. Aesthetically he's the closest thing that I have to a "blorbo" in this show, but in the Ozzie's episode he just gave me the most rancid vibes ever. Definitely a "asexuality doesn't exist, you just haven't been with ME yet~" type of person. Admittedly that's more of a personal preference thing and less of a poor characterization; they're in the Lust ring, that type of attitude is kind of expected. What IS poor characterization, however, is his "development" later on when he and Ozzie basically get their own arc. His entire personality changes to be much softer and like…. idk, very obviously a trauma VICTIM and not so much of a potential trauma CAUSER? His character is not nearly as abrasive, but there's no corresponding event that would cause such a change. It just seems like now that he's supposed to be a sympathetic character, they changed his personality to be more appealing. He's not nearly as mean and rude as he used to be. Ozzie has a similar thing going on but it's not quiiiiite as severe, and he's saved from being the Worst by having a far more interesting and unique design. (If you had asked who I think has the BEST design in Helluva, I'd probably say Ozzie.)

Helluva - Worst Design: Beelzebub, no contest. A lot of people seemed to have a problem with her being bee-themed instead of fly-themed like the real Beelzebub in demonology, but that honestly doesn't bother me; I'm not expecting any Hellaverse stuff to be super accurate to The Real Lore so any tiny reference they can slip in (like with Ozzie's design) is just gravy. To me, bee and fly are close enough, I think it counts as a reference. Plus, the bee theme goes well with Gluttony ("nectar" is a common synonym for delicious food) and calling her Queen Bee is an easy way to make her name more appealing/sexy than, yknow. "Beelzebub." What DOES bother me is her canine aspect. Why is she a sparkledog? What is the logic behind that? Why isn't she huge-by-default like Ozzie and Mammon? (You'd think GLUTTONY of all sins would be a big character!) It really just feels like V*v wanted Ke$ha to have a cameo role as a major character and just arbitrarily picked one of the sins for her to be. So the character design has Ke$ha in mind faaaaar more than it has Beelzebub in mind. ***(Funny thing about Queen Bee: for a solid week after her episode came out, I was actually fooled by this page from an RP wiki: [https://hazbin-hotel-and-helluva-boss-rp.fandom.com/wiki/Beelzebub] The explanation that I'd gleaned for this version of her is that the picture shown is the REAL Beelzebub, and the one we see in the show is her daughter by the lord of Hellhounds, Cerberus, which explains her canine features. Queen Bee Jr. is the heiress to her mom's title in the same way Charlie is the heiress to Lucifer's title. The picture shown on that page is just SUCH a better design, and it looks like the show's style, and she seems to be a giant like Ozzie and Mammon…. can you blame me for being like "OH that makes sense!!" Cut to me a week later finding out this is just a fan RP wiki. Siiiigh.)

[vintagetvstars]

My Babylon 5 thoughts

Here are my thoughts on Babylon 5 after watching it for the first time. I could talk for ages about this show but unfortunately that is too long for a text post (I tried going season by season but it was about as long as this post and I hadn’t even gotten to season 3 when I realized it was way too long). So I will try my best to keep it brief and just my overall thoughts.

Overall I really love this show! It’s definitely become one of my favorite sci-fi shows out there! Babylon 5 has an amazingly rich world full of life and inhabited by some of the best written and performed characters in all of sci-fi. I could talk forever about some of my favorite moments in the show and every single character but I’ll try to narrow it down to just a few, but know that there is so much else I love about it. There will be spoilers ahead!

Thoughts under the cut

What is there to say that I’m sure others haven’t already said about Londo and G’Kar and the relationship between the Narn and the Centauri and that arc the show takes us on. By far one of my favorite arcs and relationships on the show. The Narn and Centauri conflict played out through seasons 2 & 3 is chilling. G’Kar made me cry so many times not just in that story arc but in his own personal arc as he grew throughout the show. Londo’s story arc is haunting and a beautiful tragedy you can’t look away from. There relationship throughout the show and how it changes and grows as they do is something that will stay with me forever. Truly one of the best parts of the entire series! G’Kar specifically is one of my all time favorite sci-fi characters right up there with Kira Nerys! Just overall two of the best written and performed characters with some of the most compelling story arcs and relationship to one another that I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing!

While the shadow war was the biggest thing introduced by the show and it was fascinating and overall very well done, I found the stuff going on with earth and the fight against the rising and eventual full on fascism there the most compelling major plot in the series. The whole earth fascism arc was really well done and just horrifying and eerie to watch unfold. I really don’t have more to say about it other than that it was so fantastically done and it speaks for itself and you should go watch it!

I also was extremely pleasantly surprised with the shows handling of religion and spirituality. So much of sci-fi disappointingly either entirely ignores it or exclusively uses it for their villains. Both have always been pretty disappointing takes for me and don’t take advantage of the kind of roll these things can take in peoples lives or their full storytelling potential. Babylon 5 plays with these concepts fully and beautifully and it makes the story, the cultures within it, and its characters so much richer getting to see how religion and spirituality are at play in this world. I still cry thinking about the end of the episode with the religious festival where Sinclair showcases all of earths religions, it was a beautiful moment and touching to see that in Babylon 5’s future all these different religions, ways of thinking, these cultures, still exist, we’re all still here and we are all very human and I found that beautiful.

I’ve said a few things I loved so I’ll quickly go over some of the things I found lacking or flawed before wrapping it up with the rest of what I loved.

While I know a lot of this is due to a lot of behind the scenes production issues, that doesn’t change the fact that this show had a huge issue with wasted characters. There are plenty of characters I liked that got their time cut short that I could talk about but I will only focus on the ones that I’m actively still mad about.

I hate what they end up doing with both Marcus and Lennier and their unrequited love storylines. It’s not even that they went with unrequited love storylines, there are plenty of ways I think they could have still written them with unrequited love storylines that weren’t the in my opinion absolute character assassinating ways they ended both their arcs. I liked Marcus and Lennier but they never used Marcus very effectively then just absolutely take him out in the worst way possible that not only was a disservice to him as a character but completely tainted Ivanova’s exit from the show and her blaze of glory moment which was really upsetting as Ivanova is one of my favorite characters in the series. And Lennier’s unrequited love was actually going in a direction I would have liked, loyal to the end friendship and love but then season 5 happened and they just completely ruined Lennier as a character and his and Delenn’s wonderful relationship of loyalty and friendship and a form of love up until that point. I am upset on behalf of both Marcus and Lennier as characters that didn’t deserve that and Ivanova and Delenn whose own story’s were impacted in the aftermath of these bad storylines.

The only other major thing that bothered me was season 5 and the subsequent movies and spin off not really going anywhere or getting wrapped up in any way. I saved the final episode to watch til last which really worked cause even tho a lot of the stuff introduced in season 5, the movies, and spin off don’t get wrapped up, the Finale was emotionally cathartic and wrapped the show up perfectly on an emotional level. It was just odd to me to introduce a bunch of storylines that weren’t going to get finished, and I get that a lot of it was due to production issues but they did know the show was ending so they could have avoided some of it. Still that was mildly annoying but I suppose I can hopefully find out what happened on some wiki articles or maybe some of the B5 novels.

Okay back to more things I loved for a B5 positivity sandwich! Can we talk about Alfred Bester?!?? I desperately want to go into detail about how much I love this character and especially how phenomenal the performance was but in case the actor gets nominated for the men’s bracket I won’t. I will just say Bester is one of the best Sci-fi villains I’ve ever had the pleasure to witness, right up there with Dukat on Deep Space 9. And it is the best showcase of acting skill and one of the best if not the best performance by the actor who portrays him (who I can’t talk about cause I don’t want to induce a bias but if you know you know)!

While I found a lot of the movies to be bad with some okay/funny bits, to good but flawed and unnecessary, I really adore B5’s spin off Crusade. While some of its early episodes weren’t the strongest they were still fun and enjoyable and its later episodes were great! The characters were delightful and it had an interesting set up and premise. I am genuinely really sad we only got a single season of Crusade as it was better than a lot of other sci-fi series first seasons that did go on to get multiple seasons. If I had a choice to bring back or renew one thing from the Babylon 5 franchise I would genuinely bring back Crusade so we could see a full finished series cause it was cut way too short and I would have loved to see a full series of it. It wasn’t as great as B5 overall but it was good and I really enjoyed it. Plus I had a childhood crush on one of the leads of the show who I won’t name in case anyone nominates any of the guys on this show for the men’s bracket but that certainly biased me towards liking the show 😅.

Also possibly unpopular opinion but I didn’t hate The Legend of the Rangers. It was definitely a bit cheesy and didn’t really feel like it fully fit into the B5 universe so I understand why it wasn’t picked up as a show. But it was fun cheesy for me, very Babylon 5 does Power Rangers and I totally would have watched it had it been picked up. But I also like Power Rangers and how cheesy it can be so maybe that’s just a me thing. I similarly loved the Vorlon encounter suits and the Mantis character from season 1 for similar reasons of them reminding me of the suits and puppet effects used on Power Rangers and other similar media that I think are really fun and always love to see!

One final kind of small thing but B5 actually found a way to make dogfight style space combat interesting to me. I’ve always found the more submarine warfare style ship to ship combat more compelling as when things become a space dogfight it often devolves into just a bunch of space lasers and fast ship unintelligible nonsense and I loose all interest and stakes in what’s happening on screen. B5 found a way to keep the stakes and emotions high so even when they went into more aerial combat I was still fully engaged in the story and what was happening. So thanks for that B5, I genuinely thought it couldn’t be done well but they proved me wrong.

Overall I found Babylon 5 to be a phenomenal show and definitely one that’s certainly become a favorite of mine! I could talk so much more about every season and every single character and the things I love about them but this post is already long enough 😅. I definitely plan to rewatch it many times over (and attempt to perfect a watch order I personally like best cause I see why watch order is so debated now) and am already immediately trying to get mod violet and my partner to both watch it with me in the future (that’ll be two excuses to rewatch it)! It certainly has its flaws but all of my favorite things do and they certainly don’t remotely outweigh the absolutely phenomenal parts of the show.

Finally, I apologize to the Mira Furlan fans that she did not make it far in our tournament. I get it now! Her performance as Delenn is phenomenal and she is absolutely captivating every second she is on screen. She has the beauty and grace of a Disney princess and the terrifying ethereal presence and power of the sun and the moon.

- mod vintage

[lilareviewsbooks]

Queer Normal-World in SFF Books

Here are five books where being queer is the norm, aka there is no homophobia or transphobia at all! Not all these books are fluffy though -- most of them have heavy conflicts and a bunch of shit going down, but at least no one has a problem with anyone being gay!

These are my favorite kind of books and I have so, so many recommendations, so let me know if you ever want more of these :) And I can also absolutely do only fluffy queer books, too!

The Genesis of Misery, by Neon Yang

Mx. Yang's books are perfect for this type of prompt. The Genesis of Misery is their most recent, and the premise is absolutely killer. It follows Misery Nomaki (she/they), who is haunted by an apparition of an angel. While she is convinced she is mentally ill like her mother, and that her visions are a symptom, people around her seem more and more certain that she is actually some sort of messiah. 

I have my issues with The Genesis of Misery, but it’s a very creative sci-fi that’s worth the read. It includes mecha, interesting depictions of religion, which permeates the entire story, and, of course, excellent queer rep. We have characters who use neo-pronouns, a polyamory situationship and most characters are queer. Not to mention, it’s written by a queer and non-binary author, which is always a plus. It’s part of an on-going series, though, so be prepared to wait a little while for the sequel! 

Plus, The Locked Tomb fans might be interested to know that there’s a very cavalier-necromancer dynamic in this, and that Rebecca Roanhorse (who wrote Black Sun) described it as Joan of Arc meets Gideon The Ninth. 

Yep. You wanna read it, don’t you?

(Also, if for some reason you’re like: “gee, I really wish there was a black-and-white silent movie with a killer score that touched on these same themes”, then you should probably watch The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928). It’s not explicitly gay, but it is queer in my heart. And it rocks.)

The Locked Tomb Series, starting with Gideon The Ninth, by Tasmyn Muir

Since I mentioned it, I guess I might as well include The Locked Tomb in here! This is a Tumblr favorite, and with good reason, because The Locked Tomb fucking rocks. It’s hard to pitch it to someone without ruining the whole point of the series, but the first book follows a necromancer, Harrowhark and her sworn swords-woman, her cavalier, the butch-as-hell Gideon, as they’re summoned to the First House to compete to become Lyctors, the companions of God. 

Yeah, I know that’s a lot, and, to be honest, it’s probably not gonna make much sense to you at many points throughout the story, but that’s the point of The Locked Tomb - everything is confusing, and it’s about sapphics in space! 

The thing about this series is they’re the most unique books you’ll ever read. Every volume has a different approach to telling its story. There’s so many mysteries and it’s almost impossible to understand all the intricacies without sitting down and doing some work. The magic system is also the wonkiest, coolest thing - it involves eating people, sometimes, y’know. And, I promise, you’ll love every single second of it. Especially because there’s absolutely no homophobia or transphobia in any of it, and almost every character is queer as fuck - especially after the second book, when gender starts getting a little funky!

Winter’s Orbit, by Everina Maxwell

I love this book so much, and so know that it comes highly, highly recommended! I have a whole five star review on it you can check out here. (Do check trigger warnings, though! You should always, but especially for this one. I didn’t and they really got me!). 

Winter’s Orbit features my absolutely favorite trope - queer arranged marriage. (Nothing better - those three words and you know it’s gonna be a queer normal world, have some politics and probably be really fucking sweet.) This one is probably one of only ones out of this list where the romance is very predominant and serves as an important B plot. It’s also a standalone, but has a companion book in the same universe, called Ocean’s Echo, which rocks, too!

This one follows Jainan, a recent widower who is rushed into an arranged marriage with Prince Kiem in order to keep the alliance between their homelands intact. Together, they must navigate court intrigue I’m trying my best not to spoil and investigate Jainan’s ex-husband’s death, which might not have been an accident, after all...

In this sci-fi fantasy world, being queer is completely normal, and their system when it comes to gender is absolutely fascinating. People will wear little gender signifiers, like a wodden token for female, for instance, so that others know how to refer to them. It’s super cool to see these kind of things incorporated into the world-building, and it’s something you really only get when queer authors are behind the helm.

(Also, this was originally written online, and it was actually picked up and traditionally published! Which is so cool! Queer fics becoming traditionally published books is so rare, it’s so nice to see it actually happen!)

The Teixcalaan Series, starting with A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine

This is another one of my favorites! I read it last year and it blew me away - so much so that I’ve been itching to re-read it ever since I finished the second book.

The Teixcalaan Series is a political sci-fi duology focusing on the themes of language, empire and cultural domination through imperialism. It’s amazing, and I wrote about it in a full-length review, here, if you wanna take a look! 

It follows Mahit Dzamare, from the tiny Lsel Station, who becomes the ambassador to the huge Teixcalaan Empire, whose culture she’s been in love with for ages. The problem? Something happened to the Lsel ambassador, and the Empire’s control over the Station has been growing ever bigger. To make matters worse, Mahit’s imago machine - the cerebral implant full of her predecessors memories and experiences - doesn’t seem to be working properly, leaving her with a ghost of her predecessor inside of her head...

With all the problems the Teixcalaan Empire has, it’s not homophobic or transphobic, which is a plus for us gays who want to read in peace. Mahit has a charged relationship with her cultural liason, Three Seagrass (yes, that’s her name; yes, there’s an in-world explanation; no, I won’t tell you what it is, you’ll have to read it and find out), not to mention all the hijinks she finds out her predecessor was up to. And none of it needs to be justified or explained at all - people are just gay, and that’s fine!

On A Sunbeam, by Tillie Walden

This graphic novel has a stunning art style, and, listen closely sapphics, absolutely no men at all. Yep. Literally there’s only women and non-binary people in this comic! 

And guess what? It’s available to read for free, here. Thank you, Ms. Walden!

Here, romance is also an important plot point. On A Sunbeam follows Mia, who starts working for a crew of repair-people who rebuild broken down structures. In another timeline, we flashback to her experiences at her boarding school, and to her relationship with a new student.

What’s most unique about On A Sunbeam - apart from the fact that there are no men at all - is it’s unique version of outer space. It’s almost historical, with huge sprawling marble structures decaying, surronded by trees. The ships are shaped like huge fish. You can feel the whimsy in your bones from the colors and the art style that Ms. Walden uses, here.

This standalone is definitely worth a read. And if you like it, you should definitely check out the rest of Ms. Walden’s work - it’s all as beautiful as this is, if not more. Her The End of Summer was one of my favorite reads, last year.

That’s all I’ve got, guys, but lemme know if you want more of these - I have so many, I can definitely recommend you more! Drop me an ask if you have specifications, too - I’m always happy to do some digging :)

[ride-thedragon]

HOTD CHARACTERS AS ALBUMS:

Alicent Hightower as 30 by Adele.

Now that we are finally here, and I'm starting with my faves.

What is 30 by Adele?

It's her latest album that covers the topic of her divorce and the challenges she faces in the wake of it with the idea of motherhood impacting her decisions and thoughts around this time. Her signature ballads and intertwining of genres are apparent, but the story she invokes is that of trials and a time of change in her life.

So Alicent?

Yes. It's the album I think best fits her arc in season one and prepares for the rest. Let's go through this song by song. But also go listen to the album and think of her because at the end of the day. This is my interpretation.

30 x Alicent.

Strangers By Nature

Now, this first song is the introduction to the album. She's apologising to Lovers from the past, the present, and the ones in the dark. Taking back anything done wrong against them and saying that by the end, they were all strangers by nature to her.

If we are talking about Alicent I think that's were season 1 leaves her. So much is being uncovered about her and her character especially outside of Viserys in Episode 9 I think it's a good song within that context.

No one really knows her now, fully to her entire extent. How she loves, what she does to ensure she's kept aware of situations, what she stillnholds on to is kept guarded and compartmentalised for certain things.

Easy on Me.

This was the biggest hit off the album. It's a song about a dissolving marriage, a song dedicated to her child and childhood, and overall, it is very Alicent.

I think it applies well as a reflection of who she had been. Trying to balance her love for Rhaenyra and her duty to her father and Viserys. The betrayal and anger and disagreements she found herself in.

Say what you will but as the bridge of the song puts it,

"I had good intentions

And the highest hopes

But I know right now

It probably doesn't even show."

If that isn't her, what is?

My Little Love

Now I find Adele just extremely Alicent coded, but the reason I chose this album instead of 21 or 25, for example, is because this album was dedicated to her child.

I refuse to explain this one. Go think of these gay lovers and cry your heart out because it hurts.

But also, it's a song of her explaining everything up until her divorce to her son. Kind of reckoning with the failure she feels and how stuck and stranding it all is.

For Alicent, I think it's the same. By the end, she's reconciling her past with her future. Trying to appease her want for Aegon to be crowned with her love for Rhaenyra and to an extent Viserys. She's also around all her children in episode 9, which is interesting when thinking about the song.

Cry Your Heart Out

Hello, season 2 Alicent. I genuinely think this is the direction it is going to go in because its just tragedy after tragedy for them. Especially when we see her under water and near water so much, baby girl, cry your heart out, it'll clean your face.

Oh My God

Alicole girls. Hi.

This is entirely Criston and Alicent coded for whatever they have going on.

I'm having a hard time doing this because I want you guys to go listen to it. But basically, the song is about this guy who she's with during this time who's her place of refuge with all he conflicting narratives and lies around her.

Also religion.

Can I Get It?

Otto fans, Rhaenyra fans, Alicent fans, and fans of her children. You get to decide who this is about. It's about wanting to be someone's after everything you've done for them, everything you've been through to be at their side. Counting for someone to put you back together after everything is...

I Drink Wine

Hey alcoholism. Genuinely, this is thee Rhaenicent song of the Album. How can someone become so bounded by the choices somebody else makes? And it just goes down from there.

All Night Parking Interlude

I'm going to say Criston. I think they genuinely found a sense of home together.

Woman Like Me:

Hello episode 1 to 10 Rhaenicent. Hello, Viserys Targaryen. It's basically her saying, "How dare you?" Do you know who I am? What is expected? And slaying.

Hold On

Episode 8 Alicent Hightower, the woman you are.

To Be Loved

Season 2 Alicent. "I will choose to lose it's a sacrifice" and "you have no idea the sacrifices made to put you on that throne." That arc is going to play out so well. I'm geeked. An ode to her conversation with Rhaenys as well.

Love is a Game

The effect of Otto Hightower on women recorded by Adele.

Wild, Wild West

Now, this is such a random part of the album, but I do think it's a part of the charm. Unlike Larys Strong, who I hope burns in hell. Anyways, because big pivotal moments happen to her in different places, let's say rats what this is.

Can't be Together

Rhaenyra and Alicent, the tragedy you are. I'm so sorry I wasn't it westeros to save you from this.

Conclusion

Listen to the album Alicent folk. Listen and see if it's your pick. It's certainly mine.

Next up is her counterpart, Rhaenyra.

[the-lonelyshepherd]

whst r your top 3 fav and least fav yellowjackets characters shep

im gonna do LONG answers bc i want to talk about my sillies

for faves…. i love them all so much it’s actually not funny but for my top #1 yellowjackets character of all time it HAS TO go to my girl Lottie

1. Lottie

she’s insane she’s a cult leader she’s a champion soccer player she has big brown eyes she’s been in multiple odd relationships with various blonde girls she’s a prophet and above all she’s just a girl. 

i’m literally just gonna TOUCH on many topics and not go in depth bc i will actually write a full ass essay. if i haven’t already. 

Shes actually one of my fav characters of all time, not even just yellowjackets. deadass she is SO fascinating, both adult and teen version. unloved by rich parents. schizophrenic (or is it really the wilderness speaking to her??? we don’t know!!!) but hides it until it’s too late. her transformation from sarcastic a little odd but generally kind and cheerful soccer player to borderline mute haunted prophet to years later mysterious but successful wellness center (…cult) leader??? INSANE!!!!! 

her whole religion arc with laura lee??? actually one of the DRIVING forces of EVERYTHIBG i could write an ESSAY on this. insane. her weird one sided rivalry with nat??? INSANE!!! (and lwk homoerotic). her obsession with wilderness baby??? this could be its entire own post

also she like… just wants the best for everyone. she’s been put on a pedestal, marked as an enemy, had her words twisted to excuse HUNTING and EATING someone and then told it was her fault. she also couldn’t stop this because she let someone beat her up to let their anger out. she’s so self sacrificial she’s so overly caring and it ends up hurting herself and everyone and all she’s trying to do is understand things. she can’t be a god but she can be a martyr if they kill her quick enough. she’s MY tragic queen no one gets her like i do. i love her so much. also courtney eaton is really fine. irrelevant.

2. Nat

next up is nat. nat is also like. ohmygoodness. 

first of all the most interesting thing about me for nat HAS to be her dynamics with the group. you could put her with anyone and learn so much about both characters. travis? jackie? misty? lottie? shauna? ben? all of them. it’s a combination of nats insanely interesting character and sophie thatcher’s (sorry juliette lewis but it just wasn’t as impressive for me) INSANE screen presence. she shows so much emotion with just facial expressions and fucking steals every scene she’s in. def a huge contributor in making nat the character she is.

also unlike a lot of the other yjs, nat already has a history with this sort of tragedy. we see in her flashbacks with her dad (i think s1.4?)

this stuff sets her up as immediately apart from the group - not only is she a bit of a social outcast, labeled as an alcoholic, a druggie, a whore etc, but she also already came from a dark place and physically spent a lot of time seperate from the other girls. she spends a lot of time w coach Ben and travis, expanding a lot of their characters and making javis death even more horrible for her. the trauma she has surrounding guns and her father also leads to another really interesting thing - above all, no matter how much she pretends she doesn’t, nat does really fucking care. she cares a lot.

i LOVE this kind of character so much, the kind that pretends to be rlly apathetic but is almost more genuine in their kindness than anyone else. nat just genuinely fuckung cares and she’s been through so much and i rghhhhh. her apology to jackie???? hell even her moments with travis. cutting off his dads finger to get the ring when he couldn’t do it himself. i’m losing it. anyways i have to cut this off bc i need to get to my next girl and i WILL write an essay if i keep going. 

3. Shauna

Shauna fucking shipmannnnnnnn (and by an extent jackie because let’s be frl they are kind of one) let’s go crazy girls. Shauna is honestly terrifying. starting strong!!! but it’s kinda true. she has this like weird underlying sense of something violent about her. she’s always wanted more, she’s always kind of lived in jackie’s shadow wether jackie meant to or not. she had this kind of mindset that’s just SO like obsessive??? i kinda sound like a shauna hater rn this is NOT TRUE 🙅‍♀️🙅‍♀️ she is so compelling it’s insane. 

first off sophie nelisse is incredible. actually incredible. like from the BEGINNING she had me FASCINATED with shauna just with her expressions and rghhhh everythibg. the talent is INSANE. 

and shauna herself is just. so tragic. now you can’t really talk about shauna without talking about jackie. and it’s okay bc i love jackie as well she is my favorite girlloser, resident coldgirl, mislabeled, misjudged queen. et cetera.

and having jackie is such a core part of shauna’s character. when she comes to the wilderness she starts to slip apart a little. rifts form, promises broken and secrets start to slip out. but she still CARES about jackie. she tries so hard to help her do something useful so the other girls don’t turn on her. 

but in the end she was always going to be the one holding the knife. she was always living in jackie’s shadow (at least in her mind) and she had this weird relationship with her where she both villainized and obsessed over her. standard homoerotic highschool girl bestfriendship. i don’t even know where i’m going with this there’s so much i could say. before i end let me rq touch on

wilderness baby and callie. this is also one of the most compelling things to do with shauna. after jackie’s death, shauna is technically on her own. after being so long on begat she perceived as jackie’s shadow, she has, in her mind, autonomy. and things really start to go downhill. first, she’s carrying the baby of her dead best friends boyfriend. which is a situation. but jackie isn’t ever really gone - she’s in shauna she’s in the baby she’s in the meat shed she’s a ghost and eventually she’s a full on fucking meal. so even though she’s dead, she NEVER leaves shauna and shauna is haunted by her forever. normal best friend stuff. but anyways shauna carries wilderness baby to term and loves him so so much and then it turns out he was stillborn. let me emphasize she loved this baby SO FUCKING MUCH. then later as an adult we see her with callie. „i don’t even like my daughter”. the switch up is crazy???? i think i’m running out of room to type fuck but anyways shauna shipman you will always be famous i love you i would write essays on you

okay least faves is actually harder.  beacuse i love them all. i’m gonna say that annoying mustache groomer cop. and like idk who else tbh. nats dad? jackie’s mom??? oooghhh jackie’s mom and dad scene is a whole mother tangent

anyways i hoped you enjoyed me exhibiting symptoms!! thank you for your question idk if you can tell but i love talking about yellowjackets

[anxresi]

Humor me for a moment, as I post about something other than Miraculous.

I've been REALLY looking forward to the Netflix live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The original animated series is arguably one of the most narratively complex, imaginatively structured, ambitiously pioneering shows of it's era... as well as being hella entertaining and funny to boot. Surely, after the unmitigated disaster which was the 2010 movie, they couldn't screw this up...

Oh. Well, it's safe to say, they found a way.

Look. No-one LIKES sexism. Just like no decent person likes any kind of prejudice, whether it be against religion, race, sexuality etc.

But by IGNORING THE SUBJECT entirely in a fictional premise, you end up losing a lot of interesting story possibilities. Like, if Sokka isn't 'sexist' like he was in the first season of the show, what exactly is half his character arc? It was all about accepting women as equals and realising they were capable of doing anything men can do... heck, he even fell in love with a warrior woman!

How DARE they try to keep these 'difficult' topics out of shows be fear they might 'offend' anyone. Even if they're portrayed negatively now, apparently to show any character flaw along these kind of prejudicial lines is seen as a no-go area and the subjects aren't even broached. Even if they develop past these unsavory traits later! It's too much, guys.

To me, this is as bad as those modern historical dramas set in the 19th century or before where they pretend slavery was practically non-existent and women could do whatever they wanted to. WRONG. Insultingly so. You can have all the expensive costumes and period detail you like, but if your production is that anachronistic, than my interest level is 0%.

Basically, if they're not willing to take any risks with the material, this sounds like nothing more than a bland approximation of everything that made the cartoon good. I'll probably give it a miss now thanks, unless someone on here can convince me otherwise.

It's not that I'm DESPERATE to be Sokka be rude to the ladies, it's more what the decision to remove that key element of his personality represents and it's something I feel VERY strongly against as a form of patronising and cowardly bowdlerization.

This post on Reddit sums up my feelings nicely...

That's it. Thanks for reading!! :)

[snekverse]

MCD Tarot deck 0-VII

Here are the first seven cards of my MDC Tarot deck, a project a year in the making!! For times sake and my own sanity, I'll only be doing the major arcana, but expect the next seven (hopefully) soon :)

Introductions + explanations under the cut! and disclaimer: I know VERY LITTLE about tarot, so please take all this with a grain of salt!

Aphmau, the Fool - Among other things, The Fool is representative of new beginnings, opportunity and potential, things Aphmau's character (specifically in MCD) encapsulated. Her newness to the world is a huge part of her character in the beginning of the series, and towards the end as the lore fleshes out it gets reflected in her dynamic with Irene, and being Irene's reincarnation. She is the culmination of the fresh start Irene wanted, and was filled with the potential to be everything she could never be.

Zoey, the Magician - Among other things, The Magician is representative of manifestation, resourcefulness, power, and inspired action. This was somewhat of a hard call on my end, but I think her dedicating the 15 year timeskip to research on how to free Aphmau and co. from the Irene Dimension, and ultimately succeeding even though it would cost her her immortality, aligns with this best. She worked hard and used all her power to change fate, to return her loved ones to their rightful home, which is pretty inspirational if you ask me.

Lucinda, the High Priestess - My note for this one is "I don’t know how to explain how this makes sense to me it just suits her" so there's no real reason for this decision lol. Among other things, The High Priestess is representative of intuition, sacred knowledge, divine feminine, and the subconscious mind. You could argue that MYST Lucinda inhabits some of these, being very comfortable in her femininity and having a strong sense of intuition as well as knowledge most of the cast isn't privy to, however we all know that MYST =/= MCD so do with this information what you will.

Zianna, the Empress - Among other things, The Empress is representative of nature, nurturing, and abundance. This is based somewhat on headcanons, but Zianna is heavily associated with being a kind, doting mother. She loves and nurtures her children, and in MYST we see this kindness applies to others' children as well as her own. Additionally, The Empress when reversed encourages one to make self-love and self-care a priority, something this ever-doting woman desperately needs after devoting all her time and energy to other people's needs for the past several DECADES.

Garte, the Emperor - Among other things, The Emperor is representative of authority and establishment, and when reversed is representative of domination and excessive control. This is based somewhat on headcanons, but Garte more so resembles The Emperor reversed, being a cold and controlling tyrant, both as the leader of a nation and as a father figure. He is a man of strict rules and regulations and tends to abuse the power he holds over people.

Zane, the Hierophant - Among other things, The Hierophant is representative of spiritual wisdom, religious beliefs, conformity, tradition, institutions. Zane canonically is the high priest of a very large and traditional religion, this aspect of The Hierophant is self explanatory. He is literally the head of an institutionalized religion of which he is very knowledgeable about. When reversed, The Hierophant is representative of personal beliefs and freedom. This is based somewhat on headcanons, but I believe Zane's hunt for Irene's Relic/the Divine Relics is a personal goal, and ties into breaking free from the controlling nature of his father, his nation, and his religion: who would dare control you when you become their god?

Donna and Logan, the Lovers - Among other things, The Lovers card is representative of love, harmony, relationships, values alignment and choices. I feel like this one if the most self explanatory, as their entire arc together is about over coming differences, and choosing to love each other in spite of those differences. Y'all remember how freaked out Logan was when he got turned? Specifically about Donna's reaction? And how she chose to love him anyways because this plot point happened before Jess added her werewolf kink to the canon lore? They constantly choose to be happy and they choose to be together, who else could I have picked for this card?

[greentrickster]

I've seen a number of people on my Beloathed and Darling thread go on tangents in the tags where the Villainess and Prince's parents are both bad actually because it turns out the whole system is corrupt/cultish/evil and the kids, by breaking free of it, are actually the good guys. And, I'm gonna be real... I always hide those reblogs. Because 1) I don't want to see them built on (and it's my thread, so I'm allowed) and, more importantly, 2) ...it completely misses the point of the concept.

Yes, the main purpose of Darling and Beloathed is 'aesthetic' and 'cute fun couple,' but, at a slightly deeper look, it's also a story about two people with extremely conflicting world views and moral codes deciding to not only be together, but figuring out how to be together in such a way that neither of them has to truly compromise their beliefs in order to do so. It's about two people, one who is undeniably a good person and the other who is unapologetically evil, deciding to make it work without anything like a redemption arc or the discovery that actually both sides are wrong and they need to find a new, third way to exist. Because if the system itself is evil, then it kind of undermines all the work they've put in to find the pre-existing places of overlap and figure out what parts of their lifestyles they're willing to compromise on to make their partner comfortable without making themselves unhappy.

And that, to me, is a far more interesting concept overall, because it's something we're much more likely to encounter in real life. None of us are ever going to tear down an entire government's worth of systems with the help of love and a couple spunky friends; it's fun to read about, it has its place in literature, but it's not gonna happen. In contrast, there's a very good chance that one day we'll meet a person whom we really like, really enjoy spending time with, but whose views on religion/politics/sports/character ships/whatever are completely at odds with our own, with neither of us willing to change our opinions, no matter how much we like that person in other regards.

And that's when we'll have to decide whether we're just going to stop hanging out, or whether, like the Prince and Villainess, we can find a way to make it work while respecting both ourselves and each other. Sometimes reality isn't about redemption, systemic change, or harsh, gritty truths. Sometimes it's about having the breathtaking courage to acknowledge that a person will never be like you, but being able to love them anyway.

[sniperct]

with xena being from the 90s is there anything specificically dubious or of the time that people should know of ahead of time before going in? ie the similar vein to warning people of tng test of honor and other drek in 90s trek?

hope you dont mind the ask, youre just one of the few people I see around still chatting about xena

some of it is YMMV. the entire show plays fast and loose with all kinds of mythology and magic from not just Greece/Rome but as far away as brittania, norway, china and egypt. (all the gods of each culture seem to exist simultaneously and occasionally interact/chat with each other.) But generally plotlines are one of the following:

Xena's evil past has consequences

Warlord/God acting up and needs to be defeated

A god is being mischievous and needs to be outwitted (aphrodite, cupid, some others are common here)

something silly/over the top/campy

Gabrielle is trying to figure out her life's direction

Xena's Personal Beef with Rome and Caesar in Particular

sometimes multiple or all of the above (see Fish Femmes and Gems)

Up to season 5 on my current rewatch, I'd say The Way is still probably the most culturally insensitive (they actually had to record a PSA on hinduism over it). The two leading up to that didn't seem to get any backlash that I could tell when reading about it. (its a three part story that's super important to the plotline and character development of the show and hammers home the soulmate angle, especially the second one). But I'm no gonna speak for that culture or anything, just what I read on the wiki. But the third part I know enough to feel uncomfortable with it). Ripped from the wiki:

The episode was pulled from syndication after protests from Hindu groups. It was finally allowed to be reshown with the addition of a public service announcement at the very end by Lucy, Renée, as well as a spokesman for the Hindu community explaining that the producers took liberties with the Hindu religion.

In general, jokes and silliness overall tend to land well, especially if you enjoy camp.

While it can be clumsy in some respects overall it handles gender and race pretty well, there's a variety of women of various roles. They had someone in drag at a fashion show episode who (who late IRL came out as trans) that was handled really well. The Amazons are very much sexy but also deep and spiritual.

Casting generally appears to be race blind with regard to heroic roles, evil roles and the more complicated grey area 'seeking redemption' roles and mostly seems to try to cast appropriately on a cultural basis. Like warlord casting seemed to be like 'are you a big guy? you're hired!'

Nothing ever seemed to approach test of honor's level of bad IMO, except maybe The Way.

(I'd argue there's even some meta commentary with regard to centaurs and centaur culture and how its treated)

Its got some of your standard 'guy likes girl, does stupid shit for girl' type stuff but he gets character growth and ultimately he's family. He's the little brother, 'only we can bully him but god help you if you bully him' type of dynamic. Someone hurts our proto-himbo joxer and xena and gabrielle go for the throat. Then ten minutes later are roasting him.

The only episode I really skip is the gross one involving lice and a skin rash(but at least they let the lady heroes be gross, quite frequently in fact). Maybe also skipping the married ...with children parody episode too. The Way could maybe get by with a summary but I wanted to watch it again specifically to see where it fell on the character part. Pretty important to jumpstarting Gabrielle's peace arc.