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ambiguousintentions · 5 months

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4.9.2024 Reflection

Damn. It's been more than a year since I left education and half a year since I ditched my last set of friends (had to; they hurt me bad, and their texts were beginning to trigger anxiety attacks).

Sober for about 3 weeks now for an electrician apprenticeship I applied for. Couldn't do corporate- fuckers wanted to only give me a $1.50/hr raise after I reworked their entire operations system and developed SOPs for them. Making silly YouTube videos in the meanwhile, which is honestly so fun. If only it could be more lucrative though- then I'd truly be living.

Ever since I ditched my friends, I just keep trying to reflect on all the ways I'm shitty. Am I just too sensitive? Was I actually not a good friend? Was I not educated enough? Was I too offensive? Too snobbish? Not proactive enough? What could I have done to make them care about me more?

All of those are probably true to some degree, but it's hard to tell what degree. It's easy to feel like everything's your fault. My fault for getting too upset too easily, for not letting social issues go, for not knowing when to just chill. To be honest, I've kind of stopped trying to make friends. I just feel like I'm wasting everyone's time. Why bother when I know that I'm just 4th choice? I know you're barely enjoying this conversation; I'll release you from it. Sorry.

But today one of my students found the Gen Alpha rant video I made about 3-4 months ago, where I detailed about problems I saw in the education system. When I left education, I left my last high school once fall semester was over; admin had about a month to find a replacement for me, which I thought was reasonable enough time. The student who commented on my video yelled at me for leaving them and asked why I couldn't just suck it up, because they had an apathetic sub for the rest of the year. They said that I shouldn't blame my colleagues (cause I blamed them for playing movies all the time and literally letting the kids literally re-enact squid games instead of actually learning and doing work, which lead to a lot of shitty attitudes and behavior (and of course there were other criticisms but they agreed with those)) since they were probably experiencing the same stress I was experiencing. But they also said that my class was the only class they felt like they learned from.

I feel like crying. I feel strangely validated. Thanks; I didn't know you were actually learning from my class. I'm so happy to hear you learned. You're right though- I am weak. Sorry. I don't know how to fix that. I'm working on it, but I don't know how to do that faster. I don't know what I could possibly do now to fix my mistake of leaving. Am I your deadbeat dad???

I do that often I think. Sometimes people want to get to know me, but I've already decided we've got nothing in common. I don't want to bore them, and I wouldn't want them to bore me. So I give up before I give it an honest effort.

But it just has me thinking... how many times has this probably happened? I leave because I'm failing when in reality I'm not??? I leave because I feel myself getting increasingly bitter and frustrated and know that if I stay in that same place for too long, I'm going to blow up and do or say something I'll regret. It's just... it takes me so long to reflect on things. To figure out how I feel. I mean, fuck, I'm finally at a place where I feel like I COULD potentially have a conversation with one of my old friends without having an anxiety attack, but it's been 6 fucking months.

I feel like a mess. I've been repeatedly transforming myself for the last decade. I looked back on my posts from years ago, and I can't help but feel like I still harbor the same underlying issues. I feel like the wisdom I've gained over the years has helped me control the damage a bit better yet at the same time the collective damage is breaking me. I wonder when I'll be done transforming and finally settle into the form I've made for myself.

And yet. At the same time... when I look back at those posts... and see how upset I was ten years ago- similar to how upset I was in the past year-

I can't help but laugh and smile at the journey I've been on. Such a winding and long journey only to end up in the same psychological spot but in a different physical setting. Did I truly go anywhere? Is the whole point to do another cycle just so you can laugh all over again about the convoluted way you took just to arrive back in your haunted home of a body?

#personal #different day same shit i suppose #like... what happens to adults like me yknow?

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septembersghost · 1 year

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Sometimes it feels like people like to pat themselves on the back for dissing Elvis because it’s the cool thing to do

I’m the anon who deleted TikTok btw. I was tired of the same repetitive comments about Elvis and decided finally to delete that annoying app LOL.

i'm not sure what you saw on the clock app, though can guess it was probably the same stuff that's said on twt, but any reason you feel to get rid of that app, or anything that's stressing you out!, is a good/valid one.

when it comes to e, between misinformation, misunderstandings, and decades' worth of caricatures and this almost prideful disdain towards him - the origin of which i can't quite figure out? - he's been an easily mockable and reduced figure. like even beyond, idk, judgment of his struggles and addictions and health, or the massive volume of tabloid accounts, or the cardboard camp of impersonators, or the feeling some seem to have that he was too excessive or gauche, or define him by vegas as a kind of sideshow, there are some, i've come to find, that outright reject the idea he was in any way a serious artist. the article i read recently...basically posited he wasted his entire life and talent, in a way that was so cruel and dismissive of everything he ever did after sun records. things i can't even fathom saying about a person. ("success corroded and finally destroyed a budding talent who might have achieved so much more than just celebrity. He might have been an artist...by 1958, when he was inducted into the U.S. Army, his beauty and his creativity were behind him. A few brief echoing rays of the glory that had been might suddenly shine through, yet the sun had all but set." seriously? he was 23 years old in 1958! it's a complete erasure of nearly half his life. and it's particularly jarring as some of what's said in that piece is astute and well-written, yet some of the rest of it...i refuse to even quote.) he created so much wonderful music later, but it routinely gets ignored. (plus he wasn't a songwriter, as if that invalidates his astonishing musicality and gift of interpretation and arrangement). the movies, and critical view of them due to what they are, unfortunately do not help. this embarrassment surrounding him, the sense that his talent was squandered and his legacy tarnished, mixed with misperceptions of his character, is so ingrained in the pop cultural zeitgeist that there are always going to be people set to take him down a peg or deride him or shake their heads rather than lend any sympathy for how and why things unfolded as they did.

that video analysis i shared about the film mentioned him as this sort of quintessential american tragedy, the hollowness of the dream gone wrong, even though he was still trying so hard up to the end, still sharing that love with his audience, and i think sometimes we're uncomfortable looking at tragedy and illness and exploitation, so it's easier to ridicule or blame or turn into a joke. i also think his sincerity and emotion as a performer, the movement that came to him naturally that he couldn't switch off, the unique ways he utilized the power of his voice, read as, for lack of a better word, cringeworthy, to many, because society at large struggles with raw expression. a combination of factors thus make him an easy target. he's that halloween costume, spangles on a jumpsuit and what they erroneously view as shlocky music, or he's the worst perpetuated things, but never real, never explored or offered understanding. it's lousy and disheartening, but it unfortunately is what it is. (i can imagine only a fraction of why this stuff used to upset lisa marie the way it did.) i don't require people to be perfect to care about or be touched by them. human beings are not saints. he was flawed, he had a temper, he certainly misstepped, he made choices along the way that proved to be destructive. he was also generous and gracious and forgiving and compassionate, kind in a way that embraced people and made them feel seen and like they belonged, in a way that's still radiant in recollections, and in what we find in ourselves too.

catherine martin recently said, "elvis is a humanist. he believed in people and kindness and connection, and i think he wanted to use music to bring people together." he'd say, "i'm just a singer. i'm nobody special. do you think they'll remember me?" he always marveled that people came to see him, and held fast to that idea that the happiness and love in that connection of the music was worth something. as my friend wrote to me, there's a lot of dreck out there, but it's boring. there's no fire there, no passion. without the fire and passion you can't even get elvis at all. meanwhile, here we are, nearly fifty years later, on technology that didn't even exist while he lived, still finding reason to remember him, to wax poetic about him, to connect to him and to one another, to find that same joy and solace in the music. i have to believe that matters so much more. some of this other stuff is just useless clatter, you know? there's music and there's noise. i'll choose the music every time.

#anonymous #letterbox #elvis presley #i was a dreamer

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yrbutchgf · 3 years

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hey, i'm feeling a bit insecure in my identity rn and i was wondering if you have any... tips, or anything like that. i'm a lesbian who feels more comfortable in a masc role, and i think i would identify as butch... but i feel like i'm too emotional. i cry SO often. my mental health has been less than stellar for the last 10 years or so lol, so that plays a part, but i'm also just a crier. things that make me cry: criticism, heated discussions, presentations, movie/game/book endings, all music with violins, some music without violins, christmas commercials, those miniature food clay charms... literally everything. and it's always in public too, which is embarrassing enough as it is. and i know that doesn't have to mean anything for my gender identity, but the whole "boys/men don't cry" thing kind of did a number on me lol. i always feel like a little girl when others watch me cry, even though i want to be the protector. sorry for rambling, but i feel like you always have good takes on butchness and stuff like that, so i was wondering if you have any tips on feeling more secure in my butch/masc side :)

ok before i say anything else, thank you, i’m honestly really flattered you think that highly of my takes lol <3 i do try my best, i’m glad i’m able to help people to whatever extent i do with my posts. also, bit of a length warning -- i always set out with the intention of writing succinct responses to asks, but it always gets away from me, and this time "getting away from me" meant "turning into a manifesto." well, oops. c'est la butch/femme.

now to start this answer off: i definitely relate. i’m also pretty emotional. when i get stressed i get really shaky, especially in my hands, and then after that my body turns on the waterworks. i also have a fairly exuberant personality in general, and i'm very expressive with my hands & body language. the only times i’ve ever really fit the stoic archetype have been on accident, usually when i’ve felt uncomfortable in a social situation and it’s come off as strong silence. at the same time, i also don’t like when people see me cry or be emotional in general, especially in public. it makes me feel vulnerable in a way that i don’t like to give most people, and the fact that i can’t fully control when or if i do is uncomfortable. and i think disliking that feeling is totally normal, or at the very least it’s a common boundary to have. regardless of sexuality, gender, or presentation, there’s a social urge to cover up when we’re feeling our feelings, but even beyond that there is, i think, a reflexive, self-preservation level urge to cover up what can be easily damaged. so to an extent, i think it’s natural to shy away from vulnerability.

at the same time, the urge to push down one’s tears is not necessarily a HEALTHY urge, only a COMMON one, because you’re right: emotionality has no bearing on your gender or what roles you can take up. some of my best butch and masc friends are also extremely emotional people, and they’re very open about it, and in a lot of ways that openness almost feels to me more masculine or more butch, because they’re embracing their feelings, and that’s obviously a really hard thing to learn to do, so it’s powerful, admirable, and also to be honest, it’s attractive! the ability of someone to be brave enough to be vulnerable can in many situations make the people around them feel more at ease, and i think it can become a very steady, very stabilizing sort of masculinity. in other words, someone who is very comfortable in their tears is also very good and healing to be around. so i think in a lot of ways, when you learn to own your emotions rather than push them away, that can very easily augment your butchness rather than take away from it.

now obviously everyone views butch/femme differently, whether as genders/sexuality labels/dynamics/what have you, but for me no matter what at the center of these terms there is always this nexus, this core focus, of care. in the dynamic, butch/femme is about butches & femmes caring for one another in complementary ways both in- and out-side of romantic relationships. so when we talk about butchness standalone, you and many other people reach for words like “protector,” and i don’t think there’s anything necessarily wrong with that, i think protection can and often is a key role, but my point here is, where is that urge to protect coming from? it’s from love, from caring about the people you love. and i think it’s important to remember that and to frame it that way, because when you do, it becomes pretty simple: your emotionalism is more than anything a sign of that urge to care/protect/provide in you, or a driving force to those urges, however you want to frame it. far from taking away from your butchness, your emotions are at the very foundation of what it can be. i talked about this in the butch/femme server a bit, and thren @lesbiandaemon said it perfectly:

i genuinely think i (and many others!) would feel so much safety and security being w someone who allows themself to be vulnerable and earnest abt their emotions and it definitely augments butchness, from my perspective as a femme. i envy and care deeply for the butch whose emotions and vulnerability are on display, there's a strength in that imo, even if you've been made to feel self conscious and dysphoric and "less than" bc of that. i think of phrases like "the strength to remain tender", "the violence it took to be this gentle" in the lens of trauma but if that applies and you're ok w it, i think it could also apply here too [...]

whether ppl know it or not, sometimes the way one carries themselves can be projected onto others; there's already an example in how anon mentions the "big boys/men don't cry" thing, vulnerability being shut out and dismissed/disparaged isn't going to make anyone more eager/open abt their emotions. and like, going back to the butch/femme dynamic, it does feel so much more stable and steady if someone has the courage to acknowledge and let themselves feel their emotions, it's very welcoming and validating, knowing that someone can have a strong image and show their tenderness, knowing that you're safe and free from mockery/scorn to do the same when someone protective of you knows how it feels and will care for you because they feel touched to their core and have let you know in more than one way.

and i want to add an important caveat here: obviously not everyone who cares very deeply is going to be outwardly emotional or show it in the same ways. that’s true for all kinds of reasons. i think a lot of the stoicism we see in traditional depictions of butches can come from how people relate emotions to masculinity (that is to say, how people view masculinity as inherently based around a distance from one’s “softer” side), but also, honestly, i think this may also have roots in the historical coping mechanisms that a lot of butches took on in the face of a world that was unkind to them.

in stone butch blues, for example, there’s a lot of talk about this idea of “hard” versus “soft,” or “going stone,” especially when jess is first getting into the bar scene and she’s still fresh-faced to violence. and going stone in this context isn’t just about sexuality, it's also about how so many butches learned to stop letting people in even at a basic emotional level. for them, hardening up was an inevitability of circumstance, not an inherent facet of their personality or a building block of butch identity. i’m sure plenty of old-school butches would be glad to know it’s no longer inevitable or necessary for a butch to close themselves off completely in order to survive.

of course there are also plenty of butches who are just naturally reserved with their emotions, and that’s also fine -- that doesn’t mean they don’t feel things, or that they don’t care. they care -- all of us do! some of us showing it more or less than others doesn’t reflect badly on any of us, whether we’re of a more stoic or a more open variety. but some of us really can’t help showing it, and that’s okay. that’s just how the love spills out. the right person won’t see that as weakness or a crack in the fine china of your masculinity or whatever, they’ll see it as a lovely and endearing part of your whole and warming butchness. so embrace your emotions. do your best to honor the role they play in butch/femmeness. try to love your emotions, or at the very least not to be afraid of them. and remember: you are strong. your tenderness will not destroy you. in fact, it’s what built you to begin with.

#asks #anonymous #butch/femme #butch tag #butch #femme #lesbiandaemon #sorry if you were looking for a more down-to-earth sort of list of tips but i have a lot of feelings about feelings LOL #also thank you again thren for letting me quote you! having a femme's perspective in there i think really enriches this and also you just.#put it so well ik i said this yesterday but it really was beautifully put

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evertriedsoywithyourpopcorn · 3 years

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5 Reasons Roman Is Infuriating (And Why I DO NOT have a crush on him)

(Logince with a bit of denying and pining) Read on AO3

My first fic, based on my Logince drawing (If someone ever wants to make anything based on my art, feel free to ask. Making content is hard and people fleshing out concepts is always fun.) Word count: 3641

Tw: Cursing, Food mention, Balloon popping, Remus being his authentic self

Character’s: Remus, Virgil, Janus, Logan, Roman (At the end), Patton (Mainly implied)

~~~

He had everything ready.

"Ahem."

Three heads turn to look at him.

"Logan, I really don't understand why you're doing this. You know I'm literally the Lord of the Lies, right? I can tell when you're lying."

"Falsehood. I am here specifically to prove to you three, the ones that have doubted me the most, what I think of Roman, so that you'll stop teasing me about emotions that aren't even there." Logan says, standing in front of a long classroom table. Virgil, Janus and Remus sit there, each maintaining their own postures and looking at him with disbelieving expressions.

"Logan, we can see your heart boner from here. You really think you can convince us with a slideshow presentation?" Remus picks his teeth, seemingly bored of the idea.

"That's exactly what I'm doing- What? Why would my heart have a boner? It doesn't have the proper parts to do that-" Logan looks lost, clutching the presentation button in his hand.

"It's an expression, Pocket Protector. It means you've got feelings for him." Virgil sighs.

Logan squints at him. "Of course I have feelings for him." Logan looks behind him, to the SmartBoard behind him. The board turns on, displaying the presentation title. "And those feelings are feelings of irritation. My name is Logan Sanders, and welcome to my Ted Talk."

There is a collective sigh from the others.

Logan takes a pointer stick (the one with the little hand on one side) from a holder on the wall, and points at the words on the screen. "This is 5 reasons why Roman is infuriating. And unlike your cognitive distortions may suggest, I DO NOT have a crush on him." He gestures with the stick where the same thing is written. "So, let's begin."

~~~

1. He likes to insist that he's the most handsome side, despite us all looking like Thomas.

It's ridiculous. All of their traits are reminiscent of Thomas's.

There are some mild changes they go through when they aren't summoned, but they are just slight shifts. For example, Janus and Remus both have different long hairstyles, and they all have a bit of a hair color change. Their features do shift too, emulating ones Thomas has seen over his lifetime that he'd associate with their personalities.

However, in person and in the mindscape, Roman really thinks 'he's the sh*t' (Virgil taught him that expression). He flaunts his beauty over everyone else's, strutting like the prettiest peacock in the flock. Sure, he's good looking, but the same level of good looking as all the other sides.

"You're all so handsome. But not as handsome as me." Logan recalls him saying in an episode.

He tries to use it to one-up the other's, even though they all know they look the same. He also enjoys flaunting his ego, attempting to emulate a lifestyle of the rich and famous when he feels like it.

It's rather ridiculous.

"You think he's good-looking?" Remus coos.

Logan glares, and changes the slide of the presentation.

2. He fights everyone all the time. (Except for Patton)

It seems that Roman has made the most rivals out of everyone.

He's rivals with his brother, he's got a rivalry with Janus but with more betrayal behind it, he's got his past rivalry with Virgil, even though now they're the closest friends, and despite making up several times, Logan is also his rival. Patton seems to be fine, despite their post-wedding event. Logan believes Roman is too worried of defending what he believes in against the literal embodiment of Thomas's morality.

"So, you two have tried making up, but have you considered... Making out???" Remus pitches, his smile all teeth.

Logan sputters a bit. "Puh- Wha- I don't think that would work."

Logan has in fact not thought of making out with Roman, thank you very much. Not even when they're so close, passionately arguing about who-knows-what in the spur of the moment, where it would be so easy to move just a little bit closer and connect his lips to the soft pink ones of the prince.

He has not thought about making out with Roman, because he does not have a crush on him. Period. End of story.

The two of them argue a lot. Whether it's how Thomas should spend his day, to the Chicken or the Egg dilemma (Logan knows he's right, by the way, Roman just won't see that the egg came first), to the ideal temperature for a heating pillow, to the best Crofter's flavor. They can range from productive, to stupid, and by the end of it they may just be fighting about nothing at all.

They jab at each other, come up with clever arguments, and although they're technically fighting, it sometimes feels more like a duel.

"Or a mating ritual." Virgil says under his breath.

"These points don't sound very negative." Janus adds, twirling some of his hair with his finger.

"It is negative. We fight a lot. He fights people a lot. Every issue seems to be a battle to him that he can outmatch, despite being better suited as a civil discussion." Logan stands taller, trying to defend his point.

"Well, that makes sense. I understand this point now. Go on." Janus waves his gloved hand in a dismissive gesture.

"Alright." Logan clicks his presenter button, and the slide changes.

3. He's loud. Super loud. All the time.

From singing to dancing to bantering, there never does seem to be a dull moment when Roman is around. Some may call it nice, but Logan would say that's a very polite description. It certainly isn't nice when Logan's trying to get work done, or watch a movie, or enjoy a peaceful breakfast, or most of the time really.

Logan has stopped working outside when he's trying to be productive because Roman will, without fail, come in singing, and then start a little fight with Logan that distracts him from his work and renders him unproductive for a long time because all he can think about is Roman.

"Hm... Wonder why that is." Janus interrupts, rolling his eyes.

"Well, you don't need to wonder. I said it was because of our fighting." Logan nervously adjusts his already immaculately placed glasses, resuming his point to his slide presentation.

It's odd, because sometimes even without leaving his room, he can still hear the sounds of Roman's voice in his head. He theorizes the absence of all that noise is making him subconsciously fill it in ( even though his mind also provides him with clear images of Roman's smile).

He can't escape the noise on movie nights. Roman will sing along to any song, scream at the most poorly-timed jumpscares, and no matter what, criticize the movie. Logan does participate in that last step from time to time.

During dinners, it depends. Sometimes, Roman will come in and do his thing, sometimes he'll make a dramatic entrance, grab a plate and then go off to work on something, and sometimes he won't show up at all, off on a quest in the imagination. Those particular meals are peaceful. Sometimes they feel empty, but so far, no one else has complained. Especially considering with Remus' and Janus' seats added to the table, dinner can be a wild event.

Sometimes, when Logan gets lonely, he'll bring his work outside. Every time, he can guarantee that Roman will be there eventually. He provides a healthy distraction, and he always feels much lighter after a bantering session.

But most of the time, he just can't stand it. How can one be so flamboyant for so many hours of the day? Logan had theorized it had something to do with overcompensation, his need for validation and attention, but then thought it was strange theorizing about his friends and went back to work.

Overall, not the worst trait, but it being applied to every scenario adds to the fact that he is infuriating.

"Hold on, can we circle back to the part where you said you thought of him smiling-" Virgil begins, only to be interrupted by Logan pointing his pointer at him.

"No, we will not. Next point."

4. He makes up stupid nicknames.

And he makes a lot of them. Even during serious talks, you'd think he had forgotten your name and was too scared to ask, so he supplies an abundance of back-ups to make you feel special. And they are quite varied, though all slightly jabbing. There are play-on-words, references thrown about... It would have impressed Logan, had all of his designated nicknames not revolved around him being a nerd.

"Hey Microsoft Turd."

"I need your help, Egghead."

"Listen here, Erlenmeyer Trash-"

"Calculator Watch."

"Oh Book Geeeerm~"

"Sure thing Specs."

Logan actually didn't mind specs, but his point still stands. All insulting, clever, but still stupid nicknames. Sometimes, he wonders if Roman keeps a book of them around. Somewhere in his room, filled with all the names he'll unleash onto his unsuspecting companions. Logan may have tried to come up with a list of his own in retaliation, but he couldn't think of anything Roman would think was clever. He spent almost a full night on it, hair a mess, glasses askew, head resting on his desk as he tried to come up with something at least remotely good enough. It interrupted his perfect circadian rhythm. Never again.

Except for the next night, where he tried the exact same stunt again, but that doesn't matter.

What does, is that all of those factors cause aggravation. He always feels weird when Roman gives him a nickname, varying from annoyance to a strange tingling.

"Are you saying he should stop?" Virgil interrupts, frustrated. "This point is going nowhere."

"I-" He's not sure. Although some of the insults are quite jabbing, Logan does want to support Roman's creative process. Not to mention, the nickname ‘specs’ oddly does hold a place in his heart.

"OoOoOoohhh, I have an idea!" Remus cackles. Although Logan is hesitant, he gestures to continue. "Okay, so pinky swear I won't try anything on you, but just close your eyes, and imagine how this nickname would make you feel if Roman said it."

Logan apprehensively closes his eyes, and Remus does nothing but lean slightly forward in his seat, and puts on his best Roman impression. Which is pretty good, considering they're twin brothers.

"How are you today, my love?"

Immediately, Logan flushes bright red from head to toe, covering his face in his hands and squirms. Remus's cackling intensifies by a tenfold, and the other two are poorly failing to contain their laughter.

"That's- That's- That's... N-not a nickname. Th-That's a p-pet name."

"Awww, but you're blushiiiing!" Remus squeals in amusement.

"Falsehood. N-no." Logan says, not enough bite in it to hold value. "We are going to move on now. That just... caught me off guard." He says, adjusting his tie several times, trying to compose himself. "The point is, his nicknames are stupid, and I don't like them- No, don't look at me like that Remus even that one- so it adds to his infuriating nature." Logan grabs the presentation button and clicks it aggressively to the next slide.

"And now, for my concluding point."

5. He is incredibly and willingly dumb.

Sometimes Logan thinks he wouldn't be surprised by the illogical things Roman would say. And then he gets proven incredibly wrong.

"Much like your... 'illogical feelings', mayhaps?" Janus drawls.

Shush, Logan is talking.

Granted, both Creativity twins have proven to be rather illogical, as they are embodiments of creativity, a force that knows only slight bounds to logic. Only with a defying mind can people push boundaries in the advancement of society. That doesn't mean however that those defying minds need to be intelligent.

"I believe Virgil specifically had called Roman a.." He takes out his special cards, flipping through them. " 'A Himbo'. Judging from his past and present behaviors and from the definition itself, it is safe to assume that yes, he is in fact a Himbo."

One instance he can remember is during a picnic in the imagination. It was Patton's birthday, and Roman wanted to do something special, so he set up a picnic for them all to attend. Logan doesn't enjoy visiting the imagination as much, as when he's there, things become more realistic and that makes him feel like a burden. Regardless, it was for Patton's birthday, and so he decided it would be polite to come along.

Everyone was guided by a trail of flowers to an opening in the forest, where a giant picnic blanket was laid out, pillows thrown around, and a large picnic basket stood in the center. There were many balloons of pastel pink and blue tied around, and the birds were chirping in a joint melody. It sounds almost like Happy Birthday.

Logan, as he approaches, hopes that his influence won't cause ants to emerge, because although that would be realistic, it would also be quite the nuisance.

He and the other's are just dressed in their usual attire, but as Roman emerges from the trees, he is wearing a shiny red party hat to go along with his prince outfit.

Roman immediately goes to serenading Patton and placing a party hat on top of his head, light blue with a little pompom on the top. He ushers him to sit on one of the largest pillows, and then goes around giving everyone else party hats. Logan stills when Roman gets to him last, a dark blue party hat with little stars in his hand.

"Do I have to wear that?" He asks. Although, sure, it does look nice, he doesn't want to seem ridiculous.

"Come on, you're in good company. Please? For Patton?" Roman bats his eyelashes at Logan, who sighs and lets him put the party hat onto his head.

Roman runs off to the birthday boy, and they all sit down. The time passes peacefully, songs being sung and Roman releasing a horde of puppies to the joy of the guests. By the time the food is out, everything seems to be going well, until they're all eating, and Roman pulls out an orange. As he's about to peel it, Logan speaks up.

"Roman, I would advise against that." Which may sound ridiculous to most people, but Logan is an expert on many logical things. ( Orange peels have a flammable liquid in them called limonene, and as both it and a balloon, made of latex, are non-polar, the liquid can dissolve the balloon, thus causing it to explode.)

"Against what?" Roman asks, but he does stop his attempt.

Logan adjusts his glasses, ready to explain. "Eating an orange near a balloon. As I cause the imagination to become more logical, doing so will most likely cause-"

"Oh puh-lease! I'm sure whatever wacky science things you're going to say don't actually work here! I mean, there is plenty of influence to go arou-" Roman, the spiteful side he is, gets even closer to the balloon, starting to peel it. Lo-and-behold, he can't finish his denying before the balloon right beside him explodes with a loud POP. The sound sends him jumping back in fear, screeching to the nine hells, and then falling backwards onto another balloon, scaring him again. Several sides laughed out loud at his pain, while Patton watched him, worried. Logan smiled internally at the karma, before getting up and making sure he was okay.

Roman did spend the rest of the party in a sulky mood, but the party was still a huge success. They had some good food, and while Logan made Patton a flower crown, he fed him forfulls of cake. It was a nice bonding moment. When everyone separated to return to the mindscape, Roman waved them all off from the imagination door. Logan turns back to look at him, but Roman makes no move to follow them all out.

"You're not coming back yet?" Logan asks, adjusting his glasses.

Roman sighs. "No, not yet. I'm afraid this dashing prince has a little bit of cleaning to do. And perhaps an adventure. You never know." He leans on the doorframe, smiling.

"Well, that is correct. I in fact do not know what you'll be doing." Logan nods to himself. "Do you need any help cleaning? I doubt I'll be much help with the adventure, but I do have hands." He gestures to his hands.

Roman looks quite surprised. "Oh, thanks for the offer, specs. I think I've got it all covered though."

Logan offers a hesitant smile. "Alright then. Let me know if that changes."

Roman quickly smiles back, a faint pink dusting his cheeks, and turns back into the imagination and shutting the door. Logan stands there for a moment, but not sure why. It's clear that Roman was not feeling all that great from the balloon moment. Even Logan, terrible at deciphering emotions, can tell that much. Perhaps he needs to let off some steam.

He just can't understand Roman most of the time. They do have so many similarities, being too proud for their own good, but it's almost like they're in two separate worlds. Logan, the learner he is, wishes he could explore Roman's own. Understand it. Understand him, and his way of thinking. Even though Roman is mostly dumb, he does make good points, and Logan tries to prioritize his input, as it's usually what Thomas is hoping and dreaming for as well.

~~~

The last slide shines back at them all. A concluding statement that makes the three watching sides snicker a little bit.

"And I believe he just doesn't understand how much we all think he's great. I swear, he's just so dense! It's so aggravating! How can he not tell that he's worth everything? Why doesn't he understand that we all care for him? That I care for him? He's wonderful, for god's sake! And that I don't mean to hurt him with my critiques. I want him to thrive! I-"

Everything stops. Logan takes a moment of silence. The three sides look at him, each with different degrees of anticipation. One looks pretty much ready to pounce out of his seat.

"...Oh."

And all at once, everything gets strung back into motion. Confetti literally falls from the ceiling as Remus jumps for joy, circling a very mortified looking Logan. Janus, the tired soul, rolls his eyes and lets out a slow, long clap. Virgil just rests his head in his arms.

"I can't believe this. You sit us all down for a presentation you probably double-checked and proofread, like a nerd, and only NOW you realize you were wrong all along? Why didn't you say anything, snake-face?" Virgil complains, sitting up just to glare at him.

"Wo-ow, it isn't as if I was saying that this whole time? No, it couldn't be." Janus deadpans, sarcasm spilling from his mouth like an old, worn, broken dam.

Logan doesn't move from his stand-still spot beside the projector, but Remus manages to bounce in circles around him, cooing. "Lo-lo's got a cruuuush! A crushy crush! A crushed crust of a crush! A crevice cracking ‘cause of the crushed crust-" He was going to continue, throwing expired banana peels around to substitute rose petals, until the sound of the door opening catches everyone's attention.

"Hey losers, Patton wanted to know if you-" Lo and behold, Roman walks in, regal as ever, smiling until he takes in the sight before him. The boring classroom look, contrasted by the amount of confetti that stopped falling as soon as he walked in. Janus and Virgil, wide-eyed and looking at him, completely still. Remus, caught mid dance, frozen in place with a smile. Logan, looking at him in the way one may look milliseconds after being caught stealing government secrets. Roman's eyes flicker to each of them, before settling on the projector.

"Roman. I-I can explain-" Logan starts, but Roman is already reading the words on the screen.

"... 'In short, he saddles me with unnecessary... feelings'? 'Unease, and uncertainty'? Who... Oh my god! Logan!" Roman looks at him, smiling in disbelief and amazement. "I know what this meanssss!" Filled with giddy delight, he sidesteps the table.

Logan gulps as Roman approaches, turning beet red as Roman takes his hands in his two own. "Y-Yes?" He practically squeaks as Roman looks him right in the eyes.

"Yes! Ohhh, this is so exciting!" The three bystanders watch, once again in anticipation, as Roman swings their interlocked hands.

"Yes?" Logan offers a small, tentative smile.

"You have a crush on someoooone! Oh Logan, you should've told me!" Roman smiles, completely oblivious to the internal facepalm of several present members.

"I-I'm sorry..." Logan looks down, slightly disappointed but still too flustered to say anything.

"God save the dense." Janus mutters, inspecting his gloves fingers.

"Don't be sorry! Come, we must make plans! I shall be your matchmaker! This is going to be perfeeeect!" Roman, sings, dancing out of the room and dragging Logan along by their still intertwined hands. The other sides watch them go.

After a moment of processing, Virgil sighs. "Well, I thought that was going to be resolved. Turns out they're both as dense as... dense people." He can't seem to think of any other similes.

"Welp, I'm just happy that they're one step closer to getting. it. on. romantically." Remus punctuates every word with some rather immature hand gestures. “And that they stop dancing around each other.”

"Who do you think Roman thinks Logan has a crush on?" Virgil asks, cogs turning in his brain.

Janus lounges backwards. "Well, let's see... Soooo many options. Either he thinks it's someone outside of Thomas's head, or the simple answer..."

Remus and Virgil both look at him, both with looks of realization.

"Patton."

~~~

#logince #logince fic #logan sanders #ts logan #remus sanders #janus sanders #virgil sanders #roman sanders #ts roman #implied patton sanders #tw food #oliver writes #i also snuck an ace attorney reference #i was going to wait but i'm just very excited to post this #5 Reasons fic

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gffa · 3 years

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I know I've brought this up before, but how much of the fandom reception of the prequels do you think stemmed from the genre dissonance? That the prequels, genre-wise, are closer to high fantasy, while the OT is more an adventure/space western/underdog triumph story.

The prequels also have elements more reminiscent of a romantic period/court drama/Shakespearean tragedy, while if you consider the underdog angle of the OT, the OT also seems kinda similar to some of those inspirational movies about sports teams or something, or a shonen anime with the "Power of Friendship".

I'm just saying, these are rather disparate genres that tend to attract different demographics of people.

And not many people tend to be... great about understanding why they don't like something, much less putting it into words, or understanding that they can dislike something without that something being actually bad. (For example, instead of "I just don't really like [thing]," the usual statement is something along the lines of "[thing] absolutely sucks.")

So the usual response is trying to find (and gather) solidarity while putting down or being condescending towards any dissent, and trying to justify their own dislike. (*gestures vaguely towards pineapple on pizza*)

And historically, it's not uncommon for people to... react strongly towards things they find... different or abnormal, which they judge based on themselves, their emotional response to something, and what they're used to.

Looking at kids, this behavior is... fairly normal. "You're weird," "ew, why do you like that, that's gross," "that's stupid," and so on. A lot of kids/teens/young adults also get defensive really easily. And let's face it--adults are basically just older, taller kids who've had to deal with more of life.

(To be honest, I also get defensive really easily. A lot of people do, and it's... it's normal. The defensive reaction can be lashing out, denial, or just being passive-aggressive or staying silent and tuning it out or mentally rolling your eyes at it. But I'm trying to work on it, because just because it's normal doesn't mean it's a good reaction.)

So, what I'm wondering is whether some fans dislike the prequels simply because it's a different genre...

...but instead of realizing that, they try to defend and justify their dislike by pointing fingers and criticizing whatever stood out or looked different from the OT or cherry-picking details/taking things out of context or making negative conflations (that can be refuted).

Because it's not about logic, it's about how they feel. And people want to feel justified and validated, and we want to feel like we're right and we enjoy staying in our comfort zones. So... yeah. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

LOL, okay, this response is going to be really disjointed because I went off in like a dozen different tangents and even then it's not enough to cover everything, so just kind of read this in a Scattered Thoughts Nerd kind of tone, where I'm staring off into the distance because Navel Gazing Gets Me Going Sometimes. 😂 In my experience, it's sort of a mix. I don't hang around a lot of people who dislike the prequels (in the sense of dismissing them/not being fannish about them) because, well, that's the heart of my interest in Star Wars, so our areas of interest basically don't really overlap that much, so I don't have a chance to talk to a lot of people and find out their reasons or even how they dislike the prequels, in the bigger trends of fandom. I do think there's an element of what you're talking about, that sometimes people can't just dislike things because it's not their genre of choice, that's absolutely a part of it. Mostly because that's how a lot of people react to anything they don't like (and it's something I and literally everyone else has to work on), there has to be a reason for it that it's objectively bad and, like, I have experienced a lot of people getting mad because I like something in a different way than they do. And I don't mean just in Star Wars fandom, but in almost any given fandom--if someone likes something in a way someone else doesn't, if they talk loudly about it (even within their own space), then there's always a contingent of people who have to find a reason why that person is objectively wrong (or even try to make them morally wrong), rather than just shrugging and going, "We see things differently, my view on things doesn't overwrite theirs and their view on things doesn't overwrite mine." It gets more complicated in instances where fandom attitudes genuinely can be hurtful, especially when they're overlapping into the way real people are treated, likes/dislikes don't 100% exist in a bubble, especially when it comes to queer fans, fans of color, disabled fans, mentally ill fans, etc. But that there are a lot of instances where fandom culture has always been--and is increasingly so--contentious and it's hard to chill out when someone is always screaming at you, when the atmosphere of the fandom is always so intense. Further, there's also an element of how fandom has always been--and also is increasingly so--about personal resonance, personal emotional investment, interpretation, and meaning. That sometimes we identify with something so deeply that we feel attacked when someone else likes or dislikes something we feel so strongly about, something that we feel is a reflection of ourselves, and I see a lot of that as well. And this, too, often crosses over into lines of how the context of how we treat characters can be reflections of how we treat real world people, but that there's no monolith here as well. For example: I make fun of Anakin, this angers some people, because how dare I not take this fictional victim 100% seriously, despite that I have repeatedly said that Anakin is the character I most identify with, that things I make fun of him for are ones that I resonate with personally. I'm not disrespecting mentally ill people, especially considering that Anakin is not bound to a single interpretation on this front--he is not canonically mentally ill, no matter how easy it is for us in fandom to map much of that onto his character or, in my case, feel that so much of what I see in him are things I struggle with myself. By and large, the majority of the people I see (at least on tumblr) who make fun of Anakin are doing so within the same vein, that they're being silly about him on things that they personally relate to. (My experiences on this are not universal, I cannot speak for the whole of even any one part of fandom, only my own sphere of experience, but this is what I've seen.) As always, it's fine if someone doesn't vibe with my style or they find that it's not their thing because they do take him more seriously, but that preference does not make my jokes

suddenly not have the context that I relate a lot to what I see in Anakin. In contrast, the way some of the fandom treats Mace or Finn isn't just personal all the time. Not liking their characters isn't inherently racist, but the way they're consistently, consistently treated sure as hell speaks to a larger pattern of racism in fandom and doesn't come without that context. It's the same with Rey--is there a huge vein of misogyny when it comes to her character? Abso-fucking-lutely there is. Things Luke and Anakin get a pass on, Rey is raked over the coals for. Is everyone who dislikes Rey a misogynist? Not even close. Some don't like her because Finn was used as a prop for her story. Some people don't like her because she got sucked into Kylo Ren's story too much. Some just don't care for the way she was written for other reasons. Some just don't vibe with her. It's fine. Nothing is a monolith. And to circle this back around to what you're talking about--it's hard to judge, both because no part of fandom is a monolith in their reactions, but also because we're only hearing from a selection of the fans. How do you know how many people who aren't fans of the prequels, who just don't care for them because it's not their genre, but just go about their day? You don't hear from a lot of them because they moved on to things they do like, so it seems like they must not exist--except, they do, and they're just out there doing things they like more. We only hear from the people who feel the need to tell others they dislike the prequels for this reason or that reason, some valid, some less valid, etc. Ultimately, I do think there's probably a fair amount of genre dissonance for why people dislike the prequels and channel that into "they're objectively bad" and get defensive when people like them and say they were great, but only because that's true of anything anywhere. But that it's only one small slice of the bigger picture (and there's a lot of stuff that I had to eschew in the writing of this response as well because it can be a pretty sprawling topic), where there are tons of reasons and reactions that people have, as well as they're perfectly free to dislike the prequels for whatever reason they do or don't have, it doesn't really affect my opinions, unless they're trying to shove it in my face or are being a dick to those who disagree with them.

#lumi.txt #idk how to tag this

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deaddee-anime-brownfanlady · 3 years

Text

LOKI THE SERIES : An Overview and Finale Critical Thoughts. ( Old views of the Loki series that I've been quickly changed on and no longer feel or care anymore about this show )

So having just finished pretty recently watched the Loki series a couple of a few weeks ago, which by the way I seriously loved and enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would ( So Hype for season 2!). I want to lay down my gather feelings and thoughts on this show in terms of the good stuff on it & also aspects of the show I have issues with, So let's get into it. Starting with Loki as a character and his overall growth and development. Now I’ve kind of always enjoyed and liked Loki as this very interesting but also compelling flawed character within the MCU, I’ve never really truly saw him as being this stereotypical , generic , super Evil like your stranded Black & White villain archetype that you see sometimes within other movies or media dealing with superheroes or villains or your classic GOOD GUYS only vs. BAD GUYS only kind of setting, I always saw and felt that his character has way more complexity to it in terms of mortality & nuances or how he is overall. Tom Hiddleston himself has said in interviews that Loki is just very real deeply misunderstood instead of simply being evil, and said that one of the reasons why he does things the way he does or the way he is, is mainly due to him feeling unloved also unworthy as well as not being valued enough compare to his brother Thor...Oh & also largely due to bad parenting mainly from Odin (also a little bit of Frigga too, while she very much was a caring, loving sweet mother towards Loki & all I think that just simply loving your kids isn’t just enough...nor will it erase years worth of internal rooted childhood issues / scarring emotional baggage of having been lied about what you are or feeling like no one truly gives a shit about you and views you as the “lesser Prince” of your society and those apart of it completely disrespect you and already hates your guts). I mean for real though I feel at least most of what Loki been through especially growing up in Asgard probably & most likely wasn’t no sunshine and gumdrops for him, its no wonder why that he got no into the many fucked up issues he’s has now.

So when I first heard about also kept seeing reaction videos or commercials on the Loki series, I just had to jump on the bandwagon and see what’s this show is really like and how a series on Loki would actually work? One of the many things I loved about this series is how Loki is showcasing such major extra vulnerability in terms of him admitting to his own faults and his inner weaknesses of always seeking & wanting control or validation, which to be honest I think is due to some sort of inferiority / superiority complex he has, also my other favorite parts of the show is the amazing & awesome chemistry growing friendship as well as partnership between him and Mobius.

I still seriously wished there could’ve been more bonding and enjoyable buddies-cops also that odd couple vibe moments between these guys within the show, I'm glad for the scenes we did got such as the humorous Pompeii scene or the intense but still entertaining but also pretty real emotional theater interrogating scene with Mobius seriously digging into Loki and tearing into his core ( Which was really messed up by the way & a bit hard to watch on certain levels due to the intensity of it also seeing Loki getting so upset & due to the false claims Mobius has said ) and completely getting underneath his skin or better yet the scene were Loki is just peacefully napping in front of Mobius, which really shows how comfortable he is around him to be able to do that. I know that with just only six episodes that they had to hurry on up with the plot also overall storyline within the series...like I get that, but it still would’ve been nice to have more episodes dealing with the already great chemistry these two dorks already got and to see them just having mini-time detectives adventures together. My other favorites within this show would be Ravonna Renslayer also Hunter B-15, it always good & awesome to see central well done black women characters just being of importance and having more to there characters then just being a token or some racial stereotype and such, really loved Casey & hope to see more of him as well as Miss minutes too who’ve I’ve also really enjoyed in terms of the good animation on her and all.

Now on towards aspects of the show I seriously have problems with...especially in terms of the whole Sylki situation and other issues I have with parts of the show writing. Now first of all I truly really don’t have an major problem with the whole Selfcest thing when it comes to this pairing like others fans would...although I can totally understand why others would have issues with this pairing and I can get were there coming from, but for me I don’t like the unhealthy , toxic , bad implications of Sylvie & Loki because its like saying that no one else can ever truly fully love Loki unless its basically a female version of himself which when you really think about it is pretty messed up, but for real this is Loki were talking about here. Like the man got no into the many deep emotional also probably mental too, but mostly very deep emotional scarring issues as well as a lot of other fucked up baggage for a god that aren’t just only major daddy issues. So him developing feelings for Sylvie through out half of the show wasn’t too shocking to me, honestly I felt that him being into Sylvie could also be a symbolic metaphor for himself to finally start loving who he is and just love being just him as well as realize that he’s actually is worthy of loving also seeing his own self worth. But I deeply felt the whole “Romance” angle they took with Sylvie & Loki to me just so screams lazy, generic, kind of bad heteronormative forced writing of having these two super hot and sexy White Male & Female actors / actresses on screen with each other and Hey! Lets just have them hook up within the movie or show even if they’ve only known each other for over a hour or so simply due to them just being a hot man also a hot woman together.

Considering that Sylvie just straight up betrayed Loki in the finale & very much deeply hurt him thus doing so, I highly don’t think that’s a good standing for any kind of resemblance of a healthy relationship. Honestly it’s just doesn’t make any sense at all from both a writing perspective but also a logical perspective for them to be in any kind of romantic relationship of any sort with each other. Sylvie basically betrayed and used Loki for her own “Glorious purpose” to get her long waited revenge by killing Kang also at the time fucking up the timelines and her refusal to listen to what Loki had to say about that whole situation within that scene. Like am not trying to sound like a hater or some kind of “crazed blind obsessed Fangirl ” here, I’m seriously looking at this from a very critical point of view of the series with its writing as a whole & while I do super love Sylvie as a character, I truly don’t think she had that strong of feelings for Loki in the first place. Whatever happens in season 2 I can see them probably making up and reconnecting with each other again…but not in a romantic way considering Loki would most likely still be very emotionally broken up also messed up by her betrayal in the finale episode. Also other issues with the show I didn’t cared for is the so-called “genderfluid rep” that was talked about and kind of pretty hype up within different articles dealing with it or praising the writing team on it. While I may not be genderfluid myself...but I think that if your writing about anything dealing with a character sexuality and gender identity / race also culture or when it comes to dealing with themes or subject matter you aren’t yourself to familiar with on, then its best to get people who are from that specific minority group who can give you better insights how to properly represent them within a piece of media , like I’m not sure why they couldn’t just get a genderfluid writer or have more then one genderfluid person apart of the writing team to better showcase Loki genderfluidity which I feel shouldn’t be that hard because I know within the comics that Loki is canonically genderfluid.

Also on that Bisexual confession ( Which wasn’t all that’s super surprising really) I find it interesting that after Loki says that he prefer both genders is how just after that confession is how he seems to become extra highly into Sylvie after that, Like am not sure were I’m going with this bit but I felt that very same scenario could’ve easily been done in a similar scene with Mobius if there were more light-hearted bonding developing moments between them within the series. But considering how Disney is as a company behind close doors when it comes to anything dealing with Gay or any LGBTQ related stuff…am not super sure if they’ll take that path within the second season. So my finale thoughts on Loki the series is that I very much still enjoyed and liked this show despite some of the flaws also pretty real bad issues it has but overall am so fucking Hype also super excited for season 2 and deeply hope from a writing standpoint that the series won’t take a awful nosedive; especially dealing with the whole Loki & Sylvie aftermath and how they’ll decide to handle their supposed reconciliation with each other as well as when it comes to the rest of the plot too.

But either way I’m elated to see what season 2 Loki has in store and what’s next for the God of Mischief and his ongoing story thus far.

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hoekaashi · 4 years

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3 am Talks - hq pt 3

a/n: almost done, two more left!! i’m not sure why, but these ones were really fun for me to do and i had to cut myself off before i wrote whole fics for each one. also thank you to my wifey for helping me with akaashi, idk why his was so hard for me to do ): pairings: bokuto x reader, akaashi x reader, ushijima x reader, tendou x reader, semi x reader warnings: some spoilers for post timeskip, minor cussing, a bit suggestive (ushi) taglist: @babydabi, @suckersuki, @bakugoustanaccount, @animoozies part 2 | part 4

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾　*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

⇾ definitely someone who talks about the first things that just pop into his mind ⇾ would literally change topics in the middle of his sentence ⇾ “did you see my last spread, I was centerfold Tsum-Tsum was not happy but when I offered to trade places with him, it made him even more mad - I just got an email saying my new knee pads have been shipped YES - babe are you hungry? Let’s go to the convenience store and get some snacks” ⇾ all over the place ⇾ but the second sleep starts to hit him, he become even softer than he already is ⇾ this baby would def be asking for validation without outright asking for it - we all know he lives to be praised but as he gets older, he stops asking for it directly ⇾ i feel like he just becomes more self-conscious after he realizes that being on a national team means that now the entire WORLD is scrutinizing him ⇾ i could keep going on about him imma stop

“I couldn’t help it, I started laughing.” Even hours later, Bokuto was trying to hold in laughter from the memory of the event. “I think that’s why he’s mad at you Kou.” Bokuto pouted. “I offered to help him up.” “Yeah, but you were also red from laughing so hard and wiping the tears from your eyes. I don’t think he appreciated that.” Bokuto got quiet and you knew what that meant. “But at the end of the day, the pictures came out amazing. You look amazing.” His smile, although soft compared to his usual grin, came back. “You think so?” You hummed. “If volleyball doesn’t work out, you could be a model. I already know one of my friends has a shrine dedicated to you. Which honestly feels weird, but hey, if it’s harmless why should I care?” you said, going off on a tangent. Bokuto brushed off the compliment that normally would’ve stroked his ego. “Nah, I don’t think I could handle the pressure.” You cocked an eyebrow. “People constantly judging you and criticizing you. You know me, I thrive with praise and…” “Become emo with criticism?” He let out a dry chuckle. “Yeah. I’m trying to change.” You reached over and caressed his cheek. “There’s a difference between growing up and mellowing out and changing who you are. You’ve done the growing up part and you’re slowly mellowing out as much as you can. But please don’t change.” “But people keep saying -” “Forget what they say. I love you the way you are now.” Bokuto’s full grin returned to his face. “I love you more.”

.・゜-: ✧ :-　-: ✧ :-゜・．

⇾ more of a listener he learned his ways from babysitting bo ⇾ he would just enjoy listening to whatever you had on your mind ⇾ one to add his own commentary and thoughts to whatever you were saying ⇾ if he were to talk though, he would reminisce ⇾ talks of bokuto and his old team, things he misses ⇾ but speaking of bokuto, he would go off on how proud he is seeing his former ace doing so well for himself now - even if he still isn’t a normal player ⇾ depending on how open he’s feeling, he might even wander into his insecurities and childhood, things he doesn’t really open up about unless he feels really close to you

“And then I booked it out of there,” you finished your story. Akaashi hummed. “What about the other girl who was still working?” “Look, she never sticks around to help me when I have extra work, I wasn’t going to stick around to help her.” He cracked a smile at your pettiness. “Wait, didn’t you have lunch with Bokuto today?” “Yes. It was nice.” You waited a moment thinking that Akaashi would add more. “That’s it? It was nice?” “Well, you know how he is. But it was nice to see him trying to change himself. Well, improve himself.” You rolled over from your back onto his chest and reached up to play with his hair. “We talked a lot about playing during high school and what the others are doing these days. Everyone is so busy now, it’s hard to keep up. I’m proud of them.” You didn’t let the smile on Akaashi’s face go unnoticed, commenting on how it always seemed to be there whenever he talked about his former ace. “Leave me alone, I’m happy with how far he’s come on his own. I can’t but smile when I think about the people I love.” “Do you smile when you think about me?” “Of course I do, you idiot,” he replied before kissing your forehead.

.・゜-: ✧ :-　-: ✧ :-゜・．

⇾ i very strongly believe he would talk about parallel universes ⇾ he would go into the existence of them but also like ‘what if there was a way for people in a parallel universe who could watch me as if my life was a movie’ ⇾ if he was in a more serious mood, like if he had a big match coming up or sum, he would talk more about his goals ⇾ the things he hopes to accomplish in the future, the outcomes he wants in life ⇾ if he was tired, it would be more like akaashi - more listening, less talking ⇾ i feel like he would always want to know what’s happening in your mind so he would ask you the most random questions or just want to listen to you talk as he drifts off to sleep

“Do you think they saw me when I tripped over Leo and dropped the dishes?” You remembered when he tripped over the cat the two of you were raising and ended up breaking a few plates. As annoyed as you were that the plates you like broke, it gave you a reason to go domestic shopping with your boyfriend. You sighed. “No Toshi. If they were watching you, it would be when you’re playing volleyball or taking a shower.” “But you’re in the shower with me sometimes. You think they saw what we were doing?” “If they did,” you started with your eyebrows raised, “I hope they enjoy it as much I do.” He chuckled. “Why when I’m playing volleyball?” “Because that’s your job now. What else would they watch you do? Play with Leo?” He didn’t reply as he looked down to the cat in his lap. Petting it, the two of you sat in silence for a while. You finally thought he dropped the topic as you started to drift to sleep. “I wonder if the people watching like me. Or what if they think I’m the villain?” You sat up in bed. “Why would you think you would be a villain in a show about volleyball?” “I don’t know. I could be a side character that no one likes.” His voice got quieter the more he talked. “Aw, Toshi. I’m sure you have many, many fans in this parallel universe who all wish to be dating you. You never intentionally hurt anyone. You tried, in your own way, to work with Oikawa, but it’s not like you sabotaged him or anything.” He nodded. “He should’ve come to Shiratorizawa. We could’ve been that impressive first year duo instead of Hinata and Kageyama.” You rubbed his shoulder. “I know, baby. You remind me of that at least once a month.”

.・゜-: ✧ :-　-: ✧ :-゜・．

⇾ he would get deep ⇾ talks about his childhood where he was bullied to where he is now ⇾ while he has his insecurities, he would still be very proud of himself and how far he’s come and everything he accomplished ⇾ on the topic of being proud, he would never pass up the opportunity to talk up his bff ushi and he would hype him up even though it’s just the two of you ⇾ he wouldn’t forget about the other third years aka his other ‘best friends’ (i use quotes bc he only has eyes for ushi lezbehonest) ⇾ the talk would shift over to you and how lucky he feels to have found you ⇾ half of the things he would say would just to get you all embarrassed and shy so he could tease you about it

You woke up an hour ago because when you went to snuggle with your boyfriend, his body was missing from bed. For the last hour, he talked to you about how much he’s grown over the years, not once stopping to let you say anything. You finally had enough of this monologue. “Satori, how much more can you possibly say? It’s been a whole ass hour. Get your ass to bed so I can snuggle with you and lemme sleep.” Sighing, he walked away from the window where he was using the light from the moon to set the mood of his speech. Getting into bed, he waited until you were satisfied and closed your eyes. “But also, Wakatoshi has gotten so far on his own. I couldn’t be more proud of my best friend.” “Satori, please. For the love of God.” “Babe, you gotta let me air this out. Good communication and all that.” “We don’t have a single problem that needs to be ‘aired out’ right now. I got work in the morning and you like the sound of your own voice.” That still didn’t stop him. “And Semi, I gotta hand it to him, the man finally learned how to dress properly. And his music isn’t that bad either so I gotta find something new to annoy him with now. Reon is still keeping his fighting spirit alive and playing volleyball too. My friends, all doing so well.” Tendou glanced down at you who had fallen asleep to his heart beats. “But you. I’m the most proud of you. I’m so lucky to have found you. Not that I needed someone in my life at the time, but all the happiness you’ve given me on top of the great things in my life. You’re an amazing person, and I appreciate the impact you’ve made in my life.”

.・゜-: ✧ :-　-: ✧ :-゜・．

⇾ before we start with semisemi, he plays bass and sings in his band but he also plays the piano and guitar (these are MY OWN hcs, none of this is canon) ⇾ that being said, he would stay up late at night playing his guitar, working on songs and quietly singing lyrics to himself ⇾ his talks would be about purpose - like why he’s on this earth similar to hinata ⇾ aha ha ha so if yall read kuroo’s, you know how i feel about scorpios ⇾ semi babe is not safe from that either ⇾ while he is bad at opening up, he also has a short temper so expect apologies for his random outbursts from him ⇾ imma touch on this more in my semi relationship hcs so i shall stop here

You had been on your computer, finishing up some work of yours that you had been procrastinating on with Semi sitting on the couch, strumming his guitar as he worked on a new song. You hadn’t been paying attention the entire time, not until you closed your laptop and sat back in your chair. “Eita, what’s that song?” Your sudden question caused him to jump a little. “Oh, uh, I didn’t realize you were listening.” “I just heard you singing. What is that?” He rubbed the nape of his neck. “I was hoping to hold out until it was finished.” You walked over to him, draping your arms around his shoulders and leaning your weight on him. You read the lyrics he had so far, your eyes growing bigger with each line. “What… is this?” “An apology.” You pulled away from him. “I know I’m not the easiest boyfriend and that when I have a problem, I should say something rather than exploding on you over the littlest thing. I didn’t really know how else to express this without messing it all up.” “I’ve known you for a long time, I wouldn’t be with you if I didn’t figure that much out.” “But still, it doesn’t mean that I should just stay this way. I should be growing with you as a person, not stuck how I am. I really do need to learn to express myself better.” You let out a small chuckle. “Like I haven’t heard that one before.” You had. Four times already. “And this will be the last. Thank you for putting up with me.” Your arms wrapped around him once again. “Next time, I expect an entire album with love songs dedicated to me. Got it?” “Well fuck, I better not mess up. I don’t have enough material for an entire love album.” You shoved him. “Hey! Maybe I will leave your sorry ass.” “I’m just kidding! Babe! Where are you going?!”

#bokuto kotaro #bokuto x reader #akaashi keiji #akaashi x reader #ushijima wakatoshi #ushijima x reader #tendou satori #tendou x reader #semi eita #semi x reader #hq #haikyuu #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu fluff

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spilledreality · 3 years

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Positional leverage, positional pricing

Some exhibits:

“I was in college around the time when the New Criticism, which adores explication de texte and all this close reading, was in decline. I would say it was in its height in its founding in the 30s and 40s; but by the 50s, it had become very derivative. It was practiced by these sort of third-raters, people without the real talent and erudition and prose style of the ones who had founded it in North America. And so I was in revolt, I thought, against it in my college years.” (Camille Paglia)

Q: It’s become de rigueur for trash cinema to get reclaimed. An entire culture has thrived defending, even intellectualizing genre films that don’t get major awards.

A: Actually, the movies that tend to never get rewritten about, never get analyzed deeply or have interesting online writing about them are well-reviewed, upper-middle-brow movies from the ‘80s and ‘90s. (interview on Showgirls)

There are a few discursive habits that will be familiar to anyone who has spent time in critical circles (pop music, film, fiction), or simply hangs out on the Internet (in political communities, shared interest subcultures, fandom). Certain cultural works, or politicians, or people might be labeled “Actually good” or overhyped; individuals on one side of the conflict or another fall into apparent exaggeration—something or someone “is trash,” “is genius,” etc. Users or critics will delight in arguing that some object beloved in a larger or rival subculture is “not worth bothering with,” has no redeeming qualities, etc.—while simultaneously holding up “written-off gems” of their own. When a certain topic or theoretical approach is perceived as being too dominant, or occupying too many discursive resources, it may be boycotted or disparaged. An implicit sense of what is “overrated” or “underrated” seems to characterize individuals’ publicly stated opinions, even as these opinions are typically presented as “in-a-vacuum” preferences, likes or dislikes, etc. I want to talk about these tendencies through two frames: the notion of positional leverage, and the idea of position pricing.

To understand positional leverage, we first need a theory of what public belief is for. My contention is that—to give a “just so” story from our evolutionary history—humans have traditionally lived in relatively small communities, where individual opinion held some sway in group decision-making, if only by exerting tacit pressure on a chieftain or council of elders. (We see this dynamic still: politicians in democratic societies are beholden to their populations, so that even if individual discontents are not registered, widespread discontents are.) Public beliefs, then, are situated, strategic interventions into a communal decision-making discourse. They are responses to the current “temperature” of a discourse, in an attempt to shift the thermostat to a position the belief-espouser believes more optimal. Sometimes a caucus will form, which takes its communal identity from its deviations from its nearest neighbors—hence, indie and alt-rock fans differentiate themselves from the mainstream; cratediggers, genre eclectics, historicists (“indie rock died post-Pavement”) and poptimists differentiate themselves from indie and alt-rock fans; often there is an evolution such that members of some inner, “nested” group previously occupied the “wrapping outer” group before moving inward.

In Jane Austen’s Emma, Mr. Knightley shares suspicions, to his friends, about the character of a Mr. Frank Churchill, with whom he is in a sexual rivalry over Emma Woodhouse’s heart. The reasons for his distaste for Frank are never made explicit; for much of the book, they seem merely to be his honest opinions. But when Emma, in the novel’s final chapters, reveals that her interest lies only in Mr. Knightley, his opinion of Frank Churchill suddenly, dramatically changes—he suddenly wonders why he should have been so suspicious and uncharitable. We, as readers, know: these beliefs are strategic attempts to sway Emma’s mind, and cause reputation damages to Mr. Churchill.

Public belief broadly, I believe, is driven by similar impulse toward strategic intervention. Our expressed opinions, in addition to being expressions of group loyalty and caucus, are also attempts to sway mean opinion. And through rhetorical overleans, by the taking of more radical positions, we can more effectively drag or weight the discursive “center” toward the direction we wish it to be. As Bourdieu writes of Marx, in The Field of Cultural Production:

This explains why writers’ efforts to control the reception of their own works are always partially doomed to failure (one thinks of Marx’s ‘I am not a Marxist’); if only because the very effect of their work may transform the conditions of its reception and because they would not have had to write many of the things they did write and write them as they did—e.g. resorting to rhetorical strategies intended to ‘twist the stick in the other direction”—if they’d been granted from the outset what they are granted retrospectively.

This metaphor of “twisting the stick” gave way to an earlier metaphorical frame, “torque epistemology” and “discursive games.” But I believe a simpler analogy may be at-hand: a lever.

If the fulcrum, here—the discursive “center”—is the purple triangle on the left-hand side, then we can see how much disproportionate influence the 5kg weight has merely through its positioning far-from-fulcrum. (The force an object exerts downward, on a lever, is proportional to how far it is from fulcrum.) Often, when we take a public stance, I believe that we size up the consensus within our enveloping subculture—if we are contrarians, seeking to distinguish ourselves—or a set of beliefs advocated prominently by a rival outgroup, seeking to bond and ally ourselves—and then take a situated, strategic stance which we believe will help nudge that consensus “center” in a certain direction. It is not really that we believe Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls is the postmodern masterpiece par excellence—but we do believe it has been unfairly written off, and that our re-evaluation may one day be validated, become its own orthodoxy.

Which brings us to a similar but distinct mechanism, that of “priced” position-taking. If positional leverage is a way to intervene in coordinative decision-making, and to sway group opinion, the strategic buying and selling of positions is a more opportunistic, decentralized-competitive than persuasive approach to discourse. One metaphor is of the ecological niche—certain niches become “saturated” and over-exploited, eventually leading to exhaustion; others are relatively underexploited. By avoiding overexploited niches, and seeking out underexploited ones, we continually find new ways to distinguish ourselves (to use another Bourdieu term). Those who avoid culture war topics, or dissent from a newly reigning ideological hegemony, are avoiding overexploited niches.

But the analogy I prefer is a stock market: certain stocks are priced too high, and are liable to drop or plummet in the future; other stocks are priced too low, and will rise. When someone argues that a movie is “Actually good,” or dismisses trauma discourse (the kind that saturates contemporary culture, from wokeism to the MCU universe) as trash, they are responding to the perceived under- or over-valuation of their subject. At the same time, there is an element of discovery—because ideas, unlike companies, can survive for decades or centuries without active upkeep, much of the value put forward by Game-B thinkers consists in their continually dredging up, and arguing for the value of, lost, abandoned, or niche ideas—be they ethnomethodology or strategic interaction.

With positional leverage, when individuals from different social groups and subcultures collide, be it in-person or on the Internet, the “situation” they are responding to—the perceived consensus or aggregate opinion they are counter-balancing—is forgotten. When we lose sight of the positions these strategic stances are reactions to, or hold in our minds a different hegemonic order than our interlocutor (perhaps because we are enveloped by a different wrapping subculture), the positions appear merely radical, irrational, or absurd. Perhaps their in-a-vacuum radicalism, irrationality, and absurdity become the very basis for our own rebellion, our own extremisms or our own “shortings” of the stock price.

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salamandersofftheclock · 3 years

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Principles You Can Use From Rowling’s Philosophy of Writing

by Ruthanne Reid

If you’re like me, you loved the Harry Potter series. Maybe you watched the movies or even visited the theme park, and you wondered about JK Rowling’s writing process and the strategy she uses to write her best-selling books. If you’re like me, though, you’ve also been deeply hurt by things Rowling herself has said. On Twitter, on her website, in interviews, and more, Rowling has promoted harmful views of trans people, and you might be one of her many readers who find it painful, or even impossible, to return to the Harry Potter books you once loved.I understand. Before I dive into the wisdom we can draw from Rowling’s writing process in order to write our first draft (or others), allow me to share a principle with you. Death of the Author: Or, How to Love the Book, Not the Author In 1967, a French literary critic named Roland Barthes wrote an essay called La mort de l’auteur, or Death of the Author, in which he states that any piece of writing should be separated from the author that wrote it. In other words, he believed in judging the written work completely on its own merits, without involving personal beliefs or actions of the author in question. Sometimes, this is possible to do. Sometimes, it isn’t, and we readers have to apply discernment to what we read and the lens in which we view things.I have two examples for you. HP Lovecraft First, HP Lovecraft, whose incredible work literally created today’s modern horror genre. Do you enjoy any kind of tale with Elder Ones, or chaos gods, or even just good old Cthulhu? (I know I do!) His work was so creative, so new, that you’d be hard-pressed to find any horror story that doesn’t show at least some of his influence.Unfortunately, Lovecraft was also an extremely xenophobic racist. Now, I enjoy a good chaos god, and I’ve made the decision to separate his xenophobia from his writing. That means, of course, that I must view critically anything he wrote that implies white English people are somehow the pinnacle of humanity.It means I purposely do not allow his racism to infect my way of thinking. By doing so, I am practicing la mort de l’auteur. JRR Tolkien Here’s a second example: JRR Tolkien, whose work defined modern fantasy. Do you enjoy anything with elves and dwarves or made-up languages? We owe Tolkien for that. He redefined and polished the fantasy genre so well that everything from movies to MMORPGs still use his templates. Unfortunately, he also described his orcs as “squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes: in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types.” Yowza. Now, was Tolkien a racist? Not exactly. In fact, according to the standards of the time, he was absolutely liberal and anti-racist. So then what do we do with this bizarro and racially horrifying description? We see it and choose to discard it. Generations of artists and authors have done exactly that, turning orcs into anything but“least lovely Mongol-types,” and aiding this genre.Again, it’s important to see the problem so you can avoid letting it influence your work. We enjoy the good parts while consciously discarding the bad, rather than being influenced by it. So What About JK Rowling? She’s not dead. In fact, she’s still saying harmful things, even as we speak. Instead of listening to her readers, who (at least initially) approached her in love, trying to help her understand, she doubled down, rejected their experience and their words, and in the process, caused an unbelievable amount of pain. Here’s the thing about la mort de l’auteur: it is entirely up to you whether to apply it to what you read, or to simply discard the whole thing and find less troublesome authors. Both roads are valid. In no way do I condone her attacks on the trans community, or her persistent sharing of misinformation. I choose to apply la mort de l’auteur for the simple reason that I benefited from the good things she’s written, and I wanted to share them with you. However, if you aren’t comfortable doing that, you are absolutely welcome to walk away. In fact, I’d suggest these writing articles instead: Neil Gaiman’s rules of writing, or how to create your own rules of writing. Okay. Awkward stuff done. Ready to dive into the process stuff instead? Let’s go! 9 Rules From JK Rowling’s Writing Process Over the course of her writing career, Rowling shared a lot of solid writing wisdom, and in my opinion, eight writing rules stand out—along with a ninth we can apply from her choices since. Whether or not you’re writing your first book like Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) or last book in a series (like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), I think these rules speak to Ms. Joanne Rowling’s philosophy on writing.They are great writing tips for you to reflect on in your spare moments and then apply to your writing process, for short stories, novels, bestsellers, or even the first time you’ve ever attempted a book. Rule One: Protect your writing time “Be ruthless about protecting writing days, i.e., do not cave in to endless requests to have “essential” and “long overdue” meetings on those days. The funny thing is that, although writing has been my actual job for several years now, I still seem to have to fight for time in which to do it.” This is especially hard for those of us with family. Our loved ones come first, and while that is important, our loved ones also need to understand that we need time to write. Setting reasonable boundaries is a crucial step for a writer—even if they’re as simple as, “Mommy needs fifteen minutes of quiet time, okay?” If you have trouble setting boundaries with loved ones, try setting a reasonable boundary for one week. See how it goes. If it’s too much time or too little, tweak it. Establish a routine that signals to others that it’s your writing time, but also lets them know that outside of your writing space, you’re there for them. Not only will this teach the importance of flexibility and discipline to others, but also that your writing is valuable. It’s your work, and your dream! Needing quiet time to write doesn’t mean that you don’t love your family. Your writing deserves your time, too. Open communication about this can help everyone understand and respect that. Rule Two: Treat your writing like a job “You’ve got to work. It’s about structure. It’s about discipline.” It’s easy to forget that writing is a job. We don’t always feel like doing our job. We certainly don’t always feel inspired. To be writers, we must train ourselves to sit down and write even when we don’t feel like it. Those moments are the ones that really matter, even more than the shining, flying, muse-kissed moments.Writing when we don’t feel like it is what turn amateurs into professionals and rough drafts into polished manuscripts. “The muse works for you. You don’t write at her beck and call—you train her to show up when you’re writing. “ Rule Three: Believe you ARE a writer “I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.” Yes, writing is possible with another job. Yes, writing is possible with other responsibilities. Are you a writer? (I know your inner critic snarled no, but I also know a tiny candle-flicker of unquenchable hope in you whispered yes with so much longing you could cry.) You ARE a writer. That means you write. A runner runs. A painter paints. A cook cooks. You are a writer. You write. Accept this, fight to believe it, and be amazed at how far that takes you. Rule Four: Write what you know “Write what you know: your own interests, feelings, beliefs, friends, family and even pets will be your raw materials when you start writing.” This doesn’t mean you need to experience aliens in order to write about them. It means that all good stories have universal application. A great example is this Google Doodle. (Trust me. I’m going somewhere with this.) Take two minutes and thirty-six seconds to watch this: Halloween 2017 Google Doodle: Jinx’s Night Out It’s adorable, right? Without a single word, this video told an effective story. You felt for the little ghost, both when it was sad and when it was happy, right? News flash: you’re not a ghost. That was universal application. It doesn’t matter what culture you’re from or what language you speak; all human beings know what it is to be lonely, to feel left out, to be frustrated, determined, and to finally be with friends. That story works because the creators used their interests, feelings, beliefs, friends, family and even pets to tell this story. (I’m fond of the kitty, myself.) I’m greatly oversimplifying, but here’s the gist: you already know how to tell a moving story because you live one. If you’ve ever had emotions, ever responded to anything, then you already know what universal application looks like. Listen to the people around you, and apply empathy. You don’t have to be a ghost to write a good ghost story. Rule Five: Read “I always advise children who ask me for tips on being a writer to read as much as they possibly can. Jane Austen gave a young friend the same advice, so I’m in good company there.” Read. Read. Read some more! The more you read, the bigger your arsenal of words will be. The more you read, the better your grasp of metaphor, poetry, beauty, passion, and empathy will be. The more you read, the greater you will be as a writer (and probably human being). It’s like learning more dance moves or impressively difficult notes on an instrument. The more you learn, the better you’ll be. So read in your genre. Read outside your genre. Get in the habit of finding time to pick up a book instead of your phone (unless it’s to open up another book.) You DO have the time to read. Even if that’s just ten minutes a day. Any time counts. And the more stories you read, the more likely you’ll start to implicitly develop the skills you need to become a great writer. Rule Six: Persevere “Perseverance is absolutely essential, not just to produce all those words, but to survive rejection and criticism.” This is one of those unpleasant truths about publishing: you’re gonna get rejected. A lot. I wish there were a way around this. Harry Potter was turned down again and again because that’s just the way it goes sometimes. And it isn’t only publishers: when you get published, and your work is out there, you’ll get bad reviews, too. Mostly, they’ll just be people who don’t understand what you’re doing. Intellectually, you’ll know that. Your heart, on the other hand, is going to break into a thousand pieces. But here’s the secret: you can’t stop writing because of push-back. You MUST NOT stop writing because of push-back. Keep going. Don’t stop. When you get rejected, pick up your pen and keep going (and use the way you feel to put more universal application into your work). And when you’re feeling really discouraged? Remember that when someone doesn’t like your book, they might also just not be your ideal reader. That person just wasn’t your target audience.If your book isn’t to someone’s taste, that’s all right. It will be to someone else’s.Keep writing your book, because your ideal readers need it. Rule Seven: Bring your whole self to the page “What you write becomes who you are … So make sure you love what you write!” Writing is a little like a Mobius strip, in a way: Your beliefs and experiences and feelings all help craft your writing. However, your writing clarifies, corrects, and often reveals your beliefs, experiences, and feelings. As you write, you’ll discover things about yourself. You’ll clarify things, too, because it’s only as you come to write them that you realize they needed clarification in the first place. Now, understand: this means that if you haven’t given yourself a good look to find your biases (we all have them), you will bring those to the page, too. It’s important to see who you are as you bring your whole self to the page. Writing is a brave, bold venture, and life-altering discovery is part of the journey. Rule Eight: Accept that failure is part of the process “Failure is inevitable—make it a strength. You have to resign yourself to the fact that you waste a lot of trees before you write anything you really like, and that’s just the way it is. It’s like learning an instrument, you’ve got to be prepared for hitting wrong notes occasionally, or quite a lot. I wrote an awful lot before I wrote anything I was really happy with.” Failure is normal. Also, it is okay. You’re going to write a lot of crap. You’re going to push past those things and write more crap. It may take you twelve years. It may take you a million words. If it does, then you’re on the right path—the same one your favorite authors walk. Accept that it will take time, and that sometimes, your pencil won’t be your friend. If you accept it, then when it happens, you won’t throw in the towel and set the house on fire. Instead, you’ll be able to go, “Well, dang; that sucked, didn’t it? Knew it would happen. Time to write some more.” Rule Nine: Respect Your Reader Sadly, this rule doesn’t come from writing advice she’s given, but in a way, it’s the final conclusion of the previous eight. This involves bringing your whole self to the page. This involves empathy and universal application. This involves perseverance, never quitting, and willingness to tackle your writing troubles. If your readers value what you created, they will listen to what you say. Your words have the power to uplift or hurt others. None of us can ever really know where someone else is coming from, and it’s essential that both our stories and our interactions reflect respect. Respect yourself enough to be a better person. Respect your readers enough to hear what they have to say. This sounds scary, I know, but I promise you, it’s worth it.

#how to write #writing advice #writing #tw jk rowling #jkr #jk rowling #tw long post #long post #long text post #top writing advice #rules for writing

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adyo34 · 4 years

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How to Love Yourself: 15 Tips for Developing Self Love

Do You Really Love Yourself?

Do you think that loving yourself is selfish? Many of us have been taught that tending to our own needs first is wrong. The truth is that learning to love yourself is not selfish, it is in fact the key to a free and happy life.

Do you want to discover how to cultivate a deep sense of love for yourself? Do you long to radiate confidence and security in your life? It is so easy to fall into the trap of self-doubt, procrastination and negativity. Once we start comparing ourselves to others we find it even harder to find self love.

Why is it Important to Develop Self Love?

Many people do not realize how linked the law of attraction and self love are. You know that everything is energy and vibration in this universe, so doesn’t it make sense that through love you will flow pure energy? When you feel good within you feel good about everything else too. Everything is a reflection of your perceptions, beliefs and vibrations.

It is not selfish to love yourself first, it is essential, and we’re not talking about arrogance or telling people how awesome you are! We’re talking about accepting yourself on a deep human level and treating yourself with respect.

When you love yourself you create self-confidence, self-worth and compassion. One of the biggest problems we all face in this age of Instagram and facebook is about validating ourselves through the approval of others. When we are constantly comparing our lives to other peoples or have worth tied up in their opinions of us, we are setting ourselves up for misery. The answer is to have that sense of self so cemented that nothing anyone can say or do can knock you from your knowledge of who you are and what you are worth. That deep place of self-love is the starting place for all miracles!

We’re going to show you some simple ways to incorporate self love into your life and grow your self esteem for a happy life.

When you learn how to love yourself, the law of attraction will suddenly seem to work to your benefit much more. That’s because when you fuel your desires with optimism (because you just 100% know that you are worthy!), you allow positive things to flow to you with much more ease.

How to Love Yourself: 15 Tips for Developing Self Love

1. Train Yourself Positive Everyday write down 3 positive things about yourself. These can be anything from achievements in life to friendships you value or physical/ character traits you admire in yourself. The reason this helps is that it trains you to look for and appreciate the positive over the negative in your life. Imagine what it would feel like to praise instead of criticize yourself!

2. Take Yourself Somewhere New Instead of waiting for the right moment or person to come along, why not just go to the movies or try a new restaurant on your own? When you can break through insecurities you have about doing these things solo, you deepen that connection to your true self. You discover the part of you that loves who you are unconditionally.

3. Travel Setting off on a trip alone is a wonderful way to cultivate self love and get to know yourself. It’s even better if you also take in a new culture or unknown destination as you will be forced to strip down any preconceptions you may have about others and yourself. Throwing yourself into the unknown is brave and takes confidence, you will find out a lot about yourself on a deep level.

4. Journal Writing is a proven therapeutic way of releasing tension and negativity. It is amazing to process your feelings and emotions about yourself and your life through journaling. You can also go back and see how you worked through challenges and learned from any bad experiences.

5. Mirror Work Every morning go to the mirror and look straight into your eyes and say to your reflection “I love you, just as you are and I want to be your friend.” You can choose your own words of course, but the effect of this is incredibly powerful. Some people may find it very challenging at first, but keep at it and feel your self esteem and confidence soar.

6. Create a Vision Board When you don’t love yourself you don’t believe you can have the things you want in life. Creating a personal vision board of everything you dream of is a wonderful way to get excited about your future. Why not include images of things you already have that you love and are proud of? This can help you to identify with your vision and not see it as just an unattainable dream.

7. Meditate Every Day Meditating on a regular basis is like food for the mind and soul. We all know it by now, but how many of us actually can say we do it enough? When you get into a healthy practice of calming your mind you start to feel who you really are on a deep level and how you connect with everything else in the world.

8. Listen to Your Gut Another benefit of meditation is being able to recognize your instincts for what they are and listening to them. When you develop the ability to trust your own intuition, you foster self love. Knowing how to trust your gut is to stand in your own power and own it.

9. Regular Self Care Self love is much more than getting a haircut and a mani-pedi, however taking the time to respect and honour your physical body with loving gestures that make you feel good is highly recommended. Confidence and beauty do start within, but sometimes looking good can help you feel better on the inside when you are struggling with self-esteem.

10. List Your Accomplishments

Don’t be too shy to give yourself a little credit where credit is due. Write a list of everything you are proud of, whether it’s an educational or work achievement or simply learning a new recipe or deciding to master a yoga position. Big and small accomplishments are all worthy of praise, no matter what they are.

11. Practice Forgiveness Forgiveness is vital to your mental and emotional health. Holding onto resentment towards others only hurts you in the long run. Equally, identify where you beat up on yourself for choices you regret or whatever toxic thoughts you have about your past, and then decide to let them go. Tell yourself you are just another human on a journey of life and love yourself through all your mistakes.

12. Don’t be Afraid to Say No A lot of stress can be avoided when you realize it’s ok to say no sometimes. If you don’t feel like going out or feel overwhelmed, listen to that and take it as a sign to spend some time alone getting grounded again. You cannot please everybody and you need to make sure you are being true to yourself first.

13. Leave Your Comfort Zone On the flip side of the above point, say yes occasionally when you normally say no. You can tell (if you’re listening to your gut) whether your ‘no’s’ are coming from a place of fear or a genuine desire not to do something. Try saying yes to something out of the ordinary for you and see how it feels to challenge yourself in new ways.

14. List Positive Traits in all Your Friends This is a fun one to do in a couple or with a friend. Sit down together for 5 minutes and list the strong qualities and positive aspects that you each identify in the other. This can be an amazing way to bond in relationships and also has the uplifting effect of raising your own self esteem.

15. Be Childlike

Find a photo of yourself as a child and really study it. Try to remember what that little person dreamed of, what they believed and wished for. See the innocence and light in your young eyes and find that place in you now, that place of purity and playfulness. Self love never went away it just got pushed aside. When you remember your childlike innocence, worries seem to fade away.

You might find some of these suggestions scary at first, perhaps you shy away from some of our tips because they threaten your normal way of thinking and behaving. The bottomline is you will feel so much happier and more positive in your life if you work on developing love for yourself.

Once you master some of the ways to create self love you will realise how crucial it is to own who you are and shine your authentic light in the world.

Bonus Tip – Try using love to create the things you desire. For example, tell yourself that you are going to love yourself into the best version of you. You want a bigger house? A soul mate? A new job? A dream vacation? Love them all into existence. You can draw them, write about them, dream about them, whatever you choose, just as long as when you think of them you feel the vibration of love not lack. Love the life you desire into existence with your unfailing belief in your own magnificence.

Click on the link here to discover more about how “Manifestation Magic” can help you

#law of attraction #manifestation magic #personal transformation #law of abundance #love yourself #love #advice #universe #manifest #appreciate #frequence and brainwaves

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twentiethcenturymoviesandtv · 4 years

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Movie Criticism in a Modern Era

In 1904, near the birth of film itself, a paper was published called: The Optical Lantern and Cinematograph Journal. This paper was a one-of-a-kind at the time, full of interviews, analysis of equipment and methods, letters to editors, and even cartoons that made fun of stereotypes in the movie business that we can recognize today.

But that’s not the most interesting thing about this paper.

What was the most interesting thing is that, amongst all of that content, there was also a series of critical reviews of upcoming films, describing a handful of plots of a few films.

The journal would continue to do something like this for the eleven months before it was cancelled, but not before starting something that we are extremely familiar with today: film-criticism.

All through the 1920s, movie critics were becoming more popular, with newspapers hiring them to start analyzing and reviewing upcoming films. This continued into the 1930s, where the obsession with stardom boosted not only the movies and actors, but the critics, as well. More and more film critics were showing up to red-carpet events, but even with this rise in fame, it wasn’t until the 1940s where movie criticism really took off: when the analysis essay was born.

Movie critics started to write essays full of personality, persuasive papers designed to convince audiences of their argument. During this time, something else major happened: movie criticism went mainstream. Critics began working for newspapers, magazines, and, as time went by, even on television, becoming household names. There is perhaps no better example than the famous duo Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, although others, such as Pauline Kael, Leonard Maltin, and Judith Crist are also contenders for some of the best-known movie critics of all time.

The words of these critics was often highly valued in the film community. They are professionals, well-qualified to study and examine both new and older movies, typically possessing academic backgrounds in film. And then something happened that put an entirely new spin on movie criticism: the internet.

Blogs. YouTube channels. Websites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, began to rise in popularity, and channels like CinemaSins, Cinema Snob, and Nostalgia Critic, began popping up all over the place. Even now, there is a vast ocean of movie review blogs and analysis, not to mention YouTube channels and community review websites. In other words, the ‘power’ of film criticism shifted: from the academics to the amateurs.

While there are still qualified critics who post their reviews, more influential by far is the score on Rotten Tomatoes, or the opinion of a favored internet personality. Once that Metacritic score is set, so, it would seem, is the movie’s reputation. We are living in an age where the average joe can make a blog, a YouTube video, or review on Flixter. Even I could be considered an amateur film critic.

The question is, is this a good thing or a bad thing?

On one hand, those of us without degrees in film are being listened to, and can influence how movies are made and how they are received with our opinions. There are more and more avenues for us to explore our opinions, and more resources for us to back our own opinions up by listening to analyses and arguments from a variety of different places. The movie industry is no longer in the hands of the ‘chosen few’, the ‘elite’ and educated. Now, the power is shared equally, if not disproportionately with the audiences, the average movie watchers. You and me.

On the other hand?

Without a level of objectivity about film, some of these movie watchers who post their opinions online do so without reserve, leaving sometimes vitriolic reviews with little to no reason for their hatred beyond personal preference. It is thanks to this modern phenomenon that has left the paths open for raging, ranting reviews against various films that simply don’t appeal to them, without rhyme or reason. Alternatively, other resources choose to look at films and nitpick them endlessly, adding up minuscule details and ‘plot holes’ and claiming that these make a film good or bad.

It is this type of thinking that leads to the Oscar viewership dropping. It is this phenomenon that leads people to value the score on Rotten Tomatoes over that of the critics.

Once again, it leads one to wonder: is this a good or bad thing?

With this decline in interest in the critics relatively objective verdict of a film due to claims of the critics and audiences never agreeing, all that’s left is to look at what the audiences have to say. Many movie goers point to the box office, or popularity of a film to decide whether a film is good instead, but by that logic, Transformers and The Fast and the Furious are on a level similar to The Lion King and Mission Impossible.

In other words, objectivity can very easily be lost if you pay attention to a movie’s popularity over its quality.

The balance between popularity and quality is not a strange one, especially on this blog. Also familiar to us is the struggle between the word of the critics and the word of the audiences. In an era where anybody can influence how a movie is viewed, it can seem like it’s more important than ever to choose a side, to figure out whose advice they are going to take. Who we’re going to listen to. Does the word of the critics mean anything, or do they simply laud ‘artistic’ films, looking down their noses at the more comprehensible fare that the viewers are more likely to see? Do audiences know an objectively good film when they see it, or will they go down defending popcorn flicks as Oscar contenders?

Which side are we to pick?

As an avid moviewatcher who both enjoys film, and wants to be objective about it, my argument comes down very closely to the same opinions I held in the ‘objectivity vs. subjectivity’ article I posted: a little of both.

Is the word of the critics valid? Yes. Critics are people too, and their opinions are (supposed to be) founded on academia. Critics can tell us if a film is objectively good, if the production quality is up-to-snuff, if the performances, pacing, cinematography and story are, by the standards of ‘good filmmaking’, good. By the same token, they can only get you so far.

Any consumption of art is subjective, and the same goes for film. We can search for like-minded reviewers and analysts who we can determine our own judgements over whether or not to see a film, or try to figure out what you liked about it. In other words, there doesn’t have to be a one-or-the-other argument.

So, to answer our previous question, is this new era of the everyman film critic a good thing or a bad thing?

Honestly? I’d say it’s a good thing.

Right now, there are a plethora of opinions that are more likely to match up with the opinions of the audience because they are the audience. By applying analysis and critical thinking to the films that people are interested in, more people are encouraged to think about the films they are watching instead of simply discounting the opinions of the critics, thinking of them as the ‘Hollywood Elite’. Now, there are more resources than ever for finding arguments for and against specific viewpoints or analyses of certain elements of certain films, genres, even directors and actors. We are living in an age where I can type in the name of a film and find more analysis than I know what to do with.

Yes, that’s a good thing. We have more viewpoints to compare, more things to think about, and we can even more easily spot when the critics and the audiences’ opinions do match up. Cases like Star Wars, Dead Poets Society, and Forrest Gump prove that it is possible for the two to agree, and the increase in access to a wider variety of opinions and reasons for opinions can help up-and-coming film critics and movie-goers alike think about what they’re watching, whether they agree with the reviewer or not.

In the end, the purpose of film criticism and analysis is to inform an audience about movies, and point out elements that casual movie-goers might not be paying much attention to. They exist to summarize, highlight, and explain what was good about a film, and what was bad about it. This serves as an excellent aide to our own thought processes as we watch movies ourselves, helping us figure out what we liked or did not like, and why, whether the critic has a degree in film or not. Film critics are there, especially in multitude, to add to the movie experience, to help us think, and to provide information about movies.

In an era where anyone can create a YouTube account or a blog and start reviewing, there are dangers of oversaturation and, of course, there’s always the possibility that you simply won’t agree with any of the opinions out there. There are those who base their reviews solely in subjectivity, and those who do the opposite. But these are problems easily solved, once again, with critical thinking, and using the feedback of others to help us formulate our opinions about whether or not to watch a film, or even to help us think about one we’ve already seen.

A degree in film is not needed to smartly evaluate a film. What is needed is fairness in judgement, and a keen eye. Knowing what to look for certainly helps, but in the end, it’s about offering a thoughtful opinion on something in order to inform and persuade, the same as it has been since 1904. Everyone has their own thoughts to share.

Movie criticism hasn’t changed fundamentally. The things that make a movie good are the same: story, characters, cinematography, performances, and all the rest. What has changed is the number of people, and the number of ways, that those things are analyzed. What we have now that we didn’t before is, primarily, variety, and the technology to spread our ideas.

All in all? This new era of media analysis is far from bad. What matters now is making sure that it’s used well. And that’s what this blog is all about.

Thank you guys so much for reading! Please, don’t forget that the ask box is always open if you have any ideas, suggestions, discussion topics, questions, or just want to say hi! I hope to see you guys in the next article.

#Movies #Film

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dxfiedfxte-a · 4 years

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THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Meme.

Mun & Muse

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

tagged by: Stolen from: @niflheimqueen tagging: @pinkheartedfool, @divinesilverlove @delusorydetective @rock-you-like-a-hurricxne @foolishwinds @chibitantei @apocalypsxmaidxn @mcmcntomorii and everyone else who hasn’t yet! You have been tagged!

MY MUSE IS: canon / oc / au / slightly canon-divergent / fandomless / complicated.

IS YOUR CHARACTER POPULAR IN THE FANDOM? YES? / NO.

IS YOUR CHARACTER CONSIDERED HOT™ IN THE FANDOM? YES / NO / IDK. (Have you seen his charm!! PLUS HE’S A RANDOM FOODAHOLIC DORK X3 and be weirdly cute in his own way :3 If you don’t believe me. wait until he Reveals His Right Eye)

IS YOUR CHARACTER CONSIDERED STRONG IN THE FANDOM? YES / NO / IDK. (Here’s the thing with that. It really depends if someone likes him as an MC. I’m sure their are probably others out there who may prefer Yu Narukami as a better Protag, or Akira the new P5 protag. So it depends on the person. But for the most part, I’d like to think he’s pretty well widely enough known in the fandom as the P3 Blue-Emo-Jesus who saved the world x3)

ARE THEY UNDERRATED? YES / NO / IDK. (In terms of having his own personality, maybe a little bit? Since he’s only been able to express his own personality in the few spin off games we got for P3. Yu has been able too more, but for a while he wasn’t able to until Persona Q(P4 Side) and until the movie and now Dancing In Moonlight as well as Persona Q 2. But his personality in the P3 Manga if definitely underrated in my opinion, not too many people talk about the Manga)

WERE THEY RELEVANT FOR THE MAIN STORY? YES / NO

WERE THEY RELEVANT FOR THE MAIN CHARACTER? YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG./

ARE THEY WIDELY KNOWN IN THEIR WORLD? YES / NO. (In my AU Main verse, he’s a famous Paranormal Investigator with his own show, so yes in my AU verse. Tho popularity level depends on verse, Main verse its his first season and he only just blew up. In my P5 Verse its 5 years after P4AU so he would be in his 4th season by then and only then be widely known)

HOW’S THEIR REPUTATION? GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. (As a Paranormal Investigator, all his successful cases have gave him a very good rep within the Ghost Hunting community, it was thanks to his credibility how he was able ro get a

tv contract deal. In P3 he has a great rep with his friends as their reliable leader and friend, but a not so good rep at school too many dates.. xD nice one Minato )

HOW STRICTLY DO YOU FOLLOW CANON? — (Because I started to RP Minato when there’s wasn’t much games where he didn’t have his personality shown yet(2015) I based him off more from the Manga’s interpretation of him, But now canon wise in terms of Personality, I still tend to use mostly his Manga personality, but now I’ve added a few small tidd-bits of how he is in the movie and how he is depicted in both PQ’s as well as Dancing In Moonlight.)

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting

in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals. — (Oh boy here we go. Minato is a food loving and very random dork who tends to be quiet and stoic 88% of the time, but he’s very kind, he always puts his friends before himself, he tries his very best to be the best leader he can possibly be and he is an all around easy person to get along with, just expect him to zone out here and there, to sometimes be very weird, VERY random. And expect him to randomly start snacking a lot x3 )

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?). (He can sometimes have a tendency to overthink things waaayyyy too much and if it’s really eating at him a lot, it will permanently plague the back of his mind. He can sometimes be lazy, but its a habit he’s trying to break. If he’s really super hungry, he will gorge and when he gorges, his tables manners are absolutely terrible XD )

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO RP YOUR MUSE? — (I guess it was how I saw him when I read the Manga. I played P3 FES first, then after beating it, I wanted to read the manga as soon as I found out about it. I also think it was the fact he dies and seeing how his friends grew up without him, it made me really want to see what it would be like if he survived, I guess I felt his death at the end of the game was just a real shame, I suppose I thought he would have been a great character to bring back in future Persona games, I understand the reason for his death and I have nothing against it. It was just that thought I had of “Man Minato could have been so much more if he survived” that drove me to pick him up )

WHAT KEEPS YOUR INSPIRATION GOING? — (Well, I’ve been in the Persona fandom for 5 years now. Before when I came back, I wasn’t getting many rp’s. But ever since I came back and found an active Fuuka(MinaFuu is a ship I rarely got to rp) so that started it back up, and then it was seeing all these familiar faces(Or blogs in this case xD) come back, my motivation has been through the roof. So I guess the revival of the fandom and the wonderful people of the Persona community has fueled my fire and it keeps on burning for more!)

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

DO YOU THINK YOU GIVE YOUR CHARACTER JUSTICE? YES / NO / I SINCERELY HOPE I DO? (I think so, I’ve Rp’d him for 5 years now, I’d like to think I know him inside and out?)

DO YOU FREQUENTLY WRITE HEADCANONS? YES / NO / SORT OF? (When the motivation or idea’s are there then yeah I totally do)

DO YOU SOMETIMES WRITE DRABBLES? YES / NO (I definitely do, not as many as I’d like to tho, but when the idea comes to mind that you just can’t express in an rp with someone else, then its best in drabble form.)

DO YOU THINK A LOT ABOUT YOUR MUSE DURING THE DAY? YES / NO (I’m a very musical person myself just like Minato so every time I jam I do and I’m always jammin ;3)

ARE YOU CONFIDENT IN YOUR PORTRAYAL? YES / NO / SORT OF?

ARE YOU CONFIDENT IN YOUR WRITING? YES / NO / A LITTLE BIT. (In the beginning I wasn’t, but I kept at it and eventually I built up enough confidence to really make him soar. The thing with Minato is since Persona protags are silent and the game lets you make up his personality. But since I incorporate him more from the Manga I try to really channel that version of him. I’ve had a few people tell me they like my portrayal. So I must be doing something right?)

ARE YOU A SENSITIVE PERSON? YES / NO. / SORTA. (tbh I’m more sensitive when it comes to my friends or family. Most times I’m pretty level headed when it comes to myself, nowadyas anyway.)

DO YOU ACCEPT CRITICISM WELL ABOUT YOUR PORTRAYAL? — (For the most part yes and I don’t usually let any negativity get to me. But if someone doesn’t like my portrayal for some reason then you’re welcome to unfollow me. Maybe I’m not the Minato for you then?)

DO YOU LIKE QUESTIONS, WHICH HELP YOU TO EXPLORE YOUR CHARACTER? — (DEF I love any questions I get so please def ask me stuff if you are curious.)

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES TO A HEADCANON OF YOURS, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY? — (Yes, just so I can get a better idea of the flaws it may have, then I can better construct it if I see it as a valid reason for possibly not working. If I don’t see any problem with it then it’s still staying )

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES WITH YOUR PORTRAYAL, HOW WOULD YOU TAKE IT? — (If my portrayal doesn’t fit your idea of Minato then perhaps I’m not the Minato for you and the unfollow button is always there. No harm done really. )

IF SOMEONE REALLY HATES YOUR CHARACTER, HOW DO YOU TAKE IT? — (Hey man, just don’t try and kill my vibe by cutting down my muse right in front of me and we’re good. Of course there is always the unfollow button. )

ARE YOU OKAY WITH PEOPLE POINTING OUT YOUR GRAMMATICAL ERRORS? — (Totally, I make quite a few sometimes, if it ever bothers you, please let me know kindly and I’ll have no problem fixing it, But if it doesn’t bug ya the we good. )

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE EASY GOING AS A MUN? — (I like to think so, I used to be pretty shy on here, but after 5 years on here I’m chill with pretty much everything. )

#OutOfSnacks(OOC)#About The Mun #This was p fun ^_^

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kendrixtermina · 5 years

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Since you seem to enjoy analyzing stories I was wondering if you have any advice on what to do when your mind narrows in on critical aspects? I usually really enjoy analyzing media but recently I found that my mind tends to hyper-focus on aspects that I don't like even when I'm actively trying to ignore it and focus on what I do like. So I was just curious if you have tips for dealing with it and/or getting out of this mindset. Thanks and I apologize if this isn't the right blog for this!

Ugh. This is a big question and I’m not sure I’m qualified or immune to complaining. But I consider myself honored, I’ll try my best to answer it.

There’s three things you can do here

a) Try to find out where it’s coming from.

Cross-examine yourself active listening wise. Your reactions can generally come from two places: What you’re actually looking at, or yourself.

Is everything annoying you as of late because you are angry? Are you having a bad week because of something in your private life? Are you sensitive because some larger tendency in RL/society is pissing you off? Is it even anger? What are you feeling and why? Does it really have anything to do with this movie etc?

Or is it something about the work itself? Does it remind you of something that happened to you? Does your displeasure come from a value that is important to you or a pattern that you believe to be a bad influence on society.

Really try to put into words what it is that makes you feel this way while keeping in mind that your feelings, your reaction to the work and the work itself are separate entities.

I’d remain open to the possibility that you have a legitimate gripe here. If you personally can’t enjoy a work either because a subjective factor or an objective flaw that’s a dealbreaker for you, you shouldn’t force yourself to like it because your friends do or because it didn’t do anything “unforgiveable”. Deciding that it’s not your cup of tea needn’t be a moral judgement on everyone who made the work or everyone who likes it.

On the other hand you might find it easier to enjoy it if you acknowledge the flaw and put it into definite words, tell your inner critic that you heard them and then continue. If you try not to think about something you automatically end up thinking about it.

b) Keep in mind that there are many valid stories and that all of them are worth telling

A lot happens on this green earth. Consider the following cases:

A1: A small, lithe person is mistreated by a big strong one

A2: A small, lithe person mistreats a big strong one and pretends to be the victim appealing to their small ness

B1: An eccentric kid is labeled as disordered just for being eccentric and because the teachers don’t want to deal with her

B2: A serious-minded kid has an actual anxiety disorder and experiences stigma because of it and people not understanding that it’s real and debilitating

C1: There is a socially awkward, nerdy character. She is eventually revealed as autistic and her friends accept her just as she is.

C2: There is a socially awkward, nerdy character. She comes out as aroace and all her friends support her. It is emphasized that she is actually as affectionate as everyone else and preconceptions to the contrary were just bigoted misunderstandings.

C3: There is a socially awkward, nerdy character. She finds a significant other who loves her even though she is socially awkward, and her love leads her to discover more communicative passionate sides to her personality.

Clearly, for each of these scenarios, there are going to be people who relate to some but not to others. If you’ve got an anxiety disorder you’re going to relate to the story with the anxiety disorder, and if you were mis-labeled by incompetent teachers you’re gonna relate to that. But both actually happen in real life. B1 is me B2 is one of my sisters. You might even say they’re caused by some of the same intolerant attitudes.

So ask yourself: Is any of these intended as a “fuck you” to the people who would rather have the other ones? If in one particular story the character was mistakenly labeled by incompetent teachers and never had a real disorder, it it saying that no one has real disorders? If the small and lithe character turns out to be the victim, does it mean that big and strong characters are never victims? No of course not.

- You can criticize it if the story outright makes such statements and it is vital to do so (see next paragraph), but if the point in the story is just that this particular character was wrongly labeled, or this particular small character was the victim, then it’s simply telling a different story, not at all making a point about whether real disorders or big strong victims exist.

What’s cathartic or empowering or meaningful to people is as different as people themselves. There’s a good chance that there won’t be an exact match between you or any given authors.

Often the problem is not the stories that are there, but the ones that are missing. It’s not per se bad to have “girl gets rescued by prince” stories, it’s only bad if they’re the ONLY stories. The solution is more stories.

Obviously there are exceptions to that like stuff that outright includes negative stereotypes or unquestioned bad behavior treated as good,

c) Focus on constructivity and context instead of loaded labels

The above was more about perceived flaws this one is about real indisputable flaws. Flaws that are important to point out.

The number one goal here, if you really care about stopping harm and not anyones egos, should be to get people to stop doing it.

Sometimes in extreme cases making someone out to be a bad person and warning of them is exactly how you stop harm, but often time its not and getting obsessed with “punishing bad people” while losing sight of “preventing harm” does zero to help the people actually being harmed. Or worse than zero, if you associate a worthy cause with frivolous squabbles.

Some people just don’t care and will never change their ways but you won’t ever convince those. You need to convince everyone else. All the ones who are maybe just ignorant and didn’t know better, or never had to form an opinion about this. Even if the maker themselves won’t change opinion, you can sway those.

Imagine a bigoted religious person. how are you more likely to convince them? Get them to stop being religious, which is probably a part of their identity? Or try and argue that equality is, in fact, compatible with their religion? If you step on people’s egoes they will be attacked and block/dismiss all you have to say. Not only will they not change, they’ll dig in their heels. In the worst case, they’ll now start thinking that your Reasonable Position is incompatible with their identity.

Again some people are determined to have their egoes stepped on and will be insulted no matter what, but those are not the target.

This isn’t about appeasing assholes, it’s about creating change, because that will stop harm. So instead of throwing negatively changed emotional labels at people (which activates the ego and the emotions) try talking about cause and effect and consequences, to talk to their reason. Explain how the consequences happen.

For similar reasons, try to think of solutions. You don’t want to destroy the work, you want to make it a better work that more people can enjoy without being distracted by unnecessary flaws.

Avoid:

“X is a [negative label] who [buzzword] a [sympathy-drawing label]!!! Why are [entire social group that contains people you want to convince] like this?!”

Instead:

“I know that this was probably supposed to express [intention], but it comes off like [unfortunate implication] and given [harmful social tendency] it might have been better to do [alternate redendition] “

Example #1: “The intention in scenes like in the original Blade Runner, several James Bond Movies or in the Original Star Wards trilogy where the original male characters was probably that these protagonists being suave guys know that the girls really want them to screw/kiss them. The authors know this because they created the characters, but IRL you cannot actually read anyone’s mind and what often happens IRL is that person A proceeds without really making sure that the other person is comfortable, and then they freeze up in fear though they don’t want to have intercourse, and ends up horribly traumatized. There’s not enough general knowledge about the “freeze” part of “fight-flight or freeze”, or good consent education and it would be irresponsible to make this worse.

All it would literally take to fix it is to have the girls explicitly show that they want to kiss/have sex.”

Example #2: “A lot of horror fiction slaps the names of real diagnosable conditions on what are basically violent monster villains. It’s only natural to wonder what’s going on in the minds of killers and monsters and try to want to contextualize this, but it is vital to keep in mind that there is currently a lot of stigma against people with mental ilnesses, and that depictions like this can make it worse and make it hard for actual real-life people to get jobs and housing.

If you’re going to use the names of real-life diagnosable conditions you should be committed to researching them and writing the characters realistically while being mindful of the stigma and the social impact that wrong renditions would have and not make a freakshow out of it.

Alternatively, if you just want to do an unrealistic horror movie killer, don’t use the names of real conditions that real people have.”

d) Refresh Button.

Especially because you’re saying that this isn’t your default mode and that it feels like some recent thing that you don’t really want.

- take a break, busy your mind with something else, give the subconscious time toprocess and old perceptions time to settle. Then come back to it.

- Try sort of looking at it from a new perspective, to deconstruct it from the bottom. What dothing really mean? What are we really told about the characters and events? Try processing it all new from the ground up without “common widom”

- Things that aren’t explained on screen aren’t necessarily plot holes. There’s a difference between a contradiction, something that can’t fit together, and something that can fit together you just don’t know how. Deduce. Speculate. This is where your logic and imagination come in.

- Maybe watch a new person react to it for all new input like a reaction vid on youtube

e) Outside Data.

Same as above - People are basically really sophisticated Boltzmann machines/ statistical learning algorithms. I#m the least to want to admit that but to a degree we’re all influenced by the Data we take in.

If you’re surrounded by a lot of material and soucres that pick apart every little thing in media, it’s natural that it would arise as a thought.

If you don’t really want that in your life, filter it out.

I hope this was of some sort of use. But I stress again that I’m no kind of authority on any such things and that many others might pick this apart as blasphemy.

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dyketectivecomics · 5 years

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Your opinion on Young Justice (cartoon)?

(possibly unpopular & especially critical opinion incoming. friendly reminder that I tag my hate with the tag “#whyj” bc I've seen someone cleverer than me using it and am totally using it from now on)

tl;dr - It’s overrated. (if u stan YJ & read any further past this and get Big Mad, its on u lmao. final warning, you might wanna turn away.)

-The character development is nearly nonexistent or relies too much on fans already having preconceived notions/understandings of their comic counterparts, and failing that, the fandom’s developed their own Idealized Fanon versions of all of them (which completely ignore the DECADES of comic canon to be pulled from in some cases). Which is another reason why i nope out of any work that takes YJ canon into consideration.

-The plot only runs cleanly as a binged drama, and even then, it’s not.... As Good As You Think. which was likely why it suffered in the first place since even seemingly ‘standalone’ episodes end up having some kind of overarching relevance. Watching it weekly and trying to connect what happened 6-8 episodes ago was a nightmare back in 2013, it’s a nightmare now, and its time we all admit it.

-The line-up is WACK and an INSULT to what Young Justice was. At least Teen Titans had the decency to follow ONE partial line-up that actually existed in the comics. The YJ team line-up is a poorly chosen one, and now the subsequent team-ups are all suffering for it.

-Aging issues too! De-aging Zatanna has always been my biggest pet peeve. but considering they thought it necessary to make Dick Grayson the Youngest of the crowd, aging up Kon & M’gann when they should be in Tim’s age group, it just further highlights why there’s such a disconnect between the stuff from comic canon that they’re suddenly trying to cram into their own, and what’s already been established, and why it’s just become a mess that fans who actually read & keep up with comics can’t connect with.

-that being said, it’s a cool way to make non-comics fans to understand some aspects of comics culture that i’ve been picking up on. Mostly due to the fact that these can be similar issues to be found with team books, especially when there might be Events that they may miss a key element of, or with the timeskips, which can be a necessary and SOMETIMES an interesting storytelling device (but only when its properly used. which it rarely is both in the show and in comics themselves)

-moving onto This Season all of the ‘representation’ that they’ve been trying to give comes across as strictly performative. (but this should be no surprise really, considering their #Feminist!!1!! moments from the previous season) They’ve introduced or hinted at development for side characters only to have them set aside for the main plot & come dangerously close to spreading the cast too thin by introducing so many characters, almost exponentially each season.

-they’re great at throwing around Ideas and then not.... completely following through with Satisfying payoff (bc most of the time when they DO follow through it’s just.... not Great Scoob)

-there COULD be brilliant character moments, but they all fall flat, because again, not a lot of meaningful follow up for those developments.

-its just.... a mess. I'm honestly trying to find one (1) good thing to say about it but I'm gonna end up talking in circles now. any one might be wondering ‘well gosh, randy, if you hate so much about it why are you watching it?’ and thats honestly a valid question. at this point i just want to see what’s happening plotwise with it because i AM invested there, but that’s honestly it. all signs are pointing to them introducing raven for SOME DAMN REASON in the 11th hour (i mean what the FUCK ELSE COULD ‘NEVERMORE’ BE A FUCKIN REFERENCE TO) but i think i might drop it right after that. or just binge it in one fucking go when they bring the 4th season around. I'm honestly still just so salty that they gave em a 4th fucking season. did y'all REALLY ask for this? i mean really? do we really deserve these barebones SCRAPS of rep and character development? no. we deserve better.

-also phil bourassa’s style is overdone, tiring, and not as Inspired as YJ fans want to pretend that it is. say what you will about the Timmverse style, at least it had panache & a timeless aesthetic for each cartoon. YJ/animated 52 universe movies just.... rely too much on being ‘wow! americanime!’

#whyj #asked and answered #anonymous asks #randywrites #negative ///#y'all keep that in mind if u read this salt #and no. this is not actually an invitation to change my mind #if y'all try to come into my inbox to 'DefENd YJ's h ON oR' i will just block u lmao #and possibly publicly ridicule you too #its called an opinion. you didn't HAVE to read mine lmao

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