#they just... act like righteous 14 year olds and

[ssaalexblake]

my dilemma is idk if i should get my brother in law a birthday gift or not. On one hand, i do not have the mental wellbeing to deal with them getting bitchy if i don’t, but on the other hand, I don’t want them thinking me buying him one is a sign of peace or whatever, i think him and my sister can, to be Very mild to what i’m feeling, can take a long walk off the shortest pier around here (we have a lot of piers). If not that, I have a plan with a cactus. My ideals do not include spending my money on him. 

and i’m the only person in the family they’ve not Yet personally attacked, just peripherally. But i’d really rather Not have them make me anxious to carry my phone around bc of what bs they might send me at any hour of the day, you know? 

but also i’d rather they not get me a gift for My birthday bc they so very maturely ruined my last one in the process of delivering my gift and acting like 4 year olds and i figure a good way to achieve that is to not buy them gifts sooooo yeah

why can’t they just act like normal functioning people???? Jumping to the worst conclusions and then digging your feet is bc u can’t stand to be wrong to the point you burn all bridges in your life is not a good ideaaaaaa

[derpinette]

i could never understand fujoshis because i already loathe seeing any male in charged implications of any type let alone TWO of them

[olderthannetfic]

Something that's always stuck with me is Stitch's followers dogpiling me for writing a Jewish Star Wars AU. Basically it was an AU where Finn was space Moses, the last of a noble Force-sensitive family who made sure he survived the destruction of their planet, and when his Force abilities awakened he went on to fight to free the other Stormtroopers. Stitch didn't like that I went in a Finn/Hux direction wherein Hux was a double agent embedded deep in the First Order, sabotaging it from the inside.

I was called a Nazi. I'm Jewish. I was called anti-black. I'm Beta Israeli, black and Ethiopian-American and proud. I was called a Pick Me POC, I was sent pictures of starving Ethiopian children, I was sent Holocaust pictures, people flooded my comments on AO3 - this was before it had a block feature - and even after I deleted my tumblr the hate bled over onto my other social media accounts. I was called slurs, I was told I should've starved to death, people told me my "Jew money" wouldn't buy off people this time, and I got hit by enough people calling me a monster, a bad person, etc. that I took the story down just to escape them.

Stitch only mentioned me once. Just once.

I think the real issue they have with AO3 is that at any point you can be blocked, comments can be turned off, people can find themselves unable to keep clawing at you again and again. You can make it so they have to be logged in to send their threats and then you can report them. They can dogpile "bad" fans all they want, but there are consequences for their actions. I was 14 then and easily intimidated. Many people on AO3 are not either of those things. You can't harass them off their own platform. And when you try, you end up being booted off of it instead.

The real reason Stitch doesn't like AO3 is that it's designed to protect authors, including "Pick Me POC" and "POC TOO" (get it, it's funny because it's like #MeToo, Stitch is oh so hilarious). It protects those of us who are neither white nor onboard with all of Stitch's opinions and, more broadly, not onboard with purity culture, respectability politics and people's demands that you change your content to match their idea of what a respectable fictional story looks like.

This is not about racism. It's about kicking people who are "wrong" aka write anything they don't like off of AO3 for pure, morally good, self-righteous reasons that they tell themselves make them not the bullies here. It's about control. They want you to do what they want or leave.

I've been rewriting my old fic and I'm planning on putting it back up sometime this year.

No, antis, you don't get to bully black people off of AO3 and call yourselves anti-racist and act like you're moral guardians. To be a moral guardian, you'd need some morals. If you don't like the site's policies, get off of it. I am entitled to my space on AO3 just as much as anyone else. I am not Less Than, and the fact that my own people were the ones telling me I was has permanently made me suspicious of alleged anti-racism campaigns in fandom. I know who these people are when they know there won't be consequences for their actions and they're not people I'd trust to run a bake sale, let alone a fandom archive.

--

Yikes! That's quite an experience for a 14-year-old!

[yall-hate-kids-tourney]

Loser Round 1: Damian Wayne (DC) vs. Aang (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Propaganda below the cut

Damian Wayne:

Damian is a kid who was raised as an assassin and because of that when he first appears he has some really messed up ideas of how to prove himself to his father by being aggressive with the criminals they capture and attacking his brother. Because of this people act like he is the most evil character ever and refuse to give him any grace. They make him out to be this awful irredeemable monster who just wants to kill his brother and hurt people. If the fandom isn’t making his out to be The Worst(tm) then they are ignoring his existence all-together. He is a really interesting character who has done some not so great things but he’s grown and learned a lot through various character arcs (as much of an arc as a comic book character can have) and he deserves to be acknowledged for himself and not just as a villain so that people can woobify his brother.

——

HES JUST A LITTLE BABY GUY!!!!! Little baby man raised as an assassin and learning how to be a real person <3. But because he was kind of a dick and also a little stabby early-on, especially to the fandom's main "so sad uwu depressed baby" blorbo (and also he's not white), people treat him like he's satan incarnate

Aang:

Aang is a kid who was thrown into responsibility against his will and when he ran away he woke up to a world where everything and everyone he loved was gone. A lot of the decisions he makes that people attack him for are either a result of his grief and attempts to keep his people beliefs alive or his immaturity because his is literally a child. Also he is constantly getting slandered in ship wars because of the way he interacts with Katara in canon because he is often selfish with her and obviously that makes him such a horrible guy! (No he is just a kid who is stumbling through his relationships like all of us do.) Everything he does makes perfect sense considering his age and circumstances and I’m tired of people saying he should have done things differently. God forbid a traumatized child not act like a perfect reasonable angel with the mental capacity and communication skills of an adult. 

——

People are really over there saying the 12 year-old boy is a horrible and selfish person for refusing to murder a man !! He's 12 !! He's the last of his culture, which valued life and pacifism, and wants to keep that alive !! HE'S 12 !!!!!!!

People also like to pretend he can't understand another character whose mom was murdered because he believes it's important to Not let yourself be consumed by revenge, and is being self-righteous for asking her to Not go on a revenge quest (often in the name of shipping wars) when

1) His Whole People Were Killed, and

2) homegirl is 14, asking her to not kill someone when she doesn't have to, for her own good is literally the right thing to do

[horizon-verizon]

The way GRRM almost confirmed that even though genetic might have a part on it but the concept of “madness” is mostly part perspective and it is placed in the eye of the beholder like the light we choose to see the characters.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F8WT9vmXcAA5hlm?format=jpg&name=900x900

Take Baelor I for example. For godly people, religious zealotry is perceived as the epitome of morality but for others, Baelor sounds mentally ill. Same with 14 years old Daeron I who wanted to conquer a kingdom which his ancestors with dragons couldn’t. For martial people he sounds like a badass, but for others ? They think he’s a madman. And yet, Daeron I is seen as an ideal of martial grandeur and prodigious achievement and he remains as popular among the nobility as his brother Baelor is among the smallfolk. 

“Can be interperted in many different ways… I want complexity and subtlety in my fiction”. Boiling everything down to eugenics and determinism is not complex or subtle. The type of things that GRRM hates to write about. ASOIAF ain’t Harry Potter.

The way in which people in this fandom talks about mental illness just puts me off. Pretty much everyone equates cruelty and violent behavior with mental illness. The fandom tend to use “mad” as a shorthand for any Targ that behaves in an extremely cruel or violent way like them insisting that Maegor was a mad Targ as well. But it so interesting that you still don’t see them calling Aemond a madman.

shots fired. (the tags are just ways of org, and sometimes they are sarcastic/ironic)

Yeah, I've noticed the fandom's tendency to both demonize mental illness & conflate mental illness (characterized as a pejorative) with straight up willful cruelty when it wants to vilify a Targ. Like you can still hold mentally ill, cruel people accountable for their cruel actions, but the fandom tends to preemptively assign any Targ who acts cruelly and violently as "crazy". AND then in a way meaning "they are a menace that needed/s to be put down", rather than when they assign victimhood-mental illness to another non-Targ or just male who does a cruel, vicious, and/or selfish act and they try to explain that away with mental illness. As if the person doesn't know or cannot stop themselves from doing horrific actions, a slave to their own afflictions.

And it's bec this habit is inherited/continues to be used to reason why Dany should not either survive nor rule anything. People use mental illness (real or not) to claim that women should not live and be present amongst "normal" society and villainize her emotions or though processes, esp when she's being confrontational or trying to go against expectations and desires of the public/men. As a way to get collective consent for her punishment by banishment or death, a way to get her out of the way and for it to be seen as morally righteous. And with Dany, the way to do that is to keep constantly referring to her lineage as inescapably and "naturally" "mad"; so it's very easy and often that when they wish to express a certain Targ was not worth studying or understanding and just be hateful, they will use this tactic against women or the Other against them.

I said before that it's not just nonTargs but men people tend to assign this "is crazy, no empathy or attempt at intellectually assessing for understanding of human shit". So why not SOME Targ men like Maegor or Daeron? And when do people decide that a man's violence & cruelty is not salvageable, understandable, or excusable? Basically:

Maegor went far beyond the boundaries that men in/out world would consider "necessary"; violence against the majority status quo males of the Seven and his own court (he beheaded one male courtier who said he didn't get the thorn legitimately or something, I forget) AND he was helped by Visenya

Maegor was also aop suffered a massive head injury that only Tyanna of the Tower was capable (as by record) healing, so one might say that much of his willingness post-injury to be violent also came from that injury...before that injury, he was pretty intimidating, but not violent...but at the same time, even before said head injury, he displayed pretty machismo, self centered actions [taking Blackfyre with little protest, leaving Visenya's sword she gifted him when he got the "better" one, killing a horse at 13-ish?, taking Alyssa Velaryon's teasing abt not having a dragon way too seriously, etc.]

Daeron wasn't "crazy" nor mentally ill - he was just extremely ambitious, young, and eager to prove himself/be the one to first bring the Targ dynasty a new sort of prestige in their dragonless beginnings, esp--as you said I said in another post--in the light of his family having lost the dragons - Daeron had the same social condition as many other young men who want to make a hero out of themselves AND that personal desire to be "Great", Alexander the Great style.

Baelor I constantly did stuff that were annoying to nobles or about to be harmful while also granting smallfolk some alleviations to get that "loved" factor among the most hapless of the population, which I think def fed into his religiosity-ego even as I think that he DEF had an mental illness...

I think that a lot of machismo/masculinity compels men to do extreme, stupid shit bc Western masculinity itself means that one must push boundaries, dominate, take, confront, etc. with other men knowing about it in order to "prove" you are "strong". "Strength" = masculinity; it works to be very flat and that flatness gets disguised as "naturally" simple, which lends to its own credibility as "real" strength. So whether they do some things that are logically illogical in a spectacle or publicly, it's so easy for people to try to claim men are just being boys and/or switch that up with "he was just mentally ill" when he decides to shoot up an Asian nail salon or a school. To be a man--esp a white one, but white masculinity = default masculinity--IS itself to be the real type of "crazy" that they will characterize as "bad" crazy in women or minority races/ethnic groups.

Thus Valyrians/descendants can also easily get this "madness" thing even if they are male.

Male "strength"--which is the general Western idea of "strength", period--is a very loaded double standard in that it's automatically assigned to the vague notion of masculinity as if the two are one thing, but it constantly shows itself to be two-trying-to-be-one through this notion of "proving", and this is the eternal conflict with men that they never want to actually address or think about bc thinking and self reflecting is not necessicity when masculinity is assigned as perfect in of itself. Some men do, but they are/have been a minority. Most/enough men will either flagrantly deny, attack, or not speak at all.

I wrote a whole post about religion, Baelor I, and Daeron I HERE.

[syraxesrevenge]

i don't usually get involved with team stuff but mini rant (im low-key losing my fucking mind)

I don't understand people who are Team Green, and not because of their opinions on the characters. I find Team Green as some of the most complex, interesting characters in the whole lot of asoiaf.

1: First of all, the treatment of the strong boys. They act like Jace and Luke are absolute monsters; which, I don't necessarily agree with, but without bias I do agree they are not pure and cherubic angels. Lucerys is impulsive and childish, making jokes about actual trauma and maiming a ten year old who was influenced by his older brother. Jacaerys has extreme anger issues which lead to him acting arrogantly and stubbornly to the respite of his elders.

This does not mean they are *demons*, though, and do not deserve to be treated as such. I've seen people say that they were horrible for not showing a horrified reaction to Vaemond's death, that they should've felt remorse; what choice was for them to make? Lucerys was openly against the thing, wishing his own birthright upon the person who tried to usurp him; Jacaerys heard only the words "whore" and "bastards", which set him off. I do not blame him for this in the slightest; those words have been used his entire life to demonize him, villainize him and his mother.

Other people say Rhaenyra was terrible for making her sons believe they were real Targaryens, not admitting they were bastards and trying to persuade them from the throne. This take is just - abhorrent, imo. Jacaerys was taught by his grandsire, his mother, his father that he was going to inherit the throne just like his mother would before him. Lucerys and him obviously knew they were bastards - it is hard to ignore when everyone looks at you in the street, points you out, suggests you are not what you say. Jacaerys also spent his entire life, especially in the Dance, trying to prove himself a worthy heir. His traits of being well-studied and righteous were given to Aemond, because there would be no debate on who to choose if not.

"Team Green writers should've written the show! They're making the Blacks too sympathetic!"

The blacks are supposed to be the sympathetic ones. They are the tragedy of the war; the close-knit family that, in their pursuit to stay together, were torn apart and murdered by themselves. Joffrey died alone. Lucerys died alone. Jacaerys died alone. Daemon died alone. Rhaenyra was the only one who died with her son. They were the epitome of a caring, loving family - and what did that get them? Their reluctance to be ruthless resulted in the cold murder of a child. Lucerys was 13 in the book - 14/15 in the show. His death should be as hard hitting and as sympathetic as Jaehaerys, but somehow, it is not. To make a joke about Vhagar ripping Arrax to pieces is funny, to make a joke about Blood and Cheese is horrible. The double standard is just *baffling* to me.

Another thing - most of TG loves Jon Snow. They think that Daenerys was mad, that she deserved to die, that she was evil. By this precedent, if you can accept a legitimized bastard on the throne in the form of Jon, why is it *so hard* to picture Jacaerys on the throne?

"They have no personality!"

They had absolutely no screentime. The writers gave a scene to a fucking *foot fetish*, and they could not give us a scene of Lucerys, Jacaerys, or Joffrey. Especially when Lucerys was going to die in that season - he had a total of 23 minutes of screentime, and near 6 minutes of lines. That is not even half of an episode worth - especially for him to just be sitting in the background. And the times when he is talking? He is made to be the most unsympathetic character, ever. Laughing at Aemond, attacking Aemond - he is used mainly as a plot device, and it's sad, because I truly believe he deserved better than that, bc Elliot Grihault is a great actor :D

might make a part 2 if this idiot in a discord RP keeps insisting tg is righteous and perfect and amazing and MY fav characters suck ass

[anghraine]

I never saw anyone complainy about Darcy's reaction to Georgiana, but if I saw I would riot. He is a victim of Wickham and his decision, while not 100% right is not to be judge. I say this especially because I saw a similar situation in my life, where a girl of 14 had a thing with an adult and believe me, instead of judging the adult, a lot of people were blaming the girl, THE 14 YEAR OLD GIRL WAS BLAMED NOT THE 26 MAN.

So, if even nowadays we have dumb people judging a child instead of the adult, imagine in the regency era. If I was Georgiana sister I would 100% be quiet. I wouldn't want my sister to go through what I saw that 14 year old go through.

Besides, If someone is to blame for what happened with Lydia is Mr and Mrs Bennet, her parents, especially Mr. Bennet. He knew his daughter was innocent and would do inappropriate things and, instead of doing his fatherly duty and forbid her to go and help her to be more reasonable.

I've definitely seen it, unfortunately.

While the #1 responsible party is Wickham, by a mile, Lydia's general propensity towards impulsive, self-serving actions is pretty clearly a result of her parents' mixture of over-indulgence and neglect. Wickham would have been a danger to someone regardless, but the Bennet parents' impact on Lydia by 16 made her a particularly convenient target for Wickham or anyone else who flattered his way into her affections.

I also think that people sometimes forget that, while Georgiana is the proximate victim and has suffered the most acutely, the one Wickham really wanted to punish in her case was Darcy. When he trashes Georgiana to Elizabeth, the point seems less malice towards Georgiana herself (I suspect that "she is nothing to me" is one of the truer things he says) than tainting Darcy by association ("she is too much like her brother", etc). And he does also smear Darcy's character directly, of course.

This isn't to say that Darcy has it worse than Georgiana or Lydia, because he certainly doesn't or come close, but I think it's worth noting that he is the primary target of Wickham's malice and one of his victims as well, and people don't always appreciate just what a villain Wickham represented him as in their social context.

Even the vague details of Wickham's account that Darcy picks up from Elizabeth's rejection are enough to tell him he's been accused of something he considers depraved and a number of people, including Elizabeth, fully believe it. That's not equivalent to Wickham's exploitation of teenage girls, but it's still very bad, actually! So the idea that Darcy is the main culprit here is pretty distasteful to me, personally.

We can acknowledge that Darcy could have sacrificed the reputation of his 15-y-o sister (and ward) to protect any number of other girls, and instead he chose to prioritize the welfare of a single person because he personally loves her and is responsible for her. But we can also acknowledge that it's an awful choice to have to make and only happened because Wickham is a shitheel and Darcy keeps having to do damage control.

My best friend and I have talked about this kind of moral quandary—I'm sure there's a formal name somewhere, but we often talk about the question of whether taking a certain action for moral reasons, when you might have taken even more moral actions, is ignoble or simply less noble than you might have been. Like, are people obligated to do the most righteous thing possible, regardless of the cost to themselves or those around them, to be considered acting rightly at all? I'm not a philosopher, but I think it's a pretty difficult question and certainly more complex than "Darcy trying to protect the child under his care is reprehensible toxic masculinity" or whatever.

[cherienymphe]

okay

literally that anon isn’t claiming that they would encourage 13 year olds to go do it. you opened a discourse and they shared their experience (with no animosity or bitchiness i might add) and you continue to speak as if you’re the end all be all of opinions. you don’t have to agree but you don’t have to be a royal cunt either.

i had sex at 14. i’m 28. i don’t regret it and that is just as fine. i’m not going to go out and say ‘this is normal, do it, it’s okay’. it’s what happened, end of. middle school sex, yes fucking unusual. but that does not make us victims and you don’t get to tell someone they are. my experience is my experience, anon experience is their experience, your experience is your experience.

don’t turn your nose up and act righteous.

you’re pig-headed, cherie, and you continue to show yourself to be just like that.

you want to have discourse then you need to be able to DISCUSS without talking down.

honestly. shut the fuck up dude.

and if I don't stfu what are you going to do about it? Lol.

I'm not apologizing because I think it's weird to see people having a discussion about virginity and waiting to make level headed decisions and someone comes in all "I had sex at 13 and I'm great!" Please read the room.

Your wording also implies you stick around to watch me be "pig headed" and that's not weird at all. You seem to have some lingering animosity towards me and hanging around to keep up with someone you supposedly have such negative feelings for is unhinged behavior. Prioritize your mental health and unfollow/block me but I suppose that sounds too much like right

[wickedsrest-rp]

Name: Lara Martins Species: Hunter (Warden) Occupation: Director of Public Relations Age: 41 Years Old Played By: Paige Face Claim: Morena Baccarin

"Don’t thank me. It’s a bad habit to get into."

TW: Parental death

Raised by two wardens, with two hunter dynasties on either side of her family tree, Lara’s family tradition was violent and undifferentiating. All fae were abominations to be wiped from the earth. Her children’s stories told tales of the horrors of the fae, and her earliest memories were of weapons training and lectures on fae. She arrived in Wicked’s Rest at four years old, her parents following family members who asked for help taking out a local aos sí. After seeing the high supernatural activity in the area, her parents decided to stay.

Lara was taught early that knowledge of the fae was a burden for wardens alone. Normal humans could never be told what was going on just out of their sight. With a knack for lying, early in life that task was already often falling to her. One day, she would find herself telling the police just what was going on here, or another, explaining to a bystander exactly what it was they’d seen her family fighting.

But as it often went in her family, her parents died young, when Lara was 14. By then, there was only one living member of her family left in U.S., her cousin Cíntia. Cíntia was only 22 at the time, living on friends’ couches and not prepared to be any sort of mother figure. But after Lara’s parents died, she got her life together for Lara. Cíntia found a day job on top of hunting, got an apartment for the two of them, quit drinking, and picked up Lara’s training. In the following years, Cíntia became a role model for Lara, even more so than her own parents had been.

As Lara grew into adulthood, the two of them formed a vicious hunting team, carrying on the family custom of killing every fae they could find. When Lara got old enough to need a mundane job, a friend of Cíntia’s got Lara a job on Wicked’s Rest’s public relations team, where he worked cover up some of the supernatural occurrences in town. There, Lara sharpened her skills and dedication to covering up the supernatural. For years, she balanced these two sides of being a warden: killing the fae, and hiding them. Both of them, she thought, were part of her family's righteous purpose.

But that was all before Lara met Mae, a fae woman who saved Lara when she was almost killed by a group of trolls. For the first time, Lara thought twice before killing a fae. She couldn’t help but feel this one was different. Kind, and honest, and gentle. Uninterested in claiming bindings. The two struck up a tentative friendship. Soon enough, like something out a storybook, they’d fallen in love.

For just over a year Lara kept up her relationship and being a warden. She should have known better than to try a balancing act like that, but sometimes love makes you stupid. Mae knew Lara was warden, but Lara never told her the full extent of it. Over that year, Lara’s doubts about what she was doing grew. She hesitated more and more before killing fae who looked too human, seemed too kind. More than once that newfound hesitation almost got her killed.

Then one night, Cíntia stopped by Lara’s apartment unexpectedly and found Mae there. Lara tried to stop her, to convince her that Mae was different. But her cousin didn’t care. It was their duty to rid the world of fae. In the fight that followed, Mae and Cíntia were both fatally wounded, Cíntia at Lara’s own hands.

When Lara buried both their bodies, she decided she was done. She quit hunting and instead turned to her career. Hiding the supernatural was the one part of being a warden that still rang true. All the time and care she had once put into hunting, she poured back into her job. By the time the director of public relations for Wicked’s Rest retired, out of their small team, she was the natural pick to take his place. Spinning stories for humans, avoiding panic and paranoia, if she could do that right, maybe some bloodshed could be avoided. After all, she knew what humans did when they saw what walked among them.

Character Facts:

Personality: Competent, jaded, workaholic, pragmatic, secretive

Lara’s music genre of choice is metal, including a lot of heavy metal bands. It’s cathartic. The irony is not lost on her.

Even though she stopped actively hunting seven years ago, Lara finds it hard to leave all parts of the life, since it’s all she’s known most of her life. She still stays in fighting shape, still has hunter friends, and still goes to the 3 Daggers. Those connections often come in handy for staying ahead of the town’s paranormal news.

It wasn’t the reason why she stopped, but she likes that quitting hunting greatly increased the chance she’ll see an old age. She’s even started saving for retirement. Her goal is to save up enough for a nice retirement home where she can win all the other old ladies’ cafeteria desserts in games of high stakes scrabble, or whatever it is old ladies do there.

She’s never thanked anyone in her entire life, even if she knew they were human. It was how she was raised. Some of her employees think this makes her a little cold.

She personally writes most communications from the city that explain the completely sensible and non-supernatural reason for the latest unusual happening in town. Along those lines, she often writes town PSAs to try to keep people safe without clueing them in to what’s really happening.

She still keeps around a gun and stock of cold iron bullets. She hopes to never have to use them again, but in the end, if it’s her or someone else, she might. She has that retirement waiting.

[granhairdo]

A Comprehensive Review of A Little in Love by Susan Fletcher

Disclaimer: Everyone can interpret the original book however they want, this is just me comparing how I viewed the original book to this. You and the author of this novel might have interpreted Éponine quite differently than I did :)

Ever since I heard there was a novel from Éponine’s perspective, I’ve been very curious to read it. It took me a few months, but I eventually bought myself an eBook copy and read it. But to be quite honest, I didn’t really like it.

My problem with this novel isn’t necessarily an issue with the content, and more of an issue about what was promised from it, which led me to have issues with the content.

The Amazon description states that it stays true to Victor Hugo’s novel, which I find a lie. This could have just been the author’s interpretation of the character, but to me if feels more like fanfiction of the musical with some added novel characters than a full fledged published book based off the original novel.

Now, I can see why bits of the content was toned down a little bit. This was a novel intended for a young teenage audience (12-15) so some of the more adult themes needed to be cut, which is understandable as it’s for a younger age group. But it seemed like cutting wasn’t a problem with this, it really just got rid of mentions of sex or suicide, and that was about it. It even elaborated on the harsh realities of street life, which I did find enjoyable. 

I didn’t completely hate this novel, I did enjoy a bit of it. I really enjoyed the writing style, it felt as if Susan Fletcher was really experienced in writing these sorts of period novels (I’m not familiar with her so maybe she does focus on period pieces like this). I also really enjoyed how she took scenes that weren’t really shown in the novel and made them big moments in Éponine’s life. 

Now onto my issues. My biggest issue with this novel is how Éponine is portrayed. To me, in this she feels far too innocent and righteous. Don’t get me wrong, Éponine in the original book has a righteous and protective side to her, but it isn’t her entire personality.

At first, as this is in first person POV, I thought that that her righteous way of describing herself was just an act she was putting on in her own head, portraying herself as the hero in her own mind. Which that is a very interesting thought on its own, but that’s not what the deal was in this. She carries her righteous thoughts into her actions as well, not doing anything wrong, which to me turns her into more of a Mary Sue than a corrupt street girl.

They cut out the whole “Éponine leading Marius to the barricade” thing from the book, and turned it more into a “Im gonna follow Marius to the barricade to protect him” which is basically how it went in the musical, but the musical doesn’t promise to be brick-accurate.

I also just find the whole puberty side plot at the beginning of it kind of annoying. It just feels like super forced relatability. I mean maybe if I had this book as an angsty hormonal 13 year old, I might have found that nice and relatable. 

If you want to write a book about relatable teenhood… please write about Cosette. (It might be my ‘I love Cosette’ brain telling me this, though). But in the original novel, Cosette had such a relatable teenhood that can be applied in the modern era. Just give her her first period and some new boobs and throw that into a 300+ page book, now I’d read that.

This book feels like it’s targeted at a strangely specific audience. But the problem is that audience is 14 year old ‘Eppi-boppers’ from 2013, and honestly as a former Eppi-bopper, I would have loved this book. But the problem is that this was published far after the “Eppi-bopper era” from like 2012-2015, so it kind of missed its time. If this book were published like 4 years earlier it would have been a HUGE success.

Also, I nearly peed my pants in laughter at the end because the last line was “love never dies” and all my stupid brain could think of was the shitty phantom sequel.

But long story short, I wasn’t a big fan of this book, and I don’t really recommend it for someone who has a less romanticized view of Éponine. But, if you’ve never cared for the book and only like the musical, I think you may enjoy it! Go for it! 

If you’ve read this novel before, I’m curious to see if you liked it or not.

[borisbubbles]

Eurovision 2023 #37-35

That AWKWARD moment you plan on ranking this year’s Big Evil last, and then rewatch everyone and realize some of these NQs were so PUTRID you can’t in clear conscience rank  them ahead of anyone else. Enjoy three acts so irredeemable I have to rank them below Noa! Decade rankings: 112, 111 & 110 / 116 [Above: Brividi, Below Noa Kirel] 29 Dec Update: Now ABOVE Noa, and below Nadir

37.  36. GREECE Victor Vernicos - “What they say” 30th place

I enjoy being right. 🙂 Sorry, but 14 points in a TELEVOTE, (12 of which from Cyprus) in a semi that has the utterly unvoteable Romania and San Marino in it? Greece was and IS the worst in this year. Sitting through it was like watching a stream of meconium ooze from a baby’s anus.

Sure, one could argue that "What they say” was redeemable as like... a laughable trainwreck, and yeah, it could have been on paper. I have to draw a line somewhere, and “somewhere” is where a delegation sends a minor to the contest, SEES the footage of him utterly flunking the live and then does nothing, allowing him to humiliate himself in front of millions of people. Shitty broadcasters to the fucking bottom of the ranking!

But even besides that, the song is just a wretched Ed Sheeran pretend ballad, like someone took a cleaver to “Castle on the hill” and hacked out all the mildly enjoyable mellow parts and replaced them with a stop-motion-like cadence, cursive singing and Sad Boy Emoness. Victor sings that he hates his feelings and my feelings are that I hate everything about his song.

Like, I can’t be the only person so UTTERLY SICK of these misguided self-aggrandising songs that actively try to use real-life mental health issues to provide unsoliicited social commentary for their own personal gain? Be it in a competition or to make oneself appear ~morally righteous~. Enough with the devious white-washing of actual mental health issues. 

 At least that is what I’m forced take away from this shitty song because these lyrics don’t make any fucking sense: Victor sings that “Lost Souls” make sure no one loses their way and “Hurt ones” can’t stand seeing others in pain, and also that he’s both (?) and that he’s got too much on his plate, wanting to save the others (?????) and that it’s TOO LATE FOR HIM (??????) Someone heard this and wasn’t instantly alarmed by how dark this is? WTF?! SICC A PSYCH ON HIS ASS, ASAP!

But of course, any potential complexity is instantly undermined by the visuals. 

Youngster Victor wants to battle, and his team is one lvl 7 Caterpie.

Add in a few selfie backdrops, some happy skipping (again: this song has a messed-up and depressing message) and perhaps most offensive of all: GREEK LETTERS SPLICED INTO ENGLISH WORDS: 

And you are left with an entry that makes me feel ALEXEEV levels of shame. Like yeah it’s all mercenary and insincere and vile but doesn’t change the fact that that Greece sent a sixteen year old with a song about SUICIDAL THOUGHTS to Eurovision and made it... that. BE SAFE, YOUNG VICTOR!!! Preferably as far away from a guitar as possible.😬

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

36. 35. SAN MARINO Piqued Jacks - “Like an animal” Joint LAST

THEY KNOW THE WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY 

... to zero points...x

Congratulations Piqued Jacks, you are NOT last in this ranking. 🙄 Count your lucky fucking stars. 

Talk about an entry that fully earned their nil points in the televote. Piqued Jacks accompanied their accidentally predatorial song with black and red lights. Black and red lights are of course the axe murderer colours which they used to complement the date rape lyrics and serial killer faces.  🙃

Seriously, for real:  

Hide your sisters and daughters from this creep and his eerie obsession with “snake eyes” and “biting tongues” and “butterflies in his ears”. I would be less bad if “E-King” (you’re a grown man, consider a name change) wasn’t this off-puttingly smug or didn’t have a voice like newborn goat choking on its colostrum. “Like an animal” is three minutes of extreme discomfort. The absolute opposite of a “Slay”.

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

35. 34. ROMANIA Theodor Andrei - “D.G.T.” Joint LAST.

Sigh, this one just makes me feel sad.  As you know I was a Theodor apologist before and honestly, I still kinda like him as a person?

DGT was a shambles though. Theodor was always due to create some discomfort, given that he has never not looked like a Project Runway second boot called Susan and DGT’s lyrics involve *this specific person* talking graphically about being carressed by his girlfriend’s fingers and wanting to rip her clothes off. So yeah a hard sell, but not impossible!!

However, the live was a bare step above San Marino in terms of second-hand embarrassment. An weird musical bisection, an amateur hour act swallowed by the LEDs and utter SILENCE from the audience which thundered over the off-pitch wailing condemned Romania to nill pointer hell.

The acoustic start, WHY? 

The CSI floordrops, WHY? 

The selfie backdrops, WHY?

 The black paint on the naked torso, WHY? 

the shrill falsetto WHYYYYYY?!

And just like how the San Marinese cringe is present but in a lesser form, so is Greece’s shitty broadcaster behaviour. After forcing Theodor to transmogrify his opening minute into an unplugged acoustic version (a decision that completely ruined the song), TVR just called it a day, and happily sent Theodor to his doom with no real regrets. WTF?!

Basically, these three nil point flops (yeah totally counting Greece as one, deal!) are all tied for last place, but I had to pick an order. Greece are the most awful for exploiting a minor. San Marino deliberately chose someone with a very annoying voice and face, so they’re second last. Theodor meanwhile, is actually kinda talented and was mostly the victim of TVR’s lack of involvement, to which I say: If your participations in Eurovision amount to throwing an eighteen year old to the vultures because you’re too bothered to actually support him through the ordeal, Romania, then don’t bother with ESC and just fucking QUIT!!!

THE RANKING

[princess-of-the-corner]

They never volunteered to be Chloe's damn support system. How can you reasonably be a full support system for someone who has traumatized you and continues to do so on a daily basis? How can you be a support system when they won't even give you an inch and would sooner tell you "your face" than the actual truth when you ask what's wrong? All they could offer her was common courtesy and acceptance and she didn't even want that. She didn't let them get far enough to be a real support system. The ugly reality = sometimes abused people who've become abusers need to be walked away from. You talk like Chloe is the only persons' feelings that matter. What about all the people she traumatized? I guess they're just supposed to be super accommodating to her while she abuses them over and over again. That'll fix her. Except it won't, it'll just end in her thinking she can get away with it and result in more abuse. The framing with Andre might be bad, but you know what would also be bad messaging to kids? "Let abusive people walk all over you and never put an end to it. Just keep suffering until they're a better person because that usually works." "It's okay to be an asshole if your mom was one. You deserve to be handled with infant gloves by your victims. They're not really victims because you were abused too!" Abuse takes a long time to heal, sure. Sometimes it also takes people walking the fuck away from you because you've wronged them one too many times. Marinette ain't Jesus Christ.

Love how you straight up contradict yourself.

"They never volunteered to be her support system" is in direct opposition to your assessment that they did plenty of reaching out by telling her 'we'll be there for you if you try to be nice!'.

No, they shouldn't let her do whatever. They don't have to put up with her not changing if she's not trying. Her abuse doesn't erase what she did to others. They matter too.

Except she did try to be better and they told her to go fuck herself. They got pissy when she didn't magically flip a switch to being perfect.

Yes, they should've walked away from the situation. But instead they came in and made it worse while saying they were trying to help and are now getting self-righteous about it. That is the fucking issue.

And I know we wouldn't be having this conversation if Chloé were a more 'perfect' victim. The subdued and sumbissive type who is overly solicitous due to their trauma. Ones like Zoé or Adrien or Sabrina.

Once again: No, it is not the others' responsibility to help Chloé. No, they shouldn't have to just take her shit because 'uwu what if she could change?'. And they are certainly not qualified to be a therapist.

However, since they decided to 'help' and then fucked her over, and then acted like they had the high ground here, I am going to discuss that bullshit. If they had just left her alone? I would've been upset that she didn't have a chance, sure, but I wouldn't be upset /at the characters/ because I would have respected that it's not their job and it's healthier for them to leave her alone.

Especially as these are fictional characters on a show for children. They are not being taught a lesson of 'Even if you believe people could do good, you don't have to put up with them hurting you in the meantime'. They are being taught a lesson of 'if someone is a bad person, they can never change'.

This goes double in the show considering that they are portraying Gabriel, a grown ass man who has committed several atrocities, as someone more sympathetic and capable of redemption than a 14 year old.

This goes fucking triple for the fact of the behind the scenes drama of knowing this was a show being written and these choices being made by writers, not actual people in a situation like this.

This is a complicated gray-area situation that is the result of bad writing and every character involved deserves better treatment.

Which yes! Once again, I want to reiterate: I am mad at the /writers/ not the characters themselves! That is also another distinction here!

[stephenjaymorrisblog]

When Rich, WASP Men Break the Law

(Trump’s Next Court Appearance is Not Until December)

Stephen Jay Morris

4/4/2033

©Scientific Morality

Say, all you commoners! Did you see Trump in handcuffs? Did you see his mug shots? How about fingerprints? None of the above? Well, what did you expect? The Judge released him on his own recognizance. There was not a penny set for bail. Even though he is a flight risk, he dragged his fat, flat ass out the court house, free as a pigeon.

Here’s another question: Will he be issued a gag order? The judge knows that he has a loud mouth and loose lips. True to form, he attacked the judge at a public venue and on social media just hours after he’d stood in front of him.

The day began as his private jet took off from Florida. He flew First Class to his Lower Manhattan arraignment in style. Most people are driven to their own, handcuffed, in the back of a squad car. Before he left Florida, he was driven out of Mar-a-Largo with a caravan of federal, secret service agents surrounding his vehicle. On both sides of the road were his supporters, holding Trump banners and flags. He waved to the crowd wearing a bullet proof vest, which made his shoulders look bigger than they actually are. This flunky acted like he was going to his crucifixion when, in actuality, he was headed to his own penthouse at Trump Tower in Manhattan.

The police succeeded in preventing him from being videotaped or photographed in court. Cameras or press weren’t allowed. There was a courtroom sketch artist, however, who portrayed him all shit-faced, in colorful chalk. His face was as red as a communist flag and he looked as though he was going to puke at any minute. At least we got to see that. The bumptious Trump toned it down in court, however. He presented himself as docile with a dash of encomium toward the court.

Yes, in his narcissistic mind, he is above the law. He is God’s God baby! I’m getting the feeling that the judicial system is bending itself over backward to accommodate him. It’s as if he is some Godly saint, when he’s really just another scumbag grifter that was part of the lucky sperm club.

You wonder why authoritarian Communists treated members of the ruling class so badly: it was righteous class anger! The rich pigs just flaunted their wealth, while the peasants suffered in squalor and hunger! They laughed drunkenly while children died of scarlet fever!

What you saw on April 4, 2023, was choreographed and staged to satisfy the public’s anger toward Trump. If the establishment hadn’t done that and, instead, handed down true justice, Trump would have had to leave the country in secrecy to hide away in some shit hole country! You can do a lot in eight months. That should terrify all of you!

What I saw Tuesday proved to me that the poor and the middle class are held to a separate set of rules, while the wealthy get leniency. In 1924, two rich kids murdered a 14 year old boy in Chicago, Illinois. The reason they did it? So, they could commit the perfect crime. The two boys, Nathan Leopold, Jr. and Richard Loeb, viewed themselves as intellectually superior because they were white and wealthy. They got life in prison in what the print media called the “Crime of the Century.”

The Evangelical and fundamentalist Christians are going to portray Trump as being crucified by Jews. This is an ancient ploy, making the victimizers the victims. Will they succeed? I don’t know. With lots of money, anything is possible. The only surefire way for their defense is public apathy. I doubt that Trump has the support of 75% of the American people.

[saltedsolenoid]

then who is your favorite in not rodneyposting?

ohoho! sumi, so glad you asked!!

I actually think I have two favorites: Bianza Sonje and Neptune Liya

Bianza Sonje is one of the main characters from the first book, though she plays a pretty influential role in the second, too. She's introduced as a eggheaded and uptight 14 year old with a special affinity for books and plants. She has a strong belief in what she believes to be the natural law of life: that adults are always right, and it's important to trust what books and older people say all the time. This leads to her acting somewhat like a bossy, self-righteous know-it-all to her twin sister, Eira Sonje, and Eira's best friend, Falsie. Shout-out to both of them but they're not the focus here. Objectively, Bianza is a bossy know-it-all, which ends up driving everyone close to her away, and actually ends in Falsie's death? Cool stuff. Eventually, after realizing that maybe she shouldn't trust everything she's told and she's being horribly manipulated by both her mom and Marru Kausen, the savior of the last generation (BOOOOO I HATE THEMMM), she breaks free from her ideals a bit and starts doing things for herself and trusting others more for their own thoughts and opinions. Throughout her entire character arc, she's a complete anxious mess who enjoys reading and learning about plants and history. I would get into the rest of her life but then we'd be here for a while, so that's just what happens with her character for the first book- and even then it has a few more turns.

Neptune Liya is the Seer of the second and third books (more on that later), and what's perceived as a pretty sociable person. They're first introduced as a bubbly and kind 18 year old, literally dragging one of the other main characters in from pouring rain in the middle of the night. It's revealed fairly quickly though that they have ulterior motives, only bringing in that other main character because Sylvan Valencia, the secret fourth main character, told them to. ...but they're actually putting on a double-front. They do truly care about their friends, both this Sylvan character and the Rain Character I Mentioned Earlier, but are slowly working to get rid of them both because

oh god i need to explain the entire plot of not rodneyposting for their character to make sense to you. um. Um. I am Not doing that there is too much

Anyways the third book takes place about 17 years later and is literally what I like to call "Neptune Going Through Their Dilf Arc." that's all you need to know about them. thanks for coming

also here's a pixel headshot i did of neptune once. i would share one of bianza but i don't like any art i've posted of her tbh

[ongolecharles]

DAILY SCRIPTURE READINGS (DSR) 📚 Group, Thu Aug 01st, 2024 ... Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year B/Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church.

Reading 1

----------

Jer 18:1-6

This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

Rise up, be off to the potter’s house;

there I will give you my message.

I went down to the potter’s house and there he was, 

working at the wheel.

Whenever the object of clay which he was making

turned out badly in his hand, 

he tried again,

making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased.

Then the word of the LORD came to me:

Can I not do to you, house of Israel,

as this potter has done? says the LORD.

Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter,

so are you in my hand, house of Israel.

Responsorial Psalm

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

Ps 146:1B-2, 3-4, 5-6AB

R. (5a)  Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.

or:

R. Alleluia.

Praise the LORD, O my soul;

I will praise the LORD all my life;

I will sing praise to my God while I live.

R.  Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.

or:

R. Alleluia.

Put not your trust in princes,

in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation.

When his spirit departs he returns to his earth;

on that day his plans perish.

R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.

or:

R. Alleluia.

Blessed he whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the LORD, his God.

Who made heaven and earth,

the sea and all that is in them.

R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.

or:

R. Alleluia.

Alleluia

--------

Acts 16:14

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Open our heart, O Lord,

to listen to the words of your Son.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

--------

Mt13:47-53

Jesus said to the disciples:

“The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,

which collects fish of every kind.

When it is full they haul it ashore

and sit down to put what is good into buckets.

What is bad they throw away.

Thus it will be at the end of the age.

The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous

and throw them into the fiery furnace,

where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

“Do you understand all these things?”

They answered, “Yes.”

And he replied,

“Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven

is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom

both the new and the old.”

When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.

***

FOCUS AND LITURGY OF THE WORD

Jesus instructs his disciples on the Kingdom of heaven in this, for me, puzzling and even frightening Gospel. Jesus likens the Kingdom to a "net thrown into the sea which collects fish of every kind.” The bad fish are “thrown away.” So, he continues, “at the end of the age the angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”   He continues: “every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven is like the head of the household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” No threats of eternal punishment with this last analogy. Just inclusiveness. Perhaps Jesus was referring to the law of the Torah as the old, and his fulfillment of the law as the new?

I found consolation in the words of Saint Alphonsus Liguori whose memorial is today. In the words of Robert Ellsberg, who writes the “Blessed Among Us” feature in the Give Us This Day series, St. Alphonsus Liguori maintained that " the moral life was not a matter of tortured or legalistic compliance with the law. It was essentially the life of love.” I just cannot get with the wailing and grinding of teeth description of the afterlife for the unrighteous. I couldn’t imagine a God of infinite mercy allowing even the wicked to choose such punishment. As Saint Alphonsus maintained and Ellsberg writes “ all are called to salvation and ..the means are available to every person.” All are called and the inclusiveness of “both the new and the old” is consolation.

Particularly consoling is the first reading from Jeremiah 18:1-6. A potter (God) makes objects out of clay, and if one turns out badly in his hand, he tries again!

I wonder how many times God has tried again and again to mold me into something pleasing to him? Like the householder with his storeroom who brings out both the old and the new, I wonder what I have in my storeroom of memories and past deeds. What is old? What do I hang onto and have trouble releasing, bringing out? What can I bring out that is new? What do I look forward to on my path toward growth in love for others and union with God? Do I see the setbacks and troubles of my life as God’s opportunities to lead me to a life of love?

The Eastern Church has many depictions of Christ, on his resurrection, descending to the place of wailing and grinding of teeth and freeing suffering souls, breaking the chains of hurt that held them captive to the great pains they suffered. I believe in hell and I believe Christ can free us. We are clay in the Father’s hands. God will keep trying. Will we?

***

SAINT OF THE DAY

Saint Alphonsus Liguori

(September 27, 1696 – August 1, 1787)

Saint Alphonsus Liguori’s Story

Moral theology, Vatican II said, should be more thoroughly nourished by Scripture, and show the nobility of the Christian vocation of the faithful and their obligation to bring forth fruit in charity for the life of the world. Alphonsus, declared patron of moral theologians by Pius XII in 1950, would rejoice in that statement.

In his day, Alphonsus fought for the liberation of moral theology from the rigidity of Jansenism. His moral theology, which went through 60 editions in the century following him, concentrated on the practical and concrete problems of pastors and confessors. If a certain legalism and minimalism crept into moral theology, it should not be attributed to this model of moderation and gentleness.

At the University of Naples, Alphonsus received a doctorate in both canon and civil law by acclamation, at the age of 16, but he soon gave up the practice of law for apostolic activity. He was ordained a priest, and concentrated his pastoral efforts on popular parish missions, hearing confessions, and forming Christian groups.

He founded the Redemptorist congregation in 1732. It was an association of priests and brothers living a common life, dedicated to the imitation of Christ, and working mainly in popular missions for peasants in rural areas. Almost as an omen of what was to come later, he found himself deserted after a while by all his original companions except one lay brother. But the congregation managed to survive and was formally approved 17 years later, though its troubles were not over.

Alphonsus’ great pastoral reforms were in the pulpit and confessional—replacing the pompous oratory of the time with simplicity, and the rigorism of Jansenism with kindness. His great fame as a writer has somewhat eclipsed the fact that for 26 years he traveled up and down the Kingdom of Naples preaching popular missions.

He was made bishop at age 66 after trying to reject the honor, and at once instituted a thorough reform of his diocese.

His greatest sorrow came toward the end of his life. The Redemptorists, precariously continuing after the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773, had difficulty in getting their Rule approved by the Kingdom of Naples. Alphonsus acceded to the condition that they possess no property in common, but with the connivance of a high Redemptorist official, a royal official changed the Rule substantially. Alphonsus, old, crippled and with very bad sight, signed the document, unaware that he had been betrayed. The Redemptorists in the Papal States then put themselves under the pope, who withdrew those in Naples from the jurisdiction of Alphonsus. It was only after his death that the branches were united.

At 71, Alphonsus was afflicted with rheumatic pains which left incurable bending of his neck. Until it was straightened a little, the pressure of his chin caused a raw wound on his chest. He suffered a final 18 months of “dark night” scruples, fears, temptations against every article of faith and every virtue, interspersed with intervals of light and relief, when ecstasies were frequent.

Alphonsus is best known for his moral theology, but he also wrote well in the field of spiritual and dogmatic theology. His Glories of Mary is one of the great works on that subject, and his book Visits to the Blessed Sacrament went through 40 editions in his lifetime, greatly influencing the practice of this devotion in the Church.

Reflection

----------

Saint Alphonsus was known above all as a practical man who dealt in the concrete rather than the abstract. His life is indeed a practical model for the everyday Christian who has difficulty recognizing the dignity of Christian life amid the swirl of problems, pain, misunderstanding and failure. Alphonsus suffered all these things. He is a saint because he was able to maintain an intimate sense of the presence of the suffering Christ through it all.

Saint Alphonsus Liguori is the Patron Saint of:

Theologians

Vocations

***

【Build your Faith in Christ Jesus on #dailyscripturereadingsgroup 📚: +256 751 540 524 .. Whatsapp】

[furry-homestar]

why do you intentionally do things that make you upset. you send weird rule34 to a 14 year old, they send some back to you, it makes you uncomfortable, and instead of just leaving it there, you decide to save it and post it all over tumblr. and then you act like they're victimizing you, even though you're older than they are, and you're the one plastering their private personal drawings over the internet. you were uncomfortable and then decided you needed to make everyone else uncomfortable, for what? so you can feel righteous about taking down that big bad scary 15 year old?

buddy i did leave it there. for a whole fucking year. also i never drew nsfw of real people wtf are you talking about? also also i am a SINGLE YEAR older than them.

if you're gonna get involved in drama maybe you should know what you're talking about instead of just seeing one post and filling in the rest in your head so that you can comfortably believe that i, a random child on the internet, am an evil person, and that other random child who draws your blorbos real good is precious and incapable of doing anything wrong. fucks sake