#they're all such fundamentally evil ppl

[meherya]

I want to distribute the wealth (quiz answers) but idk who’ll turn out to be a  class traitor (snitch) :/

[om0000]

I think Star and Wander would be just as frustrated w/ each other as Wander was with Dom in s2, if not more. Ostensibly, they share the same goals so theoretically it shouldn't be too hard for one to get thru to the other. Problem is, both Wander and Star are very stubborn irt their views and what they think is the right way to go about things. Granted, with s3 being about testing Wander, he likely would've started to question his beliefs abit and eventually become not as stubborn with his views, especially considering Dom blunty turning down his offer of redemption/friendship at the end of s2. Maybe Star would've had a similar arc? What do you think ?

YEAH !!!!!! YEAH LITERALLY !!!!! thx for asking! big oc infodump incoming

thats exactly what ive been thinking of, like SFEF honestly have the universe's best interest in mind. they motivate their actions on the belief that they're right n they're genuinely doing good by freeing galaxies of villains, even if it's in frankly cruel ways n their definition of what is "good" n what is "evil" is extremely black n white n divided. they are the always the good guys n others r the bad guys who are inherently fundamentally evil n dangerous n deserve every terrible thing in the world to happen to them (that worldview is basically exactly what leads to the dehumanization of villains in their eyes n that is what makes it rlly easy for them to do what they do cuz they don't view villains as actual ppl with their own motivations n reasoning but as a disembodied force to be defeated).

star, who is the perfect guy to represent SFEF's beliefs n ideals (like he genuinely does not question them in the slightest he accepts their worldview as his own to the point his self-identity is tied directly to SFEF. the way he goes about fulfilling his duty is sort of tainted by his own personal wants n opinions sometimes, that's why sugar n ultra r there to level it out, but at the core he operates on the same logic as SFEF do, underneath all of their inspiring slogans n speeches of their righteous mission), is also the perfect guy to serve as a contrast to wander. star is literally like helplessness-less wander from the wanders episode. we only got to see him once in the show n the only thing he did was do a cool pose n explain his worldview, so star is basically what would happen if he got to act upon n actively spread his ideology — if wander had to face against someone w his own discarded belief n prove not just to himself but to literally the entire galaxy that it is not the answer

i feel like wander would be absolutely delighted to see SFEF show up at first. new people in the galaxy, and they're here to help, and they're really good at their job and others seem to really like them — this is basically like the hot shot episode situation. but then as their mission goes on hed begin to recognize their approach is flawed AS HELL — hed get that ideological ick from them. the problem is — he's the only one. post-dominator, after his pacifistic approach didn't work and dominator turned out to be an irredeemable sadist who could've only been stopped by force, the yonder galaxy would sorta start questioning wander n be more willing to side w SFEF n their more forceful methods. maybe that would even include sylvia, give her a bit of an arc — ofc shed still stay w wander n in the end shed support him, but judging by her character i feel like she wouldn't be opposed to a team of good guys who stop villains by force instead of trying to befriend them. even if she started warming up to peepers a lot n even cheered for hater in the end of the galaxy, she still doesn't seem to fully agree w wander on the sentiment that villains can be redeemed (quite paradoxical considering she was a redeemed "bad guy". wonder where that stems from). i think an arc of her coming to her own conclusion that wander really is right abt that instead of just going along w all his plans throughout all s3 would do her pretty well. so there goes the testing wander part. no matter how confident in ur own righteousness u are, if literally the entire galaxy rejects ur worldview u can't help but start to question it. that might even work to wander's benefit in a way, cuz his approach admittedly is still kinda flawed, so starting to question it might in the end make it more nuanced n balanced instead — curiously, what tries to break him ends up helping him in its own way. in the end it'd all probably come around to a big epic wander win n a great philosophical conclusion abt pacifism n what is good n evil n how too drenched in nuance everything actually is to apply such simple black n white logic to it. idk exactly how it'll happen but thats how i imagine it

now this part is curious, cuz smth needs to happen to SFEF after they lose right? now um the best outcome would be to show the entire bigass intergalactic SFEF organization the error of their ways so they can use their influence n power for something better — but idk how to actually come to it, cuz it's quite the feat.

what is a bit less of a feat is to redeem just star sugar n ultra in the end. ultra has her own arc going on of gaining conscience n beginning to question SFEF's ways by virtue of their beliefs being programmed into her, n the very act of her gaining free thought goes directly against her programming. so she doesn't have a brainwashed stupidass little head like how star does, which makes it just the tiniest bit easier. wander would come in super handy as a guy who showed an alternative to loyal to their authority soldiers/robots at least two times before. now i just dont know if i should let ultra have her happy ending or give her the beep boop treatment, inevitably shut down for good or sent back to be reset back to her factory settings the moment she stops being convenient to the cause or even worse tries to sabotage it. hard choice

sugar... sugar is a bit of a pickle. they dont go against SFEF but they don't exactly support it either. u see their species — bonbons — due to their physiological advantages, r rlly convenient for SFEF to hire. theyre almost impossible to hurt, have the ability to regenerate, can shift shape freely n can solidify or liquify their body's consistency at will. so basically SFEF practically has control over their homeplanet, in the cultural n societal sense. working for SFEF is like the go-to career there — kinda like the military if they payed better n also didn't endanger ur life so much. so sugar isn't there out of some righteous desire to save the universe, or for glory, or out of obligation — theyre basically there for the bag. its like a 9 to 5 to them. a circumstance. that attitude is outrageous, but that's the point — sugar is rlly detached from reality. they just go w the flow. they dont want to think too hard about the cause theyre contributing to. they dont want to think of the fact their actions have consequences. they dont want to take the lead of their own life. n since they leave it up for grabs SFEF is happy to accept the offer. in order for sugar to have an arc of abandoning SFEF n growing as a person they need something DRASTICCCC to happen, put them in a situation where they have no choice but to take action n actually pick a side. to commit. idk how that'd happen but it would be great trust 🙏🙏

now star. heheheheheh. until just recently i actually didnt even consider a character arc for him. hes a stubborn self-assured delusional fucking blockhead who would rather kill himself than admit he's wrong. i felt like just keeping him that way cuz i didnt see how wander would be able to make him reconsider that wout it feeling forced. but then it came to me, that if there's anything he believes to be as correct as himself — its SFEF. like ive said SFEF is basically tied into his self image now. every "I'm not wrong" automatically translates into "SFEF isn't wrong" n vice versa. n now — what if those sentiments weren't just separated but directly put against eachother, one or the other inevitably false. what if SFEF fired him. its their big final loss, star is forced to admit defeat, mark the end of their mission in the yonder galaxy n just come back to the main SFEF station empty handed. but they don't even let him do that. they just fire him. he fucked up his first mission in a relatively small galaxy that was literally almost wiped out by a huge threat beforehand — like it was perfect picking n he fucked that up. he proved himself worthless n hes not rlly important enough to deserve a second chance from them, they can fire him n literally nothing would change (a big shocker for star who genuinely thought he was all that. in reality they didn't even hire him in the first place cuz of his skills or something — it was because he looked like their mascot 😭 ofc going up the SFEF career ladder to the point they oh so generously allow him to lead a mission took him a lot of effort. but in the end he's just another easily replaceable cog in the machine. he refused to see that until now. he was like the biggest SFEF d-rider ever n he naively thought he meant something in return, that his efforts would pay off, that he'd be recognized for how absolutely jawdroppingly cool n awesome he is, that he has some worth to them — but he doesn't). n so something that was a big part of him, something he built his identity on, now leaves him on the side of the road. n it creates a huge dissonance — n he can't figure out whether he's wrong for fucking up n being a fucking loser or they're wrong for firing him, cuz both of those r thoughts he refused to even consider before. now probably for the first time in his life he's forced to come face to face w the fact he failed, in a way he can't brush off or takw himself back from after. to make matters worse he's basically homeless now lmao cuz he used to live on the SFEF spaceship station until they fired him n he cant come back to his parents house cuz that's the most shameful humiliating shit ever to him n hed rather kill himself than let his parents know the fucking SFEF fired his ass cuz its kinda a big deal 👍 n so there goes wonder — @catfacedcat's oc

some exposition so wonder is a criminal who keeps getting away n hes basically like stars arch nemesis n they also have a bit of a Thing going on. toxic yaoi situationship. now to star wonder was like. a spot on his squeaky clean self image. falling for a criminal n ur enemy is basically... a flaw. a weakness. an inevitable loss n stuff. actually there was smth rlly good that came out of it, interacting w wonder a lot n warming up to him made star question a bit maybe he's not such a fundamentally evil terrible badguy after all. like "maybe nuance is real n bad ppl r still ppl hmmm ☝️☝️ nah no way" or whatever. so what i mean to say is star is at the lowest of the lows rn right. this is that inevitable loss. hes the spot on his own made up image of himself that he couldn't live up to. so he goes to the guy who he feels he belongs w most now — wonder. belongs not in a romantic sense(ok maybe a romantic sense too) but in a "ure the only person im vaguely close to who i feel like could look me in the eyes rn simultaneously the only person id let see me cuz the very act of me feeling anything towards u was already a step so low for me that begging u to let me stay w u doesn't even feel like going much lower. anyway so can u let me in ure my only hope 🥺" sense. so he just stands outside of wonders car cuz wonder doesnt even have a fucking house either, holding a cardboard box w 3 shirts 10 ties n a cactus, completely drenched out in the rain probably fell in a fucking puddle on the way. n i feel like he doesn't even expect him to open the door. n wonder wouldn't really be to blame if he didn't like things r rlly complicated between them. + she alr has to share her stupid broken ass car w her coolioburger 4yo kid (big shoutout to woopa) like be so fr rn. but hed probably let star in anyway n they just sit there rlly awkwardly n avoid eye contact. basically a huge humbling experience for star that is sure to kickstart a character arc of reconsidering things n becoming a better person n stuff 👍 all because of yaoi

big shoutout to my frjends for this one fr stars arc was like a group project

[kiisaes]

yes THANK YOU for saying it i hate those specific fanon nicknames as well. my other pet peeve are the terms 'bakusquad' and 'dekusquad' used in fanfic because i feel like those are okay to use in fandom discussion but the actual characters would NOT come up with those names much less use them unironically c'monn

SAMEEE these terms used in fics make my eyes roll fr. and I think the longer I've enjoyed mha the less bakusquad and dekusquad make sense to me anymore, even in fandom discussion

in the early days of mha fandom it was pretty normal to split up deku and bakugou bc 1.) not a super cool awesome amazing relationship at the moment and 2.) both of them were becoming friends with other members of the class (thank you season 2!!!). so if they were befriending different ppl then making two fanon friend groups seemed like the right fandom thing to do.

but fandom has always flanderized relationships pretty badly and mha, imo, is one of the most egregious examples. the loud majority of early fandomgoers were too scared of bkdk being connected in any possible way. they were abusive, toxic, evil, etc.etc.etc. and if you liked them then you fetishized bully/victim relationships. hence, in order to be a Good Fan, you had to separate them.

I fell for this belief back in 2019-2020 so I get it but like. it's crazy now. thinking about it. because horikoshi has Never meaningfully separated bkdk. they have always been joined at the hip regardless of how bad their dynamic was at any point in the narrative. in fact, this has been a core reason why bkg hated dk at the start. it's bc they literally could not distance themselves from each other 😭 idk. do you ever just think about how dissonant the popular fandom bible was to the Legitimate Canon Word Of Mouth.

there is no "dekusquad". there is no "bakusquad". it was a fundamental misunderstanding of the story to assume there are. bakugou has always been a part of deku's "squad" he just refused to admit it until recently. (he is also conveniently drawn in a lot of group illustrations with characters that are stereotypically a part of the dekusquad.) likewise some characters in these groups straight up don't interact anymore. anyway as of late mha has been prioritizing the Entire Class Of 1A as a singular entity instead of splitting it up into distinct factions.

I don't think the dekusquad and the bakusquad should be abolished, after all they're just typical fandom creations that get widely adopted because they're digestible and charming. if you like them then you like them! I don't dictate how you digest mha. but if you think bakusquad and dekusquad are still established friend groups that mean anything to the narrative and you navigate fandom discourse with this particular mindset I WILL look at you funny

ANYWAY THANK U ANON U GET MEEE

[lemontarto]

Man I need more of that racer au PLEASE 🙏🏼 what are your thinkity-thoughts

grinning evilly i have so many thinkity thoughts but 2 first clarify this au and most aus i make r in collaboration with @everyonehasthoughts cajse we love fitz a lot

Theres a bit of background info u need for theWhole thing but im just gonna focus on the detz aspect of it for the most part . under the cut cause its very extensive

context:

della used to be a big famous racer but she'd disappeared from the racing world (drag racing 2 clarify) after she'd married alden

(asshole guy btw hes always evil) who was a Big Sponsor of races. ceo of some fitness sports related company

subsequently the vacker children get into racing bc Vacker legacy etc etc

alvar switches to a different (rival) sponsor (neverseen) cause he n alden do not click so well (this is putting it kindly) and that caused a big conflict between him n fitz

Character profiles:

(borht fitz n dex are in the 18-19 range n bianas somewhere lke 17 so she can race)

FITZ:

horrible racer, always last place. he still does it cause he wants 2 improve sooo bad. he overthinks n doesnt have self confidence (we love alden!)

still got the book 1 personality tho! pretentious lil guy <3 he might not have faith in himself but he can tell u all abt the vacker family legacy

very intense abt everything unless hes not. pride and frustrations are his strongest emotions but everything else is too complicated. constantly furrowing his brows

which means hes got a notoriously bad temper... the crowd loves him tho cuase he adds drama and its interesting, so he makes a name for himself sort of

He's a boxer! its more of a respected sport than drag racing and it's what hes known for outside of the cars.

he gets into the Occasional fight (once with alvar that caused a big scene. keefe but they became bffs. and Then dex!!) but the worst he does after losing is probably punching something 🤷‍♂️

he gets a lot of modelling gigs with biana cause they're That vacker duo right. Mostly atheleisure and some high fashion but nothing super prestigous just be aware hes on magazines somewhere!!

still a baker man its one of his hidden talents. we love a gift giving love language ☺

short king (5'7") but makes up for it by being swole or whatever

DEX:

dex is a general mechanic that works at the track n hes actually decent at racing but he hates people so he a fixer upper !

Tall noodly guy. towers ofver fitz (6'3" range) but hes scrappy

hes all bark where fitz is all bite

Lovees to trash talk ppl its his other passion.

Full of spite its one of his fundamental characteristics

probably talks to cars.

Im not a dex girlie so sorry this is very short for him 🙏

general plot things:

dex is Fed up with fitz's attitude 120% of the time so he messes with fitzs car a lot but fitz cant figure out who does it. think spray painting or screwing something loose or emptying his tank hes kinda foul

meanwhile fitz doesnt even remember who dex is half of the time hes kinda dense (deck dizznee...) hes busy racing horribly!! and working for alden

Fitz finds out dex has been messing with his car when he's on the track and dex is giggling off tothe side Which is when it clicks

(taken from the dms this is lke their confrontation:)

Fitz takes a swing at him ad a scuffle breaks out LOL. dex ends up with a black eye and fitz a broken nose from dex headbutting him before forkle (owner of the track) drags them off and basically kicks them out

'dont bother coming back until you two can get along' type shit (to be fair. hes been watching them beef for a while a public fight is his last straw)

Anyway they end up having to do bonding activities to get back on the track!! this involves fitz teaching dex how to fight (dexs silver tongue is bound to get him fucked up) and dex teaching fitz how to drive and treat a car

then dex sort of finds out little personal details abt fitz noone knows cause fitz is high strung and closed off (how do u relax... baking). hes kinda helping him cope !!

somewhere along those lines its not about getting along to stay on the track anymore but something Else.

Fun stuff:

dex does very much have a raging crush on fitz. at first its abt his physical appeal but he also grows to like his personality

fitz is dense to that cause he assumes everyones straight!! but does start realizing after keefe mentions something to him

keefe is constantly in the background he and fitz are models tgether. he lieks to bombard their training sessions and catches onto dexs crush faster than u could say hunkyhair.

teasing is in his blood and dex is not exempt from it!!

dex buys a magazine with fitz (and biana!) on the cover in secret but fitz thinks he likes biana and is totally against it. so while dex is pining after fitz fitz thinks hes trying to getwith his sister

meanwhile sophiana are very in love on the sidelines and oblivious.

fitz asks biana about dex (theyve never interacted) and she thinks fitz is obsessed with him (he is)

sometimes she asks him about dex which makes him think she DOES like dex but shes trying to clue him in to his own feelings (keefe is the one to do it)

biana ends up the true winner of this story ^__^ ̣ takes over fitzs spot!!

detz is now a thing too i guess

extra shit from the dms:

(about dex coming in n seeing boxer fish)

important final detail!! Fitz Never tippy toes hes always pulling dex down to his level (for fighting and kissing whatever floats ur boat)

[naughtynanzhu]

new copypasta just dropped

guy was mad that another guy posted a video of him setting up a romantic date night at home for his wife, saying women never do anything for men except give bjs and MAYBE stay loyal and it was very long winded and wild:

image text:

"Why don't girls/females/woman do nice things for men?? "oh such a beautiful date thanks babe, I ensure I won't cheat on you for a little while and will stay loyal, until the next time you do this, unless you take too long, oh and and here's a bj... because that's all i've ever bring to the table.." Why don't woman set up nice things for men??? Do they not like men and prefer men suffer while they enjoy the luxurious of all the things men provide..... Like what do woman do to court or cater to their husbands needs??? This is what's complete BS about the dynamics of society and it really halves the enrichment of the civilization... Because Woman just want a free ride always and give nothing back but a "bj" Imaooo That's the most love a woman can show to a man???? And being loyal... (which is day one fundamental behavior for a relationship) Really???? I don't get it... Seriously what do woman do above and beyond like this?? I know a woman can't name nearly one example.... And just say some incomplete nonsense like "you have issues " hahaha. That's woman projecting their issues that they don't do anything for men. Sad world to live in. because they think their existence is good enough.. how about a man's existence is good enough? Because men run and protect the entire world. Woman need to be doing these things for men. Actually. I'm a warrior at heart and am willing to go the greatest lengths. The woman need to be catering to the men. I'm as manly as it gets and i'll challenge that against any man.. Making woman much less powerful, but we are inherently equal by existence. So actually the woman need to be courting the man.. The man holds a much more important role. This is called Simping for entitled girls who believe they deserve this. While they're probably cheating and being disloyal. Woman really are the devil."

he was then asked what he does for the world and had the most amazing reply:

image text:

"If you only knew little man. My father was airlifted to the hospital on the job, he was paid less his entire life. My mother was the breadwinner. He also stepped in front a man with a gun to save our families life. My mom worked inside the A/C her entire career. Her brother fell off a 2 story roof from heat exhaustion working construction his entire life and died on the job a few years ago. My grandfather has a purple heart. I protect this entire world in ways no one walking this Earth knows. I also have multiple documented rescues in Ocean Rescue where civilians would had died without my attendance. I have double rescues, meaning two adults at once, and other rescues on multiple occasions. I've had 12 street fight KO's protecting my family and friends all in self defense. All bigger than me. My friends call me the Giant Slayer. There's no woman on the planet that could endure the circumstances i've been in. I grew up surfing, in athletics, trained in the harshest environments during hurricanes with Navy Seals. I won National Championships in College Water polo in California. You can't be a stronger swimmer than a water polo player, not even a navy seal, because they don't practice water combat and wresting for 7 years. Only a summer at BUDS. WP is an olympic contact sport, with cuts and stitches every game. I've knocked ppl unconscious in the water in self defense during games. I carry lethal. capabilities with my bare hands and am willing to execute those actions to protect people I love from evil. I grew up with world champion fighters CFFC and in the UFC, my uncle was also a golden glove boxer in FL. Strangers have personally thanked me for protecting them, saving their child's life. These occasions could have been you or one your family members. It's all relative, you wouldn't wonder who I am then. I also fight the good fight for civilians. Against the biggest cooperations and banks in the world. Recovering millions of dollars in settlements for disadvantaged policyholders in neglected claims. Working along the top forensic engineers, attorneys, the biggest contractors, and private judges in my state."

amazing. fucking g*d tier.

[eisforeidolon]

... And inevitably destiel did not become canon again, just like we said it wouldn't. And castiel was not even mentioned by anyone on the show once either.

Any logical heller should have realized by now that it was never going to be a thing.

One would hope that they'd accept the reality and just move on instead of believing in false expectations and made up narratives.

The ending was pretty much same to SPN's original ending. The ending that they thought was meddled by the Evil CW. What did TW change? Now this time it is John x Mary love feast, Sam off-screen living his life so we can focus on Dean, Bobby and Impala appearing, Jack coming back as God, and no mention of Cas again.

It's just ridiculous but sad at the same time. And those heller blogs who led other destihellers on was trash, pure and simple. Any logical person would stop following these ppl who constantly have been proven to be liars. Goob definitely should be ashamed of himself for his delusions as well as demeaning his fans.

Well, the problem is that there really isn't such a thing as logical hellers. I think expecting D/C to be canon in the SPNiverse is fundamentally absurd given ... everything ... about that relationship and those characters. However, even most D/C shippers aren't so divorced from logic as to have been sitting with baited breath last night expecting TW to make it canon.

It's not logical to think Jensen, who has been clear so many times I've lost count that he doesn't see the ship as a thing - at all and especially not from Dean's end? Including post 15x18? Would include it in a show he's making. Logic would tell you if Jensen had actually changed his mind about it and was actually oh-so-mad about the SPN finale because it didn't include Castiel? He wouldn't have had Dean stand there doing nothing but looking like he'd been slapped in the face with a week old dead fish when Castiel was blathering on at him. He wouldn't continue insistently referring to their relationship as brotherly in panels.

But even if we take Jensen out of the equation? We're talking about a show focused on different characters entirely - it isn't even really about Dean. Logic would tell you that no even halfway competent storyteller would waste precious screen time to arbitrarily shove two characters from another show (only there as a framing device to tie the universes together) into a romantic relationship. Especially two characters whose relationship had zero aspects of romance outside of the imaginations of shippers fixating on random colors and similar nonsensical shit. That the hellers expectations were even more illogical, that TW's main storyline itself just existed to create more of those nothingburger "parallels" to ... somehow ... lead to D/C? It made no sense to claim SPN was telling a secret hidden story that just couldn't be main text for reasons when Dean and Castiel were actually onscreen every week, but to claim Jensen specifically made a whole other show about John & Mary to tell that story and STILL decided to not actually tell said story directly instead of using secret signals through the colors of their shirts? That's fucking crazy.

It's completely absurd and yeah, there is some element of genuine concern there. The D/C prophets like Goob have insisted the comet is coming tomorrow so many goddamn times now, to no avail. And each time? Even though SPN is over? The whole thing just resets within a few days to start over again because they're that desperate to believe they haven't invested so much time, energy, and vitriol into something that doesn't exist and will never actually happen. They have to win. It'll happen. Next time, next time for real. That turtleneck looked kinda gay, don't you think it's a sign? [sigh.]

[springtrappd]

not trying to sound rude or aggressive or anything i swear, but what exactly Is it abt like. eclipse and ruin in general that you have critiques of? i'm still trying to figure out exactly what i think of it myself - it wasn't ANYTHING like what i was expecting, and to be perfectly honest i was also one of the Book Doubters(trademark pending) so that was a huge culture shock to me as well. idk i go in-between being really impressed and really liking it, to being salty that it wasn't what I think a good chunk of ppl including myself were expecting? looks like there's gonna be more down the line as far as this SB storyline goes so i'm curious and cautiously optimistic. i'm not totally sold on the mimic yet but thats probably bc I haven't been reading the tales books. guess i should start now lmao

i should make it clear that i actually haven't finished ruin yet, which is why i've been holding back on talking about it -- i'm up to bonnie bowl! so i'll refrain from commenting on that, except to say that the gameplay is a massive improvement from sb and only has more minor design flaws vs the base game's... fundamentally broken, lmao. they listened to criticism, refined their ideas and executed them with the resources available, and they did it well! i have mostly positive things to say on that front, which is nice. :)

eclipse is harder to talk about because... like, to give you an idea of how badly it effected me: it pissed me off so bad i started dissociating for the rest of the night, gave me stress stomach-aches when I refused to stop playing and then woke me up at 6am this morning nauseous and in pain. and that's not me being a wimp, that's me experiencing somatization, which is a real thing that i struggle with a lot, so hopefully you can understand why I'm not exactly keen to talk about this? especially when literally every time i even try to someone gets mad at me for breathing. please keep this in mind as i go on to say: eclipse is ableist as fuck and completely inexcusable.

as presented within ruin's visit to the daycare, the dca is left in a state of disrepair after the earthquake and subsequent abandonment left the pizzaplex to fend for itself. they're trapped between their two personalities, with both of them insisting that they are the one who knows what they should do; sun wants to be a good boy and do arts and crafts and whatever, and moon wants to send everyone to bed, blah blah you know the drill. as you complete the segment sun and moon regularly argue with each other, with sun holding the upset moon back from attacking cassie as she reactivates the generators, turning the lights on and stunning moon long enough for her to whack him with the faz-wrench, forcing a system reboot... and he's immediately reborn as eclipse, a lovely and kind figure with no memories of anything that happened who gently escorts you out and wishes you well. he's fixed now, you see! you did it! you got rid of his evil split personality, you've made him normal again, and without the aberration that is plurality he has not a cruel bone in his body!

the implications of this are incredibly fucking obvious and deeply deeply upsetting, and why i'm gonna point-blank say i'm not entertaining further discourse over whether this is reaaaally ableist or if they reaaaaally meant for them to read as a system or... nope, it's done, we're not fucking going there. it doesn't matter what they intended -- what they intended is pretty obvious, actually; they've decided to tackle a subject they're incredibly ill-equipped to handle, and the result is a character -- descended from the visual language and cultural canon of tales like split and psycho -- whose arc concludes with the reveal that it was being a system that made them violent. and the boss fight was dumb and bad and ignored all the previously-explained mechanics of this character to do this. it is aggressively stupid fanservice that turns what was once simply "poor taste walking the line of good faith" into "actual offensive caricature with zero room for doubt", and the only thing more despair-inducing than this twist is the community of people gleefully eating it up as their yummy angst fuel for their ultimate comfort character. and i shouldn't be surprised, considering it's coming from the "how dare you ask me to examine why i find it scary when the dca experiences altered identity states" crowd, but i am, unfortunately, an idealist doomed to be let down by normies. huzzah.

as for the mimic: I'm perfectly fine with afton getting laid to rest (he deserves it!), I'm not one of those guys, but in its current iteration (and from my understanding of it) it suffers immensely from having literally zero reason to be doing any of this shit and being yet another rejection of the supernatural in favour of sci-fi bullshit. because it's from the novels and the novels are allergic to ghosts. and having your entire story drip-fed in mediocre spin-off novels filled with blatant fetish content marketed to naive twelvies is so obviously bad storytelling that i don't even think i need to get into the piss-poor prose and legitimately cruel messages to explain why i hate that one

[ranboo5]

Like OK

"I want to wait for the court verdict" - Wise decision so do I in terms of like defining whether and how the actual crime happened

"A bunch of Drantis are fucked up" - If you can't realize how absolutely stupid this argument is at this point I truly just don't know how to help you

"I want to hope for the best case scenario" - The Best Case Scenario Is That He's Abysmally Bad At His Job. Like consider the best case scenario and then tell me that he would react any better if something actually did happen. Like fuck the entire way off

"It wasn't actually [crime]" - See point 1 + I'm more mad because like what are you psychic the whole point is we don't know 4 sure and are trying to avoid kangaroo court. Internet kangaroo court is still internet kangaroo court even if it's not towards your streamer sorry to say

"The good he's done w/ his platform outweighs the bad" - This I could kind of see as an argument maybe like it's an actual disparate value judgement that could be argued about instead of the dumbest simpering excuses anyone ever thought up which is probably why I haven't seen anyone actually use it but I'm steelmanning here. Anyway I think it's a flawed view of the world to see good and bad (as far as those can be defined etc) as "cancelling out" like they don't do that they coexist and the notion that some of the use of his platform has been definitely positive can absolutely coexist with the fact that he's unacceptably bad at managing it. Which his *public reaction to this alone* proves. Like he doesn't have to be Evil Incarnate to be. Not worth supporting. To be bad at the one point of contact we all have w/ him. And to continue to just interact ? Normally? W/ stuff he is posting now? Is fundamentally a statement that that bad *doesn't matter* bc of that. Like how is it not? If someone is shit at their product and you keep interacting with that product the same way then nothing ? Exists to incentivize that bad to go away or get fixed??? Like ESPECIALLY if you want him to do better and shit you shouldn't b interacting normally w/ his content. Idk this is what I'm most open to actually discussing if some1 disagrees

"Something something ppl who know him irl" - People who knows him irl have different things to acct for than "is he using his platform well" bc they're interacting w/ someone they know personally and what they do is not our business in that field. That said actively continuing to promote what he is doing w/ his platform rn is cringe in the same way as detailed above

What's the defense. What's the defense. Explain to me what the defense is

[moonisneveralone]

Until ppl stop being "misardrists for the lols" it's going to be super easy for crypto terfs to infiltrate both online and irl spaces. All they have to do is couch their hatred for trans ppl and trans women in particular as "hatred of men". Like, you can look for other signs, but you can literally see these freaks talk about cis boys raped by their cis women teachers the same way boomer chud men do "all men want it" except the TERF logic terminates the statement at "b/c men are all disgusting pervert monsters who always want sex". The only real misandry I've ever seen is this sort of TERF dehumanization, and until ppl actually care about what these ppl say about men, it's always going to be easy for these ppl to spread hate about trans women. Sorry to clog your inbox, but I think you're right insofar as saying it's not enough to catch them on grounds of transmisogyny, and their misandry talk is a tell. But I'd push this further: they hate even the potential trans woman in the closet, b/c even if she's not engaging in what these freaks call "womanface" she's still "biologically a predator". This is also why they hate trans men who've passed for a while: "irreversible damage" legit cites Ty Turner, the most milquetoast trans YouTuber I've ever seen: if transmascs go "too far" and actually pass, enjoy it publicly, and refuse to be co-opted to dunk on trans women and femmes they're "corrupting young girls" by idk ... "opting into disgusting manhood" or whatever. As long as feigned disdain for even positive masculinity is excused, there will be room for dingbats like Rowling and Abigail Shier.

You're right of course, but this is a tightrope we have to walk, because there is nuance to this. We can't act like the mysoginistic danger some men chose to pose isn't something explicitly encouraged by patriarchy. And in that sense we can't fault those who are vulnerable to this danger for venting and joking about that.

But in the end that's the point. We're all victims of the patriarchy, of racism, transphobia, homophobia, ablelism and all the other long standing narratives we have to comb through to become a more humane and loving society.

And here is where terfs absolutely fail. Because they're doing nothing to create a more humane society. They're just there to make this one even worse. If men are inherently evil, then they can't change. Then we can never change these circumstances....what type of feminism can work on this assumption? There are no social actions you can change to fundamentally change how we interact. Terfs have no coherent political helpful philosophy, quite frankly they're sending us right back to being enclosed in our homes for our own safety.

And it's stupid because the narrative that men are inherently predatory already existsand upholding that as natural and inherent breeds more of it and makes men who are victims even more unsafe.

I don't think I added much to what you said, but basically I think there is nuance here, but we all need to be a lot more careful with our words and examine our behaviours.

[theabstruseanon]

I'm so tired and I made the mistake of wading into 🎲2️⃣0️⃣ discourse posts so dont expect the following to make much sense LOL

I do get the narrative critiques of it not feeling like the themes of rage/interrogating rage/countering rage are being engaged with on a sliding scale from effectively to at all (idk if said interrogation of rage mechanically was hinged on only the rage tokens but thematically yeah I do get the critique re ep19 there).

For example it's like on one hand I did like how quickly they shut porter down because yeah his ideology is the kind that sounds justified on paper but then in praxis all he's doing is selfish destruction. On the other I really wish they had a philosophy-off with him about one of the core central themes of the season LOL. Also navigating the fandom balance between [it's interesting mechanically that trg fight was so one sided as commentary on how trg cut corners while still 'acting entitled' (tho tbf. This is really only kippelilly)] and [god I wish the fight had more juice or narrative payoff because of the role trg were set up to play as rivals and foils who gave into rage].

Re trg, Im just musing on how it feels like the banality of 'evil' is actually applying to them at this point. They were manipulated teens who were unfairly forced to accept a horrifying cosmic deal. Theyre characters who are selfish and jealous and willing to hurt others and gave in to these base emotions for personal gain which is the aforementioned banality. Their emotions are being heightened by the rage.... We're pretty sure? Again we only really actually see this in action with kpl, which is unfortunate and I think one of the main reasons why this is such a hot bed LOL (that BC they lacked on screen substance ppl are filling in the gaps with stronger narrative hc's that they're now attached to which makes sense. Fanon Buddy you will always be legendary to me LOL).

Trg really are in a strange narrative position to me too BC like ppl have pointed out even despite the bad rolls it wasn't for lack of trying that the players tried to engage with them earlier on before switching focus BC of a combination of bad rolls and the NPCs being rp'ed as hostile/uninterested. It's like how much of a role (not just plot wise but mainly thematically wise) were they actually supposed to play. So significant yet insignificant unfort.

But regarding the themes of rage yeah, it's been kinda all over the place to me narratively. I think the start of the end was when the players were like. Won over by Porter's teaching for a while like 'wow he did make sense' msmsmsm like noooooo 😂. The rage thing is so pervasive yet also feels so disconnected often which yeah improv hard to juggle themes and u can't edit things for clarity and adherence of narrative but overall I do wish they had more time to engage with this overarching season theme. It's certainly no TUC American dream for me.

I want to say that the diff btw Tbk rage and the general 'rage bad' is that we're meant to see Tbk rage as being protective, but that's just me projecting a layer of meaning on it 😂. I'm not as broken up about how the narrative theme feels kinda weak but I do see where this critique is coming from. It's like, on the meta narrative level it feels disconnected/unsatisfying that the rage of trg is narratively punished but the rage of Tbk is so far narratively neutral or rewarded when the theme specifically is /rage/ regardless of who has it, regardless of whether there is dnd combat going on or not, and BC trg were set up to be foils to tbk. The fundamental basis of the critique is different between the people using in-verse explanations and the ppl making observations about the overarching meta narrative. I know I reblogged posts that counter the critique (well mainly focusing on trg discourse) but personal enjoyment aside yeah. Things I would edit if this was a script LOL

The final thing is the perennial critique of the violence inherent to dnd and the more academic literary critiques of the fetishisization/glorification of violence but to that I am taking off my critical analysis hat because I like dumb shounen action violence in stories sorry for being a bad leftist 😔 (big neon sign that says: I am being tongue in cheek). I get that it's coming up a lot again esp for this season cause it's the "we should self reflect on the nature of rage" season but yeah.

[autisticcassandracain]

It's obnoxious to me when ppl claim that Talia fans who simply do not wish to acknowledge anything post-Morrison and just want her to be a good mom are being 'unnuanced'. Like if you want to do the work to make Talia a bad parent who allowed Damian to be abused while trying not to villainize her have fun? But claiming that the people who don't want to go there do so because they refuse to deal with nuanced takes on their fave or they to wipe their fave's flaws away is uh. Shortsighted at best.

The thing is, Talia's portrayal as a parent has never been about her. It's about Damian and Bruce. Morrison put no thought into their portrayal of Talia except in how it affected their new OC and Bruce. And most writers afterwards followed in their footsteps because they also didn't care about Talia. The few portrayals of her that attempted to make her sympathetic afterwards have had to compromise on how they could do it because of the way Morrison and DC screwed her up for the sake of two men's developments, and were therefor incapable of making her a good parent, since they were working in the confines of a shitty canon.

Talia being a bad parent is not an honest character flaw canon gave her in order to make her more interesting and nuanced; it was her entire character in canon, because all the rest was erased. And portrayals that simply make this a character flaw rather than her entire personality do so out of necessity, rather than a desire to explore this potential angle with her.

So when Talia fans just wish to throw is all out the damn window, it's not because they're incapable of acknowledging their fave's flaws or dealing with nuanced characters. It's because this 'flaw' was not written in good faith. 'Dealing with it' requires compromising with undeniable character massacre of her, which?? Why would fans want to do that??? People don't insist that Cass fans deal with the Evil Cass era or even Orphan Cass era, they don't insist fans deal with Damian's private prison debacle, or any other obvious, targeted character massacre. Why is it suddenly 'unnuanced' to do the same with Talia?

In addition, one of the primary arguments for why Talia should be a bad parent even when not villainized is 'Damian's character is inseparable from his trauma'. And that's true! Because Damian's character was built on Talia's character massacre! But there are ways to remove Talia from the equation; have Ra's find Damian, given up for adoption by Talia, while she was leading Lexcorp/having no contact with her father, then having him grow up in the League without Talia knowing about it, for example. Easy, cheap, does not demonize Talia, even compliant with Morrison's insistance that Damian didn't meet his mom until later in his life. Talia does not need to be a bad parent for Damian's trauma to exist.

But even if she did, you realize you are prioritizing Damian over Talia in making her a bad parent, right? You realize this? When one character's character massacre facilitates another character's growth, you can either choose to prioritize one character's growth, or erasing the other's character massacre. In this case, Damian gets prioritized over Talia.

If you want to explore being a bad parent as a flaw of Talia, have fun, provided you don't villainize her completely. And canon writers will obviously have to do so, because they are stuck with working within the confines of canon. But blaming Talia fans for prioritizing her over Damian and erasing her massacre wholesale, rather than compromising with it, is Not It. Talia is a plenty nuanced character without being a bad parent, and there are plenty nuanced ways to explore her parenting while still keeping her a fundamentally good parent. Not wanting to engage with a targeted character massacre rather than compromising with it is not unnuanced.

[1111jenx]

Thoughts about Scorpio rising? Love your posts!

Aw my weak spot right here haha;)

As a Leo Rising+Venus I do so well with Scorpio energy since I have 4H in Scorpio🥲 I'd love to share more about this placement with you guys!

my on-going rising sign/planets in first house series

Scorpio Rising/Pluto 1st house

Scorpio Rising, having Pluto, the planet of transformation, renewal/rebirth and things below the surface, in their first house -> These natives are generally come off as pretty alluring at first glance. may not be everyone's type but people can't help it but take another look at them haha

The women however are super vivacious and fun. I think scorpio rising are simply intimidating by nature, but a lot of scorpio rising women can look super sweet and innocence, very fluid energy(?!) or have something that's so soft about them! Scorpio is a water sign after all;)

We all know how Scorpio's traditional ruler is Mars. This is perhaps why Scorpio Rising will be mistaken a lot of time for being a fire sign. They gain attention effortlessly like a Leo Rising, but not like Leo Rising who thrive under the sun's luminous beauty, people around Scorpio rising will either fear them, will be intrigued or will be mesmerized by them. (a lot similar to Lilith Rising when you think about it, very prone to experience a lot of cat-calling too🥺)

**additional info: ((when i started type out this post i had a whole page dedicated to analyzing their childhood LOL. but being the goldfish that i am, i forgot to save it and left my computer opened😭)) from what i've seen, scorp rising grew up in a fairly detached household, here there parents are either overly cold or too focused on what's happening to the world and their community rather than their own children. they then were given a lot of space to grow! they explore life and the world with exquisite minds and a certain need to feel belong. scorpio rising craves warmth and attention deep down but were not given much when they were younger. visionary, their childhood were eccentric and different, but fundamentally, granted them a lot of independence.

Sex is sacred with them and its essential. Opposites to what people might think, they're not the type to go sleep around all the time nor do they only care about sex. These individuals view sex as something intimate, holy or even transformative to one's relationships dynamics. Sex to them is not just an activity to fulfill their primal needs.

^ Either this or they fully embrace their sexuality LOL. Scorpio Risings get people in their bed by being hella sensual and ~daddio~ energy, like a calminh one that you can't have enough of

These people's self-esteem grow as their knowledge grow. Lemme elaborate. They have the sign Sagittarius=expansion, travel, philosophy, higher education in the 2nd house of values, finance and self esteem. I notice that Scorpio rising usually wander through life with a set of moral values thats extremely close to their hearts, it is this value that they feel that they can be "themselves"(?). Like they may make a fortune from working alongside the law LOL. Its like they'll be the devils advocate and become defense attorneys for evil ppl type beat.

^ Alsoooo because of this, most scorpio rising make the most money when working in higher education, working with the law as mentioned or any military matters, foreign affairs and institutions in general 🥰(all ruled by sagittarius) And as they pursue higher education, the more chances of them making more money!!!!

Not that surprisingly, most scorpio rising I know are adored by the public as the can very charming with their words, or very convincing and can come off as extremely reliable and independent! They can be even authoritative when needed or sometimes can sound a bit bossy, but others just submit to them LOL (capricorn 3H) but somehow, they like it when people rebel against them?? its like they love it when others just dont give in LMAO they like stubborn people HAHAHAHAH

Serious learners with exquisite minds. Not kidding guys. Once they're determind on a subject, they can go to great length to learn more about it. They don't want to just know the surface, but also what's underneath! Can put theories to use in real life too. Like imagine the kind of people that also initiate actions as they make promise LOLLL (will take their sweet time though, but the outcome will make it worth the wait)

!!!!!PROTECTIVE OF THEIR IMAGE!!!!! How they are perceived by others are so so so soooo important to them. Some Scorpio Rising literally take pride in their look or reputation so generally will try their best not to sabotage it, even if that means they'll have to do some work behind the scenes

Pretty traditional when it comes to marriage not gonna lie, or they can be hella stubborn and have a lot of expectations in relationships. Would work best with a partner thats mannered, intelligenet and calm.

Somehow Scorp Rising attract a lot of wealthy people, I'm talking generational wealth individuals, old money type beat haha

Gosh financial stability is so so so important for them😭😭😭Scorpio Rising are so prone to put an emphasis on money and lowkey so so likely to have a sugar baby or something🤣

Will lose it when they sense a potential harm to their security. Since they grew up in such a turbulent household, they seek out this fixed and stable energy in the real world.

Boundaries issue. Need to feel controlled 100%. Lowkey control freaks.

I don't think people acknowledge how vengeful these people are. Yes its their look but its their stubbornness, their secret conservatism mindset and their ruthlessness that their long term partner should recognize. honestly i think they make fantastic busines people:)

buttttt they can also be hella bubbly??? like if theres more fire influence and subtle air we have very very alluring and vivacious people🥵

they have diff social group and they generally interact pretty different with each of the group, as in they approach the relationships differently but very sincere but they do set v clear boundaries tho:) they might try not to mix up their relationships at work and personal relationships!!

with that being said, dont b surprised when your local scorp rising is v friendly and professional with a hint of drama at work but very detached and struggle to open up at home!

issues with letting go. they hold on things and people rly rly tight and most of the time they have a lot of childhood friends and it is this consistency that they value.

"Trust is earned. Not given."

devoted with close partnerships🥺 they will give u their whole heart and literally leave no boundaries between you two. can sometimes be very controlling or overly sacrifical to people they love tho.

they are aware of how they come off to people dont worry. but no, they won't say it aloud LOL. they know that their way of approaching life in general can be so sooo damaging sometimes but they simply wont even care that much. its like they just wanna be seen as unbothered🤣

HOWEVER, you might be surprised how much self control these individuals have. Like yes they're kinda pissed and emotional but they will never ever ever let it harm them in anyways.

fiery and stubborn. its funny how often scorpio rising question everything and everyone and won't give into anyone's orders🤣 rather to mess up on their own terms mentality

hella. smart. i'll put it at that.

Easily pin point others weak spots. They know what to say to make someones tick. These natives understand despite how complex people are, theres always smth that can get to everyone. Scorpio rising will not hesitate to hold this against you if you cross them. Just leave them alone💀💀

love,

saint jenx🖤

[olderthannetfic]

i wanna add onto what the mcu anon said before, it's really funny how disney and warner can make billions off those movies, but they can't sell nearly as many manga. i think there's just something really limiting about the way hollywood and america is going about making shows. everything is a remake of a remake of an interesting idea. there's a reason that kny and now chainsaw man and jjk are outselling the us comic industry: they put the story and characters first and then put in social/political statements. people read comics because they want good stories, not lectures. x men was filled with sociopolitical statements, but the characters were actually cool, which is why ppl still want stories about wolverine and storm and rogue; not stuff like 'i am not starfire.' even now, hollywood can't even do a good gossip girl remake because their political alignments won't allow them to commit to what gossip girl actually is: a show about awful rich kids being horrible and messy bc they can bc they're rich, and the normal people around them like jenny and dan slowly turn into them. maybe that's why ppl liked game of thrones so much too. there's a lot of commentary about society in got but the story and characters always came first and hbo didn't make big statements in-show about how characters/actions are Bad and Evil like a bad ya novel. if more comics would stop navelgazing and tell interesting stories with new characters maybe they'd get somewhere.

--

LOL.

The reason other countries' comics are better is because they work on the novelist model in many cases:

A specific person writes+draws a story. They have assistants if they're mid-career. They have an editor. But basically, they're a sole creative coming up with a Thing. Some of those things are good and some are bad, but they'll inherently be a little different from each other and they'll inherently have some sort of unifying vision.

US comics are plagued by crossover events and runs that stop abruptly. You can never trust that a plotline will resolve in an internally-meaningful way. And even when a writer is consistent, they'll bring in some guest artist, and it's like switching from the real book series to the ghostwritten after the author's death one where the entire voice is wrong. TV is full of an inconsistent disaster of writers and gets canceled with no warning, but at least the actors provide continuity. Comics don't even have that.

I has nothing to do with politics.

All art is full of some kind of politics.

It has to do with the fundamental structure of marvel/dc comics being rancid garbage.

MCU has some related problems (the equivalent of crossovers demanding specific annoying plot developments, sprawling hot mess without specific vision), but I wouldn't really analyze them together. Most of the MCU audience doesn't give a fuck about those comics.

[shoezuki]

GOD YEAH i feel u on the techno criticism, man. this fandom in general is SO bad at understanding nuanced characters and i hate it. one of my favorite c!techno AND c!tommy moments is the part on doomsday where tommy goes "it's not about governments, it's abt ppl!" techno replies "I'M A PERSON!" and tommy goes "you are a person! and so are we!" LIKE THAT'S SUCH A GOOD MOMENT...

like. it perfectly highlights both of their flaws, how they do have similar ways of handling things, and how although they do enjoy each other's company, they just. can't be allied due to fundamental differences in their goals. techno and tommy are both IMMENSELY stubborn, so they constantly talk past each other. techno's wants get ignored by tommy, and tommy's wants get ignored by techno. they're both too stubborn to truly listen to the other, even though they're both dealing with very similar frustrations about not being heard.

like it's just. it's SO good and i love that moment as a genuine source of critique of techno's character and his stubbornness, but every time i think about bringing it up i'm immediately met with people going "but techno EVIL!!!" and it's just like... please... stop viewing all of this in purely terms of good and evil... c!techno is one of my favorite characters, yes he has flaws but that's part of the draw, please let nuanced characters EXIST...

YEAHYEAHYEAHYEAH I FEEL ALL THIS LIKE. that scene in particular was So Good n really showed a lot a both a them n theyre similarities/differences. theyre both STUBBORN which has been both a strength and a vice for em. 

with tommy and techno’s conflicts in particular. i can Never say either is in the wrong or in the right. i call tommy leaving techno there a betrayal because Objectively, it Is a betrayal. but that instance of them separating was Inevitable. just as much as lmanberg’s destruction. they both were Stuck with themselves like techno was deadset on his own desires of destroying the government, tommy realized he’d ‘changed’ and stood with tubbo and therefore his own convictions. they couldnt stay as a team because they both Refused to consider the others views, ideals, and experiences. n it really made that doomsday scene Amazing

but like. time and time again i see ‘techno is evil’ or ‘tommy was evil’ even. but neither of those r true it aint that easy, its complex. techno is complex as Hell but ppl r so quick to push him into a single itty bitty box

[amjustagirl]

hi nikki! omg i hope you can finish squid game! it is very bloody though so... yeah

but i think it’s worth it! the characters are so well-written that the game itself just becomes a background.

i would love to hear your thoughts once you’re done! <3

- 🧷 anon

i loved it!!!! i'm v traumatised by it bcos it's so gory but i love the writing, the characterisation, the art. okok thoughts under the cut.

y'know people screaming and hating on sangwoo - i don't actually hate the guy sm as much as i really hate the system. the entire show is a critque of the capitalist society so many of us exist in - that meritocracy is in and of itself a flawed concept that doesn't really promote fairness tho it has the veneer of equality, because society ultimately is run on the rules set by those in charge (aka those who have money). and sangwoo, well - if you're trying to survive, i don't see what he did as completely illogical or barbaric, tho i rly kinda side-eyed him during the honeycomb game. it wasn't necessary to kill gi-hun, after all.

and it's really sad because it's actually believable that in this day and age, there'd be people who're desperate enough to participate in such a game. social inequality is a major bugbear of mine, something i rant abt v often irl so argh to see it play out so viscerally on screen was really amazing. with inflation and unemployment and high costs of living - is it any wonder that ppl sink deeper and deeper into debt?

separately i thought it rly showed off the conflicting beliefs in humanity - whether ppl are fundamentally good or evil. gihun obviously thinks ppl are good, but so much of the series shows us the worst side of ppl, esp when they're desensitised to death and suffering... ali's death really shook me, and the special game where the participants went arnd killing each other? i freaked out man.

rawr.

anyway - i loved the art and the sets in the entire series! the coffins that look like gift boxes, the design of the workers' uniforms to mimick that of worker ants, the sets of each games that were designed to look both innocent, nostalgic yet grotesque, the warehouse like staging of the holding area. the art on the walls that were hints abt the games. everything, really. it was so well done.

[gr-ogu]

What do you think of folks in this fandom that keep saying the "touching someone's dæmon is utterly forbidden" rule is bullshit/stupid? It's literally not???? It's perfectly plausible. A dæmon is someone's soul, not a pet. ppl out there with rancid ass takes acting like they're right smh

Are they really?????? I haven’t actually seen that at all, but damn, of course it’s not bullshit? It’s a huge part of the whole thread of the universe Pullman created????? The whole POINT of including the dæmons at all is that the relationship between them and the person, is sacred????

Like you said, that’s their SOUL, a physical manifestation of their soul?!?! Imagine if there was someone you loved and trusted enough to reach inside you and touch the deepest part of you, all your fears and vulnerabilities... I don’t know about you, but I’d have to love someone a whole fucking lot to even consider it. Let alone the fact you can even SEE dæmons?! Even people in Lyra’s world seem to understand dæmons go some way to representing people’s intentions (hello: literal physical manifestation of their soul) which can show people in an unfavourable light????? Not always of course, but it can... to be able to even guess at the way people think, or their temperament, based on their settled dæmon is something insanely personal, let alone being able to touch one?! Even the dæmons wanting to touch each OTHER is massive?!

People saying that, reminds me of when we all say to characters on TV shows, “Why don’t you just talk?! Why don’t you just open up?!” It’s easy to say, but in practice, it’s actually really fucking hard to say what you want, or how you feel. It takes a hell of a lot of courage to do that. For people to be like, “Why can’t you just touch each other’s dæmons?!” it says to me, they’re missing the whole point of them being there. Like you said, they’re not just some fun ‘pet’. It’s an extension of you.

That scene when they take Lyra to Bolvanger in the first book/series one literally make me feel sick. It’s supposed to. It’s meant to make you feel gross and wrong and like she’s just been violated, because she has. That’s the whole POINT. These evil people have no boundaries, they’ll kidnap you, touch your dæmon, fuck, they’ll even cut it away. They don’t care. I know we all love Marisa, but I think maybe some people need reminding just how evil she is. She’s a villain. To say that the no touching rule is bullshit is to fundamentally misunderstand the severity of what is going on in the first book??? Led and spearheaded by her????? And (I’ll be vague bc I know people on my dash haven’t read the third book yet) what happens later on, especially between Lyra and Will and their relationship with their dæmons?!

Think about it, if you had a dæmon, a physical manifestation of your soul, why would you WANT people to touch it? It’s just as important as a limb?! That’s like if you said you didn’t mind someone touching you all the time. Like yeah, there’s some people in your life you want to hug you, for example, and other people that you completely wouldn’t want to at all. And some people wouldn’t want ANYONE to do it. And that’s perfectly okay! But that’s the point: it can be and is an intimate thing, not something you just let people do. To let someone touch your dæmon would be to give away every part of yourself, soul-bared, to another person... sounds super easy right?! Something we all do on the regular?!

So yeah, I agree with you. No disrespect to other people, but if you think it’s okay to touch other people’s dæmons, I feel you’re misunderstanding the point of them being there. You’re misunderstanding the sheer magnitude of their presence, and of what’s going on in these books, and now the show. Maybe because I first read the books as a child I feel the writing is very powerful, because I hold it in that place in my heart. But to me it’s like: they’re going to another world?! There’s other worlds?! Asriel wants to fight God?! They have dæmons?! What—don’t you dare touch anyone else’s dæmon unless they give consent?! All of these things are just HUGE and not some random fact that can be dismissed, they’re the fundamentals of the entire story.