#this is a rant ignore me

[probablyjustanotheryrblog]

okay so remember felice in season one? remember her and the constant posting on instagram? i want to talk about that. felice and the media.

a major part of her media updates seemed to be inclined for this need of validation she was harboring. from anyone, any random person on the web telling her "you look really pretty today!" or "i love the way you wore your hair"-- an awful lot of it was pointed towards her body and her looks. she wanted, needed, this validation because she wasnt getting it from her mother, and mostly, because she wasnt getting it from herself. she didnt see all of those things in herself and needed others to confirm them. it also felt like this thing, once she started it, became something she was obligated to do. to update the people. she wasnt doing it for fame or attention.

and then theres season two felice. i adore season two felice. she grew and changed so much, i dont think theres a single episode where she's posting something or using instagram in any other form besides a communication platform. if there was, it wouldve been shown, no? she was living for herself, not for the wants and needs of other people, people who she didnt even know on a personal level.

(yes there is one episode where felice and her besties are making this cute lil video together, as my favourite found family, but that wasnt for felice, it was just a thing they did. it wasnt to seek validation.)

felice was and is becoming her own person. this headstrong, all around boss bitch of a queen, felice became her own person. and im aware how irrevocably cringe that sounds but its so true.

[just-some-trans-nobody]

I just want a grumpy werewolf to look over to me and immediately start wagging his tail. I would melt if that happened.

[knightingale]

The "Sansa reminds Sandor of his sister" motive that some people try to hitch to his character really just flies in the face of his actual attachments to her, doesn't it? Sansa reminds Sandor of himself. He sees the little boy who used to love knights in this girl who's been swept up by the same romanticism. He sees his abuser in her abusers, the much larger knight(s) beating on the helpless child. He sees how she is betrayed by every level of authority that should have saved her and remembers his father's neglect and Tywin and Robert's apathy for Gregor's crimes. He's protective of Sansa because he was Sansa.

And GRRM's design, that one of the strongest warriors in the series, a fearsome and cynical 6'8" guy who's "muscled like a bull" and has the face of death itself, sees himself in this soft and effeminate teen girl, and empathizes with her because he was an abuse victim too, is INFINITELY more compelling than "Oh yeah I bet she just reminds him of his sister," who he's never mentioned and who we know literally nothing about. Way to unnecessarily water down a character, you couldn't have ignored the black and white text more efficiently if you tried.

[holylulusworld]

Just thinking...What if... stalked reader is the crazy one and the "poor" stalker doesn't know what he got himself into. 👀👀

Someone needs to save him from dear Y/N...😂

Reader: "Wait! You didn't stalk me for a week. Where have you been?"

Stalker: "What? I..."

Reader: "We have a routine, Sir. I leave my bedroom curtains open so you can get a glimpse of my cute bottom and I get off imagining you will break into my apartment to eat my coochie!"

Stalker: Loses his shit. "What the fuck!"

Reader: "You can't change our routine out of the blue. Thursday nights are there for our sex dates!"

Stalker: "Sex dates?" *starts to sweat.* He looks around the deserted street, asking himself if this is the right moment to grab you.

Reader: *sighs deeply* "I got the bags with me for a reason," you point at the duffle bags slung over your shoulder. "Now, chop-chop and kidnap me! I want to see your home!"

[chrollohearttags]

you ever get the feeling that you’re not really liked but just kinda tolerated?…like you don’t really belong anywhere and you’re just kinda always on the outside but you don’t fit in or wtv.

[blackkatmagic]

I'm always a little weirded out by just how much both the movies and the fandom gloss over how utterly uncomfortable Padme was with being around Anakin in the beginning of AotC. Like, this is a woman who grew up under a microscope from the time she was 14, but she still goes so far as to cover all the cameras in her room, knowing that a bounty hunter is after her and just murdered one of her handmaidens, because Anakin watching her creeps her out so much.

And yeah, most of that is because the movies forget about it too in favor of reducing her character to "girl in forbidden love", but still. It's so deeply clear in the first half of the movie just how much Anakin makes Padme uncomfortable. Like. to wild degrees.

[turtleblogatlast]

One of the earliest examples of Leo’s “I’ll do my own thing to accomplish our goal without discussing it with my team first” is in episode one. It’s super, super quick, and ultimately inconsequential, but it subtly sets up a great precedent that I think is very interesting.

When the boys need to grab the medallion from Splinter without Splinter noticing, Raph, Mikey, and Donnie huddle together with Raph taking the lead in trying to devise a plan to get the mystic device. Meanwhile, Leo slinks away and grabs the device by clocking the situation (by knowing his father well enough to predict his actions - something he does with each family member multiple times in the series) and making a move on his own.

It works out perfectly fine, and is ultimately the best move, and it’s honestly okay that he didn’t consult everyone for something so small when it’s such a non issue to get it, but it nicely sets up how this tends to go in the series, including how it goes in the movie.

To be honest episode one is actually really good at setting up a lot of things for each character in the long run, this is just one example that caught my attention, as small and unassuming as it is.

[obsmiechujek]

Bubbline with some bubbles

[doccywhomst]

the funniest thing abt seeing “do this right now or you’re a bad person” posts on the autism website is like…. no lol. now i am simply not doing that. in the process of trying to induce fear/guilt, you’ve activated my trap card (demand avoidance)

[foreverunraveling]

I kind of love the use of dirt in S1E4? 

When the episode starts, Wille is laying his head on Erik’s casket. He reaches out for some dirt on it as the last conversation they have when Erik leaves Wille at Hillerska in episode 1 plays in the background. The words' dual meaning becomes obvious.

Wille touches the dirt, feels it. The dirt is real. There's not much of it, but it's real. And he's losing it. He's lost the one thing in his life that is real--his relationship with his brother, Erik.

For most of his life, I’d imagine that Erik was the only person in the world with whom Wille could be fully real. And Erik was probably one of the only people who was real with Wille back.  The only person with whom he could have a real relationship.  Who didn’t expect a polite, respectful prince and nothing else. Who would tell Wille to run on the count of three during a boring photoshoot and slip down the muddy hill with him.  

And then Erik dies. The only real connection that Wille can ever remember having in the world is gone. And Wille is realizing that he pushed the very last glimmer of a real connection away.  And nothing feels real any more. So Wille goes to the football field where he was with Simon, a place where he felt truly normal, looking for something that will make him feel real. And all he finds is astroturf—no real dirt. He realizes that without Simon, there’s nothing real left in his life. No one who sees him and accepts him for who he really is. No one who knows the real Wille, who is messy and dirty, and still cares for him regardless.

And it sinks in. Without Erik, there’s nothing tethering Wille to this earth any more. The rest of the world seems further and further away.  Fake, as Wille discovers the astroturf on the soccer field is.  So, Wille reaches out for Simon, the one person who can ground him again. 

The only real thing that Wille has left in his life is Simon.  He’s the only person left who would ever be fully real with Wille. Tell Wille that he’s actually the country's biggest welfare recipient. Give Wille shit when he tries to hide from August. Discreetly laugh in August’s face with him. Dare him to evade the cousin he hates for an evening to experience something totally normal with real people.

And not only that, but Simon is the only person left in his life who Wille can be fully real with at this point. No one else has any idea about the sexuality crisis that Wille is going through or how that plays into any of his feelings about ascending to the role of Crown Prince.  No one has any idea about what happened between him and Simon.  No one knows that he doesn’t really like August, or the school, or his role.  Except Simon.  Simon is the only one left who sees Wille for himself—a real person rather than a personification of his title.  

And, as Wille points out, what he and Simon have—what he feels for Simon, at the very least—is real.  Wille has tried to fight it, but the sheer reality of it rips through the paper-thin fake layers with which Wille tries to shield himself. “I’m not like that” and “I can’t do this any more.” But alone, out on the field, where Wille expected to find the normalcy he felt when he went to Rosh’s game, he’s surrounded by only reminders that nothing left is real.

So Wille reaches out for Simon—the only one who can ground him again. Because unlike the astroturf on which Prince Wilhelm's life is built, dirt is real. What they have is real.  And real life is messy, it’s dirty, and you can pretend otherwise, but you’ll end up falling down in the mud either way.  And Wille is choosing to grasp at the only thing left that he sees in his life that is real. Simon.

[definitelynotarabbit]

You ever think about how tragically flawed all the homonculus from fmab are? They all have their special abilities but when it came right down to it their abilities failed them.

Like specifically Greed. He had his ultimate shield and for 99% of the show it did exactly what it was supposed to. Or at least it looked like it did. But then in his final moments this bastard gives his life to protect Ling and by extension literally everything and everyone else. Something very telling about this is that he's finally satisfied. That single act reframes everything.

At Greed's introduction we're given the impression that Greed is selfish, that his shield is there to protect himself. But when you reframe this with his reaction to Wrath killing the chimeras and his final act, you get a very different picture. Greed valued his possessions above anything else. He wanted to protect them at any cost, including himself.

So with that knowledge, his ultimate shield becomes a goddamn tragedy. This man just wanted to protect those he cared for but was given a shield that could only protect himself.

By extension this also reframes his line to Ed about being the type to brush off a threat until the threat was to a loved one. In this context it suddenly seems a whole hell of a lot more likely that he was speaking from personal experience.

Why else would he leave his body exposed for his first fight with Wrath? It seems to me that he didn’t want Wrath going anywhere near the chimeras and so he made himself a target. He could have just thrown up his ultimate shield (up to his neck, wouldn't want to cover up that face) and fought Wrath a way more effectively. Instead this self sacrificing piece of shit keeps the attention on himself until he physically can't anymore. This guy couldn't bear the idea of losing his loved ones possessions so badly that he was willing to die for them. He literally would prefer death to watching his friends die.

And then the cherry on top is that despite trying to fight to the death with Wrath, Wrath intentionally leaves him alive.

Tldr

The curse of Greed's ultimate shield is that he is forced to survive when others do not. He can only truly protect himself, the last possession he would consider protecting.

[beanghostprincess]

People who don't understand why Buggy hates Shanks when Shanks "did nothing to him" seriously haven't had a nasty breakup with a best friend everyone liked better than them

[givethispromptatry]

Tags

[kybelles]

so after a recent conversation with my friends we’ve come to a realization: fandom loves Slave Rights Advocate laurent trope. whether it be an arranged marriage au, a time travel au, an auguste lives au or any kind of setting where slavery is still in motion; it’s always laurent who opens damen’s eyes to the horrors of slavery and insists they can’t be with each other until slavery is abolished, that slavery is a deal breaker on whether they can be together or not. now i certainly don’t want to sound like i’m policing anybody’s creative choices but it’s become such a common trope in the fandom that it is baffling at this point because. here’s the thing. slavery isn’t one of laurent’s battles. at all.

allow me to explain further before i make people angry. it’s clear laurent is against the fundamental premise of slavery and finds it inhumane. but through the series (counting out taofc where he and damen are trying to build an empire together), he doesn’t actively fight or challenge the system or slavery. i don’t even think this is a hot take when you remember that he;

i. didn’t protect the akielon slaves in arles until damen begged him to and sold them to torveld for personal gain (which was the best course of action he could take under the circumstances but as i said, he wasn’t above using them)

ii. referred to damen as his slave constantly in both a technical and romantic sense

iii. got turned on by playing master and slave and master and pet

iv. used isander as a way to get back at damen: was fed by isander in the feast, stroked him, allowed him to kiss his feet and boots etc.

in fact here are plenty of instances where it’s clear laurent enjoyed the type of power he had over damen:

and here’s the only part where i can remember damen and laurent discussing slavery after damen’s identity is revealed and they have the possibility of a future together. as you can see, laurent’s attitude towards it is pretty neutral. he doesn’t approve, but it’s clear he’s not a passionate champion of the anti slavery movement.

let me make it clear that none of this is a criticism towards laurent. it’s important to remember that capri started as a slavekink fic (in pacat’s own words) and though it evolved, by the final draft she still kept some of those elements: like making the first night between lamen a romantic, sacred, precious thing between them; laurent telling damen he’s his slave by feeding him as a slave would, damen calling himself laurent’s slave as a sign of submission/love/romance before their first kiss, laurent saying damen is still his slave before sleeping with him… the narrative still eroticizes slavery to some extent and uses it as a vehicle of romance.

the thing is, laurent finding enjoyment in these practices is not the problem. when the fandom loves to pretend like laurent would be so disgusted by the idea of slavery (even though the text repeatedly shows he’s not) , that he; a perfect civilized blonde veretian angel would come to akielos and educate those barbarians about how horrible slavery is and damen would only open his eyes to the truth through laurent’s guidance, that’s when my issues start. because, like i said, this was never laurent’s battle and it pretty much reads like laurent is some sort of white savior, someone who comes to damen’s country to “fix” the problems of akielos without understanding their history, needs, or the region’s current state of affairs.

another very important thing to underline is that the whole slavery ordeal in the series was damen’s character arc, not laurent’s. he’s the actual slave in the scenario, and as much as laurent doesn’t like slavery, damen didn’t come to the conclusion that it was bad because of laurent’s preachings. it leaves a bad taste in the mouth that damen was the one who actually experienced slavery and faced countless humiliations in vere and yet people still insist on making laurent educate damen about why it’s wrong, even though he himself has never experienced slavery in his life. (one might argue in aus where damen was never sent to vere as a slave he wouldn’t come to the same realizations but that still doesn’t mean laurent would have a passionate agenda regarding slaves. at best i believe he would demand damen to stop sleeping with his slaves as they are monogamous.)

choosing laurent as The One who firmly stands against slavery is bad from a narrative pov too. making this specifically about laurent makes no sense because it's got nothing to do with him. it's not his country! he doesn't care about akielos the way damen does. everything about it thematically relates back to damen; who exists as a metaphor for akielos - any insult or injury done to him is an insult to akielos. he embodies it’s values and it’s people, and by becoming a slave he’s reflecting the current slave state of akielos, and through finding liberation for himself he’s also finding liberation for akielos. it’s a powerful symbolism for how akielos is changed and freed directly BECAUSE of his own personal liberation. laurent has nothing more than an intellectual interest in anti-slavery and he only ever begins to care about akielos because he cares for damen. but damen was raised with it and experienced it and cares very deeply about it. it’s his country! it's his story!

tldr; through the series, it was damen’s journey to experience what it was like to be a slave, to see the true horrors of this practice and decide he doesn’t want to rule his country that way anymore. so taking his agency and giving it laurent, someone who was neutral at best about slavery, feels incredibly insensitive and wrong.

[onyx-got-clowned]

neurotypicals are weird, like wdym i can’t sit on the floor??? Because it’s ’disrespectful’ or ‘distracting’ ??? How??? Literally so confused wtf. It’s the church floor, i am sitting next to the chair with my attention on you, it’s NOT that deep 😭 Mormons are literally sooooo annoying oh my godddd

[lisaiese]

Penacony, Art Nouveau & Art Déco

As a Cultural Heritage major, it was inevitable for me to notice the huge Art Nouveau and Art Déco influence in Penacony.

The most evident example is Robin's poster:

It is reminiscent of artworks by Alfons Mucha (1860-1939), who often drew illustrations for advertisment, for example Bière de la meuse (1897), created to sell beer. Robin's poster is also an ad, which serves to promote the singer and her next performance for the Charmony Festival.

We can see the detail of the hair: in both illustrations it is observable how the ends of the hair curve in almost a decorative manner. In addition, both the figures are accentuated by the use of a thicker countour line.

Next, I wanted to point out the overall architecture of Penacony (particularly the architecture in Golden Hour).

Let's start by saying that Art Nouveau has its basis on a movement called Arts & Crafts, invented by William Morris (1834-1896). Morris wanted everyone to be able to own beautiful and durable objects (somewhat going against the values of the Industrial Revolution) and so Arts & Crafts was born. Therefore, Art Nouveau is mostly known for its decorations, architectures, jewels, furniture, vases, lamps etc. Art Déco can be considered an off-spring of Art Nouveau, as it spread in the 1920s and became the style to go in the USA in the 30s. The main difference between the two is that: Art Nouveau is more graceful, "spring-like" and utilises more sinuous lines (in fact, Mucha is Art Nouveau), while Art Déco is more geometric and is characterised by stronger colors.

For instance, the grand theatre in Penacony and the other structures/objects in the following pictures can all be considered Art Nouveau, let's compare them with real life examples of Art Nouveau:

And these can be considered Art Déco:

To conclude, I love how Penacony was created, both on the stylistic aspect and the gaming mechanisms aspect (like, the 3d rooms are so cool). I just wanted to write about the fascinating artistic references in Star Rail, it's just a natural consequence of the fact that I am majoring in Cultural Heritage I suppose.