#this is almost a tl;dr version honestly

[audreycritter]

every time i see a post talking about how alfred pennyworth failed bruce for not getting him into therapy as a kid i want to scream.

it did not exist. the idea that children could have PTSD was just starting to be discussed in the late 80s/early 90s at the FRINGE of child psychology, and then trauma therapy even for adults spent an unhelpful 2ish decades dominated by forced-conversation talk therapy. that's a thing that is detrimental to trauma recovery, because if someone doesn't feel safe or in control of the dialogue about their trauma and is repeatedly asked to describe their trauma when they're uneasy, it COMPOUNDS TRAUMA AND FEELINGS OF DANGER.

when bruce was a kid, even the best psychs available would have had training that taught them kids bounce back, that kids don't respond to or handle trauma the way adults do, and that any behaviors post-trauma were almost certainly unrelated mental illness.

i see this esp in fandom circles but a gentle reminder that therapy even when it's good doesn't fix everything. even if bruce had HAD access to good childhood PTSD therapy, he would still have grief, he would still potentially be socially awkward or withdrawn, he might have still decided to be Batman because it's a comic book where being a vigilante isn't as wild as it is irl.

therapy requires honesty, readiness, safety, sound application of theory, an accurate picture of life outside the therapy room (self-reporting is often flawed!), consistency, and more! it can help but it doesn't erase trauma or grief. it's dismissive of the history of trauma therapy to say an adult "should have" had a kid in a therapy approach that didn't exist, and it's dismissive of the actual work of therapy to act like therapy would have made everything ideal. bruce isn't going to be a normal, well-adjusted adult because his parents were murdered in front of him. he could be happy! he could have coping skills! but honestly it would be weirder if he didn't wrestle with residual trauma and grief throughout his life.

and maybe this is just because i love Batman, and love specifically Batman as a symbol/figure of hope and sacrifice and the belief that every life matters, but I don't think the worst ending here is Bruce deciding to give up a lot of his time, energy, and health to work in Gotham AND then choose to parent a traumatized child and actively meet his needs. like you think the alternative is that Alfred is a better parent by getting him into non-existent therapy and then he stays comfortably wealthy at home and is just another rich dude? that's the ideal version? the one who can't help Dick Grayson because Dick Grayson wants to run away and murder a man?

anyway tl;dr alfred should have flaws, yes, but there's a big gap between "flawed human parental figure" and "man who massively failed Bruce in multiple ways, one of which was not putting him in therapy."

[smute]

random hill to die on and i could honestly make a 3 hour viddy essay about this but here's the short version: "save some pasta water for binding your sauce" is probably one of the most misunderstood cooking tips ever. yes, its an old trick and yes, its something that can be helpful under very specific circumstances but at this point almost every pasta recipe i come across seems to mention some variation of it and in most cases it's complete nonsense.

firstable, let me explain where it doesnt work: adding pasta water to a random sauce (tomato for instance) will not make it thicker. whatever miniscule amount of starch you're gonna have in there wont make a difference when you're also adding ladlefuls of water at the same time. its pasta water not cornstarch slurry. and thats not something you want in your tomato sauce anyway. tomato paste is an excellent emulsifier all on its own (along with egg yolks, mustard, butter, cream, milk, and many other dairy products) so in order to thicken a tomato-based sauce you have exactly two options: evaporation or more tomato paste, which basically amounts to the same thing: less water, more everything else.

pasta water on the other hand can be useful for diluting a sauce (tomato or otherwise) that has been cooked down too much. while adding wine or juices (or just plain water) for deglazing makes sense at the beginning of the cooking process, watery things added to an almost finished sauce will simply... water it down (duh) and (in the case of wine, vinegar, etc) introduce unwanted raw flavors. there's also a good chance that cold liquids won't mix well with the sauce and ruin the consistency. for this, broth works very well, but pasta water would be a more neutral option flavor-wise. the salt and temperature honestly make the biggest difference here. plus, pasta water is something you're probably gonna have on hand anyway as you will likely be boiling your pasta shortly before serving.

the same goes for loosening any other emulsion, like an emulsified butter sauce or carbonara for example. this shouldn't be necessary but if your egg and cheese mixture clings to the pasta a little too much and everything just clumps together, a small (!!!) amount of pasta water can help the sauce reach a creamier consistency without diluting the overall flavor too much.

however. the Pasta Water Trick (TM) that everyone talks about but so few recipes seem to get right goes like this: you finish cooking your pasta in the sauce and you also add a little bit of pasta water to that mixture. a single cooked spaghetto will probably yield more starch than an entire cup of pasta water, and cooking your starchy pasta for a minute (or just tossing it) in the finished sauce will make a huge difference for the consistency. that alone can be enough, you can stop right there. but now you run the risk of binding too much liquid. this is where the pasta water comes in. it's hot, salty, starchy, and it's right there on the stove, so it's perfect for making sure your sauce doesn't disappear completely. THATS ALL

btw. all of this works a lot better with fresh pasta and a lower water to pasta ratio. fresh pasta gives off more starch than dried pasta, and it works even better with homemade pasta that's still covered in flour. the cloudier the water the better.

in any case, pasta water = a little bit of starch + a whole lot of water (and salt). thats why it only makes sense to use it in situations where you need both the starch AND the extra liquid (and salt) or if you know that you'll evaporate most of it later on. think of pasta water as a better alternative to cold water or as something that you can use when you dont have any other cooking liquids on hand. and always keep the salt in mind.

tl;dr: pasta water can be a useful tool for emulsification but if anything it's a thinning agent rather than a thickening agent.

[tweedlebugged]

Yes, yes, James Somerton’s videos are down, the evil is defeated, etc etc. But honestly I’m just mad that I’ll never be able to back up my theory that the origin story of his whole bizarre “Sexy Nazis invented fitness culture” thing was just him ripping off the podcast Maintenance Phase. Badly.

(Almost like he built a career off stealing from other queer creators and not checking his sources or something idk)

If you haven’t had a chance to listen yet, Maintenance Phase is an extensively researched podcast from two queer writers (this may sound familiar) Michael Hobbes and Aubrey Gordon, dedicated to debunking myths about health and wellness. The very FIRST episode contains the facts:

1) The Nazis were very concerned about fitness due to fascism-based views of the body, and engaged in group exercise similar to modern calisthenics classes.

2) This kind of group fitness was closely associated with the Nazis in the consciousness of Americans, partially because of Nazi propaganda films portraying it.

3) Americans were less measurably fit than Europeans because they didn’t do the same kind of group exercises, and this was attributed to American softness.

Hypothetically: If you are a lazy asshole who built a career stealing from more talented creators and recounting a funhouse version of history based on half-remembered facts you don’t bother to verify, you very well might have only absorbed those facts initially and come to the weird hot Nazi conclusion (if you’re into that I guess?)

Or MAYBE you do kind of remember (hypothetically!) the actual sequence of described in the episode - that because Nazis were associated with group fitness activities due to propaganda films etc, American physical education turned really quickly from similar styles of group fitness to less regimented exercise activities like sports. This shift meant American children performed more poorly on standardized physical fitness measurements than European children, which was blamed on American softness/decadence.

But this doesn’t support your pre-existing (hot Nazi???) biases, so you cherry pick only the facts that you can distort into a conclusion that DOES. (This may also sound familiar.) Hypothetically!!!

For bonus points! I’m pretty sure the connection between poverty, nutrient poor and carb rich diets, and fatness is also something they’ve discussed in other episodes, but unrelated to the depression or hot Nazis or less hot Soviets (taken with a grain of salt because I am tragically also kind of a lazy asshole just going off half-remembered vibes on this one)

TL;DR: If you heard the bit where James Somerton claimed that sexy Nazis inspired Americans to create modern fitness culture and thought “that doesn’t sound right but I don’t know enough about fitness and the Nazis to dispute it” you should check out Maintenance Phase because I’m pretty sure it’s both uncited source and debunking rolled into one.

[ghostyolive]

I will always be so mad that FMA:B gave Greed a different dialogue with Bradley after the Devil's Nest massacre than in the manga because it feels like it just changes his characterization to be so much plainer and more cartoonishly assholish. Like they really wanted to rope you into thinking he was a bad guy so that his twist of caring about people would feel stronger, but it just makes me sad. In the VIZ Media Fullmetal Edition translation, the exchange goes:

Greed: "Whoa there Bradley. How could you do this to them? They were my people."

Bradley: "Feeling pity for your pawns? How pathetic."

Greed: "Pity?! Do you forget who the hell you're dealing with?! I am greed incarnate!! Money, women, henchmen, everything-- they're my possessions! They're all mine! I won't let you take away what belongs to me!!"

...And the exchange in the English dub of FMA:B goes:

Greed: "Whoa, that was a little excessive. Killing me is one thing, but they're not coming back."

Bradley: "Pitying the lost lives of your pawns? Pathetic."

Greed: "Excuse me, are you senile? Did you forget who I am, old man? I'm the living incarnation of greed! Those weren't my friends, Bradley. They were my possessions! Money, women, henchmen-- They're all possessions!"

And that difference is absolutely insane! His manga version is in some ways more obvious and in some ways more ambiguous about his care for his friends. On the one hand, he staunchly refuses to pity them. (I would say that this is because he respects their right to self-determination and what they signed on for when they followed him, but that's almost pure speculation.) But on the other, he specifically refers to them as "[his] people." This really effectively toes the line between multiple meanings-- "[his] people" colloquially would refer to friends, but it also emphasizes ownership. It sets up his arc of acknowledging friendship while also not detracting from his care for the Devil's Nest gang.

The anime just makes him... indifferent and snarky? On a surface level, it makes his character arc far more clear as somebody learning to love and care about others, but it also really devalues his experiences with his gang. I guess I can almost understand why people just forget about them aside from the bit with Bido when they only watch FMA:B considering that it absolutely glosses over just about every part of the manga that makes you care about them. Why should people consider those random guys in the beginning when he makes it clear that he never cared about them? /s

And it's more than just the writing that I have a problem with. Even the animation is so distinctly different from what's shown in the manga that the tone ends up absolutely flipped on his head.

(Note: this online scan doesn't use the official translation) Greed's expression here can best be described as one of pure rage. I think you could maybe loosely interpret the first panel as a grin, but the second panel clears up how he's feeling pretty well. It's especially poignant since the three panels preceding these two entirely obscure his expression. Any calm and collectedness has been shed in the face of his gang's massacre and his eyes are bulging and furious in a way that they haven't been drawn before. And how does the anime handle this absolute gut punch?

Um. Not good, frankly. It's definitely got the wildness of his original expression, but it conveys none of the anger. It throws off what's essentially his greatest display of hypocrisy-- That he only gets angry when his gang is hurt, just like how Ed only gets angry when Al is hurt. Absolutely nothing about his reaction properly conveys rage or frustration, and that honestly just sucks. While episode 13 served as a pretty decent and streamlined recap of chapters 25-28, episode 14 really screwed with some of the moments that made Greed's arc feel so powerful and bittersweet.

Tl;dr Please oh please go read the manga version of og Greed's arc <3

[blood-and-pizza]

I need to address something real quick: if I knew what Glamrock Bonnie sounded like, there would be way more content of him on this blog. Because I want to love this rabbit but I don't "hear" him in my head yet.

This is going to sound odd, but even though people had many interesting fan takes on Glamrock Bonnie's appearance, I wasn't really "feeling" most of them as my mental image for the character. Honestly, I think the main reason Glamrock Bonnie's official design made me fall in love with him is because... well...

I WASN'T EXPECTING HIM TO BE BLUE LIKE TOY BONNIE

AND I REALLY LIKE TOY BONNIE AND HIS DESIGN OKAY

It took me entirely off-guard, especially considering almost every fan version of GlamBon was purple since... well, the artwork in Bonnie Bowl.

This isn't Glamrock Bonnie, though I know we ALL thought so. This is Classic Bonnie. They not only got rid of every piece of art of Glamrock Bonnie by the start of Security Breach, they added insult to injury by... and this is JUST A THEORY... painting over the original Bonnie Bowl logo so that Canon Blue GlamBon is changed to Classic Bonnie.

This is Fazbear Entertainment's art of Glamrock Bonnie in the DLC:

I don't think it would have taken much to paint over the old sign so that they don't have to rename Bonnie Bowl and save money.

I honestly find it insulting to both Classic Bonnie and Glamrock Bonnie. For Classic, it's insulting because he's being used as a generic placeholder. For Glamrock Bonnie, it's insulting FOR OBVIOUS REASONS.

tl;dr-- I'm a little autistic for the bnnuy and FAZBEAR ENTERTAINMENT IS EVIL AF

AND I REALLY WANNA KNOW WHAT HE SOUNDS LIKE!!!

[aetherceuse]

I've read your posts about disliking Ultra SM but what are your thoughts on the Aether Foundation and Rainbow Rocket?

Hello anon, you asked a very normal question two months ago, and now I’m going to give a very deranged, not normal, ‘I have been dealing with the horrors of USUM for what feels like my entire life’ answer. / lighthearted.

LET ME START THIS OUT WITH: I love all of the characters involved, I am loudly and obnoxiously a fan of both sides in Pokémon, however:

The amount of criticism I have for the whole RR arc plays directly into the problems I have with the way that Lusamine’s character was assassinated in USUM. Beginning with the way that Lusamine was completely defanged and dethroned from being one of the most compelling antagonists in all of Pokémon, only to become the most mild, unappealing, borderline irritating presence in the entirety of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. It completely ruined all of the character growth that Lillie and Gladion experienced in the initial two games, and it also made the dynamic between Lusamine and Guzma a lot less compelling.

The fact that they trashed the entire Nihilego arc and ruined the entire Aether family story for the sake of shoehorning Necrozma into the plot, is something I will never, ever be over, and I believe that the decline in Pokémon antagonists began with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.

Anyways. They somehow make it worse with the entirety of the Rainbow Rocket plot. They further make Lusamine less remarkable and turn her into a damsel in distress, all for the sake of the nostalgia gauntlet that was the whole RR post-game. Honestly, in my opinion, there was no reason for that to happen at the Aether Foundation. You mean to tell me, that a group of megalomaniac men who all were WINNERS in their respective timelines, all decided that they didn’t have good enough resources for— whatever the fuck they wanted to continue doing, and had to go and storm Aether? And they managed to that simply by— having Faba hand over the keys.

It makes me want to throw my head through an entire wall and eat my own shoe.

I truly refuse to believe that the entirety of Aether would just surrender in a situation like that. It just made all of those characters look ridiculous. I’m so bitter and annoyed by it.

I’m also especially annoyed, because it isn’t as if Sun & Moon Lusamine and Aether as a whole were just standard, run-of-the-mill antagonists, this was a MAJOR organization that rivaled the other science-heavy syndicates in the games. They make it way too abundantly clear that Lusamine is almost like the opposite side of the coin to Giovanni. Aether made contact with Ultra Space. Aether captured Ultra Beasts AND designed the Beast Ball specifically to hold those beasts. Aether had the technology and brilliance to conduct the Type: Full & Beast Killer projects in order to create Type: Null and Silvally. The RKS System is an attempt to replicate ARCEUS. Aether didn’t even need to get Silph Co to work with them in order to accomplish this— Lusamine and Aether funded this on their own. And while the Beast Ball and Silvally aren’t exactly as impressive as the Master Ball and Mewtwo on paper, those are still major accomplishments that the majority of the world cannot claim.

They could had done something far more compelling and given respect to Lusamine’s character if they treated her and Aether as a symbolic competitor to Rocket. It would had spoken volumes to both organizations if there was an actual fight put up in order for Rainbow Rocket’s siege to be successful, because I know damn well my lady here wouldn’t just let a bunch of men roll up to the Aether Paradise and take it. She has UB’s for fuck’s sake.

I also still refuse to believe that somebody like Lysandre would willingly work alongside Giovanni, but, that’s a different rant for a different day. Love all these characters, but that whole entire plot was executed poorly.

And don’t even get me started on how it got even W O R S E in PokeMas. “Oh wow who could had leaked this sensitive information wow nobody in the foundation could had done that—“ Lusamine said as Faba was literally standing right there, the same Faba who had already done the same bullshit.

I hate it here. Lusamine is my OC now.

The TL;DR version: It could’ve been better.

[listening-to-thunder]

City Hunter 2024

Don't mind me I just watched a live action adaptation of the show I absolutely imprinted on as a little fan sprout in the late 80s/early 90s and I have feelings?! (Tl;dr - the adaptation is so faithful I am so happy.)

So yeah. I watched the (censored) French version of the City Hunter anime during summer vacations and then languished as Sweden did not have City Hunter (or anyone who had heard of City Hunter, other than my little brother). So I did stuff like...record it on VCR, pause the VCR, and trace character portraits off the prickly cathode-ray tube TV. (Screenshot technology has come a long way!)

Later on I read the entire un-censored manga (with the original names restored!) in French, and downloaded the Japanese songs from some pages I found on AltaVista (which took forever on modem), and brough the full set back in Japanese after I lived there for a while. And then I found out there is an official "megafan gets transmigrated into the story"-manga about City Hunter, and I read that, too.

Basically: I have had this story in my life forever, and watching the live action movie now gives me echoes of all those feelings I had as a lonely fannish kid. Which is a weird feeling, but not in a bad way, because the live action adaption (not the first, but the first Japanese one!) is...good? It's fun! And it's as faithful to the original story as it could possibly be while also being updated for the 21st century in the best ways?

Okay, I'm just gonna dive in!

I love how prominent Shinjuku is in the live action. It's gorgeously shot, and you can really feel a sense of place. The characters always talk about "this city", and Shinjuku is that city.

And right off the bat Suzuki Ryohei gets to shine in a fun, fast fight scene with a manga flair to it!

Everyone in Shinjuku knows Ryo-chan! And here's where I will admit to my own ignorance, because reading in translation at a young age I honestly don't know if the manga touched on how Shinjuku as a place where the queer community meets? But here the owner of the bar Ryo rushes through is a glorious okama!

Saeba Ryo and Makimura Hidekyuki and HI MY FEELS. (I will probably get back to how much I adore that Ryo is played by an actor who's hit 40 - but Andou Masanobu is nearly 50?! HOW.)

YES GOOD the iconic coat from the manga (that I like a lot more than the silly little anime jacket) running down the streets of Shinjuku as the equally iconic red car (an old Mini Cooper?) races past the neon lights.

Oh man I have cried about this scene so many times. And here I just love how they got the dramatic rain in, despite the circumstances and setting of Makimura's death being different. That's what a good adaptation does: keeps things recognizable to the existing fans, while transforming it to something new and exciting. (I almost didn't see it coming because I kept thinking "It's not raining"...!)

Not to be shallow or anything but...HOT DAMN. Suzuki Ryohei!!!!

This was so delightful! Everyone was having such fun with the Mokkori Dance, and I am thrilled that they found a way of showing this side of Saeba Ryo without making him a sex pest. The mood whiplash from drama to the most frivolous silliness is extremely City Hunter, and the movie wouldn't have felt right if they hadn't nailed this. (With Ryo nudity. I am. Not complaining at all.)

Kaori's stare. Ryo's confidence. Perfect. No notes.

And then we get some T&A... and it's QUEER AS FUCK?! Instead of a strip club, in 2024 the Shinjuku nightlife scene is beautiful people voguing with a fabulous drag queen MC!

Showing off Ryo's impossibly good aim by following the bullet through a crowded nightclub was fun but again: look at this Shinjuku!! It's queer and diverse and I love it.

I could not believe how Suzuki Ryohei somehow manages to move like a manga character? He is so fast and so believable as a supernaturally good shot! I also liked how Ryo hid his gun as soon as he'd fired it - the enemy had already spotted him, so it wasn't that he was afraid of giving himself away? But he doesn't want to have a gun out at a queer nightclub, where it could start a very understandable panic.

Again with the Shinjukuness of it all...! Ryo's car is parked outside the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (it was my favorite place to go hang out if I had time to kill in Shinjuku) - I think they're up in the observation deck, too?? The layers of nostalgia for me... it hits hard...

SPEAKING OF HITTING HARD I love that they gave Kaori her mallet!!! YES. (And they made up a cosplay event for it, where there was a tiny bit of T&A - but where the cosplayers themselves were making sure they looked as good as possible, showing off their assets!)

This is art to me.

Saeba Ryo. Stallion of Shinjuku. Blocking creepy otaku and audience alike from getting panty shots while not peeking under her skirt and also the horse head is his penis and...

This will take some processing. (While I giggle.)

THE most City Hunter shot of the entire movie. The crosshairs! Ryo shoving someone (Kaori) out of the way of a bullet! The bullet grazing his arm!! SHOOTING BACK AT THE SNIPER. Everything. Everything is perfect.

I am looking...respectfully...?

Their poses, the city... this whole scene felt like watching the manga come to life. Kaori needs a hug and Ryo hasn't gotten to the point where he can do "emotional support" in any other way than "revenge". Ahhhh the angst.

The movie's fights are so much fun to watch, because they have Ryo being a superhero with a gun (or: several guns), and then Kaori running around terrified but also so determined to actually fight. She shoves things on people! She hits that one guy with a pipe!! I love her so much.

IT'S THEM

FEELS ARE HAPPENING

(Ryo still doesn't do "hugging", but at least he's letting Kaori sob on him this time?)

Yes shooting a guy with an upside down revolver pointing behind you is exactly what I want from City Hunter, thank you! (Also the intensity Suzuki Ryohei brings out for Ryo's protective streak... It's so good...)

I just know that I am missing a ton of Easter eggs...! (I would be surprised if the framed drawing of a revolver isn't Hojo Tsukasa's art, though.)

And here we go! Now they're roommates! Kaori has her mallet! And her 80s manga outfit...! Aaah!!!!

Though they both wear shoes indoors which... I suppose even though they live there, the building isn't..."home"-coded? (I mean having that much real estate in the center of Shinjuku actually requires more suspension of disbelief than the gun magic...).

Anyway: it's THEM!

Sequel when? I really, really want one. They did such a fabulous job with this story, I want to see them do more!!

[bizarre-blorbo-bracket]

Round 1 poll 13: Rev. Green from Cluedo vs the Nachtraven from Nachtraven

Propaganda under the cut:

Rev. Green:

1) Literally just a random board game character 😪 2) Ok so basically here’s the deal. One day, about a year and a half or two years ago, I saw some random thing related to Clue online. I (dual U.S. American and Russian citizen, because I was born in America to an immigrant parent, I PROMISE this is important) was confused because among the cast of characters was “Mr. Green”. Now, I hadn’t played Clue in a very long time. It wasn’t my favorite game as a kid, my only memories of it were wanting to play as Ms. Peacock and then my brother taking her and making me pick someone else, but I was pretty confident the character was Reverend Green. What happened? Was he excommunicated?? I kind of figured the name was just changed to reflect a more secular culture and that I had unknowingly played an old copy of the game as a kid.

But it fascinated me. So I spent months on and off researching the topic. (poorly, might I add, it wasn’t a complicated issue. But still.) I found out about many changes from version to version. Clue Junior, Clue VCR Mystery, Clue Master Detectives, all of it. And the whole time, Green was there to greet me in each new version. It was the first thing I always checked. Was he Mister or Reverend? I found out in one version he was a defrocked priest turned businessman, and in another a scam artist who pretended to be a member of the clergy to pull of a scheme. Closer. I ran polls, I went to irl Clue events, and eventually I found what I was looking for the whole time. Green was a Reverend in the 1944 patent of the game, and the subsequent 1949 U.K. release of Cluedo. But, because of fear that U.S. Citizens would take issue with a member of the church being suspected of murder, Parker Brothers changed the name to Mister Green for the U.S. release.

That all could have taken me five minutes of googling, but honestly the chase made the result so much more worth it. And yet, there was something more there in the back of my mind. This all was well and good, but why was I so sure of the U.K. version of the name? My father’s family is Irish so we have a pretty healthy hatred of all things British, there’s no way my dad would’ve had us play that version of the game. Right? But thanks to a response from a poll I ran, I found out that the German version also went with Reverend. Because Green is an Anglican, I kind of assumed that the U.S. change might have been carried over into other international releases. But no! That made me realize that Mister Green is an outlier and that almost all languages of the game use Reverend. So then last night the pieces finally clicked together. I asked my mom to confirm a hunch I had, not expecting her to at all remember something this trivial. Like I said, I didn’t play it much as a kid. Maybe we didn’t even own a copy, and I had just played it at a library or a hurricane shelter or a relative’s house or something. But she remembered. We did, in fact, own the game. Not just any version, but a RUSSIAN COPY. I unknowingly grew up with Cluedo! So I had every reason to believe it was Reverend Green and be confused when I heard otherwise.

Tl;dr, minor version difference between Russian and American copies of a board game gave me a hyperfixation and a blorbo.

Nachtraven:

SO! The Nachtraven is the titular character of a Dutch children’s gameshow.

They’re a cyberpunk-synthwave-medieval fantasy knight (which is honestly an awesome aesthetic) who breaks into children’s bedrooms at night, lures from their sleepovers and makes them compete against each other in challenges… and the winners get to have a lovely sleepover at whatever place they were lured to.

Seriously, they’re so ominous, so sinister, so villain-coded, but all they want to do is to make children’s sleepovers even better. They’re just a nice guy/entity.

They don’t speak, and instead communicate using electronic beeps, gestures, tape recordings of a woman’s voice and the visor of their knight’s helmet as an LED display they put words on.

Seriously, if this was an American show, all the cryptidcore kids would be citing them as one of their biggest childhood influences. I hope that one day they will be recognised as the true cryptid they are.

[eldritchamy]

I’m like 77% sure that Ash is the protagonist of Uneiverse so I’m here to ask — why her? What makes her a good protagonist? Like why does the story follow her instead of someone else?

This is an EXCELLENT question. Thank you so much for asking it.

One of these days I'm gonna have to think of a working title for the first book set IN the Uneiverse so it's easier to talk about. I've had a few working titles but one of them might actually get used so I can't really drop those. For now let's call it Story Mode.

Story Mode, in the strictest sense, has a bit of an ensemble cast. There are four characters in sort of a Major Protagonist role, and around 3-4 other Supporting Protagonists, depending on how you define them based on the amount of influence they have on wherever the finalized version of the plot ends up. I have strong ideas in terms of narrative structure and general Major Events, but there's a lot of connecting tissue yet to be decided.

You're not wrong to think of Ash as the most central protagonist, though. The narrative does basically frame her as such.

There are several ways I could answer why.

She's based on my first (and by far favorite and most heavily emotionally invested) DND character. The entire concept of the story sprawled out from basically alternate versions of her story as I imagined it without the limitations of tabletop rules. The story exists because Ash is the character I imagined the story for.

Ash has some ... complicated connections to the plot that are hard to explain without saying more than I want to. The tl;dr is that there are things happening in the Uneiverse, and Ash has the most reason of all of the characters to be drawn into those events, based on both her personality and her personal connections to the world around her.

If the story WASN'T following her, it wouldn't be the same story.

Whether she's a "good" protagonist is really more up to reader interpretation. I think she is, and I want her to be, but there's whatever work I put into the story, and there's how any potential readers will respond to it.

I think she's got potential because of how deep the brainworms have been digging for the last two plus years. I think about her CONSTANTLY. Different situations she could find herself in, how she might react to them based on changing circumstances, different ways SPECIFIC CONVERSATIONS could go based on how she relates to other characters and information, etc.

I've never had a more complete sense of who a character is than I have with Ash. I know her whole brain. How she sees and interacts with the world is just innate to me at this point.

That helps a lot with figuring out how a character moves through a story. She's easy to write because I know exactly how she'll behave.

Additionally, she's COMPLICATED. She has two things she wants very much, and those things are contradictory, which is good for driving character growth and conflict.

about 15 years ago, her mother (an extraordinarily powerful angel who was a very devoted and loving parent that Ash had a good relationship with) just didn't come home one day. And Ash is desperate to know both HOW and WHY. Her mother wouldn't have just left. And the thought of what could have KEPT her from coming home is a point of both intense curiosity, and fear.

Ash wants, more than ALMOST anything else, to just have a quiet and peaceful life with her wife. And other partners.

That ALMOST does a lot of heavy lifting. But there is a straw for this camel's back, and that straw is curiosity. She can be drawn OUT of her safe zone if you dangle the right thread in front of her. And that is critical to ... basically everything that happens.

Why does Ash have such an intense need to feel safe and stay out of danger? She spent her whole life with people she thinks are more capable and powerful than her (honestly, she's not wrong). First with her mother, then with Aria, an enormously powerful witch (specifically nature-based magic, so functionally similar to a high level druid) who became her girlfriend and eventually wife. Her most significant partner OTHER than her wife is their mutual girlfriend Cass, who is a very powerful vampire assassin that used to be in a bit of an adventuring party with Aria a few years ago. Lailah, Aria, and Cass are three people that NOBODY fucks with.

And therein lies the problem.

Ash has always felt PROTECTED. And that had the consequence of making her feel exposed without it. She feels like she NEEDS protection, because she never learned how to be the strong one. She has a lot more going on with her magic than she really acknowledges, but she's never felt like she was capable of protecting herself. There's always been someone there for her. One of her most important traumas/personality flaws wasn't formed by BAD relationships, it was formed because of GOOD ones. She does have some pretty rare and potent magical abilities, but because her social circle consists of ridiculously overpowered women, she doesn't really notice as much how she compares to the average person, especially given how she uses those talents.

She has this weird, almost paradoxical thing where she definitely feels like she's cleverer than most people (she is), so trying to call her out for being more capable than she thinks (she is) doesn't really WORK because she partly DOES feel that way, but she has a blind spot that's really hard to point out to her, and she just insists that she's not as powerful as other people she knows (which is hard to correct her on because she's not really WRONG, she's just comparing herself to the wrong people, because her wife is Superpowers Georg and her girlfriend is the most powerful vampire in the world, and her mom was a LOT more powerful than any angels she's ever heard of or been able to find books about).

There are reasons Aria is that powerful. Secret reasons.

(It's trauma.)

Cass is another DEEP point of interest for me (and may get her own book that's a much lower stakes young adult vampire romance novel, set in her backstory, nearly 130 years ago).

Her tl;dr is that she got super duper murdered by noble/mob family drama (basically, her dad sucked), and someone close to her who found out about the plot not-soon-enough had a naughty naughty ancestor who dabbled in some naughty naughty magic, and that person used a spell she didn't fully understand to "not let Cassandra die". What was meant to be a protection spell ended up being a LOT more powerful than she knew (for several reasons), and it created a kind of loophole in the universe that protected Cass from death, and raised her as an unusually powerful vampire.

Basic elevator pitch lore? She died. Her body no longer has life energy of its own, but she can survive by feeding off the energy of others. That energy is best transferred to her through blood, which is basically a magical substance that binds a soul to a body. The spell used to save Cass basically FUSED her soul to her body, (trapping that body in a state of immortality) and separating the two would be EXTRAORDINARILY difficult. The spell requires energy to maintain the link, which is why she needs blood. If she takes in more energy than she needs, she can basically store a reserve of magic energy that will be used as needed to fuel various powers she has. If she keeps well ahead of her needs (she does), hunger isn't an issue unless she REALLY pushes herself and spends a ton of energy.

Her body is more or less unchanged from the day she turned, including the basic needs of a human body. She still eats and sleeps and breathes like everyone else. If she forces herself to go without those things, she can do it, but that causes her to burn through energy a lot faster, which would make her need to feed a lot more. There are limits to how much she can feed AT ONCE, because there's only so much blood you can put in a human stomach before you're gonna throw up, so burning through way too much energy too fast is not a good idea. In practice all it means is she can hold her breath for a really long time if someone tries to, like, use a gas grenade on her.

There are other things about the kind of magic used that influence the exact mechanics of it, but that's the basics. She also doesn't burn in the sun, there's no holy water or crucifixes in this world but if there were they'd have no effect, a stake to the heart is just a stab wound that itches a bit longer (and only because of splinters), etc. If there's a hard limit to what her body can't survive, she hasn't found it yet. Decapitation would probably do it, but she hasn't been eager to try that. The biggest threat to her so far has been starvation, and she only got close once, under very unusual circumstances.

After 5 paragraphs of Cass you'd probably assume she was one of the Major Protagonists, but she's actually one of the minor ones.

Central cast:

Ash

Aria

"Maze" [pending finalization]

"Nat" [pending finalization]

Ash is really the first to get pulled into the Main Quest. Aria gets involved by association, then gets pulled into the Main Quest a lot harder around what you'd probably think of as Act 2. Maze and Nat get a similar invitation to the Intro Quest Sequence soon after Ash (Ash and Aria are probably chapters 1 & 2, chapter 3 & 4 are most likely Nat and Maze).

Cass is kind of a recurring support character who shows up to help at a few critical moments.

Ally, same thing.

Ella, a character tied to Cass' backstory, will likely make the fewest appearances as a supporting character.

There's more going on that I cannot be specific about.

Structurally, I expect chapter 1 should be an introduction to Ash as a person and her place in the world, as well as some insight into what kind of story this might be. Chapter 2 connects her to the world and establishes her conflicting interests (comfortable home life vs. curiosity and pulling threads). Chapter 3 introduces Nat and some interesting bits about the setting, which hopefully drives reader curiosity. Chapter 4 should be an introduction to Maze and the relationship between these two characters. I expect chapter 5 will probably be the four coming together for the first time and getting the plot moving more significantly. Cass might be introduced around chapter 6 or 7, and then some real interesting shit is gonna start happening, and everyone is gonna realize how much Bigger the Main Quest really is. The introduction to the first "god" character (a vast understatement) is likely what really kicks off act 2, and suddenly the stakes are a LOT crazier.

You will NOT be hearing much, if anything, about Act 3. The last quarter of the story lives in my head rent free. I'm very excited about the central ANtagonists.

Thank you so much for this question!

Please ask me more.

[catrasredemption-moved]

Fanfic Etiquette Sunday

Oh man okay, let's rock and roll y'all.

So my friend got... well, this ask, and answered it honestly.

tl;dr the question: Just say you don't want unsolicited criticism, you're asking for it if you post in a public forum tl;dr the answer: lol that's not how this works tl;dr the replies: Your viewpoint is toxic and you need a thicker skin and to grow up and just accept it, you're driving readers away

Okay. Okay. Let's start with

"just say you don't want unsolicited criticism, you're asking for it if you post in an open forum"-

No, posting in an open forum does not automatically mean I want criticism. This isn't a Creative Writing class, it's the Internet, where we share things with each other because we want to, not because we have to. Do you also criticize every meme? Every cute animal pictures? Do I need to start putting a disclaimer on my shitposts that I don't want feedback on whether or not they're cracky enough?

Fanfiction. Is. A. Hobby. People aren't out here sharing their work for free just to hear about all the ways you don't like it. If I think something I've written needs criticism, I'm going to ask the people close to me, who I trust to be honest with their opinions, how I can fix it. I am not going to trust randomusername69420 who thinks I've written the entire story wrong and presents their own version of it and says I should write that instead. And yes, I've gotten that before. I've had readers "challenge" me to write something I have no interest in. News flash, y'all aren't my writing teachers. I'm here to write, not to be graded on my work.

If you're someone who likes unsolicited crit? Cool, go crazy, you do you, boo. But I promise there are more creators out there who don't want it than those who do. Especially first time writers who are still trying to find their style. It's demoralizing. Which leads into the next point:

"You need a thicker skin"

I personally am made of stone. I actively participated in the Tumblr Superwholock saga. I've been to k**l myself for daring to enjoy something someone else doesn't. There's (almost) nothing you can say that would actively piss me off or offend me.

However. Being made of stone doesn't mean I can't recognize and acknowledge when someone is being rude. And you know what? It's valid for people to be upset when they work hard on something only to hear: "Well, here are eight things you could have done better."

I've been told before that I've "missed opportunities" in my stories. To me, that's vaguely annoying at best. I wrote the story I wanted to write. There's no such thing as "missed opportunities" - that's an idea you can take and write it.

But a new writer hearing something like that? It could be absolutely devastating. Here are they are trying to share something the world, only to be told they could have done it better. That can absolutely kill creativity. Which leads into the next point...

you're driving readers away

And you're driving writers away. I know people who just straight up abandoned their stories because of unsolicited criticism. They don't want it, they didn't need it, and they shouldn't have to say "Hey maybe don't crap all over this thing I've spent days or weeks working on."

Imagine if you spent all day cooking a big family meal, and when everyone tried it all they said was, "Well the chicken was dry, the potatoes weren't mashed enough, the green beans were kind of limp and soggy." Did you ask for that criticism by presenting your meal to an open forum (the family table)? Should you have said, "Hey maybe be nice and don't insult every little thing you see wrong with this"? You're not a professional chef, you already know that, and so does your family. Are you going to cook for them again knowing that's their attitude toward you? Personally, I wouldn't. They can make their own damn meals if they're so good at it. I'll just keep cooking for me.

And finally...

"Your viewpoint is toxic."

No, it's setting boundaries. It's saying, "I put a lot of energy into this thing I've written (or maybe I wrote it in five minutes, who knows), and I kind of just want people to be nice to me because validation is cool." And validation is cool! Everybody needs it. Everybody thrives on it. There's nothing wrong with that. Imagine going through your entire life without anyone ever saying one good thing about you, just pointing out all the things you did wrong. Your chicken is too dry, your parallel parking is a bit crooked, your line art is shaky, you missed a spot when you were cleaning the kitchen counter, you missed an opportunity while writing your story. That's exhausting. Nobody wants to live like that. Maybe instead of assuming criticism is the default response, you should look at the person and go "I don't know their life, maybe they just need some kindness."

And if you really don't like something someone's written? Go write it yourself. Fanfiction is a free market, there's absolutely nothing stopping you from writing and sharing your own stories. You're not helping anything by offering criticism to someone who doesn't want it and could potentially be put off by it.

[bedofthistles]

The Little White Horse: Maria

An analysis and comparison of Maria Merryweather in both The Little White Horse and The Secret of Moonacre

TL;DR

Oh my darling Maria. I honestly love both versions of Maria. This girl has gone through so much, has done so much, and she deserves the world. 

However, Maria is a tad bit different in The Secret of Moonacre than she is in The Little White Horse. While both of their stories are endearing and impactful, I do believe one is more harmful than the other. 

Maria Merryweather, as described in the book, is a sweet, relatively happy girl, who is pure-hearted and brave. She is shown to have a love for her animal companions, the boy from her dreams who she played with as a child, her governess, her cousin, and Moonacre Valley. Her vices, however, are her vanity and a natural curiosity, or at least, those are the vices Goudge has told us are her vices. 

“In this year of grace 1842 [Maria] was thirteen years old and was considered plain, with her queer silvery-grey eyes that were so disconcertingly penetrating, her straight reddish hair and thin pale face with its distressing freckles. Yet her little figure, small as that of a fairy's child, with a backbone as straight as a poker, was very dignified, and she had exquisite tiny feet, of which she was inordinately proud. They were her chief beauty, she knew, which was why she took, if possible, a more burning interest in her boots than in her mittens and gowns and bonnets.” 

Maria is a lady born and bred, and already quite humble at the start . After her description, it's stated she knows that she qualifies as ‘plain’. She does take an interest in her clothes to make up for the fact that she is ‘plain’, however she is scolded for this almost immediately by the parson. 

“Neatness of attire is to be commended in a woman," he told her, holding her hand in a grip of steel. “But not vanity. Vanity is of the devil. And excessive female curiosity is not to be commended either. Nip it in the bud, my dear, while there is time." So he had seen her patting her pelisse and stroking her muff. So he had noticed her trying to see over the door of the pew.”

After this moment, besides when she tries on her wedding dress and looks into Loveday’s mirror and sees the visage of the first Moon Princess, Maria doesn’t express as much care in her appearance or attire. Beyond describing the costumes laid out by Loveday, Maria’s opinions on her clothing is laid aside. The lesson being that she has put aside her ‘vanity’.

However, this is not true vanity. 

In the myth of Echo and Narcissus, the Greek figure is described as so handsome that the first time he sees his own reflection, he becomes so enamored with it that he can not look away. So much so, that the nymph, Echo, who loved him, could not call him away. So engrossed was he with his reflection, that he fell in love with himself. This is true vanity, a gross, and over exaggerated self-love. True vanity is caring about yourself first, and is not limited to appearance, but can also concern the mind, intelligence, talent and many other things. It is valuing yourself over everyone. 

Maria adjusting her skirts during a church service is not vanity, nor is acknowledging her small feet as her best quality. It may very well be that the Parson is warning her of a growing vanity, to not become so enamored with her appearance and looks, but again, Maria knows she is plain. I don’t think she’s at risk of falling in love with her reflection. 

Furthermore, Maria is accosted for her ‘female curiosity’ not only by the Parson, but by Robin as well, who is so opposed to her pestering questions, that he will abandon her when she asks too many. 

“Maria choked down her curiosity, for Robin had always hated being asked questions, and if she asked too many would disappear, and she did not want him to disappear just yet.”

“There was no answer, and looking up she saw that Robin had disappeared, even though as far as she knew she had not asked a single question.” 

As well as other characters, and the narrative itself.

“Her own soul and stomach do not allow her to indulge in that feminine curiosity about the affairs of others which renders her presence so trying to the males whose domicile she shares." - Marmaduke Scarlet 

“Maria was by this time getting used to living in a perpetual state of astonishment, and used to curbing her curiosity, so that at this startling piece of information she just nodded, and one question only escaped her.”

“I am afraid she was rather a bad-tempered old woman as well as a curious one…” -Loveday Minette

It is not only curiosity that Goudge is protesting, but specifically ‘female’ curiosity. However, I can’t imagine why Elizabeth has this gripe. She is a well-educated woman, having attended finishing school and college, most of the plot of LWH revolves around Maria finding out the truth of the Valley and all the evil that occupies it. Maria is constantly pursuing her curiosity, she finds the kitchen she was not shown, she learns who was leaving her biscuits and dresses, she learns the truth about Loveday and Sir Benjamin. 

“Maria suddenly saw it all. Her curiosity was satisfied.”

It is an odd contradiction, for Maria to be scolded by a religious figure - who is only ever seen as wise, knowledgeable, and trustworthy - and for Maria to be punished for her curiosity by Robin, while the narrative revolves around her curiosity pushing the story forward. Without her curiosity, she never would have learned the truth about Loveday and Benjamin, about Marmaduke and the black cat Zacariah, and about how to bring peace back to the valley. 

Goudge also writes Robin as queerly uncurious. 

“Robin, haven't you any curiosity?" Maria demanded almost passionately. “Haven't you asked Loveday?", “No," said Robin. “Why should I? It isn't any business of mine. How I could manage to visit you in London was my business, and so I asked Mother about it. But it was nothing to do with me about her not wanting Sir Benjamin to know she lives here." Maria heaved a great impatient sigh. Truly the non curiosity of men was beyond her comprehension. As for herself, she felt that if she did not get to the bottom of what was between Loveday and Sir Benjamin before she slept tonight her curiosity would most certainly be the death of her. But it was no use asking any more questions of Robin.” 

In the end, Robin M promises Maria that he will always tell her everything so that she will not have to ask him anything. And here, the pieces put themselves together. While Maria is reprimanded for her constant questions and female curiosity, she still needs to learn the truth, and the answer is quite simple: 

“And I'll tell you," said Robin. “If I didn't you'd ask me so many questions that life would not be worth living."

Goudge does not argue that women cannot obtain knowledge, simply that it should come to her, that it is better to be told things than to ask and inquire after them. At least, this is how I have interrupted Maria’s story, and why the narrative punishes her for asking questions, while at the same time is required to give her answers in order for the story to continue. 

Maria Merryweather, as presented in The Secret of Moonacre, is completely different. 

The Little White Horse begins with Maria’s trip to Moonacre, while The Secret of Moonacre begins with the procession of George Merryweather’s funeral, switched from being Sir Benjamin’s cousin, they are now brothers, and we see Maria is distraught by this death. Not only did she lose her mother when she was young, but she has now lost her father.  In LWH, the death of her parents and her orphanhood are plot devices used so that Maria can be a new comer to Moonacre, Goudge does not divulge Maria’s feelings on the passing of her father, and beyond the mention of his death in the first chapter, it is never brought up again. 

Maria (TSOM) however, is seen to have dearly loved her father, she is proud to be his daughter, and defends him to her Uncle when he is called a coward. Maria moving from London to Moonacre is shown as a hard transition, she is used to the comforts and luxury of the city, and her preconceived notions about the country leave her in a despair. 

“How could I possibly go to live in the country? Its full of… the countryside!”

When Maria arrives, Sir Benjamin very rudely brushes her and Miss Heliotrope’s concerns off. 

What’s more, TSOM allows Maria her emotions, while LWH does not even consider the loss of her father to be a big deal, it severely impacts Maria. She is not only moving across the country, but she is dealing with grief. She also learns the truth about her father, that he was not as honorable as she believed, that he was murdered over his debts, and left his only child with nothing but a book. So now, as she deals with his death, she also has to reconcile this new understanding with her love of him. 

From the very first few scenes, we learn that Maria is prideful: she is proud of her name and her father, her position and standing in life. That Maria is arrogant: she swipes dust off the walls of her tower and makes a face, she picks up a dated dress and rolls her eyes at it. That Maria is brave: when faced with four bandits she stands her ground against them. That Maria is curious: she asks her Uncle questions about the house, she wants to know why she isn’t allowed in the forest, she wonders about who is leaving her biscuits in her room, she’s curious about the white horse she sees. That Maria is a lady: that she is proper, and cares about her appearance. She is stubborn as she raises her voice against her Uncle, she is fierce as she storms a castle all on her own, she is just a young girl trying as hard as she can to save a place that she has fallen in love with. 

The Secret of Moonacre does deal with Maria’s curiosity, however it is dealt with and punished in a different way. Maria (LWH) asks questions, and annoys Robin Minette, Maria (TSOM) asks deep, cutting, personal questions, and learns that doing so can hurt the person she is asking. Maria (TSOM) is not punished for her curiosity as much as she’s punished for being callous. 

In the end, Maria is right for asking these questions, for pushing, because without doing so, she never would have been able to understand the Valley, nor her Uncle. 

For a brief interlude, I want to talk about the Sir Benjamin’s. In the book, Sir Benjamin is a jovial man, who is kind and loving to Maria as soon as she arrives. In the movie, Sir Benjamin is a deeply wounded man, heartbroken due to his actions in regards to Loveday and the fact that his brother has just been murdered, despite doing all he could to try and save him. Sir Benjamin offered his brother a loan, enough for his debts to be covered, but George, and his “foolish pride” rejected this offer. 

Sir Benjamin is doing his best, but is dragged down by his past, he is punished for his anger and how he dealt with Loveday, and is haunted by his brother’s death. He loves Maria, I would argue he loves her from the start, but he is in such turmoil, he cannot deal with her properly. He tries to keep her safe by telling her to stay out of the forest and by taking the Chronicles of Moonacre book from her, but struggles with going about it the right way. 

Sir Benjamin in the book is just sexist. He’s proud of the fact that his home has been ‘woman-free’ for twenty-years, he is not distraught by the death of his cousin, nor is he very upset about having lost Loveday. While he still wears the coat she embroidered for him for their wedding day, Sir Benjamin doesn’t show sorrow or heartbreak, and it is very possible he is wearing it because it was well-made and he would not let it go to waste. 

The big lesson of the movie is about letting go of one’s pride and stubbornness, and it is something that all of the characters struggle with. Maria’s pride in her name, Sir Benjamin’s stubbornness keeps him from Loveday and moving on, Loveday’s pride and stubbornness keeps her from returning to Sir Benjamin or her family, Robin’s pride in his clan, and the Coeur De Noir’s stubborn need for revenge. 

I don’t think there is a singular moment in which Maria gives up her pride, such as Robin deciding to help her despite their names, but rather that there are a series of little moments in which she sacrifices her pride and stubbornness for the betterment of Moonacre Valley. 

Stripping down to her underthings to escape Castle Black, she puts aside her ideas of what a lady can and cannot do by riding a horse, she takes care of Serena despite never having an animal to care of before, she tracks Robin down and asks for his help, begs for it practically, because she knows she cannot do it on her own, and of course, her ultimate sacrifice by jumping off the cliff is her putting aside all pride, and giving up her life (she doesn’t know she’s going to be saved by Unicorns!) for the sake of not only her family, but everyone in the Valley, including her ‘enemies’. 

However, Maria never sacrifices herself for the sake of others. And, yes, I do know I just said Maria sacrifices herself by jumping from the cliff. 

Maria (LWH) is told off for her vanity and curiosity, she is told, and learns, to cut off pieces of herself to become more accommodating and tolerable for the world around her, and, really, the men in her life. Maria silences herself, her voice, parts of who she is, to make the world easier for others. 

Maria (TSOM) is prideful and stubborn up and until the very end. 

“At the 5,000th moon I, Maria Merryweather, Moon Princess of Moonacre, do remove the curse that darkens this valley, take back what is yours!” 

This is a very prideful statement, she is still prideful of her name, she is prideful to be the Moon Princess, and is very demanding of the Moon. Which is why when she throws the pearls, they return to her. Not just as a result of her own pride, but because everyone else still refuses to bow to the other. 

“The 5,000th moon, the curse is coming true. If you can sacrifice your pride, we can save our families.” - Maria

“You first” - Sir Benjamin

“No, no, after you!” - Coeur De Noir

“I must do this myself.” - Maria Merryweather 

When Maria jumps, and returns the pearls to the sea, and therefore the Moon, the Curse is broken. However, not because the pearls are returned, but because of her sacrifice, because she puts aside her pride. 

When she returns - resurrected or resuscitated, however you would like to look at it - she is still Maria. She asks “Were you worried, Robin?” She stands tall amongst her peers and family, knowing that she accomplished what no one else could. She is filled with happiness and joy, and is rightly satisfied - or, prideful - at what she was able to accomplish with Robin. I believe the end of the film shows us that the Valley has been saved, not just through Maria’s sacrifice, but through everyone doing the same. 

Robin listening to her in the forest, everyone running to the cliff’s edge, Benjamin asking for forgiveness and Loveday’s hand, Coeur De Noir stepping back and allowing the Merryweather’s their victory, choosing peace over revenge. The Secret of Moonacre’s final lesson is that peace can be reached through everyone working together, that the burden is not just on one person’s shoulders, and while, yes, one person can be a leader among the masses, the one forging ahead and fighting for peace, it is not one person and one alone that accomplishes this goal. 

Maria Merryweather, in LWH, however, is laden with the burden of finding peace for everyone. It is her alone in the forest with Mr. De Noir, showing him the little white horse, her alone who brings Loveday and Benjamin together (with the help of others, of course, but it is primarily her plan), her alone who cuts off pieces of herself, sacrificing herself for the sake of others happiness. As Moon Princess - or Moon Maiden, as she is more commonly referred to as in the novel - she is the sole purveyor of peace and happiness for the Valley. 

Both, Maria from TSOM and Maria from LWH, sacrifice themselves for the greater good. However, whereas Maria (TSOM) gives her life in a final act of love for Moonacre, Maria (LWH) gives up parts of herself to become more manageable. 

One Maria is met with love and honor, while the other bows her head, and submits, shouldering the weight of Moonacre on her shoulders. 

Prev | Final

[redladypaige]

@shonpota asks what I learned in Israeli school

What I learned in Israeli school is..

WHAT I LEARNED IN ISRAELI SCHOOL IS

honestly you're going to be disappointed

tl;dr it's not explicitly hateful, it's much more about emphasizing certain facts and ignoring others to create a narrative and lie by omission.

I don't think it's very different than other western education, but you'll be the judge of that.

I'll try to explain if it makes sense.

First of all, I studied in public school almost a decade ago (jesus), so things might have changed.

So this is the least religious education you can get. More religious schools have been caught with more explicitly hateful material, but that I can't tell you first hand.

Arabic class

From seventh to ninth grade you have mandatory Arabic in school.

Since it's such a short time you really only learn the basics.

The class doesn't really count towards your diploma grade, so you just have to pass it, so most people don't really take it seriously.

There are optional advanced classes to take later on, which in my case were took by Arab Israelis, people with interest in languages and people who wanted to be translators in the IDF.

Civics class

Mostly dry stuff about the system of government, how democracy works, elections, rigjts, stuff like that.

There is big talk about equal rights, mostly mentioning that women had equal rights by law since the founding and that Arab Israelis are regular citizens with equal rights.

Gaza and the west bank weren't mentioned at all, at least when I learned. This is stuff you learn from the news or from your parents.

And of course nothing about systemic racism or anything like that.

You can say that the class shows the ideal clean version of the vision of democracy without actually diving down to what's happening.

Putting "politics in school" is a very controversial subject over here, which I found similar to what's going on with the critical race theory thing in the USA.

Right wingers are in power for a while (and it's getting worse), and for them anything that puts Israel in not a great like is political and should be removed, though it is sometimes used against them too.

It constantly changes and stuff gets added and removed.

Tanach class

It might surprise you that even in secular schools you learn the Tanach (the old testament for you Christians) from first to twelfth grade.

It might surprise you more that we learn it not as a religious text, but much more of an historical one.

It was one of my favorite classes because it actually felt like it encourages skepticism and analysis.

There is talk about how the Torah was probably written by different authors because of contradictions which is literally sacreligous

We talked about which stories are or aren't corroborated by history, how to know about the author by the perspective of the text, events written on from different points of view, etc.

History class

You learn history from first to twelfth grade.

It's very very western.

Starting from Greek to Rome to the middle ages, enlightenment, the French and american revolutions and world wars.

Colonialism is displayed as neutral I guess - just an event that happened. Remember that they don't want opinionated teachers.

We gloss over stuff like slavery and native American genocide when learning about the us, its mostly the revolution and stuff.

Sometimes history from a specific place rotates in, but the rest of the world is mostly reserved for the optional advanced classes.

Of course, there is a big emphasis to ties to Judaism throughout.

Within those periods you learn about what the Jews were up to, usually under the lens of how the current ruler abused them.

World war 2 and the Holocaust obviously is a huge chunk of the material.

You don't get to modern history until like the 10th grade.

And then it's mostly the narrative of the creation of Israel, again viewed neutrally.

It starts from the Dreyfus trial, which had a Jewish officer been accused for a crime he didn't commit.

That caused a reporter named Herzel to think Jews will always be persecuted and to start the Zionist movement with the idea to find a homeland for the Jewish people.

We learn about different proposals for where it could be, raising money, the first Alyot (people who came to Israel to live there).

The Alyot are presented as good things generally, saying that the lands were legally bought and that the people wanted to live side by side with the Palestinians.

Of course the reality is more complicated than that.

We get the Balfour statement, explaining how it's the first time Jews got international recognition for a country but also how it's really non committal.

We learn the efforts to get a country against the British, both the diplomatic and the terrorist actions the early Israeli organizations did.

We learn about the UN division plan, with saying that the Jewish people were happy to share but Palestinians won't come to the negotiations table.

We talk about the declaration of independence when the British left, and how we were immediately attacked by the casus belli of killing all jews by all surrounding countries and still won at the end.

The atrocities of the war aren't mentioned at all.

The Nacba is mentioned, with the word it self constantly getting in and out from the books every year, but it's mentioned subjectively.

As in, "the Palestinians see the events of this war, when Israel took territory in a defensive war and people had to leave their houses as a day of tragedy with the intention to one day return" or something like this.

We learn about immigration after the Holocaust and Mizrahis from Arab countries (like me),surprisingly not shying away from the racism.

The narrative is "there might have been racism then, but now we are all a melting pot of a single culture" or something.

It gets as far as the Six Day War and Yom Kippur war at 1973, anything beyond that is not covered in school.

The main narrative we see about Palestinians is that most of them do want peace and are happy to live side by side with the Israelis, but every time their radical leadership hated their own people, and won't take any compromise.

They want to kill all Israelis and take everything, and Israel is only defending itself.

You can say that's the most radical narrative we learn.

There is little exploration of why, the assumption is anti semetism.

Every war is presented as justified and as part for Israels quest for peace, while being the constant victim.

Inner Palestinian politics aren't discussed, we don't learn their history, their views etc.

That's it I guess?

Feel free to ask anything and I'll try to remember

[bloodydeanwinchester]

i want to read dta so bad but it’s soo long and daunting. would you say it’s easy-ish to read and get through?

im so sorry and i really hope this doesn't stop you from reading it but dta is absolutely not easy to read lol. it can be a little confusing at times and it's very involved, that's for sure.

i read the first fic map of the world two years ago and it was so confusing for me i decided not to finish the rest of it. but then i kept seeing EVERYONE talk about it and how good and worth it it was so i knew i wanted to try it again.

this time, i got printed/bound versions of the fic and i think that did help. im having almost no trouble reading this time around (although every once in a while i will have to go back a few paragraphs and reread to figure out what exactly is going on lol).

BUT even though it's not an easy fic to read i am fairly certain at this point that it is 100% worth the effort! i am enjoying this fic SO much i can barely put it down. i read the first two fics in 10 days and now i've started the third one. it's soooooooo fucking good i really hope you don't let this answer dissuade you from reading it. you ABSOLUTELY should read it! i liked the second book even better than the first and from what i've heard i think it's only gonna get better. im actually really glad it's soooooo long because i honestly don't want it to ever end at this point. (also just know the deancas is the slowest of slow burns but i just KNOW that's gonna end up being worth it too)

anyway tl;dr no it's not easy to read but yes you should totally read it anyway!!!

[henriiiii-1001old]

good you were gonna hear abt it anyway FJXNSDNTNDND

it gets long so this is going under the cut LMAO but tl;dr ruth's daughter returns to mandela county after leaving and tries to find out what happened to her mother.

so i kinda have my own version of ruth's daughter, and her name is dorothy!!! she was born out of wedlock but both ruth and her dad (who doesnt have a name yet sorry) loved her very much <3

they all used to live in mandela together until an incident occurred where stanley almost fucked everything up. fortunately, ruth and dorothy's dad were there to prevent anything from happening. after that, ruth thought it would be better for the dad and dorothy to leave the state while ruth stayed due to her being a police officer. she also advised for them to cut off contact to further prevent alternates from attacking them again. it was heartbreaking, but he eventually agreed, and dorothy only got to see ruth one last time...

years pass, and dorothy grew up to be a pretty stable teenager in a small town in northern illinois! just close enough to wisconsin in case it was ever safe to go back but just far enough away to feel safe. dorothy ends up asking her dad abt ruth one day, but he was honestly unsure due to cutting contact for safety. so dorothy decides she'll go look for her in mandela.

her dad tries to convince her not to go, but she insists on doing this, especially by herself. she eventually was let go and able to travel to mandela.

she eventually gets there starting to look for clues. she only vaguely remembered ruth being a police officer, so she first went to the mcpd. she met thatcher but was unable to get any information due to him being completely shut off in terms of talking about ruth. she didn't know why though because again he didn't say anything.

she then was just kinda wandering town and decided to stop by mandelatech. my idea is that she has a picture camera that she took to gather whatever evidence she can, but since coming to mandela it's been dealing with some issues. she goes to mandelatech and meets dave and evie!

she gets to know evie a little bit and they grow a friendship over the next few days. dorothy eventually asks evie for some help regarding her mother. evie agrees but only if she doesn't tell dave about this due to him having relations with thatcher, and therefore having relations with the police. dorothy agrees to that.

however, they don't get to do much until after the events of vol 4, where dave dies and adam learns he's an alt and all that. so after evie gets laid off, she calls dorothy to vent, and dorothy while comforting her, hypes her up by suggesting to look through the files due to dave wanting to send her to thatcher anyway. dorothy even offers to accompany evie since she's in a pretty stressful point in her life. after a few more minutes of destressing, she agrees to go to the police station.

the police station scenes play out exactly as they did in canon except they also dig through ruth's files as well as dorothy being there instead of evie being by herself. they find out that ruth had died a few years after dorothy and her father moved out of the state (for context, dorothy would be maybe 1-3 years older than adam, sarah, and evie). they also found adam's files to be preeeetty disturbing.

as they leave, they end up encountering an alt that would try to attack the duo. dorothy, not actually knowing what alternates are, went for the offensive and straight up punched it. stunning it for a little bit, she and evie ended up escaping the station and ended up pretty much okay. evie does also end up explaining alternates to dorothy, in which she also relays to dorothy her surprise that she fucking punched one. they definitely turn it into an inside joke at some point.

they end up trying evie's old friend, sarah, for some help. evie also ends up asking about adam which sarah acts very strangely to by suddenly becoming very dry in her texting. evie decides to go to adam's place where the scene in catalyst happens, but dorothy ends up finding sarah.

dorothy introduces herself to sarah and puts on a friendly face to maybe have sarah put some trust in her. sarah then eventually kiiind of explains that she's worried about "a coworker of hers" (which is obviously adam) and even mentions jonah vaguely along with a mention of his death. dorothy makes an internal note to tell evie later. dorothy also got the chance to ask about ruth, but unfortunately sarah didn't have any information.

the rest of catalyst plays out by this point, and evie would have returned home and shared what she saw with dorothy, with dorothy also sharing what she learned, by the time the end of catalyst occurs.

not sure for what comes after, but at some point, dorothy gets to meet thatcher again as well as adam, evie tells the other two abt mandelatech, and at some point they all learn dave died as well as adam being an alt is revealed to dorothy and evie. sarah joins in eventually as well.

i also want stanley to come back to be a menace as well as have alt thatcher just come out of the woodworks and be all like "oh yeah i killed ur mom, whoops! sorry lmao didnt know she had a kid to be honest, but i wouldnt have cared either way anyway sooo xp". don't know how that will play out tho

[whoops-im-obsessed]

On: Crutchie, the World Will Know, and What it Says About His Role.

So uksies, west endsies, whatever you wanna call it has got me fully entrapped and I wanna talk about some of the staging that I noticed that makes me Feral.

Uksies has such and interesting set, its performed almost in the round with the scaffolding only opening up, not actually moving, to create set pieces. As such, the choreography has changed. The choreo is honestly on another level, it has to be seen to be believed and I'm still not sure how these boys are alive.

I could go on about the choreo for years but that's not what we're here to talk about.

Jack and Crutchie have a slightly different dynamic in uksies. They're still very much brothers but they have a much more equal relationship. This is a great post about them.

Crutchie isn't as,, looked after in this production, he is an equal, and in many ways a co-leader both of the strike and of the manhattan newsies in general and 'the world will know' (twwk) shows this so well.

In previous versions, Crutchie has solo lines in twwk but becomes a member of the ensemble when Jack Davey and Les see Pulitzer. In uksies, however, Crutchie debates their strategy with them and they walk together up to the world building through the avenue of newsies. Crutchie then stops as the others go in and turns his back to the door and stands guard, looking over the other newsies as they wait, seeming to reassure them. When the trio are kicked out, he falls to the side and is pushed back up by another newsie, he then resumes his place with Jack and the others.

Ok lets unpack that.

In my mind, this establishes Crutchie not only as a leader but as a supportive figure for the rest of the newsies. Where Jack is the figurehead, speech-maker, the face of the strike and the union, Crutchie is the worker, the eyes on the ground, the deputy who is leader in all but name.

He stands guard protecting not only those inside, but keeping careful watch over the other newsies. During seize the day, he whistles loudly to signal the arrival of the delanceys and the police, he watches, takes part in the fight and protects. I don't know about anyone else but it is extremely easy for me to believe that out of him, Jack, and Davey, Crutchie is physically the strongest.

It's so interesting to me that the character who has previously been depicted as someone who needed looking after, the helpless figure that gets dragged away, is now such a strong character while the essence of who he is is not lost. Crutchie is pushed up when he falls by another newsie to rejoin the others. How perfectly that moment recognises that yes Crutchie needs support sometimes, he is still disabled, but he isn't carried, he isn't pushed aside or coddled, he is helped up and goes on his way to lead the strike with Jack.

So yeah. Don't know if these ramblings make any sense to anyone else but thats how I read into it.

Tl;dr: i love matthew duckett

[yakocchi]

Ravaged Reason (VIP) // Completion 

Full Title // Thoroughly Desired, A Sickeningly-Sweet Night

google’s been cracking down on foreign IAPs, so wowee i had to do some nonsense to even partake in this one. hope voltage (bothers to) figure out how to sell vip subs on passport cuz wtf

This VIP event is mostly garbage. 15 of the items are phone bgs and social media icons of prexisting images, are you kidding me

There’s not really a real connecting theme to all the stories? they done phoned it in

extremely brief discussion under the cut (spoilers)

So TL;DR the SR Eisuke story is about them going to a fashion show in Paris. Ladies be hanging near Eisuke & MC gets insecure, and then Eisuke himself gets jealous later. granted, idk wtf she expected when ota was like ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) “dont be tellin our secret now” and then eisuke gives the stank face asking wtf is the secret and she still doesnt tell

The SR Soryu story is about her getting kidnapped by some dudes who want some shiet from the auctions. what's new. obv soryu saves her but then it’s revealed that the special item that soryu was going “ugh tf” earlier when he was going over the items was....... a sexy maid outfit with cat ears. MC is like “i should try it on eh (jokingly)” and then soryu is like that chad meme guy with the beard going “yea”. she wears it and he’s very into it. tho it’s not about him being into catgirls, it’s that mc wearing something sexy is Nice

the Rare stories are just lil unrelated bits of their cute lil married life. ......maybe not cute for everyone but eisuke’s. like the soryu one almost has him wanting to bone in the auction warehouse.  the normal stories are just His POV versions. 

anyway, i did not crop MC’s face off on purpose. i just go ham on the cropping so it’s not a complete image. rip

see kbtbb mc is a very cute girlie

honestly concerning to realize in one of these parallel fictional universes she’s supposed to married to the likes of this dude

wish his lil paris outfit here was full drip tho. like this loser

ok thats all, ty for reading! lol