#was like the most nitpicky bullshit

[the-hype-dragon]

ok I am a hater but it would do a lot of people who make "literary criticism" content a lot of good not to have bad faith readings of every stupid little word an author puts on paper

like I remember reading a sporking/blow-by-blow of some cassie clare book here on tumblr years ago, this character was saying shit that you were obviously supposed to find objectionable--because he was a villain and he was saying it to his traumatized mother who felt like a bad mom already because of the crap her husband pulled on her in the backstory--but then the person writing this critique went off on this tangent talking about how oh no ladies you aren't a bad mom just because of this that and the other thing and I was sitting there like, are you for fucking real right now, like they were acting like cc was sitting here saying "oh yes, this obvious bad guy is totally parroting my own opinions about women and moms in particular" I felt like I was idk I felt like I was going kinda crazy

[tomboyyyaoi]

listen im desperate for trigun content i scrape the bottom of the barrel on any site but...... good god that subreddit.... that thing.... it scares me

[nolita-fairytale]

try a little tenderness | carmen 'carmy' berzatto x fem!reader one shot

summary: on the anniversary of mikey's death, you help carmy find a way to grieve. (set in the make my heart surrender universe, but can be read as a standalone piece)

warnings: swearing, grief, mild angst, mentions of death & suicide, second person pov, no use of y/n

wc: 2.3k

a/n: i wrote this as a way to process my own grief over the loss of a close friend to suicide. i fell so deeply in love with 'the bear' because i saw myself in so many of these characters: how they responded to losing mikey, the nature of the loss, and the ways they fought their grief. i see so much of myself in carmy in the show and this ended up being really cathartic to write, even though it's been three years now. anyways, heavy shit ahead so don't feel obligated to read but thank you if you do.

(banner made by @allthefandomstogether)

Grief is a funny thing. 

For Carmy, most days it’s something easy to ignore – like an old friend that he’s managed to cut out of his day to day. He’s stopped calling, stopped picking up the phone, eliminated any and all thought about this thing that feels so foreign yet, so familiar at the same time. 

But now he has you – and he’s never been able to bullshit you for shit. Some days, he feels like you see right through him. He knows he’s been irritable, short, impatient at the restaurant (and sometimes at home too). It’s something you handle better than he expected – better than he thinks he deserves. 

“Honey, can we take a pause from this conversation? I just don’t think either of us are in the right headspace,” you’d asked him the other day when he’d tried to pick a fight with you. Completely caught off guard, Carmy had stared at you blankly in response, as if you’d suggested you both run naked down the street.

“If you wanna fight, we can fight. I just… don’t think this is what you’re upset about,” you’d explained, before slipping into the bedroom with the book you were halfway through. 

And today, after he’d tried to pick another fight with you, you’d stopped him again, like a tornado hitting an immovable wall. 

“Carmy, I’m not going to fight you about the dishes,” you’d sighed, shooting him a sympathetic look. “I’m gonna take a walk and pick some things up at the store for dinner. Is that still something you’d like to do?”

How could he forget when he’d been making his brother’s family recipe earlier that day, setting the braciole-filled dutch oven in the fridge to be put into the oven for later? But he almost has – another symptom of how checked out he’s been all week. 

He’s not used to this. He’s used to his siblings – his mom – picking fights over the smallest things that usually escalated into a screaming match. And while you were willing to fight over things that felt worthy to go to bat for, always quick to call him out when he’s being a dick, you don’t engage in his smaller, more frivolous attempts at starting something over the smallest, nitpicky things. 

It’s a whole new pattern for him, and he’ll admit, it’s harder than you make it look. 

Earlier in the week, he knew he’d been in a trash mood. Then he looked at the calendar and saw what date was coming:

2/22/23. 

Oh. 

No wonder he’s been such an ass. 

And now wonder you’ve been such a saint.  

“Oh, um…” he stammers, as he realizes his memory has failed him again. “Uh… yeah, we can still do that.”

He’d forgotten you’d made plans for dinner in preparation for today, and truthfully, he’d been so absent-minded all week that he’s forgotten – forgotten about the plan, forgotten about what day it was, forgotten that that day was now today. Thankfully, you’d had the sense to make sure he was off that day, coordinating with the staff of The Bear to make it happen. While you knew everyone would be grieving today, you weren’t interested in a repeat of last year when the both of you were still in New York.

Sydney, the real hero of this story, had moved mountains to get everyone’s schedules nailed down for this week – knowing it’d be a hard week for everyone that knew and loved Mikey. 

“No, we do not need a repeat of last year,” Sydney had agreed, as you’d explained to her the shit show that was Carmy going into work that night, one year ago. “Don’t worry. I’ll run the kitchen. Tap as many newer staff as I can to work too.”

With the recent press about The Bear (not to mention Sydney’s official James Beard finalist status) there’d been a huge increase in applicants lately. You couldn’t thank Syd enough. 

“Okay. I love you, Carm. I’ll be back in a bit,” you reassure, before grabbing his keys and your coat.

“Yeah,” he mutters quietly, as he watches you go. 

*

After lighting up a few in the apartment, he lays down on the couch, turning on something mind-numbing to not pay attention to on the TV. He’s not sure when or how long it takes him to drift off to sleep, but one minute he’s blinking his eyes closed, and the next he can hear the sounds of pots and pans clamoring around the kitchen. 

He feels guilty: guilty for being an ass, guilty for trying to start something, guilty about what Mikey did.

You’ve told him time and time again: “I don’t think it’s fair to yourself to carry this much blame, Bear.” While normally, he’d love the way his familial nickname sounded coming from you, he’d winced at the mention – just because today, it hits a little too close to home. 

He knows it’s not fair to himself – or to you – but it’s something he’s just not ready to let go of yet. 

He can smell the braciole he’d prepared earlier that day; you’ve already put it in the oven, letting it braise slowly like it was meant to be. He recalled the conversation you both had had about this a few weeks ago. 

“Let’s make a meal he’d like,” you’d proposed, wanting to be a supportive 

“The braciole. Or maybe his spaghetti,” he’d suggested, so matter-of-factly that you could tell he was trying to mask his emotions.

“Maybe both?” you’d countered him. 

“Yeah,” he‘d agreed, quick to put himself out of the discomfort the conversation was causing him. 

“How do you feel about maybe asking some of the others to stop by, Only if they want. Only if you’re up for it,” you’d continued, cautiously. 

“Can I let you know?” he’d asked. 

“Sure,” you’d agreed, even though you knew he wouldn’t be bringing it up again. 

As Carmy sits up from the couch, his mind drifting back to the present, he sees you posted up in front of his little apartment’s stove top, working on his brother’s spaghetti sauce. Pangs of guilt fill his chest, and he feels like absolute garbage for being a dick earlier. He can’t picture doing anything else tonight and he’s glad you had the foresight to do this. Carmy rubs the sleep out of his eyes, watching you move around the kitchen. You’ve got a window open just in case that tricky little smoke alarm goes off while you’re steeping the garlic in olive oil. 

You’re busy trying to maneuver the largest saute pan Carmy owns over the burner for maximum heat exposure when he approaches. The sun’s already set, and the heat from the kitchen leaves a fog on the windows right near the stove, as you shake the saute pan by its handle. 

“Hey,” Carmy says, his voice rough with sleep. 

“Hey,” you reply, a soft smile on your lips as you turn to him. “Sleep alright?”

His unruly curls seem exceptionally messy this evening, and you can smell the remnants of the cigarettes he smoked while you were out. You hate how sexy you still find the nasty habit, even though you’ve tried your best to get him to cut back, citing lung cancer as a top reason. As much as you hate to admit it, you’re eager to taste the cigarettes on his lips, wiping your hands on your jeans because, unlike Carmy, you could care less to wear an apron at home. Framing his face with both of your hands, you place a gentle kiss on his lips, breathing him in as he kisses you back. 

“Sorry I was an ass earlier,” Carmy says, in between kisses. 

“Thanks. You’re kind of allowed to be an ass today though,” you say back. 

He can’t believe you’re letting him off the hook this easily. 

“And what about tomorrow?” he asks, taking a more playful approach this time. 

“No, definitely not. Cut off. Ass privileges? Revoked,” you’re quick to banter back, earning a dry laugh from your boyfriend. 

As you return to your post in front of the stove, Carmy slaps your butt playfully from your earlier comment, eliciting a giggle from you as he does it. He watches you work, adding salt to the tomato, onion, and butter you’re reducing in the saute pan, while the saucepan-filled olive oil/garlic/basil mixture comes up to a simmer. 

“I know you’ve always said that Mikey’s pasta was over-sauced and under seasoned… but it sounds like he just needed a little extra salt and a few little tweaks here and there,” you continue, tasting the tomato sauce. 

He’s not ready to taste the sauce just yet, even though he’d suggested you make the spaghetti in the first place. He watches as you use a spoon to check for salt levels, tasting the sauce first. You throw your head back as the salty tomato mixture hits your tongue. Carmy watches you carefully as you remove the sprig of basil with a pair of tongs, tossing it into a deli container for the trash later. Placing the deli container on the counter next to the rest of things you need to dispose of, his eyes linger on the 28 oz San Marzanos. 

Because the small ones taste better…. 

You busy yourself with straining the oil, setting it aside to add to the sauce towards the end of the process. Carmy checks his phone briefly, seeing a few texts from Richie, Syd, and Tina – all just checking in. 

“Silly question, I know. But how are you doing?” you ask him, having found a good stopping point. 

Carmy thinks about it for a second. He’s not sure how he wants to answer – how he’s supposed to answer this question. 

“I’m… I don’t know,” he managed to get out. 

You nod in acceptance, before replying with an empathetic, “That makes sense.”

“It doesn’t feel real, I guess?” he admits, taking his time as the words fall out of his mouth. 

“I can only imagine, Carm,” you sympathize. “Wanna help me out?”

“Yeah,” he replies, a half smile on his face. 

You’re so kind, so understanding, so empathetic, and he can’t picture spending this day with anyone but you. He thinks back to last year – when he got the news. It was the worst day of his life and regardless of that fact, you’d been there: caring enough to show up, to fight with him, to make sure he ate something. And then that night… the night you crossed the line, slept together even though both of you knew it was a bad idea, that there was no way you could start something real. 

He’s not sure how you got from there to here, but he thanks his lucky stars for whatever good deed he’s done in a past life that’s led to it. 

“Thank you for this,” he says intentionally, making sure you hear him as he continues with, in reference to earlier, “... and I love you too.”

You don’t expect anything from him, and he’s grateful, because he’s not sure he has anything to give. Not today. 

You give him the softest smile, something that makes him want to melt right there and then when you reply with:

“You don’t need to thank me.”

You step aside, making space for Carmy as you give him a task to do to help with dinner. You made the executive decision not to scale Michael’s recipes down, making them as written – family style. If anything, you hope to bring some of the leftovers, sharing his food in honor of his life. You wish you could’ve met Mikey, and since you didn’t get to, making his food feels like the best way to get to know the man Carmy loved and admired so much. 

You queue up a good playlist, working in perfect harmony with Carmy till dinner is ready to eat. Between the braciole and the spaghetti, you know you’ll have more than enough leftovers to feed the two of you for the next week. You let Carmy plate – something he’s truly exceptional at – watching him as he creates a perfect twirl of spaghetti before tearing a few pieces of basil for garnish. As you bring the spaghetti to Carmy’s small dining table that is only meant to seat two, he plates up the braciole on one plate for the both of you to share. You set the table, enjoying the sounds of the playlist you’ve set for the night, before sitting down to eat. 

Carmy takes his first bite of the spaghetti, knowing that it’s not going to be an easy thing for him. You watch closely as he tastes the sauce, his eyes closing and face turning a darker shade redder. 

You wait a beat, letting him settle in before asking:

“What do you think?” 

He nods his head, “It’s fire.” You can see that he’s holding back tears, not ready to lose all control just yet. “It’s actually better… than Mikey’s”

You eat your dinner quietly. It’s the good kind of quiet but the air feels heavy. Carmy may not always have the words for what he’s feeling, but he doesn’t need to right now. You try the braciole together, sharing one plate as he tells you about how Mikey refused to use raisins, even though that’s how they grew up eating the beef dish. You listen, letting him travel down memory lane, only as far as he’d like tog. 

Halfway through dinner, Carmy says something that surprises you:

“We’ve got more than enough leftovers to feed a large family of… twenty,” he states plainly. His blue eyes water as he continues with an ask. “You uh… maybe wanna pack this up and take it to the restaurant tonight?”

“Yeah, Bear. I think everyone would love that," you agree, the smallest smile on your lips. "Would you... wanna tell me a little about him? On our walk there?"

Carmy nods, "Sure. Yeah, I-. I think I can do that."

*

taglist: @allthefandomstogether @gaysludge @sobshoney @harrysmatcha @starbritestarlite @tpwkkmila @cool-girl-is-hot @nunya7394 @galaxyprincess51-blog @carmensberzattos @blue-weekends @rexorangecouny @ridingthehotmessexpress @the-nursery@strawberryalicia @astronautelilanded @veryplatoniccircunstances @fonteyn @hlkwrites @not-two-shrimp

[geekgirles]

Disclaimer: I am well aware of the content of the Bible Leaks. However, I will not be addressing them. If you are reading this and have read the leaks as well, please, refrain from pointing out any spoilers from them out of respect to fellow fans that chose not to spoil themselves.

With that out of the way...

Um...could we please take a moment to talk about what just happened, whatever the fuck that is, please?

If you've known me enough, then you must surely know I despise Lila Rossi. As a character, as a villain, if she were a real person I might literally bite her head off... I wholeheartedly believe she is the source of about 75% of the salt in this fandom, given most salt takes on other characters are a direct result of their actions whenever she's around.

Just her mere presence in an episode is enough to sour somewhat my viewing experience.

And even I think her character deserved better than the bullshit they're trying to pull.

Can we please agree that the whole Three Mothers and Three Identities thing is some major ass-pull????

Where the fuck does that even come from?!?!

It makes no sense, it comes completely out of the blue, and it all just comes off as some poorly woven plot to make a literal 14-year-old look worse than a grown ass abusive father terrorising a city and its inhabitants.

And you might say, "Well, Geeks. It doesn't come exactly out of the blue... There was the whole Other Mum from Risk and Different Room in Perfection thing. That's gotta count as foreshadowing."

And though I admire your efforts, I'm afraid I must insist that if that is supposed to be foreshadowing, then it's bad foreshadowing.

This doesn't feel like foreshadowing, but like some hastily added details they had to include like, "Oh, damn! That's right; we're supposed to be trying to go somewhere with this girl! I know, let's just give her a different mum and room in different episodes. That'll do it."

By the way, this also contradicts some key aspects which ultimately undermines the whole thing. Such as the fact that Lila Rossi is part of the Agreste Brand, so it makes absolutely no sense as to why someone who is clearly not Mrs. Rossi would take her to the train station. Because as evidenced by the Illusion father-teacher conference, Mrs. Rossi is indeed the woman that appeared in Heroes’ Day.

(Also, Lila was introduced as Gabriel's muse in Ladybug by Alec, though now I'm not sure if she's ever been addressed as Lila Rossi on public appearances such as Risk, but it still feels contradictory) (I don't know, maybe I'm being too nitpicky with this, but it' just feels so contradicting. I swear, I have a point and I will elaborate on it in the future)

But in the end, the reason why this fails to be proper foreshadowing is that Lila is too much of an absent character for it to properly work. Seeing as, out of 4 seasons before the current point in time, she's only really been in the spotlight/relevant in, what, 6 episodes????

It doesn't feel like a twist we should have seen coming, but as a rushed, groundless subplot that has nothing to do with her previous appearances nor does it tie itself with any of her previously shown traits other than her being a liar.

Which instead of expanding on her character, ultimately reduces it to one-dimensional levels.

I discussed this in a different post forever ago, but in my honest opinion, proper foreshadowing or, at least, character placement, would have been if Lila had shown signs of knowing Alya is Rena Rouge. Why? You may ask. 

Simple.

Because Lila has been shown in two different episodes, in different seasons, to have been paying attention closely and jealously to the things going on around her home. Namely, Ms Bustier’s class doing things together at the park which is right below her window while she was stuck at home because, for some reason, she refused to go back to school. 

As we all know, Alya first transformed into Rena Rouge in the park. It would have been the perfect explanation as to why Lila never once tried taking glory for Rena’s actions under the guise of being Ladybug’s best friend—because of course she would entrust her best friend with a miraculous! Just like it would have been the perfect chance for her to try to get closer to Adrien once more by claiming something along the lines of, “Though Ladybug overreacted, she has a tendency of doing that because we can’t forget the backhanded comments, we agreed to change my superhero identity into one that would be safer from Hawk Moth!”

Instead, by having Lila somehow pull off the triple identity con without a single warning in six years, what they are doing is robbing her of a believable reason for the way she acts!

Let’s take Chloé, for instance. 

Chloé’s actions are not excusable. Regardless of how terrible Audrey is, or how badly she neglected her before hopping on to the Enabling Train alongside André, that is never reason enough to be a bully and a total brat to absolutely everyone around you. 

However, Chloé’s reason for the way she acts makes perfect sense within context. She is not just your typical rich spoiled brat. She is a rich spoiled brat whose father is in a position of power and whom she has completely under her thumb, which results in André’s power over Paris becoming Chloé’s. And thus, whenever someone confronts her on her terrible behaviour, as long as they are not in equal footing with her (like Adrien or Kagami), she can just have her dad take care of the situation and potentially have that person or their parents/relatives’ lives ruined. 

Essentially, Chloé’s character amounts to a spoiled brat in a position of power who’s constantly throwing temper tantrums. And yet, this aspect of her personality has gradually been explored over the seasons. 

What’s scary about this is that this is a real-life issue. There are people all over the world getting away with their actions (regardless of how severe they are) because their families have money, power, connections...

Lila, par contrast, gets her character simplified each passing episode she’s featured in. 

We’ve gone from all the possibilities we were offered back in Volpina—Lila indeed just being a new girl trying to make friends but being afraid of rejection, her hating Ladybug while liking Marinette, a possible redemption, her becoming a legitimate villain in her own right rather than the narrative bending over backwards to try convince us she is not a threat even though she is barely featured at all...— to a character whose entire schtick is “Oh, look at me! I’m evil and a liar!”

As I said earlier, one-dimensional levels of character depth. 

The funny thing, though, is that Lila actually had a believable reason for the way she acted, and they are choosing to completely negate that and refuse to give their character any depth in favour of making her as malevolent as possible!

As I said with Chloé, please remember that reason does not mean excuse.

With that out of the way, let's remember how early seasons and especially Oni-Chan went out of their way to establish, or at the very least, hint at Lila being someone who most likely started lying to make herself feel special and make up for the lack of attention she was receiving at home. 

Unfortunately, as time went by, her desire to be the centre of attention and liked, never mind if she never actually put the effort to deserve any of that, far outweighed any original good will and desire for friendship and genuine connections. While the implications that her mother giving her everything she wanted in hopes of making up for her absence further soured her personality until she became the lying, petty, attention-seeking spoiled brat we know today. 

This, coupled with her desperation to be seemed and, more important, feel more special than she actually is gave us a legitimate reason as to why some petty liar would go as far as to ally herself with a terrorist.

Is it troubling behaviour? Undoubtedly. But Lila's never been shown to be a very stable individual. If the early running gag of her throwing things around when angered is any indication.

...

Um...

...esto...

...what exactly is she missing if she’s suddenly been conning three different, completely unrelated women into thinking she’s their daughter? A good psychiatrist?!?!

(I apologise for talking about a minor’s state of sanity, but you’ll have to agree with me that the writers are the first ones portraying kids as literal monsters here). 

And you might say, “You might be overthinking this, Geeks. After all, it’s a superhero show; you can’t expect it to be realistic.”

And once again you would raise a very valid point. Hell, God knows I wouldn’t watch half the things I do if they were realistic. However, it is imperative that we make a distinction: 

Fiction doesn’t have to be realistic, but it must be convincing.

And there is nothing convincing about a 14-year-old having three different identities because of how good a liar and manipulator she supposedly is. 

Marinette pulls off impressive, crazy feats every single day? That is convincing because we see repeatedly how Marinette has both a complexity addiction due to a need to control things to calm her anxiety, and the fact that what ultimately saves the day is her natural quick-thinking and creativity, not to mention the fact that she has superpowers.

Chloé gets to expel people just by threatening to call her dad, the Mayor? Again, it is convincing, and probably even realistic, because she is in a position of power and, unlike Lila, her actions are appropriate in the sense that they are outlandishly cartoonish.

Lila...she doesn’t have that. 

Maybe it's just me, but I just can't seem to buy the excuse that any responsible mother would be okay with their underaged daughter "going to Africa to deal with poachers" all by herself, especially in the middle of the school year. Just like I have the feeling many parents would at least be apprehensive at the idea of their teenage daughter becoming such a public figure as both a model and the face of the Alliance rings.

But hey, maybe those are just signs of me having the potential to become an overprotective mother in the future. Instead of, you know, one of the most atrocious cases of the Adults Are Useless trope I've ever seen.

Nevertheless, as of right now Lila doesn’t even have much depth. And I’m not saying she needs some sob story that will make us feel sorry for her, no. You don’t need to make a villain sympathetic for them to be a good villain. After all, Frollo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame has no sympathetic traits nor does he have a sad backstory whatsoever and he is still one of the best Disney villlains ever. 

So what am I supposed to do with Lila? What, do I have to wait until season 6 comes around and retrospectively reveals she’s not a teenage girl at all but some sort of ancient witch who lures people in with her syren song and feeds off of their adoration for her?

At this point it just feels like the writers are so desperate for adding shock value, that they forget to add anything of value.

[crimeronan]

okay apparently this has confused some people (read: one unrelentingly obnoxious person) so let me explain.

if i turn the reblogs off of a post, it's because having that post reblogged is making me lose my temper.

there are many things online that make me lose my temper, many of which are nitpicky and stupid. i have a quick temper and i prefer not to be constantly angry about niche online bullshit when most of the involved people are perfectly harmless. so i nip it in the bud when it starts to happen.

i prefer to lock reblogs rather than delete posts because this prevents more people from clowning directly on words that i have said. it bothers me to have my posts circulating beyond my control with no way to see where they go or how people respond to them.

if you demand that i unlock reblogs on a post and then tell me that i'm mean for saying no, i am going to lose my temper.

you are welcome to screenshot my post, crop my name out, and make an original post of your own captioned "OP was a meany poopooface who hates fun so i'm stealing this." do whatever the fuck you want. it's your post now. i do not Fucking Care.

But Do Not. Come Into My Notifications. Repeatedly. To Demand That I Do Shit For You. That I Do Not Want To Do. When I Do Not Know You. And You Do Not Know Me. And You Do Not Know Why I Don't Want A Particular Post Reblogged In The First Place.

And Once Again. I Repeat:

I Do Not Fucking Know You.

good GOD. i know this is common sense to everyone except for one obnoxious person who i'm addressing & i've already deleted said person's replies and blocked them, so no telling if they'll even see this post. this is an incredibly passive-aggressive essay to write and it does not accomplish anything bc this is commonly understood internet etiquette. and i know that because this is the first time this has happened to me.

but OHHHH. MY GOD. MY PATIENCE. IS BEING FUCKING TESTED ON THIS WEBSITE THESE PAST FEW DAYS. can you guys please just tell me that i am not crazy to be losing my temper about this. i'm starting to feel like i'm crazy. why is everybody so irritating all the time i am losing my MMIND

[nerves-nebula]

what did matpat do??? not trying to be rude, im just confused (looking it up didnt really help)

i do not need to justify my dislike for someone, nor do i need to write an entire essay on why i hate them.

but I guess I'll do that anyway! only because i feel like it tho.

i think he's a bad person who parrots bigoted jokes to his huge audience and who's "theories" are some of the least substantial, highly nitpicky nonsense i've ever seen.

idk if you're too young for this, but imagine if nostalgia critic spent his time crafting wild theories about movies instead of just talking about them, except his theories are made entirely of his most cinema sins DING nitpicky and unimportant stuff. and he STILL manages to somehow majorly misread the piece.

it'd be far less annoying if he was just doing stupid "how rich is mario" gaming bullshit or whatever but every time he tries to do real film or game theories or analysis you realize he can't even identify a surface level theme if the movie spells it out for him.

he constantly focuses on minor details and somehow misses things they LITERALLY SAY TO HIM (for example he claims that the underground people from the movie US don't have souls when it is explicitly stated that they share a soul with the above ground people. I only know this cuz i watched a big joel video critiquing Matpat, because i don't follow matpats garbage. because i fucking hated him already)

he also exemplifies a kind of white man mediocrity and stagnation that i despise artistically.

THAT BEING SAID I haven't gone out of my way to learn anything new about him in like 7 years, but i did see a video where someone compiled some of his bigoted gender/sexuality based jokes and the comment section was AWFUL. just full of garbage people making fun of the person who made the video compiling his ""jokes"" so i think that's what's reignited my hatred for him.

i try not to let people i hate live rent free in my head cuz that's where the turtles go. there's only one guy i hate that i learn more about on purpose and he's the author of the hated webseries. but i still know why i hate matpat. and it's because his art is wack and he is a hack and i hope he dies or changes. but he prolly wont do either cuz he's a successful white guy.

[derrickwildsun]

People calling Tears of the Kingdom’s ending bullshit or bad writing because draconification was curable contrary to what Mineru said forget that Rhoam was going off vague legends with regards to getting Zelda to awaken her powers, and he was wrong about that too.

Most arguments I’ve seen against the ending reek of angry shouts nerd 4chan/Spoony One speak. Very overly literal and nitpicky. A lot of ad absurdum retorts too like “why didn’t they just use time powers to revert Ganondorf to a baby then, hmmm? Checkmate! 🤪”

[transingthoseformers]

Possibly controversial opinion ahead?

In contrast to IDW and TFP, I don't think TFA Cons came from the oppressed. So I don't think Megatron was ever a miner. Possibly a gladiator, but that was something he would've wanted to do. Just for fun, basically.

I like the idea of the transformers being created as a servant race, with the Autobots intended to fulfil non-war duties, and the Decepticons were made for war.

... I guess if I were to make a comparison, I'd compare it to modern humans and neanderthals? Can interbreed and create fertile offspring, but not the same species.

Okay I've got my own opinions about the definition of species because of the fertile offspring detail, but I'm gonna shut the fuck up about that because that's nitpicky nitpicky taxonomy politics because science is full of debate bullshit like that especially the world of evolutionary biology

Buuuut that's me going on a tangent, I'm legit gonna just say I don't think they're separate species: I think they're at most subspecies of C. cybertronii, but at least different frametypes. But that's me being petty and going biology brain. Considering how inherently morphologically dynamic cybertronians are in every continuity, it'd take a lot for me to outright say they're different species. Especially with the fact that they occupied the same place at the same time with no population separation we usually see happen in cases like this, and there's a wide enough middle ground that we see in canon with the divide possibly being mostly artificial and— okay I'm getting off track

What I was gonna say was because I haven't read much of the canon lore on TFA from the Allspark Almanac, because rn we're poor as hell and barely making groceries I can't afford a rare book online and Jesus fucking Christ that's. That there are some numbers. Goddamn. Goddamnnnnnn.

Anyway what I was gonna say is that I'm not educated on TFA lore enough but have there been indications that stuff was off before the war? I mean shit was definitely fucked by the time the end of the war followed, because I'm thinking quite a lot of the autobots in TFA in the present timeline are xenophobic. Not the majority, mind you, perhaps a loud minority, but from what I can see most of the autobots were apathetic to whether they were accepting of non-autobot entities because they just hadn't had any exposure to them so they had no reason to think about it. Sure maybe my example of Cybertron is tainted because when we see Isaac and Ratty go there shit was going belly up fast because of Sentinel Prime being in charge.

Basically: I don't have enough information to determine whether warframes were oppressed before the war or not, most of the tfa noncanon works tend more towards the oppressed angle but idk if that's them drawing off of canon or off of the other continuities to make up for the limited pre-war information we get in transformers animated

[burningarchitecture]

The thing about countries like Germany admitting russian refugees is that they think that the people leaving russia are automatically anti-war and need to be protected, but doing that is harder then ever now, so the people who ARE able to leave could EASILY leave before. They definitely had the money. Which begs the question: why didn't they leave earlier? Protest earlier? They knew what was going on, don't give me this "they were clueless victims" bullshit, I've seen enough russian social media posts. Even a bunch of russian liberals (who I don't actually support but I think it's a start. Like a lot of them have some imperialistic bullshit in their subconsciousness but at least they have the common sense to be against Putin and the invasion of Ukraine) left Russia around this spring/in February. What I'm trying to say is, the refugees will end up predominantly being people who chose to stay there because they didn't care. Now they care because it finally affects THEM personally and they don't want to go to war. Not because they are ideologically opposed to it, but because they are scared for themselves. Anyone who didn't want to be in this country before has even less of a chance of escaping then before.

Which means Germany will accept a group of refugees, a lot of whom might still hold a pro russian & anti Ukrainian position. Instead of going to protests against Putin in their home country they might go to protests supporting Russia or protests "against hating russians" as some ALREADY DO in Germany(one of them happend last week in Frankfurt I thiink).There will be "neutral ones" but they also helped Putin with their silence and indifference(and by paying taxes in Russia if you want to be really nitpicky), and are likely to still attend the "against hating russians" type protests to gain more rights. These people may not be actively supporting Putin but they are still extremely selfish.

The former category of more active supporters(who there will be quite a lot of)of russia will also pose a danger to Ukrainian refugees. Think of all the rape and humans rights violations russian soldiers committed in Ukraine, now think about how these people were also pretty close to being russian soldiers. We ran away from russians only for the country that protected us to let them in. I haven't had the experiences the first person in the next post I'm going to reblog had, but I live in a pretty lucky part of germany and barely interact with "russian-germans".

Admitting russian refugees will not only destabilise the country doing so, but also not help that many people who are actually against russia, since they either left it before or CANNOT leave. So it is, in a way, better to let the selfish russians stay in their own country and protest instead of fleeing, because that's one of the most effective ways to stop russia from the inside. A lot of people are pissed right now, most of the time for selfish reasons*, but the point is they are finally protesting! And that is very, very good. Protests will make it harder and harder for Putin to keep control of not only the military front (where he has been losing recently, hence the reason for the mobilization. The army's getting desperate) but Russia itself. Only through actions can the russians regain some of their control and better things for both themselves and Ukraine! Hiding inside won't help and when all of them understand that maybe, just maybe they'll be able to change something and end this awful war!

I understand why the west wants to let in the russians who are really against the war but they will be a minority and saving the other ones will cause more harm then good.

*(Media shouldn't represent it like woke anti-war protests, that isn't the reason most people are there, but oh well I didn't expect much more from the western media. At least they're showing interviews where the people at the protests say they are there so that they don't have to lose their husbands/sons and not because of Ukraine. That's an understandable motivation but I just can't hear it being called anti-war when some people refuse to call giving weapons to Ukraine for us to defend ourselves anti-war. It's annoying)

Oh and another point, saving russian refugees from being mobilised isn't actually helping Ukraine in a meaningful way. These people will primarily be used as "canon meat" if they go to war right now because they have no skills and can't use technology to defend themselves yet. It will take them ages to learn how to use it, and Ukraine will have even more time to prepare (I think officials have said we're already ready?). In the 21st century, wars are won with technology and not a ton of people who don't want to be there and are terrified of dying.

[isa-ghost]

i read your boundaries and info, and i have a question, what are ‘Tea Blogs’? i haven’t heard this term before and i’m genuinely curious. you don’t have to answer if your not comfortable

If you're not part of the Jacksepticeye Community, don't worry about it.

If you are, well, be glad you don't know. But I'll give you a basic summary for future reference just in case you end up needing it.

TLDR; Between 2018 and 2019, a bunch of toxic pieces of shit (some of them weren't even fans of Sean to begin with) made blogs for pussy ass loser anons to spread hate and straight-up rumors about Sean, his girlfriend, Robin, his friends, his content, and other community members. They were called "tea blogs" as in "spill the tea." For some fucking reason they became a mini trend to the point where I even came across Markiplier tea blogs. All these tea blogs were a cesspool of ""hot takes"" that were garbage, nitpicky bullshit that spread so much anon hate, negativity, and drama that a huge chunk of JSEblr left the platform completely (most went to Twitter afaik) or just stopped posting and lurked.

Those of us who didn't leave, like me, got stalked by the (so it seems) ringleader of them all and regularly got harassed in our asks by random anons who were usually sent by the ringleader. They were constantly watching my blog, vagueposting about me, sending me anons and gloating about how I couldn't block them because they had multiple blogs, etc. Someone, I don't think it was the ringleader but someone, made a sideblog stealing at profile pic at the time, editing clown shit over it, called the URL "clownnn" or something like that and it was literally a hate blog just. Meant for me purely because I kept vocally and aggressively condemning the tea blogs and their followers.

It genuinely traumatized some community members, and at the very least they instilled a reflex in us to assume asks meant we were getting harassed by someone. To this day anytime I get a random ask, I immediately assume some rando has sent me hate for one reason or another, whether its related to those blogs or some other post I made ages ago.

The ringleader is still active, but I'm pretty sure they've mostly switched from harassing Sean's community to Ethan's. Or someone else's. I don't know, don't wanna find out, and am hoping talking about this doesn't lure them back to my blog because god only knows if those douchebags are still lurking around. 🙃

[taegularities]

I can see the cmi couple cutely bickering back & forth like

Oc: I love you more

Jk: NO, I love you MORE

Oc: NO, NO. Absolutely not. I LOVE YOU a million times MORE TO INFINITY.

Jk: NO BABE. I LOVE YOU THE MOST. FOREVER & ALWAYS & MORE TO THE POINT OF NO RETURN.

~ and they would just keep on going which will lead to the Oc straddling him and them making out on the couch haha

LMFAO TRULY, you know they're the type of couple who'd bicker about bullshit nonstop 😭

tbh, more than a mere "love you more" back and forth, i see them being all:

oc: love you, babe jk: i love you more oc: huh? i do not think so haha jk: you couldn't even say the i. you just said "love you", so i win <3 oc, laughing: wasn't being nitpicky about perilla leaves enough? jk, ignoring her: i literally have you on my arm, too. this *points at the forget-me-not* is you! oc: hey, i fought my own family fo– okay, you know what, fuck it

and then she'd surprise straddle him to make out with him, and he'd realise that this beast of a woman isn't truly an angel after all lmaooo

[thegenderfluidgokenin]

@dochuff I could not respind directly to the ask, so i will have to tag you for you to see my response. Overall, it was assumptuous, dodging, misunderstanding, and disrespectful. I have studied Japan for 3 years, and you treated me like some weeb for some nitpicky bullshit.

Point one: "What do you mean by CuLtUrE?"

This may be the least thought out point and most disrespectful in the whole post. Culture is not some weeb general term, it is a concept referring to cheifly "the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group."

Saying that someone using "culture", or "Zen", means they have some fantasy dreamview of Japan is utterly mindboggling especially given that Zen isnt even a Japanese-originated thing and that culture is a perfectly fine term when weilded to describe any other country or group. You're just being an ass.

Point two: "Why westerners?" And "Foreign criticism is valid"

Because western people are usually the asshats who wander in as tourists and demand the whole damn country change around them. And i'm a westerner, so i thought the answer would be useful to me. Is it a generalization? Yes. Is it a misused one? No. Also, discrimination should be changed, sure, but that wasnt my question. Tourists, most popularly westerners, like calling for ages old customs to change around them and for the culture to fit their standards and needs. I'm not railing against fighting for rights, im railing against eurocentrism. Also, being natively born and living in society does not mean a full grasping and understanding of it.. Just look at america, for the gods' sakes. Many criticisms of Japan can be overblown, but Japan is far from perfect and has a long history of injustice and a resurgence today in Imperial fervor and injustice as well.

Final Point: Japan doomership

Japan - cheifly, the government - has problems. You do not have to put on blinders to flourish in Japan as a westerner, or if you wanna be an asshole, "nondescript foreigner". Japan is a unique and wonderful place, with the flaws to go along. It's not a utopia, but it's also not some hell-zone that westerners should stay away from, either. As long as rhey can handle it.

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

Hi! What’s your favorite Railway Series book? I have another question too, what do you think of the engines faces being the smokebox doors?

I'm not sure what I think about the smokebox faces? It's peculiar when you try to think through it and make it "realistic" but the notion is so natural that there's not much to think about.

People really get on Awdry's case for not having thought through the implications of his sapient engines but I feel like we gotta cut the man a break. He clearly never had any interest in worldbuilding. It's not like he had some wild oddball idea that he just then neglected to nurture to maturity. Almost everybody has imagined smokeboxes to be the face of a steam engine (and the grill and headlights to be the face of a car, etc.)

No idea if that answered anything. Anyway!

What isn't my favorite RWS book?

Honestly it changes every week or two. At one point or another it’s been: 

Thomas the Tank Engine - the structure is so simple yet so sound. this is some Joseph Campbell bullshit right here (positive)

Tank Engine Thomas Again - simply a classic from the moment it was penned. not my personal favorite (i think the ffarquhar line is just a bit too twee as a setting for my tastes?), but you can't beat these stories or this character. objectively, the best stand-alone book in the series. you don't have to know anything about anything to read this and to fall in love and to sense at once that it's an indispensable part of classic childhood literature.

Toby the Tram Engine - this kicked off the era of somewhat darker themes of obsolesce as well as new characters having really great introductory arcs/backstories❤️ points off for the last story tbh—but points on for seeing the Fat Controller and his fam on holiday as well as the parts dunking on busybody cops

Gordon the Big Engine - another one that just has really good structure—plus some underrated character moments in this—plus stories 1 and 3 are hilarious

Edward the Blue Engine - the vibes are impeccable

Eight Famous Engines - altogether, just a really good ensemble romp

Duck and the Diesel Engine - I N T R I G U E

The Little Old Engine - another just-really-good ensemble romp

The Twin Engines - I N T R I G U E, also irony; it's just very ambitious, grow-the-beard stuff

Very Old Engines - the sheer layers going on. also i'm a sucker for prequels.

Main Line Engines - just very classic Golden Age rws stuff, witty and warm, nothing to criticize, all clover. it feels like home.

Enterprising Engines - hooooooooooly crap, it's so good. some bits are shaky or pudgy, i kinda wish i had been the editor for this one, but you have to forgive the nitpicky stuff in the face of all the wealth. a triumph.

Oliver the Western Engine - the books just kept getting better in this era? wtf????? 

Duke the Lost Engine and Tramway Engines - i could write ESSAYS on both these books. i SHOULD. like at this point you can start doing high-grade LITERARY ANALYSIS (enthusiastic)

Christopher Awdry's stuff is alllll on a lower tier than the above but while i'm on a roll i gotta give some props here too:

Jock the New Engine - i don't know how to defend it, it just makes the mini railway feel very real to me in a way that their first book (funny though it was) didn't

Gordon the High Speed Engine - it's overrated by certain Thomas bros, who to my eye seem to be deliberately obtuse when they insist that it's every bit as good as any Wilbert book (WHAT??), but it is enjoyable, thoughtful, and certainly the most consistently high-quality Christopher book

Henry and the Express - i'm here purely for the arc and the book's ending. as a final word on Henry's character development, the last couple of pages are unmatched and give him a new and hard-won layer that even Enterprising Engines didn't quite get him to

Thomas and the Twins - the interactions between Thomas, Edward, Bill and Ben are delicious. even if the Trevor story is pretty lame, i'm still soooo glad this book exists, i can't believe it, it feels like someone wrote a self-indulgent fanfic... and i am Here For It

[14carrotghoul]

5, 6, 11, 18, and 23 for the writing asks- or as many of those as you want, no pressure to do them all!

no worries, its been a while since I yapped!!

5.     How much writing do you get done on an average day?

Very little! When I'm lucky and have a strong idea I can be in the low thousands but on average maybe a hundred to two hundred words?? idk I don't keep track!

6.     Single or multiple POV?

ooooh I feel like it depends on the structure of the story!! I think I tend to read and write more single person though!

11.  Books and/or authors who influenced you the most

Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno Garcia (got me to embrace more Mexican culture in my writing bc I LOVED how it felt to read this, even if I hated the ending lol)

Piranesi - Susanna Clarke (loved how alive the book felt and it has SUCH a well executed twist!!!)

Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin (loved how alive the characters felt, I was SHOOK reading the main characters flirt bc of how romantic and real it felt)

The Raven Cycle/The Dreamer Trilogy - Maggie Stiefvater (LOVE the characters and craziness of it all)

Douglas Adams (charming, light, and hilarious!)

Naomi Klein (not so much for writing but currently working my way through her books and they're Fucking Me Up!! so eye opening!!)

OH and rwrb obvs!!!

18.  If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be, and what would you write about?

i have zero clue! my writing isn't very structured (see above haha) and I kind of just go where the ideas take me but am also nitpicky as hell so anyone that has the patience to deal with my bullshit would be great!!

23. Favorite Author

uhhhh I guess if we're going by volume, then Maggie Stiefvater? I bounce around genres a lot and I'm currently obsessed with Naomi Klein lol learning a lot from her currently but there's a limited selection through my library :'(

[thetentaclecommander]

for ask game: 11, 40, 48, 73

11. what’s something neat you’ve learned while doing research for something you were writing? also, how much do you worry about doing research in general? I’ve learned way too much on how parasites (read: tapeworms) work and how they effect/infest the body and that they shed this tough outer ‘shell’ and hide when resistant to treatments given to people. Also parasitic hiving is something that's just 'chef's kiss' when adding to the body horror that is a Nemesis Tyrant. I research usually to find out nitpicky things like how titles and military ranks work, and obscure Resi lore in places like the novels, wikis, art books, and videos because playing through 3 and 5 over and over again gets kinda old for one throwaway line, ect. But aside from finding stuff to add I generally am bullshitting and twisting the lore and am not that heavily research dependent.

40. best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten. My best feedback was by a longtime reader in my bookmarks. They said (paraphrasing) that I was able to make a monster romance where the lead was not woobified/declawed for the ship to work but still was empathetic and complex and wrote the ship in question in a way that resonated with them and is compelling to read.

It was the best feedback in that it told me I succeeded in what I set out to do: take a 2D villian and him into make a morally complex beast that didn’t have to be made distractingly cuddly or mindlessly evil to be worth reading about, make the ship itself engaging as written and that there was a reader that wanted that.

(also being told my stuff by readers is ‘hypnotic’ and ‘unholy’ are very close to top tier feedback lol)

48. do you reread your own stories? All the time! Partly to keep track of threads/character voice as this AU is well over 400,000 words with 6 main fics and 25+ one shots - that is a lot of story lore to keep straight! But it’s also because I love this universe I’ve made and enjoy giving myself chills at what I’ve put down to then go ‘I wrote that!?’

73. how do you visualize scenes? do you see it like a movie in your head, or do the words just flow? I see my scenes as like a music video, set lighting, music, and all (why I have so many music recs in fics). But I also tend to write ‘IC’ as in for an hour if I’m writing a scene for Nemesis I’m writing in his mindset and just let it all go. It’s also how I get those weird surrealistic scenes out - I think in some circles it’s called ‘automatic writing’? After I’m done I go into me the writer mode and edit, cut, and fix things like narrative placement (I do generally outline the plot of a fic), most grammatical errors, formatting, ect. (refers to this ask game post)

[lemonadesoda]

i'm thinking about the coworkers au again. i haven't talked about the coworkers au. i'm going to talk about the coworkers au.

coworkers au is the little sandbox in my head where i go what if nothing bad ever happened to lemel and they just worked for the same company as tev and he's the captain of some resource expedition vessel and lemel is the chief of science on it. it's a very fun little au. there's a lot of different aspects i can think about. sometimes i focus on the early parts of their relationship, where they barely interacted because lemel hadn't even been promoted to chief of science yet so they only have a distant idea of tevane as just that hardass captain who Will get you on any space OSHA violations and he Is going to notice so don't try to cut any corners so mostly they just kind of distantly complain about how much of a nitpicky stickler he is, but then when they get promoted, suddenly, they're the one who has to do all the direct reporting (they hate reporting) and he's even more so on their case because their reports are always late (they hate reporting) and they're suddenly mouthing off directly to him in staff meetings because ughh this is so inefficient i could be actually doing things instead of having these fucking reporting meetings!! But! at the same time, he does actually care about what his staff are doing and how they are functioning and so as much as lemel is always getting into it with him, they start to respect him more the more they interact because he actually does advocate for them to the executives and such and doesn't ask them stupidass questions about why the stuff they're doing is necessary or important. and so that's how they become friends.

and it's a really really slow burn au where most of their interactions are just as colleagues for a long while because tevane is notoriously difficult to get close to in a professional setting because he keeps all of his crew at arm's length which he feels is part of his job and responsibility as leader but honestly sometimes has the detrimental effect of making him seem too distant. lemel manages to break through this little by little because they are a bulldozer and just kind of barge into his business and they do Not find him intimidating or if they ever did at any point, have too much of an unstoppable force personality to actually show it.

so he slowly lets them into his personal life aka they kind of just inflict themself on his personal life a lil bit by yelling at him to eat meals on time like a normal person and coffee is Not breakfast and go the fuck to sleep and stop sending emails with a timestamp of 3:49am etc. and like this is coming from a person who will put a shot of five hour energy into their coffee so you know you're in bad shape if that person is giving you health advice. but yah the more they get to know him personally the more lemel realizes holy shit the stoic captain is actually kind of a trashfire mentally because off duty, he's honestly pretty melancholy because hey it turns out keeping everyone at arms length and being married to your job is fucking bad for you esp if you have perfectionist low self esteem tendencies and are generally prone to getting lonely.

he eventually gets better the more they hang out and get to know each other and after a while he actively seeks out their company especially during off hours and when they're not on mission flights until pretty soon lemel is the one person on the crew who actually can read all his tells and realizes he's a pretty emotional person but just in unconventional ways.

and on their end they just really like having someone who can be a partner to them and who really listens to them and actually quietly backs their crazy bullshit shenanigans instead of arguing with them (which lemel does love a good recreational argument, particularly with their siblings But! that's just sibling stuff for them and it matters a lot that tev will just kind of choose to trust them especially on more nebulous things like their feelings and identity stuff because as much as they love and get along with their family, their family also has Opinions about things in the way family tends to so having an independent person who is wholeheartedly in their corner is a big deal, and also their family is kind of high strung, especially in combination, so having someone calm and who they feel really balances them and gives a completely different pov on things that they can have a discussion with is just good for their mental state). anyways it's just a nice time where the biggest issues they have are like, crew gossip, or family drama (because tev's shitty family is still a thing), or occasional occupational hazards from doing space travel and space science.

so yeah. i think about coworkers au sometimes