#whatever fits the narrative

[archtroop]

[bixels]

Learning that fans hated Applejack and called her "boring" is crazyyy to me because I genuinely, unironically believe AJ's the most complex character in the main six.

Backstory-wise, she was born into a family of famers/blue collar workers who helped found the town she lives in. She grew up a habitual liar until she had the bad habit traumatized outta her. She lost both her parents and was orphaned at a young age, having to step up as her baby sister's mother figure. She's the only person in the main gang who's experienced this level of loss and grief (A Royal Problem reveals that AJ dreams about memories of being held by her parents as a baby). She moved to Manhattan to live with her wealthy family members, only to realize she'll never fit in or be accepted, even amongst her own family. The earlier seasons imply she and her family had money problems too (In The Ticket Master, AJ wants to go to the gala to earn money to buy new farm equipment and afford hip surgery for her grandma).

Personality-wise, she's a total people-pleaser/steamroller (with an occasional savior complex) who places her self worth on her independence and usefulness for other people, causing her to become a complete workaholic. In Applebuck Season, AJ stops taking care of herself because of her obsessive responsibilities for others and becomes completely dysfunctional. In Apple Family Reunion, AJ has a tearful breakdown because in she thinks she dishonored her family and tarnished her reputation as a potential leader –– an expectation and anxiety that's directly tied to her deceased parents, as shown in the episode's ending scene. In The Last Roundup, AJ abandons her family and friends out of shame because believes she failed them by not earning 1st place in a rodeo competition. She completely spirals emotionally when she isn't able to fulfill her duties toward others. Her need to be the best manifests in intense pride and competitiveness when others challenge her. And when her pride's broken, she cowers and physically hides herself.

Moreover, it's strongly implied that AJ has a deep-seated anger. The comics explore her ranting outbursts more. EQG also obviously has AJ yelling at and insulting Rarity in a jealous fit just to hurt her feelings (with a line that I could write a whole dissection on). And I'm certain I read in a post somewhere that in a Gameloft event, AJ's negative traits are listed as anger.

Subtextually, a lot of these flaws and anxieties can be (retroactively) linked to her parents' death, forcing her to grow up too quickly to become the adult/caregiver of the family (especially after her big brother becomes semiverbal). Notice how throughout the series, she's constantly acting as the "mom friend" of the group (despite everything, she manages to be the most emotionally mature of the bunch). Notice how AJ'll switch to a quieter, calmer tone when her friends are panicking and use soothing prompts and questions to talk them through their emotions/problems; something she'd definitely pick up while raising a child. Same with her stoicism and reluctance at crying or releasing emotions (something Pinkie explicitly points out). She also had a childhood relationship with Rara (which, if you were to give a queer reading, could easy be interpreted as her first 'aha' crush), who eventually left her life. (Interestingly enough, AJ also has an angry outburst with Rara for the same exact reasons as with EQG Rarity; jealous, upset that someone else is using and changing her). It's not hard to imagine an AJ with separation anxiety stemming from her mother and childhood friend/crush leaving. I'm also not above reading into AJ's relationship with her little sister (Y'all ever think about how AB never got to know her parents, even though she shares her father's colors and her mother's curly hair?).

AJ's stubbornness is a symptom of growing up too quickly as well. Who else to play with your baby sister when your brother goes nonverbal (not to discount Big Mac's role in raising AB)? Who else to wake up in the middle of the night to care for your crying baby sister when your grandma needs her rest? When you need to be 100% all the time for your family, you tend to become hard-stuck with a sense of moral superiority. You know what's best because you have to be your best because if you're aren't your best, then everything'll inevitably fall apart and it'll be your fault. And if you don't know what's best –– if you've been wrong the whole time –– that means you haven't been your best, which means you've failed the people who rely on you, which means you can't fulfill your role in the family/society, which makes you worthless . We've seen time and time again how this compulsive need to be right for the sake of others becomes self-destructive (Apple Family Reunion, Sound of Silence, all competitions against RD). We've seen in The Last Roundup how, when no longer at her best, AJ would rather remove herself from her community than confront them because she no longer feels of use to them.

But I guess it is kinda weird that AJ has "masculine" traits and isn't interested in men at all. It's totally justified that an aggressively straight, misogynistic male fandom would characterize her as a "boring background character." /s

At the time of writing this, it's 4:46AM.

[mokadevs]

self-indulgent au that im 7k words into writing a oneshot on. you guys can also look if you want

[bookshelfdreams]

fr if "this is no longer the queer joy show" for you, idk what to tell you. maybe next time try engaging with the actual story instead of the version of it you made up in your head

[edwinisms]

it’s actually so wild to me that this fairly quirky YA type show gave both of its main characters deaths that can, in one way or another, solidly be considered hate crimes. they were both flat out murdered as a result of being A) gay and effeminate or B) brown (south asian, specifically) and you could argue whether or not those kids thought of it that way in the moment or whatever but the bottom line is that they would not have been in the situations that killed them if they weren’t of their respective minorities. like legitimately that is a ballsy choice for this kind of netflix show, let alone for the two Main Characters, and i respect it big time

[brothersonahotelbed]

‘I wish they may shovel in the earth over us both!’

love, from across the grave

Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë // "bemo" – Polar Campgrounds // Saltburn (2023) // "Sowing Season (Yeah)" – Brand New // "All Hell Breaks Loose" Supernatural // "Taxi Cab" – Twenty One Pilots // "Stung" Swarm // "Beach Life-In-Death" – Car Seat Headrest // "In the Woods Somewhere" – Hozier // "Only God Makes Happy Endings" Swarm

[mamawasatesttube]

the geoff retcon is just so poorly done in so many ways. when i think abt it i just rly do have to roll my eyes because it wouldn't even be that hard to be like "actually, paul westfield was duped by agenda under orders from the contessa" and have that as the explanation for the introduction of luthor dna instead of paul westfield's, if you MUST include it. like that way it doesn't blatantly contradict the entire luthor plotline with mae in reign of the supermen, and it could've been a reveal to luthor himself, too. that couldve been fascinating ESPECIALLY in the context of lex having baby lena in that era, until the y2k event.

but fuckign. why do that when we can directly contradict kon's entire origin story which explicitly states he escaped before they were able to put control codes in his head. and when we can also just completely dismiss the ethics of "they [wanted to] put control codes in his head" in favor of "what if... some genes... make you BAD..." which is just very thinly veiled eugenics that the narrative entertains, for some reason. frankly, imo, lex was far more interesting as a character in every plot other than this, because he became so one-dimensionally evil in a very boring stock "manipulative" way. and we didn't even get a single mention of lena in all of his "my son" bullshit. using the contessa wouldve been such an easy and perfect way to tie it all together!!!! but sure. why do anything like that, right geoff.

[delawaredetroit]

Not being able to understand another person who isn't hurting you is not an excuse for making their life a living hell for a decade. Bakugou would have been well within his rights to avoid Izuku if he was unnerved by him or their values just couldn't align. And if he just pushed Izuku down in the sandbox and told Izuku he couldn't play with them anymore, Bakugou would still be a little brat but nobody reasonable would be calling him abusive.

But that isn't what happened. Even from Bakugou's own words, he actively beat Izuku down again and again. Because he one-sidedly decided Izuku was looking down on him without ever speaking about it, he terrorized an already marginalized person. This isn't about whether Bakugou should have liked or gotten along with Izuku. It's about Bakugou believing he had the right to violently suppress the people around him that didn't fit into his narrative.

Bakugou clearly had deeply rooted insecurities that needed addressed that weren't handled by the people around him because in their society, physical strength is extrapolated to strength in all instances. But that in no way excuses the harm he committed towards others.

[oconist]

parallels during the 2019 season, esteban & pierre

Vievee Francis, The Shared World / Adonis, Song / Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin / Lucille Clifton, Climbing / Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games / Anais Nin, Mirages: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anais Nin, 1939-1947 / Carrie Fountain, Burn Lake / Rachel McKibbens, Blud / Gabriel García Márquez, Of Love and Other Demons / Franny Choi, The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On / Louise Glück, The Triumph of Achilles / Willa Cather, The Basket / Sarah Rose Etter, The Book of X / Amy Hempel, Cloudland

inspired by @unabashedlycasualangel who made me remember what este & pierre were doing during 2019.

[thisgingerhasnosoul]

I hate that I have to say this, but you should care about kids more than you care about winning an argument. You should care about kids more than you care about what you think is owed to you. It doesn’t matter what “side” you’re on, who you believe has a better claim to whatever you’re fighting over. You should care more about kids than about your pride.

[my-fall-from-grace]

also for the very small intersection of panthers fans & logan sargeant supporters (also why are there not more of you 🤨 logan is literally the cutest and the cats are so silly) : cats win = happy logan = good result tomorrow = florida beats canada once more this weekend ?

[primatechnosynthpop]

[Video description: a Real Ghostbusters amv set to the first pre-chorus and chorus of "Why Did I Say Okie Doki?" by The Stupendium. Full description under cut:

The amv is framed as being from Winston's perspective. Peter, Ray, Egon, and Janine are shown as the singer introduces the girls. On the "keep them hanging" line we see Winston holding onto Egon as the latter dangles off a ledge. The "just the five of us" parts feature clips of all four ghostbusters plus Janine together. On "there's something going on behind" we see Egon and Peter respectively being possessed. "I sold my soul for poetry" is Winston lamenting about selling his soul to a minor demon, and on the last line he clutches his head in torment. End desc.]

[djeterg19]

Can we also talk about how unlikely it is that Top "stole" Boeing now that we see how manipulative he is? Because I didn't find it likely before but now? But Boeing clearly enjoys playing games and is going to move on to messing with Sand next week.

[apassingbird]

i try to be very 'it's not that serious' about it but then i see the most idiotic things being posted and i just. isn't it tiring to constantly focus on the things you don't like and spend hours trying to prove to others why the thing you like is better? it must be exhausting.

[punchurlightsout]

maybe Herbert West isn’t misogynistic and Meg Halsey isn’t homophobic. Maybe you guys are just weird

[nyxi-pixie]

'i want my fav to be happy' might be one of the leading causes in mischaracterisation. much to think about