#why are we still accepting problematic stuff | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

anotherkindofmindpod · 26 days ago

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Hey lovely AKOM folks! Belated Happy Easter — and thank you for all the recent content! 🙌

Forgive me if this is off-topic, but I wanted to get something off my chest...

Re: why some of us aren’t exactly enamoured with Ian Leslie — I find the guy problematic. Not so much because of his views on John and Paul (though I do think it’s fair to ask questions about an established journalist — a straight, white, cishet man – with a publishing contract, drawing so heavily on the unpaid work of others).

But what properly bothers me if I’m honest is his politics.

For instance, I still remember his past, casually mocking reference to Jeremy Corbyn and Imagine with the line: “Corbynism, one interminable John Lennon song.”

Or the way he criticised mild-mannered sports pundit Gary Lineker (no radical he) for speaking out against the previous government’s “immeasurably cruel” asylum policies on social media.

Leslie’s response? “I don’t understand why Lineker can’t just accept the restriction. Why is it of vital importance that the world hear his political views?” Which kind of misses the point, imho.

As a Brit, I guess I’m especially sensitive to this kind of aggro-centrist energy. These voices dominate our politics right now, and they often seem to take real pleasure in punching down — on the left, on young people, on trans rights, on pro-Palestine activists, and so on.

So when I see Leslie’s stances, it honestly makes me question his ability to empathise with John Lennon — or even with the Paul McCartney who wrote Give Ireland Back to the Irish. (“Sir Paul” is another matter.)

And then it’s jarring because Leslie’s everywhere at the moment! Even in the sacred spaces. Even in the Beatles podcasts I turn to as a bit of refuge from the world. ☹️

And I am trying to be thoughtful about this (honest!). I get that one of the beautiful (and yes, sometimes frustrating) things about Beatles fandom is how broad that church is. There’s space for the outsiders and the insiders, the psychedelic dreamers, the rock purists, the avant-garde heads — and for us peace-and-love crew too.

I’ve listened to your previous interview with Leslie, and I’ll admit — he makes some good points. I’ll probably buy his book too. Who am I kidding. Sigh. Of course I will.

And I do know The Beatles were complicated — deeply problematic in their own ways. But still, it’s hard when people claim to love them, yet seem unmoved by the deep empathy that runs through so much of their work. The “peace and love” stuff really matters to some of us. A lot. ❤️✌️

That’s one reason why I value AKOM so much. I feel my kind of Beatles spirit here — that messy, meaningful mix of art, politics, and empathy.

Anyway. Rant over.

Thanks for reading. And thanks for never shying away from difficult topics. I really and truly admire you for it. And I’m grateful.

Hello Listener,

Thank you so much for this lovely message! Your words of appreciation and encouragement mean so much to us!!!

First off, just to clarify: Ian Leslie has never been a guest on AKOM. [anon, I saw your second ask correcting yourself on this note! :) just wanted to clarify for readers]

Secondly, we are also deeply troubled by his anti-trans rhetoric. Obviously everyone has the right to their own opinion and the right to speak their mind on topics of the day. But we are a podcast comprised of queer women, all ardent supporters/defenders of our trans friends and family. We find anti-trans rhetoric to be not just actively, demonstrably harmful to real human beings, but also just incredibly stupid on its face.

Since we’re not interested in having a 'trans debate' on AKOM, and would be incapable of pretending we are unaware of Mr Leslie’s views, we therefore have no intention of inviting him on AKOM.

That said, we have bought his book and plan to (eventually) read it. We absolutely respect the decision of fans to buy or boycott it as they see fit, and don’t wish to convince anyone either way.

All of our interactions with Mr. Leslie have been friendly and mutually respectful, and as I (Phoebe) said in an earlier episode of AKOM, I personally have enjoyed his previous writing on John and Paul. I’m pleased that the book is doing well because it is spreading the story of John and Paul to a larger audience (although of course we don't agree with all his opinions on the subject). Although we certainly don’t wish him any ill will, we DO wish that he would reconsider his anti-trans views and reconsider the effects of his (many, many) words on the subject.

All of this to say: we don’t think AKOM is the best platform for him to promote his book. Fortunately he can be heard on numerous other podcasts!

We will continue doing what we do here at AKOM (deep research and thorough discussion in attempt to uncover new angles) for as long as we can find the time and energy.

Thanks so much for your support!! P.S. we've received multiple similar asks about Leslie's new book and if we intend to have him on the show. Hopefully this response can serve as a general response to those asks as well.

#akom #thanks for the ask!

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cheekypenguu · 2 months ago

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what do you think is the controversial stuff in the gone series? obv its problematic in some ways but i'd like to hear your take

Well, I guess I do have to give it some credit; it was written in 2008, and it has pretty awesome gay representation despite it! I think "problematic" is a much better word to describe some of the events in the Gone series rather than my original phrasing of "controversial", so I do apologize for that 😭 And I also want to make it clear that despite its problematic tendencies, I adore this series and I'm beyond happy I started reading it! I have such a love for the characters and storytelling 🫶 I have no problem with anyone who openly enjoys this series, because so do I! Below the cut are a few things that rubbed me the wrong way in the Gone series by Michael Grant (keep in mind I'm only on book 5):

Diana's pregnancy Even the fact that her and Caine had sex to begin with— several times according to the books— made me squirm a bit. Back in 2008 (when the books were written), the age of consent in California (where the story takes place) was 18 years of age, and the characters are significantly younger than that. Then there's the "accelerated pregnancy" bit... I'm not sure why that made me so squeamish. It just seemed... strange? Like, okay— from where I am in the books, we know something is up with Diana's baby, we're just not sure what it is yet. So for all I know, there could be a reason her pregnancy was accelerated, but I can't be sure yet. Honestly though, I don't think anyone reading the books were meant to be comfortable with Diana's pregnancy. I think Michael Grant intended for it to be a bit uncomfortable, because the whole situation between her and Caine was just that; the fact Diana felt that the only way to get Caine to stop being a terrible person was to offer herself up to him sexually is a very unfortunate circumstance. Caine swore that he would stay on the island with her if they did this together, and so she gave in, but then he turned around and left the island despite it. It really drives home the idea that Caine is very much only after power/control. Gosh I have a lot of opinions about this particular bit of Gone, I could go on for a long while 😭 Female characters Don't get me wrong, the female characters in Gone are (for the most part) absolutely incredible. But basically (if not literally) all of them depend on some sort of love interest to drive their story forwards. This bothers me because it reinforces the idea that women can't just be independent. Astrid, Lana, Dekka, Taylor, Penny, Diana, etc. are all victims of this. Excessive ableism To be completely fair, the characters in this series are young and immature, so this makes sense for them. But it still gets to a point where it's just... excessive. The R slur is used in abundance— especially in the first book— primarily against Little Pete due to his autism. Even in 2008 that wasn't an acceptable word to throw around. But, then again, it's a bunch of teenagers trapped inside a dome with no more adults to tell them off.

I'm probably missing some stuff, but this is what I could think of on the fly. Again, I really do love this series, and am actually running it as a D&D campaign with some friends of mine who haven't read the books! Oh god please don't flame me for this Gone Tumblr </3

#txt #txt post #mailbox #gone series #gone michael grant #the gone series

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alcestas-sloboda · 1 year ago

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I see so many reflections today from different people: someone woke up from the explosions, some from a phone call, some woke up and saw hundreds of notifications from different telegram channels. It is still so unimaginably bizarre. I have no ability to put into words the feeling of your world falling apart and we didn’t even understand half of the danger that was surrounding us. We were so damn close to disaster with half of Europe believing that nothing good will come out of it.

Ukrainians didn’t care what Europeans thought though, I personally saw news pieces about "Russia will take control of Kyiv" a lot later, somewhere in May, when Ukrainian military took control over the north of the country. And I’m so eternally grateful to every Ukrainian who made sure that all this "experts" sat in those flashy studios red from guilt. I’m grateful for my life, I’m grateful for our Ukraine. She persist. She is still the love of our lives. She’s hurt and devastated but she lives despite all the attempts to destroy her. Same as us. Somehow still here.

Yet I feel more detached from the western world than ever and I’m so fucking jealous of you all. It’s not even about the rockets or shakheds - somewhere along the lines you accept the fact that you may die in any moment - it’s about normal things like your Twitter feed that doesn’t look like a necrology, military terms that don’t make any sense to you, your city that doesn’t stop everyday to mourn the dead, you don’t feel guilty for trying to live a normal life while your classmate, who wanted to be a director, posts stories from the trenches. All of that and more. I’m not even entitled to my emotions because there always will be someone who says that my country is not suffering enough. I no longer react to comments like this as emotionally as I’ve done before but it is still so bizarre to see stuff like that from people whose countries have always been the one to inflict suffering on others.

I may sound mean or sarcastic or whatever but there is so much negativity inside of us that was put there by people like I’ve mentioned above that it is going to be released from time to time. "Your country shouldn’t exist", "Only 9 thousand killed", "You all are nazis/racist/zionists/any of the -ist terms" - yet you should always react in a constructive way because the moment you let your emotions go, you are the worst person on the planet. But who am I kidding, some people here do believe that we are. There is a thousand bad people with sketchy patches in a 40-million country and suddenly "That’s why I no longer support Ukraine". Well, honey, that means you never did. Because Syrian flags were quickly replaced with Ukrainian ones and just as quickly with Palestinian. It’s not about the "Support the oppressed", it’s "Anything to not feel guilty" because then you’ll find the reason to hate Palestinians, just as you did with us. If only you cared about the problematic shit happening in you country as much as you care about our political and social life.

But there are people who still are there for us. Countries that are still here. We may not say it as often but we are thankful. So very thankful for everything you’ve done and are doing for us. Thank you for hearing us and uplifting our voices.

Recently one of the most beautiful people here have lost her life defending me and you. She was always in my notes, always making sure that we didn’t feel uncomfortable even if she of all the people had all the right to be upfront about her thoughts and feelings. I don’t think I will ever get rid of the feeling of guilt. She was there while I wasn’t. She said to mourn her through anger. Anger towards the oppressor. Anger that should be directed into something useful: donations, sharing info, contacting your MPs and so on.

The soldier‘s death is not something out of ordinary during the war, it’s not considered a war crime but what if half of the army are civilians? Volunteers who left their homes to protect them. What if the soldier was a teacher, a poet, an actor, an IT-specialist, a scientist, what then? Isn’t it a tragedy? My country is loosing yet another generation of beautiful talented people and it makes my view of the future even darker.

But what can I say? I’m still here. My country still stands. Ukrainian air defence is doing everything possible and impossible to protect the lives of the civilians. Ukrainian military is still the only thing keeping us all alive. Heroes, titans, gods. Glory to them. Eternal glory to those who lost their lives defending Ukraine.

To Ukrainians: якось буде, прорвемся.

#reflection I guess

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canceledromance · 2 months ago

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another aspect of this discussion on taboo, or problematic, or whatever word you want to use for it, media that i've been thinking about a lot, is the way certain taboos become acceptable within certain narrative contexts, but not in others.

and i mean, i think this is understandable. it's why a novel like lolita is not the same as a novel like daddy's little toy (in so much as i can make that assumption given i can't actually read dlt for myself). lolita is making a point that is bigger than, like, the literal events that are being depicted in its pages. it's not a book of csa. it's a book about the harm and ruin that comes from people who enact csa on children. it has something meaningful to say beyond entertainment. meanwhile, the assumption (due to how it was marketed and the snippets available) with dlt is that the presence of child grooming is the statement. it's the entertainment. and that's pretty fucking foul.

but i also wonder where we put things like the television shows criminal minds and law & order: svu when it comes to subjects like the sexual assault of adults and children. is the supposed messaging of these shows (this is bad) stronger than the exploitive reality of selling these kinds of stories to viewers? i'm genuinely asking; i do not know. to me, the episodes of those shows that tell stories about sexual abuse still feel kind of icky in that they're still attempting to titillate. they're arousing in the general sense of the word, and they come with ad breaks. should we be socially okay with monetizing entertainment about sexual abuse if it comes packaged as social commentary? it's still fiction, and it's still meant to entertain.

i've seen some comments on tiktok vids about ttws that say, it's one thing to have this kind of dead dove shit on ao3, but a mainstream published book is so gross! and i've found myself taken aback by that distinction. partly because i would think any portrayal of that kind of thing would be seen as unacceptable and deserving of jail time regardless of platform, and partly because i think it's kind of laughable to presume that dlt, a self-published book in a niche genre, would have reached any kind of influential scale. regardless, the question stands in my mind: why would (to these commenters at least) ao3 be an acceptable platform for csa stories while other forms of publishing are not?

next day eta: i want to adjust this to add that even my last statement ("it's hard to say with my full chest we should allow base, lurid, predatory fiction to run rampant wherever it chooses") is super hypocritical, given the kind of fic i've read and written myself.

i don't want to take that line out, because i said it, and the purpose of this blog to also deal with the areas in which i, myself, have biases or sticky spots, or contradicting beliefs. i have written a lot of base, lurid, predatory fiction. i've even written that kind of stuff between adults and older teens. and it upsets me that even i can get caught up in the moral panic of this discussion to the point i forget my own participation and start lambasting myself.

if i could adjust what i said last night and rewrite that line, this is how i would:

in asking these questions, i'm not leaning towards an answer of, well, just eradicate these narratives across all platforms, because good riddance to bad trash. i think having that answer oversimplifies the issue. but at the same time, it's hard to say with my full chest we should allow base, lurid, predatory fiction to run rampant wherever it so chooses. the crux for me is that there is always nuance and context, and i believe this even when it comes to the kind of morally controversial fiction that people write purely for smut. an all or nothing approach doesn't work here, in my opinion.

#book reflections #tori woods #daddy's little toy #the tori woods situation (ttws)

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lilderitter · 2 months ago

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Hi Lil! First of all, thank you for coming onto tumblr and sharing all that you have with us. I really appreciate it!

I just wanted to ask if you had anything extra to share about Nia’s storylines in books 2 and 3, since she’s my favorite character in all of the Blades of Light and Shadow series.

Her storyline in book 2 was my favorite in the series, especially with the aspect of coming to accept the “darker” or “shadow” parts of yourself, so to speak. I believe that you said you focused on more of Tyril and Mal as characters, but I would still love to hear whatever you want to share on this, even just your own thoughts or interpretations. Thanks again!

Hello! Thank you so much for asking and usual caveat that I'm no longer at Pixelberry so this isn't official current canon, just what I remember slash where my head was at.

Shadow!Nia is so important to Book 2's themes and the series' themes in general, so I'm so glad that it resonated with you! I adore Nia, and I did do some of the building out on her relationship with the Temple and the Light (particularly the Mother of Grey being her Patron Light and the concept of Patron Lights in general. I grew up around a lot of Jesuits because my dad is a professor at a Jesuit college even though he is a militant atheist, and I'm Italian American, so I've always found the concept of Catholic saints really fascinating). I handled some of the initial stuff on Nia and Raine's conversation before and after Ventra's funeral in Book 2 because we wanted her to be able to participate and talk about her journey in the book without imposing her belief system on Ventra since Orcs aren't Light worshippers, which is why Imtura invites her to participate rather than her just doing it. (Also Imtura asking her to participate is also a bit of foreshadowing for Book 3, where Imtura is trying to decide how she feels about the afterlife now that she's been running around with people who have different beliefs from her.)

Since we were dismantling the Elven Pantheon and the Temple even further than Book 1 did, it did feel important to show that Nia's faith doesn't have to be defined by the corruption the party discovers at the heart of the Elven Pantheon, because everyone's relationship to the divine (or just the concept of the divine) is personal. As the Blades equivalent of a cleric (in the D&D sense), Nia's felt the very real warmth and power the Light can give her, and she's used it to heal, protect, and take care of people, which is what's most important to her. The Temple doesn't get to police that, not ever, just like they don't get to police her negative emotions or moments where she lacks decorum or control.

At its heart, Shadow magic is about giving in to impulse and instinct. There is nothing inherently good or bad about that. It's all about what those impulses are. Nia's been suppressing her negative emotions and beating herself up for so long that when she gives herself even a sliver of permission to let go, all her suppressed emotions come with it, which is how we get her (super badass) Shadow appearance.

Part of what we wanted to explore in Book 2 is the idea that imposing a good/evil dichotomy onto appearance (especially when the "evil" appearance visibly deepens the skintone of a character like Aerin) is a problematic construction, which is party of why Isador and Nyra are there. Isador might veer toward concepts of evil because she prioritizes herself (and to a lesser extent Nyra) over others, but Nyra's "corruption" is in many ways more about her initial guilt for trying to "climb above her station."

Shadow!Nia isn't mean or dismissive because Shadow magic "took over." It's a manifestation of what happens when you punish yourself for your negative and uncharitable thoughts instead of acknowledging that everyone has them to some degree and what matters is how you impact others as a result. Shame can be a necessary and useful tool for when people hurt others, but punishing yourself often ends up just being a way of making a situation where you hurt someone else about how /you/ feel instead of how you can make amends. I honestly can't imagine Nia has intentionally harmed anybody outside of battle before her transformation, but any time she's had the impulse to do so, or to even just say something mean or selfish (or even just assert her own boundaries), she's spiraled about how bad a person she is because that's how she was raised. When she gives herself permission to let go, she assumes it's evil and therefore "looks" evil (once again, within the framework of how she was raised.)

Other Nia thoughts in no particular order:

The awesome little team I worked on at Pixelberry (who also did the Cursed Heart series and had just finished up Wake the Dead when I joined, truly one of my favorite VNs) had some very clear beliefs about genre that tend to go against the mold, especially for fantasy: no chosen ones and no "good" empires. While corrupt officials and deposing a king or religious leader are tried and true tropes, often the solution that's offered at the end is for the MC to take on that position of authority because they are inherently a good person and will do better of course. (Ask the characters in Dune how that turned out, ey?) The thing I adore about Nia is that she is actually that good a person, so she ends up in an almost Joan of Arc position where she's having to speak truth to power while grappling with her own feelings of guilt about not being the "perfect" Light worshipper.

Bear with me, but if you haven't seen Conclave, it is a great place to get a LOT of Nia feels. I won't spoil things, but there is a character Nia would adore, and I think one of the things that Nia has always struggled with is finding the confidence to interpret the texts that she loves so much in her own eyes and through her own sense of right and wrong. That's not something that the Temple really supports, but I know pretty much all the Old God aside from Nifara are so proud of her.

I know some people felt that Nia was underserved in Book 3 in terms of screentime, but if you look over the course of the whole series, she's had a lot of progress and growth in 1 & 2, much like Tyril, so at least for me personally, it felt more fair to give some of that potential screentime to someone like Imtura, who still needed room to process the loss of her mother and what it means about her relationship to her own culture because there wasn't time to do that at the end of Book 2.

Also I know it's controversial but confident and even domme Nia is my fave Nia. I love it when cinnamon rolls come into their power. Long live our true Patron Light, reluctant [Morella equivalent of] Pope Nia Ellarious.

#blades of light and shadow #blades of light and shadow spoilers #nia ellarious #playchoices #blades answers #// oh no it's so long I'm sorry but I've been gone for a bit because of sickness so I hope is is a good initial offering for my tardiness

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halfhissandwich · 11 months ago

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What your favorite Sanders Sides episode says about you because I’m binging the series rn and I wanna do this. All of this is a joke, I’m just being silly

My True Identity: Wow look at the fun little identity crisis series! Would be a shame if this goes downhill, right? Yeah, that’s what denial of the inevitable sounds like.

Way Too Adult: I’m willing to bet you’re a fan of the Unsympathetic Patton stuff. Just the vibe I get.

Taking on Anxiety!: I’m so sorry for the atrocities that have occurred in this fandom regarding Virgil. All you wanted was a sassy little emo boy and the fandom made him the embodiment of uwu, I’M SO SORRY-

A New Year of Lying to Myself… In Song!: You just like the song. I feel you, I like the song too.

The Dark Side of Disney!: We meet again, prinxiety shippers. :)

I’m in a Disney show!: Your favorite character is C!Thomas.

The Mind vs. The Heart: I won’t say you’re a logicality shipper… but if they got married, you definitely wouldn’t complain.

Dad’s Big Game Day Tips: … Daddy issues. I’m sorry, it needed to be said.

Alone on Valentines Day: I don’t have a joke here, but I’ll just say that my first thought was “aromantic”, so take that as you will.

Losing My Motivation: Oh my gosh. We get it. Logan is wonderful. That’s the 5th PowerPoint you’ve made today. Please just let me go home.

Q&A: You want an updated one. Me too, buddy, me too.

Am I Original: Going back and rewatching this video after POF makes you cry every single time.

My Negative Thinking: Hey analogical shippers, how are you doing? Still starving? … anyway let’s do some more logicality and prinxiety, shall we? :)

Growing Up: You’re everything that the people who’s favorite episode is “Losing My Motivation” are, but for Patton, and you don’t understand why the fandom thinks he’s kind of problematic.

Making Some Changes: *obnoxious chanting* LAMP LAMP LAMP LAMP LAMP LAMP LAMP LAMP LAM-

Becoming A Cartoon: … I won’t say anything. I won’t crush your dreams. I’ll just observe, smile, nod and just move on.

Accepting Anxiety: I don’t blame you, a lot of work was put into that episode. By the way you know you can ship prinxiety platonically, right? You can like it platonically without liking it romantically, I-I hope you know that-

Fitting In: You’re actively choosing to ignore drama online and I’m impressed with that, also you are aware that it’s messed up to bash Thomas for making a Harry Potter video 6 years ago, IT WAS SIX YEARS AGO AND HE LIKED HARRY POTTER, DON’T YOU DARE CANCEL THOMAS FOR THAT-

Moving On: Sorry, I’d write a joke for this one but I’m too busy crying-

12 Days Of Christmas: holy wow- no thoughts, head empty. You saw the colorful and festive little Christmas special and you actually said “:D” out loud.

Can Lying be Good: THEATER KIDS, ASSEMBLE!

Why do we get out of bed in the morning?: You probably said one thing in support of logince at one point in your entire life and you got chased with pitchforks by the prinxiety shippers and then Roman started bullying Logan, I am so sorry for this fandom’s sins :(

Crofters the musical: You’re basically Roman in this episode. “But look at him now! (Cue Logan chugging jam like a fucking madman) He’s just so COOL!”

Learning New Things About Ourselves: Your motto is “angst doesn’t exist if I can’t see it.”

Embarrassing Phases: I… completely forgot this episode existed. This is your favorite? I’m not judging your taste or anything, but what’s with your taste?

Selfishness v. Selflessness: Your favorite design? Janus. Your favorite personality? Janus. Your favorite ship? A Janus ship. Your favorite side? … Logan.

Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts: Remus’ abandonment issues aren’t canon. But if I say that too loud, then you people might stab me, so nevermind.

Are There Healthy Distractions: Apparently this episode’s plot of Thomas forgiving his previously homophobic friend is an analogy for Thomas forgiving Virgil for having been a dark side. That’s the connection! I missed it too! I thought it was a silly Frozen episode too! IT’S ABOUT VIRGIL!

Putting Others First: … guys, you can stop fighting the moceit vs roceit war, neither of them will ever be canon. ALSO HOLY WOW PATTON IS A FROG AND HE’S RIPPED FOR SOME REASON, WHAT THE FU-

Flirting With Social Anxiety: Your number one headcanon for the season 2 finale is a direct Frozen quote where Patton is like “Thomas you can’t marry a man you just met” and Roman is like “you can if it’s true love! >:0” (also hi again prinxiety shippers!)

Working Through Intrusive Thoughts: You have anger issues and you relate to Logan. Or you’re just happy to see the silly, goofy, demented Duke with fandom-inflicted abandonment issues!

#sanders sides #patton sanders #logan sanders #roman sanders #virgil sanders #remus sanders #janus sanders

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momentomori24 · 11 months ago

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Long-ass fandom rant because I need to scream into the void to find a reason to live let's gooooo

[For context I wrote most of this last friday which I thought was good to mention so the timeline makes a bit more sense. I really held off on this one XD Welp, let's start this trainwreck.]

Ok, I know I have other long posts I should be paying attention to (*cough* Keiji's shady shenanigans rant *cough*) among other probably more important things, but quickly wanna get this off my chest because it's kinda started to bug me and add even more concerns about the yttd fandom than I already have. This is specifically going to be about soushin-- yeah, yeah, I know-- but also bleed into something more... broad. Or broader. Idk, I'm a Tumblr user not a grammar teacher.

While browsing through Twitter I've been noticing a little spike in popularity for yttd with more fans and soushin shippers emerging as well. Which is cool, the game deserves all the praise and popularity it can get. And as someone whose been here for years, I'm glad that the fandom is slowly and steadily grown more accepting of soushin compared to the attitude around it way back when. There's been some genuinely really cool stuff that really does the ship justice from a lot of talented artist and writers that I absolutely love (will link some later), but something I've also been seeing a lot of from fans is what I can only describe as a "sanitisation resurgence" (but not really. kinda). A week or two ago on Twitter I stumbled across some soushin discourse where some people were sharing the sentiment that "if soushin end up being related and/or have a big age gap the ship is ruined". That they can only be two years apart max or else Nankidai has "fumbled them".

And the only response to that I had is "what". Like, how is that a deal breaker to you lot? How did you even get into the ship without accepting that those things could very likely end up being canon? How are you here and not ready to ship them no matter what's revealed about them after everything we've learned about them? Midori and Shin possibly being related was always on the table, and Midori potentially having already been an adult when Shin was in high school was always a very real possibility ever since we learned that he was never actually a student at his school. This is literally what soushin shippers got harassed by antis for years ago. Soushin is "problematic", and that's why people who shipped them where treated so badly in the fandom or just excluded all together. I can't count how many timed I've come across a "soushin shippers dni" or "soushiners are freaks and I hope you all have a bad day" or soushin fanfics/art with "I DON'T ACTUALLY SHIP IT BTW" and "not a ship" and "actual soushin shippers dni" attached to it. I can't recall how many times I had to explain myself with the "I ship but I don't condone it irl" or explain why I shipped them to not be labelled as a freak as if you need an excuse to ship anything fictional to begin with. I still remember soushin artist @uououoon and how they ended up deleting their Twitter account years ago because of the harassment and slanderous comments they were receiving for ships the fandom deemed problematic. When a person was saying their goodbyes to them on reddit and made some goodbye art (which is now deleted), some assholes in the comments were calling them weirdos and pedophiles for how they explored fiction and "glorified abuse" (which are the usual comments to uououoon's art posted on reddit unfortunately). I only caught wind of this one because back when they were still active in the fandom they were my favourite soushin artist and I went through their stuff almost every day and was tipped off when I randomly couldn't find their account anymore. They were such a nice and incredibly talented person too so the fact they essentially got bullied by a flock of stupid western fans seriously irritates me thinking about it again. This is why we cannot have nice things.

Soushin is "problematic". It's toxic and subtly abusive and important to the characters in question, but that didn't stop people from going after people who wanted to explore a dark, canon relationship (romantic, platonic or otherwise). How the actual hell did we go from "soushin has very toxic and problematic elements and you shouldn't be shipping it, you fucking freaks" to "you can ship it but don't make it actually problematic, you fucking freaks" like what is happening right now???? The worst part is that this is coming from other soushin shippers. The fact that there's actually soushiners with "proshippers dni" or "soushin is not for proship" genuinely makes me want to bite someone. Like, you horrible summer child-- not only are you demonstrating that you don't even know what "proship" actually means, but you're also spitting in the face of the people in our community that have CARRIED this ship for us for years. Why throw them under the bus to be one of the “good ones” in the eyes of antis when they hate us all anyway?

This brings us back to the sanitisation point: I feel like soushin is slowly being "sanitised" to fit the sensitive palette of antis by trying to make them as "morally acceptable" as possible. It's a worry I’ve had for a long time that once the fandom grows more accepting of the ship we'll be seeing more people basically scrubbing soushin of everything that made, well, soushin, to justify enjoying it. I've seen a bit of it already with a few people trying to say it's "not abusive" or just erase Shin's very obvious trauma by Midori all together for quite some time. Guess it's starting to happen on a bigger scale sooner rather than later. Maybe. Personally I don't think soushin having a big age gap or being related would ruin the ship. It just adds another layer of fucked up to their already fucked up relationship (I already hc Midori to be significantly older anyway so maybe I'm just biased). It doesn't really matter. I came here for toxic yaoi. I want nuclear waste level toxicity, not nuclear waste level toxicity presented in the most conventional and moral way possible. What would the point even be? It’s like packaging poison in a grape juice box. Like, it might be harmless to look at and more justifiable to think of as delicious, but it’s still poison. You making it look all cute and innocent isn’t going to change that. It's kinda funny and by that I mean not really that people will talk about wanting more "toxic yaoi" but when the yaoi is actually toxic and messy and horrific they will cry about it being "bad" or "ruined". You don't actually want dark dynamics, you want dark dynamics stripped of everything that makes them uncomfortable and dark so it's digestible to your tastes that don't even align with said dynamics in the first place. The worst part of this whole "soushin isn't proship so it's fine" bullshit is that it relies on trying to make the ship more "morally acceptable" or "legal" than other ships. Dawg, we are talking about abuse. You shouldn't be minimising that to say "well it's not [insert other terrible thing] so it's fine!!" That's not the "gotcha" you think it is. It’s one of the reasons why antis being into soushin made me feel weird cuz like you can’t ship it and then turn around to insult someone else, man (I’ve seen so many soushin defenders bash other “proships” to justify theirs like what are you doing--).

Realistically, the simplest and smartest thing to do when I see someone mischaracterise or butcher my faves is to either block or ignore and pretend to not care so I don't act on my sixth sense telling me to off them and myself. Realistically, this shouldn't be a big deal or anything that important, but this attitude is usually weaponized to harm and harass people who don't conform to their purity crisis over fiction. I'm in the unfortunate position of being not only a Your Turn to Die fandom dweller, but a Hazbin Hotel and The Coffin of Andy and Leyley one too. I'm used to being labelled a rapist and incest apologist irl who's delusional and deserves to be harassed and insulted by virtue of the media or ships I like (probably not a good thing). But people who are more active in these fandoms than me have it much worse as they get this shit directly waaaay more often while I mostly get called these things indirectly, which is what motivated me more to make this post.

So a couple days ago someone made some art of Monika from ddlc, Nikole (don't know the game sorry) and Ashley from Tcoaal. A lot of people on Twitter, unsurprisingly, bashed it for including Ashley to the point where some felt the need to clarify that they like her as a character but her actions (for some reason I do not understand like Monika has also done some seriously evil shit why are you not applying that logic to her too?). What struck me the most is that a yttd fan-- a self proclaimed "Midori enthusiast"-- ALSO quoted it to bash having Ashley in it. A freaking Midori fan. I told them to mind their business and start separating fiction and reality and to stop being a hypocrite, and thus ensued the most hilarious and stupidest convo I've had in a while:

You can literally count the seconds it takes for these guys to start throwing predator accusations and slurs at people. So "not exploring fiction correctly" makes me weird, but harming or putting real people on blast for nothing is free game, apparently. They're not the worst, both in this instance and in general, but it just stuck with me. Which is impressive, cuz I normally don't have much emotions to spare aside from general mild irritation for things like this. Maybe it's the Sonic feet.

But it ties into my issue. Midori's an absolute piece of garbage, yet some people will convince themselves that his actions are in some way justifiable to justify their hatred of something else (that is a lot less severe in this case) rather than love and let love. Tcoaal is not an "incest game" and if you describe it like that unironically you are not ready to be on the internet. No, it doesn't condone or glorify incest-- it literally does the opposite. If you need the characters to look into the camera and say "what we're doing is wrong and immoral" before doing something bad, I think you're the problem at that point. For the same reason you liking Midori (probably) doesn't mean you support human experimentation and torture, someone liking Tcoaal doesn't mean they support incest and someone shipping soushin doesn't mean they support abuse. These things are dark and shouldn't be condoned irl, but this is fiction. We can do whatever the hell we want. Being into darker themes and media doesn't have to reflect your real world views, but the inability to grasp that sentiment leads people to make their interests as moral and sanitised as possible and, feeling morally superior, will go after people who don't do that. This person deadass said that "incest is not morally grey and absolutely unjustifiable" (didn't even say that it wasn't btw) as if their blorbo hasn't committed so many atrocities for kicks that I personally find more unjustifiable. That line implies that they think that everything else Ashley has done and everything Midori has done can be justified because it wasn't incest specifically, which I find is a WILD thing to insinuate XD But it really does encapsulate the hoops antis will jump through to defend their likes while attacking yours despite the fact that it's literally the exact same as theirs. Rule of thumb: if someone accuses you of condoning something immoral because you like it in fiction, apply that logic to them, look at what they like and if their wet little meow meow is the Joker, Eren, Killua, Makima, Midori or whatever other morally bankrupt character you can come up with, take that as a confession and run. Cuz half the time these guys are actually nuts. While quote tweeting someone to shit on their art isn't the worst thing, considering how twitter has treated tcoaal artists the fact that they'd potentially open them up to harassment pissed me off, which is probably evident from my tone.

[Hi hi, this is me from the present right now cuz a more recent development came up so I’m using it as an example here too.]

While most of the things listed here have all been happening online, this attitude can come up in the real world as well.

As OP states, a bunch of hellaverse cosplayers were targetted at a french convention by haters of the show trying to ruin their cosplay. This is already completely unacceptable but the thing I can’t for the life of me get over is torching their costume while they’re still wearing it. Literally attempting to set someone on fire. All over a fucking show. It’s baffling how people can justify actions like this because they think your taste in fiction is so disgusting it’s Ok for them to hurt you. Not just online, but outside as well. It’s not the first time a hellaverse cosplayer has been harassed (last time it was a Valentino cosplayer but then again Val fans get shit from all sides all the time), and while I’m pretty sure these will remain as isolated cases it’s still scary to think about. What’s even more scary to think about how people think that their opinion on hazbin hotel has any relevance to the situation. So many of the comments in that post are just “I hate Hazbin Hotel, but—” or “I hate the fandom, but--” or “I hate Vivzie, but—” and I’m literally here ready to start pouncing like SHUT UP. No buts. That is not in any way important here. You not liking the show or the creator should not be important to the situation of cosplayers being actively harmed. You don’t have to signal your allegiances before showing basic human empathy, goddamnit. And what’s even worse is that some people have just turned this into a “b-but the hazbin fandom!!” issue, which is insulting. For example:

The “Hazbin fans do blackface and disrespect black people daily” is a reference to ONE Alastor cosplayer that nobody had defended. Not even fans. At least no one I can find. Yet they are using this one bad apple to generalise the whole fandom as "bad" and down play the amount of bullshit the hatedom does to fans on a regular. It kinda makes me feel sick that someone would look at a situation like this and spin this into a “fandom thing” rather than focusing on the victims. That they don’t deserve to be taken as seriously just because of the fandom their in. Some lunatic in the comments was literally completely minimising this whole thing saying “some red paint (fake blood capsules) isn’t nearly as bad as lynching and what black people have gone through in America” before calling anyone who called out that that’s completely irrelevant racist for liking Hazbin Hotel like are you kidding me. My homies in Christ, someone almost got lit on fire can everyone please stay on the goddamn topic. This is one of the rare moments where I was kinda proud of twitter as the majority of the comments and quotes where calling out their bullshit, but the amount of likes and some of the comments are still disappointing.

So what points am I trying to make here? This was very spontaneous and rushed so apologies if it feels messy cuz it very much is messy. But my main points boil down to this: Purification, sanitation and the “fiction equals reality” and "your fictional tastes reflect on you morality irl" arguments need to die. They just have to. While petting Shin on a daily basis gives me enough serotonin to find the will to live, the only true solace I will find is when people start being normal. People shouldn’t be getting harassed or labelled as freaks for fiction you don’t like both online and real life. People are not less worthy of basic human decency and empathy solely based on their fictional interests. People should be able to explore fiction however the hell they want without worrying about there being made a call out post on them somewhere. I search Tcoaal on twitter and there’ll always be a bunch of posts with over 10k likes calling all fans annoying weirdos or say it’s an “incest game” even tho it literally isn’t. I will try looking for some Valangel art on tumblr and see some loser use the tag to basically shit on everyone who ships it and lying about the treatment these shippers get while defending Charlastor or just shit on the ship in general. I just exist on the twitter side of the HH fandom chilling with other Val fans and literally every single one of them has either received death/rape threats or told to kill themselves, got ratio’d by a bunch of haters, had a call out post saying not to follow dedicated to them, had their art reposted and Val scribbled out, repeatedly accused of ““romantising a rapist””, or all of the fucking above. Valentino’s VA gets asked if he’s actually like the character he plays in real life or a fan being “relieved that he didn’t abuse them like Valentino” when they met (kudos to Joel for being chill about it btw I would be fuming this fandom does not deserve this man). I type in a certain controversial yttd ship to search and most of the latest posts are just people being rude, saying that if Nankidai makes them canon they’ll drop the game, calling the man himself a freak, calling other shippers freaks, shitting on soushin as well and then having soushiners defend their ship while also shitting on said controversial ship. It genuinely feels like fanbases are circuses and we are the clowns 💀

I could list other examples people being weirdos but I can't do that without breaking the momentum of this post even more than I already have. I guess what I wanted to vent about is how these attitudes regarding fiction and the way people police how others engage with it and how people think of you based on what you like can go from just annoying to downright dangerous more often than you’d think. That belief that you are morally superior to someone else based on the fact that you ship or like things the “legal” and “pure” and “healthy” way (which is never actually the case btw) can lead to you being really disrespectful or a complete asshole and not feeling bad about it at all, which does more harm than good. Which is why I thought it was important to bring up more extreme cases to empathise how this obsessive gatekeeping of fiction can and does hurt real people, who should be more important to you than fictional characters.

All of this is very likely going to sound very aggressive in tone and I want to quickly clarify that this is not meant to be an attack towards anyone in particular. I'm just tired and recalling all this stuff is making my mood sink like a stone lmao. Who knows, maybe I'm just overexaggerating and things won't get worse when the game gets more popular. This is just what I've been witnessing both in and out of my side of the moon. The amount of yttd fans I've seen act like this are a lot tho. No fandom is perfect obviously, and this one is the farthest from it, but with new people coming in and this weird attitude and need to sanitise not only towards soushin, but other "problematic" ships and media as well growing more prominent (mostly on Twitter and Tiktok) my biggest worry is that the hostility in this fandom will just... increase? Roulettefeel made pretty good posts about it-- my favourites being this one, also this one and this one's pretty short and sweet, summarising most of my soushin points a lot better and shorter than my trainwreck of a post so I recommend checking them out. If you like soushin, go check them out. If you don't like soushin, go check them out anyway. They make stuff outside of soushin too. They're pretty cool.

[I also want to add that the whole sanitisation thing in the yttd fandom is nothing new. It’s been a thing for longer than I have been here. I’ve just been seeing it again with soushin, which is was what made me want to do this in the first place. There’s another dynamic the fandom obviously does this for, but uttering it would not only get me flamed but straight up burned at the stake of bad takes so I’m saving that for a rainy day.]

Aaaaannd, I'm done, I think. I didn't have a good conclusion for this in mind. Idk, just be nice? You don't have to like "proships" (or what the fandom has defined as proship cuz that's not the actual definition), but that's what the block buttons for. Don't like, don't read, I say. Fandoms are for everyone and as long as what the person is doing is harmless, let them feel safe being themselves without having to worry about someone coming after them. Real life cops already suck. Let's not bring them into our collective escapism. And something you personally don't like ending up canon doesn't mean the game or ship is "ruined". That doesn't just go for soushin. That goes for other things too. To tie up loose ends, soushin having an age gap or being related has always been on the table and fits with other themes in the narrative. That does not count as "bad" if it makes sense. Soushin is not "Ok to ship" because it's "not an illegal ship" (whatever tf that means) and it's not "bad to ship" because it's "romanticising abuse". It's fine to ship because it's fictional. You don't need a moral justification to ship anything. That goes for all ships. That's why NOTPs exist. And "proship" doesn't and has never meant "shipping problematic pairings". It's a stance on shipping. It means being pro people being allowed to ship whatever they want. That includes being cool with problematic pairings, but is not limited to those. It means not being a fandom cop. Please stop saying otherwise, I cannot keep living this way--

Soooouuu, to end off on a more positive note and finally put this whole thing to bed I'll link some of my fav newer soushin accounts for anyone who's interested:

Hyo (orewagahai on ao3 check that out too): They are an amazing, amazing writer. If you're into dark, abusive co-dependent, complicated soushin with beautiful characterisation I would highly recommend. They just posted another soushin drabble on twitter and it's great.

jinn: They've been putting out banger after banger ever since getting into the game. Their art is absolutely stunning and they upload frequently, so go check 'em out if you can! It's actual medicine for the soul, I promise. They also draw for dead plate, so if you're into that go ahead too.

angel: Also cool. They're soushin art is hilarious and cute. As much of a sucker as I am for toxic, abusive sludge, they give thses two idiots a silliness that I enjoy. Also if you like trans!Shin content they're pretty good.

欣武 (my dumbass forgot to add them the first time sorry): They are INCREDIBLE. Extremely incredible artist. Their art is so, so freaking good. Not checking them out is absolutely your loss, ngl.

Be nice to them. If I catch anyone attempting to annoy them I'm coming after you and your entire family. Let's be better and not chase new comers off this time :3 Thanks for listening to my incoherent venting. This is mostly for me to feel a bit better, but anyone is free to read. If anyone's got an opinion or observation, feel free to offer it. I need coffee. Coffee sounds good.

#yttd #your turn to die #hazbin hotel #the coffin of andy and leyley #soushin #fandom discussion #fandom discourse #proship discourse #should go without saying but don't harass anyone mentioned here thank you. you won't see the light of heaven if you do #take a shot every time i say “soushin” cuz you'd be on the floor afterwards probably #i feel like i repeat a lot of words here in general. jesus.#anywho i just needed to let all that out. the last few weeks have been weird #sorry if this is unreadable and roundabout i didn't know how to get my thoughts straight #this is how i sound when i'm off coffee for a whole month #i've just been seeing a spike in people acting unhinged over fiction and not in the good way and it kinda gets to me #i just hate seeing people i like having to deal with bs cuz the fandom thinks they're exploring fiction “the wrong way”#and just pointing out and exploring certain things gets deemed “too problematic” and gets attacked despite being important to the plot--#and i just want to enjoy fiction or not mind problematic themes without getting qt and called the n-word repeatedly for responding #people can like whatever they want just don't slap others who like other things over the head and label them bad people #idk maybe that's too much to ask. maybe people'll always be like this but i have my blogs so if want something done right do it yourself ig #sorry for any typos this is mostly just uncut pure madness XD #momento rambles

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riordanverse-ship-polls · 10 months ago

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Riordanverse Ship Polls

Hello! Welcome to the obligatory pinned post for Riordanverse Ship Polls. Below the cut you should find all the information you need for this blog. If you don't, you can check out the blog's sidebar for more information, or feel free to shoot us an ask. Happy voting!

Rules/Guidelines:

These polls are purely to collect statistics and opinions from the community.

These polls do not reflect the views of the blog moderator(s).

A ship being polled is not necessarily endorsed by the blog moderator(s). The blog accepts any ships for polling purposes to make the polling as far and unbiased as possible. All polls are anonymous.

Please do not send hate to anyone because of these polls.

Please do not leave hateful comments on any of the polls, regardless of ship. If you dislike the ship, vote as such and move on.

Please be respectful when voting.

We want the polls to be as unbiased as possible. This is not a popularity poll. You are welcome to share the polls in specific ship circles, but please do not campaign for specific results. If it appears this is occurring the poll will be re-run.

Ship submissions should be made through [our form] when possible. Submissions sent to the inbox will be included but are discouraged.

Frequently Asked Questions:

“Where do we submit ships?”

You can submit ships at [this form]!

“What ships can we submit?”

All ships are welcome to be submitted. We want to see the statistics of the widest range of ships possible. Submit ships you love! Submit ships you hate! Submit ships you’ve never heard of! We want to see the fandom’s opinions on all of them!

“Who runs this blog?”

My sideblog for Riordanverse stuff is @aroaceleovaldez! Other mods may be added over time, though.

“Why did you make this blog?”

I just like random statistics and cataloguing various aspects of the fandom. I thought it’d be fun to collect data on the fandom’s opinions of different ships just in general, regardless of popularity of the ship itself.

“[x] ship is problematic/I don’t like it/etc!”

There is a voting option for disliking the ship. Press that button. There ya go.

“I want to send you anon hate/complain about the ship in the comments of the poll/etc”

Please don’t do this.

“How do I know which ships have already been submitted?”

We organize ships by characters, ship name(s), canon status, and more. Try searching our tags for the ship name(s) or characters. If you are still unsure, you are welcome to ask or submit the ship anyways. Duplicate ship submissions will just be deleted.

“How long do polls last?”

All polls will be set up to last as long as possible. If we believe a poll needs to be re-run for any reason (errors, intentional voting bias, etc) the poll will be re-run.

#riordanverse #pjo #mcga #tkc #hoo #heroes of olympus #pjato #toa #trials of apollo #the kane chronicles #tumblr polls

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sunnydalelibrarian · 3 months ago

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Buffy Rewatch: Episodes 9-12

Episode 9: "The Puppet Show"

Poor Giles, he's so done already. Somebody get that man some aspirin. And maybe some earplugs

"[Synder] thought it would behoove me to have more contact with the students. I did try to explain that my vocational choice of librarian was a deliberate attempt to minimise said contact." Stop why is Giles such a mood??

Oh Snyder was a dick from the start :/

Yeah, that dummy freaks me out. Oh and it's a pervy dummy too! I forgot about that bit

I love how excited they all get at the possibility of playing cop

Buffy's hair looked so good in this episode 😍

Snyder manhandling a student, that man should've been gone right away

This is some Child's Play shit, damn

I love how even the Slayer gets her mum to help when something goes bump in the night

Not Giles getting rid of Cordelia by suggesting there's something wrong with her hair 😂😂

Giles and Willow's identical unimpressed looks when Xander goes all Stephen King with the dummy

Giles and Willow are such an underrated duo. Like that's his kid as much as Buffy is

I totally forgot how all of this episode went too

Giles' look of dismay as they butcher the Oedipus Tyrannus 😂

Episode 10: "Nightmares"

I never liked this episode the first time around, but I actually can't remember why

I feel so bad for that little boy

Remember when everyone just took for granted that Nazis are bad? Remember when people didn't have to be reminded? All it takes is a single swastika and we know Xander's in a nightmare realm

The fact that Giles' worst nightmare is losing Buffy 🥺

Ooh, vampire Buffy is a concept that I wish had been explored in a couple of other What-If style things

Episode 11: "Out of Mind, Out of Sight"

The history teacher's unimpressed look at Cordelia

I do begrudgingly love her so much even when she's being awful

"Maybe it's a vampire bat" Okay, Xander, I'll admit that one got me

Xander knowing shit is actually so fun

"A vampire in love with a Slayer. It's rather poetic, in a maudlin sort of way." Yeah, emphasis on the "maudlin"!!

Oh that girl's story was so sad... I've been there baby 🥺Of course, I never tried to kill anyone about it!!

"Once again I teeter at the precipice of the generation gap"

Oh Cordelia's speech about being lonely despite her popularity! I love my problematic baby girl

Episode 12: "Prophecy Girl"

Here we fucking go!

Off topic but I love all the stuff and artifacts and knick-knacks in Giles' office, like that is what I want my future office to look like

Xander that is not how you handle a girl's rejection!

I love the suggestion that Jenny is the Giles of her social circle, like something occulty happens and everyone’s like "okay, babe, this is usually your area of expertise, the fuck's going on?"

Oh Willow that's my girl, know your worth baby, you're no one's second choice 🥺❤️

Giles' horror at the thought of Buffy dying 😢

Buffy flicking through the photo album looking at childhood pictures of herself as being symbolic of her life flashing before her eyes as she accepts that she might have to die... she's just a little girl!!

Oh I love Cordelia so much 😭

Oh God they're all just kids...

Jenny's face when she talks about Buffy being so little for a vampire slayer! 😂

The fact that Giles wasn't going to force Buffy to do it, he was just going to face it all for her 🥺

"How could you let her go?" "As the soon-to-be-purple area of my jaw will attest, I did not let her go!"

"You're in love with her." "Aren't you?" Oh this line is still so damn good

Listen, Jenny may be trying to help save the world while cradling what I can only assume is a very strong cup of coffee, but my girl's up in here asking all the right questions that no one else has thought of!

Buffy's whole attitude is giving "if I'm going down, I guess I'll take you with me"

*Vampires chasing them* Giles: "What's happening?" Jenny: "Guess!" Help why is she so funny

The theme song moment is so badass!

Not Cordelia biting the vampire "see how you like it!" 💀

#buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #buffy summers #rupert giles #willow rosenberg #xander harris #jenny calendar #cordelia chase #buffyverse #buffy rewatch

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kirasworldofwords · 7 months ago

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Sebmark + 15. Soulmates

So I did say I don't really vibe with Sebmark. However! I do see this as an opportunity for me to sort of try and get deeper into their lore, maybe understand them a bit better.

It's a personal thing of mine, I don't really vibe with Mark as a person in general, but I'll still deliver of course!

Also, so sorry I'm late, I got a little busy with IRL stuff-

Prompt 15: Soulmates

Whenever he looked at the palm of his left hand, specifically at the part where it depicted a moon scythe open towards his right hand, Sebastian sighed to himself. Everyone had their soulmates already... Why didn't he? He wanted to be happy as well...

He didn't think his person would be so... problematic, though.

Sebastian had just started at Red Bull after having driven for the sister team Toro Rosso for a good while beforehand - a 22-year-old kid with big dreams and ambitions joining one of the teams in Formula 1.

His teammate? Mark Alan Webber. 33 years old, Australian, two years more experience in the team under his belt than Sebastian possessed.

They never got along too well. Mark didn't seem to like the fact that Red Bull had just hired such an inexperienced little turd in hopes of winning again (as if he wasn't enough already to reach the same goal) whereas Sebastian quickly noticed that Mark didn't seem to like him all too much and thus distanced himself as best as he could.

Until he saw his teammate's hand.

There, right there, on his left palm... was a moon scythe, the open side pointing left. Opposed to Sebastian's moon scythe, which pointed to the right.

Well, fuck. Time for a talk, huh?

With that thought in mind, Sebastian cornered Mark in his motorhome one day, right before a race. They were in Germany, so it was a homerace for Sebastian, and he wanted to set the record straight before jumping into his car to go on and - hopefully - win his homerace.

Mark gave him a dismissive look paired with a quirked eyebrow of disinterest.

"Seb. You're barging into my motorhome without so much as knocking and think that's perfectly alright? What cheek."

Yet Sebastian had none of it and huffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest and straightening his back, trying to make himself look taller than he actually was.

"We need to talk."

The German reached his left hand forward, palm facing the ceiling, and gave Mark an expectant look.

"I saw the marking on your hand a bit ago through chance. It's the opposite of mine - so here I am with mine."

Mark briefly looked at Sebastian's hand yet instantly looked away again, subtly checking his own. A moon scythe facing left. Sebastian had a moon scythe facing right.

... Shit. Anyone but him.

The Australian hoped and prayed on the inside that this was nothing but a sick joke from Sebastian. He couldn't be his soulmate, he simply couldn't...! And yet it was Sebastian's voice and the words he spoke that made it all sink in.

"... We're soulmates."

They were indeed soulmates.

He stood silent for a while, staring holes into the ground. The inner turmoil he faced in that moment was bigger than anything he had felt before... and it was hard to reason with his soul, which begged him for its soulmate - who just so happened to be Sebastian Vettel.

The German blond hugged himself after a while of Mark defeaning both of them with his silence and looked away, extending a careful olive branch to his teammate, hoping he'd accept it.

"... Don't you think we could at least try getting along...? I know you don't like me... although I don't know why. You never gave me a reason, you just started mistreating me one day to the next. But I do want to get along, Mark... If we want to be healthy, both of us, then we have to at least try."

Mark's expression soured at Sebastian's words, and he instantly felt sick. Getting along with him... It sounded so outlandish, he almost hysterically laughed out loud. But he wasn't wrong... Many times, people had gotten physically sick until the point of permanent disability from rejecting their soulmates. He didn't want this to happen to himself... or to Sebastian.

"My intuition says 'fuck that', to be honest. Because you're right, I do not like you in the slightest. Then again... we are soulmates."

He looked up at Sebastian with an unreadable expression on his face, making the younger driver flinch in fear.

"I can, of course, try... but don't expect any miracles from me. It will most likely take me a very long time to warm up to this... this idea of us living like this, as soulmates. Not to mention happily so."

Mark slowly extended his shaking hand, palm facing the ground, and Sebastian immediately understood - he reached out his own hand as well, palm facing the ceiling once again, and reached for Mark's hand with as much care as he could bring up, fingertips brushing against each other. That touch alone sent electrical sparks through their bodies already, and Mark quickly caught himself secretly yearning for more.

Once their markings touched, a full-body shiver went through the older Australian, and he looked up at his teammate in uncertainty, finding himself facing a small smile of hope.

"I'm willing to wait for that long. Patience is one of my strengths - and I'll be sure to make use of that in all the right ways. I promise."

The smile he received, Mark quickly returned, although the corners of his lips shook as he did so, all while his voice came out towards Sebastian in the form of the tiniest of whispers laced with the smallest amounts of hope - enough for it to be audible, however.

"... Thank you."

#anonymous asks #sebmark #martian #f1 fic

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th3-c0ll3ct3r · 1 year ago

Text

It's clear from the way Helluva Boss is operated that most the scenes that are shown in the trailer are going to be from the next 2 to 3 episodes and we're gonna break some of them down!

Full Moon:

Is the musical episode that came far the actual episodes we found out that Stolas is planning to give Blitzo an Asmoden-Crystal to truly get an answer as to of the blitzo actually wants him or not

We get confirmation that he does take the crystal from the scene

So it's evident that they do break up. However I believe that he takes the crystal not because he doesn't want to see Stolas, it's instead because they want nothing to hold them back and no one has leverage over the other.

However I think this makeup will come in a layer episodes, that being Apology Tour. (but that's later stuff ekshdjwkdb)

And I also believe that the mirror shattering scene is right after Blitzo break up with Stolas, because we know from the clips and from previous episodes that he was hopeful that's something good would come out of this.

I believe this breakup scenario will span though much longer in universe time period like through days.

It's clear that in this scene this will be the scene in which they break up and it's clear buy Blitzo's character and his straightforward attitude that Stolas is not going to get a word in before they break up from Blitzo's resolve

HOWEVER IN THE EPISODE APOLOGY TOUR, THEY'LL "make up"

I believe Blitzo will internalize what stolus has said with Fizz and we'll go on a apology tour.

He will apologise to Bee/Vox, Veroica, Stolas but be unable to apologise to Barbie-wire as she's gone off the grid to avoid him.

Bee/Vox will accept the apology with open arms.

Stolas will ACCEPT IT but more in a "let's start over" with no strings attached.

Veroica will hate him for the rest of his life but won't actively try to avoid him.

Barbie-wire will avoid him for the rest of his life, aka till season 3.

Barbie-wire and Veroica deciding to hate him even after his apology will highlight the fact that his actions still do have consequences and he can't just be handed everything because he's sad.

And this scene is from apology tour, and it's the beginning of the episode.

I think this isn't internalization of his guilt before he goes on an Apology Tour

He hurt Veroica EMOTIONALLY.

Got Vortex hurt 'physically' as he had to fight for Veroica in the beach episode.

But Stolas is the forefront of his guilt because he hurt him EMOTIONAL and got him hurt PHYSICALLY.

And the Pumpkins are there because it relates back to the Harvest Festival we're Blitzo first had to defend Stolas.

I don't think this prince who is already in deep trouble is going to be singing about his affair partner that he used as an escape from his abusive, manipulative and also problematic as well as probably cheating on him partner- and how it wasn't worth it.

HOWEVER I believe the way Stolas and Blitzo properly make up is AFTER they had to defend each other from Andrealphus because Visago??? Statan, Bee, Ozzie and Fizziroli??? Will defend him.

If be Andrealphus and Mammon VS Visago, Statan, Bee, Ozzie (and Fizz).

It's clear things don't go Andrealphus' way simply because he's seen attacking Stolas and Blitzo, which I assume he summoned them after the trial. Only intending to summon Stolas with the intent on killing him because the trial did not go his way but ended up accidentally summoning both of them as Blitzo was trying to make up for past mistakes in Apology Tour.

And the reason why Stolas will not die here is because Andrealphus didn't count and accidentally summoning both of them.

NOW TO THE MAIN COURSE OF WHY I THINK WHO'S GONNA DEFEND WHO

Andrealphus obviously once Stolas' position as a prince instead of a Marquis (or whatever he is), and it's doing this ploy to get his position.

Mammon is after Blitzo because he along with Ozzie were the people to try and convince him to quit. Which costed Mammon alot of money.

When we see the Fizz bots attack Moxxie and Millie I think those were sent out with the intent of catching Blitzo, but he wasn't there in the van on the mission doing whatever they were doing, because he was too busy making up with Stolas in Apology Tour. YES I THINK TRIAL WILL LOWKEY SPAN OVER 2 EPISODES BECAUSE IT'S IMPORTANT-

They will loose.

Bee will defend them because she's seen there situation and seemed like one of the most empathetic rulers. And she's also dating a hellhound so we will be a bit hypocritical if she went against them.

Ozzie will defend them because he's also dating and imp and he's also getting away with it so why can't Blitzo?

And then the kicker. I think Satan well also defend Stolas and Blitzo. This is because Imps are primarily from the Wrath-ring and it would be an insult on his people if he didn't defend them. Despite Blitzo not being born in the Wrath-ring.

I also believe that Satan will see as a noble regard of strengths that both are defying the odds so we'll let it be.

AND THAT'S ALL FOR THEORY TALK FOLKS

#helluva boss #helluva boss stolas #helluva boss blitzo #helluva boss blitz #helluva boss season 2 #helluva boss theory #helluva stolas #helluva blitzo #Helluva blitz #helluva boss andrealphus #helluva boss asmodeus #helluva boss verosika #Helluva boss statan #helluva boss mammon

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