#with even worse actual quality than the mainstream

[olderthannetfic]

Something that frustrates me about the Harry Potter conversation is a lot of people missing the point behind the motivation to boycott it. They seem weirdly focused on the content of HP when it's actually... not that bad? It's not perfect, in fact a lot of aspects are pretty fucking problematic and worthy of discussion, but not uniquely so by the standards of the fantasy genre. Yes, I know the goblins are clearly drawing on anti-semitic tropes. Yes, the house elf situation is fucked. Yes, lots of not-like-other-girls-style misogyny. Yes, Cho Chang was a fucking disaster of racism. I KNOW THIS ALREADY! I'm not an idiot and Harry Potter fans were talking about this for far longer than JKR has been a TERF. But I'm also a fan of the Elder Scrolls and Dragon Age and the Witcher and a shitton of isekai anime and tons of other fantasy medias which are so much worse. Harry Potter is only moderately problematic by the standards of most popular fantasy media, especially for the mainstream standards of the time period it was written. Worthy of criticism, but not dropping it entirely. And actually reading HP and looking back at JKR's behaviour at the time, much of it seems largely unintentional, just that JKR drew on a lot of fantasy tropes that she didn't properly examine as well as her own unexamined biases and she had some flawed understandings of progressivism that were fair for its day but don't fly now, but doesn't seem malicious. The actual authorial intent at least seems to be pretty progressive at least, even if the execution wasn't the best. And sure, it's not a masterwork but there's a reason it connected to so many people, even if a lot of it was luck and timing. We don't have to ignore that and doing so feels dishonest.

I'm just so annoyed when people try to shit on the contents because they're missing the point and confuse the actual problem in a way that weakens their argument. I don't give Harry Potter money anymore because JKR crossed some lines for me in real life, totally separate from Harry Potter as a piece of media, and I don't want to fund her bullshit because she is so influential it is hurting people. The content of her books is utterly irrelevant to this decision. She could have penned a goddamn magnum opus and it wouldn't have mattered. So I'm sick of people bringing up books that are "better" or ragging on the contents of Harry Potter because none of that is the point and never was the point and it comes across as just taking advantage of a shitty situations to dunk on a popular thing or those who enjoyed it. Yeah, it was a mediocre fantasy series. But it hit the right emotional escapist buttons in a lot of kids even if it had the moral nuance and depth of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles anti-drug PSA. Having to drop it sucked for a lot of people because it can't be replaced and yelling about how bad the writing was doesn't change that because it never was about quality. JKR's TERF transformation was in many ways a betrayal of JKR's intended audience considering how the text preached acceptance and love and starred an abused, unwanted child getting to go to magic school where he's special. Pretending Harry Potter should be dropped because its content has issues obscures the actual problem of a raging transphobic having money and influence and that not everything created by bad people is poor quality so boycotts might require giving up access to things you actually like or are valuable and that's not always an easy decision to make.

JKR was a probably decent person with fairly liberal politics when she wrote Harry Potter. The books, while imperfect, are not more horrible or full of problems a dozen other popular fantasy properties. JKR become a TERF later in life and while she may have had ingrained transphobia prior to this when she wrote Harry Potter, that is not the same as the virulent hate-movement she's part of now and we should recognize how easy it is for people to get drawn into hate-movements. Any argument to boycott should be about how she's using her money and influence to affect real life laws and attitudes unless you want to try and get people to also drop half the fantasy genre.

--

[nartml]

To Pimp a Butterfly and 1989: a rant

Listen here, three things about me are that I'm a) white as snow, b) Greek, c) still a minor.

What does this mean? It means that I obviously wasn't raised with hip-hop, and I got into Kendrick Lamar's music pretty late.

As in, early this year.

I've known of him for some time, and the moment I found out he had a Pulitzer prize at some point in late-ish 2023, I decided I had to sit my ass down and pull out Spotify.

Now, as an avid reader of both fanfiction (ao3 raised me) and books [I feel the immense need to clarify that I don't associate myself with mainstream booktok. Capitalism's consumerism has overrun that shit and all I see are the same 20 books being recycled and recommended (a substantial amount of those are Colleen Hoover and her variants). Tropes and spice* are officially the defining factors of whether a book is worth it (*your porn addiction ain't cute) and quantity is heavily prioritized at the expense of quality. Also, diversity who?], I was, for a lack of a better word, hyped.

A Pulitzer prize is nothing to scoff at in general, more so in music, more so in hip-hop.

(Edit: Upon quick reflection, I realize that putting emphasis on hip-hop can come across as coded.

I am in no way, shape, or form trying to undermine hip-hop or say that it's somehow less 'sophisticated' than, for example, classical music. I'm very aware of the amount of skill and technique one needs to write a masterful hip-hop album, and I'm not doubting that there are hip-hop artists out there who are also incredibly deserving of such a prize. I meant it in the sense that I've unfortunately never heard of another hip-hop artist who won a Pulitzer before, which is quite telling.)

That's some huge shit, and I'd be a fool not to be intrigued.

Admittedly, I didn't get on that immediately. For a while I procrastinated, because I wasn't in the mood to hyper-fixate on anything new just yet.

Which of course meant I ended up forgetting about it for a few months, because of course I did.

But then I came across a TikTok that talked about how it was insane that '1989' won the Grammy when To Pimp a Butterfly was right there.

Now, a fourth thing about me is that I don't fuck with Taylor Swift.

And a fifth thing about me is that I'm not baseless in anything that I do, say or feel, and that includes annoyance.

Her immature understanding of activism and feminism leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The way she built up her fan base around this portrayal of her as a relatable girl's girl, her refusal to accept criticism, and always making a victim out of herself (even now when she's in her thirties and is a fucking billionaire) while never using her position of power and privilege for good are all reasons that serve to fuel my dispassionate dislike.

And before any Swifties get on my ass, no, I don't think that "But she's a singer! Why are you expecting so much out of her, she isn't even qualified to speak on XYZ—" is a good enough excuse.

She has always been rich, and now she's a billionaire. There are no ethical billionaires, and that includes her.

Fame is influence is power. Uncle Ben said it all: With great power comes great responsibility.

And let me tell you, I don't see her owning up to that responsibility, especially after all that talk about how she supports women, supports the LGBTQ community, and supports the BLM movement. Has she ever actually put her abundant money where her mouth is?

I've never seen her speak about anything that doesn't immediately concern her.

Don't get me wrong. She's not the only celebrity like this out there. I'm sure there are worse cases. I know it for a fact.

To wrap this segment up before I get even more sidetracked, I'll outright state that I don't hate her, because hating her would by definition mean that I, in some way, actually care about her, and that just sounds exhausting.

Best way to describe me is indifferent, leaning towards distasteful.

She's annoying.

And that's how I feel about both her as a person and her as an artist.

I'm not denying her talent, nor her impact on the industry, nor the fact that she does have good songs that even I like.

A select few, of course, but still.

Apart from those...what? Ten songs? I have never, ever been able to listen to any other song of her's all the way through.

I get bored. They do nothing for me. They sound empty. Hollow. Plastic. Repetitive.

Her lyrics, that are praised by fans for being deep and complex, sound pretty surface level to me.

Not all of them. But I'm a sucker for analysis. A literature nerd. Greek is my native language. I can tell when something's deep and when something wants to be deep.

(Not necessarily including Folklore and Evermore in that category. Her storytelling ability is actually great.)

Her music largely sounds like it wants to be deep.

Most recent example being her latest release, The Tortured Poets Department.

Anyway, back to Kendrick.

My initial plan was to listen to 'DAMN.' first, because that's what he won the Pulitzer for in the first place.

There was a change of plans after that TikTok.

I decided to compare the opening tacks.

I put on Welcome to New York, and predictably, I felt nothing.

The rhythm is dance-y, I suppose. But there's nothing substantial about it. There's nothing exciting about it.

The lyrics are juvenile, and I get it, it's a pop song and she was in her twenties.

Nobody is expecting Shakespeare (no matter how much you scream or kick your feet, the only reason Shakespeare couldn't write Taylor Swift is because he's in another league entirely) or Odysseus Elytis. Nobody is expecting mind-blowing lyricism.

But it's the opening track to an apparently Grammy-worthy album. The very least I'd expect from it would be some additional levels of artistry.

Am I being harsh? Probably. Do I care? No.

Disappointed but unsurprised, I put on Wesley's Theory.

I ascended within the first minute.

Don't get it twisted, I barely understood shit.

Not only am I white, I am also entirely removed from America and its culture as a whole. I don't know what's going on there in y'all's daily lives.

And this was baby's first proper introduction to hip-hop as a whole.

My untrained, white-ass ear barely caught two references. I got what the gist of the song was about, and that's about it.

I had to look up analyses of the track to fully grasp what Kendrick was on about, and even then, there was obviously still a disconnect.

And I expected all of that.

I didn't expect to get hooked on that song within the first listen.

I swear to fuck, the beat is addictive. I swear to fuck, even when I was fighting to understand what the lyrics were referencing, I was having the time of my life.

Even I, an amateur in every sense of the word, could tell that there was depth and there was quality and there was intentional meaning in every line of that song.

It didn't matter that I couldn't understand it. It mattered that I knew it was there. Not because someone told me that was the case. But because it was audible.

I listened to the next track. And the one after that. And the one after that. I had listened to all of the tracks, before I knew it.

And the evident permeance of quality, of substance, carried on throughout the whole album.

It had exactly the type of lyricism I'd expect a Grammy-worthy album to have. It had exactly the amount of artistry I expected a Grammy-worthy album to have.

Even better, it had all the ingredients I expected a timeless album to have.

The poetry Taylor Swift fans insist hides in her discography, I found in plain sight within Kendrick Lamar's.

After meticulously reading the lyrics, I watched video essay after video essay, searched for analysis after analysis on this album, each time understanding the meanings behind it a little better.

Needless to say that the Grammy's are rigged and I love Kendrick Lamar.

Hip-hop is gorgeous.

[sophie-baybey]

You want the truth? I don't actually care about the new UI. Is it an upgrade? No. But as for functionality? Whatever. I'm pretty neutral towards it. The thing that really bothers me isn't the design, though. It's the unnecessarity of it. Tumblr's old layout was good, kinda crisp even. The new UI bothers me primarily because, even if it's not particularly worse, it's just very emblematic of the direction tumblr has been taking for awhile now. I've genuinely enjoyed a lot of the updates over the past few years, I actually find the website to be more functional than ever before, but with each quality of life tweak has come with a subtle corporate lining. Ads have been targeted for some time now, at least on mobile where I don't have an adblocker. They're selling and profiting off merch with memes that came from the community at large, which kinda feels like preying on the fact that memes are unable to be legally protected in any way by nature, leeching off of our community's history and slapping a sticker on it saying "We did this! Us!" It just feels like with every new update, tumblr is succeeding in being more accessible and popular in the mainstream once again, and every step they take towards that comes with the pervasive echo of this place turning into the same thing as every other social media out there.

Hope I'm wrong, is all.

[newspropaganda]

My Thoughts On MangaKamen and his YGO videos

When Literacy and Mainstream Media are not low enough

Here’s my opinion on MangaKamen and why he’s wrong about Yu-Gi-Oh!. He’s just another American fan blinded by idiocy.

MangaKamen is either lazy, doesn’t understand Yu-Gi-Oh!, or just pretends to. He comes off with this fake comedy gimmick that doesn’t appeal to me. His videos on Yu-Gi-Oh! girls are mostly biased and off-topic, giving us zero meaningful details. Instead, he just ruins the representation of the female characters. News flash: Yu-Gi-Oh! girls are great, but they’re rarely handled well by good creators like myself.

He mostly praises DM and GX, but when it comes to 5D’s, he goes off-topic, tearing down Crow and Jack. His so-called "essays" on why 5D’s failed are ridiculous—he’s just too stubborn to admit that 5D’s is far superior to DM and GX. He simply can’t accept that fact. Yet when he makes videos on Persona or Metal Gear, people get critical, but his Yu-Gi-Oh! content is a mess.

He sticks to mainstream garbage like your typical American, obsessed with his country's degeneracy. This is just another reason why he can’t be trusted with Yu-Gi-Oh! videos. He’s all about quantity over quality, more focused on literacy than being an actual critic.For example, in his 5D’s videos about the girls and the two main male characters, MangaKamen keeps doing the same thing—showing how incompetent he is at his job. He doesn’t understand Yu-Gi-Oh! at all. 5D's only had production issues during Season 1 when Tomioka was in charge, but he refuses to acknowledge that because he can’t be logical. The issues with Yu-Gi-Oh! girls stem from Japanese societal rules about women in anime and real life.

What really misses the mark with this guy is that he’s clueless. He should have said something like, “Even if 5D's is often the butt of production jokes, it’s not that bad compared to what people say. GX and DM had worse production issues than 5D’s or any of the later shows.” But no, he completely ignores that and acts like a jackass. He’s not insightful or literate—he’s just trying to be a smartass, mixing a Nostalgia Critic style with woke, feminist opinions.

He is clearly stupid and doesn’t understand logic or anything at all.

But here’s the deal! No one respects 5D's because of the fandom and its bullshit. If you offend the fandom or call out their garbage, you get blocked for being "nasty" and not politically correct. The hypocrisy is real—they get upset at anyone who doesn’t support DM or GX, but it’s perfectly fine for them to trash 5D's. The fandom just doesn’t give 5D’s a chance anymore. News flash: 5D’s was always the best of Yu-Gi-Oh!, not those first two shows!

But wait, why is 5D’s so underrated now compared to 13 years ago when it was a masterpiece of perfection and mainstream success? It’s because Konami went off the rails, promoting Duel Monsters Gen 1 support since 2015. And you all just obey Konami like typical Americans blinded by nostalgia!

And if he talks about OCG Stories, he’s just going to crap on it like he did with 5D’s during its tough times. We’re all sick of people like him—bastards who just repeat and copy other people’s thoughts, openly telling their fans something "failed." Failed? What?! OCG Stories is going strong, with its 4th volume just being released!

If he makes a video on it, he’ll just be feeding the beast. I’m not going to care since I’m not invested in this asshole’s opinions.

This is the same problem with YGO Everything, Noajenks, and other mainstream Yu-Gi-Oh! fans who only support GX and DM because their minds are stuck on the same old, tired topics. That’s exactly why I don’t support anyone in the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom, including the people I just mentioned. It’s all about reused topics and a lack of originality.

Do you know why the Pokémon fandom is more popular than Yu-Gi-Oh!? It’s not because the card game is less complicated or because of the anime. It’s because Pokémon fans are passionate and more humanized than the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom. The Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom is constantly divided by problems they refuse to accept, and it’s just stupid.

The Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom is split on multiple topics:

The anime being bad during DM because of the adaptation.

The manga being bad at times.

The card game and the Rush Era.

They go off-topic, get sensitive about everything they hate, and can’t handle even mentioning anything about Yu-Gi-Oh!.

MangaKamen should have existed 10 years ago—he would have been better back then because now his content is more off-topic than on-topic.

You really want to know what’s wrong with the Yu-Gi-Oh! community? It’s the internet—Twitter and YouTube—which makes it too complicated to deal with.

Does MangaKamen even have solid points anymore? No, he doesn’t. He’s clearly just doing it for clout and virtue-signaling. At least I respect his editor and his buddies—they’re more critical than he is.

But do you really want to know why the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom in America is so bad? It’s because they’re all the same when it comes to nostalgia. 5D’s got no respect after 2011 and slowly became a problem for them to consume. You can blame the political chaos in America for that crap. The real-life card game is super complicated, and MangaKamen uses that to trash the show. He’s even admitted that he prefers the game over the anime.

He also keeps using the dub version to annoy people, even though most fans don’t care which version they watch.

Also I noticed that, despite his popularity, it seems that every person that I've asked so far either never heard of him or doesn't watch his videos. And for someone who sticked in your brain as much as MangaKamen, it would be pretty interesting to talk about him.

American Yu-Gi-Oh fans are both vocal and hypocritical on anything. They only respect DM because of nostalgia and not out of sheer love. And to be fair, Yu-Gi-Oh! fans are mostly upset for no real reason—just like people getting upset at Donald Trump for "reasons." It’s like they have Trump Derangement Syndrome or something. And to be fair, Yu-Gi-Oh! fans seem to suffer from something like Yu-Gi-Oh! Derangement Syndrome, or maybe Konami Derangement Syndrome or even 4Kids Derangement Syndrome—where they just get irrationally upset about anything related to the series, like people do with Trump like how Mark Ruffalo is aways woke on Trump since 2016.

To conclude this statement. MangaKamen is a woke american femminsit.

[fuck-your-proana-blog]

TW: Doing really bad right now-ALL BECAUSE OF ANOREXIA, MY EXERCISE ADDICTION, AND MOST RECENT SUICIDE ATTEMPT!

I'm in so much pain from both my older and newer diagnosed physical conditions I just want to throw in the towel. On top of the full-body pain conditions, I can't enjoy a meal without the torture of my throat trauma from being intubated making me feel like I'm choking and like stuff's constantly stuck in my throat ALL DAY after my first meal. I can't cook a meal or do any chores without my wrist feeling like the hole in my ligament that I needed surgery for (and never got, yet continued to lift weights with for years like an idiot) is brand new, so I need to ice my wrist and back for hours after I cook (even with my husband's help). Also the spinal pain is getting worse and more extensive every damn day; obviously worse when I'm cooking because I'm standing, measuring, grabbing ingredients, etc. Food used to be my favorite thing- sure I starved, but when I ate it was the highlight of my day.. but now there's no more joy from food due to my throat issues and the pain from preparing it. Nothing gives me joy but the quality time my husband and I spend together and my cat- but the good times with my husband are limited because I'm always so miserable and he's sick of doing all the chores, so we argue a lot now.. and my cat is not as cuddly as our other super senior cat that died last year (my cuddle buddy and constant companion😔).

I know I did this to myself, but I didn't mean to. I just focused on getting my "perfect body" to distract myself from my actual life.. I was trying to (for several years literally) run from my sexual trauma/C-PTSD that was very emotional-abuse heavy, with broken family shit, physical and emotional bullying, etc. because I only started facing the fact that this trauma existed in 2010, and with no other way to cope with my sexual revulsion due to the facing of my trauma, exercise helped me feel better and get out frustrations. I was already psychologically disabled, and being denigrated for that by everyone in my family, I felt like I had nothing else to offer the world than what others have often referred to as my "beauty." (Note: I do not now or ever have considered myself beautiful- only others have) Now my stupid, excruciating as well as dumb way to obtain more so-called (and mainstream) "beauty" through overexercising and starvation has made it so I haven't showered for two days despite my OCD SCREAMING at me that I'm not clean, I'm filthy, I'm disgusting, etc., (more trauma-reactions) but due to my many excruciating physical disabilities I can't even get out of my damn recliner to shower more than a few times a week, when I used to shower up to 3 times a day.. and forget restful sleep- I wake up every few hours to change my ice pack and readjust my 6 pillows to help cushion my broken apart bones, lack of cartilage, damaged nerves, osteoarthritis, etc.

It's not worth it. I wish what I tried worked.. my life is only worth living now because if it ended my loved ones would suffer. I am only alive so I don't hurt the people who love me.

YOU CAN AVOID THIS FATE- if you plan on having a long term restrictive ED, and think that it's some "perfect solution" to be skinny forever, you're wrong. So wrong- I spent 13 years wasting my life to get the "perfect body," I was used as thinspo on here, praised for my tiny body, called "body goals," everything the pro anas on here claim to want. But you can only live that life for so long.. with my routine, the length of that particular life was 13 years (and that was pushing it). Now I am suffering more and more each day, with no relief in sight.

I will continue to post these reality checks- sure they're good for my need to vent my frustrations, but if just one person reads this and thinks twice, it has served a purpose beyond my ability to complain into the void of Tumblr.

Get help. You are never "not sick enough"- if you abuse your body in any way with food, exercise, or medication you deserve help.

You do not want this life. I gained all the weight back due to being so unintentionally immobile due to the damage anorexia/overexercising caused; the osteopenia from it definitely helped progress the degeneration of my spine and other bones, as the weight gain was aided by the complete destruction of any metabolism I had.. so now all I have is the triggering memories on Facebook, old pictures shared by family- most of whom do not know how much it hurts to see my sick pictures.. they all knew what was happening, but I've only confessed it to a few- they all make sure to talk about it behind my back though!🤬

Save yourselves from this. Save yourselves from a life much worse in EVERY WAY than not being "the skinniest girl in every room." 🙄

If you have any recovery questions or need help trying to recover, please reach out to me on any of my blogs- you're not alone.❤️

[words-of-wolf]

hello, I’m feeling generally a little lost and not really sure what to make of my own feelings - I was wondering if you could talk a little about what it actually means to be therian, and your experiences with it? (explain it like I don’t know anything about it)

Hello!! Torn between wanting to take some time to mull over how to answer this, vs knowing exactly what my ADHD brain is like and that I will 100% forget if I leave this in my inbox so I can "think it over". So just gonna wing it ahah!!

This is a pretty big question, but it's also a very good and important one. Outside of essays I think it can be hard to find descriptions of what the experience of therianthropy actually is, so I understand how you could feel a bit lost!

I figure I have a fun perspective on it too because of the situation in which I started to figure it all out, which was before otherkinity and therianthropy were anywhere near the mainstream - I didn't know about nonhuman identities till after I realised I identify as nonhuman! An experience that's probably a bit harder to have nowadays, with the ever-increasing spread of "kinnie" stuff plus how online everything is nowadays. '^^

I apologise in advance if this is a bit rambly, but I'll do my best to explain!

What it means to be therian, to me, is... it's a very visceral idea in a way - it's an experience of being nonhuman in a way that is devoid of any kind of anthropomorphisation or romanticism. It's very raw, this bundle of feelings and emotions and instincts that sits of the centre of who I am.

I am a wolf. I'm a wolf in a human body, a wolf working with a human brain. The way I think and feel can, for the most part, be understood as human.

But the thing that's doing the processing is a wolf. The thing that's seeing out of my eyes is a wolf.

I'm a wolf that not only has a human body, but was raised to be a human. So what does the wolf part mean in that?

And the reality of it is, it means so, so much, but also nothing at all!

People in the alterhuman community, I think can sometimes give weight to the idea of a nonhuman identity beyond what is warranted, y'know? So you get this culture of doubt, or trying to weed out anyone who's not "real" enough about it, and like... ultimately, that's meaningless. It's not better or worse to be nonhuman rather than human. It's neutral.

So when anyone asks me for help figuring things out, I tend to give the same advice - sometimes helpful to people, sometimes decidedly not - that you've just kinda gotta give the identity a try and see if it feels right. Do you feel more you to see yourself as an animal? Does it make you happy? Does it feel like home?

If it doesn't, that's fine. Doesn't make you any less interesting or cool or unique or whatever other quality might be associated with it!

And to be clear, the feelings here don't have to be in an all-encompassing sense.

For example, you can find it comforting to view yourself as an animal, yet know for sure that you would NOT swap your life to live as one, if that were a thing that was possible (which is, coincidentally, how I feel).

You can view yourself as kinda an animal. You can view yourself as human* (*but also animal).

You can view yourself as utterly animal, down to the core of your being, such that every aspect of human existence feels immutably alien to you, and such that you'd give up your whole human existence in a heartbeat for the chance to live as the animal instead.

You can be any of these things, or all of them. Often, it'll change over time. The feelings might fade, or maybe they start to present differently after a while.

The core question is - does seeing yourself as this animal feel genuine?

Setting aside the doubts, the uncertainty, self-consciousness, whatever you've been taught about being human and being normal... taking off all those layers that have been hiding you, some put there by your family, some by your peers, some even by yourself! What's underneath it all?

What are you?

And of course, this is a really, really big thing to wrangle with.

Some of us get it easy. I noticed I felt different, looked underneath the surface, and: duh, I'm a wolf. I landed on that answer pretty quick and it's never once changed, or even felt uncertain.

Most folks don't have quite as smooth a time figuring it out, but that's okay. It's daunting, I think, to read that some people spend years figuring it out... but it's a journey, and the journey can be very fulfilling - it can even be fun, if you let it!

I didn't have such a journey with my theriotype - it was like I looked around and unexpectedly found myself at a destination already. Not one I expected, but one that was home to me.

But my spirit kintype was far more complicated, and that one did take me many years to get to the bottom of, and it was convoluted and I did so many u-turns and hit so many dead ends! But looking back on it, I don't regret the path I took, and I don't regret any of the time I spent on it.

One thing I see a lot with nonhumans who haven't figured stuff out yet, especially newly awakened folks, is this like... itchy feet impatience to get to the end of the journey! And I absolutely understand it, I do.

But this rush can make things stressful, and that makes it harder.

I think for some folks the idea that it might take years to find an answer is a bit scary, but... hmm. Y'know. I think the problem here is the importance put on "The Answer" over whatever feelings, thoughts and experiences lead you there.

The meaning in a nonhuman identity isn't found in the label you stick on it. It's found in the path you walk. The label is just an short-hand - it's a short-cut to describe a collection of incredibly nuanced, personal feelings. It's not an answer.

Your destination isn't to find a word that succinctly portrays your entire being - your destination is just to know yourself, and to find happiness in that understanding.

And on that journey, you may well try a lot of things before finding what feels right! That's not just "okay", that's a fundamental aspect of what this journey is. You probably will be wrong! You will probably be wrong a lot! There's absolutely no bad in that. To realise you were wrong is to learn something - and everything learned is a step further along that path you're walking.

Now, as for actual experiences... my experiences as a therian have been very diverse, and really they span the entire breadth of what an experience can be - from silly quirks to absolutely life-changing spiritual epiphanies. In a way, everything I do is a therian experience, because I'm a therian and I'm experiencing it in a therian way. :P

Shifts were a big part of me figuring things out early on. What prompted me to question my humanity was my experience of shifts - a combination of mental, phantom, and dream shifts, to be specific! Getting across what each of those feels like to me would take a LOT of words, and would probably be better suited to their own posts.

Suffice to say, I started to experience these moments of feeling more like an animal, and it was an impactful enough thing that I both recognised it and wanted to find an explanation. And the explanation I landed on was that I just wasn't human. Somehow.

That said, there's a lot of other experiences that I've had related to being a wolf!

Species dysphoria was a big thing I struggled with, especially during my teen years. Sometimes I didn't want to be human. Sometimes it was more like an agonising feeling of unbelonging - that I wanted desperately to belong somewhere but couldn't, because everyone else was human and I wasn't. Sometimes the way my mind worked felt out of tune with my sense of self. Sometimes I just felt so overwhelmed by human life, and a wolf life sounded... not easy, but simple. Easy to understand.

Far more impactful as I've gotten older, however, has been species euphoria! There is an incredibly deep, rich joy for me in embracing my identity as a wolf. And I think that feeling is something that is enough to make an entire nonhuman identity - what matters most is that knowing yourself as this creature brings you joy and fulfilment. Calling myself a wolf makes me feel seen. Knowing myself as a wolf and a werewolf brings me so much happiness and so much comfort.

There's things like memories, too. And noemata - the things you just feel are right about yourself.

But there's also been so many experiences I've had that have felt small. Not every therian experience is big or dramatic or defined - for some folks, none of their experiences are.

Sometimes what makes you feel most sure you're an animal isn't a shift or a memory of some other life... sometimes it's that you read a little quote about animal behaviour and realise, wow, I do this exact same weirdly specific little thing!

Sometimes it's like... the way I, without really realising it, will try to bow at my cat to invite her to play (she just looks at me very confused).

Sometimes it's smelling the flowers, not because you have an extra good animal sense of smell (I sure don't), but because the experience of focusing - just for a moment - on scent over any other sense, makes you feel like a purer, more candid version of yourself... like for a moment you embodied the truest, most instinctual version of you, and how freeing that feeling can be even when it only lasts for a second or two.

Sometimes it's things that nobody else would think twice about.

But if something compels you to want to think twice about it, I think you should. Even if the experience doesn't seem significant, the feelings it evokes in you surely can be.

I wrote very much here ahah! I hope it's not too hard to follow, and that it helps in some way. ^u^

And absolutely feel free to ask more questions if you have them! I'm very happy to clarify or talk about things some more if you'd like. c:

[samuelroukin]

hi! not here in favor of you making Actual Books (i don't even read any of the newly published books anymore for reasons and reasons and reasons), just complimenting your work in general

i dont really care for cod at all but i really enjoy how you write the characters!! and tbh the only reason i watched some playthroughs of the games was so i could understand your work better. sure, fandom is the main reason people click in, but it's definitely not why they're staying. and it's not why people are writing paragraphs of praise to your stubborn ass even though you work so hard to never listen to any of it 💖

also id be enchanted to hear more about your ocs on future works or even here on tumblr!! you're great at creating made up people that actually feel real. they're pretty round (funnily enough that is the actual technical term), even when you don't tell us a lot about them

also 👀👀 say you have original stuff in mind?????? i would love love love love love to know more about that!! you're getting pretty darn good at worldbuilding and ambiance. better with each update now that you're trying out this AU thing. it would be infinitely interesting to see what you come up with when working with your own stuff only

anyway what i mean is. even though I don't quite believe in Published Books on this day and age, please know that your writing is definitely good enough for the editorial market (even more so now that those dark romance things are going mainstream and a lot of them read like the stuff 12yos post on wattpad. what tf is the deal with that? but I digress. out of those circles your work is still definitely good enough) it's legit like Good Work, even if the tiny mean bully whispering in your ear disagrees. it's good realism. good introspection. good porn and also good narrative and great junction of those. it's lovely seeing how far you've come in so little time and we're excited to see you reach new heights in the future (because you will, with absolute certainty, unless you stop. but i don't think you could really stop yourself at this point lmao)

and please know that achieving that level of quality with no help or instruction or training in so little time is a grand fucking accomplishment

point is: Who Care? We Care (even if we're not an enormous audience)(...yet?). and not just because it's cod

it's def a nice compliment to get thank u 🙏💖

and so is you reading my stuff without caring much for cod! though i wouldn't be able to write this much about them without (clearly) being completely insane about Them and the basis the games laid (haha laid) because without them i'd be nowhere at all, these characters are so. well they clearly took over my brain lol, though i worry a Lot about them being ooc when i write them 💀

i actually feel like my guys are so barebones and one dimensional rip, which is fine since i mostly created them as little more than a joke and they're just being used as set dressing, so that means a lot 🙏

my Main story is this sprawling urban fantasy thing, which if i ever did write it would need serious adjustments since it's. old and not aged very well. the gist of it was the main character (30 year old barista) has Visions, cue road trip with his bestie (ex bf from high school that he reconnected with years later) to figure out The Deal after they suddenly get much worse. it's about that on the surface, and below about dealing with missed chances and not living up to ur potential. it sounds stupid but i've been Thinking about it since i was like 14 so cringe is to be expected lol

lsklhkjhffghst yeah no offense to them but despite this fic being what it i i wouldn't really want to fall into that category even if that sound like i think i'm better than them (i'm not it's just not my thing. or i guess it is and i just have a superiority complex. anyway) um thank you once again 🥺i def feel like i haven't improved a lot but you're dead on about not being able to stop myself anyway lmao

idk why you're being this nice to me but 💖💖💖

[fancyfade]

I saw the post saying Batman fans think dc intentionally make Bruce a terrible parent to give Damian angst…just…have these people seen what dc writers and editors in interviews?

A lot of writers and editors revealed they see Damian not more than an arrogant and entitled brat that needs to learn his place and follow the status quo…which is hilarious as a lot of modern writing heroes make fucking frustrated with their holler than thou personalities.

Heck I remember the writer got Tim Drake last recent book said she liked Damian but he can be difficult at times

Oh like Ra’s and Bruce? Almost like he related to the some of the most complex mainstream comic book characters.

And from my experience, a lot of writers want to write the idolized version of Batman that made up as a kid. Which unfortunately makes Bruce treat Damian as afterthought unintentionally.

Now I don’t expect Bruce to be the perfect dad, but as you stated months ago. A lot of modern Batman writers have a fundamentally lack of desire to have Bruce act like a parent/figure. In fancy I notice this with the other batkids where their bonds with Bruce have been extremely watered down. Can you confirm that as you read more older comics than me.

Sorry for a long anon, I don’t think Bruce is meant to be a terrible father. Just a lot of writers project their personal bias against Damian into other characters…which in turn make a lot of them worse as writer forgot Damian is a child…not to mention Bruce bio son. Not saying parents and kids have 1:1 of personalities. But do writers remember Bruce can be an asshole too?

yeah a lot of the writers do project their personal biases - as well as they personally don't view Bruce's adopted kids as his actual kids* and it's more comfortable for writers to just have them do different things when batman doesn't "have" to be a parent. like dick and bruce have pretty good rapport in silver and bronze age.

for older comics its strange. like I'd say even tho golden/silver age bruce didn't refer to dick as his son, he still definitely had "dad like" qualities. like we see a golden age bruce knock dick out to stop him from following him to his presumed death**, and silver age Bruce encourages dick to spend time being a kid and enjoying basketball and for example 1 comic dick goes to his school's spirit night instead of on patrol.

bronze age dick is college age, so their dynamic is different. dick's out of the house in college, and honestly I wish writers would do this more if they just didn't want to write Bruce being a dad. Like for Damian's situation instead of Bruce being criminally negligent/stupid why can't we just see Damian living with Talia he literally has a mom. you don't want to write bruce being a dad there are options.

jason we see him being a good dad but also his tenure as robin is pretty short, and then for a while the robin of the time (tim) is important in that he is not bruce's son. he's a trainee. Bruce doesn't have any minor children for a while, and only after OYL (occurs 2006 in our world) do we see him adopt a nearly adult tim.

For which Batkids have had their bonds with Bruce watered down, I'd have to read more current batcomics. The old comics I'd say we do have phases where Dick and Bruce don't talk much, mostly due to the annoying post COIE retcons of how Dick becomes nightwing (Bruce initially tells him he can't be Robin after he gets shot, then immediately adopts Jason to make him Robin, and then later that is retconned for Bruce to kick him out). I've spoken multiple times about preferring pre COIE retcons where Dick had more agency.

Cass I am not sure if we've seen her interacting a lot with Bruce lately, due to the aforementioned not keeping up with current batcomics that don't have Damian. She does show up in spirit world but :P that's about Xanthe.

From what I hear from people who read current Tim comics, Tim's bond with Bruce is very strongly emphasized, tho I haven't read those comics myself so I can't comment firsthand.

Overall I think a lot of portrayal of Bruce as straight up negligent or abusive*** is due to writers just not caring about portraying him as a dad, they care about loner batman which maybe is the version from their head as kids? or could just be because that's a lot of what DC likes to emphasize. also the general "men express emotions by being angry and violent" thing many writers like. and DC was going to set up Damian as the villain for 5G, so they had to put him in a place where Bruce couldn't have seen this and stopped it, so they decided that he was going to claim any level of ignorance in order to not look bad (because I guess just not knowing what's going on with your child is fine)

*for a similar thing not in batman comics: i think that if Death of a Prince writers viewed Garth as Aquaman's ""actual"" kid, even though Garth was adopted by him and raised by him for a large portion of his childhood, they wouldn't have had aquaman being willing to fight aqualad to the death to save his biological child, arthur jr, at black manta's threats.

**which is also what Talia does for Damian in Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul - she knocks him out to take him away from battle and protect him

*** as opposed to realistically emotionally unavailable for his character, which I think works especially post Jason's death. but also WRT for why I think the negligent stuff is OOC (here - post)

[traewilson]

Thinking about Wish, genuinely one of the most bafflingly incompetent incoherent films ever made by a mainstream film studio. It and (from the sounds of it, there was no way I was seeing this in theaters) Kung-Fu Panda 4 are true blue capitalist cinema - the marketers are king, the executives are God himself - and friends, they make the Old Testament God look like a prince of Hell. All attempts at creative thought subverted and stamped out at every turn, in favor of strictly what has been proven to work before. The test audiences know what they want, and the executives aren't here to gamble - they're here to invest in safe property.

The two archenemy of cinema, it seems, are the Test Audience and the Executive. Not incorrectly, I feel, but Wish (and KFP4 by the sounds of it) aren't enough to describe a failure like this. Wish is truly unique in its failure. From everything I've heard about the productions of both Wish and KFP2 point to a trend where the creative teams are at war with each other - one team wants to do things, well, creatively. Well, in other words. Wishing to take actions that make sense narratively even if they may not be brand friendly. Those who pushed for Wish to be traditionally animated; those who pushed for KFP4 to maintain a level of quality AT LEAST to the level of KFP3.

And then you have the other camp: what I call the executive-minded creative. The people who saw the demands for a return to traditional animation, remembered how traditional animation consistently financially flopped (thanks in no small part to deliberate sabotage on the part of film executives withholding marketing) and they decide to actively work against their own. Eventually, they settle on a compromise that works (for them and the executives) - hand-drawn textures on the animation. The end result looks like Disney made yet another Frozen-era Disney film, but now it has this bad image filter going on that makes it look worse.

Team members on Wish wanted to make a classic Disney villain again, but Disney execs and the team leaders in turn are under the impression that's not what sells, so they won't do it. The villain has to be complex-ish, nuanced-ish. Just nuanced enough to be more complicated than Maleficent, but not SO nuanced the audience might think the villain was actually right the whole time. The conflict between these two camps is never resolved because they are fundamentally diametrically opposed, and the result is King Magnifico, a villain who is written with such startling carelessness he is simultaneously too evil and too nice, and a character who it could very easily be argued didn't do anything that wrong.

Once upon a time, the archenemy of cinema was the executive. But I think we're seeing lately a rise in something more insidious and therefore effective - creatives who are so firmly molded by capitalist realism that they are, themselves, executives with pretensions of being creative. Nothing matters but what makes us richer. Any move that would jeopardize the money is inherently the wrong decision. To these false creatives, it's only art if it can sell. If these people are the next evolution of the creative, then my friends, we are in some deep shit here.

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2024-08-12

Country Adventure

Listening: New Michael Guy Bowman album dropped, which I am still listening to. Bowman is increasingly original but all his stuff is still deeply shot through with Homestuck, which is interesting. Here's Vampire State from the album Your Majesty:

Watching: Watched John Wick Chapter 2 because I'm way behind on the John Wicks. I do like how they don't even try to give him lines. You get a lot out of making it an almost entirely physical movie, it's shockingly weird for such a mainstream movie.

The bizzare shadow-world of assassins that lives beneath the real world in John Wick is obviously nothing new for general fiction but the decision to not explain it basically at all once again hews much closer to """genre fiction""" than to something for general consumption, you know. Even high concept genre movies often feel a need to explain themselves in a way that makes them worse. Not so here.

Reading: Engaging in autistic-to-autistic communication sometimes means trading wikipedia articles back and forth for hours on end, and via an extended series of bits involving the List of Quality Comics Characters I ended up reading the script for the never-made Plastic Man movie, which was a Wachowski Sisters project in 1995. Plastic man is probably best known in the general population for the meme where he is pouring salt into his mouth (it's not actually him it's an alien disguised as plastic man. Comics.)

This movie is very much written by some people who have just read Drexler's Nanosystems (or something inspired by Nanosystems) and has some incredibly funny villains, such as the comically horny evil executive of a chemicals company who wears exclusively PVC because of course this movie is extremely horny.

Playing: Nothing really.

Making: Some abortive attempts at tailoring some clothes, not a thing I am very good at.

Did some tests of the macro setup I can get going with my new camera, which is very promising, since an electronic viewfinder can apply exposure adjustments to compensate for the absolutely junk light you get through reversed lenses, I'm interested to take it out into the field soon.

Tools and Equipment: I finally got some hair grips again to supplement my hair ties and grips are really superior in many cases, they tug a lot less, cause less hair loss, and are generally a lot more comfortable, with the main trade-off being that they are often a lot bigger and so you can't always like, lie down or sit back with them.

[darkfeanix]

Feanix Reads Dragon Age Comics

#3: Until We Speak

You can find my thoughts on the previous comic arc, Those Who Speak, here, and my thoughts on the first arc, The Silent Grove, here.

I'll be posting my thoughts on each series as a whole, rather then individual issues. Below the cut are all the thoughts I had while reading Until We Sleep.

Until We Sleep (I)

Varric's narration is fascinating, and plays into one of my favourite qualities of his, which is that he is an unreliable narrator. He embellishes, he adjusts, he straight up lies. And having the narrator tell one version of a story while living an entirely different version is one of my favourite tropes, so this is a good start.

"Varric, my boy -- you need to involve yourself in fewer wars."

Even to himself he lies. This story takes place in 9:38 Dragon. The Veilguard is set in 9:52. Fourteen more years, this man keeps on lying to himself and keeps getting involved. Your fav could never.

"Once, she had been called Isabela. Now she seemed to prefer 'Captain.'"

Oh, I don't like that at all. That's even worse than if there hadn't been any follow up at all to the "not called Isabela" line. Me @ the writers: What was the point of her defying the Qunari in the last issue if you were going to have her abandoning her name for a title? That feels like entirely the wrong lesson.

I feel like there may have been some division re: Calenhad being a reaver, but I like it. It takes off some of the shine of him. Ironically, I think it makes him more human. It also is another example of Flemeth (that witch he went to was totally, right?) giving history a shove in the direction she needs, and I'm always here for Flemeth the grand manipulator of fate.

Titus is quite terrifying with dragonfire at his disposal.

So we come to Maevaris imprisoned. Want to know something? I had no idea this was meant to be some shock reveal that she didn't have female-presenting nipples, as Tumblr Staff would call them. I didn't realise she was meant to be trans, I just thought she was a flat-chested woman being sexualised by the artist. To me the actual shock (even though it shouldn't have been) was that they had shown a woman's naked chest in a mainstream comic.

Which now that I think about it, has its own connotations in terms of how they present her in this scene. I hope I'm just reading too much into that, but even if I'm not, I'm a cisgender man so I don't think it's my place to speculate and talk about the implications there.

The Magrallen is creepy is heck.

"There was only one thing I could do. … On the whole, I've made better decisions."

Haha. That was a funny way to end the issue.

Until We Sleep (II)

I had quite forgotten that Bianca appears in Varric's dream sequence, and what she looked like when she wasn’t made in the Frostbite Engine. I think I actually like the comic version more in this case; for single-quest NPCs like Bianca, the generic modelling process just wasn't that memorable in Inquisition.

I don't actually remember the story with Bianca, but there I do love a good "make a different choice for a happy ending" dream sequence, and even if it's resolved quickly, it still hits right.

And we're also continuing Varric's unreliable narration, which I appreciate.

I also find it really interesting how this parallels the Broken Circle quest from Origins, and how it differs. Like that (well, like that in some cases), we have spirits giving someone their fantasy. But unlike with the sloth demon's servants, this spirit that is pretending to be Bianca isn't holding Varric prisoner; it's just giving him his deepest desire. And he is free to leave, even if it's hard for him to turn his back on the fantasy. The same with Mae's fantasy; the spirit isn't deliberately trying to fool her. She acknowledges her awareness of the situation, and it doesn't attack her. These are benign spirits, and I'm really curious what they represent. Even in the way they present themselves, there's a difference; "Bianca" is proactive, engaging with Varric and trying to get him to enjoy the fantasy. By comparison, "Thorold" comes across as much more passive, barely even moving except when Mae interacts with him directly. Maybe a lesser spirit being directly affected by Mae's connection to the Fade, as a mage?

Anyway, I just think they're neat.

Also, isn't this so sweet?

I said it in the post for Those Who Speak, but I love that they decided to make Varric's Tevinter contact a human who was married to a dwarf. Gosh, I would really love to romance Mae with a dwarf one day. You hear me, Bioware? Mae as a companion in Dragon Age 5. Make it happen, please and thank you.

And on the opposite end of the spectrum, I feel like showing a shot of a beaten-up trans woman was completely unnecessary. Like, it's an interesting show of how the Fade works, that flash of her memory affecting her perception of herself, but context matters. And after how they chose to "reveal" her transness in the previous issue, this was just really distasteful.

Isabela's nightmare is… interesting. I'm wondering if they forgot that as a woman, Isabela would never be made a warrior under the Qun, or if it was intentional and that it's literally Isabela's worst nightmare to kill for the Qun.

It's also interesting that she specifically attracted spirits that created her nightmare instead of her fantasy. Like, ultimately everything about this is a choice made by the writer, but again, the Fade and spirits interest me. Is it the part of them that shines brightest that draws the spirits to them? What does that say about each character? Was it Varric's regret? Was it Mae's fond memories of a deceased love? Was it Isabela's self-loathing?

It would be really sad if, after everything she's been through and all of her growth, Isabela is still defined by what she hates and fears the most.

Gosh, please stop hurting Mae.

Varric lying in the narration and saying Isabela was never tempted by the Fade. It's such a small thing, but it's his thing. He cares so deeply about his friends, and he's a good liar. He tells stories the way he thinks they should be told.

Ahem, anyway.

Ending with a dream of King Maric in his prime, and Prince Alistair the devoted son, sure is a way to wrap up this issue.

Until We Sleep (III)

I'd forgotten that Maric was fooled (or let himself be fooled) into thinking that Alistair was a spirit, and not his real son.

It's funny that Titus is so convinced of his own power, but even he doesn't have the kind of power he thinks he does in the Fade. Also, I really appreciate that the demons don't all look the same. Oh the joys of not being limited by game assets.

"You are not the dreamer here. I am."

Badass.

Ultimately, Alistair's fate is that he isn't enough. Maric says everyone he loved is gone from the waking world, and Alistair says that he's there, Maric turns away from him. I don't think he really means it when he tells Alistair that he'll try to return with them. He knows he's not making it out.

(Fitting, that the issue that Varric is narrating basically ends on a lie.)

Okay, so Isabela seemingly gives up being captain and leaves her ship at the end of this. I guess they forgot that when they were writing Inquisition and had Varric say she'd joined up with the Raiders and was calling herself an admiral? It really feels contradictory to the Isabela at the end of this series.

I guess we could put it down to it being another lie.

Final Thoughts

So overall, I think that the series improved as it went along. Or maybe I just found Isabela's and Varric's perspectives more engaging than Alistair's. Hard to say.

At any rate, I'm glad to be done with these ones so I can move on to comics I haven't read yet. Based on what I've seen online, they can be kind of hit-or-miss, but I'm still looking forward to checking them out.

If you've made it this far, thank you for accompanying me on my journey through The Silent Those Who We Sleep. Check back soon when I read…

*Looks at the next comic title*

Magekiller. Hmmm, actually, I think I remember reading this one too.

Anyway, bye for now.

#LetMeRomanceMae2k24

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (16/06/24)

new serialization round baby let's gooooo there's nothing too fancy on it but I'm curious about the series that will start in 3 weeks since I read the author's previous manga years ago when it came out, until it got axed, so I wanna see how much they improved since then

green - new series/new to me blue - finale/completed

Anime

Dungeon Meshi Ep24 (Finale)

there really isn't anything else I could've given it. trigger absolutely killed it the whole way through and thank GOD someone convinced the shitflix execs to make this a weekly release instead of the shitty binge model which would've killed the show dead instantly.

but yeah, I haven't read the manga (yet) but I'd seen tons of spoilers before and even more during the show airing ( 😔 ) and it's an incredible adaptation. a lot of people complain about certain scenes not hitting as hard as in the manga for this reason or another but I feel like most (not all) of those complaints are just nitpicking and trying to give off a sense of superiority cause they read the manga beforehand

anyway, great animation the whole way through, like always above average and with a lot of sakuga sprinkled all throughout. we even got unorthodox animation like that one with the siblings or all the scenes made in the classic trigger style instead of this more "mainstream" look they used for the show everything else is stellar too, I loved the whole seiyuu cast and their performances and the music was great as well

also ryoko kui is an incredible author so it was just a treat to see all the thought that went into the world, dungeon and otherwise, tho I already knew that before the anime was even announced

anyway, TL;DR: incredible adaptation and what everyone should dream of getting for their series. can't WAIT for S2 coming TBA, surprised they announced it already cause they have a panel at AX next month so I figured they'd do it there

Manga

Youkai Buster Murakami Ch1

I went into this not expecting much since I read the author's previous work, shugomaru, which while not terrible was also nothing to write home about. I was pleasantly surprised by this tho, I actually liked it a lot more than shugomaru. I was doubtful at first cause "oh boy here comes another exorcist series" until I was told who the author was. as expected it's a comedy series like their previous work. the gimmick is that the main girl is an exorcist and it's her job to seal all these youkais that are being ressurected but she's a huge coward so she brings her, completely normal, friend along to help her and he defeats the youkai by poking holes into it's story like you can see in the pic below I can totally see this being a fun series that I wouldn't mind having stick around for a while if every chap is at least this good. even being a shorter debut of 30 pages it felt like it dragged a bit too long but it should be fine with normal lenght chaps. we'll see how it goes in the coming weeks

Dear Anemone Ch17 (Finale)

man where do I even start with this. first of, I'd thought about giving it a 2 instead of a 1 cause the art is really good but this final chap was so bad it made me change my mind. that spread I picked below is a compilation of stuff that never actually happened in the manga. I guess it was stuff the author had planned but it got axed so yeah. from chap 1 I said the art was good but way too gory for wsj and that stayed true the whole way, it was just way too much for the magazine it was in. impressive that the author managed to keep up the quality in a weekly serialization tho. that's all this manga had tho, the art. everything else was terrible. the story was confused and moving all over the place and the bad ratings made it even worse with the author trying to rush and give reveals and twists constantly which never felt satisfying cause there was no build up to it. the characters didn't felt like characters either and they were just getting pulled along the plot. I went into this not expecting much and still came out disappointed. author is gonna have to put a LOT of effort into their writting if they want do to another serialization or at least they should team up with someone else since again the art was actually really good

[petorahs]

☀️ its fascinating that you say P3 has shaped your worldview because... Well not to trauma dump here but back then when I discovered the game (it was back then when p4 was already out) i was... In a REALLY bad place and wondering about unaliving myself. I wont go into much detail but kids are trash man and teens are even worse. and then this game came around. With an aesthetic I really liked. i am not a native english speaker so it was hard for me at first but somehow this game just... /spoke to me/. A game about life and death and what it means to be alive and what it means to have a REASON to live, somehow... Convinced me to go a bit longer. I mean it when I say this: Persona 3 saved my life. And no other game can ever come close to such an experience. (Even tho from a quality standpoint P5 certainly is up there)

oh dude that is so valid thank you for sharing this. seriously though, im happy that youre here! and im sure many others are too! the ☀️ brightening lives and all that :]

yea i can see why p3 just clicked with so many people since it first came out. i was always curious on why it's so beloved by fans, when p5 and even p4 are literally right there with their overall better gameplay experiences. p5 literally got the franchise mainstream to insane heights lol. im... so glad i got into persona the way i did. of course, everyone's experiences w these games are different and special to them in their own way.

i got into persona 3 as an adult and as a result the lens in which i viewed the story's themes were heightened, in a way. as a teen i just know i would have reacted more volatilely i struggle to think about it LOL but both experiences would still be pretty intense. it's just that, as an adult there's more room to digest it when im not troubled by algebra hw. i was just more equipped for it (also i played omori two summers ago LMAOO). ofc i only turned 20 a few weeks ago LOL but i get why p3 means so much to people.

because it's like... 2000s nostalgia coupled with a game that figuratively holds your hand through the uncertainty of death yknow? p3 is a friend, basically. its entire thesis is based upon companionship (exactly what i highlight in an analysis i have drafted somewhere but HHH i dont want this to get too long lmao)

in the shaping my worldviews thing... its really more like it cemented my 'philosophies' :] like i said, equipped with the stuff i learned before, p3 having the message that it did just... hit super close to home! like yeah! that's what i've been saying dude!! kindness really is enough!!

"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life... Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of."

LIKE YEA GIRL THATS EXACTLY IT!! its so cool! i actually admire people who grew up with p3 because man if i heard this line ages ago... well, again, idk if i would be able to grasp it fully at the time... but still! this is so good, poetry in motion. and like u said its aesthetics are gorgeous and aim to capture the essence of its themes - and it did.

im a p5 baby like bro i love p5. soft spot for it. thats the closest persona game i "grew up" with and it came at such an opportune time for me, being a teen stuck between a rock and a hard place. typical. and p5 validated my teenage angst bs so much. its so refreshing to see a game's theme being rebellion. that was me i thought. those characters are going through something that similarly happened to me. teenage rebellion is such a fun thing to explore!

so p5 validated my struggles while p3 did something deeper than that, somehow. i think it just made me .. stronger? like it made me move on from struggles. "by remembering death you learn how to live" so... i guess p3 taught me how to live as crazy as that sounds. but you get me

persona 5 overall is great -- everyone agrees, like its objectively just a better game. but persona 3 ends up more beloved because of its subjective value as a piece of art. there's a lot of heart and soul to put into it.

it's more simple when compared to p5 at first glance, but simple doesn't mean less. which is why more people experiencing it will be nice to see

[thelostgirl21]

So, guess who ended up watching the whole "Jobriath A.D." documentary, crying her eyes out over a guy singing about Sunday Brunch in his pyramid, and making a whole video dedicated to Jobriath and Hugh's performance as Radovid?

Actually, I also made another version (unlisted) for those of you that are already familiar with the artist, and might want to enjoy some of his music and the visuals without being distracted by the text at the bottom:

But yeah, I'm kind of so sad and upset that I never got to know about him before (given how huge of a fan of David Bowie I've been since my teenage years), and that the gay community totally failed to support him, back then.

I mean, I'm not blaming them. We've had the same issue with feminism where we used to make it all about women assuming more traditional men roles; until we finally realized that it was just as important to give more social value to traditionally perceived feminine qualities, traits, interests, and professions - in men, women, and any other gender, really - as well!

So, I can recognize that the gay community attempting to distance itself from the whole "flamboyant fairy" image likely came from the rest of society attempting to reduce them to it (among others), and creating some kind of convenient "right" vs "wrong" way to be gay narrative (a divided minority is much less powerful and loud than a united one).

Even today, we are facing a similar issue with some members of the LGBTQ+ community claiming to be part of the "LGB" without the "TQ+".

Note: the "B" of that "LGB" is often barely tolerated as a "temporary transitional phase", though; a "stepping stone" towards either the "L" or "G", or a return to being "straight".

Ultimately, it's about our survival instincts making us fear losing the relative safety we've acquired by being positively accepted and valued by those that hold the most power.

i.e. The "TQ+" is too controversial and different from the cisgender monosexual majority to be readily accepted?

Well, let's distance ourselves from it to keep us "LG"s safe, then!

While, of course, reassuring the dominant majority that the "B" will eventually choose a side, so its okay to let them come along while they are still "searching themselves". No worry! We're still as "normal" as you are!

It's all very, very binary.

No, it's not. The world is filled with beauty, diversity and nuance...

And sadly, by rejecting a part of our collective identity to better "fit in", we are sacrificing a part of our very own soul and culture. We are hurting ourselves and giving up power, not acquiring it.

So yeah, I'm not "blaming the victims" by accusing the gay community of any intentional wrongdoing back then, but JFC! It hurts.

It really hurts that he didn't receive comfort, love, and support from his very own people, at the very least, when the mainstream audience lashed out at him.

Yes, the publicity and the hype built around him made everything worse and gave off the wrong image (he probably came off as being a bit of a "self-absorbed prick", rather than someone in a position of great vulnerability), but they freaking ate him alive out there!

And he deserved better not because he was incredibly gifted and talented, but because he was a freaking human being.

What his talent and giftedness had to offer us was a voice, though, that we allowed to be silenced, and the world and our culture became lesser for it.

Jobriath did pave the way for others to then succeed, but I'm against the idea that someone needs to fall and sacrifice themselves so that others may rise. Yes, it happens, but it shouldn't have to.

I don't believe for one second that it is or was ever necessary.

But if it does happen, then yes, I say make it count for something, at the very least!

So, maybe that's why I'm so touched by the fact that Hugh listened to his music and drew inspiration from it while portraying his character.

40 years after his death, you now have a young openly gay actor being offered the role of an openly gay prince (that later becomes king) on a major fantasy show that isn't specifically about LGBTQ+ themes (like, say, "Sense8" could be considered to be), who is listening to Jobriath's music to help him connect with, build, and embody his character.

And, while I am genuinely glad that some artists are doing covers of his songs (ex: Adam Lambert with "Imaman") and bringing people's attention towards his work...

In Hugh's case, I think that what I find really touching is the fact that there's an element of "practicality" to it, if I'm making any sense? A connection that seems to be more internalized / intimate between the two artists...

Art is a means of self-expression, and sometimes you are trying to express a message, an emotion, or an idea that you wish to share with others in the world, and allow it to take a life of its own.

So, it's like the music Jobriath created - that little part of himself and the things he wished to communicate with the world that he left behind - is being listened to and welcomed by Hugh, and then combined with his own creative sensitivities to be integrated within a theatrical performance.

The spirit of what was initially shared lives on, while evolving and taking on a new form that will then go on to connect with people in a different way.

It's not so much about celebrating the songs themselves and paying tribute to the artist's work by covering them, but becomes about honoring the artist's spirit and the emotions, themes, ideas, etc. those songs were covering.

And I am genuinely not saying that one way of connecting with the artist's work or expressing appreciation for it is better than the other, not at all.

Just that as a non-professional artist myself, the idea of leaving anything behind that would have the power to touch a fellow artist's soul, help them grow as a performer, and continue to express and explore certain themes that I personally connected with at that time in my life - even if I would no longer be there to personally guide them - would be incredibly moving and make me feel like art really has the power to transcend boundaries and even death itself.

Because Jobriath's songs tackled issues related to identity, gender, relationships and self-discovery, among others...

And Radovid, as a character, is very gentle...

He's sensitive, empathetic, boyish, openly admits to being scared, freaking huddles himself in a corner to cry when he finds out his guards have been slaughtered...

I mean, when it comes down to it, all Radovid really wanted, this season, was a pretty song and someone to love and belong with...

Someone that could see him as he really is, and see some value in who he is, too...

So Jaskier, sweetheart, listen to Milva...

Because, let's be honest, you're a bit useless in the whole "rescuing Ciri" venture. I mean, you're not useless now, since Geralt is still recovering from his physical and emotional injuries, does greatly benefit from having his emotional support bard around, and you're not quite entirely done holding out interviews to find him new useful companions to watch after him and help him on his quest (don't think I didn't notice what you were doing with Milva!)...

But ultimately, this is going to involve a lot of fighting, and that's not where you're at your strongest.

However, there's a King in need of some serious rescuing, too, that could really use your wits, ability to know, influence and inspire people, and your Sandpiper connections.

You're not a hammer, you're a fellow spoon, luv; and the whole mess that Radovid has been thrown into is a situation that would most definitely requires two spoons, at the very least!

Thankfully, you've already proven that you know how to make two spoons work together very well, and become an effective weapon to annoy the hell out of those trying to keep people trapped!

You and Radovid pooling your own respective resources and joining forces together?

Philippa and Dijkstra would be so fucked... So, so fucked... And not in the "fun way".

So, as soon as Geralt has sufficiently recovered and has enough people with him to watch his back out there, get back to Radovid ASAP and get your whole "spooning thing" on, alright?

Fair warning: He might specifically need a big spoon to help dig him out of the whole mess that's threatening to bury him alive right now... Just saying!

Anyway, getting sidetracked again!

I guess my point is that Radovid is displaying the kind of emotional intelligence, insightfulness, and empathetic qualities that are more traditionally associated with feminine characters.

And that, if they are to ever make him rise to a position of great power within the kingdom, the worst possible thing Netflix could do is probably make him lose those qualities.

If princesses, in fantasy, have been allowed to gain power and become beloved queens through their compassionate and nurturing nature, their ability to genuinely care about the fate of every living person (and even creature) on their land, and "triumph over evil" by building mutually beneficial alliances with said people and creatures, so should a freaking gentle and sensitive gay prince, I say!

There really is no need to "harden Radovid", and change the very core of who he is just to "give him power".

To have him become more confident and assertive in who he is and what he can do, absolutely!

But using his trauma as an excuse to make him become some kind of angry, "tough", paranoid, uncaring and controlling leader? No.

Especially in a context where Radovid is a character that people are expecting to become hard and cruel because of his videogame counterpart, please be brave enough to completely defy those expectations by letting him be his own person!

Because Netflix's version of Radovid, thus far, is a superb example of queer representation done right, too.

And I'm going to attempt to phrase that as best as I can, so hopefully what I'm saying won't be misunderstood, but having a queer actor portray a queer character does offer an added layer of authenticity to the role.

Don't get me wrong, I'm far from opposed to the idea of having straight actors portraying certain queer characters in a context where gay, bisexual, pansexual, etc. actors are also being offered straight roles.

I'm a huge fan of Malec (the pairing of Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood), and I think that Harry Shum Jr. and Matthew Daddario did an amazing job portraying a very realistic and domestic relationship between a bisexual man and a gay man.

They both approached the roles with lots of humility, openness, asked for the queer community's guidance and feedback on their portrayal of the relationship (the fact that some of their fellow cast members on the show are queer IRL - including Nicola Correia-Damude, that portrays Maryse Lightwood - likely helped), etc.

And, when it came to filming scenes requiring to show a lot of love and intimacy between their two characters, they didn't hold back, either.

So, I do think that you can definitely be straight IRL, and feel confident enough in your own sexuality and in who you are to explore and embrace other orientations through your acting.

Not to mention that having such actors show that they aren't afraid to portray queer characters on TV, and to openly support and associate with the LGBTQ+ community, is setting a positive example for other cisgender straight people out there.

It kind of goes to show that, just because one is exposed to diversity when it comes to love, romance and sexuality, it won't magically "turn them gay".

Because, trust me, if Matthew Daddario didn't magically "become gay" after all those steamy kisses and emotionally/physically intimate scenes he had to film with Harry Shum Jr., likely nothing will!

And most bisexuals I've personally discussed the character of Magnus Bane with did feel like he was an accurate representation of their own sexuality.

Just like, as a panromantic and pansexual person, I'm 100% "vibing" with Joey Batey's portrayal of Jaskier.

I have no idea what Joey's actual sexual orientation is, or why he decided to explore pansexuality with his character before they made it official, but I feel like "he gets me".

Even his decision to make Jaskier become specifically romantically attracted to the way he perceives Radovid's intellect (sapioromantic) - and swoon over how intelligent and insightful he is on screen - is something that I can viscerally connect with, since I'm personally exclusively romantically and sexually attracted towards geeks.

If you were to pay attention to the way I'm looking at my partner dungeon mastering a D&D game, you'd think I was watching him perform a freaking striptease! It's uncanny!

So, even if Joey was to tell me that he is straight, I'd be more than fine and happy to have my own romantic and sexual identity be represented by him. I feel like he truly "gets me", regardless of whether it's from personal experience, or because of his own ability to put himself in other people's shoes and intimately connect with their reality.

It's just that, in Hugh's case, knowing that he is gay, and that the role has a personal significance for him, offers another layer of appreciation for the character and the actor's performance.

He just seems to be so happy to be living at a time and age where you can get that kind of representation in a major fantasy show - where you can have queer characters that are complex, fleshed out, and not reduced to mere stereotypes - and to be given the chance to be a part of the people that are making it happen, that you can't help but feel it, too.

It almost makes me wonder if they cast Hugh Skinner specifically because they knew how different from the videogames their version of Radovid was going to be, and they needed someone that would look like he has such a wonderful time with this role, and is so grateful to be there and be given the opportunity to play him, that hating on the character would literally feel like kicking a puppy!

Me: I don't think I could ever feel as protective over a fictional character as I feel about Jaskier.

Hugh Skinner: Hold my - I mean Jaskier's lute, I've got this!

Me: Ah, crap. Here we go again...

And the sad part is that, back when the whole controversial romance between Radovid and Jaskier was planned and filmed, no one had any idea that it would be Henry Cavill's last season.

But now, they bascially introduced a version of Prince Radovid that is the polar opposite of what the writers of "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" came up with, and paired him up with a character that has never been established as being queer in the books and the videogames (Jaskier)...

...right at the height of the angry toxic gaming community's "let's all assume that Henry Cavill is leaving because of the showrunner's blatant 'woke agenda', and all of these outrageous changes that were made to the source material the games (ex: OMG! They decided that a splendid full-figured black woman could fit the book description of "Margarita Laux-Antille emerged from the pool with a splash.. Ciri could not stop herself from taking a peek. She saw Yennefer in the nude many times and she didn't think anyone could have a more beautiful figure. She was wrong. At the sight of a naked Margarita Laux-Antille even marble statues of goddesses and nymphs would sob with jealousy"... HOW DARE THEY?!?!?!), and call for the boycott and cancellation of the series" movement!

Do you guys ever wish that the LGBTQ+ community had some kind of huge "bat signal" to let fellow queers - that, in this more specfic case, haven't seen "The Witcher" yet - know that there's this absolutely amazing queer romance happening on a show that totally deserves their love and attention?

And that said queer romance could really use their love and attention right about now - and throughout the next season - if we've any hope that the show will keep on running and remain popular for as long as humanly possible, given that it has just lost its biggest star (that was playing the main character, no less), and there's a bunch of people that have decided that they would no longer be watching it because of that.

Somehow, I'm just heartbroken over the prospect of the show not having the chance to really further develop Jaskier and Radovid's stories (both their romance, and each individual character's journeys), and the actors not having the chance to fully really portray and develop them.

Radskier is basically "Malec material" being introduced in a show that has a disproportionately high number of angry right-wing ideologists and incels gamers "fans" that are dedicating entire YouTube channels to trying to punish the TV show for daring to have a more inclusive cast and broader view of beauty standards than its videogame counterpart, and making a womanizer keep the same impulsive drive to love and sexually connect with a bunch of different people he becomes spontaneously enamored with, but without said sexual drive being motivated by them being women.

And bits and pieces of that narrative is bleeding into the more moderate audience, without realizing how problematic or nonsensical some of them are at their core.

I wish there was some kind of "Malec fans hotline" you could call to say "Guys! I know this may not be your usual TV show genre, but there's something exceptionally good happening right here that you need to come and checkout! You have two lovers from two different worlds experiencing an instant soul-deep connection in one of the most adorable "meet awkward cute" of TV history. And that connection throws one of them a bit out of a loop, because he's never romantically fallen in love before (he's greyromantic)... And one of them is expected to basically sacrifice all of his own wants and needs to honor his duty, because he was born into a highly regarded and powerful royal family... And he initially tries to conform to his family's expectations, but realizes that it is not who he is... And there's this situation where he keeps some information from the man he loves, and the other realizes it, he becomes scared that he made a mistake trusting him and pushes him away... But then..."

How do we get the audience that is usually into these types of stories to migrate towards "The Witcher"?

*Heavy sigh*

But yeah, all I hope is that Liam Hemsworth's performance as Geralt will be well-received, and that the show will be deemed successful enough for Netflix to continue investing in it so that these storylines and characters will be given the chance to continue to grow and develop...

[krakaslaug]

I'm so confused... why do people like lotl and think we're getting any points with this band? The lyrics don't make any sense or have any meaning, they sing with a terrible german accent (just sing german at that point) and they don't really commit to the metal genre. The only thing they got going for them is their vibe/look. I mean, please enlighten me, maybe I got it wrong since so many germans seem to like them lol

I should probably preface this by saying that they've been a long time favourite band of mine so I'm super biased and can only give you my subjective opinion so yeahhh...

I genuinely think they make great music and I think none of your arguments actually are arguments. For one, I don't think the accent is that bad. It's way worse when they're just talking instead of singing lol, and it doesn't impact the overall quality of the music at all. There's worse things than having an accent. Personally I find Chris Harms' voice very soothing actually, at times operatic and strong when he does scream vocals. I think they're all good with their instruments too.

Them not committing to the metal genre is also not a real critique imo? They're very self-aware of where they stand in the scene, there's plenty of instances where they make jokes about it themselves (even in the esc bewerbungsgespräch video itself) and they've said themselves that they just want to do what they want, that they want to be their most authentic and that had them happen to fall somewhere into glam metal. Idk if you just mean Blood and Glitter in particular but there's a lot of variety in their songs from way heavier stuff to songs like See You Soon. Blood and Glitter, I would say, is a lot more "mainstream" even, so it just rides that line.

The song itself is about life btw. Chris Harms said himself that the Blood part is nothing negative. It's about life that flows through you. The glitter, the beauty of life and experiences. The up and down of life.

And yeah. Of course their looks play a part in it.

I guess overall - and I mean no disrespect to any of the other contestants. I found positive things about all of them (except maybe Ikke Hüftgold...) - but we had the choice between not one but two Sad Boy Ballads and other songs that were pretty generic within their own genres. And with LotL Germany would send something interesting again. Something that is not pop, that's a little heavier, flashier and sticks out with both visuals and sound. Especially after the whole thing around Electric Callboy last year where the critique was that the other six songs were all the same with little to no variety at all. So even if LotL hadn't won this, I think, personally, that this year was a huge improvement to last year. But as a fan I'm incredibly happy!

I'll stop here because I feel like I'm justifying myself when I don't have to, and I happened to see that I'm not the only one who got this exact ask, so yeeeeah. I'm love them sorry not sorry. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to ramble for a bit hehe

[obsessivelollipoplalala]

(Throwing gas on the fire with my opinions here)

I’d say bbc Sherlock and bohemian rhapsody suffer from similar terminally online takes where tumblr fans initially fell very hard for them and held them up as the pinnacle of art/representation (which they never were) then as the honeymoon obsession faded treated them as undeserving garbage (which they also never were) thus failing to understand why people divorced from internet fandom think of them as regular fun media without 20 layers of drama. And forget the original was, at the very least, entertaining to most audiences and had redeeming qualities.

This is truly gas on the fire and I'm going to have to do a HARD disagree with you there because Bohemian Rhapsody as a film was always extremely bad on several major levels. It was really inaccurate (and in some crucial respects, like botching the timing of Freddie's AIDS diagnosis for cheap drama), hit all of the tired band movie clichés with a cheesy ass script that could have been written about any old band instead of putting any effort in to tell Queen's unique story and portray their unique personalities, and had a homophobic/straightwashing portrayal of a real gay man while presenting his homophobic, asshole ex-girlfriend as some saint who was the True love of his life and "saved" him.

It's inherently worse than any Sherlock Holmes adaptation for misrepresenting real people, and being homophobic about real gay men. The idea that it's just fun entertainment becomes flimsy when it comes down to misrepresenting real people to the point of harm, as opposed to making a fake story about fake people. Borhap was rightfully panned every step of the way as soon as it came out as a terrible movie that people only sat through because it had chunks of Queen's music, which was/is good enough to keep people from leaving the theater mid-film. It was not at all an Online/fringe opinion that borhap had a poor script and was homophobic, it was mainstream. I remember even a review in my local newspaper being like, "Yeah, this movie low-key sucks, but the music was good" lol. I only joined the Queen fandom after reading about the backlash, which was all over the place! It was entertaining to some audiences because of the music and because most people don't know Queen's/Freddie's real story (and are homophobic and love the Mary fanfiction lol), but I remember watching someone on YouTube just casually mentioning it like, "Yeah, I didn't even finish the movie because even though I don't know Queen's history that well, the writing was just so cliched and I feel like it probably wasn't even accurate."

So yeah, no, sorry, borhap was actually incredibly bad and shouldn't have even gotten the praise that it did. If Rami hadn't given a great performance, it probably wouldn't have tbh