#yall want American money without the Americans

[renarots]

YOU MEAN TO ME THEY REJECTED ANDRETTI INTO F1 BECAUSE THEY WOULD BRING NOTHING TO F1 LIKE THEN WHAT IS HAAS, STAKE F1 TEAM AND THE VISACASHAPP RB THEN HUH?!?!?

[huevobuevo]

Whoops

hello generation loss enjoyers. it has been several months since the release of ranboos project, how have yall been? im going to be insane.

Many folks have known me as the lminal space connosieur, dead malls and fucked up houses in particular being my strongsuit for both their sex appeal and the amount of symbolism they can all hold.

Watching Gen Loss with my friends through a hostage situation was a wonderful experience! upon the reveal of the Showfall Media offices being inside a rented out mall, there was a split second where I was a bit unamused at the lack of effort put into integrating the mall's architecture into the studio's office. There were only a few empty stores being used with at the bare minimum some chairs and desks, half the mall was still closed, the mini maps stands were still up, and the food court's usage as the streamers hub was very just. like. thats a whole ass food court. without the people walking around the only way to actually know what the hel this was being used for was the giant white banner that just said showfall media like a fraternity's house claiming its territory.

But then, as the episode 2 closed out, almost instantly it hit me why. why the mall was still a mall, why there was little to no integration for the set- it was on purpose. it was supposed to just be a studio crammed inside a mall. a dead mall, to be precise.

first lets get into the anatomy of what makes a dead mall dead. Around the 1980's a rise in popularity of the commercial supermalls began to spread, the american consumerist dream was rampant with a greater demand of fast fashion, merchandise, and all kinds of strange trinkets for the average american to waste their money on. It was capitalism's wettest dream, but as the years went on there came a steady decline in popularity. Sometimes the competing businesses ended up putting each other out of stock, maybe the trends began dying off, and in certain areas consistent crime rates drove away costumers.

Then in the mid 2000's the stock market crash ended up pushing several people into poverty, the lower class unable to afford the luxury goods offered at shopping centers. Then online shopping took society in a deathgrip, further pushing away the desire for in-public purchasing. Brands took notice and began selling online-exclusive products. In the late 2010's the sightings of several "dead malls" were on an alltime high, some being left to rot while others were demolished all together in favor of empty concrete spaces.

Corporate response to this was one of two things; continously invest in the "Anchor Stores" (big chain stores like Macys or Forever 21 that brought in more customers, usually stationed at the ends of the mall). Meanwhile the smaller businesses inside would be shut down one by one to save costs, until eventually the anchor stores themselves would be forced to leave. Sometimes the Anchor Stores would leave beforehand, not wanting to waste money investing in a deadend location. the decline is faster, the mall rots quicker. The company sells the lot to the biggest buyer and destroys what little remains.

Then there are times where the mall itself is sold off to another bigger company, in hopes of more funds to rejuvenate the center. Majority of the time the mall will enter a large reconstruction designed to look more appealing, mor modern. In actually, the personality of the malls architecture is stripped like the skin of prey. The colors and vibrant shapes of the late 1900’s, the waterfalls with rocky beds and marbled beige tiles, all replaced in favor of sharp black on white edge and stainless steel fencing. The occasional shrub here or there, maintained by automation. Lights too bright, all glimmer, all space. Sometimes it works, sometimes the mall is reborn as the pinnacle of luxury again! Sometimes it rots in shiny chrome, a corpse dragged along in the hopes of attracting attention. All it does is stink and bloat, a miserable display.

I hope you begin to catch what im saying.

In Generation Loss, the Showfield Social Experiments are commentary on streamer culture and the damaging relationship between a content creator & their platform. Visualized by Ranboo being pushed into dangerous scenarios for the sake of entertainment, their disposable friends forced into the flat archetypes the fandoms have labeled them as.

They were all vibrant young folks once, bright with personality and that raw humanity filled with flaws and voice cracks. Shitty microphones and inconsistent uploads, some were barely finishing high school. Then they became big, almost too big. They were characters now, and just like Ranboo’s teammates the perception of them as humans were dumbed down to memorable trademarks. Streamers and Content Creators alike had to be marketable now, and when the time comes where they lost their popularity sometimes they sign off to groups and organizations to help boost them up again. They are stripped of their rawness again. Theres a reason their artforms are called “content”.

So it makes sense that Showfall Media, the personification of the content creators downfall, would do the same to a Mall. The corpse of the center is repurposed loosely to fit the studios purpose. It is empty, it is hollow, it is dead. Low costs, big risks- just like Gen Loss Ranboo.

basically

Content Creators are Dead Malls.

[lawlightautismtruther]

All I ever hear when talking with the girls (am I 100% girl? No, and that might be why I feel the disconnect here) is the following

- he’s so tall and big and muscular and deep voiced and UHHHH I WANT HIM TO RAIL MEEEEE

And I’m just like “good for you. Where’s my 5’5” 110 angel of a male, whom I want to carry around princess style to our king sized bed” and they all just look at me like

😨

Like are yall not aware that not EVERYONE is like you??!!!

Like I have no problem with how other people experience sexual attraction, obviously I don’t. That would be hypocritical as hell because people tend to have a problem with how I experience it (note I live in the evangelical American south and the internet is the only place that gets me) but I wish (and I’m the 10000000th person to express this, which goes to show how behind we still are) that women/women-adjacent people were ALLOWED to be masculine and be attracted to femininity without being ostracized and made to feel embarrassed. Especially for lesbians, but also for people like me. I feel like people around here can actually conceptualize a sapphic relationship better than the type of relationship I seek (but they accept neither, unfortunately).

I fear what would happen if they learned I was bi 😩

I’m not emotionally attracted to women (it’s a sexual thing), so I’d end up with a man anyway, but the JUDGEMENT I would still receive from these prehistoric brained people is CRAZY. I feel especially for lesbians and gay people because I know it’s 1000000x harder on them, even if people can conceptualize them better, they hate them even more.

Like, I constantly receive the “well if you’re so attracted to “sissy-boys” why aren’t you just a lesbian?” Which is SO stupid because it implies two really fucking idiotic ideas

1. Sexuality is a choice (specifically, gay people choose to be gay)

2. Being attracted exclusively to femininity = (or at least should equal) being attracted exclusively to women (and the inverse, which is often used to invalidate masc attracted lesbians as jaded straight women or something stupid like that)

WHEN WILL THESE PEOPLE GRASP NUANCE AND VARIANCE IN SEX/GENDER EXPRESSION AND EXPERIENCE.

I know a lot of it is the Bible and Christian culture (which is barely even in the Bible at all), but they break the rules and conventions of it EVERYDAY and find a way to justify it. Yet they can never justify people like me who aren’t harming ANYBODY

Which is proof it’s not 100% about religion, even if they’re consciously convinced it is. It’s about prejudice and ignorance.

what I’ll never understand is the motivation a lot of these people give me for being so obsessed with gender essentialism and policing others “the death of masculinity and femininity in men and women respectively will lead to the downfall of society”

LIKE BROTHER SOURCE PLEASE?!! WHATS YOUR SOURCE HELP

And for the love of God, don’t say the Bible. I’m a Christian myself, actually. But I am fully aware that the Bible was never supposed to be a source for ANYTHING. It’s simply a collection of relevant  documents to the history of our faith. That’s it.

GIVE ME A SCIENTIFIC STUDY AND MAYBE I’LL TAKE YOU A LITTLE MORE SERIOUSLY FOR ONCE (but that will never happen, so by default I will never take these people seriously. Also because if gender variance were an issue, God wouldn’t have made me (and millions of others) the way I am. There are actual problems in this world to worry about, so stop trying to convince me that by “acting like a man” and preferring men who “act like women” I’m contributing to the destruction of society. To be honest, I hope I’m contributing to the downfall of society, because this one stinks). Instead, target the rapists, the murderers, the pedos, the human traffickers, the child exploiters, the money hoarding ultra-rich, the fascists, the racists, the sexists, the homophobes, the supremacists, the nazis, the liars, the cheaters, and the media that promotes them. But most of these people are too far gone to see what’s wrong with the above. So I’m ranting about it all here in this echo chamber. I have no choice.

[carrickbender]

Sunday 7:

1. Had a job interview with a company I'd really like to work for but I'm not optimistic. But I did get to wear a tie, so that was nice...

2. Thank you Amazon for helping me confuse my Dunning-Kruger effect neighbour once again. He's only sure of the 2 AR-15s he keeps by his door, the one in the garage, and the paranoia-induced security system that ate lots of cash... oh, and he's sure that the FedEx guy should go back to Tacoma(the FedEx guy is African-American). Charming, right?

3. Oh and if you really want to start a war with your neighbours without firing a shot, lower the deck on your lawnmower for a tighter cut on your shared front lawn. I mean, nothing says passive-aggressive middle aged white guy like that!

4. One nice thing about May, in the northern climates: soft butter season has returned! (If you know, you know!)

5. I have 2 gigs booked so far this summer, which is nice. And some dental work done locally, because I can't afford the trip down to have it done right elsewhere but I can charge a new bandage crown for the one that outlived its life expectations by a lot. Capitalism is great, isn't it?

6. To be honest, I'm not doing very well upstairs. Same shit: I feel miserable, added anxiety about money, and no relief in sight. Toss in really bad body dysmorphia, and I'm a fucking delight, for sure.

7. Seriously though: it's really awesome to see yall doing amazing things, glimmering like beautiful diamonds in a muddy river. It's inspiring to see those things, to see the love shining through. Thank you for them, and much love yall!

Just keep me where the light is...

[woahzpeltwrong]

WHAT I THINK OF YOU BASED ON YOUR DUOLINGO LANGUAGE OF CHOICE AS A PERSON WITH AN ALMOST 800 DAY LONG STREAK EXCEPT IT KIND OF DEVOLVES AND I MOSTLY COMPLAIN ABOUT DUOLINGO:

(I hope i did this cut right if not this is gonna be LLLOOONG)

Spanish: The classic. It's classic because it's the language that Duolingo is best at. It's actually half decent. You actually have a chance at learning Spanish! Besides that, you probably enjoy the memes about Duolingo, and I imagine your streak is decently long.

French: Everything I know about french Duolingo is bad. It's the only language that's picky about punctuation, it's often wrong for no reason, you probably are struggling. Also, can you conjugate a verb? Duolingo is generally bad with that. Besides that, everyone I know who does French duolingo is slightly pretentious and I don't think I trust you as a person.

German: Ohhhh boy. If you're attempting to learn German with Duolingo alone you might as well just buy the textbook already. While Duolingo is already not great, grammar is so rough for German on Duolingo. Please don't try to learn German grammar with Duolingo. Anyway I think if you're learning German in general you're pretty cool and that's no different for Duolingo learners. Best of luck to yall

Italian: I don't actually know much about Italian Duolingo. I do know that the two people I know that the two people that I know who do Italian Duolingo are gay though so Im assuming you're either Italian-American or gay.

Japanese: This used to be so, so much worse. They improved it, though. It's actually not horrible! Please do supplement your learning with something besides Duolingo, though. You will learn practically nothing otherwise. Anyway 99% chance you like anime because you're learning Japanese on Duolingo

Chinese: it could definitely be worse! It's definitely HORRIBLE, but it is usually actually right and its grammar isn't absolute trash like some of the other ones. It is definitely on the worse side for grammar, but it's not Latin. Aside from all of that, I do think there's at least a 25% chance you're doing this because you ARE Chinese, and a 75% chance you're doing this because you heard Mandarin was hard and wanted to see how true that was without putting money into it.

Russian: ME TOO!!!! This is my primary language on Duolingo currently and all I have to say is why? It's really not worth using Duolingo for, since I started in October 2022 and all I can say is that my potato is cold. It's primarily focused on vocabulary, but it's very random vocabulary, and you learn exactly none of the grammar at any point. I think you're cool :)

Korean: immediately stop. Please learn Korean somewhere else. It's not worth it. One of the worse ones, but at least it's not Latin Duolingo. If you actually actively do this you TERRIFY me and i am begging you to stop

Portuguese: uhhhh.... sure, i guess. It's not great, but it's... fine, I think. It's decent for vocabulary, if nothing. I have literally never met a Portuguese Duolingo learner though

Arabic: ALPHABET? YES. EVERYTHING ELSE? PLEASE NO. My opinion of you is the exact same as for Chinese, 75% chance you heard it was hard and didn't want to commit yet

Dutch: I genuinely did not know this was on Duolingo until I started doing this. Since it's not super popular I am also going to assume Duolingo does not care about it and it is probably only good for vocab. I do not think you are out there, I do not think people learn Dutch on Duolingo.

Swedish: as always please learn on something else its only good for vocabulary anyway you probably live in sweden, i think? Isnt it popular there or something??

Norwegian: general rule of thumb: vocabulary is the only thing duolingo is good at. Anyway, what? Learn somewhere else, anything below chinese on the list has been left to rot and they do not care about it

Turkish: wwwwow. You are really something! Learn Turkish somewhere else. At least it's not Latin

.....

At this point i became tired of saying "it's only good for vocabulary, learn grammar somewhere else." This can be assumed for literally everything.

.....

Polish: YOU SCARE ME POLISH DUOLINGO IS HARD

Irish: you are above the age of 45 and american

Greek: you are a mythology buff

Hebrew: you were probably curious. Everyone else learned somewhere else

Danish: im sorry that you're learning Danish. You are a sad person.

Hindi: The only person I know who is doing Hindi Duolingo is Indian herself, so I guess you're probably Indian idk

Czech: ...???????? Stop

Esperanto: generally i just hate Esperanto with such a burning passion that i don't think anyone should learn it

Ukranian: you're trying! I imagine you will give up in a week though, sorry!

Welsh: I'm all for protecting endangered languages but this isnt how to do it

Vietnamese: a language with six tones and they teach you how to pronounce 0 of them. You're probably cool but stop with duolingo

Hungarian: I did not know this was on duolingo! Very brave of you to try learning a Uralic language on Duolingo, is it going horribly?

Swahili: learn somewhere else. You are probably so cool but duolingo and SWAHILI??????????

Romanian: The only person ive ever met who did this gave up in 3 days because duolingo sucks. I am assuming your streak is no longer than a week

Indonesian: ..... okay. Sure. At least its not Latin.... I think you started learning this completely for fun though

Hawaiian: I HATE DUOLINGO FOR THIS!!!! IT IS A CRITICALLY ENDANGERED LANGUAGE IT DESERVES SO MUCH BETTER!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU FOR LEARNING IT BUTHFJCNEIFBDJFJDSJD!!!!!!!!!!! I HATE YOU DUOLINGO

Navajo: see above. Love you. Hate duolingo.

Klingon and High Valyrian: i hate you

Latin: HERE IT IS. MY WORST ENEMY. GOD I HATE LATIN DUOLINGO. THE AUDIO QUALITY WAS CLEARLY RECORDED IN A CAR. ITS NOT EVEN GOOD FOR VOCABULARY BECAUSE IT IS LITERALLY WRONG VERY VERY OFTEN. ITS SUPER PICKY ON WORD ORDER AND FOR WHAT? ITS LATIN!!! ITS NOT PICKY!!!! IVE BEEN LEARNING LATIN IN A FORMAL SETTING FOR 3 YEARS NOW AND I HATE LATIN DUOLINGO MORE THAN ANYTHING. IF YOU WANT TO LEARN LATIN BUY A LATIN ENGLISH DICTIONARY. IF YOU WANT GRAMMAR GO ONTO MAGISTRULA. ITS A GREAT WEBSITE FOR LATIN GRAMMAR. OH, BUT WHAT ISNT GREAT? DUOLINGO. IN LATIN, TO ANNOY IS TRANSLATED AS "vexare". THIS IS. ACCORDING TO DUOLINGO, "to come from". WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? WHAT??? I HATE DUOLINGO. I HATE THIS. ITS ALWAYS WRONG. THE AUDIO QUALITY IS ACTUALLY GARBAGE. I HATE DUOLINGO I HATE DUOLINGO I HATE DUOLINGO. DO NOT LEARN LATIN ON DUOLINGO!!!!!!!!!!! I HATE DUOLINGO SO MUCH I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE IT DONT USE LATIN DUOLINGO YOU ARE BEING LIED TO

Scottish Gaelic: you are again over 45 and American

Finnish: ohhhh god. I am so sorry. Ur cool ig but im sorry

Yiddish: i am, again, so sorry. Its duolingo. You can't write IN YIDDISH in duolingo because of course you cant

Haitian Creole and Zulu: I don't believe you these are the bottom two languages

[himbo-klown]

Satisfaction

Warning not prof read, grammar mistakes(naw like i suck at writing lmao), this post is just for fun, i also dont know how to use tumbler so like… this kinda looks ugly lol

Theme warnings!! This post does contain themes of mental illness, cannibalism used as a metaphor for love , violence, disruption of a grave, the main character is not a good person but hes not like… a monster??!. (If yall think i need to add other things then just say so pls!!) THE MAIN CHARACTERS CRINGE PLEASE!!!

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Little bit of context: This story is a submission for a creative writing contest! The theme was Taboo romance and I decided that a horror/thriller would be fun! If you know me irl or recognize this… no you don’t lmao?!?

This story is based off of the intense feelings that i have for my partner that i feel i’m not able to properly explain at times(im in therapy do guys lols) there’s also some refs to things we like lol

October 26th, 2023

It was never hard to tell that I was different from the other boys in school, or anybody for that matter. I was the kid girls would say ‘My homeboy wants you’ to or the kinda guy that was asked out as a joke, it got old after 5th grade but never stopped. Senior year was by far the worst one of them all, his name was Keith, and he wasn’t super pretty or anything like that, he was a nerd who would walk me to my bus stop and ramble on and on about how different Pokémon gods symbolized different things. I honestly liked him and he was cute, but i more than liked him, i wanted him all to myself, i still have a few of his leg hairs lying around; i like to sniff them to try and imagine how he tastes slow cooked like oxtail. 

December 15th, 2023

Nevermind he’s a weirdo and it turned out he liked Pokémon in unholy ways[someone check on his dog please], his meat was tainted so I lost interest in him. But my eyes didn't take long to wonder, there was a boy who was Canadian and he seemed rather nice, no he was beyond the kindness that any human should be able to give. He was like taking a bite of my first love [which i didn't know what it felt like, but i was guessing it was nice.] I loved talking to him honestly, he woke up around 8am and went to sleep at 12am but sometimes we went all night. I had no problem risking my sleep for him[it's not like my AP classes would be any better.] He was intoxicating, to say the least.

January 10th, 2024

I wanted him badly, like I wanted to wake up next to him, kiss him, hug him, I wanted to wine and dine him if I ever got the chance . The only problem was that well…he lived in Canada, he always talked of how he had mixed feelings about his country and I always told him that it could be worse. I mean he could be here for all he cares, but I'd never want my meat to be tainted by this land, these people[I'm such a proud American]. So I was going to go to him. I decided to save for the month. It was going to take a few overtime shifts and even snagging a couple of bucks from some buds but I was going to get the money and make it to canada.

February 10th, 2024

 The plane ride was rather boring without being able to text him, and even more so because the woman next to me didn't know social etiquette, like I was supposed to care that she got unlucky with life and contracted chlamydia. There was also this brony, which I found a sin in itself, but he smelled… like bad but it also made me snicker because it just reminds me of keith.

February 11th, 2024 6:27pm

Canada was a beautiful place but I had no reason to stay and admire it when all I cared for was my own appetite. But i couldn't help but let childish implusies pull me into a store full of valentine's day sales, what caught my eyes are the matching trolls cups, i couldn't help but get them wanting to see the response he would give to the gift[I love my adult money privileges].

February 12th-15th[was… busy?]

 I felt bad for him hes so nice and kind, so nice he just took me in without a second thought about how I found him or his home, we took a tour of his room and its nice it was just as nerdish as him, but i came here with a plan and i came here to execute it as such. His skin was nice, so I took some as my own and it hurt a lot. I think I splashed some blood on his favorite blanket, but anywho, why is the human skull so hard ? I thought it was gonna be like a nut and would just take a few hacks to crack it open but noooo he just had to be hard headed. I did get it open[almost breaking my wrist doing so] but I had no plans for a meal, I mean it's not every day you just cook up some brain, but we managed. I ended up using the brain for spaghetti; I mashed it all up to make meat balls and must I say they were delicious. His brain was so tender, it melted like butter, but it also had a slight chew to it, not a taint in sight. The ‘wine’ I had with it was a little thick but it was his so I drank without complaint. I was also quite proud of my cup purchase :D. Poppy was right… trolls do just wanna have fun

???, 2024 2:34 AM

 My head hurt, like a lot, I thought eating my love would make me feel better and full. Yet here I stand before his grave, my arms barely mobile as I dug him out, freeing him from the pits of the afterlife without me. A month he left me alone, a month with this hunger for more of him. His stupid casket was the thing that stood between me and my love, my satisfaction of being full.

There he was, as beautiful as the day I feasted upon him. I took my shirt off to show him that I still kept a piece of him with me. I touched his skin on my chest as I looked at mine on his. Death would never do us part so long as he had me attached to him. I would go through the redemptions of purgatory to see him flutter in the clouds of heaven. It felt like a sin to touch him again, to feel him to embrace him as I laid to rest beside him. Fresh tears poured down my face as I pulled the cover over the casket. This time I am not left behind, this time I am not alone.

“W-why — Why has your body left me so full, so satisfied. Yet I am starved for your love to grace me again.” I murmured softly as I caressed his face.

——————————————————————————————————

I hope you guys liked this… cus um im super proud of it even if it didn’t win!!!

[femmesandhoney]

Europeans talk a lot of shit about america to deflect from their own bloody history of violent colonialism. Especially the brits like who the fuck's fault do you think america is??? Lmfao??? They wanna act like they're soooo advanced with culture and art and blah blah blah and the only reason they have such like...pristine landscapes/well-preserved history still present on the land is because they pillaged burned and destroyed everyone else's and used the blood money to enrich themselves. Europeans needs to have several seats and address their own structural inequalities/dirty secrets if they wanna act all high and mighty about Americans. I'm so tired of their obnoxious egos, false sense of self-importance, and self-aggrandizement they try to justify by pretending they don't have skeletons in their closets, too. They looove to call americans self-centered as if they can enter any conversation without immediately going "well i'm EUROPEAN [and you should be impressed by that] and how DARE you not research and study my country's culture and history (not the violent part and especially not what we did to africa asia and the american continents tho aha) before you made a random post on the internet when i don't even follow you. Americans are so full of themselves, they didn't even research everything about me specifically before talking to themselves on their own blog."

And TBH if Americans weren't right about british "food" (pey whet??? Lmfao????) brits wouldn't get so butthurt and defensive and immediately go "yeah well you don't have healthcare 😋" like damn 0-60 real fast, must have hit a nerve a little too close to home, huh? Go back to bootlicking for your monarchy and preaching to everyone about how it's fine to have one ackshually and shut the fuck up about how bitter and jealous you are that americans make tasty food. (Lbr here. No country has a monopoly on tasty food)

i love the UK and find it a very beautiful place, but same as anywhere, there's people who really hate americans for no discernable reasons and just want to see everything we do and say in the worst light even when we're obviously joking around. it's just like can yall lighten up please for once in your life lol. and yeah it's always odd when anyone not just brits try and attack americans for the trauma we go through at the hands of our government. like wow thanks you really showed me!🙄

and you're so right most all countries have delicious food and i do think i'm lucky as an american to have grown up where i did because i had access to a lot of other cultural cuisines just because of the larger city i lived in. i feel very sorry for people who don't get the same access and variety that most americans do, we get to try so much and it's wonderful lol

[blepsweirdfandomthoughts]

So I popped onto the ao3 Tumblr and...censorship? On AO3? I have some thoughts.

I've been reading ao3 for around...4, 5 years at this point.

I've seen fluffy stuff, I've seen smutty stuff, I've seen fluffy smut, I've seen things that is cursed beyond all hell.

Do I want to read those dead dove do not eat fics? No. Is the solution then censorship? No.

If I don't want to read a gory/very explicit fic,

1. It is tagged as very gory, explicit, dead dove do not eat, so I skip over it.

2. Just use the tags system on the side to not include any of these fics. It's actually fairly easy to use, once you get over the brief intimidation of all the buttons and search boxes.

Censorship, in some cases, is ok. Bleep out curse words on kids programming. Sure.

But this is a case where censorship goes beyond all the legitimately gory stuff. What do we count as censored material? All the sex? BDSM? Furry? A/B/O? LGBTQ?

Books get banned for the weirdest reasons. 1984 was banned in the US for being communist, while also being banned in the USSR for being too pro American.

And just because a fanfiction has risqué content doesn't automatically mean it's going to be complete crack and shameless smut. Evern if the fics just a giant ball of plotless porn, there are tags for that. I've learned about bdsm, consent, tropes in fiction, and writing itself through ao3 itself better than some books out on the shelves, making ludicrous amounts of money despite them being complete trash. (Lookin at you E.L James)

IF YOU DONT WANT TO READ IT, DONT READ IT.

You're not obligated to read these fics if it makes you uncomfortable. If you want to read it because it makes you happy, go right ahead. If others want to read it because it makes them happy, you have no authority to say that they can't because it makes you uncomfortable.

Furthermore, these fics are a sign of dedication, a labor of love, in a way. Somebody sat down at their computer, laptop, phone, or blackberry, and typed out all of this. FOR FREE. Had it Beta'd perhaps. The amount of time put into these fics is nothing to be scoffed at. To have all this time, these instrumental pieces of humanity, ripped away because one person found it uncomfortable is a bit unfair, isn't it?

Finally remember that fan fiction is FICTION. Pixels on a screen. There are no actors cast. There are no helpless interns abused. The only people abusing themselves are the writers and the betas, screaming as they figure out how to write a sex scene without 3 consecutive uses of the word "member".

The fanfiction community is one where creators and readers come together to gush about the Fandom, characters, and ships they love the most (Still gotta tie it into Sandman somehow bc it's my current fandom- check out Slow Burn by Arahir; fluffiest sh*t I've read in a while.).

Censorship ain't gonna do shit. Prohibition didn't work. Overturning Roe v. Wade won't work (sorry for that political reference, it's a topic I could rant about later). So banning/censoring something so inane like smutty fanfic, is basically like shooting oneself in the foot. We're still going to find a way to write and read it, no matter what the higher ups do. Heck, a site called "collection that belongs to the common public" might pop up with all the smutty fanfics yall want.

Maybe continue working on...porn censorship instead?

So. Yeah.

[heavyhitterheaux]

"Still can't believe Jack married her. I mean a former stripper?" If you mad, JUST SAY THAT!! Like don’t be mad,YOU would never make any money off of it 🤷🏽‍♀️

"I know. He could do better and she isn't all that attractive to begin with. And she can't dance for shit anyway." Don’t be mad you ugly & yo pussy stank 🙄

"And the two of you need to fuck all the way off and stop disrespecting her. I bet.. no I know that you couldn't even do half of the shit she does and saying he could do better? I hope you weren't talking about yourselves because there is no way in hell my best friend would go for either of you. Not his type. But she is. So once again fuck off and leave my little sister alone." YOU TELL THEM HOES URBY!! I love you 😩😭

"Just think about it like this, you are multi talented and can do more forms of dance than just ballet even if that is your favorite." This man js really 🫠 HE ALWAYS KNOW WHAT TO SAY.

"I'm going to need a pole and an outfit." PERIODDD BABYGURL!!

Now, you graduated from Julliard, was the first black principal dancer of the American Ballet Theater, and got to marry your celebrity crush. You won at life babe!! Don’t let these raggedy ass hoes get you down!!

“Prepare for this to go on for another twenty minutes. When he starts talking about you, it’s hard to get him to stop.” Ladiessss if he don’t love you like this…..DROP HIS ASS!!

“MY BEST FRIEND IS THE SHIT!” Kehlani screamed while recording you on her phone from her place next to Jess and Blanca in the balcony. Why am I literally listening to bae rn 🫣 BAE MEET ME BACKSTAGE 🤭

"Yall wanna hear about how I met my amazing wife? Yes? Good because I don't give a fuck if you said no because I'm about to tell it." I love how he keeps asking questions, knowing he won’t take no for an answer 😭

“Hold on, baby. I got it.” Jack undid both of them before slipping them off and handing them to you. Ughhh I js rlly love this man!!!

"Talk your shit, Mrs. Harlow. We only got winners in this family. Now hurry up so we can make this baby" He’s Fr abt this baby! SEE YALL IN 9 months 😌

neelamthadhani: and how jackharlow simped over his wife for a total of thirty minutes? If he ain’t obsessed & in love wit me like this ION WANT IT!!

americanballettheater: this is our principal dancer and she is here to stay. end of story. AS THEY MOTHAFUCKIN SHOULDDDDDD 😌

REE!! You ate the whole fucking plate!! Cant say I’m surprised tho you 🤷🏽‍♀️ you always eat🫶🏽

I love them so much!!! They really up there tied wit FL & Jack 😭😩💕

Okayyy part 2! let's GOOOOO!!!

You already know Urban is going to protect his sister in law and that goes without saying

Jack is always going to say something in order to make her feel better when she needs a little encouragement 🥺

And his little speech talking about her was my absolute FAVORITE 🥺🥺🥺

Like he is so proud of her and happy that he got to marry her

Thank you so so much my darling! It's one of my favorites 🥰🥰

[delcakoo]

EMSSSS MY LOVE💙💙 AAAAAA IDK IM EXTRA HAPPY AND EXCITED TODAY TBH. but stress levels are escalating cause of periodic exams I'm gonna die. im breaking out as well hahaha. IM TOO LAZY TO STUDY I DON'T WANT TO😭😭 I DONT HAVE THE MOTIVATION. PLLDSNSKDLK HELP ME. man i really wish you can send pics even as anonymous like so unfair... but other than my stress levels sky rocketing, im img reat ;D.. i think i bought another jungwon polaroid pics cause its worth my money tbh. ppl will say that im wasting money on paper😭 ITS BETTER THAN WASTING LIKE A FORTUNE FOR THERAPY >:(( LEAVE ME ALONE. how are you? i missed u cause like i go on and off here tbh. bahahah you have no idea. that IM SUPPORTING YOU ANONYMOUS AND NOT ANON. LIKE U HAVE A THOUSAND FOLLOWERS AND U HAVE NO IDEA who i am HAHAHAHHA. im like secretly reposting ur posts and reacting to it too and putting my totz kebrjerkerjb. also whats with americans obsession with adding eggs scene in a romance movie, like not even half way yall are already... disgusting. U CAN LIVE WITHOUT IT. I watching eternals and uh spoiler alert bubs there is spice. for like a quick sec but I STILL HATE IT. why do they keep adding????? can't u just... have a romance movie with JUST kissing scenes. anyway sorry I put u in an awk position. whEN U DO SEE THIS IM SORRY. ITS AN UNCOMFY TOPIC BUT I JUST HAD TO SAY IT CAUSE THEY KEEP- ADDING BS EGGS SCENES ITS LITERALLY UNNECESSARY. ILL UPDATE U AGAIN WHEN I HAVE THE TIME I LOVE U MWA HAHAHAHAHA

-m💙

MOONIEIEIEIEE MY BELOBED HIHI!! IM HAPPY THAT UR EXCITED TODAY DESPITE UR EXAMS LAO THATS A GOOD ATTOTUDE TO HAVE!! 😭 thats so me tho, i dont have exams rn but like just homework n projects I HAVE NO MOTIVATION TO DO ANYTHING 😍😍 SIGHS. AND OMG JUNGWON POLAS AS U SHOULDDD ugh i wish u could show me on anon :((( i’ve been great too besides school obvs!! nothing too exciting rn but i have a presentation coming up,, wish me luck 🙏🙏 STOPP RLLY?! IM HONESTLY HAPPY U SUPPORT ME AND U ARENT A SILENT READER AW 😭 THATS SO CUTE 💗💗 AND SJHSJSM ILYT BAE MUWAH MWUAH

us!!

[ratlastheseus]

I dont do rant posts like ever but. Idk i cant get it out of my head so im gonna ramble here. I know talking to my grandma about it wont change her mind so I wont bother wasting her time or mine, but if you’re like me and you have deep and personal beef with the american conservative brand of “christianity” then feel free to read on.

I went on a road trip with my grandma this past weekend to visit some family 5 hours away in ar-kansas. It was a really nice time! But at one point when we were pulling out of a gas station there were a couple homeless folks holding signs at the intersection. My grandma makes a point of reading out loud everything they had written on those signs and then says to me: “Makes you wonder how many of these people are Actually homeless. They could all just be pretending, to get your money. You gotta work for your money. Can’t expect handouts.” And I mean FUCK DUDE!!!!! What an absolutely monstrous way to think about your fellow human beings! My blood was litcherally boiling but its taken me until now to actually sort out what I wish I’d said while we were still there. If I’d been in the drivers seat just then, I would have made a point of pulling over and giving those people all the cash I had while looking her dead in the eyes. My grandma is a very sweet and caring woman and I HATE that she’s been so poisoned by the republican media because sometimes the most VILE shit comes out of her mouth with zero warning.

“There’s an atheist and a christian in this car,” I wish I had said, “And if somebody asked us ‘should you help the homeless’ only the ATHEIST would respond ‘yes, always!’”

Homeless people aren’t your fucking enemy, they’re not trying to take advantage of you, they just want to fucking live. Do I wonder how many people are pretending to be beggars? No! I don’t! Because the answer is ZERO! Nobody goes out on the streets in the freezing fucking cold like that unless they have no other options! It’s humiliating, it’s degrading, and 90% of the people who pass by will look at you like you’re trash! And it’s dangerous!

(This doesn’t even tap into the cesspit of trying to find a job in the US right now, and I’m to tired to open that can of worms, but thats a huge issue too.) I’m just. I’m so fucking mad. I’m so tired of the absolute hypocrisy that comes from combining american ultra-conservative capitalism with christian values. I’m tired of christianity in general bc this kind of shit is what it usually turns into in this country. It’s inescapable. It’s draining. It’s vile. I just want people to stay fucking ALIVE, I dont care if some of them are MAYBE faking, I’d rather be taken advantage of 1% of the time than drive away 100% of the time without doing anything to help people who actually do need it. Love your neighbor, yall. It’s cold out there.

[cutekittenlady]

Whats murder on the orient express about?

okay okay okay so like

Murder on the Orient Express is a mystery novel by Agatha Christie. It was published in 1934 and is one of Christies most famous mystery stories. (Mind she has a lot of those but i digress)

Course I should say that since a lot of Christie stories came out in, like the early to mid 20th century any reader should beware that there are some "man people back then believed some dumb stuff" moments. There are moments of racism, imperialist thought, etc.

I feel I should point this out because while I am a fan of the Christie mystery stories I feel like this is something about the body of work that needs to be recognized. You can still enjoy the stuff, I think, much in the same way a lot of people still enjoy HP Lovecrafts stuff despite all the much more obvious racist junk in his stories. Just keep all this in mind.

Moving on, the book got adapted several times through Radio, film, and tv with a recent film adaptation that came out in 2017. (Tho I still love the david suchet adaptations that came out in 2010. Srsly whatever else I might think about the man he was fantastic in this role). Needless to say it's easily one of the most popular mystery stories of all time.

I'm only telling yall all this because theres a decent chance you've seen references to the story in other media without realizing.

Anyway, the story takes place on the Orient Express. A luxury transcontinental trainline that existed in real life. On the train is one Hercule Poirot, the self described greatest detective in Europe (a title that isnt unjustified). Hes on the train with a friend of his Monsieur Bouc who is the director of the line. While on the train Poirot is approached by a man named Ratchet who tells him his life has been threatened and he offers to pay Poirot a great deal of money to protect him. Picking up that Ratchet is a nasty character Poirot refuses.

That night Ratchet is murdered in his cabin. To make matters more difficult the train has gotten snowed in on the tracks and isn't able to move forward. Trapping everyone on the train.

After some iniital investigating by Poirot, Monsier Bouc, and a doctor; Poirot concludes that the murderer had to still be on the train. They are able to limit it to the single coach car but that still leaves 12 other people who could have killed the man.

American widow Caroline Hubbard; English governess Mary Debenham; Swedish missionary Greta Ohlsson; Ratchets secretary/translator Hector MacQueen, and his English valet Edward Henry Masterman; Italian-American car salesman Antonio Foscarelli; Russian Princess Natalia Dragomiroff and her German maid Hildegarde Schmidt; Hungarian Count Rudolph Andrenyi and his wife Elena; English Colonel John Arbuthnot; American salesman Cyrus B. Hardman.

Its quickly determined that one of them must be the killer.

I don't want to spoil anything else about the story other than that. But I heartily recommend checking it out. You can probably find an adaptation of it online, or find a copy at your local library. I'm sure you can find an audiobook version of the story on youtube if nothing else.

Seriously is a fun thing to listen to if you enjoy mysteries.

[frogs-scare-me-love-em-tho]

ranting here bc twitter has had enough of me

look, i’m a paramore fan, theyre the band of my life and like it or not gooddyeyoungs main clients comes from the fandom, i mean hayley co-created, and me as a brazilian fan and big supporter of the brand am very upset about this whole situation

look i get it “brazilians are everywhere”, and its true, we are great people filled with passion and love to appreciate every part of the world, the come to brazil jokes have always made me upset bc yeah “lets make fun of the second to third world country quoting their most used phrase”, i have seen way too many people use it to the point where i just dont find strength to bother (but also fuck u, 100% of the artists says they love it here but come back once each 7 years)

but now... blaming a whole country of hacking? SO uncalled for, literally just saying “crazy paramore fan” would be ok but now why putting a country in the middle of it?

and i’m talking about this here now bc i just saw their apology note (2 days late and only after their superior heard about it) and yeah i have my thoughts about it: 1, it is so empty, they literally just said what happened but at the same time sounding like it was all fun and games and a case of misinterpretation, and 2. why cant they take the full blame? i didn't see ONE tweet threatening her of death and if it happened privately, yeah that sucks and its really awful but why mention it? it just looks like youre saying “yeah we were xenophobic but yall not so innocent either”

“omg so we cant do anything right” i never said that but like its not so hard to be a good fucking person, and this comes from an 18yo, yall are like what? late 20s early 30s? maybe is just another case of american narcissism but learn how to make a fucking statement without sharing the blame where its fully on ya

also respect other peoples effort, i know that its illegal to re-upload videos but be honest how much money were you gonna lose on that asmr? like 10 bucks? PBR did it for others who dont understand english and if you appreciate that then at least provide captions for everyone. accessibility and community is not just about lgbtq and how to dye.

i sooooo wanted to have this brand around here, i truly think its an epic product filled with creativity but im not sure if i wanna support a brand who sees my whole country and this situation as a joke or just something that happened

good luck hayley and brian with all of this and the future of your company, i know you work hard, i just hope things get more professional from now on bc i dont know if you noticed but this kind of behavior is letting the brand look like a fanpage where the employees are idolized and its really just about being popular

(also not related but whos idea was to take a picture filled with white people in the most boring hair colors ever and put “colorful community” on top of it?)

[yourfinalbow]

"if Destiel wasn't on the cards, why is it Canon" u mean that unrequited love confession from Cas? Lmao. Jensen is literally homophobic yall trying to push him into Destiel ain't for the sake of representation its for the sake of you own little MLM fetish ship. Two straight actors ain't good gay rep. Even if Destiel was requited by Dean. Again, stop being a loser.

Hi! I'm actually glad you came to my ask box, it gives me an excuse to try and clear up some of these misconceptions.

So first of all, we don't technically know if it's unrequited. There is a lot of tinhatting involved in Destiel shipping, but there is also some solid evidence behind it. I personally believe that Dean returns Castiel’s confession, but didn’t have time to react to it. (I wouldn’t know what to do if my best friend of twelve years told me they made a deal with the Empty, was about to die, loved me, his love for me is the reason he’s about to die, and then continued to tell me that everything I believed about myself is wrong.) Some people also believe that Dean may have thought that if he didn’t say anything, the Empty wouldn’t come. Others believe that he did say something, but it was cut. (Which actually isn’t as far fetched as it sounds, considering scripts are sent to dubbing companies ahead of time and he reciprocated in almost every Latin American dub, as well as in French and Italian. And before you claim that there was a “rogue translator”, I must say that the script and dub has to go through very many heads before it is aired, so practically the entire company would have to be in on it. There are also a lot of strange jump cuts in the scene.) People have their personal headcanons, and you have yours! That’s perfectly fine, though anonymously telling me, and another awesome human being, that I’m a loser for having my headcanon is actually incredibly coward-like, presumptuous, and disrespectful.

So while Dean didn’t tell Cas he loved him in the English version, (Though I don’t know why that’s the only one that matters, considering only 13% of the world speaks it.) That doesn’t mean it’s not canon however, just unconfirmed on one side. (So your previous statement, “Destiel was never on the cards. Lol.”, is both grammatically incorrect and false.)

Your next statement, however, is the one that rubs me the wrong way. Jensen Ackles is not homophobic. I’ll link a few posts below that completely disprove this, but just because you don’t ship a queer ship, doesn’t make you homophobic. There’s also his infamous gay Aunt, and in my experience of homophobic-people-interacting-with-their-gay-family-members, (which is sadly a good enough amount to have a proper viewpoint), they don’t usual act as comfortable and open as Jensen and Aunt Darla, (and her wife!) are with eachother.

-Twitter thread of him being comfortable with queer peeps.

-CW’s “Dare to Defy” Campaign. (This movement is still very important, but the words don't hold as much weight to me personally after seeing what they did in the finale.)

-Tumblr post with Jensen being supportive of queer peeps. (He's even raised money for people in the LGBTQIA+ community anon. A homophobic person does not do that.)

You also have to take into consideration how comfortable he is with his male friends. I’m not saying he himself is apart of the LGBTQIA+ community, but there are countless videos and pictures of him being comfortable with both Jared and Misha, and that’s something homophobic people tend to stay away from. Once again, this doesn’t mean he himself is queer, and obviously people can love each other platonically! But people who are super religious and stead fast against gay people, usually go out of their way to not be seen as gay. And it’s clear it doesn’t bother J2M at all.

Jensen has also, in recent years, made jokes about Destiel. My favorite one is probably the, “Dean has no taste, clearly.” You can find that here because it genuinely makes my day. And if he was truely homophobic, I doubt he would be comfortable with things like this, as well as Jared constantly poking fun at him about both Misha and Destiel. (He would have at least pulled Jared aside privately and asked him nicely not to do that anymore. There are ways of doing this without seeming homophobic, and in reverse, just because he doesn’t want someone to make jokes like that doesn’t make him homophobic.) Third, I personally want Destiel to be canon because A, having two famous and main characters on a long-running Sci-Fi show, that was originally intended to be incredibly heterosexual, come out as queer would be good representation. People need to see that it’s okay to not be straight. Queer people have been oppressed for thousands of years, so being able to see themselves in their favorite show and characters is so powerful. Especially if these characters live long, happy lives together. And I argue that the actors don’t have to be gay themselves to play a gay character. People cross the borders on gender, sex, age, and nationality all the time. Why should sexual orientation be any different? And the B, because it's my otp. Simple as that.

And I don’t speak for the entire Destiel community, just as you don’t speak for the entire community of people who don’t ship them, but I personally don’t fetishize m|m. I actually get no enjoyment out of reading smut, and actively avoid it. I ship them because they have great chemistry, an interesting and often romantic storyline, and they obviously care about each other very much. Their gender has no impact on that. I ship w|w couples, (I actually wish there were more of them, because having my own representation is important to me), as well as heterosexual and nonbinary ones too.

So you can call me a loser anon, and honestly, I’ll embrace it. But I’m not the one coming into people’s ask boxes and hating on them, just because they want to ship two awesome people. I don’t judge you for what you ship, so I ask you return the favor. (But feel free to come talk to me again about anything else.) And since you seem to be having a bad day and taking it out on others, here's a gif for you!

And if anyone wants to respectfully add anything to this post, go ahead!

[whatifyoulivelikethat]

'requiem for a dream' discussion XD

update 1: finished requiem for a dream

update 2: depressed as fuck.

update 3: why did no one stop me from being a naive piece of shit and having even an ounce of hope for the characters XD.

update 4: these are not updates anymore. i am genuinely sitting and thinking about why i expected it to end happier.

for real tho, i really liked the book. i wouldnt say it's in among my favourites but i wont be forgetting about it for a while. the way all these characters, think of drugs as something that will HELP them reach their dreams, their goals is drenching me in so much sadness that i cannot process being in that state. at first i was rooting so hard for harry and marion and then halfway through im like- well yall are FUCKED up now so no italy, no coffee shops and no paintings. and then i questioned whether their dream to be on the come up was just something they could find an excuse for getting drugs. but then i was like hm harry and tyrone do everything by themselves so if that was the reason why would harry still be with marion if she played no actual role in helping them get drugs. and then i thought maybe its an excuse to THINK theyre going to get off them, their dreams were built on the hope that buying drugs would give them enough money to fulfill those very dreams. the denial to the addiction was INSANE tho, like inSANE.

i feel the worst for sara. absolutely destroyed by the progression of her character and i say not only because she ended up in such a terrible place, but also because as someone who's had a terrible relationship with food and body image, watching her cling on to her physical appearance and thinking that all her loneliness would be gone by going onthat show LOOKING a certain way, just made me say 'dont do it please dont please please'. her narration with the repetion of zophtic and thin and the refridgerators talkign was horrifying im just so so so sad she did NOT deserve any of this. its funny how tyrone was disgusted by the man in the jail. and then went on to be without alice and thinking the exact same way the man did about women and relationships. im sorry for ranting i just have a lot of thoughts about this book and its totally fine if u dont reply. also if im not wrong was a-dick-ted inspired from this? i think i remember u saying something along those lines but im not too sure if i got it right. brb gonna reread that series lol

side note: im gonna watch the movie with my crush im terrified and excited at the same time its AWESOME

um, the movie is very accurate to the book, unsure if you want to watch it with your crush LMAO the movie spares absolutely zero expense in how graphic it is and how incredibly messed up the entire situation is

and the ending is exactly like the book

EXACTLY

yeah

your crush might never look at you the same way again lol

'Requiem for A Dream' is about the fruitlessness of the American dream and how that concept can ultimately destroy you. It uses drug addiction to parallel this fixation. All of the characters are trying to "make it". The American dream is a concept that doesn't pertain only to America; it is the idea that anyone can attain their own version of success, regardless of their background, and that upward mobility is possible for everyone. America sells itself as the "land of opportunity", so it is as much a marketing scheme as it is a valid hope. Many countries outside of America still view America as the land of opportunity (and then you live here and, well... XD).

In theory, this is not a terrible mindset to have. Who doesn't want their own version of success? The problem lies in the word itself - success - and how people equate it to money, fame, fortune, and then take it to excess - a little is not enough, once you have a taste of success, you need more, more, more.

See the parallels to drug addiction? XD

Originally, the 'a-dick-ted' au was not inspired by this. It wasn't even supposed to be a series at all LOL It was just a one-shot ft Yoongi fucking you next to a sleeping JK (oop). But then I wrote 'dreaming in reality' and an idea began to form. 'Requiem for a Dream' has influenced a lot of my writing (can't tell you how many essays I've written on this book, it's so easy from both a film and character development perspective); it was only a matter of time before it touched something on here lol

In the 'a-dick-ted' au, I used the concept of love. The reader is fixated on the idea that love does not exist. Yoongi's character is fixated on the idea that he is too mentally broken to be loved. Jungkook's character is fixated on the idea of a "perfect love". All three use sex to cope in one way or another. When they have sex, they are "dreaming", in a delusion where their own self-imposed rules don't apply. When they stop, they are looking for their next fix. However, the reader and Yoongi would be too passive to push their emotions to the extreme, which is why the introduction of Jungkook escalates everything. There's a purity in Jungkook's indecency (lol), almost ironic that he is the most honest of all three. He is the foil that pushes them to their dreams. The line becomes blurred; maybe, after all, reader and Yoongi do feel love and it's not as unattainable as they thought? And maybe Jungkook's perfect love is as imperfect as they come in this strange harmonious triangle of confusion?

lol

'Requiem for a Dream' basically influenced the idea that one can be consumed by an idea to the point of unhealthiness and being blinded by your own dreams - or nightmares, depending on how you look at it. If you reread the 'a-dick-ted' au, you will start to see the connecting themes, use of language, changes in word choice by the characters over time, etc.

There's a lot of intention behind every line, every word, words spoken / unspoken, even the stories that just seem like PWP XD I'm well aware it flies over the heads of most, but occasionally someone chooses to read 'Requiem for a Dream' and pop into my inbox to talk about it. I love that book :D

hey

it got me through a lot of essays for many classes, from psychology to film to literature LOL

[marginal-notes]

TLOK Episode One a.k.a. Korra immediately goes on a rampage

So, as mentioned, I’m finally getting around to watching The Legend of Korra with all of my terrible tastes and general thoughts. 

Don’t give me spoilers, my indignation will be funnier without them. 

What I Know About Korra Going In:

If the show can have all of Aang’s bending teachers still around for the audience’s nostalgic pleasure, Suki better be alive and kicking too or I am going to throw a fit

Technology progressed pretty intensely in ways that I will want to pick apart later

Listen, what the fuck is Republic City. Why. Why does this exist. Show you better answer me fast with why this exist for a legitimate in world reason that isn’t just: “The audience is a bunch of American kids and teenagers and we want to uphold the liberal ideals of democracy because of course that’s the motives of the victors after a global war of probably unprecedented scope despite like, Zero (0) indication that the idea of democracy was rattling around anyone’s heads in ATLA.” 

If this is the reason, I’m going to quit watching. Disgraceful. Disgusting.

Something involving anti-bender sentiment.

Something involving something called the Red Lotus which I am side-eyeing the shit out of 

Bloodbending?????

Spirit World shenanigans and Avatar backstory that’s on thin ice with me. 

Love triangles. UGH. TERRIBLE. WHY DOES MEDIA DO THIS. WHO FINDS THIS INTERESTING. PLEASE RAISE YOUR HAND SO YOU CAN EXPLAIN TO ME. 

Alright, here we go. 

WELL, 30 SECONDS IN AND I GOT MY WISH FOR AN EXPLAINATION ABOUT REPUBLIC CITY.

Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko transformed the Fire Nation colonies into the United Republic of Nations, a society where benders and nonbenders from all over the world could live and thrive together in peace and harmony.

Okay. I’m.... I’m going to withhold judgement for now until I watch like, literally more than 30 seconds to fully form my thoughts about this move. I THINK IT’S A DUMB MOVE AND IF THIS IS WHY PEOPLE KEEP HAVING FIRE NATION DEMOCRACY FICS I QUIT.

So. We get a panning shot into this city. Very urban city that’s the product of the industrialization and like whatever the hell that propaganda voice over is talking about. 

As a method of setting the scene and immediately letting the viewers feel and know the passage of time between ATLA and TLOK, I love this shot. There’s no mistaking this for being immediately after ATLA. We’re listening to one of Aang’s kids. There are skyscrapers. The Fire Nation palace in ATLA probably counted towards the architectural development towards urban skyscrapers, but that architecture is fully formed by TLOK. Brilliant. 

I'm the Avatar! You gotta deal with it!

What a cute brat. Her poor parents, oh my god. 

Also, is she supposed to be a prodigy. 

Again with immediately setting contrasts against ATLA. Very cool demonstration, extremely effective distinction between Aang’s journey around the world trying to find teachers and learning how to bend in the middle of a war vs. Korra at peacetime with a whole entire facility dedicated to her. 

Not sure about how I feel regarding the White Lotus’s presence. 

IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE KATARA????

That's your grandmother, Meelo.

Does he not visit his parents. It can’t be that hard to swing by for like. Yearly festivals if the Water Tribe has those. I don’t see why not. Maybe something for when the winter night ends, I can see that being festive. 

Tenzin do you like. Not call? Not write?? Sir???

Oh my god, Pema. I hope she really likes kids, despite how rowdy they are. 

Wait. How old is Tenzin. Thirties to forties? 

How old is Katara. 

Is this going to be a repeat of the Fire Nation royal miracle babies. 

I get that, but I don't think keeping me locked up in this compound like a prisoner is what he had in mind.

Going by the episode title, I bet we know what Korra has in mind. Speaking of this compound, where’s the Southern Tribe? The aerial shots look like it’s in the middle of nowhere. Is she so far removed that she doesn’t even spend time with the tribe she was born into? Cause that sure as hell wasn’t how Aang was raised. 

Honestly fascinating as these contrasts keep coming. The bizarre presence of the White Lotus. The way her teachers come to her instead of her seeking her teachers the way Aang and Roku did. 

The Avatar must have always been a special political figure, without any good contemporaries to our world, to be honest. Back in ATLA, we see that Roku isn’t beholden to Fire Nation citizenship - he seems to transcend that. And it honestly seems important that Roku and Aang went out to the world, experienced the other nations and their ways of life. I think Aang does have a line regarding this. 

Because Korra’s situation? Can easily turn into a nightmare, given the realities of what being the Avatar could easily mean. 

OKAY THIS SHIP. Very cool looking, very neat, I continue to love every visual manifestation of the passage of time between ATLA and TLOK. One small question. What’s with the rigging poles. 

(source)

To be fair, this is a battleship from the British navy, but aesthetically I think we can say this is a fair inspiration. From what I remember while researching the coal fic, the rigging and poles there serve no function. It’s aesthetical. At best, there’s a limited function, but it’s predominantly for aesthetics in the transition into the ships like the Titanic with no rigging at all. 

Which raises my question about WHY ON EARTH?? The Fire Nation navy in ATLA??? Were clearly way past this stage in design? Literally during Sozin’s time too??? Almost two hundred years before this current shot in TLOK? Why would the ship design regress like this??? The Water Tribe ships probably wouldn’t evolve into the designs that Europe used? Earth Kingdom ships would probably be more inspired by East Asian designs which also wouldn’t end up with this system for sails? 

Where does this aesthetic come from. 

IS THAT A CAR. 

....

.......

..........

I am not qualified at all for dissecting the potential social and cultural explanation for the western influenced aesthetics appearing. I am but an ignorant banana, I don’t know shit. 

.......

oooooooh this is going to slowly annoy me isn’t it.......... 

That will be twenty yuans.

[Jaws theme]

The city's huge. I bet we could find a place to rustle up something to eat.

You know, I’ve seen plenty of weird shit in Central Park and around NYC before. Korra, you are so unprepared.  

Are you tired of living under the tyranny of benders? Then join the Equalists!

Oh boy. Let’s.... let’s put a pin in this thought. I’ll come back to it once I know more about what’s going on. Because. This will either be fun. Or I’m going to have to create a second spite fic folder. Please, show, don’t give me reason to create a second spite fic folder. 

On a different note though, I really do love the choices so far for setting up this show’s forward path. There’s no way to mistake this as a rerun of ATLA. This is it’s own separate story and I love that. I really do respect that. The way the different threads are emerging feel really smooth: 1) the impact of Korra’s isolation towards her culture shock in the giant city - which must smell and sound REALLY weird to her; 2) her prodigious talent in the physical, exciting parts of bending meshing with her teenage nature and also clashing with the spiritual parts of being the World Bridge; 3) the absolute hot bed of chaos every part of Republic City must be. 

Kinda funny that people would still have sideburns in the same style as from like. Seventy years ago. Vintage. 

Mr. Chung, please tell me that you have my money, or else I can't guarantee I can protect your fine establishment.

My terrible taste in interests rears its head again. Listen, you cannot imply something like the mafia or the triads exist in universe and not have me immediately ALL OVER THAT. Republic City, you are such a mess. Like, for this alone, I might write a single fic for TLOK that’s just about trash collection and disposal. And corruption. And- 

I am fascinated by the genetics and molecular/cellular biology behind the yellow and white eyes in this universe. 

Police! Freeze where you are!

Bitch what the fuck. How many of these rigid airships are part of the police. Are all of them for the police? Are the police literally patrolling people from the sky? 

Also, that better be helium in those ships instead of hydrogen by this point in time. I’ve already made my post about the fleet of hydrogen ships in Sozin’s Comet. 

How much property damage is being inflicted thanks to these couple minutes. The police just. Stab the brick work. There have got to be so many bitchy lawsuits about that. 

This poor girl’s culture shock. 

HEY I HOPE THAT POLICE OFFICER SWUNG THEMSELF ON A CLOTHLINE, NOT AN ELECTRIC LINE LIKE I FIRST THOUGHT. 

HEY YOU CAN RIP SOMEONE’S SCALP OFF LIKE THAT. 

HEY WHAT IS WITH THIS WHOLE SCENE. 

HOW ARE THEY JUST RIDING ON THOSE WIRES, HOW MUCH TENSION IS IN THAT STUFF. 

HOW DOES THAT ZEPPLIN MOVE THAT FAST AND LIKE. AGILE. 

YALL. 

WHY DOES THE POLICE STATION LOOK LIKE THAT

Well then, why are you treating me like a criminal? Avatar Aang and your mother were friends. They saved the world together.

Oh this bit is fascinating, I love it. It’s only been 18 minutes, but the level of sheer propaganda everywhere trailing after Aang is really cool. There’s so much I want to know now about how Aang got from the end of ATLA, where he probably wasn’t thinking AT ALL about this kind of cult legacy forming around him, to this. 

Lin Beifong’s shut down of Korra’s attempt to use her status as Avatar is great. Just because Korra’s born into this elite role and then locked up and probably pampered in her compound, where everyone is well aware of her status and what it means, it doesn’t mean she gets to strut around with no idea how stuff works or the context behind what she’s seeing and then doing whatever she wants. 

Contrasts, love ‘em. 

On a different note, the design of this room. 

As far as I can tell, it’s a dim, doorless room, which is honestly. Really terrible design. And it says something about the way the Republic City police functions and how that reflects on the chaos of the city itself. 

Putting someone dragged into the police station in a dim room without any door as a sign of a possible escape is just a terrible idea. The only thing you’re going to succeed in is making the person tenser and more belligerent. Your suspect or witness gets more nervous, gets more combative, gets more unreliable in this kind of environment. In turn, the police probably starts feeling more and more entitled to harsher retaliation. Conflict resolution? De-escalation? That really doesn’t look like its in the core of the city police. They’re wearing armor for god’s sake. 

Everything so far in this first impression of the police is really damning about their attitude and Lin Beifong’s leadership. Rather than using a rappel line down from the airships, they damage buildings. In chasing Korra, they further damage property. The armor, this freaking room. The fact that so much about the active police shown so far depends on metalbending, which implies that very few people can join the field police. The fact that for the gang to be so blatantly in the open about their presence and territory, there must be dirty cops on their payroll. 

There has to be so much Lin Beifong hate in this city. 

I have done my best to guide Republic City toward the dream my father had for it, but you're right. It has fallen out of balance since he passed.

If anyone tries convincing me Republic City was ever in “balance” they’re a punk ass liar. I don’t think the city could have ever been in balance, whatever that is. The way it was created, the speed it expanded, the life that must be lived there - balance? Don’t kid me with that propaganda. 

Tenzin could be trying to find a balance alright. I just wonder how many people vehemently disagree with his idea of balance. 

Hello? I'm Korra, your new Avatar.

Well, TLOK is definitely in the era of mass distribution of news and the idea of public sentiment at a level never seen before. This is going to be very interesting for its populist implications, along with other developments regarding politics. 

Oh Korra. Did no one try rehearsing this with you? This is a terrible first impression for you to give to people. 

Also, what is this building. Is this like a city hall? Why is the roof on the building to the side slanted like that. That’s an angle I’d expect from like. Snow concerns. In northern Europe. 

Love that Avatar Aang propaganda. Starting to feel like we’re going to see a lot of it going forward. 

Oh my god, everything about this press briefing (?) is highly concerning. This rampaging teenager suddenly appearing without any warning or announcement. The clear lack of script or practice. The open location just to anyone instead of to a select set of journalists who would be sympathetic/under government control. Lin fucking Beifong and Tenzin being the only people accompanying Korra on the stage. 

What a disaster. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

You know, I’m enjoying this more than I expected to. The general writing is great, the use of visuals and other small details to set the time and place is excellent, the worldbuilding implications are rich in potential. I’m looking forward to exploring where the plot threads introduced so far will lead towards!