#your female character doesn't need to be serious all the time to be taken seriously

[lil-oinks]

my issue with movie peach isn't that she's not feminine because obviously she is, and anyone sensible already knows "she's too feminist" or whatever is dumb. my issue is they made her into every generic cool serious surface-level "strong female character" action girl in a group of all men whose only character trait is "capable" that they've been writing over and over and over for the past ten years. I genuinely feel like they erased any personality she had past her appearance in favor of the single superficial female character type men tend to write when they want to be feminist and "modern." I'm not saying she shouldn't be capable and she shouldn't be cool or fight things because (I love paper mario) those things already are a part of her personality. this point is difficult to make with all of the "they're erasing feminine dainty proper women" takes because that's not what I'm taking about at all. I've seen people say if they wanted a character like this daisy was right there, but I wouldn't switch her character over to this trope either. daisy's LOUD and energetic and fun and the subdued woman whose role is being picking up the men's slack doesn't really fit her either (although I agree the two of them together would balance each other out (and it'd be nice if there were two women and they could interact)). it's exactly what I'd expect from a movie like this so I don't know why I complain, but I wish they would've done her differently. the character mario is about the whimsy but so is peach

[lovecolibri]

It’s funny how some shippers think the lack of detail given to Marisol and Natalia mean that they’re not endgame and Buddie will still be canon. When to me it’s the opposite. That WAS the end, the presumed end, and it was so important to the show that Eddie and Buck end up with women that the women themselves didn’t matter at all. They gave more attention to one-off victim characters than they did to the woman halves of Eddie & Buck’s supposed happy endings. The message isn’t “this won’t last.” The message is “the femaleness of this character is all that matters because straight. Straight straight hetero straight. 🙃” I genuinely think Buddie would have more of a chance if they had bothered to tell us why Buck likes Natalia so much, or why Eddie thinks there’s a spark with Marisol. Given us anything about the characters themselves. But they gave us female blank slates because they wanted to message that the female part is the most important thing. So it’s just wild to me to see people interpreting it as a positive sign. Which I guess maybe I’m just a pessimist, but it looks a lot like denial to me.

"it was so important to the show that Eddie and Buck end up with women that the women themselves didn’t matter at all." 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 SAY THAT Nonnie! I've also seen a LOT of comments about how "well they had to wrap everything up nicely because they thought it was the end of the show so I get it, they didn't want to rush if it was Buddie" and like....*Chidi voice* You DO get how that's worse right? Because a) they could have absolutely had an open ending with Buck picking out his own couch and Eddie being content with his life right now and how full it is with family and friends and Chris, b) they COULD have done ambiguous Buddie with the Buckley-Diaz boys on the couch together playing video games which could be seen as platonic OR romantic so everyone is happy because it's a fan favorite dynamic AND they have been shown as a family for years so they don't need the build up, or c) they could have gone full on Buddie and yeah it would suck to not get more but again, the build up is already kinda there AND it would break the internet if people knew THAT was the finale and the buzz might have gotten them picked up if ABC hadn't already made the announcement.

They literally chose the worst, most lazy option that even outside of Buddie very specifically goes against things the show outright stated in the text that both Buck and Eddie needed to do this season wrt their dating lives. Which....to ME is a bit of a headscratcher because it says they KNEW the backlash that would happen about these relationships (we had the hint about Marisol coming back but Natalia? If that live with Aisha hadn't happened we would have been fucking BLINDSIDED they kept it so under wraps). So rather than commit to telling the arcs well and just ignoring the backlash from "a small part of the viewership", they waited until the last second to drop these half-formed love interests into relationships with Buck and Eddie at a time they thought the show was done and they wouldn't have to deal with it anymore. So which is it? Is the Buddie fandom so small it's inconsequential and we should all just be quiet and realize the show doesn't need us and therefore will never give us what we want no matter how much noise we make? Or is the backlash from social media actually something that's taken into consideration and the show had to make sure to get to the end of the season without alienating that part of the fanbase? They can't have it both ways. Either we're not important enough to be taken seriously in which case it's just shitty storytelling, or we're loud enough to cause serious problems so they have to do jussssst enough to keep the backlash down until they don't have to anymore because the show is over. Which sounds a lot like "shipbait" to me.

I'm leaving of with this quote of yours because fuck me, I've yet to see anything more true about this situation.

The message isn’t “this won’t last.” The message is “the femaleness of this character is all that matters"

[janiedean]

25th hour and city of thieves I never read the book so why did you compare them to jaime jon and ygritte

eeeeh it's been years since I dealt with either and god why do I even have to admit benioff can write when he wants to but anyway

25th hour has nothing to do with asoiaf it's just a really good script and it turned into a really good movie

the thing with city of thieves is... okay tldr the basic plot is two russian men (lev and kolya) are taken prisoner during the leningrad siege and are promised freedom if they manage to find eggs to bake a birthday cake for the daughter of the guy who arrested them (obv hard to find during a siege where everyone was dying of hunger), they go around trying to find the eggs, at some point they go out of town in this mansion where they supposedly had a bunch of chickens and it turns out that the mansion is full of girls who were kept there as nazi prisoners for you can imagine which reasons, they team up with the local partisans to save them, the partisans include a young girl named vika who is v good at warfare and eventually falls in love with lev, blah blah blah not spoiling things but at the end they have to separate then *she* finds him post-war bringing eggs, he tells her they can make an omelette and she replies she can't cook, that was your basic plot thing is, lev is a 17yo bucket of walking angst who has Issues because his father was arrested and deported by the government because he was too much of a free thinker for them and jewish, bad combination when it comes to stalin government (as far as I recall), doesn't really want to admit that he might be dead-dead at least in the beginning, doesn't talk too much and isn't too social, also being jewish he already felt singled out and like he had to mix/blend/be better than his father or smth like that kolya was taken prisoner for being a deserter, doesn't appreciate authority all that much, cracks bad jokes all the time and irritates lev bc he doesn't take shit seriously except when he gets serious when it comes to saving the girls used as unwilling prostitutes, if I don't recall wrong he was extremely attractive/charming vika basically was going guerrilla stuff, was a better shot than them, went at lev every other moment like I know way mroe than you about stuff (which she did btw), was the one pursuing him more actively and I don't remember if she was a redhead or not but like... the personality fit the bill now like idk if it was obvious from my bad summary and ofc there were differences (like for one kolya had a nice active sex life with a bunch of female friends instead of yknow toxic rship with his twin) but when it comes to character archetypes/personalities lev and jon were pretty much the same deal from the teenage angst to the daddy issues to needing to keep the family name honorable, jaime and kolya had a good 70% of basic traits in common and vika and ygritte were the exact same type including the romance where they make the first move and not being stereotypical feminine which is why idg why the fuck benioff managed to write a book with three main chars that are the exact same archetypes as jon jaime and ygritte with the obvious differences and then completely fucking up adapting jon/jaime in the series because if he could write city of thieves there is absolutely no way he actually misread the og characters nor didn't realize what they were there for so...................... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ idk and I guess I never will but if I wrote an asoiaf au of city of thieves with that recast no one would bat an eyelid, I compared them because they're the same tropes obv written different and in another context but it was so glaringly obvious I'm still asking myself wtf went wrong there almost ten years later

anyway as much as it pains me to say city of thieves was actually a pretty good book so like idk if anyone feels like obtaining it through whichever mean they find most ethical when it comes to maybe or not financing benioff it's not a waste of your time

[deadmandairyland]

Damn, it's really been a while since I've done this, huh? But I never forgot about it. How could I? It's such a brilliant idea for an alignment chart! So without further ado, here's the glorious return of

THE PRO WRESTLING FAN ALIGNMENT CHART: DANGANRONPA V3 EDITION!!!

(Skipping DR3 mostly because it's been way too long since I've seen it and I already had a hard enough time doing this with characters I am more familiar with)

Some quick explanations for those of you who need them... which is probably everyone:

Mark: Pro wrestling target audience

Smark: Pro wrestling fandom (into behind-the-scenes stuff, "know-it-all" fans, etc.)

Wrestling is srs bsns: Wants wrestling to be taken super seriously; no comedy wrestling allowed so help me god

Watches DDT: Can watch Kota Ibushi wrestle a blow-up doll on loop for hours on end

With that out of the way, some rationalizations:

Let's start with Himiko. It's no surprise that she's neither a mark nor a smark, because she is the goddamn promotion, baby. She is the only one in this entire chart that is taking kayfabe fucking seriously. You want to go out there and destroy the business? Spill all the fucking beans? Not on her watch. She could be on trial for murder and she would still hold kayfabe because that is just what you gotta do to keep the business alive. Kayfabe is in her blood, her fucking veins. Don't fuck with kayfabe or Himiko will fuck you back. ...Bad choice of words, there.

Keebo and Kirumi don't understand the appeal of watching Kota Ibushi wrestle a blow-up doll. Maki wants to murder the next person that tries to send her a link to that video... which would probably be Kokichi, who I guarantee would have sent that link to over half of the people in this chart.

Kokichi is a smark with a little bit of a mark streak. Miu thinks she's a smark, and certainly acts like one, but she also thinks that every move is called a Dupree Bomb thanks to a certain YouTube channel. Both of them absolutely would watch Kota Ibushi wrestle a blow-up doll for hours on end and send the link to everyone they know afterwards.

Tenko thinks you'd have to be a degenerate male to watch something as depraved as... well... Kota Ibushi blah blah blow-up doll blah blah blah. Thank female Christ that The Amazing Himiko is here to remind us all that professional wrestling is a legitimate sport and not at all athletic theater.

Rantaro is one smarky motherfucker but he don't give two shits about how serious the product is. Plus you know Ibushi is kinda hot, he can do whatever he wants with that blow-up doll as far as Rantaro is concerned. Kokichi agrees with that sentiment.

Korekiyo is an anthropologist. He would absolutely be interested in whatever cultural phenomenons led to... again, the blow-up doll thing. I'm referencing that a lot today, but for good reason. Imagine, if you will, thousands of years from now, archeologists and anthropologists stumble upon a video of a man wrestling a blow-up doll, and it is all they have to go on for knowing of our time as everything else is lost. How will they understand us? How will they come to know us? Therefore, such studies are of absolute importance. Kiyo knows this, and now, so do you. Embrace your knowledge. Embrace your wisdom. Embrace the blow-up doll. I have no idea what the fuck I'm saying anymore.

Shuichi would definitely be more of a mark than Kaede and would definitely take wrestling more seriously. Angie, ever the artist, transcends the title of mark and smark much like Sakura before her, but views pro wrestling as an art form where anything is possible, even five star matches with blow-up dolls. Tsumugi wants you to believe that she's just some plain old mark when in reality she's the smarkiest of them all. Ryoma just doesn't really care all that much. Kaito and Gonta still haven't figured out yet that wrestling is fake.

I have no explanations for the bears because I don't really care. Fuck 'em. Except Monokuma. And the red one, he's alright I guess.

[chaosandthe-deadblog]

at some point im gonna doodle Band AU Shadow and Maria in the sweaters like goddamn i really love how you characterized them the trans chapter still makes me tear up, I like how you rolled with the idea of sexual dimorphism between female and male hedgehog Mobians too tbh, did any of that originate from Amy's old design by chance? How she had once had her quills spiked up but later it was changed to them being slicked down? (Personally I like the echidna-hedgie hybrid theory for her but your take on it is really neat!)

I also just love how you've characterized them all. I'm gonna be ranting a bunch and it's gonna be confusing a lil but like pls stay with me i just have the Big 'Tism so my brain go hugvyfcrytjkn

I enjoy having the whole thing be very plotless tbh, there's not enough of that in fics imo and it's the exact stuff I need a lot and I love that. I don't ever really feel anxious that, say, Maria is gonna suddenly die or some shit like that, or that some cataclysmic event is gonna suddenly happen. I like that, I've needed a lotta that honestly. I just love how you've written it so much,,

I am still curious about Shadow's past, though. Was he still genetically engineered? Is he still part-alien??? Does Chaos Energy even properly exist??? Is Gerald just A Guy who is a scientist and actually succeeded at what he'd wanted to do???? Seeing as it seems his "backstory" never properly happened, and they're in modern times, I presume Gerald would be still alive or something. Is Eggman there too???? /Is there potential that younger-Eggman exists and he's like a weird internet troll to the band or something????/ Perhaps jealous that his cousin gets to meet the "cool guys" and there's a very small and non-dramatic plot of Tails being like "ugh this guy again" and Maria's like "oh yeah thats my cousin!" and everyone's like "WHAT????"

There's just so much to explore with such a domestic take on these characters honestly, and I really love that. It explores parts of their characters that often don't get touched often due to how much they're always fighting or dealing with drama. It allows dynamics to be explored that are never really toyed with in canon. Adapting various pieces of the characters to a more laid-back setting is genuinely REALLY fun and you've done it so well I just,,, wawUUUGH,,,

I'm so interested to see what goes on with Knuckles too, since his whole story is seemingly so fantastical yet so easy to adapt to a more mature and "realistic" setting. Does he simply come from a culture that's often overlooked in this world? Is his inner compass about protecting his family name? Is he actually the last echidna in this world or are echidnas moreso simply a group that are marginalized in some way? I almost feel like him being someone who's struggled through, like, immigrant struggles would almost be a really interesting take on him as a character. He's quiet about who he is, where he's from, often keeping to himself, it's why he doesn't sing on his own and why he often is seemingly just... There. But Amy knows, she's one of the only ones who does know.

And maybe if Shadow still shares that "being made in a lab" past as his canon self, perhaps he and Knuckles could end up being friends if Shadow were to learn about his past. They could relate to one another's feelings of not belonging where they are, yet having strong drives to defend WHO they are.

(I've been reading a lot of immigrant poetry recently for class and because, despite not sharing those experiences, I still always feel like I relate to the general themes of them. I dunno why, but I always imagine Knuckles being the type to write stuff like that himself, since his whole story draws a lot from very real and serious sorts of topics that can be related to some of those real-life issues. I really like that about him, how it always seems that his story is taken VERY seriously and not downplayed. That's why I liked him in Frontiers, and why I know many liked him in Sonic 2. Just mentioning this all because that's my inspiration for even coming up with this idea)

Again I absolutely do not wanna seem like im hijacking your story! I just wanted to rant about characters because hmmmmng,,, you write them so well and give me many idea and I love that,,

damn you put so much more thought into this au than i did LMAO

ummm okay i'll take these one by one

first: the trans chapter, that is ABSOLUTELY what i wanted to do and i'm so glad someone picked up on it. I think male hedgehog mobians have their quills spiked up while female hedgehogs tend to have them drip down. That's why Sonic pre-transition tied up his quills! However, I do think Amy fucks with her presentation a bit in that sense, she still spikes up her quills (though i think, similarly to how there are short haircuts that are deemed femenine by humans, the same thing could apply to hedgehog mobians and their quills)

about it being plotless... aha. haha. im gonna be honest. i love drama. there WILL be some dramatic event, and there’s gonna be drama, but it's not gonna be sudden. i'll be sure to have enough build up so it hurts a little less. a little. but its gonna take a while. so dont worry about it :)

OKAY shadow's past. okay. yeah so. okay. everything is like a lot more normal and domestic than in canon, so the whole magic and powers aspect is... altered. similarly to how it is in pirate au, the characters still have some trait thats similar to their powers/abilities in regular canon (sonic raced in highschool and regularly goes on runs, for example). I think Chaos Energy and the chaos emeralds and all that stuff is the equivalent they'd have of mythology. some people believe it, some people don't. "chaos and the emeralds" is a name that came to sonic based on one of those myths.

so... about shadow. gerald is dead. old age. i'm gonna try to explore shadow's past on later chapters so i'll keep it to: shadow was adopted by and raised by gerald until the doctor died, leaving shadow in charge of finishing raising maria. (and also, i didnt take eggman in consideration for this au because... implications. but it would be funny if he was just maria's annoying cousin that both of them can't stand)

and about knuckles! yeah, it's pretty much the former! it'd be interesting if he was an immigrant or someone from an overlooked culture. and no he is definitely not the last of his kind but i do think where the gang leaves it's not THAT common to see echidnas. i don’t think i'll touch much on that because... well i'm very much white and very much live in my birth country so i am deeply unqualafied to write about immigrant struggles, but that's definitely the direction i'd love to go to for knuckles. also you didnt ask this but he's like a big brother figure to amy, they were childhood friends

i actually hadn't thought about most of the things you asked, and this helped me do some worldbuilding, so thanks a lot for the questions!!!

[lindszeppelin]

Hi,

I've been following you for a long time and I've kept up with most of your answers regarding the PR relationship. This ask is focused on Kaia. There's something I've noticed about her that I feel like sharing: I feel like Kaia is a model above everything else, she's trying to break into the acting world but she can't shake off her model behaviour and stance.

I already thought this before but it became painfully apparent with the Bottoms poster https://twitter.com/filmupdates/status/1666025090956271617?s=46&t=zVUrqyxX3bxe315O8rj-Ag

Posters are nothing but marketing, all actors are posing, and they "serve face". But Kaia is the only one doing it like a model, emotionless and stony, completely perfect and aware of every single angle on her face. The other actors are posing but they have expressive faces, a glint in their eye, and body expression that shows their character's personality. Look at Ayo Edebri and Rachel Senott, they're posing but they're also in character. I highly doubt Gerber's character is a model in the movie.

All I see in that poster is a model. All I see when she acts is a model that memorized lines. I've seen her in Babylon and she was underwhelming. It is a small part but she delivered absolutely nothing, she's restricted and impassionate when she's supposed to be seduced and in awe of a great female artist. She looks like a model in a music video, instead of an actress. Extras were more talented and expressive than her.

And I got the exact same feeling from her in Bottoms trailer. Of course you can't rate an actor's performance from trailer parts alone, but she's side by side with talented actresses so her lackluster quality is apparent... at least to me it is.

I haven't seen all her projects, but from those I've seen and from videos, clips, and screenshots I've seen of AHS that girl just seems like a model that wants to pass for an actress without putting in the work. Just because she's playing a character doesn't mean she has character. She's inexpressive as hell. It's like a modeling shoot but she's talking with other people tbh.

So this brings me to the PR relationship. I will be honest I'm on the fence, I can see it being PR, and I can see it just being real. I do think they're very off during these last months tho. But my point is I'm pretty neutral. But I think you're sensible and make a lot of sense in your argument, plus you present facts, and not deuxmoi bullshit like the other fandom faction. BUT I can now definitely see how beneficial it is for Kaia to date Austin, a talented up-and-coming actor, because she has no substance to offer. People are always talking about her activities and public appearances and bookclubs, but I've never seen any mention of her going to acting classes.

If Kaia is serious about acting she needs to realize that her face, her name, and her relationship with Austin will only take her so far, she needs to put in the work. And she doesn't and it shows whenever she's on screen. She got her parts due to her mommy and daddy connections, it's horrible to see... she could at least try harder. So yeah I'm still not sure about it being PR, but I definitely think Kaya is mooching off Austin's relevance and talent. And at this point, I'm pretty sure that Kaia doesn't care about the craft of acting, and certainly not to the extent of Austin who lives and breathes his roles, so this Kaia acting stunt is pretty laughable to me.

Sorry for the long rant! I just started mulling over this after seeing that poster again and I wanted to get it off my chest. And you've created a safe space here.

I hope you have a good day :)

Woooow a second anon today that's coming in so hot!! Im loving these takes, you guys. I appreciate your thoughts, and you feeling comfortable in expressing them to me.

Your breakdown of the situation is spot on to me, and it mirrors what I think as well. Kaia knows how to model and she should stick to that. It's giving the impression of she wants to be taken seriously, and so what better thing to do than to try and get into acting? But the problem is that she does not offer anything of substance, she's trying to say her nepotism doesn't affect her when she gets these jobs, and she doesn't even try to be a good actress.

if she wants to be taken seriously then she needs to put in the work to do so. this bottoms movie is just another example of how lackluster her performances are. not only that, but she goes for the low hanging fruit - meaning, she goes for roles that aren't too complex and she brings nothing to the table. she likes to make it seem like she reads a lot of books and she understands certain topics on an intellectual level, but sis it is not there. and that's on her for not stepping up her game to study and practice her acting skills.

she's gonna continue to get roles based off of people she knows in the business to do favors for her, and austin because she mingled this entire award season with really big names in the game, and she got into a highly exclusive investors party that only Austin was invited to. she just sees the opportunities and takes them to get her name out there, but she does not put in the work.

i hope you also have a wonderful day!

[isagisyoichi]

i love your posts 😩😩 can u do a part 2 of the icks (srry if my english is bad)

SWIMMING FOOL!

SYNPOSIS: icks again

CHARACTERS INCLUDED: isagi, bachira, nagi, reo, chigiri, kunigami, naruhaya, niko, rin, imamura, nanase, ryusei, tabito, yuki, eita, hiori

WARNINGS: swearing, also all in good fun, nothing is meant to be taken seriously!!!

A/N: these are always so fun to write LOL. keeping men humble is my favorite thing to do. also don't worry anon, your english was perfectly fine!!! no need to apologize <3 thank u for liking my work :,) also yes this is also me clearing my drafts

isagi: when you came to one of his games for the first time, isagi told you “you’re my lucky charm!” and then he lost LMFAOOO. then isagi proceeded to tell you, “it was your fault, you made me nervous!” like bro what?! were you on the field with him?! once someone tried to dap isagi up but isagi shook their hand instead and it haunts him to this day 😭 thinks he's immune to being ashy so he doesn't use lotion, but you could literally light a match on that boy's legs.

bachira: has no sense of boundaries, uses the bathroom while you’re in the shower LIKE CAN YOU WAIT? drools when he sleeps (isn't this canon idk). genuine flat earther. has not read a book for outside of school since like he was 12. not technically an ick but i just know he used to steal from the book fair 💀

kunigami: i feel like he’s a momma’s boy and not in the good way idk that’s just the vibe i get 😭 is a ginger. glares at you in class if he hears you trying to cheat. always has chapped lips.

chigiri: one of those people who plans to come to school mad and then one of his friends makes him laugh. does not like children at all. the type to glare at babies in public 💀 also canon that he has mood swings, so take that as you will.

imamura: sends you shit like “listened to lil uzi vs the world today… i remember when it was you and me against the world. i was scott and i should’ve made you my ramona 😕 you don’t have to respond. i hope you’re doing good. tell your mom i said hi.” (i came up with that on the spot i’m a genius). says stuff like “but you’re too pretty too be depressed lol what?” and he's dead serious too 💀 snapchat is his main form of communication but he gets annoyed when you start saving the chats. what are you hiding HMMM 🧐

naruhaya: enters instagram giveaways BYE. stop tagging me in mr.beast’s posts, you are not getting that tesla. chews gum really loud. acts up when there’s a sub for some reason. has a playlist of tiktok songs. still has snapchat streaks and sends everyone in his friends list “new streaks🤪?” NO WE ARE GROWN 😒 wipes his hands on the decorative towels. follows those drama pages for his school 😭

nagi: is genuinely surprised when he finds girls that listen to artists like mf doom, kanye, cudi, and etc. says “you’re a little different from everyone ik lol,” he’s so embarrassing PLEASE. says “damn, that’s tough,” when people vent to him 😐 doesn’t have a backpack just a drawstring with like one pencil and a bunch of papers. canon that he thinks taking baths is “troublesome,” so do what you want with that information 🤗

raichi: one of those mfs that says “sheesh,” “caught you in 4k,” and “sus,” all the time because of tiktok SHUT HIM UP PLEASEEE. once tried to shoot a piece of paper across the room, said "kobe!" and everything and then missed. his teacher made him pick it up and throw away the paper while everyone in the class stared at him in silence. puts his back against the wall and slides down dramatically as he cries when he’s “heartbroken” 💀 smells so strongly of axe 😭

rin: thinks astrology is stupid. calls girls "females," (not in a misogynistic way, it’s just how he talks but still DKOSKDSOK). takes forever to text back. only writes in blue or black pen. also refuses to give you one if you need it because "you should have been prepared" 😑 every so often, rin will bring up how “emotionless” he is. go to therapy rin, please 🙏 knows how inflation works #nerd inflate my nuts

reo: does that stupid shit on instagram where he’s like “posting in 20 minutes” on his story. no one gives a fuck reo 😐 (that’s a lie many people do give a fuck that he posts but IT’S JUST STUPID). uses this 🥺 emoji all the time and he’s so serious with it, too. fell for a girl during hot girl summer after he insisted that he wouldn't catch feelings. his iphone does that annoying shit where it flashes whenever he gets a notification. also sucks literal ass at tipping BOOOOOOO!

niko: one of those smart people who always falls for deez nuts jokes LMAO. it’s ‘cause it’s not his sense of humor so he doesn’t expect it, but you would think niko would learn after the first ten times. refuses to consume media that isn’t objectively of "good quality." good luck trying to have a movie night with him. refuses to share his homework with other people. has one of those phone cases that open and close like a book 😭😭

nanase: takes gen z discourse seriously. would definitely get scammed LMAOO. flexes he’s friends with upperclassmen all the time like anyone cares. would say he loves you in the talking stage. listens to today's top hits on spotify. seriously keeps up with tiktok drama.

hiori: gets sick really easily in the winter and so he always has like a little bit of snot in his nose during then. drinks REALLY loudly, like slurping noises and everything. sometimes he'll like, repeat jokes 'cause he thinks no one heard them and that's why no one laughed but it's actually because the joke itself wasn't funny 😭

ryusei: thinks calling you bad at imessage games counts as flirting. tried to make his own nickname, but absolutely NO ONE called him it LMFAOO 💀💀 was the absolute worst person to be around when “i like your cut g,” was popular 😭 is so annoying to have in class when he has an away game. “yeah, i’m not gonna do my work, i’m about to leave soon, so it doesn’t matter,” whole time it's only third period 💀

yukimiya: idk he gives me fake nice vibes sometimes 😭 like he indirects people on his finsta and when the person it’s about asks if it’s about them, he’s like “noooo lol dw its not u😂" even though it’s so obvious it is 💀 has so many of the “bff 🤩” “this isn't the caption i picked☹️” comments on his instagram from girls. i feel like if he wasn't a model and all, he'd be the type to put his snap in his instagram bio 😭

tabito: argues with teachers. deletes dms when girls don't respond back LMFAOOO💀 babe we already saw the notification, you're not slick. his favorite movie is the godfather. has a “saturdays are for the boys” flag. one of those mfs that’s always talking about how much they like milfs shaddup!!!! and they’re not even milfs half the time, it’s just some woman in her late twenties 😐

otoya: ghosts people all the time by "accident." you can decide if this an ick or not but, he really likes drain gang. considers himself to be a drainer 😭 refuses to watch “mainstream” anime but when you ask what his favorite is he says, “evangelion, idk if u’ll know it though" 😐

[windbournefree]

AARON SORKIN'S "WOMAN PROBLEM" AND THE NEWSROOM

After binging on The Newsroom (and loving it) created by Aaron Sorkin I got to thinking about his reputed "woman problem" when some YouTube commenter described all the female characters on the show as "twits." That's a characterization I strongly disagree with, and will show why, but also can't shake the intuitive sense that his portrayal is rightly controversial. By that I mean it is right that it should be a matter of discussion, not that it is necessarily wrong. The people holding the discussion need to decide that for themselves.

First the bald facts. Women in this drama hold power: Leona founded and still owns the company, Mackenzie is the Executive Producer of the network's flagship news program with a male second-in-command and many male staff, Sloan is the acknowledged smartest person in the company with far more lucrative prospects awaiting her should she choose them, Maggie is promoted instantly from a personal aide to an associate producer by a woman despite her youth and inexperience. Women are in leadership roles with real power that they do exercise.

In their relationships to men, the women in The Newsroom engage in give and take.

Mackenzie may look at Will like a doe-eyed schoolgirl at times but she's in love with him and is self-recriminating about previous behaviors. She isn't like that with any other male characters. Even with Will she frequently takes charge and makes him follow her direction, which he does. Mac exercises real power in her relationship with Will from episode one on. When Will doles out his "punishments" she only takes them to the degree that she believes she should. She holds the power at any time to say, "That's enough!" which she does in regards to the engagement ring. When she does that he realizes he's gone too far and changes his behavior.

Maggie coddles Don in most of the scenes we see of them and breaks up with him mostly in scenes we don't see. I'd venture to guess that the early breakups happen because the relationship has no room for her passion and she gets tired of soothing his ego to make things work. In contrast, Maggie's drawn to Jim because he awakens and allows room for her passion. Most employees who confront and yell at their bosses as much as she does with Jim would be suspended and/or fired. He lets her get away with it to a degree because he recognizes that that same passion drives her to become an excellent journalist. And because he likes her. Both are true. Every once in awhile he has to reprimand her in public to assert authority over his team or it gives permission to his other staff to behave the same way. Maggie is no shrinking violet. She is strong and self-directed and refuses to allow a man to control her. Most of her errors come from inexperience and human frailty. None of them occur because she's a woman.

Sloan clearly wears the pants in her relationship to Don which, to his surprise, he doesn't mind. Ever once in awhile, though, they switch roles or just relate as equals. Don goes from dating the young intern who part of him wants to dominate to dating the highly intelligent, self-directed professional who no man can dominate and becomes a better version of himself as a result. Sloan's errors in her first broadcast about Fukushima occur not because she is scared by Will as a man but because she's scared by him as respected professional. His gender doesn't matter to her. When Charlie yells at her about it she tells him strongly, "Do not call me 'girl,' sir!" And that's to the head of the News Division.

Leona clearly rules the roost and fights with Charlie as an equal or as a subordinate, never as a superior. They fight the way old friends do.

In no respect are women as a class portrayed as inferior or subordinate to the power of men. So why do I get that intuitive itch that there's something old-fashioned about Sorkin's writing on gender relations?

I think it's that some of the male characters in The Newsroom tend to be the carriers of logic and reasoning while the female characters tend to be the carriers of emotional expression. This isn't always true: Sloan is highly logical (while also passionate) and Charlie is highly emotional (while also reasonable) and Neal carries both in balance. It's certainly true, however, of the Jim & Maggie relationship which is intended as a reflection of the older Will & Mackenzie one. Remember how, in episode one, Mackenzie points out Maggie to Jim and tells him that she's a younger version of her before she grew into herself and got hotter with age? And why has Jim long been Mackenzie's choice for supervising producer? Could it be because he reminds her of Will? I think so. I also think it's fair to assume that Sorkin does not intend for that rational/emotional dichotomy to typify all gender relations since he gives us alternate examples. More likely it's because Sorkin is a brainy guy who prefers an emotionally expressive woman to bring balance into his life. When he writes romance it comes out of who he is, what he likes. That's how he connects to the material at a feeling level. Some viewers may prefer a flip on those traditional associations and the Don & Sloan relationship may have been his attempt to provide that. It's not where Sorkin feels at his strongest or most natural, though, so he writes what he knows.

There ARE problems with The Newsroom, though, that I think if addressed would have reduced criticism. In no way should bosses be allowed to date subordinates over whose careers they have an influence. The producers decide what stories are aired. The career of a journalist rises and falls with the number and quality of stories they get aired. Dating a subordinate in this environment is a breach of ethics and most professional workplace standards. To be fair, Maggie was first an intern then a personal aide and only became an associate producer (journalist) as Don was on his way out so it wasn't a total breach; definitely in the gray area, though. The sexual tension between Jim and Maggie, obvious to everyone (as Sloan pointed out in the finale), often broke out into open conflict. Mackenzie should have addressed this conflict as their supervisor but instead encouraged it. As Jim points out it was Mac's idea for him to get together with Maggie in the first place. Again, it was Mac's advice to Jim to "gather ye rosebuds while ye may" that led to his and Maggie's first kiss and then Jim deciding this was wrong. Mackenzie's regrets about her relationship with Will colored her judgment and led her to offer advice that may have been okay coming from a friend but was inappropriate coming from a supervisor. She could have been rightly disciplined or even fired by HR if found out. Jim does decide that he can't date a subordinate however he feels but Mac should have intervened and threatened to move one of them out if they couldn't handle the tension in a professional manner. In the series finale Jim offers the Supervising Producer position to the woman he's in love with. How is that not an HR violation? How would Maggie's career not be dogged by rumors of "sleeping her way to the top" if she accepts it?

The other thing is the way emotional conflicts between several of the characters break out into office wide battles. Talk about an unsafe working environment! I can't see how the entire management staff wasn't fired on an almost weekly basis. And when Mackenzie commends Maggie for her loyalty by saying she wouldn't complain to HR if her hair was on fire I cringed. Is that the message you want to send out in a #MeToo world?

Aaron Sorkin says he likes to write "very romantically, very idealistically." The chaos in the newsroom is intended for laughs, not to be taken as a serious reflection of a workplace. The characters are flawed and frequently do not do what they should. The lack of HR supervision is even mentioned by a character in season one so there's awareness that liberties are being taken. I don't think there's an inherent woman problem here, just a production not as sensitive as it might be to the struggles women face in the workplace. There are good reasons why "no dating" policies are in place, why it's unprofessional to carry your personal life into the workplace. Workplace comedies routinely feature HR nightmares for the sake of laughs: Brooklyn 99 is a good example. We don't take them seriously. It's the sheer intelligence of The Newsroom and the realistic setting that may make the comedy part seem more serious than it is. Personally I see the show as a kind of joyful fantasy; Sports Night without the canned laughter. If you can separate the fantastic from the realistic I think you'll find that The Newsroom is actually very empowering for women.

[elegiacmarquise]

More love for the pink damsel

This is a rant, the first and the only, that I wrote a while ago and which I posted previously on DeviantArt and reposted on the Mario Amino, few days after the release of Super Mario Odyssey, after a new wave of hatred towards Princess Peach...

Considering that, nevertheless, the princess' relationship with most fans has always been ambiguous, what may have seemed to be tolerable, now is no longer acceptable speaking from the prospective of Peach's admirer, and hoping to be a spokesman for who, like me, genuinely appreciates her.

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But before starting with the proper rant, why do I post this writing, even if they passed almost two years when I did write it? A YouTube video made by the quite famous personality of RelaxAlax which I Iink below.

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Quite shallow, huh?

But this will NOT be an hate speech towards Alax, the rest of his videos are actually enjoyable and sometimes funny, but despite what he says in the video is nothing more and nothing less than what most Peach's haters actually say, I'm fearing that even due to this video, people are convinced to hate the pink princess without even knowing the truth behind her character.

But I must've taken you a lot of time, let's begin this speech, which was inspired by an older one (now deleted) posted by a friend of mine on Deviantart.

Let’s get started from the most recurring insults about the personality

"Peach is weak!!!"

While it’s true that for most of the games the Princess is kidnapped by Bowser or any enemy, it’s also the case that several times she has proved to be not so helpless, and even trying to escape to her kidnapper more than once indicates that Peach is not just staying there to patiently wait her hero; indeed, she was the only one along with Rosalina and Toadette who was been able to defend herself.

Some proofs? Super Princess Peach, Super Paper Mario, Super Mario 3D Land/ World, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Super Smash Bros series...

"So why is she always kidnapped?!"

Nintendo logic. Just joking, I think that the reason is due to the fact that Peach, like anyone else, is an human being, with her fears and anxieties, and so what can she do if suddenly there is a monster bigger at least the triple of her accompanied by an huge army? Not everyone is badass, and she obviously is not always, but is it a good reason to hate her? I don’t think so.

Also remember that even two stronger characters like Mario and Luigi often struggle during the battles with Bowser, how could a delicate princess?

So, in a more general view, how much it’s wrong to blame the victims and not the kidnappers? Why does everyone hate Peach for this and not BOWSER?

And there are Daisy, Pauline and Zelda, who were kidnapped as well, but still worshipped as goddesses...

"Peach is stupid!!1!"

If the Princess was actually that stupid,she wouldn't be on a throne ruling a whole kingdom peacefully nor even to try a time machine or even called to try to find a cure to a plague that affected the Mushroom Kingdom. She may not have an IQ of 300 like Dr Eggman,but that doesn't mean she's stupid.

Characters who are REALLY "stupid" on purpose, like Wario and Waluigi, loved because they are. Now, people, don't tell me you aren't uncoherent.

"Peach has no personality!1!"

So, a sweet and kind personality shouldn’t be a good character trait? Great, so we wasted years and years of characterization in a video game character.

Even a little development is always putted in while creating a characte and, as we are seeing, Miyamoto and Nintendo are generally developing the character of the princess, in the best, demonstrating that even the princess is not a fossilized archetype in Mario's existence for thirty years. She’s so sweet and kind, but also has values, friends and a dignity that defends strenuously.

Guys, Peach is human, so she has flaws, and that's right, but saying that she doesn’t have personality is an insult to both her and Nintendo in general.

Let's compare for a moment Peach and Rei Ayanami from Evangelion, and see who is not supposed to have personality. (although Rei also has a very strong, still not obvious, characterization that develops in the course of the series)

"Peach is a Mary Sue!!!1!"

A Mary Sue would theoretically is a character with too unnatural characteristics for their universe or species, overly powerful and often accompanied by a tragic backstory; in short, it's misleading in their context. By applying this description to Peach, how should she be a Mary Sue?

As explained in the previous paragraphs, the Princess, still mostly human, has a magical power that is always inferior to those of other characters, such as Rosalina; and comparing it with the Star Guardian, shouldn’t be her chararcter be more similar in the description of a Sue? Consistency, this unknown concept...

I see you already with the forks in your hands, but let me clarify one thing, even a character like Rosalina is not a Mary Sue, she still has her flaws, and we love her as she is, but if Peach is one, Rosalina fits the definition WAY more.

Let’s talk about the character design

"Peach always wears pink!!1!"

Come on, guys, hating a character for a color is a such superficial thing that, would do kindergarten children the most.

Pink is a color like all the others, in the spectrum of colors, so anyone can wear it, even males.

(Trivia: up to a few decades ago, pink was more of a masculine color, given to boys since it’s a lighter version of red, a color considered manly)

Peach is looking good with pink and no one in Mario games seems to complain too much about that, and so, so why do we fans do?

"Peach is girly!!!!1!”

And so? A female character to be worthy of this name must be a tomboy or a badass with a gun on her hands? You have great prospects in mind, my dear ones, just like that.

Seriously, why does a character who likes to cure herself, should be banned from today's media?

However, almost all the girls in the Mario games are femminine, even Daisy, despite being described as a tomboy, so it doesn’t seem a good excuse for hating a character.

"Peach is blonde!!!1!"

Guys that stereotype that everyone who is blonde must be stupid it's not only extremely outdated, but there are a lot of people who consider it quite offensive. Open your minds! Go, go! The isn't any relations about the quantity of melaninine on the hair and the actual intelligence.

Even Rosalina and most of the Zeldas encountered in the games are blondes, but nobody seems to care.

"Peach has an annoying voice!!1!"

All the characters in the Mario games have their voices emphasized, guys, and Peach isn’t an exception.

There are characters with even more exaggerated voices, trust me, like Daisy, Toad or Rosalina's new dubbing, but for certain reasons, only Peach should be demonized for that by fans.

"Peach is a prostitute!!1!"

This is one of the most recurring insults that are ever placed against our hated Princess, and that's what I'm wondering where most haters have been losing their credibility.

Did Peach ever wear provocative clothes? NO. (unless you have a fetishism towards biker suits and similar outfits)

Has she ever tried to seduce anyone she saw? NEVER (what you see on Rule34 and other lewd sites is not canon, I'm sorry)

Let's be clear: Peach is just the opposite of the stereotype of the prostitute, as being a sweet, gentle, and that kind of girl who rarely makes sloppy thoughts; And yet Mario is not the kind of game that is suitable to show sensual girls often.

Another point: how do people define as that Peach and not Pauline or Valentina from Super Mario RPG, who are wearing much revealing clothes (and not even worthy to be called with those sick names)? Mystery of the Faith.

PS. Giving a prostitute to someone is not fashionable anymore :3

Now, let’s analyse that kind of insults that relate with Peach’s relationships with other characters

"Peach isn’t grateful to Mario!!!!1!"

Ever since Peach has never been grateful to Mario? WHEN? She kisses him, and fills him with cakes. What should the Princess do more with him? having sex is not a good answer, and it doesn't even marrying him.

Mario is still a sweet and family friendly series, if you want NSFW art, go to rule34 or look good at deviantart, but don’t expect explicit scenes in similar games.

"Peach is a tyrant who abuses Toads!!!1!"

But since that is so, seriously, did I miss some details? And no, The Game Theorists, aren’t worth as a source of inspiration since theirs is only a mere SPECULATION (also badly made imho).

To me Peach has always seemed like the OPPOSITE of a tyrant! She’s a good sovereign who’s caring for her subjects, and most of the Toads are happy with her guide and willing whenever she needs help.

I guess you are thinking of the Toad used from the princess during Super Smash Bros: If we analyse well what our beloved mushroom does during the frames in which we can see him, we can notice that doesn’t acts as a shield for the princess, but is determined more than ever to attack with his spores, so for me this isn’t a point to demonise Peach at all.

Then do you think that in Smash bros Rosalina does something way more serious?! She fights with a Luma, one of her CHILDREN all the time. But since she is our beloved star waifu, Peach is not worth to be compared lmao.

Again this time implore the sacred goddess of the consistency for forgiving their vain words...

"Peach betrays Daisy!!!1!"

Peach and Daisy have proven themselves to be best friends since the first time they appeared together, and even now their idyllic relationship hasn’t stopped being shown in the games and even in that LINE stickers that came out a while ago!

How Peach Should betray Daisy? For Rosalina, for Pauline? I think all the girls in the world of Mario are friendly to each other, so I don’t see any reasons in a betray, since at worst they are in a friendly rivalry.

"Peach is much less sexy than Rosalina / Pauline!!!1!"

If I can understand why Pauline can be considered sensual, how should Rosalina be? She’s wearing just a turquoise dress, which does not reveals much, and which can only be sexualized in the most indecent fanarts drawn by FANS indeed, but we all know the new religion that places the guardian of the Lumas to a brand new god.

However, all of Mario girls have been designed to be beautiful, not sex objects, not even Pauline, and none of them will agree to be your beautiful waifus condescending to all your fantasies, deal with it!

"Peach is not tomboy like Daisy is!!!1!"

And this is what connects to the previous point where the Princess was insulted to be girly. Assuming that even Daisy, in her own way, is girly (if she was totally a tomboy, she wouldn’t certainly wear those long dresses with ease, nor she would have her notorious passion for flowers), it’s not nice to have a bit of variety in the characters personalities? Go on, Peach is a gentle and sweet girl, Daisy is exuberant and sporty, Rosalina, calm and majestic, Wendy spoiled yet powerful, Toadette cheerful and curious, and finally Pauline concrete and passionate. Everyone compensates their gaps with the others, and this balance between the girls is fine, so please do not compare all the girls, Peach first, to Daisy.

"Peach appears too much in the games, so she's overrated!!!1!"

Guys, our princess is one of the protagonists of Mario's videogames, along with the plumber, his brother, Bowser and Toad, so it's natural that she often appears in the games. After all, Peach (after Pauline, who belonged for long time to another series) is the first of the princesses to appear, so it's logical that Nintendo would value that in this way.

And another little thing: the word overrated does NOT mean popular in its own universe, it means overly popular among its FANS.

And Peach has relatively few fans compared to the other main characters.

And, as the final cherry on the cake, let’s talk about Odyssey, who can have reassume prevous points, but what is equally needed, because of the following reasons

"PEACH IS A BITCH WHO HASN’T ACCEPTED MARIO'S PROPOSAL, STUPID AND UNGRATEFUL!!!1! THAT’S OBVIOUS THAT MARIO CHOOSES PAULINE!!!1!"

And here we come to the juice of the speech, and at this point I would like to ask: but have you seen the final cutscene of the game, or are you just knocking on your keyboards to don’t make feel the keys alone and misunderstood?

Let’s assume that after a long, tiring journey along the WHOLE world, with a monster bigger at least the triple of you who is doing everything to organize a NOT-wanted marriage with you; and  immediately soon after being rescued, at the end of an extravagant battle, you have not one, but TWO contenders for your hand, what are you doing? The doll who gives all of herself to her hero just because she saved you? But in which period are we, in the nineteenth century?

Guys, let's talk seriously, would you immediately answer to a such serious question, which can change the rest of your life, on the moon under such conditions? I really don’t think so.

So Peach did, showing her intelligence, and why not, joking over it. It wasn’t the place nor the time for Mario and Bowser to move such proposals, and I honestly think that Peach done right to refuse both of them, I believe, momentarily.

And so centuries of feminist struggles went cancelled because of a video game character...

"PEACH HAS LEFT MARIO AND BOWSER ON THE MOON!!1!"

Yeah, okay, Odyssey's final was what it was, but you can’t hate a character because she's not a puppet in Mario or Bowser's hand. Tell me, you first complained that Peach had no character and now that she has explicated it, in good, you hate her the same? Consistency, this unknown concept...

However, for this detail, have you noticed that Peach eventually called Mario on the Odyssey, even though it had already started to fly? Mario had all the time he needed to get on board with the Princess and her friends. Even if Mario couldn't make it to the Odyssey (which is also unlikely under a cautious analysis of the cutscene), I even highly doubt that not only Bowser but all the other wedding's guests (including PAULINE) were diying there, surely there was at least ONE other vehicle which could bring back them home.

Also think about Peach's dialogues in the post-game: she completely forgave Mario's misbehaving and she's still happy to see him to the point to give him all the moons she gets! So she’s not that ungrateful...

And that's what I needed to say. Guys, please stop hating Peach, she didn’t do anything, and certainly she doesn’t deserve your insults.

In these times, the princess is among the main characters the most hated, even much more than Daisy or Zelda, who have their great slice of fans, who would do anything for them and even considering them "better" in Smash Bros.

I'm sorry to have written this rant but I'm sure this time is really needed...

Fandoms, Mario included, can be beautiful places where you can meet fantastic people but at the same time you can witness this free hate episodes even from famous personalities...

Thank you for reading, and see you soon.

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P.S. Below I show you the main places where the princess is hated for the above reasons.

Gamefaqs, TheTopTens.com, Marioboards, DeviantArt and Youtube

P.P.S. Please, do not go to the video I've mentioned only to insult the youtuber: despite that entry is far from being well-crafted, he made enjoyable content as well. He deserves respect as well and if you really want to discuss in the comment section about the subject, please be polite

P.P.P.S. If you hate Peach and you feel to comment here, please write maturely, well-structured comments. If we can have a mature dialogue, it's best for both of us.