Interested in various fandoms and feminism and systematically rooting out internalized prejudices and problematic behavior in my own life.
Asexual/possibly aromantic?
Honestly I should talk about the ace experience more. I don’t see enough. Like–obviously it’s dehumanizing to be repeatedly compared to robots or aliens but uh…sometimes it feels like that??
My husband will get all horny while I’m, I don’t know, changing out of sweaty gardening clothes. And I’ll be like, “But we have to make lunch?? I stink? Now is not a good time?? Logic?” And clearly it’s not about logic to him. He is experiencing the entire scenario very differently. And I’m here like,
Or the times where you realize that like, having an actual physiological reaction to attractive people is not some enculturated metaphor, and people are actually doing that all around you all the time, and you’re like, Ah, clearly my studies of human culture have been incomplete. I have missed a critical psychosocial component. Many things now appear in a different light. *takes notes on holopad*
Another Lord of the Rings Hot Take: the reason Frodo starts starving himself isn’t *just* because of the horrific emotional toll of the journey. It’s also because the only food Frodo and Sam have is Lembas bread, which the Ring takes away your ability to eat.
When Frodo tries to share the Lembas bread with Gollum, Gollum is physically unable to eat it. He wants to eat it, but Can’t. Because it’s elvish bread, it burns Gollum’s throat and “chokes” him.
I mentioned in a previous post that Frodo isn’t just afraid of becoming like Gollum– he’s afraid of becoming like Gollum because he knows that Sam despises Gollum, and he’s paranoid that he’s becoming someone who Sam can no longer love.
When Gollum says that he can’t eat Lembas bread, Sam coldly responds that he’ll have to “starve then, and good riddance.”
And then Sam repeatedly worries that Frodo isn’t eating enough, that he worries Frodo is starving himself. (”You haven’t eating anything all day, and you’re not sleeping neither– don’t think I haven’t noticed!” “I’ve seen you– you’re not eating, you barely sleep.”)
I feel like the reason Frodo is eating less isn’t the horrible emotional strain of the journey– it’s also because he’s physically losing the ability to eat. As the Ring takes over his mind eating elvish food is starting to become painful for him, the way it’s painful for Gollum. Frodo saying ”I can’t recall the taste of food, nor the sound of water, nor the touch of grass” on Mount Doom is a direct callback to Gollum saying that “we forgot the taste of bread, the sound of trees, the softness of the wind” in the beginning of the film.
One thing I think is really compelling about the Ring is that….there is no clear line between “the emotional toll the journey takes on the characters” and “the actual physical damage the Ring does to their minds.” There’s no clear separation between the times when Frodo is not eating because he’s traumatized and afraid, and the times when Frodo is not eating because the Ring is warping his mind and making it harder for him to eat. It’s like the Ring is parasitic, feeding off the guilt and trauma it creates in people.
Frodo tries to hide how little he’s eating because he doesn’t want Sam to worry about his emotional state…… but also because he doesn’t want Sam to realize that he’s gradually becoming corrupted like Gollum, that he’s gradually becoming the kind of person he’s afraid that Sam can no longer empathize with.
It's that time of year when Tumblr celebrates Easter by posting pictures of crucified anime characters, and inevitably somebody in the notes will pop up to helpfully explain that crucifixion imagery has no cultural significance in Japanese media because Japan is only about 1% Christian, which bugs me because it's completely wrong.
It's true that in the majority of cases, crucifixion in Japanese cartoons isn't meant to be conveying any specific theological message, but something Western audiences are likely to miss is that a large portion of those random crucifixion scenes are referencing Ultraman.
Ultraman's creator was a devout Roman Catholic who explicitly intended the titular hero to read as a Christ figure, and consequently, various Ultramen have been crucified on multiple unconnected occasions throughout the franchise's history. Crucifixion scenes in Japanese cartoons are often directly name-checking particular crucifixion incidents from Ultraman, right down to emulating the compositions and camera angles of specific shots. It's like an especially morbid version of the Akira slide.
The upshot is that, while it's true that the inclusion of gratuitous crucifixion scenes in Japanese cartoons typically has no (intentional) theological message, stating that they have no cultural significance is incorrect. A large chunk of the Japanese viewing audience are going to see them and immediately go "hey, that's an Ultraman reference".
Anyway, as an image tax, have a shot of four crucified Ultramen miraculously resurrecting a fifth Ultraman by shooting laser beams out of their hearts:
adolin half teasing kaladin while out for drinks sometime in Urithiru: you know your feats on the shattered plains aren't quite as impressive now that I've seen more of your magic glowing powers thing.
Kalidan: hm
Adolin: knew there was something weird about you. Ha. I mean i was amazed at the time, but surviving the fall from that bridge sabotage isn't really anything now that I've seen-
Kalidan: actually I didn't have my powers for that part
Adolin: what
Shallan: it's true he didn't
Kalidan: Lost syl right after prison, I got maybe a chip of stormlight while falling , just enough to not die, no powers the rest of the time
Adolin: how
Kalidan: I already explained the whole - with elhokar and moash -
Adolin: no, i mean, the highstorm -
Kaladin: yeah that was shallan
Shallan: shardblade cubby cut out part way up the wall
Adolin: and the chasm fiend? It really was already dead -
Shallan: no very much alive, very much tried to kill us
Adolin: and you-
Shallan: no that was kaladin
Adolin: what
Kaladin: I mean you did distract it, and I wouldn't have been able to do anything without your pattern blade
Adolin: you killed a chasm fiend. Without special powers.
Kaladin: I mean shallan-
Shallan: he jumped right in its mouth!
Adolin: i - you killed a chasm fiend. Without any other fighters. By yourself. Without radiant powers. You're - you're sure? No special abilities?
Kaladin: it was a pretty painful time, yes I'm sure. Did some spear katas. Noticeable difference without the bond with syl.
Adolin: you fought the chasm fiend. handicapped.
Kaladin: I guess? I dont know if it's handicapped considering, you know, most people don't ever breathe stormlight.
Adolin: you killed a chasm fiend singlehandedly. Without shardplate. And without any powers.
Incredibly fucking insane how well the Wit fits as an allegory for queerness. Burrich's harsh rejection of Fitz and Swift for it, the simultaneous automatic learned reaction of disgust and the fear at learning he has a child who could face real danger because of it, the multitude of ways he misunderstands and refuses to understand the way the Wit functions in order to keep his views. His "I've tried many years to purge it from myself. Still, it lingers. But if it cannot be purged from a man, he can nevertheless be taught to refuse it. Just as a man must learn to refuse all other sorts of vices." The damage to his relationship with first Fitz because of his inability to accept thar Fitz not only has but continues to use the Wit. The way Fitz eventually embraces his Wit but is always careful, so so careful and so worried for people like Swift, who flaunt it. Web's "there are other types of neglect and deprivation. To deny what unfolds in someone...to say to a child 'you must not be what you are.' That is wrong." It's just!! All over the fucking place!!!
Someone tries to reforge Honor but are unsuccessful. Instead they creat a new entity, a vessel that holds the fragments of Honor but is not Honor reforged or repaired.
Cultivation and Odium are taken out of play somehow. Perhaps Cultivation is destroyed because the curse/boon she’s given to Taravangian somehow violate the agreements of the duel, leaving her open to retaliation and a mutual destruction with TOdium. Possibly they both just leave Roshar and only this not-quite-Honor remains there, which is an option if Odium wins the duel.