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kingandfireheart · 3 years

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I don't know if this is a trope or not but I was wondering if youve any recs for books where the girl hasn't been with any one before/knows very less about s*x and then the guy comes along and he shows her what she's been missing? Like with casteel and poppy!!

Hi nonnie!! I've got some recommendations, but I'm also asking my mutuals to chime in . [Mutuals, please advise with recommendations!]

FBAA is pretty high on my smut scale - the sex is described explicitly and there's some kinky shit happening. A lot of YA books I've read have a bunch of build up and then will fade to black when it comes to actually intimate scenes. (I'm assuming you're familiar with the The Folk of the Air Series by Holly Black and the Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J Mass ).

Here are some books (mostly new adult or adult genre) I read recently that may fit what you're looking for:

[I mention virginity in these, just to answer the question properly, but I just want to put it out there that it is a social construct and sleeping with people is not something that indicates character. idk how old anon is, and I don't want you to feel any pressure to read about/have sex until you're totally ready. I'm the mom friend, I had to include the disclaimer. Come talk to me if you have questions. I promise I'm nice.]

Smut levels are based on taco bell sauce packets so in order: mild (not a lot of detail), hot (detail but I can probably keep a straight face while reading), fire (my apple watch is telling me to breath because my heart is racing).

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston is a modern romance (with some time travel), where the MC is a 23 year old bisexual virgin who meets a girl on the train and falls in love. The writing in this book is excellent, and a lot of the more intimate scenes are mentioned in passing, but August does have her world rocked. [smut level: medium]

A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova is an arranged marriage Hades/Persephone fantasy romance, where the MC hasn't been kissed prior to the start of the book. She is whisked away to marry the Hades character, and spend a lot of time learning about magic. This isn't a smutty book, but the few love-scenes are satisfying and fun! [smut level: mild]

Radiance by Grace Draven is an arranged marriage fantasy romance and features one of the healthiest relationships I've read in a long long time. The MC is not a virgin, but didn't enjoy her prior experience, and the first love scene is really well done. The whole book is wonderful. [smut level: like 2 scenes but they are hot]

The Mistake by Elle Kennedy is a modern college romance, where the girl is a virgin, but isn't completely inexperienced prior to the first intimate scene in the book. The guy is a veritable player, and knows exactly what he's doing, but is a bit emotionally constipated. The whole series is about a bunch of white college roommates [they play hockey at a fictional new england ivy league school] who start the series as major players and end with steady girlfriends, so it's not unpredictable at all. They are terrible, which obviously means, I love them. [smut level: fire]

The Deal by Elle Kennedy is a part of the same series (it actually comes before the Mistake). Same general premise: college hockey player who is allergic to relationships convinces girl in his ethics class to tutor him. Shenanigans ensue. I don't want to be too spoiler-y, but I feel like I have to explain why I'm including it here. [TW mentions of past rape and physical assault] The MC is not a virgin, but has struggled finding physical pleasure in past relationships, because she was raped several years prior to the start of the book. The first few intimate scenes are really earth-shattering for her (in a good way), because she's able to work through some of her struggles. [smut level: fire]

The Dare by Elle Kennedy is a tangentially related book (its fourth in the second set of books about hockey players at the same university). It's about a college hockey player who is known for his fuckboy status, and a plus sized-sorority girl, who end up fake dating. Conor is dealing with imposter syndrome after he transferred from LA to escape his past, and Taylor is just trying to escape her sorority sisters relatively unscathed. Shenanigans ensue. Essentially Conor tries (and succeeds) to seduce Taylor, and she finally feels comfortable enough to be vulnerable with him. [smut level: fire]

Shatter Me by Tareheh Mafi is a dystopian romance about a girl who hasn't really been touched her whole life, and so all of her romantic/sexual moments are a bit life-changing for her. [SPOILER: she doesn't have sex until the third book]. This series is a piping hot mess, and while the writing is gorgeous, the actual plot (especially books 4-6) made me want to pull my hair out. If you read this series, I recommend you end with Ignite Me, unless you really love the characters. [smut level for book 3: medium]

Kingdom of the Cursed by Kerri Maniscalo hasn't been released yet, but I KNOW this book is going to have Poppycas AKOFAF vibes. The first book, Kingdom of the Wicked, is about a witch living in Italy who summons a hell prince to help her solve her twin sister's murder. There is one steamy make-out scene, but the sequel is supposed to be written for the NA genre, and include a lot more intimate moments. The sneak preview of the first two chapters already has some steamy scenes! [smut level for book 1: mild, book 2: i'm aspirationally saying fire]

If anyone else has recommendations, please reply to this post and help anon out!!

Recommended by mutuals:

The Roommate by Rose Danan (recommended by @noonewhoislikeyou) [link to book description because I haven't read it] [update I read it and this whole series focuses on sex workers and is really good]

Anyway, thanks for coming here and asking me! If other people send recs, I'll compile a list for you!

#book recommendations #asked and answered #i'm trying to talk about sex like an adult in this post and it feels odd to not just be like yeah they fucked #thinking of adding diablo to my smut scale for the more kinky/niche folks but black text doesn't show up will in dark mode

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kakyoinryoko · 3 years

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im curious what u think jotaros life pre sdc was like

probably not good from what we see but i’m not super into speculation about this sort of thing beyond what can be inferred on a pretty base level... like, i feel no need to have detailed headcanons about everything that happened to him exactly. i have vague ideas but nothing super in depth outside of how him being gay and trans affects things already established or implied. i don’t know what exactly jotaro’s high school fights would revolve around, for example, and i don’t particularly have any desire to come up with any headcanons for this. i say this but i’m about to drop an entire essay here i guess. cool, embarrassing, etc

i’ve talked about it a little before but i think Something happened to him between entering high school and reaching his third year that kinda fucked him up, and whatever it was caused him to start acting more coldly and harshly towards his mother, who he previously was very openly loving towards. i’ve heard people say that the only reason holly sees him that way at the beginning of sdc is because she has illusions about her son being a better and kinder person than he is, but that’s just not true. i don’t think the imagery of him dressing like a proper student and being happy to receive a valentine and smiling at her and openly expressing his love for her cooking were false memories, i think he actually said and did those things, it was just stuff that happened when he was younger, probably a first year. i’ve said it over and over, but as it is, in the present day (as of sdc), she fully understands what her son is like. she’s introduced into the series asking the cops how many people he killed. that was her instinctual guess upon hearing he was arrested—this says to me 1) he’s never been arrested before, but 2) she knows about the fighting he gets up to and has feared that this is where it would end at some point. she also emphasizes the fact that he can’t fool her when it comes to his tough guy act—she realizes that it’s deep beneath his extremely rough exterior, but he IS a good and caring person at heart. she never says anything about him that isn’t true, and anyone brushing her off as a dumb naive woman just isn’t reading between the lines. or maybe isn’t reading at all frankly. it’s all right there in front of you.

as for his past. at a guess. it seems like he doesn’t really have any friends at all, at any point in the manga, outside of the people we see him interacting with in the parts themselves. as of his childhood and teen years, the fact that he’s half american and his father is largely absent is one possible reason i have heard brought up before, but i think it’s also because he comes across as pretty weird and hard to get along with. as an autistic person i see a lot of myself and my own struggles with interpersonal relationships in jotaro, so i think his issues with people are in no small part because he is autistic himself. i’m not going to belabor the explanation here because others have made better posts than i could about why he reads so heavily as autistic, but i think it comes down to him missing social cues, and not coming across the way he intends to, and not being able to read the implications in the things people say to him, and him being trans on top of that would make him feel like even more of an odd one out. i think he would deal with that by being kind of a sukeban type, so at least his ostracization feels like he’s in control of it and he’s being strong, but even so, acting like a scary tough girl isn’t a replacement for transitioning.

i think he would start transitioning (which is to say, changing his name and presentation and starting testosterone, but that’s about all) late in middle school, around 14, so that by the time he’s a first year in high school he’s fully stealth. and it makes him happy at first, because people are talking to him as a boy, and using a boy’s name for him (perhaps part of why he’s so chill about people calling him by first name the second they meet him, since that’s a little odd to do otherwise), so for a time he’s a happy enough kid. i think t hits him pretty hard and fast, and he shoots up almost immediately and gets to be like six feet tall and buff and deep voiced by the time he’s like 15, so suddenly he’s not so much the awkward american girl as he is the super tall strong guy that the guys all fear and respect and the girls all have a crush on, which is maybe nice at first, but i think the allure would wear off pretty fast.

i don’t think he necessarily realizes that it’s because he’s gay, but we see ourselves pretty clearly that he doesn’t enjoy the attention from girls beyond maybe thinking it’s a better alternative to having them mock him like when he was younger. he hates having them crowd around him and fawn over him—he has no interest in any of them in the first place, and none of them ACTUALLY care who he is, just that he’s tall and strong and handsome, and he hates that. and then, of course, guys fearing and respecting him turns into people wanting to fight him, and something terrible happens as a result of that, and he ends up an extremely guarded and hostile person as a result, even to the ones he loves. it gets to the point where he’s a target for actual serious violence, even from grown adult gang members as we see at the start of sdc, so his desire to keep people away from him as a means of keeping them safe kicks in—and this is something that sticks with him for the rest of his life, even into his 40s with his daughter. only tangentially related but i think the true tragedy of part 3 is that he was finally getting over that mindset, he was finally starting to see value in keeping people close to him and trusting in and relying on others. but primarily we see him express this sentiment towards kakyoin. and kakyoin dies. and more specifically dies for jotaro. so that all comes crashing down hard, and he’s right back where he started.

back to the main point i also feel i should mention i’m 100% of the belief he has perfect grades and attendance even when he’s more into the delinquent act. i say act mostly because i don’t think he’s actually hugely into the whole bancho subculture; i don’t think he would actually join any gangs, i think he prefers to keep to himself until other people go looking to start shit with him, which he always finishes handily (allegedly, no one has ever seen him get hurt before). probably including the teacher who he ran off, regardless of whatever happened then—he says himself that injustice and harming the weak makes him extremely mad, so there was definitely more going on there than just “jotaro got mad at a teacher because he’s a violent person and beat the shit out of him for no reason and so the guy got scared and quit,” though i don’t really care to speculate deeper than that. the teacher was not an innocent party is all i’m saying.

i suppose this is all just an unreasonably long winded way of saying “idk but i sure think about it a lot.” basically just extrapolations from the way he interacts with his peers from what little we see, and from the bio about him coming across in a much more cold and aloof way than he thinks he does, and from his relationship with his mom, and from what we see based on her memories of him when he was younger.

#op #i ate dinner in the middle of writing this so it took a bit LOL sorry #i did not proof read it very well either. but you get what you get.#long post #i’m so sorry but i forgot how to do a read more on mobile. sorry. i hate this more than you. i promise

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aeide-thea · 3 years

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so this post obviously applies in a lot of contexts, but right now i’m thinking about the kind of devotion/disdain binary it decries in terms of fandom, which increasingly seems to frame critical engagement with the source media as rude—i have a mutual whose approach to media is often, in their words, pugnacious, and they got an anon recently that said something like, ‘do you ever have anything positive to say???’ with the obvious implication of, ‘if you don’t, why are you even engaging with this material?’ which sets up a pretty troubling standard of, like, mandatory monolithic positivity or else erasure.

relatedly, i had a BNF in the witcher fandom leave me a pretty defensive comment last year (after which they promptly unfollowed me), for suggesting it was troubling that a bunch of people were citing a passage from the books in which dandelion uses some deeply misogynistic/wh*rephobic language as, like, a charming example of his loyal defensiveness of geralt, without any acknowledgment whatsoever of the language in question—despite the fact that this language was iirc not just contained but literally highlighted in the quote people were passing around. like, as i said at the time, the OP hadn’t just highlighted the ‘leave him alone’ bit, they’d explicitly included the ‘you stupid wh*re’ bit; and while i can absolutely see talking about the scene in general terms without feeling the need to have a whole tangential discussion about misogyny/wh*rephobia, i do think that if you’re going to explicitly point to specific sentences, and they include language this markedly misogynistic/wh*rephobic, there’s something troublingly head-in-the-sand about presenting it as unalloyedly cute, and about having the notes on the post balloon without anyone’s posing any challenges or even caveats to that framing.

(similarly, although i don’t feel as equipped to get into a whole disquisition on this, it’s a little strange to me when people cite not just the character/arc of éowyn in the lord of the rings, but specific speeches of hers, as, like, something they identify with, without anyone’s ever seeming to mention the way she consistently gets framed/frames herself as Not Like the Other Girls because she’s highborn, and deserving of escape from the domestic sphere because of weapons training that, again, she owes to her status—like, i suppose you could argue that’s just intrinsic to a world with nobility, so why even talk about it; but again, it seems to me that identifying with a fictional noblewoman is one thing, and lauding rhetoric that’s explicitly classist [‘not a serving-woman’] is another. but maybe that’s a false distinction, idk! i’m open to pushback on it.)

but a lot of people, including the BNF i offended, seem to think, ‘i’ve already fulfilled the Examined My Societal Conditioning requirement, and also i’m marginalized myself, so that means i can pass around anything i like because it’s my oppression to reclaim and my relationship to this media is automatically one of ~enlightened compromise~,’ despite the fact that like. whatever reservations you may harbor internally, if you don't discuss them externally, the message you're sending your audience is still ‘i didn’t notice the bigotry in this, or i did but decided it wasn’t important enough to comment on.’ and when that kind of silence becomes the group norm... well, then whatever you may (or may not, because again, if you don’t articulate your stance, we can’t know what it is!) believe in private, you haven’t cultivated a public fannish space that cares about these issues.

to be clear, my point absolutely isn’t, cancel anyone who isn’t perfectly vigilant and vocal about Problematic Themes at all times! quandoque bonus dormitat (or bona, as the case may be). my point is, there’s this culture that’s like, if something is problematic, i’ll divest from it entirely; but on the flip side of that, if it doesn’t strike me as problematic enough to make total divestment feel necessary, then i don’t see any need to ever discuss any issues it does have, and if you do, i’ll take that as a personal affront. like, i don’t want everyone to stop reading adrienne rich! but i wish any of the people who are reading and passing her work around on here ever saw fit to mention her association with janice raymond, because it is a troubling association and an ambiguity rich never publicly clarified, and what’s more, it’s relevant to, like, what her work means when it talks about Womanhood—as it is, it feels like there are two camps, the Divesters and the Devotees, and each camp could stand to learn a little of what the other knows, in most instances.

#fannish things #theory #long post #like people always want to be like 'yeah i Acknowledge that Stuff I Like Is Problematic' and it's like‚ okay but *how*#like Problematic is such a fucking blanket term! good as far as it goes but like. let's talk specifics! and let's actually give them airtime #otherwise there's just 'unalloyed praise' and 'silence' and there's no actual meaningful public examination #the point isn't what you believe in yr secret heart‚ really—like that matters but ultimately the public discourse is what really has impact #okay this is Too Many Words‚ i'm not going to improve them by adding more #some of these sentences are terrible and if this weren't tumblr i'd spend more time trying to fix them but. it's tumblr.#sorry about the one that's like 130 words tho.

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sage-nebula · 3 years

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Neo: The World Ends With You - Thoughts So Far

I’m on Day 6 of Week 1 and I want to compile my thoughts so far — not in a formal post, but at least all in one place, especially since I feel that jotting down what I think / feel as I go through will help me write my review when I’m done. Spoilers under the cut, obviously — and while it should go without saying, do NOT comment on this post with spoilers from later in the game, so help me. Even if I pose a question that gets answered later on — hell, especially if I do — don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. I will find out in my own time.

With that said . . .

So obviously, I’m really enjoying it so far. You can tell that the writers / devs haven’t lost their touch despite it being thirteen years since the first game was made. You can also tell that a lot of love went into this; this isn’t something they churned out just to make money (if they thought this was a moneymaker we wouldn’t have had to wait 13 freaking years for the sequel), but rather something they really, really wanted to make. Not a total passion project, because those aren’t allowed in the world of capitalism, but there is still a lot of love there.

That said, more specific thoughts:

THE MUSIC. It doesn’t really come as a surprise given that TWEWY’s soundtrack was phenomenal, but god, they brought it right back for this game. The remixes (“Someday”, “Three Minutes Clapping”, “Transformation”, “The One Star” etc) are all excellent, but the new tracks are phenomenal too. Tbh I’m not sure how any of the Players get any fighting done when the music makes you want to just bust a move right there in the scramble. It’s so good.

Most of the characters are great too. Of the Wicked Twisters, I think Fret is my favorite; he is pure of heart, dumb of ass, and I love that for him. I do like Rindo too, of course, and his habit of overthinking everything (since Fret has zero brain cells, Rindo has to make up for it), but him being standoffish / socially anxious and snarky makes him feel a bit like a toned down Neku, so he doesn’t catch my interest quite as much. And while I do like Nagi, the way she speaks in like . . . medieval-esque language is a bit off-putting. In particular it’s weird that Rindo didn’t tell her to knock it off with the “Lord Rindo” stuff since using such an honorific would be considered awkward / embarrassing in Japanese. I guess he’s just too socially anxious / awkward to tell her to stop, but it’s still a bit distracting. Other than that, I’m really not a fan of Kubo (one of the Reapers) or . . . Susukichi, I think his name is? The leader of the Ruinbringers. I find them both to be pretty annoying, haha. But I love Shoka, as well as Kanon, and Motoi is a good bean, too. As for the Deep River Society . . . those nerds have issues lmao. Especially their leader. Although I can’t fault him for breaking down sobbing when he realizes that he now stands a very good chance of getting erased, which reminds me . . .

HOW ARE WE ON DAY SIX AND THE WICKED TWISTERS STILL HAVE NO IDEA WHAT BEING ERASED IS?? We have kind of an inverse situation where where Neku knew right away that he would get erased if he failed the missions / didn’t win the Game, but didn’t find out until later that he was dead. Here, the Wicked Twisters learn that they’re dead fairly quickly (and Fret has some realistic denial going on about it at first, though he gets over it pretty quickly), but they’re still completely in the dark about the fact that their souls will get wiped from existence if they lose despite erasure being mentioned at least a handful of times. Like I guess it was never spelled out for them, but especially as someone who played the first game about a million times, it’s a bit maddening to see them be like, “Why is he crying like his life is on the line? lol whatevs no big deal la di da!” Since the Wicked Twisters aren’t aware of the stakes, a new player wouldn’t be either, and so it rather tones down the urgency that was felt in the original game where everyone was very much aware that they were fighting for their right to exist.

Since I brought up Motoi, I want to say that I just played past the part where he reveals that he was An0ther, who is apparently Rindo’s favorite blogger / poet. I feel like this is meant to be similar to how Hanekoma was CAT, Neku’s favorite artist, but it doesn’t carry the same impact because a.) as far as we know An0ther didn’t have anything to do with how Rindo died; b.) we haven’t seen Rindo bring An0ther or his poetry up that much, much less have anything An0ther said be his entire life’s mantra; c.) we haven’t gotten to know Motoi that well either. Like we met him once before this revelation. That said I’m not sure it was supposed to have the same impact as the Hanekoma = CAT reveal, but if it was then it did fall short. (Also I saw it coming the second Motoi quoted An0ther lmao.)

Speaking of Hanekoma, WHERE IS MY MANS??? I know he has to show up at some point because if I’m not mistaken we saw him in the trailers. And if I am mistaken then he still has to show up at some point because he played a central role in the “A New Day” epilogue chapter of Final Remix, what with Coco being unable to control him and him knowing what was going on, plus he was testing Neku for something in “Another Day” and that has to be whatever is going on in this game. I’m sure he’ll come in for some big reveal later, but like, we have a new street artist in this game (MKN) with no mention of CAT as of yet, and I’m just like . . . where is he. Where is my mans. What is he doing. Bring him to me.

That said, we already got to see my #2 mans (Kariya♥) so I am happy about that at least.

Back to my mans for a hot second: I actually erased my demo save data and started fresh to remind myself of everything when I got the game, and idk if it was in the demo or not, but regardless—at the end of the demo portion there’s this shot of the sky and then this nameless voice is like, “It’s finally starting. I hope you wake up soon. I don’t want you to miss all the action.” My current guess is that the speaker was Hanekoma, speaking to Joshua. Joshua being “asleep” would explain why the Game is as screwed up as it is right now, what with it having been going on for a year and people able to choose to play again and again and again while the rest of the Players—who tbh should also be counted as winners if they survive the week!—are trapped in limbo.

Because that’s the thing: I know that it was partially a lie to cover for the fact that Joshua’s game with Megumi was set to last three weeks, but at the end of the third week Megumi told Neku that a new rule was being put in place that wouldn’t allow repeats of the Game anymore. But even setting that aside, in the original Shibuya UG rules, anyone who survived the Game could get a wish at the end, whether that was to be brought back to life or made into a Reaper. This is why at the end of Week 1, the three winners were Neku, Shiki, and Beat. However, here the Ruinbringers are able to keep everyone trapped and they have been trapped for at least a year, given what Motoi said. It’s completely different rules and I’m sure that this has something to do with the fact that the majority of the Reapers we’ve seen so far are from Shinjuku (at least going by the spoilery trailer, and iirc it was confirmed in “A New Day” that Coco was from Shinjuku actually, but it’s been a while so I could be wrong about that).

Speaking of, has anyone noticed that the possibly-Shinjuku Reapers don’t have wings? No?

ALSO speaking of Coco, at least tangentially: Coco was the one who revived Minamimoto at the end of “A New Day”. However, he’s definitely not how I would have expected. Like despite Coco using the Taboo Noise sigil to bring him back, he’s clearly not in his Taboo form. He’s using psychs as a Player would, rather than a Reaper. And while it’s clear he’s up to some form of nonsense, it’s unclear exactly what form of nonsense he’s up to. I know that he’s here for fanservice and that him looking like Nagi’s bias from Elegant Strategy is a tongue-in-cheek nod to that, but I have too much faith in this series to think that’s all this is. I’m wondering if being revived for a second time fixed whatever screws were loose in his head before? Or if he was revived as a human Player by like, Joshua or something? (Although why Joshua would do that I have no idea. Maybe Hanekoma instead?) Hmmm . . .

Small aside, but we all know that Nagi has put herself into hundreds of thousands of yen in debt for Tomonami merch lolol RIP Nagi. (I’m also interpreting that she’s not actually older than Rindo or Fret, but she just skipped a bunch of grades. Like I feel like this might have been lost in translation a bit, and that she’s a senpai to them because she’s in uni but she’s not actually older than them. I could be wrong but that’s how I’m interpreting it right now. She just doesn’t look or act older than them.)

Oh another minor annoyance, but whether it’s due to the partial 3D environment or something else, I’m SO ANNOYED that some of the streets aren’t connecting as they should now. Like, how going in the direction of Molco spits you out at Spain Hill or 104 or whatever? I don’t remember exactly what area it was, but it wasn’t Molco!! I’m sure if I hadn’t played the original a million times like a loser this wouldn’t be such a big deal to me, but I have and it is lmao. Also, they’ve had the Shibuya Underpass / Cat Street blocked off this whole time and I’m like :( let me go to Cat Street :( let me see my mans

I’m relieved that Ken Doi is still making delicious food and I look forward to his ramen curry fusion. I was really upset about RamenDon being gone at first but as long as Ken Doi is still around I am happy.

My dinner just arrived so this is all I have to say for now, but I will update more as I play more. I love this game and I’m so happy to be back in Shibuya, even if the characters pronounce it wrong sometimes (saying “ShiBOOya” like pls . . . you are supposed to be Japanese . . . get it right . . .)

#neo: the world ends with you #no but seriously I will block anyone who sends spoilers lol it will be ON SIGHT

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ameyasims · 4 years

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TOU Standardization Ideas

My boyfriend is a computer scientist and has worked in and tangential to tech for almost 20 years now and long story short: The anarchic nature of cc creator’s TOU’s is a MAJOR pet peeve of his. I’m not a big fan either, as my autistic brain would like more standardization and fewer unknowns, too.

For example, if the person didn’t mention something at all in their TOU, does that mean yes or no? There’s ~0 chance I’ll actually message someone bc ~anxiety~ so I’ll assume no where maybe there would have been a yes except the creator just didn’t think to add that bit in. Also, it’s hard to keep track of who has which of the literally infinite variations of TOUs out there. But if there were standardized TOU types out there, then people who wanted to participate could just choose the one they want, and having multiple people using the same, explicitly stated TOUs would just make things lowkey easier.

Also i hope that maybe it would encourage more open TOUs? Some people don’t realize that their strict TOUs are contradicting EAs TOUs, and maybe seeing all their friends and favorite creators choosing X tou could encourage them to maybe use that one too? (A simmer could hope..)

So anyway, the BF & I sketching out ideas of what a standardization of TOUs might look like, and we’d love some input! Questions we’d love to hear answers to:

What would a fully open TOU allow? We have the following, but lmk if i’ve forgotten anything!

> Recolors

> Mesh Edits

> Including the Mesh

> Converting to other sims versions & other games

Should “Converting to other sims versions” & “Converting to other games” be two separate points (for any type of TOU)? Idk if there are people out there who allow converting to ts2/3 but not other games..

The most common TOU to me seems to be “Recolors are fine with credit (and no paywalls, etc) but don’t include the mesh, and don’t edit my mesh”-- do you agree? Do you see any other types that seem particularly common?

What kind of TOU do you have?

Do you have any thoughts on TOUs / the idea of providing some standardized options for people ?

Oooh, and if this were to come into being and had its own little site, we could include templates for emailing creators, and maybe encourage creators to specify why they want tot message them &/or what information to include when they do. Like this is def my autistic brain speaking, but I'd never email someone asking for permission to edit a mesh (so i just wouldn't) bc it'd make me too anxious. & I think it's because I feel like I'd be like "Hello i am seeking to be judged worthy of editing your mesh but i have no idea what your criteria are and so i don't know if i qualify and I might have some sort of rejection here and that makes me wanna barf."

Reducing vagueness + increasing explicitly stated information is SUPER VERY MUCH an accessibility issue (for autistic/adhd, anxious, &/or ID folks at minimum), and one that doesn’t get talked about enough!

#ts4 #the sims #this is a very autistic post #there's too much uncertainty in cc TOUs atm #and variability #it stresses me out man #ts4 disability #ts4 cc help

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tbhwhocaresanymore · 4 years

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Nancy Drew 1x11

Nancy: *has a sex dream about Owen*

Dead Lucy, immediately: *GHOSTLY SCREAMS*

Since my reviews have started getting pretty long I am going to put them under the cut from now on.

I just got done watching the new Nancy Drew ep (I’m on California time don't @ me) and boy Lordy do I have thoughts. As always this show keeps getting better and better. The plot was fantastic and the story is most definitively moving forward. Dead Lucy was present and interactive and I am getting so good at predicting her appearances. The second I saw that painting with a gap I knew she was going to show up in it. And I cannot believe we finally met the owner of the Claw I was beginning to think they were a myth.

I cannot get over how great Bess’s character is, and can I just say that I love how they had the European girl be the illegal immigrant? Lisbeth was finally back on screen, and their relationship continues to slay me. Although I don’t fully understand why Bess is living in a van again when Nancy was willing to let her live at her house, but I guess it’s like an independence thing probably. I am glad to see I was right about them not being done w the Marvin storyline yet. I’m interested to see where this storyline w the Amaya character goes. Also maybe Bess will see how intense and different the world of murderous rich people is, or find out something about the Marvins (Mirror Bay anyone?) and realize she doesn’t want to be a part of it anymore, and they will blackmail her with her immigration status. Either way, it is staying interesting and affecting the plot and I am excited. And like Lisbeth I have a thing for British accents.

It’s not that I disliked George’s story this episode, she’s trying to save the Claw and it’s important to her, etc. They did a good job keeping her relevant despite her not being part of the main plot, but I want George to be active in the main plot more often. Out of all the characters, she’s the most tangentially involved especially now that they’re not suspects anymore. I am glad she’s not rushing into a relationship w Nick despite having clear feelings for him. She doesn’t trust that he’s over Nancy and George is not the type to play second fiddle to another girl, not after Tiffany.

On the subject of Nick and Nancy, they obviously still have feelings for each other. But I do understand why Nancy kissed Owen. He’s older and attractive and similar to her, and he keeps expressing clear interest. After getting her heart at least a little bit broken by Nick I can understand why she’d go after something easy.

Stepping away from Nick for the moment, Nancy was amazing this episode. I love when the writers show off her brilliance, and of course I’m glad they finally utilized Lisbeth’s undercover cop persona. Coming up with the ploy to get Mr. Hudson to transfer the money under the pretenses of relocating Bashir was brilliant. Following Lucy and realizing she was telling her to check the bottom of the portrait. She is just so trusting of and committed to Dead Lucy, I love it. Although I am curious, since the Hudson parents were clearly not big fans of Lucy, how did she find out about their hiding spots? Now I’m just picturing her standing over their shoulders while they open safes and the like. And I like that Nancy finally went to go visit her dad, they are finally building up to the positive, trusting relationship we saw in the books. Assuming they don’t kill him off in the next episode of course.

Moving back to Nick, don’t think I didn’t notice that mention of his family in Florida. And since they are all apparently important people in med school or doing important things, it makes me wonder where Nick was headed before the whole prison thing. What were his life plans. And as George pointed out, he still drops everything for Nancy whenever she needs him. I don’t think that is going to change anytime soon, and I think once they start dating George and Owen, it will be detrimental to their respective relationships, putting their ex over their current SO.

Bashir. I have decided to adopt him, he is going to come live with me somewhere warm and dry and safe and stay there forever. I loved his backstory and I am of course always thrilled to get new haunting victims. Bonny Scot looks like it’s almost wrapped up, now there are just a couple of questions. Will Bashir be safe until his testimony, will Ryan come forward with the urn - I totally called him blackmailing his family - does Carson know anything about the Bonny Scot? I’m curious as to whether Mr. Hudson actually goes to jail for this, and I am interested to see how Mrs. Hudson and Ryan step up in his absence.

Dead Lucy continues to dazzle in all her dead perfection, and whoever is in charge of her appearance needs a raise. And Nancy’s mom being Lucy’s guidance counselor, thus tying her to Lucy while supposedly pointing towards a new suspect? *adds tally mark to my Nancy’s mom killed Lucy Sable column*

In terms of next week’s episode, The Lady of Larkspur Lane: Lucy’s mother is now a suspect and since in the next episode they chase down a lead, I am assuming her brother will come back. I’m also thinking Lucy’s mother is the titular lady. And someone apparently tries to kill Ryan. Since the writers love tying storylines together I’m guessing the brother uncovers evidence that Ryan killed Lucy or something along those lines, and goes about his own way of getting justice. And Nick is going to untraceably cash his bearer bonds so maybe we meet someone from his prison days or something, idk but I’m excited. Also expecting him and George to get together any episode now, which like Nancy and Owen I’m still not here for but I have long since accepted it. I’ll be back next week with yet another witty revealing review. Send me asks or message me if you have any questions, I cannot talk about this show enough.

#Nancy Drew #Nancy Drew cw #Nancy Drew 2019 #Bess Marvin #George Fan #Ned Nick Nickerson #Nancy x Owen #Nancy x Nick #George x Nick #Bess x Lisbeth #Dead Lucy #bring back Victoria writers #don't make me beg

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bigskydreaming · 5 years

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Hoo boy. Actually using a cut on this one because it got long even by my standards, so....yikes. LOL. Umm, it started out salty but then it got angsty and then it got salty again and then maybe salt-angsty? Idk, whatever, its about Tim and also Damian and also BFTC and also Ric and its a freaking mess but also probably more coherent than I’m advertising it as here? I don’t fucking know, man, my baseline for this stuff is so fucked, never take my word for it. Okay, anyway!

So I’m probably always gonna be more salty about Tim and the reactions to the Robin/Red Robin thing and to Dick not believing him about Bruce, than I am even about people giving Dick shit for being a bad brother to Jason.

Because with the latter, even though I shout a lot about how there’s no real canon basis for the “Dick was an asshole to Jason before his death” stuff, it is true that most of their interactions had to happen offpanel, where we didn’t see them....so even though I’ll always be like umm, guys, why do you insist on headcanoning Dick as Douche of the Year when you could just as easily headcanon him and Jason getting along....I mean, I do still understand that we didn’t see either of those things really, so its dealer’s choice.

But its different with Tim, because we DID see Dick build a relationship with him, practically every step of the way. For years and YEARS, both in real time and comic book time, Dick made Tim a huge fucking priority in his life. Called him his brother long before Bruce adopted him. Took him places to train, and tried to make training fun too at times. Checked in on him, came running when he needed help. Dick DID THE WORK of building their bond. We saw it happen, in canon. It didn’t just magically appear fully formed, no more than Dick’s bond with Damian did....yeah Tim wasn’t as resistant as Damian was, but that doesn’t change the fact that Dick made an effort to show up in this kid’s life as often as he realistically could. Dick was a rock solid presence for Tim that he could count on, knew he could count on, he’d witnessed with his own eyes how damn much Dick cared about him and worried about him. Dick DOTED on this guy.

And then pretty much the first time Dick does something that Tim and his stans didn’t like - not even because he WANTED to, but because he literally felt like it was the choice he HAD to make, to extend some kind of meaningful gesture that this ten year old assassin who pretty much ONLY saw value in things like symbols and legacies and mantles at that particular point in his life would actually see as a reason to stay - the second Dick prioritized someone else over Tim, not because he didn’t want to be there for Tim, but because he had to make an actual CHOICE, he was just one person, he literally could not be all things to all people all at the same time....

Like, Tim and a lot of his fandom act like this was Dick abandoning Tim as a brother. Rejecting him. What????

And for the record, if we’re gonna talk about how dare Dick choose this kid he barely knows over Tim, his brother of years, not even mentioning what Damian did to Tim already.....like, let’s not forget that its not like Damian was some random stranger who held no possible emotional significance to Dick whatsoever. Like, Tim was fixated on his conviction that Bruce was alive, but Dick didn’t disbelieve him just to be an asshole, he just genuinely believed that he’d buried his father....and here was this prickly little ten year old who was the LAST possible piece of Bruce left in the world. Like, screw the idea that Dick was more drawn to Damian from the start because Damian was ‘the blood son’ and Bruce’s heir more than Tim was, that makes zero sense without Dick devaluing his own equally adoptive connection to Bruce himself.

Nah, instead try the take that for Dick, Bruce wasn’t just the source of his family in the sense that Bruce was a second father to him....it was also because time and time again, Bruce added to Dick’s family, grew it by yet one more sibling, gave him more family than he’d ever have had without Bruce....and here comes Damian. One last addition to Dick’s family, via Bruce....and he’s not especially significant for the reason that he’s Bruce’s biological son unlike the rest of them, and this somehow elevates him over Dick’s other brothers from the start.....nope, its just as likely a read that Damian’s significant for Dick, he’s someone Dick HAS to take a chance on, HAS to bring into their family one way or another, has to get to ACCEPT them as family, to BE family, no matter what it takes.....because Damian is the last new sibling they’ll ever have, as far as Dick knows at that point.

Bruce is dead, he thinks. There will be no more new brothers and sisters from that point on, whether biological or adopted....because Bruce isn’t there to be the one to widen their family again, one more time. No, Dick thinks, that falls to him now, he’s the only one who can do that.....he’s the only one who can make this one last gift from their dad, this prickly assassin child who so clearly is desperate for love and affection and approval and the very same things so many of them struggled with, its up to Dick to make sure he doesn’t LEAVE, that he doesn’t reject THEM, that he stays, stays family even without Bruce to be the connection...because anything less than that, anything other than making this one last potential brother, because he’s already connected to Bruce, the actual basis of that connection being shared biology not really that relevant, just that this connection EXISTS even without Bruce’s presence....failing to make him their brother in REALITY, in FULLNESS, rather than just a tangential association that benefits none of them, adds nothing to their family...to Dick, the very idea of that must be like it’d be failing Bruce one last time, squandering his last gift to their family, when his greatest gifts have always been the siblings he added to their number.

So Dick had to get Damian to stay, to see that he had family here, by any means necessary, and so of course Dick did the only thing he knew would work, the only thing that has EVER worked except for in the case of Cass who is an outlier and should not be cited in reference to any of her brothers’ emotional obstinancy ever...he gave Robin to Damian....the only thing that has ever bonded him and his brothers, the only thing Dick has that didn’t come straight from Bruce and that he could offer on his own, the only thing that all his brothers value so highly, and thus in that they’re all connected.

And its like, so the first time Dick does something that Tim actually doesn’t like, that’s proof that Dick doesn’t really care about him, like all those years of bending himself into a pretzel to try and show up for his little brother every chance he could, no matter what else was going on in his life....like suddenly they mean nothing. Like Dick was only ever actually a good brother...so long as he was doing what Tim wanted. So long as he was prioritizing Tim properly.

And people compare it to Bruce and what happened between he and Dick years earlier, when Bruce fired Dick as Robin, when first off, there’s the fact that Robin is and was Dick’s and never Bruce’s, but I’ve gone over that to death, but secondly, there was no FIRING Tim as Robin, like there was no scene ever where Dick took Robin AWAY from Tim. I realize that might be parsing semantics to a degree, as by making Damian Robin, there was the implicit assumption that Tim now would no longer be Robin, but my point is that....there was NO scene where Dick did or said anything that can reasonably be construed as him thinking Tim wasn’t good enough to be Robin, wasn’t cutting it, was a liability, or that he wasn’t his brother. Could it have been written better, the exact how and when of making Damian Robin, that took Tim’s feelings more into account? Sure.

But I maintain there is no version of that scenario that was ever going to satisfy fans who simply wanted Tim and only Tim to be Robin and weren’t interested in this newest one....which is ENTIRELY different from what happened between Bruce and Dick, no matter WHICH version of that story you go with....because there WAS no one else to be Robin at that particular time. It wasn’t happening because Bruce felt someone else needed it more than Dick. The ONLY conclusions there, were always going to be that....Bruce’s motivations or thoughts there were about Dick, in some way or another.

With Tim and Damian.....it wasn’t that at all, because it wasn’t like Dick just out of the blue said hey, Bruce dying has made me decide its too dangerous out there, I’m going to be Batman but I’m going to do it alone, I don’t want you being Robin anymore. No, he only did it to GIVE Damian something, to bring in MORE family, make that circle WIDER and try and build a connection that at the time was non existent. That’s an entirely different motivation than just wanting to TAKE AWAY Robin from Tim, purely because of something to do or not to do with Tim and nobody else.

And Dick literally told Tim it was because he felt Tim was too GOOD to be Robin anymore? Because he viewed Tim as an equal and wouldn’t be comfortable ordering him around in the field, the way Batman and Robin’s dynamic has always worked? And that just....didn’t mean anything to either Tim or most of his fans, because it wasn’t what they WANTED to hear, it wasn’t ‘oh I realized I made a mistake, Tim please be Robin again’ so it might as well have never been said, I guess.

But another huge component of Dick’s angst when he was fired as Robin was because no matter how close he and Bruce had been before that, Bruce had never actually taken the initiative and clarified what their relationship was without Batman and Robin in the picture, what Dick was to him, if and when Dick was no longer Robin. And even after he fired Dick, its not like he stepped up then either to offer an alternative view of how he saw Dick....he was perfectly willing to let Dick just go off and become Nightwing and at no point take the initiative to reach out to Dick and clarify hey, just because I thought it was too dangerous for you to be Robin, that doesn’t mean I stopped viewing you as my family, as my son. No, he waited for Dick to come back to HIM before he could even manage to utter that he’d missed Dick at all.

And that is not Dick and Tim’s dynamic and never was??? Because Dick CONSTANTLY told Tim he was family, he was his brother, long before all of that went down in RR #1. Dick expresses affection openly and often, so much so that the joke has long been that he can be smothering with that. And at the time, Tim was very much legally a Wayne, as was Dick, so....where on earth in any of that was the implication that Dick was in any way trying to reject Tim as a brother? That whatever Dick did with the mantle of Robin could at that point have anything to do with their status as brothers....which had for a long time by that point existed entirely independent of what they both did or didn’t do as vigilantes?

Not to mention the fact that unlike with Bruce and him, where Bruce had shown no effort to reach out to Dick in the literally-according-to-canon EIGHTEEN MONTHS between firing Dick after the Joker shot him and Dick coming back to the cave to confront Bruce about adopting Jason and making him Robin....

Again, not remotely accurate in comparison to Dick and Tim, because even when Tim left, pissed off and hurt....Dick still tried to check up on him constantly, worried about him? Asked others to look after him when Tim kept rejecting his attempts to reach out? Where the fuck does all this stuff about Dick making no effort to hang on to Tim and keep him in his life come from, I would def love to know.

Because if its just about the fact that Dick didn’t believe him about Bruce being alive at first.....I’m just gonna say it. That’s a really fucking shitty thing to hold against someone. LOLOL, yeah, he sucks because he ‘refused’ to believe Tim that the father he’d just buried and whose life he essentially now was living - raising his son, running his company, wearing his mantle, protecting his city, all of which is despite the fact that Dick’s ONLY wish for himself for years, as Tim well knew, had simply been to be his own man, live his own life, not just a pale imitation of Bruce’s....

Like basically, that whole thing there is Tim and/or his fandom resenting Dick for.....being too emotionally fragile at that point in time to deal with the possibility Bruce might actually be alive, might be able to be brought back, brought home....since what goes hand in fucking hand with that is the CRUSHING EMOTIONAL DEATHBLOW that’s the inevitable fallout of THAT if Tim turned out not to be right.

We of course know that Tim was right in the end, and we knew it even then too, those of us reading back at the time....because its comics, and its Bruce, and of course he wasn’t going to stay dead forever, which meant yeah duh, Tim is probably right, even without any evidence yet we can say that.

But without that awareness, without any kind of GUARANTEE....can you imagine being told hey, I know it literally sounds too good to be true, too good to be believed, but that thing you’re probably wishing like hell could happen, your dad could come back, maybe he’s not even really dead at all....guess what, it can! And like....you wouldn’t at all be hesitant about that, afraid to trust it, afraid to believe....because that means finding out later that he really was dead and not coming back would be like losing him all over again? Even though you never actually even got him back, just the idea, the hope of it, but that’s still enough to make you start to dream of how much better things could be, if and when you find him and bring it home....except nope, now you have to wake up again, dream’s over, time to face reality....your dad is still dead and he’s always going to be.

And then can you imagine being RESENTED for that, for not believing that because you’re literally just trying to protect yourself from losing anything else when you feel like you’ve already lost everything you can possibly bear to lose and anything else could break you.....to have this thrown in your face and cited as further proof you don’t really love your little brother, you’re rejecting him....when it has absolutely nothing to do with his credibility and everything to do with the freaking emotional toll that’s demanded of asking a twice orphaned guy to just take it on faith because its you that hey, our dad isn’t really dead, we can get him back?!

Not to mention the fact that Tim had almost gone some VERY fucking dark roads in the not too distant past because he had trouble dealing with Kon’s death, and those of his other friends, not to mention his other dad, Jack....all things that fandom cite for why Dick was so brutal to basically pile on to all of Tim’s other losses by taking Robin away too....but Dick KNEW all this and that’s literally a huge part of WHY he was so worried about Tim, because being aware that your little brother canonically has trouble dealing with major losses and was still reeling from a shit ton of major losses when he lost Bruce too and oh god, I know I made it worse by making Damian Robin instead but I didn’t know what else to do there and its not like I can take it back or change things when I didn’t see an alternative in the first place.....like...are these not legitimate freaking reasons for thinking that said little brother insisting that Bruce wasn’t dead and they could get him back the same way he refused to accept there was no way to bring Kon back....miiiight be more to do with explantions other than...oh yeah our Dad is actually totes alive and just time traveling because that’s what happens when magic god energy kills you, duh, everyone knows that?

Like, its not really that much of a stretch even to take practically everything Dick says to Tim about Tim’s possible mental state as just Dick projecting like hell about his OWN mental state and how much he’d fucking love to take a break and take some time to get his head sorted out before diving right back into the chaotic mess that is their day to day lives.

But like, both Tim and many of his fandom STILL really just don’t even hold back about not caring about any of the time Dick put into building and nurturing the fuck out of a happy, healthy, wholesome relationship with his little brother, not when he then turned around and ruined it by hurting Tim by.....reluctantly prioritizing someone else at a time that Tim really could have used him in the specific way and dynamic they were used to....and not being willing to believe him about Bruce, and in doing so open himself up to the possibility of losing Bruce all over again.

Like???? So many of the mistakes Dick is most vilified for in Batfandom as a whole are in reality actually just....times when he did something people don’t like, because it didn’t center or prioritize their personal favorite SPECIFICALLY, as in above all others. Even though in almost all of these specifics, Dick is actually asked to CHOOSE between two different loved ones or siblings, both equally demanding his attention and focus and efforts....and he’s only allowed to prioritize one, because that innately creates conflict with the other.

Like I know when we stan, its pretty natural for us to get blinded by our biases and not look at the whole picture, like of course we all inevitably tend to think our personal faves were most right or most valid or most hurt, but like just look at that for a second....

Look at how many of the occasions when Dick is considered to have made a mistake and really done wrong by one of his family as a result....how many of those situations are literally a catch-22, where the ONLY way for Dick to have made the ‘right choice’ in the eyes of one particular character’s fans....is for him to have chosen to prioritize that character over the one he actually prioritized in canon....which simply means that even if Dick had taken the road not taken there in canon, he STILL would be just as resented....just by the other’s fans now instead.

Or when its not about fans at all, but characters, like in the Forever Evil aftermath....the ONLY way for Dick to have made the ‘right choice’ in the eyes of all the characters who give him crap for it later....would have been for him to look his father in the eye, while he himself is at absolute rock bottom, an emotional wreck, and in response to Bruce’s blatant manipulation of Dick’s guilt complex there, say “no, I’m not going to do what you’re asking me to do, even if it costs me your trust and affection?” Like can you imagine being pissed at a guy for NOT being able to say that to their dad when their dad is currently trying to pull the mother of all guilt trips...as if that’s an easy thing to do even when someone’s calm and at their peak emotional health....and not like, recovering from having been tortured and killed and revived just the day before?

Like ahflshglashfa. Srsly? C’MON!

And my question is okay, so when have ANY of the others ever been DEMANDED to make a choice, to pick either Dick or someone else to make their priority...and they chose Dick over that someone else? The CLOSEST I can actually come up with is the end of Under the Red Hood, when Jason taunts Bruce by telling him he better go check on Dick.....BECAUSE THEY BOTH SAW THE SKY TURN GREEN FROM GOTHAM CUZ SOMEONE JUST DROPPED A NUKE ON DICK’S CITY.

(And for the record, I ABSOLUTELY have read stories that bring that up as a point of resentment for Jason, that Bruce was willing to leave their confrontation....because he was worried about Dick....who was in the city that was just leveled by a nuke. Like...that’s not him running to kiss Dick’s boo boo all better because he skinned his knee maybe, lmfao.)

But srsly, its easy not to get blamed for making the ‘wrong’ choice in an impossible ask that doesn’t ALLOW for you to ever make an actually ‘right’ choice...when YOU’RE not the character who is constantly put in that lose/lose situation, specifically in regards to your family. Which is not really a situation that Jason, Tim, Cass, Damian, Duke, are really ever often in, you gotta admit?

AND DICK CONSTANTLY IS.

But yeah, I’m especially cranky about this today, hence the epic rant even by my standards lol, because I’ve been stewing about the Ric storyline still, and what I was saying there about how nobody’s ever really asked to put forth effort that actually COSTS them something, for Dick’s sake specifically...

Because that’s what made me think of the Red Robin stuff, after BOTC. Because just like the Batfamily apparently has no big issues with leaving Ric alone, per his wishes....it would have been SO much easier for Dick to just take the hint when Tim basically was like I’m mad at you, looking to stay that way, so leave me alone unless you’re ready to help me do what I think needs to be done. But Dick DIDN’T stop trying, even though Tim was PISSED at him, and making no effort to hide it, Dick was still like....fuck it, I’ll send Steph to try and look out for you if you won’t let me do it, and yeah maybe that’s less than fucking ideal too but I’m not making good decisions here for a reason like OH YEAH MY LIFE WENT DOWN THE CRAPPER WHEN DAD DIED TOO, and just because you’re mad at me doesn’t mean I can stop worrying about you.

So Ric was mean to the Batfamily, and because of that, I should give a shit what this has to do with them and whether or not they owe it to DICK, their brother, friend, son, to still show up and keep TRYING anyway, no matter what Ric says, because they’re not here for him anyway, they’re here for Dick Grayson, who they all know and believe is still in there somewhere, and they’re not going to let him get hurt anymore than he has been just because the guy in the driver’s seat right now insists he’s not him and doesn’t want to be?

Nope, I’m more like, WELCOME TO THE CLUB, BATFAMILY, FOUNDING PRESIDENT: DICK GRAYSON. Now you too get to for once share in the joys and delights of having to ask more than once for your brother to let you so much as freaking HUG him, without him insulting you or throwing that in your face or bringing up all the times you did stuff he didn’t like and that’s why he doesn’t want you around.

Except.....*searches high and low* no Batfam currently demonstrating levels of give a shit and/or remorse in regards to Dick, shock, woe, how can this be, what a mystery, much befuddlement.

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ettadunham · 5 years

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A Buffy rewatch 5x20 Spiral

aka cause you had a bad day

Welcome to this dailyish (weekly? bi-weekly?) text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and go on an impromptu rant about it for an hour. Is it about one hyperspecific thing or twenty observations? 10 or 3k words? You don’t know! I don’t know!!! In this house we don’t know things.

And I’m not sure yet what to focus on with today’s action-packed transition-y episode that’s part of our big finale saga, but I do know how to sell it to you. Woman with sword throws axe to murder a man. There, that’s my elevator pitch for Tumblr.

Spiral is relentless in its pace and is yet also weirdly static - which actually works for its story. Buffy decides that as she can’t fight Glory, they all need to get the fuck out of Sunnydale. They’re on the move for most of the episode, but they’re only delaying the inevitable, and in a classic ironic twist, end up inviting their enemies to their doorstep.

I guess, first of all, let’s talk about these crusaders, because oh boy. It’s rare for Buffy to kill another human being, but these guys are just dropping like flies in this episode. One of them even got an axe into his chest.

Which got me thinking, because I recognized the writer of Spiral, Steven S. DeKnight primarily from his Angel credits. (He was apparently a story editor for season 6 of Buffy though which… yeah, I can see that.) And suddenly these crusade guys with their weird religious ties and their supposed war with Buffy made much more sense. They would be a perfect fit in Angel the series.

In Buffy’s world… maybe not so much. But the world of Buffy is also ever-evolving. Just as Buffy herself grows and changes a lot with each season, so do her enemies and the challenges and dilemmas she faces.

Speaking of Buffy’s enemies… Let’s talk about Glory I guess. And on an unrelated note, Ben.

Now, I know that Glory is one of people’s favorite Big Bads. And I get it. This is a wonderful, highly entertaining performance by Clare Kramer, not to mention that she’s one of the only female Big Bads the show has throughout its run. (Other than Willow in s6, I guess?? And of course The First has no gender.) Still, I mostly avoided discussing her throughout the season, because there are several rabbit holes that we can go down when it comes to Glory, and I don’t have the capacity to lead us through any of them.

First, there’s the idea of Glory being some kind of representation of mental instability. Her condition is also strangely… infectious? What with her messing with other people’s heads to ease her own state of mind.

So I guess in that sense, we could interpret it more as Glory perhaps continuing a cycle of abuse? Making other people suffer in the way she has in order to momentarily make herself feel better? Idk guys, I’m reaching here and I’m way out of my depth.

I also remember Glory having a great speech in an episode or two from now that’ll probably be a better base for an interpretation anyway, so let’s put a pin on that.

Of course, what this episode chooses to focus on more is the other association we have of Glory. And Ben.

As Buffy and Wade Williams were talking about Glory being trapped “in the body of a human male”, I couldn’t help but feel like we were leaning on a transgender / gender-fluid metaphor? Maybe?

I AM VERY OUT OF MY DEPTH HERE.

Which is why I’m not even gonna try and further dissect what the show is saying or trying to say here, and in what ways it can be interpreted. I have no takes or a valuable perspective to add, even after a whole season of trying to figure it out. So I’ll just leave it at acknowledging that there’s something there. I’m unsure of what that is, but it’s something.

Something tangential that I’ve been thinking about though, is how the show isn’t really trying to sell us on a Glory - bad, Ben - good duality. We’ll see that in the finale too, but even as early as episode 9, Ben is revealed to have summoned the alien demon who was murdering mental patients.

This creates an interesting dichotomy, where Ben, a mostly decent guy becomes unsympathetic through inaction, and Glory, a self-obsessed hell-demon who wants to murder all of our heroes becomes sympathetic through her honesty.

The truth is, Glory is irredeemable, but it’s not like she wants to be redeemed. She’s self-aware of who and what she is and what her goals are. She’s consistent in her chaos. She’s the devil you know.

Meanwhile Ben is a nurse, but it’s more out of a desire to feel close to people and humanity, than a genuine want to help them. He summons the alien demon to “clean up Glory’s mess”, and despite protecting Dawn’s identity, he mostly he just seems annoyed with Glory, rather than understanding the danger she poses to Dawn and all of humanity, and the role he plays in it. He just wants to live.

Glory is an evil force of nature whose single-mindedness and candid attitude is strangely comforting. Ben is painfully human with understandable motivations and a moral ambiguity we could relate to.

And, as always, there’s Buffy.

Buffy who is terrified and doesn’t know what to do. Still, I actually admire the fact that she took action. Running away is often demonized as a concept, but there are many forms that that can take.

Avoiding your problems is usually a bad instinct, and one that can worsen and snowball your issues into something much, much worse. But not every situation in your life is one where you should or will be able to pick fight over flight. Sometimes we really do need to remove ourselves from a root cause in order to process and move forward.

Granted, when Buffy does that at the end of season 2, it mostly just ends up putting her in a whole depression funk. But it’s hard to cope when you feel like you have no support to rely on.

This is of course a very different case though, almost on the opposite spectrum. Buffy isn’t just running away from her problems - she’s trying to keep her friends and family safe. She doesn’t think that she can protect them, so she’s removing all of them from the conflict for the time being.

In addition, in a conversation with Dawn when talking about all the things that’s happened, she says “Riley. Glory. Tara. Mom”. Four names. One is representing Buffy’s fears of her emotional unavailability. One her fears of not being strong enough to match the evil in this world. One her fears of not being able to protect and save the people she loves. And one is the helplessness she feels in the face of things and deaths she has no control over.

And then it all culminates in the last scene where all of those fears come to ahead. Glory takes Dawn as Buffy watches, helpless, from behind Willow’s magical barrier.

Is it any wonder that it breaks her? She’s had a really bad day. And it’s not getting any better.

Meanwhile I identify with Xander’s motion sickness, and with literally everyone trying to take care of Tara in the gang. It’s fine.

It’s always darkest before… it gets even darker, because this is Buffy, and we’re here for that sweet sweet emotional catharsis we get out of suffering through the pain.

Next up is even more depression. Stay tuned!

#buffy rewatch 2k19 #btvs talk #btvs

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lia-nikiforov · 6 years

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Winter 2018 Anime Final Review

Why yes, pretty much all the Spring premieres are done (don’t even remind me haha I’m so far behind) and this is horribly late, I had a busy couple of weeks ;---; and am still struggling to catch up, but here’s my final rundown of this long slow winter! Worst to best, as always.

Dropped

Basilisk Ouka Ninpou Chou: Although I’d said I’d keep watching for the Nobunaga twist, given the onslaught of new stuff for Spring, it’s unsustainable to keep watching something so mediocre I don’t even find anything to say about it. Also Nobunaga hasn’t been mentioned in three episodes.

DUMPSTER FIRE

Darling in the Franxx: So we’re halfway through the show and still feels nothing of importance has happened, except we learned “lesbians are not viable, what a relief” and also KOKORO REALLY WANTS TO MAKE BABIES. The whole Kokoro business is very unsavory because on the one hand the writing is a dick to Walking Fat Joke Futoshi, but on the other hand Futoshi is an entitled Nice Guy who acts like Kokoro has some obligation to return his feelings, so basically everyone sucks lmao. Btw, does anyone know what happened with episode 13? I went to watch it but what I got instead was a Deadman Wonderland episode, complete with the story of Palurdo meeting Lab Experiment-turned-Beast Waifu as children and making a promise that would subsequently be forgotten until they meet again in their teenage years. Jesus, does Womenz are Beastz: The Anime have a single original idea?

How am I supposed to measure my own disinterest and contempt

This basically means I didn’t care for these shows. I don’t hate them but I was aggressively unengaged in them and I can’t really rank them from worst to best because that would imply me having any measurable emotional reaction to them

Violet Evergarden: I don’t think I have much to add about this one that I haven’t said before. Tryhard Sad Anime Girl stories rehashing old clichés with little novelty to them, with a bonus of a super poorly explained and thought out child super soldier tragic backstory that still has me ?????? The final episode has the addendum of trying to redeem That One Asshole in a “he treats her bad because he’s sad about his brother dying sob sob sob he’s totally not a jerk” and i was very annoyed by that.

Koi wa Ameagari no You ni: It’s complicated to talk about this show. I really liked the first episode, hated the 4-6, then was mostly bored by the rest of it. The whole romance angle was completely dropped in the latter half, but I’m not even sure if that’s a good thing given how tastelessly it was being handled in some moments, or a bad one given how bland everything else was. It felt like Akira’s crush on Kondo turned out to be insignificant in the grand scheme of things. It also felt like Akira was profoundly underdeveloped, and it bothered me because Kondo was developed properly. His character felt more fully realized than hers. Like idk, I just cared so little for the last few episodes and it didn’t feel like Akira’s emotional progression was very connected with the first half of the show.

Fate/Extra Last Encore: I don’t even have a screenshot. Apparently the reason the show started so late into the season is that it took a long time to produce, and apparently there are two more episodes that will be released at some point in July. But really, what matters is that I have no idea of what this show was trying to accomplish. The characters were a bunch of pieces of cardboard spouting pseudo nihilistic philosophical nonsense and I don’t even know how to describe the plot. It was generic in its Boss of the Week approach but the execution was often very flat. Definitely none of the fun from Apocrypha’s cool characters was to be had in this iteration of the franchise.

Too much iyashikei

This season we had too much iyashikei and I’m burned out. Here are the ones I didn’t hate but also wasn’t super in love with.

Miira no Kaikata: I think this show would’ve worked better as 3-minute vignettes. 20 minutes of it was a bit too much and I struggled to pay attention. I also felt the dragon and MukuMuku had very tangential roles. I don’t have a whole lot to say. It’s cute, if cute is your jam this show is for you. Connie is best smol monster.

Hakumei to Mikochi: Another cute show that gains extra points for its somewhat unique setting, beautiful color palette and picture book aesthetic and because the two main girls are great characters. I particularly liked the first and last episodes. It’s a relaxing, fun little show

Sanrio Danshi: The harbinger of feminism made into a toy commercial, while not quite iyashikei, is still a slice of life that just occassionally indulged in too much melodrama. It was nonetheless a fun little thing that managed to turn cynical consumerism into a positive message for boys: it’s okay to like non-traditionally-masculine things. One of the details I liked most was that none of the boys had to give up on their previous groups of friends even after “coming out”, Kouta’s friends and Shuu’s team were supportive of them and even participated in their dumbass musical play. Some may even read this show as a not-so-subtle allegory on homosexuality and while I don’t think this was Sanrio’s intent (their intent is to broaden their market, plain and simple) the fact that it works so well with that reading is honestly great. I had very minimal expectations for this show and I’m happy it turned out better than those.

Classicaloid 2: Classicaloid isn’t quite iyashikei either but it fits in the “didn’t love it, didn’t hate it” category. I’m a huge fan of season one, but unfortunately a big part of S2 failed to capture the magic. I think most of it was restored in the second cour, specially with brilliant episodes such as the one where Dovo-chan becomes a super-realistic painting of himself, and the last three episodes really captured what made Classicaloid great. I’ve really come to love this cast, so I wouldn’t complain if we got more seasons (please do Vivaldi!!!)

Shonen is a Good Genre, Actually

Shonen as a genre/demographic is much reviled for its repetitive clichés and childish stories, but I think we live at a time in which we can have well-executed shonen anime that, although falling for the same old clichés, have enough heart and sincerity that makes them enjoyable. This part also isn’t necessarily ranked, since my favorite one will change depending on which day you ask me

Nanatsu no Taizai: Imashime no Fukkatsu: As I have mentioned before, this second season seems to be the polar opposite of the first one’s rapid pace. It’s been a while since I read the manga, but I feel like it took a lot less to get to the mid-season cutoff point there than this anime would lead you to believe, especially the training part felt excruciatingly long. NanaTai has other various flaws including its 1000% not funny harrassment jokes and the dumb introduction of quantified “power levels” (why Suzuki), but characters like Diane, King and Ban give the show a unique flavor. And I’m not even gonna pretend to be unbiased, I just love everything involving Ban, even the weird and questionable choice of bringing Elaine back. I’m excited that we’re finally approaching Escanor’s arrival.

Yowapeda Glory Road: I also forgot to grab a screenshot lmao. Yowapeda is a very particular beast, and with its episode count already in the hundreds, it’s not something I’d reccommend unless you’re super into dragged out ridiculous sports anime. This second season of Onoda’s second year has not been without its flaws either, starting with the, imho absurd persistence in making Sohoku look like underdogs even though they’re reigning champions. It’s made a lot of the first two days of the Interhigh feel a lot grimmer than this cheerful show ought to. Kaburagi is still an insufferable character, and the fact that he drags the team down doesn’t help him either, and I just wish the writers would let Best Boy Teshima win anything. I hope the second day ends on a lighter note, because the gloom and doom is making this a less enjoyable watch than it should be

Mahoutsukai no Yome: I feel a little better about this one knowing the final was anime-original, but at the same time I’m beyond livid with how it was wrapped up. I loved the second half of the series because of how well-written and emotional Chise’s growth was, and everything up to her embracing of Cartaphilus’s curse was a beautiful display of her strength and will to live. What I’m not here for is that asspull wedding whatever that makes no sense in the context of the previous events, especially because after the fact, Elias’s attempt to kill Stella is swept under the rug. This could’ve been my favorite show of the season without that bullshit ending and while I don’t regret watching it, it leaves me with a sad feeling of what could have been

Best of the season

Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens: It had a slow start, but with its endearing cast and well-developed character relationships, HTR won me over, especially the last quarter. The animation was veeery barebones, but Lin and Bamba’s charisma and their organically developed relationship carried the show to be one of the most enjoyable of the season. I also really appreciate the fact that the series includes a gay couple with an adopted daughter and that Lin’s crossdressing is never used as a joke or treated as a character flaw or a “phase”. I love stories about found families and I’d love to see more of this gang fighting crime and doing shady business in their city of assassins.

Garo: Vanishing Line: This iteration of Garo had a somewhat slow start, but boy did it pick up steam in the second half. The action was great -the final fight against King had some incredible stylistic choices, the characters’ journeys felt complete and very human and the story was interesting and different enough from other Garo to not feel repetitive, yet with enough Garoisms that made it feel connected to everything else. Like I said, I love stories about found families, so the way Sophie found a home with Gina, Luke and Sword by the end was very touching. Watching Sophie’s journey has been a treat, and I’m immensely happy that this wasn’t a Guren no Tsuki disaster, but was more in line with the excellence of Honoo no Kokuin.

Gakuen Babysitters: This was the huge surprise of the season for me, I almost expected it to be pretty dull. Instead it turned out to be super cute and extremely heartwarming. It had a couple of duds here and there, mostly the not-actually-a-pedophile joke character and the early love triangle skits, but the former disappeared and the latter was vastly improved in the second half of the show. I wish Ryuichi’s grief had been dealt with a bit more, but I think what they did show was very well executed and empathetic. And the portrayal of the kids felt very realistic, including both children’s most adorable and most obnoxious behaviors. KIRIN IS BEST GIRL

Card Captor Sakura Clear Card arc: I have expressed some complaints and dissatisfactions with this sequel all through the season. Mostly in regards to the new cards and how the old ones seem to have been forgotten (also the lazy designs of the new cards). In spite of that, Sakura hasn’t lost any of its heart in these 20 years, the characters are still the kids we grew up with. It is an overwhelmingly cheerful and positive show, from Sakura and Syaoran’s shyly developing relationship, to the hopefulness of Sakura’s magic and just the simple day to day life of Sakura and her friends. In spite of all its flaws, Sakura is still my favorite show of the season and I’m happy we get to spend one more season with these characters. Just please give me more Yue???

Ooooof, finally I’m done with this! PLEASE LET’S NOT TALK ABOUT THE 20+ SHOWS I’M SAMPLING FOR SPRING AHAHAHAHA. There’s too much anime. Anime must be stopped, immediately. Don’t hesitate to send me your thoughts about the winter season, even if it seems I’m losing my mind a little Dx TOO MUCH ANIME

#winter anime #anime final impressions #darling in the franxx #violet evergarden #card captor sakura #gakuen babysitters #koi wa ameagari no you ni #fate extra last encore #garo vanishing line #hakata tonkotsu ramens #ancient magus bride #yowapeda glory line #nanatsu no taizai #classicaloid #sanrio danshi #hakumei to mikochi #miira no kaikata #100

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