#I'm sick of willfully ignorant people like this.

[whozui]

the genocide in gaza has been going on for 6 months and there is rarely a day i don't think about it or post anything on any of my social media accounts.

i can't not post about gaza and bring awareness.

and i can't believe that none of my friends have shared anything, and i'm upset with how little my siblings and mother have.

i've known about isntreal's violent treatment towards palestinians for years. and even back then i was shocked people didn't give a shit or know about it, which wasn't their fault. western media is bullshit propaganda that purposely does not educate... so i was like "ok i can see how you wouldnt know about this."

but now day after day, we are witnessing this ethnic cleansing, while palestininas are living it and for people to say they "don't know much" about it, or they aren't educated enough or blah blah.

you have 0 excuses. people are protesting all over the world, palestinians are sharing what is going on all over social media. students are setting up encampments, people have blocked ships, disrupted political events, set themselves on fire..

you had 0 excuses at the beginning of this and you have even less excuses now at month 6

i am so sick of people being willfully ignorant and playing dumb, just admit you didn't care at the start of this, and you don't care now. your apathy is disgusting. your indifference is vile.

free palestine.

#free palestine #free gaza #gaza genocide #israel is a terrorist state #palestine #ethnic cleansing

[sing-you-fools]

thinking about Good Omens 2. and stories, and the shape of them, and Terry Pratchett and his themes. and something clicked.

Aziraphale is cackling.

it's not just the ball. he spends the entire season trying to force the story into a shape it's not, and everyone suffers for it.

i've seen some less than charitable takes on Crowley's actions and they all ignore how much Crowley did try to talk to Aziraphale, did try to ask Aziraphale questions, did try to help, only to be ignored or brushed off. because his questions, his offers, they didn’t fit with the story Aziraphale was telling himself.

quiet, gentle, and romantic. it was, if you're our favorite Angel - right up until the end, at least. because he decided that's the story he was in. from the very beginning, he's off in la-la land, living out this romcom with a cute little mystery wrapped up in it, completely ignoring what's actually going on around him. i'll set Nina and Maggie up! (completely ignoring that Nina tells him she has a partner, and at that point, he has no reason to think she's anything less than happy.) i'll take ~our~ car to go do investigate this silly little mystery (he's not taking it even a little bit seriously!) while you stay here and run the bookshop and it will be so quaint and domestic! soon we'll dance and confess our feelings that we obviously share because we're already so clearly a couple we just need to finally say it!

Crowley knows the entire time that they're in a horror story but Aziraphale ignores every attempt he makes to point that out because it doesn't fit the story he decided he's in the middle of.

he brushes off Crowley's concerns and questions - his QUESTIONS! - like they're nothing. he doesn't want to see it, so he doesn't. and Crowley should have told him more?

why would he?

when you are CLEARLY in distress and it's being BLATANTLY AND WILLFULLY IGNORED, what the fuck are you supposed to do? "Crowley didn't comminicate" well okay if I were having a panic attack about something and my husband completely ignored it, chattering on about our dinner plans or whatever, that wouldn’t exactly make me want to open up about what was wrong! that would send the very fucking clear signal that he didn't want to know!

words aren't the only way we communicate and Crowley's body language, the entire season, is that of someone who is living in a horror story, knows he's living in a horror story, and is fucking terrified. if Aziraphale were paying any attention to Crowley instead of focusing all his energy trying to set things up just so for the big climax of his love story, he would know something major was wrong.

why would Crowley have told him how cruel Gabriel was about the execution when Aziraphale's already so thoroughly convinced that heaven is pure and good and has shown over and over through the millennia that he's not really open to considering that it can be cruel!

just look at them at the dance. Crowley freaking out because there's a horde of demons out there and Aziraphale giggling as they go to dance. that's the whole season!

you know who Crowley reminds me of this season?

he's watching helplessly and with increasing levels of distress as Aziraphale shoves every plot point into the romcom hole even though it's obviously not remotely romcom shaped! and i'm sick of people saying he was abusive because he raises his voice about it a few times!

#good omens #good omens season 2 #crowley #aziraphale #neil gaiman #terry pratchett #square hole #sing-you-fools #1k #5k #neil approved

[night-market-if]

Spoiler Ask

So I'm going to address it all here under the cut because I've gotten a few asks in that are pretty similar and I'm sure I'm going to get more. So I thought instead of answering the same thing over and over, I'd just do a response below. Warning, spoilers for the end of book 1.

Full disclosure. I am sick. We are going through a lot of family things at the moment. My patience is probably thin.

For everyone that says MC is already too forgiving of Milo. Milo has not even come into the story yet. You've only observed memories of him. If you feel like you need an inner dialogue to tell you how angry you are over this "betrayal" or "death", I don't know what to say here. Because MC is literally just observing things at the moment. Any options that have been put forth to comment on Milo and what has happened, have been more to lay ground work and to also give a scope of the type of emotions that will be offered in the game. But literally, Milo has not even shown up yet into the story in a real capacity. So please stop sending me asks about how you are upset that MC has "forgiven" him because there has literally been no real interaction between Milo and the MC.

As for this betrayal and death thing. I am going to state this now for those who aren't going to like where my story is going so you don't need to read if you don't want to. As the Night Market, you knew you were going to die. You gladly came down and wanted to experience death. You looked at what Milo (a non magic user) was doing, and said "hey, this would be a cool experience" and then you came down here. So, yes, you are going to feel the full range of emotions that come with it. But you are also going to need to take some personal accountability for your actions. That is what is going to be explored in this book. An entity that didn't realize what emotion actually meant, came down thinking it wasn't going to be a big deal to die, and it turned out it was a big deal. A big fucking deal, in fact and that by doing so, they actually hurt people they loved. So, don't forgive Milo. I'm not forcing anyone to. But, I will not be writing an MC that puts all the blame on him. Because guess what? The Night Market would have died if he didn't do what he did. So, everyone also saying that he killed the MC? No, he literally saved the MC and billions of people. And I don't care what way you spin it? One person is never worth a billion souls. And with the MC being someone that literally cut themselves open over and over again to save most of the people living within the world, I would think they would probably not be too keen on Milo sacrificing them so they could die together in some bullshit Romeo and Juliet act.

Now, I am all for exploring how an MC comes to terms with the feeling of betrayal along with the feeling of needing to take responsibility. I am all for exploring an MC that goes "holy shit this emotion thing is way bigger than I thought and I'm angry and confused". I'm there for it. I'm excited to write it. But, I will not be writing a willfully ignorant MC that doesn't take into account that they did this to themselves as well. And yes, if you choose to not acknowledge it in game, others are going to acknowledge it for you. If you want to not read because you can't become a villain, rock back and forth in a corner and weep, or violently get mad at someone who saved the world? That's cool. I'm not offended by someone not reading it. Anyone coming into my ask box and saying "I just am not going to read now because you aren't doing xyz" I wish you a good night and hope you find something else for you because there are thousands of stories out there.

I am not interested. Nor will I ever be interested. In writing a story where I add to the plague of ignorance that is this world. Aren't we kind of all struggling enough with that in our own lives? MC is a being of compassion. They will always be a being of compassion. That is going to shift and change based on circumstances and there are going to be moments where that compassion can fall into question. When it comes to Milo, it is going to be a messy bit of confusing emotions because there is so much more than just the black and white strokes of "OMG he killed me" that seemed to be the rhetoric on here. Now, you don't want his character around? Alright. Other than when you have to see him for Gatekeeper purposes, you probably won't.

To all of you guys complaining or sending me ask after ask stating how you don't like what I am doing. I am going to tell you this and it will not ever change. If you don't like reading this, then don't read. I am not here to write a story for you specifically. You don't like the direction of a work and can't ever broaden your scope of fiction to give it a shot? Then please don't. But to have this kind of messages coming through when literally we are a chapter in? Seriously. The instant gratification is bullshit. I'm going to suspect this is coming from the younger half of my audience who is way too accustomed to a confirmation bias internet algorithm and who has had a very small scope of real life. This is of course not all of the younger crowd but it's starting to seem like a pretty good amount.

I love having conversations with everyone. My discord is always open but most of you anons hide because you are far too scared to come at me with your user name or engage in a conversation feed where more than just me can answer. I mean, you guys send me asks, citing others user names, to call them out through me. It's laughable at this point.

I love having discourse with all of you but I'm not going to keep answering the same thing over and over again and justifying my work when it doesn't need to be justified. This is a small little bit of fiction in a vast sea.

If I sound pissed, it's because I am at this point. And I'm sure I'll get more asks in that are stating they are jumping ship or that they are disappointed in me or what not. I'll delete them and move on with my evening.

To all of you who are here for the ride and just want to experience what I'm writing? Thank you. Fiction is just meant to be a form of entertainment. I am not writing anything profound. To anyone that is looking for something more, move on. I'll see everyone who wants to get mad or saying I'm too harsh, in my inbox, I am sure. Thank god you can block anons.

#the night market #interactive fiction #answering your asks #writers rant #i'm done with this shit guys

[hyperlexichypatia]

You don't have to be "happy" to deserve the freedom to control your own life.

It's easy to justify people's right to live their lives as they choose with "Let them do whatever makes them happy!" or "As long as they're happy, who cares?"

I've said this! But it's not a very effective argument. Because how can you prove that you're "happy" -- a subjective emotional state?

Queer people, disabled people, fat people, Mad/neurodivergent people, people in stigmatized relationships, are constantly told that we're wrong about our own happiness. That we think we're happy, but this false belief is part of our Mental Illness(TM). No one Like That could ever really be happy!

And this prejudice is fundamentally unfalsifiable. We can't prove our subjective feelings. If we could, people would somehow redefine "happiness" to exclude what they don't approve of.

I made the mistake of reading the comments on this article about age differences in relationships which literally has the headline "They say they're happy. Why is it so hard to believe them?" Of course, the commenters were all too eager to answer the rhetorical question. "If they were really happy, they wouldn't need to say so" (maybe they're sick of being asked). "People in situations like that don't know what's really going on, they think they're happy!" (what, exactly, is the difference between thinking oneself to be happy and actual happiness?).

(Side note for the relationship-specific version of this: I also see a lot of "They think they're in love!" and I have to ask: If people in relatively new relationships are told that "You only think you're in love, you're actually in lust/ a crush/ new relationship energy," and people in established long-term relationships are told that "You only think you're in love, but it's actually complacency/ not knowing any better/ helplessness," is there a magical medium-term relationship duration at which people can actually love their partners?)

You can never prove that you're "really happy," because if someone has already decided that your identity/lifestyle is incompatible with happiness, they will never believe you.

Arguing "I should be free to make my own choices or be myself, because I'm happy this way" will only prompt the response "The fact that you so mistakenly believe that you're happy is proof that you're mentally incompetent, and you should not, in fact, be free to make your own choices or be That Way."

Being constantly "happy" at all times is, also, just a completely unreasonable expectation. Humans have a range of emotions! Experiencing the full range of positive and negative human emotions is not a reason to deny us our rights.

In Jesse Singal's anti-trans hit piece, which I'm not linking to, Singal cites parents of a trans man who oppose their son's right to transition because, according to them, he was depressed after his transition. Now, notably, the son was not interviewed (and he was misgendered throughout), so we have absolutely no idea what his actual emotional state actually was (I don't know if the son ever went on the record anywhere with his own version of his story). But let's assume, for the sake of discussion, that his parents were correct, and he was depressed. So what? Trans people have the right to be depressed! Trans people have the right to the same emotional range as cis people! People's rights should not be dependent on what emotions they do or don't experience.

Additionally, this insistence on "happiness" as a prerequisite for rights, autonomy, and acceptance (willfully) ignores that the denial of rights, autonomy, and acceptance tends to make people unhappy.

Authoritarians think they have a real gotcha with "If you're happy this way, then why are you complaining?" as if people can't be profoundly happy with their identities and profoundly unhappy with how society treats them for those identities.

I am, for the most part, reasonably happy with being a fat, Mad, autistic, queer woman. At least I generally feel no pressing desire to change any of those things about myself. And I am extremely unhappy with the way I am treated for being a fat, Mad, autistic, queer woman.

But there are certainly times when I might think to myself "If I were taller, I could reach that top shelf" or "If I were thinner, I could maneuver into this tight space" or "If I weren't autistic, I could travel more." And at those times, I still deserve autonomy and basic human rights. I might be happy, sad, angry, anxious, excited, blase, or in a state of perfect Zen, and I would still deserve autonomy and basic human rights.

#mad pride #mad liberation #queerphobia #ableism #stop being ableist #neurodiversity

[yallemagne]

I feel the thing with Mrs Westenra is that she's that specific brand of entitled old lady that keeps harming those around her with her own beliefs while having her own fragility used as an excuse. Its like someone punching a friend "for their own good" and then going "pwease dwont hurt me im so delicate n frwagile :("

She works well as a character as in she's basically another way societal expectations and lack of communication are a cog in Dracula's machinations, but on my personal opinion she's really frustrating. (Hehe my rambling got a lil long sorry abt that)

Yes, what pains me so much this that Mrs. Westenra is such a real person. I have suffered such real people in my life, some I love dearly, some I love out of obligation, and it is painful to see what Lucy is going through, to see her be punished again and again by her mother's willful neglect, and she cannot even muster the will to be angry with her. Lucy has been stripped of any ability to speak out against her mother, even in her most private of musings, because her mother is so highly prioritized over herself. Lucy's suffering must always be kept out of view, and she never has the self-preservation to just snap and say "no, I am a human being".

Mrs. Westenra's a cog in the machine of the plot. She was written this way purposefully. No matter how much damage she causes, you're meant to feel bad for her, because if you don't, you might demand to know why Bram hasn't just killed her already. The reason is that he never even intended for his readers to feel this resentment. Her behaviour is not meant to be taken seriously because she's a poor old woman who just doesn't know any better. She's allowed and expected to be ignorant, and if not her, there would be some other person, a maid unknowingly throwing out the blooms.

But it hurts so much more for it to be your own mother who hurts you. Your feelings don't matter to her except as an extension of her own. She finds the flowers that you love, and ignoring the clear signs of your contentment with the flowers, she projects her negative feelings onto you and throws them out. Then, self-gratulatory as ever, she brags to your doctors that she knows better than them when she can't even recognize how close you are to death. She has willfully abandoned you because your sickness stresses her, and she would rather leave you without a goodbye than face you like an adult and admit she is dying. And worse than that, she doesn't pull away enough to make room for the people who are actively trying to save you, no, she still intercedes, making their jobs harder and your life worse, and no one dares to correct her in any meaningful way because if she knew she wasn't perfect, it would kill her.

I'm not so naïve as to say that because I have such deep-rooted trauma surrounding personalities like this that I am sooo smart and right to take such issue with this fictional character. It is a bit of an overreaction. But you could say my feelings towards this entire novel are an overreaction. I know other people have probably experienced this behaviour, and their reactions to it aren't mine. There are most definitely people who have suffered this kind of neglect but their impulse is instead to forgive and defend Mrs. Westenra, and I cannot deny someone that.

But I hurt so deeply for Lucy. I recognize Mrs. Westenra's hurting but I cannot place it above Lucy's. I value Lucy so much more, and I don't feel a lick of guilt about it.

#'my rambling got a lil long' I see that and I present you with this #dracula #dracula daily #re: dracula #lucy westenra #mrs. westenra slander #mrs. westenra #update #people ask me things #ask to tag-- there's probably something besides character criticism that is triggering here #kachimera

[dearweirdme]

genuine question: do you guys not think it's incredibly unhealthy to sit online speculating about literal strangers' sexualities all day? do y'all not see how grossly disrespectful that is just as a general concept? these are people none of you have EVER met or spent ANY actual personal time with. they don't know you and therefore have never disclosed details about their romantic life bc it isn't your business??? what gives ANY OF YOU the right to hyper analyze everything they do to attribute it to their sexuality? i'm trying to understand how you all could possibly say you love them but don't have enough respect for any of them to simply be fans of their music and leave this weird ship at the door. y'all hyperanalyze all their body language to confirm they're in love but ignore them mentioning how the comments section is never fun to look at (bc it's ALWAYS just shippers being stupidly unhinged) and the very obvious discomfort the shipping shit brings them. most of you shippers are straight women fetishizing. most of you shippers are larries who jumped ship when 1d disbanded. most of you are grown adults who need to get offline and get real hobbies that don't involve breaking down the potentiality of sexuality for people you literally don't know personally. how do all of you have so much audacity and so much time to think half-critically but no time at all to introspect on the level of sheer delusion you have to willfully exist in to perpetuate this narrative shamelessly? this is so sick. how do y'all not feel awful about all the blatant, obvious, perceivable stress you shippers cause them? why can’t y'all behave like actual people with empathy and ethics?

Hi anon!

You are not sending me a genuine question. If that had been your aim you would’ve worded your ask differently. I also wonder if you send asks like this to blogs and accounts who talk and speculate about their relationships with women.. because if you are not actually being homophobic right now.. that would be the same.

I understand the delicacy in this. Except for the part of tour ask that seems homophobic (and plain rude and extremely biased on many accounts) I can even understand you wanting people to stay out of their private business to some level. You want to protect them from harm and I very much applaud that, even though I think your reasoning is faulty in some ways. It is for instance nothing new or weird for fans to care for and be interested in the private lives of artists. It’s something that the artists themselves and their labels/companies also know and at times even feed into. It’s basically inherent to the fan/artist situation. It’s just human nature to be interested in things like this.. is that bad? I don’t know if a word like bad or good applies here.. it’s just human to me.

You look at all shippers and their ways as the same. I think there’s many different kinds of shippers. There’s definitely those that go way too far. People should never confront members themselves with these things. Don’t go in their comments with Taekook or Jkk mentions. Don’t bring banners to concerts, just.. don’t. Not to blow my own horn.. but I would never! Also the constant searching for proof in the tiniest things… it’s so unnecessary and it makes people look crazy and (!) it takes away from the seriousness that this situation brings with it. Which brings me to my reason for talking about this.

Aside from thinking Tae and Jk are super cute and adorably in love, there’s the underlying issue of queerness still not being socially accepted in so many places all around the world. I think it’s important to talk about these things (even as a straight adult, because the more people talk about these things.. the more influence we have in making things better for the future). If no one was to ever talk about celebrities being closeted or closeting in general.. there would be no progress. I am fairly sure about what I have seen between Tae and Jk.. I am also fairly sure that they are not ashamed about their queerness. That is why I talk about this. I feel I am doing this in a respectful way. There’s things I do not discuss (sexual stuff) because I feel that’s in general not useful for the conversation.

I am not willing to take responsibility for other Tkkrs behavior though. I talk about things for myself and for my own reasons. I like to think everyone is able to think for themselves and be responsible for the way they interact in fandom. I am my own person though.. I do not rile up Tkkrs to go leave annoying comments anywhere.

Mostly though.. I am talking about love, anon. The difference between you and me is that to you them being straight is the default and to me it is not. Your ‘speculation about sexuality’ feels harmful to me.. because it’s love that we talk about.. I really hate the notion that there’s a difference between same sex love and straight love for you.

#fandom shenanigans #also #this is tumblr #taekook

[oh-katsuki]

okay I just read your stsg fic and right after the tendou fic and for some reason my brain started combining the two and I started thinking stsg + stepcest + older brothers best friend and idk....I'm into it I think

hmmNMJFDNAGFJKRNGVJKREN oh ill THROW UP THAT'S SO FNRIJEAGVNREJGNRJBVNREJLKN SEXXYYY HFNREJKANVGJREHKABV sorry if this makes so sense im like drooling and hollering at the screen and everything

cw: fem!reader, use of she/her pronouns, stepcest (but gojo lowkey is imagining it's incest sorry), i say SISTER CUNT!, vaginal fingering, threesome, suguru is basically a spectator but he loves it, everyone is so strange and disgusting ill moan

ugh satoru as the overly clingy big brother type. the kind that makes the people around him mildly uncomfortable because he absolutely has a sister complex. he's even gone so far as to share an apartment with you while you're in university, makes the financial burden a little easier.

he's like.... infatuated. he thinks that you're fucking precious and so damn pretty it makes him sick. satoru just can't get over how obsessed with you he is. to him, you're the perfect little sister.

the age gap isn't all that big. four years, give or take a few, but satoru still treats you like you'll break. he likes to spoil you. likes to buy you things and feed you and make you feel pretty.

thing is though, he also obsesses over who you date. satoru likes to know who you're seeing, when you're seeing them, and how far you're going with them. of course, you'd never tell him if you were fucking someone or not, so he's left to assume. satoru's gotta fill in the gaps. he knows you're having sex though. there's really no way he couldn't, what with the way you stay out at night.

and suguru... suguru is satoru's best friend from college. a bit of a brute, with a silver tongue and a borderline twisted sense of humor, the two of them are like peas in a pod.

of course, suguru knows you. satoru's pretty little sister who is either an idiot or willfully ignorant to her brother's overt sexual obsession with her. it's a little funny to suguru actually, just how fucked up satoru is over you. of course, he probably would be too if he lived in the place you showered in. that would send any guy in his right might a little fucking bonkers and satoru has never been all too deep on the sane end of things.

course, things change a little when suguru starts letting satoru talk about you. he listens while satoru goes on about the guy you're seeing, the person you fucked this weekend, how pretty you looked this morning when you woke up. you know, the weird and obsessive shit satoru is pretty much known for when it comes to you.

things just sort of... happen from there out. they watch you when you're in the room, touch you softly while you're sitting on the couch with them, till eventually, they've got you spread open across their laps with satoru's fingers in your pussy and suguru coaxing you both through it.

suguru watches over your shoulder from where satoru is crouched between your legs, slowly sliding his fingers in and out of you. it's the gentlest of touches, just to make you feel good. satoru wants to make you feel good so badly.

he just wants to see you fall apart, to melt at his fingertips. so he curls his fingers slowly while his best friend watches with a chin resting on your shoulder. suguru's got you from under your thighs, holding them up and spread so that satoru can get a proper angle on your tight sister cunt.

and you, pretty you, are caught in the middle. satoru mumbles into your thigh that it's okay, that you're allowed to feel good with them, that he's going to take care of his little sister (and he doesn't bother to add the 'step' before it). suguru, who you've always been intimidated by, speaks directly into your ear, asking if you plan on cumming for satoru any time soon, to which satoru remarks that you can take as long as you want.

big brother's gonna make you feel good, okay? he says.

it's so fucking disgusting that you think you might cum on the spot.

#[ 🏩 – chatting ] #tw: stepcest #im so JFNEJKWfnerjgnrejgnrjeagnvreanvgjerngvjlre #MOAANANNNING

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/22-23/2023: SMILE (2022) and BARBARIAN (2022) - In Defense of the Tall Gangly Old Lady Monster

I've heard a lot of complaints lately (haven't we all) about the recent emergence of a new horror archetype--the tall, gangly, old lady monster--and I always get the feeling that the plaintiffs are willfully ignoring the context of this apparition. I mean sure, if you feel annoyed with the rapid proliferation of a prematurely tired cliche, that's fair; personally I'm pretty sick of scary clowns, even though some of them are still effective, if your main proposal is a scary clown then you're going to have to work harder than usual to get my attention. But vis a vis the tall scary old lady discourse, as far as I've seen, the objection is almost always the same: This monster is an expression of disdain for elderly people, and a reinforcement of the idea that women are worthy so long as they are considered sexually viable, after which point they deserve only disgust and rejection. And like there will surely be boring, misogynistic representations of this monster that are fair to roll one's eyes at, but the most visible targets of this criticism have been SMILE and BARBARIAN, and I would argue that both films are full of ambivalence and irony, and the specific morphology of the monster is thoughtful and deliberate.

I think that any time you hear a complaint that is based on the assumption that a movie is promoting real-life ideals and ethics, you need to double check that. This is the propaganda model of media analysis, and while nothing is created in a vacuum, not everything has didactic, propagandistic motivations. Certainly some movies ARE doing just that; I see quite a lot of chauvinism and bigotry in action movies, comedies, and (perhaps most of all) romantic comedies, whose content is clearly presented as aspirational. Low-hanging fruit of this kind is found in movies like SWEET HOME ALABAMA, which says that self-made independent career women are just fooling themselves and should stay home and serve whoever gets them pregnant first, or the similarly retrogressive JUNO in which a girl who gets knocked up during high school is universally worshiped and supported by everybody and truly loved by the knocker-upper and there is almost nothing really perilous or concerning about the whole situation, it's all very cute and desirable. Horror movies require a little more investigation. Sometimes the monster does embody some kind of moral mandate, or an unjust injunction against a certain demographic. Hitchcock and De Palma have been accused of transphobia, for instance, and while I don't think we should throw out their movies (which you should never have to do unless you're incapable of critical thought), the charges are fair. But other times, the monster embodies unfinished business, ambivalence, irony, insecurity. It exists not as a symbol of universal evil, but as a foil to the hero. And sometimes the hero is not a hero at all.

All of the following is extensively spoilery, so proceed with whatever caution is appropriate: Zach Cregger's BARBARIAN is a delightfully twisty, prismatic reflection on misogynistic violence and its consequences. It begins with a simple-seeming situation that prods the viewer to guess what protagonist Georgina Campbell should do about the problem of an unplanned male roommate in her Airbnb. Bill Skarsgård is sketchy and intrusive, but charming enough to create a dilemma for the savvy young woman--a dilemma which ends abruptly with the discovery of a monster in the basement. The building itself has its own polar identity: It offers appealing lodging for hip Detroit tourists in a once-desirable neighborhood devastated by racist, capitalist forces. The home's previous owner was a serial killer (the great Richard Brake!) with a penchant for forcibly breeding his female victims, and it is now the possession of Justin Long, a hot shot actor who is so poisoned by his own witless misogyny that he seems genuinely unaware of what constitutes rape. Lurking in the labyrinthine foundations of his investment property is one of Brake's victims: A tall, powerful, barely-human female who has been warped into believing that her captives are actually her babies. While BARBARIAN is willfully disorienting, and that is part of its charm, a bird's eye view shows its careful orchestration of clear spectrum of forms of abuse--from the institutional, to the constitutional, to the unconscious--alongside a polar pair of potential survivors, one final girl and one twisted victim.

Much has been made of the scene in which Justin Long is forced to suckle on the pendulous teat of the maternal morlock. The common assumption seems to be that we're supposed to share Long's disgust and pity his violation. I would question any impulse to side with Long as an innocent victim; certainly you're supposed to fear the monster, but that doesn't mean you can't share in the cathartic delight of a selfish, greedy, destructive, gentrifying rapist getting his comeuppance in the form of unwanted carnal contact with a female who shatters all of his fascist beauty standards. Yes, she is meant to be terrifying, but the all-important question is WHY, on what principle? On any close inspection, the motivation of BARBARIAN does not seem to involve reinforcing ageist, ableist, misogynistic values. And one might add that, in general, it doesn't get us very far culturally or artistically to insist that all oppressed-minority characters are always presented unambiguously as heroes or tragic victims. Sometimes we don't mind grossing you out, as long as we get our revenge.

Much like the dark mother in BARBARIAN, the monstrosity in Parker Finn's SMILE embodies the protagonist's neurotic phobias, rather than making a statement about objective good and evil. Sosie Bacon plays a therapist in an emergency psychiatric unit who makes the unfortunate acquaintance of a transient entity that perpetuates its existence by possessing the witnesses of violent suicides. As the traumatized target begins to perceive the leering entity everywhere, she descends into a self-destructive spiral that will end with her own inevitable death. Bacon makes an especially good victim because, aside from the immediate impact of the horrifying suicide she witnesses in her ward, she is haunted by the childhood memory of having passively allowed her mentally ill, substance-dependent mother to die. As an adult, Bacon has eschewed the challenge of deeper connections in favor of shallow, conditional relationships with people who will not forgive her flaws when they are exposed. The demon exploits her refusal to face herself by incarnating as a version of her mother that is at first pitiful and accusative, then powerful and terrifying. Once again, the dark mother is not here to encourage the audience's prejudices against women who are dysfunctional or physically past their supposed prime; in SMILE she is an avenging spirit who forces the protagonist, and the audience, into a direct confrontation with all that we ignore and avoid.

There is a lot more I would like to say about SMILE, and I kind of feel like I'm stealing from future me by including it in this abbreviated review! But as I have previously stated, I didn't know this was going to be a speed run of Blogtober until I was completely overwhelmed by life and it was too late to curate accordingly. To be honest, I liked BARBARIAN a lot and I think it's sort of deep in spite of itself, but SMILE scared the absolute shit out of me both times that I saw it. I probably found it even more effective the second time. It is unpredictable and beautifully articulated, with a strong visual personality that perfectly serves its psychological purposes. And like, if you happen to be a high-anxiety person with social problems who withers under too much attention or eye contact, and you have a basic daily fear that you don't really know who people are behind their er um uh smiles, THIS IS THE HORROR MOVIE FOR YOU. I got scared again just picking out images for my blog post! So, I reserve the right to revisit both of these movies on future Blogtobers. There is certainly a lot to say just about the emerging horror archetype of the giantess/ogress--other examples that immediately spring to mind include the vampire from Resident Evil: Village and the final (TERRIFYING!) monster in the original [REC], and I'm sure there are more, and I'm also pretty sure some real-deal academic will scoop me on this! Actually, I hope they do. Please holler at me when you inevitably see the relevant think piece.

#blogtober #2023 #horror #supernatural #slasher #mystery #smile #2022 #barbarian #zach cregger #parker finn #georgina campbell #justin long #richard brake #sosie bacon #horror comedy #misogyny #psychological horror

[autistichalsin]

Sammy, bestie, these people sending hate are many things I don't have words for. Stupid. I'll informed. Willfully ignorant. Abusive. Etc etc I don't have the words but you know.

Nobody deserves what they're doing.

I've loved sending you anons - I'm not 'out' in the fandom because I'm so tired of the nonsense in bigger or newer fandoms, exactly like this, that I've been reluctant to engage, but your blog has been a haven.

BUT

If you need to turn off anon to protect yourself from this - please do it. Even if it's only temporary until they've gotten bored and moved on to harass someone else.

Thank you for your kind message. I enjoy all the asks I get- they bring me so much joy to read over.

I'm sorry nonsense like this has you afraid of making an account. I understand why completely. This is making me almost regret getting involved, but then I remember interactions like this and it feels worth it again.

I will probably turn off anon if I get more hate. I'm praying right now that it was a one off from a vile sick person.

[cyberdragoninfinity]

Oh I think I saw the post u meam and (u can delete/ignore this is its too far from the point and shit) the "The only yusei I like is a depressed one" is so. Idk? Harsh? Hes allowed to ve happy and still be written well, he doesnt need to be shoved onto other peoples sins when the series already has him doing that. He can have an implied decently peaceful life until death. Sometimes! You do so much and oull so much weight that you become something intangible and divine to someone whos never met but still thinks of u! And sometimes its one guy and sometimes its them and the last remnants of the human race out of a desperate love for both!

Idk, just let yusei be like, not suffering 24/7, they forbid him from even entering the WGRP for fun bc ig thats bad to so many characters, let him have a scrap

YEAH. YEAH. god ive been thinkin about this all day, this is so good anon you get it you're Logged In you see the Intent of it all...

again like. if the 'z-one isnt yusei' thing isnt someone's favorite narrative choice, whatever, thats your journey, but every time i see this "well he was ACTUALLY supposed to be yusei from the future for real!!!!" rumormongering i want to groan into my hands, it just feels like this desperate grasping at straws because they really wanted Sick and Twisted Evil Yusei Real and then when that didn't happen they had to make up some grand production conspiracy instead of just taking the "welp, cant win 'em all" with this one and acknowledging that's just not the story the 5D's writers wanted to tell.

i LIKE a good protagonist corruption/evil!protag AU, they're really fun, but you're so right, this sort of Insistence I see when people are like "no, it was GOING to be true, z-one WAS dark and depressed and hopeless future yusei," i just cant wrap my head around it. there's just this sort of miserable harshness to it that i'm not personally very into. (in general i cant really vibe with this idea of "i need my favorite character to constantly be suffering." just really not my thing, ESPECIALLY WITH YUGIOH CHARACTERS??) (also. like. we already did have that. with jaden. and honestly yuma also is fucking Suffering too. it's cool seeing a different spin on things. idfk!!)

i just want to like. grab people really gungho about this thing by the shoulders and ask "why do you want a Yusei who willfully betrays and gets his friends killed SO BADLY? why do you want to see a Yusei who hurts people THIS much?" I feel like it would have just been so jarring and unearned. it doesn't feel like Yusei even in his darkest hours (which imo is part of why Z-one is such an interesting character to me--the concept of someone who thinks if they can wear a fabled hero like a pelt, if he can Become them, then that will fix everything, then They can fix everything. that's so fascinating and fucked up to me!!!! i love thinking about it!!!)

this idea that in the far future Yusei's become this sort of folk hero, this "something intangible and divine" like you said, just from saving the world and doing good and helping people, that's just SO neat and has so much merit and is worth discussing!! and it's unfortunate that you have a Not Insignificant amount of people who just wont even consider the potential narrative weight in it, who are so sore Their Trope of Choice wasn't canon theyre out here weaving madeup production stories to back up their personal disappointment. just. idk. you can give the 5D's writers a lot of rightful flak for stuff in s2, but i do very much think there was great intent from the beginning to have z-one be Just Some Guy who's rotting in a body that isnt his own, and to have him reflect yusei in ways without Actually Just Being Him.

#ygo posting #asks #anonymous #anyway ty for the message this is good stuff i could talk about it a LOT #dana's ygo bible study #<--puttin this in my meta analysis tab cuz it's GOOD. #idk! folks can have their own opinions on it but for me personally i love that they didnt go with whats imo kind of. the obvious plot choic #to me there is merit even in a story that didnt go the way you thought it would invoke the narrative just you wanted. SHRUGS. AGAIN

[firyfox]

Gonna pour my heart out about the new intro because I know you’ll understand: I am so goddamn pissed at Bones transparently pandering to the stereotypical reddit-weeb-dudebro demographic that always expects and demands the most bland and boring shounen tropes, like Ochako only existing to be Izuku’s romantic interest when she’s SUCH aninteresting character. I’m also sick of that same demographic reducing Bakugo to what he was like in episode one, willfully ignoring an entire series of character development. That’s what I get for browsing the MHA subreddit, I guess ;-;

Yeah Reddit is not the place you wanna go for mha - while most platforms have a good majority with open minds & media literacy , Reddit is kind of a bigot bro platform , and this attracts the worst of the mha fandom - and yeah I'm sick of bones emboldening them by pandering to that audience , while downplaying bakugo's HUGE role - I just hope this doesn't skew the actual content of the anime . Hopefully bones is just baiting people & avoiding any spoilers for what's actually gonna happen

#i swtg if bones gives Ura's megaphone more dramatic emphasis than Bakugo's monumental character development & connection to deku 🙃 #i will fight the studio in the ua parking lot #bakudeku #bkdk #dechan #izuku midoriya #katsuki bakugo #my hero academia #midoriya izuku #original post #my asks

[waheelawhisperer]

do you have a ship/pairing that you feel is widely misunderstood?

Disclaimer: I'm not super invested in shipping at the moment, but I'll do my best to give you a good response that isn't just bitching about my frustrations regardless.

The easy answer is "all of them" because fandoms have a tendency to condense interesting, multifaceted characters down into components of a ship and ignore any aspect of their characterization that doesn't immediately lend itself to common shipping memes and scenarios and it's fucking annoying, but if I had to pick a specific option, I'd probably go with Dragonslayer for RWBY (inasmuch as I still ship that) and Texas x Lappland for Arknights. I'd like to have given you an answer for Baldur's Gate 3, but I still haven't found the time to finish that game.

For Dragonslayer, there's a bizarre segment of the RWBY fanbase that really likes portraying Jaune as some kind of ultra-Chadly chick magnet, which is not accurate to his canon portrayal despite him being the writing team's clear favorite. Like, sweetie, Dragonslayer is not a ship where Jaune is the dominant alpha male partner. That boy gets pegged. Yang pounds his prostate. She wears the pants in that relationship. He does not decide what to eat for breakfast in the morning without asking her and he is happy to have things that way.

(I'm exaggerating a bit for comedic effect but Yang would run roughshod over Jaune and no argument on Earth can convince me otherwise)

As for TexLapp, a lot of people don't bother really looking at the characters as individuals instead of treating them as "uwu cute violence lesbians who have fantastic bloody hatesex" and thus don't bother to engage with their trauma or any of their personality traits that don't lend themselves to stabbing each other with swords or stabbing each other with penises real or artificial (in fairness, Arknights dropped hints about their dynamic and then took ages to develop it, so like... hard to blame people for filling in the blanks). Also, I am sick and fucking tired of people acting like Lappland is a perpetual lunatic who acts unhinged at all times and can't be trusted to navigate any interaction that doesn't involve violence when that's literally not true and the proof is found directly in her files, a resource that has been available since launch.

(I, on the other hand, understand both these characters perfectly, a state of enlightenment that led to me unleashing a thesis about Lappland having a breeding kink and wanting a polycule upon a few of my unsuspecting mutuals. It's hard being as smart as I am sometimes.)

I'll close this out with a couple ships I don't like: almost every piece of NearlPlat and BlemiPlat content I've seen fundamentally misunderstands or willfully misinterprets their dynamic and characterization as it exists in canon in favor of shaving off anything that could possibly get in the way of "kyaaaa enemies to lovers so kyuuuteeeee uwu!!!" and I fucking hate it so much. It takes ships I already despise and strips them of anything that could be remotely unique or compelling. This shit is the McDonalds of Arknights ships: boring as hell, tastes like cardboard, and does nothing to differentiate itself from its competitors in a positive manner

Meanwhile for Bumbleby the fucking writers don't understand the ship dynamic or the characters involved, so I can't even get annoyed when the fanbase doesn't either

[lovepropaganda]

i'm kind of sick of hearing people trying to defend their fave celebs by saying that they don't know any better and that's the reason they're supporting Israel like... that's a full grown adult that has the time and means to further educate themselves and be on the right side of history but you're saying they're choosing to be apathetic or willfully ignorant? (both which are equally horrible) it's fucking embarrassing! stop making excuses for these people!

[moonlightshadowsrescue]

DDM - Darkrai

Disproving dark-types myths! This time about Darkrai!

A lot of media really likes to portray this mythical pokemon as an evil pokemon and I am so absolutely sick and tired of seeing this fucking portrayal I'm gonna lose my mind!

First and foremost, Darkrais in and of themselves are so rarely seen (hence the mythical part of them) that we really don't know a lot about them or their behavior in the wild! All the pokedex ever talks about is their ability to cause people nightmares and how it chases people out of its territory by causing nightmares.

A lot of people (I'm looking at you corporations) seem to like to willfully ignore the fact that the pokedex (in a rare twist) also states that Darkrai do not mean any harm!

Darkrai want to be left alone, plain and simple. One can only assume that they have this instinct to protect themselves by any means necessary because of poachers and whatever evil organization some 10+ year old has to take down while on their way to becoming a champion, especially if they live for thousands upon thousands of years like most legendaries.

They can't control their powers but just... leave them to themselves and they won't have any reason to go after you. The only good Darkrai media is that one movie with that famous kid with the pikachu and more shit needs to follow that.

This one wasn't as science-y as my houndoom one and I'm sorry for that but again there's not a lot of information about Darkrais because they're so elusive. Just... please leave them alone I'm fucking begging you.

#irl pokemon #irl pkmn #pokemon #pokeblog #darkrai #nico says #that one fucker tobias? turn on your location i wanna talk #not only about darkrai but that latios you have. #msr ddm

[phoenix-angel-suyari]

Y'all, I can't

I know we've all heard me say this before, but I literally cannot handle this anymore. My medical team have flat out told me I need to seriously destress. It's too much for my body.

I'm bleeding internally and have been for months now. They know this because my blood tests keep coming up more anemic than the last, my white blood cell levels are high, and other fluid checks keep turning up the presence of blood. I have had every fucking test over the last three months and they can't find the bleed. Waiting on camera results from like two weeks ago. Which is fun. I want them to find something to fix. I explained to my therapist and my psychiatrist that not having something to fight makes this whole process worse.

Not that I need something else to fight. But, it'd fucking help to know what's happening.

I've lost all interest in food. Literally, want nothing to do with it. I eat because I have to eat so I can maintain my blood sugar levels and for meds. But, even that takes so much energy. I just end up eating whatever feels less likely to make me sick just thinking about it, then adapt to account for what is and is not available in the house. Why has food become my enemy? Who the fuck knows. My medical team sure as hell doesn't.

I'm losing weight, but I have weight to spare, so that's not the worst. No, it's the fact that I've had DEPRESSION hair healthier than whatever the fuck's going on rn. I'm EXHAUSTED all the time. Literally every major organ is pulling some bullshit. I am on meds for all the things. But, meds alone can't fix what's going on. As every medical professional on my roster has gone on and on about. Repeatedly. Like I don't get it. Like I'm not trying. Like it's in any way achievable in the place I'm currently mired in.

My family, of course, remains stubbornly, willfully, intractably ignorant of my situation and my pleas despite me literally, explicitly stating that I cannot keep on like this.

I can't work because of organ complications. No work means no money. No money means having to negotiate and sacrifice and just go without for stretches sometimes. I have exactly .5 in my bank account and that's going to end up negative sometime this week. Yet, I'm still expected to care for young children, attend to older children, clean a house that is not mine and care for an ailing aunt with rapid onset aggressive alzheimer's/dementia. All for no pay, no compensation, no thanks and nothing but grief and harassment when I literally cannot scrape enough energy together to completely push through all my own shit and attend to everyone else and their needs/wants/desires. Everything I do is not the right thing, naturally. And everyone has SOMETHING to say about the state of my health and/or life (especially the lack thereof) while offering zero actual assistance or support - even emotionally, even just by being available. I keep getting bullshit like, "Well, what're you gonna do?" And, "What do you want me to tell you?" And, "You just have to take it and move on."

Three years of straight therapy working to not do that. Three years of therapy growing strong enough to not just give in and to tell people no and a whole host of other things, and now more of this shit. My new therapist is worthless for this kind of stuff. Have a new psychiatrist because my last one left. I am so fucking touch starved I feel sick over any physical contact that isn't with someone too young to care for themselves or an animal. And despite me constantly asking for something, anything all I get is ignored or gaslit or attacked.

There's nothing left for me to attempt for stress relief. I spend most of my time doom scrolling on tik tok because it's the only space that feels in any way engaging or relaxing any more. And I have all this drive to change things, but no way to actually see any, let alone all of it to fruition.

All this to say, my stress levels are incredibly high. I am not okay by any stretch of imagination or definition of the word. And at the rate I'm going, I will probably die from it before anything else happens. Which, btw, is not me being dramatic. That's straight out of several medical professionals mouths. Provided, of course, I do not do a hard reset, which, yeah.

Anyway. Just needed to rant for a bit. Thanks anyone who made it this far. I appreciate you.

#my life #my family #my health #Health Update

[jewishbarbies]

This is more of an opinion but on one of your recent asks, you seemed to genuinely think that things like closeting and bearding don't happen anymore and idk if you are genuinely or willfully ignorant but that simply is not true at all and I need everyone to understand this.

Just because gay people don't get beaten up on the streets as much as the 50s (emphasis on as much) doesn't mean we live in some sort of utopia of gay rights and I'm sick of this rhetoric that we do. Homophobia still very much exists in hollywood, it's just well covered up. Most countries in the world still don't have marriage or adoption rights for gay people and it's not like western countries are all that better.

For musicians especially, being openly gay is a huge risk when you can't perform in certain countries and that significantly affects your chances at a successful career more than a straight artist. There's a reason gay rumors exist. There's a reason we are still even having this conversation. There's a reason we still need pride. Closeting happens. Bearding happens. Lots of celebrities have to remain in hiding even today not because they have to but because that's the world that's been created for them.

To pretend otherwise, to remain ignorant in the belief that bearding stopped happening in the 90s or something is dangerous and simply untrue

Just look at the reaction to olivia rodrigo's lacy. She wrote a direct love song to a woman and people still erase it with some non sense heteronormative meaning. There's a reason people don't come out and that right there is why

I literally don’t remember saying anything remotely implying homophobia, bearding, or closeting doesn’t exist for celebs? I’ve only spoken regarding taylor specifically on that topic as far as I remember, and I’ve literally said it would be fine if taylor WAS gay or something, but she’s publicly said she isn’t and that she’s straight so that’s how we should regard her on the topic of sexuality. I wish you would’ve told me which ask it was and asked me if that was my opinion, because it absolutely is not, and this is really unnecessary.

#Asks #anonymoose #anti taylor swift #swifties dni #I’m not trying be mean with that last sentence #I’m really not #I just genuinely believe you should’ve asked #before jumping to a conclusion and writing this out