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heartrender6 · 1 year

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most of the kuwei hate in this fandom is absolutely racially motivated and most of it is probably subconscious but i NEED to talk about this.

and not because i think people r thinking "i hate kuwei!! he's asian and i hate asians!!" tbh most anti asian racism on the internet goes way deeper than that.

basically, what i believe to be the most prominent type of racism against asians, especially on the internet, is stereotyping. specifically "uwu-ification." the east asian entertainment industry likes to paint asian people as cute, submissive and sweet because it markets disturbingly well to american audiences, and whether people mean to or not, they internalize it and it affects the way they think of asian people as a whole. This mostly happens to east and southeast asian women, but definitely a lot with men too, especially in more recent years with the whole yaoi culture thing (i fucking hated typing that) becoming more popular. simply put, it's fetishization.

so how does this relate to kuwei? well, when kuwei is introduced to us, and im not gonna dance around it— he is pretty stereotypically asian. he's shy, innocent, small, good at math/science and— you guessed it— no speaka engrish. leigh bardugo lays the perfect trap for fandom white girl weeaboos to gush over this guy. once i came across a modern au where kuwei's whole northern chinese-mongolian ass is a "shy japanese transfer student." i really wish i was making this up.

but then we find out that kuwei is actually a conniving little shit who is really quite terrible at science and spends all day making shitty drawings of his crush instead of doing math or wtv. The turning point where we are told this is the jesper kiss. This is the point where we find out kuwei is not the yaoi uwu baby we thought he was. and how does fuckin 2/3 of the fandom react?? hate. instant hate. If you search "i hate kuwei" on twitter there are tweets both defending and attacking him, but there is significantly more of the latter.

most of them claim to hate him for kissing jesper but like... jesper kissed him. He doesn't say anything because, in his own words, "we're all probably going to die anyway." does no one see how tragic that is?? he let his first (probably) kiss be taken by someone who he knew didn't even like him because he thought it would be the only one he'd ever get.

and yet the only thing people see is that he "got in the way" of wesper and he's evil. throughout the series kuwei is given no agency, and that's the point of his character. everyone on the planet treats him as a weapon or a bargaining chip. he gets tossed around like a rag doll and to white (or otherwise not asian) audiences, that makes him the perfect picture of a little asian cutie i almost vomited typing that holy shit. but the moments where he takes something for himself— insisting on going to ravka, kissing jesper back— that's what makes people hate him. and don't even get me started on the way people project their hatred onto the other crows, especially wylan. yall will act like wylan loathes kuwei with all his being. he doesn't!! wylan is not a hateful person and he always defends kuwei!! but nooo, kuwei sucks and he deserves it for daring to be a person instead of an idea.

and hey?? guess what?? kuwei was NEVER in the way of wesper. there was no love triangle. narratively speaking, there was never any threat that kuwei would end up with jesper instead of wylan. never ever. the kiss was literally only put there to create drama for wylan and jesper. we never even hear how kuwei feels about it. stop using that as an excuse to hate on kuwei when we can all see it's because you're subconsciously mad at an asian person not being nice.

also disliking kuwei does not automatically make you racist, im just saying a lot of hatred towards kuwei is rooted in racism.

tagging my fellow aapi moots (that i know of) because i wanna hear yalls thoughts on this! @hauntedacousticversiontv @dramaqueentruther

#bishangzoy #shadow and bone #six of crows #kuwei yul bo #wesper #i wanna make it clear that it IS mostly subconscious but that doesn't mean mfs who are guilty of this should be held any less accountable

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buckyarchives · 1 year

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BuckyArchives Masterlist

Welcome! I know my username says ‘Bucky’archives, but I do occasionally post character other than him and outside of marvel! Anyways, I’m Sophie and I go by any pronouns, I don’t share too much about myself but I promise I’m friendly and my inbox is always open. Enjoy reading and below is my full Masterlist and almost everything you need to know! Notes, reblogs and comments are VERY important, i don’t know what readers life or don’t like if you don’t interact so please, I beg — interact with me. Even if it’s small.

DNI! basic dni criteria (racist, homophobic, misogynistic .etc) under 16. just don’t come here to just stir up drama, don’t like what you see? Scroll. Not hard to grasp.

My AO3 | want to request something? Click here!

GUIDE | 🎞️=personal favs. ⚡️=smut. 🍂= over 5k. 🎟️= unfinished

series

Metal Arms and Short Skirts ⚡️🍂

Waltzing in as the new head of Avengers medical decision, impressing everyone and… scaring Bucky Barnes your incredibly short skirts. While Bucky is having a hard time seeing his arm as anything other than a weapon, you’re more than happy to help him

The Balcony scene 🎞️🎟️🍂

The one where theirs two winter soldiers, and now it’s time to make amends. Untill you and Bucky Barnes run into a homicidal 5’4 talk problem

The Domestic Life of Living With a Runaway Assassin 🍂🎟️

You hate many things in life. You hate soulmates, you hate the avengers, you hate guns, you hate loud snorers and complicated relationships. Bucky Barnes is associated with all those thing yet you can seem to hate him (Soulmate!AU)

One-shots + Two-parters

The Trials and Tribulations of Getting Bucky Barnes a Second date.

Bucky Barnes hasn’t kissed someone since the 40s and he needs some practice…

Little mermaid🎞️🍂

A mission gone rogue and Bucky Barnes has to depend on you to save him, and a few of your unlikely friends found midst the Atlantic Ocean.

Bedless

Relapsing wasn’t great, ever. But Bucky Barnes is there. (SH WARNING)

Day After Tomorrow 🎞️

Bucky Barnes’ enhanced hearing is both a blessing and a curse. Eavesdropping, loud music, footsteps and when his sweet neighbor has been coughing her pretty head off all day.

First impressions ⚡️

Who’s would guess that meeting Matt Murdock’s best friends for the first time involved drunk giggling and impressive cock-blocking. (Male reader)

Second, first meeting 🎞️

After the meteor, Chishiya notices the all too familiar person. Their pull towards you - like maybe you’ve met somewhere? (GN reader)

Night Shift🍂

After months of Bruce Wayne being a regular at the waffle house you work at, you soon realize you have been messing up his order the entire time (GN reader)

Untitled

You don’t trust the new masked vigilante, the batman, but after a couple flirty interactions and him saving you from a possible mugging — you begin to change your mind.

Untitled 🎞️

After many stressful nights dealing with the riddler and his fathers past, all Bruce Wayne wants if for you to stay.

We’re not really strangers 🎞️🍂🎟️

You got cheated out of your life and now you can’t trust. Sebastian stan doenst know how to love full heartedly. He’s in a movie you didn’t write, but you did, but you want admit it - or do you? Loneliness begins to consume sebastian, as for you but you are two people from two different worlds: yet this tug is so intense it will eat you both raw

5 Years of Peace🍂

You and Bucky go to Vormir

Graceland too.

Ellie Williams didn't care much for trusting new people, she needed to keep the ones she had. Until you came around.

Just A Game

if anything, you and Bucky Barne's relationship was just a game. Who will win and who will break?

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teecupangel · 5 months

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Tee, I'm re-reading Esama's glorious Sailing the Stars again and, a few chapters in, I thought- if the Desmond who could Hear Us got caught up in this scenario, many of us would be screaming at each other. Some in panic, some in excitement, and a few/one of us are starting to sound slightly unhinged from how long we've been laughing (read: cackling) for and how it's been growing so loud that's it's more like mad howling and it starts to drown out everyone else through sheer Awkwardness and how Unnerving it is.

Meanwhile, Desmond is just standing, awkwardly, before either a couple of Jedi or the entire Council- who are also slightly frozen in awkwardness because the Force is being as unhinged as the Cacklers but less Awkward and Unnerving and more, laughing/howling at a joke that it's decidedly Not Explaining. To Anyone.

And then the cackling suddenly stops and someone says, with a slasher grin you could almost hear: "Hey Des baby, can you go ruin the entire fucking careers of some Siths for us? Pretty please?"

Not sure which time Desmond would come out of, but I find it hilarious if Desmond manages to appear during a time when Qui Gon Jinn and Dooku were having problems later in their relationship but before he takes Vosa as his padawan and now Jinn has to deal with not only the knowledge that His Master Fucks but also has, and does occasionally, Fuck with Sifo Dyas and Madame Nu when the time and preference arises. The mental damage alone has some of Us laughing our asses off. Not to mention the implicated existence of Actual Gods/Patrons and the multiverse.

Sailing the Stars by esama (If you love Star Wars and Desmond Miles, go give it a read if you haven’t… or reread it if you already have XD)

This… isn’t exactly a fanfic of a fanfic because this can be summarized more as “Desmond gets awaken in the Star Wars timeline during maybe the Tales of the Jedi series? and he can still hear us”. I don’t think you need to have read Sailing the Stars to get this little snippet, at the very least.

Desmond has no idea what to do.

By this point, the voices in his head, the capricious ‘watchers’, would be giving him directions or suggestions but they were all still freaking out.

Because, according to what he could actually understand from their freak outs, he was not supposed to be here and this was a ‘crossover’ and “OH MY GOD” and the occasional “I don’t know enough about this!” sprinkled here and there would imply that he wasn’t in his ‘universe’ anymore.

Even the first who talked to him had fallen silent after a dreadful “fuck, this isn’t my fandom” and that was definitely not a good sign.

The other voices he could recognize were too busy freaking out and they were arguing where Desmond.

To be more exact: they were questioning if Desmond was in ‘canon’ or in ‘legends’… whatever that meant.

There a low chant of “Desmond for Darth Revan!” that was being shushed once in a while

And here he was… just… standing.

This council of what they call Jedis was staring at him with furrowed brows, something about how the Force was surrounding him and was… very ‘chaotic’?

But not in a bad way?

Like the kind of giddy chaos that children would get into?

At least, that was what that short green… alien?

Is it racist for Desmond to call him an alien?

Aren’t they all aliens anyway?

Isn’t Desmond an alien too because, apparently, he’s different from the other humans that the Jedis have on record.

Being both more primitive and also too ‘different’ to be considered one of the older ones, whatever that means.

Desmond would have assumed that it was because of his Isu-human gene ratio but the more logical reason would probably be because he was…

Well…

Not from this universe.

Not that he was going to say that.

Even if he did, they would probably just assume he meant not from this specific ‘galaxy’ or whatever.

Desmond would take any kind of distraction at this point and he finally got his wish when the door slid open and two more men entered the room.

The voices were silent for a moment before some of them began to shout, “Oh my god. Is that Count Dooku?! He’s soooo young.”

“Oooohhh, Qui Gon Jinn! Look at him! He’s so baby!”

Desmond’s eyes met the older man that he was certain was supposed to be Count Dooku and the voices hushed for a moment before someone whispered.

“300K, slowburn, corruption arc, hurt and comfort, BAMF Desmond Miles, Good Count Dooku.”

Desmond wanted to sigh.

Maybe he should just run away at this point?

#idk what i’m doing #i didn’t say it was dooku x desmond #but i also didn’t say it was qui gon jinn x desmond #honestly i don’t know what i wrote XD #assassin's creed #desmond miles #ask and answer #teecup writes/has a plot #fic idea: assassin's creed #fic idea: star wars #fic idea: crossover

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sorenblr · 6 months

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I've been going through my 4kids nostalgia phase and recently rediscovered Shaman King and its FMA brotherhood remake. I know its probably way after your time, but do you have a history with it and/or do you have any thoughts on it from either a personal or a mythological standpoint?

Way after your time? How old do you people think I am? Anyway, I've read the manga, watched the 4Kids dub etc., even played the completely serviceable Aria of Sorrow clones that were released on the GBA. I have a lot of fondness for the original series, especially the early chapters, which are rendered in this lovely style that was dominant from about 1998 to 2003. You know, early One Piece, Ravemaster, Law of Ueki etc. The high foreheads and chunky hands and almost squarish eyes. It quickly went out of fashion and is now only an artifact of that generation's juvenalia, but I really adore it. And Takei's linework in that period is phenomenal. I have very fond memories of reading the short-lived English Jump serials and opening up to the Faust arc and thinking to myself, wow. It's badass how that guy looks.

On the other hand, it operates on the Kinnikuman principle of world tournament racial dynamics, so it's understanding of myth is filtered through this parade of cultural and ethnic stereotypes, and a lot of it is 'playful' or at least deliberately unserious. And then there are characters like Chocolove who are so racist that both the localization and subsequent anime adaptations have been running damage control ever since. I assume that would be a hurdle to modern audiences, this not neccesarily ill-intentioned but very clueless replication of stereotypical imagery from imported media. On the flipside, there's an Italian guy who compels the Archangel Michael to transform into a 1992 Ferrari Testarossa.

Anyway, it's cool. I like that everyone gets stronger by going to hell. They fucked up by introducing numerical values as assessments of individual strength. You should only be able to defeat your opponent by deftly reading the flow of their 'ki' or some bullshit, not by leveraging the basic principles of arithmetic... like how a fucking nerd would do.

#ask #shaman king #hiroyuki takei #manga #shonen jump #michael

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booasaur · 2 months

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Did you finish Night Country? If so what did you think of it? I loved Navarro—Kali Reis absolutely sells that stately sense capability and strength and hotness lol—and think Jodie/Kali really sold their relationship being the core of the show I also mostly loved how things played out (didn’t see the ending coming at all) but I wish the show had been given more episodes to flesh certain plots and characters out because some things felt a little superficial (it’s interesting to me that so many people were lost because I thought the show made a lot really obvious and could’ve actually used some more mystique) and enhancing them would’ve made things that much better and cohesive. But trying to find balanced criticism or commentary about this show is hard because everyone defaults to racist, misogynistic, no nuance takes on how it’ll never compare to s1 and just refuses to even see a little bit of the good. Idk I feel like you can dislike it and want better and still recognize the good aspects of this season and the value of telling indigenous stories. At this point I almost wish the showrunner had been able to make a new series like she wanted to, instead of having to be tied to the true detective name because maybe people would approach this with more honestly and openness

Hey, sorry for the late reply. Well, I know I've replied a LOT later before and mostly decided to stop saying sorry because I'd have to say every time, but at the moment, I'm having more difficulty than I used to in remembering how I felt when I finished the ep, so I wish I'd just responded at the time.

Let me see... First, I did laugh like an idiot when they took turns falling down the ice caves like idiots, especially Danvers.

Other than that, I liked the ending but it felt a bit too neat... I think if they'd changed around some stuff, it might have offered a bit more tension because, well, at that point, it seemed they'd let more killers go than caught them. Honestly that and all the quibbles I had, where I wish we'd seen some stuff seeded better and elaborated on more at the end, like you said, that all could have been helped with just giving them the two extra eps they should have gotten. I was thinking that too, at the time, lol, I remember now, when I read your ask, I went on this whole rant (to myself, in my head) about those two eps could have done so much, how the streaming model had killed TV, how these shortened seasons were basically like individual movies with an occasional sequel. I know this is an anthology miniseries and the story finished, but still! Too much is suffering for the same reason. I haven't really been able to get into a single new Trek, it's just a different form of storytelling. What can you do in 10 eps every once in a long while, with a full ensemble cast.

I literally looked up how many eps Discovery ends at and it's 65. Compare that to my home Trek, Voyager, where it flourished with new life when Seven appears. Guess when that happens. Ep 68! I literally had to chart the two shows:

Look at those huuuuge Discovery breaks.. It's not just that shows used to be given so much screentime, we just got so much so quickly. I absolutely forget what's going on in between seasons of most shows now. In terms of actual amount of time, Discovery actually lasts longer! But I barely know the characters or their stories. I can't say much different for Picard or SNW (barring what I brought in from before). There's only so much character growth and relationship evolution. How am I supposed to love them? Know them?

Maybe that's why I'm gravitating so much to soaps lately...

Anyway, it's more capitalism than just streaming, of course, which also speaks to your other point; I didn't know Issa Lopez just wanted to make a new show and they put it under the True Detective name?? But isn't that just so typical of all these issues! Like, the fact that they're making an NCIS spin-off with Tony and Ziva? They're retreating to the safest, most conservative ideas they can think of. It's happening with everything, companies dropping DEI initiatives, politics returning to big money white guys. Sticking this female-led extremely Indigenous-sympathetic premise with this particular franchise with its defensive white dudebro fanbase.

I wonder how much that's related to the obligatory bigoted backlash to any media perceived as "woke" now. It's all feeding each other, right, bad actors in each space taking advantage and fanning the flames, but it's beyond annoying now to have watched a normal show and go online and see this rabid overreaction to stuff that isn't even on the screen.

The worst part is, as you said, there's no room for the middle ground. I myself don't want to go into detail about the issues I had because there's so much unfair criticism. Like, if I thought it was a little unsubtle in its messaging at times, how can I say that when these fiends are tearing it apart for daring to even have the message. I'm just glad that Foster and Reis were so good and the show so well received that the fanboys can keep crying to each other about s1.

I will say, a huge part of that ending landing was Diane E. Benson as the older Indigenous Alaskan lady being cool as hell. She was so nonchalant and mischievous and angry as hell underneath it all! That's why I wished there was just a bit more tension, a bit more to that scene in terms of its place in the ep, rather than just its place in the story where it provided a reveal.

The handling of the killer reveal was what I found a bit pat, just being like, well, that happened, okay, bye, but the reveal itself? Freaking loved it. Those men deserved what they got and more. :<

Some things I'm glad they didn't go into more, the accident in the past, and what exactly happened to Navarro. Let me imagine she and Danvers are off together in some liminal space. :P

Anyway...I guess I did remember a lot, lol. And now we have a season 5 ahead. :)

#replies #Anonymous #sent on 20240220 #4 #5 #true detective

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electronickingdomfox · 4 months

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"The Galactic Whirlpool" review

More like the galactic infodumping.

A novel from 1980, by David Gerrold. It's not a bad book per se, but I found it quite tedious. At times it seems you're reading one of Scotty's technical manuals, at times a historical encyclopedia article. It's almost as if the author didn't want to write a Star Trek novel, but rather build a sci-fi universe from scratch, and thus the need for such detailed descriptions. The 21st history, as presented in the book, largely ignores the events established in "Space Seed", like the Eugenic Wars and Kahn's rule.

This "not-quite-Star-Trek" feel is further emphasized by the choice of Lt. Kevin Riley (a background character from a couple of episodes) as the hero, which gives the author much more freedom to build a new character. Not that Riley has a lot of personality here, anyway. On the other hand, the characterization of Kirk, Spock and McCoy is rather shallow, or downright weird. Kirk is the responsible, brilliant Captain. But for some reason, he mutters "Tiberius" every time he becomes impatient, to remind himself not to be like his namesake Roman emperor, which is... odd. Spock is logical and veeeery long-winded. And stops his discourse to tell a folk Vulcan legend in the middle of an important conference (???). And McCoy is a doctor, and racist towards Spock, and that's all. Possibly, the moments when Kirk teases Spock about his lack of emotions are the ones which feel more like the series. But the rest of the time, these could have been any other characters. And despite being a novel by the writer of "The Trouble with Tribbles", humor is quite absent in the story.

All in all, and using a similar expression as Chekov, "I survived this book, but I didn't enjoy it".

Spoilers under the cut:

The Enterprise finds a giant generation ship that seems to contain a civilization. The whole crew is in awe and really surprised by this, but I don't know why, since the same has already happened in at least two other books by now. It takes like ten chapters just to establish that they should beam aboard to investigate it (yes, this novel is really, really slow). Riley and some other redshirts find hostile humans inside, and are forced to attack them. A woman is gravely injured, so they beam her to the Enterprise to receive medical attention. The woman, Katwen, is shocked at finding other humans, as so far she thought her ship to be the whole world. At first she refuses to believe she's in a different ship, refers to the crew as "demons", and thinks they're tricking her. It's only when they bring her in a shuttlecraft, so she can see the Enterprise and her own ship from outside, that she starts to believe them. Katwen develops a friendship with Riley (that means, a romance).

After consulting with the Enterprise's historian, it turns out the generation ship is actually "The Wanderer", a ship that established its independence from Earth in the 21st century, and has been wandering ever since, in search for a new world. Lacking warp speed, entire generations have died and been born inside, without ever knowing anything about the rest of the universe. As a note aside, the Wanderer is a really famous ship of historical importance, so I don't understand why nobody (not even Spock) had identified it until now. The way I see it, it's like finding a XVII century galleon at sea nowadays, and not realizing that's a galleon...

Anyway, the Wanderer is in serious danger, since it's heading straight into two orbiting black holes, known as the galactic whirlpool, and everyone will die if they don't correct the course immediately. The problem is that the society of the Wanderer was split in two factions after a civil war: the rebels, who live in poverty in the lower levels and control the engines, which they disabled long time ago; and the regular citizens, who live upwards and control the ship's navigation. There are echoes here of the episode "The Cloud Minders", which was based in one of Gerrold's story concepts.

Katwen and Riley beam aboard the Wanderer, to convince Captain Frost of the need to cooperate with the rebels, to save the whole ship. Frost, however, is a dogmatic zealot who refuses to believe their story, and condemns them both to death. The rebels save Riley and Katwen at the last moment, and then they meet their leader, who's actually the real Captain: Gomez.

In the end, the Enterprise designs a plan with Gomez, to invade the Wanderer from below and seize the ship's control from Frost. While Scotty brings the engines back to life. There's a sort of final battle between the rebels and the Enterprise crew on the one hand, and the men from the upper levels on the other. As a result of it, Frost dies, and his successor is finally willing to cooperate and correct the ship's course.

Spirk Meter: 0/10*. Considering Gerrold's opinions on K/S, it would be weird if there was anything... Unless you want to count Kirk teasing Spock about his emotional control, but I don't see it that way.

However, there's a little bit about McCoy and Spock fighting so much, because that's how they express their mutual affection.

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

#star trek tos #star trek novels #novel review

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katatonicimpression · 4 months

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A Walk Through My Year in Media

This isn't necessarily things that came out this year, but rather things that I watched/read this year that I liked or compulsively consumed regardless of whether or not I liked them.

2023 in Films

Most of this post is going to be positivity; a sampling platter of things I've enjoyed this year. But also:

Salty Film Hot Takes:

The French Connection is uncomfortable to watch. I don't care about the racist, antisemitic, misogynist cop. He's objectively bad at his job make him go away.

None of the Next Generation era trek movies are good.

Guardians 4 would have been a better movie if Pratt wasn't in it. And I mean that in a "the script would be better structured" way.

Se7en is a really fun film and I'm not mad to have rewatched it recently but... it's undermined by 1) the writers not realising that John Doe's opinions are bog standard right wing talk radio shit, 2) the fact that they kind of agree with him and 3) they clearly, hilariously, don't know what lawyers do.

The Mummy (2017) is awful. I guess that's not controversial but still.

Robin Hood (2018) is also awful. Like, amazingly so. And, slightly warmer take, so is Prince of Thieves you guys.

I will not be answering questions on any of the above.

Positive Film Hot takes:

I went on a bit of an 80s dark fantasy kick this year. Out of films that I hadn't seen before, The Dark Crystal and The Last Unicorn really stood out. Especially the Dark Crystal. I ended up rewatching the show as well. Just so good. Bring it back. Justice for the gelflings.

I also watched a lot of Terry Gilliam this year - not all of his back catalogue but most of it. Obviously Jabberwocky is almost entirely bad, no one needs to be told, but overall yeah you get why he's beloved. The common vibe from his films is "wow there's so much to love here but it doesn't quite work". Brazil is an obvious standout - it's a classic for a reason. But I want to highlight The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Behind the scenes disaster and orientalist opening sequence aside, it really is spectatular. The sets, the details. It's so well crafted and just makes you wish they made films like this all the time. Damn you, Terry.

The 1938 Robin Hood film is the best Robin Hood film. Yes, congratulations, you noticed another theme in the shit I've watched this year. But yes, it's great, it's fun and well paced. It holds up staggeringly well. I also watched The Court Jester (1955 - with Danny Kaye and Angela Lansbury) - Also surprisingly great.

Finally, also feeling medieval, I watched Excalibur (1981). This is more "swords and sorcery" than "dark fantasy" (think: Conan the Barbarian vibes), but it's kinda great (most of the genre is not, lbr). It captures the logic of those stories, the vibes of the mythology very well, the mix of pagan and early christian beliefs, and the weird metaphysics that results. It's great. Way better than that dumb clive owen one. My lord that was bad.

2023 in Telly

Live Action Drama:

Succession

It's good. I don't think anyone needs me to tell them that. Still haven't finished it but enjoying it in a peaceful, fandom-free way.

Robin Hood (2006)

This was a terrible show, with an even worse third and final series. Did I rewatch the whole thing anyway? Yes I did. Should I have? No. (I love the first two so much though. Lily Allen's dad as the sheriff of Nottingham as tony blair? sign me up.)

Doctor Who

Am I a basic bitch who only came back to who because RTD did? Yes. But at least I'm not quite as basic as the ones who were only back for Tennant. The first one was good, if a little on the nose, the second was great, the third was good up until they get onto the stupid avengers platform for the showdown, from which point me and everyone in the room just got mad at it. The christmas special was fun though, excited for Gatwa and the new series.

Adult Animation:

Castlevania: Nocturne

assajhdaskjhfksjdfhlsdjaghljdsghaj

Genuinely so great. It's very clear that they're setting up a whole multi season arc with this first season, and the incompleteness that comes with that is probably its biggest flaw. But overall, fucking fabulous. The animation, fights, character design. Just a gorgeous show. Maybe not to everyone's taste; it's fantasy, but not escapist - its very much rooted in the historical injustices of the setting and has some heavy themes as a result. But if you liked the first Castlevania show, then you'll probably love this.

Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix

You might have noticed that there was a show out that featured "Rayman, but with drugs and cussing!" and, yes, this is that show. You might not have noticed that Rayman is only a small part of it, and it's actually about Dolph - a traumatised gay cyborg - and his no good, horrible, very bad breakup. Dolph is great.

Star Trek: Lower Decks

Do you like Star Trek? Do you like silly cartoons and workplace sitcoms? Then do I have the show for you. Real highlight of the year for me tbh. While the show is built on poking fun at trek canon, and can feel a little overly reliant on nostalgia sometimes, the latest season really pushed for more meaningful character moments in between the laughs. I like it. It's good.

Mononoke

This was the most mixed of mixed bags. Japanese horror with a really striking and confronting art style. At its best, it's got this visceral atmosphere that sucks you in and is genuinely fantastic. At its worst, it's got a whole storyline about "abortion ghosts", and features some art that comes across as racial caricature. Between this, and a few other things that felt uncomfortable in an unintentional way, I don't think I'd really recommend this, but it did stick with me, I'll give them that.

YA Animation:

The Dragon Prince

If you're into the whole YA fantasy adventure thing, this is an obvious rec. It's biggest flaw is how slow it's been to release, but if you're binging it for the first time, that's not a problem. It's heartfelt, it's pretty, it's clearly a kids show but is well crafted and has appeal beyond its core audience.

Star Trek: Prodigy

S1 actually originally aired like two years ago, but I only watched it this year after finding out that it was cancelled. But it was rescued! S1 is now on netflix, and s2 will air there next year. Genuinely a really fun contribution to the whole trek shebang, fitting into the universe well without ever feeling reliant on nostalgia.

I didn't include the two other treks that aired this year because s3 of Picard sucked balls (still not over it) and Strange New Worlds has stopped appealing to me... but that's a whole thing for the other blog. But the animated series are great! Also Disco. I still like Discovery.

Skull Island

This was better than it had any right to be. One season of a surprisingly funny King Kong show, also on Netflix.

Reality:

Rupaul's Drag Race UK Season 5

DRUK is good again, hooray. The dark times are over... for now.

Married at First Sight UK

Do not watch this. It will consume your entire life. Your brain will melt away as you watch someone fake cheat on their fake husband with someone else's fake husband just days into their fake marriage.

Taskmaster

It's good. It's been good. It continues to be good.

2023 in Gaming

Lol no. Can you imagine?

I did play the sims a lot. I had my guy cheat on his husband who then died.

2023 in Books

Fun fact: I only finished one of the books I intended to read this year. That's embarrassing. Anyway, it was "From Here to Eternity" by Caitlin Doughty (yes, the Ask a Mortician lady). It's great.

2023 in Comic Books

Orlando

This has really been Steve Orlando's year for me. I was thinking about what series I would include on a highlight list, and his Scarlet Witch was the only obvious answer for me. Sara Pichelli's art in that series is gorgeous - I love the way she draws Wanda. The writing is solid, compelling, tells a complete story. If I were to recommend any one series from this year, it would be this.

His Astonishing Iceman was also up there for me, and I will also repeat that the Mutant First Strike one shot he wrote was genuinely great. Kudos, Steve.

Gillen

Kieron Gillen's Immortal X-Men is easily one of the best to come out of the Krakoa era, and this year was no exception. I didn't really care about the Sins of Sinister event, and I care even less about the Fall of X event, so it really means something that I'm still including this series here despite it being dominated by these events. The issue with Piotr's narration has been my favourite, I think. But overall, still strong. I really hope he gets to continue writing these characters (especially Exodus and Sinister) in the future.

Other Positivity

Ewing's Black Panther series is really solid, Avengers (2023) has been pretty good. Dark X-Men was probably my actual favourite of the Fall of X titles.

Negativity

Lol I already said I didn't like the x-events. I also hated cold war. Such a waste of an opportunity. Speaking of, a lot of my comics-based salt and frustration this year has been about Sam. The way that he gets written out of things, ignored, then he turns up and his written badly and goes straight back to being ignored again. Then Marvel turns to the camera and is like "why would audiences do this?".

Put the fucking effort in and more people would show up for him. It's not that hard.

There's my overall annoyance with Duggan, which is a freebie, but one highlight of that has to be the bizarre direction they went with Kamala. No one wanted this, no one needed it, and certainly nobody needed the weird gleeful "killing" of this character just to launch a pointless plot beat that feels both offensive (see: Emma lecturing Kamala about not understanding real oppression) and is inexplicably happening during a whole massive event that feels like it should be about other characters.

The end...?

I don't want to keep listing things that annoyed me this year, because it'll just get repetative. If you follow me (which, if you don't, why are you reading this?), then you'll see me complaining about random crap all the time anyway.

Have a good NYE everyone!

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literary-illuminati · 11 months

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Book Review 16 - Empire In Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Okay, now onto the May reviews! Backlog vanishing before my eyes (or at least is now only 6 books long).

So I went into this book almost entirely blind – my roommate had gotten it as a secret santa gift from someone without much understanding of their taste in fiction, and it had just been laying unopened on the book shelf for four months until I grabbed it entirely based on the author.

I have actually read a decent amount of Tchaikovsky before – Children of Time and Ruin, and then Elder Race – but Empire was honestly entirely different than any of them (beyond a clear aesthetic fascination with anthropods, anyways). Which really only makes sense, considering it’s the first volume of a ten-book map fantasy series instead of hard sci fi or a fairly literary genre-blending novella, and also that it was published the better part of a decade before any of them. But these are things I did not know!

Anyway, there was some fast expectation adjustment going on as I read; the book is map fantasy, of the ‘could basically be someone’s D&D campaign except for how often they split the party’ variety. The central conceits (or gimmicks, depending on how uncharitable you’re feeling) are first of all that instead of having a world populated by humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, and so forth, everyone in the setting is one type of another of insect/arachnid-kinden, humans offshoots whose ancestors infused themselves with the essences of some of the gigantic anthropods who are what the world has instead of chimera and dragons. They physically vary about as much as people in fantasy worlds usually do, and also they each have their own kind of magic. Importantly, the ability to understand, use and maintain complex machinery – to be ‘apt’ – is one of those inherited types of magic, and the Lowlands (the books setting) went through some real upheavel a couple centuries back when the Apt ants and beetles got good enough at technology to overthrow their wasp and mantis overlords.

The story itself is about the looming threat of conquest by the expandsionist Wasp Empire on the border of the Lowlands, and the refusal of the city states’ robber barons and magnates to see it as a threat instead of a profitable trading partner. The protagonists are barely-grown students who are wards or clients of an aging self-appointed spymaster whose been trying to rouse the alarm who are thrown into the spy games after a botched assassination attempt and from there there are duels, slavers, airships, prison breaks, heroic resistance fighters, love triangles, fraught long-lost parental relationships, etc, etc.

That probably sounds pretty dismissive, but I do want to emphasize that it’s not at all bad – it’s just all much more conventional than I’m used to from Tchaikovsky, which is was a bit disappointing. Tropey as it all was, it was still fun, and well-executed and -written enough to be the most enjoyable book I’d read in a decent bit.

Anyway, if a book must have fantasy race science with civilizations of entirely-human-but-also-meaningfully-biologically-distinct demographics, I thought this was pretty well done? Mainly in that it always seemed pretty clear that the ostensible immutable differences in character and intelligence between them are just our main POV being sheltered and unthinkingly racist, and it just barely manages to avoid having one of the kinden be ‘the evil one’, or be a bunch of stupid savages (barely).

I also did appreciate that Tchaikovsky managed to avoid making the Lowlands seem like any sort of utopia (or even, like, a good place – slavery and amoral robber barons and violent chauvinism everywhere), without it ever really being in question whether the whole place getting conquered by the vaguely Roman slaver empire would be any sort of good thing. Likewise also kind of amusing how the main villain’s whole subplot involves having his nose repeatedly rubbed in the fact that, even if he is personally incorruptible and devoted only to the good of the empire, absolutely none of his superiors, peers or subordinates are.)

Anyway, overall a fun read, most of the main cast was pretty endearing, fun pulpy adventure plot with not-entirely-awful pacing, love triangle plot that didn’t entirely make me was to light the book on fire. Still, can’t say it got anywhere close to inspiring me to read the other 9 volumes of the series.

#book review #Empire in Black and Gold #adrian tchaikovsky #map fantasy

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audreydoeskaren · 2 years

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Saw this post on Xiaohongshu a while back and it’s a really good example of 18th century erasure, so I think I’ll share this here (not calling out anybody or anything just sharing). OP posted a series of scanned images from a Republican era source (of unclear provenance) showing what people *thought* were historical fashions at the time, and the outfit for what they described as the “end of the Ming” is actually from the 18th century, the Qianlong era in the Qing Dynasty. The other images of the Qing all show stereotypical 19th century fashions. What’s fascinating about this is that it shows that 18th century erasure is by no means a recent phenomenon, it had existed since at least the 1920s/30s, when I assume this was made. Great for illustrating that people in the Republican era knew fuck all about Chinese fashion history (even something as recent as 120 years ago) and by extension a lot of other Chinese history.

Textbook mid 18th century women’s fashion from the 燕寝怡情 painting series. (Ironically, the person who uploaded this image to Pinterest labeled it Ming Dynasty lol)

I always think that 18th century erasure is harmful to both Ming and Qing fashion because as is the case with this source, actual Ming Dynasty fashion makes no appearance and Qing Dynasty fashion is appropriated. What this is doing is more than just creating fashion history misconceptions though, it basically reconfigures the whole discourse on what is and isn’t Qing, and more importantly for that time period, what it means to be Chinese, what to embrace and what to reject. 18th century erasure discourse has immense power in stretching the limits of mental gymnastics, as it can make people mentally push the starting date of the Qing Dynasty to around 1800, one and a half century later than the 1644 of reality, and decide that things they do like about the Qing belong to the Ming instead. This is dishonest and annoying at best, and at worst I can make a case about how The Qing™️ in 18th century erasure discourse isn’t referring to the actual dynasty anymore, but functions more as an umbrella term for “everything we deem degenerate and don’t like”. Honestly why would anyone try to nudge 18th century fashion in the direction of the Ming if they didn’t think the Qing was bad in the first place.

The Qing has become a sort of all use hate object since the proliferation of Western colonialism in China, and it’s evident that this sentiment lingers on in the present day. If you scroll through the comments under this post you can find multiple people bashing the Qing for its apparent inferior taste and lamenting the loss of Chinese beauty, based on the incorrectly dated historical fashions. What they don’t know is that some of the supposed “pre-Qing” things they praise for their beauty and Chinese essence are, in fact, also from the Qing. I’m not even going to unpack how the whole thing about the Qing “degenerating” Chinese cultural evolution has close ties to eugenics and racial science popular around the time. Anyway, I’d just like to remind everyone that when you bash what you think to be Qing and contrarily praise what you think to be pre-Qing, both things could in actuality be from the Qing and you are creating a binary opposition out of nothing.

*On a side note, I think it’s fascinating that OP added a Chinese flag emoji to the image, probably because of a growing nationalist paranoia where people imagine they’re defending Chinese artworks from being “stolen” by Koreans. I’ve seen more Chinese people paranoid about supposed Korean stealings than actual Korean people using Chinese images inappropriately. Korean people as a hate object are also very much en vogue right now, for whatever reason. It’s almost established as a racist cliche in recent years that “Koreans like to steal”, and it’s so normalized people don’t even perceive it as offensive. Not saying that OP is intentionally being racist, but this emoji under this context triggers my fight or flight response.

#rant #18th century erasure #qing dynasty #qianlong era #colonialism #nationalism

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lastweeksshirttonight · 1 year

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A few months ago, I was talking with @tellthemeerkatsitsfine and brought up the casual idea of rewatching Last Week Tonight in its entirety and blogging about it. She told me she thought that would be a great idea, and thus, my brain immediately started panicking. "People will SEE your LONGFORM WRITING! You might have to be VULNERABLE and OPEN and people might see you as more than a Pez dispenser for John Oliver content!! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!!!" My anxiety is clearly very fun and very logical.

Anyways, the idea lay dormant, held at bay by anxiety, until recently - I have a brand new computer, free time, and a real desire to try and write something more substantial than "i cannot" on this blog. For real, my longform writing is not that bad! I hope.

With that context out of the way, here goes a new experiment for me - revisiting every past episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Will this be any good? Who fucking knows. But we're doing it. Strap in.

Last Lee Tonight (wherein Lee rewatches Last Week Tonight for an undetermined and probably nonexistent audience) Season One, Episode One

(original air date: 4/27/2014) Major topics covered: POM Wonderful vs. Coca-Cola; the 2014 Indian election; the NSA

"Welcome, welcome, welcome... to whatever this is."

My enduring memory of Last Week Tonight starting is my mom calling me and angrily asking me why "that guy you like" was on a billboard, like I'd personally been responsible for him getting his own HBO show. I don't know why she was so angry about it, I just remember responding with something along the lines of, "maybe other people think he's hot too?"

Going back and watching this first episode now is extremely weird. As you can probably tell from the list of topics covered above, the show hadn't yet settled into its now famous format, and instead bounced from topic to topic like an R-rated Daily Show. It's not a terrible idea for a show structure. There's some clunkiness to this early iteration of LWT because of it, especially given that there's no commercial breaks to aid with transitions, but it's perfectly watchable. Its weirdness lies almost entirely in the fact that I (and everyone else watching it now) know it's going to become something very different very quickly.

It starts like most LWT episodes start now, with a recap of random shit that happened last week. There's a lot going on in this section - John talks about the banner week for "unrepentant racists and recording devices" as he briefly covers Donald Sterling and Cliven Bundy, multiple popes being canonized as saints, and Obamacare websites failing to meet demand. This is a very 2014 series of headlines and they are blasted through in about 5 minutes. Weirdly, John doesn't devote any space to what Cliven Bundy actually said to piss people off that week (and if you aren't familiar with Cliven Bundy, the man is rancid so it could have been a lot of different things), but does show a clip of him being introduced on a morning show holding a dead cow. As you do.

The breakneck speed of this episode is startling coming from our current LWT state. The Obamacare website bit, which takes about 3 minutes in total including the Lisa Loeb cameo, is the kind of thing that they would spend 20+ minutes on in future seasons/episodes. I do love Lisa Loeb and forgot she sang a song on LWT telling Oregon how much their Obamacare website sucks. (One of my favorite songs of all time is "Falling in Love". You should give it a spin.)

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From there, we go into the 2014 Indian Election (and, briefly, the 2016 Presidential Election, which, at the time, was 926 days away. JEB!), which had only been discussed on the McLaughlin Report at the time despite being the biggest election on the planet. Its primary focus is the two leading candidates, Rahul Gandhi, described by John as "wow that guy is handsome", and Narendra Modi. John does something intriguing with this piece - it starts very jokey and surface-level before taking a hard turn into discussing Modi's potential involvement in a literal massacre of thousands. I wish John did this more often nowadays. I get that it's probably hard to execute when everyone expects LWT to be the most depressing 'comedy' on television, so a sudden swerve like that is far more expected, but it was a really deft turn that clearly left the in-studio audience unsure of how to react. Moments like that are worth seeking out.

A moment that has occupied my brain since I saw this nearly ten years ago - "how dare you say I take money? How dare you say I take money? How dare you say I take money? How -"

Our first "And Now This" is John McCain telling the same joke about Russia over and over and over again. Repetition is a secret theme of this episode.

We now move on to Pom Wonderful vs. Coca-Cola, or "why two beverages are fighting each other in the highest court of the land". I'm calling this segment Pom Wonderful vs. Coca-Cola bc of its Wikipedia designation, but this segment is far more about food labeling, a subject near and dear to my celiac-ridden ass. Pomegranates, as it turns out, cannot help you cheat death, and Minute Maid has less than 1% pomegranates in their pomegranate juice. The kind of health claims companies make with their foods are still batshit, and it's wild that I have to struggle through reading whole lists of ingredients to try and find gluten while companies pretend their Pop-Tarts are actually beneficial to anyone. This also gives us the first instance of John Oliver urging the audience to do random acts of social vandalism, by definitely not advising them to put fake health claim stickers on food products. I wish I could find the "contains 4 whole pomeranians!" sticker, I definitely used to have that.

A second "And Now This" is a taped segment about cheerleader mistreatment in the NFL. This is also infuriating to behold. I hope things have gotten better for cheerleaders, but given that this is the NFL, I doubt it.

This feels the most like a modern LWT segment, in that it could easily be retitled "How is This Still a Thing" and would only need minimal changes to work. Seriously, pay cheerleaders the money they deserve, they're athletes too.

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Finally, we move to the NSA, and John interviews General Keith Alexander, the former head of the NSA. It is obviously important for me to tell you that John is in a different suit for this.

(Is there some sort of discount store for weird orange vases)

Information security and privacy was a huge cornerstone of the early years of LWT, and yet I'd somehow totally forgotten about this interview. This is basically a TDS field piece, as John questions General Alexander about what the NSA is actually collecting from the US public. He's pushing Alexander hard, and this makes a great companion piece to his later interview with Edward Snowden. There's even insets of reporting on NSA wrongdoing! It's almost indistinguishable from the things he did on The Daily Show, and since I've been in a very nostalgic headspace for that show, I appreciated it.

John admitting he'd abuse the hell out of NSA clearance is hilarious. As is John saying the Washington Football Team is a slightly less tainted brand than the NSA.

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As a collective experience, I stand by saying that it's very weird to watch this now. At the time, though, this was exactly what I wanted out of a John Oliver-led show. It'll be interesting to see how this show shifts into its current form over this first season - since I haven't rewatched these episodes in ages, it'll be a "new" experience for me too.

Random notes:

Lee obviously focuses on important things corner: Light blue checkered shirt with blue solid tie and gray jacket is a solid look for John. He also is between bangs and no bangs, giving me a brief period of time to mourn the loss of #bangsappreciationhours. 8/10. Interview suit is more staid but blue is still a nice color on him, 7/10.

It's funny to see the pop-in social media boxes being used for their actual purpose of sharing links, and not for John randomly calling something "#feminism" or being mad about Fifty Shades of Gray. The show has evolved in ways both big and small.

The parts of this episode I was able to find on YouTube are so bizarre. Neither of the main segments seem to be there, but LWT's YouTube channel had the portions embedded above, which, aside from the interview, are such WEIRD things to highlight. I know a lot of these used to be on YouTube, too, but it looks like they've been culled.

Christ the Tumblr post formatter on desktop really hates when I try to click around to edit long ass posts.

Please let me know if this is actually any good or interesting, I truly don't really know if this is of value to anyone.

#john oliver #last week tonight #last week tonight with john oliver #last lee tonight #Youtube

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iightbringer · 19 days

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀𝓲. ︱ introduction.

hello all, thank you for taking the time to read this silly little blog intro! my name is lucifer and you may use any pronouns you feel fit for me, i’m not picky in the least. i am nineteen, going on twenty this year and a proud virgin— i mean .. virgo. i’m terrible at writing bio’s, so here’s just a few things to know about me — i come from a land down unda, i sow chaos, confusion and mild amounts of concern in the hearts of everyone i meet and oh, did i mention how much i fucking love frogs? like, i can’t get enough of those funky little guys. that muppet has inexplicably and irreparably ruined me. and now, moving right along with a word from our sponsor, who just so happens to be the most beautiful, amazing girl in the entire world — my darling girlfriend! love you, boo <3

❝⠀⠀ hi. i'm lucifer's 𝖇𝖊𝖑𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖉 &. today i'm here 2 talk abt the one nd the only: lucifer. first, they vvv friendly. it's almost scary bc who tf is that nice. well i have news for u. they are. i'm still shy to approach them even if we're tgt bc they like. rly talented. they modest asf but they're rly good at everything they do. esp writing. nd art. like girl i can't even begin to tell u. u hve to see for yourself. also: charming. so playful but in endearing way. and. that dumbass never fails to make me smile. 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭: so. protective. their loyalty is absolutely. shocking. nd they dn't just give that away. next slide: observant. and so focused on details &. ideas. constantly thinking abt smth. seeing them brainstorm or voice their opinion will never not be fascinating. furthermore: they genuine &. best believe they'll keep it 𝟏𝟎𝟎 w u. they dn't play w bs yk. it took a lot for me to understand they hve good intentions. they're good to me, &. they treat me so well. but now ik it's bc they truly love me. to close: i'm not the type to say sappy things. even tho that's all i did. but meeting them would be so worth it. it was for me. but u better not hurt them. or i'll hve a nice chat with u. anyway. ty for reading this far. if u need me, i'll be busy planning lucifer's demise. farewell.⠀⠀❞

⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀— ⠀⠀⠀ signed, 𝖒𝖔𝖗𝖙𝖎𝖈𝖎𝖆. ⠀⠀⠀

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀𝓲𝓲. ︱ interests.

⠀⠀⠀these are the things i enjoy doing⠀…

★ ⠀⠀writing. cosplaying. crafting. roleplaying. drawing. gardening. painting. gaming. singing (badly).

⠀⠀⠀and these are a few of my favourite things⠀…

★ ⠀⠀horror movies. fizzy drinks. the colour white. jensen ackles. stuffed animals. religious imagery. vintage music. zombies. andrew scott. musical theatre. mod fashion. imagine dragons. aussie representation. theology. gore. trixie mattel. rainbows. mental stability. pokemon. cats. shopping. crime shows.

⠀⠀⠀shows i’m into ⠀…

★ ⠀⠀house m.d. supernatural. the walking dead⁺. banshee. you. hannibal. dexter. sherlock. american horror story⁺. criminal minds. scream queens. lucifer. the boys. the last of us. hazbin hotel.

⠀⠀⠀games i’ve played ⠀…

★ ⠀⠀bioshock⁺. mass effect. resident evil⁺. outlast. beyond: two souls. telltales the walking dead⁺. undertale. alice: madness returns. the quarry. detroit: become human. baldurs gate 3. batman: the telltale series⁺. heavy rain. alien: isolation. we happy few⁺. the last of us. until dawn. death stranding.

and for a comprehensive list of horror movies i’ve seen, click here.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀𝓲𝓲𝓲. ︱ information.

if you’re interested in a roleplay with me, please do feel free to send me a message and i’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible. i do not & will not roleplay with anyone under the age of eighteen.

⠀⠀⠀ do not follow this account if you ⠀…

⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀— ⠀⠀⠀ are sexist, any sort of phobic, racist, etc.

⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀— ⠀⠀⠀ promote/post about drugs, alcohol or smoking oorp.

⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀— ⠀⠀⠀ are a nsfw blog or frequently post nsfw content.

and i think that’s all, folks. thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day, wherever you are. peace!

#blog intro #intro post #dividers & format made by me #special thanks to my gf for providing such a glowing review and generally being the light of my life 🖤

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spiderh0rse · 1 month

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freeman's mind noted part 5, e21-25

e21

images just come to him like a prophet for an angry god

a lil scared of big blue lobster out in Power Up

could solve all his problems by exploding things with his mind

wants marshmallows....

FUNNY NOISES. "HERE'S JOHNNY". MANNNN

thinks headcrabs would make cool lawn ornaments

"rubble rumble rubble rumble rubble rumble" he just likes saying words real quick together

he thinks he's a good liar

doesn't want green slime on his suit :(

not amazed at the orange HEV suit but admits it's good otherwise

THE SUIT DENTS WHEN YOU SHOOT IT SO STOP SHOOTING IT

(not sure why the formatting is doing this.)

e22

"pyew!"

has seen The Terminator

"what's the point of being an honest citizen if I'm just gonna get shot at anyways" FUCK THE TROOPS

has seen Rambo

concerned about accessibility!! :D

"lasers!" Said in the samw done in laser/caution

urgh the electron measurement nonsense. I hate that. Particle and wave. Depends on what you know about it

new sport? Houndeye killing?

Gordon I don't think the soldiers care about fixing the generator

had an old apartment where the basement got flooded because he did a cannonball so sick his bathtub sunk into the floor

"bbbrrrrrrp!"

"NYYYAAA"

hey if you survive the electricity you'd have a sick scar

high five Death!

e23

yes the military is incompetent we all know this

doesn't know how to play guitar

is very polite asking people to not kill him

thinks the radio chatter is dissing him

stresses to the soldiers that he graduated from MIT

seems less bothered by having killed a bunch of people now. Interesting difference from earlier

beepbeepbeepbeepbeep

"I don't like to beep too much" YOU HAVE BEEN BEEPING. ALL SERIES

thinks radios are how The Man finds you

grey map? Haunting.

smushing more words together without proper words to put them apart,, man after my own heart

smuggling an elephant almost wouldn't surprise him

would love rubber on the HEV.

cheery about leaving behind the dying guard

he is not happy right now

e24

may believe cavemen had to deal with gargantuars and HECU. May be ironic

wants to go up

he's a CAT. (meows multiple times) (hisses)

says out loud that he's scared

straining noises,,,

karma strikes him often

thats why the dinosaurs went extinct! Him!

expert in atomic level electricity

has frequently had to sit through family members shitty photo albums

one of the perks of killing everyone: no one can yell at you

he's in great shape! and has been exercising all day! please give this man some food!

likely not forklift certified

would like henchmen throwing switches for him

would sacrifice minions for good parking

threatens someone and then says he won't actually do it because it's be gross

wants to hit the clubs after a good shower

slur count four.

e25

could climb over the concrete but wants a nice ride

thinks a train derailment (shakes violently bnsf derailment-) would look cool

talks about some story about one teacher of his asking if crashing a motorcycle into a haybale or concrete divider is more dangerous at 60mph. My bet is on the haybale. Lots of little things that'll run you through. Nasty stuff. Straw impales telephone poles sometimes. Wear a helmet.

if he were a conductor killing his passengers would be his idea retirement

since no one can see him confused he's still a genius

barnacles now dubbed "string things"

he's covered in BLOOD again

cant emulate turtles and hide in his bright orange shell

expects to find a cult in On A Rail. string theory crowd......

ongoing commentary about if the aliens are demons or not

percussive maintenance does do wonders

pro slavery. not racist somehow. Gambling instead?? I have no idea where he gets these ideas from.

there are just. Unholy screams btw. in the background.

doesn't have a bandolier :'(

hey a switch!

poor guy is Not getting paid for this. Community service.

continues to be grossed out by the barnacles. Reminds him of the summer he worked fast food

"QUIT BEING METAL"

If he were a wizard he says

#freeman's mind #gordon freemind #every time i have to tick up the slur counter i wail in despair #rmanotes #mindverse

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olderthannetfic · 2 years

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I have an original novel series I want to write one day. It's been brewing in my head for almost a decade, and I hope one day I can find the strength to finally write it out.

As time marches on, however, I begin to doubt how well my novel would be received. The modern fandom environment is so toxic for creators. Consumers misinterpret everything and put negative labels on the work and creator even if none of it was intentional.

I have a character whose purpose in the story is to die, but he is also gay. Being gay is only a small part of who he is as a person, but would people call me homophobic or exploiting the "kill your gays" trope? I have one character who, in the found family dynamic, cooks meals for everyone. Is it sexist that she's a woman? Will people say it's a misogynistic stereotype that women do the cooking? If she's also black, will I be called racist making her "work for" the others, even though it's what she wants to do, enjoys to do, insists she do? If another gay character remains single (for valid reasons) while straight characters find love, is that heteronormative? If a male character wears a dress for fun, but he's not trans, am I transphobic? If two male characters hold hands as a form of comfort but they're both straight, am I queerbaiting? I have concerns about all of it.

These characters mean so much to me after all the time I've spent with them. They're not token representation or homophobic/sexist/racist/transphobic/queerbaiting depictions. They're almost real people to me. I care about them and believe I have legitimate reasons for everything I put them through, seeing them as characters first, rather than their various attributes. But will people refuse to see that and reduce my beloved work and myself to buzzwords and cancelation? None of the potential outrage I can imagine (and probably a dozen more I can't) is intentional or malicious. I just want to tell and share a story, but I become increasingly concerned.

If you think like that, you'll never create anything.

The nitpickers are never the ones who actually promote or pay for art anyway. The audience you are seeking is other people.

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thealexchen · 2 years

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If I have to be honest, Life is Strange True Colors fandom is the least toxic fandom of them all. Everyday, I keep seeing the same arguments from the LisSubreddit and Listwt, usually by the same group of people (whom I won't name - chances are, they might be on tumblr too and could be reading this too). Such as ship wars, which are the best endings, and let alone same insults everyday like "max flopfield" or listwt starting shit and being triggered over petty reasons or over nothing. But this is what happens when you're in the small fandom dedicating to Life is Strange, I know we're all desperate for new contents. So am I, but why use the same takes that'll cause unintentional or unnecessary drama for the sake of something new? I miss the old days when we're only writing fanfictions, drawing fanarts, or coming up with ADORKABLE headcanons :(

I get what you mean, and you’re right. The lack of new content means that old discussion (more like argument topics) get rehashed over and over. Social media like Twitter and Reddit tend to create their own echo chamber as the loudest voices drown out more nuanced takes and those people become too discouraged to continue (I unsubscribed from the LiS subreddit ages ago and I never go on Twitter). But nostalgia can be deceiving; the fanbase was more active in 2015 so there was more fanfiction and fanart, but on the flip side the ship wars were at their worst and LiS1 was the subject of awful online vitriol just because the protagonist was a teen girl. I still remember the downright nasty Pricefield vs. Amberprice ship wars in 2017 and the relentless hate (and racist reactions, but I won’t go there rn) that LiS2 got in 2018. Nowadays it’s like LiS2 never existed and it bums me out, even if my feelings on the game have soured since 2018.

But I’m gonna change the subject, because I was so interested in your wording “the true colors fandom,” because I think that’s a larger issue within LiS: the internal divisions within the series and the separate “mini fandoms” for each game. It’s sadly true that fans of LiS1 are rarely also fans of 2 because there’s so little overlap. This series has has a weird trajectory from the beginning, because it’s clear that LiS1 was always meant to be a small standalone story that achieved runaway success and spawned a prequel by another studio, and then DN suddenly had to figure out how to turn LiS into an anthology series. But the very specific, unique, and unprecedented (for its time) style and cultural impact that LiS1 had simply cannot be replicated twice. As it stands, the dead parents, queer characters, supernatural elements, and indie soundtrack simply aren’t enough to keep these games feeling cohesive and like they are set in the same universe. And as such, they never attract the same fans back to the next game. Not to mention the spin-off content has been kind of lukewarm: I stopped reading the comics and it seems like everyone does not want the TV adaptation to happen.

Adding onto this, discussions about TC fizzled out disappointingly fast because it’s a shorter game with a safer, more conventional plot. The characters and main ships are the least problematic than they’ve ever been, the game is almost squeaky clean with its political correctness, and the choices are never controversial. The thing is, that leaves almost no room for discussion. I think Alex’s parents had a lot of potential for their choices and how they affected their children, for example, but they’re barely in the game. TC kind of reminds me of Tell Me Why, actually: a very safe, careful, small game that was meaningful in the moment but one that people move on from quickly.

Anyway, thanks for sending this message, it’s nice to have a LiS-related ask again.

#anon #answered asks #lis #listc #lisbts #lis2 #life is strange #life is strange 2 #life is strange true colors #life is strange true colours #life is strange: true colors #life is strange before the storm #lis before the storm #pricefield #amberprice

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theradicalscrivener · 5 months

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Do you have any plans to make any more stories similar to the Inspector Bai-Lon story? I'd give my life savings for a sequel to that, or something similar lol...

It is currently my favorite story of yours, and I absolutely love the concept of someone growing larger and hornier by the minute... bursting out of their clothes, while everyone is just not acknowledging the fact that it's happening until they're blasted away with cum. It was soooo good.

Gosh I was thinking of that story just recently. I was worried that one fell flat because I started off like. What if there was a murder mystery with a hyper character, but then I realized that writing a good murder mystery takes so much prep and I didn't even have any idea who the bad should be so I kinda just threw my hands up and went. Who cares! Everyone is just here to see this guy bust a nut anyway!

I hope Bai Lon doesn't mean something bad in another language. The character was inspired by the old Peter Sellers movie A Shot in the Dark in which Peter Sellers plays Inspector Clouseau (this was their original attempt to make Pink Panther into a movie series but since they didn't name the movie Pink Panther nobody knew it was supposed to be a sequel and so it became a huge mess. It was a fun movie though. A similar thing happened recently with Glass Onion. They tried to just call the thing Glass Onion because the name Knives Out doesn't have any context to the new movie, but the ad wizards in marketing were like. If you don't put Knives Out somewhere in the title everyone is going to be super confused. So you've got to do that )

Anyway. One of the other inspectors on the police for was Inspector Ballon and Peter Seller's accent in the Pink Panther movies was so over the top that he somehow managed to stretch the Inspectors name out to be almost 4 syllables.

I think my gripe with that story was that I'm a bit of a detective drama/comedy nerd and like I kept going down a rabbit hole of making the murder mystery that I kinda had to throw my hands up and be like. I need to make this man cum before I go off the rails and turn this into a massive detective drama and forget that I was supposed to be writing porn.

Who knows. Maybe next time he'll run into inspector Lecumbo.

Tldr I hope I didn't accidentally say something super racist in Chinese while I was having fun riffing on Peter Seller's horrible fake French accent.

#ask ziel #I'm stuck in the car on a roadtrip and going insane #hence the extra chattiness

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