#and honestly more meaningful impact on society

[androidboy]

#edit: meme taken out due to transphobic origins #people who genuinely enjoy instapoetry: have you ever read a book #or anything besides actually i was gonna say ao3 but that’s unfair to fanfic writers #the Cheesecake Factory menu has more substance than any instapoetry book #and honestly more meaningful impact on society #for the love of god if i have to see any on my dash ever again #the betrayal .. i curate my dash so carefully . #p

[howtofightwrite]

I've got a world-building/combat question. I have these two warring nations in my setting, both medieval-ish tech levels. One of them figures out how to make magical flying craft that are basically WWI airplanes. The other country invents dragon riders in response. Since then, they've been at war for ~60 years. I'm trying to figure out how the heck an air force would alter medieval combat strategies. If you've any suggestions, I'd appreciate it

The first, and biggest world building problem is that magic is part of your overall tech level. Ironically, Diskworld is an excellent example of how magical technology can basically function as an alternate path for social and technical development, though, honestly, a lot of high-magic settings tend to have tech leakage from magic.

One of the more common examples that comes to mind are “magical radios.” Either it's an enchanted device that allows person to person communication, or it's direct telepathic communication, but whatever it is, it serves a fundamentally similar role to a handheld radio, or (depending on how it works) a phone. The thing is, it's functionally a magical replacement, and it would affect society in much the same way those technologies have.

This is a long way to say, if your magical combat technology has WWI-grade planes, there is a very real possibility that a lot of your warfare is also going to be at a similar magi-tech level, if not more advanced. Having written that, I'm reminded of The Red Star comic series; though, that has a heavy Soviet aesthetic, and is not-at-all medieval.

Again, it doesn't really matter if you have fully-automatic firearms, or if you have a bolt thrower that conjures and propels crystals at hyper-sonic speeds into your foes. If they have a similar rate of fire, and similar accuracy, the meaningful change is texture. Your characters might see tiny crystal fragments shattered on the floor, or embedded into walls, instead of bullet holes. There may be no smell, or conjuring the crystals might leave a different odor. A handheld lightning projector might leave scorch marks, and a scent of ozone, for instance.

Magic might also factor into armor and defenses. If you can use a magical ward to dispel conjured objects, that might be extremely useful for fortifying specific targets against incoming conjured attacks, but it would likely be wholly ineffective against the lightning projector, or some other kind of directed energy beam weapon.

“Inventing,” dragon riding as a response to someone else making a magical airship, does strike me as an odd cause-and-effect. If dragon riding was that easy, it would seem likely that someone would have militarized them long before that point. Inventing flying objects that could function as a hard counter to dragons feels a little more natural. Or, magical, AA installations. Though, this is something that could probably be finessed, if you're really committed to the setup. It's also worth remembering that air superiority is an extremely potent advantage, even if you're not sure what to do with it, meaning that if one side suddenly had fliers, and the other side couldn't come up with a counter in short order, they'd be picked apart, and the war wouldn't have this 60 year timescale.

If it seems like I went to ranged weapons very quickly, there's a simple reason. You can't joust from a plane. Your options are to either propel objects at people, or drop things on them from above. Dragons also (usually) have the option to breathe fire on them. Now, firearms did exist in the late medieval era. So, that's not that far out of range. I'm less sure of the invention of bombs. At least, of the variety you could deliver to your enemy on the battlefield. Though, it occurs to me, you could probably use a catapult or trebuchet to deliver an explosive payload, if the explosives were stable enough to survive launch, but sensitive enough to detonate on impact. (Of course, if you have some kind of magically primed explosive, that stays stable until it is ejected from the catapult, and then explodes on impact, that would work.)

Looping back to the timescale again, this would require some pretty potent defensive capabilities. A dragon, with the ability to breathe fire, and the capacity for strategic thinking, could easily starve out an entire kingdom, simply by making a habit of torching all the cropland it could find. It doesn't, particularly matter if it gets all the food, so long as it torches a meaningful percentage of the available crops. When you have farmers going hungry, you're going to see food production dipping, exacerbating the problem. When you have soldiers going hungry, they're not going to be able to fight as effectively. When you have the peasantry going hungry, you're going to see civil unrest, and probably rebellions coming for their lord's head. You can't wage a war against a hostile nation under those circumstances. (In fact, there were multiple peasant revolts during the Hundred Years War, which basically stalled out France's ability to fight. England also suffered multiple peasant uprisings at roughly the same time. Though, those were motivated by taxation, which ends in a similar place.)

A related concept that's somewhat hinted above, is that wars are expensive, and both France and England found themselves facing uprisings because of taxation needed to support the ongoing war. (The irony being that both nations encountered this at roughly the same point in history. Roughly 40 years into the war.) A war that's been going for 60 years will likely have ravaged the economies of the involved nations. This isn't necessarily something that your characters would be aware of, unless you expand the context to show non-wartime economies.

The simplest explanation for why this happens is that any money you spend prosecuting the war are products that you never see returning value from. The money itself doesn't leave the economy, but the natural resources, and labor required, are expended non-productively (from the perspective of economic growth.) So, if you have a peacetime merchant, they're moving money around, but they're paying for their goods, and then those goods are going to consumers, who may also be contributing to economic activity with those goods (this even applies for food, you can think of that as a necessary component to any productive activity.) If you're a wartime merchant, selling weapons to the military, you are contributing to economic activity when you buy the weapons, but when they're sold to the crown, that's no longer productive. Those weapons leave the economy and never return. Worse, any soldiers who are permanently wounded, or killed, are also removed from the economy. Over time, this can destroy the most prosperous of nations. (To be clear, this is more advanced economic analysis than anyone in the middle ages would have had. So, the idea that wars are expensive was understood, but the exact reasons it slowed the economy were not.) And, this kind of thinking is another form of technological advancement. Ideas for understanding complex systems have become more intricate and detailed over time. While it's not the concept of, “invention,” that you might be used to, it is a similar form of progress.

So, how would this look in your world? There's a lot of potential consequences, most of which are not contradictory.

An impoverished lower-class is very likely. Whether that includes wounded veterans or not is a little more up in the air, though after 60 years, military pensioners, and those who suffered life-altering injuries on the battlefield are likely to be a common sight, either on the street or in the poverty line. (Especially if the crown is willing to enforce drafts and conscription.) At this point, that might be a very real possibility.

A struggling aristocracy is also likely, with former major power players who've declined into poverty. This might take the form of borderline abandoned estates that have been taken over by the crown or squatters. (Probably not both at the same time.)

Serious inflation is likely (and could be why formerly stable guild members, merchants, and even some of the aristocracy might now find themselves struggling.) I realize this point isn't something most really think of when you're trying to write a fantasy world, but it's worth considering. More likely this will be seen in food prices having increased over time. So the major symptoms you'd likely see would be decaying structures that no one has the resources to maintain, rising food prices, and generalized poverty. Even in a fairly magically advanced setting, a lot of these things would, likely, still happen. Of course, if the dragons have been used to destroy the agricultural base, things would be even worse in that nation. To be clear, food and taxation riots are not off the table there.

This is sort of a non-sequitur, but if you have a setting with classic transmutation (lead, or other base metals, into gold), you would actually see inflation with every batch of transmuted gold hitting the market. It's sort of an amusing note on the fantasy of being able to produce as much money as you want, but ultimately, it's actually harmful from a macroeconomic perspective. (Basically, the same reason counterfeiting is a problem.) Though, it is a possible hook for criminal groups in one of those nations, producing counterfeit gold via transmutation.

There's also a real world example from 2020, where a jewelry company had fabricated “fake,” gold bars as collateral to secure loans. In total, they claimed to have 83 tons of gold used to obtain loans worth over 2.8 billion dollars, from 14 different creditors. Except, when they defaulted on those loans, and were forced to hand over the gold, it was discovered that these were in fact gold plated copper bars.

I realize the question was about the flying forces specifically, but so long as that advantage is dealt with quickly, and neither side is able to monopolize air superiority, that's not going to change nearly as much as having that level of magical advancement would on its own, and of course, the general consequences of having a war that's been going on for long enough that multiple generations have died on the battlefield. That's going to a bigger effect on your world as a whole.

-Starke

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#writing reference #writing advice #writing tips #how to fight write #starke answers #Starke is not a real economist

[anistarrose]

A while ago I saw a post that started out wishing Lilith's aroace identity got addressed onscreen, and I was like "yeah I totally agree, a voice acted stream reveal is many steps above 'some writer tweeting it after the show ends' but it would've still been far more exuberant and impactful to see it in the show." But then OP continued by saying there's nothing in Lilith's arc that reflects aromantic experiences, and look, I'm biased as the Lilith icon person, but like. Your experiences are not universal.

And... that's okay! My experiences aren't universal either. But as an aroace, I do have to say: Lilith does reflects one type of aroace experience, and that's the chronically ill aroace experience in particular.

It's the way that she's an adult who needs care from others, but first moves back in with her sister, and then moves back in with her parents, instead of moving in with or seeking out a romantic partner.

It's the way she grapples with independence and individualism, struggling to unravel "what she wants" from "what she needs in terms of support" and from "what society revolving around the Emperor's Coven has tricked her into conflating with self-worth".

It's the way she looks at her reflection and asks: "Am I broken?"

Not all aroaces are disabled and chronically ill. Not all aroaces have (or want) intense platonic friendships or close sibling relationships, and not are able to heal from trauma by living with their family. These are all arguments for more variety in aroace representation, to say nothing of a-spec representation as a whole — that just doesn't mean aroace characters with these traits don't represent anyone.

And this is also a chance to touch on a distinction that I feel isn't drawn often enough when talking about queer subtext of any form: I don't think Lilith, if you're only looking at the show itself, is a strongly or undeniably aroace-coded character. But she's absolutely a character whose arc is enhanced upon learning that she's aroace.

So don't get me wrong: I would like more than this. Lilith is like a baby step in terms of a-spec representation in animation — a meaningful step, but a small one. But for a series where each season except the first was heavily impacted (read: compressed) by the cancellation, and the unaffected first season was also the only one Lilith spent as an extremely polarizing villain, you can see how the crew could've gone in with extremely conscientious intentions and wound up having to make a tough call, right?

I don't even necessarily think they made the right call, I'm just willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that they tried. It feels like they put more than just some performative 30 seconds of thought into imagining how a disabled aroace with serious self-worth issues would interact with the world and improve herself — or, at least realized after some experience writing Lilith that being aroace fit her, and let that inform much of her Season 2 arc.

Like, maybe I'm personally extra desperate for disabled a-specs in media, but honestly? Lilith is a well-written one in all aspects but the lack of an onscreen "I've never felt attraction to someone" — and you don't have to agree with me, but I'll die on the hill that that all counts for something.

No hate to OP — if you know what post I'm vagueing about, be chill and normal about it, please. It's fine for some people not to feel represented, and put their thoughts out there — but it also seems that I, as a person who feels very represented, should put out some of my own thoughts for balance.

#the owl house #lilith clawthorne #toh meta

[abattre]

It's actually so disappointing that Naruto's narrative took the route that it did. Kishimoto created an incredibly interesting world and premise, and ruined it by having everything amount to a shallow message of forgiveness that undermines almost every meaningful element in the story. And it's like,, I want to appreciate the world outside of the plot, but the moral framing of the story makes it virtually impossible because of how disingenuous it is. It completely undermines the audience's understanding of the tragedy and horror of the world so that Naruto becoming Hokage and being the most powerful person in the world by the end doesn't come across as distasteful as it actually is.

Like it's made abundantly clear throughout the story that the village system, and Shinobi society as a whole, is incredibly flawed. Kishimoto goes out of his way to show us that Konoha's council is made up of objectively horrible people. We see first hand how the council's short-sighted ideas of what 'protecting the village' means results in devastating tragedy for people both in Konoha and outside of it. It's clear in how Danzo and the rest of the council act that their atrocious behaviour is them just blatantly abusing their power to maintain their authority. The council has no remorse in anything they do; human experimentation, genocide, slavery, and blatant exploitation is all fair game to them if it preserves their status quo. And instead of maybe, like, addressing Konoha's skewed morality in a sensible way and setting the village up for reform, the narrative just tries forcing the audience to perceive Konoha's genuinely heinous actions as necessities. Which, you know, will work when you're like 8, but once you've grown up and developed some reading comprehension and critical thinking,,, it just feels annoyingly manipulative.

At its core, Naruto is a story that attempts to deconstruct morality. Like this is abundantly clear in how Kishimoto is constantly paralleling the dichotomy of good and evil literally every chance he gets. In the end though, this dichotomy just doesn't work in the context of the Naruto story because the narrative framing of the village being the good guys is just hysterically ridiculous. Konoha is an awful place, that does awful things, and is run by awful people that refuse to change anything because it benefits them for the village to remain awful forever. To anyone with a developed sense of media literacy the village cannot in any way be framed as morally good, so when the story resolves itself with Naruto becoming next in line to govern Konoha under the same unchanging authoritarian regime, with the same council supporting him because of his sheer physical prowess and complete dedication to their twisted ideology,,, it's honestly just an incredibly underwhelming conclusion to a story that made itself out to be more profound than it actually is.

If I had to guess, I imagine Kishimoto just didn't think through how negatively the world he created would reflect on the plot. Ultimately though, you can't write a moral story that's so deeply entrenched in real world social inequity and decide halfway through that because you don't know how to fix these things your story's going to have to be about how they're actually okay to be doing and perpetuating,,, like that is awful and also a terrible lesson to impart on an audience of children. With how serious the issues are in Shinobi society, trying to resolve things with the power of friendship was always going to fall flat. These broad scale injustices can't be brushed aside in that way without undermining their severity and diminishing the understandable impact they had on the characters that experienced such extreme oppression. That's essentially the trap that Naruto's conclusion falls into though, and so the story just ends up feeling incomplete and unfulfilling because none of the issues brought up are actually addressed or discussed with the gravity they deserve.

#i guess kishimoto was hoping the aliens would distract us or something #i love the naruto world but i can't stand the pro-konoha rhetoric like it's just so bad #anti konoha #anti naruto ending #anti shinobi system #pro uchiha #pro sasuke uchiha #pro neji hyuuga

[new-ronantics]

i don’t think people realize that at this point it’s much more important for queer stories to be shown in a positive light than it is to portray them “realistically”.

(there’s also an issue in the idea that queer characters/couples not suffering 24/7 is inherently unrealistic, but that’s another can of worms.)

there are plenty of “realistic” queer love stories out there. we get it. most queer people lead miserable lives, never get happy endings, and are generally shunned from society, right? we know this. we see it all the time. we experience it. i’d like to think that we’ve come far enough to say that representation is no longer just about queer people being included—it’s also about depicting them in a way that’s somehow meaningful, fulfilling, and—dare i say—hopeful.

is will’s self-hatred, shame, and overall reluctance to come out to anyone a realistic portrayal of the experience of being a closeted gay kid in the 80s? yes, of course it is. nobody thinks it isn’t. the problem is that, ultimately, this is a TV show with a narrative. it’s supposed to tell a story, and a good one at that.

my question is this: what does will having unrequited feelings for his (supposedly) straight best friend do for the narrative? what does it do to develop any characters involved? the answer is nothing. it does absolutely nothing. it’s just another unnecessary tragic ending for a queer character who’s already suffered beyond belief. will’s arc could have easily been separate from mike’s; it could have been all about self-acceptance and gaining confidence in his identity, but this is very pointedly the route they didn’t choose, and that is why queer people are upset by the path vol 2 went down.

to watch a gay kid’s feelings be used as a prop to push the main heterosexual couple back together is humiliating. to see a lesbian watch as her crush kisses her shock-factor boyfriend is humiliating. it’s like it’s being rubbed in our faces—hey, look, people like you will never be happy! haha!

that’s not the representation we need anymore. it’s not impactful or satisfying or new, it’s just depressing. realism only matters so much in a sci-fi horror/drama, and i’ve honestly never seen so many people bitch and moan about realism until the conversation was about queer characters finding happiness.

so no, queer people are not just sad because their ship didn’t become canon. that is not what this is about. pay more attention, please.

#to any queer people who enjoy the storylines of these characters/feel seen by them: good! i’m glad something good has come from this #this is just the way i see it and an attempt to explain why so many people are unhappy with vol 2 #i could say a lot more but unfortunately i am stupid #byler #will byers #robin buckley #mike wheeler #stranger things #st4 spoilers

[exo-raskreia]

hi as a jjk fan, do you have any issues with the writing from gege? if so, what do you think are wasted potential in terms of characters, bonds. i think that there is lack of emotional impact or expansion fo characters sometimes. for instance animes like mha have alot of meaningful character arcs and backstories. It's a bit hard to express how I feel becuase jjk is an amazing story but i am just a bit disappointed of the wasted potential with female characters and like shoko and utahime. and the world building. yes i am fellow gojohime shipper ;).

(Oncoming long RANT 😅)

If you ride on Gege's coattails, this may not be for you.

I actually do have issues with Gege's writing, so I agree with you. JJK has an interesting premise with hidden lore & I would recommend it to anyone wanting to get into, or already into, anime/manga, but it could be so much better if Gege just cared enough (which I sometimes feel like he doesn't? It just feels like he wants to hurry up & finish it so he can start on his idol manga... 💀). He skips so much, it honestly feels like he's going off a checklist, especially in the latest arc.

Compared to other battle shounens, namely Naruto, Fairy Tail, MHA, & even Gintama, JJK is severely lacking in several areas. It's unfortunate because the premise & characters are full of potential.

I will go over some of the issues. A lot of these were obvious from the start but they've only gotten worse over time.

• The fast pacing (speed running at this point). It's battle after battle, no downtime, big arc right after big arc, etc. Us readers & the characters themselves barely have time to process things before he moves on to the next thing. He skips so many things, so much happens off-screen/off-panel (can't forget how he skipped Yaga's fight with Gakuganji that lead to his death, skipped Gojo's entire month after his unsealing then "kills" him off-panel a few chapters later, I could go on...)

• The lack of character emotions, development, backstories, etc. We barely know anything about the characters, like their hobbies & interests? (This is why I have a hard time making up headcanons & potentially writing a fic for our ship... How can I keep them in character when I barely know stuff about them? 😮‍💨). We barely see any of them training (training arcs/chapters are typical for battle shounens); the Tokyo students preparing for the Goodwill Event would have been a fitting time to showcase this, for example. There's little to no mourning shown for character deaths (like Yaga? Nanami? Mai? Mechamaru?).

Yuta has such a cool CT & we didn't get to see how he discovered it & all. Like, come on 😔. Also, it would've been nice to see the Goodwill Event from his first year when he beat the Kyoto students, especially Todo... (Gege simply tells us about it. Like he tends to do for a lot of things 🙄).

Gege could've done more build-up to Gojo's sealing in Shibuya by showing his upbringing & development from his arrogant teen self (tho already having shown hints of caring for others & not liking the higher-ups) to the sensei who loves his students & strives for a better Jujutsu society. His past arc should've been longer imo. Needed more slice of life & character interactions, bonding. Heck, Toji should've gotten his whole backstory there too before he died. More build-up to Gojo's "death" too, as Gege skipped that whole month after his unsealing 😒...

• While on the subject, the lack of character interactions, bonding. We haven't seen most characters interact with each other despite being in the same circles, vicinity. Tokyo & Kyoto students, GjHm with them, Gojo & his colleagues (esp more Uta), the Zenin clan (like, wish we could've seen how GjHm interacted with Naoya. Imagine the drama 😫), Gojo & his elusive clan, I could go on... Would've loved to see Gojo interact with Kashimo, Higuruma, Choso... 😮‍💨

As such, several have died & we never saw them interact with certain others nor even know much about them 😑... The emotional impact of character deaths & bonding would be higher if only Gege cared enough to flesh out his characters more... (At least the Phantom Parade mobile game is giving us some much-needed slice of life content. Wish Mappa would give us some OVA's like that too...)

• Lack of world building. Once again, so much we don't know, such as the clans, especially Gojo's. Apparently, they're still alive, yet we haven't seen them?

Are they not fighters, then? Nothing from them on their clan head's sealing/unsealing/"death". The Zenin Clan debuted & got killed off soon after. Other clans irrelevant. Jujutsu sorcery primarily exists in Japan so other than Miguel, goodbye to the potential of any foreign sorcerers making their appearance...

• Female cast. It's crazy how they were once praised for their potential but now... Now, all they've got is just your typical battle shounen treatment 😒. While Gege has shown he cares little for all his characters (lol), it does seem like the female characters have suffered a bit more from his writing. They've either died (like Mai off-screen? Yuki, the only female Special Grade, had one fight & died?), become powerless (Miwa, thru an off-screen Binding Vow revealed many chapters later? Seriously?), lack screentime (the Kyoto girls? Shoko, the only one who can use RCT on others & closest friend to Gojo?!), or simply haven't done a whole lot, especially compared to the male characters. For some or most, it's a mixture of all these 💀 (like Tsumiki).

Nobara is the main girl & yet her role ended about halfway thru the series. Can't believe Gege did that to her, despite her potential & competence to be the FL of a battle shounen (poor Yuuji still thinks of her. And we don't even know what Gojo thought about her demise? 😮‍💨). Maki seems to have it better, yet some could argue she's just Toji 2.0/female Toji. Unfortunately, I thought about Toji when she was fighting Sukuna; I was like, "If Sukuna's this impressed by her, imagine Toji with his higher experience?" I doubt that's what Gege would want us to think when Maki's shining (or does he? 🤨😒).

• Don't even get me started on Utahime. She's the main teacher of Kyoto, loved by all her students according to Gege, yet we don't get to see it? She's barely relevant? Imagine what she felt as her students kept on dying or becoming unable to fight. Thru her character, such as during her investigation of Kyoto for the traitor, we could've gotten some great insight into how things are over there? We don't even know what the school looks like 💀.

Her scar has several implications & yet we don't know how she got it? How has she dealt with being a scarred woman in Jujutsu society, especially considering Momo's words about such a thing during the Goodwill Event? Utahime could be a great role model to the girls, especially Maki now, & yet... 😮‍💨 (I'm telling you, she should've been the main adult female of the series, just like Gojo's the main adult male)

She's one of Gojo's friends, has known him for 10+ years, & is one of his few most trusted allies, yet we haven't seen how they got to this point? Their comedic interactions make us wonder how they built that deep trust. I NEED to know what happened between them during the timeskip!!! 😫

Her CT buffs herself & others. Why has she not been a part of any on-screen fight prior to the Shinjuku Showdown? There were a couple instances where we almost saw her in action & yet... Why did Gege gatekeep her CT for so long? To showcase her CT for the first time for Gojo & Gojo ONLY. He's insane. They can't beat the package deal allegations. So, does this have any meaning? Can we hope for more-

• I sometimes wonder if JJK would be better as a seinen like I once heard he intended for it to be... There are definitely elements of that... How much darker could the story get, since sometimes Gege pushes the boundaries of Shounen Jump (I know he wants to, lol)... How much more fleshed out could it be if he was writing it the way he wanted to originally (supposedly he never intended for a school setting but was forced by his previous editor?)... Maybe we could even get a Tokyo Ghoul:re style chapter with GjHm during the timeskip if y'all know what I mean-

So, to sum up: JJK is interesting & I would recommend it, but there's a whole lot of wasted character potential, terrible pacing, & lack of interactions, development, & world building. There's so much we don't know & Gege wants to end it already? He's sitting on a gold mine & yet... 😑😒

No idea how things will end but I can at least hope for an open ending that leaves us with some hopeful possibilities... Uh, right?

Also... GOJO WILL RISE ✊️

#what do i tag this? #ask #jjk #gojohime #iori utahime #reiapost

[bettsfic]

Feeling like my work is mainly a setting for romance. Like I have a romantic subplot in all of my ideas… because it’s something I like in the stories I read… BUT I feel like the romance becomes too big. I don’t know sometimes I feel like it makes my work less meaningful in a way because then the complex narrative is pushed to the side and the relationship is center stage. I love reading romance, and respect the genre. But I don’t consider myself someone who is a romance writer. I just know that most likely romance will be a part of many of my books. Right now I’m working on cutting this out but it often leaves me feeling like something is missing after.

Again I love romance but when wanting to write about the complexities of war or the impact misogyny on our society and having those themes get overshadowed a bit because my reader brain loves a romance subplot, annoys me a little. Advice?

i can't for the life of me remember who said this, but a writer once posed to me the idea that tension in a story develops between the changing closeness and distance between relationships. i think romantic conflict in stories is a valid pursuit and honestly i wish more people wrote it. i have no idea why western publishing boxes romance plots into a corner.

which is all to say, i definitely understand the frustration. i'm not sure why there's a subset of writers whose only entry into an immersive flow state is writing about two characters falling in love. but there is, and a great many of us are on tumblr. this frustration is very much the reason i launched both @oficmag and @fanauthorworkshop.

my advice is to write the thing anyway. because the truth is that sometimes our first draft has to be the porn draft, and we can't make ourselves write anything that's not at least a little horny. when you're drafting, you always have to prioritize what's most interesting to you and what will keep you invested in the story. in the case of those of us who enjoy romantic plots, we have to build our diorama in a shoebox and play with one doll in each hand before we can create a whole-ass dollhouse full of other dolls.

by later drafts, i think it becomes easier to balance romantic plots between other aspects of the story so that it seems less insular and you can expand upon your shoebox diorama. you have to trust you'll make it there. in the first draft of Skinless there were about 10 sex scenes. now there are arguably 0. and i don't miss them, really. i'm in PYB mode (pick your battles) and that means i'm mowing down everything that's not integral to the core of the story. but if you had told me this time last year i would be getting rid of all my sex scenes, i would've been horrified. i may not have even continued writing. but the sex scenes were my major quest markers to reach the end of the story. that's what i know how to write: two characters growing closer to one another. and now that i have that draft, i can look at all the stuff i ignored in my haste to get my two characters to bone it out.

trust yourself and your instincts. follow what interests you. once you've got a draft, you can think about the big picture stuff. for now, just smash two dolls' faces together.

#writing advice #process

[whetstonefires]

so the op of that anti-voting post DMed me just now, transcript follows:

slash-dot-com

even if all democratic systems were inherently always going to be "inadequate" i think our american democracy is severely flawed in glaring ways, its just literally antiquated and i think there are much better democratic systems. our voting system is not representative of the people either, which almost everybody admits, i'm not saying theres some nefarious mastermind behind it, but it is a design flaw, whether the flaw was made on purpose or on mistake. its easy to quit american democracy because it doesnt even seem to Want you to participate, like from so many factors its difficult to engage with it in any meaningful way

whetstonefires

yeah it's not a fantastic system

it's just also pretty pointless to try to punish it for that by leaving it in the hands of people who hate you

it won't get its feelings hurt and try to woo us back

i used to be really mad about how stupid and ugly it is but the more history i've studied and the older i've gotten the more it's been like, oh human society is a clown show always

slash-dot-com

but for several election cycles the popular vote nor the general will of the people have even impacted the people who are elected, the people who hate us are in power because the system is designed to benefit them

whetstonefires

i mean?? biden did in fact defeat trump, and the democrats did make gains in congress in both the last two cycles

slash-dot-com

my vote in my state genuinely does not matter in federal elections, in local elections yeah sometimes it does, but there needs to be an overhaul on our democracy and its election process so its more reflective of the people. currently its so broken that voting legit doesnt change anything

biden sucks

whetstonefires

he sucks less than trump tho????

like to a screamingly significant extent

slash-dot-com

i'm trying to make a more general and large scale point than one single election cycle and sitting president

whetstonefires

and i've made my counter point which is that not voting is not a constructive response to the problem

slash-dot-com

doing other things than voting is just as effective if not more so than voting, so not voting in a broken democracy isn't nonconstructive

whetstonefires

and in fact the broad tendency of idealists and leftists to be disengaged from the political process because it's dirty and inadequate, especially at the local level, is the *cause* of many of the systemic problems

doing other things can be constructive, but not voting is a non-action

and advocating against voting is a *harmful* action

so it's not constructive

the other things and the voting are independent of one another

slash-dot-com

thats just really ill conceived, i'm honestly just surprised by that response, you should really think more deeply about this. i'm not sure what you think this way of thinking and approaching politics is accomplishing

and then i couldn't send anything else (it was going to be a ?? because that didn't really follow naturally but before they said that i'd been typing a bit listing all the voting-related activism that it made sense to dip on due to alienation from the process, because energy and funding better spent elsewhere etc, but opposing voting itself was not in the same category) because they blocked me, which is just rude. you started this conversation man!

also i can't figure out how to make tumblr let me block them back.

so i made a post about it lmao.

i still don't know what positive good they think arguing against voting is supposed to achieve. like why is that a good use of energy.

#hoc est meum #i throw salt #little bit #politics #independence day

[femmefatalevibe]

how do you decenter men & dating? do you ever feel like it's difficult to handle the social pressure to have a partner/"time is running out"?

Honestly, I think my personality has a lot to do with it. I've always been called "stubborn" since I was a young girl and have been making nearly all life decisions for myself since I was a pre-teen/teenager, so creating a meaningful life has always been my top priority. The thought of centralizing my happiness or validity in this world around a phantom man who might or might not show up, or even worse, negatively impact my life – either short-term or permanently – in some way has never made sense to me.

It also helped that dating was something I never discussed with my family as a kid, never had any parental pressure/input on whether I should or shouldn't date, and have gotten next to no questions about boys/men basically ever. Of the 2-3 times or so it has come up as an adult, I set a boundary on my private life and just remind them of the question they're asking if no one is serious enough for me to mention on my own.

With friends, I don't feel pressured to be in a relationship just because they might be or looking for a partner. If anything, I find it entertaining to chat about it when they inevitably start asking for my advice or input on a given person or situation, lol.

I perceive general societal pressure to date for commitment or idealizing a relationship with a man as a projection of other people's neediness that I don't feel the inclination to entertain. If someone enjoys companionship, great for them, but I find it quite presumptive that someone can't differentiate between their personal needs and every other woman/person in society. We're all unique. If you're secure enough in your choices, you shouldn't need to spend your free time convincing others that your way of life is superior to others who choose a different path. I feel sorry for them, honestly.

In terms of "time running out," I think being child-free takes off the burden of this race against a "biological clock." I can imagine if someone wants children, the idea of dating, relationships, marriage, and timelines is a lot more stressful. I'm glad to see that many women who are undecided about kids or are giving themselves time to pursue other goals are starting to take advantage of egg freezing services en masse and speaking about their experiences publicly. I applaud all of you for exercising your right to bodily autonomy. You're all incredible for changing the narrative and idealization of women to become mothers as young as possible.

If you mean worried about "time running out" from a purely chronological perspective, I have the opposite view. Why would I want to waste my 20s – the years of youth, energy, and self-discovery – on a man that I probably will no longer speak to in the next 6 months or 1-2 years? I would be running out of time to set my life in the ways I want if I decided to put a considerable amount of energy into finding a partner and focusing on men (or anyone else's approval past a client relationship, interpersonal boundary, or ethical principle, of course).

Hope this was useful in some way xx

#feminism #female power #decentering men #patriarchy #intersectional feminism #feminine energy #feminist #dating #sex and relationships #relationships #women's empowerment #life path #girl blogging #it girl #dark feminine energy #dark femininity #life design #self discovery #high value woman #the feminine urge #female excellence #dream girl #queen energy #glow up #level up #self confidence #femmefatalevibe #personal growth #personal branding #cult of personality

[anothergameofwickedgrace]

Unpopular opinion (somehow?):

Nimona wasn't a very good movie. It was just okay and very surface level. On the positive side, the animation was wonderful and it had an important and relevant message, good voice acting, and a diverse cast, but it was executed poorly. It had a lot of potential that they just did nothing with. There's a lot of issues with the world building and a ton of gaps in the story if you actually look into it. If you boil the movie down to its core, there is a lot of good in it, but that doesn't hold up when you look at the whole of it together.

The climax didn't have any impact due to the emotional speech basically being said almost verbatim earlier in the movie at a low stakes moment. It's honestly my biggest issue with the storytelling. In a similar vein, I find that the very end scene of the movie is unsatisfying. A bittersweet ending would've felt more fitting (impactful?) than a forced happy one. For her to finally achieve the love she wanted, and on a grand scale, but at a cost (though I suppose they did leave some ambiguity?). But it's a kids film, so I get why they went the route they did.

The society that the director was so dedicated to protect and keep from changing (to the point of mass murder) was barely more than a mention. We weren't shown how the world and community function. The whole knighthood being the pinnacles of keeping society safe was empty and never really conveyed by the citizens who supposedly loved them. There was a lot they set up that never really had a follow through.

There was never a monster to begin with, and there certainly weren't anymore attacks from the outside, so why is the wall needed? In the time it took for all of this to be created and implemented, they would have seen there was no danger from the outside. Even seeing Nimona as a monster shouldn't have been enough to base a whole society around keeping evil monsters out when she is all that they've ever seen and she never actually hurt a single person.

How did Glorith even become leader? She was a random village girl too young to be of any help to the village as it rebuilt and developed. Especially if lineage is supposedly very important in this world for those of high rank. There's a lot of things that don't really make sense on how they've gotten from point A to point B. This is just an example.

The mix of fantasy-esque things and a more modern and scifi world is super interesting and could have been explored more deeply. There were a lot of things they could do with this premise to bolster the themes of the movie or simply round out the world. But it was merely a inconsequential backdrop.

Overall, I feel like the movie is just a superficial, feel good type movie. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but people seem to think this is some super amazing movie and it's just not. It's very surface level and very much a simple children's movie (dont get me wrong, there are movies aimed at kids that are fantastic and deeply meaningful, but this just isn't one of them. I get the message it conveys, but the storytelling of the movie doesn't do it justice.). Its cute and has a very positive message. It's not bad, but I'm super let down by how much hype surrounds it. I think people are honestly putting the meaning they want to see into it when it's not really there. I've seen a lot of takes that just honestly have no backing in the actual film. I just think it's a lot of undue praise for things that the film never actually touches on or even tries to convey. I'm glad people see things they can relate to and make them happy. I just don't think the movie deserves all the credit it gets.

#nimona #nimona critical #no offense to anyone #enjoy what you enjoy #i just dont get the overwhelming love for this movie #nimona spoilers

[snickerdoodlles]

Re AO3- Politely inquiring as to why you aren't worried, oh Cinnamon One? Thanks! Xoxo

1 part "that's not how it works" and 2 parts "LLM-generated writing has nothing to do with fanfic writers"

some quick context for anyone who's confused-- generative-AI is trained on large datasets, and a lot of training datasets for these LLMs* include data scraped from AO3. i know that the generative-AI Sudowrites has been specifically referenced in socmed posts encouraging AO3 authors to lock their fics, but i believe the AO3 announcement on AI & data-scraping was prompted by current events and debates on the presence of generative-AI in day-to-day society vs any specific situation/event/etc

*LLM stands for 'large language model' which is the type of AI we're talking about here

my first note here is that if locking fics makes you feel more comfortable posting fanfic, do it. it's a fantastic security feature and no one needs a reason to lock their fics beyond "i want to." if you're doing it specifically to stop data scraping for AI, beware it doesn't actually stop that from occurring, it just acts as a deterent (AO3 has said they've done some backend work to prevent data scraping from occurring again in the future, but there's no way they'll ever be able to stop it completely)

but there's also been a lot of...well. i'm not sure misinformation is quite the right phrase here, but a lot of misunderstanding on how LLMs work that's resulted in a lot of outraged or indignant posts on LLM-generated writing in conjunction with AO3, and that's resulted in some fearmongering in regards to the issue that doesn't help anyone :( so, why i'm personally not worried about this issue;

1 part "that's not how it works"

first things first: i don't think people appreciate the sheer scale of LLMs. to refer back to a name that's been mentioned several times in these posts, Sudowrites is a generative AI based on GPT-3, which is a LLM based on 175+ billion parameters. GPT-3 requires 800GB just to store it. GPT-4 is based on 500 billion parameters. these are two of the big LLMs, but even the small LLMs are working off of 3-7 billion parameters. LLMs are fucking huge.

i think it might surprise some people to realize just how long AI has been around. the first recognized AI was made in 1943. neural networks (the "brains" of AI) were first developed in the 1980s. people have been working on generative-AI specifically for almost 20 years now. but it took 3 big factors before generative-AI was even possible:

1- neural networks that could do unsupervised learning,

2- hardware that could handle the computing requirements and neural networks needs,

and 3- the development of the internet into what it's been for the past 10 years, and the sheer scale of information now stored within it

so here's my point: LLMs weren't "trained on data from AO3"--AO3 is a database who's stored material was pulled alongside data from online journals, literary magazines, library databases, newspapers, video transcripts, blogs, Wikipedia and so much more than i can ever list to make these training datasets. individual AO3 writers are drops in a pool and AO3 is a bucket in an ocean of information. AO3 as an own individual entity has negligible impact on how LLMs were trained or what they do, nevermind individual stories.

honestly, this alone should be a huge relief for some people--i saw posts going around where people were appalled at the idea of their fanfic being used to train a generative-AI that could hurt professional writers. so great news! your fics have no meaningful impact on any of this in any way that conceivably matters! you can post your fics for anyone to see and read and even download with absolutely zero guilt for how generative-AI is affecting jobs.

2 parts "LLM-generated writing has nothing to do with fanfic writers"

if you want to learn how LLMs work, do it outside of tumblr, it's too complex to explain here (this dive into how ChatGPT works is a good starting point for anyone interested, personally i learned a lot looking up lectures on 'deep learning'). but for a simplified overview of it for anyone who doesn't care, LLMs are just figuring out what word comes next in a sequence. basically, you give a LLM a prompt. from that prompt, it determines what your topic is, then it spits out the first token (tokens are the 'language' of LLMs, in this case it's spitting out a word or short phrase). then the LLM spits out the second token based on the first token. then spits out the third token based on the first token, second token, and combination of the tokens. and so forth, until it's reached the end of the prompt.

LLMs are just writing sentences word-by-word. i remember doing something very similar when i first started analyzing what i loved about my favorite writers--i had a notebook where i wrote out sentences that i especially loved, usually looking at description or a funny piece of dialogue, with the goal of figuring out how to write like them. this lasted for maybe a month before i moved on to analyzing story structure, narrative pacing, etc because sentences are just lines of words. anyone can put words into a nice sounding sentence. they can even put several words into nice sounding sentences that sound nice when read together. but writing, and everything about it that makes it special, is so more than writing nice sounding sentences. giving an a concept a narrative, or creating distinctive characters with their own voices, or building a setting/world, or connecting ideas to themes--generative-AI can't do any of that. it's just determining which token comes next after the previously generated ones. it can do that with a lot of variety--baby writer me was working off a bookshelf, LLMs are working off things like the entire internet--but that's still all it can do: write nice sounding sentences.

there's another aspect to generative-AI at play here too--in every example you've seen of LLM-generated writing, did you notice that they're all limited to less than 500 words? prompts shown in newscast articles/segments are usually 300-500 words, Sudowrites only offers written passages of up to 300 words, and even ChatGPT recommends keeping responses limited to under ~800 tokens (even tho it offers responses of up to...4000 tokens i think?)

this is because each generated token comes with an error value. i don't want to bog down this already long response with how that exactly works, but let's say the first token comes with an error value of 0.0002 (*im picking random numbers for this). that error value carries over to the second token (which can have its own error value of let's say 0.0007). then that combined error value carries over to the third generated token, which also has its own separate error value, and so forth. and while each individual error value is negligible, they add up with each additional token and eventually the overall gained error is too high and the LLM cannot properly/accurately produce the next token (this is called error propagation, and it's non-linear in the case of LLMs)

i will stop torturing people with math nd statistics concepts, but the long and short of this means that after a certain number of words are generated, the LLM's response starts breaking down. maybe at first it starts sounding a little stale or the wording gets awkward, but if it keeps going, the LLM starts spitting out gibberish, and you have to end the prompt and start a new one. this is why those generative-AI writing examples have a word limit to them, the LLMs can't write more than that small section of writing on their own.

so, add up all of that, LLMs already aren't going to replace story writers any time soon. they just can't do it. furthermore, the response you get from an LLM is only as good as the prompt you give it and it's working off such a huge dataset, that responses are going to be really broad. if you want a more tailored response, you have to feed it extra context alongside the prompt. and in the case of fanfic specifically, fic is entirely based on previously known context. it's written with a very specific context in mind, it expects readers to enter with at least some level of knowledge on that specific context, and works within that level of context even in the cases of AUs. fic writers play in someone else's sandbox, which is not something that LLMs are naturally capable of doing

but frankly, even if they did, they still have zero relevance to fic writers

the people currently affected by LLM-generated writing are journalists, who jobs have been under fire for years. the editors in published magazines getting slammed with LLM-generated writing because it was sold as a shortcut. writers rooms for shows, which act as an important stepping stone but execs have been trying to reduce and cut out for years. and even more that i'm not listing.

these are people's livelihoods that are being impacted by generative-AI. situations where managers and executives don't care about the fact that LLMs can't write like people do because they only see a money-saver instead of art.

like, 100%--if locking your fics feels more reassuring to you personally, absolutely lock them. that's the point of the feature. but the attitude of acting like AO3 has any relevance how LLMs are trained or that generative-AI has any meaningful impact on fic writers is just such a self-centered view of the actual issue at hand. and, if you will excuse me getting a little snarky here, anyone up in arms over AO3 being one of the many databases getting scraped is about 20 years too late to worrying about internet privacy.

[possibleplatypus]

Steve rogers is not real y’all need to relax

Oh boy 😂

At first I thought anon was a Disney stan or casual MCU fan who doesn’t want to see MCU criticism...

And then I thought maybe anon is concerned about my mental health since I can sound a little unhinged (though I prefer the term “passionate”) in my posts...

After thinking about it I’m pretty sure anon is the former, but just in case you’re the latter, I assure you, I’m fine. The stuff I post on Tumblr really has no effect on me in my life outside of Tumblr. I never discuss the MCU with my family. I don’t go shouting at strangers on the street about how much Disney has screwed up. I have much bigger concerns outside of what I choose to blog about. Rest assured that Steve Rogers, no matter how much I love him, does not consume my every waking thought.

But anon does bring up an interesting point: Steve Rogers isn’t real, so we shouldn’t be angry when we feel that his corporate owners have ridiculed him. Steve Rogers isn’t real, so we shouldn’t make a big deal about it when his corporate owners disrespect him. Steve Rogers isn’t real, therefore he can’t be disrespected, and we should just relax and let everything that’s been done to him roll off of our backs, like water on a duck.

I know Steve Rogers isn’t real. Everybody knows. He is a fictional comic book character created by Jewish men to inspire action against Nazis during World War II. He isn’t real, but you can’t tell me that his influence also isn’t real. He isn’t real, but he tells us that all of us, no matter how small or unloved by society we are, can rise to the challenge. We can be heroes and fight for something bigger than ourselves. That inspiration, and that message, I think, is very important.

Steve Rogers isn’t real, but our love for him is. And I don’t think you should belittle this love. You might as well belittle the love that others have for other franchises that are meaningful to them, other storybook characters, other video games, other hobbies that “aren’t real.” Why is our love not valid and worthy of note? I am sure anon loves things that I don’t love-- things that aren’t “real.” I would never tell anon to “relax”-- unless they’re hurting themselves, or hurting real people. (Honestly, the fans who tell other fans to kill themselves over fictional characters are the ones who need to relax 😬)

Steve Rogers isn’t real, but Disney’s impact on popular culture is. How real? A quick Google search told me that the MCU earned over $25 billion worldwide. 25 billion dollars, can you imagine that? $25,000,000,000. Google also tells me that in 2021, the Walt Disney Company held assets worth a total of over 203.61 billion U.S. dollars. That is more money than the GDP of some countries. That is certainly more money than most of us will see in our lives, no matter how hard we toil. That is power. That is real. That is power to buy politicians and influence real lives, such as in the United States when Disney supported backers of the Don’t Say Gay Bill in Florida. And Steve Rogers is just one small cog in the MCU machine, which is merely one cog in the bloated Disney monopoly.

I make blog posts that get reblogged maybe over a hundred times if I’m lucky. Usually they never hit triple digits-- it's a good day if I get a dozen likes. Most of these posts are really vent posts-- I vent my frustrations with likeminded fans. Compare that to Disney churning out dozens of movies and shows nonstop, and how much am I doing, really? (Honestly, Disney should be the ones told to relax-- they’re burning out VFX artists and churning out subpar content.)

Forbes tells me that the Loki series was watched by 2.5 million households when it debuted. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier debuted to 1.8 million viewers. WandaVision, to 1.6 million. That is real power.

She Hulk apparently had 1.5 million viewers. 1.5 million people watched Jennifer Walters wail and moan about how tragic it was for Steve to die a virgin. That’s Disney wailing in our ears, anon. That’s Kevin Feige and his extremely real insecurities telling us that it’s tragicomedy for a man to not have sex. And it doesn’t matter if you’re an ordinary man, or a hero who helped save the universe-- they’re still going to laugh at you. And I can tell that it’s wrong, but how many others are going to have their misguided beliefs reinforced? How many people will feel inadequate if they don’t have sex? We do not live in a bubble. We are constantly bombarded by messages from without telling us to have sex, or don’t have sex, or have the right amount of sex, etc. It is a toxic mindset that they are perpetuating, and I don’t think it’s wrong to call them out.

So Steve Rogers isn’t real. But the love that his fans have for him is. And the love that we and other likeminded fans have for the MCU translates into very real power for Disney-- the power to influence popular consciousness.

So-- maybe we should stop loving him, in order to stop supporting Disney? That’s difficult, considering how much Disney owns (and they weren't his original owners to begin with). They are a Hydra of their own making, inescapable, choking the life out of popular culture, swallowing up studios and VFX artists. And besides, Disney doesn’t want fans like me. They don’t want fans that criticize their writing, that tell them they’re not funny, that call them out when they’re toxic. They don’t want fans that have queer readings of characters they insist absolutely have to be straight. So I think that fans like me are something they desperately need.

This quote from Neil Gaiman is very apt:

“We who make stories know that we tell lies for a living. But they are good lies that say true things, and we owe it to our readers to build them as best we can. Because somewhere out there is someone who needs that story. Someone who will grow up with a different landscape, who without that story will be a different person. And who with that story may have hope, or wisdom, or kindness, or comfort. And that is why we write.”

Somewhere out there, someone needs Steve Rogers' stories, even if he isn't real. And Steve Rogers deserves better stories. We deserve better.

I will love Steve Rogers for what he was made to be-- a symbol of inspiration, a bulwark against fascism-- and not what Disney wants him to be-- a cash cow for people to point and laugh at. And I’ll relax when I want to, thanks.

(Fun fact: the second comic of Steve is from a She Hulk comic. Can you believe that? From standing up to Nazis to being laughed at for presumably dying a virgin. I know what Disney values.)

#mcu #steve rogers #asks answered #disney #long post #pretty sure that anon rolled their eyes and noped out seeing how long this answer was but that’s okay lol #she hulk critical #as an aside it's really easy to not engage with critical posts if you don't want to #keep scrolling block the tags or block me #I think we'd both be happier 😂

[acti-veg]

i am a vegan, but i don't really know how to justify it, as i also think i'm a moral nihilist. i think morality is a social construct. so, although i hate cruelty to animals, i don't think it's actually wrong. it's just something i hate because i have empathy for animals and don't want them to suffer. but, if someone says to me that they think enjoying the taste of meat is worth an animal suffering and dying - i don't know how to respond to that. who is to say that i am right and they are wrong?

I’m not going to publish all of your asks as it’s quite a lot and some of them may be quite upsetting for some people, but suffice to say you are claiming to apply the same logic to human suffering, too.

I don’t think you are actually a moral nihilist. If you were then it’s unlikely you’d have arrived at veganism in the first place, or that you’d be struggling with a moral question to this extent. Believing that morality is subjective is not the same thing as believing that morality does not exist or that nothing is right or wrong. I don’t know why you find this belief to be appealing, but it doesn’t sound like you’re any more convinced by it than I am.

I too believe that morality is subjective, but that doesn’t mean I don’t make moral judgements for myself and therefore for others. ‘In deciding for myself, I decide for all.’ If you are convinced that eating animals is wrong, you argue it on the basis of what has convinced you that it is wrong. That it causes unnecessary suffering, environmental degradation, that it exploits humans, that it uses an unconscionable amount of land and resources - whatever you are convinced by.

Morality is a social construct yes, but that doesn’t make it redundant. Almost everything meaningful that humans are engaged in are social constructs. The idea that if we can’t point to something as some concrete, objective ‘thing’ in the world it therefore isn’t real or doesn’t matter is just a bit juvenile, and that’s part of why there is very little serious discussion of moral nihilism in modern academic philosophy.

Ethics are required for society to function on a fundamental level, you need people to act as if you morally matter and they need you to do the same thing for them. Whether you want to deny that ethics exist or claim that nothing is ‘actually’ right or wrong, the fact remains that we need to act in an ethical way and build a consensus on which behaviours are and are not acceptable. The problems with this viewpoint are clear in your own asks, somebody hurts someone you love and you are honestly going to claim that it’s not wrong for them to do so, so long as they derive sufficient pleasure from it? Come on.

We can’t ’prove’ ethics, but that isn’t a good reason to reject morality entirely. There are enormous practical benefits to working from the assumption that morality exists and that we have the free will and rationality to consider and engage in ethics. Conversely, there is almost no benefit to moral or epistemic nihilism. That morality doesn’t ‘exist’ in the world as some sort of concrete object we can point to is not a good reason to reject its usefulness and importance.

It sounds to me like you’re actually just a moral subjectivist, which is completely compatible with ethics and advocacy. You can hold that all ethics are subjective, and simultaneously that behaving in an ethical way is important because of the impact that your behaviour has on other people. Basically, regardless of how you feel about it personally, ethics matter because they obviously deeply matter to other beings. What you do and the harm you cause objectively matters because it affects other beings, whether you believe that ethics behind those decisions are ‘real’ is ultimately just a bit irrelevant.

#ask #vegan #ethics

[thedeadflag]

I've rewatched WoT S02E06 three times now, and once again I find myself hoping beyond hope that we get a better ending with the Seanchan at the end of the show than what RJ/BS managed with the books.

Like, I get the "little in life is black or white, we exist in the greys" bit that's routinely pushed, and the narrative exploration of the politics of privilege and how the majority of a society can grow to tolerate and appreciate the subjugation of others and the horrors their government inflict if it means their own lives benefit. I get the spotlighting themes of Law vs Justice and Order vs Peace they bring out. I get that. I do think both authors really had a tendency to stumble when writing towards those aims, and it often came across as minimizing the evil of the Seanchan. There are things in life worse than death, and I never did see the Seanchan as any better (and often saw them as worse) than the Dark One's forces. By the end of the series, the dark one's imprisoned again, and the Seanchan are reasonably well equipped to eventually conquer the world within a few generations (and iirc we do get glimpses of that future through Aviendha). The only other alternative would be if Shara only let a trickle of their forces to the final battle, and had enough of a channeler army to pose a threat, and they honestly wouldn't be any better. Shit's seriously fucked.

And I have little doubt that not too long after that conquering (or perhaps in the later stages of it), some desperate people will bore into the Dark One's prison again and release him in exchange for the power to defeat the Seanchan. And I honestly wouldn't blame them (and the Dark One probably worked to build that force over the centuries as a plan B if all else fails), and it may just be the right thing so that the Seanchan society can die off, and hopefully when the Dark is defeated once again, there won't be the threat of a looming incomprehensibly evil society ready to take over.

Like, I don't need a kittens and rainbows happy ending in the show, it wouldn't fit the series, but I do want one where the threat of the Seanchan is seriously considered and where there's some glimmer of hope for a better turning of the wheel. Throughout the series, I always considered them on par with the Dark One as the "big bad", if not the sneakily primary one, since they're more 'digestible' as the more human face of evil, but still no less evil than the Dark One and its forces. And it's a big reason why Sanderson's books kind of fell flat for me and often undermined the tension they tried to build in sections related to them, because the threat of the Seanchan really wasn't addressed well, at least not IMO.

It's probably because RJ planned another book series featuring Mat that would potentially explore the deconstruction of Seanchan society and the political intrigue and philosophical issues involved with changing the core principles of a society and the elements of imperialism/colonialism involved in that, but we're never getting that story, so can we please just ensure the show ends with a decisive L for the Seanchan? Please let them reap the consequences of their own actions for goddamned once, at least to some extent to where there's meaningful hope for a better future.

Or maybe just have Semirhage completely eliminate all Seanchan leadership and capability to enslave channelers during her time in the Seanchan mainland, and publicly collars a few sul'dam before killing them to break public faith in that whole system. Like, screw the civil war nonsense, just cast them into utter chaos, left to question everything they believed in. That way, by the end of the show, there may be less narrative impact to the truce, but it'd make for a more hopeful ending given the slim likelihood of the Seanchan culture and principles lasting long after the end.

Like, I don't care all that much how it happens, only that it does happen. The writers have a chance to make their own mark in a good way, and if the series lasts that long, I hope that they take it. (And also maybe just omit the Shaido abduction arc entirely, it doesn't need to happen and they wouldn't have the runtime on screen to justify that conclusion.)

#wheel of time #wheel of time spoilers #wheel of time book spoilers #wot on prime spoilers #long post #it's probably too large of an ask given the potential backlash it could result in but the Seanchan make me feral with rage #and if anyone feels like arguing with me over this please don't bother #because I'm 100% right on this and no one could convince me otherwise #this is an opportunity for the show to be better than the books in one particular way #i don't like that a 15 book fantasy epic ends their battle of light vs dark with fantasy nazis having the means to conquer the world #allow for a better turning of the wheel please #I am a fan of the books but I do not perceive it to be flawless #and I do think the show has the chance in its adaptation and condensing of material to make improvements or at least avoid mistakes

[raytm]

gepard: lilac, lily, gardenia

lilac :   what was your muse’s childhood like ?   how has their upbringing affected them as they’ve aged ?  /  lily :   how does your muse view their mother ?  /  gardenia :   is your muse one to confess romantic feelings early on ,   or to conceal them for long periods of time ?  

As all children of landau, gepard experienced a childhood filled with stringent tutors and meticulously devised lessons, branching across a broad variety of subjects with an emphasis on etiquette, history and battle tactics. this elevated into practical lessons in combat instructed by retired soldiers with ties back to the family. All of this was overseen by his father, who had influence over what they were exposed to and how they were taught. they were never to forsake the family’s proud heritage and were to meet high expectations from a young age. it was to say, they lived a rather sheltered life, dictated by their father’s ideals and their family’s lineage. often they would attend noble gatherings and sit, quiet and reticent, as the supreme guardian would speak at lengths with their father. this has meant, as gepard has grown older, his once narrower comprehension of the world at large has expanded exponentially. many of those who operate under him come from various walks of life and he has spent quite a time dedicated to hearing their stories, learning from and about them. this also means that gepard’s duty is at the core of who he is as a person, it has been ingrained in him since he was old enough to learn that the family’s predecessors held significant roles in belobogian society as a whole and it would be their responsibility to fill those unimaginable large shoes. While he holds himself with an air of decorum he also finds himself lacking in some rudimentary ways, socially, he conducts himself with a propriety that really leaves very little room for respite and because he has taught himself to interact with people on a formal, shallow level he finds it difficult to grapple with profound intimacy and thus, has struggled ( but made improvement after leaving his father’s estate and becoming an actual member of the silvermane guard ) initially to form impactful and meaningful bonds that he could not only comprehend, but held weight in a way that wasn’t for the sake of preserving an imagine. Honestly im going to leave this here for now just because i could talk, at lengths, about his childhood and relations with his family and how they have impacted him growing up and we would be here with a novel before i was finished. Gepard has a soft spot for his mother. she is a woman with a rather gentle disposition and whilst she worked in tandem with their father in order to prepare them for their roles she was always far more tender with her children. whilst he maintains very little contact with his father outside of politics and social gatherings he does take time to write to his mother, if not visit her should the occasion arrive. while he has kept a relative distance from both of them since he became a part of the guard she is still someone of great importance to gepard. He has rather fond memories of the two of them reading together at lengths, straying from the bleakness of old, leather bound tomes and into the uncharted territories of fictitious novels. she quite resembles serval but far more demure. gepard has very, very limited experience when it comes to romance and has spent a great deal of time wrestling with his attractions in quite a grand display of futility. this is to say, he has attended dates but moreso out of requirement, often set up for him by his parents and has yet to fully dedicate himself to the process of, not only liking someone, but actually confessing to those feelings. he’s the sort to over-think the process, to want to ascertain that he has all of his feelings understood with a sense of clarity, he would mull over this for quite a while before eventually confessing to them. this also leaves him prone to experiencing moments of emotional turmoil where the whole situation is just entirely overwhelming and he ends up just saying it far earlier than he ever intended to. despite this, gepard is a sincere sort of person, once he realized he had feelings for someone and he had gone through the 10000 stages of grief over it he would be the sort to, perhaps, confess first.

#i really want to write a detailed hc abt his mother ?? and about how they interact differently to the way he does with his father #AND the way being exposed to the silvermane guard and the differences in personalities / experience gave him far more insight into the worl #than he got from books and teachings #ooc. #HGHHGGN #gepard hc

[butchladymaria]

I didn’t want to have to make this post, but after discussion with others and a lot of thought, it feels irresponsible not to.

The amount of casual and even blatant transphobia I see enabled on a daily basis in the Bloodborne community is honestly quite sickening. I and those I care about have been personally impacted by this behavior — often coming from, and enabled by, popular blogs on this website. I am going to be focusing on the behavior of one individual here whom I feel it could be damaging to other trans people and our allies to be unaware of their behavior. Trigger warning for varying extremes of transphobia under the cut.

My point in making this post is to simply give context to publicly available statements made by tumblr user k//tyahina, who has expressed some very disturbingly transphobic views in defense of another user, s//intmicolash: an open transphobe, among other things. I refuse to have the type of absolutely vile things this person was saying anywhere near my blog — and beyond just that, there is literally just too much to cover it all. It is to the extreme of calling trans people “mentally ill”, stating that “transphobia doesn’t exist”, and that being cisgender doesn’t exist, rather “it’s called being normal”, and other disgustingly bigoted things of the sort.

For context: a friend of mine (who will not be identified as I refuse to make them susceptible to harassment, especially because they are trans themself) sent an anonymous message to k//tyahina regarding the fact that she very regularly platforms s//intmicolash. Katya never responded to this ask directly. However, shortly after it was sent, the following post was uploaded to her personal blog:

If you don’t understand why Katya’s statements are transphobic, that is okay. No one is born understanding these things. However, I want to make it clear that in context, these statements are the talking points that transphobes have repeatedly used against trans people to demean and disrespect us.

Point One: the way to change someone’s bigoted beliefs is not to expose the people that are being targeted to said bigot by regularly platforming them.

Point Two: this point is clearly coming from the perspective of someone who has not personally had to face transphobia before. Trans people have every reason to be afraid of, upset by, and angry at people spouting bigoted views. Those people have contributed to the systemic oppression we have been enduring, and still ARE enduring, to this day. Trans people are not overdramatic or unreasonable to expect their allies to do the bare minimum by not platforming bigots. If an “ally” is unwilling to do this, they are not an ally in any meaningful way. Finally, human rights are not up for debate. Bigotry cannot be “logically debated” away — because it is fundamentally not based upon logic. It is based upon hatred. Not only that — I feel it is hypocritical for Katya to demand that trans people “debate” someone’s transphobia away when she, herself, refuses to challenge this bigotry in any meaningful way; rather electing to publicly defend this bigotry as “ ‘questionable’ ” at worst, and hurling accusations of “twisting words” and general disingenuity at an actual trans person said bigotry is directed towards

Point Three: not reblogging from an out-and-proud transphobe is not “throwing someone who is wrong away from society”. If you have more allegiance to making bigots feel safe than the people they are targeting, it calls into question how much value you place on trans people’s safety and wellbeing.

Point Four: someone who has claimed that trans people are mentally diseased, that transphobia doesn’t exist, and who regularly invites TERFs to engage with their content is not “questionable”. They are a transphobe and a bigot. To downplay the severity of those extremely bigoted statements is wildly belittling to the point of being an outright lie. If you place your desire to “reblog shitposts” over platforming a bigot, it calls into question how much you actually value trans people’s safety and wellbeing. To equate becoming violently transphobic with “expressing pain slightly differently” is an extreme misrepresentation. S//intmicolash is not critiquing the flaws in the trans community, they are calling trans people a disease. No matter ANY personal bad experiences, spouting off bigotry is NEVER acceptable.

Final Point: a trans person not wanting to interact with a transphobe is not petty, overdramatic, or unreasonable. Not wanting to have to see transphobia, or the defense of it, is NOT the same as “blocking people you dislike”. To state such an equivalence belittles the severity that exposure to transphobia can have.

Tags: to state that someone who quite literally just asked if k//tyahina was aware that she was platforming a transphobe is a “creepy stalker” for doing so, when s//intmicolash’s bigotry is front and center regularly, is an extreme misrepresentation of the situation. Calling s//intmicolash’s transphobic statements bigoted is not “twisting his words”. Said words were quite literally that being trans is a disease. There is nothing that could possibly be misinterpreted there. No “missing important facts” could contextualize those statements in any way that would make them less transphobic or bigoted.

These points are also recycled here.

I also want to highlight the fact that Katya’s immediate response to a single person requesting if she was knowingly platforming a transphobe was to IP block them and vaguepost about how they need to “touch grass”. The fact that she did not even publish the original ask sent is also very bizarre to me. If she was so confident she is in the right, there would be no reason to not give the context for her statements.

I am making this post to provide that context which Katya was unwilling to, make an argument explaining why it matters, and provide both sides of this story. More than anything, though, I am making this post in hopes of starting a civil discussion about how we handle transphobia when it presents itself in our communities. Katya is also somewhat correct about something: others can do a lot to encourage people to change when they express bigotry — but not by staying silent and letting it slide. I sincerely hope the situation improves, and I hope that others who are able to do their part to encourage this positive change.

I am NOT making this post to start “drama”, to invite the harassment of ANY party involved, to make the accusation that Katya was acting intentionally or maliciously, to “““cancel””” Katya, or to start ““discourse””. Again: do not harass k//tyahina OR s//intmicolash. Doing so is malicious and unproductive. I do not condone anyone using my statements to justify pointless cruelty or bullying.

However, trans people do not deserve to be treated with such open malice, suspicion, and scorn when trying to make our communities a safer place for ourselves. I will not tolerate anyone choosing to belittle the severity of this issue.

I implore everyone to be civil and courteous in the notes. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to DM me. I am not, however, interested in “debating” whether or not it is acceptable to minimize, excuse, or defend transphobia as demonstrated here. If that basic idea is not something you can get behind, you are not welcome on either this post nor this blog.

#ok to rb #transphobia tw #i’ve had this person blocked for a very long time now and i dont plan on changing that any time soon #otherwise i might have reached out personally #theres a lot more i could have said but i think i made things clear