#and we’re about 90% there overall so it’s not like I’m not trying to put all of myself into our relationship | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

longhands-the-second · 1 year

Text

Thoughts on volume 1 (disorganized and very sparse, I don’t have the brain capacity for meta this week)

Greetings everybody! I probably won’t be super insightful or anything but I’d really like to have conversations with people (can’t convert my irl friends no matter how hard I try). I’ve really enjoyed reading about people’s thoughts in the tags this week.

Thank god for the people at trigun overhaul they are saving my ass so much time and money right now. It’s really accessible and I appreciate it very much, that shit could NOT have been easy or quick.

I was really iffy on Nightow’s style for a long time, but it’s growing on me pretty quickly. There’s something about that 90s style of manga I was never quite sure about, but Vash’s babygirl eyes are winning me over.

Manga Vash just kind of feels different already? He’s still Vash obv but he feels more blue as opposed to maybe a warmer color. There’s a palpable melancholy about him and it’s making me feel weird. Kind of like I’m seeing the reality of his character and situation? (*I should mention that I’m basing my picture of him on all animated material + a decent amount of manga spoilers.) Maybe part of that is the kind of baby face he has here. He looks younger but seems older? His eyes feel different. It’s the lashes, probably. He looks like a wet cat in a lot of these drawings because of those eyes.

Odds are decent that I’m just weird emotionally right now lol. Probably good this is scheduled to be read slowly instead of all at once. Maybe this is just putting into perspective that his Antics are for his own sanity as much as his image. I, too, make jokes to ignore the Existential Dread. He is more often visibly upset without the theatrics.

WAHOO! (<- obligatory Dante comparison)

Gonna flat color some pages. I have to get it out of my system. It’s killing me they’re like coloring pages I MUST.

The Plants are good and proper fucked up here, aren’t they. I see why Trimax people make Vash an eldritch monstrosity. Very excited to see how much of that is based in canon. Also, wings! (I am going to be normal about this (<- lying)).

Not to homestuck post on the trigun blog but Vash and Knives are so hope/rage coded. Could make an argument for like 4 different classpects for both of them but I’m not that dedicated. This isn’t related to the specific thing we’re reading, it's just on the brain right now. It’s a fun way to think about how character philosophies/personalities interact with each other.

Volume 1 complete! I like Meryl a lot more here. 98 gave me the wrong impression, I think, so seeing this stuff in its original context makes more sense. More often I find myself thinking “oh, that’s more reasonable than I thought.”

Overall I'm enjoying the manga more than I enjoyed my 98 rewatch so far. Once we get into the Meat I’ll probably like it more than Stampede (idk we’ll find out). It’s generally pretty rare for me to like manga more on account of whatever flavor of neurodivergent I am making it fucking impossible to focus on reading long enough for it to not be word soup. Knowing as much as I do about the adaptations is definitely helping with the reading comprehension.

Anyway, I've started coloring a few pages and I might start doing at least one or two per volume if time permits. Got carried away with these ones though. I’ll post them to the tag later.

#trigunbookclub #trigun

14 notes · View notes

waitmyturtles · 1 year

Text

Okay, I’ll try to be quick about this. I’ll do it in list form to set some ground rules and get my analysis going.

(I am arguably very frustrated overall about what I’m about to write, because of how excellent The Eighth Sense was, and watching this was just a bit of a downer, man.)

1) I will own that at this point, I might be the only The Promise apologist on this site. I might have led friends astray at this show. For that, I offer a 90-degree wai of apology. I gotta check the tag, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

(Senpai @respectthepetty...I’ll watch The Shipper as self-punishment.)

2) Yes, Phu DEFINITELY sucks. BUT, there’s a but that I’ll get to in a sec.

3) For the first time in this show, I am actually frustrated by the pace.

4) Party definitely rules, Mr. Sassy.

Alright, all that out of the way, get ready to hear why, once more, even I surprise myself by saying, I STILL like this show, but we’re on shakier ground. The Promise, episode 7, here we go:

We’ve now established two social rules by which Nan and Phu operate:

a) Phu is afraid of loss, 100%. He’s scarred by his father’s death, and doesn’t want to lose anymore people in his life, especially his best friend.

(HOW that equated to him RUNNING AWAY for 10 YEARS is STILL unclear to me, but I SUPPOSE that if Nan can STILL wait for an answer, then WE, as the audience, are expected to wait, TOO, which I THINK, dear director Khom Kongkiat/Uncle Tong, is ASKING a little MUCH of US, BUT ANYWAY)

b) Nan has said this shit in the past and present about how he wants FRIENDS, and separates that from LOVERS. And Phu is all up in his confusion about that.

I mean, I think I can get that those are legitimate reasons why Phu continues to hold back from revealing his truth to Nan.

But, fuckin’ GO PARTY. Party is like.... what the fuck, dude? Just come out and say it!

AND: Party put himself out there! He put himself out on the line! He revealed himself to Nan! Nan rejected him. But guess what? They’re still gonna be friends! PHU SAW ALL THAT!

Will Phu NOT be satisfied IF Nan rejects him? I mean, Phu will be sad, but... can’t they be like Party and Nan, and still be friends? NO?

On the one hand, I say: WHAT THE FUCK? Phu -- you are REALLY hyping this up! Why should everything be 100% with you?

On the other hand, I say: My socio-emotional read is that because Phu experienced the death of a loved one at an early age, things might HAVE to be 100% with him.

I just don’t know if Uncle Tong is weaving this complicated and emotional story as well as he could be at this point. I don’t know how efficient each episode is at selling the skincare. I absolutely loved the focus on the coffee farm and the process of the beans and everything. I love, love those slices of village life. It very much harkens to P’Khom’s actual role in Bad Buddy, and obviously goes to show how much he wants to profile these slices of Thai village life. I love those parts.

But at this point, as I said last week, we’ve waited too long. We need clarity. I get we have three episodes at an hour each, but the pace has now started to drag. I love what this show gives by way of a respect of the rural life these guys come from, but the imbalance is there among Devonte commercials/life in Chiang Mai/Granny and how she’s there to explain who Phu really is/Nan’s patience.

It’s not quite working anymore. I’m gonna stick out this show, because who knows if Uncle Tong can give us a huge and surprise ending, and there are only three episodes left, anyway.

But seriously, Nan is getting fuckin’ seriously played, and like, I think Phu is not as dumb as he’s being written. Maybe Phu’s read is that he thinks Nan is a lot stronger than Nan actually is. I don’t know. I just don’t know why Phu would play his homey like this for SO LONG. WHY DID PHU COME BACK, ONLY TO ATTEMPT TO RUN AWAY AGAIN.

Yes, you’re held back by your demons, but -- maybe it would have been best if Phu had just permanently stayed away.

Come on, Uncle Tong. PLEASE clean up this mess. I HAVE HOPE.

#the promise #the promise meta #nan x phu #phu x nan #i think i'm sticking with this show in part because the leads have EXCELLENT chemistry #i like both of them as actors very much #and i really love the chiang mai parts #very ATOTS of the show #but seriously #phu doesn't not realize what a fuckboi he is #it's ENOUGH #ENOUGH ALREADY #GIVE US SOME TRUTH UNCLE TONG #you were all about truth in BBS #just #COME ON ALREADY

11 notes · View notes

mcl38 · 2 years

Text

new lando article just dropped! its fun that hes not following a strict schedule, writing (or dictating - jury’s still out) this column before the singapore gp means this is less of a race report and more of a fun update of his life. it also means that he spends a decent portion of it talking about pissing his pants (hypothetical, never happened). make of that what you will. anyways as always i am reminding you not to subscribe to the telegraph or even give them ad money by visiting their website, because i will be posting every single article in full as soon as it drops. u can find them all under the hashtag ‘lando’s columns’. this one (as always) will be under the cut, enjoy the read!

[photo of lando looking at some telemetry, jose and will blurry on either side of him. he’s wearing the black singapore fireproofs]

Imagine a street circuit like Monaco where one little mistake can put you in the wall. Now add speed. Marina Bay may not be the fastest street circuit in the world. But it’s bumpy. And hot – 30C plus and over 90 per cent humidity, meaning a tropical downpour is never far from turning the track into an ice rink.

Yep, for overall toll on the body and all-round intensity, I would say Singapore is right up there as the toughest race on the calendar. It’s not as hard on your neck or your core as, say, Miami. But it’s just so energy-sapping. So intense under those lights.

I have actually only ever raced here once, in my rookie season back in 2019. So I’m by no means an expert. But I well remember just how draining it was. Literally. You have to drink so much before the race that you begin it 2 per cent heavier than normal. Then you sweat so much during the race you not only lose that 2 per cent but at least another 2 per cent on top of that.

It’s brutal. Taking on so much fluid, and constantly topping up the levels, leads me to a question we’re sometimes asked as F1 drivers: do we ever pee in our race suits?

I can honestly tell you I never have. I love my race crew too much to do that to them! I wouldn’t be surprised if it has happened in the past, though.

[photo of the special livery MCL36 looking soooo sexy in pink guys i love this car so much u dont get it]

Sometimes, particularly in a race which involves a safety car, we can be out there for well over two hours. I was absolutely desperate for a wee at the end of the last race at Monza for instance. But I haven’t yet been so desperate that I’ve just gone in my race suit.

Most of the time, you are so focused on the race itself you don’t actually notice that you need to go. It’s only when you finish, or like I say, when a safety car comes out, that you sometimes realise how desperate you are.

To be honest, in Singapore pretty much all of the fluid you take on is secreted out through sweat. It is so hot inside your suit and helmet that one driver said he used to put a woman's sanitary towel inside his helmet to try to soak up the sweat while he was racing, so that it wouldn’t drip into his eyes.

I have never gone that far, but I do prepare a little differently for the race at Marina Bay. I train on an indoor bike wearing extra layers of clothes: a hoodie, a jacket, a hat. It’s horrible but it makes a big difference when you come here. I even have a couple of electric heaters which I put in the room with me while I’m cycling to try to get me really cooking.

The other thing I’m going to do this weekend, and which I don’t do anywhere else, is drive with a drinks bottle.

Generally I don’t tend to drink during a race. It’s just not something I’ve ever felt the need to do. I think Barcelona in May this year, when I had tonsillitis and needed to keep drinking on every lap to stop myself from going downhill, was the only other occasion I’ve needed a drinks bottle. But as I say, taking on fluids in Singapore is just a non-negotiable so I have asked my mechanics to put one in the car for me.

I’m looking forward to the weekend though. I’m feeling good and ready to go. I arrived out here quite early this week and I feel as if I’ve acclimatised pretty well. I’m a night-owl anyway so staying on European time is not a problem for me. It’s what I would choose to do. I’ve also had a lot of fun this week with my new toy: a digital camera which I bought out here on the recommendation of my photographer (who is now very jealous of it).

[photo of beloved with his face covered by a digital camera. this camera has been the bane of my existence and also a source of constant entertainment, much like this column. much like lando himself]

I’ve had a lot of fun exploring Singapore and experimenting with what it can do. I’m not very good with it yet, but I’m really enjoying it.

I just love documenting my life to be honest. I’d have someone with me documenting it all if I could stand for that person to be following me around all the time. Which I cannot. Hence why I’ve got myself a camera I suppose! I just like to look back and record cool things. My summer golf trip for instance. It would have been really cool to have a digital record of that. I like to throw myself into new things generally.

You might notice that I’m wearing a slightly different helmet this weekend. It’s actually one inspired by Master Chief’s helmet from the Halo games to celebrate my esports team announcing we’re joining the Halo Championship Series [HSC] partner programme. Quadrant, my team, is something I’m very excited about. So far Halo is our only esports title, but we have big plans to grow the Quadrant brand and expand into other titles. Watch this space!

For the next few weeks, all my focus is on Formula One. I finished P7 here in 2019. I’d love to go better this weekend. It will not be easy at the toughest race in the world. But we’ll give it everything. Now, where’s my drinks bottle?

#lando norris #formula 1 #f1 #lando's columns #i do genuinely think he wrote at least parts of this #i think the 'literally.' is such a written stylistic choice #as well as the awkward construction in 'i well remember'. it sounds like lando #and the exclamation marks around the end #idk maybe hes dictating them but i feel like id recognise his voice more #anyways enjoy him talking abt his new hobby / nico rosberg pad-gate / piss / halo #also reiterating yet again the thing i once claimed in a post (that he doesnt use a drinks bottle) and got absolutely rinsed for #whatever im not bitter (is)#lando

44 notes · View notes

faithfromanewperspective · 11 months

Text

Thomas/Tracey Lightwood: the trendsetter, protector, and more of a leader than we realise

I’ve come to the realisation that the main common thing the Merry Thieves have (aside from parents who are all friends and living in London and the same age) is that none of them are really compliant to the status quo. James is polite, but he will throw you in the river if you insult downworlders; Christopher won’t pick fights but he does have a fairly alternative pastime 90% of the time, Matthew identifies himself as a bohemian, and Thomas—well, we’ll get to him. In short, I see Thomas as the most quietly rebellious of them all, and somehow it took seeing him reimagined as a girl to see that.

This one’s actually quite a lot of Thomas, even though I will reference @thevagabondexpress’ genderbent counterpart. So, if you like Thomas or Thomastair, read on! Hopefully there’s something interesting here, and to set the mood, a simple playlist of Dorothea by Taylor Swift and Social Casualty by 5SOS. Why? Because I saw Tracey Lightwood grow into herself: someone who breaks the rules with the kind of expertise it takes to set trends and make meaningful change. We all want to be her, and she successfully manages not to be a victim of authority.

I’m going to go back to the beginning with this. In NBS, he’s the quiet one of the friend group who doesn’t like attention (James almost immediately sees their similarities, and makes sense, for he probably knew Thomas the best after the falling out of a tree incident about 4 years prior). But, despite his mother having been a mundane, he doesn’t see the little injustices and microagressions James does—at one point when James explains something he’s very annoyed about Thomas says he never thought about it that way. He also tries to get his friends to stop embarrassing him (with little success), even sometimes coming across a bit critical of Christopher’s creative ideas (which is understandable for a 14yo, but at the same time could have developed into insecurities Kit didn’t deserve). Anyway, my point is he’s still coming across as a good kid, who wants to please, and fit in. But as early as CLS, in the flashback at the start, we see him finding Alastair’s rude comments funny, and gravitating towards Alastair, who, at the time, seems the complete opposite of the sweet, kind and eager to please façade (and I would say it is genuine, not fake, it’s part of his personality, just not the whole of it) he puts on. It’s the classic stereotypical good girl/bad boy situation (but made gayer, drawn out, and overall just much healthier). What I mean by that, is the fawn-response-is-my-go-to-because-I-hate-any-kind-of-attention-as-it-always-involves-being-fussed-over people pleaser longs to be free from the box and the never-ending demands of interpersonal perfection and is thus drawn to someone who breaks their own rules, and who, learning from, they could figure out how to be themselves (except it’s not thought through that fully, like ever, it’s more like brain sees freedom potential + hot person I can maybe connect to; sounds fun, sexy, exciting, and like we will be less burdened by this burden we’re trying not to break it to ourselves we’re carrying).

Reigning myself in from discussing a certain band’s playing in to that exact thought process, Thomas might remind me of Calum but we’re discussing books.

Anyway, maintaining this half-true façade, like any kind of masking (and Thomas most definitely is masking, out of fear of social disapproval and attention), eventually gets exhausting, and usually leads to it breaking at some point and some rebellion coming through. For some, being away from strict parents for the first time means a time for trying new, more out-there things (that we would usually associate with teenagers, but some of us, yes me included, were for whatever reason scared or not confident to rebel). For some, our parents aren’t even that strict or anything, but the simple fact that we’re known as being one way by those around us means we kind of just stick to the role they give us, and we don’t have a clean slate to discover who we are behind all the masking and assumptions until we move somewhere we don’t know anyone. Thomas is the latter: when he moves to Spain, he gets a new weapon, the Bolas, he gets a tattoo, he goes to parties where he doesn’t know anyone even though it’s scary, and he more generally explores simply existing rather than being the ‘kind one’ of his friend group, or being Sophie and Gideon’s tiny, sickly youngest child. In some ways, his growth spurt is representative of a greater personal growth. Love that for him. And I think Chain of Gold is a bit of a weird mix of supportive friends ‘comrades with a gentle giant! Yay! Lets see tattoo hehe’ and viewing him in a box: ‘the kind one’ ‘our True Thomas?’ (in reference to his recommendation of not admitting to burning the house down).

But at least he’s portrayed as having a mind of his own (he got a tattoo, he chose not to go with his family but stay to help out in London, he was the first to befriend Alastair in London til Matthew dropped the bomb on him quite rudely). And this is where we get to the gender lens. For a man, this is somewhat bare minimum, expected. For a woman, it’s a statement (cue, Tessa Gray, ‘a woman with tattoos?’). And this is Tracey. She’s got a mind of her own: she got a tattoo, she has her ears pierced in a time it was uncommon (how rebellious, am I right?). She is a protector, of her friends especially but she’s also restless to be a hero, and doesn’t care about the risk. She helps Alice with her case, which we probably associate more with kindness than the kind of protectiveness that’s normalised in men but seems almost like, quoting Anna Lightwood, ‘stealing fire from the gods’ in a woman. But it's all part of the same picture. That, with her height and build, make her not exactly unfeminine but the kind of empowered that most women of her era never get to be, but in their hearts really want to. It makes sense why when she gets a bob out of necessity (10 years ahead of mundane fashion too) the practical and metamorphosing Christa and the fashionista Michelle follow her. And, unlike with Thomas, when she accepts Alice, her friends do pretty much follow her lead without fuss.

She’s still Thomas in so many ways: she’s not trying to get attention. It’s not her fault everyone would want to be her. Just like it’s not Thomas’ fault he grew up tall and muscular and handsome when he would much rather take up much less space, both literally and socially. Tracey surely is insecure about her size as well—and for both of them it’s something other people admire, and certainly don’t discriminate against them for—but the reaction does look slightly different. For Tracey, it’s more noticed, even unconsciously, but for Thomas, it’s more a passing observation. Though that could be something to do with the ratio of Alice POV to Alastair POV. Still, Tracey does come off a little more respected. Less restricted by her friends, maybe, or less affected by it if she is. Maybe because like how Thomas is emotional support person of the Merry Thieves (and that’s generally seen as a more feminine role) Tracey also usurps gender roles by being the protector. A bit less emotionally intertwined with their offenses, able to agree with Alice’s assessment of Judith as Claude’s ‘amnesiac trainwreck of a wife’ while she’s missing (I think Thomas would be fuming at that and very worried about James in that situation).

Backtracking a little—throughout the series, Thomas’ need to not be constricted comes out, most notably in his lone patrols. For Tracey, it’s much the same, but it also shows when she befriends Alice and actually defends her in front of her friends. She seems more confident. Maybe that’s why she’s such a trendsetter and you can’t help but want to be her a little. Maybe that’s why she can attempt to do her vigilante patrols without being placed under lock and key as a woman would usually be. I’ll think of her, and her confidence, when I go for that overdue haircut and my next piercing which will hopefully be creative in a good way and not simply strange (but who cares if it is, right?). And yet, somehow in the construction of this amazing character, she does lose some of that relatableness and adorable awkwardness that makes Thomas Thomas—and, to your credit, we mostly don’t see until Chain of Thorns (after we know him for everything else I’ve mentioned, he really is a beautifully real and complex character). Because it’s not like Thomas isn’t confident—he’s just got a bit of a dependent relationship with his friends, and most people he knows in general—considering his childhood, who is surprised? He is actually secure in his sexuality and confident to come out as gay—I think the only reason he doesn’t earlier is because he knows he likes Alastair and that Matthew will flip and he doesn’t want what he views as an irrational crush on someone he has beef against to cause conflict. Part of the way he’s protective of his friends is that he’s scared of making them feel hurt even briefly. I think Alastair helps him outgrow that. Because he does have a lot of Tracey Lightwood in him. Alastair knows he’s proud and good and has the heart of a hero. Yes he gets love for being awkward and a simp but Thomas is so much more than that, and there’s still more growing he has to do to grow into himself, even after Madrid and Paris where he first tasted freedom, and fully realise who he is—and who I needed Tracey Lightwood to be written to properly see.

Who Alastair saw all along, and I hope that as James and Matthew move past everything they've gone through pre- and during tlh that kept them both not exactly present, will also get to know and celebrate.

#thomas lightwood #genderbent tlh #genderbent tsc

5 notes · View notes

antigonewinchester · 1 year

Text

7 eps through season 12 and it continues to be strangely fascinating. I have criticisms for sure, but I’m holding off on them more specifically until at least the end of season, if only to put them in the full context and sort them out for myself.

overall, the show feels much more confident in itself than it has been for a while, and this confidence feels deeply connected to the story focusing more on Sam again, esp after the Carver era’s focus on Dean. a return back to the roots, w/ Sam as the more prominent character, and Dean back in a more supportive role. it’s the Luke vs. Han idea, w/ Sam as the “sensitive, smart protag” and Dean as the “funny bad-boy w/ a heart of gold.”

also the return back to the “Dean as a hunter, Sam as questioning it” framing. whenever the show hits a reset point, it always seems to pick up this dynamic again. take S8 and how much it echoed S1, in Sam out of hunting w/ a girlfriend and Dean returning back to him. it’s not as blatant in season 12, but Sam and Dean’s dynamic does remind me of their original attitudes, with Sam framed as questioning / wondering about hunting while Dean is seen as a hunter straight up. look at Sam and Dean’s convo in 12x06, right? (“SAM: Did you know people tell stories about us? / DEAN: Yeah. Apparently we’re a little bit legendary. / SAM: Yeah, but, I mean, so was Asa. Then a hunt went bad, and he ended up hanging from a tree, alone in the woods. / DEAN: He died on the job. No better way to go. / SAM: You really believe that? / DEAN: Yeah. What, you don’t? I mean, come on, Sam, it's not like we're in the “live till you're 90, die in your sleep” business. This? [DEAN points at ASA’S hunting wall] This only ends one way. / SAM: We should get back.) I suppose I’m zero-ing in on this framing in part because we know how the show, and Sam and Dean’s stories, ends now, and amongst so much of the fandom “it didn’t make sense!” opinions, I’m trying to figure out if the ending was actually foreshadowed and people just didn’t pick up on it, either unintentionally or deliberately.

on the other hand, in spite of its “reset” qualities, season 12 is also very self-aware in itself as the twelfth season of Supernatural. lots of dialogue call backs, characters talking about “who they are” in the whole context of the story, Mary as a returning character with so much history for the show both in-universe and on a meta level, Lucifer having his return in the body of an aging, has-been rock star, and his short monologue in 12x07 (LUCIFER: ...[God] needed my help, and He'd say anything to get it. His words, your words, they mean nothing. Don't you get it? This is all meaningless. Heaven. Hell. This world. If it ever meant anything that moment is past. Nothing down here but a bunch of hopeless distraction addicts, so filled with emptiness, so desperate to fill up the void... They don't mind being served another stale rerun of a rerun of a rerun. You know what my plan is? I don't have one. I'm just gonna keep on smashing Daddy's already broken toys, and make you watch.). the writers know the story could’ve ended much earlier but it’s still chugging along -- which is a weird spot to be in, admittedly. where else did the show have to go except to turn self-referential, look back at itself, go more meta? from a writing pov, I get the impulse, and obviously it gets increasingly meta up until the very end. while S8 was a reset, I do think the writers were trying to reckon w/ the whole show thru Carver’s era, even if they struggled w/ it. similarly, I get the feeling that S12 and beyond will try to reckon w/ the whole of the show, given how self-referential and meta it’s already gotten. (whether it does a good job w/ the meta aspects or not will be a different story.)

#season 12 #spn rewatch

2 notes · View notes

damnhotmsimmons · 1 year

Text

Episode 6-True Conviction

Caution: Spoilers below

The BAU is back after the winter hiatus. Here are my thoughts

We start off where 16x05 left off

Yay, JJ is awake (even though she’s most likely in pain and scarred for life)

Penelope “I take back every mean thing I said.” Garcia. Still don’t understand how Garvez is not a thing

Luke is yet to be seen, which worries me, even though I know he’s alive

Emily saying “Wheels Up” for the first time. The jet is back and the iconic line is back

Luke is alive, but he’s in a much worse condition than JJ

Oh shit, Elias witnessed the whole thing

another flashback to the unsub’s past, in this case, it’s Elias

great, another Elias centric storyline and how he became a serial killer

“How are you doing kids.” Love how Rossi is being the overall father-figure to JJ and Luke

“We’re ready to find this son of a bitch.” Don’t messed with a pissed off JJ, Elias

Wtf?! Elias told JJ and Luke to get out of there? I guess he’s smart enough to know the repercussions about killing two federal agents

So Benjamin is dead, great. Not that I’d miss him but considering his background and being a benefactor to the network, I’d assume he’d stay awhile

So Elias won’t risk killing two FBI agents but killing Benjamin, son of a political figure is another thing

I love seeing JJ and Luke back in action but I feel like they’d still need to rest to recover quickly

“Somebody or something made this guy very good.” Yea Dave, I’m afraid that might be your books (based on that one photo)

Bailey telling Emily about the fallout and repercussions of Benjamin killing his mother, a Senator and saying how people claim that Benjamin is Sicarius. They wouldn’t be in this mess had you not let Benjamin go free

Emily once again being done with Bailey’s bullshit

I never liked Tyler though it’s sad that his sister is truly confirmed to be dead

Luke gushing over the new jet

The Herrera case being the one that launched Rebecca’s career

Goddammit cm writers, then again, they can’t seem to let any of the couples be happy. It still hurts the most with Tebecca since they’re the first wlw couple in cm

I’m gonna dread the unnecessary drama for Tebecca

It’s nice to see Emily help Tara out and being the one who does the interview as she doesn’t want to see Tebecca have a fallout over this

So Tyler is free due to helping the BAU

Please don’t set up Garcia/Green

Even if they put aside their differences, it’s odd that Garcia is suddenly acting so joyful towards Tyler being free

Suddenly, Garcia is worried about Tyler. Sorta justified since he did find out his sister is dead but I fear this will give the writers an excuse to set them up together

Garcia being happy Luke and JJ are okay and giving them a big hug

“Even Luke...” Wtf Garcia, what happened to “I take back every mean thing i said..”

Okay Silvio looks like an older version of Diego Luna and I can’t unsee that

Jesus, that guy tried to attack Luke. My man is having a rough time this episode

Not me being emotional over the Willifer scene. I understand JJ’s decision to take some days off after the Sicarius case

I love Will “we got your back” Lamontagne

Not Garcia having to bail Tyler out and taking him to her apartment, at least it explains why he’s suddenly at her apartment, but again, I fear that they’re setting things up for them

Poor Garcia, now she has to replace her rug

Tyler throwing up is me when the writers try to make Greencia a thing. It’s also me when they try to break Tebecca up

So Elias has a scar on his back

They gave Zach an obviously crappy wig, like wtf is up with that 90s-00s boy band haircut. It does not look good

Elias reading one of Rossi’s books, Rossi has bad luck with unsubs being inspired by his books and an innocent woman (who also reads his books) being killed

I’m sure Zach is a good actor but I don’t know if I can see him capable of playing Elias being shy and meek

Maria begging Elias to let her go, sadly Elias can’t save her

Wait a second, so he did try to help Maria, yea this will not end well

Maria stabbing Elias in the back and Elias’ uncle being the one who kills her

“Mala Noche” suddenly I have flashbacks to CSI: Miami

Ugh, Rebecca being upset at Tara, why writers why? what happened to their pinky promise

“Right now, you’re going to lose me.” “Don’t say that.” Tara being the cm fandom in this scene

I just want to hug Tara

No one can never be happy with someone in CM

I appreciate Luke reaching out to Garcia

Oh god, not Tara interrogating Silvio

It’s been a while since she brought up her expertise as a forensic psychologist

Tara talking about her past relationships and bringing up how Rebecca makes her happy, god I’m so emotional over Tebecca. Shame on you cm writers

“Mi novio.” Wait, this guy has a fiancee? Did not expect that

Emily and Luke’s reaction to Tyler staying at Garcia’s apartment. Poor Luke though

Garcia and Tyler having a moment. Oh no, please don’t tell me they’re about to kis-Oh THANK GOD Garcia stopped it

So Elias killed his uncle and said uncle is haunting him

wait nvm, he’s not dead

Is Cyrus the name of Elias’ uncle or an alias he goes by?

I hate seeing a pissed off Rebecca and sad!Tara

Garcia and Tyler taking a walk

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!

Suddenly the Jeid confession is nothing compared this (It’s still bad, but you get what I mean)

Rebecca telling Tara she’s not coming home, my heart breaks for them

It’s saddening when she told her that she has never went against Tara but is hurt that she wasn’t honest to her about it

“Family’s what kills you.” Possible foreshadowing of Elias’ fate at the end of the season?

Honestly, this episode pissed me off more than it should be, from the complete 180 on the Tebecca relationship to the Greencia relationship that came out of nowhere. So far, the Willifer scene and the Garcia/JJ/Luke hug are the few parts I actually liked in this episode. The new jet looks nice, particularly in the day. This episode was a stepdown compared to the previous episodes, which sucks considering how good the first five episodes were (even if episode 4 was okay ish than good)

There’s so many scenes that pissed me off in this episode. I can only imagine how things will go in episode 7 and the rest of the season

#criminal minds #criminal minds evolution #cme spoilers #cm spoilers #cm 16x06 #cme 1x06 #david rossi #jennifer jareau #penelope garcia #tara lewis #luke alvez #emily prentiss

5 notes · View notes

amiscreations · 2 years

Text

Seeing Skid Row in Concert 20/10/2022✨

This was my first ever rock concert and wow did it set the bar high! I saw them in Brighton with my sister, and the support bands were Collateral and Enuff Z’nuff. the venue was essentially a small nightclub, definitely not designed with bands like Skid Row in mind, but it just made it more intimate and a better vibe overall🥰 I can honestly say that this was one of the best nights on my life so far, and I'll try my best to recount the events. Pictures will be posted soon!

Even tho we got there about 90 mins before doors, we were still second in line and were let in after about 40 mins.

I was talking to a lady in the line as well who had seen the Stadium Tour, and basically every rock band you could think of.

like we would name drop and she would say “aw yes i’ve seen them they're great i’m friends with x members” I honestly love that for her she was so cool.

I was expecting to be waiting for a while so I didn't have my tickets ready and was panicking trying to find them lmao. I was right near the front of the line ofc so I was panicking and holding everyone up but it was fine in the end😂

after that fiasco that wast really a fiasco we went in and we were RIGHT FRONT AND FUCKIN CENTER YALL!

it wasn't long at all until Collateral, the first support act, came on and they were actually aMAZING???

They were all on the younger side so I love that they chose up and coming bands to support.

I also forgot how loud live music is let alone rock/metal music rip my ears and I could feel the bass in my fuckin bones

The lead singer of Collateral was the biGGEST HOE EVER I LOVE HIM SM

mans was pullin shapes and swishing his long af hair around I love that

at one point he got up onto the barrier and was singing right into this one woman’s soul, she was holding onto his hips and he was holding her face with one had uUHHH it was all very hoe-ish of him and I know that woman was absolutely living

the guitarist also tried to crowd surf (I think?) but I think the security stopped him AKDJFKHJ so he was just kinda sitting on the barrier shredding on the guitar as you do ofc

anyways yeah Collateral were cool af and very early Skid Row esque you should check them out!

The next support act was Enuff Z’nuff and oh my god were they eccentric.

I've heard of the band before and i’ve listened to a few of their songs but I didn't know how cool they were live!

Chip, the lead singer and bassist, is just the epitome of seasoned glam rocker dude and he was so chaotic.

as in the band entered the stage to circus music (you know the one I mean) and I was like oH ok this is what we’re dealing with.

thy also played a glam metal version of Eleanor Rigby which was beautiful and unexpected.

one of the guitarists looked so much like Mike from the Young Ones as well, and the drummer was also v cute I think I might have a small crush on him-

but now its the time you've all been waiting for: SKID MF ROW ARE IN THE HOUSEEE

the last song the venue played before Skid Row went on was Crazy Train and everyone was losing their shit it was awesome

just as they were coming onto the stage Scotti gave me The Eyes™ and I almost evaporated there and then. boi was also wearing sO much eyeliner it was beautiful.

btw incase you didn't know the new singer for Skid Row is a very dapper younger lad by the name of Erik Grönwall, lets just say he will be a very important character throughout the rest of this report.

before they went into the first song and the guitars were just kinda reverbing, Erik just stood right in fucking front of me and sTARED AT EVERONE WITH THE BIGGEST GRIN ON HIS FACE LFJKLDHFKD IT WAS LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT YALL

they opened with Slave to the Grind and

wow

just wow

they sound iNCREDIBLE live and Erik has the most AMAZING VOICE OH MY FUCKIN JESUS

(no we’re not going to compare them but just to put things into perspective, yes it was just like 80-90s Sebastian Bach)

Erik was also just aggressively head banging at every given opportunity my neck hurt just watching him but you could tell the man was just having the time of his life up there

he is also just sO. FUCKING. CHARMING

YOU CANT NOT FALL IN LOVE WITH THAT MAN I JUST- UUUGHHH

It was also in this first song where the initial realisation sunk in that this is THE Skid Row

as in this is the same Scotti, Snake and Rachel that I watch in all those live performances and interviews and just random videos from the 80s and 90s, and who are probably besties with some of my other favourite musicians and-

Rachel also had a sparkly bass which was so beautiful I want 34 of my own

also no-one told he that Scotti Hill was slightly unhinged djkjfkgh

he would just sTARE at you with The Eyes™ while playing and it was very intimidating so I just stared back when he would do it to me

I guess not many people can say they've had a staring contest with Scotti Hill but here we are😪

They played In A Darkened Room and Psychotherapy which I did NOT expect but I very much appreciate as they are two of my faves

also during IADR Erik Took someones phone and recorded the crowd and the band, I wonder how it feels to have a video as iconic as that one on your phone?

The stage was also small af too so Erik would just stand right at the edge (towering tf over me I might add skskjhkfg) and would knock off all the wires there LMAO

the security had to keep picking them up idk I just thought that that was so funny

another cool thing about Erik that Rachel mentioned is that before Covid happened, Erik was a support act for Skid Row while they were touring, and now hE’S THE LEAD SINGER OF THE BAND HE WAS SUPPORTING THREE YEARS AGO???? AWWWW???

honestly the rest of the night was kind of a blur (in a good way!)

that was until they played I Remember You

it was all going fine and dandy when I randomly decided to reach out my hand

and the beautiful bastard that is Erik Grönwall

REACHED OUT AND HELD MY MF HAND WHILE SINGING RIGHT AT ME

our fingers were interlinked for only a few seconds (I actually dont remember how long it was my brain was freaking out) but within those few seconds I officially sold my soul to Erik

my main character moment

a true core memory for sure

I did see a video someone took of the whole song but you couldn't see me and Erik h*lding h*nds in it lkdgfkldgh😭

he also took someones phone again and recorded everyone which was cool bc everyone had their phones lit up🥰

They closed with Youth Gone Wild which was just perfect because me and my sister were, for this entire concert, the mf youth gone wild🥰

earlier Rachel even said that x song was “from our first album, which was released before some of you guys were even born by the looks of things” and stared straight at me with That Smile Of His

Scotti and Snake were also just jamming together and living their best lives while playing Youth Gone Wild it was beautiful🥰

also when Erik sang “a boss screaming in my ear...” he gestured at Rachel LMAOO

while they were playing the outro I got to high-five Erik once again and I also got to fist bump Rachel, Scotti and Rob

and that was that!

I got a poster and also got to meet Chip there too! he was so cool!

just as we were leaving we also met Snake outside skjhgfsghjkf

he was honestly sO SWEET OH MY GOD

I was very very VERY awkward as i’ve never met anyone famous before and was definitely nOT expecting to meet him and I was also in a rush

we talked for a little bit and took a photo together

I got to hug him twice and that was honestly the cherry on top of a perfect night

i’m having withdrawals already I miss them all sm😭

#thank you for coming to my concert report #hopefully I can make this a regular thing #because I now cRAVE to be at more concerts like this one #there's something about the smaller intimate venue that is just unmatched #lets just say the bar is vERY HIGH #anyways if you're in the UK and are thinking of seeing Skid Row fUCKIN DO IT #even if you dont really listen to them they are amazing #and you will fall head over heels in love with Erik its impossible not to #and hopefully they tour again next year too bc I will for sure be going again #concert log #concert report #live music #rock music #heavy metal #classic rock #glam metal #hair metal #Skid Row

4 notes · View notes

soul-of-rei · 2 years

Note

1, 5, 6, 15, 31, 38, aaaand 40 for the loz asks ! info dump to ur heart’s content 🖤

hi frend !!!!!! i hope youre having a good day and yes i. will not be shutting up here AJSKAKAKA <3

1. Is there a Zelda game(s) that you associate with each season or time of year?

i mean,,,,, the obvious answer here would be Oracle of Seasons for everything AHSHSSH but in reality i never thought about this ?? where i live we really don’t have the four seasons (it’s just either hot or rain) so it’s not a thing that crossed my mind until the ask game. that being said tho, TP does seem like a vv cozy game for fall and WW has the perfect setting and vibe for a summer playthrough. other than that, idk !! interesting question tho <33

5. Favorite LOZ soundtrack?

already answered! WW <33

6. Is there a Zelda game that intimidates you/looks too hard?

i will. never be playing the original LoZ and Adventure of Link </3 i have heard nothing but stories on how stupidly hard AoL is and tbh i don’t wanna stress myself out on that. i’ve also discovered that i get progressively worse with zelda games ?? if the game’s release date is close to or back in the 90′s AJSJAJAJ i noticed it with LA, then it became obvious with ALttP. so overall if it was published before the 2000′s i probably won’t be playing it </3 (with the exception of OoT bc its 3D and iconic SHSHSHS)

putting the rest under a cut bc this post is obnoxiously long otherwise

15. Favorite location within Hyrule?

THIS IS HARD IT DEPENDS </3 if i had to narrow down a specific place above all else, it would be Akkala in BoTW <33 it’s just. a really pretty spot especially with all the multi colored trees <33 i would unironically love to visit a spot like that irl if it does exist. but if we’re talking about areas that consistently appear throughout multiple games it might either be Faron Woods or Zora’s Domain. Lake Hylia also wouldn’t be a bad place to visit if it existed irl :00

31. Hardest dungeon played?

OH GOD HI VAH NABORIS WAS??? UNBELIEVABLY HARD AHSHAAHAH i remember i spent an hour in total on just the terminals, so roughly 10 mins each just. trying to figure out how the fuck to do one terminal. by the time i was ready to fight thunderblight i legitimately had a really bad headache but i still pushed through bc i wanted to do all the divine beasts in one go without leaving for anything. the fight came and i beat it first try but??? the fucking second phase with the metal rods that you’re supposed to magnesis was so hard bc Thunderblight was a headache by itself to reach in time before the rods went off SJSJSJSJS shoutout to Revali’s Gale when i first played through it, i swear some of the areas are literally unreachable unless you already completed Medoh </3

38. Creepiest enemy?

i hate skulltulas. i hate spiders, i hate webs, i hate giant spiders ON webs. they’re only reason why i’m not ok with the Skyview Temple and Ancient Cistern in SkSw. i pretend to not see that one sidequest in OoT with the skulltula family, and if ever i get TP i’m making somebody else do the boss fight in the Temple of Time for me. just. fuck spiders AJSJAJJAJA

40. Most out-of-place thing in the series?

this is kinda like the first question in the sense that i’ve never thought about this?? i think Nintendo does a really good job in tying things together and making everything make sense as to why at happens, at least within the game itself. but imo, i never really liked Astor in Age of Calamity for this kind of reason,,,,, he just seemed like an antagonist that was made without warning, just plopped down in the game bc we already know how the events pre-calamity play out and Nintendo needed to spice things up a bit. imo, they still could have told a compelling story (and arguably, a better one) without him having to exist to antagonize the characters. idk, i just really don’t like him as a character </3

#rei rambles #i am so sorry if this post is painful to read but AJSJAJAJ you knew what you were getting into <33 #and ace we really should talk more !! i love seeing you on my dash and i really appreciate your ask <33

3 notes · View notes

the-lone-witch-and-secret-room · 3 years

Text

Camila Noceda and Flawed Parenting

A perspective by a flawed person with loving but extremely flawed parents

I’m genuinely baffled at some people’s hostile reaction towards Camila. Like… do any of you have flawless parents that always know the best solution instantly, make no mistakes and never get emotional?

My parents are great. They’re super supportive and I love them very, very much. Overall I think I got very lucky in the parents department.

But god, they are far from flawless. I still live at home, and despite all the good, there’s moments when I can’t take my dad anymore. He’s the kind of dad that stayed up until two am to help me with homework when I was in school, and he does so, so many things to make sure I’m happy. I know that. But despite all of this, I have told my mom in emotional moments before that I’m not sure if I can keep living with him, because for all his good sides, he has a couple of fatal flaws that sometimes make him unbearable.

My mom listens to me and is very open to being educated on certain topics, but she has her flaws, too. She hates when I fight with my dad, and gets so torn up about it that I’ve once apologized to my dad out of fear of her getting into a car crash otherwise. She’s very vocal about certain flaws of mine, and sometimes uses the things she does for me as leverage against me when she gets very emotional.

And both of my parents pay a lot more attention to my brother because he needs it more, because he’s more of a “problem child” while I “seem so capable” even when I’m not.

And guess what? I’m not a perfect child. I make mistakes sometimes, some of them pretty severe. Just like Luz, I’m the kind of person that struggles to communicate certain issues of mine to her parents. I’m stubborn, and when I get emotional, I say very hurtful things sometimes. So do they.

And this has nothing to do with my parents being horrible or abusive. They’re neither of those things.

The takeaway from this should not be that my entire family is made up of terrible people, but that we’re all flawed in our own ways, despite loving each other and trying our best. There’s things about my parents I wish I could change, and there are things about me that my parents wish they could change. And to an extent, that’s perfectly normal.

In our strengths and flaws and frustration with each other, we’re all human.

Specific, spoiler-y Camila and Luz things under the cut since this got very long.

We have no indication that Camila has a pattern of emotionally manipulating Luz. Her “emotional manipulation” as I’ve seen some people put it, is people for some reason thinking that the second you become an adult, you’re suddenly perfect and can no longer make mistakes, lest you’ll be dubbed horrible and abusive.

The whole concept is absurd to me. There is no perfect way to parent. There simply isn’t. Of course, there’s some genuinely abusive patterns that are horrible and inexcusable. But out of the parenting styles that aren’t, which one works depends on a number of factors, one of which absolutely includes that every child is different and has different needs. Camila is an amazing parent for Vee, giving the kid everything she’s ever longed for. She’s not an ideal parent for Luz. And that’s because Luz and Vee have fundamentally different needs.

Likewise, Luz is a pretty great child for Eda, but not a perfect fit for Camila. Luz relates to Eda a lot more than she relates to her mom, and that’s why the two of them have an easier time understanding each other. Both of these mother-child relationships exist, and one is not more doomed to fail than the other, but I think you’ll agree that the better you understand someone and where they’re coming from, the easier it is to communicate, pick up on certain signs, etc.

As mom and daughter, Camila and Luz are both flawed and have issues seeing the other’s perspective because of how different they are. And we should simultaneously acknowledge both of their roles in the issue and give both of them the space to learn and grow past those issues.

Luz struggles to communicate her problems. She doesn’t want to burden people in the demon realm, and it’s a given that this started out as not wanting to burden her mom. So she keeps quiet about her issues. Camila tries hard but can’t read her daughter’s mind, so there’s only so much she can do to understand and help the way Luz needs her to. Hell, Eda, who Luz is a lot more open with than her mom, struggles to help her, because Luz doesn’t tell her what’s wrong. I don’t see anyone calling Eda a terrible mom for that.

Camila tries her best, but she struggles to understand her daughter because of this, and because of how fundamentally different they are. She loves Luz’s creativity, we actively see her supporting it in the new episode—she keeps the weird stuff Luz made because she thinks Luz will regret throwing it away, and even plays along in what she assumes to be some elaborate role play because “she’s glad Luz kept her creativity even though it’s not made things easy for her at school”. But at the beginning of the show, said creativity got out of hand and people got hurt. Luz could’ve gotten hurt. So of course Camila had to interfere. I love Luz dearly, but she thought it was okay to bring snakes to school and set off fireworks inside a school building. Creativity is great. Doing reckless stuff that causes people to get hurt is not.

In sending Luz to camp, Camila tried to have someone else fix her issue because she didn’t know how to help Luz. That was a mistake, and a bad one at that, but she’s realizing that. She looks disheartened when Vee tries to throw out Luz’s stuff, because she never meant to change her daughter or take that part of her away. She just thought Luz needed a reality check—which, for the record, is something the narrative actually agrees with.

Luz spends her time in the demon realm getting reality check after reality check, realizing that even her ideal fantasy world where she has everything she always wanted doesn’t mean she’s free of consequences. She goes overboard constantly, causing:

-Eda to be forced to fly into a trap because Luz is chasing a fantasy (Witches before Wizards)

-Eda to almost be branded by her sister because Luz doesn’t think through why Eda doesn’t use magic to publicly announce her presence constantly (Once Upon a Swap)

-Eda and the twins to get kidnapped by a Slitherbeast because Luz stole Amity’s wand (Adventures in the Elements)

-Her friends to get hurt when she goes overboard trying to help Willow (Wing it like Witches)

-Eda to be captured and almost petrified because Luz thought she could just steal from the Emperor with no consequences in an attempt to help (Agony of a Witch)

I’m like 90% sure these aren’t even all. None of those make her a terrible person, for the record, but as all humans are, she is flawed and makes bad choices. She learns from these experiences and matures, just like her mom had hoped she would at camp. She’s also made friends there, which was another thing Camila wanted for her daughter.

You’ll probably realize that a lot of Luz’s behaviors I mentioned follow one of two patterns: 1. Luz’s idealized fantasy world causing problems, when she walks around with rose tinted glasses and gets people in trouble in the process because she hasn’t thought about the consequences, and 2. Luz trying to help someone she loves, but instead making things worse in the progress. The issue with this one is often that she doesn’t communicate her ideas/listen to the people she’s trying to help—like when Willow and Gus said they’ve had enough of Grudgby, or how she never actually talks to Eda about the healing hat idea before doing something reckless.

…does the latter one sound familiar to you at all? No? Because it’s the exact same thing that Camila did.

Some of the things Luz does are reckless and actively endanger others and herself, and that’s something that I think we need to acknowledge before judging Camila. As Luz’s mom, it’s Camila’s job to interfere in those situations. That she made a mistake while trying to protect Luz doesn’t make her a terrible person, especially as, again, the narrative proves her right to an extent.

I’m not saying her making Luz promise to come back and stay isn’t something that hurt Luz—it absolutely is. But it was born out of desperation. She’s emotional and in shock. She’s so full of pain and regret. She just wants her fourteen year old daughter home safe, and there’s nothing abusive or even morally ambiguous about that.

From Luz’s perspective, what she says is absolutely heartbreaking, but from Camila’s, it’s perfectly reasonable. I doubt Camila has the full picture, but even if she does, she’s had a full fifteen seconds to process that her daughter has not only been lying to her for months, but chose to leave her, and is in the demon realm of all places. Of course she’d be emotional and upset about that! Who wouldn’t? Camila isn’t a robot. If she’d been calm about this I’d be way more concerned, honestly.

My parents don’t get mad that easily, but if I would lie to them for weeks on end, they’d be pissed off too, not even taking the running away from home part into account. That’s a normal thing. People don’t like being lied to. Camila is absolutely devastated in that moment because she’s scared that Luz left because she hates her, when Luz actively states that her leaving wasn’t about her mom—which is another thing we should really be acknowledging.

Abusive parents suck and abuse should obviously never be apologized or trivialized, but saying something hurtful in the heat of the moment isn’t the same thing as being an abusive parent. My parents have done this. I’ve done this. And yes, those things can be emotionally manipulative, but there’s a huge difference in whether that’s a habit or a person speaking out of hurt and desperation in a very specific context. I doubt there’s anyone on the entire planet that hasn’t had a bad moment where they’ve said something like this because they were hurting. People lash out when they hurt, and they beg for reassurance when they’re scared. That’s something we all do.

The whole mindset of “all parents have to be perfect and can never get upset or make any mistakes” is harmful as hell, and honestly also very unrealistic. No parent is perfect, and especially people like me who have a relationship with their parents that’s very good overall should know that.

Once you have a child, parenting is a non-stop learning process, every day for the rest of your life. Taking away that room to grow and expecting perfection isn’t helping anyone, especially not struggling single parents.

And I see Camila as someone who is very willing to learn, because at the end of the day, all she wants is for Luz to be happy. Let’s give her some time to wrap her head around this whole situation. Let’s see what she says once she sees for herself how happy Luz is in that world, may it be via the videos eventually coming through or Camila visiting and meeting Luz’s found family, her friends and her girlfriend.

Ultimately, I don’t think Camila will force Luz to stay at home, but we have to give her some time. She wants what’s best for Luz, and she’s gonna need some convincing that a dangerous magical world is what’s best. I feel like that’s very normal considering the circumstances.

Her and Luz need to work on their communication on both ends, they both have things to learn, but I’m certain they’ll manage to fix their relationship in the long run.

If the bunk bed is any indication, I think Vee is gonna stay in the human realm permanently while Luz sleeps at home but keeps attending Hexside in the daytime. That feels like a solution that keeps everyone happy, and allows Luz to spend time with all the people she loves. I can’t see her being forced to choose at the end.

As a closing statement: Eda isn’t an ideal mom, Amity isn’t an ideal friend or girlfriend and neither is Luz, Lilith isn’t an ideal sister… but that’s because no one is ever an ideal anything. Being flawed is a big part of being human. Everyone has different facets to their personality. Their flaws are what makes them such great, relatable, believable characters.

And I feel the same way about Camila. She’s an extremely believable character that reminds me of my own parents, flawed but very loving nonetheless.

(Also honestly, I think it’s pretty telling that some of you guys immediately bash the black single mom that’s obviously trying her hardest while giving the benefit of the doubt to Alador, who has been portrayed as neglecting and threatened his six year old daughter on screen. This was already a thing before we knew much about either of them, and I’m disappointed but unfortunately not very surprised that it still is.)

978 notes · View notes

lorenfangor · 3 years

Note

I heard that #40 was super homophobic :/ so I skipped it. But now your fic is making me want to give it a try. How problematic is it? Are the characters worth it?

Okay.

Let’s talk about #40.

The plot of The Other (a Marco POV) is that Marco sees an Andalite on a video tape sent in to some Unsolved Mysteries-esque TV show, and he assumes it’s Ax and hauls ass to save him from being captured. Ax, being Ax, has videotaped the show, and they pull it up and Tobias uses his hawk eyes to figure out that it’s not Ax, it’s another Andalite - one without a tailblade. Ax is appalled at the presence of this vecol (an Andalite word for a disabled person) and we find out that he and others of his species have deep ingrained prejudices against at least some kinds of disabled people.

Despite this, Marco and Ax go looking for the Andalite in question because he’s been spotted by national TV, and they meet a second one, named Gafinilan-Estrif-Valad. The vecol is Mertil-Iscar-Elmand, a former fighter pilot with a reputation and Gafinilan’s coded-gay life partner. The two of them have been on Earth since book 1; they crashed their fighters on the planet and have been trapped there thanks to the GalaxyTree going down. Gafinilan has adopted a human cover, a physics professor, and they’ve been living in secret ever since.

Thanks to that tape, Mertil has been captured by Visser Three, and he’s not morph-capable so he can’t escape. Gafinilan wants to trade the leader of the “Andalite Bandits” to the Yeerks to get his boyfriend back; he can’t fight to free Mertil because he’s terminally ill with a genetic disorder that will eventually kill him, and (it’s implied that) the Yeerks aren’t interested in disabled hosts, even disabled Andalite ones. Despite Ax’s ableism, the Animorphs agree to work with Gafinilan and free Mertil, and they’re successful. Marco ends the book talking about how there are all kinds of prejudices you’ll have to face and boxes that people will put you in, and you can’t necessarily escape them even if they’re reductive and inaccurate, but you can still live your life with pride.

So now that I’ve explained the plot, I’m gonna come out the gate saying that I love this book. I love it wholeheartedly, I love Marco’s narration, I love Ax having to deal with Andalite society’s ableism, I love these characters, and as a disabled lesbian I don’t find these disabled gays to be inherently Bad Rep.

that’s of course just my opinion and it doesn’t overshadow other issues that people might have? but at the same time, I don’t like the seemingly-common narrative that this book is all bad all the time, and I want to offer up a different read.To that end, I’m going to go point by point through some of the criticisms and common complaints that I’ve seen across the fandom over the years.

“Mertil and Gafinilan were put on a bus after one appearance because they were gay!”

this is one I’m going to have to disagree with hardcore. I talked about this yesterday, but in Animorphs there are a lot of characters or ideas that only get introduced once or twice and then get written off or dropped - in order off the top of my head, #11 (the Amazon trip), #16 (Fenestre and his cannibalism), #17 (the oatmeal), #18 (the hint of Yeerks doing genetic experiments in the hospital basement), #24/#39/#42 (the Helmacrons’ ability to detect morphing tech), #25 (the Venber), #28 (experiments with limiting brain function through drugs), #34 (the Hork-Bajir homeworld being retaken, the Ixcila procedure), #36 (the Nartec), #41 (Jake’s Bad Future Dream), and #44 (the Aboriginal people Cassie meets in Australia) all feature things that either seem to exist just for the sake of having a particular trope explored Animorphs-style or to feature an idea for One Single Book.

This is a series that’s episodic and has a very limited overall story arc because of how children’s literature in the 90s was structured - these books are closer to The Saddle Club, Sweet Valley High, Animal Ark, or The Baby-Sitters’ Club than they are to Harry Potter or A Series of Unfortunate Events. Mertil and Gafinilan don’t get to be in more than one book because they’re not established in the main cast or the supporting cast, I don’t think that it’s solely got anything to do with their being gay.

“Gafinilan has AIDS, this is a book about AIDS, and that’s homophobic!”

Okay, this is… hard. First, yes, Gafinilan does have a terminal illness. Yes, Gafinilan is gay. No, Soola’s Disease is not AIDS.

I have two responses to this, and I’ll attack them in order of their occurrence in my thought. First, there’s coded AIDS diseases all over genre fiction, especially genre fiction from that era, because the AIDS epidemic made a massive impact on public life and fundamentally changed both how the public perceived illness and queerness and how queer people themselves experienced it. I was too young to live through it, but my dad’s college roommate was out, and my dad himself has a lot of friends who he just ceases to talk about if the conversation gets past 1986 or so - this was devastating and it got examined in art for more reasons than “gay people all have AIDS”, and I dislike the implication that the only reason it could ever appear was as a tired stereotype or a message that Being Queer Means Death. Gafinilan is kind, fond of flowers, and fond of children - he’s multifaceted, and he’s got a terminal illness. Those kinds of people really exist, and they aren’t Bad Rep.

Second off, Soola’s Disease? Really isn’t AIDS. It’s a congenital genetic illness that develops over time, cannot be transmitted, and does not carry a serious stigma the way AIDS did. Gafinilan also has access to a cure - he could become a nothlit and no longer be afflicted by it, even if it’s considered somewhat dishonorable to go nothlit to escape that way. That’s not AIDS, and in fact at no point in my read and rereads did I assume that his having a terminal illness was supposed to be a commentary on homosexuality until I found out that other people were assuming it.

“Mertil losing his tail means he’s lost his masculinity, and that’s bad because he’s gay! That’s homophobic!”

so this is another one I’ve gotta hardcore disagree with, because while Mertil is one of two Very Obviously Queer Characters, he’s not the only character who loses something fundamental about himself, or even loses access to sexual and/or romantic capability in ways he was familiar with.

Tobias and Arbron both get ripped out of their ordinary normal lives by going nothlit in bad situations, and while they both wind up finding fulfillment and freedom despite that, it’s still traumatic, even more for Arbron I’d say than for Tobias. And on a psychological level, none of the main cast is left unmarked or free of trauma or free of deep change thanks to the bad things that have happened to them - they’re no less fundamentally altered than Mertil, even if it’s mental rather than physical. And yes, tail loss is equated with castration or emasculation, but that doesn’t automatically mean Mertil suffering it is tied to his homosexuality and therefore the takeaway we’re intended to have is “Being gay is tragic and makes you less of a man”. This is a series where bad shit happens to everyone, and enduring losses that take away things central to one’s self-conception or identity or body is just part of the story.

Also, frankly? Plenty of IRL disabled people have to grapple with a loss of sexual function, and again, they’re not Bad Rep just because they’re messy.

“Andalite society is confusingly written in this book, and the disability aspects are clearly just a coverup for the gay stuff!”

Andalite society is canonically sexist, a bit exceptionalist and prejudiced in their own favor, and pretty contradictory and often challenged internally on its own norms. In essence, it’s a pretty ordinary society, and they’re really realistic as sci-fi races go. It makes sense from that perspective that Andalites would tolerate scarring or a lost stalk eye or a lost skull eye, but not tolerate serious injuries that significantly impact your perceived quality of life. Ableism is like that - it’s not one-size-fits-all. I look at Ax’s reactions and I see a lot of my own family and friends’ behaviors - this vibes with my understanding of prejudice, you know?

“Mertil and Gafinilan have a tragic ending, which means the story is saying that being gay dooms you to tragedy!”

Mertil and Gafinilan have the best possible ending that they could ask for? They are victims of the war, they are suffering because of the war, they get the same cocktail of trauma and damage that every other soldier gets. But unlike Jake and Tobias and Marco, unlike Elfangor, unlike Aximili? Their ending comes in peace, in their own home. Gafinilan isn’t dying alone, he’s got the love of his life with him. Mertil isn’t going to be as isolated anymore, he’s got Marco for a friend. Animorphs is a tragedy, it’s not a happy story, it’s not something that guarantees a beautiful sunshine-and-roses ending for everyone, and I love tragedy, and so I will fight for this story. Yes, it hurts. Yes, it deserved better. But it’s not less meaningful just because it’s sad. Nobody is entitled to anything in this book, and it’s just as true for these two as it is for anyone else.

“It’s not cool that the only canonically gay characters in this series don’t get to be happy and trauma-free and unblemished Good Rep!”

This is one I can kind of understand, and I’ll give some ground to it, because it is sucky. The only thing I’ll say is that I stand by my argument that nothing that happens to Mertil and Gafinilan is unusual compared to what happens to the rest of the cast, and that their ending is way happier than Rachel and Tobias’s, or Jake and Cassie’s. But it’s a legitimate point of frustration, and the one argument I’ll say I agree has validity.

(Though, I also want to point out that I think there are plenty of equally queercoded characters in the story who aren’t Mertil and Gafinilan - Tobias, Rachel, Cassie, and Marco all get at least one or two moments that signal to me that they’re potentially LGBT+, not to mention Mr. Tidwell and Illim in #29 and their long-term domestic partnership. There’s no reason to assume that the only queer people here are those two aliens when Marco’s descriptions of Jake exist.)

“Marco uses slurs and reduces Gafinilan’s whole identity to his illness!”

Technically, yes, this is true, except putting it that way strips the whole passage of its context. Marco is discussing the boxes society puts you into, the ones you don’t have a choice about facing or escaping. He’s talking about negative stereotypes and reductive generalizations, he’s referring to them as bad things that you get inflicted upon you by an outside world or by friends who don’t know the whole story or the real you. The slurs he uses are real slurs that get thrown at people still, and they’re not okay, and the point is that they’re not okay but assholes are going to call you by them anyway. He ends by saying “you just have to learn to live with it”, and since this is coming from a fifteen-year-old Latino kid who we know is picked on by bullies for all sorts of reasons and who faces racism and homophobia? He knows what he’s talking about. He’s bitter about what’s been said and done, he’s not stating it like it’s a good thing.

Yes, absolutely, this speech is a product of its time, but it’s a product of its time that speaks of defiance and says “We aren’t what we’re said to be,” and in the year this was published? That’s a good message.

tl;dr The Other is good, actually, and Mertil and Gafinilan are incredible characters who deserve all the love they could possibly get.

#animorphs #animorphs meta #mertil/gafinilan #mertil #gafinilan #mertil-iscar-elmand #gafinilan-estrif-valad

313 notes · View notes

korasonata · 3 years

Text

So, the original plan was to do these quotes until Joe and Cleo finished their models, which was half accomplished during this stream (yay Cleo!). Question is should I still continue these after Joe has finished his model, or have we had enough now? Favourite moments of Joe and Cleo model stream part 7! Link to the video is below and time stamps are above each set of quotes!

Link: https://m.twitch.tv/videos/1155955572

—

00:32:05

Joe: This is our weekly paper craft stream. I’m joined today by ZombieCleo, who you can find at—

Cleo: Hiiiiiiiiii!!!

Joe: — twitch.tv/zombiecleo. You don’t need to type the “hi” in the middle. Although it is adorable, and so I wouldn’t blame you.

—

00:56:25

Cleo (in response to someone saying they like Hershey’s chocolate): I mean you can like the chocolate. It’s ok to be wrong. It’s fine. You know, you can—

Joe: A certain amount of the other person being wrong is to be expected in any relationship.

Cleo: Yeah! Look at my relationship with you, Joe.

Joe: Yeah, I mean we’re— we’re off the charts for that.

—

01:01:15

Joe (changing into his chroma green tank top): We can’t have people seeing my torso.

Cleo: Oh you know, yeah you— you are a cryptid.

—

01:02:04

Joe (doing a face camera expansion): these chains I’ve forged in life are about to begin pulling me down to the deep below! Enter the Jhoooooooost!

Cleo: Can I just point out that “life” was very southern. At that point. (Heavy southern accent) Life.

Joe (heavy southern accent): Life.

Cleo: Laaaaaffe

Joe: Liiiiife *both laughing* These chains I’ve forged in—

Both: laaaaffe!!

Joe (heavy twang): Pullin’ me daaan to the deep behlooow!

—

01:07:16

Cleo (in response to Joe having a laughing fit): And that is one of the rare times where Joe has a complete, absolute giggle fit on stream

Joe (still laughing): Ok I’m sorry, but “puritans go home” is the best thing to put on anything worth— ok im gonna start making a— ok. (Serious) Im gonna start making an actual checklist cause, um, (actually writing down a checklist of things he’s taking to his parents for thanksgiving) ok thanks—giving twenty twenty—one. Ok so, salad cream.

Cleo: *wheezing*

Joe (reading list): “Puritans go Home” icing on pie…Um, you know let’s just throw iron brew in there. Why not! Irn-Bru and vodka!

Cleo (laughing): Sure! Why not!

Joe: Yeah. Well, so, my maternal grandmother was Scottish and—

Cleo: oh I’m sorry.

Joe: —so I think my mom would get a kick out of Irn-Bru. As like “oh! Here’s something from the old country!”

Cleo: *physically wheezing* from the old country!

—

01:29:43

Joe: Oh, it’s really fun. Did you know that a bunch of people on Tumblr care a lot about how tall each of us are?

Cleo: Yeah. Yeah.

Joe: Yeah, oh man I’ve been spreading information and taking weird height pictures with people at conventions for years. It’s like— *Cleo laughing* I’ll intentionally like stand on things or like, uh, or like stand in such a way that you can’t tell I’m crouching, so people are like “Ok, so Joe’s like taller than Bdubs but shorter than, uh, like— Stress or something. It’s like how does that happen?!” *trying not to laugh* Because I’m screwing with you.

—

01:31:11

Joe: See that’s the thing is— is sometimes people think things are about power. I think they’re just about being obnoxious.

Cleo: I mean, you think most things are about being obnoxious which is why it’s a power move for you. Cause being obnoxious is your power move. It’s where you’ve got the most power, Joe.

Joe: Hm, that makes sense.

Cleo: Sometimes I do. I try not to when I’m with you, because— it’s easier.

Joe: Yeah. You don’t wanna give me any actual like workab— or usable intelligence.

—

01:42:47

Joe (reading chat): I’ve been on Hermitcraft since season one— yeah. That was only like 10 years ago though.

Cleo: I’ve been on Hermitcraft since season 2.

Joe: Yay Cleo!

Cleo: Which was only because Joe asked me to come on, or pu— vouched for me.

Joe (genuine): Well I am glad you joined.

Cleo: I mean I was— I was at the point where I was just like “is this what I wanna do for the rest of my life? Should I just go full ham into teaching?” And, uh, then you made that offer and I thought “well, I’ll see how it goes”. And it did quite well for me. So…you know.

Joe (quietly): I am so glad

Cleo: You are the reason why I’m still doing Minecraft content.

—

01:44:19

Joe (reading chat): Attasked says “Only you can judge whether you’re hot” no plenty of people can tell I’m hot, Graved. It’s— pretty blatantly obvious. You don’t— you don’t have to be good at judging to be able to tell. Like, that’s not an only me thing.

—

02:00:54

Cleo: You ever have those moments where you’re just questioning your choices in life?

Joe: *having a breakdown* Moments!

Cleo: *cackling*

Joe (through tears): I’m sorry, you’re just the best Cleo.

Cleo: *laughing, but genuine* Awe, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to depress you today!

Joe: No it’s— *inaudible sobbing* Today—

Cleo: *dying*

Joe (quietly to himself): Is this is frame? Sorry, I was cutting this out of frame. My bad.

Cleo (still laughing): I like how everyone’s just sort of gone quiet and gone “…is Joe ok?”

Joe: nOO!!!

Cleo: We’ve established that Joe is not ok.

Joe: But I’m really good at it!

Cleo: *spitting out her drink*

—

01:49:52

Joe: Let’s go down the Mississippi, Cleo.

Cleo: I mean, that I think we could probably do. Let’s go down the Mississippi, Joe.

Joe: yay!

Cleo: On a flimsy raft.

Joe: Yeah, we can actually— there’s a lot nicer boats now though. Like—

Cleo: I mean— yeah, but do we— do— you know…it’s the Huckleberry Finn experience.

Joe: I mean, here’s the thing, is if you actually came here and I was like “Cleo, let’s go to the Mississippi River and go down the river a few miles”. I think you’d be more likely to actually say yes if I had an actual boat lined up than if I had a flimsy raft.

Cleo (excited): If it— if it— if it makes you feel better, I— I would do the flimsy raft. Like, hands down. It seems more fun.

Joe (realizing that she’s serious): I— you say that, but I don’t think you’ve seen the Mississippi River. Like, the problem is it’s full of these giant barges these days, the wakes of which would just throw your raft over.

Cleo (dead serious): I can swim.

Joe (attempting to compromise, completely lost as to how he has somehow managed to be the voice of reason): Ok…Alternatively we can go down a smaller river…In a raft…

—

02:04:43

Joe: Sorry, I’ll stop monologuing. Uh, but yeah sorry I was in the process of—

Cleo: I’LL STOP MONOLOGUING! Yeah, yeah that’s gonna happen.

Joe: yeah, I’ll- I’ll say I’m gonna stop monologuing and I’ll warn you that-

Cleo: And then he just continues

Joe: -that Cleo you should probably be ready to start talking sometime in the next 8-12 minutes.

—

02:15:26

Joe: Oh, I need to get a green screen suit jacket. Um, I realized. Cause I got the green screen, um, uh dress shirt. That I wear under existing suits, but I don’t have an actual like green screen suit.

Cleo: I— I am always amused by your definition of “need”

Joe: My definition of what?

Cleo: Need.

Joe: Need.

Cleo: I need a green suit.

Joe: Ok, I’m sorry Cleo, the people need me to get a green suit.

—

02:30:23

Cleo (reading chat): “Joe-Getters and Go-Getters” yeah, Joe’s not a Go-Getter, he’s a Joe-Getter. Which is infinitely worse.

Joe: You say being a Joe-Getter is infinitely worse, but you also frequently lament that you get me. So, maybe you’re a Joe-Getter. Have you considered that?

Cleo: I am a Joe-Getter. I do get you, Joe. Which is terrible. It’s— It’s a trauma, actually Joe, I’ll have you know.

Joe: Yeah, comprehend me and despair, Cleo.

Cleo: I looked too deep into the abyss. The Joe-byss, sorry.

Joe: Thank you, yeah we’ve got a brand. Always be branding.

Cleo: *giggling* A.B.B. - Always Be Branding.

Joe: That’s not an infinite void of despair. That’s an infinite void of—

Both: Joe’s despair.

—

02:34:31

Joe: Let’s just leave it at don’t push me off a roof. Like *laughing* I feel like anything I could add to that would undermine the overall theme of just encouraging people to not do that.

Cleo: Um, let me put it like this. I always had the capacity. Always. But! I never acted on it, Joe.

Joe: Mhm, yeah thank you.

Cleo: …yet…I’ll try not to.

Joe: Yeah. And— and also keep in mind Cleo, I mean, given, you know, how well we’ve managed to work together over the last decade. Even if you did push me or throw me off a roof. *grinning* What makes you think that you’re not coming with me?

Cleo (slightly proud): That felt like a threat. It felt like a threat. I’m not gonna lie.

Joe (through giggles): Yeah, that was the, like— I spent 90 seconds figuring out how to revise that so is it was not blatantly like a violent threat.

Cleo: I mean…yeah, I think— I think— I think between the tw— it— it’s a mutual aggression pact at this point.

—

02:51:53

Cleo (holding up seemingly two identical pictures of turret towers): Am I— am I going actually insane? Are they not…the same turret?

Joe (examining pages on screen): …y—you know there might be…subtle differences that, uh, a— you know, skilled crafts person would find unavoidably blatant. Um…I make no such claim Cleo.

Cleo: Good, because, you know…trauma…Yours, not mine.

Joe: *laughing* yeah I was gonna say. Trauma as a verb. I’m just gonna trauma you.

Cleo: *laughing* I’m gonna trauma you so hard right now.

Joe: Yeah, if you don’t calm down and agree with me.

Cleo: If you don’t agree with me, that’s— that’s your mistake.

—

03:38:48

Cleo (about authors): just be careful who you like and just recognize the faults in any media that you do like. Just don’t imagine that everything’s perfect, because it’s not. Just be open to the fact it’s not perfect.

Joe: The only perfect media is YouTube videos produced by ZombieCleo.

Cleo: Fact.

—

04:00:34

(Having finished her model)

Cleo (tiredly): No booshes. No booshes. I know it’s got places for booshes, but I don’t want to do booshes because…there’s a limit.

Joe (currently in the United States): Yeah. Well, now you can come over here and help me Cleo, is what chat’s saying.

Cleo: Ok.

Joe: Go help Joe hold this stuff he can’t glue.

Cleo (Currently in England): Hang on, hang on. *rummaging on desk* What do you need? I’ve got lots of things, what do you need?

#hermitcraft #hermitblr #zombie cleo #zombiecleo #joehills #joe hills

203 notes · View notes

fruitcoops · 3 years

Note

You write Moody so well! I would love to see something where Moody and Remus talk for the first time after Coops was outed. Whether it happens after the meeting Coops had with Arthur and Alice or after the all star break. I feel like they have such a good relationship!

Thanks! This was partially inspired by watching The Karate Kid (1984) last night, so I hope y'all are ready for some mentor hurt/ comfort this fine Sunday! SW credit goes to @lumosinlove

TW for mentioned forced outing

Remus was almost done. He only had a few more drawers to clean out. The whiteboards were as squeaky and shiny as the day he arrived; the desk had a few more dents and coffee stains decorating the surface, but overall it looked decent. He still couldn’t bring himself to take the pictures off, though. It was his life. His friends. He just couldn’t do it.

The sleeve of his ancient Wisconsin hoodie was still damp when he smudged it under his runny nose. No tears had fallen, but he could feel the maelstrom gathering in his throat. Everything he had worked for, gone because of one stupid mistake.

Not Sirius, of course. Sirius would never be a mistake. It was Remus’ fault they had been caught in the first place.

He stared around his office in misery—no official notice of his layoff had arrived, but he knew it would come, and it was always better to be prepared. Maybe it would hurt less if he did it himself, one final ‘fuck you’ to the homophobes before he trooped off with his tail between his legs.

The tiles were cold through the seat of his comfiest jeans. He tucked his knees closer to his chest.

A quiet knock at the door interrupted the suffocating silence. He didn’t answer.

“Kid?”

Remus’ lower lip wobbled and he croaked out a ‘come in’ with as much strength as he could muster; it wasn’t much. The door opened with a creak—he had never gotten around to having it fixed, after all—and uneven footsteps shuffled in, followed by a sigh as his visitor settled next to him on the floor.

“You have a chair, you know.”

“I know,” he whispered.

“Not all of us have young knees. Doesn’t your ass hurt?”

Remus nodded.

Moody huffed through his nose and hoisted him up by the arm. “Well Christ, kid, up you come. You’re awfully dense for a beanpole. What, you got concrete for bones or something?”

“No,” Remus mumbled as he followed Moody across the hall and allowed himself to be plonked down in the soft chair by the door. It was his favorite of both their offices; as far as he knew, Moody never let anyone else sit there. His chest seized as a sob tried to fight its way out. “I’m sorry.”

Moody shot him a look at he got comfortable in the adjacent seat. “For what?”

“I dunno.”

“I don’t like useless apologies, Lupin.”

Remus sniffled. “I should’ve told you.”

“Says who?” Moody snorted. “Your business is your business. You’re a bright young man, none of this is your f—oh. Okay, Lupin, easy does it.”

“I’m sorry,” Remus blubbered as the tears finally started to fall. “I’m sorry, I know you don’t like crying, but I’m kind of a wreck right now.”

Moody made a few soft shushing noises, inching closer until he could wrap an arm around Remus’ shoulders and pat his arm like he was trying to soothe a frightened dog. “Don’t be sorry,” he said. “You’ve got nothing to be sorry for.”

The sobs were near-silent; Remus never cried loudly if he could help it, and he already felt bad enough for dripping his perpetual raincloud all over Moody’s office. He caught his breath after a few hitching inhales and scrubbed at his face with his sleeve. “Are you mad at me?”

“No.”

“Really?”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Remus pulled his knees up again and hugged them tight to his chest. “I haven’t called my parents yet.”

“Did they know?”

His heart gave another painful yank. “Nobody knew. Nobody. And—and now it’s everywhere and people won’t leave me alone and I’m gonna get fired—”

“Woah, deep breaths,” Moody interrupted gently, giving him a little shake. “You’re not getting fired.”

“Yes, I am.” Everything felt gross and cold and sad.

“Who told you that?”

“Coach said it might happen ‘cause I’m a doctor.”

Moody scanned his face for a moment, then reached over and grabbed a box of tissues off his desk. “First of all, take some of these. You look like a mud puddle, Lupin. It’s very unsettling. Second, this is a complicated situation and I wouldn’t be too quick to make assumptions. And third, I’ll go to bat for you.”

He paused midway through blowing his nose. “What?”

“You’re a good man. An excellent PT. The best colleague I’ve ever had, actually. You know your shit and if they try to fire you over this, I’m not going to make it easy for them.”

More tears threatened to fall over the edge of his itchy eyes. “You’d do that for me?”

“Don’t sound so surprised,” Moody grumbled.

“He hasn’t called.”

“Who?”

“Sirius.” Remus swallowed hard and, before he could second guess himself, leaned his head on Moody’s solid shoulder. “I’ve called him 23 times and he hasn’t answered a single one. He just…left. Didn’t even look at me.”

“He’s making a mistake.”

“I ruined his life.”

“Hey.” Moody’s tone turned stern. “You don’t get to talk shit about yourself in my office. This is a Lupin Appreciation Zone.”

Remus’ shoulders shook and he closed his eyes; he wished he could just dissolve into the floor and stay there until someone mopped him up. Everything hurt. The world sucked. Moody—

Moody was petting his hair.

The tears stopped abruptly and Remus hiccupped in pure confusion. “What’re you doing?”

“I’m bad at comfort, kid, gimme a break.” The sat in silence for a few seconds as Moody continued to pat his head and muss his hair, which was in dire need of a cut but just long enough to cover his eyes when it was pushed forward. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah, actually. How did you…?”

Something akin to embarrassment tinted Moody’s cheeks and he cleared his throat. “My cat hates thunderstorms.”

“Oh. Cool. Thanks.”

“No problem.”

“Thanks,” Remus said again, much quieter. Moody’s office always felt safe; all the clutter was in its proper place, clean and homey. The touch of familiarity was more of a comfort than he cared to admit. He sat up straight and wiped his face clean, then leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “If I do get fired—”

“You won’t.”

“If I do, I wanted to say thank you for changing my life.” The words hung in the air. “You—without you, I would never have felt at home here. You were the best mentor I could ever ask for and I’m never going to forget that. You did more than just teaching me routines. Thank you.”

Moody cleared his throat again. “Tissues.”

Remus silently passed the box.

“If anyone gives you shit for being gay, you call me and I’ll take care of it,” Moody said once the tissue had disappeared into the depths of his pocket.

Remis blinked at him. “Are you offering to hurt someone for me?”

“I’ll deny it in court.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he laughed. “Fuckin’ hell, this is a mess. I’m a mess.”

“You just got outed and your boyfriend ditched you in an airport,” Moody said bluntly, fixing Remus with a look. “You’re allowed to be a mess. Now go talk to Lily. Call your mom. Do whatever you do that makes you so sunshiney, and then we’re gonna unpack all your shit and put it back where it belongs.”

Remus swallowed hard. Fuck it. Fuck the NHL, fuck the homophobes, and fuck being sad.

Moody narrowed his eyes. “You want to use the kicking bag, don’t you?”

“I really, really do.”

---------------------

“Stupid—fucking—son of a bitch!” Remus gritted out as the beat-up and half-folded gym mat squeaked under his assault. It was two inches of plastic and therapy—he was 90% sure Moody had stolen it from a middle school gym, and it had rapidly become the team’s favorite way of winding down after a frustrating day.

“Harder!” Moody barked behind him.

Remus wound up and slammed his foot into it again. “I worked too damn hard to be kicked out for this bullshit!”

“Damn right you did!”

The kicking bag creased in the center. “And I’ve got too much student debt to walk out of here like—like a coward!”

“Yes, you do!”

His grief had burnt off at least five minutes prior. Remus was well and truly pissed now. “And it’s nobody’s goddamn business who I kiss!”

“That’s the spirit!” Moody cheered.

“And maybe his face is stupidly pretty!” Remus threw his shoulder against the mat before he resumed kicking it. “And, yeah, he has really nice shoulders and a great ass—”

“Lupin—”

“But fuck him for leaving me in an airport! What kind of douchebag does that to a guy? I’m hot and smart and nice and I can date whoever the hell I want if he doesn’t appreciate that!”

“That’s certainly one approach!”

Remus stopped with a harsh exhale and dropped one last halfhearted kick to the base. “I don’t want anyone else, though. And I miss his stupid pretty face.”

A hand, heavy but gentle, squeezed his shoulder. “Then go get him.”

#remus lupin #alastor moody #sweater weather #lumosinlove #my fic #fanfic

282 notes · View notes

percabeth4life · 3 years

Text

Nico and Percy

Okay so I’ve received a lot of asks about Nico and Percy and how Percy treated Nico and someone else sent me a link to a post that had more stuff.

90% of the stuff I’ve seen is either inaccurate or taken out of context.

Lets start with the choking scene.

This scene happened right after Nico lied to Percy to trick him into coming to see Hades so that Nico could learn more about his mom. They were meant to go to the Styx in order to give Percy the Achilles Curse so they had a chance at winning the war. This resulted in Percy being locked up by Hades.

Nico did not intend for this to happen, but he did knowingly lie to Percy. Percy understandably did not trust Nico after that.

The mountain of darkness loomed above me. A foot the size of Yankee Stadium was about to smash me when a voice hissed: ‘Percy!’

I lunged out blindly. Before I was fully awake, I had Nico pinned to the floor of the cell with the edge of my sword at his throat.

‘Want – to – rescue,’ he choked.

Anger woke me up fast. ‘Oh, yeah? And why should I trust you?’

‘No – choice?’ he gagged.

I wished he hadn’t said something logical like that. I let him go. (The Last Olympian page 60).

As you can see, the initial action was taken before Percy was even awake. After he was awake, and got through his initial anger at the betrayal with Nico’s comment, he released Nico and they escaped.

He acknowledged silently later that he didn’t trust Nico anymore and Nico was aware that his actions meant he wasn’t trusted.

So the choking scene: not Percy being unreasonably cruel to Nico.

Threats is another common thing I see people bring up and... I’m genuinely baffled by that one. The closest I can think of is the scene I quoted above? But that doesn’t seem to fit? Anyone want to quote some threats Percy made to Nico? Because I don’t know any.

Next up! The claims that Percy said they should leave Nico to suffocate. Funnily enough he actually says the opposite, multiple times.

Percy stared at his jelly donut. He had a rocky history with Nico di Angelo. The guy had once tricked him into visiting Hades’s palace, and Percy had ended up in a cell. But most of the time, Nico sided with the good guys. He certainly didn’t deserve slow suffocation in a bronze jar, and Percy couldn’t stand seeing Hazel in pain.

“We’ll rescue him,” he promised her. “We have to. The prophecy says he holds the key to endless death.”

Is this first time kind? Not necessarily. But it’s certainly not saying to leave Nico. For multiple reasons, he didn’t deserve, Percy didn’t want Hazel to hurt, and (what he says outloud) Nico is an important figure in the war.

Percy also makes a comment later when they feared they’d be too late

The vision zoomed in again. Inside the jar, Nico di Angelo was curled in a ball, no longer moving, all the pomegranate seeds eaten.

“We’re too late,” Jason said.

“No,” Percy said. “No, I can’t believe that. Maybe he’s gone into a deeper trance to buy time. We have to hurry.”

Funny, this doesn’t sound like someone advocating to leave Nico to die. In fact it sounds like someone almost desperate to save him, or at least hoping strongly that they’ll succeed.

Interestingly there were comments about leaving Nico, but not from Percy. They came from Jason and Leo.

“Uh…” Leo shifted in his chair. “One thing. The giants are expecting us to do this, right? So we’re walking into a trap?”

Hazel looked at Leo like he’d made a rude gesture. “We have no choice!”

“Don’t get me wrong, Hazel. It’s just that your brother, Nico… he knew about bothcamps, right?”

“Well, yes,” Hazel said.

“He’s been going back and forth,” Leo said, “and he didn’t tell either side.” Jason sat forward, his expression grim. “You’re wondering if we can trust the guy. So am I.”

Hazel shot to her feet. “I don’t believe this. He’s my brother. He brought me back from the Underworld, and you don’t want to help him?”

Frank put his hand on her shoulder. “Nobody’s saying that.” He glared at Leo. “Nobody had better be saying that.”

Leo blinked. “Look, guys. All I mean is—”

“Hazel,” Jason said. “Leo is raising a fair point. I remember Nico from Camp Jupiter. Now I find out he also visited Camp Half-Blood. That does strike me as… well, a little shady. Do we really know where his loyalties lie? We just have to be careful.” (Mark of Athena page 125)

How interesting that they’re the ones making comments about leaving Nico...

Next of course I’ve heard the wonder bread brought up? And I had to key word search wonder bread in the books to figure out what that was about and it appears to be a single thought Percy had while they were trying to rescue Nico.

Nico started to crawl away, groaning. Percy wanted him to move faster and to groan less. He considered throwing his Wonder bread at him. (Mark of Athena page 357)

Percy did not actually throw the bread for anyone wondering, and I hardly see how the panicking thought of trying to get them all out of there and keep Nico from being noticed by the people he was escaping from is even something for you to hold against him.

Finally the thing I hear the most, Percy calling Nico creepy and spreading rumors.

Creepy is used in MoA 5 times, in HoH 2 times, and BoO 8 times.

In MoA it’s used by Percy once, and that time is describing Persephone’s garden, not Nico. This comment is also only made in his thoughts, not outloud.

Funnily enough Leo does mentally refer to Nico as creepy in MoA

Nico and Hazel shared a look, maybe comparing notes on their Hades/Pluto death radar. Leo shivered. Hazel had never seemed like a child of the Underworld to him, but Nico di Angelo—that guy was creepy. (Mark of Athena page 396)

In HoH it is used once by Jason in regards to Nico, not at all by Percy.

Nico gave him a thin, creepy smile. ‘Ah … that legend.’ (House of Hades page 164)

In BoO it’s actually used by Nico about himself.

By now, Will Solace realized just how creepy and revolting Nico di Angelo was. Of course, Nico didn’t care what he thought. But still … (Blood of Olympus page 317)

And once by Reyna about Nico

Reyna had stitched up the gashes on his biceps, which gave Nico a slightly creepy Frankenstein look, but the cuts were still swollen and red. (Blood of Olympus page 140)

So uh, no Percy did not call Nico creepy. And I have found no evidence of Percy spreading rumors so like with the threats, feel free to find me quotes proving that claim.

Concluding all of this I will point out that prior to book 5 (TLO) Percy was doing everything in his power to find Nico and protect him. After book 5 Percy only had one physical altercation with him (when he was half asleep and right after the betrayal occurred) and otherwise did not hold it against him beyond having his trust broken. As time went on we know from Percy’s thoughts that he doesn’t trust Nico, but he makes no comments saying such and agrees to help rescue him and does everything he can to do so.

Their conflicts are understandable due to their history. Percy’s feelings on Nico are complicated but understandable and he has not let it interfere with their jobs, if anything it interfered in a negative way making them risk the quest to save Nico (though Nico was a key figure needed to succeed in the end).

Overall I don’t know where these claims come from beyond people wanting to find issues with Percy (to the point they make stuff up).

#life analyzes #pjo #hoo #percy jackson #nico di angelo #leo valdez #jason grace #reyna avila ramirez arellano #reyna arellano #this is not anti anyone #this is me stating the facts #pjo analysis #pjo meta

422 notes · View notes

derangedhyena-delphinidae · 3 years

Text

numerous issues with “The Aftermath of Seaworld”

When I get time to do so (aka when I’m done with the documentary), I’m likely going to make a video version of this going into the details.

But for right now, I’ve made this. Both as a guideline for me and so everyone can begin to get an idea of the severity of issues involved.

Researching things is time-consuming and can be very difficult - believe me, I know. But I’m of the mind that if you’re making content with the intent of educating people, you have a responsibility to perform a certain level of due diligence. It IS okay to express uncertainty or doubt if you have it. It is NOT okay to confidently assert things that you do not know with certainty.

The video has an anticap slant, and I’m obviously not disagreeing on that front. But again: if you’re gonna go through the trouble of teaching people something. Bare minimum... please make sure it’s actually correct. *** 1) x ‘founded in 1964 and based out of Florida’ - ???? Seaworld definitively began on the west coast, in San Diego, CA. And given that the first park opened in early 1964… things came together before that. Uh? 2) x ‘four people founded Seaworld [...]’ For one… it wasn’t originally conceived as a restaurant, it was originally conceived as an underwater bar/lounge. Two… calling the four guys involved in founding the place “frat brothers” is fucking ridiculous and completely overlooks a) how each was actually involved and b) the overall significance of their contributions to the field as individuals. Hint: like it or not, they were important and did a lot!

3) x If one is going to bring up SWBGCF/rescues while talking about the literal founding of SW, it gives the impression that it’s been around for that duration. It hasn’t. It’s actually a bit unclear when SW started an organized rescue program, but the Fund itself and all that it did came about much later. The rescue information and how it’s presented is actually INCREDIBLY complex, nuanced, and has a fascinating history (from a “bad company behaving badly” perspective). Oversimplifying this, to this degree and in this misinformative way, does the facts of the situation an INCREDIBLE disservice.

4) x [assertive statement about what the name Shamu means] ….Uh actually there’s several explanations for the name Shamu, and the most likely one IMO seems to be the “she-namu” one, not the “friend of Namu” one(? What is this even based on.) 4b) It’s not quite clear if she’s saying “Namu was the first ever orca to be displayed and perform shows” or or Namu was the first to be displayed and, like Shamu, performed shows. Either way, Moby Doll was the first to truly be displayed to the public, not Namu.

5) x ‘Namu died after one year in captivity and you’d think that this might deter Seaworld from doing the same thing again…’ Seaworld truly had nothing to do with Namu. And they leased/took possession of Shamu before Namu died. ‘Again’? What?

6) x “Now, PETA paints a pretty disturbing picture…” [while showing Okura’s artwork] This video segment is, and this is putting it nicely, a pile of poorly-researched BULLSHIT. -Yes, PETA talks about Shamu’s capture, re: the harpooning of her mother. This Youtuber cannot apparently be arsed to look more than 1 Google search into this, as she proceeds to dismiss the information as potentially fabricated. There are two detailed accounts of Shamu’s capture that I’m aware of - in books - and though they have some slight conflicts, it’s absolutely NOT in doubt that the female who was very likely Shamu’s mother was 1) harpooned, 2) died from her injuries and 3) this had been done to make her easier to catch/locate because there was a fucking buoy attached to the harpoon. Which she dragged around for at least 24 hours prior dying. So maybe don’t dismiss that as PETA hysteria, maybe TRY to determine the truth of the matter, which would inform one that it is both true and completely horrifying. -In addition, Okura is an awesome individual who has worked very hard to create a variety of informative artwork for our cause. Okura is NOT associated with PETA and it’s borderline libel in my eyes to use their artwork in this dismissive manner when the primary sources of it can be easily identified online, with full explanations and everything. Do I take special offense to this because of the misuse of artwork? Absolutely. Artists get disrespected enough online. I’m tired of it. This kind of laziness IS NOT acceptable.

7) x ‘timeline is fuzzy about when Shamu died’ …………… it’s…. It’s really not … newspapers are pretty clear about it…..

8) x [complete and utter oversimplification of the lifespan issue, which is not acceptable for anything published in 2020. It just isn’t. If you’re going to bring it up like this, either do the legwork and get into the weeds or stay out.] 8b) [same for reproductive ages. sigh]

9) x if we’re going to talk about when Cornell was involved with Seaworld it’s very important to specify when Cornell was involved with Seaworld and not make it seem like it’s present tense.

10) x “both were rescued by Seaworld” - uh? no. Zero orcas have been rescued by Seaworld. Literally none. The infected-jaw orca was Sandy, whose story is complex and certainly does not involve Seaworld until much later. And many of the orcas in that time period had bullet wounds, often only identified post-mortem because they didn’t seem to hurt the animals much. Also, unflinchingly blending 70s captivity ethics with modern ones is also complete nonsense?

11) x [tilikum coming from sealand] inhales I am going to make an entire video centered on this fucking subject because it’s one of the single most profound arguments for Seaworld being garbage as assessed by US government agencies in the 90s yet everyone utterly fails to mention this. Why?!

12) x what on earth is this nonsense re: quoting a quote from Zimmerman’s article - which has already been removed from its original context, so the original context is not available - and then penalizing the quote for existing as if Zimmerman’s article were the context? That is offensively disingenuous. I honestly don’t know what the original context is, either - but it’s wildly inappropriate to act as if the Zimmerman article is.

13) x this is relatively minor but ‘Paul Sprong’? You literally have his name on the screen. And then mis-reading his age too? While asserting it from a static article published years ago? Effort? Where is it?

14) x ‘another trainer, Peter’ ….. Ken Peters….

15) [weirdly glossing over the widely-available list of orca-trainer injuries/aggressions, despite it being central to the point.] 16) x This pilot whale outrage certainly happened but it was pretty clearly Blackfish that started the cascade of woes for Seaworld. Who has ever asserted this?

17) if you’re gonna just rehash blackfish, tell people to go watch blackfish.

18) x I’ve already gone over the context issue with Seaworld calling out Howard’s statement in Blackfish here (point 23). Which is to say, IN CONTEXT in Blackfish it’s clear what Mr. Garrett is talking about but, divorced from that, it sounds incorrect. But this Youtuber AMPLIFIES the issue by doubling down on the assertion with “no record of a killer whale doing any harm to anyone in the wild.” The surfer event should always be mentioned. Yes, there’s absolutely room for doubt. But there’s also a clear demarcation between an accidental attack (eg mistaken identity, as was likely for the surfer) and intentional one (eg the incidents at marine parks.) Why do people kneecap themselves on this point 18b) please stop acting like Luna represents orcas in general.

19) x “Howard, for all of his research…” … while referring to David Duffus’ b-roll and statements. Uh. 20) x Apparently this Youtuber has single-handedly resolved the dorsal fin issue. You know, the thing that hasn’t been properly researched ever, that has been subject to a ton of debate, that isn’t 100% settled for a variety of reasons, and almost everyone talks about in terms of theories and likely possibilities. 21) x Alexis Martinez wasn’t “torn to shreds.” In a space where even moderate exaggerations are often penalized harshly by the opposition, this kind of blatant nonsense is not welcome. Plus, the reality’s bad enough… you don’t have to make anything up!

22) x *sighs. points at own webpage*

23) Talking about the shows stopping without acknowledging how that’s a bit of a farce is something else. In addition to apparently just flipping to buying what Seaworld’s selling re: its ‘improved image.’

*** Tl;dr video is so unrelentingly full of errors ranging from small to egregious it makes me seriously concerned for the veracity of the rest of this person’s content. The maker of the video provided a list of their sources in their video description, which I will have time to look through in detail later. The above is solely a response to the information they present IN THE VIDEO - which, is very important because let’s be real: a lot of people are not going to look at the list of sources. People don’t even do it when citing papers (no really, you’d be surprised, fml.) For anyone who wants to whinge that I haven’t linked or asserted any sources of my own for my claims… well, remember what I said about time-consuming and ‘I’m busy’? Yhea. Getting all of that together will be part of making a video. So if you want to shrug loudly at my list here… you can, that’s your prerogative, I’m happy to say I DGAF if that’s your takeaway.

What I hope, is that if there’s anything I’ve made clear over the While of running this blog, it’s that I don’t fuck around when it comes to sources and information and do my best to provide what information exists, all of it, not just cherrypicked bits and bobs. Anyways. Here’s step 0 at least. Please don’t share that video. Pretty please.

#seaworld #grumble

482 notes · View notes